What I'm Reading This Month
Wow.
My TBR is frightening at the moment.
You know that feeling when you read a really good book, really enjoy the experience of reading, really look forward to snuggling up with that book at the end of a long day? When the memory of it just draws you back to it, chapter after chapter, and you long to read it when you’re not? Yup, that feeling… the same one that then makes you run out and buy like 15 books to keep that feeling going when this one is done?
I’ve been through that lately.
And the result is that I have the most intimidating to be read pile I’ve had in a while, looming (in a tantalizing way, but still looming) over me at the moment. I want to read all of them. But where on earth am I going to find the time?!
It’s been hard picking the books to focus on first because I am always itching to get to every book in the pile, but I think I’ve picked well this time, and this is what I’ve been ploughing through lately!
Promising Young Women
I had heard a lot about this book, a debut novel by Caroline O’Donoghue, about a young woman working her way through a male dominated workspace, replete with relationships she shouldn’t be in, confusion, and all the working of a classic female zeitgeist debut. It’s a little more serious than my usual women’s fiction fare, not as light as what I usually go for, but really addictive and eye opening to what the reality is for many young women in the working world today (a world I really don’t know anything about to be honest). I bought this on a whim because people I love like Dolly Alderton had recommended it, but I’m really glad I did, because its always great to get your hands on a novel you just fly through.
The Drugs That Changed Our Minds
This book was a really off the cuff decision for me. I saw it in the non fiction section of the massively massively massive Kinokuniya at Dubai Mall, and I picked it up thinking, hmm I’ve never seen a book about this before. Written by psychologist and author Lauren Slater, its a fascinating mixture of an exploration into 10 psychiatrist drugs that shaped the field over the last 150 years, as well as the authors own personal journey with some of those drugs herself. It’s absolutely riveting. I love non-fiction and its a rare and wonderful treat when I stumble on a non-fiction book I just can’t get enough of. And this is one of those books. The writing is gripping, the personal stories of the author’s own experience and raw and revealing, and the story of each drug is frankly fascinating and surprising all at once. I never thought I would say a book about the development of pharmaceutical drugs is amazing, and that I can’t wait to go back and read it at the end of the day, but there you go, I said it.
Every Breath
Call me what you will, but I’m a sucker for a new Nicholas Sparks book. There’s definitely a lot off about the novels he writes, them being more of less quite often the same trope, but that doesn’t bother me really, it’s a comforting feeling and one that I always want to come back to and rediscover. Every Breath in some special in the Nicholas Sparks universe though, because its actually loosely based on a true story, which is absolutely crazy (the opening introduction chapter had me hooked, and you need to pick it up to see why!). If you’re a fan of good old fashioned big hearted fiction, then this is definitely a read for you.
One Day in December
What makes a great November read? A book with December in the title. Hands down, a winner every time. I had heard so much about this book before picking it up, seeing it pop up in recommendations here, there and everywhere, and the little tag blurb on the cover really does make you want to pick it up and give it a read (that and that beautiful black an white and gold Christmas vibes cover). This book is all the things you want from a tear jerker Christmas romance. It’s got fate, love, missed chances, all the best bits of a warm winter novel. And its got all the hype for a reason. If you’re going to give yourself one Christmas romance read this year, make it this one!
And that’s all for now. Not much given how huge my TBR actually is, but it’s a start, and it’s also been an especially good reading month, because I’ve truly enjoyed every page of the every book I’ve read. Now, on to the rest of that pile!
