Bookish Weekly Wrap-Up: 3/18 – 3/31/19

Happy Sunday bookworms!

How the heck is everyone?!  I’ve been absent for the past 2 weeks because I went on vacation for Spring Break!  Since my family was down for the count with the flu the week before vacation, I was a bit busy tending to the ill & trying to get ready for vacation.  I was planning on scheduling a few posts for when I was gone, but the flu threw a big wrench in my plans.  Just thought I would explain in case anyone was wondering why I just kind of disappeared without any warning.

Let’s see what I’ve been reading these past two weeks…

*Bookish Weekly Wrap-Up is a weekly post where I feature what posts were published on the blog for the past week, any bookish/blog happenings, what I recently finished reading, what I am currently reading, what I will be reading next, noteworthy posts around the bookish blogisphere, and any interesting bookish articles I came across.

As I mentioned above, I went on a 7 day vacation!  I spent a week in Georgia with my family for Spring Break.  We stayed on Tybee Island, which is about 25-ish minutes outside of Savannah.  We had a wonderful week!

While it is still chilly in Georgia in March, we did get two days that were warm enough to be beach days!

I fell in love with Savannah.  If I could stand the summers, I would move there in a heartbeat… Maybe I could live there from October to April?

» I found out that Nnedi Okorafor is coming to Cincinnati Ohio in May!  I loved her Binti series & am currently reading her Akata Witch series.   Tickets were only $5 for this event!

» I visited a few bookstores while I was visiting Savannah, Georgia.  More about my experience in a separate post.

Recently Finished Reading:

» Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly

*4.5 Stars*

#MiddleGradeMarch

A middle grade novel about a deaf girl on a mission to communicate with a whale.  This was a beautiful “coming of age” story.

» A Boy Called Bat by Elena Arnold

*3.75 Stars*

#MiddleGradeMarch

A lovely middle grade novel with a main character on the Autism spectrum.  I feel the representation was very well done.  The plot could have been a little more complex, there wasn’t much to it.

» Herstory: 50 Women and Girls Who Shook Up the World by Katherine Halligan

#WomensHistoryMonth

Another great collection of mini biographies that highlight influential women throughout history.

» Game of Stars (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #2) by Sayantani DasGupta

#MiddleGradeMarch #YARC2019

The second book in a MG fantasy series rooted in Indian folklore & mythology.   Unfortunately, I feel like this series will most appeal to those that are familiar with Indian culture & mythology.  Since I was not familiar beforehand, I feel like many of the wonderful aspects about this series went over my head.  It also felt forced & cheesy at times.

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Currently Reading:

» Black Leopard, Red Wolf (The Dark Star Trilogy #1) by Marlon James

Status: 70%

This book is taking me FOREVER to get through.  The first 70 pages were a struggle, but things started to get less confusing after that point.  The story doesn’t really start to take off until the 250-ish page mark… I can’t tell if this one is going to be a hit or miss for me yet.

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What Am I Reading Next?:

» The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson

From award-winning author G. Willow Wilson, The Bird King is an epic journey set during the reign of the last sultan in the Iberian peninsula at the height of the Spanish Inquisition.

G. Willow Wilson’s debut novel Alif the Unseen was an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and it established her as a vital American Muslim literary voice. Now she delivers The Bird King, a stunning new novel that tells the story of Fatima, a concubine in the royal court of Granada, the last emirate of Muslim Spain, and her dearest friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker.

Hassan has a secret–he can draw maps of places he’s never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan’s surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan’s gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls?

As Fatima and Hassan traverse Spain with the help of a clever jinn to find safety, The Bird King asks us to consider what love is and the price of freedom at a time when the West and the Muslim world were not yet separate.

» The Best Children’s and YA Books of March 2019

» A Gift Guide for Badass Bookish Broads

*I’ll take one of everything.  Thank you.

» Quiz: Which 2019 Book-to-TV Adaptation Should You Check Out?

*I got Good Omens!

» 2019’s Must-Read Romance Novels According to Romance Authors

» Real Readers Weigh In On March Releases

» 10 Questions to Ask at Your Next Book Club Meeting

» Curiosity Voyage: Book Recommendations for Stranger Things Characters

» Bookstore Bucket List: 12 Unique Bookstores You Need to Visit

» My Lifelong Love Affair with Libraries

» Book-to-Movie Adaptations We Cannot Wait to See

» 15 Tips for Starting a Lifelong Conversation About Books

» Books to Help Kids Understand What It’s Like to Be a Refugee

» New YA graphic novels explore queer coming-of-age tales

Have you read any of the book included in this post?  If so, what did you think?

What are you currently reading?

What will you read next?

Have a wonderful week & happy reading