Tag: Dark academia

Sunday Summary – 30th October 2022

Posted on by

Hello and welcome back to another Sunday Summary post. As always, I hope you have had a fabulous week, whatever you have been up to!

Personally, this week didn’t get off to the best of starts as I managed to catch some of the winter lurgy going around. Thankfully nothing too sinister, and it passed through quite quickly. Still, for a day or two, I wasn’t feeling too hot.

Regardless, life goes on. In terms of my blog, I shared two posts with you this week. The first of those posts was my Top Ten Tuesday Halloween-themed post. For that freebie, I decided to share my top recommendations for spooky reads this Halloween season.

Later in the week, I shared a First Lines Friday post with you. In that post, I took a spontaneous approach to choosing the book I featured. I decided to look at my Goodreads homepage until something caught my eye. I ended up featuring the first book of a series that is on my TBR. What makes this more exciting is that this second book is actually a follow-up to what was supposed to be a standalone novel. I really like the sound of this one, I can’t wait to get around to reading it!

 

Books Read

As of last week’s Sunday Summary post, I was 34 pages into Babel by R.F. Kuang.

Admittedly, I haven’t made a lot of progress with this one this week. I think it’s going to be a slow-burn book for me, based on what I’ve read so far. I am enjoying it, but it’s not a book that I can devour. To be fair, my experience may be coloured by the fact that I haven’t been feeling my best this week. If I’m not feeling great, I find my attention span is a lot shorter than usual. So, even though I have sat down and made attempts to read Babel several times over the course of the week, I didn’t get through much page count before I inevitably end up scrolling on social media.

I have also been working on some other bits and pieces this week. I’ve obviously been working on blog content, but I’ve also been enjoying some creative free time and working on some of my ongoing knitting projects. You’re an ideal world I might have listened to an audiobook at the same time. However, I was really in the mood for music… And so that’s what I listen to instead! 

All of this amounts to not much reading progress. it is perhaps a little disappointing, but I’m not going to be able to read lots all the time. I don’t feel too guilty, because Last week I read about 500 pages!

Going forward, I am going to make another attempt at further progress with Babel tonight before moving on to another book I am reading for a blog tour post next week. I’m hoping the change of pace and the deadline will help kick my butt into some action!

 

Books Discovered

No news is good news, so they say. I’ve been very good and haven’t added any new books to my reading list this week!

 

Coming Up…

Next week is going to be a fun one in terms of blog content. Somehow, we are already at the end of October. Inevitably, I will be sharing my month-end wrap-up on Tuesday. I haven’t made oodles of progress as yet this month, but I will be re-capping everything I have read, including further progress made today and tomorrow, in that post.

I am changing up the schedule slightly and sharing my November TBR on Thursday next week. As always, I am setting myself a slightly ambitious list, but it’s one I’m very excited to attempt to tackle. As in previous months, I have a smaller number of fixed reads on that list, together with some mood reads that I like the sound of now. However, I have the freedom to change those mood reads at a later date if I change my mind. I have found it a good balance in terms of managing reads I have to pick up, but also giving myself the flexibility to read other books on a whim. On November’s TBR, I have two fixed reads, and three mood reads.

The change of schedule is to accommodate a blog tour post that I will be sharing on Saturday. You’ll find out some more detail about the book in my November TBR on Thursday. By the time that post goes live, I hope to have made either significant reading progress or to have finished it. I bet it will be the former scenario, but I can hope for the latter. 

And lastly, I’ll be back at the same time next week with another Sunday Summary post. with any luck, I’ll be able to share a lot more reading progress in that Sunday Summary than I’ve been able to share in this one!

Now, I’m off to go and pick up Babel. What are you reading?

 

signature

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Sunday Summary – 23rd October 2022

Posted on by

Good evening and welcome, as always, to my Sunday Summary update post. If you are new here, this is a weekly post in which I talk about the books I have been sharing and reading, and those acquired during the week! At the end of the post, I will also talk about what you can expect on my blog next week.

Let’s jump into this week’s updates!

I have been enjoying a week of work this week. It has been a really good one in terms of reading progress. On the blog, things have been very run-of-the-mill. On Tuesday, I shared a book review for a read I thoroughly enjoyed last year – The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This was an emotional five-star read, and I really enjoyed the unusual perspective. If you’re interested in my thoughts on this book, you can find a link to this post here.

Later in the week, I returned with a Shelf Control post. In this regular feature, I take a look at the books on my TBR to determine if they are still relevant. I feature one book at a time and talk specifically about why I am looking forward to reading it. This week’s book, much like my review on Tuesday, was a historical fiction novel. However, the similarities end there. Focusing on a completely different time period and continent, my shelf control feature is set in one of my favourite periods of history. If you haven’t read that post yet, there is a link here for that one!

 

Books Read

In my last Sunday Summary update post, I was 466 pages into Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb. I also shared that I was optimistic that I could finish this book this week, whilst I was off work.

I am pleased to say I did in fact finish this book! If you have ever read Robin Hobb for yourself, you will know that these are not easy books to read. There is a lot going on; the depth of world-building and detail means you cannot consume them quickly, however hard you try. I chipped away at the remaining half of this book across several sittings and finished the book on Thursday. As I expected, this was an absolutely phenomenal read. I really enjoyed how this book concluded. Most importantly, I can’t wait to see how the characters in these books come back later on in the series.

Next, I picked up my fixed read of the month, Blink of the Sun by Ross Kingston However, this didn’t go as well. In the end, I read just over 50 pages before I decided it wasn’t for me. It’s a shame because this was a book I really liked the sound of and had requested to read and review for the author. If you have never been in the situation before, sites such as BookSirens (via whom I downloaded this book) help you to provide feedback to the author. It isn’t a nice position to be in, but the one thing I pride myself on is being honest. It wasn’t for me, and if I had read and reviewed the book it would have reflected in my review.

After the unfortunate conclusion to Blink of the Sun, I decided to pick up Babel by R.F. Kuang. After receiving my copy of this book a couple of months ago, I’ve been dying to dive in. Admittedly, I’ve only really just started this book – I’m whole 34 pages in! A start is a start though, and one I want to build on. Naturally, I’ll update you next week’s Sunday Summary post with how I get on!

 

Books Discovered

I have one addition to my TBR this week, which is a little unusual in that it isn’t a genre I normally choose.

Kerry Tucker Learns to Live strikes me as a contemporary novel, but the synopsis indicates that there is something more going on. Having looked into the author, Louise also writes psychological thrillers. I’m hoping that an element of this comes into Kerry Tucker Learns to Live. Even if it doesn’t, I really enjoyed reading In Case You Missed It by Lindsey Kelk recently. Sometimes it’s good to have a change or palette cleanser, and that is my aim with reading this book. 

 

Coming Up…

Next week I have a fun and seasonal post to share with you on Tuesday. That particular post is part of the Top Ten Tuesday family. The topic is a freebie, provided it is Halloween-themed. With that in mind, I have decided to share my top ten Halloween reading recommendations for the spooky season!

Later in the week, I was supposed to be sharing my review of Blink of the Sun with you. However, as I am not reading and reviewing that book anymore, I will instead be sharing a First Lines Friday feature post with you. As of yet, that post has not been drafted. However, I’ll be getting onto this tomorrow night. So, I can’t even give you any spoilers as to what my featured book will be, as I haven’t decided yet! If you have any ideas of books you would like to see, or a challenge you would like me to take part in when selecting the book, let me know in the comments!

As always, I will be rounding up the week with another Sunday summary update post, at the same time next week.

 

That will do it for today though folks! Don’t forget to let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see in my First Lines Friday post; otherwise, I look forward to seeing you in the next one.

 

signature

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

First Lines Friday – 26/08/2022

Posted on by

Happy Friday and welcome to another First Lines Friday post! First Lines Friday is a regular series on my blog. It’s a fun way to share books I love, am interested in and/or are on my TBR. Sometimes I like to experiment with something new!

I was inspired to share the opening lines of today’s feature, as I recently received my Illumicrate exclusive edition. The book sounds amazing, and the edition I received is absolutely stunning! I shared a reel last Friday on Instagram of my unboxing, so if you haven’t checked that out, please go and check out my Instagram page.

Without further preamble, shall we dive into today’s First Lines Friday introduction?

 

By the time Professor Richard Lovell found his way through Canton’s narrow alleys to the faded address in his diary, the boy was the only one in the house left alive.

The air was rank, the floor slippery. A jug of water sat full, untouched by the bed. At first the boy had been too scared of retching to drink; now he was too weak to lift the jug. He was still conscious, though he’d sunk into a drowsy, half-dreaming haze. Soon, he knew, he’d fall into a deep sleep and fail to wake up. That was what happened to his grandparents a week ago, then his aunts the day after, and then Miss Betty, the Englishwoman, a day after that.

 

 

Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution

Genre: Historical Fantasy / Dark Academia

Pages: 560

Audience: Adult

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Publication Date: 23 Aug 2022

 

 

Goodreads – Babel

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation — also known as Babel.

Babel is the world’s center of translation and, more importantly, of silver-working: the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation through enchanted silver bars, to magical effect. Silver-working has made the British Empire unparalleled in power, and Babel’s research in foreign languages serves the Empire’s quest to colonize everything it encounters.

Oxford, the city of dreaming spires, is a fairytale for Robin; a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge serves power, and for Robin, a Chinese boy raised in Britain, serving Babel inevitably means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to sabotaging the silver-working that supports imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide: Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence? What is he willing to sacrifice to bring Babel down?

Babel — a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal response to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell — grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of translation as a tool of empire.

 

My Thoughts…

I’m excited I have received my copy of this book! When I initially signed up for Illumicrate’s book-only subscription, I didn’t know this was going to be the first book I received. However, I’m really excited it is! Fellow bloggers who have read advanced copies of this book have absolutely raved about it. As soon as I heard their thoughts, I knew I had to pick up a copy for myself. That I’ve got my hands on an exclusive edition only makes me happier! I had to feature it in this week’s First Lines Friday post. 

I’m most excited about exploring how the fantasy elements of the book entwine with the element of language and translation. It doesn’t seem to be a superficial element of the plot; if the content of the book has some academic element in itself, then this will appeal to me no end.

I had a place to attend university, but ultimately I made the decision several years ago not to attend. It wouldn’t have been for me in any case, (and in terms of career, I don’t think I could be more opposite in what I do now compared to what I intended to do, but I’m very happy with my decision). I get to explore the attendance of a university through this narrative and it is something that I’m looking forward to.

For readers who enjoy diverse character representation, then this book is right up your street! Written by American-Chinese author R.F. Kuang, this book is mainly told from the perspective of an Asian character. The author herself attended the University of Oxford, and in her exclusive letter included in this copy, she talks about her complex relationship with the institution. Described as both the university of her dreams, and yet also elitist and classist (to name just a couple of its less favourable traits), I hope to see the author’s own experience play out through Robin Swift‘s narrative.

If I go on to enjoy Babel as much as I suspect I will, then I have a number of books that R.F. Kuang has already published but I will be going back and reading. The Poppy War especially appeals to me!

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s First Lines Friday feature! Have you added Babel to your reading list? Does today’s introduction compel you to do so?

 

signature

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads