Totally heartbreaking. Really brutal true crime.

#roll100 well this book was batshit crazy. And I thoroughly enjoyed it! Loved trying to unpick all the metaphor vs reality, a wild ride.

#doublespin for Nov and my new favourite Discworld book! I‘m a bit sad that I‘m nearing the end of this series, it‘s so funny & clever. This one I found particularly good, really enjoyed the character of Moist 😆

It‘s late but read my final #roll100 pick for October. Really enjoyed this retelling of an old Briton myth, I enjoyed the different perspectives, and although the plot wasn‘t a surprise it all kept me entertained!

#bookspin for November and this was WILD. I really enjoyed the story of Nell & how the primer helped to shape her - some interesting concepts here

I haven‘t been as active as I would have liked during #hauntedshelf because… life! But I‘ve enjoyed it regardless and finishing on 500 pts total for #skeletoncrew 🎃👻 happy Halloween!!!

Just. Beautiful.
#roll100 #hauntedshelf #sleletoncrew

A reread for October‘s #doublespin & second time round I still loved it. Properly cosy sci-fi, I really enjoyed the exploration of different gender/sexuality/parenthood etc across different alien species

#hauntedshelf #skeletoncrew

Another book ticked off for #roll100 #hauntedshelf #skeletoncrew this was really unsettling, very sparse, but really built tension. Enjoyed it!

#bookspin for October - LOVED this! So sad, yet uplifting, really makes me want to walk the south west coast path one day!

#hauntedshelf #skeletoncrew

Book club read - I enjoyed this! Always like a small town American novel that really focus in on familial relationships. Behind on collating #hauntedshelf points as been laid up with some horrible cold/flu, but it has let me do a lot of reading, so every cloud!!

Unsurprisingly, given the authors previous book, this was absolutely heartbreaking. So well written, there were a couple of moments where I had to have a little break because it‘s SO. HEAVY. But absolutely beautiful.

And #bookspin #doublespin for October! Looking forward to ticking some off for #hauntedshelf 😁

Another #roll100 read and this was… ok. Like other readers I found the backstory slightly confused and didn‘t really understood what the Wilderwood was or exactly what the point of the Kings was. Probably won‘t read the sequel.

Another non fiction #bookspin and I absolutely loved this! Really entertaining, funny and also super interesting to learn more about a weird little river creature (water voles)!

A bittersweet moment as I finally finish the culture series for September‘s #doublspin
Not my favourite in the series, but still enjoyable! I particularly liked the idea of the elevenstring

Not my favourite Greek retelling, but pretty good, and final #roll100 read for Aug. Like others, I was expecting more from Elektra‘s POV, but actually got a lot of Clytemnestra & Cassandra too (I would like more Cassandra tbh!)

Catching up on the weekends reading- this was my #doublespin for Aug and I found it absolutely riveting! Probably not for everyone but I found it genuinely suspenseful & also enjoyed the extracts from various diaries of those on the original Endurance expedition!

#roll100 read - This was ok. I guessed some of the twists along the way and wasn‘t quite as gripping as some of the reviews make out

#bookspin - and my favourite novel in the Culture series to date (and there‘s only one left!) Brilliant characters, some great twists and turns in the broader, political story, and very entertaining Minds & Ships as always!

A so-so apocalyptic novel for #roll100 - it was quite a good premise but it just didn‘t really grip me..

Final #roll100 read for July and enjoyed this one. Quite slow paced and atmospheric, but I enjoyed the different perspectives and enjoyed it being a bit meandering. And #bookspin #doublespin list done for August!

Scored a line in #bookspinbingo for the first time in months with this one! Really enjoyed it, great character development, and managed to be uplifting even though the subject matter at times was super dark

A soft pick for this #roll100 read (I was really torn between pick & so-so) - I was really into it at first, very reminiscent of NOS4R2 / IT / Stranger Things - but I felt like the author was pushing his agenda a bit too much and also really needed a better edit as there was far too much repetition.

#doublespin LOVED this! I think the Tiffany Aching books might be my new favourites in Discworld. Granny Weatherwax is an utter legend and the Nac Mac Feegle are blooming hilarious

#roll100 - not David Nicholls strongest, but quite sweet

I really enjoyed my #bookspin pick for July - seems to have gotten mixed reviews but I liked this alternate history with a feminist slant, imagining if Britain & Nazi Germany became an alliance. Loved the literary references scattered throughout. It‘s definitely derivative as others have mentioned but still a pick from me!

Final #roll100 read for June and I really enjoyed this slightly-supernatural reimagining of the Donner Party - something I knew nothing about prior and found extremely interesting! A slow burn but that helped ratchet up the tension - really enjoyed it!

#bookspin #doublespin #bookspinbingo

Excited for both picks this month 🤩

Slow, and quite difficult in parts to follow, but some really interesting sections, this fictionalised account of an African dictator makes me feel as if I need to learn more about actual modern African history. #roll100

A really beautiful collection of essays for #doublespin this month - some super short, some extended, all thoughtful and interesting.

#roll100 I always enjoy a book that references Greek tragedy so this was good, but not great. I was expecting some sort of twist or reveal which didn‘t come but good nonetheless!

#bookspin for June - didn‘t really get all the hype with this one - it was ok ands quite funny in parts but felt a bit too try-hard for me..

Thanks so much Lindy for hosting this #buddyread - as others have said, slowing down really enriched this read for me, I read Les Mis last year by doing a chapter a day (pleasingly, it‘s 365 chapters) but I enjoyed even more doing this in step with other readers and getting to share thoughts and opinions!

I was disappointed not to get a last minute twist in the main storyline but nevertheless really enjoyed this one!

Final #roll100 read from the May list. I feel like this would have been really shocking when it first came out but there‘s so much erotica around these days I didn‘t really think it was anything special. Onto the next one!

Finally finished my #doublespin pick for May! This was epic, I really really like the culture series, especially the ones which have a less developed civilisation like this one… almost done with the series!!

Love a retelling of Greek myth! I really enjoyed this interpretation of the Iliad (and a bit before/after) primarily from the POV of Briseis. I‘m not sure how I felt about a book positioned as giving women a voice having some chapters from Achilles POV though. A good #roll100 choice though!

Enjoyed this re-read for #bookspin but had forgotten how bloody long it is! Not quite as good as the witching hour, but good to get more of Lasher‘s history, and also hear more from Julian, whom I LOVE

#roll100 a quirky crime story from comedy legend Bob Mortimer. I enjoyed the ramblings of Gary‘s brain as definitely reminded me of some of Bob‘s stories in ‘would I lie to you‘ not the greatest novel I‘ve ever read but by no means the worst!

Another soft pick for my final match #roll100 read. Really reminded me of The Power in style(with the academic excerpts littered throughout the book). The whole metaphor was a bit heavy handed, I enjoyed the back third or so a lot more than the rest. And my #bookspin #doublespjn #bookspinbingo list for May!

#doublespin this was a re-read for me & I stand by my original conclusion that this is a rare case of the tv show being better than the book. But, it was ok, and I will continue with the series!

A soft pick for my next #roll100 read. I enjoyed the characterisation of the 4 very different sisters, ands this was really different to what I was expecting (in a good way!) Not sure if I will continue the series but this was worth a read.

Trilogy complete for #bookspin ! I enjoyed this one, I liked the twists we got at the end, and I thought it was a pretty satisfying conclusion.

#roll100 first book done. This was ultra violent and lots of twists and turns. It was ok but not amazing, a fair bit of exposition, and also some rampant sexism 🙄

#bookspin #doublespin for April! Only 4 new books on the list as have also been balancing 2 book club reads, and also doing #roll100 - getting to read lots of interesting stuff though! Although my TBR is still not getting any smaller 🙈

Maybe I‘m missing something but I thought this was dreadful. Rubbish pacing, completely ridiculous plot, and I didn‘t really develop any feelings for any of the characters. The one redeeming feature is its short chapters so quick to rattle through but could be at least 100 pages shorter.

Final #roll100 read for March and what a brilliant book this was. Excellent world building and character development, little to no exposition, just really really good fantasy. Keen to read the rest of the series now!

#doublespin was an easy, gentle rom com- not amazing, but not terrible!

Really enjoyed my second #roll100 read for March! A scarily prescient dystopian novel worth an eclectic bunch of characters. Short, far paced, and lots of interesting thoughts on phones, connectedness, robots, nanotechnology and corpocracy.

#bookspin done and I thought this was DREADFUL. I don‘t mind trashy, paranormal fantasy/thriller every once in a while but the main character was vapid, the prose was repetitive, and it really grated on me. I disliked how every other paragraph was about how pretty the MC was & she ‘couldn‘t do anything about it‘. I won‘t be continuing the series, so at least it‘s done now!

First off my #roll100 reads for March - sort but enjoyable, and an insight into French women‘s asylums which is something I knew basically nothing about prior. I found some the construction of some passages a bit odd; you would move on in time (present tense) but then immediately shift to a flashback of something that had happened since the end of the previous chapter - I‘m not sure if that was a symptom of this being translated from the French..