Category: Reading

  • J is for … Just call me a quitter

    I tried, I swear I did. J looked like it was going to become another H for me. I started a couple of books but they really weren’t to my taste. So I then cast about for recoemmendations. My excellent mother made the excellent suggestion that I read Jane Eyre. Now, for some background on…

  • I is for … Indulgent re-reading

    After the drama of last week’s H read, I decided to relax this week and allowed myself to indulge in a re-read. Steven Gould’s Jumper series is one of my absolute favourite books. Jumper would certainly go with me to a desert island, and the follow-up, Impulse, is equally delightful, telling the story of original…

  • H is for … Hard to Find

    I’ll confess, I was starting to panic, dear reader. I finished my G book, the fabulous Goldfish Boy, and I had no H book lined up. Searching Amazon got me nowhere. Then, in the space of two days, newsletters I’m subscribed to recommended TWO books that started with a H. Brilliant, I thought. Yeah…not so…

  • G is for … Gorgeous Goldfish

    This was recommended to me the significant 12-year-old in my life, and I – a YA-loving adult – utterly fell in love with it. Diverse writing and writing about mental illness is “on trend” right now (a good thing, imo), and The Goldfish Boy deserves all the success it gets. It’s a very convincing account of a…

  • F is for … Fabulous Fantasy

    Last week I read an entire series. This week I finished another. Now, that’s making me sound like some kind of a superwoman who can read four or five books a week. I so wish that was true, but unfortunately I can’t read quite that fast (damn you, real life!). In actual fact, I’ve been…

  • E is for … Elementary, my dears!

    My “E” pick was the Elementals series by Michelle Madow. I was really pleased that I’d got a bit ahead of myself where my schedule’s concerned, so I had chance to read this series in one, glorious gulp (I got through them in a week; not that I’m boasting or anything. Ahem). It’s a cracking…

  • D is for … demons in Regency London

    Well, my reading challenge is making my reading matter varied, if nothing else. This week’s read, The Dark Days Club, was plucked out of my TBR pile, where it had been languishing for months. I think we got off to a bad start due to a misunderstanding. I was browsing in Waterstones when I saw…

  • C is for … Cor, I liked this one!

    Another random find this week. For my ‘C’ read I picked Madeline Freeman’s Crystal Magic from the whole of Amazon. This merged things I like with things I often don’t. It’s got magic in it – big tick from me, and unexplained eerie powers – now you’re talking! It also has a US High School…

  • B is for … barely a story

    Okay, that’s rather unkind, but there is a danger this post may turn into a slight rant. My “B” book selection was BR Paulson’s Barely Alive. Now, one thing I’m loving about this challenge is that I’m finding all kinds of new and wonderful things. Barely Alive was pitched as a zombie romance – now,…

  • My Alphabet Challenge: A is for …

    …Among Wolves. And that turned out to be a fine start to my new reading year. It’s post-apocalyptic and with a reasonably familiar premise, but the narrator was excellent, and the finale was pulse-raisingly dramatic stuff. Please watch out for my full review of Among Wolves, which will be on the Paisley Piranha site shortly. So that’s…