review

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

November 6, 2017 By Jax Blunt 3 Comments

I don’t know what I was expecting from Little Fires Everywhere, but what I got was a compulsively readable book, filled with fascinating characters on a slow but inexorable dance towards the disastrous start of the book in ways that I couldn’t have anticipated, and couldn’t wait to see unfold. Buy at Amazon Everyone in […]

Filed Under: 2017, Book club, read52, review Tagged With: blog tour, Celeste Ng, Little Brown UK, Little Fires Everywhere, review

Tinsy Winsy Weeny Tots review

September 24, 2017 By Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

OK, you are probably wondering, much as I did when I was contacted for this review, what on earth is a tinsy winsy weeny tot? Basically, as you can hopefully see in the picture above, they are hand sized, soft bodied baby dolls which come in a collectable series. Each doll has a different, very […]

Filed Under: review Tagged With: collectables, dolls, review, tinsy winsy weeny tots

Wildflower Bay by Rachael Lucas – review and giveaway

August 9, 2016 By Jax Blunt 33 Comments

It is no secret to any of my readers here or on social media that I am a huge fan of Rachael’s work. I’ve known her for years – we first ‘met’ online on email lists back when we were very new mothers, and have been bumping into each on and offline ever since. I’ve […]

Filed Under: Book club, current, giveaway Tagged With: giveaway, rachael Lucas, review, Wildflower Bay

Let’s talk about the A word.

March 23, 2016 By Jax Blunt 10 Comments

Maurice (Christopher Eccleston), Alison (Morven Christie) and Joe Hughes (Max Vento) in The A Word. Photograph: Rory Mulvey/BBC/Fifty Fathoms So. BBC one showed a new drama, The A word, last night about a family discovering their son has autism. It’s very well acted – unsurprisingly given it includes Christopher Eccleston on fine, if somewhat grumpy […]

Filed Under: It's where it is Tagged With: A word, autism, BBC, drama, review

One by Sarah Crossan

August 7, 2015 By Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

Just finished One by @SarahCrossan and now want to read everything else she's ever written. But not shopping lists. Cos that would be weird. — Jax Blunt (@liveotherwise) July 3, 2015 I read One in one sitting I think. It’s that kind of book. It wraps around you and carries you along, though it’s not […]

Filed Under: 2015, Book club, read52 Tagged With: conjoined twins, home schooling, review, Sarah Crossan, YA

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

July 2, 2015 By Jax Blunt 4 Comments

buy at Amazon Only in wartime could a stalwart lass from Manchester rub shoulders with a Scottish aristocrat, one a pilot, the other a special operations executive. When a vital mission goes wrong, and one of the friends has to bail out of a faulty plane over France, she is captured by the Gestapo and […]

Filed Under: 2015, Book club, read52 Tagged With: electric monkey, Elizabeth Wein, female lead, review, SOE, WWII, YA. UKYA

Saturday 30th May 2015

May 30, 2015 By Jax Blunt 2 Comments

{watching} Bandits (amazon link). We had dinner before film, and the little ones went to bed, so we could watch something a bit more adventurous. Bruce Willis is usually a good sign that an action movie will at least be fun, although it turned out that this wasn’t really an action movie. The humour went […]

Filed Under: It's where it is Tagged With: drawing, familyfilmnight, review, saturdaysnippets, softplay

An interview with Kate Atkinson, and some thoughts on A God in Ruins.

May 13, 2015 By Jax Blunt 15 Comments

affiliate links – thanks for your support! Buy at Amazon.co.uk| Buy at amazon.com I have a confession to make – I am a bad book blogger. (Quiet at the back there!) No, seriously, in this particular case I have let you down. I have had A God in Ruins sitting here waiting for review, and […]

Filed Under: 2015, Book club, read52, the public face Tagged With: A God in ruins, interview, Kate Atkinson, life after life, review

Angelina Ballerina – breaking the fourth wall in picture books

April 13, 2015 By Jax Blunt 7 Comments

The Angelina Ballerina books form a series of stories about the heroine, Angelina (a mouse) and her friends and family (also, unsurprisingly, mice). Although ballet is an important interest, it’s not a feature of every story and in fact is barely mentioned in Angelina’s Birthday by Katharine Holabird (Author) and Helen Craig (Illustrator) (affiliate link). […]

Filed Under: 2015, 300 Picture books, Book club Tagged With: angelina ballerina, breaking the fourth wall, Helen Craig, Katharine Holabird, Picture book, review

Last Leaves Falling by Sarah Benwell

February 10, 2015 By Jax Blunt 1 Comment

Buy at Amazon And these are they. My final moments. They say a warrior must always be mindful of death, but I never imagined that it would find me like this . . . Japanese teenager Sora is diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Lonely and isolated, Sora turns to the ancient wisdom of the […]