The ‘Good Intentions’ Book Tag
3 January 2022
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Tags, Good Intentions Book Tag, Resolutions
Today I thought that instead of making a lot of resolutions that I have no intention of keeping (I just know I won’t so there’s no point in denial) I’d make a book tag based on some of the most popular best intentions. I googled the top ten resolutions and the following tag is based upon those. This is my Good Intentions Book Tag – after all you can have good intentions at any point in the year:
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Exercise more : This is a book that is a real chunkster, in fact you will need help to even pick this book up:
For my first good intention I’ve chosen a book that I haven’t read yet but would love to pick up soon because it’s all about vampires and I feel hungry for a book with fangs. Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff – I’m looking at you. This book (the hardcover at least), weighs in at a lovely 752 pages – the gauntlet is down. I must read this book. For this particular choice there are two covers – do you have a favourite. I’m partial to the first in this case although what’s not to love about a dishy hunk with his shirt off?:
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Lose weight : A book that is not a chunkster; a short story or novella. A book you could probably read in one sitting:
In this instance I’ve gone for a book that I just managed to squeeze in towards the end of 2021. Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M Valente. This is such an unusual book. I struggled at first to write a review because I didn’t want to give away spoilers – here is a snippet of my tangled thoughts ‘This is a strange tale that is strangely compelling. I had no idea what to expect and yet it managed to defy any expectations that my subconscious had secretly formed and it’s the sort of book that makes you want to read it again, and probably again after that, I mean a fourth read would probably help to pick up those few pesky clues you missed in your haste to reach the end.’ This is an author who manages to charm and delight with her evocative and fairytale-style writing and at just over 100 pages this definitely fits the brief for this particular ‘good intention’.
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Eat healthy : A book that is good for you. This is a book that made you feel so happy that you wanted to give it a big hug:
Now this was a struggle because I could have gone for a number of books for this particular intention. There are a lot of books over the years that I may have waxed lyrical about (*ahem, Lord of the Rings*) so I thought I’d choose something unexpected. Unexpected because although I loved this book I don’t think I’ve banged on about it anywhere near enough. The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow is a beautiful book. It’s a book that overwhelmed me with feelings. The writing is lush – I kid you not – and it gave me that feeling, I’m sure you all know what I mean, where it felt like the author had written this especially for little old moi! (Also, talking recently of ‘cover catnip’ – will you just take a look at this gorgeous cover:
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Fulfill your ambitions : A book that has a lot going on. Plenty of different threads, points of views and action but everything eventually comes together in a very satisfactory fashion:
Again, I had a few books that I could have used for this one. Books that feel so busy that at first they feel like they’re going to overwhelm you with their ‘busyness’. The book I’ve eventually chosen is a book I loved. There is plenty going on here but it’s all so good and the imagination on display is absolutely outstanding. The Empire’s Ruin by Brian Staveley (#1 Ashes of the Unhewn Thrown). This was already on my ‘best of‘ list but I couldn’t help using it for this particular prompt because it has a slew of wonderful characters, a fantastic plot and it really does take the reader on a voyage of discovery.
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Spend more time with the family : A series of books that you love and that has developed more than you ever anticipated:
I had a few series of books that I could have used for this. Series where you come to love the characters over the course of time. Good examples are the Harry Potter series of books where the characters literally went through school as the series progressed, The Toby Daye books are another fine example as are the Sookie Stackhouse books but eventually, I couldn’t help myself. I had to go for the Mercy Thompson books by Patricia Briggs which I’m now waiting for the next release (#13)(I’ve not listed all the covers for this one but below are a small selection:
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Tick off an item from your bucket list : Reduce the tbr. Choose a book from Mount TBR that you would like to read this year:
This is an easy one – well, I say that but I’m actually going to include two books here that I’m really keen to read –
These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant. I’ve seen some excellent reviews for this one and I’m excited to read it.
And, December Park by Ronald Malfi because I read and loved his latest book Come With Me (in fact it’s on my ‘Best of’ list this year and so I wanted to check out some of his earlier books.
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Save money : A book that was an absolute bargain – you would have to be crazy in fact not to have bought this book:
The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher is the last bargain I bought for Kindle at only £1.99. It sounds amazing and I can’t wait to pick it up. Here’s the blurb:
A young woman discovers a strange portal in her uncle’s house, leading to madness and terror in this gripping new novel.
Pray they are hungry.
Kara finds these words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring the peculiar bunker—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more you fear them, the stronger they become.
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Get Organised : A book with a glossary, maps, useful words, lists of people – this book is one helpful book, it wants you to know ALL the things and it’s not afraid to use footnotes and other devices to help you do so:
Again, I could easily have used Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings here because he certainly provides a lot of additional information. However, I’ve used another book that I read a few years ago and that really stood out to me because of its use of footnotes. I confess that this method of writing doesn’t always work for me but on this occasion I just went with it and the additional information added a perfect extra level of detail to the story – although I confess I didn’t read all the footnotes *hangs head with abject shame*. My book is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.
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Start a new hobby : A book that is outside your comfort zone. Perhaps everyone was raving about this book, maybe it was over-hyped, you hesitated to pick it up in fact, but when you did – you loved it:
Finally, a book that is outside of my comfort zone. To clarify, for the most part I read SFF, I also like to read a little crime/thriller/horror and also some history. So, I’m not really going to include those in books that fall outside my usual reading zone. I’ve gone for romance. I could have actually kept this within the fantasy genre and opted for the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon but I’ve decided to go for something different. The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons. I loved this book when I read it and still have lovely memories of it – it would be interesting to reread it actually to see if I still feel the same way.
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That’s my top ten Good Intentions Book Tag.
I’m going to tag a few bloggers but, obviously, no pressure at all to take part. Also, if you’re not tagged but would like to take part please feel free to join in and drop me a link so I can check out your answers. Here’s to good intentions for 2022.
Some more Goodies
So, I made a list of ten books that I absolutely loved in 2021. You can find it here. I also decided to post some of my other great books because there were plenty (I tried to keep this within reason although this could very easily have been doubled or trippled!)
I wanted to highlight some of the other great books I’ve read this year because, although it has been a funny year (with a very strange ending (see this!) there has been some very good books. My thanks to the bloggers, authors and publishers that make up this wonderful community. Anyway, to the list and don’t spare the keyboard:
Great start to series
The Mask of Mirrors by MA Carrick
Great second books in series
The Two Faced Queen by Nick Martell
Great ending to series
The Fall of Koli by MR Carey
Gothic
The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell
Thriller
Shiver by Allie Reynolds
Myth
The Hidden by Melanie Golding
Apocalyptic
Last One to the Party by Bethany Clift
Fantasy
The Maleficent Seven by Cameron Johnston
Romantic Fantasy
Scales and Sensibility by Stephanie Burgis
Science Fiction
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
Standalone
All The Murmuring Bones by AG Slatter
Historic Fiction
The Drowned City by KJ Maitland
Ancient History
The Women of Troy by Pat Barker
Norse fiction
Hall of Bones by Tim Hardie
Horror
Later by Stephen King
Retelling
Mrs Rochester’s Ghost by Lindsay Marcott
Best of the Best
Every year I make a list of my ten favourite books for the year. This is never an easy list to make because I want more than ten so, as a result, I will be posting another list (probably tomorrow) about all the other books that I’ve loved this year and want to highlight.
Here for now are the ten books that immediately stand out for me as being most excellent and highly recommended. *These books are not necessarily releases from 2021.*.
This year I read over 100 books and for the most part I’m happy to say I had some amazing reads. My blog and book reviews are mostly positive because I don’t read or review books if I’m not enjoying them (that’s a personal thing as I find if I make myself continue to read a book I’m not enjoying then everything kind of grinds to a halt). Also, life is too short to read books you’re not enjoying.
This list is in no way intended to be insulting or derogatory to the other books and authors I’ve read during the year – these are the immediate books that really leap out at me when I revisit my list (this top ten also clearly demonstrates my love of fantasy, with a little bit of something different mixed in for good measure).
These are listed in no particular order. All reviews are linked and covers are included at the bottom.
- The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
- The Ladies of the Secret Service by Constance Sayers
- The Girl and the Mountain by Mark Lawrence
- The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne
- The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman
- Priest of Gallows by Peter McLean
- Come With Me by Ronald Malfi
- The Bone Ship’s Wake by RJ Barker
- The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
- The Empire’s Ruin by Brian Staveley
Friday Face Off : My catnip
Here we are again with the Friday Face Off meme created by Books by Proxy . This is a great opportunity to feature some of your favourite book covers. The rules are fairly simple each week, following a predetermined theme (list below) choose a book (this doesn’t have to be a book that you’ve read), compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future’s themes are listed below – if you have a cover in mind that you’re really wanting to share then feel free to leave a comment about a future suggested theme. I’ve also listed events that take place during the year, that I’m aware of, so you can link up your covers – if you’re aware of any events that you think I should include then give me a shout.
I have a new list for next year – I’ve added the themes in below. For information, I’m trying out some new ideas so along with coming up with particular items for book covers I thought we could also look for certain elements contained within the book or that play a large part in the story – this really broadens things out because I have plenty of more ideas with this – I’ve gone for a few of the Tough Travel Themes (so a book with that theme – just choose any book – the theme isn’t necessarily on the cover, then compare covers), also, I’ve thrown in some genres and some colours. Hopefully this will open things out a little and give us some more freedom to come up with new books.
This week’s theme:
What’s your catnip – if it’s on a cover you have to pick it up
Well, I have quite a few things that always draw me to covers, dark moodiness, creepy looking houses, the figure in the hood, or lovely stylised covers with swirls and leaves and flowers. But, for this week’s theme I’ve gone for critters. I’m going to choose a few to compare:
Do you have a favourite
If you know of an event that’s coming up let me know and I’ll try and include covers that work for the event itself so that you can link up to the Friday Face Off and, as always, if you wish to submit an idea then leave me a comment – or if you’d like to host a week then simply let me know. Also, I would just mention that it’s very possible that some of these might be repeats from previous FFOs although I have tried to invent more ‘open ended’ prompt that can be interpreted differently and also prompts that relate to emotions. Finally, don’t struggle with any of these, this is meant to be a fun way of highlighting books. If you can’t come up with a book you think fits for a particular week use a freebie – perhaps a recent read for example:
Next Week – Simply the Best – A top 10 read of 2021
2022
Of Bones and Other Things
Today’s post is of a completely different nature to my usual blog instalments. No books in sight at all. Instead I’m giving a little bit of an update on various issues which have kept me absent from the blog just recently.
This year has had its share of ups and downs for everyone. Apart from the dreaded Covid having a negative impact on everyone earlier this year my 16 year old dog passed away. I can’t deny that this hit me very badly and in fact I would say for the first time in my life I experienced depression and I seriously hope that I never go into that particular headspace again. Anyway, a few months down the line and we decided to start walking the dogs from the local dog shelter on a regular basis. Everyone said ‘oh, it won’t be long before you adopt one’ but we were both adamant that no such thing would happen. A few months down the line again and as sure as ‘eggs are eggs’ we fostered and then adopted one of the dogs that we’d become attached to. Okay, you can all smile and say ‘I told you so’.
His name is Bones (he was named for the condition he was found in!). When he was rescued he had been living wild for a few months and was very cautious about everything. We walked him fairly often and I just fell for his nature. He’s gentle, he loves other dogs (in fact I think he could be a therapy dog because he has a calming influence), he’s very shy around strangers but is gradually gaining confidence and he’s very intelligent. All was happiness and light. We started getting him into a routine, slowly gaining his trust and with little steps every day he was really beginning to fit in more and more. Then, the unspeakable happened.
On Christmas Day our daughter took him out for a walk around lunchtime. It was a lovely day, I was home preparing the dinner and then we got a phone call. Bones had bolted. Long story short, they were approached by another dog off the lead, it’s owner was unable to recall it and in a panic she threw her lead at her dog to try and scare it off (I’m assuming she thought it was about to attack Bones). Unfortunately the whole ‘lead throwing’ episode scared Bones even more and he bolted. He’s a large dog and quite powerful. My daughter was pulled over and lost hold of his lead and he ran. Everyone was out searching but after a few initial sightings everything went quiet. You may imagine that Christmas Day was not the most enjoyable time for any of us.
The good news is that we now have him back. After four very long days and three excruciatingly worrying nights he returned home this morning. We’ve been out searching for him every day but were basically beginning to think he’d ran too far and was hopelessly lost.
Anyway, we were given lots of advice by other people who have suffered similar experiences. We left the gates continually open, his bed, food and water placed out at the front of the house. We went into the undergrowth searching hard for any sign, gradually covering different areas and posting missing leaflets. Our friends have all been amazing as have the community we live in, we posted to Facebook about our missing Bones and this was shared continuously. A couple of people advised us to try scenting the area and willing to try anything we gave it a shot. Basically, and stop reading now if you’re squeamish, this involves placing certain ‘smelly’ items around the area. Using your house as the central point you create a wagon wheel of spokes going out from the centre. We used socks, a shredded pillow case and also (as ‘eugh’ as this may seem) a kind of revolting soup made from soaking other unmentionables and putting the water into a squirtie bottle to spray on posts. It sounds awful, I know, the idea is that it might calm your animal down if he smells your scent, snap him out of his fear or feral state and lead him home. Anyhow, I didn’t hold out much hope, I thought our best chance would be that he found his way back to the shelter he’d been living in for the past few months.
In the early hours of the morning I got up and went to the kitchen for some water, as per the norm I looked out the front window and there was Bones, curled up asleep on his blanket, his food all eaten, I confess at first I thought I was imagining it. We laid a trail of goodies into the front door and after only five minutes he was back in his bed in the front room. I think I can genuinely say that today is the ‘best day ever’.
The reason I was writing this was really to explain my absence for the past few days. I certainly wasn’t myself and I can’t deny that I was starting to let despair take a hold. My final message is that if you find yourself in a similar situation, ask for help and don’t give up hope.
As I write this I’m sat outside. Bones is lying asleep on his blanket and I’m almost afraid to let him out of my sight. I think we’ve learnt a few invaluable lessons over the past few days but the real ‘take away’ from this is how much Bones already means to us and what a fantastic set of friends, family and the general community at large we are lucky enough to be surrounded by. We’ve also ordered a GPS tracker to put on his collar because I seriously couldn’t handle it if he was to go missing again.
Final note, I hope you’re all well, safe and happy. I hope the holidays have been kind to you all and I hope that 2022 will be a lovely year for everyone. Lets just say that our dog returning home in such an unexpected way has given me renewed faith in everything and at this moment I just want to hug everyone.
The Dude. My constant companion of 16 years. Never forgotten.
Books and travelling with Lynn 