Sunday Post 98, It's Monday, What are you reading? 83

The Sunday Post - a chance for bloggers to have a chat and a catch-up - is hosted by Kimba, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What are you reading? Is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://bookdate.blogspot.co.nz/

Last week was fairly ordinary, if short, because Anzac Day fell on Wednesday this year.

So no work or school on that day, and once again I failed to wake up in time to take Spawn to the Dawn Parade.

Maybe next year. I did hear the guns from one of the parades, though.

Other than that, it was an ordinary week. Spawn was excited about the new Avengers movie, and I was set to take him on Saturday, but felt bleh, so J took him instead. It's the first time they've gone to a movie together, and while it's a nice milestone, I was still a bit :( :( ... even though I had the house to myself.

I watched two truly, truly average movies yesterday and today - Before I Fall, and Hurricane Bianca.

I'm not even going to bother doing reviews for them, they were so ... ehn.

The school holidays are done until July, and I've switched Spawn over to another after-school programme. He needed to switch in May anyway as the one he was in only takes kids until they're 11 and he's turning 11 in a couple of weeks. So the start of the term seemed like the logical time.

I didn't really dive in to readathon this time around - feeling bleh, and just generally lazy. I did, however, finish a book - Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, which was great, and I'll review that later in the week. I also read book 1 of Knight Errant - the new comic series in the Dragon Age franchise. Rather than reviewing that piecemeal, I'll wait until I've read all of them.

I finished The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, and wrote a review for that last week.

Also on the go at work at lunchtime is The Fifth Season by N. J. Jemisin.

What about you? How's your week? What are you reading?

Review - Wrath of the Titans

Since I watched Clash of the Titans last week, I thought I'd take the sequel out for a spin today.

Zeus's son Perseus, after defeating the Kraken in Clash, now lives a quiet life in a small fishing village with his son, Helios. Perseus's wife, Io, dies before the start of Wrath, but it's not said how she died.

Anyway. Hades and young Ares have a plan to wake up and release Cronus from the prison Tartarus, because mankind have stopped praying to the gods. No prayers = no powers and Hades and Ares are a bit upset about that.

They convince Zeus and Poseidon to come to the Underworld to discuss what to do and - it may just be me, but I'm pretty sure there's more than four gods in the Greek mythological pantheon.

Anyway. Zeus and Poseidon don't want to release Cronus, because that's Very Bad, and Zeus goes and asks Perseus for help to stop it from happening.

Poseidon dies, Zeus is tortured, Perseus tracks down another demi-god who's the son of Poseidon and for some reason Queen Andromeda of the Greeks, although I suspect she's mostly in it because otherwise Wrath of the Titans is a real sausage fest. Sausages everywhere. And that's fine, but all Andromeda seems to do is wave a sword around and shout a lot.

I need to pick better movies.

Review - The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

There are two go-tos for fiction that are my absolute kryptonite. Character-driven stories, and found families.

Honestly, give me a good found family story in pretty much any genre and I will be happy for days. Possibly weeks.

Which leads on to The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers.

In terms of found family stories, this is The Goods.

There's also great and memorable characters, actually ALIEN-sounding aliens, (I know that sounds weird, but I know what I mean), and at the heart of it all the crew of a patched-together spaceship.

Rosemary joins the crew of the Wayfarer as a kind of admin assistant to the captain, Ashby. Rosemary is running from A Dark Past (not her own), and does not expect to become close to the Wayfarer crew, or to face down life-and-death situations, but here they all are.

The Wayfarer brings the makeshift crew together for, well, SPAAAAAAAAAAACE. And, uh, there's a bit of a plot thingy, with the Wayfarer contracted to tunnel wormholes to distant planets that, of course, can only go horribly wrong.

I loved this. I loved this SO MUCH. All of the characters were great, the aliens were REALLY REALLY ALIEN AND COOL, and all I loved about it was everything.

Sunday Post 97, It's Monday, What are you reading? 82

The Sunday Post - a chance for bloggers to have a chat and a catch-up - is hosted by Kimba here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Kathryn here: https://bookdate.blogspot.co.nz/

I went back to work on Thursday, and I have to say a two-day week might be the dream worklife. It's just a dream though ...

This week is somewhat short as well, because Anzac Day is on Wednesday, which is a stat day. Every year I think "I should take spawn to a dawn parade" and every year I sleep in.

What else. Spawn had a sleepover on Friday night and they were up pretty late, so he's still recovering from that - he's looked like a zombie all day today.

I finished The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and it was SO GOOD, so review for that later in the week. I also painted my nails today and watched Wrath of the Titans. So review for that coming up later, too. The movie, not the nail polish.

I started Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, and so far I'm loving it.

I'm also signed up for Dewey's Readathon next weekend, so I need to get some snacks, oh, and some books, in for that one. It's here, if you want to join: http://www.24hourreadathon.com/

What about you? How's your week? What are you reading?

Review - Clash of the Titans

Perseus is the son of Zeus, but is not aware of this little fact. He's raised by a humble fisherman and his wife until they're lost in a storm and Perseus finds himself at the centre of a crisis in the kingdom of Argos.

The king and queen of Argos basically start shit-talking Zeus and co (never a good idea), and Voldemo- I mean Hades - comes buzzing down in a black cloud and says if they don't sacrifice their daughter Andromeda by the time of the eclipse, he will release the kraken.

Perseus, who washed up in Argos after losing his family, finds out he's actually a demi-god and has half a shot at stopping Hades. So he rounds up a crew including Hannib- um, I mean, Draco, and they all head off to find the Stygian witches, and then also the head of Medusa so that the kraken can be stopped.

Perseus is a moody bastard, which, fair enough, but it's annoying after a while, and everyone else is just sort of .... there.

I need to stop talking myself into watching bad/meh movies on Netflix, I really do.

Review: Blood Stained Tea by Amy Tasukada

Blood Stained Tea is the first book in the Yakuza Path series, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it very much of a lot.

Nao - a former member of the Kyoto Yakuza, now lives a quiet life out of that world. He owns a tea-shop, and he has a cat, and he's content.

However, everything changes when he pulls an injured man out of the river on his regular walk down the Philosopher's Path.

Saehyun would have died that night if not for Nao's intervention. However, Saehyun is a member of the Korean mafia, which is trying to wrest Kyoto from the control of Nao's former family.

As Nao and Saehyun get to know each other (ifyouknowhatimean andiknowyoudo), the secrets that both of them carry threaten to collapse on top of them both.

Blood Stained Tea isn't your typical M/M romance novel. There's a fair amount of violence, and Nao and Saehyun's worlds are so very different; not to mention the fact that they're basically members of opposing gangs essentially.

However, it's really well-written, and Nao's character development especially is a really, really satisfying arc to read.

I'm definitely going to purchase book 2 as soon as I can.

Sunday Post 96, It's Monday, What are you reading? 81

The Sunday Post - a chance for bloggers to have a chat and a catch-up - is hosted by Kimba, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://bookdate.blogspot.co.nz/

It's school holidays here now, and I've taken a few days off in the first week (the break two weeks long) so Spawn isn't stuck in a school holiday programme the whole time. He's not looking forward to going into the programme on Thursday, but as the loving and caring mother I am, I pointed out that he could either do that, or we could not pay our rent and eat. It's not ideal, but it is what it is right now. He's going to be too old for the programme he's in at the moment in May as they only take kids until they turn 11, so he'll be switching after the holidays anyway. Hopefully a change of scenery will help. The struggle, etc.

What else has been happening? I had Thursday and Friday off and instead of the two days of blissful nothing I intended, I ended up going to a friend's for part of the day on Thursday, and I had a bank appointment on Friday. It wasn't all bad though. I treated myself to lunch in town and had a bit of a browse, two things I don't get to do a lot of now as my office is juuuuuuuuuust a little bit out of the centre of town and I like a leisurely browse.

I finished Blood-Stained Tea by Amy Tasukada yesterday, and really enjoyed it; review coming later this week. I also watched Clash of the Titans which, erm. Review coming later this week as well.

I started Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch today, which seems promising. Still working on Wizards and Glass, and The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet as well.

I don't have a lot of plans for the next three days. Hang out with Spawn. Maybe venture out of the house for a bit if the weather doesn't crap itself everywhere, which is a distinct possibility. Most likely we'll stay home and watch a lot of Netflix. Maybe read some. Usual holiday time stuff. :)

What about you? How's your week? What are you reading?

Review - Zoolander 2

The first Zoolander movie was fun. Dumb fun, yes, but fun.

Zoolander 2 is ... really, it's just kind of dumb.

It's packed full of celebrity cameos, including Kiefer Sutherland who is somehow the funniest of all of them.

So, anyway, Derek Zoolander has become a "hermit crab" after his school collapses, falls into the river and kills his wife.

Hansel is also a kind of a recluse, though with his entire orgy.

They're drawn back into the world of fashion when rock stars start dying with the same looks on their faces.

The best thing I can say about Zoolander 2 is that I got my nails re-painted while I was watching it.

Sunday Post 95, It's Monday, what are you reading? 80

The Sunday Post - a chance for bloggers to have a chat and a catch-up - is hosted by Kimba, here: https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ and It's Monday, What are you reading? is hosted by Kathryn, here: https://bookdate.blogspot.co.nz/

Last week was a shorter working week because of Easter, and coming up this week I have five days off from Thursday as it's school holiday time. It's annoying when the school holidays don't align with Easter, but there you go. I've taken a couple of school days off to get some bits and pieces done, and then three days of the first week of the holidays, so that spawn doesn't spend his whole time in the holiday programme he's booked into. Plus, it's expensive.

So I'm looking forward to having a few days off.

The weather has turned cold, grey and rainy, which is my favourite - as long as I'm not outside in it, so I'm kind of loving it at the moment.

Work is going okay as well. I have a bit of anxiety-brain, so I'm working on leaving work at night - and leaving it AT work, instead of letting it run through my brain - especially mistakes. Ugh. Any tips, I'll take em ;)

I'm still reading The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, and ... Wizards and Glass and I are on a break. It's going through this massive flashback in the middle of a really long book, and I kind of don't care, but I also want to finish the series. Blergh.

I also started Blood-stained Tea by Amy Tasukada, which I'm enjoying. I'm hoping to finish that this week so I can write a review. I also watched Zoolander 2 today which was .... a movie. That I watched. So review coming for that as well.

How about you? What's your week like? What are you reading?