Earl Grey Books

As per usual I’m running behind with my mini reviews. These are from mid to late October and then into November so at least we’re not too far behind yet. But today we have some middle-grade, some non fiction and some others so let’s jump straight in.

Gargantis (The Legends of Eerie-on-Sea #2) by Thomas Taylor

After taking three years to reread the first book in this series, I’ve been moving onto the other books quickly so I don’t end up forgetting everything again. This is honestly such a fantastic series. I’m reading a lot less middle-grade fantasy than I used to and this has been a great reminder as to why I love the genre so much. Herbie is a fantastic character, I just love him so much. He can be so incredibly clueless and I love that—it makes the whole story even more fun. I love the side characters as well—really it’s a toss-up between Erwin and Lady K for my favourite. I really enjoyed the plot of this one too and the new things we’ve learnt about Eerie-on-Sea. I’m hoping with the way that this one ended that a couple of questions might be answered in the next one since it’s a five-book series, maybe not. Either way, I’m very excited to move onto the next one.

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

I’ve wanted to read this book for years all because of Northanger Abbey—this is one of the ‘scandalous’ books Catherine reads and since Northanger is one of my top two Austen’s, I always wanted to read this for myself. I think a good summary of this book is just landscapes, Emily crying and random music playing. That being said, I did actually enjoy the first half of this book a lot. Radcliffe is very good at painting a scene and I can see why the book originally did well because of that—the places felt real and I enjoyed reading that. Things get a little ridiculous in the second half and start to fall apart. It was honestly a slog getting through the second half and there was quite a bit I had to look up summaries of online because I wasn’t sure whether I was actually following what was happening. I’m glad I read this and discovered it for myself but I think in the future I’ll just stick to rereading Northanger Abbey.

Taken At The Flood (Hercule Poirot #29) by Agatha Christie

Honestly listening to Hugh Fraser reads these audiobooks has been an absolute gamechanger—I went in with very low expectations but his Poirot voice is incredible. Anyway, I really enjoyed this one. I thought I was so smart having guessed who it was about 60-70% through only to realise I’d fallen for Agatha’s tricks as per usual. That being said, this is probably one of my least favourite endings to a Poirot ever. The final reveal was really well done and I liked that, but the way some of the characters’ storylines were wrapped up were a little disappointed. It’s hard to say anything without spoiling the end but it’s major red flag territory. RUN, GIRL, RUN. Other than that, it was as good as ever.

In the Shadow of the Mountain by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado

This was a really tough read. It took me almost all of October to get through because I had to keep pausing and taking everything in. I’ve never been interested in stories about people hiking across a country or climbing Everest because as someone born with a physical disability, it’s not something that has ever crossed my mind. The thought of enjoying a really long and difficult walk is completely alien to me. But when this arrived in a book box I was kind of excited by it. I might not enjoy the thought of hiking, but I do love reading about women smashing goals. My favourite parts of this book were definitely the moments between Silvia and the group of women and non-binary people she hikes to Base Camp with. There were some really powerful stories there, ones that made me tear up. I thought the actual climb would be less interesting to me, but reaching the top of Everest is so much more emotional and personal than I’d expected. There were some experience of Vasquez-Lavado’s that really hit home for me and I definitely cried a bit at the end for her.

Just Kids by Patti Smith

I’ve been a fan of Patti Smith’s for a few years now but I’ve been avoiding reading this one. A few of my co-workers in my last bookshop job considered this they’re favourite book and since I already loved Patti Smith, I had high hopes. In the end, I just didn’t connect to this one like I have some of her others. There are a lot of names this one and while I knew some of them like Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and there big names but there were a lot of others I didn’t know. I’m not big into musical history so there were probably heaps of other influential musicians, producers and etc that went totally over my head. I also expected to hear more about Mapplethorpe’s art—we do see quite a bit of it but it is a lot more about their day to day lives, the people they met and loved and so on. The end may me kind of emotional but on the whole, it just didn’t hit me as hard as things I’ve read from Patti Smith in the past.

Have you read any of these? What have you been reading lately?