User Profile

altlovesbooks

altlovesbooks@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 months ago

I read a lot. Like, a lot, a lot. I’ve been reaching for a way to talk about books with people who care about books for a long time, and haven’t quite gotten it right yet.

I don’t have a preferred genre. I started reading fantasy as a kid, but have since branched out in many (many) different ways. If it has words, I’ll more than likely read it, especially if it comes recommended.

I'm also an actual honest-to-god librarian, am very active on the Book Lover’s Club Discord server, and play video games. I have a lot of things going at once, because I can’t stand to be idle.

I have (in order of preference) one husband, two cats, no kids.

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The Lions of al-Rassan (2005, Eos) 4 stars

The ruling Asharites of Al-Rassan have come from the desert sands, but over centuries, seduced …

Why did I wait so long to read this one?

5 stars

”One sun for the god. Two moons for his beloved sisters. Uncountable, stars to shine in the night. Oh, man and woman, born to a dark path, only look up and the lights shall guide you home.”

I can’t believe I took this long to read this book. I’m a loud and proud lover of GGK’s books, and up until this point my favorite of his was Under Heaven. How could any book be better than Under Heaven, I wondered. Surely, at most, it’d be just on par with it. I’d definitely get around to it sooner or later.

How very wrong I was. This book is now easily my favorite GGK book, by a very large margin.

To summarize a very complex book, circumstances bring together a small band of people from very different backgrounds, both political and religious. They bond through shared circumstances, and then find their bonds …

Lost City of the Monkey God (2017, Grand Central Publishing) 4 stars

More like "Lost City of leishmaniasis"

3 stars

Here lies my expectations, completely unmet.

Yes, a lost city is discovered. Two, actually, but we only hear about one of them for reasons. The other is mentioned a few times, but I have no idea if anything significant was there. Yes, the City of the Monkey God was mentioned in the leadup to exploring the city (also called the White City), but it never was said if this city was actually the city of legend or not. Yes, this was a true story, but more of a true story about the leishmaniasis disease than a true story about lost city exploration.

I loved the first half of the book leading up to the expedition. There was a ton of information laid out about the legend of the White City and the technological means they used to map out difficult to explore jungle regions in search of the ruins. I …

Sweet bean paste (2017) 4 stars

"Sentaro has failed. He has a criminal record, drinks too much, and his dream of …

Dorayaki lovers, read this

4 stars

Content warning major plot point/ending spoilers here

Nightwatch on the Hinterlands (2022, DAW) 4 stars

Captain of the good ship Iari x Gaer

4 stars

“Courage is facing that which is within your strength to face but doing so does not guarantee your victory.”

What a delightful little murder mystery in a sci-fi setting with delightful characters and a well fleshed out world. Evidently this book is set in the same universe as some of the author’s other books, but this is very clearly able to be read without prior knowledge. This book just clicked with me in a way that’s hard to describe, but I think has a lot to do with giving my imagination just enough rope to imagine being in the same city on the same world with the same problems, but not too much rope that I felt lost. It’s a delicate balancing act with sci-fi that I think the author does very well.

Lieutenant Iari, a tenju Templar, and Gaer the ambassador she’s supposed to be protecting investigate a mysterious …