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Megan Coetzee Reads, Kempton Park (2026)

29/04/2026

Author who I love - Kazuo Ishiguro🌿

There are a few authors whose work I’ve read almost in its entirety. One in particular is Kazuo Ishiguro. I first read The Remains of the Day back in 2016, when I was getting back into reading. I fell in love with his sublte and quiet writing style.

In Klara and the Sun and Never Let Me Go, he explores humanity; what it means to be human, to love, and to have empathy. In The Remains of the Day, he reflects on regret and time wasted on suppressed ideals.

Ishiguro uses unreliable narrators to create a gap between what the narrator tells us and what the reader understands. The character usually rewrites their own past to supress uncomfortable truths and struggles to connect to the world around them.

I will always recommend his books. I plan on rereading Klara and the sun and The remains of the day.

💬QOTD: What author would you always recommend?

28/04/2026

This is my first “Two for Tuesday” challenge on Bookstagram. I decided to take on this challenge with a genre I read the least - memoir and autobiography.

🌿 Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy

🌿 Just Kids by Patti Smith

Mother Mary Comes to Me is Arundhati Roy’s first memoir. I read her debut novel, The God of Small Things, which won the Booker Prize, and was drawn in by her incredible writing style. Since reading it many years ago, I’ve reread it and plan to revisit it every few years.

My second memoir I plan on reading is Just Kids by Patti Smith and I've almost seen this book everywhere on Bookstagram. She’s a singer-songwriter known as the “Godmother of Punk,” and Just Kids documents her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe during the ’60s and ’70s.

I’m excited to have added these two books to my TBR. Since joining Bookstagram, I’ve been trying to branch out into genres I don’t typically pick up.

QOTD: With April drawing to a close, what has been your favorite read this month?

17/04/2026

It’s rainy and cold, and it’s Friday. After getting home from school, I changed into my coziest clothes, grabbed a blanket and my cat, and started reading Dandelion Is Dead by Rosie Storey. I have so much to do; I’m moving at the end of the month, so I have some packing to get done. All I know is that tonight I’ll be pushing down the worry and enjoying my book.

🌿QOTD: Do you have any special plans this weekend? Or what are you currently reading?

❤️

16/04/2026

🌿Books Without Borders 🌿

Books Without Borders is a reading series where I travel the world through literature, discovering stories written by authors from every country.

#️⃣ 2/195
📍 Country: Spain
📚 Book: Nada
✍️ Author: Carmen Laforet
⭐ Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The story is set in early 1940s, post-Civil War Barcelona, where we follow Andrea, a 19-year-old orphan who moves in with her relatives to attend university. She lives with her grandmother, Aunt Angustias, her uncles Juan and Román, and Juan’s wife, Gloria.

Arriving full of hope and dreams, Andrea soon finds herself trapped in a dysfunctional household marked by extreme filth and poverty. Amid the domestic abuse and constant tension, she tries to distance herself from her home life through her wealthy friends, especially a girl named Ena; while yearning for independence and a sense of normalcy.

The atmosphere is deeply claustrophobic and suffocating, with every scene charged with intensity and unease. The novel explores themes of the psychological devastation of war, existential emptiness, and the longing for freedom.

QOTD: Do you prefer character-driven or plot-driven stories?

02/04/2026

I’ve had a great reading month 🩷 I read four books, all of them five stars.

🌿 Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌿 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌿 Madonna in a Fur Coat – Sabahattin Ali ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌿 Autumn – Ali Smith ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

💬QOTD: What book do you keep putting off reading? Mine is To Kill a Mockingbird—I’ve wanted to read it for years, but I never pick it up.

📚 📚

02/04/2026

🍁Autumn by Ali Smith🍁

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I knew very little about what this book was when I bought it. I started reading it on the very same day and finished it in one sitting. I was blown away by the beautiful, poetic, and lyrical prose. It’s a novel about friendship, making sense of time and identity as seen through a lens of dreams and reality.

Daniel Gluck and Elisabeth Demand formed a special kind of friendship when she was a child. He was the next-door neighbour to Elisabeth and her mom. It all started when her mom needed someone to babysit Elisabeth, and from there their friendship grew and built on storytelling, imagination, and a shared love for art.

Daniel Gluck is in a nursing home, where he drifts in and out of consciousness. He dreams and reflects on his life, especially his friendship with Elisabeth. The story is fragmented, moving between past and present, blending Daniel’s dreams and memories with Elisabeth’s reality.

This book reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Remains of the Day. It has similarly beautiful writing that is poignant and leaves a deep, melancholic feeling after you’ve finished it.

💬QOTD: What is your most anticipated read for April?

📚 #ʙᴏᴏᴋᴀᴅᴅɪᴄᴛ

02/04/2026

✨Book Haul✨

This morning (a Monday!), I went book shopping at a second-hand bookstore. You know you’re blessed when you get four holidays during the year;that’s one of the perks of being a teacher! I bought five books, but since I traded in seven for credit, I only had to pay for two.

✨ A Column of Fire – Ken Follett (the third book in The Pillars of the Earth series)

✨ Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison

✨ Villette – Charlotte Brontë

✨ Autumn – Ali Smith

✨ Winter – Ali Smith

💬 QOTD: Have you read any of these, or what are you currently reading?

📚 #ʙᴏᴏᴋᴀᴅᴅɪᴄᴛ

02/04/2026

I was tagged by for this fun physical book scavenger hunt. Unfortunately, I don’t keep my physical copies;I either sell or donate them because I don’t have space for all the books. I have read all the books in my selection. Thank you, , for tagging me! Please go and check out her lovely page and spread some love.

1. A book with a colour in the title: Black Butterflies – Priscilla Morris

2. A book with an animal in the title: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman

3. A book with a number in the title: One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez

4. A book with a one-word title: Water – John Boyne

5. A book with a name in the title: Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro

6. A book under 300 pages: The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman

💬QOTD: Have you read any of these?

📚

02/04/2026

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I don’t think I can add anything that hasn’t already been said about this book. I was extremely intimidated, but I decided to read it anyway. If I DNFed it, that would also be okay. But surprisingly, I couldn’t put this book down.

Raskolnikov questions human nature. If humans aren’t naturally “good,” then moral laws are made-up fears, and he believes there are no real “barriers” to what someone can do. He believes there are “ordinary” people and “extraordinary” people, and that “extraordinary” people can break moral laws if there is a higher purpose.

He commits a murder, explaining it away by claiming that the person he murdered is a thief. Raskolnikov gets away with the murder, but immediately it destabilizes his identity. He suffers from confusion and paranoia, cutting himself off from everyone and everything. He also experiences fevers and delirium, already suffering the punishment for the crime, even though he hasn’t been sentenced for the crime.

It’s a fascinating read, and I will definitely be picking up The Brothers Karamazov. I tried to read it a few years back but softly DNFed it, knowing it wasn’t the right time.

💬QOTD: What are your weekend plans, and what are you currently reading?

02/04/2026

🚀Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir🚀
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. This was my first sci-fi novel, and I feel proud that I not only finished it but also truly enjoyed it. It is heavy on science, which did go over my head at times; but it didn’t cause me to lose interest in the storyline.

We follow Ryland Grace, a high school science teacher who is sent on a one-way trip to save humanity. The problem is that he wakes up from an induced coma on a spaceship, not knowing who he is or why he’s there; with two of his crewmates dead. As time goes by, he slowly starts remembering bits of his life and his mission. Finding himself alone and trying to figure out how to save all of humanity, he comes into contact with a visitor. Together, the two form a special friendship and come up with ideas not only to save Earth, but also the visitor’s planet.

This book made me laugh, tear up, and had my anxiety through the roof. This is what great books are made of. I especially loved the humour; despite the huge responsibility on Grace and Rocky’s shoulders, their dynamic is the heart of the story. I bought the book not knowing that a movie has been made and is being released soon, and I’m so happy I finished it knowing I can go and enjoy the movie as well.

I can highly recommend this book, even if you’re not into sci-fi. It's heart warming and a delightful read.

🌠🌠QOTD: What genre do you usually shy away from, but ended up loving after giving it a chance?

📚

02/04/2026

Books Without Borders🌿

-Books Without Borders is a reading series where I travel the world through literature, discovering stories written by authors from every country-

#️⃣ 1/195
📍 Country: Turkey
📚 Book: Madonna in a Fur Coat
✍️ Author: Sabahattin Ali
⭐ Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book didn’t rip my heart out all at once; it broke it slowly, piece by piece, with every page I turned. Quietly and gently, until I reached the end and realized just how heartbroken I was.

In the beginning, we meet Raif Efendi: a quiet, reserved man who seems almost invisible to the world around him. On the surface, he appears ordinary; someone who keeps to himself and lives a reserved and mundane life.
But through his journal, we begin to uncover the past he carries within him. We see the depth of his soul, the loneliness and alienation he experienced during his years in Berlin before meeting Maria Puder, an artist who painted “The Madonna in a Fur Coat" and him returning to Turkey. Their connection becomes the emotional heart of the story.

Reading this novel made me think of the quote: “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”

This story explores profound loneliness, isolation, and the quiet tragedy of missed opportunities. It’s tender, melancholic, and deeply human.
A beautifully written book that will stay with me for a very long time.

🌿QOTD:
Do you think it’s better to have loved and lost, or never to have loved at all?

📚❣️

Megan Coetzee Reads

29/04/2026

28/04/2026

17/04/2026

16/04/2026

02/04/2026

02/04/2026

02/04/2026

02/04/2026

02/04/2026

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02/04/2026

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