Tag: Elektra

Sunday Summary – 27th April 2025

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It’s been another relaxed Sunday here— and rightly earned! Welcome to today’s Sunday Summary catch-up post. As always, I’ll take you through my updates of the week so far. And, I’ll catch you up on the books I’ve been reading, books added to the TBR, as well as what’s coming up on the blog.

The first port of call is to recap the blog posts I have shared with you to date. The first post I put out this week was a Top Ten Tuesday. In that post, I discussed ten books that surprised me. Most were in a good way, but there were a couple of exceptions to this rule too.

Next, on Friday, I featured a non-fiction book in my First Lines Friday regular feature. I completed the challenge I set myself in last week’s Sunday Summary by featuring a non-fiction; if you’re interested to see which book I chose, you can go and take a look at that post here.


Books Read


Normal Women

Progress with Normal Women remains pretty slow but steady. I confess that I’ve only made progress with this book today, and that progress amounts to another 30 pages (so far tonight!)

I have a hardback edition of the book, which isn’t particularly practical to carry around. As a result, I have been taking my copy of Elektra and then The Poppy War to work. Ultimately, their paperback format has made those the books more accessible to carry around and make progress with.

That said, I am enjoying Normal Women and I confess I’m also enjoying taking it slowly. It’s not particularly light on subject matter, so I would argue this pacing suits the book better anyway.


Elektra

Over the course of this week, I finished my read of Elektra by Jennifer Saint. I really enjoyed going back to Greek mythology. It’s reminded me how much I enjoy the genre. If you are a little partial to feminist fiction now and then, Elektra is a great choice. The book centres around the experiences of three women in particular, Cassandra, Clytemnestra (say that three times quickly…), and Elektra.

I read and finished Elektra pretty quickly. As is generally my experience with retellings, they’re a great way to pick up something quite quickly. They serve as a great refresher in between larger or heavier books.

Elektra turned out to be just the change of scene I needed. I will definitely be picking up more books by Jennifer Saint soon, because Elektra was so easy to read and really enjoyable.


The Poppy War

Finally, the last physical book I have made a start with this week is The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. This is the last book on my April TBR, so I’m really happy to have made it this far through my reading list.

I know I won’t have finished this book by the end of the month, but that’s okay with me! I’m looking forward to the experience of picking up something new and a book that’s come highly recommended to me by others. So far, I have really enjoyed the introduction to Rin’s story and really from now on, it’s about seeing where things go from there.


Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Shaped the World

Given that I’ve completed all of my audiobook listens on this month’s TBR, I decided to start something a little different. A while ago I added Crashed to my reading list as a bit of a stretch listen based on my role at work.

Whilst I had so hoped for something a little higher level, Crashed is going into quite a lot of detail about the financial crises experienced – especially around the early 2000s and the consequences they’ve had for everybody. The book is even going so far as to look at the political and geopolitical landscape to explain why these crises aren’t necessarily so independent as originally believed.

As I said, this is a little over my head. Whilst I do recognise some of the concepts discussed in the book from study I undertook last year, I had hoped for something a little bit lighter. Nevertheless, I’m going to persevere with the book in the hopes that I get used to the style and I’m able to take away what I wanted from the book.


Books Discovered

Given I was naughty last week, I’ve been far more considerate of the bank account this week and not made any purchases. In fact, I’ve not even added anything to my reading list without purchasing either.

Go me 🥳

 

Coming Up…

We’re coming up to the end of another month, so next week you have my monthly wrap-up post coming to you on Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. Overall, I’ve had a really good reading month and I’ve managed to pick up every single book on my list. Check out that post to find out where I get up to in each of my current reads by the end of the month!

Next, it’s only natural that I let you know what’s coming up on my May reading list, right? So, with this in mind, my next post will be my May TBR which will go live on Friday.

As always, you know you can look forward to my next instalment of my Sunday Summary at the end of the week. In that post, I’ll catch you up on all my reading updates.

Until then though guys, thanks for reading today’s Sunday Summary. Happy reading and have a good week!

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Sunday Summary – 20th April 2025

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Happy Easter friends! It may be a bank holiday weekend, but I’m not taking any breaks in content! Today’s Sunday Summary has plenty to update you on. Make yourself a cuppa and get settled in, because I have a few books to share with you!

Firstly, though, let’s catch up on the content I’ve shared with you so far this week.

The first post I published earlier this week was my book review of Soul Identity by Dennis Batchelder. If you enjoy science fiction, thrillers, or ideally both, Soul Identity is a great book to try. I really enjoyed this first instalment to the three-part Soul Identity series, and I’m excited to read the next. If you haven’t already read my review, check it out using the link above.

Next, I shared my latest instalment to my Shelf Control series on Friday. In Friday’s post, I featured a courtroom thriller I’m keen to try. The book may not be for everyone given the subject matter, but I am intrigued by the synopsis.

 

Books Read


Normal Women

Progress with Normal Women by Philippa Gregory remains slow but steady.

Over the course of this week, I’ve read another fifty pages or so. I’m now moving into the life of women in the 18th century, and it’s not great. Women’s rights are pretty atrocious at this point in history, so it makes for infuriating reading. It’s no fault of the book at all – it’s thoroughly researched, and there’s a lot of information and aspects of women’s lives covered. It’s how badly women are treated and controlled that angers me.

Hopefully, in the next week, I’ll get to a more positive period of history for women?!


The Perfect Wife

As of last week’s Sunday Summary post, I was around halfway through my audiobook copy of The Perfect Wife.

Over the last six days, I’ve listened on and subsequently finished this book. It’s a relief to have it read well in advance of our book club meet in the beginning of May. It wasn’t difficult to achieve though – the story was compelling, and as the revelations and mysteries started to come together, I was drawn to read on.

Having recently read another thriller, I wasn’t sure if I’d find The Perfect Wife more of the same. However, the books were vastly different, and I enjoyed reading from the thriller genre again!


Elektra

A book I forgot to talk about last week was Elektra by Jennifer Saint. I was looking for a smaller physical read to take around and about with me. Normal Women wasn’t practical to carry around, so I grabbed my copy of Elektra and read about 30 pages.

Picking up from there this week, I’ve read a further 100 pages. As of this Sunday Summary update, that puts me  just shy of 50% through the book.

Elektra is certainly a Greek Mythology story that focuses on the women’s perspective. Throughout, we see chapters from Elektra, Clytemnestra, and Cassandra. All three female characters’ lives are impacted by the war with Troy, and I’m enjoying the often overlooked view. Too often, we can read of the glory of men, but not the suffering of the women. If you like books around this topic, The Silence of the Girls is another great book.

I’m looking forward to reading more of Elektra in the next few days. I hope you can join me for next week’s Sunday Summary post to see how far I get.


Books Discovered


The delight my wallet had at not purchasing a copy of Vulture Capitalism last week ended up short-lived. In my defence, I was allowed in a local bookstore unsupervised and spotted it. So, I got it!

I also picked up 24 Hours in the Viking World and The Twentysomething Treatment because they sounded interesting…


Coming Up…

I have some great posts lined up for you in the next week.

First and foremost, I’m looking forward to sharing a Top Ten Tuesday post. It’s been a while since I shared one of these posts. This week’s theme is books that surprised me – and that can be good or bad. I’ll likely end up going down the positive route as I won’t have many negatives.

On Friday, I’ll be back with a First Lines Friday feature. This week, I plan to set myself a challenge for this post. In this week’s feature, I’ll share a non-fiction book on my TBR. I commit to that here and now but without a set book in mind. Wish me luck finding a suitable book to feature!

Finally, I’ll be back the same time next week with another Sunday Summary update. In that post, I’ll get you up to speed on the books I’ve been reading over the week and let you know where I get up to.

Until next time, have a great week and happy reading!

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Monthly TBR – April 2025

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April comes with no set theme in mind. Rather, this month I’m looking to pick up books that I haven’t gotten to in the last couple of months, as well as pick up some reads geared around the Goodreads challenges. Shall we take a look at the books on this monthly TBR that I’ll be picking up in April?


Fixed Reads


Enemies of the Crown

The first book I’ll be picking up in April is for a blog tour review. It was a natural decision to sign up for this one, given that I’ve already read prior books in the series. That, and I want to keep up with the series anyway. I’ve really come to love Peter Gibbons’ The Saxon Warrior series and I’m invested in the personal journey of the main character Beornoth.

As of this monthly TBR, I’m already making progress with this book. And it’s a good job —my review for this one is due on Sunday!

 

The Weight’s Over

I’m currently reading a newly released book called The Weight’s Over by Sandra Roycroft-Davis. I’ve seen a lot of adverts on Facebook for a slimming programme she’s developed, Slimpod. The reason I’ve picked up this audiobook is that I want to understand some of the science behind weight loss and why our bodies are designed for us to fail.

As of this monthly TBR post, I’ve almost finished listening to this book. It was only a little under 7 hours anyway, and I have just 45 minutes to go.


Normal Women

Normal Women is a carryover from March’s TBR. It’s a current read, and one I expect I’ll be chipping away at over the month of April.

As of this monthly TBR, I’ve already read a healthy 30% and I’m looking forward to reading more. I’m especially looking forward to seeing changes to women’s rights for the more positive— in what I’ve read so far… we’ve gone backwards!


Work Book Club

Although we have yet to christen the chosen book for this month, I’m keeping a placeholder here so that once we’ve selected a book, I’ve dedicated time to read it. At the moment, we have a poll going to choose the current book. The options are The Perfect Wife, The Anxious Generation, and All the Light We Cannot See.

Once we’ve christened the book mid-next week, I will let you know which we will be reading.


Mood Reads


The Poppy War

For a good few months now, I have been intending to start this series by R.F. Kuang. I originally received a copy of this book well over a year ago now. However, I received a special edition copy for my birthday recently. Receipt of that gift has inspired me and reminded me that I am really interested in picking up this fantasy series. So, that’s what I plan to do.

I have high hopes for this book given that I’ve heard a lot of good things. I’m also looking forward to reading something within the fantasy genre and going back to a genre I know and love inside out.


Elektra

Another genre I enjoy is Greek mythology, so Elektra seems a natural choice to pick up. It’s been a little while since I picked up a Greek-inspired story. I also like the idea of picking up Elektra because it follows on nicely from last month‘s theme that focuses on women.

Elektra is a powerful female character in Greek mythology. It’s also quite a short book, so Elektra should hopefully be a nice palate cleanser and give me a chance to pick up something a little different in between larger books.


Eve

I like to keep a non-fiction book on my reading list. This book is a non-fiction account about the biology of women’s bodies and how they shaped human society as we know it. On the off-chance The Anxious Generation isn’t picked for this month’s book club read, at least I have another non-fiction I’m already interested in on the list!


Summary

Am I likely to get to all the books on April’s Monthly TBR? Probably not. However, I may yet surprise myself! I prefer to set ambitious goals. If I finish a TBR or don’t set one, I find the lack of a goal demotivating and I tend to read less.

Are you planning on picking up any books in April? What are you reading?

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