baltimore, md: the city that reads

felt like this was a good a thing as any to be my first blog post - i've mostly just been fiddling w profile layouts for the past day 1/2 and i am ready to actually use this site for what i wanted to use it for :D

so without further ado, here are some book stats cause i have been reading sooo much for pleasure this year and it makes me sooooooo happy! which like.. lord knows i could use it, august is augusting HARD rn. 

stolen from the lovely han (thank u bestie mwahhhh<3333)

1. Best book you've read so far. Severance by Ling Ma.

2. What is the best sequel you've read this year? do rereads count? i finished the second and third books in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (The Second Summer of the Sisterhood and Girls in Pants) and they were both SO insanely healing for my lil tween self... Ann Brashares is a beautiful writer and the way she discusses girls being friends really soothes my soul. a lovely series that really helped me cope with a stressful move and post-grad brain

3. A new release that you want to read. The Celebrants by Steven Rowley. gifted this to bf for his bday in june and am waiting for his review

4. What is your most anticipated release for the rest of the year? What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama. am in need of some more slow fiction and things that feel like soul tiger balm

5. What has been your biggest disappointment so far this year? We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza. wish they had pushed harder on the racial tensions... felt very "white woman book club" but i certainly enjoyed other parts of it just fine. the ending was just way too neat for me.

6. What has been your biggest surprise of the year? The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother's Hidden Life by Jasmin Darznik.

7. Who is your favorite new author? Sayaka Murata.

8. Favorite character that I read so far this year. Keiko Furukura from Murata's Convenience Store Woman and Kaikeyi from Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel.

9. A book that made you cry. The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan.

10. A book that made you happy. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer (so many baltimore references my heart sings)

11. The most beautiful book. Circe by Madeleine Miller.

12. A book you need to finish by the end of the year. Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindhberg. twas a gift from my grandma but is a very meandery, life-lesson heavy book that is difficult to binge read or tear through like i usually do. i think i've been "reading" it for most of the year. luckily it is quite short.