I really loved Goose! It was the sequel to Paper Aeroplanes, which I really enjoyed last year. I decided to a graphic for this review, though it’s not as cool as I hoped it would be… I hope you enjoy it! Goose, even though it’s the second book, also works as a standalone too… And both titles are definitely worth picking up!
I received a copy of Goose from the publisher, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did this affect my thoughts.
I’m seriously excited about all of the books I got this week- and I’m also seriously worried about the wardrobe I keep my TBR pile in because IT CAN LITERALLY TAKE NO MORE BOOKS (though obviously, that won’t stop me… :D). I went to a blogger’s lunch/event today, which is where this massive haul came from… Thank you so much to Hot Key Books, Templar Books, and Piccadilly Press for teaming up and organising another great event! I really enjoyed it, though I couldn’t talk very loudly and not many people could hear me, because for some reason I lost hearing in one ear on the train up there… xD I met up with Nina from Death, Books and Tea beforehand, and I got to say hello to lots more bloggers, too! It was nice to say hello to Lucy, Debbie, Cicely, Daphne and other nice people. Simon Packham, Sophie Hamilton, James Dawson and Elon Dann, YA authors, were also there. I also had the chance to talk to publicists about working in publishing, including Sara O’Conner, who was lovely. It was very cool. Thanks, you guys!
From the publishers:
I won’t go over all of them, just a few I’m most excited for!
We Were Liars by E Lockhart: THIS BOOK. I’ve already started it, I’m not even past page fifteen, I’M ADDICTED. I understand what Hot Key meant now… I literally had to drag myself out of it to write this book haul post! I’m a little scared for the ending. It’s said to be a very unexpected one, so I’m just going to go and curl up with this book now, and hope I don’t end up crying or screaming or something.
SAY HER NAME by James Dawson: I’ve been eager to read this for months, now! I was lucky enough to get to meet James and talk to him today. He did a reading from this, too, and whoa. I have a feeling this is going to be a terrifying read, so I’m not planning on reading it before I go to sleep! Thanks to James for signing my copy. Picture below.
American Savage by Matt Whyman: I had to restrain myself from doing a little happy jig when I picked this up! 😀 Excited doesn’t cover it. I loved the first book, The Savages, and so I can’t wait to see what happens.
Heap House by Edward Carey: I’m so glad I finally have a copy of this! Whenever I’ve seen it in a store (especially when I saw the lovely Heap House display in Mr B’s Emporium in October!), I’ve never had enough money to buy it. The hardback, illustrated edition is absolutely gorgeous. Also, this copy is signed. Yay!
From bloggers & bookswaps:
Thank you so much to Lucy for Wither, Cicely for Invisibility, and Debbie for Twinmaker! They all look so good. I’m going to try and get to all of them asap, as they look great.
Bought:
So I came home from London and I was all “Yay, so many books this week, I’m not going to buy any more whatsoever.” THEN, THESE. they were on a sale for £1.99 each in my local supermarket, I couldn’t not…
Ta-da! Book haul for the week, over. *breathes out* Huge thank yous again to all of the lovely publicists behind the blogger’s event today, and to the lovely bloggers who swapped books with me! Leave a comment if you’ve read any of these- I would love to know what you thought of them (:
Published by Hodder Books, 1st May 2014.
Goodreads Synopsis: It is 2018. England has been struggling under a recession that has shown no sign of abating. Years of cuts has devastated Britain: banks are going under, businesses closing, prices soaring, unemployment rising, prisons overflowing. The authorities cannot cope. And the population has maxed out.
The police are snowed under. Something has to give. Drastic measures need taking.
The solution: forced sterilisation of all school leavers without secure further education plans or guaranteed employment.
The country is aghast. Families are distraught, teenagers are in revolt, but the politicians are unshakeable: The population explosion must be curbed. No more free housing for single parents, no more child benefit, no more free school meals, no more children in need. Less means more.
But it is all so blatantly unfair – the Teen Haves will procreate, the Teen Havenots won’t. It’s time for the young to take to the streets. It’s time for them to RIOT: OUR RIGHT TO CHOOSE, OUR BODIES, OUR FUTURE.
My Review: RIOT was a really action-packed, fast paced book! I really enjoyed it, so I’m looking forward to hearing more from Sarah Mussi. The beginning of the book completely hooked me in- with a peaceful protest gone violent in the middle of the city. Instantly I was wondering why London had become a rioting hotspot, so I sped through the book, eager to know what happened next. RIOT is about a near-future, overpopulated England, where extreme methods are being used to ensure the youthful generation has as little children as possible. I was really interested in the themes, because I’ve been enjoying studying overpopulation and effects in school (biiiiit of a Geography nerd here…). I dived into this not actually knowing what it was about- a bit coincidental, actually!
I enjoyed the plot; I love thrillers and dystopians and anything similar, so it was a fitting read for me. RIOT is clever and original, with plenty of edge-of-your-seat scenes. It’s pretty political, too. Whilst I did really like it, there were a few aspects I disliked a bit, though. I know the book is meant to be fast paced, but at quite a few points, I felt it was moving a little too quickly. I had to reread a few parts!
Tia is a really great main protagonist, she’s very down-to-Earth and real. Tia is the main cause behind all of the protests against the government’s actions; online, she’s a Hacktivist called EVE, organising protest rallies with the anonymous ADAM. I think Tia developed a lot while the story progressed, though I really couldn’t get on with the supporting character, Cobain, for a lot of the time. I’m not completely a sure why, I just didn’t really click with him, until a lot later in the book, after a pretty breath-drawing plot twist…
Overall, RIOT was a great read…it’s perfect for fans of Sophie McKenzie’s Split Second. I think the book did move a bit fast, and there were a few parts I didn’t like, though I can’t elaborate on those much without spoiling! On the other hand, RIOT is packed with some really genius twists and turns. Tia’s awesome. The themes really intrigued (and slightly scared…) me… so I really liked it!
My Rating:
I received a copy of RIOT from the publisher via Netgalley, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did his affect my thoughts.
Today on the blog I have an author’s guest post; one of the writers contributing to the Daughters of Time anthology! It’s a really great book written by the History Girls (http://www.the-history-girls.blogspot.com). I’m currently reading it and enjoying it. I did want to read it in time to put a review up with this post… But I wasn’t able to 😦 Review should be up next week! Here’s Dianne Hofmeyr on why she chose her historical figure in the anthology:
Why I Chose Elizabeth Stuart
I grew up in a country without a king or queen, so the life of Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of a king, who was to become a queen herself, seemed like something out of a fairy tale.
I was fascinated by Elizabeth’s lack of pretence – that she refused to dress formally for her portrait for Frederick, and left her hair wild and untamed. For her wedding she adopted the same fresh approach and despite the custom of the time and her mother’s rigid adherence to formal dress, she wore her hair long and dishevelled down her back.
I like her playfulness and boldness – she was prepared to dress as a boy to be allowed access into her brother’s rooms when he was ill. And I like her determination. It was unusual for a young princess to marry someone she truly loved.
Elizabeth almost followed the true fairytale princess format story in that, after her marriage, she went to live in a beautiful castle in Heidelberg, where Frederick built her a monkey house, an aviary, a menagerie and an Italian Renaissance garden. I visited Heidelberg Castle some years ago and wandered around those same gardens without knowing that one day I would write the story of a young girl who lived there nearly four hundred years earlier.
-Dianne Hofmeyr
I hope you enjoyed the guest post! Daughters of Time is out this month from Templar Books; make sure to get a copy- it’s brilliant! (:
This post is about all the career options I’d love to do when I’m older. All bookish, of course!
I never really write very personal posts on my blog. However, I thought I’d write this, as it does quite largely link in to Why I Blog, too. The main reason I started a blog was because I liked sharing opinions on books and writing reviews, though I also thought it would be a good way of getting a little bit of work experience, too. Through blogging, I’ve gotten to meet lots of publicists and authors! I’ve always wanted to be a writer since… I can’t even remember when. I still have the most embarrassing stories written from when I was younger… E.G., this thing about a fairy party with a gate-crashing alien.
I still definitely want to be a writer! I’m actually writing a bit less frequently now, as I’m reading more and blogging more. Also, obviously, Twitter. Which I blame for all my procrastinating. Though, I have a short novella that I wrote for NaNoWriMo a while ago which I’m hoping to make longer and edit very soon- as well as a thriller I’m planning too.
Through blogging, though, I’ve also had so many more ideas of jobs I’d love to do that are bookish. I write at least two reviews a week, and I really love doing it! I’ve found so many book magazines that I didn’t know existed- like Newbooks, and We Love This Book. I think it would be really fun to be a book critic for a magazine, too, or to be a journalist for a literary magazine of sorts! Thanks to Dad, I’ve started doing that, though not as a paid job yet… Most weeks, I have a little book review space in our local paper. It would be really great to do that for a living, right? Blogging’s the perfect experience for it, too!
Lastly, I’d love to work in a publishing company- actually being a part of the process that gets books on the shelves in stores. I’d never actually considered it until I went to my first blogger’s event, which was at the Hot Key Books offices. That was one of the first times I got to meet people working in publishing, and see behind the scenes, in a way. I think that brunch was probably the decider for me! I got really interested in working as an editor, or in marketing and publicity… It seems like a really fun job!
Or if not working on the content or spreading the word about a book, I’d really love to take part in designing book covers or illustrating books. I enjoy drawing a lot, and I like making things digitally- like the review-graphics I sometimes publish on here- even if that’s only fiddling around with photo editors I find online… Another link to Hot Key here- on their blog recently they’ve posted some design processes for their books. This one’s by Jan Bielecki, and goes through the design for Ellen Renner’s Tribute. And this post is about the illustrations by Isobel for the Isobel Journal. I really loved reading those, and they’ve gotten me even more interested about that kind of job!
So, that’s a summary of all the jobs I’d really love to do. I hope you enjoyed that post! If you’re a blogger especially or generally just a bookish person- would you go into the same kinds of careers, or what else? I’d love to know! (:
(Just adding here that this book haul post is the answer to life, the universe and everything.)
(42, guys… 😀 Hitchhiker’s reference.)
This week was cool! I only bought (well, mum bought for me…) one book, and I received one in the post too. But, this week I also went to the book launch for Liz de Jager’s BANISHED. More of that at the end of this post!
Book Haul:
Goose by Dawn O’Porter: I really loved Dawn’s first book, Paper Aeroplanes, and I fell in love with the two main characters, Flo and Renee. I’m so excited to read more about them in Goose! It looks brilliant, and I think I’m going to re-read Paper Aeroplanes before starting Goose. Thank you to Hot Key Books for sending me a copy!
Banished by Liz de Jager: This was actually bought last week and it was in my last book haul, but it ended up in my photo as I had it signed at the book launch on Thursday.
Phoenix by SF Said: I’ve read this and d have a copy, though only a Netgalley edition! Though Phoenix got a five-heart rating in my review last year, I think I couldv’e enjoyed it even more if I had a physical copy- the illustrations didn’t come out right on my kindle. I’m hoping to reread this very soon! I spotted it in Foyles after Liz’s book launch… and, eeeeeee! Foyles had signed copies!
*
Banished Book Launch: This happened on Thursday in London! You can see the review-graphic of Banished I posted on Wednesday, here, by the way (: . Though I didn’t know many people there, I did get to speak to Kendra Leighton, who wrote GLIMPSE, which is out in June- and also a few bloggers! It was nice to meet you people! There were cool cookies too. Seriously cool cookies. Quick night-in-pictures thing:
Top left- me (unable to look at a camera…) & Liz. Other pictures are of the Blackhart cookies and the Banished display window- which is at Foyles: Charing Cross Road- definitely worth going to see!
Thanks to Liz for being awesome and signing my book for me, too, which is why Banished is in my book haul above again!
So that’s the awesomeness for the week. Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts if you’ve read any of the books! If you’re a blogger, link back to your own hauls too! 😀
I read Banished, book one of the Blackhart Legacy, over the weekend- and I loved every second of it. It’s a brilliant new urban fantasy, and I think it’s going to be huge! I tried drawing Kit, the protagonist. Yup, obsessiveness. I decided to make a review graphic of the book, because I haven’t done one in a while- and the design & colour scheme for the cover is awesome! So, enjoy (: If you find any parts of the image hard to read, just click on it to bring up a bigger version.
Banished is published by Tor books UK, February 27th 2014.
Note: I just want to point out that my review is not biased in any way- I do know Liz in person (she used to co-run a book blog!) but in no way at all did that affect my thoughts on the book. My review is completely honest and all my opinion.
I purchased a copy of Banished from a bookstore.
Published 6th February 2014 by Hot Key Books.
Goodreads Synopsis: Kate Rickman seems just like any other nineteen-year-old girl. She goes to university, she dates nice, normal boys and she works in her local tourist office at the weekend. But Kate’s not really normal at all. ‘Kate’ is in fact a carefully constructed facade for a girl called Jennifer Jones – and it’s a facade that’s crumbling fast. Jennifer has spent the last nine years frantically trying to escape from her horrifying past. Increasingly desperate, Jennifer decides to do something drastic. She contacts the only other girl who might understand what she’s dealing with, breaking every rule of her parole along the way. Lucy Bussell is the last person Jennifer expects any sympathy from, but she’s also the last person she has left. Finding Jennifer Jones is the powerful sequel to the highly acclaimed, Carnegie Medal nominated Looking for JJ. It is a tense, emotional thriller about guilt, running away and wondering if you can ever truly know yourself.
My Review: Looking for JJ was brilliant… Finding Jennifer Jones completely blew me away. A lot of the time, the sequel to a book is never as strong as the first book, but I actually think this was even more thrilling and clever than the first title! I’ve left it a bit late before reviewing, so I don’t think I can do it enough justice.
Finding Jennifer Jones visits JJ, under yet another name, Kate, as she’s studying in Exeter University. After knowing the events of her horrifying past, the police immediately suspect Kate of a recent murder in the area. Kate, or JJ, realises that she’ll never be able to fully escape her past, no matter how many new identities she’s given- so she decides to revisit her past, by contacting Lucy Bussell: The girl who witnessed what JJ did nine years ago… I was so nervous to see how everything would unfold; I only recently read Looking for JJ and I wasn’t sure the sequel would be as thrilling. But, it definitely was, and I fell in love with it. It felt really nostalgic, going back to meet Lucy again- even though I only read about her in book one a few weeks ago!
I wasn’t expecting to read more detail on what happened to JJ, Lucy and Michelle, though there are more flashback scenes in Finding Jennifer Jones that reveal more about everything. I really loved the fact that at the end of these two books, now, I have a completely clear picture of the whole crime plot. It all fits together so, so well- and the ending to Finding Jennifer Jones- wow. I wasn’t expecting it, but I loved JJ even more for it.
JJ- or, Kate- is so well developed. I grew quite attached to her in book one, and I loved her character even more this time! She was even more confident and brave here. I hadn’t actually read the blurb to Finding Jennifer Jones fully when I started- I wanted it all to be a surprise- so I wasn’t expecting to hear from Lucy Bussell. I really felt sympathetic for her in Looking for JJ. It was really great to see her character developing a lot, years later.#
Overall, Finding Jennifer Jones was a breath-taking follow up to a great crime book. It’s well paced, original and addictive; I couldn’t come out of the story while I was reading it! I was really shocked at the ending, because that was the last thing I’d predicted Kate/JJ to do. But, it was a perfect ending. I really enjoyed the plot, and revisiting characters from JJ’s past, too. If you’ve read the first book, I really highly recommend buying this! If you haven’t- I really can’t recommend the books much higher. They’re captivating and thrilling.
My Rating:
I received a copy of Finding Jennifer Jones form the publisher, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did this affect my thoughts.
S0, this week’s haul is exciting 😀 There was a lot of squealing. Also, I’m taking photos of my books now instead of using the book jackets from Goodreads, because Hawwa’s book photography tutorial is awesome and even though my photos are awful compared to hers, especially the last one I took in a rush this morning, they look nicer than my rushed Picmonkey collages (Or, so I’m hoping)!
The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris: *dances* I’ve been looking forward to finding a copy of this for a couple of months now! I was in the lovely London Forbidden Planet on Monday, looking at the Sci-Fi/Fantasy charts, and saw it was number one. The hardback was so pretty, so I picked a copy off the shelves, then looked closer and saw it was signed. There was much squealing and jumping up and down and people-looking-at-me-weirdly. But I don’t care, I have a copy now! Yay! I’m so excited.
Daughters of Time by the History Girls: This came through the letterbox on Thursday… and the copy is so gorgeous! I’m looking forward to starting it; Daughters of Time is all about the women in History who’ve shaped today’s world. I’ll also be participating in the blog tour, very soon, so keep an eye out! thanks to Templar for sending this to me.
The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer: This looks and sounds amazing. I’ve definitely seen the cover around, but I’ve never actually had a proper look at the book before. After hearing and reading about its Costa book awards win, I decided I’d buy a copy, to see what it’s like. I read the blurb in the store and was just… wow-ed. I think this is going to be amazing.
The Blackhart Legacy, #1: Banished by Liz de Jager: I can’t even put into words how excited I am for this! I’ve been waiting for ages to be able to read it; pretty much since I found out the lovely Liz had gotten a book deal, months ago. The cover’s absolutely stunning, and the first two chapters are too- they’re on Tor’s blog. I’m completely ditching the TBR pile for this: I’ve already started it, and I’m loving it. Definitely worth the waiting for!
RUN by Gregg Olsen: I received this from the lovely people at Newbooks magazine, so thanks, you lovely people! I love the magazine, which comes out every month, and I’m really excited to get the chance to review in it, starting with Run… and hopefully getting to review future titles for them, too! 😀 Run sounds brilliant; like a really gritty, thrilling crime book, so I’m positive I’ll enjoy it. It’s from Hot Key, and I don’t think they’ve released any/many crime books yet, so I’m eager to see what this one’s about.
Extra thing I’m going to randomly add onto the end of this post: A lot of you probably know I’m an avid nerdfighter, a lot of book bloggers are! Especially Lucy, who’s the blogger and booktuber behind Queen of Contemporary. She’s hosting a Nerdfighter Month very soon, with lots of videos and a readathon of John Green’s books, and loads more awesomeness! Get the word out, people of the internet, this is going to be awesome. Dftba, of course. 😀 Here’s the introductory announcement video, which doesn’t seen to embed into this post, for some reason:
Published 30th January 2014 by Tamarind books (A Random House imprint).
Goodreads Synopsis: ‘Grandpa stopped speaking the day he killed my brother, John. His name was John until Grandpa said he looked more like a Bird with the way he kept jumping off things, and the name stuck. Bird’s thick, black hair poked out in every direction, just like the head feathers of the blackbirds, Grandpa said, and he bet that one day Bird would fly like one too. Grandpa kept talking like that, and no one paid him much notice until Bird jumped off a cliff, the cliff at the edge of the tallgrass prairie, the cliff that dropped a good couple hundred feet to a dried-up riverbed below. From that day on, Grandpa never spoke another word. Not one.
The day that Bird tried to fly, the grown-ups were out looking for him – all of them except Mom and Granny. That’s because that very day, I was born.’
Twelve-year-old Jewel never knew her brother, but all her life she has lived in his shadow. Then one night, on her birthday, she finds a mysterious boy sitting in her oak tree. His name is John. And he changes everything.
My Review: Bird is a beautiful book…. there aren’t actually many words to describe it properly and do it justice. It’s a poignant tale about love and loss, and I think it’s going to captivate anybody who reads it.
The story’s completely riveting: Literally right from the first page, where the reader finds out that Jewel was born the day her brother jumped from a cliff, and that their grandfather’s never spoken a word, since. Crystal Chan’s writing is so good, I honestly did have tears in my eyes from the beginning. Chan’s captured the voice of a twelve year old flawlessly. I was sucked right into the story of Jewel, and the complicated relationship with her grandfather and the friendship growing between her and John- a boy who’s staying in the town, who has the same name as her brother.
The plot is flawless- there’s no other way to describe it! Every event was completely unpredictable, and Crystal Chan can make you laugh or cry with every page. The plot is very character driven, exploring the ups and downs of a torn apart family, and focusing on the impact of Jewel’s new friend on her grandfather. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read before. The plot twists are all emotional and shocking, especially the big one about John, Jewel’s friend. I was completely blown away, and I couldn’t stop reading.
Jewel is a character that any reader can instantly fall in love with: She’s so well developed and realistic, and her voice just captured me, and didn’t let me go until the very last page. Her narration is really captivating and she’s probably now one of my favourite contemporary fiction characters. John’s also such good protagonist. Chan made me really mixed on him at points, with those plot twists… but he’s the kind of character you can’t not love!
Overall, Bird is amazing, and a book that I’ll be recommending to everybody I know, regardless of what kind of books they like. The central character were so three dimensional and loveable, I really wanted to read more about them after finishing… I’m pretty sure I’ll be rereading this book! The plot weaves themes of superstition into themes of love and loss, and it’s just beautiful. Bird is moving; more emotional than most books I’ve read this year, and I really can’t recommend it highly enough!
My Rating:
I received a copy of Bird form the publisher, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did this affect my thoughts.
the bibliomaniac book blog 