L I F E
Of course, I accidentally went MIA just as I said I was going to be returning to blogging….. The past two months have been hectic: summer means everyone wants to come to our house (a curse of living by the beach, you’ll forever be the designated house to visit in the summer) I love seeing my family, but I also value peace and quiet so here’s to hoping for more quiet weekends as we reach the fall season. I’ve also been very busy settling into work and hopefully can share some good news soon 👀
A R T
Ever since I played Baldur’s Gate 3 last year, I’ve had an itch to learn how to play Dungeons & Dragons and delve more into the world of TTRPGs. I came across this game called Cartograph which is a “a solo journaling RPG about map making, exploration, worldbuilding and resource management.” I actually made this one on stream with my Twitch community, the vods can be found here and here. The stream was split into two days as one was for the actual mapmaking and the second day was for making a digital version of the map. Using dices and cards, we were able to create this really cool map that we hope to use in future campaigns.
B O O K S
For transparency, books marked with an asterisk (*) signify books I received through work at PRH.
A written version of Isabella Hammad’s 2023 Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture at Columbia University which includes an afterword reflecting on the events after October 7th. Using the term anagnorisis as both a literary and a political device, Hammad goes into the importance of reading and the impact it has within our political landscape. Reading this made me wish I had been there when she presented her speech, a great piece of work.
I was teetering on the line of a reading block so I picked up this short read as a palette cleanser. It was super fun but I would’ve loved if the story delved more into the history, but as it’s part of a remixed classic series, I’m not surprised that part feels rushed, I assumed the authors were basically briefed on writing standalone book for the series. I also believe this is the author’s first time at writing non contemporary and it kind of shows. Sometimes the language feels too modern – however, I will be reading the rest of the remix series just to confirm if it’s a one-off or maybe a broad thing for this series.
Journalist Peter Apps writes up survivor testimony with the detailed decision-making that led to the night of the Grenfell Tower fire. He exposes exactly where things have gone wrong with social housing so that it can never happen again. Since writing this post, the final inquiry has been released and it very much reflects the work that Apps has done previous in much finer details. I vividly remember the night of the fire, watching it essentially happen live on Twitter at 2 am. It was truly a horrifying and eye opening moment in this country’s history. A concise capture of how value for money over human lives had led to the deaths of 72 people whom the inquiry confirms were completely avoidable.
Normally, I am a sucker for any fantasy book released by Orbit, but this maybe the first one I could not put myself through to finish one of their books. I DNF’d at 55% because nothing was happening. I was so amazed by this book’s ability to have so many POVs and not a single thing actually happen in the story. I requested this through Netgalley, forgot it was adult fantasy and thought I was reading a YA book because it definitely did not read like a book for an adult audience. I wanted to love it because of the Asian fantasy landscape, but it felt all bones and no actual meat in the story despite it trying really hard to be a book on social issues such as privilege, political exploitation and social hierarchy.
I picked up a copy of this after a New Joiners’ Breakfast at work and a lot of the people at work kept mentioning this one so I was interested. I’m not one for sports romance unless it’s in the manga/webtoon format. A romance between a Olympic athlete and a intern which was super cute, but I feel like marketing was so odd for this one. Everyone at work kept calling it a spicy romance, which should’ve been my red flag because i really dislike the term and plus it was far from that. In fact, there’s only one scene and it’s fade to black. I notice this is SO common in publishing where the internet meaning of spicy is far different from traditional publishings understanding of it.
Major clean out of the shelves at work, and this one caught my eye! Managed to read the entire book on the train journey home! Some poems weren’t my taste, but I liked the variety and I did find a few new authors to follow online!
A translated fiction of a Japanese woman who pretends to be pregnant after becoming overwhelmed in her male dominated workplace. Soon everyone starts treating her differently and she finds herself settling into the life of a pregnant women, even documenting the stages of the baby and its development. A rather wacky kind of read that you’ll either love or hate. I loved it, but I was also SO stressed every time I thought she might be caught out.
Okay, for the LONGEST time I’ve avoided Sally Rooney, purely because I didn’t like that she didn’t use quotations. In fact, I actively avoided her books for like 6 years because of it. I wanted to read her books, but I knew I wouldn’t be giving it a fair chance. Until randomly a few weeks ago, a switch flipped in my brain and decided that it wasn’t that deep and I wasn’t going to let that stop me from reading her books. Surprised myself with this one! Two uni students find themselves intertwined into the relationship of a older married couple. Messy people getting into a messy situation. I enjoyed the book but there’s just something ABOUT THIS BOOK….I don’t know to describe it….I didn’t hate it but I’m excited to keep reading more from her.
This title kept popping up at work, and I was always so intrigued to read it. I luckily managed to snag a copy through a work giveaway. A generational story of three gay men from the same family. Vivaan, his uncle Mambro, and his grand uncle Sukumar. Honestly, this was so sad, I had to keep putting the down because of the immense waves of emotions I kept feeling. I love the formatting for each member’s chapters as well. Vivaan’s chapters are in voice notes, Mambro is written as a manuscript, while Sukumar who has already passed away before the story begins is read as a story. It was SUCH a great way to showcase the time difference between each generation.
A new sapphic enemies-to-loves YA from Adiba Jaigirdar. Honestly, I DNF’d at 55% when I realised that this is basically the same plot as Jaigirdar’s two other novels, Hani and Ishu and The Henna Wars. I liked Hani and Ishu, however I didn’t like The Henna Wars. Two girls who are at odds with each other end up falling in love. Which I usually enjoy, but Meghna in Rani Choudhury Must Die was genuinely insufferable and spent most of the time expecting everyone to feel bad for her. I was ready to brush off her anger at Rani as normal teen angst because I wouldn’t blame her, when you’re a teenager every emotion is heightened, but it was really not good in this one. Rani really did not deserve any of the ire she got from Meghna. And by 55% I was was so bored because I have already read this exact plot in the other two Jaigirdar books, just different settings. Even the characters felt the same. This may be the last book of Jaigirdars’ I read unless any future releases grab my attention because feeling meh about 3 books doesn’t bode well for me.
A collection of history’s most memorable love stories. A diverse range of love stories from around the world. Inspiring in only a few excerpts, some of them I don’t even know if I would even want to remember them as love stories. But I guess it was good starting point for anyone who might want to delve deeper into the lives of some of these people. Again a random book I picked off the shelf at work when we were in the office moving floors.
That’s it for this month! Tell me what went on in YOUR life this month! What sort of things was important for you this month? New obsessions? New TV shows? Or book? Any new song recs (I’m always open to new music!)? Best books you read this month?
as told by zaheerah 
Oh living by the beach sounds awesome and I can see why your relatives like to visit 😅 I’ve heard so many mixed reviews on Fanthomfolk, which is a shame since the premise sounds amazing
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