Well, my reading ambitions this month kind of fell flat. Between spreading my reading out in a few different places, and the tiredness that seemed to dog me all month, I just didn’t find myself picking up books as often. I did plenty of reading, between fic and prepping for classes, but not as much from this month’s TBR stack.

Crank – Ellen Hopkins
I don’t normally lean towards gritty stuff. There’s nothing wrong with it; it’s just not my thing, personally. I’m more of an escapist literature sort of person. As usual, however, a novel written in poetry form drew my attention. What can I say, I have a weakness for story-written-in-verse. It still wasn’t as much my thing, but it was a pretty solid read and I enjoyed Hopkins’ use of free verse and concrete poems.

Full Review

The Fool’s Girl – Celia Rees
Eh… another one that wasn’t as much my thing, but for a different reason. I had a discussion with my husband the other day about sequels that do horrible things to the original story, and that’s essentially what this book did to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. It had flaws, but it wasn’t bad. I just don’t care much for those sort of retellings. It did end up making me search out Twelfth Night for a refresher, so there’s that at least.

Full Review

Critical Role Vox Machina Origins Vol 1
So this was my third or fourth re-read of this volume, probably. It actually surprised me how long it took me to pick it up again, considering I’ve been hanging on to volume 2 since Christmas. I suppose there’s only so much time my brain can devote to the world of Exandria at a time, even if this is Vox Machina and not The Mighty Nein. Plus, I always find the first volume of anything to be a little slower to get through for some reason.

Full Review

Critical Role Vox Machina Origins Vol 2
This was a much easier read, I found, than volume one. I think it’s because the character relationships have kind of developed since the first volume. It was nice to see Vox Machina actually together, solidly, as a group, rather than going through the introductions (with the exception of Percy, who I had completely forgotten was in this volume and thus burst out with a surprised squeak/shriek at seeing his gun). I’m already thinking about pulling it back out for a reread, if that says anything.

Still reading…
I kind of spread my reading attention out a little bit through the month, so I’m partially in to about three different books right now. I’ve made it through a bit over a hundred pages of The Fellowship of the Ring, and it’s… going slow. Tolkien, I’ve found, is not an author I can read in heavy doses.

I’ve gotten half-way through Look Who’s Back and… there’s a lot that my brain’s trying to unpack with that one. Had to set it aside this weekend and tell myself I’d get back to it in a few days.

And lastly, I Haven’t made much progress in The Case For God – been spending a bit much time on non-fiction stuff for work to be able to indulge myself in reading-for-pleasure comparative religion. Hopefully, next month will be better for that.