nessiesbooknook

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My Taste

Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)

nessiesbooknook is interested in reading...

The Swan's Daughter

Roshani Chokshi

In this lush and romantic novel from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi, a prince is only as good as his beating heart and a maiden is only as good as her honest word. But when love and the truth become impossibly tangled, the two must figure out how to survive together, or fall completely apart. To find love is a curse ... Prince Arris knows that marriage means murder. Thanks to a poorly worded wish to a sea witch, all one needs to rule the Isle of Malys is the heart and hand of the kingdom’s heir. Historically, this has been construed quite literally. Thus, Arris expects that the day after his marriage and murder he will wake up as a sentient tree alongside the rest of his predecessors. His only chance at a long life is finding true and lasting love. When Arris's parents announce a tournament of brides to compete for his hand and heart, a slew of eligible, lovely and (possibly murderous) bachelorettes make their way to Rathe Castle. Amidst glittering balls in ozorald caves, strolls through menageries of daydream trees and pearl crocodiles, tea time on glass boats and kisses that leave his head spinning, Arris cannot tell who is here out of love for him…or lust for power. Until he meets Demelza. As a veritas swan, Demelza’s song wrings out the truth. Forced into hiding, Demelza strikes a deal. Arris will provide her with safekeeping in exchange for her truth-telling song to sort through his potential brides. While Arris is used to dodging death threats and Demelza is accustomed to fighting for her voice to be heard, to survive the tournament of brides requires a different kind of bravery. And perhaps the bravest thing one can do is not merely protect one’s life, but find the courage to chase a life worth living.

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Little Fires Everywhere

Celeste Ng

Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down. In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother–daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community. When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town – and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .

nessiesbooknook TBR'd a book

The Joy Luck Club

Amy Tan

Alternate cover editions of ISBN 9780143038092 can be found here. Four mothers, four daughters, four families, whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's telling the stories. In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of what they left behind in China. United in loss and new hope for their daughters' futures, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Their daughters, who have never heard these stories, think their mothers' advice is irrelevant to their modern American lives – until their own inner crises reveal how much they've unknowingly inherited of their mothers' pasts. With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.

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Scattered All Over the Earth

Yōko Tawada

Welcome to the not-too-distant future: Japan, having vanished from the face of the earth, is now remembered as “the land of sushi.” Hiruko, its former citizen and a climate refugee herself, has a job teaching immigrant children in Denmark with her invented language Panska (Pan-Scandinavian): “homemade language. no country to stay in. three countries I experienced. insufficient space in brain. so made new language. homemade language.” As she searches for anyone who can still speak her mother tongue, Hiruko soon makes new friends. Her troupe travels to France, encountering an umami cooking competition; a dead whale; an ultra-nationalist named Breivik; unrequited love; Kakuzo robots; red herrings; uranium; an Andalusian matador. Episodic and mesmerizing scenes flash vividly along, and soon they’re all next off to Stockholm.

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A Mango-Shaped Space

Wendy Mass

Mia Winchell appears to be a typical kid, but she's keeping a big secret—sounds, numbers, and words have color for her. No one knows, and Mia wants to keep it that way. But when trouble at school finally forces Mia to reveal her secret, she must learn to accept herself and embrace her ability, called synesthesia, a mingling of the senses.

nessiesbooknook wrote a review...

nessiesbooknook

May 06, 2026

3.5

Enjoyment: 3.0Quality: 4.0Characters: 3.0Plot: 3.5

🛒

🏪

⁉️

𝓵𝓪𝓼𝓽 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭: behind five willows by june hur (arc)

⋆𐙚₊☕️ ₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊

“i could distinctly feel all my cells stirring within my skin as they responded in unison to the music reverberating on the other side of the glass”

keiko furukura, pg 159

this book was recommended to me after i had posted about how I had been feeling recently, how stuck I was while everyone moved forward. and the premise of this book was very interesting to me. i was intrigued by the idea and the character of keiko, how she wanted to so desperately fit in but felt so stuck, that nothing would “cure her”. and parts of that stuck with me.

but for the most part, i kinda hated how she was written as “not human” in most parts, it made her less relatable to me. it felt…..wrong to see her as such because of how she was written, and maybe that’s the whole point and maybe that says something about how we view others like keiko. bit another part of me wished the author gave her a touch of humanization so she doesn’t feel so alien that we start to not relate to the character at all.

and then there’s freaking shiraha, who made my skin crawl from what a freak and incel he was. the moment he befriended keiko, alarm bells rang in my head and i wanted to keep keiko from harms way. but the dynamic they had was interesting- given that she could care less about him, tried to understand him at one point and then just left him (as she should. she better than me though, I would of pushed him into moving traffic.)

i think in summary, i have mixed feelings about this book. i like the characters but i also didn’t like how certain aspects of them were written. i like the themes but most felt a bit out of touch. it’s reasoning like this that i struggled to write my review. but there were certain things I couldn’t get past with this book.

but what the people who recommended this book to me said is true: it makes you uncomfortable in your own skin and makes you view things much more differently, while simultaneously being comfortable to tell you that it’s okay to be stuck. that is one thing I feel the book and the author got right.

⋆𐙚₊☕️ ₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊

𝓷𝓮𝔁𝓽 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭: n/a

nessiesbooknook TBR'd a book

A River Enchanted (Elements of Cadence, #1)

Rebecca Ross

Jack Tamerlaine hasn’t set foot on Cadence in ten long years, content to study music at the mainland university. But when young girls start disappearing from the isle, Jack is summoned home to help find them. Enchantments run deep on Cadence: gossip is carried by the wind; plaid shawls can be as strong as armor, and the smallest cut of a knife can instil fathomless fear. The capricious spirits that rule the isle by fire, water, earth, and wind find mirth in the lives of the humans who call the land home. Adaira, heiress of the east and Jack’s childhood enemy, knows the spirits only answer to a bard’s music, and she hopes Jack can draw them forth by song, enticing them to return the missing girls. As Jack and Adaira reluctantly work together, they find they make better allies than rivals as their partnership turns into something more. But with each passing song, it becomes apparent the trouble with the spirits is far more sinister than they first expected, and an older, darker secret about Cadence lurks beneath the surface, threatening to undo them all.

nessiesbooknook is interested in reading...

The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1)

Nghi Vo

A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully. Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for. At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.

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nessiesbooknook finished a book

Convenience Store Woman

Sayaka Murata

The English-language debut of one of Japan's most talented contemporary writers, selling over 650,000 copies there, Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction―many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual―and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action… A brilliant depiction of a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures we all feel to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.

nessiesbooknook finished a book

Convenience Store Woman

Sayaka Murata

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Thoughts from 67% (page 112)

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Thoughts from 67% (page 112)

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nessiesbooknook made progress on...

Convenience Store Woman

Sayaka Murata

67%

nessiesbooknook is interested in reading...

Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Good morning. Do NOT get stuck in the comments section of life today. Make, do, create the things. Let others tussle it out. Vamos! Before he inspired the world with Hamilton and was catapulted to international fame, Lin-Manuel Miranda was inspiring his Twitter followers with words of encouragement at the beginning and end of each day. He wrote these original sayings, aphorisms, and poetry for himself as much as for others. But as Miranda’s audience grew, these messages took on a life on their own. Now Miranda has gathered the best of his daily greetings into a beautiful collection illustrated by acclaimed artist (and fellow Twitter favorite) Jonny Sun. Full of comfort and motivation, Gmorning, Gnight! is a touchstone for anyone who needs a quick lift.

nessiesbooknook is interested in reading...

Firekeeper’s Daughter

Angeline Boulley

As a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in—both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. When her family is struck by tragedy, Daunis puts her dreams on hold to care for her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother’s hockey team. After Daunis witnesses a shocking murder that thrusts her into a criminal investigation, she agrees to go undercover. But the deceptions—and deaths—keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. How far will she go to protect her community if it means tearing apart the only world she’s ever known?

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nessiesbooknook

Thoughts from 43% (page 108)

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nessiesbooknook is interested in reading...

Goddess of the River

Vaishnavi Patel

A powerful reimagining of the story of Ganga, goddess of the river, and her doomed mortal son, from Vaishnavi Patel, author of the instant New York Times bestseller Kaikeyi . A mother and a son. A goddess and a prince. A curse and an oath. A river whose course will change the fate of the world. Ganga, joyful goddess of the river, serves as caretaker to the mischievous godlings who roam her banks. But when their antics incur the wrath of a powerful sage, Ganga is cursed to become mortal, bound to her human form until she fulfills the obligations of the curse. Though she knows nothing of mortal life, Ganga weds King Shantanu and becomes a queen, determined to regain her freedom no matter the cost. But in a cruel turn of fate, just as she is freed of her binding, she is forced to leave her infant son behind. Her son, prince Devavrata, unwittingly carries the legacy of Ganga’s curse. And when he makes an oath that he will never claim his father’s throne, he sets in motion a chain of events that will end in a terrible and tragic war. As the years unfold, Ganga and Devavrata are drawn together again and again, each confluence another step on a path that has been written in the stars, in this deeply moving and masterful tale of duty, destiny, and the unwavering bond between mother and son.

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Mad Sisters of Esi

Tashan Mehta

Myung and Laleh are keepers of the whale of babel. They roam within its cosmic chambers, speak folktales of themselves, and pray to an enigmatic figure they know only as 'Great Wisa'. To Laleh, this is everything. For Myung, it is not enough. When Myung flees the whale, she stumbles into a new universe where shapeshifting islands and ancient maps hold sway. There, she sets off on an adventure that is both tragic and transformative, for her and Laleh. For at the heart of her quest lies a mystery that has confounded scholars for centuries: the truth about the mad sisters of Esi. Fables, dreams and myths come together in this masterful work of fantasy by acclaimed author Tashan Mehta, sweeping across three landscapes, and featuring a museum of collective memory and a festival of madness. At its core, it asks: In the devastating chaos of this world, where all is in flux and the truth ever-changing, what will you choose to hold on to?

nessiesbooknook commented on hopeworldbookshelf's review of Behind Five Willows

hopeworldbookshelf

Apr 18, 2026

3.5

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

oh, haewon, you are truly a better person than me. i would genuinely not be able to bounce back from that betrayal. i could not comprehend what was going through yeonhee's mind when she did what she did. that would actually have to change the trajectory of our relationship, with absolutely no way of bouncing back to how we were before.

the romance in this was what kept me hooked. the unknown of it all and the tension, UGH i loved it. their relationship and ability to rely on each other were a beautiful thing to see. there was a certain part in this story that reminded me of s4 of bridgerton, and i was giggling at his cluelessness. i actually really liked how/when they found out about each other's identities (especially when she did lol).

i had fun with this and liked it, but i wish i loved it :( i wish certain things were explored and explained just a teeeeeeeeny bit more. i loved seeing jade and her relationship bloom, but it was pretty much written off the pages as soon as they were together. i would have loved to see more than just crumbs of their time together. the ending felt very rushed and a tad incomplete and abrupt?

thank you june hur + team for the arc!

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nessiesbooknook made progress on...

Convenience Store Woman

Sayaka Murata

40%

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