The Chosen Seed by Sarah Pinborough (@SarahPinborough)

The Chosen Seed is the final instalment of the Dog-Faced Gods trilogy featuring the world-weary detective Cass Jones. It is a bit of a mixed bag as far as I’m concerned. The crime sections were brilliant, with the characters and situations shining out, but I felt a little let down by the predictability of the direction taken in the supernatural strands of the plot.

Check out the full review for this in the next SFCrowsnest newsletter and on the website soon.

 

Over all it was a pretty good series. It had high points (book two), low points (book one) and kind of average points (book three). Would I read more of Pinborough’s work? Absolutely! There were enough brilliant moments mixed in here to make me curious about what else she has written and I’ll certainly be keeping my eye out for more of her books.

Happy reading,

Vinx

The Shadow of the Soul by Sarah Pinborough (@SarahPinborough)

Book two of the Dog-Faced Gods trilogy by Sarah Pinborough really picked up the pace of this series. I wasn’t wild about book one but The Shadow of the Soul was brilliant. It managed to balance the crime and the supernatural much better, developed the remaining characters well and really kept me turning pages. I’m looking forward to seeing just how the series finished up in the next book and am so glad I kept reading.

Also, the cover is great. My photo really doesn’t do it justice but the simplicity of the image combined with the vivid colours (the orange-red spatters on the turqouise background are really striking) just draws my eye back to it again and again. All three books have distinctive covers but this is my favourite.

Again it is a short review here because this is one of my SFCrowsnest review books – the full review again should be in the next email newsletter that will be out in the next week or two, and may make an appearance on the site (http://sfcrowsnest.org.uk/) sooner than that.

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Sorry for the glut of posts today – I’m nearly caught up with my books now after the PhD viva chaos period, just one more (The Chosen Seed by Sarah Pinborough, finishing off the Dog-Faced Gods Trilogy) to go, which I will try to post later.

Hope you’ve got something good lined up for your weekend reads,

Vinx

Goodreads (@goodreads)

You’ve probably all figured out by now that I love books. I love the smell, the feel, the look of them and not just the worlds contained within the words on the pages. I’m also always curious about what other people are reading and looking for new inspirations for things that I might like to read.

One of the ways I keep up with things is by using the Goodreads website. I’ve probably mentioned it before but I wanted to just write a little post about why I like it.

It lets me keep track of the things I’ve read. I can review them, rate them (though I do wish they allowed half-star scores – five just doesn’t give me enough categories) and view nice little stats about what I’ve read in any particular year:

I like to be able to look at things like this (you might need to click and view the larger image to see the detail here). I’m a bookaholic not just a reader of books. I take delight in considering my bookshelves and remembering all the worlds I’ve escaped to. I also like the tidiness of it all. I don’t own all the books I read, I make good use of my local library (if you haven’t yet joined your local library then please just go and see what it’s like) and to be able to keep track of all the books I’ve borrowed is great.

It lets me see what other people are reading. Part of this is just me being nosey, I’m the kind of person who will try to make out the title of the book that other people on the bus/train are reading. But is does also serve a practical purpose too. Let’s say I need to buy a birthday present for someone and thanks to goodreads I know just what they’ve been reading and whether or not they’ve enjoyed it. My shoppping just got a whole lot easier. Ok, yes it’s mostly about the curiosity factor, but it can be useful too.

It lets me challenge myself. A couple of years ago I set the challenge of reading 100 books in the calendar year. Goodreads was an easy way to track this and I even get a nice little badge for my profile because I completed the reading challenge. Yes I did start reading increasingly shorter books towards the end of the year but they still count!

It is an endless source of bookish information and goodies. They have hundreds of book groups so that whatever your taste, wherever you are, you can meet people who enjoy the same things as you. There is really quite a remarkable community of booklovers out there. There is always a recommendation to be found, reviews to be perused, quizzes to take and books to be won. It is a giant online compendium of bookwormy goodness.

In short, I really like goodreads and it has led me to discover new authors, new books and new ideas. If you read books and haven’t yet visited just take a few minutes to go and see what it is all about, maybe you’ll find something you like.

http://www.goodreads.com/

Vinx

PS. Just in case I need to state this explicitly, no I am not getting paid by goodreads to advertise their site, I just like what they do and wanted to share it with you.

 

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley (@DenimAlley @RookFiles)

A teapot, an octopus, a chess piece and a rabbit – what do they have in common? They all feature on the rather striking front cover of The Rook by Daniel O’Malley.

Now, any book that has two of my favourite things on the cover (that’s the tea and the octopus) surely has to be worth a read. This is one of my review books so I can’t say too much here but if you’re looking for a fresh and funny urban fantasy to get lost in then this book just might be the one for you. I raced through it and enjoyed every moment. Also, I’ve just discovered the twitter account of the main character which is added entertainment (@RookFiles) – I hope there will be more posts appearing on there while I wait for the next book in the series!

Nice one O’Malley – keep them coming 🙂

My full review will be published in the next issue of SFCrowsnest that will be sent to your inbox around the start of April – make sure you’ve signed up!

Happy reading,

Vinx

Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (@blablafishcakes)

Hello bookworms,

I’m a little bit behind with my blog at the moment because earlier this week I had my PhD viva which I’m very relieved to say that I passed with minor corrections. The last few weeks have been a bit single-minded working towards that but now things are almost back to normal I’ll try to catch up.

‘Gillespie and I’ by Jane Harris was the book we discussed at the March book group meeting. At the beginning I couldn’t stand it, the prose in the prologue was very wordy and I think in need of editing, but as the book went on I found myself being drawn into it. This is a good example of where book group has made me read something that otherwise I would have abandoned. I know that several other members of our book group also struggled at the beginning but I think we all forgave Harris by the end of the story.

‘Gillespie and I’  really surprised me. The cover art and blurb led me to expect a fairly run of the mill historical novel telling the life of an artist through the eyes of one of his old friends. I do enjoy a historical novel and am quite happy to be seduced by atmosphere just as much as by plot. In reality, this is a very dark tale of child abduction that challenges your perceptions and really makes you wonder just how much you know about the characters. The whole story is told from the point of view of one woman and by the end it is far from clear how much of what you have read is the true version of events and how much is her selective memories. There was a lot of discussion about this at book group, which to me indicates a good choice of book because those stories that don’t hold any controversy don’t keep us chatting until the library closes. Our opinions on the guilt and innocence of the different characters varied and I think it was clever of Harris to tell a complete story while at the same time leaving so much open to the reader’s own imagination.

So, although I probably wouldn’t have read past the prologue without the prompting of book group, I am definitely glad I did – it is not very often that a book takes me so completely by surprise. I’ve now booked my tickets to see what the author has to say about it all when she talks at the Edinburgh Libraries event in September and am looking forward to hearing her view on things!

I forgot to take a picture of the cover of this one before I returned it to the library so I’ve taken the image from the book’s page on Goodreads.

Happy reading,

Vinx

Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith

We’re a few days into March now (where did February go?) and I’m sure some of you have noticed that I haven’t yet posted anything for my book challenge for February. Well, I may be running late with the blog updates but on February 27th I finished Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith. This was first published as a book in 1892 so it qualifies for my 1890s book. I read it on the kindle so I haven’t got a picture of the cover – it was another of those that don’t have an illustrated front page in the kindle version.

I have to say that I wasn’t overly enamoured of this book. I can see the appeal but for me there just wasn’t enough to get my teeth stuck into. It is a fictional diary of an ordinary bank worker, telling us all about his friends and the somewhat questionable behaviour of his son. There are some funny moments – I liked the panic that ensued after he painted the bath red, only for it to all get washed off in the bath and looking like blood. It’s a reasonable book to dip into, but didn’t really have enough to it to keep me hooked.

Next: 1900s – following Gill’s recommendation I’ve requested Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by MR James from the library and am looking forward to that one.

Happy reading!

Vinx