/ Blogger's Bookshelf

Saturday, 30 November 2013

Blogger’s Bookshelf Review Round Up #12

It’s been a busy ol’ time since our last review round up! Check out the posts you’ve missed below…

Anjali interviewed author Jamie Baywood, about her book, Getting Rooted in New Zealand, and Ria interviewed giveaway author Laure Eve on her novel Fearsome Dreamer.

There was FIVE new additions to our ever growing list of book blogger/booktuber interviews! Check out Jess from Jess Hearts Books; Alexa from Alexa Loves Books; Allie from Little Birdie Books; Sanne from Books & Quills' and Rob and Kate from Adventures with words' answers.

Our team have also been mingling with some high-profile authors! Newest team member Kath attended an evening with YA author, Maureen Johnson, as part of her tour of the UK. And Erin headed to London for an evening with Veronica Roth in celebration of the release of Allegiant.

And of course Blogger’s Bookshelf celebrated its 1st birthday! Check out just how much has happened in a year in our handy inforgraphic and get to know our team members here (Part One (Anjali & Kath), Part Two (Ria & Erin), Part Three (Laura & Lucy) and Part Four (Niina))

We’ve also had two fabulous group collaboration posts! Check out our Halloween themed ‘Favourite Fictional Villains’ and see what our bloggers would do ‘If We Made The Movies’.

As the year comes to a close, we’re asking you guys what your Top Reads for 2013 were!

Let us know you opinions by email, tweet us or on our GoodReads page!

No comments

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Taylor Swift: The Platinum Edition | Liv Spencer | Review

Taylor Swift: The Platinum Edition is a biography of the young star’s life and career, from authors Jen Knoch & Crissy Calhoun who together write under the name Liv Spencer. The team write books about the things that they love, and previous subjects have included Twilight, The Mortal Instruments and Pretty Little Liars. The Platinum Edition is an update of their 2010 Taylor Swift biography Every Day Is A Fairytale.

The first chapters talk about Taylor’s childhood, how she got her first record deal and of course, her rise to fame. Here we are introduced to many of the people that have helped her along the way including producers, writers, fellow musicians and of course, her family and friends. Overall Taylor’s story is inspirational and the book paints a picture of a determined and hard-working but grounded young woman who has managed to prove that dreams really can come true.

There are chapters dedicated to each of Taylor’s four albums, with a rundown of the tracks and information on the ideas behind them, something her fans regularly speculate about. This is followed up by a chapter focusing on her music videos, sharing how the concepts came about, details on the casting decisions and their commercial success.

The final section of the book is a chronological timeline of Taylor’s career from 2004 up until early 2013. As some of the points in this section had already been covered earlier in the book it did feel a little repetitive, however there was some new information interspersed as well.

Having read the biography as an ebook I have to say that I think it would have been a much better read as a physical book. The timeline in particular, with it’s bullet point layout is something I think would look neater and be easier to follow in print. In addition there is a large selection of images which again, I personally think would be best in print (I read on a Kindle Touch which has a black & white screen).

Although I’m not sure how much of the information included would be new to her die-hard fans, Taylor Swift: The Platinum Edition is a fairly informative read and would make a nice Christmas gift this year for the Taylor Swift fan in your life!

*Review copy c/o Netgalley, Image via Goodreads

No comments

Tuesday, 26 November 2013

Being A Book Blogger | Interview With Rob & Kate From Adventures With Words

Welcome to another Being A Book Blogger post! Today we're talking to Rob & Kate the amazing team behind Adventures With Words. Here's what they had to say about 2013 releases, creating podcasts & being James Bond...

AWW screenshot

BB: Rob & Kate, welcome to Blogger's Bookshelf! Tell us a little bit about the team behind Adventures With Words

Rob works as a senior bookseller at a university branch of Waterstones. He’s also the web wizard and editor of our weekly podcast. He’s a big fan of James Bond and thrillers as well as American literature, which he studied at UEA and the University of Kent.

Kate is a secondary school teacher, who reads like her life depends on it, as long as she’s awake enough. She’ll read almost anything, but loves cold crime, good quality sci-fi and fantasy and young adult fiction. She studied English Lit at Durham, where she wrote her dissertation on girls and women in Children’s Fiction. When she’s not reading, she loves Japanese anime and cult series like Buffy and Smallville.

BB: Where does your love of books come from, and how did you get into reviewing?

We have both been avid readers since we were young. Kate was read The Hobbit and loved adventure stories such as Robin Hood and King Arthur, while Rob enjoyed The Chronicles of Narnia and Sherlock Holmes. Rob began reviewing when he started working for Waterstones, discovering new books that he wanted to talk about on a daily basis. After starting Adventures With Words as a way of sharing book reviews, Rob was joined by Kate and between us we cover a wide range of genres.

BB: As well as written reviews you also have your own podcast - what made you want to use this particular media?

Podcasts allow us to create an immediate and conversational response to what we are reading. We have been told that people feel a part of what we are doing and get to know us as individuals. People always like to talk about what they are reading; we are doing this but just happen to record it!

BB: Something we think a lot of our readers will be interested in is your new YA-based podcast. Could you tell us a little bit more about your future plans for the series?

The YA-podcast was originally inspired by a conversation with a listener who thought that her children would enjoy something similar to our normal podcast. It is Kate's special interest so she is producing it and hopes to include interviews and short stories from some of the well known British YA writers currently out there.

books 34

BB: We’re now coming to the end of 2013, what have been your favourite new releases of the year?

Kate has really enjoyed Tall Tales from Pitch End by Nigel McDowell. She thought it was an exciting and moving story but also that it was written in a unusual, lyrical style which makes it stand out from the current crop of YA. Rob has enjoyed Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, a wonderful Gothic story with beautifully written prose that makes him long to return to Barcelona.

BB: If you could swap lives for the day with any fictional character who would you choose and why?

A fantastic question! Rob would slip on a tuxedo and sip a vodka Martini, becoming James Bond for the day. Who wouldn't want to live like 007, except perhaps with fewer cigarettes! Kate would like to be Beth Bradley, from The City's Son by Tom Pollock. It would be a privilege to see the true magic and excitement hidden behind everyday London. Although she would never be able to walk past a crane again without a shiver...

BB: Finally, which other book blogs, websites, YouTube channels or podcasts would you recommend to our readers?

We'd love you to listen to Hear... Read This!, a monthly book club podcast that we take part in alongside Simon and Gav of The Readers. Gav is taking a sabbatical from The Readers while he launches No Cloaks Allowed, a new blog for readers of fantasy, meanwhile Simon interviews authors every fortnight on You Wrote the Book.
Rob really enjoys the Book Riot podcast, for his weekly fix of book news and reviews while Kate enjoys Adam Roberts' book blog Sibilant Fricative, a mixture of opinion on science fiction and fantasy with some young adult thrown in.

You can find Adventures With Words by clicking the links below:
- Blog
- Podcast
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Goodreads

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'd like to say a huge thank you from all of us here at BB to Rob & Kate for taking part in this interview. If you are a booktuber or book blogger and would like to be featured in a similar post we'd love to hear from you - just email us at bloggersbookshelf@gmail.com for information!

Interview & post by Erin
Cover images via Goodreads

No comments

Monday, 25 November 2013

Quiet | Susan Cain | Review

At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. You may have seen them around, they’re the listeners or off in the corner coming up with ideas. You may even be one of these people often labelled as quiet, shy, and easily overwhelmed in crowds.

Susan Cain endevours to explore this often forgotten personality type. Her starting point is the softspoken values of early civilisations to society’s evolution and preference for the ‘extrovert’ ideal, and more importantly why we suddenly live in a world where ‘he who shouts the loudest’ has reached a saturation point. Cain delves into the historical and contemporary psychological and biological research behind the differences between introverts and extroverts, showing the reader how the brain functions differently for the two personality sets.

She provides real world context for the studies, by speaking to and presenting case studies of individuals on all points of the introvert/extrovert spectrum. Cain also explores the varrying environments of the world and how it can effect introverts, from the modern open plan primary school classroom, to the differing cultural atmospheres of Asian and American schools, to the brash leaderships and collaborations styles of business in the 21st Century.

What is most interesting is the examples of successful Introverts in the real world, the advice she gives on how to work with and not against this personality type, and the empowering messages that will make you think twice about how powerful introverts can be.

So what’s my verdict?

I could speak volumes about how much I loved this book, but this post would go on for pages and pages! Quiet is full of eye-opening insights into the biological and psychological anatomy of an Introvert. It’s incredibly in depth and well researched by Cain, who’s knowledge of the subject matter seeps through each page.

But don’t mistake this for a science textbook, Quiet is just as much about the social and human effects introversion can have on individuals as the biological make up of their brains. It celebrates introverts and empowers them to share their trait with the world, because they are just as important as extroverts. Though the book is, obviously, heavily skewed towards an introverted reader, Cain never reverts to anti-extrovert bashing. She encourages a balance between the two, showing how both types of personality has it’s weaknesses and solutions on how they can work in perfect harmony.

As a self-confessed introvert I found myself nodding along to many points she brought up. It was a reassuring read as someone who, for many years, felt this personality trait was a hinderance rather than an enabler (Cain references the fact that introversion is often mislabelled as shyness). The first thought that crossed my mind when I finished was ‘Everyone in the world needs to read this book!’ and my view still holds firm. Quiet was brilliantly written and Cain’s tone felt both unpatronising and incredibly inspiring!

Reading Soundtrack:

Keep Your Head Up: Ben Howard; Voices: Joe Brooks; Long Live: Taylor Swift; I'll Be Ok: McFLY; I Stand: Idina Menzel; New Perspective: Panic! at the Disco

For lovers of

human psychology – in particular the works of Jung and Myers Briggs - as well as Cain's TED Talk on The Power of Introverts.

1 comment

Saturday, 23 November 2013

Group Collaboration | If We Made The Movies

For this month's group post we asked you to put yourself in the director's chair. We wanted to know which books you would love to see come to the big screen, and which existing adaptations you would change. Here's how cinema would look if we were in charge...

movies ria 1

This month's contributors - Ria, Laura, Lucy, Cat, Anjali
Images of actors all via imdb.com
Post & graphics by Erin

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next month's post is all about our Favourite Reads Of 2013! Let us know your choices via Twitter, Goodreads or drop us an email - bloggersbookshelf@gmail.com

1 comment

Friday, 22 November 2013

Another Way To Fall | Amanda Brooke | Review

First of all, I'm going to start this review by saying that I'm not entirely sure why I wanted to read this book. I had it on request from the library, but I can't remember requesting it. I only request books that a review or a recommendation has made me want to read, so I must have wanted to read it at some point. It's fair to say I went into this with a lot of anticipation.

Another Way to Fall is the story of Emma - told after three years of treatment for brain cancer that there is little more that they can do for her, and that her treatment will now be pallative, rather than curative. Emma starts to write about the life she is now denied. As she writes, the lines between fiction and reality start to blur and her story takes on a life of its own.

The story opens with the horrible news that Emma, the protagonist, will die. Before you get to know Emma or any of the supporting characters, you already know what the end of the book will be. I really struggled with this being so early on in the book, as it became very clear that the book was going to be about Emma's death, rather than her life - and on a personal note, I wasn't sure that was a book that I wanted to read.

Each chapter starts with a page or more of Italic writing about Emma, which comes to light is her writing her book about herself. Unfortunately, for me I felt this came across way too late and made the narrative confusing. Past the first few chapters I also found these excerpts fairly boring, and easily skippable as Emma tended to explain to another character what had just happened in them. They were also just too idyllic, which I understand to be the life Emma wanted, but it was just another factor that made them skippable - it is the formula everyone expects their life to go in, so of course you know the next step. Unfortunately, Emma writing her story is the premise of the book... and as I didn't like that, I didn't like the essence of the book.

So it's a shame, because I obviously wanted to read this book enough to reserve a copy of it but it has to be 3/5 stars for me.

This post was written by regular reviewer Kath, get to know her here

1 comment

SLIDER

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.

SOCIAL ICONS

NEWSLETTER

Saturday, 30 November 2013