Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope you had a great week of reading and blogging. As for me, this week was a little weird—I’ve been reading more and I got back to tackling my backlog of unreviewed books, which is great, but I also had a lot of unstructured free time while waiting for the results of my exams, which is not so great, since I don’t do so well with unstructured free time. It reminds me too much of the first weeks of lockdown.
On the bright side, the sudden surplus of free time made me eager to schedule a number of catch-ups with my friends, so I ended up doing yoga over Zoom three times this week (for some reason, all three groups preferred exercise as a bonding activity… I’m just glad no one suggested HIIT). And I had a great chat with Melanie @ Grab the Lapels about Butler’s duology over the weekend to cap off my week. So I’d say it was a pretty great week, overall.
Anyway, enough of me. On to the wrap-up!
Posts This Week
- Book Review: My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
- Mini-Reviews | An American Marriage & The Mothers
Books Read This Week
This week, I finished Butler’s second novel in the Earthseed series, Parable of the Talents. Melanie and I discussed this last Saturday and we both agreed that it was eerily prophetic of 2020, especially with its megalomaniac president who wants to “make America great again”. I’m also seeing words related to the pandemic, though there really isn’t a pandemic in the novel, like “The Pox” and “Dreamasks”, lol. I’ll be posting a full review of the series next week.
Books I’m Currently Reading
- I’ve decided to resume my (long-neglected… whoops) Women’s Prize reading with Actress. I was really looking, but now I find I’m really struggling to get through it. I was telling Melanie about it over our video call and I realized that I’m halfway through the novel and I STILL can’t remember the daughter’s name! I hate DNF’ing books, though, so I might just end up powering through it instead.
- I read a couple of pages from Leilani’s buzzed-about debut, Luster, and immediately got on with the narrator’s wry and offbeat voice, so I hope I’ll fare better with this than with Actress.
Books Added to My TBR
I’ve added a bunch of books to my TBR again, but here are the highlights.
- Paradise Cove by Jenny Holiday, reviewed by Holly @ Smut Report. This is a small-town romance between a big city doctor and the local town hermit, whom Holly describes as a “beefy sea god”. I added it to my TBR just based on that description, lol. Don’t judge me. I’ve added stuff to my TBR for far less compelling reasons.
- Fable by Adrienne Young, reviewed by Breanna @ Paws and Paperbacks. I’m a sucker for YA fantasy books with pirates and seafaring adventures, so I always automatically add anything with magic and vaguely nautical on my TBR.
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, reviewed by Melanie @ Grab the Lapels. I don’t usually find myself drawn to books on outer space and aliens, but Melanie’s review was just so convincing that I really want to give this one a go!
- The Unspoken Name by A. K. Larkwood, reviewed by Hannah @ i have thoughts on books. Aside from nautical YA fantasy novels, I’m also a sucker for fantasies with a fleshed-out mythological universe. Hopefully I’ll get around to reading this one, too.
That’s it for my week! Have you read or heard of any of the books I’ve mentioned? What have you been reading lately? Let me know in the comments!
Gil Reads Books 
Thank you for the shout-out! 💕 I also really love piratey/seafaring adventures, so I think you’ll really love Fable! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts! ✨
You’re welcome, and thanks for putting it on my radar! 🙂
I’m so happy that you’re back to posting book reviews!! 😀 I had no idea that Parable of the Talents was so relevant to the year 2020 – really looking forward to your review! And I’m sorry that you’re not enjoying Actress, especially since it was one of the more hyped books on the WP longlist! I found the first ~100 pages to be pretty boring, but thought that the story picked up after that. I hope it gets better for you if you decide to power through it!!
Thank you, I’m so glad to be writing again too 😭 It’s actually kind of consoling to hear that it picks up eventually—I was wondering if I was the only one who wasn’t getting the hype! I guess I’ll soldier on for now 😀
Ooh I’ve had my eye on Luster! I hope you enjoy it 😊
Thank you! I’m liking it so far 🙂
I keep seeing Luster everywhere now – really keen to read it & see what all the hype is about! Look forward to hearing your thoughts on it – & good luck with your exam results!
Thanks so much 🙂 I admit to picking it up because of the hype too, lol. I’m liking it so far though!
Thanks for the shout-out! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
I’ll be interested to see your take on the Chambers – I thought it was extremely heavy handed, in that there was so much focus on “found family” that the plot gets a little bit lost. Chambers does a thing where she introduces a conflict and then immediately resolves it, which is great for exploring a theme from different angles, but not so great for building tension or developing a unified plot arc. With that said – her books are easy to read and really engaging. I found The Long Way to a Small, Angry, Planet in a little free library, and then bought her next two books. (A Closed and Common Orbit is, in my opinion, the best one.)
Oooh, that’s interesting—I do like the found family trope and nowadays I just want something easy to sink into, so I might pick it up soon. Thanks for your take on it; it’s also nice to hear another opinion on her books!
Okay, doctor + hermit beefy sea god has caught my attention. Maybe the lovely doctor, who will obviously and yet unwisely wear heels, can vaccinate that hermit against his crusty exterior and find the lovely crab meat within! Dang it, Gil! 🤣
My library has it! The town is actually called Matchmaker Bay! OMG. Gil. We should buddy read this.
YES!!! just got a copy and skimmed the first chapter; it sounds so fun! Sadly, the doctor doesn’t wear heels, but I’m still interested in whatever shenanigans this has in store 🤪
I’m totally doing an all-blogger shout out to ask everyone to join me in reading this book. Lately, everyone is reading scary, horrifying books about murder, plagues, etc. You’ll see on Sunday!
Yay! I need something light after Earthseed, too. Bring on the fluff!
I regret to inform you that she does not wear heels, but she does run a vaccination drive. Flu shots for everyone.
SEXY!!!! LoL, thanks, Holly 🙂
I’m glad to see you’re liking Luster so far, I’m very excited to get to that one! Sorry that you’re struggling with Actress though- if I remember right I enjoyed the writing style a lot more than the story, and it was one of very few titles on the longlist that actually felt somewhat literary to me which helped at the time. I’ll be curious to see your thoughts at the end since you’re not reading it in the midst of the rest of the list, the timing might make it a different experience! Anyway, I hope you’re able to work out a helpful schedule this week to eliminate that pesky unstructured time. The rest of your week sounded good, at least!
I’m not sure I’m getting on with the writing style, either, maybe also because I’m more in the mood for character and story rather than just pretty writing. Which is sad, because I can imagine myself liking this had I been in a more contemplative mood! Not so great timing for this book, but oh well. Thank you, it’s certainly been a better week! 🙂
i adoooore The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet so i hope you enjoy it! i also loved Luster. 🙂
Oooh, glad to hear you loved both! Someone else also mentioned loving Chambers’ works, so I’m even more keen to get to them!
I just started Fable and I was hooked from the first page! I hope you enjoy it, too. ❤
Glad to hear you loved it! Makes me more excited to get to it 🙂
Thank you for the shoutout! I hope you’ll end up enjoying The Unspoken Name as much as I did (I am nearly always a fan of fantasy novels featuring gods, so I am not the most objective person here).
I am sorry you are struggling with Actress. I absolutely loved it but I found out that when it comes to literary fiction, prose and structure are mostly what I look for. The audiobook was pretty awesome, I thought, and worked well with the narrative style.
I feel I won’t be very objective with it either—I added it almost solely on the fact that there would be mythology! Oooh, maybe I’ll have better luck if I switch to the audiobook. Thanks for the tip 🙂