Sunday, 30 September 2018

Chuckles Chat Upcoming Posts

Welcome to Chuckles Chat where great blogging minds unite to discuss the topics of the day mainly in the book and blogging world. I'll be sharing my thoughts on a topic and then inviting you all to share your thoughts. It's ok to disagree but PLEASE be respectful of each other's views! All of the comments on my blog are moderated and offensive posts ie racist, bigoted will not be published! 

NB: I don't follow or leave comments on blogs run by Google Plus, or DISQUS as I refuse to join something just to leave comments, and I won't allow them to follow new people, update my profile or post tweets 'on my behalf'. I won't comment on any blog that makes me sign in using another account.   
Earlier this year I did a series of Chuckles Chat posts about the scenarios we love and hate in our favourite genres. It was fun to think about what settings and plots we liked or didn't like. Now I'm going to do a follow up series over the winter and spring, choosing a different genre and sharing examples of the best books I've read in the genre. But more importantly, I'd love it if you guys could tell me and everyone else in the comments section which books you loved in the genre so we can share our thoughts and add more to our TBRs! And if you don't have any books read to share on a subject, tell us if you are excited about some on your TBR or wishlist!

To get us started I'm going to list the categories that are coming in the series. Genres will be split into sub-sections so there is time and space to talk about all the books, so keep your recs specific to the actual topic for the week please! Under each category I'll have a post for the best audio books for the entire genre so we can discover the best narrators in the genre.

Have I missed something that interests you? Let me know in the comments and I'll see if I can add it in! We're starting with horror this month as it is October and the first post will be up shortly.

***DON'T POST RECS ON THIS POST PLEASE! SAVE THEM FOR WHEN I DO EACH GENRE AND TOPIC POST*** 

OCT
Horror-Classic, Gothic & Historical
Horror-Creature Feature
Horror-Animals Gone Bad
Horror-Ghosts & Hauntings
Horror-Slashers & Psychos
Horror-Contemporary & Modern 
Horror-Humour
Horror-YA Horror
Horror-Best Audio books

NOV
Fantasy-Epic & High
Fantasy-Fairy Tales & Retellings
Fantasy-Medieval & Historical Fantasy 
Fantasy-Low & Portal Fantasy
Fantasy-Humour
Fantasy-YA Fantasy 
Best Audio Books 

Steampunk

DEC
Thriller-Road Trip & Expedition
Thriller-Stalkers & Games
Thriller-Missing 
Thriller-Trapped
YA Thriller 

Adventure
YA Adventure

Best Audio Books

JAN
Apocalypse-EMP, Solar Flare and Power Loss  
Apocalypse-Natural Disasters
Apocalypse-Pandemics
Apocalypse-Zombies 
Best Audio Books 

Dystopian
YA Dystopian

Animals

FEB
Historical Fiction-The Classics
Historical Fiction-Plantagenet
Historical Fiction-Tudor
Historical Fiction-Romance, Family Saga & Regency
Historical Fiction-Wars and Plagues
Historical Fiction-Victorian
Alternative History
Best Audio Books

MAR

Non Fiction Biography and Autobiography
Non Fiction Books based/connected to TV Shows/Films 
Non Fiction-Historical
Non Fiction-True Crime
Best Audio Books 

Crime-Police Procedure
Crime-Serial Killer 
Crime-Other
Best Audio Books

APR
Children's Fiction-Picture Books
Children's Fiction-Crime & Adventure
Children's Fiction-Fantasy
Children's Fiction-Boarding Schools & Coming of Age

Illustrated-Manga & Anime
Illustrated-Graphic Novels
Illustrated-Cartoon & Comics

MAY 
Urban Fantasy-Male MC
Urban Fantasy-Female MC
Urban Fantasy-Teams & Sidekicks
Urban Fantasy-Male Authors
Urban Fantasy-Female Authors
Urban Fantasy-Humour
YA Urban Fantasy
Paranormal Romance 
Best Audio Books

JUN 
SF-Space
SF-Other Planets
SF-Earth 
YA SF
Best Audio Books
Contemporary-Romance
Contemporary-Medical
Contemporary-Social 
Best Audio Books 


 
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September Specials-Final Update


OK so not a very exciting title but I couldn't think of another book related word starting with S! August Authorfest went well so I'm doing a few special things for September to keep up the tempo! As the month has thirty days, I will have 3 themes which will each last for ten days. One will be Series Catch Up, the second will be Shark! which sort of explains itself, and the third is Solo where I read stand-alone books. I'll need to read as much as I can in each category during their span.

Here are the books. Red are the books I read in week one. I didn't read much in week two which is shown in pink. Week three is marked in blue. Week four is purple, which was better. 

SERIES CATCHUP
I managed to finish the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn. The Kitty books are 300-400 pages each so I'm pleased with that! I also read Martha Wells and Black Swarm so this section was a complete success.

 1) Carrie Vaughn-Kitty's Big Trouble (read)
2) Carrie Vaughn-Kitty Steals The Show (read)
3) Carrie Vaughn-Kitty Rocks The House (read)
4) Carrie Vaughn-Kitty In The Underworld (read)
5) Carrie Vaughn-Low Midnight (read)
6) Carrie Vaughn-Kitty Saves The World (read)
7) Carrie Vaughn-Kitty's Greatest Hits (anthology) (read)
8) Martha Wells-Rogue Protocol (read)
9) Jamie Hutchison-Black Spawn (read)



SHARK! 
I'm pleased that I managed to finish the selected shark books though my attempt at the films was disappointing. I didn't get a single one looked at!

 1) Rick Chesler-The Tank (read)
2) Greig Beck-Fathomless (read)
3) Chris Jameson-Devil Sharks (read)
4) Matt Serafini-Island Red (DNF)
5) Michael Bray-Feed (read)
6) Carolyn McCray-Bullies (read)
7) Carolyn McCray-Open Water (read)
8) Carolyn McCray-Shark Station Nyet (read)
9) Carolyn McCray-Churn (read)
10) Carolyn McCray-The Shayu Situation (read)
11) Carolyn McCray-Blood In The Water (read)

1) Planet Of The Sharks
2) Empire Of The Sharks
3) Shark Lake
4) Toxic Shark
5) Ozark Sharks
6) Atomic Shark
7) Mississippi River Sharks

SOLO
These are stand-alone books that I wanted to read. Had real issues with this section as one of the short stories couldn't be found on ereader or computer so I scrapped it. Gameland was also too long to fit in this month so it's on the back burner. I didn't get the other two done as time ran out. I didn't get any of the films looked at in this section either.

1) Ernest Cline-Armada (DNS)
2) Saul Tanpepper-Gameland (DNS)
3) Hunter Shea-Rattus New Yorkus (read)
4) Patrick Sheane Duncan-Dracula vs Hitler (DNS)

FILMS
1) Ready Player One
2) Paddington
3) Paddington 2
4) Vampire Academy
5) Divergent

Overall it was decent but through the month I lost out on about 6 days of reading through being tired or lazy so I'm a bit annoyed that I could have done more. I really need to use every day of next month to fit in as many horror as I can!
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Chuckles Cover Love #94-Walter Jury/Sarah Fine


If there is one thing that makes a great book even better, it is when it has a cover that we love! The cover design is what catches the eye as we browse through a bookstore shelf or check out the Amazon or Goodreads recommendations. The right cover makes me look closer at a book, to read the blurb and maybe make a purchase. A poor cover might mean I never look at the blurb at all.

NB: I don't follow or leave comments on blogs run by Google Plus, or DISQUS as I refuse to join something just to leave comments, and I won't allow them to follow new people, update my profile or post tweets 'on my behalf'. I won't comment on any blog that makes me sign in using another account.   

 This Week! 

 A look at alternate covers for the same series. I love that first cover for Scan but there seems to be no matching cover for the second book in the series.























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Friday, 28 September 2018

The Back To School Book Tag


I saw this tag at AJ's blog http://ajsterkel.blogspot.com/ and it looked fun. You know I like my book tags! The tag was created by Jenny at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qsFPEF-_R0.

Want to play? I tag you!

1) English/Language Arts-An author whose writing style you like.
I love the way he blends tension with action!


2) Math-A book that frustrated you.
Oh man there are so many to choose from! I think I'll go with a book that had a good story that I marked down because of moronic characters and dumb angst plots in it.

 
3) Science-A book that made you think or question things.
I never gave much thought to impending disaster as the UK don't suffer the same way from tornado, volcano or hurricane issues as the US. However these books were the first apocalypse stories I read about EMPs and solar flares and I was horrified (and bloody scared!) by how quickly society could collapse and the struggles ordinary people would have if they weren't ready for it. It got me into a whole new mindset about being ready for anything and whether the government would help or leave us to fend for ourselves.


4) Social Studies/History-Your favourite book from a different time.
I think I might mix it up. One from the Tudor period,  one with time travel into the near future and one set in the future!


5) Art-Your favourite book with pictures.
My favourite childhood read!


6) Drama-A book you want as a film.
Now who can pick just one! I want to see all of these bad boys!


7) Music/Band-A character you think/know has same music taste as you. 
James Halliday from Ready Player One! I grew up in the late 70's and the 80's so I'm very much into that music. James set his whole Oasis internet invention in the 80's as can be seen with the film and music references so I'm sure we'd love the same stuff!


8) Lunch-Food from a book you want to try.
It really has to be Harry Potter!  Those Hogwarts feasts where I could stuff myself with all my favourite foods, have some of Mrs Weasley's home cooking then off to get some Butterbeer and buy out Honeydukes!


9) Bus Ride Home-A book you found relaxing.
I'm not sure that I read relaxing books! I read books that get the pulse going and sweep me along in excitement! I find books in general relaxing but not a specific one. I'll go with a bit of historical fiction.


10) Extra Credit-A book someone recommended that you actually liked.
OK, Laura at http://fuonlyknew.com/ recommended Hunter Shea to me, who I now love! 


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Chuckles Weekend Roundup


Welcome to my feature Chuckles Weekend Roundup where I will be looking at what books I've received, anything interesting I've done or bought or watched and other random stuff. I'll be taking a look back at what happened in my blogging world too, sort of like The Sunday Post that some of you do! 

Please note that I'll be visiting your STS/SP as normal, but I don't follow or leave comments on blogs run by Google Plus, or DISQUS as I refuse to join something just to leave comments, and I won't allow DISQUS to follow new people, update my profile or post tweets 'on my behalf'. I am the only one who does that on my social media! I won't comment on any blog that makes me sign in using another account. Sometimes, I have problems leaving messages on blogs hosted by Wordpress-they try to block me because I deleted my account with them but I will persevere as it only happens the odd time!
****************
I'm glad to see the end of this week as it has been full of housework, DIY and house tasks that have left me pretty sore and tired. The plan now is to rest over the weekend and get the next stage of work done next week. My dad will be putting together the new 2 shelf cupboard for his cds while I go through cupboards in the kitchen and living room to see what we can send to the charity shops. Hopefully it will give me a little storage space back so I can de-clutter the kitchen a bit. After that we need to get these damn bookcases swapped over but that will probably have to wait another week! 
 
It was a quieter week for books this time. Not as many to share with you! I decided to treat myself to paperback copies of a couple I had on ebook but hadn't read-risky yes but I can't resist the Pliosaur covers! So you might recognise these covers from another weekend roundup! I did get some good reading done, squeezing in the last few books before the month ends and Spooky Booky month begins! 

PAPERBACKS


 
 

Chuckles Blogging World
Last week I started following a whole pile of new horror related blogs-over 20 in fact. So far I don't think any have commented back but I'll give it a couple of weeks and see if any of them respond before pulling the plug.
 
Book Reviews  
 
SM Wilson-Extinction Trials Exile
 
Carrie Vaughn-Kitty Goes To War (Kitty Norville #8)
 
Chuckles Mini Reviews Catchup

Regular Posts
Around The Blogs as usual and a return to Prepping With Chuckles. Cover Love featured Anna Schumacher, Top Ten Tuesday was about books by favourite authors we have yet to read, Can't Wait Wednesday was Kill River and Books From The Backlog featured George RR Martin's gorgeous encyclopedia of Westeros history-The World of Ice and Fire.

Chuckles Cover Love
 
Around The Blogs With Chuckles

Top Ten Tuesday
 
Can't Wait Wednesday
 
Books From The Backlog

Prepping With Chuckles
 
Discussion Posts 
Chuckles Chat looked at Series Length and Chuckles Chuntering was about DIY, bookcases and the horrors of docuement shredding.
 
Chuckles Chat

Chuckles Chuntering
 
Film Reviews 
none this week
 
Special Posts 
 
September Specials Update 3

Book Tags/Blog Awards
 
Netflix Book Tag

Reader Problems Book Tag
 
Currently Reading/Up Next 
 It's a manic end to the month as I try to squeeze in the last few books I want to read. Since last Friday up to this morning I have read Black Spawn, Shark Station Nyet and Churn. I'm currently reading the Shayu Situation and Blood in the Water so I'll finish the Apex Predator series by Carolyn McCray tonight. Tomorrow I'm reading the final Kitty Norville book by Carrie Vaughn and then I have a day to try and read Armada and Dracula vs Hitler! It'll be tight as to whether I manage it or not but I'd love to get them done. Then horror month starts and these are the first three on the list!
 
 
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Thursday, 27 September 2018

Chuckles Mini Reviews Catchup


I review pretty much everything I read, on my blog and on Goodreads. Most reviews are of a decent length but sometimes you don't have much to say about the book because of its length or you DNFed it or various other reasons. In cases like that it makes sense to write a few mini reviews in one post and clear them out your way! Time to catch up with a few books read between June and August!

1) Alexandra Oliva-The Last One
It begins with a reality TV show. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods to face challenges that will test the limits of their endurance. While they are out there, something terrible happens—but how widespread is the destruction, and has it occurred naturally or is it human-made? Cut off from society, the contestants know nothing of it. When one of them—a young woman the show’s producers call Zoo—stumbles across the devastation, she can imagine only that it is part of the game. Alone and disoriented, Zoo is heavy with doubt regarding the life—and husband—she left behind, but she refuses to quit. Staggering countless miles across unfamiliar territory, Zoo must summon all her survival skills—and learn new ones as she goes. But as her emotional and physical reserves dwindle, she grasps that the real world might have been altered in terrifying ways—and her ability to parse the charade will be either her triumph or her undoing.

I have to say that this is one of the worst books I've looked at this year. It sounded great but I struggled from the start. We follow Zoo as she goes through the game zone. She searches for food, walks, finds water, makes camp, sleeps, gets annoyed with herself for leaving her husband for this miserable show, searches for food, walks, finds water, makes camp and sleeps. Following her through the forest in the present in the first half of the book is pretty dull, repetitive and boring. When she finally bumps into someone who has survived the plague in the outside world, despite him being a young guy she becomes fixated on him being her new camera man despite the lack of camera. He's talking about the event and Zoo being the first person he's seen but she just isn't listening to him, or talking to him, just obsessing about the camera! Zoo is so dumb I wanted to throttle her! Had she asked one question like 'where's the camera' we would have made progress instead of her wandering on worried about her on air time. Plus the kid doesn't ask her anything about the event or say anything to make her pause and wonder what he's talking about so it was really frustrating!

Then there is the confused storytelling. Zoo refers to the other contestants by their real names and thinks of things that happened with them during the show. When we switch to flashback the TV crew talks about them by their network nicknames so we don't know who has each nickname, making it impossible to work out who Zoo was thinking about. The flashbacks have a ton of detail about the dull contestant tasks which really have no relevance to the story of Zoo's survival situation. The timeline jumps about all over the place which made it difficult to follow. And worst of all we get nothing on the event itself after the prologue-at least to the point where she travels with the guy and I finally DNFed it. Disappointing and dull.
Read August 2018.
DNF 1 star. 

2) Kayla Olson-The Sandcastle Empire 
Before the war, Eden’s life was easy—air conditioning, ice cream, long days at the beach. Then the revolution happened, and everything changed. Now a powerful group called the Wolfpack controls the earth and its resources. Eden has lost everything to them. They killed her family and her friends, destroyed her home, and imprisoned her. But Eden refuses to die by their hands. She knows the coordinates to the only neutral ground left in the world, a place called Sanctuary Island, and she is desperate to escape to its shores.

Eden finally reaches the island and meets others resistant to the Wolves. But their solace is short-lived when one of Eden’s new friends goes missing. Braving the jungle in search of their lost ally, they quickly discover Sanctuary is filled with lethal traps and an enemy they never expected. This island might be deadlier than the world Eden left behind, but surviving it is the only thing that stands between her and freedom.  

This book started really well with the interesting escape from the prison after two years of Eden waiting for the right moment. I was still interested in the story even with the info dumps when they get to this promised island sanctuary but after that it began to really drag. There is the trudge across the island when one of the girls goes missing, trying to find her when they have no idea which way she went, bitching at each other as they go. Eventually they find the Temple with no monks and run away from it because it has laser protection and bugs that chase them. I expected the traps in the jungle bit to be more exciting, tense and interesting but I just found it all a bit meh and lacking interest and they trudged back to the beach.

Back at the beach they find the missing girl with a group of guys that Alexa just happens to know and they all camp on the beach. It lacked detail on what was going on, where this Wolf Pack were and what they were doing-just too vague on the details I wanted. Maybe there was more about this and where these guys were from later on in the book but I was too bored to get there. I could see it was headed into instaluv teen angst territory with the inevitable pairing off starting to happen and I quit reading at that point. 
Read August 2018.
DNF 2 stars.

3) Sarah J Maas-Throne Of Glass 
Meet Celaena Sardothien. Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness. In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake: she got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament—fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted? 

I'll be honest, I went into this book with real doubts about it being my kind of thing and I was right. I actually did like the characters, finding Celaena interesting and enjoying the way she was constantly thinking and planning. The Prince was ok but I did like Chaol best. He was smart enough to be able to match wits with our flawed hero. I liked the idea of the plot with the tournament to become the King's Champion and was looking forward to seeing that all unfold. But I never got there!

I just found the pacing pretty slow with the journey to the castle, her getting settled, the court bitches and then the training sessions. It was taking quite a while to get to the main part of the story. However, I would still have stuck with it to see what happened but the hints were already being dropped about the inevitable love triangle and I just found myself feeling really frustrated at the thought of that getting in the way of an interesting plot. When I confirmed in other reviews that we do get the love triangle, I decided I had to cut my losses and DNF as a love triangle is a dealbreaker in books for me. 

I can see why people enjoyed the book though as the writing was good and it had the potential for a great story but I didn't feel the relationship angst was worth battling through to get to the main story.

Read August 2018.
DNF 2 stars. 
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Chuckles Chuntering

This week has been an improvement on last week by far. My dad is feeling much better and surprised me by constructing the new makeshift bookcases! Four of those thin corner units at £2 each in the charity shop have been turned into two small bookcases that will sit one on top of the other. I reckon I saved about £100 on the cost of buying flat pack versions from Argos and Ikea. Now they are full of books! My tbr/series unfinished mass market urban fantasy collection that will be going into that bad boy with a few favourite things like It and Jurassic Park that are waiting for rereads and new reviews! 

I also reorganised one of the other bookcases in my room. I took out most of the dvds and was able to reclaim two of the three shelves for more books which I was pleased with. It took me about two hours to get that sorted and my back is complaining but it was worth it. The Book Cave is taking shape and is almost ready to be photographed for the blog! I've got most of the room sorted by genre now which is an improvement and all books are off the floor, even if they are a bit squashed on my apocalypse shelves! As I read and remove those I don't want to keep the shelves will get a bit neater but overall it's looking ok.

I got a brilliant electric fire for my bedroom! My last one fell apart literally-it overheated so much that the plastic on the back of it started to disintegrate, which was worrying when I finally spotted it. This new one is mega warm so my Book Cave will be really cozy this winter. I doubt I'll ever need to turn it up to the second and third settings. Bargain at £20!Just a few more cosmetic things to sort tonight and my Book Cave is finished!

 My dad and I decided to go through old paperwork this week and we filled two big bags of things that needed to be shredded as they had personal details on them. It has been a nightmare job trying to get that done over the last two days but hopefully we'll finish it up today. I hate the job and we have tiny strips of paper clinging to every surface and person. Such a mess! It's another task off the list for getting the place sorted but I really want to get on with the last bit of furniture moving so I can concentrate on other smaller jobs that need doing. Still, we're getting there I suppose!
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Books From The Backlog-The World of Ice And Fire


Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf.  You might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks. Go to Carole's blog and add your blog post link in to join in the fun! Hosted by Carole at https://carolesrandomlife.blogspot.co.uk/

This seems like a fun feature and I have been planning to take part since Carole launched this so at last, here we go! I have a TON of unread books to choose from in various genres and I'm looking forward to sharing some of them with everybody. 


 The never-before-seen history of Westeros and the lands beyond. With hundreds of pages of all-new material from George R.R. Martin.

If the past is prologue, then George R. R. Martin’s masterwork—the most inventive and entertaining fantasy saga of our time—warrants one hell of an introduction. At long last, it has arrived with The World of Ice and Fire.

This lavishly illustrated volume is a comprehensive history of the Seven Kingdoms, providing vividly constructed accounts of the epic battles, bitter rivalries, and daring rebellions that lead to the events of A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO’s Game of Thrones. In a collaboration that’s been years in the making, Martin has teamed with Elio M. García, Jr., and Linda Antonsson, the founders of the renowned fan site Westeros.org—perhaps the only people who know this world almost as well as its visionary creator.

Collected here is all the accumulated knowledge, scholarly speculation, and inherited folk tales of maesters and septons, maegi and singers. It is a chronicle which stretches from the Dawn Age to the Age of Heroes; from the Coming of the First Men to the arrival of Aegon the Conqueror; from Aegon’s establishment of the Iron Throne to Robert’s Rebellion and the fall of the Mad King, Aerys II Targaryen, which has set into motion the “present-day” struggles of the Starks, Lannisters, Baratheons, and Targaryens. The definitive companion piece to George R. R. Martin’s dazzlingly conceived universe, The World of Ice and Fire is indeed proof that the pen is mightier than a storm of swords.

This book is visually stunning and gives an account of all the major episodes in Westeros history including Robert's Rebellion and myths that are mentioned in the series ie the man who broke the law of hospitality and suffered the consequences. The illustrations are gorgeous and it is packed with everything a fan of the series could want. I suspect that I will be throwing myself into this once the series has ended! I added it to wishlist in November 2016 and bought it January 2017.
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