Tag: Romy Hausmann

Sunday Summary – 27th November 2022

Good evening and welcome to my regular weekly update post, otherwise known as the Sunday Summary! It’s my opportunity to recap what I have shared on my blog throughout the week, as well as the books I’ve been reading. Later on in the post, you can also find out what I will be sharing on my blog in the next week – so stay tuned in for that!

But first, let’s recap the week just gone. My first blog post of the week was a review of Red Rising by Pierce Brown. I really enjoyed this science-fiction/dystopian fiction novel. It is the first book of the series, which I started this year.

Red Rising was a massive hit, as you will see in that review. I have already read the second book of the series and that one didn’t quite live up to expectations. Pierce Brown set the bar really high with Red Rising… maybe a bit too high? I’m going to continue with the series, but if you want to see where it all starts, I strongly recommend you check out my review.

On Friday I shared a Shelf Control post. Shelf Control is a roughly fortnightly feature on my blog. It is an opportunity to take a look at books I added to my TBR in the past and make sure they are still relevant to my current reading taste. Sharing why I’m excited about these books makes for great blog material. Who knows, maybe I can just make you a little bit excited about it too?

This week, I featured a non-fiction novel that I added to my TBR in 2017, having played the original Assassin’s Creed game. That probably sounds like a very bizarre introduction to the book, but the book itself is about a faction that plays a significant role in the storyline. It is a time and place in history I have never explored before, and I’m keen to find out more!

 

Books Read

Dear Child

In last week’s Sunday Summary post, I left off having read 10% of the book Dear Child by Romy Hausmann. I read that 10% last Sunday morning, and I was already excited about the book based on that introduction. I ended up really enjoying Dear Child just as much!

It has been a while since I read a psychological thriller or a book of that ilk. That’s why I wanted to read one if I’m honest. I enjoy switching up genres now and then. I wanted to get around to reading something like this in October, but I didn’t finish my TBR in time to do so. So, I picked this one up this month instead, and it was fantastic! As with all good psychological thrillers with an element of mystery, it has you thinking about the book, characters, and potential motives even when it’s physically not in your hand.

Dear Child is even more impressive as it is the author’s debut novel. It read really well, and the fact that I had finished all 350 odd pages by Thursday testifies just how easy to read it was!

After finishing Dear Child, I was in a very indecisive mood as to what to read next. It has been a long time since I’ve actually finished a reading list, so it was unusual not to have an idea of what I wanted to pick up next. This resulted in my picking up quite a few books off my shelf, reading the synopsis, and then putting them back down again. I had no idea what I wanted to read – and I was almost in a bit of a funk about it. However, I eventually decided to take a look at a recent non-fiction addition to my reading list. It was a good decision. 

 

The Motivation Code

I recently discovered an assessment online called The Motivation Code. The test has been devised by psychologists as a means of identifying an individual’s top three personal motivators. In summary, the test involves a degree of analysing some distinct, memorable achievements. It takes between 20 and 30 minutes to complete, and after that, you can take a look at either a purchasable assessment or The Motivation Code book, which I am doing. If you are interested, my top 3 motivators out of the possible 27 are collaborate, explore, and develop.

I was initially surprised by my top motivation, but having read the insights in the book, I can completely understand this now. I do like to feel like part of the team and I am most energised when the team is harmonious.

So far I have only read up on the first of these three of my motivators, collaborate, because I have been reading about the rest too. In reading some of the others so far, I have already been able to recognise and understand how other people around me work differently. For that reason, I am already finding it insightful – and I’m only 45% through at the moment! I trust that the rest of the book is going to be as helpful as it has been so far. It is also a really easy and relatively short read at 270ish pages.

 

Books Discovered

I would love to be able to update you and say that the reading list is going in the right direction – so I will! With ticking off Dear Child, and progress with The Motivation Code (both books on my TBR), the net position at the end of this week is still in the negative.

What I’m trying to say is I’ve added one book to my reading list this week. Having recently loved R. F. Kuang’s book Babel, I have decided to add another fantasy series she wrote to my reading list. I’m only starting with the first book so far, The Poppy War. If I enjoy this as much as I enjoy Babel, I can guarantee the rest of the books will be going on my list! But, we’ll see what the first book looks like before I get too hasty.

 

Coming Up…

Next week we will be saying goodbye to November and launching ourselves into the final month of the year. Is that not a scary thought?

With that in mind, I will be sharing my monthly wrap-up for November on Thursday and following up with my December monthly TBR on Saturday! I always enjoy writing these posts. It’s fun to talk/reminisce about books I have enjoyed in a month, but also look forward to my next reads! I hope you can stick with me for my November round-up and my December TBR.

Unsurprisingly, I will be back as I always am this time next week with my next Sunday Summary update to post. I hope you can stick with the blog to check those posts out. In the meantime, have a fantastic week whatever you’re up to!

Have you read any amazing books recently?

 

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Sunday Summary – 20th November 2022

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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