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Thunderbird by Sonia NimrMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
dates read:11/30/2023 - 12/3/2023
I really enjoyed this book. The fantasy was fun and age appropriate, and the author approached the topic of Palestinian occupation very gently. In the end, I ended up rating the book 4.75/5. The only issue I had was that it ended very abruptly. I don't know if that was a choice so that young readers would pick it up because it's a small chapter book, but I found it extremely annoying, especially with my issue securing the second book, and the questionability about the third's release date. To read my full review, please click here
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25 books for 2025
February 4th, 2025 03:09 pm- Dead River by McCaid Paul - A thriller? set in North Florida? I believe? My boyfriend's grandmother asked me to check this out because she enjoyed it and he is an independent author, so I will be reading this sometime soon.
- Death Note: Volume 8
- Death Note: Volume 9
- Death Note: Volume 10
- Death Note: Volume 11
- Death Note: Volume 12
- Jujutsu Kaisen by Gege Akutami - A manga for when I finish Death Note!
- Normal People by Sally Rooney - I read Intermezzo by this author in January this year and loved it! I can't wait to check out her most popular release!
- Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare - Can't wait to finish the Shadowhunters journey I started when I was 13 LMAOOOO
- The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk - I love understanding my mental illness <3 This is a scientific book looking into how trauma and PTSD reshape our brains. Hopefully, this proves to be insightful?
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - a dystopian book —apparently a classic — about the United States being overthrown by Christian fundamentalists and how that would impact women. I really enjoyed the TV show (until the last season) and thought I would give the book a go.
- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - gay reimagining of the Greek myth of Achilles and Patroclus. I am intrigued by all the women sobbing on TikTok because of this book.
- An Abundance of Katherines by John Green - I like to feel like a millennial sometimes and between blogging on tumblr + dreamwidth and reading John Green coming-of-age romance novels, it fulfils that dark shameful desire within myself.
- The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans - a short story collection. I know nothing else. A booktuber that I am endeared by enjoyed it so I must read it.
- I've Had to Think Up a Way to Survive by Lynn Melnick - a memoir about PTSD? and Dolly Parton? I can't lie I added this to my TBR long enough ago that I forgot.
- Papillion by Henri Charriere - I don't know anything about this book except that Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson I GUESS reference it extensively, and even though I'm not a mega fan of either of them anymore, I am still intrigued.
- Paper Towns by John Green - see: An Abundance of Katherines
- A Man of Two Faces by Viet Thanh Nguyen - a memoir about a Vietnamese man who emigrated to the United States and has a main theme of dual identity I THINK. I also don't remember. I remember adding this to my TBR in October 2023.
- What if it's Us by Adam Silvera - see: An Abundance of Katherines
- Looking for Alaska by John Green - see: An Abundance of Katherines
- Maurice by EM Forester - Gay? A gift from my friend for Christmas 2023...
- A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - see: Maurice
- The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - see: The Song of Achilles
- Hacienda by Isabel Canas - My former friend who is a kleptomaniac stole this from target and gave it to me and I just. Have it now so. Gotta read it.
- Turtles All The Way Down by John Green - see: An Abundance of Katherines
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january 2024 wrap up
February 1st, 2025 03:16 pm♡ Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (☆☆☆☆☆ / 5)
☆ Intermezzo by Sally Rooney is a novel that delves into the emotional landscape of parental loss, unexpected connections, and healing. In alternating chapters, two brothers, Peter and Ivan, confront their vulnerabilities and search for meaning in the wake of profound personal tragedy. Specifically, Ivan grapples with feelings of being alienated from those around him and the experience of finding someone who understands him, while Peter grapples with having a substantially younger girlfriend while still loving his first love.☆ I loooooved this book!!!!!!!!!!!! I felt really emotionally close to Ivan as a character and I loved the narration within his chapters and I found him to be such a completely relatable character.
☆I would especially recommend this if you liked Everybody In This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin and Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen.
☆I would especially recommend this if you liked Everybody In This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin and Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen.
♡ Qissat, a short story collection, edited by Jo Glanville (☆☆☆/5)
☆ I rated this book based upon the average rating of the 16 stories. I felt super conflicted giving this collection 3/5 stars because when a story was good and hit for me, it REALLY HIT, like with Me (the Bitch) and Bustanji by Selma Dabbagh, which is a short story that takes place during the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and we follow a teenage girl through that experience. It mixes the experience of the political unrest with the coming of age experiences of being a young girl, like consciously changing your writing style and the experiences of ignoring catcallers in such a fun and interesting way, and like in Dates and Bitter Coffee by Donia ElAmal Ismaeel, where the main character, a mother of a militarized son set in Gaza who ends up being killed in a conflict in Gaza, and this story critically explores the severe consequences of radicalization and the hollow nature of "matyrdom" behind organizations like the Jihad that was so very poignant. But when it missed, it missed HARD, like in A Thread Snaps by Huzama Habayeb, which just seems to be a short story about a teenage girl masturbating with the water that she washed her family's clothes in, and if there was any other meaning or allegory to it, I seemed to have missed it. Another example is A Single Metre by Raeda Taha, a short story of a woman hopping into a stranger's car to cross the Palestine-Israel checkpoint, only for her to have jumped into a the vehicle of two individuals who plan to bomb the checkpoint.
☆ I don't know that I would recommend this entire collection, but I can recommend individual stories from it, as follows:
- Me (the Bitch) and Bustanji by Selma Dabbagh (☆☆☆☆☆ / 5)
- short summary above <3
- Dates and Bitter Coffee by Donia ElAmal Ismaeel (☆☆☆☆☆ / 5)
- short summary above <3
- Pieta by Jean Said Makdisi (☆☆☆☆☆ / 5)
- Follows an unnamed woman who is relatively well off in Beirut in the 80s following the Palestinian Liberation Organization's decision to pull out of Lebanon and the story centers the protagonist meeting a former acquaintance, Nadia, on the streets after she has lost everything. I found that the juxtaposition between the protagonist and Nadia's experiences thus far, coupled with the protagonist's feelings of guilt and an almost envy made this story really good.
- Barefoot Bridge by Randa Jarrar (☆☆☆☆/ 5)
- Follows a young girl traveling from Egypt to Jordan to attend her grandfather's funeral, and highlights the absurdities of the Palestine-Israeli checkpoints, and particularly, the narrative choice of using a child's perspective made this story very interesting and refreshing.
- Other Cities by Liana Badr (☆☆☆☆/ 5)
- Umm Hasan, a Palestinian woman living in Hebron, promises her children that she will take them to visit Ramallah, despite her husband's warnings against it. When the children start to doubt her, Umm Hasan starts scheming to figure out a way to take her children on this risky trip.
- Local Hospitality by Naomi Shihab Nye (☆☆☆☆/ 5)
- Follows a young Palestinian couple, Zakki and Suheila, visiting to their home village temporarily after going to university in America. Explores the relationships between Palestinian families and customs in a very interesting and entertaining way.
- May God Keep Love in a Cool and Dry Place by Adania Shibili (☆☆☆☆☆/ 5)
- Follows a young couple, both unnamed, through the deterioration of their relationship, specifically focusing on how the female character changed for the male character and it still not being enough, as well as the female's tolerance for the male's mistreatment. This story was very artfully done and I recommend everyone check this one out.
- Her Story by Samira Azzam (☆☆☆☆/ 5)
- This story is a letter from a sister to her younger brother. This story is best and strikes the strongest if you go in as blind as possible. It was very artful in it's execution.
- My Shoe Size and Other People's Views on the Matter! by Nibal Thawabteh (☆☆☆☆/ 5)
- Follows a female protagonist as she buys shoes that are too small. Another one that is best read without any prior information
- If anybody wants to read any of these short stories, feel free to shoot me a message here and I'll send you a file :) just make sure to tell me what story you want!
♡ Death Note: Volume 7 by Tsugumi Ohba (☆☆☆☆☆ / 5)
☆ Hopefully, if you've gotten 7 volumes into a manga, you know if you like it or not, so I don't feel a need to review this one. Love Death Note and can't wait to read the next volume!
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https://x.com/vampiricprose/status/1885524920324505972/photo/1
^link in case the photo is broken.
https://x.com/vampiricprose/status/1885524920324505972/photo/1
^link in case the photo is broken.
THE GRAVEYARD (AKA BOOKS I DNF'D):
♡ Caraval by Stephanie Garber:
♡ Caraval by Stephanie Garber:
☆ I DNF'd Caraval at 15% for a couple of reasons:
1. The opening chapters centered domestic violence and had a relatively "graphic" scene. Generally speaking, I am not opposed to "triggering content" in books (one of my favorite books is A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara for God's sake) as long as it as done well and done tactfully. This was not tactful or well done. We go from "I have wanted to see this magical performance since I was a little girl and have wrote to the main musician for just as long," to "My dad beats the shit out of my sister if I fuck up and also has killed one of my sister's boyfriends by drowning because he tried to help her leave so I'm 100% content marrying some Count that I've never seen before and only know through my father, who reads all of our correspondences and edits it." Like what.
2. Every character is fucking annoying. I wanted to sympathize with these characters but I couldn't because they were all fucking insufferable!
3. The writing didn't catch me as a reader. Perhaps the biggest sin of all, but I did not like this writing style whatsoever. In fact, I read 1% of this book and let it sit untouched for EIGHT DAYS before I forced myself to sit through another 14% of this book.
2. Every character is fucking annoying. I wanted to sympathize with these characters but I couldn't because they were all fucking insufferable!
3. The writing didn't catch me as a reader. Perhaps the biggest sin of all, but I did not like this writing style whatsoever. In fact, I read 1% of this book and let it sit untouched for EIGHT DAYS before I forced myself to sit through another 14% of this book.
I am, quite frankly, devastated, because I really enjoyed Stephanie Garber's other series, Once Upon A Broken Heart.
books i'm bringing into february:
Ghosts Of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare. A short story collection within the Shadowhunters universe. I'm 57% into it and I'm really enjoying it.
The Gulag Archipelago Abridged by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. A memoir taking place during the Soviet Union, and specifically focuses on the experiences inside the Gulags, or prisons. I'm about 5% into this one and I'm enjoying it in a different way. I listen to the audiobook version while I walk my dogs in the morning on weekdays and I really enjoy the no-nonsense portrayal of life inside of these prisons.
Ghosts Of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare. A short story collection within the Shadowhunters universe. I'm 57% into it and I'm really enjoying it.
The Gulag Archipelago Abridged by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. A memoir taking place during the Soviet Union, and specifically focuses on the experiences inside the Gulags, or prisons. I'm about 5% into this one and I'm enjoying it in a different way. I listen to the audiobook version while I walk my dogs in the morning on weekdays and I really enjoy the no-nonsense portrayal of life inside of these prisons.
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