Category: week in books

Book of the Week, Young Adult

Book of the Week: Not Your Sidekick

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June was a tough month, and July started off looking like it was going to be more of the same. But I’m feeling much better about things now, because the Formula 1 was back at the weekend, and so life felt a little bit more normal. And it’s very much first world problems, and people have problems that are a lot more serious, but I’m due to get a hair cut this week, which has been something to look forward to because when you have hair as short as mine and you haven’t been able to have it cut for 15 weeks it looks a right state. I’ve never regretted cutting my hair short before – but there’s a first time for everything. Anyway, to the reading. Back to YA this week for Not Your Sidekick by C B Lee, a superhero-adjacent (sort of) adventure story.

Cover of Not Your Sidekick

Jessica Tran’s parents are superheroes. Ok, so they’re only C-class, which means they mostly just save their town from the pranks played by the town’s villians, the Mischiefs. Jessica’s sister is in superhero training, but Jessica herself hasn’t got any powers yet, and it’s not looking like she’s about to develop any. So when she gets an internship at a fancy tech company, it’s the most exciting thing that has happened to her in ages – and she gets to work with Abby, the school volleyball star she’s had a crush on forever. Except it turns out that she’s working for the Mischiefs, and it looks like there might be a dark undercurrent in the world of heroes and villains that she’s used to.

This is a fun and exciting adventure caper, which reminded me a bit of the Incredibles, with the juxtaposition of superpowers, secret identities and ordinary lives. Jessica is a great lead character, but she’s got a great gang of friends too. It doesn’t info dump on you, it really just puts you down in the world and leaves you to work out what has happened to Earth, and how everything works, which I though really helped with the pacing as well as giving you a level of uncertainty about who were the good guys and the bad guys. I had part of the plot at the tech company figured out fairly early on, and I’m not sure I was meant to – but I’m not in the target age range, so it may have seemed less obvious to the younger audience. But it’s a lot of fun, the unravelling at the end is great – although there is somewhat of a cliffhanger situation going on here – and Jessica and Abby are great fun together. It’s a lovely twist on the high school story and on a one girl to save the world type story (see also Patrick Ness’s The Rest of Us Just Live Here). And there are two more books in the series (even if the sequel looks difficult to get hold of in the UK) with a third on the way.

My copy came from the library, but Not Your Sidekick is available now in paperback, audiobook, Kindle, Kobo and all the usual formats. I suspect the paperback will probably be a special order in the UK.

Happy Reading

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: June 29 – July 5

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A much better week in reading – mostly because I used my days off at the start of the week to chill out and read. My next target is to try and clear the still reading list.

Read:

The Ultimate Pi Day Party by Jackie Lau

The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch

Sisters by Raina Telgemaier

Welcome to Ballet School by Ashley Bouder*

Murder on a Mississippi Steamboat by Leighann Dobbs

The Margot Affair by Sanaë Lemoine*

Harbor by Rebekah Weatherspoon**

Guts by Raina Telgemaier

A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear

Not Your Sidekick by CB Lee

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Started:

The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde*

Hope Flames by Jaci Burton

Still reading:

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley

Hello World by Hannah Fry

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward*

Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho

The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

The Chiffon Trenches by André Leon Talley

Still not counting. I ordered a few things this week, but I was much better behaved than I had been.

Bonus photo: Never have I regretted having short hair so much as since the hairdressers cut. I have an appointment booked for tomorrow and I cannot wait. It’s been 15 weeks since it was cut (instead of 5!) so it hasn’t been this long in probably a decade. People keep telling me that it looks fine (some even say it looks great!) but living with it is not so much fun – if a gust of wind catches it one way I have early 90s boyband curtains, another and I look like a budget Justin Bieber look alike.

Me in a facemask with out of control hair!

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: June 22 – June 28

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So. I think this might have been the week that broke me. I mean I worked the weekend but I had days off during the week, but this list is shorter than usual. I feel like I read quite a lot, but I found it hard to keep my concentration going. And then there was the heat. I mean it wasn’t Nevada, but 30+ degrees is a lot for the UK – where we don’t have air-conditioning and really aren’t used to it. Still there’s a good mix of books on here, and there are more that are nearly finished.

Read:

The Tourist Attraction by Sarah Morgenthaler

On the Corner of Hope and Main by Beverly Jenkins

Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney by Okechukwu Nzelu*

Animal Attraction by Jill Shalvis

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad

Started:

The Chiffon Trenches by André Leon Talley

The Ultimate Pi Day Party by Jackie Lau

Not Your Sidekick by CB Lee

Still reading:

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear

Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley

Hello World by Hannah Fry

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward*

The Margot Affair by Sanaë Lemoine*

Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho

The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

Still not counting, still unable to stop myself from buying books at the first sign of any trouble or stress.

Bonus photo: Spotted in the office this weekend, and making me smile. I present: the Goat Cupboard.

A cupboard labelled Goat Cupboard

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley.

Book of the Week, new releases, romance

Book of the Week: Take a Hint Dani Brown

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Back to my happy place in romance for this week’s Book of the Week. You might have noticed two Talia Hibbert books on yesterday’s reading list and they’re both excellent, but Take a Hint, Dani Brown is out today (Tuesday!) so it’s getting the pick, but I’m basically going to talk about both of them.

Danika Brown knows what she wants from life: professional success and whatever the academic equivalent is of her name up lights. There is no place in her plan for relationships – she’s tried that before and got burned. So after her latest friend-with-benefits decides she wants more from the relationship than Dani is prepared to give, she asks the universe to send her the perfect no-strings partner. So when Zafir, the grumpy security guard she chats to on the way in to work, rescues her from a firedrill gone wrong, she thinks it a sign. Trouble is, that someone filmed the rescue and now it’s trending on the internet and is one half of #DrRugbae. But it turns out that Zaf has a sports charity – and it could really use the publicity and soon the two of them are playing along for the internet and fake dating. Dani’s plan is to try and seduce him behind the scenes, but Zaf is a secret romantic, with some issues of his own. Life is about to get very complicated.

I have mentioned before that I love a fake-relationship story and this ticked all of my boxes. Dani and Zaf are great leading characters and both have a backstory that totally explains why they are the way they are. And as they go about faking their relationship for social media, the two of them have the best banter. Dani’s sisters (more on them in a minute) are great – as are Zaf’s best friend and nieces. The resolution at the end is totally in keeping with their characters and what’s gone on before so it just left me with a big happy smile on my face. As well as the banter between the characters, the narrative has such a witty turn of phrase that it will make you giggle.

Cover of Get A Life Chloe Brown

Now this is the second book in the series – the first was about Dani’s older sister Chloe, and the last in the series will be about the other Brown sister, Eve. And as I mentioned at the top, I also read Get a Life, Chloe Brown last week. Chloe is a computer geek with a chronic illness, who comes up a plan to get a life after a sort-of near death experience. Top of the list is getting her own place and that’s where she meets Redford Morgan, her new building’s handyman who paints at night when he thinks no one is watching. Except that Chloe sort of is. Chloe and Red make a great pair and I love the way that they navigate their relationship as well as their personal hurdles. They’ve both got legitimate reasons for all of their understandings, and pretty much every time I thought things were about to get derailed by something that could be fixed with a conversation, they immediately had the conversation. I also really liked that Chloe’s health problems weren’t cured by a magic penis/amazing sex – she’s still got them at the end of the book, but she’s also got a partner who understands her and supports her. Chloe (and Red) make supporting appearances in this book, as does Eve in both books and I’m throughly looking forward to seeng what Hibbert has in store for her in the final book in the series, Act Your Age, Eve Brown which is coming next year. And if you want an example of that witty dialogue that I mentioned earlier, here’s a quote:

 

Since Gigi wasn’t wearing a head scarf this afternoon, her chic crop of white coils on display, Chloe had absolutely no idea where the Marlboro had been hidden. Her knickers? Up one nostril? In an alternate dimension she accessed at will? God only knew.

I bought my copy of Get a Life, Chloe Brown, but my copy of Take a Hint, Dani Brown came from NetGalley. You should be able to get hold of both of them fairly easily I would hope – because they’re published by Piatkus. If you want an ebook here are your links: Chloe Brown Kindle and Kobo and Dani Brown Kindle and Kobo. And Chloe is only £2.99 as I write this, which is a bit of a bargain.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: June 14 – June 21

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Another weird week in Verity-world, with a newly chipped tooth and more problems concentrating the main causes. But it could be so much worse. And as with all the other weeks in this month so far, I’m concentrating on black and other non-white authors for my reading – except when library books are coming up to the end of their loans and aren’t renewable.

Read:

Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri*

Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

sugar, butter, flour, love by Nicole Falls

Take A Hint Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert*

Crystal Clear by Beverly Jenkins

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett*

A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones

Started:

The Margot Affair by Sanaë Lemoine*

Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney by Okechukwu Nzelu*

Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho

The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

The Tourist Attraction by Sarah Morgenthaler

Still reading:

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear

Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley

Hello World by Hannah Fry

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward*

I’m still not counting, but among my purchases were pre-orders for the new books from Tracey Livesay and Kwana Jackson, and the Beverly Jenkins on the read list and Alyssa Cole’s The AI Who Loved Me

Bonus photo: Some nice calming leaves and sky. Because nature and calming is good right now.

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley.

Book of the Week, new releases, romance

Book of the Week: The Boyfriend Project

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So I said yesterday that I had a slumpy week of reading, but actually I started the week with a really good new romance by Farrah Rochon, so that was an easy choice for my pick today! And after two weeks of books aimed at young readers, I can confirm that this one is definitely for the grownups!

Cover of the Boyfriend Project

Samiah Brooks is about to go out on a date, when someone live tweeting a horrific date reveals that she’s being cheated on – and not just two-timed, but three-timed. When she and the other two women confront the catfisher in a restaurant, they end up going viral. But Samiah also gains two new friends and they make a pact to spend the next six months focussing on themselves and not on men. Samiah’s big goal in putting herself first is to work on the app that she has been dreaming of creating, but hasn’t had time to do. But her resolve is soon tested by the new guy who has joined the tech company she works at. Daniel Collins is smart and funny and attractive – but Samiah can’t help feeling that he might be too good to be true.

I thought this was lots and lots of fun. As a reader, you know what is going on with Daniel from very early on and it’s a nice suspense-y subplot to the romance. I was somewhat concerned about how that subplot was going to impact on the happy ending – there was definitely a point when I was worried that there wasn’t a way to get to a satisfying resolution, but it actually all worked out really quite nicely. And if you like competency porn in your romance heroines this is one for you: Samiah is incredibly good at her job and also very upfront about the challenges and barriers to black women in tech. Oh and Daniel is pretty smart too…

This is the first in a series – I’m assuming Samiah’s other two friends will be the other heroines in the series and I am totally here for that. One of them is a surgeon, the other is running her own exercise business and the setups for both of them in this book is great. I love a strong group of female friends in a book – and I also love that they seem to be making a resurgence in romances. If you read and enjoyed Tracey Livesay’s Sweet Talkin’ Lover (maybe after I recommended it!) and the group of friends that that has, this has a similarly supportive and fun group. I preordered this (only a few days before publication but it still counts!) after hearing Farrah Rochon talking about it on Smart Podcast, Trashy Books last week – and that’s well worth a listen too if you need something to listen to on your daily exercise.

I’ve mentioned several times now that I’m focusing on reading black authors at the moment, and if you are too – maybe you’re taking part in the #blackpublishingpower week that Amistad publishing came up with, which is asking people to buy two books by black authors this week, then this would be a great pick for you. It came out last week and is a bargainous £1.99 in Kindle and Kobo. It’s also available in paperback – but I suspect it’s an import type of deal if you’re in the UK, rather than something you’ll be able to pick up at your newly reopened local bookshop.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: June 8 – June 14

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Another slump-y week in my Lockdown experience. The Still Reading list continues to grow, but I have actually read quite a lot of pages of various books on that list, although that’s not showing up in finishing stuff. I’m still focusing on reading non-white authors too, except where library books are about to be due (and I can’t renew them).

Read:

The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon

You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle

One Bed for Christmas by Jackie Lau

Let Me Love You by Alexandria House

A Big Surprise for Valentine’s Day by Jackie Lau

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

Started:

Get A Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

Still reading:

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear

Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley

Hello World by Hannah Fry

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett*

Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri*

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward*

Still not counting, but I have bought a few…

Bonus photo: I was aiming for Artistic with my photo of my peonies, but I’m not sure I managed it!

Peonies

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley.

Book of the Week, children's books, Young Adult

Book of the Week: This Book is Anti-Racist

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As I mentioned yesterday, I changed my reading plans last week and focused on books by black authors and other authors of colour. And so for the second week in a row, this week’s BotW pick is a book for young people.

Tiffany Jewell is an anti-racism educator and this book does exactly what the subtitle suggests – it is a beautifully illustrated (by Aurélia Durand) and brilliantly to the point book that will make children first think about and understand their levels of privilege and then start to look at what they can do to change the status quo and deal with systemic racism. It has activities in every chapter aimed at making readers think and examine their own lives and actions, where ever on the scale of privilege they live. It also helps you work out what you can do to make a difference – how you can use your skills and talents to be anti-racist. Written from the author’s lived experiences – whilst also reflecting the fact that racism manifests in a multitude of insidious ways – it’s absolutely centring the experiences of people who are experiencing racism. This is a great starting point to try to show children what they can do and how to feel less powerless. This would be a great tool for the classroom. It’s also a great tool for adults – to read, digest and think about what you should be doing in your own life. I’m obviously older than the target audience for the book, but I still got a lot from it.

My copy of This Book is Anti-Racist came from NetGalley, but it is on offer at the moment on Kindle for £1.99. You may be able to track down a copy via your local independent book seller, but a lot of books about racism are out of stock at the moment and I think this may be the same, as Amazon don’t have any paperback stock at the moment. Hopefully the publishers are working on getting more copies out there, so that it can be in school libraries and classrooms when we get to the new normal.

Keep Reading.

 

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: June 1 – June 7

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I work in a newsroom, so I see a lot of what is going on in the world but last week, well the last two weeks really have been extraordinary even by the standards of what has been a news-dense and upsetting year. On Tuesday, I set aside my planned reading for the week and aside from library books that were due back and which I couldn’t renew, have spent the rest of the week focussing on books written by black authors. I am listening and I am learning. I’m trying to work out how best to use my privilege for good, but in the mean time the best thing I can do is try to amplify and uplift black voices.

Read:

He’d Rather be Dead by George Bellairs*

The Honey Don’t List by Christina Lauren

This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell*

On Her Own Ground by A’Leila Perry Bundles

First Comes Scandal by Julia Quinn

A Fake Girlfriend for Chines New Year by Jackie Lau

Finding Langston by Lesa Kline-Ransome

Started:

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett*

Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri*

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward*

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad

Still reading:

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear

Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley

Hello World by Hannah Fry

Still not counting, but this week all my purchases bar two have been books by BIPOC.

Bonus photo: the covers of some of the books I’ve bought, borrowed or got from NetGalley this week.

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley.

Book of the Week, Children's books

Book of the Week: The Good Thieves

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As mentioned yesterday, monthly stats are coming on Thursday, so I can keep to my regular schedule of Book of the Week on Tuesdays and mini reviews on the first Wednesday of each month. And this week, for the first time in a long time, my pick is a middle grade book – Katherine Rundell’s The Good Thieves.

Hardback copy of The Good Thieves

Vita and her mother got the first boat to New York when the letter from Vita’s grandfather arrived. He’s been cheated out of his ancestral home by mobster Victor Sorrotore. Vita’s mum wants to move him to London, but Vita can’t bear to see her grandfather sad and broken and is determined to get Hudson Hall back for him. But Sorrotore is a powerful mobster – how on earth can she beat him? Well the answer involves a pickpockets, animal tamers and a trapeze artist and a thrilling heist caper through Prohibition New York. I love a strong female heroine and Vita is great – she’s fierce and brave and believes that she can do anything – she’s not letting her age or her dodgy foot (affected by polio) stop her. And if his means that she sometimes makes some stupid decisions (you’ll know what I’m talking about when you get there), they are totally in keeping with who she is. This is fast-paced, there’s loads of suspense and both the characters and the setting are so brilliantly drawn you just can’t put it down. And on top of that, the writing absolutely sparkles – the descriptions of Vita and her friends and of New York are brilliantly evocative – you can really see them and the menagerie of animals in their little corner of the city by Carnegie Hall.

My love for heist-y adventure-y books is well known, as is my fondness for middle grade fiction (despite the fact that I have not been a middle grader since the 1990s) and along with the interwar setting, maybe it’s not surprising that ticked a lot of my boxes. This would be great for children who’ve read the Enid Blyton …of Adventure series or the Famous Five, or more modern series like Robin Steven’s Wells and Wong books and Katherine Woodfine’s Sinclair mysteries. I loved tales of derring do when I was at the top end of primary school – and read the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew voraciously as well as series like the Three Investigators, most of which I either wouldn’t recommend for modern kids or aren’t in print any more, and this would fill that gap for kids with similar interests today.

My copy of The Good Thieves is a delightful signed hardback that I bought from Foyles – who made it their children’s book of the year last year – but it’s also out in paperback on June 10th according to Foyles. And of course you can get it in Kindle and Kobo as well.

Happy reading