Weekend Reads #61: What’s On Your Nightstand: October 2016

Weekend Reads is a weekly post in which I discuss a variety of topics and mention the books I plan to read on the weekend. For this week’s entry, I’ll do a What’s on Your Nightstand post, which is a monthly meme hosted by 5 Minutes for Books on the last Tuesday of every month that summarizes what you’ve read for the month, what you’re currently reading, and what you plan to read next.

I treat my What’s On Your Nightstand posts as quick wrapups because usually the books on my nightstand are the ones I recently completed that are waiting to be reviewed. The books I’m currently reading are usually in my purses since I mostly read while commuting to work and other places. But now my nightstand is clear because I’m all caught up on reviews. It’s the first this has ever happened as I’m always behind on them. I’m quite proud of myself. Anyways, here are the books I completed since my last entry.

Books read:

Assassin’s Quest, the last book in the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb. It’s a fantasy series about a prince’s bastard who’s trained to be an assassin. In this installment, we learn about the Elderlings, how exactly the Red Ships forge people, and whether or not the Red Ships are defeated and Regal thwarted by Fitz and his friends. It was a good ending to the story.

Cress by Marissa Meyer is the third book in the Lunar Chronicles, a young-adult sci-fi series inspired by fairytales. Cress is inspired by the Rapunzel fairytale. I enjoyed the adventures in this one, but the emphasis on the characters’ romantic relationships annoyed me since I find almost all of them to be unhealthy attachments.

The Raven King is the last installment in the Raven Boys series by Maggie Stiefvater. It’s a fantasy series about a group of teenagers searching for a dead Welsh king in Virginia using ley lines and the help of psychics. This also was a great end to a series. I was hooked from the moment I started reading and though I wasn’t happy with the ending, I was satisfied with it.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling, narrated by Jim Dale. I’m currently navigating the obstacles in my life by listening to Harry Potter on audiobook. It helps to keep my spirit up and make me optimistic. Again Jim Dale does a fantastic job, but I think this installment is my least liked of the series.

Air Awakens by Elise Kova is the first installment in a young-adult fantasy series about a girl who learns she’s magically gifted. Many readers seem to like this one but I didn’t like the writing or the characters. I found it hard to continue reading so I gave up on it and didn’t complete the book.

Unteachable by Leah Raeder is a contemporary new-adult romance novel about a girl in high school who enters into a romantic relationship with her teacher. I read it last year and loved it and “reread” it this year (I only read the sexy bits.) 😉

Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future by Lauren Redniss is an illustrated nonfiction book about the weather. The book is beautifully illustrated with lots of colorful pictures and is very informative. I enjoyed reading it and learned loads from it. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling, narrated by Jim Dale. This used to be my least liked in the series, but now I appreciate it because it’s here that the story starts to include more serious topics, like death, revenge, and forgiveness. Still, whenever I read it, I get sad because of what Harry could have had.

Other things I consumed in October:

Articles

I don’t read as many longform articles as I used to, unfortunately, and when I do, I forget to make a note of them to include on here. But here are some noteworthy articles I read:

Marlon James: Why I’m Done Talking About Diversity (lithub.com)

— I mentioned this one in last week’s Weekend Reads. Basically James is saying we need to do more than just have the same discussions over and over again.

I’m Not an Asshole. I’m an Introvert. (newyorker.com)

— A little satire poking fun at all those popular posts on being an introvert. It had me cracking up at work.

“As an introvert, I hate donating money to charity. I’m just too shy to think about my money going to help some stranger.”

The Luke Cage Syllabus: A Breakdown of All the Black Literature Featured in Netflix’s Luke Cage (blacknerdproblems.com)

— I haven’t yet watched this show, but this made me excited for it.

Two videos

I had to include these because I loved both. The first is a throw back to the Arsenio Hall show (back when Hip Hop was great 😉 KRS-One came in and killed it!):

Next up is a rap battle between J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin. Smh. It’s crazy man.

Places I went

I went back home to Jamaica to visit my family, which was great and much needed and made me realize how crazy my family is.

I also visited the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, which blew my mind. I think everyone should visit it. I spent about 3 or more hours there and wasn’t able to see everything, partly because it was crowded (it just opened so literally everyone and their mamma is there) and partly because it’s so damn big. I loved it and am so glad it’s there. I can finally see myself in this history. [I have some pics of both outings on my Instagram.]

TV Shows I’m hooked on

As a lover of fantasy novels and the like, it’s no surprise that I’m hooked on Stranger Things, a sci-fi TV show on Netflix. The show reminds me of X-Files and Little Rascals, both are unrelated but I see elements of both in Stranger Things. I can’t wait for season 2.

I’m also hooked on The Blacklist, a crime drama TV show on NBC. I’m so sad that it’s in its final season (so I heard. I don’t know if that’s true. I hope it’s not, but I’m too scared to know to verify) and I hope we’ll finally know who Liz’s daddy is because I used to think it’s Red and now Red is making me think he’s a bad guy, though he is a bad guy but…you know what I mean! Also, Tom is kinda hot. Imagine having two badasses as your parents. Wowers!

I fucking love this show though it scares me and I always watch it before bed, which makes it even worse, but AHHHH!!! I love it! The Strain is a horror TV show on FX about a virus that causes humans to become vampires. And these vampires aren’t pretty. They’re gruesome, awful, evil things with a long-ass tongue that clamps onto your neck like a leech and sucks out all your blood while turning you into one of the them. 😀 I fucking love this show and I don’t know anyone who watches it, so if you do, please comment below!

I think I might do a separate post on it. 😀 😀 I started watching season 2 on TV thinking it’s season 1 until I got on Hulu and found a bunch of episodes I’d never seen before.

This Is Us is the sweetest show on TV. It’s a drama/comedy that’s aired on NBC, right after The Voice, which I’m also hooked on. I totally love this show. It gives me happy feelings. 🙂

Currently reading:

I’m currently reading a bunch of stuff and surprisingly, I don’t feel overwhelmed. I mostly feel impatient because I want to participate in Nonfiction November, but we’ll see how things go. So beginning with the most recent book I started:

Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares. I really like this contemporary young-adult series about the friendship between four girls. In this installment, they are prepping for college.

A Time Code by Ruth Ozeki is a memoir about the author’s face. She spent 3 hours staring in a mirror and writing down her thoughts about her face. It’s pretty interesting and is a very short book that I should have already completed but, alas, I haven’t because I’m also reading —

Parasites: Tales of Humanity’s Most Unwelcome Guests by Rosemary Drisdelle is a nonfiction book about parasites, which I also haven’t made much progress in since I first picked it up because I kept listening to my Harry Potter audiobooks, which I’ve already completed, and picking up —

The Curse of the Wendigo, the second book in the young-adult horror series The Monstrumologist, by Rick Yancey. This book just started getting more interesting, probably because I was watching Stranger Things and The Strain while reading it and the monsters and atmosphere in those shows inspired my imagination to think of a creepy New York and Canadian woods while I read this book. But for most of this week, progress in this book was paused because I was working too much a lot and reading —

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb, which got a little slow in chapter 3 but picked up after that. I’m excited to see the quickening of a ship. I’m buddy-reading it with Emily at Embuhlee liest. We both agree that Kennit is a total asshole. I think he has some serious issues, though. I think he needs to see a therapist.

By the way, I didn’t listen to podcasts this month, but yesterday I tuned in to a Writing Excuses episode featuring Robin Hobb, which was really good, and she said her husband is a sailor. I didn’t know that! (Just remembered I forgot to tell Emily that too so I’ll tag her here.) I guess some of her inspiration for this series came from her and her husband’s experiences.

Ok. That’s all. What y’all been up to? And have you watched The Strain?

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