Then and Now #15 (11/8-11/14)

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

This week my dad came to visit which was great and also very busy! He arrived on Wednesday, then on Thursday we had dinner with an aunt, on Friday we went to visit an uncle, and Saturday we spent walking around Utrecht, which was looking all beautiful and autumn-y, as you can see below! It was lovely catching up, chatting about all kinds of things, sipping coffee, and all of that. I do think he came just in time since we're getting some tighter restrictions here and I think a proper lockdown maybe isn't too far away. 

I also spent two days marking midterm exams as part of my student assistant role, which was actually surprisingly interesting and even, dare I say it, fun? I would say it was one of the busiest weeks I've had this academic year, but then I had a look at what's coming up for next week and I think it might be worse/better/fuller. So fingers crossed that it all goes well, 

What I posted this week:

• Review: Weep, Woman, Weep by Maria DeBlassie
• Review: The Trapped Wife by Samantha Hayes
• Friday Friyay: I Know You by Claire McGowan
• Review: Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

Below, autumn vibes!

Utrecht truly is the prettiest of Dutch towns, I will not be taking feedback on that ;)

Recommendations

It was release day for Taylor Swift's re-recording of Red, so I have been re-living some teenage angst, looking back at it with an odd appreciation for the strength of every feeling then and for how those experiences shaped me. So here's the 10 minute version of All Too Well!

Mailbox Monday

This week the first two books I bought myself, the last two are from NetGalley.

Lore Olympus: Volume 1 by Rachel Smythe (Del Rey; 11/2/2021)

Experience the propulsive love story of two Greek gods—Hades and Persephone—brought to life with lavish artwork and an irresistible contemporary voice.

Scandalous gossip, wild parties, and forbidden love—witness what the gods do after dark in this stylish and contemporary reimagining of one of mythology’s most well-known stories from creator Rachel Smythe. Featuring a brand-new, exclusive short story, Smythe’s original Eisner-nominated web-comic Lore Olympus brings the Greek Pantheon into the modern age with this sharply perceptive and romantic graphic novel.

This volume collects episodes 1-25 of the #1 WEBTOON comic, Lore Olympus

Yes, I'm Lore Olympus trash, I love a retelling and adaptation of Greek mythology and I also love the colourful art style of this WebToon. 

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; 10/13/2020)

In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.

But when the Eastwood sisters--James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna--join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote-and perhaps not even to live-the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.

There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.

I love the sound of this book so when I saw it in a bookstore as we were browsing I couldn't resist! Also, how gorgeous is that cover? Love me some witches as the wind blows and the leaves fall.

The Fell by Sarah Moss (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux; 3/1/2022)

At dusk on a November evening, a woman slips out of her garden gate and turns up the hill. Kate is in the middle of a two-week mandatory quarantine period, but she just can’t take it anymore—the closeness of the air in her small house, the confinement. And anyway, the moor will be deserted at this time. Nobody need ever know she’s stepped out.

Kate planned only a quick walk—a stretch of the legs, a breath of fresh air, on paths she knows too well. But somehow she falls. She lies injured, unable to move, her furtive walk suddenly a mountain rescue operation—or a missing persons case.

A story of compassion and kindness, Sarah Moss’s The Fell is suspenseful, witty, and wise, and it asks probing questions about who we are in the world, who we are to our neighbors, and who we are when the world demands we shut ourselves away.

I adored Moss' Ghost Wall, I thought it was an amazing story that packed a surprising punch. So requesting The Fell was a no-brainer. Now I just don't know whether to race through it in one blaze of glory or to take my time with it and savour it.

One for Sorrow by Helen Fields (Avon Books; 2/17/2022)

One for sorrow, two for joy
Edinburgh is gripped by the greatest terror it has ever known. A lone bomber is targeting victims across the city and no one is safe.
 
Three for a girl, four for a boy
DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach face death every day – and not just the deaths of the people being taken hostage by the killer.
 
Five for silver, six for gold
When it becomes clear that with every tip-off they are walking into a trap designed to kill them too, Ava and Luc know that finding the truth could mean paying the ultimate price.
 
Seven for a secret never to be told…
But with the threat – and body count – rising daily, and no clue as to who’s behind it, neither Ava nor Luc know whether they will live long enough to tell the tale…

I love Helen Fields' DI Callanach series so of coouurseee I am reading the seventh one! I do love the set up for this one though, the way it runs through the structure of the blurb. And it will definitely raise the tension.

So that's me for this week!