Tags

The Autumn Book Tag

Lebanese Red Cross ~ Yemen ~ Black Lives Matter ~ Free Palestine ~ Kashmir ~
Other issues around the world

I think this is actually the first tag I’ve ever done on this blog? (Besides the Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag, which doesn’t really count…) This is definitely a fun one to start with; it was created by the wonderful Maddy @ Miss Maddy Chats, and she was also the one who tagged me!

Candles – Atmospheric Books to Read by Candlelight

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli

This is a slightly rogue choice, but I’ve gone with Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli. You don’t often think of non-fiction as atmospheric (or at least I don’t!), but there’s so much philosophy mixed into Rovelli’s science, and his (and his translators’) writing is so beautiful, and his passion for his subject so evident, that you can’t help but feel the beauty and wonder of the universe around you.

Coraline – Spooky Reads

I’m not at all into horror or thrillers as a genre, unless they’re using that darkness to make a larger social point and not just for the sake of it. One that I truly love is An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard, which isn’t too graphically horrific, but is dark and creepy in a way that builds subtly throughout the book. It’s all about privilege and entitlement, and the things people can get away with unchallenged, when their peers care more about upholding the system and maintaining their own comfort and power, than justice and equality.

CW: minor body horror and gore; child sacrifice

An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard

Cinnamon Rolls – Cute, Autumnal Reads

I always struggle with this question because I don’t really associate books with particular seasons, and will mostly read anything at any time of year, but my usual answer is Anne of Green Gables. Anne’s love for flowers makes her more of a spring/summer character in my head, but the book does have the ‘I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers’ line, and this set of covers in particular feels autumnal (admittedly, largely due to the colour of Anne’s hair…)

Haunted House – Books You’d Buddy Read Because You’re Too Scared

Generally if a book scares me that much, it doesn’t make it on to my TBR! But I do actually have two answers to this that scare me for different reasons:

I’m not expecting to be scared by the actual content of M. L. Rio’s If We Were Villains, but I am rather scared that I won’t like it! So many of my friends count it among their favourite books, that I’ve been convinced to give it a go, but (though I am excited about the Shakespeare element) I am not at all enthused by the dark academia premise… I actually do have *vague* plans to buddy read this with my lovely friend Amy (TeastainsAndBooks) at some point, so we’ll see if/how it goes!

If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

And secondly, I’m not expecting R. F. Kuang’s The Poppy War to be scary so much as harrowing. Grimdark fantasy isn’t really my thing (for a lot of the same reasons I don’t read straight-up horror), so maybe this is just the hype speaking, but I’ve heard such overwhelmingly wonderful things about this that I do at least want to give the first book a try?

Pumpkin Spice Latte – Basic Tropes We Crave in Autumn

Retellings are about as basic as it gets, but we love them anyway! Though, my absolute favourite one is not a retelling of a fairytale, but a classic: Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin! The reason this one works so well (as opposed to ~ahem~ another South Asian Pride and Prejudice retelling I read this year and HATED) is that it’s not an exact retelling so much as a loose reimagining – it has enough Pride and Prejudice elements that it’s obvious where the inspiration has come from, but it takes that base and adds enough new material that it’s its own story, with its own characters and message – which is exactly what retellings should be!

Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

Sweater Weather – Binge-Worthy Cosy Reads

Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble by Anna Meriano

Is there anything cosier than baking magic? I thought of a few options for this, but ultimately I just had to go with the Love Sugar Magic trilogy by Anna Meriano! This is a middle grade trilogy following Leo, the youngest in a line of Mexican-American baking witches, and it’s just DELIGHTFUL in every single way! The family dynamic is so loving and nurturing, and Leo’s arc as she navigates friendship and responsibility, and learning to choose love over fear and anger, is just so wholesome and lovely!

I would love to know your answers to any of these questions, and just your favourite autumnal books!

Thank you again to Maddy for the tag! I tag Alyssa @biblio.in.a.bookstore, Amy @TeastainsAndBooks, Cara @ Wilde Book Garden, Chloe @ DarkFlameReads (even though I know it’s nowhere near autumn for her!), and anyone else who wants to do it 😊

3 thoughts on “The Autumn Book Tag”

  1. Thank you so much Hana for taking part in the tag! I’ve gotten some new recommendations which is great (baking witches sounds so wholesome) and now I’m also just so keen to hear what you think when you eventually get to If We Were Villains!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you so much for tagging me, lovely 💕
      Love Sugar Magic is ADORABLE AND WONDERFUL and I recommend it to absolutely everyone!!
      Honestly I’m so dubious about IWWV – I’ve been putting it off forever and now I think I’m going to wait until Julie’s read it lol 😝

      Like

  2. I do kind of associate some genres/kinds of books with certain seasons more than others, but generally if I love something I also want to read it all year round!! Like, I often lean into cozy fantasy in autumn/winter, but I also just always love cozy fantasy lol
    I have VERY similar fears about If We Were Villains! So many friends love it, and I’m excited about the Shakespeare element but dark academia is something I very much don’t care about…
    YES! Ayesha At Last is so underappreciated!! I’m so so excited for Jalaluddin’s next book!
    And of course I’m always excited to see Love Sugar Magic! 😊
    Thank you so much for the tag, Hana! I love these questions and can’t wait to answer them!

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s
https://linhhermione.wordpress.com/2020/10/17/the-autumn-book-tag/
linhhermione.wordpress.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2020-45
154432
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:OGCQXVEY7AOQ7KG2SQV3ONUOJLK7ZHJ6
<urn:uuid:14a9cc7a-be41-4f13-9e21-53dea9d46278>
2020-10-20T03:10:32Z
192.0.78.12
text/html
sha1:GARYCDPKX4G46STWXOOTPESWZNJZPTKX
<urn:uuid:5aeddd04-590b-40e8-8315-6cbeb98f7c39>
https://linhhermione.wordpress.com/2020/10/17/the-autumn-book-tag/
response
<urn:uuid:a6887b40-bb69-4682-8fa9-7f9de681e241>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2020-45
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for October 2020
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-236.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.17 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/