Ceri Louise Reads

I’ve mentioned a few times it’s been a weird start to the year for me. Working full time + studying part time + chronic illness + seasonal viruses have been a lot to deal with and my reading and blog writing suffered the consequences. With that in mind, and the fact that these are hobbies that are meant to be enjoyable, I’m taking the pressure off myself by no longer aiming to post on here regularly, or even necessarily frequently. Posts will appear when they appear – when my brain and body have capacity to produce them.

Giving myself permission to just mood read has been a really helpful choice this year as well, but I still found myself deep in a reading slump in February, and I only finished three books. March definitely picked up, thanks in no small part to a certain self-aware killing machine (more on that later) and I finished 10 books – more than January and February put together!

So the TBR stats for February:

Physical – 1049 (up by 7, bought five and given five, but some were work related)

Digital – 182 (break even – read one and gained one)

Total – 1231 (up by 7)

Not great…. But March:

Physical – 1047 (down by 2, even though I bought four!)

Digital 183 (up by 2 – read one, gained 2)

Total – 1230 (DOWN BY ONE!)

It’s not much, but it’s something!

The budget tells an interesting story too…

I started February on -£2.00. I earned £3 from reading, plus my £2 backlist bonus, but I spent £8.42, leaving me with a total of -£5.42. Not too bad. March, however, is another matter. I earned £10 from reading, plus the £2 backlist bonus, plus I wrote two reviews earning me £4, so that was pretty good.

But remember the certain self-aware killing machine I mentioned? The Murderbot Diaries pulled me out of my reading slump, I read books 2,3 & 4 pretty much back to back so to celebrate world book day and the Waterstones double points offer, I maybe treated myself to books 5,6 &7 and completely tanked my budget… yeah… I spent £53.88, leaving me with a grand total of -£43.39. It will be a little while before I’m allowed to buy any more books I think. And the saddest part is I’m probably not going to let myself pick up the next book this month as I’ve been trying to finish library books so I need to read some more of my backlist if I want to get my backlist bonus this month. Hopefully I can resume that series in May.

Onto the books then. In February I read:

1) The Things That We Lost by Jyoti Patel – Nik knows very little about his late father, but his mother won’t talk about it. After his grandfather’s death, Nik begins to look for answers and finds his family has more secrets than he realised. I really enjoyed some aspects of these books but also found the main characters frustrating quite a lot of the time as a few honest conversations could have solved a lot of issues. But actually a pretty good representation of the messiness of grief. 3⭐️

2) Let’s Play Murder by Kesia Lupo – five young people find themselves trapped in a murder mystery VR game. The only way out is to solve the mystery to win the life changing prize. But all is not as it seems, and soon someone starts targeting the players themselves. The idea was better than the execution on this one, and the ‘big twist’ at the end felt laboured and the characters felt tokenistic. 2.5⭐️

3) A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh – a beautiful historical novel exploring the difficulties faced by Deaf people in the 19th/20th centuries and the controversies around the invention of the telephone. Loved this one, you can check out my full review here. 4⭐️

March’s books:

1) Memory Road by Sarah Edgehill – a beautiful story about a road trip between a long suffering daughter and her feisty but increasingly confused mother. I reviewed this on my instagram, but may add a full review on this blog soon. Loved it, very bittersweet but full of fun and hope. 4⭐️

2,3&7) Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy by Martha Wells. Love, love LOVE, these books. The protagonist is a SecUnit – part human part robot killing machine – who has hacked its programming and now controls itself. Taking on injustice anywhere and everywhere in the universe. Gave them all 5⭐️ and can’t wait to carry on the series.

4) Newark Park by Oliver Garnet. A short guide to a National Trust House. I was trying to find quick books to finish. 🤷‍♀️ 3⭐️

5) Allegory by John MacQueen – read this for my research methodology and it was very helpful. 4⭐️

6) Solomon’s Song by Roberta Kells Dorr – a sequel to one of the books I’m focusing on for my research. This book was actually terrible and it took ages to slog my way through it. 2⭐️

8) The Holiday by T M Logan – four best friends plus their families go on a celebratory trip away together, but Kate suspects her husband is having an affair with one of her best friends and hopes she can find the proof while they are there. But there are more sinister secrets lurking. This was a pretty good thriller with some interesting twists that kept me reading, even though I couldn’t stand most of the characters. I was given this and another of T M Logan’s book so I’m interested to see if I like the other one any better. 3⭐️

9) With Burning Hearts by Henri Nouwen – a series of reflections on the story where Jesus meets two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus. Really helpful for my Easter season sermon!! 5⭐️

10) Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin – a man struggles to come to terms with his sexuality in 1950s Paris. Beautifully written and quite sad. 4⭐️

So that’s my wrap of up of my February and March bookish activity. I’d love to know if you’ve read any of these books and what you thought of them.