Crazy Rich Asians is a treat. It may sound like a drugstore buy, yet it has a tremendous amount of depth. The story revolves around Rachel and Nick, a couple living in America who are going to Singapore together for Nick’s best friend’s wedding. To Rachel’s surprise, her humble professor boyfriend is actually part of the Asian elite and his best friend is the biggest celeb of the region.
Starting something new can be daunting for anyone. Anew job, a new project, a whole new life in some cases. Luckily, that’s not the case with this book column. NovelTEA is The Sartorial Geek’s new book review column, wherein new books and fresh recipes are spotlighted for your amusement.
To kick things off, we have My Boyfriend Is A Bear. It’s an original graphic novel from writer Pamela Ribon (Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2), and artist Cat Farris (Emily and the Strangers Vol. 2: Breaking The Record).
What’s it about?
Ready Player One is set in the future (2044-2045) where the world is in extreme poverty, technology has advanced tremendously, and most humans don’t interact face to face. Our narrator, Wade Watts, spends most of his time inside a simulation called the OASIS. He’s not the only one. Most of the world interacts through the OASIS, goes to school, runs a business, and more. A contest is held to find easter eggs within the OASIS and win the fortune of a tech mogul who helped create it. It’s not all fun and games, and some unsavory characters come into the fold.
There are some books that you can read through, and be satisfied. There are others that we lovingly call page-turners. But, there are few books I’ve found that grab you by the shoulders and demand that you continue to read. These books that keep readers from sleeping, or doing other normal things like eating and showering are some of the most powerful creations to me. And V. E. Schwab has written at least three of these books. A Conjuring of Light is one of them.
Four days after the Essen Tach, Kell is in another London, chained, with his magic seeping out of him. Osaron is searching for a new host, and travels to Red London, attacking and using everyone. While I don’t want to get too detailed, I need to talk about this book, so let’s go for it.
“World may be crashing down ‘round us, but we figured out the trick.
Don’t be greedy. Be satisfied with having enough.
Some think it’s too antiquated a way of livin.’ But look around. We make it work.”
Oh my goodness, A Gathering of Shadows has me thrown. I absolutely adored the first book, A Darker Shade of Magic. And I actually took a break between reading that and this, the sequel. It was less than a week. But, I still felt like I was seeing old friends again, as I started this.
At the end of Darker Shade, Lila (our Grey London gal) was leaving. She and Kell had just saved Red London, killed the king and queen of White London, and shipped Holland’s seemingly dead body off to Black London with a super dangerous piece of magic. They had saved Rhy, Kell’s brother (and Prince of Red London). But, only by binding his life to Kell’s. This book starts four months after that.
Geeks, I am absolutely in love with A Darker Shade of Magic. It’s the first of a trilogy, and it drew me in immediately, so let me get right into what it’s about.
Through our narrator, Elena (nicknamed Lenu), we get to know her and her frenemy Raffaela (nicknamed Lila and Lina). We watch as both girls grow up in 1950s Naples. In a poor rough neighborhood, scandals, murders, and violent depression are common. Throughout the four-book-series, we will follow their lives up until their middle age. It’s a bildungsroman (coming of age story) in every sense.