Coming off a prolific summer of reading, this past quarter I read a modest 22 books or 6206 pages, bringing my 2022 total to 92 books or 27153 pages so far, of which 84% were by women authors and 72% by authors of colour. This academic term has been absolutely brutal, but I’m excited for the upcoming festivities and fall/winter reads nonetheless! Bring on the candles, heating pads, hot chocolate, and peppermint whipped cream — yes, I just bought peppermint whipped cream from the grocery store!
Best reads
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna: Mika Moon is supposed to keep her witchy powers secret, but posting Youtube videos pretending to be a fake witch pretending to be a real witch is fine, right? But perhaps her charade isn’t as convincing as she thought, because one day she receives a mysterious request to homeschool three young witches. This cute and cosy fantasy romance was everything I hoped it would be and more! The perfect comfort read, and with personality, excitement, and intrigue, too! It reminded me of The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune but better (THITCS was a bit too saccharine for my taste). The end of TVSSOIW wrapped up a bit quick, but overall: highly recommended, especially for the spooky season.
Honourable mentions
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy: Memoir of a child star. Ignore the entertainment articles; this memoir is not salacious Hollywood gossip. It’s about a girl who lived for her mother and her mother’s dream under her mother’s control, a girl who never got to figure out who she was while playing other children, and whose mother taught her to keep herself small so that she could continue playing children and support her family: her mom taught her an eating disorder. Her eating disorder is a central part of her memoir. In an interview, McCurdy was asked why she writes in present tense, and she said that writing in present tense keeps her writing from getting too melancholy. I think this is something I need to try because I’ve been seriously struggling with that these past two years and it’s part of the reason why I don’t blog that much anymore.
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery: Connected stories of a Jamaican American family. I was immediately drawn into the opening story about a Jamaican American boy just trying to exist as who he is, but constantly labelled and relabelled by shifting communities — not quite black, not quite white, not quite brown — comes to seek only where he fits. Following up was a connected story from his father’s POV, who builds a new life for his family in this foreign country as he watches it pull his youngest son further away from him. “Splashdown” was another one I loved, which came with a touch of mystery, and the final paragraph to the collection was perfection.
Book Love by Debbie Tung: An adorable collection of comics that any bookworm can relate to! The perfect gift book. You can follow the author’s work on Instagram.
Popular reads
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng is set in a dystopian America not too difficult to imagine, where anything remotely Asian is condemned unpatriotic and anti-Asian hate runs rampant. This was a depressing read. Combined with Ng’s characteristic slow burn, it took me forever, and I don’t know if I got much out of it. I felt like I was reading the news about anti-Asian hate at the height of the pandemic — more report than critique — and I didn’t have any particular attachment to the characters. The third to last chapter was great though.
Had super high expectations for The Mountains Sing by Phan Que Mai and it was pretty solid but missing a little something for me. It was historically informative but my emotional connection was more about the devastating history of the Viet Nam War than anything specific to this story. The characters felt like vessels for trauma and history; the protagonists I’d easily describe as good and resilient. But given the absolutely glowing reviews, I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading it.
I won a copy of Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover so I gave that a read and followed it up with It Ends With Us, and I think I’m done with Colleen Hoover for good. BookTok made me curious, and that curiosity has now been quenched. I’ve also read Verity (last year), which I thought was okay, but I don’t even want my copy of Ugly Love in my room anymore. At the same time, I don’t want to donate it to my local Little Free Library either because I don’t want to subject the kids to this book. Help, what do I do? Burn it??
Don’t remember too much of the details from Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert, but the audiobook narrator was great. Fun vibes, would recommend.
Shelf additions
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng was kindly gifted to me by the publisher. With that one added to my collection, I now own all of Celeste Ng’s published works, and the only other author I can say the same for is RF Kuang!
I haven’t heard too much about You’ve Changed by Pyae Moe Thet War, and the few Goodreads reviews are quite brutal, but I’ve been curious about it anyway, especially after reading my friend’s review — she gifted me her copy! Plus, I haven’t read essays in awhile and I love the cover.
I don’t read much poetry, but when the publisher reached out, I couldn’t resist the title: The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On by Franny Choi. Sometimes — often times — the world feels like it’s in constant crisis, but this sentiment is comforting: that the world has experienced crisis after crisis, that it has persevered on and will continue to persevere. In the end, I do feel like this little collection tried to tackle too much and too many events, or maybe it just went over my head — probably a bit of both.
Found a local secondhand bookshop, traded in a bunch of books, and picked out Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart for free. The return on trades wasn’t that great though, so I probably won’t go back. And anyways, the shop isn’t that close to me and they don’t have a huge selection.
TBR
Only one more quarter until the year is over! The reads I’m prioritising are I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee, The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans, A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes by Rodrigo Garcia, and Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka. Other books I’d also like to get to are Out There by Kate Folk, Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel, The Keeper of the Night by Kylie Lee Baker, What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo, and Ace by Angela Chen.