The Melodramatic Bookworm

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone | Book Review / Thoughts

If you’ve been on Book Twitter over the past few weeks, you’ll know that an account called Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood tweeted about a book called This is How You Lose the Time War. The tweet blew up, so much that there are now cosplays involving people holding up huge mockups of the book. This became, for me, a case of wanting to jump on the bandwagon, especially since I’d seen this book on a few lists by this point and made a mental note to get to it someday. The tweet came as a final push.

I finished this book at 2 AM and every cell of my body was screaming in frustration. It still is as I try to write this review. And if you ask me what the book is about, I’ll probably be able to tell you. In bits, pieces, and fragments, perhaps, like the book itself is, but I can. What I cannot wrap my head around is how the book is written.

My Panicky Reading Habit & Truth of Being a Bookworm… And Eventual Resignation

It would be a cliched, self-important, tone-deaf thing to say if I said that being a bookworm isn’t easy. Quite contrarily, it is one of the easiest things in the world. All you have to do is have a reading habit, no matter the genre or the frequency of the books you read, and you can be called a bookworm. Over the past 1.5 years or so, however, I’ve discovered a new dimension to my reading, to my existence as a bookworm, which probably says more about me as a person than about me as a bookworm. But since both are intricately linked and interwoven… That’s a whole conundrum in itself.

Life, Living & Livelihood: Short Poems on Life by Santosh Nair | Book Review

I’ve always been entranced with words and the way they come together to make rhythmic sense. When I wasn’t reading them, I was bringing them together, even as a child. My writing journey started when I was around 10 or 11, when I decided to start writing poems. I didn’t know Frost or Dickinson or Gill at the time. All I knew about poetry was that the lines had to rhyme. So it began, with me maintaining notebook upon notebook of these poems. And then came a time when I stopped. Maybe because I grew up.

Santosh Nair’s poetry collection, Life, Living & Livelihood: Short Poems on Life, took me right back to that time, to that corner, to the pages of that notebook.

The Treatment of Book Influencers – A Little Rant

I’ve always wondered why the book niche doesn’t get as much love as some other niches like beauty or travel or food get. And it’s not just because I’m a bookish content creator that I wonder this. I can be oblivious sometimes, yes, but when I observe, I OBSERVE and I can’t get them out of my head.

Dear Girls by Ali Wong | Book Review

A few weeks ago, I borrowed Dear Girls by Ali Wong from my local library, thinking about how Ali Wong was a badass woman, an inspiration, and wanting to see what she had to say. Dear Girls, her memoir, is a letter to her daughters in which she recollects things she’s done in her life. She warns them not to read the book before they turn 21 and I agree one hundred percent because boy, oh, boy, there’s some stuff that’s not share-worthy at all. Especially not to one’s daughters. But going into the book, I had some really high expectations – from the book, from actor Ali Wong, and from comedian Ali Wong, and from writer Ali Wong.

How to Make Travel Itineraries Your Friends & Family Love | Travel Tuesday

Planning a holiday can be both exciting and overwhelming. With so many destinations to choose from, accommodation options, transportation, and activities to plan, it’s easy to feel lost in the sea of information. However, with some careful research and thoughtful consideration, anyone can create perfect travel itineraries.

In this blog post, we will provide you with valuable tips on how to plan an ideal travel itinerary that suits your preferences, budget, and expectations. Whether you’re looking for a relaxing beach vacation, an adventure-filled trip to the mountains or a cultural experience in a foreign country, our guide has got you covered!

So sit back, grab your notepad and let’s get started on planning your dream holiday!

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan | Book Review

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan was the first book I read in 2023 and almost immediately, in a fit of emotion and productivity, wrote the review. I even uploaded this review to Instagram and Goodreads, too, I think. But somehow, to put my thoughts about this book here, seemed too intimidating for me. Maybe because writing a review on the blog needs me to open up more of myself than I would for the other media. There’s more space here for me to spill my thoughts and I know that once I start, it usually takes me more energy than I can spare to stop. And The Joy Luck Club is a book that makes me do this. Yes, it’s a confusing thing to reconcile oneself with, but it’s still a powerful narrative.

So, I’ll try to add more details on the existing review but I can’t promise I will succeed.

Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai | Blog Tour Stop

Hello and welcome to my blog tour stop for Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s newest book, Dust Child! I was supposed to write a post about the progress I’ve been making on this story. Instead, here I am, writing a full review because of how invested I was in it. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai does it again with this book, infusing it with a gentle understanding and compassion that makes me such a huge fan of her writing. I read Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s debut novel The Mountains Sing in December 2022 and it marched its way onto my favorites of the year list. That (and more) made the author an instant favorite, propelling Dust Child into my most anticipated book releases of 2023 list.

And what a book it is!

The Daughters of Madurai by Rajasree Variyar | Book Review

There are some books, very rare, that grab at an issue and twist it until it’s nothing but a bunch of bare threads. Everything that constitutes it is out in the open – circumstances, decisions, relationships, reasons, strengths, weaknesses, heartbreaks – all of it. For us women, especially, each of these threads are as important as the other, because we simply cannot afford to be shortsighted. And yet, push us far enough and we will harness all our strength and push back so hard, you’ll find yourself questioning your reality. Putting all of this – a complex web of feelings and thoughts and decisions – into one book is a feat in itself.

And Rajasree Variyar does it in fabulously in The Daughters of Madurai.

DramaQueenAThon Announcement – International Women’s Day 2023 | March 2023 Tentative TBR

Every time International Women’s Day rolls around, the question that many misogynists (most of these men) ask: “Why is there a special day for women? Where is the special day for men? Is this your idea of feminism?” This is so tone deaf and ignorant on so many levels that it becomes something that we are left with no choice but to ignore. Instead, we focus on celebrating women and feminism, to bring to the front all the women inspiring us in a million different best ways and more. And what can us bookworms, who are on social media, who have a pinch of a following do? Hold readathons in celebration!

Which is why this year, DramaQueenAThon – the original edition – has made a comeback.