Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.
Happy Wednesday! What did you get from your library this week?
Happy last Monday of May! It’s the last week of school for my kids. My older son is graduating from sixth grade on Friday
Some things last week:
Last week was a busy week! The school had their open house so we got to visit the classrooms and see their different projects. This one is by the fourth graders, a cereal inspired by the book they read for their book presentation. My son’s is the Secret Charms at the bottom, inspired by The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart.
He also had a concert with his elementary orchestra. It was wonderful to see how much they improved over a few months (their first concert had been in mid-January).
The sixth graders’ geometry project.
Some sushi takeout from our nearby Japanese eatery. We tried a baked sushi (the one in foil at the back) for a change. It was surprisingly spicy! I say surprising because the description didn’t say anything about a spicy sauce…
Not sure why it’s been ages since we’ve had In-N-Out. Maybe because the one near us is always busy. But we got there early so there were plenty of seats.
The husband had Friday off (it’s Memorial Day today), so we tried out a new-to-us Caribbean/South American restaurant. This is a jerk pork shoulder with caramelised plantains, and rice and beans.
Also tried out some street food doubles (chickpea curry topped with chutney, sitting on a bara pocket ie flatbread). Also, these delicious spicy beef patties. What made them especially good was that green sauce on top. Not sure what it was but it had that nice hit of acid that makes it better.
At the farmers market, stone fruits are coming in! I grabbed a few white nectarines to try.
Currently…
Reading:
Y/N by Esther Yi
Watching:
Still watching some Succession, also I’m waiting for tomorrow’s new episodes of Love Village on Netflix.
Listening:
Imposter Syndrome and other confessions of Alejandra Kim – Patricia Park
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.
Happy Wednesday! What did you get from your library this week? Let us know in the link-up!
What I got from the library this week:
Linghun – Ai Jiang
Described as a modern gothic ghost story set in a town where the dead live as spirits. This is written by a Chinese-Canadian author.
Full Cicada Moon – Marilyn Hilton
Came across this novel in verse in a list of AAPI reads on Libby. Set in 1969 and featuring a half-black, half-Japanese girl.
Tuesday morning, I get a call from the school office to pick up the 10yo who was shivering and feeling unwell. Turns out he had a fever. He continued to have a high fever the rest of the day, and a slightly lower one the next day as well. After lots of rest and hydration, but not much food as he just couldn’t eat much, he finally went back to school on Friday. He was pretty much ok on Thursday but had to stay 24 h fever-free before returning to school.
The 12yo made dinner on Friday – a one-pot creamy zucchini and leek spaghetti.
The kids had an away volleyball game in San Jose on Saturday. It was a nice cool morning at a very busy park – there were several little kids’ art classes going on behind us, a popular neighbourhood playground, as well as a large dog park.
Since we were in San Jose, we decided to just eat lunch around there and found a Japanese restaurant that was supposed to be izakaya-style, but it wasn’t really..oh well, they had this delicious pork belly crunchy rice. And a crab croquette.
At the Sunday farmers market – cherries are back! Because of the kids’ weekend schedules (volleyball and band), it’s a bit harder to go to Brentwood for cherry picking this year, so we may just have to get our cherries from the farmers markets.
Last night’s dinner – miso butter ramen. The 12yo picked ramen for dinner. He had performed with his elementary intermediate band at their first ever concert. They played 5 songs. There were a total of six different bands, from beginner to advanced, all elementary students.
Currently…
Reading:
The Monkey King – Wu Cheng’en
Watching:
Love Village on Netflix, it’s a Japanese dating reality show where the members are all in their 30s and up, I believe the oldest is 60. Some of them have been divorced and have kids, others have never married. They live together in a very old traditional Japanese house in the middle of nowhere, which they have to work together to refurbish, tend to the garden, cook, and fall in love (hopefully).
Listening:
I just finished listening to All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell
Eating and Drinking:
For breakfast, a slice of homemade bread and some brie. Also tea. Once I’m done with this post, I’m going to have a Nespresso.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.
If the library ebook had the other cover (a woman in a yellow dress sitting in what looks like an old convertible), I probably wouldn’t have borrowed it. Did I regret reading this book? No, but I didn’t exactly love it either.
Sally is a writer on a SNL-like show and Noah is the week’s host and musical guest. He’s a successful singer in his 30s. The first half of the book is a fun look into the whole live sketch comedy tv show scene. It made me think of the TV series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which I loved at the time (although I wonder if I can rewatch because I now find Matthew Perry rather annoying).
Unfortunately, this book also wants to be a romance novel …of sorts. And that just didn’t work for me. I do love a good romance novel, preferably if it’s by a BIPOC writer. And this felt like Curtis Sittenfeld’s attempt to “improve” on the romance novel, like make it more literary or something. It probably didn’t help that I saw an article about an interview with her, something about how to make a “non-cheesy romance novel”. (The partial transcript I read didn’t actually have Sittenfeld saying she’s writing a non-cheesy romance novel, so I put that on the writer/editor for having that prejudice against romance novels in the first place).
And you know what, there are plenty of non-cheesy romance novels out there already. There are plenty of smart, funny, delightfully charming romance novels, like those by Helen Hoang, Jasmine Guillory, Talia Hibbert, Julie Tieu and many more. So I hesitate to recommend this one.
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.
Happy Wednesday! What did you get from your library this week?
A Chinese classic. I’ve never read the book but I’m familiar with the story of Sun Wukong because of a Chinese-language TV series that was shown in Singapore when I was a kid. It was called Journey to the West or 西遊記 xiyouji. It was made in China and supposedly stayed quite true to the original story, which was first published in 1592. I found out via Instagram that there’s a new translated version
Y/N – Esther Yi
For some reason, this book kept popping up on Instagram. Was it an ad? I can’t remember now! But the black and white cover stood out and well, since it’s Asian American Pacific Islander Month, it’s as good a time as any to read it.
Hula – Jasmin Iolani Hakes
Isn’t that just a beautiful cover? I also love that it’s set in Hilo, Hawaii, which we visited a couple of years ago.
Tastes Like War – Grace M. Cho
This book is part of the Big Library Read on Libby. A story about growing up mixed race in a small town in America
I’ve been more into Kdramas this year. I’ve learnt to look for those that are more “slice of life” type. Some great ones include Reply 1988, Hospital Playlist, Hometown Cha Cha Cha.
Well, we are in mid-May now, guys! The kids have just a couple of weeks of school left!! It feels weird to say that because the school year has always ended closer to mid-June, but the school district decided to move the start of school ahead last year and so here we are, ending school in early June.
Also, in blog-related news, I’ve decided to let the URL reallifereading.com lapse, as well as the WordPress domain connection to that URL. Originally this blog was known as olduvaireads.wordpress.com but I’ve since changed that to reallifereadingreads.wordpress.com. Hope that’s not too confusing!
Some things last week:
Not a fan of being at crazy crowded restaurants on Mother’s Day, we instead had our own kbbq in the backyard. We had 4 different kinds of mushrooms, zucchini, leeks, pork jowl, bulgogi, and some non-marinated beef. We also picked up a couple of banchan (Korean side dish) at the Korean supermarket, I’ve recently become fond of the spicy dried squid (here’s a recipe), which surprisingly my 12yo enjoys too.
Currently…
Reading:
Chlorine – Jade Song
Stay True – Hua Hsu
Watching:
So while I’ve enjoyed watching Succession, it’s hard to watch too much of all that backstabbing and betrayal. So in between that, I started watching Queen Charlotte on Netflix. I think I’m actually enjoying it more than I did with Bridgerton!
Listening:
All the Living and the Dead – Hayley Campbell
Eating and Drinking:
Cooking:
We visited the local farmers market for the first time this year. It runs year-round but we tend to go usually when strawberry season starts. And hey, the strawberry vendor was indeed there, although since it’s at the start of the season, the prices are a bit on the higher side. Still, the strawberries were so sweet compared to the ones from the supermarket. It’s worth it. Hopefully the prices will go down a bit as the season moves along. There was also one fruit vendor that had a few baskets of cherries. But it was really expensive! We will have to wait a bit or maybe go cherry picking ourselves. I posted about our 20 pounds of cherries that we picked last year.
Last week:
I read:
Our Stories Carried Us Here – Daniel Zueniga Gonzalez
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.
Happy Wednesday! What did you get from your library this week?
What I got from the library this week:
Thirsty Mermaids – Kat Leyh
Three mermaids make their way onto land thanks to a transformation spell, but then soon realise they don’t know how to change back. Sounds delightful.
All the Living and the Dead – Hayley Campbell
Borrowed this as an audiobook. This is a nonfiction read about the death industry – embalmers, detectives, crime scene cleaners, executioners.
Exes and O’s – Amy Lea
A rom-com about a woman connecting with her exes. I was looking for a romance novel by an AAPI writer for AAPI month.
Our Stories Carried Us Here: Belonging in America and Mexico – Daniel Zueniga Gonzalez
Chlorine – Jade Song
So I didn’t intentionally set out to borrow two mermaid-related books, but Chlorine and Thirsty Mermaids just so happened to have caught my eye. This one is a coming-of-age tale/horror?
Stay True – Hua Hsu
A memoir about a friendship that’s cut short when one of them is killed. This book won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography (2022).
Truth be told, when I finished reading this book, I wondered, is it me? Did I not get what I was reading? Was I just in the wrong mood to read this book?
LEMON by KWON YEO-SUN opens with the interrogation of a murder suspect. A young girl is dead and the media have called the incident “High School Beauty Murder”. There are two main suspects, one a rich kid and the other a part-time delivery driver. But neither are charged.
But soon the book moves onto three women who knew the victim, Kim Hae-On, and how they’ve been affected by the murder as the years go by.
The chapters jump from one point of view to another, and different years. It’s confusing. I struggled with this book and its disjointed narrative. It doesn’t help that the book doesn’t make it obvious whose perspective each chapter is being told from. The chapters in the form of a phone conversation in particular threw me off.
Maybe it’s just me as LEMON has plenty of 4 and 5 star ratings on Goodreads, as well as raves by critics. It just didn’t work for me.
Real Life Reading 