I posted a couple weeks ago that I would be partaking in the #goodreadance2021 challenge. This is a challenge run by Shealea, of the blog Shut Up Shealea. The basics are that you set your own goals for cleaning up your Goodreads shelves, catching up on reviews, or whatever you feel like! I explain my goals and show the starting state of my Goodreads in my original post, which is here.

Apparently this challenge was motivating for me – I’ve already completed my goals! So I’m here to give an update on those, and set some new ones.

Life goes on for the billions left behind after the humanity-saving colony mission to Proxima Centauri leaves Earth orbit ... but what's the point?
Julie Riley is two years too young to get out from under her mother's thumb, and what does it matter? She's over-educated, under-employed, and kept mostly numb by her pharma emplant. Her best friend, who she's mostly been interacting with via virtual reality for the past decade, is part of the colony mission to Proxima Centauri. Plus, the world is coming to an end. So, there's that.
When Julie's mother decides it's time to let go of the family home in a failing suburb and move to the city to be closer to work and her new beau, Julie decides to take matters into her own hands. She runs, illegally, hoping to find and hide with the Volksgeist, a loose-knit culture of tramps, hoboes, senior citizens, artists, and never-do-wells who have elected to ride out the end of the world in their campers and converted vans, constantly on the move over the back roads of America.

Thank you so much to Angry Robot for sending me a copy for review. And for including me on the tour!

Reading this right now felt particularly timely, as I am nearing a cross country roadtrip myself! However, I’m really hoping mine isn’t nearly as stressful as Julie’s haha. Most likely that will be manageable, seeing as how I’m not living in the bleak future that she is. I would classify this as a dystopian, but honestly the future Julie lives in seems more and more likely given the way our planet is going. I was afraid it would be too depressing to read, but R.W.W. Greene has infused this book with humor and good people, making it a lovely read.

It is your eighteenth birthday and one of your parents must die. You are the one who decides. Who do you pick?
In a dying world, the Offset ceremony has been introduced to counteract and discourage procreation. It is a rule that is simultaneously accepted, celebrated and abhorred. But in this world, survival demands sacrifice so for every birth, there must be a death.
Professor Jac Boltanski is leading Project Salix, a ground-breaking new mission to save the world by replanting radioactive Greenland with genetically-modified willow trees. But things aren’t working out and there are discrepancies in the data. Has someone intervened to sabotage her life’s work?
In the meantime, her daughter Miri, an anti-natalist, has run away from home. Days before their Offset ceremony where one of her mothers must be sentenced to death, she is brought back against her will following a run-in with the law. Which parent will Miri pick to die: the one she loves, or the one she hates who is working to save the world?

Thank you so much to Angry Robot for sending me a copy for review. And for including me on the tour!

This book was such an interesting mix of science fiction, dystopian, and climate fiction. It was a really bleak look into the drastic measures that *could* happen if we don’t save our planet. I think the actual things in the book (the Offset, the prisons, etc) were a bit exaggerated. I mean this in the sense that I don’t know if they would happen in reality, though don’t quote me on that. With the way current events are turning out…anyway. These things just helped to intensify the point that the authors were trying to make. For this reason I can’t say that I really “enjoyed” the book, but I think it was really well done.

Hello and happy #SapphicSeptember! Just in case you weren’t sure what sapphic means, it refers to relationships between women. My friend Landice (@manic_femme on Twitter and @manicfemme on Instagram) is hosting a readathon this month focused on sapphic books. You can see her Twitter post about it here. She has a bunch of different prompts that look really fun!

So I was already thinking about sapphic books, and I had been brainstorming different things to try on Instagram – so I decided to make a book list. Instagram is obviously limited in how much information I can convey, so I’m gonna expand on my recommendations in this post! I hope you find some books that you’re interested in. There are quite a lot of books on this list (38 to be exact) so I’ll try to just post a few sentences about each one, so the post isn’t too long. I’ll also indicate the targeted age range (adult or young adult aka YA).

If you’re on Instagram, feel free to go check out my post! And if you feel so inclined, I would love if you’d share it (or share this blog post).

Who are some of your favorite bloggers? One of mine is Shealea at the blog Shut Up Shealea. She recently announced a new challenge, called the #goodreadance2021 challenge. It’s kind of a spring cleaning challenge – in September-November. I know that is actually spring for some of you, though for me it’s fall. Fall cleaning works just as well! You can find her post about it here. I love that it brings bookworms together but that it’s super general, so each person can fit the challenge to their needs and goals.

I’m in the process of moving to a new city, in a new state, and I figure it’s a good time to get my shit together. Or at least pretend to by organizing different aspects of my life haha. I’m the kind of person who likes feeling in control, and I think having things neat and organized definitely helps me to feel settled. So since I can’t quite yet organize things IRL (in real life), I’m tackling my digital world. I’m going to be focusing on cleaning up my Goodreads shelves first! Then maybe if I’m feeling motivated, I’ll move on to cleaning up this blog, my bookstagram, etc. We’ll see!