Tag: International Book Blogger

Book Review: The Deep by Rivers Solomon

Dini @ dinipandareads18 Comments

Goodreads: The Deep
Publisher: Saga Press
Published: 05 November 2019
Genre: Adult SFF

Panda Rating:

(4.5 pandas)

Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.

Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.

Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.

Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode “We Are In The Future,” The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting.

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#FirstLinesFriday: 04 February 2022

Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, 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:

“It was like dreaming,” said Yetu, throat raw. She’d been weeping for days, lost in a remembering of one of the first wajinru.
“Then wake up,” Amaba said, “and wake up now. What kind of dream makes someone lurk in shark-dense waters, leaking blood like a fool? If I had not come for you, if I had not found you in time…”

Do you recognise the book these first lines come from?

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Blog Tour Spotlight: The Counterclockwise Heart by Brian Farrey

Dini @ dinipandareads5 Comments

I’m excited to be shining a spotlight on The Counterclockwise Heart by Brian Farrey today! This middle-grade fantasy sounds really good and I actually started it on a whim the other day. I’m already getting slightly dark but very magical fairytale-gone-wrong vibes from it and I can’t wait to dive back in whenever I have to put it down. I can’t wait to see where this story goes 😄 Also, how cool is this cover?!

Special thanks to Algonquin Young Readers for having me on tour and providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads: The Counterclockwise Heart
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Publication Date: 01 February 2022
Genre: Middle-Grade Fantasy

Tick . . . tick . . . tick . . .
Time is running out in the empire of Rheinvelt.
 
The sudden appearance of a strange and frightening statue foretells darkness. The Hierophants—magic users of the highest order—have fled the land. And the shadowy beasts of the nearby Hinterlands are gathering near the borders, preparing for an attack.
 
Young Prince Alphonsus is sent by his mother, the Empress Sabine, to reassure the people while she works to quell the threat of war. But Alphonsus has other problems on his mind, including a great secret: He has a clock in his chest where his heart should be—and it’s begun to run backwards, counting down to his unknown fate.
 
Searching for answers about the clock, Alphonsus meets Esme, a Hierophant girl who has returned to the empire in search of a sorceress known as the Nachtfrau. When riddles from their shared past threaten the future of the empire, Alphonsus and Esme must learn to trust each other and work together to save it—or see the destruction of everything they both love.

buy a copy
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Pondathan Update ft. A Blossoming Garden & Gen’s Side Quest

Dini @ dinipandareads18 Comments

Hello, friends! Today I’m excited to share a short update on my Pondathon reading progress, Pompom’s updated character card and most importantly… Pompom’s blossoming garden! 😍

Want to know more about the Pondathon? Check out my announcement post!

For the first round of the Pondathon, I managed to complete all the objectives for Xiaolong’s Side Quest, including the bonus and secret achievement. This means that Pompom gets their first badge for their character card plus some exciting decorations for the garden. Yay! 😃

I’ve also started to fill up the garden. I surprisingly only got two flowers last month but I got a lot of planter boxes and garden beds, so at least I’ll be ready to add flowers to my garden as the year progresses 😄 I’m pretty happy with how it’s looking and y’know, I think Pompom is too!

Now that it’s February, there’s an exciting new side quest to tackle: Planting Saplings with Gen! The quest expires on 19 February 2022, 8:00PM NZT. [?]

Click on the banner for more information about Gen’s side quest!

The objective of the quest is to read a book by a Black author for Black History Month. If you read at least three books by Black authors, you’ll receive the Sleepy Sapling badge. You complete the Secret Achievement if you read a book by a Black author with one of the following themes: friendship, family, community, nature.

As I’m not one for fixed TBRs, here’s a big possibility pile from my existing shelves that I’m hoping to finally tackle this year:

Are you reading for the Pondathon? Did you complete Xialong’s side quest and will you help Gen with his side quest? If you are, what books are you planning to read for it?

#WWWWednesday: 02 February 2022

Dini @ dinipandareads20 Comments

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’ve finished 4 books. Well, it was inevitable at the rate that I was reading last month that I’d slow down at some point and I’ve finally hit that point 😂

Blackout by Various Authors ★★★★★
I literally have nothing bad to say about this anthology. I loved the way the stories were interconnected and I enjoyed every minute of reading them. I only wish that they could’ve been longer because I didn’t want to move on at the end of each one! Highly recommended 😍

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#TopTenTuesday: Books with Character Names in the Title

Dini @ dinipandareads54 Comments

So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: Books with Names/Character Names In the Titles (Submitted by BookLoversBlog and Lucy @ Bookworm Blogger).

Well, this prompt reminds me of one from a bookish tag that I was tagged in yesterday and it was the prompt I was probably going to struggle with the most… but not anymore! I digress though 😬 Was it just me or did anyone else have a hard time finding books for this prompt?

Since I’m attempting to tackle the TBR this year, I decided to focus on books that I already own. I tried to find ones that have been on my shelves the longest but that got too complicated so I’m just listing the ones I came across as I was scanning my shelves! 😌 Without further ado, let’s get right into it.

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Monthly Wrap Up: January 2022

Dini @ dinipandareads21 Comments

A month of Epic reading…

Well, now that the first month of 2022 is over, I wonder just how quickly the rest of the year will pass by? If it’s anything like 2021, it’ll be a blink! 😂 This was a pretty quiet month on the life front.

  • I very quickly got a consultancy gig from Jan-May. It’s twice a week and not a lot but at least I have a little something!
  • We had one major trip this month and that was coming back to Jakarta from Bali. I love our Bali house (I miss our pool!) but ah, it feels so good to be back with my fur babies and my books! 😍
  • I’m still obsessed with T.Swift and if I continue to obsessively listen to her music throughout the year, I’m pretty sure she’ll take top spot on my Spotify wrap up (again).
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Let’s Talk Bookish: Re-Reading Books?

Dini @ dinipandareads33 Comments

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @Eternity Books  & Dani @ Literary Lion, where we get to discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! You can check out these pages for January 2022 prompts & a full list of the past prompts!

Now without further ado… The topic asks us about:

RE-READING BOOKS?

(SUGGESTED BY FIVES @ DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE)
Prompts: How many times is enough? Why re-read at all? Is re-reading just a comforting pastime? Or is there excitement to be relived? What kind of books do you re-read? Do you ever re-read books you don’t like in hopes that it will be better the second time? Were there any books you didn’t like as a child but liked as an adult, or vice versa?

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#WWWWednesday: 26 January 2022

Dini @ dinipandareads34 Comments

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?

I’ve been going through books like a speed demon lately. Since last week I’ve read… a lot of books! More than I’ve ever read in a week but it does include graphic novels and mostly novellas! I also buddy read 3 books with Leslie @ Books Are the New Black, which have really moviated me to keep up the reading momentum this month! 😃

Silver Shark (Kinsmen #2) & Fated Blades (Kinsmen #3) by Ilona Andrews ★★★★☆
The Kinsmen world is amazing and I loved these books! So much action, so many amazing abilities, such wow world building and amazing romances! I want more 😍 I can definitely see IA becoming a fast fave for SF romance!

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#TopTenTuesday: New to Me Authors I Discovered in 2021

Dini @ dinipandareads62 Comments

So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: New to Me Authors I Discovered in 2021

If you’ve seen my yearly wrap up or read any of my ‘favourites’ posts for my 2021 reads, none of these authors (or books) will be a surprise. I didn’t really keep proper track of it but I’m pretty sure that the majority of the books I read last year were by new-to-me authors and I enjoyed a lot of them! Since the majority of my reads were romance I’ve grouped the authors into genres: first, everything else (including fantasy, mystery, contemporary) followed by romance. Also, this is a list of 15 authors because it was too hard to narrow it down more and this is actually already quite narrowed down! 😂

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