Books – Page 58 – The Constellation of Moon

Written in the Stars Review

Posted on June 7, 2018

This year I’ve been reading a lot more Own Voices books and trying to preorder more of those. So here is one. I have to say this review requires some Content Warning:

TW/CW: The book touches on forced marriage and the difficulties that happen around it. So it is brutal but good.

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Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed

This heart-wrenching novel explores what it is like to be thrust into an unwanted marriage. Has Naila’s fate been written in the stars? Or can she still make her own destiny?

Naila’s conservative immigrant parents have always said the same thing: She may choose what to study, how to wear her hair, and what to be when she grows up—but they will choose her husband. Following their cultural tradition, they will plan an arranged marriage for her. And until then, dating—even friendship with a boy—is forbidden. When Naila breaks their rule by falling in love with Saif, her parents are livid. Convinced she has forgotten who she truly is, they travel to Pakistan to visit relatives and explore their roots. But Naila’s vacation turns into a nightmare when she learns that plans have changed—her parents have found her a husband and they want her to marry him, now! Despite her greatest efforts, Naila is aghast to find herself cut off from everything and everyone she once knew. Her only hope of escape is Saif . . . if he can find her before it’s too late.

Rating:

This is a difficult book, you know how some fantasy authors justify the violence in their fantasy made up world by saying it was like this in medieval ages and shenanigangs like that? Well, in this particular book, it is not making it up, this is the reality for some women in the world.

Naila’s story is an extreme one, where a trip to pay for being found to have a boyfriend against her parents wishes, turns into a never ending nightmare that translates into loosing her college entrance times and having ehr trip prolonged over and over. The reason being a forced marriage that she doesn’t want.

But the story doesn’t end when she marries, but rather it follows her and it was sad, cringey and brutal but also powerful and full of wonderful quotes that I kept wanting to frame somewhere (check out Goodreads, they have some good ones there).

I do have to say, it was difficult to read for me, but it was also kinda therapeutic and it was good.

Moon recommends

If you can, to give this book a chance and maybe check my previous reviews since I have been reviewing books that touch on hard topics like Making Faces or Always Forever Maybe.

Books, Subscription Boxes

Stargazers Book Box Club Unboxing

Posted on June 5, 2018

I was looking forward to this box, and it didn’t disappoint (also, I am glad it isn’t a contemporary-ish book).

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Let’s go around starting from the theme card and going clockwise:

Stargazers theme card, it is a dreamy forest night.
Sally Green, Smoke Thieves bookmark.
Felis Constellation pin by Tumble and Rose, which I absolutely utterly loved, it is awesome!
Professor Trelawney Magnetic Bookmark by Magic Bookmarks, because one needs some crazy professor that looks adorable :3
Skylarks promotionla postcard.
To The Stars who Listen pouch by Catarina Book Designs. I have to admit the pouch is neat but I am very tired of everything with this quote (obviously not a SJM fan).
Constellation Socks by Joe Cool, I love socks, absolutely and this are fun and pretty and I am totally happy to have them!
The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton, which I am absolutely looking forward to read, and look at the gorgeous cover, but it is a massive book (I was very surprised by how big it was)
Shakespeare Quote mirror, which is quite a big mirror, but neat too.

Book Review

A Pocketful of Crows Review

Posted on June 3, 2018

A Pocketful of Crows by Joanne M. Harris

Rating:

Several years ago, I read Runelight and companion books and enjoyed them a lot. But forgot about ti and then this book passed me by until recently.

It is a very poetic read, with a lot of lore, and some fairy tale/old tale feeling to it that is hard to tell. It also makes good use of English phrases and words and “cultural nuances” which made this even more enjoyable (I do not know if everyone would catch unto them but I did and loved it for it).

It is also very interesting when most of the book the main character doesn’t have a name, and it is very well written. Deifnitely a mmodern fairytale.

Books, Subscription Boxes

Sunday YA Wildest Dreams Unboxing

Posted on June 1, 2018

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I bought this one as soon as it was announced and then lost track of it because I am a bit distracted and life happens, but here it is the unboxing. Let’s go from the top right clockwise:

Clean by Juno Dawson. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to buy this book but hey, problem solved. (ALso, I do love the rose gold effect!)
Never Talk To Outsiders candle by Taken Moons, smells of cinnamon and sandalwood and it is yummy nice.
Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart. Also one of those that I was tempted to read but never bought and now I do have it. (It was also a big relief there were no repeat books).
I Am Thunder tea. From all the Wildest Dreams boxes with tea, this is my absolute favourite and I am thoroughly enjoying it.
A moon charm which I already own in a differnet piece of jewelry.
A Sunday Ya pin (it’s on top fo the Clean book).

Not a bad box and probably my favurite of the boxes sent from Wildest Dreams.

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Book Review

Making Faces Review

Posted on May 30, 2018

I can’t remember why I decided to preorder this book, but I did (I definitely like supporting authors and preordering as many books as tempt me and can be afforded), and trust me, past me who preordered gets all the kudos from present me.

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Making Faces by Amy Harmon

Ambrose Young was beautiful. He was tall and muscular, with hair that touched his shoulders and eyes that burned right through you. The kind of beautiful that graced the covers of romance novels, and Fern Taylor would know. She’d been reading them since she was thirteen. But maybe because he was so beautiful he was never someone Fern thought she could have…until he wasn’t beautiful anymore.

Making Faces is the story of a small town where five young men go off to war, and only one comes back. It is the story of loss. Collective loss, individual loss, loss of beauty, loss of life, loss of identity. It is the tale of one girl’s love for a broken boy, and a wounded warrior’s love for an unremarkable girl. This is a story of friendship that overcomes heartache, heroism that defies the common definitions, and a modern tale of Beauty and the Beast where we discover that there is little beauty and a little beast in all of us.

Rating:

I started this book not expecting too much, for some reason I thought it was set in WWII times (don’t ask me why, well, somehow I put it close to the WWII books so yeah, past me had her moments). Thinking it wouldn’t hook me too much, I started as I went to bed.

Oh boy! I stayed up until 2 am just to finish it. I seriously could not put it down, my boyfriend came to bed and I barely acknowledged him, this had to be read. I needed to know what was going to happen.

There were a couple of interesting things in the book beyond the “B&B” retelling. It spoke of feeling ugly/not interesting/attractive and never really realising you’ve grown out of it, not in a crazy ugly duckling to swan but more of a “people will like you and some won’t, but it’s okay”. Then it also has a character that is in a wheelchair and that is amazing to read and I was so invested in the character. Family isn’t totally absent in this book, which was refreshing. Parents and family exist and aren’t there just to drive the plot. It also touches on guilt, beliefs, and a lot of things that I was not expecting here.

I thought this was a historic romance kinda book, and it was so much more than that.

Moon recommends

If you’re feeling up to preorders and love Beauty and the Beast, try A Curse So Dark and Lonely. Obviously Making Faces has to be recommmended. One of my other favourite B&B retellings is Hunted and Beauty.

Book Review

The Girl With Ghost Eyes Review

Posted on May 28, 2018

I love urban fantasy and I have a tendency to forget how much I enjoy it until i finally end up reading a new book and voila!

The Girl With Ghost Eyes by M. H. Boroson

It is 1898 in San Francisco. When a sorcerer mainms Chinatown’s Daoshi exorcist, only his daughter Li-lin can protect the immigrant community. With a peachwood sword and a sarcastic talking eyeball to help her, Li-lin must confront evil spirits, gangsters, and soulstealers before the sorcerer summons an ancient evil that could burn Chinatown to the ground.

Full of creepy Asian monsters and authentic Chinese rituals, this critically acclaimed urban fantasy also tells the story of a young immigrant trying to find her place. In a Chinatown torn between tradition and modernity, one woman might be the key to holding everything together.

Rating:

Even though the synopsis has a slightly misleading bit in it, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. (I chose it because it was recommended by Patricia Briggs, and she’s one of my favourite Urban Fantasy writers).

It starts off with Li-lin meeting a sorcerer and entering very quickly the spirit world, and it gets a bit confusing at first if you’re not completely familiar with Chinese spirit lore (I knew some of it but not as much as there is here). It felt a bit overwhelming at first, and confusing because I kept waiting for the synopsis to happen and it just didn’t so I was doubly confused. However, it got interesting quite quickly and the “complicated bits” got easier and more familiar the more I read.

It was hard to put down as there was a lot of action, and I have to say I absolutely loved the ending and was surprised by several of the twists that happen in the book (and surprising me so much is hard to do nowadays).

Moon recommends

If you like urban fantasy and Chinese folklore, give this book a go. You can also try Written in Red by Anne Bishop, or any book by Patricia Briggs (the first one I read from her was The Hob’s Bargain and it is still one of my favourites).

Book Review

The Travelling Cat Chronicles Review

Posted on May 26, 2018

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

It’s not the journey that counts, but who’s at your side.

Nana, a cat, is devoted to Satoru, his owner. So when Satoru decides to go on a roadtrip one day to find him a new home, Nana is perplexed. They visit Satoru’s old friends from his school days and early youth. His friends may have untidy emotional lives but they are all animal lovers, and they also wonder why Satoru is trying to give his beloved cat away. Until the day Nana suddenly understands a long-held secret about his much-loved owner, and his heart begins to break.

Narrated in turns by Nana and by his owner, this funny, uplifting, heartrending story of a cat is nothing if not profoundly human.

Rating:

A perfect Japanese read (I promise this whole Japanese streak hasn’t been on purpose, it just happened). Best part, it is told from the point of view of the cat, Nana, and it was very interesting.

Nana’s voice is lovely and makes me smile to read all the antics and the way he thinks. But it also makes you wonder what is going in the heads of the humans because you really can’t know it all when it is being seen by a cat’s eyes.

It is also a heartbreaking book, and very beautiful (my edition had one or two illustrations and that made it cuter).

Moon recommends

Check out this wonderful book about a “travelling cat”.

Book Review

Shallow relationships and a possible end of the world

Posted on May 22, 2018

Out of the Blue by Sophie Cameron

Soon after 16 y.o. Jaya’s mom passes, so-called Beings (a.k.a. angels) are starting to fall from the sky. In a pattern that seems random, every now and then a Being falls down to the earth, and towards its own unavoidable death due to the collision. No one knows where the Beings are coming from, or why they’ve started to crash down on the planet. Immense panic breaks out as everyone think’s the world is ending. But as the month’s pass by and nothing happens, everything is pretty much back to normal. For most people, that is.

Jaya’s dad on the other hand soon joins the so-called Wingdings; groups of people connecting through the internet, trying to predict where the next Being is going to land. Searching for answers to life’s existential questions, or just for a lot of money, they decide to gather near Edinburgh, and Jaya and her little sister Rani has no choice but to tag along on their dad’s obsession-like adventure. This soon takes an unpredicted turn, as the fall does happen, but not in a way that anyone would’ve predicted. At the same time Jaya meets the twins Callum and Allie. Allie that’s carrying both a heavy secret, an inside fire burning for change, and maybe also the key to Jaya’s much messed up heart.

Rating: 🐖 🐖

Before I received this book from BookBoxClub I had never heard of it, neither of the author Sophie Cameron, so apart from being curious, I had no expectations for this book. However, I immediately got into the story, as it’s written in a very easy read and fast paced way. If you’re looking for a light summer read while chilling in the hammock, this might just be it.

Even though this wasn’t my favourite read, what I did like about Out of the Blue was the overall plot. The Beings starting to fall, and all of the chaos, hope, fear, but most of all afterthought, the falls creates in both the society as a whole and within the characters of the story. These are some really thought sparking and interesting questions, and I would love to read about them from like four hundred more perspectives. So all of you fanfic writers, I put my faith in you!

As to what I didn’t love, that’s unfortunately a lot. Mostly that even though I quickly got into the book, I was never really into it. Something about the whole depiction of Jaya’s unhappy love story, her feelings about her mom’s death, her relationship to Allie and her father and sister … I never felt it. Maybe it was that same fast paced writing that made the story thrilling that got in the way; I did get the feeling that the relationship part’s of the story was just hurried through, and therefore they did feel a bit shallow. So …

Dr. Bea approves but not without some hesitation

If you’re looking for more angel related adventures, leaning to the fantasy rather than the contemporary side, I strongly recommend the Penryn & the End of Days-trilogy by Susan Ee, starting with the book Angelfall.

Book Review

The House With The Chicken Legs Review

Posted on May 20, 2018

I have a soft spot for Russian fairytales or folklore inspired books, and specially about Baba Yaga, so this book had been in my list for a while until I decided to get and I am so glad I did.

The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson

All 12-year-old Marinka wants is a friend. A real friend. Not like her house with chicken legs. Sure, the house can play games like tag and hide-and-seek, but Marinka longs for a human companion. Someone she can talk to and share secrets with.
But that’s tough when your grandmother is a Yaga, a guardian who guides the dead into the afterlife. It’s even harder when you live in a house that wanders all over the world . . . carrying you with it. Even worse, Marinka is being trained to be a Yaga. That means no school, no parties–and no playmates that stick around for more than a day.
So when Marinka stumbles across the chance to make a real friend, she breaks all the rules . . . with devastating consequences. Her beloved grandmother mysteriously disappears, and it’s up to Marinka to find her–even if it means making a dangerous journey to the afterlife.
With a mix of whimsy, humor, and adventure, this debut novel will wrap itself around your heart and never let go.

Rating:

Let’s start with the fact that this book is cute, and it has illustrations inside. But it is also a book about death and dying. However, never does it feel too heavy or too difficult, it is actually very very enjoyable.

Marinka is trying to figure why she can’t have friends and she is trying to make a life for her own, fighting her “destiny” of becomings a Yaga, a guardian of the Gate. And you see her trying to make her first “living” friend, just to be soon whisked away by the house.

The House, is one of my favourite characters and definitely it has a life of it’s own (part of me wants a house with chicken legs) and that made it a great delight to read. Each character is “alive”(ok, some are dead, but let’s not go into semantics) and real, and that was lovely to read.

I absolutely loved the end of the book and it left me full of hope for Marinka’s and the other character’s future, which was a nice thing. It is definitely a lovely book, and it a lot about growing up, being yourself, finding your passion, but it is also about life and death and what you do with your life.

Moon recommends

Buy and read The House With Chicken Legs right now! Then go read The Bear and The Nightingale, because it is also inspired by Russia, and then go read The Crown’s Game.

Book Review

Japonisme Review

Posted on May 18, 2018

On one of my visits to Waterstones Piccadilly, I stumbled upon several Japanese themed books, with so many choices it was hard to see which one would be more interesting for me to read (and also which one I would actually be interesting in applying to myself).

I did try the Marie Kondo one and wasn’t wowed by it, so I have been wary to do this crazy trend thing (mostly because I already only keep useful or joyful things, try to keep things to minimal except books, tsundoku).

Thankfully while I was browsing online the options, I stumbled upon this little gem. (I say little because it is a relatively little book).

Japonisme by Erin Niimi Longhurst

A Japanese-inspired guide to living a happier, more fulfilled life.

Japonisme explores the Japanese art of finding contentment and includes practical tips and tricks to live a happier, healthier, more thoughtful life.
What is your ikigai (purpose)? How do you practice mindfulness in the unpredictability and chaos of everyday life?
From shinrinyoku (forest bathing), calligraphy, ikebana (fl ower arranging) to tea ceremonies and their approach to food, the Japanese have found contentment through traditions, philosophies, and the practice of art. This book shows how we can all incorporate aspects of Japonisme into our daily lives.
Enhance your lifestyle and enrich your mind by looking at life through the lens of wabi-sabi (the transient nature of life), kintsugi (repairing broken ceramics with gold) or kaizen (habit-forming techniques), in an accessible, practical way.

Rating:

I preordered this little book hoping it’d give me a good panorama of Japanese ways and traditions, and I have to say I was not wrong. It does so beautifully, to the point that it includes tips, ideas and little prompts on how to do some of the things (for example, it has a few recipes).

It felt like a very good summary of all the possible philosophies and ways of life that are unique to the Japanese, and as such, it was a great read, it also helped me think which ones I would like to explore more and which ones I didn’t have much of an interest in. (Not that I don’t, just priorities, basically).

All in all a good read, it was relatively quick to read and easy to do so, and it has a lot of pictures which make it easier on the eyes and also to see the things that are being referred to.

Moon recommends

Checking this lovely book out. Otherwise, you can try Marie Kondo’s tidying method, or go search for other Japanese traditions.