If you remember back to April, you may not it’s kinda foggy to me. I did the Orilium Magical Readathon. It had linked back previously to the Novice Path where you created a character by going through a wilderness to go to a magical school. The Orilium Magical Readathon picked up where you were at the school and choosing your major so to speak, I chose to be a Dream Walker, they basically work with people’s dreams to especially if they are hurt or injured to help keep them happy and peaceful.
Also not completely ethical they can Dream Walkers can also manipulate it, influencing their next moves and planting the seeds of ideas the dreamers will think were their own, subtly influencing their actions. Once again, there are ethical concerns about meddling with such things. Though my Dream Walker is definitely on the sweeter side.
In the Orilium Spring Equinox we had to read a certain number of books based on subjects. This semester we have to read books to a certain level Ordinary, Qualifed or Distinguished. So we have more books to read because of this. Plus there are always the awesome quests.
As for my character here is their Orillium school ID.
We also have my Autumn Semester TBR.
I’m very excited to get back into this readathon I enjoyed it. I liked the community that came with the readathon the first time around. If you are looking for more information about the Discord and the Pateron of the Book Roast’s the readathon’s creator, check out the announcement video.
You know SAD, seasonal affective disorder that thing everyone gets in the winter. Nope not me I get it in the summer. If you look at the blog every year I have problems posting in the during June, July and August. I’ve tried different things to help. But I think I’m just going to have to end up taking summers off. I’ve had no motivation since May. Now it’s coming back. I don’t know if it’s the heat it has been pretty mild for summer where I am. It might be part of my schizophrenia as I just saw a poll where people voted that their symptoms get worse in the summer.
Mine sure do, plus I had, this summer, COVID for a month, a stomach virus from hell, and messed up my meds so I was out of it, this came to me being sick the whole summer. So posting wasn’t my first priority but I was reading and while I don’t think I’ll reach my goal of 125 books this year. I’m going to keep reading a try for 50 with a 75 stretch.
So it wasn’t the worst Summer when it came to reading I read some great books, all of which I plan to review here. Still personally it could have been better, on the upside though I got into D&D which has really been fun and has improved my life. So that was one positive from the summer. Tomorrow we will look at my TBR for the Magical Readathon which I’m so excited to be a part of.
So I’m going to address the rest of my TBR’s this week. Starting with the most complex, Desert a Thon. In Desert a thon you have to roll for your reads. Here is my TBR I’m on Team Camel by the way, which is run by the wonderful Femke who is over at the Youtube Channel Bookish Buddies. Go and give her a visit along with Esmay her teammate on the channel who is also running one of the other teams on the readathon.
So here we have my Dessert a Thon TBR. I rolled with A D20, since I know some of these a chonks and I may struggle to read them in a month.
The process goes as such you go around the board rolling a die to get around this board.
If you land on your color you get two points if you choose to read the prompt of that color, you get one point if you choose any other prompt there are also wildcard spaces which you are allowed one.
There are twenty choice cards going by what you rolled from a d6 to a d20. I managed to match my color no times which was just lovely I did match the color with reading all the books of the color that I landed on.
Book 1-The Ice House
This book has to Involve a storm. For this book I chose the The Ice House, I found this one while I was on my trip. It’s about a global freeze. The focus is two friends trying to spend time with each other, definite pandemic feels.
Book 2-All for One
The prompt for this was a retelling. I could have gone with any of the common retellings but the one that I’m currently interested in is more unusual so I went with went with the new gender flipped chronic illness Three Musketeers retelling All For One.
Book 3- Cold The Night, Fast the Wolves
This was my wildcard pick so I chose one I needed read but haven’t had time. I got for a retelling that was doing Polar Fantasy. But I end up liking the idea from the book a lot, so it ended up on my TBR, so that’s why it’s my wildcard pick. Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves.
Book 4-Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls
This book had to be a fantasy and I wanted to get into magical realism and and my desert pick for the readathon. So I chose Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls plus it has been on has my TBR forever and I plan to get it finally read.
Book 5-Sorcery of Thorns
Sorcery of Thorns is a book of my friend The Blind Scribe has recommended to me time and again so I’ll put this in here as a friends recommendation.
Book 6-Had to have royals
For this book we needed to have royals in the plot, so I picked Night Render as I know it has a has a Princess, am pretty sure it has a prince and I know has lots of evil plots.
Book 7- I had to read a book with nature on the cover.
The first book I thought of was Sofi and the Bone Song. That shows a beautiful winter scene on the cover.
So these are my picks for Desert a Thon, a few a showing up in my other readathons because they are chonks and I’m cross listing, because my reading count is already looking like it’s going to crush me. But I need to get back on track for my yearly read goal so lots of books this month it is!
The High Priestess is one of the strongest female energies in the whole entire deck. This card is about secrets, she knows about your inner mysteries and maybe the stuff you aren’t willing to face. When this card comes up in a reading think about reexamining those secrets before they come up at a time you don’t want them to. The high priestess knows your secrets but she cares about you too she wants you to be as open as possible.
Aquicorn Cove
Summary
Aqicorn Cove was all about strong female energies and secrets, from the secrets about Lana’s mother, to her aunt as well as the underwater priestess. To the secret Aqicorn Lana helps raise this piece is all about female energy/nurturing and the connection to nature as well as the need to bring out secrets for the good of the family and town.
This is another one about female power and secrets. Though the implications for this are a bit darker maybe a reverse reading of the High Priestess. We have both female heroes and villains here both with a lot of secrets a supposedly a lot of power, then there is even a female Darkhorse of a character. I think this group could use the High Priestess in a card reading to explore all the secrets they are having to deal with.
Another one with a female hero and villain and secrets. Maren Partridge works at her family’s dream shop, she makes a mistake and then is blackmailed by an evil villain who has her make nightmares.
With her family with power she is able to stop the villain and with her family by her side she is able to make things right, but not before a few secrets are kept, worries felt and power is shifted from different women in power.
Amazon
Sources
Art Credit to Sami Martin and Marisa De La Pina and How to Deal
Since the Magician card is about manifesting your power I thought I’d include cards were the character or character is learning to or is manifesting their own power skills or intelligence .
Eva Evergreen Semi Magical Witch
Eva is the essence of this card while she hasn’t found her footing with her power, she is still trying to help everyone with the heart of her powers and gaining confidence in herself. She starting to manifest herself as a witch an and example of the Magician card.
Summary
Sometimes all you need is a pinch of magic…
Eva Evergreen is determined to earn the rank of Novice Witch before her thirteenth birthday. If she doesn’t, she’ll lose her magic forever. For most young witches and wizards, it’s a simple enough test:
One: Help your town, do good all around. Two: Live there for one moon, don’t leave too soon. Three: Fly home by broomstick, the easiest of tricks.
The only problem? Eva only has a pinch of magic. She summons heads of cabbage instead of flowers and gets a sunburn instead of calling down rain. And to add insult to injury, whenever she overuses her magic, she falls asleep.
When she lands in the tranquil coastal town of Auteri, the residents expect a powerful witch, not a semi-magical girl. So Eva comes up with a plan: set up a magical repair shop to aid Auteri and prove she’s worthy. She may have more blood than magic, but her “semi-magical fixes” repair the lives of the townspeople in ways they never could have imagined. Only, Eva’s bit of magic may not be enough when the biggest magical storm in history threatens the town she’s grown to love. Eva must conjure up all of the magic, bravery, and cleverness she can muster or Auteri and her dreams of becoming a witch will wash away with the storm.
In this book Prince Alphonsus is really the one is really manifesting the Magician roll here. Using the lessons his mothers taught him to speak for himself his people and against the Margrave.
Summary
Time is running out in the empire of Rheinvelt.  The sudden appearance of a strange and frightening statue foretells darkness. The Hierophants—magic users of the highest order—have fled the land. And the shadowy beasts of the nearby Hinterlands are gathering near the borders, preparing for an attack.  Young Prince Alphonsus is sent by his mother, the Empress Sabine, to reassure the people while she works to quell the threat of war. But Alphonsus has other problems on his mind, including a great secret: He has a clock in his chest where his heart should be—and it’s begun to run backwards, counting down to his unknown fate.  Searching for answers about the clock, Alphonsus meets Esme, a Hierophant girl who has returned to the empire in search of a sorceress known as the Nachtfrau. When riddles from their shared past threaten the future of the empire, Alphonsus and Esme must learn to trust each other and work together to save it—or see the destruction of everything they both love.
This pair is manifesting independence and a healing energy to the past that is able to do something I don’t to spoil.
This is going to be the worst summer ever for Peyton. Her family just moved, and she had to leave her best friend behind. She’s lonely. She’s bored. Until . . . she comes across a box buried in her backyard, with a message: I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. Things are about to get interesting.
Back in 1989, it’s going to be the best summer ever for Melissa and Jessica. They have two whole months to goof around and explore, and they’re even going to bury a time capsule! But when one girl’s family secret starts to unravel, it’s clear things may not go exactly as planned.
In alternating chapters, from Peyton in present day to Melissa three decades earlier (a time with no cell phones, no social media, and camera film that took days to develop, but also a whole lot of freedom), beloved author Elizabeth Eulberg tells the story of a mystery that two sets of memorable characters will never forget.
I thought I’d make a special post for International Women’s Day. I found this tag from Dianthaa Dabbles. My tarot and astrological posts will be up soon they just require a lot of research. I was going to do research for my first Zodiac post (Aries) but I simply fell asleep. So the longer post will be up when they are up. Until then a little something for International Women’s day and remember to think of your sisters not just your cis-ters.
A book with a (closer to) gender-equal society
Skin of the Sea
A interesting world of mermaids gods and goddess this world is a lot closer to gender equality with its magic and monsters than our real world.
Lekha Divekar feels like she has to hide her authentic self at school because she’s afraid of being made fun of at school that is until Avantika moves in and she’s not interested in hiding her being Indian at all. Lekha wants to be friends with Avantika but will the social pressures of middle school keep them apart.
Two vastly different heroines on a treasure hunt for their own reasons. They end up encountering an old curse, a new dangerous woman, and all their own issues. It makes for a wonderful edge of your seat adventure.
The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy is a good book when talking about the role of women they literally shifted the women’s role in society and ended up with a problem that the main character has to face in this book. It’s all very interesting and the book comes highly recommended.
When Andra wakes from her thousand year sleep she’s surrounded by men, but she manages to get a good deal of information about her situation out of Zhade and quickly takes charge of the situation despite having little idea of the larger problems.
It didn’t say a matriarchal society you’d want to live in. This book had me wanting to half be really nice to Siri and half chuck my Apple products across to room, needless to say Ophelia, is in charge.
While it doesn’t start out as a romantic relationship these two hold each other up in ways that I haven’t seen in some other written couples, even though they are tied together at first it becomes clear very quickly that they want the best for each other despite the bond.
This deals with the issue of women’s history and witch burning in Scotland. It also deals with the underdiagnosis of women and girls with autism which is an international problem.
This book is definitely a flowers and cholate book, it’s also full of women making connections between the ghost and the girl who summoned her. The ghost and an old school mate, the girl and new friends the ghost helps her make, and all sorts of tea parties and food throughout.
Though you may think of astrological work and tarot as more associated with Halloween we do have the Vernal Equinox coming up so I decided to start a series of posts of books each Zodiac sign, might like based on traits traditionally assigned to the sign. Now we’re going to make it a little interactive by making some polls by how well you think these fit, with maybe some stickers up as prizes.
Eastern and Western
We will be explore both Eastern and Western would like now I want this to be interactive too, I’m personally a Libra Sun, Capricorn Moon Taurus Ascending in the Western Zodiac. And a Metal Horse in the Asian Zodiac.
Zodiac
Now if you have now idea what that means that’s okay these post will kind of an intro to how to figure out your Zodiac and the astrological world in general it will also help me bring two of my favorite things together. The astrological world and tarot and the book world and reading. As for the Tarot portion I’m going to be doing books that would fit all of the Major Arcana, it’s okay if you don’t know what that means either we’ll be taking a dive through tarot as well.
Feedback and Tags in Astrological Posts
I definitely want everyone’s feedback especially if they are particularly drawn to a card or sign, do you think my book predictions are spot on please tell me #astrolistbooks or #tarotlistbooks and please tell me if I’m wrong and you have better ideas feel free to turn this into a tag if you want to we are going to start out tomorrow with Aries and go from there. As for the Tarot posts we will be starting with the Fool the day after. I look forward to learning more about tarot, teaching you guys and pairing up books with signs.
I can’t wait to hear from you guys in the comments or on Twitter.
I’m doing the challenge for the Vegetable Garden with Cuddle which encourages you to read more women of color. I really hope I can participate in this challenge since I missed the last two due to working on my readathon and medical appointments.
To complete this quest and receive the quest reward, complete the following objective(s):
Read a book by a woman (including non-binary women and femme) author of colour during Women’s History Month. OR Read a book by a Black author for Black History Month.
This quest is repeatable. (Repeating this quest is optional.)
Those who complete the quest may choose their quest reward. However, colours of the reward are random.
Bonus: Read at least three books of the above objectives to earn the Vege Buddies badge for your character card!
Secret Achievement: Read a book by a Black woman/non-binary woman/femme author.
Looks like we have some great rewards here are some of the books I plan to read
Operation Sisterhood
Bo and her mom always had their own rhythm. But ever since they moved to Harlem, Bo’s world has fallen out of sync. She and Mum are now living with Mum’s boyfriend Bill, his daughter Sunday, the twins, Lili and Lee, the twins’ parents…along with a dog, two cats, a bearded dragon, a turtle, and chickens. All in one brownstone! With so many people squished together, Bo isn’t so sure there is room for her.
Set against the bursting energy of a New York City summer, award-winning author Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich delivers a joyful novel about a new family that hits all the right notes!
Amazon: Operation Sisterhood
Across a Field of Starlight
When they were kids, Fassen’s fighter spaceship crash-landed on a planet that Lu’s survey force was exploring. It was a forbidden meeting between a kid from a war-focused resistance movement and a kid whose community and planet are dedicated to peace and secrecy.
Lu and Fassen are from different worlds and separate solar systems. But their friendship keeps them in each other’s orbit as they grow up. They stay in contact in secret as their communities are increasingly threatened by the omnipresent, ever-expanding empire.
As the empire begins a new attack against Fassen’s people–and discovers Lu’s in the process–the two of them have the chance to reunite at last. They finally are able to be together…but at what cost?
Ophelia also likes to grow things but she has a rose garden instead of vegetable garden. Ophelia Rojas knows what she likes: her best friends, Cuban food, rose-gardening, and boys – way too many boys. Her friends and parents make fun of her endless stream of crushes, but Ophelia is a romantic at heart. She couldn’t change, even if she wanted to.
So when she finds herself thinking more about cute, quiet Talia Sanchez than the loss of a perfect prom with her ex-boyfriend, seeds of doubt take root in Ophelia’s firm image of herself. Add to that the impending end of high school and the fracturing of her once-solid friend group, and things are spiraling a little out of control.
But the course of love—and sexuality—never did run smooth. As her secrets begin to unravel, Ophelia must make a choice between clinging to the fantasy version of herself she’s always imagined or upending everyone’s expectations to rediscover who she really is, after all.
I just finished another book by a black author You Truly Assumed yesterday morning and got one of the secret achievements I’m going to update my vegetable garden today and post it on here later in the week. I can’t wait to see how some of my new rewards look in my garden.
It’s that time of year again. I for one can’t resist the appeal of helping an organization that helps girls and trans youth grow and become fantastic young people but it doesn’t hurt that they have cookies. I have to get my Peanut Butter Patties and maybe a few Thin Mints, but not everyone loves these flavors and everyone has a flavor. So I’d thought I’d represent a few of the cookies as books.
Adventurefuls
New to the block yet full of life this sweet cookie deserves an equally sweet book.
The Fellowship of the Ring I chose this book because it’s a book I try to read every year hence the old favorite, and the caramel making it a bit of adventure.
A little tropical because of the coconut-a little sweet because of chocolate
The book I chose for this prompt was Ophelia After All because it was a sweet book about the protagonist learning about love relating to others and herself.
Girl Scout Smores
This cookie represents friendship and I wanted to pick a book where friendship was the central theme.
The Winterbourne Home for Vengeance and Valor
This is set in a creepy mansion where a bunch of friends must solve a mystery. At first the protagonist doesn’t want friends but slowly warms up to those around her as they help with the slowly unfolding mystery.
Thin Mints
One of our classics this is chocolate with a hint of a surprise
The Storyteller- I picked this book because the protagnist believes her great aunt to be Anastasia and however the book turns out she’ll get a surprise. I also picked it because it’s chocolate and her aunt would have possibly come from a rich background like and chocolate is rich.
If you want to do this like a tag please do just tag back.
I do the Trope-ical readathon every year, often multiple times a year and this year I need it especially I’m very behind when it comes to where I should be if I want to hit my reading goal but I always seem to hit all of the prompts on this readathon. I also like it because it has alternate prompts for each thing so I’m putting forward a book for each trope and the alternatives and hoping I get to at least most of them.
As you see I have a few holes if you have any suggestions of good books that fit those categories please let me know in the comments. I also need to consider the group book for fantasy but I will do that in another post. Overall I think this is a pretty good starting point I’m a mood reader so some things may change but I think I have good bone here.
