Weekly Wrap-Up: 19 January 2017

Happy Friday!  Another week has come and gone, and it has been an absolute rollercoaster for me for a number of reasons.  While I can’t say anything about the BEST news (although I’ve been tweeting about it in shouty capitals), we’ve had something awesome happen this week.  It’s not book related, but you’ll hear about it soon enough! Otherwise, you’ll see below that it was an amazing week for books.

 

Books I read

 

Paris Adrift by E. J. Swift

Cosmos: A Personal Journey by Carl Sagan (audiobook)

I finished two books this week — one physical book and one audiobook.  Paris Adrift was one I wasn’t too sure about for first 100 pages or so, but I ended up really enjoying.  It’s a very strange and surreal book that combines contemporary fiction with historical fiction and science fiction, but once it gets itself going, it’s a very fast-paced and enjoyable read.  If you’re curious to learn more, I’m participating in the blog tour.  Watch this space!

I also finished up Cosmos on audiobook.  I absolutely adored this book!  The narration is perfect (my love of LeVar Burton has nothing to do with it, I swear) and the content and writing inspires wonder.  Sagan’s passion really shines through and you can’t help but get caught up in it.

 

Books I am currently reading

 

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

I was hoping to have The Belles finished last night, but I still have about 130 pages to go!  I’m really loving this book.  I think it would be really easy to dismiss it as shallow if you only read the synopsis, but Clayton does an amazing job of combining beautiful, lush imagery and world-building with the underlying tension of something being very wrong.  If you want to know more, guess what?  I’m participating in the blog tour for this one as well!  Look at me go.

As I mentioned last week, I’m making slow progress through Astrophysics, but I’m still loving it!  I may make a push to finish up this little book over the weekend.

 

Books I bought

 

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff

The Extinction Trials by S.M. Wilson

The Girl who Leapt Through Time by Yasutaka Tsutsui

The Truth and Lies of Ella Black by Emily Barr

I had a little trip to the bookshop on Tuesday.  I have been wanting to get my paws on a copy of Fire and Fury for awhile now.  Both my dad and Scottish Fiance are listening to this on audiobook and they say it’s very well done.  I might take the cover off my copy though, I really dislike that man’s face.

Of course, I can’t walk into a bookstore and get only one book (the reason I’ve avoided bookstore for the past few weeks), so I hit up the ‘buy one get one half price’ table and picked up The Truth and Lies of Ella Black and The Extinction Trials.  I’ve been hearing so much about these two books lately and can’t wait to dive in.  Finally, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time caught my eye.  This book contains two short novellas translated from the original Japanese.  It looks wonderful!

 

Book post

 

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton (review copy)

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Oh boy, it was an amazing week for book post.  I received a review copy of The Belles to accompany the proof copy I’m currently reading.  It’s just so gorgeous!  I also was lucky enough to receive a proof of Children of Blood and Bone, which arrived yesterday and absolutely made my day.  These two books are probably my two most highly anticipated releases of 2018.

 

NetGalley approvals

 

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

The Queen’s Rising by Rebecca Ross

I had requested a copy of Space Opera as soon as I read the description.  Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy meets Eurovision?  Are you freaking kidding me??  I HAD to have this!  The American publisher was kind enough to send me a digital ARC via NetGalley and you guys, I am so pumped.  I’m planning to pop this on my February TBR and read it while I’m away on holiday/wedding venue shopping at the end of the month.  I can’t wait.

The Queen’s Rising sounds like an amazing book!  I’ve heard whisperings about it, but not much more.  I’m not sure what people think about this book, but I’m looking forward to diving in! There’s nothing better than discovering a new fantasy series.

 

Other bookish news

I am so proud to have done my first author Q&A!  And who was it with?  None other than Katherine Arden, one of my absolute favourite writers!  You can check out my Q&A and review here.  I’ve been wanting to do this for ages and I’m so happy I got the chance.  Here’s hoping I get to interview some more amazing people soon!

Some of you may have heard, YouTube recently changed their partnership policies.  In order to qualify for monetization (earning money from the ads in front of your videos), you have to have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours worth of views in 12 months.  While I hadn’t come close to the previous qualification of 10,000 views, I was almost halfway there!  It was so disheartening to see them go after small channels.  However, the book community wasn’t going to take that.  Everyone came together to subscribe to small channels and boost each other’s view.  I ended up gaining almost 100 followers in 48 hours.  So I just want to say a huge thank you  to everyone who helped not just myself, but all the other small channels out there!  You guys are the best.

I’m heading through to London this weekend for Author Sister’s birthday and then again next Friday for the launch of Hero at the Fall by Alwyn Hamilton (also going with Author Sister).  If you’re going to the launch as well, give me a shout!  I’d love to say hi 🙂

Hey, guess what?  The reading vlog is back!  After struggling to get these videos off the ground again (I love doing them but oh man, they take a lot of time), I’ve finally got them up and running.  You can watch last week’s vlog here, and be on the lookout for the newest vlog on Sunday!

 

That’s it for this week!  I’m hoping for lots of sleep and reading time over the next couple of days.  I could really use it.

 

Have you read anything you loved this week?  What’s in your TBR?  Let me know!