Yearly Reading Summary – 2023

Total Number of Books Read – 76

Fiction – 56 (73.68%)

Non-Fiction – 20 (26.32%)


Books Per Month:

Books Read Per Month
January810.53%
February67.89%
March79.21%
April79.21%
May911.84%
June56.58%
July56.58%
August56.58%
September79.21%
October56.58%
November810.53%
December45.26%
Average / Month6 
Total76 

Pages Per Month:

Average – 1,708

Best Books of the Year:

DNFs:

Moods from Storygraph:

Formats:

Genres:

Fiction Genres
Chic Lit2137.50%
Cosy Crime47.14%
Crime / Mystery814.29%
Drama23.57%
Fantasy47.14%
Historical47.14%
Historical Romance610.71%
Horror11.79%
Paranormal47.14%
Poetry23.57%
Total Books56 
Non-Fiction Genres
Autobiography / Memoir525.00%
Biography15.00%
Film / TV / Theatre15.00%
Historical Biography420.00%
History840.00%
Royal Family15.00%
Total Books20 

‘The Bear and the Nightingale’ by Katherine Arden

Genre: Adult Fiction – Fantasy

Published: 2017

Format: Paperback

Rating: ★

I was disappointed with this book. The premise sounded really interesting and talking to someone else who had already read it, I thought I would enjoy it.

I got over a third of the way through and I was basically just bored all of the way through. Nothing was happening and I decided that I would rather read something that I wanted to read rather than something I was forcing myself to read. The spirit idea and how it links to Russian folklore could have been more front and centre and perhaps it would have drawn me in more.

I didn’t particularly care about any of the characters. Vasya seemed the most interesting, but I didn’t want to know what happened to her. Even she seemed a bit insipid and droll, despite the author trying to build her up as some magical being. It didn’t work for me. There is a lot of description that didn’t seem to add anything to the plot or the atmosphere. Frankly, most of part one could have been dispensed with I think. The pertinent points could have been made with more oomph and in a shorter space.

I won’t be reading the second and third books in the trilogy. Onto my next book!

Monthly Reading Summary – March 2023

Top Book of the Month – ‘Elodie’s Library of Second Chances’ by Rebecca Raisin

Book Club Book This Month – ‘The Bear and the Nightingale’ by Katherine Arden

Books Read This Month:

Books Bought/Gifted This Month:

  • ‘Catherine and Anne: Queens, Rivals, Mothers’ by Owen Emmerson, Kate McCaffrey, and Alison Palmer
  • ‘Anne Boleyn: An Illustrated Life of Henry VIII’s Queen’ by Roland Hui
  • ‘Rebellion Against Henry VIII: The Rise and Fall of a Dynasty’ by Phil Carradice
  • ‘Henry VIII and Charles V: Rival Monarchs, Uneasy Allies’ by Richard Heath
  • ‘The Bear and the Nightingale’ by Katherine Arden
  • ‘Wars of the Roses: The People, Places, and Battlefields of the Yorkists and Lancastrians’ by Paul Kendall
  • ‘Infamous’ by Lex Croucher
  • ‘Elodie’s Library of Second Chances’ by Rebecca Raisin
  • ‘Payback’s a Witch’ by Lana Harper
  • ‘True Tales of Tudor York’ by Tony Morgan

Statistics:

  • Books Read – 7
  • Currently Reading – 2
  • TBR – 183
  • Fiction – 6 (85.71%)
  • Non-Fiction – 1 (14.29%)
  • Male Author – 0 (0%)
  • Female Author – 7 (100%)
  • Multiple Authors – 0 (0%)
  • Paperback – 4 (57.14%)
  • Hardback – 2 (28.57%)
  • eBook – 0 (0%)
  • Audiobook – 1 (14.29%)
  • Total Pages Read – 2,177
  • Average Pages Per Book – 362.83
  • Hours Listened – 10.75
  • Average Star Rating – 3.86