It’s been another genuinely good reading month. Oddly enough, my favourite title was one I didn’t review at the time – The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell – so I thought I would write a little about it now. It’s a beautifully told and even more beautifully illustrated retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story, with some other fairy tales mixed in for good measure and some major deviations from what you might remember/expect. It stars a kickass queen who sets out sword in hand to save the neighbouring land. I really loved Gaiman’s language and the ways he mixes the familiar with brand new ideas but what really made this special was the artwork. It’s all drawn in black and gold, elaborate and, well, gorgeous. I highly recommend you seek it out.

This month my blog turned five years old. Five years already! To celebrate I held a giveaway of five of my favourite books of the last five years. If you’re reading this before midnight on 31 March you can still enter, but do it quickly!

Books read

The A–Z of You and Me by James Hannah (review)

Kick-Ass 3 by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr (review)

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell

Ex Machina, Vol. 3: Fact v. Fiction by Brian K Vaughan, illustrated by Tony Harris, Tom Feister and J D Mettler

Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley (review)

The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M Harris (review)

White Hunger by Aki Ollikainen (review)

Short stories/comics read

“Accident at the sugar beet” by Tom Drury (New Yorker Fiction podcast)

Angela Asgard’s Assassin issue 1 by Kieron Gillen, Marguerite Bennett, Phil Jimenez and Stephanie Hans (review)

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl issue 1 by Ryan North and Erica Henderson (review)

Spider-Woman issue 1 by Dennis Hopeless, Greg Land, Jay Leisten and Frank D’Armata (review)

Silk issue 1 by Robbie Thompson and Stacey Lee (review)

Spider-Gwen issue 1 by Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez (review)
Happy reading folks!