How do you choose?

Hello blog readers!

So as I've repeatedly mentioned over the last year or so i've been...less than focused on this blog and reading in general. 2014 was the first year in a long time that I didn't meet my Goodreads Reading Challenge and I was uncharacteristically upset about it. I was angry and miserable. Ever since I was a little girl, reading has always been the one thing that i've found time for and I all but gave it up last year. Well, i'm not going to promise that i'll do any better this year but I can promise that i'm going to try.

Fortunately/Unfortunately (however you see it), my lack of reading absolutely did not stop me from buying books. So what happens when you spend a year buying books and not reading any? Uh... well let's just say my bookshelves are a little unruly right now.

When 2015 hit with my uncompleted challenge, I found myself with a new challenge. With a house full of books and a pile of bookish gifts for Christmas, I was inundated with options. What genre did I want? What kind of style? Any particular author? Should I read new or old? Can I do re-reads? The internal questions actually had me fraught with doubt that i'd ever be able to pick up again.
Luckily, the lovely Jenna Burtenshaw (Author of the fab Wintercraft series) came to rescue without even knowing it. Her Instagram showed me the delights of having very little choice at all!
Armed with many little pots that I'd gotten for Christmas (Boyfriend and I recently moved into our own house) and a stack of post-it notes from a long lost era, I realised what I had to do.

As you can see in the picture above, I used 3 different jars.
1. To read
2. Read
3. To buy

To me at least, my system is flawless.
Now whenever I find a book on my shelves that I had forgotten about and still need to read, it simply goes in the 'to read' pot to await its turn. When the time comes for a book, all of the decision is taken away! I just pick one out and voila. In theory, I should never be disappointed with whatever comes out, because they're all in there for a reason :)
Same goes for the 'to buy' pot. Every time i'm feeling the itch to go book shopping - I can just take out a slip from the pot and buy a book that I've actually been wanting!
And the 'read' pot? - Well even I need a little visual encouragement sometimes :)
The aim is to have more slips of paper in the 'read' pot than any other by the end of the year. Exciting! I thrive on goals and challenges and i'm really hoping I stick with this one. So far i've read 9 books this year, 4 ahead of my challenge, all thanks to the new brightly coloured system.

So what I really want to know is this - How do you choose?
I'm sure like me, there are way more books than time and choosing a book to read can feel really daunting. Especially after a great read.
Let me know how you decide what book to read next and how you limit your own book buying.

Caragh Reviews // Mind Games by Teri Terry

Published - (Expected) 5th March 2015
Publisher - Orchard Books
Format - Kindle
Synopsis - Luna is a no-hoper with a secret: in a world of illusion, she can see what is real. But can she see the truth before it is too late? Luna has always been able to exist in virtual and real worlds at the same time, a secret she is warned to keep. She hides her ability by being a Refuser: excluded by choice from the virtual spheres others inhabit. But when she is singled out for testing, she can’t hide any longer. The safest thing to do would be to fail, to go back to a dead-end life, no future. But Luna is starting to hope for something better, and hope is a dangerous thing...

I received a free kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A few years ago I read the ‘Slated’ series, which I believe was Teri’s first publication. It quickly became one of my favourite series’ and I was so happy when Hachette approved me for her new book, Mind Games! The first thing i'll say is that I really don't think the synopsis for this book does it any justice.

The premise of Mind Games is quite difficult to try and explain. Luna lives in a world where the Virtual World is everything. All activities, education and well...everything is done whilst being plugged in to a virtual world created from the mysterious ‘void’ that features throughout the book.

What I loved about the book was that there was no big explanation at the beginning of the book; telling you how the world came to be; why the world is the way it is. It’s just the life that Luna lives in and therefore she doesn’t feel the need to explain it as she doesn’t know anything else. The reader is thrown straight into the book and your imagination can unfold.

No matter how many years pass us by, technology will always seem foreign and strange to the average person. The whole idea of an invisible world connecting us all together just blows my mind and this book plays heavily on that. Like Slated, this book was full of adventure and excitement from start to finish.

It definitely raises questions about ethics and society which is pretty much all you can ask for from a book like this. With Terry's running theme on extreme tech throughout her books - I can only wonder what her personal opinion is! A must read!

**Apologies for the lameness of reviews - i'm just getting back on my feet with this whole reading thing! I can barely remember how to do this thing.**

Caragh Reviews - It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

Published - 1st May 2007
Publisher - Disney Hyperion
Format - Paperback
Synopsis - Ambitious New York City teenager Craig Gilner is determined to succeed at life - which means getting into the right high school to get into the right job. But once Craig aces his way into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School, the pressure becomes unbearable. He stops eating and sleeping until, one night, he nearly kills himself. Craig's suicidal episode gets him checked into a mental hospital, where his new neighbors include a transsexual sex addict, a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors, and the self-elected President Armelio. There, Craig is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety. Ned Vizzini, who himself spent time in a psychiatric hospital, has created a remarkably moving tale about the sometimes unexpected road to happiness.

I first heard of Ned Vizzini about 2 weeks before his tragic death just last year. After watching the movie version of this book just more than a few times, I decided to look it up online to happily discover that it was based on Vizzini’s novel. Though it took me a long time to actually get and then read the book, it had been on my mind for a long time.

Mental health is both an intriguing and familiar subject matter for me, having suffered with depression myself. However, books about mental health have always left me feeling disappointed. Not because they were badly written or because of the dissociation with the characters or anything, but because they never show an everyday normal view of the person in question. It’s not easy to write about mental health issues but I think it’s even more difficult to write a character with mental health issues without having to de-humanise the character.  The character should be a character, first and foremost. With human issues and feelings. The mental health issues are second but integrated.

The thing that I enjoyed the most about this book was that Craig’s problems weren’t judged in any way. So many teenagers out there suffer with mental health problems brought on by the stresses of school and everyday life and these should not be minimised or belittled, or compared to bigger issues. Whatever the reason for mental health problems such as depression – they are all as important and dangerous as each other.  Throughout Craig’s journey in the hospital we meet a multitude of characters with varying backgrounds, ages, problems, health issues – and they are all relatable.

Despite the perhaps dark subject matter of the book, there was a lack of heaviness that is often found in books of a similar subject and target audience. The read was enjoyable and comical throughout the book. It also felt like I was discovering a lot about myself as a person and as someone who has struggled with the effects of depression and anxiety. 

I also found it interesting how quickly the characters involved themselves with each other. Though Craig was only in the hospital for a short time, he made strong  connections to the other patients. I have seen in a couple of reviews that some people think this isn’t realistic but in actual fact – it really is. Anyone who has found themselves in a closed-up situation will more than likely have experienced this kind of ‘pack’ mentality. A group of people who are all in the same situation and only have each other for communication and daily living are more likely to bond quickly and strongly.  Especially when someone is looking for a way to escape and to feel ‘normal’. It’s not only a way to re-evaluate your place but it acts as a support group. In order to ‘survive’, you have to make yourself available, approachable and it again acts as a way to stop the dehumanising that often happens when someone is labelled with mental health problems. 

Of course we have to mention the parallels to Vizzini’s own life – who struggled with mental health problems severely and eventually took his own life. Vizzini personally spent some time in a hospitalised setting and I can really feel that through his writing. 

 

Overall it was an excellent book and I am anxious to read more of his writing. 5 stars.

Caragh Reviews - The Christmas Bake Off by Abby Clements

Published - 20th December 2012
Publisher - Quercus
Format - Kindle
Synopsis - With Christmas just around the corner, the residents of Skipley village are gearing up for the annual bake off, and tensions are high. Winning means a lot to everyone involved - talented cake-shop owner Katie dreams of baking stardom, Rachel wants to prove she's more than a stay-at-home mum, and John hopes his culinary skills will impress the woman he loves. But when the judges discover that some cakes have been tampered with, the villagers' loyalties are called into question - whose ambition would stretch to sabotage, and why? The Christmas Bake-Off is an exclusive short story from Abby Clements, author of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe. This ebook edition also includes bonus recipes for cinnamon cookies and vanilla and almond biscuits.

With the holidays coming (already!) I've been hunting the Kindle Store for quick festive reads. I can't remember if this one was free but even if it wasn't, it was dirt cheap! 

For a short story, it featured an array of characters, a little mystery and a burst of festive joy - which is all you really want from it. Personally I wasn't overly impressed but I always have this sense of unfinished business when I read short stories. I know that the point of them is to be brief and to the point but I always think they have so much more potential that just never gets given to us!

However, it was fun and cute, and this particular edition came with free recipes for Christmassy cookies which I genuinely am interested in trying! Also, be prepared to be absolutely craving big fancy cakes after reading this book.

Brief hello! I'm here to schedule!

I'm always afraid to check this website because I've left it abandoned and alone for so long.

23800 Views and 299 Posts...
For some reason those figures make me squirm. At least this post will make it 300!
I swear reviews are coming! I've got a few things scheduled for the near future to get this thing up and running again.

I'm still not reading a lot, therefore making this whole thing a little redundant, but who cares right? As long as I've got something to say, I may as well keep it going. I started this blog for me so I'm carrying on that way! I guess we'll see what happens but I'm excited to officially be back!

Caragh Reviews - My Life Undecided by Jessica Brody

Published - 7th June 2011
Publisher -  Farrar, Straus, Giroux (BYR)
Format - Format
Synopsis - PLEASE READ THIS! MY LIFE DEPENDS ON IT! Okay, maybe that was a bit melodramatic, but I’m sorry, I’m feeling a bit melodramatic at the moment.  Here’s the deal. My name is Brooklyn Pierce, I’m fifteen years old, and I am decisionally challenged. Seriously, I can’t remember the last good decision I made. I can remember plenty of crappy ones though. Including that party I threw when my parents were out of town that accidentally burned down a model home. Yeah, not my finest moment, for sure. But see, that’s why I started a blog. To enlist readers to make my decisions for me. That’s right. I gave up. Threw in the towel. I let someone else be the one to decide which book I read for English. Or whether or not I accepted an invitation to join the debate team from that cute-in-a-dorky-sort-of-way guy who gave me the Heimlich Maneuver in the cafeteria. (Note to self: Chew the melon before swallowing it.) I even let them decide who I dated! Well, it turns out there are some things in life you simply can’t choose or have chosen for you—like who you fall in love with. And now everything’s more screwed up than ever. But don’t take my word for it, read the book and decide for yourself. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll scream in frustration. Or maybe that’s just me. After all, it’s my life.

I came across a short story relating to My Life Undecided and as is always the way with these things, by the time I was getting into it, it was over. Luckily Annamarie helped me out and let me read her copy of the book.

For the most part, it was as I expected; a quick, fluffy read without too much going on or taxing. I realise that makes it sound like I didn't enjoy the book but I did - it was what I was looking for. Sometimes there's nothing better than a nice simple read. My Life Undecided follows the (bad) life decisions of Brooklyn Pierce - a teenager who just can't seem to catch a break. As you can probably guess, Brooks finds herself in a position that she can't charm her way out of and that kickstarts her new idea to give the decision making to the people of the internet. That way, she can't be held accountable for whatever happens. 

Throughout the book we see Brooklyn's blog posts, poll results and see what happens when she does, or doesn't play by her own rules. Personally I was hoping that there would be more blog posts throughout the book being as that's what really got me interested. I thought the format of the book would be different from the regular words-on-a-page book. I was glad that Brooklyn eventually became the person that she wanted to be, because I was so freaking mad when she continued to make the same mistakes. I'm a pretty good judge of character and so it frustrates me endlessly when Brooklyn fails to see Shayne's toxicity. The romance in the book was pretty confusing for me too. Throughout My Life Undecided, Brooklyn is associated with Hunter and Brian and honestly, they are both pretty good guys from what I can tell. Naturally, one wins out and I'm super pleased about it but I can't help but feel bad for the other! 

If you're looking for a quick, fun read then My Life Undecided might be for you.

Caragh Reviews - City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Published - 14th April 2009
Publisher - McElderry Books
Format - Kindle
Synopsis - When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder - much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air.  It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing - not even a smear of blood - to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy? This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk.  Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know..

I know i'm way behind the rest of the world when it comes to reading The Mortal Instruments but i'd seen such mixed reviews that I wasn't sure I wanted to invest so much time into a pretty hefty series. The series is now a movie and i'm desperate to see it, but in the spirit of (the now deceased) Read It 1st, I decided now was the time. People are saying it began as Harry Potter fanfic and i'm not really into that kind of thing but it wasn't as Potter-related as i'd imagined. 

There were a lot of things that I connected to HP - I mean the series name itself is a pretty big connection to the Deathly Hallows but honestly, the book pulled me in pretty quickly and I got involved with the story so well that I stopped picking up on similarities and just went with the flow. There wasn't a huge amount of world building which is something I like. I enjoy discovering the world as it happens rather than info dump and it was pretty easy to follow. I really loved all of the characters too; they were so unique to each other and read as individuals rather than different names. I have this weird thing where I tend to love the secondary characters more than the mains and in the case of City of Bones, I am really intrigued by Alec. There seems to be a lot to him that City of Bones hasn't discovered yet and i'm hoping that as the series continues, he becomes more prominent. 

Like the rest of the female population - of course I fell in booklove with Jace. Total badass with a real sincere, loving and sensitive side? YUP. The one thing that I really wanted to talk about in this review is probably way too spoilery but ARGH! Clare certainly knows how to frustrate a girl when it comes to her ships. I shipped Jace and Clary SO HARD and then of course, if you've read the book - you know what i'm talking about. What do I do now? Can I ship it? Just one of the many reasons that i'm anxious to start reading the next book in the series. 

City of Bones has a lot of soft, intimate moments between characters and there's a lot of backstory that is revealed throughout the book that creates the world Clary is finding herself in the middle of but it's also action packed and is never stale. The story flows excellently which is great as it's actually a pretty big book. I didn't realise the length as I read it on the kindle and I flew through it so fast. City of Bones isn't going to be for everyone but one book into the series and I think i'm going to like it so watch this space when I get around to reading the next one!

Caragh Reviews - Heartside Bay: The New Girl by Cathy Cole

Published - January 2014
Publisher - Scholastic
Format - Paperback
Synopsis - Life, love and everything in between...Lila Murray is determined to leave behind the drama of her old life and make a fresh start in Heartside Bay.
But when she falls for Ollie the hottest boy at Heartside High, she makes an instant enemy of Eve, the school's Queen Bee. Eve wants Ollie for herself and now she will do anything to keep them apart...

Cathy Cole is a new-to-me author and I hadn't heard anything about this book before picking it up! It's super short, barely reaching 200 pages and was super cheap too!

I had no expectations about the book as I hadn't heard of it or the author before, other than I assumed it would be a teen-romance book, which is pretty spot on! However I did find that despite the series name and the synopsis, the romance was the least thing I was interested in. The mystery surrounded Lila, who has recently moved home and changed name in order to make a new start, is what really prompted me to keep on reading. 

Though the mystery was kind of explained in the book, not in any great detail and as this is going to be a pretty big series of books, i'm hoping that gets expanded later on! Lila is a really interesting character. She's outgoing, a bit of a smart-mouth and has bundles of sass - all of which she is trying to cover up with an innocent facade. I think we all know that isn't going to last! I'll touch on the romance briefly - it's pretty generic and obvious. Though Lila falls for the Hottie i'm pretty sure that's not where this romance is heading and i'm glad about it! I'm looking forward to catching up with the teens of Heartside Bay when the next book is available.

Caragh Reviews - The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Caroline Mackler

Published - 5th January 2012
Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Format -Paperback
Synopsis - It's 1996 and very few high school students have ever used the internet. Facebook will not be invented until several years in the future. Emma just got a computer and an America Online CD. She and her best friend Josh power it up and log on - and discover themselves on Facebook in 2011. Everybody wonders what they'll be like fifteen years in the future. Josh and Emma are about to find out.

Not too long ago I read Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why and it really impressed me! So when I saw this for £1 in a local bookstore I had to have it and I read it pretty much immediately. I was born at the end of the 80's so I grew up without the internet and I remember it's impact as it started filtering into our every day lives and in peoples homes rather than at school. My first internet provider was also AOL and so this was right up my street.

The idea of not just being able to get glimpses of your future but through Facebook is terrifying and insane. I wonder what my past self would have thought if I could see the Facebook status's I post about my life now. I probably would have given up all hope! That's the beauty of this book, and it's really moralistic. Context is everything. Sure, if all I saw of my future was how I have baby food in my hair and no social life to speak of, i'd probably want to do everything I could to make my future a little bit more pleasing but in reality - I probably was happy about that. 

The Future of Us had so much potential that I scrambled to the end to get the satisfied feeling I was craving from this book. It just...sort of didn't happen. I did enjoy it! It was a fun, quick read but I felt like it really missed an opportunity to do something amazing. Instead, The Future of Us focuses on the petty romance/friendship between Josh and Emma and perhaps more infuriating - Emma's obsession with having a good husband. Somebody should inform the writers that a girl does not equate her lifetime happiness with whether she has a decent husband to make her happy. I thought that perhaps Emma would see the error of her ways and realise that she doesn't NEED that man to have a happy future - but she doesn't. The teens do learn valuable lessons of course - live for the moment and see what the future brings. It was just disappointing that both in the present and the future, these two kids are preoccupied with being in love. I'm not sure if it's a book I would really recommend to people unless they specifically wanted something like this but it was cheap and passed a couple of hours so it wasn't too bad.

January Wrap Up

I can't believe that it's February already. January just flew by. Here's a little recap of what's happened on the blog during January.

Book reviews -

Witch Finder by Ruth Warburton

A Princess of Mars  by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Percy Jackson & The Battle of The Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Shadow Web by N.M.Browne

Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs

Other posts -

Brianna's 2013 Reads

Caragh's 2013 Reads

Introducing: Classics Decoded

Introducing: Shakespeare Made Simple

Introducing: Book To Film

We're really excited about all the new things we plan to do at Loaded Shelves and so we hope you'll join in with us! We hope you all have a great February and manage to get loads of reading done :)