Category: sunday summary

Sunday Summary – 9th April 2023

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Happy Easter everyone and welcome to today’s Sunday Summary, regardless of whether you are religious or not! I hope you’re having a lovely weekend, however you are spending it.

In an ideal world, I’d have loved to have spent my whole weekend plonked on my backside and reading a book. However, household jobs get in the way, as always. I had to make the most of good weather on Friday to get out and tidy the garden. Thankfully I managed to get it all finished before the rain has come in. It wouldn’t be a British bank holiday without a bit of rain now, would it?

Onwards and upwards. This week I’ve had a busy one as I had to flit back to a four post schedule. Not only did I need to catch up and share my monthly wrap-up post for March, but I also had an obligation to review a book for a blog tour (Thanks For Sharing), and keep you up-to-date with my April TBR.

As always, I’ll provide a link to each of those posts above, if you want to go back and take a look at them.

 

Books Read

 

Thanks for Sharing

Due to the rapidly upcoming blog tour, in last week’s Sunday Summary post I shared that I was temporarily setting aside The Mad Ship in order to progress with Thanks For Sharing. As of that last Sunday Summary post, I had read the first chapter of the book, which was about 15% progress.

As my review was going live on the blog on Thursday, I had to get a shift on with this book. This was a really easy book to pick up. I was interested in the subject matter as I have recently been appointed a sustainability champion at work. I’ve also recently started recycling at home. I wanted to pick up Thanks For Sharing as a way of exploring other ways we can live a more sustainable lifestyle. Some of those are discussed in my review post on Thursday. If you want to check out more detail, I suggest you go back to that review.

Even though this book had an informative tilt, the narrative was really well written. Eleanor Tucker, embeds humour and plenty of real life anecdotes to bring us in to the family fold and her experiences of a sharing economy. I laughed out loud throughout reading this book. So, if you have any reservations about the subject matter being on the dry side, I can assure you, that is not the case!

 

The Mad Ship

With Thanks For Sharing now complete, I moved back to continuing progress with The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb.

I haven’t made any showstopping progress with this book – I read around 170 pages in the latter half of this week. I’ve had a busier blogging schedule this week, as well as jobs around the house and garden to do. It’s not surprising that my reading progress is less than I have enjoyed in the last couple of weeks. But, I’m still happy with the progress I’ve made and I’m looking forward to continuing this epic fantasy to see where we end up next.

 

Books Discovered

Recently, I started listening to a careers based podcast. I can’t exactly remember how I stumbled upon it. I must have been looking for a specific topic or episode, and from there, I started listening on a weekly basis. If you’re interested, the podcast is called the squiggly careers podcast.

After listening and enjoying more episodes featuring various topics that Sarah and Helen discuss, I discovered that they published a book in 2020 with a similar name to the podcast. That’s not the book I’ve added to my reading list. When looking into that first book, I discovered You Coach You, which they published in 2022.

Although a slightly different medium, I expect the same kind of narrative voice and feedback to come through from the book. As I’m trying to read more non-fiction this year, and I’ve already established a connection with these two authors, I imagine I will enjoy and find this book useful!

 

Coming Up…

I’m stepping back to a three post schedule next week. It is definitely a lot more manageable and sustainable in terms of my time, and also allows me to get more reading done. And let’s face it, that’s what I’m here for!

On Tuesday, I plan to share a discussion post with you. If you have been reading my blog in the last few months, you’ll know that I have started reading books as part of an online book club. In that post, I’m going to talk about the benefits I think there are to joining a book club and reading books out of your comfort zone.

On Friday, I’ll be back with a First Lines Friday feature post. As always, I’ll be taking a look for a book with an exciting introduction, and I’m telling you all about it!

My last post of the week will of course be my usual Sunday Summary update.

Now that you are all caught up, I am going to cosy in on this rainy Sunday evening and make more reading progress with The Mad Ship… and maybe tucking into Easter egg. Who am I kidding, there’s no maybe about it!

 

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Sunday Summary – 2nd April 2023

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Good evening and welcome to today’s weekly catch up post – aka my Sunday Summary! I hope you’ve had a good week? I’ve had a good one as I took the latter half of the week off work. I did a couple of small jobs around the house. Otherwise, I dedicated my time to reading, gaming and some cross stitch!

Naturally, I’ve also been posting bookish content for you. On Wednesday, I shared my last review of my re-read of the Harry Potter series! I really enjoyed reading these books again as an adult. If you want to read all my thoughts on the books and the wider series, there is a link above to that last post. That also contains links to the previous reviews if you want to catch up from the beginning.

On Friday, I shared a Shelf Control post. In this series, I feature books coming up on my TBR and share them with you. I also talk about why I’m interested to pick these books up. I confess that behind the scenes, I’ve even whittled down my reading list by doing this series. This week’s featured book is a work of classical fiction by a Russian author and philosopher. No, not Leo Tolstoy. I was inspired to pick this up based on my experience of War and Peace though!

 

Books Read

 

Soul Identity

I picked up from last week’s Sunday Summary post by finishing Soul Identity by Dennis Batchelder. As of that post, I was 71% through the book. My plan was to finish the book on Sunday after my Sunday Summary post went live, which I did.

Two small comments I would make is that I don’t feel the relationship between the protagonist Scott, and Val, was necessary. Also, I didn’t like how the majority of female characters were introduced by their appearance. They’re not deal-breaking things, but it did bring my review down to 4 stars.

Otherwise, I enjoyed the book overall. It explores some interesting spirituality and religious concepts of reincarnation from a scientific perspective. I knew that was the premise of the book, but had no idea how the story would go about it. It was perfectly enjoyable and quite an easy read.

 

Death of Kings

Another easy read I picked up this week was Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell. This is the sixth book in his Saxon Stories series, also known as The Last Kingdom.  At around 350 pages, this book is a good length to progress the story without getting bogged down in too much detail.

There is still plenty of action that takes place in these 350 pages. As ever, we see the conflict Uhtred has between his Saxon birth but Norse upbringing. Needless to say, it gives a unique perspective to this historical fiction narrative… and he gets up to a lot of mischief!

It was good to finally go back to this series. I read the previous book, The Burning Land, back in 2020. Now I’m back into the series, and actively looking to read sequels this year, you can expect I’ll be picking more of these books up soon!

 

The Mad Ship

So, with the last of the books on my ‘set’ TBR read, I achieved my stretch goal this month by starting The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb. Before the end of the month, I read the first 120 pages of this 906 page epic! As of this post, I am now 174 pages in – a healthy start!

In what I’ve read so far, we are only really just getting caught up with all the plot-driving characters in their various locations. Robin Hobb isn’t exactly known for short chapters. It’s taken that time to pick up where we left off in the last book. I can’t wait to see where the narrative takes us from here!

 

Thanks for Sharing

In addition to the above, I’ve also started a book on my April TBR. That’s because I’m taking part in a blog tour for the book next week. I signed up for it just a couple of weeks ago, so I need to get a shift on with it!

Thanks for Sharing is a short non-fiction book about sharing rather than purchasing new. The author spent about a year experimenting with different ways to share various goods and reduce consumerism/waste. I’ll admit I was inspired to take up the offer of this blog tour as I’ve recently taken up the mantle of sustainability champion at work.

I picked this book up just this morning and I’ve already progressed through the first chapter. That’s about 15% progress. Given the deadline, I’ll be prioritising this read in the short term and then going back to The Mad Ship once I’ve finished this one. Given that it’s only 250 odd pages, I should have this finished in a day or two.

 

Books Discovered

I’m back to a week of no news this week. Since I added four books last week, I haven’t been out or particularly looking for anything new.

So, no news is good news!

 

Coming Up…

I’ve enjoyed a three post per week schedule for the last fortnight, but out of necessity, I will be sharing four posts next week.

Since we are already into the beginning of April, my first post of the week will be my monthly wrap-up post for March. I’ve had a great reading month, so I have plenty to share with you in that post. I hope you can log on to check that out in the next couple of days.

Next, I have my blog tour post for Thanks for Sharing going live on Thursday next week. As I mentioned above, I’ve only just started the book today. However, I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts on the book and whether I’ll be trying anything featured in the book for myself. 

I also have my monthly TBR for April to publish. I’ve already christened the list, so I know what I’m picking up this month. You can expect that list later this week. I’ll be aiming to publish the list on Friday, but I won’t kick myself if it gets pushed out to Saturday.

I’ll round up the week with my usual Sunday Summary update, with all my reading progress in the usual format.

For now though, that’s all from me in today’s Sunday Summary.

What are you reading?

 

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Sunday Summary – 26th March 2023

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Evening all and welcome to another weekly catch up in today’s Sunday Summary post! I hope you’ve had a good week?

This week, I decided to stick with posting just three blog posts instead of four. I have to say, it’s really agreeing with me! Keeping up with a four post per week schedule is quite tricky. I have been doing it for a little while now, but I have appreciated cutting that back down to three in the last couple of weeks. If I’m honest, I think that change is here to stay.

So, what have I been sharing this week? My first blog post of the week was a discussion post on how I decide what books to unhaul when clearing down my shelves. In that post, I also talk about the types of books that I tend to buy in physical copy, as well as the decision-making process behind making space for more. As always, you can find a link to that post above.

My second blog post of the week was shared on Friday. I recently took the decision to move my Well, I Didn’t Know That! series to a Friday and rotate it with my other regular Friday features. This was the way I figured would be easiest to go back down into a three posts a week schedule. It also makes it a little bit easier for me to read up on content for each of these posts. The point of the series is to feature media other than books. I’m obviously reading a lot already, so this is extra work!

For this week’s post, I found an interesting article in the BBC History magazine about the role of debtor’s prisons in 18th and 19th century Britain. If you think we have money worries now, check out that post and things may seem a little easier!

 

Books Read

I didn’t get off to the best of starts this week. However, that wasn’t really unexpected.

 

The Book Eaters

I left off from last week’s Sunday Summary update with just 70 pages left of The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean. If I’m being frank, I wasn’t overly enjoying the book, but there was enough intrigue in the plot to keep me going to the conclusion. It was also a relatively short book, which made it easier for me to just suck it up and get on with it.

I finished it. As expected, I didn’t really enjoy it. Don’t get me wrong, the book has interesting elements in it, like the oppression of women and the lengths they will go to to protect their children. However, the way the book is sold doesn’t necessarily reflect the story you get. If I’m honest, I don’t think the character development has much bearing on the story. It is sold as a book about Book Eaters, devourers of stories. But, that didn’t really have any major significance to the story line. It could have been substituted with ‘any other minority group isolated from society’ and a ‘different child’ within that community, and it would’ve been the same book.

It is a little disappointing, but these things happen. In the end, the book did achieve a rare, two star rating from me. Looking back at my history, there are very few books that I actually gave a two star rating to. The only reason it got higher than a one star rating is because there was enough in the plotline to compel me to continue with it and figure out what the heck was going on. In any other circumstance, I’d have DNF’d it. 

 

Feet of Clay

After my experience of The Book Eaters, I wanted to try and go for a book that would completely turn around my experience. With that in mind, I decided to fall back on an old favourite of mine – Terry Pratchett and his next instalment of the Discworld series, Feet of Clay.

Whilst perfectly readable, I don’t think this is one of the better works of the series I’ve read. I quite like the city watch series in general, but this book was pretty average. It was interesting enough to read, and I did quite quickly. But, this book only got a marginally better rating of three stars.

It was nice to go back to an already familiar world and setting. It has been a bit too long since I last picked up the series. I enjoyed going back to it and getting myself back into the humour and writing style that I’ve come to enjoy over the series so far. Now that I’m back into it, I definitely need to make sure I continue with it!

 

Soul Identity

Next, I started another relatively short read – Soul Identity by Dennis Batchelder. My experience of this book is proving better than the last two.

I like the concept and premise behind the book. In essence, Soul Identity combines science and, to a degree, spirituality, to explore the concept of the soul and reincarnation. It’s not quite the way I expected the story was going to go, but in my opinion, it’s better. I like the scientific angle of the book, and that it has a little less emphasis on religion than I was expecting.

The way the narrative is written, we get to explore this wider concept in the midst of a mystery that our protagonist, as a skeptic, is trying to solve.

As with the previously discussed books, there are little things that I don’t necessarily feel are required in the storyline. Unless it becomes relevant later, I am not really a fan of the Scott/Val relationship dynamic. I’m also not really keen on the authors introduction of female characters to be based on their description, with other attributes and personality coming later. But, it’s not enough to put me off reading further.

As of this Sunday Summary update, I am 71% through the book. My kindle suggests that I have just over an hour of reading time left. My plan is to try and squeeze a much is that in tonight before I go to bed.

 

Books Discovered

I’ve finally broken the record run I’ve had of reporting no new books to the reading list in my Sunday Summary posts, all thanks to my decision to finally spend birthday book vouchers. And of course, you know I’m going to do it in style. I treated myself to four new books on Friday. They are written in mixed media just like Illuminae, so definitely best experienced in print. 

The first two are additional books in a series I started fairly recently (Gemina and Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – the second and third book in The Illuminae Files).

I also treated myself to two stand-alone books that I wanted to pick up (The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and Elektra by Jennifer Saint). The former was on my radar and the latter already on my TBR. They also happened to be buy one get one half price. Shame, right?

 

Coming Up…

Once again, I’m continuing with a three post schedule. It’s definitely a lot easier for me to fit my reading in and enjoy free time for other hobbies. As much as I enjoy my reading and blog, if I overcommit myself, it can become like a second job!

It has been a few weeks since I last shared a book review with you guys. Given that I have reviewed almost all of the Harry Potter series now, I think it makes sense to conclude that set of reviews. So, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows next week. If you want to find out what my thoughts are on re-reading this book as an adult, check out that post.

On Friday, I’m back with a Shelf Control post. In this Friday feature, I review books on my TBR and talk about why I’m excited to pick them up. This week’s feature is another classic novel written by a Russian novelist, of which I have a copy ready to pick up!

As always, my last post of the week will be my Sunday Summary update.

That’s all from me in today’s Sunday Summary. I made a lot of reading progress this week, and I’m off to make more before turning in!

What are you reading?

 

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Sunday Summary – 19th March 2023

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Welcome back to another Sunday Summary catch up post. We have plenty to talk about, but before we get there, I just want to say Happy Mother’s Day to all you fantastic people out there! I’ve been lucky to be able to spend Mother’s Day with my whole family today, and I couldn’t ask for anything more!

This week I have taken a wee step back in that I’ve only shared two blog posts with you so far. I have reclaimed my Wednesday nights; maintaining a schedule of four posts a week is quite a lot. You may not have noticed the difference, but I certainly have! That will show in my reading as well, but more on that later.

My first post of the week was a Top Ten Tuesday post. In that post, I took a look at 10 books I’m looking to include on my spring TBR. If you read that post, or check out my Instagram, you will know that there are quite a few chunky ones on the list. Would you expect anything less from me?

On Friday, I returned with a First Lines Friday post. For that post, I featured the book I will be reading next month along with Ezeekat’s book club. It is a fairly new release from Harper Voyager, and from an author that I have looked at reading from before. I’ve decided that I’m going to prioritise reading this book with the club, so then I can either pick up her other books if I enjoy it, or set them aside if I don’t. If I were to start with the trilogy I’m already familiar with, I would feel compelled to read them all, even if I wasn’t sure about it. This book gives me the perfect chance to try her writing without too much commitment.

 

Books Read

This week’s reading progress is in stark contrast to last. As of last week’s Sunday summary update, I was approximately 380 pages into A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.

Last week, I only managed 300 pages between my update posts. This week, I read the remaining 400 pages of A Game of Thrones, and then some more! More on that below. I really enjoyed this re-read, as I knew I would. This series is one I could go back to again and again. I could read it on loop and not get bored.

In case you aren’t aware, I have picked up this book series again as the next book is due to be published later this year. At least, that’s the last update I read. Naturally, I want to get myself ready to pick that up as soon as it drops. I’m looking forward to continuing with the series over the course of the year.

Next, I picked up The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean, and I have very mixed feelings about the book.

In total, The Book Eaters is only 298 pages. Were it any longer, I probably would have DNF’d it at around the 100 page mark. I can safely say that it is one of the weirdest things I have ever read. It has some interesting themes and messages, but there are also elements of the story that are jarring for me.

Do I find it compelling enough to read because I want to find out what the heck is going on? Yes – I’m invested enough to see where the story is going and how all the craziness resolves itself. Would I say I like the book? At the moment, the answer is not really. I’ve only got around 70 pages left to read, so I am going to finish the book tonight. Unless it picks up with a good ending, I think this is going to be a rare two star read. 

 

Books Discovered

Once again, I have no news to report this week. No news is good news – the reading list still isn’t growing. For now…

 

Coming Up…

Next week I’m continuing with a three post schedule, because it made the world of difference to me this week.

The first of those posts will be a discussion post. It’s been a little while since I’ve done one of these, and I’m keen to keep these as a periodic feature on my blog. For this weeks discussion, I’m going to be talking about some of the books I’m unhauling and donating to charity. I have quite a few to donate. So, in that post, I’m going to talk about why I’m unhauling some of them specifically, and why it’s good to have a general clear out now and then!

Later in the week, I will share my next instalment of Well, I Didn’t Know That! I have moved this feature to a Friday in order to free up my Wednesday once again. It also means that I have a good length of time between each post, so I can bring you better quality content than churning one of these out every week.

You know what’s coming last. I’ll be back with my next Sunday Summary update at the time next week!

That’s all from me in today’s Sunday Summary. Hopefully I can make it through The Book Eaters before the end of the night.

What are you reading?

 

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Sunday Summary – 12th March 2023

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Good evening friends! It‘s Sunday night once again, so it can only be time for my Sunday Summary update post!

Before we get stuck in with the book I’ve been reading this week, let’s recap the blog posts I shared earlier this week. On Tuesday, I shared my next book review for the Harry Potter series – Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I enjoyed re-reading this series from a more mature perspective. In that review, I take a look at my thoughts on the book from this new perspective.

On Wednesday, I brought you the next instalment in my series, Well, I Didn’t Know That! In that post, I featured the Understanding Habits magazine that I was meant to feature last week. This is a ‘bookazine’ and so I had to feature the whole 128 pages rather than picking an element out of it. That would’ve been very difficult to do as it’s one cohesive topic.

On Friday, I shared the next instalment in my Shelf Control series. For this week’s post, I featured a science fiction novel written in collaboration between two authors. The first of the two is an author I love, whilst the second is one I have a limited experience of. That being said, I’m excited to give it a go!

 

Books Read

This week, I’ve found myself doing a number of things as well as reading. I have gone back to a cross-stitch project that I started working on again recently; I’ve also been doing some more knitting… and watched more TV than usual.

As a result, I have only made about 300 pages worth of progress into A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin as of writing this post. That’s not to be sniffed at by any means. At just under 800 pages, this is a chunky book. If I was reading anything else, that reading progress would equate to a book, or most of one. Not only that, but there there’s a lot going on in this book. Whilst I’m very familiar with the storyline and can recognise events that are going to happen at the start of a chapter (because I’m sad like that), it’s still a decent amount to read.

I’ve enjoyed doing some of these other things, so I’ve been having a long hard think about my current blogging schedule. If I want to keep up with the reading progress I want to make and also enjoy my other hobbies, then I probably have to cut down the blogging schedule from four posts a week to three. That’s something I’m going to experiment with and I’ll keep you updated on in due course.

 

Books Discovered

It’s been nearly a month since I added any books to my reading list. That has to be a record, right?

 

Coming Up…

Next week I will be featuring a Top Ten Tuesday post. The topic is ‘books on my spring TBR’. I’ll be taking a look at the books I intend to read over the next few months and why I want to pick them up.

As I mentioned above, I am going to experiment with reducing my blogging schedule back to 3 posts a week. In order to do so, I’m going to add my recently added feature, Well, I Didn’t Know That! series, into my regular Friday feature cycle. As I shared one of these posts on Wednesday last week, followed by a Shelf Control post on Friday, that puts a First Lines Friday next in line.

And of course, I’ll be back with my next Sunday Summary update this time next week!

That’s all from me in today’s Sunday Summary post. My plan for the evening is to settle in, take a cup of tea to bed and make more progress with A Game of Thrones.

What are you reading?

 

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Sunday Summary – 5th March 2023

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Good evening everyone and welcome to my Sunday Summary update for this week. It has been a busy one for me as I have been juggling a busy work week, as well as sharing my usual monthly update posts.

On Tuesday, I shared my monthly wrap-up for February 2023. I didn’t quite get through my ambitious TBR for the month. However, I read some fantastic books and pushed myself a little harder than I have done of late. If you want to check out the books I’ve been reading recently, there is a link to that post above.

As a result of my work commitments, I didn’t finish the Understanding Habits magazine ready for my Wednesday regular feature post. If this magazine had been a collation of multiple articles, but about different topics, then I still could’ve picked one and run with it. However, the magazine is very focused on a specific topic. It wouldn’t have been very easy to split down and talk about any specific element; to be honest, I don’t think I’d be doing it justice if I did that either. It is best read and featured as a whole. With that in mind, I decided to postpone this feature post until next week. Then, I should have had the chance to read it in its entirety.

The last post to go out earlier this week was my monthly TBR for March. This month, I have set a slightly shorter list, which results in a daily reading average of about 70 pages. Compared to last month, that’s a difference of about 40 pages a day. This smaller goal is a lot more achievable. I have also set myself a little bit of a stretch goal – to start one more book before the end of the month. If you’re interested in the books, I’m picking up throughout the month of March, you know what to do.

 

Books Read

Africa Risen

As of last week’s Sunday Summary, I was about 40% through Africa Risen.

I enjoyed the change of pace in reading an anthology of shorter stories as opposed to a longer novel. As in all things, there are elements of this book that I enjoyed more than others. There are stories in the book that I enjoyed more than others. Whilst I’m not overly precious or squeamish, there was one story in this book that I decided to skim through, because I wasn’t enjoying the graphic violence in it.

Overall, though, this was a solid read and an opportunity to branch out into fiction that I wouldn’t necessarily choose to pick up at any other time.

 

A Game of Thrones

After working my way through Africa Risen, I started my first book from my March TBR – A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. I have already read this book a number of times. The next instalment in the series due out later this year, so I have decided to start a re-read of the series so I’m ready to pick that up when it finally drops.

I confess that I am not that far through the book at the moment. I have made a start and got through the first 80 pages of the book. That’s about 10%. This week, my usual habits and schedules have been a little bit off with being busy at work and having friends visiting yesterday. I’ve been having a good time doing some other things, but I’m looking forward to really diving into this book. I think this book is the perfect introduction to the wider series, as there’s enough going on to keep you interested, but also not to overwhelm. It is a book I enjoy reading and love going back to. 

Fingers crossed I’ll have more of an update from you in next week Sunday Summary post!

 

Books Discovered

Still keeping it quiet here with no acquisitions or additions to the TBR of late!

 

Coming Up…

It’s been a few weeks since I last shared a book review with you, so that is the plan for next week. I’ve recently been reviewing my re-read of the Harry Potter series. I will be continuing with those by reviewing the penultimate book, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

As I stated above, I will be back with my regular Wednesday feature, Well, I Didn’t Know That! and featuring the Understanding Habits magazine in full.

On Friday, I will share my next Shelf Control post. The book I will feature this week is the first of a series written as a collaboration between two authors – Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. I’m interested to give this a go, even though the last book I read that Terry Pratchett collaborated on wasn’t a hit. For that particular book, I didn’t particularly enjoy the other authors writing style and that was prevalent in the book. I don’t have those same feelings about Stephen Baxter, so I’m hopeful that I will enjoy this one.

Finally, I’ll be back with my next Sunday Summary update this time next week. For now, that is all from me. Have a fabulous week and I’ll catch you in the next post!

 

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Sunday Summary – 26th February 2023

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Good evening and welcome to today’s weekly Sunday Summary update! As always, I hope you’ve had a good week? What have you been up to?

In addition to reading and blogging, I picked up an ongoing cross-stitch project and played Stardew Valley on my switch. I’ve also watched most, if not all, episodes of Wednesday on Netflix. It’s been a good week of doing some different things.

Onto the blogging front, my first blog post was a Top Ten Tuesday post. This week’s theme was sharing our favourite heroines. A lot of the heroines on my list have a lot in common. They are women who stand up in the face of adversity, and do not shy away from who they are. They are also brave, smart, and these are all things that I strive to be. If you want to find out who made the list, you can check out my top ten tuesday post.

My next post was my next instalment of Well, I Didn’t Know That! In this week’s post, I decided to take a look at functionality on Goodreads that I don’t currently use, but may well do so in future. I mainly use the site as a book database and to log what I’m reading. However, there are a lot of news articles, book recommendations, and community elements to the site that I don’t make the most of. If you want to check out what those are, again, there is a link above.

On Friday’s First Lines Friday post, I featured the final book of a trilogy that I read last year. My challenge for this post was to feature a book I read in last year. In the end, this was quite an easy choice. I featured one of the earlier books of the trilogy in this series before. They have engaging opening lines to suck the reader in, and the storylines themselves are fantastic. As I mentioned in that post, this is a series I have now read twice, and also purchased for two friends. Curious as to what Friday’s feature was? You know the drill – it’s linked up.

 

Books Read

The Rise of The Dragon

As of last week’s Sunday Summary post, I had two current reads on the go. The first of those books was The Rise of the Dragon by George R.R. Martin. I also had a second book on the go for practical reasons; The Rise of the Dragon is a large and heavy illustrated history of the Targaryen’s. It’s not a practical book to take to work and read in your lunch hour!

So, in order to keep up momentum with reading, I also started Africa Risen. This particular book is Ezeekat’s current book club read, but more importantly, it’s on my kindle. Infinitely more transportable!

I was just over 150 pages through The Rise of the Dragon as of my last Sunday Summary post. Even though I wasn’t taking it to work to make progress with, I still flew through it. As I knew I would. I am a huge fan of the Game of Thrones and the universe the series is set in. I have already read some of the history before in Fire and Blood. However, The Rise of the Dragon is far more approachable. Fire and Blood is written as if it is a detailed chronicle of events that have happened in history. The Rise of the Dragon is more like a reference book. It still tells the story, but with a lot less detail, analysis and opinion.

If you want to take a look at the Targaryen history and you’re intimidated by the size of Fire and Blood, then I would strongly recommend The Rise of the Dragon. The illustrations in this book are fantastic and complement the story nicely!

 

Africa Risen

As of last week’s Sunday Summary update, I had only made a token start on my second read, Africa Risen. After finishing The Rise of the Dragon, I moved on to reading this book in earnest, (rather than on the side). As of today’s Sunday Summary post, I am now nearly 40% through this anthology collection.

I am enjoying the narrative being broken up into lots of more stories. It makes it an approachable read as it is very easy to pick up and put down as and when required. As with all of these things, there are varied storylines and narrative voices; some are easier to read than others. What all stories have in common is that they spotlight minority voices in speculative fiction. That’s a combination I haven’t really read before and I am enjoying. Sometimes it is good to change pace and reach out to read something new. Africa Risen certainly takes that box.

 

Books Discovered

Having recently received a deluge of books for my birthday, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I have been laying off adding anything to my reading list right now. I have more than enough to be getting on with!

 

Coming Up…

As we are coming up to the end of the month, next week I will be updating you on my reading progress in February via my usual monthly wrap-up post.

You may recall that last month I squeezed my wrap-up post out in the late evening of the last day of the month. This is because I have a regular feature post that I share on a Wednesday. As there are 28 days in February, we are back in the same boat this month. As that post turned out okay in terms of timing, I am going to do the same thing this month. I will prepare the majority of my post tomorrow, and I’ll get the last updates together on my current reads on Tuesday, so the post can go live!

On Wednesday, I will be back with my regular feature, Well, I Didn’t Know That. This week, I will read through a magazine called Understanding Habits. As somebody who enjoyed studying psychology at school, I’m looking forward to going through this. I also still think I have plenty to learn; anything interesting I read will be shared in that post!

On Friday, I will share my reading list for March 2023. I have a provisional list in mind and I’m excited for the books that are on it. One slight deviation is that I’m not going to be taking part in the book club read this month. If I’m entirely honest, I’m just not fussed about the subject! Yes, I am trying to broaden my horizons with my reading a bit, but I’m not going to force myself to read something that I have no interest in whatsoever either.

So, the world is my oyster when it comes to my reading list this month. I hope you can check out my post on Friday to find out what I plan to read throughout March.

Lastly, I will be back with my next Sunday Summary update post at the same time as usual. Until then, I hope you have a fabulous week and I look forward to seeing you around soon!

 

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Sunday Summary – 19th February 2023

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Happy Sunday and welcome to today’s Sunday Summary update! Before we jump into my reading progress, let’s do a quick catch up on the blog posts I shared this week.

The first blog post I shared this week was my next instalment of Well, I Didn’t Know That! In this week’s post, I shared some interesting but devastating facts about historic discrimination experienced by women of colour when it comes to abortion rights. I personally had no idea this was a thing, and it shocked me so much that I had to share to make other people aware as well.

On Friday’s Shelf Control post, I shared a classic novel on my to be read list that doesn’t fit into a conventional genre I would pick up. However, as it is a well known classic, I want to give it a try anyway. There are elements to this book that deviate from what I consider stereotypical to the genre. With that in mind, I’m prepared to give it a try and assess it for its own merits.

 

Books Read

As of last week’s Sunday Summary update post, I left off having made about 80 pages of progress into Becoming by Michelle Obama.

Even if you are not particularly interested in politics, Becoming is a great book on what it is like to grow up as an African-American in the late 20th century. Michelle comes from a very humble background. It’s not necessarily something you think about when you think about the former First Lady of the United States. Other than what I had seen of her on TV and in the news, I knew very little about her.

I have rectified that. Becoming has shown that Michelle is a fantastic woman in her own right. She has developed from a young child growing up in an increasingly disadvantaged background to somebody who is willing and motivated enough to change her circumstances. I particularly enjoyed the book because Michelle isn’t very political at all. Obviously, being wife of the former President means you do get roped in somewhat. However, I enjoyed her refreshing stance in not being politically motivated and sharing a more objective view of politics.

Next, I moved on to one of my current reads – The Rise of the Dragon by George R.R. Martin. I was a very lucky girl and received a copy of this as an early birthday present from my parents. It was a natural choice to read it in my birthday month. I love A Game of Thrones and anything associated with it. If I’m entirely honest, I have been looking for an excuse to pick something up like this for some time. Now that I know The Winds of Winter is due out later this year, I may have already talked myself into a re-read of the series…

As of this post, I am just on the halfway through Rise of the Dragon at 153 pages.

I have also started a second book as a current read. Sometimes I will do this, but not very often. My main motivation on this occasion is that Rise of the Dragon is too big and heavy to take to work and read. For a 350-odd page book, it is remarkably heavy. Then again, it is an A4 size hardback, so is it really a surprise? Instead, I am reading Africa Risen at work, as it’s on my kindle and far more transportable! Admittedly, I have only just started this book, having read just the first of 32 short stories within.

It’s only a handful of pages in the grand scheme of things, but a start is a start!

 

Books Discovered

 

I hope you’re sitting comfortably, because I have a lot of books to update you on this week.

If you follow me on Instagram, you will see that I shared a post earlier in the week about the number of books I received for my birthday. I had asked for seven of the books, and I received 13 in total!

One of these books I have already mentioned – The Rise of the Dragon. Whilst I did technically receive it as an early birthday present, it’s still a birthday present. The seven books I asked for are the next two sets in Robin Hobb’s the Realm of the Elderlings series. I was fortunate enough to have received one from my sister and the other from my auntie.

In addition, I received a fantasy series that I have been eyeing up – R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War. I received this series from my sister’s boyfriend Chris. He has not long started this series and is enjoying it so far. We have quite similar reading taste, so I have every confidence that I’m going to enjoy these books! In addition, he also gifted me a copy of The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett. You may recall that I read and enjoyed The Appeal by the same author last year. I really enjoyed how the book is written in multimedia rather than prose (a format I have also recently enjoyed in Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff).

That nicely segways into the last book on my list. My sister was very kind to gift me a special edition of Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. I loved this book last year and I can definitely see a re-read of this nicer edition happening in future!

That’s more than enough books to feature in a Sunday Summary post, wouldn’t you agree?

 

Coming Up…

My first blog post of the week is going to be a Top Ten Tuesday post. This week’s theme is all about our favourite bookish heroines. I already have a few in mind that I want to feature. I can’t wait to share my full list with you, and the books they come from, in my Top Ten Tuesday post.

Next is Wednesday’s feature, Well, I Didn’t Know That! I’m going to be perfectly honest here and say that as a writing this post, the topic has not yet been christened. But, as always, I hope to share with you some interesting information in that post.

On Friday, I will be back with a First Lines Friday feature post. The topic of this post is also yet to be decided. In the past, I have set myself challenges that have an influence on the book I choose to feature. I am going to set myself such a challenge this week; it has been a little while since I last did this. It also makes my selection a little bit more interesting. This week’s challenge is to feature a book that I read last year. That way, I can potentially introduce you to something new and I can give you a quick summary of my thoughts on the book.

Lastly, I will be back at the same time next week with another Sunday Summary to update you on all my reading progress throughout the week.

For now though, that’s all from me in today’s Sunday Summary post. I hope to see you again soon.

 

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Sunday Summary – 12th February 2023

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Happy Sunday and welcome to my weekly catch up post – aka my Sunday Summary! I hope you’ve had a fantastic week, wherever you are and whatever you have been up to.

The first blog post I shared this week was my book review post for Harry Potter and the Oder of the Phoenix. I completed a re-read of the Harry Potter series between 2021 and 2022. In this review series, I discussed my overall thoughts on the book, but also how the reading experience compares between reading them as a teenager, and again as an adult.

On Wednesday, I shared another post in my new series, Well, I Didn’t Know That! In this week’s post, I shared a short, 16 minute podcast I listened to recently, which introduced me to genre of books I wouldn’t necessarily have picked up myself. I may have even added a couple to my reading list…

On Friday, I shared a First Lines Friday post. For this week’s feature, I decided to share a book that I attempted to read in 2018, but ultimately DNF’d. It wasn’t through any fault of the book. I was trying to read a large epic fantasy at a time when it wasn’t suiting me. I initially put it down with a view to it being a temporary arrangement. However, to date, I haven’t gone back to the book. If you want to find out what that feature is, you can find a link to the post above.

 

Books Read

Picking up from where we left off in last week’s Sunday Summary post, I continued with my read of Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. As of that update post, I was 123 pages into this nearly 600-pager.

I went on to finish reading this book this week. Although it is quite a long one, it is written in a form of mixed media. Not only does that make it more interesting and break up the narrative, but it also means that there are pages within the book that are very easy to read as there isn’t so much content on them as a standard prosaic narrative.

I really enjoyed Illuminae. The story line is compelling, the way in which the story is told is unusual, if not unique, and I enjoyed the characters in the book. I can’t wait to continue reading the series.

Next, I moved on to my current read, Becoming by Michelle Obama. I have had this book on my shelf to pick up for some time. With it being black history month, I decided to read it this month with that theme in mind. It also contributes towards my reading goal for the year to pick up more non-fiction.

I am currently just over 80 pages in and also enjoying this one. I am not a big lover of politics. However, Becoming is not proving to be political – at least so far. In the 80 pages I’ve read, I’ve already learned a lot about Michelle’s younger years, and also the adversity she experienced growing up. It is one thing to know that the colour of your skin has historically made a big impact on what opportunities you get in life. It is another to live and breathe it through this kind of narrative. In lots of little ways, the lives of people like Michelle Obama could have been a lot worse. However, she has already proven to have grit and determination. That definitely comes through in her book, and I can’t wait to read more of her experiences.

 

Books Discovered

As a result of listening to the podcast I featured in my post, Well, I Didn’t Know That!, I added two books to my reading list this week.

These fall under the genre of business books. It’s not something I would have expected myself to pick up. However, the business book featured in that podcast are as a result of being shortlisted entries in the Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year award. If there are any business books that are going to be worth picking up, it will be these ones!

Both of these books sound interesting and I’m willing to give them a try.

 

Coming Up…

My first blog post of the week is going to be Wednesday’s feature, Well, I Didn’t Know That! I would normally share a post on Tuesday. However, with being a little bit behind in reading progress for the month, I’m going to give myself a night off to try and get back on track. I’m not hugely behind, but I don’t want to fall behind even further. Plus, I am going to be sharing three blog posts throughout the week next week. That’s more than enough to keep you going.

On Friday, I will be back with a Shelf Control feature post. This week, I feature a classic novel which I would like to try, even though it’s not my usual cup of tea.

My final post of the week will be a Sunday Summary update. As usual, I’ll share with you what reading progress I’ve made throughout the week, any books I’ve added to my reading list, and what I will be sharing on my blog in the next week.

For now though, that is all from me in today’s Sunday Summary post. Have a wonderful week and I will see you around soon!

 

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Sunday Summary – 5th February 2023

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In today’s Sunday Summary post, I have lots of blogging and bookish updates for you!

The first blog post I shared this week was my monthly wrap-up for January 2023. I would normally share this post on or around the first day of the following month. However, this month the first fell on a Wednesday. As I have recently started a series that I share every Wednesday, I didn’t want to conflict with that. As a result, I drafted most of my post ahead of time, adding a few last-minute updates, before the post went live on Tuesday. If you want to find out what I have been reading throughout the month of January, check out that post.

On Wednesday, I shared the aforementioned feature for my new series, Well, I Didn’t Know That! In this week’s post, I shared an article that introduced me to a book I wouldn’t have discovered elsewhere.

On Friday, I shared my planned TBR for February. Even though it is the shortest month of the year, I am not cutting myself any slack. I have set myself an ambitious list of seven books that I would like to get through this month. If you want to take a look at those, check out my February TBR post. Some of the books mentioned in that post are going to feature below in this week’s reading progress update.

 

Books Read

I don’t quite know how I managed it, but I’ve read in the region of 780 pages this week!

 

The Chimp Paradox

As of last week’s Sunday Summary update, I was just over a quarter of the way through The Chimp Paradox by Professor Steve Peters. I had decided to pick up this book as it interested me from a psychology point of view. Not only that, but I was hoping it will be able to teach me some ways in which I can help manage my metaphorical chimp.

In last week’s update, I did voice some gripes about the book. Those didn’t change throughout my reading experience, so it wasn’t the best read I’ve ever picked up. To summarise, the psychology is very simplified, I wasn’t a fan of the condescending tone, and whilst it did give me some useful information, I would say it was limited. This turned out to be a mediocre three-star rated read.

 

The House of Fortune

Next, I picked up the last book I intended to read in January, The House of Fortune by Jessie Burton. This book is the sequel to The Miniaturist, which I read around about this time in 2018. I confess that I had to remind myself of the characters in the first book in order for things to slot into place for the second one. Where the first book focuses on Nella as the main character, for the second book, we effectively move on a generation; Thea Brandt is the focus of the storyline.

I didn’t like Thea as a main character. For an 18-year-old who has lived a fairly sheltered life, she really does think she knows it all. Not only that, but her character is very different throughout the narrative – at times, she is headstrong and bold, and yet in other parts, she wallows away in her bedroom for a month because something happens that she doesn’t like. It didn’t seem consistent. I’m also a bit disappointed that a female author could do the disservice of creating a female character that could be this pathetic.

Small gripes aside, The House of Fortune was a decent read overall. This also ended up being a three star rating.

 

Illuminae

This morning I moved on to my current read, Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. So far, I am 123 pages into this book. I am already loving it! The target audience for this one is a little bit younger than I am, but the characters are still enjoyable from an adult perspective. The main selling point for this book is that it is written in mixed media. The story is told through messages between characters, interviews and such like. I really enjoyed this when I picked up The Appeal by Janice Hallett last year. Illuminae is different from The Appeal in that it is a kind of mystery in a sci-fi setting… but so far, it’s really working and proving really easy to read. I read the 123 pages towards my current progress just this morning!

 

Books Discovered

If you check out my Wednesday feature post, Well, I Didn’t Know That!, you will know that I have added a book to my reading list this week.

I have decided to add Deep Wheel Orcadia to my reading list as it is a completely new concept to me. If you are not familiar with this book, it is a sci-fi. That is not what makes it unique though. It is unusual in that it is the first complete book to have been written in Orcadian Scots for over 50 years. It does have English translation, in case you are interested in the story but are not bothered by the language element. Personally, I am intrigued by it, and I can’t wait to pick it up!

 

Coming Up…

My first blog post of next week is going to be a book review. This week, I am going to be sharing my thoughts on the next book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I re-read these books in 2021 and 2022 with a view to comparing my experience of reading them as a teenager versus an adult. I have reviewed a number of the books in the series so far, and this is the fifth instalment.

On Wednesday, I will be sharing my next post in my new feature, Well, I Didn’t Know That! If I am entirely honest, I am still deciding on the feature of this post. That’s why I’m not disclosing any more information at this time.

On Friday, I will be back with a First Lines Friday feature. Seeing as how my last post (and the novel way I planned to pick the featured book) didn’t go to plan, I’m not going to christen it this time. Instead, I will share how I went about it in that post.

As always, I will be back with another Sunday Summary update to catch you up on what I’ve been reading and what I have shared throughout the week!

For now though, that is all from me in today’s Sunday Summary post. Have a wonderful evening and week and I’ll catch you in the next one.

 

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