Kittling Books has a weekly feature in which she reveals photos of where specific blogs are created.
I’m being featured on Scene of the Blog today, so if you are interested in what my blogging space looks like – head over there!
Sorry if you received this in your feed yesterday – I accidentally scheduled my post in the past instead of the future!
Top 10 gaffes on Facebook, Twitter and Google
Don’t judge a book by its cover, particularly in France.
I was amazed to discover that these books were orginally self published.
These social media statistics are fascinating – it is amazing how fast social media is growing!
This week I passed a couple of milestones:
I managed to get my 1000th follower on Twitter.Thank you to everyone who has followed me @farmlanebooks. I love discussing books over there and look forward to many more bookish chats in the future.
I also recieved my 1000th positive feedback on Amazon. My book-selling business is dwindling now that my boys are too big to go book scouting with me, but it is nice to know that my customer service is continuing to be of a high standard and hopefully I will be able to grow my sales again once my oldest son starts school in September.
I was amazed by the 2010 Optical Illusion of the Year competition. The winner is in the video below, but I highly recommend looking at the others – especially the one with the waves of moving dots.
Sorry for my unannounced disappearance and the guest post from my husband. I expected to be able to continue blogging as normal, but we didn’t even have mobile phone reception, let alone WI-FI or 3G coverage in our holiday home.
Anglesey is a beautiful island off the north coast of Wales. I had a good week there with my extended family, but it was exhausting so I’m pleased to be back home with my husband. Here are a few photos to show what I got up to.
I didn’t manage to get much reading done as I was too tired to concentrate on anything too complex, but I did manage to finish Acts of Violence and 
Yesterday I had a lovely evening with many UK bloggers. It was good to meet the people behind the blogs and to be able to talk about books all night. My wish-list is even longer now – that passion for books is even more powerful face-to-face! Thank you to Simon for organising it – I hope we can do it again some time.
For the rest of the day I plan to relax and enjoy the last few pages of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet
An opportunity has arisen for a guest post from Jackie’s husband (me), as Jackie is still on holiday. Jackie hoped to be able to blog from the beautiful isle of Anglesey, but unfortunately her accommodation did not include the expected internet connection. Jackie will be back at the end of the week and I know she is looking forward to catch up with all the comments you have been leaving. I will now go and enjoy the brief time afforded to me on the family PC 🙂
Book of the Month
The Kindly Ones – Jonathan Littell 
I Do Not Come To You By Chance – Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani 
Hurting Distance – Sophie Hannah 
The Rehearsal – Eleanor Catton
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – Alan Bradley
Nights at the Circus – Angela Carter 
Angelology – Danielle Trussoni
The Temple-goers – Aatish Taseer
Seeing – Jose Saramago 
(DNF)
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet – David Mitchell
Good to a Fault – Marina Endicott
The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
I Know This Much is True – Wally Lamb
A Life Apart – Neel Murkherjee
Our Tragic Universe – Scarlett Thomas
The Hiding Place – Trezza Azzopardi
The Surrendered – Chang-Rae Lee
Marcelo in the Real World – Francisco Stork
The Birth of Love – Joanna Kavenna
Beside the Sea – Veronique – Olmi
The White Bone – Barbara Gowdy
I tried really hard to read most of the Orange short list before it was announced, reading 9/20 of the long list. I concentrated on those others had said were good, but unfortunately my efforts failed to pay off and the short list was a big surprise. Even simple chance was against me and with the exception of my failed attempt at Wolf Hall I hadn’t read any of the short list.
I had wanted to read the entire short list before the winner was announced on 6th June, but my failure to predict the 6 finalists has left me a bit disheartened. I had hoped to only have one or two Oranges left to read in May, but having 5 is a bit much. I will read them all at some point, but am not sure I want to read all five in May.
Black Water Rising – Attica Locke
The Lacuna – Barbara Kingsolver
A Gate at the Stairs – Lorrie Moore
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle – Monique Roffey
The Very Thought of You – Rosie Alison
Which books from my list should I ensure I read?
Do you plan to read any of the same ones?
I hope you have a fantastic May!
Angelology takes place in a world where angels walk among us. Their wings are tied flat beneath their clothing so you have no way of knowing who they are, but these angels have been breeding with humans to create dangerous hybrids called Nephilims. Unlike the immortal angels these nephilims are dying and so are trying to do everything within their power to get hold of the angelogogist’s research in the hope it will reveal a cure for their disease.
Angelology is a fast paced thriller, which I’d describe as a well written hybrid of The Da Vinci Code
I loved the atmospheric descriptions:
The angelologists examined the body. It was intact, without decay, the skin as smooth and as white as parchment. The lifeless aquamarine eyes gazed heavenward. Pale curls fell against a high forehead and sculptural shoulders, forming a halo of golden hair. Even the robes-the cloth woven of a white shimmering metallic material that none of them could identify exactly-remained pristine, as if the creature had died in a hospital room in Paris and not a cavern deep below the earth.
This initial scene setting was quite slow, but the pace soon sped up. I enjoyed the beginning, but about 100 pages in I began to lose interest. The plot was convoluted, meandering and never reached any real conclusion. There was a lot of history added to the book, but as most of it was made up this didn’t hold the same appeal as other pieces of historical fiction.
The central character in the book is a young nun called Evangeline, but she never really engaged me. I felt as though I was carried along by the fast flow of the words, rather than any real desire to know what happened.
The book is being made into a film by Sony and I am sure that this will be a much better medium for the story – especially once the plot has been condensed into a two hour time slot!
The lack of a fully resolved ending means that I’m sure there will be a sequel, but I’m in no rush to read it – I am happy to wait until its inevitable DVD release!
Overall I found it to be a fast paced, inventive book, but I just didn’t care what those fictional angel-hybrids were doing.
This book is getting very mixed reviews, but I am sure it will be a massive hit – especially after its release in paperback.
…an incredible novel that I can’t recommend highly enough. S. Krishna’s Books
….in the end Angelology falls far short of its potential. Muse Books Review
…too many weak points to the overall story for me to end up really invested in the story. Fantasy & SciFi Lovin’ News and Reviews
I loved the world Trussoni has created with its mixture of the esoteric, history and myth and not least for Trussoni’s quality prose. Chasing Bawa
Do you think you’ll enjoy Angelology?
