March Reading Wrap Up 2022

Somehow I had an absolutely amazing reading month in March! I have no clue how I managed it but I’m not about to complain! I also managed to get through three of the magazines that I’ve had for a while now. One from the Geological Society, one is Scientific America, and the last is Nature’s Home. I’m not counting them for Balancing the Books, but I’m still glad that I’ve been making it a priority to slowly get through them.

Now onto the actual books!

The first book I finished was American Gods by Neil Gaiman, which took me absolutely forever to get through! Okay I’m exaggerating but it took me a fair few days, 15 in total. And in the end? The book was just fine. Just… fine. I didn’t hate it like some of my friends, I didn’t love it like others. It was just quite bland.

Then I finished Super Volcanoes by Robin George Andrews which is 100% a five star read! It’s a beautiful non-fiction and I’m so glad that I read it! It’s hilarious (and I’ve had confirmed from a US friend that the humour is very very British) as well as really informative and interesting. If you’ve ever been intrigued about volcanoes? This is the book to pick up.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater is a book I’ve been meaning to read for so long, and Olivia-Savannah has been waiting with baited breath for me to try. I really enjoyed it! I adore the relationships through the whole book and I’m definitely continuing with the series because I need to know more!

Next up is a book that I got a lot of jip for enjoying, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. Don’t get me wrong this is really not a work of remarkable literature. I can see so many issues with it. But at the same time I really enjoyed reading it and didn’t want to put it down each day. It just worked for me!

Then I ended up DNFing Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory which was such a pity. I read just under 200 pages of this and the topic itself was absolutely fascinating. But I just really didn’t enjoy how Gregory was creating Margaret, and disappointed that there was only one POV for this book instead of three. I’m just going to research the events myself.

I actually finished my next book, which was I Am A Cat by Sōseki Natsume, a translated Japanese classic. I went into this with the wrong expectations, I didn’t realise that this was going to be very much focused on society in early-1900s Japan and less so on the Cat. Once I’d realised and accepted this, I enjoyed it a lot more. I can’t wait to hear what my partner thinks of this one!

Smiler’s Fair by Rebecca Levene is a book that’s been on my tbr since about 2016, and I’ve never heard anyone talk about it. I have no clue why because it’s a fantastic fantasy! Death, gore, LGBT+ rep, and I’m 100% continuing with this trilogy!

And then for a trilogy that I’ve finally finished, Cathy’s Ring by Stewart, Weisman, and Brigg which is a supernatural/contemporary filled with mixed media. I really enjoyed this series and I’m sad that it’s over! I would’ve loved to see more from these characters. But at the same time I really enjoyed where we finished.

Gifted to me from Olivia-Savannah’s unhaul is Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden which I think I need to reread. This had some great messages within it, but some of it seemed really uncohesive and like it could’ve done with another few rounds of editing. I think a reread could allow me to solidify my thoughts on this one.

The Illumicrate Discord buddy read was A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross this month and I really enjoyed it! I’d been so worried about an American writing about Scottish people, but she seems to have done her research and this was a fun read. There were a couple of issues that brought it down to a 4 star but I definitely want to continue with the duology!

The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide was exactly what I expected I Am A Cat to be and I adored it. It was beautiful, I loved reading about Chibi and his humans. It was a gorgeous look into humanity and love for nature and the wild.

Second to last I read Champion by Marie Lu, the last book in the Legend trilogy. This isn’t fantastic, it’s nothing special, but all the same it was enjoyable and I’m glad I’ve finished up the series and that it ended how it did.

And last, but never least of course, is Dead or Alive by Derek Landy, the second to last ever Skulduggery Pleasant book. This was such a fun reread for me because I only read it for the first time last year. It’s also a wild book (yes even by Skulduggery standards) and a lot of fun to read.

And that’s it! Those are all the books I read in March 2022! I managed 5373 pages, which is my highest page count so far this year, and it’s higher than any of my months reading in 2021! Absolutely ridiculous, no wonder I felt like I was reading so much!

What did you manage to read this month? Tell me about any stand outs, whether good or bad!

War and Peace Mini Review – Book 1

This is the second time I’ve read this book, or at least for a good 75% of it. The first time I tried to read War and Peace it was a pretty big failure. I got to page 67 in my edition and couldn’t bring myself to pick it up again. Now doing this buddy read I can also learn that I remembered nothing from my first read through! I didn’t remember any of the events, thankfully that has really changed this time around! Part of this is because I’m reading it at a later point in life and have changed how I analyse my reads, and part of it is because I’m reading it chapter by chapter each day. But the biggest reason is because this is a buddy read. I’m reading this along with Olivia from Olivia’s Catastrophe and being able to message her after almost every chapter and discuss what is happening, our thoughts on what will happen next and our opinions on each character has really solidified the story in my head! It’s made it to be such an enjoyable experience so far and not only am I really excited to continue on with this for the coming months (and possibly the year) but also I now know how I’d like to get through those intimidating classics in the future! Chapter by chapter buddy reads all the way!

Within this first book we are introduced to the majority of the main characters. This book takes place away from the war itself and therefore I assume there will be some military individuals who we’ve not met yet. Mostly we’re in Moscow, although we do take a brief jaunt to the countryside in order to meet a father and sister. This isn’t a summary of the book so I won’t be going into detail, but there are a few points I definitely want to mention! Pierre is such a bean, he’s so lovely and so far into the story he’s my favourite character! He’s incredibly naïve about how Russian society functions but he’s doing his best, bless him, and he has good intentions with his actions (not including the bear, but we’ll let him off with that one). I’m so excited to follow him further into the story after the events at the end of this book change his life dramatically!

I love the friendship that we see between the two Anna’s. One is… well. She’s annoying (Anna D), but their close friendship is really sweet and Anna M is a caring individual. Anna D doesn’t have many funds, but does have a young son. So she’s doing all that she can to get him in a better place in life. So whilst it’s annoying and the secondhand embarrassment is real, it really does make you feel for her as a mother. Boris, the son in question, is quite embarrassed by his mothers antics, but seems to get along well with Pierre and he seems nice. If this was a modern novel I would probably be shipping them (and I still kinda am) but here I’m hoping for a good friendship to come between the two of them. Anna M cares deeply for her friend, and so far it looks as though she also cares for those around her. This is shown by her attentiveness to Anna D’s plight even at moments where you wouldn’t fault her for forgetting, and also for the assistance she provides Pierre. This might just be attempting to influence him, but at the same time it really does help him in a time when he would most likely make mistakes, and she does it in a subtle manner that doesn’t embarrass him.

Another group that is lovely to watch is the Rostova children. It’s so nice to see them acting “normal” and relaxed even in the presence of these adults who are doing their best to comply by strict social etiquette. They’re strongly in tune with their emotions which can wildly swing from weeping to great joy. It is a little jarring to hear them speaking of marriage and then to mention their age being, in one case, 12. It’s definitely a product of it’s time and something to be aware of. But despite that I’m excited to see them develop and all the romantic scenes that we’ve seen so far have been very cute and wholesome.

From the section titles for book two, it does look as though this is going to be much more focused on the war side of the story, with the focus switching back to society in Moscow for book three. Fingers crossed I enjoy the war portions of this epic as much as I’ve enjoyed this first book! But if not? Well at least I know I have more of Moscow society to come in the near future.

The plan for this read had originally been to read a chapter a day for the year. We’ve now started to read 2 chapters on Sunday and might be slipping in 2 chapters on another day too. I’m not sure how this will develop over the year, but it does mean that I’m confident we’ll finish this by the end of 2021 and I’m still very much excited to keep reading and discussing this with Olivia!!