Chuckles Weekend Roundup

Welcome to my new 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 blog! 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!

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Another week gone and I'm happy enough with how things are going. I got stuck into the Nicholas Sansbury Smith zombie series and got the first five books read-just one more and a short novella to get that up to date. Things went pretty well at the blog too and I've actually got ahead in my blog posts, enough to take a few days off to read and chill out up to the General Election on Thursday. I feel some GRRM coming on and intend to read A Clash of Kings next! On the book buying side of things a pile of pre-orders from Amazon arrived so that was fun! I also discovered that you can buy Twinkies on Amazon which could be fatal to the waistline! 

PAPERBACKS:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32874605-unleashing-demons 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31353136-all-out-war 

This totally gorgeous Philosopher's Stone 20th anniversary edition all have coloured pages to match the covers! They are a great set and the pre-order price was low so why wouldn't I rush to buy them all? Wicked!

 Chuckles Blogging World:

I'm kind of pleased with how each day has gone this week. I decided to post twice each day for the most part to give me time to get the posts for next week prepared. I'm have a few days off Monday-Wednesday just to have some chill out and reading time. Please post your comments as normal and I'll start getting back to you probably on Thursday. I just need a few days to chill with my dad. I'm amazed I got ahead in scheduled posts enough to do this, frankly! I'll be back visiting all your blogs on Thursday and Friday so everything will be caught up by the weekend. Click on the link provided to go to each blog post if you missed it during the week and feel free to stop by and leave a comment!

Book Reviews: 

Happy to say that I've now got all my book reviews from March posted to the blog. I will be continuing the book reviews for those I read in April now, other than my Retro Reads posts of course. Now that the backlog is under control, I'll be looking to spend more time on blog lurking and some more discussion posts, maybe even put up a few self made book tags. I might work on that while I'm on my blog break!

Eric S Brown-Redneck Apocalypse

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/book-review-redneck-apocalypse-by-eric.html

Eric S Brown-Outbreak

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/book-review-outbreak-by-eric-s-brown.html

Eric S Brown-Zombie Apocalypse

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/book-review-zombie-apocalypse-by-eric-s.html 

Eric S Brown-Frontier

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/book-review-frontier-by-eric-s-brown.html 

Eric S Brown-After The Fall

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/book-review-after-fall-by-eric-s-brown.html 

Sarah Andersen-Adulthood is a Myth

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/book-review-adulthood-is-myth-by-sarah.html 

Regular Features:

 Top Ten Tuesday-Ten Monster Books I want to Read This Year!

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/top-ten-tuesday_30.html 

Chuckles Cover Love-Eric S Brown

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/chuckles-cover-love-27.html 

Around The Blogs With Chuckles

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/around-blogs-with-chuckles_28.html 

Discussion Posts: 

This week I was thinking about how publishing dates can be so annoying and looking at the season one deaths in Game of Thrones!

Chuckles Chat-Publishing Dates

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/chuckles-chat-19-publishing-dates.html 

Game of Thrones Gossip-Season One Deaths

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/game-of-thrones-gossip-18-season-one.html 

Book Challenge Updates:

It's the end of another month so I took a look back at my book challenges and how I got on. Bit of a mixed bag really... 

Get 'Em 'Orf The Shelves Month!

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/get-em-orf-shelves-month_31.html 

Reading With Chuckles-June Plan

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/reading-with-chuckles-june-plan.html 

  My Goodreads Challenge total currently stands at 117/250. Happy!

TBR total of books I own but haven't read yet stands at 805. Not bad. Ahem...

Currently Reading: 

Mixing it up a little! I'm about to start the sixth Extinction Horizon book by Nicholas Sansbury Smith and I'm also well into Project Fear, a look behind the scenes of the No campaign in the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum. 

Next Reads? 

George RR Martin-A Clash of Kings

That's all for this week! Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to visit my blog and leave comments. You guys are great! 

FOLLOW ME:

https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/chuckles-book-cave-9910183 

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3426724-chucklesthescot 

https://twitter.com/chucklesthescot 

https://uk.pinterest.com/chucklesthescot/

Book Review: After the Fall by Eric S Brown

Bigfoot War: After the Fall picks up where the original Bigfoot War and Bigfoot War: Redneck Apocalypse left off. A mixed group of soldiers and civilians have taken shelter inside a paper mill, making it their home. There they hope to survive the Sasquatch Apocalypse.

My Review: 

An army unit in North Carolina is trying to survive in the aftermath of the Sasquatch and undead plagues, protecting civilians in a paper mill which they have taken as their base. Constant fear of attack and the dangerous journeys for supplies have everyone on edge and dwindling rations are leaving everyone weak.

Colonel Howard has been dealing with another Sasquatch attack and a friendly fire incident, and now his supply convoy has went missing. His senior officer thinks it is time to abandon the facility while the option is available to them and some of the civilians are thinking the same thing. Now another convoy is going out to get supplies and find out what happened to the other men. And all the time the Sasquatch are planning their next attack.

This was a decent enough story but it was focusing more on the people trapped in the paper mill than the all out gorefests of previous books. I was a little less interested in who hated who in the military ranks and would have preferred to stay with the action outside the mill. It was still a decent read in the series and the ending was enjoyable. 

Read April 2017

Book Review: Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Andersen

Are you a special snowflake?

Do you enjoy networking to advance your career?

Is adulthood an exciting new challenge for which you feel fully prepared?

Ugh. Please go away.

This book is for the rest of us. These comics document the wasting of entire beautiful weekends on the internet, the unbearable agony of holding hands on the street with a gorgeous guy, dreaming all day of getting home and back into pajamas, and wondering when, exactly, this adulthood thing begins. In other words, the horrors and awkwardnesses of young modern life.

My Review: 
I don't generally read this kind of thing but I saw it popping up on a lot of blogs that I was visiting plus a few of the cartoons looked funny and ironic so I took the pluge and bought it. And I was glad that I did because I found it entertaining, funny and totally relevant to my life.

Firstly I love the drawings in the book. The facial expressions that the character gets when she is freaking out or scared are so funny! She gets this brilliant sort of manic look and it kind of looks like my inner Chuckles is on the loose! That should mean that I'll reread this quite a few times in the future.

I can relate to so many of the cartoon scenarios that the author discusses. I am the type who would rather slump somewhere comfy or read or blog rather than venturing out into the real world. I detest using the phone and would rather hide than talk to someone on it. I get stressed out on the few occasions that I try to use the phone and what I do manage to blurt out tends to make little sense! I also hate bumping into people that I know and having to make small talk. You're more likely to find me hiding behind a clothes rack to avoid talking to someone! I'm not really much of a social animal! So all these cartoons call out to me in a big way.

I hate clothes shopping! I think she is right that shop assistants make up any size for clothes tags as nothing in my size ever seems to find and I get all sweaty and irritated trying on multiple sizes. I remember well the horror of getting stuck in something that is too small for you and hiding whimpering in the cubicle wondering what to do about it. I still have nightmares about that...Everything you want to wear DOES leave your bra on display! I agreed with her rant about clothing companies not knowing that bras exist! Yes to sniffing the new books! Yes to using maternal urges to buy new cuddily toys to mother instead of having children! (my stuffed monkeys will testify to the love given to them!)

And who could not love the ever plotting evil cartoon uterus who is scheming to ruin all of her days! I also loved the unshaved at the beach cartoon...that really cracked me up!

This book is a lot of fun and is a short entertaining read. It looks at social and life situations and pokes a little fun at them, while delivering a message. Liked this!
Read April 2017 

Reading With Chuckles-June Plan!

Welcome to my June reading plan! This month I've decided to pick fewer books to get through and leave more room for a bit of mood reading. I think that might be a bit more successful, and I'll be choosing books from various genres to widen my choice. It also means if I get into a book, I can keep reading on in the series without messing up my reading plans. Now to the good part: the reading list!

1) Rachel Caine-Fade Out #7 (read)
2) Nicholas Sansbury Smith-Extinction Aftermath #6 (read)
3) Nicholas Sansbury Smith-Extinction Lost #6.5 (read)
4) Jack Kilborn-Trapped #2 (read)
5) Michael Stephen Fuchs-Carnage #12
6) George RR Martin-A Clash of Kings #2 (read)
7) Joe Pike-Project Fear (read)
8) JA Cipriano-Kill it with Magic #1
9) Mike Kraus-Prip'Yat (read)
10) Nicholas Sansbury Smith-Orbs #1 (read)
11) Sonya Bateman-Wrong Side of Hell #1 (read)
12) Dan Hodges-One Minute to Ten (DNF)
13) Hunter Shea-They Rise
14) Hunter Shea-The Jersey Devil

We'll see how I get on with these. The eagle eyed amongst you may have recognised that most of these books are from other reading plans I didn't get round to! 

Book Review: Frontier by Eric S Brown

The west was a land of opportunity. It offered the chance of a new beginning and Ray sorely needed one. His dark past would soon be left far behind, but. . . the west also held dangers that no one could have foreseen.

The wagon train rolled on, wary of an attack by warring Indians, straight into the den of the beasts. At night, the Sasquatch came seeking blood and the journey west quickly became a struggle for survival.

My Review:
A group of American settlers are travelling in their wagons to what they hope will be a new life but there is a disagreement over whether or not to take the mountain pass which is known to have hostile native tribes living there. The leader of the group decides to push on as it is the quicker route in spite of the danger but what he doesn't know is that there is something much more dangerous living in the area and these Sasquatches don't like humans coming into their territory.

I don't often read these western/frontier setting books but when it has rampaging Sasquatches I'm happy to give it a try! We follow the group on their journey as they come into enemy territory. The scouts that have been sent out have not returned to them and everyone is sure that the native tribe has killed them. When a woman from the tribe comes to warn them about what lives in the area, reactions to her story are somewhat mixed. She has decided that her best chance to leave her tribe behind is to join the group but trouble is about to hit them in a very hairy manner...

This was another enjoyable Sasquatch romp as the hairy beasts take exception to humans coming into their territory. It has the same blood and gore setting as previous books but I liked seeing how people without access to automatic weapons would fare in this situation. Another fun read! 
Read April 2017.