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.