T'was a wild month...
I'm gonna be honest and admit I didn't read many books and I read a lot of one-shot fanfics. In my defense they're not that long and easy to get through and I've been really overwhelmed with summer school. And if you saw me posting art this month, no you didn't 💖 LOL just kidding I art when I'm especially stressed so that's why I was putting out a lot more content than usual. They're all stress draws; I just wanted to draw people (read: tsukikage) falling in love to make up for the void in me :")
Anyways, I'm including fanfic recs at the end because I want to write about something, I just have nothing else to write about :(
Books Mentioned
- Crush by Richard Siken
- This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
- The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
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Genre: Poetry
Crush by Richard Siken
"tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us."
Rating: ★★★★+(.75) (4.75/5)
This poetry collection is probably my favorite poetry collection ever? I'm usually not one for poetry but I really enjoyed this one. Siken just really has a way with words. So many lines just took my breath away. I actually started reading this because of how in awe I was with other peoples' writing on AO3, and I can see the Siken influence. His writing is just full of so much emotion and yearning and it's so weirdly atmospheric. I think the last time I read this collection was back in 2016? So it's been a while and it's as good as I remember it, if not even better. I think back then a lot of the metaphors really went over my head. And even though some of them still go right over my head, I think I'm able to better interpret them now that I'm older and it's made the experience even better.
Overall, I highly recommend this poetry collection if you're looking for beautiful, atmospheric writing.
Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction
Trigger/Content Warnings: war, violence
👪This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
Summary
Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future. Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.
Rating: ★★★★ (4/5)
"I want to meet you in every place I have ever loved."
I am a huge sucker for beautiful writing. And this book had some of the most absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and poetic writing I've ever read. Wow that was not good English, worse than the terrible English the rest of this blog is written in, but I'm honestly a babbling, incoherent mess because some of these words have me ruined.
I'm going to be completely honest and say I was super confused for a good 25% of the book. Sci-fi has never really been my thing and I think I was too dumb to understand a lot of it, so a good portion of the book went over my head. But despite that, I was in awe of the writing. I do wish they included more world-building, though. Even now I'm still not completely sure about how the world and the time-travelling works, but Blue and Red's yearning pulled through and I was invested in their letters and their relationship.
I think I've just figured out that I really love letters. I loved how a good portion of the book was told in letter form because their thoughts and their yearning all felt so real and so poignant.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a high-stakes, forbidden romance kind of love story full of lots of yearning and beautiful prose.
Genre: Historical Literary Fiction
Trigger/Content Warnings: mentions of war, mentions of anti-semitism, loss of loved ones
👪The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Summary
In the summer of 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars, and an unrealized love between the butler and his housekeeper.
Rating: ★★★+(.75) (3.75/5)
I think this entire month has been me starting books, me being a little confused at books and taking a million years to continue them, then randomly finishing a majority of it in one night. The Remains of the Day started off quite slow for me in the beginning, but I definitely was emotionally invested towards the end.
I think the thing with Ishiguro's writing is that he really does not tell you much about what the characters are feeling, even when he's writing the book in 1st person POV. A lot of the main character, Stevens', emotions and reactions are often shown in the way other characters react to him. In this sense his books are definitely ones you'd want to read carefully to pick out little nuances in Stevens' behavior, especially since Stevens himself is so detached from his own emotions. There's a lot of historical references in this, and I think that's what took me a while to get into this book. I had to dig my brain for the historical context.
I was extremely invested in Stevens' and Kenton's relationship, and I especially paid attention to all the flashbacks that featured their interactions. I also especially loved the end. It was quite a bittersweet end and it left my heart aching a bit, but it evoked emotion in such a subtle and delicate way. I really love Ishiguro's writing style.
Overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a thought-provoking, historical fiction read with a touch of subtle romance.
fanfic recs no one asked for
(for the fics I read after nostalgiathon that I want to praise.
Also because I read an embarrassing little amount of books this month and here's part of the reason why: )
"how easy it would be, to mistake them for two boys in love."
KuniKage anyone? This series has two fics in it, one in Kageyama's POV and the second in Kunimi's POV. I personally really love the 2nd one. The writing was absolutely beautiful and the yearning. And honestly, I was immediately pulled in from the very beginning because when the author starts a fic with Siken quotes, you know it's going to be a good fic.
I really loved how Kunimi was written in this. Probably because of the contrast between the two perspectives. And again I have to praise the writing. There were so many good quotes that had me on the floor in tears. The entire section that starts with "If intimacy's a language..." is so good. Also, the summary for Sagittarius: "the body is the only conduit for intimacy you've ever cared to understand" is such a good line I don't know if I could ever get over it. Again, the writing is so good I had trouble picking which quote to open this with, but I felt like the one I chose is very fitting to what the series is about. I've read a lot of friends with benefits fics but this one really hits different? I think it's the beautiful writing. Anyways, this ruined me and you should read it too.
"and if there's something he learned over the past three years...it's this:
There's really no harm in going for things that you like."
A Tsukishima Kei character study that takes place in his 3rd year of high school that I really really loved. This was so good. I really love the message that Tsukishima represents, the fact that there is no shame in going after things you want. And this fic shows how this applies not only to volleyball, but also to bigger things such as uni (and also in love). I also loved how realistic Tsukishima's character was in this; I, for one, have definitely experienced pretty much the exact same brand of jealousy, disappointment, and fear he experienced throughout this story.
I loved the depiction of the 1st years as strong & dependable 3rd years. And how they're all super close friends after spending the last 3 years together. I also really liked reading from Tsukishima's POV again. It's been a long while since I've read a new Tsukishima POV fic I think the last time I was obsessively reading TKei POV's was back in high school (during my peak krtsk days). I can't believe I almost forgot my all-consuming love for Tsukishima Kei how embarrassing.
And of course the TsukiKage. This fic most definitely does not revolve around the relationship, in case they aren't your cup of tea, and instead focuses on Tsukishima and his thoughts throughout his last year of high school as he is planning for the future. But the TKKG was a very nice addition especially since lately I've been tkkg brainrot all day every day.
I once again would like to profess my love for Tsukishima Kei. I think he deserves everything good in existence and I would like to give him the entire world. Though my rankings for each of the characters change every other month, Tsukishima Kei has consistently held the #2 spot in my rankings for around 5 consecutive years, second only to Kenma.
Wow this is really long because I kinda cried reading this the same way I cry whenever I watch that one scene in season 3. But overall you should read this fic it's absolutely amazing.
"their friends still question how they've managed—to keep it going, to keep it under wraps, to keep loving each other when there wasn't a body to love."
This entire fic just made me smile. It may have made me cry towards the end because of how in love they are. And yes of course this is a TsukiKage fic because, again, tkkg brainrot all day every day.
I really loved their relationship in this story. How unlikely a couple they are, two teammates who initially hated each other's guts they could barely interact without some semblance of fighting, to a couple whose relationship persisted throughout the years. And I loved how their love was easy. Sure they had their fights and their misunderstandings and disagreements, but in the end they both wanted this so much they decided to place their faith in their unwavering feelings for each other rather than list and count the uncertainties that could arise in their relationship.
Also, their "we should go sometime...to somewhere beautiful" reminds me of This Is How You Lose The Time War's "I want to meet you in every place I have ever loved" and I'm just so soft for both stories.
September TBR
I don't trust myself to read as much as usual anymore so I will leave my TBR for next month here:
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
I've been wanting to read this for a while now and it's been getting a lot of attention lately so I really want to read this soon! And I think this is going to be one of my buddy reads so I'm very very excited!
Vicious by V.E. Schwab
I've been wanting to read this for SO LONG and now I'm planning on buddy reading it so I'm really winning this month with buddy reading books I've been wanting to read since last year :")
But yes I'm about to see if I get the booktube/booktwt hype and I'm excited!
Mo Du (默读) by priest
A friend of mine is reading this right now and I also just recently found out that it's completely translated so that makes me really happy! I think I left off somewhere during book 2? And the case was getting really good so I'm excited! I also really love Fei Du and Luo Wenzhou's banter and I haven't gotten to many (any?) romantic scenes yet so I'm hoping to read this soon!
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I very obviously didn't read very many published books this month but I did thoroughly enjoy myself while reading very well-written fanfiction so I count that as a big win :D
Hope you're all staying safe and healthy <3
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