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Michelle's Reading Adventures 2017


Michelle

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18 hours ago, Little Pixie said:

I still have Book 3 of the trilogy which started with daughter of smoke and bone. I loved the first two, so I'm really glad that her latest book sounds even better. :)

 

Good luck with the worshipping.:) I meant mentorshipping, curse you, autocorrect !

I hadn't read anything by her before I was offered Strange the Dreamer - and I rather fell in love with it! Daughter of Smoke and Bone was also really good, but I preferred the former. 

Worshipping.. that will be my students of course, worshipping me! :giggle:

7 hours ago, Nollaig said:

What's a mentorship course? As in, who will you be mentoring, for what? I'm intrigued! :D

It used to be called Teaching and Assessing.. it's mainly so that we can have student nurses with us. These days it's a 50/50 spread.. the Universities are responsible for passing / failing them academically, but mentors are responsible for looking after them on their placements, but also for teaching and assessing them.

On top of that though, I have to support / teach health care assistants working with us, and a more junior practice nurse, so the skills are used there too. 

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On 16/05/2017 at 6:10 PM, Michelle said:

 

It used to be called Teaching and Assessing.. it's mainly so that we can have student nurses with us. These days it's a 50/50 spread.. the Universities are responsible for passing / failing them academically, but mentors are responsible for looking after them on their placements, but also for teaching and assessing them.

On top of that though, I have to support / teach health care assistants working with us, and a more junior practice nurse, so the skills are used there too. 

 

Sorry I never replied to this, I wasn't on the forum much at the time. That sounds really interesting, though I know you've been struggling with an essay. I wish you the best of luck with the rest of the course!

 

I decided to start studying medical terminology and administration (I want to work in admin, and when I went researching types of admin, this really appealed to me. Gonna do a general 'business admin' course too to flesh out my options in case I struggle to get get medical admin work). I absolutely love it, but am also struggling with an assignment which is wrecking my head, so I feel your pain a little bit,

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Noll, I'm a medical secretary, just started in March.  I mainly do transcribing, but also fill in for admins when needed.  I work in the mental health area of our hospital.  I love it.:D  I meet lots of interesting people and it's quite varied, so you don't have a chance to get bored. 

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The Hatching and Skitter by Ezekiel Boone - yep, I listened to two audiobooks about spiders.. :hide:. They actually weren't that scary, most of the descriptions were more about swarms of spiders, which for some reason didn't seem real enough in my head to scare me. They were both good books, although they tended to drift towards the end of each, rather than having a big build up. I'm waiting for the 3rd one though, it has me interested to know what happens next.

 

Then more spiders, in Children of Time.. again, nothing in the description of the spiders was enough to scare me, and in fact, you actually end up quite liking them! it's a difficult book to explain, a very epic tale over many years.. and was nothing like I expected!

 

Finally,  I Am Behind You by John Ajvide Lindqvist - proper review later. The first few to pop up on amazon aren't great, but I really enjoyed it. It's not one for readers who like everything to be wrapped up and answered, but I definitely enjoyed the ride!

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Interesting you read several spidery books :).

 

Did you enjoy Children of Time? It's on my wishlist. I've read another book by the author - Empire in Black and Gold (book 1 in the Shadows of the Apt series). I intend to continue the series at some point, after I re-read book 1. I'll probably buy Children of Time at some point.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My quick thoughts on I Am Behind You:

 

So, I am aware that this book is not going to suit everyone, but I for one got very caught up in it, and loved it! If you like a story where you get all the answers, and everything is nicely wrapped up at the end, then you are probably not going to get on well with this book. It's very much character driven rather than plot driven, which I wasn't expecting.

We are presented with a set of caravans which have apparently been moved overnight.. or maybe everything has been removed from around them? It's not clear at all what has happened, and we are as confused as the characters. Thankfully they explore their surroundings quickly (otherwise I would have given up on the book!) but there appears no where to go.

There is threat, and strangeness, and a plot-as-such, but it's the characters who play centre stage. Some are likeable, others not so much, but all found their way into my head.

This is a book which wasn't as I expected, but I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed it!

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I have had the strangest thing happened - I decided to give my kindle yet another try.. and this time it's worked! I suddenly find myself actually preferring picking it up to a book! :blink: It's much easier to get the occasional review book I want, holiday will be easier, and I can get cheaper kindle books! I'm so pleased. :)

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Quick catch up..

Lost Boy by Christina Henry - I do love this author.. and I enjoyed this retelling of Peter Pan. There's an interesting thing here, the US cover tells you exactly what the book is about, whilst the UK one doesn't - and I think it's far better without that spoiler. So if you're interested, avoid the US cover!

Alien Rain by Ruth Morgan - this was very much a YA book, but one I sped through quickly, with some interesting ideas. 

There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins - this has been all over twitter recently, and I managed to get a review copy.. proper review to come, but overall, not good!

The Explorer by James Smith - hmm.. on the whole, I did like this, but it went on a bit too long. It wasn't what I expected.. the story I expected from the synopsis is over fairly quickly, and there's confusion at the end of part one. The second part was a little too long, and I skimmed slightly, but the ending pretty much explained things. 

13 Days of Midnight by Leo Hunt - I've been looking at this for some time now, and I'm glad I finally got round to it. Another YA one, but I found plenty to enjoy, and will try book 2 fairly soon.

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  • 3 weeks later...

There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins
 

I'm probably one of the few reviewers who hadn't already heard of the author.. I requested because I'm a horror fan, and I especially loved Scream in it's day. I can't decide if the author was aiming for a straight forward horror, or the self-aware humour of Scream, but for me it rather fell flat on both accounts.

I know it's hard to do, but it didn't feel original, but rather a loose copy of those which had gone before.. done right, this can be a good thing, but not so much here. The murders were quite gruesome, but didn't feel particularly scary, the characters made some stupid decisions, and the murderers reasoning was flimsy at best. 

The romance angle was a little off-putting for me, but I do realise that that is the author's usual genre. 

There are some positives.. it was an 'easy' book to read, and it might prove a good introduction for teen readers into the horror genre. Of course, as with all books, some are going to love it.. but it just wasn't for me. 

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As usually happens, my reading has dropped off as the year has gone by.. in particular I have so many audiobooks which haven't finished. Often with these, I fall asleep, and lose my place, and it's a pain keep finding it again! 

 

Anyway, time to take a peek back, and see if I have a top 10..

 

Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
The Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

A Conjuring of Light by VE Schwab

I Am Behind You by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Lost Boy by Christina Henry

Otherworld by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James

Monster by Michael Grant

I Still Dream by James Smythe

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I read the Shades of Magic trilogy this year and also really enjoyed A Conjuring of Light, so I'm happy it features on your top 10. I have a few others of your top 10 on my TBR, so that's promising. I'm glad you read some great books this year :)! Sorry about the unfinished audiobooks.

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