Friday, 5 June 2020

Chuckles Friday Reading Roundup


Welcome to my Friday Reading Roundup! This feature will show exactly what I've been reading and DNFing through the last two weeks. 

 5 star, 5 star, 4 star, 4 star.

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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 has been a really busy week off the blog, trying to tidy through my uncle's stuff and get all the legal stuff started. Housework in my home doesn't stop of course so we have that to do as well. Tomorrow morning there might also be another round of Get Your Crap Out My Bloody Bin! A nice 6am alarm call for Chuckles to check on all that. I bet it is lashing with rain too. Today I'm catching up with my weekend blog posts and over the weekend I'm planning a new reading list. I have one for tackling the paperback pile already but I also need to reduce the pile on my Kobo (Myrnin), as it is overflowing. I also need to work out my next Asda grocery delivery and make a nice curry for dinner tonight. Busy busy! I could do without this bout of hayfever which is bugging me right now...

Reading has been pretty non existant this week with all that has been happening but I hope to get into my reading with renewed energy next week after I finish the Half Blood Prince over the weekend. I need to get a bit of summer horror back into my life! I'm trying to stay away from Amazon other than for essentials but is it my fault that there were free zombie books being offered? I blame the authors for making me download...

Chuckles Blogging World
Doing my usual weekend catchup! I'm already up to date with answering my blog comments and my Around The Blogs post is ready to be published. I'll be visiting blogs today and tomorrow but I'm mostly up to date for a change. And a couple of book reviews that need to be done including my Harry Potter re-reads!
 
Book Reviews 
 
Chuckles Mini Reviews Catchup
 
Chuckles Mini Reviews Catchup part 2
 
Regular Posts 
 
Around The Blogs With Chuckles
 
Top Ten Tuesday-Books That Should Exist
 
Top Ten Tuesday-Summer Vibes
 
Discussion Posts

Virus Days #11

Virus Days #12

Reading Challenges
none this week
 
Films & TV & Music
I've continued to watch favourite films like Harry Potter and The Mummy, while catching up with season 13 of The Great British Menu.
 
Book Tags/Blog Awards 
 
Would You Rather Book Tag
 
Ultimate Book Tag
 
The Week Ahead 
Nothing planned yet.
 
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Thursday, 4 June 2020

Ultimate Book Tag


It appears that this book tag was created by someone called Megan on Goodreads but as her profile is set to private, I can't give a link to her blog. Anyway I saw this tag on Nicci's blog at  https://www.sunnybuzzybooks.co.uk/ and decided to join in. I might have taken part already but who cares!

If you want to join in, consider yourself tagged!

1) Do you get sick while reading in the car?
I don't read in the car. I only travel with my dad when he is driving and I prefer to talk to him. I only feel sick in the car if it is a really hot day and no air is coming in. I usually avoid the car on days like that anyway.

2) Which author's writing style is completely unique to you and why?
I tend to read genres where the only unique thing is the different plots and characters each author creates. I guess I could say that JK Rowling's world-building was way ahead of anything I had read before in books for children, and her books appeal equally to kids and adults. Not everyone can do that.  

3) Harry Potter or Twilight? Give three points to defend your answer.
I'm not sure why there is any need for us to defend our answers when this is asking our opinion on a book. I choose Harry Potter-great world-building content, exciting magical adventures and British characters with lots of humour.

4) Do you carry a book bag? If so, what is in it beside books?
I carry a rucksack with me. In it I have a drink, one of my monkeys, a canvas book bag folded up in case of purchases, a small first aid kit, small food package, money, list of books I'm looking for, medication.

5) Do you smell your books?
Yes! In a bookshop, that new book smell just makes me anticipate taking that shiny book home and getting started on a new adventure! I wish books could be scented...imagine a favourite book with a nice pine scent or something!

6) Books with or without little illustrations?
I'm not really that bothered. Illustrations are only useful if they are good ones that relate to the story and not any old rubbish.

7) What book did you love while reading but discovered later it wasn't quality writing?
I find this nonsense. Reading for me is about enjoyment and if I love a book, I don't give a crap if anyone thinks the quality of writing is poor or the book didn't win awards or get love from critics. I'm not ashamed of my reading and I'll read cheesy fluff, horror gorefests, or whatever I feel like and enjoy what I get out of each book.  

8) Do you have any funny stories involving books from your childhood? Please share?
I don't know if it would be regarded as funny but my mum got mad at me for trying to hoist my grampa's chair out into the garden so I could pretend it was Enid Blyton's Wishing Chair. I also read the last two Harry Potter books on the days they were published wearing ear defenders just in case a random child walked by the house and shouted out a spoiler. My dad found that funny...

9) What is the thinnest book on your shelf? 
Stan Berenstain's Bears In The Night, my favourite book as a kid.

10) What is the thickest book on your shelf?
It'll come down to a toss up between Stephen King's IT and The Stand, or one of the George RR Martin creations. I'm not including encyclopedias and illustrated editions.

11) Do you write as well as read? Do you see yourself in the future as being an author?
I used to write SF, horror and crime and dabbled in YA high school stuff. My pride and joy was my SF novel that was a homage to Blake's Seven. But when I left college and had to work shifts, all that went out the window and I was never able to find the time to write. It's still sitting unfinished in my bedroom but I doubt I'll get back to it.

12) When did you get into reading?
I was always a reader thanks to my dad's bedtime stories and the books my parents bought me at an early age. They got me into a mail order book club through my school (anyone remember the Chip Club?) and bought books for birthdays and Christmas. I don't remember a time when I wasn't reading.

13) What is your favourite classic book?
I don't read what are termed as the classics. As a child I devoured Black Beauty many times so that was a favourite then. Now I'd say that The Fellowship of the Ring would be right up there as I've read it many times. 

14) In school was your best subject Language Arts/English?
I was decent at English and passed my exams in it but I hated all the punctuation stuff. My best and favourite subject was History. I especially loved the two World Wars when we studied it but didn't greatly enjoy the Russian revolution stuff or the Spanish Civil War. I feel the exam board focused too much on things outside Britain. I mean how can you study the second world war and not do the Battle of Britain? 

15) If you were given a book as a present that you had read and hated, what would you do?
Everyone I know would ask me first or give me a gift card! If I was given one I didn't want, I'd donate it to a charity shop so it can find a reader that appreciates it more. 

16) What is a lesser-known series that resembles Harry Potter or The Hunger Games?
I've never found anything like Harry Potter though lots claim to be the new Harry Potter. For those who enjoyed The Hunger Games, I'd suggest things like Wolf by Wolf, which has the across the world race where dirty tricks are used to win, The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau, which has trials and a Hunger Games style game zone task, The Extinction Trials which has a dinosaur island and tests and tasks, The Valley, a dinosaur reality TV show where you must survive the beasts and other contestants to win.

17) What is a bad habit you always do while blogging?
I always use !!! a bit too much...

18) What is your favourite word?
Book, of course! My favourite phrase would be someone saying 'can I buy you a book or ten?'

19) Are you a nerd or a geek?
I don't classify myself as anything.

20) Vampires or Fairies? Why?
I've never liked the Tinkerbell or bottom of the garden fairies in my books-too fluffy and girly maybe. I don't much like the Fae either-they are just such cold and horrible characters. I hate books based at Fae Courts. Vampires are much more interesting for me as there are so many different kinds to enjoy. 

21) Shapeshifters or Angels? Why?
Shapeshifters for sure. Angels are things I'm not really keen on for fiction books. I read too many YA books about relationships with angels and nasty angels and guardian angels to be sick of seeing them. Adult angel books can often be too heavy on religious subjects for my taste, when I like lighter topics for fun reading. I love shifters-coyotes, wolves, bears, dogs, big cats, monkeys...so many choices and plot variations to enjoy!

22) Spirits or Werewolves? Why?
No I'm just not a fan of ghosts and haunted places in my horror or UF reading. Yes there are a few good exceptions but mostly I'm not a fan of ghosts. I've always loved werewolves-that scene in the underground in An American Werewolf in London still freaks me out. I like werewolf packs that aren't all about orgies in the moonlight and sex crazed soulmates though.

23) Zombies or Vampires? Why? 
I LOVE zombies! I'm obsessed with zombie books-the shambling masses, the deadly sprinting versions, the range of ways an apocalypse are triggered, the breakdown of society. I love it and can never resist trying new zombie series.

24) Love Triangle or Forbidden Love?
I hate both of these tropes for the most part as they dominate the story too much. The occasional forbidden love is preferable if it doesn't overshadow the plot. A good example is DelSheree Gladden's 'Someone Wicked This Way Comes' which basically has the three siblings each having a forbidden love issue but these books were so much more than that!

25) Full on romance books or or action-packed with a few love scenes mixed in?
I'm not really a fan of romance in any form really but I certainly don't read romance novels of any kind. If the book is action packed I can at least skip past any sex scenes. I really do prefer where the relationship has been established before the book starts and we can skip all the angst that really drags down the books for me.

 I TAG YOU!!!!!!!!!!

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Wednesday, 3 June 2020

Top Ten Tuesday-Summer Vibes

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 all about books with summer vibes but I'm not a happy summer beach kind of person so I'm going with a bit of a summer horror and disaster theme.

Rick and Corinne Scully and their kids have visited Florida's Captiva Island many times. This year, they've brought along their best friends, who can't wait to finally experience the place the Scullys call Paradise on Earth. But this vacation is turning out to be a lot different than planned. The Scullys never expected the rowdy college spring-breakers renting the house next door, or a hurricane that would sweep through the Gulf Coast, or the century-old shipwreck that washed up on the shore. They never knew about the military research being done at a nearby marine institute--and the test subjects that escaped during the hurricane. In the aftermath of the storm, the Scullys and their friends will try to salvage what's left of their time at the beach. They believe it's safe to go back in the water. . .but they're dead wrong.

Nothing says summer like being trapped on a holiday island, trying to survive an invasion of test sharks that escaped during a hurricane. Everyone is scrambling to salvage the end of the holiday with various watersports, unaware that the sharks are closing in on them!

At Camp Blaze—a camp with a history of tragedy and murder—a group of counselors are stalked and slaughtered by a masked killer. Due to the missing bodies, the murders are brushed off as 'disappearances.' Lead senior counselor Regina Park, however, begins to suspect foul play. As the body count rises, Regina and her peers begin to suspect everyone in their fight for survival... 

What says summer quite like summer camp eh? Groups of kids getting to hang out all summer and play games and sports, learn new skills and make new friends. Camp assistants are there to help you get settled and teach you...unless of course you pick a camp with a bloody history and a serial killer running around the place! I did go on trips with the Brownies, and one was a weird place that was rumoured to be haunted-strange things happened there but thankfully no serial killers!

September. A beautiful New York editor retreats to a lonely cabin on a hill in the quiet Maine beach town of Dead River—off season—awaiting her sister and friends. Nearby, a savage human family with a taste for flesh lurks in the darkening woods, watching, waiting for the moon to rise and night to fall...And before too many hours pass, five civilized, sophisticated people and one tired old country sheriff will learn just how primitive we all are beneath the surface...and that there are no limits at all to the will to survive.

One thing people do like about the summer is the chance to meet up with friends or family for a fun vacation and some peace and quiet. A cabin in the woods is the perfect place for this kind of reunion to take place, where there is nobody around to disturb you. Unless of course you pick somewhere that has a group of psycho cannibals living nearby who decide you are on the buffet menu that night! Oh dear not quite the relaxing reunion that you were expecting...

The rules are simple: Seven contestants will enter, only one will leave. The New York Public Library. A silent sanctuary of knowledge; a 100-year-old labyrinth of towering bookcases, narrow aisles and long marble hallways. For Doctor Stephen Swain and his daughter, Holly, it is the site of a nightmare. Because for one night this historic building is to be the venue for a contest. A contest in which Swain is to compete - whether he likes it or not.With his daughter in his arms, Stephen Swain is plunged into a terrifying fight for survival. The stakes are high, the odds brutal. He can choose to run, to hide or to fight - but if he wants to live, he has to win. For in this contest, unless you leave as the victor, you do not leave at all.

How many of us waited for that first day of the summer holidays to go rushing to the library to get our first books to read? As a kid I was never out the library, grabbing my three books and coming back days later to get more. Of course my local library never had space creatures battling in a deadly game to kill each other...

In a dystopian future, a self-contained valley in Argentina serves as the 'far arena' for those convicted of a crime. Inside the Valley: carnivorous dinosaurs generated from preserved DNA. The goal: cross the Valley to get to the Gates of Freedom. The chance of survival: no one has ever completed the journey. Convicted of crimes with little or no merit, Ben Peyton and others must battle their way across fields filled with the world's deadliest apex predators in order to reach salvation. All the while the journey is caught on cameras and broadcast to the world as a reality show, the deaths and killings real, the macabre appetite of the audience needing to be satiated as Ben Peyton leads his team to escape not only from a legal system that's more interested in entertainment than in justice, but also from the predators of the Valley.

A hot and humid environment filled with rampaging dinosaurs just makes me think of summer days pretending to be dinosaurs with my friends, and that hot tropical environment in warmer countries, as well as the chance to watch more TV without homework distractions! 

Who Murdered Dracula? Many had tried to kill the Count over the centuries. All had failed. Until now...Eight vampires gather at their maker's castle to solve the mystery of who killed Dracula. But as the sun rises outside the chateau, a voice cries out and another vampire is slain. Trapped inside their master's lair, the sun burning bright outside, Dracula's children realize that they have met their match - a formidable killer who plans on picking them off one by one! As the daylight reigns and their numbers dwindle, a dark suspicion grows - could the killer be hiding in plain sight?

As a redheaded child I sometimes had to stay inside on the warmest days when the sun might burn me so that leads nicely to a book about vampires trapped inside a house where one killer is executing them in twisted ways while the sun prevents them from making an escape.  The summer sun is much more deadly for these vampires!
 
Welcome to Derry, Maine ...It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real ...They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them can withstand the force that has drawn them back to Derry to face the nightmare without an end, and the evil without a name.

Nothing is more summery than a nice dose of a killer clown murdering children in a small town. Pennywise takes the face of everything that scares kids and a group of seven who have evaded his clutches join together to defeat him. This book screams summer as the 1958 parts of the story take place in the summer holidays. The kids are roaming about exploring, evading school bullies and monsters. I can at least relate to trying to fill my days with exploring old buildings and hanging about with my friends...

The swamp belongs to them. Humans are only prey. Deep in the overgrown swamps of Florida, where humans rarely dare to enter, lives a race of creatures long thought to be only the stuff of legend. They walk upright but are stronger, taller and more brutal than any man. And when a small boat of tourists, held captive by a fleeing criminal, accidentally kills one of the swamp dwellers' young, the creatures are filled with a terrifyingly human emotion-a merciless lust for vengeance that will paint the trees red with blood.  

Florida for me conjures up the image of hot summer days, warm nights, beaches, theme parks, humidity...and of course the sticky heat of the Everglades with an army of psycho Sasquatches chasing a bunch of hapless swamp boat tourists. This is one of my favourite monster books and it has a summer vibe to it because of the location, the tourists and the swampy elements. This was my first book by the author and is probably my favourite. Summer boat trips for tourists don't usually end up like this!

For two families, it was supposed to be a relaxing camping trip in the California mountains. They thought it would be fun to get away from everything for a while. But they're not alone. The woods are also home to two terrifying residents who don't take kindly to strangers - an old hag with unholy powers, and her hulking son, a half-wild brute with uncontrollable, violent urges. The campers still need to get away - but now their lives depend on it!  

Ah, camping! There is nothing like strolling out into the wilderness with your tent and a pile of provisions if you like that kind of thing! Camping trips make me think of summer, though I've never camped out further than my back garden for a few hours as I have a thing about cannibals, spiders, bugs and serial killers! This book certainly has the angry witch and her pervert son who bring terror to two families on a camping trip. This book was one of the best Laymon books I read and it is long overdue for a re-read!

No Goodreads blurb available. 

A carnival is coming to town and the locals watch in anticipation as it is constructed. It soon becomes clear that there is something very wrong with the carnival. A young child vanishes and his frantic mother will go to any lengths to find her offspring including a deal with something nasty. If you get into the wrong car on the Ghost Train you vanish and die.

I read this years ago and loved it. My summer holidays as a kid were trips down to the seaside resort of Blackpool in England. Donkey rides on the crowded beaches, boat trips to see a school of porpoises, the smells of cotton candy, toffee apples and junk food, creamy ice cream cones...and of course Blackpool Pleasure Beach theme park with rollercoasters and water rides! I'm glad to say that Blackpool was never as scary as this...  


 
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Monday, 1 June 2020

New Chuckles Update

Just to keep you all updated on what has been happening. Late on Friday night my uncle passed away and my dad told me about it on Saturday morning. While we are devastated about it, he isn't in any more pain and suffering which we are grateful for. My dad and I are doing ok considering, and we'll get through this. Thank you all so much for your kind thoughts which we both appreciate.

We are starting the task of the legal stuff and arrangements while trying to find all my uncle's paperwork regarding utilities and payments and insurances. My uncle was a dreadful hoarder of junk so clearing up was fun in the middle of a heatwave here! He also liked spiders and never got rid of them so there were quite a few big ones in the house which had me freaking out! Ach you have to laugh about these things or you'd go mad... 

I haven't been online because of the days of sorting and tidying at his house but I'm now confined to the house because I've come down with hay fever for some reason. I've had hay fever three times in my life, the last bout being about ten years ago so it's really annoying to get it when we have so much to do. I'll be back online hopefully tomorrow and back into a routine. I'll be catching up on comments at the blog first then visiting your blogs and getting back to normal. 

I look forward to 'seeing' you all in the next couple of days.
Chuckles

PS Bookstooge, if you see this, I haven't tried the new Blogger set up but I've heard mixed things about it. Ugh why do they need to change everything???!!! I'll take a look at the new set up tomorrow and get back to you.
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