Celebrate the love for books
What I really enjoy about theatre is that it’s a liberating art form. It’s often used to explore ideas that aren’t mainstream. Mimi Fan is a prime example of this in Singapore literature. When it was first staged in 1962, it shocked more than a few sensibilities because it was rather progressive and liberal for its time. The annex even features a newspaper article touting Mimi Fan as a controversial play.
The Wicked King was everything I look for in a sequel. In fact, I was so engrossed in it, I breezed through it in just about two days. I hardly wanted to put it down but you know, responsibilities…
As much as I enjoyed the Six of Crows duology, I have no love lost for the original Grisha trilogy. Nonetheless, Nikolai still managed to win me over for his charm and wit. That’s why I was excited when Leigh Bardugo announced a spin-off duology dedicated to him.
Depending on how you look at it, quarter- and midlife crises books can add to the disillusion or be rather cathartic. Personally, I thought How to Find Love in the Little Things tended towards the cathartic.
Technically, Christmas Cakes and Mistletoe Nights is a sequel to Cake Shop in the Garden but it stands quite well on its own. I actually only realised that it’s a sequel due to the summarised info dump during the first couple of chapters — think throwback highlight reel at the start of new seasons of TV shows. Once that’s done and dusted, it’s back to regular writing and storytelling.
