Tag: attention

Sunday Summary – 7th May 2023

Posted on May 7, 2023 by fantasyst95

Hello and it’s another happy long weekend! Even if the coronation and royalty aren’t your thing… I think we can all agree that it’s great to have another cheeky day off work. We’re back once again for my weekly Sunday Summary post, in which I take you through the books I’ve been reading and talking about!

This week’s blog schedule was a bit hectic, although a mishap last week actually helped me out in the end! With this week being the beginning of May, I naturally had to share my Monthly Wrap Up post for the month of April. I read four and a half books in the month. It may not sound like much, but the first book I read in the month was 906 pages long!

This week, I also had a blog tour obligation. I had the pleasure of kicking off the tour for Eagle of Mercia by MJ Porter. That post went live on Wednesday, 3rd May. If you’re interested in historical fiction or books about British history and the Viking’s coming to Britain, this is a book in the series. You may be interested in.

On Thursday, I shared my Monthly TBR post covering the books I plan to read in May. It looks like a very ambitious list. However, when you think about it this way, the first book was a carryover from April, which I’ve now finished. Some of the books are relatively short, and another, I am taking on in audio.

On Friday, I shared a First Lines Friday post… The one I accidentally drafted last week when I got my regular features muddled up. Thankfully, I realised before I posted it, and so I scheduled it for this week instead. As I mentioned above, that ended up working out in my favour. Including this post, I’ve posted a total of five blogs this week! Having one prepared a little earlier, did me no harm whatsoever!

Books Read

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi

My first priority of the week was to continue with The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. As of my last Sunday Summary, I was halfway through the book.

I enjoyed the premise and the setting of this book. It is one that doesn’t get explored all that much in fantasy. Having read a couple of fantasy novels with Eastern settings, and really enjoying them, I’m definitely going to be seeking out more in future.

I do have some mixed feelings about this one. I had a vague inkling, but the storyline ended up being quite whimsical. At least, that’s how it came across to me. It was okay, but that did detract a little bit of enjoyment for me.

I wanted to read the book as a standalone before I started another series, written by the author. Having read this one, I’m not sure about the series I had in mind. I’ll probably give the first book a try. However, if it’s much like this one, I’ll probably end up there.

Wolf of Wessex

The next book I picked up was Wolf of Wessex by Matthew Harffy. This was the book I was supposed to pick up last month as well, but didn’t quite get around to it.

Wolf of Wessex is much like my recent read, Eagle of Mercia, in setting. I suppose the only difference is that it is set on the other side of the border! I quite liked that the book didn’t dive too heavily into historical element of the Norse coming to Britain. You could easily go into this book not really knowing much, but equally, also having an idea doesn’t really make a difference. As someone who’s read a fair bit of the genre by now, I didn’t feel overly advantaged by this pre-knowledge.

Wolf of Wessex is a fast-paced action novel. I read this book in just a handful of sittings. It ended up being a three-star rating from me because the plot and character development is quite superficial. That’s not to say it wasn’t enjoyable, but these are elements. I really enjoy in a book. They were a little bit lacking here.

The Waste Lands

The last physical read I started this week is Stephen King’s The Waste Lands. I made full disclosure in my May TBR post that I was going to have to go back and read up on what has happened so far in the series as a refresher. Rather spookily, I finished the prior book in the series, The Drawing of the Three, on this day in 2019! I haven’t picked up this series on for years, so it’s no wonder I couldn’t remember what was going on.

As soon as I read those summaries, I was fully back up to speed. I’ve only just started this book today, so I’m only 53 pages in as I’m writing this post. It’s a healthy start though, and it’s great to be back. It’s also been a little minute since I’ve picked up any Stephen King novel. I do like his writing style, so I’m enjoying that too.

As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow

The last book I have progress on which to report is As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh. As I mentioned in my TBR, this is the chosen book of the month for Ezeekat’s book club. It’s very different from anything I have read for a very long time. It’s also not a book I would have necessarily thought to pick up of my own volition. In that way, I’m glad it’s come up as part of the book club.

Just this week, I have started and made my way through a third of this book on audio. Through the narrative we explore Syria and its people, ravaged by those who would fight to suppress their revolution. I’ll confess that before starting this book, I didn’t really know what the conflict in Syria was about. It is something that has been happening for many years now, and in truth, we hear little of it.

If you are content with the knowledge that the war and conflict is happening, but over there, then this book is not for you. The narrative pulls no punches in highlighting the devastation inflicted on the general population. Pregnant women and children are targeted by snipers. Men who would stand up and protest anre arrested, and death would be preferable to the treatment they receive. It’s probably not a book for everyone, but I don’t shy away from difficult subjects. I for one am enjoying it so far, and I will be making further progress with this soon.

Books Discovered

Much as was the case in my last Sunday Summary post, no news is good news! Given that I’ve managed to take a couple of books off the list, we are now back under 200 on my reading list.

Is it bad that I’m excited about that?!

Coming Up…

I’ll be slowing down the pace next week when it comes to blogging by returning to my usual three post schedule.

The first of those posts is a book review for The Feedback Loop by Harmon Cooper. I read this short science-fiction/cyberpunk novel last year and enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts with you.

Later in the week, I will be sharing the next addition in my Well, I Didn’t Know That! series. As yet, the topic remains unchristened. I have the week off work, so I’ll take some time to read some different material and find something fun to share with you all!

And as always, I’ll be here at the same time next week for another Sunday Summary.

But now, that is all for today’s Sunday Summary. I’m going to watch an episode of The Last Kingdom on Netflix, and pick up The Waste Lands before going to bed.

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Monthly Wrap-Up – April 2023

Posted on May 1, 2023 by fantasyst95

Hello and welcome to my monthly wrap-up for April 2023! If you’re UK based, I hope you’ve had a lovely long weekend? If you’ve spent it with a book, then that’s time well spent if you ask me.

This month started off as a parody of last month. I spent a while working through my ‘first’ read of the month (as it was a chunky read). Then, things sped up from there. I vary this month in that things started to slow down again…

Books Read

The Mad Ship

As of last month’s monthly wrap-up post, I was 120 pages into The Mad Ship. If you are unfamiliar with this book, it is an epic 906 pages total.

That left me with a lot of reading to do at the beginning of the month. I actually set this aside for a couple of days in order to read the next book on this list ahead of the blog tour I took part in. However, as soon as I finished, I jumped straight back into this one.

Much like last month, I was reading this book for a good chunk of the month. It’s obviously very long, but not only that, Robin Hobb’s narrative is dense. In my experience, they are not books that you can read very quickly, even if you try.

Thanks For Sharing

As I briefly mentioned above, Thanks for Sharing at the beginning of the month in order to read it in time to provide my review for the recent blog tour.

This was a complete change from The Mad Ship, and it was nice to pick up something different. I wanted to pick up this book as I have recently been appointed to a sustainability committee at work. My intentions were to read the book to get some ideas and general information about sustainability and the environment.

I got that from this book, and so much more! The book recounts the author’s experience of trying more sustainable lifestyle over the course of about a year. That might not sound thrilling to some, but this was relayed in a funny way. We get to experience the ups and downs of trying to incorporate change into family life. There is a lot of humour throughout this book, and that really helped make the reading experience that little bit more enjoyable!

Eagle of Mercia

I read a second book in April for a blog tour obligation, although that tour post isn’t coming until Wednesday this week.

Eagle of Mercia is the fourth book in the Eagle of Mercia Chronicles, written by M.J. Porter. So far, I have read and reviewed each of the books for a blog tour post. I have enjoyed every single one! Eagle of Mercia was no exception.

The standout element for me in these books is the perspective from which these books are written. I really like Icel, our protagonist. His is a perspective we don’t necessarily expect from this time period. He is a youth that does not long to be a warrior, although increasingly, he steps up to his obligations to protect his own. Instead, Icel would rather be healing the wounded. That is how he spent his youth, and he longs for peace in times of political turbulence.

The narrative and storyline we get to enjoy in this fourth book is quite unlike the others we have seen to date. We see our characters move far beyond their own pastures for a rescue mission.

If you’re intrigued by the sound of this book and want to find out more, check out my blog tour post on Wednesday!

Stolen Focus

Next, I picked up Stolen Focus by Johann Hari. This is the second non-fiction book I picked up in the month, and I found this both informative and interesting.

For part of the book, the author recounts a journey he undertook in order to separate himself from external forces stealing his focus, and invests his time into the things he wanted to do. It shouldn’t surprise you that writing was one of his main goals. What is refreshing about this book is that it doesn’t point the finger… at least, not exclusively at individuals.

Based on this author’s experience, a lot of self-help books of this nature apportion blame on individuals for their lack of focus. However, the author has researched extensively why there are a large number of external factors that are increasingly stealing our focus. He briefly touches upon a Netflix docu-film that I watched a little while ago, and I would recommend watching this as an alternative way of learning about some of the concepts in this book. It’s called The Social Dilemma.

This isn’t just a book heavy on research. If you do genuinely want some advice on little things you can do to help improve your focus, this is included in the book. However, it makes it very clear that there’s only so far you can go when you are surrounded by many external factors (technology, environment etc) that all contribute to reduced focus, so that you are forearmed with that information and don’t get disappointed if you still struggle.