Ria's Reader Reviews

So, here we are: the last part of 🌟Advent Calendar about books 🌟

Day 10 (final): Book of the year.
In 2025 I've read >100 books. Some were good, some were bad. Half of it was forgettable.
I've enjoyed works of academics, plenty of fiction and some FF. Some were serious, some utterly disgusting, other shown me a world full of wonders and the least were unmatchably mundane.

Within a lovely list of my reading treasures there is one that's just the right amount of insanity, mystery, cuteness and unadulterated fun. 📕An Elderly Lady is up to no good by 📎Helene Tursten.

So, next part of 🌟Advent Calendar about books🌟.

Day 9: a piece of advice from a book.
Pretty easy task for me, as I have spent plenty of time with 📕Butter by 📎Asako Yuzuki. At some point, two friends, while enjoying a meal, dwell on religion and the bigger picture.

If God exists, He wouldn’t take joy or satisfaction in the sight of suffering. Which means, you don’t have to get through everything alone. You don’t have to always be growing as a person either. The far more important thing is just to get through the day.

So, yep, this fast — next part of ✨Advent Calendar about books✨

Day 8: Classics.
This year the most memorable classics was 📕Taras Bulba by 📎N.V. Gogol. On the one hand, let me just say that now, with all the current events, this book hits differenly. Higly recommend to try.
On the other hand, the reason why I even started to read it this year was because a prank has gone wrong in our Elena's book club.

So, another part of 🌟Advent Calendar about books🌟

Day 7: Bildungsroman (Coming of age novel).
2025 wasn't big on this genre for me. The only book that fits the description fully was my re-read of 📕Brooklyn by 📎 Colm Tóibín. I still like the simplicity and bare human stereotypes in it. Planning on reading the second book in 2026.

So, moving on with ✨Advent Calendar about books✨

Day 6: Books about famous people.
I was under the impression that Day 3: Non-fiction of the year would be the hardest for me to write about. Little did I know that Elena would have another idea, even more challenging.

The only thing I can think of, albeit far-fetched, is 📕The Letter Carrier by 📎Francesca Giannone. Her granny was (in)famous in the village (or town?) and the whole book is Francesca's fanfiction of her grandmother's life story.

Although if you want to read an enjoyable book by an Italian writer, skip this one and just check out any work by Bianca Pitzorno.

So, another day — another experiment with 💫Advent Calendar about books💫

Day 5: Quote of the year.
I know you will forgive me for posting in my mother tongue just this once. It's just... I fell in awe of this quote as is, and the book is originally in French, so no use really in finding an English translation for it.
📕 God always travels incognito by 📎Laurent Gounelle

So, ✨Advent Calendar about books✨

Day 4: a Book about books.
So far, this one's the hardest for me to choose. Not for the lack of options, but for the abundance of those. That's why instead of a book, I'm going to give you my personal rating.
5) 📕Yellowface by 📎R.F. Kuang. Poses a good question about intellectual rights and personality of an author, but didn't really "do it" for me.
4) 📕The Midnight Library by 📎Matt Haig. Claims to be a bestseller, was pretty mundane for me, tbh.
3) 📕What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by 📎Michiko Aoyama. Technically, I read it for the first time in 2024. Didn't stop me from re-reading it in 2025. That's why 3rd place and only third, not higher.
2) 📕Miss Charity by 📎Marie-Aude Murail. A must for the fans of Beatrix Potter. A fictionalised biography, if you may.
1) 📕(Soyangri) Book's Kitchen by 📎Kim ji hye(김지혜). A woman leaves her busy life in Seoul to open a bookshop café in the countryside where guests can stay overnight. Find out more about the guests and effect of a simple b&b&b (the first one being BOOK).

So, my friend also posts here now, thank you:)
✨Advent Calendar about books✨

Day 3: Non-fiction of the year.
I have a confession: this year I haven't touched a non-fiction book for fun. Everything that wasn't fiction was either for work or for my master's thesis. That's why my non-fiction of the year is an article. 📕The Earth Is Round (p < .05) by 📎Jacob Cohen. Published in 1994 it's a rare masterpiece of an epistolary genre within the academic and strictly-ruled sea of blandness.

It also opens with a thought which is now (I swear!) my favourite quote:

I make no pretense of the originality of my remarks in this article. One of the few things we, as psychologists, have learned from over a century of scientific study is that at age three score and 10, originality is not
to be expected.

So, 🌙Advent Calendar about books🌙 (VK and Dzen).

Day 2: The most unusual book of the year.
I have to agree with my friend here: 📕Butter by 📎Asako Yuzuki is the most unique one for me in 2025. Not only I've regretted every single chapter I'd read on an empty stomach, but also by the end of the book I didn't really care whether *she* was guilty or not. True, the book begins as a thiller/crime, but it's not.

Seriously, if you want to meditate with a book and see that there's more to life — check it out. Just eat something beforehand. Really.

So, almost done with my master´s, but have no willpower left to write big reviews rn. However, I have an amazing friend with an 🌙Advent Calendar about books🌙, which she has this year in VK and Dzen.
Since I don't really use those, I'm going to participate here, sorry Lena ❤️

Day 1: Author of the year.
It came as a huge surprise for me (but totally not a surprise for any of my close friends), but my author of the year is a person, whose writing style and wordchoice became balm to my soul. It's 📎Elizabeth Strout with her Olive Kitteridge📕

I don't want to spoil the experience of enjoying her book to any of you who might find it worthy of checking out, so here's a mere glimpse into her writing (which compelled me to no end). Just a mundane sidecharacter on our first meeting, but as Strout describes…

Her husband was also named Henry, and Henry Kitteridge, meeting Henry Thibodeau for the first time, was taken with what he saw as an unself-conscious excellence. The young man was vigorous and sturdy-featured with a light in his eye that seemed to lend a flickering resplendence to his decent, ordinary face. He was a plumber, working in a business owned by his uncle. He and Denise had been married one year.

So, something has happened that made me get back to reviews again. I’ve been sent the news about a certain Harry Potter/The Handmaid's Tale fanfic turning into a “proper book” and later into a film (or series) from no less than 6 friends. I’ve felt the urge to write here about it, too, even though posting about FF wasn’t in my plan at all📕.

However…it’s something that’s a bit hard to miss now.
That’s why #Shortreview 3. 📌Manacled by SenLinYu.

📌How and why
I encountered this work at the very beginning, in 2021, when I’ve just come back to reading fanfiction. The first such period was years before with the russian versions-turned-books Tanya Grotter and Porry Gatter, ultimately finishing with me discovering Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. Logically, the first two I didn’t consider fanfiction, not really, and HPMOR I loved to the bottom of my heart and to this day consider to be the best example of how a story can be reimagined. With finishing HPMOR I thought I won’t open another fic ever again. A few years and a bet with a friend later I found myself drawn into this world again. Manacled was the third major work that I found.

❗️Warnings
Before I share my thoughts I decided to just post here a list of tags this story had in AO3, so you can see it for yourself.
Archive Warning: Rape/Non-Con, Graphic Depictions Of Violence.
Tags: Post-War, Harry Potter Dies, Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, Forced Pregnancy, Imprisonment, Death Eater Draco Malfoy, Minor Character Death, Memory Loss, Rape/Non-con Elements, Eventual Romance, Battle, Rape, Mystery, Healer Hermione Granger, Self-Harm, Flashbacks, Slow Build, Angst with a Happy Ending, Slow Build Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger, Espionage

📌How I see it
I rarely read heavily flashback-embedded stories and I don’t read stories this dark — I know they’re too dark for me and it’s not something I often enjoy reading. To this day I have no idea what made me download it. I’ve finished all 77 chapters with the wordcount of 370474❗️ in two days. I was compelled by the author’s writing style✏️, loved the plot twists, was shocked by characters and all in all enjoyed the journey. It wasn’t an easy-read for sure, it’s almost as dark as it gets, with no place for humour, none at all. It had graphic depiction of torture, rape, ongoing war and darkness, morally grey and totally dark characters and seemingly no light at all. All the while being a Dramione. It’s also the book which absolutely broke my heart at the end. I cried my eyes out along the last abstract, and it wasn’t because of some characters being dead or alive. It was due to absolute injustice and background characters’ hypocrisy, idiotism and many more other things that just didn’t sit well with me. And that is what made FF #good.

📌Final thoughts
Would I read it now? I honestly don’t know. Will I read a non-FF rewrite called Alchemised? I’m not sure. Do I recommend the FF (if you can find it somewhere now, as it was deleted) to check out to HP fans and if a dark and twisted world is something you crave? Absolutely.

So, the second promised review on a film-better-than-book📕.

Without any stalling this time.
#ShortReview of 📌Austenland by Shannon Hale.
📕Not a fanfiction on Jane Austen, buuuuut… well…it is a story where the protagonist is obsessed with Mr.Darcy so much she practically bases her love-life expectations on this fictional character in general and Colin Firth in particular. No judgement here, though. Mr.Firth was amazing as Mr.Darcy.
📌Anyway, the book is really short, and with no time to dwell on unimportant shenanigans the action has to be dynamic, right? RIGHT? Think again. You expect to immerse yourself in a book just as the characters go to a vacation-immersive-experience to live through a timeless Austen story. In reality you get as bored as a 21-century-woman stuck in a Victorian mansion with no mod-cons, no phones and no better things to do all day than cross-stitch and play whist.
📌The love story between the female lead and male love-interest-kinda-Darcy seems far-fetched. Because, of course, he is an actor, but she felt so real that he’s ready to follow her out of this immersive experience and move to another country, of course, just to be with her. #mediocre

📱The same can’t be said for the film. Austenland came out in 2013, but it still can lift your spirits if you want a light-a bit silly comedy with little to no drama and tons of cute romance.
📌The plot and some characters were changed: some just a bit, the others quite drastically. We don’t have an actor in the male lead anymore and the character’s arch seems more plausible in general. You believe in their romance while you are totally unconvinced with the same idea from the book.
🙃Anyway, if you want to see what an obsession with all things Austen looks like — skip the book and go straight to check out the film.

📌Final thoughts: yes, the film is much more enjoyable and, yes, the cast is amazing, and yes, there is Jennifer Coolidge as part of a comic relief duo.

So, in the end I’ve decided to just have a couple of short reviews📕, with the same idea — the film (or series) was better than the book. I know, shocking.

❗️Disclaimer before I begin: I really needed to recharge my batteries and have a mental-rest, so I’ve indulged in some questionable reading and series. Bear with me. ❗️

I know, I keep stalling. Here we go.
#ShortReview of 📌You’re beautiful when you smile by Qing Mei (青浼).
📕150-chapered (only in the main part, totally 191) monstrosity of a webtoon from China. Easy read, straightforward plot and semi-relatable characters. As reliable as a billionaire-team-captain falling in love with the female lead can be. The story is funny at times, tries to balance controversial topics and pretends to have a good love line. Don’t let it fool you though, the male lead is quite toxic at times towards the heroine and before they begin dating he puts her down (un)necessarily a couple of times. Let’s just say if someone tried to do this to me and threaten a kitten to force me to date him I would’ve run for the hills. With the kitten.
📌All in all, pretty #mediocre and good for a one-time read.

📱The counterpart is a series Falling Into Your Smile (found on Netflix and Kinopoisk).
Even the name of the show is a play on the main character’s name. It improved on the storyline, glossed the plot’s strange choices, and bettered the dialogues. Even though they weren’t able to use the original game (the book team plays LoL), they were able to create their own version, which brought good dynamics to the story. As you can imagine, watching the matches between teams is much more compelling than reading their descriptions🙃.

📌Even though I can’t say that both the book and the series are great, I enjoyed checking them out. If it’s not still obvious: the show is better by far.

📌Final thoughts: never try to get someone's attention by threatening a kitten.

So, I got preoccupied with summer, work and my thesis and haven't had an inspiraton to write something non-academic for a while. 🪴

Little did I know, the thing that made me reconsider the choice to return with reviews only come September was...the fact that I've read 3 books in a row that were inferior to their cinematic counterparts. Three! In a row!1 american, 1 british and 1 chinese.

I'm considering combining all three into 1 short review (or not). You'll have to wait till Friday to see, though.

Okay, no more stalling, getting back to the world of academics for now 🙃

So, the end of the school year took all my attention and I've definitely stopped writing reviews (not reading books, though).
The third book I want to comment on:
#Review of 📌Sorry, I'm a Foreigner by Craig Ashton.
📌Genre:#languages#non-fiction
📌Book story: the author is a foreigner who came to Russia for a couple of months and stayed forever. After years of struggling to learn Russian (and loving almost every second along the way) this charismatic teacher and blogger decided to share his never-ending love for languages and cultures by the means of a book.
📌My rating:#Amazing

📌Initial impression: I expected to find a lighthearted story about love for the countries, languages, cultures. I expected to see notes of a student, reflection of a teacher and fun impressions of an enthusiast. I’ve got all that and then some.

📌What I loved: almost everything in this one. For me this book, indeed, looks like those notes that you write all over your work; like intrusive thoughts and on-the-spot ideas that you can’t help but get from time to time; like a well-structured stream of consciousness. It envelops you in the utmost respect to your and “foreign” cultures — if you even can still call them foreign after having truly felt them and made them yours? I’m absolutely amazed by the depth of love that the author shows towards the language and the culture it represents.
📌What I didn't like: the songs. Wait, not the way you think. I liked the parts where Craig Ashton was breaking down some iconic pieces. What I didn’t particularly enjoy was the reminder just why I never listen to some — because now I truly understand what the lyrics are about.

📌Final thoughts: must read for everyone who is learning languages, teaching languages, thinking about learning a language, not thinking about any languages and, basically, for everyone. This book is full of hilarious stories and moments of self-reflection. It reminds you that a language — is a door. And the world that's hidden behind it is definitely worth the trouble of intentionally opening this door, however complicated it might seem.

A Quote to Remember:

To understand and learn the language you need to feel it.

So, the second bit came out much later than I'd anticipated. Oh, well — that’s life for me now, but at least I’m done with my academic writing until summer.
The second book I’ve decided to share my thoughts on:
#Review of 📌The Polar Circle (sometimes listed as The Arctic Circle) by Liza Marklund.
📌Genre: #crime_fiction #thriller
📌Book story: now I know that it’s the first book in The Polar Circle trilogy, however I’ve read it as a standalone and wasn’t aware of two other installments, although briefly checking out the description, I think this book is ok to read on its own as well. Partially the story happens in the deepest north of Sweden in the 80s and based on Marklund’s bio — that’s exactly where and when she spent her teens.
📌My rating: #Ok

📌Initial impression: honestly, I was looking forward to reading what I believed to be a light-ish Scandinavian crime fiction. Boy, was I wrong. As for other expectations, I wanted to read about a book club — that I got in full.
📌What I loved: the simplicity of the language. The time jumps between now and the 80s. I particularly enjoyed trying to find the connection between the books the girls had chosen for the Arctic Book Club and the way the chapter played out. The detective plotline was engaging enough, although I managed to figure out a lot of the ending rather quickly (somewhere by the end of 1-2 chapters). Although I tread with caution when I see more than 2 main characters, here I loved this feature, as well as time jumps.
📌What I didn't like: gloomy atmosphere. Don’t get me wrong, I love scandic crime fiction as much as the next guy, but here it was a bit overboard. Or maybe I’ve just read it at a wrong point of life.

📌Final thoughts: I enjoyed reading parts of it, but I’m not gonna reread. Thanks to The Polar Circle I’ve realised that for me there is a thing as too realistic day-to-day life. Especially when for some parts of it (clearly, to shock the reader) the author chooses the crudest synonyms possible. But for me, it’s just «Yuck!» and reeks of a language of run-of-the-mill fanfiction. What’s more, I pitied most characters here, but didn’t really care for Wiking. Imagine my surprise when I found out that he is the centre of two other books in the trilogy.

Also, if you’re looking for ideas for your to-read list, here is one, of the works chosen in this book for the last Club meetings:
📕Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov;
📕Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley;
📕Cop Killer by Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö;
📕The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain;
📕The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough.


This time I’d like to share some quotes, too:

People who are unable to say anything intelligible should not be given a stage and microphone.

The regime always claims that Sweden is a wonderful country. However, we all know that we are being lied to.

Once Verity (or The Truth) has appeared to a person, it’s practically impossible for him to go back to the former state of blindness and naïvety.

So, without further ado, the first.
As I'm just in the starting point of my experiment, I honestly am terrified. I haven't written anything even remotely non-academic in English, I guess, since 2016-ish. I won't let it stop me, though.
I thought it'd be quite symbolic to begin with a book about a teacher that I have finished reading in January, 2025. Well, no time like the present:
#Review of The Professor by Charlotte Brontë.
Genre: #romance_novel
Although the official name was «The Professor, A Tale».
Book story: it was written in 1846, a bit before the famous Jane Eyre, however it was declined by several publishers, which led to the book only seeing the light of day in 1857, after Charlotte's death. The story is rumored to be based on the author's experiences in Brussels, where she was first a pupil, then a teacher at a school for girls. Later the plot was used in Villette, with a few transformations. Also, fun fact: Brontë sisters hated being teachers and were their happiest when a bit of inheritance gave them a chance to quit.
Why I chose this book: it was a suggestion for our Teacher's Book Club and it was the only Charlotte's book that I wasn't familiar with.

Initial impression: when I read The Professor, I had a strong feeling of the book being more like a draft than the final product. Some of the characters felt unfinished, some over-the-top and some were plain unnecessary. I definitely saw why the book was declined at first.
What I loved: her absolutely beautiful language. There is something about Brontë's sisters' writing that I find undeniably compelling. Comedic relief in some of the lines during arguments. Seriously, it's gold.
What I didn't like: lack of consistency. Some characters were so damn omittable. They affected nothing and had no purpose, no it's no surprise they were forgotten quite easily (Likely even by the author).

Final thoughts: I realise that it's Charlotte's first big work after poems, I really do. However, I can't help but think it was for the best that she abandoned the story and focused on other ideas. If you want to check out raw Charlotte Brontë in her most maximalist-ish era — The Professor is for you. If you seek the story it should have been, better opt out for Villette.

My rating: #Ok

Hello there, mysterious reader📚!

I should tell you a few things about what the heck is happening here.
I'm Ria, an English teacher and a huge book enthusiast. For years I've been reading anything and everything I could get my hands on. Alas, I had no system.
This channel is me fulfilling the wish to:
1️⃣ note the books I have been practically inhaling
and 2️⃣ practise my writing skills as I don't get enough of that IRL.

All that I'm gonna write here is my personal Reader experience. No more, no less. If you're still here — sit back, relax and enjoy.