Manga<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Adabana Vol. 1 by NON (5\u2605)
\n\u2665 Adabana Vol. 2 by NON (5\u2605)
\n\u2665 Adabana Vol. 3 by NON (5\u2605)
\n\u2665 PALEPOLI by Usamaru Furuya (3\u2605)<\/p>\n
\nLife and Other Things<\/h2>\n
Alongside the anime I was watching during my reading slump, I also for the last two weeks got really into building a family tree and researching family genealogy for the last two weeks. Suffice to say, it’s gotten pretty in-depth and I built a tree with nearly 3000 people in two weeks. I come from a very large family on both sides, plus my husband and his family. And I built out the tree for my kids, who have separate dads. So it’s several family trees all connected into one.<\/p>\n
Through the research I found out some really cool stuff. I’m mixed Filipina American, my father is an American in the U.S. Navy and met my mother in the Philippines while stationed there. Her side was very clear, but his side of the family I didn’t know much beyond the fact that his family is from Ohio, and they had told me they were descended from English immigrants way back during colonial times. This checked out, but I also found out my great grandmother was Swiss, and a little further back in the tree, a Danish great grandfather. I’m of course disconnected from these branches of the family, but it’s still pretty cool to learn.<\/p>\n
\nBooks Hauled<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/book_adarknessunseen.png?resize=200%2C300&ssl=1\")
This month was a little better than December in terms of less spending, though I picked up a lot of ARCs from NetGalley because I was on such a reading rush at the start of the month. <\/p>\n
eARCs (Author\/Publisher)<\/strong>
\n\u2665 A Darkness Unseen by Matt Kurtz
\n\u2665 BOREAL: An Anthology of Taiga Horror by Katherine Silva (editor)
\n\u2665 Close the Door by Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar
\n\u2665 Gloria by Bentley Little
\n\u2665 The White by Matt Micheli<\/p>\neARCs (NetGalley)<\/strong>
\n\u2665 A Sharp Endless Need by Marisa Crane
\n\u2665 Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan
\n\u2665 Ice by Anna Kavan
\n\u2665 Letters from a Seducer by Hilda Hilst
\n\u2665 Malinalli by Veronica Chapa
\n\u2665 Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/book_mayra.png?resize=200%2C300&ssl=1\")
\n\u2665 Porcelain by Jesse Sprague
\n\u2665 Sister, Butcher, Sister by KD Aldyn
\n\u2665 Skin by Kathe Koja
\n\u2665 The Cut by C. J. Dotson
\n\u2665 Ten Incarnations of Rebellion by Vaishnavi Patel
\n\u2665 The Labyrinth House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
\n\u2665 The True Happiness Company by Veena Dinavahi<\/p>\nGiveaway<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Ghost Mother by Kelly Dwyer<\/p>\nEbook Purchases<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Kissing Carrion by Gemma Amor
\n\u2665 Mandated Smiles by Chase Will
\n\u2665 Metamorphosis by Ross Jeffery
\n\u2665 Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica
\n\u2665 Poking Holes by Juan Valencia![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/book_resisters.png?resize=188%2C300&ssl=1\")
\n\u2665 Resisters by Chris Campeau
\n\u2665 The Home by Judith Sonnet<\/p>\nPhysical Purchases<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Blood on the Tracks Vol. 1 by Shuzo Oshimi
\n\u2665 Dandadan Vol. 1-10 by Yukinobu Tatsu
\n\u2665 Dark’Un by Ronald Kelly
\n\u2665 Doomscrolling: And Other Stories by Judith Sonnet
\n\u2665 Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson
\n\u2665 Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
\n\u2665 Southern Fried & Horrified by Ronald Kelly
\n\u2665 The Essential Sick Stuff by Ronald Kelly
\n\u2665 Welcome Back Alice Vol. 1 by Shuzo Oshimi<\/p>\nAmazon First<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Glamorous Notions by Megan Chance
\n\u2665 The Rules of Fortune by Danielle Prescod<\/p>\n
\nNext Month<\/h2>\n
Books<\/strong>
\nI don’t know how much reading I’ll get done next month but I will absolutely be attending Scares That Care AuthorCon V in Williamsburg in March! My wallet is crying already just thinking about it. Some of my absolute favorite authors from the past few years are announced to be attending, especially Eric LaRocca, Judith Sonnet, and Kenzie Jennings. I almost fell out of my chair with excitement seeing Judith Sonnet’s name on the list, as I think she’s based out of the Midwest and there’s just no way that I can travel out of state for the next few years. I have a giant pile of her books at home that I am so excited to bring with me to get signed, and there are so many more that I can’t wait to get my grubby little paws on!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blog Updates Unexpectedly, I changed the layout again. Whoops! It took me a while to get the colors how I liked them, but I’m satisfied (for now). Posts Book Reviews…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3217],"tags":[],"book-author":[],"book-illustrator":[],"book-series":[],"book-publisher":[],"book-genre":[],"book-source":[],"book-format":[],"class_list":["post-23460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monthly-blog-review"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogreview_jan2025-header.png?fit=1080%2C540&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23460"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23529,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23460\/revisions\/23529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23460"},{"taxonomy":"book-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-author?post=23460"},{"taxonomy":"book-illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-illustrator?post=23460"},{"taxonomy":"book-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-series?post=23460"},{"taxonomy":"book-publisher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-publisher?post=23460"},{"taxonomy":"book-genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-genre?post=23460"},{"taxonomy":"book-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-source?post=23460"},{"taxonomy":"book-format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-format?post=23460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/manga_adabanavol3.png?resize=211%2C300&ssl=1\")
I had a really good month to start the year off with a bang! I was having a crazy good reading month with back to back streak five start incredible books, it’s one of the best reading months I’ve ever had. I was reading like crazy since the Christmas season, knocking out twelve in just the first two weeks before I ran into my first “meh” book, which I still haven’t finished and I’m not sure if I will at nearly 70%. I moved onto the most incredible and emotionally taxing manga series, Adabana<\/strong>, which wrecked me. I struggled with reading after that, finishing two more books which, while good, took me a lot more time to read. I started reading a few stories I enjoyed in a collection or two, but the motivation was gone and I was in a full-on reading slump.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/anime_dandadans1.png?resize=212%2C300&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n