Bookish Breakdown No 29: May 2021

Hello, lovelies! Welcome to another Bookish Breakdown post, my monthly wrap-up where I talk about last month’s reading, as well as life updates, blog hopping links and intention updates!

May was one of the hardest months I’ve experienced in a long time. I plan to write a post about it next week in more detail, but needless to say, I am very thankful it’s all “over”.

What I did:

• Finally got my day job stuff sorted (after plenty of panic attacks, stress dreams, depression spirals, indecision and anxiety spikes)
• Finished my second semester of grad school with a 4.00!
• Wrote half the first chapter of my UNTITLED WIP!
• Got BLOOD PRICE edits back!!
• Experienced a lot of mental health lows.
• Got to see my family for the first time after becoming fully vaxxed and held my almost 5-month old niece. 😭
• Binged Mass Effect and felt it down into my soul.
• I reorganized my office and I love it!

Let’s check in and see how I did creatively this month (hint: the mental health hits are reflected in this heavily in how much I didn’t do).

What I Read

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Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
We Do This Til We Free Us by Marime Kaba

What I Hauled

ARCS

Thank you to Orbit Books!!

The Broken God by Gareth Hanrahan

Purchased:

Don’t judge me, I did some book retail therapy, okay?

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Moonglow by Kristen Callihan
Winterblaze by Kristen Callihan
Shadowdance by Kristen Callihan
Evernight by Kristen Callihan
Soulbound by Kristen Callihan
Forevermore by Kristen Callihan

What I Posted

In this section, I like to share posts that I personally wrote this past month that I either really enjoyed writing, am really proud of or wish might have gotten a little more attention.

🏹 Exploring My Writing Staples and Somedays
🐉 Book Changes I Want to See
🏹 Writing Practice: More Than Just Ass in Chair

Reading Challenges Update

2021 Discussion Challenge: 10/24

StoryGraph: 22/50

ARCs: 5/12

Backlist Books: 4/12

Monthly Diverse Reads: 2 versus 0 (Goal: Every month, read equal to or more diverse reads than those written by authors who (or feature characters that) match my identity, listing diverse books first.)

Intentions Update

Sharing where I’m at on my yearly intentions, all of which I detailed in this post.

Writing ✖️✔️

I wrote the start of a new book at the beginning of May and then May became a dumpster fire that caught fire multiple times, so I hardly wrote at all after that. My plan is to do another round of revision on BLOOD PRICE before going back to my WIP.

Reading ✔️✖️

Yeah, I hardly read at all and that makes me really sad, but wow was I not feeling it this month.

Freelance Editing ✔️

I did update my editing page and added some new packages, plus booked two more clients for over the summer!!

Blogging ✔️

I SLAYED it this month, mostly because I was the most ahead I’d ever been (like, I wrote almost the entire month of May’s posts in a week and had it all scheduled out). Like, who am I? What was that? Incredible.

Self-Love ✖️

This was hard.

Allyship and Activism ✔️

Read another anti-racist book (this time Anti-Racist Daily’s May Book Club read) and participated in the book club discussion, which was awesome! Plus, donated an edit to help support Palestine.

Other ✖️

June is going to kick my ass thanks to my day job, so I am going to have to really guard my mental health and my time. Nervous about how that’s going to go, honestly, because it sure as shit didn’t go well this month.

Posts I Enjoyed

Curious what blog posts I really enjoyed around the blogsophere this month? Check them out here:

⚔️ The team at The Quiet Pond (Skye, Joce and CW) hosted Asian Pasifika Heritage Month and it was a DELIGHT (I particularly enjoyed reading the interview with Fonda Lee.)

🛡️ Crini shares with us another fantastic bookish rec list, this time focusing on queer adult SFF by Asian authors, in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

⚔️ Breanne @ Peruse With Coffee shares an awesome breakdown comparing Goodreads, StoryGraph and Readerly!

🛡️ Caitlin @ Realms of My Mind shares a fantastic list of upcoming fantasy and sci being released this summer and its got me HYPE.

⚔️ Kate @ Your Tita Kate shares a list of book recs to help encourage readers to broaden their horizons when reading books by API authors!

🛡️ Em @ Em’s Bookish Musings writes an important call out about the book community’s selective, performative activism that EVERYONE needs to read.

⚔️ Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books shares her second installment of Book Bloggers Talk, this time covering why book blogs are an asset today. Plus, her journey to self-hosting!

🛡️ Check out all the amazing participants and content from Wyrd and Wonder this month!

⚔️ Sumedha @ The Wordy Habitat shares 10 adult queer romance recs right in time for Pride!

For June, I want to focus on routine (which, so far, is only routine by me becoming a broken record talking about wanting one). I want to focus on connection and rest. I want to write.

I hope you all have a wonderful month! 🖤