Pressure

A little advanced warning - this may get deep! I'll start off slow though. Yesterday afternoon was so lovely. Holly @ The Arts Shelf and I, coupled with our very accommodating and mostly understanding Boyfriends met up in Leigh for lots of gorgeous food and then a bit of impromptu bargain book shopping! We were quite well behaved I think - absolutely nothing to do with our more reserved partners - and didn't go too mad with the buying.

My first two buys were Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon and Night Owls by Jenn Bennett. These were in Tescos 2 for £7 deal. Everything, Everything has been on my wish list since I'd first heard of it and Holly highly recommended Night Owls. Darren Shan's The Thin Executioner and Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl were fab charity shop finds, bring all 4 books to under £10! Though obviously i'm quite pleased - especially as i've already devoured Everything, Everything and LOVED it - i've got that familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach.

As the title suggests, I'm feeling a LOT of pressure. As a Not-Quite-But-Almost-Grown-Up 27 year old with an above mentioned boyfriend, a full time job and our gorgeous new house, I just don't have the same time allowances that I had 2 years ago. It's not even a bad thing in a lot of ways. We spend a lot of weekends out and about, visiting with friends and family, watching tv and playing video games... But there's no solitary time for me, which means there's not an awful lot of reading time.

Though I have drastically reduced the amount of books I buy, i've still not really started reading them. People see that i've read above and beyond my 50 Book Challenge on goodreads and praise me. I mean, even i'm pretty impressed by it but there's a bigger issue, and it's how *I* feel about my reading time. Just take a look at the below picture for a minute.

Since taking this picture a few weeks i've probably added at least another 5 or 6 books. These are all unread. ALL OF THEM. Some of those books were bought more than 5 years ago and I still haven't read them. Books have always been my passion, ever since I was an infant and wasn't even able to read for myself. As I get older though, i'm more anxious and panicky about, well, everything.  I feel guilty for owning so many books that I haven't read even though I get pleasure from having them and knowing that at any moment, i'll always have something to read of any genre. The weird thing though? I feel so much pressure to read ALL THE BOOKS that actually, i'm kind of intimidated to read anything at all. The idea of having to choose a book is ridiculously overwhelming. So much so that i'd rather just pick up my Kindle and read the first thing that shows up. NOT COOL, CAZZ.

Sorry for the intensity of the word dump up there but before I even get round to catching up with reviews, I needed to clear my chest a bit! Does anyone else feel like this? I know we all experience book guilt but how bad is it for you? I would absolutely love some suggestions! I'm actually back in the swing of things right now with regards to reading so i'm hoping that means I can tackle some of that insane pile this side of the year.

Goodreads Challenge: 56/50
Christmas Challenge: ZERO!

Halloween Bookfest

Hey!

Just as a little note before I get going, I'm using the Blogger app for iPhone for the first time, right now, so apologies if it's all messed up. I'm getting so behind on this blog that I figured short, quick app posts would at least make me keep up with some interaction here.

SO!

Halloween!

It is my absolute favourite time of year. I love the atmosphere, the chill in the air and all of the gorgeous autumn colours everywhere. Perhaps because of all that, October is usually when my reading sprees usually kick in. It's just so tempting to curl up with my 3 B's - books, brews and blankets! I have a ton of books waiting for me but to keep this as short and sweet as I intended I'll just talk about a couple.

My wonderfully lovely friend Holly went to a book event last night and very kindly got me a signed copy of Night School: Legacy by CJ Daughty!

After I recently won the entire book series from Maximum Pop, I'm looking forward to getting stuck into these this winter.

In addition to that, we did a Halloween book swap in which I (very excitedly) received Way Down Dark by JP Smythe!

So thanks again, Holly!

Now November is upon us and I'm worryingly aware of the amount of half finished books I've got on my bedside table. So for me, November is the month that I plan to finish all of the books I've got already started on...phew! That is gonna keep me real busy... 

Look out for some reviews going up next week too! Better go... Blankets ready and the kettle has boiled ;)

Brianna Reviews // Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin

Published: 1^st September 2005 (first published: 1994)

Publisher: Orion

Format: Paperback

Synopsis: In Edinburgh you're never far from a peaceful spot, or from a hellish one either. Now, in the heart of summer, in the midst of a nationalist festival, Inspector John Rebus is on the murder case of a young man left hanging in a spot where his screams would never be heard. To find the victim's identity--and his killer--Rebus searches from Edinburgh's most violent neighborhood to Belfast, Northern Ireland--amongst petty thugs, gunrunners, and heavyweight criminals. But before Rebus can get to the truth, he's bloodied by the dream of society's madmen--and staring into the glint of a killer's eyes.

Firstly apologies for there being no review for The Black Book (No. 5 in the series) I read it mid-2014 and didn’t review it at the time and I don’t think I could adequately review it now from memory. I did enjoy it, though the lack of review is not a reflection on the quality of the story or writing.

Now onto Mortal Causes, I got stuck in a rut of reading the through the same series (Kathy Reichs), and if I can tear myself away from it I like to mix them up because I find I enjoy and remember the individual books more so enjoying the crime genre I thought it about time I pay Rebus a visit.

As far as I can remember this is the first book that has coincided with the Edinburgh Festival, but that doesn’t make Mortal Causes light or fluffy, Rebus contributes a little black humour though as he always does. A body has been found in Mary King’s Close a buried street which at the time of writing wasn’t open to the public (but is now a tourist attraction), the style of murder screams IRA to Rebus. The victim is the son or ‘Big Ger’ Cafferty a gangster that Rebus arrested and put in prison in The Black Book and on top of that a friend asks Rebus to look into a Youth Club in Edinburgh’s roughest estate. 

I don’t know if it a lack of memory of The Black Book but when I picked up Mortal Causes I felt like I’d missed something, so much so that I picked up The Black Book and skimmed through the last chapter. No I definitely didn’t miss anything, last I read Rebus and Patience Aitken were not together, yet at the start of Mortal Causes they are together, as if nothing happened, okay so it isn’t perfect and they are on the rocks a bit but this is Rebus, perfect harmony was never going to happen.  I do regret a little that I didn’t read this sooner after The Black Book because I really struggled to remember Big Ger, I eventually did… sort of… he killed some people and covered it up by burning down a hotel? That may not be factual but that sadly is the extent of what I remember of him, which is a shame because I really like the fact that he was brought into this book, Rebus lives and works in Edinburgh so you would expect that from time to time events would have something to do with someone Rebus has dealt with previously. Big Ger presents Rebus with a bit of a moral dilemma, not that rebus needs help with moral dilemma as he is frequently treading the line between right and wrong, however I think Rebus manages to stay on the right side of his moral line… just.

On the subject of series continuity Matthew Vanderhyde makes another appearance, I find that I really like him as a character, he makes me smile, I'm not entirely sure why.

I have to admit that the politics of Mortal Causes left me a little bit lost, maybe it’s an age thing I was 3 at the time it was published, which means it’s most likely set a year or two before that or maybe it’s because I have never really understood the Catholic / Protestant divide.

Even though the politics lost me a bit I enjoyed the book, it felt comfortable, by this point I’m well acquainted with Rebus, his colleagues, Brian Holmes, Siobhan Clarke, Farmer, Lauderdale and Flowers are all familiar, even his rocky relationship with Patience is comfortable. Meaning that his temporary assignment to Special Branch and the accompanying new faces doesn't really affect the familiarity of the book.

I admire the way that Ian Rankin makes the way Rebus's favour for the priest and the murder case tie together feel like a natural connection.  Although I do think the plot with the woman from the courts (I can’t remember her name) was a little bit unnecessary, although she did lead rebus onto the right track with Sword and Shields, but surely thing could have been done without her because to me I didn’t feel like she added anything to the story.

Caragh Reviews // Concentr8 by William Sutcliffe

Published - 27th August 2015
Publisher - Bloomsbury
Format - Kindle
Synopsis - In a future London, Concentr8 is a prescription drug intended to help kids with ADD. Soon every troubled teen is on it. It makes sense, doesn't it? Keep the undesirable elements in line. Keep people like us safe from people like them. What's good for society is good for everyone. Troy, Femi, Lee, Karen and Blaze have been taking Concentr8 as long as they can remember. They're not exactly a gang, but Blaze is their leader, and Troy has always been his quiet, watchful sidekick - the only one Blaze really trusts. They're not looking for trouble, but one hot summer day, when riots break out across the city, they find it. What makes five kids pick a man seemingly at random - a nobody, he works in the housing department, doesn't even have a good phone - hold a knife to his side, take him to a warehouse and chain him to a radiator? They've got a hostage, but don't really know what they want, or why they've done it. And across the course of five tense days, with a journalist, a floppy-haired mayor, a police negotiator, and the sinister face of the pharmaceutical industry, they - and we - begin to understand why ...This is a book about what how we label children. It's about how kids get lost and failed by the system. It's about how politicians manipulate them

I have genuinely dreaded having to review this book - hence it being late.
I'm also not entirely sure that my thoughts are going to come out coherently so please don't hold that against me.

The premise of this book literally blew my mind. When I read what the book was going to be about, I knew that one way or another I was going to read it. It also kind of reminded me of the Melvin Burgess book 'The Hit'. ADHD is a HUGE deal. It's sad to think that there are very few people out there that don't know somebody who has been diagnosed with it, or at least know somebody by association. It's also true that it's becoming more acceptable to label children at an earlier age. In a lot of ways that's a GREAT thing - we're able to put a name to things and help from a much earlier stage in a child's life but it's also just....not great.

With a condition like ADHD, kids are not only labelled but are judged, categorised and it's assumed that just by 4 letters, they are kids that act up and pay no attention. Concentr8 really tries to focus on that side of things - what happens when kids are labelled pre-emptively just by behaviour?

So what exactly is the reason I've been dreading this? Pretty much everything BUT the premise if i'm honest. The kids (and book) are London based and i'm sure it's a statement on the type of kids who are being targeting within the book, but the language and the way it was written was my idea of a nightmare. There were incomplete sentences, so much slang I was starting to wonder if I was actually understanding what was being said, and the constant switching between characters and stream of consciousness was way too confusing.

Despite that, I still could have enjoyed it if it wasn't for the fact that, honestly, nothing really happened. I don't feel like the story progressed at all. There were a few moments (involving the journalist) where I thought the book was going to become something wonderful and truly meaningful but it failed for me. I haven't done much research on this book so PLEASE say something if you know more, but if this book is a standalone then I would honestly say give this one a miss and pick up something more worthwhile for your time.

There were a lot of points that could have deeply been explored and made a massive impression not just upon me, but on literature as a medium. That said, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the many footnotes and extracts from medical sources about ADHD, therapy and medication throughout the book. Those alone would have made for interesting reading if you throw out the rest of it.

Apologies to Sutcliffe but this really wasn't for me. It was a fantastic idea that never reached its potential for me. It was disappointing and bored me from start to finish.

Caragh Reviews // Monster by C.J.Skuse

Published - 14th September 2015
Publisher - Mira Ink
Format - Paperback
Synopsis - At sixteen Nash thought that the fight to become Head Girl of prestigious boarding school Bathory would be the biggest battle she’d face. Until her brother’s disappearance leads to Nash being trapped at the school over Christmas with Bathory’s assorted misfits. As a blizzard rages outside, strange things are afoot in the school’s hallways, and legends of the mysterious Beast of Bathory – a big cat rumoured to room the moors outside the school – run wild. Yet when the girls’ Matron goes missing it’s clear that something altogether darker is to blame – and that they’ll have to stick together if they hope to survive.

Yaaaay! Monster is finally released! :)
I was super lucky and received a copy of Monster a few months ago at a Mira Ink/Harlequin event. Apologies in advance as I read this so long ago and should have taken better notes. But long story short - I absolutely loved it. Every second of it.

Right away I felt really pulled into the story. Bathory school is creepy and full of secrets and it really comes across within the first few pages. I'd have to say that it wasn't scary in any shape or form but I don't think that was the point. It was a great mystery and didn't seem too obvious. The setting was perfect too; snowy, isolated, old and creaky - everything you could wish for in a thriller-esque book to be honest.

I also loved that there was more going on that the basic plot line too. As a reader we got to know a lot of the other characters and glances into their lives and not just the main character. When i'm reading a book - especially when it's set in our present day universe - there HAS to be connections to characters that are separate to the story.

If you're looking for a fun, mystery read as the cold nights draw in and with Halloween around the corner, I would absolutely recommend Monster! I truly loved Skuse's writing style and have added more of her work to my wish-list. Great read!

TheArtsShelf: Countdown to Christmas

I know, I know...it's only September!
Usually i'd be right there with you, moaning and groaning about the upcoming festivities but for some strange reason, I'm actually looking forward to it.

My loveliest friend Holly from The Arts Shelf has started the Countdown to Christmas readathon and I think I just might join in!

Holly's original post - Christmas Readathon

The aim is pretty simple - read as many cosy and christmassy books as you can get your hands on!
Though her week one update has already posted, i'm just now getting started so i'll be slightly behind.

If you're not quite sure where to start- there are a LOT of books out there - then maybe I can help.
The Parisian Christmas Bake Off by Jenny Oliver is absolutely free in the Kindle Store right now! I'm going to start with that this weekend and hopefully get on track.

Holly - i'm considering this a challenge to you, should you accept it!
Whoever gets closer to 10 Christmas themed books by Christmas eve - has to buy the other a brand new book of the winner's choosing! I look forward to the response =P

Amazon: click me :)

If any of you guys decide to join in, let Holly know over on her blog.
I'd really love to see your pics on twitter too! Cosy blankets and steamy mugs - what could be better?

Twitter - @Cazzimon
Facebook - facebook.com/loadedshelves

Brianna Reviews // Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs

Published: 2003

Publisher: Arrow Books

Format: Paperback

Synopsis: In the searing heat of Guatemala, Dr Temperance Brennan excavates the remains of an infant from a site believed to contain the bodies of twenty-three women and children. Shaken by the discovery, Tempe tries to harden herself against these horrors. And then four young girls go missing from Guatemala City. When a skeleton is found at the back of a rundown hotel, only someone with Tempe's expertise can deduce the identity and cause of death. But her path is blocked at every turn. It is clear that some people would prefer that Guatemala's 'disappeared' stay buried. And others will stop at nothing to ensure the missing girls are kept the same way.

So I finally decided it was time to return to Tempe Brennan, partly thanks to a friend’s book clear out which also provided me with the next few as well. I have to admit that since it has been a while my memory of exactly where we left all the characters is a little fuzzy, but maybe that was a good thing.

This time we have left North America for Central America, I have to admit that I found the start of this book very slow, even Brennan’s colleagues getting shot didn’t really speed it up. Detective Galiano’s entrance is where the book first had me properly interested; I think the book would have worked just as well if it had started a page or two before that.

At first I thought that Galiano was a little too much like Ryan, a bit like Reichs had got Ryan and made him Guatemalan, however as Ryan and Galiano conveniently went to college together I think I can perhaps forgive the similarity. This coincidence is stretched a little further with the connection to the Canadian Ambassador, and a perfectly timed desk restriction for Ryan, makes him the ideal Cop to send from Canada to help the investigation in Guatemala, oh and Ryan can speak Spanish! (all a little bit too convenient for my liking).
As for the competing love interests, I wasn’t a fan, but then maybe the fact that I felt strongly about it isn’t a bad thing. And let’s just not talk about the ambiguous ending, who does she go on holiday with??

The case itself I think could have been better, it wasn’t terrible but combined with the slow start and the very stretched coincidences let it down.

I am increasingly getting fed up of Brennan’s ‘I’m just going to run off towards this potentially dangerous situation without telling a single person where I’m going’ attitude, she is for the most part an intelligent woman and I admire her independent character, but somewhere along the line common sense should come into it and telling somewhere where you are going doesn’t make you any less independent. And after four books where this attitude of hers has got her into trouble the scientist in her should probably see the pattern. But no… yet again she rushes off and is inexplicably found.

Overall it wasn’t a bad book and I did enjoy it but Kathy Reichs can do better and I hope the standard picks up again in the next book… And who did she go on holiday with??

Illumicrate!

The excitement! Wonderment! The wait is over!

If like me, you've been overwhelmed over the past year with the sheer amount of subscription services that are showing up in every direction, then t his post is going to make you VERY happy. Assuming you're here for the books and not my majestic presence ;)

For a long time now i've seen these subscription boxes (and I have Lootcrate) and always pined for a book-themed one. I mean, how awesome would it be to have a random delivery of a book and lots of bookish goodies?

A few months ago I heard rumours of Illumicrate - a UK book subscription service and I have been WAITING for what feels like an ETERNITY for the service to be launched. And now it is.

I'll post the link to the website at the bottom of this page so you can discover and decide for yourself but just for some more information, this is taken directly from the site.

"When you subscribe to Illumicrate, you will receive a carefully curated quarterly box with a newly released book and a supply of fun, bookish goodies, like bookmarks, jewellery, stationery, and more!

We work with amazing independent suppliers to ensure that all the products you receive are of great quality and design. We try where we can to make sure the items included will be exclusive to Illumicrate! We also work directly with publishers to provide exclusive content from them and the authors where possible!" 

I am absolutely in NO way associated with illumicrate or the creators but I genuinely just think this is such a wonderful idea and i'm incredibly excited for the launch of the first box in November. For the love of books I urge you to just check it out and consider it. It looks like it's going to be fun :)


Link - http://www.illumicrate.com/ 

Apologies!

Hello there!

My sincere apologies for the lack of posts recently. We very unexpectedly had to move house recently and it's all been a little bit...well...mad!
Our internet was finally connected yesterday morning and so I thought i'd post a mini update.

I trust that you've all been keeping well? ;)

With a new home comes a lot of responsibilities - and i'm not talking bills!
We've been here for about 2 weeks now and the books, my god the books, are still in no particular order. The good news though is that we have a much loved second bedroom that now goes by the name of the 'Reading Room' and it's all mine thanks to my lovely boyfriend (who as it happens is just glad he can play Xbox in peace...).

2 new mini bookcases have been purchased and i'm SO looking forward to life slowing down a little in the autumn/winter months so that I can properly arrange the books and the book spaces. I'll be posting a few pics when that gets done of course.

There are a few things to look out for over the weekend as I try and catch up over here such as introducing a brand new bookish subscription service and inviting you a long on Holly's Countdown to Christmas ... link here! :) if you want to get started before I have a chance to properly write up about it!

Until tomorrow...

Caragh Reviews // When I Was Me by Hilary Freeman

Published - 3rd September 2015
Publisher - Hot Key Books
Format - Paperback
Synopsis - One girl, two lives. Which is real? When Ella wakes up one Monday morning, she discovers that she is not herself and that her life is not her own. She looks different, her friends are no longer her friends and her existence has been erased from the internet. Even worse, years of her history appear to have been rewritten overnight. And yet, nobody else thinks that anything weird has happened. A tense and dark psychological thriller full of unexpected twists and turns about the random events and decisions that make us who we are. If you can't trust your own memories, then who can you trust?

Shout out to Holly @ The Art Shelf for being the most incredibly and loveliest person and VERY kindly letting me read her copy of When I Was Me that she got from YALC in July - before she'd even read it herself! 

The blurb for this book kind of took my breath away a little bit. On average, I read around 60/70 books a year so i'm sure you can appreciate that finding a book with a subject matter that i've not already seen elsewhere is incredibly rare - but Hilary Freeman managed it! At first it seems as though something very sci-fi is going on and is actually quite chilling. As the book progresses, I found myself getting really anxious and actually had to put it down for 5 minutes whilst I calmed down!

It was quite surprising to me to feel like that, especially as it's not a particularly fast paced book. There's not a great deal of 'plot' going on - which considering the subject matter seems quite strange! A lot of the book focuses on Ella trying to discover who she is, not even because she seems to be in some kind of different world, but in general as a seventeen year old girl. It was actually quite a tense reading experience and raises a lot of psychological questions for the reader.

The blurb mentions something along the lines of 'twists and turns' which I didn't particularly find to be the case until very near to the end. It was an excellent read though and I got through it very quickly because I couldn't wait to find out the answers to the mystery! I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending but that's okay. It worked for me! 
 
The only thing that I really wasn't sure about was Ella and her friends' attitude towards boys and their opinions! For example, whilst talking together about Dom, the girls make a comments that really kind of left my mouth open afterwards. "Boys are never that keen unless they're into you" - this was in response to the girls talking about Dom being attentive, friendly and perceptive towards one of Ella's friends and their surprise that this didn't mean he was romantically attracted to her. I'm probably thinking on it a little too much but it seemed to me like Freeman could have taken this opportunity to be positive about the friendships between boys and girls rather than turn it into questioning the motives of boys.

I'd definitely recommend this book though and as is always the case with Hot Key Books - the cover is absolutely gorgeous! :)