+ International Giveaway

May marks the month where I finally got the hang of audiobooks, just as long as I’m walking somewhere or doing a mindless task and I seem to need to listen at x1.25 speed. As always, I’m behind on writing up my thoughts but you should start seeing audiobook reviews on the blog soon.

The weather has been suspiciously glorious. Even the weather warnings failed to produce much more than a few showers and some fog. Here’s hoping that doesn’t signal a terrible summer. We managed to add a few more spots to our map of local places visited and the garden is starting to look a bit more green.

Book of the Month:
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Reviews:



Challenges

It’s been a successful month for challenge progress and I actually think I might complete POPSUGAR partly in thanks to the great Goodreads group. Starting to feel a bit less enthusiastic about Read Harder though.

POPSUGAR (24/50)
2. True crime: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
5. Nordic noir: Dark Pines by Will Dean
24. A book with a weather element in the title: A Shiver of Snow and Sky by Lisa Lueddecke
25. A book set at sea: Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
26. A book with an animal in the title: White Rabbit, Red Wolf by Tom Pollock
38. A book with an ugly cover: SLAY by Kim Curran

Read Harder (13/24)
A book of true crime: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
A book of genre fiction in translation: The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
A book with a cover you hate: SLAY by Kim Curran

Science Fiction vs Fantasy Bingo (9/25)
Asian: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
Demonic: SLAY by Kim Curran

Beat the Backlist: 20/30
Goodreads: 45/100

What I Have Watched

I got to the point in The Good Place that I wanted to binge watch and then it was over. Didn’t realise there were only two series, boo! I also watched some of the re-edited Arrested Development which does seem to be an improvement over the rather disjointed original 4th series. It’s bringing back memories…

Josh got a bunch of Rakuten credit (they bought TalkTalk TV which was formerly BlinkBox and felt they had to refund stuff bought years ago), so we ended up watching Death of Stalin. I found the accents a bit off-putting because the actors are just using their normal voices but they are meant to be Russian, and sheesh, Stalin with a Cockney accent is weird. Accents aside, it reminded me a bit of a Coen Brothers film and I did learn a bit about a short period in Russian history whilst being entertained. I can imagine it being a bit of a farce in real life.

I tried to watch War for the Planet of the Apes but it was incredibly dreary with no plot and I gave up after 40 minutes. However after abandoning that we chose a random independent film to watch called Raw. It’s a Belgian horror film about a strict vegetarian who goes to vetinary school and is forced to eat meat as part of hazing. You soon start to understand why her family was so keen to stay away from meat. It was unusual but 100 times more engaging that the ape film. Indies 1, Hollywood 0.

Read and awaiting review:

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
Dark Pines by Will Dean
White Rabbit, Red Wolf by Tom Pollock
A Shiver of Snow and Sky by Lisa Lueddecke

Currently reading:

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

Blogged about…

Top Ten Books I’d Wrestle a Lion to Get Early
April Book Haul

Now enter the giveaway…

Want to win one of the ten books pictured above? Just enter via the Rafflecopter below, you don’t even need to follow me. It is open internationally and there are extra entries for sharing, etc. Your details are held by Rafflecopter and will only be used by me to contact you if you win.

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