Down the Rabbit Hole

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.

JANUARY 28: REREADING BOOKS (Fives @ Down the Rabbit Hole)

How many times is enough? Why re-read at all? Is re-reading just a comforting pastime? Or is there excitement to be relived? What kind of books do you re-read? Do you ever re-read books you don’t like in hopes that it will be better the second time? Were there any books you didn’t like as a child but liked as an adult, or vice versa?

Welcome back to another week of LTB here at DTRH! This week’s topic is suggested by none other than yours truly! I actually suggested it a while back, and I almost forgot that I did so. Still, it’s an interesting topic that I wanted to share with you all, and would love to hear your thoughts on it too!

Funnily enough, I just reread a book, albeit by accident (review out soon!). But it was strange, since it was a thriller. Usually I’d remember the endings much more clearly so I am not inclined to reread then. For some reason this time I just had a strange inkling that I’ve read the story before. Luckily it was a very quick read, so I just breezed through it anyway. Surprisingly, I still enjoyed it!

If we’re talking about the old classics like Harry Potter, undoubtedly I’ve read it many many times. And let’s be serious, for things that you love, it’s never enough. But I think for the most part I reread for the nostalgia, and the feeling that I felt the first time reading it. There is a tiny bit of excitement involved if I’ve forgotten certain details, but I’d say for the most part it’s the whole reliving process that I reread for.

I rarely give books a second chance. If I didn’t want to finish it the first time, I doubt I want to finish it even the second time. That being said, if I finished the book and I didn’t feel it was that good, I don’t really have the urge to re-read that either. I will occasionally try for classics though, like Pride and Prejudice, but honestly not too much success with that.

Here’s an embarrassing anecdote though—do you all have bathroom reads? Books that kind of live in your bathroom for those times where you just feel like hiding out or chilling in your bathroom? Sounds kind of weird, but I definitely feel like a good bath and book (an admittedly dangerous affair) is often a good time to reread a book, when you’re not really committed to finishing it from beginning to end.

One post that I came across mentioned that they reread books in different languages. Now that is a great idea I had not thought of when I made this prompt. That is certainly something I’d like to do, and a great reason to reread a book. It would be easier to try and see the differences across languages across translations, as opposed to reading a whole new book in a new language, which would be much more challenging. Definitely something I would like to try out this year!

What do you all think about rereading books? No time for it? Or something of a guilty pleasure? Let me know in the comments below!

book vs movie, discussion

Winter Binge – YA Books Adapted into TV Shows

January 27, 2022January 27, 2022 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

I don’t know what part of the world you’re reading from, but here it’s been a pretty cold winter lately. We had the hugest snowstorm last Monday in the last 20+ years and were literally buried under snow.

So what does one do on days like that where it’s too cold (or impossible) to go outside?

Why, let’s binge some fun shows, right? And what would be better than a show that is based off of books that were amazing?

Here are a number of TV shows that have been more recently adapted from popular YA novels. Unfortunately I’m not sure where you can watch them based on where you live, but hopefully one or two or these are accessible and pique your interest for a particularly cold winter day for bingeing!

One of Us Is Lying [2021-] (Karen M. McManus)

A brain, an athlete, a princess, a criminal, and a “basket case” walk into detention – but only the first four make it out alive.

An update from Karen McManus recently saying that this show is coming to all international Netflix platforms so if you’re outside of the US, I’m super excited for more audiences to see this. You can read our review of the book here.

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3.5 star

Review: The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

January 26, 2022January 25, 2022 Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Four mothers, four daughters, four families, whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who’s telling the stories. In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of what they left behind in China. United in loss and new hope for their daughters’ futures, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Their daughters, who have never heard these stories, think their mothers’ advice is irrelevant to their modern American lives – until their own inner crises reveal how much they’ve unknowingly inherited of their mothers’ pasts.

With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.

Now I know this is one of the classics. In fact, I was offered the chance to read this in Grade 11, but I chose The Great Gatsby instead. This is one of the great novels by an Asian author back when it was rare to have that. I have always wanted to finish the rest of the “choices” that I would have had back in high school, and this is one of them!

The Joy Luck Club follows four families that immigrated from China over to America, all under different circumstances. These are all mothers with daughters, and the mothers meet together to play mahjong and chat and share their stories. This is really a tale of generational trauma, the sacrifices made by all the mothers for the chance of a better life in America. In contrast, their (American) daughters leading their American lives experience many of the same problems in a different context.

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