This Week in Books | 04/07/2018

This week I'm joining in with Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost & Found to talk about the books I've been reading recently!

Have you seen my INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY?

Now: Ever since I read Six of Crows (yes I will mention it at every chance I get) I've been on a duology kick, so right now I'm half way through the second book in Emily Skrutskie's duology about pirates, sea monsters and girls kissing girls. I'm enjoying The Edge of the Abyss a lot so far and I'm looking forward to seeing how this series wraps up!

Then: I finished The Abyss Surrounds Us at the weekend and really enjoyed it. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do separate reviews or a series review, but look out for a review of some kind at some point!

Next: I first read The Goblin Emperor in the summer of 2015 and, if someone put a gun to my head and made me choose, this is the novel I'd say is my all-time favourite novel. I've re-read or re-listened to it every year since I first read it, and I feel myself craving it during the summer because of my first memories of it so I think I'm going to re-read it again next.

What are you reading?

Books I Want to Re-Read

We all have a different relationship to re-reading, whether it's something we love to do and do often or something we never do. I'm a reader who's gone from one extreme to the other as I've grown; when I was younger I read and re-read my favourite books time and time and time again and was never any less delighted by them, and was recently reminded of this when I talked about Jacqueline Wilson last week.

I re-read Wilson's books an extortionate amount as a child, as well as my favourite Roald Dahls, such as The Magic Finger and Fantastic Mr. Fox, and my extensive Horrible Histories collection, but as I got older I began to devour more and more books until I didn't have the time to re-read if I wanted to keep reading new things. I fell in love with discovering new stories and characters and worlds and authors, just as I'd fallen in love with that safety net of familiarity in my childhood, and in doing so my love for re-reading was forgotten.

Then recently, having read Kirsty Logan's A Portable Shelter (reviewed here) and craving more short stories, I re-read Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (reviewed here) and really enjoyed the experience - especially as I didn't actually like the book the first time I read it about seven years ago. Now I'm keen to make more time for re-reading, and below are four books from my shelves I'd like to re-read, all for various reasons!

I first read Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus when it came out. Everyone was talking about it and I was certainly intrigued, which was unusual for me because I generally tend to be wary of hyped books since the dark reading years of my teens when every YA book was the same. I ended up enjoying the book, but not as much as I'd hoped and definitely not as much as what felt like every other reader. Morgenstern's descriptions and her world-building were stunning, I loved the idea of her circus, but I need characters to grab hold of me and make me care and something about Celia and Marco prevented me from doing that. Individually I quite liked them - Celia, in particular, and her relationship with her father intrigued me - but I didn't understand why the two of them liked each other and when I reached the end I realised I hadn't really cared what happened, I was just ready for it to end. My reading tastes have changed a lot since then, and I'd like to re-read this book at some point to see if I've grown to appreciate it more or if I feel just as 'meh' about the whole thing as I did then.

Sadly, you can only read Rebecca for the first time once, and I loved it when I did. If you haven't read it yet I can't recommend it enough, it's du Maurier's masterpiece and such a brilliantly written and plotted novel - it's all the more enjoyable the less you know going into it. Knowing what happens in the story and how it ends, I'd love to re-read it and see if du Maurier left any little nuggets of premonition for her re-readers.

The Goblin Emperor is one I've already re-read twice (once as an audiobook, so I guess that was more of a re-listen) and was the first book I re-read in a long, long time when I picked it up for a second time last year having loved it in 2015. If someone put a gun to my head and forced me to choose one all-time favourite book, I think I'd have to say this one - Maia is certainly one of my favourite protagonists of all time and I love how, more than anything, this book is hopeful, decent fantasy and such a soothing antidote to Games of Thrones' brutality. I can't get enough of this book, and I think it'll be one I continue to re-read until Katherine Addison gives me another book set in this world.

Persuasion was Jane Austen's final novel, published posthumously, and while Pride and Prejudice is a firm favourite it's actually Persuasion that's considered to be her masterpiece by many Austen fans. Until the past year or so, I definitely wouldn't have described myself as one such fan. Like The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories I was introduced to Austen through education when I was given this book to read during sixth form and it woke a hatred of Austen in me that it's taken me a long time to shake off. My reading tastes hadn't developed enough at the time for me to appreciate that Austen was writing a very tongue-in-cheek form of societal critique, and I was so frustrated that a woman I was constantly being told was an early feminist writer had written novel after novel about love and marriage. Why couldn't any of her heroines just stay single? Then I did that thing that most of us we all do: I grew up. As a twenty-something I understand Austen far more than eighteen year old me ever did, something I'm sure my English teacher would be incredibly proud of, and now I'd like to give Persuasion a second chance. I've actually started my re-read of this one and, while it hasn't completely grabbed me, I'm not hating it...

Do you re-read books? Is it something you'd like to do more of or less? Which books would you like to re-read one day?

Christmas Book Tag (ORIGINAL)

Christmas is a month away! That's exciting for some and terrifying for others, and I definitely fall into the former category. I love Christmas. I love the atmosphere and the carols and the cheesy songs and the lovely movies and the warm fuzzy feeling it gives me.

So to celebrate I've created my very own Christmas Book Tag. I feel I should say I'm sure there are other such tags out there, but this is one I've made entirely on my own and if there are any similarities to any other tags I promise that's pure coincidence.

I'll tag a few people once I've given my own answers, but whether you're tagged or not please feel free to do this tag and share the festive love!

I have to go with Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop by Jenny Colgan. It's cheesy and festive and lovely; I read it over Christmas a couple of years ago and really enjoyed the experience.

I didn't really like The Great Zoo of China that much - which is a shame because it's essentially Jurassic Park but with dragons - but it was a shamelessly fun, quick read. If you want to know my thoughts in more detail you can check out my review here!

I don't know why, but I feel like Taylor Swift's 'Style' would be a great movie. It's one of my favourite songs from 1989 and something about it always makes me think there must be a bigger story someone can write in there somewhere; the lyrics make me think it'd be a great movie about a pair of doomed lovers who appear in different incarnations every century throughout history.

Sofia Khan is Not Obliged features a heroine who is a practicing muslim, and it's one of the best contemporary novels I've read in a long while. Check out my review here!

I have to go with The Disreputable Dog from The Old Kingdom series, who first appears in Lirael as Lirael's much-needed companion. She's so much fun and I love her, although Mogget is a very close second.

I read Burial Rites over new year a couple of years ago and it was the perfect read for those cold winter months. The setting was one of my favourite parts of Hannah Kent's debut - it was as much a character as all the people within it - and she writes those bleak, Icelandic landscapes beautifully.

Maia is one of my favourite fictional characters from one of my favourite books of all time. I adore The Goblin Emperor, it's like Rivendell meets the Tudor court, and when I was poorly with quinsy earlier this year the thing that comforted me most was curling up in bed and listening to the audiobook. If you haven't picked this up yet, I highly recommend that you do!

There are plenty I could have chosen, but I've always had a soft spot for The Secret Garden. I adored the 1993 adaptation when I was little and I finally read the book for my Popular Victorian Fiction module at university and loved it. I love Mary Lennox; she's grumpy and heartwarming, and a very good gardener to boot!

I'm still not over it.

I'm sure my lovely friend Natalie @ A Sea Change won't be too impressed with my choice, knowing how much she loved this book, but Uprooted was one of those books I really had to struggle through to finish. I liked a lot of things about it but the writing style and I just didn't get along very well which is a real shame, but I'd like to try more of Naomi Novik's work in future.

Okay so The Nutcracker certainly isn't without adaptations. Not only is it one of the most famous ballets around, but it also has numerous film adaptations - I just haven't found one I've completely fallen in love with yet. I want an adaptation that's nostalgic rather than juvenile; I'm a big fan of slightly creepy fairy stories, so I'd love to see someone like Henry Selick direct a stop motion adaptation of it.

I think The Good Immigrant is such an important book right now, so I'm hoping to get my hands on a copy of it over the Christmas period! Then again, there are a bunch of other books I want to get my hands on, too...

If you'd like to have a go at this tag then please do! I'd love to know what your answers would be. For now I'm going to go ahead and tag:

Natalie @ A Sea Change

Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows Reviews

Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Mallory @ The Local Muse

Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight

Olympic Book Tag

The 2016 Olympic Games begin this Friday, which is bizarre; it feels like only yesterday I was watching the 2012 opening ceremony and Rio seemed so far away. How time flies.

Despite not being sporty in the slightest I do enjoy watching bits of the Olympics and luckily, for unfit bookworms such as myself, the lovely Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight has created an Olympic Book Tag so people like me can get involved with the celebrations without breaking out into a sweat, tears or any other kind of bodily fluid.

So, without further ado, let's do the Olympic Book Tag!

I actually found this really difficult to answer, because it's very rarely that I love a book from the very first page. Some of my favourite books in the world I wasn't sure about when I first started reading them, and some books I hate I thought I was going to enjoy when I read the first page. In the end I decided to go with My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland, because it was just what I needed when I read it and, from the very first page, I was invested, interested and entertained.

Technically it's more of a space trip than a road trip, but the title says it all: Becky Chambers' gorgeous debut really is about the long way to a small, angry planet. I love this book, and I can't wait to read A Closed and Common Orbit!

I really don't like love triangles, so I can't answer this one. I'm sure there are some brilliantly written ones somewhere but they're not something I enjoy reading at all.

I enjoyed Transformations, I love poetry that's inspired by fairy tales, but I'm still learning how to understand poetry; I read fiction and non-fiction way more than I read poetry, something I'm trying to rectify, so when I do read poetry I don't always understand it the first time around...

You can't get more summery than a summer-themed anthology! Honestly this anthology is a lot gloomier than I expected it to be considering how cutesy the cover is, so I'd recommend My True Love Gave to Me over this one.

There's a lot more violence in Dark Places than I was expecting, but it suits what's essentially a violent story. I wasn't keen on Gillian Flynn's debut, Sharp Objects, but this book is brilliant.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Fingersmith is the twistiest, turniest book I've ever read, and it's fantastic. Check out Sarah Waters if you haven't already!

I'm still not over it.

One of my favourite novels of all time, The Goblin Emperor's like a rich, delicious bar of chocolate you have to savour to enjoy. To be honest whenever I read this book I speed through it because I love it so much, but it's certainly slower than a lot of the more action-packed fantasy books out there.

I adored The Rainbow Fish when I was a little girl - it's one of the first books I can remember reading, or having read to me, along with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and I think I actually liked this one more than The Very Hungry Caterpillar...

If you didn't know already I love guinea pigs, so what could be more perfect than A Guinea Pig Pride & Prejudice?

I know it's basically SFF blasphemy, but I really didn't enjoy Among Others and I had to force myself to finish it. Check out my review here if you'd like to know more about my thoughts on it!

Whose friendship could possibly be better than Harry, Ron and Hermione's? I love these three dorks, and this series, a hell of a lot.

All three of these books are on my TBR! Dark Mermaids is a crime thriller that features Olympic swimmers who, rather topically, were doped by their government; The Fair Fight is all about 18th century female boxers; and Eat Sweat Play is a non-fiction book about the role of sport in women's lives.

Thanks to Shannon for creating a great tag, and if you want to do it then do it! I'd love to see your answers.