I used to believe that gaming meant only using a console, handheld, or using a PC. This summer, when I stayed in Winona, I discovered a cute little gaming store called River Quest.
My roommate got a job working there, so I was in the store at least once a week or every other week. I got to know the owner, who is one of the coolest guys in the Winona area. I was opened up to a world of a different type of gaming.
I’m creating a Bucket List of Board Games that I haven’t played yet, but I intend to. I will sticky this to the front page of the Gaming Section and I plan to update it as I play new games. Also, I hope to post a review on some of these board games especially the ones with the strikeout through the name. In the meantime, enjoy my bucket list! Also, feel free to comment with various board games that I can add to the list.
I finally finished my TBR. At this current moment, both my Goodreads and Storygraph Want to Read and To-Read Shelves list 0 books. This has been a long time coming. It was a few years ago that I decided to commit to and read every book on these shelves. I even went so far as to stop adding books to my TBR, so I could fully focus on this. Now, I have finally reached 0. I feel so proud of myself for finally achieving this. Throughout this process, I learned a lot about how I liked to read and I wanted to share different ways I will approach reading differently moving forward.
Setting a Maximum Amount of Books on my TBR
I will never, ever, have hundreds of books on my TBR. This stressed me out and made reading more of a chore than I wanted it to be. On top of that, it would take me years to finish my TBR and I want a TBR that could be managed or completed in one calendar year. When I think about what this magical number could be, my thought was twelve. If I were to read one physical book every month, I’d finish my TBR, so that’s why I think this number makes sense.
Re-Reading Books
Why bother reading a book if I wouldn’t want to re-read it in the future? My rule of thumb for a re-read is if it’s been at least five years since I first read the book, or if I pick up the book and don’t remember anything about it. I have a ton of books I love on my bookshelves that I’d like to pull off and re-read at some point. I want to keep prioritizing this as I don’t want to be a reader who only reads books once. One thing I love about Storygraph is there’s a notes section where you can type notes about a book as you read. I plan on utilizing that more with books I’m re-reading. I believe Goodreads has this too, but I never used it and I like the way Storygraph has this laid out.
Adding Comics to my TBR
I will keep this one short since I already wrote about my comics reading slump. I’m going to create a comics version of my Book Series Tracker and start consolidating which comic series I want to complete. I want to do a graphic novel cleanout and donate anything I don’t see myself re-reading again. On top of that, I want to create a list of all the graphic novels I need to purchase in order to finish that series. When I go comic shopping, I’d always forget which volume I need, so I want to have this organized, so my comic book store trips are more productive. I want to create this Comic Series Tracker in the next few weeks.
Logging Audiobooks with Libby, not through Goodreads or Storygraph
I used to track audiobooks on both my Goodreads and Storygraph shelves. I will no longer be doing this. The reason for this is that most of the time, the audiobooks I want to listen to are on a several month wait before I can listen to them. I feel they take up valuable space on my TBR, especially because it’s out of my control as to when I can finally listen to them. I figured out in Libby that you can create tags, so I created a TBR tag where I have been marking which audiobooks I want to listen to. This keeps me organized without clogging my physical TBR with audiobooks I won’t be able to listen to for at least three months or more.
Finishing More Series, BUT, discontinuing a series if I no longer enjoy it
Since creating my Book Series Tracker, I have completed at least five book series I was in the middle of. I’m on track to finish two more book series by the end of the year. While my book series tracker has kept me organized, I want to normalize discontinuing series that no longer bring me joy. If I’m not on the edge of my seat, counting down the days until I can read the next book in a series, it’s time to move on to something else.
As a reward for finishing my TBR, I decided that I won’t add any books to my Goodreads Want to Read shelf or my Storygraph To-Read pile. I am going to let myself mood read instead. Mood reading is what it sounds like, picking up books I’m in the mood to read instead of sticking to a set schedule of what I will be reading every month. I’m going to mood read for the rest of the year and then come back in 2027 with a full pile of books on my TBR.
For the first time ever, this year might be the first year I don’t attend a single convention. I had to question if that was true, but even in 2020, I still went to C2E2 before the entire world shut down. In 2021, I went to Planet Comic Con, so even with a pandemic, I still went to a convention both years. Normally, March is when I travel for Planet Comic Con, but there’s a high likelihood I won’t be attending this year. There’s a specific reason why I’m not attending conventions and cosplaying, but I won’t be sharing that in this post. I will be writing about it in the near future. With that said, I think it’s important to take breaks from hobbies every now and then.
Cosplay will always be a hobby I love. Since I’m attending fewer conventions this year than ever before, this inevitably means that I will be taking a break from cosplay, too. I’m okay with that. The nice thing about cosplaying for as long as I have is that I have a ton of cosplays to choose from. I don’t always need to create a new cosplay every year because there are so many cosplays I haven’t worn for a while, so I can pull one of those out of my closet to wear. With this break, I hope to come back rejuvenated. I think it will be easier for me to come up with new cosplays if I take some time away.
I’m fortunate that I took the time in my twenties to figure out my hobbies. I have a lot of interests, and I like investing in the things that make me happy. With that said, certain hobbies have ebbed and flowed throughout my life. There are certain hobbies, such as reading, exercising, and playing TTRPGs, that will always be around. Hobbies like playing video games and cosplay come in waves. If I’m not playing a video game that I’m into, I may go months without gaming, or if there isn’t a convention for several months, I am not doing a lot of cosplay prep. It doesn’t mean those hobbies matter less to me.
I am looking forward to returning to conventions and cosplay in the future! 2026 may be a lighter year for me, but I plan on coming back strong in 2027.
I didn’t realize this, but you can rent e-books from the library through Libby and read them on your Kindle. That’s so slick! I was exclusively listening to audiobooks on Libby and didn’t realize that renting e-books was an option. To test this out, I rented We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark. I found out about this book from thtgrlreads as she read this book earlier this year and loved it. We Who Will Die is a solid first book in a series, and I’m excited for the next book to come out.
Spoilers for We Who Will Die Below
“Because a man has wronged you. Women have been each other’s sword and shield since the beginning.”
Arvelle Dacien lives a rough life with her brothers. Her brother, Evren, has a lung disease, which Arvelle doesn’t have the resources to treat. Arvelle is offered a deal: Evren can be healed if Arvelle can kill the Emperor. To do so, Arvelle has to enter a competition called the Sundering, and if she wins, she could be placed on the Emperor’s guard. While Arvelle may be offered a losing deal, she would do anything to make sure her brother gets the cure that he needs.
This might be a longer book review, but I have a lot of thoughts! Starting with Arvelle, I like how she’s portrayed as being rough around the edges. She isn’t this sweet protagonist. She’s cold-hearted and has trouble trusting people in her life. This comes from the death of her friend Kassia, who died in a competition both she and Arvelle were competing in. When Arvelle agrees to this deal, she takes Leon with her to act as her mentor. Leon happens to be Kassia’s father. There are times when I genuinely don’t like Arvelle, nor do I agree with her actions. However, I understood why she was the way she was. The way that Arvelle treats Maeva, another competitor in the Sundering sucked and Maeva calls her out for it later in the book. As the story unfolds, Arvelle matures and grows as a person. She starts to build upon her relationships and realizes she can’t keep living her life this way. I liked seeing that growth from her. It leaves potential for Arvelle to grow in future books.
While this is Arvelle’s story, another thing I liked about the book was all the side characters. Maeva is one character I highlighted already, and I adore her. Give Maeva her own book. I liked her story and her family dynamic, which led to her competing in the Sundering. Maeva and Arvelle end up becoming good friends. There are all the other gladiators, like Hester, who gets what’s coming to her. If you know, you know. Leon, what a gem. Leon keeps Arvelle in line and calls her out when she isn’t paying attention or is planning on doing something she shouldn’t. While we don’t get to meet Kassia, she plays a crucial role for both Arvelle and Leon. There are so many interesting characters in this book, which adds to my enjoyment of the series.
With this book being advertised as romantasy, I have to talk about the romance. Our book boyfriend is Tiernon, a former lover from Arvelle’s past who left her without warning. There’s a lot to unpack there since he did leave for a reason, which is revealed later. I think it’s safe to say there’s a love triangle being built with Tiernon, Arvelle, and Rorrik, Tiernon’s vampire brother. I am waiting for the ball to drop for Tiernon. I think he’s hiding something, and he doesn’t want to tell Arvelle about it because he’s afraid that he will lose her. I could be wrong, but something doesn’t feel right about him. The romance is fine, but I think it needs more time to develop.
When I write a book review, I like to read other reviews from other readers. There were a few critiques other readers brought up that I agreed with. The first is that Arvelle is portrayed as almost too weak at times. This goes beyond being out of shape and having an ankle injury. It seemed that every physical fight she was in, she struggled. It was almost to the point where I was questioning how on earth she won the Sands? There was never a moment when Arvelle won her fight by a landslide. This might be me being too nitpicky, but if she won this competition, why does she seem like such a beginner during her training? The last thing I wanted to say was how I feel like there’s too much going on in this book. Dare I say that vampires felt out of place? This book features vampires, gladiators, sigil magic, gods, pixies, centaurs, and wyverns. I think if Stacia had taken two of these things and honed in on them, it would have made the book better.
We Who Will Die is if the movie Gladiator had vampires. I think this was a great first book in a series, and there’s a lot of hype for the second book. If anything happens to Maeva, I will rage quit this series. I rated We Who Will Die four stars on both Goodreads and Storygraph.
When was the last time you read a magazine? I asked myself this same question, and I genuinely can’t remember. I used to read Seventeen and Teen Vogue when I was younger, and then transitioned to Cosmopolitan. I haven’t had a true magazine subscription in years. I was delighted when I discovered Cozy Companion, a cozy games and fiction magazine published by game studio Snowbright Studio. What drew me to Cozy Companion was getting more cozy game recommendations. It didn’t matter to me if those recommendations were video games, board games, or TTRPGs. I have since read two of their digital issues, and I can’t recommend the magazine enough.
Starting with gaming, there are different games being featured and interviews with game studios. In the October 2025 issue, I found out about Dredge, a sinister fishing game. I have since added it to my wishlist on Switch. It was interesting reading the interview with the developers to understand why they made the game and what drew them to the cozy horror genre. When reading this section, I saw some of the other recommendations, including the board game Mysterium, Call of Cthulhu, and Arkham Horror,which are all games I either own or have played extensively. In the November 2025 issue, there’s an exclusive interview with Archeron, who’s publishing Pumpkin Spice, a cozy RPG set at a coffee shop. I had this system on my radar as I had signed up to follow their campaign on BackerKit. Each issue of Cozy Companion I have read so far has been entertaining to read.
Besides gaming, there’s more that each issue has to offer. There’s a section on crafting, either with crochet, and one issue featured how to make a felt dice tray. I have a lot of admiration for those who are crafty because it can’t be me. The crafts don’t interest me, but I think they would probably interest other people. There are also short stories, recipes, and interviews with the artists who design the cover of each magazine. There’s something here for everyone, even if you are a casual gamer.
I haven’t signed up for a regular subscription yet, as I have been buying some of the back issues as digital copies. Each subscription allows you a choice of either digital or print. Once I get caught up on their back issues, I see no reason why I wouldn’t subscribe to Cozy Companion.
I have talked about Private Nightmares in various blog posts, but I haven’t dedicated an entire post to talking about this live play. It’s about time I write about Private Nightmares because it’s one of my favorite TTRPG live plays I have watched. I found out about Private Nightmares last year through an announcement by Alexander Ward, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite players and now storytellers to watch. In partnership with Joey Rassool, a player on NY By Night, they launched Project Ghostlight, a home for Vampire: The Masquerade live streams, specifically Private Nightmares. Private Nightmares is so unsettling and perfectly captures the horror of Vampire: The Masquerade.
Private Nightmares follows a thin-blood coterie. Naomi (played by Mayanna Berrin), Katie (played by Aabria Iyengar), Gable (played by Xander Jeanneret), Eddie (played by Luis Carazo), and Jade (played by Gina DeVivo) are a thin-blood coterie who are trying to discover what that actually means in LA, and establish their place in vampire society. For those who aren’t sure what I mean when I say thin-blood, thin-bloods are Kindred who have diluted vampire blood, so they aren’t seen as full vampires. As such, they are often looked down upon. It makes for an interesting story to see how these characters view the Camarilla and vampire society as a whole.
The whole cast is amazing at what they do. It’s hard to choose a favorite character, because everyone has their own story. I think it’s easy to say Jade is a standout. The way she approaches situations with this innocence is realistic in finding out what she’s capable of as a vampire. I was reading some comments online about how her sire may be Malkavian, and that fits. Katie and Naomi have had a ton of great moments together. Another thing I like about this actual play is how they navigate missing players at the table. For example, Naomi wasn’t around for several episodes, but when she came back, she stated how she owed the Camarilla because of the catastrophe at the museum. It keeps the story moving and still keeps the cast engaged if they can’t film every episode together.
Alexander Ward, as the storyteller, is easily another strength of the series. The way that this is filmed is unlike any actual play I watched. I appreciate the way Alexander portrays the beast in the characters. He will sit on the back of the player’s chairs or lean down close to them to whisper dialogue. It’s unsettling, which is how it should be. I’m not sure where they film this series, but I like how the players can get up and walk around, too. It feels like I’m watching a theater production in addition to a TTRPG being played.
Private Nightmares is one of my favorite Vampire: The Masquerade live plays I have ever watched. I’m curious to see how long this coterie will go for and if they will do more live plays in the future. If you haven’t checked it out, you need to, or if you have always been interested in Vampire: The Masquerade, this is a great live play to watch to dip your feet into all things World of Darkness.
I read Mallory Marlowe’s first book, Love and Other Conspiracies, last year, and I loved it. I like how her books are standalone, meaning you don’t necessarily need to read the first book to understand the others. There will be small references here and there, but not enough to distract you from reading. Her second book, Love at First Sighting, was released last year, so I knew I wanted to read it eventually. As a Christmas present last year, I received Love at First Sighting, so I ended up saving it for February, as that’s when I read romance. Love at First Sighting was adorable, albeit the plot is a little far-fetched, but I don’t care.
Influencer El Martin truly believes she saw aliens. She posts it in her livestream, not really thinking much of it. However, this is quickly put on Agent Carter Brody’s plate as he works for the government to cover up all potential alien sightings. He meets her and is floored by who El is. She isn’t like what he sees of her online. They both end up finding commonality in figuring out what El saw that day. When they investigate, they realize something more sinister is happening, especially when it comes to what happened to Carter’s father all those years ago.
I loved Carter; he’s such a sweetheart. When Carter was young, his father passed away, and Carter saw something that day. Carter’s story is arguably more interesting than El’s because of wanting to find answers. Carter is a gem, and he needs to be protected at all costs. El grew on me eventually, but I did find her grating at first. She’s an influencer, and she has that attitude of advertising products she doesn’t believe in, but it’s fine because it’s for Instagram. Her friends are insufferable, and while El realizes this, she doesn’t stick up for herself. She lets her friends be shitty people. El eventually comes around and calls out her friends and sticks up for Carter. This book does a great job at portraying influencer culture as being as cringe as it is.
This was adorable. Mallory Marlowe’s books have all been great, and I look forward to reading whatever she publishes. I rated Love at First Sighting four stars on both Goodreads and Storygraph.
This is one of the few blog posts where I’m turning off comments. I’m not interested in debate, and since this is my space on the internet, I’m allowed to control that if I so choose. I write for Bizarre Brunette as a hobby and a way to distract from the world that we live in. With that said, I can’t stay silent about what’s going on in Minneapolis these past few weeks. Our communities have been thrown into turmoil, and human rights are being violated. All thanks to ICE being brought to Minnesota. I do not stand or condone what ICE has been doing, and they need to leave Minnesota.
Since ICE has arrived, two people have been murdered. Their names are Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. If you don’t believe that they were murdered, I have nothing else that I want to say to you. If you are watching what’s happening and it’s horrifying to you as well, say something! We, as the people of this country, can come together and speak up about the atrocities that ICE is committing. If you’re able to financially donate, I have been making contributions to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, which is a non-profit that provides free legal representation to low-income immigrants.
ICE is not the good guys. It doesn’t matter if they are federal agents; we cannot forget what they have done to Minnesota.
I came across an article in which Paradox, the company aiding in the release of Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2, reported lower profits due to Bloodlines 2 not performing well. I finished Bloodlines 2, and I don’t feel at all surprised by this admission. It’s unfortunate, considering Bloodlines 2 had a lot of potential to bring new players into White Wolf and the other World of Darkness TTRPG games. There will be additional DLC released later in the year focusing on Benny and Ysabella. Once that happens, I think Bloodlines 2 will be left alone. This made me think about White Wolf as a company and what I’d love to see for the franchise’s future.
I’d love to see more marketing of these games, specifically Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Hunter: The Reckoning. It feels like these games aren’t being marketed well, or that there aren’t many live plays where groups are actively playing them. To play devil’s advocate, it might be that I don’t know these live plays exist, and these games could be played more often than I’m made aware of. If so, help a girl out. Feel free to drop any live play recommendations for these games in the comments below. In scrolling through the World of Darkness YouTube channel, there are a few live plays for these games, but they are far and few in between. I’d love to see World of Darkness promoting and boosting smaller creators who livestream these games, as I think it’s a win-win for everyone. White Wolf can promote channels playing their games, and small creators get more viewers from other gamers, like me, who want to watch these games being played. I feel that there isn’t enough of that right now, which is a shame. It’s a big missed opportunity as Vampire: The Masquerade is arguably the more popular game, but it also has more content, which helps people buy more TTRPG books.
Speaking of promotion, I’d like to see more TTRPG books that highlight a specific city. I’m reading Chicago By Night now, and I find the book fascinating! I have been to Chicago several times, so it’s been fun to see specific areas of the city being highlighted and which vampire clan has control. I think it helps build up more lore for the games if there were more books dedicated to highlighting various cities around the globe.
The other thing that I notice is how much is invested into “Month of Darkness”. “Month of Darkness” is when World of Darkness has various prompts throughout the month in honor of Halloween and the spookier season. This creates a lot of buzz and excitement for the franchise. Once October is over, though, it seems like nothing happens. I went to the World of Darkness YouTube channel, and since October of last year, there have only been eight videos uploaded, the most recent one uploaded a month ago. Without being repetitive, it would be great to see something happening on the channel in the other months.
Now that Bloodlines 2 has been released and the financials are public, I’d like to see more live plays and advertising from White Wolf and World of Darkness for both Werewolf and Hunter. If they don’t invest in these games, why should I?
I bought Vagrant Song at Gen Con in 2023. I was drawn to the game originally because of the art, which reminds me of the game Cuphead. I liked how this game is cooperative, and that there are several different scenarios to play. I get the most value out of board games that offer a ton of replayability. Vagrant Song is a game I occasionally bring to my family’s board game days. We succeeded in playing two different scenarios, “When You Dig My Grave” and “Suffocation Station”. Eventually, I’d love to say that I played every single scenario in the base game.
Vagrant Song is one of those games where you have to relearn how to play the game if it’s been a few years since you last played. When we last played, we took pictures of our characters to save our game and items. These pictures were dated from November 2023. It’s wild to me that it was almost three years ago. It makes sense since we rotate out the games we play. It took about an hour to re-read the rules and set up the scenario. In the first scenario, “When You Dig My Grave”, we had to put the haint, the terminology Vagrant Song uses to describe a ghost, to rest. Each scenario includes a series of rituals, and if you complete the ritual, you can unlock various power-ups after the scenario concludes. In one such ritual, we unlocked a vial of poison that my character has on their character card. It’s neat to be able to take items into future scenarios in the game. Once we finished the scenario, we realized we played the game wrong. We had all our characters take a turn, then the haint would take their turn. Instead, the haint should have had a turn after each of the characters. Oops. If I type this out in this blog post, maybe we will remember to play the game correctly in the future.
In the second scenario, “Suffocation Station,” the goal was not to free the haints, but to complete all the rituals or the events on the board. I liked this a lot. It made the game different since our strategy had to change. Most of the scenarios in the game include giving humanity to the haints, so they can be put to rest instead of wandering the train, which is why this scenario was unique. After completing this scenario, we packed up, took pictures of our characters, and saved the game.
Vagrant Song remains one of my favorite board games in my collection. I like how there is still so much of the game that we haven’t discovered yet. This has become one of our favorite games we play, and hopefully, we will get to the point where we have played every single scenario in the scenario book.
Last month, Animal Crossing: New Horizons released its new update. The main addition was adding the hotel, which sits on the ocean alongside the pier. With the hotel, players can now decorate hotel rooms and see different villagers visiting their island. The update has invigorated my love for Animal Crossing, as I have been playing the game every chance I can. I have gone through a recent slump where I went eight months (the game reminded me of this) without playing. With the update, I have been playing Animal Crossing regularly, and I feel motivated to go back and accomplish things that I was missing.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Hotel! – Screenshot taken by me in-game.
Starting with the hotel, I like being able to decorate the rooms. I find the task itself to be relaxing. When beginning to decorate a room, you can choose two different themes. From there, each room has various furniture items, flooring, and wallpaper, so you can choose how you want the room to look. I find that I do this every time I log into the game. The more rooms that are decorated, the more items are unlocked in the hotel’s souvenir shop. One of my favorite items I unlocked is a cat plushie that sits in my LEGO-themed room. I’m not sure how many more items I could unlock, but it’s been fun to see what else is included in the update. Another task that’s kept me busy is crafting items. Outside the hotel is a box where you can craft items to put into the box that are shipped off the island. It’s an easy way to get more currency to spend at the hotel.
Speaking of the update, another feature I like is the multi-craft feature. Before the update, you could only craft one item at a time. Now, you can craft multiple of the same item. For example, I’m trying to complete my fish encyclopedia, so having fish bait on hand can help attract the fish I need. Before, I could craft one fish bait, but now I can craft seven at once as long as I have the materials needed. Another way that I’m using the multi-craft feature is to craft flimsy tools, so I can break them to earn more Nook Miles I was missing. The last thing I will say about this is the ability to use items from your home storage. This is so slick! I don’t have to carry everything in my pockets anymore. As long as it’s in my home’s inventory, I can pull it to craft with it. Crafting has been made so much better thanks to this update.
The final thing I have done is create a guide to everything I still need to unlock in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I have a table of all the fish, sea creatures, and bugs I need to catch, along with the Nook Miles I haven’t unlocked yet. I have highlighted certain creatures that are available this time of year and what time I need to play to unlock them. This has been super helpful! Since I created the guide, I have caught at least two fish and two insects I was missing. My husband asked me if I could change the date and time on my Switch to the times of year I need, and I could, but that’s cheating! I want to unlock this fair and square.
The new update has made Animal Crossing: New Horizons fresh again! I’m glad that this update was made for both Switch and Switch 2. I don’t think I would have upgraded to the Switch 2 solely because of this update had it not been made available on the Switch. I’m not sure how long I will keep playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but I know this update will keep me busy for the next month at least.
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