Books Read
I’m pretty sure this list is only substantive because most of these are graphic novels. All the same, I’m playing a bit of catchup on my lack of reading and reviewing, and this is the result.
Sisters by Raina Telgemeier || Skinwalker by Faith Hunter || Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor || The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1 || The Arabian Nights translated by Richard F. Burton || The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 2 || The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 3 || Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge || The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 4
Currently Reading
The List by Patricia Forde || Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor || The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 5 || Monstress, Vol. 2 by Marjorie Liu
Writing
While I didn’t take part in Camp NaNoWriMo, writing has been a major part of July, and will likely be a major part of August as well. I’m probably going to slow down on the writing department come September once more, but for now, I’m taking what I get!
Movies and Television
The Beautician and the Beast – Don’t ask.
Dirty Dancing – It was the summer of ’63 when I started watching–okay, no. I’m not THAT old, but I love this movie.
Independence Day – Totally my July 4 movie tradition. Every single year.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – I’m still torn up about this movie.
The Martian – Totally watched this again because my bestie was missing such a great movie.
Wonder Woman – See, THIS is a girl power superhero movie without all the unsubtle “yay female superheroes all females rock omg this is a message I’m going to keep bringing up over and over again every other sentence” that the Supergirl show has (more below).
Better Call Saul, Season 2 – Ughhhh so good. And Netflix, I’m waiting for Season 3 plsthx!
Inside British Vogue – I like fashion documentaries, but the documentarian annoyed me. Your job is to DOCUMENT, not fucking give input about things you know nothing about. Ugh.
Arrow, Season 3 – Well, damn. I went back to finishing this season and things completely goes down at the end of the season. The happyish ending tho, lmao. Yeah, okay. Not gonna last long in CW, nope.
Flash, Season 1 – I was pretty much going back and forth on my Arrow-Flash binges. But holy hell, Flash got INCREDIBLY good.
Supergirl, Season 1 – I legit just watched the first episode yesterday. Then I had to google “Does Supergirl get better later on” because honestly, that pilot wasn’t so great. I love the idea of female superheroes, but please stop throwing feminist morals at my face every other scene in the episode. ESPECIALLY since the rest of the time seemed dedicated to comparing said female superhero to the more superior male cousin that is Superman. I just…STAHP PLEASE. Just give me action and some sort of plot. But again. This was just my first impression of the pilot. Apparently it does get better around episode 6/7, so I might hang on.
Video Games
Hah. There’s been only one video game that I’ve been preoccupied with all month. And that’s Mass Effect: Andromeda. I actually finished it last week, so of course the next thing I did was boot up a new Mass Effect trilogy playthrough. Yeah. I am obsessive, but I can’t help myself!
I’m still trying to figure out how much I like ME: Andromeda, to be honest. It certainly doesn’t hold a candle to the original trilogy, but at the same time, I’m judging the a game that’s solely an INTRODUCTORY game, so I can’t get angry about it. I am a little disappointed in the romance arcs. None of them seemed very interesting. But then again, I wasn’t gungho on the romance in ME1 either. So yeah. I hope the second installation–if there ever IS one–gets the same treatment as ME2, because that’s when everything gets turned around.
Fooding
It says something about my lack of work when I spend most of my days actually baking. Or eating.
Macarons || Ube birthday cake || Spiced ginger treacle cake || Hummus || Marble and almond brownies || Sushi || Peach upside down cake || Japanese pork combo at Mitsuwa
Miscellany
I’ve mostly been on vacation over the month of July. On top of that, I had a birthday pass me by, which meant I got to splurge on random things, hah!
Managed to get Shakespeare in the Park tickets for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was FANTASTIC.
I’ve been sufficiently pool-ready the past few weeks, so obviously that’s where I’ve been during my weekends. There was also a summer fair at the Meadowlands, and I couldn’t pass it up because I so wanted to get on a Ferris wheel. I LOVE FERRIS WHEELS.
Other than that, same old, same old.
Nerdy News
Gotham goes Gaslight in a Batman steampunk animated movie. Not gonna lie, I’ve been so waiting for them to do this. I haven’t read the Elseworlds series that this animated movie is going to be based on, but I’ve actually seen a demo of Gotham by Gaslight as a video game, and I’ve been craving steampunk Bats since.
Honestly cannot wait for Good Omens to come out. It’s going to be a blast to see Crowley and Aziraphale on the screen and not just on the page.
Joker as a good guy is like watching Lex Luthor become President of the United States and still being a thorn on Superman’s side. It’s GREAT. Now, once this is released completely, can we have an animated movie based off this series with Mark Hamill reprising his Joker role? CAN WE PLEASE?
Alright, I admit I’m sliding this article in solely for the purpose of being able to mention AIRSHIPS in this post. Because the possibility of rebuilding airships just made my steampunk writing self all excited and giddy.
The next Wonder Woman movie is taking place in the ’80s. Which is pretty cool, though I wonder how they’ll explain WWII, because that’s practically a gigantic war in between her origin movie and the Cold War. [SPOILER] Also, I don’t know why people find it a good idea to bring Chris Pine back. That just lessens the impact of his actions in the previous movie. Just saying. [/SPOILER]
Not sure how I feel having seen the A Wrinkle in Time trailer. On the one hand, it looks pretty cool and action-packed. On the other, AWiT is one of my favorite childhood SFF books, and if they eff this up, I’m going to be INCONSOLABLE.
One of the most exciting trailers that got released at SDCC was definitely Ready Player One. Because holy hell, the stacked buildings looked exactly like the illustration in the book. And omg SO many Easter Eggs in that trailer. I can only imagine how many more are in the actual movie.
And yay more Agatha Christie movies! I always love watching these.
Still not holding my breath, but I suppose this is good news to the G.R.R. Martin and A Song of Ice and Fire fans. I haven’t read the fifth book yet, so…
And the new Doctor is…oh come on. That was practically everywhere when it was finally released. Here’s to Jodie Whittaker for taking the balls by the horn! (Hah!)
Story and Somnomancy 