Amanda Reads: Issue 43

Your reading recommendations and tarot reading for the week of 5/22/23

Happy Monday and a happy beginning of Gemini season, my friends! The weather has been lovely here in PA, and it’s that point in spring where baby animals abound. My dog caught a tiny groundhog (don’t worry, my husband made her let it go), and there are three baby chicks in the nest on our porch.

Also being reborn for spring? My allergies. Joy upon joy. Does being allergic to grass stop me from sitting out in the yard in the new lounge chair my husband got me for reading in the sun? Not at all.

Speaking of reading, let’s get to this week’s book and reading recommendations, shall we?

Book Rec of the Week

It’s been a bit since a book has made me cry, which is a tad unusual for me. Last week, Anabel Monaghan’s Same Time Next Summer managed the task, which means it’s got to be the book rec for the week! Many thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s sons for the eARC of this one.

This book follows Sam, who has avoided her family’s beach house ever since the boy she fell in love with there broke her heart. Now, she’s returning with her fiancé to check out a potential wedding venue, and that means coming face to face with her lost love… and the parts of herself she left behind, as well. “Woman chooses between current partner and long lost love” isn’t a trope I typically enjoy, but Monaghan pulls it off beautifully here. This book isn’t out yet, but you can preorder it if it sounds like your thing! It comes out on June 6th, so you won’t have long to wait!

Tarot Reading of the Week

Deck Used: The Llewellyn Tarot

Card of the Week: Three of Cups

This is a card of celebration and social gatherings, which invites us to revel in the joy our connections can bring us if we let them. Whether you have a social gathering coming up or not, this is a reminder that you may benefit from spending some time enjoying the company of others. So if you have plans, enjoy them, and if you don’t, consider making some.

Words from the Web

I’ve been spending a lot of time reading the captions and prompts in Skyrim and not a ton of time reading much else this past week. My current attempt to complete every quest I can find is showing me just how rich this game world is, and how seemingly unending the gameplay is. This is both a good thing (yay, fun) and a bad one (boo, slightly addictive personality).

I did get a bit of writing done, in the form of unpacking why I couldn’t make myself train for the half marathon I signed up for with a friend. Not to mention why, the instant it was over, I suddenly felt like running again.

I’ve been thinking about writing a sequel to my old humor essay about playing Skyrim, but we’ll see if I can get anything interesting out of my return to Tamriel.

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That’s all for issue 43! I hope you’ve got a solid week ahead, with plenty of good reading in whatever form you like it.

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