Review: Bottled Goods, by Sophie Van Llewyn

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genres: Literary fiction, Magical Realism, Historical Fiction

Goodreads

Bottled Goods is one of the most interesting and unique books in the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019 Longlist! It tells the story of Alina, who lives in Romania in the 1970s and is suffering the aftermath of her brother-in-law running away from communist Romania and leaving her and her husband to deal with the suspicion, interrogation and violence.

A bit under 200 pages, this took about a couple hours to read, and I highly recommend it to people who love a bit of magical realism! This was my favorite part about the book, how seamlessly the author managed to add magical elements to an otherwise heavy story, adding some whimsical and funny moments.

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The Sunday Snuggle Week 20 2019

Hi book lovers!

I got a bit sick again this week, which gave me a bit of extra reading time (and a lot less working out time). I started and finished 2 books during my day off, giving me an extra boost on my Women’s Prize Longlist reading. I have now 4 books to finish until June 5th… let’s see how it goes!

Mini-Review: My Lovely Wife, by Samantha Downing

Rating: ★★★★★

Genres: Psychological Thriller

Goodreads / Amazon

I love a good cold-blooded murderess story – they’re hard enough to come by, but what My Lovely Wife does is something I hadn’t seen before, with a couple who decides to spice up their marriage by kidnapping and murdering young women.

It’s difficult to stand out among so many new thrillers coming out all the time, and by now I’ve read so many that they become predictable. But My Lovely Wife really stands out, and for good reason: it’s addictive, it’s fascinating and the main characters are so unapologetically cold and not trying to justify their actions. I am obsessed with this book and highly recommend it! I was stuck in traffic for a really long time and this got me through it without a hint of irritation. A sign of a really amazing book.

Review: Milkman, by Anna Burns

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Literary Fiction

Goodreads / Amazon

Milkman tells the story of an unnamed girl in an unnamed city, where the social rules to belonging are strict and don’t allow for straying too far. When the gets the unwanted attention of the Milkman and becomes the center of gossip in the city, she knows she’s in danger.

It took me several days to actually finish Milkman, because this gorgeous and witty book demands focus and can be dense to read at times. There isn’t a lot of dialogue going on and the paragraphs can be long, which by no means makes it a boring read at all, just a slower one if you’re used to, say, reading thrillers or other fast-paced stories. Although this was 350 pages long, it did feel more like 450-500 pages.

The Sunday Snuggle Week 19 2019

9Hello bookish people!

This has been quite a week… I didn’t read much at all because of the very long & stressful week at work. Hopefully next week is a bit lighter, but I guess we’ll see.

Review: The Pisces, by Melissa Broder

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Magical Realism, Erotica

Goodreads / Amazon

The Pisces is the most infamous book I’ve seen in a while, getting the same kind of reaction from people as did Fifty Shades of Grey when it came out – a snobbish dismissal and fascinated curiosity. When it came out, the only blurb I heard of was this was a book about fish sex. Then it made the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and I heard people I really trusted saying that this book was amazing and to disregard its abysmal 3.23 rating on Goodreads. I am SO thankful for those people convincing me to read it! So shout-out to the Women’s Prize Squad: Hannah, Sarah, Callum, Steph and Rachel. Definitely check out their reviews, they’re amazing.

eARC Review: Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Fantasy

Goodreads / Amazon

I have received this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I finished this book days ago, but I keep thinking about it. It definitely left an everlasting impression on me and I now need a physical copy on my shelf.

Middlegame is the story of two kids, Dodger and Roger. One day, when they’re both eight years old, they find out that they can communicate with each other without phones or actually being physically present – via quantum entanglement, they can speak to one another on the other side of the country and see what the others see. Almost – but not quite – feel what the other feels. Which, for Dodger, is the best thing that could have happened – she is a math genius, but otherwise hopeless when it comes to making friends, spelling and being normal. Roger is sweet tempered and has a love for language, finding in Dodger a great, daring friend. But they don’t know where they come from – they’re both born on the same day, have the same eyes, both are adopted… could they be twins? Could they be… not human at all?

The Sunday Snuggle Week 18 2019

Hello readers!

I am back from vacation and now I’m 75% pasta, I’m pretty sure. It’s been really nice but honestly I was missing my home a lot on the last days. Obviously, now that I am home, I miss being on vacation.

I haven’t posted the Sunday Snuggle in 3 weeks or so, so my reading list is quite longer than usual. I didn’t get too much reading done, but I’m quite pleased with the amount I did get done. On the other hand, I’m now quite late with reviewing these books and hopefully will be able to write the reviews based on the notes I took! Let’s see!

Review: An Anonymous Girl, by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Rating: ★★★★★

Genres: Psychological Thriller

Goodreads / Amazon

I just posted about The Wife Between Us, and right after reading that, I picked up this one! It came out this January, and I am hoping Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen will write lots of more books.

Jessica Farris’ life has never been easy, but now it’s becoming more difficult as her father loses his job and the bills for her sister’s therapies pile on. She signs up for a psychological test for the money she will receive from it. Jess doesn’t really know anything about the test, except that it’s about ethics and morality – maybe it’s some sort of personality test. She has no idea what she’s getting into…

What I Do When I Can’t Train

Hello readers!

Training as a routine thing, going to the gym every time you plan to go, never missing a workout, running 3x a week are all wonderful, idyllic dreams. Reality is: we get sick, we get tired, we get lazy, we go on vacation, we have to take care of other things that are priority. It can be frustrating to break your routine, especially if it’s for a long while.

When I can’t work out for a reason or another, here is what I try to do instead:

I Inform Myself

Researching things takes time. If I’m not working out but also don’t have to do other things instead (so, for example, if I’m sick or injured, or vacationing), I like to use the extra time to watch videos, read articles and generally get more informed about how I can improve certain weight lifting moves, know more about the effect of sugar on the body, how to improve my running etc. Here are some of the videos and websites I thought were most informative: