Book Review | The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

Posted June 7, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

With no water, no air, and no native life, the planet Gora is unremarkable. The only thing it has going for it is a chance proximity to more popular worlds, making it a decent stopover for ships traveling between the wormholes that keep the Galactic Commons connected. If deep space is a highway, Gora is just your average truck stop.

At the Five-Hop One-Stop, long-haul spacers can stretch their legs (if they have legs, that is), and get fuel, transit permits, and assorted supplies. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her sometimes helpful child, who work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.

When a freak technological failure halts all traffic to and from Gora, three strangers—all different species with different aims—are thrown together at the Five-Hop. Grounded, with nothing to do but wait, the trio—an exiled artist with an appointment to keep, a cargo runner at a personal crossroads, and a mysterious individual doing her best to help those on the fringes—are compelled to confront where they’ve been, where they might go, and what they are, or could be, to each other.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD)

The Reason

This is the fourth book in the Wayfarer series. I’ve read the first three and loved them, so of course I’m reading this one too!

The Quotes

“And sometimes fear is good. Fear keeps you alive. But it can also keep you from what you really want.”

“Because I didn’t want to. And when it comes to a person’s body, that is all the reason there ever needs to be. Doesn’t matter if it’s a decision about a new pair of legs or how you like to trim your claws or—’ she gave Pei a piercing look ‘—what to do about an egg. I didn’t want to. You don’t want to. That’s it.’ Speaker leaned forward. ‘That. Is all. It ever needs to be.”

“He’d been taught that if one person had more than another, feeling guilty about it was the least productive reaction. The only proper way to approach such inequities was to figure out how best to wield them, so as to bring others up to where you stood.”

“This did not mean that laws and rules were not helpful, or that explanations should not be sought, but rather that there should be no fear in changing them as needed, for nothing in the universe ever held still.”

The Narrator(s)

Patricia Rodriguez. As perfect as the first three books!

My Thoughts

I don’t know why I enjoy forced proximity stories, I’m not sure I’d enjoy it happening to me in real life, but I think I love seeing how people interact with each other in “what if” scenarios and Becky Chambers is just so good at writing diverse people. I loved the other books in the series too, but in a way, I feel like it’s a disservice to link them together as a series. They’re very different books, set in the same universe and with relating characters, but the stories are just completely different.

What is the same, is the exploration of different cultures and beliefs, and even physiology of all the different species, and the way they learn about each other and respect each other’s cultures. I love the conversations especially about their differences and similarities. I love it all! I find it so fascinating, learning about each different species’ language and how things are expressed and/or translated, how their beliefs and practices are shaped by their culture and physiology because of what their bodies allow them to do or not do, there is such a rich world-building here!

I love all the characters. Every one of them were so distinct and had such interesting personalities. I don’t know if there’s going to be a book 5 but I feel like I can’t get enough of these books and these characters, and even though we see new characters every book, I still want to keep reading about every one of them. Small mentions of past characters make me so happy! I’m so glad I finally caught up with the series, and I do hope there will be more. I still loved this one and I’m sure I’ll love any new stories set in this world!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

Posted June 7, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD)

The Reason

It came highly recommended and I was curious!

The Quotes

“Rich people, thought Judy—she thought this then, and she thinks it now—generally become most enraged when they sense they’re about to be held accountable for their wrongs.”

“How many times in her life has she said yes to a boy or a man just because it was the easiest thing to do? How many times has she let a man take what he wanted, instead of taking something for herself?”

“To panic, said T.J., was to make an enemy of the forest. To stay calm was to be its friend.”

“She wasn’t – frightened of him, exactly, though there had been one or two incidents that caused alarm. It was more that she had come to see herself nearly exclusively through his eyes, and therefore being in his good graces was the easiest way to achieve a sense of well-being.”

The Narrator(s)

Saskia Maarleveld. I enjoyed her narration very much.

My Thoughts

While I was reading this I was simultaneously annoyed with the fact that there were so many characters and so many jumps between them plus also jumping between different timelines, and yet also loving how interesting all the different characters were and the way the story was unveiled through the timeline jumps. I can’t make up my mind if I love that aspect of the book or hate it!

I think that overall I do love the story and the characters, but there was so much in so little space and it’s hard to know where or who to focus on. Another paradox was that it felt simultaneously deep and shallow. There were a lot of deep topics that were touched upon, but because of all the characters and side stories, they were spread too thin and shallowly explored.

There were a couple of characters I loved more than others and I would’ve loved to read more about; Judy in particular. I felt like if this one book was turned into a series instead, we could’ve explored each character’s story more in depth, and we could’ve tied the series together with Judy as the investigator. Still a great story with great character building.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

Posted June 7, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies the city of New Crobuzon, where the unsavory deal is stranger to no one–not even to Isaac, a gifted and eccentric scientist who has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half-human creature known as the Garuda comes to him from afar, Isaac is faced with challenges he has never before encountered. Though the Garuda’s request is scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity and an uncanny reverence for this curious stranger. Soon an eerie metamorphosis will occur that will permeate every fiber of New Crobuzon–and not even the Ambassador of Hell will challenge the malignant terror it evokes.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD)

The Reason

This has been on my TBR for years and years and years! It was recently a buddy read so I thought it was a good time to finally read it.

The Quotes

“Art is something you choose to make… it’s a bringing together of… of everything around you into something that makes you more human, more khepri, whatever. More of a person.”

“I wish that there was nothing to hold me here, that gravity was a suggestion I could ignore.”

“She was intelligent enough to realize that her excitement was childish, but not mature enough to care.”

“Old stories would tell how Weavers would kill each other over aesthetic disagreements, such as whether it was prettier to destroy an army of a thousand men or to leave it be, or whether a particular dandelion should or should not be plucked. For a Weaver, to think was to think aesthetically. To act–to Weave–was to bring about more pleasing patterns. They did not eat physical food: they seemed to subsist on the appreciation of beauty.”

My Thoughts

I tried reading this book twice before, both times on audio, and found that I couldn’t follow it because of the made-up words, names, and places. I always meant to try again with a printed copy, and I finally did this time. I got so much more out of it; more understanding, more immersion, more focus. And the buddy read with the ongoing discussions were a huge part of my experience as well.

Where do I even start, this book is huge with so many different elements to talk about! The worldbuilding, the exploration of different species and the way they live and work together, the criminal world – the petty criminals and crime lords being worlds apart as well, the government and the enforcers and spies, the remade, the Weaver, the AI constructs, the moths! It seems like a lot and yet, it feels so natural, like I can believe that this world exists, and I can see why Mieville is in a league of his own, this is a masterpiece!

It started out slow but it was still so interesting because there was so much to explore about this world and the characters. And even though it was slow, I could already feel the tension building from the beginning, and then all of a sudden everything happened all at once and it was just nonstop tension. I honestly don’t think I could talk about how amazing it was to see every single thing unfold the way they did and how I felt. It got so intense towards the end and I have so many feelings, I’m still processing.

I know this is definitely going to be one of those books where I get something new out of it every time I reread it again and I’m looking forward to that (though not anytime soon!). I wanted to give up on the book so many times because it’s so huge and I’m going through some really hectic times but I’m glad I persevered and finished! It’s completely worth it!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Every Tool’s A Hammer by Adam Savage

Posted June 7, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Every Tool’s A Hammer by Adam Savage

In this New York Times bestselling “imperative how-to for creativity” (Nick Offerman), Adam Savage—star of Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters—shares his golden rules of creativity, from finding inspiration to following through and successfully making your idea a reality.

Every Tool’s a Hammer is a chronicle of my life as a maker. It’s an exploration of making, but it’s also a permission slip of sorts from me to you. Permission to grab hold of the things you’re interested in, that fascinate you, and to dive deeper into them to see where they lead you.

Through stories from forty-plus years of making and molding, building and break­ing, along with the lessons I learned along the way, this book is meant to be a toolbox of problem solving, complete with a shop’s worth of notes on the tools, techniques, and materials that I use most often. Things like: In Every Tool There Is a Hammer—don’t wait until everything is perfect to begin a project, and if you don’t have the exact right tool for a task, just use whatever’s handy; Increase Your Loose Tolerance—making is messy and filled with screwups, but that’s okay, as creativity is a path with twists and turns and not a straight line to be found; Use More Cooling Fluid—it prolongs the life of blades and bits, and it prevents tool failure, but beyond that it’s a reminder to slow down and reduce the fric­tion in your work and relationships; Screw Before You Glue—mechanical fasteners allow you to change and modify a project while glue is forever but sometimes you just need the right glue, so I dig into which ones will do the job with the least harm and best effects.

This toolbox also includes lessons from many other incredible makers and creators, including: Jamie Hyneman, Nick Offerman, Pixar director Andrew Stanton, Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro, artist Tom Sachs, and chef Traci Des Jardins. And if everything goes well, we will hopefully save you a few mistakes (and maybe fingers) as well as help you turn your curiosities into creations.

I hope this book serves as “creative rocket fuel” (Ed Helms) to build, make, invent, explore, and—most of all—enjoy the thrills of being a creator.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD)

The Reason

I did not grow up watching Mythbusters. I only started watching the show a few months ago, and I am in newly in love with the whole cast!

The Quotes

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a model maker, a potter, a dancer, a programmer, a writer, a political activist, a teacher, a musician, a milliner, whatever. It’s all the same. Making is making, and none of it is failure.”

“When we say we need to teach kids how to “fail,” we aren’t really telling the full truth. What we mean when we say that is simply that creation is iteration and that we need to give ourselves the room to try things that might not work in the pursuit of something that will.”

“This is one of the main reasons I believe that adolescence can be so fraught for so many. Just as we start to catch the barest glimpses of our true selves and begin to understand what it is about the world that fascinates and intrigues us, we often run right into people who aren’t ready to be encouraging and can be downright hostile to someone being “different.”

“This is exactly the trap you don’t want to fall into when it comes to deadlines: you don’t want to cast them as the villain. What you want to do is embrace them, because at a certain point more time does not equal better output.”

The Narrator(s)

The author himself! I love listening to him narrate and talk about his life.

My Thoughts

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book. I have been watching Mythbusters – I haven’t finished the whole series yet – and I know it’s no longer running but all of it is still new to me and I’m loving all that I’m learning from the amazing cast. When I found out Adam Savage wrote a book, of course I had to pick it up, I was getting close to finishing Mythbusters and I’m been slowing down so that I could savor the last of the episodes.

The book wasn’t so much about Adam’s life in general as much as it was about his creative process, and I was surprised how deep he got into the process. It made me have to stop a few times to take notes on the process; being organized, clearing space, making lists… It gave me a bit of anxiety, to be honest!

But the more I got into it, the more it sort of reassured me. I’ve always thought of myself as a little messy, and I sometimes have analysis paralysis, where it’s hard for me to get started on creating because of how messy everything is. Listening to Adam, it seems like he’s not naturally organized but has learned to be; by experience, through other people’s examples, because he had to for efficiency. That gives me hope because that means I can learn to be more organized too! In fact, I think I might be starting out more naturally organized than Adam, and if he can do it, so can I.

It was wonderful to listen to him talk about his experiences and his career, the people he worked with, the things he learned. I love especially how open and generous he is with everything he knows, and how he continues to share everything that he does even now. I wish I had watched Mythbusters when they aired, but I’m glad I’m watching it now.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

Posted June 7, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

In Robin McKinley’s Newbery Medal–winning novel, an outcast princess must earn her birthright as a hero of the realm

Aerin is an outcast in her own father’s court, daughter of the foreign woman who, it was rumored, was a witch, and enchanted the king to marry her.

She makes friends with her father’s lame, retired warhorse, Talat, and discovers an old, overlooked, and dangerously imprecise recipe for dragon-fire-proof ointment in a dusty corner of her father’s library. Two years, many canter circles to the left to strengthen Talat’s weak leg, and many burnt twigs (and a few fingers) secretly experimenting with the ointment recipe later, Aerin is present when someone comes from an outlying village to report a marauding dragon to the king. Aerin slips off alone to fetch her horse, her sword, and her fireproof ointment . . .

But modern dragons, while formidable opponents fully capable of killing a human being, are small and accounted vermin. There is no honor in killing dragons. The great dragons are a tale out of ancient history.

That is, until the day that the king is riding out at the head of an army. A weary man on an exhausted horse staggers into the courtyard where the king’s troop is assembled: “The Black Dragon has come . . . Maur, who has not been seen for generations, the last of the great dragons, great as a mountain. Maur has awakened.”

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD)

The Reason

This is a reread although I don’t remember reading it before. I gave it only two stars previously, but I have enjoyed the author’s other works and I thought I should give this book a second chance.

The Quotes

“If you try to breathe water, you will not turn into a fish, you will drown; but water is still good to drink.”

“Yes, I am letting my own experience color my answer, which is what experience is for….”

“She felt like dead leaves, dry and brown and brittle, although leaves were probably not miserable; they were quietly buried by snow and burned by sun and harried by rain till they peacefully disintegrated into the earth…”

“She fell in love with him, and he with her; that’s a spell if you like.”

The Narrator(s)

Roslyn Alexander. It was great, no complaints!

My Thoughts

I enjoyed this book more than the last time but it’s still not one of my favorites from the author, so I’m only bumping it up one more star for a total of 3 stars. I did enjoy the listening experience very much though. It was suitably light and interesting at the same time, and I found Aerin to be an interesting character.

I must say though, having just recently read Sunshine by the same author, I really wonder about her stance on cheating/polyamory. There are instances of questionable romantic encounters that aren’t explicitly cheating because the relationships are never defined properly, but they aren’t necessarily consensual polyamory either. They bother me a little bit and I feel like I cannot wholly enjoy the romantic aspect of the stories without feeling like they might be morally wrong.

Other than that, I did enjoy the adventure and intrigue parts of the story. There is also a prequel that I’ve read before and also rated only two stars, that I intend to reread again. Let’s hope I enjoy that one more this time too.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard

Posted June 7, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard

A literary speculative novel about an isolated town neighbored by its own past and future

Sixteen-year-old Odile is an awkward, quiet girl vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decide who may cross her town’s heavily guarded borders. On the other side, it’s the same valley, the same town–except to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness.

When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he’s still alive in Odile’s present. Edme––who is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly see Odile––is about to die. Sworn to secrecy in order to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the Conseil’s top candidate, yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, imperiling her entire future.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD)

The Reason

My library featured this book aggressively, and it also became my in-person bookclub’s BOTM as well as a buddy read on another bookclub.

The Quotes

“Ambition might be like a living organism, reliant on nurture to grow. With some encouragement, mine had protruded from the dirt, a tiny shoot crawling toward the light.”

“It’s not bad to want comfort, or respect from others. It matters more than you think.”

“What I felt was a kind of thrilling sadness, something I have since experienced when looking out over other open spaces and lonely boundaries: an emotion that lives on the desolate edge of the known.”

The Narrator(s)

Cindy Kay. Some parts of the narration were quite whispery and it was really difficult to make out what she was saying, but I did enjoy her narration and the way she voiced the characters.

My Thoughts

I’m not sure how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I thought it was a very interesting premise and I enjoyed a lot of the philosophical discussion about time travel and interferring with the timelines. On the other hand, I found it difficult to like any of the characters, and the whole experience of reading it was quite painful for me.

The experience of reading a book is often just as important to me as the story itself, and that’s why I enjoy buddy reads and book discussions so much. In this case, the audiobook was difficult to listen to, so I tried to switch to a print copy, only to find a lack of chapters and quotation marks so you never know where you are in the book or who is speaking. I ended up going back to the audiobook because at least the narrator’s voice acting identified the characters’ speech. Intellectually, I like that the author made that choice because the whole idea of timelessness in a book about time travel is quite brilliant. Experientially, it just didn’t work for me.

I did get very invested in the story and I kept wanting to know what happens next. There were a lot of things that don’t make sense outside of this world bubble, but I really liked it as a thought experiment. I enjoyed the idea and I think it was well-written, but I don’t think I will ever want to come back to it.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Monthly Wrap-Up | April 2025

Posted May 6, 2025 by Haze in Monthly Wrap Up / 3 Comments

Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.

April 2025 Wrap Up

I’m posting April’s wrap up a little late, it turned into quite a hectic month for me and I have so much to catch up on with the blog! I didn’t finish as many books as I wanted either; I overcommitted to too many buddy reads in the last few months and I have learned my lesson! I’m making good progress in finishing the ones I’ve committed to though, and I’m a lot more careful about signing up for more. I’m also missing a lot of books I want to read that aren’t buddy reads, so I’m excited to make space for them as well. Still, I love buddy reads and I can’t give them up completely. If only everyone else wanted to read the books I want to read at the same time I want to read them! 😂

My April 2025 TBR Intentions

Five out of six of my TBR intentions aren’t bad. And the only reason I didn’t get to Stoner is because the library hold is still 3 weeks out at the time of this writing. I’m probably going to defer it to later since I already missed the deadline for the buddy read, but I’m still very much interested in reading it eventually.

  1. Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
  2. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
  3. The Terror by Dan Simmons
  4. The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
  5. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
  6. Stoner by John Williams

Books Read in April 2025

  1. The Terror by Dan Simmons
  2. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
  3. Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
  4. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
  5. The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
  6. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

Notable Books This Month

The Terror, Little Fires Everywhere, and Sunshine were all really amazing books for me this month!

The Terror was weird and a little trippy, but I was surprised by how invested I got into the characters and what happens to them. It’s a fictionalized account of real events, but I’m not very familiar with the history of the expedition so it was interesting trying to figure out what was real and what was made up.

I watched the adaptation of Little Fires Everywhere with Keri Washington and Reese Witherspoon and loved it, and it was nice to read the book and see that the show stayed quite true to the story. I got a lot out of the book, some of the nuances of the rich and privileged’s thinking processes were quite jarring to see on the page, but so incredibly well-written.

Sunshine was a reread. This is the third time I’m reading it and I’m still loving it! There were definitely some things I didn’t notice the first couple of times that I noticed now. The relationship stuff were… questionable, in that I’m curious as to the kind of relationship Rae actually has with the people in her life, but the story was amazing nevertheless.

May 2025 TBR Intentions

These are some of the books I’m planning to read in May. I read fewer books in April than usual and I’m definitely hoping to read more than five in May, but these are the priorities and after that, I’ll see where my mood takes me!

  1. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (The Wayfarers #4) by Becky Chambers
  2. Children of Ruin (Children of Time #2) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
  3. Every Tool’s a Hammer by Adam Savage
  4. The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
  5. Rose Madder by Stephen King

How was your month in April? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful May with lots of great books!

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Top Ten Tuesday | Malaysian Authors

Posted May 5, 2025 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 28 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Authors (or books by authors) Who Live In My State/Country (submitted by Jennifer @ Funk-N-Fiction) 

I currently live in Canada but I am from Malaysia and I absolutely love today’s topic because I am able to promote a couple of my favorite authors and also discover some Malaysian authors I haven’t read! I didn’t love all the ones I’ve read, but I hope that sharing them here anyway will help the right audience find them. Clicking the link on their names will bring you to their author page on Goodreads.

Top Ten Tuesday Malaysian Authors

  1. Yangsze Choo – My absolute favorite Malaysian author, she has written The Ghost Bride, The Night Tiger, and The Fox Wife, all of which I’ve read and loved! Her first two books are steeped in Malaysian Chinese folklore and have wonderful fantastical elements. The Fox Wife is not set in Malaysia, but has the same beautiful storytelling. I recommend these books to as many people as I can. In fact, The Ghost Bride is my in-person bookclub’s current book of the month!

  2. Zen Cho – My next favorite Malaysian author, although I have only read The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water. She writes sci-fi and fantasy and has a good number of successful books. I loved The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water and I keep meaning to pick up more of her books.

  3. Tash Aw – He grew up in Malaysia but has since moved to England. There was a lot of hype around The Harmony Silk Factory when it came out, and I’ve read it but don’t remember very much about it except that I was underwhelmed, unfortunately. I haven’t read any of his other books.

  4. Vanessa Chan – The most recent Malaysian author whose work I read. I really wanted to like The Storm We Made but unfortunately couldn’t because I’m a character-driven reader and some of the characters’ behaviors in the book was just not believable for me. I was quite disappointed with the book but others have liked it and regardless of my own feelings about the book, I always wish success for my fellow Malaysians and hope they find the right audience.

  5. Vanessa Len – She is nationally Australian but has Malaysian Chinese roots. Her Monsters series has been quite successful, but unfortunately I dnf’d the first book of the series. It wasn’t for me but I hope others might find her and love her.

  6. Hanna Alkaf – I just found her through researching for this post and I am very excited about reading her books. It looks like she’s got several books with great ratings; I’m most excited about The Weight of Our Sky because it’s historical fiction set on May 13th, 1969, the day there was a racial war between the Chinese and the Malays in Malaysia. I grew up hearing about it as a cautionary tale but was never given details so I’m very curious to read this book!

  7. Tan Twan Eng – Another Malaysian author I just found out about and whom I’m excited to read. He writes The Gift of Rain and The House of Doors. These books are historical fiction set in the early 1900s in Malaysia. I’m just really starting to appreciate the intricate history of Malaysia/Malaya during the British colonial times, a lot of which we were never taught in school, and I’d love to read more about it!

  8. Sue Lynn Tan – She is the author of Daughter of the Moon Goddess and Heart of the Sun Warrior, two books in the Celestial Kingdom series. I have these books on my TBR but I haven’t gotten around to them yet. I don’t think I knew the author was Malaysian, but now that I do, I’m moving them up the TBR list. These are fantasy books about Chinese mythological figures, something I’m very excited to dive into!

  9. Rani Manicka – She has written four novels, two of which are set in Malaysia. The Rice Mother is her first book and is about a girl who moved to Malaysia for an arranged marriage at the age of fourteen and had several children by the time she was nineteen. She grows up quickly and takes care of her family through WW2 and the Japanese occupation. It sounds absolutely fascinating!

  10. Selina Siak Chin Yoke – The author has written two books in the Malayan series; The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds and When the Future Comes Too Soon. Historical fiction set in British colonial times in Malaysia, which I’ve mentioned I’ve become more appreciative of. These books weave many of the different, rich Malaysian cultures into the story and I love seeing multicultural aspects of Malaysia being represented so I can’t wait to read these books too.

Have you read any of these books and/or authors? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?

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Top Ten Tuesday | Books with the Word “Sleep” in the Title

Posted April 28, 2025 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 13 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Books with the Word “[Insert Word Here]” in the Title 

I am unfortunately writing this post after a sleepless night laying in bed tossing and turning until 5am this morning. My brain can’t brain and the only thing I’m thinking about is sleep. So I’m choosing books with the word “sleep” in the title for this prompt.

Top Ten Books with the Word “Sleep” in the Title

  1. While My Pretty One Sleeps by Mary Higgins Clark – I read this book in 2012 and gave it 3/5 stars but for the life of me I can’t remember anything about it, and the fact that I rated it 3 stars gives me so much indecision about whether it’s worth a reread. I do enjoy mysteries and thrillers so I might just read other books by the author that I haven’t already tried.
  2. Beauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey – I remember binging on a whole bunch of fairytale retellings years ago and coming across this book, but I don’t remember if I ended up reading this one. I still love fairytale retellings so I might binge a whole bunch of them again!
  3. Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel – This was one of the first books I listened to on audio and I remember being blown away by the production. It’s the first book in a series and I loved the first two books but was unfortunately disappointed with the last one.
  4. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving – This is one of those stories that we see so much in pop culture that I feel like I know the story already even if I haven’t read the book. It’s still on my TBR though and I do intend to read it one day.
  5. Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson – I read this book back in 2012 and remember enjoying it. I gave it 4/5 stars but wrote nothing else about it. I’m a bit mad with my 2012 self, tbh, lazy ass not writing reviews, or at least some notes, for me to refer to, especially knowing how forgetful I am.
  6. Doctor Sleep by Stephen King – This is the sequel to The Shining, which is probably the more popular book but I personally think it’s a strong book in itself and it holds it own. I loved both, and I loved Danny in both.
  7. The Places We Sleep by Caroline Brooks DuBois – I have not read this but it looks interesting and I want to try to get my hands on a copy. It’s middle grade, poetry, historical fiction (it’s crazy to me that 9/11 events is now classified as historical – it doesn’t seem that long ago), and that’s a combination that I hardly ever read but I’m sure I would enjoy.
  8. While the World Is Still Asleep by Petra Durst-Benning – This book intrigues me. The cover intrigues me. The subject matter intrigues me. It’s historical fiction based in Germany in the 1890s and it’s illegal for a woman to ride a bike. I am so intrigued.
  9. Sleeping with the Fishes by Mary Janice Davidson – A paranormal romance about a mermaid. I had this book on my radar some years ago but never got around to it. Now that it’s crossed my path again I’m adding it back to my TBR.
  10. Where Children Sleep by James Mollison – This is an art photography book of children’s bedrooms all around the world with stories about the children and how they live. I would really love to take a look but my library doesn’t have a copy. I’ll keep looking.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?

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Top Ten Tuesday | Books That Surprised Me

Posted April 21, 2025 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 15 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Books that Surprised Me 

Books are constantly surprising me all the time in so many different ways. Today I’m choosing to go with books that surprised me in a good way and these are some of the more recent ones.

Top Ten Recent Books That Surprised Me

  1. All The Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell – I have a morbid curiosity about death and dying and I thought this would be interesting. It’s nonfiction and I expected an impersonal book filled with facts, but it ended up feeling more like a memoir of the author’s experience while researching the book. It got emotional and personal, and in a couple of instances maybe a little judgemental, but I was surprised by how deeply invested I got into the book.
  2. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon – I had no idea this was historical fiction and based on real people and events at first, and I also didn’t expect to love it so much. It was so well-written and I found myself googling the actual people.
  3. Shark Heart by Emily Habeck – It was waayyy more profound and heartwrenching than I expected. I thought it was going to be something fun and campy because of the subject matter, and I’ve even joked about it with friends who had read it, but it turned out so surprisingly emotional.
  4. The Measure by Nikki Erlick – This book literally surprised me by appearing on my Shelf in my Libby app out of nowhere. I do not remember borrowing it or putting it on hold, nor even hearing about the book before! It just turned up on my shelf! However, the narrator is Julia Whelan and I love her, so I decided to read it anyway.
  5. Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan – This one definitely caught me by surprise! It was supposed to be a light-hearted YA read for me, like a snack that you read and enjoy in the moment and never think about again, but I love it so much and now I’m obsessed with it! I need the next books!
  6. The Terror by Dan Simmons – I don’t really know what I was expecting with this one. Maybe something more like The Indifferent Stars Above for the Donner Party, but for Franklin’s expedition. I didn’t realize it was fiction and was often confused by what was real and what was not. I was surprised by how invested I got in the characters in the end and how much it affected me!
  7. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong – I didn’t expect to like this book, much less love it. It was a bookclub BOTM that I don’t think I voted for, and I ended up being blown away by how beautiful it was.
  8. Heartstopper the series by Alice Oseman – This is one of the best things that ever existed and we must protect it at all cost! I was not interested in this series at all because it’s about high school boys and I didn’t think it’d have anything I could relate to, but I ended up loving it so much and loving the boys too! The best surprise!
  9. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus – So I was lucky to not be exposed to the hype around this book. I had no idea it was even popular at all and fully expected it was going to be another snack-like book I would forget after reading. I ended up enjoying it so much and I was surprised to find out that most people thought it was overhyped.
  10. Sooley by John Grisham – I love legal thrillers so of course I’ve read several of John Grisham’s books and that’s how I came across this one. However, this book turned out to be about sports and sportsmen, which I’m usually not interested in but it was so good and I loved it and I guess I love reading about sports after all.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?

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