The Deep by Alma Katsu My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’ve read an Alma Katsu novel before. The Hunger. So I know now that she has a fantastic ability for weaving a thoroughly exciting and intricate storyline. In The Deep, two time periods alternate. There is the week leading up to the Titanic sinking…
2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge
2020 Goodreads Challenge: 52 Books. Once again, most of my books will be from the library or books I own, and I expect about a fifth will be audiobooks. 2021 Reading Challenge M has read 0 books toward her goal of 52 books. hide 0 of 52 (0%) M’s bookshelf: read-in-2021 The Deep by Alma…
Top ten books from 2020 (and a few cheats :D)
It’s been a weird year. It began with Australia burning, which was heartbreaking. Then came covid. I assumed I would get a whole load of reading done but what actually happened was I had a period of 3-4 months when I read much less than I usually would have. I think it was due to…
Heart of a Runaway Girl by Trevor Wiltzen
Heart of a Runaway Girl by Trevor Wiltzen My rating: 4 of 5 stars The main character, Mabel Davison, is the star of this novel. She’s a down-to-earth single mum and a waitress. She owns the diner and an attached motel, but she isn’t rolling in money. Mabel works hard and long and tries to…
Dead[ish] – a very original short story by Naomi Kramer
Dead[ish] by Naomi Kramer My rating: 5 of 5 stars Oh, wow. Oh, my. I read Dead[ish] on a long-distance train yesterday and became so engrossed that I suddenly thought I’d missed my stop. I flung myself onto the platform only to find the reality was I was half an hour early and had to…
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi My rating: 5 of 5 stars 4 1/2 stars out of 5. Feelings. I’ve got so many after reading this novel! A bittersweet story about youthful love and the danger inherent in difference. At one point I thought I knew the ending but I was wrong. Emezi…
30 Covert Emotional Manipulation Tactics: How manipulators take control in personal relationships
30 Covert Emotional Manipulation Tactics: How Manipulators Take Control In Personal Relationships by Adelyn Birch My rating: 4 of 5 stars 3 1/2 stars rounded up to four. Another short but useful book from Birch. I felt it wasn’t ‘as’ useful as Boundaries After a Pathological Relationship (my review is here) but still worth the…
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
The Vegetarian by Han Kang My rating: 4 of 5 stars A confusing novel but I just let myself get swept along, trying not to ask where it was leading. That seemed the only way. There is an element of beauty in the writing yet the novel speaks also to the baseness and horror in…
Dead as a Doornail (Sookie Stackhouse #5)
And there is Tara (from True Blood) on the cover! Woohoo! Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris My rating: 5 of 5 stars Dead as a Doornail is a classic Sookie Stackhouse novel with lots of action. But something I particularly liked in this one was it felt like a lot of time was…
Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay
Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay My rating: 4 of 5 stars Strong start – I mean, zombies!! (Well, kinda) – but not my favourite Tremblay. My main gripe – I wasn’t keen on one of the main characters. On the plus side though, zombies (kinda, sorta), and I love the little references and links to…
Sloths!
Sloths! by William Hartston My rating: 4 of 5 stars “No longer are they seen as total misfits in the modern world but, in the words of one specialist sloth investigator, they are ‘masters of an alternative lifestyle’.” (From the book’s blurb) This is a fun book on sloths aimed at adult readers. Yes, I…
Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse #4)
Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris My rating: 5 of 5 stars (another re-read) Aww, Eric was a funny boy in this one. I liked it…a lot. And if you’re an Eric fan then you probably will, too. 🙂 Indeed it was. Erm, no. Nope. It was a lot more than that. Anyhoo… There…
Bitten by Kelley Armstrong
Bitten by Kelley Armstrong My rating: 5 of 5 stars A great werewolf tale! A bit raunchy in bits, not really my thing, but very well done. I liked the relationship between Elena, the main, and Clay. I found it quite gripping. In fact overall it was well-written and engaging – there was always action…
Haunted House Ghost cosy mystery by James J. Cudney
Note: To read the spoiler please head here to the Goodreads version. Haunted House Ghost by James J. Cudney My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was worried after the first few pages were a bit shaky but it was was quickly forgotten and I was invested in the story. The initial section (only…
Overkill: When Medicine Goes to Far by Paul A. Offit
Overkill: when modern medicine goes too far by Paul A. Offit My rating: 4 of 5 stars Quite a good book if you’re interested in your health, or health in general. It’s an odd thing that procedures and advice that work might be overlooked for continuing to apply things which don’t bring the benefits that…
The Great Divide by L.J.M. Owen
The Great Divide by L.J.M. Owen My rating: 4 of 5 stars The Great Divide had a story that kept me up at night reading. It also had a dark almost gothic feel. Aussie gothic, maybe? I don’t know, but I can tell you the story was brutal, the weather foggy, and the small town…
Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse #3) by Charlaine Harris
I guess I bought this book for $6 😛 Well worth it I might say. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris My rating: 4 of 5 stars After my re-read: Oh, Sookie, Sookie, Sookie. Boy do you get in some scraps. I love her so much even though, at times, she’s a bit whiney. I think…
Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay
Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay My rating: 5 of 5 stars 4 1/2 stars rounded up to five. This book is dark, particularly if you’re a parent. We all worry the crap out of ourselves over our kid’s welfare, and this book plucks away at those fears. Was it scary, though? It was…
Salvage the Bones – it’s a ‘wow’ from me
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward My rating: 5 of 5 stars Oh my God this book was a journey and I feel a bit broken, yet at the same time enriched (?!?!!), by having read it. Beauty and ugliness, joy and pain, it’s all there. Omg. 😭 Salvage the Bones was exquisitely written and…
Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse #2) by Charlaine Harris
Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris My rating: 4 of 5 stars I forgot how different the story was to the TV series. Not bad, just different. I enjoyed reading this again as an audiobook this time. The narrator is quite good, in fact excellent, as Sookie. While the male voices are a little…