I reckon we are a day or two away from peak bluebell. The woods we walk Scully through every day are full of secretive bluebell bulbs, and every year they look like they are not going to do much, then BAM, everywhere is blue. The aconites seem much later than usual so we’ve been gifted a beautiful mix of colours at the moment. It is so pretty and magical.
I am not blessed with a photo cooperative dog though, in about 95% of Scully’s photos she has her eyes closed, has moved suddenly or has a face on her that looks like she’s rather be doing anything else. Somehow in the other 5% she looks like a saint.
I attended the Del Rey Showcase last week and it was lovely to hear some authors speak and find out about lots of new books I want to read. I also shared my review of Last Night at the Telegraph Club.
You probably already know what I’ve been reading this week thanks to my readathon updates. I enjoyed all my readathon books. Moonstruck is such an adorable comic about a werewolf and a centaur who work in a coffee shop and then Across the Green Grass Fields is a Wayward Children book where the child finds a world full of centaurs. I was honestly a bit disappointed that Leigh Bardugo did not sneak any centaurs into Rule of Wolves.
I was keen to read the latest Grishaverse instalment before watching Shadow and Bone so that I didn’t get the actors stuck in my head when I read. I have now watched the first half of season one and I’m pretty impressed with how they’ve adapted it. It was a wise move to incorporate Ketterdam and the Dregs into the first season, as honestly the first book was a bit cliched (orphan finds out they are the chosen one kind of thing) but the whole world fleshed out is wonderful, and the later books are much more grown up. The production design is fantastic, and I love how the whole thing looks.
I’m all caught up on The Expanse TV show too so I’ll be needing to find a new thing to watch soon.
I also read The Rules by Tracy Darnton, about a prepper’s daughter who goes on the run to avoid her father and his abusive ideas about how they should live. Overall I enjoyed it. I did raise my eyebrows a bit at their fire-lighting scene. For all the talk about being prepared for civilisation not to exist, she is reliant on matches (a good survivalist would at least have a fire striker too) and she collects sapling bark for tinder, which wouldn’t be dry, yet they’ve got a perfectly good newspaper that they use anyway. So I think a lot was researched but maybe the author doesn’t have much experience of doing these things in practice.
I finished Sylvain Neuvel’s A History of What Comes Next too, which I’ll definitely be reviewing as I really liked this alt-history that actually ends up closely following real history.
New books acquired:
Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura
The Conductors by Nicole Glover (ebook)
[gifted] The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid (Del Rey)
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I am 3 episodes in with Shadow and Bone, and so far, loving it! I’ve never read Shadow and Bone, but did enjoy Six of Crows, so this is fun! 😁 Gorgeous photos, Ellie!