December Wrap Up | 2022

Happy New Year!

I managed to squeeze 6 reads into December. In a desperate attempt to reach my revised Goodreads goal of 50 books. Neglecting my reading a little in 2022, so definitely had a bit of catching up to do in December. Luckily, I had some short audiobooks to binge!

A Manual for Heartache by Cathy Rentzenbrink (audiobook)

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Heartstopper Volume 4 by Alice Oseman

Rating: 4 Stars

Climate Change Is Racist by Jeremy Williams (audiobook)

Rating 3.5 Stars

And Yet: Poems by Katie Baer (audiobook – gifted)

No rating

The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore (audiobook – gifted)

Rating: 3 Stars

In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren

Rating: 3 Stars

That’s my quick wrap up. Last reads of 2022. No new favourites this month.
Let me know what you read in December!

November Wrap Up | 2022

Happy December!
Can’t believe how fast this year flew by.

I participated in Nanowrimo in November, so I didn’t get much reading done. The books I did manage to squeeze in I loved!

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

A cosy, light-hearted fantasy was perfect for me during November. Low stakes and wholesome vibes. It was a slow but cute read.
Rating: 4 Stars

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (mix of audiobooks and physical)

This took me ages to read because Nanowrimo took over my life, but I loved it. Perfect autumn/winter read. A gothic novel with beautiful prose and an LGBT undertone message (very subtle). I do love a novel about good versus evil, questioning morality and human nature.
Rating: 4 Stars

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (audiobook)

Lastly, the star of the show. A new favourite. I won’t say too much about this as it’s very easy to spoil. It’s a little confusing, weird and wonderful. I think this is a book you just have to read for yourself. It’s one of those you’ll either love or hate it. Personally, I loved it. I binged listened to it in under 24 hours.
Rating: 5 Stars

Overall, very happy with my reading this month, despite the low number of books read. It was definitely a month of quality over quantity!

How was your reading in November?

October Wrap Up | 2022

Happy November!!

The first book I finished was
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (audiobook)

This was a carryover from September.
I found it amusing but confusing. It’s a tad overhyped in my opinion. It was hard to get into and hard to keep up with. The narrator did a good job. Overall it was just an okay read.
Rating: 2.5 Stars

Next up was Sadie by Courtney Summers (audiobook)

Another audiobook. This one was incredible. Such an amazing, emotional read.
I have a full review here for this. A new favourite for sure.
Rating: 5 Stars

Lunar Living by Kirsty Gallagher

The moon and spirituality fascinate me. Not sure how much of this moon magic I believe in but it was interesting to read. It was mostly for research purposes.
I won’t rate it for that reason.

Finally,
*Cursed by Marissa Meyer

I was very lucky to receive an ARC of this. I read Gilded last year and loved it, I highly anticipated this sequel. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Review coming soon!
Rating: 2.75-3 Stars

Not the best reading month. I’m doing Nanowrimo this month, I don’t expect to read a ton but hopefully, what I do read will be good!
Let me know what you read in October!

September Wrap Up | 2022

Happy Spooky Season!
September slipped away fast…

I read a few books this month. All pretty average. Did read a nice variety of genres though!

The first book I finished was
Persuasion by Jane Austen

I listened to the audiobook and read the physical book.
Enjoyable read. I love Austen’s writing. This had a lovely romance, more so than her other books.
Rating: 3.5 Stars

Then I listened to
My Dear Friend Janet

and From the Desk of Lady Miss by Keke Palmer (audiobooks)

I thought the first was amusing. Didn’t enjoy the second. Will likely not continue this series. Keke is a bit too dramatic of a narrator to me. It felt overacted and was a tad annoying. Hard to focus on the story.
Rating: 3 Stars / 2 Stars

*The Dream Runners by Shveta Thakrar

Rating: 3 Stars

Attached by Dr Amir Levine and Rachel S.F. Heller

This was interesting, I found it an insightful read. I learned a lot about myself and attachment in relationships. It was nice to read some non-fiction for a change. I am a fan of self-help/mental health literature but never read one to do with love/relationships before. Has definitely opened my eyes and changed my way of thinking! Definitely worth a read.
Rating: 4 Stars

What did you read in September?

March Wrap Up | 2021

Hello everyone!
March was a super busy month for me and I went into a bit of a slump. Uni has been kicking my ass lately and I have a lot of essays to read for that, so haven’t read much outside of uni stuff.
I only managed to finish two books, sadly.

The first book was Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (audiobook)

This was for my climate change fiction module in uni. I liked it more than the previous novel I read by this author (Sing, Unburied, Sing) but I still didn’t love it. I think this will be the last book I read by Ward.

Lastly I listened to *Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert (audiobook)

Oh my godddd. This was just amazing!
I was so excited to see this on Libro.fm’s ALCs for March. I loved every moment. The whole series is just incredible. I’ll have a review up for this soon.

*gifted

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What did you read in March?

Best Audiobooks of 2020

Hello!
This post is a tad late, but I thought I’d do it anyway!
These are my favourite audiobooks I listened to last year. (Not necessarily 2020 releases).

Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown

This is a really moving, magic-realism semi-autobiographical book about Echo Brown’s life. It’s an amazing story. I haven’t heard many talk about it. It’s severely underrated!
Full review here.

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Everyone needs to read/listen to this book. It’s very informative and educational. I learnt so much from listening to this. It’s basically required reading.

Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson

I really enjoyed this, it was fun. The music aspect was really cool too, hearing it was really effective. I’m not sure I would’ve enjoyed this as much in print.
Review here.

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

This was an unexpected fave. I didn’t plan to finish this series, I’m glad I did. I really enjoyed this conclusion. I ended up binging the entire audiobook in one day…
Review here.

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman has the most magical, light-hearted short stories. This was one. It was incredibly short but so lovely to listen to. Neil narrates it himself and he is absolutely wonderful.

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What were your favourite audiobooks in 2020?

Alternatives to Audible: Audiobook App Recs | Blogmas Day 5

Hello everyone!
I don’t know about everyone else but audiobooks have been my saving grace over the last few years and especially this year where I have spent most of it in a slump. In my last post like this I recommended alternative shops to purchase from instead of Amazon, now it’s audiobooks turn!

Free Audiobook Options:

Librivox

This is a site/app that offers books from the public domain, read by volunteers. So the quality isn’t amazing. But it’s free. If you’re a classics reader and don’t mind a bit of non-professional reader, give this ago. I used to listen to some plays in uni, I struggle to read plays, so hearing them helped me so much and this was a useful source for that. This is perfect for literature students, a must even!

Your local library!

If you are fortunate to have access to a library, they usually have an audiobook (ebook) collection for you to borrow. My library uses BorrowBox, some use Libby/Overdrive. Definitely contact your library to find out! I now get 95% of my audiobooks from there for free. Saves a fortune.

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If you don’t have a library or a library with a good selection here are some paid options:

Scribd

Scribd offers a monthly subscription, like Audible but with so much more to offer. Scribd is so much more cost effective than Audible. From £9.99 per month you get unlimited access to Audiobooks (and ebooks). It’s much better than Amazon’s Audible which is £7.99 for one credit. Plus if you wanted ebooks that would need a Kindle Unlimited subscription which is an additional £7.99 a month for a poor selection.

Libro.fm

First month is free then it is $14.99 per month (Less than £12), like Audible you get one audiobook a month. (If you switch from Audible to Libro.fm you get two free audiobooks!) However, Libro.fm are a much better company. They support local and indie bookstores with every purchase made.

This is a US/CA site and you need to have a credit card from those countries to subscribe. However, anyone from anywhere can purchase a gift subscription.
If you’re a blogger/influencer/etc make sure to sign up to their program for free ALCs! (Advance Listening Copies)

*Disclaimer: I receive ALCs but this post not sponsored or affiliated with Libro.fm nor any of the other companies in this post.

Do you listen to audiobooks? What apps do you use?

So Much to Read, So Little Time | WWW Wednesday 18/11/20

Happy Wednesday!
Hope you’re all doing well and staying safe!

This tag/meme is hosted on Taking on a World of Words. It’s a super simple meme, you just answered the three W questions.

The Three Ws are:

What have you recently finished?

What are you currently reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

Recently Finished:
Nothing 😦
I haven’t finished anything in a week and a half, as I’ve been focusing on doing my assignment for uni.
The last thing I finished was A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova, which I talked about last week. I have a review up for it now though! Spoiler: I gave it 5-Stars!

Currently Reading:

The Switch by Beth O’Leary

I say I’m currently reading this, but it’s kind of on hold at the moment. Once my assignment is submitted I will be diving back in!

Voyage of the Sable Venus and other poems by Robin Coste Lewis

This is my last required read of the semester! (everything else is film/tv to watch next.)
I’m not usually a poetry fan, so we’ll see how this goes…

Reading Next:

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

I have both the physical copy and the audiobook. So I will definitely be picking this up before it expires at my library!

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

This audiobook is also available at my library. It’s very short (under 4 hours), so I’m sure I’ll devour this one soon. I have been on a Neil Gaiman hype lately, I listened to two of his audiobooks last month. I had forgotten how much I enjoy his writing! I’m looking forward to listening to this as he reads it himself, he’s such a great narrator.
I’ll probably have to watch the film after reading it… I’ve never watched it!

What are you reading?
Any thoughts on the books I mentioned?

One Star Review: Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur (audiobook) | Disappointing Reads

Synopsis:
Milk and honey’ is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. It is split into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. ‘milk and honey’ takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look. 

My Thoughts:
Let’s talk about the hype surrounding this book first…
This used to super popular, I used to see it everywhere on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. I wasn’t a poetry fan back when this first came out (still not really). I saw plenty of glowing reviews and still do occasionally. I, however, cannot fathom how anyone can like this ‘poetry’ collection.

So, I’ve been trying to get into poetry for a while and this became available at my library as an audiobook and since it was super short, I decided to borrow it. That was my first mistake.

The next mistake was expecting poetry…
Whatever this book was… was not poetry. I’ve read poetry and studied it (English Lit student) but this… I don’t even know where to begin. I’m no poet myself and couldn’t write poetry myself but this didn’t feel like poetry to me.
It was like reading/listening to a series of quotes/thoughts. It was sort of like listening to someone’s thoughts on certain topics or reading someone’s notebook. I just didn’t like the form.

I originally gave this 2 stars on Goodreads but the more I think about it the worse it gets.
It really wasn’t my thing. But, it did discuss/deal with some important and deep topics – just not in any way, shape or form was it poetry. Or even remotely poetic. It was very minimal and vague but it says a little and has little substance, it isn’t like standard poetry where it says a lot in few words.

Topic wise – I didn’t connect to it in anyway, therefore, it wasn’t really an enjoyable read. I didn’t really take away anything from it. It’s pretty unmemorable and I have already forgotten the majority of the content. It doesn’t do anything poetry is supposed to do, I wasn’t moved or touched. It provoked no thoughts or feelings. I felt absolutely nothing as a read it and nothing after it. Therefore, I will be changing my rating to 1 star.

If you somehow wish to purchase this, consider using *Blackwells UK

One Day Reads | Short YA/Kids Audiobook Recommendations

Hello (audio) bookworms!
Today I’m going to share some audiobooks you can knock out in a day or so!
Obviously, this will depend on how much time you have and what speed you listen to audiobooks. This is going from the perspective that you have some free hours to just listen.
I listen to audiobooks at 2x speed, so these audiobook times would be halved for me

The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell

Narrated by David Tennant
Length: 5 hours, 56 minutes

This is a kid’s fantasy book (and series) and it’s totally adorable and addictive.
This one you can definitely up the speed and listen to in one sitting. David Tennant is the best narrator! His narration is incredible, he does amazing voices and sounds. Even if you’re not into kidlit, this one is worth listening to just for David.

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Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewels Parker Rhodes

Narrated by Barrie Buckner
Length: 4 hours 36 minutes
Review here

This one is really short but very impactful. It covers some important topics in a short amount of time. It’s perfect for young people to explain racism clearly and effectively. It can be enjoyed at any age in my opinion.
It’s a perfect one sitting listen!

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City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

Narrated by Reba Buhr
Length: 5 hours 2 minutes

This is a really fun paranormal kid’s book. (It does have creepy parts too)
I listened to this a while ago, I really need to continue this series!
It’s set in Edinburgh, which I loved! Nice to see the UK in books.
It’s very easy to listen to and you’ll fly through it!

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Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown

Narrated by the author
Length: 8 hours 29 minutes
This one is a little heavier, though still doable in a day if you have a day free.
I highly recommend everyone read/listen to this book. It’s super important and the writing is amazing.

Review here

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Dreamology by Lucy Keating

Narrated by Erin Spencer
Length: 7 hours 48 minutes

I listened to this one a few years ago. I remember finding it addictive to listen to and I flew through it.
It’s a fun audiobook, put it at 2x speed and you’ll be done in no time!
Review here

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Pride by Ibi Zoboi

Narrated by Elizabeth Acevedo
Length: 6 hours 9 minutes

I wasn’t a huge fan of this, but I know others will enjoy it. If you don’t go in with expectations of it being a Pride and Prejudice retelling, I think you’ll enjoy it more than I did.
It’s a quick, easy YA contemporary.
Depending on what speed you listen at you can power through this in a few hours.

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The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert

Narrated by Robin Eller & Cary Hite
Length: 6 hours 5 minutes

I listened to this at 2x speed and basically in one sitting while journaling. I really enjoyed!
I haven’t seen this around a lot, I think it deserves way more attention!
I’ll have a review up soon.

Do you have any short audiobook recs? Leave them below!