WWW Wednesday 9th December 2015

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This meme is hosted by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. A similar meme, This Week in Books is hosted by Lipsyy Lost and Found.

Why not join in? Just answer the following three questions in a post and then put a link to that post in the Comments over at Taking on a World of Words.

The questions are:

  1. What are you currently reading?
  2. What did you recently finish reading?
  3. What do you think you’ll read next?

1. What I’m reading at the moment

Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti

Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld book coverZeroes by Scott Westerfeld book coverSo far, this is just ok. I’m hoping there’s some more action soon!

What it’s about: Don’t call them heroes. But these six Californian teens have powers that set them apart

Ethan aka Scam has a voice inside him that’ll say whatever people want to hear, whether it’s true or not. Which is handy, except when it isn’t – like when the voice starts gabbing in the middle of a bank robbery. The only people who can help are the other Zeroes, who aren’t exactly best friends these days.

Enter Nate, aka Bellwether, the group’s ‘glorious leader.’ After Scam’s SOS, he pulls the scattered Zeroes back together. But when the rescue blows up in their faces, the Zeroes find themselves propelled into whirlwind encounters with ever more dangerous criminals. At the heart of the chaos they find Kelsie, who can take a crowd in the palm of her hand and tame it or let it loose as she pleases.

2. The last books I read

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness book coverMy full review. This was very good indeed, but not extraordinary. For me, Patrick Ness is now a victim of his own incredibly high standards. If this is your first Patrick Ness book and you’re left underwhelmed, please read A Monster Calls or the Chaos Walking trilogy; they are incredible.

The blurb: What if you aren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life. Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions.

AND

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith aka J K Rowling book coverA solid opening installment in this detective series but a slow start and few irritating stylistic quirks brought it’s rating down. Here’s my (slighly ranty) full review.

What it’s about: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel’s suicide. After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man. 

3. What I’ll read next

The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Boys by Maggie StiefvaterLike Cassandra Clare, Maggie Stiefvater is one of those authors I see a lot of good things about but have never read. So I hope to correct that, starting with The Raven Boys.

The (short) blurb: From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.

 

AND

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi book coverI remember seeing a few minutes of the film version of Persepolis. It’s one of those books I’ve been meaning to read for a long time. And it will be nice to read a graphic novel.

What it’s about: Here, in one volume: Marjane Satrapi’s best-selling, internationally acclaimed memoir-in-comic-strips.

Persepolis is the story of Satrapi’s unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming–both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.

Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with raw humor and hard-earned wisdom–Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded, singularly talented graphic artists at work today.

Have you read/are reading any of these? What are you reading? Let me know! 🙂

You can also find me on Twitter @ClaraVal and on Goodreads.

Chocolate cheesecake brownies photo 2

Back to chocolate last Friday with chocolate cheesecake brownies. An old favourite of mine.

 Claire Huston / Art and Soul

51 thoughts on “WWW Wednesday 9th December 2015”

    • I seem to remember sitting in a state of shellshock when I got to the end of Monsters of Men. I thought it was a great ending. I’m quite a fan of open, but optimist endings 🙂
      Zeroes is ok so far. But for a book about a group of people with superhuman powers, not a lot is happening… I’m hoping there’s a bit more action coming along soon.
      I’ll check out your post now…

      Like

      Reply

    • I know… It’s good, but I was expecting to really love it. From the blurb it sounds like exactly my sort of thing! Maybe it’s my fault for having very high expectations (again). It could still pick up though. I’m hoping for an action-packed ending…
      Thanks for visiting and happy reading!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  6. Thanks for visiting my blog earlier. I’ve got The Cuckoo’s Calling on my Kindle and judging by your review will need the Kindle dictionary to proceed. Your chocccie cake looks delicious especiallly the sticky sauce.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • The in-built dictionary would have been very useful. I had to stop and go to google! Also, Kindle would have been preferable to the hardback edition which was incredibly heavy!
      The brownies were lovely (as usual, it’s a very reliable recipe) and vanished in about 2 days 🙂
      Thank you for visiting my post and happy reading!

      Like

      Reply

  10. I’m sorry you didn’t love The Cuckoo’s Calling bro you think you’ll continue the series? I enjoyed the second one quite a bit. Happy reading and thanks for participating in WWW Wednesday!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  15. Good to hear I wasn’t the only one with some problems with The Cuckoo’s Calling! Hopefully things will improve in the sequel… And I’m now definitely going to pick up A Monster Calls before getting a copy of The Rest Of Us Just Lives Here. And who knows, we might actually end up reading The Raven Boys at the same time! 😉

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      • I discovered it recently too, I know they really are! I may have ate an entire packet before making the brownies so I didnt have as much as I wanted in them. But I regret nothing, it was so good! The brownies turned out good especially with a cup of tea. Heaven! You should definitely try them!

        Liked by 1 person

    • Thank you!
      I think, if you like reading YA and sci-fi, then yes, I would recommend it. Otherwise, probably not. It’s not as action-packed as I was expecting from a book about six teenagers with superpowers. I have to put my thoughts in order today and come up with a review.
      Thanks for visiting and happy reading!

      Like

      Reply

  25. Oh my gosh, Persepolis is fantastic! And so is The Raven Boys. I hope you like both of them.
    Thanks for visiting my post!
    (And on a different note, I tried your brownie recipe from this week for my writer’s group and everyone loved it!)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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