Hey hey hey, what’s happnin’? So, the first quarter of the year is up and I’m here to talk about what I’ve read and how it’s been reading wise. At the moment I’m doing a few reading challenges. I remember back in the day when I was so opposed to doing reading challenges because I guess I didn’t want something to dictate what I read but they’re actually hella fun 🤩 So I’m doing a few: A-Z Challenge, Monthly Key Word Challenge and I did participate in a book club pick for the month of January (more on that later). It actually feels like I’m doing more than two reading challenges probably because I was going to participate in two book club picks for the month of March but backed out because it was getting to be too much.
I also have a list of 46 books that I want to read and finish by the end of the year but the thing is that I wrote up this list back in January and I’m not going to revisit it again until around the end of December. I want to see which books I actually got around to reading without checking the list the whole year. I’ve done this before and it was a fail but I also think it’s a lot of fun. As long as I try to prioritize my Goodreads TBR more my chances of doing better with reading the books on that list will go up.
So in January I participated in Reading Wryly’s Midnight Society Book Club. I even took off work to participate in the live show and I was one of the rare few who hated the book pick 😬 I was actually hella surprised at how many people liked it, especially Wryly and Gabby over at gabbyreads. The book for January was “Motherthing” by Ainslie Hogarth. Now I’ve been looking forward to this book and had it on hold at my job way before it was a pick for this book club so I figured it was perfect to participate since I was already going to read it. And the book wasn’t anything like I thought it was going to be, like… why did the author keep talking about feces in the book? I feel like there has to be some sort of importance for this to continue to be a thing throughout the book but I haven’t found the answer… don’t really care since it’s a ⭐️ (1 star) for me.
“Hold You Down” by Tracy Brown is another book I read in January. I’ve never read a book by this author despite owning her book “Snapped” for yearsss. I picked up this book because a reading group I’m in on Facebook had referred this and I was told it was a really sad book. We had it at my job and so I read it and, yeah, it’s a pretty damn sad book. No real happy parts exist… for long. The writing is good, it made me want to finally pick up “Snapped” but I haven’t yet. But, there will definitely be tears when it comes to reading this so beware because it’s some deep shit. Also, the author liked one of my Goodreads tweets on Twitter for one of my statuses on the book 😊 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I also finally got to reading a book from my owned TBR 😱 Shocker because I never do that 😅 But the Monthly Key Word Challenge, hosted by Kim and Tanya at girlxoxo.com and on IG @chapter_adventure, for January that I chose out of the words was “guide”. I picked up “The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue” by Mackenzi Lee and it was soooo good 🥰 I loved it!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Listen, I separate the artist from the art so I really don’t give a damn about peoples’ feelings on an author and the shit I read in some of the reviews regarding peoples’ take on Mackenzi?? Yeah, I’m not with it or care. Her book entertained the fuck out of me! I thought it was funny and the audiobook was great! The cherry on top was that letter at the end that Monty wrote to his father! *snap snap*
In February I started this book called “Big Booty” by Cairo and listen… I guess more on that book another time cause I’m still reading it. That shit too long for what reason I don’t know. Moving on. I also started but finished in March Perfect Places by Daniel Black which is another book I picked up based on recommendations from a reading group on Facebook and I got to slow down with picking up those recommendations. I’m not saying this book wasn’t good but it was just ⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me. It was fine, it was a historical fiction about a mother making everyone believe her last born child was a girl when the baby was actually born a boy because she wanted a girl so bad. It had some sad moments especially, I feel, regarding the mother’s situation and past.
In February I also started Come Closer by Sara Gran for the Monthly Key Word Challenge which was “come”. This book involves possession and I’m still reading it, I should finish it soon but it’s taking me a while because for a while there I wasn’t trying to read this book at night (I work during the day) because it’s… pretty darn creepy 😬 It’s going good though so more on it later, I suppose.
In March I read “Lot” by Bryan Washington. This book was pretty good ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I definitely want to read more by this author. It was funny and I liked the writing. Moving onto “Killing Stalking: Deluxe Edition Vol. 1 & 2” by Koogi. I was scared going into this because of all the reviews I read and heard regarding it. I just didn’t know how to prepare myself. But, yeah it’s dark but nothing that I couldn’t handle. But I really enjoyed the first volume. The art style is gorgeous. I was debating on giving ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ But because I didn’t care for Yoon Bum’s character too much I gave it ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Same with the 2nd Volume, although I did prefer the first to the second. I needed the second one after I finished the first one but though I understood the direction the second one was going in I still only really liked the last chapter or two.
Lastly, I’m currently reading Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay for letter “R” in the A-Z Reading Challenge. This book was first published in 1930 something and it’s easy to read and the humor is there. I guess more on this next quarter since I started it in late March.
And that’s how things are looking guys. Good chat. See you next quarter.
Type soon 🥰
