Tag: Vaishnavi Patel

Wyrd and Wonder: Celebrating Mythic Books

Published on by Celeste4 Comments

IMAGE CREDITS: tree wolf image by chic2view on 123RF.com. The gorgeous tree wolf is not royalty-free, but is licensed for use to promote Wyrd and Wonder online. You are welcome to use the banner on your Wyrd and Wonder posts, but please make no changes (except to resize if needed) and always credit the artist!

If you’re not sure what Wyrd and Wonder is, check out my introduction post for more information. Imyril, one of the hosts, also has a post with all of the prompts.

Today’s Wyrd and Wonder prompt is “mythic.” The idea is to celebrate a subgenre whether it’s a retelling or a secondary world that has that mythic feel. When it comes to fantasy subgenres I think retellings make up the bulk of the subgenre categories I’ve read recently. I’m not saying I’m the most well read in this area, or the most up-to-date. Regardless, here are some books that reimagine myths or have a mythic feel or elements within the story.

Continue reading “Wyrd and Wonder: Celebrating Mythic Books” →

Monthly Book Blog Wrap-Up: April 2022

Published on by Celeste3 Comments

It’s time for another monthly book blog wrap-up featuring the month of April. I felt busier than I actually was (?), mainly because the past couple of days I’ve been hard at work putting together posts for Wyrd and Wonder. Which has nothing to do with April, but so it goes! I surprised myself in April by posting for five days straight the week of April 4. That’s hardly the norm for me, so don’t get used to it. But keep reading to see what you might have missed this past month.

Book Reviews

I posted four book reviews in April. From earliest to latest, here are my recent book reviews.

Book Memes and Other Posts

I posted the following book memes:

I also participated in the Support Book Bloggers Challenge by writing about three (free!) things you can do to help book bloggers.

Statistics

A few more lovely people followed my blog to bring my total to 65 of my 2022 goal of 100. Thank you to my new blog followers for helping me make my way to that goal!

In April my blog saw more unique visitors than the previous month. I don’t know how or why I’m seeing this upward trend, but I’m super happy and thankful to see it! Please keep visiting!

In April my top five posts were:

#BeatTheBacklog

Lisa at Owl Be Sat Reading started the hashtag #BeatTheBacklog to rally those who want to make a dent in their TBR list. Two of the books I read in April fall under #BeatTheBacklog: THESE HOLLOW VOWS by Lexi Ryan and TELL ME AN ENDING by Jo Harkin.

Other Bookish Progress

I posted a massive book haul rounding up my purchases in March. It took forever to format, so please do click and admire all things bookish in that post.

I posted my Trope-Ical Readathon March 2022 Wrap-Up detailing the books I finished for that readathon

And I also joined Mythothon Round 6, where I posted by reads for Team Isis. I still need to do a wrap-up post for this…somewhere in between all of the Wyrd and Wonder posts.

WWW Wednesday: April 27, 2022

Published on by Celeste3 Comments

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme revived and hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.

The idea is to answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses.

What are you currently reading?

What have you just finished reading?

What are you going to read next?

Currently Reading: I’m currently reading TELL ME AN ENDING by Jo Harkin. It’s about a dystopian world where one can choose to have select memories erased and decide whether to remember you had the memory removal done or not. Only then people start having “traces” of memories that were supposed to be gone. This is another read for Mythothon. Hopefully I can finish it by the end of the month!



Recently Finished: The last book I finished was KAIKEYI by debut author Vaishnavi Patel. You can find my review for it here. It’s a retelling of the maligned character Kaikeyi from the Indian epic the Ramayana. I really enjoyed the themes of feminism, familial love, fate, and faith in this reimagining.




Reading Next: Next I’m going to read THE STARDUST THIEF by Chelsea Abdullah. I’ve already seen lots of reactions floating around on book Twitter. I’d like to avoid any spoilers and also finish reading and publish my review before it hits shelves on May 17 in the U.S. Publication dates for other ARCs sitting on my NetGalley shelf have long since passed. But this is one of a select few that I have a chance to read before publication day.



Book Review: Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

Published on by Celeste10 Comments

Today’s review is about KAIKEYI by Vaishnavi Patel. a retelling of the Indian epic the Ramayana from the perspective of the maligned Kaikeyi.

Author: Vaishnavi Patel
Series: None
Age Category: Adult
Publisher: Redhook
Publish Date: April 26, 2022
Print Length: 496

Want to support local bookstores? Buy a copy of Kaikeyi on Bookshop.org!*

*These are not affiliate links and I do not make a commission from any purchase made using these links.

Continue reading “Book Review: Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel” →

WWW Wednesday: April 20, 2022

Published on by CelesteLeave a comment

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme revived and hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.

The idea is to answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses.

What are you currently reading?

What have you just finished reading?

What are you going to read next?

Currently Reading: I’m currently reading KAIKEYI by Vaishnavi Patel. It’s a reimagining of “the life of Kaikeyi, the vilified queen from the Indian epic the Ramayana.” I’m not very far into it yet, but my goal is to read and review it on my blog before its publication date of April 26.





Recently Finished: The last book I finished was WILD AND WICKED THINGS by Francesca May. This wasn’t originally on my Mythothon reading list, but I’ll probably swap it in for FOUR TREASURES OF THE SKY by Jenny Tinghui Zhang. You can read my review about it here. This book had a lot of hype on Twitter, or, at least, on my timeline. Ultimately, though, for me it fell a little flat and I didn’t connect much with the characters.



Reading Next: Next I’m going to read TELL ME AN ENDING by Jo Harkin. It’s described as a “thrilling speculative debut about a tech company that deletes unwanted memories, the consequences for those forced to contend with what they tried to forget, and the dissenting doctor who seeks to protect her patients from further harm.”