Always Me

Happy Wednesday everyone!  I hope everyone's had a good July.  How are we already more than halfway through the year!  I've now completed 14 tasks for Book Riot's 2026 Read Harder Challenge .  The tasks I completed in July required me to read a book  book by a d/Deaf author and a  nonviolent true crime book.   I selected  True Biz by Sara Nović  and  A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan  respectively.   Read on to see my mini reviews and my plans for next month:   ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋   True Biz by Sara Nović  is a great YA contemporary coming-of-age story.  The author does an outstanding job of settling the audience into Deaf culture.  I also appreciated the characters in that they all feel very fleshed out and are allowed to be messy - they feel like real people.  Anyway, this book also reminded me that it's ...

Happy Sunday Funday and welcome to my eighth weekly update for Summer of Horror 2026 (my fourth of July), a celebration of all things horror running from June through August and hosted by Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy .  I made some more progress on my tbr and watchlist!  We're almost to August - wow!  Keep reading to see what I've gotten up to since last week. My Summer of Horror This Week: Sunday Funday: July Week 3 Update Music Monday: Evil Dead Burn (2026) Top Ten Tuesday: Horror Movies & TV Shows That Live In My Head Rent Free Books From The Backlog: Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison The Friday 56 (With Book Beginnings): The Liar of Red Valley by Walter Goodwater What I've Watched This Week : ❋ ❋.5 Under Paris wasn't a good movie and it was pretty ridiculous, but I did like the ending. I wasn't expecting that at all. Good for those sharks, you know. Also, I was trying to figure out where I'd seen the main actress and it finally hit me that she play...

Happy Sunday Funday and welcome to my seventh weekly update for Summer of Horror 2026 (my third of July), a celebration of all things horror running from June through August and hosted by Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy .  I made some more progress on my tbr and watchlist!  How is is already more than halfway through July!  Keep reading to see what I've gotten up to since last week. My Summer of Horror This Week: Sunday Funday: July Week 2 Update Top Ten Tuesday: Horror Books I Want to Read by New to Me Authors The Friday 56 (With Book Beginnings): Head Cleaner by David James Keaton What I've Watched This Week : ❋ ❋ ❋.5 NOS4A2 (Season 1) - Netflix - I finished season 1 by watching episodes 7-10.  This wasn't bad at all, but some elements of this definitely work better as a book for me. The main cast is solid, but there are times when it really feels like the 10 episodes dragged. It was fun seeing Zachary Quinto as a villain and I got a kick out of those like...

Happy Sunday Funday and welcome to my sixth weekly update for Summer of Horror 2026 (my second of July), a celebration of all things horror running from June through August and hosted by Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy .  I made some more progress on my tbr and watchlist!  This summer seems to be flying by!  Keep reading to see what I've gotten up to since last week. My Summer of Horror This Week: Sunday Funday: July Week 1 Update Top Ten Tuesday: Horror Book Titles That Include The Word "Dead" The Friday 56 (With Book Beginnings): Desert Creatures by Kay Chronister What I've Watched This Week : ❋ ❋  ❋  ❋ NOS4A2 (Season 1) - Netflix - I've watched 2 more episodes of this show this week and I'm really it's definitely picking up.  I'm glad I decided to stick with it. ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ Episode 5: Best episode of the series so far. Zachary Quinto is doing a great job with his role! My review is also on Serializd . ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ Episode 6: This was another solid e...

Happy Sunday Funday and welcome to my fifth weekly update for Summer of Horror 2026  (my first of July), a celebration of all things horror running from June through August and hosted by Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy .  I made some more progress on my tbr and watchlist!  We're already a week through this and already past Independence Day!  Keep reading to see what I've gotten up to since last week. My Summer of Horror This Week: Sunday Funday: June Week 4 Update Music Monday: IT: Welcome to Derry (2025) Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Horror Books Releasing In The Second Half Of 2026 The Friday 56 (With Book Beginnings): House of Secrets ( House of Shadows #2) by Darcy Coates What I've Watched This Week : ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ Parasyte: The Grey - Since last time, I finished the series by watching episodes 2-6.  The series definitely improved as it went along.  I've never read or seen the original manga or anime, but I enjoyed this spinoff series quite a bit. Je...

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Today I'm sharing my sixth update for my June progress for the year long Read Queerly 2026 which is hosted by Alexx @ Enthralled Bookworm .  In June, I completed 2 books for a total of 13 read so far out of 16 total books on my tbr.  I can't believe I'm already almost done with this one!  You can see my original tbr here .  Keep reading to see my thoughts on the books I read this month: 6. Series or Duolog: A queer book that's part of a duology, trilogy/series ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ I absolutely loved Into the Drowning Deep ( Rolling in the Deep #1) by Mira Grant ! I don't have a lot to say about this one other than that I need lots more ocean horror/ mermaid horror books like it, please and thank you. My review is also on Goodreads ,  The StoryGraph , and my Summer of Horror 2026 - Sunday Funday: June Week 2 Update post . 4. Island icon: Any queer book set on an island or about an island ❋ ❋ ❋ ❋ I really liked La Sala's style in this du...

Happy Wednesday everyone! I'm sharing my first update for the  r/Fantasy 2026 Book Bingo Challenge .  The challenge officially started on April 1st, 2026 and it will run through March 31st, 2027.  I'm hoping to complete the full board of 25 squares for the challenge. So far I've read 2 of 25 books on my original tbr .  Keep reading to see the books I've read so far for this challenge: 14. Explorers and Rangers - Story features an explorer (a character who travels to and investigates an unfamiliar region) or a ranger (a wilderness or forest-oriented warrior frequently specializing in things like stealth, bows, tracking, and other hunting-related skills). HARD MODE: The explorer or ranger has an animal companion. ❋ I was really looking forward to The No-End House by Jeremey Bates , but this ended up being off-putting and just not good at all. I liked the idea of it and the creepypasta that inspired it, but you know what did the story about a million times better? The s...

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Today I'm sharing my sixth update for my June progress for the year long Beat The Backlist 2026 reading challenge, hosted by Austine Decker.  You can see my original tbr here .  In June, I completed 2 books for a total of 15 read so far out of 24 total books on my tbr.  9 to go!  Without further ado, keep reading to see my thoughts on the books I read in June: 11. end of an era: last book in a series ❋ ❋ ❋ Fire Arrow ( The Songs of Eirren #2)  by Edith Pattou  is definitely an improvement from book one but still not enough to raise it quite up to 4 stars.  I appreciated the main character a little more this time around in the new setting.  Anyway, I'm not sure if I'm interested in reading more from this author in the future. My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph . 2. 2025 debut: an author's first book that released in 2025 ❋ ❋ ❋ A Language of Dragons (A Language of Dragons #1) by S.F. Williamso...

  Happy Wednesday everyone!  I can't believe it's already the first of July!  Today I'm sharing my my sixth update for my progress for the year long reading challenge called the 2026 Popsugar Reading Challenge .  In June, I completed 6 books for a total of 38 read so far out of 50 total books on my tbr.  Only 12 to go!  You can see my original tbr here .  Keep reading to see my thoughts on the books I read in June for this challenge: 27. A book with a character who has curly hair ❋ ❋ Witches' Night of Fear ( Witches' Chillers #2) by Silver RavenWolf  was okay, but definitely not a favorite. Also, I haven't read book one of this series so I was missing some stuff. Either way, not a whole lot happened in this until far too close to the end.  It feels like a bit of a time capsule too (back to 2001) which I wasn't quite expecting going in. My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph . 15. A book about new beginnings ❋ ❋ ❋ It Will Only Hur...