Mainstream Authors That I Still Haven’t Read

14/11/2023 Cassie2 Comments

Firstly, I want to apologise for disappearing for another couple of weeks – I went back to work at the beginning of the month after having been off for the best part of 2 months with a slipped disk and a torn tendon in my hip. That adjustment to going back to work has been exhausting – combination of reducing painkillers so I’m capable of working and having to use my brain etc etc. But the physio is finally starting to work, I’m getting some of my mobility back, I can now walk about a quarter of mile without needing to sit down and hopefully I should be going home at the end of the month! (I’ve been at my partners since July because of these issues!)

And now we move on to the regularly scheduled posting

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.

This week’s topic is Top Ten Mainstream Popular Authors that I Still Have Not Read
I don’t pay a huge amount of attention to who is or isn’t ‘mainstream’ or popular, but based on things that everyone seems to talk about, and last years Goodreads Choice Awards:

Colleen Hoover
Richard Osman
Sally Rooney
I’ve tried reading all three of these. I got about a page and a bit into one of their books, and promptly took them back to the library. Just not a writing style that worked for me

Emily Henry
Emily St John Mantel
RF Kuang
They’re on the TBR, I just haven’t quite to them yet, but I want to!

Rebecca Yarros
Brandon Sanderson
I’m just not that into fantasy and they don’t appeal to me

Travis Baldree
Tamsyn Muir
I’ve hyped Gideon The Ninth and Legends & Lattes up so much in my mind that I’m scared to start and not like them

How about you – are there mainstream/popular authors that you’re not reading?

books

Sunday Reading Wrapup

29/10/2023 Cassie1 Comment

What are you currently reading?

M.T. Clanchy – From Memory to Written Record: England 1066-1307 47% read. I’ve said this before – this book was written to be written, not to be read. It’s utterly fascinating but it’s a serious slog
DK Publishing – SuperSimple Chemistry 18% read. I picked this up on the Libby app, I didn’t realise it was a bite-size revision guide LOL but I’ve been on a science kick lately and it looked interesting. It is.
Imogen Edwards-Jones – The Witches of St. Petersburg 65% read. I’m feeling a little meh on this one. It has some good bits but mostly interspersed with blah. I don’t really care about the characters but I’m kinda curious where it goes. Mostly reading to fill the Russia prompt on a Round The World reading challenge.
Claire Heywood – The Shadow Of Perseus 49% read. Picked it up from the library, and I am loving this, y’all. It’s being told from the women in his life, so far I’ve read Danae and Medusa, and moving to Andromeda. So much love!
Stel Pavlou – Decipher 40% read, still absolutely batshit and I fucking love it! grins a bit like Matthew Reilly’s Temple, it has all the best bits of crazy sci-fi & pseudoscience & pseudohistory, with just enough of the actual stuff… kind of Ancient Aliens. LOL
Matthew Reilly – Ice Station 35% read, not loving it quite as much as Temple but it’s still a thoroughly enjoyable read. Maybe a little similar plotline-wise in places to Decipher but a very different approach.

I think my goal for the weekend is to finish either Witches Of St Petersburg or The Shadow of Perseus

What did you recently finish reading?

Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone – The Warlock of Firetop Mountain 4/5 Li and I discovered we both loved Choose Your Own Adventure & Fighting Fantasy books when we were kids, so naturally we checked this out of the library and had a super nerdy date night. It took us 4 attempts to get through – Li drawing the map of our adventure while I read the book out.
Raynor Winn – The Salt Path 4/5 This had been on my TBR for ages, I saw one of her other books in the library so checked to see if they had this one, which they did and it was bloody brilliant, I could barely put it down.
Janna Levin – Black Hole Survival Guide 3/5. Like I said, I’ve been on a science kick recently, this was actually one of Li’s library books but I ended up reading it as well. I understood about 60% of the actual science, but could follow what Levin was saying about 90% of the time. Throughly enjoyed my trip into a black hole grins
Kris Hallenga – Glittering a Turd 4.5. I picked this one up on Libby purely based on the title, didn’t look to see what it was about. And I’m glad I didn’t, because I probably wouldn’t have read this, if I’d known it was a memoir of someone living with stage 4 cancer. But it’s amazing and highly recommended!
Angela Kelly – The Other Side Of The Coin 4/5. Another random Libby read (I love the app for that LOL) but I couldn’t resist it. A memoir of the Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Personal Advisor, Curator, Wardrobe and In-house Designer, filled with so many lovely anecdotes and fascinating details about what goes into dressing The Queen. And lovely never-seen-before candid photos. I thoroughly enjoyed it – and Li knows I did because of how much I read out loud to her LOL

What do you think you’ll read next?

Meik Wiking – The Little Book of Lykke
Katja Pantzar – The Finnish Way: Finding Courage, Wellness, and Happiness Through the Power of Sisu
Both books I picked up from the library based on how much I loved the Hygge books. I don’t know if I’ll enjoy them, but I’m curious and they’re due back next week so definitely moving to the top of the pile LOL

top ten tuesday

Most Intimidating Books

24/10/2023 Cassie11 Comments

This week’s topic of ‘atmospheric books’ doesn’t appeal to me, so I’m picking one from the archives: Most Intimidating Books

I’ve actually only been able to come up with 79 (I thought of 2 more in the shower LOL) for this, all from my TBR – though I’m sure there are many more out there that I want to read but am intimidated by, I’m just completely blanking on them. If I think of any, I will update the post with them

Travis Baldree – Legends & Lattes The original cozy fantasy. I own it, I specifically went out and purchased it, almost a year ago, because I want to read it. It sounds amazing and I think I’m really going to love it… but I’ve hyped it up so much that I can’t quite bring myself to start because what if I don’t like it?
Michael Connelly – The Black Echo I know I’ve read it before, but the read date isn’t logged on Goodreads so that means it was well over a decade ago. I remember Mum and I reading it, along with some of the rest of the series, and we managed to pick up a lot of the books from charity shops. But there are so many books in the series that re-reading the first one becomes a huge commitment.
Marian Keyes – Rachel’s Holiday I loved Marian Keyes books when I was younger, but they were read so long ago, there’s no rating or read date on GoodReads, and that’s something I want to work on. I re-read Watermelon & Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married last year and it did not hold up to my nostalgia-tinted glasses of ‘OMG I LOVE MARIAN KEYES’, and her books have always featured in ‘favourite books’, so now I don’t know if I want to re-read the rest to have them logged properly. Plus, her books are quite chunky ones so that’s a thing in an of itself.
Stephen King – The Stand As above, I want to properly log all the books I own, and I fucking love Stephen King, especially his older stuff and The Stand has always been a favourite. I’ve always loved a good plague, y’know? But, in the wake of COVID-19 and all my anxieties stemming from the pandemic… I’m terrified to pick it back up
Tamsyn Muir – Gideon The Ninth Y’all have no idea how much I want to read this. It’s literally been sold to me as ‘lesbian necromancers in space’, and really how am I supposed to resist that? But, a bit like Legends & Lattes, the hype around it has me nervous to even pick it up, let alone start reading.

Anne Rice – Prince Lestat I’m actually a little embarrassed that I haven’t read the last three of the Vampire Chronicles books. I don’t even know if I can explain why I can’t bring myself to do it. I guess it’s another case of being scared not to like it, especially as Rice said the series was finished with Blood Canticle, and then she went and found God, wrote a bunch of Christian books, then lost God again and came back to the vampires and it makes me… wary for lack of a better word.
Samantha Shannon – The Priory Of The Orange Tree Have you seen the size of the damn book? It’s huge. This is one that Booktok has managed to pique my interest in, but the length of the book is intimidating, and I’m not the biggest fantasy fan so… I don’t know.
Oscar Wilde – The Picture Of Dorian Gray Another one that’s been sitting on my shelf, mocking me, for years. I know the general story, I like the general story but I don’t have the best experience reading classic literature and I’m scared of not liking it
Malala Yousafzai – I Am Malala I have had this one on my TBR for years, it’s sitting right there on the top of my smallest bookshelf (it’s too tall for the shelves, so it’s on the top). I want to read it, I think she’s an amazing young woman. But at the same time, it feels like it’s going to be so… much

weekly wednesday blogging challenge

Favourite Scary Monster

19/10/2023 Cassie4 Comments

This week’s Weekly Wednesday Blogging Challenge question is Favorite Scary Monster and while I don’t think I have a specific single favourite monster, I fucking love vampires.

I grew up on a diet of Buffy and Anne Rice. I snuck into the cinema, definitely under 18, to see Interview because it was Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and vampires, what was I supposed to do? Fell in love, went straight to WHSmith and picked up the paperbacks of Interview, The Vampire Lestat and The Queen Of The Damned and the rest is history. I have a love/hate relationship with Lestat and Louis, I adore Armand & Daniel, and I still want to work for the Talamasca. QOTD is still, to this day, one of my favourite books. The Night Island is just ♥

Throw in Poppy Z Brite’s Lost Souls and yeah.

I’m not a fan of things like Twilight, read The Vampire Diaries many years ago but am not sold on the show, can take or leave The Originals. I prefer my vampires to be bloodthirsty monsters, not filled with teen angst, y’know?

I also love a good haunting and/or demonic possession grins

top ten tuesday

Books With Weather-Related Titles

17/10/2023 Cassie18 Comments

This week’s topic doesn’t appeal to me, so I’m picking one from a couple of weeks ago that I missed: Books with Weather Events/Words in the Title/on the Cover
(I’m picturing a list of titles with weather-related words in them like storm, rain, blizzard, flood, lightning, hail, snow, wind, etc. OR covers with lightning/storms in the picture.)

Matthew Reilly – Ice Station
Carlos Ruiz Zafón – The Shadow Of The Wind
Cecilia Ahern – Where Rainbows End
Stephen King – The Mist
Richard Castle – Heat Wave

Barbara Sophia Tammes – A Blueprint for Your Castle in the Clouds
Guy de la Bédoyère – Gods with Thunderbolts
Sally Malcolm – Permafrost
Rick Riordan – Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief
Jaimie Admans – Snowflakes At The Little Christmas Tree Farm

That was legit a lot harder than I thought it would be. I figured I’d have read loads of books with storm, thunder, or lightning in the title but no! I did have fun scrolling through 13 years of GoodReads books read though!

www wednesday

What I’m Reading Wednesday

11/10/2023 CassieLeave a comment

WWW Wednesday was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?

From Memory to Written Record – England 1066-1307 by M.T. Clanchy It’s a history of writing and record keeping in England. It’s interesting but it’s one of those books that was written to be written, not written to be read and it’s a bit of a slog. Fascinating but not an easy read at ALL. I’m just under halfway through.
Murder at Queen’s Landing by Andrea Penrose Book 4 in the Wrexford & Sloane series, and just as enjoyable as the others. I love how the characters are getting more fleshed out, and we’re learning so much more about them. Although the growing UST between Wrexford & Sloane is starting to bug me, but then it always does. I’m 70% through and its due back to Libby tomorrow night, so this evening/tonight I’ll be focusing on finishing it.
Black Hole Survival Guide by Janna Levin Physics is… not generally my thing. But last week I read one of Li’s library books about Quantum Mechanics, and this one just jumped off the shelf. It’s written very plainly and I’m actually understanding the science of black holes which is awesome.
Temple by Matthew Reilly This book just keeps getting more and more bonkers, and honestly I fucking love it! I’m 80% of the way through now and on track to finish it this week.
Kitty’s Countryside Dream by Christie Barlow and in my favourite style of books, a grandmother Kitty didn’t know she had, just died and left her a chicken farm! I’ve only just started it, but I am a fan of Christie Barlow so I’m looking forward to finding out what happens

What did you recently finish reading?

A Regency Guide to Modern Life by Carly Lane which I gave 4 stars to. A really fun little book written in the style of an agony aunt column, answered by a Regency Lady A, but to today’s life problems. The illustrations were also amazing
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie because apparently I’m trying all the new things as I work my way through the non-fiction section of Honiton library. Another 4-star read, a published version of a TED talk the author gave about what feminism means and some of the less obvious divides between men and not-men.
Quantum Mechanics by Jim Al-Khalili is the aforementioned physics book that Li had out of the library. I started reading this at 23:45 on Sunday which you would not think would be the optimum time to learn about quantum physics. And yet Al-Khalili broke everything down to a point I could understand and Li and I had some amazing late night/early morning conversations about subatomic particles. I legit want to know more now because y’all, this is fascinating shit!

I also DNFed Angel Of The Crows by Katherine Addison. Essentially, a supernatural steampunk Sherlock fanfic which started off really strong, but the book tried to do too much, and started getting a little bit ridiculous. You know those fics that keep going because the author doesn’t know how to end the story? Yeah, I DNFed at 46% when there was a random curveball of ‘oh, BTW, Watson (who’s the narrator) is actually a woman’… completely out of nowhere, and that was a few hundred pages after being told Watson was a hellhound. I just… no.

What do you think you’ll read next?

But then… I’m not great at sticking to these so LOL

weekly wednesday blogging challenge

Creative Halloween Costumes

11/10/2023 Cassie3 Comments

This week’s Weekly Wednesday Blogging Challenge question is The Most Creative Halloween Costume I’ve Worn and the short answer is ‘not applicable’

I’m sure I must have at some point, but there’s genuinely nothing that sticks in my mind about having ever actually donned a Halloween costume.

OK no – there was that Halloween Steve Carlson gig in London many years back now where I had one a fucking incredible corset and devil horns, and Natalie did my makeup and stuff. But it wasn’t exactly a ‘creative costume’.

(I did almost fall out of the corset at least once, and more than one friend buried their face in my boobs while I was wearing it. It was a fucking amazing corset LMAO)

I do recall Kane fucking loved it when I wore it at a con the following week. Natalie and I had a photo op with him, we both wore the corsets and he was all “I’m surrounded by boobs”.
I wonder where that photo is ponders

And I do nearly always have my kitty ears on at gigs and cons but again, not exactly creative, or a costume. Or Halloween specific.

I don’t… dressing up/wearing costumes feels uncomfortable for me. Don’t get me wrong – I love seeing other people’s amazing costumes, and one of my favourite things at conventions is seeing fantastic cosplay outfits. But it’s not a me thing to do.

I don’t like… I don’t like being seen, I don’t like standing out and being noticed. And the idea of wearing something that is designed for me to be noticed in is… not a nice one.

top ten tuesday

Reading goals check-in

10/10/2023 Cassie15 Comments

This week’s topic doesn’t appeal to me, so I’m picking one from a couple of weeks ago that I missed: Reading Goals I Still Want to Accomplish Before the End of the Year
We’ve just begun the last quarter of the year! What bookish goals would you still like to accomplish? If you participated in TTT’s Bookish Goals for 2023 topic this past January, update us on which goals you’ve achieved, which you’ve given up on, and which ones you’re still working on!

Clear one pile of the physical TBR
insert hysterical laughter here
Of course, it hasn’t helped that I’ve been stuck in Devon without access to my piles for a few months… but I’ve put together a wee ‘rota’ of all the ways I have access to books and I’m planning on using that.

Read 50 books
I actually adjusted this goal twice, and it’s currently at a goal of 80 – and I’ve read 70 books already this year. I’m wondering if this might be the year I hit 100 for the first time.

Blog 3x a week
I seem to go in fits and spurts, still working on it. Think it’s going to be a work-in-progress for a while longer… and I still need to figure out the social media side of things

Try to only read onebook at a time
That did not work as a realistic goal for me and my ADHD, but I do seem to have settled at 5 being a good number

Finish Bill Bryson bibliography
And so naturally, I’ve read… no Bryson books this year facepalm

Then, a quick look at the reading challenges I’ve picked up on storygraph:
Reading Rainbow 100% complete, 12 books read! 😀
2023 Genre challenge 100% complete, 10 books read! 😀
Storygraph genre challenge 90% complete, book selected for the last one
On the cover 88% complete, 14 books read< (and 1 in progress). You wouldn’t think it would be so hard to find a book with a mask on the cover LMAO
50 women 74% complete, 37 books by women read so far this year
Alphabet challenge 69% complete, 18 books read – just the awkward ones like E, I, J, K, U, V, X, Z to go and I’m probably going to grab random books from the library!
Storygraph onboarding 50%, 3 books read and books selected for the other 3
Around the world 40% complete, 4 books read, and 2 more in progress, with books picked for all prompts

I also need to update my reading journal so that might be plan for this afternoon.

All in all, I think I’m doing pretty well and I are pleased 🙂

top ten tuesday

Funny Book Titles

26/09/202330/09/2023 CassieLeave a comment

This week’s topic doesn’t appeal to me, so I’m picking one from the archives of Funny Book Titles because I’m falling quickly into the cozy and/or paranormal mystery (and a little paranormal romance, lets be honest LOL) world and I am fucking loving some of the wonderful puns that these books have.

Chris Abernathy – Paw and Order
Sarah May Bird – Feline Deadly
Casey Blair – A Coup of Tea
Jessica Clare – What the Hex?
Jane Hinchley – Ghost Mortem

Erin Johnson – With Scream & Sugar
Kate Johnson – Hex Appeal
Maisy Marple – Burger & Dies
Chelsea Thomas – Murder on the Orient Espresso
Nancy Warren – Bakers Coven

Honestly, that was a LOT harder than I expected it to be. I usually find loads of really funny, punny, titles when I’m getting my ebook-deal emails, when I’m pootling around Amazon and Goodreads… but of course, because I was looking, I couldn’t find any. Always the way. Next time, I’ll start a list as I find them! LOL

weekly wednesday blogging challenge

Misheard Song Lyrics

07/09/2023 Cassie2 Comments

This week’s Weekly Wednesday Blogging Challenge asks about Song lyrics I’ve misheard and there’s two that always make me smile.

The first of them means I get to ramble a little about my love for Raintown – you’re utterly shock, I can tell. So, there’s a song on their first album called The Road Never Ends.

The actual lyric is ‘pain and sweat’, but… uhh… ‘penis wet’ is what I heard. giggles I even tweeted them about it, the day before a gig, and after the gig, the first thing that Claire said to me was that she wanted to know which lyric I’d misheard because they could not figure it out.
I’ve never heard them do this song live, and I think I’m kinda glad because I don’t think I’d be able to hold the giggles in!

The second misheard lyric is a really popular one and means I get to indulge in my Swiftie – also, hilariously, I didn’t mishear the lyric until I saw someone saying about it online, and now I can’t hear the correct lyric.

It is of course, ‘got a lonely starbucks lover, who’ll tell you I’m insane’