I bought this book purely because of the price and because it said “Jane Austen” somewhere on the title (when faced with cheap books, I am not the most discerning of buyers). Thankfully, I ended up enjoying this, and I think this will be a book that I return to in the future. The Genius… Read More Book Review: The Genius of Jane Austen by Paula Byrne
A while back, one of my friends posted about a very intriguing taobao find: a tea steamer. Instead of a regular kettle with a filter, this tea steamer is supposed to make tea by steaming it (and condensing the steam into tea). According to their promo material, this is a good way for making tea… Read More Teaware: Tea Steamer vs Gaiwan
Before we start: I’m writing this in a post-book hangover and I’m in the mood to discuss it rather than review it, which is to say: I’m trying to avoid spoilers but no promises. If you need a spoiler-free review, please skip this. I first found Sarah Dessen’s books when I read The Truth About… Read More Book Review: The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen
I decided to buy this because the topic was interesting (and felt kind of meta) but sadly, the book did not live up to its promise. According to its blurb, A Brief History of Biographies will take a look at biographies throughout the ages and see “how our attitude to life-writing [has] been affected by… Read More Book Review: A Brief History of Biographies by Andrew Brown
I love keeping up to date with my writer friends, so when Nathan contacted me to see if I was interested in reviewing Sweet Sixteen Killer, his detective novel. Of course, I said yes, because I also really love mysteries. Sweet Sixteen Killer is a Mercedes Masterson detective novel and, I hope, the first in… Read More Book Review: Sweet Sixteen Killer by Nathan Weaver
Earlier this year, my friend gave me a box of Karel Capek teas! I’ve actually ordered a lot more since then (think they are on the way to Singapore) but in the mean time, I’ve been having a lot of fun with these. Since they’re just individual teabags, I thought I’d just write some quick… Read More Quick Tea Reviews: Karel Capek Tea Box
This was one of the books where I borrowed it and then let it sit. If it didn’t have a deadline to return it, it may have never have gotten read because when I have high hopes for the book (and from the cover and description I definitely did), sometimes I don’t dare to start… Read More Book Review: Spindle Fire by Lexa Hillyer
Midnight Without a Moon is one of the books I bought from BookXcess and I am so glad I did because I could not stop reading this. The book is centered around Rose Lee, an African-American girl living in Mississippi in 1955. Although Rose is smart and ambitious, her grandmother openly favours her lighter-skin cousin,… Read More Book Review: Midnight Without a Moon by Linda Williams Jackson
Time for another tea review! This Darjeeling tea was a sample that came with What Cha order, and I was so happy there was enough for two gongfu sessions! So we have one session at home and one session at the office, in between work. First Impressions The dry leaves are pretty small but pretty!… Read More Tea Review: Darjeeling Gopaldhara Golden Tips Black Tea from What Cha
It’s always interesting when a part of Japanese culture (that isn’t anime or manga) becomes really popular across the world. When I was job hunting in my last year of university, I heard the term “やりがい (yarigai)” so many times! And as it turns out, yarigai (which can be translated as “the motivation to work”… Read More Book Review: The Little Book of Ikigai by Ken Mogi
