Catching Up

I have not blogged about my reading a very long time. It’s been eventful around here. I took on extra duties at work, our cat passed away, we adopted kittens in August. Meet Velma and Daphne.

Velma (left) and Daphne (right)

They are incredibly lovable and sweet. We adore them!

Here is a list of all the books I’ve read since I last wrote a review on my blog with a star-rating attached. I don’t think I’ll get around to reviewing these books. I started to write a catch-up post with reviews in September, and I was overwhelmed. Links go to Bookshop.org if you’re interested in purchasing. I would earn a small commission.

Keats: A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph by Lucasta Miller. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars A Bite-Sized History of France: Delicious, Gastronomic Tales of Revolution, War, and Enlightenment by Stephane Henaut and Jeni Mitchell. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Circe by Madeline Miller. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family’s Feuds by Lyndall Gordon. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School by Kendra James. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars The Brontë Myth by Lucasta Miller. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Watercress by Andrea Wang. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars The White Hare by Jane Johnson. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Of these books, my two favorites are Circe and Surrender (big U2 fan here). I was slightly disappointed by The Brontë Myth because it focused almost entirely on Charlotte Brontë. Anne was entirely neglected and Emily nearly so. I get why: we just don’t really know that much about them because they died before they became major literary stars whereas Charlotte survived long enough to see her fame blossom. I still gave the book 4 stars as it was informative. It wasn’t in the same league as Miller’s book about Keats. I thoroughly enjoyed both Madeline Miller books and plan to read more in that vein (seems like a burgeoning industry to retell Greek myths). I felt like The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue owed a little bit to the Doctor Who episode about Ashildr, introduced in the episode “The Woman Who Lived” (one of my all-time favorites episodes and characters).

Related posts:DraculaTLC Book Tour: The Bitch is Back, ed. Cathi Hanauer