One of the things I've found about reviewing books is that I am generally either good at reading or reviewing, but rarely both at once. Lately I've been reading loads (well, until this whole staying home with everyone all the time killed my reading routing! Most of my reading is usually done either on my bus commute, in cafes before work, or on my days at home alone - none of which are currently happening!) - but have been seriously dragging my feet on reviews. It's the worst - I've been a bit lazy about my Goodreads reviews, since I know I'm planning to do more full reviews here on the blog, so sometimes it can take a bit to remember what my favourite things about the books were. And while I have never felt pressured by a publisher to post my review in a certain time frame, I do feel a responsibility to get my reviews up in a timely way - and of course when I love a book I want to tell everyone about it! And, honestly, when I've read the books it's just silly not to get the reviews done too!

Hello and happy Monday! It's a long weekend here this week, and I've had a wonderfully lazy few days full of coffee, kitties, books, and brunch!

With the New Year starting I've been thinking quite a bit about reading goals, but here we are almost in February already and I'm still not really sure where I stand in terms of setting goals for this year.

I've mentally split the types of things I'm thinking about setting goals around into a few categories, and I thought I'd talk about them a bit here today.

Firstly there's the Goodreads challenge, which is about how many books you are aiming to read overall in the year. I know that I'm not interest in trying to read the most books this year, or more books than this year, or any number oriented goals like that, so I've set mine at 75 books for this year.

Next, reading challenges that I want to join in with. So far I only have one on my radar: the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge which I've participated in the last few years and love doing with my book club at work. I really should do a wrap up post on how I went with this challenge in 2018! I tend to not necessarily stress too much about completely every single prompt in this challenge, but more to use it to make me more mindful of what I'm reading, and where there are gaps in the diversity of my reads. You can see the 2019 challenge list on the Book Riot website here.

The last mini category of goals I've been thinking about is the challenges I want to set myself. I have so many unread books at home, and while this doesn't completely freak me out like it would some people, I'd like to focus on getting through some of them. I'd also like to continue my focus on Australian writers, in particular #loveozya, women, and diverse/own voices stories. I think I'd like to try and hit 50% of my books read being by Aussie writers (I don't have a baseline to compare it to for last year because I was terrible at keeping up to date with my spread sheet!). I was thinking maybe I would try to read at least on #loveozya and one own voices book each month, but then these start to really add up to a huge monthly tbr once I add in my book club reads , plus the bookish escape crate books (every second month) and a couple of review copies from publishers each month... all of a sudden I've already 5 or 6 books on my list for the month and that's before I count new things that I come across during the year,

Now that we're home and getting back into a proper life routine again I intend to set aside some quiet time to sit down and do some planning to nut it out a bit more, so hopefully I'll be able to report back with some plans soon! In the mean time, I'd love to hear about any reading goals other have, and how you set them!

xo Bron

Jen is at her wit's end. Her fifteen-year-old daughter has just been found after going missing: four days lost and alone in the desolate countryside. Lana won't talk about it. The police think the case is closed. But Jen can't leave it alone. Lana is acting strangely: she stops going to school, she sleeps with the light on. With her daughter increasingly becoming a stranger, Jen is sure the answer lies in those four missing days. 

But will Lana ever reveal what happened?

When I read Whistle on the Dark I definitely spent quite a bit of time, in the back of my mind, thinking about what the 'big twist' was going to be, and when it was going to come alone. I had kind of expected to be reading this on the edge of my seat, holding my breath while I worried about whether everyone was going to be okay, and I was definitely waiting for something sinister to come along at any minute. It was like my brain was confused that the story unfolding before me wasn't fitting into the shape I wanted from a thriller. It was interesting to hear at book club that a lot of people felt similar things - that they were waiting for something big to happen, and for all the clues (red herrings) planted along the way to come together - and that overall people seemed to feel more positively about the book after we discussed it.

Personally, I definitely felt like the 'disappointing' bits of my experience when reading this came from the expectations I had for it to be twisty/thriller-y. Interestingly (I think), I can't actually figure out why I thought it was a thriller in the first place. As you can see from above, it is clear in the blurb that the daughter is home, and there is nothing on the cover that says says anything like "perfect for fans of Gone Girl" (you know, the sort of marketing blurb we're seeing lately). The word 'dark' in the title sounds a bit sinister (although I learned at book club that 'to whistle in the dark' is an expression) and there are birds on the cover (I'm on team 'birds are creepy' all the way), but I really couldn't say what made me so sure I was picking up a thriller when I started.

I think I probably would have enjoyed reading this more if I hadn't had any expectations (or, perhaps if I hadn't had the wrong expectation!) We talked a little bit last night about the sorts of ways you can find your preconceptions changing the reading experience you have with a book - for instance if a book has been really hyped it can feel like a bit of a let down if you don't love it as much as everyone else, or - particularly in kids/YA - when something you're reading ends up being written for perhaps a younger audience than you had thought (or than it is being marketed for). In general I'm pretty good at avoiding developing a view on how something will be before i read it - I tend to let those really buzzy books cool down a bit before I get into them, and doing so much reading on my kindle has sort of got me out the habit of looking at back covers - but it is something that I think is so interesting that I'll probably be more conscious of it in the future.

Something else I thought was super interesting from our book club meeting, that I might talk about a bit more another time, is the fact that the discussion of the book seemed to enhance most people's experience with the book - overall we seemed to walk away with a more positive feeling about it than when we each had read it (yay book club and bookish chats!). This was certainly the case for me - I had rated this one 2.5/5 stars (which means it was ok - I didn't regret reading it or the time I spent on it, but I'm not sure i'd pick it up again) to 3/5 stars. Based on my experience with this one I would pick up Emma Healey's first book, and I'd be really interested to know more about what she would like readers to have taken away from this. There was some pretty excellent social commentary on here, especially in terms of social media, and - like I said above - the writing was fun and easy to get through. The way the narrative was split into little almost vignette-y chapters was  clever - it felt a bit frantic and I thought she did a remarkable job of putting me in Jen's mind.

Next month we're reading Emily O'Grady's The Yellow House - about which I know NOTHING, except that it is the winner of the 2018 Australia/Vogel's Literary award, and I'm hoping to read in the next week or so.

I'd love to know if you've read Whistle in the Dark and what you thought of it! Or if there's been a time where you've kind of ruined a book for yourself because of your expectations!

xo Bron

What is one part of your bookish life that you enjoy that isn’t reading?
There are lots of things, but probably my favourite is talking to people about books - whether it's  chatting with my bookish friends and book club buddies, the book sellers at my local book shop, or a stranger reading on the bus.

So, that's me and some of my bookish feelings, favourites, and opinions.
Like I sad, everyone is welcome to join in, and you should definitely pop over to The Bookish Cronk to check out the other bookish bloggers introducing themselves this weekend.

xo Bron

 

These are mostly books that I got for Christmas (the bottom 5), plus Frankenstein (which I'm reading for bookclub this month), Hangman by local author Jack Heath (currently on loan from a friend) and In the Dark Spaces, which I have out from the library at the moment (it's #LoveOzYA and also meets the criteria for the Read Harder Challenge task about scifi with a female protagonist written by a woman). I do like that the black and reds through them kind of match though, and also, I finally saw The Last Jedi this week so I feel more prepared to look at Star Wars books! 

So, Star Wars books. I've heard good things about these and I'm really excited to read them! I love Star Wars, and Leia (of course), and I'm looking forward to filling in some of the back story that isn't covered in the movies. One of the things I've heard about the Star Wars books is that they can make the films more enjoyable, since you have more of an idea of the bigger picture of events, i guess, and how they fit in a broader universe and time line. I'm not sure how I feel about the storytelling of the movies if extra reading is required to fill in blanks and enjoy them to their fullest (which I feel like was kind of the case with the prequel trilogy)?

In any case, keep an eye out for these in upcoming TBRs and I'll definitely let you know what I think.

xo Bron

ps I'm pretty sure these books about Leia by Claudia Gray would also meet the criteria for the scifi task in the Read Harder Challenge - assuming, that is, that you are happy to accept Star Wars as scifi, rather than, say, a Western set in space...  (a bigger debate than I think I want to get into today haha)

I had a MASSIVE reading month in October, getting through 11 whole books (and most of the way through a twelfth!).

My favourite book of November was The Last Namsara (which I reviewed here last weekend) - gosh this book was fantastic! Between the Read Harder Challenge and reviewing, I have been reading less YA fantasy than usual, and this honestly fit exactly to mild of what my perfect YA fantasy book is! I can't wait for the next installment in September (I think) 2018.

Most of my other reading in October was Christmassy! I wanted to get an early start on the festive reads this year because I've got a bunch to review and wanted to be able to share them here in time for you to be able to get your hands on them in time for December. 

They are mostly chick-lit/light rom com type books, but I've got a couple of cosy mysteries and some others for a bit of variety too.

I think I'll post a weekly wrap up of about 4 books at a time, probably on Wednesdays - so keep an eye out for that next week if you're interested! Of course I'm also reviewing as I go on my Goodreads account  and share most of what I'm reading on Instagram too (@bookishbron) - please feel free to pop by and check it out and ask about any of the books I've featured there too if you like. I'm also happy to try and give recommendations if that helps you out too!

In the meantime, happy reading!

Xo Bron

September turned into one of those months for me, but I did manage heaps of reading and also quit a few events, so I have loads to share with you. I thought the best way to get the blog ball rolling again would be a bit of a chat about what's been happening here, and my plans for the rest of the year (because it is October already!).

So, like I said, I have done lots of reading in September, and that means I have a whole bunch of reviews to share. I'm hoping to get one up here every few days for the month of October, because I have plans for a Christmas bookapalooza here on the blog in November. I know that seems kind of early, but I have loads of Christmassy books to review, and want to make sure I share my thought on them with you in time for you to build a decent festive TBR for December. The plan is to catch up on all my reviews for non-Christmassy books this month so that I'm ready to go at the start of November.

 

Reviewing has been a massive part of my reading since I signed up at NetGalley and started this blog in about April. There's a few reasons for this - partly I really didn't expect to get approved for nearly as many books as I have (and for so many of them to be so good!), and also I have felt a bit of pressure to get my reviewing established to improve my chances of being approved for the books I'm interested in. That said, I have stuck to my intention to only review here books that I have enjoyed and would recommend - there really haven't been any books that I haven't liked, or seen enough good in to talk about here. 

Next year I'm planning to drop right back on the number of reviews I do - I'll probably aim for about 2 per month - which will give me more time to read some of the amazing titles on my TBR shelves, and also to talk about other bookish content here. 

 

I also mentioned events. Let me tell you, the number of amazing book events in Canberra over the last month or so, and the stuff still planned for the rest of the year, is incredible. Last week I had 3 events! I'm hoping to write up a bit about some of those too, so keep an eye out here - or on Instagram where I post much more regularly about what is going on in my bookish life (I'm @bookishbron there).

Speaking of Instagram, Book Riot's #riotgrams photo challenge is back for the month of October, and I'm looking forward to both participating and checking out my fellow riotgrammers' pictures.

 

That's it from me for right now, but watch this space for those reviews etc coming soon!

Xo Bron

 

 

 

I spent some time last weekend writing up reviews for a bunch of new releases I've read over the last few weeks, hence all the review posts during the week. I have a few more to read this month (starting with this one from Harlequin), and am hoping to do a couple of reviews a week from now on, with some other bits in between.

Made it Monday!

Along with books and reading, craft is my absolute favourite. So when I came across Made It Monday on Amy Laurens' blog I was excited to join in. These little blossoms I've been working on for a couple of months now, slowly in front of the tv. They are handstiched and once I have a whole lot more they will be sewn together into a quilt. The pieces for them are coming as a subscription from Tales of Cloth - you can find out more on their blog if you are interested.

 

So the reason I was hanging out on Amy's blog was because she has a new book coming out soon, and I'm going along to the launch with one of my bookish friends. Amy's book, Where Shadows Rise  is out in 24 May and sounds really cool! The launch is on 1 June at Harry Hartog in Woden - Canberra people might be interested in checking it out!

 

Another upcoming book event that I'm super excited about is the Sydney Writers' Festival  My friend and I are catching the bus from Canberra to Sydney very early in the morning and spending the day in Parramatta at the All Day YA event. It sounds like it is going to be amazing!

Bout of Books update 

I'm not quite sure where last week got to, but I can tell you I wasn't exactly the best Bout of Books participant! I would have liked to engage with the challenges and with the community a bit more, but I did manage to read two of the three books I was hoping to get to: Jelly Bean Summer (which I've reviewed here) and The Atomic Weight of Love (which I haven't reviewed yet, but I loved) 

So, what am I reading right now? I've got two books on the go - a paperback (Goodwood by Holly Throsby - due back at the library this week!), and one on my kindle (Quinsey Wolfe's Glass Vault by Candace Robinson - which is out this week, and is really creepy fun so far).

And that's my bookish life right now!

Bron x