I was reading Krysta’s post on letting readers be readers and you know, not free un-paid marketing tools (this is mostly for those of us active on bookish internet/social media) and that reminded me of a different post by The Verge on bringing back personal blogging. The argument for personal blogging is that we need… Read More It’s Time to Make Book Blogging (more) Personal
When I was in Korea, we stopped by the 7-eleven near the hotel pretty often. I kept looking at the tea section (as I do in many stores) and eventually, decided to try a 7-eleven brand tea because… I was just curious about how good it could be. The Difference between Brown Rice Green Tea… Read More Tea Review: Brown Rice Green Tea from 7-Eleven Korea
Lying in Wait hooked me with its first line. I mean, take a look at this and tell me you aren’t curious: “My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.” This was was really full of surprises. I thought I was going to read a thriller, but it… Read More Book Review: Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent
Last Saturday was the first (and probably last) Yaji event of 2023! The Hanfugirls held a speakseasy where we heard about the gossip of the Qing dynasty, learnt about the development of the Chinese feminine ideal in Peking Opera, and about Gongfu-cha. We also had a very intriguing interactive session where we imagined an alternate… Read More Exploring the Nuances of Chinese Identity at Yaji: Winter
I first heard about the German epic, the Nibelungenlied, from an episode of the BBC In Our Time podcast. The discussion really intrigued me so I sought out a translation of the epic – this time, I found the Hatto translation (though to be honest, I didn’t really do a deep dive into the translations… Read More Book Review: The Nibelungenlied translated by A.T. Hatto
I’m not going to lie, I started Honor wondering if it was going to be similar to A Burning because topically, both books do look at the Muslim-Hindu tension in India (though Honor also looks at the question of gender) but by the time I finished this, I was convinced that this is going to… Read More Book Review: Honor by Thrity Umrigar
Oh hi, I believe this is the first tisane review of the year! And probably the first time I’ve drunk mugicha in a long, long time so let’s dive into it. First impressions Because I’ve not had mugicha in a while, I’ve forgotten how… strong it can smell. As soon as I opened the packet,… Read More Tisane Review: Lychee Raspberry Mugicha from Karel Capek
I first heard about How to Change when The Indicator podcast re-published their episode on “How to keep your New Year’s resolutions“. It sounded helpful and since I wanted to take advantage of the ‘fresh start’ effect that January provides, I decided to read it ASAP (it may or may not be important to note… Read More Book Review: How to Change by Katy Milkman
It’s been a while since I wrote a universiTEA post and today, I want to explore (keyword: explore, not answer) the question: can crazing in teaware ever be a good thing? What is Crazing? For the uninitiated, crazing (or crackling) refers to the network of fine lines that develop in teaware. These are very fine… Read More UniversiTEA: Can Crazing Ever be Good?
This is another book club book, for which I should have a tag on this blog. But while I figure that out, let me tell you about A Burning, which is the tragic tale of Jivan, who is falsely accused of aiding a terrorist attack, and two other characters whose fates are tied with hers.… Read More Book Review: A Burning by Megha Majumdar
