Hello, everyone! I know y'all are busy and it's hard to keep up with various blogs & booktube channels, so as usual, I've created a recap post on what I've done in May & June. Let me know what y'all have been up to, what you've been reading & which books you've received :).

On the blog, I talked about my experiences at BEA for Day 1 (VIDEO), Day 2 (VIDEO), and Day 3 (VIDEO). Each day had a little something different about it, and the videos talk more about the experience whereas the blog posts are more typical recaps. In terms of book tags, I did the New Releases Tag (VIDEO) and the Extraordinary Means Tag (VIDEO). I fangirled about Books that (I think) You Should Anticipate (VIDEO) and my favorite YA heroines (VIDEO) and even read the first chapter from Black Iris, a very good book, after discussing my April book haul. I reviewed A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston, Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson,Dumplin' by Julie Murphy, Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Kuehn, Black Iris by Leah Raeder,Uprooted by Naomi Novik, and The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson. I only had two bookish rounds posts these past two months: edition 79 and edition 80. Hopefully I will be making one soon!

As you might be able to tell in the video... I've moved! Part of the reason why this blog has been so stagnant of late is because of my moving and needing to get internet and needing to do a lot of other things :P. But though I haven't been blogging as much, I have been reading a bunch! Here are some recommendations from yours truly.

A THOUSAND NIGHTS by E.K. Johnston. So, as I linked above, you can read my full review if you'd like. But if you want a few words: EPIC. Atmospheric. If there's one Middle Eastern inspired fantasy novel to read, it's this one. Find an ARC or pre-order. Can't wait to read more from E.K. Johnston!

SERPENTINE by Cindy Pon. FANTASTIC. Reminded me of older fantasy narratives, and I think that it'd be perfect for fans of THE HERO AND THE CROWN & Rae Carson. Features a wonderful main female friendship, sweet romance, and such significant growth for the main character.... plus the lush setting! Cindy Pon gives plenty of details that help to create an atmosphere of a distinctly different time and culture and to settle you into her fascinating world. Also, can I say how fantastic it is that the main character is the handmaid? LOVE when the perspective shifts like that (since so many fantasies are told from the PoV of the lost heir, etc.).

BLOOD AND SALT by Kim Liggett. I've never seen/read "Children of the Corn," but I kept wanting to picture this novel as a movie. The writing is quite cinematic, the setting, the atmosphere... creepy corn fields. Kim Liggett has also established her world and the culture of Quivira so well that it makes the plot quite unpredictable with its various twists and turns. Romantic horror *is* a good description of BLOOD & SALT. The first part is more traditional horror elements (e.g. crows, murders, etc.) and the second half gets more into the deepening stakes/consequences (e.g. love, betrayal, etc.), but neither gets to be too much as Liggett livens her narrative with little humorous tidbits in the MC's voice & jokes among the characters. One-of-a-kind seems like a good descriptor too, though I've not read enough horror to say that with authority.

People who blurbed this book: CARRIE RYAN, NOVA REN SUMA, KENDARE BLAKE, APRIL GENEVIEVE TUCHOLKE, MEGAN SHEPHERD, GRETCHEN MCNEIL. I haven't read books by the latter two, but the others feel so very appropriate. The old time-y feel of the setting in Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, along with the mix of those magical/paranormal elements - what's real? what's actually happening? The blood and gore, and spiritual background in Anna Dressed in Blood. The reservoir feeling *real* with its own history and sacrifice and sibling relationships in Imaginary Girls. The forbidden romance and hungry creatures just beyond the wall in The Forest of Hands and Teeth... And yet, even with these comparisons, it's also easy to say that Kim Liggett has created something that is entirely her own.

WRITTEN IN THE STARS by Aisha Saeed. Loved this. Can't remember who chose this from my book club, but can't wait to discuss it with them! I nearly sobbed while reading this - might actually be the hardest I've cried while reading a book - and that is a rare thing indeed. Aisha Saeed is a PRO at showing you Naila's journey step by step, so that it feels like you're living her nightmare as well. All the details, the emotions, the information - very important read and highly recommended.

INCARCERON by Catherine Fisher. I can't really judge this book accurately. I listened to it while moving/unpacking and doing the dishes, and while on my way to work. Unfortunately, dropping your shitty self-assembled IKEA furniture on the floor for the tenth time and then cursing does mean that you will then miss some details in your audiobook. I could've gone back, but I never do, so oh well. Cool concept, though, and a lot of interesting details, action scenes. I remember first being interested in this novel and its sequel, Sapphique, because Martina Boone had posted an excerpt of Sapphique's opening as an example of extraordinary introductions. Catherine Fisher does know how to build up tension.

DAUGHTER OF DEEP SILENCE by Carrie Ryan. The writing is so tight here, really helps with the revenge thriller vibe. This book reminded me of how I'd started reading THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH a couple years back, but something had distracted me from it. I've loved every one of Carrie Ryan's short stories that I've read - her atmosphere is always excellent. Looking forward to reading more from her.

SIX OF CROWS by Leigh Bardugo. If you wanted more world-building from the Grisha Trilogy, this is the solution to all your answers. Though I'm wary of GAME OF THRONES comparisons, a multi-perspective, high fantasy with many cultures interacting with one another meeting OCEAN'S ELEVEN feels like a very accurate description of this book. I can see this one becoming really popular, probably even more popular than the Grisha trilogy (which it accentuates perfectly, adding onto the storyline & world wonderfully. As a companion, this should make new readers eager to check out the first three books and the history referred to in SIX OF CROWS, but it's also readable for them, with the necessary information explained so that they're not left in the dust. It's also good for readers already familiar with GRISHA as it's expanding on the magical foundations of the world itself, and thus does not actually get into repeating the world-building you already know aside for a few tidbits.).

And I am now currently reading A History of Glitter and Blood by Hannah Moskowitz with the lovely Mel at The Daily Prophecy :).

Books that I purchased: Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper (a children's fantasy classic that was compared to Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass + Lord of the Rings in an essay from my kidlit class called "End of Magic") & The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer (described as an Icelandic mythology based Lord of the Rings).

So, what have y'all been up to this past month?! What have you been reading, purchasing, and so on? Are you looking forward to any of these books or have you already read them yourselves? Let me know!

I started months ago a sort of personal challenge with 3-months thematich pats. The first has been the one on musicians: reading books about musicians or in which at least one of the character plays an instrument or sing, in other words, fiction and non-fiction related in some way to people doing music.  

The first candidate has been A visit from the goon squad by Jennifer Egan.  Bennie Salazar, one of the many characters of the book, is inserted in music industry, although he's not enjoying it so much when we meet him, showing a very nostalgic attitude towards the past musical tendecies in his youth, when, in addition, he had a band too. Relating to this book was like going in a seesaw: my emotional disposition has changed among light indifference, sudden love, diplomatic or, sometimes, hearty and trustful friendship and surprisingly light indifference again. This has to do with the structure: changing setting, time and character too in every story of the mosaic. My disorganic appreciation depends very much on it: some "short stories" were really great (like "Safari", or "Goodbye, My Love", "Great Rock and Roll Pauses"), others have not fascinated me ("Pure Language" for example). 

I liked very much how Egan has proposed the idea of time in her character's lives, particulary in how we change during our time and how often this changes imply decisions that the old-self would have denigrated, those tiny compromises sowed in our life which carry us to our actual person and situation. 

I'm eager to read other books by her, she surely has talent. 

Then I've read two books about Mozart's life: Mozart's Sister by Rita Charbonnier and a collection of Letters to her cousin. He's surely a character, I mean..

"Wouldn't you like to visit Herr Gold-smith again?—but what for?—what?—nothing!—just to inquire, I guess, about the Spuni Cuni fait, nothing else, nothing else?—well, well, all right. Long live all those who, who—who—who—how does it go on?—I now wish you a good night, shit in your bed with all your might, sleep with peace on your mind, and try to kiss your own behind; I now go off to never-never land and sleep as much as I can stand. Tomorrow we'll speak freak sensubly with each other. Things I must you tell a lot of, believe it you hardly can, but hear tomorrow it already will you, be well in the meantime. Oh my ass burns like fire! what on earth is the meaning of this!—maybe muck wants to come out? yes, yes, muck, I know you, see you, taste you—and—what's this—is it possible? Ye Gods!—Oh ear of mine, are you deceiving me?—No, it's true—what a long and melancholic sound!—today is the write I fifth this letter. Yesterday I talked with the stern Frau Churfustin, and tomorrow, on the 6th, I will give a performance in her chambers, as the Furstin-Chur said to me herself. Now for something real sensuble!"  (One of the Letters)

 A prankster! Who would suspect it, if not informed.. Even Charbonnier's novel about her sister paints him like a sort of divinally gifted libertine, who messes up several lives without care. Her sister's life, for example, because she's not a fictional character at all, she really existed. Nannerl Mozart had musical ambitions during yer youth, but fatally she had the misfortune of being obscured by a celebrated genius and a father totally engaged in building his fame. So, this is the story of a slow and progressive surrender to a dream, with much pain, silent endurance and jealousy stirred with brotherly love. 

The book is good, except for some rushed executions in the psychological developments of the second part. 

Then I've read The Awakening by Kate Chopin, in which a secondary character is a pianist. It's a fascinating book, particulary for the main character, Edna. She has an evocative, sinous beauty, but what she do for being so fascinating is the same amount of actions which can't be shared at all for me. She's extremely free and indipendent from any tie, cruel exactly for this reason. She fascinates and distances at the same time: I would never accept a person like Edna in my life. So I understand her, but I don't approve her actions. It's a great book anyway, maybe it's great precisely for all these reasons together. 

In my mission (opening myself to YA) I've inserted The Sky is Everywhere too. Lennie is a misfortuned teenager who discover herselves through love and music (he plays clarinet) in a new intimate birth after the grief for her older sister, Baley. It was not bad at all, moving, particulary for Lennie's grief, although Lennie's life seems to rotate only on her sentimental interests, even with male characters who seem to burst out from those hughe cakes like the one of Singin in the Rain, given the idyllic profiles. 

Then I came back to a loved author, Ian McEwan, with Amsterdam. Less than the the other two I read by him, Sweet Tooth and Atonement. At the centre of the story there is a sort of face-off between Vernon, a journalist; and Clive, a narcisissist composer, through the death of Molly Lane, who has been close to them, and a scoop about Julian, a famous politician. More cinic, ironically colder, less focused on feelings than Atonement for example, but also duller, less powerful than the other two generally, who were truly loose cannons in this sense. Not bad, I'd say, but it has not gained from me the same enthusiastic partecipation, only a tepid appreciation. 

In comparison with Cloud Atlas, Amsterdam is a remarkable experience. 

I didn't even finished it, I've tried hard, but really: at 150 pages to the end I said no, I've had enough. I understood that I was wasting my time. Extremely boring at the first story, then a little better but unsustainable in the long term. Totally uninteresting for me and I don't find the structure so brilliant, the technique of cross references was badly used. 

I've read it because of this pianist in one of the stories, Luise, but he wasn't really worth the dramatic endurance. 

A dramatic but worthwile book is The Loser. Simply dramatic? Depressing, oppressive, gloomy. And I believe that! What atmosphere do you expect from a depressed loser? In fact the book shows again a confrontation among three musicians, but Glenn Gould - the classic genius - is destined to win without effort. The effort, if need be, is the one of the other two: the main voice will leave music world to undertake a career as a poor intellectual (philosopher) and Wertheimer, the real protagonist, is the looser. Gould will instill in him a feeling of inferiority which will degenerate in a destructive obsession for the rest of his life. It's disturbing for the whole range of the typical feelings and behaviors of a loser: shameful, inglorious I'd say but pitful. Full of self-compassion and clumsiness. One of the most undesiderable state of mind for a man, I think. 

Bernhard really knows how to describe this kind of man, but really, he's really burdensome to follow. I'll probably read other books by him.

And the last but not least: Bel Canto. An enjoyable read! I didn't expect a fully accurate historical book, like others did, but only a possibly good book of fiction. In fact if we pause on this aspect, critics would prosper. It's fictionalized, essentialy optimistic, surprisingly against the tide of a dystopian degeneration (in situations like these). So optimistic in this sense as becoming utopian (a cohabitation among fifty individuals can't be so tender). But it's clear that the entire book is an ode to love (and the ennobling power of music through one of the main characters, who is a opera singer), and I've appreciated its way of doing it. 

I perceived it as an emotional story.

The ending was totally improper though. 

Taking stock, the most appreciated are the last two and also Chopin's book and parts of Egan's one. The subject of musicians seems to trace a common idea of music as intimate discovery of oneself, in which a dejected heart (and soul) can revive, not simply console itself. A beautiful concept.

But music world, for example, can be seen also as an umerciful battlefield full of harsh competitions, like in Amsterdam, Mozart's Sister and The Looser. Often the main characters seems destined to succumb or otherwise loose an ethical code in the way.

But I'd say that this belongs to many sectors, not only creative but also financial, economic, and so on. So it's not particulary surprising. :P

It has been absolutely interesting! I'd like to see Amadeus by Milos Forman and I have to the VHS here at home, so I'll do it sooner or later, given that I love cinema. :)

What will come next in this section of thematic paths? ....Who knows..;)