Midu Reads

On the Relevance of The Handmaid’s Tale — A Book Published More Than Three Decades Ago!

The Prose Books set in post-apocalyptic settings usually have an ominous feeling about them. You will start to get that vibe from the very first line. The Handmaid’s Tale (THT) wasn’t different in that regard. Consider the following lines and you will see what I mean: “We slept in what had once been the gymnasium….

September 2019 — A Wrap-Up

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and the Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi I would have bought all the propaganda against the revolution. I really would have. Except for these two things. One, the author didn’t wasn’t heroic or patriotic, she came across as a petulant child. And what’s more, she showed no…

Prepare to Get Only a Ghost of a Story and Plot in Ghost Story by Jim Butcher

So, I liked that Harry’s turning over a new leaf and reexamining all the hasty decisions he has made — and that they have consequences. However, the whole angelic involvement and the increasingly larger role it is beginning to play in the series is a turn-off for me. Dresden has never been religious, so I…

A Review of the Sensational, Cult Writers: 50 Nonconformist Novelists You Need to Know by Ian Haydn Smith, Kristelle Rodeia

I requested this book on Netgalley and am really glad I did! The book begins with a description of the qualities that the author considers make a writer a cult writer. Then, it provides information about 50 of them. Accompanying each author’s brief life history is a colored sketch with a quote from one of…

Death in Delft by Graham Brack

I had recently read a historical murder mystery and found it to be disappointing. So, going in, I wasn’t expecting much out of this one either. But that was before I encountered the self-deprecating style of the narrator. The protagonist is a cleric who’s secretly Catholic but owes his job and living to his being…

The Episode Where I’m Left Confused as to How I Feel about Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers

What I LikedNinja Nuns #nuffsaid That the female assassins are slowly waking up to how the convent is manipulating them and twisting the meaning of their supposed religious vocation. And I’m thinking the last of them, Annith, is going to full-on rebel. Can’t wait to see that. Julian’s character. Sure, he’s all kinds of bad…

My Introduction to Vermeer Paintings — A Review of the Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

I don’t know anything about the painter, Vermeer, whose life this book is built around. Paintings and poetry aren’t really my forte. But the way the author describes each scene made me wish the book would never end. She also had a way of describing people’s motivations behind their actions in a way that is…

April 2020 — A Wrap-Up

LIFEL1K3 by Jay Kristoff You’ll find the review here. The Program by Suzanne Young I require more than a bone-chilling atmosphere where teenagers have some sort of sword hanging over their heads or another from my reads these days. This 400-pager failed to deliver that. Teenagers are committing suicide after becoming depressed, making the issue a global…

April 2020 — Netgalley Reads

Death in Delft by Graham Brack This is going to be a long one. Find my ravings here. Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn What I Didn’t LikeWhen you read the blurb for this book, you go in expecting powers. I did and there wasn’t much super about the three protagonists. So, there’s…

The Lifelessness of The Book, Lifelike by Jay Kristoff

In which I review my first Jay Kristoff read.

Puddin’ Has Much More Likable Protagonists & A Body Positive Story to Tell

If you’ve been keeping up, the first book in the Dumplin Duology was a train wreck. This one, though, was a nice read. Here are some reasons why: The first protagonist, Millie, is the girl whom Willodean used to consider too fat. She’s refreshing in a way that Will failed to be. Millie accepts her…

Double Feature — Book & Movie Review of Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy #booksandchai

I picked up this book, thinking I’d get a body-positive message out of it. But it fails on that account. A fat girl who cringes at other fatter girls — even while coming to their aid against bullies — and makes a mockery out of the one thing that she was going to use to…