Hey everyone! If you have been following the news these last several days, or even just looked around on social media, you may have caught up with what’s been going on in America regarding racist and totally abhorrent acts against Asians. Unfortunately, this isn’t something found in America alone either.
As Fives and I are both Asian ourselves, I can personally say it’s been hard looking at video clips of elderly abuse or verbal slurs used against people who were just minding their own business and going about their day. I see in them my grandparents, my mother and father, my friends, myself.
So we are here today to uplift our own voices and celebrate Asian authors and their stories. Because we have important things to say, and these words have just as much value and place in this society as anyone else’s. Hopefully this is the time for people to learn more about the experiences that make us who we are.
I have listed below Asian authors I have read and/or want to read, and a few of their titles including the most recent one published. If you have any other Asian authors I have missed (this is by no means a comprehensive list), please share with us and everyone else so we can continue to support and uplift one another.
Hi friends! I can’t believe it’s already the end of February, can you? My, does time fly by quickly! Maybe it’s because this month is a shorter month, but month #2 of 2021 has already just gone by.
I hope this month has been at least a mildly good one for you. Even if you’re cooped up inside like I am, at least we always have different worlds to immerse ourselves in through what we read, hmm?
So today, I am posting what I’ve read this last month, and the ones I hope to be getting to really soon.
What have I read this month?
I would say this is a good month for me in terms of reading numbers. I find it hard to read super fast while juggling full-time work, socializing with people I care about and rest. But I definitely savored and enjoyed a number of these.
Here are the superlatives befitting some of these titles.
Favourite book: Lore by Alexandra Bracken
I never expected to love this book as much as I did. While I like Greek mythologies, they don’t hold any special place in my heart or anything. But the perfect blend of lore (aha, see what I did there?), pacing, characterization and unexpected twists just hit me in all the right places. I could barely put it down (even during my lunch breaks from work)! Review for this will be coming out REALLY soon so stay tuned!
Most surprising book:Influence by Sara Shepard and Lilia Buckingham AND Game Changer by Neal Shusterman
I couldn’t decide on which surprised me more. I thought Influence would be more chick-lit with Sara Shepard style mystery thrown in somewhere, but it’s a story about influencers after all, right? Wrong. It has so much more depth than I gave it initial credit for, with a focus on the dark side of social media fame that oscillate from truth to deception. You can find my review here.
Likewise, I thought Game Changer would be a football story since our protagonist is a football player (not hugely my kind of thing), but Neal Shusterman didn’t disappoint with his usual thought provoking rhetoric asking us to reflect on our own world today and what needs to be changed. If this was his response to 2020, I think he used the lockdown time wisely. For more of my thoughts on this book, you can check it out here.
New author book: The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon
This is my first Rachel Lynn Solomon book and I really liked it. It had a dynamic duo starring in the enemies-to-lovers trope that made it work, and a fun show (aptly named The Ex Talk) that tied everything else together and added that little element of fun/lightheartedness even when the emotions intensified. I don’t read nearly as much adult romances as I probably could, but I know this is a gem in the genre. You can read my full review here.
Not-so-favourite book: You Have a Match by Emma Lord
I don’t like criticizing books as much – mostly because I understand it’s an author’s hard work and I sympathize with that – but I just didn’t love this as much as Emma Lord’s previous debut novel. It’s not a rom-com as the book mostly focuses on the protagonist’s newfound relationship with a sister she never knew she had. It’s about the families you’re born into and the ones you call family. Maybe with a different mindset I could’ve loved this more, but it just didn’t work for me. My review can be found here.
Current reading list
These are the current titles I have from the library I have started on, and the books sitting on my nightstand I probably should read.
Sadie by Courtney Summers
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi & Yusef Salaam
A Vow So Bold and Deadly by Brigid Kemmerer
These are all big titles, including one that will be our next buddy read here at Down the Rabbit Hole! I have my fingers crossed they will be as good as I hope they will be!
My TBR list
High priority books on my TBR that should hopefully be coming to me in the next few weeks are:
The Project by Courtney Summers
Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan
Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley
Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch
A Pho Love Story by Loan Le
Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis (I will get to this one, I promise!)
Most of these titles are romantic contemporaries, a slight departure from my heavily-laden fantasy/mystery books. It’s about time I dig into this genre more. I’m also super excited for The Project with its interesting premise written by a fellow Canadian whom I had the pleasure of meeting once in my teen years. It should be exciting next month!
Let me know if you have read or want to read any of these! Or even better, what books have gotten you through this last month while the world is still dealing with a pandemic? Any good recommendations?
Welcome to the last Friday of February! Welcome to the last session this month of the weekly meme, Let’s Talk Bookish, hosted by Rukky and Dani on their respective blogs:
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.
Feb 26: Has blogging affected your reading in a positive or negative way? If so, how? Do you think the pressures to produce content can result in a bad relationship with books? How do you balance blogging and reading? Do you think you would have started blogging if it weren’t for books or vice versa?
For me personally, blogging has affected my reading in a positive way. Andge is the one who actually started this blog, and she only brought me on as a partner in 2018. While I have always loved books, I tended to binge books whenever I missed them, rather than having any sort of constant flow. However, now with running this blog, I am forced motivated to always have a running (albeit short) TBR. Without this blog, I honestly wouldn’t be reading nearly this much, nor nearly as quickly (24 books this year already!) – so I really appreciate being brought onboard.
That being said though, there is definitely a paradigm shift when it comes to reading books now. When I read now, I consciously think more about the specific plots, characters, literary devices – things I can mention for the review. I feel like I’m even more conscious about specifically how much I like a book and what points I have to back it up. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, as being an aware reader is a good thing, but it is definitely different from when I didn’t have to think about it.
The balance between blogging and reading for me is: what books do I potentially need to review and which can I just enjoy at face value? The books I usually don’t save to review are the ones either already reviewed here, or old classics everyone has already read (just me being behind the ball, as usual). I definitely wouldn’t have started (or agreed to) blogging if it weren’t for my love of books though. Not sure I really have any other interest that would make me want to share my public opinion about online!
If you’re a blogger, how do you feel about blogging and reading? Or if you’re only a reader of blogs, any reason you don’t blog yourself?
Join us again next week for the beginning of the March prompts for Let’s Talk Bookish! As usual, please follow the original two content creators on their blog (linked above), as usual. Stick around this weekend for our monthly wrap-up and anticipations for next month. Happy weekend everyone!
Down the Rabbit Hole 