May : My Month in Review

Posted On 31 May 2019

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Did you hear that?  Was it a plain soaring overhead?  Was it a train speeding by? No, it was the sound of another month rushing by so fast that it broke some sort of a new world record.  We’ve been travelling round the Highlands which has been great (even with the lack of wifi)  Such a beautiful place that I highly recommend.  This month sees the completion of the SPFBO – watch this space for an upcoming announcement, plus today is the final day for the Wyrd and Wonder event – I’ll post a wrap up tomorrow.  I’ve managed to read 11 books this month (my month in covers can be found here).  And, I still have a few reviews to post but overall I’m on track.  Here’s my month in review:

Books read:  this month = 11

  1. The Furies by Katie Lowe
  2. Dark Shores by Danielle L. Jensen
  3. Westside by WM Akers
  4. A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay
  5. King of the Road by RS Belcher
  6. The Poison Song by Jen Williams
  7. We Ride the Storm by Devin Madson
  8. Orconomics by J Zachary Pike
  9. Council by Snorri Kristjansson
  10. Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs
  11. The Red Stained Wings by Elizabeth Bear

What’ve you been reading??

Backlist books

  1. Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs (RTF)

FireTouched

Unfinished series completed:

  1. The Poison Song by Jen Williams (RTF)

PoisonSong

Books Bought: 

  1. The Mortal Word (The Invisible Library series Book 5 by Genevieve Cogman

Mortal Word.jpg

Audio Books Bought:

Review Books:

Well, *blushes* I may have gotten a little carried away this month with my review books – especially after I showed such restraint last month.  But, in my defence (1) I couldn’t help it because – BOOKS; (2) the review dates on these vary quite a lot and some are not due to be reviewed until September and even October – so there is that (forward planning don’t you know); (C) BOOKS.  Guilty as charged; (d) – OMG – these books sound so bloody awesome that I was mesmerised, I’ve linked to Goodreads so you can check out the blurbs – prepare to want these books.  That is all.

  1. Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham
  2. Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky
  3. Bone China by Laura Purcell
  4. Limited Wish by Mark Lawrence
  5. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  6. This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
  7. The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg
  8. Lord of Secrets by Breanna Teintze
  9. The Toll by Cherie Priest
  10. Soul of the Sword by Julie Kagawa
  11. Priest of Lies by Peter McLean
  12. Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs

Cover compare:

Again this month I like both covers but the cover on the left is my favourite because of the blossoms.

Which is your favourite?

Hope you’ve all had a good month.

#wyrdandwonder : Friday Face Off :   “simples”

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(May is the month of Wyrd and Wonder – details here, Twitter: @wyrdandwonder)

FFOHere 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, compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite.   Future week’s themes are listed below – the list has been updated to help out those of you who like to plan ahead – 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.  This week’s theme:

  “simples” – A favourite fantasy cover 

I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with this week.  And, at the same time I have to confess that I found that the freedom that came with choosing a favourite cover was a lot more difficult than I expected!  Probably because there are A LOT of great covers out there so choosing one to highlight was difficult.  I’ve gone with the first two books in the series and this is a Face Off for the two different sets of covers.  This week I’ve gone for the Golgotha series by RS Belcher:

Vs

I like both of these sets of covers but my favourite set of covers, without doubt, is below:

(I’ve added the third book in the series so you can see the full set – there isn’t a tarot card version available for Queen of Swords at the moment).

Which one is your favourite?

Like last week I’ve added a Mr Linky here so that you can leave a link if you wish or please leave me a link in the comments so we can all visit and check out each others covers.  Thanks

I’ve updated the list and included themes through to the end of 2019 – I’ve also included events that I’m aware of so that you can perhaps link your themes up where possible (if you know of an event you’d like to share that let me know in the comments).  I also have a list prepared for 2020 and so will set up a separate page soon for forthcoming themes.  As always, if you wish to submit an idea then leave me a comment.

Next week – A cover that makes you think of Summer 

Future themes: (if you’re struggling with any of these themes then use a ‘freebie’ or one of your favourite covers)

2019

(May is the month of Wyrd and Wonder – details here, Twitter: @wyrdandwonder)

7th June  – “One swallow does not make a summer” – A cover that makes you think of Summer 

14th June – “Coraline opened the box of chocolates. The dog looked at them longingly.” – A cover featuring something sweet

21st June – Summer Solstice – the longest day of the year – Pagan rituals/standing stones/blazing suns – a cover with your own interpretation

28th June – “And who decided which people wore the striped pyjamas” – A cover that is striped

5th July – “The question of whether or not we are alone in the universe… has been answered” –  a cover featuring something/somebody historic 

12th July – A wrap around cover

19th July – “You can’t choose between life and death when we’re dealing with what is in between.” – A cover that is grainy or looks like ‘white noise’

26th July – “Ludo ….. down” – A cover that is Upside Down

2nd August – “There are children here somewhere. I can smell them.” A cover featuring children

9th August – “I’m disinclined to acquiesce to your request.” – A cover featuring Pirates

16th August – “The haft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagles own plumes” – a cover featuring feathers

23rd August – A cover that is a movie tie in

30th August – “I wandered lonely as a cloud” – a cover that is predominantly yellow

6th September “Warm September brings the fruit” – a cover that is seasonal for Autumn/Fall

13th September – Friday the 13th – unlucky for some!  A cover with ‘curse’ in the title

20th September – “Your hair is winter fire,January embers.” – A cover featuring hair

27th September – Freebie

4th October – “Feed me Seymour” – A cover that is 60s horror

11th October – ““And, though there should be a world of difference between the smile of a man and the bared fangs of a wolf, with Joss Merlyn they were one and the same.”  – a cover featuring an Inn

18th October – “It’s your favorite scary movie, remember? He had on the white mask, he stalked the babysitters.” – A cover featuring a scream

25th October – for Halloween – pick any scary cover you like

(I’m hoping that November will once again bring to us SciFiMonth – Twitter @SciFiMonth)

1st November – A cover that is predominantly grey

8th November – “big badda boom” – a cover that features an explosion

15th November – “No thinking thing should be another thing’s property, to be turned on and off when it is convenient.” – a cover featuring a robot

22nd November – A cover that is Futuristic

29th November – “When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.” – a cover that is 60s sci fi

6th December – Now is the winter of our discontent, Made glorious summer by this sun of York”  – a cover that puts you in mind of winter

13th December – A cover that features a temple/or religious icon

20th December – Longest Night –  a dark and foreboding cover

27th December – the festive season – a cover that is glittery or sparkling

(2020 – January is Vintage SciFi month so I’ll be including possible themes to take that on board.)

May : My Month in Covers

Posted On 30 May 2019

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Hi everyone, hope you’ve all had a lovely May.   I’ve managed to complete 11 books in total this month, I’m not completely up to date with my reviews but I only have a few outstanding.  My month in review will follow tomorrow with lots of links.  For now, feast your eyes on my last month of covers:

#wyrdandwonder: Can’t Wait Wednesday: The House of Sacrifice (Empires of Dust #3) by Anna Smith Spark

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Wyrd and Wonder – a month long event that is a celebration of fantasy.  Check out the details here and join in the fun in whatever way you would like to do so.

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that was originally created by Breaking Can't waitthe Spine.  Unfortunately Breaking the Spine are no longer hosting so I’m now linking my posts up to Wishful Endings Can’t Wait Wednesday. Don’t forget to stop over, link up and check out what books everyone else is waiting for.  If you want to take part, basically, every Wednesday, we highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to.  This week the book I can’t wait for is: The House of Sacrifice (Empires of Dust #3) by Anna Smith Spark.

This series is fantastic, I’m loving Anna Smith Spark’s style of writing, it’s really quite something.  Anyway, The House of Sacrifice is, I think, due for publication either end of July or beginning of August and here are the covers and details:

Marith’s power is growing. His empire stretches across half the world, and allies are flocking to his banner to share the spoils of war. With Thalia ruling at his side they are unstoppable.

But Marith is become increasingly mentally unstable and their victories cannot continue forever.

Here are my reviews for The Court of Broken Knives and The Tower of Living and Dying.

 

A decade of good reading

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic.  Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by  The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here.  This week’s topic is:

Favorite Books Released In the Last Ten Years

Now, this is really hard.  I find it difficult to narrow it down to a best of 10 list at the end of the year given that I read usually about 100 or more books.  I do a ‘best of’ list at the start of the new year so I’ve gone back through those lists and tried to choose a varied selection from the past 10 years.

2010 – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

2011 – Witch Light by Susan Fletcher

2012 – The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

2013 – Beauty by Sarah Pinborough

2014 – City of Stairs by Robert Bennett

2015 – Dreamer’s Pool by Juliet Marillier

2016 – Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

2017 – Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

2018 – The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

2019 –A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay

I hope there’s something here that appeals.  2019 isn’t yet half way through but I’ve gone for A Brightness Long Ago because it was very good and it was my first book by Guy Gavriel Kay.

Here are the lovely covers:

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