The Sunday Snuggle W52/2019: Birthday & Christmas Haul, Weekly Wrap Up

Hello readers!

Since my last post, Christmas has now passed and also my birthday! As a result, I have a lot of new books on my shelves, as I traditionally also like going to bookstores on my birthday and gifting myself a bunch of books. That, plus the ones I received, are quite a haul! I also did a 12h “readathon” with my boyfriend (and also my cat) yesterday, which helped with getting my TBR safely below 200 books again.

So here is my birthday and Christmas haul:

The Man Who Saw Everything I actually bought and opened before my birthday! I also already finished it, and it was SO GOOD.

I’ve actually read My Year of Rest and Relaxation on Scribd as audio, but I enjoyed it so much and I think I’ll love it more upon re-reading, and in print! I’m glad to own this now 🙂

I’m kind of in a nonfiction mood lately, so I got some science books.

The cover of The Deep is GORGEOUS, I love it already.

Weekly Wrap Up

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black / Goodreads Ongoing

I somehow didn’t pick this up this week! I think I was not really in the mood for audiobooks.

The Electric Heir (Feverwake#2) by Victoria Lee / DNF

I just have no more interest in the book, so unfortunately I’m DNF-ing it! After trying for a couple months now, I just don’t think the writing is for me.

Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff &    Georgia Hardstark / Goodreads  ★★★☆☆

I have finished this, and can definitely say I didn’t love it. It was entertaining, but I think my expectations for it were a bit off!

The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy  / Mini-Review ★★★★☆

On better news, I loved this one! This narrator is as unreliable as it gets, it’s absolutely brilliant and partially set at the end of the Cold War in East Germany, which is a plus for me. I loved that the main character had such a flexible relationship to gender and sexuality. Also it’s 200 pages long, so a great afternoon read for the holidays!

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak / Review to come ★★★☆☆

I was really looking forward to reading this, and while I thought it had many, many great things about it, it was mostly disappointing – the writing didn’t agree with me, and I felt like things were too rushed at some parts for me to connect emotionally. But it was so interesting to learn and mourn for those in the Cemetery of Companionless.

To drink coffee with a ghost by Amanda Lovelace / Goodreads ★★★★☆

I really enjoyed this book! I have read another two books of poetry by Amanda Lovelace, and I really liked that this one had a ghost vibe – it’s a heartbreaking collection about dealing with grief after her mother passes away, and about healing. Her poems are always so neatly written, with just as many words as they need and no more.

 

The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes / Goodreads  ★★★★☆

This is the story of a mermaid-like (wajinru) character called Yetu, who keeps the memory of all the history of her kind and relives it, every day. This is a powerful novella, and my favorite sections were the ones told in “we” style – I think this will not stick with me a whole lot, but it did encourage me to try and pick up An Unkindness of Ghosts again!

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe / Goodreads Ongoing

I have only about 100 pages left on this one, so it’s safe to say – I LOVE it. It’s seriously an amazingly written account of the Northern Ireland conflict from the 60s on. I did not know much about the Troubles before picking up this book, but it was still easy to follow.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen / Goodreads Ongoing

Didn’t pick this up this week .

Bibliophile by Jane Mount / Goodreads Ongoing

I didn’t pick this up this week.

What have you read this week?