Review: The Last Kingdom

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Whilst finding myself on a bit of a Viking binge recently thanks to discovering the TV series on Amazon Prime (how did I miss that series before?!) I have been searching and searching for recommended books on that period of history and was happy to see that not only had Bernard Cornwell written about the Saxons, that there was a while blooming series too! I was delighted to see that it featured my beloved Ragnar Lothbrook, although this time as a supporting character to Uhtred, son of Uhtred, the son of an English noble adopted by the Danes following his father's death.

I found this to be a fascinating look into a period of time that I admit that I know very little about. and was very interested in Cornwell's medieval spellings of the English place names and had great fun in trying to match the towns and rivers mentioned to the modern day equivalents, being from that part of the country that I think would have been just outside the kingdom of Wessex in Dumonia in the South West Peninsula. Will definitely be reading more in this saga.

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Song of the Day: Ghost - Cirice

Review: Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic

Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic by Meghan Ciana Doidge
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not exactly a ground-breaking novel in this particular genre as this is your standard urban fantasy with the usual mix of witches, vampires and werewolves. The main difference is that our heroine owns and runs a cupcake shop and I do admit to suddenly developing a craving for them now as they sounded so yummy. I found this to be very reminiscent of series such as the Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong but not quite as well written, I don't mean that is a spiteful way as this is the first in this series, and as I have said in reviews before, first novels are often a little shaky due to having to introduce the characters, settings and relationships. Its not a bad novel, just not the best I've read.

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Review: Radiance

Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

I would like to start with the disclaimer saying that the time that I took to read Radiance in no way reflects how much I enjoyed it - I seemed to take a long time to finish this one due to stress at work and being overly tired when I got home in the evening.

Now, that being said, I can't explain how much I LOVED Radiance! It was so refreshing and unique to read, the setting being an kind of alt-history hollywood heyday era where mankind has colonised the entire solar system. It isn't a continuous narrative; the story is told in a series of film scripts, newspaper articles, personal letters and recordings from a variety of characters which reminded me very much of the story telling in some video games, such as the Bioshock series, where the story unfolds by the player listening to a series of audio logs. Also numerous themes and storylines unfurl, the primary of which being the disappearance of film maker Severin Unck who was investigating a disaster that had taken place in a village on Venus.

In my mind Radiance is (amongst other things) a commentary on social media, living life in the public eye, and the glut of "reality" TV programmes that dominate our channels, where personal dramas are shot and reshot until that perfect moment is captured and shared with the world. Indeed, poor child-Severin is more at home with a camera as a companion rather than an actual mother.

It wasn't an easy book to read initially as it did take a little while (until around the 30% mark on my Kindle) to get to grips with the storytelling style and settings but I was certainly glad that I persevered with it.

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Review: Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ

Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ by Giulia Enders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A funny, entertaining and informative look into our guts (literally!) and all the little bacteria that live within. I certainly learned a lot about how to look after and protect my precious innards and admit that things did get a tad icky in places.

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Review: The Siren

The Siren by Tiffany Reisz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Difficult to give this one a star rating, from the premise this should have been a trashing romp like 50 Shades of Grey, but turned out to be more mature and grown up, and a hell of a lot darker. I really liked the characters here, which were fully fleshed out and varied, from Nora the erotica writer trying to get herself taken seriously as a proper writer so that she can give up her night job of being a dominatrix, to the creepy-ass dominant Soren who Nora has recently left, to the gorgeously innocent Wesley, Nora's live-in intern. Throw a repressed Englishman who happens to be Nora's editor into the mix and we have a whole range of characters who, to me, represent the different struggles that Nora faces in her life. I'm sure I'm reading too much into this really, but it was a good read and you can read as much or as little into it as you want which is why I am tossing up between 3 or 4 stars. I'm feeling generous, so 4 it is!

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Review: We Should All Be Feminists

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thought that it was about time that I actually got around to reading this essay, which is basically a summary of Chimamanda's TED talk from back in 2012, especially as it has been all over the news recently after Sweden has decided to make it compulsory reading for all 16 year old students. It is a very brief insight into life in Africa and modern day attitudes towards women and the societal pressures placed on both males and females and how this needs to change. Insightful and humorous, it has also encouraged me to read more of the author's work as well as think about my own views on feminism and human rights.

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