Top Ten Tuesday | Series I'd like to finish

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Series I’ve Given Up On/Don’t Plan to Finish', but I feel like I've talked about this fairly recently or at least recently enough that my answers won't be any different, so I decided to talk about the series I'd like to finish instead!

I'm a terrible finisher, but since devouring the Six of Crows duology earlier this year I've rediscovered my love for reading whole series so I'd like to finish some more series this year if I can.

The Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin: I read and really enjoyed The Fifth Season and started reading The Obelisk Gate and then just got distracted by other things. I'd really like to return to this series, though, because it's one of the most original fantasy stories I've come across and I love the way it straddles fantasy and science fiction.

The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan: I tried reading A Natural History of Dragons a few years ago and couldn't get into it, but earlier this year I ended up listening to the audiobook during my commute to work and enjoyed it. I'm not desperate to continue this series, but I'd definitely like to try the other books via audiobook at some point.

The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger: So far I've read Soulless, Changeless and Blameless and this series is one I turn to when I'm in the mood for something quick and fun - I'm hoping to finish this series this year!

The Glamourist Histories series by Mary Robinette Kowal: Another series that's light, fun and easy to read. I've only read the first two books so far but I've liked them enough to want to finish the rest of the series.

The Mistress of the Art of Death series by Ariana Franklin: This series is unusual in that it never got to end properly because the author sadly passed away after completing only four books, and I've seen from reviews that the fourth book actually ends with a cliffhanger. I don't actually love this series, but like the above series I find it really easy to read and I like the characters enough to want to know what happens to them. I've read three books so far so, even though I know it doesn't have an ending, I'd like get to the fourth book at some point.

The His Fair Assassin trilogy by Robin LaFevers: I really enjoyed Grave Mercy and I loved Dark Triumph, and yet for some reason I still haven't read Mortal Heart. LaFevers is bringing out some more books following these characters next year, though, so I definitely need to get to it soon.

The Fruits Basket series by Natsuki Takaya: Fruits Basket is one of my favourite animes and I started reading the manga but still haven't finished reading the series - I'd like to, though!

The Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant: Feed is one of my favourite novels of all time and I loved Deadine, too, but I'm ashamed to say I still haven't read Blackout. Oops.

The Girl From Everywhere duology by Heidi Heilig: I thought The Girl From Everywhere was so fun with such a unique take on time travel, so I'd like to try and get to The Ship Beyond Time this summer.

The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix: I adored The Old Kingdom series when I was younger, Sabriel remains one of my favourite books from my childhood/early teens, but I haven't read Clariel or Goldenhand yet and, to be honest, I think I might have to re-read the earlier books before I do.

Which books made your list this week?

This Week in Books | 17/01/18

This week I'm joining in with Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost & Found to talk about the books I've been reading recently!

NOW: I loved the new adaptation of IT last year and decided to try the book, which is also in keeping with one of my reading goals to not be intimidated by the longer books on my shelves, and at 1,166 pages this is one of the longest books I've ever attempted to read. I'm not the biggest fan of Stephen King but I'm enjoying this one so far and enjoying taking my time and making my way through a book. Yes, parts of it are problematic and, no, I don't think I'm going to consider it a masterpiece when I finish it but I'll be very pleased with myself when I finally get through it.

THEN: I finished listening to A Natural History of Dragons in my car and really enjoyed the experience of listening to it. I'd like to listen to the other books in the series but I'll have to wait until I can afford the audio CDs to play in my car - they're so expensive!

NEXT: It's become something of a tradition for me to read a Binti story at the beginning of the year. I believe The Night Masquerade is the final book in this little trilogy and I'm looking forward to finishing the series and seeing how Binti's story ends - I'll probably pick this one up and whizz through it while I'm continuing to make my way through IT.

What have you been reading recently?

This Week in Books | 03/01/18

This week I'm joining in with Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost & Found to talk about the books I've been reading recently!

Now: I tried reading Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons a few years ago and couldn't get into it, but recently I've started listening to the audiobook in my car to and from work and I'm enjoying it so much more this time around. I don't know if it's because my tastes have changed or simply because I enjoy the book more when it sounds like Lady Trent herself is talking to me but I'm not complaining!

Then: My first read of 2018 was this little novella by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Prime Meridian, which is officially being published in the summer but I was lucky enough to get a copy of in December because I backed the campaign to get it published. As always I loved Moreno-Garcia's storytelling - look out for my review!

Next: Owen Davies' Grimoires: A History of Magic Books was a birthday present from one of my closest friends who knows how much I love the history of witchcraft. It's been calling to me recently, I'm really in the mood for some non-fiction, so I think I'm going to start it soon.

What are you reading?

Top Ten Tuesday | A Series of Failures

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Series I've Been Meaning To Start But Haven't', which is essentially the story of my life. I'm a bad finisher and I'm impatient, so I'm much better at reading standalones than series because I can't bear the wait. A series has to be very special to captivate me. That being said, I miss that feeling of being captivated by a series and a huge cast of characters the way I was when I was younger, from Harry Potter to The Old Kingdom to Twilight (yep, I went through that phase, too), so here are ten series I'd really like to get to at some point.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan: If I'm being honest I don't know if I ever will read this series now, I feel like I should have read them when I was a bit younger because I'm not sure I'll get the sense of humour now that I'm 25 (oh god I'm 25), but I still love the idea of the series. I may get around to it one of these days, maybe it'd be a fun, quick series to blast through over the summer months.

The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan: I actually tried reading A Natural History of Dragons a few years ago but ended up DNFing it, I just wasn't feeling it at the time, but I've heard so many people raving about the series and it ticks so many of my boxes (I love books about ladies in science) that I think I have to give it another chance. I'm going to give the audiobooks a try.

The Bel Dame Apocrypha series by Kameron Hurley: This sounds violent and gritty and so fun. I recently read Hurley's essay collection, The Geek Feminist Revolution, and it's made me want to read her fiction even more. This sci-fi series is set in a world where insects play a large role, I believe, and where the society is inspired by Islam rather than Christianity which sounds super interesting to me.

The Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley: I love me some historical crime, and this series set in the 1950s has a child protagonist who loves science. All the yes. I'm always interested by books written for adults with child protagonists because children can be so difficult to write, so I'm hoping this series will be a good one when I get to it.

The Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo: I should have read this by now, especially as it's only two books long. I've heard fairly mixed things about Six of Crows, but my friend Natalie @ A Sea Change loved it and I really enjoyed Bardugo's story in Summer Days and Summer Nights, so I'm looking forward to getting to it at some point this year.

The Gold Seer Trilogy by Rae Carson: The covers of these books are beautiful and I love the concept, so hopefully I'll at least give the first book a go soon after I received it the Christmas before last from the lovely Mikayla @ Mikayla's Bookshelf.

The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik: This series is essentially the Napoleonic Wars with dragons. What's not to like? Admittedly I'm not actually the biggest dragon fan, I'm much more of a unicorn girl, but I love the idea of including dragons in a well-known historical setting. I struggled a bit with Novik's writing when I read Uprooted (reviewed here) which is why I haven't started this series yet, but I'm hoping I enjoy it.

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon: I really want to watch the series but I want to read the books first, only there's so many of them and they're all HUGE. It's pretty intimidating.

The October Daye series by Seanan McGuire: Seanan McGuire (also known as Mira Grant) is one of my favourites, and though I'm not the biggest fan of faeries I do really like the sound of this urban fantasy series. There are already ten books in the series, though, so I have some catching up to do!

The Glamourist Histories series by Mary Robinette Kowal: Similar to Temeraire, this series involves slipping something fantastical into Georgian/Regency history. These books are essentially Jane Austen with magic and considering I own the first book, Shades of Milk and Honey, I'd like to start the series this year.

I actually own all but one of these books, The Lightning Thief being the only one I don't have a copy of, so perhaps I should set myself the challenge of reading the first book in the nine other series by the end of 2017...

Which series made your list this week?

BookBuddyAthon TBR!

The BookBuddyAthon is back! Hosted by Elena @ Elena Reads Books over on Book Tube, this is a week-long readathon that encourages you to read with a friend and, luckily, I've managed to rope the lovely Natalie @ A Sea Change into doing this with me.

Unfortunately Nat and I are both a tad too busy to try and complete five reading challenges in a week, so we're bending the rules a little; we're going to take on the BookBuddyAthon challenges and try to complete them by the end of the year. We like taking things at our own pace, as right now I have a busy job and Nat's in the midst of a PhD, so deadlines make us twitch.

Essentially the five books we pick for this challenge we need to try and finish by the end of the year. Will it be the end of the world if we don't? No, but I hope we can!

Read a book with your buddy

Nat and I have chosen The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, which has been absolutely everywhere lately. We both love historical fiction and we both love ladies pursuing science when everyone else is telling them they shouldn't be. I've heard quite mixed reviews so far, so I'm keen to see what I think of it and I'm hoping Nat likes it - I got her copy for her for Christmas, so I hope I didn't choose a rubbish book for her!

Read a book that's your buddy's favourite colour

Nat's favourite colours are blue and red, so I decided to go with my edition of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood because I'm ashamed to admit I still haven't read it. I've heard fantastic things about the recent adaptation but I'm determined to read the book first. I do want to read it, I just know it's going to make me angry and upset.

Read a book that begins with your buddy's first initial

I was quite surprised by how few books I own that begin with 'n', but I'm going to listen to the audio book of A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan (NATural - I get bonus points!) which is a book Nat actually recommended to me very recently, so it feels fitting to go with this one and read about more ladies who love science.

Choose 3 books on your TBR and read the book your buddy picks for you

I decided to give Nat three of my NetGalley reads to choose from because, as always, I'm behind with my reviews: Gone by Min Kym, New Boy by Tracy Chevalier or See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt. Nat chose See What I Have Done, a novelisation of the story of Lizzie Borden, which also happens to be the book I was leaning towards most, too, so I'm very happy with that choice! I'm hoping it'll give me Burial Rites vibes.

Read something you feel like reading

A nice and simple challenge! For this one I'm choosing The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman because Nat very kindly bought it for me a couple of Christmases ago and I still haven't read it which is ridiculous because I'm sure I'm going to enjoy it.

Are you taking part in the BookBuddyAthon?

What's Up Wednesday! | 26/11/14

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

What I'm Reading

Since last week I've read The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly and finally gave up on A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan after three weeks of slogging through it. Both of these books were only okay. I reviewed The Little Women Letters on Goodreads here for anyone interested in my thoughts, and while I think I might return to A Natural History of Dragons at some point in future for now I want to concentrate on books I actually enjoy.

Today I'm hoping to make a start on my Winter TBR! I'm either going to pick up A Winter Flame or Burial Rites first, not sure which one just yet!

What I'm Writing

After a long break I'm finally starting to get back in the mood to work on Bloodroot and Bracken again, which is awesome.

Other than that I haven't been writing a whole lot, but I'm still jotting down ideas for one of my SNIs, a mix up of Sci-Fi and Contemporary Romance that I've mentioned before. I had a little brainwave this week regarding one of the characters, and because I'm in such a Christmassy mood it's accidentally turned into a Christmassy story. Probably because my favourite Christmas song is A Spaceman Came Travelling!

What Works For Me

I feel like this is going to make me sound really narcissistic, but sometimes I like to imagine that my WIP has been published and I'm being interviewed by BBC Radio 4's Book Club. Imagining what questions I could get asked about my characters and my writing process often helps me to solve something I'm struggling with. Weird, I know.

What Else Is New

I'm officially a published author! On Monday my science fiction short story, Beam Me Up, was published in the latest issue of Nebula Rift. It's only a short story, but I'm still really pleased - I've never had anything published before and it's a wonderful feeling!

And today I had a job interview with an independent publishing house based in South Wales. It's for a six month job as an administrative/marketing assistant. I do have another job waiting for me in January if I want it, but right now I'm keeping my options open. Of course if this company decide to offer me the job I need to make a decision, and when it comes to these kinds of decisions I hate making them.

I've also started working on my PhD applications. Fun stuff!

Other than that I've just been Christmas shopping and wrapping the presents I do have. I'm desperate to have all my presents so I can wrap them all and make them all look pretty; I think I love giving people presents more than I like receiving them, to be honest!

What's new with you?

What's Up Wednesday! | 05/11/14

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!

Remember, remember, the fifth of November. Gunpower, treason, and plot. There is no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot...

What I'm Reading

I'm slowly making my way through The Count of Monte Cristo (you can still join in with my Count of Monte Cristo Read-a-Long here!) and this morning I started reading Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir of Lady Trent which I'm really enjoying so far. I'm not much of a dragon person; I don't dislike them, but I've never gotten into dragon stories like a lot of my friends have. I tried reading Eragon and really didn't like it, so it's nice to find a dragon story I'm enjoying!

What I'm Writing

Well NaNoWriMo is here and, as per usual, I'm behind. Very, very behind. Mainly because I changed my idea at the last minute. I was totally prepared to write about Medieval dragons (ironic given what I just said about dragons), but then a new idea popped into my head and wouldn't go away so I'm working on that instead. As much as I'd love to write 50,000 words in one month one day, I'm not going to kick myself if I don't do it this year because frankly it's stress I don't need, and NaNoWriMo should be a fun experience as well as a tricky one!

What Works For Me

Saving/jotting down ideas. Very recently I've rediscovered an old notebook and a load of old files on my laptop full of the beginnings of stories or just little bullet points, and I'd forgotten about a lot of them. I love rediscovering old ideas, especially when I rediscover them and realise I still like them despite having forgotten about them in the first place!

What Else Is New

Honestly not much. I've just been reading and trying to kick my arse into gear for NaNoWriMo. Although I am also taking part in Sci-Fi Month throughout November, which is very exciting! You can read my introductory post here.

What's new with you?