Writing and reviews with an environmental, science fiction, and fantasy touch
Witchbone Book One ~ The Goblin’s Winter: a paranormal fairy tale is a very long title for a book. Several other things make me wonder whether the author took heed of editorial advice for MG tales [also demonstrated by the
The Scorpio Races – spotted as I was leaving the library, always looking for Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Boys, which has been on my TBR forever. The Scorpio Races has nothing to do with that book, but, boy, what a gem.
My reaction to The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die almost made me do a mini-review and give you another today to catch up on my reading. But the more I try to explain how I felt about said Aunt, the longer
Crow Country was the first Mark Cocker book I came across, and realised it was a Norfolk book. Years ago I ran a ‘Local Hero’ reading challenge, where participants could add books about their own local patch – the size
Galileo’s Theme Park is an anthology, part of Third Flatiron’s series. They call for submissions about three times a year. You can see future calls, as well as past publications at their website here. Galileo’s Theme Park ed Juliana Rew
The Unwinding: Gin’s Story came as a Net-galley suggestion. Juliana Rew is the editor of the Third Flatiron Anthologies, so I was keen to see what sort of book she wrote herself. I am now totally insecure as a writer.
Pan’s Labyrinth came out on July 2nd. Wait a minute, I hear you say, surely that’s been out for ages? Well, not the book, apparently. Guillermo del Toro directed the film and Cornelia Funke has helped him get it into
Needlemouse is out this week, or at least, so it says in my Netgalley list. Goodreads says it’s been out since April. Since the publishers were kind enough to send me an ARC via NetGalley I’m sticking to what it
The Dark Portal is the first in the Deptford Mice series by Robin Jarvis. I added it to my list ages ago, possibly at that Children’s Fiction workshop I did so long ago. Then I found a copy in the
The Seagull is the 8th in the Vera novels, and my first. This is thanks to my bookclub reading them out of order. If you’ve seen an episode of Vera on TV, you won’t mind a bit, at least, I
Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer. The surname rang a bell, so I requested the ARC from Netgalley – I wasn’t disappointed! Lara’s famous aunt is Lucinda Green, champion three-day eventer. Like Lara, I grew up on Lucinda’s books of her
The Lie Tree was a non-winning nomination in our Great Middle Grade Reads Book of the Month last year. I thought it sounded good so I added it to my TBR. Then I saw it in the library…. This one
‘Kill the Black One First’ was a phrase shouted by rioters at Brixton as the police officers formed a barrier. This memoir from Michael Fuller is a powerful and thought-provoking book. I’m very grateful to the publishers and Net-galley for the
Sassinak was listed for one of the Space Opera Group’s books of the month for April, and unusually I got it read within the timescale. It’s another for my SpaceTime Reading Challenge – which seems to be going rather well
The Porpoise was published Thursday 9th May. The publisher Vintage, allowed me an ARC via Net-Galley. The only work I’ve read by Mark Haddon was the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, so I wondered how this (adult)
The Stone Circle came out in February in the UK, and for once I hadn’t pre-ordered it. So when I was on NetGalley’s original site by accident and saw it on offer for readers, I jumped at the chance. This
Heiða is my book for R for Review, which is my regular Saturday topic. I’m breaking out of my A to Z Challenge Flashbacks to bring you a review of a fascinating book published on Thursday (18th April). Thank you,
Doggerland relates to the land under the North Sea, off the coast of East Anglia, where the Dogger Bank forms a great sand spit of relatively shallow water, sometimes exposed at low tide. Once there was a vast tract of
Boy X sang to me from the teen shelf of my library bus. I thought of all those years I miss the letter X off my Alphabet reading challenge. As I walked home with it, I realised I’m not doing
Revelation Space was the December book of the month for the Space Opera Group on Goodreads. Yes, I’m a bit late reading it, due to my library not stocking it, even thought they had the second in the series in.
A Man Called Ove was my (physical) bookclub’s read for February. I’d heard of it, and thought it was on my TBR, but it wasn’t. Maybe I’d rejected it after going down the TBR hole once upon a time. A
Dining out with the Gas Giants is the third in a wonderful series by Clare O’Beara. I started with the second, loved it, and added the first one last year. I don’t think there’s any problem with that approach. The
The Age of Misadventure is the second novel by Judy Leigh. HarperCollins, the publishers, offered me an ARC through Netgalley, since I’d reviewed A Grand Old Time during last year’s #AtoZChallenge and loved it. Read on to find out what I thought of
Children of Time was January’s Book of the Month for the Space Opera Group on Goodreads. It sounded really interesting, and since I’d finished my own series for the time being, I hoped to read some scifi for a change
Rebel of the Sands first caught my attention because of its gorgeous cover. I think I added it to my list pretty quickly. Then it was nominated in the Goodreads Book of the Year 2016, and I voted for it