Sunday, 3 April 2016

Reading With Chuckles


I have renamed my TBR Reading Challenge and changed it back to Reading with Chuckles as it sounds better, especially at times when I have no specific challenge running. So this is where I'll share what I read and abandoned each week, and I'll give the odd update on the state of my poor TBR! It does suffer at times...! The link under the book takes you to the Goodreads page for that book so you can decide whether to read it, and see my reviews when they are posted.

I couldn't really decide on a theme at the start of the week so at the moment I'm just doing a go with the flow approach. This week was a mixed bag of preppers, zombies and true crime. As long as I'm reading something, that's the main thing! Having decided on a plan to tackle my reviews (see previous blog post) I feel a bit better about this upcoming week and hopefully you should see more books reviewed on a regular basis!

FINISHED:

ML Banner-Stone Age
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22027859-stone-age 

Glynn James-Maximum Violence
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18886528-maximum-violence 

George Magnum-Twice Dead
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23999059-twice-dead 

Robert Boren-Bug Out!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23651819-bug-out-part-1 

Lee Bradford-Long Road to Survival
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29084272-long-road-to-survival 

Joanne Drayton-The Search for Anne Perry
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15715594-the-search-for-anne-perry 


ABANDONED:

Paula Hawkins-The Girl on the Train
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22557272-the-girl-on-the-train 
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Drowning in Book Reviews: A Survivors Story!


When I started on Goodreads, I uploaded the contents of my bookshelves and reviewed a pile of them but since then, I've got lazy about being caught up with my reviews. I have reviews to write on books I read back in 2010-2012 that I can't find my review notes for and some of these I barely remember! Last month I made a valient attempt to catch up on these but then discovered just how many need to be done and I got depressed about the scale of it and sort of gave up!

Now I am armed with a plan! I am going to use a hardback notebook as a review journal to write my review notes in to keep them safe. It's not as easy to lose that as it is to lose random bits of paper! That should keep my reviews intact AND it gives me a hard copy of notes to refer to when I go to read the next book in a series. Much easier to refresh my memory than coming downstairs and searching my blog!

I am also getting a bit more structure in my planning. I'm going to go back to January and start doing the reviews for this year in order that I read or abandoned them and catch up on the newest reads first. I want to get to a stage where I am fully up to date and reviewing books within days of reading them like normal bloggers do! When I have time, I will go back and fill in the holes of the older reviews. Now that sounds like a plan!!!

So you will be enjoying a lot of reviews of zombies, preppers, apocalyptic, some urban fantasy and a few others from true crime, tudor fiction, horror etc. 

Do you have a review backlog? How long after reading a book does it take for you to get it on Goodreads or your blog? Do you write notes on books as you read? Are you up to date or drowning in chaos like me?!
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Saturday, 2 April 2016

Stacking the Shelves #128


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. I don't allow any company access to my social media accounts and I certainly don't allow them to edit and take over my accounts the way DISQUS does. So if you use DISQUS, I can't leave comments on your page so I can't really follow you back, sorry! And sometimes, I have problems leaving messages on blogs hosted by Wordpress-they try to block me so there might not be a message from me some weeks or you might get a double message sometimes! Blame them, not me!
                         
It has been a bit of a busy week offline for me, trying to tidy up around the house, sort out my bookcases and do a few bits and pieces in the garden. As my gardening post this week mentioned, I was pretty sore afterwards due to using muscles I don't normally use! That has worn off now so hopefully I can get a bit more done this week. Maybe tackle setting up my water collection and compost bins if the weather is ok. A little bit done each week through the summer and things will look much better come the autumn! So blogging had to take a bit of a back seat this week with everything else going on! 

On the book side of things, it doesn't appear that I got a lot done but really, it was pretty successful. Four books read so far and hope to finish another this afternoon if I get time. I still have a pile of books on my computer to upload to Goodreads-mostly zombies and preppers again which I am enjoying so much! I think I have enough for my STS posts through the summer! Oh what a shame! *giggles* You can never really have too many books...The books on my list today are the next parts of series I have started and enjoyed and some new to me authors which is pretty exciting! Can't wait to read them all!

DOWNLOADS: 

















PAPERBACKS:



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Friday, 1 April 2016

Book Review: Shattered Hourglass by JL Bourne (Book #3)


In a desperate bid to take back the continental United States—where hordes of undead now dominate the ravaged human population—a Navy commander leads a global mission to the heart of the pandemic. Task Force Hourglass is humanity’s final hope, and his team’s agonizing decisions could mean living one more day—or surrendering to the eternal hell that exists between life and death.

My Review:
This book takes the form of a straight novel instead of a diary from the outset which gave me hope that we would see more of my favourite characters-John and Annabelle. However the author then decides to add more new characters and use multiple POVs which I did not think was required. We follow Kil and Saien on their mission to China, survivors at a remote station in the frozen north, soldiers trying to reach Hotel 23, Admiral of the Fleet, Remote 6, a seal team on Hawaii etc. We do get the odd thought of John and Tara but not anywhere near enough.

What did I like? Well the mission of the seal team on Hawaii was the best thing in the book. There was a real purpose to it, it was exciting and nerve shredding, just like Kil and John's initial adventures in the first book. Really enjoyed that. The few bits we got of John kicking ass with Annabelle and the Hotel 23 survivors was good but not enough of it. The marines going to Hotel 23 was also a decent subplot.

What I didn't like? The whole Arctic outpost story was not necessary and it slowed the entire story down. With that and the alien plot, I felt as if this was a fanfic version of The Thing rather than a zombie novel. Tara whining and sobbing all the time made me want to throw her overboard. Going to the ship outbreak after the event and telling us what happened instead of the excitement of showing us John and the others in the battle. I can't even tell you how disappointing that was. The ease of the mission to China and the actual point of it. I just didn't find any of that interesting.

I didn't find the ending greatly satisfying other than the Remote Six outcome. It all felt a bit rushed and a bit of an anti-climax really. The story is left open for a possible follow up but unless it was based fully on the Hotel 23 people, I wouldn't be that interested in following it. A bit of a tame end to a series that started so well.
star rating photo: Three Star Rating 3stars.png
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Book Review: Beyond Exile by JL Bourne (Book #2)


Armies of undead have risen up across the U.S. and around the globe;there is no safe haven from the diseased corpses hungering for human flesh. But in the heat of a Texas wasteland, a small band of survivors attempt to counter the millions closing in around them.

Survivor, Day by day, the handwritten journal entries of one man caught in a worldwide cataclysm capture the desperation; and the will to survive;as he joins forces with a handful of refugees to battle soulless enemies both human and inhuman from inside an abandoned strategic missile facility. But in the world of the undead, is mere survival enough?

My Review:
This review will contain plot spoilers for those who have not read book one so please use caution!

Our hero has been injured in the blast but the raiders have been pretty much defeated and we find out what happened during the battle. It is decided to use the plane to go and get supplies and scout out the area for signs of trouble. At an airfield, they find a note from a woman seeking help for her and her grandson and a rescue is launched. At Hotel 23, reactions are mixed about helping a group of marines in a broken down vehicle in case they want to take over the facility, but in the end a rescue begins. It does leads to an armed standoff with local troops until the soldiers surrounding the facility realise that our hero is the highest ranking officer and peace is declared.

The marines are grateful for being rescued and are now happy to help the survivors set up the systems inside Hotel 23 and joint cooperation is suggested. The military will give them help and a helicopter to aid them on recon if they assist in a few government operations to back up or rescue their troops. If our man re-enlists, so to speak, the civilians can stay at the facility. It seems the best deal under the circumstances and things improve at the facility. Our hero goes on the recon mission but things go wrong when there is a crash and anyone surviving it has a long walk back to the safety of the facility with limited weapons, food and water, and a lot of zombies to deal with.

The first half of the book is really good, having our survivors trying to get over the battle, and the rescues of a few more people-civilians and soldiers. There is decent action and tension, similar to the first book. It was shaping up to be a good read. I liked the new characters and like other reviewers, I kept imagining Naveen Andrews in the role of Saien! I found the character intriguing and I kept wondering what his story really was. However, there were things I didn't like and most of that came in the second half of the book.

The book changes format from the first in the series, which is why I didn't like it as much as that one. The main focus of this book is the aftermath of the helicopter crash and the long journey home with the dangers faced. While it was interesting, just having one character for a lot of the book meant that it didn't have the same emotional tension as the first book. We barely see the characters from the first book like John, Annabelle, Jan and William. We only really hear about Tara when she becomes the sexual love interest which is a bit disappointing. I don't get any chemistry between the two as he hardly ever mentions Tara and we barely see her. John is my favourite so not seeing much of him after enjoying his adventures in book one was a bit of a let down. And so little of the cute and cuddily Annabelle!

The other thing about this book is that the second half of the book is more focused on military weapons and tactics, technical things, the actions of Remote Six, the introduction of a man who may or may not be a good guy. All of the jargon and weapons talk went way over my head as a non military person and it found it confusing and a bit boring. The long journey back from the crash also had boring and slow parts which made it less exciting to read.

Overall it was a decent enough read but it was lacking most of what made the first book so great. And now at the end we discover that our hero is going to be sent to China to investigate where the outbreak began with alien spaceships and a plot resembling The Thing? I'm not convinced and it sounds like we'll barely see the likes of John and Anabelle again. I'll read book three as I already own it but I'm not greatly excited about reading it.
star rating photo: 35 star rating 3-5-stars.jpg
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