July is somehow already over and I already can’t seem to recall what I did this past month! ๐คฃ Honestly, I have zero social life and most of my days I’m at work, sometimes going to the gym, and then coming home to blog and read. That might sound sad or miserably boring to a lot of people, but I kind of love my quiet life. Or maybe in true panda fashion, I’m just too lazy to do much of anything (this is actually very true too)! ๐คญ I struggled to get myself back into the gym this month with life getting in the way but I did at least manage to go about half the month, and I hope to continue the streak in August. Other than that, I think it was a pretty quiet and uneventful month!
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.
I’ve spent all of my Sunday in bed with The Butcher’s Masquerade by Matt Dinniman. Leslie and I are continuing our buddy read and needless to say, we’re having a blast. This series is so freaking goodโand there’s so much more to it than the outrageous covers and outlandish plot. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this series is fast becoming one of my new all-time faves!
What book are you spending your Sunday in bed with?
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and myself! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each otherโs posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.
This week’s topic is:
Multiple Copies of Books
Prompts: Do you have multiple copies of any books? What makes you want to get more than one copy of a certain book? What books do you have multiple copies of? Are there any books that you want to get more copies of in the future?
The Seven Year Slip Publisher: HQ Pub Date: 27 June 2023 Genre: Contemporary Romance
Panda Rating: (4.5 pandas)
๐SYNOPSIS
An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommateโฆonly to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.
Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.
Six months ago, Clementine West had the worst day of her life. So, she came up with a plan to keep her heart safe: stay busy, work hard, take no risks. And itโs been working.
That is until one day she finds a strange man standing in her kitchen. A man with kind eyes, a crooked smile, and a recipe for the perfect lemon meringue pie. The kind of man that, before everything, she could have fallen forโฆ
Heโs perfect but for one thing: he lives in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact.
This should be impossible, but Clementine used to love impossible things. And maybe, just maybe, she will again. After all, love is never a matter of time โ but a matter of timing.
โ ๏ธCONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS
Death of family member by suicide (recounted), grief & loss depiction, death of a grandparent from dementia (recounted)
TL;DR: There was so much that I loved about this book but it was essentially a love letter to all the things that my inner (reluctantly) hopeless romantic dreams about and loves to giggle and kick my feet over. Itโs one of those โimpossible romancesโ a la Serendipity, Sleepless in Seattle, and Notting Hill (among others) rolled into one and my heart had a swooning good time reading about Clementine and Iwanโs story. This is a book that is heavily centered on grief and being stuck in the past, and of course, itโs about healing and finding hope through finding yourself again. I think if youโve enjoyed Postonโs other romances, youโre bound to enjoy this one too!
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:
This week’s topic is:ย Books Set in/Take Place During X (Pick a place, time, era, etc. Examples: Books set in Europe/Italy/Australia/Chicago, books set in Regency England, books that take place during the 1900s, books set in imaginary worlds/post-apocalyptic/dystopian worlds, books set on the ocean, books set it castles, books that take place during WW2, etc.)
Happy Monday, book lovers! Sorry that this is coming out later than usualโJuly was a whirlwind of a month and I honestly can’t believe it’s already over. And without further ado, it’s time to share the โจAugust 2025 LTB Topics!โจ
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.
I’ll be spending the rest of my Sunday night in bed reading The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver. This has been on my TBR for so long now but I finally I picked it up on a whim yesterday. It took me a bit to get into, but I’m surprised by how quickly I’ve gone through the story! It’s an easy but emotional read.
What book are you spending your Sunday in bed with?
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and myself! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each otherโs posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.
This week’s topic is:
The Elusive 5-star Read
Prompts:What makes a book a 5-star read for you? Do you give books 5 stars easily, or are you more selective with them? What are your all-time favourite โcanโt-live-canโt-breathe-without-themโ 5-star reads? Is there anything that makes a book automatically 5 stars for you? Or the opposite โ what makes you drop to 4 stars?
Happy Thursday, friends! I don’t know about you, but I am so excited for the weekend and the prospect of doing nothing but reading all day. ๐ But I digress… Today I’m doing a tag that I found on Alli the Book Giraffe‘s blog a little while back: the In My Audiobook Era Book Tag. I thought it was perfect, as I kind of am in my audiobook era this year!
This tag was originally created by Honest Fiction on BookTube.
What was the first audiobook you ever listened to?
I keep forgetting that the first audiobook I ever listened to was Born A Crime by Trevor Noah. I don’t know why I keep forgetting it (perhaps because it was so long ago) but it wasn’t because it was bad. I loved it, actually! Hearing Trevor narrate his own story was perfect and powerful. I’d recommend it!
Who are your favourite narrators?
There are four narrators that come to mind almost immediately and they are all *chefs kiss* absolute perfection. I love how they capture the personalities and voices of all the characters in the story so incredibly, and their narration did an amazing job bringing these stories to life!
Audiobook covers for Jade City by Fonda Lee, Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman, The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
Andrew Kishino โ Narrates The Green Bone Saga impeccably. My first audiobook love, lol.
Jeff Hayes โ Narrates Dungeon Crawler Carl and I have no words for how mind-blowing he is with every single character from the AI to the monsters to the different characters. I’m in awe every time I listen to him!
Emily Woo Zeller โย Narrated The Poppy War Trilogy. I fell in love with how EWZ narrated this series and she enhanced my reading experience so much! Made the gut punches and heartbreak even more potent.
Graham Holton โย Narrated the Nevernight Chronicles. This was the first series that I completed as an immersive reading experience (audio + physical) and I loved every moment of it. He also made the copious footnotes not read like footnotes! ๐คญ
What audiobook platform do you use?
So, when I first started listening to audiobooks, the only platform that was available to me (with the most book options) was Audible. I know there are starting to be more options available for international readers too, but most still aren’t available. Audible is still the most affordable and easily accessible for me so I’m sticking with it!
What book did you love on audio that you might not have enjoyed reading physically?
This is a tough one but I think maybe I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara. It’s not that I wouldn’t have enjoyed reading it physically, but I struggle with non-fiction (even if it’s true crime!). This was more slow-paced as well, so it might’ve taken me ages to read it or I might’ve even given up without the audio motivation!
What’s your go-to audiobook speed?
I start all audiobooks at x1.5 speed and gradually increase the speed from there as I get used to the narration. Most of the time x1.8-x2.0 is my comfort zone but lately I’ve been listening to books at x2.3-x2.5! I never thought I’d get to the point where I can still understand what the narrator is saying at this speed, but I’ve come so far in my audiobook journey, haha! ๐
Do you prefer single or dual/multi-narration?
I think this answer is super dependent on the book but also on the narrator. There are certain books with multiple POV that just beg to be read with multiple narrators and the whole production shebang(thinking of books like The Illuminae Files, Clap When You Land, or Cloud Atlas). But depending on the narrator and how well I feel they capture the voices and personalities of the characters and how they bring the story to life, I also don’t mind single narration(thinking of books like the ones mentioned in my answer about narrators but also Sadie, Project Hail Mary, or The Deep).
Do you listen while multi-tasking or do you sit and listen like it’s a movie?
One of the main reasons I never really got into audiobooks is because I was unable to multi-task while listening and I had to sit like a statue and stare at the ceiling in order to focus. ๐ This obviously limited the times I could listen to audiobooks and so it just never clicked. That’s changed a lot this year ever since I started going to the gym where audiobooks are my constant companionโand now I don’t feel like I can gym without listening to a book! ๐คญ I still can’t really do other tasks while listening, but this is a great start, imho.
What’s your biggest audiobook pet peeve?
This is tough because I don’t know if these would even really be considered pet peeves but I also don’t have a whole lot to complain about because the audiobooks that I have listened to, I’ve mostly really enjoyed. I think the times when it doesn’t work for me is when there’s a music soundtrack in the background that doesn’t correspond with the story or make it feel more immersiveโit’s just background music. I thought I would enjoy it but wow, no! ๐คฃ It was so distracting and did nothing good for my reading!
Another thing I don’t enjoy is when narrators are so monotone. I’ve only had one or two audiobooks that I found incredibly tough to listen to because the narration was so droll and there wasn’t any emotion in the story. A character is angry, happy, sad, etc.? It’s all the same tone and it was a nope for me!
If you could have any book made into an audiobook, which one would it be โand who would narrate it?
Oh, I don’t know if I have a good answer for this because all of the books I read do have audiobooks… ๐คฃ So I think I’ll go slightly rogue and pick a book that has an audiobook that I found really disappointing. I stopped listening to it becauseโI’m sorry to sayโthe narrator did the book such injustice, and it’s wild cos the narrator was the author!
I wish that the audiobook for Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson could be redone because the story was a 5-stars but the narration was 1-star (for me). If I could choose, I’d pick Idris Elba to narrate this, haha (being serious though)! ๐คญ
What’s your all-time favourite audiobook experience?
I can’t just choose one all-time favourite audiobook experience. I will kind of sound like a broken record when I repeat the books mentioned with my favourite narrators. So I’m just going to mention five more books I had incredible audio experiences with!
Emily Wilde Series by Heather Fawcett, The Wayfarers Series by Becky Chambers, Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Hunger by Roxane Gay, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sรกenz
Have you ever listened to an audiobook that made you pause and say, “Wait… what did I just hear?!”
Dungeon Crawler Carl was the first audiobook that came to mind because oh my gosh, there have been so many things that are said in this book that have caused me to react as the prompt asks! ๐คฃ Not in a bad way though but just like a hilariously shocking “they said what?!” kind of way, haha.
And that’s it for this tag, folks. I won’t be tagging anyone specifically but feel free to link back if you do it so I can read your answers! I’d love to find more audiobooks to add to my audiobook TBR now that I’m getting more into them! ๐
dinipandareads 