When I first read My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, back in 2024, I loved it. I didn’t write a review at the time because I had no idea what to write. The only thing that occurred to me was “this is great. Read it. Period”. While that might be enough, it felt too short for me. Now that I’ve finished the second book in the series, The Story of a New Name, I think I have a better idea of how I can describe the reading experience. Title: My Brilliant Friend Author: Elena Ferrante Series: Neapolitan Novels #1 Publication year: 2011 Length: 12 hours 38 minutes Genre: Literary Fiction, Drama Pace: Medium Story focus: Character Lila is missing. The story starts in the present, when Elena discovers that her friend is missing. She quickly realises that this is just another one of Lila’s ideas. Determined not to let her …

From the author of Divergent comes another dystopian story. Not quite like the others, Poster Girl presents a quest for justice while never changing the world. Ever since I first opened the pages of Divergent, it has had a special place in my heart. It was my very first book series and my introduction to dystopian fiction. A subgenre of sci-fi that I enjoy a lot and should seriously read more of. Since then, Veronica Roth has released multiple books, mostly falling into the fantasy genre. So when she got back to sci-fi, I knew I wanted to read it. I didn’t care about the plot as long as it was sci-fi. I trusted Roth would deliver something I would like. And I wasn’t wrong. Title: Poster Girl Author: Veronica Roth Publication year: 2022 Length: 10 hours 43 minutes Genre: Mystery, Dystopian, Sci-fi Pace: Slow Story focus: Character Sonya is …

FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is hitting hard this time. Pokémon Pokopia is everywhere, and I’m guessing that if you are reading this, then we are probably on the same boat. I don’t have a Nintendo Switch 2, so I can’t play Pokopia. Yet, this game is on my mind 24/7. I want to indulge in every video and stream about this game because that’s the closest thing I can do to satiate my craving. But I don’t think it’s working. The truth is, the only game that can satiate the craving to play Pokopia is playing Pokopia. I know, it’s awful. But that’s the only solution. I’ve been on this boat many times to know how it works. However, I am not going to buy a new console to play only one game when I have perfectly good consoles (plural) to choose from and with games that I’ve barely …

Ever since I bought a Kindle, sooner or later, people will come to me asking if I recommend buying a Kindle. The short answer is always: no. The longer answer is: it depends. I’m not writing this post to influence you to buy a Kindle. Quite the opposite, actually. I don’t want you to buy one. While handy, there can be better options than buying a Kindle. So why did I buy a Kindle? I bought my Kindle back in 2017, and it wasn’t an impulsive decision. At that time, I was doing blog tours for upcoming books, which meant I was reading a lot of ebooks. I would read them on my phone, my computer or even on my iPad Mini (a fossil I received from my mother, but to read works just fine). However, it can get really tiring to read from a bright, glossy screen over time. …

What would you do if your identity were suddenly erased? Set to publish on March 24th, Erased by Miha Mazinni shows the reader just that. A tale about how over 25,000 Slovene citizens were erased from their computer systems in 1992, leaving them all without an identity. Thank you to the publisher, Fly on the Wall Press, for an early copy of this book. Title: Erased Author: Miha Mazinni Publication year: 2026 Length: 270 pages Genre: Historical, Political, Fiction Pace: Fast Story focus: Plot & Characters Told in third person, the story follows Zala, a pregnant woman who is about to give birth. Everything during the pregnancy went normally, until her water broke and she rushed to the hospital, just to discover that her name didn’t exist in the computer database. What comes after is a succession of revelations, leaving her without an identity, like a foreigner, and her baby …

I just read one of the best books of my life. No words can truly express the magnitude and appreciation that I have for this piece of literature. I was curious to see how the story ends, and now that I have, my days are a bit empty. I want to go back to a time when I still had more chapters to read. Closing the book was like losing something. The end of a friendship before you are ready to part ways. I want it back in my life. I want it as part of my day-to-day again. Title: Wuthering Heights Author: Emily Brontë Publication year: 1847 Length: 14 hours 15 minutes Genre: Gothic, Drama, Classic Pace: Slow Story focus: Character Calling Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë a classic is doing a disservice. We should find another way to classify classic literature. Putting them all in the same bag …

I’m in one of the weirdest reading eras of my reading career. It’s not exactly a slump, but I can’t finish books. I keep growing my list of currently reading, and yet the books never graduate to the read shelf. And it’s becoming quite overwhelming. I can read multiple books at the same time, but I can juggle only a certain amount at one time. And looking at my spreadsheet, I’ve been like this for a while… October October was the month of the TBR Harvest readathon. I’ve missed a themed readathon even though I have a mixed relationship with them. This pushed me to finally grab a TBR veteran, Frozen Heat by Richard Castle. I had already decided not to continue with this book series. However, this book ended in the middle of a revelation. So obviously, I have to go read the next. Don’t you love it when …

For the longest time, the talk around perfectionism to me was always very… unhelpful. I think that’s the right word. I am a certified perfectionist. And have been trying to overcome it for a long time. So I’ve read and listened to a lot of talk about it. But time and time again, there was always something that didn’t click. The advice is always the same: recognise and then take action. Act despite the fear. Act despite the friction. Act and fail intentionally. And it’s not bad advice. But there was always something that was missing for me. I get an itch on my brain. It tells me that something is not quite right, but I can’t put my finger on it, just yet. I guess this is my gut feeling. He simply hasn’t learn all the words he needs to communicate better with me. When I was reading Refuse …

The waiting is over. After raving about Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher and promising a review “soon”, that time has arrived. This is my new bible and possibly a book that I should read every year so I never forget who I am and what matters the most to me. I can’t promise you you’ll have a great connection with this book like I do, because in the realm of self-help books, everything is very subjective. However, I can share why I love it. And perhaps you’ll find there is something more to the endless list of hobbies you have than you might think. Title: Refuse to Choose: Use all of your interests, passions, and hobbies to create the life and career of your dreams Author: Barbara Sher Publication year: 2006 Length: 268 pages Genre: Non-fiction, Self-help, Psychology “Are you a scanner?” Barbara starts by asking this very simple …

Some readers will unapologetically put down any book they are not that interested in. Meanwhile, others have to finish all the books they ever started. I think I stand somewhere in the middle. I’ve closed books vowing to never open them again, while also finishing some that I shouldn’t have wasted my time with. But what I started to realise was the various reasons I gave myself to DNF a book. Online book communities tend to use a lot of acronyms, and for newcomers it’s normal not be sure what some of these words mean. In case you don’t know, DNF stands for Did Not Finish. It can also be expanded to Soft DNF and Hard DNF. People usually use Soft DNF for books they aren’t finishing right now, but want to come back to them later. Maybe life got busy. Maybe the story requires a certain headspace. There are …

In 2025, I finished reading the last book in the Robert Langdon series by Dan Brown. And to celebrate, a few weeks later, the author announced the next book in the series ( I should really finish A Song of Ice and Fire to see if George R. R. Martin does the same). I was very excited to have a new book to read. And then it was announced that a female character was returning. This is a first. Robert Langdon’s female sidekicks are always new characters. Basically, the whole cast is always new from book to book, making them perfect to start at any point. While this news was exciting, what I didn’t like was discovering the character in question was Katherine Solomon. Previous co-star in The Lost Symbol, AKA the book I disliked the most in the series. Title: The Secret of Secrets Author: Dan Brown Series: Robert …