Top Ten Things On My Bookish Bucket List
Over at The Broke and the Bookish this week’s 10 Ten Tuesday is 10 things on your bookish bucket list. Some of these are ever so slightly, just a smidgen, more achievable than others:
- Finish my uncompleted series! (See this list here).
- Have my own library – okay, I’m not literally talking about a library – I mean, to use one room in my house and line the walls with shelves and then, more to the point, FILL THEM WITH BOOKS, get the comfiest chair ever, shut the door and be totally anti-social. Okay, I could let the husband and the dog in there, from time to time maybe.
- Meet some of my favourite authors – you people are like our movie stars and it’s nice to meet you!! Or, maybe I just need to get out more…
- See certain of my favourite books transformed into film – this is a dodgy one because what if the film isn’t a good representation of the book – well, it’s a different form of entertainment so it’s going to be different but, LOTR – great example of how to do this well. Now I need to make a list of which books I want to see at the cinema – it really is that easy!!
- Reduce my TBR – although there are only two realistic ways to do this. Give up work in which case lots of time for reading but no money for spending! Or, stop buying so many books (not gonna happen) – actually three, win an enormously obscene amount of money and buy my own library (see No.2, although, mmm, does this really reduce my tbr or actually increase it) *quandry*.
- Go shopping for a full day and buy so many books that I need at least three people to carry all the bags *not helping with Nos 1 or 5*
- Get the three people above to read all the books and cherry pick the choicest – hang on – what are all you bloggers out there for after all!!! READ FASTER.
- Buy a time machine – otherwise no way I’m ever going to achieve Nos 1 and 5.
- Achieve immortality – in which case all the time in the world to read whatever I want (and easily achieve Nos 1 and 5).
Marry Neil Gaiman– haha, only kidding. Yes, really, just messing around. Ahem…
Now, which of those do you think I can realistically achieve?????
Gilded (The St. Croix Chronicles #2) by Karina Cooper
24 March 2014
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Gilded, Karina Cooper, Steampunk, The St. Croix Chronicles #2, Victorian London
Okay, so I finished the second of the St Croix Chronicles a few days ago but was literally stunned into silence and needed a few days to absorb events. This book is quite the riot of emotions ending on a final note of utter shock. I’ve tried to stay away from reviews for this series to avoid spoilers and it worked because the ending of this took me totally by surprise, and yet at the same time that it blew me off my feet with it’s unexpected quality it also felt sort of inevitable!
Gilded is the second in the St Croix series the first being Tarnished (my review here). I really do recommend reading these books in order and not just jumping in at No.2. Gilded pretty much starts off where Tarnished ended. Cherry is determined to find out what took part in the underground tunnel (and I won’t say more for fear of spoilers). We still have two killers on the loose on the streets of London down below and on top of this there now appears to be a new murderer on the scene – intent on killing professors from London’s finest educational establishments. Aside from all of this Cherry is in debt to the menagerie, is being pursued by the Earl, castigated by the upper echelons of society and suffering illness from the side effects of her double life and secret addiction. It’s quite daunting just to think about it.
Ms Cooper certainly doesn’t make it easy to review her books because there’s very little to say without giving away spoilers. This is a new murder mystery and really apart from a few tidbits of information doesn’t really take us too much further in pursuit of Cherry’s original goals and yet there are certain elements that make you realise that so much is connected. It’s a sort of bring them up to watch them fall instalment.
Gilded is quite a fast paced and intriguing instalment and in fact I would say even more enjoyable than the first (which is a surprise given the very short space that Mr Hawke makes an appearance for). Cherry is without doubt a flawed character. She makes mistakes and she can make you feel frustrated as anything. But, I like her and given the constraints placed upon her in this faux Victorian era she’s actually very forward thinking. She’s torn between wanting her friends and family to be happy and wanting to maintain her own individuality. What’s a girl to do? Aside from all that of course is that Cherry is basically, deep inside a good person. She tries to make the right decisions. She’s wound up in a situation where she’s indebted to the wrong sort – and this is a result of the night time activities she pursues in order to raise money to buy laudanum (which she only uses to quell her night terrors). She also seems to have drawn a lot of negative attention both above and below London. You can’t help feeling quite a lot of sympathy for her whilst also wanting to shake her occasionally!
Anyway, there are two new murders and clearly these are the work of somebody different from the Sweet Tooth and the Ripper. The academia are being targeted and Cherry is given a riddle to solve which will unwittingly take her into the path of danger yet again. The plot culminates in a fantastic masked ball which ends with a bang!
Murder, mystery, alchemy, fog, rippers, dashing Earls, sexy Micajah Hawke – and an ending that left me without words! Yes, this feels like a guilty pleasure and yet I don’t actually feel guilty at all in fact, quite the opposite. Bring on number 3.
‘April hath put a spirit of youth in everything’ – William Shakespeare
21 March 2014
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Once Upon a Time, Stainless Steel Droppings
How very appropriate. Okay, maybe it’s not quite April but Spring is upon us and the sentiment remains. Once Upon A Time is here again! 
Dust off your fairy wings, throw open your hobbit holes and sprinkle a little magic into your reading.
Every year at this time Stainless Steel Droppings hosts his Once Upon a Time challenge. Now, don’t be put off by the word challenge, this event is all about the fun and the word really remains in there purely on a historical basis (yes, historical because this event is well old – 8 years – and is enormously popular!). What makes this event so very excellent – well, it focuses on my main book loves: Fairy Tale, Folklore, Fantasy and Mythology! How could you resist such sweet charms? More to the point – how can you resist coming up with any number of twisted explanations as to how you snuck that Grimdark in amongst your reads (hey, it’s fantasy, right?)?
I’ve been saving my precioussss books just for this. I has plenty stashed to one side – but, you don’t have to read plenty – one only! One book – come on – I challenge you to read that one book and enter this event. I double dare you. Last one to enter is a rotten egg!
‘The time has come, my little friends, to talk of other things / Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings / And why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings / Calloo, Callay, come run away / With the cabbages and kings.’ (Lewis Carroll – you’ve got to love him – have you read his Cheshire Cat song – okay, maybe he wasn’t on drugs when he wrote it but methinks he must have eaten a few mushroom pies!)
Come join the fun.
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson…
20 March 2014
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Brandon Sanderson, Dab of Darkness, Readalong, Stainless Steel Droppings, Words of Radiance
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It’s here. You’ve waited. You’ve been patient. And now, it’s arrived. THE readalong of Brandon Sanderson’s Words of Radiance is finally here. It’s grand, it’s epic, dare I say, monumental! So, what are you waiting for? You know you want to read this and you know you want to read it in good company with a load of other people who will bend your ear about the finer detail, argue, debate, discuss, speculate, etc, etc. If I’m wrong then I’m wrong! But, you know I’m right. Check out the details of this readalong hosted by Dab of Darkness and Stainless Steel Droppings and sign yourself up (starting beginning of April). Seriously, this is a fairly relaxed readalong with a nice gentle pace (which of course doesn’t prohibit you from racing ahead) that gives you the chance to fit other things into your busy schedule.
If you want to join on board then pop over to one of the sites above and sign in blood on the dotted line (actually kidding about the dotted line!) (okay, and kidding about the blood).
Join up if you want to have immenseness – because it is going to be immense, epically immense.
The Book of the Crowman by Joseph D’Lacey
19 March 2014
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Joseph D'Lacey, The Book of the Crowman
The Book of the Crowman is the concluding part of the Black Dawn story told by Joseph D’Lacey. The story started with Black Feathers (my review here). BotC picks up immediately where Black Dawn ended and we continue Gordon’s journey to find the Crowman and Megan’s story to become a keeper. Just a quick recap. This story is set in two timeframes with two different voices. Gordon is pre apocalypse. In his story the world is starting to rebel against the constant misuse foisted upon it by humans, strong weather, earthquakes, starvation, disease, are the beginning of the end. Enforcers called the Ward keep the populace in control using the harshest methods. The Ward fear a prophecy which has been told about the Crowman and are determined to find him and eliminate him. Gordon, on the run from the Ward similarly wants to find the Crowman. Set many years in the future in a much more simplified, post apocalyptic time is Megan. The Crowman appears to Megan one day thereby determining her future as a keeper. Megan will be responsible for keeping the legend of the Crowman alive for the next generation.
Book No.2 continues with Gordon’s trek across the country, desperately in search of the Crowman and apparently always just behind him. He meets and sees many strange things along the way, some of which are horrendous and unrepeatable. Unbeknown to himself he is also gathering something of a reputation. Meting out justice in fast and ruthless fashion and continually evading the clutches of the Ward. At the same time a good proportion of the population, tired of their life and disillusioned by the Ward are starting their own resistance movement, a green army, spurred on by the myth of the Crowman who they see ultimately as their champion of hope.
Back to the future and Megan has her own problems to overcome. she will receive a taste of what being a keeper will actually involve and it’s somewhat bitter. Her life will be so far removed from everything she ever knew before and she needs to come to terms with not only that and her new found duties but also a couple of other revelations.
I enjoyed the fact that both characters had developed for the conclusion. Gordon more so than Megan really. Gordon is now a man. He’s confident and feels like the earth gives him power. He has become a formidable opponent for the Ward and one that you can’t help feeling will succeed against all odds.
The whole story is heading in one direction. Conflict. The outcome of which will determine the future. Although, call me foolish but given that Megan is writing the story from the future does give you an idea of how certain things will go.
Apart from a bit of a slow start I thought the conclusion of the story was really gripping and in spite of the fact that I already had an idea of what was going to happen, I did race forward at breakneck speed.
In terms of criticisms, I understand that this was originally intended as a one book story that developed into two. I think it could have benefitted from maybe a little extra cutting and being kept as one book. There is a definite message to the story and in parts it can become a little bit repetitive but I didn’t particularly feel it was done in a preachy kind of way. Yes, the author is making a point but he’s found a great story as a vehicle to promote this message. The only other point I would make is that I felt like the ending was a tiny bit flat – which is perhaps the wrong phrase. I do think it was an appropriate ending, I also think it’s the ending I was expecting but somehow I just wanted something a little bit more.
I mentioned in my review of No.1 that this is dark fantasy and this definitely remains the case here. There are certainly a few scenes that people may be uncomfortable with – personally I thought they fit well with the story and context but there is definitely a bit of blood and gore going on not to mention torture, cannibalism, conflict. These are definitely dark days for sure.
Overall a very satisfying read with only a few niggles.
I received a copy of this from Netgalley in return for my honest opinion.
Books and travelling with Lynn 