30 Day Book Challenge - Day 02

Make sure to pop over to Erin's blog and join in too.

Day 02 - A Book That You've Read More Than 3 Times

Now this is a tricky one as I generally don't re-read books. There is only one book I can think of that I've read more than once which is The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is a  magical tale of two children who become unlikely friends and discover a secret garden within the grounds of their home together. I first read this book as a child of 11 or 12 and recently re-read it and discovered so many things I had forgotten and an entire new level of intrigue that I hadn't found as a child.

30 Day Book Challenge - Day 01

While scrolling through my twitter feed the other day I noticed that Erin, from Erin's Choice, was running a 30 Day Book Challenge this April and thought it sounded brilliant! There is a question or topic, all book related, posted each day, that I'll be blogging about. Make sure to pop over to Erin's blog and join in too.

Day 01 - The Best Book You Read Last Year

I read a lot of good books last year, Touching the Void by Joe Simpson, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne and The Dead Heart by Douglas Kennedy all ranked very high but the stand out book from my 2013 reads has to be We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.

As a Parent this book scared the heck out of me! You follow Kevin, a mass murderer who killed 9 people at his school just before his 16th Birthday, and his Mother all the way from before he was conceived, through his birth, childhood and adolescence right up to his committing of the crime and his prison time. The story follows this Mother and Son's awkward relationship and is written through the eyes of Kevin's Mother in letter's that she writes addressed to Franklin, Kevin's Father.

It was a brilliantly written book that made me return to the 'nature vs nurture' debate and question whether people can be inherently evil or if it's something that they learn. It also made me query the Mother's viewpoint; was Kevin really as she described and only she saw the real him? Or was it that she always saw, and brought out, the worst in him?

March Round-Up

March has been a brilliant month for books and I have read a couple of fantastic ones throughout the weeks. My first read of the month was Rage Against The Dying by Becky Masterman, her debut novel which turned out to be a rather superb read. Masterman put her characters and her storyline together brilliantly and I found myself submersed in the pages. It was a fantastic read, with an unusual lead character, that I would highly recommend to lovers of the crime/thriller genre.

My next read of the month was Malicious by James Raven. Although it was a reasonably unique storyline I didn't enjoy this one as much; the story rolled on reasonably well but I couldn't connect with the characters at all. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

  

Uprising by Scott G Mariani was my first vampire novel of the month and my first read of this genre in a long while. For me, it took a little while to get going but once it did it pulled you right into the story. I found the vampires a bit cliche for me but, overall, it was a good read with decent characters that I would recommend to those who enjoy the supernatural genre.

The Prey by Andrew Fukuda was another stand-out read of the month for me. A fast-paced, entirely gripping and terrifying read following a small group of humans (hepers) on the run and being chased by vampires (duskers). Fukuda created an entirely unique race of vampires and the whole book had that 'end of the world' feel. It was brilliant and I would highly recommend reading it; it's the 2nd instalment of the series so it would be beneficial to read 'The Hunt' first but the book stands alone well.

 

Currently, I'm reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It's a story I've heard a lot of positive things around but I'm finding it all a bit slow at the moment. I hope it picks up a bit as the chapters go on as it has the potential to be an intriguing and fascinating read.