Let’s Talk Bookish: Favourite Reading Spots

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits, and it’s where we get to discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Check out all the past topics if you want to join in the bookish discussion fun.

It’s the last Friday of the month and today’s topic is:

Since I was a bit of a numpty and missed out on the topic two weeks ago thinking it was already the freebie week 🤦🏻‍♀️ I’m going back to that topic today:

Prompts: What is your favourite place to read? Do you like being around others? Or do you prefer total silence? Do you generally read at home? Or do you read everywhere you go? Do you enjoy books more when reading in certain places or environments?

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Book Review: Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

Black Water Sister
Publisher: Macmillan
Pub Date: 11 May 2021
Genre: Speculative Fiction

Panda Rating:

(4.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

A reluctant medium discovers the ties that bind can unleash a dangerous power in this compelling Malaysian-set contemporary fantasy.

Jessamyn Teoh is closeted, broke and moving back to Malaysia, a country she left when she was a toddler. So when Jess starts hearing voices, she chalks it up to stress. But there’s only one voice in her head, and it claims to be the ghost of her estranged grandmother, Ah Ma. In life Ah Ma was a spirit medium, the avatar of a mysterious deity called the Black Water Sister. Now she’s determined to settle a score against a gang boss who has offended the god–and she’s decided Jess is going to help her do it.

Drawn into a world of gods, ghosts, and family secrets, Jess finds that making deals with capricious spirits is a dangerous business. As Jess fights for retribution for Ah Ma, she’ll also need to regain control of her body and destiny. If she fails, the Black Water Sister may finish her off for good.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Gang violence, attempted kidnapping, sexual assault and attempted rape, attempted murder, murder, racism, homophobia

TL;DR: I’m so glad that I finally read my first book by Zen Cho. I’ve heard many great things about Cho’s work and even though this was well outside my comfort zone with all the paranormal activity (ghosts, possessions, etc.), I’m so glad I gave it a chance because I ended up loving it! There was so much to appreciate in Black Water Sister from the strong characters and themes to the simmering rage thrumming through these pages. On a more personal level, the sociocultural elements and parts of Jess’s story were so relatable as they are also part of my experience, which made the story more impactful for me as a reader. I would highly recommend this if you are looking for speculative fiction with non-Western roots, a flawed yet relatable main character, and a thrilling story about revenge, forgiveness, family, and belonging.

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ARC Review: I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang

Special thanks to HarperCollins for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I Am Not Jessica Chen
Publisher:
HarperCollins
Pub Date: 28 January 2025
Genre: YA Contemporary

Panda Rating:

(4.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

After getting rejected by every single Ivy League she applied to and falling short of all her Asian immigrant parents’ expectations, seventeen-year-old Jenna Chen makes a wish to become her smarter, infinitely more successful Harvard-bound cousin, Jessica Chen—only for her wish to come true. Literally.

Now trapped inside Jessica’s body, with access to Jessica’s most private journals and secrets, Jenna soon discovers that being the top student at the elite, highly competitive Havenwood Private Academy isn’t quite what she imagined. Worse, as everyone—including her own parents—start having trouble remembering who Jenna Chen is, or if she ever even existed, Jenna must decide if playing the role of the perfect daughter and student is worth losing her true self forever.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Blackmail, academic cheating, bullying, anxiety

Okay, can we take a minute to appreciate this cover? It’s already one of my favourites this year so far!

TL;DR: This was my first YA contemporary by Ann Liang but it won’t be my last. I now understand why her books are so well-loved and always come highly recommended. This had strong characters, was packed with emotion, and had a high degree of relatability that I think will apply to all readers. In “I Am Not Jessica Chen”, Liang perfectly captures the highly competitive high school and academic experience, including the pressures teenagers face to do better and achieve more as they equate it to success. Jenna is a complex, relatable and realistic character and I enjoyed watching her journey of self-acceptance unfold. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to all readers!

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Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp [267]

We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent your time reading in bed or wish you had time to read today.

It’s another Sunday when I’m not sure what to read next since I finished two reads earlier today. I’m looking for something that’s more “vibes” so I think I might pick up another alien romance that a popular romance author/reader on bsky recommended! But I’m also tempted to start one of two ARCs that I need to read by early February. So let’s see which of these three fits my mood best when I get into bed tonight!

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🎈 Celebrating Six Years ft. The Book Blogger Anniversary Tag! 🎉

For the first time since I started book blogging, I finally remembered to check when my blog’s anniversary is and wouldn’t you know it? I’m a day late. 😂 How very typical of me but at least I remembered at all this year!

SIX YEARS. Holy granola, I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for six years! While I know I’ve been around for what feels like ages, I also often look at my blog and wonder, “What have I really done with this space? Despite years of being here, am I still a nobody surrounded by brilliantly talented content creators?” It’s safe to say that all these years later, I still struggle with imposter syndrome. 🫣 But I know that regardless of how I may see myself and the things I do, I should be proud of how far I’ve come with this blog and how consistent I’ve been with keeping it up!

I told myself that if I ever remembered my anniversary, I would write a reflection post about it so here we are. But since I’m doing this on short notice (as usual, lol), I thought I’d make things easier for myself by using some questions from this Book Blogger Anniversary Tag that I found on Talk Nerdy Book Blog to guide me. On that note, let’s get to it!

This book tag was originally created by booktuber Book Your Imagination so some of the questions have been modified for blogging (and I’ve modified some of them even further to fit my reflection)!

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Let’s Talk Bookish: Bookish Trends of 2024

For some reason, I was a numpty and thought last week was the “freebie” end-of-the-month topic (I think I’m too excited for February to come, lol) and since my head wasn’t in the right space, I decided to skip it. Silly me! We’re back on track today though, haha!


Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits where we get to discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Check out January’s and all the past topics if you want to join the bookish discussion fun.

Today’s topic is:

Prompts: Looking back on the past year, what bookish trends have you noticed? Are there certain tropes that have become more popular? New types of blogging and book-related content being posted? Do you have favourite trends? Least favourites? Do you notice trends shifting dramatically from previous years?

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2025 Popsugar Reading Challenge

Happy Thursday, friends! I’m back with another reading challenge I hope to complete in 2025 and it’s the very popular Popsugar Reading Challenge. The first and last time I attempted this was in 2020 and I didn’t consider how difficult being a mood reader would make completing this challenge. To be fair, it was also a helluva year so it wasn’t surprising how miserably I “failed”. But now I’m back and attempting PS once again! Who knows how I’ll do this year but right now I’m feeling oddly hopeful about my participation in this challenge.

[EH, SKIP THE INTRO. TAKE ME TO THE GOOD STUFF!]

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