Ok, I skipped two days for Christmas. Anyway, I thought sharing my takes on these books might be interesting for people because all them are p short! A few people on here have mentioned that they struggle to concentrate on books nowadays, so you know - if you wanna start with something more easily finished than a 10k page fantasy epic, maybe something on here will appeal.

(As for "why", in case anyone's interested - I had two weeks off and was scared I'd end up wasting them scrolling through my phone, so. 😂)

• Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, translated from Japanese. 247p. A book about a woman so alienated by society, she imagines herself to be an alien, removed from humans. I picked this book up because I heard it had a real "wtf" ending, and it did NOT disappoint! Really enjoyed it. It's v heavy though.

• A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet. 224p. A group of kids whose parents took them to a summer retreat end up facing apocalyptic climate change. Hm, I don't know about this one! The Bible references were interesting to me, but I'm not a fan of this recent trend of "how will the rich deal with climate change" lol. (Ok maybe it's not a trend, but I've read 2 books about climate change in 2019 and they both focused on liberal, well-off people.
• Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, t.f. Japanese. 288p. An interlinked collection of feminist stories retelling traditional Japanese ghost stories. I thought this book would be a lot scarier and/or angrier. Instead, I mostly got happier, softer takes on the original stories. I really enjoyed it - it feels fresh compared to the way most English-language feminist retellings go.
• The Trojan War Museum and Other Short Stories by Ayse Papatya Bucak. 210p. A collection of various short stories, focusing on Turkish people and Turkish-Americans; many of the stories have an element of fantasy. I enjoyed it! I think some of them were a liiittle overwritten (aka trying to add in a profound sentence when not adding it would sound better imo). But overall, a lot of interesting ideas.
• The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd. 114p. Nature writing, focused on a Scottish mountain range. I'd never read anything like this before - my non-fiction reading tends towards history/facts. This is just like... descriptions of the feelings, air, water, nature on a mountain. I loved it. I wanna reread it while hiking in my own hills.
• Djinn City by Saad Hossain. 413p. Set in Bangladesh, a half-djinn, half-human kid runs into trouble with the djinn side of the family; his human family tries to save him. I love Hossain's books - they have this crazy energy that no others can match. Having said that, this book started off strong but ended up disappointing me in the end - nothing's really wrapped up and there's no sequel :( If you wanna try a Hossain book, I'd start with Escape from Baghdad!, a fantasy book about two Iraqis trying to get out of American-occupied Baghdad. It deserves its exclamation mark lmao.
• Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas. 368p. Historical romance about a young woman trying to get away from her abusive family by marrying a duke! Look I started watching Bridgerton over Christmas and craved some marriage-of-convenience shenanigans. Unfortunately it kinda disappointed - I remember almost nothing about the book other than its terrible othering of a Romani side-character. The heroine had a stutter, which is cool though.
• Luck Be a Lady by Meredith Duran. 368p. Try 2 for historical romance with marriage-of-convenience shenanigans, this time with the love interest being a gangster lmao. This one I really enjoyed until around 80% in, when the love interest's fear for the protagonist's well-being overrode her will and this was considered ok by the narrative. I don't find that romantic, just infuriating.
• Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, t.f. Ancient Greek lol. ~40p. Greek tragedy play about Prometheus, who defied Zeus to help humans by giving them the gift of fire, being chained to a boulder. This play is so bizarre - it's mostly just Prometheus seething about how Zeus is a tyrant and the fucking worst. I'd love to see how the fuck it should be staged. Anyway if you've never read a Greek tragedy before, this might be an interesting one to start with. Who doesn't like a play that ends with: "Majesty of my mother Earth/bright sky that lets the common light whirl round/you see me here, and see my lot: injustice."
• Frankenstein in Bahgdad by Ahmed Saadawi, t.f. Arabic. 281p. In US-occupied Baghdad, a man builds a monster out of the human parts left behind from explosions and street battles; the monster seeks revenge for each of its body parts. This book is grim. I enjoyed it, and what it had to say about vengeance, but I feel like it just didn't go the extra step from a great book to an amazing one.
• Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley, t.f. Old English lol. 140p. This translation of Beowulf modernises the language, so it feels like some guy at the bar is telling you an epic story over some beers. I love MDH, but I couldn't quite get into this one. I do always appreciate a more punchy translation of an old epic but eh. Still, contains some neat alliterations - I'm a big fan of alliteration lol.
• Snow, Dog, Foot by Claudio Morendini, t.f. Italian. 128p. Title says it all: an old man living alone on a mountain during winter, the stray dog he picks up and threatens to eat if the supplies get low, and a foot. This one was odd! Both lighter and grimmer than I expected. I think this book will hit especially hard for anybody with older relatives who have dementia.
• The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine. 277p. Historical reimagining of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairytale set in New York in the Roaring 20s. This was my first book of 2021 and it was a fantastic way to start the year off! Lots of sisterhood feelings, fun setting, a bit of romance. Great light-hearted read.
• Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge, t.f. Chinese. 314p. Set in a fictional Chinese city, where "beasts" (almost-human creatures with some fantastical ability) live alongside humans. This book is really melancholic, bordering on depressing. Each chapter focuses on a different beast and rarely ends happily. It's a beautiful book, but to be honest I feel like I need to read some discussions or interpretations of it - I don't know enough about China to feel like I truly "got" everything myself.
• This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone. 209p. Sci-fi - two agents on opposing sides slip through worlds as they manipulate timelines, leave letters for each other, and fall in love. Man, I wish I liked this book but it just didn't work for me. I enjoy flowery prose, but this just felt like a long list of similes and synonyms. I do like Amal El-Mohtar's short stories though, so check those out instead maybe haha.

Lol now I spent way too long writing that :') Ah well. If anybody has any recs for me, particularly for non-Anglo literature, I'd be super happy! I'm taking a break from one-book-a-day reading for now, but I hope I can continue the habit of reading a bit each day in 2021. :)