This week brought us some more December and – even better – more books! I only finished one book this week, because it was a joy to savor. I started a second book yesterday, and I’m giving my initial impressions of that one as well. While I don’t typically cover the audiobooks I listen to (because I’m rarely giving them my full attention and I have some audio processing issues), I’m making an exception this week for one of them. Because of the time I spent wrapping presents over the weekend, I was able to focus more fully on stories and this title was remarkably captivating.
1. Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea – Rebecca Thorne
CW: Graphic Description of Blood & Injuries
This title has been my first foray into the literary market being called “cozy fantasy.” I definitely hesitated too long. This book had been popping up in every recommendation feed I have, and it always sounded lovely. Then, for some reason, every time I saw it in a bookstore and picked it up to read the synopsis, I put it back down underwhelmed. Finally, I accidentally picked up the second book (A Pirate’s Life for Tea). I knew I wanted to read it, then noticed before making my way to the register that the cover said “Book 2.” The cover art was the same style, which I recognized, and I was sold. I left the store with this title, and of course a few others.
I really enjoyed taking my time with this one. It’s not exceptionally long or dense, difficult text, but I spent almost twice as long on this one as I usually would for a book of this length. I was worried that this genre would bore me, but that wasn’t the case at all. There was still plenty of adventure with dragons, sword fighting, a magic system, and political intrigue. The major difference was that at the end of each encounter the characters got to return to the comfort of the home they’d built together, where they would read and drink tea and snuggle together in relative safety.
The cozy feeling is amplified by the normalization of so many different identities. In this fictional world, no one balks at pronoun preferences. While the two protagonists face a lot of challenges in their quest to build a life together, the fact that they’re both women is never one of them. Instead, it’s the logistics of living across borders, or their chosen professions. Speaking of which, it’s refreshing that when there is a perceived power imbalance in the relationship, for once it’s the pale girl worrying she might not measure up to her much-higher-ranking girlfriend.
2. The Foxglove King – Hannah Whitten
CW: (I haven’t reached these yet, but I know they’ll be coming. Check next week’s post.)
I’ll be honest, I’ve never read anything by Hannah Whitten before now. In fact, I didn’t know who she was when I added this to my TBR list. I saw the second book in this series in a secondhand bookstore some time back and found the synopsis interesting. Unfortunately, somebody had already grabbed that copy of this title, if it ever made it to the store at all. I checked for it during a few other bookstore trips out to different places, but didn’t find it. Finally, I simply checked it out from my library.
I haven’t gotten far into this one yet. As I said, I really took my time nursing Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea, so I didn’t even begin this book until yesterday. I’m now a little over 50 pages in. Aside from “the classics,” I usually prefer to read titles that don’t have a lot of public discourse. I don’t want it to influence my opinion of the text. Knowing this is a really popular author on spaces like #BookTok makes it harder to dive in and fully engage with the text. It makes me feel like I’m judging elements harshly that I may have otherwise overlooked. For example, there are a lot of names getting introduced, and I have no idea which ones will actually be relevant and worth remembering. I’m seeing tropes set up that I’ve seen go very badly.
These aren’t reasons for me to put the book down. After all, I’m finding myself curious and keep turning pages to find out more. I do want to see where this is going. Worst case scenario, if I’m not hooked by the 100th page, that’s when I’ll decide to put a book down and DNF. The beauty of a library book is that I didn’t even have to pay for this one. I’ll let you know next week whether it was able to pull me in despite all the noise around it.
3. The Last White Man – Mohsin Hamid
CW: Racism, Hate Crimes
This is the first time I’ve actually touched on an audiobook. Usually I’m not giving them my full attention. Between distraction and my audio processing issues, I miss a lot of it. However, I had a lot of gifts to wrap over this weekend, so I plowed through a few short audiobooks while I wasn’t able to read with my eyes. One of these was The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid. I’d never heard of the title before, but it showed up on Libby as a 3-hour read and the description sounded interesting. That turned out to be an understatement.
It calls the very nature of identity into question in a thorough and unflinching examination. It explores how we see ourselves, how we see others and how we expect them to perceive us. How much of that is inherit or permanent? How much of it is under our control, and how much influence comes from outside? Our identity is certainly influenced by our relationships and environments, and it changes as we age. The way you relate to your identity determines your response when you wake up and suddenly see a new face when you look in the mirror. I was absolutely enraptured the whole way through. (Or should I say en-wrap-tured? Sorry, I’ll see myself out.)
There’s More December Next Week Too!
Next week also bring some more December, this time with holidays included! I don’t know yet how much reading I’ll manage to get done. I’ll be doing lots of baking over the next couple of days as well as participating in family festivities. At the very least, I’m sure to be posting pics of my book haul on Instagram. My partner, who is currently away visiting family, has already mailed me two so I know I’ll have at least that many to show off!
As always, I want to hear from you! What have you been reading lately? Are you having fun with it? Have you read any of these titles, and if so, what did you think of them? Tell me everything, and follow along for more!
Subscribe to the Newsletter
Stay in the loop by signing up to get all the latest updates sent straight to your inbox.
Leave a Reply