Another week down

Yippee, it's Friday and as my little darling is amusing herself (reading Mr Men books) I've actually got some time to join in with TGIF! Over at Greads this week's meme question asks, as we're now scarily half way through the year, which have been your top 3 books of the year so far. This wasn't too difficult as I haven't given many books 5* this year, in fact 3 to date so it's pretty easy really. They were:


You Came Back by Christopher Coake 
A Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols
The Demi-Monde- Winter by Rod Rees


What I find interesting is that they are all very different books. You Came Book is a contemporary novel with hints of a ghost tale, the Nichols book is non-fiction set in the sailing world of the late 1960s and The Demi-Monde is, erm, steam-punky sci-fi, fantasy-ish. It's pleasing to find enjoyment out of such a diverse range. There are too many notable 4* books that I don't think I have the time to mention them all.


As I spoke (or typed) too soon and madam is now on the move this will have to be short but sweet. 


Have a great weekend everyone, 


TC x

Time for a weekend of fun

Although bank holidays don't mean a lot to me as I only work a couple of days a week this long weekend is shaping up to be a good one. For those of you who aren't Brits (and those who are but having been hiding in a cave) it is the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this year and celebrations reach their peak this week. There's so much going on in my town that I've taken the time off work to enjoy it. It seems that even those who aren't Royalists are in a buoyant mood and that people are more positive than they have been in ages. It's a really fun time and with the Olympics on the horizon I'm a happy bunny.

Since my last TGIF and weekly (probably should be fortnightly these days) round-up I have read and reviewed:

Steps to Heaven by Wendy Cartmell

Growing Up Wired by David Wallace Fleming and

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I also managed to fit in some short stories for the first time in ages, review following soon, and am hoping to finish the novel I'm reading at the moment some time tonight.

Over at GReads it is TGIF time and the question is a cracker. Which books have you found to be very rewarding when it comes to tackling tougher issues?

One book I have read more recently that I thought dealt with some hard topics well was The Girl in the Box by Sheila Dalton Here's the brief synopsis to explain it  -Dr. Jerry Simpson brings a traumatised girl named Inez, who may be autistic, back to Canada from Guatemala as an act of compassion. He is unable to establish exactly what has happened in her past, but in a country torn apart by civil war it is clear the girl who lives in a box has seen or experienced terrible things. When Inez turns on Jerry and kills him partner Caitlin desperately needs to find out why this terrible incident occurred so she can forgive and move on with her life.

Inez becomes a cause celebre during her trial, provoking discussion about whether Jerry was right to remove her from her homeland and about what he must have done to provoke her fury. She exudes a compelling and innocent aura that draws people to her. Almost worse than being locked up in a bleak hospital in the north of the country Inez is locked within herself. Can Caitlin find it in herself to forgive and help the girl she once loved?

I thought the author treated the subject matter well, not shying away from providing details but without pushing it to the point of melo-drama. 

I don't read a lot of books whose central plot deals with tougher issues, maybe because life is hard enough without reading about some of the worst of human nature, and maybe because I have read a couple where I have felt bad because despite heart-rending stories the quality of the writing hasn't been up to the task and I've felt guilty for not feeling more moved by the stories. I'm interested to see what others think about the subject!

To anyone having a street party or other Jubilee event, I hope you have a brilliant time and that the weather is kind, and of course to everyone else Happy weekend!

TC xx

TGIF

I missed out last week, being away visiting the in-laws but it's back to normal this week! I've had quite a busy couple of weeks on the book front, since last time I read and reviewed...


Beta by Stephen Brayton which introduces a new female PI
Matter of Faith by Brent Craig, a legal thriller
Powder Dreams by David Ward-Nanney, contemporary fiction
Hostile Witness by Rebecca Forster, another crime tale
What Smiled at Him by Colin Dodd, about two friends questionning their lives
When the River has Run by Lars Harssan, fantasy and
Infinite Sacrifice by L E Waters, historical fiction with an unusual twist


I also completed a book yesterday which I will try and post a review on tonight.


Over at GReads the TGIF question is:


A Book Blogger is Born: What made you decide to start your very own book blog?

I'd written the odd review before getting my Kindle, but once I got that and started getting active on Amazon's Kindle forum I realised how important reviews can be to new authors. An author who was active on the forums suggested it was a good way to support an author if you enjoyed their books, and that the natural progression from writing reviews on there was to start a blog. I'd never blogged before so started looking at some for inspiration and figured it was something I could do and would enjoy. I'm definitely the sort of person who likes to share their opinions and most of my friends and family have no interest in hearing about what I've been reading. The blog has definitely progressed in an organic kind of way as I've made tweaks and I've no doubt it'll keep changing.

Time to run, off to the library soon with the monkey so I best look lively! Have a great weekend everyone. 

TC xx

TGIF round up

This week has been crazy so I'm glad it's finally Friday! This week I am joining in on Parajunkee's Social Hop, which connects bloggers on Twitter and Facebook. If you want to find me I am on both, I have a page and tweet.


Friday also means GReads TGIF meme. This week ginger is asking about literary vacations. If you could take a trip this summer to any place within a fictional book where would you go? I'm lucky that I've been able to travel quite a lot over the years. However one place I've never visited but would love to isn't too far away. Kefalonia is featured in Captain Corelli's Mandolin and between the book and the film I would love to visit the Greek islands. These days with a toddler in tow I probably wouldn't quite get my dream holiday lazing on the beach with a book or heading out diving but I'd still love to visit.


Because of continuous problems with my web access over the last couple of weeks (hopefully now resolved) I haven't done a round up for a while, so this is a longer list than usual! Since last time I have read and reviewed


Puzzlebook: 100 Puzzle Quizzes by the Grabarchuk family
The Redemption of Mr Sturlubok by Rudolf Kerkhoven and Daniel Pitts (choose your own ending)
Thief of Hope by Cindy Young-Turner (fantasy)
Wings of Freedom by Ratan Kaul (historical romance)
and welcomed Kristy K James on her blog tour for historical fiction Enza.


Time to go now, off to the library with Monkey in a bit to swap books and attend a story and singing session. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!


TC x

TGIF!

Another week has disappeared and here we are again, Friday meme time. Always a joy as it means the weekend is ahead! 

Over the week I have read and reviewed the following:

The Saintmaker by Mary Carroll Patrick

The Dead See by Marcus Gibson, and 

Casino Shuffle by J. Fields Jr.

After recently reading The Fulcrum Files by Mark Chisnell I have found another fascinating real life story relating to sailing. So I now have a DVD copy of Deep Water and a book - A Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols lined up to find out more about another amazing story. Watch this space for the book review!

Once again I'm joining in with GReads, where there is another fantastic question. This week it is:

Which book from your school days do you remember reading & enjoying? Is there a book published now that you'd like to see in today's curriculum for kids?

Strangely enough I was thinking about this earlier today before I saw the question. I did English Lit at A-level and one of the books we studied was Hard Times by Charles Dickens. It was my first introduction to his work and gave me a real appreciation of it. Since I have read more of his books and have plenty more in either hardcopy or e-books to read. My favourite book in my collection is a copy of The Pickwick Papers that is over 100 years old. I'm too scared to sit and read it for fear of damaging it but I love to touch it and look at it. 

As far as books that I think should be on the curriculum rather than name a particular book I would say that anything that will challenge perceptions and make young people think about issues they might otherwise ignore should be on the list. At school I remember reading Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, about a young woman who starts to develop feelings for another girl to the horror of her religious mother, and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry about racism in the American South during the Depression. Neither were books I would have necessarily chosen myself but both made me think about important topics.

Thanks to everyone who hops on by, and have a great weekend.

TC x

A fortnightly roundup and TGIF

I have no idea where time has been going lately, so I missed my usual Friday round up last week and now I have a bit of catching up to do! Since last time I have read and reviewed:


A Storm Hits Valparaiso by David Gaughran, South American based historical fiction


Renouncing the Future by Stephen Kata, a sci-fi, romance, thriller and


The Fulcrum Files by Mark Chisnell, an interwar spy story.


I've also completed The Saintmaker by Mary Carroll Patrick. Probably my most prolific genre - crime - but with a bit of a twist as it's a Catholic novel. My review will be online a bit later. I'm also well into another book, The Dead See by Marcus Gibson. It is in a Da Vinci Code vein, largely set in the near future and I'm very interested to see where the story will go. 

This week over at GReads the TGIF question is What do you take pride in when it comes to blogging?

This is a great question! First and foremost I take pride in providing balanced and honest reviews. While I try not to absolutely slaughter any of the books I read if there are issues I'll say so. I'm not swayed by reputations or hype. I read a lot of indie books and while some people think you should go a little easier on indie authors I don't tend to agree. If you're putting a book out there for public consumption it needs to be polished, whoever you are.

Following on from that I am proud to review a diverse range of genres and to try and helpful provide a bit of much needed publicity for some of the cracking indie authors out there. I think people who will only read books from the big publishers are missing out on some absolute gems.

And I suppose last but not least I'm quite proud that despite working and having an energetic toddler to contend with I still manage to get books read and keep the blog relatively up to date.

With that last point in mind I'll finish this post up and get on with that review ;D

Time for TGIF...

As much as I love Fridays it scares me to realise another week has gone by, especially as it's now February. Still, this summer is shaping up to be a good one for the UK with London 2012 and the Queen's Jubilee celebrations. For now though we've got to get through this cold snap. It is really very chilly out (at least for a soft southerner like me) but without the benefit of snow. At least the last couple of days have been bright and crisp rather than rainy though.

Over the last week I have read and reviewed The Mountain of Gold by J D Davies, and was pleased to welcome the Curiosity Quills Blog Tour. If you haven't already read Lisa Gus' guest post on the serialisation of novels take a look, it's well worth a look. I finished another book last night which I shall review later, A Storms Hits Valparaiso by David Gaughran. I loved his short stories If You Go Into the Woods and Transfection so I was keen to see a full length work by David. For now suffice it to say I really enjoyed it.

Now onto GReads TGIF Friday meme. This week the question is:
Book Appeal: When you're browsing goodreads, the library, or another blogger's reviews, what grabs your attention to make you want to read it?

It used to be that in the good old days (or bad old days depending on how you look at it) when I was browsing in a book store because many of the books were shelved with the spine rather than the cover facing out for me it was very much down to the blurb to catch my attention. It needed to be short and snappy but conveying enough information to give me an idea of what I was letting myself in for now.

Now, when you browse for books online you tend to get a thumbnail of the cover and, despite the old saying, I do make judgements based on that. If a cover looks cheap, dated or too amateur I tend to assume the contents may not be as professional as I would like. When you have so many options to choose from you have to use something to filter your options so as the first impression the cover does play a part. That said if the blurb isn't any good the cover doesn't matter, and if the blurb is great I'll forgive a rubbish cover (assuming I look at the blurb)

I'm not too picky about the genre, I'll read most things, but there are times when I fancy some light humour, probably after a run of serious novels, or a short story collection maybe if I've read a few long books in a row. A bunch of good reviews that say why a reader enjoyed the book definitely helps.

Whew, that wasn't meant to be the start of an essay....

Thanks for hopping by, and have a great weekend.

Very much TGIF

Whew, what a day! Monkey and I paid a visit to the National Marine Aquarium with friends and the little ones loved it so much we were out pretty much the whole day. I love it there so I'm always happy to while away some time admiring the sharks, turtle, eels et al. Reading this last week has been a bit slow, I started a rather long book and have found myself a bit daunted by my lack of progress so I started something else and am planning on coming back to it fresh soon. However I did review the following over the weekend.

Surviving the Fog by Stan Morris, a YA sci-fi survival adventure, and

The Girl in the Box by Sheila Dalton, contemporary fiction with some of my favourite elements.

Coming up on February 1st I have an interesting guest post as part of the Curiosity Quills 2012 blog tour so please keep an eye out for that.

Turning to GReads question of the week:

Buy or Borrow: Where do your books that you read come from? The bookstore? The library? Do you prefer to own a book, or have it on loan?

A lot of my books are now review copies or ARCs direct from the author, publisher or Netgalley. However outside of those I do tend to buy books rather than borrow them. I love to have a copy to go back to. For e-books I use Amazon and Smashwords. If I can find a good quality copy of a book I really want in a charity shop I still buy the odd tree book, and my family loan me a few now and then. I do try and make use of our library though, I think it's very much a case of lose them or use them, so I usually borrow books that are a bit of an unknown quantity where I'm not sure I'll like them, or books that are expensive or unavailable on Kindle. I also take Monkey there regularly and borrow lots for her as she has a worse book habit than me!

The bottom line is if it's readable I don't mind where it comes from.

TGIF

The festive season and a run of bugs and illnesses in our house have really hit my reading and blogging but now I'm a bit more human again it's time for a Friday meme. This week GReads is asking Which book from the last 10 you've read would you recommend to a friend?

The only one I have given 5*s of the last ten is The Demi-Monde: Winter by Rod Rees, so it makes sense to recommend that, my review is here. However thinking more about what I would most likely recommend to a friend, that book is probably a bit less mainstream. The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffith is a book I really enjoyed and can see a lot of people I know also liking it so that's the one I'd probably recommend. The review for that book is here.

In the last week I have read and reviewed:

Last Stop Freedom by Ann Nolder Heinz, historical fiction and romance set in 1850s America, and

Thomas Knapp and the Prophet of the Universe by David Daedalus, a sci-fi mystery

I've also finished Surviving the Fog by Stan Morris, and will hopefully have the review completed later. I've also got a review of The Girl in the Box by Sheila Dalton lined up tomorrow, as part of the author's blog tour.

Time to go, thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend!

TGIF!

This is my second outing with GReads' TGIF meme. This week the question getting us talking is:

Writing Reviews 101: What's your process for writing book reviews? 

Any tips or suggestions you would recommend to other bloggers?

It'll be really interesting to see what others have to say. I always write my reviews within a day or so of completing the book, otherwise I start on another book and my memory is gone! I don't tend to pitch straight into it though as I like time to reflect on my thoughts before committing them to screen. I rarely make notes while I read because I find it interrupts the flow, although sometimes if there's something I feel I must remember I'll make a quick kindle note or stick a piece of paper in the book. 

I type straight into Blogger, not messing about with drafts in Word first. As far as a structure goes I like to provide a brief synopsis in my own words, although sometimes I'll use the description on Amazon or Goodreads if it's very straightforward or very complicated. Then, not necessarily in this order I try and comment on the characters, the plot and the writing style, plus any particular issues or absence of issues with editing & proofreading. When I first started blogging I didn't provide a star rating but felt an at a glance summary of what I thought had to be a good thing.

My reviews have definitely developed since I started blogging and I'm sure will continue to do so. In fact right now I'm debating with myself about whether to include more info on available formats, publisher and so on...

In the last week I've been quite active on the blog. I read and reviewed the following:

Antigone's Fall by R.K MacPherson, an action thriller

The Memory of Water by J.T Lawrence, a literary crime novel, and

The Luminist by David Rocklin, set in 1830s Ceylon

I also had a chat with Jenn of the Goodreads Creative Reviews group about their Christmas anthology, Christmas Lites, which is raising money for charity. 

Finally I shared a bit about why I was joins thousands of others in taking strike action on Wednesday. Our Prime Minister may have described the action as a damp squib but not from where I was standing/marching.

Coming up soon I have a Q&A with author of The Memory of Water, J.T Lawrence, and a Coming Soon book review for historical fiction Catching the Eagle Have a great weekend everyone. TC x

TGIF, and thanks to GReads

IAs it's all gone a bit quiet on the Book Blogger Hop front I've been looking for a new meme to have fun with on a Friday, and while I have come across it before this is the first time I've joined in Greads TGIF.  So, this week's question is: 

When You're Not Reading: What occupies your time when your nose isn't stuck in a book?

For the most part I spend my time looking after my 2 year old daughter, so that keeps me pretty busy. I do also work a couple of days a week to get some intelligent conversation (and pocket money) and when I can make it I'm on the quiz team at my local pub. We play in a league, got promoted last season, so I guess we must be reasonably good.

When we have time to get out and about I love to be outside. Over the summer we managed to take a few camping trips which are always fun (if chilly in the great British climate) We live right by the sea so walks on the beach are a must. There are also some great outdoor places to take kids near us, and when the weather isn't so good we have a great aquarium not far away. In related activities my husband and I learnt to dive together so on rare days when we're both off work, madam is at nursery and the conditions are right we try and dust off the scuba gear.

I love where we live because there is so much to do if you can bothered to get out there (and if you can manage to get your nose out of a book for long enough)

Looking forward to meeting some new people this week, thanks to GReads for running this!


Now on a Friday I usually do a recap of what I've been reading and reviewing, so here goes.

The Marinara Murders by Erik Hanberg, a crime fiction, the second featuring Arthur Beautyman. Erik also provided a Thanksgiving themed guest post to educate my fellow Brits (and other non-Americans)
The Millstone Prophecy by Jack Harney, a crime thriller 

Later I should have a guest interview to share about a festive short story anthology called Christmas Lites that has been put together by Goodreads group Creative Reviews. They have put together this book, released today, to raise money for charity. You can find the book on Goodreads here. 

Suppose I should go now, since Black Friday has made its way into my vocab (or more to the point my conciousness) I've started to feel like I need to be cracking on with getting prepared for Xmas. My little monkey fortunately loves books, so thus far she has 10 books by the author of The Gruffalo, plus another little activity book. I feel like I need to re-dress the balance and buy her some toys, so online shopping I go.

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!