A Readers Round Up Q1

gone wrong.

This post comes a little late, but here none the less! When I envisioned writing this post in January I thought about all the good books I would have met and how this post would go. January me was full of high hopes. Instead by February I found myself unable to read anything. I had a brain fog which just misted over each time I opened a book. Suddenly it was taking me weeks to read a book that would usually take me days.

I put it down to lack of sleep, I think the broken nights grabbing an hour here before being up for hours rocking/feeding a baby to sleep for it to happen again within an hour took its toll and I couldn’t muster any enthusiasm.

Thankfully I’m through it. But rather than telling you all of the wonderful books I did manage to read (you can read my Irish fiction march post here) I am here to tell you all the books I DNF and why.

This post is to all the books I met at the wrong time. Some of them I think I might come back to, or maybe read in a different format than what I originally tried. As for me this can make a huge difference.

1. Creation Lake -

A French noir spy novel about an American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France. whilst weaving in philosophical questions about the Homo sapiens became the dominant species.

I actually really enjoyed this book it was just a slower pace than what I was looking for and it had a really great interesting sense of humour. It was also a book that I think really requires a lot of attention. I’m going to open up again, hopefully this year. I think maybe reading as an audio might help it flow a little more.

2. Eurotrash -

A story about a son and his mother. During the final days of his mothers life he checks her out of the mental health hospital to travel through Switzerland and Germany. The reader quickly learns that their family were Nazis and that most of the family struggled with substance abuse or some other form of deviant behaviour.

I picked this up after seeing it longlisted for the international booker prize. I just think this is when I can confidently say it’s not a book for me. The author had a distinctive voice and possibly an interesting novel.

3. Didion and Babitz -

As described on the Guardian “This account of the purported bond between Joan Didion and Eve Babitz, two fascinating chroniclers of late 20th-century America, is titillating but diminishes both writers”

I totally got swept up in the hype over this book and within a few pages I just thought to myself why am I reading this when it’s not really something I particularly feel drawn to.

4. The City Changes its Face -

20-year-old Eily and 40-year-old Stephen retrace the course of their love affair in search of what's gone wrong. A story about what happens when you’re in love but trouble still rears its ugly head.

Possibly the most upsetting dnf. The prequel the lesser bohemians is one of my favourite books. One that left me in awe how you can go about writing prose with such poetic clarity. This one however just didn’t flow for me, the focus was heavily on a movie and I constantly felt lost or lacking enthusiasm.

5. She’s Always Hungry By Eliza Clarke

Unsettling, revelatory, and laced with her signature dark humor, Eliza Clark’s debut short story collection plumbs the depths of that most basic human feeling: hunger.

Right now body image, hunger and problematic eating isn’t something I want to engage in. I have heard so many good things about Clarke so I’m going to seek out reading a different novel of theirs.

6. Wandering stars By Tommy Orange

Taken from masters review - An ambitious family saga spanning over 150 years, from Jude Star escaping the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864 to the Bear Shield/Red Feather family in present day Oakland. —a masterful follow-up to his already-classic first novel, and a devastating indictment of America’s war on its own people.

I loved Tommy Oranges first novel, I think that this was a heavy novel. It covers generations of violence, genocide and institutional/social erasures as well as traumas and addiction. Needless to say I’m looking forward to reading it when the time is right.

7. Martyr -

Taken from Goodreads - Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others—in which a newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a search that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum.

I bought this after every single person raved about it. I’m not sure I’ve given it enough time yet as I’m not as immersed as I had hoped. The writing is good and I liked the protagonist so I think next time I come to it I’ll hopefully get into it.

Did you enjoy any of these books? Let me know!

What books have you DNF this year?