The Weekend Wrap-Up offers a little look at what I’m 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 Stacking the Shelves, The Sunday Post and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? and hopping around your blogs a little to see what the community has to share too!

My Week

It has been an odd week for me. It’s been so hot, and I guess being on my own and stuck indoors triggered my depression so it’s been tough to get myself reading or doing much of anything. One moment I’m crying over how much “everyone hates me” and the next I’m singing and dancing around the place… haven’t had mood swings quite like this in a long time.

On Wednesday and Friday, we had some good news. I finally got a call back from the local mental health group on Wednesday. I’d 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’ll have my first appointment with them next Wednesday to go over where I’m 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’t actually say what Friday’s good news was, but it’s good enough to get a vague mention.

Dungeons & Dragons

My Sunday Dungeons & Dragons game ran this week! I’m fairly sure our fifth person is permanently out at this point as I haven’t heard from them, and I don’t think it’s 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’t in the right headspace but believe me, the next session will be *chef kiss*.

Reading

I’ve been trying to read Elantris by Brandon Sanderson but realised it’s 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’t 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’m in a better mood, for now, I’ve picked up my first of the Buffy books. I’m beginning with Coyote Moon, which also has a few issues but it’s a little faster-paced and a lot shorter. I also pulled out Hedge Druidry by Joanna van der Hoeven, it’s about time I tucked into some of my pagan/witchcraft books as well.

Watching

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 “don’t mess with that devil shit.” Frankly, I respect people’s opinions but this is people’s spirituality and it’s constantly hated on, I don’t 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’ll be happy to take a break while I read through the season one books.

Gaming Culture

Trigger Warning: Workplace Sexual Harassment, Suicide –

A lot of my energy this week also went into the news that came out about the court case filed against Activision-Blizzard for “frat boy culture” 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.

World of Warcraft was a massive part of my life for well over a decade, I wouldn’t have met my husband without it. I’m reeling from how bad the report is, how terrible Blizzard’s 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’t 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’s not going well for them. They deserve every ounce of the response they’re getting and we don’t even know the half of it right now.

On the Blog

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’re interested in science fiction at all.

• Weekend Wrap-Up: 17/07/2021
• Artifact Space Review
• Yet to Read Horrifically Haunted Buildings

Feedspot

Tangentially related, I received an email telling me that Dragons and Whimsy got featured on Feedspot’s top 100 UK book blogs list this week! I often find myself browsing those lists to find new people to check out so it’s pretty exciting to find myself right here.

Blog Hosting

I’ve 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’t exactly afford much, which makes BlueHost not really an option, I just can’t 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’m still undecided, though.

Incoming

The Wolf Den is a story of a woman in Pompeii sold into slavery in a brothel. I’m always interested in historical fiction set from ancient-to-medieval times and the opportunity to look into Pompeii’s culture somewhat, especially from the perspective of its women sounds great to me.

Troy is book 3 of Stephen Fry’s retellings of Greek mythology. I still haven’t read the first two but I’ll be getting around to it once the brain fog allows.

The Rage of Dragons is one I’ve seen mentioned among fantasy lovers a fair bit, it’s an African-inspired high fantasy set within a generations-long war.

The Starless Sea has been on my wishlist for a few years, I believe. I adored Erin Morgenstern’s writing in The Night Circus and this one become a must-read for me as a result, whatever it’s about. Luckily, we have a story about a book that unveils a world of magic and I’m so in.

Then we have a non-fiction book in The History of Magic. I’m a pagan witch so of course I’m 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.

And finally, Elvish. This one was free when I picked it up, it’s a story about a human in a world where elves and humans are mortal enemies, but of course he starts falling for an elf woman. I love me some elves, so it could be good, perhaps.

Next Week

Honestly, my main plans for the upcoming week are to continue doing my best to prevent myself from slipping into a depression. It’s hovering overhead like a big black cloud and I don’t want it. I have my appointment with the mental health group on Wednesday to talk about where I’m at, which I suppose came at a good time, and my vaccine appointment for Friday.

I also hope to run my Friday and Sunday D&D games next weekend. I hate when they fall in the same weekend but sometimes games get postponed and it’s just how they fall. I’m excited for the games themselves. And I need to push myself to read more. My struggles with Elantris and the heat and my mental health this week have let me lapse into my slumpy behaviour, so we’re still not out of the woods there, but I know it doesn’t have to be that way. Perhaps I’ll start reading something new, we’ll see!

How have your weeks been? Reading anything good? Got up to anything interesting? Let’s encourage each other in the comments! I’d love to hear what you’re all getting up to!