Booking in Heels ~ Page 2 of 129 ~ Devouring books whilst looking fabulous.

Quarterly Check-In – July to September 2018

October 9, 2018 | best of, wrap-up

Well, it’s been a slightly mismatched quarter.

I read 15 books in July, which is slightly above average, then 17 books in August. That was down to the fact that I went and spent £120 on books for my birthday, and then had a week off from work, so I essentially just sat here and read all my new books for a week. I had a great time and I read so many amazing books. It was really tough choosing a favourite for this month.

Then September… off. September was not a good month. Five books in September! My average before that had been 14 books per month! Whilst it doesn’t bother me, not as such, it is a little strange considering that there was no real reason for it. I wasn’t on holiday, or particular busy, or… anything really. Possibly I was just in a funny headspace as we’re attempting to buy a house and it’s every bit as stressful as people promised it was.

Still, onwards and upwards, right?

This quarter I spent £131.04 on books, which is surprisingly only £10 or so more than usual, which I can definitely deal with.

Over the year, I’m averaging 13 books a month, which I’m happy with. It boils down to 147 pages a day, which is very similar to my average pages per day for the first and second quarters of the year, which was 152 and 148 pages a day respectively. Weird. Clearly my reading habits don’t tend to vary much!

I’m doing quite well with whittling down my TBR as well. The average time the books I’ve read spent on my TBR before reading is 1.8 years, which means I’m finally reading those older books.

I’ve decided that I’m going to do Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-thon this time around. I’ve done it once before and didn’t do very well, but that’s alright.

And as for the books themselves: absent in the spring agatha christie mary westmacott

Best Book of July 2018:

Absent in the Spring by Agatha Christie/Mary Westmacott

Worst Book of July 2018:

Lumberjanes: Volume 1 by Noelle Stevenson et al.

city of brass book cover s.a. chakraborty neverworld wake book cover marisha pessl

Best Book of August 2018:

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

Neverworld Wake by Marisa Pessl

Worst Book of August 2018:

Ongoingness: The End of a Diary by Sarah Manguso

to all the boys ive loved before jenny han book cover

Best Book of September 2018:

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Befpre by Jenny Han

Worst Book of September 2018:

The Hoarder by Jess Kid

I’m really happy with the books I’ve read this year. Not just the amount, although I do fail to understand how I’ve read so many, but the quality as well. I’m looking forward to seeing what the last quarter of the year will bring!

See you in December!

The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor) (Review) by Jessica Townsend

October 5, 2018 | fantasy, Reviews

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow isn’t the type of book I would usually opt for. I’m not generally a huge fan of middle-grade, with the exception of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. However, I’d seen so many glowing reviews of The Trials of Morrigan Crow that I just had to give it a try. I reserved it at the library, shlepped down to the Children’s Library, devoured the whole thing in a day and ordered my own copy before I’d even finished the last page. I loved this book.

Plot summary: Morrigan Crow is cursed. Having been born on Eventide, the unluckiest day for any child to be born, she’s blamed for all local misfortunes, from hailstorms to heart attacks–and, worst of all, the curse means that Morrigan is doomed to die at midnight on her eleventh birthday.

But as Morrigan awaits her fate, a strange and remarkable man named Jupiter North appears. Chased by black-smoke hounds and shadowy hunters on horseback, he whisks her away into the safety of a secret, magical city called Nevermoor.

It’s then that Morrigan discovers Jupiter has chosen her to contend for a place in the city’s most prestigious organization: the Wundrous Society. In order to join, she must compete in four difficult and dangerous trials against hundreds of other children, each boasting an extraordinary talent that sets them apart–an extraordinary talent that Morrigan insists she does not have. To stay in the safety of Nevermoor for good, Morrigan will need to find a way to pass the tests–or she’ll have to leave the city to confront her deadly fate.

Star Rating for The Trials of Morrigan Crow: * * * * *

I honestly knew I was going to love The Trials of Morrigan Crow by the first page. Morrigan is a ‘cursed child.’ She was born on Eventide, which apparently gives her village the right to blame her for every minor injury, cow ailment and bad job interview that comes their way. There’s even a whole system set up that forces her father to pay recompense for their financial losses, and I love a good institutionalised fantasy. The real kicker for Morrigan is that every cursed child is doomed to die at midnight on their eleventh birthday, not that her family seem even remotely bothered.

Luckily, for Morrigan, an affable stranger rolls up and whisks her away to a secret world called Nevermoor, and the story really starts.

The world-building in The Trials of Morrigan Crow is incredible, both in Morrigan’s normal, home world where there is a whole system set up to deal with cursed children, and also in the magical world of Nevermoor. It’s not really reminiscent of any other fantasy novel I’ve read, children’s or otherwise, albeit it there is a sort of magical school. It doesn’t matter, it’s not the same. I loved the idea of a magical society and the children having to undertake special trials to get in.

The tone is perfect, as well. It’s a light book, being aimed at children. There are some lovely scenes, especially at Christmas, that made me smile like an idiot. There are, however, some darker aspects that prevented the book from being overly fluffy. Honestly, it strikes the perfect balance between sweetness and darkness.

The fact that it’s a children’s book does not mean that the writing is any lesser quality. It’s actually written very well. It’s fast-paced, but it’s not jumpy or confusing, and the dialogue is never stilted or unnatural.

I keep stalking the sequel, Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow, to see if it’s been magically brought forward for release. It hasn’t, but at least we don’t have long to wait – it’s out on 31 October 2018. I’d pre-order it, but if I buy the hardback then it won’t match my copy of the first book… it’s a hard life. Library it is then!

Find Jessica Townsend on Twitter.

Have His Carcase (Review) by Dorothy L. Sayers

September 1, 2018 | crime, mystery, Reviews

I knew of Dorothy L. Sayers, obviously. Vaguely. It’s just that I’d never bothered to drag her have his carcase dorothy l sayers book cover books down from the shelf at my Mum’s. I think it felt somewhat like I was cheating on Agatha Christie (who, I have now decided after her reading her Autobiography, is my favourite person ever), and besides, how different could one vintage mystery novel be from one another really? If it hadn’t been for this review of Have His Carcase over at You Book Me All Night Long, I’d never have been introduced to these wonderful books.

Plot summary: Mystery writer Harriet Vane, recovering from an unhappy love affair and its aftermath, seeks solace on a barren beach — deserted but for the body of a bearded young man with his throat cut.

From the moment she photographs the corpse, which soon disappears with the tide, she is puzzled by a mystery that might have been suicide, murder or a political plot.

With the appearance of her dear friend Lord Peter Wimsey, she finds a reason for detective pursuit — as only the two of them can pursue it.

Star Rating for Have His Carcase: * * * *

If you’re planning on picking up this series based on my soon-to-be glowing review (or maybe that only works with You Book Me All Night Long…), don’t start with Have His Carcase, much as I loved it. Why? Possibly perhaps it’s the eighth book in a fourteen book long series. It was fine, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t particularly struggle. Each book is a self-contained murder mystery, so although there were a few references to the previous books, it really didn’t matter. Still, you may as well go in with the knowledge that you should be starting with Whose Body?

Alright. So, firstly, these books (I say this like I haven’t only read one book, but I am clearly now an expert) are much more dense than the Agatha Christie novels. There’s more character development, more clues and more background. The characters discuss things, and mull over the issues, a lot more frequently and occasionally the scenery is even discussed. I know, right!? In a mystery! I’m as shocked as you! Whilst it’s clearly not a heavy or difficult novel by any stretch of the imagination, Have His Carcase can’t really be skim read. You need to pay attention or you won’t have the faintest idea what was going on.

On that note, I did appreciate the frequent summing-ups (summings-up?). Every so often, the characters will get together for a quick ‘so here’s where we are…’ discussion that really helped me to keep everything straight in my head. There was no baker’s niece’s lover who was mentioned on page three but popped up at the end and you’re meant to remember who he is. It seems very… planned, very cautious.

As for the murder itself… eh. I wasn’t all that bothered about who had murdered Alexis, but then are you ever really? Usually the victim is dead before the reader ever wanders onto the scene, so it’s quite difficult to drudge up a sense of compassion for them. Unlike Agatha Christie, you pretty much knew who did it the whole way through. In these books (alright, this book), the point isn’t who did it, but how they could possibly have done so. Because of that, there was no gasp of amazement when the culprit was revealed because hey, I knew that.

The method by which they discovered this was clever, and that’s as descriptive as I can possibly be without being spoilery. You’ll know what I mean when you read it. I’ve never seen that used in this way before and the nod to history was a nice touch.

The characters have more padding out than in other books of this ilk too. Lord Peter Whimsy is the clear show-stealer here, as he’s meant to be. I love him. He’s confident but not cocky, clever but able to admit when he’s wrong, and flirtatious but not creepy. Even if I skim over any part that suggests he has a monocle. I mean… come on. A girl has her limits. Harriet Vane is likeable too, and actually has a personality. She contributes effectively to the investigation and isn’t shy about getting stuck in either.

There’s an overarching romantic subplot that I think must continue throughout the series, but it’s only referenced every so often, and very subtey. I actually liked it; it was cute. But if it’s not your thing, I don’t think it will affect your enjoyment as it’s very playful and not at all angsty.

In short, I’d really recommend this series, or at least this book. For all I know, the others are terrible, but I doubt it. I’ll certainly be reading the remainder very shortly.

Read the review that started it all at You Book Me All Night Long.

The Superlatives Book Tag

August 26, 2018 | tags

I haven’t really read anything worth reviewing in a week or two, and I’m at that point of a weekend where I’m Sad-Bored, soI thought it might be fun to do a tag! And what better tag than… The Superlatives Book Tag!

Most Likely To Be in the Movies: The Book That Would Make The Best Movie

I’ve read a couple of books recently that would make a really great film, but the one that springs to mind first is The Call by Peadar O’Guilin.

Essentially, every teenager gets ‘Called’ to the Grey Land once. All they have to do is survive for one whole day… except it’s dark, twisted and gruesome. This was the most action-packed and thrilling book I read in 2017 and watching all the different characters take their eventual turns in the Grey Land would be fascinating.

The Sidhe would have to be a CGI-ed cross between the blue people in Avatar and the mermaids in Harry Potter, I think.

Biggest Drama Queen/King: The Most (Overly) Dramatic Book or Character

I did a sort of half-hearted skim through my Library Thing profile when I was looking for an answer to this, but I already knew who I was going to opt for. Actually, I guess, I have two answers for this question, depending on how you tone the question.

The most lovably overly-dramatic character is Harry Potter, particularly in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. “OH MY GOD, WHY AM I NOW A PREFECT!? MY LIFE IS SO TERRIBLE, NOW MADE WORSE BY THE FACT THAT I AM NOT A PREFECT!” Bless him. No hard feelings.

On the other hand, if the question is asked with an eye roll and a slight glare, it would have to be All Day: A Year of Love and Survival Teaching Incarcerated Kids at Rikers Island by Liza Jessie Peterson. I’ve never read a more unnecessarily dramatic book (and woman) in my entire life.

Please don’t take anything from the fact that I have used both Harry Potter and All Day. I in no way intend to suggest they are in any way similar.

Best Dressed: The Book With The Best Cover

It was the beauty of The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty that attracted me to it in the first place. city of brass book cover s.a. chakraborty The thumbnail to the right doesn’t really do it justice, because in person it’s a huge hardback with shiny gold highlights. It’s just beautiful. Luckily, the story inside is just as wonderful as the outside.

I was getting quite skeptical that the cover shown on Amazon for the next book, The Kingdom of Copper (release date of 21 February 2019) showed a completely different style. However, I’ve just gone to check and the new, matching cover has been updated. Thank God.

Most Creative: The Book With The Most Unique Plot, Characters and Structure

I was torn between two books for this one: The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland, or The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. I can’t choose, so let’s say both!

The former is a huge, complex narrative about a commercially organised time travel. It uses interviews, company memos, diaries, letters, etc… to tell a tense and wonderful story. I loved this book so much. It’s fun and happy, whilst also having some tense twists and a pervading feeling of anxiety. I’ve never read anything like it, and I read anything that even remotely hints at time travel. This is the book I first thought of for this question, but then Seven Deaths of Eveleyn Hardcastle Stuart Turton book cover UK hardback Seven Deaths wouldn’t leave me in peace either.

That is a dark and twist mind-fuck of a book that I still haven’t quite managed to get it out of my head, despite reading it in February. It’s set in a sort of 1920s house party (a la Agatha Christie), only the main character is sent to solve a murder by inhabiting the mind of a different guest every day. I can only imagine the level of detail and planning required to pull off something like that, which is probably why there aren’t many books of its ilk… and also why I couldn’t let this question go without mentioning it.

Most Popular: The Book With The Most Ratings on Goodreads

to kill a mockingbird book cover harper lee As follows:

1) Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

2) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

3) Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

4) To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

5) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Most Likely To Succeed: The Book That Is Going To Be Appreciated For Many Years To Come

I didn’t have an immediate answer in mind for this question, but then I remembered You Don’t you dont know me book cover mahmood Know Me by Imran Mahmood.

It hasn’t had a whole load of hype but I still think it’s an important book. A young black man is on trial for a murder he didn’t commit, only his (white) barrister isn’t being particularly helpful. The protagonist sacks his Counsel and proceeds to represent himself. This novel is his closing speech.

He explains all the details that his legal defence wouldn’t tell the Jury; the bits they ‘wouldn’t understand’ about being underprivileged, black and from a lower class neighbourhood. It’s very powerful and I really recommend picking it up.

Class Clown: The Book That Made You Laugh Out Loud

uneatable squirrel girl volume 1 graphic novel Squirrel Girl! YES! I am so excited that I get to include The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Volume 1: Squirrel Power in a real-ass tag post.

She’s an honest-to-God real Marvel superhero and I love her. It made me laugh on literally the first page, when she was sat in a tree stealing Spider-Man’s theme tune. There is an over-arching plot, and several other Marvel characters pop-up (Iron Man, Thor, Dr Doom, Galactus, Kraven the Hunter, etc), but it’s worth reading this just for the humour.

I laughed out loud on a train. *shudders*

Most Improved: The Book That Started Off Slow But Picked Up

The only book I could possibly use for this is Nevernight. I hated that book when I first started Nevernight by Jay Kristoff book cover reading it. It was confusing, unnecessarily obtuse and I didn’t have the faintest idea what was going on. It made me so angry, I swear. I’d have DNF-ed it if Ellie hadn’t warned me that it was slow to start.

Luckily, I listened, and ploughed on. It ends up being such an amazing book that I’m so glad I didn’t put it down. I read the sequel, Godsgrave, immediately afterwards and I’m now reduced to impatiently waiting for the next book.

This book is definitely, definitely worth wading through the rubbish beginning.

Cutest Couple: Cutest Couple in a Book

one dark throne book cover uk kendare blake Did that category really require the succeeding explanation…?

Umm. I always struggle with this question because I don’t read romance, and I tend to ignore it if it’s snuck into a different genre of book. Alright, I guess I’ll go with Billy and Arsinoe from One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake. It wasn’t InstaLovey, and I hope they stick together. I also liked that it didn’t go all love-triangley when Mirabella was introduced. It’s also not a huge, all-encompassing part of the plot, which I appreciated.

Biggest Heartbreaker: The Book That Broke Your Heart

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, but I can’t quite put my finger on why.

On the face of it, it’s a relatively happy book but I look back on it with a quiet twinge of sadness. I couldn’t have cared less about Monique and the griefs in her life, but I really felt for Evelyn. The way she was treated, the attitudes towards the person she loved most, and the way the book ended. It wasn’t a dramatic sobbing type of moment, but parts of it definitely made my heart hurt.

Have you read any of these books? Do you agree with my choices?

Rereading Statistics – I TAG YOU, PIKACHU!

August 20, 2018 | best of, reread

I’m not very well this weekend, and to comfort myself, I reread both Harry Potter and the Goblet 84 charing cross road book cover helene hanff of Fire and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Rereading can be very therapeutic, can’t it? You’re too ill and fed-up to want to bother with taking a risk on a book that might be rubbish, so you return to what’s tried and tested.

That got me thinking… which of my books have I reread the most?

Luckily, because I am an insane person, I have been tracking my reading since I was seventeen. Here’s my Library Thing profile, which is where I have twelve years of keeping an obsessive track of my reading. I do use GoodReads (profile here), but I find that’s more for the community and socialising. Library Thing is better for actual, well… books.

This will be slightly innacurate as it won’t include books read before I was 17, in 2006. So the Terry Pratchett books, and the earlier Harry Potters will have been read possibly several times before then. Still, we can count this as ‘rereads as an adult.’

Here we go:

The Well of Lost Plots (Eyre Affair #3) by Jasper Fforde – 5

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling – 4

The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams – 4

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – 4

The Eyre Affair, Something Rotten and Lost in a Good Book (Eyre Affair #1,2 and 4) by Jasper Fforde – 4

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling – 3

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff – 3

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong – 3

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – 3

First Among Sequels (Eyre Affair #5) by Jasper Fforde – 3

Reserved for the Cat by Mercedes Lackey – 3

The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey – 3

The Wizard of London by Mercedes Lackey – 3

Jingo by Terry Pratchett – 3

The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett – 3

the eyre affair book cover jasper fforde There are some surprises. I thought I’d have read the Harry Potters much more, seeing as I’m convinced I read at least one a year. On that note, it really surprises me that I’ve reread Half-Book Prince the most (as an adult), considering that’s not one of my favourites. Perhaps it’s that I lean towards the later, more adult books as I’ve gotten older.

I apparently don’t read series equally, or in order, however! The Eyre Affair series is about eight books long, and I haven’t reread the three later books at all, the first, second and fourth books four times, the third book four times and the fifth book three times! I mean, I know it so well that I don’t need to read it in order, but still! There is an overarching plot!

I do seem to stick to certain authors though – J.K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett, Mercedes Lackey and Jasper Fforde. Looking at those names though, that’s not a huge surprise. When I was going through my catalogue, I saw that I’d read almost all of the Discworld books twice (as an adult), so the next time I reread any of them, they would rightly belong on here.

I was surprised how few times I’d read some of my favourites. It seems like We Bought A Zoo, To Kill a Mockingbird and Lady Chatterley’s Lover should have been on here, considering how well I know them, but it turns out I’ve only read them twice.

The passage of time also took me somewhat aback. It seems like I only reread And Then There Were None last year, but it was four years ago! And apparently I haven’t read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows since 2010, when I feel like I know it backwards! 2010!

What books have you reread the most? Tally up, write a post and link back – I’d love to know!

This is what £120 of books looks like… Birthday Book Haul

August 19, 2018 | Uncategorized

birthday book haul shopping

So it was recently my 29th birthday and I’ve found that, as I get older, it becomes harder and harder to tell people what you’d like for your birthday. I mean, as an adult, if there’s something you want or need, you just… buy it, right?

This year, I just asked people for money and book vouchers. My family isn’t a huge fan of that, really, and I understand why. But I haven’t spent that much on books for a few months and there were so many new releases that I was dying to read. I’d decided that on my birthday, I was going to head into Leeds Waterstones, on my own, and do a lengthy, peaceful, solitary book shop.

It was amazing and I had the best time. Just wandering round, no time limits, no need to get back to work, no resigned partner toddling after me, pulling books of shelves without looking at the prices. It was a great day.

I didn’t actually do that well until I headed upstairs to the Fantasy section where I chose pretty much most of my books. This is what I bought from Waterstones. If there’s a link, it means I’ve reviewed it already:

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas
The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
The Queens of Innis Lear by
I Still Dream by James Smythe
In the Labyrinth of Drakes (Lady Trent #4) by Marie Brennan

I would like to point out that four of these are hefty hardbacks, which wasn’t the best decision city of brass book cover s.a. chakraborty when I had to lug them all home on the train. That said, I was super excited to find a pristine copy of The City of Brass, which is the first book I started reading that afternoon. I really can’t recommend it highly enough and I’m dying for the second book to come out in January 2019.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get all the books I wanted in Waterstones, so naturally I put an Amazon order in whilst on the train home. Because clearly I hadn’t bought enough books yet. The aforementioned order comprised:

All Systems Red by Martha Wells
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar
The Invasion (sequel to The Call) by Peadar O’Guilin
A Hundred Thousand Worlds by Bob Proehl
The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Ravenclaw edition) by J.K. Rowling

And then. Then, I received a lovely book package from Charlotte, who is a lovely person with excellent taste in books and she’d picked out the following:

Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl
S. by J.J. Abrams
Suicide Game by Haidji

neverworld wake book cover marisha pessl I read Neverworld Wake the day it arrived, just because it looked reasonably light and the blurb was different to how I’d remembered it. It ended up completely blowing me away in a sort of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle way, but for teenagers.

I guess the question would be – why, when I have had a week’s annual leave and a subsequent quiet week at work, why haven’t I read more of these amazing books, on which I spent so much money? Umm. That would be because I decided to reread three of the Harry Potter books instead… and no, not the one I’d recently bought in the shiny edition.

C’est la vie.

Skip links

Main navigation