September Reading Plans + Magical Readathon: Orilium – The Novice Path

September is here! August was a great reading month, you can read all about it in my wrap up. For September I have planned the new books around the Magical Readathon: Orilium – The Novice Path (art in header and in journal by Lisa and Logan).

But first, let’s take a look at what I’m currently reading:

• The Stand by Stephen King: Yep, still buddy reading this, nearing 75% now and I’m so ready to see how this all wraps up!
• Todos los Cuentos by Gabriel García Márquez: I am nearing the end of this book and I just love how Márquez manages to envelop me in beautiful writing and just all the atmosphere of his stories.
• Emma by Jane Austen: I was not expecting this one to be so funny! I absolutely love Emma’s dad, he’s ridiculous in the most endearing way ever.
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: I barely started this one and it will unfortunately go into the backburner for a bit since I’ll be putting other books as priority for the first half of September. However, I’m super enjoying the writing so far, I need to know what is going to happen!
• Temporada de Huracanes by Fernanda Melchor: This is the new pick for the book club with my friends and wow it’s so good! It is about brujas in a town in Veracruz, Mexico. A woman, known to be a witch in her town, is found murdered and so far we see how her origin is full of rumors, mythology, and violence. Excellent writing, absolutely love it.

And now, let’s look at what I will read for the Novice path for the Magical Readathon that I mentioned above!

Character Development (in progress)

For my character I’ve chosen to create Anukis Atali who lives in the urban center of Kerador and who is of Skaimorn heritage. She is a reader who has always been super curious about the magic that might be within her but which she has never been able to harness except in moments of intense pressure. She was raised by her great-uncle who is all about searching for the origins of his ancestors, genealogy is his passion. As such, Anukis knows that she comes from a line of powerful magic, which makes her inability to harness her own quite frustrating. The three books seen (Fight Club, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, and Club Dumas) will be read before April 2022 so I will talk about them in future TBRs.

TBR Spread in my Readathon Journal

So the idea for September is that my character will be embarking on the journey to Orilium Academy in order to learn how to harness her magical abilities. As such she must travel through various landmarks, each marking a trial that she must endure and pass in order to make it to the Academy. She’s not alone but she’s also super shy so hopefully she’ll be able to overcome that shyness in order to get to her goal.

• The Novice Path Entrance — Read a book with a map: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: No, I haven’t read the Shadow and Bone series but I absolutely love heist movies and I’ve never read a heist book so I really wanted to check this out. I don’t know much more about this book other than the heist element and I am pretty sure that’s all I need!
• Ashtorn Tree — A book on top of your TBR: Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell: This is the pick for this month’s Feminist Book club so of course it’s at the top of my TBR! This book takes a look at words that have often been used against women, labeling women as less than, and tracks their origins in order to take away that negative connotation and allow the reader to take back the word into a different kind of use.
• The Mist of Solitude — Read a Standalone: In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner: I am SO excited to read this book. I’ve loved all of Zentner’s books so far and I don’t expect this one to be any different. I don’t even know what this book is about!
• Ruin of the Skye — Read a book featuring ghosts/supernatural elements: Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas: This book follows Yadriel, a Latinx brujx, who has managed to summon the ghost of the school’s resident bad boy, Julian Diaz. Now they are forced to work together in order to set things right for both of them. Ghosts, romance, LGBTQ+ and Latinx representation, can’t wait!
• Obsidian Falls — Read a thriller or mystery book: The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix: I am a big fan of horror movies and one of the tropes in many of them is that final girl who manages to survive. So this book follows a group of final girls who have survived their respective serial killers and who now come together to help each other deal with the aftermath. But apparently their horror story is not over….
• Tower of Rumination — Read a five star prediction: Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine: This is a series of short stories centered around Latinas of indigenous ancestry. There’s friendship, motherhood, sisterhood, and heritage. I’m pretty sure I’ll love this.
• Orilium Academy Arc — Book with a school setting: A Tale of Magic by Chris Colfer: A middle-grade book about Brystal, a 14-year-old girl who is whisked away to a magical school where she’ll learn that maybe her life is not as boring as she thought! I loved The Land of Stories series so I expect that this will be no different.

And that’s it for the Novice Path TBR! IF there’s time at all, I will also be starting All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, which came up in my last Want To Read List Cleanup post. As it stands, it might be pushed into October but that’s quite alright since there’s no hurry. Who knows, I might be in the mood and start it even while working on the books for the Orilium journey, we’ll see!

What will you be reading this September?

August Reading Plans

Hello August! July was a bit of an intense month for me, you can read about it in my July Wrap Up, and I finished reading 5 books. So, what does August have in store for me?

Let’s look first at the books I’m currently reading:

• The Stand by Stephen King: My friend and I are making good progress on The Stand. We are currently about half way through the book and I love how all the characters are starting to come together while there’s still a mystery of what will happen next.
• The Sandman Omnibus Vol I by Neil Gaiman: I’m about half way through this collection of comics as well! I’ve loved how the mythology is weaving through all the different characters while moving along Morpheus’ storyline.
• Todos Los Cuentos by Gabriel García Márquez: This book has been a bit slow for me. Each story so far is one that I need to take my time with and pay a bit more attention than most books. That’s not to say that I’m not liking it but I am definitely taking my time with each story.
• Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi: I barely started this book so I’m about 50 pages into it. I’m really enjoying jumping back into the world of the Orisha so I’m sure I’ll breeze through this book after I’m done with Just Mercy.
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson: I am almost done with this book! It’s been a hard book to read because of the subject matter: people on death row, specifically people who do not deserve to be there because they are innocent or because the punishment is not on par with the crime. I love that it is opening my eyes to issues that I never imagined were issues so I’ll be researching more about it all beyond this book.
• Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki: This was not in my plans for July but due to the stress of the month I thought that it was appropriate to read a bit about meditation and how to take that into my every day life. I love this book so far because it is something that I can incorporate easily without actually needing to sit for 20 mins with my eyes closed.

And now, let’s take a look at the books I’ll be adding to my TBR for August:

• An Offer From A Gentleman by Julia Quinn: I’m continuing my journey of reading the Bridgerton series so I’m looking forward to reading about Benedict and his quest of finding love.
• Emma by Jane Austen: This was the book chosen via my Want To Read List Cleanup #2. I’ve never read a Jane Austen book so this will be really interesting. I don’t actually know much about what the book is about but that’s fine by me!
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: I’ve heard a lot about this series and, seeing the teasers for the show, I’ve been very interested in reading it. It’s a looooong one so we’ll see how long it takes for me to read it.
• Hunger by Roxane Gay: This is the book club pick for QB Alumns for the month of August. This book is about body image, Gay’s relationship with food, and self care. This one might be a bit of a hard book to read so I’ll likely read it in sections throughout the month.
• The Allies of Humanity by Marshall Vian Summers: This is the new book pick for the book club with my friends and well, not my first choice so this will be interesting. Summers writes about aliens and their interactions with the people of Earth. Apparently it is non-fiction…!?
• Dial A For Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto: This is the book that will come in the Feminist Book Club box for August. This book looks like a lot of fun: murder and romance, what’s not to like?

I am quite glad that I’ll get to read more romance books in August. I’m hoping that this month is a bit less stressful than last month and that I’ll be able to dive into my books without much of a care in the world.

What will you be reading in August?

Want To Read List Cleanup #2

This is the second installment of my Want To Read List Cleanup, which I started last month. I’m still working through Todos Los Cuentos by Gabriel García Márquez, which was the book chosen from the last time I did this. As a recap, I will take 10 random books from my Goodreads Want To Read List, which currently has 1193 books listed (how is is bigger than last time?! XD). I will go through them and either remove them or keep them on the list. The point here is to remove books that I’m no longer interested in reading and keep the ones that I still want to read. Out of the ones I do keep I will take the oldest book and add it to next month’s reading plans. Let’s do it!

The list of 10 books up for cleanup

• The World is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake by Dany Laferrière: I added this book back in 2016, which is when I started adding more non-fiction books to my list. This particular one still interests me because the effects of that earthquake in Haiti are still being felt more than a decade later. There are many moments in history that change a whole community or country completely and this is one of them. I’d like to learn more about it so I’ll keep this one.
• The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan: I already know I’ll be keeping this book on the list! Amy Tan is one of my favorite authors. Her books are beautifully written and I find a lot of comfort in them. This book is about Ruth and her mother LuLing and how LuLing starts telling her life story to Ruth via a series of writings. A multi-generational story set in both China and the United States. I’m definitely looking forward to reading this one.
• Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen: I don’t remember this book at all! I can see why I added it though, it is a very strange novel about a man who is convinced that his wife has been swapped with someone else who looks just like her. It’s supposed to be a love story but also a dark comedy. While the premise does seem interesting I’m not convinced to keep it so I will be removing it from the list.
• March: Book One by John Lewis: Wow, I’ve had this one on my list since 2015! I definitely want to read this since it tells the story of John Lewis’ life and role in the Civil Rights movement. Also, it’s a graphic novel so it’s a very accessible way for anyone to learn about such an important man! This one comes in three parts and I definitely want to read them all.
• Revival, Vol. 1: You’re Among Friends by Tim Seeley: Would you look at that? Another graphic novel! Revival is one I definitely added during my horror-filled years. In this graphic novel series (yep there are 8 volumes) the living and the dead “live” together and of course, murder still happens. Officer Dana Cypress is the one in charge of figuring out who committed a murder in this “rural noir” graphic novel. I am thinking that this would be something I’d look for during the fall/Halloween but I’m not urgently rushing to get it. I’ll keep it on the list so I don’t forget about it!
• The Enigma of the Return by Dany Laferrière: Two books by Laferrière in the same randomly grabbed list! It’s a sign that I need to read one of his books! Laferrière is a Haitian author and I can’t quite remember how I found out about him but I’m glad I did! This particular book is about Dany, who fled Haiti when he was 23 years old, and is now (33 years later) faced with a return to Haiti after his father’s death. I am unsure if this is fully an autobiography or not but I’m very much interested in reading so it shall remain in the list.
• The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind by Michio Kaku: I can imagine why I added this book to my list, I do enjoy science books so I am always looking for good scientific writers. Being someone who has a career in a scientific field can be a double edged sword since I know that some fields of science move so fast that some works might not be as current as others. That being said, this particular one is written by Dr Kaku, a theoretical physicist who is highly respected and I’m very interested in reading one of his books so I think I will keep it for that reason alone.
• Rant by Chuck Palahniuk : Oh Chuck Palahniuk. I have read quite a few of his books (somehow haven’t read Fight Club though hahaha) and they are either big hits or big misses. It’s truly hard to tell until I read them! I definitely will keep this one if only because I do want to finish reading all his books. This particular one is about a man named Rant Casey who is a serial killer and the story is about all his friends gathering after he dies to tell the story of his life.
• Emma by Jane Austen: I must confess…. I’ve never read any Jane Austen books. I know… I know… It’s not that I don’t want to! XD Something else just crosses my path and I just don’t get to them. This book has been on my list for a loooong time (since 2011 yikes). Of course I’ll keep it, I do want to read Jane Austen and when I finally do read one of her books I’ll look back and think “why did it take me this long?” right? I don’t know what Emma is about and I think I’ll keep it that way, looking forward to reading it.
• Building Stories by Chris Ware: So I know I added this book because it is a sort of interactive graphic novel (another one!) This actually is multiple separate pages that come inside a box or something? I fear now that it is too gimmicky, I haven’t had too much luck with these sort of unconventional books that try to do more with things like reading in any order or having the pages be loose… yeah not sure anymore about this one so I will be removing it from my list.

Aaaand that is it! Overall I removed 2/10 books which is… surprising! I thought there would be more that I would not be interested in reading like last time but I guess not! So let’s see what the oldest book of the ones that are left will go into my TBR for next month…. Emma by Jane Austen! I guess that will be my first Austen book and I’m actually quite excited about it.

That’s it for this month’s Want To Read Clean Up! Have you read any of the books mentioned? Would you have kept any of the ones I took off my list? Let me know!