After a disastrous start to the year, I’m beginning to think that I’m now slowly getting my reading mojo back, if my recent reads are anything to go by. I found a couple of favorites, one of which I’ve been raving about almost everywhere, mostly in my Favorite Authors and the Mid Year Book Freakout Tag videos. I’m still going to be a little cautious, though, because I don’t want to jinx it in any way or form. I know what could happen and I’m super wary of it.
In today’s blog post, I’ll be talking about my May 2022 and June 2022 reading wrap ups. I read 9 books in each of these months and given how I’ve given up on TBRs and also on bothering about the number of books I need to read, it went pretty well. Buckle up for a LONG blog post!
Author Archives: Sonali Dabade
Death of a Seeker and Other Stories by Abhaidev | Book Review
“The universe doesn’t owe us anything. It is not obliged to explain itself to us.”
While we are busy trying to find out what secrets the universe holds, the universe is sitting back and watching us try and try, finding it cute that we have the audacity to demand things of it when we are destroying the only home we know. A great reminder to start off a review with, in my opinion, because that quote from Abhaidev’s Death of a Seeker and Other Stories is an answer to all of the existential questions that plague humanity.
Anti Book Recommendations | The Worst Books I’ve Ever Read!
This list contains some of the worst books I’ve ever read. For this, too, I will give out a disclaimer: These are my opinions and mine alone. If there’s a book on this list that you love, it is not meant to be a personal attack. Everybody has a different taste and a way of interpretation and I hope this will be respected. 🙂
In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri and its Themes | Book Discussion
When I read Jhumpa Lahiri’s memoir, In Other Words, in which she shares her journey of learning Italian, it was as if she was echoing my deepest, darkest fears. With the themes she tackles throughout the book, of immigration, of even sexism and colorism, she brings so many relatable concepts to the fore. Because when you start learning a new language, you not only discover how the different parts of the world are different. You also learn more about yourself, the grit and determination that constitute you, what your actual goals are, what you want to do with life, where you want to be at any given moment in time, and why you want to do whatever it is you want to do.
What I Learnt From My First Solo Trip | Avoid These 7 Mistakes!
7 years ago, today, I went on my first solo trip. Agreed, it was a partial one where I was solo in just two cities out of ten, but it was a HUGE step for me, nevertheless. One I will never forget, especially because of the lessons I learned. The biggest lesson was that when you are doing something for the first time, you need to give yourself space and allow yourself to make mistakes. You need to learn to forgive yourself, because how could you have known? This is what I’ve told myself over the past 7 years and though I know I probably will make more mistakes, I also know this: I won’t make those same mistakes again.
FONTain of Thought: The Importance of Fonts for Readers.
When we pick up a book, excited to read it, we’ve already given part of ourselves to the journey that’s before us. The anticipation makes us want to zoom through the pages, late into the night, giving us the dark circles that we may or may not be proud to flaunt. But then, we open the book. And what do we see there? Ants crawling across the page. Tiny, tiny letters that we must squint at to even make out. By the time we’ve gathered the story and understood what the author is trying to say, we’ve got a raging migraine and the urge to raise the book to the sun in the hope that maybe some divine photosynthesis will make the font grow larger.
Reader Shaming HAS to Stop.
I made a video on reader shaming about 2.5 years ago and I used that script as a reference for this blog post. As I read through it, I realized some of it was outdated, but so much of it was so savage. I don’t remember how the video came out because I can’t bearContinue reading “Reader Shaming HAS to Stop.”
10 Places On My Bucket List | Must-Visit List – 2022 Edition
There are many things that give a person peace. Family, music, writing, friends, movies – the list is endless. But there is one section of people for whom peace equals the chaos of traveling, the excitement of roaming the world, the wonder of seeing new places, and the joy that comes with learning about new cultures. Within this section is another small one. One that finds happiness just in soaking up the new atmosphere. One that has dreams of having just their solitude for company as they travel and see new places.
I’m Exhausted…
I’m exhausted, because I’m a woman, and irrespective of where a woman is in terms of privilege, there will always be certain conditions placed on her acceptance. Sure, unconditional acceptance comes, many-a-times, but it seems begrudging. In a ‘what can I do if she desires this?’ manner. If acceptance is begrudging, is it unconditional? And is expecting unconditional acceptance even realistic? But then again, in a world as chaotic as this, is it really a bad thing to want a safe space where you are accepted for who you are and not for what you can offer? Is it really a bad thing to want to do what I want to do instead of fitting myself into a role that society has created for my gender? Who gave society that right anyway? Oh, wait… But let’s not get into that right now because I might combust.
Best Reread Worthy Books | Books You Can Read Over and Over Again!
Bookworms have unending TBRs or to-be-read lists, and that’s a given. But sometimes, all we want to do is give up the quest for the perfect new book and go back to books we’ve read and loved before. There could be multiple reasons for this. Maybe we find comfort. Maybe we just love the language. Maybe we relate to them. Maybe we’ve found solutions to our problems in them. Maybe we love the characters like we love our own family – you know that’s a possibility. A lot of maybes, really.
The Melodramatic Bookworm 