Books

Talking about books (when I have time to read for fun)

REVIEW: Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Trigger warnings for racism, death of a loved one, rape, and drug use.

Eighteen-year-old Daunis’ mixed heritage has always made her feel like an outsider, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation, and after a family tragedy puts her college plans on hold, the only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. But when she witnesses a shocking murder, she reluctantly agrees to be part of a covert FBI operation into a series of drug-related deaths. But the deceptions – and deaths – keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. Now Daunis must decide what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go to protect her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.

While Firekeeper’s Daughter is certainly a mystery, it is definitely a slow burn one and it’s the characters and the relationships that are more of the focus of the story. It’s more a story of culture, identity, and belonging with Daunis trying to find a place for herself and dealing with her grief even as she is trying to learn enough to stop anyone else from getting hurt. The grief Daunis feels is palpable and is almost like a shadow over the whole novel as she tries to work her way through it and understand that different people deal with grief in different ways. Daunis has lost a lot of people she cared about and how she tries to compartmentalise it all is very relatable.

Daunis as a character doesn’t really have an arc as such. She’s always been a good and caring person, but it’s as her world shifts as she learns more about the people in the community she grew up with, that her world-view has to change to accept these new truths. She has always been sure of who she is in terms of her heritage with a white mother and Ojibwe father and she’s always felt connected to her people, it’s just that almost everyone else has seen her as one or the other, never both – or they see her as not good enough to be one or the other. (more…)

Asian Readathon 2023 TBR

In May in the United States, it is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and in honour of that Cindy from WithCindy on YouTube created a readathon where the main aim is to read books by Asian authors. Her announcement video explains it all really well and she also has a Google Doc with extra info and resources and there’s a Twitter account for the readathon too.

This year’s challenge is loosely themed around the film Joy Ride and is meant to be easy, accessible, and open to interpretation. The reading challenges are:
– Read a book written by an Asian author.
– Read a book featuring a friendship between at least two Asian characters.
– Read a book written by an Asian author and/or featuring an Asian character that is focused on identity and self-discovery.
– Read a book written by an Asian author and/or featuring an Asian character that shows them going on an adventure.
– Read a book featuring an Asian character who is either a hot mess, famous, or eccentric.

These challenges can be combined if you want to make it even easier! There is a twist though. You can combine challenges and read in any order; however, each book you read should feature a character or author of a different Asian ethnicity. This is to encourage cultural diversity. I’ve had a look through my physical TBR and the holds I’ve got from my library to see what Asian authors I have there and I’ve made a note of each authors nationality/ethnicity as is available online. I’m not sure if/how any of these books will fit the prompts but I will try to read more from Asian authors in May regardless. So far this year I’ve read 27 books and of them four of them were by Asian authors – Constance Wu, Roshani Chokshi, Abigail Hing Wen, and Seishi Yokomizo.

The Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi (Iranian American)
I’ve not read any of Tahereh Mafi’s books before but I got The Woven Kingdom in a subscription box last year. It’s the start of an epic Persian-inspired fantasy series and as I tend to be pretty bad at reading series, it’s not been a book I’ve been quick to reach for. (more…)

REVIEW: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Translated by Susan Massotty and audiobook narrated by Helena Bonham Carter.

This will hardly be a proper review because how can someone review the thoughts and musings of a teenage girl living under the Nazi regime of World War II? Instead, it’s going to be more about what this book made me feel and how it surprised me.

Perhaps because it’s because it was written over 80 years ago, I thought it would be hard to read due to the language or the subject matter – a misconception that seems to be proven wrong repeatedly anytime I try a “classic”. I listened to the audiobook and that was a great way to take it in as it was if Anne was speaking directly to me, but I think even if I’d read a physical copy, it would’ve been easy to read and get engrossed in it.

Naturally Anne writes about the day-to-day life of living in hiding with seven other people, her parents and older sister, another family and a dentist, and all the highs and lows of that from the camaraderie to the arguments when living in such close quarters with no chance to escape. There’s a lot of talk about rationing food, being terrified when there’s unexpected visitors to the house below them, and the people who helped hide and feed them. There’s also her and the other’s thoughts on the War, how the Allies are doing, what’s happening to their fellow Jews, and when it will all be over.

The thing that surprised me the most (though in hindsight it really shouldn’t have) was how so much of Anne’s diary was relatable teen girl angst and musings. So much of it was how she felt about the people she was living with, how she loved her father wholeheartedly but didn’t understand or get on with her mother, how she had all these ideas and feelings about herself but no one seemed to see that side of her or understand what she meant when she did try and express herself.

There are her thoughts about girls and boys and desire and over the course of the entries she can be so contrary about different things or people depending on her mood or what happened that day which is very true to life. One thing that made me smile was her fascination/obsession of Greek and Roman mythology – that is such a teenage (girl) thing, being obsessed with one aspect of history, whether it’s a specific event or a mythology or time period. There’s something almost reassuring that decades ago teens were fascinated by the same stuff teens are often fascinated by today – even while living through such horrors.

It’s the juxtaposition of the relatable teen thoughts and feelings with the incredible hardship Anne is going through that makes her writings so effective and important. So often with any event in the past, the people involved become just names or statistics. Anne Frank’s diary brings the events and statistics into life in an unflinching way, and allows readers to experience that fear and dread while still having the everyday experiences of birthdays and holidays, though gifts of jam and butter are held to the highest regard in this scenario.

It is such an important work, and one that is accessible and thought-provoking. While naturally Anne was all too aware of the threat hanging over her and the others and writes about it often, it’s knowing the fate of Anne and the people she’s with that makes reading her diary give you such a sense of foreboding – especially as the years past and the moments when Anne experiences some joy.

REVIEW: The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

Tierney James lives in an isolated village where girls are banished at sixteen to the northern forest to brave the wilderness – and each other – for a year. They must rid themselves of their dangerous magic before returning purified and ready to marry – if they’re lucky. It is forbidden to speak of the grace year, but even so every girl knows that the coming year will change them – if they survive it…

I found The Grace Year to be a very interesting and compelling YA dystopian story. It has elements of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Lord of the Flies so you can kind of guess what some of the plot elements or vibes will be, but I think The Grace Year puts its own take on these elements and has a really strong but flawed lead in Tierney.

Something I really liked about The Grace Year was the young women’s magic – or should that be “magic”? It leaves you wondering for a while whether or not the magic is truly supernatural magic, or if it’s a religious doctrine, or its just what this society calls female puberty. Arguments for the latter can be made early on with the way that men in the village look at the girls as they come of age, and then there’s also what could be described as jealousy from the women who have already gone through the grace year and are now perhaps more older and less desirable than they’d like to be. (more…)

REVIEW: The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch

Narrated by Michael Page.

The Republic of Thieves is the third book in the Gentleman Bastards series, the first two being The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas, Under Red Skies.

After their adventures on the high seas, Locke and Jean are brought back to earth with a thump. Jean is in mourning and Locke must live with the fallout of crossing the all-powerful magical assassins, the Bonds Magi. It is a fallout that will pit both men against Locke’s long-lost love in a political battle. Sabetha is Locke’s childhood sweetheart, the love of Locke’s life and now it is time for them to meet again as they’re employed on different sides of a vicious dispute between factions of the Bonds.

I do still really enjoy this series and the audiobook narration is still fantastic but The Republic of Thieves didn’t quite pull me in compared to the previous two books. It’s comprised of two main storylines, the present as Locke and Jean are coerced into running a political campaign and win an important election, and the past where Locke goes from a six year old meeting Sabetha for the first time and becoming besotted to when he and his fellow Gentleman Bastards are teenagers and have to pull off an elaborate con in the theatre. I often found the interludes and the con Locke and everyone pulled as teens more interesting than the political stuff in the present. I think it was because you finally got to see the start of Locke and Sabetha’s relationship after it being something that was hinted at for so long, and because it meant we got to see more of the Sanza twins and I didn’t realise I’d missed them so much.

Locke and Jean’s relationship is still fantastic, especially how Jean will do anything to pull Locke back from the brink of death and depression. The two of them understand one another so well and it’s interesting to see how Sabetha fits into that dynamic when they haven’t seen her for over five years. While she had a romantic past with Locke, she and Jean were still friends so with this dynamic you see a different side to Jean too.

The Republic of Thieves is still funny and clever with a lot of twists and turns, though it seems to be lacking something. Perhaps it’s because Locke and Jean are on the backfoot here and are playing catchup to Sabetha. It’s not that Locke and Jean’s plans haven’t gone their way before, but previously it’s felt like they’ve had a lot of contingency plans for different scenarios. In The Republic of Thieves Locke is so thrown by Sabetha’s presence and how the Bonds Magi are pulling their strings that he doesn’t see potential threats and issues until it’s almost too late. He’s much more reactive rather than proactive which feels odd though it is nice to see how Locke deals with stuff that’s outside his control.

The Republic of Thieves has political intrigue, farcical elements, romance, and a lot of scheming. It’s got great characters and delves into Locke’s past and reveals things that have both the reader and Locke end up doubting what they know. Like the previous books it’s a fun time and I will be carrying on with the series if/when the fourth book is ever released. I hope Lynch is doing well. 4/5.

Magical Readathon: Spring Equinox 2023 TBR

April is just around the corner so that means it’ll soon be time for the Magical Readathon – my favourite readathon. The prompts for this readathon are each assigned to a subject and you need to read so many subjects/books in order to work towards your chosen career. The Spring Equinox edition of the readathon takes place throughout the month of April and G over at BookRoast has all the info you need about the extra stuff like side quests and things.

Last year I completed all the classes/books I needed to become a Moon Warden and I’m now a Novice in that career path. The way the Magical Readathon works now means I can carry on with that career in order to advance and become an Apprentice, or I could choose a completely different magical career. I honestly am not sure what I want to do yet. If I want to carry on with my Moon Warden training then I’ll need to take five classes – Elemental Studies, Astronomy, Art of Illusion, Restoration, and Spells & Incantations. I think I might end up being a bit chaotic and just try and read as many books as I can and see what leaves me with in terms of potential career paths. So with that in mind, I’ve noted down all 14 prompts and what books I’m planning to read for them – if I manage to get to all of them. While the amount I read on average each month has increased this year, I think 14 books is probably pushing it a bit.

Alchemy – Type of metal in the book title
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
I believe the sequel to Iron Widow is coming out later this year so it’s about time I picked it up. I don’t often read sci-fi (even though I love sci-fi shows/films) so Iron Widow should be something different.

Animal Studies – Flip a coin, heads read a non-fiction book, tails read a fiction book
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
I did indeed flip a coin and got heads so I picked The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. I’m going to Amsterdam in May and am planning on visiting the Anne Frank House, and while I learnt about her and the Holocaust in school, I’ve never read her diary so thought it was about time to rectify that and I have the audiobook from my library. (more…)

REVIEW: Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognised or valued. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you’re a woman. Invisible Women shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. It exposes the gender data gap – a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women, and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women’s lives.

Invisible Women is one of those books that simultaneously super interesting but also super frustrating. I love how with all its stats from countries around the world and its in-depth look at different industries and situations, it puts words to the ideas or feelings I had about life as a woman in the world. There’s the stock phrases like “representation matters” but Invisible Women goes more in-depth than just the idea of “seeing is believing”.

I liked how it goes into the biological differences between men and women and how things like mobile phones getting increasingly larger is fine for men to use one-handed but it’s more difficult for women as the phones are designed with men’s hands in mind and they are usually larger than women’s hands. It’s easy to think that anything men can do, women can do but that’s not the case when the equipment they need to use to do X thing aren’t designed for a woman’s body. I know I’m guilty of thinking that I “can be just as good as a man” when it comes to different things if we have the same time or training, but Invisible Women showed how so much “standard” equipment like PPE, high-vis jackets, and stab vests are designed for a man’s physique aka someone without breasts and perhaps narrower hips and a larger face, which means they are more uncomfortable for women or even don’t work as they should as they’re not designed for their body shape. It’s really enlightening and though as Invisible Women shows there’s still a lot of data missing, it’s ridiculous that what data there is has yet to cause any changes in various industries. Though as the book progresses and shows how the majority of decision makers, whether in government or industry, are men it’s maybe not a such a surprise that women’s needs aren’t seen as such a priority. (more…)

REIVEW: Glorious Poison by Kat Dunn

Glorious Poison is the third and final book in the Battalion of the Dead trilogy so there may be vague spoilers for the previous books, Dangerous Remedy and Monstrous Design, in this review.

Robespierre is dead. The Reign of Terror is over. As Royalist strength grows, the Duc de L’Aubespine plots a coup that will consign the revolution to history. With Olympe in his clutches and one of the Battalion playing spy, they will all have to rely on one another – however hard that might be – in order to make the right choices and potentially save France’s future.

Boy was Glorious Poison a bit of a tough read in comparison to the previous books. There are still schemes and political machinations and friendship but everything looks so bleak for the heroes that it can be a painful and sad read at times. As well as the overarching plot of trying to stop the Duc which seems like an impossible task, so many of the characters are going through life changing events and are having new traumas added to the ones they already had.

Friendships and loyalties are tested as characters are each going through some form of emotional turmoil and are often trying to hide their true feelings and motivations from the others. This trilogy has always been about the choices people can make, both good and bad, and then the consequences from those choices and that’s never been so prominent as it is in Glorious Poison. The choice to live, the choice to love, the choice to fight, the choice to trust – it all slowly builds as uncertain alliances are made in order to achieve their goal of saving Olympe and stopping the Duc.

Throughout the trilogy the setting has always been vivid and now in Glorious Poison we’re back in Paris and with a sudden change of leadership the city, and the country, is on a knifes edge. The differences between the upper and lower classes are stark once again as those who were under threat by the Revolution, are now able to be more free with their luxuries.

Though it is often a story where the characters feel hopeless, Glorious Poison is a testament to the strength of friendship and found family, and when one character might not believe in themselves, they’ll find others will. Overall Glorious Poison is a smart and satisfying end to this trilogy. 4/5.

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Spring 2023 TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. It’s time for a TBR and I love doing these. Now I’ve completed my Read the World Project and have nothing that I have to read it’s really fun to look at my shelves and think about what I’d really like to pick up and read next.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
I’m going to Amsterdam in May and am planning on visiting the Anne Frank House, and while I learnt about Anne Frank and the Holocaust in school, I’ve never read her diary so thought it was about time to rectify that and I got the audiobook from my library.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
I read an ARC of City of Brass years ago and while I liked it, I didn’t carry on with the series, but now the author has a completely new book and it features female pirates which sounds pretty cool.

Vicious and Vengeful by V.E. Schwab
So, Vicious will be a reread and I did love it when I read it nearly 10 years ago! As it’s been so long since I read it, I do want to reread it before reading Vengeful. I’ve heard mixed things about the sequel so I’m interested to see what I make of it and hopefully Vicious lives up to my memory of it.

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Firekeeper’s Daughter is one of those books I’ve seen around for years and have been tempted to buy it many times because of its gorgeous cover and after it was available for 99p on kindle, I finally succumbed and got a copy.

The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo, translated by Louise Heal Kawai
I saw a video where Matthew Sciarappa mentioned reading the latest novel in this cosy murder mystery series and it sounded like my kind of thing plus, I’ve not really read any books in translation since I finished my Read the World Project and I don’t want to get out of that habit. Turns out my library has the series available on audio so I’ve got a reserve on the first book and it should be available in May.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
I am a bit hesitant about this one as while I loved The Martian, I didn’t think much of Artemis so Project Hail Mary could go either way for me.

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Kindred is one of those modern classics that I’ve heard a lot of good buzz about but still don’t really know what it’s about. I think it’s a mix of historical fiction and sci-fi and time travel which should be an interesting and potentially hard-hitting combination.

The Beast Player and The Beast Warrior by Nahoko Uehashi, translated by Cathy Hirano
This is a duology full of mythical beasts and I’ve been doing pretty well at reading series so far this year aka I’ve read two trilogies (Winternight and Battalion of the Dead) and would like to carry on catching up on the series on my shelves this year.

What books are you hoping to get to in the next few months?

REVIEW: Monstrous Design by Kat Dunn

Monstrous Design is the second book in the Battalion of the Dead trilogy so there may be vague spoilers for the first book, Dangerous Remedy, in this review.

Camille and Al are in London, searching for James and Olympe, while Ada and Guile are still in Paris, tasked with spying on royalist Duc de l’Aubespine and figuring out what his plans are and putting a stop to them. With the Battalion of the Dead spread thin, they will have to rely on each other more than ever, especially as there’s a new threat in Britain.

While there was Frankenstein elements in the first book, Monstrous Design goes full steam ahead with those ideas and with it becomes quite horrifying at times as the theoretical becomes reality. The blending of eighteenth-century science with fantastical elements is still really interesting and as Ada gets more involved with experiments, you see more of how she’s chafing against what’s deemed as proper for a girl of her standing when all she wants to do is learn and understand.

This isn’t a fault of the book but it’s something I’ve noticed as this is the third YA book I’ve read so far this year when the rest of my reading has been adult. The teenage characters really feel like teenagers – which is good! They all often feel like maudlin teens or out of their depth and having big feelings about things, which also makes the moments when they’re honest about their feelings all the more impactful.

In relation to this, I like how these teenage characters parents have a big impact on them. It’s easy to just have absent or dead parents in YA to allow the characters to do what they wish, and there are a few dead parents thanks to the revolution, but the parents have clearly shaped their children – for good or for bad. Ada’s relationship with her father is one that gets more focus in Monstrous Design as he feels he’s trying to protect her and set her up with the life a young woman needs aka a husband and own home to look after, and doesn’t take into consideration what Ada desires from life. James’ relationship with his father is frustrating at times but also understandable as he wants his father’s approval and praise and will do anything to get it, even if it means putting himself and others in difficult positions.

Having the Battalion split up and two storylines running concurrently means there’s a lot of twists and conspiracies in two different countries. I didn’t find one group of characters more interesting than the other which was good as sometimes there isn’t that balance. I did worry the Paris gang wasn’t going to be doing much to drive the plot forward but was happy to be proven wrong about that and how everything comes together was really well done.

Monstrous Design isn’t quite as action-packed as Dangerous Remedy but there’s still a lot of scheming and peril and there’s still a dry wit which is mostly thanks to Al. It’s still a fast-paced and engaging read and how it combines the politics of the time with fantastical elements is really well done and interesting. 4/5.