I am a huge fan of Taylor Swift and over the years, it has been a pleasure to find other fans in my family and friend circles – shoutout to Lauren, Lennea and Tiffany. Taylor came out with her tenth studio album, Midnights, on Oct 21, 2022. The thirteen songs are inspired by “13 sleepless nights” of Swift’s life. They have been on repeat for me since the album was released and the weather here (snow storms and fall) has only increased its appeal to me. Last time when Taylor came out with an album, I found an Instagram challenge to take part in for the month of August. This time, the #MidnightsBookChallenge is a one post list of books that kept me up until midnight. Today, I am going to tell you about these books as well as a short review of the album at the end of the post.
13 Books that Kept me Awake Till Midnight
I bet you can imagine this being a hard list to compile for me. These books are in no particular order of enjoyment. I loved each and every one of them, and many many others that I could not put on this list of 13.
Friday’s Child by Georgette Heyer
Published 1944 | Goodreads
This book I have had for a long time. My grandma and aunt are avid readers of Georgette Heyer and their collection is a dream for me. Friday’s Child is about a happy-go-lucky young girl. She is about to get married off to some boring guy while her childhood crush is unable to access his inheritance until he ties the knot. He happens to find her on her way to running away and they decide to make a runaway match of themselves, a win-win for them both. What follows is a fun story of their misadventures with his funny group of cousins and friends. I smile every time I think of this book. It is the only book I have reread enough times to lose count.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Published 1844 | Goodreads | My review
2021 was the year to read this book! I read at snail speed the first eleven months and then finished this tomb within a week once the end of the year started approaching in full swing. Clinton loved the movie and I did not like it after reading this amazing book. The Count of Monte Cristo is a story of revenge; Taylor’s Vigilante Shit would go very well with this book and aptly represent the cunning Edmund Dantes. Imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, Dantes returns after over a decade to his hometown to find none of his loved ones where he expects them to be. Having come into a fortune, he spends the rest of his time under a new persona of The Count of Monte Cristo, helping those who have been wronged by those who wronged him and setting out a revenge plot that is unseen.
Our cat, Dantes, is named after the protagonist Edmund Dantes.
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
Published 2017 | Goodreads | Book Discussion with Erynn
What is it like to have a dream come true? Lazlo Strange is an orphan who cannot forget about the city of Weep. When the opportunity presents itself to go there, he knows destiny calls and his adventure begins. Strange the Dreamer is a beautiful fantasy. It has moments of awe, love, fascination and a world of dreams and gods that I can stay in forever. The past is a dark one and the history of Weep is tainted with injustice and abuse. Lazlo and Sarai are loveable protagonists and this book sets a great stage for the finale in Muse of Nightmares.
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
Published 2009 | Goodreads | My review
This book is two books in one, set in present time 2008 and also the 1200s. The modern timeline follows a married woman who supposedly has everything. Ella is a literary agent and is assigned a story called Sweet Blasphemy by an author named Aziz. Sweet Blasphemy is told from multiple perspectives – the main character, Shams, a dervish who leads a nomadic life in service to God, his eventual teacher and student (yes, both) and destiny, Rumi, and many others who cross Shams’ path. While reading the book, Ella realises that she feels stuck and isn’t happy in her life. This book seems to be written to give her courage and take a leap. She starts corresponding with the author and what follows is a story about their connection and Sham’s teachings influencing them both.
The Forty of Rules of Love has gems in the philosophy of love, living and being. It transformed me like Sweet Blasphemy transformed Ella. I love coming back to it.
The Girl & the Goddess by Nikita Gill
Published 2020 | Goodreads | My review
It’s important to talk about this one before I elaborate on The Palace of Illusions. Both feature in my year 28 highlights and their connection makes them even more special. The Girl & the Goddess is a woman empowering collection of poems and stories from Hindu mythology and Indian history. In this book, I felt understood. In Paro, I saw myself. Though her life is set around the time of Indian partition, 1947, mine is five decades later, and yet, it is pretty much the same story minus the goddess visits. I never got those visits but after reading this book, I might as well have. It is that empowering and loving an experience. I felt every single goddess’ story is something for me to remember and take inspiration from. This book led me to realize the importance of reincarnations in Hindu mythology, “The beauty and the tragedy of being mortal is a gift to all, even to the divine.” and from there read The Palace of Illusions.
The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Published 2009 | Goodreads | Book Discussion with Lauren
A retelling of the Hindu epic of Mahabharata, The Palace of Illusions is the epic retold from the point of view of Draupadi. I had never thought of Draupadi as a reincarnation of the Gods until I read The Girl and the Goddess. The Palace of Illusions beautifully and poignantly portrayed the life of the divine Draupadi, the beauty and tragedy of being a queen who had to fight hard alongside her five husbands to claim it back. She is human and makes mistakes and lives with the consequences. Her strength and character are an inspiration to me.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Published 2022 | Goodreads | My review
In Sea of Tranquility, we experience our history through chapters set in 1912, 1918 and 2020, and then later re-experience it through stories and history told in the years 2203 and 2401. One of the words that came to mind as I was reading this book was cinematic. I imagine the characters and the chapters being scenes from the characters’ lives. The slice of life narratives are quite engaging. I did not truly need to know the characters by their nature and virtues, I just needed to know how they fit in the puzzle I had been handed, one that in the beginning, I did not quite comprehend. It is all about slowly revealing the big picture with intricate details from different lives, some characters being so peripheral yet pivotal to the plot that one could almost miss them.
Time travel is one of my favorite subgenres to read! Often, I find myself wanting to know its intricacies and how it came to be, but Sea of Tranquility is written so beautifully that the mystery at hand about the anomaly that the time traveler is investigating is way more important than how he time travels and how it affects him. The main idea is how he affects the timeline. This book is such a treat – I will read it again!
HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Published 2013 | Goodreads | My review
I do not shut up about this and I have data to back that. I did a search on my blog and I have mentioned HEX in at least seven posts so far, whether in passing or to gush about it. Horror at its best for me. From my review: “The story of a town that no one can leave and the actions that the teenagers will take to get out seemed like a promising read. What I did not realize was how guttural and vulnerable it would make its characters, and me. I cried so much through this book and so many times after reading it. The whole day after I finished, I was a little out. This has never happened before. There are parts of it that don’t make sense to me but my brain very much does not want to make sense of them. It is better this way.“
You know where to read the rest.
Between Starfalls by S. Kaeth
Published 2020 | Goodreads | My review
I was watching Rings of Power the other day and was reminded that I love high fantasy. Beautiful worlds, magic, the people… I want to be lost in such stories and SK’s Children of the Nexus series is the one I am following. I am not friends with many authors but SK knows how desperately I await book three. Thankfully, her other series, Windward, is set in the same world so I have many ways to visit, rereads always being on the table.
Between Starfalls is the first book of the series. Set in the Stone Age, this story introduces us to two peoples – the Rinaryns and the Kamalti. The Rinaryns thought the Kamalti were a myth but a chain of events reveal that this isn’t so. Between Starfalls is a story that tugs at the heartstrings. A missing child, imprisonment, one’s feeling of inadequacy… These are all tough themes to confront, and harder ones to write well. Just thinking about them can swell us with emotions but to be able to portray them in a manner that it leads to tears (yes, that happened a couple times, and my book is fine), in my mind, speaks to immersive storytelling.
This series is an experience. Did I mention I am waiting for book 3?
The Thirteenth Hour by Trudie Skies
Published 2021 | Goodreads | My review
The Thirteenth Hour is the warm cup of tea on a cold day.
The Thirteenth Hour is set in the city of Chime. The world has 12 Gods that each rule their own domain and have each created a unique race of mortals that worships them. Our main band of characters is composed of people from different domains and for different reasons. As captivating and magical as this book is, it is a dark story. Bad things have happened to the characters to get them where they are now and bad things are going to continue to happen as the story progresses. At the end of the day, the fun part was that I wanted them all to persevere and I was cheering them on. Characters play a huge role in making the book memorable and all of them are unforgettable, whether for their goodness of heart or the wickedness of their desires. The Thirteenth Hour to me is a true fantasy – we are not talking humans with magic. We are talking mortals with magic and then add on the Gods and make them accessible (and cruel)… I had a blast. I got sucked into the world and the whole time I read this book, I was immersed! It has one of the longest reviews on the blog for a reason. 🙂
The Mother Code by Carole Stivers
Published 2020 | Goodreads | My review
I love reading about Artificial Intelligence in fiction, whether it is the science behind it, the coding, or the ethical aspects and perceptions of humans. The Mother Code is the story about the dire situation in which intelligent robots were created to not only give successful birth to humans but also to keep them safe. It speaks to the struggles of creating such intelligent machines, while at the same time, exposing how much we really trust them. I loved how much thought went into this book and the care with which this delicate future was approached. If COVID-19 was as deadly as the virus in this book, this might be our near future. This is a standalone novel and I genuinely enjoyed the journey from the start to the end.
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
Published 2015 | Goodreads | My review
Big Magic is a wonderful reminder of why we pursue the things we do. It talks about the drive that lets us hone these creative outlets time and time again. It puts into perspective where our work as creators ends and the audience takes on its own role. It taught me to be grateful for many things but most importantly, it reminded me to be thankful that I can connect with something called “inspiration” and make something whether it is a piece of art or a beautiful spread in my journal. It reminded me that completing a project has a huge value itself.
Big Magic is also about experiences that the author has had, the struggles she has faced as a writer and what she has learned from other creators out there. It felt so good to see the behind-the-scenes of a bestselling author and to relate to her as a person. If you are curious about Elizabeth Gilbert’s journey or think this is a book that might inspire you too, do check it out.
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez
Published 2019 | Goodreads | My review
Invisible Women is a thoroughly researched book that brings together data from public hygiene, urban planning, pension plans, academia, agricultural equipment to phone sizes, impact on women during natural disasters as well as success rate in politics itself. This is probably the only work I have ever read that presents a holistic picture of women, be it unpaid care work or paid employment. So many times places and things are usually designed without much consideration to women. The book is based on data from multiple sources and talks about what happens when women are not considered when making major decisions. I loved reading it and have since talked to many girl friends who have read and enjoyed it too!
It’s funny thinking back now about how so many of these books were emotionally charged and brought me to tears. I have spent hours reading them, being in awe and wonder, hours more thinking of them, lots of sticky tabs and pen ink annotating them, losing a decent amount of tears along the way. They are inspiring stories that have left an imprint in my memory like no other. The non-fiction ones have their own powerful imprint – a message to be creative, a reminder that I exist.
And now a little about the music album that led to this list:
Review of Midnights
The songs in Midnights are composed of a number of emotions. There is strength, introspection, self-hate made into self-love, anxiety and a strong sense of realizing one’s worth and what one wants. In classic taylor style, there are references to her other songs. I reminisced about her songs Red, Bad Blood, 22, Delicate, and Enchanted. I love listening to this album in my study in the evening.
- Lavender Haze and Midnight Rain challenge the two roles in which women are often seen – a one night stand or a bride. Taylor makes it clear that she wants more for her life and sometimes to pursue her career, she has had to make hard decisions.
- Bejeweled is about taking back the power that she may have given to someone and reminding herself that when she shows up, she is still someone. Her relationships do not define her and she can stand up by herself without a man next to her.
- Karma is about making friends with destiny and knowing you have a better grasp of yourself than others.
- Anti-hero is about loving oneself for our flaws. I love it for its honesty and the mistakes made. It also mentions loss of a loved one in the future and how life loses its meaning when we lose that someone special.
- Snow on the beach is magical and I love the ambience and imagery of it. It’s about an encounter that was meant to be. Today is the 7th anniversary of the day Clinton and I met and this song reminds me of the day we met.
I have only touched on half the album. You’re on your own kid, Mastermind, Maroon, Labyrinth, Vigilante Shit are others I love.
Have you listened to this album? Do you have any favoites?
Thank you so much for celebrating Taylor Swift’s new album, Midnights, with me! I had a lot of fun putting together this post for the #MidnightsBookChallenge – 13 Books that Kept me Awake Till Midnight. Did you see any of your favorites? If not, tell me in the comments which books have this this special for you! 🙂
Art illustrations used in this post are from Lofi Girl wallpapers. Taylor Swift’s album cover is from Spotify.
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