chesilbeach

The M:F this month was definitely affected by the Waterstone's prize lists which were dominated by female authors this year, particularly the older fiction category which didn't have a single male lead and no male writers at all, as well as being all debut authors, both of which I felt was a big problem. I do, however, have a tendency to read more female authors generally, and I'm hoping this will end up as around a 2:3 ratio but the end of the year, but I usually read whatever takes my fancy, so we'll see how that goes! That's also affected my reading this month, and I have bought, but not read, quite a few non-fiction books recently, so these will start appearing more frequently after this month, and then in June/July, I expect that to dominate when the Wainwright prize longlist makes its appearance, as I plan to read the whole list again this year.

The more I think about Ink, the more I think that the reason I didn't think it was great is that I was never surprised by anything that happened ... it all felt inevitable. I really don't think I'm going to read the other two in the trilogy though. Definitely recommending This Mortal Coil! I've had The Hate U Give on the shelf for a long time and felt the hype putting me off too, and the only reason I read it now was because it was on the Waterstones award list, but I thought it definitely lived up to the hype and made me think for a while about the world we're living in now and especially the Black Lives Matter movement in the States. It's definitely worth reading.

Oh blimey, I'm way behind on reviews again! Time for my March stats - it's been a cracking month of reading, and I've been too engrossed in my reading to write any reviews, but I might try and rectify that tomorrow since we've got an extra day off this weekend. Anyway, here's March in numbers for me ... Books read: 20 Pages read: 6712 Authors: Female 17, Male 3 Fiction: 18 Non-fiction: 2 Format: Hardback 3, Paperback 10, Kindle 6, Audiobook 1 Round Robin challenge: 2 Waterstones Children's Book Prize challenge: 5

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it - don't eat all those Easter eggs all at once! I'm spending the day at home, avoiding the cold and rain, and settling down with a few good books. What are you up to today? :)

A bank holiday to start the month means lots of reading for me! I'm currently reading The Body in the Ice by A. J. Mackenzie for my book group, Quadrille by M. C. Beaton on my Kindle, listening to The Year of Taking Chances by Lucy Diamond and have Bookworm by Lucy Mangan lined up for later today. What are you reading today?

Haven't been around much over the last couple of weeks, but I have been reading plenty! This week, I've finished: Make More Noise an anthology of middle grade stories A Long Way From Verona by Jane Gardam Brightstorm by Vashti Hardy The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy The Light Jar by Lisa Thompson

Back to YA next to carry on with the Waterstones list, and this time it was The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. The story is told by sixteen-year-old Starr, who lives in a black neighbourhood but goes to school in the suburbs. After gunfire breaks out at the party she's gone to, her old friend Khalil gives her a lift home, but they are stopped by a policeman, who shoots Khalil dead. What follows is how Starr, the only witness to the shooting, has to deal with her two separate lives at home and at school, alongside trying to do the right thing to get justice for Khalil. Clearly inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement in the US, this is a totally compelling YA story, that puts you in the middle of Starr's life and the prejudice she must face, the dilemmas where she must chose between her two different social situations, and what she can do to make a difference. I found it hard to put down the book, and it gives you a very comprehensive insight into a black community, gangs and the impact of drug culture on the poorest areas of the US, and why there has become a need for BLM and other activism in society today. Not a comfortable read, but an important one, and proves how books allow you into a world that you can't experience first hand, and allow you to put yourself in someone else's shoes.

It's always a joy when Ross Montgomery releases a new book, so I couldn't wait to read his latest, Max and the Millions. This story is all about Max. He lives at a boarding school, but Max is deaf and even with hearing aids, finds it difficult to follow conversations and has become isolated from all the boys in his class. He does, however, make models on his own, and finds a friend in the school caretaker who is a model craftsman and takes Max under his wing. But when Mr Darrow goes missing, Max finds he's left a pile of sand on the floor of his room, and a whole new miniature world opens up to him in the form of a tiny blue haired prince in the minute civilisation on the floor! The great thing about Montgomery's books is that not only are they full of heart, they're full of fun and proper funny at times too! There's a villain in Max's life in the shape of a ruthlessly ambitious headmaster, new friends to be made, and a whole race of people to save, who have their own battles to fight. It's been really good to read a middle grade story with not only a male lead but also a deaf character, and I think it does a brilliant job of describing the detachment that those with hearing loss can suffer. Another cracking read.

The next Waterstones Children's Book Prize selection was The Disappearances by Emily Bain Murphy. Set in the 1940s in Sterling, a small town in America, where every seven years, something disappears from the residents of the town - their sense of smell, the ability to see the stars in the sky, even their reflections. After the death of her mother, and her father being called up to serve in the war, Aila and her younger brother are sent back to her mothers home town, but it's not long before the whispers about her mother start, and she starts to believe her mother may been the cause of the curse on the town. For the first three quarters of the story, I was completely captivated by this story. It seemed quite a unique mystery and dealt with themes of loss and grief really well. The mystery itself was intriguing and there were clues and red herrings, and secrets were revealed that were unexpected making me want to read more to find out where the story would go. There was only one problem with the book, and that was the payoff at the end. I found it such a stretch of the imagination and impossible to reconcile that it could be the cause of the curse on the town, and it just didn't work for me. I'm very glad I read it, but that final reveal I just couldn't accept as a believable conclusion, however, I did enjoy the writing and the bulk of the story, so I would definitely look to read another book by this author in future.

Thanks Alex. I lent it to a colleague at work as he is a Star Wars fan, but hasn't read a single book in a couple of years - gave it to him on Friday and he gave it back on Monday as he'd read the whole thing in a single weekend!

Straight on to another YA from the Waterstones Children's Book Prize with Ink by Alice Broadway. The book opens just after the death of Leora's father, and in their society his skin will be made into a book of his life, because every important thing that happens to you during your lifetime is tattooed on your body as a symbol of a good life lead. Leora herself is just finishing school and will now find out what her future career will be, but is hoping that she will become on of the few female inkers, to record other peoples lives on their skin. But when she is denied access to her father's Skin Book, she begins to wonder if she really knows her parents at all. This story sticks to the style of a lot of modern YA where a teenager finds out her comfortable life is not what it has seemed and must uncover the truth to find out who she is herself. It's got elements of folklore and mystery, set within the confines of a small town, and a new political leader bringing in tougher rule of law determined to enhance the purity of the inked community, so taps into the current political era of Brexit and Trump. As I was reading it, I found out it's actually the first of a trilogy and the end of the book definitely isn't the end of the story. It's a good story and builds Leora's world well, but unlike This Mortal Coil which I read before this, I didn't find it quite as satisfying a read as a single book. It very much felt like you have to read the whole trilogy to get the full story, and I'm not sure I enjoyed it enough to want to carry on the story by reading two more books. One the other hand, the cover design is beautiful and I've seen the second books cover and that's just as gorgeous as the first!

Read The Curse in the Candlelight by Sophie Cleverly this afternoon. Also started Make More Noise last night which is an anthology of short stories by MG and YA female authors celebrating inspirational girls and women. Went to the bookshop to see if they had an early copy of a book I'm waiting to be published in a few weeks, but they didn't have it in yet. Somehow, I came home with two other books though - Hero at the Fall by Alwyn Hamilton and The Light Jar by Lisa Thompson - not quite sure how that happened?

Finished a few books this week: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor Thornhill by Pam Smy The Day She Saved The Doctor by Jacqueline Rayner, Jenny T. Colgan, Susan Calman and Dorothy Koomson Not a duffer among them!

I've finished three books this week - Ink by Alice Broadway, The Disappearances by Emily Bain Murphy and Max and the Millions by Ross Montgomery. I'm still reading A Wood of One's Own by Ruth Pavey and The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor. I've got two books left to read from the older fiction category of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, so I'll probably concentrate on those next, and then get back to my other books which have been a bit neglected over the last few weeks!

Watched Baby Driver again yesterday. I think I might be a bit obsessed!

Minestrone Cup-A-Soup

Thanks @Samthefootball. I'm a fairly quick reader and I shoehorn in a reading session whenever I can, so it's not too difficult to rack up the numbers. Plus, I'm impatient and if a story is good, I want to know how it ends, so I can't put the book down before then! Everyone reads at their own pace, and numbers don't need to come into it, as far as I'm concerned, it's the enjoyment that's the most important thing.

Finished This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada and thought it was very good, and well above the average YA science fiction future world style of book. Have started a new hardback - A Wood of One's Own by Ruth Pavey and also a paperback - Ink by Alice Broadway.

Back to YA next, but this time it was a science fiction story set in a future US where genetic technology is prevalent and a pathogenic virus is causing devastation among humans, in the book This Mortal Coil by Emila Suvada. Catarina has been living on her own since the Cartaxus corporation took her father, a leading geneticist, to work on a vaccine for the virus decimating the human race. A soldier from Cartaxus turns up at her cabin and tells her that her father is dead, but that she may be the key to unlocking the encryption on a possible vaccine. While it's fair to say I'm not the biggest science fiction fan, and I had taken a break from the relentless dystopian fiction that seems to dominate YA, I have to say, I thought this story was compelling. After I finished, I looked up the author and found she studied mathematics and worked as a data scientist, and the scientific knowledge gives the writing in this book the edge over other YA dystopia. It looks at the possibility of genetic manipulation used technology, and looks at the morality of effectively hacking nature to overcome disease and flaws in human physiognomy. It's also a thrilling quest, with duplicitous encounters leaving Catarina and the reader wondering who are friends and who are enemies. I've read it in two days while I've been hiding from the snow outside, and I found it captivating. Definitely a step up from the usual of these style of books, and the only slight negative for me, was that it does set up a sequel at the end, and I wish it could have been left as a stand alone and not part of a series, but I guess it just means I'll have to read the follow up when it's published later this year!

A slight diversion for a lighter read took me back to the paranormal Stacy Justice series by Barbra Annino with Phantom Quartz. I won't go into the plot of the book, as it's definitely one you'd probably need to have read the first five books before the one, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone. It was exactly what I expected, and a perfect piece of escapism for an entertaining interlude.

As I've mentioned before, I'm trying to read some recently published nature books that have received good reviews throughout the year, in the hope that I might make a head start on the Wainwright Prize longlist for 2018, as it's a struggle to fit in reading 12 books between the nominations and the prize being awarded, and one of the books I'd seen recommended was The Last Wilderness by Neil Ansell. It follows a series of walks he takes in the Scottish Highlands over the period of a year, where he can be alone and experience nature. Alongside the changing seasons during his walks over the year, Ansell also talks about how his already impaired hearing following a series of childhood illnesses, is gradually diminishing and as it deteriorates more and more birdsong that he has known and loved all his life, becomes lost to him forever. The book is full of wonderful nature writing. Throughout his life, Ansell has travelled extensively throughout the world, and also spent a period of time living self-sufficiently alone in a house in the middle of Wales, so is used to being alone. Although he now lives in the south of England with his two daughters, he felt he needed one more experience of being alone before he loses his hearing completely. He choses a fairly remote part of Scotland and is able to go on a series of trips over the year to experience the different seasons, and find as close to a wild place as it's possible to find in the world nowadays where humans have so much impact on the natural world. I loved the descriptions of the landscape and the wildlife, although I have to admit, he does ramble a little bit at times, but it doesn't take away from the enjoyment in any way. I've now ordered his previous book Deep Country from the library.

I think I was a fan of Carrie Fisher's writing before I became a fan of Star Wars, so I guess I'm probably in the minority there. The first book my friend told me I had to read was Postcards from the Edge which she published in the late 1980s and that was the start of a beautiful friendship ... not just with the person who was to become a very good friend for the last almost thirty years, but also with me and Carrie's writing! When my book group had to choose their book for March and we were given a selection of memoirs and biographies, there was no doubt in my mind that I would choose The Princess Diarist and thankfully, it won the vote. In this book, Carrie Fisher publishes the diary she kept during the filming of the original Star Wars film, but the diary is actually more a collection of notes and verses she wrote at the time, so the book starts with her reflecting on that period of her life starting with the audition that got her the role, through the filming in the UK. It is then bookended by the promotional tour with her co-stars and the impact it continued to have on her life until the last series of films were filmed. It caused a small sensation when it was published as she admits the affair she had off-screen with her on-screen partner, Harrison Ford, despite the fact he was married with children at the time. It's a fascinating book to read, and although she was clearly very young at the time the diaries themselves were written, you can see how important writing was to her then, and I can see why she turned to writing later in her life. I think this book is obviously going to be interesting to the Star Wars fans for completeness, and I did enjoy reading it, but I have to say, I'm more a fan of her fiction than her memoirs. The memoirs are without a doubt interesting, and if you enjoy them, I'd definitely recommend reading Postcards from the Edge which is semi-autobiographical anyway, but is such an honest but funny novel, it remains one of my favourites.

It's been a while since I dipped my toes in to the YA pool, but I decided I would read all the older fiction category of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize again this year, and my first book was Troublemakers by Catherine Barter. It's narrated by fifteen-year-old Alena, who has been brought up by her older brother and his boyfriend in the east end of London. There has been a series of attacks by someone the media have named (imaginatively) the East End Bomber. As the threat hangs over the area, Alena becomes more interested in her past and wants to know more about her mother who was a political activist and died when she was a teenager. The story follows her discoveries and the secrets that have been kept from her. When Alena rebels and threatens the stability of her family dynamics, the drama ratchets up and I couldn't put the book down after that. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this. I don't know whether it's just the YA I've read in the past, but it's not often I've read one set in the UK that isn't dystopian or fantasy, and this was a real breath of fresh air. All the characters felt like real people living through real situations, and there was no fairy tale ending or pat answers, and I was completely captivated by the story of this teenager.

Had a browse of the Kindle monthly deals and bought The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (on my Round Robin challenge list), Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer and Brenda and Effie Forever! by Paul Magrs. Today, I finished Phantom Quartz by Barbra Annino, and read another chapter of The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor, and I'm about to sit down with This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada which I'm enjoying immensely.

A little bit late, but here's my February 2018 reading summary: Books read: 17 Pages read: 5698 Authors: Female 11, Male 6 Fiction: 13 Non-fiction: 4 Format: Hardback 3, Paperback 11, Kindle 1, Audiobook 1 Round Robin challenge: 3 Waterstones Children's Book Prize challenge: 5 A pretty good month, if you ask me!