www wednesday

What I’m Reading Wednesday

WWW Wednesday was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?

Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker & Jules Scheele I’m at 68% should probably finish it this week – I just had a couple of library books that were due back, and had wait lists on them so I wanted to get them finished first.
The Witches of St Petersburg by Imogen Edwards-Jones I’ve only started reading this in the last couple of days, and it’s due back to the library on Monday. I’m 25% of the way through and hoping I’ll finish it. I picked this for the Russia prompt on an Around The World reading challenge
Temple by Matthew Reilly I haven’t read any more of this one this week for the same reason.
The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking is absolutely DELIGHTFUL. It’s as cozy to read as it’s subject matter, and I’m actually quite tempted to buy a copy for my own collection.

What did you recently finish reading?

Thanátou by Natalie J Case which I gave 2.5 stars to in the end. It was enjoyable enough but wasn’t really my thing and I’m not finding I care enough about the characters to pick up the rest of the series which is a shame
Murder at Kensington Palace by Andrea Penrose, the third of the Wrexford & Sloane regency mystery series and just as enjoyable as the first two. I’m loving learning more about Charlotte and her real identity, and hoping we see more of her Aunt. I’m getting frustrated with how the relationship between Wrexford & Sloane is going because I’m here for the murder, not for the UST. A solid 4 stars, I really enjoyed it.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Ben Aaronovitch – Lies Sleeping I’m about half-way through, and I did bring it to Devon with me but it’s still sitting in my bag.
Terry Deary – Dangerous Days in Elizabethan England came home from the library with me because Tudor history by the guy who wrote Horrible Histories? NEED TO READ!
K.E. O’Connor – Spells & Spooks a Kindle Unlimited choice because I can’t borrow any more and I have a huge list I want to read!

monthly wrap up

June 2023 Reading Wrap-Up

I had quite the good reading month in June and finished 9 books

Kaleb Cooper – The World According To Kaleb
I am honestly not sure what the point of this book was. Other than to make money.

Like most fans of Clarkson’s Farm, I utterly adored Kaleb but this book was… well, it was exactly what you’d expect of a sheltered young man who’s never left the village he’s grown up in or experienced any kind of life outside of his circle.

There were a couple of points that were really interesting, and the bits of the book where he was talking about farming, the tone totally changed and you could feel his love. But as an overall reading experience, it fell flat

A 1.25 star read

Andrea Penrose – Murder at Half Moon Gate (Wrexford & Sloane #2)
The second of the Wrexford & Sloane regency mysteries and another excellent read. All the characters felt more fleshed out and real, even the secondary ones, and I’m not even hating the flirting between Wrexford & and Sloane, which I normally HATE. The mystery kept me guessing, and the story kept the pages turning

Now to wait ~patiently for the next 15 weeks for the next one to be available at my library

A 4 star read

Tim Marshall – Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics
Not my usual topic of choice when reading non-fiction, but it had been on my radar as something I thought I’d like to read for years. Goodreads kept recommending it, and I’ve picked it up in the bookshop a couple of times but it never made it home. I spotted it on the Libby app and it was checked straight out. Annoyingly, neither of the library services I’m a member of have the rest of the series electronically, but Devon libraries does have them physically.

The book was absolutely fascinating and very information. I swear I learned more about the conflicts in the Middle East in 1o pages than I’ve ever learned in my entire life. I’ve also never been more ashamed to be a white British person – like, I knew colonialism caused a whole bunch of shit and we were responsible for it, but not quite to this extent.

I was also blissfully unaware of quite how close the world is to devolving into entire chaos, and how many different countries either Russia or China have a hand in. It now feels like the slightest hair-trigger could cause what now feels like the entire world to spiral into war – because no matter where it happens, either China, Russia or the US is involved and then India or Japan or the UK would get involved

It actually started to trigger my main agoraphobia symptoms – the one I’ve spent the last two years working on of ‘the world outside isn’t safe – so I had to put it down for a while, which is why it’s lost a half point.

I will, however, still be picking up and reading the next book – but with the proviso it’s going to be alternating read with something a little light and fluffy for the sake of my mental health

A 3.5 star read

Ransom Riggs – Library of Souls (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #3)
I’m really liking the mythology Riggs is building and weaving into the world of Peculiardom he’s created, but the stories themselves are getting repetitive. And I found the ending of this one to be particularly unsatisfying.

A 3.75 star read

Neil Gaiman – The Ocean At The End Of the Lane
My first reaction was ‘well that was bloody weird’, but it’s Neil Gaiman, so you kind of expect it. I’m not usually a fan of Gaiman’s style, which is a shame because I think he’s a fantastic storyteller and this was a wonderful, whimsical, fantastical tale which I thoroughly enjoyed. I think magical realism might have to be a genre I investigate a little more!

A 4.25 star read

Peter Ackroyd – Foundation (History Of England #1)
I have taken my time savouring this book because it is utterly fantastic! Also, hi, special interest, anyone? It covers everything from the neolithic through to the Wars Of The Roses and the death of Henry VII. I was filled with complete and utter glee for most of the reading and loved that even though he covered a HUGE amount of info, he didn’t get bogged down in the details. Straight-forward, to the point and a really good overview of the history of England. Ackroyd has this ability to bring the past to life in his narrative and I loved reading about the bits I didn’t know – and falling back in love with the Plantagenets and the Wars all over again (which, y’know, I always do!)

A 4.25 star read

Wendy Jago – How to Manage Your Mammoth: The Procrastinator’s Guide to Getting Things Done and Bringing Ambitions to Life
I picked this up from the library purely based on the title because it kind of intrigued me – I’m a terrible procrastinator, although how much of that is ADHD I don’t know. Also the cover made me laugh. I found a few useful pointers about figuring out what kind of worker you are, and how to use it to your advantage, and it didn’t feel particularly like it was talking down on me so it was definitely worth picking up

A 3 star read

Susan Cooper – Over Sea Under Stone (The Dark Is Rising #1)
Even though I’ve never read it before, this books reminded me of my childhood. I grew up in the West County, and played a lot of make believe/mystery-solving games, based a lot on Enid Blyton, and this had those same vibes. I also adore Arthurian mythology and the Grail.. so it was a no brainer really. I’m really glad Li recommended the series to me

A 3 star read

Alexis Caught – Queer Up: An Uplifting Guide to LGBTQ+ Love, Life and Mental Health
With the world rapidly turning back against not-straight and not-cis people like myself, it’s nice to actually read a really positive, uplifting, book about being queer. While it was definitely aimed at a younger audience, it’s a book that teen me would have been over the rainbow to read so I indulged. I couldn’t not pick it up from the library, I mean really!

A 3 star read

Looking more at the stats side of things:
9 books, 2608 pages – 56% between 300 & 499 pages long, 44% <300 pages
The main moods were mysterious & informative
78% medium paced, 22% face paced
56% non-fiction, 44% fiction
My most read genres were fantasy, young adult, and history
My average rating was 3.33

book blogger hop

Book Blogger Hop Catchup

The Book Blogger Hop was originally created by Jennifer from Crazy-For-Books in March 2010 and ended on December 31, 2012. With Jennifer’s permission, Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer relaunched the meme on February 15, 2013. Check out the hop here!

Each week the hop will start on a Friday and end on Thursday. There will be a weekly prompt featuring a book-related question. The hop’s purpose is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to their own blogs.
And, a bit like the Weekly Wednesday yesterday, I’m going to play catch up on some of the questions that I’ve missed over the last couple of weeks

Do you use social media to keep up with your favourite authors? I do. I’m a little wary after the whole JK Rowling debacle but I do enjoy little slices of life moments – I love seeing where they write, little behind-the-scenes moments as well as the nitty-gritty book promo stuff. Also seeing things like what they enjoy reading is really interesting. It’s like… they already feel like part of my life because I love their books, so having just that little, curated, window into their life almost makes it feel reciprocal. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not thinking we’re now BFFs and there’s a whole fascinating social psychology and sociology behind ‘celebs’ etc but yeah. 

Do you prefer to read in a quiet or noisy setting? Honestly, I can read pretty much anywhere. My absolute preference is curled up listening to my music but I can – and have – read anywhere from a library to a coffee shop, on a train, or at a rock concert (during the support).  I tend to completely zone out when I’m reading and generally don’t hear anything going on around me – including people talking to me, so the noise levels around me generally don’t bother me (ok – from an anxiety and autism perspective noise bothers me, but for not a reading setting, if that makes sense?)

What was your favourite genre to read as a child? Do you still read that genre, or do you read something else now? As a child I loved a bunch of Enid Blyton’s series: The Famous Five, The Five Find-Outers, and the Adventure Series – so mystery and adventure basically. Into my tweens and I fell hard for the Hardy Boys, so more mystery and adventure. And then in my teens, I discovered horror and sci-fi. And I definitely do still read (and love) mystery, adventure, horror and sci-fi though as I’m writing this, I’m realising it’s not as much as I would like to. I might have to poke my TBR and see what falls out in those genres. 

Do you enjoy reading romance novels? If so, which romance trope is your favourite? I do love me a good romance, although generally a rom-com/chick-lit type, not a Mills & Boon. They’re generally comfy and safe, and you know what’s going to happen and I can just enjoy the ride and see how it gets there. 
My favourite romance tropes? Fuck, where to start? OK, I absolutely love a fake relationship, and secret relationships/forbidden love give me the fuzzies. Forced proximity makes me weak at the knees – and so does ‘everyone else can see it’. I love a good Aliens Made Them Do It or a Sex Pollen, but those are generally more in fanfiction. And who doesn’t love a good meet-cute? Oh, and soul mates. And, again mostly found in fanfiction, but a damn good BDSM-verse turns me into a puddle of llama-goo. 
It would probably be easier to say I do NOT like love triangles… Hi, my name’s Cassie and I’m a sucker for a romance trope LMFAO

What is the significance of your blog header? As a queer person, I’m legally obliged to have at least one rainbow everywhere I look. And a rainbow bookshelf just felt like the perfect fit – at least to start with. It’s a little generic and feels less like it fits. I have ideas for a more ‘bibliollama’ vibe, but I have absolutely no ability to create graphics of any type so I’m saving up to hire someone through Fiverr or somewhere similar. 

Have you joined the library reading app, Libby? I have, and I absolutely love it. I enjoy exploring the curated collections, seeing what’s new and popular, and finding things I’d probably never read otherwise. I use it very much the same way I use the physical library. I’ve got the app on my phone and my tablet, and I’ve got 9 books checked out right now. 

Do you listen to audiobooks with earbuds or headphones? I don’t listen to audiobooks, I tune them out – it’s just someone talking at me and my mind wanders. I’ve even tried listening to Michael Shanks narrating Stargate audiobooks and it just… doesn’t work. 
The earbuds vs headphones thing though, I’m a headphones kind of llama. I don’t like things in my ears and I’ve got some new noise-cancelling headphones that are bloody fantastic. 

Do you post every day on your blog and/or social media?  I aim for 3-4 times a week but I haven’t been doing very well lately. Like I said yesterday, I’ve been very overwhelmed with everything and struggling to keep treading water. But I want to get back to blogging again, actually plan that time into my day to sit and write, and figure out exactly what I’m using my bibliollama Twitter and Instagram for – any suggestions on that front welcomed. 

books · music monday

My route around the library + Music Monday

I’ve been told that the way I choose books in the library – and in the Libby app – other than collecting reservations is a little bit… well.. odd. So I thought I’d write about it and see what y’all think!

My first stop in the library is the ‘quick choice’ or recommended reads section. There’s usually a good selection and I can usually pick up a chick lit there. Though lately there’s been some good historical there too.

Then, I’ll have a look at the returns cart, I find it interesting to see what other people have been reading and it’s a good way of finding something I wouldn’t necessarily normally pick up.

From then, a lot of it depends on the book/s I’m returning – if I’m returning non-fiction, I’ll pick up another non-fiction on the same topic, plus a fiction book by an author whose surname is alphabetically similar.
So, for example, when I return David Attenborough’s Adventures Of A Young Naturalist, I’ll pick up:
– another auto/biography
– another nature book
– and a fiction book by someone whose surname starts ‘Att’.

If I’m only returning fiction, it’ll be another book by someone’s who name starts with the same letters

I then pick up fiction from the start of the fiction section, one horror or sci-fi, and one history or science non-fiction.

With the Libby app, I’m more likely to have placed a reservation but I also work through the newly added titles, I’ll pick a book from one of the advertised curated collections, and I’ll choose one of the categories that have the lowest number of books available and pick something from there.

Like I said, kind of odd but I find it works and it keeps me reading a wide variety of books.

I’ve been listening to a lot of music while I study again this last week, and on my old blog always used to post a Music Monday where I basically share something I’m really love right now. It’s usually my most-played song of last week and I’ve been listening to a LOT of Peyton Parrish recently – his voice gives me ASMR like fucking crazy, my entire scalp is tingling and it feels like someone’s just taken my brain out of my skull and given it a good massage. I’m purring

For those of you who use the library – do you have a particular route around it or way of choosing the books you’re going to check out? And what music have you been loving lately?

book reviews · life

A Quick Catch Up

So, the news in brief and some reading roundups are

The not-COVID I had at the beginning of the month? Yeah, it turned out to actually be COVID. Li and I were both pretty sick for about 10 days, and completely exhausted for about another week. I still get fatigued pretty quickly but thankfully we were both triple vaxxed and survived in once piece.

I got my module result for this year of my degree – for A112 Cultures I received a distinction. 86%! As you can imagine, I am over the freaking moon. So that’s my first academic year complete, 120 credits. Only another 4 modules to go, starting in October with A229 Exploring The Classical World

I’ve been playing a lot of Stardew Valley, and Star Trek: Timelines. Li managed to bring home a Wii the other day, I rediscovered my Game Boy Advance, and we’ve also set up my old SNES. There has been much retro gaming and it has been wonderful.

Of course, a lot of gaming, a slight complete addiction to Pointless, and introducing Li to the Bridgerton Netflix show has meant I haven’t done a huge amount of reading lately. The bookx I have read recently:

Matt Haig – Reasons To Stay Alive
3/5, memoir, mental health, non-fiction, psychology
Bizarrely, as much as I thoroughly enjoyed the other couple of Haig’s books, this one didn’t gel with me. I found it a little too self-help-y, a little too twee. I didn’t connect with it and felt it bringing me down, rather than uplifting me.

Mary Beard – How Do We Look / The Eye of Faith
4/5, art history, history, non-fiction, philosophy, religion
Very interesting, would have liked it to have gone a little more in-depth in a couple of places but I do love her descriptions of the art and places she’s visited and writes about, and it helps bring it to life for me. Her passion also shines through

Mira Grant – Parasite
5/5, horror, medical, science-fiction, thriller
OMG y’all, I could not put this down. It had been on my TBR for ages, finally got it out of the library and sat and read the whole thing in one afternoon. I was reacting outloud and flailing and squeaking at Li… who picked it up as soon as I finished it, also read it in one sitting – falling asleep at like 1am!

My reserves of Symbiont and Chimera have just come in and oh yes, I will be starting Symbiont tomorrow!

Holly Black – Tithe
3.5/, faeries, paranormal, urban-fantasy, young-adult
This one is very much a case of ‘I liked it, but…’ – I was disappointed, really. It was enjoyable enough but there was something missing. It was a little predictable in places, the characters needed a little more rounding and the pacing was… hmm… uneven. And even though there are more books in the series, I don’t care enough to see if the library even has them.

Melanie Cantor – Life and Other Happy Endings
3/5, chick-lit, family, friends, library, read, romance

Such a weird read, and literally lost starts with every section of the story. So it started off as this great 5-star read about a woman who found out she had 3 months to live and was telling people the things she wanted to tell them etc… only then she wasn’t dying because of a test result mix-up, and she was back to being trodden over… only then she was pregnant and yawn. She was way more interesting when she thought she was dying!

Joanna Hickson – First Of The Tudors
4/5, historical-fiction

We’ve covered my love for all things War Of The Roses, yes? And this was no exception! The story centers around Jasper Tudor, his wardship of young Henry Tudor and his relationship with Margaret Beaufort, and the intricacies of the Yorkists, Lancastrians, Tudors, and Warwick The Kingmaker. I will be checking out more of Hickson’s work – she has other stories set in the time period.

Which brings me on to what I’m currently reading:

stacking the shelves

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Reading Reality all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

I’ve had quite the large, eclectic, and exciting haul this week!

Ebooks – Free

Libby

Library

New Books

Second hand books

I’m quite excited to start some of these – although my TBR is ridiculously large so I don’t know when I’m going to get to them LOL And I have in fact already started reading This Is Not A Book About Benedict Cumberbatch. It’s about the joy of loving something – anything – like your life depends on it. I’m about 1/3 of the way through and I am LOVING it!

book reviews

Drive-by Mini-Reviews, the second

I keep telling myself I’m going to get better at writing proper reviews as and when I finish a book but… it’s not going very well. I’m still not completely confident at writing them, if I’m being honest, but I can already tell I’m improving when I look at the difference in my post about The Lost Apothecary compared to some of my earlier reviews.

And, once again, my habit of reading too many books at a time (back up to 15 again!) means I’ve finished a bunch all at the same time. So you get another round of mini-reviews of them

A Court Of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
4/5, fae. fantasy, romance, young adult
This… this is not my normal sort of book. I hold up my hands and say I don’t like fantasy. But this is one of those books that EVERYONE loves. It’d been on my TBR for a while, probably a couple of years, but I wasn’t prepared to buy it, in case I didn’t love it. But then this year I’ve started using the library again, signed up for Libby and was able to get the book that way. And… and OH! Yes, I can absolutely see why everyone loves this book. The world-building didn’t feel all encompassing but actually just part of the story, we discovered the world as Feyre did and because we were seeing it through her eyes, there weren’t 7 pages about a blade of grass, y’know? I loved how the vivid and tangible Prythian feels and the characters are very real – interesting, annoying, frustrating, with genuine interpersonal relationships. It didn’t go where I was expecting it to and I ended up loving it more because of it. I got A Court Of Mist and Fury straight out of the library!

The Prison Doctor by Dr Amanda Brown
3/5, health, memoir, non-fiction
I picked this one up from the library because the title and summary intrigued me – a memoir of a doctor working in some of our most infamous prisons. I mostly liked it. Some of the anecdotes and stories she told were moving and heartbreaking – and some funny. But I was getting a sense of ‘holier than thou’ from her tone, she felt a little preachy in places and there was a lot of time spent reiterating how wonderful all these hardened violent criminals thought she was.

Greek Mythology: The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook by Liv Albert
4/5, history, mythology, non-fiction
I love Greek Mythology. I have loved Greek Mythology for well over 30 years at this point, and I’m currently doing a Classical Studies degree. I also have friends who love mythology and recommended Liv’s podcast to me. I’ve listened to a few episodes but sadly podcasts and I are not friends – I think it’s my ADHD, I just zone out when people are talking at me. But when I heard she had a book, based on what I’d heard, I knew I had to have it. I was right. It’s a great overview of the characters and stories that feature in the mythology – just enough information to give a good feel for each one but without being overwhelming. The art is stunning (seriously, I want a print of the Zeus artwork) and the book has a informal, friendly tone.

The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson
5/5, biology, health, history, non-fiction, science
I don’t know where to start with writing about this book. I fucking loved it. I adore Bill Bryson’s style of writing and human biology/anatomy/physiology has been a fascination of mine since school biology lessons. I definitely wasn’t let down. It wasn’t a deeply scientific book but it also didn’t talk down to the reader and was filled with fascinating anecdotes and trivia that I had to share with my betrothed as I was reading – and our tagline became ‘but we don’t know why’. It’s both fascinating and horrifying how damn much we don’t know but at the same time, I loved re/learning the history of how we discovered what we do know.

I am still trying to read about 15 books (trying to get it down to 8) but mostly focusing on 5 of them:
Holly Black – Cruel Prince
Sarah J Maas – A Court Of Mist & Fury
Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Certain Dark Things
Heidi Swain – Summer at Skylark Farm
Ruby Wax – A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled

books

2022 Adjusted Goals

I am still trying to read far too many books. I’ve got it down to 17 on the currently reading pile, 10 actively reading and 3 that I’m focused on. I blame having the ADHD brain but sometimes, like now, I get really frustrated with myself. Especially when I’ve just gone and downloaded a whole bunch of freebie kindle books, placed holds on like 10 books through Libby, another 6 or 8 physical library reservations AND checked 5 books out of the library this morning.

I had a goal for this year. I was going to tackle my physical TBR. We are three months into the year and do you know how many I’ve cleared off that pile? Not a single one. I got distracted with trying out the books everyone says I should be reading, with getting ARCs to read and review, with worrying about what I thought I ought to be reading to write about here. And what happened? It took the shine off. I wasn’t reading what I loved to read.

So I’m readjusting back to where I was. Sort of. I want to keep finding and reading new things, because that’s exciting. I’ve found new things I’ve loved, and new things I haven’t.
I have a whole thinkypost being drafted about fantasy books and why I don’t like the genre, and I’ve stumbled across a video on TikTok of books that serve as an introduction to things that aren’t Tolkien, Eddings, Pratchett, Feist, etc which are the main contributor to what’s now on hold/reserved.
But I really want to keep working through my TBR before it topples over and kills me in the middle of the night.

With that in mind, I want to get down to where I’m actively reading about 8 books:
One Kindle
One Kindle Unlimited
One Libby – Telford
One Libby – Honiton
One physical library fiction
One physical library non-fiction
One physical TBR
(I live in Telford, betrothed lives in Honiton, I’m a member of both libraries)

I will check in again in another couple of months to see how I’m getting on… wish me luck?!

book reviews

Book Review: The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

Title: The Lost Apothecary
Author: Sarah Penner
Dates read: 28/02/22 – 19/03/22
Rating 4/5

Publisher: HarperCollins
Number of pages: 320
Fiction or non-fiction: fiction
Subject or genre: historical fiction, mystery

Book blurb: A forgotten history. A secret network of women. A legacy of poison and revenge. Welcome to The Lost Apothecary…

Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary’s fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries.

Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary’s in a stunning twist of fate—and not everyone will survive.

How I discovered or acquired this book: This is one that I first heard about on BookTok, was instantly intrigued and put a hold on the book on Libby straight away.

My thoughts I LOVED THIS! I do love a good historical fiction and while this isn’t my preferred era, I definitely felt it came to life for me. And a good murder mystery to boot. It was also only after finishing I realised that all the main characters were women, which is nice to have outside chick-lit.

I didn’t connect as much with Nella & Eliza in 1791 as I would have liked, I was so intrigued by the concept of the apothecary and the woman dispensing the poisons. But I found I didn’t care about them enough until it was a little bit too much, although I did enjoy their relationship and how it evolved and I did love Eliza’s ending. Caroline’s story in modern England as she starts researching and uncovering the apothecary and then how her storyline started mirroring Nella’s was excellent. The story did not go at all where I was expecting which honestly, I LOVED.

I wanted a little bit more from the ending. The stories were finished to a point but I still found myself with a lot of questions about what happened next – to Nella, to Eliza and to Caroline.

book reviews

Drive-by Mini-Reviews

The only issue with reading multiple books at the same time, is that every now and again you manage to finish a whole collection of them all at the same time, which is what’s happened to me over the last few days. And, naturally, I was busy with school and work and real life and didn’t have time to write up a review for them.

I contemplated writing a full review for each one, queuing them up and letting them post over a couple of days but honestly… couldn’t be bothered. So you’re just going to get some mini reviews instead!

The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
4/5, historical-fiction, lgbtqia+, romance
Absolutely fucking loved it. I can definitely see why everyone has been raving about it and in my opinion, bery worth the hype! It took quite a bit of reading but the more I got into it, the less I could put it down. There were many excited phone calls to Li where I rambled about each husband and each era of Evelyn’s life. It was beautiful and heartbreaking and I defintely want to read more by this author

Life Support by Tess Gerritsen.
3/5, medical, mystery, suspense, thriller
My mum and I used to read the Rizzoli & Isles books as they came out in the 2000s, but I never read very much of Gerritsen’s works that aren’t in the series. This gives you an idea of how long it’s been on my TBR. I have the physical copy but ended up checking this out on Libby over Christmas when I was at Li’s/was exploring the app. I found it a little slow to start with, didn’t feel like I meshed with many of the characters and couldn’t quite see how the pregnant hooker storyline meshed with the CJD storyline… until the last quarter of the book when everything came crashing together and wow. Reminded me why I love Gerritsen (more of her books back on my TBR) and why I love medical thrillers!

The New Topping Book by Dossie Easton & Janet W. Hardy
3/5, bdsm, non-fiction, sexuality
I’ve read both The Topping and Bottoming Books by Easton & Hardy and, probably because I’m a sub, I definitely preferred the Bottoming Book. This one was interesting enough though, taught me more about the mindset of Dominants and what they can/do get out of BDSM relationships. I loved the scenes interspersed througout the book and the toys section was fun. But, admittedly, had me rolling my eyes a little at the ritual and spirituality chapters

Pilgrimage (Very Short Introduction) by Ian Reader
3/5, non-fiction, religion, travel
Remember how I said last year I was really struggling to read? Yeah, I started this in March 2021. Nothing against the book, it was very interesting. The concept of pilgrimages has always interested me, we touched on the subject in a religious studies unit of my course and since I have access to the Very Short Introductions library through my university library, I picked it up to read. Both religious and secular pilgrimages, as well as historical information were included and I enjoyed it at a lot

I am still trying to read far too much, because I’m me. 14 books right now. But I’m mostly focusing on just 5 – most of which are due back to the library next week. Then I’m going to focus on the rest of my currently reading and working on my physical TBR before checking any more out. Or, at least that’s the plan…
A Court Of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
The Comfort Book by Matt Haig
Beyond The Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menow