totallynotreadingatwork

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did somebody say MerMay 🧜‍♀️ ?!?!

we’ve got all sorts of queer mer-folks books for y’all in one of the curated lists we’re highlighting on our home page this month 🌊

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my best tip for anyone trying to get back into reading is to remember that you can read books to avoid other responsibilities in ur life and it can become a vice if you play your cards right

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I need a month where I just sit there and do nothing but read all the books on my shelf but to be clear I am also paid for it

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I love waking up and starting the day with a lesbian romance book

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Getting ready for the book club! This month's pick is 'The Last House on Needless Street' by Catriona Ward

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Look how pretty it is

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Shiny new library books

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Just added up all the cost of all the library books I've read this year if I'd have bought them from Waterstones or Amazon and the total is £244.64 so suddenly I'm feeling a little less bad about reading so many library books this year

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Told myself I was only going to read books I already owned this year because I have a massive stack in my bedroom I need to get around to reading, so that means no library books (sorry library), no borrowing from other people, and no buying new stuff (unless it's part of a series I'm partway through).

Thus far, out of the 50 books I've read this year, the breakdown is a follows:

Borrowed books; 7

Library books: 23

My books: 20

And of the books I've read that are actually mine there are 5 that were bought this year.

Oops.

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One of these can double as a nickname for Jk Rowling too!

Some alternate nicknames for Sirius Black, courtesy of "Supernatural Clywd" by Richard Holland.

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Mini Book Reviews Again Again Again

I ran out of space but I'm nearly done now I swear.

Inkspell by Cornelia Funke, book 2 of the Inkworld series - Again, this is just such a good book; it's such a good continuation of the last one that you can't imagine the characters doing anything else. We get to see the Inkworld proper this time and it's such a beautiful fantasy world that you want to get your hands on a copy of the in-universe book Inkheart so you can read that story too, just to have more time in the world. The edition I have as well (not sure if it does this on every one but I expect it does) starts every chapter with a quote form a different book so that's brilliant for adding things to your 'to-read' list.

Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke, book 3 of the Inkworld series - Such a good finale to the series (though I suppose now it isn't the finale, what with the new one coming out this year). I can't say too much without giving away spoilers, but it's just such a beautiful, fitting ending. The world is still amazing, the characters are all brilliant and infuriating in their own unique ways so they really feel alive, and I just loved getting to be in the the inkworld again. I'm passing the whole series along to my mother so she can read them next, and I'm so excited now for the new one. I have no doubt it'll be just as good as these ones.

The Christmas Stocking and Other Stories by Katie Fforde - I read this one for a book club that I had to take over for a colleague and I thoroughly regretted it. Aside from the fact that the main themes of this collection of short stories seemed to be 'heterosexuality and Christmas' and I'm a lesbian who hates the festive period so I was never going to love it, the book was just badly written. Every story felt rushed and had too many characters and too much going on in it. It was also all very upper-class and snobbish, which I didn't like at all. A lot of the time, I felt like I was reading the first idea-layout for a full novel that hadn't even received a full first draft yet. The rest of the book club didn't like it either by the way so it isn't just me who thought it sucked I promise.

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Mini Book Reviews Again Again

Look I know I did one of these five minutes ago but I still have 20 books to get through here so bear with me okay.

Down Among the Dead Men by Peter Lovesey, book 15 of the Peter Diamond series - I don't normally read crime novels and this book reminded me why. It was a lot of police propaganda in places, a lot of nonsense in others, and overall just a bit boring. There was also a bit where someone being a lesbian was a major plot twist like??? what decade are we in??? (tbf it was written in 2015 but that's no excuse!). So yeah, didn't like this one much.

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor, book 2 of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series - Well, if I could marry a book series then this would be the one. It's beautifully crafted and beautifully written, and the worldbuilding in this one is incredible. I love the characters and the conflict and I can't quite articulate specifically how or why without giving too much away but seriously everyone should give this a go, I've even given it to my mum to read.

Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley - Oh boy was that one weird. It's not very long, but it doesn't need to be. It was cool and creepy and ominous in so many ways, and I think it would be good for people who like more gothic horror than slasher horror. I'll never look at a hare the same way again. TW for off-screen child death though. Like almost the whole book is focused around a couple dealing with the loss of their son.

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, book 3 of the Heroes of Olympus series - What can be said that hasn't been said already? Pretty sure all of Tumblr already knows that this man is a brilliant author and that these books are amazing so I'm not going to elaborate here.

Fractured by Teri Terry, book 2 of the Slated series - Very early 2010s dystopia but still very good. I really do very strongly believe that part of the reason these books never majorly blew up the way The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner did is because they're set in Britain, and obviously weren't marketed as much. I'm enjoying them a lot. They're not the very best things I've ever read in my life, but I would have devoured them as a teenager if I'd gotten around to reading them back then.

Forget Me Not by Alyson Derrick - Cute little lesbian love story. I enjoyed it well enough but it wasn't my favourite. It made me laugh in places, but I was never really invested in the relationship between the girls unfortunately. However, I was in a major reading slump at the time I read it, and was really stressed with work and life and stuff so maybe that was why I bounced off it.

Songbirds by Christy Lefteri - I'm not normally one for books that feel like they'd win a lot of awards (I like Blue Bloods for crying out loud!) but this one was very good indeed. I can't say I enjoyed it because the subject matter was really depressing, but it was very well written and had a lot to say about it's topic. It's about a live-in maid called Nisha who works for a woman in Cyprus but goes missing in chapter 1 and the rest of the book is her partner and her employer desperately trying to find her but struggling because basically no one else cares. It was a very powerful book in all honesty.

Rhosllannerchrugog, Johnstown, Ponciau, and Penycae: A Collection of Pictures by Dennis W. Gilpin - Just me out here reading some local history. Nothing that would really interest anyone who doesn't know the area, but it was fun to see places I know today as how they looked in the past.

The Dissolution of Valle Crucis Abbey by Derrick Pratt - Again, local history. It was a bit dry, as expected, but still fun to learn more about the local area.

Masquerade by Melissa De La Cruz, book 2 of the Blue Bloods series - Again, complete trash, but for some reason I love it. I think it's partially nostalgia because I first read these back in 2010 or so when I was 11 or 12 and loved them then, but sometimes I think it's because we all need something to just switch our brains off to. Some people like reality TV, some people like Ali Hazlewood, I like Blue Bloods. It's all the same.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow - This is one of those books that you get from the library and enjoy so much you immediately wan't to go out and buy your own copy of. Like I feel like I'm going to be incomplete if I don't have this book in my life forever. A truly beautiful world-hopping story about finding yourself and where you belong, and it has the 'book within a book' thing going on like in The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. Can't say too much without giving it away, but it's very good and I recommend it.

Revelations by Melissa De La Cruz, book 3 of the Blue Bloods series - It's Armageddon time baby! No not really but there is a little bit of a reckoning. That all obviously comes secondary to the terrible romance thought because of course it does and that's what we're all here for anyway. It's still thoroughly problematic and off the wall, but hey, 2000s vampire novels were never going to be sensible. Cringe is dead give me more vampires.

The Van Alen Legacy by Melissa De La Cruz, book 4 of the Blue Bloods series - Oh look, more vampires! Originally, and for most of the year, I decided not to read too many books form the series too close to one another in case I got burnt out on the series, but Blue Bloods made me break that because I was having too much fun with them. I'm officially caught up to all the ones that were out when I first read the so form here on out I'm in uncharted territory. I'm hoping it's still all just as trashy.

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan, book 4 of the Heroes of Olympus series - Again, we all know Rick Riordan is god so I won't spend too much time on this one but I will say that I think that one is my favourite of the series. The bits in Tartarus are really well done and I still love all the characters and everyone on earth should read this book series.

The Dark Archive by Genevieve Cogman, book 7 of the Invisible Library series - This is the second to last book in the series so things are really ramping up here and getting everything in place for the finale, and it managed to do all that whilst also telling a satisfying contained story. We've got another new main character, the return of an old villain or two, and adventure to be had all round. I'm very much looking forward to the next book.

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King - Another lesbian romance one I didn't really enjoy. I think I'm getting too old for coming of age stories like this. Or maybe this one just wasn't very well written. It was okay for the most part, but I didn't like the love interest at all and it seemed a lot of the time that the main character didn't either, which isn't ideal for a romance. Also, there's a running thing where the main character will watch aeroplanes flying overhead and 'send her love' up to the passengers and then we'd cut to a passenger on the flight for a few pages as they magically feel overwhelmed with a sense of love that helps cure all their troubles or whatever and I thought that was silly and I didn't like it. Not the worst thing I've ever read though.

The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan, book 5 of the Heroes of Olympus series - A cracking finale, even if I do still find the fight with Gaia a little anticlimactic. I love getting to hear from Reyna and Nico for the first time; they're some of my favourite characters. Honestly just a 10/10 series.

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Mini Book Reviews Again

The Cargo from Neira by Alys Clare, book 5 of the Gabriel Taverner series - Been a little while since I read one of this series because I was all caught up to publication, but I don't think that's going to matter now because it felt like this was the last book in the series. If so, it was a fitting sendoff, and a good mystery with a decent little happy ending for all involved. These books aren't sweeping epics or anything groundbreaking, but if you feel like you'd like 250-page historical mysteries then this is as good a place to start as any.

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, book 1 of the Inkworld series (of which there's apparently going to be a new book of this year?!?!) - Read this literally over a decade ago and decided to reread it now and god I'm glad I did; for starters, this book captures the joy of reading and love of books so well it's unbelievable. Second; it's just a really good story. I know it's part of a trilogy but honestly you could read it as a standalone if you wanted. Funke is a brilliant storyteller, and even though it's a kids book it's perfect for adult fans of fantasy too.

The Owl Service by Alan Garner - I'm not going to lie, this one was a bit odd in terms of language and sentence structure, but once you get past all that... the story is even weirder. It's sort of exploring one of the stories of the Mabinogion about Lleu Llaw Gyfes and Blodeuwedd, and I just thought it was a really interesting take on it. You see all of these re-explorations of Greek and Roman myths going on at the moment, and for some reason I've never thought to look into similar things going on with Welsh stories, but honestly this one was brilliant, if a bit mad.

Into the Fog by Alexia Muelle-Rushbrook, book 3 of The Minority Rule trilogy - Plagued by a lot of the things I didn't like about the previous two books; supposedly childfree main character gets pregnant and loves it; "xyz system is wrong and immoral and can't work but oh thank goodness it worked for me". I'm not a fan. The ending was also a naff copout, I felt, because half the point of this book was that the government shouldn't get to control your life, and the protagonist kind of ended the series by saying agreeing with that, but only because the goal the government was trying to achieve by controlling everyone will end up being achieved anyway if they stop, implying that if that wasn't the case then controlling everyone would be the correct choice to make.

Unrest by Michelle Harrison - Another reread from when I was younger. It really freaked me out at the time, but didn't have quite the same impact as an adult, partly because I'm not as easily spooked now, and partly because I remembered what happened. Still, I'd recommend it to any young horror fans. I've enjoyed it even the second time around; Michelle Harrison is an excellent author.

Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz, book 1 of the Blue Bloods series - Listen. Listen. This book is trash. It's kind of unbelievably rubbish. But I love it so damn much. It's from the Twilight era, this one being published in 2006, and it shows. It's hastily written, highly problematic, and seems to be a combination of Twilight and Fallen by Lauren Kate because the vampires in this book are actually angels. Like I said, it's trash and bonkers but I enjoy it because I'm trash and bonkers.

Ghost Knight by Cornelia Funke - I don't have much to say about this one really. My mum bought it for me off a charity book table for 50p so I read it even though it's definitely aimed at like... 7 year olds? It was okay. I prefer books with more substance but it was good for what it was and I have since passed it on to an actual seven year old.

Unwell Women by Elinor Cleghorn - A depressing read in all honesty; like you know the medical world is awful to women, but you never quite realise the extent of that, and it's crazy to see it all laid out there in black and white. I know it's not the world's most accurate account of the medical history of women, and some liberties have been taken to make it more dramatic in places, but I feel it should be appreciated for the spotlight it managed to help put on women's health.

The Spook's Revenge by Joseph Delaney, book 13 of the Spooks series - One hell of an ending to the series I'll tell you that. I do wish it had spent less time and effort setting up the next series however; I feel like sewing the seeds for a spinoff is fine, but if you do that too much in a final novel then it detracts from the main story and can make the ending feel a bit hollow because you know the victory won't last. Still, I enjoyed it, and I'm very glad to have come back to this series.

The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman, book 6 of the Invisible Library series - So this one is a heist book. I really enjoyed it. One thing I enjoy about this series is how each book is still introducing new characters and having new adventures. There's obviously overarching plot and you shouldn't read them out of order, but you probably could if you didn't mind missing out on the background stuff. Really, Cogman's books are just a very fun time.

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Okay no this is getting ridiculous I have no idea what the builders are doing up there but whatever it is they just made a crash loud enough to shake my desk

I'm on the reference desk at the library so it's really quiet except for the people asking me if I can do something about the noise of the builders who are currently fixing our roof.

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Someone 🙃🙃🙃 has shat on the floor of the toilets 🙃🙃🙃 and then stepped in it and trailed it all through the foyer 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃