" A blank page, a rewrite A black cat in the streetlights An open door" - There It Goes, Maisie Peters Well hello. It'...
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I like to start each new year with a truth about God that I'm choosing to proclaim - kind of like an anthem for the year. This is usually something that brings itself to the fore in the early days of the year - God saying "This is who I am. Embrace that".
Back in September, I took a little trip to Italy with my friend Mariana who recently started learning Italian and wanted an excuse to practice and I am never going to say no to a trip anywhere, but specifically a trip to Italy. We weren't very particular about where specifically we wanted to go - just as long as she could speak Italian, I can read it but I struggle conversationally so she did most of the communicating!
I've been before (I wrote a whole post about my Naples trip) but this time we headed north to Milan. We really just used Milan as a base because it has great transport networks so it makes it super easy to navigate and visit lots of different places which we definitely took advantage of.
We flew into Malpensa Airport which is connected to Milan by a train that you can get from the airport itself which makes it very handy - just as long as you don't get stuck behind queues of people who don't know how to use ticket machines. We almost missed two trains in the time it took for us to buy our tickets in literally 30 seconds so I don't know what was taking the others so long!
I mentioned in my last post that I didn't read as much this year as in some other years. Also since I haven't posted on here in over a year, you're also unaware of what I did read since I last told you about The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley which I read back in August 2022!
I thought in order to rectify that I would do a whistlestop tour through the 24 books that I read in 2023 ranked in order of my least favourite to my favourite. Who knows, maybe you'll find something to pick up this year. I also reread The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by VE Schwab this year for a book club which is one of my all-time favourite books but I didn't want to include it in this list but just know that she's still perched nicely at the top.
I used The Storygraph to help me with this list - it's my favourite way to keep track of the books I read each year (you can follow me here).
"A blank page, a rewriteA black cat in the streetlightsAn open door"
- There It Goes, Maisie Peters
Well hello. It's sure been a while since I've shown my face on here. I wish I could say that I had some fun and exciting reason as to why that is but truly I just have not felt like writing. Every time I would try to sit down and write a post, it would just end up unfinished and remain in the drafts until the end of time. I even bought a new camera at the start of the year with the hope of upgrading the content I was producing but what actually ended up happening is that I've done even less than usual. 2023 clearly was just one of those years.
As the last year drew to a close I spent a lot of time reminiscing, not only on this year but also on all the others in recent memory and I was thinking about just how much things have changed, not necessarily even for the better so I'm starting 2024 with the best of intentions - that this is going to be my best year regardless of what it throws at me. I'm going to choose to be thankful and choose joy in circumstances. But I'm also going to put myself back out there, into the world both physically and creatively, starting with kickstarting this old blog again.
I've been reading for a long time and only recently have I realised that my favourite genre is Historical Urban Fantasy. If you're unfamiliar with the genre it's generally just a piece of historical fiction with a few fantastical elements thrown in to add some spice. It is the perfect genre for this season as we enter the colder months. These are especially great if you're not a big fantasy reader but want something a little magical. That's why I've created this list with some of my absolute favourites. Some of these also happen to be my favourite novels of all time but I would honestly recommend any of them.
