March Wrap Up 2018

I am disappointed with how much I read this month, but I shouldn’t be! This was the second to last month where I’ll be working on my dissertation and therefore I couldn’t justify spending too much time leisure reading.

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For those who don’t know, a dissertation is the end project of a degree in the UK. The degrees usually last three years, and most people start at 18 (it’s like our version of the US’ college) and this final paper is worth a huge amount of our grade. The word count varies between 8000 and 11000 and it is really daunting!

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Despite the pressure and the work, I did manage 6 books! For the books that had to be ‘represented’ in the photo, Coffin, Scarcely Used was an eARC from NetGalley, The Call was borrowed from someone who lives in my apartment complex, and Something Rotten was an audiobook.

Books and their Ratings

1. Coffin, Scarcely Used by Colin Watson ***
2. The Call by Peadar O’Guilin ****
3. Inspector Chopra and the Million Dollar Motor Car by Vaseem Khan ****
4. Macbeth by William Shakespeare ****
5. Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde ****
6. Boy Snow Bird by Helen Oyeyemi ***.5

Sadly no 5 star reads this month but some got pretty close! The Call is one that I immensely enjoyed and I will 100% be carrying on with the series. I also really enjoyed Something Rotten and felt that this first section of the series was wrapped up really well, so well in fact that I’m tempted not to carry on with the rest! I don’t want to ruin it! Boy Snow Bird would’ve had a higher rating if it wasn’t for the incredibly… weird… ending and the odd choices Oyeyemi made, which explains the 3.5*s I gave it.

Overall, not my best reading month but I’m glad I managed to keep reading some stuff throughout the month and it’s a huge increase to where I was this time last year and I was barely even reading 2 years ago after a 5-year reading slump! So a vast improvement and I’m really enjoying myself to boot!

Coffin, Scarcely Used

When I saw this title I knew I had to look at the synopsis of the book, and I like this type of mystery so I was definitely up for giving it a go! This book was originally published in the 1950s, but for some reason seems to have been overlooked all this time. You can definitely feel the time period whilst reading, and personally, I found that added a nice touch to the experience and the plotline as it is 100% a product of its time in the best way.

Colin Watson wrote a fun, cute mystery book in an Agatha Christie-esque style which will keep anyone who is a fan of the genre interested and entertained throughout. There are some very interesting characters throughout and the story develops in an odd and interesting way, leaving me confused but pleased as I read. Watching the characters interact, and learning more about them as they reveal traits and implicate themselves in the crimes, was very fun for me, as well as discovering an interesting and well-developed plot.

This book is the first in the Flaxborough Chronicles, and I am definitely looking into carrying on the series. It’s a pity that these books weren’t more well known in their time and I am really grateful to Netgalley for providing an eCopy in return for an unbiased review, as although this was not one of my favourite books so far this year it is definitely a book I am glad to have read.