Coffeespoons

10:28AM - Still in Grab, on my way to Drafts. Late, like the last 2 times.😛 Bringing the following books… I See Yellow Flowers in the Green Grass (Vietnamese lit) and The Indio & The Impaler (Filipino lit) 10:48AM - Made it! Not late, because we're just starting the silent reading portion. 2:31PM - Omg, just finished the discussion. And here ends my update, because I basically forgot. I do want to say that these Read & Meet sessions organized by Alexx are a joy and truly a lovely way to spend Saturday mornings. A few of us are "regulars" now, but always happy whenever a new person joins the mix. I was reading I SEE YELLOW FLOWERS IN THE GREEN GRASS, which I've since finished and is honestly a delight. During my turn yapping--and God forgive me, but I yap a lot--talked about how I bought this in Hanoi as I was looking for a bestseller or a beloved book that wasn't declared a beloved book from the lens of Western translators/publi...

Look! I have tabs! (Originally published on Wordpress, 11 Nov 2025 ) This was a joy of a book. Reminds me of the headiness of falling into N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy . Or the wonder of discovering Eddings’ The Mallorean series (please don’t hate me. I really did love The Mallorean when I was a teen) or Terry Brooks’ Shannara series . You know: complex but truly well done worlds, amazing characters that you like, a magic system that makes sense within the world, great pacing, and astute social commentary. To give a little bit of context, Foundryside is set in a world where objects are scrived—a process where words or symbols are written on an object to make them do things that may or may not be opposed to their nature. And the purpose of scriving objects is, presumably, to make life easier for people because, say, you can scrive a carriage’s wooden wheels to go faster. Except that the instructions and know-how for scriving are owned by only four families who live...

  Have long waited for a Del Rey title to  win the Hugo , and now, here we are! It’s also won the  World Fantasy Awards  recently.  Anyway, I feel like I’ve slept on Robert Jackson Bennet for so long, despite strong recommendations from readers I trust. I sought to remedy that recently.  So now, I’ve finished the book. And by golly, I love it. I love Ana and Din. I love the world Bennett created. I love how weird but utterly logical it is. I love how things are revealed and how the action is driven forward. I love the deadpan humor. I love how the mystery is thrown into relief by the reality of leviathans threatening all their lives that everything else pales in comparison. I even love the names (because sometimes, names in SF&F books kind of make me cringe).  Reading THE TAINTED CUP reminded me of the joy of starting an SF&F series by an excellent writer. It reminded me a bit of how it felt to read Jemisin’s The Fifth Season (though Jemisin’s ...