Always Me

Welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below. Rules: Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s). If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url. Happy Monday everyone!  This week I'm sharing my favorite songs from Buffy the Vampire Slayer's musical episode "Once More With Feeling" .  It had been ages since I've seen this, but upon a recent rewatch I remembered just how much I loved this one.  Give a listen to Overture/ Going Through The Motions , Under Your Spell , Rest In Peace , and Walk Through The Fire

Happy Saturday everyone!  I hope everyone's been staying healthy and happy.  I can't believe May is almost over!  Anyway, that means that I've now completed 10 tasks of  Book Riot's 2021 Read Harder Challenge .  The tasks I completed this month required me to read  a book  featuring a beloved pet where the pet doesn't die   and a non-European novel in translation   and I selected  The Purloined Poodle  ( Oberon's Meaty Mysteries  #1) by Kevin Hearne  and  Ring  ( Ring  #1) by Koji Suzuki, translated by Robert B. Rohmer and Glynne Walley .   Read on to see my mini reviews and what's coming up for June: ❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ The Purloined Poodle  ( Oberon's Meaty Mysteries  #1) by Kevin Hearne  was absolutely delightful.  It was so much fun to see Oberon and Atticus again.  I didn't finish the main series, The Iron Druid Chronicles , all that long ago but I missed seeing them, especially Oberon.  He's just a very good, smart boy.  Plus, he gets some of the be

Happy Friday everyone!  Today, I'm sharing three ARC mini reviews - Gamora and Nebula: Sisters in Arms by Mackenzi Lee  (available June 1, 2021),  The Iron Crown ( Dragon Spirits #1) by L.L. MacRae  (available May 28, 2021), and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (available May 4, 2021).  I received the ARCs of Gamora and Nebula from NetGalley and The Iron Crown from the author in exchange for honest reviews.  Read on to see my thoughts: ❋   ❋  ❋   ❋ Gamora and Nebula: Sisters in Arms by Mackenzi Lee is a delightful addition to the Marvel Universe.  I don't really know all that much about their comic book iterations, but I've enjoyed getting to know Gamora and Nebula of the MCU.  Lately, Nebula has really earned a special place in my heart as we've had a great chance to see her grow.  Either way, it was good to see them at the teenage stage in their lives.  One character I didn't expect to see at all was the Grandmaster, but every one of his scenes were absolutely del

❋  ❋  ❋  ❋ I received an ARC from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review. At every crossroads he's encountered in life, Sean Brody has made the save choice. In the year 2046, at the age of ninety-three, Sean is given one final opportunity to deal with his greatest regret. Sean is the only person Marshall Grissom and Mata Hamilton can find who might be able to save Sheila Schuler, their friend and fellow traveler lost in the distant reaches of time. If he accepts the task of traveling to his childhood in a parallel universe--with no guarantee that any aspect of the past can be changed, Sean must also accept his death in the only world he knows. I'm so glad I decided to stick with the Physics, Lust and Greed series by Mike Murphey as it has become available via Reedsy Discovery. The first book in the series, Taking Time , was a solid time travel sci-fi novel and its successor, Wasting Time , was a good follow up. Of those two, I definitely preferred the second book. T

On Friday's I take part in three weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , and Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader .  For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader.  Happy Friday everyone!  This week I'm spotlighting one of the Mini Round PopCulture Readthon books that I just finished, Daughter of Albion ( Skin #1) by Ilka Tampke .  I just happened to stumble upon this historical fantasy novel set in AD 43 southwestern Britain with the Roman Empire right on the horizon.  It's been si

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Book Quotes That Fit X Theme - I'm specifically sharing some of my favorite quotes from The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher .  Here we go, in series order: “There is no truer gauge of a man's character than the way in which he employs his strength, his power.” ― S torm Front “It's all right to be afraid. You just don't let it stop you from doing your job.” ― Fool Moon “Life would be unbearably dull if we had answers to all our questions.” ― Death Masks “Evil isn’t the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as Evil, maybe more so, and it’s a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against Stupid. That might actually make a difference.” ― Vignette “I don't care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching--they are your family.” ― Proven Guil

Welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below. Rules: Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s). If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url. Happy Monday everyone!  This week I'm sharing one of the most unexpected themed lofi beats videos I just happened to come across on YouTube: Hannibal Lofi- Beats to Catch the Chesapeake Ripper to from Jay Rose .  I just recently got into the tv series Hannibal and this just hit the spot.  I love all of the little details in the video and the whole thing just really worked for me.  C

Happy Saturday everyone!  As you may know, June is Pride Month and as I usually do I've decided to celebrate the occasion by tackling some LGBTQIAP books this month.  If you like, you can check out what I read for Pride Month in 2018 , 2019 , and 2020 as well. I think I've got a pretty good line up for this year.  Here are some of my own books and library books I hope to read in June: Books I Own: The Forever Sea ( The Forever Sea #1) by Joshua Phillip Johnson  - I mean, this sounds awesome and just look at that cool cover.  I hope this will be a great series opener. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab  - V.E. Schwab is one of my all time favorite authors and I'm dying to jump into her newest novel. Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth  - I won an ARC of this book awhile back and I think it's going to be just my brand of historical horror. Seafire ( Seafire #1) by Natalie C. Parker  - To be honest, all I had to hear was pirates.  Plus, all three books in t

On Friday's I take part in three weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , and Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader .  For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader.  Happy Friday everyone!  This week I'm spotlighting one of my current Popsugar Reading Challenge reads,   The Masked City ( The Invisible Library #2) by Genevieve Cogman .  I loved the first book in this series and I'm so glad I've finally decided to continue the series. Beginning: By now you will have passed basic

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Welcome to the Top Ten Tuesday now hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl .  This week's topic is Book Titles That Are Complete Sentences (Submitted by Jessica @ A Cocoon of Books).  These are some of my more recent reads with these kinds of titles.  Without further ado, here we go in alphabetical order by title: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories ( The Folk of the Air #3.5) by Holly Black I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker This Coven Won't Break ( These Witches Won't Burn #2) by Isabel Sterling This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura Tristan Strong Destroys the World ( Tristan Strong #2) by Kwame Mbalia Where Have All The Bees Gone?: Pollinators in Crisis by

Welcome back to Music Monday! Let's share some songs we've been enjoying lately!  If you would like to play and I really hope you do, please see the rules and link up below. Rules: Every Monday share a few songs you've been enjoying lately.  It doesn't have to be a specific genre, new, or one of your favorites - just something you'd like to share with others.  If possible, share a music or lyric video of the song and your thoughts on the song(s), artist(s), and/or music video(s). If you would like to participate in Music Monday, please join the link up by sharing your post's url. Happy Monday everyone!  This week I'm sharing some of my favorite synthwave, retrowave, cyberpunk, dark synth, dark synthwave, and chillwave mixes from Odysseus .  Give a listen to Dystopia , Ghosts , and Synthcity : You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter

On Friday's I take part in three weekly link ups - The Friday 56, hosted by  Freda's Voice , and Book Beginnings, hosted by  Rose City Reader .  For The Friday 56, you choose a book, a book you have just finished, a book you are about to start, your current read, and share a line or a few lines that grab you (but don't spoil anything) from page 56 or 56% of the way through the ebook. Post it and share your post's url on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post. As for Book Beginnings, you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires, and then link up your post's url with Rose City Reader.  Happy Friday everyone!  This week I'm spotlighting one of my current  May The Force Read With You Readathon  books, Lost in a Good Book ( Thursday Next #2) by Jasper Fforde .  I loved the first book in this series way back when and I'm so happy to finally be back in this world! Beginning:  I didn't ask to be a celebr