My Reading Thoughts for May ’23!

My Reading Thoughts for May’23

May has been a little bit of an odd reading month.  At one point I managed to get myself into a reading slump, after forcing myself to read something I wasn’t in the mood for, and although I did have a little inner battle, I have actually read some fantastic books this month!

My favourite reads were:

• Nettle & Bone by T Kingfisher
• Yellowface by R F Kuang

Books that made me think:

• Lost on Gibbon Island by Jess Butterworth
• The New One by Evie Green
• Yellowface by R F Kuang

Usual Activity for me:

• Ashen Son by Carissa Broadbent
• I DNF’ed a book! Murder before Evenson by Richard Coles
• I didn’t read a book for my Brandon Sanderson Challenge

My overall favourite book was:

Yellowface by R F Kuang

&

Nettle & Bone by T Kingfisher

Sorry I couldn’t choose.

I am absolutely gutted that I didn’t read a Brandon Sanderson book for my challenge-and I definitely don’t want to miss another month in June. Unfortunately, if you read my previous blog post you will discover that I encountered a very bad reading slump in the month of May, which influenced my choice of books nearing the end of the month.

In May I purchased: 

• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
• The Storyteller by Dave Grohl
• Yellowface by R F Kuang
• The Isles of the Gods by Amie Kaufman
• Point Horror Mother’s Helper by A.Bates
• Our Hideous Progeny by C E McGill
• A Court of Thorns and Roses by S J Mass

I was also excited to discover the second Empire of the Vampire book has been announced under the title Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff.  I adored the first book,  and can’t wait for the 29th February 2024!  Of course I pre-ordered this! 

I am also very happy! I have decided to restart the Court of Thorns and Roses series! I stumbled upon all the books-apart from book 1 in my local charity shop!  I have purchased the first book physically, and I have decided I would like to annotate as I read.  I don’t annotate a whole lot, so I am looking forward to this process!  Time to get onto Amazon and order some sticky tabs!!! I have read the first book, but I think to enjoy the series properly again, I want to reread it, as it has been a couple of years.  It will also be a wonderful thing to do before experiencing the next crescent city book!

And finally, on a less bookish note, I have added a new addition to my Instagram, and he may also appear on my blog!!  Here is my little crochet frog, his name is Bryan the bookish frog. He loves to read, and his home is sitting on my bookcase! My frog was crocheted from a pattern by Marina Chuchkalove @mycrochetwonders.The pattern for ‘Hugo the Frog’ can be purchased on Etsy.

I hope your reading in May has been successful, thanks for stopping by! 

Reading Slumps!Oh the Misery!

Reading Slumps, oh the misery!

Well, it’s nearing the end of May, and unfortunately I’ve been in a reading slump for about ten days now, and I am driving myself completely bonkers!!  

I know what happened!  I put too much pressure on myself to read, and didn’t read what I wanted to, and it all went downhill from then on!

If any of you have been following my blog, or Instagram you will know I began ‘A Year of Reading Brandon Sanderson Challenge’ in January.  The challenge has been going very well, I have enjoyed all the books I have read so far, especially Tress of the Emerald Sea. This month, I thought it was time to start The Way of the Kings.  I have been very excited to start this book, but I looked at it and thought, “Oh gosh this is going to take me a very long time”-that was the start of the long rocky road into decline!  I started my Brandon Sanderson for the month, and I really did enjoy the first few pages I read-I can tell already it is going to be an epic story, but each page seemed to be taking me forever, I knew I had other books I needed to read this month.  I put it to oneside.  This was one to save for the summer holidays!

I asked myself what was I needing?  Perhaps the problem was that I had read too much of the same thing lately?  I had recently picked up more books from the
ACOTAR series, just on a whim from the charity shop-I got the feeling I wanted to read book 2 A Court of Mist and Fury-yes this is what I wanted to read!  I began….. I realised then that I had forgotten too much from the first book-I caught myself up online-but something was missing?  It was the magic of feeling attached to the actual characters in the series… I decided I needed to read the first book again-this time I will annotate!  This will be fun!  Did it happen? No!

Maybe I should read something completely different! Something short-a genre I haven’t read in a while. With this I started Murder after Evensong by the Reverend Richard Coles.  Have I finished this book? Nope!  I am half way through, but I will probably DNF this book. It is full of terms I don’t understand, jokes I don’t think I am ‘getting’-so really I don’t believe I am getting the full experience of this book.  

So here I am in limbo land!  I did start my Point Horror book The Mall, as we are chatting about this on Saturday, and I do so enjoy the chats.  I am enjoying the book, they are very short and I think it’s just what I need at the moment. 
I am also planning to read a little Attack on Titan, out in the garden this afternoon, I do so love a bit of manga when all else fails!

How do you cope with a reading slump, do you keep grabbing for books hoping this will be the one, or do you go cold turkey and give yourself a complete break?

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Lost on Gibbon Island Review!

Lost on Gibbon Island by Jess Butterworth

Pages:288 

Published: 13/04/2023

Publisher: Hachette Children’s Group

Genre: Middle grade/Animals/Nature

If you’re reading this, hopefully you’re coming to rescue me.

My name is Lark. I’m twelve years old and I’ve been shipwrecked on an island. You’re probably wondering how I ended up here.  It’s a long story.  But the short version is, someone crashed into my boat.  And the worst thing is, I think it was on purpose….

With me on the island is Goldie-she’s a baby gibbon, and my only company.  If someone doesn’t find us soon, I’m going to send this notebook out on the ocean to try and get help.

And if that doesn’t come in time…well at least you can use this diary as evidence for what happened to me.

Firstly thank you to the publishers for sending me a copy of this book, to read and review.  My first impressions before beginning this book were the lovely colourful front and back cover.  Inside each and every page it is beautifully decorated, which I found very appealing.  I also loved the fact that this book was in the style of a notebook/diary.  As a child growing up, I always loved books in  this format!  On opening the book we are also greeted by a wonderful island map!  I always appreciate a great looking map!

The book itself is very well written, and younger me would have absolutely adored this book-in fact adult me does as well!  It is definitely a book adults and children could enjoy together.  I believe the prime audience for this book is 9-12, though I am sure there are many 13/14 years old out there who would also enjoy this greatly.

Our poor main character Lark unfortunately gets stranded on a desert island.  Within the pages of the book we discover the tale of how this happened.  We join her in the struggles of finding food and water, which really made me appreciate the cup of tea I had in my hand whilst reading this!  The only company she has is that of a gibbon she names Goldie.  I love the way Lark documents her everyday on the island, it gives the book a very real feel-and makes you realise just how hard finding food on a desert island would be.  The characters are loveable, and it has a great pace.  I like that the book is very enjoyable, but that there are no jokes, because a book like this is actually exploring a very serious subject matter-but in a loving and enjoyable way.

A book like this is actually exploring a very serious subject matter-but in a loving and enjoyable way.

In comparison with other middle grade books I’ve read, and reflecting on my inner child I would definitely give this book 5/5 stars, I thought it was charming, and I loved each moment with Lark.  It was a serious book, exploring serious issues, of plastic in our oceans, the risks to our animals and the positives and negatives of the ocean.

Read this book if:

• You like books about the environment and nature
• You like books about animals
• You enjoyed The Last Bear by Hannah Gold
• You wonder what it would be like to be stranded on a desert island!

Thanks again to the publishers for sending me a copy of this fantastic book!

Until next time….

Review Time!: Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

Nettle & Bone by T.Kingfisher

Pages:336 (PB)

Published: 28/2/23(PB)

Publisher: Titan Books

Genre: Fantasy

After years of seeing her sisters suffer at the hands of an abusive prince, Marra-the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter-has finally realised that no one is coming to their rescue. No one, except for Marra herself. Seeking help from a powerful grave witch, Marra is offered the tools to kill a prince – if she can complete three impossible tasks. But, as is the way in tales of princes, witches, and daughters, the impossible is only the beginning.

On her quest, Marra is joined by the grave witch, a reluctant fairy godmother, a strapping former knight, and a chicken possessed by a demon. Together, the five of them intend to be the hand that closes around the throat of the prince and frees Marra’s family and their kingdom from its tyrannous ruler at last.

‘This is the first T. Kingfisher book I am reviewing, and it most certainly won’t be my last-this book has been an absolute delight.’

I loved the start of this book, instantly you are transported to the tasks at hand-and the atmospheric landscape of where we will be venturing.  Before we barely begin, we have two characters that we instantly become attached to.  The book jumps a little with timelines, but we are soon caught up, back to the current time of the book.  The author does this seamlessly.

Without giving away any spoilers, we are basically following Marra, who is determined to save her sister from the hands of her husband-the prince-who she has been forced to marry, to protect her kingdom.  Marra needs help, and this she finds in the most unlikely of places-each person fitting within the adventure like a glove.  There is magic, fairies, evil-beings, and mystery.

The characters are brilliant throughout the story, I love the abilities some of them possess, it’s very cleverly thoughout and fresh.  I loved them all.  The world is equally as good.  Nothing is overly complicated, but it is still very interesting, and not dull in anyway.

If you haven’t read a fantasy book before, I personally think this is a great place to start, although there is a little magic injected in the book, it is not complicated-nor is the world building.  I will, without a doubt, be collecting and reading more of this author’s works- some of her books also look perfect for the spooky season in October. 

 Have you read any books by T.Kingfisher?  If so, which ones do you recommend?

Until next time-thanks so much for stopping by….

How Many Books Can I Read in 24 Hours- A Challenge!

How Many Books Can I Read in 24 Hours?

I’ve done a couple of 24 hour readathon’s in the past, though of course I’ve never managed to stay up all night reading, I normally end up reading from 8am to about 22.30-though of course there is the meals to make, family to take care of, and dog to entertain, so it’s never a clear picture of what you could read, nor is it really 24 hours spent with books.  After watching one of my favourite booktubers-Jodie on her channel Vanillamoon timing herself reading, I was also inspired to find out how much I could  read in an actual twenty-four hour period.  So over the Easter holidays I took out the stopwatch and started to record the time it took me to read.

What really surprised me was actually how long it took to do twenty-four hours of reading!  Some days I have a lot of time to spend reading, whereas others-especially on the days I work, I was finding my average time spent within the covers of a book was just over an hour.  I do have quite a lot of other commitments, other than reading, all of which I enjoy.

Anyway…here are the results.  In twenty-four hours I managed to read a total of…

7 Books

These were:

Solo Leveling Volume 3 by Chugong

Attack on Titan Volume 5 Hajime Isayama

The Long way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl

Thunderhead (Audio) By Neil Shusterman-not finished

Night School by Caroline B Cooney

The Sad Ghost Club 2 by Lize Meddings

Did I like timing myself?  Not really….I quite often forgot, I’d pick up my book and have to find my phone-and then I would get disappointed to find I hadn’t read as much as I would have liked, and felt a little like I had failed.  I think I much prefer the fun of doing an actual twenty four hour continuous challenge, and planning to spend the whole day and evening reading.  I hope I can do one of these very soon!  There’s nothing like planning a day, and evening, of reading, preparing the books, mixing the genres, and getting some snacks at the ready-of course reading is exhausting work, and refuelling is very important!!

Maybe timing yourself reading would be something you would like to do?  How many books do you think you could read in twenty four hours?  I must admit I didn’t expect to read this many-though of course some were graphic novels and manga.  Now if I’d timed myself reading something like The Way of the Kings by Brandon Sanderson-this would have been a completely different story!!!