I’m not sure how it exactly happened, but it’s been over 4 months since my last reading update post. If you want to keep up to date with what I’m reading and how my reading challenge is going this year, you can follow me on Goodreads.
So I have a lot of great reads to catch you up on
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
It took me a while to get into this series. I think it’s because Arden really throws you in to quite a big cast of Russian characters quite quickly and I couldn’t wrap my mind around who was who. However, once I did I got sucked in.
4 stars
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
The sequel to the aforementioned book. I may have enjoyed it even more the first and I can’t wait to get my hands on the third in the trilogy.
4 stars
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
This book is not the usual type of thing that I pick up, but I absolutely loved it. I found the examination of what makes humans, humans and why we believe what we do really fascinating.
4 stars
The Illustrated Herbiary by Maia Toll
It’s quite a basic run down of herbology and herbal lore but the illustrations are stunning. It would be a great book to give as a gift to someone interested in loose meditations on herbs and their uses.
4 stars
Grow Your Own Veg by Carol Klein
A pretty standard book on growing veg, but part of the research for our first spring season as allotment owners. Eek! There were some good tips but I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy this book in particular.
3 stars
The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton
I won this book in a giveaway which is how it ended up on my shelves. There were some interesting ideas in the book (isolated island location, family history of witchcraft) but it was all just executed so badly. A true waste.
2 stars
Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein
It’s a quick YA thriller. It’s not the most interesting premise in the entire world and the plot twist was a bit heavy-handed but it was fairly engrossing. It’s definitely the kind of thing I’d pick up for a holiday read.
3 stars
How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather
Another book that I won in a giveaway. This one is also regarding a family history of witchcraft but set in modern-day Salem. The most interesting thing about it is that the author is a descendent of the real Cotton Mather from the original Salem trials.
3 stars
The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2019 by Lia Leenderz
I love getting an Almanac for the year ahead. Lia did my favourite of 2018 so I turned to her again for this year’s. It’s a great guide to keep track of lunar phases and good times to grow things in the UK.
4 stars
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
I love Gaiman and the book is much better than the film, however it’s still a bit sparse. I miss some of Gaiman’s intricate world-building in this novel. I’d definitely still like to visit Wall though.
3 stars
A Beginner’s Guide to Being Mental by Natasha Devon
Natasha is a mental health campaigner in the UK, and Sam was taking photos at one of her events and was able to get her to sign her latest book for me. She covers a wide-range of topics in an approachable way and I enjoyed her interjections of her own life stories (though I know it turned some people off).
3 stars
George’s Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl
I really struggle with Dahl sometimes. I was reading this one to some kids I was working with (I hadn’t read it before). I just can’t get on board with how nasty some of the characters are (ie, the grandmother).
2 stars
Mastering the Art of French Eating by Ann Mah
This is a non-fiction story about a diplomat’s wife (Ann Mah) who ended up having to spend a year in Paris on her own and what she discovered about French food whilst she was there. I enjoyed it but I also wish that there was more history of the dish in each chapter.
3 stars
Melmoth by Sarah Perry
Set in Prague, Melmoth is definitely a marmite book about complicity, cowardliness, loneliness with a vague looming threat of the supernatural. I really enjoyed it, but if you loved ‘The Essex Serpent’ and expect the same thing from Perry again, you might be disappointed.
4 stars
Gentleman Practice by Buddy Wakefield
Buddy is an American spoken word poet. I found the first third of this collection to be a lot stronger than the remainder. There are some great pieces in here, but not quite enough for me.
3 stars
In the Company of Women by Grace Bonney
This book was a birthday gift from a dear friend last year and I started it way back when. It’s the best coffee table book ever. It took me ages to read because I’d only read about one woman at a time and they were all wonderful and inspiring.
5 stars
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
I am almost moderately shocked that I hadn’t read Birdsong before. I was not swept away with the love story, and I didn’t get involved in the “modern day” sections of the novel at all, but it featured some of the most startling and terrifying imagery of WWI that I’ve read.
4 stars
Health, Healing and Beyond: Yoga and the Living Tradition of Krishnamacharya by TKV Desikachar
This book is on pretty much every yogi’s ‘to read’ list. It was definitely interesting and an important part of the history of yoga as we think of it today. And a great reminder that yoga isn’t about the postures but a way of living.
4 stars
Our Deathbeds Will Be Thirsty by Shane L Koyczan
Shane is an award-winning Canadian poet, who is quite famous but brand-new to me. I adored his poetry collection. I laughed, I cried. I was perfectly moved.
5 stars.
Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici
This is a non-fiction book about how the female body had an effect on the transition to capitalism in the world, the conflict between labor and self-ownership and how witch hunts were rooted in body politic. There’s some dense capitalist theory in this book, and I don’t believe all of Silvia’s suppositions but it was in interesting read.
3 stars
My top suggestions: ‘In the Company of Women’, and ‘Our Deathbeds will be Thirsty’
Have you read anything great that you can recommend to me lately?
