Happy Saturday morning, my mates! I wholeheartedly hope that you all have been doing good and that life is treating you well. š
I will be honest, I have been struggling quite a bit with my apathy again these past one to two weeks. If humans had the ability to stock up on sleep and whip it out whenever they needed, I probably would be stocked for the rest of 2019. However, on the plus side, I realised that I was struggling far sooner this time around than my initial and previous engagement with this struggle. In an effort to combat the Apathy Monster of Doom and Gloom, I am going to spend the rest of my Saturday in the outdoors taking photographs, sketching, and reading while sipping some beer. Self-care is the best care⦠sometimes.
In terms of reading, I have been reading one book at a time to prevent burnout and reading ruts during my apathetic state of mind, and you know, itās been working wonders for me! I usually just cut out all reading instead of decreasing the amount of shite that I read. Why is that the simplest solutions are the ones that tend to elude us?
This weekend I shall be keeping my reading to genre classics! Iāve a science-fiction novel that is the final (I believe) instalment in a trilogy, a stand-alone fantasy, and a seinen, historical manga that led to an anime film Iām hoping to watch later in the week. Having fewer books also means that itās easier to carry them around in my pack. Yup, Iām lazy without shame. āš¾
Only Human (Themis Files #3) by Sylvain Neuvel
Only Human is the third and final instalment in a science-fiction series that I honestly wasnāt expecting to like but ended up loving and becoming quite obsessed with. Itās amazing how that works, right?
I wonāt be providing a snippet for this book to avoid serial spoilers for previous instalments. I also donāt want to look one up so I can be fucking surprised off my feet, like I was with books one and two (thereās a pun there for readers who are familiar with the reference). Click the pink title in the first paragraph if youād like to visit the GoodReads page for the series. If youāve been on the fence about this trilogy, like I had been, I can guarantee that the hype is pretty close to being worth it. Just keep an open mind with regard to the format as itās different than typical novels.
Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Guns of the Dawn is a steampunk fantasy novel that also happens to be a stand-alone. Since that seems to be an uncommon trend with the genre, I felt appreciative that I didnāt have to hunt down other volumes and snagged it on that premise alone.
At its most basic level, the story is about a country that became very ambitious, gunning down their own king and then moving on to decimate or conquer neighbouring nations, which was all done with war machines. In the process, this country ends up destroying their own people and citizens while constantly demanding more from them, either by asking for more and more soldiers to join, or by asking them to help maintain the army in various forms. All of these leads to a small faction of women being conscripted into the army due to the severe lack of men, and one of these women will be the individual who can bring a change thatās desperately needed.
In this Corner of the World by Fumiyo KÅno
In this Corner of the World is a seinen, historical fiction manga that spawned an anime film adaptation a couple of years ago. I have been very interested in checking out the film, however when I saw the manga at the library, I figured it couldnāt hurt to read the story first. I know that itās an emotionally riveting one, so Iām hoping that by engaging with the narrative beforehand, it will help alleviate the tears that I am confident shall coming pouring out of me.
The tale follows a young girl named Suzu in 1940s Hiroshima. After getting married, she joins her husbandās family in the ship-building city of Kure. When Hiroshima is decimated by the ferocity of war and vengeance, she must face these challenges and learn to manoeuvre through an incredibly difficult time period and era of great sadness and loss.
What do yāall think? Do these books sound interesting to you? Would you read them? Please, come chat with me in the comments. Iād love to hear from you.
Have a lovely weekend, my friends.
I havenāt read the manga, but I loved the anime film for In This Corner of the World. An emotional, powerful story for sure!
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The artwork is gorgeous, and it reads pretty fast. Iām looking forward to the film when Iām done with the manga. š
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I loved Dogs of War by Tchaikovsky, but Guns of the Dawn sounds quite interesting too! And the artwork for In This Corner of the World looks gorgeous. The film is actually on my to watch-list!
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I saw that one on the shelf as well! I figured this book will tell me if his writing style is for me and if it is, I’ll for sure check out more works!
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good one
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