Tag: Dune

Sunday Summary – 5th June 2022

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Good evening and welcome today’s Sunday Summary update post. Wherever you are and whatever you have been doing, I hope you’ve had a fabulous week doing it!

This week we have seen off one month and commenced another, and so naturally I have shared my Monthly Wrap-Up for May 2022, as well as my Monthly TBR for June. All in all, I’m really happy with my reading progress throughout May. I didn’t quite get to all the books on my TBR, but I have read a significant amount!

I’ve decided to take a slightly different approach to my June TBR. Whereas normally I set a longer list of fixed reads, with a couple of mood reads on the end, I’ve changed that up this month. I have been in a very changeable mood and have rewritten my TBR several times before posting it. Knowing that is how my mindset is working at the moment, I’ve decided to allow a lot more fluidity in my book choices this month.

If you want to find out my full thoughts on either my wrap-up or my TBR for June, you could find links to those posts above!

 

Books Read

I have had a fantastic reading week and I’m really pleased that something has clicked for me. Across a range of books, I’ve read 850 pages this week!

I started the week by continuing with my current read from last week’s Sunday Summary update, which was Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert. As of that update post, I had made a comfortable start of 73 pages with the book. I read the remaining 220 pages during the first half of this week. I didn’t quite finish the book in time for my monthly wrap-up post going live on Wednesday evening, but I was only 40 pages or so off! I finished it that night after FaceTiming my sister.

Next, I moved swiftly onto the first book on my June TBR, and the only fixed book I’ve set. I have been reading Wolf of Mercia by MJ Porter in time for a blog tour post that you will be seeing very soon. I wanted to make sure I started this in plenty of time to finish it and have my review ready, and I read this in its entirety this week. I must admit, I wasn’t expecting to read it this quickly, but I’m not complaining either!

I’ve really enjoyed going back to the series, having picked up from reading Son of Mercia, the first book in the series, earlier this year. There is a lot of character development that happens in and between the books of the series, and that’s one of the highlights for me. If you want to find out my thoughts on the book, keep an eye out on my blog next week for my full review!

The next book on my TBR has also been read in full this week; I finished reading this one this morning. I wasn’t sure what to expect with Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. I’ve had a bit of a rocky relationship with his books and his writing style.

I wanted to read this book because I had a physical copy that I purchased years ago, but I also wanted to give him one last chance. His retellings of Norse Mythology seemed like fairly safe ground, and that proved to be the case. Against expectations, I enjoyed this book. Not only did I really get on with the writing style, but I actually enjoyed the nature of it, and how it was a collection of many short stories. I’m not a mythology expert in the slightest, so it was nice to learn more about the Norse gods I have heard about.

As of writing this update post, I’m technically between books at the moment. However, I’ll be picking up Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb once this post goes live, so this is what I’ll be making progress on over the course of the next week.

 

Books Discovered

I proudly told my sister on Wednesday that I had resisted the temptation to go to our local Waterstones, and that I had been good. That was Wednesday. I caved today.

I wanted to go in and pick up a paperback copy of my now current read, Assassin’s Apprentice. I’ve seen a number of recommendations for this book and series, but perhaps the recommendation with more weight comes from my friend Rachael. She absolutely loves Robin Hobb and this series and I have every confidence that I’m going to as well.

Typically, I will purchase copies of books on my kindle in the first instance, but I will buy physical books if I really love the series or author. I’m confident this is going to be the case, so that’s why I went and bought myself a physical copy of this one.

I also purchased a second book whilst I was in there – Master of Sorrows by Justin Call. I have seen recommendations for this book by Ashleigh at A Frolic Through Fiction. Ashleigh has been reading the second book of the series recently, and she has spoken of the series very highly. For that reason, I’ve decided to give this one a go!

I have added one further book to my TBR this week at the recommendation of my sister’s boyfriend Chris. He recently picked up a copy of The Maidens by Alex Michaelides, as it is one of Waterstones book of the month picks. I read and really enjoyed another book by this author several years ago – The Silent Patient. I in turn recommended this one to Chris, as I read The Silent Patient in about 24 hours – it was that good!

 

Coming Up…

I’ve had a little bit of a debate as to what to post early next week on my blog. I have a review coming up shortly, so I want to keep the topic light. I don’t particularly like this week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme, so I will be making use of a book tag idea I’ve had banked for the occasion. I will be drafting a version of ‘The Last Book I… Book Tag’. I originally saw this over on Dini Panda Read’s blog, so I will be linking to that as the inspiration post and I will be answering the same questions in my post next week.

As I alluded to earlier, I will be taking part in a blog tour for Wolf of Mercia by MJ Porter on Friday next week. If you are a fan of historical fiction, or even if you just like the sound of a book set around the time when Vikings occupied Britain, this is something I recommend you check out! I would suggest similar books to these (as a reference point) are Bernard Cornwell‘s The Saxon Stories (aka The Last Kingdom). If you want to find out what my thoughts were on the first book of the series, Son of Mercia, here is the link so you can read up on it ahead of time.

And finally, I’ll be back with a Sunday Summary update at the usual time, in which I’ll share my reading progress with you and recap my week.

That’s all from me in today’s Sunday Summary update post. Now I’m off to pick up Assassin’s Apprentice. What have you been reading this week? Do you have any good book recommendations?

I look forward to seeing you in my next post!

 

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Monthly Wrap-Up – May 2022

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Welcome to today’s Monthly Wrap-Up for May 2022. Another month has just flown by, and it’s time to talk about the books I have read recently.

I set myself a TBR with slightly fewer books this month, purely because one of them was a large one. It’s also the read I enjoyed the most this month! If you’re interested to find out what that is, and you can check out what I’ve been reading below:-

 

Books Read

Crowfall

The beginning of this month I concluded a re-read of a trilogy that I dived back into this year. Around the end of February, I decided to pick up Blackwing by Ed McDonald as a means of escapism. I really loved picking that up again for the first time in several years, and at that point I committed to a full re-read. Given that I had not long finished my Harry Potter re-read, I had no other commitments in that sense. I read the second book of the trilogy, Ravencry, right at the end of April. I immediately picked up Crowfall as I was so invested, and nothing could hold me back!

I read Crowfall in just a handful of days… even quicker this time than the first (which took less than a week even then!) I’m glad I decided to pick up this series on a whim, and even more so that I have read the rest in quick succession. It really gave me the opportunity to delve a little bit deeper into the books. Even though I knew what was going to happen, I could appreciate the writing style and characterisation all the more!

 

The Duke & I

The next two books I read this month were almost read in tandem. I read approximately 70% of The Duke & I by Julia Quinn before going on holiday. I took my kindle with me, but I decided to pick up the physical book designated as my ‘holiday read’ whilst I was away and so The Duke & I was put slightly on the back burner. However, I picked this up again once I came back from holiday and finished the remainder of the book in one sitting.

The Duke & I is a bit of a strange choice for me. I picked it up because I’ve enjoyed the Bridgeton series on Netflix (against all odds). I knew I would go into this book and probably not love it, and I was right. I have niggles with it and I didn’t necessarily enjoy every aspect, but I didn’t hate it either. Obviously, I managed to finish the book, but I won’t be reading any more of the series either. I decided to read The Duke and I as a means of branching out and to explore whether my taste on the genre has changed. It hasn’t. The reading of it has served its purpose and I can say I’ve given it a go.

 

Empire of the Vampire

As I said in the above section, I ended up putting down The Duke & I to read my ‘holiday read’. Most people would probably go for something quite lighthearted and maybe even summery as a holiday read. I chose a big, thick Gothic fantasy. If that doesn’t tell you a lot about me, then I don’t know what does. I’m not normal to say the least!

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff was also a slight branching-out for me. I don’t normally read books based around vampires as characters. I don’t know why, it’s just not something I gravitate towards. However, my love of the Nevernight trilogy, also by Jay Kristoff, was the motivating factor behind me getting this book anyway. I trusted that even though it was out of my comfort zone a little, his writing was going to help me bridge the gap. I’m glad in my resounding faith, because it paid off entirely!

I didn’t read as much of this as I intended to on holiday. I was away with my family and I ended up spending more time generally socialising with them and enjoying other hobbies. I was one of the youngest people there but I’m sure plenty found it funny that I took my knitting on holiday with me. No shame. Anyway, I read around about 300 pages (40%) before returning from holiday and I read the rest of the book the week after (after finishing The Duke & I).

Empire of the Vampire was a resounding five star read, and I can safely say that it has been my favourite read of 2022 so far! Sometimes stretching out of your comfort zone really does pay off!

 

Dune Messiah

The last book I picked up this month was Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert. I was hoping to get this finished just before month end, however, I didn’t quite achieve that despite my best efforts. Dune Messiah may be short, but it’s not light reading either. I’m glad it’s not longer to be honest!

I managed to read 245 pages out of 292, so I’m very close to the end. I expect to finish this today (1st June). Although I will technically be reading a portion of it in June I’m not going to include it on my monthly TBR – it’s only 40 odd pages!

 

All in all, May has been a good month of reading. I’m glad I didn’t include quite so much on my list this month as Empire of the Vampire was a large read. I’m really happy with my reading progress and my motivation to pick up a book hasn’t been greater. I’m exactly where I want to be with my reading and I’m looking forward to picking up some fantastic books next month!

What have you been reading this month? Have you got any good book recommendations? As always, I’d love to hear from you!

 

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Sunday Summary – 23rd January 2022

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Good evening and welcome to my Sunday Summary update post to round off this week. As always, I hope you’ve had a great week?

I began this week by sharing a book tag post with you all. The Bookaholics Anonymous Book Tag was really fun to get involved in and to share my answers for. I like these posts because they’re quite casual, but also give you the chance to learn a little bit about me. If you haven’t checked out that post yet you can do so using the link above, and if you’d like to take part I’d love for you to link to me so I can see your answers!

My Friday feature post this week was a Shelf Control post. This week’s featured book is one from a genre I don’t read much of. That said, this author is also a bit of a go-to for me and I won’t hesitate to read any of his books even if they’re not normally my cup of tea. He’s a household name and I’m sure if you haven’t read the book yourself, you’ve probably watched a film based on it!

 

Books Read

I don’t know what happened this week, but the amount of reading I’ve done compared to recent weeks is off the charts!

As of last week’s Sunday Summary post I was just over 200 pages into Dune by Frank Herbert, which equates to 38%. I finished the book on Wednesday! I must’ve just hit a point in the narrative where it clicked for me. It was perhaps a little bit slow to start, or at least, there was a lot of groundwork needed before the action began. My progress up until this week was getting through that, but once the action started I was in and hooked! I enjoyed reading this book – it’s been on my shelf for five years nearly and I can finally tick it off the list!

In addition, I have been reading a further two books side-by-side this week. I started with reading The Original Folk and Fairytales of the Brother’s Grimm,  translated by Jack Zipes. This is a collection of the original versions of folk and fairytales collated by the brothers and published in 1812. Even from the few I’ve read so far, the tales have changed dramatically since they were originally published. The majority of these tales were previously passed down orally, which is apparent from the way they’ve been documented. Originally, the brothers aimed to maintain as much fidelity to the oral tales as possible. They lack polish, some of them are incomplete or have alternative endings and there are some significant changes from the fairytales we know today. I like how the book includes well-known fairytales, such as Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel, but equally, there are so many other stories that we don’t know. As of this update post, I’m 79 pages into this book.

I’m finding that it’s a book to pick up in short bursts, however. With that in mind, I have also started reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling. It’s nice to have a blend of short stories that I can pick up and put down very easily, and also a longer story that is easy to take in. This particular book is a re-read so I’m fully familiar with the story, but I’m still enjoying all the same! That is obvious by my progress; I’m 124 pages into this book already.

I have listened to a very small amount of A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin this week. It’s almost not worth mentioning because it’s probably only a couple of chapters, but it’s better than nothing right?!

 

Books Discovered

 

I’ve made two additions to my TBR list this week.

The first book I’ve added is The First Binding by R. R. Virdi. It is due to be published in August this year and I like the sound of the narrative based on the synopsis. To me, the narrative sounds like it could be very reminiscent of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Kingkiller Chronicles books. We shall see on that front, but I’m always open to new authors and this sounds like it could be a great fantasy series!

The second addition to my TBR is Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert, the sequel to Dune. There are quite a few books in the series and it’s one that I would like to continue with and chip away at over time.

 

Coming Up…

I have prepared a book review to share with you next week. I’ve been looking back through my list of books read and decided that I’m going to share a review of Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham. I don’t read much in the way of non-fiction, but I really liked how this book balanced the entertainment of reading element, but also managed to inform and educate me as a reader. I went into this book with very little knowledge of the disaster, but that didn’t matter. If you want to check out that post, that will be going live on Tuesday.

My regular Friday feature is a First Lines Friday post this week. For this post, I’m setting myself the challenge of featuring a book I read as a teenager in my pre-blog days. I’ve read so many great ones and there are several that I would like to go back to again. I feel like this post is probably going to encourage me to do this even more! You’ll have to check out my post on Friday to see which book I’ve chosen to feature.

And last but not least, I’ll be rounding off the week with another Sunday Summary update.

What have you been reading this week? Do you have any recommendations for me?

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Sunday Summary – 16th January 2022

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Good evening and welcome to this week’s Sunday Summary update post. As always, I hope you’ve had a fantastic week whatever you have been up to?

I have been keeping busy this week. I’ve been doing quite well in working towards getting blog posts written a little bit more in advance compared to last year. I have managed to get myself organised nicely so this will be continuing going forward. It’s a little bit more work in the short term, but in the long term, I will be drafting posts in the same kind of frequency, just a week in advance!

The post I shared at the beginning of this week was a book review for Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It’s one of those books that you start to review and honestly question whether you can do it justice! I enjoyed this book and I hope that comes across in my review; if there is anyone who dismisses reading classics because they read them at school or they think they’re boring and stuffy then I’d ask you to please give them a chance. Of all the books I’ve read, I would say Brave New World is a great one to try. It is easy to follow and it’s a relatively short read as well!

My Friday feature post this week was a First Lines Friday post. In that post, I set myself the challenge of featuring a non-fiction novel. This week’s excerpt is deliberately short because the scene depicted gets a little bit graphic after the opening paragraph. In the interest of not upsetting anyone I’ve excluded it, but the first paragraph gives you an idea of the content of the book. I am personally excited to read this one!

 

Books Read

As of last week‘s Sunday Summary update I was 62 pages into Dune by Frank Herbert. Dune has been my main area of progress this week, with a further 140 pages read.

I’m really enjoying the storyline, however in terms of what is going on and the writing style I find it quite dense. It’s the sort of book that is good to read, but is best picked up little and often. I usually find I get about 30 odd pages through before I have to put it down again to digest what I’ve read. It doesn’t detract from the story or anything at all; I am really enjoying it. I just can’t read it in large quantities! Having said that, the last time I picked up the book I think I managed to get around 40 or 50 pages through before I had to put it down. Maybe I’m getting used to it, or maybe it was just an exceptionally good part. I am looking forward to picking this up tonight once this post has gone live and continuing this over the next week!

As well as reading Dune, I’ve also been continuing to listen to A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin this week. I’ll hold my hands up and say that I haven’t listen to as much of this audiobook this week as I wanted to, or should have. That’s okay though! The important thing is to read and listen at a pace I’m happy with and what I have listened to has been really good.

 

Books Discovered

For the first time in a few weeks I can happily say that I haven’t added anything else to my reading list this week!

 

Coming Up…

Early next week I am sharing a book tag on my blog. It’s one that I saw completed by another blogger and I thought it would be fun to take part in! It’s been a little while since I’ve done anything like that. I really enjoy reading these posts because you get to learn a little bit about the person behind the blog. But also, they’re fun to write. This particular tag is called The Bookaholics Anonymous Book Tag and I hope you can check that out in the coming days.

My regular feature on Friday is going to be a Shelf Control post. This week’s featured book is a good one and slightly different from the usual content of my blog. There’s only one author I would read without hesitation who frequents the horror genre – Stephen King. I’m excited to be featuring one of his books later this week – but you’ll have to check my post out on Friday if you want to find out which book I’m talking about!

And as always, I’ll be rounding off the week with another Sunday Summary post.

Until then, I hope you have a great week! Are you currently reading or listening to any interesting books?

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Sunday Summary – 9th January 2022

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Good evening everyone and welcome to my weekly Sunday Summary update. It’s been a busy week since my last post! Not only have I been working towards my goal of preparing blog posts a little bit earlier, but I’ve also been reading a lot more than I have been for several months.

At the beginning of this week, I shared my Monthly TBR post. Yes, I’m back to sharing reading lists, but with a little more flexibility than before. Instead of giving myself a completely fixed list for the month, I’ve decided on a compromise and I’m only setting myself a couple of books on each TBR. That allows me some time and space to pick up any other book(s) I want to read once those are done. This way I think I get the best of both worlds. I get the structure of having a couple of fixed ones, but also the flexibility to be able to pick up anything on a whim!

Later in the week, I shared a Shelf Control post with you. This week’s featured book is one that I’m excited to pick up. From what my mum has told me this is the start of the series that my grandad used to enjoy reading. I’m looking forward to picking it up and seeing if we have a commonality in enjoying this particular series. And it sounds good and I trust his judgement so I’m sure I will!

 

Books Read

As of last week‘s Sunday Summary update post I was 75% through reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. I had every confidence that I was going to be telling you I had finished this book this week and I’m pleased to tell you that is the case! I finished this reasonably quickly after sharing my last update with you! The narrative has a lot of different elements and I loved how it brought them together. It was a real mix of genres and I enjoyed how they were blended together.

Next, I decided to pick up The Feedback Loop by Harmon Cooper. This particular book is only a couple of hundred pages long and I wanted to capitalise on my newfound motivation. I’m glad I made this decision because I managed to finish The Feedback Loop within a couple of evenings. It was really easy to read, full of action and there’s plenty of plotline to keep the reader invested for those couple of hundred pages. From my experience of the first book I’m not sure I’ll go on to read the rest of the series, but it was a perfectly adequate standalone novel to pick up for a quick read!

And then last, but not least, I have made a start reading Dune by Frank Herbert. Given that there’s been a film released recently I’ve seen a lot of people getting copies of this book or even reading it as well. I had actually intended to read this earlier, but last year was a bit of a strange one for me and I didn’t have motivation to pick it up in earnest. However, that is not the case now! I’m currently 62 pages in so I’ve made a solid start. I’ve gotten further than I ever have before into giving this ago and I can’t wait to see how the plot unfolds. It seems like it’s an interesting science-fiction that’s going to have an underpinning element of politics between the characters. I i’ve really enjoyed these kind of elements in previous books (Game of Thrones being the obvious example) and so I can’t wait to see how this works within a science fiction!

Speaking of A Game of Thrones, I have also been listening to my audiobook, A Storm of Swords, as well. One of my plans to help get through this particular audiobook was to listen to it (at least) during my morning and evening commute to work. I didn’t quite do that every day, however I did it for most and I also managed to sneak in an extra hour or two here and there throughout the week. I’m pleased with how far I am through at the moment and I think I’m on track to be close to finishing this by the end of the month.

 

Books Discovered

I added a good few books to my TBR recently. In last week’s Sunday Summary update I shared a fair old list. Whilst I would love to say that I haven’t added any more because frankly I already have enough, I’d be lying. I decided to go for a look in our local Waterstones on Friday (as I had some vouchers that were obviously burning a hole in my pocket), and well, you probably know what’s coming. I bought myself a couple. Shock!

Now technically, only one of the books I bought is a new addition to my TBR. After the release of Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff, I promptly added this to my list to be read. I have really come to love he’s never night series and I knew straightaway that I wanted to pick this up. Having seen a gorgeous hardcover copy in Waterstones, I had to. I just had to!

The second book I purchased is Starsight by Brandon Sanderson. It’s the second book of the Skyward series; I already have the first book upstairs. Brandon Sanderson is a go-to author for me. I absolutely love his works and the variety between them and so this was a no-brainer to pick up. I was, however, surprised to see that although I had a copy of Skyward upstairs already, I hadn’t added this first book to my TBR. A slight oversight on my part, but now both Skyward and Starsight are safely on the list to be read.

At some point.

 

Coming Up…

Early next week I will be sharing a book review with you all! It has been about a month since my last one and so I felt it time to start sharing them again. If I’m going to be reading more than before I’m going to have to step up the number of reviews I’m sharing. I also have a bit of a backlog, so you can expect to see more of these soon. For this week’s feature, I am sharing my thoughts on Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I really enjoyed reading this classic novel and given that it’s a reasonably short one I think it’s a great one for anyone to pick up.

Later in the week I’ll be back with a First Lines Friday feature. Whilst I haven’t christened the particular book I’m going to be featuring yet (and I will be deciding and preparing this post imminently) I have decided that I’m going to set myself a challenge of featuring a non-fiction book. I hope you can join me on Friday to check out what this week’s featured book is!

And as always, I’ll be rounding off the week with another Sunday Summary update and sharing with you all my reading news.

 

Until then, I hope you have a great week! Are you currently reading or listening to any interesting books?

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Reading List – September 2020

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I can’t believe it’s September. Where has this year gone?

Given the current circumstances I don’t suppose it’s a bad thing that this year is flying, but still… shortly we’ll be 75% through with 2020 and it doesn’t feel like it should be at all!

Regardless, it is the beginning of a new month, and you know what that means. It’s time to share my TBR for the month ahead. This month’s list features a couple of books that I am reading for blog tours. Another is a request from the author and the rest are all from my TBR and contribute towards my Beat the Backlist challenge I set earlier this year. 8 months ago.

Again, where has this year gone? That barely felt like five minutes ago!

Anyway, shall we check out the books on this month’s reading list?

 

Freedom of the Creed – N. J. Coleridge

Goodreads – Freedom of the Creed

The Woe-Be-Gone boys, a vicious gang of outlaws rushes south through the American frontier, leaving desolation in their wake.

On their trail is Saoirse Creed, a bounty hunter with a debt to pay. Her only chance to pay that debt rides with the gang, but what depths will she sink to achieve her goal.

Now, as she tracks them down to a town on the precipice of despair, Saoirse must overcome the final hurdle in order to capture her man and return to a life that she thought was all but lost.

 

I am reading this particular book for an upcoming blog tour. The first thing that caught my attention when reading the synopsis is the chase through the desert. Might sound daft, but that combined with the western vibe reminds me of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. If you’ve read the book I think you’ll get it.

I haven’t read anything like this in a little while so I’m looking forward to it!

 

The Rue Stone –Janet Stock

Goodreads – The Rue Stone

The rue is a mysterious and rare being who is rarely seen, so Janna is amazed when one arrives at the inn where she works, looking for a room. The next morning, her life changed forever, she is left wondering whether she will ever see him again. Only time and the rue stone have the answer.

 

The Rue Stone is a fantasy novella that I’m squeezing into my blog tour schedule. It’s only around 80 pages, so a nice short read. I’ve enjoyed picking up some shorter books lately and I’m sure this will be no exception. Janet has published four books to date but this will be the first time I have tried anything of hers. Novellas are a great way to try a new author and I’m looking forward to giving this a go. The synopsis doesn’t give much away, so I’m intrigued to find out what happens!

 

 

Rags of Time – Michael Ward

Goodreads – Rags of Time

London.1639.

Thomas Tallant, a young and ambitious Spice Merchant, returns from India to find his city in turmoil.

A bitter struggle is brewing between King Charles I and Parliament, as England slides into civil war. The capital is simmering with dissent. The conflict is ready to boil over.

But Thomas soon has other troubles to contend with. A wealthy merchant, Sir Joseph Venell, is savagely killed; then his partner Sir Hugh Swofford plunges to his death, in the Tallant household.

Suspicion falls on Thomas, who is sucked into a mire of treachery and rumour within the City of London. As the merchant struggles to clear his name, he becomes captivated by the enigmatic Elizabeth Seymour, whose passion for astronomy and mathematics is matched only by her addiction to the gaming tables.

Pursued by the authorities, Thomas races to unmask the real killer who claims a third victim to implicate him further, toying with his future in a deadly cat and mouse game.

In a desperate race against time, Elizabeth applies her powers of logic and deduction to unearth the clues that will point to the killer, but her way is barred by a secret message from the grave.

Can she crack its code before Thomas, now a wounded and exhausted fugitive, succumbs to the chase?

And, if she succeeds, has Thomas the strength to face his tormentor and win his life and reputation back?

Rags of Time is the first book in an engaging and entertaining new historical crime series, set during the upheaval of the 17th Century.

 

Despite not really taking on many ARC’s at the moment, I’m glad the author Michael Ward contacted me to ask for a review of Rags of Time. It’s a historical/crime fiction novel which is right up my street! It’s not too long a novel either, so should fit perfectly into this month’s TBR with my other reads. It’ll also be nice to have a bit more variety in genre as there’s a high proportion of fantasy in this month’s list.

 

The Psychology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained – Various authors

Goodreads – The Psychology Book

Clearly explaining more than 100 groundbreaking ideas in the field, The Psychology Book uses accessible text and easy-to-follow graphics and illustrations to explain the complex theoretical and experimental foundations of psychology.

From its philosophical roots through behaviorism, psychotherapy, and developmental psychology, The Psychology Book looks at all the greats from Pavlov and Skinner to Freud and Jung, and is an essential reference for students and anyone with an interest in how the mind works.

 

Regular readers of my blog will have picked up on the fact that I’m a huge psychology fan. I studied it back in school and loved the lessons since I had a great teacher. I added this book to my TBR a good few years ago as a refresher to some of the things I have learnt already. I’m hoping there are also some new and different things in there as well though.

I have picked up this book before so I have an idea of its formatting. Its chapters are quite short and there is a new one for each ‘idea’. This will be a good book to pick up here and there as these chapters are very short and digestible.

 

Dune – Frank Herbert

Goodreads – Dune

Before The Matrix, before Star Wars, before Ender’s Game and Neuromancer, there was Dune: winner of the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards, and widely considered one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written.

Melange, or ‘spice’, is the most valuable – and rarest – element in the universe; a drug that does everything from increasing a person’s life-span to making intersteller travel possible. And it can only be found on a single planet: the inhospitable desert world Arrakis.

Whoever controls Arrakis controls the spice. And whoever controls the spice controls the universe.

When the Emperor transfers stewardship of Arrakis from the noble House Harkonnen to House Atreides, the Harkonnens fight back, murdering Duke Leto Atreides. Paul, his son, and Lady Jessica, his concubine, flee into the desert. On the point of death, they are rescued by a band for Fremen, the native people of Arrakis, who control Arrakis’ second great resource: the giant worms that burrow beneath the burning desert sands.

In order to avenge his father and retake Arrakis from the Harkonnens, Paul must earn the trust of the Fremen and lead a tiny army against the innumerable forces aligned against them.

And his journey will change the universe.

 

It’s only taken me three and a half years since being gifted my copy of this book to get around to reading it…

I’m finally going to read an iconic sci-fi novel and I can’t wait to see if I agree with all the reviews. I have actually picked it up and flicked through the first few pages before now. I think I must have been bored one day and needed a change of genre. I’ve only really read enough to sample it so I know I like the writing style. It’s the longest book on this month’s list at just over 500 pages. Fingers crossed it lives up to its reputation as a brilliant book.

 

Red Sister – Mark Lawrence

Goodreads – Red Sister

I was born for killing – the gods made me to ruin.

At the Convent of Sweet Mercy young girls are raised to be killers. In a few the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices’ skills to deadly effect: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist.

But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder: guilty of worse.

Stolen from the shadow of the noose, Nona is sought by powerful enemies, and for good reason. Despite the security and isolation of the convent her secret and violent past will find her out. Beneath a dying sun that shines upon a crumbling empire, Nona Grey must come to terms with her demons and learn to become a deadly assassin if she is to survive…

 

I couldn’t tell you how old I was when I last picked up a book by Mark Lawrence. I’d quite safely bet that I was a teenager, but that’s as specific as I could guess.

The only series of his I have read to date is The Broken Empire series; I loved it! I’m surprised it has taken me so long to read another of his books. Red Sister has been on my TBR since April 2017 and it’s one of the books on my Beat the Backlist challenge. I’m not sure if I’ll get to finish this one before the end of the month, but I’ll try my best!

So, that’s my reading list for September! Have you read any of these books? What are you reading?

 

 

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