Intagram Inspired TBR

Since joining bookstagram I have seen so many amazing book accounts and posts!

I now have a huge list of books I want to read but a few have stood out for me. So let’s have a look at the books that Instagram has inspired me to buy!

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Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Recommendation by @elliesbookshelf_ on Instagram

I was drawn to this recommendation because Alice in Wonderland is such a popular story and I love The Queen of Hearts as a character so this retelling of her life is a must read for me! I love the simplistic cover with the red foil against paper white. I think the fact that the cover is simplistic is because The Queen of Hearts is so widely known and needs no obvious introduction. I can’t wait to read this book!

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Deeds Not Words by Helen Prankhurst

Recommendation by @carasbooklist on Instagram

I havent’t read up on feminism since university. I was so clued up about it then but unfortunately I haven’t made time to read a more up-to-date piece on the topic. I was drawn to this because Cara described it as essays on the topics of politics, money, identity, violence, culture and power. The author is also related to the suffragette Emmeline Prankhurst. I think this is the exact type of book I’ve been looking for!

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This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay

I can’t pin this recommendation down to one person in particular because this is all over my Instagram.

I was hesitant to read this because I didn’t want to cry but I want to know what goes on in a hospital from a doctor’s perspective. From experience of my mum being looked after in hospital, I have a deep appreciation for what all hospital staff do day to day and wanted to know more.

The book is in the form of diary entries filled with funny, heartwarming and tragic stories of all the patients Kay has met along his career. There is also political commentary throughout the book, the fact that the staff have to pay for their own parking (which has been a huge dispute in the news lately) and how severely underpaid the staff are. One line from the book I will take with me forever; ‘next time the government takes its pickaxe to the NHS, don’t just accept what the politicialns try to feed you. Think about the toll the jobtakes on every healthcare professional’. I think now more than ever we need to pay attention to this statment.

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What has Instagram inspired you to read?

Happy reading,

Charlon ♦︎

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April| Celebratory TBR: April Fools, Autism Awareness Day, Earth Day…

April brings many events such as April Fools, Autism Awareness Day, Earth Day and St. George’s Day. I wanted to create a TBR inspired by these events to celebrate them or raise more awareness around them. So let’s have a look into these events!

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April Fools Day

Our Stop by Laura Jane Williams

I wanted to go with a fool in love theme with a rom-com style book for this event. This is a commute to work turned love story where there is an ad posted in the daily paper saying ‘to the girl with the coffee.. I’m the guy who’s always standing near the doors… drink sometime?’ I’ve seen a lot of memes about these messages in papers before, bringing the daily commute to life, and thought it would be fun to read a story about it.

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Autism Awareness Day

The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida

This is a remarkable book written by Higashida, who’s autism makes spoken communication impossible, but an ambitious teacher taught him to point to letters, build words and paragraphs to communicate. This is an extraordinary account of what it is like to be autistic, to answer all the questions people have about autism and to see life through the eyes of someone with autism. This book raises awareness and is a bid for more education and awareness on autism.

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Earth Day

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

This is a remarkable novel which is a true love story to nature, the wild and the free. I have already read this but I could not think of another book that is such an ode to nature, a novel with a strong pull to the earth and its beauty. Aside from this focus, this is a masterpiece of a novel. It is a love story, an abandonment story, an outsider story and a murder mystery tied all into one.

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St. George’s Day

The Best of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Can you get more british than Sherlock Holmes? I have always loved the films and the series shows. I want to read the stories this month! St. George’s Day is also my birthday, so I prefer to refer to this date as St. Charlon’s day but the rest of the world is yet to go along with this.

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What will you be reading this month?

Happy reading,

Charlon ♦︎

March| Wrap-up: Gods and Monsters

I managed to read a lot in March, these are the highlights! There was some godly stories, and some horrors (and I’m not talking about the genre).

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I saw so many lovely posts for World Book Day at the beginning of the month, it’s so lovely to see sucha lovely event celebrated and to remember all the dress-ups and book fairs at school and the true beauty of reading.

I did do a celebratory TBR for March and in this post, I said I wanted to read Gods of Jade and Shadow to celebrate my younger love for gods, mythology and the magic in reading.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno- Garcia ★★★☆☆

I loved the chance to read Mayan mythology for this book. I loved the god of death and the romance element to this book but I thought that it would be so much more of a wild ride than it was and fell short in a lot of places for me. I wanted this book to be dripped in magic and I beleive there was a lot of lost opportunity for more magic in this book. Overall it wasn’t the best in my opinion but I don’t regret reading it at the same time.

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In celebration for World Poetry Day, I read Selected Poems.

Selected Poems by Sylvia Plath ★★★★★

I haven’t read poetry since university where I really didnt enjoy it because I felt like I didn’t understand it at all. I have previously read The Bell Jar by Silvia Plath (which I loved) so thought her poetry would be a comfortable place to start. I loved these poems! My favourite was Mirror and Resolve. I definitely want to read more poetry from now on.

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For Mother’s Day, I chose a strange one. This book was about a toxic mother-daughter relationship. The main character has to care for a mother who never cared for her after an Alzeimer’s diagnosis.

Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi ★★☆☆☆

I really struggled no to hate this. The female characters were awful to each other, I couldn’t ignore the misogyny in the book and really struggled with the concept. I feel bad that I didn’t like this and really want to re-read it and not get so hung up on the ‘bad mother’ concept. This title was later released for the International Women’s Prize Award 2020 and after these I felt even more like I had missed the main object of this book. I am aware that I’ve missed the underlying theme to this book but I really didn’t enjoy it.

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Ok, a five star read to change the pace!

My Policeman by Bethan Roberts ★★★★★

This book was a masterpiece! It’s a journal to the other lover in a triangle. Set in 1950s Brighton, Tom settles for Marion in an intolerant society where he cannot show his love for Patrick. It is a story of how everyone gets hurt when you can’t just be with the person you love. There was commentary on fascism, women’s rights and homophobia. This is my type of book, it was littered with greek mythological metaphor, literary references to Anna Karenina and said something about society. It was perfection.

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Then I ended March on a high…

In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan ★★★★★

Reading this was a Watermelon Sugar high! It was such a trippy book and was so so unique and interesting. Harry Styles was definitely inspired by reading this (he has actually read it) and I’d definitely recommend this read it was fantastic! It was set in a town called iDeath where everything is made of watermelon sugar, the sun shines a different colour every day and they live in an alternative version to society.

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I can’t wait for April’s reads!

Happy reading,

Charlon ♦︎

Bookstagram

I decided to delve deeper into the world of books and follow bookstagram accounts over on instagram!

These accounts are absolutely stunning, I want to be involed so decided to post a few pictures myself and everyone has been so welcoming, I can’t believe how nice everyone is, it’s so lovely. I feel like I’m part of a huge book club and have already got a handful of book recommendations and I am really inspired to read more fantasy and thriller novels.

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Has anyone else on here got a Bookstagram? I’d love to follow!

Thanks for reading,

Charlon ♦︎

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https://www.instagram.com/charlonsbookcorner/

My First Month on WordPress

I’m so happy that I’ve joined WordPress. I feel like I’m now part of a fantastic book community and each day I’m so inspired by book blogger posts! I have always tried to get my friends to read the same books, to discuss them and love the same characters. I feel like I’ve joined a huge book club and I’m made up!

Especially with lockdown, I have been reading so much more and am loving the escapism books provide. I work as a barista and in these very quiet months I have been working alone so I’ve been able to read all day at work. I can’t imagine having customers sat in the shop again and not being able to read, it is a weird thought.

It’s been so exciting to learn something new with WordPress, to have something to work on that I already love so much and not worry about what I’ll do in my spare time. I feel like I’m taking my reading hobby to a whole new and exciting level. I feel so much more motivated in life at such a difficult time in all our lives, I can’t explain the joy this blog is bringing me.

I love to read other blogger’s reviews, TBRs and general book thoughts. I wish I had joined so much earlier! I’m in awe at all your blogs and your writings.

Thank you to everyone who has read my reviews so far, you are giving my poor friends and family a well deserved break from my talking! 😂

Thanks for reading,

Charlon ♦︎

Featured image credit: Dollar Gill on unsplash.com