Weekly Wrap Up / 4 – 11 January 2021

Hello readers!

It’s nearly mid-January, my gosh. I was on vacation until yesterday, so I got lots of reading done this year already – with 6 books finished, 1 DNF-ed and two bricks started. I made good progress on Anna Karenina and I’m confident I can finish it this month still, even though I’m back to work. I’ve been on a fantasy mood and ended up reading 4 fantasy books (including the one I’m still not done with), 1 poetry and 1 historical YA. I’ve also had fun reading a couple middle grade books, which I NEVER do but this vacation they were calling my name.

This week I received from Netgalley:

Very excited for Sandhya Menon’s first adult novel – I think I’ll be on the mood for a romance sometime soon, and I loved When Dimple Met Rishi.

Weekly Wrap Up

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A Crime in the Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne / 3 stars

I read this as part of my goal to read (almost) all Women’s Prize for Fiction winners, and this was also a group read with a few other (brilliant) bloggers – Sarah and Emily were the only other two brave souls to read this book, and did not enjoy them. My lukewarm 3 star rating is the best this book got so far in the group and I was on a generous mood and on vacation when I read it so… pick this up at your own peril.

Princesas, bruxas e uma sardinha na brasa by Helena Gomes & Geni Souza / 4 stars

This is a collection of fairy tale retellings for children, focused on the roles of women and the stereotypes, with a feminist twist. I really enjoyed this! It’s only available in Portuguese, but it’s so lovely and the drawings were so creepy!

Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman / 3 stars

I’ve had this in my shelves for AGES and finally gave it a go! I enjoyed this book, although it had its flaws, it’s definitely a unique, intense and very cool book. Also surprisingly gory for a YA in my opinion (but then again, I read pretty gory stuff as a teen, so…).

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy / ongoing

I am really enjoying this! This 1000-page long Russian classic is a lot more accessible than it sounds, I promise. There is so much gossip and drama (and, unfortunately, farming) in this book and I’m enchanted. I’m about 40% through!

Illusion by Paula Volsky / ongoing

I’m still in the beginning of this 700-page old school fantasy, and I considered DNF-ing it on the first ~15 pages when I realized this was going to be about a rich, spoiled, racist girl finding her magic and learning to treat serfs as people, probably. But THEN! I read a little about this book and realized this was based on the French Revolution and this review convinced me to give it a chance. I am enjoying it a lot more now, plus the writing is really charming – richly detailed descriptions, lots of banter between characters.