Another week gone by and my blog is now the grand old age of ten. Last week I shared my Spring TBR and a review of Kazuo Ishiguro’s new book, Klara and the Sun.

Sign-ups are now open for Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon and I highly recommend joining in, even if you can only do a few hours. It’s on April 24th, and if you’re in Europe, it’s pretty much a weekend event, starting early Saturday afternoon. I have volunteered for the last few readathons but I am currently dithering over that; I feel like I might just spend that time blog hopping and cheerleading instead.

I’ll be posting a little blogoversary giveaway soon, I was trying to come up with something different but also want to keep it open internationally and kept coming up against issues. So it will probably be the usual book offering, but I guess if you’re here you like books!

I ticked off one of the more difficult (for me at least) Popsugar prompts last week with The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey for “magical realism”. I always struggle with this genre, I think I just want more fantasy, less reality. This had a powerful start, especially with violence against women in the forefront of our minds right now, but I got a bit bored in the middle. Then after it picked up again, I was left with the feeling that it was a rather depressing message, men are terrible to women, but women are also terrible to women, usually because of men? It was good to read something with a Caribbean setting though.

I finished listening to Nikesh Shukla’s memoir Brown Baby, which turned out to be hopeful and warm, despite talking about grief and racism, alongside being a new parent and his relationship with food. It’s told as if talking to his daughter, which contributes so much to the tone. Highly recommend!

I didn’t used to read memoirs at all, but now they are something that I quite enjoy on audio, especially if it’s someone I like on social media or they have a fascinating sounding life.

I’m now reading Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff Vandermeer for review (why yes, it is a book on my Spring TBR) and listening to Future Perfect by Felicia Yap.

New books acquired:

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
[gifted] The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri (Orbit)
Future Perfect by Felicia Yap (audio)