This month I travelled a lot – through reading, while being in Romania. From the neighbouring country Moldavia to Turkey and then to the UK, the stories I read this month spanned through time and geographies.
Quite interestingly, a touch of serendipity: all three stories had a common theme – stories of women who were considered witches, either because they were experts in herbs and potions, or because inexplicable things happened to them. It was fascinating to see how the witchcraft theme transcended geographies and cultures, being present in very diverse storytelling contexts around the world.
Currently reading
My current read is Honour by Elif Shafak. I mainly picked it up mainly because I enjoyed reading other books by Shafak – Three Daughters of Even and The Forty Rules of Love (my reviews).
Honour tells the story of a family with Turkish roots who immigrated in the UK, focusing on the controversial practice of honour killings. The narrative style is super captivating and I particularly like how the characters are built. Super nice read so far!
Finished reading
First I finished Set in Stone by Stela Brinzeanu – a fiction story set in Moldavia in the middle ages. It is about two young women who discover their own way in a world defined by religion and class. It also contains a reinterpretation of a local myth, a witty twist I enjoyed a lot.
As Moldavia is so close to Romania, both geographically and culturally, I felt as if reading a story about Romania. The book was originally written in English – so I can already recommend it to my English-speaking bookish friends! ❤
The second book I finished How to Stop Time by Matt Haig. It was the second book I read by Matt Haig, after The Midnight Library.
How to Stop Time tells the story of Tom Hazard, who is one of the few people on Earth ageing extremely slowly … so slowly that it he looks like 40 when being around 400 years old. It is a captivating story, especially if you enjoy the immortality and hidden societies themes.
However, I have to say that I enjoyed much more reading The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V. E. Schwab (my review). The core theme is very similar (immortality), but the storyline and the characters are much more engaging.
Reading next
My reading plans for the next weeks are no very clear yet. I would like to read People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara, mostly because I loved A Little Life (my review) and I find the backbone of the story quite interesting.
From the shortlisted Women’s Prize for Fiction books I also have at least 2 books I would like to read – The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shakaf (already received super good feedback from bookish friends) and The Sentence by Louise Erdrich.
Did any of you read it so far? Please let me know if you have any impressions, thoughts about them – as you can see, I’m quite undecided 🙂
What are you reading during the mid-year period? Any new releases you’re super excited about?
Till next time … happy reading!
Georgiana
Cover photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash
Readers' High Tea 
I loved The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak. Reading that book was an experience in and of itself.
The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara is also on my list.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I feel the same! There’s something special about Shafak’s books, the way she guides the reader and builds the narrative structure 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Sentence is excellent. The People in the Trees is good, but not as good as Yanagihara’s other two books. I haven’t read The Island of Missing Trees yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! Happy to hear about The Sentence – I’ll definitely going to read it soon!!
LikeLiked by 1 person