goldentortoisebeetle's reviews
287 reviews

A delightful book where you can clearly hear the author's warm voice. I'm still at a stage where I prefer African dishes made by chefs instead of bring brave enough to try home cooking, but, I realized in this book that Thiam actually runs a fonio company. His products in target / willy street were the first time I ever had fonio, an ancient grain on my bucket list. I want to read his other books as well!

Features the Don Q Inn! Also has little articles interspersed like "Fantasuites and the Rise of the American Theme Hotel" and "So You Want to Open a Pretty Cool Hotel". I think I'm going to buy this for M, it's right up their alley.

A refreshing and delightfully illustrated book. I learned a lot! The only thing I wish it had was a pronunciation guide. I wouldn't mind having this on my shelf at home as a reference!

Colorful, campy, medieval, surreal. Two trans guys talking and kissing and fucking. A lot of fun! I like and understand the humor.

Queer romance, cowboys, a past that haunts, magical realism. Not really my thing but it was an ok quick read.

An accessible comic book cookbook for bringing dumplings into the home kitchen with recipes for savory and sweet dumplings, dipping sauces and more! I love the drawings - sometimes drawn cookbooks can be confusing but these are all surprisingly clear and easy to follow.

I really appreciated the dreamy qualities of this book. I liked the mystery of the pilot, but I could have done without it. I guess it makes sense as a "something" everyone across the book was chasing. I liked how the creatures were familiar, just mostly bigger. I liked imagining the world.

Cute, simple, sweet. Country boy and city boy. Throw in some good mental illness representation. Wraps up nice.

This was a super fun and light read. I haven't read anything recently that has so realistically incorporated what it's like to be queer and navigate covid, even after everyone thinks the pandemic is over. The characters are sweet and very much in their twenties, I really liked how they interacted with each other and how different situations were depicted. I think it will gradually date itself (they say cringe a lot, that's a pretty recent term), but that could be a good thing? They mentioned at the end of the book "hopefully this will become a period piece." I would recommend it to other people who enjoy slice of Life + romance + comedy. I might consider adding it to my personal bookshelf.

When I started this book, I felt an odd sense of familiarity- I realized it's because I had read Apsara Engine a few years ago and not finished it. At the time, I struggled to connect with the piece. I was worried that this would be similar, but I wanted to give it a shot. 

I enjoyed this so much more than her previous book. So much so that I might give Apsara Engine another try. I like the way the author introduced the project; I like the narrative flow and the beautiful line work; I like the little bits about identity and also her self-pitying attitude (which endears me to her). I like how she mentions constantly what she is eating and talks to her cat. I like that there's a recipe in the back of the book. I like that she closes out the book with a little explainer the same way she opened it. 

All to say, I really enjoyed this! I recommend it to people who maybe tried Apsara Engine and didn't get it, but would be more familiar with a diary style memoir.