The Five Orange Pips and Other Cases – a review

When the Buzzwordathon prompt in February asked for a book with a colour in the title I had limited choices (looks like the books I pick up don’t match Kayla’s!) so this was my only option, but I wasn’t mad because I adore Sherlock Holmes and I knew I would fly through this!

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I’m sure you know the Holmes stories by now, we follow our detective in the 1800s as he uses his powers of deduction and his knowledge of 243 different types of tobacco ash to solve mysteries of death, murder, and deception. Despite being Conan Doyle’s least favourite character to write, he captured the heart of a nation and we would not let him go!

I had read some of these stories not that long ago, when I read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. So I decided to skip over those and pick the ones I hadn’t read this. There were actually one or two new to me in here which was lovely as I had been worried they would all be rereads.

This was exactly what I expected, a fun read, an enjoyable romp through the deductive mind of Holmes/Doyle and I will always enjoy these books!

Highlight here for trigger warnings: death, violence

For my CAWPILE ratings I gave:

Character: 9

Atmosphere: 8

Writing: 9

Plot: 8

Intrigue: 9

Logic: 9

Enjoyment: 9

With an overall score of 8.71 which gives me a 4 star rating! I think that’s pretty reflective of how I feel about these, never quite five star reads but always immensely enjoyable!

June TBR 2021!

Something a little different for my blog! I show my tbr’s on my channel and on my bookstagram (to be read, the pile of books I want to read that month) but I don’t tend to show them here! I think that’s mainly cause I don’t want to have to go through the hassle of editing the post #lazy so I’ve decided to just try out text post versions. No book covers. Nothing fancy. But here is my tbr!

To start with the “obvious” (if you follow me) I’ll be continuing to read War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy this month (I’m reading a chapter a day with Olivia from Olivia’s Catastrophe and we’re really enjoying it!!). Hopefully we’ll hit book Eleven next month!

As I’m taking part in the Buzzwordathon hosted by Kayla from Booksandlala I’ll be reading Dear Amy by Helen Callaghan, this is a thriller following a woman who receives a letter from someone claiming to be a girl who went missing 20 years ago. I’m hoping that cause this is a thriller it’ll be a nice quick read!

Each month I’m also taking part in the Dead Famous Read-a-long hosted by Hannah at LadetteM along with Bekka from the Comic Book Sanctury, Aly from the Chaotic Reader and Emma from EmmaNovella. We’ve reached book 5 in the Skulduggery Pleasant series which is Mortal Coil by Derek Landy. This series follows a young Irish girl who discovers magic via a talking skeleton detective and goes on to join him in saving the day! This is one of my favourite series and I’ve read every single book that’s published so these are all re-reads for me! I also want to re-read Apocalypse Kings which is a novella which only came out this year for World Book Day. Of course I only read it for the first time recently but this is where it chronologically sits so I want to pop it in here!

Then whilst filming my tbr I picked out my tbr jar pick for the month, which turned out to be Dark Places by Gillian Flynn! This follows a girl who’s family were all brutally murdered leaving just her and her brother. Her evidence put him behind bars but there are people who think he was innocent. I’ve never read any Flynn before so I’m hoping for good things!

Now finally onto the 3 “random” books on my tbr!

First up is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen! I actually own 2 copies of this. One is a standard book, but one is a more magazine format, and although they have the same illustrations the magazine ones are coloured. I’m not sure which copy I’m going to pick up, and considering I measure page count I’m not sure which one I’ll be using for that either. But either way I’m wanting to read the book this month.

Then we have Pet by Akwaeke Emezi which was gifted to me by the lovely Olivia (mentioned above). This follows a young girl who was raised in a world where monsters have been defeated, but then Pet appears. But are they a monster? Or are they protecting the city from the real monsters? I loved Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi so I’m super excited to read more from this author!

Last but by no means least, Touch by Claire North is the final book on my tbr for June. The synopsis on this one is pretty sparse. With one touch she can take over your body for however long she wants. And that’s who we’re following! I’ve read 2 books by North so far and adored them both so I’m really excited for this one and I hope it’ll be a quick read!

And there you have it! My June tbr! I’ve been trying to be nicer to myself lately so if I don’t manage to complete the tbr then it’s not the end of the world. I will read my War and Peace chapters each day, and I will aim to read my tbr jar pick, the Skulduggery book (but only Mortal Coil, Apocalypse Kings doesn’t matter so much) and the buzzwordathon book. And Pet. Just cause I want to. But the rest would just be bonus books. We’ll see how I do, fingers crossed!!

What do you want to read in June? Have you read any of these? Let me know in the comments!!

11 Doctors, 11 Stories

 

My last book for the buzzwordathon! I technically finishing this the day after the readathon ended but shhh!

This book consists of 11 short stories by a variety of well known authors, one for each Doctor (excluding the war doctor and also ones which have appeared after this book was published, Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker). Sadly I’ve only watched nuWho so far, and a bit of the 1st Doctor (I’m working on it!) but those respective authors really managed to embody the way in which each Doctor was portrayed and I really felt like I was watching the show.

Overall I gave the book a rounded up 4*s on Goodreads, as the average of my reviews was around 3.7*s. Now lets break these down into their individual stories.

The First Doctor: A Big Hand for the Doctor by Eoin Colfer – 4*

I really enjoyed this Victorian romp around, with Colfer really mixing the Doctor’s personality around to work for a more modern reader. Hartnel played the Doctor as quite stiff and although that does remain in this story he is a bit more relaxed as would fit a modern audience and I think Colfer blended the two really well.

 

The Second Doctor: The Nameless City by Michael Scott – 2*

This was my lowest rated story within this book at 2*s. I honestly felt bored reading it and struggled to get through it. The concept was fine but the characters fell flat for me. It would have been a 1* if not for the Flower of Scotland at the end!!! (I’m half Scottish) I’ve never read from this author before and I’m likely to not do so given my unenjoyment of their writing style here.

 

The Third Doctor: The Spear of Destiny by Maarcus Sedgwick – 3.5*

A fun viking based story which I was immediately engrossed in and really enjoyed, I gave this 3.5* as it lacked a little extra spark to push it any higher. I enjoyed the little details added in but I feel like it could have done with being a little longer, or a standalone book by itself as there were so many small details added which didn’t get to be explored.

 

The Fourth Doctor: The Roots of Evil by Philip Reeve – 4*

This was a great story, Reeve wrote just the right amount for a novella and the concept of a living tree which had been genetically altered for an evil use is such a great plot. Definitely a fun one!

 

The Fifth Doctor: Tip of the Tongue by Patrick Ness – 4.5*

I loved this story! Little truth machines which tell people exactly what you think of them, which is usually quite harsh or unwanted information. The Doctor and Nyssa don’t feature heavily in this story, with the focus being on the children involved, which I definitely think was the right decision by Ness as it brings the reader into their world very directly.

 

The Sixth Doctor: Something Borrowed by Richelle Mead – 4*

A world which based itself around Las Vegas, with the focus being on a shotgun wedding! This was another fun story, as is the theme of this short story collection, and I enjoyed reading about characters which I’ve heard of but not watched myself so far.

 

The Seventh Doctor: The Ripple Effect by Malorie Blackman – 5*

My favourite story of the whole collection! If you’re familiar with Doctor Who you’ll be familiar with the Daleks, but not like this! Blackman takes the story exactly where you would expect for her favoured writing topics and it works brilliantly with the Doctor and the Daleks. This novella is written brilliantly and I highly recommend it.

 

The Eighth Doctor: Spore by Alex Scarrow – 4*

A really interesting take on an alien virus and a great stepping stone from the original Doctors to the new series. There is a virus which is melting people down into goo and conglomerating it to make a form for itself. The Doctor goes in on behalf of UNIT and deals with the virus himself.

 

The Ninth Doctor: The Beast of Babylon by Charlie Higson – 3*

I probably would’ve given this story 2.5*, but I boosted it up a little because I loved that Higson chose to fill up the gap from when the Doctor left Rose after they first met and then appeared back, mere seconds later, to re-offer her the opportunity of a lifetime. This was actually a large gap in time for the Doctor, and this story takes place within that. Sadly the actual story wasn’t my favourite, the concept was good but it just wasn’t for me.

 

The Tenth Doctor: The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage by Derek Landy – 3.75*

In this story we follow Martha and the Doctor inside of a Famous Five story knock-off which has come from Martha’s own brain. This is very much Landy’s ballpark and you can feel him having fun with the story. Again, similar to previous novella’s in this book, I think this needed more pages in order to be a fully developed and enjoyable story.

 

The Eleventh Doctor: Nothing O’Clock by Neil Gaiman – 4.5*

Gaiman perfectly encaptures the madness of Matt Smith and Karen Gillian as their respective characters and really sticks with the style of story which was used within their series’ on the show. It was a great end to the book and I really loved it. I’d be happy to read a lot more from Gaiman writing for the 11th Doctor!

 

Overall, some of these stories did need more time and space in order to fully reach their potential, but I definitely recommend having a look at these. They were originally published as individual short stories for eBook so if you only want to pick up the ones from your favourite authors or a few that sound good then you can definitely do that. I’m really glad that I’ve finally read this book and it was a lot of fun being back in the Whoniverse while we wait for the next series with Whittaker to be released. Definitely recommended reading for Whovians!

Finishing the Divergent Series!

 

My third pick for the Buzzwordathon was Four by Veronica Roth, which I bought not too long ago this year. I was so excited to find this cover as it matches the covers I already had for the main series and I honestly loved being back in this world.

I do think that I’m “growing out of” younger YA, this sort of romance heavy literature aimed at younger teenagers, which is a pity because omg they can be so addictive! But I still did love this read as it was nostalgic and I really enjoyed seeing events from Four’s point of view. I had already assumed a lot about his character which turned out to be true, but it was nice to see it written down and to confirm his actions in the first book and what had lead up to them.

If you enjoyed the Divergent series, excluding the ending obviously, then I definitely recommend picking up this little set of short stories and delving back into the beginning of the story of this world and enjoying yourself! I gave Four 4*s!

101 Facts You “Need to Know”!

This was my first book in Kayla’s Buzzword Readathon. It’s a nice and short non-fiction and as I predicted it was an easy speed through and a good way to start a readathon. Simply stated, this is a mini magazine which has short “articles” on 101 interesting facts. Totally my thing and a little gift from my mum many years ago.

None of the facts really gives you all of the information you would need to be knowledgeable about the subject, however, it does give you enough to whet your appetite and give you the desire to go and research more. Or at least it did for me! Maybe it’ll just give you more random facts to whip out and sound impressive at social events!

Overall this is a short review because this is a short book. It won’t teach you a lot of detail but it will be interesting and a quick read. Great for when you’re waiting at the Dr’s office etc.