Actual rating: 3.5 stars

I dived into Arsenic and Adobo with lots of expectations. While it was a fun, cosy, one time read, the mystery part felt underwhelming.

Lila Macapagal returns to her hometown to help her aunt run her restaurant, Tita Rosie’s Kitchen, but she finds herself tangled in murder charges for the death of her ex, who was town’s nasty food critic hated by almost everyone. All evidence points to Lila and she seeks help from her friends and a bunch of aunties to solve the murder mystery and prove herself innocent.

The best part of this story was the representation, familial relations, and food. Every mention of Filipino food was mouthwatering (even there are some recipes mentioned at the end of the book).

I am not an ownvoices reviewer for the title, so I can’t fully comment about the representation here. But I loved knowing a Filipino-American family and a bunch of Aunties, whom I believe are essential parts of every Asian circle. The way Tita Rosie cares for everyone’s appetite and shows love through her food is amazing. She reminded me of my own mother whose love language is food too ❤️

The aunties, aka calendar crew, provided some much needed laughter moments in the story.

The things this story lacked starts with the characters itself. I wasn’t able to sympathise with the MC, Lila. In fact, all the characters were pretty dense. There didn’t seem any special connection between them and therefore it was hard to invest in them. Even the romance part was just meh. I don’t think there was a need to include that.

Another disappointment was the mystery. There wasn’t some major revealing plot, but the part detective Park played was pretty plain. He just pinned charges upon charges upon Lila but we didn’t actually see him working toward catching the main killer? It was all left on Lila to found out! That seemed a bit stupid.

Sometimes even the dishes mentioned seemed like they were being spoken straight from a restaurant menu, describing their content rather than actually incorporating that dish into the story.

Overall, if you are looking for a light and fun read filled with food, Filipino culture, and family, you can give this a try. It is fun for sure.

Actual rating 4.5

When you see this cover, you are immediately reminded of The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. So the question comes- is it a knockoff of the latter? Yes and no.

Yes, because much like TBTMTFATH, it also talks about the general learnings and inspirations. But, as the author said in his acknowledgements, he wrote it because of his experiences and brush with Buddhism.

This was a random book that I discovered while visiting a bookstore one evening and I am glad I stumbled upon it. This is a tale of Giant Panda and his friend, Little Dragon, who goes on adventures together. But along the way, they often make mistakes and get lost. Then comes the thinking of life-affirming musings and finding solace in each other's company.

The picture/illustration style has a huge impact of Buddhism as is evident. The illustrations are too cute and beautiful and are the basis for putting the point across and making it interesting. This kind of art gives the extra push to that level of likeness for sure.

The book is divided by seasons -- Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring again -- and it is kind of heartwarming to see Panda and Dragon going through each of them together.

With the mixture of Buddhist teachings, friendship and general kindness towards others, this makes a perfect and cute read worth your time :)

Inspired by Arab countries’ culture and history, this upper middle-grade graphic novel features lots of knights and women with swords, while tackling important issues of colonialism, imperialism and oppression, with gorgeous illustrations. Loved it!

More like 3.5 stars.

The second book in the Primas of Power series is about Michelle and her childhood friend/ex-lover Gabe, and much like the former book, it too is Spanish at its core and has a second storyline going within the first. The second storyline is an unfinished fanfiction that Michelle and Gabe were writing during their teen years before Gabe suddenly disappears and ghosts her for almost ten years, leaving behind tons of unsaid words and feelings.

After all these years, they come together for a business proposal. But Gabe is hiding from his parents, particularly from his father, and due to certain circumstances, their situation turns into fake dating, of course, involving so much steam

If you are looking for a quick read to get over that reading slump, or to just read during your time in a cafe or at a beach, then look no further. This is a perfect book!

Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid is just an hour-long short story based on the repercussions of an illicit affair, written in epistolary format.

Carrie and David watch the downfall of their respective marriage and what started as a correspondence between two strangers writing about the affair of their spouses, transforms into a friendship over the course. Through the letters, they judge the love in their marriages, the mistakes that might have led to the affair between their spouses, the longing and the heartbreak. They question themselves about what to do with the information that they know about the secret affair. Should they end their marriages?

Though the story is not suspenseful as such, it keeps you on your toes till the end. TJR did it again! In just 100 pages or so, she wrote such a simple yet dramatic and entertaining story. And I could only wish for it to be a full-length novel

An epic party thrown by four siblings constitutes Malibu Rising on the surface. But this story is a deep dive inside relationships, much like surfing on the high waves. Four siblings, all surfers, united by the love of their mother and the absence of their father.

Nina Riva, the oldest of the lot, pulls together her family after the death of their mother. Their father, Mick Riva who abandoned them after getting famous, was merely a star figure in their lives. This is a story of Mick and June, Mick's betrayal, Nina's struggle to raise her family since the age of seventeen, the siblings' bond, their passions, and of course the most coveted party of the year that went wild!

You can say this story was a pure pleasure, a tabloid pleasure at that with no dull moment and all excitement. A few pages after the party starts get a bit uninteresting as we get introduced to numerous characters present in the party (who had no link whatsoever with the overall story), but it quickly picks the pace again.

At this point, I can safely say that TJR has become my auto-read author. Her writing and sense of presenting the story are impeccable. Just look at the annotations! I was surprised. The writing flows like butter and you can't help but highlight everything. Similar to the Malibu fire mentioned in the story that consumes the whole party, this book too engulfs you from page one till the end. The plot switch between the party and the past, to Mick and June's story, takes us to the magnificent Malibu of the 80s.

Nina, Jay, Hud and Kit - all four siblings - have some kind of secret or burden and this party would shape their future by the end of it, based on the decisions they take and the secrets they share in the open. To see Nina overburdened with the care of her family was heartbreaking. June, their mother, was a pure soul who had so much love to give. But the most tragic part of all of their lives was probably Mick Riva - none of them deserved what he did to them. Mick and June's love story was dramatic and swoony and one point and then it just became a flawed tragedy.

The siblings were flawed but strong. They never stopped fighting for their survival! And to think with a celebrity father, your life would be easier.

Read this for the drama, the love between siblings, engaging writing and the pure entertainment value.

#irecommend

I read this in the anticipation of the TV adaptation. This book was nowhere near TATBILB! I know I shouldn’t compare the two series because this was written way before the latter. But still, I couldn’t help but dislike almost all the three main characters.

Belly was such an obnoxious kind. In the book she was referred to many times as ‘you are such a kid’ and she rightly behaved so. I was irritated with her behaviour most of the time — the way she handles Cam and Jeremiah, the way she acted toward her mother, and the way she treated Taylor. I understood her need to be included in the ‘boy gang’ but her actions were irritating!

And the boys!! I didn’t like a single one? Fine, maybe Jeremiah a little bit, but Conrad and Steven were just awful. The way Conrad always treated Belly like a baby and, Steven and he always tried to control her, always being bossy. It was downright perplexing.

Another problem I had was the structure of the story. The past and the present have been interwoven and even the story of the current summer is narrated in the past tense. It gets a little confusing sometimes especially if you are listening to the audiobook.

The best thing about this book was probably the whole summer vibes and the family tradition to visit Cousins every year! The bonding between the boys’ mom, Susannah, and Belly’s mom was good and so was between Susannah and Belly! Even all of their summer rituals (the boys and Belly’s) were fun to read.

I just wasn’t convinced with the romance plot. I hope they have done a better job in the adaptation. And that the next books in the series are better than this

It was after a long time that I devoted so much time and energy to a poetry collection, for this deserves that attention. A God at the Door by Tishani Doshi is a superb collection; a collection that tackles topics from current political events to that of women's bodies, sexism, racism and general news articles. Yes, the last part was new for me to read in any poetry collection. The best thing is the explanation of almost every poem, or the inspiration behind it, given at the end of the book. If it were not for that, half of the poems would have gone straight above my head.

The poems are politically charged. Through her perfect wit and sarcasm, Doshi has performed her rage at sexism. There is no hidden agenda or to set back in saying the right thing. She is unapologetically true to herself in saying the politically correct thing.

The poems cover quite a huge ground - cover a lot of different topics- and yet they sit brilliantly together. She questions everything and everyone, in the light of truth. She doesn’t hold back. The poems are bold and her narrative shows it.

A wonderful collection that deserves to be savoured slowly- one poem at a time! Looking forward to reading more from Tishani Doshi.