My 2022 Asian Heritage Month TBR!

It’s my favorite time of year!

Asian Heritage Month in May is quickly approaching, and as I do every year, I’m reading only books by Asian authors to celebrate it! I always love compiling a list of all-Asian authors/books to dedicate my time to—though I pretty much do that all year anyway—and this year, I’m extra excited to have a wide range of books.

Unfortunately, one thing will be a bit different this year. I’m taking exams for the first three weeks of May (which is why I’ve been absent this whole month), then leaving for Thailand at the end of the month. As a result, my TBR this year is not a list of books that I 100% plan to read, and more of a list of options for me to pick from! I’m hoping to read at least 5, but it all depends on the state of my brain during/after exams, and I’m not very hopeful… since it already feels like it’s melting…

Regardless, any number of books is great, especially because all of my picks look so GOOD!!!

*Note: This month is usually called Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, but I say Asian Heritage Month because 1) I don’t want to exclude non-Americans, 2) Pacific Islanders are vastly different from Asians and some have voiced concerns over being grouped with Asians, and because my list of authors is focused on Asians, it would be disingenuous to falsely say that this is a TBR of Asians & PI authors.

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ARC Review: The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat

If you were unaware, after years of me never shutting up about it…

A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat is one of my all-time favorite books. So when I was offered the chance to read her upcoming book The Last Mapmaker, I was ecstatic!

While the bar was certainly set high with AWITD, I was not disappointed by The Last Mapmaker and its thrilling adventures. It has officially earned its own spot in my Thai-authored book shrine! (The only other book in the shrine is AWITD. It’s a Christina Soontornvat shrine.) And since I’ve convinced so many of you to read AWITD, my new plan is to do the same with The Last Mapmaker. And hopefully today’s review will do just that!

ARC Review: Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong // I Think I’m Just Heartless

Nothing humbles you like a disappointing anticipated release!

And nothing humbles you like a disappointing sequel specifically, one that follows a book you enjoyed!

While These Violent Delights took the book community by storm and had me and many other readers falling in love with it, I was sad to find myself experiencing nothing like that with its sequel. So, today I’m here to review Our Violent Ends and give my (unpopular) opinions on why I felt nothing over a book that was very much written to make me feel a lot!! 

*Contains spoilers for book 1, These Violent Delights.

ARC Review: It All Comes Back to You by Farah Naz Rishi // A Messy Story about Family and Growth

I’ve been reading less YA contemporary these days.

But I’ve had It All Comes Back to You on my radar, especially ever since the gorgeous cover by Zahra Fatima was dropped, and I was so excited to read it. While it’s marketed as a romcom and that’s not usually what I reach for, I knew that it would also deal with heavier topics as well and was interested to see those explored.

What I didn’t expect was that it would be a lot less focused on romance and more so on family and individual character growth, which was honestly a better outcome than I could have expected. And today I’m here to review It All Comes Back to You in all its messy (in a good way) glory!

25 Personalized Book Recommendations (& Upcoming Releases) Pt 2

Better late than never I guess…?

I am like 3 months late in this second part of my personalized book recommendations. It took me a bit of time to find all the books and put together this list, and honestly by now I think you all know how terrible I am at being punctual with part 2s of my posts (see: my blogiversary Q&As). 

But my last installment of my personalized book recommendations is finally here, and I had so much fun creating this list! I’m repeating some prompts—I’m sure the more recommendations the better—since this one is open to any authors, and I’m really sorry that I skipped the ones that I couldn’t find any books for. But let me know if you’d be interested in more personalized recs like this in the future!!

Content warnings for the books I’ve read are at the end of this post for readability.