May 2020 + Asian Readathon Wrap-Up

Well.. I fell off a little at the end of May due to… no reason really? I think quarantine and being stuck in my small apartment has been getting to me. Thankfully, I am now back at my parents house where I can take daily walks without high risk exposure, so I imagine my reading and reviewing drive to pick back up. Oh, and I’ve been drawing a lot, which takes time away from both. However, my roommate and my source of ProCreate has left me, so that’s gone too.

For the month of May, I chose to participate in the Asian Readathon. My gaol was to read only books by Asian authors and/or predominantly feature Asian settings. For this most part, I succeeded, though there was one novella who’s released date snuck up on me and I couldn’t bring myself to wait. Apart from one book, everything I read this month was a five-star read!

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Books Read:

Wicked Fox by Kat Cho – 2/5

• Terrible characters and a contrived plot. I was excited for an urban fantasy set in Korea but every single character was just off-putting and so so bad at communicating

The City of Brass by SA Chakraborty – 5/5

• Lush Middle-Eastern worldbuilding paired with fascinating and complex characters. There were things I liked and disliked about each but they came together to tell a captivating story

Of Dragons, Feasts, and Murders by Aliette de Bodard – 5/5

• I have a new favorite power couple? The power of Asmodeus and Thuan is just unstoppable and they really shined in this novella. Murder/Diplomacy is an underrated trope and I so want to read the rest of these books now.

The Sunken Mall by KD Edwards – 5/5

• A fun novella addition to the Tarot Sequency series. Loved the character interactions in this, and the worldbuilding points that were introduced were fascinating.

The Phoenix Empress by Arsenault Rivera – 5/5

• Never have I been so into reading about two characters who do absolutely nothing? More than half this book was a couple being depressed and describing in extreme detail the beautiful Asian worldbuilding and I was so into it?

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Written Review(s)

All review(s) written for May books can be found in the links above.

• Heaven Official’s Blessing (天官赐福) by 墨香铜臭

(guys I swear I’ve written more reviews they’re just for ARCs that don’t come out til way later)

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Other Posts

Mostly continuing the trend of 1 review + 1 other book-related the post per week.

• “Balancing” Blogging and School
  • this one got way deeper than I was expecting and I kinda wrote it all in one manic session, but I think it really helped me get some stuff off my chest + hopefully it’ll help other bloggers who are in that position
• The Stuck at Home Book Tag

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The Asian Readathon

How did I do for this readathon? Is this it the first readathon I’ve properly completed. I know there are supposed to be things you read books for which I promptly ignored and said I would match whatever I ended up reading to later, so let’s see.

Challenges

1. Read any book by an Asian Author
   • Wicked Fox – The slot left for the book that doesn’t fit in any other square.
2. Read a book featuring an Asian character/written by an Asian author who you can relate to
   • The Phoenix Empress – While neither MC is Chinese (hi, I’m an Chinese American), there is an important secondary Chinese secondary character and much of this book takes place in fantasy-China.
3. Read a book featuring an Asian character/written by an Asian author who is different from you
   • The City of Brass – Once again, while the characters aren’t explicitly Asians from the Asia in our world, the worldbuilding draws heavy ties to Middle Eastern cultures and characters are from locations inspired by the Middle East
4. Read a book recommended by an Asian
   • Of Dragons, Feasts, and Murders – Picked this up from Aliette de Bodard’s fantastic marketing of her novellas  on Twitter (and desperately praying my ARC request would get approved) and as always, I wasn’t disappointed.
5. Optional: Read “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng and participate in the readalong
   • Optional? Non-SFF? Yup, ignored. I’m sure the book is good though

Aaaaand the readathon is complete! First one ever!

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After writing this, I’m a lot happier with my books read this month. Yeah two of them were novellas, but I came into this post under the impression I’d read nothing. Definitely need to catch up on reviews though, those are piling up…