Mindy

It’s been 3 months since I gave my mom a kidney, which also means it’s been 3 months since the beginning of me spending my entire recovery period reading The Bone Season and hosting the read-a-thon, and I realized I never made a proper post about any of that. For the kidney: I can now officially resume all exercise and physical activity (yay?). I’ve been back at work for about as long as I was gone from it and it’s like I never left. My mom is doing great! Hasn’t rejected me yet. 🤭 A huge thank you to my aunt and uncle, who let me heal at their house and didn’t complain when I mostly just sat around reading. One of my brilliant friends made the crochet kidney for me (go follow her at @manderella_crochet !!!!) and a bunch of coworkers filled out the cutest card for me (also made by Mandy). Still lowkey makes me wanna cry. For the read-a-thon: I sometimes think I kind of dropped the ball on this… and then I see how many stories and conversations happened and realize that maybe it’s okay that I didn’t really make any grid posts. Maybe 1,723 uploads to my stories while recovering from surgery makes up for that. But I still feel guilty. It could have been so much more grand. But I’ll never stop posting about The Bone Season, and there is plenty of time to make and post all the ideas I have sketched out leading up to The Moth Reborn! And… yes, even my coworkers knew I would spend all 6 weeks of leave reading The Bone Season, hahaha. I am not quiet about my love. Thank you to everyone who participated in the read-a-thon, and also everyone here who put up with my insanity! Especially those who haven’t read TBS, but also those of you who have. It had to have become annoying. But also… I have no regrets.

THE MOTH REBORN is giving me something to live for and it’s ME who genuinely feels reborn (and scared) (but like mostly excited) (but also like I’m gonna die) Looked around and saw that everyone but me seemed to have something prepared for today—oops! Sometimes I worry about annoying people with my love for TBS, and moments like this where we are all just able to go insane genuinely mean so much to me. It’s so nice to have comrades. I have been part of many, many fandoms throughout my life, but this one is easily the nicest I have ever witnessed. Something about this series seems to draw the loveliest people… which is not at all a surprise, actually, when you consider what these books stand for. Only real ones Get It. I’m a baby fan and have only been reading the series for a year now, and I get sad thinking about how I could have had these books in my life so much sooner. I’m glad I haven’t had to wait the agonizing wait that the veteran fans have had, but I also want to cry knowing that I only have two books left to celebrate. But I am going to enjoy the time we have left to the fullest! I honestly wish I was better at using this account to properly promote the series and express my love. If I have one goal to reach before February, it’s that I want to actually make all of the TBS posts I have hanging out in my drafts! They will happen! Thank you all so much for being here and making this THE most fun book fandom around, and thank you so much to @say_shannon for genuinely changing my life. And causing me unprecedented amounts of both stress and happiness. #theboneseason #samanthashannon #themothreborn #fantasybooks #bloomsburypublishing

2026.05.04-2026.05.10 I keep going back and forth over whether I want to do these posts every week or just do weekly photo dumps. The amount I read isn’t anything extraordinary, and I already tend to keep my reading progress updated on my stories and etc and have been making posts for each book I finish. I also can never seem to do these posts two weeks in a row anyway because I inevitably forget to track my pages. 🙃 This was a very solid reading week, and I loved both A Drop of Corruption and The Invocations! I just started the second His Dark Materials book and I’m very excited about how massively everything in the story is expanding. Outside of reading, I listened to the new Noah Kahan album like everyone else on the planet while on the train back from visiting my parents. I haven’t listened to him much before this, surprisingly. Every person in my life who has told me that I would like his music… you were right. ‘Doors’ might be my favorite from the album, along with ‘The Great Divide’ because I’m basic. There are some albums that I think are just made to be listened to while staring out of a train window and this is one of them. I have so many posts that I want to make the next few weeks, but I’m afraid I’ll do what I always do and draft them without ever making them. 🫠 But just by saying that, I feel the desire to prove myself wrong. We’ll see! I hope everyone is having a great week! #readersofinstagram #thetaintedcup #theinvocations #hisdarkmaterials #fantasyreader

the invocations by krystal sutherland I’ve been meaning to read this ever since I read and loved House of Hollow, and I am so happy to report that I think this is even better. House of Hollow was delightfully atmospheric, but The Invocations takes that beautiful writing and infuses it with stronger themes and characters. This is a book that crept up on me, that unraveled itself to me across its pages. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but each step of this journey threads a stronger story, and I was won over by the end. While YA, this book tackles its themes of power and patriarchy better than some adult books I’ve read. The concept of witches being used to dismantle gendered power dynamics is certainly nothing new, but Sutherland manages to use this metaphor without it feeling too overdone, crafting characters and relationships that are more than just vehicles for the book’s messaging. I was shocked to find myself nearly weeping by the end. Of course, it’s our trio of unlikely witches that are the highlight of the book, even though their archetypes are a bit stereotypical. Zara is my favorite of the bunch, and is the one who made me cry, but that’s not surprising. I love a driven, bookish, goody two shoes girl who finds herself veering completely off the path she had forged for herself. I found Jude a bit annoying at first, but she really grew on me towards the end. Emer was the least interesting to me, but I don’t tend to latch on to the strong and silent types. Still, I loved the way all three of their stories were weaved together, and my jaw is still on the floor from some of what Sutherland accomplished in the end. There are some things that I wanted more of, but I try not to get too greedy with my standalones. This book packs a big punch in less than 400 pages. I wasn’t really feeling the very, very small romance subplot at first (mostly because I didn’t feel a strong connection to Emer), but that also pretty much won me over in the end. We love a couple with parallel trauma. I will read anything that Krystal Sutherland writes at this point, and I can’t wait to see what she does next to fuel my fury towards men.

a drop of corruption by robert jackson bennett What a wonderful, weird world. This series is interesting because I LOVE it and yet I don’t have a lot to say about it except that I think it’s so much fun. Ana Dolraba is an icon, and I love everything about her Sherlock/Watson relationship with Din. We get to see it grow just a bit deeper in this book, and it makes me very excited to see where they go in book 3. But while characters are usually the absolute beating heart of a book for me, I think the thing I’m most in love with here is the world. It is delightfully creepy and beautiful and disgusting and genuinely unlike anything I have read before, and it makes the murder mystery element (something I don’t usually take much interest in) SO much cooler and so much more interesting than any other fantasy mystery book I’ve read. I feel like this is a series that could go on forever and I wouldn’t complain. NCIS has been on TV for like 20 years, why can’t we get 20 years of gross mutant plant murder investigations? Never stop, RJB. #adropofcorruption #thetaintedcup #shadowoftheleviathan #robertjacksonbennett #fantasyreader

…and none of them are a surprise to anyone. I’ve seen multiple people lately doing posts for their favorite series and was shocked I hadn’t done one yet! I feel like all of these are obvious to anyone who has followed me for even a week, but it’ll be nice to have something I can pin to my grid. I consider myself somewhat of a picky reader, and it takes a lot for me to really claim a favorite. There are many other series that I enjoy, but these are the ones that consistently just made my heart sing (and stress and sob). Yes, I moan about Wind & Truth, but the months I read books 1-4 were serious highlights of my reading life and I have hope that arc 2 of Stormlight will make up for it. This series probably makes my heart feel the most fickle out of all of them here, but the highs are HIGH. And Kaladin is my boy. And I adore the world. #fantasyreader #theboneseason #stormlightarchive #jadecity #emilywildesencyclopaediaoffaeries

Some people don’t like an unfinished series, but I LOVE THEM. I honestly think there’s no better feeling as a reader than falling in love with a series and having MORE to wait for—provided the author actually writes it. There is an excitement and energy that being part of an active readership brings that I have adored ever since I was a kid, and there are several ongoing series where I’m very impatiently waiting for the next installment and I couldn’t be happier! But I also don’t want to waste my time with something I’m not enjoying. Some series have growing pains, so I usually try to give a series at least two books before I write them off, but if the second installment isn’t out yet when I read the first… sometimes it just doesn’t happen. What are your favorite currently ongoing series? Do you have any that you still need to catch up to? #theboneseason #theprioryoftheorangetree #cosmere #assistanttothevillain #queenie

the warm hands of ghosts by katherine arden “We won, 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦. Don’t they know, 𝘓𝘢𝘶𝘳𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵, we all lost? 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥. 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘳. 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘴.” I’m not one for war stories—that is, stories based on real, somewhat recent war, especially the World Wars. I’m not sure why, honestly. Perhaps it feels too close to reality for me to enjoy as a work of fiction, even as someone who loves to read about my characters suffering. If anyone could make me truly fall into a story about the Great War, I thought it might be Katherine Arden and the magic she is so capable of working on me. But alas, I still found this story difficult to fully connect to. This is not at all the fault of the book or the writing and is purely up to personal taste. Laura is a well-written character, as are many others, but I found that the somberness required of her for this story made it so that I struggled to feel much besides a general sense of somberness along with her. Another personal quirk is that I don’t tend to like when stories have characters that serve mostly as manifestations (of the Devil, of ideas) without being full characters in their own right. Characters are what I latch on to in a story first and foremost, and I always want more from them… even if they’re Satan. I am more accepting of it in more of a fantastical fairytale setting, which is why the Bear in Winternight didn’t bother me (and Morozko became enough of his own person), but generally speaking it’s just not a story motif that does much for me. But still, I think this book is a great option for people who DO like war stories. I know many do! World War I is particularly underexplored compared to World War II in American literature, I think, and this would be the perfect read for many people out there. Personally, I’ll be waiting for Arden to transport me to somewhere more magical in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘏𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴.

the golden compass / northern lights by philip pullman, @philippullmanofficial When your library hold comes in and it is a glorious (and gigantic) illustrated edition, you have to take some pictures to show it off! I have officially begun my His Dark Materials journey, and everyone who told me that this isn’t exactly a children’s book is right. Don’t get me wrong, I think 11-year-old me would have adored this book. It’s everything that I loved about fantasy as a kid, and much of what still keeps me coming back to the genre as an adult. The story and the world evoke this almost indescribable sense of wonder—of yearning for something more, something stranger, something beautiful. The illustrations heighten this feeling, and I’m so happy to have had them while reading! Nevertheless, there is also much in the story that I think I wouldn’t have appreciated as a kid. Groundwork is laid for some very serious themes to be explored, and while some of the exposition and themes are written out a bit too plainly in the dialogue so that younger audiences might understand them, I’m still grateful to be approaching them as a more experienced reader now.  If I had to choose one favorite thing in the book, it would be the entire concept of the dæmon. I love how their existence shapes the way our characters act and feel, and how they play into the larger themes of the series. I don’t really believe in souls in reality, but I love when souls and spirituality are utilized well in fiction. Pullman manages to make an abstract concept feel incredibly real and personal, and I marvel at the fact that I can feel such love and distress for a bond that doesn’t exist in real life. I dread the day Lyra and Pan are ever separated.  I’m very excited to continue on to The Subtle Knife! I also plan on beginning the BBC/HBO series today, and I’m super curious to see how it’s adapted! #hisdarkmaterials #thegoldencompass #northernlights #fantasybooks #bookreviews

wow what do you think her favorite series is??? I realized I’ve never really done a grid post just showing off my steadily growing Bone Season collection. Getting my hands on these Broken Binding editions and being able to alternate the edges with the regular hardback spines like all of the cool kids makes me feel so satisfied, I won’t lie. But the star of the show and my entire shelf is honestly my gorgeous print from @jdclrcq_draw , which really deserves a better frame. Sometimes I just stand in front of it staring for an uncomfortable amount of time. It’s been a month since the end of my read-a-thon and, unsurprisingly, these books are still on my mind every hour of every day. I wish I had the words to describe the way this series makes me feel, but I always seem to fail. I wish I had the talent and energy to make this account even more of a shrine to it (the number of TBS posts I have drafted you guys oh my gosh), but I’m the least creative person in the world and Canva makes me mad and I just end up sobbing about Paige and Arcturus in my stories every other day instead. @say_shannon , I think you may have ruined me. I am in a constant back-and-forth with this account, unsure of whether I need to make an effort to talk more about the books I read that AREN’T The Bone Season, or whether I should just give in and post about it whenever I want to (aka every day). Thank you to everyone who follows me despite this entire account being in this constant state of crisis and chaos. Maybe one day I’ll get the hang of this whole bookstagram thing, but in the meantime, I think the chaos will continue. And so will the TBS posting. #theboneseason #fantasyreader #samanthashannon #fantasybooks #shelfie

Burning a hole in my phone screen as I keep staring at my library holds, desperate for something to make it to me!!! Guys, it’s dire. I’m trying to save money so I don’t want to buy any new books that I don’t know that I’ll love. I don’t want to get any books from Libby because I don’t like reading e-books. I don’t have the energy to go to my closest actual library branch (the one near me that my holds are sent to is holds-only) and dig through the titles to find something I want to read. The one physical book I own, Agnes Aubert’s Magical Cat Shelter, I wanted to save for my Montreal trip next month. I know most of this is my fault but I’m going to sit here and complain anyway and hope posting this magically makes the 6 books currently “in transit” to me actually show up tomorrow. Or I might go insane. In the meantime… the cats on the Agnes Aubert cover are looking at me funny and I might need to see what’s up with them… (big shout out to @jdclrcq_draw @literaryrobin and @themoonwholistens for being at the scene of the crime that is my ever-growing library TBR) #fantasybooks #fantasyreader #tbrlist #librarybooks #bookstagram

the winternight trilogy by katherine arden So, I’m a chronic rereader of my favorite books. I always have been, ever since I was a kid. There is just something about the particular feeling I get from very specific moments in very specific books that I crave, and it can be so hard to break me from the spell and move on to the mountain of novels on my TBR. I don’t think there is any book that I have reread more than The Bear and the Nightingale. I first stumbled across this series in January of 2019, and I’m not kidding when I say it had me in such a trance that winter that I could read nothing else. March came around and I eventually moved on, but the coming of winter every year compels me to pick up that book. If I go a December without reading it, something feels incomplete. I always try to read them all (and The Girl in the Tower is probably my favorite), but I am at peace if I at least read the first. So I’ve read it… 5 times now, I believe? Those two winters where I didn’t read it were dark and I don’t want to think about them! @arden_katherine manages to write this dark fairytale with prose that is just lush enough to envelope you in the woods of Northern Rus’ without it being too much, and Vasya is the perfect amount of strong yet uncertain and vulnerable that I love in a heroine. It is the perfect story of empowerment, in my opinion, and the way it makes me feel so keenly the injustices Vasya faces while also seeing her overcome them makes for such a satisfying read time and time again. One scene in particular towards the end of the first book between Vasya and her step-mother never fails to make my eyes smart with rage. Every single time. Winter has finally come and gone where I live, and I was able to get one last snowy shot with these books a few weeks ago before finishing The Winter of the Witch and saying goodbye to Vasya as spring arrived. But winter will always return, and I’ll always have this series at the ready for that first snow, to say hello again to her, and to the winter-king, and to Solovey. #thebearandthenightingale #winternighttrilogy #katherinearden #fantasyreader #fantasybooks