Hi!
Sorry I haven’t been keeping to that regular schedule I attempted for a couple of weeks. In a bizarre rare twist, I was out Thursday to Sunday, from pub quizzes to Little Mix to nights out to hungover Chineses, it’s been a few days.
But last night I finished three of the books I’ve been very slowly reading so there’ll be something about them soon!
I think now might be a good time to look at the books I want to read before the end of 2017. I’m not one for TBR lists but there’s a couple of books that really have been sitting on my unread shelf for too long and I think having a vague goal could be helpful.
Never have I been so overwhelmed by the marketing campaign for a book. After all the hype about it, I read the synopsis and I really didn’t care about it. It looked okay, but nothing really for me. But I kept seeing five star reviews and I got a little interested — a tiny bit.
It wasn’t until I walked into Waterstones, though, and I was hit with the sheer number of copies strategically placed all over the shop that I thought okay, how much longer can I resist? And then I saw that a very beautiful special Waterstones edition was half price and I thought fine, if I’m ever going to read this it might as well be now.
That was months ago now. It’s sat on my shelf — and, it’s actually suffering more because it’s too big for the normal unread shelf so it’s hidden in between a bunch of books I have read so my eye doesn’t wander over there as much. It’s sat on my shelf unread bar for the first couple of chapters I read back in May before giving into my Half Blood Prince urge that comes out every time it’s sunny.
It does genuinely sound quite interesting. Although those slow gothic tales never do much for me on the surface, I do usually find myself getting drawn in and I’m confident that when I finally do actually give this a real go, I’m fall in love.
Homegoing // Yaa Gyasi
Another one that swept booktube and made its way into almost every single video I watched earlier this year. Again, the cover is beautiful. My interest for this one was there from the start but I was determined to wait until it came out in paperback.
But my family went to America on holiday and, when I asked them to bring me back a book, any book, from one the cute little bookshops I never get to experience at home, my mum, in a stunning twist of fate, brought me this. She said she liked the cover and randomly picked it up in a tiny bookshop in Martha’s Vineyard. The shop assistant gushed about it and my mum thought it would be just the sort of thing I would like.
A story that covers generations, from Africa to Europe to America, like I said, a lot of good things have been said about this and it seems a little like fate that it came to me the way it did.
I actually have solid plans to read this one. I’m going to London at the weekend and it’s five hours on the train there and back so I’m hoping I can fly through most of this.
Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? // Alyssa Mastromonaco
As soon as this book crossed my radar I was in. I fell in love with The West Wing a couple of years ago, I’ve always loved The Thick of It, Veep, at the moment I’m into Designated Survivor. I like the political media so this account of Barack Obama’s deputy chief of staff is so so interesting to me. I actually have a copy of George Stephanopoulos’ from Bill Clinton’s years and I’m really interested to read them both and compare them. Obviously they’re going to be very different but I’m assuming there’s going to be some similarities.
But yes, this one has been anxiously waiting for me to read since I bought it back in July? August? It’s one of those books I really think I’m going to love so I’m stupidly holding off until the right time.
Moonglow // Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon! Up there as one of my all time favourites! Last month I did a post about Emily St John Mandel’s books and I’ve been wanting and wanting to do one for Michael Chabon seeing as I’ve read about 80% of his much more extensive catalogue. But! (And there’s been a but! for every one of these) I’ve been waiting until I’ve read this to give it a more complete and rounded review.
This looks so interesting. It’s part memoir part fiction about Chabon’s grandfather’s life. It’s experimental and a bit meta? From the reviews I’ve read. But, with almost anything he’s written, I’m fully in. In fact, I think this might be the first new thing he’s released since I fell in love with him back in 2013.
Again, as soon as I heard about it I was hooked but, although the hardback was beautiful, I held off until the paperback came out. It’s another one of those ones where I’m so sure I’m going to love it I keep holding off. Why! Why do I keep doing this!
Lilac Girls // Martha Hall Kelly
My cousin got me three books for my birthday. I’ve read one and the other two have been passed over every time I choose a new book, mostly because of their size and, again, you know it, because I’m pretty sure I’m going to like them a lot.
This one is centred around World War Two so I’m sold already. There’s an American woman, a Polish woman, and a German woman, scattered across Europe as Hitler makes his way through more and more countries. It looks like it covers a lot, and, like other WWII books I’ve read, covers experiences I had never thought of before.
I read All Quiet on the Western Front on the run up to Hogmanay last year and it made a very late addition to my top books of 2016 so maybe I should end this year on a similarly dark note.
There were plenty others I could’ve chosen. The Roanoke Girls, the hyped up mystery of the moment; The Psychopath Test, something I was never interested in and now fully intrigued by; Moxie, a feminist book I impulsively bought off amazon last week. There’s also We Need To Talk About Kevin which is one of the few books that I bought before 2016 and still haven’t got around to.
Why do I keep rereading Harry Potter and why do I keep requesting books from the library when I have all of these on my shelf? I know I said in a previous post that I don’t have a big TBR, and I really don’t, but I do have a good selection of books to choose from and I really should be getting a move on and sfhifting a good number of them before December 25th when I miiiiight get some more off my Christmas list to fill it back up again.
What are some of the books you’ve been meaning to get around to for ages? Are you like me and you’re so convinced you’ll love a book that you put it off? Have you had some on your shleves for years? Let me know!
Until next time,
Sacha x
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