Sunday Summary – 22nd October 2023
I’m back with another Sunday Summary update for you all, and I have plenty of reading progress to catch you up on! Have you had as good a week as I have?
Before we get into my reading updates for the week, let’s do our usual quick catch up on what posts I’ve shared in the week. If you’ve missed any, now is your opportunity to catch up.
My first post of the week was a discussion post outlining my favourite and least favourite fantasy tropes. Since I shared a detailed look at my favourites recently, I included them on this post only as a comparison to my least favourite… as some are linked.
On Friday, I detoured from my usual feature posts to share my review of The Puppet Maker. If you are partial to a police procedural or mystery/crime novel, I strongly recommend checking this out!
Books Read
Warrior Prince
I left off in last week’s Sunday Summary update having read the first 10% of Warrior Prince. A decent start, but it was just that. I’d only picked up the book for the first time that morning! This week, I dived into the book in earnest as it is the next book due a review here on my blog.
I’m a big fan of historical fiction, and I’ve been reading a lot of Viking based fiction set in modern day England. Warrior Prince differs from that format – it is instead set across Nordic and Eastern European backdrops. I’ve enjoyed the change of focus, as it isn’t an element of Viking history that I’ve considered before. Of course I know that they would have set out to other countries other than the UK; in fact, my own little island is one of such places. It’s not something I’ve seen very much of in terms of availability to read though.
The book is full of action, and is an interesting insight into the history of what we now know as Eastern Europe. The scope of locations throughout the narrative are quite varied, going to show that things like borders and restriction of movement were completely different. The one constant since time began is war… and that is something we see a lot of in this book. The conflict and the politics, together with the action, made for an interesting read. If you want to read my full thoughts on the book, you don’t have long to wait!
Cinderella’s Crimes
The next book I picked up this week was Cinderella’s Crimes by Kelsey Josund. The tale is a reimagining of the traditional fairytale, only Cinna is not your average step child turned housemaid. She’s a bitter woman. Cold and calculating, she’s devised a way to turn her life around and get what she thinks she deserves – and it begins with a heist.
The plot is very well thought out and paced throughout the book. Not everything is revealed to us readers straight away either, keeping us guessing. Although Cinderella’s Crimes is one of the shorter books I have read this year, it doesn’t lack for detail. As you can only expect with two individuals running parallel heists, there is a lot of action and moving parts to juggle. The said, the plot was very easy to follow and was, overall, engaging.
I’ll be publishing my review of this book at the end of the month, so I hope you can check this out too!
Surrounded by Idiots
With just 20% left of Surrounded by Idiots, I left this until last. In fact, as of writing this paragraph, I’m listening to the last 26 minutes of the audio. I’ll have it finished by the end of the night edit: finished whilst editing this post.
The book has been really interesting in both understanding various personality types. More specifically, my personality type has proved interesting, and how I am perceived by others. I’m very strongly yellow, meaning I’m quite a social person and am prone to talk a lot. The funny part is that yellows tend to talk about themselves… which I can’t really argue about in this Sunday Summary now, can I?
This has built upon some knowledge I already had from a work course, and it’s helped me consider with more time and detail how to understand and work with different people.
Books Discovered
Dominion
I added one book to my reading list earlier today, having had a chat with Chris this afternoon about current reads. He is currently reading Dominion, and I like the sound of this alternative fiction.
The book explores what British life could be like had the country surrendered to the Germans in WW2. Chris is really enjoying the book, and I like historical fiction, so I definitely want to take a look!
Coming Up…
My first post of the week will be shared on Tuesday next week. With a review going live later in the week, I want to keep this post quite light in topic. With this in mind, I plan to share a Top Ten Tuesday post and share my top atmospheric books with you!
On Thursday, I’m taking part in the blog tour for Warrior Prince. If you like the sound of the book above, I’d love for you to take a look at that post when it goes live!
As always, I’ll be back this time next week with a Sunday Summary post. Until then, have a great week; I’ll see you in my Top Ten Tuesday post.
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