I stole this from Kristin Kraves Books as I haven’t done a tag in a while and I have so many book reviews to write up that I decided not to do any of them. Makes sense, right? The Last Book I Gave Up On The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss I know, I know. It’s practically sacrilege to admit you didn’t get on with this book, but I really can’t see the hype at all. I gave up at around the 80% mark. I probably could have pushed through until the end, although the massive reading slump just didn’t seem worth it for me. I found it to be slow, uninteresting and not particularly unique, although ..read more

I’m not sure whether I’m more surprised that I actually read Starship Troopers, or that I really enjoyed it! I’ve been trying to read more sci-fi this year, that’s true, but it isn’t one of those contained within my 12 Books In 2021 Challenge (unlike Dune and Hyperion, etc). Plot summary for Starship Troopers: The historians can’t seem to settle whether to call this one “The Third Space War” (or the fourth), or whether “The First Interstellar War” fits it better. We just call it “The Bug War.” Everything up to then and still later were “incidents,” “patrols,” or “police actions.” However, you ..read more

I know, right!? It’s been a few years since I’ve taken part in good-old fashioned reading challenges! As I mentioned the other day though, my reading has started to… drift somewhat in recent years, and in 2021 I intend to get back on track. I want to read more from my backlist and fewer sparkly new releases that I invariably have no strong feelings about. So in addition to my 12 Books in 2021 Challenge, I also want to participate in: (click to expand) Beat the Backlist - 0/66 books This is hosted by Novel Knight, and you can sign up here. The Beat the Backlist reading challenge is designed to ..read more

I’ve been looking back at my reading over the last two years or so. I have obviously read some excellent books, as evidenced by my Top Ten Lists of 2019 and 2020. It’s just that I’m not really sure that the books I picked are wholly… me? I used to read more widely, with a mix of all genres, and now I just seem to be reading the new fantasy releases, and a lot of them seem to be Young Adult. Obviously I like them, for the most part, or I wouldn’t continue reading them, it’s just that I don’t tend to feel the same satisfaction after reading, or the buzz of a truly great book. I’m hoping to comba ..read more

Time to look at my Top Ten Books of 2020! This year I have read 120 books. I am thrilled with this as I had set my target at 95, which I actually met in October. It’s a good job as I ended up with a pretty slumpy November and December I’ll write about this properly in another post, but I’m considering how to revamp my reading a bit for 2021. I’ve found that this year (and also last year), the books I’m picking up haven’t been amazing. That’s possibly because I’ve been picking up the new, shiny, over-hyped books Anyway, whilst normally I split these into two categories – Gold for the ones I def ..read more

I didn’t even want to read The Dragon Republic. I’d liked The Poppy War (click for review) well enough, although I found the change of tone halfway through to be a bit jarring. Still, I bought The Dragon Republic pretty much as soon as it came out and promptly… never read it. About a week or so ago, I asked my partner to choose my a book and was somewhat dismayed when this is what he picked. I grudgingly opened it up and… my God, I loved this book. Plot Summary for The Dragon Republic: In the aftermath of the Third Poppy War, shaman and warrior Rin is on the run: haunted by the atrocity she c ..read more

Week 3: (November 16-20) – Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert (Rennie [me!] @ What’s Nonfiction [here!]): Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert). One of my favourite non-fiction topics is medical history. I’ve done a lot of work in medical law and it’s just generally somet ..read more

The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini was my first read of Non-Fiction November 2020. I do enjoy reading non-fiction and yet I just don’t seemed to have turned to it as often this year. This month I’m making an effort to change that and what better way to start than with a new biography of the legend that was Harry Houdini. Summary of The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini: Nearly a century after Harry Houdini died on Halloween in 1926, he feels as modern and alive as ever. The name Houdini still leaps to mind whenever we witness a daring escape. The baby who frees herself from her crib? H ..read more

Look, I know I’m in the minority regarding Addie LaRue; I know. I am aware that everybody loves this book, but I am also aware that we all decided in advance that we were going to love this book, and that V.E. Schwab can do no wrong. Unfortunately, in my opinion, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue just did not deliver what it promised. Plot summary for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever-and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a da ..read more

Week 1: (November 2-6) – Your Year in Nonfiction (Leann @ Shelf Aware): Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions – What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November? So part of the reason I decided to join in with Non-Fiction November this year was because I am attracted to non-fiction books, and I buy them, and I look at them… and then I never read ..read more