Then and Now #1 (7/18 - 7/25)

I'm realizing that finally having a summer holiday again means that my reading is majorly speeding up! Who knew that a 9-6 job in Sales that required overtime and exhausted the spirit wasn't conducive to reading... Anyway, I decided to join in on Sunday Post alongside Mailbox Monday from now on since I'm getting more reading done so it'll be nice for me to round everything up and start fresh!

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted @ Caffeinated Reviewer. See rules here: Sunday Post MemeMailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.  It is hosted weekly over at Mailbox Monday and every Friday they do a round-up of some of their favourite, shared reads!

Last week I got back to the Netherlands on Tuesday and spent the entire train journey reading The Jasmine Throne. I then took Toothless for his vaccinations and now he's on a diet which he seems to kind of be accepting, which is great! I also enjoyed watching the Opening Ceremony of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, especially the Pictogram segment which was just great fun!

Here's what I got up to last week:

Next week I hopefully have reviews coming up from Possession by A.S. Byatt, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten, The Wolf & the Woodsman by Ava Reid and Aftermath by Harald Jahner! 

These are the books that came in this week! The first two I bought myself, the final two came in through Netgalley.

Death in her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh (Vintage; 2021)
While on her daily walk with her dog in a secluded woods, a woman comes across a note, handwritten and carefully pinned to the ground by stones. "Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body." But there is no dead body. Our narrator is deeply shaken; she has no idea what to make of this. She is new to this area, alone after the death of her husband, and she knows no one.

Becoming obsessed with solving this mystery, our narrator imagines who Magda was and how she met her fate. With very little to go on, she invents a list of murder suspects and possible motives for the crime. Oddly, her suppositions begin to find correspondences in the real world, and with mounting excitement and dread, the fog of mystery starts to fade into menacing certainty. As her investigation widens, strange dissonances accrue, perhaps associated with the darkness in her own past; we must face the prospect that there is either an innocent explanation for all this or a much more sinister one.
I have been wanting to read something by Moshfegh since I first heard about My Year of Rest & Relaxation. So when I saw this in a bookstore I decided to grab it, especially as my granddad had just given me money for books! (I am eternally grateful for my family that indulges and supports my bibliomania!)

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, trans. Jamie Chang (Scribner, 2018)

The runaway bestseller that helped launch Korea’s new feminist movement, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 follows one woman’s psychic deterioration in the face of rigid misogyny.

In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul, Kim Jiyoung—a millennial “everywoman”—spends her days caring for her infant daughter. Her husband, however, worries over a strange symptom that has recently appeared: Jiyoung has begun to impersonate the voices of other women—dead and alive, both known and unknown to her. Truly, flawlessly, completely, she became that very person.

As she plunges deeper into this psychosis, Jiyoung’s concerned husband sends her to a psychiatrist, who listens to her narrate her own life story—from her birth to a family who expected a son, to elementary school teachers who policed girls’ outfits, to male coworkers who installed hidden cameras in women’s restrooms and posted the photos online. But can her doctor cure her, or even discover what truly ails her?

Rendered in eerie prose, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 announces the arrival of a major international writer.

I read so many good and insightful reviews about this book but realized I wasn't quite ready for it yet. But when I saw it I realized that now that I have the time to properly sit with it and think about it, it is indeed time. 

The New Home by Chris Merritt (Bookouture, 9/7/2021)

Freya loves her new home on a quiet suburban street. And her beautiful neighbour Emily is everything she’s ever wanted in a best friend. Finally, she has somebody to share her secrets with over a glass of wine. But as Freya watches her new friend setting the table for dinner one evening, she sees something shocking that makes her think that Emily’s life might not be as perfect as it seems. Days later, Emily and her daughter vanish…

When you meet Emily’s husband, you will think you know what he’s hiding.

You will ask yourself whether Emily and Freya really did meet by chance.

You will think you know what happened to Emily and her little girl the night they went missing.

But when you discover the truth, it will shake you to your core and you will lie awake at night wondering if you can ever really trust the people in the house next door…

Of course I couldn't go a week without requesting a domestic thriller! I love the way the blurb is phrased as well, directly addressing the reader and their expectations.

Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones (Head of Zeus; 9/2/2021)

Dan Jones's epic new history tells nothing less than the story of how the world we know today came to be built. It is a thousand-year adventure that moves from the ruins of the once-mighty city of Rome, sacked by barbarians in AD 410, to the first contacts between the old and new worlds in the sixteenth century. It shows how, from a state of crisis and collapse, the West was rebuilt and came to dominate the entire globe. The book identifies three key themes that underpinned the success of the West: commerce, conquest and Christianity.

Across 16 chapters, blending Dan Jones' trademark gripping narrative style with authoritative analysis, Powers and Thrones shows how, at each stage in this story, successive western powers thrived by attracting – or stealing – the most valuable resources, ideas and people from the rest of the world. It casts new light on iconic locations – Rome, Paris, Venice, Constantinople – and it features some of history's most famous and notorious men and women.

This is a book written about – and for – an age of profound change, and it asks the biggest questions about the West both then and now. Where did we come from? What made us? Where do we go from here?

Tis I, the girl who adores the Middle Ages. I can't wait to see what new things Dan Jones can bring to what I already know about the Middle Ages. Umberto Eco was one of the first to note we, in Europe at least, search the Middle Ages for our origins, so I'm intrigued to see how Jones picks that up!

So that was my last week and my new books! What's new for you?

Comments

  1. Hi fellow Dutchie! :D What did you think of The Jasmine Throne? I read that one to and definitely loved it!
    Your new books look great! Have a great week and happy Sunday!

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    1. #NetherlandsRepresent! I absolutely adored The Jasmine Throne as well, it was just so good! Thanks for dropping by :)

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  2. Nice new reads! Those are new to me ones. Hope you enjoy them all!


    Here's my StS

    Have a GREAT day!

    Old Follower :)

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    1. Hi Jessica, long time no see! I'm very excited about all my books, can't wait to see what you're been up to! Thanks for dropping by :)

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  3. The New Home looks like a good one for me right now! Thanks for sharing, and for visiting my blog. Enjoy your week!

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    1. Hahah it does! Although hopefully your new home won't be the setting for a thriller ;) Thanks for dropping by :)

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  4. Great covers and great review. I think this is my first visit to your blog. see you at sunday post @theglobaldig.blogspot.com

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    1. Welcome to the blog :D I'll be making a return visit ASAP! Thanks for dropping by :)

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  5. The New Home looks so good! I love Bookouture's books. They have so many good thriller and suspense stories. I hope you have a great week!

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    1. I realized last week how many Bookouture books I've been reading and loving lately, they're really knocking it out of the park! Thanks for dropping by :)

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  6. I get a lot of reading done on vacation as well! It's one of my favorite things about taking time off. Your dog is named Toothless? Is that from How to Train Your Dragon? Watched them with my grandkids and I loved them! Have a lovely week!

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    1. Holidays are the best time for reading, when you know you can really sit down and get lost in a book and don't have to rush of somewhere else within the hour! And he's a cat but yesss, that was the inspiration! And as soon as people make that link they find the name incredibly apt cause my cat is also very sweet but also a little silly! Thanks for dropping by :)

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  7. The New Home looks really good! I hope you enjoy it. Have a wonderful week ❤️

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    1. I can't wait to get into it and see what's up in that house! Thanks for dropping by and have a lovely week yourself :)

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  8. I liked the Opening Ceremonies too. And yay for more reading! My reading has been down but I hope it rebounds soon. :)

    I've heard really good things about Dan Jones so that book has my interest!

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    1. It was kinda sad to see no audience but I think they managed to put on a great (and sustainable!) show despite it all! Fingers crossed for a new reading spurt on your end! Thanks for dropping by :)

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  9. I managed to watch most of the opening ceremony. It was on quite late in Australia. The New Home sounds like a great read. I really enjoy a good domestic thriller. I hope you enjoy all your new books.

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    1. Aah yes, I can imagine! I realised some of the events I wanted to watch were on at 2am my time and that's just a no-go xD Domestic Thrillers has really become one of my favourite genres lately! Thanks for dropping by :)

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  10. The New Home is calling out to me. Have a good week!

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    1. Ooohh same! Be careful when you move in ;) Thanks for dropping by :)

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  11. The New Home looks interesting.
    Enjoy all your books.
    Have a great week!
    Visit my blog here: https://tinyurl.com/79rfsj3n

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    1. Thank you! I plan to dig into it asap if the stormy weather persists! Nothing like reading a thriller during a thunderstorm. Thanks for dropping by :)

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  12. Hi there Juli! The Netherlands! I'm from South Africa and my mother tongue is Afrikaans. So we will have a lot of similarities in language.

    Yea for holidays!!! Work really does eat up all our reading and blogging time. I also try to catch up a lot during holidays, but this passed holiday, I spend on packing and renovations at my house. Not much reading or blogging done! But that at least makes me look forward to the next holiday.

    Take care and enjoy your holidays!! Keep us updated with what you read.

    Thanks for visiting us....!

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    1. Ooh that's so fun! I had quite a few South African colleagues at work, so they would speak to me in Afrikaans and I got about 70% of it xD Packing and renovations do need to happen as well and then once you're all settled the reading and blogging will come on its own! Enjoy the rest of your holidays as well and thanks for dropping by :)

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    1. I knowwww!!! I think I need to post a picture of him next time because the resemblance truly is astounding! Thanks for dropping by :)

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  14. Looks like a busy week. The Jasmine Throne sounds good.
    Enjoy your time off with lots of Happy Reading!

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    1. It was so I truly did absolutely nothing except read this weekend! Thanks for dropping by :)

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  15. Death in her Hands interests me, but I have a couple books by Ottessa Moshfegh on my shelf that I need to get to first! New Home also sounds good to me. Have a great week, happy reading!

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    1. This is my first one by her so if it hits the spot I will be getting onto the rest of her catalogue ASAP! Thanks for dropping by :)

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  16. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 has captured my attention. Happy reading with these latest.

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    1. It sounds like a great read that I'm going to take my time for! Thanks for dropping by :)

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  17. I like the looks of THE NEW HOME.

    ENJOY all of your books.

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    1. It looks very intriguing and like every new renter/buyer's worst nightmare! Thanks for dropping by :)

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