In case you missed it, last week I posted Part 1 of my May recap, which was essentially a giant writing update. If you want to know about what I’m currently writing, make sure you go read it!
This second part is going to be focused on what books I’ve been loving, and some other fun reading updates!
Audiobooks
For Christmas last year, I got a five month subscription to Audible, so I’ve been listening to a bunch of audiobooks the past several months! I’ve also become even more aware of how important a good narrator is. I might not listen to a great book if it has a narrator I don’t like. But if it has a good narrator—the experience is awesome. And there are some talented audiobook narrators!
Right now, I’m listening to the audiobook of Orphan’s Song by Gillian Bronte Adams, as well as The Luck Child by Rebekah Shafer. I’m enjoying both of them! I’ve actually read a physical copy of Orphan’s Song before, but listening to the audiobook has been pretty fun.
Favorite 2021 Reads So Far
So far, I’ve read fifty-two books this year, which is pretty average. I read about one hundred books a year. And a lot of the books I’ve read this year have been ARCs (advanced readers copy), which has been pretty fun. I’ve been involved with a lot of book tours and street teams, which is how I’ve gotten ARCs.
A lot of the fifty-two books I’ve read this year have been awesome reads. Here are a couple of the books I’ve really enjoyed.
- Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier (one of my all-time favorite books!)
- Calculated and Simulated by Nova McBee
- A Pocket Full of Murder by R. J. Anderson (review coming soon!)
- Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer
- Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce
I’m sorry I only have reviews for a couple of those! If you want a content warning about a book I don’t have a review for, leave a comment and I’ll do my best to remember any cautions!
Currently Reading and on the TBR
Right now I’m currently reading How to Get Away with Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce (the sequel to Premediated Myrtle) and a manuscript, which I’ll explain more about in the next section! I’m enjoying both. How to Get Away with Myrtle is a really fun book so far. The character voices are awesome.
For those of you who don’t know, TBR stands for To Be Read. It essentially refers to all of the books that I want to read someday. And my TBR is so long. Seriously. If I made a book stack of all the books I wanted to read, I would definitely be in danger of it toppling over on top of me.
However, I don’t have a giant stack of books, and I only focus on the books I’m going to be reading shortly. And most of the books I’m planning to read next are more ARCs!
Two of the books I’m reading soon are These War-Torn Hands by Emily Hayse and Ignite by Jenna Terese. You can expect both of the those books to appear on the blog in the next month or so since I’m a part of blog tours for both! These War-Torn Hands is a Arthurian retelling set in the Wild West, and Ignite is a superhero story. I’m excited to read both of them.
My Internship with Illuminate YA
This is probably the update most of you have been looking forward to. If you skipped everything to just read this part, I won’t judge you. 😉
Back around the beginning of April, Illuminate YA, a small Christian/clean publishing house, announced that they had a couple internship positions I open. And I applied and was accepted!
I’m interning in the acquisitions department of Illuminate, which means that I’m reading and evaluating manuscripts that have been submitted to the publishing house, and then sending my evaluations to the head of the acquisitions department. So far, I’ve done evaluations for two manuscripts, and am currently reading my third manuscript.
This internship has been super fun. It’s been super neat to get a peek into the acquisitions process and learn more about other careers in the publishing industry besides writing.
It’s also showed me that I need to broaden my genre horizons. I normally read speculative fiction, which is the main genre I write. Of the three manuscripts I’ve read for Illuminate, I’ve read a contemporary, a historical fiction, and a fantasy manuscript. I’ve realized that I need to familiarize myself with other genres more so that I can better evaluate manuscripts, and also because there are various things to learn from each genre.
That’s about all of my reading news!
If you want to hear me ramble about books more often, make sure you follow either my Facebook page or Instagram! I talk about lots of books there. 🙂
What have you been reading and loving? Do you like listening to audiobooks?
Hailey Huntington 