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The horrors of the winter months

Hey y'all!!I hope santa brought u some dope ass gifts :) I'm gonna be honest, these past few months have been exhausting. Spending time with family has always been kinda shitty for me but the worst of it has passed thankfully. Classes also started earlier this week and I just KNOW I'm gonna be so annoying about rocks (geology class if you couldn't tell). I occasionally listen to Joey Santore's podcast about plants and of course, there are a lot of ties to geology. I'm excited to figure out why those ties exist so I can be even MORE annoying about plants in a terrible way.

Unfortunately for me, I did get the bad news that I got rejected from big boy college again lol. I never had any help or guidance when it came to applying for college in the first place (covid hs grad) so it makes sense, I have no clue what I'm doing and I don't think that'll ever change. The trades seem fun though. As sad and edgy as it is to hear, you kinda get used to the rejection at some point.

For now, I'm gonna spend the rest of the time I have unemployed by reading my silly little science books and working on the site more. If theres anything y'all wanna see in particular, I'd be glad to add some new things :)

Top 5 books of 2023

Hello everybody and welcome to my first blog post :D I've never been one to catalogue the books I've read throughout the year BUT my reading arc has returned in full swing now that finals are over and I wanted to compile a list of books I've read this year to see what I liked and what I didn't.

The full list can be found HERE. This page will be dedicated to my top 5 :)

1. This is how you lose the time war

The writing in this was incredible, poetic, and so dreamy. The way the story is told was a bit hard to follow at times for me but in a way that leaves you wondering where it'll go next. Had me sobbing by the end, a love story so abstract and yet still sends its message loud and clear...that these bitches are gay!!!! ugh!!!!!

2. Gideon the Ninth

These bitches are also incredibly gay!!!! One of the most creatively written series I've read in a while. Muir keeps the reader engaged by implementing so many fucking loose ends that may or may not be important plot points. I'll be honest, reading this made me feel stupid as hell, the story is very elaborate and has an already large cast of characters in the first book that only continues to grow in the rest. Aside from that, this book is incredible and the characterization is so distinct with each character. And the dad jokes, my god the dad jokes.

3. Nona the Ninth

Yes I'm including this seperately, writing was super good here too. Harrow unfortunately did not make the list :( it look me since the beginning of the fall semester to finish it and I'm ngl, it was a little discouraging. But its alright, I finished Nona in about a week and a half and my groove has returned. (after taking a break by reading the next book on the list) Look, I'm a slut for good characters in domestic bliss, and while that might not be 100% true in Nona, it was an interesting change of pace going from the changing POVs and talks of some complicated necromancer shit, to 'yay Nona goes to work to see Noodle dog :)'. It still does a good job at keeping the plot pushing while allowing the reader to understand that there's still a lot they don't know.

4. Things have gotten worse since we last spoke

FUUUCK I love horror books!!!!! If I'm ever stuck in a reading rut, horror books always get me out of it and my god did this book do the trick. I've never read/watched something so gross that it made me feel like I needed a shower afterwards until this book. It's a collection of three short stories but the first one is the one that stood out the most out of the three. The beginning starts off with two women chatting on a message board and they end up in a strange contract bound relationship in which one woman makes the other do abhorrent things in the name of independence and self betterment. Things eventually take a turn for the worst and the gore depicted near the end was enough to make me feel sick. It was one of those books that made me think "something like this has most likely happened in real life" which made reading it even worse. All in all, a fantastic read, I think a lot of people would benefit from reading things that bring discomfort (aside from obvious triggers obvs) as it can sometimes feel cathartic.

5. Why Fish Don't Exist

Honestly don't know how to talk about this book without going on an insane rant about taxonomy. This is I suppose the only non-fiction book on the list but I'm keeping it here because it was informational while actually being interesting. A lot of historical type books don't do that well, history can be boring. There is an underlying message of hope within the book that the author ties in with her own life experiences which I wasn't a huge fan of because it wort of takes away from the flow of the book. But in Why Fish Don't Exist, the author tells you exactly why and how they go to that answer in the first place. Its also nice to hear about historical figures that are just a little (a lot) bit insane sometimes.