Anna Tan's Blog, page 27
February 18, 2020
#bookreview: Empire of Sand | Tasha Suri
Empire of Sand by Tasha SuriMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
WOW. Where do I go with this review other than... WOW!
I picked up Empire of Sand when Tasha Suri was at SRFC in March last year. And then I sat on it because I had so many other things to do and so many other things to read and... now I am filled with regret for wasting all that time.
Empire of Sand is stunning. It stuns you with the sheer beauty and intricacy of its world-building, inspired as it is by medieval India. It stuns you with the...
February 16, 2020
#musicmonday: The End Where I Begin | The Script
Sometimes tears say all
There is to say
Sometime your first
Scars don't ever fade, away
Tried to break my heart
Well it's broke
Tried to hang me high
Well I'm choked
Wanted rain on me
Well I'm soaked
Soaked to the skin
February 11, 2020
#bookreview: Asperfell | Jamie Thomas
Asperfell by Jamie ThomasMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Asperfell is the kind of book that you start reading, and you fall into fairly easily, even while your mind goes, I know exactly where this is going. And it goes in those exact. same. places. without deviating. But it doesn't stop you from devouring it anyway.
It pings every single YA trope there is, which may be what makes it (5 stars woot!), but also what breaks it (3 stars eh, I saw that from a mile away). Briony is the feisty, untrained but...
February 9, 2020
February 5, 2020
#bookreview: Brunt Boggart: A Tapestry of Tales | David Greygoose
Brunt Boggart: A Tapestry of Tales by David GreygooseMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Brunt Boggart: A Tapestry of Tales is a collection of brand new folk tales. From the (imaginary) village of Brunt Boggart to the (equally imaginary) town of Arleccra, Greygoose brings you down the Peddlar Man’s track, one that twists and turns, slithers and jumps through space and time. It’s an ambitious undertaking.
And it starts off well. I fall into this quaint English village with whispered superstitions, chanted...
February 3, 2020
#musicmonday: Body and Wine | Jars of Clay
Rusty ground and dusty roads
It's been a while since you were king
Undermined and overthrown
You tried to run it on your own
Forget the birds with broken wings
Under piles of things on things
No one stops and no one stares
Seen it all and no one cares
What if this was all that we were made of?
This was all that we could make of love
If there wasn't more, I wouldn't be here
Hero and crime, body and wine
Drove my heart toward the sea
Passed the graves up over hills
Saw the spires hit the ground
Voices raised...
January 28, 2020
#bookreview: Adults | Emma Jane Unsworth
Adults by Emma Jane UnsworthMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Hmmmmm. I took a chance on this because OMG I'M THIRTY-FIVE I SHOULD READ THINGS ABOUT PEOPLE LIKE ME.
Or not. Really, really not.
I finished this with the same kind of vague disconnect that I had reading Normal People; the kind of feeling that I should like this, I should relate, but I don't. Who are these awkward creatures posing as humans and doing these outlandish things that no one in their right mind would? There's a huge cultural...
January 26, 2020
#musicmonday: A Message | Coldplay
My song is love
Love to the loveless shown
And it goes on
You don't have to be alone
Your heavy heart
Is made of stone
And it's so hard to see you clearly
You don't have to be on your own
You don't have to be on your own
And I'm not gonna take it back
And I'm not gonna say, "I don't mean that"
You're the target that I'm aiming at
Got to get that message home
My song is love
My song is love, unknown
But I'm on fire for you, clearly
You don't have to be alone
You don't have to be on your own
And I'm not gonna...
January 22, 2020
#bookreview: Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space | Amanda Leduc
Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda LeducMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Everyone loves fairy tales. We've grown up longing for, and dreaming of, our own fairy tale endings. Some of us can and do end up getting some version of happily-ever-after, but Leduc asks a harder question: must fairy tales and happy endings be solely hinged on the magical healing of physical disability or disfigurement, of things that are ugly or broken being made pretty and whole again?
Why...
January 19, 2020
#musicmonday: King of Majesty | Hillsong
Okay, so this song came up, and I was like, "I didn't know people still sang it."
And someone said, "Yea, all the kids think it's a new song. They don't know how to do the hey! hey! hey!"
... and then later, I'm thinking waitaminute... that version is the remake. THE ORIGINAL DOESN'T HAVE THAT.
This falls in the high school era, where I remember learning/introducing the song in the basement of Chong Nam Theatre.
