August & September Recap

After the disastrous ending to my birthday trip to New York, I haven’t been feeling like reading, reviewing or blogging so this post is a little light. On top of that I realised my cursed car is caught up in the VW diesel emissions scandal and I’ve been having a terrible time trying to cut through bureaucracy to schedule an operation that should’ve happened weeks ago. Sigh.

OPINIONS

• 8 Tips for Decluttering Your Home
• Disabilism – The Ugly Face of Disability Hate Crime (BBC)
• Planes, Trains and Automobiles: A New York City Birthday

NEWS

• New Logo, New Theme
• Bookshop offering refunds for Go Set a Watchman
• What Pet Should I Get?: Dr. Seuss’s Go Set a Watchman

July Recap

OPINIONS

• We Need to Talk About Periods #MenstruationMatters
• Pride and Prejudice and the Peak District: 6 things I learned about Jane Austen’s setting
• Where are the older main characters?
• Does moving to hardcover mid-series signal a decline in quality?
• 7 Rules for Writing Non-Fiction
• Rant: Feedback Request Overload

NEWS

• Hilarious NHS Complaints Letter from a Desperate Reader
• Lucifer, I’ll Be Watching You

REVIEWS

Through the Woods
Emily Carroll
★★★★☆

Ask Graham
Graham Norton
★★★★☆

Feral Sins (The Phoenix Pack #1)
Suzanne Wright
★★★★☆

TV: Belgium’s Cordon a modern adaption of Albert Camus’s The Plague echoes Ebola crisis
★★★★☆

The Innovative Admin
Julie Perrine
★★★☆☆

1,227 QI Facts to Blow Your Socks Off
John Lloyd, John Mitchinson & James Harkin
★★★☆☆

The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act
Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
★★☆☆☆

The Fade Out, Vol. 1
Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
★☆☆☆☆

Monthly Round-up: April, May & June 2015

Here’s what I’ve *sneeze* posted, read, reviewed and *sneeze* bought in the last three months.

LIFE & OPINIONS

• Mixed Race Identity and the Case of Rachel Dolezal
• Why are Indie Bookstores on the Decline in the UK But Having a Revival in the US?: A Response
• Decorating: Fifty Shades of Pink
• Gunshots, Reclusive Uncles, Vulnerable Aunts and a Surprisingly Robust Mother – a weekend break I’ll never forget
• Disability: Fear and Loathing in the UK General Election Result #GE2015
• The 10 Must Have Tools of My Trade #CarersWeek
• If You’re a Carer, You’re Not ‘Unemployed’ #CarersWeek
• Father’s Day – my least favourite celebration, but finally something positive

NEWS

• New Facebook-style emojis to go with your Booklikes updates – new stick with which to beat reviewers?
• Kickstarter: Bibliobath’s Waterproof & Tear-Resistant Books – are you interested?

Monthly Round-Up: March 2015

No jokes here, I promise.

Here’s what I posted in March:

OPINIONS

• Authors: Business vs Personhood?
• Lost Without A Challenge
• The Non-fiction ‘Graphic Novel’ – is there a better term?

REVIEWS

I Had a Black Dog: His Name Was Depression by Matthew Johnstone
★★★★☆

The Great Paper Caper by Oliver Jeffers
★★★☆☆

Flotsam by David Wiesner
★★☆☆☆

Robot Girl by Malorie Blackman
★★★☆☆

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
★★★★☆

Fun Home: a family tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
★★★★☆

Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
★★★★★

NEWS

• WATCH banned rape documentary India’s Daughter for a LIMITED TIME ONLY #JyotiSingh #IndiasDaughter

Thank you for reading!

Monthly Round-Up: February 2015

Happy St. David’s Day!

Here’s what I posted in February:

OPINIONS

• Lewis Carroll – Paedophile or Artist?
• Is sci-fi one of the few genres to accept non-white characters as heroes?
• Capitalist publishing stifles originality
• Dear libraries, can I pay my fees with books?
• Intersectional Prejudice in Publishing

REVIEWS

A Tale of Jerusalem by Edgar Allan Poe
★☆☆☆☆

Chu’s Day (Chu #1) by Neil Gaiman
★★☆☆☆

Thank you for reading!

^{image: Welsh Grungy Flag by think0}

Monthly Round-Up: January 2015

Here’s what I posted in January, sorry it’s late:

Year in Review

• 365 days – Are you the same person you were a year ago?: 2014 Edition
• What I Read in 2014
• What I Posted in 2014
• Best Books of 2014: Non-Fiction
• Best of 2014: Fiction
• What I Want to Read in 2015

OPINIONS

• The NHS – the real cost of good healthcare
• Anti-Drugs Pushers, please stop criticizing my choice to take medication
• #ThisGirlCan – Encouraging Women to Exercise?

REVIEWS

Savvy Auntie: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers, and All Women Who Love Kids by Melanie Notkin
★★☆☆☆

The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave by Mary Prince
★★★★★

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman
★★★☆☆

Memento Mori by Jonathan Nolan
★★★☆☆

Le Duc de L’Omelette by Edgar Allan Poe
★☆☆☆☆

Project Shakespeare: The RSC William Shakespeare Complete Works

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, and David Tennant on playing him
★★☆☆☆

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
★★★★★

Hansel & Gretel by Neil Gaiman
★★★★☆

CHALLENGES

• Project Shakespeare

Thank you for reading!

Monthly Round-Up: December 2014

I took a much needed brain holiday in December, so I posted very little.

Here’s what I posted in December:

NEWS

• Goodreads Deleting Short Story Book Pages & Reviews [3]
• I PASSED! Thank god, I’ve finally passed! [2]
• European Readers to Pay 17% More for eBooks in 2015 [1]

 

Thank you for reading!

[order of popularity]

Monthly Round-Up: November 2014

Here’s what I posted in November:

NEWS

• The Story Behind ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ – its bookish roots 
• The Hunger Games to hit London stage in 2016 

OPINIONS

• 10 Reasons to Read the Classics #HaleNo
• As You Wish: from Westley’s hands to mine 

REVIEWS

• The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs
• The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx & Frederich Engels
• Metzengerstein by Edgar Allan Poe

SEASONS & HOLIDAYS

• Happy Bonfire Night!

Thank you for reading!

Monthly Round-Up: October 2014

November is here, that means it’s Movember time [ World site | UK site ]. Movember’s aim is to educate and fundraise to improve men’s health regarding mental illness and prostate and testicular cancers.

Here’s what I posted in October:

#HaleNo

I’m pulling all of the relevant posts here regardless of category, in chronological order.

• Authors Stalking Reviewers: From intimidatory Kathleen Hale to violent Richard Brittain #HaleNo [4]
• Kathleen Hale: Why Research Her Background? #HaleNo [2]
• Sociopathy, Entitlement and Delusion #HaleNo [6]
• Authors vs. Reviewers – An Ongoing War? #HaleNo [3]
• Turning Back Time: A World Without (Amateur) Reviewers #HaleNo [8]
• Leafmarks Announce New Feature: Private Reviews #HaleNo [7]
• My Response to Joanne Harris #HaleNo [1]

NEWS

• Leafmarks adds features much wanted by Goodreads users – filter out images, high-level blocking, and more [9]
• It’s World Mental Health Day! #WMHD [15]
• UK publishing’s Super Thursday – 300+ books released in time for Christmas [10]
• Ebola – why it’s a woman-killing plague [12]
• Ursula K. Le Guin, confronting sexism in sci-fi publishing since 1987 [5]
• Kindle Scout – publishing’s new crowd-sourced beta reading X-Factor game [14]

OPINIONS

• Translation fatigue [13]
• “I’m not a feminist, I’m a humanist.” Synonymous -isms of equality [11]

REVIEWS

I’m really behind on these. Bad girl!

YEAR IN REVIEW

• 1 Year Blogiversary! [16]

SEASONS & HOLIDAYS

• Happy Day of the Dead!: Halloween Reading [17]

 

Thank you for reading!

[order of popularity]

Monthly Round-Up: September 2014

Autumn is here, although it’s suspiciously warm in the UK right now. October is also Black History Month for us Brits.

Here’s what I posted in September:

NEWS

• Free Online Literary Courses for Readers and Writers (starting Sep/Oct 2014) [3]
• Chrome updated and now Goodreads font looks weird? [1]
• Publishers pushing for UK antitrust inquiry into Amazon’s dominance in the book market [13]
• UK Amazon alternatives for ebooks and physical books [7]
• Banned Books Week 2014 [13]

LonCon3

• #16: Welcome to Clone Club (Orphan Black) [7]
• #17: Moving Shelves – Famous Adult Writers Who Have Written YA [22]
• #18: The Daughters of Buffy [6]
• #19: Where is the YA (and adult) humour? [9]
• #20: YA on the Big Screen [11]
• #21: Gender and Genre [16]
• #22: Saving the World. All of it. [20]
• #23: On The Blogs – Bloggers Discuss their Roles in the World of YA [17]
• #24: Authors Accept, Encourage, and Create Fan Works Too [23]
• #25: Diversity Within Young Adult Science Fiction [11]
• #26: My Opinions Let Me Show You Them + The Art of Reviewing [13]
• #27: There Are No New Stories, But… [24]

OPINIONS

• Another year, another birthday [5]
• A Letter to my Inconsiderate, Pot-Smoking Neighbours [4]
• Why I won’t be signing up to LitRate [2]
• Scottish Independence: Why women, students and elderly are more likely to vote ‘No’ and working class men say ‘Yes’ [17]

REVIEWS

• And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson & Peter Parnell [9]
• TV Pilot: The Last Ship [20]
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury [19]

Thank you for reading!

[order of popularity]
photo credit: ming chai