Category Archives: Bookish News and Reflections

March wrap up

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After a fairly disappointing reading month in February, things picked up again in March.

I finally got around to reading Wrath by John Gwynne, the final book in the Faithful and the Fallen series – which was on my list of 8 books that I’m definitely going to read in 2018. So far this is the only book I’ve read from this list – so I’m not doing well! I’m going to aim to get through a couple more this month though.

Wrath was actually a great read and such a satisfying end to an epic series. If you like fantasy, I’d definitely recommend giving these books a try if you haven’t already!

Another book I really loved this month was Ready Player One. I’ve had this on my shelf for about a year, and I have no idea why it’s taken me so long to get to it. I devoured it in just one evening – it was action packed and I couldn’t put it down! I’m looking forward to seeing the film adaptation of this to see if they did it justice. If anyone has seen it already – let me know what you think!

I was fairly disappointed with one read this month though. I’ve been reading DS Aector McAvoy series by David Mark – a crime/thriller series that I raved about a couple of months ago. It took me over a month to get through the seventh book in the series, and I really struggled to get along with the story. Usually I race through this type of book, but I found this one quite confusing and hard to follow. I’ve been finding this with a few book series recently, which have seemed to interest me less and less with each book, and it got me thinking about what writers need to do to keep a series fresh and interesting. Maybe one for a longer post another time!

One thing I’m still way behind on blog-wise at the moment is reviewing books, especially ARCs, so I need to try and pick this up in April!

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Books read:

  • Scorched Earth DS Aector McAvoy #7), David Mark
  • Wrath, John Gwynne
  • Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
  • Dragonfly in Amber, Diana Gabaldon
  • Everless, Sara Holland


Blog posts published:


Goodreads Challenge 2018 progress: 20/80

scorched earth
dragonfly in amber
Wrath
ready player one
everless

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What were some of your favourite reads last month? What books are on your TBR for April?

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Book to screen adaptions I’m most looking forward to in 2018

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Everyone has an opinion on whether they love or hate seeing their favourite books being turned into TV shows or movies. I personally really like watching how books get interpreted by different people and how they appeal to a wider audience – although I’ll almost always maintain that the original books are better and I’m always the first to point out if a particular plot point has been skipped or changed!

This year, it sounds like we’ve got some really interesting TV and film adaptations coming up – so I’ve pulled together a few that I’m most excited about.

(This list might be more relevant to UK readers, as the TV section features UK channels, so apologies if you don’t get these where you are!)
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   –   Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Adapted for… TV. Coming to ITV later this year.
This is a classic, and even though I read it some time ago, I remember enjoying it. The length of the novel, the timespan it covers and the huge cast of characters offers endless material for a series, plus I love a good period drama. I can imagine this being perfect Sunday night viewing, so I’m looking forward to this one!

   –   A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Adapted for… TV. Coming to Sky1 later this year.
I loved this book series and the characters, so I’m looking forward to seeing how they come to life on screen. It’s been a while since I read it so hopefully I won’t get too bogged down in minor details and bug bears that sometimes come with watching a book adapted for the screen. I’m also a fan of any TV series that features the supernatural, so I’m confident I’ll enjoy this one!

   –   The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carre
Adapted for… TV. Coming later this year as a BBC series.
This isn’t a book that I’ve read, but I loved the Night Manager adaptation and John Le Carre can always be counted on to produce an excellent story. Plus this adaption features Alexander Skarsgard (of True Blood fame for those that don’t know) who’s always fantastic.

   –   A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Adapted for… TV. Coming later this year as a BBC series.
This has been on the list of books I want to read for years, but I’ve never managed to get to it. It’s such a long book that I don’t see myself reading it anytime soon, so I think here I might just wait for the TV adaptation.


   –   The Children Act by Ian McEwan
Adapted for… Big Screen. Coming out in the UK in August 2018.
I loved this book, and I can completely see how it could be adapted into a really great movie. It stars Emma Thompson, who I love, and the book was written by Ian McEwan, who I also love.

   –   Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
Adapted for… Big Screen. Coming out in in the UK later in 2018.
The book was great (see my review here), and I’m so interested to see how they adapt it. The book uses lots of different types of media to tell the story (letters, reports etc), so I’m looking forward to seeing how this is represented on screen.

   –   Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Adapted for… Big Screen. Coming out in in the UK in March 2018.
I’ve actually just finished reading this book and I can’t even describe how much I loved it! It’s so jam packed full of action and I can already imagine how it’ll make an awesome movie, but I’m so glad I read the book first! Plus it’s being adapted by Steven Spielberg, so guaranteed to be a hit.

   –   On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Adapted for… Big Screen. Coming out in in the UK in May 2018.
This is another that I haven’t read – but I do actually already own it. As it’s a relatively short book I’m again aiming to read this before seeing the film. This is another one by Ian McEwan, who can always be counted on for a great read, so I’m looking forward to both reading and watching this.


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What are your favourite book to screen adaptions? Are there any coming up that you’re looking forward to?

February wrap up

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Compared to January, which was a really good reading month for me, February was definitely a bad month! I managed to read just three new books.

One of these was the latest book in the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch. I was really looking forward to reading this one as I loved the first few in the series, but even though I did enjoy this one, I feel like after six books the series is getting a little repetitive and might need a bit of something different to give it life again.

I’m blaming this on the fact that February was a shorter month, and the days just seemed to fly by. I had a lot on at weekends in February as well, so my reading time was eaten into. I’m also struggling at the moment to find a really good book to get into. I’m finding myself reading the news or browsing social media instead of picking up a book on my commute – which is usually prime reading time for me – so that might have something to do with my lack of productivity!

As well as the new books that I managed to read though, I did re-read the first five books in the Throne of Glass series, as I’d completely forgotten what happened and wanted to catch up before reading the latest one. If you count these into my stats, February actually wasn’t that bad. But in general, I don’t include re-reads in my Goodreads totals.

I feel like other people might have different views on this though – does anyone else include rereads? I don’t reread books that often and when I do, I tend to read them faster and skim read sections that don’t interest me, so they don’t feel like ‘proper’ reads.

Books read:

  • Nameless, T. C. Edge
  • The Witchfinder’s Sister, Beth Underdown
  • The Hanging Tree, Ben Aaronovitch


Blog posts published:

Goodreads Challenge 2018 progress: 15/80


I hope everyone else had a great February! What were some of your favourite reads last month? Any plans for March?

Favourite book series’ that I’ve never reviewed here

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Even though I’ve been blogging on The Stacked Shelf for years, I recently realised that some of my favourite book series are ones that I’ve never reviewed here. Even though I might have mentioned them here or there in comparisons or top lists, I’ve never got around to writing full reviews.

From experience, I find it much harder to review books that are part of a series than standalone books. With books that are part of a series, I’ve found that if I’ve missed reviewing the first book it’s much harder to write reviews of the rest. By the time I’ve realised this, it’s almost impossible to go back and review the first one, either because I’ve forgotten the details or because subsequent books have changed my opinion. Plus it’s always so tough to avoid spoilers for earlier books in the series while still writing a full and useful review.

So here are some of my all-time favourite book series that I’ve never reviewed on the Stacked Shelf…

Do you have books that you love but that you’ve never reviewed on your blog? What are they and why haven’t you ever reviewed them?!  Continue reading →

8 books I’m definitely going to read in 2018

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A few months ago I did a post where I looked at the books that I’ve collected over the years but haven’t yet got around to reading. Inspired by this, this year I really want to start making a dent in my backlist rather than constantly being seduced by shiny new books!

Last year I had the same goal, and so decided to take part in the Beat the Backlist challenge – where I aimed to read at least one book a month that I had owned since pre-2017 (it’s running again in 2018 if you’re interested). I didn’t do too well on this one, so this year I feel like I need to be more specific!

I’ve picked 8 specific books from my own backlist that I’m going to prioritise in 2018. I’m planning to review this after six months and see where I’m at with this list. Hopefully I’ll have made some good progress and will be able to add some more titles!

The books I’ve chosen are from all different genres, and there’s a good mix of page counts too – as I was conscious not to choose too many huge books that might feel intimidating! They’re all ones that I originally bought or acquired, in one form or another, because I really wanted to read them, so I’m really looking forward to starting to work through the list.

So, in 2018 I’m definitely going to read… Continue reading →

2017 in review

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2017 was the first year that I’ve consistently tracked and recorded every book that I read over the twelve months through Goodreads, and so it’s also the first year that I’ve been able to look at how my reading habits break down in any great detail

I’ve been a bit lax in posting my monthly round ups lately, so today I’m doing a look back at 2017. (And yes, I know that 2018 started almost two weeks ago and I’m pretty late with this round up – posting on schedule is one of my goals for this year!)

So, what did I read? Continue reading →

Mini reviews: Unpopular opinions

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So far this year I’ve read 70 books – and written reviews for only a fraction of these. The chances are that I’m never going to get around to writing full reviews for every book I’ve ever read, so I thought I’d group together a few recent reads from the YA fantasy genre and do a post of mini-reviews!

The reason why these ones haven’t yet made it into full reviews is that I didn’t enjoy them enough to recommend them, and I generally don’t like writing full length negative reviews unless I feel really strongly about them.

Judging from reviews of these books I’ve seen on the blogosphere, I get the feeling that my opinions on most of these are going to be unpopular. I know others loved them, but for the most part, these ones just weren’t for me.

I know that some people might ask why I’m writing reviews that are mainly negative. Well, the reviews and the opinions of other bloggers have a big impact on the books I pick up, and there are plenty of books in this genre that I’ve really enjoyed recently because of blogger recommendations.

But I think it’s really helpful to read a range of reviews with different opinions. I mainly saw positive reviews of these books on the blogosphere, but I think if I’d read reviews that were more varied I could have been a bit pickier and chosen books that I personally would have enjoyed more.

Let me know what you think! Did you enjoy/not enjoy any of the books below?
Do you write reviews for every books you read even if you weren’t a fan?How do you feel about writing negative reviews?  Continue reading →

September/October wrap up

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wrap up sept oct

I missed my wrap up post for September thanks to an unplanned break from blogging, so this month I’m combining both September and October into one big post.

Books read: 14
I’ve managed to read some really great books over the last couple of months. In particular, City of Circles, The Ninth Rain and American War all stand out as favourites.

  • City of Circles, Jess Richards
  • Three Days and a Life, Pierre Lemaitre
  • The Last Tudor, Philippa Gregory
  • The Ninth Rain, Jen Williams
  • American War, Omar El Akkad
  • Eligible, Curtis Sittenfeld
  • Mercy, Jussi Adler-Olsen
  • The Children Act, Ian McEwan
  • The Break, Marian Keyes
  • Elizabeth is Missing, Emma Healey
  • The Thousandth Floor, Katherine McGee
  • Artemis, Andy Weir
  • Death is a Welcome Guest, Louise Welsh
  • The Burning Page, Genevieve Cogman


Books acquired: 18
Over the past couple of months I’ve been on a tighter budget for book buying, so all of the books I’ve acquired have been ebooks on sale on Amazon (£2 or less), found in second hand shops or got through my Audible membership. Continue reading →

Top 5: Books about time travel

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The idea of time travel is one that’s always fascinated me, and especially the idea of going back to a previous time while retaining a knowledge of the present. I’m sure that writing about time travel without tying yourself in impossible knots or paradoxes must be one of the most challenging things for a writer to do, and that’s one of the reasons I’ve always loved reading about it. That’s why I’ve pulled together a list of five of my favourite books about time travel. I’ve actually never reviewed any of these on this blog – but I’d recommend any and all of them. Continue reading →

August wrap up

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Books read: 5
This month I read fewer books than usual, but those that I did read were longer and quite intense (4 3 2 1 was just under 900 pages while The Ministry of Utmost Happiness tackled some really complex social and political issues and was definitely not a quick book to read). I really enjoyed The Word is Murder – which was a really unique take on the classic detective novel.

  • The Good Daughter, Karin Slaughter
  • The Word is Murder, Anthony Horowitz
  • The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy
  • The Readymade Thief, Augustus Rose
  • 4 3 2 1, Paul Auster


Books acquired: 7
I was much more reserved this month than I was last month – acquiring just 7 books compared to last month’s 24. I’m really looking forward to reading City of Circles and American War, both of which have been on my wishlist for a while. Continue reading →