September here we come

Well August finished up way too quickly and although I managed to get in a lot of reading along with my new gym routine, I have been dragging my feet in doing reviews, so going to spend the next few days typing as if my life depended on it. I have read some great books in August and have been really happy with finding some lesser known authors who have brought a breath of fresh air from the big books being released.

I have just uploaded a review of Marriage Material by Sathnam Sanghera and it was a delight. I love to read books about immigrants, especially as it is constantly on the news about the horrors of allowing migrants through our great borders. Of course living in Australia, there is nobody in this country who wasn't a migrant somewhere back in their histories, and I just think of how diverse our culture is with the great additions through time. This book made me appreciate how hard working people are to provide their families with a new life and how shallow and ignorant a lot of people are in not accepting the unknown! Don't think it will ever change though.


In my slew of reviews, I have also uploaded reviews for A Serpentine Affair by Tina Seskis, The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler and The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson - all as far removed in writing style as you could get - check out the reviews to see which ones I preferred!

There have been two disappointing reads in August - The Dominant by Tara Sue Me and ..... yep you guessed it Sylvia Day with Afterburn.


I am off to Hong Kong in a few days for a long weekend of hopefully sightseeing and lazing by the pool, whilst Natalie is heading back to the UK for a work conference and to catch up with friends, so we will get a chance to do more reading on the long haul flights. Also super exciting for Natalie is the release of her second book - Stubborn Love which is due out on 5 September 2013. A great read I am sure.

Well time to stop procrastinating and more reviews, I could almost feel the whip cracking.

August is quickly disappearing

It is constantly amazing that the months seems to slip by quicker and quicker. Of course my to read book pile is still growing and with the addition of a Kindle, it just means that there doesn't look like as many books arriving via the postman. That coupled with winter here in Perth finally arriving, well for the last couple of days anyway where it has been windy and rainy, although still a relatively pleasant 20 or so degrees, makes for perfect reading weather. I have read a mixed bag this month with:-

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
Losing Hope: A Novel by Colleen Hoover
My Education by Susan Choi
Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty

Of course then the hard work starts with writing a review.

There have also been some award lists issues which, as always, peaks my enthusiasm and the hope that the award winners will read my lofty ideals of an award winner. In the past this has not always been the case, but I live in hope, so yet more books have been added to the list.

I am currently reading Marriage Material by Sathnam Sanghera and loving it, I could say it is something I wouldn't normally read, but in fact it is exactly the type of book I love to read. An immigrant family struggling to find their place in a new society whilst still holding onto their culture.

After than on the pile to read is Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser who has just picked up the Prime Minister's Literary Awards after she scooped the Miles Franklin Award earlier this year.

Of course this weekend is taken up with visiting the University of Western Australia's annual Save the Children Book Fair where I can browse books and purchase all those missing ones from my series.

Books for July 2013

There are a lot of book reviews for July 2013 which have been uploaded to get you reading.


Tampa by Alissa Nutting. Recommended as a controversial novel about a controversial topic and I can't highlight enough that this book will get everyone talking.

The Round House by Louise Erdrich. Recommended as a look at how far would you go for your friends and family. This book will also open your eyes at the judicial system in relation to native Americans.

Entwined with You by Sylvia Day. This is recommended to make you appreciate your won relationships.

The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski. This is recommended as a step above most of the books in this genre - an interesting and funny book that will make you want to grab the moment.

A Trick I Learned from Dead Men by Kitty Aldridge. Recommended as a quirky read about funeral care and family breakdown.

The Expats by Chris Pavone. Recommended for a look at how dreary expat life can be, but just not living up to the promise of suspense.

Upcoming Movies - The Book Thief and Catching Fire

The release date for the film adaptation of Zusak's 2006 The Book Thief has been pushed forward to 15 November 2013! Originally scheduled for release January 2013, it was moved forward to compete in the 2013 award season. Narrated by death himself, the novel is set in Nazi Germany during 1939. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier and will become busier still. Liesel, a 9 year old girl is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story from the time she stole her first book "The Gravediggers Handbook" and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall. This has an all-star cast with Geoffrey Rush (Hans Hubermann), Emily Watson, Sophie Nelissa (Liesel Meminger) and filmed in Germany. Click here to view the movie trailer.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. One of the few Young Adult books that has been made into a great movie.
Catching Fire is an upcoming American science-fiction adventure film based on Suzanne Collins' novel, Catching Fire, the second installment in The Hunger Games trilogy. Due for release on 20 November 2013, check out the trailer here.

Love2Read

Love2Read are counting down the days to The Reading Hour which kicks off on Saturday 24 August, with fun events being added to the site and lots of exciting activities being planned at libraries, schools and businesses all over the country. There are now only 30 days until celebrations commence on how easy it is to give the gift of reading! Easy you say? Yes. It takes just 10 minutes a day, an hour a week, to give your child - or yourself! - the life-long benefits that stem from an enjoyment of reading. So join in the celebration at your local library or school, tell your friends, plan an event at home, or have a an event for staff in your office – the ways to celebrate The Reading Hour and sharing books together are endless! Check out the Love2Read website.

The season of book awards

Well the season of book awards is in full steam with a constant flow of awards being awarded - check out OurBookClub for a full list of popular prizes. What I find strange is that the same books seem to be nominated for each award. I am not naïve enough to think that every judge reads all the books that have been awarded without having their attention drawn to certain books/authors without the assistance of publishers. It is a bit sad, but realistic, as there are so many books and so many books that don't met their promise. One of my biggest pet hates at the moment is the proliferation of books that have or are being published with so many editing errors. Sometimes this may be cause by the obvious publishing differences between print and online books, but it is a small thing to control. This is even worse is some self published books where the editing is woeful, I am sure that even Microsoft Word spell checker hasn't been utilised. So after my gripe, it doesn't stop me reading, reading and reading some more. As usual the piles of too read books are even bigger than the piles that have been read pile. I have even put a stop on book purchases until I start to make a dent. Hmm may need to give up my day job for that to happen. Happy reading Tracy

The fantastic month of May

Well Natalie and I have both enjoyed the Sydney Writers Festival which introduced us to a whole range of authors we hadn't known before and we have now added them to our respective reading piles, so stay turned for some new book reviews.

We have also been caught up in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy which has kept us awake at nights and we have now created EL James as one of our favorite authors because, although the books aren't literature wonders, they are funny, sad and entertainment, perfect to curl up on the couch with.

Inbetween that we have updated reviews in May 2012 for Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, Missing Shade of Blue: A Philosophical Adventure by Jennie Erdal, Salvage the Bones: A Novel by Jesmyn Ward, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding, The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright and The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward.

As usual we are trying to find ways to make the website more interactive and relevant, so any budding authors out there, stand by for our new section to assist you in editing and getting feedback on your manuscripts.  We are both excited at this concept as can see a real gap whereby independent authors find it hard to get into the bigger publishing houses and need to ensure that when they do submit their manuscript it has been reviewed in a proactive and methodical way.

As always, buying any books through our affiliate bookstores helps us keep the website going, so please feel free to purchase and also forward our website to your friends.

Thanks
Tracy

What books to read

We are all busy with work, after work running around after families that any "me" time is gratefully appreciated and limited. So how do we make the most out of any spare time we have. At OurBookClub we provide online book reviews that are independent and honest. We let you know if we enjoyed it or if it adds value to your time for example of there are books, games, tv series or movies all linked together.
I know there is nothing more disappointing that coming home from the bookstore, or even from uploading your Kindle or other eReader, to find the book just wasn't what you expected. Hopefully OurBookClub can take some of the nervous anticipation out of that wait. Plus if you want to be prepared we have a monthly newsletter that highlights our picks and what we will be reading in the month ahead - you can subscribe at OurBookClub Subscription page. If you don't have time for a lot of reading, keep up to date through our Twitter or Facebook feeds.
Any books that you purchase through our site also goes to helping the site keep running.
Thanks
Tracy

More reviews....wish I could read all day

Ok, well it was super hot for me with a couple of nice 42oC days. Of course this translated to switching on the air-con and spending hours on the couch reading (and watching the tennis, some amazing matches boys!). Suffice to say, have posted a couple of new reviews of some great books I have recently read. This includes The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. His latest book deals with the very ugly disease cancer and had me both laughing and crying. A really beautiful and moving book, which presented a very different side to the story, the cancer victim who is left behind. Earlier this month I had read his book Looking for Alaska, which is almost an ode to Holden Caufield and is a great coming of age story (note to self, pick up Catcher in the Rye again).

I also managed to finally get my hands on the second instalment in the Immortal Beloved series, Darkness Falls. Five hours later I was done and counting down the days until the third book hits shelves (Jan 2013, so a long time). I have to say I love this series so very much, primarily due to it's narrator, the completely hilarious, but deeply troubled Nastasya. Yes ok it's about immortals, but her struggles and fears are so realistically portrayed, I couldn't help but feel for her, even when she makes stupid decisions (particularly forcing herself to walk away from the Viking god Reyn). While the second book has me hoping things will work out for them, I now have an impossibly long wait to find out!

I also read Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, which despite being a really interesting and clever story, was just a little too drawn out for me (I'm impatient by nature).

And now I am back at work and have started reading Kirsten Tranter's second novel A Common Loss about 4 friends reeling from the death of the 5th member of their group and the knowledge that he might not have been the man they all thought he was.

If only I could go back to lying on the couch.....

Nat

Another day - more books

Well another rainy weekend here in Sydney has given me some time to update some bits on our website, finish off some books and post their reviews. In the meantime I have been reading Guerilla Social Media Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson and Shane Gibson to get a handle on all the social networking and technology that is so prolific. At ourbookclub we now have a web page, blog page, Facebook account and Twitter account and somewhere along the lines we also have to read books, watch movies and ultimately go to our day jobs to pay for our passion.
The book is certainly interesting and provides information about not getting too caught up in every piece of social networking software, but instead picking what you think the majority of your target audience will use and go with that, also finding the software that lets you post in one place and replicate in other places, so you are not repeating yourself on the different medias. That sounds good :-)
Also in the book are helpful suggestions on the secret world of search engine optimization. I have been struggling with this for some time. How to come up with the right site title tags, descriptions, page names and text so that those wonderful bots at Google and Bing can find us and make us more accessible to others. We seem to have got it right in some areas but not so in others, so that is an ongoing work in progress.
I am sure when the internet was developed words were mentioned about a paperless office - well we don't have as much paper, but we do spend just as much time online reading, reading and more reading.
Oh well finally now have time to sit down and read an actual book.

Tracy