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WELCOME TO BLOGGER'S BOOKSHELF...


where our team of writers love to talk all things books, sharing reviews, features, lists, interviews and more.

Getting lost in a book is escapism at it's finest and it's what everyone who contributes here thrives on.

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Thursday, 31 October 2019

Book Club | October 2019 Roundup

And just like that October is over. Our book club theme for the month was 'by an author with an alliterative name', and there was one author in particular who was a popular choice! Here are a selection of the titles read and reviewed over the past few weeks...







This month’s @bloggersbookshelf book club theme is ‘books by authors with alliterative names’ and I don’t think I’m the only person to choose Rainbow Rowell’s Wayward Son as my pick for the month! Wayward Son is quite a different story from its predecessor, Carry On. Although it deals very much with the aftermath of the events in the first book, Wayward Son takes us away from the magical school setting of Carry On and introduces the reader to a completely different kind of magical world in the U.S.A. I actually think I enjoyed Wayward Son slightly more than Carry On. Maybe that’s because I liked the exploration of how the characters are dealing with the events of the first book or maybe it’s just because I love a road trip story. Probably both. Either way, this is an excellent follow up to Carry On and I can’t wait for the third in the series! - #vsco #vscocam #bloggersbookshelf #bookshelfbookclub #waywardson #rainbowrowell #bookreview #bookstagram #vscobooks #bookbloggers #bookworm #booklove #prettybooks #beautifulbooks #instabooks #bibliophile #igreads #booklover #ya #yabooks #yabookstagram
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Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell


"This sequel to Carry On was brilliant! I loved getting back into this world and following Simon and Baz across America. The additional characters were a lot of fun, too, and I can't wait for the next book which doesn't have a release date yet." - Anjali

On The Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta


"For this month's book club I picked up the audiobook version of On The Jellicoe Road. I thought the concept and mystery elements of the story were interesting but I think I would have enjoyed it more in a different format." - Erin







"Witches are not so delicate", I said ✨ • Believe the hype, believe the accolades and nominations, Madeline Miller's Circe was an absolute treasure to read. I may be biased as I am on a big of a Greek mythology binge (having finished both Mythos and Silence of the Girls this year) but this retelling of the infamous witch of Aiaia was more than magical. Part love story, part family drama, and 100% a true hero's journey, Miller's retelling manages to capture the more human side to Circe that (imo) we always need lay buried in between the lines of the more male dominated legacies of the traditional myths✨ • @bloggersbookshelf #BookshelfBookClub #Circe #madelinemiller #myths #greekmythology #mythsandlegends #bookstagram #bookblogger #bookreview #booksofinstagram #currentlyreading #igreads #myreadinglife #booksbooksbooks
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Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell


"Pumpkinheads is a graphic novel illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks, and is everything you'd expect a Rainbow Rowell story to be. It's sweet, it's funny, it's set in an adorable location (hello pumpkin patch!), and the characters are a dream. This is going to be a book I see myself picking up every year in our Southern Hemisphere autumn, and in October at Halloween time. So cute!" - Anjali






We'll be introducing November's book club tomorrow so don't forget to check back! Use the hashtag #bookshelfbookclub and tag @bloggersbookshelf to share your photos and mini reviews with us throughout the month.
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Saturday, 26 October 2019

SEVEN | Happy Birthday Blogger's Bookshelf


TODAY BLOGGER'S BOOKSHELF TURNS 7...

The past year has flown by and we can't believe BB is turning seven already!

To celebrate we're giving you the chance to win one of six amazing books! Each title comes highly recommended by a member of Team BB as they're some of our favourite reads of the year so far and have been specially chosen because we know you'll love them too. Scroll down to find out which books we've selected.

Also! As it is our seventh birthday we're also throwing in a special little bookish pin too, so you can declare your love of books to the world!

You can enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter gadget below to be in with a chance of winning.



Ria's Pick: The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary

Kelly's Pick: England: Poems From A School by Kate Clanchy

Erin's Pick: Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Anastasia's Pick: A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood

Anjali's Pick: Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell

Sophie's Pick: Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you so much for your support!

- Team BB
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Friday, 18 October 2019

Features | Reading Challenge 2019 Complete | Five Fave Books so Far


Like many of us book lovers, I take part in the Goodreads Reading Challenge each year. If you're unfamiliar, it's basically a chance for you to set yourself a book reading goal to achieve in the coming year. Usually I go for something between 40 and 50 books, and last year I managed to get through 76 (though, granted, about 10 of those where were super short and about the same amount were graphic novels), so I knew I should go for the higher end.

My goal for the year was 50, and I'm pleased to say that my goal was achieved on September 30th when I finished listening to The Upside of Unrequited, by Becky Albertalli. That doesn't mean I'm slowing down or not reading any more - far from it! I have so many books that I really want to read this year, and a literal pile next to my bed for all the ones I'm reading next.


I thought to celebrate this wee achievement, I'd share with you my five fave books that I've read in 2019 so far (although obviously subject to change come December).

  • Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
  • The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson
  • The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee
  • Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte
  • King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

Both Truly Devious and The Vanishing Stair were so so so excellent and I can't rave about them enough. The third and final book in this latest series by Johnson is The Hand in the Wall and it comes out in January. I cannot wait to get my hands on it! 

The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy is the companion novel to The Gentlemen's Guide to Vice and Virtue and was just as fun as it's buddy. I actually read this for the first time earlier in the year and then re-read it via audio book later in the year; I've never re-read a book that I read for the first time in the space of a year, let alone months apart. 

Four Dead Queens is a YA debut novel from Scholte, an Australian author, and it was so good! I loved every single second of it and I can't wait to read more of her books in the future. She's also an artist, and does paintings of all her characters which I think is so amazing, and also helpful to visualise exactly what her characters look like. 

King of Scars was the latest in the Grishverse books by Leigh Bardugo, and it follows Nikolai Lanstov, who was one of my favourite characters in the Shadow and Bone series. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and reading more about the world Bardugo has created, but from Nikolai's perspective. 

So there we have it! Five of my fave books so far from 2019. How is your reading challenge going? Are you on track? Think you'll make it? Let us know what your favourite reads have been this year; we'd love to add some to our TBR lists! 

(Also check out our Vow To Read list from the beginning of year! I've read 4/5 so far!)
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Friday, 4 October 2019

The Upside of Unrequited | Becky Albertalli | Review


"Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love—she’s lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.

 Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly’s totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie’s new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. Will is funny and flirtatious and just might be perfect crush material. Maybe more than crush material. And if Molly can win him over, she’ll get her first kiss and she’ll get her twin back.

 There’s only one problem: Molly’s coworker Reid. He’s an awkward Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there’s absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?"

After reading (and loving) Simon vs the Homo-sapiens Agenda last year, Leah on the Offbeat this year, and also What if It's Us (co-written with Adam Silvera), Becky Albertalli's The Upside of Unrequited had been on my list of books to check out. I managed to score the audio-book from the library and listened to it on a solo road trip I did recently.

I didn't love this book as much as any of the others she's written, but it was still an enjoyable story. Molly was a fun character but she was a little bit too obsessed with boys and crushes and falling in love and girl! Just cool it a little! There's a lot of that throughout the book, and at times it did get very old very quickly (one of the reasons I didn't give this a higher star rating).

But there are wonderful things about this book too. Molly and Cassie are twins to mothers, who have a baby brother too, and a somewhat complicated family (though aren't everyone's?). Their friends are wonderful in their own ways, and the love interests are sweet and quirky, too. As Molly tries to figure out if Will is actually flirting with her (and tries hard to ignore Cassie pushing her towards him in a 'you guys need to go out!' sort of way), and how she feels about her co-worker Reid, the story follows her over the course of a summer as she celebrates milestones with her family, watches her sister fall in love, and wrestles with all the weird and wonderful aspects of being 17.

It's a fun book, but like I said, definitely not a favourite from Albertalli. There is, however, a Simon cameo in this book (which I didn't realise until after I read it - like, duh, Anjali, come on), and it's kiiiiiinda a spoiler, so if you haven't read Simon vs the Homo-sapiens Agenda, I would suggest you play it safe and read that first.
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Tuesday, 1 October 2019

Book Club | October 2019 - By An Author With An Alliterative Name


For our 2019 BB Book Club we've put together a printable list of twelve different prompts. On the 1st day of each month, we'll be introducing you to the month's prompt and the books team members each plan to read, along with some other suggested reads we think you'll love. Of course, these are just ideas so please feel free to interpret the prompts however you wish!

We're also inviting you to share photos and mini reviews of your book club picks on social media using #bookshelfbookclub and tag @bloggersbookshelf on Instagram.

Our prompt for October is... By An Author With An Alliterative Name

 

What we'll be reading...


Ria's Pick: Circe by Madeline Miller

"Circe tells the story of the daughter of the rejected daughter of Titan, Helios. Black sheep of the family and banished for meddling with mortals, her isolation leads her to discover witchcraft. I'm on a bit of greek myth binge, so I'm super excited to get going with this one!"

Anjali's Pick: Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

"Carry On by Rainbow Rowell came out several years ago and I really enjoyed the story (I've read it twice). Wayward son is the sequel and it just came out this September. I'm super looking forward to reading it and seeing what Simon and Baz are getting up to."

Sophie's Pick: City Of Bones by Cassandra Clare

"It's one of my Vow To Rereads this year and I really enjoyed it back when I first read it probably 7ish years ago. So excited to get stuck back into Clary and Jace's story."

Other suggested reads...


- Fangirl (Rainbow Rowell) - review
- The Bone Season (Samantha Shannon) - review
- The Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)
- Crazy Rich Asians (Kevin Kwan) - review
- City Of Bones (Cassandra Clare)
- Ulysses (James Joyce)
- The Giver (Lois Lowry) - review
- The Unexpected Everything (Morgan Matson)

 
Use the hashtag #bookshelfbookclub and tag @bloggersbookshelf on Instagram to share your photos and mini reviews with us throughout the month!
 
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