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Today, for the second day of 31 Days of Recommendations, you should read This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. It is one of my favorite books, and I simply cannot stress enough how much I recommend it. Why you should read it: This Is How You Lose the Time War is set in a world divided in two camps, each trying to spin the threads of time into their prefered story. Written from the perspective of one agent from each camp, Red and Blue, the book is a series of letters each writes to the other, a love story separated by time, space, and everything in between. The writing is incredible, the characters are superb, and the plot is enthralling. Quote: "Tell me something true, or tell me nothing at all.” Amal El Mohtar and Max Gladstone, This is How You Lose the Time War What is this? If you haven't seen yet, this is 31 Days Of Recommendations, where I'll be sharing a book rec every day until the new year, with a quote and/or other ideas from the book to convince you to read them. From fantasy to murder mysteries, make sure to follow so that you can see each day’s recommendation, and end the year reading!

Today marks the start of a series I'm calling 31 Days Of Recommendations, where I'll be sharing a book rec every day until the new year, for a total of 31 books. From fantasy to murder mysteries, the books could be anything, so make sure you come back every day to see today's book. The goal is to span a bit of every genre (though of course, that's a bit of an overstatement), and to have fun with it! As long as the book are interesting, they're fair game. The first book recommendation has already been shared on Instagram, where all recommendations will be posted, and it's a bit of an interesting book! Make sure to either go to the blog post about it or check out the Instagram linked (@pages_and_palms). So, without further ado, let us start a month full of reading!

Brandon Sanderson's books, of which there are MANY, have never disappointed me. Many are close to 1,000 pages long, sometimes more, and yet, all of them (at least the ones I have read) are incredible. Warbreaker, a stand alone novel brought me right back into the Cosmere. For those unaware, the Cosmere Universe, or simply the Cosmere, is a universe created by Brandon Sanderson, encompassing most of his books. Though most of the books are distinct in characters, settings, and even magical system (except for those in series, such as Mistborn or the Stormlight Archive), they retain a level of similarity and certain elements that tie all of them together. The common universe is one of my favorite things about Sanderson's books, along with the incredible action they all feature. Do We Want to Turn the Page? The Summary: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, Warbreaker is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, the lesser god who doesn't like his job, and the immortal who's still trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago. Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren's capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people. By using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery, and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker. The Author: Brandon Winn Sanderson is a New York Times American author of high fantasy and science fiction. He is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe, in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, are set. He lives in Utah with his wife and kids.

The Priory of the Orange Tree sat on my bookshelf for months before last week, when I mustered up the courage to pick it up and start reading. To be fair, it is HUGE! There are 848 pages in the novel, which is set in a fantastical world under threat of the Red Plague and the return of the Draconic Army (made up of wyrms and wyverns). The world is also filled with court affairs and political maneuvering, and is told in different perspectives. Before I give my actual review, I would just like to say that those 848 pages went by fast! I was so immersed in the world that they flew by, so to anyone who is afraid of starting the book because of its sheer size, don't worry and just start! Now, on to the important things: Do We Want to Turn the Page? The Summary: The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic. Across the dark sea, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel. Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep. The Author: Samantha Shannon studied English Language and Literature at St. Anne’s College, Oxford. The Bone Season, the first in a seven-book series, was a New York Times bestseller and the inaugural Today Book Club selection. Her next novel, The Priory of the Orange Tree, was published in February 2019 and became a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller. Her work has been translated into twenty-six languages. She lives in London.

Bunny by Mona Awad was my book club's pick for October, and was meant to be a bit of a creepy read. In that aspect, Bunny did not disappoint. It is, without doubt, the most disturbing book I have ever read. The story takes place inside Warren, a MFA program in a New England university and follows Samantha, a young woman and student in the MFA program, as she gets more and more entangled with the group of women called "Bunnies". Not quite real, the novel leaves you feeling like you just don't know what's going on. Do We Want to Turn the Page? The Summary: We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn't we? Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other Bunny, and seem to move and speak as one. But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled Smut Salon, and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus Workshop where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision. The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination. The Author: Mona Awad is the author of BUNNY, ALL'S WELL and 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A FAT GIRL. 13 WAYS won the Amazon Best First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Her second novel, BUNNY, was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror, the New England Book Award, and won the Ladies of Horror Fiction Best Novel Award. It is currently being optioned for film with Bad Robot Productions. ALL'S WELL was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror. Her new novel, ROUGE, is forthcoming in September 2023 with Simon & Schuster. She earned an MFA from Brown University and an MScR in English from the University of Edinburgh where her dissertation was on fear in the fairy tale. In 2018, she completed a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literary Studies at the University of Denver. She currently teaches creative writing at Syracuse University and lives in Boston.

As many of you may know, the 15th of September through the 15th of October marks Hispanic Heritage Month, a time to learn and celebrate the diverse Hispanic heritage. To celebrate the end of Hispanic Heritage Month, I wanted to share some books that highlight the hispanic heritage, while also being a fun throwback. The books in question are the three books in the Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes trilogy, an fascinating story about Maya mythology, and the Sal and Gabi duology by Carlos Hernandez, a blend of science fiction and Cuban folklore. Both of the series are "Rick Riordan Presents" books, meaning they have a distinctive Percy Jackson-esque feel while being incredibly original and an opener into the different cultures. When I was younger, I devoured all mythology books (particularly the Rick Riordan Presents books, of which I have an impressive collection) and both of these stories, while so different, helped expand my horizon while furthering my love for reading. While they are meant for a young/middle grade audience, they are fun reads for all, regardless of age.

This is actually the first time I review two books at in one go! She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the World make up the Radiant Emperor series, set in 14th century China, where the land is desolate and is under harsh Mongol rule. She Who Became the Sun was one of my book club's March pick last year, and when He Who Drowned the World (the sequel) came out in August, I knew I had to read it. The novels are historical fiction with a touch of magical realism, and in my opinion, they are phenomenal books. Do We Want to Turn the Page? The Summary: She Who Became the Sun: In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness… In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected. When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate. After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu uses the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness. Mulan meets The Song of Achilles; an accomplished, poetic debut of war and destiny, sweeping across an epic alternate China. He Who Drowned the World: Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor. But Zhu isn’t the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband―and she’s strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map. To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky alliance with an old enemy: the talented but unstable eunuch general Ouyang, who has already sacrificed everything for a chance at revenge on his father’s killer, the Great Khan. Unbeknownst to the southerners, a new contender is even closer to the throne. The scorned scholar Wang Baoxiang has maneuvered his way into the capital, and his lethal court games threaten to bring the empire to its knees. For Baoxiang also desires revenge: to become the most degenerate Great Khan in history―and in so doing, make a mockery of every value his Mongol warrior family loved more than him. All the contenders are determined to do whatever it takes to win. But when desire is the size of the world, the price could be too much for even the most ruthless heart to bear… The Author: Shelley Parker-Chan is Asian Australian and a former international development adviser in Southeast Asia. Their debut historical fantasy novel She Who Became the Sun was a #1 Sunday Times bestseller and has been translated into 15 languages. Parker-Chan is a previous winner of the Astounding Award for Best Debut, and the British Fantasy Awards for Best Fantasy Novel and Best Newcomer. They have been a finalist for the Lambda, Locus, Aurealis, Ditmar, and British Book Awards. They live in Melbourne, Australia.

If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang is a fantasy YA novel set in an elite school in Beijing, and it is the September book pick for my school's Book Club, for which I help choose the list of books that then get voted on. Now, If You Could See the Sun is our book club's first read, and because of this, the recommendation was intended to be appealing to the most high-schoolers possible. Fantasy, young adult, some romance, and crime were combined into one in this novel, so it touches on so many genres/topics that at least some people must want to read it! Do We Want to Turn the Page? The Summary: Alice Sun has always felt invisible at her elite Beijing international boarding school, where she’s the only scholarship student among China’s most rich and influential teens. But then she starts uncontrollably turning invisible—actually invisible. When her parents drop the news that they can no longer afford her tuition, even with the scholarship, Alice hatches a plan to monetize her strange new power—she’ll discover the scandalous secrets her classmates want to know, for a price. But as the tasks escalate from petty scandals to actual crimes, Alice must decide if it’s worth losing her conscience—or even her life. In this genre-bending YA debut, a Chinese American girl monetizes her strange new invisibility powers by discovering and selling her wealthy classmates’ most scandalous secrets. The Author: Ann Liang is the author of If You Could See the Sun, This Time It's Real, and the forthcoming I Am Not Jessica Chen. Born in Beijing, she grew up travelling back and forth between China and Australia, but somehow ended up with an American accent. When she isn’t writing, she can be found making over-ambitious to-do lists, binge-watching dramas, and having profound conversations with her pet labradoodle about who’s a good dog.

I bought The Song of Achilles last week, during a small book haul at my local bookstore (check out the Instagram page @Pages_and_Palms if you want to see that), but I had been wanting to read it for some time. In December I read Circe, also by Madeline Miller, and I had loved it, so I wanted to read some more that she had written. On top of that, I had read a lot of great things that had been said about The Song of Achilles, so the bar was set high. Without spoiling too much, I did really enjoy it! I am a fan of the revisitation of greek history (Percy Jackson practically taught me English) or any historical fiction, and this is a story that makes you feel like you are there, with Patroclus and Achilles, at Troy's doorstep. Do We Want to Turn the Page? The Summary: Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath. They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice. The Author: Madeline Miller was born in Boston and grew up in New York City and Philadelphia. She attended Brown University, where she earned her BA and MA in Classics. For the last ten years she has been teaching and tutoring Latin, Greek and Shakespeare to high school students. She has also studied at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, and in the Dramaturgy department at Yale School of Drama, where she focused on the adaptation of classical texts to modern forms. She currently lives in Cambridge, MA, where she teaches and writes. The Song of Achilles is her first novel.

I was gifted Klara and the Sun by one of my best friends for my birthday last year, and I read it for the first time in January, after a few months of sitting on my desk. I put off reading it for a long time, both because there are so many books stuck on my to-be-read and because the author, Kazuo Ishiguro, won the Nobel prize in Literature in 2017, which is quite intimidating! Ultimately, the striking cover (I know... I shouldn't judge books by their covers) and the summary drew me in, and I finally read the novel. For a little bit of context, Klara and the is about an artificial friend, sort of like a robot helper, who is bought by a girl and her mother (a more detailed summary is at the bottom of this page). The novel discusses what it means to be human, but from this non-human perspective. Do We Want to Turn the Page? The Summary: From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans. In Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love? The Author: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro (カズオ・イシグロ or 石黒 一雄), OBE, FRSA, FRSL is a British novelist of Japanese origin and Nobel Laureate in Literature (2017). His family moved to England in 1960. Ishiguro obtained his Bachelor's degree from the University of Kent in 1978 and his Master's from the University of East Anglia's creative writing course in 1980. He became a British citizen in 1982. He now lives in London. His first novel, A Pale View of Hills, won the 1982 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. His second novel, An Artist of the Floating World, won the 1986 Whitbread Prize. Ishiguro received the 1989 Man Booker prize for his third novel The Remains of the Day. His fourth novel, The Unconsoled, won the 1995 Cheltenham Prize. His latest novel is The Buried Giant, a New York Times bestseller. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2017. His novels An Artist of the Floating World (1986), When We Were Orphans (2000), and Never Let Me Go (2005) were all shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2008, The Times ranked Ishiguro 32nd on their list of "The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945". In 2017, the Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature, describing him in its citation as a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world". (From Klara and the Sun's Goodreads page)

I don't read a lot of classics, or older books in general, so when I was looking for something to read this past week, I decided it was time to challenge myself. I picked up The Last Day of a Condemned Man by Victor Hugo, recommended months ago by my cousin and sitting in my to-be-read pile ever since. While I personally read the book in French, the original language, it is definitely worth a read, even as a translation. First published in 1829 anonymously, the novella seeks to persuade readers that the death penalty is wrong and should be abolished by telling to story of a "condemned man", who has been sentenced to death by the guillotine. While a long preface and Hugo's name were added in the 1832 edition of the book, this roman à thèse (thesis novel, or a novel that holds a moral, philosophical, political, or scientific discussion) continues to be mystic in many ways. Indeed, Hugo does not include the name or crime of the condemned man, seeking instead to focus on the man's feelings and thoughts. The Summary: Victor Hugo takes us inside the head of a man condemned to death who is waiting on his execution. We do not know who he is or what crime he has committed, because the author does not want to debate but wants to show the horror and the absurdity of the situation. His text has such power of suggestion that the reader, identifying with the narrator, shares with him the anxiety and then vain hopes. The most vehement indictment ever made against the death penalty, this novel is also an admirable lesson on writing and humanity. (From the back of my book and translated by me) The Author: Victor Hugo Victor Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. He is considered one of the greatest and best-known French writers. In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry and then from his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables, 1862, and Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831 (known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). He also produced more than 4,000 drawings, which have since been admired for their beauty, and earned widespread respect as a campaigner for social causes such as the abolition of capital punishment. Though a committed royalist when he was young, Hugo's views changed as the decades passed, and he became a passionate supporter of republicanism; his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and the artistic trends of his time. He is buried in the Panthéon. His legacy has been honoured in many ways, including his portrait being placed on French franc banknotes. (From Hugo's wikipedia bio)

Happy Bookstore Romance Day! To honor the celebration of romance books and our bookstores, this is one of my personal favorite romance novels. Granted, that doesn't say much, since I don't read much romance, maybe two or three books a year. I do love The Fault in Our Stars both because the story is incredible and because I adore John Green. The story features Hazel, a 16 year-old girl who was diagnosed with lung cancer, and Augustus, the teenage boy who catches Hazel's eye at a support meeting for cancer patients. It's a great book, and while it's been a while since the first time I read it, it's worth a re-read! The Blurb: Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten. Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green;'s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love. The Author: John Green is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, The Fault in Our Stars, and Turtles All the Way Down. He is also the coauthor, with David Levithan, of Will Grayson, Will Grayson. He was the 2006 recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award, a 2009 Edgar Award winner, and has twice been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Green’s books have been published in more than 55 languages and over 24 million copies are in print (From the bio on Green's website: https://www.johngreenbooks.com)