Tag: bookblogger

Sunday Summary – 6th July 2025

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Happy Sunday reading friends! Welcome to this Sunday Summary update post. Thankfully, where I live, we have a local bank holiday tomorrow, so my weekend isn’t quite over yet. With any luck, I’ll be spending at least some of tomorrow with a book in hand! 

Before I get ahead of myself thinking about next week, let’s look at what’s happened in the last seven days. 

The first post I shared this week went live on Tuesday. It was my monthly wrap-up post for June 2025. Before I got really busy at work, I wanted to draft and publish this post. Whilst I run my blog out of work hours, if I’ve had a long day, I don’t always feel like doing the blog stuff afterwards. Mindful of my time and energy, I’m glad I got this one done in good time. 

Next, I shared my TBR for July on Friday. With the same in mind, I started this a couple of days before it went live. This gave me loads of time to plan the books I’m picking up this month and prepare that blog post. If you haven’t yet read that, here’s a link so you can find out what I’m reading in the near future.

 

Books Read

 

Saint’s Blood

Picking up from last week’s Sunday Summary update, I listened to the final four hours of Saint’s Blood over the course of this working week. Not that that was difficult to do. I was at a point in the story where I was really engaged with what was going on and I wanted to see how the book would end.

I do a lot of my audiobook listening in the week whilst I’m commuting to and from work. Because it’s been quarter-end at work, I haven’t been going out at lunchtime as usual. So, I’ve managed to fit in a little bit more listening there too! 

I really enjoyed Saint’s Blood and getting back into this series. I’m not entirely sure what the fourth and final book of this series will entail. What I can tell you is that I plan to pick this up before too long so I can finish the series before the end of the year. 

 

The Anxious Generation 

On the physical book front, I have made a real effort to read The Anxious Generation this week. As of my monthly wrap-up post, I had made a healthy thought to the book, but I was only 60 pages in. As of this Sunday Summary update, I have just 30 pages left. 

I’ve made a good push to get the book finished today, but I’ve not quite got there. I am hoping to make the final push with this book before I go to bed tonight so I can start afresh tomorrow! 

The Anxious Generation is an interesting read. Whilst quite factual and somewhat statistical, the book and its narrative are engaging to read. At the moment, I’m reading the author’s practical advice for what government, schools and parents can do to minimise the impact of handheld access to social media and the wider internet. I’m looking forward to seeing how it ends.

 

Alan Turing: The Enigma 

In the last couple of days, I’ve started listening to a biography on Alan Turing.

I wanted to pick up this book since watching The Imitation Game. For a man who had such a massive influence on British history and breaking German cipher codes in WWII through developing a computer, he was very poorly treated.

So far, the audiobook is going through his early life. If I’m honest, I’m finding this a little dry at the moment. Fortunately, I’m listening to this audiobook whilst also doing craft projects so I’m somewhat engaged by those. I’m going to stick with the audiobook a little bit longer and see if things get more interesting. 

 

Books Discovered

This week is another week with no new additions to the TBR. Given I have completed books this week and added nothing to the reading list, we’re heading in the right direction for once.

 

Coming Up… 

With an anticipated busy week next week, I’m going to reduce the pressure on myself to blog. It’s a busy time at work, we’re several staff down and it’ll be myself and my manager largely holding down the fort for our team. 

I’d already earmarked next week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme as one I wanted to feature. That post is about the books I want to re-read. So, I’ll probably draft this post tomorrow ready to go live on Tuesday. Then, I’ll have a short break until the end of the week. 

The final post landing this time next week is another Sunday Summary update. Stay tuned to find out if I stick with Alan Turing‘s biography, as well as which book I pick up next after The Anxious Generation. 

I hope you all have a fabulous week, whatever you have planned! Until next time, happy reading! 

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Sunday Summary – 29th June 2025

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I don’t quite know how, but we’re at the end of another week already! I hope you’ve had a good week and you’re ready for today’s Sunday Summary check-in. As always, I’m here to catch you up on the blog posts I’ve shared. Not only that, but I have four books I’ve read to update you on. finally, I share any I’ve added to my reading list this week. Make yourself comfortable, and then let’s get stuck in.

I had originally intended to share a review of Stolen Focus by Johann Hari midweek. Whilst I’ve made progress with drafting that review, I’m not yet happy with it. With this in mind, I decided to postpone publishing this post. When I get my review in a position where I’m happy to share it, it’ll go live then. 

Instead, my first post of the week went live on Friday. In my regular Shelf Control features, I look at upcoming books on my reading list and share them with you. I talk about why I’m excited to pick up those books, and often they get me hoped up to read them soon. This week’s feature is a mystery novel in which the book has an interesting psychological thriller storyline. If you have yet to read that post, here’s a handy link for you to take a look. 

 

Books Read

A Day of Fallen Night

Starting off this week with only four hours left of A Day of Fallen Night meant that I didn’t have long left in this audiobook. With the conclusion rapidly coming up, and some well-timed annual leave from work, I blitzed this final stretch.

I really enjoyed getting back into this series. It wasn’t that long ago that I read the first book of the series, The Priory of the Orange Tree. Picking up this next book within a few months of finishing the first book has been a godsend. With so much going on in the subtle hints and clues between storylines, it’s been really helpful to read these closer together to be able to pick up on and appreciate this detail. 

I enjoyed this prequel so much that I am now eagerly anticipating the next instalment of the series, due out later this year. As soon as that book is published, I’ll listen to the audiobook and get stuck back in.

 

Little Fires Everywhere

In last week’s Sunday Summary, I shared how I’d made light work of the first half of Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. That continued to be the case this week. Little Fires Everywhere is the first book I’ve read on my Kindle for a little while, and weirdly I enjoyed the experience. As much as I love physical books, the convenience of a Kindle can’t be downplayed.

I read and finished the second half of Little Fires Everywhere in rapid time. This was an interesting book to read and I enjoyed unravelling the characters’ backstories. Of course I was keen to figure out what was happening in the present day too. I’m looking forward to discussing this in our work book club next week.

 

Saint’s Blood

Given that I’ve been off work for a few days this week, I’ve leaned into audiobooks whilst crafting quite heavily. So much so, I have listened to the vast majority (est. 80%) of the next audiobook on my TBR. 

As of this Sunday Summary, I have just under four hours of Saint’s Blood. As I said to you and last week’s Sunday summary, with only four hours left and the end of the book rapidly approaching, I don’t think this will be long in finishing! 

Unlike A Day of Fallen Night, I’ve left it a considerable amount of time between listening to this audiobook compared to its prequel. To be more specific, I last picked up this series in June 2022 – three years ago!

That said, I haven’t found it too tricky getting into the story. I started the audio without a recap to see if events would naturally come back to me or be recapped within the story. Whilst there wasn’t too much of an info dump, I managed to pick up enough information that I’ve been able to carry on with the book without a recap. Would I have been better picking this up sooner? Absolutely yes. It’s not been a dealbreaker though.

 

The Anxious Generation 

The last book I’ve started this week is the final book on my June TBR, The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. 

Progress in this book hasn’t been so fast as the other books in this Sunday Summary update, but it’s been no less enjoyable.

It’s surprising really how many non-fiction books I now read, when you consider I barely picked up the genre even just a few years ago. In fact, it’s becoming one of my most read genres and that’s happened quite naturally. 

What helps in the case of The Anxious Generation specifically is that the book very much talks about people around or very close to my own age. I am someone who is not quite the subject of the book, but I have very close ties to it. I have no doubt that The Anxious Generation will continue to be an interesting read. It will also likely be a book I would recommend to all parents.

 

Books Discovered

This week has been a relatively quiet one. The good news is that I’ve managed to tick a couple of reads off the list and I’ve not added anything new. Yet… 😅 there’s still time!

 

Coming Up… 

The end of the month is back around again! So, next week I’ll be busy initially with sharing my monthly wrap-up post for June. In this monthly post, I recap the progress I’ve made against my TBR and give you a brief review of my thoughts on each of the books. I hope you can check-in with me for that post early next week.

Next, with a new month over the horizon, I’ll share which books I plan to read in July. We’re now officially into the second half of the year. It’s also the second month of the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge. The books on this TBR shouldn’t be a surprise, but I’ll be sharing what my reading priorities will be in the near future.

Finally, I’ll be back this time next week with another Sunday Summary instalment. If you want to catch up on the books I’m reading next week, that’s the post to check out. I don’t know how much reading I’m going to get done next week. We are stepping into a really busy period at work, but I’m determined to keep up pace with reading as much as I can! If nothing else, I’m setting myself the challenge of finishing Saint’s Blood.

What is your next upcoming read? 

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Shelf Control #92 – 27/06/2025

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What better way can I celebrate a fun Friday off work than with a Shelf Control post?! I mean, I could be reading the books on my reading list instead of talking about them, but there we are! It would help whittle the list down… 

Seriously though, I’m really happy to be back with my next Shelf Control instalment. In today’s post, I feature a psychological thriller novel I added to my TBR back in October 2019 – nearly six years ago. I even featured the books in a Top Ten Tuesday post geared around new releases I was excited for. If that doesn’t tell you how far behind I am, I don’t know what will. Even still, to date I’m excited to pick up this book. With a synopsis based on a psychology study, it’ll bring back the old days of taking psychology classes. 

Before I get ahead of myself, here is a recap of what the Shelf Control regular feature is about!

Shelf Control is a meme run by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies. It’s a celebration of the unread books on our shelves! The idea is to pick a book you own but haven’t read and write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up.

If you want to read more about the Shelf Control feature, check out Lisa’s introductory post.

 

An Anonymous Girl – Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Pages: 375

Audience: Adult

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

CPublication Date: 08 Jan 2019

Goodreads – An Anonymous Girl

 

Looking to earn some easy cash, Jessica Farris agrees to be a test subject in a psychological study about ethics and morality. But as the study moves from the exam room to the real world, the line between what is real and what is one of Dr. Shields’s experiments blurs.

Dr. Shields seems to know what Jess is thinking… and what she’s hiding.

Jessica’s behaviour will not only be monitored, but manipulated.

Caught in a web of attraction, deceit and jealousy, Jess quickly learns that some obsessions can be deadly.

From the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, An Anonymous Girl will keep you riveted through the last shocking twist.

 

My Thoughts

As somebody who enjoyed studying psychology at school, a book that plays on this subject and how people can be manipulated is naturally a topic of interest. It’s scary how easy the brain can be fooled. 

I’m also interested in the morality aspect of the storyline and how far it’s going to go. If you’ve ever done or taken part in a psychology experiment, you should know that those leading an experiment are not meant to do anything that can be seen as morally grey or worse. What exactly do the experiments entail, and what could they have in mind that could cross this line?

I’ve enjoyed picking up more mysteries this year. It’s a genre I go through spells where I’ll read more of it, and then less so. I’ve been enjoying getting back into this type of book. Picking them up for our work book club has been ideal. It’s a genre many people at my place like, so the club gets good engagement that way. This would actually be a good book to suggest to the group to read in future. 

Have you read An Anonymous Girl? Are there any other books you would recommend as great reads for book clubs? 

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Sunday Summary – 22nd June 2025

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It honestly feels like I’ve barely finished one Sunday Summary post before I’m starting the next. Where are the weeks going? 

Happy Sunday friends and welcome to my weekly catch up post! As always, in this Sunday Summary, I’ll recap the blog posts I’ve shared so far this week, then jump into my reading updates. 

My first blog post of the week was a Top Ten Tuesday post. I’ve shared a few books around this week’s theme in the past as it’s a quarterly re-occurring post. This week, it was time to share my top ten books on my summer TBR. As I’m taking part in the 20 Books of Summer Challenge, I decided to use this post to share which books I’ll be prioritising from that challenge after my June TBR.

On Friday, it was the return of my First Lines Friday feature. This week’s feature was a completely novel choice that I added to my reading list; normally I’m featuring one already on there. If you’re also looking for a quirky way to discover your next read, take a look at that post, as I share an interesting resource I stumbled upon via my local libraries website.

 

Books Read

 

All the Light We Cannot See

All The Light We Cannot See

This week, I read the final third of All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I was pleasantly surprised actually. Overall, I found myself reading this book in lots of short stints. The pacing of the book meant that I was picking it up and putting it down often, not reading very many pages in one go.

However, I got to a point in the book where I was determined to finish it, and so I did. I spent a couple of hours one evening this week and I read between 120-140 pages in one sitting. 

I enjoyed All the Light We Cannot See, but it didn’t wow me either. Based on the write up, I’d hoped that Marie-Laure and Werner spent more time together once they finally met. In the context of this 500 page story, they meet quite a long way down the line, and for what feels like a very brief period of time. I had high hopes for this book, and if I’m entirely honest, it didn’t quite live up to expectation. It is still a decent read – I rated the book 3 stars.

 

A Day of Fallen Night

In last week’s Sunday Summary post, I shared that I’d made only a little progress with A Day of Fallen Night. 

Compared to last week’s one and a half hours progress, I’ve made an additional five hours progress on top of that benchmark this week. If I had listened to this book just a little bit more throughout the course of the week, I could’ve been sharing a completion with you here. As it stands, I only have four hours of this audiobook left as of this Sunday Summary update. I may not be able to share a completion of this with you this week, but the six and a half hours I’ve listened to this week sets me up so I can share it with you next week! 

Events are now bringing characters together for the conclusion. I’m really interested to see how this book wraps up. If nothing else, that’s my motivator to pick up this book. 

 

Little Fires Everywhere

The final book to update you on in today’s Sunday Summary post is my current read, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. 

This is our work book club book. We’re next meeting at the beginning of July. I haven’t got the most time in the world to finish this book. Equally, I’ve read 45% in just the couple of days. Compared to All the Light We Cannot See, Little Fires Everywhere is progressing much quicker; the pacing of the book suits my reading preferences better. It’s a lot easier to sit and read in longer settings. I’m not worried about finishing it on time.

I’m starting to see where character conflicts are building. Do these explain the events at the very start of the book? Is it going to be as transparent as we think? I’m not so sure at the moment. I hope there is a bit of a mystery for me to unravel here. Hopefully, I’ll be talking more about that in next week’s Sunday Summary. Given how quickly I’m progressing with this book, I am optimistic for a completion very soon.

 

Books Discovered

If you read my First Lines Friday post (either on Friday or if you followed the link above) you’ll know that I added a book called The Great Passage to my TBR on Friday.

Books about books make for interesting reads. What also intrigues me is that the author and setting is based on Japanese language and culture. I read a lot more Westernised narratives but that’s something I’m looking to address. I’m intrigued as to whether that will be prevalent in the book and educate me on differences between my more familiar Western culture compared to Eastern. 

 

Coming Up… 

Given I have a number of book reviews to catch up with, I’ll tackle one of these early next week. The next book on my review list is Stolen Focus by Johann Hari. This was an interesting read; I’d recommend it to anyone who feels they struggle with their focus or attention span. It’s scary to realise what impact technology has had on our brains!

As I’ve just shared a First Lines Friday, that means this week’s Friday feature will be a Shelf Control post. I enjoy using this series as an opportunity to look forward to upcoming reads on my TBR. This week I’m featuring a psychological thriller with an element of mystery. I hope you can tune in to that upcoming post to see what it is. 

Finally, I’ll be back at the same time next week with another Sunday Summary catch up. Fingers crossed, I’ll have at least two completions in that post. We’re rapidly approaching the end of the month! I hope to get through my reading list before the start of July, so I’m making a push between now and then.

What book have you read recently that you would recommend to me? 

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First Lines Friday – 20/06/2025

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When looking up whether my local library had a copy of a book I wanted to read, I spotted an interesting resource that I used to choose today’s First Lines Friday feature. It came in good time too. Rather than featuring yet another book on my list or already read by me, I wanted to feature something different. Thankfully I didn’t restrict myself in last week’s Sunday Summary post so I was able to make the most of today’s discovery.

My local libraries’ website links to a site called WhichBook as a novel way of helping choose your next read. You can search by emotion, geographical locations, characters and plot types. When playing with the customisation of the searches I cam across today’s feature. If you are a fan of words and language as I am, you might appreciate today’s book! 

 

Kohei Araki had devoted his entire life—his entire working life—to dictionaries. Words fascinated him, always had. 

He had learned early on that dog contained other meanings besides the four-legged animal. Once when his father had taken him to the movies, a blood-spattered gangster, betrayed and dying on screen, spat out the words “Damn that dog!” So an enemy spy was a dog. The gang boss, upon receiving word of the gangster’s demise, jumped up and shouted, “What are you all standing around here for? Polish your daggers! Don’t let him die a dog’s death!” So the word could also mean “pointless.” 

Dogs were faithful partners—trustworthy, intelligent, endearing—yet dog could also refer to a traitor or a condition of meaninglessness. How strange! In his child’s mind he tried to work out how this could be. Faithfulness to the point of servility, devotion going pathetically unrewarded—all the more pathetic as it increased in intensity. Perhaps such canine traits were responsible for the negative associations attached to the word.

 

 

The Great Passage – Shion Miura

Genre: Historical Fiction 

Pages: 224

Audience: Adult

Publisher: Amazon Crossing

Publication Date: 01 Jun 2017

Goodreads – The Great Passage

 

An award-winning story of love, friendship, and the power of human connection.

Kohei Araki believes that a dictionary is a boat to carry us across the sea of words. But after thirty-seven years of creating dictionaries, it’s time for him to retire and find his replacement.

He discovers a kindred spirit in Mitsuya Majime—a young, disheveled square peg with a penchant for collecting antiquarian books and a background in linguistics—whom he swipes from his company’s sales department.

Along with an energetic, if reluctant, new recruit and an elder linguistics scholar, Majime is tasked with a career-defining accomplishment: completing The Great Passage, a comprehensive 2,900-page tome of the Japanese language. On his journey, Majime discovers friendship, romance, and an incredible dedication to his work, inspired by the words that connect us all.

 

My Thoughts…

The Great Passage appeals to me for several reasons. Firstly, I love language. Words and meanings and the play off of expressions to make different meanings interests me. Call me sad, or frankly whatever you like. I enjoy what I enjoy. 

However, as well as that, I’m intrigued by the books Japanese origins. The Great Passage is translated from Japanese originally and is written by an author who is just as passionate about language. Does this book indicate if there is a cultural difference in language, or are some things universal? That’s what I’m also curious to read about. 

I’ve regularly shared that I tend to read western books. I’ve more said this in the context of fantasy, but this is probably true across the board. Picking up The Great Passage would be a great way to lean into different histories and cultures and read a brand new narrative. 

I need to be careful – I almost sound like I’ve used this First Lines Friday post to talk myself into reading this book. Who am I kidding – of course it’s now on my TBR! Maybe WhichBook is just as dangerous for my reading list as it is good at being a useful tool for picking something in a different way.

Care – use with caution. My mum joked once that I’d make my out of this world suffocating under a pile of books. She probably isn’t wrong… 

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s slightly different First Lines Friday feature!

What are you reading this weekend? 

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Top Ten Tuesday – Books on my Summer 2025 TBR

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Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is Books on my Summer 2025 TBR. If you’ve already read my 20 Books of Summer Challenge post, you will know that I already have this summer’s reading list pretty much set.

For today’s post, my plan is to share the next ten books I’ll be prioritising from that challenge after my June TBR. 

Shall we see what’s coming up in the near future? 

 

Books on my Summer 2025 TBR

 

If We Were Villains

If We Were Villains has been on my TBR since July 2017. After a long time waiting on my bookshelf upstairs, I’m excited to be picking up this book shortly.

Having read and enjoyed dark academia books before, I’m even more excited for this read. Although I’m not a big fan of or well-versed in Shakespeare, I believe this book makes it approachable.

 

The Pagan Lord

I recently reviewed Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell, which is the prequel to this book. It’s been a couple of years since I delved into this Saxon Stories series. I’ve almost ashamed myself into picking up the next book, The Pagan Lord. 

At just over 300 pages, it’s a great book for this challenge, but also a good length to get me back into it without overwhelming myself. Fingers crossed it gets me back into the series and I can pick up pace with it. 

 

The Dragon Republic 

Reading series is a priority for me this year. Having just started The Poppy War, I am now looking to pick up the sequel, The Dragon Republic, whilst events are fresh in my mind.

I really enjoyed The Poppy War and the Eastern fantasy elements of the story. It’s also got me interested in reading the underlying story behind events. And that can (will) come later. First, The Dragon Republic will take centre stage. At over 600 pages, this is one of the chunkier reads among the books on my Summer 2025 TBR. That said, I’m excited to read it! 

Of all the books on my Summer 2025 TBR, this is the one I’m looking forward to most. I’m also surprised it’s the only pure fantasy book on this list. For my most-read genre, there is surprisingly little on this list. 

 

Eve 

I originally meant to pick up Eve months ago, but I didn’t get to completing the monthly TBR it was on. Now, in an effort to read more non-fiction, Eve makes a reappearance.

I love the idea behind this book and that it emphasises the role women had in human evolution. Although women’s history is often overlooked, we cannot deny that women have influenced human biology and how we have evolved in the last 200 million years. It’s a different take on women’s history, and I’m sure I have plenty to learn about my body that I currently don’t appreciate, but will after this book! 

 

Alan Turing: The Enigma

Another non-fiction read I added and will be reading shortly is about Alan Turing. You may recognise the name, but not be able to place him out of context. Alan Turing was the man who invented the computer that cracked the German Enigma code, or military cipher code, during World War II. I added this book to my reading list after watching The Imitation Game. 

I was horrified by the notes at the end of this film as to how Turing was treated despite his contribution to his country. Naturally, I now want to read more about him. So, you can be sure I’m looking forward to picking this biography up. 

 

The Burning Girls

It’s been a little while since I last picked up a book by C. J. Tudor. I’ve enjoyed her books to date, and I want to read The Burning Girls before I watch the TV series.

I’m pretty sure Mum has read this book. She’s read books by C.J. Tudor that I have on my TBR at the moment. I’m looking forward to continuing on with her writing. Not only that, but it’s been a little while since I picked something up like this. It will make a refreshing change of pace compared to other books on my Summer 2025 TBR.

 

Yellowface

Another R. F. Kuang book on this summer reading list is Yellowface. I’ve had a copy of this book for a few years now and it’s begging to be read. I’ve only read fantasy by R. F. Kuang so far. Something of a more contemporary nature will be an interesting experience. Will I enjoy this book as much as I have enjoyed her fantasy books? That remains to be seen. Am I looking forward to finding out? Yes! 

 

The Measure

It was the synopsis of The Measure that caught my attention. Imagine waking up to a box on your doorstep. The length of a piece of string within this box tells you how long you have to live. Is that a question you want to know the answer to? What are the consequences of that knowledge? 

If I’m right, that’s what’s explored in this book! I’m looking forward to picking this up at last. I reckon it’s going to make for an interesting read; it’s unlike anything else on my TBR right now. 

 

Sisters Under the Rising Sun

Over the years, I’ve come to love Heather Morris’ books. To date, I’ve listened to the audiobooks of her The Tattooist of Auschwitz trilogy. Next, I plan to read Sisters Under the Rising Sun in physical format! 

I want to read more of Heather Morris’ books anyway. However, Sisters Under the Rising Sun appeals all the more as it’s a historical fiction book leaning into the atrocities that shaped the inspiration for The Poppy War. I’ve already mentioned that I wanted to read up on the topic anyway; sticking with a familiar author to start my exploration of the topic seems a no-brainer… 

 

A Man Called Ove

Finally, the last book in this Top Ten Tuesday post I want to feature is a contemporary fiction book I want to read soon. A Man Called Ove is a book I added to my TBR comparatively recently — January this year. It came up as a suggestion to read by our work book club group. Whilst it wasn’t ultimately picked, it was a prompt for me to decide I wanted to read it in my own time. 

 

Summary

Thanks for reading today’s Top Ten Tuesday instalment and finding out which books on my Summer 2025 TBR are coming up next. Have you read any of the books I feature in today’s post? Are any of them on your reading list? 

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Sunday Summary – 15th June 2025

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Happy Father’s Day to the most amazing dad out there! I obviously couldn’t start this Sunday Summary post any other way. I’ve had a great time spending time today with my family… even if my day didn’t get off to the best of starts.

In today’s weekly update post, I’ll catch you up on the blog posts I’ve shared so far this week, as well as where I’m up to with reading progress. Make yourself comfortable and get a cuppa. When you’re ready, let’s dive in!

My first post of the week was a book review of The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb. In this post, I talk about why The Mad Ship was a great second instalment to this trilogy and why you should read it too.

On Friday, I featured my regular Shelf Control post and a mystery/thriller novel I’m keen to read. I’ve featured and read this author once before, and I added his debut book to my reading list to pick up next… 

 

Books Read

 

All the Light We Cannot See

All The Light We Cannot See

As of last week’s Sunday Summary update, I had read a little over 160 pages of All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

This week, I was secretly hoping to be sharing a completion of this book. That hasn’t quite happened, although I have managed to practically double my progress.

I’m now around two thirds of the way through this book, so I will be very surprised if I’m not sharing a completion with you next week. I’m still loving this book for all the reasons I stated in last week’s Sunday Summary. If there is an element of the story I’m not keen on, it’s that the chapters are not very long at all. It barely feels like we get into a character perspective before we jump to the next one. It’s not a dealbreaker though, so I am continuing with All the Light We Cannot See into next week. Fingers crossed for a completion in next week’s Sunday Summary update!

 

A Day of Fallen Night

Compared to recent progress with A Day of Fallen Night, I’ve made pretty poor progress with this audiobook this week.

Over the course of this week, I’ve only listened to a little over one and a half hours. Although I do listen to audio in the week, I would say the vast majority of audiobook progress usually happens at the weekend. This weekend has been a little bit special. Not only was I out of the house meeting family today for Father’s Day, but I was also out yesterday wedding dress shopping with my sister during th day and out at a show last night. It’s been a busy weekend, and I’ve been out of normal routine. Fingers crossed, I’ll get back on track next week.

 

Books Discovered

 

This week, I read a review for A Language of Dragons online. The idea of the books appeals to be on both counts – firstly, dragons. Enough said. But also, I have a bit of a nerdy interest in language and the origins of language. The synopsis of this book reminds me a little of Babel, so I reckon I’ll really enjoy this one! 

I also purchased a copy of a book written my the author and creator VirtualAstro, Adrian West. The show I went to last night was his The Night Sky Show. It was quite different to anything I’ve watched before. When I saw his book being sold in the foyer, it wasn’t a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’. Getting in there early meant I got a pre-signed copy instead of having to wait afterwards like most people…

 

Coming Up… 

This week I have a Top Ten Tuesday post lined up. I’ve recently shared my June TBR and my 20 Books of Summer Challenge. In this week’s post, I’ll be using the topic of books on my Summer TBR to share which books I’ll be prioritising after my June TBR. 

On Friday, I’m back with a First Lines Friday post. As usual, I’ll find an interesting introduction to share with you and then give you details on the book. I hope you can check in and take a look! 

Finally, this time next week I’m back with another Sunday Summary catch up. Will I finish All the Light We Cannot See and recover progress on A Day of Fallen Night? Find out in next week’s post! 

Until then, happy reading!

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Shelf Control #91 – 13/06/2025

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Happy Friday 13th friends! It’s the end of another working week for us 9-5 people. And, can I say, I’m ready for the weekend 🥳 It’s going to be a busy one, but I’m looking forward to it. But, for now though, we’re here to share my next Shelf Control feature. 

As always, before I get into featuring today’s chosen book, here’s a recap of what the Shelf Control is about.

Shelf Control is a meme run by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies. It’s a celebration of the unread books on our shelves! The idea is to pick a book you own but haven’t read and write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up.

If you want to read more about the Shelf Control feature, check out Lisa’s introductory post.

 

When You Disappeared – John Marrs 

 

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 349

Audience: Adult

Publisher:

Publication Date: 01 Jan 2013

 

Goodreads – When You Disappeared

When Catherine wakes up alone one morning, she thinks her husband has gone for a run before work. But Simon never makes it to the office. His running shoes are by the front door. Nothing is missing – except him.

Catherine knows Simon must be in trouble. He wouldn’t just leave her. He wouldn’t leave the children.

But Simon knows the truth – about why he left and what he’s done. He knows things about his marriage that it would kill Catherine to find out. The memories she holds onto are lies.

While Catherine faces a dark new reality at home, Simon’s halfway around the world, alive and thriving. He’s doing whatever it takes to stay one step ahead of the truth.

But he can’t hide forever, and when he reappears twenty-five years later, Catherine will finally learn who he is.

And wish she’d stayed in the dark.

 

My Thoughts

Not too long ago I enjoyed reading The Minders by John Marrs. It’s encouraged me to pick up more of his books. The synopsis of this book caught my attention even before reading The Minders. However, that has reinforced my want to pick up this book. I also want to pick it up because I’ve enjoyed a few mystery/thriller books so far this year. For a genre I enjoy, I feel like I went through a bit of a lull with reading these in favour of other genres. Naturally, I want to set this back aright. 

The synopsis has a good deal of mystery to draw us in before we even start reading. If The Minders is anything to go by, readers will be asking a lot more questions before we get answers. 

My only reservation about this book its that the first page of reviews on Goodreads are pretty polarised. Some love it, whilst others are not a fan. A couple of reading friends have picked this up and rated it 5 stars. May be I shouldn’t put too much stock in what others have rated it and just go for it myself. We’re all different. Of course I’ll give it a chance, and perhaps take it with a pinch of salt as it is John Marrs debut novel. It was originally titled “The Wronged Sons” when it was published in 2013. 

Thanks for checking out today’s Shelf Control post. Have you read When You Disappeared? 

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Book Review: The Mad Ship – Robin Hobb

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In today’s post, I review the second book of Robin Hobb’s The Liveship Trader series, The Mad Ship. If you haven’t caught yourself up with this series yet, I reviewed the first book of this trilogy, Ship of Magic, back in January. If you need to start back at the very beginning, my review of Assassin’s Apprentice is here. 

I really enjoyed this second instalment. Whilst it took me a little while to get into the story of Ship of Magic, I had no such trouble with The Mad Ship.

 

The Mad Ship – Robin Hobb  

Genre: Epic fantasy 

Pages: 906

Audience: Adult

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Publication Date: 04 Feb 2008

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

Goodreads – The Mad Ship

The Farseer trilogy continues the dramatic tale of piracy, serpents, love, and magic. The Vestrit family’s liveship, Vivacia, has been taken by the pirate king, Kennit. Held captive on board, Wintrow Vestrit finds himself competing with Kennit for Vivacia’s love as the ship slowly acquires her own bloodlust. Leagues away, Althea Vestrit has found a new home aboard the liveship Ophelia, but she lives only to reclaim Vivacia and with her friend, Brashen, she plans a dangerous rescue. Meanwhile, in Bingtown, the fading fortunes of the Vestrit family lead Malta deeper into the magical secrets of the Rain Wild Traders. And just outside Bingtown, Amber dreams of relaunching Paragon, the mad liveship …

 

My Thoughts

Plot

If there is one thing Robin Hobb can’t be accused of, it’s that her books lack in action. There is always so much going on in these books, but it’s cleverly written so we can follow events spread across multiple locations and characters. The narrative we experience in The Mad Ship spans a vast part of the world.

From political turmoil to a daring rescue attempt, The Mad Ship does not lack for events keeping us on our toes! Combined with the world-building and developing character arcs throughout the book, there isn’t a dull moment. Seemingly separate characters and events start to make connections in this book, but the full truth doesn’t truly get unveiled until Ship of Destiny. For the eager-minded trying to work out what’s happening before the revelation, you won’t be disappointed. 

For a book that is a dense 900 odd pages, I read it pretty quickly! I finished it in around two weeks, and made over 550 pages’ progress in one week alone. If that doesn’t sell how captivating I found the book, I don’t know what will… 

 

Setting

If you are a regular reader, you’ll know that I love world-building. The Mad Ship (and the rest of the Realm of the Elderlings series to date) allows for lots of this! Set across a huge fictional world spanning multiple continents and cultures, there is a lot to take in. From the current state of events to the history of the world, no detail is left untouched. Throughout the narrative, there is a wide variety of locations in play at any one time. It allows us to explore world lore and history in detail, and never get bored! 

Not only do we get the benefit of events being spread across multiple locations, but we get to enjoy these places from different perspectives too. Characters are very active in this book in moving around. Not only does that help keep the action flowing, but it gives us the chance to revisit places through fresh eyes. 

Plus, it wouldn’t feel right to have a book about sentient ships that don’t go anywhere… right? 

 

Characters

The titular ship, Paragon, is one of my favourites in the trilogy. He’s a complex and far from noble character. That’s what makes his story interesting. Most of the Liveships are loyal to their masters and are largely unremarkable. Vivacia is interesting for her recent sentience and the power struggle over bonding with her. Otherwise, though, the liveships are almost one and the same. Until we get to Paragon. The Mad Ship. The disowned ship, left abandoned on the shore and threatened with being broken up by its owner, the Ludlucks. 

Amber saves Paragon from this fate, and her attempts to bring him back to himself are admirable. Paragon is also childish, and in some ways reminded me of Malta’s petulance. However, Paragon is a far more complex character. The root cause of this doesn’t come out straight away, but it makes perfect sense and the mystery about him has us reading on. Until that revelation, Paragon is demonised as mad, having murdered his crew several times. 

There are characters I love in this series, and there is one I love to hate. It feels a little unfair to say because in book three, Malta’s character arc redeems her a lot. She grows, but not yet. In The Mad Ship, she is her usual petulant, selfish, and childish self. Although I loved the book in general, I found Malta’s chapters the hardest to read. They give a lot of information on current events, so they are worth it. But man, I’m sure I ground my teeth a lot enduring her chapters… 

The cast goes on! I could sit here and talk about each of the characters, but this would be a very long post. These two are the main standouts for me, but every character has a strong position in this world. Not with any character have I felt that their place was superfluous or not contributing to the narrative. 

 

Narrative Style 

Given there is so much going on with these books, it’s important to get the pacing right. Take events too quickly and you can lose readers. Take them too slowly and readers get bored. Although I would describe Robin Hobb’s pacing as slightly slower than average, I think this is needed to give readers the chance to absorb what is going on. Plus, this isn’t done at the expense of our interest. Like my recent read of The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang, there’s a benefit to slowing things down a little so we can appreciate the intricacies of the world created and what is going on. 

 

Summary 

The Mad Ship is a great second instalment to this three-part series. It’s also a very long book at over 900 pages. If you’re looking to cosy in with an epic fantasy trilogy this summer, I can guarantee this will not disappoint! 

Have you read The Mad Ship or any other books by Robin Hobb? My next read from the series is Golden Fool – what’s yours? 

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Sunday Summary – 8th June 2025

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I’ve enjoyed another long bank holiday weekend this weekend. I’m trying not to lament that I’m already at the end of it; instead, let’s make this Sunday Summary a positive celebration of what I’ve achieved this week! 

Over the course of this week, I’ve shared three posts with you so far. The first of these posts went live on Monday this week. Having just started the month of June, I shared my monthly wrap-up and a summary of the books I read last month.  

Next on the agenda, I shared a post mid-week talking about a reading challenge I’m taking part in this year. The 20 Books of Summer Challenge is hopefully going to help me catch up with my Goodreads reading challenge. I’m a couple of books behind but eager to get myself back on track. If you want to find out which books I’ll be reading over the next three months to help me get there, that’s the post to look at.

Finally, I shared my official June monthly TBR on Friday. There is a bit of repetition in that the books on my June TBR are included in the 20 Books of Summer Challenge. I’ve only officially set myself five books this month, but I am secretly hoping to complete this list and be able to read more books from that challenge before we get into July. 

 

Books Read

 

All the Light We Cannot See

All The Light We Cannot See

After I published last week’s Sunday Summary update, I started the historical fiction novel All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. 

It feels like it’s been a little while since I picked up a historical fiction. What I’m loving about this book so far is that it’s set around one of my favourite periods of history, World War II. Don’t ask me why, because it’s not the nicest period of history going. 

What’s refreshing is that a main perspective in this book is a child who has been blind since the age of six. In what must already be a disorienting setting, Marie-Laure (with assistance from her father) has to navigate rebuilding a life after fleeing Paris and the Germans. As you can probably expect, Marie-Laure‘s perspective is unique. It focuses on completely different senses. When we’re introduced in new settings, books normally relate what things look like. Instead, Marie-Laure is only able to share with us the sounds around her, or what something smells or feels like.

Over the course of this last week, I have read a little over 160 pages of All the Light We Cannot See. I’m looking forward to continuing with this book over the next week and I’ll let you know where I’m up to in next week’s Sunday Summary.

 

A Day of Fallen Night

In this Sunday Summary update, I have yet another good week of progress to share with you. In last week’s update I had listened to a little over 12 hours A Day of Fallen Night. Whilst progress this week isn’t quite so high, I’ve still listened to over 7 hours of audio this week. Overall, this puts me at 60% progress through the audiobook as of this Sunday Summary update. 

I feel like I’m really getting into A Day of Fallen Night now. Whilst I was enjoying the narrative before, it felt like there was quite a lot of set up happening. Now, I genuinely feel like I’m in the middle of the book and events are actually happening. Things are starting to go wrong for the main characters and there’s a bit of a scramble to try and resolve the situation. I have no problem with a lot of buildup, because you’re well know I enjoy my world-building. I’ve enjoyed seeing events start clicking into place.

If I can manage another week similar to last week’s progress, be telling you in next week’s Sunday Summary update that I’ve finished it. Is that achievable? Yes, at a push. Am I going to commit to that? Probably not. It’s hard to say. Once you get so far in an audiobook and get towards the end, it does inspire a little bit of a push to see how it ends. If I’m enjoying the narrative, I may yet surprise myself.

 

Books Discovered

I considered adding a book to my reading list this week, but I’ve behaved! The reading list remains at a steady 205 books as of this Sunday Summary update.

I won’t be bored anytime soon anyway… 

 

Coming Up… 

My first post of next week will be a book review. In that post, I feature the second book in Robin Hobb’s The Liveship Trader series. I reviewed the first book of this trilogy back in January this year, and it’s always a pleasure to feature this series on my blog. I hope you’re looking forward to hearing my thoughts on this book. It was a fabulous five-star read!

On Friday, I return with my Shelf Control regular feature post. I’ll feature the next book on my TBR and share why I am excited to pick it up.

Finally, this time next week, another Sunday Summary post will land on your digital doorstop. I hope you can join me for that and fingers crossed I’ll have some book completions to share with you! 

That’s all from me and today’s Sunday Summary update! I hope you’ve had a fabulous week and weekend and I look forward to catching up with you soon. 

Happy reading! 

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