Thursday, 7 January 2016
YA Faeries & Fantasy Giveaway!
Welcome to the Faeries & Fantasy Giveaway Hop hosted by BookHounds & I Am A Reader Not A Writer! Up for grabs is a YA book of your choice featuring fantasy, faeries or both, - up to the value of $13 - from the Book Depository as long as they deliver to your country - find the list here. The hop runs from now through until midnight on January 14 2016. All you have to do is follow the instructions in the rafflecopter below and you could be the lucky winner!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Check out the list of blogs taking part here for more chances to win, thanks for entering and good luck!
My Year Of Reading 2015
As reading years go 2015 didn't exactly go to plan for me, in terms of number of books read and challenge targets. I traveled far more last year than I have done for a while and then the inevitable health problems cropped up over the last four months of the year, both of which combined to give my lowest total of books in eight years and a ton of unfinished challenges.
I initially set my target at 365... Who was I trying to kid?! I thought I would have more reading time, not less and so was far too ambitious! By the end of the year this total had come down to 250 and I finished on 261. The last time I read less than that was in 2007 when I spent roughly 14 weeks in hospital!
All Other Challenges
Netgalley & Edelweiss Challenge
My target was 50, I read 28. Not much else to say...
British Books Challenge
The only one I finished, I tracked 21 books but it was more than that by December 31. I lost track of most of my challenge targets somewhere around August. C'est la vie!
Fairy Tale Challenge
I'm disgusted with myself over this. If you're a regular reader you know how fairy tale obsessed I am but I only managed a paltry 3 titles before losing track completely?
2015 TBR Pile Challenge
I went for 50 books in this one and should have smashed that target easily but didn't. Before losing track I'd read 34 books published prior to January 1 2015. It was probably more by the end but no record...
My challenge post for 2016 will go up shortly but I'm limiting myself to Goodreads, 2016 TBR Pile Challenge and the Retelling challenge this year.
Statistics
Total Read - 261
Adult - 120
YA - 71
Middle Grade/Children - 22
Picture Books - 17
Unknown - 31
Source
Own - 89
Library - 72
Kindle - 90
Frem Books - 17
Wednesday, 6 January 2016
Waiting On Wednesday #144 - Roses And Rot
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 -
Imogen and her sister Marin have escaped their cruel mother to attend a prestigious artists’ retreat, but soon learn that living in a fairy tale requires sacrifices, be it art or love in this haunting debut fantasy novel from “a remarkable young writer” (Neil Gaiman).
What would you sacrifice in the name of success? How much does an artist need to give up to create great art?
Imogen has grown up reading fairy tales about mothers who die and make way for cruel stepmothers. As a child, she used to lie in bed wishing that her life would become one of these tragic fairy tales because she couldn’t imagine how a stepmother could be worse than her mother now. As adults, Imogen and her sister Marin are accepted to an elite post-grad arts program - Imogen as a writer and Marin as a dancer. Soon enough, though, they realize that there’s more to the school than meets the eye. Imogen might be living in the fairy tale she’s dreamed about as a child, but it’s one that will pit her against Marin if she decides to escape her past to find her heart’s desire.
Love, love, love the sound of this and can't wait to get my hands on a copy. Love stories about sisters, thrown in a fairy tale slant too and I'm there!
This week's choice is -
Roses And Rot - Kat Howard
ISBN - 9781481451161
Publisher - Saga Press
Release date - June 7 2016
Find - Goodreads | Book Depository
Imogen and her sister Marin have escaped their cruel mother to attend a prestigious artists’ retreat, but soon learn that living in a fairy tale requires sacrifices, be it art or love in this haunting debut fantasy novel from “a remarkable young writer” (Neil Gaiman).
What would you sacrifice in the name of success? How much does an artist need to give up to create great art?
Imogen has grown up reading fairy tales about mothers who die and make way for cruel stepmothers. As a child, she used to lie in bed wishing that her life would become one of these tragic fairy tales because she couldn’t imagine how a stepmother could be worse than her mother now. As adults, Imogen and her sister Marin are accepted to an elite post-grad arts program - Imogen as a writer and Marin as a dancer. Soon enough, though, they realize that there’s more to the school than meets the eye. Imogen might be living in the fairy tale she’s dreamed about as a child, but it’s one that will pit her against Marin if she decides to escape her past to find her heart’s desire.
Love, love, love the sound of this and can't wait to get my hands on a copy. Love stories about sisters, thrown in a fairy tale slant too and I'm there!
Tuesday, 5 January 2016
Top Ten Tuesday #103 - Bookish Resolutions For 2016
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the fabulous girls cover at The Broke & The Bookish. This week's topic is -
Top
I have plenty of bookish/bloggish resolutions I want to stick to this year. most of them in a concerted effort to either save money (to fund a holiday to France and Comic Con) or to declutter (my study/library and my bedroom both look like a library threw up in them, not in a good way...)
This one should be self-explanatory! We all have the same problem, piles of books on our shelves (and floors in some cases) which get overlooked in favor of the shiny and new. This year I am reading from my shelves as much as possible. I was going to be really ruthless and say 'and only from my shelves' but in view of no. 3 I decided to ease up and say...
But not to reserve books in silly amounts as I have been doing for years! I'm allowed up to 30 books at at a time and I know for a fact that
This is the one I'm going to struggle with most because of all the shiny new titles! I am determined to stick to it though. I want to go on holiday and I want to save more money for ComicCon this year - the hotel I'm staying in this year is a bit more expensive but it's an extra night this year and it's close to the venue. If this means no new books so be it! I have allowed myself a handful of preorders from the Book Depository including The Raven King and a hard copy of Every Heart A Doorway which are already paid for so technically no money changes hands in 2016...
I thought about going completely cold turkey on the Netgalley/Edelweiss thing but I've tried before, failed miserably and ended up requesting even more than usual. This is my compromise. If I want to request a new title I have to make sure I have reviewed 5 (or more) previous requests first. This will help to maintain a sensible amount of e-galleys and help bump up that old percentage a bit.
Including Goodreads I was taking part in 5 challenges last year and in the end it just didn't work. This year I think I'm going to limit it to 3, if that. I've set my Goodreads challenge already - 275, reasons for which will be in my challenge wrapup post coming later this week but I'm dithering over a couple of challenges to join for more specific targets.
I spent a lot of 2015 out and about and as a result the blog suffered. Add in the health problems and hospital visits over the last four months of the year and it all turned out rather disastrously. This year I'm going to try and keep a couple of weeks worth of posts in reserve so should the same thing happen again I'm slightly better organized!
This was maybe my biggest fail of the year! I know I wrote some but I discovered a couple of things last year. Firstly, the more I love a book? The harder I find to write a review about it, I have no idea why but there you go. I will try to sort that out this year but just not quite sure how. Secondly, I discovered tat I cannot review historical novels to save my life. As much as I love them there is obviously a mental block about reviewing a historical novel. This is a huge shame because at least one of my all-time favorite authors writes historical fiction. Something else to work on this year...
Friday, 25 December 2015
Thursday, 24 December 2015
Bout Of Books 15
Yes, it's that time again!!! Bout of Books 15 is nearly here and I'm signing up for my
Wednesday, 23 December 2015
Waiting On Wednesday #143 - The Creeper Man
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 -
A spine-chilling psychological thriller from stunning YA talent and author of THE DEAD HOUSE, Dawn Kurtagich.
When Silla and her little sister, Nori, escape London and their abusive father, Aunt Cath's country house feels like a safe haven. Leaving the smog and fear behind, the girls have the love and freedom they never had in their violent home. But slowly, ever so slowly, things begin to unravel.
Aunt Cath locks herself in the attic and spends day and night pacing; every day the surrounding forest inches slowly towards the house; a mysterious boy appears from the enclosing wood offering friendship, and Nori claims that a man watches them from the dark forest. A man with no eyes who creeps ever closer...
A nice festive choice for Christmas this week... Love, love, loved The Dead House so cannot wait to get my hands on The Creeper Man!
This week's choice is -
The Creeper Man - Dawn Kurtagich
ISBN - 9781780622361
Publisher - Orion Children's Books
Release date - July 14 2016
Find - Goodreads | Book Depository
When Silla and her little sister, Nori, escape London and their abusive father, Aunt Cath's country house feels like a safe haven. Leaving the smog and fear behind, the girls have the love and freedom they never had in their violent home. But slowly, ever so slowly, things begin to unravel.
Aunt Cath locks herself in the attic and spends day and night pacing; every day the surrounding forest inches slowly towards the house; a mysterious boy appears from the enclosing wood offering friendship, and Nori claims that a man watches them from the dark forest. A man with no eyes who creeps ever closer...
A nice festive choice for Christmas this week... Love, love, loved The Dead House so cannot wait to get my hands on The Creeper Man!
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