Emma Goto

About a serial killer, so kind of disturbing to read??

About a lady's relationship with the octopus at the aquarium that she helps clean. Quite a heart warming book.

“Prince falls for his bodyguard” kind of romance but there's a decent enough plotline with some politics thrown in. The characters were all fairly flawed which was sometimes a little bit annoying, but more realistic too.

Sort of like an alternative history British empire where they gain their power through magic that's powered by translation (hence the name Babel).

It felt a bit weird though, like the book was shitting on the British empire (and rightly so) but via the alternate magic history version of the British empire.. like why though. Just shit on it directly or not at all thanks

A short and sweet romance book about an apartment that takes you 7 years into the past. Fairly straightforward plot but cute enough.

I guess this book is about becoming a woman? Or wanting to become a mother? Kind of hard to sum up. It also had some slightly surrealist, Murakami vibes - which makes me wonder is that because it is similar, or do Japanese books translated to English generally end up like this?

Also interesting to note is that the original book was written in Kansai-ben (a more rough-sounding Japanese dialect) but the book hasn't made any attempt to translate that and has done it purely in standard English. Which makes me wonder how different the experience would be if you read it in Japanese.

A girl ends up working for a dude in a spooky haunted house.

I don't want to give this a 3 because it's objectively not badly written, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone either? 3.5/5

Less of a productivity/self-help book and more of an author's musings on how there is no such thing as peak productivity, and as much as you want to try for it and reach that feeling of fulfilment, you're just gonna try for the rest of your life and never really reach there (lol).

Ex-doctor's flippant and fairly crude diary of what it's like working for the NHS. It takes a depressing turn in in the last 5 pages as he explains how he left the job after the (unavoidable) death of a patient.

I understand he's probably used humour to deal with what is a very shitty job, but I wasn't really vibing with it.

Pretty interesting plot line, quick and easy read about a lady that starts a podcast with a seemingly normal lady which inadvertently turns into a true crime podcast.

I had assumed this book was about what it's like to be an Asian American so I didn't think I would relate too much, but the author is actually half white/half Korean, and as a fellow half-Asian I feel so seen

Read this one because I enjoyed the Netflix adaption (which was sort of Pride and Prejudice vibes but more horny). But in the book version, the male lead definitely isn't a Mr Darcy :( definitely very explicit for a 100 year old book, I can see why it was banned!

3.5 stars

I get that even though he's a prince, it doesn't automatically mean he's gonna have a happy life... but even so reading a book about him complaining about how his life was hard just felt really cringey. There's a lot of little jabs and accusations towards his family as well which is really something you can't walk back after the fact. Kinda sad and makes me wish he could have taken the high road in this situation.

I don't know if I want to give this a 4, it's not bad but it also took me over a month to finish reading it, so I kept forgetting the plot and what was happening so it was all a mess in my mind each time I picked the book back up!

YA fantasy book about two rival journalists in a wartime setting. Honestly not bad, ends on a huge cliffhanger though!

This is definitely very YA complete with the chosen one/underdog/love triangle tropes but it has DRAGONS so I let it slide a little bit. Honestly the romance is the worst part about this whole thing too which sucks.

Like all of Murakami's books, there's an uncomfortable level of how young female characters are sexualised and this book is definitely more on the uncomfy end with its plot points, but I guess with its surrealist tone it still sort of works and is an entertaining read.

A memoir about actress Jeanette McCurdy and the abuse she suffered by her mother - it's not a happy, fun read but definitely well written and interesting!

This novel is in the same universe as Leckie's other books, but I've honestly completely forgotten what they are about and I still enjoyed this one. The cool (or maybe a bit gross? idk) plot point of this book is that there's this alien race where to reach adulthood you have to merge with another so you end up with one consciousness across 2 bodies. Then there's some politicy stuff and some action so overall was a pretty fun read.

DNF at 25% - I was a big fan of Martha Wells' sci-fi so I was keen to give this fantasy book a go, but I found the plot to be quite confusing and it wasn't really hooking me :(

Had low expectations for this one considering the author's recent novellas were pretty bad. But this one was alright! It was a bit tropey at times but decentish plotline for a romance novel.

A short sci-fi novella. What made it interesting was it was from two POVs, a guy with a lot of technological advancements, plus a girl who has no knowledge of technology and so thought the dude was a sorcerer. Unfortunately it felt quite short!!

I'm liking this trend of feminist retelling of Greek myths, gimme more please!

A very tragic but real ww2 story. I'll admit it took me 3 months to get around to finishing it though.

I thought this book started off quite strong with an alternative history plot line, where a meteorite hitting earth and the threat of an extinction event kickstarts the space program in the 1950s.

However I felt it went a little downhill a bit from there as we got stuck into the plot line of the discrimination women faced in the 1960s in the workplace (and their lack of place within it as equals). Which yes, is real and happened and it sucks but I guess it didn't feel quite uplifting to read at times..

Nonetheless an interesting book though.