Tag: reading

Book Reviews

June Wrap-Up and July TBR

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Books read in June:

War Storm – Victoria Aveyard:
3 Stars
This is the final story in the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard, though the first book in the series is one of my favourite books from the last few years, the third book in the series and this one will not be. The book wraps up the series well and doesn’t fall into the trap of many books of the same genre in trying to give all the characters a happy ending and thew ending of the book does make sense for the characters, but I’m still disappointed by it.
Favourite Quote: “Soft hands, better suited to book pages. Never used in war. Never needed in battle. I envy those hands.”

As They Say in Zanzibar – David Crystal:
4 Stars
This is a linguistics book that I got from the library and is mainly a book of proverbs from around the world. As someone who studies linguistics as much as they can it is interesting to learn how different countries have different sayings for the same situations and hoe some sayings are more well known than others.
Favourite Quote: “Those who hear not the music think the dancers mad – China.”

City of Circles – Jess Richards:
3 Stars
This is a book set partly in a circus and partly in a city called Matryoshka – the city of circles from the title. I enjoyed reading about the world and the places in the book more than I enjoyed the actual plot and story. Matryoshka is a city that seems like places I have been and places I have never been at the same time and reading the book did make me wonder if it is time I went travelling again, but the plot didn’t capture as I had hoped it would.

Books to read in July:

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman:
This book is the book chosen by my book group for July and I have been recommended this book by a few different people so was waiting for a reason to go and buy it. The book follows Eleanor as she tries to stop being lonely. Having already read the first few pages I can already tell I am going to thoroughly enjoy reading this book, I just hope I can finish it before I meet with my book group!

Mun Mun – Jesse Andrews:
This book is the latest book I have received from Readers First in exchange for a review so will be doing a full review of this book after I have finished it. The book is set in a world where your physical size is directly related to how much money you have and those with the least money are roughly the size of mice. It follows one person as they try to make more money so they can become taller. The book seemed such an interesting way of looking at wealth in society that it seemed impossible not to read.

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Pharmacist’s Wife (Vanessa Tait)

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3/5 stars.

“‘But we find a bee’s sting in nature, why should we not find this? Only instead of poison there is pleasure…'”

Set in 1869, the book follows Rebecca Palmer as she is given a new medicine created by her husband named heroin. The book follows her descent into addiction and although the drug takes her away from her unhappy marriage with Mr Palmer, her life starts to unravel.

“The very last shoe any woman could run away in.”
The book has possibly slightly too many things in it. Rebecca’s descent into addiction and the world she now finds herself in would have been plot enough, instead we are shown Victorian bawdy houses, as well as Mr Palmer’s belief that heroin will prove to be a wonder drug for women to keep them in their place and to stop them from wanting to encroach on the world of men.
While these scenes are well written and do to an extent have an impact on the plot, you can’t help but feel that the story would remain exactly the same if they were taken out.

“‘For women are strong and bear much punishment.”
The last third of the book is the only time where I found the book to be a page turner – without revealing too much – Rebecca finds an ingenious way to take revenge on her husband for making her addicted to heroin.
The book is a good read, especially for all the knowledge of Victorian pharmacy that is inside it, but it was not the same book I was expecting to read.

Book Reviews

Book Review: To Kill a Kingdom (Alexandra Christo)

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“Technically I’m a murderer, but I like to think that’s one of my better qualities.”

This book is loosely based on The Little Mermaid, but is a darker retelling of the story as instead of a mermaid the main character is a siren turned human for punishment. In order to redeem herself she must take the heart of a prince in her human form.

“Love is a word we scarcely hear in the ocean.”

The book is a joy to read, as both the story and the writing style compliment each other well and it seems that the surface of the world created in the book has barely been scratched, as there are a hundred kingdoms and we only visit a handful.

“Is that what it means to be human? Pushing someone else out of danger and throwing yourself in?”

The book is a standalone so the ending ties everything together well but could have been done over more than a few pages and any other books set in this world, but following different characters, would be interesting to read to find out more about the hundred kingdoms.

“I died once and I haven’t been able to do it again since.”

For a debut novel or for any novel, the story is compelling and the writing style unique, and I will definitely read whatever story Alexandra Christo tells next.

5/5.

 

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How To Get More Books

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“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” – Erasmus.

Lovely though this sentiment is, I don’t think I have ever met anyone for whom this quote is true. Even the most dedicated bibliophile would, if the choice came down to it, choose food first; because you can’t read books if you’ve starved.

Yet book reviewers online sometimes seem to be following this quote through, or at least have vast disposable incomes that allow them to buy six new books a month and hardly get around to reading a single one of them.

The answer of course is that they don’t buy all of the books they read. Some are presents, some are offered by publishers and some are bought (after food), but if you are new to book reviewing how do you start being given books before you are able to justify buying them in vast quantities?

Well as I am new to this as well, I have found a few places. The website readersfirst offers a preview of various books on a Monday, if you write a review of the preview then you are entered into a draw to win a copy of the book – the book will arrive before it’s released and all you have to do is read it and give a review of the finished product by the publication day. They say it’s a draw to win the book but so far I have won all three of the books I have previewed, so it’s not rare to win.

Other places include bookbub which can send you emails for daily deals on ebooks. Want to start reading that new series? Well for one day only it’s 99p instead of £7.99! Though the books offered here are e-books rather than physical versions, the writers will all still value reviews.

Author websites also regularly offer books in exchange for honest reviews. And though I am yet to try this so am not sure how it works, some publishers can be contacted directly to ask for copies of books to review. In all the cases the only thing you need to do is review the book once you have finished and if that allows me to gain a new book every month then I am all for it. I don’t even need to make the decision between food or books. Unlike poor Erasmus.

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DNF Or Not Finishing Books

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I confess, even though it is not yet the end of January there have been a couple of books I have Not Finished, giving up reading them halfway through, or even only a few pages in. This is rare for me and both the books were ones on my kindle, that I bought at some point last year and had not got around to reading precisely because I had bought them when they were on offer, and wasn’t sure I would actually enjoy them.

Usually if I am going to DNF a book I will know within the first few pages, rarely do I give up a book once I am past the first chapter. This is because my usual reason for not finishing books is the writing – the first book I ever didn’t finish on purpose was a novelisation of Sabrina The Teenage Witch when I was eleven on the basis that I thought I could have written it when I was five years younger. It also took me three goes to finish reading The Lord of The Rings because I got annoyed that I couldn’t read the Elvish, but these books were given up on very early on, the books I have DNF’d this year I have given up much later in the story.

If I get past the first few chapters of a book then by that point even if I am not necessarily enjoying the story, the book may still benefit from being reviewed and you shouldn’t review a book you did not finish. After the first few chapters I am always to some extent invested in the story and characters and at the very least want to keep reading just to see whether everything gets resolved, or any of the characters I have decided to like manage to stay alive until the end.

So if you give up a book halfway or even three quarters through, what happened then that didn’t happen in the first few pages? Well, in my case, the reasons don’t seem to change. If the story is not what I expected, or the story doesn’t involve the one character I liked, or I’m halfway through and the story has not yet started. The book I am currently reading, does not seem to be the same as I imagined before I started, and yet this book I am carrying on reading, because there is still the drive that I want to know what happens in the end, and that is of course down to the writing, so maybe in the end that is the only reason I DNF any books. If the writing does not make the story and characters interesting then either nothing will or the writing needs changing.

On the plus side, not finishing books is a means of decluttering your kindle bookshelf or your real bookshelves and you won’t know a book is going to be one you will not finish until you have tried to finish it.

 

Book Reviews

Book Rating System

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So, one of my goals for this year is to write more book reviews, both on here and on Goodreads. That includes rating the books as well. In the past, I have usually just finished reading books and not rated them, but this neither helps the authors of the books or the algorithm on Goodreads to know what sort of books I want to read next, but as someone who doesn’t regularly rate books they’ve read, what exactly is my rating system? What makes one book one star and another five stars? Well I think I’ve come up with a rating system that makes sense for me so here goes:

1 star – I rarely give books one star. Usually if there is a book that I am going to give one star it’s going to be a book that I DNF, although for me this is rare. If I don’t finish a book then I tend not to rate it based on the idea that while the book was not enjoyable for me that isn’t true for everybody in the world.

2 stars: Any book that had enough plot/character development for me to finish the book but is not a book I will ever read again, nor read any other books in the series as they come out will probably get two stars.

3 stars: Any book that I did enjoy but feel could have been better. If the book is part of a series, I will not actively search for the future books but if I see one while browsing in a bookshop or someone wants to buy me the book as a present then I will gladly read the next ones in the series.

4 stars: Any book I give four stars to, is a book I did enjoy and will want to buy any future books in that series and will actively try to read other work by that author. I will not buy other books by the author or in that series immediately but will whenever I can afford to.

5 stars: Any book I give 5 stars to, I will read everything else by that author and will buy all other books in that series as they come out, wanting to have the first edition of any future books in the series. I will tell everyone I know to also read the book and will generally believe that the author can do no wrong writing wise, adding them to my favourite authors list.

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Bout of Books 21 Update Post

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So I’m a little late signing up to this one (a day) but I have a few hours before the sign up link goes!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 8th and runs through Sunday, January 14th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 21 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

Goals for the read-a-thon:

  1. Read 1000 pages throughout the week.
  2. Participate in three challenges and one twitter chat.
  3. Comment on at least three other blogs throughout the week.

The first book I am reading is one I started yesterday: (so can I count the pages I read yesterday if I wasn’t signed up? I think I can.) Moon Signs Helen Haught Fanick.

Day 1:

Pages read: 25

Notes: Considering I didn’t know the read-a-thon was happening yesterday, I’m quite impressed that I decided to read any pages at all as I was out of the house for most of the day!

Day 2:

Pages read: 100

Total pages read: 125

Notes: Was hoping to finish reading Moon Signs by Helen Haught Fanick today but as I only have about 40 pages left I will be able to finish it before I go to work tomorrow.

Day 3:

Pages read: 100

Total pages read: 225

Books finished: Moon Signs by Helen Haught Fanick

Notes: Managed to finish Moon Signs this morning and started The Graveyard Shift by Angela Roquet. I didn’t really enjoy Moon Signs much, I only decided to read it because it has been on my kindle for the best part of a year, but The Graveyard Shift is already much more enjoyable than the last book. I am out for most of the day tomorrow but should be able to do a bit of reading while I’m at the hairdressers!

Day 4: 

Pages read: 45

Total pages read: 270

Notes: Will be out of the house for most of the day tomorrow, but am hoping I will be back in the evening to take part in the challenge for today. And have realised I can’t take part in the twitter chat on Saturday as I will be at work during it.

Day 5:

Pages read: 31

Total pages read: 301

Challenge: Newspaper Headlines – From Pantomime by Laura Lam: Runaway Noble Joins Circus.

Though the first book in this series is not just about the circus. It is where the main plot of the book takes place and I can easily imagine that this headline would appear in a sensationalist newspaper that exists within the world of the book!

Day 6:

Pages read: 107

Total pages read: 408

Challenge: Book spine poetry. Makes me wish I had more books with verbs in the titles, but think this would make quite a good start to some kind of gothic fairytale!

Photo on 13-01-2018 at 19.44 #2
The Cruel Prince, Red Queen, Cooking With Bones, Through The Woods

Day 7:

Pages read: 365

Total pages read: 773

Books finished: The Graveyard Shift by Angela Roquet, The Pocket Watch by Ceci Giltenan and The In-Betweener by Ann Christy

Challenge: Leave a Book Review: I put a short review of The Pocket Watch by Ceci Giltenan on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2257534434

Notes: only had a few pages of The Graveyard Shift to finish this morning and spent the day going through a few of the e-books I have had on my kindle for about a year without reading. The Pocket Watch – the first in a series – was enjoyable enough to read and relatively quick to read as well. There was nothing in the story that I didn’t expect but I would like to read the other stories in the series. The Graveyard Shift by Angela Roquet is another series that I want to read more of being a concept that I have never come across before – Lana is a reaper in the underworld. And The In-Betweener by Ann Christy was an interesting read about a zombie apocalypse. Most of the book takes place over the course of only a few days with flashbacks to how the apocalypse started and the events that led to where the main character was staying. Considering the only thing that happens in the present timeline of the book is the main character leaves where she is living to go and collect some people who need help and take them back to where she has been living, the book is more gripping than you would think so with that as the main plot line. I’m not sure if I want to read the rest of the books in the series or not, but as zombie stories go it is not the worst one I have read by a long shot.