1 + 6 + 15 for the book asks! šāØļø
Yay thank you!
1. book youāve reread the most times?
Probablyyyy Nation by Terry Pratchett at this point. I re-read it pretty much every year and it never gets old, just so damn good!
6. what books have you read in the last month?
Ooh you've caught me on a good reading month! Since it was Summerween last week, I've read a lot of horror. Since the start of July, I've finished:
- Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle (I find Chuck Tingle's books kind of hit and miss tbh, even though I appreciate him as a human being. I dropped this one for a few months and picked it back up and I liked it fine, but nothing to write home about for me)
- Feast While You Can by Mikaela Clements and Onjuli Datta (LOVED this one SO much, such interesting well-explored themes of family and hometown and queerness and race and how these intersect, PLUS an extremely juicy relationship between the protagonist Angelina, her brother Patrick ā who lived on their own together since their mother essentially abandoned them in their mid teens, and Patrick's ex-girlfriend Jagvi, who cheated on him with a girl when they were teenagers (and Angelina was the one who found out!) but they're still best friends; Jagvi left their small town for the city but she's back to sort out her dad's house after his death; Angelina has a real hate boner for Jagvi and it's soooooooo good. PLUS there's a monster possessing Angelina and her dog and trying to eat people's futures. Basically it rocked.)
- Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (Read this on audiobook; it took me a while! I think what I'm finding with Austen is that I like her writing a lot but I don't always buy into/enjoy the endgame romance (I felt this with Sense and Sensibility too; Brandon and Marianne basically never speak?? At least I get the Fanny and Edmund thing, it's just not really built up to, it's basically a throwaway paragraph in the final chapter lol). Also Fanny is kind of irritating in all her goodness and principles. Like I feel sympathetic towards her but it's also like. We get it girl! You have the moral high ground! Whatever. Give me Emma any day.)
- The Trees Grew Because I Bled There by Eric LaRocca (Some interesting concepts but just very poorly written; this is the only book I've read so far this month that I wholeheartedly would Not recommend. I did enjoy reading people's criticism about the author on Reddit though lol).
15. recommend and review a book.
Gonna have to rec I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey Mcquiston here. Trulyyyyy Casey Mcquiston never misses (although I'm not AS big a fan of Red White and Royal Blue as I am of her other books, sorry RWRB fans). I read this on audiobook during my holiday to Whitby in June and let me tell you, I was so happy to have a 7 mile/4 hour walk to finish it. At first I wasn't sure about this one, since it's set in a high school I thought it might be a bit too YA for me, and while it's slightly more aimed at that demographic than her other books, that didn't dull my enjoyment at all. The premise is that Shara Wheeler, the most popular girl in school and protagonist Chloe's academic rival, disappears the night of prom and Chloe goes looking for her (because she can't get valedictorian just by default, gdi, she has to EARN it!) Chloe discovers that Shara's left clues for her, her quarterback boyfriend Smith and her nextdoor neighbour Rory. Also turns out Shara has kissed all of them. Shara is suuuuuch an interesting, grey character. Chloe is irritating at times but in a way that only engages me more. She's the only out queer person at her very conservative, very Christian private school, but she's definitely not the only queer person š I think my favourite part of this book was the side plot between Smith and Rory (and just Smith in general tbh) but yeah I just loved all the different relationships and friendships between these characters and their friends. The audiobook narrator was excellent and really added to the experience for me. I do love a queer discovery/coming of age story and I think it's even more effective because Chloe is already out as queer but it's the other characters who are struggling with/discovering their queerness, but while Chloe thinks she's got it all figured out, she absolutely Does Not. Idk in some ways it IS a typical YA queer romance but it's just excellent. If anyone is interested in reading queer romance but doesn't know where to start/has been burned by reading terrible romance in the past (there's a lot out there!) I would highly highly recommend Casey Mcquiston.
