Speaking for themselves: audio books
20 September 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Audio books, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday

Every Tuesday over at the The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic. The topic this week is :
Audio Freebie
In which I confess that I’ve never listened to a book. I think if I was to pick 10 books though to give audio a try they would be as follows:
- The 3 Fairytale retellings by Sarah Pinborough: Beauty/Poison/Charm – because these are relatively short books, they’re retellings based on fairytales and they’re quite fascinating and cheeky takes on the original stories – I don’t think my attention would wander.
- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – because I understand Neil Gaiman narrates this one on audio and so I would love to listen to it.
- The Road Brothers by Mark Lawrence – this is a series of short stories all connected to The Broken Empire series – I think it would be very easy to listen to these, one at a time, not all in one go but just every now and again.
- Something spooky that would give me the chills – The Haunting of Hill House of Shirley Jackson – I have a notion that listening to something scary would be excellent – providing it was narrated well, I suppose it could go horribly wrong!
- Monstrous Little voices – 5 stories retold, based on some of Shakespeare’s most famous works but given a more modern voice. Each five of the stories connect but I figure listening to these would be great – overall just shy of 350 pages but taken individually they’re lovely little chunks. As a rule I don’t like short stories but when they all connect in this way they’re excellent.
- I think I would like to listen to some of the Sherlock Holmes books on audio – particularly Hound of the Baskervilles.
- I think a book with excellent dialogue throughout – such as The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula – because of the style of narration I just imagine this would be an excellent audio book.
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J K Rowling – I think the first in the series had a lighter feel and would be a good starting point
- Suggestions – given that I’ve read all of the above – do you have any suggestions that feel similar??
We got everything here from a diddle eyed Joe to a damned if I know..
6 September 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday, Top Ten TV series

Every Tuesday over at the The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic. The topic this week is :
a tv-themed topic – top 10 tv shows
I don’t tend to watch a lot of tv – not because I’m against it at all just simply things conspire against me and I’m also a bit unorganised so I’ll forget to watch the next in series. But, over the years I’ve watched a few excellent series – either through box sets or Netflix and some of my favourites are as follows:
- Stranger Things – I only just recently watched this but absolutely loved it – to find out why check this out. Supernatural, horror, sci fi 80s love fest!
- The Sopranos. We didn’t watch this series when it aired, I don’t know why, but then we decided to buy series 1 and give it a shot – all I can say is that we bought the whole set and watched all of it in less than 6 weeks – we were like maniacs and just kept staying up late to watch just one more!
- Band of Brothers – this is an absolutely awesome series that tells the story of Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Army – I confess straight up that I didn’t really fancy this but seriously, it’s so well produced and it’s swarming with actors that you’ll recognise. On top of that the actual story is completely compelling. I would watch this again no problem I enjoyed it so much.
- Big Bang Theory – I can’t help it, this one just makes me laugh. It’s a series that I can switch on at any point and just pick right up. A proper safety blanket, laugh out loud show.
- The Outlander – I have one more of these still left to watch – but I really enjoyed this and thought it was fairly good at sticking to the book (the ones I’ve watched so far anyway).
- The Vikings – do I even need to say why. Vikings. That is all. Plus.
- Breaking Bad – another series that we started watching and just became obsessed with – I don’t think we watched all of them but that just means we have something left to look forward to.
- Dexter – I loved this. When I first saw it advertised and realised that Dexter was a serial killer who worked for the police – I was seriously put off! I actually watched it by accident to be honest but then continued into about series 5 (or something – not sure how many this eventually went to).
- Blackadder – okay, I never got into the first series and I wasn’t particularly in love with the fourth either – but OMG, series 2 and 3 – where Blackadder plays a Lord in the Court of Elizabeth 1 and then The Prince Regent’s butler – so funny. Hysterical even!
- Hannibal – this is a series that I didn’t finish, which isn’t to say that I won’t go back to it – but I thought what I did watch was brilliant, creepy and scary!
‘The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.’
30 August 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: The Broke and the Bookish, To books with School settings, Top Ten Tuesday

Every Tuesday over at the The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic. The topic this week is :
A Back To School Freebie
For this week’s theme I’ve opted for books with a school or learning environment:
- The Harry Potter series by JKRowling. As it’s HP Month I couldn’t resist. Hogwarts!
- 13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough – this is a story set in high school. When a young girl almost dies it becomes paramount that she finds out who her enemies are! This is such a good story.
- Nevernight by Jay Kristoff – a place of study for would-be assassins. A coveted number of places and a murderer amidst the students all lead to a fast paced and highly entertaining read.
- Black Heart by Holly Black – I really enjoyed this series about a family of curse workers. The majority of the story is set in a school environment.
- The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss – this is not a book with students as such but a very unusual female who lives in the tunnels beneath the university. A beautiful and quick read and a gorgeous little book.
- The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss – I couldn’t resist – a good portion of Kvothe’s tale is set in the university that he so desperately longed to attend.
- Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead- in which vampires and their would be ‘body guards’ go to school together.
- The Secret History by Donna Tart – I loved this story – revolves around a student who desperately wants to belong to part of a school clic. Beautifully dark.
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte – Two different settings here – when Jane is a student at Lowood Charity School and then later when she leaves to become governess at Thornfield Hall.
- Jane Steel by Lyndsay Faye – A story that has many similarities to Jane Eyre and in fact in which the protagonist’s life runs parallel to that of Jane Eyre for a portion of the story. This is a read that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Patience is a virtue, so they tell me..
23 August 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday

Every Tuesday over at the The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic. The topic this week is:
Ten Books That Have Been On Your Shelf (Or TBR) From Before You Started Blogging That You STILL Haven’t Read Yet!
What a sad topic! Makes me feel quite guilty looking at my shelves and digging these books out! I’m not sure if all of these are pre blog or not – I just know that the ones on this list have been waiting a while. In no particular order:
- Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
- Straight Razor Cure by Daniel Polansky
- Libriomancer by Jim Hines
- Cinder by Marissa Meyer
- The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
- American Gods by Neil Gaiman
- If I Stay by Gayle Forman
- Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
- The Magician’s Guild by Trudi Canavan
- Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks
So, any suggestions which of these I should read first??



