Tag: book lists

September TBR 2024

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Now that my 30 in 30 is over! I can finally pace myself a bit more hahaha.

  • Title: The Lie of the Land
  • Author: Guy Shrubsole
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Non-Fiction (Nature Writing/Politics)
  • Publication Date: 12/09


Synopsis: For centuries we’ve been sold a that you need to own the land to care for it. Just 1% of the population own half of England, and this tiny landowning elite like to present themselves as the rightful custodians of the countryside. They’re even paid billions of pounds of public money to be good stewards. But what happens when they just don’t care? A small number of landowners have laid waste to some of our most treasured landscapes, leaving our forests bare, our rivers polluted, our moorlands burned, and our fenlands drained. Here Guy Shrubsole journeys all over Britain to expose the damage done to our land, and meet the communities fighting the river guardians, small farmers and trespassing activists restoring our lost wildlife. Full of rage and hope, this is a bold vision for our nation’s wild places, and how we can treat them with the awe and attention they deserve. It’s time to demand better for nature. We can start by replacing the lie of the land with a profound that any of us can care for the countryside, regardless of whether you own it.

  • Title: Dearest
  • Author: Jacquie Walters
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: eBook
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Horror
  • Publication Date: 17/09


Plot: Flora is a new mom enamored of her baby girl, Iris, even if she arrived a few weeks early. With her husband still deployed, Flora navigates the newborn stage alone. But as the sleepless nights pass in the loneliness of their half-empty home, the edges of her reality begin to blur. Just as Flora becomes convinced she is losing her mind, a surprising guest shows up: Flora’s own mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken in years. Can they mend their fraught relationship? Or is there more Flora’s mother isn’t telling her about the events that led to their estrangement? As stranger and scarier events unfold, Flora begins to suspect the house is not as empty as she once thought. She must determine: is her hold on reality slipping dangerously away? Or is she, in fact, the only thing standing between a terrifying visitor and her baby? 

  • Title: The Book of Witching
  • Author: C.J. Cooke
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Horror
  • Publication Date: 08/10


Plot: Clem gets a call that is every mother’s worst nightmare. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Erin is unconscious in the hospital after a hiking trip with her friends on the remote Orkney Islands that met a horrifying end, leaving her boyfriend dead and her best friend missing. When Erin wakes, she doesn’t recognize her mother. And she doesn’t answer to her name, but insists she is someone named Nyx. Clem travels the site of her daughter’s accident, determined to find out what happened to her. The answer may lie in a dark secret in the history of the Orkneys: a woman wrongly accused of witchcraft and murder four centuries ago. Clem begins to wonder if Erin’s strange behavior is a symptom of a broken mind, or the effects of an ancient curse?

  • Title: The Rainfall Market
  • Author: You Yeong-Gwang
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Fantasy
  • Publication Date: 17/10


Plot: A rumour surrounds an old house. Send a letter and if it’s chosen a mysterious ticket will be delivered to you. No one is more surprised than Serin when she receives a ticket inviting her to a store that opens once a year when it rains. Here she’s offered to sell a misfortune for happiness. The problem? She has one week to find true happiness, or she’ll be trapped inside forever. Accompanied by Isha the cat, Serin searches through bookstores, hair salons and perfumeries before time runs out. All while a shadow follows quietly behind them …

  • Title: Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife
  • Author: Hetta Howes
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Non-Fiction (History)
  • Publication Date: 24/10


Synopsis: What was life really like for women in the medieval period? How did they think about sex, death and God? Could they live independent lives? And how can we hear the stories of women from this period? Few women had the luxury of writing down their thoughts and feelings during medieval times. But remarkably, there are at least four extraordinary women who did. Those women Marie de France, a poet; Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress; Christine de Pizan, a widow and court writer; and Margery Kempe, a no-good wife. Four women, writing hundreds of years ago, long before feminism existed – yet in their own ways these four, very different writers pushed back against the misogyny of the period. Each of them broke new ground in women’s writing and left us incredible insights into the world of medieval life and politics. Hetta Howes has spent her working life uncovering these women’s stories to give us a valuable and unique historical insight that challenges what we hold to be common knowledge about medieval women in Europe. Women did earn money, they could live independent lives, and they thought, loved, fought and suffered just as we do today.

  • Title: Blood Over Bright Haven
  • Author: M.L. Wang
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Fantasy
  • Publication Date: 29/10


Plot: An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant. What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power. Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance?

Backlist

  • Title: Hell Followed With Us
  • Author: Andrew Joseph White
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: YA
  • Genre: Fantasy/Horror


Plot: Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him—the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world’s population. Desperately, he searches for a place where the cult can’t get their hands on him, or more importantly, on the bioweapon they infected him with.  But when cornered by monsters born from the destruction, Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, affectionately known as the ALC. The ALC’s leader, Nick, is gorgeous, autistic, and a deadly shot, and he knows Benji’s darkest secret: the cult’s bioweapon is mutating him into a monster deadly enough to wipe humanity from the earth once and for all.  Still, Nick offers Benji shelter among his ragtag group of queer teens, as long as Benji can control the monster and use its power to defend the ALC. Eager to belong, Benji accepts Nick’s terms…until he discovers the ALC’s mysterious leader has a hidden agenda, and more than a few secrets of his own.

  • Title: Escaping Mr Rochester
  • Author: L.L. McKinney
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Hardback
  • Age Rating: YA
  • Genre: Historical Fiction


Plot: Jane has no interest in a husband. Eager to make her own way in the world, she accepts the governess position at Thornfield Hall. Though her new employer, Edward Rochester, has a charming air—not to mention a handsome face—Jane discovers that his smile can sharpen in an instant. Plagued by Edward’s mercurial mood and the strange wails that echo through the corridors, she grows suspicious of the secrets hidden within Thornfield Hall—unaware of the true horrors lurking above her very head. On the topmost floor, Bertha is trapped in more ways than one. After her whirlwind marriage to Edward turned into a nightmare, he locked her away as revenge for withholding her inheritance. Now his patience grows thin in the face of Bertha’s resilience and Jane’s persistent questions, and both young women are in more danger than they realize. When their only chance at safety—and perhaps something more—is in each other’s arms, can they find and keep one another safe before Edward’s dark machinations close in around them?

July 2024 Wrap Up

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For more information on the books click the title.

  • I read 11 books this month
  • I DNFd 0 books this month
  • Genre: 3 fantasy, 2 contemporary fiction, 2 thriller, 2 romance,1 murder mystery and 1 sci-fi
  • Gender of authors: 10 women and 1 man
  • Race of authors: 5 white authors, 4 asian authors and 1 black author
  • Age range: 6 adult and 5 ya
  • Format: 6 paperback, 4 ebook and 1 hardback
  • 4.3 stars average rating for the month

The Restaurant of Lost Recipes – Hisashi Kashiwai (3.5 stars)

Another beautiful and delicious installment to this series. This book series really feels like coming home and allowing yourself to get lost in the memories of the past. I enjoyed the shorter nature of these stories and their simplicity. This book is a great one to read when you need a break from the world and the intensity of some books out there. Truly a palette cleanser in book form!

What You Are Looking For is in the Library – Michiko Aoyama (4 stars)

Maybe it’s because I am a bookseller but I just love books about books. This is the perfect book to read when you want something uplifting but not unrealistic. If you want to read a book about hope, second chances and life without feeling like it unobtainable then read this book! There will 100% be one character in this book that you can relate to!

I See Your Face, Turned Away – Rumi Ichinohe (4 stars)

I flew through this volume wholly invested in the characters and the complicated romantic dynamics that exist in this story. I love the blossoming relationships of romance alongside the steadfast relationships of friendship we see with our 4 main characters. I found myself quickly changing the page as we uncovered more and more of Hikari’s true feelings towards her classmate Ohtani and wondered how this would change the group dynamic. I felt a strong bittersweet feeling as I want everyone to be happy but I know this is a story where heartbreak is imminent but I can’t look away. I need to know how this series ends.

Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie (4 stars)

I DNFd this years a go after I tried to read it after watching the Ustinov film and I was too confused. Gave it some time and came back hoping to love it and I did. Definitely way too many characters and slightly too many sub plots but the tension and atmosphere was great.

The Au Pair Affair – Tessa Bailey (4 stars)

Tessa Bailey is just unstoppable at the moment and The Au Pair Affair is evidence of that. Just like Fangirl Down this is a super fun, passionate and exciting romance novel in the world of hockey and penguins! Following characters from the book Fangirl Down we watch the love story of Burgess and Tallulah and this book was just so much fun. The one thing I did want to shout out is that Tessa Bailey’s characterisation is getting better and better with each book she writes and her writing Tallulah’s back story was handled with a lot of care and nuance which I thought was great. I normally associate Bailey as being the Queen of the RomCom but it was great to see her tackle more serious themes in her novels as of late!

The Maid and the Crocodile – Jordan Ifueko (4.5 stars)

Now this is set after the event of the Raybearer series but you do not need to read that series before you read this one to understand what’s happening. The world-building was great, the characters realistic and incredibly likeable, the magic so interesting. The conversations surrounding disability were great and it was great to have it be written realistically and not have toxic positivity surrounding it. The romance was EVERYTHING AND MORE!

Gentlest of Wild Things – Sarah Underwood (4.5 stars)

I had super high expectations going into this due to how much I loved Lies We Sing to the Sea and this book proves that Underwood is not a one book wonder. Smashed it yet again! The plot, the characters, the atmosphere were curated so beautifully in a very unsettling way. I loved the nods to the Eros and Psyche myth. It is so refreshing to see Greek Myth retellings done in this way rather than just making it a carbon copy. Underwood is creating something fresh and exciting without losing the appeal of the original myth.

DallerGut Dream Department Store – Lee Mi-ye (4.5 stars)

The book was just a wonder to read. I lost myself in this vibrant, bustling, and incredibly unique world that blends retail work with fantastical elements. I love how imaginative this realm of dreams is from dreams being treated like movies to Santa Claus being a literal character to the ups and downs of customer service. It was genuinely so much fun to lose myself in this story. The pacing for me moved fast with each chapter being quite short and snappy and focusing on a variety of different characters and scenarios. This book balances humour and fun with heart-felt emotional moments that had me tearing up in the staff room. If you want a short and sweet speculative novel about dreams and how they influence our lives for good. Read this.

Little White Lies and Deadly Little Scandals – (5/4.5 stars)

Rarely do I read the sequel straight after the first book. Normally I wait a year or so before reading the next one but this book was sooo good that I needed to know how it ended ASAP. Such an intricate plot, characters you love to hate, honestly you might need to draw a family tree. EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED!

Strange the Dreamer – Laini Taylor (5 stars)

Words cannot explain the mastery at work in this book. Back when it first came out it was all over BookTube but it has since become an underrated gem. This is currently in the running for my no.1 place on my Top 20 books of the year!

August 2024 TBR

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So despite my announcement of 30 volumes in 30 days I am still trying to read some novels during that time hahaha!

New Releases

  • Title: The Book Swap
  • Author: Tessa Bickers
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Romance
  • Pages: 336
  • Publication Date: 03/09


Plot: Still reeling from a recent tragedy, Erin Connolly knows she needs to start living, but has no idea how. When she accidentally donates her favorite book—a heavily annotated copy of To Kill a Mockingbird containing a memento she can’t be without—to a local little community library, she’s devastated. But then the book turns up a week later, back in the library with fresh notes in the margins, along with an invitation in a copy of Great Expectations to meet her newfound pen pal. A life-changing conversation, written only in the margins of beloved classic books, begins between Erin and her Mystery Man. Following each other through the pages of their favorite novels as the book exchange continues, they both begin to open up, falling into a friendship…and maybe something more. But Erin and her pen pal have a shared history that neither of them has guessed. Faced with painful reminders of the past—and the one person she swore never to forgive—Erin finds herself at a crossroads. One that could change her life forever.

  • Title: The Last Gifts of the Universe
  • Author: Riley August
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Sci-Fi
  • Pages: 204
  • Publication Date: 05/09


Plot: When the Home worlds finally achieved the technology to venture out into the stars, they found a graveyard of dead civilisations. What befell them is unknown. All Home knows is that they are the last ones left – and whatever came for the others will one day come for them. Scout is an Archivist who scours the dead worlds of the cosmos for their last gifts: interesting technology, cultural rituals – anything left behind that might be useful to Home and their survival. During an excavation on a lifeless planet, Scout unearths something unbelievable: a surviving message from an alien who witnessed the world-ending entity thousands of years ago. Now Scout, their brother and their sometimes-fearless, space-faring cat, Pumpkin, must race to save what matters most.

  • Title: What A Way To Go
  • Author: Bella Mackie
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Murder Mystery
  • Pages: 400
  • Publication Date: 12/09


Plot: One wealth-obsessed man – who is also dead. One status-obsessed woman – who is the perfect accessory. Their four inheritance-obsessed children – each with a killer instinct. And a murder-obsessed outsider looking to expose them all…

  • Title: Sorrow Spring
  • Author: Olivia Isaac-Henry
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Thriller
  • Pages: 448
  • Publication Date: 12/09


Plot: 1978. When teenager Rina Pine is dumped by her hippy mother in the parochial village of Sorrow Spring, and forced to live with her aged aunt, Agatha Pine, she doesn’t think things can get any worse.
There she finds a community beholden to the past, and a village in the grip of a close-knit circle of older women who worship the local spring and its patron saint, all under the leadership of the formidable Agatha. But when a child goes missing and a young mother is killed, Rina is drawn into the dark and sinister truth flowing through the sacred waters that give the place its name. Rina is about to learn what it truly means to be a daughter of Sorrow Spring…

Backlist

  • Title: One of Us Knows
  • Author: Alyssa Cole
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Thriller


Plot: Years after a breakdown and a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder derailed her historical preservationist career, Kenetria Nash and her alters have been given a second chance they can’t refuse: a position as resident caretaker of a historic home. Having been dormant for years, Ken has no idea what led them to this isolated Hudson River island, but she’s determined not to ruin their opportunity. Then a surprise visit from the home’s conservation trust just as a Nor’easter bears down on the island disrupts her newfound life, leaving Ken trapped with a group of possibly dangerous strangers—including the man who brought her life tumbling down years earlier. When he turns up dead, Ken is the prime suspect. Caught in a web of secrets and in a race against time, Ken and her alters must band together to prove their innocence and discover the truth of Kavanaugh Island—and their own past—or they risk losing not only their future, but their life.

  • Title: Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise
  • Author: Lin Yi-Han
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Literary Fiction


Plot: The most influential book of Taiwan’s #MeToo movement—a heartbreaking account of sexual violence and a remarkable reinvention of the trauma plot, turning the traditional Lolita narrative upside down as it explores women’s vulnerability, victimization, and the lengths they will go to survive. One of the biggest books to come out of Taiwan in the last decade, Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise is a chilling tale of grooming and its lingering trauma, and the power structures that allow it to flourish. Insightful, unsettling, emotionally raw, it is a staggering work of literature that reverberates across cultures and forces us to confront painful truths about the vulnerability and strength of women and those who use and hurt them.

  • Title: Percy Jackson and The Chalice of the Gods
  • Author: Rick Riordan
  • Series: Percy Jackson #6
  • Format: Hardback
  • Age Rating: YA
  • Genre: Fantasy


Plot: Percy Jackson, modern-day son of Poseidon, is just trying to get through high school. After saving the world multiple times by battling monsters, Titans, and giants, Percy is now settling in at Alternative High School in New York, where he hopes to finally have a normal senior year. Unfortunately, the gods aren’t quite done with him yet. Poseidon breaks the bad news that if Percy expects to get into New Rome University, he will have to fulfill three quests in order to earn the necessary three letters of recommendation from Mount Olympus. The first task is to help Ganymede, Zeus’s cupbearer, retrieve his golden goblet before it falls into the wrong hands. You see, one sip from it can turn a mortal into a god, and Zeus would not be pleased with that result. Can Percy and his friends Grover and Annabeth find the precious cup in time? And if they do, will they be able to resist its special power?

  • Title: North Woods
  • Author: Daniel Mason
  • Series: Standalone
  • Format: Paperback
  • Age Rating: Adult
  • Genre: Literary Fiction


Plot: When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become home to an extraordinary succession of inhabitants . An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to apples. A pair of spinster twins survive war and famine, only to succumb to envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths a mass grave, but finds the ancient trees refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a conman, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle; as each one confronts the mysteries of the north woods, they come to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive. Traversing cycles of history, nature, and even literature, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment and to one another, across time, language and space. Written along with the seasons and divided into the twelve months of the year, it is an unforgettable novel about secrets and fates that asks the timeless how do we live on, even after we’re gone?