Hello everyone!
It’s definitely been a while since the last time I’ve done this kind of post. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, say.. 2 years, you might remember that I used to do monthly recaps. However, time flies – including my free time 😛 – and I no longer read or blog as much as I used to. I do still want to do a recap to talk about stuff I enjoy and books I read that haven’t been covered in my review posts… just not monthly. Hence, I decided to do quarterly recap instead! So, let’s get to it before I bore you with my intro.
Reviews posted
These Shallow Graves | LINK
The Weeping Books of Blinney Lane | LINK
Dreadnought | LINK
Every Heart A Doorway | LINK
Unearthly Things | LINK
The Love Interest | LINK
The Evaporation of Sofi Snow | LINK
Flame in the Mist | LINK
Other books I read
Dreamer (Brandon Sanderson) 
I got this short story from a charity book bundle alongside his other short works and an audiobook. Dreamer has typical Sanderson world-building but not characters. It might, however, surprise you, especially if you’ve been reading a lot of his other works.
The Hate U Give (Angie Thomas) 
THUG – the book everyone told you to read – and well, please just read it. This is probably my favorite read so far this year. It’s an important book, for sure, with it being born with the background of Black Lives Matter movement, but if you worry about the writing, then don’t. Angie is a gifted writer and the story flows effortlessly with great characters, especially the leading lady. I actually outlined a review for this book a while ago, but never get around to post it what with the changes happening in dip-into-books. Maybe, I’ll break my own rules and post it anyway. :p
The Black Prism (Brent Weeks) 
Slow and solid world-building, okay character arc, but it reads like your usual epic fantasy. Honestly, I’ve heard so many great things about this series that I had high expectation coming to this book. That’s probably why it sort of fell short of my expectation.
The Trespasser (Tana French) 
The trespasser is French’s return to form after the rather poorly executed The Secret Place. Antoinette Conway, whom we met in the 5th book – The Secret Place – is the narrator of this book, and my – how I liked her spunk. French writing is atmospheric as always and the story offers enough surprise and twist to keep me on my toe.
White Sand (Brandon Sanderson)
The White Sand I mentioned here is the unpolished draft and not the graphic novel version. Brandon being Brandon, he sent this manuscript as a free download to everyone who subscribed to his newsletter despite it’s currently being adapted into graphic novels. In fact, I’ve reviewed the first volume of the graphic novel so I’ll edit that post and put my thought in that post instead of here. For now, all I’m going to say is that the graphic novel doesn’t do Khrissalla justice.
Binti (Nnedi Okorafor)
This is the case of it’s not you, it’s me. Binti is a unique science fiction novella with original idea and a Himba protagonist. I liked Binti a lot, but I couldn’t get into the story. However, a lot of people seem to enjoy it, including the critics. Just look at the 4+ star average rating on Goodreads and the fact that it won a Nebula.
Stuff I Enjoy
Mobile gaming. I don’t have much time to play game, but I am still a gamer at heart. The solution? Mobile games, of course! I’ve been playing some clicker games for the past month, notably Politicats and Magikarp Jump (because who doesn’t like Magikarp?!). I liked clicker game because they’re just so addictive and don’t require too much time investment. On the opposite side, I’ve been playing Mobius Final Fantasy – a game known as being very grindy – since September. Oh well, you need balance in everything, right? I don’t play Mobius FF as much lately, but I emerge once in a while to compete in tower and to play multiplayer.
Bullet Journal. I might have mention bu-jo in passing a couple of months ago, and I am glad to report that this habit is still going strong. I switched planners about a half dozen times during the past 2 years, but with bullet journal, I think I finally found one that works. Its simplicity and flexibility makes bullet journal a huge help to increase my productivity.
And that’s it for now! Let me know if you’ve been reading the same book or play the same game as me. I’d also like to remind you that dip-into-books now has calendar containing release date of books I plan to get as well as my upcoming review schedule. The July looks rather empty right now because I haven’t started on my reading… BUT I’ll get to it SOON.