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Books By The Kilo, Port Stanley, ON (2026)

02/10/2022

Last person on the planet to do it but I don't think ANYone expects me to be timely anymore lol. I was not feeling particularly letsgodigging-y, so I kinda stuck to what I’ve read. Thanks for the tag, Shwe!

🥔 Describe yourself: Unorthodox (Deborah Feldman)

🥔 How are You: Minor Feelings (Cathy Park Hong)

🥔 Describe the place where you currently are: Cloud Cuckoo Land (Anthony Doerr)

🥔 If you could go anywhere right now: The House in the Cerulean Sea (TJ Klune)

🥔 Your favourite means of transport: The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins)

🥔 Your best friend(s): Honey Girl (Morgan Rogers)

🥔 You and your best friends are: Filthy Animals (Brandon Taylor)

🥔 What's the weather like: The Stone Sky (N.K. Jemisin)

🥔 Your favourite moment of the day: Men Explain Things to Me (Rebecca Solnit) /s

🥔 What is life like for you: Ghachar Ghochar (Vivek Shanbag)

🥔 Your biggest fear: The Shadows (Alex North)

🥔 What's the best advice you've been given: Home is Not a Country (Safia Elhillo)

🥔 Thought of the day: Winter Counts (David Husk Wanbli Weiden)

🥔 How would you wish to die: Educated (Tara Westover)

🥔 The current state of your soul: With the Fire on High (Elizabeth Acevedo)

🥔 Your dream: Everything, Everything (Nicola Yoon)

I’ve taken creative freedom in getting things to fit as you can see 🙈 if you haven’t done the challenge yet and you’re inclined to try, consider yourself tagged!

PS: I figured y'all see enough of my moonji (face), so here's my butt for a change.

02/07/2022

What was your favourite ? I was pretty stoked with the ones I found:

If you like , try Gods of Mercy.
If you like about fire female characters, try Olga Dies Dreaming.
If you're a brown girl and want to feel so so seen, read Brown Girls.
If you want to understand the other side of the 'Nam war, read Em.

And ofc, Donna Tartt is Donna Tartt is Donna Tartt. Her writing is self indulgent at times, but there is an undeniable *quality* about the stories she chooses to tell and the characters she chooses to tell them through. Her books are not for everyone, for sure, but those who like them will feel positively bereft once the stories are over. I know I did.

Finally, if there is one thing I learnt by completing the , it's that once you start reading, you won't really stop at one page. So if one of your goals for 2022 is to "read more", tell yourself you'll read "just one page today".

A buttload of love to for reading my first Jhumpa Lahiri with me and for getting started with me on The Goldfinch. I don't think I'd have picked either of those books without y'all and I would have truly, truly missed out.

12/31/2021

TLDR: Happy 2022 to you and yours ❤️ I hope it brings you loads of reasons to smile (books and otherwise).

Breaking up my feed with a non-planned, non-aesthetic, non-perfect picture. Heads up! Mandatory ‘byebye 2021’ post.

What a rollercoaster it’s been. I started the year out with great expectations. I got COVID, gained back all the weight I lost in 2020, spent more money than I ever have in my entire life, saved more than I ever have, picked my life up and started from scratch all over again (for the fifth time in a decade), bought a house, made a home, switched careers yet again, learned a whole load of new things about dealing with people, learned to change light fixtures (beyond just screwing a bulb in) and painting accent walls by myself, adopted another kitten, cooked more than 80% of my meals (which is insane to me coz I detest cooking for myself), lost my temper a little lesser than the previous years, attempted to be a little kinder to myself. I missed the fam and friends a f**k ton, somehow, that never goes away.

It’s been a pretty full life.

So I’d completely deprioritized reading to make space for everything else, but guess what, I still found myself reading every chance I got - I’m still in the middle of a book rn, but I’m well past the 100 mark and that’s **insane** to me. INSANE. It’s making me happy (not the number, that doesn’t really say anything), but that reading isn’t something that I have to set a quota for and ‘achieve’, something to ‘make’ time for. In the past, reading has always been a refuge, somewhere to go when everything else seems crap. But now, books are just home.

And boy oh boy, have some AMAZING reads found me this year. I kept up the momentum I found in 2020 (through this account) of reading things that actually matter. I can’t wait to share them with you, some guaranteed to make you weep (at how awesome they are, not Little Life weep).

{finally caving in to “cont. in comments”}

06/05/2021

My version of and all rolled in one.

HAIII. I’m PV, I’m feminist, agnostic, a cat parent, a South Asian expat in Canada. Editor for work, I ‘manage’ digital content. I’m multilingual (as a lot of Indians are), most expressive in English.

I’m loyal to a fault. If I love you, I’m constantly trying to fix things for you. I have a temper and I can be annoying about having data (to decide where to eat, for eg) and planning (for “impromptu” trips). I’m hopeless at packing and singing. I love dance - not very good at it either, but do it anyway. My spice tolerance levels are high (even by desi standards). Also, I remember every lyric of songs I hated from a gazillion years ago, idek why.

When I was younger, ma used to buy books (by the kilo) as gifts (on birthdays/ doing well in school). That’s how I got into reading/ the story behind my username.

I never feel like I’m doing enough.

Non-exhaustive, extremely random lists:

🥨 Fave food:
Saucy lasagnas, idli + mum’s sambhar (specifically hers, I’ve been traumatized by random sambhars), chole bhature, soya anything, guacamole anything , chonky burrito bowls, chonky sammies, taro bubble teas, dessert EVERYthing

💻 Fave shows: Criminal Minds, Fleabag
🤗 Comfort shows: Friends, The Office

💪 Things I care about:
- Womxn's financial independence/ literacy - especially in BIPOC communities
- Being better than I was yesterday
- Uninterrupted access to fresh chocolate chip cookies

😬 Unpopular opinions I hold:
- I detest shopping: having to buy clothes or shoes stresses me out like nothing else can
- PINEAPPLE ON PIZZA ANY DAY WTF Y'ALL xD

👍 Things I hold myself accountable for:
- Being vegetarian
- Voting with my money (not my mouth)
- Consuming mindfully (clothes, content, books, everything - food is freeforall tho)
- Listening to all sides of the argument before forming an opinion
- Looking for credible sources for everything/ questioning EVERYthing
- Accepting choices people make for themselves even if its not what I'd do

🥰 Things that make my day:
- Changing someone's opinion
- Data-driven compliments
- People saying I’m funny
- HUGS

Wanna be friends?

05/25/2021

I know I posted a story review on pub day but I really wanted a record of this beauty on my timeline for two reasons:

1) Opal
2) Opal

Thank you, and for my ARC, I was ecstatic to be approved. ECSTATIC, no less.

Not-so-greats:

🧐 Sunny didn’t feel like an MC even though most of the story was from her perspective. Not sure how that could be resolved though.

🤨 The overall pacing slowed down somewhere in between and I found my attention wavering then.

👉 I personally loved the oral history format with the editor’s notes and all, but I recognize that it might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Greats:

❤ The story is nuanced in the way it captures the intersection of race, the politics of it, and the entertainment industry. It weaves in facts and social commentary with fiction so engagingly, just like with Evelyn, I bet you’ll find yourself Googling the characters - it is that kind of storytelling.

😍 To me, this book is Daisy Jones meets Evelyn Hugo, but grittier/ more intense. What starts out feeling like a fun time, takes a turn for the profound, in the best possible way (for the reader, not for the characters).

👏 Each character feels very real; there are quite a few of them, but the author has given unique voices, so at no point was I confused.

🤩 Fabulously flawed and absolutely unforgettable, Opal is who I want to be when I grow up. She has a permanent place in my heart for knowing exactly who she is and owning it.

Verdict:

3.75/ 5
I also want to get the audiobook soon, I’ve heard great things about it.

Do I Recommend?

YES, please. This is a very strong debut. I’m not into the music scene all that much (read: at all), so if you’re into music, this will be *that* much more special to you. Dawnie Walton has a writing voice I really enjoy and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next!

05/19/2021

Crux of the matter: When you try to shame someone into action, the ONLY lasting achievement you can claim is to have made them defensive/ fearful.

Quoting , “there are 2 types of people: political and apathetic”. So, take a stand. Doesn’t have to be a production, but definitely educate yourself and take a stand. Don’t sit on a pile of privilege, harness it.

But somewhere along the way, holding people accountable in taking a stand has devolved into shaming/cancel culture.

Shaming someone, anyone, is the EASY way out. ‘Unfortunately’, our success as allies to a cause is not measured in terms of how bad we make someone feel. It's measured by the change we effect, small or big.

Instead, when you feel like someone is being apathetic, initiate conversation. Understand WHY, before you demand. Share resources. Listen to their concerns. Address them with all the information in your arsenal. HAVE an arsenal of information to begin with.

It might *still* not work, but it puts the seed of a different perspective in their head, and that is still more productive, more hopeful, than being dismissed coz we took the easy way out and gave them reason to say “people who support are rabid”.

But with conversation, you’re taking away their only reason to NOT do the work.

I’m definitely not saying its easy. It is one of the most difficult things you’ll ever do, tbh - keep your cool and think of logical things to say when all you want to do is punch repeatedly. It also takes great amounts of respect and effort from both parties.

But I know it IS possible from first-hand experience and actual change is ALWAYS worth this effort.

Definitely not advocating for “showing the other cheek” or putting up with garbage. If they behave like dicks, then by all means, do what you will. But you owe it to your cause to at least TRY to be kind/ helpful first.

PS: All of this crap applies to regular humans, not ones who think its ok to randomly send death/ r**e threats or abuse in DMs. “Block” exists for a reason.

PPS: Also, remember, someone somewhere is benefitting from all these divisions we create.

04/21/2021

We apparently do tags on this page now. I used to not, because I don't ever have the physical books or the talent to make them look interesting but idc anymore, I'm going to be doing ALL the tags and you can't stop me!! Prepare for a mid-summer sweater challenge that I was tagged in six months ago (among others). That's how chaotic we are around here now.

ANYHOO.

This tag is from (who didn't quite tag me but I jumped at the chance) because LOOK AT THESE GORGEOUS BABIES? I needed an excuse to shout them out (I didn't, but lets go with that).

Prepare for a stream of consciousness caption:

1) Anyaay () and were the straws that broke the camel's back with their reviews. Severe on not having read it yet.

2) ReadwithCindy had GOOD things to say about this book. SAY WHAT NOW? That girl is SO difficult to please. Also, hopefully, I'll finish this in time for 's meet at the end of the month?

3) How can you read that blurb and want to read anything else?

4) I read "How Beautiful We Were" one day and howled. Went down an Mbue rabbit hole. And now we are here.

5) I don't know how/ where I found this, but I want to read it yesterday.

6) Doesn't require anything to be said about it. Pliss to contact me only if you hated it, in which case, I'd love to know why.

I dare not say this is a because of how chaotic my reading has been this April and its only the 20th. But I REALLY hope I have the common sense to read them soon.

At this point, let's all just agree that we're getting buried with TBRs high enough to topple over.

ALSO: My way of coping with distressing news is to stick my neck/ head in the ground (yk? like a cowardly ostrich?), but I hope you and yours are staying safe.

04/16/2021

I write this while wondering what exactly I am - geographically, I’m Asian, but the Western definition of “Asian” doesn’t include where I’m from. But then again, do I care enough to find out?

ATTN:

This is one person’s experience. Echoed by many, but still one POV. I categorically state that this is NOT a problem with the book, but I’m calling it out because it IS important to not indulge in generalizations that we seem to be prone to.

Also, if you don’t relate to what Hong is talking about, reading Minor Feelings **may** be a slog.

Greats:

👏 There is an honesty to the writing, a certain rawness, that HAS to be appreciated. It can’t have been easy, all the work she seems to have put in, inside and out.

👍 I deeply appreciated the conversation around microaggressions; in my experience, first-gen immigrants don’t understand (or choose to be oblivious to aka self-preservation) that s**t. This affects future generations in ways that you don’t really foresee.

❤ Hong brings in history and cultural analyses to help contextualize things, this helps your understanding of the ‘why’, which is as important as the ‘how’.

Verdict:

Minor Feelings helped me step out of my own world lens and view it from someone else’s to rejoice (or commiserate) in our similarities and differences.

Also, by the time I was done, I admit to feeling a little defeated. Colonizers had this “brilliant” idea to divide and rule - we didn’t have a choice then, but we do now. Despite that, we choose to let these divisions seep into every sphere of our coexistence and dictate the way we treat each other - to say the least, it is not always with kindness. We’ve been taught to hate things in ourselves and when we see it reflected, we tend to hate that as well. I digress though. That is a whole other conversation.

TLDR: It'd do ALL of us well to examine our minor feelings more.

Do I Recommend?

100%. This is not a book you read for entertainment. You read Minor Feelings (and the like) to develop empathy, to understand a little better, to name those feelings you’ve felt but aren’t articulate enough to express.

04/13/2021

Stop glorifying women as being a special species with special skills that apparently come as a package deal with a specific anatomy.

PEOPLE can/ can't cook. PEOPLE can/ can't change tyres. PEOPLE are/ aren't good with numbers. PEOPLE can/ can't run a household.

See where I'm going with this?

And if you say there are still "natural" differences that we need to "acknowledge", they probably come from millennia of stereotyping (that won't disappear overnight).

These depressing stereotypes are horrifyingly harmful in two ways:

1) Womxn have to constantly perform at a high level of virtue for acceptance (apart from dealing with all the other crap like physical safety, sexual freedom, whatever else).

2) Men's agencies get taken away; they don't get to decide what kind of person they want to be either - they HAVE to drive stick, know how to invest, and "take care" of the "family" JUST coz they're men. Toxic masculinity, anyone?

So, don't force womxn to be a great wife or daughter or sister, want us to be (if you have to) great people. We just want to eat great food, learn to do interesting s**t, cuddle, ask for help or bawl when necessary, do things with our lives that make us happy, and BE, yk?

And we can't do that when we are performing monkeys, can we?

P.S: Eyre is an EPIC character and this Bronte sis knew what was good.

03/26/2021

The one year anniversary of when we first started going on lockdowns came... and went. But here we are, still waiting for vaccines, still walking a giant circle away from people without masks, still becoming petrified when someone sneezes or says they can't smell/ taste something, and still worried about loved ones.

I don't know of a better way to "celebrate" than to pretend I'm in Feb 2020 when "pandemic" was only something I read about in dystopian fiction.

QOTD: Are you still washing your hands/ groceries/ light switches?

03/23/2021

My Feb reading was mostly garbage, so I picked up The Flatshare in a last-ditch, desperate attempt to break the blah cycle. Pretty much everyone I trust had nothing but good things to say about it, so the decision was a no-brainer.

Not-so-greats:

If I’m being a POS, I’d probably say that the premise isn't quite practical and everything works out too neatly (as is typical). But I won’t. I refuse to nitpick when it's not necessary.
Greats:

👏My pet peeve with romance as a genre is that the MCs are almost never relatable. Drop-dead gorgeous people with fake flaws, farcical problems, and guaranteed happily-ever-afters. I’m old. And cynical. I know how far from the truth fluff really is, so I don’t care for it. Which is why it was so great to read about Tiff and Leon. Their problems are real. Their lives feel real.

❤Adult friendships are underrated - once you stop being YA, very few friendships survive situational changes that life inevitably brings (i.e. moving, children). Friendships also seem to demand a certain unconditionality, which most people are unable to offer. So, I loved that Tiff has these friends. People who understand that trying to pry her away from an abusive boyfriend is an absolute no-no but don’t judge her for staying; who are there to help her pick up the pieces when the time is right for her; who do insensitive things but apologize and Tiff knows already that they didn’t mean to be insensitive, they’re just who they are.
We’re all looking for love, when we should (also?) be looking for friendships like these.

👍Underlying themes add a darker layer to the otherwise sweet story. But not enough to take an emotional toll, which was the perfect amount of dark that I required then.

It has so much more going for it, but I’ll let you discover them on your own.

Verdict:

4/5 - this is not a typical “fluffy read” to break up a bunch of intense reads, The Flatshare deserves its own spot in the limelight.

Recommendation:

If romance isn’t your regular fare, I’d reckon you’d enjoy this even more. I’m excited to explore more of Beth O’Leary’s lovely writing voice.

03/20/2021

Before I get to the quote:

Tell me, do you like big books and you cannot lie? Or does size matter, in that you won't pick up a book based on the number of pages it has?

Me? I rarely check the number of pages going into a book, because if I love the story, I'm capable of finishing 700 pages in one sitting (highly DON'T recommend, it's not... healthy). But I'm the same person who takes 87237841249823 days to read 150 pages of (what I think is) a stuffy story.

RE: THE QUOTE. Did you LMAO? DIDJU?

I'm reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell for the readathon hosted by @mostlybooking and - I'm only 10 chapters in and I've laughed WAYY too much. This sardonic Brit humour is giving me life and I'm also getting a little nostalgic for my Jeeves + Holmes + St. Clare's phase (aka peak reading era).

No matter how I feel at the end of these 1000+ pages, great job picking, you guys 👏👏 I don't think I'd have ever found/ read this left to my own devices.

P.S: I hope you have the perfect weekend, potatoes!

Books By The Kilo

02/10/2022

02/07/2022

12/31/2021

06/05/2021

05/25/2021

05/19/2021

04/21/2021

04/16/2021

04/13/2021

03/26/2021

03/23/2021

03/20/2021

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