Hi everyone it's Lauren. I hope you're all really well. Today I'm going to be doing
my January to March To Be Read, 'TBR' video so what I'm planning on reading in the
next few months. I know it's already kind of halfway through January but I was
away the first few weeks so had to wait until now. I don't like to restrict my
reading too much by doing a monthly TBR video because even though it's a list
that I'd make myself I always get stressed out! But I do like doing this
sort of every few months because it gives my reading a bit of structure and
also gives a bit of a 'this is what's coming up on my channel' so if you want
to read along with any of these I'll leave a link to all of them in the
description box below. As you may know I've been trying to go around my house
and read all of the books that I have in the various bookshelves and different
areas and so there's only one book from my previous TBR that I haven't read yet
so I'm feeling quite good about that and that is The Beast Within by Emile Zola
and this was from my I have a whole section of the penguin pocket classics
and I haven't read any of them because I'm a terrible person
so this is what I want to do, get through all the sets of books that I have so
this is the only one that I'm rolling over and I think I've rolled this over a
couple of times now so I really really had better read it. As well as my pocket
classics I also have a little pile of blue books in my living room and the one
I've picked from there is A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan. I'm not sure if
this book really classifies as a little novella or a book of short stories and I
think that's quite interesting. This is about two women who are having a baby
and they both decided that they weren't going to tell the baby anything that
isn't true so they said they're not going to tell
it any stories, although while the baby is growing they actually do tell it
stories, so the pregnant one tells the baby stories while the other one is at
work and the other woman tells them only stories when her partner is asleep. So it
seems like a lovely mix of the magical, folk, sort of fairy tale element
and then it's got short stories with a through narrative as well. Then from my
shelf of white spined books which is odd because it's actually got a black cover
is We've Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Now I've not read any
Shirley Jackson so I just thought you know it's about time, I really need to
read it and this I don't really understand the blurb but it says this is about a woman
and her sister and her sister has just been acquitted for murdering the whole
rest of the family and there's other rumors or something going in
the house. I feel like a lot of her writing I don't, I guess they're not
short stories, maybe they're kind of novellas, do have this kind of element of
darkness about them she also wrote The Lottery and the haunting of Hill House
so although I know about her writing I've never actually read it myself. From my
black spined books I've picked up Sight by Jessie Greengrass and I haven't read
any Jessie Greengrass before although I do have her I think it's a collection of
short stories on my shelf as well, but this one was shortlisted for the Women's
Prize for Fiction last year and it's about a woman who's going through
pregnancy and her body changing and she's kind of remembering, thinking about
her mother. I don't if it's about when her mother died or just about her
mother's life but it also sounds like it weaves in other themes of kind of
medical history and specifically women's medical histories are looking at
psychoanalysis and hysteria, the concept of hysteria
and how pregnancy has been treated through the ages as well I think to a
certain extent, well I'll find out when I read it won't I? I I'm also trying to read
through my little set of Persephone books so from that group I've picked up
Tory Heaven by Marghanita Laski and the thing with Persephone is it's very
interesting, all of their books have these little dove gray covers, they have
a different end papers depending on when the book was originally written, most of
their authors that they publish a women who have been kind of historically
overlooked by the literary canon, but they don't really give you a blurb so
there is an excerpt of the book on here and but it's not a proper blurb so I'm
not sure what it's about, but this does sound like a kind of parody of well Tories,
the Conservatives, the right political party and it's sounds, you know
it sounded quite interesting considering what's going on in politics at the
moment in this country. I'm also trying to read through my collection of
Virginia Woolf books and I have one more to read, I've been putting it off because
it's the longest one and that is The Years and this is a really beautiful set
that I got from Vintage Classics and all of her books have these
really beautiful covers and it's really really gorgeous and I am quite hit or
miss with what I enjoy it with Virginia Woolf, I like Mrs. Dalloway I really like
The Waves and didn't like, I read Orlando and To The
Lighthouse, which I thought were okay so we'll see I mean apart from the fact
it's written by Virginia Woolf, what do I know about it?
Nothing. We're following the lives of a middle-class family from 1880 to the
1930s so you know that sounds quite interesting it sounds a bit similar to
To The Lighthouse um but yeah I'm quite pleased that this
will be my last one and then I can say I've read all of her work, so that's
quite good. I also have a shelf where I keep all of my kind of feminism / gender
studies kind of books and on a bit of a whim I've just picked up this one which
I think it's quite funny which is Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism by
Kirsten R Ghodsee. This is a collection of different essays which was sent to me
last year. It came out in November and and this is a proof copy, but it sounds
a bit tongue-in-cheek, a bit funny there were some other books I was
thinking of picking, but I think we might choose the one that I wanted to read for
the Feminist Orchestra next year so I need to I can't remember what ones we picked to be
honest now but that will be coming out soon we'll be announcing on all of those
books for 2019. So in the meantime I will read this one, and now some more current
books that I wanted to read just because I wanted to read them so I am currently
about to start The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, which has
just won the Costa First Book Award and so it's up for the
Book of the Year prize in a few weeks' time, so I thought I would read it
for that and this sounds like a mix between maybe Cluedo and perhaps like
Doctor Who or like sci-fi? So I think it'll be a bit love or hate but I'm
quite intrigued by it and this woman Evelyn Hardcastle is dying at this party
and every day this guy wakes up in a body of a different guest, so he relives
the same day and it has to work out who it is that's killing her, so yeah so
that's quite interesting, sounds really different and unlike anything I normally
read. I also fancy picking up, again from the Costa shortlist but this is not
from the First Novel, this is just from Novel and that is From a Low
and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan and the reason I'm intrigued by this is because
it was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize as well and I wasn't that fussed
when it was longlisted there but when things keep cropping up on prize lists
sometimes you think yeah right I'll give it a go, it's not that long! This is about
three different men from different walks of life each kind
of suffered some kind of trauma, there's a guy from..I was gonna say Syria, it doesn't
actually say Syria here...oh no it does! There's a guy from Syria, someone who's
just had his heart broken and somebody else who is, he's tormented by things in
his past and they've all come together so yes all right I'll give it a go
and finally I'm really excited for this and I think I might read it first even
though, no I know I should read I should read The Beast Within first but after
Emile Zola I think I'm gonna pick up The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden. I
read the first book in this series The Bear and the Nightingale last October
and it was lovely it's so wintry because it's set in Russia and it's very magical
it's like medieval Russia and so it's perfect to read during the winter time
I'm guessing this will be, I don't know if it's gonna be similar but a continuation
of Vasya's story anyway but I feel like January is a really good time to read it
especially because the next book in the series, the final book I'm guessing The
Winter of the Witch this has already come out now, so this is in shops but I
just happen to have the proof copy. So I think I'll give these a go, it's really
nice to have a bit of escapism a bit of fun to see something like historical
fantasy as well. I think these are gonna be good for combating the
winter blues. So that's everything I've got coming up, you may have noticed a lot
of the books I picked like this one and this one are very short because I feel
like I haven't read that much I didn't read as many books as I normally read
last year so I think sometimes to get you back into that that rhythm and that
routine of reading you need a few short ones and to kind of get some books under
your belt that's how I feel anyway so I thought for the beginning of the year
I'll start off with some short ones it will make me feel like I'm making
progress and getting through my massive backlog of books so I just have it my
house so yeah I would as always love to hear from you if you
read any of them already because it's always great to have some
recommendations from other people let me know what you're planning on reading at
the beginning of this year and if there's anything that you're
particularly excited about coming out I actually can't wait for Spring by Ali
Smith to come out either and I don't know when there is I should probably
look it up I feel like it will be earlier this
month though so let's have a chat in the comments and I will see you in my next
video, bye!