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Mae and June and the Wonder Wheel
Mae and June and the Wonder Wheel
Charise Mericle Harper | 2017 | Children
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
Mae and June and the Wonder Wheel by Charise Mericle Harper is about June who loves to play with her dog Sam, especially since she is the only one to whom the dog can talk. When her grandmother sends her a big chalkboard on a wheel, with detailed instructions on how to use it, June is thrilled, and she and Sam have a lot of fun completing the suggested tasks. It's even more fun when a new girl moves in next door and ends up in June's class. Mae seems really nice, but classmate April is bound and determined that Mae will be her friend. The girls have to learn to get along, and eventually Mae and June become fast friends.

This is a very positive, fun story for beginning readers. The illustrations are very helpful in showing what is going on in the story and add a lot to it. Other nice touches are June's sometimes cranky teenage sister, the fact that Mae is a character of color without this fact taking over the story, and the adventure of the wonder wheel. This was a cute book about friendship, about pets, about family. June was a fabulous little kid, though a bit too much over the top at times. Still I liked how she stayed true to herself
  
Dreame - Reading Completes Me
Dreame - Reading Completes Me
Book
6
6.0 (2 Ratings)
App Rating
This is an app where authors can upload their stories, it seems aimed towards romance stories and often paranormal. As such they are mostly unknown authors or people who wrote for fun. I think it’s amazing that this app gives them a platform for showing their work.

I have found that some stories are better written than others, I did have to give up on one as I just couldn’t handle all the mistakes but I guess you can’t complain for free stories.

My main issue with this app is that the stories are written in sections. Each time you start a story you can read up to about the first 10 sections before incredibly long wait times for the next to unlock begin. It seems to be mostly 2 days at a time but I did have a wait if a whole week!! Sometimes you wait 2 days for the next section to unlock and it is very short, it took me less than five minutes to read. You can speed up with coins however it seems the only way to gain these is with actual money.

One positive is that it will clearly state of a story is complete, I find this really helpful as it avoids the disappointment of starting a story and it then never being finished.
  
The City of Brass: Daevabad Trilogy
The City of Brass: Daevabad Trilogy
S.A. Chakraborty | 2017 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.6 (7 Ratings)
Book Rating
Interesting start to the series
This was a really colourful and deep entrance to a new fantasy series by a debut author. I read this in a combination of paperback and audio, both were enjoyable. The cast of characters are many with three main contenders that each had me completely interested.

This is a fairly long and complex tale, with the occasional confusing moment that had me switching off audio to refer to the book and names of characters/magic/tribes. The index of these definitions of words was hugely helpful.

The story is full of intrigue, battles, magic, faiths, warring factions, desire and family. Nahri, a lowly girl with special abilities finds herself transported to a city of six dijinn tribes by a very powerful dijinn. Friendships, allegiances and wariness are formed as Nahri finds herself to be special and revered if she can only prove herself. The friendships are strong and central, whilst the budding romances on multiple fronts are subtle. So much happens and life is totally turned upside down by the end. The story is told from multiple POV.

I will definitely by reading the rest of the series, but I suspect the complexity will mean a re-read so that I can pick up book two. I highly recommend the audio, with superb narration.
  
A Bit Of A Stretch
A Bit Of A Stretch
Chris Atkins | 2020 | Biography, Crime, Humor & Comedy
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
A UK prison diary
All hail The Pigeonhole! The app that makes me read - and enjoy - books that I would never normally even pick up. I loved this book!

Chris Atkins was sent to prison for 5 years after being involved in a dodgy tax scheme that was used to finance his films. Wandsworth was to be his home for a large part of his sentence, and this is where the book is set. Chris wrote a diary whilst he was there, and he certainly had enough to write about: drug dealers, self-harmer’s, prison officers, of the helpful, clueless and vindictive varieties, and senior officials trying to instigate some sort of reform (which ends badly, if I’m honest).

It’s a funny, and at times frustrating read. It illustrates everything that’s wrong with our prison system, which seems to be stuck in the Victorian era. We need to decide what we want our prison system to do: to simply incarcerate, or to rehabilitate. The number of people who reoffend is phenomenal - isn’t this a total waste of money? Is this really a reflection of time well served?

Anyway, I suggest everyone reads this and makes up their own minds.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this book, and to the author, Chris Atkins, for reading along.
  
    Smart Shopping List

    Smart Shopping List

    Shopping and Lifestyle

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    Super easy to use shopping list app with a tons of features for your groceries, parties and holiday...