The TBR 100 Book Countdown Challenge (546-538)

My tbr has managed to sneak up over 600 books again and action must be taken!!! So I am setting myself a pretty tough challenge-to get that tbr from 612 as it stands today, down to 500 books by December 31st. Yes it is an impossible sounding task but not everything on the tbr is full length reading-there are short stories, novellas and novels to be devoured! Even if I don't get to the target, I'll be pleased if I get close. It would be the first time in 5 years that my tbr was 500 or less! My updates on my progress won't be weekly, just whenever I have something to report! Anyone who wants to try and reduce their tbr is welcome to post on my update posts about their progress!

Another successful week and the numbers are steadily decreasing which is GREAT! I targeted short paperbacks and a few that have been sitting on my bookshelves for a while. Even with the books I added to my tbr this week, progress has been made to reduce it. I looked at a nursing series that I read back in the 80s which I remembered nothing about and these were quick light reads which helps the challenge. Next week, I'm doing things like Percy Jackson which again should be quick reads. So, how are you guys getting on with your tbr challenges?

FINISHED:

MR Carey-The Girl With All The Gifts
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17235026-the-girl-with-all-the-gifts 

Jack Kilborn-Afraid
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5122520-afraid 

Eva Gordon-Apocalyptic Moon
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17412002-apocalyptic-moon 

Helen Dore Boylston-Sue Barton Senior Nurse
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1420743.Sue_Barton_Senior_Nurse 

Helen Dore Boylston-Sue Barton Visiting Nurse
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/578872.Sue_Barton_Visiting_Nurse 

Helen Dore Boylston-Sue Barton Rural Nurse
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2479399.Sue_Barton_Rural_Nurse 

Helen Dore Boylston-Sue Barton Superintendent Nurse
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3049636-sue-barton-superintendent-of-nurses 

Helen Dore Boylston-Sue Barton Neighbourhood Nurse
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5032000-sue-barton-neighborhood-nurse 

Helen Dore Boylston-Staff Nurse
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/900606.Sue_Barton_Staff_Nurse 


ABANDONED:

Shannon Mayer-Priceless
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18048164-priceless 

Susan Illene-Darkness Haunts
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20880247-darkness-haunts 

Stacking the Shelves #92

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks! Click on the link under the book to find its page on Goodreads or Smashwords. 

Please note that I always leave a message on your STS/SP if you visit me, but if you use DISQUS or a similar third party I will not be able to leave a comment on your page. And sometimes, I have problems leaving messages on blogs hosted by Wordpress so you might get a double message sometimes! Blame them, not me!

             

This week, I turned my attention away from horror after getting quite a few looked at over the previous week. Now I'm looking at books that I was re-reading after many years ie Sue Barton nursing books. I know I won't be keeping them so I can get them straight to a charity shop when I finish or maybe bookcross them. I also looked at a few urban fantasy that have been on my shelf too long. I think I'll target the kids books like Percy Jackson next as they are all shorter reads. If things keep progressing like this I could reach my goal maybe by the end of August! There will be another Book Challenge update tomorrow or Monday to chart progress.

 

DOWNLOADS:

 

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24930831-chasing-daybreak

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7487212-trapped

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8495705-endurance

BOUGHT PAPERBACKS:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4367380-coronation-street-early-days

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4367375-coronation-street-trouble-at-the-rovers

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4367374-elsie-tanner-fights-back

FOLLOW ME:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3426724-chucklesthescot
https://twitter.com/chucklesthescot
https://uk.pinterest.com/chucklesthescot/

Book Review: Thieves, Liars & Mountaineers by Mark Horrell

This is the tale of Mark Horrell's not-so-nearly ascent of Gasherbrum in Pakistan; of how one man's boredom and frustration is conquered by a gutsy combination of exhaustion, cowardice, and sheer mountaineering incompetence.

Not one, not two, but three intrepid assaults were made on the summits, some of which got quite a distance beyond base camp, and many perilous circumstances were overcome along the way. Joe Simpson may have crawled for five days with a broken leg, but did he ever have to read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown while waiting for a weather window?

But that's enough about the author's attempt; there were some talented climbers on the mountain as well, and this story is also about them. How did they get on? Heroes, villains, oddballs and nutters - 8000 metre peaks attract them all, and drama, intrigue and cock-ups aplenty were inevitable.

Thieves, Liars and Mountaineers is Mark Horrell's travel journal from his experience of joining the 8000 metre peak circus on Gasherbrum in Pakistan, and contains many photographs from his expedition.

My Review:
Mark has plenty to get annoyed about on this long and frustrating trek and climb in Pakistan. First he is annoyed at the behaviour of the porters, refusing to walk in a little bit of snowfall and forcing him off the trail every time they want to pass instead of just overtaking. Then there are a series of thefts from the high camps, liars claiming to have made the summit when everyone knows they didn't and a lot of climbers littering through sheer lazyness.

There is an interesting debate over who is to blame for the death of a female Korean climber on Nanga Parbat. A Korean team who refused to contribute to the rope fixing of the Austrian team were warned by the Austrians that if they did not pay as you are expected to do, they would take the ropes away on their way down and let the Koreans fend for themselves. With the ropes gone the Korean had to climb down under her own skills and fell to her death. I agree with Mark's expedition leader Phil that the Austrians should not be blamed. A lot of teams spend plenty money to get excellent Sherpa guides and the best equipment and outside help, then these small teams who are doing it on the cheap come along and expect to just use your ropes etc without cost to themselves. It is selfish and lazy.

A similar incident begins to unfold on Mark's expedition. A Spaniard tags along with an Iranian team but with bad weather coming, The Iranians admit defeat on the way to the summit and try to convince the Spaniard not to go on. He ignores them and is trapped near the summit in terrible weather, and Phil is asked by the man's friends to help. His friends blame the Iranians for not stopping the man which is totally unfair in my book-you can't reason with a man hell bent on reaching the summit at any cost. Then the couple get angry because Phil won't risk his Sherpas on a suicide rescue mission. Some of these idiots should never be let loose on a mountain. And the man's own team seemed to care little about mounting a rescue of any kind, wanting Phil to do it all. It's another example of a cheap team expecting others to get them out of trouble due to their own bad management and preparation.

This was a really good trek diary, seeing the unfolding disasters as they happened. It also shows how frustrating it can be to wait for that weather window that never comes, and what you do to pass the time at base camp. 

Book Review: Z Minus 1 by Perrin Briar

Once bitten, the virus spreads throughout the human body. It shuts down organs, kills nerve impulses and even reprograms the way we think. The virus becomes us.

But the process takes eight hours.

If you only had eight hours left to live, what would you do?

For Chris Smith, that decision has already been made. He’s infected, and returns home to find the rest of his family undead or missing, save his youngest daughter Maisie. He’s never been much of a father, but can he make up for it now in the final few hours of his life and find somewhere safe for her to survive? 

My Review:
This book contains one of the worst MCs that I've ever had the misfortune to read about. He is a selfish, nasty scumbag and all I wanted was to see him die slowly from rabid zombie bites.

After a car crash during the zombie apocalypse, the moaning faced loser that goes by the name of Chris has to struggle home on foot. On his journey it becomes clear that he only gives a damn about himself. At his house when he sees the dead body of his teenage daughter Emily with knives in her back, does he feel sad or upset, wondering what happened to her? No, he stands there and tells her to get up and when he realises she appears dead, he gets angry at HER. 'Mostly he felt anger. Anger at her for being so selfish and weak to have let herself die.' This is your CHILD you feckless moron!

Hios wife is dead upstairs in her bed and Chris the humanitarian dumbass chides her for being lazy or drunk and yells at her to get up. What is wrong with this idiot? Then he tells her in disgust to sleep it off! As he goes downstairs, Emily rises as a zombie and dear daddy yells at her that that isn't the way to get her allowance raised. When she tears his shirt he calls her a bitch. I just sat there staring at the book in utter disbelief at the personality of this utter scumball.

Then after he is infected, he finally remembers his younger daughter Maisie who is eight and when she finds him he decides not to take her with him. Not because he is infected and worried about hurting her...no, he won't take her because he doesn't intend to spend the last few hours of his life babysitting and it's everyone for himself and she'll slow him down. He even throws STONES at her to get rid of her!!! I'd had enough of reading about the worst father ever and deleted the book from my ereader.

This was pure drivel with nothing redeeming or entertaining it and I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy. Utter cack.

Book Review: Trance by Kelly Meding (MetaWars #1)

Kelly Meding’s war-ravaged Los Angeles is ground zero for the ultimate Meta human showdown in this sexy, action-packed new series.

Fifteen years ago, Teresa “Trance” West was a skilled telepath and a proud member of the Ranger Corps. But ever since the Rangers were inexplicably rendered powerless at the climax of the devastating Meta War, she’s bounced from one dead-end job to another. Now her powers have reappeared just as mysteriously as they vanished— only they’re completely transformed and more potent than ever. And they’re threatening to destroy her.

Trance heads to Los Angeles to track down the surviving Rangers and discover who restored her powers—and why—but a phantom enemy is determined to kill them before they can reassemble. As they dodge his deadly attacks and come to terms with their new role as heroes, Trance and the rest of the team set out to annihilate the sinister madman... only to discover their own powers are his greatest weapons.

My Review:

During the Meta Wars, the Ranger Corps fought to save the world from destruction by the evil Banes, and the war halted when both sides lost their superpowers. Survivors went to hide amongst the human population and keep their status secret. 15 years later, the powers awaken in them and the Banes start looking for their enemy to finish them off. The young and untrained need to band together if they are to have any hope of survival. But can they find each other before the Banes pick them of?

I read the first book in Kelly Meding's Dreg City and loved it because it was an exciting urban fantasy world. I wasn't as sure about picking up this series, despite the gorgeous cover, as it sounded more sci-fi than my tastes. While I liked the X Men films, I don't read superhero type novels so I admit that I did struggle with this one, as I expected.

I didn't really like Trance very much. For a 25 year old she was very immature, rude and childish. I just don't see how she could have been chosen to lead the fightback when she refuses to follow instructions, chooses not to obey even the simplest of requests and acts like a five year old. I just can't see her as anything other than the stroppy teenager that she chooses to behave like as opposed to a leader who will turn the group into a powerful force for good. Their leader should be intelligent, calm and experienced. With Trance in charge, the world may already be doomed! I'm also not feeling chemistry of any kind between the characters even as friends. They just don't seem to gel.

My other bug bear with the book is the confusion of names. One minute Trance is calling people by their human names ie William, Gage, Renee and a paragraph later she is calling them by their hero names of Caliber, Cipher, Flex etc which gets very confusing for those like me who haven't got the greatest of memories. It would have been much easier just to stick with the superhero names and save all the confusion.

There is a lot of information to absorb and I felt at times that it was too dense. There is plenty talk and dumb behaviour but it lacked the interest or action that I was hoping to find in it. I won't be reading on in this series but I'll happily read anything urban fantasy by the author like Dreg City.