Monthly Round-Up | February 2021

It’s been a pretty good month all in all. The big thing for me was getting my first Covid-19 vaccination, which went well; no side effects of any kind and I’m now just waiting for a date for round two. Not much else has been going on though we’ve had several warm-ish days which meant heating off (temporarily), windows open and lots of birdsong. Spring is definitely on the way 😀

But what of the books?

Books read = 6 (including two re-reads)

Pages read = 2032

Goodreads challenge = 2 books ahead of schedule

New Books

So I promised a book haul and actually started pulling it together but it was embarrassingly long and a bit overwhelming so I gave myself permission to pretend that January & February didn’t exist and I’ll start noting new books in my weekly round-up post from March.

March pre-orders

• One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky – Welcome to the end of time. It’s a perfect day.
• Inventory of a Life Mislaid by Marina Warner – I love Marina Warner’s works and am excited to read this memoir
• The Cut by Christopher Brookmyre – Millie Spark can kill anyone. A special effects make-up artist, her talent is to create realistic scenes of bloody violence. Then, one day, she wakes to find her lover dead in her bed.
• A History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel – This is a secret history of our world like no other . . .
• We Shall Sing a Song into the Deep by Andrew Kelly Stewart – A Canticle for Leibowitz meets The Hunt for Red October so that sounds cool
• Maniac by Harold Schechter – the story of the deadliest school massacre in US history, which took place in 1927
• The Last House on Needle Street by Catriona Ward – allegedly the must-read Gothic thriller of 2021; approved of by three authors I really like so have to give it a go.
• Glossy by Nina-Sophi Miralles – the inside story of Vogue, presses all of my buttons 🙂
• What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch – a Rivers of London novella – It is the summer of 2013 and Abigail Kamara has been left to her own devices. This might, by those who know her, be considered a mistake. While her cousin, police constable and apprentice wizard Peter Grant, is off in the sticks, chasing unicorns, Abigail is chasing her own mystery.
• The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox – apparently this is a mix of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, American Gods and His Dark Materials, so you know, had to happen
• The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear – the sixteenth Maisie Dobbs novel is set in October 1942; I really need to catch up with this series; I’m about six books behind which is silly because I really enjoy this series.
• A Broken Darkness by Premee Mohamad – the second in the Beneath the Darkness series: It’s been a year and a half since the Anomaly, when They tried to force Their way into the world from the shapeless void.
• Where Stands a Winged Sentry by Margaret Kennedy – ‘Most people knew in their hearts that the lid had been taken off hell, and that what had been done in Guernica would one day be done in London, Paris and Berlin.’ Margaret Kennedy’s prophetic words, written about the pre-war mood in Europe, give the tone of this riveting 1941 wartime memoir: it is Mrs Miniver with the gloves off. 
• The Lost Village by Camilla Sten – The Blair Witch Project meets Midsommar in this brilliantly disturbing thriller from Camilla Sten, an electrifying new voice in suspense. 
• The Fall of Koli by MR Carey – the Third book in the Rampart trilogy – nature has turned against us so no change there….
• Redder Days by Sue Rainsford – Twins Anna and Adam live in an abandoned commune in a volatile landscape where they prepare for the world-ending event they believe is imminent. Adam keeps watch by day, Anna by night. They meet at dawn and dusk.

That’s a lot but March is that kind of month.

You can find what I’m currently reading on my sidebar, and I’ll be posting some reviews soon. Honestly. I promise.

Hope you all have a great reading week, and stay safe !