REVIEW: Looker by Laura Sims

When you’re life is falling apart its easy to covet what other people have. The unnamed narrator of Laura Sim’s Looker is slowly losing control of her carefully constructed world. Multiple IVF treatments have failed and its taken its toll on her marriage. Her husband has left her, reconciliation seems unlikely, and he wants his cat back. Alone in the flat they once shared she has to face the empty room that was supposed to be a nursery, and the reality that she doesn’t fit into her neighbourhood in the way that she would like to.

REVIEW: A Conjuring of Light by V E Schwab

It’s been a while since I finished A Gathering of Shadows, and in a way I’m glad it took me so long to get around to reading the final instalment of V E Schwab’s Shades of Magic trilogy, because I’ve really enjoyed living in this world and I didn’t want the story to come to an end. But it has, and as with the previous two books, I was completely taken in.

BOOKISH FINDS:

I’ve been on a teeny book buying spree this month, which I probably shouldn’t have. To be fair they have been spontaneous, spur of the moment purchases so I don’t think I can be entirely to blame. Surprisingly, I’ve picked up quite a lot of non-fiction books. It’s a bit unusual for me but I’m trying to read more outside my comfort zone, and I’ve been surprised how much I’ve enjoyed the books I have read recently.

THAT’S A WRAP: April 2019

Amazingly this is my first wrap up post since last June 2018. I can’t believe how quickly the last year has gone but I’m so excited to get back into blogging.

Bookish Finds: Books, Books, Books

In my months away from the blog I have, like any dedicated bookworm, collected a horrific amount of books, more books than I can possibly read. The to be read pile is getting dangerously big, which is actually proving quite handy because my room is a little cold and drafty, and books it turns out can be used for insulation when they’re not being read. By next winter I’ll probably have enough to build a sizeable igloo which I can retreat to when the cold sets in again. I’ll save loads of money on heating.

Anyway, I thought I’d share a handful of my recent acquisitions that I’m excited to read!

Review: Heartstopper Volume 1 by Alice Oseman

I haven’t read that many graphic novels, which on reflection seems ridiculous, as a person who loves the way that art and images can tell stories. Through most of my last year of university I was pretty obsessed with photographs. I was an art student who wrote on the side. So I’m glad I read the first volume of Heartstopper, because it reminded me of how much a picture can say.

Hello, it’s me

No, not Adele. Sorry to disappoint. (I may need to find newer cultural references, although Adele is GREAT).

It’s been a long old while since I did any blogging, which has genuinely surprised me, because in my head I kept thinking ‘it’s only been three months’. That is, in fact, a huge lie. I’ve been gone for nearly three times that. How has that happened? Did I step into a fairy ring and everyone was too polite to say? Possibly, or I fell out of routine and didn’t quite managed to get back into it.

The truth is, it’s really easy to stop doing something, even things you like doing. Frighteningly easy. And I’m not quite sure why.

But I am making a tentative move to get back into blogging, because if there’s something I love more than tea, and potentially more than sarcasm, its books.

Although nothing will ever match my love of brie. It’s a whole thing at the moment.

 

REVIEW: A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee (or my first audiobook)

I am massively behind the times. I know there’s a point in your life when technology does something crazy and you decide it’s too much and then you lie down and let society advance without you, but I think I may have given up a little prematurely. It’s like I’m not even trying to keep up which, given my inherent laziness, seems unsurprising, but this year has been a revelation. I am still a fan of DVDs and CDs, you’ll never be able to pry my hands away from those shiny technicolour discs, but I have decided to be more open to trying new things that for a long time I have labelled ‘Absolutely not’.

REVIEWS: Reading Round-Up

I’ve been a bit behind in my reviews recently so I thought I’d do a round-up of all the books I’ve read and what I thought about them. If I don’t write my review of a book before I start on the next one I find that the details get a little hazy, in order to make room for the new story. I am the world’s worst note-taker as well, and abandon them completely once I’m past the halfway point. So here are some short, snappy reviews of the books I’ve read:

THAT’S A WRAP – June 2018

I feel like this has become the standard way I start any wrap-up post but seriously: Can someone please tell me where June went? Where did it go? Did we lose days? Is June the new February? It’s a mystery. 2018 seems determined to steam past me before I blink twice and I’m doing lots of things in July that make me feel like maybe this month is going to run away with me as well. It’s been a quite month on the blog, but not tumbleweed proportions.