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@readwithkath

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recommending only my favorite reads🐞mostly old-school, epic fantasy, historical, and asian lit🐛 #bookreviewer

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late post but here are some of my memories from the last cosmic market event! my first ever gaming-related event EVER for someone who's been playing ever since as a batang wala masyadong social life!

avoided MMOs like the plague but im so happy i gave ffxiv a chance as a long-time final fantasy fan 🫶🏼

6-7th haven 😭😭😭😭 ifykyk

nagpapicture ako sa di ko kilala (wala pa kasi ako sa dawntrail when i came to the event) i just finished recently so kilala ko na sila ayun

kath be like: nak picturan kita jan nak

you are a kind soul, @katsison 🧡

love the artists for doing this!!

this is my warrior of light! tho i just changed appearance recently but posting this for the memory

with my boi alphinaud

graha is my ult and alphinaud is nanjan lang

met new people and they were the nicest ✨ enjoyed the day fully!!

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You know that feeling when a book’s ending ties everything together perfectly?

That’s how I felt after finishing The Hero of Ages.

So I asked my fellow Bookstagrammers:
What books are just as satisfying?

Here are their picks.

Special thanks to:
@stacey.behindthepen
@readwithkath
@serpentsintheshelves
@library_of_jericho
@kbreviewsbooks

Go follow these guys for the best recommendations 🫶🏼

What books would you add to this list?

#bookrecommendations #bookstagrammer #booksta #bookrecs #bookcommunity

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1 YEAR ON BOOKSTAGRAM! 🎉📚

Actually, my 1-year anniversary was on March 2nd, but I totally missed it! 🫣

Grateful for everyone who’s been here supporting me! 🥹

Big thanks to @anna.read.it and @mmira.reads for giving me the push I needed to start this journey🫂

It’s so hard to tag everyone, so if you’ve supported me in any way, thank you so much! 🫶🏻 My style has changed three times over the past year, and I’m so happy with how my page looks now! ✨

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thoughts on blood over bright haven by m.l. wang (spoiler-free review) 📖✏️ + annotations

this is feminine rage that actually demonstrates the full arc of being faced with a system that is built against you, including the turmoil and crash outs that come with it

it explored the very real fact that when a system falls and fails, the people who suffer the most are the ones who have already been oppressed in the first place (i.e. the women + Kwen/minority)

I am convinced M.L. Wang has unlocked the formula to slicing out a part of a fantasy world within a much bigger world while feeling like all you need is right here — the secret formula to writing Standalone Fantasy that is, in every sense of the word, complete. This is apparent in both Sword of Kaigen and Blood Over Bright Haven wherein you feel a story has begun before we started reading and there will be a story that continues on even after turning the last page. It’s very realistic in the sense that we know, in our own real life, how there’s so much to explore but we have a place right here that’s brimming with experiences and love. It made the characters and who they are relative to their setting feel that much more real

it exemplified systemic injustice to the dot. IN A STANDALONE FANTASY!!! It did in one binding what takes other series 3+ books to do… sometimes not even that well

it also highlights a discussion on privilege and how we aren’t absolved from one kind of prejudice just because we experience another – through complex characterizations through morally complicated characters that you also can’t help but get attached to 🫂 *breathes*

I can scream and cry about this all day but really all i want is to relive this book and i’m glad i took my sweet time reading. She was very clear with what she wanted out of this story and her ability to flush out incredible characterizations within limited settings and pages is incredible. If you haven’t already read it, this is required reading. Go read it right now. But if you want my opinion: take your time reading it as I did.

a customary: *chef’s kiss*

[swipe for full review —>]

5.0

#altheasreviews fantasy bookstagram

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Yes, this is 100000% scientifically accurate. And no, I will not elaborate further. Drop your zodiac and tell me if my favorite titles exposed you 😝 Because mine definitely did (I'm a Virgo and it hurt in 4KHD)

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Crime fiction is not a “popular” genre of choice for Filipino readers because the pursuit of justice is in a way an elusive fairytale in the country. And when you live in a country where cult leaders and child rapists who speak the name of God are only given a slap in the hand, where egotistical and fragile male actors with zero governance experience become senators, and where extrajudicial killings exist as a norm, reading crime fiction won’t really be appealing as it doesn’t let you escape the depressing reality.

It’s kind of indulgent to ask for justice even in our fiction especially when most crimes are left unsolved.

In a way this is how Filipino crime fiction has evolved in the country: political corruption, poverty, and religion. F.H. Batacan nailed this in her seminal work Smaller and Smaller Circles which is about two Jesuit priests with forensic experience investigate murders in the slums of Manila.

Now she has published another crime book (finally!) after so many years and it’s Accidents Happens in which the core themes still revolve around politics, corruption, poverty, and religion in a way.

Alongside F.H. Batacan, another Filipino crime author I’m very excited to read is Ronaldo Vivo Jr. with his book Ang Bangin Sa Ilalim Ng Ating Paa, clearly a book critiquing the National Police with its on the nose book cover design. He has more books published and I’m really excited to read books in Filipino again! Another one on my list is Kuwentong Butsero by J.L Chua but I still have yet to find a physical copy of it!

This year, I’m definitely exploring more local crime fiction and I think its an underrated but clearly crucial part of Filipino literature. I’m open to book recs if you have any!!!

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ladybug books 🐞

— are any of these your faves or are on your tbr? (i have multiple faves here 👀)

i’m currently reading black salt queen and i seriously cannot get enough !! i feel like i’ve been hitting the jackpot with my fantasy picks lately

thank you calli @funky_reads for giving me a reason to show off some books :> i haven’t done one of these in a while so if anyone wants to do this, consider yourself tagged from me!

books featured:
• the enchanted
• the fires of vengeance (series is priority TBR!)
• jade war
• city of heavenly fire
• the mime order (series is priority TBR!)
• the art of war
• blood over bright haven
• a conjuring of light
• the boneshard daughter

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When was the last time you read longform writing on the internet?

I read these last week with the intention of avoiding the perpetual doom scroll. There was a little bit of resistance at first but as I read more slowly, it helped me calm down. Which is kind of an alien experience when you’re using the internet.

“Scrolling, I realise, is its own kind of rushing. The endless flick of the thumb, chasing a flash of stimulation, tiny sparks of dopamine that fizzle out as quickly as they arrive. I think about how much I’ve scrolled without knowing what I was looking for; how little I remember of what I’ve seen. It’s like casting a net into the void, hoping to pull up something meaningful, but most of what you catch is gone the second it meets the surface. The moments we scroll in aren’t entirely meaningless - they’re just flattened, stripped of their texture by the act itself. It’s a kind of consumption that leaves you empty: candy floss dissolving in water.”

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— book recs if i get too close and i’m not how you hoped

! my energy in keeping up with trends is lowkey drained, i just want to ~read~, pls tell me in not alone….

in other news: some of these books have permanent residences in my mind for what has felt like a good amount of time and i needed that to be known

🕯️

#bipocbookstagram #reader #annotatedbooks #hozier #noahkahan #northernattitude

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12 books on my radar recently (and why)

i am a GENEROUS purger of my own TBRs

i’ve had less than 300 books on my TBR shelf on Goodreads for the past 5 years (the ogs would know) and it will stay below that number indefinitely — i like the philosophy of constantly assessing yourself and your interests because we can each only read so many books — that said, if you see books on a list of mine like this, you know that i am *genuinely* excited for them

they have either been recommended to me multiple times or are from authors i’ve already loved or about a concept that most likely incorporates thought provoking, dark, and/or fantastical & sci fi concepts and themes

i have high hopes that some of these will be joining my wall of faves

**this list is made up of new releases and books i have recently been excited for**

🕯️

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To end January 2025: revamped family picture for the series that stands at the top podium of my favorite books

the poster child of gut-wrenching but tender urban epic fantasy — it’s been years since i finished this series and here we still are, still having lunch with the Kauls at the Twice Lucky

(swipe —>)

“The possibility of death was like the weather — you could make attempts to predict it, hut you would likely be wrong, and no one would change their most important plans due to threat of rain.”
— Fonda Lee; Green Bone Saga

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i read 5 books in 2024 and i consider that a win

— 2024 Reading Wrap Up —
• what were your latest 5 stars reads?

i’ve never really cared about the number of books i read in a year but i do consider it a win that i didn’t read any 1-stars 😌 i didn’t really have the usual time i had to read everything i wanted but it is what it is

i have been getting hyped researching and updating myself with new adult sff releases though… and the number of books that sound amazing?!?

p.s. as someone who was born in the year of the snake, happy year of the snake 🐍

Books mentioned:
• The Secret History - 4.5
• Middlegame - 4.5
• Tress of the Emerald Sea - 3.5
• Mrs Death Misses Death - 2.5
• After I Do - 4.0

#thesecrethistory #middlegame #tressoftheemeraldsea #afterido #mrsdeathmissesdeath #speculativefiction #brandonsanderson #altheasreviews

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