Category Archives: Wrap-ups/TBRs/Reading Recs

What I have read/will be reading, and some reading recommendations!

Wrap-ups/TBRs/Reading Recs

The Reading Rush 2019 TBR!

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So I came across The Reading Rush Challenge a few days ago and I was just so excited seeing the videos that I planned to finally do it too! Earlier it was the BookTubeathon and I have never participated in it before.

The readathon starts from today and will end at 12 midnight on the 28th! There are several prompts and I am hoping to read atleast 7 books for the 7 days of the week. For more details you can definitely check out their website and the Instagram.

The books I am planning on reading are as follows:

  1. Read a book with purple on the cover – Lips Touch by Laini Taylor
  2. Read a book in the same spot for the entire time – Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
  3. Read a book you meant to read last year – Africa’s Tarnished Name by Chinua Achebe
  4. Read an author’s first book – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
  5. Read a book with a non-human main character – King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo
  6. Read a book with 5 or more words in the title – By the Brahmaputra and other poems by Srutimala Duara
  7. Read and watch a book to movie adaptation – The Guernsey Literary and Potato peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (I’ll be reading this one as an e-book)

Have you participated in this readathon? And are you planning on participating in any other book readathons in the coming months? DO inform if you know of any and I’m sure all of us would like to check them out as well.

Wrap-ups/TBRs/Reading Recs

Mid Year Book Freak-Out Tag!

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It is July and I know you have heard it everywhere, read it everywhere and felt it yourself too – but my god, the year has passed by in a flash! I mean it was just a few days back, it feel like, when I was preparing for the university fest in February and now, it’s the end of my 4th semester! From August onwards, I will be starting with my 5th semester and that would mean that I will have only a year left for the completion of my Bachelors degree! Whoa! I am feeling as if I woke up on the wrong side of the bed – I was in senior year just a few days ago and it does not feel like 2 years have gone by at all!

So since it is July, I thought why not jump the bandwagon and do the Mid year book freak-out tag myself! Everyone is doing well, and I think it is a great way also to come across new books that might interest you as well! As of June 30th, I have read 119 books in total.  

  1. Best book you have read so far in 2019 – Okay so I am going to cheat on this one and state the best books I read from various genres. I fell in love with LORD OF THE BUTTERFLIES by Andrea Gibson (Poetry), THE PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE by Samantha Shannon (Fantasy), CITY OF GIRLS by Elizabeth Gilbert (Historical Fiction), DARK TALES by Shirley Jackson (Horror), BRAVE, NOT PERFECT by Reshma Saujani (Non-Fiction), FINDING ESME by Suzanne Crowley (Middle-Grade), THE LUPANARIUM by Adele Leigh (Dystopian), and THE STILLWATER GIRLS by Minka Kent (Thriller/Mystery).
  2. Best sequel you have read so far in 2019 – for this I shall go with THE KINGDOM OF COPPER by S. A. Chakraborty. It is the sequel to THE CITY OF BRASS, from THE DAEVABAD TRILOGY, and I rated it 5/5 stars. I am very excited for the last book in this series to come out!
  3. New release you haven’t read but want to – Ah I am hoping to pick up AURORA RISING by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff this week! I have heard nothing but great reviews about this book and I am excited!
  4. Most anticipated release for the second half of 2019 – oh my god! I have a really long list for this one but I’ll include a few ones which I think not very many people are talking about:
    1. WAYWARD SON by Rainbow Rowell, September 2019 – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44017627-wayward-son?ac=1&from_search=true
    2. THE WATER DANCER by Ta-Nehisi Coates, September 2019 – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43982054-the-water-dancer?from_search=true
    3. NINTH HOUSE by Leigh Bardugo, October 2019 – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43263680-ninth-house?from_search=true
    4. BLOOD HEIR by Amelia Wen Zhao, November 2019 – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38205707-blood-heir?from_search=true
    5. THE DEEP by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes, November 2019 – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42201962-the-deep?from_search=true
  5. Biggest disappointment – well, I cannot really say that there was any such big disappointment. Sure, there were some not great enough reads, but thankfully, I did not come across any book i hated.
  6. Biggest surprise – I will go with POETS, ARTISTS AND LOVERS by Mira Tudor for this. I rated it 5/5 stars and had not at all expected to be bombarded by its excellence. It was an amazing and welcome surprise.
  7. Favourite new author – I am really loving Kerri Maniscalco and Maureen Johnson and I’m slowly going through all their books.
  8. Newest fictional crush – might I say Thomas Cresswell? If you do not know who he is, well, please please please do pick up the STALKING JACK THE RIPPER quartet by Kerri Maniscalco. Its a mix of historical fiction , murder mystery and romance. Amazing series.
  9. Newest favourite character – I think this has to be Vivian Morris from CITY OF GIRLS by Elizabeth Gilbert, Angelique from THE DUCHESS by Danielle Steel and Alexandra from THE RIGHT TIME, also by Danielle Steel. I have been loving these amazing women!
  10. Book that made you cry – this has to be YOU WILL BE SAFE HERE  by Damian Barr. It is a wonderfully tragic book and I rated it 5/5 stars. It was an emotional rollercoaster and I was full-on sobbing at some points in the story. If not for the story (which is impossible), you need to read it for the social and historical perspectives. It is so very important.
  11. Book that made you happy – for this, I am going to mention CIRCUS FOLK AND VILLAGE FREAKS by Aparna Upadhyaya Sanyal, a collection of absurd and weird poetry. So much so, that it is really funny and made me laugh a lot, and very happy at the end.
  12. Favourite book to movie adaptation you saw this year – I’m adding my own twist here. I don’t really watch that many movies and prefer series. So, I watched A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES,  based on the ALL SOULS TRILOGY by Deborah Harkness. Matthew Goode and Teresa Palmer are amazing. Somehow, Diana Bishop’s character gives me Bella (from Twilight) vibes. But it was a great season 1 and I’m excited for the next season to come out in late 2019 or early 2020.
  13. Favourite review you have written this year – well, I have three reviews to share. I loved the books and I loved writing about them. And they are CITY OF GIRLS by Elizabeth Gilbert, CIRCUS FOLK AND VILLAGE FREAKS by Aparna Upadhyaya Sanyal and AN ATLAS OF IMPOSSIBLE LONGING by Anuradha Roy. (PS. I loved AN ATLAS OF IMPOSSIBLE LONGING so much that I even gave a class presntation on with. With reference to Indian Writings in English)
  14. Most beautiful book you bought so far this year – for this, I will go with the FingerPrint Classics edition of ANNE FRANK: THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL. It is a beautiful hardcover edition with silver embossed cov er on blue, and silver edges! I simply love it.
  15. What books do you need to read by the end of 2019 – some books I hope to pick up by the end of 2019 are: A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC trilogy by V. E. Schwab ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22055262-a-darker-shade-of-magic?from_search=true because I loved her writing in THE NEAR WITCH), THE THORNBIRDS by Colleen McCullough ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/830793.The_Thorn_Birds ), THE WAVES by Virginia Woolf ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/863768.The_Waves ), ESCAPING FROM HOUDINI by Kerri Maniscalco ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37539001-capturing-the-devil?ac=1&from_search=true ), and REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM: THE WOMAN ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17532.Rebecca_Of_Sunnybrook_Farm?from_search=true ) by Eric Wiggin.

I encourage you all to try out this tag!

PS. I am not the creator of the tag; I do not know who that is.

Wrap-ups/TBRs/Reading Recs

Assamese Youth and Assamese Literature

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As a person from Assam, a state in Northeast India, my mother-tongue is Assamese. I use it all the time to converse with my family, relatives, friends, and so on. The other languages I use verbally are just Hindi and English. That is it. But when it comes to reading and writing, I admit I am much more comfortable only in English. And that simply is because English was, after all, the first language I was taught to write while in school. I studied Assamese till class 10, and then continued to use it while reading and writing but only for my dance lessons. So that was until a couple years back.
Today, I am really trying to reverse that. I am going to make sure that I read more and more Assamese books this year- it is one of my New Year’s resolutions. I am going to make myself better versed in my mother-tongue. Because to call myself Assamese without knowing how to properly read the language is indeed shameful.

For this initiative, I have taken the help of this blog and my bookstagram account, and come up with the #readyourmothertongue reading challenge through which I will read at least one Assamese novel each month. And why only Assamese? Pick up books written in your language, if it is a different one!
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These books are ones I bought in December so I suppose this is your #decemberbookhaul2018 #part7 and the last too!
1. গল্প আৰু গল্প – দিলীপ বৰা দ্বাৰা সম্পাদিত
2. অসীমত যাৰ হেৰাল সীমা – কাঞ্চন বৰুৱা
3. বুঢ়ী আইৰ সাধু – লক্ষ্মীনাথ বেজবৰুৱা
4. মিৰি জীয়ৰী – ৰজনীকান্ত বৰদলৈ
5. জিগলো – ৰশ্মিৰেখা ভূঞা
6. মৰমৰ দেউতা – ভাবেন্দ্ৰনাথ শইকীয়া
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একেইখনৰ ভিতৰত কোনো এখন পঢ়িছে নেকি আপুন?
Have you read any among these?
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I will be picking up these books- one by one- in the #readyourmothertongue challenge!
Are you participating as well? Do join in! 😊