I didn’t as read much as usual in March, but one was a five star – the first of the year!
It is almost halfway through April and I’m late again with my monthly reading roundup! I actually didn’t read all that much in March. I got into a bad habit of staying up too late (watching Elementary or doing sudoku!) and not getting my usual 30-60mins to read before sleep. But I did get to some absolute bangers at the end of the month that kicked me back into my better habits – so we’re overall quality over quantity!
As usual I have linked the title to my full review.
Four for March
The No-Show by Beth O’Leary ⭐ ⭐
This book annoyed me because it just wasn’t what the cover, title or blurb would have you believe. There were some things to like about it, and I did finish it (on audio) but three protagonists was too many, and I didn’t believe most of the relationships.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book that had me invested in the fate of spiders is really something. An amazing feat of imagination that is also really well executed. There is a reason this book is so often recommended! It didn’t scrape 5 stars for me just because I prefer character driven stories, which isn’t what this novel was trying to do.
Beach Read by Emily Henry ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐
I needed a bit of light relief after Children of Time and this hit the spot. I tested the theory that if you’d read Emily Henry’s Book Lovers and enjoyed it there was a good chance you’d like Beach Read, even if you didn’t like You and Me on Vacation which was a DNF for me.
Penance by Eliza Clark 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I finished this in March though it took weeks to finally review it. I needed to gather my thoughts as well as find the time to write it down. I thought it was a brilliant use of an unreliable narrator to take apart the true crime industry, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since I finished.
Currently reading
I am rereading Wool by Hugh Howey on my Kindle. I’m about 25% in and am enjoying it. I just finished White Teeth by Zadie Smith on audiobook, which took forever.. It’s a long book and if I’d been read it rather than listening I might not have finished it. It’s another one where I define understand the praise, it’s well written, keenly observed and funny but it’s just not quite the kind of book that is for me. Anyway, review to come once I find a few minutes!
Adding to TBR
I have picked up a few 99p eBooks in March
- Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton – I’ve seen good reviews for this, more likely to read it than 800page Luminaries lol
- Foe by Iain Reid – I loved We Spread and I heard this one is even better.
- Weyward by Emilia Hart – I’m seeing some hype, and it has me intrigued!
- Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll – already read it!
TBR Pulls
Right now I still have 44 books waiting on my Kindle in my “to read” collection! Each month I browse through and pick the 3 that are calling to me most.
Last time I picked out Penance by Eliza Clark (now read!), Wool by Hugh Howey (now reading) and Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Beach Read ended up filling the gap I had this in mind for!).
This time I picked three new ones.
Foe by Iain Reed
We don’t get visitors. Not out here. We never have.
In Iain Reid’s second haunting, philosophical puzzle of a novel, set in the near-future, Junior and Henrietta live a comfortable, solitary life on their farm, far from the city lights, but in close quarters with each other. One day, a stranger from the city arrives with alarming Junior has been randomly selected to travel far away from the farm…very far away. The most unusual part? Arrangements have already been made so that when he leaves, Henrietta won’t have a chance to miss him, because she won’t be left alone—not even for a moment. Henrietta will have company. Familiar company.
Told in Reid’s sharp and evocative style, Foe examines the nature of domestic relationships, self-determination, and what it means to be (or not to be) a person. An eerily entrancing page-turner, it churns with unease and suspense from the first words to its shocking finale.
I am excited to read this one after We Spread. I found in a lot of the discussion people were saying they thought Foe was a bit more complete in its ideas , and they preferred it. Looking forward to something weird and mind bending!
Weyward by Emilia Hart
2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.
1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.
1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family’s grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.
Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart’s Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.
I like a witchy book from time to time, and it’s been a while since I’ve last read one. I’ve seen quite a bit of hype around this one, and the smattering of Goodreads reviews I read before buying looked promising. I think it’ll come out the TBR sooner rather than later!
Shift by Hugh Howey
Hugh Howey goes back to show the first days of the Silo, and the beginning of the end In 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech (CAN) outlined the hardware and software platforms that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct repairs, and even self-propagate. In the same year, the CBS network re-aired a program about the effects of propranolol on sufferers of extreme trauma. A simple pill, it had been discovered, could wipe out the memory of any traumatic event. At almost the same moment in humanity’s broad history, mankind discovered the means for bringing about its utter downfall. And the ability to forget it ever happened.
Since I am reading book one currently, I think its likely I’ll just jump into the next one in the series. I have read the trilogy before, I recall that book two is quite different but no less compelling!
What books are you excited to read at the moment?
