More reading time required Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 (edited) I'll try and update this blog rather more than I did last year's effort! I.e. More than never! Read/started in 2015 January The Shining Girls - Lauren Beukes Before They Are Hanged - Joe Abercrombie February Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook - Terry Pratchett Dragons of Crumbling Castle - Terry Pratchett Dodger's Guide to London - Terry Pratchett Time and Time Again - Ben Elton March A Slip of the Keyboard - Terry Pratchett Last Arguments of Kings - Joe Abercrombie April Life...With No Breaks - Nick Spalding Titanic - Filson Young Jackdaws - Ken Follett May The Man from Petersburg - Ken Follett Fear City - F Paul Wilson The Shadow Rising - Robert Jordan Don't Blink - James Patterson & Howard Donahughe June The Leopard - Jo Nesbo Road Beneath My Feet - Frank Turner July The Twelve - Justin Cronin August The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck Mr Mercedes - Stephen King September Number Ten - Sue Townsend Oh Dear Silvia - Dawn French October Retromancer - Robert Rankin November Dissolution - C J Sansom December Fall of Giants - Ken Follett Edited January 8, 2016 by More reading time required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 (edited) Not sure whether this is will be books finished or started seeing as Fall of Giants is in both last year's & this year's list! Read in 2016 January ----------- Fall of Giants - Ken Follett The Catcher in the Rye - J.D Salinger The Girl in the Spider's Web - David Lagercrantz The Fires of Heaven - Robert Jordan February ------------ March -------- The Winter of the World - Ken Follett The Monogram Murders - Sophie Hannah Revival - Stephen King April ------ Finders Keepers - Stephen King Bazaar of Bad Dreams - Stephen King May ------ Edge of Eternity - Ken Follett June ------- July ------ Bones of the Dragon - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman Secret of the Dragon - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman My Booky Wook 2 - Russell Brand Trigger Warning - Neil Gaiman August ----------- Emma - Jane Austen Lord of Chaos (TWot6) - Robert Jordan Preacher: Gone to Texas - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher: Until the End of the World - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher: Proud Americans - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher: Ancient History - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon September --------- Preacher: Dixie Fried - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher: War in the Sun - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher: Salvation - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher: All Hell's A-Coming - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher: Alamo - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon November -------- The Long War - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter December --------- Revolution - Russell Brand Edited February 15, 2017 by More reading time required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 (edited) My TBR list, alphabetically by author, which has annoyingly only gone down by one. Too much library lending methinks! Mind you all my tree books were still in the garage up until last week so that's my excuse. Alcott, Louisa May - Little Women (Kindle)Austen, Jane - Pride & Prejudice (Kindle)Austen, Jane - Sense & Sensibility (Kindle)Austen, Jane - Mansfield Park (Kindle)Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey (Kindle)Barker, Clive - Abarat x 3Barton, Beverly - The Dying Games (Kindle)Batchelder, Dennis - Soul Identity (Kindle)Beever, Anthony - StalingradBradshaw, John - Cat SenseBronte, Charlotte - Jane Eyre (Kindle)Bryson, Bill - At Home (Kindle)Bryson, Bill - Short history of everything (Kindle)Burgess, Anthony - A Clockwork Orange (Kindle)Campbell, Ramsey - The House on Nazareth HillCampbell, Ramsey - The Gruesome BookCampbell, Ramsey - The Height of the ScreamCampbell, Ramsey - Alone with the HorrorsCampbell, Ramsey - The Hungry MoonCampbell, Ramsey - Ancient ImagesCampbell, Ramsey - The NamelessChaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales (Kindle)Child, Lee - Jack Reacher series x 12 (Kindle)Ciccone, Derek - Painless (Kindle)Collins, Wilkie - The Moonstone (Kindle)Defoe, Daniel - Moll Flanders (Kindle)Dickens, Charles - Bleak House (Kindle)Dickens, Charles - David Copperfield (Kindle)Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities (Kindle)Dixon, E - Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights (Kindle)Donaldson, Stephen - The Chronicles of Thomas CovenantDonaldson, Stephen - The 2nd Chronicles of Thomas CovenantDonaldson, Stephen - The Last Chronicles of Thomas CovenantEliot, George - The Mill on the Floss (Kindle)Eliot, George - Middlemarch (Kindle)Erikson, Steven - Malazan collection 1 (Kindle)Flaubert, Gustav - Madame Bovary (Kindle)Follett, Ken - The Key to Rebecca (Kindle)Forster, E M - Howards End (Kindle)Gaskell, Elizabeth - Wives & Daughters (Kindle)Gaskell, Elizabeth - North & South (Kindle)Hardy, Thomas - Far From the Madding Crowd (Kindle)Herley, Richard - The Penal Colony (Kindle)Hobb, Robin - Dragon Keeper (Kindle)Hobb, Robin - Dragon Haven (Kindle)Homer - The Odyssey (Kindle)Hoover, Thomas - Life Blood (Kindle)Hoover, Thomas - Syndrome (Kindle)Hugo, Victor - Les Miserables (Kindle)Hume, David - The History of England Vol 1 (Kindle)Jacques, Brian - Redwall sagaJames, E L - Fifty shades of greyJordan, Robert - Wheel of Time x 8Joyce, James - Ulysses (Kindle)Kay, Guy Gavriel - Tigana (Kindle)King, Stephen - Dark Tower x 8Knowles, James - The Legends of King Arthur (Kindle)Littell, Johnathan - The Kindly OnesLovecraft, HP - Omnibus 1Lumley, Brian - Vampire World x 3Lumley, Brian - Lost Years x 2Lumley, Brian - E-Branch x 3Lumley, Brian - Harry Keogh & other Weird HeroesLumley, Brian - The TouchMariani, Scott - The Shadow Project (Kindle)McCammon, Robert - Blue WorldMcCammon, Robert - Boy's LifeMcCammon, Robert - Mystery WalkMcCammon, Robert - The Wolf's HourMelville, Herman - Moby Dick (Kindle)Meyers, Stephanie - Twilight saga x 4 (Kindle)Milton, John - Paradise Lost (Kindle)Mitchell, Margaret - Gone with the Wind (Kindle)Mock, Elizabeth C - Shatter (The children of man) (Kindle)Montgomery, L M - Anne of Green Gables (Kindle)Morris, Stan - Surviving the Fog (Kindle)Newman, Kim - Bad DreamsNewman, Kim - JagoNewman, Kim - Unforgivable StoriesPaoline, Christopher - Brinsingr (Kindle)Pepys, Samuel - Diary of Samuel Pepys (Kindle)Pratchett, Terry - The Science of Discworld 1Pratchett, Terry - The Science of Discworld 2 Pratchett, Terry - The Long Mars Pratchett, Terry - The Long War Pratchett, Terry - The Shepherd's Crown Pullman, Phillip - Once upon a Time in the NorthRichardson, Samuel - Clarissa Harlowe (9 vol) (Kindle)Rothfuss, Patrick - The Name of the Wind (Kindle) Sanderson, Brandon - The Alloy of LawShakespeare, William - Complete Works of Shakespeare (Kindle)Simmons, Dan - Hyperion (Kindle)Smith, Clark Ashton - The Emperor of DreamsSmith, Clark Ashton - Out of Space & Time vol 1Steinbeck, John - East of Eden (Kindle)Stephenson, Neal - Reamde (Kindle)Tchaikovsky, Adrian - Empire in Black & Gold (Kindle)Thackeray, William - Vanity Fair (Kindle)Tolkien, J R R - The SilmarillionTolkien, J R R - The Children of Hurin (Kindle)Tolstoy, Leo - Anna Karenina (Kindle)Tzu, Sun - Art of War (Kindle)Various - The Bible (Kindle)Various - LA Noire: The Collected Stories (Kindle)Verne, Jules - A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Kindle)Verne, Jules - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Kindle)Weeks, Brent - Shadow trilogy x 3 (Kindle)Weis, Margaret - Dragonships series x 1Weis/Hickman - The Second Generation (Kindle)Welsh, Irvine - EcstasyWelsh, Irvine - GlueWelsh, Irvine - PornoWelsh, Irvine - The Secrets of the Master ChefWelsh, Irvine - SkagboysWhite, Neil - Fallen Idols (Kindle)Yekov, Kirill - The Last Ringbearer (Kindle) Edited August 17, 2016 by More reading time required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 (edited) Fall of Giants by Ken Follett This story revolves around five families at the time of the outbreak of WW1 & their various roles in it. There's a Welsh family of minors, an English earl, who is also an MP, & his suffragette sister, two Russian brothers -one of whom is a complete d*ck, an American advisor to the president who's a bit pointless and a German nobleman. Their stories intertwine throughout whilst covering such topics as mine safety (or lack thereof), the start of the war, trench warfare, the Somme, women's suffrage, the differences between classes & the Russian revolution. As some of the characters are high up in government, there is an insight to the circumstances that lead up to the start of it. But I have to say, I'm still none the wiser! Not that it wasn't clearly explained in the book, just that the real life reasons for the start of WW1 are so ridiculous! The parts about the main war were really interesting, though later in the book I was a bit bored by the Russian revolution stuff. It all seemed a bit convoluted, but that may have just been because I was more interested in other character's stories at the time. Anyway, whilst it didn't quite hit the heights of Pillars or World Without End, I still really enjoyed it & will look forward to book 2, which is presumably covering WW2. I don't know if any of the same characters will be present - I hope so. 4/5 Edited January 23, 2016 by More reading time required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Begins Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Ah ha! There it is! Great review, I am looking forward to it! Did you feel there were too many characters/ storylines going on? Or does Follett handle that was well as he does in Pillars and WWE? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Great review! Shame it wasn't as good as Pillars or WWE but those were two really great books so hard to top them. I look forward to reading this book, perhaps later in the year. Though it does sound complicated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 Ah ha! There it is! Great review, I am looking forward to it! Did you feel there were too many characters/ storylines going on? Or does Follett handle that was well as he does in Pillars and WWE? He handled it well, overall. I think there needed to be that many characters in order to be able to describe the war preparations of all the involved groups. Even though I thought the American was a bit pointless, he wasn't in there totally without merit as he was advisor to the president so you got to see the American point of view. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 Great review! Shame it wasn't as good as Pillars or WWE but those were two really great books so hard to top them.Maybe it will do by the time I finish the trilogy. If I look on it as having read only a third of the book, then there's still time for it to catch up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Maybe it will do by the time I finish the trilogy. If I look on it as having read only a third of the book, then there's still time for it to catch up. That's true, it is a trilogy. Did the book end on a big cliffhanger? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 You have loads of great books on your TBR pile! Happy reading this year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 I hope you have a wonderful reading year in 2016! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Good luck with your reading in 2016 ... hope you find the reading time you need! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 (edited) Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger I can't easily give a brief synopsis as it's not really about anything much! The best description I could give is that it's about disaffected youth. It was an odd story but I kinda found myself drawn along with it. I liked a lot of Holden Caulfield's internal monologues about people annoying him - I'm sure I've shared some of those annoyances. The funniest was when, after a long period of being talked at by his schoolmate, he asked if Holden was enjoying a book he was reading & Holden retorted with something like 'Well, this sentence I've been reading for the last 10 mins is great!' Haven't we all been there? It did seem to have a very abrupt ending though, almost as though the author couldn't think of how else to take the story forward & also, the reasoning behind the title of book was peculiar, but in general I'm glad I read it. 3/5 Edited January 23, 2016 by More reading time required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz More shady plots unravelled by investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist & his hacker friend Lisbeth Salander. It's been many a year since I read the Millenium trilogy so I can't really remember if this book is written in the same style as Stieg Larsson's original, but it didn't really matter either way as this was an enjoyable yarn full of twists & turns. I'd quite happily read more sequels if they're of the same calibre. 4/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lara Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger I can't easily give a brief synopsis as it's not really about anything much! The best description I could give is that it's about disaffected youth. It was an odd story but I kinda found myself drawn along with it. I liked a lot of Holden Caulfield's internal monologues about people annoying him - I'm sure I've shared some of those annoyances. The funniest was when, after a long period of being talked at by his schoolmate, he asked if Holden was enjoying a book he was reading & Holden retorted with something like 'Well, this sentence I've been reading for the last 10 mins is great!' Haven't we all been there? It did seem to have a very abrupt ending though, almost as though the author couldn't think of how else to take the story forward & also, the reasoning behind the title of book was peculiar, but in general I'm glad I read it. 3/5 This is on my list. I've been wanting to read it for a while. The abrupt ending part scares me...I hate it when authors do that! Was it a sad ending? I feel when books end on a rather tragic note authors frequently end quite abruptly. It gives you no time to recover! I need to mentally prepare myself, lol. I'm glad you liked it, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Happy Reading in 2016 ! Anne of Green Gables is a lovely, lovely read . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 (edited) I've been jotting down notes as I finish my books, so it's probably about time to throw a few short reviews out there although I've already forgotten loads of what I might have said had I immediately posted them. The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan I can't remember what happens in this one - they all sort of merge into one after a while. Anyway, it's all ticking over nicely and I need to keep plugging away with this series so I can catch up to where I'd got up to (book 8) and then read the volumes I haven't previously started. 4/5 Edited July 20, 2016 by More reading time required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 (edited) The Winter of the World by Ken Follett On the whole, I enjoyed it. There were lots of compelling twists & turns for the characters and it kept me wanting to know what was going to happen next. I did prefer the characters and plot of book one though and again, I was least interested by the Russian storyline. Scarily, the beginnings of Nazism bears some worrying parallels with the world today. 3/5 Edited July 20, 2016 by More reading time required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 (edited) The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah It seemed contrived to start with, as if it was trying too hard. It was almost like a school kid writing a story after having plucked out one of her favourite literary characters to feature in it. However, I found myself sucked in & racing through it to see what happened (as I tend to do with Christie's) and I even started reading Poirot's words in my head in his accent, so I guess in the end, it actually worked. Part of my reading speed could have been because I was due to go to the library & wanted to take this one back as well seeing as I "only had 200 pages left of it" and it must have made some use of 'The Christie code' (to quote a programme trying to pin down what made her books so good). It wasn't as particularly exciting a story as it could have been though. 2.5/5 Edited July 20, 2016 by More reading time required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 (edited) Revival by Stephen King Not one of his best. There was some interesting build up story but then it goes a bit bonkers. I found myself grudgingly finishing it for a sense of completion rather than of enjoyment. 2/5 Edited July 20, 2016 by More reading time required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 (edited) Finders Keepers by Stephen King I enjoyed the story, though it did seem a bit pointless to have Hodges in it. He was very much a secondary character and it seemed like he was shoehorned in just to force this into a trilogy. 3/5 Edited July 20, 2016 by More reading time required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 (edited) Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King Usual mixture of some good, some not so good, some very weird short stories. 3/5 Edited July 20, 2016 by More reading time required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 (edited) Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett It was nice to finish of the series but it was definitely the weakest of the three books as there wasn't as much interesting history in this period, however it was good to read more about the Berlin Wall - its effect and the reasons behind it. I remember the wall coming down in the 80s and how important that was, but I never really understood why it was there in the first place. I did get completely lost with the family tree in this one, so I gave up trying to follow it in the end. This volume did seem to be more concerned with the character's romances rather than anything else, with everyone having affairs all over the shop. At least the sex scenes aren't as embarrassingly graphic as they were in his medieval books. 3/5 This was the last of the library books so now I've got to try and resist getting any more out so I can get through my own books instead. Edited July 20, 2016 by More reading time required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
More reading time required Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 (edited) Bones of the Dragon by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman It's no Dragonlance, but I enjoyed it on the whole. However, I've never read a book where I found the lead character to be such a d*ck. He irritated me so much throughout the story and I wanted to strangle him. Still, by the end of the story it sounds like he's come to his senses and he might be better going forward. 3.5/5 Edited July 20, 2016 by More reading time required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Ooh, lots of books read. Shame there wasn`t anything that you thought was brilliant though. How`s the household doing ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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