October Reading Wrap-Up

I finished October with 12 reads (not counting 3 books I gave up on). Here are my favorites of the month:

📚 The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt was unexpectedly delightful and funny. It is very short (60 pages?) so can be read in one sitting. It is better to go in blind and be pleasantly surprised

📚 Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio is a dark academia/mystery novella. It fit great with seasonal vibes and her writing is always superb

📚 The Changeling by Victor Lavalle is another perfect October horror story. This is the third book I’ve read by this author and I five-starred every single one

📚 Regrettably, I am About to Cause Trouble by Amie McNee features witches (or wisewomen) and is set in the 16th century England. If you like Anne Boleyn and Tudor England, this one is definitely worth a read. I was a bit distracted by the language choices: sometimes the author would use archaic syntax more in line with the time the book is set in, and other times, it read too modern for historical fiction. But I still really enjoyed it overall. The author’s background is also quite fascinating so please make sure to check out the author’s bio.

September 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

September was a solid reading month with 11 books totaling 3,583 pages. I also hit 100 books for the year! Favorites:

📚 This Summer Will be Different by Carley Fortune is not only a favorite for the month, it is now joining the ranks of my all time favorite books. It is not highbrow fiction, but it is heartwarming and wonderful and I loved every minute of it. I borrowed a copy from the library to read and as I was reading I had a strong urge to annotate and underline - something I NEVER do in books: So I ended up ordering a copy for myself so I can reread and highlight all my favorite passages

📚 Yellowface by RF Kuang is a compelling read about the present day publishing industry. It was a hard read but an important one. If you are going to read it, do it now. It is very much of the present day and will not age well with all its references.

📚 Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko is a great choice for dark academia lovers. It is beautifully written and I am definitely picking up the sequel soon.

📚 James by Percival Everett is a retelling of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s perspective. I really liked this book and highly recommend it.

📚 A Crane Among Wolves by Jane Hur is a historical fiction novel set in the 1500s in Korea. I had never read any historical fiction set in Korea in that time period so found it truly fascinating. 

📚 Finally I read a couple of thrillers this month. My favorite of the two was The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn - great mental health representation and an ending that I did not see coming

August 2024 Reading Wrap-up

August was another great reading month, although I did slow down towards the end of the month while on vacation. Ironically, I am one of those people who tends to read less on vacation not more. 

Overall, I read 12 books, half of them were audiobooks, and the other half - a mix of e-books and paper books. I did not finish any non-fiction this month.

I definitely have several favorites:

- Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds is a YA book written in verse that tackles the hard topic of being caught in a vicious circle of vengeance and violence with seemingly no way out. It is a short book that packs a powerful punch. I also really appreciated the author's note at the end.

- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler provides a glimpse into an apocalyptic world filled with violence and struggle for survival. It was especially eerie to read since the events of the future described in the book happen in our present - starting in 2024 and spanning 3 more years. Kindred is still by far my favorite book of hers, but this one is definitely worth a read.

- The Book of Thorns by Hester Fox was one of my highly anticipated new releases. I read a novel by this author last year and really enjoyed it. She tends to write historical fiction but with some mystical/magical twist to them. I am definitely planning to read her backlist and follow her future releases. This one follows the story of two sisters separated in childhood and is set in England, France and Belgium in early 1800s when Napoleon makes his last attempt to recapture power.

- The Push by Ashley Audrain was a very disturbing but utterly unputdownable psychological drama/thriller. It took me a long time to pick up this book. I had heard great things about it, but was apprehensive of the subject (it tackles motherhood, death of a child and raising a difficult child). I did discover that I find thrillers much more enjoyable and less anxiety inducing if I listen to them on audio. I definitely recommend this one and will plan on listening to more thrillers this fall.

- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I finally read this classic dystopian tale and I absolutely loved it. Atwood spins a very nuanced story written in a beautiful prose that is so rare to come by these days. She is a real master and this is definitely worth a read. I don't understand why some reviewers find this boring. I absolutely loved it.

The rest of the books I read were OK. with the exception of The Veiled Kingdom and The Hunted Heir (which are part of the same series) - they were terrible (I should give up on TikTok sensations). 

July 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

Look at me posting on time! I had a great reading month in July: 16 books, adding up to about 4,600 pages. Here are some highlights:

1. Favorites of the Month:

📚 The Saint of Bright Doors - a very unusual and creative fantasy from a Sri Lankan author (I have a full review of this book on my blog)

📚 Most Ardently - a Pride and Prejudice retelling with the main character being a trans boy

📚 The Lost Year - a hard-breaking middle grade book that shines the light on Holodomor (death by starvation) enforced by Stalin in Soviet Ukraine

📚 The Art Thief - a non-fiction book that lets the reader get a glimpse into the mind of a compulsive and the most prolific art thief

📚 Every Summer After - a great beach read about young heartbreak and second chances

📚 Slow Dance - another second chance romance that is more of a women’s fiction than your run of the mill trop-y romance novel (I have a full review of this book on my blog).

📚 Delilah Green Doesn’t Care - fun queer romcom (which also made me cry the tears of joy)

2. Disappointments:

📚 The North Wind - a fantasy romance marketed as a take on the Beauty and the Beast. I gave up reading this book at about 100 pages (so 25% in). The world building was not well executed, I had no idea what was going on in that regard. The cast of characters was very limited and thus the entire world did not feel well fleshed out. In addition, I really disliked the main female character: she was impulsive, headstrong and a drunk to boot. I have a lot of problems with our culture glamorizing drinking and promoting it in films and TV shows. I do not need to see it in my books. Or, I'd rather it be presented in a realistic way as a real bane on one's existence.

📚 The Kiss Quotient - a romcom featuring an autistic main female character. It was an enjoyable read, but I definitely do not understand all the hype surrounding it. It was ok. 

📚 Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson - has all the makings of a great Sci-Fi novel. I loved the ideas in this book, however the storytelling and the characters could really use an upgrade.

"Slow Dance" by Rainbow Rowell

Slow Dance is the third book that I've read from this author. Prior to this I read one YA and one adult novel by her.  This new release is an adult contemporary romance novel, but it is quite different tonally from what I would consider a romance novel. I think Rowell veers more towards women's fiction. Overall, I don't quite vibe with her writing style, and this is precisely why I docked one star and gave it four rather than five stars. Her novels and by extension her characters "sound" the same in the three books that I've read. I think she is trying to go for vulnerable and authentic, but the way she describes the world and the way her characters see it is so different from how I perceive or relate to things, that it is difficult for me to buy it as authentic. But I do appreciate it, and I do allow that some people might see the world as she describes it.

Ok, with that aside out of the way, let's get to the characters and the plot. Slow Dance is a second-chance romance. Shiloh and Cary were inseparable in high school. But then she moved away to college and he joined the Navy. In high school, they never dated, but it is clear that they were absolutely in love with one another. Then in college, Cary came to visit her and they gave in to physical attraction, but things somehow still did not work out between them, and they ended up completely losing touch with each other. This was the part that irked me. I really dislike miscommunication or lack of communication tropes in romance. However, Rowell did somehow manage to make this more realistic and thus more palatable for me.

Fourteen years later, Shiloh and Cary run into each other at a friend's wedding and have a second chance at happiness. What I truly liked about this book is the messiness that you can never find in a romance novel, but which abounds in our every day life. Shiloh is divorced with two kids, her ex-husband is very much in the picture and is NOT a nice guy. Cary's family is a complete mess. Adopted by his grandmother, he calls his real mother a sister, who clearly has alcohol problems. His biological sister Angel has a creep of a boyfriend and is barely making enough money to be able to support her three young children. The entire family clearly relies on his financially supporting his grandmother/mother and by extension the rest of the family with all the half and step-siblings. 

Sex in this book is definitely not the "spicy scene" from a typical romance novel. It is awkward, filled with anxiety, and for Shiloh, at least in the beginning, it is more about intimacy and connection, than passion and orgasm. It felt very human and real. I really appreciated this about this book. 

Yes, there is an HEA (happy ever after). This is the one thing I love about romance novels. It alleviates my anxiety of not knowing whether the main characters will end up together. There is however no third act break-up, which I dislike, so this this was just fine by me! So overall, Rowell managed to write my ideal romance novel: with realistic characters and life situations, realistic libidos and sex scenes, with HEA and no awkward break-up in the second half of the book.

Now, I do want to say that it is a slow read. Not much really happens. Right before Slow Dance I read Ever Summer After by Carley Fortune, which is also a second chance romance, but it had much more drama and tension, and had a much more emotional impact on me than Slow Dance. But then again, it might also be Rowell's writing style. I do recommend this book as a great alternative for your run of the mill "spicy" romance novels that we've been inundated with lately.

I received an e-ARC copy of this novel from NetGalley.com.

June 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

I have definitely been better this year with blogging, however my June reading update is really late. In June, I read 9 books total: one non-fiction, 4 romances, 2 fantasy novels, 1 historical fiction, and 1 mystery. 4 out of 9 books were on audio and the rest were either in paper or e-book. I normally read just around 3,000 pages per month and June was no exception at 3,263 pages.

In terms of my enjoyment/rating of what I read, it was a great month with 6 five-star reads and 3 four-stars. I also made progress on series: finished two YA fantasy series Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin and The Guilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi. I have definitely lost interest in many YA series over the years, but it was good to finish these off. I also continued with one of my all time favorite mystery series featuring a time-traveling police detective by Kelley Armstrong. This newest installment called Disturbing the Dead was excellent.

For a book club I read People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. It is historical fiction that traces the journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript, from its creation in the fifteenth-century Spain to present day. It was my first book by this author and I hope to read other works by her.

There is something to be said about posting a wrap-up a bit later after the end of the month: two of the books I read in June ended up being very forgettable and I hardly remember anything about them: God by Reza Aslan, and An Amiable Foe by Jennie Goutet.

I did read three excellent romances which I highly recommend:

• One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle is a very atmospheric summer read. It put me in a summer mood right away, and I flew through this novel. Definitely a new all-time favorite and I will be reading more from this author.
• Unsteady by Peyton Corinne is a new adult novel with great mental health representation. It is not an easy read as the heroine is dealing with some difficult domestic situations, and the hero is suffering from an injury PTSD.
• Finally, Dungeons & Drama by Kristy Boyce was a fun YA romance that put a huge smile on my face.

All in all, a great reading month. My only regret is that I did not make any progress on reading ARCs, but it was good to take a break from having to read something, and just reach for whatever your heart desires.

Mid-Year Reading Check-in

1. Number of books read so far this year 

62 as if today - my Goodreads goal is set at 75 for the year, so I am probably going to exceed this goal. I do have some chunky books to read in the second half of the year so it is good not be focused on the number.

2. Best book you’ve read so far in 2024 

Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson was definitely the most thought provoking book I read this year. It is non-fiction about the incarceration system in America. It really got me interested in the subject and I ended up reading another book about prisons and the concept of imprisonment. 

3. Best sequel you've read so far in 2024

Glow of the Everflame by Penn Cole. It is the second book in a fantasy romance series, and it really expanded the world and convinced me to stick with the series.

4. New release you haven't read yet, but want to

When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker. This is a very popular fantasy romance novel that a lot of readers love, and I want to see if it becomes a favorite for me also.

5. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

I tend not to follow upcoming releases. However, there is one book I have pre-ordered and it is Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid.

6. Biggest disappointment

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by Victoria Schwab - this book is a favorite for many readers and I thought I was going to love it. The concept of a young woman who makes a deal with the devil and becomes immortal is fascinating. However, I ended up really struggling getting into this novel and found it pretty boring at times.

7. Biggest surprise

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle. I read this book very early in June and it really gave me summer vibes and renewed my desire to take another trip to Italy. I am now also very interested in checking out this author's other books.

8. Favorite new author. (Debut or new to you)

Rebecca Serle (see previous question).

9. Newest fictional crush

Luther from Spark of the Everflame series by Penn Cole (see question 3 above).

10. Newest favorite character

Probably Fetter from The Saint of Bright Doors. I just finished that book earlier today (and posted a review. here), and I really enjoyed his perspective and perseverance to forge his own path in life.

11. Book that made you cry

A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza - this was a heart wrenching family saga about finding your way in the world, going against tradition, but also loving your estranged child even if reconciling is not possible in this world.

12. Book that made you happy

One Italian Summer.

13. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

I have not yet read any classics this year, so I would like to pick up at least one.

"The Saint of Bright Doors" by Vajra Chandrasekera

I read The Saint of Bright Doors for the Sci-Fi/Fantasy book club I am a member of. I think this book is really hard to summarize or even talk about. I'd be very curious how the discussion goes tonight. But here are some of my thoughts:

1. I wouldn't have picked this up if it was not a book club selection

2. I am really glad I read it!

3. I have never been this confused but also fascinated! 

4. I definitely recommend it if you are a fantasy reader. (If this is your first fantasy read, this is probably not the place to start!)

I literally could not stop reading this book even though the fact that reality and the world kept changing only added to my feeling disoriented. You know how for a while an unreliable narrator was a thing? Well, I think this author does the unreliable reality really well! Powerful religious leaders in this book have the power to change not only the physical landscape, but history and reality itself.

I loved how the main character - Fetter - stays focused on trying to be true to himself (or at least attempting to figure out what it means). He is simply forging his own path by taking it one day at a time and pursuing what interests or means the most to him in the moment, rather than getting caught up in some revolutionary, big "save the world" idea of the day. In addition, Fetter was raised to believe that his destiny or mission in life was to kill his estranged father, a powerful religious cleric and leader. And even though at times, he still gets caught up in this pursuit, most of the time he just wants to live his life and be free from any sort of mission. He does get involved with a revolutionary group and even agrees to help them, but only because his "assignment" involves studying the mysterious bright doors that he is fascinated with. He is also more focused on making friends than connecting over a united goal. 

Using theater to promote a revolutionary idea is certainly not a new concept. Books, plays, films have been censored or even banned throughout history by governments that are afraid of dangerous or revolutionary ideas. It was interesting to see how characters in this novel were using theater to promote their ideas.

The unexpected reveal of the real narrator of the story was PERFECT!! Loved that. I am not going to spoil it here, but just wait for it - it was one of the best unexpected turns I've ever encountered in fiction. 

I also really liked the thought over matter power in this book and the idea behind the bright doors. This was very different from anything I've read. Overall, there are lots of layers in this novel which should make for a good book club discussion. But I also see how this book could be too much for some readers. My overall ranking is 4 out of 5 stars. 

May 2024 Wrap-Up

If there is a word to describe the books I've been picking up this year, "mediocre" is the one that immediately comes to mind. In May, I did not really read anything amazing, but there were a few standouts:

1. Cheryl Strayed's short story Two Women Walk into a Bar was heartbreakingly beautiful. It delves into what end-of-life experience is like for the loved one and their family. For such a short story, it really packs a powerful punch. I highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.

2. Natasha Pulley's newest Sci-Fi release The Mars House did not disappoint and solidifyed her as one of my favorite authors once again.

3. I unexpectedly really enjoyed Ruth Ware's thriller The Turn of the Key. I recently realized that I do better with thrillers when I listen to them on audio. For some reason reading thrillers on a page, heightens my anxiety and makes reading uncomfortable. Listening to them somehow adds a theatrical quality to the experience, and I am able to enjoy them better. Now that I recognize this about myself, I am looking forward to listening to some thrillers this summer.

The other 8 books I read were truly forgettable. I feel particularly bad saying this about Viktor Frankl's non-fiction The Unconscious God. While interesting, it was a bit too academic for a non-psychology major and I felt a bit lost in terminology at times.

I am posting this May wrap-up way into June and just wanted to mention that I am trying to be a bit more selective with what I pick-up this month. My biggest regret each year is that I don't read enough "summer reads". And by "summer reads" I really mean books set near the ocean, featuring people on vacations or summer breaks from school, lighter, sunnier reads. So far, I've only read one such book. Today being officially the first day of summer, I need to prioritize some summer books for the next three months.

"The Mars House" by Natasha Pulley

I have read and reviewed on this blog all of Natasha Pulley's novels. I consider her to be one of my favorite writers and I've read everything she's written so far (apart from a short story or two in some anthologies). This is her sixth novel and her first foray into Sci-Fi. 4 out of her 5 previous novels were historical fiction with some fantastical/Sci-FI elements, and one was pure historical fiction (this last one based in Russia and the only one of the books I did not like). 

We read The Mars House in my Sci-Fi/Fantasy book club and everyone really liked it. In her usual fashion, she created likable three-dimensional main characters, a complex and intricate world, and a plot that kept you guessing. She is also a masterful write of romantic tension and her novels (so far) always end in the happily ever after. I do really appreciate that - I read for fun and relaxation and it is good to know that your characters will come out on top no matter what befalls them in the middle of the book.

In The Mars House we follow January, a Royal Ballet dancer who has to flee the earth for the colony on Mars when London - as well as many other places on earth - sinks into the sea. Pulley does an amazing job describing the effects of lower gravity on Mars, the various inventions that make life possible there, etc. I do not know how scientifically plausible her explanations are but they definitely seemed believable and made sense. 

In terms of the plot, there is a political intrigue at the core of the book: two opposing political camps on Mars debate the issue of whether this now seven generations old colony (and greatly modified/adapted to the new environment human beings) deserves to be independent or stay as a colony to Earth and thus potentially face extinction. Newcomers from Earth literally pose a threat to the "Naturals" of Mars because people from Earth are much stronger and can accidentally kill a Natural. Our main character January inadvertently finds himself in the middle of media attention and ends up married to one of the Senators leading the political debate. 

Another interesting aspect in this novel is that gender has been abolished on Mars. The biological "sex" is something very private and is only between the person and their doctor. No one identifies as male or female or anything else. They are referred to as "they" and only the new arrivals from earth exhibit gender traits and identify by gender.

I did greatly enjoy this novel and I am looking forward to Pulley's next book!

April 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

On the surface, April was not a great reading month: I only read 7 books. However, if I look at page count, it is actually the second best reading month this year! I did end up reading several longer (and denser) books which took me more time to get through.

The books themselves were pretty average. I did not find any favorites this month. Although one standout was definitely Neferura by Malayna Evans. I did enjoy this book about ancient Egypt, and I have a separate review of it on this blog. Overall stats: 7 books, 2,985 pages.

"Neferura" by Malayna Evans

As someone who's always been fascinated by ancient Egypt, I really enjoyed this novel. We follow Neferura, the daughter of a female pharaoh Hatshepsut. Very little is known about the historic Neferura (from what I could tell). However, I loved the author's take on the ways women found ways to cooperate with each other and quietly push their own agendas and exert power. Neferura as a character undergoes tremendous growth in the novel. We first meet her as a young naive girl who is wholeheartedly dedicated to the role she plays as the high priestess of god Amun. She believes her own purity and devoutness ensure the prosperity of the people and the entire country. So she is shocked to find herself in the midst of political machinations and a struggle for power between her mother and her half brother Tutmose. Neferura resolves to be the maker of her own destiny rather than remain subservient to someone else. Overall, I really liked the main character, the historical setting, the politics and would highly recommend this to everyone who likes ancient history and women's roles in history. I am really loving the trend of giving voice to forgotten women.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com

March 2024 Reading Wrap-up

In March, I read 9 books and gave up on one (did not finish). Out of these nine, three were really short romance novellas that I got for free from Prime Reading on Amazon. All three were very cute and I enjoyed them. They were all a part of The Improbable Meet-Cute series, and I read the following three out of six:

• The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• With Any Luck by Ashley Poston ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, and
• Worst Wingman Ever by Abby Jimenez ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I think I picked these three because I had read and enjoyed books by these authors previously. There are three more novellas by authors I am not familiar with and I will definitely try to read them soon. These short stories make a good palate cleanser between heavier reads. 

My favorite reads of the month were:

• The Dead Man in the Garden by Marthe Jocelyn ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - this is a third installment in a middle grade mystery series that I enjoy. I have one more book left to read in the series and am really hoping to get to it in April.
• Shark Heart by Emily Habeck ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - this was an unexpectedly heart-warming magic realism story about loss, grief, love and hope restored. It is also about the fragility and preciousness of life, a good reminder to cherish every moment we have with our loved ones.
• Bunny by Mona Awad ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I have a full review of this book.
• Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I honestly did not know what to expect of this book and was pleasantly surprised. This book features a cast of seemingly random characters who frequent the same quaint Tokyo cafe that is rumored to have a time traveling portal. This book made me cry, it was very bittersweet.
• Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ is the first book in a romantasy series available for free on Kindle Unlimited. Even though I gave the book 4 stars, it did lay a great foundation for the series. I just finished book 2 and it was excellent. 

The DNF (did not finish) this month was A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong. I really thought I would love this book. I generally love books by Kelley Armstrong and enjoy time travel romances. However, I did not like the pacing in this book. Rather than focusing on time travel and romance, the author was trying to introduce suspenseful elements into the story, parts of it read like a horror story and I just did not vibe with that.

Another disappointing read was Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili ⭐️⭐️⭐️. I listened to it on audio, and had I read it in paper, I would have probably DNF'ed it as well. It is a literary fiction novel which follows a Georgian immigrant to England called Saba, whose dad and older brother go to their home country of Georgia and disappear there. So Saba sets out for his native Tbilisi in search of them. While I appreciated the things I learned about the regional ethnic conflicts and the turmoil the country went through after the break-up of the Soviet Union, I struggled to connect with the character. He seemed extremely immature to me, ran all over the country and in the end, we had no clear resolution. 

Overall in March, I craved to read something light and entertaining. In previous two months and also early in March I read a few books with a heavier subject matter and I think I also got burned out on ARCs. I had read 5 early this year (4 of them were pretty mediocre reads), and needed to read 3 more in March. However, rather than pushing myself to read things I was not excited about, I decided to give myself permission to read what I wanted. The problem with ARCs is that because you get an advanced copy for free, I always feel guilty if I don't read and review it in time. So I should really stop requesting too many ARCs and be more realistic about my abilities to read them before the publication date. Right now, I have 7 unread ARCs, 3 of which are out in stores already. 

"Bunny" by Mona Awad

This book is either hated or loved. Personally, I loved it. No wonder reviewers have trouble articulating what they just read. Think of it as a fever dream where Alice in Wonderland is crossed with Frankenstein. At an elite MFA program creativity is stifled. Cookie cutter rich girls who attend the school are desperately trying to create their ideal boyfriends out of bunnies (Warren is after all a rabbit borrow, so is literally filled with bunnies and Bunnies :-)). But all they are able to produce are handless and dickless Drafts that they can control but who can never be their lovers. 

Our main character Samantha is not a Bunny. She is the quintessential outsider to the prestigious school and her cliquey classmates. Her inspiration is not fed by the bunny filled detached from reality Warren. Rather she draws from the Other, the lovecraftian city that is so unlike the school that is located in it. (And yes, you can easily recognize the city of Lovecraft and Brown U - loved finding all the subtle and not so subtle references). She is inspired by the lonely swan she sees on a pond, by a stag that somehow wanders into campus and even by …. mud. Her transformations are the result of a deep sense of loneliness, she creates not sex partners, but soulmates and friends. Her creations are so real she herself treats them as such. Her propensity to “pretend” and “to lie in order to make things more interesting” make her an unreliable narrator and someone who cannot make connections with others. But it also makes her a great storyteller, the one who at times cannot control her narrative because the narrative takes on a life of its own. 

Ah, I could go on and on. There is so much to unpack here. Warren itself is a character and we could spend some time talking about that. And oh the faculty, the privilege, this compete disconnect from reality (as the janitor wisely points out). I will stop here. I am sure I will keep thinking about this book for days to come.

February 2024 Reading Wrap-up

February was another great reading month! I managed to read 12 books. Two of these were really short. They were: 

• The Lady of Shalott, a poem by Tennyson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, and 
• I Choose Darkness, a short non-fic by Jenny Lawson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

Both were excellent and I highly recommend them if you need a break from longer reads.

Let's look at some stats for February:

• I read 3 ARCs and 12 library books - this is really not helping me in terms of all the unread books that are sitting on my shelves
• In terms of format: 5-ebooks, 5 audio books and 2 in paper.

I have separate written reviews for the three ARCs that I read: 

• The Fury by Alex Michaelides ⭐️⭐️⭐️
• An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and
• The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden ⭐️

Another relatively short book was 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. It was a delightful epistolary novel that includes 20 years of correspondence between the author and a bookshop in London. I listened to this on audio and highly recommend this format. It is only about two hours long and I really enjoyed it.

Early in February I finished a carry-over audio book from January Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. This is by far one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read. It is a close and personal look at the US prison system and in particular innocent Black people on death row. Stevenson is an attorney who dedicated his life to fighting for justice for people who for all intents in purposes have no voice and who have been profoundly wronged by our society. This had a tremendous impact on me. I think it should be a required reading in school.

I also read a couple of sequels in ongoing series:

• Cocktails & Chloroform by Kelley Armstrong ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ is a novella in her A Rip In Time series about a female detective who somehow ends up time traveling to Victorian Edinburgh. So far I have enjoyed everything I've read by this author and I eagerly wait for the next installment in this series, which should be coming out this year.
• The Secrets of Winterhouse by Ben Guterson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ is the second novel in a middle-grade fantasy series that I enjoy. The main character is a precocious twelve-year old girl who loves books and secret codes. In each novel she solves a mystery of an old hotel that her grandfather owns. 

The three remaining books from my February list were:

• The Narrows by Kate Alice Marshall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. This is a modern gothic novel set in a boarding school. Kate Alice Marshall is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. So far, I have read 3 novels by her and loved all of them. This is a YA book about ghosts. I hear that her YA novels are much better than adult ones. But I will have to see. All three that I read were young adult and they were excellent.
• Beneath the Moon: Fairy Tales, Myths, and Divine Stories from Around the World by Yoshi Yoshitani ⭐️⭐️⭐️ was the most esthetically pleasing book I read this month. Each story was accompanied by a full-page color illustration, which were gorgeous. Many of the stories were familiar to me and some were new. If you like folklore, this is a great one to pick up. 
• Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ was a cozy magical realism novel set in a small southern town. It has a bit of everything: family drama, romance, and magic - all of these elements were low key and written in a way that is a bit of a step-up from a Hallmark movie. I listened to it on audio and quite enjoyed that format. If you need something heartwarming to read, look no further.

"The Warm Hands of Ghosts" by Katherine Arden

This new release from Katherine Arden is focused on the events of the Great War. It is a historical fiction with strong supernatural elements. The main character Laura is a combat nurse from Halifax who was sent home after sustaining major injuries. While home, she receives word from Europe that her brother is missing. The letter that accompanied his effects implied that he might be alive, and there were some irregularities with the effects themselves. Thus, Laura finds herself back in Flanders and begins searching for information about her brother.

I loved Katherine Arden’s Winternight trilogy. I still think of that series often and want to reread it. So I was really excited to get an ARC of her newest novel. Unfortunately, by far the best part of this novel is the Author’s Note at the back. The book itself failed to move me. I did not care about the characters. The horrors of WWI the way Arden described them did not have the intended impact on me. In fact, I was bored most of the time while reading this book and really struggled to get through it. I took me 12 days reading every single day to finish this 325 page novel - it was truly a slog! So unfortunately 1 out of 5 stars. Not for me. Oh and was Faland inspired by Bulgakov’s Voland? I couldn’t help but notice the similarities in the names.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com

"An Education in Malice" by S.T. Gibson

I was not a fan of S.T. Gibson’s first novel A Dowry of Blood mostly because I do not find the subject matter - vampires - to be particularly romantic or attractive. An Education in Malice also has vampires in it, but it is set in an all girls college in the 1960s and at least in the first half of the novel we follow two human girls. 

Carmilla and Laura come from totally different backgrounds and seem to be polar opposites of each other. But as we know, opposites attract. They start off as rivals in an exclusive poetry class, but soon find themselves drawn to each other. Gibson’s writing is very beautiful and I do enjoy her prose. However, even though I did like this novel better than her debut, it was not compulsively readable. I could only read a few pages at a time. It did not pull me in and I almost forced myself to pick it up each night. In the end I did end up giving it 4 out of 5 stars. I liked the dark academia vibes, and in particular the New England college setting. I also liked the characters and the romance. 

I would love to see this author stray away from the vampiric subject matter and explore some other fantasy worlds. I also think she should do more work on secondary characters. In the first two books, we spend majority of our time with the main characters and rarely see much of the surrounding world.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com

"The Fury" by Alex Michaelides

Alex Michaelides’s newest murder mystery involves 4 main characters: a retired movie star, her husband, a London theater actress and a playwright who is also the narrator of the story. While I enjoyed the unusual structure of the book, it also irritated me or more accurately, made me anxious as I never knew what was coming. The unreliable narrator tells a story with an unreliable structure. The experience was akin to reading a “what if” book. The narrator would lead you down a path just to state a couple of chapters later: sorry, that is how it was supposed to go, now let me tell you what really happened. 

More and more of the real picture - if such a thing is possible - was revealed with every unexpected turn or with a change of perspective. It is at its core a closed circle murder mystery, with the entire cast of characters secluded on a remote Greek island. However, once the murder actually happens (yes, there are a few intentional false starts), there is no mystery as to who committed it. 

I am giving this book 3 stars because I really disliked the main character and narrator, Elliot. I did not even feel pity towards him, although I wanted to. The author calls him a psychopath a few times in the novel. However, (and I don't know how true this is since the narrator is unreliable), Elliot suffered a lot of abuse, parental neglect and bullying in his childhood and younger years. I certainly could not blame him for seizing the day when he met a famous female writer, who took him under her wing. I could not, however, understand a lot of his motivations. Perhaps that is how psychopaths are supposed to act. But also feel that humanity utterly failed with this lonely man if what he described about his past really happened. So while an exercise of writing an entire novel from a perspective of someone who could or could not be a psychopath is interesting, I just can't get a higher rating to the book where the entire narrative could be distorted because presented through the eyes of someone who is mentally ill.

January 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

I started January pretty strong and finished 12 books. Five of them I listened to on audio, three were e-books, including two e-ARCs. 7 books out of 12 were from the library. The two e-ARCs that I read have separate reviews on this blog (one them is also on my favorites list below). I gave 5 stars to 4 books, and these are my new favorites. Out of these 4, Chain Gang All-Stars was by far the best. In fact, it prompted me to do a deep dive into non-fiction about the US prison system and activism surrounding the abolition of prisons.

Chain Gang All Stars is a dystopian novel set in not so distant future in the US. We follow convicted prisoners who fight Hunger Games like style for a chance to earn "high freedom" - release from prison. Each fight is to the death. The book is extremely graphic and violent. However, it focuses with a laser-like precision on the US prison system of today - there are extensive informative footnotes that indicate that many of the elements in the book are taken directly from our current reality. It had a chilling affect on me, and as I mentioned, I ended up seeking out and reading a couple of non-fiction books on the subject. One of them I completed in January and it also made my list of favorites - Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis. 

The biggest disappointment of the month is pictured below.

This was a new Red Tower release. In the wake of the success that The Fourth Wing had garnered for this publishing house, there were multiple pre-orders for romantasy books with pretty sprayed edges. I fell prey to the hype and did pre-order this book. What a disappointment. I honestly struggled to get through it and already barely remember the plot. I promptly canceled any other pre-orders I had for Red Tower books and already got rid of my copy. Definitely do not recommend.

The other books on my January list were middle of the way. I am very happy I found 4 favorites this month and I hope February will be a strong reading month also.

"The Heiress" by Rachel Hawkins

This book was incredibly clever and a delight to read. It is worth picking up simply for the sheer pleasure of tracing all the Easter eggs and discovering all the mysteries nestling in its pages. The book at its core is the story of Ruby McTavish, a multimillionaire and a rumored husband murderess several times over. The book switches perspectives between Ruby, her adopted son and heir Cam and Cam’s wife Jules. None of the characters are what they seem to be when we first see them. They all have secrets. You have to keep reading to uncover all the truths. I also really enjoyed the role Ashby House plays in this book. It is a gothic mansion in the Blue Ridge mountains and the ancestral seat of the McTavishes. It is a presence in itself and almost a character in the novel. Rachel Hawkins is a masterful writer. I always enjoy her novels. This one by far is my favorite of hers.

I received an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley. The US publication date is January 9, 2024.

"The Atlas of Us" by Kristin Dwyer

Sometimes I am wary to pick up a book that I know will have an emotional impact on me. However, paradoxically such books always become my favorite. The Atlas of Us explores the depth of human emotion (in this case intense grief) and the resilience of human spirit. It is also about friendship, new beginnings and love. The main character is an 18 year old girl named Atlas (aka Maps) whose father recently died of cancer. Maps has the hardest time dealing with grief. She drops out of high school, has uncontrolled anger and sadness, and overall becomes rudderless. She ends up in a program for troubled kids who set off on a month long hike in the Sierra mountains. There, on the trail her father dreamed of hiking again, Maps slowly learns her way back to herself and builds new relationships. I truly loved this book. It is raw, it made me cry, it also had a beautiful love story (both the love between parent and child and romantic love). Highly recommend. What a great way to kick off the reading year!

I received an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The US publication date is January 9, 2024.

2024 Reading Goals

For 2024 I am not going to set any "hard" goals such as a specific author, book or genre to read. Instead, I'd like to just enjoy reading and pick up those books that truly interest me. So here are my goals:

1. Have fun

2. If I have to struggle through a book, set it aside. It's ok not to finish!

3. Participate in the two bookclubs even if I do not finish the book - it is about connecting with other readers 

4. Do not feel obligated to read every bookclub pick

5. Request fewer ARCs

6. Buy fewer books

7. Read more from my own shelves

2023 Reading Results

2023 was an extremely challenging year for our family, so the fact that I actually read 103 books is quite impressive and frankly unexpected. There were a couple of months in spring and summer when I barely read at all. So overall, I am very proud of my reading stats for the year. 

My most read genre was fantasy - 34 books. 

I read 54 books from my own library, 3 ARCs and 46 books were borrowed from the library or Kindle Unlimited. 

In terms of medium: 53 were in paper, 26 e-books and 24 audiobooks (definitely fewer audiobooks this year!) 

I read 65 adult books, 20 YA and 18 middle grade.

A few books did make a lasting impression. A list of my favorites is below.