Despite saying earlier in the year that I’d keep this blog going, it’s been getting undeniably dusty. Sorry, dear blog! It turns out that young babies and writing (in any form) just don’t mix easily. I have still been reading lots though — you can keep track of what I’ve been reading on Goodreads here. Recent favourite books include Lauren James’s The Loneliest Girl in the Universe, and Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison’s Freshers. I’m currently re-reading Pullman’s His Dark Materials and remembering how much I love it. I’m still blogging sporadically over at Author Allsorts, where this week we’ve been talking...
How Hard Can Love Be? (The Spinster Club #2) by Holly Bourne — YA contemporary. I really loved the first in the series, Am I Normal Yet?, and have been wanting to read the other books for ages. How Hard Can Love Be? follows Amber as she heads to the US for the summer to reunite with her estranged alcoholic mother, making friends and falling for someone along the way. I liked it a lot; the romance gave me a Stephanie Perkins vibe and I liked that it side-stepped some cliches. The Bookshop Girl by Sylvia Bishop, illustrated by Ashley King — MG fiction. I picked this up because I’d heard cute things about it, and also because the girl on...
Feathers by Rose Mannering (Tales Trilogy #2) — Fairytale-inspired YA fantasy. I really enjoyed the first book in the trilogy, Roses, and have been meaning to read book two for some time. Rose Mannering can *write*; her prose is beautiful. Feathers introduces new main characters and a new storyline, with allusions to characters from Roses. I’m intrigued to see how everything and everyone will come together in the last book. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller— Adult historical LGBT fantasy, based on the myth of Achilles. A gift from my bookseller sister. All I knew going into it was that I would likely cry at the end! Epic, romantic,...
So, something new happened in the last month — I had a baby! Part of me thought that might be the end of this (already quite neglected) blog, as my days are now filled with feeding and nappy changing, and even when my baby sleeps he does it a lot of the time on me. It’s tricky to do much in the way of writing, social media, blogging, or even reading when you only have one hand free for a portion of the day, and zero hands free the rest of the time. But I love the bookish world too much to give it up completely, so although I’ll likely be even quieter on social media and this blog than usual, I’m not going anywhere! Without further ado,...
January’s been an unusual month. I’ve read hardly anything. Instead, I’ve: a) Worked a lot. b) Marathoned every single episode of Breaking Bad. Yes, I’m years behind everyone else, and yes, it was clever and dramatic and *amazing*. c) Been preparing for a life change which is happening soon. (I’ll blog briefly at some point to explain my increasing online absence, but it basically involves an oven and a bun.) Here’s what I did read. (Three books! Three?!) 8 Rivers of Shadow by Leo Hunt — YA fantasy / horror. Sequel to 13 Days of Midnight, which I loved. 8 Rivers...