#CoverStories Day 13: #Chapel

#CoverStories Day 12: Sorta kinda #Tuxedo - not quite but getting there, and hey, it‘s Mr Rogers! Fats shared her book haul including this one here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-ldF

#CoverStories Day 11: #Reptile - While other young girls would ask for cute poodles or a tame goldfish in a glass bowl aquarium, Joan had a pet crocodile instead! She saw something in these reptiles that other people evidently are unable to appreciate. Perfect for Women‘s History Month. My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-jGO

#CoverStories Day 10: #Direction of where the world needs to be in order to survive in this planet. Every year, the Emirates Literature Foundation hosts a short story contest for young children around the Emirates with SDG themes; and the winning stories get published in this yearly compendium of an illustrated book. It‘s pretty neat, actually. My friend‘s son is one of the published authors this year - his work seen in the 2024 new book.

#CoverStories Day 9: #Umbrella - Suzy Lee plays with colours here: the drab greys broken with the occasional splash of blue initially, then you can see a slight green peeking through. And as the sun shines, there is a psychedelic burst of colours that is nothing short of magical. My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-hfE

#CoverStories Day 8: #Trees - entire premise of this book is intriguing - the way the group of translators hero-worship Irena Ray, their beloved author, is almost cult-like, even their regular gathering with all the rules and their calling each other by their languages was strange. While the other #Tob25 title Colored Television was more of a page-turner, this is still holding my interest, though it is a bit of a struggle finishing it. #LitsyToB25

#CoverStories Day 7: #Stairs - a Libby ebook find. Review is forthcoming. 💕

#CoverStories Day 6: #Clouds - had to pause my reading of this book as I go over the #ToB25 shortlisted titles. Wait for awhile, Fredrik Backman, I will get back to you soonest. 💕

#CoverStories Day 5: #Hammock from classic to contemporary stories. Timeless, indeed.

#CoverStories Day 4: #BodyPart shaped to letters of the alphabet - review is forthcoming.

#CoverStories Day 3: #LargeAnimal - hippo it is, then. 💕

#CoverStories Day 2: #EveningGown - a Big Bad Wolf book haul. 📚

#CoverStories Day 1: #2SimilarCovers sort of - one is an Arabic book gifted to me by a student. 💕

#FeelinTheLove Day 28: Despite the heated-oven ending where the narcissistic [ #Narcissism ] villainess supposedly got her comeuppance, I found no redemption in this tale, the creators had none to give. The reader is left to find scraps of those from the occasional vacuous kindness for the beautiful darknesses to sneer at in its vapid naivete.
My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-akB

#FeelinTheLove Day 27: #BrotherLove between Black and White in what Fats calls in her review “a Disney-esque, neo-punk version of Japan. There is so much violence in Tekkonkinkreet. However, do not let it stop you from reading this book. It talks about brotherhood, faith, courage, the fragility of life, and the co-existence of light and darkness, that one cannot exist without the other.” Her full review here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-aBx

#FeelinTheLove Day 26: #SisterLove - This shared womanity or sense of girlhood is evident in the tagged book I read for #DecolonizeBookshelves - irrespective of one‘s skin color, to be female is to belong to “the ranks of the wretched.” One of the really great titles I read from the list of “Decolonize Your Bookshelf in 50 Books.” My full review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-opq

#FeelinTheLove Day 25: It is not unlikely that the merchant of marvels and peddler of dreams also make #LovePotion(s). See my full review of this magical and hard-to-find book here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-6FL

#FeelinTheLove Day 24: the #Lonely Londoners was one of my greatest reads from our decolonize your bookshelf reading theme. Sam Selvon, who published in the 50s couldn‘t care less about pandering to a White audience, and what a liberation it is. My full review here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-pjL

#FeelinTheLove Day 23: There is #ParentChildLove in this novel that, I feel, tries incredibly hard to be so “woke” and “current” - it comes across (at least to me) as performative and sometimes in poor taste. I am referring especially to their family photo that the author likened to a family in the West Bank. That soured my experience of reading this book. Will still give it a chance though for #ToB25.

#FeelinTheLove Day 21: Heard the poet perform in Dubai and read his poems aloud overlooking the Persian Gulf last December as organized by Emirates Lit Fest. I assume this collection of poetry has #LoveOnTheRocks - maybe not with a lover, but with the larger society, and the universe - as Gomez explores race, violence, and what it‘s like to raise Black children in America.

#FeelinTheLove Day 20: relocating to a small town to heal a #BrokenHeart is the premise, apparently, of these novels. Bought the first three in the series during the big bad wolf book sale in Dubai. Are they binge-worthy? Haven‘t watched the series yet - waiting until I have scoped the books first. Any thoughts about the series?

#FeelinTheLove Day 19: There is #IllicitLoveAffair between Belle Greene and a famous married art historian. That was pretty toxic. Come to think of it, she had several #IllicitLoveAffair(s) with married men. My full review here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-r26

#FeelinTheLove Day 18: Look at all those #Hearts in this understated book cover. Finished reading this last night. Definitely one of my #ToB25 favorites, thus far. What a delight. Review is forthcoming.

#FeelinTheLove Day 17: #GalentinesDay feels especially during the bridal shower bonding of the women and the revelations that ensued. Nearly finished with this #ToB25 title - why wasn‘t this novel given more love last year? It‘s brilliant!

#FeelinTheLove Day 16: Quite the #LoveHatePairing with this #ToB25 title with Phoebe‘s cheating ex-hubby. I can see this being made into a series. Set against the desert last night as husband and I watched a Chinese concert pianist and Chinese dancers perform with the Jebel Hafeet Mountain (UNESCO heritage site) as the backdrop. Perfect post Valentine and CNY celebration. A good open-air wedding venue too. My sky cashmere shawl matches book cover.

#FeelinTheLove Day 15: #TimelessLove vibes in these interconnected short stories especially the first and last one. Sparse and atmospheric, this #ToB25 title leaves a mark. Review is forthcoming.

#FeelinTheLove Day 14: #ValentinesDay

#FeelinTheLove Day 13: When Llewellyn meets Evelyn, Llewellyn hands her a jar filled with cherry light. Since then, Llewellyn and Evelyn collect things together. One day, Evelyn tells Llewellyn that her family is moving away. What will happen to their friendship? In a Jar is a beautiful reminder that friendship knows no distance. #LongDistanceLove - Fats‘ review here: https://gatheringbooks.org/2020/04/27/monday-reading-bunny-stories-parting/

#FeelinTheLove Day 12: A lot of #LoveLost in these short stories - a #ToB25 title that I finished reading over the weekend. Review is forthcoming. Paired with my non-alcoholic strawberry mojito.

#FeelinTheLove Day 11: #CrazyLove or maybe the infamous doomed love of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera - one of the many loveletters in this fascinating book. You can find more here in my feature: https://wp.me/pDlzr-7hF

#FeelinTheLove Day 10: This one is Ludwig Van Beethoven‘s letter to his Immortal Beloved – who this is remains a mystery until now. This is a fascinating book that contains amorous and heartfelt #Loveletters of famous people: from Vita Sackville-West and Viriginia Woolf to Franz Kafka‘s letter to Felice Bauer. More here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-7hF

#FeelinTheLove Day 9: #Chocolate chip cookie in a hot skillet with vanilla ice cream paired with an edited book where my chapter co-authored with an Emirati colleague is found, specifically: “From Mahmoud Darwish to Shakespeare, Naruto to Tintin Comics: Reading Preferences and Identities of Emirati Adolescents from the UAE.” Came out last month! 💕💕💕

#FeelinTheLove Day 8: Would much rather be #Loveless than be in any sort of relationship with the protagonist‘s husband who, for lack of a better word, is a world-class jerk. A #ToB25 play-in title, which I finished reading last week. Review is forthcoming. Still need to read The Wedding People.

#FeelinTheLove Day 7: #LoveQuote

#FeelinTheLove Day 6: Set in Lima, Peru, the author introduces us to young Marito who fell in love with an older woman, a 30-something divorceé, who found Marito‘s teenybopper infatuation amusing until she herself became enamoured by the innocent and untoward and forbidden romance of it all. #SteamyLove with the Mrs Robinson vibe. More here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-dt9

#FeelinTheLove Day 5: #WeirdLove - The story opens with the beginning of the “weird” world, reminiscent of Nordic/Greek myths of gods and goddesses. All the men in this story are philandering, too full of themselves, and thoroughly self-serving. They are also threatened by women‘s intelligence or crippled by their burning love for them. My review: https://wp.me/pDlzr-hkG

#FeelinTheLove Day 4: #Roses

#FeelinTheLove Day 3: There are #LoveIsBlind elements here between Daniel and Susannah as I find the latter insufferable at 200 pages in. I finished two other titles for the #ToB25 while reading this and I haven‘t even reached a third of the book - does it get better and is it worth slogging through? The characterization is on point but not in love yet with any of the characters.

#FeelinTheLove Day 2: My #FaveLiteraryLove is Estelle‘s “affair” - unconsummated though it may be - with her neighbor as they exchange books with their own personal scribblings/markings in them. Imagine an illicit love wrapped up in book exchanges, so pure and so beautiful.

#FeelinTheLove Day 1: #LovePoem or its failure, ostensibly.

#PoetryMatters Day 31: #Want

#25Alive! Day 31: These were our Jolabokaflod #Gift(s) - college kid and myself‘s - last Christmas. Book #Gift(s) are the absolute best.

#PoetryMatters Day 30: #Wane

#25Alive! Day 30: What a glowing #Bright cover for this Newbery Medal awardee and National Book Award Finalist. Haven‘t seen this book at all anywhere here in the Emirates. I must find myself a copy soon.

#PoetryMatters Day 29: #Wand

#25Alive! Day 29: There was much #Laughter as college kid and I read this aloud in our book club of two during the December holidays. As noted in my review: There is a tenderness to his writing that feels almost like a hug – but more perhaps like clinging to a liferaft, the act of writing the words his way of preventing himself from sinking – that he holds on to the reader – in beauty, in supplication, in wonder. More here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-qZ0

#PoetryMatters Day 28: #Walnut

#25Alive! Day 28: The Universe in Verse to give us #Hope in these dark dark days.

#PoetryMatters Day 27: #Wallet

#25Alive! Day 27: #FaveNewSong is any new discovery from this Spotify playlist.