I am currently reading Frequently Happy by David Larbi. You might recognise him from his poetry on Tik Tok! He’s recently released his own poetry book! Each chapter comes with a journaling prompt for every season and I’m currently drawing the prompts instead of writing as I’ve come to enjoy using art in journaling rather than writing! I hope to finish reading this in February and have a collection of doodles inspired by his prompts.
B O O K S
In January, I read 6 books, 2 novellas and 3 poetry books. I’m still not sure how I managed to read this amount of books this month. I guess I’ll just chalk it up to finally utilising my commute time to work more efficiently this month.
For transparency, books marked with an asterisk (*) signify books I received through work at PRH.
So 2024’s reading recap is going to be a little bit different. I actually streamed my reading recap over on Twitch! VODs don’t last for long on Twitch so I condensed the hour and a half stream into a more watchable state. Editing is a bit iffy because I’m not used to editing my streams and I ended up rambling a lot during the stream! I’m also NOT used to talking so much on stream like this. (I usually stream gameplays where the focus is on the game more than me.) And on top of that, I hate hearing the sound of my own voice – so editing was PAINFUL.
A small boy washes up on the shores of a Scottish fishing village, he bears a striking resemblance to Dorothy’s son who went missing years ago. With the village snowed in for the winter, Dorothy agrees to look after the child until he can be returned home. Soon buried secrets come to light and Dorothy finds herself face to face with the reclusive fisherman that she had once loved long ago.
This book made me a MESS. I heard of this book through work and I thought this would be a nice read for my train journey home. Boy was I so, so wrong…. The Fisherman’s Gift is a book seeped in sadness, each page turn bringing more misfortunes than the chapter before. I reached half way and was thinking surely this can’t get anymore sadder? It is beautifully written and heart-breaking. I would say it’s even deceptive in the way it’s described as a love story when the romance is briefly touched upon, and the depth of the story really comes from the community. Dorothy I would fight the entire village for the way they treated you!
Orbital follows the lives of six fictional astronauts over 24 hours on a space station as they collect data, conduct experiments and ponder on the lives of those below them. I had the pleasure of getting to celebrate its Booker Prize win in the office and it was such a lovely moment with everyone cheering for Samantha Harvey who dropped by briefly! I really enjoyed this, managed to read it all in my two hour train journey home. It’s definitely a dividing book and if you’re looking for a plot, you’ll be sorely disappointed. I read this at the same time I finished playing Mouthwashing and it has definitely set me on a space reading kick now.
Hi, this is a very delayed month rewind post because my wifi went out for a few days in early November, so enjoy a late post! Not much for October this year! I did attend the October MCM Comic Con, which was chaotic and fun! I will not be looking at my bank account for the next few days to see the devastating impact of Artist Alley. I also completely forgot to take pictures, so here is the one picture I have of a Wukong cosplayer!
I was hoping someone would cosplay as him, and I was not disappointed. It was hilarious that we spotted the top of his outfit before seeing him in the crowds. I know it’s hotly contested on whether Black Myth: Wu Kong is a soulslike game or not, but after watching my brother play parts of the game, I’m not so sure if someone like me – who has the reaction speed of a snail – would even be able to get 30 minutes into the game so I just stuck to watching a playthrough.😂
A R T
Consider this the corner of shame. I didn’t have time to work on any art this month. 😭😭😭😭
I mentioned in the last rewind post that I was waiting for some good news, and now I can finally share that I have extended my job contract at Penguin Random House! Initially, my contract was expected to end this December, but I was offered a year-long extension on my role as a Bibliographic Metadata Assistant. I was really anxious when I applied for this job in February, partly because I was deeply burned out from a long period of unemployment. I ALMOST didn’t apply for the role because I wasn’t sure if I would even understand the role. This role has really taught me so much about publishing. It is such an exciting position from within the company as I often interact with people who work in Editorial, Marketing and Production – three areas where I initially focused my attention when applying to publishing jobs.
I’m also slowly trying to return to the world of book blogging and bookish social media. I recently revamped my old art account into an art/bookstagram type account where I can post about streaming and books, which are two things that basically take up my life these days.
Of course, I accidentally went MIA just as I said I was going to be returning to blogging….. The past two months have been hectic: summer means everyone wants to come to our house (a curse of living by the beach, you’ll forever be the designated house to visit in the summer) I love seeing my family, but I also value peace and quiet so here’s to hoping for more quiet weekends as we reach the fall season. I’ve also been very busy settling into work and hopefully can share some good news soon 👀
A R T
Ever since I played Baldur’s Gate 3 last year, I’ve had an itch to learn how to play Dungeons & Dragons and delve more into the world of TTRPGs. I came across this game called Cartograph which is a “a solo journaling RPG about map making, exploration, worldbuilding and resource management.” I actually made this one on stream with my Twitch community, the vods can be found here and here. The stream was split into two days as one was for the actual mapmaking and the second day was for making a digital version of the map. Using dices and cards, we were able to create this really cool map that we hope to use in future campaigns.
as told by zaheerah 