Book of the Week, crime, new releases, Thriller

Book of the Week: Sparkle Shot

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I feel like I’m getting repetitive here, because this BotW is another Fahrenheit Press pick.  Seriously, my Fahrenheit subscription has been one of my best book-based purchases this year.  It was a total bargain (and I got in early so it really was a bargain!) and I’ve discovered older series I was too young for (or not in the right crowd for) first time around and new authors doing interesting things and who I’m hoping I can say that I was there at the beginning for.

And Sparkle Shot falls in the latter camp.  It’s Lina Chern’s first book and it’s short but it packs a lot in.  The subtitle is “A wannabe cowboy, a handsome cop and the search for a perfect breakfast cocktail” but that doesn’t really do it justice.  It is a perfect fit for the Fahrenheit family – Mara fits in somewhere between Sam Jones from Black Rubber Dress and Eva Destruction from Barista’s Guide to Espionage, in that she’s sassy, smart and runs with an interesting crowd which sees her getting tangled up with things she’d rather not be.  In this case, her roommate, a stripper who dances under the name of Karma misses a breakfast date with her and then phones in a panic – she’s witnessed a murder and needs Mara to help stop her being the next victim.

Sparkle Shot races along at 100 miles an hour, with boys with guns, girls with guns, wannabe mafia dons, cops and peril.  It’s probably technically novella length at 95 pages, but doesn’t suffer from any of my common complaints about novellas.  There’s not a hint of underdeveloped story or things feeling too rushed.  There’s plenty of plot, there’s backstory, character development and proper tension and proper danger – not just the sort of thing that is a misunderstanding or could be fixed with a simple conversation.  It does feel like it could stand a sequel or two – hopefully longer than this because it was over too fast – but even if it’s not more from Mara and her friends, I’m still looking forward to seeing what Lina Chern writes next.

You can buy Sparkle Shot on Kindle or in paperback from Amazon, or you could treat yourself to some Bad Santa Bucks from Fahrenheit themselves and buy a few of their books – the discount gets bigger the more bucks you buy – and given that I’ve already mentioned two Fahrenheit books that have been BotWs and I’ve also recommended Death of a Nobody and Murder Quadrille (this is why I think I’m getting repetitive with my love of Fahrenheit, but honestly, so many good books) that’s five there – even if you only buy the first Sam Jones book and not the series…  And if you’re still not sure, both Sparkle Shot and Barista’s Guide to Espionage would be good books to read if you’ve read Stephanie Plum or any of the other Janet Evanovich thriller series and are looking for where to go next.  And on that encouragement to buy books I’ll go away before I buy more myself.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: December 5 – December 11

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Lots of Christmas-y reading this week – and yes, I am planning a post on it, just as soon as I get my Christmas book gift posts sorted.  Fractured elbows are a nightmare…

Read:

Sleigh Bells in the Snow by Sarah Morgan

What Nora Knew by Linda Yellin

The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh

Sparkle Shot by Lina Chern

Candlelight at Christmas by Katie Fforde

Comfort and Joy by Cathy Bramley

Not Just For Christmas by Alex Brown

Started:

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

Last Boat to Camden Town by Paul Charles

Angel by Elizabeth Taylor

Still reading:

n/a

Four ebooks bought.  Three proper books.  And the library book bag was replenished too!

Award nominated, historical, literary fiction, Prize winners, reviews

Book of the Week: The Underground Railroad

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I am not a reader of Award-Winning Books.  See my posts here and here for proof of this — and I don’t think the situation has improved much in the last two years.  But some times you hear so much buzz and chatter about a book that you have to check it out.  Particularly when you luck into a copy of said book.  And Colson Whitehead’s the Underground Railroad was one of those books.  I’d heard everybody on the Bookriot podcasts that I listen to talking about how excited they were for something new from Whitehead – and then about how brilliant it was.  It kept popping up in lists of hotly anticipated books.  It was an Oprah Bookclub pick.  It was on President Obama’s summer reading list.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
I apologise for my lousy photography, but I really like the cover – with the train tracks snaking around.

The Underground Railroad tells the story of Cora, a slave on a brutal cotton plantation in Georgia.  Life is more terrible than you can imagine, especially for Cora who is an outcast among her fellow Africans.  When Caesar, a recent arrival at the plantation suggests that they escape together, they take a terrifying risk to try and get to the Underground Railroad.  But it doesn’t go according to plan, and Cora’s journey is fraught with dangers as there are hunters after them, dogging their every move.  In Whitehead’s world the railroad is real – actual trains in tunnels under the southern states with a network of drivers and conductors ferrying runaways to safety.

This is such a powerful book.  It’s beautifully written, but oh so difficult to read – I’ve had to take it in bite-sized chunks so that I can digest it properly – but it’s worth it.  It makes you confront harsh and terrible truths about what people have done to each other and are capable of doing to each other.  But it’s also compelling and personal and page turning and clever.  Whatever I say here, I won’t be able to do it justice.  I still haven’t finished digesting it and I’m going to be thinking about it for some time to come.  It’s going to win all the awards – and it deserves to. It’s already won the National Book Award in the US and is Amazon.com editor’s Number 1 Book of the Year.  In years to come it’s going to be on English Literature syllabuses.  Well, well, well worth your time.

I would expect this to be somewhere prominent on a table or on a front facing shelf in bookshops.  It’s in hardback at the moment – and you can get it from Amazon (out of stock at time of writing, which says a lot), Waterstones and Foyles and on Kindle and Kobo.  It might make it into the supermarkets, but I’d be surprised.  The paperback is out in June.  I’m off to read some more of Whitehead’s work.

Happy reading.

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: November 28 – December 4

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So the elbow is still giving me trouble, but I did find time to sit down and finish The Underground Railroad.  And I’ve properly started my Christmas reading kick now – with two festive short stories, finishing the Christmas Meg Langslow and starting a holiday-themed Sarah Morgan.  I foresee this situation continuing.

Read:

Duck the Halls by Donna Andrew

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch

Silent Night by Deanna Raybourn

Twelfth Night by Deanna Raybourn

The Wangs vs the World by Jade Chang

Herring on the Nile by L C Tyler

The Underground Railroad by Coulson Whitehead

Started:

What Nora Knew by Linda Yellin

The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh

Sleigh Bells in the Snow by Sarah Morgan

Still reading:

n/a

One book bought – to get some free postage for a Christmas present. Progress!

new releases, reviews

Autumn Preview: Update!

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A quite while back now (September, yikes) I had a little look ahead to some of the books that I was excited about this autumn.  And now I’ve read a few of my picks, I thought it was time to give you an update in the form of a bonus post…

Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple (6 October)

I was worried about hating this, but this is neither good Semple or bad Semple – it’s somewhere in between. But the good news here, is that I’ve worked out what I like about Maria Semple’s writing and what I don’t.  I don’t like being inside the head of her female leads – they’re self-centred, middle-aged quirky-to-the-point-of-irritation and they drive me crazy.  But viewed through the eyes of someone else (more normal) they can be funny and touching.  And that’s why I liked …Bernadette – because she’s not there for most of the time and it’s Bee who’s trying to work out what’s going on.   This didn’t make me tear my hair out like This One is Mine did, but it did make me vaguely annoyed.  So lesson for the future:  if Semple’s next book is written from the perspective of  a woman with children then I won’t bother reading it.

The Wangs vs The World by Jade Chang (3 November)

Well I liked this, but I didn’t love it.  May be I was reading it too soon after Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians, or maybe the fractured elbow was impeding my sense of humour.  I think my problem is that there wasn’t a family member that I loved – and I wanted to fall in love with one (or more of them).  Each of them has a frustration (or two) about them which stopped me from embracing this as fully as some of the people I’ve heard recommending it have.  It’s a good road trip book and it was funny in places, but it wasn’t hilarious.  And I really wanted it to be.

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch (3 November)

I loved this so much. So much.  There’s magic, and the super-rich and posh school kids and all sorts of new complications.  If you like the other books in the series, I suspect you’ll like this – but the overarching story is not finished yet and there is a frustration that comes with that, along with a delight that there should/will be more from Peter and the Folly.  I read it too quickly – once I started reading it that is – and now I suspect I may have a long wait until the next installment appears.  I’ll have to console myself with the graphic novels in the interim.

I still haven’t read Where Am I Now? by Mara Wilson (22 September) or How to Party with an Infant by Kuai Hart Hemmings (8 September) because I haven’t managed to get copies of them yet, but I live in hope that one or both of them may appear in my Christmas stocking…

books, stats

November Stats

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New books read this month: 28*

Books from the to-read pile: 9

Ebooks read: 18

Books from the Library book pile: 1

Non-fiction books: 1

Most read author: Courtney Milan and Deanna Raybourn (2 short stories each)

Books read this year: 328

Books bought: 12 ebooks and 4 books

Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf: 484 (I don’t have copies of all of these!)

I’m not even going to talk about how many books I’ve bought this month – and I wasn’t doing great even before the elbow-fracture induced pain purchases.  Bad Verity. Still, hopefully I’ll be able to restrain myself in December with the prospect of Christmas present books on the horizon.  Oh who am I kidding.

*Includes some short stories/novellas/comics (8 this month)

Book of the Week, non-fiction

Book of the Week: The Best of Dear Coquette

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This may well be a slightly shorter than usual BotW post – the dodgy elbow is making typing hurt and I’m not sure I’m at my finest.  But I’m going to give it a go because this was hands down my favourite book that I finished last week and it deserves a big old mention here.


This a collection of the best bits of advice from the Dear Coquette blog which I happened upon felicitously at a time when I needed a pep talk and cheering up.  It did a marvelous job of both – and there is now a waiting list to borrow my copy.   I got told off by The Boy for reading too much of it out loud to him because “there’ll be nothing left for me to read myself”.  A few selected quotes also went down a storm on Litsy and on Twitter.

Most of the advice in here is about relationships in their various forms – the book is split into sections – on things like love, family and dating.  The Coquette is smart, witty, brutally honest and very, very frank.  It’s like the advice you wish your friends would give you, but would be too afraid to hand out yourself in return.  I don’t always agree with the Coquette’s world view, but it’s always well argued and thought provoking.

I’m not sure I’ll be lending my copy to my mum (not that she’s asked for it yet) but I can see myself giving this as a Christmas book to a few people who I think might appreciate The Coquette’s view of the world.  My copy was a proof copy (which the Coquette said she was mortified it still existed on Twitter!), but you can get a shiny proper hardback copy now – get it from Amazon, Waterstones and Foyles or on Kindle or Kobo.  The paperback is out in April.

 

 

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: November 21 – November 27

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Ok. So I went ice skating on Monday and fell over and now I have a little fracture in my elbow.  The hospital don’t like to immobilise elbows (you lose movement fast and it’s hard to get it back) so until the giant bruise appeared on Saturday I had no evidence of my injury, but I have had lots of sympathy and I’m hopped up on painkillers so it’s fairly ok.  I’ve been taking it easy (mostly on the sofa) but I haven’t been able to concentrate on anything serious – or hold heavy books.  I called time on The #MonuMeta Social Media Book this week – I’ve tried and tried and tried (I’m not sure the pain helped when I gave it another go in A&E), but I just couldn’t get into it.  It’s got great reviews on Goodreads though, so it’s clearly me that has a problem not anyone else!

Read:

The Season by Sarah MacLean

Burke’s Last Witness by C J Dunford

It Must Be Christmas by Jennifer Crusie, Donna Alward and Mandy Baxter

Twelve Days of Christmas by Debbie Macomber

A Whole Latte Murder by Caroline Fardig

The Best of Dear Coquette by The Coquette

Potent Pleasures by Eloisa James

Started:

The Wangs vs the World by Jade Chang

Duck the Halls by Donna Andrew

Still reading:

The Underground Railroad by Coulson Whitehead

Perhaps unsurprisingly given my weakened state, I had a kindle spending spree from my sick bed on Tuesday and Foyles were doing 20% off for Black Friday so I bought myself a book along with the ones I was buying as presents, but apart from that I’ve been remarkably restrained.  Or at least I think that I have.

Book of the Week, children's books, graphic novels

Book of the Week: Lumberjanes Vol 3

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As I mentioned yesterday, I did a lot of hours at work last week and not as much reading as I had been hoping, but graphic novels featured heavily in what did get read.  But before I talk about this week’s BotW I just wanted to mention that I’m reviewing on Novelicious again today – if you want to see what I thought about Mary Balogh’s latest Someone to Love you can click here.  With that shameless bit of self-promotion over, lets talk about Lumberjanes Volume Three: A Terrible Plan.

Lumberjanes Volume 3
Do you like my pretty checked table cloth? It was my granny’s and seemed appropriate!

I’ve mentioned Lumberjanes here before in last year’s Christmas books for kids post and it continues to be a great fun, hundred miles an hour journey through summer at a slightly eccentric camp for girls.  The adventures are bonkers, the characters are great and the underlying messages are nothing but positive.  In this volume we join our intrepid heroines as they try to earn badges and escape from dinosaurs (which totally makes sense in the context of the book) whilst we find out more about what some of the girls’ lives are like at home and their feelings about themselves.

This has some different artists to some of the previous issues and at times I didn’t like the drawings as much as I have previously – but that is more about my dislike of things changing in general (which all ties into my dislike of non-matching sets of books, and changes in cover design) because the art work is still beautiful.  I’m not the target market for this, but I still enjoyed reading it a lot and want to get the next volume asap.  I also want to give it to all the little girls I know as an example of female friendships and that girls can do whatever they want to do without boys to help them.  I’m even debating lending my copies to the nieces – and I’m not a big lender of books!

You should be able to get Lumberjanes from any good comic shop – and please do find a comic shop to support.  Amazon are only offering 31p off the RRP on this at time of writing – so why not go and support an independent shop – go to the Comic Shop Locator and put in your post code and it’ll tell you.  My local store is incredibly friendly and happy to get anything in for me that isn’t in stock – and you can order online from him too if you really don’t want to leave your house.  And either way it’ll give you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside for supporting the little guy not the corporate giant!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week In Books: November 13 – November 20

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I did a lot of work this week – a lot of nights away from home and only one day off in the last seven.  Consequently a lot of sleeping and not as much reading time!

Read:

Charlaine Harris’s Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris, Royal McGraw and Ilias Kyriazis

Baron by Joanna Shupe

Hero in the Highlands by Suzanne Enoch

Cooking the Books by Kerry Greenwood

All I Ever Wanted by Lucy Dillon

Lumberjanes Vol 3: A Terrible Plan by Noelle Stevenson et al

Started:

Potent Pleasures by Eloisa James

The Best of Dear Coquette by The Coquette

Burke’s Last Witness by C J Dunford

Still reading:

The Underground Railroad by Coulson Whitehead

The #MonuMeta Social Media Book by Roger Warner

The Season by Sarah MacLean

A slight shopping spree in the comic book store – and a few secondhand books to get some free delivery from a well known online retailer, but over all fairly restrained given that I was wandering in Foyles on Tuesday night!