Reading Challenge: November
Hello there fellow bookish gals, guys and otherwise. You have stumbled upon November's reporting Chat Post for our 2020 Reading Challenge. If you are interested in what the challenge is all about click HERE to read the introductory post.
This months theme is Glorious Graphics.
To report your months reads comment below, answering the questions.
Reporting questions:
1) What book did you pick for this month’s read?
2) Did you enjoy it?
3) What rating would you give it out of five?
4) Was there anything in your book that touched you /resonated with you in some way?
5) What was your favourite part of the book?
6) Who would you recommend read this book?
7) Try to sum up the book in one sentence.
We look forward to finding out what you've all been reading.
Next Months theme is Happy Holidays.
Next Months theme is Happy Holidays.
Before the Beginning Tour
Hachette Australia together with the #AusYABloggers are celebrating the release of Before the Beginning by Australian author Anna Morgan. On the tour you'll find Australian Reviewers and Instagrammers sharing their thoughts.
Before the Beginning
Written by Anna Morgan
Published by Hachette Australia
Add to Goodreads
About The Book
Written by Anna Morgan
Published by Hachette Australia
Add to Goodreads
The story of four friends, a mysterious stranger, and the week when everything changed. For fans of We Were Liars.
Schoolies week: that strange in-between time when teenagers move from school into the adult world. It's a week when anything is possible, and everything can change.
Grace is questioning everything she thought about herself, and has opted not to join her clique of judgemental friends for schoolies, instead tagging along with her brother Casper and his friends. Casper, an artist, is trying to create the perfect artwork for his uni application folio. Overachieving, anxiety-ridden Noah is reeling from a catastrophe that might have ruined his ATAR result. And Elsie is just trying to figure out how to hold their friendship group together.
On the first night of the trip, they meet Sierra, a mysterious girl with silver-grey hair and a magnetic personality. All of them are drawn to her for different reasons, and she persuades them to abandon the cliched schoolies experience in favour of camping with her on a remote, uninhabited island. On that island, each of them will find answers to their questions. But what does Sierra want from them?
An empathetic and suspenseful coming-of-age story from the author of All That Impossible Space.
Tour Schedule
Monday 26th October
|
Tuesday 27th October
|
Wednesday 28th October
|
Thursday 29th October
|
Friday 30th October
|
About The Author
Anna was born in Sydney, but spent most of her childhood surrounded by mountains in Nepal and Tibet while her parents were part of an international community of health professionals. Navigating this cross-cultural life made her a curious observer of people, although most of her time was spent reading Enid Blyton and dreaming of going to boarding school. This did not cushion the shock of shifting from home-school in Tibet to an all-girls high school in Melbourne when her family returned to Australia. Anna completed a MA in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University in 2015, and now lives in Melbourne with her husband. She works as a bookseller.
The Secret Life of Stars: Astrophysics for Everyone Tour
Thames & Hudson Australia together with the #AusYABloggers are celebrating the release of The Secret Life of Stars: Astrophysics for Everyone by renowned and award-winning astrophysicist Lisa Harvey-Smith. On the tour you'll find Australian Reviewers and Instagrammers sharing their thoughts.
About The Book
The Secret Life of Stars: Astrophysics for Everyone
Written by Lisa Harvey-Smith
Published by Thames & Hudson Australia
Add to Goodreads
The Secret Life of Stars takes us on a cosmic journey to meet some of the weirdest, most extreme and enigmatic stars in the universe.
We all know the Sun, the powerhouse of our solar system, but what about Luyten’s Flare, the Rosino-Zwicky Object or Chanal’s variable star? For those whose curiosity takes them far beyond Earth’s atmosphere, The Secret Life of Stars offers a personal and readily understood introduction to some of the Galaxy’s most remarkable stars.
Each chapter connects us to the various different and unusual stars and their amazing characteristics and attributes, from pulsars, blue stragglers and white dwarfs to cannibal stars and explosive supernovae. With chapter illustrations by Eirian Chapman, this book brings to life the remarkable personalities of these stars, reminding readers what a diverse and unpredictable universe we live in and how fortunate we are to live around a stable star, our Sun.
Tour Schedule
Monday 12th October | Tuesday 13th October | Wednesday 14th October |
Thursday 15th October | Friday 16th October |
About the Author
Lisa Harvey-Smith is an award-winning astronomer and Professor at the University of New South Wales. In 2018 she was appointed as the Australian Government's Ambassador for Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). She is the author of When Galaxies Collide and best-selling children's book Under the Stars, both published by Melbourne University Press. Lisa is also a regular on national tv/radio/media, and has appeared in several TV series and documentaries as a guest scientist and is a presenter alongside Prof. Brian Cox on ABC TV's Stargazing Live.
Author Links
Things here
Reading Challenge: October
Hello there fellow bookish gals, guys and otherwise. You have stumbled upon October's reporting Chat Post for our 2020 Reading Challenge. If you are interested in what the challenge is all about click HERE to read the introductory post.
This months theme is Mental Health.
To report your months reads comment below, answering the questions.
Reporting questions:
1) What book did you pick for this month’s read?
2) Did you enjoy it?
3) What rating would you give it out of five?
4) Was there anything in your book that touched you /resonated with you in some way?
5) What was your favourite part of the book?
6) Who would you recommend read this book?
7) Try to sum up the book in one sentence.
We look forward to finding out what you've all been reading.
Next Months theme is Glorious Graphics.
Next Months theme is Glorious Graphics.
This One is Ours Tour Schedule
UQP together with the #AusYABloggers are celebrating the release of This One is Ours by Australian author Kate O'Donnell. On the tour you'll find Australian Reviewers and Instagrammers sharing their thoughts.
This One is Ours
Written by Kate O'Donnell
Published by UQP
Add to Goodreads
Kate O'Donnell is a writer, editor and bookseller specialising in children’s and young adult literature. She has a BA in History and French from the University of Melbourne and studied Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT. Her first novel, Untidy Towns, was shortlisted for the Indie Book Award and the Readings Young Adult Book Prize in 2018. This One is Ours is her second novel.
About the book
Written by Kate O'Donnell
Published by UQP
Add to Goodreads
Sixteen-year-old Sofie is a dreamer, an artist and a romantic. So when she goes on exchange to Paris, she is expecting magnificent adventures of the heart and mind. Yet France isn't what she imagined. It's cold and grey, and she finds speaking another language exhausting. Sofie’s more homesick than lovesick.
But then her host sister, Delphine, and fellow artist Olivier show her a different side of Paris, and Sofie starts to question her ideas of art, beauty and meaning. Of everything. There’s truth in what her best friend, Crow, has been saying all along: the world is in crisis and people need to take notice.
But what can one girl do? Will Sofie be able to find the courage to fight for change?
This One is Ours is a call to action for anyone who feels helpless about the state of the world, as well as an ode to all the tiny beautifuls that make it worth saving.
Tour Schedule
Thursday 1st October
|
Friday 2nd October
|
Saturday 3rd October
|
Sunday 4th October
|
Monday 5th October
|
About the author
Kate O'Donnell is a writer, editor and bookseller specialising in children’s and young adult literature. She has a BA in History and French from the University of Melbourne and studied Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT. Her first novel, Untidy Towns, was shortlisted for the Indie Book Award and the Readings Young Adult Book Prize in 2018. This One is Ours is her second novel.
Author Links
Indigo Owl Tour Schedule
Wakefield Press together with the #AusYABloggers are celebrating the release of Indigo Owl by Australian author Charlie Archbold. On the tour you'll find Australian Reviewers and Instagrammers sharing their thoughts.
About The Book
Written by Charlie Archbold
Published by Wakefield Press
Add to Goodreads
After Earth was destroyed by climate change and overpopulation, private corporations colonised new planets. On one such planet, Galbraith, the fertility of its citizens is tightly controlled. But at what cost?
When Scarlet Bergen leaves her childhood home to be trained at the Arcadia Institute, harnessing her psychic Solitaire talents, it feels like the beginning of her future. But on the Institute steps, her father whispers a life-changing secret about the past. Her mother, a geneticist who disappeared when Scarlet was ten, had enemies...
Scarlet vows to discover the truth about her mother and is joined in her mission by fellow cadets with their own family secrets and special talents: tech-savvy Rumi, a tenacious truth-hunter, and Dylan, the aloof classmate who can literally read her mind
Indigo Owl is a fast-paced dystopian adventure from author Charlie Archbold, winner of a 2018 Children's Book Council of Australia Honour Book for Older Readers.
| Saturday 26th September Dusk Angel Reads laneysbookcorner nicbookpanda thebibliophilebuddies | Sunday 27th hungrythesaurus atlantabushnellbooks Brooklyn the Bookworm Caroline Masci | Monday 28th Chemical Book Dragon Bookish Intoxication Shannon Jade idreamofallthebooks |
| Tuesday 29th belleofthebooks Cait is Booked seventyeight.sundays shelle_reads_books | Wednesday 30th _thegoodbooknook tanzeemtaiyus Tiens Blurb Read3rz Revu Blog |
About The Author
Charlie Archbold was born in London. She completed a degree in drama before training as a teacher and has worked as an educator for over twenty years. She has settled in Australia and lives with her family in Adelaide. Her first novel, Mallee Boys, was an Honour Book in the Children's Book Council of Australia Awards. Indigo Owl is her second book.
Reading Challenge: September
Hello there fellow bookish gals, guys and otherwise. You have stumbled upon September's reporting Chat Post for our 2020 Reading Challenge. If you are interested in what the challenge is all about (there are prizes to be won) click HERE to read the introductory post.
This months theme is Awesome Anthologies.
To report your months reads comment below, answering the questions.
Reporting questions:
1) What book did you pick for this month’s read?
2) Did you enjoy it?
3) What rating would you give it out of five?
4) Was there anything in your book that touched you /resonated with you in some way?
5) What was your favourite part of the book?
6) Who would you recommend read this book?
7) Try to sum up the book in one sentence.
We look forward to finding out what you've all been reading.
Next Months theme is Mental Health.
Next Months theme is Mental Health.
Riven by Bronwyn Eley
Author: Bronwyn Eley
Publisher: Talem Press, Writer's Edit
Release Date: August 13th, 2020
Add to Goodreads
Kaylan's life as she knew it is over. Again.
Hunted by the guards of Edriast and their ruthless captain, Kaylan is forced to flee into a world she’s never seen, armed with a power she never wanted. With her brother Elias by her side, she escapes to the distant city of Stynos, where rumour has it a possible ally is waiting… An ally who might help Kaylan control the violent magic that’s become her burden to bear.
But Kaylan can’t hide forever – not from the forces that surround her, or from the darkness inside herself. Rebel leader Bellamy seeks her help to destroy a regime; Captain Thorn pursues her with a vengeance; and as her power grows, her inner demons begin to seep through the cracks… Kaylan may be strong, but is she strong enough to resist the Relic?
Review
Riven is the second instalment in Bronwyn Eley’s The Relic Trilogy and the story picks up directly where Relic stopped. While Relic was a slow build, in Riven you are immediately thrown into the action, building upon the last part of the previous book that was full of twists and surprises.
Riven manages to avoid a lot of the issues second books in a trilogy face. It builds really well on the foundation set out in Relic, it’s action-packed, progresses the plot in ways that provide a satisfying story within the book and introduces some interesting new characters.
There’s a lot to love in this book, but my favourite thing (as in Relic) is the way Bronwyn Eley writes her characters. People call this series a dark fantasy - a description which fits - but so many of the characters are actually wholesome. I particularly appreciate the complexity developed in each character and the way she builds individual relationships between them all in differing ways Also that friendship is a focus in the story and the way this plays into how Kaylan grapples with the effects of the relic.
Riven is more action-oriented than Relic, but the strong focus on the characters remains. I particularly liked gradually learning more and more about the relic and I am really interested to see how its role plays out in the final book.
I also really enjoyed the returning of Kaylan’s strength throughout the story; in great contrast to her deterioration during Relic. Even as her strength returns she doesn’t hallucinate in the same ways, and the relic’s influence is still a major element of the story, though in a different way. Kaylan is still struggling to determine the best way forward, and I thought this tension between wanting to do the right thing, not being certain exactly how, and the pull of the relic was really well written.
I liked the ending a lot. It was a bit less of a cliff hanger than Relic, which is good as the release date for the third book hasn’t been announced yet. I am still very excited to find out how it will all work out.
Bronwyn Eley is clearly honing her writing throughout this series. Riven includes everything interesting and attractive to readers of the first book but is even better.
You can find Gilly at Gilly Reads or on Instagram, Twitter or Goodreads
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)