Hey guys! In the nick of time, I finished Six Crimson Cranes! I really loved this book. I was looking for a light-hearted read (i.e. not based on heavy topics) and this was it! Here’s a mini review:

Six Crimson Cranes - 5⭐️

This fantasy book was not only inspired by Chinese and Japanese legends but different fairytales such as rumpelstiltskin, the wild swans (which I haven’t read) and cinderella, which I loved!

This gave me spirited away/studio ghibli vibes! We had a charismatic dragon and paper birds, one who is called Kiki and is close to the main character, Shiori!

This story was whimsical and had a lovely quest-like plot to it. I loved Shiori. Even though she was already strong-willed and bold in personality, I liked how her character developed throughout the book. You saw her grow stronger physically, overcoming obstacles that her curse caused her and dealing with the way others treated her.

Raikama was an interesting character. At first, you think she’s a typical, stern stepmother who dislikes Shiori and magic but you realise there’s more to her character and her motives. I would have liked to see more of her but I guess that’s how the story is.

I loved seeing the interactions between Shiori and her brothers. It reminded me a lot of how I am with my brothers, so those moments really touched my heart. Get yourself a book that showcases the love and loyalty of siblings 😭

I loved the magic system and how Shiori can conjure it by embodying a piece of her soul into whatever she touches or wills. It was also interesting to see how other forms of magic worked either from or against dragons.

I also loved that Shiori got to fall in love on her terms rather than through the arranged marriage. Even though it’s fate that brought them together, I loved that the romance was gradual and sweet and you saw that emotional connection build between Shiori and Takkan. Just the kind of romance I like 😉

I do find it funny how people try to protect you by not telling you the whole truth but if only they did, you wouldn’t be led on by others who don’t have your interests at heart. But I guess it all worked out in the end lol.

Planned books

The Ophelia Girls by Jane Healey. It was pretty and you could see where the story was going the whole way. It wasn’t spectacular, but it was a pleasant summer read.

An Inconvenient Genocide by Geoffrey Robertson. This one was interesting. It didn’t focus on the genocide but on the ramifications of it and how divisive the situation is even today.

Growing Up Disabled in Australia edited by Carly Findlay. There was a great variety of stories included. I know they are all valid, but I do have my favourites.

Carrie by Stephen King. I recently commented on this book and how it felt like an obvious allegory for gun control in America. Apparently, this was unintentional, but I can't stop it from clouding my judgment.

Tarzan of the Apes and The Return of Tarzan by Egar Rice Burroughs. This book is so racist. What do you expect from a book written over 100 years ago set in Africa by a white man? The Return of Tarzan was a bit better. If you focus on the action, it was quite fun.

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. It was a sweet story. I also recently ranted about it. The fact that it is so popular kind of ruins it. It is just meant to be a story about a friend. Not some amazing life-altering book you have to read.

Poirot’s Early Cases by Agatha Christie. I love Poirot so much. He is such a little shit.

My Fine Fellow by Jennieke Cohen. This is a gender-bent cooking version of My Fair Lady. I wish she used the same amount of description she used when discussing the food as she did in other situations.

The Shortest History of England by James Hawes. Parts of this were fascinating. I loved the part of the north-south divide. There are parts I wish he would focus on more. For example, he discussed the UK’s turn from Europe to America, yet he didn’t bring in Wallis Simpson? It is fast-paced, but you have to remember it is the entire history of England in 300 pages.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It’s always strange to read books that disregard general writing rules. It created a bleak atmosphere, which is needed, but I just couldn’t connect with the characters.

Extra books

Puddin’ by Julie Murphy. I accidentally got this one out instead of Dumplin’. It was fine, but the lack of Millie/Callie romance was a bit disappointing. I also feel like although Callie went through a character arch, Millie was pretty much the same person throughout it.

A little bit late, but here are the rest of the books that I managed to finish before the end of @logarithmicpanda's summer readathon. By some miracle I read 22 books during the month of June. Absolutely bonkers.

Books Finished:

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao - One of the most refreshing books I've read in a LONG time. Just the pure, raw emotion poured onto the page that comes to a satisfying and cathartic head at the climax. Honestly, we need to carve out more of a space for women's anger in fiction without making them out to be horrible monsters for actually being upset at their situations. So much in YA fiction, the female lead always has to be merciful, always has to be the bigger person in the end, but here, there's really no time for mercy and no one that won't ultimately take advantage of it. Can't wait for the sequel! (5/5)

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward - An ultimate mindfuck of a book. It's the kind of story you immediately want to reread just so that you can go back and see everything knowing what you do now. Also, has such a strangely satisfying and hopeful ending that you don't really see in horror too often. (4/5)

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - Not my first time with Good Omens, I've probably read the book maybe three times now, but it's my first time with the audiobook. The one I listened to had a full cast, complete with David Tennant and Michael Sheen as Crowley and Aziraphale. Naturally, their performances were excellent and it was neat to see them put new spins on dialogue that they had already read for the show, as well as put their voices to scenes that didn't make the transition to the screen. (Aziraphale's possession world tour was a highlight.) The rest of the cast was amazing as well, like Arthur Darvill as Newt, Gabrielle Glaister as Madame Tracy and Louis Davison as Adam. Definitely recommended for those who love the show. (5/5)

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood - Had to read this one for work and I wasn't too blown away by it even though it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It's a sort of almost autiobiographical story about a woman's experience with her rise in social media fame, with the first part mostly being tiny chunks of texts of "hot takes" I've seen a lot around the Internet and the second half taking a more emotional, personal turn. However, because of the writing style, I never really felt attached to the main character, and her grief and loss just rang a little hollow for me because of it. It's a book where you have to be familiar with Internet culture to get all the references and nuance, but not too familiar to the point where all these takes are just expected at this point. It'll have an impact on some people, but I wasn't one of them. (2/5)

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen - An anthology of fractured fairy tales that I had a better time reading than Yolen's other collection The Emerald Circus. There was a lot of variety in the kind of stories told, there was even a good smattering of Jewish stories which I rarely see, so it's not just your Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty retellings, though there are a bit of those here, but they find a new sort of charm through their reframings. (4/5)

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu - Though the writing style of the translated book was a bit tough to settle into at first, I had a blast reading this one. Wei Wuxian is such a little ass and I love how his personality conflicts with the more stoic Lan Wangji. I love me a good odd couple. (4/5)

Paris, "capitales" des XIXe siècles, de Christophe Charle.

A book about the history of Paris, because what is better to celebrate living in Paris for the month than reading history books about it ? (Ok to be honest I bought it before i knew I'd live there LOL)

Much like so many others, I too have been inspired by @logarithmicpanda to do a readathon! I'm super excited as I have not had time to read like this in like forever.

I'm going to do a mix of fiction and nonfiction, crossing books off of my TBR (collected over the last four years of grad school) left and right.

My list is as follows (in no particular order & many of these books are quite short):

Workshops of Empire by Eric Bennett (I started and finished it today)

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Palestine: A Socialist Introduction edited by Sumaya Awad and brian bean

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

Tar Baby by Toni Morrison

Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade & the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World by Vincent Bevins

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Hey guys! For the last two months, I didn’t read much sadly coz I had a lot of other stuff going on. But this month, I want to up my reading game like I did in February, so of course, I joined @logarithmicpanda’s readathon!

It took me time to figure out what I wanted to read, as I didn’t want to be overly ambitious. I didn’t read a lot of Asian fiction last month, so I wanted to include some books that fit that genre. I recently finished Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi which I really liked (and unofficially included for this readathon), but after that deep book, I need some light-hearted reads to build up my spirits lol.

As pictured, the books I’ll be reading are:

Gilded by Marissa Meyer (fun fact: I had this on my other readathon tbr and still haven’t gotten to it, so that needs to change!)

Love boat Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

Hey guys! Today, I finally finished Gilded by Marissa Meyer! I’ve now read three books (including Yolk from before) for the readathon which I’m really happy about! I’m hoping to finish at least one more before the end of the month. But in the mean time, here’s a mini review:

Gilded - 4⭐️

I really liked this unique take on the Rumpelstiltskin retelling. Even though it followed most of the parts from the fairy tale, I liked that the world building was more in depth, with different creatures and ghosts and such. It also had an interesting twist and a mystery that you figure out as you’re reading it.

I loved Serilda. She’s such a strong and interesting character who’s been made an outcast because of the golden wheels in her eyes, a gift from Wyrdith, the god of lies. I love the stories she would tell and how she could weave her way out of dangerous situations. But sadly her life does change drastically and not for the better.

Gild was an interesting character too. I didn’t warm up to him at first because he kept touching Serilda without her permission to feel her warmth and that made me kinda uncomfortable lol. But he started to learn and keep his boundaries until they grew closer. I was hoping for this to be the new favourite ship but it didn’t give me the kind of deep and emotional romance I wanted (which is happening a lot to me with every book I read and I’m guessing I have high expectations for romances that don’t just involve physical intimacy lol).

I appreciated that Marissa Meyer was trying to add some representation in this story too. There’s an awesome bisexual woman called Lorraine who is the mayor of a small town and has a crush on a lesbian librarian called Frieda. We don’t see a lot of their interactions unfortunately, but I loved the representation. I also thought it was interesting the discussion Serilda had with the children about the gender of the gods, how they can be whatever gender they want or neither.

It’s ironic that I wanted a light-hearted read because this grew increasingly dark lol. I don’t know if Marissa Meyer’s writing is getting darker lol but I guess it makes sense considering that most of the cruelty inflicted by the Erlking is to show how cold and unrelenting he is, but it did get to me a bit that children weren’t spared. Let’s say there’s a lot of doom and gloom in the second half lol. I just find it a bit annoying when the villain is considered invincible and that there’s no hope in the good guys winning because he’s always a step ahead and gets what he wants.