CURRENTLY READING

After finishing The Handmaid's Tale and absolutely loving it I was going to go straight into The Blind Assassin, also by the brilliant Margaret Atwood, but I'm trying to stop myself from buying any more books at the moment in order to save a bit of money (we're still recovering from the wedding and Christmas!). So instead I went for something on my current TBR pile and something that I've not had for long - Night Prayers by Santiago Gamboa. I first heard about this on Mercy's Bookish Musings over on YouTube (LOVE her channel) and, honestly, anything she recommends I immediately add to my list of books I want to read, she has incredible reading taste. The actual book is beautiful, the pages feel really thick and good quality and the book as a whole has a lovely weight to it _ I know fellow book lovers out there will be able to relate! I'm about 70 pages through this so far and enjoying it, the narrator's voice is likeable and I'm looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds. The general outline of the story follows a Columbian student who gets arrested in Bangkok for drugs trafficking where he will be sentenced to death unless he pleads guilty, however, he has a longing to be reunited with his sister Juana whom he was very close with as a child, and who he hasn't seen in years. I understand that others get involved to try and help reunite the siblings and I'm excited to see what happens.

I'm also currently reading 'The Day That Went Missing'. This is a non-fiction story about the untimely death of Richard Beard's brother, Nicky, who died whilst in the sea in Cornwall on a family holiday. The story focuses on Richard's attempts to remember both what happened that day and also to remember his brother more clearly, as since the day it happened the family, in Richard's eyes, seem to have almost forgotten Nicky existed as a way to cope with the loss. It took me about 50-60 pages to get into this one properly as I don't think I was giving it a fair shot (reading it in between taking orders at work) but this week I've made time to sit down and concentrate and it is very good. More memories of the days leading up to and including the day of Nicky's death are being remembered by both Richard and his family and I'm thoroughly enjoying the way Richard's writing isn't filled with too much unnecessary sentiment or heartache. Obviously it is incredibly sad and that does come across in the pages, but I feel like I'm almost going on a journey with Richard in his remembering and trying to feel the things that either he foreced himself not to feel at the time, or he's forgotten along the way. I'll definitely have this finished in the next day or two and will likely update on Instagram with my final thoughts!

I've been dipping in and out of oher things as well, but these two are the main ones at the moment. Next I want to read 'They Can't Kill Us All' by Wesley Lowery (another Mercy recommendation!) which is the non-fiction account of how the Black Lives Matter movement came to be. I've read the first 30ish pages and am really keen to get through this one as soon as possible to find out more about what lead to the movement and educate myself more on the topic as a whole.

Let me know what you're reading at the moment and any recommendations you might have! Happy reading!

#books #reading #review