We’ll be having a little blog break over Christmas while I celebrate with my family. I’ll still be having YouTube videos and TikToks posting though! Just search for Abi of Pellinor ☺️
Hope you folks have a wonderful Christmas if you celebrate, and a nice end of year if you don’t! 🥂
The new year is almost upon us! How on earth has it gone so fast?! And this means that it’s time to think about my bookish year and how I want it to shape up. I’ve set myself some goals and tasks, as well as a few books I’d like to read. And because I create content I’ve also made a few goals for myself there
I want to read 50 books next year. As of writing this blog post I’ve read 116 books, so it’s a lot less. But I’m so burnt out and I have been for months. I’ve barely been reading anything and it’s a struggle to pick up a book. I want to bring joy and fun back into reading again for me. If that means slowing down and forcing myself to take my time with my books? Then that’s what I’ll do!
And for those 50 books, 12 of them will be from the Goldsboro GSFF book box because I want to continue reading those books the month after they arrive. It means I stay on top of them, and don’t let them build up, as well as reading a new release each month. Because most of my books are back list!
I’ll also be taking part in a few different book clubs next year, but the one with defined books is the spiritual successor to the Dead Famous Readalong and this will be for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series! We’ll be reading all 5 books from Douglas Adams as well as the 6th book from Eoin Colfer and I’m excited to dive into this comedy sci-fi!
I’d also like to finish the Lord of the Rings trilogy by the end of next year, but I’m not making that a hard and fast goal. It’s just more of a vibe I’m putting into the universe 😂
Then we come to my tbr. By 2359hr on 31/12/2023 I was my physical tbr to be below 100 books. As of pre-Christmas it’s sat at 146. This will probably be the most difficult of all my goals I’m setting myself, as I always have books coming in. I’ll probably have to look at unhauling books. But I would LOVE to start 2024 with less than 100 books to read and really work on making my tbr as small as possible!
And finally, my content goals. I’d like to hit 1000 subscribers on YouTube. I’m at 860 now so it’s attainable, but I’ll have to keep working at my content! I’ve got a few ideas so I just hope I can execute them in 2023.
For Instagram I’d like to hit 2000 followers. I’m at 1500 now so again this is attainable, but I specifically want to work on changing up my content this year. I’ve been doing the same thing for a while now and I want to keep it fresh and still enjoy the photos I’m putting out.
And finally TikTok. I’m pretty new to this platform but I’ve got almost 1000 followers already, so I’d like to aim for 2000 by the end of 2023. Is this too high? I’ve got no idea. I’m so new to the platform 😅 but I’m enjoying making the silly videos and looking forward to seeing where this goes next year!
And that’s it, those are my bookish goals! Keeping it nice and simple for this coming year so that I don’t overwhelm myself, but I’ll still be really pleased if I’m able to achieve them. Most importantly, I just hope that I enjoy myself next year!
Let me know what goals you have for your reading next year! It’s always fun to learn what challenges people have set for themselves.
Before Starshine and Clay by Sarah Ladipo Manyika was sent to me by the wonderful people over at the publishing house, Footnote. This doesn’t bias my opinion, but I thought you should know ☺️
“Conversations with the African diaspora” is the tag line for this book, as Ladipo Manyika interviews and chats with people from across the continents. There were names here I was familiar with, such as Toni Morrison, as well as a lot of individuals I had never heard of before. But each and every person had a fantastic and gripping story to tell and I’ll now follow them eagerly in the future.
The individuals that Ladipo Manyika talks to are: Toni Morrison, Claudia Rankine, Xoliswa Sithole, Wole Soyinka, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Margaret Busby, Anna Deavere Smith, Willard Harris, Michelle Obama, Michael Hastings, Evan Mawarire, and Cory Booker.
This book touches on a lot of topics. From racism, to feminism, to colonisation, gentrification, and dictatorships. All of them talking about the individual impact, as well as the larger effect. I was absorbed in each persons story and whilst I feel like everything wrapped up well, I definitely want to do some more of my own research on each of these people and discover more of their work.
On CAWPILE I rated this: Research: 9, Authenticity: 8, Readability: 9, Personal Impact: 9, Intrigue: 9, Informativeness: 9, Enjoyment: 9, giving an average of 8.86 and a 4.5* rating.
Highlight here for content warnings: discussions of persecution, death, racism, xenophobia, confinement, colonisation, violence, genocide, war, hate crime, classism.
I loved being exposed to so many more individuals that I likely wouldn’t have heard of without this collection. I am definitely bumping this up to 5*! This is a perfect read for me in November (Non-fiction November to be specific) but I recommend it all year round!
Vincent van Gogh by Meyer Schapiro is an art book that I spotted in a charity shop in October and picked up on a whim.
It seemed like a great idea to pick up for non-fiction November, and I’m glad that I read this one. It’s a collection of prints of many of van Gogh’s paintings, with analysis on the neighbouring page, and the book starts with a 30-40 page analysis of the painters life, techniques, and more.
The analysis next to each painting is very detailed and the author clearly has a lot of knowledge about the art. However, the writing was overly academic and therefore quite inaccessible for anyone not in that realm of study. It did bring my enjoyment down a fair bit, because it just isn’t fun to read someone’s pretentious sounding thoughts on a painting. But there were some really interesting insights and I’m still glad I have a collection of van Gogh’s prints.
On CAWPILE I rated this: Credability: 9, Authenticity: 7, Writing: 3, Personal Impact: 5, Intrigue: 4, Informativeness: 6, and Enjoyment: 6 giving an average of 5.71 and a 3* rating.
Highlight here for content warnings: mentions of van Gogh’s suicide, mental illness, death.
This isn’t a book that I’d recommend for everyone to go and pick up. But as someone who loves van Gogh’s paintings, this is a nice edition to my shelves
The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean was September’s Illumicrate book. A YA fantasy horror that was perfect to start in October.
A young mother runs away to keep her son safe. That’s the basic premise of this book, but it misses out on so much of the nuance. For example the fact that the mum only eats books, and the son? Well he eats minds.
I really enjoyed this book! For those worried about the horror marking? I personally wouldn’t be. There is some graphic violence, but whilst the book is dark I wouldn’t say it’s especially creepy. So it’s not that it doesn’t deserve the horror mark, perhaps that our view on horror should alter slightly.
The world building is done fantastically through this book. We jump back and forwards in time, and Dean has managed to arrange these in the perfect way so that we learn about the history of this world whilst we become invested in our protagonist Devon’s life and that of her son, Cai.
I also adore the fact that a fair amount of this is set in Newcastle and Northumberland! We almost never get books set in that region (where I’m from if you didn’t know, in the north east of England) and it was so much fun recognising places and streets!
The character development is really interesting, especially with us jumping back and forward in time. I think Dean managed this really well in how she keeps the plot simple in the beginning of the book, when we’re in the modern day. And advancing this plot as we learn more about past Devon and her life. I enjoyed seeing the change in Devon from childhood innocence to adult denial and then acceptance of the truth.
On CAWPILE I rated this: Characters: 7, Atmosphere: 9, Writing: 8, Plot: 8, Intrigue: 8, Logic: 8, and Enjoyment: 8 with an average of 8 and a 4.5* rating.
Highlight here for content warnings: violence, domestic abuse, pregnancy, child abuse, death, body horror, misogyny, confinement, gaslighting, cannibalism, grief, infertility, rape, eating disorder, police brutality, death of parent, acephobia, kidnapping.
This book is a fantastic standalone read, but I would 100% read a sequel! The ending is satisfying, don’t get me wrong, but Dean could 100% write a book 2 and I hope that one day she does! Definitely an author I’ll be keeping an eye one
I tried to keep my November tbr small and still failed, but I managed to get through a fair amount of them! I didn’t finish up my Goldsboro or Illumicrate books, so I’m going to leave those for now and if I do finish my December tbr in good time I’ll squeeze them in before the end of the year.
Dracula by Bram Stoker is the classic vampire novel that I was finishing up from October. Truthfully I had been expecting to just find this fine. But I loved it! The character development was so engaging and the female characters? Actually being appreciated and fleshed out? *French kiss*.
Mindwalker by Kate Dylan is another book I was finishing up from my October TBR. It’s a fabulous Sci-Fi story
The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean is the final book that I was finishing up from my October reads.
Van Gogh by Meyer Schapiro is a book that I found in a charity shop in October. It is a non-fiction which shows large prints of selected van Gogh paintings alongside Schapiro’s thoughts and analysis on the work. It was a little overly academic for me at times, but I did enjoy learning more about this artist that I love.
Between Starshine and Clay by Sarah Ladipo Manyika was sent to me by the wonderful people over at Footnote, and I’m so very grateful because this book was fantastic. I really enjoyed how Ladipo Manyika told us the stories she was learning, utilising different styles and methods. We hear so many stories from wide across the diaspora and I will definitely be looking to learn more about every person included in this book!
Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb is a book Celine wanted me to read, and now I have I totally see why. This book was amazing! Exactly the type of fantasy that I adore and oh dear I’m in love with this series just one book in! Watching the growth of this young boy, isolated from everyone around him, and the struggles he faces. The character development. All of it is just amazing and you all (if you enjoy fantasy) need to pick this book up!
How To Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie is a book that Hannah had put on my tbr for October, clearly it didn’t happen that month but I wanted it to still happen so I got in gear and read it in November. At the start I hated our main character, but I pushed through and I’m glad I did! This is such a wild book and a lot of fun. The ending? Frustrating. Honestly Mackie WHY. But apart from that? Fun!
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal is the book that Hannah actually put on my tbr for November, and again she picked an amazing book. This is set in London and follows a young British Indian woman who doesn’t fit in with the cultural expectations but ends up with a job in her local temple… teaching the elderly women how to write erotic stories. But this book is about so much more. It’s about racism, feminism, community, and culture. It’s a really beautiful book and one I’ll definitely be recommending! There are scenes of written erotica in here, as we see the widow’s stories, which as a Demi weren’t what I was here for. But I did enjoy the rest of the book.
Dune by Frank Herbert was my final read for November and I buddy read this with Eleanor (and Chels tried but life was lifeing). There weren’t any chapter breaks in this book, which obviously was an issue while buddy reading. So that was frustrating. And the synopsis is written badly in my edition as it spoils something which doesn’t actually occur until over 200 pages in. I think I’ll appreciate this book a lot more on reread but it was simply fine for this first read through. Now I need to decide if I’m continuing with the series or if I’m leaving this here.
I did also read some of Silver Under Nightfall of Rin Chupeco and The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew, which hopefully I’ll be finishing up before the end of the year. I’m enjoying both of them, Silver a lot more, and I hope that carries on as I finish up the books.
Overall I’m really happy with how this reading month ended up, with a fair few books read! What is the best book you read in November? I’m debating between Assassin’s Apprentice and Dracula!
Mindwalker by Kate Dylan was September’s Goldsboro GSFF box book. A YA Sci-Fi set in Earth’s future. I always enjoy the GSFF box books so I was excited to dive in!
Our protagonist is an 18 year old girl who has a supercomputer grafted into her brain in order to let her control secret agents when they need extraction, and anytime soon it’s going to blow. When Sil is forced to go on the run she joins with an unlikely band of people and learns more about the world she thought she knew.
This is such a fast moving book, which is something I always enjoy. Sil is a really interesting protagonist to be inside the head of, seeing how she starts the book and her thoughts and opinions of the company she works for and how these alter over the course of the novel. I also love that we get some alternative perspectives from the side characters. Both from those inside the company and out.
The core plot point in this book is relatively predictable. But I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I think all of you know, from the minimal amount I’ve said so far, that Sil starts out loving her company she works for and then ends up realising it’s bad. However, the twists and turns and the commentary around this? It’s done so well! There is one twist in particular that I just *adored* how it was done! And there were so many interesting discussions and viewpoints.
The writing style itself is also a fun one. Dylan says that she’s emulating Marvel and I think she does that well (and I adore that Sil names her AI Jarvis!). It really does lend the book a fast pace and kept me hooked the whole way through.
On CAWPILE I rated this: Charcters: 8, Atmosphere: 8, Writing: 8, Plot: 7, Intrigue: 8, Logic: 7, and Enjoyment: 9 giving an average of 8 and a 4.5* rating.
Highlight here for content warnings: body horror, death, violence, blood, vomit, medical content, suicide.
I absolutely need more books from this world, and Kate Dylan commented on my insta post suggesting we’ll get just that… I’m so excited! This is a fantastic YA Sci-Fi that I think is light enough to entice newbies to the genre, as well as having enough of the core Sci-Fi components to satisfy those who love the genre. In other words? This book is so much fun. I really do recommend it. And this is another big tick to Goldsboro from me!
Dracula by Bram Stoker is a well known Gothic classic, and the basis of much of pop cultures view on vampires. So of course I had to start this one in October!
I had expected this to be just fine. An acceptable classic, nothing special. I was proved wrong, because I really enjoyed this book!
The beginning of this book, I will admit, doesn’t reflect the rest of the novel. The first 7 or so chapters were what I had expected from a classic. But I will say I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly we jumped into the vampire storyline! With my familiarity with classics I’d assumed this wouldn’t happen until later! Although the word vampire actually isn’t used in the book until surprisingly far in.
Mina is by far my favourite character, she’s a strong woman who is written well with Stoker proving that men can write accurate portrayals of women since 1897 *cough* Ken Follett *cough*. She’s tough and intelligent, enough so to impress the male doctors around her, whilst also reacting with realistic distress to the events (rather than being overly “strong” about them). Additionally the men in the group are also written very well, I enjoyed seeing their responses and how their views altered over time. Stoker does a very good job at writing realistic and empathetic people.
I was aware of the basic outline of the plot, but never the actual details and so it was a lot of fun for me to experience that for the first time here. I thought that it was paced very well, with realistic set backs and wins, and I was hooked for each set of events.
On CAWPILE I rated this: Characters: 9, Atmosphere: 9, Writing: 8, Plot: 9, Intrigue: 9, Logic: 9, Enjoyment: 10 meaning an average of 9 and a 5* rating.
Highlight here for content warnings: abduction, character, death, fear, inprisonment, murder, paranormal creatures, trichotillomania (brief).
This has immediately been added to my list of favourite classics. Bram Stoker is a feminist and I dare to you tell me otherwise 😂 I really do recommend pushing through the first 7-9 chapters of this one if you’re not immediately enjoying it. The payoff is (in my opinion) more than worth the effort of those few chapters. Now to find some more of Stoker’s work!
It’s Chriiiiiistmaaaasss!!! Or at least it’s December. Look I’ve waited until December started and we’ve all had such a bad year that we deserve to enjoy something! But yes, this means it’s time for my final tbr of 2022! 😲
In the twist of the decade I’ve actually kept this months list short so let’s dive in!
First up are the book box books. Goldsboro GSFF box for this month with be The Immortality Thief by Taran Hunt which is another Sci-Fi book. 100% here for squeezing in some more Sci-Fi before the end of the year! And Illumicrate is giving us The Luminaries by Susan Dennard as a Daphne Press book. I’m excited to finally try out some of Dennard’s writing!
Then onto the books I already own. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang is the last book on my “12 in 2022” instagram list, where I had people pick 12 books for me to read this year. After adoring Babel I’m so so excited to dive into more of Kuang’s writing! A Chinese history inspired political fantasy? Exciting!
The Spear of Truth by Caroline Logan was one of my most anticipated releases of 2022 and I need to get to it before the year is out! This is the final book in the Four Treasures series which follows a grumpy grandpa of a young girl who is coerced into being a bodyguard for some selkies! Scottish mythology combined with YA fantasy and I adore the series. I’m so excited and so nervous for this series to end!
My boyfriend adores the Discworld series, and yet after I’ve moved in with him I’ve not read a single Discworld book! So Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett is going on my December tbr. This series is a classic in the fantasy world and I’m excited to dive back into the madness!
The final book on my tbr is a reread, and that is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I’m going to be getting the train to my parents house on Christmas Eve, and this seems like the perfect travel read for the season!
That’s only 6 books! Six! That’s the smallest tbr I’ve made in ages! I won’t lie, it was surprisingly hard, and I had another 5 books that could’ve been added to the tbr. But I really want to be reasonable this month and not give myself too much to read.
What’s on your final tbr of the year? What do you need to get to before New Years Day?
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett is a huge book, coming in at over 1000 pages in my paperback edition. I had been intimidated by this book for a fair few years (I’ve had it since 2018) and me and Kari decided that buddy reading this one was the way to go.
Well I am so glad that we did because wow I would not have finished this without Kari! Whilst I can see why others might find enjoyment in this book, it was very much not for me.
Don’t be mistaken before you start this book, it is about building a cathedral. The characters and any other plot/world event is just background to the main course of the book. It seems to be incredibly well researched, and I now know more about cathedral building in Western Europe in the 12th century than I ever thought I would (never complain about learning something new!). Whilst this is interesting, I hadn’t expected just how much depth Follett was going to go into. Not bad necessarily, just really unexpected.
There are also scenes of intense violence, both generic violence and against women specifically. I don’t use content warnings personally (although I always provide them) but me and Kari checked that each other were okay after a certain scene. Yeah. That bad. Additionally, the same as my thoughts on Fall of Giants, Follett does a bad job of writing women. He means well, but he doesn’t succeed in portraying these characters as realistic women.
The interweaving of historical events through this book was incredibly interesting, and I’m very curious what was altered for literatures sake and what is accurate to the time. I do think that this part of the book was done well but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to save the book with the rest of the issues.
On CAWPILE I rated this: Characters: 3, Atmosphere: 4, Writing: 2, Plot: 4, Intrigue: 4, Logic: 5, Enjoyment: 1, giving an average of 3.29 and a 2* rating.
Highlight here for content warnings: rape, sexual violence, sexual assault, murder, death of parent, animal death, bullying, misogyny, physical, domestic and emotional abuse, torture, adult/minor relationship, animal cruelty, body shaming, paedophilia, body horror, child abuse, suicidal thoughts, abandonment.
This book… Is one I’m glad is over. And it has definitely put me off from finishing the Centuries trilogy or anything else by Follett. He puts a lot of research and effort into his books, but I feel like they’re just not for me.
Abi of Pellinor 