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Wrap up: March and April, 2023

Books: 5

Audiobooks: 1

ARCs: 1

Pages: 1509

Average rating: 4

Authors: 5

Genres: 3

Languages: 1

 

This wrap up could be titled Watch me make a TBR list and not stick to it —once again, or even Watch me procrastinate by reading books non-stop. Either title would be perfect. But the fact that I got to read two books I wanted to read last year (the first two) just made my March, to be honest. Now I know that you can't force yourself to read something you don't want to, because you won't enjoy it as much as you would if you were in the mood.

Then something happened in April that affected me so much that I started reading less. I dropped out of my master's degree for my mental health, and that was supposed to give me more time to enjoy my life and read, but it's a decision that really affected me in the beginning. And now, as time goes by and I start to process it, I'm starting to read more again.


March and April wrap up


Daisy Jones & The Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid ★★★★★

(401 pages / 9 hours 3min., literary fiction, English)


Conversations on Love, Natasha Lunn ★★★★★

(297 pages, non-fiction, English)


For Esmé — with Love and Squalor and Other Stories, J.D. Salinger ★★★★

(175 pages, literary fiction, English)


The Direction of the Wind, Mansi Shah ★★☆☆☆½

(312 pages, literary fiction, English)


The School for Good Mothers, Jessamine Chan ★★★☆☆½

(324 pages, dystopia, literary fiction, English)



Daisy Jones & The Six was such an experience that I can't wait to do it again. The book is written as an interview, so listening to the audiobook is makes it even better, it's like listening to a podcast about a band and its members. It was amazing and I really want to keep listening to audiobooks that are recorded this way. Click on the title of the book if you want to read my review. Also the TV adaptation is a-ma-zing!

I bought Conversations on Love when I was in a period of my life where I felt lost and I was looking for something, but I wasn't sure what it was. But I didn't read it right away because I was also in a huge reading slump, so I just put it on the shelf and forgot about it. But now that I've read it, it all makes a lot of sense to me. I've found myself —that's what I was looking for— I know what I want and what I need, and this book keeps reassuring and validating my thoughts and feelings, and it feels really good to be understood and to find people who have struggled with the same things I have and still found their way through it all. Just like I did. So now I know that I just needed that time to process everything I was going through and to fully understand this book and my feelings. So if you're struggling, give yourself some time, don't rush nor pressure yourself to find an answer. You may just need time to find your place, and you will eventually. And this book may not always ask the right questions, but I'm sure it will give you some answers.

And of course, I had to read a Salinger book. "Finally one from my March and April TBR!" you may say, and yes, you're totally right. For Esmé — with Love and Squalor and Other Stories is yet another collection of Salinger's stories. Reading it, I felt like it was getting weirder and weirder as I read each story, understanding less and less, but that was kind of interesting. You have to get rid of every previous idea you had about fiction, about everything you've read before, to embrace a new kind of literature, a new kind of writing —Salinger's writing. He definitely had a special gift. When you read his stories you may think they're strange and boring because they're about people you don't know and don't really care about, but they catch you and you just can't stop reading.


On April, I started The Song of Achilles, but I found it really boring and didn't finish it. So when I received The Direction of the Wind, an ARC sent to me by MTMC Tours, I picked it up, first because I was tired of The Song of Achilles, and second because I had to post it on bookstagram and review it two weeks later. Disappointingly, it was pretty boring too. But I had to finish it in order to review it properly. And so I did. I'm sure it won't be a book I remember by the end of the year, unfortunately.

As soon as I finished it, I ignored the fact that I was halfway through The Song of Achilles, because I acquired The School for Good Mothers, a book I had been dying to read, and when I got it, I couldn't help but pick it up. And then it turned out not to be what I expected. I had really high expectations for this book, maybe it's my fault that it didn't live up to them. If you ask me what it's about, I'd say: the whole plot is literally in the title. Maybe with a few twists, but they didn't make up for the rest of the book, and one of them was really predictable, so... it was a bit underwhelming, to be honest. But I enjoyed the story and I finished it. It's not that bad, and it's well written. If they make a TV series or a movie out of it, I'll watch it 100%.



May and June TBR


I'm already in my summer reading mood, and my TBR shows it. One thing leads to another: I've dropped out of my mater's degree for my mental health and the heat is already here. For the first time in my life, I have a job and am free of student life, which means I have plenty of time to read, and since I'm already thinking about vacation, even though it won't arrive until August, I'm already in the mood to read the books I'd been saving for when I finished my master's degree. So I'm going to start with HOSAB, then Daddy, and after that I plan to read summer-like, fresh and short, but thoughtful reads until fall. I can't wait, honestly.


House of Sky and Breath, Sarah J. Maas

(805 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★★)


Daddy, Emma Cline

(266 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★★)


Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi

(213 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★★)


Q, Christina Dalchner

(364 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★☆)


Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

(157 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★★)


Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, J.D. Salinger

(160 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★☆)




Books I got and want


You should congratulate me for not buying more than one book in March, it was hard but I made it to March 31st without going to a bookstore and buying my salary in books. I only bought one that I put on my list, so again, if you don't congratulate me, I'll do it myself. I'm pretty proud of this little accomplishment. Then, at the end of the month, I received a printed copy of a book to review that was not on my reading list last February. But I submitted a review request in early March for the following April and was accepted, so they sent me the book to read, review, and post to my bookstagram. It's pretty cool to get ARCs every now and then, but hard copies are something else, they allow me to take notes, highlight quotes, and do little drawings throughout the book, which I love, plus I don't lose my eyes on a screen while reading the book, which happens with ebooks. So, once again, thanks to MTMC Tours for this opportunity.

And then in April... well, the whole thing got completely out of hand.


March: 2

For Esmée — with Love and Squalor: And Other Stories, J.D. Salinger (new)

The Direction of the Wind, Mansi Shah (gifted - ARC)


April: 16 (oops...)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (birthday gift)

Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie (new, in London)

Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo (independent bookseller, in London)

Q, Christina Dalchner (Oxfam second hand, in London)

On Photography, Susan Sontag (second hand, in London)

The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (new, in Gatwick Airport, London)

French Braid, Anne Tyler (new, in Gatwick Airport, London)

Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi (birthday gift)

The School for Good Mothers, Jessamine Chan (new)

Carol, Patricia Highsmith (new)

Cauterio, Lucía Lijtmaer (signed)

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (new)

I Would Leave Me if I Could, Halsey (new)

Les nostres mares, Gemma Ruiz Palà (gift)

Daddy, Emma Cline (gift)

The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larson (gift)


Want to get: 3

Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides

I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy

Our Wives Under The Sea, Julia Armfield


I shouldn't want to buy any more books, I think I have enough books for at least two years, now. I feel really bad because I wanted to buy one book a month and I've gone way over it this April. But I went to London with six book lovers more, and it was my birthday and Sant Jordi, ah! It was impossible not to buy books in April. However, I still want Middlesex, I'm Glad My Mom Died, and basically all the books from this list I couldn't get in April. Plus Our Wives Under The Sea, which I have already ordered (but not yet paid) from my trusted bookshop because they didn't have any of the books I wanted.




As always, thanks for reading me.


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