July Reading Wrap Up 2021

July was a MONTH. I had a lot going on in my personal and work life, meaning that my reading life took a back foot. I barely read anything at all for the majority of the month. However, at the very beginning and the very end of the month I somehow read a lot! And so that’s going to make this wrap up seem pretty full. But just for reference, here’s a picture of my bullet journal page for the month. Look how much space!!

I’m going to start of mentioning what I didn’t manage to get to from my tbr. First up, Pompeii by Mary Beard. I fully expected to not get to this book, it was my tbr jar pick and it’s a very dense book that was picked in a very busy month. It was just never going to happen. So I’m putting it back into the tbr jar and I’ll read it again another month.

Then we have Labyrinth by Kate Mosse which I have managed to read from! I’m 276 pages through this 500+ page book. I ended up having to stop focusing on this book as it was putting me into such a reading slump. Instead I’m now just reading a chapter each day. Weirdly despite the slump etc… I’m enjoying it! It’s a really interesting story and I’m looking forward to continuing reading it through the next month or so!

I also made some decent headway on Prodigy by Marie Lu which I’ve had on a few tbr’s now. I wasn’t exactly wanting it to be on my August tbr given the damn thing is too big as it is but hey ho!

As always, I read my pages of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy which I’m still really enjoying. I’m buddy reading this with Olivia Savannah from Olivia’s Catastrophe and we’re around 80% of the way through which is amazing! We planned for this to take us all year but I really think we could be finished by the end of October!

And continuing on with the Dead Famous Readalong I read 40 pages from Armageddon Outta Here by Derek Landy, which is a collection of short stories. They span across the first season of books so I’m reading the stories in chronological order. As always the ones I read this month were really fun. The Wonderful Adventures of Geoffrey Scrutinous and Just Another Friday Night. I love Geoffrey as a character, he’s so good at what he does…and nothing else! He really isn’t cut out for violence or fighting or anything like that, but sit him down with someone and he can work wonders on them, so I loved reading more about him. Just Another Friday Night was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the silliness as always as well as the new characters that we got to encounter.

Now for the books that I’ve actually finished.

Lady Susan by Jane Austen was my first read of the month, coming in at only 128 pages. This is one of the last works that was published, after Austen’s death, and instead of being written in the traditional novel style it is instead a collection of letters. I wasn’t keen on the ending as it felt quite rushed (although considering her life events that seems fair) but I did enjoy reading about a not-so-pleasant main character from Austen. This was read for me to take part in Jane Austen July, see more later in this post!

Then for the Buzzwordathon the prompt this month was “last”, so I read The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis which is the 7th and final book in the Narnia series. I know this series inside and out so I didn’t need to read the other books first in order to get to this one. It’s only 172 pages and a book I know very well so a nice quick read. Rereading it as an adult definitely brought more issues to light with the book however, and I’m glad that I read these as a child so I can retain my nostalgia, as they don’t hold up today. I’m planning on rereading the whole series for a full review, but essentially, racist, sexist, and portrays religion awfully.

On a more positive note, I read The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown by Vaseem Khan which is the second book in the Baby Ganesh Agency series and 345 pages long. A mystery series (think modern day Christie) set in Mumbai, India where a baby elephant takes centre stage! This series is so much fun and I’ll definitely be continuing!

For some reason I left this book riiiiight to the end of the month, but with 603 pages I finally read Death Bringer by Derek Landy, this months read for the Dead Famous Readalong. These are all rereads for me and I adore the series, so to no ones surprise I loved this!

Then I dove straight in (okay I waited a few hours but still) to The End of the World by Derek Landy, the short story (127 pages) that was released for World Book Day in 2012 and fits in between Death Bringer and Kingdom of the Wicked. This is such a fun short story, it’s so sweet whilst also being a lot of fun and I love the sneak peek chapters at the end that show us what the series could’ve been like.

Checkmate by Malorie Blackman, the 3rd book in the Noughts & Crosses series, coming in at 503 pages was my next read. This book made me cry. Actually cry. Full. On. Tears. I was almost crying in the living room sat next to my dad (who would just laugh at me) and I fully broke down in my room. This series is something else and if you’ve not read it yet you need to.

Finally another Jane Austen July read! (look I wasn’t going all out cause I didn’t want to ruin her books for me), I joined in with the buddy read of Persuasion by Jane Austen where 2/3 chapters were read each day. I had to catch up a little at the start but this was such a fun read. I loved the way that Austen took us to the inevitable ending whilst developing the characters so much further than expected throughout. Not as good as Pride and Prejudice for me, but I did still really enjoy it!

What a reading month! So many highs and lows! How much did you manage to read this month? Did you slump at all like me or was it plain sailing? Let me know!!

December Wrap Up

 

I read three books in December, and although that was quit a while away now, here is my blog post form wrap up! If you head to my YouTube channel, or click here, you’ll be able to watch it in video form…wiiiith a bit of a difference from normal!!

Moving on!

The first book I finished in December was Gun Button to Fire by Tom Neil.

This is a memoir from a RAF pilot who downed 19 planes during the battle of Britain and his writing really helped me to get into his mind during the time he was participating in the war. If you’re interested then check out my full review of the book here.

Book two was How to Manage Your Slaves by Jerry Toner

This book was incredibly well researched and so very interesting. I knew from the moment I picked this book up in the shop that I would adore it and I’m mad at myself for taking over 3 years to read the damn thing! Again if you would like to see my full review you can find it here.

Finally, my third book was The Beggar of Volubilis by Caroline Lawrence (The Roman Mysteries #13)

This was sadly probably my least favourite book in this series so far, I skimmed a lot of it just to get it over and done with. Thankfully as it’s a kids book I was able to do this and get to the parts of the story I actually enjoyed. Full review here.

It was an interesting reading month, an interesting month! I was working retail in December which is the main reason why my reading suffered, but I’m still happy with what I read.

What did you read in December? What was your last read of 2019? Of the decade!

December Wrap Up| 2018

I set my tbr as four books this month, and as per I deviated pretty early on. So let’s get into what I actually read in December! If you’d rather watch this in video format (with closed captions) then click here to go to my YouTube channel.

Five Go Gluten Free by Bruno Vincent -> 3/5*

This parody of Blyton’s well-loved Famous Five was a fun and quick little romp. I adored the original books as a child and it’s fun to see the group brought into the modern day and dealing with the most random of problems.

Five Give Up the Booze by Bruno Vincent -> 2/5*

Seeing as I read the book above so quickly I thought I’d get through this one as well. I did have a bit of a problem with one section, which is why it dropped a star, however, it’s also a fun little parody and I look forward to reading more from this mini-series.

Other Words for Smoke (sampler) by Sarah Maria Griffing -> 4.5/5*

25 pages and I’m hooked! I am so excited for the full book to be released so I can become fully immersed within this amazing world. Thank you Titan Books for the sampler!

The Devouring Gray (sampler) by Christine Lynn Herman -> 4/5*

Another sampler I was very kindly sent by Titan Books, another 25 pages and another book I am super excited for in 2019! This is also going on my tbr!

 

Enemy of the State, pt. 2 of 6 by Millar, Romita Jr., and Janson -> 2/5*

Honestly, I wasn’t that keen on this. I think I just don’t like comics as they’re too short and I don’t get enough of the story in one go. I don’t have any more comics in my tbr that I own so this is the last one.

Game of Thrones by George RR Martin -> 4/5*

I finally read it!! Finally!! This is a chunker of a book at over 800 pages, and I’ll be honest, when I tried to read this book before watching the show I just couldn’t get into it. There was too much for my little brain. But now that I’m completely up to date with the show (and in love with it) it was much easier to get through this book and I ended up really enjoying it.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens -> 5/5*

Starting Christmas Eve, and finishing Christmas Day, I read this little classic novella from Dickens. This was such an entertaining little book that I really enjoyed and I’m glad I’ve finally read the original after seeing various adaptations over the years. It was also a lovely way to spend Christmas Day.

Little Moments of Love by Catana Chetwynd -> 4/5*

My lovely boyfriend gifted me with this book for Christmas, and I read it on Christmas day! We always send Catana’s comics to each other and this was such a sweet and thoughtful gift from him.

Legend by Marie Lu -> 3.5/5*

It took me a while, but once I got into this book I flew through it! I was tempted to give it 4*s but it doesn’t quite match up to other books I’ve given that rating. But, overall I massively enjoyed it, I even enjoyed the romance! And I look forward to carrying on with this trilogy in the future.

And that’s it! I should have read The Mime Order, and who knows. Maybe by some magic, I’ll read it tonight, but being realistic I won’t finish it this year. Ah well! That’s my last wrap up of 2018! It’s been a helluva year and I’m looking forward to 2019!

April Reading Wrap-Up

This is the month in which I finished my dissertation and in the first few days of May, I finished my degree altogether! So, all things considered, I did pretty decently reading-wise this month.

 The first book I finished this month was The Gladiators from Capua by Caroline Lawrence ****. As always, with this series, I really enjoyed the book as it took me on an emotional and educational rollercoaster. This is 100% one of my favourite children’s book series’ and I’ll be preaching that for many years to come! I definitely plan on reading the whole series once I am able to find them in the right covers in paperback and I know I’ll love them.

The next book I finished in April was The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert ****, which I had as an eARC from NetGalley (yes I was behind, it is distressing and I’m working on it!). I have a full review of this book on my blog which you can find here but as a short overview, I really enjoyed this read and am looking forward to the sequel.

 

The third book I got to was Magnus and the Jewelled Book of the Universe by S.L. Browne **, which was another eARC thanks to NetGalley. I also have a full review of this book up on the blog, find it here, but the essence of it was that I was disappointed. This book could have been so much more.

 

Book number four for the month was The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas *****, which I was reading as part of a little travelling book club. My review of this book is up on my YouTube channel, and the link to the video is here. This was a very hard-hitting book which made me very angry, very emotional and I recommend it to anyone.

 

One book which was a big surprise to me was The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespear ****. I like Shakespear. I really didn’t expect to. I bought three mass market paperbacks of his plays as I thought they looked pretty and I decided I should attempt to “make my way” through some of his work. It turns out that both of the two I have read so far have been funny, entertaining, interesting… I really like Shakespear! I was expecting the climax of this to come a little sooner to allow for more time for resolution, however, as a play the timing works well as it is so I just need to get used to reading plays. A fun, quick little play which I didn’t expect to enjoy!

This month was the month I finally finished Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith ****! I haven’t read non-fiction in a very long while, despite it being one of my main genres to read as a child, so I had forgotten that they take me a lot longer to read than fiction books. This was a really interesting book, and the only reason it lost a star was that there were some sections which focused too much on humans. I understand bringing them in for comparison but at certain points, I had forgotten it was an octopus centred book until it mentioned them again. Other than that, this was informative, interesting and something that was very much outside of my comfort zone but that I enjoyed reading!

The last book I finished in April was Davenant’s Egg & Other Tales by Jemahl Evans, *****. If you’ve been following me on this blog for a little bit, you’ll know that I am a huge fan of Jemahl Evans’ work and have been ever since I got his first book. So it’ll be no surprise to any of you that I loved this set of short stories which tie in with the Blandford Candy universe! If you want to see more of my thoughts on this book then click here! If you want to see my thoughts on The Last Roundhead (book 1) then click here, and This Deceitful Light (book 2) then click here!

I wasn’t able to get to Ink or Rebel in the Sands this month. Mainly because I was so focused on my University work, it meant I didn’t want to spend too much time reading and also I wasn’t out and about much, meaning the Kindle (where Rebel in the Sands is) wasn’t used as much. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get to them in May, fingers crossed!

Considering that I have had one of the most important months of my educational life, I think I’ve done pretty well reading 7 books in April along with getting all of my assignments done. Now I have finished my degree I’m hoping I’ll be able to read some more in May and catch up a bit with some books I should have gotten to!

Stay tuned for my May tbr, which will go up soon!!

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!