Alex > Recent Status Updates

work gave me a bit of bother these last few weeks - had to learn far too much theoretical mathematical engineering for my tastes - but hopefully this week I will be back to reading regularly!

Well. Getting to the epilogue and then checking the pub date on this book was terrifying.

His fact-finding and collation is amazing, but the inelegance of Richard Preston’s prose makes me want to fall into a toilet. “She got afraid.” She BECAME afraid? She BEGAN TO FEEL afraid? She WAS FEARFUL? No. She got afraid. Like a fourth grader’s report from the red zone.

Me two days ago: I’m ONLY here for the demigoddesses and the historical fantasy. I do NOT care about romance. Meaningful glances mean nothing to me.

Me today: … well, damn it.

Getting Queen of Shadows AND The Unheld ARCs on back to back mornings has set a new high bar for "good way to end the week." Don't know if I'll ever recover from this euphoria.

“I understand then, that he is a prisoner here, just as we all are, and my heart quivers at the thought. I wonder of the life he has lived, if he has ever known the warmth of the mountainside and the wind blowing free across his face, if he has ever looked out to the sparkling sea.”

Y’know that tweet that’s like “this is what King Minos saw when he was disgusted by the newborn Minotaur”? YEAH ToT

“There is a bubble of fear in my chest, but it has been eclipsed by a mad bravery, like Apollo’s chariot covering the darkness of the sky with his radiance. In this darkness, my husband is the only sun, and I am eager to be warmed by his light.”

NASCOSTA CAN’T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH ITTTTTTT

AND BY “IT” I MEAN MAKING ME FEEL THINGS

This has its hooks in me, y’all!

Good God. … yeah.

and if I say it’s giving ciralt???? 👀

oh my goshhhhhhhh DELECTABLE. grace already has me in a chokehold.

FINALLY!!’n

SO GOOOOOD. Review to come late Monday/early Tuesday!

I GOT TO HEAR MY FAVORITE QUOTE IN THE WILD!!!

(Yes, it's the one about God's inordinate fondness for beetles)

Oh, this is YUMMY, y’all 🥀🪦

What a way to start the new year: with a truly excellent, haunting, devastating, awe-inspiring piece of historical horror (with a small beam of sunshine peeking through the reeds). Review to come Tuesday!!

I didn't expect so much of a book about pandemic prevention to be about literally anything other than epidemiology. I get why Rivers has framed it this way, but it's a bit too broken up for my enjoyment.

I was not ready for how mind-blowingly good this is, nor for how enchanting the prose feels. Holy cow, y’all.

I am hard pressed to remember the last time I read a harder, colder first line than this one.

Holy crap. Strap in, y’all.

Finally done! There shouldn't be any more shelf updates from me for a while. Sorry for whatever weird stuff you may or may not have seen *eyes emoji*

I am running a Calibre/etc. reconciliation with my Goodreads shelves to start 2026 in a somewhat organized fashion, and I am so sorry for the several thousand updates you're about to see from me.

Christmas roadtrip vacation is simply not the time to try to make progress on an ARC, y’all. This would’ve taken me two days at home, but there was merriment to be made and festivity to be had!!

also BRO WHAT IS HAPPENING this book is so wild. SO MANY THINGS ARE HAPPENINGGGG