Update // Reading Wrap Up | February 2020

 

Hey guys, long time no see!
(Life update below the wrap-up, if you’re interested)

All of February was taken up by books for uni, but here’s what I read anyway:

The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

This book was a drag, but it got better as it went along. The ending was really good and it’s an interesting book to study.

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The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford

I could not get into this book for the life of me. It was plain boring and full of awful characters. I forced myself through this and yeah… not a fan.

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Autumn by Ali Smith

Having previously read and studied Ali Smith I was excited to read another of her novels and I was not disappointed! I had to read this for a Contemporary literature class and studying it was fascinating! It’s a great read in general, Smith’s writing is whimsical and lyrical, but studying it was amazing. Highly recommend picking this up.

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Life Update

I’ve had some things going on in my personal life and I took an impromptu hiatus.
I’m also very busy with uni work and reading and haven’t had the time to read and review other books. Overall, life is chaotic at the moment!

I’ve had disaster after disaster (a very bad break-up and family death, power cuts, flooded kitchen). I just haven’t felt the motivation to blog. I’m hoping to regain my love of blogging and writing and get out of my slump!

Mental health-wise, I’ve been suffering pretty badly. Depression and anxiety have been really rough lately. I’m trying to remain positive and do stuff to make me happy/relaxed and it is improving, slowly but surely.

Phew. Mini rant over.

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How have you guys been? What have you been reading?
Hopefully, your last month went better than mine!

Reading Wrap Up | January 2020

Hello!
Sorry for my absence!
January wasn’t a bad month for me, reading-wise, I managed 5 books.

The first book I finished was Saga Vol 3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

So glad to finally be continuing Saga.
This wasn’t as good as the first two but I still really enjoyed it, cannot wait to pick up the next one!

Rating: 4 Stars

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Hold Back the Stars by Katie Khan (reread)
I loved listening to this audiobook again. I love this story. It’s so amazing and heartbreaking.
Rating: 5 Stars
(old) Review here.

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Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

OMG. This book.  Favourite read of Jan BY FAR!
Incredible. I will have a review up soon with all my thoughts (screams).
Rating: 4.25 Stars

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The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

I had to read this for uni, so I won’t be giving it a rating.
I’m kind of indifferent about this book, it’s great for analysing and discussing – perfect for uni but I didn’t enjoy it. It’s a bit dull on the surface.

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*The Deep by Rivers Soloman

*Free copy from Libro.fm
This was odd. Weird and wonderful. Not really sure what to make of it but it was beautifully written.

Rating: 3 Stars

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What did you read in January?

2019 Reading Wrap Up + 2020 Reading Goals

 

Hey guys!
Happy New Year 🙂
I for one am glad 2019 is over. On to bigger and better things in 2020!

 

If you want to check out all the books I read in 2019, you can check my Goodreads here.
Or my monthly wrap-ups:
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov

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2020 Reading Goals

I don’t really set many reading goals since I don’t want to feel pressured when reading, I want to enjoy myself more than anything!

1) Goodreads Goal: 40 Books
(excluding the ones I read for uni)
Hopefully, with the uni books, it’ll be over 50. I’ll review this total halfway through the year.

2) Goodreads Rating Goal: 4
It was 3.8 in 2019 – which is fine but I’d like the higher that and hopefully read better books!

3) Read More Diverse Books!
Racially, LGBT, Disability etc.

4) Read More Graphic Novels
I started reading them for the first time in 2019 and I am in LOVE!
I definitely want to get into more! (suggestions welcome!)

5) Get My TBR Down!
My physical tbr* anyway…
I keep buying more and more books and my unread books are getting out of hand. I need to read the books I own. So, I’ll be restricting my buying and reading ones on my shelf/kindle already!

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How was 2019 for you? Did you reach your Goodreads goal?

Reading Wrap Up | November 2019 +Blogmas Annoucement!

Hey guys!
I cannot believe November is over and we’re going into the final month of the year… Crazy how time flies!
I have been in a huge reading slump, so didn’t get much reading done, unfortunately.
I am hoping to do better in December. Luckily, I hit my Goodreads goal a while ago.

 

The first book I finished was the audiobook of Crownbreaker by Sebastien de Castell.
This was such a great conclusion to an amazing series. I am so sad this is the last Spellslinger book but I am looking forward to reading more from Sebastien de Castell.

Rating: 4 Stars
Review here!

 

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Next, I finished Emma by Jane Austen. I read and listened to this for uni. I have to say, I didn’t really enjoy this one. It was too long and boring.

 

 

 

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Finally, after weeks of suffering,I finished Ivanhoe by Walter Scott. This is definitely something I would DNF if it wasn’t for uni. It was such a BORE. I can’t believe I even finished it, it was such a snoozefest!

 

 

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Announcement!

This year I’ll be participating in Blogmas! I’ve always wanted to do it but never have made the plunge so I’m finally going to do it this year. I won’t be doing daily posts, I’ll probably post every other day. I’m excited to post some Christmasy themed posts and post more in general!
Make sure you follow my blog and stick around! There’s plenty of posts coming soon 🙂

Are you doing Blogmas?

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Monthly Wrap Up | October 2019

Hey guys!
Guess who finally has internet?!! ME!
Happy that I can now blog/Instagram more easily and regularly!
Anyways…October was a pretty decent reading month, although most of the reading I did was for uni, I enjoyed almost everything!
Onto the books I read, in the order that I read them:

Firstly, I read Teenage Writings by Jane Austen. This was for uni, I’m doing a module on Jane Austen so I’m reading a lot of it! This was a hard but interesting read. It’s cool to see her early writings and how she started but I wouldn’t say it was an enjoyable read.

 

 

 

 

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Next, I read Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen>
I had never read this before (or seen the film) so I didn’t know much about it. I ended up really enjoying it (and we watched the film in class, which was also good!).
Rating: 4 Stars

 

 

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Then, after almost a month of reading, I finished Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff. This book was pretty good, it took me a while to read (because uni) but I did enjoy the majority of it. However, the ending. No.

Full review here!
Rating: 3 Stars

 

 

 

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Next, I finished my audiobook of the month: Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig.
My mental health hasn’t been so great lately so I thought it’d be the perfect time to (finally) read this book. And it was. I found this really helpful.
I really want to write a whole post about self-help /mental health books but I need to read a few more first.

Rating: 4 Stars.

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Then I finished Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
I LOVE THIS! This was a reread for me, I read this last summer too. I think I appreciate it so much more this time around, learning about Austen has made me enjoy her so much more!

Rating: 4 Stars

 

 

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Finally, I read a short story: Opal by Maggie Stiefvater.
Call Down the Hawk comes out on the 5th, so I thought it was about time I read this story! It was so good. I have missed Maggie Stiefvater’s writing so much. I am now even more hyped for Call Down the Hawk!!

Rating: 4 Stars

 

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How many books did you read in October? What was your favourite?

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Monthly Wrap Up + Currently Reading| September 2019

Hey guys!

September was a really slow month for me and ended up being a really bad reading month, unfortunately. 😦

I’ve been struggling with a reading slump since August and my mental health hasn’t been great. I only managed to read two books this month:

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

This took a loooong time to get through but I ended up really enjoying it. It takes some getting used to the writing style/format but the story is good.

Rating: 3.5 Stars
Full review here!

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Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff

This was INCREDIBLE. This was sooo much better than Nevernight, which I did enjoy but this took it to the next level! I loved the setting and the pace of this one so much more.

Rating: 4.25 Stars
Review coming soon!

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Currently Reading:

Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff
After THAT ending in Godsgrave, I obviously had to pick up this.

Teenage Writings by Jane Austen
This is for a class. I’m doing a module on Jane Austen this semester so prepare for lots of her books to be appearing on my blog!

+ I need to read The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis ASAP.

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Hope you guys had a better reading month than I did!
Let me know what you’ve been reading in the comments, also if you have any tips for getting out of a slump!

Let’s be friends: Instagram//Twitter//Goodreads

Monthly Wrap Up | August 2019

Hey guys!
I can’t believe August is over! It flew by.
I’m moving out tomorrow so I know I won’t be reading much today (and definitely won’t be finishing any more books). So I thought I’d post my wrap up today!
I didn’t get as much reading done as I wanted but I had a decent month.

 

The first book I finished was The Beauty of Darkness by Mary E. Pearson. I LOVED THIS. What an amazing conclusion to an incredible trilogy. I am obsessed.
New favourite YA fantasy series for sure!

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Review for The Remnant Chronicles here!

 

 

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Next, I finished the audiobook of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*Ck by Mark Manson. This was okay. At first, it seemed like a fun way to approach self-help and improvement but the attitude got boring fast.

Rating: 3 Stars

 

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Next, I finished a graphic novel: *Rose by Denis Lapière and Émilie Alibert / Art by Valérie Vernay.
I requested this on Netgalley, I didn’t know anything about this before reading. It’s a cool mystery story with paranormal elements. I was really surprised by this, I don’t normally read mystery, especially not in graphic novel form, but it was a great read.

Rating: 3.75 Stars
Review here!

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Next, I read another graphic novel: *Aion by Ludovic Rio.
I requested this on Netgalley, all I knew is that it was sci-fi and the artwork looked cool. I’m SO glad I got this! It was such a cool story and really, really enjoyed it!

Rating: 4 Stars
Review here!

 

 

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The next book I finished was *Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron.

Rating: 3 Stars
Review coming soon!

 

 

 

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Lastly, I finished another audiobook: The Humans by Matt Haig.
I enjoyed this, it was funny and entertaining. It started off really well but gradually got less entertaining + I didn’t really like the ending. It’s still worth a read though!

Rating: 3.5 Stars

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What was your favourite book you read this month?
Mine was definitely The Beauty of Darkness!

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