Weekly Wednesday #1

This is a new and hopefully regular feature on the Outsider. I really want to get back into blogging more than twice a month so fingers crossed this will help! I'll mention books I'm reading or have read, new books that may have accidentally landed on my desk, and movies that I've been watching - both big and small screen. Let's start with the books!

Currently Reading

After devouring Now You See Her I was so excited to receive a copy of Come Back For Me in the post a couple of weeks ago. An unknown body buried in the garden and a small island community is making for some tense reading! It's not out until July 11th in hardback but it came out in e-book format on June 1st, and if you hurry you can pick it up for 99p as a limited time deal on Amazon during June. I'm taking part in the blog tour so look out for my review on publication day!

Now the twins are 9 (!!!) they're reading more, especially E, so I like to check out books I think she might like. The Middler is by Kirsty Applebaum and published by the wonderful Nosy Crow. It's about Maggie, the middle child, her older brother Jed and her younger brother Trig, forbidden friendship and betrayal. I'm only about 25 pages in but loving it so far.

Up Next

This is the first of my YALC 2019 reads and I cannot wait! I loved The Wren Hunt so much, it was one of my top 10 books of 2018. In fact, I'm contemplating doing a re-read before delving into The Wickerlight but trying to create a YALC reading schedule before I decide.

On The Big Screen

 I'm off to see Dark Phoenix tomorrow, and apart from the fact that Sophie Turner is playing Jean Grey, I've managed to avoid spoilers and reviews. Really hoping this one lives up to the hype!

I saw Godzilla: King Of The Monsters yesterday and loved it! I love monster movies and will quite happily watch them for days! There was a man sitting in front of me though who obviously didn't share my love of Mothra because he alternated between playing with his phone and falling asleep and snoring - loudly...

Can't Wait For...

Hurrah! A new Jackson Brodie from one of my favorites, Kate Atkinson. This novel has been a long time coming and I always just assumed that there would be no more new Jackson stories. Very happy to be proved wrong! Extra bonus - Jason Isaacs, who played Jackson in the television adaptation, is going to be at ComicCon 2019...

Book Haul #117, Or How To Survive The Holidays...

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews where we can share what new books we've picked up this past week be they bought, borrowed or downloaded. There are also lots of other 'book haul' memes out there for you to choose from!

Welcome to 2016!!! I'm so glad that the holidays are done & dusted, I don't think I stopped to do much of anything until this week and the insane amount of work I need to catch up on is not funny at all. Not having my Kindle Fire tablet is really impinging on my reading and requesting. I can't download anything from Edelweiss and a couple of titles I was approved for on Netgalley have already been archived because of fail... My new one is meant to arrive any time between January 12 and 18 so I'm counting down the days! Strangely enough I haven't compensated for this by rushing out and buying lots of physical copies of books instead.

Bought

Review Books

Book Haul #100

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews where we can share what new books we've picked up this past week be they bought, borrowed or downloaded. There are also lots of other 'book haul' memes out there for you to choose from!

My name is Fi and I'm a bookaholic, it's been thirty eight days since I last bought a book and I want need to buy books!!! Seriously though, I'm still on the straight and narrow when it comes to book buying. I think this may well be the longest I have ever gone without buying a book since I was too young to buy books myself, a very long time ago... I suspect that the amazing review books I've received this week have something to do with it all again. I've been so excited about review books that I've not had the inclination (much!) to buy books. Only thing is my last couple of requests were approved this week and one last-minute request on Netgalley/Edelweiss and I got great book mail so Operation Netgalley/Edelweiss Cold Turkey hasn't started yet. Definitely Monday though... 

For Review

Cleo | The Girl At Midnight | Sisters of Blood & Spirit

A Court of Thorns & Roses | A Darker Shade of Magic | Finn Fancy Necromancy

Disclaimer | The Mechanical | Pacific Fire

Waiting On Wednesday #52 - Hexed

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week's choice is -

Hexed - Michelle Krys
ISBN - 9780857533494 (UK)
          - 9780385743372
Publisher - Doubleday (UK)
              - Delacorte Press (US)
Expected release date - June 12th 2014 (UK)
                                  - June 10th 2014 (US)
Find - Goodreads/AmazonUK/AmazonUS/Book Depository

'If high school is all about social status, Indigo Blackwood has it made. Sure, her quirky mom owns an occult shop, and a nerd just won’t stop trying to be her friend, but Indie is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend and a social circle powerful enough to ruin everyone at school. Who wouldn’t want to be her?

Then a guy dies right before her eyes. And the dusty old family Bible her mom is freakishly possessive of is stolen. But it’s when a frustratingly sexy stranger named Bishop enters Indie’s world that she learns her destiny involves a lot more than pom-poms and parties. If she doesn’t get the Bible back, every witch on the planet will die. And that’s seriously bad news for Indie, because according to Bishop, she’s a witch too.

Suddenly forced into a centuries-old war between witches and sorcerers, Indie’s about to uncover the many dark truths about her life—and a future unlike any she ever imagined on top of the cheer pyramid.' - Goodreads

This sounds fabulous! Witches and missing books combined with a cheerleader must be fun, reading good things about Hexed already and cannot wait! It's also the first book in a series, The Witch Hunter, and a short prequel called Blackwood will be available in electronic form also in June 2014.

What are you waiting for this week?

Book Haul #50

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews and Letterbox Love is a UK edition hosted by Narratively Speaking. Here we can share what new books we've picked up this past week. There are also lots of other 'book haul' memes out there for you to choose from!

I've had an amazing week, the obvious highlight being the signing I went to on Tuesday featuring Patrick Rothfuss and Scott Lynch... Totally worth the two hour wait in the queue and they were both such lovely chaps! Back at my dad's for two weeks, his phone is fixed but internet access remains spotty - on and off quicker than I can keep up with! I'm putting up with it though and trying to draft posts as and when it lets me.  Anyway, here's what I got this week - considering I was stood in amongst the shelves at Forbidden Planet for so long I'm surprised I didn't end up with more!

Bought

The Republic of Thieves - Scott Lynch

Mort - Terry Pratchett

Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett

Hide Me Among the Graves - Tim Powers

The Demon King - Cinda Williams Chima

Rags & Bones - Melissa Marr

Kindle

Tyger Tyger - Kersten Hamilton

The Iron Bells - Jeanette Battista

The Ghost House - Helen Phifer

Won

The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch

From Gollancz

Beauty - Sarah Pinborough

All in all, a great week for me - special thanks to Gollancz for sending me a copy of Beauty, looking forward to reading it once I've read Poison and Charm. And yay, new Terry Pratchett (Raising Steam) and old Terry Pratchett (Mort) re-released in hardcover with a luscious cover. To start with the first 21 books in the Discworld series are all being re-released in this special hardcover with new covers and being the fan that I am I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy most if not all of them!

Life After Life - Kate Atkinson

Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
ISBN UK - 9780385618670
          US -  9780316176484
Publisher UK - Doubleday
                US - Reagan Arthur Books
Release date UK - March 14th 2013
                     US - April  2nd 2013
Find - Book Depository/Goodreads

Ursula Todd is born on a snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd dies on a snowy night in 1910. And so the story begins... Ursula is destined to be born, live and die many, many times in many varying ways. Each time she lives a little bit differently and a little bit longer. In some lives she dies as a child, some as an adult, whilst on holiday or working as an air raid warden or even simply rescuing a dog. When approaching what might have been her death in a different life she experiences deja vu, a sense of urgency that maybe she's done this before and something's not quite right and though she doesn't know why, somethings needs to be done differently.

Behind the scenes are Ursula's family - parents, brothers, sisters and an outrageous aunt - who are all caught up in the constant circle of living and dying. Her parents (especially her mother) know there's something different about Ursula and even send her to a psychiatrist after one incident in which she tries to alter history. Her younger brother Teddy is also caught up in the living/dying cycle, sometimes dying young, or as an adult. My favorite members of the family were solid, dependable Pamela and the completely irreverent Aunt Izzie who was a law unto herself, especially given the time period.

Ultimately, the aim of the story appears to be whether Ursula succeeds or not in her goal of killing Hitler as is seen in the prologue, and to see how or if the world changes by altering things with the killing of a major historical figure. I don't read much about World War II - fiction or non-fiction - but Kate Atkinson's attention to detail is impeccable, it definitely kept me turning the pages as the chapters become longer when Ursula stays alive for longer periods after she changes her choices in each life and we become more immersed in wartime London (or Germany/Austria). I had a couple of niggles about Life After Life, firstly I didn't really like the inclusion of Eva Braun as a character, as a friend of Ursula's and felt that her story went on a bit too long for someone who wasn't a major character. The second niggle was the ending as it just... ended! I was left a bit adrift and wondering if I'd missed something, skipped a few pages or something but my sister said something along the same lines so definitely not just me!

I'm a huge fan of Kate Atkinson's work and have been since I read Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Human Croquet and Not The End Of The World. Most people though know her for her Jackson Brodie detective books, and the television adaptations starring the rather lovely Jason Isaacs as Jackson! Life After Life is definitely up there with the rest of them and I look forward to seeing what Ms Atkinson comes up with next.