#Ross Welford

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[cultivating-wildflowers]

2024 Reading - August

There I was at the beginning of the month all worried about my potential page count for August, and then I went and read well beyond that. It's fine. I'm just a baby. The good news is that I seem to have caught my reading stride again--I actually wanted to spend my evenings reading a physical book, and didn't feel like reading was a slog. And even though I'm only halfway toward my original reading goal for the year, I've made good progress through my digital TBR.

Total books: 9  |  New reads: 8  |   2024 TBR completed: 1 (0 DNF) / 27/36 total   |   2024 Reading Goal: 53/100

July | September

potential reading list from August 1st

First of all, please admire this graph:

I haven't read this many pages in a month in like two years. (This does count pages and hours I read for books I ultimately DNF.)

Moving on.

#1 - The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol 1 by Beth Brower - 5/5 stars

A quick, charming read with surprising depth. I actually cried at one point. And I definitely want to read more. It’s a pity each volume is so small and that none are available through any library in the state.

Note from end-of-the-month Phoebe: I bought Volume 2. And another book by the same author.

#2 - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - 5/5 stars ('24 TBR)

Expertly crafted historical setting effortlessly blended with the dangerously fantastical. Rich, complex characters who are people of their time. A totally engrossing writing style with asides and footnotes and sharp dialogue that left me laughing with delight. So many tiny elements that combined to make up exactly the sort of story I crave. I wasn't expecting to be enthralled, but I was from the first page. Maybe it rewired my brain a little bit.

I will grant it's not for everyone, but it was PERFECT for me. Just don't ask me what the plot is.

Reasons you may not like it: 1) It's huge and a bit of a time investment. 2) It is largely character-driven and, while well-paced, doesn't have a lot of external pressure to keep the story exciting. 3) It's somewhat verbose, in a Tolkien sort of way. 4) Something of an open ending (which, weirdly, didn't bother me?). 5) As the magic tips from human to fairy, it develops a dark and occult flavor. This is nice for people who like their fairies to remain distinctly wicked within the narrative (rather than roguishly morally gray), but there are decidedly dark elements. I tried to watch the show a few years ago and didn't make it through the first episode, and as I recall it was because the fairies came off a tad too dark for me. Somehow it was better on the page.

#3 - Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden - 4/5 stars

This is both the biography of a man who escaped the North Korean prison camp where he was born, and also a biography of North Korea itself over the past 50-odd years. Sparse and somewhat stilted, full of facts and figures, it reads more like an article than a story. I'll say it's an important story, despite the surrounding controversy, but the writing style didn't do it any favors.

Note regarding the peculiar controversy surrounding this book: A few years after the book was published, Shin Dong-hyuk contacted Harden and revised his story as told here. The base details remained the same, but timelines and locations had changed. Yeonmi Park faced the same controversy following the publication of her memoir of her childhood in North Korea (In Order to Live; which, weirdly, I read in August of last year), which to me says less about the veracity at the heart of both individuals' histories and more about how trauma, in particular that brought about by political violence, can impact emotions and memory. If you're interested in reading this book, definitely check out Harden's updated forward examining Shin's altered account. Harden himself repeatedly acknowledges Shin as "an unreliable narrator of his own life".

More like this: "In Order to Live" by Yeonmi Park with Maryanne Vollers; "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah; "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

#4 - Time Travelling with a Hamster by Ross Welford - 4/5 stars (audio)

If you couldn't tell, I'm desperately trying to fill in some of the missing letters for my second year of a self-imposed alphabet titles challenge. This is my fifth attempt at a "T". Attempts three and four are below in the DNFs. I decided to bank on an extreme change of pace with this one.

A solid middle grade adventure, and one I'll definitely recommend in future. Fun and unpredictable and my head hurts, because time travel always does that to me. Ridiculously short chapters, for some reason.

More like this: A bit like "A Wrinkle in Time", a bit like "Meet the Robinsons" (the movie; haven't read the books).

#5 - The Empty Grave by Jonathan Stroud - 4/5 stars

I DNF'd this last year after trying and failing for a month to get into it. I had definitely been in the perfect mood when I started the series last year, but for some reason The Empty Grave gave me no end of trouble, and I gave it up about a quarter of the way through.

Not so this time. This time it took me all of four days to finish.

Thankfully this follows the tradition of refreshing the reader's memory of previous events in the series, because I'd forgotten some of the pertinent details. Either because of my foggy memory or because of something else in the story, the ending fell kind of flat for me, like it was missing an element to deliver a good emotional conclusion, or like it didn’t fully satisfy the stakes set up at the start of the book. I consider this series more young adult than middle grade, but the way it wrapped up definitely felt middle grade in style.

Still a solid ending for sure, just a little confusing.

#6 - A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle - 5/5 stars (reread) - 50th read of the year!

Comfort book my belovéd.

#7 - The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution by John Oller - 4/5 stars (audio)

Francis Marion is one of my dad's favorite figures of the Revolutionary War, and man, I can see why.

The writing itself is somewhat dry, crammed full of names and dates technical details of battles; but Oller manages to weave a solid narrative as he combs through the legends surrounding Marion and picks out the facts.

More like this: "Lion of Liberty" by Harlow Giles Unger.

#8 - Heidi by Johanna Spyri - 4/5 stars (audio)

"Heidi" was one of the movies I watched on repeat as a kid. Not the Shirley Temple version, but the 1968 made-for-TV version that apparently took some liberties with the plot. (But according to Wikipedia, it's most memorable for interrupting a football game for its premier.)

The book is a cozy classic children's book, plain and simple. It feels a bit like The Secret Garden with an orphan coming to an unfamiliar place and thriving there (plus helping an invalid thrive as well); and a bit like L.M. Montgomery pushing all of us to get outside and breathe some fresh air.

#9 - The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany - 4/5 stars (audio)

Absolutely gorgeous.

You might like this is you like: The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton; or the narrative style of the legends told by characters in the Queen's Thief series.

Useless fun fact: Lord Dunsany's name was Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett.

DNF

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell - Hilarious two-star reviews proved it's not something worth finishing and it doesn't deliver on the premise. (It's not even about Hamnet. It's a "re-imagining" of Anne/Agnes Hathaway-Shakespeare and guess what. She's a strong, wild woman who practices witchcraft in late 16th century England. Groundbreaking. I need to stop skimming summaries.)

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert - Got about a third of the way through this one before I realized...I just didn't care. The premise was good, and the delivery was kind of meh but not bad--which, considering how rarely I read newer YA these days, was actually a point in its favor. But then we got to the reveal and I went "Wait. That's it?" and lost interest. I don't think magical realism is for me. Also, it didn't affect my decision to stop reading, but I didn't like the audiobook narrator.

Tales from the Hinterland by Melissa Albert - A companion book to the Hazel Wood duology, presented as the book-within-a-book that the Hazel Wood revolves around. I read a couple of the stories out of curiosity, but the allure of that book-within-a-book is gone when it's told in the same voice as the actual story.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith - I...have no idea. What is this? I got a little over halfway through it before it got to be too much and I gave up. I liked the writing voice well enough but the story meandered along a plodding, darkly sentimental route and I got lost. And a little disgusted.

Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart - I wanted to like it, but it was too bawdy for me.

The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley - Robin is such a hit-or-miss author for me, and this one was a solid miss. The premise was too absurd for me to stick it out. I might have given it another chapter, but none of the characters were really grabbing me, and I wasn't fond of how McKinley chose to portray Marian.

Currently Reading:

The Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett - I swear I'll have finished this by the end of the year.

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown - I'll finish this one pretty quickly.

[haveyoureadthismgyabook]

[razreads]

It's your dream, Dream-boy. No one else is in charge. Just like life.

Ross Welford, When We Got Lost in Dreamland

[bookcoversonly]

Title: What Not to Do If You Turn Invisible | Author: Ross Welford | Publisher: Schwartz & Wade (2018)

[hamsterbellbelle]

Yay I got tagged (≧∇≦)ﾉ Thanks @moonbiscuitsims for tagging me 🐹🧡🧡

So ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

3 FAVOURITE SHIPS: (Cyberpunk 2077) Yes Takemura me too!! xD plus it would be mega-interesting to see how Johnny would react if V is with Takemura xD Also kinda wish female V could be with Panam, and male V with River, seriously when I first saw Kerry did that naked jump-spin during the love scene I was like wtf...anyway...does this counts as 3 ships already? 🤔 xD

LAST SONG: [I promise I'm not just ONLY listening to LoL music...xD]

LAST MOVIE: Avengers: Age of Ultron. I'm currently on a Marvel movie marathon...

CRAVING: Curly fries...

CURRENTLY READING: "Time Travelling with a Hamster" by Ross Welford. I bought it 'cause I thought it's about a time travelling hamster, turns out it's not quite it...kept reading it because it's not bad either xD

FAVOURITE COLOUR: Crimson #BE0032

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single ( •̀ ω •́ )✧ no energy, time nor money to be in any relationship at the moment _(:з」∠)_

LAST THING I GOOGLED: "Griselda" because of the Netflix show...xD I love Sofia Vergara but the show is not quite of my usual interest _(:з」∠)_

CURRENT OBSESSION: my hamster...I haven't hug my hamster for over a week now...I NEED MY HAMSTER..._(:з」∠)_ xD

I tag @anyone_who_wants_to_play_the_tag xD 🧡

[siriusdog]

Read 30 books this year with me

Completed (7/30):

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Vendor of Sweets by R.K. Narayan

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

RIP (Reading in Progress) (3/30):

The Thousand Year Old Boy by Ross Welford

Not Dead Yet by Phil Collins

Never by Ken Follett

Books to Read (14/30):

Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Intensity by Dean Koontz

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Sharp Objects" by Gillian Flynn

[bermudianabroad]

2023 Reading Roundup

Everything what I read in 2023

I read a whole bunch.

Heartily Recommend Visceral Bleh Reread *Audiobook*

Fiction

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (where is the fucking humidity in your swamp, Delia??)

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

Lot by Bryan Washington

Mr. Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas

Trust by Hernan Diaz

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell (but everyone is called Thomas)

Verity by Colleen Hoover (awful but wacky and hilariously awful)

Katalin Street by Magda Szabo

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Animorphs #24 The Suspicion by KA Applegate (a trip)

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

The Island of Forgetting by Jasmine Sealy

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

The Trio by Johanna Hedman

At the Bottom of the River by Jamaica Kincaid

The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera

Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge

Silence by Shusaku Endo

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

Babel by RF Kuang (was so disappointed by this one)

The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld

Island by Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen

The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles by Giorgio Bassani

Must I Go by Yiyun Li

The 1,000 Year Old Boy by Ross Welford

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel

Memphis by Tara M Stringfellow

The Whirlpool by Jane Urquhart

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

A Country of Eternal Light by Paul Dalgarno

Yellowface by RF Kuang

The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani

The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West

The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

Game Misconduct by Ari Baran

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Uprooted by Naomi Novik (sorry Naomi :/ )

The Foot of the Cherry Tree by Ali Parker

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Matrix by Lauren Groff

The Twilight World by Werner Herzog

Wild by Kristen Hannah

*The Fraud by Zadie Smith*

The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai

The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

This Other Eden by Paul Harding

The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham (weirdly, one of the best depictions of a marriage I’ve read)

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abdulhawa

North Woods by Daniel Mason

Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht

Animorphs: The Hork-Bajir Chronicles by KA Applegate

Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri

Animorphs #13 The Change by KA Applegate

Animorphs #14 The Unknown by KA Applegate

Animorphs #20 The Discovery by KA Applegate (snuck in two more under the wire… #20 is when shit REALLY kicks off. From there it gets darker and darker).

Poetry

Black Cat Bone by John Burnside

Women of the Harlen Renaissance (Anthology) by Various

The Analog Sea Review no. 4 by Various

The World’s Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

Non-Fiction

Besieged: Life Under Fire on a Sarajevo Street by Barbara Demick

Atlas of Abandoned Places by Oliver Smith

Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

Wanderers: A History of Women Walking by Kerri Andrews

City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth Century London by Vic Gatrell

The Lazarus Heist: From Hollywood to High Finance by Geoff White (fully available as a podcast)

The Entangling Net: Alaska’s Commercial Fishing Women Tell Their Stories by Leslie Leyland Fields (very niche but fascinating. Transcribed interviews)

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi

Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir by Lamya H.

Freedom by Margaret Atwood (just excerpts from novels repackaged)

*Born a Crime by Trevor Noah* (Noah’s narration is superb)

The Slavic Myths by Noah Charney and Svetlana Slapšak (was expecting stories, but it was mostly academic essays)

Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels

Safe Area Goražde by Joe Sacco

The Way of the House-Husband, vol. 1 by Kousuke Oono

SAGA vol. 1-6 by Fiona Staples and Brian K Vaughan

Top of the Top:

Born a Crime was probably my favourite non ficition, and most of that probably is due to Trevor Noah's narration skills. It was very entertaining and heartfelt.

Less uplifting but just as gripping in a different way was Empire of Pain. Excellent book that went deep into the why and what and hows of Purdue Pharma. Anger inducing.

Lazarus Heist is great and available as a podcast. The book is more or less the podcast word for word.

Fictionwise: I read Trust at the start of the year and it was a bit soon to declare as favourite of the year, but it's stil made the final cut. Just very imaginative and intriguing. Just my kind of MetaFiction. Clever without being cleverclever.

Demon Copperhead I read right off the back of Empire of Pain so maybe that coloured my experience. I've not read any Dickens so loads of references no doubt flew past me, but the language was acrobatic and zingy. I loved it.

Wrapped up the year on a high with North Woods. That was so unexpected and entertaining. Again with the playful language, memorable characters and a unique approach to tying all the various stories together. One that sticks in the mind and makes the writer in me wonder how I can replicate his style (with my own personal twist of course.)

[dogear5]

2024 book ratings!

★★★★★

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien (reread)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (reread)

★★★★☆

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Melinda Lo

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (reread)

The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien

Hamlet by William Shakespeare (reread)

Time Travelling with a Hamster by Ross Welford

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells (reread)

★★★☆☆

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan

Heartstopper: Volume One by Alice Oseman

The Tales of Johnny Town-Mouse and Little Pig Robinson by Beatrix Potter

Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle

A Series of Unfortunate Events (#2-13) by Lemony Snicket

All The Wrong Questions (#1-2) by Lemony Snicket

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

★★☆☆☆

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Time Quintet (#1-3, 5) by Madeleine L'Engle

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice

Shady Hollow by Juneau Black

★☆☆☆☆

The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore

[xionisgr]

Συγγραφέας: Christopher Edge Μετάφραση: Αγγελική Δαρλάση Εκδότης: ΜΕΤΑΙΧΜΙΟ ISBN: 978-618-03-1580-6 Αριθμός Σελίδων: 176 Εξώφυλλο: Μαλακό εξώφυλλο Διαστάσεις: 14 Χ 20,5 Γλώσσα Γραφής: Ελληνικά Έτος Έκδοσης: 2018

[a078740849aposts]

Συγγραφέας: Christopher Edge Μετάφραση: Αγγελική Δαρλάση Εκδότης: ΜΕΤΑΙΧΜΙΟ ISBN: 978-618-03-1580-6 Αριθμός Σελίδων: 176 Εξώφυλλο: Μαλακό εξώφυλλο Διαστάσεις: 14 Χ 20,5 Γλώσσα Γραφής: Ελληνικά Έτος Έκδοσης: 2018

[cultivating-wildflowers]

Alphabet Book Titles!

For the second year in a row, I've completed a challenge to myself to read one new-to-me book title for every letter of the alphabet. The only reread present is the "X" title, because there simply aren't enough of those for me to read a subpar title for the sake of a challenge.

For the tricky letters: "Y" and "U" both appeared by happy accident; I had "Z" and "Q" titles on my shelf at the beginning of the year and DNF'd both, then spent too long trying to find substitutes; and for some reason "H", "M", and "T" all gave me some difficulty. But I got there in the end.

NOTE: This list contains the first title I finished for each letter. As such, this is not strictly a list of recommendations (though by and large I enjoyed all of these).

Are Women Human? by Dorothy L. Sayers (January)

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (September)

The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkein (June)

Dorothy and Jack: by Gina Dalfonzo (March)

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett (January)

The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats by Daniel Stone (July)

Guardian by Cathy McCrumb (April)

Heidi by Johanna Spyri (August)

In the Forests of Serre by Patricia McKillip (September)

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell by Susanna Clarke (August)

The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany (August)

Lion of Liberty: Patrick Henry and the Call to a New Nation by Harlow Giles Unger (May)

A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters (July)

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan (March)

Od Magic by Patricia A. McKillip (September)

The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis (February)

Q's Legacy by Helene Hanff (December)

The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard (October)

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadaveres by Mary Roach (January)

Time Travelling with a Hamster by Ross Welford (August)

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol 1 by Beth Brower (August)

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser (July)

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher (January)

Xenocide by Orson Scott Card (my only reread; May)

Yours from the Tower by Sally Nichols (September)

Zero G by Dan Wells (October)

[haveyoureadthismgyabook]

The 1,000-year-old Boy by Ross Welford, please!

Incoming 🐐

[razreads]

RAZREADS’ RECMAS 2023

December 12th ~ A middle-grade book: When We Got Lost in Dreamland by Ross Welford

“It's your dream, Dream-boy. No one else is in charge. Just like life."

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The 1,000 Year Old Boy | Author: Ross Welford | Publisher: HarperCollins (2018)

[fuzzysparrow]

Who wrote the children's novel 'Time Travelling With A Hamster'?

Ross Welford, a former journalist turned author, released his debut novel 'Time Travelling With A Hamster' in 2016. The story follows the extraordinary journey of twelve-year-old Al Chaudhury, who discovers a time machine hidden in his deceased father's belongings. Determined to right a wrong from the past, Al embarks on a thrilling adventure through time, accompanied by his trusty pet hamster, Alan Shearer.

Welford seamlessly blends science fiction, family dynamics, and the challenges of growing up to create a captivating narrative. He also tackles complex emotions and themes with sensitivity and authenticity. In 'Time Travelling With A Hamster,' he explores grief, loss, and the importance of family bonds.

'Time Travelling With A Hamster' is just one of Welford's many literary achievements. His subsequent novels, including 'What Not To Do If You Turn Invisible' and 'The 1,000-Year-Old Boy,' have further solidified his reputation as a master storyteller. Welford's books have been praised for their ability to entertain, educate, and inspire young readers, making him a favourite among parents, teachers, and librarians alike.

Beyond his literary accomplishments, Welford's dedication to promoting literacy and encouraging young readers is commendable. He frequently visits schools and libraries, engaging with children and inspiring them to explore the wonders of literature.