Quick (very quick) reviews

Yep, running out of time to draw a line under the reviews for the year. Some of these I’ve been meaning to write for eleven months. Lucky it doesn’t actually matter… Continue reading

The Paper House by Anna Spargo-Ryan

The Paper House by Anna Spargo-Ryan was everything I expected and didn’t expect.

What I expected was Spargo-Ryan’s musical sentences – follow her on Twitter and you’ll understand what I mean. She combines the pithy and the insightful in such a way that everything she writes is humorous and heartbreaking and true. Continue reading

It’s all happening in November

Argh! Three excellent reading challenges for the month of November – what will I do? How can I squeeze them all in?!

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The Stella Prize 2018 – longlist predictions

With just hours before the Stella Prize 2018 longlist is announced, I thought I’d take a stab at what I think will appear.

Apparently the judges had to work through more than 170 entries (look at that ace pic below!). Unlike the judges, I’ve only read a handful of eligible books but I’m aware of a bunch that keep crossing my radar. On that rather flimsy basis, I’m predicting the longlist*.

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A year of Sample Saturdays

sample-saturdays-2016

I’ve read 105 Kindle samples this year – downloading sample chapters is better than impulse buying books… I think. Of the 105 I’ve read, I’ve said ‘yes’ to 57. Of those that I’ve said yes to, a bunch I’ve now read (or have in the TBR pile), thanks to the library, ARCs and a gift.

However, if I buy the remaining 49 books, it kind of destroys all the gains I’ve made on reducing the TBR stack this year. So, I’ve narrowed it down to 15 that I’m busting to read. Continue reading

I want…

i-want-it-now

This week’s TTT topic is ‘Ten Books You’d Buy Right This Second If Someone Handed You A Fully Loaded Gift Card’ but really, ten is stupid when what I actually *need* is at least a hundred.

How about we make this the first week of Top One Hundred Tuesday? Continue reading

What’s new?

ttt-new-releases-2016

I haven’t been shouting from the rooftops about new releases this year – not because there’s been a lack of ace new books but because I’ve been focusing my reading on what’s been languishing in the TBR stack.

But thanks to the magic that is NetGalley, a few have come my way… This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is all about the 2016 new releases that have made my heart sing. Continue reading