![]() Split into three parts, we journey through their friendship, their love and their lifelong commitment to one another. A tender tale about the complexities of friendship and overcoming circumstance, Gustav and Anton’s lives are at the heart of this book. ![]() This was my favourite book of the month by far the story sung to me. The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain (Vintage) – 5/5 This is an absolutely cracking debut and one that you should go out and buy asap! The lovely folk at Tinder Press are doing a huge marketing campaign around the book and I’m positive it will have great mainstream success. See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt (Tinder Press) – 4/5Įffortless to read and brilliantly claustrophobic See What I Have Done is the fictional retelling of the alleged Lizzie Borden murders. If you’re looking for something a bit different I’d recommend this as Barry’s writing style is like nothing I’ve read before – on top of that it won the Costa Prize and I know that many, many people have loved Days Without End. I think I might have to reread this in the future when I’ve got more time to concentrate on it and absorb it. ![]() I wanted to love it, but I just didn’t quite connect with the characters. I honestly felt so conflicted when I finished this. There were parts I sped through, however on top of this there were also parts which felt extended, never-ending and perhaps that was Barry’s intention – after all, we follow two soldiers and lovers into civil war that spans many, many years. It was full of suffering, wartime carnage and love some of the dialogue, thoughts and feelings made my heart hurt. Barry’s writing is beautiful and often made me pause to reread swathes of sections. I don’t know where to start with this one. It was a short book at only 143 pages but still felt like a slog to get through, which for me is never a good sign! As I said in my full review, I think this is a marmite book – you either love it or hate it.ĭays Without End by Sebastian Barry (Faber & Faber) – 3/5 I got annoyed by the narrator’s incessant whining. I took part in the blog tour for Ashes to Ashes and you can read an extract of the book here.ĭiary of an Oxygen Thief by Anonymous (NLVI Publishers) – 2/5Ī story of a misogynistic sociopath, this book didn’t do anything for me. ![]() We follow Heck from London to his hometown of Bradburn on his mission to catch the killer. Unfortunately on this occasion I preferred the concept of the collection rather than the process of reading it.Īshes to Ashes by Paul Finch (Avon) – 3/5Īshes to Ashes is book number six in DS Mark Heckenburg series and is a thrill-a-minute detective story packed full of gory action. Bray’s story in particular conveyed so much in so few pages, it even made me well up! However overall I felt that this collection of short stories was uneven and some of the other stories had too much magical realism in them for me, particularly as I prefer realist collections. I adored the stories by Carys Bray and Nikesh Shuklah – they were real, brimming with humanity, they stuck with me and left me wanting to read more by these authors. Each story is penned by a different author and looks at different types of love, from Agape (love for humanity) to Philautia (self-love). This collection of short stories explores how love is not a singular concept. How Much the Heart Can Hold (Sceptre) – 3/5īy Carys Bray, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, Bernardine Evaristo, Grace McCleen, Donal Ryan, Nikesh Shukla, D. So far I’ve already ticked off two novels, hopefully I can achieve this. This month I’m hoping to read a bit more consistently and will be aiming for a manageable chunk each day! I’ve got LOTS of review books piling up for June releases, so my (rather ambitious?) aim is to read a book every other day in May. I’ve had days of no reading at all and then I’ve gone through sudden bursts of reading all day and all night until I couldn’t consume any more, until I physically couldn’t keep my eyes open. I’ve had a funny month for reading – whilst I’ve managed to read a similar amount to previous months, it has felt stilted. It feels such a long time since I last wrote a monthly wrap-up post.
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