September TBR

Okay so I NEED to pare back on my tbrs! I massively failed with my August tbr to the point where the books ended up back on the shelf before the end of the month! (okay I can’t lie, it was before week 3 even started). On top of this my life is a *lot* right now and unfortunately I need to prioritise things other than reading.

So speaking of which, let’s get into my not-as-big-as-usual tbr!

First up we have the buzzwordathon prompt which is “dark” and because ya girl needs a fucking break, I’m not going for that in the title of a book. My original plan had been to pick up The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton, but I’m going to push that back to my October tbr. If I have time (ha!) then I’ll happily squeeze it in but it’s not in my plans. Instead I’m linking it to a book with a mainly black cover.

And that is Double Crossed by Malorie Blackman

This is the fourth book in the Noughts and Crosses series which starts out by following Sephie and Callum. A Black girl and a white boy, in a world where whites are considered inferior.

Malorie Blackman covers so many important real world topics in the setting of this reversal of our world.

Of course by book 4 the plot has moved on slightly, and I don’t want to spoil anything so I’m not giving it here. But I’m excited (and nervous because these are heartbreaking) to read this book!

Highlight here for tws:

Next up is a book I’ve been wanting to read for a decade and that’s Cathy’s Book by Stewart, Weismann and Brigg.

I picked up books 2 and 3 in the series in the US many moons ago, not knowing that I didn’t have the first book. It’s taken this long for me to be able to get my hands on a copy of book 1 and I’m excited to finally dive in!

Multi-media formatted with notes and clue and doodles and phone numbers and yes. I’m excited for this contemporary, YA mystery!

Highlight here for tws:

Book three for September is Paradox Lost by George Mann, a Doctor Who book.

I’ve had this little box set of three books for about 4 years now, after my mum gifted me them one Christmas. I’ve read the other two books in the set so I thought it was about time for me to delve into the last one!

In this one there’s a mystery that has spanned a thousand years, and the Doctor is the only one who can solve it and who can save the planet.

Nothing new there then!

Highlight here for tws:

And last but by no means least! The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

This is the only non-fiction book on my tbr, and Rubenhold, a historian, delves into the lives of the five women who were murdered by Jack the Ripper, but who society doesn’t know.

I’m really looking forward to this, macabre as it may sound. I’m hoping that it’s going to be utterly engrossing and highly educational. I can’t wait to learn more about these women who had their lives ripped from them and who have been forgotten by time and society.

It’s one I’ve been seeing everywhere online so fingers crossed I love it!

Highlight here for tws:

I had been hoping to take part in G from Book Roasts Magical Readathon this month. As well as Becca’s Bookopolathon. But it just wasn’t to be. Maybe next time! And maybe for the magical readathon I can give myself a deadline extension and carry it out in October/Novermber??? 😉

Let me know what books you’re hoping to read in the month of September and whether you’re taking part in any readathons!!!

July 2021 TBR

As I write this I look over to my tbr stack, sat on top of my shelves. Jesus christ that thing is BIG. Wish me luck.

This month, as always, I’ve went overboard on my tbr. There’s two readathons in here, one is the Dead Famous Readalong, and one is a Jane Austen-a-long that Caitlyn from Mad Cheshire Woman showed me and oh look now I’m reading 2 Austen novels this month (god damn it woman). So let’s get into my far too big tbr.

Starting off with the Skulduggery Pleasant books, the next book for us is Death Bringer by Derek Landy. This is book 6 in the series, so we’re finishing off the second trilogy. I never clicked when I first read them that the books were split into trilogies so I’m looking forward to realising this when I read the end of this one and to seeing how this all wraps up. Then I also have The End of the World by Derek Landy which is the 2012 world book day novella which slots in here, and finally the stories from the Armageddon Outta Here collection which lay between this book and the next. A lot of Skulduggery to read! Last month I found out that I actually read through these books faster than my normal speed, at about 200 pages an hour, and that really helps to know when getting through these chonkers!

For the Jane Austen readathon I’m hoping to pick up Persuasion in a FlipBack format I have, and also Lady Susan which is included in a bind up I have of all of Austen’s works. I think Lady Susan will be my first read of the month because it’s nice and short and will get me into the swing of things. With Persuasion coming later one. I honestly haven’t even read the synopsis of these so I couldn’t tell you what they’re about!

As of writing there is one book I don’t know about. And that is my tbr jar pick. I do this live as I film my video and I haven’t filmed yet! So unless by some luck I pull out one of the 4 books I’m about to mention, I’ll be reading another book from my tbr this month too! I’ll make a little separate post once I know what that one is.

For the 4 I do know? Let’s start with the biggest which is Labyrinth by Kate Mosse which is a historical fantasy that I’ve been putting off for a solid 4 years because it’s over 700 pages long and I’m a wimp. Simple as. But this year? This month? This. Is when I’m finally getting to it (oh dear god I really hope so). We follow two different time frames, one in near modern day and one back in the 1200s, and they intersect somehow. It sounds really interesting and I have the entire trilogy on my tbr so I really should actually read one of them!

Checkmate by Malorie Blackman is up next. This is the third book in the Noughts & Crosses series which I’ve been slowly re-reading lately. If I’m remembering rightly this follows characters which telling you about would spoil the first book. So I won’t say. But it’s a fantastic series which spins the narrative with whites as the minority and Black people in power. It’s an amazing series and I’m so glad that I’m re-reading this as an adult because I’m getting so much extra from it that childhood Abi missed.

The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown by Vaseem Khan is the second book in the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency series and this is going to be such a fun read! A “cosy mystery” sort of read set in India (and written by a British Indian), I love that this takes the traditional Doyle/Christie format and moves it away from that Eurocentric setting whilst retaining the quaint charm and vague silliness of those books!

And lastly we have Prodigy by Marie Lu, the second book in the Legend series. I first read Legend years ago now, and I found it pretty good. It’s a standard YA fantasy/dystopian where you follow one person on one side and another on the other. I enjoyed the writing and somehow still remember the outline of the plot so I’m hoping that I’ll enjoy diving into this one!

And that’s it (she says after listing 9 and a bit books), that’s my July tbr! Let me know what you want to read this month. Do you have a stupidly long tbr like mine? Or do you have something slightly more achievable? Let me know!