Tag: Isabella Steele

Sunday Summary – 3rd December 2023

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Good evening readers – I hope you’ve had a great week? I’ve enjoyed a nice week off work, and I’ve been using it to relax, get ready for Christmas… and read! Shall we dive into today’s Sunday Summary update?

On the blogging front, I shared a review of Ashes of Guilt by Isabella Steele on Wednesday. I needed to review the book before the end of the month, and so I shared my thoughts ahead of that time. If you enjoy short, compulsive thrillers, then I think you will enjoy this recent release.

On Friday, I shared my monthly wrap-up post for all the reading progress I made in November. I had a great reading month, completing my Goodreads challenge for the year and reading a wide variety of books in the process. If you missed that recap and would like to check it out, there’s a link above for you to do so.

 

Books Read

 

Ashes of Guilt

As of last week’s Sunday summary post, I was 66% into Ashes of Guilt. As you’ve probably gathered, finishing this book was my priority for the week as I wanted to review the book on Wednesday.

If you want to check out my full thoughts on the book, then I’d recommend you go and visit my full review. In summary, Ashes of Guilt is a fast-paced thriller where not all is as it seems. The small-town setting adds to the sinister setting and plot. It’s an enjoyable read and would make a great palette cleanser or speed read for anyone looking for something different.

 

The Minders

Although I didn’t finish this audiobook in November (or indeed, I haven’t yet finished it as of this Sunday Summary, either), but I have made a further three hours progress this week.

Overall, this brings me to about 50% of the way through the book. I’m intrigued by the narrative and how the story is going to unfold. The Minders is a conspiracy thriller, so naturally, we don’t fully understand what is going on. I’m intrigued by the set up so far and I’m excited to make further progress with this audio.

Although I’m less than habit of listening to audiobooks when I’m back in my normal routine, I am going to be trying to fit this in more. I can’t think of a better audiobook to encourage me to do so!

 

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

The last book I’ve made progress with this week is a mood read I picked up after watching the film at the cinema. I took the opportunity to do that whilst I was off work this week and it has been a while! Whilst I can’t say the seats have gotten any comfier, I did enjoy the experience and the storyline of this particular book/film.

Having just DNF’d another book on my TBR (more below), I decided to pick this up instead.

I’ve been threatening to read this book since watching the hunger games films on TV. Whilst I didn’t realise whilst they were showing at the time, it is now clear why they were on! I’ve just expedited picking this book up, and I have no regrets!

As of this Sunday Summary post, I am 36%, or 12 chapters through the e-book.

 

Books DNF’d

 

The Witches: Salem, 1692 – A History

I picked up The Witches earlier this week, and it was a quick and decisive flop. I talk more about why I didn’t get on with the book in my monthly wrap-up post, but in short, I didn’t get on with the writing style.

 

Books Discovered

All is quiet on the TBR front this week with no new additions to note.

 

Coming Up…

The first post I intend to share next week will be my final TBR of the year. I may have beaten my official Goodreads challenge goal, but I am unofficially pushing to complete a minimum of five books in December to get a completion total over 60. If I can achieve more than that, then great, but we’ll see! Find out which books I’ll be reading to get me there on Tuesday.

Friday’s post needs to be a relatively easy one, as I need to get it prepared ahead of schedule. Thankfully, this week’s regular feature is a Shelf Control post. If you are excited to see which book I feature from my TBR, then check out my blog on Friday.

Lastly, I’ll be back at the same time next week with another Sunday Summary update post. As always, I hope you can join me to find out what I’ve been reading over the last week.

Until next time, happy reading!

 

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Monthly Wrap-Up – November 2023

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Happy first of December folks and welcome to my monthly wrap-up post for November! Before that, are your Christmas decorations up yet? I confess I put up my tree and some outside lights today. The rest is to follow tomorrow.

I usually put mine up the first weekend of December. However, as I have been on leave from work this week, I decided to make my life a little bit easier tomorrow and do some of the bigger jobs. Although I say that, the outside lights only took me 10 minutes as I packed them in the same way I strung them up last year – I just had to clip it all back in place!

Anyway, let’s stop talking about the c-word and start talking about the books I read in November. I had a great month of reading! I’ve also varied how I split my reading this month, making the list more manageable. Shall we get into my monthly wrap-up post and take a look at what I picked up?

 

Books Read

 

The Shining

At the start of November, I left off from my last monthly wrap-up having only read 30 pages of The Shining. I’d wanted to read the book around Halloween, but it transpired that I only started the book that night.

So, I read the vast majority of this nearly 500 page book in November. Whilst the timing didn’t quite pan out as expected, it didn’t hamper my enjoyment of the book at all. On the contrary, this book was everything I have come to expect from Stephen King. Although I am not a big reader of horror in general, I will always make an effort to pick up his books.

The Shining is a classic novel, and I’m glad I finally got around to it! It was every bit as good as I expected it to be, and I can’t wait to read more of his classics in future.

 

The Vikings in the Isle of Man

It feels like many moons ago, although in reality it is not, that I featured my Norsevember post. As part of my research for that post, I read a couple of books around Vikings and their presents in the Irish Sea, including and surrounding the Isle of Man. I read the majority of The Vikings in the Isle of Man in November. I had to prioritise reading this at the beginning of the month, so I technically completed this book before The Shining.

The Vikings in the Isle of Man was an informative read and touched upon topics and themes I had also read in Vikings of the Irish Sea. It’s quite a niche topic if we’re being honest. It is only because it relates closely to home that I wanted to pick it up and share a little bit of knowledge. I appreciate it’s not going to be everybody’s cup of tea, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

 

Lost Solace

Lost Solace has been on my reading list for quite some time. I’ve attempted to get round to the book for the last two or three months as well, and failed. That is, I’m pleased to say in this monthly wrap-up, until this month. At the beginning of November, I told myself that this month was the month I was going to pick it up. I’m glad I did!

If you enjoy science-fiction, and want a relatively short but action-packed novel, this would be perfect for you. Having read some related books by Karl Drinkwater before (Tales of Lost Solace), some of the characters were already familiar to me. I don’t think that specifically contributed to my enjoying the book anymore, but it was nice to go in with a degree of familiarity.

I won’t be leaving it so long to continue with this series!

 

November TBR Jar – The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz

Historical, whether fiction or non-fiction, is a genre I will enjoy going back to time and again. When I pulled The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz out of my TBR jar at the end of October, I was excited! Although a morbid subject, I have enjoyed multiple books that centre around characters and experiences around the concentration camps in World War II. Heather Morris’ books, The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’s Journey, are great examples.

Every bit is harrowing,The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz is a true story of a son who could not bear to be separated from his father, and opted to go to Auschwitz with him. They had already spent a good deal of time in captivity before they were transferred to the infamous camp. Shockingly, the treatment there is not the worst they received. Towards the end of the book, I was just begging that the both of them survived. They had already been through so much.

Well researched and written, this is one of the easiest non-fiction books I have picked up in terms of readability this year.

 

Ashes of Guilt

One of the last books I picked up to physically read in November was Ashes of Guilt by Isabella Steele. I had downloaded a copy of this book through Reidy discovery in order to provide a review by the end of the month. If you haven’t yet checked out that post, you can see my thoughts from Wednesday’s review here.

Ashes of Guilt is another relatively short, but equally compulsive, read. The synopsis was a great hook into the narrative, but quickly we worked through that and found ourselves in uncharted territory.

This is the kind of book that would be a great palette cleanser, or if someone wants to dip that to a genre for a reasonably short time before moving onto something else. I read Ashes of Guilt in just a handful of days. At 222 pages, it has to be one of the shortest books I’ve read this year.

 

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

For the first time in months, I have a mood read to share with you in this November monthly wrap-up. You’ll see why below.

Picking up The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is absolutely because I went to watch the film on Tuesday. It’s been a long time since I went to the cinema and I had a great time watching this film. After spending over 2 and a half hours in a cinema seat, I can remember why it’s not a regular occurrence… But I had a good time nonetheless.

I’ve been threatening to pick up this book since I started re-watching the hunger games films. After watching and loving the film, I literally couldn’t wait. Often, films deviate from content in the books, and I was curious to see what extent this does. As of this post, I am just over a quarter of the way through The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and there isn’t too much variation, which is good!

 

Audiobooks

 

October TBR Jar – The Flood

Carried over from October’s monthly wrap-up post, I still had half of the audiobook of the flood to listen to this month.

I was a little late starting this considering I had already made progress with the book. I only really made progress in the last week of November. That’s because I’m not very good at listening to audiobooks in and around my normal routine. I started listening to The Flood when I was on leave from work last month. This week I have been on leave again (using the last of my holiday, can you tell?). Because I’ve been out of routine again, I’ve been able to make time to listen to the audio.

Overall, I had a good experience with The Flood. I strongly recommend listening to this book as the audio went along way towards my enjoyment of it. I didn’t anticipate the ending and I enjoyed seeing the mystery on full to reveal the truth right at the end.

 

Insta Poll Pick – The Minders

Given I had quite the number of books on this reading list, I decided to pick up the audiobook copy of The Minders. This book won my Instagram poll that I posted at the end of October. I was lucky in that I didn’t already have a copy of the book, so I had my pick of the format I went with.

This book would be great in any format, although I am again enjoying the audio. The book is told through multiple perspectives and these are told through two narrators.

As of this monthly wrap-up post, I am about halfway through The Minders. I still have just over 5 1/2 hours left of listening time, and I hope that time that I start to get some explanations as to what is going on. If you are unfamiliar with the book, it is kind of a conspiracy thriller. I’m deliberately not meant to know too much about what is going on, and I am hooked to find out how the plot evolves and ultimately resolves itself.

As experiences go, this is the first time I have picked up a John Marrs book and I doubt it will be the last!

 

Books DNF’d

 

The Witches – Salem, 1692: A History

We have a rare feature in today’s monthly wrap-up post – a DNF. It was quite a decisive one at that too. I ultimately made it through 30 pages of The Witches before I threw in the towel.

The writing style at the beginning was fine. The opening chapter is an introduction to events as they happened, including the numbers of people who died as a result of the witch trials, and a summary of the evidence available to the author, when putting together the book. In short, not much. It was the next chapter that threw me off completely.

I cannot help but feel that in the absence of tangible information, the author, then decided to fill in the gaps with pure fantasy and presented as. For example, the scene describes how two women flew on broomsticks to a given meeting location. This may be what they have been accused of, but presenting it as fact really didn’t sit well with me. It felt like filler and already had me questioning the information I’d been told.

The book is a reasonably lengthy one for a non-fiction, and I’ve already made my mind up at the 30 page mark that I wasn’t a fan. Had I struggled on, I wouldn’t of enjoyed the experience and could well have put myself in a readings lump because I didn’t want to pick it up. Frankly, life is too short… and my reading list is too long. So, onwards we go. Now you know why I picked up The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes instead – the timing of this DNF coincided with me watching the film!

 

Summary

In all, I had a great month. I picked up some varied and interesting reads. That was one miss two, but I didn’t let myself dwell on that one for too long!

In addition to reading some great books, I also met my Goodreads reading challenge of completing 50 books this year very early this month, which is cause for a pat on the back. Last year I read 47 books, so to be going into December having read 55 already is a great achievement. Am I unofficially pushing for 60 by the end of the year? Absolutely!

Here’s hoping for some great reads to get me there. If you’re keen to find out which books I will be picking up in December, I will be sharing my reading list early next week. Stay tuned!

Until then, happy reading!

 

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Sunday Summary – 26th November 2023

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Happy Sunday night (if ever there is such a thing?) and welcome to this week’s Sunday Summary instalment. I’ve had a productive week of reading and listening to audiobooks, which I’ll get onto below!

Firstly, I like to take the opportunity to share the blog posts I’ve already prepared and published this week. My first post of the week was a book review of The Appeal by Janice Hallett. If you enjoy complex mysteries where you need to read between the lines, multi-perspectives and/or mixed media books, then I strongly suggest you check it out!

This week’s Friday feature was a Well, I Didn’t Know That! post. In that post, I revived a habit of listening to podcasts and featured Philippa Gregory’s Normal Women podcast. Philippa is publishing a book with the same name in February next year. If you want some insight into one of the topics of the podcast, or more generally, check out that post!

 

Books Read

 

The Boy Who Followed His Father to Auschwitz

In my last Sunday Summary update, I had about 100 pages left of this historical non-fiction book. That’s where I began reading this week.

The Boy Who Followed His Father to Auschwitz is every bit as good as I thought it would be! Although the tales of this book are harrowing, the narrative is intriguing and I was rooting for Fritz and his father Gustav to make it out the other side.

Although I have read multiple books in the genre, every time it shocks me how brutally mistreated people like Fritz and Gustav were. The book is a great (and well-researched account) of life in multiple concentration camps throughout the Second World War. Although a difficult subject, the book is compulsively readable as the writing and level of investment in the characters was great.

 

Ashes of Guilt

The next physical read I picked up this week, and is my current read as of this Sunday Summary, is Ashes of Guilt by Isabella Steele. I am reading this to review it before the end of the month. Needless to say, I am making all haste with this book!

As of today’s Sunday Summary post, I am exactly two thirds, or 66%, through the narrative. As a relatively short thriller, it is a very fast-paced read. Already, we have worked our way through the points in the synopsis, making me wonder what twists and turns I can expect later in the narrative. It’s a bit quicker-paced than I am used to, but I’m getting on with it reasonably well regardless. I’m looking to finish Ashes of Guilt in the next day or so, so watch this space for my thoughts.

 

The Flood

I finally pulled my finger out and finished The Flood by Rachel Bennett this week. If you’ve been reading my blogs, you’ll know that I’ve been chipping away at this audio for a little while. Back in 2019, I added The Flood to my reading list as the author is currently living locally. I wanted to pick up the book and support her. I pulled this book out of the TBR Jar last month to read. 

Overall, I enjoyed The Flood. Part of the reason it took me so long is that I’m not in the habit of listening to audiobooks that much. The vast majority of my reading is done either through physical books or e-books on my Kindle. I do enjoy audio though, and the narration of this book went a long way towards my enjoyment of it. The story is well told, and I enjoyed how the two timelines ultimately come together to give us the full picture at the end.

 

The Minders

Having finally finished The Flood, I moved on to my next audiobook whilst I was in full flow. The Minders is my first ever book by John Marrs. Although I’ve only listened to around an hour and a half of this audio as of this Sunday Summary post, I can say the experience so far is a good one.

I’m intrigued by the narrative and how the story is going to play out. As I’m not that far in, I haven’t got any ideas as to where the story is going to go. I’m looking forward to finding out though!

I’m going to try and keep up the momentum and continue listening to The Minders. Naturally, I want to try to finish the audiobook as close to the end of the month as I can. Fortunately, I have time off work next week, so I have every opportunity to listen to this audio. Let’s see how far I can get in the next week!

 

Books Discovered

There are no new books added to my reading list. Currently, the list sits at 199 still to work my way through. Just a few, eh?

Having floated at just over 200 for some time, I can thank the reading progress I’ve made this week in tipping this under. Let’s hope it stays that way!

 

Coming Up…

On Wednesday, I plan to share my review of Ashes of Guilt. The book launches on Thursday so I want to get it out there ahead of publication and hopefully build some excitement!

On Friday I’ll be parking the regular Friday feature in favour of my month-end review post for November. As always, I’ll be recapping my reading month and sharing all the books I’ve picked up in the prior 30 days.

Finally, I’ll be rounding up the week with a Sunday Summary post. Fingers crossed for a week just as productive as this one!

Have you read any of the books I featured today?

 

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Monthly TBR – November 2023

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Good evening readers – I hope you are having a lovely weekend? I’m looking forward to sharing all my upcoming reads for the month, and today is the day I share my monthly TBR!

The list looks larger than usual, as it is inflated by a couple of carryover reads from October, together with the fact that the average book length for this month is slightly lower.

I have around 2400 pages to read over the course of the month, which is about average. This doesn’t include my audiobooks for this month, of which I have about 16.5 hours listening time. That averages to just over half an hour a day, which is more than achievable!

Shall we get into my monthly TBR and discuss specifics of the books I’m reading in November?

 

Fixed Reads

 

October Carryover – The Shining

I picked up The Shining, the last book on my October TBR, on Halloween. I was hoping to be a little bit further into the book by that point, but still reading it for the spooky season. As it happens, I only read about 40 pages… But it is a start and I’ll take it.

As of this monthly TBR I am a more modest 180 pages, or roughly 40%, through the book. There was never really any doubt, but I am enjoying this story and the setting so far. Although I’ve been making my way through The Dark Tower series, it’s been a little while since I picked up a pure horror by Stephen King.

I’m looking forward to making further progress in the book and seeing how events unfold. There has been a lot of set up for what may happen later in the book; I’m keen to see if they play out as I hope they do!

 

October TBR Jar Carryover – The Flood

Throughout the latter half of October I started listening to The Flood by Rachel Bennett. Rachel is, I believe, resident on the island, and so I picked up this book to support a local author.

As I mentioned in my monthly wrap-up post for October, I am getting on well with this audiobook. I’m curious as to the history of some of the characters and how future events will unravel. There is definitely far more going on from the ‘historic’ timeline than we readers are aware of yet. I’m interested to see what bearing this has on the modern day aspect of the narrative.

 

Norsevember – Vikings in the Isle of Man

Norsevember is a reading event hosted by Blogs and Spells. Over the course of November, he and other creators feature all things Norse, from books to mythology. I have the pleasure of taking part this year and sharing a feature post on how the Norse touched the little island I live on.

I have already read one book that will contribute to my feature post next week, but I am going to be reading Vikings in the Isle of Man to supplement my knowledge ahead of this post. It’s also another great way to be able to support the event.

It’s only a short non-fiction at 140 pages, but I’m looking forward to picking it up!

 

Ashes of Guilt

I found Ashes of Guilt on Discovery as available to read and to provide a review for. I really like the sound of the premise for this book, so I’ve decided to give it a go! It’s a small-town mystery/thriller novel in which the main character has a shady childhood past; only, it may be that not all is as it seemed back then…

Ashes of Guilt is my only review obligation for November, which makes a nice change from the three I had to do last month! I shouldn’t complain, I sign myself up for these things. So, if there’s anyone to blame, I should just go look in the mirror…

 

November TBR Jar – The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz

Every month, I randomly pick a book out of my TBR Jar. November is no exception. Yesterday, I shared my pick on Instagram. If you’ve seen that already, then you know I drew out The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz.

I’m actually glad this book made it to November’s monthly TBR. I really love books around World War II and in particular Auschwitz. You can call me morbid if you want. I just find it a really interesting subject. What makes the pick even better is that it is a non-fiction novel. With the end of the year fast approaching, I am trying my best to meet my target of picking up more than 15 non-fiction books by the end of the year.

As of this post, I have read 12. Incidentally, I have three non-fiction books on this reading list (last one below), meaning that I have every chance of hitting that goal! Considering I was behind in my mid-year review post, that’s quite a turnaround. 

The fact that this book came out makes it even easier for me. I should, in theory, only have to read one in December to exceed my >15 goal. 

 

November Instagram Poll Pick – The Minders

In addition to the TBR Jar, I’ve taken to posting a poll on Instagram and getting my followers to vote between two books, the winner being the one I read next.

For the poll just gone, the books my followers had to choose from were My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult, or The Minders by John Marrs. The Minders won by quite the majority, and I’m glad it did! I have a few books by John Marrs on the reading list at this point, so I’m excited to be getting around to one of his at least! It’s also more fitting for the season. The Minders is a mystery/thriller novel with hints at government conspiracy in the synopsis. I hope you are as intrigued as I am, because I’m looking forward to telling you about it.

I have obtained a copy of The Minders via audiobook. I quite enjoyed the sample and honestly, I already had quite a lot of books on this reading list in either physical or e-book format. I needed another audio!

 

Mood Reads

The Witches – Salem, 1692: A History

The first of my mood reads in today’s monthly TBR is also the third non-fiction I mentioned above. I have had my copy of The Witches for about a year now. I have gone to pick it up before, but I was a little bit intimidated by the page count and the text size – it’s tiny!

This normally doesn’t bother me, but I looked at it before experimentally when I was looking for a change in read, and ideally something quite quick. That wouldn’t have been the case, so I didn’t pick up.

I am interested in the subject matter though, so I’m looking forward to getting around to it at last!

 

Lost Solace

A relatively quick read, and a change up in genre, is Lost Solace by Karl Drinkwater. I have had a copy of this book for the longest time to read. It’s also supposed to have been on the last three or four months TBR’s, but I just couldn’t fit it in.

Karl’s Lost Solace series in itself will be new to me, but I have read several short stories set in the same universe. I have really enjoyed those stories, so I’m looking forward to giving this mean series for dry.

It’s also been a little while since I read a science fiction novel. What do you believe, the last time I picked up the genre was when I read Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson back at the end of July! I certainly never intended to leave it that long. Then again, picking up Lost Solace has moved to or three times.

 

Incendium

The last book I would like to pick up in November is Incendium. It feels like the perfect month to pick this book up, as the plot sounds like it is very reminiscent of the gunpowder plot… which was foiled in November 1605.

I would’ve liked to pick up the book a little earlier in the month to coincide with bonfire night. However, it’s more important that I focus on my obligations, and so I will have to settle for reading it in the same month!

 

Summary

That’s a lot of books that I’m hoping to pick up in November, but honestly, I think it’s doable. Given that I am prone to reading 600-900 page books, and all of these on my list fall under that, there is absolutely no reason this is unachievable!

Thanks for reading today’s Monthly TBR post!

Have you read any of the books on my November reading list? Do you like the sound of them?

 

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