The Weekend Wrap-Up offers a little look at what I\u2019m reading, the new books that came my way, and anything else I may have gotten up to this past week. I will be linking up to\u00a0Stacking the Shelves<\/a>,\u00a0The Sunday Post<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0It\u2019s Monday! What Are You Reading?<\/a>\u00a0and hopping around your blogs a little to see what the community has to share too!<\/p>\n It has been an odd week for me. It\u2019s been so hot, and I guess being on my own and stuck indoors triggered my depression so it\u2019s been tough to get myself reading or doing much of anything. One moment I\u2019m crying over how much \u201ceveryone hates me\u201d and the next I\u2019m singing and dancing around the place\u2026 haven\u2019t had mood swings quite like this in a long time. <\/p>\n On Wednesday and Friday, we had some good news. I finally got a call back from the local mental health group on Wednesday. I\u2019d been on the waiting list since the end of October last year. The waiting list is usually several months long but apparently the pandemic just threw everything out of whack. I\u2019ll have my first appointment with them next Wednesday to go over where I\u2019m at. I also received my letter inviting me for my second Covid vaccine on the 30th! With all of that in mind, a Chinese takeaway and some time spent playing Phasmophobia with my best friend, it was a good day. I can\u2019t actually say what Friday\u2019s good news was, but it\u2019s good enough to get a vague mention.<\/p>\n My Sunday Dungeons & Dragons game ran this week! I\u2019m fairly sure our fifth person is permanently out at this point as I haven\u2019t heard from them, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s any fault of theirs. We also missed our Druid so it was a three-person session. They gained some decent information and went seeking their kidnapped friend in the ruins of the old manor house. It was so good. We postponed my Friday game for another week because a couple of us weren\u2019t in the right headspace but believe me, the next session will be *chef kiss*.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been trying to read Elantris by Brandon Sanderson but realised it\u2019s not doing it for me right now. Some of the dialogue feels so forced, the Raoden chapters are intriguing but really slow going, and the religion angle is putting me off big time. I really don\u2019t think it needs the Hrathen perspective at all. Sarene is cool though. I think I just need to set it aside and come back to it when I\u2019m in a better mood, for now I\u2019ve picked up my first of the Buffy books. I\u2019m beginning with Coyote Moon, which also has a few issues but it\u2019s a little faster-paced and a lot shorter. I also pulled out Hedge Druidry by Joanna van der Hoeven, it\u2019s about time I tucked into some of my pagan\/witchcraft books as well.<\/p>\n I finished watching Never Have I Ever, which was a joy. I really liked Ben, Fabiola, and Kamala as characters. I also continued with the new season of Drag Race AllStars. It was a fun challenge this week: RuMerican Horror Story: Coven Girls. I adore American Horror Story so watching their drag parody take on it was delightful. I did get a bit uncomfortable when the queens had a little conversation in the workroom about witchcraft and how they \u201cdon\u2019t mess with that devil shit.\u201d Frankly, I respect people\u2019s opinions but this is people\u2019s spirituality and it\u2019s constantly hated on, I don\u2019t think they needed to air that. And then I continued with my Buffy rewatch. I should only have a couple episodes left of season one and then I\u2019ll be happy to take a break while I read through the season one books.<\/p>\n Trigger Warning: Workplace Sexual Harassment, Suicide \u2013<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n A lot of my energy this week also went into the news that came out about the court case filed against Activision-Blizzard<\/a> for \u201cfrat boy culture\u201d that allowed sexual harassment and disgusting misogyny to fester for years in the company, ultimately leading to the untimely death of one woman who took her own life. The whole thing is disgusting and a lot of people are swearing off Blizzard games and products for good, as a result. <\/p>\n World of Warcraft was a massive part of my life for well over a decade, I wouldn\u2019t have met my husband without it. I\u2019m reeling from how bad the report is, how terrible Blizzard\u2019s response has been, and how much so many women have suffered and are suffering. And I hate that the thing that made me quit and swear off of Blizzard products wasn\u2019t even close to the worst thing they could do. As the days go by, Blizzard and the people who used to work there continue to ignore the disgusting things that happened under their watch, continue to make shitty decisions and it\u2019s not going well for them. They deserve every ounce of the response they\u2019re getting and we don\u2019t even know the half of it right now. <\/p>\n I managed to get my review written and posted for Artifact Space by Miles Cameron this week. Pretty proud of this review, definitely recommend it if you\u2019re interested in science fiction at all. <\/p>\n Tangentially related, I received an email telling me that Dragons and Whimsy got featured on Feedspot\u2019s top 100 UK book blogs<\/a> list this week! I often find myself browsing those lists to find new people to check out so it\u2019s pretty exciting to find myself right here.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve also been looking into hosting this past week. I know that the free WordPress platform works just fine for me, but I miss having the freedom that hosting offers with themes and customisation and plugins and all sorts of things. I can\u2019t exactly afford much, which makes BlueHost not really an option, I just can\u2019t afford to pay such a big upfront cost, it has to be a pay monthly situation, and something that fits within my low budget. So I was looking at the upgrade options for wordpress.com, DreamHost, HostGator, and HostPapa. I\u2019m still undecided, though.<\/p>\n A few different books for the ebook collection this week, all 99p or free. <\/p>\n The Wolf Den<\/a><\/strong> is a story of a woman in Pompeii sold into slavery in a brothel. I\u2019m always interesting in historical fiction set from ancient-to-medieval times and the opportunity to look into Pompeii\u2019s culture somewhat, especially from the perspective of its women sounds great to me. <\/p>\n Troy<\/a><\/strong> is book 3 of Stephen Fry\u2019s retellings of Greek mythology. I still haven\u2019t read the first two but I\u2019ll be getting around to it once the brain fog allows. <\/p>\n The Rage of Dragons<\/a><\/strong> is one I\u2019ve seen mentioned among fantasy lovers a fair bit, it\u2019s an African-inspired high fantasy set within a generations-long war. <\/p>\n The Starless Sea<\/a><\/strong> has been on my wishlist for a few years, I believe. I adored Erin Morgenstern\u2019s writing in The Night Circus and this one become a must-read for me as a result, whatever it\u2019s about. Luckily, we have a story about a book that unveils a world of magic and I\u2019m so in. <\/p>\n Then we have a non-fiction book in The History of Magic<\/a><\/strong>. I\u2019m a pagan witch so of course I\u2019m always looking for interesting books about magical beliefs and practices throughout history. This one is on the historical side of things and it claims to look into magic from the Ice Age up to the present day. <\/p>\nMy Week<\/h2>\n
Dungeons & Dragons<\/h4>\n
Reading<\/h4>\n
Watching<\/h4>\n
Gaming Culture<\/h4>\n
On the Blog<\/h2>\n
Feedspot<\/h4>\n
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Incoming<\/h2>\n
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