We spent most of October in a slightly chaotic state having some building work done on our house. I did not appreciate getting up extra early and doing extra cleaning for three and a half weeks but it is satisfying to have finally fixed some big problems. We still have a long list of redecorating tasks and Christmas is scarily close so there’s that to plan too. Adulting is hard.

Roll on November.

Continue reading “October 2023 reading round-up”

September has been full, and exhausting. I finally got the tattoo I had planned for my 40th birthday present to myself. Emily Ingman at 555 Studios in Bradford-on-Avon did a beautiful job, I am so happy with it.

Work got busy, plus we started a big building project on our house, but somehow I managed to get through eight books this month. They were a varied bunch too, and not a dud among them.

On TV we devoured Poker Face (soooooo good). We’re now partway through The Power, based on the Naomi Alderman book, which was one of my top reads of 2021 so I think it’s a good start that I’m not constantly comparing the TV show with the book, I’m just sitting back and enjoying it.

Continue reading “September 2023 reading round-up”

August was another mixed month. We had a lovely holiday and two weekends away. Tim and I celebrated 21 years together. I went to the cinema twice, three and a half years after my last trip to the big screen (Spider-Man Across the Multiverse and Oppenheimer – I would have liked to add Barbie to the list but haven’t managed to find the time). We also squeezed in a few long bike rides – both on holiday and back home in Bristol.

On the book front, there were no real standouts this month and I definitely bought more books than I read. Oops.

Continue reading “August 2023 reading round-up”

Suddenly, it’s summer and we’re trying to do all the things all the time. It’s fun and exhausting. We had our first barbecue of the year. I started reading in the garden at lunchtimes and after work.

Yay for sunshine and friends. Happy summertime.

Continue reading “May 2023 reading round-up”

I read a lot in April. I mean, yes, I set aside the long Easter weekend to mostly read, and that accounts for 3.5 books. But that still means in the rest of the month I read 5.5 books, more than March or February.

Partly it’s because this has been a cold, wet spring so far. And I think I’ve been better than usual at creating time to read as I really liked most of the books I read this month. I’ve watched half a dozen films with Tim, but none on my own. Admittedly, though, the K-drama I’m watching has 80–90 minute episodes so you could argue I’ve watched eight more films…

April was quite up and down for us. We seem to have a number of friends going through tough times. It can be hard not being able to prevent bad stuff happening to people you love. But it has made me stop to appreciate the good things in my own life, which it’s important to make time to do.

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I didn’t get through many books this month but the ones I did read were pleasingly varied. And I wrote three whole book reviews! I know it isn’t quite the old blogging days of posting two or three times a week.

Now that the days are longer and the weather better, I’m trying to cycle more again. I’d like to do more long bike trips this year. In the hope it will inspire me, I have subscribed to Emily Chappell’s newsletter Unfinished Journeys. She’s a great writer, and once a month she recommends a book so my list of books to buy is ever-growing.

Next week is Easter, when we get a four-day weekend here in the UK. Every year, Tim spends those four days gaming with friends, while I spend them mostly reading. I’ll squeeze in some time with family and friends too but I am looking forward to my mini readathon.

Continue reading “March 2023 reading round-up”

I mostly hibernated in February. Usually with the dog snuggled up next to me or on my feet. Which is lovely but I also feel guilty that I left the house so little. It’s not unrelated that spring seems to be just barely getting started a month later than usual this year.

There is one new thing in my life – I’ve started playing D&D! About 18 years after Tim started playing D&D and telling me how great it is, I’m finally giving it a try. Two sessions in, I really enjoy it.

And now it’s March. Happy St David’s Day.

Continue reading “February 2023 reading round-up”

I usually quite like January. It includes my birthday, for one thing. The concept of a fresh start is a nice idea, even if I rarely make any real change. Lots of people take a month off socialising so there’s good reason to stay at home reading books, watching TV and playing games. And though it’s still winter, the days are getting longer, the first spring flowers are coming through, and really not much can beat a crisp dry sunny winter day.

However, this month has been mostly grey and wet. There’s been a resurgence of COVID to add to all the other winter bugs doing the rounds, so half the people I know have been unwell or still are. And we said a final goodbye to my grandad, who died at the end of December. So it’s not been the best January.

My reading was, perhaps appropriately, mixed. I started strong, with a book I knew I would love – Taste by Stanley Tucci. I ended the month with another real-life tale, a story far more extraordinary but not as well written: A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea by Melissa Fleming. The difference? It wasn’t told by its protagonist, and there was no good reason for that. It distanced me from what should have been an incredibly powerful experience. Ah well. Not every book can be a winner.

I also watched the usual large quantity of films and TV. The last two films I saw were the best: The Wonder – a period drama on Netflix starring the ever-excellent Florence Pugh – and Apocalypse Now: the Final Cut. The former is a fantastically strange, thoughtful film. While the latter is of course completely unhinged, that being the point it is making. War is insane, full of pointless suffering and death. And seriously, 14-year-old Laurence Fishburne is just as amazing as all the more experienced actors around him.

Continue reading “January 2023 reading round-up”