By Isabelle King (Y13)
A not-so-complete view into what sort of recommendations I actually follow up on. There might be a strong theme of fiction, but who likes being reminded of things that have actually happened? As someone once said (I have no clue where this is from), to be oblivious is to be free. I just looked it up, and it’s actually ignorance is bliss which sounds more philosophical, so we’ll stick with that. Anyway, enjoy a peek into what I’ve read this summer!
10. The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden
★★
Review: This book was cool in concept because it promised me unicorns, and who doesn’t love a good unicorn. But there were maybe 5 pages of unicorn content; the rest was a whole bunch of political intrigue and magical something, or rather.
9. The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
★★.5
Review: The first book in the Daevabad trilogy, and the most disappointing… not much happened in the grand scheme of things, but the description of 18th-century Cairo and Quranic mythology kept me reading!
8. The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty
★★★
Review: Following the last review, this is the second book of the series; there was just a little too much moping and internalised racism for me.
7. The Origins of the Russo-Japanese War by Ian Nish
★★★
Review: If you gaze into the looking glass, your fate is soon to be like mine if you choose HL History. Regardless, Ian Nish is the historiographer goat.
6. The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty
★★★
Review: As usual, the last book of the series is the best, unless we’re talking about Dune. The main character finally became semi-likable? In any case, she finally pulled her romantic feelings together, which is a win in my book.
5. This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews
★★★.5
Review: If you like Isekai, you’ll like this, as long as the Isekai that you like isn’t along the lines of “I was reincarnated as a microwave into a video game world, but all of my stats are at E rank 🤯”. This is not slop.
4. The Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang
★★★★
Review: A fan favourite, featuring… governments that don’t care about their people! A very fun book, not sad at all; you definitely won’t cry!
🥉 A Political History of the World by Jonathan Holslag
★★★★
Review: Sounds dull, but the author actually has a great active voice. It kinda reminds me of my dad telling me bedtime stories, but more academic, obviously.
🥈Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
★★★★★
Review: A classic for good reason; the dialogue was impeccable. That’s enough said, seriously; read it.
🥇Recursion by Blake Crouch
★★★★★
Review: This is probably biased because my all-time favourite genre is sci-fi, contrary to the amount of fantasy I read. But man, I love it when an author plays with time and alternate realities; it’s so addicting.