Happy New Year! As 2017 comes to a close, 2018 just seems full of promise. I’ve rounded off my year of reading and am looking forward to sticking to my resolutions and making this space even better for you guys. Let’s take a look at the last reading round-up of 2017. Spoiler alert: it was a good month!
Books I read
The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
The Selection by Kiera Cass
Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu
The Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon
I am Thunder by Muhammad Khan
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
I managed to read eleven books this month and surpass my reading goal for the year! This was much helped by the fact that I read four books while home for the holidays. This month featured books from a pretty wide range of genres. I covered classic sci-fi (The Naked Sun), classic crime fiction (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd), the Gothic (The Silent Companions), silly and trashy YA (The Selection), and contemporary YA (I Am Thunder). I really enjoyed almost everything I read this month! Even better, a number of these books were from my local library. I’m going to try to support them more as I continue to devour books for this blog.
I think my favourites of the month were The Naked Sun, I Am Thunder, and The Silent Companions. Each book was just so good! Keep an eye on the blog for reviews.
Books I bought
Technically, I didn’t buy a single book! However, I was lucky enough to get a TON of books for Christmas. We tend to do Christmas books in two waves in my family. Of course, you get books under the tree. Then, we head off to the bookshop shortly after Christmas and, well, go a bit mad. This is the opportunity to get anything that you didn’t receive under the tree or any new books that catch one’s fancy. I talked about this a little bit in one of my very first posts.
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust
The 4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (illustrated) by J. K. Rowling and Jim Kay
The Remains of the Day by Kazou Ishiguro
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Diviners by Libya Bray
Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov
The Lie Tree (illustrated edition) by Francis Harding and Chris Riddell
I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell (signed!)
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman
Mythos by Stephen Fry
Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
The Age of Assassins by R. J. Barker
Simon Versus the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertelli
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil Degrasse Tyson
Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes
As I said, that’s quite a few. However, I did get a few books I’ve already read! Prisoner of Azkaban, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Remains of the Day, and The Lie Tree are some of my all-time favourite books and I got special editions. The Remains of the Day in particular is stunning — it’s one of my absolute favourite books and I’m so glad this beautiful edition was released!
Otherwise, well, I have a lot of reading to do. I always aim to read all of my Christmas books before the next Christmas, however that never seems to happen. I’m going to try this year!
Book post
Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu
Everless by Sara Holland
Paris Adrift by E. J. Swift
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
I was lucky enough to receive some absolutely incredible book post this month! Batman: Nightwalker is the second in the DC Icons series — Wonder Woman being the first. I loved Warcross so much and was so thrilled to read a Batman novel by such a talented lady author.
Everless is the book from December’s FairyLoot box. Not only is it an absolutely gorgeous book, it’s one I’ve been looking forward to for awhile! I believe it releases here in the UK in January, so keep an eye out!
Paris Adrift is one of my current reads, and I’m absolutely loving it! It’s such an incredibly cool time travel novel — I’m really intrigued. I’ll be participating in a blog tour for this one, so watch this space!
Finally, The Belles. The Belles! This is one of my most highly anticipated books of 2018 and I cannot believe I got a copy of it. It genuinely felt like Christmas came early. I cannot wait to dive into this beautiful book, particularly with all the bullshit the author has had to face lately.
Kings Of The Wyld May have been my fav book of 2017. Funny and had heart. I loved it. Eames also creates a soundtrack to go along with it.
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I’ve only heard good things about this one. So excited to get started!
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Here’s the soundtrack if you want it: https://nicholaseames.com/soundtrack/
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Hi there,
your reading months sounds awesome! I’m currently listening to “The Diviners” as a audiobook and it’s really awesome and I’m curious about your opinion.
I have not read anything from Agatha Christie yet, but because of your review video a few weeks ago I will definitely read something written by her this year to close this gap of reading education. 🙂
Elli
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I’ve been meaning to read The Diviners for ages, and I finally have my chance! I’m so glad to hear you’re liking it — I’m sure I’ll love it too!
I am SO happy to hear you’re thinking of giving Agatha Christie a shot! She’s just so fun 😀 Let me know what you think!
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AHH THE BELLES! You are so lucky! What did you think of Batman? I personally adored it but had sommmee problems with it to be honest. It wasn’t perfect but it really got me, you know? AND OMG YOU GOT SO MANY BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAs! enjoyyy
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I shrieked when I opened the envelope that had The Belles in it. I can’t wait to get started!
I liked Batman! I thought the first half was pretty slow, but once things got going it was like a rollercoaster! I wish that the very very ending of Madeline’s character arc was handled a little different. I have a review going up tomorrow!
So many Christmas books! I’m really lucky to be in a family of crazy readers. We always give lots and lots of books 🙂
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I can’t wait for you to read Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, La Belle Sauvage and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry! Those were some of my favourite books of 2017 and I’m curious to know your thoughts on them you’re done.
Your book mail is all shades of exciting! I hope you enjoy every single one of them. 🙂 I wish I lived in a country where I could get early copies of those books, but I’ve got to make do with what I have. 😅
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I’m so happy to hear you liked those books! I have so much stuff to read, but I think those are my highest priorities, so you obviously have good taste 🙂
Yes! It really is wonderful to be able to receive them. I wish that more publishers would be able to send books internationally 😦 There are so many people who get left out.
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Haha, thank you. Good to know that they’re a priority for you. 🙂
Yes, sadly, that’s how the publishing industry is lately. I wish it’d change, but nothing is going to happen overnight. Recently there was quite a stir about ARCs not being available to international bloggers and it’s sad that it’s only come to light now. I hope it at least nudges the industry towards a more inclusive future. 🙂
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Also, I follow your YouTube channel closely and I just love your voice. Hope that’s not a weird thing to say, but it’s just so soothing and listening to you gush about books after a tiring day at work is just so relaxing. Your content is fabulous as well. Keep up the good work! 🙂
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Thank you!! Sometimes I feel a little disheartened about my little YouTube channel — I’m glad someone out there is listening 🙂 You’ve made my day!
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Please continue to make videos. I’ll try to comment more so you’ll feel more motivated, but I get more anxious commenting on YouTube than I do on blogs, so I shy away from it. I do like all the videos I enjoy enough.
I’m so happy that my words brought you joy. 🙂 Supporting content makers is something I consciously want to do more of, especially the ones who don’t have a lot of fan following but still have excellent quality.
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