Category: TBR’s

TBR's

August Wrap-Up and September TBR

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Books Read in August:

The Island by M.A. Bennett:
3 stars
I did a full review of this book here.
Favourite Quote: “”They cancelled the show. So you never saw the characters getting off the island. In the world of the show, they’re still there, stranded, frozen in TV limbo.””

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson:
4 stars
This is a collection of short stories by Shirley Jackson, as with any collection of short stories, I enjoyed some more than others but the majority of these stories are good and I read the entire book in only a couple of days.
Favourite Quote: “”Reality,” she said, and went out.”

September TBR:

The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All The Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente:
The latest book in the Fairyland series of which I have read all of them. I think this may be the last book in the series and am looking forward to finishing it and am hoping that I enjoy this book enough that I want to spend winter re-reading the entire series!

I don’t have any other books planned to read in September so once I have finished this book I’ll have to choose another!

 

 

 

TBR's

July Wrap-Up and August TBR

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Books read in July:

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman:
4 stars.
A book with an ending I didn’t expect which always makes reading more enjoyable. The story of a woman with an ordinary life these days. But her life wasn’t always ordinary. The book deals with many different themes including loneliness and was a spectacular read.
Favourite Quote: “It’s SpongeBob, Eleanor,” he said, speaking very slowly and clearly as though I were some sort of idiot. “SpongeBob SquarePants?” A semi-human bath sponge with protruding front teeth! On sale as if it were something completely unremarkable! For my entire life, people have said that I’m strange, but really, when I see things like this, I realize that I’m actually relatively normal.”

Munmun by Jesse Andrews:
3 stars.
The writing style used in this book does take some getting used to. It’s a little like a beginners version of the language used in A Clockwork Orange, but easier to figure out the meanings to words. I think the writing style is meant to be as if the main character Warner is writing the book himself, as he is illiterate at the beginning of the book, it makes sense that he would write phonetically, e.g. in the book six is written as sicks, while many words are spaced out or pushed together as Warner is used to hearing words said this way instead of writing them.
The book is set in a world where the amount of money you have directly corresponds to how tall you are, so the poorest are the size of rats, while the richest are giants. The story is an interesting look at society and how people with a ton of money just don’t have to worry about the same things as others – like cat attacks in the book. While I did empathise with the characters the plot didn’t pull me in the way I had hoped and the main reason I finished the book was because of the characters rather than the plot or the writing.
Favourite Quote: “”Yeah it’s true, Lifty is the secret home of geniuses,” I said. “Yesterday during Generic Distress Response three guys working together invented a brandnew way to get trapped under a bus.””

July TBR:

The Island by M.A. Bennett: A retelling of The Lord of The Flies by William Goldman. Although I had to read The Lord of The Flies at school and declared I hated it at the time and haven’t read it since. I am interested to see what a modern retelling of the story is like and whether it’s the general plot I disliked or whether it was just that I had to read it in school.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson: A set of short stories by Shirley Jackson. I have previously only read her novel We Have Always Lived in The Castle so want to read more of her work.

 

TBR's

Reverse Readathon TBR

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

The Reverse readathon is a readathon organised by the people who run the Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon. The readathon starts at the same time across the world and goes for 24 hours. This means that usually the readathon starts at 1pm in the UK. However, as this is a reverse readathon then it will start at the opposite time, so 1am on Saturday for me and it will go until 1am on Sunday.

I will be at work for most of the day tomorrow but will be able to read through the night. I will be reading:

MunMun by Jesse Andrews – I got this book from the Readers First website and want to finish it so I can write my review.

The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue – This was the book chosen by my book club for the month of August.

The Lost in Limbo books by Angela Roquet – I have these books on Audible and have been meaning to finish them for the past few months. As they are on Audible I will be able to listen to the books on my way to and from work during the day.

 

TBR's

May Wrap-Up and June TBR

Christy.E.SLeave a comment

Books Read in May:
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides:

2.5 Stars.
This was the book chosen for my Book Club in May. I was on holiday at the time so missed the meeting discussing it, but finished the book anyway. The book is well written, though it doesn’t seem so much to be a story at least not one with a clear ending. Though this is obviously on purpose, making the book read more like a memoir than a fiction, it did leave me feeling intimately disappointed after reading the rest of the book.
Favourite Quote: “‘Whoever named it morning sickness was a man,’ Lina declared.  ‘He was just home in the morning to notice.’”
The Illumination of Ursula Flight – Anna Marie Crowhurst:

3 Stars.
I got this book to read from the Readers First website and my review of the book can be found here

The book is well written and generally quite quick to read, though the story is a bit slow and the ending did leave me a little disappointed.

Favourite Quote: “there was nothing I liked more than to see my own name drawn out by my own hand, and so I wrote it everywhere I could, including places I knew were forbidden”.
The Little Friend – Donna Tartt:

3 Stars.

I had had this book on my to read pile for over a year by the beginning of May so wanted to read it before I read anything else. If you are a fan of Donna Tartt’s writing then you will enjoy the writing in this story, though the story itself seemed a little convoluted and difficult to follow. I am glad I have read the book but will probably never read the book again.

Favourite Quote: “She did not care for children’s books in which the children grew up, as what “growing up” entailed (in life as in books) was a swift and inexplicable dwindling of character; out of a clear blue sky the heroes and heroines abandoned their adventures for some dull sweetheart, got married and had families, and generally started acting like a bunch of cows.”

TBR:

In June I will read:

War Storm – Victoria Aveyard: 
This is the final book in The Red Queen series. The first book was my favourite book I read in 2015 and while I have read all the other books in the series including the short story prequels, the third book in the series was not as good as the first two. But I am invested in the series and need to finish this book this month so I can find out how everything turns out!

As They Say In Zanzibar – David Crystal:
This is essentially just a big book of proverbs from around the world and is a book I got from the library. I do linguistics and so when I went to the library for another book entirely, the chance to learn some proverbs from around the world was too good an opportunity to pass up.

City of Circles – Jess Richards:
This is the third book by an author I have met before and as this story is a love story set partly in a circus, I am looking forward to reading this book more than I was the first two.