How can it be February already?
The adage about time speeding up as you get older is definitely true and while January did feel like it had about a 1000 days it also rushed past in a flash and I just haven't had time to blog.
Its not that I've not been reading, January was quite a productive month book wise but many of the books are very advance copies that I can't talk about yet and to be honest after a crazy busy work month the last thing I wanted to do afterwards was open the laptop and spend more time in front of a screen.
Anyhow here's a quick review of 3 books that have stuck in my mind since reading them...
Christ on a Bike by Orla Owen (Bluemoose Books)
I'd seen lots of chat about this one on social media for a while and was really pleased when my library copy came in the day after publication - the blurb was very intriguing too:
Cerys receives an unexpected inheritance but there are rules attached. Three simple rules that must be followed.
As she settles into her new life, she begins to feel trapped: the past is ever-present. She convinces herself that the villagers are watching her and, desperate to control her own future, she tries to break free...
The tension in this grew and grew with every chapter and I found myself snatching every opportunity to read this book available - I'm loathe to say too much about it as I think the blurb tells you as much as you need to know...
Atalanta by Jennifer Saint (Headline Publishing Group)
I'm very pleased that the trend for retelling myths and legends is continuing, and that they are often putting the women back in to the story front a centre. I'd heard of Atalanta but didn't know much about her story, even after reading Mark Knowle's Argo and Rosie Hewlett's Medea in the past couple of years - both novels which cover some of Atalanta's story.
I am also hopeful (thanks to some of my secret advance reading projects) that this trend for retelling myths will branch out into other cultures beyond the Greek/Roman world.
Clara Reads Proust by Stephanie Carlier/Tr. Polly Mackintosh (Gallic Books) & The Iliad - translated by Emily Wilson (W.W. Norton)
Clara isn't out for another few weeks and my advance copy was provided by Gallic Books, but while I very much enjoyed the story and the writing/translation what struck me about this book was the timing...
The book is about Clara as she starts reading the novels of Proust for the first time and how while she was aware of them the details were all new. At the start of January I joined an online reading group to read The Iliad and very much like Clara I was familiar with a lot of the story but only the highlights. The synchronicity of the novel and my life definitely added to my appreciation of Clara!
