What's Up Wednesday! | 23/07/14

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk as a way for writers and readers to stay in touch!

What I'm Reading

On Friday I finished reading The Penelopiad and I really, really enjoyed it, but since then I haven't picked anything up. I still haven't read any more of Deadline - which is killing me because I so want to carry on with the Newsflesh trilogy - but right now I have so much work to do I feel guilty if I read for pleasure.

However, as I mentioned last week, this week is the Underhyped Read-A-Thon (I'll leave a link to the blog post I wrote about it here) and I'd really like to try and take part even if I only read one book. I gave myself a TBR but I'm notorious for not sticking to TBRs, and since making that TBR I've discovered I have quite a lot of books with less than 1,000 ratings on Goodreads, which is how I'm classifying a book as underhyped. So before the end of the week I'm either going to pick up White Star by Robin Llywelyn, Vivian Versus the Apocalypse by Katie Coyle or Devoured by D. E. Meredith - they're all pretty short reads!

What I'm Writing

I'm still working away on my portfolio - in fact I'm still working on those climactic scenes!

What Inspires Me Right Now

On Sunday my parents picked me up and brought me down to their house in South Wales for a couple of weeks, and it's so nice to just be able to relax for a bit while I do my work. I love being back in my big bed and I love my parents' cooking!

What Else I've Been Up To

On Saturday myself and a couple of my friends went to Manchester Comic Con! It was so much fun. We queued for two hours in the pouring rain but it was so worth it. I took a bunch of pictures of some amazing cosplayers - which I will share with all of you when I get around to writing up a post about Comic Con! - and I went to a panel featuring James Cosmo (Commander Mormont) and Ross Mullan (the whitewalker) from Game of Thrones and I even got the chance to ask them a question, it was so cool!

We also saw Warwick Davis and Hannah Spearritt (which was very exciting for a 90's child who loved S Club 7) and then there were all the amazing stalls. It was just so much fun! I'd hoped to buy myself a Pop! figure but sadly they were all £10 and as someone who was on a budget for the day I just couldn't afford to spend £10 on one thing.

That doesn't mean I didn't treat myself, though! I got myself a pair of unicorn earrings, a Cortez medallion and a Wolfsbane necklace which is just GORGEOUS.

Basically Saturday was amazing - I'd forgotten how fun conventions are!

What's new with you?

TBR | #UnderHypedReads

Tomorrow marks the start of the Underhyped Read-A-Thon - and if you're not too sure what that is I wrote a blog post about it here! - so I figured I might as well share with you the books I'm going to try and read. I say 'try' because I'm in the middle of working on my portfolio so I might not have much time to read, but I think this is such a good idea for a read-a-thon that I at least want to try!

It's up to each individual how they define a book as 'underhyped' - I've decided to try and get through some of the books on my shelves that have less than 1,000 ratings on Goodreads.

Witchstruck

by Victoria Lamb

Number of ratings on Goodreads: 620

Meg Lytton has always known of her dark and powerful gift. Raised a student of the old magick by her Aunt Jane, casting the circle to see visions of the future and concocting spells from herbs and bones has always been as natural to Meg as breathing. But there has never been a more dangerous time to practise the craft, for it is 1554, and the sentence for any woman branded a witch is hanging, or burning at the stake.

Sent to the ruined, isolated palace of Woodstock to serve the disgraced Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and half-sister of Queen Mary, Meg discovers her skills are of interest to the outcast princess, who is desperate to know if she will ever claim the throne. But Meg's existence becomes more dangerous every day, with the constant threat of exposure by the ruthless witchfinder Marcus Dent, and the arrival of a young Spanish priest, Alejandro de Castillo, to whom Meg is irresistibly drawn - despite their very different attitudes to her secret.

Burn Mark

by Laura Powell

Number of ratings on Goodreads: 807

In a modern world where witches are hunted down and burned at the stake, two lives intersect. Glory is from a family of witches, and is desperate to develop her 'Fae' powers and become a witch herself, though witch-activity carries a threat of being burned at the stake. Lucas is the son of the Chief Prosecutor for the Inquisition with a privileged life very different from the witches he is being trained to prosecute. And then one day, both Glory and Lucas develop the Fae. In one fell stroke, their lives are inextricably bound together.

White Star

by Robin Llywelyn

Number of ratings on Goodreads: 9

"White Star is the first translation into English of Robin Llywelyn's award-winning novel Seren Wen ar Gefndir Gwyn. A hilarious romp through the fears and fortunes of three unlikely heroes out to save the world." Gwern started the war. By mistake. He and his friends, Pilgrim and Saffron Tinker, are trying hard to put things right. Perhaps a little too hard. Their journey takes them across Sunless Summer to the badlands on a diet of ice locust sandwiches. They get promoted as diplomats and even manage fifteen minutes as fighter pilots. As the evil Empire of the Heartless Bodies threatens to conquer the High Country, Gwern, Pilgrim and Saffron Tinker are learning a lot about allegiance.

This last book I may get out from my local library if I happen to see it there:

The Hunters

by Chris Kuzneski

Number of ratings on Goodreads: 382

The Hunters: a team of renegades - an ex-military leader, a historian, a computer whiz, a weapons expert and a thief - financed by a billionaire philanthropist are tasked with finding the world's most legendary treasures. 

The Mission: recover a vast Romanian treasure that was stolen by the Russians nearly a century ago. Fearing a Germany victory in World War 1, the Romanian government signed a deal to guarantee the safety of the country's most valuable artifacts until after the war. In 1916 two treasure trains full of gold and the most precious objects of the Romanian state - paintings, jewellery from the Royal family, ancient Dacien artifacts - were sent to the underground vaults in the Kremlin only to be lost to the Romanian people forever as Russia severed all diplomatic relations with the country and scattered the treasure to its outlying regions. With a haul valued at over $3.5 billion dollars, everyone wants to claim the vast treasure but its location has remained a mystery, until now.

Are you taking part in the Underhyped Read-A-Thon? What are you planning to read?

J.

The Underhyped Read-a-thon | #UnderHypedReads

I imagine plenty of us in the book blogging world are familiar with our vlogging counterparts over on booktube, and I imagine a lot of you are going to be taking part in the BookTube-A-Thon which starts tomorrow. I love the BookTube-A-Thon and I think it's a great idea, but right now I have a little too much work to do to warrant a read-a-thon with so many different challenges.

Earlier today, however, I came across the announcement for an Underhyped Read-a-thon (which you can find here) and I thought it was a great idea! I'm not really the kind of reader who stays on top of the current trends any more - there are so many popular books I haven't read or tried to read and didn't like, so the majority of my favourite books are books barely anyone else seems to have heard of. Particularly because I haven't come across that many bloggers or vloggers who read historical fiction as often as I do. They must be out there, I just need to find them!

It will be running from the 21st-27th of July, and the challenge is to read as many underhyped books as you can! It's up to you how you classify underhyped, but I've decided to give myself the challenge of only reading books (or book, I don't know how much reading I'm going to get done!) with less than 1,000 ratings on Goodreads.

I'm in the middle of working on my MA portfolio right now so I have no idea how much reading I'm going to get done, so for now I've decided there are three books I own that I'm going to try and read during that week, and they are: Witchstruck by Victoria Lamb, Burn Mark by Laura Powell, and White Star by Robin Llywelyn.

This read-a-thon is being hosted by Charlotte/RamblingsofanElfpire, who you can find here, here and here! There's also a group on Goodreads for this read-a-thon, which you can find here!

I think it's a great idea to spread some love for some of the underhyped books on our shelves.

Will you be taking part?

J.

Wales in Fiction!

Happy St David's Day/Dydd Gŵyl Dewi!

I'm not Welsh, but my parents, my sister and my niece all live in South Wales, and I feel like Welsh Fiction - whether it's fiction written in Welsh, written by the Welsh, or simply set in Wales - doesn't get enough recognition.

So today I thought I'd share with you five books, all of which are still on my TBR shelf, to spread a bit of Welsh love!

The Mabinogion

Celtic mythology, Arthurian romance, and an intriguing interpretation of British history--these are just some of the themes embraced by the anonymous authors of the eleven tales that make up the Welsh medieval masterpiece known as the Mabinogion. They tell of Gwydion the shape-shifter, who can create a woman out of flowers; of Math the magician whose feet must lie in the lap of a virgin; of hanging a pregnant mouse and hunting a magical boar. Dragons, witches, and giants live alongside kings and heroes, and quests of honour, revenge, and love are set against the backdrop of a country struggling to retain its independence.

How Green Was My Valley

by Richard Llewellyn

Growing up in a mining community in rural South Wales, Huw Morgan is taught many harsh lessons. Looking back, where difficult days are faced with courage and the valleys swell with the sound of Welsh voices, it becomes clear that there is nowhere so green as the landscape of his own memory.

Here Be Dragons

by Sharon Penman

Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Then Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce with England by marrying the English king's beloved, illegitimate daughter, Joanna. Reluctant to wed her father's bitter enemy, Joanna slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband who dreams of uniting Wales. But as John's attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales--and Llewelyn--Joanna must decide to which of these powerful men she owes her loyalty and love.

White Star

by Robin Llywelyn

Gwern started the war. By mistake. He and his friends, Pilgrim and Saffron Tinker, are trying hard to put things right. Perhaps a little too hard. Their journey takes them across Sunless Summer to the badlands on a diet of ice locust sandwiches. They get promoted as diplomats and even manage fifteen minutes as fighter pilots. As the evil Empire of the Heartless Bodies threatens to conquer the High Country, Gwern, Pilgrim and Saffron Tinker are learning a lot about allegiance.

The Welsh Girl

by Peter Ho Davies

Young Esther Evans has lived her whole life within the confines of her remote mountain village. The daughter of a fiercely nationalistic sheep farmer, Esther yearns for a taste of the wider world that reaches her only through broadcasts on the BBC. Then, in the wake of D-day, the world comes to her in the form of a German POW camp set up on the outskirts of Esther's village.

The arrival of the Germans in the camp is a source of intense curiosity in the local pub, where Esther pulls pints for both her neighbors and the unwelcome British guards. One summer evening she follows a group of schoolboys to the camp boundary. As the boys heckle the prisoners across the barbed wire fence, one soldier seems to stand apart. He is Karsten Simmering, a German corporal, only eighteen, a young man of tormented conscience struggling to maintain his honor and humanity. To Esther's astonishment, Karsten calls out to her.

These two young people from worlds apart will be drawn into a perilous romance that calls into personal question the meaning of love, family, loyalty, and national identity. The consequences of their relationship resonate through the lives of a vividly imagined cast of characters: the drunken BBC comedian who befriends Esther, Esther's stubborn father, and the resentful young British "evacuee" who lives on the farm -- even the German-Jewish interrogator investigating the most notorious German prisoner in Wales, Rudolf Hess.

Do let me know if you've read any of these! I actually have a copy of White Star on the way to me in the post - I'm really interested in reading it because it's a translation, having originally been written in Welsh under the title Seren Wen ar Gefndir Gwyn.

I'm hoping to read all of these this year!