WWW Wednesdays - 29 Jan

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by Miz B over at ShouldBeReading.  If you'd like to join in here is what you need to do - answer these three questions:

* What are you currently reading?

* What did you just finish reading?

* What are you going to read next?

What are you currently reading?

I'm still working my way through both The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt and Accidents & Incidents by Riley Graham.  Hopefully I'll have finished A&I by the weekend.  I'm also listening to Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood, which I'm quite enjoying, I've seen a couple episodes of the tv series which I've also enjoyed.  I'm also reading a few books on project management, which is for uni - and I need to get my butt into gear as I've got another assignment due and I need to finish it!!

  

What did you just finish reading?

I just finished the graphic novel versions of Alpha & Omega: Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs*.  While I enjoyed the story, and I'd like to read the book as well, I didn't really love the illustrations.  The covers were beautiful, but a different artist completed the story artwork.  It didn't gel with what I had in my mind - and I know they can't get it perfect, it's my interpretation after all, but these were completely different.  I also listened to Just Annoying by Andy Griffiths and Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman - both of which are on my 1001 children's list so booyah!!    

* I'm going to do a full review of Alpha & Omega, hopefully that'll be up on the blog by the end of the week.

 What are you going to read next?

Okay, so I'm still about to start the first Percy Jackson, but I'd also like to get a few off my currently reading list on goodreads, there are a few which have been hanging around for a bit now and it's getting ridiculous!  I also have a few challenge and group reads to begin in February. The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Flotsam are both from the 1001 children's list, I haven't picked my book from the 1001 adult's list yet.  But I do think it's safe to say I've missed the boat on White Teeth by Zadie Smith, which was January's read.

So that's my WWW Wednesday for this week, feel free leave yours in the comments below or if you have a blog, leave me a link so I can check it out!  Happy reading :)

C.

Book Blogger Hop 24th Jan

Welcome to the new Book Blogger Hop - hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.  I haven't participated since last year and they have a new button!

This weeks question, thanks to Elizabeth at Silver's Reviews is: 

Do you think you will ever read all the books on your TBR?

Me? Read all the books on my Mt. TBR?  I wish I could answer this with a confident YES!!  But sadly, unless I go on a book buying ban and don't add any new books to my TBR, I'll never read them all.  Which is actually pretty sad - but I certainly am going to give it a red hot try!

So what about you?  Think you can do it?  Let me know in the comments below.

C.

WWW Wednesdays - 22 Jan

I'm late, I'm late for a very important date!!  That's right lovelies, it's Friday, but for the purpose of this post we'll pretend it's Wednesday :)

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by Miz B over at ShouldBeReading.  If you'd like to join in here is what you need to do - answer these three questions:

* What are you currently reading?

* What did you just finish reading?

* What are you going to read next?

* What are you currently reading?

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt.  This is a chunker of a book, and one from the 1001 books to read before you die list.  I'm about halfway through and I'm just plodding along, it's going to take me a little while, but that's ok.

I like Byatt's writing, I believe she must do a lot of research with her books, as the time and situations in the book are so richly described.  I know not everybody would enjoy the amount of detail, but I like it.  And I love all of the extra stories, (written by Olive),  that are included in the book.  I'm looking forward to reading Possession, another of her titles that is also on the 1001 list.  

I'm also reading, for review, Accidents & Incidents by Riley Graham, which is a contemporary YA.  I'm enjoying it so far and I feel for Leslie, the main character, her mum is a bitch, her boyfriend is a douche, and I'm guessing that she's about to go through some stuff at school - it's full of angst and other good teenagey bid'ness.

* What did you just finish reading?

On the Jellicoe Road (or Jellicoe Road if you have the US publication) by Melina Marchetta.  I cannot express the feels that this book gave me.  I finished this yesterday and I think I need to calm down and sort my thoughts out properly before I do a full review - which I will be doing as I enjoyed it so much.

I don't know why it took me so long to read this, I had to read Looking for Alibrandi for school ages ago and I reread that last year.  Hopefully I'll get the chance this year to read a few of her others.

* What are you going to read next?

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.  I mentioned this in my last list, but I got sidetracked by some other books, (as I often do), but I'm still pumped to read this and I may have bought the rest of the series from Book Depository so I can read them all in one awesome bookulp (book + gulp = bookulp.  I think I just made a new word!! If they can put bloody twerking in the OED, I can make stuff up dammit!!) 

 I also have another book from the 1001 list, which I'm going to choose from my exciting TBR Jar, (I haven't made it yet), but I've seen a couple on booktube and I think it's a great idea.  I also have Blood Red Road by Moira Young, which has been on my TBR for ages.

Well there you have it, my WWW Wednesday write up.  Let me know what your WWW is, feel free to leave a comment below or a link to your blog and I'll check it out.  

If you're just stopping by, let me know what your weekend reads are.  I'll keep on with the two I mentioned about, but I also have some books for uni that I need to finish and I have some graphic novels to get to - good thing I've got a four day weekend coming up.

Have a fantastic weekend and for those who celebrate - Happy Australia Day :)

C.

Breaking Nova by Jessica Sorensen

Breaking Nova by Jessica Sorensen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book was equal parts awesome and frustrating!  And angsty. Hot damn it was angsty!

Lets start with Nova, I felt for her, she's had some shitty things happen in her life and for her the only way to cope is to count.  She counts her steps, the amount of time before she gets out of bed, things she sees.  This routine is what keeps her sane and able to exist - because lets be honest, she isn't 'living' and neither is Quinton.

Who is Quinton? - he's damaged goods, just as much as Nova.

Quinton, hmmm I wanna do bad things to him - I also want to smack him upside the head Gibbs style.  He also has gone through some bad stuff and only just come out alive.  For him life isn't worth living.  He uses drugs to cope with his life.  He's pretty much baked 24/7 and it's not till Nova that he seems to wake up and realise he's missing out.  And although he feels guilty about it, he's drawn to her.

So over the Summer Quinton and Nova get to know each other, opening up little by little.  And this is where I got annoyed, Nova starts using drugs and it just really pissed me off.  I got really frustrated that she felt that was the best option to deal with her situation.  I kept yelling in my head "drugs are bad mmmkay!"

As much as it did frustrate me, I thought it was well written and Sorensen has got me wanting more, there are I'm guessing at least two more in this series, so this ends with more of a HFN rather than a HEA.  I'm okay with this as I only have to wait until February 4th to find out what happens!

The only other thing I can say is...THE FEELS!!!  It made me feel them all.  You know when your heart hurts because of something that's happened??? I had that reading this.  I'm avoiding spoilers so this is vague, but there are quite a few of these moments, like I said - full of angst!




View all my reviews

*** I received ab ePUB of this book in exchange for an honest review.

C.

Bout of Books Day 7 Wrapup

Well for me Bout of Books 9.0 is over!  I was having a lot of fun, but I think my house, my dog and my brain are glad it's over!  Poor Maggie hasn't had nearly enough tug o war over the last week poor thing and my house is in shambles, but I managed to get 10 books read AND I had lots of fun.  I've managed to meets some new twitter buddies, bloggers and vloggers so that is a bonus too, I love being able to talk to people about what their reading and it's the perfect way to find new reads...because seriously - I have NOTHING to read!!

So onto my final tally of books:

Total number of books: 10

Total number of pages: 2,009 {I don't know the page number for A Double Tragedy, so it's not counted).

1. [Christmas Wishes] by Rhian Cahill – F Novella. 40pgs
2. [The Little Prince] by Antione de Saint-Exupery JF 85pgs
3. [The List of my Desires] by Gregoire Delacourt – F 224pgs
4. [Dreamland] by Sara Dessen – YA - Audio 250pgs
5. [Living Dead Girl] by Elizabeth Scott – YA 170pgs
6. [How to Dance with a Duke] by Manda Collins F 333pgs
7. [Queer] by William S, Burroughs – F – Audio 160pgs
8. [A Double Tragedy] by Lousia May Alcott – F - Audio - 1 hour
9. [She is not Invisible] by Marcus Sedgwick – YA – 354pgs
10. [One Night She Would Never Forget] by Amy Andrews – F 266pgs – (technically I still had 64 pages left of this when the clock struck 12am, but I finished it last night so I’m including it anyway.)

I managed to listen/read 127 pages of The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt, I’m currently up to Part 2.  Slowly, slowly with this one, it’s one of my adult 1001 books and it’s rather large, so it may take a little while.

I also read Damon by Gary Crew and Aaron Hill.  Which I haven’t counted in my final tally as it’s a Junior Picture book, so there aren’t that many words in it, just beautiful, beautiful illustrations.

Overall, I’ve very happy with what I read, I didn’t think I would get that much read, but forgoing sleep for most of the week, listening to audios and no work on the weekend sure did help!  And I’m pretty sure if I’d stopped playing on social media, I would’ve read more, but I had a lot of fun chatting to people so it was totally worth it!  I just wish I’d been able to visit more blogs and checked out what everyone else was reading and up to.  The challenges were lots of fun, I didn't participate in all of them, but I enjoyed the ones I did get a chance to do.

I'm really looking forward to the next Bout of Books, which I believe is to be held 5-18 May 2014.  For more info on the schedule click here.

Of course this wouldn't be possible without the mad organisation skills of Amanda @ On a Book Bender & Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal.  So a huge thanks to them and lets not forget our lovely hosts for the reading challenges.  If you click on the link for the schedule there is list of them all on the page :)

So thanks for a fun week, it was grand!  But now it's back to reality - less reading, more sleeping and a worn out Maggie from all the puppy playing.

C.

Bout of Books - Book Staging Challenge

Ok so I saw this challenge and thought it would be fun. Hosted over at Midnight Book Girl.

I'm using She is Not Invisble by Marcus Sedgewick.

Laureth & her brother Benjamin on the spur of the moment got to New York to look for their father. So I added my passport, cash (I don't think I've got any US currency, but I did have £). There is also a notebook, which ties back to the story and a scarf - because of the whole polar vortex which is making things rather chilly.

I've only seen a couple of other stagings, but I'm looking forward to seeing a few more, people have got great imaginations. 

C.

Bout of Books Day 6 Wrapup

 

Saturday was a good day, I finished two books despite napping a lot, I think the week is catching up with me :( Maggie didn't mind, it meant she got to snooze all day and get belly rubs at the tap of a paw!

Finished today: 2 books. (Living Dead Girl 170 pages & How to Dance with a Duke 131 pages read today.)

Continued listening to The Children's Book: 3 pages.

Started reading She is not Invisible 24 pages.

Number of Pages Read Today: 328 pages. (including all audio).

Cumulative Total: 1,082 pages. (not including all audio).

Number of Books Read so far: 6.

 

I'm not taking part in the challenges as I want to read as much as I can, I keep spending too much time on social media, when I could be reading.  Although I'm disappointed I missed the twitter Q&A, I think that would've been fun I think.

 

Hope you're all going well on your challenges and getting lots of reading done - I've got just over 8 hours left of my challenge left - I'm going to try and finish She is not invisible - 314 pages to go O.o EEEK!! Best get reading.

 

C.

Bout of books Day 5 Wrapup

The end is almost here!  I don't want it to end, I'm having too much fun :)

So today was a quite day for reading again, I didn't get a lot read.  But as the no work weekend is coming up that should improve.

Finished today: 0.
Continued with How to dance with a duke: 36 pages.
Continued listening to The Children's Book: 19 pages (1 disc).

Number of Pages Read Today: 55 pages. (including all audio).

Cumulative Total: 754 pages. (not including all audio).

Number of Books Read so far: 4.

 

Honorable mention also goes to Damon by Gary Crew and Aaron Hill.  I placed a hold on this for a patron, somehow it'd slipped my notice, (it was published in 2011).  I don't remember seeing it at all; but I really enjoyed it.  Hill's illustrations were beautiful and complemented Crew's words.  This is a junior picture, so there aren't a lot of words; smaller kids may like this, but I don't think they'd 'get it'.  It takes the Tyger from William Blake's poem and has him following a bored Damon home from the art gallery.

I didn't participate in either of the challenges today, I would've loved to but I didn't have time , hopefully I'll be able to participate tomorrow.  How is everyone else going with their reading goals?  I'm confidant that I'll complete the books I chose, but even if I don't I'm happy with what I've managed to read.

See you tomorrow for another update :)

C.

Bout of Books Day 4 wrapup

It's the day 4 wrapup!!  I managed to finish another book last night - yay!  I had been avoiding the cleaning for the last few days, but I bit the bullet and decided to finish listening to Dreamland by Sarah Dessen and clean.  So the tally at the end of the day stands at:

Finished today: Dreamland by Sarah Dessen 250 pages, but I've been listening to this all week.
Continued with How to dance with a duke: 20 pages.
Continued listening to The Children's Book. 1 disc.

Number of Pages Read Today: 270 pages. (not including all audio).

Cumulative Total: 699 pages. (not including all audio).

Number of Books Read so far: 4.

I'm hoping that since I don't have to work over the weekend I can smash this readathon out of the park!  Out of the seven books i had on my list, I've read three, plus an extra ebook, so I'm happy with my progress so far.

There were two challenges running, but I only did one, which was the one run by Writing my own Fairytale.

Here's the Challenge: Double Date Book Challenge!
 

The Rules for the Challenge:

You must pick two books that you would recommend someone read together (like a double date!) and explain your reasons for the recommendation. You can recommend the books because they are in the same genre, one is a retelling of the other, they deal with the same issues, or maybe they're complete opposites, whatever you want as long as you can explain why they should be read together. Just one exception: they cannot be books from the same series.

My Picks:

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys & Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Not a particularly imaginative pick, Wide Sargasso Sea is an unofficial prequel to Jane Eyre, but it gives a more complete picture of Mr. Rochester, (although not a very flattering one).  I have only seen the film version (there are 2 that I know about), but I'm hoping to read it this year.

What would you pick, let me know.  I always love finding out what others love to read.

C.

Bout of Books 9.0 Day 3 Wrapup

Ok so lets talk about how I went on day three...so much better than the previous two days, I managed to finish two more books, The List of my Desires (loved it) and my reread of The Little Prince (so much better when I can see the pictures).  I'm still going with How to dance with a Duke, I love the book, but it seens like it's taking ages to get through.  I'm also continuing with my two audios, I'm up to disc 4 of The Children's book and Chapter 9 of Dreamland.

The List of my Desires: 224 pages, but I'd read 15 pages on a previous day.

The Little Prince: 85 pages.

Number of Pages Read Today: 294 pages. (not including audio).

Cumulative Total: 429 pages. (not including all audio).

Number of Books Read Today: 3.

 

The Book Thief came out at the cinema today, but I think I'll hold off going to see it it so I can keep reading :) I could have read quite a bit more last night but I got sidetracked by le interwebs, I really have to remember to concentrate on the reading.  But on the plus side - I'm the soon to be owner of two very pretty dresses from Mod Cloth!!  Yay for 70% off.  I think one of the things I have problems with is getting sidetracked by other stuff, whether it be le interwebs, social media or a very scary episode of extreme hoarders I watched last night - the guy had to slide into his rooms through a tiny crevice as he had that much stuff oiled up.  EEEEKK!!  After boutofbooks 9.0 I'm definitely having a clean up!!

The challenge today is being hosted on Doing Dewey and is about introducing someone to a new genre, here's my answer below:

I’m reading a lot of Historical Fiction at the moment, I really enjoyed ‘Caleb’s Crossing’ and ‘Year of Wonders’ by Geraldine Brooks.  The Cousins’ War series by Phillipa Gregory is amazing! 

‘The White Queen’, ‘The Red Queen’, ‘The Lady of the Rivers’, ‘The Kingmaker’s Daughter’, The White Princess’, ‘The Last Rose’ (although I haven’t read the last three yet).

I also enjoyed ‘The Secret River’ by Kate Grenville, I haven’t read a great deal of boks involving Australian history, I tend to read more about the UK.  Although one more about Australia that I have read is ‘The Spotted Skin’ by Rowena Ivers.  I read this a long time ago, but it was brilliant, all about a leper colony in the Northern Territory.

In YA, another commenter, Nalina mentioned a duology by Mary Hooper, ‘The Fever and the Flame’: ‘At the Sign of the Sugared Plum’ and ‘Petals in the Ashes’ by Mary Hooper.  Which I loved – side note her contempory stuff is fantastic as well.

Hope you're all going well with your challenges, keep reading!!

C.

Bout of Books 9.0 Day 2 Wrapup.

Okay it's now halfway through day three of Bout of Books and I thought I'd do a quick update on what I read yesterday.

I only managed 20 pages of 'How to dance with a Duke' by Manda Collins.  But I did listen to more of 'The Children's Book  by A. S. Byatt, (equivalent of 21 pages).  And another hour of 'Dreamland' by Sarah Dessen.

Number of Pages Read Today: 41 pages.

Cumulative Total: 135 pages.

Number of Books Read Today: 1.

I had a really busy day Tuesday and I thought I'd be able to sit back relax and read once I got home, but mostly what I did was fall asleep.  I'm pretty disappointed with that, but let's hope Wednesday is way better.  I made extra dinner so all I have to do is duke nuke it tonight and I'm going to be bad and do no housework, I'm going to read my little heart out instead.  Although I've got some super cute paper bunting I want to put up, so I might take 20 minutes and set that up.  Because a girl needs her pretty things!

There is also a challenge or two up and running, first up over at Sarah Says Read:

How do you fit in as much reading as possible during Bout of Books? How do you squeeze in those extra pages?

I listen to an audio book in the car on the way to and from work, I have another on my ipod which I listen to when I'm cleaning, cooking etc.  I always carry a cook with me, those 15 min waiting for the doctor this morning was the perfect chance to squeeze in a little more reading :)

and over at The Geeky Bloggers Book Blog:

If you were listening to the book being acted out over the radio waves who would you want being the voices of your favorite characters!

I'll go with 'How to dance with a Duke' by Manda Collins, which is one of my reads for bout of books 9.0.

For Cecily I'd pick Lucy Griffiths and for Lucas Rupert Penry-Jones.

I do love  a good challenge.

Enjoy the rest of your day :)

C.

Bout of Books 9.0 Day 1 Wrapup

Okay so the first day is over and despite not having to work today, I didn't get to read as much as I wanted. I'd taken today as a study day, so I kinda had to study. Le sigh. But let's find out what I did read!

First up on the audio front. I'm up to chapter 5 of Dreamland by Sarah Dessen, this is around 300 pages so I'm not sure of what the break down of that is, but I listened to an hour of it. I also listened to around 20 mins of The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt and am currently on disc 2, I estimate I'll have got through 5 or 6 discs by Sunday. 

Now onto the delicious printed morsels. I'm studying project management this semester and I read 18 pages of my text book today ( I'll add the title tomorrow as I'm chillin' in bed and am too lazy to get up and find the title. :) I also read 15 pages of The List of my desires and 21 pages of how to dance with a duke. I also completed Christmas Kissed by Rhian Cahill (40 Pgs).  So all up I read 94 Pgs and listened to an hour and half of audio. Not too bad, but hopefully I can up my game tomorrow, or should I say today, as it's 2 1/2 hrs into day two.

Number of Pages Read Today: 94 pages.

Number of Books Read Today: 1.

So what about you? How have you fared on the first day, or is this the start of day one for you?  Let me know in the comments below. 

C. 

Bout of Books 9.0: Sign up & goals.

I've just discovered another read a thon!! And of course - I MUST PARTICIPATE!  Because I've only realised last minute (it started 12am on the 6th Jan, so about 3hrs ago), I'm going to do a quick start up post rather than a video for booktube; although hopefully I can make an accompanying vid as well.

If you'd like to participate as well - 'cause the more the merrier, here's the original sign up post. And here's all the details you need to know: 

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Here is my list of books I'd like to complete:

* How to dance with a Duke by Manda Collins - I've currently read 99 pages so far.

* Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

* The Little Prince by Antione De Saint-Exurey - a reread, I listened to the audio in Dec, but I'd like to read it as well as I didn't realise it came with illustrations

* The list of my desires by Gregoire Delacourt 

* She is not invisible by Marcus sedgwick

I will also be listening to The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, I won't complete this, but I'll be able to listen to aprox. 5 hours worth and I'm also listening to a Sarah Dessen audio, which I will complete.

So there you have it - I may not get through all of them, but it never hurts to be ambitious!  Let me know if you will be participating in the read a thon.

Happy reading. 

C.

WWW Wednesdays

 

I thought I'd participate in WWW Wednesday this week, what a nice way to share what I'm reading and find out what you guys have on your TBR's!  So here goes, feel free to join in, all you need to do is:

Answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

 What are you currently reading?

I'm reading 'How to dance with a Duke' by Manda Collins.  I'm quite enjoying this, I picked it up after I read some Sarah MacLean, hoping that I'd like it too - so far, so good!

  

 

What did you recently finish reading?

I've just finished reading 'City of Glass' by Cassandra Clare.  Third in The Mortal Instruments series, I really enjoyed this one, there were a couple of niggly bits, but I'll save them for my up coming book review :)  Overall, this may be my fave book in the series so far.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Next up, possibly 'Disgrace' by J.M. Coetzee, I want to get a jump on my 1001 book reading, I'm hoping to read 1 book each from both the children's and adult lists each month.  But I have the Divergent Trilogy in my hot little hands and DON'T get me started on Percy Jackson & the Olympians...decisions decisions. 

So that's my WWW Wednesdays wrapup.  What have you been reading?  I'd love to know :)

Happy New Year, wishing many blessings for your 2014.

C. 

Christmas Book Haul 2013

I managed to make another video, this time all about my Christmas book haul...wait did the title of this post give that away??  My bad.  I digress, I managed to pick up some awesome books over Christmas, some were my finds and some were from the Santa Swaps I participated in, which let me tell you were a lot of fun!  For the ARRA one we had a group chat before Christmas and opened our presents together and talked about what we got, what we were doing for Christmas and every topic in between.  It was great fun, I don't often get to talk with my chums from ARRA so it was great to be able to do that for the evening.  The other was for Litbrarything and I was going to do a seperate vid for that, but I didn't get a chance to once I got to Adelaide, way too much other stuff on.  But here's the book haul vid, check check it out...what did you gusy get?  What are you most excited to read? And what's your plan of attack for reading in 2014?  Let me know :)



C.