May Reading Wrap Up

May was, as always, a busy month! And yet somehow I managed to read 13 books. Let’s take a look at the books and then I’ll look at balancing out my tbr with the new books I brought in. If you’d rather see this in video format that’s linked below!

My first read was Rebel Heart by Moira Young, the second book in the Blood Red Road trilogy. This suffered a little from middle book syndrome, with the characters clearly just being moved into place for the final book. But it was still interesting to be back in this world and I’m looking forward to capping off the series, hopefully sometime soon.

My non-fiction for the month was Living Planet by David Attenborough which is a republication of a book from the 80s. In this repub they’ve updated the scientific information, as well as switching out examples of species to those which are more obscure. This was a fantastic book and I’m so glad I can add it to my shelves!

This month I discovered that Spotify has some audiobooks you can listen to for free, so I listened to The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien because it was way past time for me to read this one. It’s such a fun audiobook and I’m definitely more hyped to read the main LotR trilogy now!

Freak Like Me by Hannah O’Donnell is a teeny book, at only 10 pages, but it packs a punch. Talking about familiars and acceptance in society, I would adore to see a full sized book within this world (and am tempted to hound Hannah until she does it!)

My last audiobook for the month was Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, which is a novel written in verse. This is a really tough novel, discussing gang violence and deaths in Black communities in the US. It’s tackled beautifully and I want to read more from Reynolds!

A partial reread, Binti: The Complete Collection by Nnedi Okorafor includes the titular novel Binti, as well as two more novellas in the series and a final short story between books 1 and 2. I read Binti previously via audio, but when I was picking up this collection I thought that I should reread the first book before diving in. This is a gorgeous sci-fi series that tackles racism, leaving home, being from multiple cultures and not feeling like you fit it, and it does all of it beautifully. I was genuinely disappointed when I realised I didn’t have anything else in this world to read!

Graceling by Kristin Cashore is one that I should’ve read years ago! It’s one of those “classic” YAs from the 00s and is such a fun read. The naming conventions are ridiculous, but I really enjoyed the book and I’m super excited to delve into the rest of the series, and then read the brand new release that’s due to come out later this year! I need to get my butt in gear clearly.

By now, I think I’ve solidified that the Goldsboro GSFF box sends me books that I adore, because Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May was fantastic. A magical, witchy, dark book set on a small island in the 1920s with murder, lesbians, and non-binary rep. What else could you ask for?

Then I delved into some British ridiculousness with The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde which is a murder mystery, with Humpty Dumpty as the victim! I loved Fforde’s work in the Thursday Next series and this didn’t disappoint. Utterly stupid whilst also being brilliantly clever. I need to pick up more from Fforde.

Time for a little classic with The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the synopsis on the back of my copy just talks about Wilde, and so I went into this knowing literally nothing. Colour me surprised when there was a fantastical element inside! There was one chapter that I really didn’t enjoy in here, but apart from that it was a fun classic with a really interesting concept I would love to see played with more.

Sticking with pictures, but this time it’s a contemporary read from Illumicrate. Portrait of a Thief by Grace D Li could’ve been so much more. It really needed better work on the character development, and the heist plots to steal back Chinese artefacts from Western museums needed a shade more believability. It was clearly a debut but I’m interested in anything else Li publishes in the future.

This Vicious Cure by Emily Suvada finished off the This Mortal Coil trilogy with a bang. The character development was fascinating, I adore the genetics and general science throughout all of this, and I actually really liked the ending! Looking forward to rereading this trilogy in the future.

Last but not least, I finished up my month with some Discworld in the form of Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, the seventh book in the series. This is a fun romp following the Pharaoh of not-quite-Egypt, who also happens to be a God and an assassin. In the ridiculous world on the back of the Great A’Tuin it’s a great standalone in the series.

And those are the thirteen books I managed to read this past month! I’m pretty happy with that if I do say so myself.

And then there comes the balancing. So I didn’t balance out my books for April (because it was a rough month) but I started May with 119 books on my tbr (honestly I really need to get this to a more reasonable number). I read 13 books, with 9 of them being from my tbr. I brought in 5 new books, and read 1 of those. All in all meaning that my new physical tbr count is 114. It’s went down!! I’m so damn pleased that I’m actually making some headway through this tbr!!

Let me know your favourite read of May. I’m spoilt for choice but I think Wild and Wicked Things might just have hit the top spot for me!

Mid Year Book Haul 2021!!

So on my BookTube channel I’ve been doing quarterly hauls, but after January I stopped hauling books on this blog and now I’m behind! Feel free to check them out in video or written format!!

Let’s start with the books I got in the first quarter of 2021.

As I mentioned in my January haul post I got 3 books in January. No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald and Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood were both books I picked up from the little free book selection in my office before I moved to working from home. I’m curious about the Edward Snowdon situation, and I’ve only read the Handmaid’s duology by Atwood so I thought it was worth adding more from her to my shelves! The third book was an ebook of A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliot that me and Caitlyn (from Mad Cheshire Rabbit) picked up for the Small Press Book Club and we both loved!

Moving on to February, my pre-order of The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon came in and Oh. My. God was I excited!!! This is one of my absolute favourite series and as expected I absolutely adored the next instalment! The only other book that I bought in February was The Dawn Chorus by Samantha Shannon which is the 3.5 novella within the Bone Season series, as I wanted to pick that up before I got into the 4th book. This is only available as an ebook in English so this was a kindle purchase and I absolutely flew through it! Despite that being the last book I bought in February I did get 3 more books. Two were from Caitlyn, as she sent me Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and also Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte because they’re her favourite books and she knows that the fastest way to get me to read something is to put it on my tbr… the wee shite 🤣 and the final book was Apocalypse Kings by Derek Landy which my boyfriend gifted to me! I asked him to grab me it because the book was only £1 and I didn’t want to pay the shipping after I couldn’t find it in a nearby irl shop (and he has Amazon Prime) and he wouldn’t let me pay him back. So it was a gift!

And for the final month of the first quarter we have March! 5 books came into my home this month! The only one purchased by me was The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald: Diglot which is an “invention” by a new Irish company (Diglot) which sprinkles words of your target language through a classic work and gets more difficult as the book goes on. I read the German version of this and I enjoyed it! I’ll have a full review up in the future! And it is also the whole story of The Great Gatsby. Gifted to me by the wonderful Veronica from Veronica’s Shelf were All Systems Red by Martha Wells which is a fantastic sci-fi novella, and The Brother’s Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren which she gifted to me after I enjoyed a short story by the Swedish author (Veronica is Swedish too!). I’m really excited to read Lionheart! Lastly were the second two books in the A Darker Shade of Magic series by V.E. Schwab, A Gathering of Shadows and A Conjuring of Light which were gifted to me by the lovely Eleanor from Eleanor Nicbahtair as she was unhauling the books and I joked about wishing I lived closer so I could take them. So she posted them to me! And I am so so grateful!!

And that’s the end of the first quarter! 13 books ain’t bad! Now onto the haul in the second quarter! Again, if you’d like to check out the video version, it’s below for your viewing pleasure 😂

Starting off with April, I got 4 books. The one bought by me was my pre-order of Dead or Alive by Derek Landy, the latest Skulduggery Pleasant novel. Of course I had this one pre-ordered! It’s the purple one you can see in the thumbnail above, and as you might be able to see by the tabs I’ve read the book already and loved it! I adore this series! Then the amazing Kari from Kari-ng for books sent me Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse and also A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A Brown because not only does she know that I’m really leaning into fantasy books nowadays, but she also knows that I’m aiming to diversify my shelves so Roanhorse is Indigenous to North America, and Brown is a Black author. I’ve also heard fantastic things about both of these books, meaning that for some stupid reason I’m putting the books off cause I know that I’m going to love them! Stupid I know but shhhhh. And finally for April Olivia Savannah from Olivia’s Catastrophe gifted me Pet by Akwaeke Emezi. This came with the most wonderful and lovely note and it’s an amazing book. I’ve read this one already and I adored every second of it. I really recommend!

May was a nice small month. One book that I pre-ordered myself and that’s The Skulduggery Pleasant Grimoire by Derek Landy, which I wasn’t expecting so soon after Dead or Alive! I’ve finished this one too, and I do have some issues with it, but I can’t lie this was so much fun and I adored the story that ran throughout!

Now for June. June june june. I had thought that I wouldn’t be getting any books in June. I said it when I filmed the first half of that video. I JINXED MYSELF!!! I filmed that on the Saturday, and on the Tuesday a LITERAL BOX OF BOOKS ARRIVED AT MY HOUSE!!! My wonderful uncle decided to send me some books and I’m so so grateful! One that he sent me was a bright blue covered The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis which he said he thought would look good on my bookstagram, and guys? He’s totally right. I have an AMAZING bookstagram photo coming up with this book! He also gave me 4 books I had never heard of before. The Tenderloin by John Butler and Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin are both contemporary historical novels set in San Francisco, around 20 years apart. I don’t read much contemporary so those will be really interesting to dive into. And last from my uncle were Foundation by Mercedes Lackey, and Sourcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho which both sound right up my streets as fantasy reads! These two, I can’t lie, I’m more excited for and I can’t wait to give them a shot! They sound so interesing!!

My uncle runs an amazing instagram page, @onthisgayday which posts something from LGBTQ+ history each and every day. He’s put so much research into that page so I really do recommend checking it out to learn more about LGBTQ+ history!

And the final book was a gift from my lovely partner. I had looked for The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton when it was in Sainsbury’s and my local shop didn’t have it. But his did! So he grabbed it for me and isn’t he just a cutie! I really enjoyed The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle so I’m excited to read some more from this author.

And those are all of my books I’ve gotten in the first half of 2021! A whopping 24 books have came into my house so far this year, 6 of those I’ve spent money on, 11 I’ve read, and the rest I’m super excited for! This was a LONG post! I definitely need to make sure to keep up with these in the future 😂 maybe I’ll do them monthly here on my blog. I wonder if I’ll get any in July!!

Let me know the books that you’ve bought and you’ve hauled so far in 2021! Not that I need any more recommendations but give them to me anyways!