February was a struggle as is March so far, so we’re a bit late with this round up! 5 books I read in February.
I am very behind on my book reviews and blog stuff in general. After getting through all the DIY I mentioned in the last Newsletter I then got a cold, recovered from that and then two weeks later got another one! I am now finally feeling better (breathing through my nose again) and have a week off work, so I am hoping to a) relax at last and b) catch up with the blog!
As usual I have linked the title to my full review.
Lets go!
Five February Reads
We Spread by Iain Reid ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I finished this right at the end of January and it took me all of February to work out how to write a review for it! A challenging bit of weird fiction, with lots of to pick at and a delicious ambiguity which means every reader can come away with their own interpretation. I loved it but it didn’t quite make five stars because just something about it feels a little unfinished.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë ⭐⭐⭐
I am so glad I finally read this – though honestly if it wasn’t an audiobook read by Joanne Froggatt it might have been a struggle to finish! It turned out to be something completely different to what I had expected from it, and not necessarily something I enjoyed.. but I get why it is a classic. It’s really, er.. something.
I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t) by Brené Brown ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A spot of non-fiction for a change! This book is from the early days of Brené Brown’s research while she was focused on shame specifically. It was interesting, if a bit too specific to US American culture and didn’t really have much actionable advice to take away.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier ⭐⭐⭐
Probably my last stop into Gothic Literature, and final decider me that this is just not the genre for me. As with Wuthering Heights, this is a masterpiece of fiction and I get why other people love it. I could have enjoyed writing an essay on it at Uni, but it just wasn’t an enjoyable reading experience for me.
Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
I gave Brené Brown another shot with her best known book, but I read it on audiobook while painting the bedroom and honestly can’t remember most of it! I need to skim over it again and pull together notes and thoughts before I decide on a rating and share a review! My general take away was again that it was hyper specific to Americans, and I don’t know if I found anything helpful I can actually apply to my own life.
Currently reading
At this point we are half way through March and I’ve already read two books (The No-Show and Children of Time) and about to finish a third (Beach Read by Emily Henry, I gave her another shot and I am loving this one!)! I just posted a review for The No-Show and finishing up one for Children of Time to post tomorrow.
My current audiobook is White Teeth by Zadie Smith, which I’ve not go far enough into to form an opinion on other than to say it is read by Lenny Henry and he’d doing an awesome job at it!
Adding to TBR
I have picked up a few books in February, three isn’t too bad!
- Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky – already have read this one, so gold star for me! Review should be up in the next day or so.
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – I want to try a few more science fiction classics.
- Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut – I really don’t know how I’ll find this, but its another classic.
TBR Pulls
I enjoyed doing this last month, so lets give it another go. Right now I have 44 books waiting on my Kindle in my “to read” collection!
I want to approach this as whatever 3 books are calling out to me, even if they are the same ones as last month. So here we go!
Last time I picked out Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh, Penance by Eliza Clark and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
I’ve now read Rebecca, but Lapvona is still hovering around waiting for me to be in the right mood to tackle it! I’m definitely not in the headspace for it currently.
Penance by Eliza Clark
This is still right up there on the list. As I already talked about Penance last time, we won’t rehash here just to say it is still on my mind, and I’ve been watching a lot of Elementary lately so I am in a Crime mood. I do think this is going to be my next read.
Wool by Hugh Howey.
First of all I HAAATTEEE that its’ got this stupid new cover renamed to Silo because of the fucking TV show… Book one is called Wool, the book series is called Silo. This is the problem with Kindle books!
Anyway, this is the blurb
In a ruined and hostile landscape, in a future few have been unlucky enough to survive, a community exists in a giant underground silo.
Inside, men and women live an enclosed life full of rules and regulations, of secrets and lies.
To live, you must follow the rules. But some don’t. These are the dangerous ones; these are the people who dare to hope and dream, and who infect others with their optimism.
Their punishment is simple and deadly. They are allowed outside.
Jules is one of these people. She may well be the last.
I have read the entire series before, about seven years ago and I loved it. I have been thinking about re-reading it for a while, but even more since the Apple TV series is out (not watched it) and talking about it with people has got me hyped to reread. I gave away my original paperback copies so I’ve been snapping them up for 99p on Kindle when they appear on deals.
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.
Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.
Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.
The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.
I am not completely sold on TJR, though I know many people love her. I quite enjoyed The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Malibu Rising was an solid “fine.” I quite like that she her own little fictional universe of celebrities that get name cropped between books, but they are a kind of soapy read good for when I’m on beachy chill out holiday but not usually something I gravitate toward. This one has been drawing me recently because I’ve been feeling quite low, I’ve been reading quite heavy stuff and sometimes you just need some froth for a break
What books are you excited to read at the moment?
