I very unexpectedly lost my grandmother last month. She was like a mother to me and I have found that in my grief there are pockets of time that I cannot properly account for. In this month that has passed, I have only been able to complete Behind fFve Willows by June Hur. Which I am very grateful for, as it was a very comforting Pride and Prejudice inspired title.

Sunday would be my grandma's birthday and I would just like something that's whimsical and fantastical to take my mind off things a bit.

It could be a novel or a manga. I love shoujo and josei manga. Novels I have loved this year include: Never Even After by Sue Lynn Tan, and The Ellsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao. I did not enjoy The Sun and The Starmaker. I found the female lead to be insufferable. Some of my favorite ongoing manga include: A Sign Of Affection, Fall In Love, You False Angels, and Choking On Love.

In terms of my reading habits, I am someone who under normal circumstances can finish up to four or five novels in a week. As well as half a dozen manga. So the fact that I have only been able to finish one novel in all this time, and not even a single volume of manga, really speaks to how deeply I have been affected. The year my mother passed away, I read over 120 books and at least 90 volumes of manga. This was in 2023. I usually find great solace in reading.

Hey gang 👋

Just curious how everyone uses the ‘interested’ feature on here, as it feels like a really cool difference from other book apps.

Do you mark a book as ‘interested’ if you don’t own it and ‘TBR’ if you do? Is ‘interested’ a lesser level of curiosity/urgency whereas ‘TBR’ is more about things you want to get to asap? Or is ‘interested’ a book you’ve heard about and it gets moved to ‘TBR’ once you’ve researched it?

I don’t think there’s a right answer, I’m just ‘interested’ to hear what you all think/gain some inspo about how to use this cool feature! 😊🌟