May 2025 Wrap-Up

[tullycat]

Me sowing [reading 13 books]: yeahhhhhh!!!
Me reaping [reviewing 13 books]:

fawk

Books

• She Who Became the Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan
  • After the death of her family, a nameless girl tries to escape her fate by taking her brother’s name and fate of greatness, leading her to train as a monk and later to enter a war against the Mongols. This was set in an interesting time period that I haven't read much of. I thought the main character had consistent motivation and I liked watching her become more morally grey as she chased her fate. I wish there had been a character index - I read this book at night while I was sleepy (I was on a deadline for book club) so sometimes I got lost with who some characters were. It's marked as fantasy but it's a very light fantasy - as I said, I liked the time period so I enjoyed reading it, but it will bother some readers (my second, fantasy book club). I'm curious to see where the sequel goes, because the ending felt satisfying and complete to me. (I'm about 60 pages into the sequel right now so hopefully it'll be in the June wrap up.)
• Underland: A Deep Time Journey, Robert MacFarlane
  • A nonfiction book that links together stories from the underground, like cave diving, polar ice caps, and nuclear waste. The author almost writes this like a memoir - he is not just writing about cave diving, he is in the caves experiencing it. He layers in beliefs and literature about the underworld as well. I think this would be a good choice for someone who doesn't read nonfiction too often and wants something less dense and more literary, but I think by the end, i found myself wishing for something more substantial. I'm not sure I learned a ton from this. Disclaimer that I did listen while running so it didn't have my full attention, but that's how I listen to 99% of my nonfiction
• Heaven's Official Blessing #6, 7, 8, MXTX
  • Book 6 covers the flashback to Xie Lian's first banishment. He is suffering hardcore as he battles White No Face but also himself as he tries to take care of himself, his ~assistants, and his parents. I think this flashback is easier to get through than the first one, even though it's much more depressing. But it's nice to see Xie Lian come out on the other side.
  • In book 7, the avengers - I mean heavenly officials - assemble to fight the big baddie. This is a lot of combat with a lot of people, but we still get many good Hualian moments. The final explanation for the twists of the book are revealed here too.
  • Book 8 is really just the denouement and then some bonus chapters of Hualian together. Listen, I don't want MXTX to be censored but I also enjoyed these bonus stories so much more than the ones she wrote for MDZS...
  • Overall, I did enjoy this book/series even though I felt it needed some editing for pace. I think I like MDZS better in terms of plot, but I prefer Hualian as a couple.
• We All Want Impossible Things, Catherine Newman
  • A woman brings her best friend to the hospice near her to take care of her after the friend is diagnosed with terminal cancer. This was forgettable for me. Did I get emotional at the end? Yes, but only because I was thinking about how I'd feel if this happened in my life, not because of the characters in the book. It sounds like this book was based on the author's real life which is sad....side note why were three of the main characters named J names....were there no other names available?
• Memorial Days, Geraldine Brooks
  • Brooks details the sudden death of her husband in 2019 and her attempt to process her grief 3 years later while staying on Flinders Island. The 2019 section of the book is very focused on dates and when events took place, whereas the Flinders Island section is almost unmoored in time (I am not 100% sure it took place in 2022). Caveat that I listened while running again so maybe it was because it didn't have my full attention, but it added to the feeling of her being stuck in her grief. I wouldn't call this a must-read, but between the two books I read about grief this month, this was the better one. I also didn't know she was in the middle of writing Horse when her husband died - I had already been planning to read it to return the copy to my mom, but I feel like that fact intrigued me more.
• You Dreamed of Empires, Álvaro Enrigue
  • A reimagining of the meeting between Cortes and Moctezuma. I was at a bookstore and liked their curation, so from the books I saw sitting out, I listed books I liked (Severance, Land of Milk and Honey, Love in the Big City) and a book I was meh on (Water Moon) and asked for a rec. That's how I ended up with this book and seeing the books I listed, I can see why the seller chose it, and I also think it would be hard to rec for some other people. The book throws you into the deep end of Moctezuma's court and politics and tells you to swim. This book did have a character guide and I was using it every 3 pages (so having the physical copy was nice). After this slow, psychedelic immersion into the Aztec's day to day life, the ~punch line of the book happens when Cortes and Moctezuma meet and Cortes's intentions of bringing the European, Christian god to Mexico just sound so ridiculous and out of place (spoilers for 500 year old history I guess). There is a short rape cw for this book as well.
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy
  • I'm 19 years late to the zeitgeist so this doesn't really need a summary but a man and his son try to survive after some unknown disaster/apocalypse occurs. This was my first McCarthy, but I knew this book was popular because of the sparse writing style. I expected the book to seem dated/unoriginal because of that, but I was surprised that I did enjoy it. The sparse style really fit the plot - it's stripped down of description and punctuation and even names because none of those are important when you're just barely surviving. We also never get a full explanation of what happened - we just get clues that it's cold, the sun is hidden, they are breathing in ashes - but again, who cares about what happened in the past when your #1 focus is making sure your son has something to eat that day. I have been told (hello pop) that this is typical of McCarthy's style so I do detract some points...I want it to be a conscious choice for this specific book! - but I can't deny that the plot and style go hand in hand. The top reviews on Goodreads call it boring, but I blew through it and got nervous every time they had a moment of relative safety because I was sure something bad was about to pop up. At one point the man wonders if he would be able to kill his son to spare his suffering and it made me think of Beloved, by Toni Morrison, where that is the whole plot. Something something white author has to imagine a fictional apocalypse to have his character consider mercy-killing his child, vs a Black author drawing on actual history for her character to kill her child...
• Fence 1-3, C.S. Pacat
  • These are so short!!! Truly just little snacks, there's so little plot that happens. They're very cute though and if the volumes came out faster/were meatier (meteor...), I would want them to get popular so I could read fic for Aiden/Harvard....tasty.
• Last Night in Montreal, Emily St. John Mandel
  • After Eli and Lilia have been dating for 6 months, Lilia leaves without warning, causing Eli to search for her in Montreal and unravel her past. This was Mandel's debut novel, and you can tell - none of the characters feel like real people. Lilia, always traveling from one city to the next leaving a trail of lovers in her wake, is very manic pixie dream girl coded, but Eli and Michaela do things like meet at a diner at 2 am for 10 days straight to talk about whatever. The ending was flimsy to me too. The reason why Lilia is always leaving and going to new places is revealed, which honestly was very obvious from the very beginning. And the wrap up of the present plot was jarring. However, I think there are also flashes of the author she would be 3 books later - I still found her prose to be super smooth and readable, which is something I love about her books.

Okay 13 books is a lot, but 3 of them were short comics.


Music

• Artists
  • Seventeen (134)
  • P1Harmony (95)
  • The Boyz (87)
  • Kai (63)
  • Ateez (60)
• Albums
  • Happy Burstday, Seventeen (115)
  • Unexpected, The Boyz (81)
  • DUH!, P1Harmony (71)
  • Wait on Me, Kai (62)
  • Dreamscape, NCT Dream (47)
• Tracks
  • Ain't Salty, The Boyz; Work, P1Harmony (18)
  • Gimme Gimme, All(H)ours (16)
  • Off and Away, Kai; Shake It Off, Seventeen/Mingyu (14)
  • Miss Demeanor, The Boyz (13)
  • Flashy, P1Harmony (12)
  • Over and Over, P1Harmony (11)
  • Adult Swim, Kai; Papillon, NMIXX; DUH!, Murmur, Pretty Boy, P1Harmony (10)

Kind of funny that Pretty Boy is tied for last for album tracks when it's my favorite on the album and I have watched every stage for it that Youtube feeds me..... Mingyu I understand the gay club vibes don't worry Mr Skywalker I saw your Chanel boots etc

Watched

• This feels so long ago but I watched film festival movies: Twinless; Sorry, Baby; Desert Road; and the Ateez movie....I'm not reviewing them sorry lol but Twinless was my fav of the festival that I saw for sure

Concerts

• Xikers
  • Had a free ticket so I said sure why not. The setlist starts off........strong, for the casual listener. But after the first third, the music settled down into something with more of a melody. Fairly early in the show I picked a little meow meow to follow (Junghoon), not knowing he had been on hiatus for over a year. So I did have a good time finding him again each time they changed outfits, and by the end I predicted which part of the chorus he was going to sing...I studied the Junghoon blade etc. Would I see them again in the future if I had to pay? ...Probably not, but I had a good time overall.

Fic

• Posted nothing, not sure how much I wrote, I am still struggling through the same wip lmao

Recipes

• Honey Mustard Quinoa Apple Salad with Crispy Shallots - May was so long I barely remember making this tbh but it was tasty
• Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas - these were good I liked the sheet pan method!
• Mexican Street Corn Pizza
• Caprese Flatbread - clearly I had a craving for homemade pizza
• One pan farro with tomatoes - this was a good way to use up some of the extras from the caprese flatbread at the end of the month. If you're eating it as a main and not a side, I would add a protein.