#the adventures of amina al-sirafi | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

howlsmovinglibrary · 4 months

Text

Top 5 Books of 2023!

I don't know if this blog even counts as a book blog anymore, but this year I read 60 books, which is twice as many as last year (and therefore also double my 2023 Reading Goal). I'm so pleased to have overcome my three year reading slump that has plagued me since Covid, and wanted to celebrate by... yknow. Actually doing a book blog post lmao. So here are my five favourite books of 2023!

1) Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Not only was this book written Specifically For Me (faeries, rivals-to-lovers, academia), I just think it's a really good example of a cosy fantasy that is well-written and well-paced. The vibes are wholesome and fanfic-adjacent, but that doesn't mean that nothing happens. I'm not a fan of the new 'cosy' subgenre generally, but I think this book combined the right amount of comfort with action.

2) The Thousand Eyes by AK Larkwood

I read the Serpent Gates duology this year, and while the first book was good, the second book was just overwhelmingly brilliant. I loved the way this author manages time and character development - we follow all the characters for decades of their lives, so the final heroic triumphs in each of their stories just... hit different. It was such a wonderful book series, that left me feeling inspired to write.

3) The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

I love Shannon Chakraborty's writing generally, but it was really fun (after the slowburn pining of the City of Brass books) to give her a far less pious and brazen heroine that resulted in an entirely different tone of story from her previous trilogy! I loved the narration and plot of this novel, also obsessed with this pirate milf and her demon boyfriend.

4) A House With Good Bones by T Kingfisher

I love T Kingfisher but I've never been able to get all the way through one of her horror books before - idk why, I just don't tend to vibe. But this book, which leaned more towards Gothic horror, twisted to fit a modern setting, was so gripping - I read it all in one sitting. I love the funky little bug archaeologist protagonist, who's first sign that her house is haunted is the fact that there are no insects in her mother's garden.

5) You and Me On Vacation by Emily Henry

I went on a beach holiday for the first time since Covid and proceeded to devour every single fucking book Emily Henry had ever written. Although I loved all of them, You and Me On Vacation was the one written Specifically For Me, which was surprising given that the other two most popular releases by her are about books (oh well...mutual pining, my beloved).

Special Mentions:

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett

I read all of the Tiffany Aching books for the first time this year, based on a diagnosis from a pal that Wintersmith would be 'my' Terry Pratchett book. Reader, she was right... (which says more about me as a person than I'd like).

If anyone wants to give me any recs for good books they read this year, feel free to reply to this post!

#booklr #bookish posts #book tag #2023 reads #best books of 2023 #emily wilde's encyclopaedia of faeries #the thousand eyes #the serpent gates #the adventures of amina al-sirafi #a house with good bones #emily henry

78 notes · View notes

aroaessidhe · 4 months

Text

faves of 2023: adult high/historical fantasy

The Art Of Prophecy + The Art of Destiny

The Stones Stay Silent

The Water Outlaws

He Who Drowned The World

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

A Day Of Fallen Night

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance

The Heretic’s Guide to Homecoming: Book 2 Practice

The Pomegranate Gate

#read in 2023 #the art of prophecy #the water outlaws #the pomegranate gate #The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi #A Day Of Fallen Night #i have another one for more contemporary/urban fantasy

102 notes · View notes

traeumenvonbuechern · 7 months

Text

🏴‍☠️ Books To Read If You Love "Our Flag Means Death" 🏴‍☠️

Can't get enough of Our Flag Means Death? Read these books!

Also, check out my list of trans books for OFMD fans here: Trans Books To Read If You Love "Our Flag Means Death"! 🏳️‍⚧️

Book titles:

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Tell No Tales by Sam Maggs and Kendra Wells

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian

In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

Til Death Do Us Bard by Rose Black (comes out November 21, 2023)

123 notes · View notes

dragonhoardofbooks · 11 months

Text

Stayed up late last night to finish this - an excellent read! ☺️

#book photography #booklr #my post #currently reading #books #the adventures of amina al-sirafi #i loved this book

112 notes · View notes

agardenandlibrary · 2 months

Text

now on my podcast Backlog Books (link in pinned post)

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Amina is many things: pirate, saboteur, ship captain, trader, friend – but above all of these things she is a mother. So much of this book is Amina missing her daughter, or worrying about her, or wishing to show her life on a ship – a life Amina loves. I made the mistake of thinking this was a standalone book. It's the first in a trilogy! I enjoyed it anyway.

Recommended:

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

#my book picture #the adventures of amina al-sirafi #shannon chakraborty #backlog books podcast

23 notes · View notes

newnamesamecharlotte · 5 months

Text

For while the pious claim money doesn’t buy happiness, I can attest from personal experience that poverty buys nothing. It is a monster who’s claws grow deeper and more difficult to escape with each passing season, with even the slightest misstep setting you back years, if not forever.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

#Shannon Chakraborty #s.a. chakraborty #The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi #Amina al-Sirafi #charlotte is reading #charlotte is rambling #book qoute #poverty

24 notes · View notes

dragonbadgerbooks · 7 months

Text

Tarot October BPC: October 6, 2023 Strength - Strong Characters

Some actual Strong Female Characters!

#tarotoctoberbpc #dealing with dragons #howl's moving castle #the hunger games #hunger games #cinder #iron widow #the friday society #the snarky lass #friday society #silver lass #the adventures of amina al-sirafi #adventures of amina al-sirafi #amina al sirafi #bookstack #books #my book pictures #book #booklr

43 notes · View notes

katiifaye · 19 days

Text

the queen, Amina al-Sirafi

#Amina al sirafi #The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi #sa chakraborty #fanart #shannon chakraborty

11 notes · View notes

theinquisitxor · 2 years

Text

Cover drop for SA Chakraborty’s new book!

It’s by the same person who designed the Priory of the Orange Tree cover and I think it’s gorgeous!

I’ve been following updates on this book for years- lady pirates, high seas adventures, medieval Middle East

#sa chakraborty #the adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi #i am very excited for this #fantasy books #new releases #the daevabad trilogy #bookblr #books

266 notes · View notes

ninja-muse · 1 year

Text

I may have read The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi towards the start of the month, but it remains my top read for April. Guys, it's so much fun! There are pirates and heists and a conniving grandmother and a Mistress of Poisons and explosions and things with too many tentacles and sarcasm and…. I won't go on. I don't want to spoil, only wet, er, whet your appetite.

Basically, this is pure Chakraborty in its sheer zip and "Oh, I guess this is happening" and its attention to historical detail and the way it brings to past and the characters to life—but it's a very different book from the Daevabad trilogy. You're not going to find a lot of political machinations or power struggles here. You're not going to have the same sense of epic scale or breadth of time. You're not going to have multiple POVs or plot threads. It's a woman on a boat, trying to either find someone or not die, thank you, depending on the chapter.

Which is to say, if you liked the Daevabad trilogy, you'll very likely like this, and if you didn't like the trilogy or it didn't catch your interest, you should give this one a shot. And I think I might like it better myself?

#books #booklr #book reviews #bookblr #fantasy #adult booklr #book photography #the adventures of amina al-sirafi #shannon chakraborty #s.a. chakraborty #read in 2023 #my photos

88 notes · View notes

aurorawest · 8 months

Text

Reading update

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers - 3.75/5 stars

I hate myself a little bit for using this word to describe this book, but it's a meditation on modern (western) culture, the drumbeat of living a purposeful life, and, imo, the millennial condition.

It also, separately from that, made me think of the song 'New Constellations' by Ryn Weaver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13EX7qGdUGI

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles - 5/5 stars

This book features Gareth Inglis, a member of the gentry whose father shipped him off to his uncle when his mother died. Gareth never saw or heard from his father (who remarried and had another child) again, and no one knew he existed because his father was a piece of human garbage. Which meant I couldn't stop thinking about my former father-in-law, who had two sons from his first marriage whom he, as far as I could tell, never had any contact with after remarrying and having another child. Life imitates art?

Anyway, it's KJ Charles, so you pretty much can't go wrong. I saw someone refer to this as enemies-to-lovers and realized my toxic trait is railing against people who want to apply enemies-to-lovers to everything. Spoiler alert, this is not enemies-to-lovers. But it is lovely, and includes Gareth and Joss Doomsday (a smuggler) bonding over beetles.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by SA Chakraborty - 4.5/5 stars

It was no Daevabad Trilogy, but then again, I remember finishing City of Brass and being like, yeah, it was fine, I'll probably pick up the sequel at some point. It wasn't until Kingdom of Copper that I grew to really love the series, so I'm hoping the same happens with this. This book was a lot of fun, and the fact that all the characters were middle-aged was pretty delightful. I'm definitely excited to see where this series goes.

The Long Run by James Acker - 5/5 stars

Excellent YA book about two lonely jocks in New Jersey.

Feel the Fire by Annabeth Albert - 3.75/5 stars

His Accidental Cowboy by AM Arthur - 4/5 stars

Brida by Paul Coelho - 1/5 stars

One of the reviews for this book on Storygraph says it 'aged like milk' and I can't put it better than that. This is a soul mate AU where souls undergo cell division, essentially, and your soul mate is from your same base soul from before the soul split in half. Okay, great. Oh but wait, the soul always divides into male and female. And your soul mate is always someone of the opposite sex, even though that doesn't make sense because as souls divide again and again, that means there are a lot of people out there who came from the same original soul as you. Also, witchcraft? Also also, even though the book is called Brida and is ostensibly about the title character, her whole journey was really just to serve the unnamed male character, the Magus. This isn't implicit either, it's completely explicit. At the end it's like, 'sometimes young women come along to show men the way' (I'm paraphrasing but...not much).

This went straight to my give away pile, and I hated it so much that the rest of my Coelho books joined it (except The Alchemist).

Enlightened by Joanna Chambers - 5/5 stars

Or, For The Love Of God Please Give David Lauriston And Murdo Balfour A Break, And Preferably A Happy Ending.

They got one, btw.

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao - DNF

Honestly, the Mad Libs YA title should have warned me off of this one, but I always give my Illumicrate books a try. Cartoonish villains and protagonists I find myself liking less the more we get to know them. The prose is quite good but not enough to make up for the character deficiencies.

Solomon's Crown by Natasha Siegel - 5/5 stars

Blurbed by no less than Tamora Pierce (Song of the Lioness supremacy!), Rainbow Rowell, Freya Marske, and CS Pacat. Did I go into this book with insanely high expectations? Yes. Did it mostly meet them? Yes! If you're a Captive Prince fan, this one's for you.

Siegel tells us up front, before the book even starts, that it's a romance and not historically accurate. So don't go into this expecting a historically accurate love story between King Richard of England and King Philip of France. It is, however, a gorgeous romance. The world-building is top notch. Even if it's not totally accurate to the High Middle Ages, it feels accurate, if that makes sense? Siegel really captures the feeling of being in a different world. Lush writing, amazing sexual/romantic tension, lovely sad boys. Highly, highly recommend.

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian - 4.75/5 stars

I docked .25 stars because it bugged me that they didn't move in together at the end. Idk, just felt too 'look, I'm subverting romance conventions!' Still good, obviously.

Like Real People Do by EL Massey - 4/5 stars

A very wholesome and low stakes hockey romance. I found myself often thinking that the interactions of the men on the hockey teams seemed unrealistic, but it was charming and sweet enough that I didn't care.

The book reads like fanfiction, which is because it was fanfiction—but it's in a mostly good way, not a bad way (*cough* All The Way Happy *cough*). Apparently the original version was Check, Please! fanfiction, which I am vaguely familiar with as a thing that exists. Apparently it's a web comic? Anyway, I enjoyed the book enough to pick up the sequel.

42 notes · View notes

libinih28 · 1 year

Text

"How much easier her life would be if she were rich. For while the pious claim money doesn't buy happiness, I can attest from personal experience that poverty buys nothing. It is a monster whose claws grow deeper and more difficult to escape with each passing season, with even the slightest misstep setting you back years, if not forever."

-- Shannon Chakraborty, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

#shannon chakraborty #sa chakraborty #the adventures of amina al-sirafi #taoaas

69 notes · View notes

saessenach · 11 months

Text

It's been a chapter and a half, and Amina al-Sirafi owns my entire heart

#.ioana rambles #the adventures of amina al-sirafi #her world is so rich and colourful AND SHE'S SO SWASHBUCKLING AND DEADPANS #ma'am she just wants to retire

47 notes · View notes

glassamphibians · 11 months

Text