Here we are, approaching the end of another reading year. I am genuinely shell shocked at how fast 2022 seemed to whizz past! It has been a year of adjustment for me for personal reasons and how I approach the way I read. I started to focus more on the books I had bought myself or been given as gifts, rather than taking part in lots of blog tours. I just felt right and I loved this much more relaxed approach. I have bought less books and loved reading the ones that have sat on my bookshelf for a while. This is an approach I will continue with in 2023 and I looking forward to discovering some treasures that have patiently been waiting for their moment in the spotlight!
So first up are the books I read from my own to be read pile!
Coming Up For Air by Tom Daley
I found this book to be really moving as Tom Daley talked about his life and the process of coming to terms with a life very much lived in the public spotlight!
Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce
This wonderful book is one of the reasons I refuse to pick my favourite books of the year until the year end. One of the last books read in December, it is a joyful, funny and moving read and I loved it!
Yours Cheerfully by A J Pearce
Just like Dear Mrs Bird, I spent hours of happy reading with the further adventures of Emmerline and Bunty. I do hope there is more to come.
People From My Neighbourhood by Hiromi Kawakami
I love Japanese fiction and so I picked this book as my suggestion for the December read for Cardiff Waterstones book club. It is an odd sort of read, with some stories working better than others. Definitely better read one story at a time, rather than all together!
Now for those book I read as part of a blog tour.
Dashboard Elvis Is Dead by David F Ross
The humour is dark, often incredibly so and I loved it. I laughed, I cried and I never wanted it to stop. You laugh because you care, you laugh because you know that within life, humour is often found at the darkest and most absurd of moments. In a book that deals with addiction, violence and so much more, by sometimes turning tragedy into laughter, means you are exploring human nature during its most vulnerable of moments and doing so, not to make light of a dark subject, but to give it a sweeter sense of pathos. Within the pages of Dashboard Elvis, tears are turned into laughter, laughter into tears and it is done within a novel that celebrates humour and characterization at their very best.
Dirt by Sarah Sultoon
In this wonderful thriller in which landscape is very much part of the story, providing a menacing and threatening backdrop to a story about secrets and lies.
Well that was the last reading month of 2022. Here’s to 2023 and more wonderful books to read.
booksaremycwtches 