Reading 30 Books in 30 Days | Ep.2

February 2, 2021

Welcome to Episode 2 of the 30 books in 30 days reading challenge!

Check out Episode 1 here.

To give some structure, I’m going to talk about the books from lowest to highest rated i.e. 1 star to 5 star reads.

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A retelling of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew which I have not read. I was curious about Tyler’s writing after her nomination for the Booker Prize with A Spool of Blue Thread.

I ended up getting Vinegar Girl for a steal price on awesomebooks.com and was very disappointed with the reading experience. It included an unlikely love match, all with an intended higher purpose and the whole thing read like a sort of parody.

Perhaps I’m not a fan of retellings? I shall know once I’ve read some more of them.

What I do know is that as fun as Tyler’s book covers look, I won’t be buying nor reading any more of her books for the time being.

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A Pale View of the Hills was Ishiguro’s first novel and I definitely wanted to read it after previously reading (and loving!) The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go. His writing has definitely come a long way since.

A Christmas Carol was a reread around Christmas time, my 2-star rating has been re-affirmed. Myself and Dickens are not a good match. I do love this Penguin Chalk edition and will keep it in my collection just because of that.

After watching the Bridgerton adaptation on Netflix, I went on a bit of a Julia Quinn binge. I have two books left to read and Romancing Mister Bridgerton and To Sir Phillip, With Love are the weakest of the lot.

I wanted to read a Riley Sager book out of curiosity, there’s been a lot of hype around these books, but I threaded the waters carefully. I chose Lock Every Door as it’s set in NYC. The setting reminded me a lot of Gossip Girl. It was a good concept with an underwhelming conclusion.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ by far the longest one!!

Among these I’d point out The Rage of Dragons which was good but should’ve been called The Rage of Tau and can I check where are the dragons?? And I loved Haig’s Christmas series and Father Christmas and Me was a good conclusion, but the first book (which I read in December) was the best by far.

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The Viscount Who Loved Me is in my humble opinion the best book in the Bridgertons series so far, primarily because of the characters. Anthony and Kate are a ‘perfect’ match, their character quirks and witty banter spot on!

Winter of the World by Ken Follett – by far my favorite historical fiction author with his Kinhsbridge series, I’ve finally read through the second book in his Century Trilogy. It’s no secret that World War II fiction is my favorite (though calling wartime stories a favorite sounds wrong, but let’s roll with it for lack of a better word at the moment) and this follows the years leading up to the war, the war itself and its aftermath as well as the creation of the League of Nations i.e. The United Nations.

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender is a stunning piece exploring magical realism and an amazing audiobook. I may have rated it higher had it not been for the fact that I’ve been reading Murakami lately and no one does magical realism quite like him. Had it been my first foray into the genre, it would’ve been a 5 star across the board.

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami – second time reading it and it’s still packed with meaning and surprising to me. Therefore, likely not the last time I’ll read it either. There’s so many layers to this that I’d like to discuss with someone, I’ll suggest it as my next book club read.

Tilly and the Bookwanderers – the first book in the Pages & Co series, wonderfully illustrated. I’ve been recently watching a lot of How to Train your Gavin Youtube videos and this was one of his favorites. I’ve already ordered the remaining available books in the series and have been inspired to read more children and middle grade stories.

Please Look After Mom – the Macedonian edition was a gift from my book club friends and I actually think it’d make a great book club read. There’s not a lot of action, the plot is character-driven and introspective. Every character in a Korean family is reminiscing on recent events leading to the mother’s disappearance and its aftermath. Multiple POV and each one unique at that. I highly recommend this!

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Rules of Civility is 1) written by the author of A Gentleman in Moscow (one of my favorite books of 2020!); 2) set in NYC; 3) has so many quotes about books in reading that I used up all my sticky notes. I can not rate it anything less that 5 stars. A more detailed review may or may not come in the next few days.

The Hobbit – a reread this time in audiobook form and still love Bilbo’s adventure to pieces. A well deserved spot on my all time favorites list.

I Capture the Castle – I want to read more classics this year and this was a good one to begin with. It’s the story of a quirky English family living in a decrepit castle in the countryside. Left to their own devices, every character survives doing what they do best. One I’d reread, that’s how much I loved it.

From Blood and Ash – had you told me a few years ago (after reading Onyx) that I would’ve rated a Jennifer L. Armentrout a 5, I would’ve been sceptical. Advertised as fantasy romance (more so romance than fantasy TBH), I loved every second of this audiobook and I’m already flying through the second book.

And now, some stats: