January readings: bookreviews!

This year I plan to post bookreviews again. I joined reading community thestoryinside and for this first bookpost I used their comment template as a guidance for my summaries and reviews. Special thanks to matchboximpala, my bookbuddy for this month, who went through my bookpile to pick three books that were either written by a male author and/or part of the fantasy genre (read more about genre categories here.

These books were chosen for January:
Less by Andrew Sean Greer, a novel about an American male author who's about to turn fifty. When he gets a wedding invitation from his ex-boyfriend of nine years, he avoids having to go by accepting all the requests in his mailbox for readings at literary events around the world. Traveling confronts him with memories of his life.

Spinder by Simon van der Geest, a Dutch childrens' book about a boy who's telling the story of the fight he is in with his older brother over their secret basement. Spinder is keeping his insect collection down there, his brother wants to use is for his drumming. Ever since their eldest brother died, their mother has been escaping into work and she's hardly ever home. The fight between the boys escalates into full on terrorisation.

I'm still reading A Field Guide to Fantastical Beasts by Olento Salaperäinen with illustrations by Andrew Pinder. This book is unrelated to the famous 'Fantastic Beasts' universe by J.K. Rowling, but rather an independent catalogue of all sorts of supernatural creatures, from fairies to goblins and beyond, exploring the origin of all those beasts. It references to original ancient fairytales, but also current literature, such as Harry Potter.

( Spoiler free reviews & recommendations )

J.