Eliza > Recent Status Updates

western romance for my western road trip

I am currently reading a library patron’s Elizabethan inspired play. It’s really quite good but involves a lot of my brain. This is my current audiobook to entertain the mush that’s left. So far it’s fine.

This is happening and idk how I feel about it… but you know what? It’s not AI. And I appreciate that.

this is extremely my shit.

slipperiness of language , mechanics of memory, mental illness, an insular grandmother/mother/daughter dynamic… add to this lessons about chinese history and immigrant experience… all wrapped in some of the most breathtaking, haunting illustrations i’ve ever seen and sharp, evocative prose.

can already tell this will be a favorite of the year

Fifteen years ago this wasn’t my favorite and once again I’m finding Hamlet to be too much of a misogynistic, conniving, narcissistic little shit to fully appreciate the plot’s craft and brilliance of some of the soliloquies. Ham hates Ophelia for her obedience and lack of action, then calls her a whore anyways. Gertrude is equally cursed. Centuries of hype for this play, for this character… from men.

i hate this cover but this book slaps

Trying to read a not-usually-my-cup-of-tea book my mother bought me

welcome to station “eleven years late”. yes, finally getting to this one. and right before book club does king lear at that

idk why I decided to start out the 2025 library shakespeare book club with the second longest play he wrote with pages and pages of blood and war and politics, but I did. Bye for ages while I read this.

Im no longer in a reading rut because Glorious Exploits ended up being bomb, but I started this one a week or two back because TK will ALWAYS get me out of a rut. And she’s delivering as usual.

I read another of Holten’s books and didn’t really care for it. I’m liking this one more - very Emily Wilde. The mad cap ahistorical magic stuff is often too much for me, but there’s better character development here. Idk truth is I’m reading this in like 3 days bc I need something quick and dumb that isn’t a massive bummer bc i’m SAD/MAD AF RN

This is one of the worst covers I’ve ever seen so I HARD resisted this for a few years. Silly me. I should have known I cannot turn down a gay romance between through hikers with a 4.28 rating. So far it’s perfect. Characterization on point with an immersive setting. I just want to hike with my love now.

ugh welp here we go. i have heard not great things. and i can’t believe i signed up for a 5 BOOK SERIES with basically one narrator god help me

Reread for my library discussion group. Haven’t read this one since I was 14!

Alex Easton is my favorite fictional witty tormented nonbinary veteran crush and I am very excited to hang with kan again.

Update on project read-this-book-my-mom-bought-me-at-walgreens-to-entertain-me-while-I-have-covid…

I… can’t do it. It’s not THAT bad. I just do not have enough time in life to read this kind of book. I think I struggle with contemporary historical romance unless it is a) written by Evie Dunmore or b) very very gay.

May pick up again later but for now I’m skipping to the steamy parts and calling it

Listen, I have COVID and my mom gave me a drug store care package with a bunch of meds and this book. I know she “bought it for me as a gag” but also wants it for herself once I’m done (and it’s sufficiently quarantined.) I have to give it a go.

Various people I follow said this was the best debut romance they read from this year. Guess it was a dud year?. So far this is giving extremely contrived plot, flat side characters, and some good moments of banter. Reader, I’m bored. Nevertheless I persist.

I will read anything and everything this woman writes. Sheesh she’s good.

Well we can’t all be Emily Henry. I can tell this will likely be a three stars, but that’s good enough for me when I want a quick romance.

wtfffff just reached NEW LEVEL OF GOOD. is it the best fantasy i’ve ever read? probably not. is it the most addictive? yes, at least since my HP-filled childhood

I am overly invested in this kind of mediocre YA series simply because my thirteen year old self would have LOVED IT.

Here I go reading heartwarming twee about magical orphans again… this is now what I go to after reading very accomplished and heart wrenching contemporaries

Recommended by a friend :)

kjc is my guilty pleasure. historical gay erotica with solid character development and progressive values (always a little bit of a stretch in the historical context, but admirable.) what’s not to love.

Theme of this month is reading books that were popular 10 years ago.

Probs should have read this before the Simon Snow series but oh well.

I am scared to read this bc it has a male musician MC and he’s either a) hipster in a band type, which I’m scarred from via my personal life or b) solo acoustic soft spoken john mayer type, which Im scarred from via the bachelor franchise. nevertheless she persisted bc this has good reviews and i need a romance rn

whoops now reading two books about faeries #blameitonSAD

this is maybe the weirdest book i’ve ever read. i love it.