Category Archives: Blog Hops

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As I mostly review and discuss speculative fiction books on my blog, that’s the genre I will be narrowing down this week’s prompt to.

There are a lot of reasons why I might not write a review for a book such as:

1) While there have been a handful of exceptions over the years, I generally refrain from writing one-star or two-star reviews out of respect for the hard work authors do. Some stories are simply never going to mesh with my tastes, but other readers may love those styles or genres! So unless there’s a serious issue with plagiarism or advocating bigotry or something in a tale that I feel the need to warn other readers about, I quietly move on to other options that fit my tastes better.

2) I prefer to  publish thoughtful, deep reviews and don’t have enough hours in the day to write that way for everything I read.

3) Some books are excellent but hard to review without sharing major spoilers due to how the plot is framed and when certain details are released.

4) Other books are decent but don’t give me strong emotions in either direction that would compel me to write a review. Meh doesn’t make for a very helpful or exciting review.

5) They’re older. I try – and the keyword there is try – to prioritize newer books for review as their authors are more likely to be alive and trying to establish audiences for themselves.

Here are some of the many older speculative fiction books I’ve read and enjoyed but will probably never review:

1.1984 by George Orwell

2. Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke

3. The Sparrow (The Sparrow, #1) by Mary Doria Russell

4.Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

5. Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam, #1) by Margaret Atwood

6. Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1) by Octavia E. Butler

7. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart

8. Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy

9.The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Tepper

10.Prey by Michael Crichton

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Go grab a cup of tea if you’d like to and let’s chat. I know I sure enjoy tea when the weather grows so cold and snowy at the end of January where I live.

Every year I expand upon this new-to-me author topic by also mentioning which book I read from the new authors on this list and if I’d be interested in reading more from them.

In my opinion, these details make this prompt more interesting.

1. Author’s Name: Alan Bennett

What I Read From Them: The Lady in the Van

Would I Read More From Them: Yes. I like his descriptive writing style and dry sense of humour.

2. Author’s Name: Marion McKinnon Crook

What I Read From Them: Always Pack a Candle: A Nurse in the Cariboo-Chilcotin

Would I Read More From Them: Probably not. The author didn’t include enough details about her patients and coworkers for me to easily remember who was who or develop a reader’s bonds with any of the folks she knew. I know this was done to protect their privacy as she was talking about real people (or amalgamations of multiple real people into one character in a few cases).  With that being said, this sparse writing style did negatively affect my interest in her work.

3. Author’s Name: Antonia Hylton

What I Read From Them: Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum

Would I Read More From Them: Absolutely. This found an excellent balance between protecting patient privacy and giving readers enough information to connect with the people I read about.

4.  Author’s Name: Ben Farthing 

What I Read From Them:I Found A Circus Tent In the Woods Behind My House and I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls

Would I Read More From Them: Probably. His work is creative but doesn’t always follow through on the execution of certain plot twists that logically should have happened. With that being said, I think I’d be amused enough to overlook that if his next premise is as attention-grabbing as these two were.

5.  Author’s Name: John Connell

What I Read From Them: The Lambing Season: Stories of Life on an Irish Family Farm

Would I Read More From Them: Never. The blurb did not match what the author ended up writing about. I thought it would be a gentle tale of what it’s like to raise sheep when it was actually about the author’s religious beliefs. (People who avoid reading blurbs and who like it when the inspirational genre suddenly inserts itself into a farming memoir might enjoy this one, though!)

6.  Author’s Name: Gavin Pretor-Pinney and William Grill

What I Read From Them: Cloudspotting for Beginners

Would I Read More From Them: Yes. It was like a picture book for adults because it showed drawing of the dozens of different types of clouds which was cool and educational.

7.  Author’s Name: Chloe Dalton

What I Read From Them: Raising Hare

Would I Read More From Them: Yes, but I’d want the author to explain why she didn’t bother to google simple facts about lagomorphs like how much they love to chew on things and how much they hate being picked up in most cases. Her experiencing raising a hare would have been much easier if she had asked a few people who had pet rabbits for some tips. The two species are similar enough for that to be helpful, I think.

8.  Author’s Name: Liz Berry

What I Read From Them: The Home Child

Would I Read More From Them: Yes. This ended so abruptly that I’d love to hear more about the protagonist’s life as a young adult.

9.  Author’s Name: Natalie Naudus

What I Read From Them: Gay the Pray Away

Would I Read More From Them: Maybe? The writing was well done, but it’s rare for me to read much young adult fiction these days. If she wrote fiction for adults, I’d read more from her for sure.

10. Author’s Name: Jody Cooksley

What I Read From Them: The Small Museum

Would I Read More From Them: Unsure. This wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t very memorable for me either. I could see most of the plot twists coming from a mile away which is a problem for the mystery genre for this reader. If she writes something in another genre or if reviewers say this isn’t an issue for her next book, I may give it a shot, though.