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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

The Sunday Post #316

On The Blog Recently

• Young Adult Book Series Recommendations
• The End Of The Year Book Tag
• Nonfiction Books I'm Thankful I Read
• Cozy Book Recommendations
• I Made Romance Books (I'm Sorry & You're Welcome)

In My Reading Life

Last week I read Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel. Friends, I really need to accept that I'm not a fantasy person and stop trying to read fantasy books. I rarely like them. I didn't like this one. This is definitely a case of "It's not you, book, it's me." I don't like fantasy!

I picked up Kaikeyi because it's an Indian-inspired story that's being recommended to fans of Game Of Thrones. (That's why I read it. I'm desperate to find a new Game Of Thrones.) I can totally see the similarities. Kaikeyi is about a large royal family full of people who are scheming to get power. It covers a massive span of time. There are plot twists and betrayals. I understand why it's being recommended to GOT fans, but it's not a story for me. I suspect my GOT obsession was an anomaly.

I was bored! Kaikeyi is a (frustratingly slow-paced) retelling of a Hindu story that I know very little about, which is my main issue with the book. Since I don't know the original story, the characters feel shallow, and the plot feels convoluted. I suspect I would have gotten more out of it if I knew the story that was being retold. I constantly felt like I wasn't really "getting" it.

This book was a miss for me, but it has high ratings on Goodreads, so maybe you should trust the fantasy fans.

Since Kaikeyi was such a struggle, I decided to reread an old favorite. I chose Scythe by Neal Shusterman.

This dystopia is set in a future where humans have conquered death. The average human is hundreds of years old and has many children. In order to control the population, the world government decides that the planet needs scythes, people whose job it is to commit murder. The main characters, Rowan and Citra, are teenagers who have been apprenticed to a scythe. Neither of them wants to be a scythe at first, but as they get deeper into their apprenticeships, they notice widespread corruption within the scythedom. What happens when the most powerful organization on Earth starts spinning out of control?

I love this series because Neal Shusterman has thought of everything. A world where very few people have experienced death would be quite different from ours. A lot of art and literature would lose its meaning. Families would become huge, sprawling, many-generational things. If humans were immortal, there would be less incentive to get stuff done quickly. The author does a great job of showing the positives and negatives of a world without death.

Most dystopias are depressing, but this one is surprisingly funny. There’s lots of gallows humor, which I appreciate. I also like the parallels between the scythedom and real-world governments. I may have laughed out loud when the scythes were outraged about a potential ban on flamethrowers. Because life’s not worth living if you can't own a flamethrower.

This is still a 5-star book for me. I'm happy I reread it.

IN THE REST OF MY LIFE

Five things that made me happy last week:

1. Thank you to everyone who looked at my stupid romance books post. I love making posts about fake books, but it takes a surprisingly long time to create fake books.
2. Also, thanks for liking my new Facebook page. I'm still figuring out how to use it. Facebook is confusing.
3. More of my Christmas decorations are up! I have a lot of decorations, so they have to go up in waves. Cheerful Christmas waves.
4. I ate so much chocolate last week. I'll regret it when my butt doesn't fit in my jeans anymore, but right now, chocolate!
5. Here's a mash-up of a classic Christmas song and a classic American medical ad. I think they work nicely together.

@thereiruinedit

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♬ The 12 Side Effects of Christmas - There I Ruined It

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Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other. See you around the blogosphere!