Month: October 2025

Top Ten Tuesday | Ten Non-Bookish Things About Me

Posted October 13, 2025 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 40 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 I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time 

The topic was originally supposed to be Non-Bookish Freebie, and today is my birthday(!) so I thought I’d do a non-bookish list about me today and share a little more about me. I’m not sure how many of us will do the original topic, but either way, I hope to learn more about you too!

Ten Non-Bookish Things About Me

  1. It’s my birthday! – October 14th! I’m a Libra baby! Unfortunately, I’m not celebrating this week as I got sick unexpectedly, but maybe once I get well.
  2. Yes, I am into astrology, tarot, numerology, and other metaphysical practices – I started practicing tarot and other witchy stuff as a child and became a professional tarot reader and numerologist as an adult.
  3. I’ve also worked at a bookstore and as a wedding singer – I’m pretty sure most of us bookworms have worked at a bookstore or a library, or with books at some capacity, at one point or other! Music is another big thing for me, so singing seemed like another thing I would enjoy, and I’ve sang with a couple of bands for weddings and corporate events.
  4. And was also an investment consultant – This is probably the job that is most unrelated to any of my interests, but I met my husband here so it turned out great!
  5. My husband is a musician and we bonded over our love for music – I have dated musicians before meeting my husband and I swore I would never date musicians again! Joke’s on me, huh?😂
  6. We make beautiful music together! – Not an euphemism! 😂 We actually make music together and have just released a few songs (and more coming soon!) under the name SpaceBlaze! I’ve added our Spotify playlist to the sidebar if anyone wants to check them out, or if you don’t use Spotify, you can try any of these platforms.
  7. We also have three cats together – Button, Pepper, and Loki. We lost Loki a few months ago, but he’s still very much in our hearts and minds. Click the link for the cat tax! They are Malaysian cats, and we brought them with us when we moved to Canada.
  8. We’re Malaysian cats too – We moved to Canada in 2018 and sometimes I’m surprised to realize that we’ve been here for seven years. It’s weird to be an immigrant because after seven years, I still feel like I’m new here. There’s so much I don’t know, and sometimes I don’t even know what I don’t know.
  9. I knit and crochet in my free time – These days it’s more crochet than knit, but I realized I haven’t posted many pictures of my crochet projects here. It looks like I only have this post and this post featuring my crochet pieces. I should really change that!
  10. It was surprisingly difficult to come up with ten non-bookish things about me – Books are such a huge part of my life, and probably the thing I talk most about. In fact, I’m probably cheating with this one, and the one about working in a bookstore, because they’re bookish-related, but this has somewhat inspired me to explore other interests so I’ll have more to talk about next time!

What are some non-bookish things about you? Do we have any non-bookish things in common? What non-bookish things would you like to try?

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Top Ten Tuesday | Satisfying Book Series

Posted October 6, 2025 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 39 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 Satisfying Book Series 

This was a dangerous topic for me; I ended up reminiscing about so many of these series and wanting to reread them! Plus, it also reminded me of many series I haven’t finished and now I have more books on my TBR!

Top Ten Satisfying Book Series

  1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – Whether you count this series as just the original trilogy, or also include the two prequels, this is one of my favorite series that only gets better with every reread. I get more out of it and see things I missed before every time I read it.
  2. Super Powereds by Drew Hayes – I had so much fun with this series. The writing is definitely not sophisticated at all, but the storytelling is so immersive and I love all the characters! It was fun and thrills all the way from start to finish.
  3. The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni – Objectively, this isn’t as well known as the other books on the list but I have fond memories of reading it, and I think maybe one of the reasons I loved it is because I came in without any expectations and ended up loving it.
  4. The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee – This series is incredible in a way I’m not sure how to describe. It feels real. It feels important. It feels like an epic that should be in the realm of LOTR but for urban fantasy. It is intense, and just so good.
  5. Rook & Rose by M.A. Carrick – I love the world-building and magical system in this series. I also really love the characters and their chemistry with each other. It’s one of the newer series I’ve finished (that wasn’t a reread) and that I know I will love even more with every reread.
  6. Oz: The Complete Collection by L. Frank Baum – This is my first time reading the Oz books and I was so surprised at how much more there is to them compared to the movies and Wicked retelling. I’m sure I would’ve loved these stories as a child, but honestly, they are pretty incredible reading as an adult too!
  7. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery – These are books I read as a child and they have remained one of my favorite series ever since. They are some of my favorite comfort reads and I know I can never go wrong with them.
  8. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor – It’s been a while since I read this series but I remember loving them so much at the time. I’m definitely feeling the itch to reread!
  9. Dragonlance: Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman – I just reread the first three books and have put it on hold because I’m missing the fourth book. I’d forgotten so much of the details and was quite surprised, and shocked, by some of the things that happened, but they are still amazing!
  10. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer – Another series I haven’t read in a while. I love fairytale retellings and I loved the different perspectives this series offered. It’s time to schedule a reread for these books too!

I’m usually good about limiting my TTT list to ten, but here are some notable ones I loved but didn’t put on the list because they are still ongoing or unfinished, or some other reason. They are all still worth reading though, imho!

  1. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman – Currently reading for the first time and I’m on the 6th book. It’s still ongoing but I love every book so far!
  2. Red Rising Saga by Pierce Brown – If you count only the first three books, they’re finished and very good on their own, but the story that started from Book 4 onwards isn’t finished yet and I’m still waiting anxiously to find out what happens to my beloved characters!
  3. Wayfarers by Becky Chambers – This series is finished as far as I know, and I love it more than some of the other books in the TTT list, but every book is pretty much only tangentially related and can be read as standalones, so I decided to keep it off the TTT list.
  4. Fred, The Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes – This is also a finished series and one I loved, but I already have a series by the same author on the TTT so this one only gets a notable mention.
  5. The Murderbot Dairies by Martha Wells – Still ongoing, and there’s also a TV series out! I am loving it so much so far!
  6. Heartstopper by Alice Oseman – This series has my heart. I love it. I was so sad to hear the TV series has been cancelled, but I’m glad there’s still a book to look forward to.
  7. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin – I know, I know! But I was already listing unfinished book series, so I might as well, right?! Thing is, whether this series ever gets finished or not, the ones that are already out are amazing, and I honestly think they are still worth reading even if we never get an ending. These books helped me through a tough time and I can’t imagine never having them in my life.

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

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Sunday Post | 5 October 2025

Posted October 4, 2025 by Haze in Sunday Post, Weekly Book Memes / 30 Comments

Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings. I am also linking up with Deb @ Readerbuzz for The Sunday Salon.

Good Food with Good Friends

This was a good week for Malaysian food; I made Hokkien Mee yesterday, and today I went to a Malaysian restaurant with my bookclub friends and had Chili Pan Mee. I don’t know, I was craving noodles this weekend! Our bookclub meeting was supposed to be the weekend before, but many of us couldn’t make it in the last minute so we decided to do lunch today instead.

It has been a long, long time since I made Hokkien Mee, and obviously it’s not the same as the ones you find in Malaysian hawker stalls because I’m using different ingredients and I don’t have sambal belacan on hand, but I did make the pork fat crisps and the husband loved it, so yay!

The pictures aren’t great but you can see just from the presentation which one is homemade and which one was restaurant-made! That one veggie piece in the middle of the noodle dish is a weird aesthetic, but it all went happily down our stomachs anyway. Honestly, the picture doesn’t do it justice, it was so good (or maybe I was just too hungry)! The Chili Pan Mee wasn’t the same as the ones back in Malaysia, but that’s to be expected and I appreciate the effort. I have eaten there before and a lot of the other Malaysian food on the menu are amazing, I just wanted to try the noodles today.

The Books

Books I read last week:

  1. The Butcher’s Masquerade by Matt Dinniman – I am still having so much fun with this series even though it does actually get more painful in some ways. I think it showcases how we can have hard-hitting stories but still keep our humor intact and make the best out of whatever situation we find ourselves in. Obviously Jeff Hays’ narration plays a big part in making the books so enjoyable too!
  2. A Sorceress Comes To Call by T. Kingfisher – I started reading this with three more days to go before I had to return it to the library, and I expected to take some time to get into it since I was so engrossed in the DCC books, but surprisingly and happily, it sucked me in immediately and I finished it in two sittings! I loved it and I’m so glad I read it instead of letting the due date lapse!
  3. Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman – I barely finished this in time for my bookclub meeting today! It was good but I feel like I rushed it and that wasn’t fair to the story because there were parts where dreams and hallucintions play an important role in the plot and I got really confused about what was really happening. I also didn’t like the narrator for some of the voices so that played a part in my enjoyment of the story.

Books I’m reading:

  1. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride by Matt Dinniman – I couldn’t resist. I took a break already, reading two other books in between the last one, but I had to come back to Carl and Donut!
  2. The Devils by Joe Abercrombie – My attempt to still continue reading other book obligations even though I can’t stay away from DCC. I’m about 10% in and it’s reminding me a lot of Between Two Fires, so far! But I love the humor here, and I love Steven Pacey as the narrator!

Last Week on The Blog

I got a TTT and a Monthly Wrap-Up in! I should probably get started on the backlog of book reviews though!

This Week

It’s October and you know what that means; spooky books!

I’m doing really well on my October TBR intentions so far! I’ve finished three books on my list already, and started two others. I’m hoping that if I finish them quickly I’ll have enough time for some Stephen King as well and maybe more horror!

How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!

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