Earl Grey Books

Junior Eurovisionathon is over! *cue loud crying*

This readathon has been going for the last two weeks and I shared my reviews from the first week here, so now I’m here to share the second half. In total, I ended up reading six books—three per week. I had loftier ambitions but I’m glad I ended up picking up what I did, so let’s talk about them.

The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy

As you can probably guess, this was my pick for Ukraine and also the book that dominated my reading for this round. I picked this up last minute because I really wanted something to mark off Ukraine and this one seemed like a good place to start. This goes from the earliest signs of civilisation right up to 2015 so it’s a thick volume and there is so much information. I don’t read a lot of history books so I found this quite difficult at times—there’s a lot of jumping around with dates and people so I know I didn’t grasp a lot of the early stuff in particular. It got a little easier once I reached the 20th century and names and events that I knew started to pop up—it was really from WWI onwards that I was most interested in, but I was glad I picked this one so I could learn how all of Ukrainian history has led up to now. I highlighted a lot of things on my Kindle to go back and research now, so I definitely recommend this as one to read slowly.

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

This wasn’t originally on my TBR at all but my library came in and I really, really wanted to read it this week and then I remembered that Hazelwood is Italian so I’m using this to mark off Italy. Hazelwood’s books are kind of formulaic at this point—enemies-to-lovers/rivals, scientists, the struggles of academia and etc. but for the most part I’ve enjoyed that. Love, Theoretically follows the same pattern and again, for the most part I still really enjoyed it. I like how Hazelwood writes banter and that’s what I read contemporary romance for. I liked how Jack wanted to care for Elsie, that was cute.

I have one complaint about this book and this is where we might get into rant territory. Elsie is a type one diabetic. I cannot tell you how excited I was to see that—I’ve been diabetic for fourteen years and I have been through the ringer with it so every time I see any representation for it I get super excited. I’m hesitant to call this ‘representation’. Elsie wears a pod which I’ve never personally used but I think it works almost exactly the same as a pump which I am on, and there are mentions of her not being able to afford insulin because she’s not on health insurance. That part was realistic—I’m not American and I’ve still had to ration my insulin before, it’s exhausting. As far as I can tell, Hazelwood is not diabetic and it shows. Elsie has two ‘episodes’ in this book—one high and one low blood sugar event. She changes her pod occasionally and sometimes mentions doing a bolus (giving yourself an insulin dose based on the food you’re about to eat). Oh man, let me tell you if I had to think about my diabetes are infrequently as Elsie does I’d have a lot more time for everything else. People can have really well managed diabetes where they might only have one low sugar reading occasionally (I am not one of those people), but I think Hazelwood does a disservice to the reality of living with diabetes. This is not a disease you can switch off because you’re busy working and it’s inconvenient. Diabetes is not a living person, it does not give a shit about what you’re doing. I’ve been told so many times that ‘diabetes isn’t that bad’ and I think that’s the message you’d get from this book. It doesn’t have to be bad but it is exhausting and constant. I’m disappointed that more thought wasn’t given to the representation, or I really don’t understand the purpose of it being there other than as a way of highlighting why Elsie needs a better job. On one hand, I appreciate seeing diabetes in a book that isn’t just about diabetes, but at the same time, I think it needed to be developed beyond two or three scenes.

I’d been planning to give this a four stars but after all that, I think it’s probably just a three.

Square Haunting by Francesca Wade

I managed to squeeze this one in just on time as my pick for the UK. I originally bought this because I thought I was going to have a bit of a moment with Virginia Woolf. I’ve always found her an interesting figure and I’ve always wanted to be a Woolf girlie, I just haven’t found the book of hers to get me there yet. But in the end, it was actually the chapters of Dorothy L. Sayers and H.D that interested me the most. I’ve read Sayers before and enjoyed her, but I was completely new to H.D but I just found the two of them especially interesting. I think, in part, because Woolf, Sayers and H.D are the writers and poets while Harrison and Power are both historians. While I’m interested in history, I’m much more drawn to the creative side of fiction and poetry. I think this was a really engaging read, I like how it was separated into the five women but there’s still a little bit of crossover between the chapters whether it’s because the women crossed each other’s paths or some other connection between them.I think it’d be really easy to get lost in this sort of book so I’m grateful that Wade goes through each of the women one by one. I’m very glad I ended up reading this, especially since it’s been sitting on my TBR since 2020. I think it’s about time for me to dip back into Sayers and Woolf and give the others a try!

Other Updates

Though it’s only half of what I’d planned for, I’m still glad I managed to read six books during these two weeks, including a few I’d been meaning to get to for a while now. I wanted to do this quick update on the things I didn’t get to and what my plan is with them. Firstly, I swapped out Pompeii by Mary Beard as my Italy pick. I found the first 40 pages really interesting but I knew I wouldn’t finish so I’ve put this back on my shelves for later.

I didn’t pick up Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill (Ireland) or Traitor by Amanda McCrina (Poland). These are both ones I own as well so they’ll probably end up on my TBR for next year.

I returned everything to the library that I didn’t read—so my picks for Spain, Albania and Armenia. I also returned Inkheart which I did start for Germany but I have so many other things to read right now that I’ll revisit that later.

Of course, I’ve already starting planning some of my TBR for next year and I can’t wait for April so I can share them all with you. Thanks to Helen for hosting, as always!