Music Monday (244): Wednesday Campanella, Spelding's Jazz Orchestra, Adani & Wolf

Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: My pick this week is a song by Wednesday Campanella, a musical group. The song is called The Bamboo Princess, and I love it. It's from some of their older music, before the previous singer, KOM_I, left the group in 2021. I like the newer music, but I also enjoy the singing style of their backlist too.

Adri: I'm listening to The Oxford Hustle by Adani & Wolf. I'm also listening to Vegas by the Spelding's Jazz Orchestra, which is the theme song of the TV show, Vega$. Some time ago, I noticed certain points were a little bit similar. Honestly, it contributed to my love of both songs. 

What are you listening to this week?

The Friday 56 (235) & Book Beginnings: Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you're reading.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

Wealth. Power. Murder. Magic. Alex Stern is back and the Ivy League is going straight to hell in #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo's Hell Bent.

Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory―even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale. Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls.

Thick with history and packed with Bardugo’s signature twists, Hell Bent brings to life an intricate world full of magic, violence, and all too real monsters.

Beginning: "Alex approached Black Elm as if she were sidling up to a wild animal, cautious in her walk up the long, curving driveway, careful not to show her fear."

56: "Dawes kept her eyes on the window. There wasn't much to see--the ally, the side of a neatly upkept Victorian."

Comments: I had so much fun with Ninth House's sequel, Hell Bent. What are you reading this week?

Upcoming Music I'm Waiting For

It’s June. A whole six months are already gone, but since we’re finally entering the second half of 2023, it was high time that I put together another list of the upcoming music I’m looking forward to.

 

• Feed the Beast by Kim Petras (June 23): I’ve been following Kim Petras’s music for a while now, so I’m ecstatic about this new album.

• Weedkiller by Ashnikko (August 25): I listen to Ashnikko on occasion. After her Coachella performance, I’ve had a renewed interest. So, Weedkiller is definitely on the top of my list for upcoming albums.

• Tension by Kylie Minogue (September 22): Minogue is one of my favorite artists, and my most anticipated album for the second half of 2023 is this one. There have been two singles released—10 Out of 10, and the more recent Padam Padam—and, so far, I’m liking the vibe.

Unconfirmed

• Second studio album by Lil Nas X: I really liked Lil Nas X’s first studio album, Montero. So I’m looking forward to his next one. The date is unconfirmed for this one, so who knows if it’ll be released sometime in 2023 or next year.

• Fourth Studio album by Doja Cat: The date is also unconfirmed as of the time I wrote this post, so there aren’t any singles that I know of yet. But, I’ve done some reading up about this album, and it seems like it could be a lot different from what I’ve come to expect from Doja Cat. However, I’m looking forward to that.

So, that’s everything I’m looking forward to at the moment. As always, this list isn’t comprehensive and depends on my taste in music. What music are you waiting for? If you have any good recommendations, just leave them in the comments below.

Music Monday (243): Lexie Liu, Earth Wind & Fire, Kylie Minogue

Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: Recently, I've been listening to a lot of music by Lexie Liu. I stumbled onto her stuff a few months back thanks to a recommendation from Spotify, and, since then, I've been into her album called The Happy Star. One of my favorite songs so far is MIRA.

Adri: I'm listening to Padam Padam by Kylie Minogue. I love the sound and can't wait for the new album.

Andrea: Hi all! This week I'm listening to Boogie Wonderland by Earth, Wind & Fire. Have a great week!

What are you listening to this week?

The Border Keeper by Kerstin Hall

Title: The Border Keeper
Series: Mkalis Cycle #1
Author:  Kerstin Hall
Source/Format: Tor.com ebook club; ebook
More Details: Fantasy
Publisher/Publication Date: Tor.com; July 16, 2019

Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble 

Synopsis from Goodreads...

She lived where the railway tracks met the saltpan, on the Ahri side of the shadowline. In the old days, when people still talked about her, she was known as the end-of-the-line woman.

Vasethe, a man with a troubled past, comes to seek a favor from a woman who is not what she seems, and must enter the nine hundred and ninety-nine realms of Mkalis, the world of spirits, where gods and demons wage endless war.

The Border Keeper spins wonders both epic—the Byzantine bureaucracy of hundreds of demon realms, impossible oceans, hidden fortresses—and devastatingly personal—a spear flung straight, the profound terror and power of motherhood. What Vasethe discovers in Mkalis threatens to bring his own secrets into light and throw both worlds into chaos.

The second Tor.com ebook club title that I tackled at the end of April was Kerstin Hall’s The Border Keeper. It was another quick read, and I was drawn in by how the world was introduced. There was plenty of lore basically from the first page, and I was intrigued by the titular border keeper as well as the various worlds and people that inhabited them. The other main character, Vasethe, had his secrets/reasons for seeking out the border keeper. It served as the catalyst for the subsequent events. The questions I had about his motivations was one of the main reasons I kept reading.

 
If I have to describe this novella as anything, it would be the kind of story that has the characters traveling to various places for the majority of the time. These locations were interesting, detailed, and unique from one another. The rest of the story was explained in scattered pieces, while the ending was just kind of abrupt. And I closed the novella feeling as if I had missed half of the action. So, the story was just fine this time.