Happy New Year!

Is it too late to say that?

My first post of 2022 is definitely much later than I anticipated, because I tested positive for Covid on Christmas Eve (timing, eh?) and have been really struggling ever since. Today is the first day in about three weeks that I feel semi-human, although everything is leaving me weak and exhausted. I dread to think what it would have been like if I wasn’t double-vaccinated, but hopefully I will start to feel more like myself again soon.

I had such great plans too. Reviews were planned for Annabookbel’s #NordicFINDS Month and perennial favourite Japanese Literature Challenge, but at the moment I can’t seem to muster the energy to write anything that requires too much thought.

I have read a couple of books for both those challenges already, but my poor brain can’t seem to muster the energy to write my reviews yet!

Strangely, I’ve been managing to read quite well despite everything and have got through some great books over the Christmas/ illness period.

I absolutely adored Station Eleven, as I figured I would, having loved The Glass Hotel. Now waiting with baited breath for Sea of Tranquility, Emily St John Mandel’s new novel which is out later this year.

I also really enjoyed We Play Ourselves by Jen Silverman, which had come to my attention via a review on Susan’s blog. This novel set amid the theatre world of New York was very smart on questions of identity, reinvention and art.

Less successful for me where both How to Kidnap the Rich and The Incendiaries neither of which overly impressed. How to Kidnap the Rich started with a bang, but the continuously snarky tone and vague plot wore thin after a while. While I liked the premise of The Incendiaries and Kwon’s prose style, I wasn’t keen on the narrative structure and found the both main characters stock and dull.

Build Your House Around My Body is an ingenious and original horror story, which was structurally intriguing, but could have been edited down just a bit to make it more focused.

All in all though, I did enjoy taking a break and reading some of the newer books on my shelves, before getting back to trying to reduce that infamous 746.

Three weeks is, I think, the longest break I have ever taken since my blog began and it made me realise that I may sometimes take on too much. This year I plan to ease off a bit for the first half of the year.

I will host Reading Ireland Month again in March, but with a reduced amount of planned reading and 20 Books of Summer 2022 will go ahead, however I will probably only commit to reading 10 books for that one. As for challenges throughout the year, if I have a book in the 746 that fits, then I’m in, but otherwise I may have to pass for a change.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and wish you a healthy and peaceful New Year. I can’t promise any reviews shortly, but I am looking forward to catching up on everyone’s blogs and seeing what I’ve been missing.

Uncategorized covid emily st john mandel jen silverman r o kwon rahul raina violet kupersmith