sunnysunshine

I'm Sunny! they/them I mostly read literary fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction but I love a good mix of everything.

3791 points

0% overlap

My Taste

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

Reading...

Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1)

The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World

sunnysunshine wants to read...

Woman at Point Zero

Nawal El Saadawi

From her prison cell, Firdaus, sentenced to die for having killed a pimp in a Cairo street, tells of her life from village childhood to city prostitute. Society's retribution for her act of defiance - death - she welcomes as the only way she can finally be free.

sunnysunshine commented on moss-mylk's update

moss-mylk earned a badge

Level 8

8000 points

122

sunnysunshine commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

Sciel

Mix and Match game: author/genre

Obviously authors have their specific story style and sometimes genre for a very good reason. It’s what they do best, fits their taste and the craft that they have perfected.

🌸 But for fun, what author would you imagine trying to write a genre they are not known for? It can be a completely crazy exchange. I am asking because I know you guys are creative hahaha

sunnysunshine wants to read...

Bat Eater

Kylie Lee Baker

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. The bloody messes don't bother her, not when she's already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister being pushed in front of a train. Before fleeing the scene, the murderer whispered two words: bat eater. Months pass, the killer is never caught, and Cora can barely keep herself together. She pushes away all feelings, disregards the bite marks that appear on her coffee table, and won't take her aunt's advice to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open. Cora tries to ignore the rising dread in her stomach, even when she and her weird co-workers begin finding bat carcasses at their crime scene clean-ups. But Cora can't ignore the fact that all their recent clean-ups have been the bodies of East Asian women. Soon Cora will learn: you can't just ignore hungry ghosts.

sunnysunshine commented on Brandon_Bound's update

Brandon_Bound DNF'd a book

The Spellshop

Sarah Beth Durst

The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love. Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant—have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite. When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home. In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries. But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop. Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.

sunnysunshine commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

notbillnye

Edited

Books First, To Friends (Forever)

While I came to Pagebound looking for a more ideal bookish space (which I did find), I found that the PB community came to be one of my fav things and I'd love to highlight that today 🫶🏼

For new and older users, what is maybe the first book, or most memorable book, that led to you finding your PB friends? If you've been around for a hot minute, maybe it's not the first book, but when/whomst did you suddenly feel welcomed by and from what book? For our new user-friends, if you are still learning how to interact, let us know which books you've been so excited to interact with on PB and maybe you'll find your friends in the comments :) I'd love to see how big our community is growing and which books have really helped make this place special for all of us! ♥️✨📚

I'll go first: while it wasn't one of my first books, The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin forum was when I really started to get active—and lo and behold is was our ~~feral~~ lovely @Fantasy who kept ~~flirting~~ scaring me in the forums (iykyk).

106

337

sunnysunshine wants to read...

The Divine Farce (LeapLit)

Michael S.A. Graziano

“A Dante/Beckett reduction of human struggle to its lowest common denominator.”— Michael Mirolla, author of The Formal Logic of Emotion and Berlin “One of the most original and thought-provoking stories I have ever read...true literary art...Not a word is wasted in this masterpiece. Yes, I call it that. I have read many classics, and I can tell you that The Divine Farce should be counted among them; the finest in American literature.”— Geekscribe Three strangers are condemned to live together in darkness, crushed together in a concrete stall so small that they can never sit down. Liquid food drips down from above. Waste drains through a grid on the floor. So begins one of the strangest, most surreal comments on the human experience, on love and hatred and the human ability to find good in any situation, no matter how difficult. Michael S. A. Graziano delights in the macabre and surreal, yet it is his optimism that lifts this little novel. Like The Love Song of Monkey , this book is deeply thought provoking, horrifying, and funny.

sunnysunshine wants to read...

A Short History of Trans Misogyny

Jules Gill-Peterson

An accessible, bold new vision for the future of intersectional trans feminism, called "one of the best books in trans studies in recent years" by Susan Stryker Why are trans women the most targeted of LGBT people? Why are they in the crosshairs of a resurgent anti-trans politics around the world? And what is to be done about it by activists, organizers, and allies? A Short History of Transmisogyny is the first book-length study to answer these urgent but long overdue questions. Combining new historical analysis with political and activist accessibility, the book shows why it matters to understand trans misogyny as a specific form of violence with a documentable history. Ironically, it is through attending to the specificity of trans misogyny that trans women are no longer treated as inevitably tragic figures. They emerge instead as embattled but tenacious, locked in a struggle over the meaning and material stakes of gender, labor, race, and freedom. The book travels across bustling port cities like New York, New Orleans, London and Paris, the colonial and military districts of the British Raj, the Philippines, and Hawai'i, and the lively travesti communities of Latin America. The book shows how trans femininity has become legible as a fault line of broader global histories, including colonial government, the sex work industry, the policing of urban public space, and the line between the formal and informal economy. This transnational and intersectional approach reinforces that trans women are not isolated social subjects who appear alone; they are in fact central to the modern social world.

sunnysunshine wrote a review...

sunnysunshine

Oct 11, 2025

4.5

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.5

💎

🌋

🌐

Continuing Essun’s journey, this book now includes other perspectives. For me, this will never be as good as the perspectives in the first book though to explain why would introduce spoilers for the first book. These perspectives do, however, introduce entirely new questions and plot lines that have me hooked. My only real critique is the slower pace - because the book largely takes place in the single places that our characters are in, we don’t get the sweeping journeys showing us the vast land and different people that we get in the first book which slowed the pace down for me.

This series is spectacular: from one of the most interesting magic systems I’ve ever read to characters that feel so real and complex, I’m in awe of Jemisin’s skill for both storytelling and the writing craft itself. It is no wonder why this series won 3 consecutive hugo awards.

sunnysunshine finished a book

The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2)

N.K. Jemisin

Essun has found shelter, but not her missing daughter. Instead there is Alabaster Tenring, destroyer of the world, with a request that would seal the fate of the Stillness forever.

Post from the The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2) forum

sunnysunshine

Thoughts from 89% (page 347)

spoilers

View spoiler

Post from the The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2) forum

sunnysunshine

Thoughts from 86% (page 337)

spoilers

View spoiler

sunnysunshine commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

Jake99

Edited

reading plays vs. watching them

Similarly to discussions of whether listening to audiobooks counts as reading (consensus seems to be that is does 🙌), I've been wondering if watching a play counts as reading it as well? Curious to hear everyone's opinions on this! Additional discussion questions: Does it only count for specific plays? How faithful do you feel the production needs to be? Does every line need to be spoken, and if so, does this change your perception of watching it counting as reading it? What about movie productions of a play?

sunnysunshine wants to read...

The Possession of Alba Díaz

Isabel Cañas

When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn’t trust… from bestselling author Isabel Cañas. In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family’s isolated mine for refuge. But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bare their teeth: Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions. She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. Something angry. Something wrong. Elías, haunted by a troubled past, came to the New World to make his fortune and escape his family’s legacy of greed. Alba, as his cousin’s betrothed, is none of his business. Which is of course why he can’t help but notice her every time she enters a room or the growing tension between them… and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon’s thirst for blood grows stronger.

Post from the The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2) forum

sunnysunshine

Thoughts from 29% (page 115)

spoilers

View spoiler

sunnysunshine started reading...

The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2)

N.K. Jemisin

Essun has found shelter, but not her missing daughter. Instead there is Alabaster Tenring, destroyer of the world, with a request that would seal the fate of the Stillness forever.

sunnysunshine commented on a post

sunnysunshine

Edited

100% Thoughts

spoilers

View spoiler

sunnysunshine commented on sunnysunshine's review of The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1)

sunnysunshine

Oct 09, 2025

5.0

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 5.0

🌋

💎

💥

From an incredibly unique and highly skilled writing style to a fully immersive world that feels lived in this book did not stop wowing me. The characters are all full and complex and mysterious making them easy to get invested in, cheer for, and mourn with. The world is filled with mystery and intrigue and the magic system and associated socio-political system is one of the most interesting and well-thought I’ve ever read. I have no idea how I read this book in 2 days - only that it would not let me stop reading it and at no point did I not feel an intense desire to read just one more page then one more chapter and then the book was at its end and oh my goodness what a ride. I was able to predict some things which felt very rewarding while I was completely blindsided by others which felt equally rewarding The stuff I don’t know yet has me ready to start the next book IMMEDIATELY. 11/10 I’ll recommend this to anyone though I’ll advise readers who appreciate content warnings to please check those as this book deals with heavy topics.

sunnysunshine commented on a post

the_goddess_me

Thoughts from 9%

Is this whole thing abt twink death

Post from the The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1) forum

sunnysunshine

Edited

100% Thoughts

spoilers

View spoiler

Merch Store Founder Announcements

Support

FAQ Contact Us Report a bug

team@pagebound.co

Company

About Us Terms of Use Privacy Policy Content Policy

Merch Store Founder Announcements