Recent Reads: the 37th, 38th and 39th of 2018.

I have read a mad mix of books, lately. I am definitely still loving not having to stick to a schedule this year – I’m just trying to not buckle under the pressure of proofs, now! But I must ask you readers… should I employ a loose reading routine next year? Maybe a gentle one, like ‘one non-fic per month’ or something? If you have any ideas, send ‘em my way via Twitter or in the comments below, pretty please.

Right, let’s get into this… 




'Giant Days', by Non Pratt (using characters from John Allison’s graphic novels). 

This story is about three rather unique young women thrown together in their first year of university. One of them is struggling to make friends and ends up joining one too many societies after an overwhelming Freshers Fair; one is desperate to befriend a gorgeous fellow goth in her lectures and will do whatever it takes to get her attention; one is furious to find someone from her past also ended up at Sheffield University and puts a contract in place to ensure they don’t get close… again. It’s clear they all need to keep their flatmate bond strong, and always have each other’s backs…
 



Oh, in case you didn’t see my many freak-outs on social media about this, I am actually sort of kinda IN THIS BOOK!??

Yep, there is actually a character called Grace Latter, and while she looks freakishly like me (and loves booze as much as I do, and is as easily ruled by her emotions as I am) this Grace is a clever medical student, who may or may not stumble into a cult type situation at some point… 




I don’t need to say it, but I’m gonna – Non Pratt is one of my favourite YA authors and, as I said in this blog post, she was one of the first I came across, so of course I blame her almost entirely for my obsession with this genre. This is just her very latest 5-star story.  


Giant DaysGiant Days by Non Pratt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I promise this 5* review isn't just because there's a character named after me in this story. I genuinely loved this tale of best friends at university.

View all my reviews



'Be a Mermaid (& be independent, be powerful, be free)', by Sarah Ford. 
 


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mama got this book for me recently (after I'd bought her 'Be a Unicorn'!) and it is truly perfect, and SO totally me. 




I bought another book in this series (‘Be a Unicorn’, read my review of that HERE) for Mama Latter, and then she bought this one for me! It was truly perfect. Some of my favourite, and most ‘me’ quotes, include: 

  • 'Mermaid thought bare-faced cheeks and made-up cheeks were equally beautiful.'
  • 'Mermaid thought Disney needed to rewrite the script.'
  • 'Mermaid was very happy eating alone in restaurants.' 
  • 'Mermaid liked to be referred to as Ms.'
  • 'Mermaid only ever dressed to impress herself.' 

So, yah. Buy this book and be like Mermaid. She's a badass. 





'She Must Be Mad', by Charly Cox.

Y’all know I love modern poetry. However, I found myself feeling a little disconnected from this book, and really my favourite parts were, as I said in my Goodreads review, the pages of prose between different sections of poetry. Charly is extremely talented, but I personally found it hard to connect with her poems. Everyone else I know seems to have loved this collection though, and I am so happy that lovely Hannah won my Instagram giveaway!  


She Must Be Mad: the bestselling poetry debut of 2018She Must Be Mad: the bestselling poetry debut of 2018 by Charly Cox
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Funnily enough, my favourite bits of this book were the prose parts, rather than the poetry. Charly really has a way with words.


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Comments

  1. I really want to read she must be mad!

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you're thinking about a reading challenge I just wanted to recommend something I did this year instead of a classic goal of how many books to read in 365 days (for me, they tend to end up as pressure and stress instead of being encouraging).
    The idea is to map what books I read in the previous year to see what genres/authors I tend to pick up, and try to map what I want more/less of (eg. more women authors/more POC authors/more non-fic etc depending on what I'd like to include, learn more about, am interested in etc). From this, I can make out mini-goals for the year instead of aiming for just a certain amount of books, and to me, it's made me be more concious about my choices of literature this year. Might not work for everyone, but it's a fun idea!

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