My goals for the year are to read more books by female writers and authors of color. In particular, I'm interested in Asian-American voices and Japanese prewar literature. I'd like to review books as I read and also to write out some thoughts on past favorites. I'm always looking for recommendations, so let me know …

No Mourners, No Funerals

I actually read this around half a year ago, but I had taken a break from writing reviews at that time. This week though, I found out that the Grishaverse will be picked up by Netflix this year!! This is such hugely exciting news that I immediately had to tell everyone about it, but I'm …

Oasis or Mirage?

I heard nothing but satisfaction regarding Ready Player One until, rather unexpectedly, one of my favorite people to talk books with told me he couldn't even finish it. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline ♥ ♥ | Goodreads | Amazon Opening Line: Everyone my age remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about …

Tactical Linguistics and Quantum Chess Warfare

I read Conservation of Shadows towards the beginning of this year, when I had a 30-day Scribd trial going and was trying to read as much as possible each day. This was definitely the book that I enjoyed the most out of the eleven I read that month. Since then, I've been recommending this book …

Madness and Magic

The beginning of the school year is always a rough transition time as I try to work out a schedule that allocates time to everyyything that I want to do but also leaves me adequate breaks to recover. One of the many things that I struggle to find time for is casual reading, but it's …

Short Story Snippets

I didn't start enjoying, or even really reading, short stories until last January. In general, I need an emotional connection to my characters to care what they're up to, and I want my characters to stick around for long enough that building an emotional connection is worth it. For the same reason, I prefer watching a …

A Breath of Stagnant Air

It's the busy start of a new school semester, but a trusted friend has been urging me to read this book since he fell in love with it last summer, so I cracked it open on the plane ride back to campus. And couldn't stop reading this entire MLK long weekend. As you can imagine, …

The End of One World and the Beginning of Another

I've always been bad with words. No, that isn't quite right. I've always been bad with the spoken word. Whenever I open my mouth (well, unless it's to eat dessert), anxious thoughts fly in, get trapped, and start rattling around endlessly. Am I shaping my mouth around this word correctly will the trajectory of my …