Monday, 25 March 2019

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. 

This Week!

1) 10 Things Authors Get Wrong About High School 
AJ tells it like it is!

2) Book Review-The Sky So Heavy by Claire Zorn
Greg looks at Australian apocalypse.

3) Book Review-Markswoman by Rati Mehrotra
Mogsy goes fantasy.

4) Book Review-The Last Woman In The Forest by Diane Les Becquets 
Erica looks at a thriller.

5) Mini Reviews 
AJ looks at The Foxhole Court and When The Sky Fell On Splendor.
http://ajsterkel.blogspot.com/2019/03/mini-reviews-foxhole-court-when-sky.html  

 6) Book Review-The Chrysalis by Brendan Deneen
Barb goes haunting...
http://bookertsfarm.blogspot.com/2019/03/creepy-old-house-new-pregnancy-disaster.html 

 7) Book Review-The Homecoming by Andrew Pyper
Mogsy goes horror.
https://bibliosanctum.com/2019/03/24/book-review-the-homecoming-by-andrew-pyper/ 
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Chuckles Cover Love #118-Wickit Chronicles


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! 






















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Friday, 22 March 2019

Book Review: Into The Darkness by Doug Kelly


Winner of the 2013 Goodreads Best EMP novel. Dylan Smith was over a thousand miles from home when an enormous coronal mass ejection collided with Earth. The ensuing electromagnetic pulse devastated the power grids of the world and sensitive electronic equipment. Dylan, and a small group of men, must devise a way to return home through a world in which modern technology was abruptly stripped away. During their long journey home, they witness the civilized world transcend into anarchy and are forced to struggle with the morality of the decisions they make to survive. Into the Darkness is a remarkably convincing portrait of ordinary people facing the nightmare of survival in an apocalyptic world. The story concludes in its sequel, Fade To Black.

My Review: 
Dylan is an information technology consultanton on a two week business trip in Montana with colleagues he knows from other offices in different cities when the solar flare hits. First Dylan sees the Northern Lights and then the transformers explode, sending the power out. Faced with no working vehicles, Dylan, Richard and Kevin decide to buy rafts and use the Missouri river that runs through their cities to get each of them home. It is going to be a long journey and not everyone that they meet can be trusted not to do them harm.

We are introduced to four men at the start of the book but the solar flare which fries the power also fries Henry's pacemaker and kills him. It is that event that convinces Dylan that they need to get moving and try to get home. A colonel at the hotel tells them what to expect in the coming days and weeks and Dylan decides that going by river will keep them clear of roads and most people, giving them a better chance of getting safely home. They are able to get the supplies they need at a sporting goods store beside the river and set out on their journey. I liked the idea of the river trip as something a bit different from just following roads and finding trouble in every town they pass through.

Dylan is Mr Take Charge Guy from the moment the solar flare hits and it is his idea to go by river. kevin is also pretty capable and from the beginning, Dylan toys with the idea of bringing Kevin and his wife to live with his family, thinking about safety in numbers and the fact that Kevin lives in the middle of a city which is much more dangerous to survive in. First they have to get to Omaha and rescue Mary before continuing on to Dylan's home in Kansas City. Dylan decides to reluctantly offer to take in Richard, who lives in St Louis. I liked the Colonel who we meet a couple of times. He is your typical military man and prepper though his men have some real asshats amongst them. We also meet Beth, a young mother with a baby who is also trying to find a way home and the men decide to try and help her.

Richard is the steriotype fat useless loser that you get in a lot of apocalypse books. He eats nothing but junk food, has no clue about anything survival related and gets out of breath after a short walk. It is clear that Kevin and Dylan aren't great fans of him and he is a constant liability on the trip, almost losing the rafts early in the trip by not securing them. He refused to conceal his tent when they camped which of course invited trouble for them all. Every time a bad decision was made, it was Richard who had done something stupid again. It did get a bit frustrating. I get that he was fat and unfit but that doesn't mean all fat people are stupid! I'd have liked to have seen him redeem himself instead of what happened.

There was a reasonable about of action in the book, with the events as they camped along the river, the run in with the military and the dangerous trips into towns to get supplies. There were areas of tension and overall I did like the story well enough. It was how inconsistant Dylan was that did annoy me. At various times on the trip he was happy to shoot people without a second thought when he felt it was called for yet when he confronts the people who neglected and starved his kids he doesn't shoot them? The rancher did not deserve what Dylan did but those hurting his kids got away with it? I found that really annoying. I also didn't like the spiteful comments he made to Mary about her religious beliefs. I think it made him look like a bit of a bully and he should have left her to get on with it if she took strength from it.

Overall I found it a decent and entertaining read but I don't think I'll be reading on with book two as I have other series that I'd want to read before this one. 

Read January 2019
3 stars.
Posted by at 12 comments:

Book Review: Sixty Six by Matthew Stott


Gently they come, to the man who waits, the children unknowing, of their dreadful fates...

Everyone knows the story in Oldstone. Of the local myth that parents tell their children to make them shiver. Of a headless man who rises from the lake bed every 66 years and takes a child. Takes their head for his own.

When Carl was a young boy, his older brother went missing. Surely the story can't be true? The need to find out the truth will become a lifelong obsession...

Sixty-Six is from the Strange Stories of the Uncanny Kingdom series, one of several Urban Fantasy lines from Genre Reader. This title is exclusive to Insiders, the Uncanny Kingdom mailing list subscribers.

My Review: 
As a child Carl's older brother Mark tried to scare him with the local urban legend about Lakeside House, where the Headless Man of the Lakes waited in the depths of Bassenthwaite. Every 66 years he would come out of the lake and into the house, ready to catch a child and take his or her head for itself. To prove he isn't scared, Carl and his best friend Daddy agree to go into the house and take photos of it to prove they were there. Of course Mark and his friend Berry decide to hide in the basement ready to give the kids a real scare, unaware that the 66 years have passed and the Headless Man is coming home. Berry is found outside covered in blood and babbling incoherantly and Mark is gone.

The events of that summer have haunted Carl ever since and when he comes back to Cumbria for a school reunion, he is determined to speak to both Berry and Daddy about what happened. Carl still has the nightmares and remembers that night after the abduction when a man wearing Mark's head stood outside his house. Carl knows he'll never be at peace until he finds out what happened to Mark and stops the monster. But with Berry still mentally damaged from what he saw that day and Daddy not very keen to revisit the events, will Carl ever find out the truth about Mark?

 I liked the character of Carl as he is just a typical kid who ends up doing stuff that scares him rather than appear weak and cowardly to his big brother. I'm sure that is something that a lot of people can relate to and sadly I still see media stories about these dares leading to tragedy. Carl's childhood is destroyed when Mark goes missing and the nightmares continue for years. I actually liked the character of Daddy, though I did find the name he liked using to be pretty weird when he was just a kid. It is explained in the plot though. Mark is the typical older brother who wants to give the kids a bit of a scare. I think the characters are developed nicely for being a short story and we get to see them as adults as the story progresses-well, with the exception of Mark, of course...

I got this book free from the author for signing up to a newsletter and and it was a good short horror tale. I enjoy reading about places I have actually been to and on a recent holiday a few years ago in Cumbria, my dad and I actually drove past this lake, so it was interesting to see it featured in a book. Sadly I found no mention online of any urban legend or the headless man so I assume that this was an invention by the author for the lake. There is a Lakeside hotel though so perhaps he got the idea from that. It has actually made me curious about going to visit the lake if we are back in the Lake District at some point! It is fun to read horror stories set in the UK whether or not they have any basis in fact and I did enjoy this one. 

Read January 2019
4 stars.
Posted by at 12 comments:

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!
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It hasn't been a very productive week for Chuckles. I've been pretty tired and had a minor viral infection for a few days which seems to have passed now thankfully, but it really affected my concentration. I barely got any reading done and nothing productive was achieved around the house either. Guess I need to write it off as a bad week and look to what I can get done next week. Mind you, I still have that can't be bothered feeling today! I picked up a few books that are part of series that I'm following but not a big spend. I seem to have my book buying under control this year which I'm pleased about.

The saga of the bloody garden fence continues. When we were told we needed to move a portion of the fence, we asked the guy who hired the fence guys to come and see us. With no sign of him four days later, our dentist recommended his own gardener. He agreed to come up at the weekend to look at the job. That was Sunday-no sign of him and no phone call to say why he didn't appear and I'm so pissed off. What is it with these workmen who are just bloody lazy about making a quick phone call to tell you they aren't coming? While we waited, we turned down the original guy who did the work because we hoped this new guy would be more reliable. Now my dad needs to go and tell the original guy we want him back. It's pathetic. Plus our digital TV is refusing to work for the third time this year and we're getting sick of it!

PAPERBACKS/HARDBACKS



Chuckles Blogging World
I'm sticking to my new routine though it wasn't a greatly productive week overall. Today and over the weekend I'll be catching up with the comments you left on my blog, visiting your blogs and getting a few posts ready for use next week.

Book Reviews 

Diana E Anderson-Premonitions (The Farm #1)

Lee Murray-Into The Mist

Jay J Falconer-Redfall

Regular Posts
I went Around The Blogs looking for good blog posts to share. Cover Love went into a bit of Christian fiction this week, Top Ten Tuesday was Spring TBR and Books From The Backlog featured Jurassic Hell.

Chuckles Cover Love

Around The Blogs With Chuckles

Top Ten Tuesday

Books From The Backlog

Discussion Posts
none this week

Book Challenges 

 Tackling The TBR March Update 3

Reading Challenges March Update 3

Book Review Backlog Challenge

Special Posts
 none this week

Film & TV
My dad and I watched Sasuke seasons 11 to 14 in the last couple of afternoons and I've had fun rewatching seasons 1-3 of American Ninja Warrior.

Book Tags/Blog Awards 
none this week

Currently Reading/Up Next 
Ugh, pretty much nothing done this week. I did start Green Eyed Demon, the next Sabina Kane book but I'm just not in the mood for urban fantasy right now so my series catchup challenge has ground to a halt! I might try switching focus and see if I can get the Tudor books read and then on to Fire and Blood.
 

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