Candy Bunny Reader

(Pic was found on Google Images) A while ago I listened to the very first Moomin book ever by Tove Jansson on audiobook .  It is called The Moomins and the Great Flood .  In this very first book we follow Moomintroll and Moominmamma as they go on a journey to find Moominpappa, as he went away with the creatures called the Hattifatteners, and they are all looking for a new place to live. Along the way they meet "a little creature" (who is really the character of Sniff) who joins them on their journey and Tulipa, a fairy from a tulip flower that protected them from a giant serpent. They also encounter a strange old man, a scary ant-lion, more Hattifatteners, and a red-haired boy who lives in a lighthouse and who briefly met Moominpappa and knows which way he went.  As they all search for Moominpappa, a huge rainstorm happens which causes a flood. When the rain stops the team finds a message in a bottle from Moominpappa saying he is safe and he built a new house for the fam...

  I unfortunately can't watch the anime right now because I don't have a subscription to Crunchyroll. But reading the manga is equally a fun experience! Spy x Family by Tatsuya Endo takes place in a location that seems to be inspired by Germany during the Cold War in real life. This fictional country is divided in two: Westalis and Ostania. Our MC is a spy with the codename Twilight and is from Westalis. He is tasked with a mission to get information from a shady government official from Ostania named Donovan Desmond, who only makes public appearances at his son's elite school. Twilight has to carry out the mission by adopting a kid, getting married to some woman, enrolling the kid into the academy, and pretending to be a parent in order to get information on Donovan. Twilight adopts the name Loid and adopts a telepathic girl from an orphanage named Anya. Anya immediately becomes attached to Loid, which is really cute to watch. Like all kids, she is a handful, but also real...

  Another graphic novel that I really like! I've been seeing this book floating around the bookish spaces I follow, but I didn't pick it up until just recently. But I am glad I finally did, as this book was a delight.  In Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier , Val Wise , and Oscar O. Jupiter , we follow two characters: Annie and Bebe. Annie is very antisocial and would rather study, but her mother encourages her to join the school cheerleading team so she can have something else to do rather than studying and also to have some extracurriculars on her college applications. Anne is also a lesbian. Bebe is on the cheerleading team and is a huge people-pleaser. She is also transgender, and the first trans girl on the cheerleading squad. Annie and Bebe used to be friends, but after Annie joins the cheerleading squad, they rekindle their friendship.  The story is about the girls' and their cheerleading squad improving their cheer skills, gaining popularity, and also lo...

I wonder if the author of this book and I are long lost twins. They are asexual and autistic just like me, and also likes anime and cartoons.  How to Be Ace by Rebecca Burgess is a graphic novel of the author's experiences finding out they are asexual, and their experience navigating a world that puts heavy emphasis on romantic and sexual relationships. The meat of the narrative is them talking about how they felt lonely very frequently because it was hard for them to get into a serious relationship like a lot of their peers, but then they felt comfortable finding joy in just having friends. One of their friends is named Sophie and is also asexual like them! Other narrative threads include their experience having OCD and the struggle of trying to find a job after graduating during the 2008-2009 Great Recession. They also pause the story several times to explain more about the asexual and aromantic spectrums, as well as debunking myths on aroace people.  I just loved this book...

  Another great book by Anne-Sophie Johanneau ! French Kissing in New York is a YA contemporary romance book about 18-year-old Margot who is a beginner chef and moves to New York City from a small village in France to fulfill her dream of working at the restaurant of a celebrity chef that her mother personally knew. She begins living in a tiny apartment with her father and his fiancé Miguel and her step-cousin Luz. Margot's father and stepfather are also planning to get married.  Margot also moves to New York City for another reason: to find Zach, an American boy she met one summer day while taking a cooking course at Le Tablier, a famous cooking school in France. However, even though they planned a date and everything ahead of time, Margot does not find Zach at where and when they promised to meet, and while working at Nutrio (the restaurant owned by her celebrity chef family friend), she meets and becomes fast friends with another chef there named Ben, and realize...

Oh boy...how am I gonna talk about this... Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman is a novella of the characters Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson whom we all know and love from Heartstopper. This novella is set in Charlie's second to last year of high school and Nick's last year before going to university. The gist is that Charlie worries that he and Nick won't be able to maintain a long-distance relationship, and that's what kicks off the conflict for the story. There is not much to say about this book because it is a novella so the story is short and is everything is resolved pretty quickly. Nick and Charlie have an argument and avoid each other for a while but then they get back together really sweetly towards the end. Pretty predictable.  To be honest, there were a lot of things about this novella I didn't like. I found Charlie in particular to be a lot more short tempered and whinier here compared to his graphic novel counterpart. I also felt very uncomfortable readin...

  Well, I finally read one the Moomin books in its entirety!  My history with the Moomins has been interesting up until this point: I remember in elementary school one of my teachers read one of the chapters of one the books out loud to us (can't remember which chapter and what book 🤷), then I didn't encounter them again until years later when I  unexpectedly  came across some clips of the anime adaptation on YouTube, and then saw some candy of it at an Asian food store and bought it (pictured above next to the book--yes I kept the tin after eating all the candy!). I also found out there is a theme park of it in Finland, which is where the franchise is originally from (Finland is the author's native country). I finally got around to reading one of the books just now!  Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson follows the Moomins and their friends in a series of loosely connected chapters over the course of one year. Each chapter is it's own story, but they all ha...

  I finally got around to reading Chef's Kiss By Jarrett Melendez  ! And it was awesome! This book came at the right time in my life. Not to mention I am in the same area of my life as the characters in this book (a twentysomething trying to find her dream job), so it was beyond relatable. Chef's Kiss is about Ben, who majored in English in college due to his parent's wishes, but has trouble finding a full time job that involves writing. He starts to look for part time jobs that supposedly require less skills but doesn't do so well initially until he stumbles upon a small restaurant run by a hotheaded owner named Chef Davis. Ben is already somewhat good at cooking since he cooks for himself and for his three roommates/friends all the time at home. Either way, his new friend/co-chef and crush, Liam, and two other chefs named Emilia and Mel train him in some of the restaurants' menu items to prove to Chef Davis that he can work there in the kitchen. Ben gets ideas on ...

 TW: Suicide attempt This was another manga I picked up on a whim at the library.  Our Dreams at Dusk   by Yuhki Kamatani is about a teenage boy named Tasuku who is gay and has been in the closet for a while, but he thinks he's been outed after some classmates took a look at his search history on his phone. Tasuku gets very distressed and tries to jump off of a high building, but is stopped in his tracks when he sees a mysterious person jump off of the same area but they land unharmed, and they enter a small building that looks like a clubhouse. Tasuku decides to check out that small building and finds out it is a drop-in center for people like him (part of the LGBT community!) to socialize, and the mysterious person who he saw earlier runs the place. They preferred to be called Someone-san.  Tasuku starts talking to Someone-san and the rest of the people in the club, and they tell him he is allowed to drop in (hence the name) anytime he wants to hang out. Tasuku sl...

  So I picked up this graphic novel on a whim at the library a few days ago because I needed something smaller to read as I am reading three bigger books. Well, this was fun! Creepy Cat by Cotton Valent is a slice of life gothic graphic novel of a goth girl named Flora who moves into a gothic mansion she inherited from a family member of hers, and discovers the place is "haunted" by some cat-looking creature who can shapeshift, multiply itself, and do other odd things. Flora is very excited to have this cat, but he sometimes makes her life difficult, and sometimes the police gets involve. The policeman who visits her house frequently is named Oscar, and Flora eventually befriends him, too. Flora and Oscar then try to figure out what this cat like creature is and why he behaves so strange while going about their daily lives.  I know it sounds like there is an overarching plot, but for the most part, there isn't really a cohesive plot. It's largely just slice-of-life, ...

The second Amber Brown book. You Can't Eat Your Chicken Pox, Amber Brown by Paula Dazinger follows Amber Brown during the summer before fourth grade. She and her Aunt Pam go to London, England, and then Amber will visit her dad in France. Unfortunately, she catches the chicken pox while in London, so her has to rearrange her plans of sightseeing and seeing her father as she gets treatment. She also wishes her parents could get back together and remarry.  The book title gets its name from a letter Amber's friend Justin sends her when he talked about one of his new classmates who got the chicken pox and said they look like button candy. But then he reminds her jokingly she can't eat her chicken pox, even if they look like little red pieces of candy. The book's story overall is as simple as it sounds, but it was entertaining enough for me! It made me feel like going to London for vacation.  I did give it 4 stars though. Some of the things Amber says about London ...

TW: Brief mention of suicide. Ever had dreams of becoming a total hermit? Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel is a informational nonfiction book about the true story of Christopher Thomas Knight--a man in Maine who lived in isolation in a tent in the woods for 27 years. Specifically 1986 to 2013. He survived and lived by stealing people's stuff and food from nearby cabins whenever other people weren't around. Journalist Michael Finkel (the author) tells us Knight's life story up until his arrest in 2013, and then shortly after his arrest, and the possible reasons why he chose to isolate himself from society for so long. The book is mostly framed with Finkel telling us how he was able to meet Knight and the conversations he had with him. Intertwined throughout the story are snippets of how Knight's life was before and during his isolation period. Finkel also interviewed people who lived near Knight's camping ground, his family, and other people who knew him growi...

  Another cute romance book by Kasie West! PS I Like You by Kasie West is about Lily Abbott, who is a junior in high school who likes writing her own songs, but does not like Chemistry class. One day while bored in said class she starts to write song lyrics of a song she likes on her desk, and someone (another person who sits at her desk in a different class period) starts to add on to her writing. Pretty soon she and her secret pen pal start writing old fashioned paper notes to each other, and Lily gets to learn more about him. She then tries to figure out who in her grade her pen pal might be, all while trying to find a date of her own and trying to enter a songwriting contest where she can earn a scholarship for college.  I don't know what else to say except that this book is so wholesome. I like the way Kasie West writes. This is a great romance book if you want something chill and cute in between reading more intense stuff. I gave it 4 stars . So I enjoyed it for what it...

And I will tell you right now I am planning on reading the sequel.  Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson  is a YA fantasy novel of a young woman named Elisabeth who was raised and works in a magical library containing grimoires that can move, breathe, and talk! On one particular day a mysterious, somewhat aloof sorcerer named Nathaniel comes to visit the library she works at, and since his visit one of the grimoires, a high-ranking one, turns into a Malefict, which is a corrupted grimoire that turns into a monster. After Elisabeth destroys it, she gets in trouble and is kicked out of the library. Nathaniel and his peculiar shapeshifting demon servant named Silas come to get her and they all go to the capital city to see the Chancellor named Ashcroft, who is supposedly going to punish her, but when they arrive, things aren't always as they seem. Elisabeth also learns there is more to Nathaniel and Silas than meets the eye.  While not an overly whimsical fantasy story, I ...

  Fun fact: I actually read some of the Amber Brown books as a kid, but I didn't remember too much about them afterward. That's why I am planning on reading all of them as an adult. And it was worth it! Amber Brown is Not a Crayon is the first of the many books of the Amber Brown series written initially by Paula Dazinger and later continued by Elizabeth Levy and Bruce Coville. This book follows third grader Amber Brown dealing with the fact the her best friend since preschool, Justin Daniels, is moving away to Alabama. Amber doesn't like sudden change, and she already feels she is dealing with too much with having no other friends in the class and her parents' recent divorce. She at first tries to hang out and joke around with Justin likes she usually does, but it doesn't last for long as she thinks he looks excited to be moving away. Then after a little fight she decides to stop talking to him but then feels even more sad. Eventually, she learns that change is a...

I found this cute graphic novel on a whim the other day at the library and it was totally worth it. Garlic and the Vampire by Bree Paulsen is a graphic novel about an anthropomorphic garlic living with other anthropomorphic vegetables on a farm that belongs to a witch. They help her cultivate her garden and sell produce to the locals. On one particular day all the vegetables notice in the distance smoke coming out of a secluded castle in the distance. They all start jumping to conclusions thinking that a vampire must be living there, and they decide to send Garlic to investigate and maybe get rid of the vampire if there is one. Well, I'll leave off my spoiler free summary telling you that things aren't always what they seem. This book was soooo cute! I gave it 5 stars . I could see it being turned into a sweet little animated movie not just for little kids but for the whole family. If you like heartwarming, cozy, fantasy, mystery stories, check this graphic novel out! I'll...

  Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price is a nonfiction informational self help book on rethinking the way we get motivated, do work, do things, and get rest.  Dr. Devon Price talks about how American culture in particular has become so obsessed with us doing work or anything at all to the point of breaking because we often times do not want to be seen as "lazy". Well, it turns out laziness is a lit in it of itself, and they use every chapter of this book to deconstruct the myth of laziness, from it's roots in religion to capitalism to racism, classism, sexism, and especially ableism. Throughout the book Dr. Price weaves several studies and anecdotes on stories of people they've interviewed to their own personal life stories on how overworking is not good for our health in the long run and what can we do to recognize our own biases, listen to our gut feelings, and take more breaks.  This book is pretty much in the similar vein as Do Nothing by Celeste Headlee (a bo...

Now this is a massively underrated book! Sleeping Around by Morgan Vega  is a YA contemporary novel about a college freshman named Coralee Reed (who prefers to be called Corey) who is in extended foster care and loves to play violin. Her first year of college does not start out smoothly because she didn't get into the music program at her college, so she ends up sharing a room with two other girls. One of the roommates named Emma is really sweet and quickly becomes her friend, but the other roommate named Harper is really mean to both of them, making their living situation hard. Corey finds out from her orchestra professor that if she makes first chair in the violin section, she could get her own dorm room. She realizes she has to compete with her long-time rival, Dylan, to get it, because since they knew each other in high school he has always been first chair and she second. Not sleeping well at night takes a toll on her being able to do well in orchestra and her other classes, ...

This was another book I got as a gift. A poetry collection from the wonderful Rupi Kaur ! Milk and Honey is a collection of poems regarding facing trauma, love, healing, and feminism. They are all poems on Rupi's innermost thoughts based on her real-life experiences, and she wanted to share them with the world so people like me and you know you're never alone.  Most of the poems are so tiny but very emotional, moving, and imapactful. Occasionally Rupi herself uploads some of these poems and others she writes on her Instagram page .  The drawings, which resemble sketches more, are beautiful too.  I gave this book 5 stars. This book left such an impact on me. Rupi Kaur is one of my favorite poets! Even if you don't read much poetry, this collection is worth checking out. Who are some of you favorite poets?

  Another sweet graphic novel you need to read! The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang  is a YA historical fiction graphic novel about a young girl named Frances who lives in France at the time it was still a kingdom. She is a seamstress working in a clothing and tailor store. By surprise, she gets hired to make clothes for the prince of the country, Prince Sebastien. As she gets to know him, he has a secret: sometimes he likes to wear dresses and look like a girl. But he doesn't want anyone else to know about it because it might ruin his reputation as a future husband and king. Throughout the course of the story, Frances and Sebastien deepen their friendship and try to achieve their individual goals of becoming a famous dressmaker and gaining the confidence to show their gender-nonconformity in public, mostly through sneaking off to parties. and such. This was such a cute book! The artwork was gorgeous, the characters were great. I might be a little bit biased because I ju...