Tag: non-fiction

Shelf Control #57 – 25/11/2022

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Here’s hoping you are having the happiest of Fridays, and that you’re excited about another Shelf Control post from yours truly.

Shelf Control is a regular feature on my blog. It’s a meme run by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies… 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.

This week’s feature is a little unusual; I have been inspired to pick it up based on a video game I played as a teenager.

 

The Templars – Dan Jones

Genre: Non-fiction

Pages: 448

Audience: Adult

Publisher: Viking 

Publication Date: 19 Sept 2017

 

 

Goodreads – The Templars

A faltering war in the middle east. A band of elite warriors determined to fight to the death to protect Christianity’s holiest sites. A global financial network unaccountable to any government. A sinister plot founded on a web of lies.

Jerusalem 1119. A small group of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade decides to set up a new order. These are the first Knights Templar, a band of elite warriors prepared to give their lives to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Over the next two hundred years, the Templars would become the most powerful religious order of the medieval world. Their legend has inspired fervent speculation ever since. 

In this groundbreaking narrative history, Dan Jones tells the true story of the Templars for the first time in a generation, drawing on extensive original sources to build a gripping account of these Christian holy warriors whose heroism and alleged depravity have been shrouded in myth. The Templars were protected by the pope and sworn to strict vows of celibacy. They fought the forces of Islam in hand-to-hand combat on the sun-baked hills where Jesus lived and died, finding their nemesis in Saladin, who vowed to drive all Christians from the lands of Islam. Experts at channeling money across borders, they established the medieval world’s largest and most innovative banking network and waged private wars against anyone who threatened their interests.

Then, as they faced setbacks at the hands of the ruthless Mamluk sultan Baybars and were forced to retreat to their stronghold in Cyprus, a vindictive and cash-strapped King of France set his sights on their fortune. His administrators quietly mounted a damning case against the Templars, built on deliberate lies and false testimony. Then on Friday October 13, 1307, hundreds of brothers were arrested, imprisoned and tortured, and the order was disbanded amid lurid accusations of sexual misconduct and heresy. They were tried by the Pope in secret proceedings and their last master was brutally tortured and burned at the stake. But were they heretics or victims of a ruthlessly repressive state? Dan Jones goes back to the sources tobring their dramatic tale, so relevant to our own times, in a book that is at once authoritative and compulsively readable.

 

My Thoughts

I will fully admit that today’s Shelf Control feature came on my radar as a result of playing the original Assassin’s Creed game. What could possibly have made it onto my list that’s related to this, I hear you ask. Well, I wanted to learn more about a prominent faction throughout the storyline – the Templars. I’m not going to go spoiling anything about the game, so don’t worry on that front. All I will say is that having played it for myself, I wanted to learn more about the history and setting of the story.

The great thing about this book is that I am already familiar with the author through TV. Not only does he make use of books and writing as part of his profession, but he’s also prominent on television as a broadcaster for historical documentaries. I am sure I’ve watched a number of documentaries in which he features, and I really enjoyed his narration style. I’m hoping this carries through into today’s book.

Another reason I’m looking forward to picking up this book is that it will expand my wider knowledge of history. As you know, I am keen to learn new things. I’m also trying to make more of an effort to read more non-fiction, so this ticks that box as well. This isn’t a period of history that I have ever looked at before. Religion isn’t particularly prominent in my reading either, so The Templars stands out for that reason too. I for one I’m looking forward to exploring both elements together through this book!

 

Have you been inspired to learn about something based on a game or hobby before? Let me know in the comments! 

 

 

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Sunday Summary – 20th November 2022

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Hello, hello – welcome to this week’s Sunday Summary update post. I hope you have had a fantastic week because I’m really excited to tell you about this week’s progress. Personally, it has been a good and productive one!

At the beginning of the week, I shared my review of Warrior of Mercia by MJ Porter. It was a pleasure to take part in this blog tour, as I have done so for the first two books of the series as well! This book lived up to every single one of my expectations. If there are further books in the series, I will be jumping on the bandwagon very quickly!

Later in the week, I shared a First Lines Friday post. I will hold my hands up here and say I made a bit of a boo-boo. I forgot to schedule this post in advance. The post was sat in my notes and ready to be edited and scheduled, but I just hadn’t done that bit. As a result, I shared it on Friday night after I’d noticed my error. Apologies if you were looking out for it earlier in the day.

 

Books Read

Babel

This week I made fantastic reading progress with Babel by R.F. Kuang. Ironically, I was partly motivated to read this book because I was excited to pick up my next read… one that I ended up DNF’ing quite quickly. More on that one in a moment. In my last Sunday Summary update, I was 172 pages into Babel. 

It was good to finally pick up Babel and stick with it. Because I have been juggling commitments with blog tours of late, I have been picking up and putting this book down quite a bit. Now that I had no further commitments, I was able to dedicate the due time and attention Babel deserved – and boy, did it deserve it! The fact that I read the remaining 370 odd pages in just a handful of days testifies how much I enjoyed this read. It is the kind of book that has you thinking about it even when you’re not actively reading it.

What I found refreshing about Babel is that it doesn’t read that strongly as a fiction novel. It is quite academic in tone. As someone who was interested in language and linguistics growing up, I enjoyed the little translation references dotted throughout. This book also has a reference to the Manx language in it, which surprised me! Even locally, it is only thought that about 2% of the population of the island is fluent in it. I know some passing phrases such as good morning (moghrey mie) and good evening (fastyr mie), but that’s about all.

 

Malice

Next, I picked up the book I have been really excited to read – Malice by John Gwynne. I have shared details about this book on my blog of late, particularly commenting on how long it has been on my reading list, and that it is probably the oldest book on my TBR.

Not anymore. I spent about three days struggling through the first 40 pages. When you compare that with my reading average earlier in the week of nearly 100 pages a day, that’s dreadful. The introduction to this book just didn’t grab me at all. When I first picked up this book many moons ago (before I started my blog), I only made it to chapter three. My perception can’t have been much better, because I put it down then as well.

I’m enjoying a really good reading streak at the moment, and I fear that if I try to struggle with Malice, I will lose it. Instead, I decided to DNF this book for good and swiftly moved on to the next (and last physical) book on my November reading list.

 

Dear Child

I started Dear Child quite late this morning, and I’m already 10% through the book. The introduction captured my attention immediately. I’m interested to learn about the dynamic of the characters and how events have come to pass to date. There’s not much to say about this particular book at this time, because I have only spent around 30 to 40 minutes reading it so far. I look forward to sharing a further update with you next week!

 

Books Discovered

Once again, no news is good news! With the reading progress I’ve made, I have effectively ticked a couple off of my reading list, and there are no new additions. The list is going in the right direction for once!

 

Coming Up…

Early next week, I have decided to share another book review with you. As I have quite a long list of books I have read, but not yet reviewed, I decided to knock one of those off the list. The book I am featuring next week is Red Rising by Pierce Brown. If you enjoy the science-fiction and/or dystopia genres, I strongly recommend checking out my review on Tuesday!

Later in the week, it is the turn of my Shelf Control regular feature post. This week’s feature is a bit of a funny one. I decided to add this book to my reading list as a result of playing the original Assassin’s Creed game as a teenager – I wanted to learn more about the facts behind some of the characters. If you are intrigued, then stick around and check out my post on Friday.

As always, I will be back next Sunday evening to share my reading progress with you in my next Sunday Summary post!

Until next time, have a wonderful week!

 

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Sunday Summary – 13th November 2022

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Good evening and welcome to another Sunday Summary update! This week I’ve been busy reading and preparing for yet another blog tour, at the same time as having a busy working week. I’ve also been fitting in more TV time than usual as I’m currently watching I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! I don’t normally tend to watch much television during the week, so I’ve had to make a conscious effort to fit this in. I didn’t watch the last two series set in the UK; I’m glad to see it finally back in Australia.

Aside from all that, I have shared my typical two blog posts with you this week.

On Tuesday, I decided to take part in the Top Ten Tuesday post of the week. For that post, we had the decision to feature our top ten books as part of a series we would like to begin, continue with, or finish. Given that I need absolutely no help in starting new series, I put the emphasis on those I would like to finish. The thought process here was that it will inspire me to pick up those that I am close to the end of. Therefore it would result in a reduction of my ‘ongoing list’. I feature some fantastic series in this post and already have some I’d like to read soon!

Later in the week, I shared my Shelf Control regular feature post. This month I seem to be featuring a lot of historical fiction novels, and this post is no exception. I will admit I made a bit of a gaff when I bought this book. I didn’t realise it was part of a series! That said, I’m still going to read the book anyway and I will base my decision of going backward based on whether I enjoy the last book or not! If you want to find out which book I’m talking about, you can find a link to that post above.

 

Books Read

In last week’s Sunday Summary post, I was up to page 154 of Babel by R.F. Kuang. I had to set the book aside the week prior in order to read another book ahead of a blog tour post. This week, I had a small window in which to make a little more progress, before I had to put this down once again for another commitment. On Sunday night I read another chapter of Babel, taking me up to chapter 10, 172 pages in.

My next commitment was reading Warrior of Mercia by M.J. Porter. If that name rings any bells with you, it may be because I read the first two books in her Eagle of Mercia series earlier this year. When I saw the advertisement for this tour, I knew I wanted to continue with the series and the unique perspective we get in these books.

And this book didn’t disappoint. The main character is unique in that he does not relish his role as a warrior. If given the choice, he is a man who chooses to heal rather than hurt. However, the progression we have seen in his books relates to his acknowledging that he has a part to play in both roles.

I’ve been reading Warrior of Mercia for most of this week, finishing the book last night. I enjoyed this every bit as much as I expected, and I can’t wait to share my imminent review with you!

I was hoping to have gone back to Babel again before the end of the week, however that hasn’t panned out. Now I have no more interruptions, so this will be my main read for next week. I’m keen to move on as I’m looking forward to picking up another book on my November TBR. I saw a TikTok video/review of this particular book yesterday. It suggests that Malice by John Gwynne is very like A Game of Thrones. It is also been on my reading list for a very long time, so I want to jump in and make a start. Rather than allowing myself to “pick up the two at once”, (I will not read both at the same time) I’m going to make myself finish Babel first.

What also hasn’t worked out this week is listening to more of Queen of Our Times by Robert Hardman. I’ve had the opportunity, I just haven’t taken it up. I need to make more of an effort to make this a habit, and that is my aim for next week.

 

Books Discovered

Would you believe I walked into a bookshop today and didn’t purchase anything for myself? I wish to be showered in praise for the mighty accomplishment of discipline. It’s not something I normally have.

Mostly when it comes to food, but also books!

 

Coming Up…

My first blog post next week is my blog tour review of Warrior of Mercia by M.J. Porter. Typically I will try and prepare my blog posts a week in advance. But for obvious reasons, I haven’t been able to do so completely. As my tour post goes live on Tuesday, I’ll be finishing this off on Monday night and getting this ready to go live!

Later in the week, I will be sharing another regular feature. This time, it is the turn of my First Lines Friday post. I have tried something different in terms of book selection this week, and I hope it pays off!

Lastly, I’ll be back again this time next week with another Sunday Summary update for you. As usual, I’ll be talking about the books I’ve read and any added to my reading list (although hopefully none). Lastly, I’ll share details of what posts you can expect on the blog next week.

Until next time, have a fabulous week ahead!

 

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Sunday Summary – 6th November 2022

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Good evening readers and welcome to another regular Sunday Summary update!

Last week’s Sunday Summary post was a bit of a boring one – I had very little to report. I’m pleased to say that I have plenty more reading progress to share with you this week. Before we get into that though, let’s recap the blog posts I shared with you earlier this week.

On Tuesday, I shared my Monthly Wrap-Up post for October. Overall, I made a decent amount of reading progress. My first read of the month was the particularly chunky Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb. From there, I went on to pick up another couple of books in the month. If you want to find out what I read throughout October, you can do so with a link to my wrap-up post above.

On Thursday, I shared my Monthly TBR for November. In addition to that list, I’ve carried over my current read of Babel by R. F. Kuang. It is not the smallest of reading lists, but when are they ever? I’ve already made a solid start, and you’ll see why in just a moment! Again, if you want to check out that post, there’s a link above.

The reason I had to get a wriggle on with my first read of November because I shared my review of that book in yesterday’s blog tour post. Having had a bit of a slow month last month, I think it helped to have a deadline to get my first book read and done. I can only hope it has set the pace for the month! If you are a fan of historical fiction, and in particular, authors like Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden, my blog tour review for Warrior and Protector is something you should check out!

 

Books Read

Babel

In last week’s Sunday Summary post, I shared measly reading progress of Babel by R. F. Kuang. I didn’t really define that progress in my post because I was a bit disappointed with it if I’m entirely honest. I decided to pick up the book again on Sunday night for one last push before I put the book aside to read Warrior and Protector. By the end of Sunday night, I was up to page 154. Over the course of the week, that was just 120 pages read. 

 

Warrior and Protector

From there, I moved on to Warrior and Protector by Peter Gibbons. As you now know, this was because I was sharing my review of the book for the blog tour yesterday. I really enjoyed this relatively short, palate-cleansing read. Historical fiction is a genre I go back to time and again. I have a love of the particular setting of this book from reading/watching The Last Kingdom and other books by other authors I have toured with. I signed up for the tour relatively last minute, to replace another blogger.

I’m really glad I stepped up for this one. I started this book at the beginning of the week and finished it early Friday night. At just over 300 pages, it is quite a short and fast-paced read – at least for me! The book was full of action and a lot more in the way of character development than you might expect from our main character, Beornoth. I enjoyed some of the overlaps and references to well-known characters of the period. It helped ground the story in a setting. I was already familiar with but offers a new and unique perspective.

Going forward, my intention is to pick up a Babel again for a couple more days before I set aside again for a second blog tour commitment. That tour is for a similar genre and book, so I want to pick up Babel again to give myself some separation between the two books. As at drafting this post, I am yet to do that, but my intention is to make some progress with it again tonight.

 

Queen of Our Times

I also have an audiobook update for you this week. It has been a little while since I put my headphones in, but today I started listening to Queen of Our Times by Robert Hardman. This book was originally on my October TBR. However, having had some issues with ordering a physical copy of the book, I canceled that order and instead downloaded the audiobook. Because I made this decision quite late on in the month, I didn’t get a chance to start listening to Queen of our times in October.

That is why I have added it to this month’s TBR. It also contributes to my goal of trying to read more non-fiction books. It is not very often that I read or listen to biographies. However, Queen Elizabeth II is such a poignant figure and I wanted to fill in the gaps in my knowledge about her and the Royal family.

This audiobook is 25 and a half hours long. It is not a small one by any means, but I have already chipped away at an hour and a half of listening time this morning. Now that I’ve started it, I’ll try and listen to a little bit of it every day, as much as I can. Even if it is just whilst commuting to and from work – it all adds up! Fingers crossed I’ll have another update on this in next week’s Sunday Summary! 

 

Books Discovered

I confess that I have added a book to my TBR this week, and it is all my sister’s boyfriend’s fault. I can totally blame him, right? It’s not my lack of control or anything…

On a serious note, he is currently reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. When I spoke to them both on FaceTime this week, he recommended the book to me as he was really enjoying it. Having looked into it for myself, I can see this is something that I would enjoy as well.

It is a chunk of a book though. At just over 1000 pages, it is not a light addition to my reading list!

 

Coming Up…

Next week, I am back to my usual three-post schedule.

The first of those posts will be a Top Ten Tuesday post. This week’s theme is about book series. As somebody who has a lot of ongoing series at the moment, I have decided to share my list of series I would like to finish. I don’t need to talk myself into starting any more; I do a good enough job of that already! If you want to check out just a handful of the series I would like to finish, check out my post on Tuesday. And, as an additional note, if you would like me to share a separate post confessing all the ongoing series I have so you can laugh at my expense, let me know! 

Later in the week, I am back with a Shelf Control post. The feature of next week’s Shelf Control post is ironically also a series – although I didn’t realise this at the time I purchased a copy. I decided that I will pick up this historical fiction book anyway, then decide if I want to go back to the beginning based on my experience of that book. This is a new-to-me author, but the setting is one that I have read before.

As always, I will be back at the same time next week with another Sunday Summary post to share my reading progress with you. As has been the case this week, I will have a deadline that I’m working towards next week. So, I should have plenty to share with you in that post.

Tonight, my plans are to pick up Babel again briefly, before watching the first episode of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here before bed.

What are your plans?

 

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Monthly TBR – November 2022

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It is the penultimate month of the year and I cannot believe we are here, sharing my monthly TBR for November already! The good news is, the reading pressure is off. I’ve officially met my reading goal of 40 books in 2022! I’m not overly interested in numbers or pushing this figure out as far as I can. Instead, I’m going to spend my time enjoying good-quality books.

For November, I have a couple of ‘fixed reads’ as I have signed up to a couple of blog tours. The remainder of my reading for the month is ‘mood reads’. 

Let’s jump into my monthly TBR for November!

 

Fixed Reads

Warrior and Protector

Goodreads – Warrior and Protector

My first read of the month is one that I’m going to have to get on pretty quickly, as I’m taking part in the upcoming blog tour on the 5th of November. I signed up for this tour relatively last minute to help out the organiser, Rachel, in a pinch. I really enjoy historical fiction novels of this kind and have read multiple this year already. With that in mind, taking on such a read at short notice is a pretty safe bet and I can’t wait to try out this new author.

my Blog Tours post needs to go live early in the month, it’s about time this month with your post is out, I should have read it (or nearly) already!

 

Warrior of Mercia

Goodreads – Warrior of Mercia

Along a similar theme, I am taking part in another blog tour later this month (15th November) for a similar book. This is not a new author to me, however; the book is the third in a series that I have already started and enjoyed this year.

One of the things I really like about this series is the unique perspective it offers in what is by no stretch of the imagination, a violent setting. Icel is a warrior, but not by choice. He is the kind of person who would rather heal rather than harm. However, he also has a sense of duty. These different aspects of him result in some internal conflict, and this is really interesting to read. I can’t wait to see how this comes into play in this third instalment of the series.

 

Mood Reads

Malice

Goodreads – Malice

Malice is the oldest book on my physical TBR to date, and it’s finally time I ticked this one off the list. I made a very cursory start to this book a good number of years ago, however, I never really got into it. That’s not to say I particularly tried, because I didn’t. It was at a time in my life (pre-blog) when I wasn’t reading much.

I have heard brilliant things about John Gwynne and this series. I cannot wait to give it a try and see if it lives up to the hype and expectations I have!

 

Dear Child

Goodreads – Dear Child

I featured Dear Child in my Top Ten Tuesday Halloween Recs post. I really like the sound of it and so I’ve decided to pick this up even though Halloween is now over.

It has been a little while since I last picked up a psychological thriller novel (that didn’t crossover with science-fiction, anyway) and I’m looking forward to getting back into the genre. It is one I enjoy, even though I don’t read it quite as much as I used to.

 

Queen of our Times

Goodreads – Queen of Our Times

I was originally supposed to read Queen of Our Times last month. I had ordered a copy of this book from Amazon for the occasion. However, their shipping has been absolutely terrible of late. Although they appear to offer free shipping for books over a certain value, in reality, they don’t seem to actually ship them out. Instead, they state that they are going to let you know when they’re going to ship it, but then don’t for a good length of time! In the end, I decided to cancel the order of this book, and instead, I got an audiobook version as an instant download.

I didn’t end up doing this until quite late on in October, so consequently, I haven’t started it yet! I’m looking forward to listening to this one. If I do enjoy it as much as I imagine, I may decide to try and pick up a physical copy again at a later date. But probably not from Amazon.

So, that concludes my Monthly TBR for November! Even though I have read 40 books this year (my target), I would like to keep up with the reading and most importantly, enjoying the experience!

What are you planning to read this month?

 

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Monthly Wrap-Up – October 2022

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I cannot believe I am writing my monthly wrap-up post for October. We are now most of the way through the year, and I have no idea where it’s gone!

The one good bit of news is that in October, I completed my Goodreads goal of reading 40 books this year. It was also quite a special one, as it was from an author and series I have both discovered this year and come to love fiercely!

Before I go ahead and spoil anything for you, let’s just dive into the books I read in October, and share with you my reading progress!

 

Assassin’s Quest

Usually, I start the month with any ‘fixed reads’ on my reading list. This month I decided to change things up and pick up Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb first.

I had originally wanted to pick this up in September, but there was absolutely no way I was going to fit it into my Bookoplathon TBR. I’m glad I didn’t even try, as this month I spent the majority of my time reading Assassin’s Quest. Whilst extremely good, Robin Hobb’s fantasy is not something you can pick up and devour quickly. There is a lot of detail, world-building and character development that intertwine and make for a world that requires investment. Equally, you want to savour every moment.

I started Assassin’s Quest very early in the month, but even so, I didn’t finish this until around about the 20th of the month. Even then, I only managed to achieve this feat by reading over 400 pages during a week off work. Without that, I would probably have taken the whole month to read the book, and that is no exaggeration!

I’m really happy with the way the storyline panned out, and how poor Fitz is struggling to find his place. The ending was absolutely fantastic and everything I hoped for. It makes me look forward to revisiting these characters and places later on in the Realm of the Elderlings series.

 

Blink of the Sun

If I’m entirely honest, I’m glad I didn’t start this month with my ‘fixed read’, as it ended up being a bit of a flop. It is not a promising start to reading list, so thankfully I avoided that by not picking it up first!

I was hoping Blink of the Sun would be a captivating urban fantasy that was right up my street (excuse the pun). It has a lot of good elements, but it just wasn’t quite doing it for me. I gave it a good chance, as I was intending to read this book and review it for the author and to give the book some publicity. As it stands, I have given some private feedback to the author via the site I downloaded it from (BookSirens), and I will not be sharing a public review.

 

Babel

Moving onwards and upwards, I next picked up Babel by R. F. Kuang.

I was hoping I was going to make faster reading progress that I did at the start. I can’t say whether it is because I needed to take the time to properly set up the book and characters in my head, or whether it is because I also happened to catch the winter lurgy at the same time and it affected my attention span. Probably a combination of both, in all honesty.

As of the end of the month, I made it to just over 100 pages through this novel. It is a decent amount of progress, but nothing groundbreaking. I am really enjoying the book and the more academic content. As somebody who considered pursuing a career in languages (albeit the English language), I am enjoying the arguments and commentary about how English interacts with other languages.

 

Warrior and Protector

The last book I picked up this month wasn’t on my TBR at the beginning of October. This is because I have stepped in to assist Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources a bit last minute with providing a review for an upcoming blog tour.

Unfortunately, it came to light that somebody who was due to take part in this tour originally was plagiarising other people’s reviews. Big no-no, obviously, so Rachel was looking for an alternative reviewer. As somebody who really enjoys this genre and setting, I was keen to help out in a time of need.

I started this book on the very last day of the month and read a third of it in two sittings over the course of the day. Compared to Babel, this is a much lighter read, and so progress is a lot swifter. What I like about this book, and the setting of the novel, is that I am familiar with it to an extent already. Some of the characters referred to in this book are key figures from that period of history. As a result, I’ve already come across them through other the books. The particular character we are living this narrative through, however, is a new one. That keeps the narrative fresh, even if the setting and theme are known to me.

I am enjoying this particular book and I can’t wait to share my full thoughts with you in my blog tour post on Saturday.

 

I’m resisting the urge to close this monthly wrap-up post saying I haven’t made as much progress as I would like. The truth is, I have read a solid number of pages this month. The books I have picked up are just, in their nature, more dense. They take more time to read. Page count is not the point. I read for the enjoyment of it, and I cannot say that I haven’t achieved that this month!

That’s all for me in today’s monthly wrap-up post. Have you read any of the books on my October TBR? What have you been reading this month?

 

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Sunday Summary – 9th October 2022

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Hello everybody and welcome to today’s Sunday Summary update post. I don’t know about you, but it is a very dreary evening here. It is the kind where you just want to snuggle in with blankets, candles and all the cosy things about you. I have done just that.

This week… has been a long week. I can’t say it particularly went to plan. In terms of my blog, this week’s posts went out as usual. On Monday, I shared my reading list for October 2022. This list is considerably more manageable than last month’s TBR! I’ve deliberately kept the number of books on the list towards the shorter end. Whilst I may be reading fewer books, the ones I am picking up are also on the chunky side! If you want to find out what I’m reading and haven’t taken a look at that post yet, there is a link above as always.

On Friday I shared a First Lines Friday post. In that post, I feature a book that I purchased a copy of originally… not realising it was part of a wider series. This particular book caught my mum‘s eye on my blog, and she has gone on to read some of these books even before I have touched any of them! She has really enjoyed them so far, and I can’t wait to try them for myself.

As for the rest of the week, well, it ended up being busy in every aspect that I didn’t expect. Long story short, I ended up doing overtime on a project for work. As a result, my usual blog post scheduling, and a lot of my reading, just didn’t happen. I’ll leave it at that. The good news is, we got the project done. However, I was working some fairly long days towards the end of this week.

 

Books Read

As of last week’s Sunday Summary update, I had just finished reading Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. That was the last book on my September TBR that I managed to pick up.

This week, I started my October TBR, but not with my one ‘fixed read’ of the month. I decided to pick up one of my mood reads. It was one that I had wanted to pick up sooner, however, I couldn’t justify picking it up in September as I had a large quantity of books to try and read. I have been really enjoying the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb, and so I have picked up Assassin’s Quest, the final book of that trilogy.

As I mentioned above, I ended up working a lot this week and so this limited the amount I was able to read. However, as of this Sunday Summary update, I am 183 pages into this 800-and-something epic. I am really enjoying where this book is going so far, and so I’m optimistic that I will be able to make a good amount of progress next week! I am very heavily invested already, meaning I want to pick it up at every opportunity I’m given!

One of my ongoing reads from my previous Sunday Summary post was Ordinary Heroes by Joseph Pfeifer. As of that last post, I only had 45 minutes of listening time left of my audiobook. I will admit that I only picked up and finished this audiobook this morning. However, I’m really glad I did. I have mentioned quite a few times that this is a really interesting book, albeit sad. I have really enjoyed this listen and I have learned things about the events of 9/11 that I didn’t know before. This book will work really well to read (in print or kindle) or as an audiobook. The narrative flows really well, and I think I would have flown through this in either case!

 

Books Discovered

I suppose I have technically added a book to my TBR this week, although it was always going to be on there. As I am enjoying my current read of Assassin’s Quest, I decided to pick up the next book in the Realm of the Elderlings series – the first book of The Liveship Traders series.

Ship of Magic is every bit as chunky as the rest of the series has proven to be so far. This excites me; this book/series shifts its focus from the main character we have seen so far, FitzChivalry Farseer, into the wider realm. It’s an opportunity for me to dig into world-building from a different perspective.

 

Coming Up…

Normally I would have next week’s post already lined up for you. However, this week I don’t as yet.

I have been trying to work out a plan of attack and I have decided that this week I will be reducing my posting schedule from three posts (Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday) to two posts. Instead, I am going to share my take of The Cozy Autumn Book Tag on Wednesday this week.

I’ve taken that decision because I am already going to have my usual full ‘blog workload’ in drafting and scheduling posts for the week after next. I didn’t want to put myself in a position where I effectively doubled my workload, at a time when I’m just recovering from having an increased workload! So, I hope the change of schedule and the slightly lighter topic isn’t too much bother for anybody, and I’ll be back to my usual posting days from the week after.

In addition to my post on Wednesday, I will of course be back for another Sunday Summary update at the end of the week. Naturally, I’m hoping for a lot more progress in terms of reading – but I will let you know next week’s Sunday Summary.

That’s all from me folks! There isn’t too much in the way of updates from me this week, but I hope you can understand why.

What have you been reading?

 

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Monthly TBR – October 2022

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Hello everyone and welcome to my monthly TBR for October! How are we in the final quarter of the year? Already, this year is absolutely flying by, and before we know it I’ll be talking about the books I read in 2022 in total! But, enough of that now. Today’s post is all about the books I intend to read during October. This month I am toning things back down and not taking part in any readathons. Instead, I have gone back to my previous model of setting a small number of fixed books to read in the month, but the rest being mood reads that I can chop and change at will.

So, let’s dive into my October TBR!

 

Fixed Reads

Blink of the Sun

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 488

Audience: Adult

Publisher: Lunar Triumvirate

Publication Date: 30 Jun 2022

 

 

Goodreads – Blink of the Sun

My one and only fixed record of the month is Blink of the Sun. I have agreed to review this book on BookSirens, and the review is due towards the end of this month. This particular fantasy caught my eye, and as I’m always trying to explore new authors (especially indie authors), I fancied giving it a go. I can’t wait to see you how it compares with a number of other fantasy books I’ve read, and what makes it stand out if anything.

 

Mood Reads

Assassin’s Quest

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 838

Audience: Adult

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Publication Date: 27 Mar 2014

 

 

Goodreads – Assassin’s Quest

I have been wanting to pick up this third book in the Farseer trilogy for the last couple of months. Unfortunately, there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to read this as part of a monthly TBR in September with the way Bookoplathon went. However, I have every intention to pick this up this month whilst the events of the first two books are fresh in my mind. I am also really enjoying this series, but I’m partly kicking myself that I didn’t try it earlier. Better late than never though, as they say.

 

Carrie

Genre: Horror

Pages: 322

Audience: Adult

Publisher: Anchor

Publication Date: 24 Jun 2008

 

 

Goodreads – Carrie

I didn’t get chance to read Carrie in September. This was a poll pick as part of Bookoplathon, but as it was one of the last rolls in the game, I just didn’t get to it. However, October is a perfect month to pick up a book like this! It would be rude not to have a Stephen King novel as a Halloween read, and whilst I already had this one on a TBR, I figured it made sense to carry it forward. This is a mood read, however, and I have plenty of other Stephen King books on my bookshelf. I could always change my mind and pick up The Shining, or Outsider, or even Sleeping Beauties if I fancy a change.

 

Babel

Genre: Fantasy / Dark Academia

Pages: 545

Audience: Adult

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Publication Date: 23 Aug 2022

 

 

Goodreads – Babel

I received my copy of this book just over a month ago now, and I have been looking forward to reading it ever since! I haven’t really read much in the way of dark academia to date, however, I feel like this is a perfect seasonal read. This book begins with a child in a plague-ridden house. A sinister setting if ever we saw one. From there the story really comes into its own. I’m also really interested to see the take on language and translation that is an integral part of the plot. I can be a little bit of a nerd when it comes to language… particularly English. This isn’t a usual plot device or theme of a book, so I want to see how this works.

 

Queen of Our Times

Genre: Non-fiction

Pages: 690

Audience: Adult

Publisher: Pegasus Books

Publication Date: 05 Apr 2022

 

 

Goodreads – Queen of Our Times

With the sad passing of Queen Elizabeth II last month, I have been inspired to pick up a book about her life. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that she reigned for over 70 years as the British monarch. Most people don’t work for that long in their lives. I have to say, when it comes to the British monarchy, I am fairly in the dark. I can’t say I know very much about it, and it is for this reason that I want to pick up Queen of Our Times. I want to fill that gap, and in reading this book, honour the woman who gave her life to her job, to her duty.

 

That is my monthly TBR for October 2022! Compared to last month, it is not remotely adventurous, but that’s a good thing! Last month’s reading list ended up being far too long, but that wasn’t really my fault. It was just bad luck. This month I’m aiming for a smaller list but with good quality books that I’m really going to enjoy.

Have you read any of the books on my October Monthly TBR? Have any of them caught your eye? Let’s have a chat in the comments! 

 

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Monthly Wrap-Up – September 2022

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Hello everyone and welcome to today’s monthly wrap-up post!

I typically post on a Friday, however, with that being the very last day of September, I decided to share this post today.

September’s TBR, which was put together as part of Bookoplathon, was ridiculous. I got really unlucky with my game and ended up with three more books to my TBR than I initially planned. If you want to check out what my full TBR was, and how the game was played, I’ve linked that post above.

I knew I wasn’t going to get through this TBR. Although I had tried to pick shorter books, there was still a lot on the list and if I’m honest, I felt over-faced before I even began. That said, I made a solid attempt without dropping everything else to do it. I made a good amount of progress, but I inevitably didn’t finish it.

Let’s take a look at the books I did manage to read in September! 

 

Books Read

Silverthorn

The first book of the month I read was Silverthorn by Raymond E. Feist. I have read the first book, Magician, twice. However, it has been some time since I picked up that first book – the latest being over five years ago!

Thankfully, there are enough reminders in Silverthorn for you to be able to pick it up. Quite conveniently, the edition of the book I have gives a very nice summary of what has happened before at the beginning. I was expecting to have to do some research online to catch myself up, however, this section did the job.

I really enjoyed the first book Magician, however, Silverthorn didn’t quite live up to my expectation. It was a perfectly adequate read, and it was nice to recap to some of the magical features and characters that I really enjoyed from the first book. However, it was just a little bit flat. I didn’t dislike it by any stretch of the imagination, however, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I was going to either. Being solid, three-star read – not the best start to Bookoplathon.

 

In Case You Missed It

In Case You Missed It was the one book on my TBR that I didn’t know what to expect from. It is not the kind of book I would have picked up of my own volition. I read this as my mum had accidentally purchased two copies of this book for herself, and she gave one to me as a recommendation because she really enjoys Lindsey Kelk books. I didn’t know what to expect, but I think I needed to change from my usual reading habits.

In Case You Missed It was a five-star read. I enjoyed that it was a light-hearted topic, and the humour in the narrative and between the characters is fantastic! This particular book was a pleasant surprise!

 

Treacle Walker

Treacle Walker was not on September’s TBR. It was a book that was introduced to me by the CEO of my employer, and he loaned me his copy to read. I know he was planning to loan it out again to others after me, so I wanted to read this quite quickly.

I already knew I wasn’t getting through my TBR at this point, so I decided to read it anyway. It is a very short read, so it didn’t take long in any case. It was trippy and a very strange narrative, but an enjoyable read.

 

Ordinary Heroes

I had been listening to Ordinary Heroes at the end of September – at the end of the month, I had just a couple of hours left. I wanted to pick this up as a non-fiction read (I’m trying to read at least one a month at the moment). It also conveniently fit one of my Bookoplathon prompts – the highest-rated book on my TBR.

I can see why! This is both an emotionally charged and informative read. I was only young when the twin towers fell, however, it is an event that unites the vast majority of people today.

It is often sad that people know where they were when it happened. It was obviously the most harrowing of events in modern history, and it was insightful to learn the perspective of the first fire chief on the scene. There are things I didn’t know about this book, that could be upsetting for someone to read, so I won’t mention them here. I’ll talk about them in my review of the book and fully disclose the topic in that post, so people can choose whether to read or not.

I’ve really enjoyed this listen so far. Despite the difficult topic, it is a book I would recommend anybody read or listen to. It is a nice short, one in any case, so definitely approachable for anyone to pick up!

 

Dark Matter

My last read of the month is Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Dark Matter is a science-fiction, thriller in which we very quickly are starting to doubt our perspective and our sense of belonging.

It is a fast-paced, read, and with its subject matter being very different from the other books on my TBR, this has been a hit! It has been a little while since I’ve read anything like a thriller, and its combination with science fiction has gelled really well.

As of the end of the month, I made it 73% through the book. According to the calculated reading time on my Kindle, I will only take about an hour to read what is left of the book. So, I nearly finished this in September, but not quite. Still, it won’t eat into too much time in October to finish.

 

DNF’d

Red Sister

Unfortunately, I DNF’d my second read of the month – Red Sister by Mark Lawrence.

It is disappointing really because I really enjoyed a previous series by Mark Lawrence as a teenager. However, this book just wasn’t doing it for me. I didn’t outright hate it, but it wasn’t really holding my attention either.

It took several days to make it to just a third of the way through the book, and I was bored. I had grappled with myself as to whether to DNF the book earlier, but I set myself a target to get a third of the way through before making a decision. Maybe I should have stuck with my gut because I didn’t end up carrying on anyway.

However, it can’t be said that I didn’t give it a good try.

 

So, those are the books I picked up in September. Have you read any of these books? Do any of them appeal to you?

 

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Sunday Summary – 11th September 2022

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Good evening everyone and welcome to another bookish update in today’s Sunday Summary post.

Earlier this week I shared a couple of blog posts with you. I started off the week with a Discussion Post on why reading diversity matters. I am always trying to branch out and read new things, but there are still plenty of books, authors, and topics that I am still yet to explore. In that post, I made a pledge that I am going to try and pick up more of these books in the future!

Later in the week, it was the turn of my regular Friday feature, Shelf Control. In that post, I talked about a book that has been on my reading list for a number of years. Having recently re-read the synopsis, it has reminded me just why I can’t wait to pick it up.

 

Books Read

As of last week’s Sunday Summary post, I was halfway through Silverthorn by Raymond E Feist. I enjoyed the book overall, but if I’m entirely honest, not as much as the first book. Whilst I could follow the events from the first book, Magician, it seemed to have a different feel about it. On the one hand, this was good because it was easy to pick up, but at the same time, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting either. In the end, I gave it a three-star rating.

Next, I started my current read, Red Sister by Mark Lawrence. I’ve had high hopes for Red Sister as I previously read and enjoyed The Broken Empire trilogy by the same author. 

If I’m honest, Red Sister hasn’t grabbed me as much as I hoped it would either. It’s a tough one. I don’t know if I’m going to carry on with it or not. It’s not that I hate it because I don’t. I don’t love it either though. I’m currently 20% of the way through Red Sister and I’m going to continue a little longer. If it still hasn’t grabbed me by about a third of the way through, then I will set it aside. There are still elements in the book to be explained that we haven’t come to yet. Maybe once I’ve got a bit more of the foundation down I will be able to get into it.

I’m going to pick up Red Sister after this post goes live with a view to getting to a third of the way through the book tonight. That way, I have decided whether I’ll carry on or not and that determines what my reading week looks like next week. I will let you know in next week’s Sunday Summary post how I get on.

I have officially decided to stop listening to The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn. I’ve just had enough of it and I’m not really inclined to finish it. So, I’m not going to force myself to. Instead, I might pick up another book on September‘s TBR in audio format instead.

 

Books Discovered

The CEO of the company I work for is as much an avid reader as I am. On Friday, he gave me a couple of reading recommendations.

The first of those recommendations is Treacle Walker by Alan Garner. This is quite a short book, and I like the sound of it based on what he told me of it. It is the first I had heard of this particular book, and given that I am trying to branch out with my reading, I have added this book to my reading list.

He also gave me a second recommendation, which is Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. When I read about this recommendation, I got really excited. It is set in one of my favourite periods of history, and the synopsis in my opinion is really interesting.

I can’t wait to pick this up and have a discussion with him about it!

 

Coming Up…

Next week, I plan to start the week by sharing a book review with you.

I’ve decided to share quite a topical review, particularly if you are a fan of George R.R. Martin and the A Song of Ice and Fire series (a.k.a. a Game of Thrones). You may or may not be familiar with the fact that the prequel show (House of the Dragon) is currently airing. This in fact covers some of the narrative and history of the Targaryen’s in his book, Fire and Blood. I read this book last year, and given its hot topic at the moment, I’ve decided to share my review on that.

I will be back on Friday with another regular feature post. Next week’s post will be a First Lines Friday, and I really like the sound of the book I have chosen. The opening lines set the book in motion immediately. I also read a book earlier this year in a similar setting and time period. It has also been all that I have a read number of books by, and enjoyed. I for one can’t wait to pick up his book myself– but if you’re interested to find out what that book is, don’t forget to check out my blog on Friday.

As always, You can find out all the latest updates in my Sunday Summary post next week.

For now, that’s all folks! What have you been reading?

 

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