Leslie and I are planning a group read for Dungeon Crawler Carl starting in January 2026! Find more details on Leslie’s page or at the end of this post!

Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:

1. What did you read last?
2. What are you currently reading?
3. What will you read next?

Since last week I managed to finish 5 books! It was a fairly diverse reading week 🙂

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao ★★★¾
I have slightly mixed feelings about this, but it’s skewing towards the positive. I absolutely loved the world-building—it was so whimsical, magical, fantastical and it completely swept me up! This strongly resonated classic Ghibli vibes all around and many scenes played out like a Ghibli movie in my head. I thought it was surprisingly action-packed and fast-paced for “cosy healing fantasy”, which was great, but I wished the character arcs were better explored. I also really wanted to wish the romance away—oop! 🤭

The Internet of Garbage by Sarah Jeong ★★★☆☆
While this non-fiction pointed out some interesting things about how society and the law classifies digital harassment, this was kinda dry. It took me a whole week to read 91 pages and I don’t think I retained much of the information (but that’s maybe more of a me thing than the book?) 😬 I think it’s a good introduction to elements of digital violence, but of course, very America-centric.

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel ★★★★☆
This book is one of the ones that stand out the most from my childhood, but I honestly can’t believe I read this book so young because it’s a lot. 😂 While a lot of the writing probably doesn’t stand the test of time, I still enjoyed this “re-read”. It gave me part Cinderella and part “lite epic” version of One Hundred Years of Solitude, but make it more dramatic, engaging, and punchy—I ate it up.

2043: A Merman I Should Turn to Be (Black Stars #3) by Nisi Shawl ★★☆☆☆
I don’t know if I’m just too dumb for this book but while the premise and certain elements of it were really interesting, the entire thing confused me. The mixed media elements only added to my confusion given the lack of context of this futuristic world… Granted, it’s only 31 pages, but I didn’t have a fun time!

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt ★★★★½
Ah, this was so perfectly heartwarming and cosy! I can see what it’s so well-loved. Marcellus the Octopus was such a great character and I really liked Tova as well. If you love the vibes in A Man Called Ove and The Thursday Murder Club, you’ll probably love this one too!

I’ve still got The Anthropocene Reviewed on my radar, but I haven’t returned to it in a while due to other books taking mood priority. I still hope to finish it before the month ends(?) or if not at least read one more non-fiction cos right now, I’ve only read one NF this month and it was novella length. 🤦🏻‍♀️ So much for NFN, LOL!

I’m hoping to read a few more books for my work event, but otherwise, I’m mostly going with my mood! I do want to try and get in at least two more non-fiction titles though…

Join our big group read for Dungeon Crawler Carl in January 2026!

Even before we finished the seventh book in September, we already knew we wanted to do a bigger re-read of the series in the lead up to the eighth book coming out in 2026! We also figured this would be really fun reading in a bigger group, so that’s what we’re doing! We’ll start in January and read roughly 1 book per month to prepare for the release of the next book later in the year! We’re hosting it on Instagram so leave a comment below or message me (@dinipandareads) or Leslie (@booksarethenewblack11) over there if you’d like to join.
🧨 GET EXCITED, CRAWLERS! 🧨

What are you currently reading? I hope you’re enjoying whatever book you’ve picked up, friends!

• Follow me on Goodreads!
• Follow me on Bluesky
• Follow me on Instagram!
• Follow me on Twitter!