Snowflakes and Spider Silk

We talk about how the fantasy genre is dominated by European-inspired medieval castles and knights and princesses, but I think we take it for granted that most of the science fiction genre is very Euro-centric and focused on the western world. Although science fiction is growing to be more inclusive and include people of color, a lot of the times the setting and culture is still very much a reflection of America or Europe. I have found a few gems that are inspired by other cultures, though, and I wanted to share them! I'll also have some honorable mentions for the books that include characters of multiple cultures even if the overall setting is still western. 1. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin Jemisin's Fifth season draws a lot of its cultural inspiration from Africa. Skin tones of people vary from dark brown to alabaster, but the majority of the characters are people of color. The villages in this book are described in such a way that the village of my great ...

I'm pretty new to the graphic novel/comic book scene. I was never a comic book collector when I was a kid, and I was just so overwhelmed about figuring out where to start that I didn't get into graphic novels until last year! One of the things that make graphic novels harder to break into is how interconnected a lot of different series are. Especially with DC and Marvel superhero comics, there are so many cross-overs and reincarnations and references to past volumes and events happening in other series. I still haven't quite figured all of that out yet (like I said, I'm still new!) but I have found other comics that are more newbie friendly! Here are my recommendations for standalone graphic novels and entrypoint series without a lot of cross-overs! I've enjoyed them all and I didn't feel like I was missing out on too much. Saga I absolutely love this series! I have only read the first volume so far, but I am really excited to keep readi...

It's been a while, but here I am! Grad school has been really intense, and I've had so many panic attacks/super anxious days because I've been so stressed and overwhelmed while I adjusted, so blogging took a backseat. Despite the mental health challenges, I am really glad I'm here, I'm learning so much, and I've made really great friends! I just set up a blog post reminder alarm on my phone so every week I get a nudge to put something up :) Honestly half the reason I haven't posted in over a month is because I was so overwhelmed with school and research that I just completely forgot about setting aside time for blogging. I'm really excited about #RRSciFiMonth though, so here I am! I'm gonna try and keep commitment low and have 1 sci-fi post per week so I don't add to my stress level, but if I get really excited and have more ideas I'll put them up! I really want to do a buzzfeed-style quiz, we'll see if I have time to put one...

Title:  Now I Rise Author:  Kiersten White Genre: Historical fiction My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: She has no allies. No throne. All she has is what she’s always had: herself. After failing to secure the Wallachian throne, Lada Dracul is out to punish anyone who dares to cross her blood-strewn path. Filled with a white-hot rage, she storms the countryside with her men, accompanied by her childhood friend Bogdan, terrorizing the land. But brute force isn’t getting Lada what she wants. And thinking of Mehmed brings little comfort to her thorny heart. There’s no time to wonder whether he still thinks about her, even loves her. She left him before he could leave her. What Lada needs is her younger brother Radu’s subtlety and skill. But Mehmed has sent him to Constantinople—and it’s no diplomatic mission. Mehmed wants control of the city, and Radu has earned an unwanted place as a double-crossing spy behind enemy lines. Radu longs for his sister’s fierce con...

I moved to Ann Arbor a couple of weeks ago for grad school, and it's so different here compared to LA (where I've lived for the last 5 years). Everything is so much quieter in Ann Arbor...well, except the freight trains that insist on honking as they go past. I like that it's a smaller town, and obviously because it's such a college town there are plenty of coffee shops and bookstores :) Last weekend was the annual Kerrytown book festival, which I found out about quite on accident as I walked down Main street. It was a really cute little festival, with about 50 booths ranging from indie bookstores to stationary/journal booths to art prints to bookish swag. I guess that's actually quite a bit, but having been to the LA Times Festival of Books in the spring, this one seemed tiny by comparison!   I got some awesome bookish magnets and bookmarks, and business cards from people who make bookish stuff. One of the business cards was stylized as a library due...

I think I'm doing pretty well on the reading challenge, I have 6 books and 4 1/2 months left. The manga and the novella will probably be quick, so as long as the books I'm planning on reading are available at the library, I'm golden! (Watch me still struggle to finish the last few books in December LOL) I've read 3 more books for the challenge since my last update. I finally read Library of Fates, a book I've been meaning to read for ages! I also read Foundation, a book that I read in middle school and completely forgot about. And Persepolis, a comic book I've wanted to read for years but could never find at the library until this month. All three books were awesome! I also finally planned all the books I'm going to read for the rest of the challenge. I was really excited about getting approved for 27 Hours on NetGalley because that was one of my crowdsourced twitter recommendations for a book with an Ace/Aro character. The only other book I...

The Reading Quest ends tonight! I don't think I'll be binge-reading anything before the night is out, so I figured I would put up my final stats now! So I ended up at Level 5 with 200 XP! I also had 330 HP by the end of the challenge. I finished the Mage quest, just like I planned, but I only finished 1 book of the Knight quest. I did read a couple of books for side quests though. Here's a list of all the books I completed for the challenge: MAGE One word title: Foundation by Isaac Asimov Contains Magic: Flame in the Mist by Renee Adieh Mythology: Library of Fates by Aditi Khorana First Book in a series: Persepolis (part 1) by Marjane Satrapi Different World: ACOWAR by SJ Maas KNIGHT Verb in title: When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon SIDE QUESTS Respawn (previously DNF) - The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi Animal Companion (animal in title) - The Tiger's Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera Mini-Game (poetry/graphic novel) - The Complete W...

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish .  This week's theme: Top Ten Books I struggled with but were totally worth it in the end   Foundation – Isaac Asimov This story takes place over a century, and it's more like a short story for every era. I always have a hard time connecting with characters immediately, so it was hard to keep re-setting every 50 or so pages, but overall it was an awesome story!  Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson I haven't re-read to confirm, but this is perhaps the only Sanderson book I dislike . It was really slow and angsty, but the ending was INCREDIBLY MINDBLOWING and book 3 made it more than worth it. The Queen of Attolia – Megan Whalen Turner It took me until I re-read this book to fall in love with it, the first time I just found it dull. But that's just because I was being a lazy reader and not paying attention to the subtle threads MWT was weaving together ...