u/ValuableMuch7703

I have 4 readers in me: one fantasy nerd, one raging political activist, one philosopher and one new gay man who is now catching up on all the queer literature he missed out on due to his internal struggles. I read to feed all the four.

The fantasy nerd has taken a backseat this year (and has mostly shifted towards e-books on kindle) while the other three are still very prone to spending money on physical books (which honestly we all should as at the end physical media will be the only thing that will survive global censorships).

I read as it makes me feel, sometimes it’s like looking through a window, others it’s like looking at a mirror. I love both times. :)

This haul is almost a 50-50 split between fiction and nonfiction (but as a fiction junkie I had to go for more fiction lol):

- I got two queer classics Maurice by E M Forster and A single man by Christopher Isherwood, the former explores a gay man’s struggle with his identity and the associated social prejudice while the latter explores a professor’s grief on the sudden loss of his partner.

- Next I got 3 more fictions: The Age of Reason by Jean Paul Sartre, Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. The first is a piece of existentialist fiction (existentialism happens to be the school of philosophy I deeply resonate with); second is political thriller set after the fall of Stalin’s regime, it explores the different facets of totalitarianism and the moral dilemma associated with the decisions made); the final one needs no introduction, a piece of dystopian fiction exploring religious dictatorship and women’s bodily autonomy, got this one as I’m reading it this month in the online book club I’m a part of.

- For historical non fiction I got Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt and The captive mind by Czeslaw Milosz, I started the former on kindle earlier this month and realised I definitely need it as a physical copy for annotation(I’m still reading her Origins of Totalitarianism as well), it follows the trial of the war criminal Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi leader actively involved in the holocaust, the main theme of the book revolves around how ‘normal people’ just ‘following orders’ end up committing the worst crimes known to mankind: The Banality of Evil; while the latter book explores how totalitarianism makes people change their beliefs.

- For philosophy I got Simone Weil’s Anthology comprising of essays. Simone Weil was a contemporary of the likes of Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre. Some of her core philosophy revolves around radical empathy and how modern labour crushes human spirit. Discovered her through some YT video essays and her life’s story is fascinating!

I pledge allegiance to our queen of yearning and countless bayabadabadabadas

What songs do you think deserve more praise and attention?

Writing a review after almost 3 months feels so weird. It feels like I don't even remember how to structure things out. Anyways, this is more like a love letter and appreciation post for the series than a well structured review.

The best and shortest word to describe the series would be 'queer joy'. It's a cute, wholesome, coming of age story; primarily a romance but also so much more. 

I don't think the series needs any introduction (especially after the popularity of the Netflix adaptation) but still, Heartstopper is a graphic novel series that follows highschoolers Charlie and Nick, starting their journey as friends, slowly exploring their identities and eventually falling in love with each other. We accompany them on their journey in life, towards personhood. The story also explores topics likes mental health issues, anxiety, depression and eating disorders. The series is very queer affirmative and wholesome and is packed with well written, awesome side characters. I devoured the whole series in a single day XD

I'm definitely not the target age group for the series. But still I enjoyed it thoroughly. The series healed something that it didn't break. As a gay man myself who didn't come out until a few months ago in his late 20s, I wish I had positive representation like this growing up, maybe things would've been different, even better. But better late than never (I mean I get to experience my teens again in my late 20s now XD).

The series left me with bittersweet emotions, with the grief of having missed out on an alternate life, while also leaving me with hope for better days ahead. I'm happy I got to experience this series, it was pure joy.

If you're in the mood for reading something simple, easy and wholesome, do give the series a try.

[Not OC]

I was waiting for Goddess to pull up but it didn’t :’(

I’m happy with my win though, I listen to and sing ‘While You Were Sleeping’ everyday during commute XD

[not OC]

When and how did you find her?

I was totally oblivious about her existence until Madwoman. I interacted with content related to Hudson and Alysa so the algorithm led me to the song and now I’m like I’ve missed out on so much! I i wish I was there to see her climbing the ladder, to see her journey first hand.

Laufey feels so niche yet so mainstream at the same time it’s crazy. Love her music, it’s an otherworldly experience. The only good thing about me finding her this late is that I have so many songs, live performances and interviews to catch up on.

Back with the Q2 wrap up. I have posted reviews of some of my favorite reads that you can find on my profile.

Small Gods, Lessons in Chemistry and Mottled Dawn were definitely the highlights of this quarter for me.

Link to my Q1 wrap (in case anyone is interested)- https://www.reddit.com/r/Indianbooks/s/EXoVaYx1ik

How was your reading month/quarter? What all did you guys read!? What was your reading highlight?

It's that time of the month again so I'm back with my mini reviews. June was not a good reading month for me. Couldn't focus on reading and had to switch to audiobooks, couldn't go for denser books (had to even put my monthly Clarice Lispector read on backseat), but yeah books were my only escape and I'm really thankful for that. Quarterly wrap up is on the way as well and I hope to get into the right headspace to write some detailed reviews. Anyways, let's start with the mini reviews:

- Mottled Dawn by Saadat Hasan Manto (4.25/5 ⭐): The is a collection of 50 short stories and sketches set around the time of partition. What stands out the most is Manto's style of storytelling and narrative voice. Manto doesn't blame any side, he instead leaves you with an open ended choice, transferring the burden on you instead. The book makes you deeply uncomfortable, makes you face the greatest, most uncomfortable truths of human existence and behaviors. Not something I would recommend without a trigger warning, but definitely recommend to everyone who is interested. 

- Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (4/5⭐): The earth is experiencing alien invasion, millions evaporated within a matter of seconds. The survivors now have to participate in an intergalactic underground survivor reality show. We follow Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Donut as they navigate through the initial levels of the game, trying to figure out the rules and logistics while creating their image and identity on the show. I loved this book. It's really entertaining. Not deep yet, but definitely entertaining, especially the audiobook(100% recommend the audiobook). I just wish I read it last year, I would've devoured the whole series in a month. But sadly now with my jam-packed reading schedule and life doing it's thing, I'll probably have to take a break before I read/listen to the next one. Looking forward to it nonetheless. 

- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (4/5 ⭐): Who rides your decision making? Your rational mind or or your emotion heart heart? Your sense or your sensibility? The book follows the Dashwood family, mainly the two of the three daughters Elinor and Marianne as they navigate through love and social norms in 19th century England. I read Sense and Sensibility as a part of a online book club. I would consider this my first Austen novel (although I did read P&P years ago but I remember nothing except the main events). Absolute loved this book, it was not at all what I was expecting it to be (in the best possible way). 

- The Hittchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (3.25/5⭐): The Earth is about to get destroyed to clear the route for an intergalactic highway. Arthur Dent and his alien friend Ford Prefect are the two survivors as they manage to hitchhike to an alien ship as the Earth gets destroyed. We follow their absurd adventures as theu figure out the everything. Honestly the book did not work for me. I wanted to love it so much, but just could not. I loved the observational humor and the wit but most of the absurd humor just did not hit. I can see why people like it, it's just not for me. I will probably read all the other parts (and continue the BBC radioshow) in future, but it's definitely not on my priority list. Not all books are for everyone and it's completely fine. 

It’s that time of month again so I’m back with my mini reviews. It was a good reading month but definitely went ‘too serious’. I tried looking for something fun and light to read but it mostly ended on a serious note.

- Água Viva by Clarice Lispector (4/5 ⭐️): I have posted a small review on it on my profile that you can check out. The best way to describe this book is that it's a fever dream. It's a book with no plot. It’s a meditation or ramblings of a painter trying to capture 'now' despite the practical limitations of languages and even his own existence. It’s extremely dense and extremely abstract.

- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (3.5/5 ⭐️): Set in the 1860s around the American Civil War, it’s the story of March family and their four girls: Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy. The book follows these four as they navigate through their lives, understanding the importance of things like family, love and hard work. My favorite thing about the book was its characters. The characters were well written, I felt an instant attachment to the four sisters, it felt like I’ve known them for years. I also liked the setting and the atmosphere it created. However, I was absolutely not a fan of the cheesy, over the top ‘morality’ in the book. The book was published in 1868 and it feels very dated in this aspect (despite being kinda ahead of its time). Overall I liked the book and I’m looking forward to read the rest of the series (especially to see the fate of all the characters).

- A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher (3.25/5 ⭐️): The book follows a 14y/o magical baker girl Mona who discovers a dead magician in her bakery one day. This event kickstarts her journey, unravelling a political conspiracy; the fate of the city lies now lies on Mona and her ‘bread magic’. An okay book. It was definitely entertaining and enjoyable. The magic was fun system was fun. It’s a middle grade/YA novel and it was really evident especially with the character writing, everyone other than the protagonist had the personality of a went cardboard. The world building could’ve been better (it definitely had great potential), this could just be the case of me not being the target audience for this book as well.

- YellowFace by R. F. Kuang (3.5/5 ⭐️): I have already posted a detailed review of the book that you can check out). Yellowface is part thriller, part satire about an unsuccessful white author who ends up stealing her dead successful Asian American author’s manuscript and publishes it under her own name. This starts her downwards spiral exposing the reality of the publishing world and social media. This was my 3rd book by her (other 2 being Babel and Katabasis) and her curse of ‘the concept of the book being 10x better than its execution continued). The book had great potential. It was entertaining but nothing more than that. I enjoyed its satirical parts quite a lot. However it was just a massive missed opportunity. The thriller part felt extremely underdeveloped, the tried asking some really interesting and important questions but left them midway only to go around in circle on one subplot. Not to mention author’s repeated self insert pattern that I’m not a fan of at all (didn’t like it in Katabasis, didn’t like it here either).

(PS- the image is made using Goodnotes 5 on my iPad)

I don't think R. F. Kuang needs an introduction anymore. Her books 'The Poppy War', 'Babel', Yellowface' and 'Katabasis' have been mainstream successes to the point that most people in the reading space are know about her or atleast have heard about her existence. Yellowface is not my first book by her that I've read but it's the book introduced me to the existence of Kuang back in the day. I wasn't a big reader but my YT algorithm decided to recommend me this awesome review? takedown? of the book by this fun booktuber @readwithcindy which kickstarted my habit of consuming hours long video essays and reviews of the books that I've not read yet, which I still continue to enjoy :)

Having known of the basic premise and the shortcomings of the book for a over 2 years now, i didn't think I would like this book at all. The only thing that led me back to this book was the recent controversy with Kuang's upcoming novel 'Taipei Story'. I was looking for something different from my usual reads so I decided to give it a try and honestly I ended up mostly liking it.

Coming to the book, Yellowface is part satire, part thriller about this struggling white author June Hayward who is friends with a super successful Asian American author Athena Liu. Athena accidentally passes away and June ends up stealing the manuscript of Athena's next novel and publishes it under her name (essentially doing a ‘Yellowface’; The Cambridge Dictionary describes 'yellowface' as 'the practise of white actors changing their appearance with make-up in order to play East Asian characters in films, plays, etc.') . This starts a downwards spiral into the depths of publishing, trolling and cancel culture.

The thing i liked the most about this book was that it was a great page turner. The pacing is mostly really good, it doesn't waste your time and gets to the point from the first chapter itself. I also liked how she wrote the two main central characters. Both Athena and June were written really well, they did not feel caricatures, they had great nuance and greyness to them. And overall the book was definitely an entertaining read.

Now coming on to the shortcomings (which were many). This is not my introduction to Kuang's writing(I've read Babel and Katabasis before), so I am aware that it's her style but I feel like she does too much of telling and little to now showing at all. There's a beauty to leaving some things unsaid, leaving some things to he read between the lines, but she spells everything out for you by the alphabets. This could just be me not being her target reader base but it's definitely something that I dislike about her style. There's too much 'on the face' messaging which I'm not a fan of at all. Next, all her characters other than the two central ones (Athena and June) were nothing more than cardboard cutouts. I can see what she was going for since this book was partly a satire but it was not executed well. And finally the ending (without giving any spoilers) felt like a nothingburger. Again, I can totally see what she was going for but it just definitely did not work.

The book starts a really interesting discussion on 'who gets to tell which story' but then abandons it midway; it starts a really good discussion of race vs class disparity, about privilege but then abandons it midway; the book starts transforming into a great psychological thriller but then abandons it midway as well only to spend an awful lot of time on explaining and re-explaining how the publishing industry works, how the cancel culture works and how difficult it is to publish in this online age. Don't get me wrong, these are great talking points and she does a great job in discussing it but the book keeps going in circles, rehashing these 3 at the expense of other potentially better and deeper things.

Overall Yellowface is an entertaining read but definitely lacks something crucial. It bears the usual curse of Kuang's writing: the concept of the book being better than its execution.

I discovered Clarice Lispector this year, have already watched her interviews and have read 5 of her books (well I guess she’s one of my favourite authors now), so I guess it was enough to go all in. Ended up buying rest of her available works (and her biography). Hope to have an awesome Clarice-ful rest of the reading year. Will keep y’all updated with reviews :)

There are some books that leave you speechless, leave you thinking that your vocabulary isn't rich enough to describe something. Such was the case for me with these two books. I read Near to the Wild Heart last month while I finished Água Viva yesterday, both were really beautiful, really fascinating and really tough reads for me (I ended up feeling a little dumb ngl).

Although each of them probably have enough material to write entire thesis on, and definitely deserve their separate reviews, but as I said I don't think I'll be able to do justice to these. These two definitely demand a re-read in future. So I'll probably stick to short reviews instead.

- Near to the Wild Heart (4/5⭐) : This was the debut work of Clarice Lispector and in no way it feels like one. Its such a great piece of high art. The book follows a woman named Joana who has been (and still is) on a journey of self discovery, trying to understand her own existence. We follow her from her childhood from living with her father, to getting orphaned and living with her aunt to now her present as a married woman in loveless marriage. Joana is like the personification of curiosity and observation. We explore the themes of freedom, mortality, womanhood, identity and meaning. Clarice's usual 'stream of consciousness' style of writing is just cherry on top. There's also a lot of imagery and symbolism (I was able to pick quite a lot but I'm definitely sure I've missed many, especially the religious ones).

- Água Viva (4/5⭐) : The best way to describe this book is that it's a fever dream. It's a book with no plot. Its a meditation or ramblings of a painter trying to capture 'now' despite the practical limitations of languages and even his own existence. The book feels like a hallucination, you never know where you'll be taken next, one moment you're listing your favorite flowers, while the very next you're in the mirror world of your consciousness. I don't think it needs to be said that art is an artist's extension, you can always find the artist bleeding into their art in some little way, and similar has been my observation with all of her books that I've read till now. I can always feel her in the writing even if it's a piece of fiction. However, this feeling was a lot more prominent with this book. Although this book is a fictional account of a painter, I read it as Clarice herself talking to us readers. Calling it abstract was an understatement. This too demands a re-read in future.

Having now read 5 of his works, I don't think you can ever go wrong with a Terry Pratchett book. Same goes for Small Gods. 

Small Gods is the 13th Discworld novel(as per release order; while it was my 4th Discworld novel that I read).

The book follows 'The Great God Om' as his time to return to the Discworld (and the creation of his new prophet) is here. The only catch? Om has somehow managed to manifest as a tortoise with no divine powers (with exception to some occasional mini lightning strikes) and his new prophet (and the only person who can listen to him) is just a simple and innocent boy Brutha, the only remaining true believer of Om. What follows is a almost a coming of age journey for both Om and Brutha, both learning to become a better human and a better God respectively. 

This book is probably one of the most fascinating takes on Gods and organised religions that I've come across. It has such a sharp satire on organised religion, a/mono/poly-theism, philosophy (and philosophers), atrocities commited in the name of faith, rewriting and misinterpretation of history etc etc. 

Terry Pratchett was an atheist and a humanist and you can totally see it in the book, but what makes this book better is his nuanced take on this topic. Nobody is above criticism. Being a theist didn't automatically make a character bad while being an atheist didn't automatically make a character good. We're all just a bunch of Venn diagrams, the presence or absence of one value doesn't always guarantee the presence or absence of another (humans really come as a package deal). The book is very human in that sense. 

I also loved how the book dealt with historical misappropriation and the hypocrisy of religious institutions.

**”Belief, he says. Belief shifts. People start out believing in the god and end up believing in the structure.”**

I usually have an issue with the inconsequential side plots when it comes to Discworld books (which always end up lowering my rating), but i was so glad that this book had none of those. Everything ended up fitting like a puzzle. 

The book does so much without ever coming across as preachy. It's as much witty as it is deep. I think this line sums up the message of the book really well:

**It's hard to explain," said Brutha. "But I think it's got something to do with how people should behave... you should do things because they're right. Not because gods say so. They might say something different another time.”**