Eddy Reads (she/her)

A cream coloured background that reads "October 2025 Reading Wrap Up." Next to the cover of Rebellion 1776 by Laurie Halse Anderson: When I saw there was a new book out by the author of Speak, which was my favourite book in the 8th grade, I thought, “sure, why not?” Rebellion 1776 is clearly a researched work. It was neat to spend time in Boston in the 1770s, a time and place I spend very few hours thinking about. Though there were many threads to follow and quite a lot happened, this dragged a bit for me, the storytelling didn’t feel taut. Many of the mysteries introduced resolved a bit easily or inconsequentially. Still, this is a worthy work. It’s nice that youth can read about another time and place.

A cream coloured graphic with the header "October 2025 Reading Wrap Up". Next to the cover of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro: “A wishful rumour. That’s all it ever was.” This is a breathtaking ethical exploration and an equally touching story about the quality and essentiality of relationships. Ishiguro has such a touch with his prose. The world is engaging, lived-in. Halisham and its students felt real to me. The behind the scenes politics felt real to me. But above all else, Kathy, Tommy, and especially Ruth felt real to me. The behaviours displayed, especially as children, captured something I’d almost forgotten. A masterpiece. Suggested media pairing: Pantheon. Next to the cover of Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa: This was a great character study. I enjoyed spending time in the shop and in the mind of Ning, the nine-fingered nail salon owner and former boxer. The characters were fleshed out and compelling. It’s a rich text, there so many lenses one could use to think about it and discuss it. I, who am not a high-vibes, low-plot kind of reader, did want more to happen in this well-drawn, intriguing space.

A cream-coloured background that reads "October 2025 Reading Wrap Up". Next to the cover of Sloppy by Rax King: This collection of personal essays was a strange one for me because this author and I apparently have a lot in common down to the analogies we use and observations we make. Bit bizarre as an experience, and perhaps biases me as a reader for the more and less favourable (relatability is like that, right?). I loved her prose. The similes especially felt crips, fresh, and spot on. Sloppy is a good, funny collection of essays about grief, addiction, ADHD and mental illness, bad spending habits and temporary jobs, the fuck uppery we inherit and perpetuate, and being an all-around outsider weirdo. Next to the cover of Bunns Rabbit by Alan Barillaro: When I saw this book in the store, I was struck by the visuals. The illustrations in this book were so gorgeous, so alluring and inviting that I knew I’d have to revisit them again and again. Having read it, I will indeed be going back to page through Bunns Rabbit. All throughout, the art consistently moved me.

October #Reading wrap up! Delved into some genres I don't usually check out: #PersonalEssays, #YoungAdult, and #EarlyReaders in addition to my more classic literary and speculative #fiction.

A bohemian, reclaimed light wood table holds a ceramic mug full of a rose latte with two rosebuds centred in the swirls. Next to it is a hardback book entitled "Vita Nostra" .The background of this book is black, the title in gold surrounded by sparkles. The main image is a young white woman wearing black, face turned away, who looks like she's being torn into mist.

Today's #reading is Vita Nostra, a speculative, dark academia book by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko translated from the Russian byJulia Meitov Hersey.

Today's drinking is a rose latte.

#booksky💙📚

On a pink and white blanket is the book "Bunns Rabbit" by Alan Barillaro. The cover is a sweet, short-eared bunny on her hind legs looking upward inquisitively, standing on a plain of grass. Along the left side, a flock of butterflies flap upward from the bottom towards the top. In the top left, the ghostly face of a fox observes.

Our short-eared rabbit protagonist is peeking out from a frightening looking thorn bush towards a yellow butterfly. Everything is textured and dark.

I bought a book yesterday based solely on how moved I was by the illustrations. It's so beautiful, I can't wait to start reading it.

Do you ever read a book and think, "oh shit, this narrator/author/character and I have a weirdly identical vernacular? I've made that same observation?" It's bizarre!

Sloppy by Rax King

Two bunnies are having a sleepover, and are playing videogames on their tv late at night. They have sleeping bags. A cat watches the game intently, and a small bunny (their little sister) is flopped over the television, distracting the two gamer bunnies

Daily bunny no.3099 is waiting for a turn

I love them so much??

A cream coloured graphic with the header "September 2025 Reading Wrap Up". First is the cover of slags. Slags has an orange cover, title "slags" in a rounded, 70s-esque serif font with a photo of a white girl in a barette and orange shirt smoking a cigarette centred in the image I ranked it four stars and wrote the following paragraph: Sisters Sarah and Juliette road trip across Scotland in a camper van for Juliette’s 40th birthday. Scenes of their trip are interspersed with flash backs to Sarah’s teenage memories where she, a trouble maker at an all girls’ school is obsessed with her teacher and helping her friend stalk a boy band. Slags is marketed a funny, messy, romp, but there is so much here. The prose is sharp, but natural; the images striking. Slags is about family, about womanhood, girlhood, and mostly sisterhood. This book deftly demonstrates how sisters are formed indelibly in relation to each other. What struck me most was the illustration of how women are pushed (both internally and externally) towards a few marketable types of sexualization and the struggle for an impossible, perfect sexual agency and sexual standing under the male gaze. The second book cover is "The Anthropologists". The cover is bordered in varied greens. The centre image shows this: At the edge of a table situated outside with a white picket fence behind, is an arm in a black and white striped sweater extending a hand with one finger dipped into a light yellow liquid in a 6 oz glass. I gave it four stars and wrote "Lovely, almost meditative little book. These chapters read like vignettes. A couple are living in a city neither is from. They feel like outsiders, but also like the city is their own. This book moves through their quotidian lives at a time of transition where they are staring down the rest of their adult lives. Do they stay, settle into a new place? When is a city one’s own? How does one form bonds, both to people and to places? What goes into building a home?"

A cream coloured background with the heading "September 2025 Reading Wrap Up". The first book is procession by katherena vermette. The cover features gorgeous beadwork. Dark purples, marigold yellows, robin's egg blue, and pink feature heavily. Both the title and the author name are in lowercase, white, sans-serif font. I ranked it four stars and wrote of it "katherena vermette’s new book of poetry is an invitation. As the title suggests, this collection is concerned with who came before us and who will come after, the continuous link of family, what we inherit, and what we transmit forward. The portraits of individuals in the speaker’s family really stand out." Finally, the fourth book is "Should We Go Extinct" by Todd May. The cover is against the background of space. The title "Should we go extinct? A philosophical dilemma for our unbearable times" Is in all caps, sprawling and spaced out. Between the spaced-out words "we and go" is a small, distant view of earth. I didn't know how to rank it, so I didn't. I wrote this: "It seems every month, I end up reading a book I have no idea how to rate. I would have enjoyed the content of this book as a conversation. One of the limitations of philosophy texts with any kind of persuasive bent is that sometimes your objections or skepticisms aren’t addressed. A few times, Todd May introduced an argument and followed it with, “some of you may be saying X, Y, or Z,” and I found myself thinking “oh, no, I was actually thinking A, B, and C” and then the text continues while I’m holding my question. This isn’t a flaw, a text can be only so interactive. I don’t know if I find my position on if humans should go extinct altered, although I’m sure Professor May and I share many of the same concerns. Glad I read it."

September was so busy that I barely got any reading done. Still, the offerings from my #TBRPile were consistently strong. Read a collection of #poetry, a book of #philosophy, and two #novels.

I hope your September was full of great reading, #booksky💙📚

Eddy holding a copy of The Anthropologists by Aysegul Savas. The cover is bordered in varied greens. The centre image shows this: At the edge of a table situated outside with a white picket fence behind, is an arm in a black and white striped sweater extending a hand with one finger dipped into a light yellow liquid in a 6 oz glass.

You know how some #book covers just grab you? I've been obsessed with this one since it first landed at the store where I work. Glad I finally got around to reading it. If you have a fave book cover, please share it. I absolutely judge books by their covers 💙📚

A 4x4 spread of poetry collections on a coffee table. From Left to Right: First row: Why I was Late by Charlie Petch, NDN Coping Mechanisms by Billy Ray Belcourt, feeld by Jos Charles, Undoing Hours by Selina Boan. Second row: Bluets by Maggie Nelson, My Art Is Killing Me by Amber Dawn, Wayside Sang by Cecily Nicholson, The Problem with Solitaire by Lucia Misch. Third row: None of This Belongs to Me by Ellie Sawatzky, i feel that way too by jaz papadopoulos, Excerpts from a Burned Letter by Joelle Barron, Any Psalm You Want by Khary Jackson. Bottom row: The gospel of breaking by Jillian Christmas, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje, my yt mama by Mercedes Eng, and Short Talks by Anne Carson.

A very handsome black cat has climbed up onto the 4x4 spread of books and has seated himself right in the middle, looking up at the camera.

Hey #BookSky, I was in the middle of taking photos of some of my favourite #poetry collections when something excellent happened.

Omg?! 🤩

Okay that actually sounds perfect. Thank you for sharing!

I'm obsessed with this cover. I have no idea what the book is about, but it's on my TBR list based on how striking it looks. Are you enjoying it?

I have decision freeze trying to pick the next book from my TBR pile. :/

Yess! Such a good one.

Eddy is holding up a copy of Slags (orange cover, title "slags" in a rounded, 70s-esque serif font with a photo of a girl in a barette and orange shirt smoking a cigarette centred in the image) in front of a lake. The sky behind is blue with puffy white clouds dotting the periwinkle and reflected in the water.

After a month of very little reading, I was finally able to get back to my book which immediately blessed me with the line "It was as though they'd become a tribute act to themselves. And not a good one. This was not the Australian Pink Floyd. This was ... Amy Housewine." God I love #books. 💙📚

Last Read: 🎧 Should We Go Extinct by Todd May, 📚Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Current Read: Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare
Next Read: Procession by Katherena Vermette
Current Favourite Song: Seether by Veruca Salt

Uff that IS a sweet angel baby.

Right? I was riveted.

Yes.

August 2025 Reading Wrap Up Graphic. The cover of Problematic Summer Romance. Each word of the title has a check mark next to it except for romance, which has a question mark. Above this are the cartoon legs of a man and a woman lounging on a patio on an Italian vacation. Three stars. The review: Pretty fun! Romcoms aren’t my main genre because it’s rare that I read one without ever getting the ick. Was Problematic Summer Romance ickless for me? It was not. Were there parts I enjoyed? Absolutely. Hazelwood really delivers on the fantasy of a hotter, more successful person swooping in during your lowest moment with your ex to really demonstrate to your former flame that they’ve fumbled the bag. The barrier stopping the two protagonists from getting together being entirely self-imposed is where I found myself a bit exasperated. It’s not that this is unrealistic to life, it just isn’t as narratively interesting to me as a reader as the characters requiring agency to navigate external barriers. Maybe a problematic summer romance, but not a problematic summer read.

4/4 wrap up pt. 4 #booksky

August 2025 Reading Wrap Up Graphic. In the top, a cover of "Solitaria", which lis a light blue wall with light from an off-screen window rectangling it. Underneath is a beige and pink desk housing a plant and a knocked over mug of coffee. Three stars. The review: I appreciated this book more as social commentary on class disparities, race, and gender in Brazil than as reading material. By far the most compelling component for me was when the rooms of the home became the narrator. This truly sparkled. Some huge, impactful moments. I suspect I lack the context to truly grasp how impactful Solitaria is. Well worth a read. In the bottom, Sagittarius. The cover is white with a wide orange rectangle frame encompassing a smaller rectangle frame. Under the title is a black and white photograph of two women drinking a beverage at a table with a table cloth under a lamp indoors. The review: Another book I’m unable to rate because what?? This was my first Ginzburg and it was a ride. Sometimes I loved the writing, sometimes the stylized repetition was tiring. Sometimes the minutia was delicious, sometimes it felt extraneous. It seemed like Sagittarius was asking us to hold our breath waiting to find out what’s going to happen, but then it ended how it was always inevitably going to end, so nothing was really subverted. I want to talk to somebody about this book because without unpacking it, I’m truly not sure what to think. Please share your thoughts!

3/4

August 2025 Reading Wrap Up Graphic Two: The cover of "I Hope This Finds You Well" is pink with diagonal, 3d block letters. The bottom corner is orange and shows the legs of a person passed out next to their working desk. Three stars. The review: After getting busted for sending rude messages to her colleagues in white font in her emails, Jolene, the office outcast at a soulless multinational, gains access to all of her coworkers’ communications. Her employment and social status are precarious, and after she meets the kind, handsome new HR hire Cliff, she wants more than ever to hang onto her job. So why not use the intel she gains from illicitly reading her coworkers’ messages? The tension in this book ratchets up with each passing chapter. Jolene’s family dynamics were the most interesting part for me, the “will she get caught” fear the most propulsive. Jolene’s traumatic backstory on the other hand didn’t feel tidily integrated. That said, this was an enjoyable read. Recommend. Underneath, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The background is space with the title in a blue-to-green gradient. The review: Endlessly witty and wry, it’s obvious that this is a classic for a reason. I can see the impact it has had on literature since. For my sensibilities, it was at times a tad too clever to feel immersive, but it’s 100% clear why this is a staple of the genre.

2/4 Reading wrap up con't 💙📚

#fiction #scifi #nonfiction #romcom #translations

A graphic titled "August 2025 Reading Wrap Up". Two books and little write ups are on the graphic. The cover of Yellowface (yellow cover, eyes looking to the side). Next to it, five stars and the following review: R.F. Kuang is brilliant. The layers upon layers one can excavate here are staggering. After literary phenom Athena Liu dies, literati wannabe Juniper Song (really June Hayword) steals Liu’s manuscript and publishes it under a new, ethnically ambiguous name. This is a glorious character study that is at times upsettingly humane. Yellowface is also an incisive critique of the publishing industry, the crab bucket creative fields can become under capitalism, white supremacy, and the demands white audiences make on the creative output of BIPOC authors. Commentary this sharp and a book I can’t put down? Huge. On the bottom, the cover of Mood Machine (a black cover with ten rounded square icons remniscint of spotify graphics. Four stars. With the review: An informative and insightful examination of Spotify’s exploitative, extractive business practices and the impact this has had both on artists and, more broadly, the way people listen to music. There are many ideas in this text I’ll be thinking about for a long time, chiefly the flattening of philosophies into aesthetics, the datafication of fandom, the shift to a culture of passive listening, and the role that the decontextualization of music plays in efforts to undervalue it.

1/4

August #reading wrap up! I finished seven #books this month:

Yellowface (Excellent)
Mood Machine (Learned a lot)
I Hope This Finds You Well (Enjoyed it)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Better late than never)
Solitaria (Great craft)
Sagittarius (?!) and
Problematic Summer Romance (💙)

Okay #Booksky, please give me your best #BookRecs from your #SealeyChallenge reads. 💙📚

That poem!

Cover of "Should We Go Extinct?: A Philosopihical Dilemma for Our unbearable Times" by Todd May. A navy background. The title and subtitle are in white, serif font and take up most of the cover. Between the words "we" and "go" is a small rendering of planet earth. At the bottom is the author's name, Todd May.

Good morning! In the midst of Should We Go Extinct? by Todd May.

Grateful for this new knowledge.

I am now! Why had I never heard of Sapphic September?!