HELLO! Things have been pretty quiet on the old blog front during the current global situation, if you’ve been living under a BOULDER, it’s Coronavirus. My line of work is within local government and as such, I’ve been pretty busy at the moment! Although reading has and always will be a refuge of sort for me, my non-working hours have been mainly focused on self-care in the forms of cooking with my wonderful boyfriend, eating, sleeping, taking too-long showers, and dissecting everyday with the rest of my family, all of whom are also key-workers. It’s a bit of a stress-pot household. That being said, I have been granted by the Annual Leave gods, a week off of work in June -hurrah!

This was initially planned as a trip to Vienna, bouncing to Budapest, and back to Scotland, but alas it is much safer to remain in rainy UK than venture out. And so, books will be binged. I’m excited. This is pretty extensive, and ambitious. See below my To Be Read list for June 2020:-

1. Red Queen; Glass Sword; King’s Cage; War Storm // Victoria Aveyard

Grouping these together for ease – the Red Queen series is one that I have previously devoured and loved. About 2 years ago, I delved into the world of Mare and The Scarlet Guard, and it quickly became an immediate recommendation from my bookshelf to others who were looking for a dystopian read. Romance, fantasy, drama and thriller, this novel encompasses many genres and delivers well on all. Excited to re-read.

Blurb: This is a world divided by blood – red or silver. The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change. That is until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power. Fearful of Mare’s potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime. But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance – Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.

2. The Binding // Bridget Collins

Having sat on my bookshelf for MONTHS, I figure it is high time to give this book a read. Currently in the process of moving house, my bookshelf is in a state of boxes and tags, however The Binding had been earmarked in May as being a desired read for June/July. Alas, it is yet to be packed up, as I;m hoping I will get the chance to read it! Reviews of this are solid and it sounds like it holds a lot of elements that I seek from a good book.

Blurb: Books are dangerous things in Collins’s alternate universe, a place vaguely reminiscent of 19th-century England. It’s a world in which people visit book binders to rid themselves of painful or treacherous memories. Once their stories have been told and are bound between the pages of a book, the slate is wiped clean and their memories lose the power to hurt or haunt them. After having suffered some sort of mental collapse and no longer able to keep up with his farm chores, Emmett Farmer is sent to the workshop of one such binder to live and work as her apprentice. Leaving behind home and family, Emmett slowly regains his health while learning the binding trade. He is forbidden to enter the locked room where books are stored, so he spends many months marbling end pages, tooling leather book covers, and gilding edges. But his curiosity is piqued by the people who come and go from the inner sanctum, and the arrival of the lordly Lucian Darnay, with whom he senses a connection, changes everything.

3. Circe // Madeline Miller

Ah, remember this? I feel like Circe has been raved about for an absolute age, and is a book I actually thought I had already pruchased. Turns out I hadn’t, and finding it on offer recently piqued my interest again and had me ordering before I had even really considered it. Once it arrived, I can sure wholeheartedly that I am EXTREMELY happy that I bought this. For appearances alone, this looks beautiful on my bookshelf. Although, yes, I am moving so said bookshelf is currently looking a bit worse for wear. Based on a story many of you will no doubt know if you have an understanding of greek mythology, romance, intrigue and character development are going to be the central focal points of this read.

Blurb: In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child—not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power—the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love

4. Three Dark Crowns; One Dark Throne; Two Dark Reigns; Five Dark Fates // Kendare Blake

Eek – caught out with this one. If you follow my bookstagram updates you may have seen my post regarding the Three Dark Crowns series MONTHS ago. Yep. I confess. Yet to start it. Three Dark Crowns has high reviews and is acclaimed, and from what I read when starting this series, for good reason! It’s definitely the young-adult genre, but a fantastical story of siblings vying for the kingdom/throne/power arc? Up my street.

Blurb: When kingdom come, there will be one. In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born—three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions. But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose…it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins. The last queen standing gets the crown. 

5. The Five: The Lives of Jack the Ripper’s Women // Hallie Rubenhold

A book with a different tact – this is to be my only non-ficition read over these two months. I felt that my other books on this list are pretty fantasy heavy, and so needed something a bit more realistic to sink my teeth into. That being said, the subject matter of Rubenhold’s story isn’t the most pleasant I could have picked. I can recognise that, however I feel like it’s a story that need to be told, and thus deserves to be read. The legacy of Jack the Ripper is a bloody one; his victims are somewhat forgotten within the persona of who the killer was. A highly anticipated read.

Blurb: Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women. For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that ‘the Ripper’ preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told. Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, revealing a world not just of Dickens and Queen Victoria, but of poverty, homelessness and rampant misogyny. They died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time – but their greatest misfortune was to be born a woman.

6. City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels; City of Lost Souls; City of Heavenly Fire // Cassandra Clare

I decided to add The Mortal Instruments series into this as I have been itching to re-read it for a while. I feel like everyone who is part of the bookish community has read this at some point or another. The universe, and the characters, are worth every page. Much of the joy of Cassandra Clare’s writing (in hindsight) is the conenction between all of her novels. They’re all included within the same universe, following different timelines and locations. Almost every character from every book meets, either through direct contact or ancestral links. That is what makes these stories such a joy. If you haven’t read these already, you definitely should. And then tell me what you thought! [SPOILER?] For the sake of reading, and one of the only flaws in CC’s writing, do yourself a favour and add a couple of years to the ages of each character. Clary is not written like any 15 y/o I’ve ever met.

Blurb: When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy? This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know…

There you have it! My desire and stamina to read fluctuates a lot at the moments, the current state of affairs is pretty bleak. A lot of important things are happening right now. If you find enjoyment in reading then I would implore you to TRY to engage with reading and writing if you can. I do think it can help to give some reprieve. That being said, it is also important to engage with the resources and materials readily available via social media and the news. Educate yourself on COVID-19 and the ongoing implications and effects of it. Recognise and act alongside those others who are fronting the Black Lives Matter Movement. And keep reading both fiction and non-fiction.

BLM: https://blacklivesmatter.carrd.co/

COVID-19: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus