Top 5 Saturday: Books with a Colour in the Title

April 12, 2020September 14, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads17 Comments

I totally spaced yesterday and forgot that it was Saturday because the days have blurred since I’ve been WFH… I only realised I had missed Saturday’s post when I was doing a little after midnight gaming. Oops!

We’re back with another Top 5 Saturday! Just in case you don’t know Top 5 Saturday is a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books and it’s where we list the top five books (they can be books on your TBR, favourite books, books you loved/hated) based on the week’s topic. You can see the upcoming schedule at the end of my post 🙂 This week’s topic is: books with a colour in the title.

I thought that I would be able to very easily recall five titles with colours in them off the top of my head but apparently I can’t! LOL So here comes Goodreads and Google searches to the rescue! I don’t know what I’d without these mad interwebs brains 😂

JADE CITY is a gripping Godfather-esque saga of intergenerational blood feuds, vicious politics, magic, and kungfu.
The Kaul family is one of two crime syndicates that control the island of Kekon. It’s the only place in the world that produces rare magical jade, which grants those with the right training and heritage superhuman abilities. The Green Bone clans of honorable jade-wearing warriors once protected the island from foreign invasion–but nowadays, in a bustling post-war metropolis full of fast cars and foreign money, Green Bone families like the Kauls are primarily involved in commerce, construction, and the everyday upkeep of the districts under their protection. When the simmering tension between the Kauls and their greatest rivals erupts into open violence in the streets, the outcome of this clan war will determine the fate of all Green Bones and the future of Kekon itself.

JADE CITY! I can’t believe I forgot this one especially since it’s currently on my bedside table as I was attempting to read it a few weeks back! I put a hold on reading this for now because it requires a lot of concentration and I’m really not in the right headspace for it, although I did enjoy what I read!

#WWWWednesday: 08 April

April 8, 2020April 8, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads22 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:

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

My big question to you is: WHAT ARE BOOKS?! Because I certainly haven’t been reading them 😂😭 Since last Wednesday I’ve only managed to finish one book and that was a graphic novel for the blog tour I was part of today!

Gotham High by Melissa de la Cruz, illustrated by Thomas Pitilli ★★★½
I read this one for the FFBC tour and my stop was today! I haven’t read a DC comic before but I have seen seen pretty much all of the movies, so I really enjoyed this graphic novel! I love seeing known characters as their younger selves because I love knowing their origin story and how they end up where they do. The story/writing wasn’t anything ‘wow’ but it was so enjoyable spotting characters and I loved how the characters were diversified–Bruce Wayne is half-Chinese! Check out my full review.

#TopTenTuesday: It’s because of the ‘GRAM!

April 7, 2020July 18, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads26 Comments

We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is books I bought because of… bookstagram!

I’m sure by now you’re all aware that book Instagram or bookstagram exists. You might even have one and run it alongside your blog! Some days it’s hard to believe that I actually started on bookstagram and then took the big leap to start a book blog. It’s especially hard to believe now since I’ve basically all but abandoned my bookstagram 🙈 #shame But while I have you here (*shameless plug*), feel free to check out my bookstagram and follow me if you feel so inclined: @dinipandareads!

Last year I started a bookstagram and got quickly sucked into the book community! I fell hard and fast for all the beautiful hardcovers and gorgeous accounts. I tried to “keep up” with the good-looking posts by buying props etc. but it’s so hard to find quality things here I decided I didn’t want to spend all that money for it! LOL, but there’s seriously something about seeing gorgeous books in aesthetically pleasing photos that give me some serious *grabby hands* feels. Does that only happen to me?! 😂 So here are some of the books that I absolutely needed to get my hands on all thanks to the ‘gram! Honestly, if it wasn’t for bookstagram I probably would’ve never even heard of some of these, so I really can’t be that mad, right?!

Goodreads Monday – The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

April 6, 2020April 6, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads26 Comments

It’s the first Goodreads Monday of 2020, friends! This weekly meme was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners and it invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you want to! I’ll be using a random number generator to pick my books from my insanely long GR Want-to-read list.

This week’s featured book is The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I don’t remember when I first came across this book but it’s been on my Goodreads TBR for five years already! I’m not really sure what genre this would be classified as but Wiki is telling me it’s gothic suspense! It has a 3.96 star average with 263k+ ratings and 22.2k+ reviews, which is pretty great!

Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUp [50]

April 5, 2020December 4, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads23 Comments

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 been you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed with, or which book you wish you had time to read today!

This Sunday I should’ve spent the day in bed with Ruthless Gods. But if you guessed that I spent the day gaming, then you’d be 10,000% correct 😅 I’m reading this as a buddy read so I really need to get myself together and get cracking on it! I’ve got my first two blog tours coming up next week and yikes, this panda has not read anything in what feels like forever now 🐼 Curse you, gaming! 🙃

Darkness never works alone…
Nadya doesn’t trust her magic anymore. Serefin is fighting off a voice in his head that doesn’t belong to him. Malachiasz is at war with who–and what–he’s become.
As their group is continually torn apart, the girl, the prince, and the monster find their fates irrevocably intertwined. They’re pieces on a board, being orchestrated by someone… or something. The voices that Serefin hears in the darkness, the ones that Nadya believes are her gods, the ones that Malachiasz is desperate to meet—those voices want a stake in the world, and they refuse to stay quiet any longer.

What are you currently reading?

Top 5 Saturday: Books to Read While Stuck Inside

April 4, 2020April 4, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads22 Comments

We’re back with another Top 5 Saturday! I might’ve missed last week’s topic but I will come back to it at some point 🙂 Just in case you don’t know Top 5 Saturday is a weekly meme created by Mandy @ Devouring Books and it’s where we list the top five books (they can be books on your TBR, favourite books, books you loved/hated) based on the week’s topic. You can see the upcoming schedule at the end of my post 🙂 This week’s topic is: books to read while stuck inside/quarantined!

I’ve seen a lot of book bloggers making recommendation lists about what books to read while most of us are stuck inside, WFH, quarantined, self-isolating etc. We’re all looking for either comfort or an escape from what’s going on right now. I know I’m especially avoiding the politics of this pandemic and how the Indonesian government has been handling the situation (real piss poor for effort, mate). So this Saturday I’m going to be looking at five books on my immediate TBR that I’m planning to read during this quarantine period (that for me will last until the end of May)!

It is a year after the action of One of Us Is Lying, and someone has started playing a game of Truth or Dare. But this is no ordinary Truth or Dare. This game is lethal. Choosing the truth may reveal your darkest secrets, accepting the dare could be dangerous, even deadly. The teenagers of Bayview must work together once again to find the culprit, before it’s too late . . .

My first pick would be One of Us is Next. I love a good murder mystery and don’t often read them in YA so I’m really excited for this sequel! OOUIL sucked me in and I’m hoping this will do the job of taking my mind off reality. I’m also a total sucker for this paperback version that has awesome sprayed edges 😍

#WWWWednesday: 01 April

April 1, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads26 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:

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

Since last Wednesday I’ve managed to read… three books!

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor #1) by Jessica Townsend ★★★★★
This was such a wonderful, fast-paced and heartwarming adventure! There may be a lot of elements that are similar to and remind me of Harry Potter but to me, this was just as enjoyable. The characters were all funny, charming and very quirky. The pacing was also fast and I couldn’t recommend this more if you’re looking for a simple, well-written fantasy/adventure to take your mind off current world news. Review coming soon!

Warcross (Warcross #1) by Marie Lu ★★★★☆
The ending of this book should be illegal! What a bleeding cliffhanger–if Wildcard didn’t already exist I would be pissed (and I absolutely mean this in the best way)! 🤣 This book was a helluva journey and I was here for every minute of it! The Warcross world gave me strong Ready Player One vibes but a simplified and easier to understand version that made reading it a breeze. I was sucked in from chapter one and I became fully invested in all our characters! Really keen to see what happens next… Review coming soon!

The Sunday Potluck Club (The Sunday Potluck Club #1) by Melissa Storm ★★¾
It took me several tries to actually get into this book but once I did it was a fast and fairly easy read. That said, it left me feeling pretty “meh” and was very different to what I expected. I thought there would be chats shared during the Sunday Potluck Club but what I got was insta-love, a lot of romance angst, and not particularly likeable characters… I really didn’t feel for any of them! Review coming soon!

#TopTenTuesday: Signs You’re A Book Lover

March 31, 2020March 31, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads38 Comments

We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s prompt is: signs you’re a book lover (basically, people know you’re a book lover because… i.e., you’re always carrying a book or two, your library card broke from overuse, etc.)

Friends, these last two weeks have been a time and my weary mind is finding it so hard to focus on anything (as I’m sure almost all of you can relate to). It’s insane! I think the only thing I’ve been able to focus on lately is gaming–not even reading and that’s the craziest part, right?! Maybe this week’s list will remind me why I can still call myself a book lover? 🤣 My brain is seemingly determined to forget what books are since I got my Switch Lite last week… I’m really hoping that something is going to suck me back into reading though, because right now I’m struggling to put down these games. But before I digress even further… here’s a list of 10 signs that I’m a book lover! 📖

#5OnMyTBR: Humorous Books

March 31, 2020March 30, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads22 Comments

Hello Mondays, welcome back to #5OnMyTBR, a meme created by the wonderful E @ The Local Bee Hunter’s Nook. This bookish meme gets us to dig even further into our TBRs by simply posting about five books on our TBR! You can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. You can find the full list of prompts (past and future) at the end of this post!

This week’s prompt is: Humour/Funny Books!

Goodreads Monday – The Institute by Stephen King

March 30, 2020March 30, 2020 Dini @ dinipandareads16 Comments

So last week was his son’s book and this week it’s The King’s turn with The Institute. I may not be a fan of horror but apparently I do like giving in to the hype and adding them to my shelves in the hopes that I will, one day, read them 🤣 This horror/thriller has a 4.21 star average with 83.8k+ ratings and 10.2k+ reviews, which is pretty great!