Read from Aug 7 to Aug 23
★★★☆☆ When the Museum is Closed by Emi Yagi

This was fun and interesting but it didn't push far enough... It felt like a huge chunk was missing! Still enjoyable though. And my 10th read of 2026, yay!

Read from Feb 25 to Mar 3
★★★★★ The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

Oh how I've cried! Absolutely excellent writing as is known from Vuong. I think I shared the majority of my shareable thoughts on storygraph already... This page might become obsolete? That's okay.

Read from Feb 20 to 25
★★★★☆ The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

It got a little repetitive towards the end I must say... But I was very fascinated by Tom Ripley's character and his little adventures were thrilling all thanks to his paranoid (or maybe just careful and cautious?) mind. The movie was also pretty good though I don't remember much of it anymore.

Read from Feb 15 to 20
★★★★★ Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

What an incredible read! Christian guilt and shame, transgenerational and/or intergenerational trauma and pain, all of that prose soaked the pages and left me - well, thinking! Thinking a lot about my own family, my own mortality, my own sins...

Read from Feb 14 to 15
★★★★☆ Earthlings by Sayaka Murata (English translation by Ginny Tapley Takemori)

I quite liked this one, unexpectedly. Relatable at points and repelling at others, just another challenge to think and feel over...

Read from Feb 10 to 13
★★★★★ Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H.

So beautifully written, it was an emotional rollercoaster that led me to many dark places I didn't dare to go by myself. I'm very glad I came across this book from other people!

Read from Feb 8 to 9
★★★★☆ The Vegetarian by Han Kang (English translation by Deborah Smith)

Stunning prose. The ending left me unsatisfied but it was all-in-all still quite good!

Read from Jan 20 to Feb 8
★★★★★ One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against this by Omar El Akkad

Lots to say, but in general very interesting and important read. Accessible and still respectful of both subject of the topics and the readers. Feasible grief and anger. Slight lack of direction for me.

Read from Dec 18 '25 to Jan 19 '26
★★★★★ Demian by Hermann Hesse (English translation by Damion Searls)

Beautifully translated; Searls did a good job of conveying the "mood" of Hesse's writing in Demian. I read this for the first time (in German) back in my high school days, which was honestly the perfect timing. It is an important coming-of-age text slash Bildungsroman in my opinion - no matter which language you read it in.