“Well begun is half done”
Aristotle
One of my resolutions this year was to write up my monthly recaps in a more timely manner – well, so far, no dice on that one! I think this quote by Aristotle lures me into a false sense of achievement, half done is a long way from complete, don’t you agree?
The first three months of this year were dominated by the Throne of Glass Series [I actually only finished the series in April] – which I absolutely adored and will eventually write up separately, so I thought I would condense the rest of the books into one or two posts to try to get back on track.
I’ve read a fairly varied selection in the start of 2025, but I have loved having an ongoing series alongside my other reads, so – what was on the list, that wasn’t Throne of Glass?
Books Read:
| Title | Author |
| January | |
| Becoming | Michelle Obama |
| Women Don’t Owe You Pretty | Florence Given |
| February | |
| The New Hunger | Isaac Marion |
| Ugly Love | Coleen Hoover |
| This Book Will Save Your Life | A.M. Homes |
| The Man Who Didn’t Call | Rosie Walsh |
| Super Chill | Adam Ellis |
| Convenience Store Woman | Sayaka Murata |
| March | |
| Sunrise on the Reaping | Suzanne Collins |
| Our Infinite Fates | Laura Steven |
| Night Train to Marrakech | Dinah Jefferies |
| The Minute I Saw You | Paige Toon |
| Good Vibrations – Coast to Coast by Harley | Tom Cunliffe |
Total keeping: 2 out of 13
“You were capable of imagining a different future. And maybe it won’t be realized today, maybe not in our lifetime. Maybe it will take generations”.
Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins is an absolute five star read for me, I honestly think it is the best she’s written. I remember being sceptical when A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was announced, in the sense that I felt like it was maybe an unnecessary revisit to Panem [I was wrong about that one, it was fantastic] and in the same vein SOTR is a heartbreakingly beautiful book. Suzanne is fantastic at linking the series to the Hunger Games and to the prequel, without it feeling clunky or out of place.
It’s impossible to read SOTR without drawing some parallels with 1984 by George Orwell and how the leadership rewrites both the history, and the current events to suit their own narrative. Sadly, we’re also seeing this with the current American leadership.
I’ve long maintained that the time that you read a novel, or any book really, can influence your understanding, and the impact that they story has on you. For me, reading SOTR – within a year of rereading 1984 – at a time when the world appears to be rolling back even basic human rights, was devastating. This book is beautifully written, with gorgeous characters and insights into the world of Panem that we have not seen before, but some of it – it’s feeling a little to close to home to treat as complete fiction. I’ve got a lot of thoughts about this, which I’ll cover on a separate post.
I loved it – it’s definitely staying, and I can’t wait to reread the series as a whole, maybe later this year.
The second book staying is The New Hunger by Isaac Marion – this prequel to Warm Bodies is a captivating look at the world in the aftermath of things going South. It focuses on expanding on the back stories of Julie, R and Nora and really gives an insight into the chaos of the world within Warm Bodies. It’s interesting to see the initial overlap of the characters, and to see how much more open Julie and Nora are before the world has completely gone mad.
For me, the themes of survival, loss, and the struggle in maintaining humanity come through much more strongly in this novella, and the world seems filled with much more despair, which is not to say its a depressing book. I really enjoyed it, Warm Bodies is a favourite of mine [book and film] and I’m looking forward to reading books three and four of the series. Whilst this novella does work as a stand alone – the end would be a little unsatisfying if you aren’t familiar with Warm Bodies, or planning to read it afterwards.
If you’re not familiar with Isaac Marion – check out his YouTube here, his videos are great!
“Good people see past their own f#cking lives.”.
Isaac Marion, The New Hunger
Total heading for new homes: 11 out of 13
Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven is an absolute beauty of a book, I read the whole novel the day it arrived. I do feel that there are some very close similarities to the Fallen Series by Lauren Kate – not to take away from it at all, if you enjoyed that series then I’d definitely add this one to your list. This is the first book by Laura I’ve read but I’m very taken with the idea of one of her other novels which is a retelling of The Picture of Dorian Grey – that sounds incredible. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed this read, I don’t see myself coming back to it, and so this gorgeous edition has been passed to a friend.
I’m not going to attempt to fully cover 11 books in this update but I feel I have to touch on Becoming by Michelle Obama. I have looked up to her for a long time, but reading this book was humbling, she is even more incredible than I had ever realised and I feel like not even half her achievements are widely known – definitely read it when you need a hit of inspiration.
I did not feel the same about Women Don’t Owe You Pretty by Florence Given – there are some good ideas in this book, especially if you’ve never picked up or engaged with anything feminist before – but ultimately I couldn’t finish it. I’m a little old for such simplistic ideas and I struggled to get past the fact that I find Florence to be incredibly performative, particularly in light of her out latest move to LA and shunning of feminist ideas. If you are interested in the general vibe of the book but want to support someone alternative I would suggest checking out Chidera Eggerue.
Another surprising book I didn’t finish was This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes – I have read this in the past and I absolutely adored it, I found notes from the first time I read it and I talked about being unable to put it down, being so impressed by the character development and the bigger ideas of what could happen if you open yourself up to the world. This time around, just not the same at all – I couldn’t really remember the whole story, and so I was looking forward to coming back to it but I just couldn’t get immersed in the story at all. It’s an interesting one in that there are no chapters – so it could be that I simply don’t have the focus for it now, or maybe I’ve just changed since I read it 15 years or so ago.
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata I finished but I didn’t particularly enjoy it, I struggled to relate to the characters and when I got to the end I felt slightly confused – I do wonder if I’m just missing the point, or maybe I’m not the target audience, but it wasn’t a favourite for me.
The Man Who Didn’t Call by Rosie Walsh and The Minute I Saw You by Paige Toon were both enjoyable reads, and ones I’ve passed on to friends on recommendation – definitely worth a read if you want something that isn’t overly complex. Both of them have great characters and interesting stories, not too simplistic but nothing too heavy.
Two last books that I loved but don’t see myself returning to are Super Chill by Adam Ellis – which is a hilarious compilation of some of his illustrations. I loved it but I tend to go to Instagram to see his latest work than come back to this book, I love his sense of humour and his work is fantastic.
Another fantastic read was Good Vibrations by Tom Cunliffe – this book is an insight into an America that simply doesn’t exist anymore, a time when there was an appeal of driving coast to coast and people looked out for each other. For a hit of nostalgia, whether or not you’re a biker I would highly recommend this one, Tom is an incredible writer and I urge you to check out his website to read about the many adventures he has been on in his lifetime.https://www.instagram.com/adamtots/?hl=en
So – all in, it was a pretty good start to the year, even if the update took a while! Look out for the next three month post coming soon, then I’ll get back to regularly scheduled programming!
As always, let me know if you have any recommendations! What are you reading over the summer?
Nx
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