Earl Grey Books

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was when my lovely friend, Helen, announced the Junior Eurovisionathon round in late October. Eurovisionathon is a readathon that Helen created and runs every year around April/May in which we try and read books from all the countries participating in Eurovision that year.

This is my FAVOURITE readathon. It’s the only one I participate in every single round—partly because I love it and partly because I love Helen. Helen is the most fantastic person and she’s been such a kind friend to me for as long as I’ve known her, but especially in the last few weeks. This round is going to be running from the 12th to the 26th of November, and it’s just covering the sixteen countries who are doing the junior round of Eurovision. You can find all the information you need in Helen’s announcement video.

Since it’s a shorter round, I’ve decided to just aim for 10 countries out of the 16 and I’m going to share my picks with you now.

Albania

Usually I have a really hard go of finding anything from Albania but I just searched the word ‘Albanian’ in my library app and found Free by Lea Ypi. I’ve already put this one on hold so hopefully it’ll arrive just in time.

Armenia

I was so excited to realise that Sorry, Bro by Taleen Voskuni has an Armenian-American protagonist and author. This is a contemporary sapphic romance which I think will be a fantastic way of breaking up all of the non fiction reads I have on this list.

Estonia

I honestly thought I’d exhausted my options for Estonia when I read the one book from my TBR for this year’s round but then I managed to find The Girls, Alone by Bonnie J. Rough which happens to be on Kindle Unlimited.

France

I don’t know why but I always struggle with France—I can find things but I have the best luck with actually enjoying them. So I thought I’d go down a different route this year and pick another non fiction—I went with The Seine by Elaine Sciolino, which is, of course, about the Seine river in Paris. I have this on hold at the library but I don’t think it’s going to come in on time and if it doesn’t, I’ll just shelve this for next year.

Ireland

Finally one from my shelves! I decided to use this an excuse to reread Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill which I’ve been wanting to do for probably four years at this point. I adored this book when I read it in 2017 and I’m excited to see if it holds up.

Italy

Back to some non fiction, my pick for Italy is Pompeii by Mary Beard. This has been on my shelf since 2021 when I read Beard’s SPQR for my first Eurovisionathon and loved it. Since it’s one I own physically and it works for Nonfiction November as well, this is definitely high up on my list.

Netherlands

I’m really trying to get to some of those books I’ve put on my Eurovisionathon TBRs in the past so that I’ll be forced to find new things for the 2024 round. So with that in mind, I picked Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt which I’d put on my 2021 and 2022 TBR (I think) but had been on my list for a really long time. If I don’t get to it this year I still think I’m going to make myself pick something else next year.

Poland/Ukraine

So for this I’ve got Traitor by Amanda McCrina which has been on my TBR the last two years. It could cover either Poland or Ukraine so it really just comes down to me picking which one if I get around to it. This has been kind of my safety crutch of the last few rounds—”at least I have something I could use for either country”, but that doesn’t help me if I don’t read it! I’ve already bookmarked some options for next year so it’s time for this one to be read.

Spain

The last two years I’e basically been alternating between Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys and The Shadow of the Wind by Gabriel Ruiz Zafon without reading either. I’d put a hold on Shadow but that looks unlikely to come in, so instead I’ve also put a hold on Consquistadores by Fernando Cervantes which is about Spanish colonialism. I know very little about the topic so hopefully I’ll learn something.

UK

I don’t usually pick things for the UK because it’s such an easy country to cover. But I already have two on my Nonfiction November TBR that’ll cover this—Square Haunting by Francesca Wade or The Five by Hallie Rubenhold. I’m not sure which I’ll pick up but both of them take place in London.

Countries I’m Not Reading From

Since it’s a shorter round, I did have to decide to leave a few countries behind. These ones I couldn’t find anything for in my library and I’m trying not to buy anything for this round. If I do find something, I’m probably going to save it for the full round next year because these are mostly countries I struggle with finding things for in general. They are; Georgia, Malta, North Macedonia, and Portugal.

I also have an option for Germany, but it’s a reread that I know will be upsetting and I just don’t think that’s on the cards for this period.

That’s all from me. I really hope some of you decide to join in with Junior Eurovisionathon if you’ve not heard of Helen’s readathon before. As always, thank you to Helen for hosting and for creating this amazing readathon in the first place.