Top Ten Tuesday-Best Books Of The Year

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/

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 it is my ten best books of the year!

Top Books Of The Year

1) John Major-The Autobiography

The memoirs of the former Prime Minister were great to read-the Gulf War, Northern Ireland Peace Process, the Financial crisis...it was entertaining, informative and funny.

 

2) Jenny Lawson-Lets Pretend This Never Happened

Funny and somewhat tragic at the same time, Jenny shares her anxiety and struggles with mental health issues.

3) John Preston-A Very English Scandal

The story of the fall from grace of Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe as he is on trial for trying to have his former gay lover murdered.

 

4) Allie Brosh-Hyperbole & A Half 

Allie shares her own mental health struggles through the years along with the most wonderful cartoon illustrations.

 

5) Paul Firth-Four Minutes To Hell

The true tragic story of the 1985 fire at the football ground of Bradford City FC, told by the survivors and witnesses.

 

6) Sean Egan-50 Years of Coronation Street

The unofficial behind the scenes story of Coronation Street, which celebrates it's 60th year in 2020. Great information I hadn't read before.

 

7) Jenny Lawson-Furiously Happy

Jenny's second book looks at her continued health struggles and the adventures of her taxidermy imal friends!

 

8) The Art Of Harry Potter

A huge behind the scenes book about the Harry Potter films which was fascinating, and had a ton of great illustrations.

 

9) Ken Irwin-The Real Coronation Street

A journalist who expected the series to fail takes a look at why it was so popular and what was really going on behind the scenes. A great read.

 

10) Michael Bond-Paddington Bear

I can't pick a favourite book in the series but I totally loved the adventures of the cute, endearing and somewhat hapless bear!

Top Short Stories/Novellas

1) Michael McBride-Snowblind

A tribe of Sasquatch monsters use a blizzard to stalk a group of men on a hunting expedition in the mountains.

 

2) Camille Picott-Undead Ultra  

A long distance runner is on a training run from hell when the zombie apocalypse hits. This prequel made me want to read the first novel in the series.

 

3) Jon Athan-The Abuse Of Ashley Collins 

Ashley's parents are tired of her dreadful behaviour so they tie her up in the basement and teach her a lesson, leading to them discovering a taste for torture.

Around The Blogs With Chuckles New Year Edition

 

We all enjoy snooping and lurking on other people's blogs right? Why not share those entertaining things you found with other readers and bloggers too! Welcome to Around the Blogs with Chuckles, where I take time out to show you some of my favourite blog posts from the previous seven days and link you up so you can check them out.

It is vital that we all stick together online at this time. Do what you can to show some love to other blogs, to books and authors and let us all know that you are staying safe and well. Hearing from our friends will make it easier to deal with whatever is coming in the next few months. Stay safe everyone.

 

I've saved up a pile of your posts for a special end of year edition of Around The Blogs With Chuckles. 

1) Covid A Personal Story

Daisy shares how bad moderate Covid really is.

https://www.theorganicprepper.com/covid-personal-story/ 

2) Best Books of 2020

AJ shares her list.

http://ajsterkel.blogspot.com/2020/12/top-ten-tuesday-best-books-of-2020.html 

3) Favourite Reads Of 2020

Nicci's choices.

https://www.sunnybuzzybooks.co.uk/2020/12/favourite-reads-of-2020.html 

4) Favourite Reads Of 2020

Barb's choices.

http://bookertsfarm.blogspot.com/2020/12/top-ten-tuesday-favorite-books-of-2020.html 

5) Book Review-Unspeakable Things by Jess Lourey

Lindsi's review.

https://www.doyoudog-ear.com/2020/12/unspeakable-things-by-jess-lourey.html 

6) Book Review-The Monster Mash by Angie Fox

Carole's review.

https://carolesrandomlife.blogspot.com/2020/12/review-monster-mash-by-angie-fox.html 

7) Book Review-Shiver by Allie Reynolds

Mogsy's review.

https://bibliosanctum.com/2020/12/28/audiobook-review-shiver-by-allie-reynolds/ 

Ten Unexpected Joys Of 2020

It hasn't exactly been a year of fun for anyone but I decided to take a more lighthearted look at 2020 with a few things that did make me smile or things that improved my day in some way.

1) No Supermarket Trips

My dad and I hated supermarket shopping. Put stuff in trolley, unpack it onto conveyer belt, dump it back in trolley after paying, sort into bags, pack into car, drive home, unpack from car, drag bags into house, drag to kitchen, unppack, put away. I don't miss it!!! 

 

2) Being Fully Prepped

The pandemic showed a few glaring holes in my being prepared for emergencies! I've been able to correct those mistakes and I feel better about that. I'm making more use of online shopping to get in what I need and I replace an item as soon as I use it.

 

3) Paddington Bear 

One of the few good reading times was discovering Paddington Bear's adventures for the first time. That endearing bear lifted my mood during the summer gloom and entertained me. It also led to re-reads of a few childhood favourites.

 

4) Simply Cook

I got a trial box and have enjoyed this! I supply the meat and dairy while they supply three pots of mixed herbs and flavour pastes to help produce complex flavoured meals in 20 minutes. We've enjoyed expanding our eating horizons with a new box every month.

 

5) Squirrels 

We have got so much joy out of watching the antics of these cute furry guys this year. I've found it relaxing to sit at the window and watch them chase each other and wander around our garden. We are preparing new feeding boxes for them next year.

 

6) Watching Less News

At the start of the pandemic we has the news on daily and it was upsetting and depressing. Now I avoid it most of the day, watching favourite films, sport, documentaries instead. It's better for my blood pressure, just browsing headlines online and only reading what I want to know!

 

7) Amazon Deliveries 

Getting most of what I need through Amazon has certainly been useful in lockdown and weekly boxes coming in was fun. Who ever thought a delivery of cleaning products could be so exciting! I also tried out new food companies which I will keep buying from.

 

8) No Relegation 

My beloved football team sneaked out of the relegation zone just before the 2019/2020 football season was brought to an end earlier this year. With about 7 games still to play and the team's form a bit in and out, it was a relief to have things ended at that point!

 

9) Darts

Darts was one of the few sports not as badly affected by social distancing rules. I always liked to watch it over Christmas but I've become a bigger fan now that it's back and I refuse to miss a single competition.  

 

10) The Big Tidy

We finally decided to use that nervous energy to get started on a DIY overhaul of the entire house. We have made great progress with it, and got a pile of stuff ready to go to the dump and charity shops when we can get the stuff there. It's ten years overdue for sure!

 

Ten Unexpected Miseries of 2020

 

It's been a rotten year for most of us and I don't want to dwell on the Covid 19 death toll in this post and depress everyone even more. Instead I want to take a look at the more lighthearted miseries of this year.

 

1) Closed Charity Shops

Clearing out the house became very difficult when the charity shops were closed most of the year! I always donate books, cds, dvds, clothes and other things to them wherever possible and now my house is full of bags of stuff waiting to get taken away!

 

2) Ripping Up Delivery Boxes

Our paper bin gets collected monthly and with tons of deliveries all year, you get a lot of big cardboard boxes. With the rubbish dump in town not available, to fit all the boxes in the bin we had to rip it all up into small pieces every time. My hands were aching on a daily basis!

 

3) Jimmy Krankie TV

I'm no fan of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon so seeing her on TV daily, bashing the UK  government, blaming England for everything, accusing English health boards of stealing masks/equipment from Scotland, banning English visitors etc drove me bloody crazy.

 

4) The Never Ending US Election

I enjoy US politics and Election Night but even I had a gutful of the carry on this year. UK hating Sleepy Joe vs The Donald in full flow did start to get on my nerves after days of endless counting and accusations of voter fraud and cheating all over the place.

 

5) The Fence

The virus locked everything down most of the year in my area and that included timber yards and DIY places for a fair bit of time. It meant waiting a long time to hear from Scott who was doing our new fences. He had a nightmare with rising prices and lack of supply for wood!

 

6) Absent GP

My regular GP took early retirement just before the pandemic and the new GP is only doing phone calls. It hasn't stopped her messing about with my medication and giving me the runaround all summer. WHY mess with medication during a global pandemic???

 

7) Blogger

At a time when internet contact between bloggers is vital, Blogger decides to mess us about, drive us crazy with unwanted changes and turn blogging into a time consuming chore. What is up with that crap? At times I just want to stop blogging with all their carry on!

 

8) The Reading Slump From Hell

All the stress and panic about staying away from the virus has led to the worst reading slump I've ever had. Concentration is gone, the will to read has been sporadic, and even re-reads of Harry Potter are taking ages to get through. I hope for better next year.

 

9) ASDA Delivery Day

Yes it beats going out to the supermarket but the ordering is stressful when the site is having a go-slow, you get subs you never asked for and I end up knackered dragging bags to the kitchen and trying to find somewhere to put it in our tiny kitchen!

 

10) The Simple Things I Miss

I miss browsing charity shops, going to the shopping mall for a walk round the shops, getting takeaway food, taking excess rubbish to the dump without two hour queues, a drive down the coast, a short holiday in Blackpool, reading for fun...how I wish for normal!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

 

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it! And to everyone reading this, have a happy and hopefully healthy end to what has been a rough year for all of us. Try to stay safe from the virus, especially these worrying new strains, and hopefully we will get through it as the various vaccines continue to be made and distributed. I certainly hope that 2021 will be a better year but I'm not getting my hopes up yet.

May Santa bless you all with lots of books! Talk to you all soon.

Chuckles, Grandpa Chuckles, Dave and family.

 

Winter Blues #3

 

Hi again from Dave and family.

Mum probably has Norovirus, according to the local pharmacist and she isn't delighted by the news. It is doing the rounds in our area and this could be an issue for making Christmas dinner. She is being confined to bed as of this afternoon, isn't allowed to cook for me or Grandpa, has to clean every surface she touches, and has a list of things she can't eat-dairy, salt, sugar, citrus etc. She's not happy at having no Pringles, cheese or chocolate! This could put the cobblers on Christmas dinner, which is annoying. But she intends to cheer herself up watching the latest series of The Great British Bake Off, Masterchef The Professionals and Coronation Street from 1992. I'm hoping for a bit of reading but lets not get too optimistic!

 

We got a bit of good news last night though. The guy that is doing our fence came round. He's had a cancellation and hopes to get our fences done in the next four weeks. Yes! Getting that done will be great AND he is going to come back a few weeks later to varnish all of it so Mum doesn't have to do it! She's very pleased about that! Scott says the firms providing wood have hiked the prices so high that customers are cancelling and he offered us the slot, and we're taking it. We reckon the prices will stay high for a couple of years anyway so we said we'd take it! On the down side, both our security lights are broken, front and back, and we can't get someone out to fix them. Some bugger came through the garden last night. He didn't find anything to steal and with it being so dark and the fence in bits everywhere, he's lucky he didn't fall and break his neck! What a pity... 

 

The Scottish Government Leader Nicola Sturgeon has spent the pandemic telling everyone to wear masks and follow harsh rules to keep everyone safe, and demanding the resignation of anyone in politics who breaks the rules SHE set out. Well guess who is on the front page of the newspapers today at an indoor funeral event in a pub, not wearing a mask and standing chatting to a group of pensioners sitting at a table near her. Nooo, Nicola, that isn't allowed under the rules of your own Tier system! "Table service and the wearing of face-coverings (unless exempt) when not seated by all customers is mandatory in all hospitality venues." Oh deary deary me! Yet again, the rules are for us plebs and not for politicians it seems. Especially as she says "Follow all the rules that are in place. Wear face coverings..."

 

And the Muppet we call Tony Blair is back out of his box, bleating about being able to run the vaccination distribution better than the government. Here is the newspaper quote "Mr Blair agreed he felt frustrated with the Government's handling of the pandemic so far and did not straight out dismiss the possibility of seeking a more prominent role in the roll-out of the vaccination programme. The former Labour leader said: "I don't know whether I should be back there running this." Well Mr Blair, I can tell you that answer is NO. Your failed policies caused a lot of the problems we now face and you are not a Conservative Government Minister. You are not even an MP, as you quit in a sulk when you lost the top job of PM to Gordon Brown, rather than continue in the job to serve the people who elected you, as Theresa May at least did. And he spent years trying to overturn a legal UK referendum result because it didn't suit him. Cretin. Actually, I must say sorry for upsetting and insulting muppets...I can't believe Mum and Grandpa voted for this total arse. (Mum: Neither can we Dave!)

 

Sorry about the political rants this time but we're feeling a bit grumpy today. Stay safe everyone  until next time! 

 

Dave

Winter Blues #2

 

Hi everyone, Dave reporting from Mission Control!

Well, maybe that makes it sound too exciting but huge progress was being made in the DIY nightmare. My grandpa has cleared a ton of stuff and it's now a lot safer to venture in there to deliver the ironing without having a near fatal accident! But he has now decided to swap two more pieces of furniture over and my mum is in despair about it!!! The last thing we all need is more work to do this winter! She has made progress too-just two more bags of stuff to deal with and her nightmare is about over. After that, there are just a few storage units to look through and re-organize the cds and dvds inside them.

 

We would have had it done over the weekend except that on Friday morning, mum and grandpa both came down with a stomach bug. Mum was in bed all weekend but was cheered up on Saturday by a great edge-of-the-seat-of-our-pants win for our football team, coming from behind for a great 3-2 win. Go St Mirren!!! Mum did still enjoy watching the World Championship Darts on TV, which is a festive tradition in our house. We do love a game or ten of arrows! I wish it was an Olympic sport. Both are feeling a bit better today but it ruined the weekend of work we had planned. Mum even resorted to one of those powders you put into water to rehydrate yourself and this was how she reacted to the taste of it...

 

 

Seems it tastes just as bad as Night Nurse liquid and that is a very bad thing! I hate that oozy and disgusting slime that creeps back up the wee medicine cup even when you think you have finished the disgusting thing. Mum tried to give me that when I was sick last year and I responded by trying to bite her fingers off! But although it is just a typical virus, we are baffled as to how we caught it as mum has been confined to house for months and grandpa has been out to grab bread and milk ONCE this week, wearing a full mask in an empty shop and washing his hands three times coming home! The mind boggles...

 

Mum is trying to answer questions on a big book tag at the moment but the questions require a bit of thought and research so it could take a few days. Still no books read for Mum this month which is disappointing her and we worry that with Covid still doing the rounds, next year could prove to be more of the same. I hope not as there are lots of tasty looking books in the Book Cave that I really want Mum to read to me! No book buying until January but we could do with clearing the shelves a bit over this winter. I hope she gets a reading mood soon as I can't turn the pages on my own, having no limbs you see.

It's actually quite scary here at the moment. This new strain of Covid is in our region of Scotland just days after being identified in London and the south of England. They say it is 70% easier to catch but I've heard nothing about whether furry pumpkins are immune so I'm nervous despite mum saying I am immune-but I'm worried about my humans and their friends and families around the world. Please stay safe, wherever you are and whatever you're doing.  

 

Love from Dave and family. 

 

 

Around The Blogs With Chuckles

 

We all enjoy snooping and lurking on other people's blogs right? Why not share those entertaining things you found with other readers and bloggers too! Welcome to Around the Blogs with Chuckles, where I take time out to show you some of my favourite blog posts from the previous seven days and link you up so you can check them out.

It is vital that we all stick together online at this time. Do what you can to show some love to other blogs, to books and authors and let us all know that you are staying safe and well. Hearing from our friends will make it easier to deal with whatever is coming in the next few months. Stay safe everyone.

This week I'm covering posts from the last two weeks...

 

1) Books To Read This Winter 

AJ's list.

http://ajsterkel.blogspot.com/2020/12/top-ten-tuesday-books-to-read-this.html 

2) Book Review-Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline

Mogsy's review.

https://bibliosanctum.com/2020/12/10/book-review-ready-player-two-by-ernest-cline/ 

3) Book Review-The Cousins by Karen M McManus

Greg's review.

http://gregsbookhaven.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-cousins.html 

4) Holiday Things That Make Me Get My Grinch On!

Nicci's grumpy list!

https://www.sunnybuzzybooks.co.uk/2020/12/holiday-things-that-make-me-get-my.html 

5) Book Review-Follow Me by Kathleen Barber

Carole's review.

https://carolesrandomlife.blogspot.com/2020/12/review-follow-me-by-kathleen-barber.html 

 

6) Book Review-The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis 

Lindsi's review.

https://www.doyoudog-ear.com/2020/12/the-initial-insult-initial-insult-1-by.html 

7) Blogging Jealousy

Bookstooge shares his thoughts.

https://bookstooge.wordpress.com/2020/12/05/psa-blogging-jealousy/ 

8) Book Review-The Bitterwine Oath by Hannah West

Barb's review.

http://bookertsfarm.blogspot.com/2020/12/tbr-and-beyond-tours-bitterwine-oath.html 

 

9) New To Me Author Discoveries 

Mogsy's list.

https://bibliosanctum.com/2020/12/14/top-ten-new-to-me-authors-i-read-for-the-first-time-in-2020/ 

10) Book Review-Seeing Things by Sonora Taylor

Bark's review.

http://barksbooknonsense.blogspot.com/2020/12/review-seeing-things-by-sonora-taylor.html 

Chuckles Update

 

Hi everyone.

I haven't been online at all since my last update. It's been an ongoing nightmare of trying to get things unpacked from those bloody binbags, ripping and shredding stuff, moving and removing things, sorting through all the books and bookcases, rearranging cds and dvds into storage units and finding somewhere to store the things. My dad and I are pretty fed up as we are sorting out both bedrooms at the same time, trying to help each other, but we're tired, fed up and frustrated with it all. When we're resting in between the stuff we're doing, all we want to do is just flop in front of the TV to watch darts or favourite films. 

 

Blogging has fallen by the wayside at the moment as I just can't deal with Blogger and its carry on on top of all the hassle. I haven't read a book all month and don't feel like it, even though I know I need to start clearing books out of the house. Covid restrictions in my area continue to tighten and while my dad and I are staying safe, charity shops and other places are still closed so we can't get rid of what we no longer want or need so more bags of books and rubbish are lying everywhere and getting in our way. It is all getting me down at the moment. I hate neglecting you all but I feel that until I get all this crap taken care of, I struggle to concentrate on anything else.

 

Today I'm going to try and answer all the comments you guys have left on the blog and then visit some blogs over the next few days to try and get back into a routine. All I really want to do is stay in my bed all day but as nice as it sounds, it ain't going to help in getting productive stuff done. I will be trying to do better in keeping in touch and getting things done.

 

Thanks for your patience.

Chuckles

The Chuckles Great DIY Nightmare #4

 

Sorry to everyone who has been wondering where I am and what I'm doing. It turns out that moving the furniture in my room, however hard it was, was the lesser of the evils. Sorting through endless bags, ripping and shredding paperwork, moving things from one place to another then change your mind and move crap back is way worse, as I'm discovering. I've spent all week working through bags and boxes until I'm ready to scream. Our recycle bin for paper and cardboard is collected every three weeks so to get in all the rubbish, packing boxes, food packaging, old letters and newspapers etc, everything has to be ripped into small pieces so that takes ages. It also gives you The Claw, where your fingers are so sore that it hurts to straighten them and you can't grip anything!

Today was a bit of a nightmare. We decided to get the furniture in my dad's room rearranged. To recap, the big IKEA bookcase we removed from my room will go into my dad's room where the chest of drawers once sat. The drawers will go to where the TV unit is and that will be sawn down to a smaller size for added storage and the TV goes back on top of it. It seemed straightforward enough and SHOULD have been done very quickly as none of the items are heavy to move. 

First we had to empty the books I was temporarily storing in it and get them into my room where I can't fall over it. But as we started to move the bookcase, the back fell off. It took us ages to get it back in its grooves as it kept bending in the middle. Finally my dad had to nail the bloody thing in. Next he dropped one of the shelves and it scraped all the skin off the back of my heel, leaving it raw and bleeding so a medical time out was required! Then at last after a big delay, we got it moved into position. My dad is letting me have 3 of the shelves for my stuff so all my heavy WWII books and magazines went into one shelf, my Elvis magazine collection and other oversized books into shelf two. I'm keeping shelf three empty until I finish sorting my room.

After I dealt with the two shelves, we moved the drawers into place and stuck the TV on top. My dad decided to saw the TV unit another time and we moved it out of our way. Then we had to move a pile of stuff that was in the TV unit and find somewhere to put it. Why is it that what seems like a half hour job turns into a three hour total nightmare??? And to cheer me up I still have two full bookshelves to go through in my room, sorting out what will go to the charity shop, a few more bags to go through, two full shopping bags full of paper that needs ripping, a pile of stuff on the floor AND piles of books/cds/dvds on top of bookcases that need to find a home. Ugh, it's a nightmare and this sorting crap could go on into next year!

Who had the stupid idea of getting the house sorted...???

Dave-'That would be YOU mum!' 

Around The Blogs With Chuckles

 

We all enjoy snooping and lurking on other people's blogs right? Why not share those entertaining things you found with other readers and bloggers too! Welcome to Around the Blogs with Chuckles, where I take time out to show you some of my favourite blog posts from the previous seven days and link you up so you can check them out.

It is vital that we all stick together online at this time. Do what you can to show some love to other blogs, to books and authors and let us all know that you are staying safe and well. Hearing from our friends will make it easier to deal with whatever is coming in the next few months. Stay safe everyone.

This week...

 

1) Book Review-The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Barb's review.

http://bookertsfarm.blogspot.com/2020/11/2-bloggers-1-series-invisible-library.html 

2) Christmas Book Reviews

Nicci's reviews.

https://www.sunnybuzzybooks.co.uk/2020/12/book-thoughts-miracle-creek-christmas.html 

 

3) Hypocritical Government Officials Break Covid Rules In US

Do as I say, not as I do!

https://www.theorganicprepper.com/hypocritical-government-officials/ 

4) Book Review-We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson

Bark's review.

http://barksbooknonsense.blogspot.com/2020/11/retro-review-we-have-always-lived-in.html 

5) Top Science Fiction Reads Of 2020

Mogsy's list.

https://bibliosanctum.com/2020/11/30/scifimonth-top-ten-science-fiction-reads-of-2020/ 

 

6) Book Review-When These Mountains Burn by David Joy 

Carole's review.

https://carolesrandomlife.blogspot.com/2020/12/review-when-these-mountains-burn-by.html 

 

 

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!

 

It hasn't been a productive week on the blog or for reading...but it has been more productive for me dealing with what is left from my Big Tidy project! This week I've focused on painting and spraypainting an old bathroom storage unit-several coats over several days. It's done now and ready to put my medications, cold remedies, pens etc in tonight, which unpacks another bag of stuff. Last night I disposed of two small cardboard boxes and put away their contents. Slowly getting there but still a fair bit to sort through. I really want to be done with it by next weekend but that might be wishful thinking! We'll see how I get on. I'll be doing more tonight.

 

No reading happening at the moment which is a pain but I'm concentrating on getting the room sorted right now as that is priority. Reading has been a bit of a bust all year anyway and I'm thinking of doing themed fortnights next year to try and get myself reading a few more genres. This year has been pretty much non fiction and kids books plus a few re-reads and I need to get through some UF, horror, apocalypse and tudor fiction. That's the current plan but we'll see how next year goes! I'm not buying any more books until next year-I have a pre-ordered book coming in this weekend and a creature feature I ordered with it. No more book buys for Chuckles until January! ARGGHH!!!  

Chuckles Blogging World

I went through all the blog posts from last month and saw I'd missed a few comments that you guys left so I got those replied to. Sorry about that! I'm going into this weekend caught up and trying to get my weekend posts up sharpish this time. I want to do some special December posts this month, maybe a booktag or two if I see good ones...it all depends on how Twisted Blogger decides to be. The paragraph setting is back with a vengeance this week which has been a bit frustrating and I haven't had time to battle with it.

 

Book Reviews

none this week

 

Regular Posts

 

Around The Blogs With Chuckles

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2020/11/around-blogs-with-chuckles_29.html  

Top Ten Tuesday

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2020/12/top-ten-tuesday-books-i-want-to-read.html

 

Discussion Posts 

 

Winter Blues #1

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2020/12/winter-blues-1.html

 

Reading Challenges 

 

Tackling The TBR

https://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2020/12/tackling-tbr.html 

Films & TV & Music

For some reason my brain has been continually singing Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start The Fire' all week and I'm not even sure why as I haven't listened to it! I'm still catching up with Coronation Street 1992 episodes which has been fun. 

 

Book Tags/Blog Awards 

none this week

 

The Week Ahead 

More tidying up stuff *great* but headway is being made. We're also hoping to switch the furniture in my dad's room but that is much easier than it was in my room so should take half an hour at the most.

 

FOLLOW ME:

https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/chuckles-book-cave-9910183 
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3426724-chucklesthescot 
https://twitter.com/chucklesthescot 
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/chucklesthescot/ 

 

 

Top Ten Tuesday-Books I Want To Read Again

 Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/

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 it's books I want to read again. Better late than never, getting this posted!

1) Suzanne Collins-Hunger Games Trilogy

I loved reading this series years back but never got round to a re-read. I seem to be one of the few who liked the ending. I also have to watch all the films and read the sequel so there could be a Hunger Games weekend or two dozen coming up this winter!

 

2) Steve Harris-Adventureland

A classic British horror story with an evil carnival! Who could resist that? I read this for the first time back around the late 90's when I was working at a Glasgow hospital and loved it. I'm way overdue for a re-read!

3) George RR Martin-A Song Of Ice & Fire

I loved reading these books after overdosing on the HBO series. I don't know if we'll ever get an ending to the series but I love the added detail to the world. I can't justify a re-read at the moment with such a big TBR but sometime...

 

4) Richard Herley-The Penal Colony

The Ray Liotta film 'No Escape' (which I love!) is semi-based on this book. When I first read it I was disappointed that it wasn't more like the film but my tastes have changed in books and a gritty dystopian like this might be better second time round when I know what to expect!

 

5) Michael Crichton-Jurassic Park

I read this several times after enjoying the first film but I'd like to read it now that I'm so far on with the series as some scenes in this book ended up in later films. You can never have enough dinosaurs in your life...

 

6) Jeffery Deaver-The Bone Collector/The Coffin Dancer

I read and loved these books when I read them. I started the third book just before a family holiday and never got back to the series. I really want to get caught up but might need to go back and do a re-read before I move on.

 

7) Philippa Gregory-Plantagenets & Tudors

I read a lot of this long series but never wrote great book reviews. I also have read more about the War of the Roses and figure I'd enjoy the books a lot more now. Doing a re-read and review is high up on my priority list!

 

8) Benedict Jacka-Fated

I have read and reviewed this book three times but the review keeps vanishing from Goodreads for some reason. I need to read and review it AGAIN and use that as a good excuse to plough forward and catch up with the whole series.

 

9) Christina Henry-Black Wings

This is another urban fantasy series that I've only read the first book of, and need to read it again and then get on with a catchup. I'm not really in the mood at the moment for the genre so getting to it could be tricky!

 

10) MLN Hanover-Unclean Spirits

This is another example of having the complete series but not getting past the first one! I also intend to read this series at some point and will be starting with a re-read of book one, which I liked better than a lot of reviews.