The last time I updated you on my reading list was back in November. You can see that list here. I can safely say that not only did I hit my 2020 reading goal of 75 books but that I exceeded it. I’ve set myself the same goal for 2021.
You can follow me on Goodreads here.
So what have I been reading lately?
Reading Lately
Compleat Female Stage Beauty by Jeffry Hatcher
It’s the play that the film ‘Stage Beauty” was based on. Unfortunately, I found most of the characters one-dimensional and I didn’t care about anyone’s plight during the transition to allowing female actors on stage in 1600s England.
2 stars
A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde
There are some absolutely brilliant lines in this Oscar Wilde play. It’s typical Wilde, witty, frothy and occasionally very incisive, particularly about the role of sexual double standards.
4 stars
HausMagick: Transform Your Home with Witchcraft by Erica Feldmann
I’ve long subscribed to Feldmann’s newsletter and I’d love to visit her shop in Salem one day so it goes without saying that I enjoyed her book. It was 1 part magic, 1 part interior design. Niche, certainly.
4 stars
The critic [or, A tragedy rehearsed; a dramatic piece] by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
This was a play that I was previously unfamiliar with. It’s a satirical play written in the 1700s. It’s a bit hit or miss at times, but when it’s funny, it’s very funny.
3 stars
Cirque Du Mort: Volume One by Anastasia Catris
Catris is an illustrator on Etsy who successfully crowdfunded a collection of short stories that she wrote and illustrated that centre around a very dark circus. The stories aren’t quite as good as the illustrations – which are stunning.
3 stars
Cirque Du Mort: Volume Two by Anastasia Catris
In this volume, the stories were longer and more detailed. The illustrations were still enchanting and horrifying in equal measure. Very macabre.
4 stars
Maypoles, Mandrakes and Mistletoe: A Treasury of British Folklore by Dee Dee Chainey
I’m always up for a good bit of folklore. My only criticism of this, is that I thought there couple have been more! Perhaps a more in depth look at a few characters and creatures before moving on.
4 stars
Emilia the Play by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm
This play is about Emilia, a woman who potentially wrote some of Shakespeare greatest lines and was a poet and powerful writer in her own right. The play was staged with an all-female cast and it was powerful to watch and read.
5 stars
Lungs by Duncan MacMillan
I remember when “Lungs” premiered in London – everyone raved about it, but I didn’t manage to see it and I’ve only now gotten ahold of the play. The script is beautiful. It feels slightly dated now, though very modern for 2012 and follows the raveling and unraveling of a couple.
5 stars
Fleabag: The Original Play by Phoebe Waller Bridge
I’ve read a few editions of Fleabag now, and her original one woman play is still my favourite. I was fortunate enough to see it in theatres but that doesn’t lessen my obsession with the show.
4 stars
The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements
I thought this was going to be a gothic tale akin to “Wuthering Heights” but it left me fairly non-plussed. We never care enough about the characters to be shocked about anything in their storm-swept Yorkshire lives.
2 stars
Mouthful of Birds by Samantha Schweblin
This was a collection of short stories by Scheweblin. It’s been a long time since I’ve dipped my toes in the world of magical realism, and it was good to be back.
4 stars
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
I couldn’t praise this more. I don’t often read historical non-fiction but this was fantastic. And I loved that the focus wasn’t on solving the Ripper case at all but on the lives and backgrounds of the women that he killed and the prejudice that we still hold against them.
4 stars
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
I almost feel that this could be recommended reading for a PSHE class about an “average” couple approaching retirement that ended up becoming homeless. This is an autobiographical tale of Raynor and her husband’s coming to terms with it all.
4 stars
Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates
This was a dark academia recommendation – and it just didn’t quite scratch that itch. It’s about a game between friends that gets out of control at Oxford, but I should have just re-read If We Were Villians
3 stars
Searching for Mercy Street by Linda Gray Sexton
I love the poetry of Anne Sexton and I was intrigued by the memoir written by her daughter about her and her mother’s troubling and troubled lives.
stars
The Lessons by Naomi Alderman
Another dark academia recommendation – it’s part Talented Mr. Ripley, but ultimately the characters all fell a bit flat for me.
2 stars
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
I didn’t seem to love this quite as much as everyone else did. A man wakes up every morning to re-live the same day to try to solve a murder. Groundhog Day, right? But the twist is that he is in a different body every time. I liked it. I just wanted more to it.
3 stars
The Bellweather Revivals by Benjamin Wood
I was really enjoying this as a read, but the last 100 pages, once the “twist” develops let me down. I thought prior to that, the novel had been engaging but then it became quite predictable.
4 stars
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
This was like a non-YA version of Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious series with a speculative fiction twist in the later half of the novel. I enjoyed the open ending, but it didn’t wow me.
4 stars
The Bricks that Built the Houses by Kae Tempest
This story of young Londoners wasn’t not good- it just wasn’t that engaging either. There wasn’t enough character development for me. Personally, I prefer Kae’s poetry to prose.
3 stars
Piranesi by Susannah Clarke
I somehow had got into my that this was going to be a sequel for “Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell” which it definitely was not. I appreciate the beauty of Clarke’s prose and her world-building but this was actually too short for me. I wanted more, especially from the original backstories.
3 stars
My top recommendations: “Emilia the Play”
What have you been reading recently? Any recommendations?
