"Neferura" by Malayna Evans

As someone who's always been fascinated by ancient Egypt, I really enjoyed this novel. We follow Neferura, the daughter of a female pharaoh Hatshepsut. Very little is known about the historic Neferura (from what I could tell). However, I loved the author's take on the ways women found ways to cooperate with each other and quietly push their own agendas and exert power. Neferura as a character undergoes tremendous growth in the novel. We first meet her as a young naive girl who is wholeheartedly dedicated to the role she plays as the high priestess of god Amun. She believes her own purity and devoutness ensure the prosperity of the people and the entire country. So she is shocked to find herself in the midst of political machinations and a struggle for power between her mother and her half brother Tutmose. Neferura resolves to be the maker of her own destiny rather than remain subservient to someone else. Overall, I really liked the main character, the historical setting, the politics and would highly recommend this to everyone who likes ancient history and women's roles in history. I am really loving the trend of giving voice to forgotten women.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com

March 2024 Reading Wrap-up

In March, I read 9 books and gave up on one (did not finish). Out of these nine, three were really short romance novellas that I got for free from Prime Reading on Amazon. All three were very cute and I enjoyed them. They were all a part of The Improbable Meet-Cute series, and I read the following three out of six:

• The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• With Any Luck by Ashley Poston ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, and
• Worst Wingman Ever by Abby Jimenez ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I think I picked these three because I had read and enjoyed books by these authors previously. There are three more novellas by authors I am not familiar with and I will definitely try to read them soon. These short stories make a good palate cleanser between heavier reads. 

My favorite reads of the month were:

• The Dead Man in the Garden by Marthe Jocelyn ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - this is a third installment in a middle grade mystery series that I enjoy. I have one more book left to read in the series and am really hoping to get to it in April.
• Shark Heart by Emily Habeck ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - this was an unexpectedly heart-warming magic realism story about loss, grief, love and hope restored. It is also about the fragility and preciousness of life, a good reminder to cherish every moment we have with our loved ones.
• Bunny by Mona Awad ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I have a full review of this book.
• Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I honestly did not know what to expect of this book and was pleasantly surprised. This book features a cast of seemingly random characters who frequent the same quaint Tokyo cafe that is rumored to have a time traveling portal. This book made me cry, it was very bittersweet.
• Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ is the first book in a romantasy series available for free on Kindle Unlimited. Even though I gave the book 4 stars, it did lay a great foundation for the series. I just finished book 2 and it was excellent. 

The DNF (did not finish) this month was A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong. I really thought I would love this book. I generally love books by Kelley Armstrong and enjoy time travel romances. However, I did not like the pacing in this book. Rather than focusing on time travel and romance, the author was trying to introduce suspenseful elements into the story, parts of it read like a horror story and I just did not vibe with that.

Another disappointing read was Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili ⭐️⭐️⭐️. I listened to it on audio, and had I read it in paper, I would have probably DNF'ed it as well. It is a literary fiction novel which follows a Georgian immigrant to England called Saba, whose dad and older brother go to their home country of Georgia and disappear there. So Saba sets out for his native Tbilisi in search of them. While I appreciated the things I learned about the regional ethnic conflicts and the turmoil the country went through after the break-up of the Soviet Union, I struggled to connect with the character. He seemed extremely immature to me, ran all over the country and in the end, we had no clear resolution. 

Overall in March, I craved to read something light and entertaining. In previous two months and also early in March I read a few books with a heavier subject matter and I think I also got burned out on ARCs. I had read 5 early this year (4 of them were pretty mediocre reads), and needed to read 3 more in March. However, rather than pushing myself to read things I was not excited about, I decided to give myself permission to read what I wanted. The problem with ARCs is that because you get an advanced copy for free, I always feel guilty if I don't read and review it in time. So I should really stop requesting too many ARCs and be more realistic about my abilities to read them before the publication date. Right now, I have 7 unread ARCs, 3 of which are out in stores already. 

"Bunny" by Mona Awad

This book is either hated or loved. Personally, I loved it. No wonder reviewers have trouble articulating what they just read. Think of it as a fever dream where Alice in Wonderland is crossed with Frankenstein. At an elite MFA program creativity is stifled. Cookie cutter rich girls who attend the school are desperately trying to create their ideal boyfriends out of bunnies (Warren is after all a rabbit borrow, so is literally filled with bunnies and Bunnies :-)). But all they are able to produce are handless and dickless Drafts that they can control but who can never be their lovers. 

Our main character Samantha is not a Bunny. She is the quintessential outsider to the prestigious school and her cliquey classmates. Her inspiration is not fed by the bunny filled detached from reality Warren. Rather she draws from the Other, the lovecraftian city that is so unlike the school that is located in it. (And yes, you can easily recognize the city of Lovecraft and Brown U - loved finding all the subtle and not so subtle references). She is inspired by the lonely swan she sees on a pond, by a stag that somehow wanders into campus and even by …. mud. Her transformations are the result of a deep sense of loneliness, she creates not sex partners, but soulmates and friends. Her creations are so real she herself treats them as such. Her propensity to “pretend” and “to lie in order to make things more interesting” make her an unreliable narrator and someone who cannot make connections with others. But it also makes her a great storyteller, the one who at times cannot control her narrative because the narrative takes on a life of its own. 

Ah, I could go on and on. There is so much to unpack here. Warren itself is a character and we could spend some time talking about that. And oh the faculty, the privilege, this compete disconnect from reality (as the janitor wisely points out). I will stop here. I am sure I will keep thinking about this book for days to come.

February 2024 Reading Wrap-up

February was another great reading month! I managed to read 12 books. Two of these were really short. They were: 

• The Lady of Shalott, a poem by Tennyson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, and 
• I Choose Darkness, a short non-fic by Jenny Lawson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

Both were excellent and I highly recommend them if you need a break from longer reads.

Let's look at some stats for February:

• I read 3 ARCs and 12 library books - this is really not helping me in terms of all the unread books that are sitting on my shelves
• In terms of format: 5-ebooks, 5 audio books and 2 in paper.

I have separate written reviews for the three ARCs that I read: 

• The Fury by Alex Michaelides ⭐️⭐️⭐️
• An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and
• The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden ⭐️

Another relatively short book was 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. It was a delightful epistolary novel that includes 20 years of correspondence between the author and a bookshop in London. I listened to this on audio and highly recommend this format. It is only about two hours long and I really enjoyed it.

Early in February I finished a carry-over audio book from January Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. This is by far one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read. It is a close and personal look at the US prison system and in particular innocent Black people on death row. Stevenson is an attorney who dedicated his life to fighting for justice for people who for all intents in purposes have no voice and who have been profoundly wronged by our society. This had a tremendous impact on me. I think it should be a required reading in school.

I also read a couple of sequels in ongoing series:

• Cocktails & Chloroform by Kelley Armstrong ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ is a novella in her A Rip In Time series about a female detective who somehow ends up time traveling to Victorian Edinburgh. So far I have enjoyed everything I've read by this author and I eagerly wait for the next installment in this series, which should be coming out this year.
• The Secrets of Winterhouse by Ben Guterson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ is the second novel in a middle-grade fantasy series that I enjoy. The main character is a precocious twelve-year old girl who loves books and secret codes. In each novel she solves a mystery of an old hotel that her grandfather owns. 

The three remaining books from my February list were:

• The Narrows by Kate Alice Marshall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. This is a modern gothic novel set in a boarding school. Kate Alice Marshall is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. So far, I have read 3 novels by her and loved all of them. This is a YA book about ghosts. I hear that her YA novels are much better than adult ones. But I will have to see. All three that I read were young adult and they were excellent.
• Beneath the Moon: Fairy Tales, Myths, and Divine Stories from Around the World by Yoshi Yoshitani ⭐️⭐️⭐️ was the most esthetically pleasing book I read this month. Each story was accompanied by a full-page color illustration, which were gorgeous. Many of the stories were familiar to me and some were new. If you like folklore, this is a great one to pick up. 
• Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ was a cozy magical realism novel set in a small southern town. It has a bit of everything: family drama, romance, and magic - all of these elements were low key and written in a way that is a bit of a step-up from a Hallmark movie. I listened to it on audio and quite enjoyed that format. If you need something heartwarming to read, look no further.

"The Warm Hands of Ghosts" by Katherine Arden

This new release from Katherine Arden is focused on the events of the Great War. It is a historical fiction with strong supernatural elements. The main character Laura is a combat nurse from Halifax who was sent home after sustaining major injuries. While home, she receives word from Europe that her brother is missing. The letter that accompanied his effects implied that he might be alive, and there were some irregularities with the effects themselves. Thus, Laura finds herself back in Flanders and begins searching for information about her brother.

I loved Katherine Arden’s Winternight trilogy. I still think of that series often and want to reread it. So I was really excited to get an ARC of her newest novel. Unfortunately, by far the best part of this novel is the Author’s Note at the back. The book itself failed to move me. I did not care about the characters. The horrors of WWI the way Arden described them did not have the intended impact on me. In fact, I was bored most of the time while reading this book and really struggled to get through it. I took me 12 days reading every single day to finish this 325 page novel - it was truly a slog! So unfortunately 1 out of 5 stars. Not for me. Oh and was Faland inspired by Bulgakov’s Voland? I couldn’t help but notice the similarities in the names.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com

"An Education in Malice" by S.T. Gibson

I was not a fan of S.T. Gibson’s first novel A Dowry of Blood mostly because I do not find the subject matter - vampires - to be particularly romantic or attractive. An Education in Malice also has vampires in it, but it is set in an all girls college in the 1960s and at least in the first half of the novel we follow two human girls. 

Carmilla and Laura come from totally different backgrounds and seem to be polar opposites of each other. But as we know, opposites attract. They start off as rivals in an exclusive poetry class, but soon find themselves drawn to each other. Gibson’s writing is very beautiful and I do enjoy her prose. However, even though I did like this novel better than her debut, it was not compulsively readable. I could only read a few pages at a time. It did not pull me in and I almost forced myself to pick it up each night. In the end I did end up giving it 4 out of 5 stars. I liked the dark academia vibes, and in particular the New England college setting. I also liked the characters and the romance. 

I would love to see this author stray away from the vampiric subject matter and explore some other fantasy worlds. I also think she should do more work on secondary characters. In the first two books, we spend majority of our time with the main characters and rarely see much of the surrounding world.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com

"The Fury" by Alex Michaelides

Alex Michaelides’s newest murder mystery involves 4 main characters: a retired movie star, her husband, a London theater actress and a playwright who is also the narrator of the story. While I enjoyed the unusual structure of the book, it also irritated me or more accurately, made me anxious as I never knew what was coming. The unreliable narrator tells a story with an unreliable structure. The experience was akin to reading a “what if” book. The narrator would lead you down a path just to state a couple of chapters later: sorry, that is how it was supposed to go, now let me tell you what really happened. 

More and more of the real picture - if such a thing is possible - was revealed with every unexpected turn or with a change of perspective. It is at its core a closed circle murder mystery, with the entire cast of characters secluded on a remote Greek island. However, once the murder actually happens (yes, there are a few intentional false starts), there is no mystery as to who committed it. 

I am giving this book 3 stars because I really disliked the main character and narrator, Elliot. I did not even feel pity towards him, although I wanted to. The author calls him a psychopath a few times in the novel. However, (and I don't know how true this is since the narrator is unreliable), Elliot suffered a lot of abuse, parental neglect and bullying in his childhood and younger years. I certainly could not blame him for seizing the day when he met a famous female writer, who took him under her wing. I could not, however, understand a lot of his motivations. Perhaps that is how psychopaths are supposed to act. But also feel that humanity utterly failed with this lonely man if what he described about his past really happened. So while an exercise of writing an entire novel from a perspective of someone who could or could not be a psychopath is interesting, I just can't get a higher rating to the book where the entire narrative could be distorted because presented through the eyes of someone who is mentally ill.