Emma Goto

Basically the premise is, “imagine that the first Emperor of the Ming dynasty was actually a woman” and go from there. In saying that it skips over a lot of the possible issues that come with a woman pretending to be a man and more focuses on the “attempting to become Emperor” bit.

I really enjoyed how the main character, Zhu, wasn't shy or quiet like someone you would expect to be who is hiding their gender to be. They're talkative, witty, and willing to do whatever it takes to get to the top. This lack of a moral compass towards the end kind of sucks, but I guess that's what it takes to become Emperor.

Shizuka Satomi has sacrificed the souls of six violinists to the devil, and has now found her seventh soul in runaway teen and violin prodigy Katrina. When she visits a local donut shop, owner Lan Tran catches her eye. What she doesn't realise is that the donut shop hides a spaceship, and the Tran family are actually aliens from another planet.

In amongst the quirky plot, the book touches on a lot of serious topics. The main one being the transphobia that Katrina experiences throughout the book. Her parents are unsupportive and abusive, she has to do sex work to make a living, and there's mentions of sexual assault. When she performs as a violinist on stage, she's misgendered and made fun of for wearing a dress. Most of the characters are Asian, so we also see some casual racism directed their way, as well as some bigotry towards two other LGBT characters. There's also the side plot of a violin-maker with super low self-esteem, because her father told her that the secrets of violin-making can only be passed down to his sons.

Unfortunately it didn't quite come together for me. The book tries to straddle too many things. I'll admit I went into expecting a comfy sci-fi read (the book is described as “Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet”) so I finished it feeling really confused and disappointed.

Huge alien beings known as Architects have the power to wipe out planets, and no one knows why they do it. Enter the crew of the Vulture God, a salvage ship that discovers evidence of the Architects returning after 50 years of peace in the galaxy.

I loved Tchaikovsky's Children of Time so I was really excited to read this one. However I found the first third to first half to be very dense on information and quite hard to keep up with. Luckily if you stick through with it, it does get better.

An entertaining fantasy read. The book ends on a cliffhanger and feels unresolved, so I didn't really feel a sense of satisfaction when I finished reading it, though :(

Walden is the sort of book you see referenced in popular media all the time. When the male lead in k-drama Hometown Cha-cha-cha was shown reading it (did not expect that!), I figured it was finally time for me to get around to it.

It's fairly readable for a book written in the 1850s but I wouldn't say it's a fun read. I can get through a book in a couple of days, usually, but this one took me 2 weeks to slowly meander through because I wasn't really motivated to come back to it.

Walden touches upon a lot of minimalist concepts. Thoreau decides to go and live in the woods, in a house he built himself, farms beans, and then writes about the experience and about all the different animals he encounters. Minimalism isn't anything revolutionary for a reader today but considering the book is well over 150 years old, he's basically the OG minimalist.

In the book he scoffs at a farmer who has to work hard, in order to afford the meat that he needs to eat to regain the energy he expended from working hard. Why not just not work at all, and then you don't need to afford meat? You can just live off beans! Poor dietary decisions aside, what irks me is that after 2 years Thoreau decides he's going to leave nature anyway. He probably went back to eating meat after that.

It was probably revolutionary for its time, and I don't hate the book. Maybe you can find it inspiring if you want to live off the grid like Thoreau. Or maybe you'll enjoy the way he writes about the pond by his house, or the wildlife. But personally I didn't enjoy it enough to recommend it to anyone else.

12-year old Edward is the sole survivor of a plane crash that kills his parents and his brother.

The book starts off in the hours before the plane takes off, as we are introduced to Edward and his family, as well as other people who boarded the same plane. At first it feels a little bit pointless, getting to know all these people who are going to die. It gets more interesting once the book starts switching back and forth between Edward's life in the years after the crash, and the moments leading up to the crash itself.

Ultimately it's a book about survivor's guilt and surviving the loss of your entire family. I felt it reached a quite satisfying conclusion, as well.

A comfy sci-fi read. I really enjoyed the care the author put into building out its cast of alien species. The aliens aren't just humans with different skins, but there's some thought put into their cultural differences and histories as well. And even within the humans, there's a varied mix of cultures too, depending on whether you were rich and managed to escape Earth to live in colonies on Mars, or if you spent your entire life living aboard a generation ship.

Keen to give the second book a go!

As a poor cousin sent to live amongst her more privileged relations, Fanny Price is a fairly meek and boring leading character, as far as Jane Austen books go. She's content to be a wallflower, and her poor self-esteem isn't helped by comments from her aunts like “remember, wherever you are, you must be the lowest and the last”. Yikes.

Even the dude she is pining for says “she is the only woman in the world whom I could ever think of as a wife” - and he's not talking about her! Ouch.

The romance all gets summarised in a “at some point in the future, this and this happens” which is fairly unsatisfying as an ending.

The book starts off quite strong. We're in New York, and a plague has broken out. Either you're immune to the plague, or you catch it and die. The plague somehow strengthens the ability for a small percentage of the population to use magic. Society collapses, and people flee the city.

However once the book moves onto the bit where you travel the countryside, foraging for supplies, finding shelter and more travel companions (or losing them) it kind of loses steam a bit.

Especially when you get to the too good to be true 300+ person community of New Hope. Which obviously is going to have a conflict of some kind (you let those bad guys leave, who have intimate knowledge of the town, and you don't think they're going to come back and bring more bad guys with them? Really?)

The author builds up a lot of different characters, and so when Lana abruptly leaves them all behind, I don't think that really helps the book either. Especially considering Lana by herself isn't that compelling of a character.

I always go into romance novels with low expectations, so this one turned out to be a pleasant read. It helped that the two main characters both had family issues they were dealing with so it wasn't just a romance novel. The way these issues were resolved didn't feel that satisfying, though. There's also a side plot where they start researching a cult for a book, which felt kind of random, and didn't really go anywhere but could have been cool if it was a bigger part of the plot.

Linus works as a caseworker for magical children living in orphanages. He's a very boring, by-the-books type of person but this all changes when he spends a month investigating an orphanage with potentially dangerous children who all have highly classified case files.

I went in with high expectations considering its 4.47 rating on Goodreads but was left feeling quite disappointed. It felt very, very cheesy at times, especially the romance subplot which really didn't make much sense at all. Honestly I cringed a bit while reading it.

It goes for a lighthearted, kooky tone (Linus's bosses are literally called Extremely Upper Management). But at the same time they live in a world where magical beings must be registered and monitored, and there is a large amount of discrimination towards them in society. And so the combination of those two things feels weird for the very happy, good vibes ending that we get.

I don't really want to give this a 3, the writing isn't bad. I think I'm just completely the wrong demographic for this book. I could see it being targeted towards YA or even lower.

This is one of those books that starts off very confusingly, as you're thrust into the stories of five seemingly disconnected lives.

In the 15th century, a boy and a girl living on opposite sides of the walls that protect Constantinople. In modern-day America, a Korean War veteran and a teenager living in a small town. And in the distant future, a girl leaving behind a barren Earth in hopes of reaching a new planet to colonise.

As it turns out, the one thing they have in common is an ancient Greek tale called “Cloud Cuckoo Land”. And the links between their lives all come together for a really satisfying finish.

Alicia murders her husband, and then stops talking. Theo starts a job as her therapist at the hospital where she is held. Determined to get Alice to crack, he plays detective and starts asking around for clues, which is a pretty weird thing for a therapist to do. But the twist at the end was pretty good.

The Four Winds follows a broken family as they migrate from drought-ridden Texas to the green “promised land” of California during the Great Depression.

The main character, Elsa, is a downtrodden woman, which is at least a step up from the previous Kristen Hannah book I read (“The Great Alone”) where the main character was downtrodden and abused. I'm not the biggest fan of her weak characters but maybe it's more realistic that way, I dunno.

3.5 rounded down to a 3.

The writing style is quite clunky, but you get used to it. One of the characters is a millionaire writer, and at times she talks about what it's like to be famous, which felt a bit too much like the author complaining via the character.

I finished it and felt left with a sense of “well what was the point in that?” hence the low rating.

This one was hampered a bit by being the middle book in the trilogy. It ends on a huge cliffhanger, and I spent most of the book looking forward to reading about what happens after they graduate, which won't come until book 3.

Alright for a romance novel. The main problem is how much the author fetishises the height difference (the girl is 5ft and the dude is somewhere over 6ft) and how buff the guy is.

The girl even disses an ex for being “fragile and boy-sized” at 5'6” which just feels mean spirited too.

Still I enjoyed it, mostly, so 4 stars.

3.5 stars rounded up to a 4

Fairly lighthearted read, and a fair bit cringe as you would expect from most romance novels. Just ignore how unrealistic it is (son of the president and the Prince of England running around without security guards) and it's ok.

The book starts off quite abstract as we are introduced to the concept of New York being “born” into a human body. Once we are introduced to the five boroughs of NY, also in human form, it becomes a lot easier to follow. Basically there's a big bad enemy trying to kill off New York (the city and the person) and the boroughs have to team up to try and stop them.

Overall this was an alright read. Since there was a lot of character introducing to do, and the book is fairly short, it feels like this one did a lot of setup for book #2. Might give it a read if it turns out good or I might not.

The Elven Emperor and three of his sons die in a tragic airship accident, leaving the throne to his exiled half-Goblin son.

Probably not a good idea to put yourself and three of your potential heirs all on the same ship.

This is a fantasy book without all the usual adventuring. It's mostly just meetings, balls and politics. But somehow it's never boring, and I really enjoyed it.

At the old age of 24, Frederica Merriville has no plans on marriage of her own, and is instead keen to see her younger sister Charis matched with a husband worthy of her beauty. She enlists the help of a distant cousin, Alverstoke, to hold a ball to debut Charis into London society.

Alverstoke is a lazy and never one to help out anyone, let alone a bunch of distant cousins. But somehow he finds himself involved in the Merrivilles' lives, even taking on a fatherly (or big brother) role to Frederica's younger brothers, Felix and Jessamy.

The romance itself wasn't bad, but the relationships Alverstoke builds, especially with the brothers, was the most heartwarming part of the story to me.

Sophy bursts into her cousins' lives, all 5'9” of her, with a pet monkey, a parrot and a dog. Unlike the women in an Austen novel, she can handle horses, her father's finances, and even owns a pistol. Schemes and matchmaking attempts ensue.

This is a Regency-era novel, both in the time period and the style of writing. Since it was written in the 50s the author had a bit more imagination as to the level of independence a woman could achieve, so it reads like a more fast-paced Austen novel.

I would've liked to see a better romance for Sophy, though. After writing such an impressive character, I'm surprised anyone could tie her down that easily.

On Writing Well's key message is to be economical in your writing. Find the most efficient way to express your ideas. Skip the fancy prose, because your readers will see through its pretentiousness, and instead focus on expressing your ideas clearly.

As a writer you might worry that by doing this, you will lose any chance standing out and having your own unique writing style. But like carpentry, you have to start from the foundations. And over time, your style will grow.

The book reiterates some of the advice laid out in the Elements of Style:
* Use active verbs
* Cut out most adverbs (e.g. “blared loudly” and “blared” mean the same thing)
* Skip little qualifiers like “a little” or “sort of” as it reduces your authoritativeness

Some more general writing tips include:
* Practice writing every day
* Read your writing out loud to make sure it flows well
* Write for yourself

> “If you write for yourself, you'll reach the people want to write for.”

There are chapters on writing about different genres of non-fiction writing. On travel writing: skip the cliches. Everyone already knows the Grand Canyon is majestic. What's more interesting to your readers is your own experiences. The book covers other topics like business, sports and memoirs. For me, these were the most boring since I had no interest in these genres.

Something I have a bad habit of doing is using exclamation points, and Zinsser discourages use of this as well. Your readers are smart enough to pick up on when something is exciting or unusual, without you having to point it out to them with a “!”.

The only dated part of this book is the use of “he” as a default when talking about hypothetical situations. As part of the 30th Anniversary Edition, the author says he has replaced 300+ usages of “he”, since many women brought it up to him after they had read the book. However he didn't replace them all, and disappointingly he says:

> “But let's face it: the English language is stuck with the generic masculine. To turn every ‘he' into a ‘he or she' . . . would clog the language.”

Otherwise, this book is still quite relevant today, and I would definitely recommend it for serious writers. For a hobby writer like me, I would have preferred it to be a little bit shorter.

16 yr old Mia Corvere is a darkin - someone that has the ability to control shadows, and has a small shadow-cat as her familiar. She sets off on a journey to find assassin hogwarts so that she can train to take revenge on the people that killed her family.

The writing style is supposedly quite polarising but I found I didn't mind it.

There are a lot of footnotes, and I just skipped them. Since I read it on a Kindle, they're all at the end of the chapter (not sure if it's the same for print?) and I couldn't be bothered to stop reading to jump to footnotes each time. So maybe that helped with the experience.

I also skipped over the cringey sex scenes but otherwise I enjoyed it.

Conveniently, as Mia's classmates die one by one, most of the time it's the first time they've even been mentioned. It's only towards the end that actually recognizable characters start dying.The fact that the school gets overrun so easily at the end makes me question the school's strategy to kill off most of their students each year. Doesn't seem like a smart move at all.And the fact that Cassius is supposed to be some super cool dude and he's caught just like that?? What a dummy.

As cadets graduate from Aurora Academy, they set off on their first missions across the galaxy in groups of six. Tyler, top of his class, is looking forward to take first-pick of the graduates to put together his dream team, but ends up leading a bunch of misfits instead.

The book cycles through the POVs of each of the six graduates, as well as the seventh character in our story, Auri. She had set out from Earth on a colonist ship, only for it to go missing 200 years prior. Mysteriously, Tyler finds her in cryo-sleep as the sole survivor on board the ship's wreckage.

The interesting thing to point out about Auri (other than the fact that she is now 200 years old) is that she's half-Chinese. Auri had a fractious relationship with her father (the Chinese parent) and in the book her Chinese heritage is usually brought up alongside mentioning something about her Dad. I guess this is an attempt to bring some extra flavor and conflict to her character. As a fellow half-Asian I did appreciate the attempt at representation but I'm not sure it really did anything for the story. If anything it might have been better to make her full Chinese because the other half of her heritage wasn't really mentioned at all.

There's a bit of romance with an alien “mating bond”. If they did this well I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it but the fact that they did it and it's bad just makes it all the more cringey. If you're gonna do this right, you've got to do a better job building up to it! It just comes across as really creepy otherwise. Kal martyrs himself by saying "oh, don't worry about me I'll just eternally pine after you and leave and return to my people then" and of course Auri will feel sorry for him and give him a go.

Complaints aside I didn't find it to be too tropey, I liked the conflict between the team who weren't all aligned on their mission especially the conflict with Cat and the betrayal twist.