This is the final month for the Japanese Literature Reading Challenge, so I really had to hurry up with this one. I had two main recommendations for this month: Once and Forever: The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa, and an anthology of Japanese Haiku poetry compiled by Yamamoto and Addiss. And although not “literature”, also the superbly mind-bending scifi anime, Paprika.
Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs was like water after a reading drought! I was half afraid that the series would have lost its charm, but I needn’t have worried. Happy to report that this was an awesome read.
Tamsyn Muir is better known for her Gideon the Ninth, winner of the 2020 for Best First Novel. Princess Floralinda & the Forty-Flight Tower is a novella in a very different universe, and is just absolutely wonderful.
A witch has locked up Princess Floralinda on the 40th floor of a tower. Floralinda now just has to sit there patiently till a prince comes along to rescue her. Except to do that, he has to battle out a monster on each of the 39 intervening floors, starting with the diamond-scaled dragon on Flight One. Floralinda agrees to wait.
And waits. And waits …
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. This is Valentine’s Day week — so, a good time to think about my top 10 literary crushes over the years.
I recently read Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema by Lindy West — and it was just what I’d been looking for! Hilarious relook at old blockbuster movies, with tons of punchlines thrown in. Nobody is spared (not even the movie , which as per West is ““, haha) and every single movie trope and trick is held to the microscope for a close and hysterically funny analysis.
Trust me, this book makes you laugh like crazy. Pick it up on one of those downer days, and watch your gloom evaporate.
Lately, I’ve been consuming speculative fiction centered around Japanese mythology / Shinto creation mythology. Putting up a few reviews here as part of the Japanese Literature Reading Challenge 2021.
This book is part of the Tales of Matagama series but you can also read it as a standalone. Saya lives in the village, with no memory of the past. She finds comfort in her worship of the God of Light and his children. But the God of Light has been at eternal war with the Goddess of Darkness, and only the Water Maiden can wield the Dragon Sword and bring that war to an end. Saya’s world comes crashing down when she discovers that is that Water Maiden.
Finally, 2021 is finally here, and hope this year is better for all of us! Happy New Year to everyone, well-deserved, I say. But before we close this chapter of our lives, it’s also time to recount some of the bright spots — the best of 2020.
Note: Some of these have been discussed in my previous Favorite Books of 2020 list too — so do check out that list as well!
There are some books that make me want to rub my hands in glee, and Witch of the Glens is one of them. What a charming book! I wish I’d discovered it when I was younger, I think I’d have adored it even more.
Kelpie has no memory of how she came into the hands of wicked Old Mina and Bogle. She plots an escape from her harsh gypsy life when the house of Glenfern takes her in (out of pity). Now she’s just waiting to steal a few bags of gold, not caring in the least about the war sweeping through the Scottish Highlands. But Kelpie has the second sight, you know, the second sight (not the fake one that Mina pretends to have) … and soon Kelpie begins to see the human world in a new light.
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every Tuesday, you pick ten books on that week’s topic. And this week, we spotlight our favorite books of 2020.
This is a necessary ritual for wrapping up the year, and so here are my top ten reads for 2020.
