thebooksatchel's reviews
521 reviews

Absolutely cozy and heart warming. If you loved Legends and lattes, you will adore Bookshops and Bonedust. Here we see a younger, bloodthirsty orc Viv who has injured her leg on a mission and is trying to heal the wound in the sleepy town of Murk. Unexpected friendship, sleepishly sheepishly cozy setting, a summer fling, baked goods  ("she caught a whiff of baking in the breeze, cutting through the pungent odors of brine and seaweed", owned by a dwarf, Sea-Song bakery), gnomes, making wrong choices. It is GREAT! Also the highlight is a run down bookshop Thistleburr Booksellers with "chaotic piles of books, charts and miscellanous junk" (and smelling like mildew and carpets that need burning) filled with surprises. The friendship between the bookshop owner and Viv is heartwarming. I loved how the owner selects a book and gives to Viv, how Viv (who def didn't dream of reading through her rest days) finds out what she enjoys in books and also the 'story beyond the story', the book discussions, marketing tricks to attract more customers (I am intrigued by all the blind date with a book descriptions!). I loved the passages on painting, revamping the bookstore, taking stock of the collection, a bookish event by a famous author. Everything, even minor details, fills you up with warmth—take the example of a surgeon who visits the bookstore and "When the surgeon finally departed, he had three bundles under his arms and a bun in his teeth" or the smell of bread "still warm—moist and crumbly with a hint of sourdough tang or baked goods that "glisten on brown paper"

Read if you enjoy :
-COZY max books perfect for autumn and the colder seasons. Or really, any time of the year when you need a lift me up.
-Second hand books and lovely, quaint bookshops
-You love the smell of baked good.

<i>Thanks to Tor for an ARC. All opinions my own</i>

made me question the lines between fiction and reality

An enjoyable book! About how we diminish the 'work' that goes into cooking in the name of 'love'. About recipes—what they bring to the table, what they don't, how we follow a recipe (to the dot, intuition, no measurement cooking etc. I def did not know about the 'no-recipe recipe book by New york Times editor Sam Sifton). Describing each cooking session as a performance. About Nigella Lawson's use of possessives in the way she describes her cooking and food. About MFK Fischer's thoughts on food. About navigating life through different hairstyles and food—the slow transformation.

"Nigella's use of possessive pronouns unsettles me too. <i>My</i> chocolate cake, <i>my>/i> quick paste, <i>my</i> upmarket mushy peas. They are all declared delicious...The possessive pronouns come across as boastful, greedy, even immodest."

"Spattering is not mentioned in the recipe. The text does not anticipate the liveliness of the process it describes, which spatters wildly"

<i>Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the book</i>

"Can I only appreciate cooking through the imagination of the other...I have been dependent on living through the appetites and desires of others. Alone I am so lost"

Set in Karachi, London, Delhi. An invite only language school that promises fluency in ten days (cultish, no contact with mainland during the language course) catches the eye of Anisa. This might be her way to make her dream of working as a translator come true.

Pros:
-I really enjoyed the commentary on micro racial aggressions. There's a scene where Anisa is bothered by her white boyfriend Adam's actions and comments when they visit Pakistan. How he exoticizes her own city, how he praises the hospitality (doesn't he understand that a non-white person would not have received the same treatment, she wonders), how he puts his plate in the sink after dinner (PS: personally I didn't understand why this was a big issue in Anisa's mind. It's just courteous behaviour) etc. There's a scene later in the book when Adam talks about his side of things. How he tries to be worthy of her love. And he also talks about why he puts his plate in the kitchen sink by himself. 
-I also enjoyed how Anisa also puts into perspective how her own version of her city has changed. How she seems to feel home in the stereotyped motifs of the city and culture, and how important they are to her. I enjoyed reading these multitudes in the same person.
- The blurb was a killer one, and that's what attracted me to the book. The book was very readable, making it a fast read.

Cons:
- The biggest positive thing about the book should've been its shocking premise and the kind of dystopian hues of the secret invite only language school. BUT the blurb gives away everything about this school. There was little development to the blurb (for 50% of the book). The climax, though shocking, is predictable.
- The pacing could've been better. More developments to what's mentioned in the blurb come very late. 
- I would've liked to see more of the actual language dynamics and how they affect those who sign up in the school. The book mostly focussed on the hidden secrets.
- Adam seemed to exist only for the racism discourse and to introduce Anisa to the secret school. I would've loved to see a more fleshed out relationship, what worked, what didn't etc.

Addictive! It's great when all three books of a series are equally addictive. (PS: Romanticized abuse in the series). A satisfying third book. I didn't really care how the leads ended up, because I didn't ship them in the first place. I found them to be great characters on their own. I am frustrated that Madoc got away with such an (unbelievable) ending. 
4.5 stars