book reviews

Bookish Post – April 2022 Reading Wrap-Up

books, wrap-up
Teacup on top of vintage books.

Number of books read: 9
Number of rereads: 0
Number of physical books: 2
Number of ebooks: 3
Number of audiobooks: 4
Number of ARCS: 4

5* reviews: 3
4.5* reviews: 0
4* reviews: 2

March started out pretty slowly because of my birthday. It’s always the way. Suddenly I have loads of social events to fit in and I end up not reading as much. But, thanks to a few quick audiobooks, I managed to get my number up. I also didn’t have a bad month in terms of ratings. Mostly pretty good and nothing as bad as February.

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Bookish Post – March 2022 Reading Wrap-Up

books, wrap-up
Teacup on top of vintage books.

Number of books read: 10
Number of rereads: 1
Number of physical books: 3
Number of ebooks: 0
Number of audiobooks: 7
Number of ARCS: 0

5* reviews: 2
4.5* reviews: 0
4* reviews: 7

March started out pretty slowly because of my birthday. It’s always the way. Suddenly I have loads of social events to fit in and I end up not reading as much. But, thanks to a few quick audiobooks, I managed to get my number up. I also didn’t have a bad month in terms of ratings. Mostly pretty good and nothing as bad as February.

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Bookish Post – November Reading Wrap-Up

books, wrap-up
Teacup on top of vintage books.

Number of books read: 10
Number of rereads: 1
Number of physical books: 5
Number of ebooks: 4
Number of audiobooks: 1
Number of ARCS: 1

5* reviews: 1
4.5* reviews: 0
4* reviews: 6

Once again, I was worried that I wouldn’t finish all of the books that I needed to this month. November might have seemed like a long month but it also didn’t feel long enough. Thankfully, I finished my final book on the last day of the month. It feels like way more than 30 days since I read my first November read. It’s been a tough month. But what did I actually manage to read?

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Bookish Post – September Reading Wrap-Up

books, wrap-up
Teacup on top of vintage books.

Number of books read: 10
Number of rereads: 2
Number of physical books: 6
Number of ebooks: 0
Number of audiobooks: 4

5* reviews: 1
4.5* reviews: 0
4* reviews: 3

September was always going to be a tough month. Not only is work always super busy at this time of year but my TBR was longer than ever. I knew that I’d have to finish at least 10 books to get my reading challenge complete and read my book club’s pick for this month. Thankfully, I went away for the first time in years and spent a whole week relaxing. Relaxing and reading. Turns out, when I don’t have Netflix at my disposal, reading is pretty easy.

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Book Review – The Reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent

books, review

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I’m on holiday next week, so I’ll be taking a break from blogging for a bit. Meaning, this will be my last book review for a while. It better be a good one I guess. I’d never heard of this book until Amazon suggested it to me. I know that I should use Amazon as little as possible but I’ve discovered so many novels thanks to its algorithm. This one was perfect for so many reasons but mostly because I was struggling to find shorter reads for my September reading challenge. I’ve got so many letters to cross off but the majority of the books I’d lined up were all over 300. That wouldn’t do. The Reader comes in at under 200, which means I already loved it before I’d even opened it.

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Book Review – Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

books, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I wasn’t entirely sure whether I would finish this in time or not. I’d had a slow end to the week and had let my reading go. Thankfully, it was a pretty quick read and I got the majority of it done on Sunday. I forget that YA novels don’t take as long to read as the books I usually read. Mostly because it doesn’t have that literary fiction desire to complicate things. It did take a bit longer because I was so careful not to ruin the gorgeous stencilled edges of this book. It’s such a beautiful thing and I need it to say as pristine as possible.

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Book Bloggers Share Their Favourite Books of 2021 So Far — LochanReads

books, reviews

Check out LocahnReads‘ post for some great book recommendations. I was really happy to be a part of this collaboration with some great bloggers.

For today’s post, I teamed up with some fellow bloggers in the book community to share with you our Top 3 books of 2021 So Far! I’m so excited to be sharing my first ever collaborative post with you all, which wouldn’t have been possible without the help of all the lovely bloggers featured below. I hope you enjoy reading their recommendations! x

Book Bloggers Share Their Favourite Books of 2021 So Far — LochanReads

Book Review – Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

books, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I’m having a nightmare with my photos at the moment. My Instagram feed is all over the place because I can’t the lighting consistent. The image at the top of this post was the worst to edit so far. Nothing went right and I was ready to pack it in completely. But I persisted and it will do. This book was my book club’s pick for Pride month and it was my suggestion. I normally don’t get too involved in the picking process because I was the last to join. I know it’s mental but it feels as though my opinion is less important than the others. So, I am a little worried about what they’ll think of this one. It’s been on my TBR for ages and I was looking forward to reading it. The book group is mostly full of people looking for gruesome murders though. I’m not sure this will be everyone’s cup of tea.

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Book Review – Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

books, reviews

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I promised myself that I would try and read some Pride appropriate books during June and, so far, I’ve not done a great job. I’ve got my book club’s choice to go yet but I decided it was time to get some LGBTQ+ representation up in here. I had originally set aside Giovanni’s Room to read during Black History Month but that never happened. It’s probably a good thing as well because James Baldwin doesn’t address race in this book. Instead, his entire focus is sexuality. Making it the perfect book to read in the month of June.

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Book Review – Jokes for the Gunmen by Mazen Maarouf

books, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Despite the fact that I vowed to buy fewer books this year, my Spell the Month reading challenge has made it difficult to do this. I have a lot of unread books but there are plenty of letters that I still don’t have books for. J is one of the most awkward letters for me at the moment and I had to go searching for something to pick up. I read about this when looking on the Booker Prize website. I’m not normally a fan of short story collections because I prefer a longer form. However, this sounded like something that I couldn’t miss. The fact that it’s a J title was an added bonus.

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