Then and Now #13 (1018-10/24)

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted @ Caffeinated Reviewer. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme. Mailbox 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 can't believe it's already Sunday again! In the Netherlands the week for Fall holiday differs per region and technically this week was the time for my region, but here's my situation: I'm following classes in two other regions, one of which had their holiday last week and the other of which has their holiday next week! What a hullaboo, but long story short, I have a holiday next week which I'll hopefully spend in London with my dad and sister. I haven't seen them in so long, aside form half a day at my Uncle's funeral in the spring, so I can't wait to see them again for longer. 

It's been a good week for classes, presentations and work. It's also been a good week for reading, as I'm neck-deep into Lady Hotspur by Tessa Gratton and just started Dune by Frank Herbert. I also just got a new book which my cousin gave to me when we met up for a coffee this week! We share quite a similar taste in books and movies, so it's been lovely being able to catch up with her again and chat. But it's not been a great week, once again, for posting. I'm hoping that once the work pressure eases off a little in November I'll have more time to focus on reviews again. I've also been super negligent of the October Spooky Reads challenge I set myself... maybe I can squeeze them all in in the next week!

What I posted:

• Review: Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver
• Poem + Analysis: 'Franz Marc's Blue Horses' by Mary Oliver
• Friday Friyay: Lady Hotspur by Tessa Gratton

Recommendations

Lana del Rey's new album was released but I'm still deciding whether I'm into it or not. I guess I'm struggling with it a bit because I utterly adores Chemtrails over the Country Club when it came out earlier this year. I keep going back to those songs, especially 'Not All Who Wander Are Lost':

A song I have loved off of her new album is the title song, Blue Banisters, which is below:

Mailbox Monday 

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab (Titan Books, 10/6/2020)

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever-and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore, and he remembers her name.

This is the book my cousin gave me! She really enjoyed it, especially how descriptive it is, but since she probably won't reread it she was happy to give it to me. Can't wait to get started.

Saint Death's Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney (Rebellion, Solaris; 4/12/2022)

Life gets complicated when Death gets involved.

To be born into a family of royal assassins pretty much guarantees that your life is going to be... rather unusual. Especially if, like Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones, you also have a vicious allergy to all forms of violence and bloodshed, and an uncanny affinity for bringing the dead back to life.

To make matters worse, family debt looms – a debt that will have to be paid sooner rather than later if Lanie and her sister are to retain ownership of the ancestral seat, Stones Manor. Lanie finds herself courted and threatened by powerful parties who would love to use her worryingly intimate relationship with the goddess of death for their own nefarious ends. But the goddess has other plans...

This is the first Solaris/Rebellion book on my list today! I first got caught my the cover and all the little details on it, but then I really liked the sound of the blurb as well, so here we are! This one doesn't come out till next year so I might enjoy this one over Christmas.

The Carnival of Ash by Tom Beckerlegge (Rebellion/Solaris; 3/150/2022)

An extravagant, lyrical fantasy about a city of poets and librarians. A city that never was.

Cadenza is the City of Words, a city run by poets, its skyline dominated by the steepled towers of its libraries, its heart beating to the stamp and thrum of the printing presses in the Printing Quarter.

Carlo Mazzoni, a young wordsmith arrives at the city gates intent on making his name as the bells ring out with the news of the death of the city’s poet-leader. Instead, he finds himself embroiled with the intrigues of a city in turmoil, the looming prospect of war with their rival Venice ever-present. A war that threatens not only to destroy Cadenza but remove it from history altogether…

And here's our second Solaris/Rebellion read! Another great cover, but I specifically love the idea of a City of Words, full of poets. I'm a big fan of novels that lean into the meta-ness of writing, that mix the how of storytelling into the story itself. 

The Odyssey by Lara Williams (Zando Projects; 4/26/2021)

From the prize-winning author of Supper Club comes a wickedly funny and slyly poignant new satire on modern life. For fans of Sally Rooney, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Convenience Store Woman.

Ingrid works on a gargantuan luxury cruise liner where she spends her days reorganizing the gift shop shelves and waiting for long-term guests to drop dead in the aisles. On her days off, she disembarks from the ship, wasting the hours aimlessly following tourists around, drinking the local alcohol, and buying clothes she never intends to wear again. It’s not a bad life. At least, it distracts her from thinking about the other life—the other person—she left behind five years ago.

That is, until the day she is selected by the ship’s enigmatic captain and (ill-informed) wabi sabi devotee, Keith, for his mentorship program. Encouraging her to reflect on past mistakes and her desperation to remain lost at sea, Keith pushes Ingrid further than she ever thought possible. But as her friendships and professional life onboard steadily fall apart, Ingrid must ask herself: how do you know when you have gone too far? 

Utterly original, mischievous, and thought-provoking, The Odyssey is a merciless takedown of consumer capitalism and our anxious, ill-fated quests to find something to believe in. It’s a voyage that will lead our heroine all the way home, though she will do almost anything to avoid getting there.

This sounds delightful, even if I'm still not entirely sure whether it is quite for me. I was just so intrigued by it, like it would be so much fun and yet also quite insightful? So we'll see how it hits. 

So that's me. I'll do some blog-hopping tomorrow, can't wait to see how everyone else is doing!