#WWW Wednesday – 19 December 2018

It’s time for WWW Wednesday! This blog hop is hosted by Sam over at A World Of Words. Link up with us by commenting on Sam’s post for this week, and just answer the three questions.

I’m posting quite early this week, since I’m taking advantage of a shift on the reading room desk at work to get this written up. Tomorrow is my last day of work for the year and I’m already in holiday mode, so very little work is really being done!

What have you recently finished reading?

I finished Sixty Seconds by Jesse Blackadder. This was a 3.5* read for me. The plot, pacing and writing were good, but I never completely connected with the characters. Posted my review here. 

That’s the only thing I finished this week but I also reviewed Olmec Obituary by L. J. M. Owen. You can read that here.

Getting these two reviews up meant that I completed my 2018 Australian Women Writers Challenge, which was to read 20 books by Australian women, including two by Indigenous authors and two by LGBTQI* authors.

What are you currently reading?

I’m currently reading The Enchanted Sonata by Heather Dixon Wallwork. This is quite a sweet story. I love that the magic system is music-based! Though it does make me want to go and throw the Nutcracker retelling I started writing years ago in the bin, since this one is so much better than what I was doing.

I’m also listening to Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. I’ve never read any of Taylor’s other books but everyone seems to rave about this one so I picked it up when Audible recommended it. So far my only real complaint is how few women there are compared to men. But Strange is a librarian and researcher, so he has kind of stolen my heart. ❤

What do you think you will read next?

I really need to finish Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend so I can pass it on to my niece at Christmas. I think I’m about halfway through it? I’m flying to my parents’ on Friday so my plan is for it to be my airport/plane book. After that, I’m not sure whether to read another Christmas-y book or start on my January ARCs.

What are you reading this week?

Have a great holiday season, everyone, regardless of what you celebrate!

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#aww2018 “The boy steps into the day like he owns it.” // Review of “Sixty Seconds” by Jesse Blackadder

Title: Sixty Seconds
Author: Jesse Blackadder
Genre: Contemporary drama
Target audience: Adult
Date Read: 09/12/18 – 13/12/18
Rating: ★★★☆

Review:

I knew I wanted to read this book from the moment I read an interview with Jesse Blackadder around the time of its release. This book, dealing with the aftermath of a backyard drowning, is the author’s creative response to exactly that tragedy occurring in her own family when she was twelve. 

I think my main reason for not rating it higher is that I just couldn’t necessarily get into the characters, which I think is partly due to some stylistic decisions. There are three different POVs, Finn’s in third person, Jarrah’s in first person, and Bridget’s in second person… the second person in particular took quite a while to get used to. It’s a difficult POV to pull off, and I am sure I am not the only one who kept thinking “No, it’s not me doing these things.” But after  a while, I did get more used to it. Jarrah was the POV character I felt the closest to, I think because the first person narration really worked for his character and it made me feel closer to him than either of the other characters. There were actually some side characters I had stronger reactions to than the main ones.

The writing and pacing in this book is well done and quite tight. However, I did find that sometimes an event was glossed over, and we only got to see a character’s  quick reflection on it afterwards, rather than reading the event itself. I think some of the reason I wasn’t quite able to get into this one is because I don’t read a lot of straight contemporary stories. I read things set in the modern day, but they’re usually a romance or a thriller or some such. This focus on the everyday lives of people, even in the aftermath of something huge, is not quite my thing.

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This review is part of my 2018 Australian Women Writers Challenge. Click here for more information.

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#WWW Wednesday – 12 December 2018

It’s time for WWW Wednesday! This blog hop is hosted by Sam over at A World Of Words. Link up with us by commenting on Sam’s post for this week, and just answer the three questions.

What have you recently finished reading?

I finished Olmec Obituary by L.  J. M. Owen. While it was amusing seeing all the references to the National Library (that’s where I work, and the main character’s workplace is based on it), I felt there was a bit much going on for one book and that it suffered for it. My review will be up on Friday.

I posted my review of The Midnight Watch by David Dyer and some thoughts about Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson (I realised I’d left it too long and couldn’t remember enough for a proper review, so that link just goes to my GoodReads review).

What are you currently reading?

Sixty Seconds by Jesse Blackadder is an exploration of a family’s grief after the youngest son drowns in the backyard pool. It also deals with social media and shady journalism in the light of such a tragedy. I’m really enjoying this… actually, “enjoy” probably isn’t the right word but it’s very gripping.

I’m also listening to Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson. This is about a Wiccan teenager who accidentally brings not only her best friend but two of the most popular students in her school back to life in an attempt to find out who killed them. I was expecting it to be a bit silly but it’s actually dealing with the main character’s grief in quite a realistic way. It does still have a sense of humour, though.

What do you think you will read next?

I’m not completely sure that it will be my thing, or that I’m in a fantasy mood right now, but since I have it from the library, I will pick up City of Lies by Sam Hawke. It’s due back on the 19th, so hopefully it will be gripping and I tear through it and don’t end up with any fines.

What are you reading this week?

#WWW Wednesday – 05 December 2018

It’s time for WWW Wednesday! This blog hop is hosted by Sam over at A World Of Words. Link up with us by commenting on Sam’s post for this week, and just answer the three questions.

What have you recently finished reading?

I finished Truly , Devious by Maureen Johnson on Thursday. This took a little while to get into – not much happens for the first half – but I ended up interested in the mystery.

I also finished The Midnight Watch by David Dyer and I’m really glad I stuck it out. I actually ended up going and reading everything on David Dyer’s website and then watching simulations of the Titanic’s sinking on YouTube. It really is bizarre that the SS Californian saw all 8 distress rockets fired by the Titanic and yet did nothing to help.

I haven’t had a chance to write reviews for either of these as I was busy with uni work all weekend, so they’ll be up this coming week.

What are you currently reading?

I have started Olmec Obituary by L.  J. M. Owen this week. It’s always a bit strange reading books set in Canberra. This one is even stranger as the Mahony Griffin Library, where the main character works, is based on the National Library, which is where I work. I kept giggling at things that weren’t remotely funny simply because I got the reference.

For the third week in a row, still going with Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend but this is mostly because I haven’t actually been reading it at all, not because it’s terrible or anything. I’m re-gifting this to my niece for Christmas, so I’m not carrying it around in my work bag, where it’s likely to get damaged. I need a book sleeve.

What do you think you will read next?

I’ve got to be honest: even though I’ve got the two books that follow Olmec Obituary out from the library, I don’t think I’m going to be interested enough to follow on with them. Not back-to-back anyway.

I’m probably going to read Sixty Seconds by Jesse Blackadder, a drama about the aftermath of a small boy drowning in a backyard pool. I have read one of this author’s children’s books before this is my first adult read by her.

What are you reading this week?

#WWW Wednesday – May 23, 2018

It’s time for WWW Wednesday! This blog hop is hosted by Sam over at A World Of Words. Link up with us by commenting on Sam’s post for this week, and just answer the three questions.

What have you recently finished reading? 

I‘ve had so much going on the last couple of weeks and I also fell into a bit of a reading slump. With that combination, it took me a full three weeks to finish Hero at the Fall by Alwyn Hamilton. It was… fine, and I was interested enough in the outcome that I wanted to stick it out, but I can’t say I was terribly invested in the characters. I can’t be bothered writing a full review but you can read my thoughts on GoodReads here.

I finished The Strings of Murder by Oscar de Muriel on audio and this one was a lot more enjoyable. I have recently signed up for an Audible subscription, and while I didn’t pick up the second book immediately, I think it might be next month’s choice. I’ll have my review of this one up this week.

I posted by review of Lessons in Letting Go: Confessions of a Hoarder by Corinne Grant this week. You can read it here.

What are you currently reading? 

I have started the audio book of Uprooted by Naomi Novik at the recommendation of a friend. I am really enjoying this so far. The prose has a really fairytale-like quality, and the narrator’s voice is really suited to that. I’m not entirely sold on the Dragon, but I am hoping he’ll improve.

I’m also reading The Owl Service by Alan Garner. A few people at work read it and I wanted to get in on the action. I’m not quite sold on it yet, but I think I know where it’s going and it sounds like it could get interesting. Opinion at work is divided, so it’ll be interesting to see where I fall.

What do you think you will read next?

I have Purple Threads by Jeanine Leane and After the Party by Jesse Blackadder out from the library. Neither of these is what I would normally read but they are for my Australian Women Writers Challenge, in particular, my own diversity challenge-within-a-challenge.

What are you reading this week?

#aww2017 Book Review: “Stay” by Jesse Blackadder

Title: Stay
Author: Jesse Blackadder
Genre: Children’s fiction
Date Read: 25/11/2017 – 27/11/2017
Rating: ★★★

Review:

This was a sweet book, though to be honest, nothing stand-out, at least to me. I think it’s one of those ones that kids would really loove, but that don’t really transcend the target demographic. Which there’s nothing wrong with, really, just that it affected my enjoyment.

Stay is a fibreglass fundraising labrador, supposed to be raising money for the Royal Guide Dogs outside a supermarket in Hobart. In  1991, she was dognapped and taken to Antarctica by scientists disappointed huskies would no longer be used on the ice continent. Through Stay’s eyes, we learn what life was like for the scientists in Antarctica before the days of mobile phones and the Internet, and about the kinds of work they went down there to do every season.

I did actually like the way Jesse Blackadder turned Stay into a character in the story. Stay is able to communicate through her thoughts, sending out vibes to the humans around her. In return, they compete to have her nearby during their season down south. While some of the lengths gone to for Stay seemed a bit excessive, it did help to add tension to the plot. Blackadder weaves information  about the day-to-day life of the scientists into the plot in a way that I feel would not have felt like info-dumping to a child reader, though with adult eyes, I could see the parts that were obviously intended to be educational.

I think young readers interested in exploration or the Antarctic woould definitely get something out of this book. The writing style would make for a good read-aloud-before-bed type of book.

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(This review is part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2017. Click here for more information).

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#WWW Wednesday – November 29, 2017

It’s time for WWW Wednesday! This blog hop is hosted by Sam over at A World Of Words. Link up with us by commenting on Sam’s post for this week, and just answer the three questions.

What have you recently finished reading?

I had a great reading week this week, finishing no less than four books!

I finished Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine after posting on Wednesday night, then found the sequel, Killman Creek available to read straight away on NetGalley. These were intense! But if you like thrillers, I definitely recommend. I reviewed Stillhouse Lake on Monday and my review of Killman Creek is scheduled for Friday.

After that, I read Stay: the Last Dog in Antarctica by Jesse Blackadder. This is a middle-grade book based on a true story of a fibreglass Guide Dog (these are outside supermarkets all over Australia and you can put money in them that goes to Guide Dogs Australia) who was smuggled to Antarctica in 1991 and has lived there ever since. This was a sweet little book, and the last one I needed to fulfil my Australian Women Writers Challenge for 2017.

Last but not least, I listened to Looking for JJ by Anne Cassidy on audio. I think this was supposed to be YA thriller, but it was more just a drama. It’s about a girl who has been released from prison after killing her best friend when they were ten. She is trying to start a new life under a new name, but the press interest makes it hard. I enjoyed it, though her boyfriend really bothered me because he was a controlling jerk and that was never addressed.

I also finally got around to reviewing Not Your Sidekick by C. B. Lee. You can read that review here.

What are you currently reading?

I have just started Renegades by Marissa Meyer and I’m keen to see her take on superheroes. So far I love the idea of the Puppeteer villain. At time of writing, I’m only at Chapter 4, so apart from that, I don’t have much of an opinion just yet.

I’ve also just started the sequel to Looking for JJ, Finding Jennifer Jones. It has a different narrator, though, which is mildly annoying.

What do you think you’ll read next?

I’ve said it the last couple of weeks and it might still be The Game You Played by Anni Taylor. Another thriller but I seem in the mood for those right now. Though there are a lot of reviews for this one that say it is overlong, so I’m a bit wary.

What are you reading this week?