Reading roundup – 18 July 2014
Reading Roundup / July 18, 2014

I’m back from my few days away in Ottawa and ready to get back into blogging.  We travelled by coach, so I was able to listen to an audiobook, which this time was Erika Johannsen’s Queen of the Tearling.   One of the big pieces of news in the book world this week has been Amazon’s rumoured subscription service, Kindle Unlimited.  According to “leaked” webpages, Amazon is preparing a service whereby for $10 a month, the subscriber will have unlimited access to 600,000 Kindle ebooks AND Audible audiobooks.  If that were true, it could be a very interesting service.  However, I had a couple of concerns.  I understand that none of the Big Six publishing houses (Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin, HarperCollins, Random House, Simon & Schuster) are involved in the scheme, although I wouldn’t swear to it.   My second concern was whether or not this would be available to those of us outside of the US.  The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library isn’t available to us Canadians for example, so I doubted that Kindle Unlimited would be available here.  However, today I was browsing my Amazon.com Manage Your Content and Devices and I saw a section for Kindle Unlimited, with sections…

Reading Roundup – 11 July 2014
Reading Roundup / July 11, 2014

First of all, I’d like to share my thoughts on the Emmy nominations which were announced earlier today – congratulations to all nominees.  No Tatiana Maslany for Orphan Black?  That is very disappointing.  She has done incredible work portraying all these different clones and it would have been great to see her gain some recognition for that.  Another name I would very much liked to have seen was Pedro Pascal’s for his work as Red Viper Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones.  His performance was wonderfully nuanced and consistently excellent. Representing Game of Thrones we have Lena Headey and Peter Dinklage and supporting actress/actor roles. Dinklage has been nominated several times and won once, this is Headey’s first I believe. My gut feeling is that Headey will have to wait a year for her win – knowing the books, Cersei has some wonderful material coming up next season, which I think will clinch it for her then.  She faces competition from fellow Brits Dame Maggie Smith as Downton Abbey’s Dowager Countess of Grantham and Joanne Froggatt who plays Anna Bates – Anna had some very strong storylines this year, sensitively portrayed by Froggatt, but I’m not certain if that will be…

The Shadow’s Curse by Amy McCulloch – Review
Book Reviews , eBook reviews / July 9, 2014

The Shadow’s Curse by Amy McCulloch is the second and final book in her Knots Sequence duology and follows on from Oathbreaker’s Shadow.  I received a free copy from Random House of Canada in exchange for an honest review.  I have previously reviewed the first in the series – check out my review here.   The novel takes up where we left off in the earlier book with Raim seeking to learn the history of his mysterious broken vow as well as to rescue his friend Wadi.  It has been a while since I read Oathbreaker’s Shadow and for a couple of pages I was a little confused.  However, McCulloch quickly and skillfully recapped the main points so that I was soon up to speed. What I liked Tight narrative structure.  The Shadow’s Curse switches between two points of view, Raim’s and Wadi’s, following two converging main storylines.  Wadi’s storyline also serves to present the main antagonist’s, Kareh’s, story.  This works well to create tension for the inevitable confrontation when these paths come together.  Both Raim and Wadi are working towards specific goals.  In Raim’s case, this aim is explicitly stated early on – to rid himself of his oathbreaker…

The Blogger’s Survival Guide – Review
Audiobook reviews , Book Reviews / July 7, 2014

I received The Blogger’s Survival Guide: Tips and Tricks for Parent Bloggers, Wordsmiths and Enthusiasts by Lexie Lane and Becky McNeer free to review though Audiobook Jukebox.  This is a how-to guide to assist newbie bloggers in setting up their blog, marketing it and monetising it.  Thank you for the opportunity to review this title. This is the first time I’ve listened to a non-fiction reference book in audiobook format and I don’t think it’s something I will do much of in the future.  On many occasions the authors referred to online resources to supplement or backup their tips, and I didn’t find the format a great way to be able to pick up those links.  In all fairness the narrator did enunciate very clearly and repeat the urls where necessary, but still for me it was an additional hurdle of the audiobook format.  Additionally, with reference books I find I’m more likely to want to refer quickly to a previous or subsequent section in the book – not easy in audiobook format.   What I liked Good structure.  The book is laid out in a series of lessons which cover a specific topic related to blogging; setup, design, marketing, SEO,…

Introducing my parents to the iPad and the world of the internet
Miscellaneous , Tech Reviews / July 5, 2014

Recently at work I won an iPad Mini (non Retina display) in a raffle.  I never win anything so I was ecstatic – my coworkers joked that I was like a kid at Christmas.  I FELT like a kid at Christmas!  Now, I already have a much loved Kindle Fire HDX and iPad 3, so I knew I was going to rehome one of them.  It’s an understatement to say I read a lot and listen to audiobooks a lot, for which the Fire is perfect, so it was the iPad 3 or the new Mini.  I was very surprised when my mother expressed an interest in the iPad and going online.  My parents did have internet access several years ago, but let it lapse because of slowness and lack of use.  Since then, better broadband coverage has come to their area of Scotland, so I hope slowness will no longer be an issue.  My father doesn’t seem as enthusiastic about the internet at this point.  I suspect my mother was always the more interested, but previously the internet was connected to the computer my father uses for video editing and she was always too nervous to use it in…

Reading roundup – 3rd July 2014

Here in Canada Tuesday was the national holiday, Canada Day, so I had a day off work.  I was particularly pleased it fell on a Tuesday as that’s the day new books are released.  I was therefore able to spend a pleasant afternoon listening/reading The Jedi Doth Return, the third and final part in Ian Doescher’s William Shakespeare’s Star Wars. [book-info] As with the other two in the series, Verily a New Hope and The Empire Striketh Back, Random House Audio has done a fantastic job with the audiobook – it is a full cast audio with a talented cast and enhanced with sound effects and John Williams’ iconic music.  (Doetscher had the backing of George Lucas for this undertaking). Like the two earlier books, this is one I would recommend in audio format.  The cast is superb.  Audiobook listeners should remain right to the end for a cameo appearance by the Bard himself! While I really enjoyed The Jedi Doth Return, I wasn’t quite a head over heels in love with it as I was with the previous two books.  Perhaps it’s because the novelty had worn off somewhat.  I still wish these had been available when I was…

Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau – Review
Book Reviews , eBook reviews / July 2, 2014

Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau is the third and final book in The Testing trilogy.  It continues the story of Cia Vale, survivor of the brutal University entrance exam known as TheTesting, University student and rebel as she attempts to end The Testing.  i have enjoyed both previous books and enjoyed reading the ending of the story. What I liked The protagonist.  I really liked Cia as a YA protagonist.  She has her head on her shoulders and gives great consideration to the consequences of her actions.  She’s very much of the watch and wait mould.  That doesn’t mean she doesn’t take action, but she doesn’t act without thinking.  These character traits are what lead to her central position in the drama.  The story would have played very differently with a Katniss Everdeen or a Tris Prior as the protagonist. The themes.  The theme of Testing is continued throughout the series.  This is continued in Graduation Day when Cia must test the loyalty of those she wishes to have as allies, and she herself continues to be tested in more ways that one as she seeks to end the horrific University entrance exam.  Trust is also a major theme in…

My top five books of 2014 – so far…
Book Reviews , Miscellaneous / July 1, 2014

Since we’re now into July – halfway through the year! – and I’m 50 books through my 100 book challenge for this year I thought it was time to stop and review my top picks from the first half of 2014.  So without further ado, here they are. [book-info title=”The Empire Striketh Back” author=”ian-doescher”]  My first pick for my top books of 2014 so far is Ian Doescher’s William Shakespeare’s Star Wars.  This includes Star Wars: Verily a New Hope and The Empire Striketh  Back.  For those of you who have not read my reviews, Doescher has taken George Lucas’s epic space opera and rewritten it in the style of William Shakespeare, compete with iambic pentameter and nods to Shakespeare plays.  It’s incredible how well the Lucas’s epic saga works in Shakespearean language.  The audiobook by Random House Audio is a full cast radio play complete with John Williams music and sound effects and is a must-listen.  It narrowly missed out on the Audie audiobook award.  The Jedi Doth Return is released on July 1st and I’m fairly confident it will make my top audiobooks list, too.  Check out Doescher’s Educator’s Guide for more background info.  I wish these had been…
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