Weekly Mews: My January Wrap Up & My Bookish Mewsings on The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years (Vote in my TBR Poll!)

I am linking up to the Sunday Post hosted by Kim of Caffeinated Book Reviewer and The Sunday Salon (TSS) hosted by Deb Nance of Readerbuzz  where participants recap our week, talk about what we are reading, share any new books that have come our way, and whatever else we want to talk about. I am also linking It's Monday! What Are you Reading? hosted by Kathryn of Book Date where readers talk about what they have been, are and will be reading.

I have the fire going in our gas fireplace, the heat turned up. I always seem to be cold these days and keep a blanket close. The area is expecting a big storm again this coming week, starting tomorrow night--oh, but wait! I hear rain outside as I sit and type this. I love falling asleep to the sound of rain and hope it keeps up for awhile. 

It was a relatively average week. Work kept me busy as did getting Mouse to her extra curricular activities. We were able to deliver a couple of Girl Scout cookie orders to local folk as well. We stopped at Barnes and Noble today while out running errands. I came away empty handed, although admittedly, I was not looking to buy anything. I forgot to get a photo of Mouse's finds to share. She used up the last of her Christmas gift cards. 

January turned out to be an exceptional reading month for me. I try to average a book and a half a week, but I was able to read nine books all told. I read a combination of e-books, print books, and audiobooks. There was a good mix of mystery/thriller, fantasy and historical fiction. 

Books Read in January

• On The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
• The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan
• Ceremony in Death by J.D. Robb
• Hammers and Homicide by Paula Charles
• The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again, Today Vol. 2 by Hitsuji Yamada
• The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again, Today Vol. 3 by Hitsuji Yamada
• The Witch With No Name (Hollows #13) by Kim Harrison
• The Japanese Lover by Isbabel Allende
• Legends & Lattes (#1) by Travis Baldree

Of my January reads, Legends & Lattes was my favorite. My least favorite, although by no means disliked, was Ceremony in Death. 

What was your favorite book read in January? Did you have a good reading month?

My daughter was disappointed John Scalzi's Kaiju Preservation Society did not win last month's TBR List Poll because she wanted to know more about the giant pandas from an alternate dimension, and so I promised her I wouldn't put off reading it. I started reading it last night. I also started an audiobook, The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel, narrated by Brittany Pressley yesterday on my drive to and from work. I am only about 40 minutes into it, but I like the narrator's reading of it. This mystery/thriller was among my small collection of audiobooks sitting on my phone for the past few years, waiting patiently for me to get to it. 

What are you reading right now?

My TBR List was the idea of Michelle at Because Reading, and while Michelle has not been hosting this monthly event for some time now, it's one of my favorite traditions that I cannot bring myself to give up. It's just too much fun! The 1st Saturday of every month, I will list 3 books from my TBR pile I am considering reading and let you vote for my next read during that month. My review will follow (unfortunately, not likely in the same month, but eventually--that's all I can promise). 

I could use your help deciding which book to read next! I struggled with whether to select all historical novels this month, but in the end chose three very different books for you to choose from. Which of these do you think I should read next? Have you read any of them? If so, what did you think? 

Slay by Brittney Morris ~ I heard a lot of good things about Slay when it first came out but haven't managed to get to it yet. I loved both Ready Player One and The Hate U Give so am anxious to read this one. 

Ready Player One meets The Hate U Give in this dynamite debut novel that follows a fierce teen game developer as she battles a real-life troll intent on ruining the Black Panther–inspired video game she created and the safe community it represents for black gamers

By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the “downfall of the black man.”

But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for “anti-white discrimination.”

Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically black in a world intimidated by blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process? [Goodreads Summary]

Women of the Post by Joshunda Sanders ~ I do enjoy a good World War II novel, especially one that touches on a part of that time period I haven't yet read about or am not familiar with. This fits both of those categories. 

An emotional story, based on true events, about the all-Black battalion of the Women's Army Corps who found purpose, solidarity and lifelong friendship in their mission of sorting over one million pieces of mail for the US Army.

1944, New York City. Judy Washington is tired of working from dawn til dusk in the Bronx Slave Market, cleaning white women’s houses and barely making a dime. Her husband is fighting overseas, so it's up to Judy and her mother to make enough money for rent and food. When the chance arises for Judy to join the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and the ability to bring home a steady paycheck, she jumps at the opportunity.

Immediately upon arrival, Judy undergoes grueling military drills and inspections led by Second Officer Charity Adams, one of the only Black officers in the WAC. Judy becomes fast friends with the other women in her unit—Stacy, Bernadette and Mary Alyce—who only discovered she was Black after joining the army. Under Charity Adams’s direction, they are transferred to Birmingham, England, as part of the 6888th Central Postal Battalion—the only unit of Black women to serve overseas in WWII. Here, they must sort a backlog of over one million pieces of mail.

The women work tirelessly, knowing that they're reuniting soldiers to their loved ones through the letters they write. However, their work becomes personal when Mary Alyce discovers a backlogged letter addressed to Judy that will upend her personal life. Told through the alternating perspectives of Judy, Charity and Mary Alyce, Women of the Post is an unforgettable story of perseverance, female friendship, romance and self-discovery. [Goodreads Summary]

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson ~ I saw this one on a lot of people's favorites list from this past year. I had added a copy to my TBR soon after it came out and keep eyeing it on my shelf. 

We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch. [Goodreads Summary]

Thank you for voting!

My family has suffered through my talking about the books I have read in more detail than they probably care to hear lately. The latest was The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years which I finished reading Friday night. 

In an old wardrobe a djinn sits weeping. ~ Opening of The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan
Viking, 2024
Thriller/Horror/Historical; 316 pgs
Source: Source: Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This dual timeline novel takes readers back and forth between 1932 and 2014, set among a Muslim Indian community in Durban, South Africa. 

Akbar Manzil was once a grand estate off the coast of South Africa. Nearly a century later, it stands in ruins: an isolated boardinghouse for eclectic misfits, seeking solely to disappear into the mansion’s dark corridors. Except for Sana. Unlike the others, she is curious and questioning and finds herself irresistibly drawn to the history of the mansion: To the eerie and forgotten East Wing, home to a clutter of broken and abandoned objects—and to the door at its end, locked for decades.

Behind the door is a bedroom frozen in time and a worn diary that whispers of a dark past: the long-forgotten story of a young woman named Meena, who died there tragically a hundred years ago. Watching Sana from the room’s shadows is a besotted, grieving djinn, an invisible spirit who has haunted the mansion since her mysterious death. Obsessed with Meena’s story, and unaware of the creature that follows her, Sana digs into the past like fingers into a wound, dredging up old and terrible secrets that will change the lives of everyone living and dead at Akbar Manzil.

Sublime, heart-wrenching, and lyrically stunning, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years is a haunting, a love story, and a mystery, all twined beautifully into one young girl’s search for belonging. [Goodreads Summary]

The writing is lyrical and descriptive, haunting in parts, giving the reader a real sense of place. The estate feels like a character of its own, at times blurring with the djinn, whose grief is so great that it makes the mansion seem alive. Secrets are meant for staying hidden and the past is best left buried, or so the djinn would like us to believe. And as the truth comes out, the house begins to fall into even more disrepair. The djinn in Shubnum Khan's novel is not the wish granting kind like you find in pop culture. He is more of a spirit who can assume various forms and has supernatural powers. In this story, he is always present, most often as an observer, although occasionally taking a more active, yet still subtle, role.

There was much I liked about The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years. Sana and her interactions and influence on the residents of Akbar Manzil were a particular favorite. I really enjoyed the backstories of the secondary characters. Sana is a curious young woman of 15, but doesn't feel as if she fits in anywhere. It isn't just the forgotten places in the house she explores, but the lives of the other residents. She is a catalyst in bringing about reflection and change even for herself. Meena's story was equally as compelling, although more tragic. I was just as taken in by Meena and Akbar's love story as Sana was as she read Meena's diaries. I loved Meena's fierce independence and self-confidence. Akbar's mother and first wife did not make Meena's life at Akbar Manzil easy. They looked down on her because of the color of her skin and her common working class status. Although I initially felt somewhat sorry for the first wife--living a life she did not want and then her husband taking a second wife--I never grew to like her nor Akbar's mother. Both were not very nice people. 

I was not as completely taken with the novel as I might have liked. There were portions of the novel I enjoyed more than others, and, while I liked the climax and ending on one hand, there were aspects of it I found unsatisfying as well. It is impossible to really go into exactly what without spoiling anything, so I will leave it at that. Overall though, I did like The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years. Shubnum Khan does a good job weaving Sana and Meena's story together through the use of the djinn character, and the setting really came alive for me. I look forward to seeing what Shubnum Khan writes next. 

Have you read The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years? If so, tell me what you thought!

I hope you have a great week! Let me know what you have been reading!

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