Autumn reading

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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 :

Books on my autumn reading list

Nice and easy this week: these are my next scheduled books:

  1. Chasing Embers by James Bennett
  2. The Family Plot by Cherie Priest
  3. Summerlong by Peter S Beagle
  4. A Deadly Affection by Cuyler Overholt
  5. The Thorn of Emberlain by Scott Lynch
  6. The Witches of New York by Ami McKay
  7. A City Dreaming by Daniel Polansky
  8. The Apothecary’s Curse by Barbara Barnett
  9. Faithful by Alice Hoffman
  10. Congress of Secrets by Stephanie Burgis

 

Speaking for themselves: audio books

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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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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!
  5. 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.
  6. I think I would like to listen to some of the Sherlock Holmes books on audio – particularly Hound of the Baskervilles.
  7. I think a book with excellent dialogue throughout – such as The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
  8. Bram Stoker’s Dracula – because of the style of narration I just imagine this would be an excellent audio book.
  9. 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
  10. Suggestions – given that I’ve read all of the above – do you have any suggestions that feel similar??

 

10 Favourite Fantasy authors

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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 :

ALL TIME Favorite Books Of X Genre

Impossible.  It’s just impossible to give you 10 all time favourite books for the fantasy genre because frankly there are a lot of books that I love.  I’m going to stick to 10 but I’m going to cheat a little by giving you more than one book by the same author – I love cheating!

  1. Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book, Stardust, Neverwhere, Coraline, The Sandman Series, The Ocean at the End of the Lane
  2. Mark Lawrence: Prince/King and Emperor of Thorns, Prince of Fools, Red Queen’s War, The Wheel of Osheim, Road Brothers, Sleeping Beauty, During the Dance,
  3. Patrick Rothfuss: Name of the Wind, Wise Man’s Fear, The Slow Regard of Silent Things
  4. Sarah Pinborough: Poison, Charm, Beauty, Mayhem, Murder, 13 Minutes, The Death House, The Language of Dying
  5. Scott Lynch: The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, The Republic of Thieves
  6. Brandon Sanderson: Mistborn Trilogy, The Emperor’s Soul, The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance
  7. Patricia Briggs: Mercy Thompson series 1-8
  8. JRRTolkien: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion
  9. Jen Williams: The Copper Promise, The Iron Ghost, The Silver Tide, Sorrow’s Isle
  10. Robert J Bennett: The Troupe, The Company Man, Mr Shivers, American Elsewhere, City of Stairs, City of Blades

Even with a bit of cheating I can’t fit in all my favourite authors but those are the first 10 and I’ve thrown in a whole heap of covers:

We got everything here from a diddle eyed Joe to a damned if I know..

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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:

  1. 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!
  2. 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!
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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).
  6. The Vikings – do I even need to say why.  Vikings.  That is all. Plus.
  7. 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.
  8. 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).
  9. 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!
  10. 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.’

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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:

  1. The Harry Potter series by JKRowling.  As it’s HP Month I couldn’t resist.  Hogwarts!
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead- in which vampires and their would be ‘body guards’ go to school together.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
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