hi friends! we’ve reached the end of a month again! april has been very busy and hectic — i went on a two week family vacation, and have spent the rest of the month playing catch up with real life, got covid, and simply just haven’t been reading as much as i did during the first two months of the year, which is totally fine.
this month, i read 8 books. i started the month with rereads of the traveling cat chronicles and the goodbye cat, followed it up with reading five arcs in a row, and then finally read the odyssey. funnily enough, i’d intended on reading the odyssey two years ago, but put it down due to having covid and not enough energy. it felt a little full circle for me to finish it this time around. here’s a list of everything i’ve read this month:
- the goodbye cat by hiro arikawa
- the traveling cat chronicles by hiro arikawa
- this is me trying by racquel marie
- kill her twice by stacey lee
- the pairing by casey mcquiston
- swiped by l.m. chilton
- lies and weddings by kevin kwan
- the odyssey by homer
- peter and alice by john logan
i’ve got a few may & june arcs to read ahead of their release dates, but aside from that, i’m keeping may pretty open and light in terms of reads! i’m currently in the middle of rereading + annotating the great gatsby (while i continue being a hater about a specific broadway musical), and also reading the iliad! i do really want to work on some annotation projects, but we’ll see how the month plays out — i’ll be out of town during the middle of the month, and one of my dearest friends is coming to visit me for a few days, so no promises! i know better than to say that i’m going to finally work on my the starless sea annotations at this point because we all know it’s not happening until it finally does. maybe one of these days i’ll log in and say that i finally finished it — who knows when though.
things i’ve been listening to this month: espresso by sabrina carpenter, good luck babe by chappell roan, too sweet by hozier. the new lizzy mcalpine album, as well as the new maggie rogers’ album. a whole lot of musical theater (cast recordings of moulin rouge, catch me if you can, pippin, next to normal, the light in the piazza, for example). a lot of aaron tveit (the radio in my head: live at 54 below album, among other things). the schmigadoon soundtrack. the tortured poets department by taylor swift.
other things i’ve been loving lately:
- schmicadoon/schmicago: i have no idea why it took me this long to watch these twelve episodes (i do, it’s because it’s on apple tv) but it is 100% worth it. i’m obsessed. every day i wake up and i think about it. it’s brilliant. it’s an ode to musical theater. it pokes fun at musical theater tropes. season two outdoes season one, but both seasons are just absolutely spectacular. it’s got a powerhouse cast. getting a good grade in musical theater by spotting the references is an extra bonus.
- aaron tveit: is it 2011 again? 2012? 2014? 2019? whatever, at least i’m having fun — and at least he’s talented. my brain could’ve latched onto someone worse — that’s what i keep telling myself, at least.
- musical theatre: this goes hand in hand with my aaron tveit regression & watching schmigadoon/schmicago, but also just because everyone (but me) has seen challengers and is flooding every social media with photos of mike faist. i was there in 2012, please, i can’t go back to my newsies phase. regardless, i’ve been listening to lots and lots of musical theater lately (newsies included).
- throat coat: like a true theater kid, i have boxes of throat coat stocked up and they truly came in handy. if you’re sick, throat coat + honey does wonders. you’ll thank me later.
- sending long form voice memos/podcasts: i think i’m just making up for the two weeks of quarantine & exhaustion, where i wasn’t really talking to anyone, but i’ve taken to recording voice memos and sending them in lieu of replying to texts again. just fun to ramble on and on about subjects i love and send them to my besties.
- record store day: i didn’t get to participate in record store day in person, but luckily, some dear friends helped me out here by getting me almost everything i needed — and then i was able to get my other ISOs online! a win for coconation!
- hockey: i’ve been rooting for the bruins lately, given that my main team (the seattle kraken) didn’t make it to playoffs. but my official stance is that i’m rooting for anyone who isn’t vegas. excited to cheer on the firebirds as they start their own playoffs too!
posts i loved reading:
- bookishbrews’ posted an interview with christopher murphy on making space for queer characters of color in thrillers a while ago, and while i’m not a big thriller reader, i think this interview is a must read — as well as everything on amanda’s blog!
- i’ve loved everything else i’ve read of dolly alderton’s (everything i know about love, ghosts, and good material), so i’ve been eagerly anticipating dear dolly! i loved oddandbookish’s review of it!
- robin is one of my favorite bookstagrammers, book bloggers, booksellers, book people, really and i always eagerly await her wrap ups! i loved reading her let’s talk: spring reads post!
Thank you so much for reading my review of Dear Dolly! I hope you enjoy it!