Привет всем*!
Sorry I didn’t post yesterday as it was supposed to be, got those health issues striking hard as the weather suddenly changed from sunny to very gloomy, with 6 hours of constant heavy rain. The only thing I did yesterday was lying on the bed, re-watching Fantastic Beasts ans Where to Find Them, and finally finishing a book after that horrible book hangover week 😀
*Hello everyone! – in Russian 😀
So, back to the topic.
It’s April already! Time flies so fast!
Happy belated birthday to everyone’s favorite fictional Weasley twins! We miss you Fred.
This month will be fully devoted to ebooks, so no personally taken pictures this time, not even sorry about that lol
I decided that I will have two TBR lists: a main TBR list where I’ll have books I definitely want to read this month, and a backup TBR list, in case I have another book hangover that won’t let me get onto the next book from the main list. This should probably help, after a huge hangover I had over Sintar. The Killer Island by Sora Naumova & Mariya Dubinina (yes, I won’t stop mentioning this currently the best book of 2017).
So let’s finally start the list.
Main TBR list
1. A Court of Thornes and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Finally I’m starting a book series everyone is talking about for the last 2 months! All possible bookish shops are making merches devoted to this book series, so I’m really curios why the hype is so huge. I usually dislike romance fantasies, because of the impact Russian fantasy in particularly has on its readers’ choices and prejudgment, but I will still give it a try, and I hope ACOTAR can break some prejudgments of mine.
2. Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
I actually already started reading it (well, actually listening to it, as it was an audiobook, but like I said previously somewhere that I easily get distracted when listening to something for a long time, so I bought an e-book version), and I would like to finish it within April. Let’s hope I can do so, because the book seems interesting, but I also felt from its first 10 chapters that it’s gonna be a hard read for me, even when I’m reading it in Russian.
3. Highly Sensitive People in an Insensitive World: How to Create a Happy Life by Ilse Sand
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that I like reading non-fiction as well (although I don’t show it anywhere lol), and I got this e-book because of the interesting title. I can say that sometimes I’m a highly sensitive person IRL, so I’d like to understand my nature more. This book better not to disappoint me.
4. Twenty Years After by Alexander Dumas
I haven’t told you, but I’m a huge fan of The Three Musketeers. Probably the only romance novel that I truly loved out of all that I’ve read (no, I don’t count The Master and Margarita in it), but I never got a chance to read sequels to the main book. I need to fill in the spaces asap lol
5. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (April-May read)
This book will be my slow-read, as I plan to start reading in closer to the end of April, so it moves to May, and by the time I get the Russian version, I will switch to finishing it in a language I’m more comfortable with.
I heard a lot of positive things about this book series, so I better keep those high expectations! Plus I see Russians loving this book as well, so ADSOM has high chances to become my next book hangover lol
Backup TBR list
1. No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty
You probably know who this man is. He’s the founder of NaNoWriMo, and this book is his guide to write a novel, but he warns you: this is only about the first completed draft. You will definitely spend a year more editing your book, but at least you have something to work with!
As I plan to go on my 2-week annual vacation in the end of May-beginning of June, my intentions of finally stepping onto the land of Europe were switched by my long-time dream of writing a book, although I still have zero materials to work with. I need to review all my ideas from the past two years, to find if there’s something worth working on right now, and then I will use my vacation time to hide from the society up high in the mountains of Dalat city to focus on writing.
2. Queen of Spades by Michael Shou-Yung Shum
This is an eARC I requested from NetGalley the second I saw the synopsis, where this book was stated as a retelling of The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin, and you must know how much I love the original story. So I can’t wait to see how this retelling turns out to be.
The release date is expected on October 10th, 2017, so I still have plenty of time.*
*By the way, I think I need to make a list of my ARCs with release dates so I know when to read and review them…
3. The Great Passage by Shion Miura
I want to expand my reading geography by reading more books of authors from other countries, and Japan in one of those countries I want to dig in more, alongside South Korea and probably China (by the way, recommendations on books by Korean authors are welcomed!), and I liked the synopsis of the book.
This is also an eARC I got from NetGalley, and the release date is set to be June 1st of this year.
4. Anna Karenina by Lev/Leo Tolstoy
Despite me being a huge lover of Russian classics (you can’t blame me for that, I grew up reading them!), I really haven’t read much by Lev Tolstoy. Times when I had to read War and Peace (mention that I was only 14 at that time) seemed like a nightmare to me, because how the hell are you supposed to find time to read FOUR volumes of a book so full of French, when you have tons of other homework to do??
Definitely one day I will get to read War and Peace at its full, but I feel that this is not the time yet. So I’ll start with Anna Karenina.
And that’s it! I don’t know how well I will follow my TBR plan, but that’s why I prepared TWO lists instead of one!
I just saw some blog posts questioning the benefits of having monthly TBRs, but for me, I find them useful enough to keep everything organized in the first place, so that all those new book releases don’t distract me from what I’m currently reading. Probably it’s easier for me because I live so far all those new books get to my bookshelf by the exact time I finish all my long-awaited reads hahahah
See you soon with more news,
Liliana N Bookish Blog 
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