Books: 7
From TBR: 1
Pages: 2304
Average rating: 3.8
Authors: 7
Genres: 5
Languages: 2
I know I'm a little late, and May seems so far away in the rearview mirror right now, but hey, I got to read a book from my TBR, can you believe it? It was House of Sky and Breath, so it's not that surprising. But damn, 7 books in total, what an accomplishment considering the first one was 800 pages long and the last one felt like it was 800 pages long. For the last two months I felt like I couldn't stop reading. And it looks like it.
May and June wrap up
House of Sky and Breath, Sarah J. Maas ★★★★★
(805 pages, fantasy and romance, English)
Before the coffee gets cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi ★★☆☆☆½
(213 pages, literary fiction and sci-fi, English)
Stone Blind, Natalie Haynes ★★★★☆½
(371 pages, fantasy and historical fiction, English)
Daddy, Emma Cline ★★★★☆
(266 pages, literary fiction, short stories, English)
Our Wives Under the Sea, Julia Armfield ★★★★★
(232 pages, literary fiction and LGBTQ+, English)
Boulder, Eva Baltasar ★★★☆☆½
(145 pages, literary fiction and LGBTQ+, Catalan)
Significant, Shanen Ricci ★★☆☆☆
(272 pages, romance, English)
House of Sky and Breath was everything I expected it to be and much, much more. A lot of things happened in this book that I couldn't even keep up with. All I can say is that I literally can't wait until January 2024 to read the next book in the series.
Before the coffee gets cold was a bit of a disappointment, to be honest. It was gifted to me by one of my best friends on bookstagram and I felt really bad when I didn't like it as much as she had expected. All in all I found it a bit boring, although there were parts that were more interesting or touching, for me they didn't make up for the rest of the book. It wasn't my cup of tea (or coffee, if you will).
Stone Blind is a magnificent retelling of a story that has been told a million times, but as it should have been told all along. Medusa was not the monster, it was all those who made her one. Everyone should read this book and I can't wait to read more books by Haynes.
In Daddy, each story has something to do with the word and the idea of "daddy". It feels like each story is somehow related to the previous story and the next. I liked some stories more than others, but that's usually the case with short story collections. Cline didn't disappoint.
Our Wives Under the Sea is a beautiful, mysterious, intriguing and heartbreaking story, I flew through it, I devoured it in 4 days (which is really not much time for me). I had to know what was going on, how it was going to end. I didn't know anything about the book when I picked it up, just that it was very popular on bookstagram and that it had really good reviews. And it surprised me. If you haven't read it yet, you should, ASAP.
Next I read Boulder, which felt like an extension of OWUTS, because it's about a lonely woman who loves the sea, working on ships, barely coming ashore. But then her life takes a turn and she finds herself anchored to a life she didn't plan, facing her choices that catapult her to a predictable end. If you like lyricism and metaphorical prose, give this a chance. I found the lyricism a bit overwhelming for me, but I could see myself reflected in the main character and so I couldn't put it down, I read it in two days, it's really short but it's also really good. And even though I don't really like her writing style, I'm thinking about reading her next novel Mamut, because i read the synopsis and, once again, I can see myself in the main character. I also have to say that I read this book with my town's book club —the members of which are much older than me— and they made me like it more than I did at first, so it was interesting to comment on it with them and see their different opinions and perspectives as fully grown-ups —which they can't say about my opinions because they hardly ever listen to them *smiles politely*.
Finally, I read Significant which, for starters, has a lot of typos. I know I'm not one to talk about this, as my writing is probably full of mistakes too, but I'm not a native English speaker/writer, so I think I can have the benefit of the foreign language —if such a thing exists. The plot is linear and based on a single idea that is repeated in every chapter —it lacks depth. And the characters' traumas are based on the same thing, slightly different, but all the same. The racing metaphors are very welcome, but the repetition of "insignificant" and "significant" throughout the book? I wouldn't recommend it, and even less if you're a Formula1 enthusiast like me. It felt like it was never going to end.
July and August TBR
By now we are all aware that I won't read all the books on my 2023 TBR list, but I still want to try to read at least some of them, and this summer it will be my main challenge. So here are the books I want to read on July and August.
A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara
(816 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★★)
Watching women and Girls, Danielle Pender
(262 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★☆)
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, J.D. Salinger
(160 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★☆)
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
(157 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★☆)
Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie
(373 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★★)
French Braid, Anne Tyler
(342 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★★)
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
(240 pages, English, rating pred.: ★★★★★)
Books I got
I got 7 books, but this time I read half of them, so it should be valued. Two of them were in my previous "want to get" list, Middlesex and Our Wives Under The Sea, which I read. They're all new, and I forgot when I bought each one of them so this is a general list of books I've bought between May and June.
May and June: 7 (new)
Our Wives Under the Sea, Julia Armfield
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
Stone Blind, Natalie Haynes
Boulder, Eva Blatasar
Watching Women and Girls, Danielle Pender
Significant, Shanen Ricci
What about men?, Caitlin Moran
And as surprising as it may seem, I don't want to buy any book right now, I have all the books I want to read. Although I will probably end up buying some, because I'm going to France this summer and I want to buy books and postcards there, but I don't have any priority this time.
As always, thanks for reading me.
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