book review

Bitesize Book Reviews 5

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I’ve had quite a few boring and repetitive jobs to do at work recently, so have turned to audiobooks to get me through. Turns out, it’s pretty easy to get your reading count up when you can get through an audiobook or 2 in one day. Now it makes sense how so many people on Instagram are regularly getting through 20+ books a month. It’s not something that I could do every day because I have to write a lot. If I try and listen as I write, I just end up typing words from the audiobook. Definitely not worth it. Last week, I made it through 3 books and managed to cross off 3 more letters from my monthly reading challenge. I’m starting to feel quite good about where I am in a reading sense. I just wish the rest of my life was as easy.

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Book Review – Burn by Patrick Ness

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

How long to do you struggle with a book before deciding to give up on it? When I was younger, I used to percevier with books I didn’t enjoy just so I could feel like I’d achieved something. Although, that was back during the days when it would take me around a month to finish a single book. Now, my time is so precious that I can’t waste my time on books I don’t like. Although, there are times when I go back into that mindset. I get so far and just think “I might as well get all the way through.” This was one of those times. It took me around a week to get this finished and it wasn’t even that long a book. It’s one that I’ve had on my TBR for a while and one that I was quite excited about. So, what went wrong?

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Book Review – Towards Zero by Agatha Christie

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

I started the month of very badly in terms of reading. Until this week, I was genuinely scared that I would finish one book this month. Thankfully, in the past week, I have finished 3 audiobooks and am nearly finished with the physical book I’m reading. That one has taken me ages but I’m going to push on. It just feels as though I’ve put too much time into it now to leave it unfinished. As it’s now October, it’s been a year since I officially started rereading as many Agatha Christie novels as I could. I lost steam partway through, so I decided to start the month off with a Christie. I might try and fit in a few of her spookier books for Halloween but we’ll have to see how I go for the rest of the month. For now, I’d better review the one I’ve actually read.

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Book Review – The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

books, reviews

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

My final read of last month was something that I’d been intrigued by since watching the Netflix adaptation. However, I wasn’t exactly desperate to read it. The major reason that I actually decided to read it was because I need an E to complete my reading challenge. Officially, it’s not even an E title but I’m giving myself a pass on this one. Obviously, I’m a big fan of Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective, so I was a little worried about reading this. I’d been burnt by Anthony Horowitz’s The House of Silk before. It just didn’t pass the vibe check and didn’t get the character right. At least Nancy Springer isn’t writing an actual Holmes mystery.

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Book Review – Early Riser by Jasper Fforde

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Rating: 3 out of 5.

I’ve had this book for a while now and never even attempted to pick it up. It’s the first book by Jasper Fforde that I’ve tried to read but I know of him. By which I mean I’ve heard of his Thursday Next series but never bothered to read them. They just sounded a bit too whimsical for my liking. In reality, I’d probably enjoy them but I just haven’t had the inclination. This sounded too good to ignore and I always prefer a standalone to a series. It sort of sounded like Snowpiercer and was released during the time when I was still fully obsessed with that film. So, I bought it and, last month, I finally decided to read it. Mostly because I’m pretty short of E book titles.

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Book Review – Sunset by Jessie Cave

books, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

After struggling to finish Beautiful World, Where Are You, I definitely needed something to get me back in the reading spirit. So, I guess a book that promised something pretty distressing wasn’t the most likely choice but I felt like this would be a good tonic to Sally Rooney’s latest dense tome. Considering I got through it in a couple of days means that I was correct in my assessment. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Sunset but I’m glad that I finally got round to reading it. I was definitely fooled by the colourful cover. I don’t know what it is but I never expect pink books to be heavy-duty. I thought they were meant to be light and fluffy. This was anything but.

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Book Review – Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

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Rating: 3 out of 5.

The second book that I read on my holiday was another of my September pre-orders and one of the most anticipated novels of this year. I’ve only ever read Normal People but I really loved it. It was an absolute 5 star read, so I was looking forward to seeing what she came up with next. I always intended to read Conversations With Friends before I read Sally Rooney’s third book but just never got round to it. Still, I thought this sounded really interesting and I think Rooney is one of the most interesting and exciting writers around. Although, I’ve read a few Millennial writers, so it was always possible that my opinion of her had changed slightly.

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Book Review – The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Recently I did a survey for a well known publisher and one of the final questions was “which celebrity would you like to see publish a book?” A question which sums up the world of publishing. It’s not about the writing or the story. It’s about the personality. Publishing houses will give a contract to every famous person who wants to write because they know people will buy them. Even though I love Richard Osman, I wasn’t convinced that his debut novel would be worth bothering with. He was just another famous name being given the chance to write a book because they knew it would sell. Though I had my issues with the first book, I actually enjoyed it and couldn’t wait to see what Richard Osman came up with next.

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Book Review – Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

books, reviews

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Holiday is over and it’s back down to Earth with a bump. Not only am I straight back to work but I’ve got some blogging to catch up on. I’m going to try and review as many books as possible this week, which sounds good in theory. However, it’s been a while since I’ve read some of them. Well, it’s been over a week with this one. Thankfully, we discussed it at book club on Wednesday. That should give me a bit of a chance to remember what I think about it.

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Sunday Rundown: That’s What She Read

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Sunday Rundown

What have you been reading this week?

It’s the last day of my holiday and the day before I’m back at work. I’ve had such a good week that I’m really not ready for it to end. I should book off two weeks in future. I need a week away and then a week to recover. Hopefully, I won’t be going back to a load of unanswered emails and jobs that need doing. Ideally, it’ll be a stress free week to ease myself back in. When has that ever happened. As you will have noticed, I haven’t ben blogging this week. Why am I doing an rundown then? Well, I have read a lot of books. At least, a lot for me. It will be a bit of time before I get round to reviewing them all, so I figured why not update you on what I’ve got through.

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