With the movie coming out soon, I decided it was time to pick up James Dashner’s The Maze Runner. I wasn’t too sure if I would enjoy it so I picked it up in eBook from the library. [book-info] I’m glad I didn’t purchase it because I found it was not really my cup of tea. It reminded me in some ways of Lost – more questions being asked than answered. It was particularly frustrating when characters refused to share information when it would have been in the interest of the larger group to have done so. The worldbuilding was otherwise excellent and there is no fault I could point to in the writing. It just didn’t appeal to me personally, and I am unlikely to be continuing with the rest of the series. I gave The Maze Runner three stars out of five. One of the TV series I’m looking forward to most this year is Starz adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander. For those of you unfamiliar with this book, it’s about a WWII nurse, Claire Beauchamp, who finds herself transported back in time to 18th century Scotland and falls in love with a handsome red-haired Scot, Jamie…
Recently I was asked to review The Land of Honey by Chinenye Obiajulu. This is the account of Zimako’s and Anuli’s, a professional Nigerian couple’s, experiences as they immigrate from Nigeria to Canada. It deals with their struggles to adapt to Canadian culture and also to enter the Canadian workforce. It is additionally a moving account of how struggle to adapt put a strain on what appeared to be a strong marriage. What I liked Well written and structured. I appreciated that Obiajulu spent some time with the couple in their original home of Nigeria before their move to Canada. This section of the book did an excellent job of introducing us to Anuli and Zimako and explaining their reasons for moving as well as the ties that continued to bind them to Nigeria. Obiajulu describes Nigeria in a vivid and colourful way, making use of local dialect to add to the picture – there is a glossary of Nigerian terms included in the book.It is important to get a sense of where the couple is coming from, their values and what they hope to gain from the move to Canada. Relatable. As an immigrant to Canada myself, I…
First of all, my apologies for the hiatus in posting this week. I’ve been suffering a miserable cold and eye infection so I’ve not really been feeling much like blogging. On the other hand, audiobooks meant I was still able to enjoy my reading without hurting my eyes. I was able to get through both The School for Good and Evil, a good vs evil fairytale by Soman Chainani and Cress, book three in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. Both of these are excellent books narrated by fantastic narrators and I will do full reviews once I get rid of this cold. Added to my library this week I had been hearing good things about The Maze Runner by James Dashner, but it was not one that grabbed me so much that I wanted to buy it. I waited patiently to come to the head of my library’s ebook queue and downloaded it to my Kobo today. Cress, in both Kindle and Audible formats. This is the week of release of the third book in the Lunar Chronicles and as I adored the earlier books in the series I had this on preorder. I listened to it straight through and…
First of all, I’ve decided to extend my give-away for another week – if you’re interested in winning the first three books in Vampire Academy series from Audible check it out. A reminder that you don’t need to have an Audible subscription or account to take advantage of this prize. Good luck! This last couple of weeks, I’ve done something I don’t do very often – marathoning an entire series of books. In the last couple of weeks I have read the entire six books in the Vampire Academy series. I just adored the world, the characters and the storylines. You can follow my Vampire Academy reviews through the index. I kept thinking ah well, the books aren’t that thick (ebooks can be deceiving in that way…) but then I realised that they were four or five hundred pages each! Often I like to change things up a bit, so it says a lot for Mead’s writing and worldbuilding that she was able to retain my interest through six large books. Recently I came across a fun exercise from Random House of Canada: Reading Bingo. Please check it out on RHoC’s Facebook page or their site page. I…
First of all in honour of the new site name, Scottish eReader, and also in honour of my current obsession with Vampire Academy, I have decided to host a giveaway of the first three books in Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy series. They are: Vampire Academy. In which we first meet dhampir bodyguard-in-training Rose Hathaway and her best friend, good vampire Lissa Dragomir. This is narrated by Stephanie Wolf. Go ahead and read my review of Vampire Academy. Check out a sample. Frostbite. This is the second book in the series and Rose’s relationship with Dimitri deepens as does her and Lissa’s knowledge of spirit magic. This is narrated by one of my favourite narrators, Khristine Hvam. Check out my thoughts on the book. Check out a sample. Shadow Kiss. Things start to get more serious between Rose and Dimitri and St Vladimir’s faces an unexpected threat and tragedy is ahead. This is also narrated by Khristine Hvam. Review coming soon. Check out a sample. The prize will be gift codes to pick up the first three books from Audible.com. In order to enter the giveaway, please check out the books on Audible.com, OR share the giveaway on your favourite social…
There are several books I’m really excited about for 2014. In no particular order, here are the ones I’m most excited about. Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau This is the sequel to Charbonneau’s YA dystopian novel The Testing, in which protagonist Cia must survive a Hunger Games-like Testing in order to win a coveted place at her society’s university. Charbonneau left Cia at a very interesting point and I am anxious to read how her tale continues. Independent Study will be released on the 7th of January 2014, and I have preordered it from Amazon. The final book in the trilogy, Graduation Day, will be released on the 3rd of June 2014 and is also available for preorder from Amazon. Cress by Marissa Meyer This is the third in Meyer’s set of four YA fairytale/sci-fi blend, The Lunar Chronicles. This one is based on the tale of Rapunzel, who in Meyer’s reimagining becomes a young hacker isolated on a remote satellite. She teams up with Cinder, Scarlet, Wolf and Thorne from the preceding novels in order to bring down Queen Levana of Luna. I adored the first two books and look forward to the continuation. Cress will be released on…
As it’s now near the end of 2013, I feel it’s about time I did my review of the top books I read this year. First of all, some statistics. According to GoodReads, I have read an incredible 115 books this year! I am certain that this is partly due to Audible and my being able to listen to books during my nightshifts. As I am moving onto day shifts soon, I suspect my total will drop for next year. As an item of interest, the longest book I read was A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson at a total of 909 pages. So without much further ado, onto the retrospective. Here, in no particular order, are my favourite books of 2013. [book-info title=”A Memory of Light” author=brandon-sanderson-2] A Memory of Light is, of course, the final book in Robert Jordan’s magnum opus The Wheel of Time, completed by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan’s death. There was a lot of pressure and expectation on this book; the series has been ongoing for nearly 25 years and had a cast of thousands as well as hundreds of narrative plot threads. Sanderson was faced with a real challenge…
One book I added to my library recently was The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by Martin Sixsmith. This is the book on which the movie Philomena is based; it’s the story of a middle aged Irish woman who is looking for her son having been forced to give him up for adoption as a teenager. The film stars Judi Dench and Steve Coogan and is excellent. Indeed, Dench has been nominated for both a Golden Globe and a Screen Actor’s Guild award for her role as the titular Philomena. For me though, the real surprise was Coogan – who not only starred in the movie as but co-wrote the screenplay. In Philomena, Coogan plays Sixsmith, the journalist who helps Philomena trace what happened to her son. In general, I’m not a fan of Coogan in comic mode, but he played excellently against Judi Dench and their growing friendship was one of the real highlights of the movie. Although I’ve not read the book, the first few chapters I have read were very interesting and well written. That is hardly surprising as Sixsmith is a former BBC journalist. As I’m starting three weeks of nightshifts next week I have been…
I received a copy of Philip Pullman’s Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm free to review from Netgalley. Growing up in Scotland, my parents often read to me or I read the original, non Disneyfied versions of traditional fairytales. I can still remember being particularly horrified that, in the traditional version Snow White’s wicked stepmother was forced to wear burning hot iron shoes and to dance until she died and that Cinderella’s stepsisters had their eyes pecked out. At my university, one of the courses you could choose to study was Traditional Fairy Tales, which demonstrates just how deeply embedded in the European psyche these stories are. In this collection, Pullman chooses from among the many variants of the traditional stories, occasionally adding his own spin and after each story gives a little background into each tale along with an explanation of what changes he made. it’s a fascinating read and well worth picking up. I gave Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm four stars out of five The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter Series: Goddess Series #1 Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary Fantasy Format: eBook Pages: 298 pages Buy from Amazon • Kobo • iTunes • Audible • Having read and loved Aimee…
What with Doctor Who and the arrival of my new Kindle HDX, this has actually been a very quiet reading week. I have been rereading Crewel so that I can follow on with the newly released Altered. Added to my library this week All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill, which I picked up in Kindle format. This seems an intriguing story about time travel and consequences. It’s been getting good reviews on GoodReads and Amazon so thought it would be worth checking out. Upcoming releases Dangerous Women by George R.R. Martin. This is a collection of short stories collected and edited by George R.R. Martin, by various contemporary fantasy writers with a theme of strong, independent women. It sounds an interesting read. Lending a Paw – A Bookmobile Cat Mystery by Laurie Cass. This is new series of cat based mysteries, which I love. I’ve not read this author before, but I do like the genre. That’s all I have for you this week folks.