Shelfishly Addicted

The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a tiny book that packs a big punch. Chih the cleric (they/them) and Almost Brilliant (a hoopoe bird) travel the country carefully collecting and cataloging stories and memories. Here, they listen to Rabbit, a former handmaiden of the royal court, recount the days and years she spent by the side of the now-dead Empress, who had been sent from her home in the north for a marriage of political alliance in the south, and then was quickly cast aside and exiled. As...

Look How Happy I'm Making You by Polly Rosenwaike features stories about women who want to be mothers, who reluctantly come into motherhood, who struggle with the identity of motherhood, who deal with post-partum depression, who never want(ed) to be mothers, who have lost mothers, who choose to terminate their motherhood. 

I have mixed feelings about this book of short stories on motherhood -- probably because I am on the cusp of motherhood myself, less than 3 months away from giving birth to a...

I'm honored to be part of the St. Martin's Press Star-Touched Stories Blog Tour, to celebrate Roshani Chokshi's newest addition to the Star-Touched world. If Roshani's name sounds familiar to regular blog visitors, that's because I reviewed her incredible debut, The Star-Touched Queen, two years ago, right here on the blog! 

Star-Touched Stories, which goes on sale TODAY (Aug. 7) features three fun, fantastical stories set in and around the Star-Touched world, including (from Goodreads):

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 I feel rather ambivalent about my reading of Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. Having read, and enjoyed, Ng’s debut novel Everything I Never Told You, and knowing this book has rave reviews on GoodReads, I was excited to start reading. 

In the genteel, placid, carefully-planned suburban neighborhood of Shaker Heights, Ohio, the Richardson family has staked their claim. Lifelong resident, Elena, grew up there, went to college for journalism, married, and returned to Shaker Heights as a loc...

Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag is a short read that packs a punch. At once dealing with issues of class and feminism, there are many layers hidden between these 119 pages. This sparingly beautiful story gives us a glimpse into the lives of a six-member household in Bangalore, India, as their fortunes in the spice business take them, rather suddenly, from lower middle class, within one generation, to high society. Told from the point-of-view of an unnamed male narrator, we see how quickly and...