Take a photo of a barcode or cover
bigbeardedbookseller's reviews
579 reviews
The Lost Sunday by Ileana Surducan
5.0
Again I chose to ask for this on NetGalley because of the beautiful artwork on the cover, and the story sounded really interesting.
Both didn’t disappoint, the artwork is glorious throughout and has an energy and life that really makes you embrace the storytelling full-heartedly, exploring each page for all the lovely detail that expands the story from the words to much much more.
The story takes us to the world of Nina, a world where there is no free time only drudgery, each day is full of work, but work that is never satisfying or completed. There are always mistakes or ways of making more work.
and most importantly of all there is never a Sunday, a day to rest, a day to relax, a day of frivolity and food in your best clothes.
Nina sets out to find what has happened to Sunday and see if she can restore this to the town.
Full of wonderful characters which support Nina there is a strong fairytale feel to this story, to be more precise a Slavic influence, especially in dress and the Wolves but this there is also a strong thread of this in Germanic storytelling.
I wolfed this down and had to go back and read it again immediately, this is also a book I’m going to have to buy for myself as a keeper, loved it!
I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Hotel by Daisy Johnson
5.0
Once more Daisy returns to the Fens, a land of ghosts and big skies, decay and life. Another great collection of short tales all themed around a single point of malevolence.
I’d been looking forward to this for a while but needed an uninterrupted day to relax into the read as Fen and Sisters were dark, intricate, and weaving threads of story from all over the book into each other and you are never sure what’s going to end up where.
The Hotel is a dark spot on the landscape that draws people to it and has been from even before it was a hotel, there is a hunger to the spot that needs something, though we are never really sure what that something is.
Families and bloodlines are intricately linked to the spot and there are foldings of time and space that see these all come together in another wonderfully constructed mythology with woman at the core of it, echoes of misogyny, echoes of maternity, but always echoes that draw the protagonists toward an almost certain doom.
Once more Daisy Johnson weaves tales throughout each other taking you further down a dark path where everything is uncertain, almost lyrical, always hypnotic, I couldn’t put this down until I had finished it and immediately wanted to start it again to explore the dark depths within the corridors of The Hotel.
Another stunning work to go along with her other mythologies, really recommend this one to all who like a dark tale.
I received this from Vintage Books in exchange for an honest review.
Cloud Boy by Greg Stobbs
4.0
Bobby has a vivid imagination and a desire to know, and is often taken down different paths of sights, sounds, and smells with no notice.
Bobby’s life is full of colour, noise, and the whole world all at once keeping him forever curious and this lifts him to the clouds and above.
But at times Bobby would like to be like others; tidy like his mum, able to focus on one subject like his teacher, able to sit and read like one friend, or even just to sit in quite and stillness like another friend.
Everyone tries to help Bobby be more like them but all this does is ties him down and stops him from being anything, and the moment he lets himself be once more he shoots off.
A brilliant book about differences and neurodivergence where often the more you try to ‘control’ a person from being themselves the more problems can come about from that control.
Accept and try to see the differences and maybe, just maybe you can see the world through a different lens with all the wonder of the various colours, smells, and sounds.
I received this from Oxford University Press in exchange for an honest review.
Bobby’s life is full of colour, noise, and the whole world all at once keeping him forever curious and this lifts him to the clouds and above.
But at times Bobby would like to be like others; tidy like his mum, able to focus on one subject like his teacher, able to sit and read like one friend, or even just to sit in quite and stillness like another friend.
Everyone tries to help Bobby be more like them but all this does is ties him down and stops him from being anything, and the moment he lets himself be once more he shoots off.
A brilliant book about differences and neurodivergence where often the more you try to ‘control’ a person from being themselves the more problems can come about from that control.
Accept and try to see the differences and maybe, just maybe you can see the world through a different lens with all the wonder of the various colours, smells, and sounds.
I received this from Oxford University Press in exchange for an honest review.
Where Did She Go? by Cariad Lloyd
4.0
I don’t know why but I have been sent quite a few picture books about loss and grief over the last couple of years.
This one from Cariad and Tom finds a young girl missing her Grandmother and wondering where she has gone.
She overhears people using a lot of different euphemisms for death and responds to each one as though it was literal.
This does result in some humorous situations and behaviours but each is handled well and sensitively, eventually the death of her Grandmother is explained to her properly and with compassion.
We are then given ways to remember the dead person positively and realise those memories will always be with us.
Beautifully written and illustrated with the right amount of funny.
I received this from Hachette in exchange for an honest review.
Buzz Sausage Wolf: Book 1 by Jim Beckett
4.0
This starts off sad as Buzz has had to move to another family as his previous owner just got too old for them to look after Buzz and all Buzz wants to do is fit in with the new family and be a ‘good’ dog.
Buzz is accompanied by his best friend, Trilby the mouse who hides in Buzz’s fur but will always pop out to support Buzz and pass on pearls of wisdom.
To figure out how to be the best dog ever for the new family Buzz comes up with the amazing idea of finding out who the pack leader is in the family and being what that person want from him…
This is where the fun begins. A really sweet book about finding your place within a family and being who you are rather than what others expect of you.
All of this fun and energy is beautifully illustrated by Aurélie, the pure mischievous of Buzz as both Sausage and Wolf comes out so well.
The squirrel dreams are just the best.
I received this from Hodder in exchange for an honest review.