Books I Read in July (ft. Booktube-a-thon Results)

Not sponsored/paid | ARCs clearly defined in accordance with review policy here. 

Hi!

I usually get my round-up posts up during the first week of the month, but I was away with the family for a week so didn't get a chance to update anything - I won't lie, it was GLORIOUS. But, back to reality - and my July reads.

I read 18 books in July.

THE RICK O'SHEA BOOK CLUB

The two choices for July were To Be a Machine by Mark O'Connell and One Bad Turn by Sinéad Crowley.

To Be a Machine by Mark O'Connell
This is a non-fiction account of the author's discovery and interest in Transhumanism. He meets many eccentric people on his journey to find out more about the movement - those involved believe that bodies will eventually be redundant, that our brains will be fed into machines and we will be able to live forever. It's a really interesting book, and the people he meets along the way are fascinating.

LIBRARY BOOKS

Including the book above, I also borrowed these from the library in July:

  

The Book of Chocolate by HP Newquist
I love those How Things are Made programmes so this caught my eye on the Borrowbox app - it's full of information about how chocolate became so popular and mainstream, plus it has stories about some of the major manufacturers and some random facts to file away for a pub quiz (the percentage of chocolate in white chocolate - 0%). I found it really interesting!

The Cows by Dawn O'Porter
I had never read anything by Dawn before (apart from her column) so I was excited to start this - it's the story of three women linked by different events. It's incredibly strange in parts and quite unsettling when you really look at the motivation of one of the women - but covers important subjects (child-free by choice, abortion, hereditary illness, male dominated workplace, going viral, sexuality) and I found it enjoyable.

The Midnight Court by Brian Merriman, translated by Ciaran Carson
I've borrowed this multiple times at this stage - it's a 1,000 line poem written in the 1700s about a man who falls asleep and enters a dream kingdom where men are punished at a fairy court for their reluctance to marry - it's a really lively, satirical poem, full of biting social commentary. This and Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti are my favourite poems (both are freely available to read online).

ADVANCE COPIES

   

Persuading Austen by Brigid Coady
This is a light, sweet read based on Persuasion by Jane Austen. It's about a woman who has ended up being responsible for her entire family, losing the love of her life in the process. She gets a wonderful job opportunity only to discover that said love has the lead role. I read this one afternoon, it was an easy, cosy read.

The Girlfriend by Michelle Frances
I had previously bought this on Kindle, but hadn't read it, and didn't realise it was the same book. It's an engaging thriller about a mother who wants the very best for her only son - is his new girlfriend good enough? I enjoyed this a lot and could see it getting a TV adaptation at some point. Both the mother and girlfriend were strong characters, and this was really well written.

CONTEMPORARY 

 

All The Rage by Courtney Summers

I've had this on my Kindle for a very long time, and decided that the best way to start clearing the backlog was to start reading from the beginning of the list any time I'm stuck for a book. This isn't an easy read - it's about how a sexual assault has changed the life of a teenage girl. Many books focus on the "before" - this is the "after". It's powerful, but it's unsettling. 

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

The blurb on this is a little misleading - it reads as if it's a story about a woman who meets and falls in love with a man, only for a former flame to return and throw a spanner in the works. There's an element of truth to that, but it's also a very real look at a very, very troubled relationship. I don't want to spoil it, but proceed with caution. "Enjoy" would be the wrong word here but it's right up there with my favourites of the year so far. Colleen is fast becoming one of my favourite contemporary authors. 

OTHER READS

  

Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West

This was a wonderful non-fiction read. Lindy talks about fatphobia, online trolls, body acceptance, the diet industry, and feminism. I saw a lot of myself in here, and it's a book I'll go back to again. Highly recommended - this is everything I wanted the horrible Fat is a Feminist Issue to be (and more). 

The Dry by Jane Harper

Set in Australia, our main character Aaron Falk is a Detective who returns to his hometown to attend the funeral of a childhood friend, Luke Hadler, who has taken his own life after murdering his family. Luke's parents think he was framed, and want Aaron to investigate, but do the townsfolk really want Aaron back, considering they ran he and his father out of town many years before? Really enjoyed this. It goes back and forth between the present day case and an event that destroyed the town years before. 

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

I really enjoyed both of this author's previous books (In a Dark Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10) so I pre-ordered this. It took me an age to read - far longer than usual. It's about a woman who gets a text from a childhood friend asking for help - so she travels to her immediately, as do their other two friends. An event that took place when the girls were teenagers has come back to haunt them, and they might be exposed as the liars they are...  I didn't really enjoy this, I feel like it was drawn out and boring. But, other people seem to disagree so give it a go if you like back-and-forth mysteries. 

BOOKTUBE-A-THON

This year, Booktube-a-thon took place from July 24th - 30th and for the first time since I joined up in 2014, I managed to complete all seven challenges. You can see my post about planning my Booktube-a-thon reads here. I stuck to my TBR for the most part, only swapping out two books. 

Read about a character different to you: When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon 

The main characters are Indian-American teens who attend a summer camp aimed at those interested in app development and technology. Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole pile of app development - instead, we had a ridiculous talent show and a whole heap of Insta-love. I didn't enjoy it, but I did enjoy the learning experience. 

Read a book in one day:  Juniper Lemon's Happiness Index by Julie Israel

This was also the book that Ariel picked as the "group read" for Booktube-a-thon this year. It's a contemporary YA book about a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her sister. She uses index cards to journal her days - and then she loses one. I really, really liked this book - it was touching and sweet. 

Read a seventh book: Margot & Me by Juno Dawson

A cute YA novel about a teenage girl who goes to stay with her estranged Grandmother along with her mother who is recuperating from cancer. While there, the girl finds her Gran's old diary from when she was a teenager - and realises that perhaps, they're not so different. I adored the diary chapters, I'd recommend it for those alone. The present-day story was a bit bland, but otherwise it was a good read. 

Read a book outside: Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Brian K Vaughn

It's very hard to not compare this graphic novel to Stranger Things - there are gangs of teenagers on bikes, in the 80's, and some kind of alien presence - I really loved this, and I've Vol.2 ready to go from the library. 

Read a hyped book: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

I only started reading books by this author this year, and am a fan of her ACOTAR series. They're young adult fantasy novels, and this, her other series, has been mentioned so many times that I've lost count. I finally went for it - and immediately got sucked in to the world of Celaena, an assassin released from prison to participate in a test to become the King's Champion.

Read a book with a person on the cover: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

The second I finished the first book in the series, I wanted to drop everything and move on to book two - so I did, using it for this prompt. This one continues Celaena's story, and is full of action and adventure like the first one. It's a fun series to read and I'll happily see the series out. 

Read a book you bought for the cover: She is not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick

I saw this in Charlie Byrne's last year and was drawn to the cover immediately - it's a neat little hardback with that amazing picture on the dust jacket. I had read another book by that author and found him quirky, so picked this up. It's about a blind girl who travels to the US with her younger brother to find their Dad, they think something really weird is going on and that their Dad is in danger. It was a strange book - I could have done without the "events" in America (the Dad's story was weird enough). Great premise, very clever, but let down by the poor plot. 

So - there we go, that was my July in books. I'm up to almost 100 books for the year now, and I think that'll start to wane a little as we come into crafting season - but for now I'll plough on and see you in September for the August round up (there are some absolute corkers on the way). 

Booktube-a-thon 2017 Information & TBR

Nothing to Disclose

Hi!

It's that time of the year again already! This will be my fourth year taking part - essentially it's a week long Readathon kicked off by Ariel Bissett that includes YouTube challenges, Instagram challenges, Twitter reading sprints, competitions - it's a great community event (the community just happen to be scattered all over the world). I love seeing this grow, it gets bigger and better every year. It's so heartwarming to see more and more young people develop a love of reading.

This year it will run from July 24th - 30th (so midnight on the Friday night to midnight on the following Sunday night). I'm away for one day so hopefully I'll be able to fit all the challenges into six days! I haven't managed to complete all seven challenges since the first year I took part.

You can see my posts from previous years here:

2014: Wrap Up
2015: Wrap Up
2016: Wrap Up

The prompts for this year are good, I'm excited for most of them (one of them less so):

There's one "official" book this year, a book that has been chosen for everyone to read if they'd like to. I think that's a nice idea, to include something that loads of us can read at the same time. I'm not telling you which one it is, but you can watch the Booktube-a-thon channel to find out!

Here are my picks this year:

  

  

Will I be able to read them all in under a week? Probably not. Will I lose my reading mojo and sit in despair for most of the week? Probably. Will I change my mind multiple times and end up reading only one on this list? Possibly. Will I forget completely about twitter sprints and end up coming in for the last few minutes? Every.Single.Year. But - it's so much fun.

So - are you going to join in this year? You don't have to be a Blogger or YouTuber, you don't have to buy anything, you don't have to complete the challenges. It's about reading together, trying to read more, and enjoying books together all over the world.

If you're taking part, please let me know!

Booktube-a-thon 2016 Wrap up and Reflection

Not Sponsored or Paid | No Samples

Hi!

So, Booktube-a-thon 2016 is over. It was a fantastic week - the sense of community was amazing. Just check the #booktubeathon hashtag on any social media platform and you'll see hundreds of people encourage each other - it was beautiful.

This year I participated in nearly all of the twitter sprints (except the ones that happened at 3am my time) and almost all of the instagram challenges. Here were my instagram entries for six of the contests:

You may remember from this post that there were seven challenges this year. Here were the prompts:

Originally, I had chosen:

* The End of the World Running Club by Adrian J Walker
* Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge
* Change Places With Me by Lois Metzger
* Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
* The Beetle by Richard Marsh
* Mermaids by Patty Dann
* A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

This changed a bit towards the end of the week. I wasn't in the humour for The End of the World Running Club, so I swapped it out for a Patrick Ness book. I also realised that with visitors on Saturday, a party on Saturday night and a day out on Sunday, I wasn't going to be able to fit in the Karin Slaughter - so I swapped that out for an audiobook by Stephen King. I didn't fancy A Man Called Ove either, so I changed that for a smaller book, by Mary Downing Hahn. Overall, I managed 6 (and a bit) books this year, which is better than last year! I didn't watch Mermaids in movie form, I know it off by heart at this stage and had intended to watch it again but completely forgot.

My favourite parts of the readathon this year were the daily twitter sprints, I loved the feeling of communal reading. We were scattered all over the world, we were in different time zones, we were reading different books in different languages, but we were all reading together at the same time.

I really loved the Instagram challenges too, I've found some gorgeous new accounts to follow. The YouTube entries were great, so creative!

I loved this week, and I can't wait for the next one. Well done to Ariel and everyone involved, and thank you!

Booktube-a-thon 2016 Information & TBR

Not Sponsored or Paid | No Samples | No ARCs

Hi!

Booktube-a-thon is one of my favourite things of the whole year. Seriously, I think about it from January on - it's an annual celebration of books and reading, created and hosted by Ariel Bissett - it's just a lovely week where everyone tries to read more, interact with other readers, and share lots of book love. This year, it's running from July 18th - 24th.

For information on what Booktube-a-thon is, have a look at this years information video.



Even though the week is predominantly based around YouTube, you do NOT have to be a Booktuber to take part. You don't even have to blog. You just have to love books and reading. Every year this gets bigger and bigger, and I would love to see more people from Ireland and the UK taking part.

Every year, there are seven challenges. I really love the challenge prompts this year!

Here are my choices:

A book with yellow on the cover - The End of the World Running Club by Adrian J. Walker
A book that must only be read after sunset - Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge
A book I discovered through BookTube - Change Places With Me by Lois Metzger (discovered this via Emily May's Goodreads but she does YouTube too so that totally counts)
A book by one of my favourite authors - Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
A book older than me - The Beetle by John Marsh (written 1897)
A book and movie - Mermaids by Patty Dann, movie starring Cher & Winona Ryder
A seventh book - A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Will I manage seven books this Booktube-a-thon? I definitely didn't manage to complete it last year, but I went over the year before. The worst thing that could happen is that I get stuck on something boring and it takes my reading mojo with it (exactly what happened last year) but keep an eye on the Booktube-a-thon YouTube or Twitter if you want to participate with challenges and readalongs!

Please let me know if you're taking part this year and I'll update the post to include links if you post about it!

Books I Read in August, Book Haul & Booktube-a-thon 2015 Results

Hi!

August kicked off with the Booktube-a-thon (previous post about that here) - out of the 7 books I hoped to read, I managed to get through 5. I could have read all 7 but I completely lost my reading mojo after getting stuck on a book that was really boring (more about that in a bit). Apart from that, I read 5 others - bringing my August total to 10.

It was a poor reading month for me (considering I read 7 of these books in the first ten days of the month) - when I lose interest in reading I really lose it and don't want to go near books for weeks. It happens a few times a year so hopefully it's full steam ahead now for September!

As always with these round up posts, if you want to read my original Goodreads review for each or any book, visit the Books 2015 page and click on an individual book cover to go to that review.

Rick O'Shea Book Club Pick

This month it was a choice between Paul Murray's The Mark and the Void or Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. I chose the latter, and I just finished it at the start of September. The protagonist, Christopher, is fifteen years old and has Aspergers Syndrome. The book is told from Christopher's POV. His neighbour's dog has been murdered - this is the catalyst for a chain of events that leads Christopher to discover all is not as it seems within his family. This is a fantastic portrayal of someone with Aspergers - not something I'm familiar with, I was fascinated by the way Christopher's brain worked. I liked the book a lot.

Booktube-a-thon 2015

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
This classic coming-of-age tale has been around for decades, but I'm only getting to it at the grand old age of 32. Margaret Simon, aged 12, recently moved to a new town and is shocked by the way the other girls talk about boys, boobs and periods. Feeling a bit lost, Margaret turns to God for the chats. This was okay - it was a bit rushed and nobody was particularly well developed (pardon the pun) apart from Margaret. But it's worth a read - I mean, it's Judy.

Memoirs of a Fruitcake by Chris Evans
This is the book that killed my mojo. Having had such an enjoyable reading experience with Chris' earlier autobiography It's Not What You Think, I had high hopes for the follow-up - what I got was a mind-numbingly boring account of how a very rich man spent all his money. I just didn't like this at all - it was pretentious and it wasn't enjoyable. Chris himself seems to be a lovely man, this was just at a period in his life where he was flinging money around, forgetting he bought houses, and it didn't make for a relateable or entertaining read. This took me the guts of a week to read, and considering this was during a week-long challenge, it wasn't ideal. I'd recommend the first book but you don't need to read this.

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
The premise for this was brilliant - a teenage girl with a disease that means she could be infected by anything outside of her own house. Inside her home is sterilised, it's safe - but Madeline has never been outside. When a new boy moves in next door they begin connecting via Instant Message but when things look like they're progressing, what can Madeline do about it when she can't even leave her home? I didn't like the direction this book took towards the end, it seemed to turn from an inventive, new concept to a typical YA romance but it was worth a read and it was enjoyable.

The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
If you haven't read anything by Donal Ryan I'd very much encourage you to go and rectify that as soon as possible. His writing is edible, especially if you grew up in small-town Ireland. His descriptions, his turn of phrase, his characters - this tale about a community of people in post-recession Ireland connected in various ways had a real Pure Mule feel about it and I wanted to read it again the minute I put it down.

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad
Set in the near future, NASA decide to boost popularity for a new lunar expedition by selecting three teenagers to join the astronauts on the mission to moon base DARLAH 2. They want to investigate something under the guise of a 50th moon landing anniversary - when the teenagers get there, they realise that NASA have not been entirely honest with them, and that something very sinister is going on. I liked this a lot - it's definitely a YA book but it's a great concept and was written really well. I got vibes of Hugh Howey's Wool or Marcus Sedgwick's The Ghosts of Heaven from it so if either of those floated your boat, give this a go.

Fiction

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
This is such a clever little book - set in an Orsk store that sells knock-offs of IKEA products, Amy is an employee that gets roped into doing an all-night spying exercise with some other employees and her horrible manager after some items in the store have been damaged. Perfect black comedy for those who have ever worked in retail, this takes a really dark twist in the middle and goes down the horror/gore route. No issue with that, but I do wish it had retained some of the comedy. Great social commentary, brilliant illustrations, fantastic concept, but the quality of the horror let it down.

You by Caroline Kepnes
Joe works at a book shop. One day, he notices a woman named Guinevere Beck in the shop and becomes fascinated with her - his obsession reaches dangerous levels as he begins to slowly make sure that Guinevere is dependent on him. This is written from Joe's POV - a brave choice, but I just didn't like it that much. There's a lot of swearing (the C word - not the Santa one, the BAD one is used to describe both female genitalia and as a swear word), plus the whole thing left me with a nasty feeling. Was I supposed to feel sympathy for Joe at any point? Because I didn't. I felt like Guinevere (or Beck, as she's known) was made out to be a slut, a tramp, therefore had all this coming to her. Probably (and hopefully) not the intention but I just didn't like it. It definitely made me more aware of what I put on social media, it's frightening how easy it is for strangers to track your every move even from a few seemingly harmless tweets. This just didn't hit the spot for me thriller-wise.

The Boy Between by Susan Stairs
This is Susan's second book, it's the tale of a daughter trying to uncover a family secret. Set in modern day Ireland, Orla can't make it home for Christmas because of the Big Freeze of 2010. When she finally gets home, her mother is even more dejected than she feared - the second half of the year has always been hard for Orla's mother, but nobody will tell her why. In a moment of desperation, her father hands her a photograph of her parents the year Orla was born - in the photograph, there's a teenage boy with white-blonde curly hair. Orla has never seen him before, but when her father clams up, she sets off on a journey to discover more about the boy and whether or not his identity will prove to be the key that unlocks the sadness within her mother. We get the boy's story here, revealed in every second chapter. It's a beautiful, sad tale about love, loss, grief, and hope. Really good and recommended.

Book Haul

I visited Amazon to get the Mark Haddon book for Book Club, and saw that it was in the 3 for £10 deal. Now - here is my logic for this next photo. Amazon offer free shipping over £25. So that's the 3 for £10 deal twice. There's still £5 to make up - but for another £5, you can have THREE more. So I got three more. And a single one. I won't be doing that again for a while until the exchange rate improves, but for now I'm happy with my shiny new books! Also in the photo there are some beautiful books from ROADS publishing that I received for review, but they'll get their own post soon. I placed a small Book Depository order earlier in the month as well, so those two books are in the picture too. Most of the ones I ordered from Amazon are Richard & Judy Summer Reads. I've only read two so far but I'll give a brief synopsis of each one in case you want to take advantage of the offer.

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker
15 year old Nola Kerrigan disappears in New Hampshire in 1975. 33 years later, her body is dug up from the yard of author Harry Quebert, along with a copy of his manuscript. It's up to his student, Marcus Goldman, to clear Harry's name and find out what really happened.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Adapted from a Russain fairytale, this is set in the 1920s in remote Alaska where a couple have moved to the wilderness after suffering a loss. One night, the wife makes a child from snow - the next day, the child is gone, but they begin to see a little girl around the farm.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Bachman
Ove is an incredibly grumpy man who passes his time doing "rounds" of the neighbourhood to point out the stupididy of his neighbours, but is there more to Ove than meets the eye?

Her by Harriet Lane
A tale of two very different women with two very different lifestyles - but their paths have crossed before, and though one may not remember.........the other does.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt
An epic modern classic about a group of eccentric classmates studying classics at a New England college and how their lives are changed by a terrible secret.

The Children Act by Ian McEwan
A novel about a 17 year old boy refusing life-saving medical treatment and the Judge who must decide on the case.

The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
The book upon which The Village of the Damned was based. A silver object falls from the sky one day and all the town residents fall unconscious. The next day, the object is gone, but every woman in the town is pregnant with a blonde, blue-eyed child. I ordered this from Book Depository.

The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
Set in a small rural town in the aftermath of Celtic Tiger Ireland, tensions and tempers are high and  violence is inevitable. When an incident occurs, several different people connected in some way are given a voice and given their say. Nobody gets a second chapter, but the truth gradually comes to light. If you've read Ryan's The Thing About December, Johnsey's story is mentioned and we find out what happened afterwards. Also ordered from Book Depository.

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
Set in London in 1922, an impoverished widow and her spinster daughter take in lodgers that change their lives in unforseen ways.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
A fifteen year old boy with Asperger's Syndrome sets out to solve the mystery of how his neighbour's dog was murdered.

The Humans by Matt Haig
Professor Andrew Martin is not feeling himself after an incident one Friday night - he appears to be annoyed, irritated, and frustrated with every aspect of the human race. What could have changed him so much?

A Song for Issy Bradley by Carys Bray
The Bradleys are, in every respect, a normal family. The 16 year old is in love, the 13 year old dreams of playing football professionally, the 7 year old believes in miracles. His Dad does too - but the Mum finds it hard to believe in anything after losing Issy, in fact she finds it hard to get out of bed.

I'll cover the ROADS books in a post of their own, they deserve their own post.

So - spot anything you like, or have you read any of these?

Where the hell do I start?!

Booktube-a-thon 2015 - Information & TBR!

Hi!

You may remember me talking about Booktube-a-thon last year, but if not, here's a quick synopsis. Booktube-a-thon is a week long readathon, hosted by Ariel Bissett and a host of other booktubers. It's a week of challenges, quizzes, reading sprints, and general bookish fun. You don't have to be a booktuber or book blogger to join in, anyone of any age can take part, it's all about challenging yourself to read more and having some fun along the way. This year, it begins at the stroke of midnight TONIGHT your time, wherever you are in the world. That's August 3rd, and it ends at the stroke of midnight your time on August 9th, next Sunday night.

Find out more:

Official Booktube-a-thon Youtube Channel
Official Booktube-a-thon Twitter
Official Booktube-a-thon Instagram

My Booktube-a-thon posts from last year are here.

This year, Ariel has set a whole new host of challenges! Here they are:

I've been putting my TBR pile together for a few days now, and here are my choices. You don't have to pick a different book for every challenge, you can double up - for example, if you have a book you really want to read that has blue on the cover? That's challenges 6 AND 1 completed.

• A book with blue on the cover: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
• A book by an author who shares the first letter of your last name: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (think it's about time, don't you?)
• Someone else's favourite book: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (Margaret from Bleach House Library's favourite book)
• The last book you acquired: Memoirs of a Fruitcake by Chris Evans

• Finish a book without letting go of it: Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret by Judy Blume (should be able to do this in one sitting when the kids are in bed)
• A book you really want to read: 172 Hours on the Moon by Johann Harstad
• A seventh book: The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan

If you're taking part in Booktube-a-thon 2015 please let me know! I know that Chloe, Breige, Paula and possibly Róisín are taking part so do keep an eye on their blogs too. My 10 year old is going to try some of the challenges too, I love seeing children read so I'll let him write his own little review next week on how he got on. 

Let's do this!!

Booktube-a-thon 2014: Results!

Hi!

Now, firstly, I don't want this to come across as a "look at me, I'm great, look how much I can read in a week" type thing. When I go into reading mode, as I call it, I literally spend every spare second reading. Always have done, I used to pull all-nighters with a pile of library books when I was a child. So seriously, it's just the way I do it - I'm not trying to one-up anyone. I'm genuinely just a fast reader & I just really love talking books!

So - you may remember in my last post, I talked about Booktube-a-thon 2014. It ran from July 14th-21st, and it was an epic collaboration between several booktubers, bloggers and readers all over the world. Everyone involved did an amazing job, and I even got to take part in a few twitter sprints when the boys took their afternoon nap. The sprints were really fun, they had challenges like "read for 15 minutes and find a weapon in your story" or "you're getting hungry, list all the food you find over the next 10 minutes" - it was great to feel like part of a community with other people all reading at the same time from many different parts of the world.

Here's a quick recap of the challenges:

• Read a book and watch the film adaptation. DONE
• Read a book with the colour red on the cover. DONE
• Read a book chosen by someone else. DONE
• Start and finish a series. DONE
• Read a book with pictures. DONE
• Read a book from the genre you've read least from this year. DONE
• Read 7 books and/or 300 pages a day. DONE

As Chloe mentioned in her results post, I think this really proved just how much you can read if you put your mind to it. I've had books on my TBR (to be read) list for years - I could easily scratch some of them off the list if I wanted to do this again. It was definitely intense - I didn't watch any TV all week (not that I missed it) and I read when the boys were napping or while I was giving them bottles. I had a few 5am starts so that definitely helped to get more reading in! I'm totally burnt out after it though, the leg even fell off my glasses on Monday morning (genuinely, just plopped off) so I won't be doing the whole book-a-day thing again any time soon. Here's what I read:

Monday: I read "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman and started "Where She Went" by the same author.
Tuesday: I finished "Where She Went" (completing the series challenge) and read "Rosemary's Baby" by Ira Levin (half of the book/movie challenge). I started "Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell that night (red on the cover).
Wednesday: I finished "Fangirl" and read the first few chapters of "In the Shadow of Blackbirds" by Cat Winters (a book with pictures included).
Thursday: I finished "In the Shadow of Blackbirds", read "Bossypants" by Tina Fey (least-read genre) and started "Butter" by Erin Jade Lange (chosen by someone else).
Friday: I finished "Butter", thus completing all the reading challenges for Booktube-a-thon!

I really, really enjoyed "Butter", "Fangirl" and "Rosemary's Baby". I liked "In the Shadow of Blackbirds" a lot, it was a nice unique little book and the photographs were great. I did like "If I Stay", but I didn't like "Where She Went" as much. I was most disappointed by "Bossypants" - but I think I'd built it up in my head to be this amazingly unputdownable laugh-a-mintue read, and it wasn't. I really enjoyed the last 40-50 pages of it, but I found some of the TV sections boring. I'd wager that's because I've never seen the shows nor have I any interest in them, but for fans of Tina's TV work I can see how it would be really enjoyable. She definitely doesn't hold back on behind-the-scenes information like some celebrities (coughMelissaJoanHartcough). I was so happy to have finished the challenges this year because I missed out on the entire Booktube-a-thon last year and I was raging.

I had a few Netgalley requests granted, and I had a new book pre-ordered on Amazon that arrived on my Kindle at midnight on Saturday, so I kept reading.

From Friday to Sunday, I also read:

Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris - I tried to read this before I knew anything about David Sedaris and I didn't get it at all. I saw it on my reader and it was really short, so I read it and knocked a good laugh out of it, as with all of Sedaris' work. I think there are collections of Christmas stories marketed under the same name, but mine is the one with the cover above and only has the short stories about his time as a 33 year old Macy's Christmas Elf.

Tape by Steven Camden - This was a request granted on Netgalley. The idea was so good - a 13 year old girl moves in with her Grandmother after her parents die. While rooting around the spare room, she finds a tape. Back in 1993, Ryan records a tape about things that are happening in his life. How are they connected? The one thing that annoyed me the most about this book was the lack of quotation marks to show dialogue. A phone conversation is written like this: - Hello. No. What do you mean she wasn't there. Was she there. Are you kidding me. Are you messing with me. Yes. Okay. See you tomorrow. (not actual dialogue, but you get the idea). Conversations are like this (also not actual dialogue):
Ameliah walked into the kitchen. Her Grandmother was chopping carrots.
- Hello dear, are you hungry?
- Not really.
- Did you eat?
- No.
- You must be hungry.
- I said, I'm not.
- What are your plans for tonight?
- No plans.
I found it incredibly hard to read and hard to follow. My heart broke when I got to the end (seriously, when I didn't fling this at the wall at 58% it's a miracle) and read that the author had been dreaming about this story since he was 10 - it must be a dream come true for him but my god, it was a chore to read. I do hope younger teenagers enjoy it.

The Rain by Virginia Bergin
This is a YA (young adult) novel. It's a genre that I've been getting into more & more lately, the writing is generally so good and the genre has come a hell of a long way since the nineties. I requested this on Netgalley but got turned down - I really, really wanted to read it so I pre-ordered it on Amazon and it arrived at midnight on the release date. Ruby Morris is a typical 15 year old teenager - loves her phone, her friends, tea, doesn't really like her Stepdad, whinges a bit, and has a massive crush on a boy at school. She has just locked lips with said boy at a party when it starts to rain - and the parents of the party-thrower freak out. All the guests are rushed inside, because this is no ordinary rainshower - it's a national emergency. One drop of this rain will kill you within 3 hours, in a grotesque and painful way. Ruby is a brilliant heroine, because she's real! She doesn't automatically turn into a brave Superhero. She bitches and whinges and moans about the inconvenience of the killer rain and the fact that she has to use a bucket as a toilet. There are hilariously funny moments - like her reasoning behind looting a shop - but also some very touching ones, like the scenes with Simon, her Stepdad. It's a brilliant book and one that demonstrates how worthy the Young Adult genre is of its increasing popularity among older readers.

I watched the movie version of Rosemary's Baby on Sunday - as I predicted, I found it much harder to find time to sit and watch a movie than I did to read! The movie stayed very true to the book, there were only minor differences and I enjoyed watching it. I will track down more of the same genre.

So there it is - over for another year! I loved every second of it, and I look forward to Booktube-a-thon 2015. Thanks so much to Ariel and all involved for making it such a fun experience.

I'll leave you with one last picture - the definition of WINNING at a car boot sale. €3 for all these - I nearly took hand and all off her.

Please check out the blogs below to see how some other Irish bloggers got on! If you took part, please link me so I can add you.

Chloe
Breige
Róisín

Booktube-a-thon 2014 TBR List!

Hi!

I'm so excited, the Booktube-a-thon 2014 starts TONIGHT. That's just over 12 hours until it all kicks off - wherever you are in the world, it starts on the stroke of midnight your time (when the 13th becomes the 14th) and ends next Sunday night (when the 20th becomes the 21st). I don't know if I'll be able to do much reading tonight, but I've definitely got my game face on for the next week (this all depends entirely on my babies, I may not even finish one book - but I'm going to give it my best shot!!).

If you want to take part, get yourself over to the official Booktube-a-thon 2014 channel, hosted at the moment by organizer Ariel Bissett, but with different guest hosts all week. If you do videos, there are challenges you can take part in specifically for booktubers or avid readers with a youtube channel. For the rest of us, there are challenges and twitter sprints - the sprints this year are going to be 12 hours apart, and they're little bursts where everyone participating in the Booktube-a-thon gets together on twitter at set times and reads as much as they can. For those of us in GMT, the sprints are from 3am-7am (not a hope) and 3pm-7pm(totally depends on the twins). You can find the booktube-a-thon twitter here.

This year, The Book Depository have also gotten involved. They're offering a 10% discount when you use the code BookTubeAThon on this list of 100 books chosen by booktubers.

On to the reading challenges and my TBR list!

The Challenges

Start and Finish a series. This can be a series of 2,3,5, 10 books - go wild.
Read a book with pictures. This can be a graphic novel or any book with photographs in it.
Read a book with red on the cover. As long as it has something red on the cover, it counts.
Read a book someone else has picked for you.
Read a book from the genre you've read least this year.
Read a book that's been adapted into a movie, AND watch the movie.
Read 7 books and/or 300 pages a day.

You can double up on the challenges (for example reading a graphic novel with red on the cover completes two challenges) but you can't use the same book for more than two challenges.

I really wanted to pick books from my ever-growing TBR (to be read) list, so here's what I picked.

Read a book and watch the movie: Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin. I've never read this, and I've never seen the movie - I've wanted to read the book since I saw Chloe's review, so I'm looking forward to this one.

Read a book from the genre you've read least this year: Bossypants by Tina Fey. I haven't read any biographies yet this year, and it's a genre I really enjoy. I've been meaning to read this for ages, so I can finally get into it.

Read a book someone else has picked for you: I have a list of books I own but haven't read in my notebook, so I tweeted out for one of my twitter followers to pick a number. 11 was the first reply, and #11 on my list is Butter by Erin Jade Lange. (thanks Liloo!)

Read a book with pictures in it: I was going to pick the second Miss Peregrine book but I don't have it yet, and I really wanted to avoid buying books specifically for this challenge. I had a look through my reader and found this one, In The Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters.

Read a book with red on the cover: For this, I picked Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, because I really, really want to read it. Even if the writing is more pink, that guy there has red on his shirt. RED. Done.

Start and finish a series: With the exception of Veronica Roth's Divergent trilogy, I have never finished a trilogy in under a week, never mind try and read 4 others as well. I want to try my best to complete the challenges so I picked a series with two books, Gayle Forman's If I Stay and Where She Went.

I think they're all pretty realistic aims, the 7 books just have 2,111 pages in total (according to Goodreads stats - yes, I added them all up) which is just about 300 pages a day. I mainly read at night so it should be fairly do-able. To be honest, getting time to watch the movie will be more challenging than the reading!!

I know that Breige, Róisín and Chloe are also taking part. I'm not aware of any other Irish or UK bloggers who are getting involved, so please do let me know if you're planning on taking part!

I really wish this was around when I was a teenager and had the energy for book all-nighters. Even the thoughts of trying to stay up until midnight to start this on time has me yearning for a disco nap. You young 'uns don't know how lucky you are! Now, where are my slippers?