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ARC Review: The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

Rating: 4 ★ of 5 Release date: March 4, 2024

I enjoyed this immensely! I went into this blindly, all I knew was that this was Amal El-Mohtar’s solo debut. Having loved Time War, there really wasn’t much that needed to be said. Every phrase and word choice made reading this feel like a classic fairytale and a love song, though it is also a murder ballad in a way. The magic system in this book is grounded on grammar, which I found very fitting considering the lyrical prose and the hold this author has over language. Those familiar with Time War or Amal El-Mohtar’s other short stories would anticipate the way she creates worlds and introduces magic systems, in my opinion she leaves a lot for the reader to interpret themselves; this book isn’t different in that regard. The riddles and wordplay used throughout the novella to move the story along or make a point were also so satisfying and fun to read.

I've shared one of my favorite passages on my goodreads review of this: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7029139323

Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the arc.

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Very late post but here are my favorite reads of 2024 🫶

(* = reread)

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Jenny Slate, Little Weirds

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“It’s funny how you can forget everything except people loving you. Maybe that’s why humans find it so hard getting over love affairs. It’s not the pain they’re getting over, it’s the love.”

— Melina Marchetta

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— Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea

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ARC Review: Blue Light Hours by Bruna Dantas Lobato

Rating: 3.5 ★ of 5

Release date: October 15, 2024

A subtle, wholesome read that packed a punch despite its length. The characters are simply called Mother and Daughter, and their tender relationship made me want to cry. I think many readers would find this relatable.

I enjoyed the prose and atmosphere of this book. I loved the way the author presented the character’s loneliness and yearning. Everything felt written with care, and based on what I’ve read about this author, this book may have been drawn largely from experience.

At the end of the novel, I still wished to know more about these characters; how they were like before Daughter moved to Vermont. Either way, this was an enjoyable read. I’d say I’ve barely touched the tip of the iceberg.

Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the arc!

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Favorite reads of the year so far <3

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hello! do you have some book recs about generational trauma?

the god of small things (roy), the radiant emperor duology (parker-chan), the silence of scheherazade (suman), a tale for the time being (ozeki), the blind earthworm in the labyrinth (nitiprapha), the broken earth trilogy (jemisin), burnt sugar (doshi), hisham matar's writings to name a few.

other recs (which i haven't read): on this earth we're briefly gorgeous (vuong), red at the bone (woodson), hope (ridker), the water dancer (coates), pachinko (lee), and the writings of toni morrison, colson whitehead, yaa gyasi, etc.

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I can’t think of any books I’ve read recently (not counting reading for school) that I really liked? I guess, what are some books you don’t get to recommend often and I’ll read those? :3 have a nice day <3

definitely! hope u enjoy reading these:

melmoth, sarah perry

all the horses of iceland, sarah tolmie

rosewater, tade thompson

the singing hills cycle, nghi vo

short stories of izumi suzuki

all passion spent, vita-sackville west

city of gold, gillian tindall

the great reclamation, rachel heng

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She is the poem - June Bates

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a little late, but March 2nd is global shutdown day for Palestine (info here). So if you wanna spend it reading and educating yourself here are free zines and books:

and more literature here:

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ARC Review: The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue

Rating: Unrated

Release date: June 27, 2023

Couldn’t give a proper rating for this, it took me so long to get through it for some reason; I didn’t even think it was a bad read.

To start, style and tone of this book was enjoyable for me. I liked how the focus was heavy on Rachel and James as bffs and their shenanigans as twenty - somethings, told from the perspective of an older Rachel. There was something really grounding when she recounts an event and admits how embarrassed she was. I mean, I don’t think we get a lot of narrators (or I may not be reading enough) that admit when they’ve been wrong and/or what they’ve done wrong. In this case, I liked Rachel’s honesty. In a way, telling it all without filters (not hiding that they were all really messy).

This is also one of those books wherein I genuinely wanted every character to be OK. They’re not perfect and it’s one of the aspects that made things feel more real in this book. When they mess up, I was just like “well, that really does happen” and I say that as a twenty - something myself. And as a twenty - something, Rachel and James looking for opportunities, trying to build connections for their career, not knowing where to start, seemingly having no direction was so on point for me actually. Giving a plus for all that.

Aside from all those babble, the ending was not what I expected but I was very glad it went the way it did.

An arc was granted in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the arc!

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You have some awesome posts- which poetry books would you recommend to a beginner? Something old preferably, that isnt too hard to find but that you enjoy?:)

thank you, dear!

for a beginner, I'd say:

Collected Poems of Edna St Vincent Millay

Ariel by Sylvia Plath

The Complete Poems of Emily Brontë

Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda

Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara

Selected Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva

anything by Rainer Maria Rilke

anything by Kahlil Gibran

and some more recent ones

Crush by Richard Siken

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

and honestly anything by Mary Oliver and Louise Glück

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— Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things: A Novel

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when kafka said ‘you wouldn’t believe the kind of person I could become if you wanted it’ and when brontë said ‘if you ever looked at me with what I know is in you, I would be your slave’ and when Sartre said ‘if I’ve got to suffer it may as well be at your hands’

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Victoria Chang, from Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief; “Dear Teacher,”

[Text ID: “The language of poetry reminded me to stay alive. It reminded me that, when it felt like I had nothing, I was nothing, I still had words. I could ride language as if on a horseback, and it could take me anywhere, including deeply into myself.”]

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richard siken, in pithead chapel