ochrasyutopia

I eat books for breakfast 🥣 | In my fantasy era 🐉 | Learning to tame my bookshelves 🐈‍⬛ | Focused on reading books that make me smile 😊

1898 points

0% overlap

My Taste

The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)

Daughter of the Moon Goddess (The Celestial Kingdom Duology, #1)

The Dragon's Promise (Six Crimson Cranes, #2)

Reading...

The Dragon Wakes with Thunder (The Dragon Spirit, #2)

ochrasyutopia commented on a post

Ashwee0955

Edited

Thoughts from 62%

spoilers

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ochrasyutopia commented on a post

ochrasyutopia

Thoughts from 40% (page 148)

I don’t know why but I imagine Evangeline looking like Mother Gothel in Tangled (I know, I know, it’s an animated character 🤭) and Hester as Dame Judi Dench 🤷‍♀️

This book is so addictive. And nothing is really happening but that’s ok!

ochrasyutopia is interested in reading...

The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop

Takuya Asakura

For fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, What You Are Looking for Is In the Library, and Days at the Morisaki Bookshop comes an enchanting novel that will linger in your heart long after the last page is turned. As the last petal falls, the final page is turned… Welcome to The Cherry Blossom Bookshop, a haven for book lovers that only appears during the fleeting cherry blossom season. Nestled amidst the bloom of delicate petals, you’ll find a sanctuary for those burdened by regrets and past sorrows. Here, Sakura, the mysterious young owner, and her wise calico cat, Kobako, patiently await the arrival of souls in need of solace and healing. Told over four seasons, each visitor to the bookshop holds a book that bridges their past and present, guiding them towards understanding and acceptance. Within the antique charm of the shop and the soothing aroma of freshly brewed coffee, Sakura and Kobako help their guests confront their lingering sadness through the power of stories, enabling them to move forward with renewed hope.

ochrasyutopia is interested in reading...

The Decagon House Murders (House Murders, #1)

Yukito Ayatsuji

The lonely, rockbound island of Tsunojima is notorious as the site of a series of bloody unsolved murders. Some even say it’s haunted. One thing’s for sure: it’s the perfect destination for the K-University Mystery Club’s annual trip. But when the first club member turns up dead, the remaining amateur sleuths realise they will need all of their murder-mystery expertise to get off the island alive. As the party are picked off one by one, the survivors grow desperate and paranoid, turning on each other. Will anyone be able to untangle the murderer’s fiendish plan before it’s too late?

ochrasyutopia is interested in reading...

A Tale for the Time Being

Ruth Ozeki

In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there's only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates' bullying, but before she ends it all, Nao plans to document the life of her great-grandmother, a Buddhist nun who's lived more than a century. A diary is Nao's only solace—and will touch lives in a ways she can scarcely imagine. Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao's drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future. Full of Ozeki's signature humour and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.

ochrasyutopia is interested in reading...

Geisha, a Life

Mineko Iwasaki

"No woman in the three-hundred-year history of the karyukai has ever come forward in public to tell her story. We have been constrained by unwritten rules not to do so, by the robes of tradition and by the sanctity of our exclusive calling...But I feel it is time to speak out." Celebrated as the most successful geisha of her generation, Mineko Iwasaki was only five years old when she left her parents' home for the world of the geisha. For the next twenty-five years, she would live a life filled with extraordinary professional demands and rich rewards. She would learn the formal customs and language of the geisha, and study the ancient arts of Japanese dance and music. She would enchant kings and princes, captains of industry, and titans of the entertainment world, some of whom would become her dearest friends. Through great pride and determination, she would be hailed as one of the most prized geishas in Japan's history, and one of the last great practitioners of this now fading art form. In Geisha, a Life, Mineko Iwasaki tells her story, from her warm early childhood, to her intense yet privileged upbringing in the Iwasaki okiya (household), to her years as a renowned geisha, and finally, to her decision at the age of twenty-nine to retire and marry, a move that would mirror the demise of geisha culture. Mineko brings to life the beauty and wonder of Gion Kobu, a place that "existed in a world apart, a special realm whose mission and identity depended on preserving the time-honored traditions of the past." She illustrates how it coexisted within post-World War II Japan at a time when the country was undergoing its radical transformation from a post-feudal society to a modern one. "There is much mystery and misunderstanding about what it means to be a geisha. I hope this story will help explain what it is really like and also serve as a record of this unique component of Japan's cultural history," writes Mineko Iwasaki. Geisha, a Life is the first of its kind, as it delicately unfolds the fabric of a geisha's development. Told with great wisdom and sensitivity, it is a true story of beauty and heroism, and of a time and culture rarely revealed to the Western world.

ochrasyutopia commented on a post from the Founder Announcements forum

lucyPagebound

Upcoming Special Event Readalong: Cherry Blossom Festival 2026

Our next Special Event will celebrate Japanese literature, culture and its influence on the world. Like the sakura (cherry blossom) trees Japan gifts other nations to promote cross-cultural exchange, we hope reading these books together will connect the global Pagebound community. We've intentionally selected a broad range of genres and authors to spotlight, so everyone can find a book they're interested in. This event will run from March 15 to April 15.

Check out the Special Events page (in the More tab on the app, or click the pink banner on the Discuss page on web).

The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop by Takuya Asakura: a translated Japanese magical realism novel about a mysterious bookshop that appears during cherry blossom season (vibes: cozy, poignant)

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki: a metafictional novel about belonging & home, identity & immigration. Ozeki is the first practicing Zen Buddhist priest to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize (vibes: literary, meditative) - check triggers

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji: a 1987 translated Japanese murder mystery novel (vibes: a classic "whodunit")

Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki: a memoir from Japan's most celebrated geisha in Kyoto's Gion district during the 1960s & 70s (the UK title is Geisha of Gion). Iwasaki was one of the geisha's interviewed by Arthur Golden for his book Memoirs of a Geisha that fictionalized her story. It included many inaccuracies, and here, Iwasaki sets the record straight.

What's a Special Event? Each quarter, we run a short 1 month readalong showcasing diverse voices in literature. Read one of the selections and comment or post in the forum during the Readalong to earn a special badge. Unlike Seasonal Readalongs, you do not earn a special badge for reading all the selections.

Excited to see the discussions for this event!

Happy Reading, Jennifer & Lucy

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ochrasyutopia commented on a List

Abolish men

by robyn00

24 books

I'm quite experienced in the man-hating field. These books made me hate men more than I already did.

❌

👨

❌

ochrasyutopia commented on a post

avyslibrary

i'm literally 0.7% in lol

the cover of this has been stuck in my head since i first saw it, so here i am impulsively picking this up... and on chinese new year LMAO super hyped !!!

ochrasyutopia commented on daniphantom's review of The Color of Magic (Discworld, #1; Rincewind, #1)

daniphantom

Feb 16, 2026

2.0

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

🐢

🧙

🧳

I've enjoyed the few other Discworld novels I've read but I guess I still don't have enough under my belt to be able to go back and enjoy this one. I can appreciate it for what it is but everyone is right to warn series newbies off of starting here - the tone and character building I've seen in his other books just isn't quite there yet. Excellent narration from Colin Morgan though!

Post from the The Dragon Wakes with Thunder (The Dragon Spirit, #2) forum

ochrasyutopia

Thoughts from 2% (page 7)

I’d wanted to show everyone that I belonged. No —more than belonged. I’d wanted to become the hero of legend, to have my name whispered through the streets, my deeds etched in the stones of history.

I love how unapologetically this book portrays the main character’s hunger for ambition. Meilin doesn’t just want survival or safety, she wants more. Power. Control. What makes it compelling is that she isn’t written as a flawless moral compass or a “chosen one” who is good simply because she’s the heroine. She makes questionable choices. She wants to rise. And yet we still root for her. Her flaws don’t cancel her strength. It’s refreshing to follow a fantasy MC who isn’t a goody-goody ideal, but someone whose ambition is both her greatest weapon and her greatest downfall.

ochrasyutopia commented on ochrasyutopia's update

ochrasyutopia started reading...

The Dragon Wakes with Thunder (The Dragon Spirit, #2)

K.X. Song

A young woman who wields the unimaginable power of the dragon spirit must decide who to support—and who to love—in this enthralling fantasy that reimagines the legend of Mulan.The explosive sequel to The Night Ends with Fire!The war may be over, but Hai Meilin is still paying a heavy toll. In spite of securing victory for the kingdom of Anlai, she is imprisoned upon her return. Her crime? Wielding a sword as a woman.In the palace, Meilin is an outcast and a social pariah. But beyond the imperial walls, the legend of the woman warrior has taken on a life of its own. To the east, a new rebel leader needs Meilin to helm his people’s revolution. In the south, a former enemy prince, now a prisoner of war, seeks Meilin’s aid in restoring balance to the Three Kingdoms. And back home in Anlai, Liu Sky, Meilin’s commander and first love, requires Meilin by his side in his bid for the throne.Pulled in all directions by those who seek to use her for their own ends, Meilin vows that this time, she will not be so quick to trust. Yet there is one she cannot help but listen to—for he dwells within her.Beyond any human machinations, the sea dragon Qinglong has his own plans for the spirit realm. During the last war, Meilin wielded his power to cheat death and attain victory for Anlai; now the dragon has come to collect his dues. Meilin’s mother warned her long The spirits demand blood. And Qinglong is ravenous.

ochrasyutopia started reading...

The Dragon Wakes with Thunder (The Dragon Spirit, #2)

K.X. Song

ochrasyutopia is interested in reading...