Books. Cats. Nonsense.
A confession: I'm terrible at keeping up with my NetGalley books. I can be super excited to read something, but ultimately I'm more tempted by physical books than eBooks. Despite this, I have some amazing stuff just waiting for me on my Kindle. I pulled a couple of titles here to not only show off the books I have, but to encourage me to pick them up.
I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump lately and needed something totally different to help claw my way out -- enter My So-Called Bollywood Life, a debut novel I learned about at an showcase event held by the publisher earlier this year. I don’t have a huge amount of experience with Bollywood films, although I absolutely love the four or five that I have seen (and am obsessed with the soundtracks of some I haven't seen), but I was incredibly curious to pick up this because it sounded so amazing. It turns out the My So-Called Bollywood Life was exactly what I needed to rediscover the joys of reading.
The Raven Tower is a funny one because if you described it to me, I’d be sure it wouldn't be my thing. However, I am so glad I took a chance on this weird and wonderful fantasy debut -- I think it's a book that will stick with me for a long time. Ann Leckie is the author of the mind-bending, completely cool Ancillary Justice. I adore that book and was so excited to see how her writing style would transfer over to fantasy.
Why is it that January feels like the longest month of the year? Maybe it's the cold and dark, maybe it's the fact that it's the start of a new year. Whatever it is, we survived! Hooray! This was an interesting month for reading. I started the month pretty poorly, but then managed to read three 4.5-5 star reads. Overall, it was a pretty solid book month -- I managed to read 7 books.
You know that feeling when you love a book and you can't quite put into words why? You just want to run around, throwing copies of it into the hands of unsuspecting readers? That's how I feel about The Gutter Prayer, Gareth Hanrahan’s astonishing debut. The Gutter Prayer is a breath of fresh air in a genre that can sometimes feel stale, and I cannot get enough of this insanely cool world.
I’ve been curious about Victoria Schwab’s new middle grade tale because it's such a departure from her adult fantasy novels. As you all may know, I’m not a huge fan of her adult books but really like her as a person. City of Ghosts sounded promising because it contains so many things I love -- ghosts, Edinburgh, and cats. I dove in a little skeptical, but ended up really enjoying this little tale.
Blackwing was one of my favourite novels of 2017 -- I absolutely loved the refreshing world, story, and characters. I had high expectations for the sequel, and those expectations were absolutely smashed. While some authors struggle with ‘second book syndrome’, McDonald is showing that his talent as a writer is only growing.
