Month: January 2024

Top Ten Tuesday | New-To-Me Authors Discovered in 2023

Posted January 29, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 31 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023

I wasn’t sure if I had ten new authors I read in 2023, but apparently I did! Some of them I liked better than others, but I’m happy to say all of them are authors whose works I’d read again.

Top Ten New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023

  1. M.R. Carey – I read the Rampart Trilogy and I loved it. He is also the author of The Girl With All The Gifts series, which was turned into a movie I remember enjoying. I didn’t know at the time it was based on books, but I’m curious to read the series.
  2. Tomi Adeyemi – I read Children of Blood and Bone, the first book in the Legacy of Orisha series, and I’m intending to finish the series this year, hopefully.
  3. Madeline Martin – I read The Last Bookshop in London, and have since read The Librarian Spy. I also want to read The Keeper of Hidden Books.
  4. Bonnie Garmus – I read Lessons in Chemistry. It looks like she’s only got a single book released, but if/when she writes more, I’ll be reading them.
  5. Sarah Hogle – I read You Deserve Each Other. It was so well-written and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. It looks like she’s got plenty of books in the same vein and I’m going to make my way through them.
  6. Allison Ashley – I read The Roommate Pact. Fun, light-hearted, heartwarming contemporary romance. I’ll be reading her other books as well.
  7. Emma Straub – I read This Time Tomorrow, a time-travel story with a lovely father-daughter relationship I fell in love with. Apparently she’s the daughter of famed author Peter Straub. I’ve never read him, but I’ve seen many of his books around. I’m interested in reading more of her books as well as trying some of Peter Straub’s books.
  8. Rebecca Yarros – I read Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, and I’m obviously going to read the next books in this series!
  9. Louis Erdrich – I read The Sentence. It was not what I expected at all. It was simultaneously so mundane and yet magical. I love the glimpse into the Native American world, and I want to read more from her.
  10. Ashley Elston – I read 10 Blind Dates and it was such a joy to read that now I want to read more. There’s a sequel, and there are several other books I’m looking forward to.

Have you read any of these authors? Did you read any of these books? What did you think of them?

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Sunday Post | Happiness Is…

Posted January 27, 2024 by Haze in Sunday Post, Weekly Book Memes / 28 Comments

Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings. 

Happiness Is…

We got to go to the zoo this week and see the Penguin Walk! I loved it! They were so adorable and I loved watching them walk! The big furry brown one is Augustus, and he was chirping so happily, omg! It’s lucky they cordoned off the space and had people controlling the crowd and protecting the penguins from me, because it was all I could do not to throw myself at them!

Happy!

I also went down to the Central Library this week because it’s been a while, and that’s another happy place for me! I wanted to browse books I might not have found on my own (like I don’t have enough books already anyway!), and I ended up with more books than I can carry, so I just took a couple and placed a hold for the rest.

I asked about book clubs because the library used to have a whole bunch of them listed in the programs guide, but apparently, they have no more book clubs now, ever since the pandemic. Which is really disappointing to hear.

Not so happy. =(

I’ve been looking for an in-person book club for a while but haven’t found one that would be right for me. Logistics is an issue for me so there are limited locations I can travel to, and there was a couple that seemed to be “dinner and book club” things, which would be too pricey for me. A book club at the library would’ve been perfect for me, but oh well. I’ll keep looking.

Or maybe I’ll start one! Does anyone live in Calgary, Canada, or knows someone who lives here and wants start a book club with me? Lol! (I’m only half-joking!)

As for reading, I’m also very happy because I managed to read three books that I’d been wanting to read for a while!

I finally finished The Rook by Daniel O’Malley, Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher, and by popular demand, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I loved how many of you were telling me to read it and how much you loved it. Well, I read it! And I loved it! Thank you for your enthusiasm for the book! I’ve written a review if you wanna know what I thought!

Last Week on The Blog

This Week

I have started on Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries and I am loving it so far. I just got the second book in the Checquy series on audio today, and I’m excited to dive in as well! I’m happy I didn’t have to wait too long after finishing The Rook!

I am still planning to read The Dance of Anger. I know I said I’ll try to read it for last week, but I was caught up with other books and activities, and wasn’t in the right frame of mind. I’m still not ready to give up on it, but I’m not certain if I should give up on it for now and pick it up again a couple of weeks later. I’ll just play it by ear and see how I feel.

How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!

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Book Review | The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Posted January 26, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 7 Comments

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

This beloved story -first published more than fifty years ago- introduces readers to Milo and his adventures in the Lands Beyond.

For Milo, everything’s a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he’s got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the Island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason! Somewhere along the way, Milo realizes something astonishing. Life is far from dull. In fact, it’s exciting beyond his wildest dreams. . . .

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #32: Time frame spans a week or less)
The Classics Club Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I’ve had this book on my physical bookshelf for a couple of years, but if you want the real reasons, it’s because…

  1. Deb Nance @ Readerbuzz says, “Put The Phantom Tollbooth at the top of your list!”
  2. Lydia says, “The Phantom Tollbooth was excellent.”
  3. Sarah @ Exploring All Genres says, “The Phantom Tollbooth is one of my favorite books from when I was younger. I still have a well-loved copy on my shelf.”
  4. Nicole @ NewBookCatsReads says, “I read the Phantom Tollbooth when I was fifth grade! What a fascinating read!”
  5. Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits says, “The Phantom Tollbooth is one of my all-time favorite books.”
  6. Felice says, “The Phantom Tollbooth was one of my favorite books I read as a kid! I hope whenever you get to it, you enjoy it!”
  7. Cindy @ Cindy’s Book Corner says, “I HIGHLY recommend listening to The Phantom Tollbooth on audio. It was fantastic. My husband read the book and didn’t see why me and my kids thought it was so good…until he listened to it as well. He didn’t catch some of the humor. It’s also not a genre I would normally pick and only listened to it because of my kids. I have lost count how many times we have listened to it on road trips.”
  8. Sarah @ All The Book Blog Names Are Taken says, “I absolutely love The Phantom Tollbooth. It’s so clever and a lot of fun.”

So I listened! Thank you all for the enthusiasm for this wonderful book! There were so many endorsements, and I hope I didn’t miss anyone, but it definitely put The Phantom Tollbooth at the top of my list. I listened to it on audiobook because of Cindy’s endorsement, but I also flipped through my physical copy while listening, so I could look at the illustrations as I go.

The Quotes

“So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.”

“Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.”

“The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what’s in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that.”

“You must never feel badly about making mistakes … as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.”

The Narrator(s)

Rainn Wilson, and a special appearance from Walter Wilson (his son) as the voice of .58! I loved it. Rainn Wilson is a wonderful narrator and I loved that Walter Wilson made an appearance too. It was just perfect the whole way through.

The Characters

There are so many interesting characters in this book with such distinctive personalities. I loved them all! Milo is the main character, however, and we see things through his perspective.

My Thoughts

I cannot believe this is the first time I’ve ever read this book! Where has it been my whole life? I don’t know how I would’ve felt as a child reading this, but as an adult, it was just delightful and it brings me back to innocent days of childlike wonder and imagination. There was a lot of simple wisdom in this book, and it reminds me that we are never too old for magic.

My Feels

It makes me feel young again! It makes me feel like nothing is impossible, and that the world is filled with infinite possibilities. It makes me feel like I am one of those infinite possibilities. I love it!

My Rating

5/5 stars. Is this book the secret to the fountain of youth?

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

Posted January 26, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 7 Comments

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

Thornhedge is the tale of a kind-hearted, toad-shaped heroine, a gentle knight, and a mission gone completely sideways.

There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

But nothing with fairies is ever simple.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He’s heard there’s a curse here that needs breaking, but it’s a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #24: A cover without people on it)

The Reason

I am a huge fan of T. Kingfisher. So much so that I didn’t actually know what this book was about before going into it, only that I wanted to read it because it’s by T. Kingfisher. I guessed that it might have been Sleeping Beauty-related because of the title, but I didn’t know for sure until I started reading it.

The Quotes

“Learn what you can. Use what you learn. You have not failed yet.”

“Greenteeth did not slap one another—not out of any virtue, but because a slap was such a useless thing underwater. When greenteeth brawled, it was with teeth and strangling fingers, spines and claws.”

“It never occurred to her to doubt her welcome. Such was the gift of a child raised with love.”

“No. I have many mothers. If I am hideous, then we are hideous together. And that made it easier, because in her heart of hearts, she could not believe that her mothers were anything but beautiful.”

The Characters

Toadling – the main character. She is such an interesting character, even in a story as short as this, we learn so much about her. She was stolen by the fairies, lost her birthright and family of origin, and yet the family she found was loving and perhaps gave her a better life than she could’ve had. She is dutiful, a people pleaser, a little too harsh on herself, but she is also resourceful and steadfast.

Halim – the unremarkable knight. He’s not anything special. He is not handsome or renowned, he doesn’t have many conquests to his name. He’s not exceptionally brave or ambitious. I think his best quality is his curiosity and openness.

The princess – the sleeping beauty. The changeling. I think the quote below just about sums her up.

“The only curse is that she is a changeling. And she will be as cruel as she can, because that is the nature of changelings. Good spirits do not steal away babies to take their place. It is only the wicked that are sent to make mischief. And only the dutiful that are sent to try and stop them.”

My Thoughts

I’m a huge fan of fairy-tale retellings, and I’ve probably read a dozen retellings of the Sleeping Beauty story. I never get tired of them because there are always new perspectives, and even the “original” fairy-tales have so many different variations, and I love discovering them all. I love stories that flip the good guys and the bad guys because I’ve always believed that it depends on who’s telling the story, and we are always the good guys in our own stories. However, while this story is based off the Sleeping Beauty story, most of its charm comes from the “side stories”, the ones about Toadling growing up with the greenteeth, Toadling’s and Halim’s “meet-cute” and their conversations that help us get to know them, even the little snippets about how the world outside has changed, while the world inside the thornhedge makes its own little changes.

My Feels

I love how this story transports me to a different world. T. Kingfisher’s books has a way of doing that to me. It feels like a weird but pleasant dream, and I love that vibe for this book.

My Rating

4/5 stars. I loved it, but it’s not my favorite out of all her books (and she’s got so many amazing ones!).

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

Posted January 25, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 4 Comments

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

“The body you are wearing used to be mine.”

So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.

She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.

In her quest to uncover which member of the Chequy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.

Filled with characters both fascinating and fantastical, The Rook is a richly inventive, suspenseful, and often wry thriller that marks an ambitious debut from a promising young writer.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #29: Published in a Year of the Dragon)
2024 Finishing the Series Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

This book is a reread, and apparently I first read it in 2014, that’s ten years ago! I loved it when I read it back then, but the next books in the series weren’t out yet, and then I forgot about it for a while. The third book was released in 2022, which reminded me how much I enjoyed the first, and I wanted to reread it before moving on to the next two books since I’ve forgotten all the details.

The Quotes

“Yes, Minister, it turns out that there was a mysterious force that caused that plane to crash. We call it gravity.”

“Now, do you mind telling me why you have all these guns lying around? Are you afraid the paperwork will rise up against you?’
‘Oh, no. I’m going to use the guns as paperweights.”

“Checquy statistics indicate that 15 percent of all men in hats are concealing horns.”

“She felt a little pang of fondness for the woman who’d lived in her body. You couldn’t help liking someone who put all this effort into making you feel welcome.”

The Narrator

Susan Duerden. I had a little trouble with this one at first because she’s got a certain kind of inflection that she repeats over and over again, which makes the narration sound weird to my ears. Everything else was great though; the clarity, the volume, and so on. It was just this one thing. However, I did eventually get used to it and didn’t notice it anymore once I got into the story.

The Characters

Myfanwy Thomas is the main character, and she’s interesting because she’s lost her memory, but it’s presented as if she’s a new soul inhabiting another person’s body. It’s very intriguing. I love seeing her grow into herself, and discovering who she is. I like the comparison of her new personality and her old, and seeing that through the expectations of people who knew the old personality.

Rook Gestalt is only one person with four bodies. Yes, you read that right. The book uses “it” for reasons expressed in the book, but it was written in 2012, and I will use “they” to refer to Rook Gestalt. They have three male bodies and one female body, and two of the male bodies are identical twins.

There are several other very interesting characters in the book, but I had to mention Rook Gestalt because a single person with four bodies is just too good a concept, and hopefully that’s enough to make people want to read this book!

My Thoughts

I love the lost memory trope, especially when there are assassins after you, and you have to figure out who you are, what is going on, and who you can trust. I also love the supernatural aspects of the book, the worldbuilding, the different powers the characters have, and finding out how they work. There’s so much mystery and suspense, and also badassery. It’s just so good.

My Feels

The second time reading it was just as wild as my first ride! I’d forgotten a lot, so I didn’t know who the bad guys were and had fun discovering it all over again. There were some gory parts, and it got really thrilling near the end as well, but it was really good pacing overall. Things kept happening, Myfanwy kept discovering new things, and I was kept well on the edge of my seat.

My Rating

5/5 stars. Same as before! I can’t wait to start on the next book!

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Top Ten Tuesday | Books I Meant to Read in 2023 but Didn’t Get To

Posted January 22, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 58 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Books I Meant to Read in 2023 but Didn’t Get To

Oh, the shame!

Not only are there so many books that I meant to read in 2023 but didn’t, some of them go so far back on my TBR list, I don’t even remember what they’re about or if I still want to read them! These are just the few that I most want to read, and I really hope I get to them some time this year!

Top Ten Books I Meant to Read in 2023 but Didn’t Get To

Top-Bottom, Left-Right:

  1. The Rook by Daniel O’Malley – Well, the whole Checquy series, actually. This is the first book in the series, and I’ve read it a while ago. I meant to reread this and then the rest of the series in 2022, but I didn’t, and then I meant to read it in 2023, but didn’t. The good news is, I got the audiobook last week and have started reading it, finally! So hopefully I’ll actually finish the series this year.
  2. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir – I keep meaning to read this and the rest of the series too, but this one isn’t my fault. It took a long time to get to me on the waitlist, and I had other books in the queue as well, and didn’t manage to get to it before I had to return it again for the next reader. Let’s hope the timing works out for this year!
  3. Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer – And yet another series I meant to read. I hear great things about it, I just haven’t gotten around to it.
  4. The Glass Chateau by Stephen P. Kiernan – This is one of my favorite authors and I’ve read all his other books. I was so excited when this book came out last year, and I meant to read it, but I took it for granted and before I knew it, the year ended and it’s still unread!
  5. The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang – I loved the first book in this series, and I have this and the next book on my high priority list. The first book was good but a little heavy, and I’m afraid the next books will be too, so I’m procrastinating a bit.
  6. Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller – By all accounts, I think I’d love this book and I keep meaning to read it but I just haven’t picked it up yet.
  7. Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane – I’m not too ashamed of this one because it’s relatively new, but I originally planned to read it as soon as it came out, so I hope I get to it this year.
  8. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster – I’ve had this on my physical bookshelf for a couple of years and I keep meaning to read it. It was supposed to be one of the first books I meant to read this year too, but I haven’t gotten to it yet.
  9. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon – I won’t lie, I’m a bit intimidated by the size, but then again I do love big books. I’m not in a hurry to read this, but I do want to try to get to it before the end of 2024.
  10. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder – This series has been on my TBR for years and years and years. I hope to at least read the first book this year!

Did you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Are they worth still keeping on my TBR for 2024?

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Sunday Post | Things I Do When I’m Stuck Indoors

Posted January 20, 2024 by Haze in Sunday Post, Weekly Book Memes / 36 Comments

Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings. 

Things I Do When I’m Stuck Indoors

The weather this week isn’t as bad as it was last week, thank goodness! But it was still cold and I did not want to go out at all. We had planned to visit the zoo again if the weather gets better, but it didn’t so we didn’t. Hopefully next week will be better.

Since I was mostly stuck at home, I made the best out of it and spent my free time reading, crocheting, and binge-watching Veronica Mars.

To be more precise, I was re-watching Veronica Mars. I used to love the series back when it first came out and it has been a long time, so I wanted to revisit it again. I feel like some of the drama didn’t age very well, but the nostalgia is stronger than my “wokeness”, so I’m still loving the show.

I’m only in the middle of Season 2 right now, but I never finished Season 4 – I never wanted to at the time. Season 1-3 came out from 2004 to 2007, and Season 4 came out years later in 2019. There was a movie in between, in 2014, and I think I watched that, but I never watched Season 4. I read reviews that made me not want to, so I don’t think that I’ll watch Season 4 this time around either. If you’ve watched it and you liked it, you could try to change my mind. Maybe I should watch it just for posterity’s sake, I don’t know.

I also spent a lot of time crocheting, but I am very unhappy to say the project ended up ugly so I had to frog and now I have nothing to show for it and have to redo the whole thing. Ah well.

As for books, I managed to finish Light Bringer by Pierce Brown, The Switch by Beth O’Leary, and Don’t Call It A Cult by Sarah Berman. I’m going to take advantage of homebound days to read more, because I’m sure that once I get my freedom, I may not have as much time to read. I must admit, cozy reading days are the best things about winter.

Last Week on The Blog

This Week

I am still working on The Dance of Anger. I haven’t made any progress, but I’m not ready to give up on it yet. I’ll try again this week.

I was supposed to read Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries right after The Switch, but I just got The Rook by Daniel O’Malley on audiobook, and Emily Wilde is a physical copy. It’s just easier to listen to audiobooks and do chores and/or crochet. I’ll make an effort though, because I really want to read Emily Wilde!

How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!

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Book Review | Don’t Call It A Cult by Sarah Berman

Posted January 19, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Don’t Call It A Cult by Sarah Berman

They draw you in with the promise of empowerment, self-discovery, women helping women. The more secretive those connections are, the more exclusive you feel. Little did you know, you just joined a cult.

Sex trafficking. Self-help coaching. Forced labour. Mentorship. Multi-level marketing. Gaslighting. Investigative journalist Sarah Berman explores the shocking practices of NXIVM, a global organization run by Keith Raniere and his high-profile enablers (Seagram heir Clare Bronfman; Smallville actor Allison Mack; Battlestar Galactica actor Nicki Clyne). Through the accounts of central NXIVM figures, Berman unravels how young women seeking creative coaching and networking opportunities found themselves blackmailed, literally branded, near-starved, and enslaved. With the help of the Bronfman fortune Raniere built a wall of silence around these abuses, leveraging the legal system to go after enemies and whistleblowers.

Don’t Call It a Cult shows that these abuses looked very different from the inside, where young women initially received mentorship and protection. Don’t Call It a Cult is a riveting account of NXIVM’s rise to power, its ability to evade prosecution for decades, and the investigation that finally revealed its dark secrets to the world. It explores why so many were drawn to its message of empowerment yet could not recognize its manipulative and harmful leader for what he was—a criminal.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #18: An apostrophe in the title)
2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I’ve been curious about the NXIVM story for a while, and I was very interested in this book when it first came out, but I wasn’t in the frame of mind to read true crime at the time. This book was available on audiobook a couple days ago, and I just decided to finally read it since I signed up for a nonfiction reading challenge anyway.

My Thoughts

I initially thought I’d just dip my toes into the book, because I didn’t have other audiobooks available at the time, but I started listening and I was hooked. I couldn’t stop listening, I wanted to know more. I was fascinated, and horrified, at everything that happened, and especially with how it happened.

Honestly, I was worried about my own thoughts about it, in the beginning. When Berman wrote about the organization and how it was initially presented as an empowerment group, and then giving the examples of people who actually benefited from the techniques Raniere and his people used… I was like, it doesn’t sound so bad, it seemed like it actually helped some people overcome their fears. And then I read more, and it got worse, and worse, and worse, and I’m like, hey, I get it now.

It’s the boiling frog analogy. They pull you in with the good stuff, but then they increase the temperature, slowly, oh, so slowly, and before you know it, you’re boiled alive! It’s scary!

I also thought it was interesting how Berman mentioned that some of the techniques demonstrated to her were actually very useful and helpful tools, but in the wrong hands, Raniere’s hands, they were used to cause a lot of damage.

My Feels

My biggest feel from this book is fear. And doubt, and uncertainty. Also disgust. I’ve always thought of myself as insusceptible to cults and cultish thinking, but reading this book and seeing their methods, their processes… I wonder if I would be sucked in, attracted to all the good stuff they promise, and then slowly boiled alive. I would like to think that I’m smarter than that, or stronger than that, or whatever, but many of the women involved were smart and strong too. My disgust isn’t towards the women who were also victims of manipulation, although I agree that they were responsible for many of their own abhorrent actions, but Raniere knew exactly what he was doing and it is yucky. Ugh!

My Rating

4/5 stars. I was completely engrossed in the book. I think Berman did a great job telling the stories and presenting it to the reader. I’m glad I finally read the book.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Switch by Beth O’Leary

Posted January 19, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 4 Comments

The Switch by Beth O’Leary

When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen’s house for some overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She’d like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn’t offer many eligible gentlemen.

Once Leena learns of Eileen’s romantic predicament, she proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with gossiping neighbours and difficult family dynamics to navigate up north, and trendy London flatmates and online dating to contend with in the city, stepping into one another’s shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected.

Leena learns that a long-distance relationship isn’t as romantic as she hoped it would be, and then there is the annoyingly perfect – and distractingly handsome – school teacher, who keeps showing up to outdo her efforts to impress the local villagers. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, but is her perfect match nearer home than she first thought?

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I’m a fan of Beth O’Leary’s other books, and this one had been on my TBR for a while.

The Quotes

“You were healing. You’re still healing. You’ll maybe always be healing. And that’s OK. It’ll just be part of what makes you you.”

“If you’re holding someone close enough, you can be the shoulder and the crier.”

“Is it really an adventure if you don’t make at least one ill-advised decision?”

“I think part of what had made me so angry with my mum was the fact that I felt she should have been looking after me, not the other way around. But Mum couldn’t be my shoulder to cry on, not when she was bent double with grief herself. That’s the messy thing about family tragedy, I guess. Your best support network goes under in an instant.”

My Thoughts

I enjoyed the story, and I loved watching Leena and Eileen navigate their new circumstances, even if it was only temporarily for each of them. It was fun to see Eileen using online dating platforms, and I loved that we saw romance and sexual adventure happen for her. I loved how welcoming Leena’s friends were to Eileen, but I don’t really feel the same about many of Eileen’s friends towards Leena. I liked the idea and the potential of this story, but unfortunately, I don’t like the actual story very much.

My biggest issue, I think, is that I really, really, dislike meddlers and busybodies. I feel like the story wants to be a found family story, which everyone knows I love, but it falls short in execution. I’m not opposed to loved ones being busybodies out of concern, but the way it happens in this book is so much overstepping. I also feel like found family are people that become family because they prove themselves to be there for you and vice versa. In this book, it was more like they were there because of proximity. There was nothing substantial about Leena’s and Eileen’s relationship to many of the people involved. Some of them, yes, like Arnold, and Letitia, but a lot of the Neighborhood Watch were people that were just there.

It’s still a good story in itself, just not something I’d love.

My Feels

Another issue for me is more personal, and maybe it’s not fair, but this is about my feels for the book, after all. I did not like that Leena’s mother wasn’t there for her. I did not like that Eileen cared about her daughter’s feelings more than she cared about her granddaughter’s feelings. I don’t think that Eileen should have prioritized Leena over Marian, but I don’t think she should’ve prioritized Marian over Leena either.

“I think part of what had made me so angry with my mum was the fact that I felt she should have been looking after me, not the other way around. But Mum couldn’t be my shoulder to cry on, not when she was bent double with grief herself. That’s the messy thing about family tragedy, I guess. Your best support network goes under in an instant.”

The above quote feels personal for me, and I feel like O’Leary is trying to talk about the fact that sometimes you don’t get the support you need because the other person is also going through grief, and I get that, but I don’t get how it excuses Marian in this case. If you can’t look after your daughter because of your own grief, fine, but why do you think you’re entitled to her support then? Why does she have to look after you if she’s going through her own grief?

And why is Eileen getting angry at Leena for trying to have an honest conversation with her mom? Why is it okay to let Leena suffer for Marian’s avoidance? It makes me so angry!

My Rating

3/5 stars. I enjoyed the book, just not as much as I would’ve liked.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Top Ten Tuesday | Bookish Goals for 2024

Posted January 15, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 44 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Bookish Goals for 2024.

This topic is giving me a bit of anxiety. I’ve got bookish goals for this year, don’t get me wrong, but they’ve been mostly held loosely in a “we’ll see” way. Writing them down here and talking about them make them feel more serious, and I’m not sure I’m ready for that. On the other hand, maybe this is exactly what I need to help me achieve those goals.

Many of them are related and build on each other, so in a way, I could either easily achieve most of them, or fail at most of them!

Top Ten Bookish Goals for 2024

Read more non-fiction – Specifically self-help and reference books I bought long ago that I meant to take notes on. It’s just so easy to breeze through fiction, while putting non-fic aside because I feel like I need to put aside focused time for them.

Take notes and/or annotate books – I love annotated books, but I find it hard to read while annotating because I get so engrossed and forget to stop. I also can’t annotated borrowed books, so I’ll need some kind of notebook if I want to take notes on library books.

Read slower – I tend to rush through books and end up forgetting details, and eventually forgetting the stories. I have reread books without realizing that I’ve read them before! My whole reason for wanting to take notes is so I’ll slow down and remember the books I read.

Write reviews for books I read – Another way to help me remember the books I read, but more concise. I anticipate being very long-winded with my annotations, and the reviews will help me summarize my thoughts.

Read books I own – Related to the first goal, but not limited to nonfic. I just want to read some of the books I bought long time ago because I wanted to read them then and never did. It’s so easy to get caught up in the excitement of new books, and prioritizing library books because they have deadlines. There’s no urgency with books I own because they belong to me, but I should at least try to read some this year!

Prioritize older books on my TBR instead of new releases – I mean… LOL! Look, I know me, and I know I can’t resist new releases. We just did a TTT on anticipated new releases, ya know?! But I’m going to try to read more old books than new ones?

Finish some of the series I’ve started – So. Many. Series. So. MANY. I need to finish some of them or I’ll go crazy. I don’t know why I do this to myself.

Read more diverse books – I tend to not pay very much attention to what I read or who the authors are beyond the fact that the book’s premise interests me. I do end up reading many diverse books anyway, but I’d like to be more intentional about choosing them.

Read more in print – Physical books or ebooks. Last year more than half my books read were audiobooks, and that’s because it’s convenient for me when I’m getting chores done, and necessary for me to get to sleep, but that means I’m usually borrowing whatever audiobooks are available in the moment instead of reading physical books and ebooks I already have. I end up reading a lot of books I’d never heard of nor were interested in. On the bright side, I’ve also discovered some great books by accident because of this.

Reorganize my bookshelves – It’s a bit messy right now, ngl. And I’ve also got non-bookish stuff, random files, piles of paper, taking up space on those shelves because I have nowhere else to put them. I’d have to go through them all to clear up space.

DNF books I don’t like sooner – I’m really bad at this and I need to get better. Rationally, I have no problem DNF-ing books, but emotionally, I always hope that they get better and I keep reading to give them that chance.

I hope I’m able to achieve most of these. What are your bookish goals this year?

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