The Death of Baseball by Orlando Ortega-Medina – #eARC #BookReview

November 24, 2019November 28, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

Goodreads: The Death of Baseball
Publish date: 19 November 2019
Publisher: Cloud Lodge Books
Genre: Literary Fiction, LGBTQ+
Panda Rating:

Former Little League champion Kimitake “Clyde” Koba finds strength in the belief that he is the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe as he struggles to escape the ghost of his brother and his alcoholic father.

Born on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, teen prodigy Raphael Dweck has been told his whole life that he has a special purpose in God’s plan. The only problem is, he can’t shake off his doubts, his urges, or the trail of trouble and ruin that follow in his wake.

A decade later, Raphael and ‘Marilyn’ find each other wandering the plastic-bright streets of Hollywood and set out to make a documentary about the transmigration of souls. But when the roleplaying goes too far, they find themselves past the point of no return in their quest to prove who and what they are to their families, God, the world, and themselves.

Top 5 Saturday: Books with Fake Relationships!

November 23, 2019November 27, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads14 Comments

It’s time for another Top 5 Saturday, a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books and this week’s topic is: books with fake love couples. So… I’m assuming this means the fake relationship trope and I’m here for it! By now you know how much I love romance because who doesn’t love the good feels? Romance can be pretty full of tropes and sometimes those tropes get old quick, especially if what you get is the same story over and over again. That said, if I had to pick some of my favorite tropes, fake relationships/dating would definitely be near the top of that list! I mean, yeah it gets pretty predictable but still. THE GOOD FEELS!!! There are plenty of books with this trope on my TBR and here are five of them that I’m hoping to read soon.

Friday Favorites: Character Team Ups

November 22, 2019November 28, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads14 Comments

It’s time for another Friday Favorites hosted by Kibby @ Something of the Book! This weekly meme is where you get to share a list of all your favourites based on the list of prompts on Kibby’s page. Sounds fun, right? This week’s prompt is: favorite character team ups! This prompt was a little confusing for me — I wasn’t sure what exactly was meant by it when I first read it and I don’t know if I’m interpreting it correctly in my post, so this might be pretty short! For this prompt, I’ve decided to keep it simple and look at the books that have some of my favorite squads and are total goals 😍

First Lines Friday – 22 November

November 22, 2019November 24, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads8 Comments

Yayaya, HAPPY FRIYAY, book lovers and friends 😍We’re back with another First Lines Friday! This is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? Here are THE RULES:

Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!

First lines:

“The morning sun caught the palace’s golden dome, flooding the Concord with light. While everyone halted their business and glanced up–as though it were a sign from the four queens themselves–we perched overhead like sea vultures, ready to swoop in and pick them apart.”

The Sunshine Blogger Award II

November 22, 2019November 24, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

Just the other day, the wonderful Mani @ Mani’s Book Corner for The Sunshine Blogger Award! Thank you so much for the nomination, Mani! Mani is one of the sweetest and most supportive bloggers that I’ve met in my time here and so I suggest that you quickly head on over to their page if you aren’t already following them! *shoo*

I’ve been nominated for this award once or twice now, but I’ve only got around to answering it once. I’m so very terrible with the tags and awards, aren’t I? But on that note, let’s get straight into it before I drive myself to complete distraction!

Thursday Discussion: Books To Read Before 2019 Ends!

November 21, 2019November 24, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

Welcome back to my second week joining the Thursday Discussion posts! Thursday Discussion is a biweekly meme hosted by Ally Writes Things where you write a post based on the prompt for that week. The post can be as long or as short as you want, and you can talk about as much or as little as you want. This week’s topic is books you need to read before the end of 2019 and coincidentally, I’ve just posted on bookstagram about that topic today!

The Reader’s Problems Book Tag

November 21, 2019November 17, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads15 Comments

This is another one that I wasn’t tagged to do but I saw it ages ago on Hâf’s page and decided that I felt like doing an easy Wednesday tag (I’m realizing that a weekly trend might be developing now)! So let’s get going:

You have 20,000 books on your TBR, how do you decide what to read next?

I’m a mood reader so it would depend entirely on what mood I’m in? Honestly, I’ve been thinking of making a TBR jar where I write down all the books I own on a slip of paper, put them in the jar and randomly pick one every time I finish a read. But again, mood reader!

#WWWWednesday: 20 November

November 20, 2019November 24, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads11 Comments

It’s time for another WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:

What did you read last?
What are you currently reading?
What will you read next?

What did you read last?

#TopTenTuesday: Changes in My Reading Life!

November 19, 2019November 24, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads35 Comments

Side note: I’m writing this post as I sit at the airport waiting for my flight back to Bali after an overnight stay in Jakarta and a hectic AF, whirlwind of a day attending an event for work. Sorry if it’s slightly short and a maybe a little mediocre 🙃

It’s that time of the week again, friends! We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: changes in my reading life. I find this topic pretty interesting and I specifically want to give focus to how my reading life has changed since I joined the book community earlier this year. Although it’s not something that I think about that often, I know that there have been so many changes to my reading life since then. Let’s see if I can get my brain to remember ten things! Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Down the TBR Hole – 08

November 18, 2019December 30, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads14 Comments

We’re back with another episode of Down the TBR Hole! My TBR currently sits at a whopping 1,005 books, which is the same number I ended this post with last week. I reviewed 10 books again this week but… I’m just gonna be up front here and let you know that I cut ZERO books out this week. NONE. NIL. ZILCH. Because I really want to read all of these books and I’m convinced that I will (eventually) read them all. It’s gonna happen! So all of these are staying 😂

Down the TBR Hole is a weekly book meme created by the wonderful Lia @ Lost in a Story that attempts to organize our ridiculously long Goodreads TBR list by choosing either to keep or eliminate the books we’ve saved on there. Here’s how it works:

Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
Order on ascending date added.
Take the first 5 (or 10 (or even more!) if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course, if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
Read the synopses of the books
Decide: keep it or should it go