Category: Monthly recap

February recap

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Hi there, we’re done with dark and cold February and I’m happy with that. In March I go for a few days to Florence in Italy and this greatly influenced my (current) reading (and I’m still planning some other reads set in Florence).

Read(ing)

I managed to finish 4 books, not bad for such a short month. It were all lighter books and it’s difficult to choose a favourite. I think I’ll go for ‘The marriage portrait’ because it was a slow but interesting read, also The royal secret was a one of the better books in the Marwood and Lovett series that I’ve read so far.

Number of pages read: 1.577 pages
Number of books finished: 4
Favorite read: The marriage portrait
Centuries visited: B.C., 13th century, 16th century, 17th century
Countries visited: England, Scotland, Italy and Greece
Currently reading: The most beautiful woman of Florence
Next up: No idea

Reviewed

Added to my TBR

What’s your favourite read of February?

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January recap

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I didn’t post a recap of December (I only read two books in December, Miss Austen and When Christ and his saints slept), but now I’m back for January. January was a good first reading month, with lots of diversity in terms of scenery.

Read(ing)

Circe is a book I kept for the perfect time. I wanted to make it my first book of the year. I loved it and know that it will be there in my favourites list of 2023. Although, I must say I still prefer Nathalie Haynes’ Greek myth novels.

Lost roses was another favourite, it’s about three women during WOI and the Russian Revolution. A bit dramatic and with many coincidences, but I was engrossed with it. The shadow king is a special book about a -for me- unknown period in time (Mussolini’s attack on Ethiopia in the 1930’s). The alchemist’s daughter was a light read on the train but couldn’t convince me to read the next books in the series. Three new to me authors also this month, I only read a book from Miller before (the praised ‘A song for Achilles’).

Number of pages read: 1.577 pages
Number of books finished: 4
Favorite read: Circe
Centuries visited: B.C., 16th century and 20th century
Countries visited: England, Russia, United States, France, Ethiopia and Greece (diversity ;))
Currently reading: The royal secret by Andrew Taylor and The lady of the loch by Elena Collins
Next up: Maybe The marriage Portrait or The shadow of Perseus.

Reviewed and blogged

Added to my TBR

Not so many books because it was a busy month.

How did you start your reading year?

November recap

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Time for the penultimate update of 2022. Can’t believe that I’m writing this 🙈.

Read(ing)

I finished another 4 books this month. Nefertiti was definitely my favourite of them. Great introduction to this period of Ancient Egypt. I had quite a diverse reading month, especially because they weren’t all set in England this time.

Number of pages read: 1.465 pages
Number of books finished: 4
Favorite read: ‘Nefertiti‘
Centuries visited: B.C., 16th century, 17th century, 19th century
Countries visited: England, Schotland, Indonesia, Egypt and Tasmania/Australia
Currently reading: Miss Austen by Gill Hornby
Next up: who will tell? 😀

Reviewed

Added to my TBR

How was your reading month?

October recap

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And yet another month has passed! Although I did finish 4 books, this wasn’t my best reading month. I was ill twice which prevented me from reading and the books I read didn’t always turn out as I hoped they would. Nonetheless, October is also the month that I passed my Goodreads reading challenge and abandoned my classics club for a while.

Read(ing)

I read three new-to-me authors and one book of my favourite author. North and South was my 40th book of the year and so my Goodreads challenge is now finished. I believe this is a week or two later than last year. I knew that I would finish 40 without problem. But I don’t want to add more pressure in raising my challenge.

North and south was a classic from my classic club list. And, however, this isn’t a bad book – I did enjoy it at times-, I can now say that I’m done with reading difficult language books for a while. Especially when they’re slow in pace. I’m just too busy with building my own house and life lately to be able to ‘work’ again while reading.

Number of pages read: 1.465 pages
Number of books finished: 4
Favorite read: ‘The honey and the sting‘, although it’s not my favourite Fremantle
Centuries visited: B.C., 17th century, 19th century and 20th century
Countries visited: England, France and Greece
Currently reading: Nefertiti by Michelle Moran (I love it so far)
Next up: no idea yet!

Reviewed

Added to my TBR

  • Little by Edward Carey is one of those books that has peaked my interest at a few times and that I want to borrow from the library some day.
  • Black drop by Leonora Nattrass, looks like an interesting new series for me to try out

What was your favourite read in October?

September recap

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September means getting back into routine when halfway the month you start to realize that time feels to move a lot quicker than during Summer. So when I started writing this recap, I thought it was a bad reading month. I didn’t read that much, did I? But no worries, I managed to read a normal amount of books. It’s just my imagination.

Read(ing)

I finished 4 total different books. I didn’t like ‘My brilliant friend’ and ‘Ithaca’ as much as I hoped I would. But Essex Dogs and Heartstone both could make it to my end of year list of favourite books. Heartstone might also become one of my favourite parts of the Shardlake series.

Number of pages read: 1.869 pages
Number of books finished: 4
Favorite read: ‘Heartstone‘, but it was difficult to choose that one over Essex dogs
Centuries visited: B.C., 14th century, 16th century and 20th century
Countries visited: France, England, Italy and Greece
Currently reading: Kate Quinn’s ‘The Alice Network’
Next up: might pick up a classic or something from my psychical shelves

I was very distraught to hear about the death of Hilary Mantel. Although I still need to read ‘The mirror and the light’ and I didn’t like her ‘A place of greater safety’, I love her Thomas Cromwell series. I believe her to be a great author and it is sad to lose her this soon.

Reviewed & blogged

Added to my TBR

  • Winter in Madrid by S.J. Sansom, to try some of his other work
  • Lamentation because of course I’m looking forward to reading the next Shardlake installment
  • I bought a copy of The marriage portrait. I haven’t read anything by O’Farrell yet (no not even Hamnet)

How was your month?

August recap

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As August was the last month of ’20 books of Summer’ (recap coming up soon), I worked through my list. Although, I also had my Summer holidays and didn’t read every day, I’m really happy with the books I’ve read this summer. Some of them will no doubt make it to my favourites list at the end of the year.

Read(ing)

I finished 4 books during August, all of them from my ‘20 books of summer‘ list. I loved Mrs England and enjoyed Weir’s book about Anne Boleyn a lot. But nothing beats a good Nathalie Haynes book. Stone blind is just pure perfection.

Number of pages read: 1.602 pages
Number of books finished: 4
Favorite read: ‘Stone blind‘
Centuries visited: B.C., 14th century, 16th century and 19th century
Countries visited: England, Italy and Greece
Currently reading: ‘Essex dogs’ by Dan Jones, it’s great so far!
Next up: no idea yet

Reviewed

Added to my TBR

Have you read anything by Nathalie Haynes yet?

July recap

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After a bit of a strange month of June, July proved to be a better month with lots of sunshine and less stress.

Read(ing)

I finished two books that I started in May and read three more this month. Not bad at all. I loved ‘The price of blood’ and ‘That bonesetter woman’ A LOT. So this was a great reading month. I’m at 8/20 books of summer now, so I’m aiming to finish around 10-12 books :).

Number of pages read: 2.136 pages
Number of books finished: 5
Favorite read: That bonesetter woman, closely followed by ‘The price of blood’
Centuries visited: 11th century, 15th century, 16th century, 18th century and 20th century
Countries visited: England & Scotland, United States and Greece (Constantinople)
Currently reading: City of masks by S.D. Sykes
Next up: because of a few review copy’s, I need to get back to my ‘20 books of summer list‘ I guess :).

Reviewed

Blogged

Watched

  • I’m in the middle of ‘The last kingdom’ season 5 – the final season that is now less following the books but I still like the story though.
  • We also started watching ‘Vikings: Valhalla’ and I like it more at the moment than the last seasons of Vikings. It’s such an interesting period to finally see on screen.

Added to my TBR

Are you enjoying summer?

June recap

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June was a month of ups and also many downs. I went to London for a week and really enjoyed being on a trip after two long covid years (and I bought a few books in the Waterstones, and with a few I mean a lot 😅). But there was also some bad news this month. So, I did read but not as much as I hoped.

Read(ing)

I managed to finish 4 books and I’m in the middle of two more. Quite a good start of my 20 books of summer challenge. As ‘Lord John and the hand of devils’ was almost as a whole finished in May, I don’t count it for my list. At the moment I’m at 3/20 after one month out of three. Still some work to do :).

I’m slowly getting through Cloud cuckoo land. It’s not the kind of book that I normally read, but I’m very curious to see how all the layers of the story will unfold. The heretic wind is a fast read about the life of Mary Tudor. I didn’t like it at first, but I’m enjoying more now that I’m in the second half of the book.

Number of pages read: 1.651 pages
Number of books finished: 4
Favorite read: The house with the golden door
Centuries visited: 1st century, 13th century, 14th century, 16th century, 18th century and 20th century
Countries visited: England, Italy, France and Greece (Constantinople)
Currently reading: The heretic wind and cloud cuckoo land
Next up: No idea yet 🙂 But I have the ’20 books of summer’ list to guide me

Reviewed

Added to my TBR

  • Sepulchre by Kate Mosse
  • The master of Measham Hall, this book was in every bookshop in London on display. I didn’t buy it, but it seems interesting
  • I still need to try Damian Dibben’s Tomorrow, but his newest book ‘The colour storm‘ seems even more my cup of tea.

How is your summer reading going?

May recap

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Hi all,

Time for another monthly update!

Read(ing)

I managed to finish another 4 books this month, although Ariadne was almost as a whole read during April. It took some time for me to finish ‘I, Eliza Hamilton’, as it was a slow paced book that left me a bit disappointed. I started The lost apothecary and Heresy, which I both finished in no time and enjoyed a lot! I’m also in the middle of one of the books in the lord John Grey series of Diana Gabaldon.

Number of pages read: 1.525 pages
Number of books finished: 4
Favorite read: Ariadne
Centuries visited: B.C., 16th century, 18th century and 21st century
Countries visited: England, Greece and America
Currently reading: Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
Next up: Any of my 20 books of summer list

Reviewed

Blogged

Added to my TBR

How was your month?

April recap

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Hi all, April was a crazy month at work, so I had slightly less time for reading. I stopped reading classics for a while and just worked my way through a library haul of some more recent books.

Read(ing)

The wolf den was definitely my favourite book of the month. It is set in the ancient city of Pompeii and tells the story of 5 women in a brothel who are trying to survive. Next, I discovered the existence of stave churches in 19th century Norway and read about the Wars of the Roses in the next installment of the Kingmaker series. At the moment, I’m finishing Ariadne, a Greek myth retelling that I’m enjoying a lot so far.

Number of pages read: 1.540 pages
Number of books finished: 3
Favorite read: The wolf den
Centuries visited: 1ste century, 15th century and 19th century
Countries visited: England, Italy and Norway
Currently reading: Ariadne by Jeniffer Saint (almost finished)
Next up: Probably ‘I, Eliza Hamilton’, as it was on my TBR for 2022.

Reviewed

Watched

  • I’ve started watching ‘Poldark’ again. It seems I forgot some things about season 1.

Added to my TBR

What have you read in April?