February is Paperback Month!

So I've decided I need to read some of my lovely paperbacks and hardbacks (the title of this post is slightly deceiving I agree).

I've got so many paperbacks and hardbacks my shelves are quite literally bulging. I tend to get rid of my books once ice read them unless I know I'm going to read them again, they are part of a social collection or they are signed. I lend them to friends, take them to the charity shop or swap them with other people. Most of my friends know that if they come to me for a book recommendation they will most probably he a couple of books thrust at them either to borrow or to keep. 

I've read an awful lot of Ebooks recently, and whilst I have nothing against ebook, I'm kind of missing he feel of an actual book, something I can hold in my hands, smell and feel the weight of. I also have the problem of having far too many of them and so I've decided that for the month of February I'm going to give my kindle (and my kindle app on my iPad) a rest.

During the month of February I will only read physical books. There is one exception to this and that is The Arcade. Because this is an ebook only serial, I am allowed to read the February edition of The Arcade. Apart from that, the books I read will be physical books which I have bought, been sent, been lent or borrowed from the library. 

If anyone else wants to join in with my paperback February, let me know and we can cheer each other on. I love to hear your comments! 

Letterbox Love #2

Welcome to Letterbox Love, this is a UK meme, hosted by the lovely Lynsey at Narratively Speaking and inspired by The Story Siren's In My Mailbox. This post is a means by which to highlight the books we get in the post and beyond, and especially to bring attention to those books which may be sat on our shelves for a little while yet that we love all the same.

This is going to be a big one. I've been a little bit naughty with the book shopping in the last couple of weeks and I've also been to a few bookish events so have got seem lovely books from publishers. Without further ado here is my book haul over the past could of weeks...

I rehcieved these books for review this week... The Memory Book by Rowan Coleman and How to Get A Love Life by Rosie Blake. I've actually read both of these already so I can tell you they're both fab. I reviewed the Memory Book this week and will review How To Get A (Love) Life next week.

I've been very lucky to go to several awesome book events this week. If you saw my post yesterday, you,l see that I got lots of books at the Random House Blogger Brunch. I received Bird by Crystal Chan, Running Girl by Simon Mason, The Name On Your Wrist by Helen Hiorns and Echo Boy by Matt Haig which I got signed...

I then returned to Random House on Thursday for an evening of YA crime! There I met authors Helen Grant, Simon Mason, Jane Casey and Niall Leonard. I received copies of their books Silent Saturday, Running Girl, How to Fall and Crusher, which I got signed too. It was a really interesting evening and I think I'm going t push myself to try and brunch out further into the crime/detective genre because all of these books sounded great! 

The final bookish event of the week was the Launch of Storm and Stone by Joss Stirling and Who Framed Klaris Cliff by Nicki Sheehan. I'd already received proofs of these novels which I featured in a previous book hall but we got the dual copies at this event and I was able to get them signed too! We were also lucky enough to receive a goody bag with two other proofs in, which looks really good; Replica by Jack Heath and The Private Blog of Joe Cowley by Ben Davis. I, very excited to read the latter as I've had a Flick through and it looks hilarious! 

I attended the final event with Kerrie from Read and Repeat and she gave me a copy of Della Says OMG by Keris Stainton. I'm very grateful to her for giving me this because I have another two by this author sitting on my shelf so now I can marathon them! 

I was a bit naughty in that before and after these bookish events indie a bit of book shopping, they just inspire me to buy books so here are the books I bought this week...

I bought Anna and The French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door both by Stephanie Perkins. You know how long these fab books have been on my Wishlist/Christmas list/birthday list for so it'll be no surprise that post-Christmas/birthday I decided to splurge and ge them! 

Before the Launch of How to Get a Love life I bought Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell and How They Met by David Levithan.

After the Random house Crime event I popped into Tescos and bought it Felt Like a Kiss by Sarra Manning, which I already have on ebook but really wanted a physical copy, Ten Things I've Learnt About Love by Sarah Butler and Just A Hirl Sandin In Front of A Biy by Lucy-Anne Homes.

I also popped to Sainsburys after by day spent with Miranda Dickinson and a few books may have fallen into my basket there.... I got West End Girls by Jenny Colgan (can't believe I haven't read this yet as I love love love this author) Good Husband Material may Trisha Ashely which has been on my Wishlist for a while and Secrets of the Tides by Hannah Richell. I loved The Shadow Year by Hannah and so I really wante to grab a copy of this and Sainburys had a great book offer on...

I may have snuck a couple of Ebooks onto my kindle this week too but I won't be reading those for a while because February is all about the paperbacks for me! 

Let me know what you think of my massive haul or if you've read any of those, and let me know what you got this week to add to your book shelves! 

Random House Blogger Brunch Jan 2014

I was lucky enough to be invited to another blogger brunch by Random House last month. This is a chance to see what fabulous books they are going to be publishing over the next few months. Its also a chance for us to meet one or two of their authors, find out what books are going to be turned into films very soon, and of course it is a chance for us to catch up with other bloggers!

There are some awesome sounding books coming out in the next few months and we were lucky enough to get some of them in our fabulous goody bags. 

Bird by Crystal Chan is out on 30th January and is about a girl who's brother dies the day she is born and on her Birthday one year she finds a mysterious boy with the same name as her bother sitting in her oak tree...

Running Girl by Simon Mason came out on 12th January and is the first in a new YA crime series starting Garvie Smith...

The Name on Your Wrist came out last year in ebook but has just come out in paperback and was the winner of The Sony Young Movellist of the Year award...

The final book in our goody bag was Echo boy by Matt Haig. This comes out on 27th March and here is the blurb: 

Audrey's father taught her that to stay human in the modern world, she had to build a moat around herself; a moat of books and music, philosophy and dreams. A moat that makes Audrey different from the echoes: sophisticated, emotionless machines, built to resemble humans and to work for human masters. Daniel is an echo - but he's not like the others. He feels a connection with Audrey; a feeling Daniel knows he was never designed to have, and cannot explain. And when Audrey is placed in terrible danger, he's determined to save her. The Echo Boy is a powerful story about love, loss and what makes us truly human.

We were lucky enough to meet Matt Haig at this event and he was lovely enough to sign our books. He talked about how it's feels to be writing for a new audience, having only written children's and adults fictions before. He said that because this is a YA book, it's feels like it is his debut novel entirely, rather than just his debut novel for this audience! He said he set out to write an entirely different book and then this happened. He hasn't written anything which falls into the sci fi genre before and he feels like it's not really real. The thing that helped write this book with a teen voice for a YA audience was the fact that it was written in the first person and so it was easier for the teen voice to come across, it came naturally. 

Although this is a sci fi book and therefore not my usual kind of thing, hearing him read from it and talk about about it, I really want to read this novel now! 

Some of the other books that Random house showed us which I quite fancy reading were: 

Bet Your Life by Jane Casey, out on 13thFebruary

The forbidden Library by Django Wexler, out on 10th April

 Heart Break Girl by Malorie Blackman, out on 22nd May

The fearless by Emma Pass, out on 24th April

The Tin Snail by Cameron McAllister, out on 8th April

Web of Darkness by Bali Rai, out on 5th June

The Boy in The Tower by Polly Ho-Yen, out on 3rd July

Darcy Burdock Hi So Much by Laura Dockrill, out on 27th February

So many fab sounding books to add to my to read list and many movies I now want to go and see following the books. 

Let me know in the comments below if you'd like to see a review of any of these books particularly before the others.

Thanks so much to Random House for hosting this event, their blogger events are always so much fun and so well organised. 

Cover Reveal: The Glow by Helen Whapshott

I'm very excited to bring you another cover reveal today, this time for The Glow by Helen Whapshott...Here's all the info you need on this gorgeous sounding book:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TITLE: THE GLOW

 

AUTHOR: HELEN WHAPSHOTT

 

RELEASE DATE: MARCH 1st 2014

 

AUDIENCE: YOUNG ADULT

 

THEME: PARANORMAL – GHOSTS, WITCHCRAFT and FRIENDSHIP

 

WEBSITE: www.helenwhapshott.weebly.com

 

SYNOPSIS: What would you do if you saw a ghost? Would you ignore it hoping it would fade away, or would you go up to it and see if it needed your help?

 

When Thirteen year old Megan Webb discovers she has been gifted with The Glow, so called because it gives off a light, like a candle in a dimly lit room attracting ghosts, spirits, and others who belong to the supernatural and paranormal world, she has to learn to come to terms with seeing the world in a whole new way.  

And if this wasn’t enough to deal with during the delicate years between childhood and adolescence, her parents makes the shocking decision to move her away from everything and everyone she knows to live in a creepy hotel inherited by a late aunt.

But it isn’t just the hotel that is creepy, the whole town seems a little odd until she makes friends with a strange boy, a Witch, and a chain-smoking spirit guide who help her adjust. Life couldn’t get any more complicated … could it?

 

AVAILABLE FORMATS: e-Book on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com and Paperback available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. (It will be available for other retailers after October 2014)

BIOGRAPHY: Helen was born in Aldershot in the year of 1980. She survived the infant, junior and senior schools of Cove. Helen started her working life in a bakery before deciding catering wasn’t really for her that she wanted to work in the care industry.

 

After attending Farnborough College of Technology, where she did her diploma in nursery nursing she took on a variety of roles that included being a Nursery Nurse, a Special Needs Teaching assistant, a support worker for people with special need and a care assistant in a nursing home.

 

She’s worked as a Health Care Assistant at a local hospital for eight years and also works as a bank carer at a children’s hospice in surrey.

 

She has five wonderful nephews, a lovely niece, two very understanding parents and extremely patient brother and sister.

 

Helen has always loved stories, ever since her Mum used to read Hans Christian Anderson and Roald Dahl to her at bedtime.  When she learnt to read by herself she couldn’t get enough of books becoming a big fan of authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle’s, Sherlock Holmes stories, as well as Neil Gaiman and Ben Aaronovitch.

 

With a love of reading came a love of creative writing. She recalls how her first hit was, “How The Kangaroo Got It’s Hop, at infant school when I was six, but I missed out on seeing my classmate’s enjoyment because I was off several weeks with the mumps; when I got back the hype had died down. A disappointment I’ve never really gotten over! Being able to share my creations this time and is a dream come true.”

Review! The Memory Book by Rowan Coleman

The name of your first-born. The face of your lover. Your age. Your address...

What would happen if your memory of these began to fade?

Is it possible to rebuild your life? Raise a family? Fall in love again?

When Claire starts to write her Memory Book, she already knows that this scrapbook of mementoes will soon be all her daughters and husband have of her. But how can she hold on to the past when her future is slipping through her fingers...?

Review: I was so so looking forward to this book. I'd heard wonderful things about it before I started reading about it from readers and other authors, sometimes hype like that can lead to disappointment when you actually get to the first page, but not with this book-oh no! This is the kind of bos you will stay up late into the night reading, miss trains and appointments because it absorbs you that much. I knew Rowan Coleman was an awesome writer but this book is just on another level, her writing just gets better and better. If you read dearest rose, you will know that Rowan Coleman writes an amazing emotional journey but because this book deals with the confusing world of Alzheimer's too MUCH emotion would have been over the tops, this book has just the right level of drama and sentimental moments but not so much so as to over emphasise the point. 

Claire is a fabulous character. She is painted as an amazing independent woman, and because of this, the reader can really root for her. She decided to take on life as a young single mum, she has brought her children up with amazing values and she had a successful career and because of all these traits, you can really identify with her. This is why the emotion of the book works so well, you want to see that strong woman and not the woman she is turning into, someone who is watching things slip away before her eyes. Her husband, mother and daughter provide excellent sporting characters and each have their own voice in this story, Caitlin in particular has her own story going on throughout the novel and this dilutes the drama of the Alzheimer's just enough so that not every scene is spent worrying about Claire. Claire's husband is so patient and lovely and understanding and he plays his own special part in this book that will almost definitely leave you in tears. 

Because this novel is written from the points of view of all the main characters, it makes it a real page-turner. You want to find out what happens next and what the next character has to say about it. I really like that we get to hear about all Claire's memories as well as her present from all the different characters. I honestly can't gush about this book enough, it has all the right ingredients for the perfect novel. The ending is just so heartwarming and not the ending you would expect. I think this author could have gone in a completely different direction with the ending of the book and I'm so glad that it ended the way it did. Read this book with tissues and loved ones to hand, it will make you appreciate what you have and think about the future yourself. Even if you've read nothing by this author before, read this (and then her entire back catalogue) because this is truly a wonderful novel! 

Review: The 5:2 Diet Book by Kate Harrison

Journalist and former yo-yo dieter Kate Harrison has finally won the battle with her weight – now she shares the secrets that are helping thousands of men and women transform their bodies. The 5:2 Diet Book is your comprehensive guide to the wonderful world of intermittent fasting.

This book claims: 

The 5:2 Diet will transform your body, your mind and your health. It’s the revolutionary part-time weight loss diet with lifelong health and anti-ageing results. This is the simplest, most flexible and most health enhancing weight loss programme you’ll ever follow – and with this book to guide you, you can start today. You’ll still get to eat all the foods you love but enjoy incredible health benefits, with positive effects on cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's and more.

Intermittent fasting is revolutionising the weight loss world. Simply by eating significantly less for one or two days a week you can trigger incredible physical and mental changes that protect your body and brain from damage and help it repair itself.

And The 5:2 Diet Book – packed with tips, science, recipes, inspiration and case studies from over thirty dieters – will help you join the revolution to lose weight, boost your brain and transform your body.

And it’ll even save you money, with no specialist diet foods or supplements required. No wonder it’s as popular with men as it is with women – and with first-time dieters as with weight loss veterans.

Review: This is an unusual review for me as I've never read a 'diet book' before but I'm committed to supporting the authors that I enjoy reading, and having heard Kate Harrison talk about this book late last year, I thought I'd give it a go. I haven't enough of the diet to review that as yet but I will post an update on the blog when I can give that a proper review soon. It's a bit scary admitting that you're on a diet but in the interest of reviewing the book, it had to be done. 

First of all, I found this book incredibly easy reading. I really enjoyed the structure. There is a mix of Kate's personal experiences in the form of hints and tips from her as well as her own diary entries from her journey on this eating plan. There are also personal experiences from others who have tried this system and I found this really useful because there was a decent mix of ages and genders included. There are obviously facts and figures on how and why the diet works but these are laid out really clearly so that, even if you are new to dieting, they are easy to follow. The final section of the book has some ideas on what to eat on 'fast days' and lays out some recipes, some calorie lists and some ideas for structuring your day. (As I write this I'm actually on a fast day so I may be referring back to those in a moment or two).

I really like Kate Harrison as a writer and so obviously the bit I enjoyed the most was the personal experiences from here, the diaries and her little hints and tips! I also like the fact that the book is laid out so clearly, it makes it easy to flip to the section you want to look at, I've already found myself jumping back to a couple of bits for a spot of re-reading. Kate has also written a 5:2 recipe book and I'm definitely considering getting this but I want to establish how the eating plan works first. Like I say this was a quick read and so even if you're considering changing the way you eat and not sure if this is the plan for you, I'd recommend giving this a read! 

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Characters I'd Never Want to Trade Places With28/1/14

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists over there at The Broke and the Bookish. I'd love to share my lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

It's an interesting one this week. Obviously I'd never want to swap places with characters who die, or characters who end up in horrible situations but there are still many characters who i definitely wouldn't  want to swap places with for various other reasons. It's a real thinker this week... 

1. Becky Bloomwood. As much as I love her and all her antics, the kind of situations she gets herself into don't appeal to me at all! 

2. Harry Potter. Hogwarts sounds like an awesome place but dealing with dement ours just isn't for me! 

3. Any character in a Nicolas Sparks novel. They just seem to go through terribly dramatic things that leave everyone heaving with sobs, no more drama needed here thanks! 

4. Dex in One Day. Love the book, the ending killed me, definitely couldn't bear to be him! 

5. Harriet Manners. A geek girl I love but I wouldn't want to feel the pressure to conform to the world of modelling and still try and stay true to who I am, definite conflict hell! 

6. Todd in The Knife of Never Letting Go. I honestly couldn't cope with having a taking dog, being able to hear everyone's thoughts, have my mum vanish and be on the run! (Hence why I haven't read the rest of the trilogy!)

7. Any of the characters in This Child of Mine by Sinead Moriarty. There is so much drama and pain in the novel, it must have been hell to live through, definitely not something I could handle! 

8. Bliss in Losing it. Going to college and feeling the pressure to get a boyfriend and get on with it. I definitely wouldn't want to go through that again! 

9. Raven in Storm and Stone. All the pressures of secondary school, worrying about your financial situation and then something far more sinister going on as well? No thank you! 

10. Jess in Better Together by Nicola May. She goes through so much drama in her relationship life I just wouldn't want any of that again right now, definitely wouldn't want to swap places with her! 

I've tried to include a mix of genres and ages of books, believe me there are many other characters I would NOT want to swap places with, this Si just a selections. Let me know what you think, or if you've produced a list of your own...