My Most Recent Read

July 17, 2022July 16, 2022 bookishluna3 Comments

Hello and welcome to a little recap of books I have recently read and my quick thoughts on them. I have been inconsistent on my little slice of the internet and I wanted to get to a point I could do my monthly digest posts once again. The last one I wrote was Monthly Digest April 2022, so I have a few months to cover before getting in to July’s later this month.

I will admit my reading was very inconsistent as well, most likely the main reason I was not posting a ton. I wasn’t in a reading mood because I had so much going on, which left me with very little relaxation time. So, without much more rambling, here is the single book I managed to read between May and June.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

I actually buddy read this in a way with Reg and Jenna. We each took a turn reading the book, annotating it, and then sending it to the next reader. This very cute love story was just the perfect amount of cute and twists I needed and didn’t know it yet. It was really great to read on its own, I loved the story. It was imaginative, much more so than I thought going into it. The writing was inviting, I ended up actually reading this in a day or two. If that alone isn’t saying how much I enjoyed it, I don’t know what else will. I told you my reading was pretty much nonexistent, but since reading this book I have read a few more, I give this book credit for kick starting me reading. I really enjoyed the characters as well, in fact I enjoyed them so much I mentioned them and this book in my recent post. The Mid-Year Freakout Book Tag. I know I am not saying too much about the plot, but I really think I liked it so much because I knew so little about the books itself. I really only knew it was about a girl who takes the train, other than that I really knew nothing. But, like I said this book was enjoyable on its own, it was really great fun reading my friends reactions and their thoughts on everything.

I am happy to report my next wrap of reading will have much more to share. I have been bitten by the reading bug and I am really thrilled. I hope it continues in the coming months so I can share more great books with you.

Sign Off 2020 — Sign off, thanks for reading!

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Knitting, Crochet, Crafting, Art & More

Crochet | My Project for Pride Month

June 3, 2021December 22, 2022 bookishluna3 Comments

Hello and welcome to a bit of a different crochet post than I regularlly do. I wanted to showcase something I am planning on making for pride month this year. I am part of a crochet discord group that has a monthly theme or idea that we crochet a project based upon. We decided pride would be this months theme, which is really awesome. For this I choose to make a blanket of sorts out of the ally flag.

The Haul

Red Heart Supersaver in the colors Medium Purple, Cherry Read, Light Periwinkle, Light Sage, Cornmeal, Black, Softwire, and Carrot

The Plan

This project I have a feeling will take more than a month to complete for a few reasons, the first being it is a blanket, they always take a ton of time. The second biggest reason being this is going to be a graphgan, which I have never done in my life before. So, I feel like I might have to make quite a bit of fixes here and there to make sure it is perfect. I also had to design my own pattern for this, which was an interesting learning experience so we shall see how well I actually did with that. But, I am really happy to be taking this project on and working on it throughout the month and most likely beyond. If anyone has tips and tricks I would appreciate it!

Too add on to this, if anyone would like the pattern I came up with I will be more than happy to share, if you have a twitter it would be easiest to reach be on there and I can link it to you, but feel free to comment here as well, it might just take a little bit longer for me to get back.

Just spent like 3 hours designing an ally flag graphghan to make for pride month and I am really excited to go get the yarn. If anyone crochets and wants the graph I am more than happy to share! Also, not sure if knitting can use this as well, but if you can let me know.
— bookishluna (@BookishLuna) May 23, 2021

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Wrap Up

Wrap Up | November 2020

November 30, 2020November 29, 2020 bookishluna2 Comments

Hello and welcome to my monthly wrap up, can you believe that the 11th month of the year is already behind us? I sure can’t I feel like November went very quickly this time around and we are already getting reading for the last month of 2020. This past month I didn’t do as well reading wise as previous months, but still feel like I read some great books and found a few new favorites.

Decisions and Dissents of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Selection by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A wonderful collection of RBG’s ideas and thoughts on major topics such as equal rights and womens rights.

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Venus in the Blind Spot by Junji Ito
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Once again Junji Ito has made a wonderful collection of short manga horror tales. As always the art is great, the tales eerie and horrific and I read them quickly. I will continue to pick up more from him.

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Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was just a wonderful read. I laughed, I cried, and a bunch of emotions in-between. I really loved Yadriel, Maritza and Julian as individual characters, but also how they interacted with one another. It really focused on acceptance, love, and family, blood or otherwise. It really was such an emotional read in the perfect way.

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The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Colson Whitehead has done it again, he has written another amazing book. He is certainly turning into one of my auto buy authors. This story was dark, raw, and emotional, but it was also beautifully told. Sadly, this story is based off of real events and many have had these experiences. I certainly is thought provoking and will be a book I think about in the future.

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The Night is Darkening Round Me by Emily Brontë, My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Envelope Poems by Emily Dickinson, My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo, My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune, My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What was your favorite or least favorite read of October?

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Reviews

Someone Picks My Books | Olivia’s Catastrophe | Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

November 29, 2020November 25, 2020 bookishluna8 Comments

Hello and welcome to another installment of Someone Picks My Books! For November I was lucky enough to have Olivia from Olivia’s Catastrophe pick my book for me. She is very active over on her youtube channel, which is amazing, and twitter @oliviascatastro. I was so happy when she picked Clap When You Land, I heard nothing but amazing things and she even said she gave it 5 stars. I felt like this month was going to be a huge win.

One Sentence Review

A beautifully written exploration of the complexities of relationships and people, on top of that it explores the life of two half sisters that have no idea existed until they experience a life changing tragedy.

Description

Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…

In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance – and Papi’s secrets – the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.

Papi’s death uncovers all the painful truths he kept hidden, and the love he divided across an ocean. And now, Camino and Yahaira are both left to grapple with what this new sister means to them, and what it will now take to keep their dreams alive. -goodreads.com

What I Liked

Just a warning, this review is just going to be me gushing about a book I loved. This book is so beautifully written. I am actually surprised that I am saying this. Going into this book I had no idea that it was written in verse before I actually went to read it. I normally don’t do well with books written in this manner, but Acevedo really made it count in this book and not just a gimmick. The words were powerful, meaningful, and beautiful. You can see the authors care when it came to constructing each sentence and picking each word.

As for the two main characters, I really felt that the dual perspective worked wonderfully and we really were able to explore the lives of Camino and Yahaira. I really appreciated the fact that the author didn’t just tell us how different these half siblings lived, but showed us. I felt like while exploring the grief they had the author really opened up their worlds and made them dimensional. I really loved their personalities and I really enjoyed following them both. Normally when I read a dual or muliple perspective book there is one I am not too fond of, but in this book, I really enjoyed them both. I would not be sad to see another book with these two, I would love to see how they are doing. When I put down this book initially, I was thinking of all the possible situations they could be in now.

I also want to take a moment to appreciate that this author talked about a very difficult topic that in my opinion was very respectful, but also did not shy about from the difficult aspects as well.

What I Didn’t Like

Honestly, nothing. I really enjoyed reading this book and I am so happy that Olivia picked this one for me. I can see why she also gave it 5 stars.

Overall

Overall, I loved and adored this book so much. I have already recommended it to a few people in my life and will continue to do so. This book is a beautiful exploration of relationships, people, and family.

Next month I am reading a book picked by Erica who you can find on twitter as @2020hines_sight or on her youtube channel The Broken Spine. I am beyond thrilled to read her pick, I have been holding myself back from reading it too early for months!

Have you read this book before or is it on your TBR?

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Wrap Up

Wrap Up | July 2020

July 31, 2020July 29, 2020 bookishluna17 Comments

Wrap Up

Hello and welcome to my monthly wrap up! I missed out on my middle mark post for the month so be prepared for quite a few mini reviews and well as my monthly stats overall. I think I did good overall this month, I even found a few books I love. The main driving force in my reading amount was The Reading Rush that book place between July 20th-26th. In that readathon alone I ended up reading ___ books that week alone. Anyway, on to the books, the reason you clicked onto this post.

LGBTQ Stats: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer People by the Numbers by Bennett Singer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Very interesting, the name is very accurate, this book is a lot of questions being answers via data collected via census and polls. It is best read in chunks a little at a time because it reads like a textbook.