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.
Author Archives: Sonali Dabade
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 As I read through it, I realized some of it was outdated, but so much of it was so savage.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.
At the Mountain of the Divine Tigress (Frank Carter – 3) by Yashesh Rathod | Book Review
There’s a certain satisfaction that comes with reading the third book in a trilogy: it wraps up the journey that we’ve been on, sometimes satisfactorily, sometimes not so much. But either way, we tend to judge the trilogy based on this book because even though we say that ‘the journey is more important than the destination’, it isn’t true when it comes to book series. At least not all the time.
Yashesh Rathod’s Frank Carter trilogy is a historical fantasy series that follows Frank Carter on an adventure through time in Something Strange Over the Yellow Lotus, and across the seas in Macabre Expedition and At the Mountain of the Divine Tigress.
Cover Reveal: All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami
I’ve never read a Mieko Kawakami book yet, although I’ve seen nothing but good reviews of books by this author. They give me an absurdist vibe and I cannot explain why. But I know that I want to get started on them, especially Breasts and Eggs, her most recent book that came out last year. There’s a strange kind of excitement and intrigue that takes hold when Kawakami’s books are in question. And so it is with All the Lovers in the Night, her newest book that releases on 12 May. I have a gut feeling that this is going to be a great place to start, if the blurb and the cover are anything to go by.
2022 Goals | Is This What They Call Change?
At the beginning of the year, I wanted so much for myself that it became difficult to contain in one post. But I also wanted to ease my own pressure on myself. So, I put off writing the post and decided to take the year as it comes. And I’m glad I did because 4 months down the line, I’m looking at goals that I didn’t think I would be going after when the year started. This is because I feel like I’ve become someone so different yet so similar to that woman, that it’s hard to put a finger on what exactly has changed.
Macabre Expedition (Frank Carter 2) by Yashesh Rathod | Book Review
Macabre Expedition, the second book in the Frank Carter series, picks up 8 months after the end of events in the first book. Frank Carter and his family have now moved and have established a quiet life. But Randolph Smith is now in contact with Frank again, warning him of dire consequences for having played around with the timeline. They must now go on a macabre expedition to collect three pellets that will give them the power to overcome the ancient guardian of the timeline, Um-Tuk-Nuaar, who is chasing them for having messed with it.
The Melodramatic Bookworm 