Book Bingo Reviews 2022

Guess who won Book Bingo this year. I will attribute my victory to, on the one hand, the fact that one of the first books I read was Offline, which made me change some of my internet habits, and thus gave me more time to read. On the other hand, I really wanted to win this year, so I made a dedicated effort not to get too distracted by other books. Now, I better get started on the reviews. (No spoilers below)

An Asian novel – Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

It is really four “short stories” which weave together into a greater narrative. The story takes place in a small back-alley café in Tokyo, where if the circumstances are just right, you can travel back in time, but only as long as it will take your coffee to grow cold. It is interesting to see how differently the various character uses this opportunity to go back to the past, knowing that they cannot change it or the present. It’s a very emotional story/stories and I found myself tearing up a couple of times. I would recommend it, if you are looking for heart-warming and heart-wrenching stories, and want to feel Emotions.

Book Review: La Belle Sauvage

I have read and re-read His Dark Materials a number of times, so I admit it was with some trepidation that I sat down to read La Belle Sauvage, because I really didn’t want it to be a disappointment. (Some spoilers below)

Best Reviewed Cold: The Initial Insult

The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis is a YA thriller, which is not a genre I read a lot of and those I have read has been “adult” thrillers, but if all YA thrillers are like this one, I’m definitely going to read more of them in the future. It is also a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe A Cask of Amontillado, so let’s start with a brief summary of that story. (There are some spoilers in the trigger warnings at the end of this post)

Book Review: Where the Drowned Girls Go

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire was amazing, and it broke the formula for the series. Instead of exploring one of the worlds behind the doors, the “normal” world was expanded, and we got to see the dark mirror to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children in the Whitethorn Institute (minor spoilers and trigger warnings below)

Book Review: Across the Green Grass Fields

It has been a couple of months, since I read the book, but I’m grateful that it has taken me this long to write the review of it, as it has given me time to reflect on the book. After finishing the book, my immediate first impression was that there was a really interesting adventure that could have happened, but somehow hadn’t. It seemed somehow lacking or perhaps boring compared to the other books. It made me wonder, considering Seanan McGuire has also written Middlegame which is one of the most mindbendingly complex stories I have ever read, I figure there was more to the story than my first impression, so I stewed over it for a while, and now I think the adventure that didn’t happen serves to highlight one of the main points of the story (summary and some spoilers below).

The Subtle Knife Reread: Introducing Will

The Subtle Knife is the second book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, it introduces Will Parry our second protagonist. Unlike The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife is not conveniently split into three parts. However, in The Subtle Knife Lyra is no longer the only POV character, so to (hopefully) make it as cohesive as possible, I’ll make a post for every time the POV shifts. This will mean that some of the posts will be rather short, I imagine, since they will only be covering a single chapter, but I might also post them more rapidly or perhaps in clusters (maybe, I’m not making any promises, because if I do, I bet something will happen). Following the rules I just made for myself, this post covers chapter one “The Cat and the Hornbeam Trees.” Spoiler warning.

Summary

Fourth Sunday of Advent: The Golden Compass Reread Part Three (The End)

The final advent post is here. So, that’s it for The Golden Compass, I’ll be starting on The Subtle Knife in the new year, which I’ll probably divide into smaller chunks, and after that The Amber Spyglass. As before, I recommend that you read the book because I’m summarizing it, so every spoiler will be below.

Third Sunday of Advent: The Golden Compass Reread Part Two (Much Stuff Happens)

Here is part two, there were more fight scenes than I remembered, but it has been four years, since the last time I read the series. This is also the part, which has the Tony Makarios scene, and it hits me right in the heart every time. Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrnison are introduced (yay), there are just so many great moments. Though I might have slightly overestimated my ability to write this post, while also managing all the other things I do in December. But who needs sleep anyway. Spoilers below for The Golden Compass, once again I recommend you read the book if you haven’t, because it’s great.

Iorek Byrnison ❤ the best bear

First Sunday of Advent: Introducing The Golden Compass Reread

Christmas is coming. With The Book of Dust series finally coming out (after years and years of waiting), I have to reread His Dark Materials, before diving into the new series. Of course, I’ve wanted to reread the series since the The Golden Compass HBO show came out, but haven’t really found the time until now. This advent will be dedicated to rereading Northern Lights (aka The Golden Compass), which is conveniently split into three parts, so I can do one for each of the following Sundays of advent. It’s going to be great. I have loved this series almost since the moment a librarian suggested it to me, when I told him I “needed something good to read while waiting for the next Harry Potter book to come out”

In this post I’ll explain some of the key features of the book, which will hopefully keep my summaries from being too long. While most of the spoilers for The Golden Compass will be in the next three advent posts, one or two minor ones might sneak in here. I encourage you to read along, it’s only a little over a hundred pages a week. So, let’s set the board, lay the foundations, and so on.

Book Review: The Near Witch

The Near Witch is the debut novel of V E Schwab. I read a rerelease, it included the short story “The Ash-Born Boy”, which takes place in the same universe. It was an excellent novel, so I’ll definitely pick up more of Schwab’s books.