spindizzy: Sypha looking pained while holding a closed book (That's enough book for one day)
[personal profile] spindizzy
I read books! More than I did during the main brunt of the pandemic, but fewer than I did before 2020 and the great burnout. Instead of recapping all of my 2022 reading, I figured I'd do a quick recap of the highlights!

Read more... )

... If you think you see any commonalities between my favourites this year: no you do not.

I don't have any big plans for 2023 on the media front. I'm honestly a little too scared of making any – three years of trying and failing will do that to you, I guess. The closest I've got to a plan is "read things you like," which seems like a good place to start. Hope 2023 treats you and your reading gently! ♥
spindizzy: Cartoon of me wearing a mask and looking tired (GPOY in the apocalyse)
[personal profile] spindizzy
In a change from my usual plans for this time of year, this is not a goals post. This is in fact an anti- goals post, because I am officially declaring 2021 a year of reading anarchy.

Like most of the people I know, 2020 was not a good year for my ability to read anything but fanfic – shout out to the Scum Villain's Self-Saving System section of AO3 for getting me through the last half of the year! As for 2021... Well.

*gestures at Brexit* *gestures at pandemic* *gestures at executive dysfunction issues exacerbated by all these apocalypses*

Instead of doing my usual and setting numeric goals so that I can analyse my reading stats, I am officially saying FUCK IT. 2021 is the year where I'm just gonna read whatever and see what happens. If that means that I read nothing but mid-2000s BL manga/speculative fiction anthologies with brightly coloured covers/queer sff novellas from last year/this stack of lesbian detective novels, then so be it! 2021 is not a year for trying to push myself harder, it's a year for recovering.

(I am definitely going to come back and capslock about whatever it is I read though – I haven't finished a full review since... Maybe June? And it's been weird!)

To round off this post, I'm going to ask a question! If you're recovering from a reading slump, do you have a specific book/genre that you turn to? If you have recovered from a reading slump (congratulations!), what was the book that broke you out of it? For me, it was Two Rogues Make a Right by Cat Sebastian. Yes, I did have a little cry about finally being able to read again, and then another cry because I forgot that having feelings about fictional characters and seeing aspects of yourself represented in fiction was a thing that happened! Feelings are the worst, why did I miss those. ... Whereas Two Rogues Make a Right was exactly what I needed to read at the time, because apparently "the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one" and "we are trying our best to respect each other's needs, but also we're terrible at communicating" are just my bulletproof tropes.

Happy new year everyone! Stay safe and take care of yourselves! ♥
spindizzy: Raven looking shocked and horrified. (WHAT?!)
[personal profile] spindizzy
Okay, it's that time of year when I remember that I set myself some reading goals and suddenly start running numbers! As ever, I'll be going my total numbers, which you can check on GoodReads, so if you're going "Wait, hang on, these numbers don't match your Eight Book Minimum post!" that's what happened.

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So that's where I'm at with reading during the apocalypse! How is everyone else doing? Respect to everyone who is trying to keep up with their reading goals, and to everyone who's just declared 2020 the year of goal anarchy, you're all doing good work.
spindizzy: Trevor looking very smug (HaHA!)
[personal profile] spindizzy
Cover of Slippery Creatures


Will Darling came back from the Great War with a few scars, a lot of medals, and no idea what to do next. Inheriting his uncle’s chaotic second-hand bookshop is a blessing...until strange visitors start making threats. First a criminal gang, then the War Office, both telling Will to give them the information they want, or else.
Will has no idea what that information is, and nobody to turn to, until Kim Secretan—charming, cultured, oddly attractive—steps in to offer help. As Kim and Will try to find answers and outrun trouble, mutual desire grows along with the danger.
And then Will discovers the truth about Kim. His identity, his past, his real intentions. Enraged and betrayed, Will never wants to see him again.
But Will possesses knowledge that could cost thousands of lives. Enemies are closing in on him from all sides—and Kim is the only man who can help.


Will Darling came back from World War I with a box of medals, a trench knife, and no hope of getting a job. Fortunately for him, he's inherited his uncle's bookshop! Unfortunately for him, that comes with the War Office and secret societies barging into his life demanding information that he's never heard of. Good thing his new friend Kim Secretan is willing to step in and help him find his way out of this mess!

Or, in shorter news: Slippery Creatures is KJ Charles writing more pulp adventures and I am ecstatic.

Read more... )
spindizzy: (Shut it down)
[personal profile] spindizzy
It's incredibly weird to think that the last time I posted Eight Book Minimum – and when I wrote most of these reviews, and when I set my reading goals for the year – we weren't in lockdown. I don't have any profound interpretation to add to that, I just needed to acknowledge for myself that I read these books in 2020, even though it doesn't feel like it because March was a long decade. I hope that all of you and yours are safe out there!


  1. These Savage Shores by by Ram V and Sumit Kumar [Jump]

  2. Stanislaw Lem's The Seventh Voyage: Star Diaries by Jon J. Muth [Jump]

  3. Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood by Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey [Jump]

  4. Wasted Space Volume 1 by Michael Moreci and Hayden Sherman [Jump]

  5. Hell's Paradise: Jigokurako Volume 1 by by Yuji Kaku [Jump]

  6. The Promised Neverland Volume 1 by by Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu [Jump]

  7. Kokkoku: Moment by Moment Volume 1 by Seita Horio [Jump]

  8. Ascendance of the Bookworm Volume 1 by Miya Kazuki, Suzuka, and You Shiina; translated by Carter Collins [Jump]


Read more... )

Reading Goals


Reading goal: 16/80 (8 new this post) Prose: 4/20 Nonfiction: 1/12
Netgalley: 9/50 (3 new this post)
#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: 8/40 (3 read this post)
#unofficialqueerafbookclub: 3/20 (0 new this post. ... Who am I?!)
spindizzy: Sanzo and Goku shouting at each other. (What was that for?!)
[personal profile] spindizzy
And for my next trick: actually getting started on the reviews for 2020! This batch has the full spectrum of my emotions: tearing up on my commute, solid meh, and absolute hatred, so this'll be fun!


  1. Nuclear Winter Volume 1 by Caroline Breault [Jump]

  2. Essex Colony by Lia Cooper [Jump]

  3. Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey [Jump]

  4. Bury the Lede by Gaby Dunn and Claire Roe [Jump]

  5. Artifact One Volume 1 by J.T. Krul, Vince Hernandez, and Romina Moranelli [Jump]

  6. Journaled to Death by Heather Redmond [Jump]

  7. Good Dog, Cerberus! by Moha Arimura [Jump]

  8. Downfall by Inio Asano [Jump]


Read more... )

Reading Goals


Reading goal: 8/80 (8 new this post) Prose: 3/20 Nonfiction: 0/12
Netgalley: 6/50 (6 new this post)
#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: 5/40 (5 read this post)
#unofficialqueerafbookclub: 3/20 (3 new this post; Essex Colony, Upright Women Wanted, Bury the Lede)
spindizzy: The ordinary are so frequently oblivious to the extraordinary. (Oblivious to the extraordinary)
[personal profile] spindizzy
Cover of The Water Dragon's Bride Volume 1


A modern-day girl gets whisked away to a strange land where she is sacrificed to a water dragon god!

In the blink of an eye, a modern-day girl named Asahi is whisked away from her warm and happy home and stranded in a strange and mysterious world where she is sacrificed to a water dragon god! What plans are in store for her, and what will happen when she comes face to face with this god?

A young boy named Subaru comes to Asahi’s aid, but despite his help, Asahi must endure a test of survival! Will she be able to make it out alive, or will she end up being sacrificed?


Rei Toma's The Water Dragon's Bride crossed my twitter feeds a fair bit last year, and it turns out that it's for good reason! Our Heroine, Asahi, is a normal little girl living in the modern world, until she's dragged into a fantasy world where people worship a humanoid water dragons as a god, up to and including ritually sacrificing a maiden every year to be his "bride." You see where this is going.

Read more... )

[Caution warning: human sacrifice, child abuse and neglect, attempted murder, imagery of suicide, torture, floods]
spindizzy: A cartoon of me smiling (It me)
[personal profile] spindizzy
Real talk: by the end of the year, I did not think I would meet any of my 2019 reading goals. But weirdly, it turns out that even the goals I didn't reach still taught me useful things, which I think is how this "setting goals" thing is supposed to work?

Anyway, as is tradition: looking back on my goals of 2019!

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So I spent most of 2019 coming to the realisation that I am not good at setting realistic goals. I know, I know, you're all shocked by this revelation, but I've finally accepted the truth! Which means that for 2020, I have dialed my goals down about as far as I can go and still feel challenged.

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So that's what I'll be up to this year! How about you? Have you set any reading goals? Have you joined the goal-free anarchy some of the Lady Business editors are embracing? Did your goals bring up any revelations about your reading habits? ... Definitely comment if you had that last one, I would love to not be alone in this!
spindizzy: Rin holding a book sadly (This book makes me sad)
[personal profile] spindizzy
Cover of Upright Women Wanted


Esther is a stowaway. She's hidden herself away in the Librarian's book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her--a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda.

The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing.


I don't think that I can review Sarah Gailey's Upright Women Wanted without mentioning "Between the Coats," an essay that Sarah Gailey wrote about queer tragedies and realising that they didn't have to be inevitable. The question at the heart of that essay – Do you know that queer people are allowed to have happy stories? – is one that I felt like I could see beating at the heart of Upright Women Wanted.

Esther is on the run. She's smuggled herself out of the town where her father executed her girlfriend, hiding in the back of the librarian wagons in the hope that the librarians – perfectly appropriate women who travel around distributing government propaganda – could maybe help her be the person society expects her to be before being herself gets her killed. ... She wasn't expecting the queer gun-slinging librarian spies, okay!

Read more... )
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