The Mid-Year Freakout Tag

I did this last year and thought it was a whole lot of fun and so I’m doing it again, because a quick catch-up of the things I’ve been reading is my favourite kind of a post and it’s part way through the year which seems to me to be the perfect time do a mid-year tag SO HERE WE ARE.

Let’s talk about my bookish year thus far.

THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR

Usually I hate this kind of a question and have some kind of an existential crisis but this year it’s been easy, because honestly, there’s just been the one book that I keep coming back to and thinking ‘yep, that was amazing’ and it’s this one.

I talk about it in lots more detail here, but just quickly now, I’ll tell you this: this book is the funniest, warmest, cleverest book I’ve read in a long time. It made me feel ALL THE THINGS. It made me nod my head in a constant yes me too and I want to be pals with Dolly Alderton. Seriously. READ THIS BOOK. Also this is surprising because this book is not a novel, it’s a memoir and that is so not like me. I loved it. Still, all these months after reading it I cannot even begin to tell you quite how much I loved it. If I ever made gift lists (ooooh should I make gift lists) then this would be on them.

BEST SEQUEL OF THE YEAR SO FAR

It’s all about Joseph Knox guys, and The Smiling Man which is the sequel to Sirens and is SO GOOD.

Sirens was a stunning debut; The Smiling Man is even better than that. Again, I gush about it in this post but really all you need to know is that if you love a good crime story then you can’t do much better than Joseph Knox right now. He’s so good. I am so so excited for whatever comes next from him.

NEW RELEASE YOU HAVEN’T READ YET BUT WANT TO

I still haven’t read The Gloaming which makes me sad because I’ve been so excited about it and I am such a massive fan of Kirsty’s writing. It sounds amazing too and like everything I love in a book so I have no idea what's taking me so long...

MOST ANTICIPATED RELEASE FOR AUTUMN / WINTER

There’s the new Kate Atkinson out in September which I am positively giddy about; I have a copy and I just keep stroking it. It’s very high on my list so I’ll be reading it SOON and then Markus Zusak has a new novel out in October: again with the giddy but also the fear because oh wow he set the bar high for any future writings with The Book Thief. Then in November we have The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy which is the sequel to The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue which I could not get enough of so I’m looking forward to that. I want to live in the world Mackenzi Lee has created with these books like you can’t imagine.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR SO FAR

I had really high hopes for Sam and Ilsa’s Last Hurrah but it fell kind of flat. I feel like any book that’s got ‘Last Hurrah’ in the title needs to bring more to the table than this one did. The idea was so good aswell, it’s such a shame it didn’t quite reach the dizzying heights I had hoped it would. It’s a shame, because I really liked the other stuff I’ve read by David Levithan: I still think Two Boys Kissing is a work of genius, that thing with the Greek Chorus, it’s just stunning. This though, it was nothing special and IT COULD HAVE BEEN.

BIGGEST SURPRISE OF THE YEAR SO FAR

How Do You Like Me Now by Holly Bourne because WOW. I did not expect to love this book as much as I did, or for it to make me feel the way it did. It blew me away, how good it was, how funny it was, how sad it was, how much I felt like she was writing about a previous version of my own self. I was not prepared. The thing was that the only other book of hers I’d read I’d not connected with and honestly I only read this because I had FOMO and that terrifies me because what if I hadn’t? What if I’d missed it. This book went into Amazon’s Top Ten on the actual day it was released so you know – don’t just take my word for it. READ IT.

NEW FAVOURITE AUTHOR

If we’re assuming this means authors I’ve only discovered this year, which I think we’re supposed to, I think actually maybe Andy Weir. I hadn’t read The Martian so didn’t know what to expect really when I read Artemis except that it sounded really good and there was a lot of hype in the run up to publication that made my little ears prick up. As it happens, it was really good: I flew through it and gave my brother a copy for his birthday. I reckon I’ll be jumping right on anything else he puts out because if this is anything to go by, he knows how to tell a story.

YOUR NEWEST FAVOURITE CHARACTER

Ah, Florence, who I met in Three Things About Elsie. What an absolute gem she is and not just because she shares a name with my own Granny. Three Things is such a lovely book and you can’t not love Florence, can’t not want to just wrap her up and keep her safe always. It really got to me this book and I was thinking about Florence for a long time after I’d finished it.

BOOK THAT MADE YOU CRY

GUESS WHAT. I don’t think a book has made me cry actual tears yet this year. Three Things About Elsie brought a lump to my throat, and so did Days of Wonder but so far I’ve kept those tears under control and that is a rarity for me.

A BOOK THAT MADE YOU HAPPY

Oh shall we talk about Dear Mrs Bird and this young girl who wants to join the war effort and make a difference and accidentally finds herself answering the letters written to a problem page. This book is a delight and you all ought to read it. It’s just lovely. It made me happy. Again with the unexpected because I don’t often read nice books like this one. Perhaps I should.

MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOK SO FAR

If we’re talking visually beautiful which we are because I’m pretty sure I can interpret these prompts however I wish then have you seen this book. The Surface Breaks by Louise O’Neill. I mean I think the inside is going to be gorgeous too because feminist retelling of The Little Mermaid, but that cover, it makes me so happy. I’d have it on my wall it’s that gorgeous.