The Secret Fire

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Titles or Covers That Made Me Want to Read/Buy the Book

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. As the title suggests this week it’s all about the book covers or titles that stood out to us and made us either buy them or make a note to check them out later.

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn
This is a book I got from a friend who was unhauling a load of books years ago (probably 10 years ago?!). She posted the titles of the books she was getting rid of an this title just leapt out at me and had to claim it. I read it so long ago I can’t really remember anything about it but I do know it was a memoir.

The Beast Player and The Beast Warrior by Nahoko Uehashi.
As I said in my WIT Month TBR post, these two were complete cover buys. I saw The Beast Warrior first as it was on one of those stands in the bookshop and after reading the blurb and realising it was a sequel hunted on the shelves to see if the first book was in stock and luckily it was and it was just as beautiful.

Lost Boi by Sassafras Lowrey
I got this from City Lights bookshop in San Francisco when I was on holiday there. I could’ve spent hours in that shop as there was certainly a lot of treasures to find but this one is what stood out to me. It’s a queer retelling of Peter Pan and was unlike anything I’d read before.

A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston
Another cover buy because the naked hardcover was just stunning and I loved how the dust jacket complimented it.

Uprooted by Naomi Novak
I loved the colours and the illustration on this cover. Pity I didn’t like the story inside it so much.

The Secret Fire by C.J. Daugherty and Carina Rozenfeld
This was both a cover buy and a title buy. The title intrigued me and the cover was simple but effective – still haven’t read it yet though.

Man in the Empty Suit by Sean Ferrell
This was another cover and title buy. I liked how simple it was and how the colourful silhouette stands out. The title was intriguing too.

Sekret by Lindsay Smith
I found this cover and the font used to be simple but striking. I did try reading Sekret a couple of times but couldn’t get into it so unfortunately, I unhauled it recently. It’s a shame when the cover doesn’t live up to the book inside.

Five Ghosts Vol. 1: The Haunting of Fabian Grey by Frank J. Barbiere and Chris Mooneyham
One of my favourite cover buys when it comes to comic books. Loved the story and the art style and I’m so pleased this cover caught my eye.

Would any of these book titles or covers have made you want to pick them up?

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Book Covers with Autumn Colours/Vibes

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. This week it’s time to show off some book covers, more specifically the ones that have autumnal colours or we feel give off autumnal vibes. There’s definitely a lot of different shades of orange and yellow here but there’s a few covers that probably look out of place, with those ones I can’t really describe why I think they give of autumnal vibes – they just feel like books I should be reading as the nights get longer and darker.

Electric Souk by Rose McGinty
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
Raised from the Ground by José Saramago
The Sisters Grimm by Menna va Praag
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Secret Fire by CJ Daugherty and Carina Rozenfeld
Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
The Poisoned Island by Lloyd Shepherd
The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili
Kartography by Kamila Shamsie

Have you read any of these books? What are some book covers that you think give off autumnal vibes?

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Ten Books I Picked Up On A Whim

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature run by BrokeAndBookish each week – I’m thinking I might not take part every week but just see if a week takes my fancy. This week it’s all about books you picked up on a whim, I’m going to take this as books I bought on a whim – so books that I’d never heard of, hadn’t read reviews for and books that I may have seen in passing on the internet but knew very little about. On to the books!

sudden death coverSudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue
I bought this book in Any Amount of Books, a lovely second-hand book shop off Leicester Square, the last time I was in in London. I had never heard of it before and when I read the blurb I was still none the wiser what it was actually about. It’s something to do with a tennis match and it mentions a lot of different historical figures and time-periods. I have no idea what it’s about or whether I’ll like it but that’s what made me pick it up.

the secret fire coverThe Secret Fire by CJ Daugherty and Carina Rozenfeld
I bought this one during the London Bookswap Crawl and I had never heard of it before. The striking cover was what drew me to it and then it was only a couple of quid so I ended up buying it. I haven’t read it yet but I have a feeling I’m going to get to it sooner rather than later.

 

asking for it louise oneilAsking For It by Louise O’Neill
So I had heard about this book through murmurings on the internet but I hadn’t read any full reviews. Then one day I was browsing Amazon, clicking from book to book and I saw Asking For It again and it wasn’t that expensive so I bought it. My review is here. (more…)

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Ten Books on my Spring TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature run by BrokeAndBookish each week – I’m thinking I might not take part every week but just see if a week takes my fancy. As the title suggests, these are ten books I hope to get to over the next few months. Pretty much all of my books are currently packed in boxes as we’re moving house next week so these chosen few (plus my kindle) are to see me through until we’re all unpacked in the new place in a months’ time.

The Secret Fire by C. J. Daugherty and Carina Rozenfeld
This is like a supernatural/mystery/end of the world type book and it’s been ages since I’ve read anything like that and I got to say the cover is one of the first things that drew me to this book – I love it!

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
This one is getting all the buzz at the moment so I’m intrigued to see what I make of it. I might wait a while to read it though as I read A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston in January and I’m slightly worried they’ll be very similar and then I’ll get bored/be biased.

Truthwitch by Susan Dennard
I got this in the Illumicrate box and I’m interested to see what I think of it. While I like fantasy books I have very rarely read any book centred on witches so it will be new territory for me. (more…)

The London Bookshop Crawl aka An Awesome Bookish Day

Yesterday I spent the day going to many bookshops in London with a lot of book loving people. It was the London Bookshop Crawl which was organised by the wonderful Bex and it as so much fun!

Going into the Bookshop Crawl I didn’t know anyone. Bex had set up a Twitter list of the people who were going on the crawl so I’d followed them all to try and learn names and get to know some of them but really, I didn’t know anyone when I arrived at Foyles at 9:30am.

When I got there, there were already some people sitting in the café with hot drinks and pastries. After having a hot chocolate I went browsing the shelves of Foyles with Annette and Lauren, we talked about what genres we liked and recommended books to each other which was great. In Foyles I bought A Darker Shade of Magic and The Man in the High Castle – two books I’d been meaning to get my hands on for a while. I did start the crawl saying I’d only get one book per shop but that failed straight away! (more…)