Goodbye 2021, Hello 2022

2021 seemed to go on forever, and then was suddenly over. It’s strange how that can happen. This time though, I know that I tried to live in the moment and enjoy the now as much as possible. There was a combination of good and bad this year, but one absolute good was the amount of time I got to spend reading, writing about books, talking about books and making friends through this new community.

2021 annotated reads

I launched this blog at the beginning of the year on a completely different platform, then I did a 180 and redid it. I am so glad I did because I am thrilled with how this little blog has grown and developed throughout the year. I have so enjoyed writing my reviews and recommendations and I hope you have enjoyed reading them. I appreciate every single one of you that has read my reviews, engaged with my content either here on on instagram and I am so humbled that people have actually trusted me and my recommendations, and purchased books based on my opinions. I truly hope that I have helped you find your next favourite read. Now, let’s get into what my 2021 looked like in books!

2021 reading

I used Notion to track my reading this year (along with Goodreads and I tried to use Literal and Storygraph but I just couldn’t be consistent with them all!) I loved using Notion for a personal and private way to track my reading, and it’s made it really easy to see my reading habits for the year!

My favourite reads of 2021 (not pictured is the Medoran Chronicles by Lynette Noni).

I read a total of 56 books this year which I am absolutely chuffed with! I was hoping to read 30 this year and I feel so great to have had so much time to read this year. I always like to make my reading goal something achievable, but even if I don’t reach it, if I only read a handful of books in a year I will still feel great that I got to read at all. For the first time, I really got into audiobooks, with 13 of my reads being audiobooks, and another 13 of my total being re-reads (I love rereading so much). Fantasy was definitely my most reached for genre this year with 37 of my reads being fantasy. I loved delving into historical fiction for the first time with 9 of my reads being historical fiction (I am planning on this number being much higher in 2022), and I also got to a few books I have been wanting to read for years, most notably the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, Theogony and Works and Days and The Night Circus. I also surprised myself by reading 7 non-fiction reads, and I can see this number growing in 2022.

There were definitely many books I wanted to read but didn’t get around to (Stephen Fry’s Mythos, Heroes and Troy), and I bought so many new and exciting books that I have something for every mood. It’s hard to plan monthly tbrs when you’re a mood reader, but hopefully I’m in the mood to read lots of the books on my shelf this year!

2021 was also an incredible year in that I got the chance to talk to some amazing authors including Wendy Orr (technically December 2020 but I got to meet her in person in 2021 so it counts), Elodie Harper, Jennifer Saint, Garry Shaw, and Greg Woolf. Not to mention I made some phenomenal friends through this community from Melbourne and all around the world.

2022 goals

I have a couple of things in mind that I’d like to achieve / follow through with in this new year. One of them is limiting my book purchases. Unless its a highly anticipated release like Elodie Harper’s The House with the Golden Door or Jennifer Saint’s Elektra, or a book in a series I have already started reading, I am not planning on buying many books this year. I have so many amazing books on my shelf that I haven’t read, there really isn’t much excuse for me to spend more of my money on more books that I probably won’t read for a long time!

This year I want to tackle some of the books that have been sitting unread on my shelves for a long time, and I want to read much more non-fiction and historical fiction! 2021 was such a wonderful year for new historical fiction and mythology non-fiction releases, so 2022 will be the year that I actually read them. There are a few books I absolutely have to read including Metamorphoses, Stephen Fry’s Mythos, Heroes and Troy, The Starless Sea all of Natalie Hayne’s books, Divine, and The Trials of Apollo series just to name a few.

What is a book or author you really want to read in 2022? Let me know in the comments or find me over on instagram @kell_read ✨

May Wrap up and June Hopefuls 2021

I hope May has treated you all well. Here in Melbourne, the leaves are changing, and the frost is encroaching as the mornings get colder and colder. Alas, the end of autumn is here and it’s time for three months of cold, rain and wind. I feel like May was a long month and I’m not quite as shocked as I usually am that we have reached the end of it. But, enough about me, let’s get into my wrap up for May 2021 and the books I hope to get to in June!

---

My May 2021 hopefuls (not pictured, The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper because it hadn’t been published yet)

Some things to note about me: I am a slow reader, I love to annotate, I love to read multiple books at once and I cannot stick to a tbr to save my life. At the beginning of May, I posted my ‘hopefuls’ list, which is pretty much just a tbr that has absolutely no expectations of actually being read (which is my favourite type). I like to try and add books from different genres onto my hopefuls list to at least give me a chance to get some of them read, depending on my mood. In May, I read 3 of my 6 hopefuls and I feel really proud of that.

May wrap up

★★★★★

The first book I read in May was one that I started in April and that was the Odyssey by Homer and translated by E.V. Rieu. Reading the Odyssey was such a long time coming, I think I was just super intimidated by it. In saying that, now that I have read it, I wish that I read it sooner 😂 I loved the translation done by E.V. Rieu, although it was in prose rather than verse, it still had such a poetic feel to it which I really loved, and it has made me want to read a verse translation next to really be able to compare the different interpretations of the text. Overall, I found it to be easier to read than the Iliad (which may honestly be because the Iliad is like, 80% names and genealogy), and it wasn’t written in a way I expected. Many of the adventures that Odysseus had embarked on were recounted to Alcinous of the Phaeacians, rather than experienced first hand, which I actually think I preferred. Odysseus’ long-winded journey home was full of adventures, and overall, I really enjoyed the story and the translation. Check out my full review.

★★★★★

My second read of the month was Jennifer Saint’s debut novel Ariadne, which follows the lives of Ariadne and Phaedra, the daughters of King Minos and Crete and Pasiphaë from their childhoods to their deaths. Not only has Saint put together the stories of the two sisters, which are stories that are often told separately, you also get points of view from both Ariadne and Phaedra, which (if you know me at all), you’ll know that I loved! I wasn’t too familiar with the myth of Ariadne past the Theseus and the Minotaur events, and I really loved watching her character evolve, and her relationship with Dionysus change and develop throughout the tale. I thought the contrast of the two sisters, with Ariadne, secluded on Naxos surrounded by women and Phaedra living the life Ariadne wanted for herself with Theseus in Athens surrounded by people hostile to her home city of Crete was so striking. It allowed the reader to draw some fascinating parallels between the sisters that would have otherwise been difficult to do, since their stories are almost exclusively, told separately. I thought the ending was so poignant and bittersweet, and even if you are familiar with the myths of Ariadne, Theseus, the Minotaur, Phaedra and Hippolytus, you will definitely love this new retelling of their stories. Check out my full review! If you’re interested in hearing a bit more about Ariadne, I was lucky enough to have been able to interview Jennifer Saint, and ask her all sorts of questions about her novel which you can find here! (non-spoiler of course!)

★★★★★

The final book I finished for the month was The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper, which was my favourite read for the month, and potentially for the year (it’s neck and neck with The Porpoise by Mark Haddon). The Wolf Den is set in the lupanar, or brothel of Pompeii in the first century CE, and follows the point of view of Amara, a Greek woman who was sold when she was younger after the death of her father. I thought The Wolf Den did such a wonderful job at bringing the ancient world to the modern-day through the intertwining of graffiti found at the site of Pompeii. This graffiti is written by the everyday people of Pompeii, and gives us an incredibly rare insight into the daily lives of the everyday people of Pompeii, rather than the rest of the literature which survives which is almost exclusively written by the powerful men of the Roman Empire. The story emphasises the unbreakable bonds of friendship between the five prostitutes who work at the wolf den, and the contrasting ways in which they deal with their loves and their lack of autonomy. Elodie also does such a phenomenal job of bringing the lives of these women to the forefront, and highlighting the often overlooked fact that prostitutes in the ancient world would not have chosen this life, nor would they have necessarily always been prostitutes. Amara’s main focus in this novel is to change her fate, and do it by any means necessary, which provides her many opportunities for her character to develop, and she often has to make hard decisions which highlight the fact that all of these characters are morally grey, which adds another layer to the relationships and the character development in general. I loved this book, and I would highly recommend it to anyone! if you’re worried you don’t know enough about Pompeii or the ancient world, don’t fret! You can absolutely still enjoy this book, but if you want a bit of context to ancient Pompeii before jumping into this novel, check out my full review where I give a rundown of the context and graffiti in Pompeii! I was so lucky to get a chance to interview Elodie harper, and I had such a wonderful chat about the book, her experiences writing it and the development of her characters! You can either watch it, or read it! The interview, just like my review, is spoiler-free!

June hopefuls

It’s getting cold, which means inside our house is going to get cosy and warm which is the perfect setting for reading! This month, I have 5 physical books on my hopefuls list, and one audiobook. The audiobook is The Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer L. Armentrout which I have been listening to throughout the entirety of May. I cannot believe I am still reading this book, it is SO long and I swear only like, three things have happened. This book needed some serious editing. I only have a couple of hours left of this book, so I truly hope I get it finished this month. Along with finally finishing TCOGB, I am hoping to read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune, The Library of Greek Mythology by Apollodorus, The Poems of Catullus and The Bacchae by Euripides which I am going to read with the lovely Erica over at MoanInc!

So! I guess we will see how I do this month, but honestly, as long as I take some time to read something, I consider it a successful reading month! I hope you all enjoyed this post, and let me know down below or over on my Instagram Kell_Read what book you are most looking forward to reading this month!

Most Anticipated Reads For 2021!

Hello and welcome to Kell-Read, I’m Kelly and this year it is my mission to become more well-read (see what I did there)!

One thing to know about me is that I love to buy books, and then I don’t read them for a really long time. Let’s get into books that I already own that I HAVE to read this year. I guess this is kind of a way to keep myself accountable for my reading. Less screen time, and less time re-reading. Of course, not that there’s anything wrong with either of those two things, but it’s come to the point where I need to choose books more.

The first one is a book that I have been trying to finish for too long is the Iliad by Homer. I think it’s because of how different the writing style is to anything else I have read that is causing me to struggle through it. I feel like I can only read a few pages before I need to put it down, but I am determined to finish it this year. I’m reading the translation by E.V. Rieu, so I’m thinking a different translation might be a good idea when I inevitably reread it. I have the Robert Fagles translation which is in verse which I feel like would be a very different experience. If you have ever read a translation of the Iliad, I’d love to know which translation you read and whether you enjoyed it!

On the same theme I have the Odyssey by Homer on my TBR for next year! I have four different translations; one is the Robert Fagles edition and my most recent purchase was the Emily Wilson translation. It’s Emily’s translation that I am most excited to read since I have heard so much about. 

Another one in the Robert Fagles ballpark is his translation of the Aeneid by Virgil which I am VERY excited to read. I don’t know much about the Aeneid, so I think that’s going to be a bit of fun. 

Staying in the ancient world, we’re moving to Stephen Fry’s novels; Mythos, Heroes and Troy. I’ve had Mythos and Heroes on my shelf for way too long, at least two years I think and this year, my lovely boyfriend completed my collection with a beautiful hardcover of Troy. I love anything mythology, especially Greek, so the fact that I have left these two books unread for so long is truly despicable. Once I finish the Iliad then I feel like I’ll be able to read Troy. 

The trend continues with more ancient books including Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod and the Constellation Myths. I have read snippets of all three of these works for either uni or work so it would be so lovely to sit and read each of these books. 

Next is probably one of my most anticipated reads for 2021 and that’s The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V.E. Schwab. Everything I have heard about this book has been nothing but praise, and the premise is SO enticing. 

Next, we have two books, Aurora Rising and Aurora Burning by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman. I have seen SO MANY people react to the ending of Aurora Burning that I was hesitant to read it considering the next one isn’t out Next, we have two books, Aurora Rising and Aurora Burning by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman. I have seen SO MANY people react to the ending of Aurora Burning that I was hesitant to read it considering the next one isn’t out. But my intrigue for what made everyone exclaim so passionately has won me over so I will be getting to these two this year. 

I have had a book by one of my favourite authors burning a hole in my shelf since it came out, and that’s Burn by Patrick Ness. I have read most of his books (I didn’t finish the Chaos Walking series, but I will one day I promise), and More Than This is one of my favourite books of all time so to say I’m excited to read this is an understatement… If anyone can tell me why I literally never read books that I am super keen to read for ages that would be awesome cause I do it to myself all the time! I am a notorious re-reader…  

I was given two books by Erin Morgenstern for Christmas this year (yay!) so on my TBR for 2021 is The Night Circus and The Starless Sea. These are two books that have been floating around in my peripheral for SO long, I have meant to pick them up time and time again, and finally, they’re in my hot little hands and will be read in 2021. 

Next. I have Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. This is a book that I have been meaning to read FOREVER, and this is finally the year. I picked up a super cute, second-hand edition of it and now there is no excuses. This is the same thing for Dubliners by James Joyce!

Finally, I have Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb. This is the first in the Farseer Trilogy, and once I heard Regan from PeruseProject rave about it this year, I knew I had to read it! I only have the first one so far, but soon the next two will be in my possession! 

That’s a total of 17 books which is absolutely doable! I am also a part of a Jane Austen Bookclub so each month I will be (hopefully) reading a Jane Austen book! All these things are keeping me accountable which I need, and honestly love. 

So that’s what I’m hoping to get through this year, and I am very excited to work my way through this list!!