Book Tag – Shelfie by Shelfie #5

Published March 13, 2018 by bibliobeth

Image edited from: <a href=”http://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/frame”>Frame image created by Jannoon028 – Freepik.com</a>

Hi everyone and welcome to a brand new tag – Shelfie by Shelfie that I was inspired to create late one night when I couldn’t sleep. If you want to join in, you share a picture (or “shelfie”) of one of your shelves i.e. favourites, TBR, however you like to organise them, and then answer ten questions that are based around that particular shelf. I have quite a large collection and am going to do every single bookshelf which comprises both my huge TBR and the books I’ve read and kept but please, don’t feel obliged to do every shelf yourself if you fancy doing this tag. I’d love to see anything and just a snapshot of your collection would be terrific and I’m sure, really interesting for other people to see!

For my very first Shelfie by Shelfie please see my post HERE.

For my second Shelfie by Shelfie please see my post HERE.

For my third Shelfie by Shelfie please see my post HERE.

For my fourth Shelfie by Shelfie please see my post HERE.

For other Shelfie by Shelfies round the blogosphere, please see:

Chrissi @ Chrissi Reads FAVOURITES shelfie HERE.

Sarah @ The Aroma Of Books Shelfie 1A HERE and Shelfie 1B HERE.

Anyway – on with the tag, here is the fourth shelf of my first bookshelf (I’ve chosen to split it up into two separate shelfies because of the sheer number of books, oops!). Here is the back shelf.

And here are the questions!:

1.) Is there any reason for this shelf being organised the way it is or is it purely random?

Again, with a lot of my shelves, this one is a little bit random and I’m starting to see the error of my arranging ways. On this shelf we mostly have a few review copies, some books I’ve been hoarding for quite some years but still really want to get around to and my favourite/still to read Tess Gerritsen novels.

2.) Tell us a story about one of the books on this shelf that is special to you i.e. how you got it/ a memory associated with it etc.

I’m going to stick with the theme and pick The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen. It was one of the first books I read by this author and it was this novel that made me fall in love with her plots and characters, particularly Rizzoli and Isles. I haven’t read a book by her for a while but read a recent short story called Freaks which has made me quite wary of going back to her. I’m worrying that my tastes have changed but I’m determined to read something else by her this year just to check, probably Keeping The Dead.

3.) Which book from this shelf would you ditch if you were forced to and why?

I think it would have to be Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. I was really excited to read it and it’s been on my shelves for many years now. However, when I read the synopsis, I’m just not as eager to get to it as I once was. If anyone has read it and recommends I get to it soon I’m willing to listen though!

4.) Which book from this shelf would you save in an emergency and why?

This is hard. Perhaps Motherland by Jo McMillan, purely for this gorgeous cover and now I’ve read the synopsis again, I’m very keen to read it!

5.) Which book has been on this shelf for the longest time?

I think that could be Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. I’ve enjoyed this author’s books in the past so don’t ask me why I haven’t read it yet! I think a lot of the problem with the back shelves is that I don’t see the books that often so sadly, some of them often get forgotten.

6.) Which book is the newest addition to this shelf?

These books are all sadly well past their prime but I think the newest one would have to be The One In A Million Boy by Monica Wood which I was kindly sent a review copy of but just haven’t had the chance to get round to it yet.

7.) Which book from this shelf are you most excited to read (or re-read if this is a favourites shelf?)

Stoner by John Williams. I’ve heard some great things!

8.) If there is an object on this shelf apart from books, tell us the story behind it.

There isn’t any object on this shelf, there’s no room for anything else apart from books (and even then, not enough room for some of them, eek!).

9.) What does this shelf tell us about you as a reader?

Like my other shelfies, I think it shows I have quite eclectic taste, there’s quite a mixture of classics, thrillers, historical, contemporary and literary fiction here so I have quite a lot of variety whenever I feel in the mood.

10.) Choose other bloggers to tag or choose a free question you make up yourself.

Anyone who wants to do this, please feel free, I’d be delighted but please tag me in your post so I can see your shelfie in all its glory. This time round I’m going to choose a question for myself:

Is there any book on this shelf that you’d like to see a review of by a fellow blogger?

I’d love to see a review of There But For The by Ali Smith. I don’t think I’ve quite “got” her writing yet and because this is an older title of Ali’s I haven’t seen any recent reviews. Perhaps reading one would either push me to read it sooner or donate it to someone who might appreciate it more!

COMING SOON on bibliobeth : Shelfie by Shelfie #6

Short Stories Challenge 2017 – Freaks: A Rizzoli & Isles Short Story by Tess Gerritsen (stand-alone).

Published December 18, 2017 by bibliobeth

What’s it all about?:

In this Rizzoli & Isles short story from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen, author of The Silent Girl, a bizarre death comes with a supernatural twist. Homicide cop Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles have seen their fair share of mortal crimes, but the death of Kimberly Rayner may qualify as inhuman in more ways than one. When corpse of the emaciated seventeen-year-old girl is discovered next to an empty coffin in an abandoned church, mysterious bruises around the throat suggest foul play. Caught fleeing the scene is the victim’s closest friend, Lucas Henry, an equally skeletal, pale teenager who claims he’s guilty only of having a taste for blood—a craving he shared with Kimberly. But the victim’s distraught father doesn’t believe in vampires, only vengeance. And now, another life may be at risk unless Rizzoli and Isles can uncover the astonishing truth.

What did I think?:

Freaks was such an interesting reading experience for me but first I have to tell you a little story. I’m a huge fan of Tess Gerritsen and about ten years ago, I read everything she ever published up to that point. The author used to be a doctor and so she brought all her experience and first hand knowledge from her career and used it in an excellent way to tell some thrilling tales. In fact the first novel in her famous Rizzoli and Isles series, The Surgeon still remains one of my very favourite thrillers. I approached Freaks with slight trepidation – I haven’t read anything by her for a long time and I was a little concerned that due to the maturation in my reading tastes, I wouldn’t enjoy her writing as much. Now, I don’t know if it’s because it’s a short story and I’m used to reading her novels or that I’ve “grown out” of her work OR that this simply wasn’t one of her best stories but I have to admit, I was a little disappointed by this little tale. Sad face!

Freaks follows Gerritsen’s notorious female protagonists, Maura Isles (a medical examiner) and Jane Rizzoli (a police detective) as they come across an intriguing death that has some very strange hallmarks. The victim is a seventeen year old girl called Kimberley Rayner and she is found inside a church with marks of strangulation around her neck. She is emaciated, pale and filthy and looks to have been malnourished and sleeping rough prior to her death. Rizzoli manages to apprehend a young man of similar age to Kimberley who is still at the scene but he swears that the last time he saw his friend, she was still alive. He also mentions that the two teenagers are vampires and survive every day on just “air and blood,” which, of course causes them to be labelled as “freaks.” However, as with many of their cases there is more to this peculiar death than meets the eye and it takes a chance finding at the post-mortem to reveal what really happened to Kimberley.

So what was my problem? There was only one real nagging issue that I couldn’t get past with this short story and it happened at the end of every single chapter. It was just so sensationalist and every last sentence of the chapter had to be a frightening moment, strong statement or cliffhanger of some sort. Seriously, every single time I came to the close of each little section I had the inevitable “dun, dun, DUN!” noise going off in my head and I’m afraid to say, at some points it did get a little bit eye rolling. The vampire element put me off too, I have to say. It does connect to what happened to Kimberley a little bit I guess, but I think the author could have chosen another reason for why Kimberley’s body was in such a sorry state not just rest on the frankly unnecessary blood-sucker thing. Because of all of this, I was unfortunately bitterly disappointed with the entire experience and although I’ve got the next novel I’m due to read by Tess Gerritsen, Keeping The Dead high up on my TBR for next year, I’m a little put off now and worried that it’s going to be a let down. Perhaps it’s just her short stories I’m not going to be a fan of? Are there others out there that are better and this is just a bad apple in the proverbial fruit bowl? If anyone knows, I’d love to be reassured in the comments but for now, I’ll just have to wait and see.

Would I recommend it?:

Not sure.

Star rating (out of 5):

NEXT SHORT STORY: High House by Rosy Thornton from the collection Sandlands.

Short Stories Challenge 2017 – Part Five

Published November 5, 2017 by bibliobeth

Image from: http://www.creativindie.com/how-to-make-money-by-publishing-and-selling-short-stories-and-short-books-on-amazon/

Hello everyone and welcome to the fifth part of my Short Stories Challenge in 2017. My fourth part was quite like the third, up and down. I had a huge disappointment with a short story by Daphne du Maurier which was Monte Verità but I also got some lovely surprises in the form of The House On The Hill by Kate Mosse and The Man In The Ditch by Lisa Tuttle. Here’s what I’ll be reading in the next few months:

Best New Horror by Joe Hill from the collection 20th Century Ghosts.

The Moons Of Jupiter by Alice Munro from the collection Stories To Get You Through The Night.

The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands by Stephen King from the collection Skeleton Crew.

Unplugged by Dianne Gray from the collection Manslaughter And Other Tears.

Wisht by Lucy Wood from the collection Diving Belles.

The Man From Mars by Margaret Atwood from the collection The Story: Love, Loss & The Lives Of Women.

Seeing Double by Sara Maitland from the collection The New Uncanny: Tales Of Unease edited by Sarah Eyre and Ra Page.

The Adventure Of The Beryl Coronet by Arthur Conan Doyle from the collection The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes.

Freaks: A Rizzoli & Isles Short Story by Tess Gerritsen (stand-alone).

High House by Rosy Thornton from the collection Sandlands.