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Another reading challenge book that also checks off a physical TBR box as well after finding it at a thrift store.

I didn't know much about the contents of the book going it other than its a pretty hefty book. So imagine my surprise that it's a historical set in India. Definitely unique for my reading list.

Fake dating isn't a favourite trope of mine but the author is making this work for me both on stakes and premise. Overall the book has been delightfully breezy and easy with minimal drama. This may make it feel a bit predictable in places, and yet it still finds ways to surprise me.

Learning the author of this book was an actress as well lent a lot of credibility to her depictions of her characters and the industry they operated in.

I will say, I do have to repeatedly remind myself what era this is not only depicting but also the era this is written in when I encounter a slur, which is fairly frequent.

Not a whole lot to say to this point because much of it has been pretty bog standard epic classic fantasy as far as the characters and the events. It is perhaps a little heavier on the politics than most but not in such a way to overtake the plot so far.

I do find Kelsea a little irritating, but it tracks with her characterization so can't really fault it.

I had meant to read a bunch of summer themed books... And read nearly zero of them. Maybe this can account for the deficit.

Chose this for the Goodreads reading challenge. Mostly because it hits two of the lists, but also because it came highly recommended off BookTube. So I went with it.

I'm currently in an ebook heavy phase, which means right now is probably the best time to get this book whacked off. I've had it on hold for months now at my library, though I had to suspend the hold for a month waiting for the best time to get off nearly 500 pages of an ebook.

I also had to check its contents to make sure it's not another book that will affect me like A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Boy does this book leave a lot to think about, not just the reality of the counterculture of modern trad wives but also the sort of romanticization of the past that glosses over how existence is when you don't have a small army of servants (or slaves) at your beck and call.

"I'd love to go back in time, so long as I can keep the laundry machines, vacuums, indoor plumbing, etc. available"

I am going back and forth on whether this is a true romance book or not. Mostly because the war preoccupies so much of the everyday compared to the romance that it hardly seems to compute. Though perhaps that is how romances work in the days of the war, with so many boys putting on the khaki and shipping out overseas, many to their deaths.

The delays on this book is mostly courtesy library loans coming due and me focusing on those over this audiobook that I happen to own already. Also a vacation where ebooks are the preferred medium.

I'm in the final stretch though so should be able to get this off the list soon.

The next Narnia book on pipsqueak's reading journey, started while on vacation.

Admittedly I put it off as it's not exactly a favourite from Narnia. If anything, I'd deem it one of the strangest in the series. But it's next on the hit list so next we go.

I didn't know Rilla of Ingleside is the only Canadian novel written from a woman's perspective about the First World War by a contemporary. It was also one of the first non-Australian texts to mention Gallipoli and the ANZACs sacrifice.

So it will be nice to visit this with mature eyes.

Hoo boy when The Kite Runner said "There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood", it took that line and hammered it in in this book.

Which is a big reason why I'm kind of bum rushing the last quarter of this book. Not only because I have less than a week on the library loan, but also because this is really not the right time for me to be reading this. I'm not emotionally prepared for it.

Another book I FOMO'd myself into buying after seeing how long the waitlist was for the book at the library. Although imagine my consternation when weeks after buying it new I found a pristine copy at my local thrift store.

I'm intrigued by the premise of exploring trad wives given the discussions surrounding them these days as a counterculture culture.

Despite exploring the same time and in a way, place (not that Afghanistan is monolith culturally) as The Kite Runner and the similarities that comes of it, there is so much different. Gender is the primary reason but also class.

In a way, it's a look at what happened to those that got left behind during the turmoil that was the 80s and 90s. A very foreign sensation to those who fled.

One has to wonder at how many false trails are laid before we get to the heart of the mystery.

Dead Man's Folly is my first Agatha Christie book (not movie however) and I'm finding it quite enjoyable so far. But I have no frame of reference to compare it to others.

I do have to remind myself that it is not Edwardian but of a later time repeatedly.

All throughout reading this book so far, I keep thinking back to Tim's Vermeer, a documentary exploring a man's theory about how Vermeer produced his paintings.

This book doesn't got too deep on how Vermeer is painting, but it niggles with every reference to his work.

That isn't to say the story surrounding Griet isn't interesting. But it's more speculative than historical.

It always takes awhile for a Malazan book to take shape. This one feels different in how it is coming together though because it's something of a prologue. We already know what the end result, so to speak, is going to be. If not how we get there.

I've decided the time has come to see an end to the reading of Eulalia! Mostly because I'm not interested in bringing the book on the family's 3 week vacation just for 50 pages.

So the pip will be starting a new book while I finish this one out with the help of an audiobook. Ending this month's long journey for us both.

Well at least this time, unlike with the Kite Runner, I'm prepared mentally for a dark story and have a lineup that can accommodate the grimness.

Picked this book up in a little free library and reading it for a monthly keyword challenge because it has two of the keywords in the title. I've seen reports its better than the Kite Runner also. So there's that.

Funny thing. I had first planned to read this back in 2024. It didn't happen because I'm a mood reader that frequently changes her mind.

Then this popped up on a Goodreads challenge and I said "why not?" It lops off another book off my digital list in any case.

I decided to finish this rather than put it on hold.

I also decided I'm going to reread this in October/November time when grief sits a little closer to me and I'm in the right headspace to really internalize this book. So will likely reserve most of my thoughts for the reread. Because right now I don't think is fair to analyze the topic this explores.

It's amazing what you can get through when you don't have a second fantasy book on a timer competing with your limited attention time.

I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting the thing that sent Trull on his path in House of Chains to happen this soon. Really thought it'd be the book's climax.

I'm glad it did because things were dragging.

Another day, another book picked up from the library rather than my TBR. Though in my defence, this was a book club pick so perhaps it's better I got it from the library than purchase yet another book I haven't yet read.

I'm in a bit of a mystery mood at the moment so hopefully this will satiate the feeling.

This is one of those instances where I should have read the synopsis of this book.

This has been on my TBR for a decade due to it existing on various reading lists. It's not super long and it's Joan Didion.

But I really should have read the synopsis of this book before actually picking it up.

- speechlessly stares at book -
- starts waving hands back and forth -

Why would she do this thing but not that? Like, how many of her bloody problems would be resolved if she also followed up about the first guy? What in the...

The logic is baffling to me. What the hell is this book?

I think I kind of low key hate this book.

The plot has gone in illogical circles, the pacing has been ass, the characters are irritating and the writing is mediocre at best. I'll finish it off though just to see what the hell is going on because I haven't a clue at this stage.

You can sometimes get decent ebooks for free. This is not one of them.

Well this book finally kicked off and I am flying now. Good thing too as the due date for the audiobook nears.

Guy Gavriel Kay's stories are always so atmospheric, it envelops you into the world in a way that is both beautiful and haunting. Also, he's done his homework with this book. No cultural anomalies so far.

Even though I was aware that this was an epistolary novel going in, I don't think I knew and so was prepared for the experience of reading an epistolary novel. It is not a format I have much experience in.

It certainly begets the question of what goes unsaid in each letter. And what the letters are attempting to project.

This book is hella messy and makes no damn sense so far. It feels like it's just deus ex machina'ing left and right all sorts of things to make this or that happen against logic.

Nevermind the fact it is a book about people on the South's side of the Civil War. We're talking plantation owners...

Gavriel Kay's writing has a style that is always singularly aesthetic and atmospheric in tonality and colour. It really brings in an ethereal quality to his stories that is both beautiful but also haunting.

I'll admit, I have some concerns over him handling a story culturally similar to China. So far so good though. Mostly.