📚Book Review📚

📖Boulder by Eva Baltasar (translated by Julia Sanches)

Cover design by Anna Morrison

I don't think that I could say that I liked this story... but perhaps that's just because it felt too raw and honest. It made me feel as though I was intruding on someone's private thoughts. The use of language is both languorous and disquieting, and strangely addictive with a poetic quality to it in places.

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📚August 2025 recap📚

I read a total of five books in August: a library loan, an ebook that I bought in 2022, an ebook that I bought last year, a highly anticipated sequel, and a non-fiction recommendation from @oliviascatastrophe that I think everyone should read.

💛💛💛💛🖤- Cackle by Rachel Harrison
💛💛💛🖤🖤- Hammered by Lindsay Buroker
💛💛💛💛🖤- Don't Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews
💛💛💛💛🖤- Teo’s Durumi by Elaine U. Cho
💛💛💛💛💛- What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition by Emma Dabiri

In addition, I read the novelette ‘The Minority Report’ by Phillip K. Dick and the short story ‘The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas’ by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Husband and I continued watching the new seasons of ‘Foundation’ and ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’. I binge-watched a Chinese mini-drama from 2024 called ‘Immortal Destiny’ (also known as ‘Forbidden Love Between’), and seven different BL dramas that have been on my watchlist for a while now - with the stand outs being the 2024 Taiwanese drama ‘See Your Love’ which had excellent deaf representation, and the 2023 Japanese drama ‘I Cannot Reach You’.

Family finished watching the fourth season of ‘The Good Place’, and continued watching the current seasons of ‘Sakamoto Days’ and ‘Kaiju No. 8’. We also rewatched (first watch for the Teen) ‘The Lost Boys’ (1987), ‘Serial Experiments Lain’, and ‘Ferris Bueller's Day Off’(1986).

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📚Book Review📚

📖What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition by Emma Dabiri.

Fantastic breakdown of the way systematic inequalities and oppression hurt everyone, and how invented divisions keep people from forming meaningful coalitions to improve the world we live in. Everyone should read this! Loved it!

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📚Book Review📚

📖Teo’s Durumi by Elaine U. Cho.

Cover art by Jee-ook Choi.

I love ‘Ocean’s Godori’ with every fibre of my being and found ‘Teo’s Durumi’ to be a very worthwhile continuation. The story brought the characters to an excellent pause point in what I sincerely hope will be just the first of many more stories in this fictional universe.

This duology is an absolute must-read for fans of space opera who appreciate character depth and complicated relationships, and I will be eagerly anticipating more stories from this author in the future.

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📚Book Review📚

📖Don't Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews.

Cover art by Jana Heidersdorf.

I had a deliciously wicked experience reading this story. It has a similar vibe to stories like ‘Off With Their Heads’ by Zoe Hana Mikuta, the 1994 film ‘Heavenly Creatures’, and ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’ by Mokumokuren.

I have no clue how much is meant to be real and how much is meant to be metaphor, but the writing is achingly beautiful and I ate it up. Sometimes love and pain are the same thing.

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📚Book Reviews📚

I was finally able to beat my previous high score from December 2019 in ‘Number Match’ at the beginning of this month. I’ve also finished reading two books so far in August:

📖Cackle by Rachel Harrison (ebook library loan)

I had a fun time reading this one. I loved the burgeoning friendship between Annie and Sophie, and Ralph is oddly adorable. The epilogue felt right to me too.

📖Hammered by Lindsay Buroker (ebook bought in 2022)

Decent characters and world-building for an urban fantasy, but didn't really feel like a self-contained story in terms of the plot development. Will likely pick up the second book at some point and see how things progress.

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📚July 2025 recap📚

I read a total of five books in July, two of which were manga volumes, one translated work, one ebook, and one library loan.

💛💛💛💛🖤- Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
💛💛💛💛💛- The Moon on a Rainy Night, Volume 1 by Kuzushiro
💛💛💛🖤🖤- Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
💛💛💛🖤🖤- Nana, Volume 1 by Ai Yazawa
💛💛💛💛🖤- The Sirens by Emilia Hart

In addition, I read the short stories ‘Home’ and ‘The Flowering’ by Soyeon Jeong, and the novelette ‘Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy’ by Martha Wells.

Husband and I finished the first season of ‘Murderbot’ and started watching the new seasons of ‘Foundation’ and ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’. I binge-watched ‘Too Much’, and two Japanese BL series: ‘When It Rains, It Pours’, and ‘Love is a Poison’.

Family finished watching the currently available episodes of ‘The Apothecary Diaries’, and rewatched ‘Murderbot’ with our Teen, as well as ‘Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai’ (which I personally refer to as ‘Adolescence Syndrome’, that being the central concept). We also started watching the current seasons of ‘Sakamoto Days’ and ‘Kaiju No. 8’.

Twiglet has been very adorable and spent a lot of time snuggling with me in the mornings since I don’t have to get up so early and can do a bit of bed rotting.

#reading #manga #bookishcommunity #bookishcommunityuk #readingbuddy

📚Book Review📚

‘Dungeon Crawler Carl’ by Matt Dinnimin.

Kind of has a ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ meets ‘The Running Man’ vibe to it.

Some of the humour just didn't work for me (ableist vibe, or just kind of gross). Overall, the story knows what it is and delivers on what it promises.

Princess Donut is the star of the show and the reason why I would probably read more in this series, but I'm not in a particular hurry to try to catch up.

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📚Book Review📚

‘The Moon on a Rainy Night’, Volume 1 by Kuzushiro.

Absolutely loved this first volume in what I'm hoping is going to be a beloved series for me. Originally picked it up thinking that it would be a good one to tempt the Teen to read over the summer, but honestly think it is just done so well that I'm keen to read more for myself.

Disability representation is wonderfully woven into the fabric of the story, and the nuance of someone being deaf without complete hearing loss is very welcome.

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📚Book Review📚

‘Elizabeth and her German Garden’ by Elizabeth von Arnim

I found this book quite charming (though, being the musings of an upper class lady published in 1898, the classism is a bit discomforting in places). Also, please note that there is one moment when a young child is described as being careless with a kitten in a manner that feels cruel and certainly unpleasant for the poor kitten, but it is mentioned only briefly.

As someone who is introverted, and finds the lingering habits of guests wearisome, I find this account of a woman finding solace in her garden strangely relatable (despite not being good with plants myself) and feel like this might be considered an example of a woman entering her hedge witch era.

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