Tag: a year in books

June Reading Wrapup

Life has been really hectic lately, and I’ve really appreciated escaping into stories at the end of long, busy days.

The City of Stolen Magic by Nazneen Ahmed Pathak

This is the story of a young girl, Chompa, who has powerful magic that she struggles to control. When Chompa’s mum is abducted by British colonizers, she must undertake a daring adventure to rescue her. I loved this historical fantasy adventure with fascinating contrasts between the locations in India and London. This also has some really interesting but age appropriate insights into racism, colonisation and exploitation, and I really enjoyed some of the ideas explored in this story, like great power comes at a price and rebels attempting to democratize magic. Really looking forward to seeing where the next installment takes brave Chompa and her loyal friends.

The Morrigan by Kim Curran

When I was about seven, my primary teacher read The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O’Shea to our class, it was my introduction to celtic mythology and fantasy, and I’ve been fascinated by both ever since. I found this in the library and couldn’t resist returning to find out more about the shapeshifting goddess of war. This retelling of Irish mythology starts with the arrival of the Tuatha De to Ireland and runs right through to the defeat of the warrior Cuchulain. I was gripped by this howling tale of female rage and revenge, love and loss, and it’s easily one of the most gripping books I’ve read this year.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

This series of essays by a botanist who also happens to be of indigenous descent has been on my radar for a while and it did not disappoint. There were parts of this book that were just so refreshing and comforting to read, like the ideas around gifts, reciprocity and symbiotic relationships in nature, and about the relationship between Earth and humans. Braiding Sweetgrass is quite a long book but such an interesting mix of topics like botany, nature, history, colonisation, indigenous culture, environmental issues and parenthood that I really enjoyed listening to over a couple of months.

Wildlands by Brogen Murphy

Set in 2050, this is about two children, Astrid and Indie, who accidentally fall out of a train running between Manchester and Glasgow and into a section of Britain that has been depopulated of humans and rewilded with beavers, bison, wolves, bears and lynx. The map at the start made me laugh out loud because the area that becomes the wildlands in the story is where I was born and grew up in the South West of Scotland. Wildlands is a tense and thrilling survival adventure as the sisters try to make their way out of the Wildlands to safety and considers whether humans can truly ever live in harmony with nature.

The Passengers on the Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa

A short slice of life novel by the writer of The Travelling Cat Chronicles (reviewed here) about the chance encounters of passengers travelling on the Hankyu Line train. The story follows how these seemingly random interactions end up changing the course of the characters’ lives from fledgling romances to break ups and new beginnings. This was such a sweet and gentle story that was so easy and pleasant to dip into at the end of a busy day.

Halfway through the year and halfway towards my target as I’ve read (and listened to) 25/50.

Have a lovely week! X

2023 in Books

I read a total of 50 books in 2023, only reaching my target on the 30th of December as I underestimated how much time and concentration I’d have left for reading during my maternity leave.

The books pictured were my Top Five favourites, these are the stories I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I read them. There’s some interesting overlap between my favourites with ghosts and the paranormal in both Hell Bent and The Hollow Boy, environmental themes through Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead and Leila and the Blue Fox, and aging amateur sleuths investigating murders in both Drive Your Plow and The Man Who Died Twice.

Overall I read 39 fiction books and 11 non-fiction. Most of the non-fiction books I read covered parenting/child development or environmental themes.

The fiction I read ranged across genres from children’s and YA to mysteries, fantasy and science fiction, and this year I dipped into the contemporary romance genre for the first time with writers like Jenny Colgan and Sarah Morgan. I’ve always been put off by the covers and a fair dose of literary snobbery when it comes to contemporary women’s fiction but was thoroughly captivated by relatable characters and the nuanced exploration of family, friendships and romantic relationships that I found in the small sample of stories I read. I also read four translations, one translated from Polish was a surprise favourite (Drive Your Plow), while the other three were translated from Japanese.

I borrowed 26 books from the library last year, a trend that I plan to continue this year as libraries are a such a brilliant community resource.

24 for 2024

I’ve picked out 24 books from my TBR to read in 2024, though I’m a mood reader and notoriously bad at sticking to reading plans. Many of these are sequels to series I’ve already started but some are books I’ve seen recommended by other bloggers and bookstagrammers and a few have been recommended by close friends and even one from my husband who mostly reads subjects related to his career and only reads a handful of fiction books a year. Spot any favourites?

Have a lovely week. X

Mid Year Reading Roundup

Halfway through 2021 and I’ve read more books in the first half of this year than I managed to read in the whole of 2020. Sharing a little roundup of shorter reviews for the books I’ve read during the second quarter of the year.

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

The story follows Princess Karina, last surviving member of the Royal Family, who wishes to resurrect her recently murdered mother, and Malik, a refugee whose sister is captured by a vengeful spirit, who agrees to kill the princess in order to free his sister. I didn’t particularly like either of the protagonists at first, though I was more invested in Malik’s dilemma about whether he could kill the woman he’s fallen in love with in order to free his sister than Karina’s, but both characters go through some significant development and a few clever twists kept me interested until the end.

Incendiary by Zoraida Cordova

Renata is one of the Moria, a race of people with magical abilities – though her ability to steal memories makes her an outcast among her own – and she joins the resistance who are fighting against the humans who persecute them. When her unit’s commander is captured, she agrees to become a spy in the heart of the enemy’s stronghold in order to rescue him. This had a slow start, but it really picks up in the second half, which is full of angst, twists and betrayals, and had me eager to get my hands on the concluding part of the duology.

The Memory of Babel by Christelle Dabos

This was one of my most eagerly anticipated books of the year, but I’m not sure it lived up to my expectations. Set a couple of years after the events of the previous book (reviewed here), following Thorn’s mysterious disappearance, Ophelia remains determined to find him and unravel the mysteries of the creator and their shattered world. None of these books are action-packed but this one was particularly slow-paced, and there are a lot of disparate threads that I’m hoping the fourth and final part of the series will tie together. Ophelia and Thorn remain an odd couple, but their stop-start romance was the highlight of this book for me.

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

A huntress and an assassin are sent on a quest to return magic to their dying land. This was probably one of my biggest disappointments and at times I wondered if I was reading a first draft because it’s full of interesting ideas but there’s little suspense, action or mystery, and it’s full of cliches, tropes and deus ex machina. As I don’t like writing wholly negative reviews, I’ll say that one of the supporting characters, Altair, turned out to be far more interesting and nuanced than I expected, and it was engaging and readable enough that I didn’t DNF.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Nora Seed is living her most mediocre life in Bedford, riddled with regrets about the opportunities she’s squandered through her life, but when she decides to end her life, she finds herself in the Midnight Library where she has the chance to explore all the other possible lives she could’ve lived. This is a story about regrets, philosophy, quantum physics, family dynamics, swimming, music and polar bears. The Midnight Library is an easy, life-affirming story, full of wisdom and humour.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

I was apprehensive about reading this as it has pretty much every trigger warning from self-harm (in the first chapter) to genocide, but it was incredibly absorbing. The Poppy War is the first book in a fantasy trilogy inspired by the Sino-Japanese War that took place between 1937 and 1945. The story follows Rin, an orphan from a previous war, raised by her opium dealing aunt and uncle who plan to marry her off to a man three times her age for their own profit. In desperation, she studies for the national exams and secures a place at the elite military academy. It’s a fascinating character study as Rin makes friends and enemies, finds mentors, and starts to consider what and who she’s willing to sacrifice for power. I tend to prefer adventures and heists to grimdark fantasy but even as harrowing and disturbing as this is (and Chapter 21 detailing the atrocities and massacre of a city deserves a trigger warning all to itself), the characterisation and world building are brilliant.

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older

This is an original and quirky young adult fantasy about Sierra who discovers that her family have the ability to animate art and murals with the spirits of the dead when an evil anthropologist steals their knowledge and starts picking off the other artists one by one. I really liked the sassy, streetwise characters, and enjoyed the social commentary about race, ethnicity, immigration and the gentrification of Latinx and Black neighbourhoods in New York.

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

The sequel to An Ember in the Ashes (reviewed here) had a bit of a slow start and took me a while to get into. The narrative switches between Laia, Elias and his best friend, Helene, who has become the new Emperor’s Blood Shrike. Elias and Laia attempt to break into prison where Laia’s brother is being held, while Helene has been tasked with tracking Elias down and executing him as a traitor. Despite a slow start, there were enough twists, turns and betrayals to keep me interested and eager to find out what happens next in this thrilling Young Adult Fantasy series.

Have a lovely week. X

First Quarter of 2021 in Books

Spending winter under lockdown has helped get my reading off to a great start, and I’ve somehow powered through 19 books in the first three months of 2021, and thought I’d share a little round-up of short reviews here.

The House with the Chicken Legs and The Castle of Tangled Magic by Sophie Anderson

Twelve year old Marinka lives in a house with chicken legs along with her grandmother, Baba Yaga, a Guardian who guides spirits of the dead through the gate from our world to the Afterlife. Marinka is training to become a Guardian, but she feels lonely and trapped, longing to choose her own destiny. I adored this original and poignant story about growing up, full of big themes and big emotions from grief, regret and loneliness to family, friendship and home.

I was disappointed by the spiritual sequel which follows Olia as she tries to save her beloved home from tangled magic leaking out from another world. It’s a fairly straightforward hero quest, but I felt most obstacles were too easily overcome, and I was disappointed that Marinka’s adventures ended when marriage and motherhood began, though I did like some of the supporting characters, Cascadia and the spirit of the Castle, Feliks.

Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou

My first non-fiction read of the year was a re-read of this collection of short essays, anecdotes and poems on a variety of topics from charity and philanthropy, gratitude, travel, parents and children, faith and religion to rape, grief, racism and segregation. It’s a short but thought-provoking and inspiring read.

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie

The narrative switches between Poirot, the victim’s father, husband and lover, as well as another passenger on the train, Katherine Grey, who is drawn into the murder investigation and the theft of the victim’s rubies. The clues are carefully placed, there’s some clever misdirection and even a bit of romance, and I was pleased I solved part of the mystery before Poirot’s reveal at the end.

The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman

In the 6th instalment of The Invisible Library series, the mysterious, Mr Nemo, hires Irene and a team consisting of thief, thug, gambler, hacker and getaway driver to steal a painting with significance far greater than its value. I love a good heist, but it was after the theft when the team starts double crossing each other that things really start getting interesting and the suspense ratcheted up when Irene has to choose between saving one world she cares about and preventing a war that could destroy countless other worlds.

The Diabolical Bones by Bella Ellis

The Bronte sisters are investigating the mystery of a child’s bones interred in the wall of a local landowner’s home. I found this slower paced and lacking the steady stream of clues, suspects and suspicious circumstances that made The Vanished Bride so riveting. However, the siblings’ interpersonal dynamics are almost as fascinating as the mystery they’re trying to solve, and there’s a good mix of humour, eerie and thrilling moments in this sequel.

City of Ghosts and Tunnel of Bones by V.E. Schwab

Twelve year old Cassidy Blake is the daughter of professional ghost hunters recording a TV show about the world’s most haunted cities, unbeknownst to her parents, however, is the fact that following her own near-death experience, Cassidy has the ability to see ghosts, including her “corporeally challenged” best friend, Jacob. City of Ghosts is set in Edinburgh and I loved seeing somewhere familiar from a different perspective.

The sequel takes place in Paris, where Cassidy has drawn the attention of a poltergeist whose behaviour quickly turns from mischievous to malevolent. Cassidy and Jacob’s friendship is the emotional touchstone of the story, and I really enjoyed learning more about Jacob’s life and death in this spooky and moving follow-up.

Take care, and have a lovely week. X