Books #29

[Lyra1970]

Just popping in to say I recently discovered You’re Booked podcast . Celebs discussing their bookshelves . Be warned though, it leads to an ever increasing TBR pile
The last episode was Fearne Cotton and I learned we share the same love of a 1970s rockstar biography.
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Thanks to all for replies about the Strike novels . I’ll get them on my library list

 

[daisynoon]

Speak for yourself.. I’ve read the prologue

I’m trying to read the Women’s Prize shortlist before the winner is announced next week. The books are good but I do desperately want to read Sandwich, Blue Sisters and Saving 6. Might have to quit my job tbh.

Aspiring to read full time is why I keep playing the lottery.

 

[capriallie]

I’ve started iron flame the last few days after LOVING fourth wing and … oh my, it’s nowhere near as good feel bad that I’ve gone round recommending the series to everyone I know now

 

[Honeystar]

I looooove the Strike books. I’m eagerly awaiting The Running Grave to come out in paperback in a couple of week so I can devour it. No matter what you think to JK Rowling and her views, there is no denying she is a fantastic writer and creates worlds and characters that are unrivalled. I’ve read a lot of detective novels and for me no detective comes close to my beloved Cormy

 

[Gem_woody]

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How’s everyone’s Kindle challenge looking? I’m so close to completing them all taking my mind off things

I'm a few days away from the gold reader achievement. I need more goals haha

I haven't posted much in here lately but I've been lurking . Love hearing all the love for the strike books. I've got the first one hanging around on my Kindle and I need to get round to that soon!
Have been in my John marrs era recently. I read The Good Samaritan and Keep It In The Familiy. Previously also read What Lies Between Us

 

[Lyra1970]

We are on our way to London and I’m so excited to go to Bloomsbury and look around where the Bloomsbury set lived, and go to the huge Waterstones, London Review bookshop and Gay’s the word

 

[LaBlonde]

I could be reading any number of books on my tbr but I’m rereading the ACOTAR series instead Currently on Wings & Ruin, cannot stand Elain and the dialogue is so damn cringey… and yet I LOVEEEEEE it

bloody elain and her wandering around looking delicate and lovely like a flower nesta is the MVP of that series!

 

[chickhicks86]

I just found a tiny squashed fly in my charity shop book. I have no more to say on the subject.

 

[cill2019]

How’s everyone’s Kindle challenge looking? I’m so close to completing them all taking my mind off things

 

[cherrymoon]

My place of work used to be the local library, some of the book shelves were kept, it’s a treasure trove waiting to be explored every shift!

 

[Ashlgr]

I'm trying to make headway with Yellowface, I think it's quite hard to properly get into, even though I think the author is a decent writer! Anyway, omg I cannot stand June! Lots of things she says (writes?) make me physically cringe.

 

[Carapop]

10 minutes 38 seconds in this strange world is 99p today. Has anyone read it? It sounds good.

I didn’t love it. It was good but not great I think.
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On an unrelated matter
@Elle

 

[JLXRD]

I just finished The List by Yomi Adegoke, gave it 3/5. I liked the premise but it was longer than it needed to be and quite repetitive in parts. Took me longer than average to get through as found it a bit of a slog.

reading Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney next, never read anything from her so hopefully I like it

 

[StephenTJackson]

Something mega happened to day - I've only just realised!
I was was walking past the shops and I glanced into The Works but didn't go in!
I must be sickening for something - where's that thermometer?

Nah, it doesn't count. Everyone knows The Works range is shit at the minute so it's not worth it. You're not ill, The Works just isn't worth it right now.

Proud of you resisting though.

 

[LaBlonde]

Oh no, in first person, too! I just read a Jenny Colgan book which committed the same sin, but at least it was third person.

i know! i was like who is talking right now because i swear this is the girl’s chapter? there have been so many mistakes that it’s absolutely unforgivable tbh, including repeating the same sentence twice just written in a slightly different way.

i don’t get how a book can get to the actual publishing stage without these things being noticed if i, two iced coffees and a dream in on my first read, can pick it up immediately

 

[coconochanel]

Three for me this month...
Confessions of a 40 something F*** up 10/10
A Cotswold Life-9/10
A Country escape 9/10

 

[Caffeine Fiend]

The ven diagram of book girlies and swiftie is a circle clearly.

Have the best time Katy and Vanilla Cupcakes. We can be depressed together next week.

 

[nbt]

I’m a third through Happy Place and finding it very boring so I’ve just searched for it here. Sounds like it’s a popular opinion! I only chose to read it as it’s part of one of my reading challenges this year (GR romance book of 2023…whaaaat?)

I’ll stick with it begrudgingly!

 

[mindlessness]

It's been a slow reading month for me. But I did really love This Summer will be Different by Carley Fortune (thanks @slugella for inspiring me!)

In June I have a holiday booked (counting down the days! I need some sunshine and a deckchair) and I am hoping it will be a much busier reading month. Which made me think, what is everyone's favourite sort of Summer holiday read? Do you find yourself gravitating towards certain genres/authors? Do you try and read a book set in the place you're visiting (whether that's the Scottish Highlands or a Greek Island)?

 

[Miss_cici]

Picked up some books this week and can't wait to read them:
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
Butter by Asako Yuzuki
Weyward by Emilia Hart

Recent reads on audio (on a bit of a thriller binge!):
None of This is True by Lisa Jewell 5
All Her Fault by Andrea Mara 4.5
Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera 3.5

Current physical copy reads:
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Achidie
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
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I finished Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo. I’m not sure what it is about her books, as I’ve said before I struggled with Ninth House but Hell Bent was on a kindle offer and very cheap plus I wanted to know how Alex was going to get Darlington out of hell. It seems that I read and read and read her books and barely make a dent in the percentage read. This took me 13 days to read, almost double the time it should normally take but I didn’t feel I was reading any less! Very odd. A Goodreads review summed up my thoughts really well, ‘This series has become akin to me to a relationship that I know isn’t working anymore but which I cannot quit because every now and then something good will happen.’ The reviewer also mentions that she doesn’t just let her characters breathe, ’they’re always running off after some new mystery or som unexpected plot turn and we are just chasing after them.’ I love Goodreads mainly for the fact that when I go to the reviews someone has written how I feel about a book much more elegantly than I ever could. I’m not sure I still really understand the whole hell, demons, coming in/getting out, all the different Lethe people whose names I can’t remember, the vampire still roaming around, whether Darlington is actually ok as a half man half demon and how that even happenedAlthough there’s going to be another book coming I really think that might be it for me As I don’t think it’ll answer any of my questions and the characters I care about are ok. Despite Darlington seeming to struggle with the demon inside and Tripp going down the Buffy route of being a vampire with a soul. I will end on a positive, I liked finding out why each of the 4 was a murderer in their little back stories.

I feel I need a palette cleanser in the form of a filthy mafia romance which I will read in a day and then completely forget about. Anyone else a fan?

My husband asked in a book shop for something like Donna Tartt as I love her and they suggested Ninth House
I had no idea if the worker has read both because they are nothing alike besides maybe the university setting in The Secret History!
I found Ninth House a bit of a slog but bought Hell Bent anyway just to see what happens.