Happy day 1 of #DecRecs! Today I’m recommending the #manga I am currently enjoying the most: Hakumei and Mikochi: Tiny Little Life in the Woods by Takuto Kashiki. This follows two tiny besties in their tiny house in a tree in the woods. They do a lot of DIY. One of them is an aspiring builder, the other is a seamstress. Many of their friends are the local animals. It’s very cozy and has rich worldbuilding and delightful character work (and very cute art)! #bookrecs
#DecRecs day 2: The Lantern and the Night Moths by Yilin Wang. This is a collection of Chinese female poets translated into English, along with an essay on translation. I love reading about different translators’ process so this was a hit with me!
#DecRecs day 3: I know The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin came out a few years ago, but I read it for the first time this year and it’s now one of my favorite novels ever! It’s beautiful, epic, romantic, tragic, gripping. The protagonist is a mix of compassionate and ruthless in a very brutal world where gods are enslaved to humans. I can’t praise it enough!
#DecRecs day 4: I studied Old English poetry and Anglo-Saxon culture back in my college days and it’s still a big interest of mine. Winters in the World by Eleanor Parker was a lovely mix of both! I also highly recommend the audiobook as the narrator had flawless pronunciation.
#DecRecs day 5: Sunshine by Robin McKinley sat on my shelf for YEARS until I was finally in the mood to read it. I’m so glad I finally did because this book is actual perfection? If you can only read one single vampire book, make it this one. It’s compelling and compassionate and perfectly crafted!!!
I am days behind on #DecRecs so let’s do rapid fire:
6: soft fingerless gloves while reading in winter—so cozy! 🧤
7: ambient lyricless Disney music while reading 🎶
8: if you drink drip coffee, toss a little bit of cinnamon in with the grounds before turning it on. Very tasty.
#DecRecs day 9: Communication. I can’t recommend it enough. Communicate clearly. Take notes. Get things in writing if at all possible.
Signed, someone who has been trying for over 30 years and still never gets this communication thing right 🤣
#DecRecs days 10-11: Spicy soups in cold weather!!! 😋 Tasty salads in hot weather! They both hit the spot so nicely 🫶
#DecRecs day 12: Pilot G-2, size .05, pen. It’s a great pen without being expensive or fancy. I carry a pouch of them everywhere I go because I love having a good pen ready at all times. 🖊️ (I also like clicky pens for fidgeting purposes)
#DecRecs day 13: The Trials of Apollo series by Rick Riordan. I’m a big fan of RR in general, and this series is 5 whole books of Apollo whump (but for kids?) and I am HERE FOR IT. Love that RR’s publisher greenlit this.
#DecRecs day 14: Keep track of what books you read! I use Goodreads, but there’s other platforms (like Storygraph) or you can just keep track in a spreadsheet or a good old paper journal. It is endlessly useful for me to go back and see what I read in a certain year, or how many books in a particularly long series I’ve read, or what books in a specific genre I could recommend to someone else. Even if it’s just the title/author/date you read it—useful!
#DecRecs day 15: Patricia McKillip. Just…anything she’s written. Every fantasy book she writes is so different from any of her others and they’re always so complex and tasty, like what I’ve heard fine wines are like.
#DecRecs day 16: DNFing books that aren’t good! There are so many amazing books in the world—don’t waste your time on the mediocre ones or ones that aren’t keeping your interest in some way.
Or if a book is difficult and you do want to finish it but you don’t have the brains for it right now, set it aside for a later date when you can give it your full attention.
#DecRecs day 17: If you like Diana Wynne Jones, there’s an ongoing podcast right now called Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones by Emily Tesh and Rebecca Fraimow. They’re going through DWJ’s novels by decade and it’s really thoughtful: https://open.spotify.com/show/6gxtq3nHQTiWF4h7ESGQ02?
#DecRecs day 18: Witch King by Martha Wells (author of Murderbot)—a fantastic fantasy novel by one of the best writers living right now. The sequel, Queen Demon, comes out next year. 🎊🎊🎊
#DecRecs day 19: The novels of Sylvia Moreno-Garcia! I love her protagonists and the way she dismantles and deconstructs colonialism. The most recent one I read was a reimagining of the Island of Doctor Moreau (hers is called the Daughter of Doctor Moreau). Mexican Gothic is a favorite gothic romance of mine. Her books often (always?) include some body horror so be warned.
@clownheart seconding both the rec and the note about body horror!
