Posts By: Rashika

Friday, December 16, 2016

5 Books to Read if You Love Books About Books (AND INKHEART)

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Yesterday, I posted a review for The Book Jumper talking about my disappointment because I am really into books about books and thought I’d do a follow-up today recommending some A+ books about books (most I’ve read and others come highly recommended by friends.)

1. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Whenever I make recommendation lists, I don’t have any particular order in which I list the books in but The Invisible Library is #1 on this list because it was one of my fav books of 2016 and I didn’t have a lot of favs. IT IS ULTIMATE BOOK PORN. Blurb in a sentence: Detective Librarians who venture into alternate universes to find and protect different versions of books or find new ones that only exist in that universe.

2. Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

You may have seen this one roaming around the blogosphere last year when it came out and I am here to tell you it is more than just a book that exists to look pretty on your shelves. I will be the first to admit this might not be everyone’s cup of tea because it is very slow but it is SO WORTH IT. Blurb in a sentence: A reality in which the Library of Alexandria survived the tests of time and is now a VILLAIN. EVIL LIBRARIES FTW.

3. Libromancer by Jim C. Hines

DONT JUDGE THIS BOOK BY ITS UGLY-ASS COVER. I read this one because my friend forced me to recommended it to me and I AM GLAD I DID because holy wow. Also definitely book porn for readers. It is very much adult fic but so so good. Blurb in a sentence(ish): Libromancers are readers with powers. They can draw objects from books to help aid them in the fight to evil. All Libromancers tend to have gigantic personal libraries they can access too. Like I said, book porn for readers.

4. The Reader by Traci Chee

While I have not read this book, it has come highly recommended from friends and has a gorgeous cover. I cannot fangirl about it as much since I OBVIOUSLY HAVENT READ IT but here is the blurb in a sentence: In a world where reading (seems to be) outlawed, a girl discovers a book and slowly discovers all the secrets its been hiding. DUN DUN DUN DUN.

5. The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

This one is a short story I only recently discovered (aka while I was doing a little research for this post) but IT SOUNDS SO GOOD. Blurb in a sentence: “The story of a lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plotting their escape from a nightmarish library.” (Actually taken from GR blurb because I don’t think I could make it sound any better than that.)

BONUS

If you read mangas, you may want to add this one on your list because it sounds so GOOD.

Library Wars: Love & War, Vol. 1 by Kiiro Yumi, Hiro Arikawa

My friend and I were having a discussion about books about books and how a+ they are and he recommended me this manga which sounded A+. Blurb in a sentence(ish): A government that created a committee to get rid of unsuitable books & a Library Defense Force that will fight against the government to protect those books = war. Very reminiscent of our fight against banned books if I do say so.

Any other books about books you would recommend? TELL ME ALL ABOUT THEM.

Pales in Comparison to Other Books About Books: The Book Jumper by Mechthild Glaser

Posted by on 12/15/2016 • 6 Comments

Man, I don’t even know about this book. I was so excited to dive in because BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS but also because I’ve enjoyed a lot of books by German authors that have been translated into English in my life time and I was ready to discover another author I could add to my favs. The Book Jumper is not by any means a terrible book but if you’re reading it because you love books about books, you are gonna be disappointed. The world building is severely lacking in this one and there were a lot of things I did not understand about the world in which this book was taking place in. It represents a world similar to ours except for this select group of (white) people that have…

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Romance Mini-Reviews: Two Mysteries + A Blast from the Past

Posted by on 12/14/2016 • 2 Comments

 

Hard Rules Lisa Renee Jones

GOODREADS | PURCHASE

Wall Street meets the Sons of Anarchy in the smoldering, scorching first novel in the explosively sexy new Dirty Money series from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones.

How bad do you want it?

The only man within the Brandon empire with a moral compass, Shane Brandon is ready to take his family’s business dealings legitimate. His reckless and ruthless brother, Derek wants to keep Brandon Enterprises cemented in lies, deceit, and corruption. But the harder Shane fights to pull the company back into the light, the darker he has to become. Then he meets Emily Stevens, a woman who not only stirs a voracious sexual need in him, but becomes the only thing anchoring…

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9 Books I Wish I Had Read in 2016

Posted by on 12/12/2016 • 15 Comments

There were SO MANY good books that came out this year but this year has not been a good one for reading for me. There are books I was eagerly anticipating but ended up never reading. This post is a shout-out to some of those wonderful books and maybe you’ll read them and shower them with the love they deserve. These books are listed in no particular order 😉

1. A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

I read Ember in the Ashes back in December 2014 and the cliffhanger at the end of that book had me eagerly anticipating this one. I WANTED THIS BOOK SO BADLY but ended up never reading it because wow time. I might still be able to squeeze it in before the year ends…

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Rose Lerner on Jewish Representation in Media

Posted by on 12/06/2016 • 4 Comments

Hi friends! I don’t want to say much because I want this to be Rose’s space to talk but brief background. A while ago, after reading Lerner’s short in Gambled Away, I invited her to do a guest post about why representation in literature is important to her and being the kind, wonderful soul she was, she agreed to do it. SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, PLEASE PROCEED TO READ HER INCREDIBLY WELL WRITTEN and THOUGHT OUT POST.

When Rashika asked me to write a blog post about Jewish representation, I really struggled with where to start. How to focus. I had so much to say. I wrote thousands of rambling words, and felt dissatisfied with them.

Then I read this, from Aaron Lansky’s memoir Outwitting…

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Giveaway: Spindle by E.K. Johnston

Posted by on 12/05/2016 • 9 Comments

Today we are partnering with the lovely people at Disney-Hyperion to bring you a fabulous giveaway! E.K. Johnston is an incredibly talented author and I am SO excited to read Spindle. I enjoyed A Thousand Nights and CRIED while reading The Garden of Three Hundred Flowers (a short b/w A Thousand Nights  and Spindle, more info will be below) so I am sure Spindle will be even better. Exit, Pursued by a Bear (a retelling of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale) was also one of my favorite books of the year so basically, I just need all of Johnston’s books in my life :’)

About the Book About the Author

E.K. Johnston had several jobs and one vocation before she became a published writer. If she’s learned anything, it’s that things turn out weird sometimes, and there’s not a lot…

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ARC Review: Poison’s Kiss by Breeana Shields

Posted by on 12/02/2016 • 10 Comments

I am not entirely sure what I was expecting when I dove into Poison’s Kiss. I was hoping to like it because I was intrigued by the premise but even when I was excited to read it, a small part of me was worried that it would not do justice to my culture. As a story, Poison’s Kiss is fine. The romance is way too insta but it is engaging, there aren’t many plot holes and the characters are relatable. The world building is EXTREMELY lacking though. From the small things to the bigger, general things, the world building needs work and this book would have benefited from some Indian beta-readers who might have been able to help fine-tune some of those issues.

The rest of this review will…

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5 Reasons to Read the Vampire Academy Series + Giveaway

Posted by on 11/29/2016 • 10 Comments

 

The Vampire Academy series is one of my all-time favorites and today the fancy 10th anniversary edition also comes out. To celebrate 10 years of this wonderful book being out in the world, I am going to share my 5 reasons for reasons for reading this series!

1. OTP: Rose and Dimka

I am sorry, I should probably start with why Rose is extremely badass and stuff but Rose and Dimka are my favorite part about this series. AND NO I DONT HAVE TEARS IN MY EYES AS I AM TALKING ABOUT THEM. SOMEONE IS JUST CHOPPING ONIONS NEAR ME. They are one of my top 3 otps for a reason. They are incredibly supportive of one another and so good at communicating. They have their problems too but they work…

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