Yes I've been meaning to write this post for literally months, but I'm so excited to start heading out to charity shops now to hunt down bookish treasure that I couldn't not do this little roundup. I bought these all on my very last pre-lockdown trip to the shops and I was SO excited to find all of these great books second hand!
March had me feeling optimistic, with Spring in the air and loosening of Covid restrictions to look forward to. I really made a conscious effort last month to *try* and spend less time mindlessly scrolling on my phone and more time reading. It sort of worked? I read 6 books last month: some great, and some really not great at all (and some in between).
Pretty much all I've done over the last year is read and go for walks in all types of weather. My shelves are heaving with all the new reads I've picked up after being swayed by the internet, and I'm just truly deeply in love with reading again. Admittedly these are my lockdown 1 book buys that I've been meaning to talk about for MONTHS but somewhere between the reading, walking and doing literally nothing, I've dropped the ball on this. They're all books I'm really excited about, and I can't wait to read them all (I've made my way through a couple so far!).
This is the first year I've set myself proper reading goals and it's something I'm so excited about. I've really rediscovered my complete love for books over the last year or two and there's so much I'd like to read and push myself to try this year.
I've made a few reading bucket lists of things to get through from my TBR mountain over the last few years, which I'll share for 2021 at the end, but here are my big reading goals for the year:
I read a lot of books that I loved last year - I found new series' to get completely hooked on, revisited old authors I love, and re-read some books that I keep coming back to. But, there were a few that disappointed. I know it's February and way overdue, but I love reading these kinds of posts, so here are my five least favourite reads of 2020 with 5 as absolute least favourite:
It's taken me about ten minutes to even consider how to start this post (and I'm totally not a fan of this beginning), but lockdown 3 feels like it's totally drained my creativity and energy. January was filled with lots of walks to force myself out of the house, and lots of reading in the bath to thaw off. There wasn't a single book last month that I totally LOVED, but I think that might have been more because I was feeling miserable than because all the books I read were rubbish.
Unsurprisingly, last year I read more books than I have in any recent year. I blame nine months of rarely leaving the house, long baths, coming across great book series/new authors I'm OBSESSED with and not leaving the house again. I read some truly great books in 2020, and spent a whole lot of time recommending things over and over again to my friends and family. Obviously not all of my ten are in the pic above, mostly because a whole bunch are kindle books! Without further ado, here are my top 10 favourite books of 2020 in order with number 1 being my absolute top tier fave:
I'm very aware this post is really overdue, but November has just managed to run away from me. We're over halfway through now and what do I have to show for it? A screen time bigger than any I've had before because I've spent a whole load of this new lockdown lying in my bed staring at my phone when I'm meant to be 'reading'. I fell into a complete reading slump last month that I'm trying to recover from still now and just really struggled to get into reading, despite the books I read being things I did enjoy. It just felt like a struggle to pick up a book.
I know, it's the third month in a row with a book from the ACOTAR series as my book of the month, but what can I say: I'm a woman obsessed. I promise though, next month will be a whole different kettle of probably-not-fantasy-based fish.
Anyway A Court of Wings and Ruin is the third book in the 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' series, so if you haven't read the first two and don't want them inadvertently spoilered, then this is your warning to look away. I'm also going to totally spoiler this book too because I want to delve into the juicy bits in this post.
Sooo I read more books in September than I've read in any other month of my adult life (outside of university where I was *meant* to read 4 every week). I'm not sure if it's the start of Autumn, a refusal to be a responsible adult or the fact that Covid restrictions are starting to get a little tighter again in England, but I really did have a great month for books.
Yet again it's basically the middle of the month and I haven't got around to writing a single blog post and thus my wrap up is pretty late. It was a month of really great reads, despite there not being *too* many of them because I actually left the house fairly often in August for the first time in months?!
'Half A World Away' by Mike Gayle - 4/5 stars
This is my only kindle read of the month (again - I'm hoping to go for 2 in September) and wow it's the biggest tear-jerker I've read in a LONG time. The book is about a brother and sister separated by the care system as kids. Noah's too young to even remember that he has a sister, and when he meets Kerry he realises how lucky his life has been. Kerry was never adopted, and now lives alone with her teenage son in a block of high rise flats, working as a cleaner. She's desperate to get back in touch with her baby brother, and when she sees him all grown up with a high flying job, she's immensely proud. There's just one little secret Kerry's been keeping from Noah, and it might tear everything apart.
I started crying about three-quarters of the way through this and didn't stop until I finished. No exaggeration. It broke my heart and mended it a little and then had another little stomp on it. Mike Gayle is an incredible writer - I felt like I knew Kerry and Noah, and he wrote a really delicate story line incredible sensitively. He's definitely an author I'll be keeping an eye out for in the future, once I've emotionally recovered from this book!
To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han - 4/5 stars
This is the first in a trilogy of teen books about protagonist Lara Jean's adventures in love. Whenever Lara Jean fell in love with a boy she wrote him a letter to close off the love in her mind, and stored it in a hatbox, never intending to send them. Now 16, her whole world is crashing down as somehow the letters have gotten out and been sent. And the worst thing? One of them is going to her older sister's now-ex-boyfriend! Desperate to make it seem like she doesn't have feelings for Josh anymore (though she's not quite sure), she makes a pact to start fake dating with Peter Kavinsky, another boy who got one of her letters.
Usually I'm a 'read the book before the film' kinda person, but I loved the film of this so much I wanted to read the full trilogy before watching the sequel. It was a cute love story in which I was totally rooting for the love triangle to work out the way I wanted. There was a lot of drama that kept me hooked, and I really think I would have enjoyed it as a teen. The book is set against the backdrop of Lara Jean navigating what it means to be a teen without her mum, and to feel connected to her Korean heritage now it's just her white dad raising her. It gave another really important side to LJ's character that wasn't just a bit of frivolous teen romance fun.
Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron - 5/5 stars
This is my only 5 star read of the month and boy did it deserve it. Cinderella is Dead takes place in a fictional town where 200 years after the death of Cinderella, all 16 year old girls are forced to go to a ball and have a man of the town (their prince) select them to wed, Sophia, our Black queer protagonist has no intention of marrying a man, but things aren't that easy. To not attend the ball, and not attend it in the way expected of you is dangerous not only for you but your family. Girls who are unsuccessful at the ball either straight up go missing, or are taken to work at the castle and never seen again either way. The book is a retelling of the Cinderella story, and one filled with fearless girls overthrowing the patriarchy.
I really enjoyed this - the LBGT representation in it was great, with not only one queer main character, but at least 4. I love a good fairy tale retelling, and this one was fast paced, and I so completely did not expect the twist in it that I gasped. The writing was really vivid, and although it did slow down in a few places, I'm really excited to see what this author brings out next.
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern - 4/5 stars
I've never read The Night Circus, despite seeing so many people rave about it as the best book they've ever read, so this is my first foray into Morgenstern's work. The Starless Sea is a fantasy novel in which there are doors in our world that lead to harbours at the Starless Sea. Zachary Ezra Rawlins came across one of these doors as a child, but missed his opportunity to head into the world of the Starless Sea when he didn't try to use it. As an adult, he finds a mysterious stack of books in the library - one of the books has his exact story of finding the door as a child in it. Desperate to find out where the book came from and how the story got into it (he never told anyone about that day), he follows a series of clues that bring him deeper and deeper into a dangerous world.
This book was INTENSE, and definitely not something that's easy to dip in and out of. Each chapter was broken up with a couple of pages of shorter stories from various books that form a part of the main story, which all ultimately interlink with each other and the main story. The world-building in this was really great and it still feels like I can imagine some of the scenes and landscapes from it. There was a LGBT love story element to it, but it felt a little forced into the story; the character rarely engaged with one another, and I just didn't feel like there was much romance.
What did you read last month?
*Some of the books in this post were PR samples to discuss on Instagram*
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I'm majorly late to the party on this I know, but WOW I finally see why Sarah J Maas' books have been all over social media for years. I'm a big YA fan and fantasy fan (though I stepped back from reading them for a couple of years), so I was always going to love these really. This is going to be a totally spoiler filled chatty post both for this book and the first book in the series, so you have been warned!
Somewhere between constantly listening to the Hamilton soundtrack (still, I know) and spending every other waking moment reading as much as possible in August, two-thirds of the month has slipped by without me noticing?! I've not written a blog post in ages, despite being determined that 2020 is going to be my year for actually posting regularly again. Anyway, I'm excited for writing this post because I'm pretty sure the best book I've ever read/will ever read is included?!
Sarah J Maas is one of those authors that seems to be talked about (either super hyped or absolutely hated) by pretty much every booktuber/bookstagrammer I see on my social media feeds. Her YA fantasy is so embedded in online book culture that I've felt totally behind for not having read her books (or V E Schwab's, or Cassandra Clare's, or Suzanne Collins' *grits teeth*).
Every month in lockdown I expect myself to read hundreds of books, but with a general inability to concentrate, I'm pretty pleased to have read 5 in June. This was a really varied month in terms of how much I enjoyed what I read. There were a couple of 5 star reads that I've been obsessed with/recommending to everyone, and a 1 star read that actually repulsed me. I branched out a little this month in terms of genre too, with a dystopian fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, YA and general adult fiction.
I very rarely read books about mental health, or with it as a key theme, despite being very passionate about opening up conversations (and the government's wallet for more treatment availability) because I feel like it's so often poorly done and it can be triggering for me, so I usually wait until I'm in a very good headspace to do so. This isn't because authors who want to write about mental health issues are innately worse authors, but more because there can be very triggering language used, especially if the author is very specific with details (e.g. how a character self harms or weights involved with an ED). I often come across it in thrillers being used as an excuse to explain why the culprit did what he did, and used more as a plot device than delving into things. Or there's the other end of the spectrum where it can be romanticised in YA books, which can be damaging for teens to read.
However, I think Lana Grace Riva did a really great job of discussing OCD and depression in The Existence of Amy. Amy is doing her best to live a normal adult life whilst struggling with severe OCD and really not receiving much help for it. Her work colleagues try to be understanding, but get frustrated when she misses events because her routines mean that she cannot leave the house on time or eat out or socialise 'normally'.
It all really comes to a head when Amy goes to Australia with her work colleagues as part of a work trip. She's very proud of getting herself there despite struggling a lot as the plane journey made her very concerned about her personal hygiene. When she's there it becomes obvious to her that she's missing out on a lot because of her mental health struggles, including the potential for a relationship.
The book was really great at showing an accurate portrait of struggling with mental illness. At no point in the Australia trip did Amy's patterns and anxiety disappear because there was something exciting she wanted to do. The author was really great at highlighting the kind of oxymoronic feelings you get when struggling: Amy really wanted to do the activities she missed out on, but at the same time really didn't want to and couldn't do them.
There was no 'easy fix' in the book - she didn't start a relationship and everything ended, or start therapy and things were fixed instantly. Instead, we saw Amy really hit rock bottom with her depression and be very very slowly slightly lifted out of it. There were a few points in the book that I think could have done with some stricter editing, where it became clear that the book was self published, however it really did surpass my expectations.
This book was gifted to me, but with no obligation to post this. I gave this 4/5 stars
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Between shops being closed because of lockdown and feeling a need to save money where I can because the future feels more uncertain than ever, I'm practically dreaming of a time where I can stroll back into a bookshop and pick up something I've been lusting after.
I know the days are all blurring into one a bit because every lockdown day is the same but wow I actually struggled to recognise where the cutoff between March and April was when it came to writing this roundup. This was a really GOOD month for reading for me and I'm honestly not convinced May can live up to it. With three 5 star reads and 2 four star ones, there's a whole lot I really want to recommend here!
A few weeks before coronavirus and then lockdown really kicked off in the UK, I helped organise a charity book sale where I work and I'm SO glad I did because what else is there to do indoors everyday other than read? I've got a whole bunch of books to take me to the other side of lockdown, and I'm just not sure what to read first out of these (although a lot of people have raved about The Cactus).
I seem to say this every single time I sit down to write a blog post now, but it's honestly been forever since I last sat down to write. I put a whole load of pressure on myself to write something monumental (especially at the moment) and it seems pointless and trivial to just write something mundane and bookish. However, that basically sums up my life, especially in lockdown.
