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Category Archive: Book review
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April Reads
A much slower month for reading last month – I thought I was only going to finish one book which would have made for a really interesting review post I’m sure! Happily, I did manage to complete 3 books – I really must stop reading more than one book at a time – it really slows me down, dotting between the two (or more). Thats my resolution for this month anyhow! Honour but Elif Shafak I was sent this book as part of my involvement with the BritMums Book Club. I hadn’t heard of it previously (but since then, every shop I go in has got it staring me in the face). My first impression was that I loved the cover and couldn’t wait to get started. I was away for a few days in the caravan which always makes for perfect reading conditions – no internet or tv and exhausted kids that go to sleep early. Bliss! Right from the beginning I was hooked – I have talked her before about being interested in anything that involves twins, so this book was perfect for me. The story of Turkish/Kurdish twins, Pembe and Esma. Pembe leaves her country to live more »
March Reads – What have you been reading?
Another busy old month here but still no sign of the reading slowing down. It seems to be catching too, one at least 2 occasions last week I found both M & V sitting reading quietly WITHOUT BEING TOLD TO! Hurray! I seem to have reverted back to reading ‘proper’ books as opposed to my Kindle but as I’m trying to reduce some of the piles of books around the place, this is no bad thing. I’m even going old school and reading library books once more. Is there anything better than leaving the library with armfuls of books – the ultimate in reading hope. The challenge for me is taking them back before the fines cost more than it would have to buy the actual books. So what has been on the reading agenda this month? One that I forgot to mention (and I’m not sure how because I was completely engrossed in this story) was The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes. I read my first Jojo Moyes, Me Before You last year in France and knew I had to read another. The Girl You Left Behind was very different than Me Before You and even better more »
February Reads
Well that month just flew by! I know its the shortest month but I swear that someone pinched a week. Another 4 books this month – very much a month of reading exactly what I fancy. I will be starting on my book group reads later tonight (maybe after a quick game of Candy Crush – anyone else addicted?) The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window and Disappeared I really wanted to love this book – There were so many people commenting about it on Goodreads and Twitter. I don’t even think it was a case of the hype being bigger than the book that was my problem – I think my general historical knowledge is just terrible. A very clever book about a 100 year old man who escapes from his residential home and gets into alsorts of escapades on his travels. The book describes his life before he moved to the home and the historical characters he comes across. I enjoyed the tales of his life on the run better than the background to his life – I thought the part about the burger man getting so many qualifications was pure genius. I wonder more »
January Reads
Its taken a while but I thinking my reading bug is finally back to stay. I’ve mentioned before that whenever life doesn’t go particularly smoothly (or I have babies) that my reading is the first thing to suffer. I’ve always loved books. As a teen, I spent hours and hours in the library – the thrill of waiting for a particular book to come in stock stays with me to this day. I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas which has helped a lot with getting back on track with reading. I could never stand the snobbery of some people, checking what you were reading. My girls now accept that reading is a good thing, I’ve had several arguments with myself that sitting on the sofa, spending time reading a book for me is NOT being lazy. And so we move on to the books of the year so far. I had already started a couple of them before the turn of the year – in fact, I spent a wild New Year’s Eve reading! Twilight – Stephanie Meyer I’d resisted reading this for ages but gave in to peer pressure. Everyone kept telling me that this book isn’t so more »
Summer Reading 2012 – The Trilogies and more
2012 definitely seems to be the year of trilogies for me. I started the year reading the final instalment in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, which took some wading through I tell you! Our recent holiday to France saw me stocking up with my book collection several months in advance. I had promised myself I wouldn’t buy any new books and try to get my To Be Read pile down to just a few shelves – but never mind, there’s always next year for that. Dermot was slightly concerned about how heavy the van would be to tow due to all the clothes – Ahem, should I have come clean about my ‘secret’ piles of books? An argument for a Kindle perhaps? Not sure, I’m still of the school of loving the feel of books. Anyway, what did I get through? Not as many as I’d planned – a one year old doesn’t appreciate the joy of seeing her mum stuck in a book and quite frankly, I enjoyed talking a bit too much too! Before I went, I had just completed the infamous Fifty Shades. At a 3 out of 5 Goodreads rating, I wasn’t exactly overwhelmed more »
Doing it in public
I’ve succumbed, I’m reading THAT book. Fifty Shades of Grey, the book that everyone is talking about. I’ve heard it described as all kinds of a book… From the ‘p’ word, to racy, to hot, to steamy. There’s no doubt about it, it’s got everyone’s attention and it’s certainly well known. But this has it’s downsides. I can’t read it in public. I normally do quite a bit of reading while I’m waiting for Mil at synchro on a Wednesday night. She is there for 2 hours so there is plenty of time for a good read, a chat with the other parents and of course some synchro watching. And so I’ve resorted to bringing my spare ‘car book’ with me. You know, the book that you have lounging around in the boot for such emergencies. (everyone has one of those don’t they?) Its times like this, I realise I should have downloaded the book on the IPad instead of buying it. What do you think? What would you think if you saw someone reading THE book in public? Maybe you even already have read it in front of people? Should I have just thrown caution to the wind and more »
Tots100 Book Club: The American Wife – Curtis Sittenfeld
You can’t beat getting into a good book – that feeling when you finish a fabulous yarn and wish you were still in the middle of it, is like a mild grief. I’m certain most readers have experienced seeing someone reading one of their favourite reads and wishing they hadn’t read that book yet. My love of reading takes me back to my early teens when I used to stay awake until the early hours, reading secretly by the light of the street light through my blinds – I was always so grateful that we didn’t live a couple of houses further up the road where they didn’t have a street light. I try to read a variety of genres but seem to lean towards realistic stories and biographies – Like a lot of people, I occasionally feel I’ve got into a rut with what I’m reading. This happened about 7 years ago and I joined a local library book group – I’ve never looked back. I’ve been asked by the Tots100 to recommend my favourite book to another reader – no problem there. I choose The American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. This book was a real surprise for me more »
Lavender Shortbread – Prepped: Vanessa Kimbell
I am so glad I’ve finally made these – Have no idea what has taken me so long but they are fabulous. I have got to know Vanessa Kimbell through Twitter and had a lovely telephone chat about this time last year about her upcoming cook book, Prepped. Vanessa is a real foodie and like me, incredibly busy. She decided to change her life in a year, write a cookbook and see how it went. The idea of the book is that you can prepare one meal while preparing another meal for freezing at the same time. This is great for me, I always envision my freezer being full of ready cooked homemade meals but the reality is I barely get time to cook what we are eating that day. When the book arrived, it was just as beautiful as Vanessa had said. I’m a sucker for a bright pink cover but inside it is just as good. There are 11 different chapters sectioned into different foods. Eg Vanilla, Plum, Elderflower, Rhubarb. So far, I have cooked from the Chocolate (surprise!), Lemon and Lavender. The first thing I had to do was pour a drink – so I did with more »
Book Review: Sister – Rosamund Lupton
Image property of Amazon.co.uk I bought this book as I wanted to read something different – I will admit that I thought it would be a quick read as thrillers tend to be but it wasn’t. I felt it took me ages to get through – it wasn’t that I wasn’t enjoying it but it definitely did not move forward as fast I would like. A bit about the book: A thriller/mystery – One sister is found dead which is assumed to be suicide. Her sister is convinced that her sister would not have committed suicide and is intent on finding out what really happened. The story is told from the perspective of the sister who is alive, Beatrice. The writing was good – Rosamund Lupton really seemed to get into the mind of a sister and the reader could almost feel her desperation. I did feel though that the middle section of the book was slightly slow but the end more than made up for it. I really enjoyed the end of the book and how Rosamund Lupton tied the answers together was fascinating and chilling. I still get goosebumps thinking of how it felt to be sucked into more »
Tagged 4 out of 5, afterwards, fiction book review, rosamund lupton, sister, thriller
The Beauty Chorus – Kate Lord Brown: Book Review
I have to admit I’m still in two minds about this book -I read it on our holiday and felt at the time that I was enjoying it. Its just afterwards when you start to think about what you have just read that the niggling doubts start appearing. The book is about 3 women during World War 2 who sign up to be part of the team that move aircraft around to where it is needed. Women were not permitted to actively engage in fighting so this was seen as the next best thing. The women that performed this job became known as The Beauty Chorus. Kate Lord Brown had obviously done a lot of research about planes, flying and the War but if I am honest, I skim read a lot of the technical sections. The blurb on the inside front cover does talk about the women ‘finding romance, confronting loss and forging friendships that will last a lifetime’ so really I should have know what to expect. I was disappointed though how predictable the book was. I don’t want to include any major spoilers but I will say that is was pretty obvious that there would be a more »
