Her own happiness by Eden Appiah-Kubi

I’m not reading as much as I used to. I struggle with texts that I normally fly through. It has taken me many months to figure this out. Sometimes it isn’t a reading slump. Sometimes life changes and the focus shifts. The idea that reading is consistent or always “improving” is not true.

This is not my nature, but I’m trying to let things just be. I don’t have to understand or assess or figure out, things can just be.

I found this beautiful cover on NetGalley and was immediately pulled in by the story.
Maya and Ant are leaving Hawaii for Washington DC. Ant is starting a prestigious internship and Maya is going back to live with her parents after her job and home was lost.
As I have struggled with romance in the past and slowly making good choices thanks to all of you, I’m pleased to say I made my first pick and I loved it. This might be my favourite book in the genre. It has fat, Black, queer, ace and lesbian characters. The vibe in the book is so comforting. Yes, there is tension and complicated feelings and relationships of various kinds, but there is a genuine warmth to these characters. If people were like this, not without flaws, but with a care for each other our world would be so much better.

That said, the book doesn’t shy away from tougher topics and it is set in 2021 with the reality of the pandemic. For some it might be too much but I found it well balanced. We all went through it, we are all still going through it.

In conclusion, I found this a lovely book and I look forward to reading more romance books from this author.

Morning reading 📚☕

Inspired by my new-found love for reading vlogs on BookTube I wanted to do a reading update on my current reads.

The way spring arrives
I’ve finished the first story called The Stars We Raised by Xiu Xinyu (tr. Judy Yi Zhou). As the title reveals, in this story stars play a significant role. Stars appear and are “raised” by kids on a yearly basis for a couple of months until the stars are sold by the parents. We follow our narrator and the outcast Jiang Yang as they grew from kids to young adults. I liked the story, I viewed it as a comment on our society and the way we use things without care or consideration.

Jawbone
I’ve finished the first chapter and Fernanda is certainly in trouble. I suspect this will be a book where we get told the current situation and what came before it until it all explodes into some final scenes. High hopes for this being amazing.

Motherland by Paula Ramón – via Netgalley
This is described as powerful memoir from a Venezuelan reporter about one woman’s complicated relationship with her family as her beloved homeland collapses into ruin. I’ve finished the introduction this morning and believe I’m in for some beautiful language and reflections on what it means to lose your home and what home even is.

I’m also finishing Victory City by Salman Rushdie. My first book by Rushdie although I remember reading The Satanic Verses on the beach as a teenager. But I don’t think I ever finished it.

Dragon Palace by Hiromi Kawakami 🇯🇵

Tr. Ted Goossen

Dragon Palace is a collection of short stories to be released in September. I read my copy through NetGalley.

A night out with a shape-shifting sea creature, the history of a goddess and great-grandmother, a relationship with an elderly man and fox-spirit, the yearning for love from an ancestor hundreds of years old, reverence for a three-faced kitchen god, an office-working mole providing an underground sanctuary to humans, a boy’s life with his extraordinary sisters taking on the many roles of women, a sea horse passed from husband to husband with a distant memory of the sea.

This is a beautifully written collection of short stories that sweep the reader along into strange realities. Introducing the reader to animals and gods I was drawn to consider humanity in all its flaws. What it means to be young, old, living, dying, longing, loving, at peace or unease. Some of the stories gets too close to awful experiences and others keep us at a distance. It is both reflective and creepy.

At least, this is what I took from the short stories. The meaning isn’t spelled out and I think depending on where you are at you might take different meaning of the various twists and turns of the stories.