Sunday Summary: 9th December 2018

Good evening everyone! Have you all had a lovely weekend? I can’t believe it’s Sunday evening already… doesn’t the time just fly by!

I’ve started drafting today’s post a little later than usual because I upgraded to the new WordPress editor. I had heard some bad things about it – it appeared a lot more functional than the previous editor. Haha… what a joke. What started out to be a not-so-bad experience turned horrendous. After about 45 minutes of trying to format my post in the new editor I cut my losses, downloaded the classic editor plugin and started again. It’s the best decision I (and 800,000 other users) have made.

So… what have I been up to this week? I had the pleasure of taking part in an exciting Blog Tour organised by Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources on Tuesday. Facing a Twisted Judgment by K. J. McGillick is a thrilling read. After a newlywed woman disappears along with artwork worth millions, her husband is suspect number one. As the evidence stacks up against him, we dig into the investigation through the eyes of Dalia.

On Thursday I wrote about my recent “more relaxed” approach to reading and how it is working out for me. I’ve decided to stick it out for another month and so I have committed which books I’ll be reading in my Reading List for December.

In between all this, as well as my reading, I have desperately been trying to catch up with watching I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! I love the show, but it is very full on. I might normally turn on the TV once a week or so – having to watch at least one episode every day to try to keep up (not even to catch up the week I was already behind) is tough going. Is anyone else watching it? What do you make of this year’s campmates?

 

Books Read

 

The number one priority at the beginning of this week was to finish reading Facing a Twisted Judgment. I’ll hold my hands up and say I left it too late to read it. I don’t like to cut it that fine, but I have been struggling with some other books lately which delayed starting this book. I had the book read by about 9:30pm the night before my tour post was due to go live, so I just went straight in for the review. If there is one positive that comes out of that, is that my thoughts and feelings were very fresh. I finished drafting that post gone 11pm that night… which was not so good for my sleeping pattern. It’s my own fault so I can’t complain.

With the pressure taken off me, I decided to pick up Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Imagine a world in which the media is designed to only make you happy by indoctrination, emotionally detaching you from other people, war, tragedy etc. Can you imagine a world without books? Nope… me neither. I read this book in a matter of a few evenings just before bed. It is so easy to read and so poignant, I’m glad I picked it up; I’ve wanted to for such a long time!

The next read (and my current work in progress) is The Road to Alexander by Jennifer Macaire. Having learned my lesson with Facing A Twisted Judgment, I am starting this book early. I’m due to tour with it in the New Year – no one can suggest I won’t be prepared for this one! I’ve made a respectable start (17%) on this one considering I only picked it up on Friday night. I’ve had quite a busy weekend and so I’m looking forward to delving a bit further into this book next week!

 

Books Discovered

I have been very restrained this week in terms of book buying. Well, it is nearly Christmas after all! I have to leave some present ideas for people, right? I probably won’t get any books anyway – it’s only me that has the book-bug in this family.  That’s the whole reason I started this blog! If I don’t have an outlet to talk about it to, I might just burst!! Okay, slight exaggeration… I’d just bore a lot of uninterested people to death instead.

Instead, I have signed up for a number of blog tours coming up between January-March next year. Watch this space for news of those closer to the time!

 

Coming Up…

It has been a long while since I reviewed a book that hasn’t been part of a blog tour. I was going through a phase of being practically caught up on my reviews, but I have plenty of breathing room now. I initially read the book I‘ll be reviewing back in October. The Silent Patient is an ARC I have been sent for review and I really enjoyed it. Again, this was another book I read extremely quickly. If I had the willpower to forego sleep, I would have done so just to finish this book sooner!

 

 

 

It has been a couple of weeks since I published a Down the TBR Hole post, so I also plan to whittle down the TBR a little more next week. I have 188 books on the list – it really isn’t going down all that much! I think I am my own worst enemy…

 

In terms of reading progress, I want to finish The Road to Alexander. I am reading this well in advance but I have also made a few commitments in reading terms for next year, so I’ll thank myself for the head start in future.

In addition to this, I also want to start reading Ewan Pendle and the Castle of Nightmares by Shaun Hume. This is the second book of the series he is writing and he has kindly asked for a review. I really enjoyed the first book, Ewan Pendle and the White Wraith (fun fact –the first book I reviewed on request ever) so I can’t wait to give my feedback on this latest release!

 

That is how my week is shaping up… how about yours?