20. Sonder

On books influencing my childhood, truly fantastic releases, and a very incredible author of the week.

I blink and I see her there, bending over in the creek, water softly rushing past her heels and gritty sand digging into her toes. She’s hunting for salamanders with her grandfather when a drop of blood drips into the water, quickly distilling and disappearing as if it never was. She looks up. Her grandpa guides her back to the house to clean up her bloody nose. They read Sleeping Beauty while they wait. 

I blink and see her again, squealing with laughter and a smidgen of true fear at the thought of crossing the deepest part of the creek. There were - supposedly - two water snakes to brave. She will be brave like Sabrina from The Sisters Grimm. She steels herself, takes a breath, and steps forward.

I blink and I see her racing through the woods, hear her breaths and heartbeat reverberate through her head, trying to stifle the crunch below her feet and find a place to hide. She skids to a halt behind a tree. She lines up her bow and brushes her braid back over her shoulder. She is Katniss Everdeen. 

I blink and I see her tearing through the fields. The roar of the engine beneath her, the whipping wind in her face, the smile that screams she is free. Soaring through her fields, she races to the top. She is a Queen riding her dragon, surveying her domain. 

I blink and my childhood passes in an instant. I’m sitting on the creaky porch bench, swinging idly. The wind brushes past my face, my family is laughing in the house, and I hear the engine of our vehicles in the wind. I see myself as a Queen, a Princess, a brave heroine, and a dragon by my side as my past selves run around me. I breathe in the scent of pure, fresh air, and hear the lullaby of the wind chimes drift through me. She is twenty-three, embracing her passion for reading and writing, in the process of becoming the hero of her own story. 

I smile into the unknown, fingers itching to keep writing my own story. 

A note

This is a prompt that came to me right before I went to bed one night this week. I quickly wrote it into my notes app before falling asleep. My family’s farm is my happy place, the location of all my favorite childhood memories. I felt this parallel. The parallel between how all of these books walk hand in hand with my childhood memories with my current reality of a young adult who is pursuing her passion for writing.

I hope that one day I will look back on this moment, the one where I am sitting in the house of my family’s farm, writing this out, my younger self running through the fields, and know that it will all turn out okay.

Sonder. noun.

• The feeing one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles.

  • In a state of sonder, each of us is at once a hero, a supporting cast member, and an extra in overlapping stories.

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April continues to be an absolutely fantastic month of book releases. As always, here are only a *few* of them.

1. The Familiars by Leigh Bardugo (Fantasy): April 9, 2024

2. Toxic Prey (Lucas Davenport #34) by John Sandford (Mystery/Thriller): April 9, 2024

3. Wild Love (Rose Hill #1) by Elsie Silver (Romance): April 9, 2024

4. The Hemlock Queen (The Nightshade Crown #2) by Hannah F Whitten (Fantasy): April 9, 2024

5. The Wartime Book Club by Kate Thompson (Historical Fiction): April 9, 2024

6. A Promise of Peridot (The Sacred Stones Trilogy #2) by Kate Golden (Fantasy): April 9, 2024

7. The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell (Nonfiction): April 9, 2024

8. The Book That Broke the World (The Library Trilogy #2) by Mark Lawrence (Fantasy): April 9, 2024

Books I’ve compiled from mainly the NYT Bestsellers List, but also the B&N Top 100 and Amazon Bestsellers in no particular order. I’ve decided to simply add the books I haven’t before, since I’ve caught up to the new additions. If you’re curious, last week’s post can be found here.

1. The Truth About The Devlins by Lisa Scottoline (Mystery/Thriller)

2. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (Science Fiction)

Today I am focusing on a truly beautiful writer and incredibly smart and inspiring woman: R.F. Kuang.

via rfkuang.com; John Packman (2022)

I was first introduced to this author when I read The Poppy War. It is a fantasy trilogy inspired by real events in China’s history. It is perhaps the most brutal and realistic take on fantasy I have read. She did not shy away from the horrors, the loss, the pure brutality of it all. She took on all sorts of terrors in addition to actually showing what the aftermath of this looks like. It was beautiful and horrible, and I could not tear myself away. I still think about it.

I next read Bable. I remember both feeling a bit stupid because I didn’t understand everything it discussed yet also unable to stop reading and devouring it. I also think about this book often. I would highly recommend both Babel and The Poppy War.

I haven’t read Yellowface, but I have heard great things. I think it is clear that Rebecca is a truly fantastic writer who is able to blend notes of our real history into fantasy. It makes me think about our world more, and I appreciate that she does not shy away.

R.F. Kuang is a lifelong learner. Her website says, “She has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford; she is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.” Please note that I quoted this as I did not know a better way to put it! I am inspired by her continuation of learning while writing these fabulous books. I deeply look forward to everything she will do in the future.

You can find her on Instagram, her website, and her very own Substack!

Just a reminder to submit any books you think others will love on the R&R page or to my email: thesundayreads@gmail.com!

1. As I am running out of time to post this, I will just reiterate The Poppy War and Babel as recommendations for today!

That’s all for today. Much love.

Izzy