Hosted each month by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, this meme picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six steps. (Here’s my one for last month.) This month the starting book is Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. Fates and Furies is a novel I’ve yet to read. If you look at the Read More
Author: AnnaBookBel
The new look Shiny is here!
The new style Shiny New Books is back with new reviews for you We have a new site design and a new way of sharing our content with our readers. We’re changing from our former ‘magazine’ format, in which we published lots of new pages in big batches every couple of months (and giving you Read More
Why being ‘Messy’ is good for you…
Messy by Tim Harford Tim Harford is a senior columnist at the Financial Times but radio listeners may know him from his programme on BBC Radio 4 – More Or Less – in which he explores, explains and debunks the statistics in everyday life. His programme is one of my favourites. (Try this episode in Read More
A debut with a great concept…
The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan Laura, reeling from the break-up of her marriage to Vince, goes to work as an assistant to ageing short story author or renown, Anthony Peardew. “When he had interviewed her all those years ago, he had been a tall, muscular man with a full head of dark Read More
I’m still reviewing books read in 2016…
With concentrating on best of posts after Christmas, I got seriously behind reviewing books the I’d read, so here is a ‘twofer’ finishing up my fiction list and leaving just one non-fiction book read in 2016 left to review… The Reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent Translated by Ros Schwartz Guylain Vignolles is a Read More
“City of stars Are you shining just for me?”
Some thoughts on La La Land I wasn’t going to write a post about La La Land. but after talking about it to an increasing number of friends who’ve now seen it, and nearly all been slightly disappointed/didn’t really like it, I feel compelled to get some thoughts on the page… because I loved it! I Read More
‘Carrison’ and ‘A New Hope’
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher Like the whole world, I was totally shocked to hear of Carrie Fisher’s heart-attack, then death over Christmas, followed by her mother Debbie Reynolds just one day later. I’d bought this volume the week it came out, and had just started to read it when I heard of her Read More
A Talking Head talks about music
How Music Works by David Byrne This book was the highlight of my splurge of non-fiction reading in December. David Byrne, founder and idiosyncratic front man of Talking Heads – one of the best punky/art-rock bands there has ever been, friend and collaborator with Brian Eno and Robert Fripp amongst others, could never be expected Read More
The Six Degrees of Separation Meme: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hosted each month by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, this meme picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six steps. (Here’s my one for last month starting at Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates.) This month the starting book is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. 1. The Girl with the Read More
Two shorter reviews…
Girl in the Dark by Anna Lyndsey This account of a woman becoming afflicted by, and then having to live with extreme photosensitivity is completely harrowing, but suffused with dark humour. The author was enjoying life and had met the love of her life when she started to get burning sensations on her skin after Read More
A great comfort at year-end
Play All: A Bingewatcher’s Notebook by Clive James Whatever is happening outside, a new book by Clive James is always a comfort to read – something you can’t say about many other (predominantly) non-fiction writers, except Bill Bryson. I grew up reading James’ TV reviews in the Observer every weekend – looking forward to the Read More
Happy New Year!
Famous last words, but as I said yesterday, 2017 is the year i plan to: Read where the mood takes me! However, I do have loads of reviews left to post of books too interesting to forget about read at the end of last year, so I’ll be playing catch-up whilst getting into my new year Read More
Looking forward to 2017
I’m not good at challenges and planning ahead of my reading – see all my project tabs up top and the last time I updated them! Hence my main reading resolution for 2017 has a new mantra: Read where the mood takes me. However, I can qualify that a bit: Having taken over as one of Read More
Year end review #4: The Stats
I’ve been number-crunching on my master spreadsheet and yes, It’s time to share my year’s stats with you! These are accurate to book 139 or 140 on my 2016 reading list on the tab above. The amount I’m reading has been gradually going up year on year, as I watch less telly, do less sewing and Read More
Year end review #3: Books of the Year
At the time of writing, I’ve read 140 titles this year – a record and there’ll be some analysis of them in my year end stats post (I know you look forward to those 😉 ). 2016 may be an annus horribilus on the outside, but inside I’ve had my head stuck in a book Read More
Year end review #2: Reading Disappointments
The DNFs (Did Not Finish) A big fat zero! I have always had problems giving up on books, but occasionally I can bring myself to do it. However, this year – this hasn’t happened, despite a few disappointing reads detailed below. Reasons why? Some were review copies (mainly for Amazon Vine) that I was obliged Read More
Year end review #1: Best Discoveries
Today in the first part of my review of the year, I’m going to highlight the new to me authors that have made themselves must-reads for the future. My first is a Frenchman. In fact, I discovered several new Frenchmen in 2016, including Frédéric Dard and Jean-Paul Didierlaurent, and wonderful as they both are from Read More
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I hope you all have a wonderful day. Here’s our tree this year. Yes – it’s artificial, but this tree has been going since Christmas 1998 and is (miraculously) still in good shape – so I feel that my green credentials are safe. I’ll be back soon with my year-end posts – but for now Read More
The Best Bookpost…
4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster Just had to share this one with you, because a new book by Paul Auster is a cause for much excitement for me, it’s the first for seven years. 4 3 2 1, which weighs in a 1.25kg and has 880 pages, will be published at the Read More
Two shorter non-fic reviews
I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction lately – including some absolute crackers that deserve a whole post to themselves – and I don’t mind saving them to write about for the new year. Meanwhile, today I have two shorter non-fic reviews for you… Set Phasers to Stun by Marcus Berkmann If you’ve read this Read More
My Life According to Books I Have Read
Rather than do the first lines meme that’s currently going around, I thought I’d resurrect another old one which is also good fun… Using only books you have read this year, answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title. It’s a lot harder than you think! * Describe Yourself: Shopgirl (Steve Martin) * How do Read More
Poetry I wish I’d pledged to…
You Took the Last Bus Home by Brian Bilston I wish I’d spotted this book on Unbound before it was published – I’d definitely have pledged to it, having seen a few of Bilston’s poems on facebook. So, I bought it for myself anyway and what a treat it is for a rare reader of Read More
All that remains… in the charnel house.
A Tour of Bones by Denise Inge Denise Inge was an American who married an English clergyman. When he became Bishop of Worcester they moved there, and Denise found that they would have to share their new home with a ‘charnel house’. Wikipedia defines it thus: “A charnel house is a vault or building where Read More
Shiny Linkiness
I can promise more reviews before Christmas, but in the mean time, here are some more links to my reviews in the latest issue of Shiny New Books… Old Buildings in North Texas by Jen Waldo This compact novel had me chortling from the first page. Olivia is a recovering from a heart attack and Read More
Weekend Bookishness
Ramble on… Planning my reading year in review I’m starting to think about my end of year posts – they’re going to be fun this year! I think I’ve excelled myself in the amount that I’ve read (135 books and nearly 40000 pages at the last count), and no DNFs either, which I hope, says Read More
The TBR Dare now has its own website
Visit http://tbrdare.com/ I hadn’t realised that Lizzy’s blog was incompatible with Mister Linky – so have taken the step to create a new website for the TBR Dare so we can both post there about it. We’ve added a Twitter feed too @DareTBR. If you’d like to use the first few months of 2017 to Read More
The TBR Dare is back!
Yes! It’s back… Welcome to the new home of The TBR Dare, originally set up by James Chester at James Reads Books, where his beloved dog Dakota was its mascot for 6 years. Now Lizzysiddal of Lizzy’s Literary Life and I are taking it over. We’ll be hoping to sign you up and will be Read More
Weekend Bookishness
It’s been a busy month – and some, so I’m glad that school breaks up at the end of next week (although I have two or three more days work to do on the school magazine after that). However, part of that busy-ness has been the Christmas edition of Shiny New Books. In The Eds Read More
It’s the Christmas issue of Shiny
Yes, the Christmas edition of Shiny New Books has arrived. I’ll be highlighting my reviews later, but I hope you enjoy the Shiny Advent Quiz and our The Shiny Eds Discuss feature, in which Harriet, Victoria, Simon and I talk about three years of Shiny…
The Six Degrees of Separation Meme: Revolutionary Road
Hosted each month by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, this meme picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six steps. (Here’s my one for last month – Never Let Me Go to Electricity by Ray Robinson). This month the starting book is Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. Now this is a Read More
