My Books of 2019

Now I've had this blog for over a full calendar year, I can see the books I have read this past year - so here is the list of them!  If you look at my blog, there are more book reviews than just these ones list, but they weren't actually read this year.

For each book, I have linked to my review (and within each review is a link to the Amazon page where the books can be purchased, though of course there are many other book retailers where you may prefer to spend your money).

January
King Arthur and Her Knights 1-3
King Arthur and Her Knights 4-7
Love Me Sweetie
Bloom: 50 Things

February
No books finished this month!

March
Women of Courage

April
Again none.  I was doing a Bible read-through, where I was reading the whole Bible within 6 months, and that often took more time than I planned.  This coming year, I'm going back to reading it over a year.

May
Nowt. Nada.

June
Finished reading the Bible!

July
Lorna Doone
The Fourth Element Trilogy
Love Me Dreamy
From Daughter to Woman

August
Enjoy Your Prayer Life
Born a Crime
Dev Haskell Private Investigator 1-14
Blood Singers Series
Skip
When the Body Says No
Stories Aren't Just For Kids
Garden Girls Cozy Mysteries 1-3
Fahrenheit 451

September
Abducting Abby
After Math
All The Way To Heaven
Agent With a History
Against the Odds
Russian Hill
Contract Snatch
Emotions, Mirrors of the Heart

October
Praying For Your Children
Parenting
Kappa Quartet

November
Adam's Journey
The Poet X
A Life of Balance
Sei Thrillers 1-3
The Pilgrim's Progress
The Overcoming Life

December
Love Me Darling
The Forgotten Girls 1-3
The Ravagers 1-5
plus two more books whose reviews have not been published yet!
(I will add them to this list later this week)

Wow, that's quite a list!  Thirty-nine different links, with over 70 individual books read (I've included the Bible as one book, rather than 66 separate ones).  I said the other day that I thought trying to read 50 books in a year might be challenging, but clearly I am reading more than I thought, so will aim to read at least 70 again next year.

The Ravagers by Alex Albrinck

I've still been working through my list of books from my old kindle that I had bought, but hadn't read.  Now I have a new one, there's a feature where I can automatically see all the books that I have and haven't read, so I don't need to keep my paper list any more.  Anyway, The Ravagers by Alex Albrinck was next on my list to read, so I have read it this month.  Having read previous books by him, I knew I wouldn't be able to put this down, and I wasn't wrong.

The blurb says:

In the distant future, humanity staggers as wave after wave of population decimating catastrophes push humanity near its extinction point.

A gift from the past provides them a way forward, and soon the human race is exploding its numbers, recreating civilization, generating art and commerce, and expanding its technological capabilities. The growing human civilization also bring back the concepts of war; East and West wage an eternal detente, neither side willing to attack, neither willing to announce peace.

In the midst of resounding success, a dark force conspires against humanity: the unleashing of a shockingly deadly, destructive weapon that will leave humanity on the brink of extinction once more.

Five people must deal with the launch of this weapon, work to survive, atone for their role in its creation, and try to discover and thwart the plans of those who launched it. 

Before it's too late. Before everything is gone.

The Ravagers is set in the future and refers to our time as "The Golden Ages".  It is interesting because it has advanced technology in some areas, but not in others (for example, no air travel) and people are scattered around the world in densely populated, walled citiplexes, that keep everyone safe from the beasts that roam the land.  One of the ways that technology is advanced, is in the area of weaponry - Ravagers are robots that can deconstruct any material (except Diasteel!) down to its atomic constituents, before using those elements in order to create more ravagers.  As such, a few can easily become a thick oily sea of ravagers ravaging the country.

It took me barely a week to read all the books in this series.  I don't want to go into too much information, but there were some surprises that actually did surprise me!  There were also some I could spot too, but was riveting nonetheless.  This series is set in the same universe as the aliomenti series, but you certainly don't have to have read that to read this - I personally recommend you read both!

Weekly Update No52

And I've got to the end of a year of updates!!!

Ok, there were some weeks I've missed, but overall, considering I am not very good at starting new habits, nor am I very good at breaking old ones, I think that's pretty good, even if I do say so myself!

As expected, I have put on weight over Christmas, but it is only slightly. That massive spike was my weight on Boxing day, but it has settled somewhat, and though my average has increased again recently, there seems to be a sinusoidal pattern to my 5-day average.  Obviously, that is not that useful for actually losing weight, but is a good thing to notice (I think) when I'm simply recording what I weigh. 

In the new year, I will need to make more of an effort to actually lose weight, and then to keep it off.  I haven't determined yet how best to do that, especially as I'm not making any resolutions this year, but it is another thing I am keeping in mind. I want to keep up my weekly updates though, and think I will go for a slightly different numbering system.  Instead of calling next week No53 (which it undoubtedly is), I think I will go for Yr2No1, so it is easy(er) to see at a glance whereabouts in the year we are.

Happy Christmas and New Year!

I hope you've all had a good Christmas, and will have a fantastic New Year to come!

Image by Markéta Machová from Pixabay 

I know I haven't posted much recently (and aim to post my last weekly update of 2019 tomorrow - if I remember), so hope you've all had a good time.  I had a good Christmas day with my husband and girls, but was ill on Boxing Day, recovered the next day but because I hadn't done much I was literally awake all night.  It did mean I got to finish yet another book (ooh, did I mention, my husband got me a new kindle for Christmas!?), so I'm even further behind writing up my reviews.

I have today joined Goodreads, as I was prompted by my Kindle (I've since learned that Amazon now owns goodreads, so that'll be why), so that'll be yet another outlet for me to bore share my reviews with everyone.  As I had to write 20 reviews in order to get recommendations from goodreads, and I wanted them sooner rather than later, I have slightly skewed my results by adding all the book reviews from here all on to there dated today, but at least in the future the timing should be more realistic.  I can also see that you can set a target of the number of books to read in a year, and I don't know whether to be conservative (20) or challenge myself (50) or choose a more realistic number in the middle.  When I'm in a 'reading mood', I can read a book a day - especially if I'm on holiday.  However, I know that when I read my classic (I aim to read one a year), it often takes me much longer than I would guess, due to the old language or simply because it's more verbose than many contemporary books.

Then, there's new years resolutions to think about.  I've decided I'm not going to make any - not one.
I don't keep them - they just are another stick to beat myself with, so I'm not going to resolve to do anything different.  I want to lose weight, in order to have DIEP, but if it means I have to have implants instead, so be it.  I would like to lose weight, but would rather spend time with my children creatively, than worrying about keeping things tidy so I had space to exercise.  And we've not long gone past the shortest day of the year (in terms of daylight, not hours - that's in Spring) and I still feel good.  I have been talking with my therapist about stopping sessions, and I feel like that won't be detrimental to me.  I haven't yet conquered my emotional eating, but when it happens and I put on weight (you'll see tomorrow, just how much...) I don't berate myself and have huge guilt leading to another binge.  So, that's progress!  I also have bought another version of year-in-a-Bible and am looking forward to that again from the 1st.  I am hoping my younger daughter will permit me to read it to her, because I have decided to try The Message translation (ie one with much more contemporary language).

So that's my round up of the past week or so.  I now need to find out why my Snowball keeps separating? Yuck!  Next time, I'll just drink the Advocaat neat, I think! Cheers xx

Hair Transformation

This year I decided to buy myself a Christmas present.  As I don't go to the hairdresser's often (my usual routine is get it cut to the jaw/shoulder, then let grow for 2-3 years before cutting again.  No point wasting money in between on trims...) I will get my hair done as I have always wanted it.

Well, always is a bit strong because though I have always wanted the colour, how that colour would be applied has changed.  When I was a teen, I wanted jet black hair, but with a purple sheen.  I never died my hair then, because I was a 'good girl'.  It was against the school rules, and wouldn't look good when going to university open days.  When at uni, I wanted to go a more vibrant purple, but again, I didn't because it wouldn't look good when going to job interviews.  In my job, I would have liked to go purple, but again, it would not look very professional.  So I never dyed my hair.

After I quit work (to become a SAHM, and then later when HEing), I thought about it again, and when I turned 30yo I got my friend to dye my hair for me.  As my hair is naturally very dark, it needed bleaching to within an inch of its life.  Unfortunately, I have a lot of red pigment in my hair, so rather than a nice white-blonde, my hair turned decidedly 'lion mane'.  Not to worry, as I was putting purple over the top.  However, it turned out that we hadn't got the hair white enough, so the purple came up very very dark.  More like the black with purple sheen I had wanted in my youth.  Not only that, the colour barely lasted a fortnight before needing to be redone, and redone and redone.  If you haven't gathered by now, I'm not a girly girl.  I'm not high maintenance.  I can't be arsed to spend all that time and money on myself.  So eventually I dyed it brown again.

Fast forward a few years, and I've been wanting to dye my hair again.  I've been getting recommendations from friends (and random people on the street with bright hair!) as to where to go.  I finally decided to travel to Swindon to get it done by Sharon Rewston and I'm not disappointed.  Even though it cost a lot of money (to me, that is, given I don't get my hair trimmed due to the cost!) I am very, very pleased and can say it was well worth it.  And eight hours sat in the chair, with a hair dresser that was happy to let me read, rather than make small talk (thank you!), meant I finished a brilliant book, that I'll review in the next few days. A full head of foils is heavy!  I swear there must have been a whole roll or two of foil on my head, lol. It turns out, that my virgin hair can actually get quite white with the right bleach, but it's the previously dyed ends that make me look like a lion.  And nobody realised how long my hair was (almost everybody, including my husband, thought the first picture was DD1!), because I always wore it tied up in a tight, but messy, bun.

So yes, I'm happy.  Having only had it done on Monday, I don't know yet how it'll fade, but fingers crossed it'll last a good 6+ weeks, and I have the last of the pink dye to mix with my conditioner in order to refresh it. I have had so many compliments, from friends and strangers, I'm wondering why I had never done it earlier?  Not only that, even my mum thinks it looks lovely! 💖

Weekly Update No50

I've nearly completed the year! Wahoo!

That means it's nearly Christmas, and since it is December, I am eating mince pies again.  That may (or may not - for those who haven't read my previous blog post, and the FB post that prompted it, you may [or may not!] realise 'may' is a modal verb that denotes possibility not fact) have something to do with my weight going up and the graph looking bumpy again.  Or it may be that the earth's gravity field is stronger every December, so people's weight is heavier when their mass is the same - who knows? (Ignoring the fact that weight and mass are different, and mass is measured in kilos, not weight, but I'm using convention of measuring weight in kilos not Newtons.  Argh! When people are all pinickity [which I've just googled and apparently I should be using pernickety or finickity] and I'm trying to write as clearly as possible, explaining as much as possible it gets all convoluted and complicated. Gah!)

Nothing else really to report, though.  I'm still tracking my weight and most of my calories... I'm not exercising atm as fates have deemed that there are no Fridays that I can do until the New Year.  Despite that, though, I have managed to change my appearance somewhat, but I'll share that in tomorrow's blog.

People are funny

...weird, that is, not funny haha.  Though I am laughing about it all.  Luckily I'm in a good place mentally, so I can laugh about it; otherwise I fear what it would have done to my mental health.

In this blog I have posted much about my life, on lots of different topics.  I know I swerve from 'the norm' on some things - I'm a Christian, I home educate, I consider myself a naturist, and most recently I voted against the winners of the general election.  Within this blog, though I generally use it for book reviews and for tracking my failure to lose weight, I have posted the occasional more controversial topic.  Yet, it is a post that I thought was pretty middle of the road that has caused a bigger reaction than I expected!

I posted this directly on my Facebook Page in response to the result of the election.  I admit that my tongue was in my cheek when I suggested that the electorate were stupid, selfish or both, but did use the qualifier 'may' and pointed out that it's an opinion not a fact.
The rest of the post, however, was talking about how to help people in the coming days, months and years because I think a Tory government is not good for society, and does not have people's (especially poor people's) best interests at heart.
Finally, as I get prompted by FB on every post I write, I thought this may be a relevant one to actually add a donate button to.  I don't know you, I am not telling you you must donate, I am not saying reading my blog is on the condition of donating, but is something you could choose to do should you wish.  I chose the Trussell Trust because it is an organisation that has food banks nationally around the country.  I could have chosen a food bank that was local to me, but given that I know I have readers all around the country, and indeed around the world, I figured they wouldn't care about a food bank in my little town.

At time of writing, this post on FB has currently got 114 reactions (yey!), 57 comments, and 17 shares!  I naively thought that if people didn't like what I had to say (though as I've said, I didn't think it was controversial) they'd just scroll past and ignore.  There's so much that comes up on my FB newsfeed, that even from pages that I usually like, there is the odd post that doesn't resonate so I simply move on.  If it's a page I haven't 'liked' on FB, unless there was something absolutely ridiculous and needs refuting, if I don't agree with a post I'll either scroll past or at worst, hide it from my newsfeed.

You can probably tell where I'm going with this!  when I woke up Saturday morning, I was surprised to see that I had upset someone by choosing the Trussell Trust to donate to.  In that thread of conversation I was repeatedly told "you really are an idiot"; a different person said "coming to your page with insults, you started your diatribe with the very same insults, because you and millions of other moaners lost an election."  though in an interesting twist these two people then started arguing with each other.  Other comments, in response to my post: "Accept the result and stop preaching to the rest of us. You come across narrow minded, judgemental and bigoted."  being a Christian, I've sat in my fair share of sermons, and reckon I could preach with the best of them; this wasn't it.  Here I was just trying to suggest that people are kind to each other - clearly I failed! Finally (again, at point of writing), I'm told "You are stupid and selfish." Not one to normally boast, but having a Masters degree in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford (and I do have friends who read this blog, who were at uni with me - I'm not lying), I can categorically say I am not stupid.  I may not understand some things, or may lack knowledge in certain areas, but I hold my hands up and am honest if that is the case.  Similarly, I don't think I'm selfish [often. I think everyone, including me, is selfish at times.  I try my best to override that part of myself, and with God's help, I can manage it sometimes], nor do I think it selfish of me to say that we should be kind and love one another.  Surely that's common sense and part of being a good person?

Oh well, you live and learn.  People are funny weird, and I can laugh at it all.

Edited to add some more comments:
Very funny! Begging for our money to line your own pocket, just like many others! Try working for your money like we do!  As much as I wish I was paid for writing my opinions, I'm not, so receive all this abuse for free.
 if you want people to be kind how about giving it a go your self!   In reaction to not understanding the words 'may' or 'just an opinion'.
Your post insults a lot of hard working, decent people   Other than a tongue in cheek comment, that already has been clarified, I fail to see where I have insulted people, but suggesting a few things.

Oh well, you can't please everyone!

The Forgotten Girls by Alexa Steele

Going through the books on my kindle that I haven't read yet (regular readers of my blog will know that I had over 600 books, and am now down to around 500) I decided to read this one yet, not knowing anything about it other than the title.  As has been known to happen on more than one occasion, ahem, I got hooked and ended up buying the rest of the series...

I will insert a Trigger Warning here: the main character of the books works for the Sexual Victims Unit - as such, the theme of these books is sexual violence against girls and women.

The blurb for The Forgotten Girls says:

In an elite suburb of New York City, girls are dying. That doesn’t happen in Greenvale, with its immaculate lawns, exclusive yacht clubs and multi-million dollar mansions. But behind its perfect façade, its trimmed hedges and luxury cars, a darkness lies. Girls, dependent on Adderall, outmaneuver each other to get into top colleges, while the mothers’ need to live vicariously only makes it worse.
Bella DeFranco is one of the Bronx’s top SVU detectives. At only 37, she disarms everyone with her stunning good looks, yet she is as tough as most men—and a lot smarter, too. Yet when is summoned to Greenvale, she finds herself getting lost in a case that even she can’t comprehend. She stumbles into a land of secrets, a place where husbands hide their pasts from their wives, where friends are not what they seem, and where no one wants to know too much. As she digs deeper into layers of suburban dysfunction, she comes to learn that, behind all the fake smiles, there is a subtle violence--rivaling even her crime-ridden streets of the Bronx.
With a killer on the loose, time running out, and a new partner who never recovered from his washed-up alcoholic days, the odds are stacked against Bella. She is determined, though, to save these girls, whatever the cost. Yet as she gets close, the depth of psychosis she discovers shocks even her….

When I read this book, I immediately related to Bella - not least because I also have stunning good looks and am smarter than most men...  No, what I liked was her determination, drive and ambition.  She squirrels away, determine to find the truth and bring justice for the girls.

In the second and third books of the series, the investigations are stand-alone but the character of Bella and her partner Mack develop. You learn that something happened to Bella in her childhood that is the reason why she works so hard for the SVU, but it doesn't go into details.

I read the whole series in less than a week, it was that riveting.  Alexa Steele really knows how to pull you into a story.  You enter their world and get caught up into the lives of the rich and exclusive, and the seedy and violent dark side.  At the end of the 3rd book, it does say that there will be a 4th book at some point. I hope it's soon!

Love Me Darling by Laura Burton

I was given this book for free in exchange for an honest review

This was my favourite of the Love Me series, not least because it involved all the couples from the previous books, but because Laura is back to her best, writing straightforward cozy romance.

Love Me Darling is a festive romp, in the days leading up to Christmas, between Lottie and Lucas.  Lottie has fancied the pants off Lucas, like, forever, and Lucas has recently started seeing Lottie in a new light, rather than the little kid he has known for years. 

The blurb says:

A short Christmas romance to warm your heart this winter.
Lottie: I hate Christmas.
The LED lights give me a headache.
I can't sing. And I get sick. Every. Single. Year.
This year is the worst. My Nan is practically on her deathbed and has planned for the biggest Christmas party this world has ever seen. Everyone will be there. Lucas Green is invited. My childhood crush. The guy I've been stuck in the friend zone for years. This is my last chance to get him to notice me. But how do I stop looking like an idiot with all the Christmas cheese at every turn?
Lucas: It's the best time of year.
Business is booming.
Ada's about to give birth any day now.
The town is full of cheer. And Lottie is coming home for the holidays.
This is it. The year I finally make a move. Otherwise, I think Ada will kill me. Problem is, every time I see her, my legs turn to jelly and I act like a total idiot. I need to woo her with lots of Christmas surprises. I mean, who doesn't love Christmas? Nothing can go wrong.

An adorable Christmas story including all of the couples from the 'Love Me' series. Laughter, tear-jerking moments and swoon-worthy romance all wrapped up in Christmas gift wrap. A British Christmas romance suitable for all ages.

 As we're coming up to Christmas in real life, I'm feeling all festive anyway, and was looking for an easy-to-read story that will get me in the Christmas spirit, and this was it.  Yes it is predictable, but it all worked out in the end and that is exactly what you want from a book like this.  I love made-for-TV Christmas movies (it's a December tradition that I aim for one a day in the run up to Christmas), and I can easily imagine this story being made into a film.  It would fit right in amongst the other Christmas romances on the small screen.

As always, the story is well written by Laura, and immediately sucks you into their world.  It took me just over 24hours to read the book, which given how busy this time of year is (and by busy I include the time I spend watching Christmas films!) is a testament to the fact I couldn't put it down.  Other than a couple of clunky sentences (which stood out in contrast to the usual high standard of Laura's work), it was very easy to read.

I would recommend to anyone wanting a festive romance this year.  Though it is the conclusion of the Love Me series, it is a stand alone book.  There are some references to the characters from the previous stories, so though you don't have to read them first, to see them in greater depth, read them too!

Weekly Update No49

My weight started to decrease this week!  Well, until I had a binge day on Sunday, and accidentally ate too much today, but the graph is still looking good.

I need to empty the freezers as we're coming up to Christmas, and I have a lot of frozen fruit and veg, so I plan to make smoothies for lunch the next few days.  Even with almond milk (I sometimes make water-based ones, but have some milk to use up), they should be a 'good' number of calories, and filling too.

However, as it is the Christmas season, I have a few meals out, drinks etc planned.  On Friday, there's a Presents and Puddings evening with ladies from my church.  We'll all be round a friend's house, sharing various desserts, and having a Secret Santa gift swap game (where you can 'steal' someone else's present, but similarly, yours can also be 'stolen').  Then Saturday I'm going to London to have lunch (and a few drinks!) with girls from uni.  I last saw them in September, so it'll be good to see them again.

Weekly Update No48

Oooh, it's been a full week since I last posted,  I can't remember the last time that happened (holidays excepting).  Actually, it's been longer, as I'm two days late posting this.  Oh well.

I have kept up tracking for a second week!
My average has stabilised, and my weight has flattened out.  Considering we're coming up to Christmas, and I'm not stopping what I'm eating, it's no bad thing that it has.  Now it's December, I'm watching Christmas films and eating mince pies; enjoying myself, but tracking.

I probably should try and do something to kick-start the weightloss again.  Even if I lose weight one week and stabilise the next, over time I could lose a lot of weight, and that is a good thing.