To Be Read Pile: Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo

Blurb

Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams - but he can't pull it off alone.

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist.

Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction - if they don't kill each other first.

Best Line:  The water hears and understands. The ice does not forgive.

What a ride! Ocean's Eleven with magic and more charm than even George Clooney can muster. Kaz Brekker is a street rat from the Barrel. A con man and a thief with greed as his master and a love of puzzles. When he is presented with the ultimate puzzle with a tantalising reward at the end, how can he be expected to say no?

So much happens in this book. It's a rollicking charge through a plot that never lets up. This book isn't just about a heist. It is the heistiest of heists. It is the heist-master other heists hike up mountains to learn from. If anything can go wrong it will, and the best laid plans are the ones that definitely aren't going to work out the way you want them to.

Every character in this is fantastic. I love characters with huge, obvious flaws they can't get past and everyone here scratches that itch for me. And the banter. The banter. This is Buffy-worthy levels of dialogue and the group dynamics are played perfectly. I found reasons to love all of the characters and reasons to be irritated by all of them in turn. They felt not only real, but like the kind of people I would happily hang out with for a few hours. Albeit with all of my valuables safely locked away on another planet.

I think my favourite thing about this book is how far it is willing to go. There are multiple times when a scene is set up and there is no possible way for the characters to get out of the situation, until it all clicks into place and suddenly the most unthinkable, horrible perfect thing is the only way things are going to go forward. I spent a lot of time screaming the word 'NOOOOOO' while I read this book.

If you like YA that is fast and smart with killer characters and killer twists, this is the book for you.

Get it here https://www.amazon.com /dp/B01175KE0M/

101 Ways To Live Better: Organize Your Time

Welcome to my 101 series, which explores 101 little things you can do to improve your day to day life, and the world, just a little bit.

Our third post is: ORGANIZE YOUR TIME

I live and die by my day planner.

My day planner is a physical book. Its A5 and every day of the week has its own full page. None of that shared Saturday and Sunday crap. I get a hardcover, something robust. This year, its fake-leather bound. However, since it is something I am going to use every single day for an entire year, I want something that will 1) last and 2) that I will want to look at, handle and use every day.

You may have different tastes in day planners to me. Maybe you prefer a digital day planner or calendar app on your phone. I don’t think what you use matters, as long as it works for you and it is accessible, enjoyable and something you check regularly and don’t totally forget about. Feel free to try a few different things out. Don’t force yourself to keep using something you don’t like. There are lots of options.

Be consistent in writing in meetings, dates, birthdays, events and so on so you don’t forget things. Get in the habit of checking what you have to do tomorrow before you go to bed and check your day planner first thing in the morning so you don’t get flustered and forget something important.

If you really want to make the most of your time, the next step is to track what you do all day. For a week, or two weeks, stop every half hour and write down what you did over those 30 minutes. You might find you are wasting more time than you thought on things that are really not that important to you.

Is there something you really want to do or achieve but don’t have the time? Like writing a novel or reading more or learning to play and instrument? Did you do this exercise and realize you’re spending an hour and a half on youtube every day? There’s the time you needed.

There’s a lot of distractions in the world these days. Radio, TV, the internet. Let’s be honest, its mostly the internet. It used to be you had to be at a desk, at a computer, to access the internet. And even then, it was very slow and the content was limited. Now there are more videos on youtube than you could ever watch in your entire lifetime and you can access them all on your phone. And that is just a single website.

You are never going to run out of media to watch while you have a phone (or laptop) and a wifi signal. And if you are reading this, you probably have both of those things.

That is why these days it’s very important that we think about how we are using our time. That we choose how to spend our finite hours on the planet, and not just let ourselves be distracted by bright lights and loud noises.

As an added bonus, get a notebook right now and map out the hours you are awake. Perhaps two lines per hour and write down how you wish you spent your time every day. Compare this exercise with the earlier one, which mapped out how you actually spend your day. Adjust accordingly.

To Be Read Pile: Ollie Always - John Wiltshire

Blurb

Named after the main character in his mother's infamous Oliver novels, Ollie's been fighting his fictional namesake his whole life. It's a battle for identity he is slowly and inevitably losing. Ex-army PTI, Tom knows all about battles--the real ones that break soldiers. When he volunteers to help with the Oliver situation, Ollie hears more in the offer than Tom apparently intends, for Tom quickly informs Ollie that he's married. Which is absolutely fine, because Ollie isn't gay--that's Oliver. Tom and Ollie discover fairly swiftly that there is often a very fine dividing line between fact and fiction.

Best Line: Ollie’s cries turned into a wail of genuine and total distress. “I’ve put my hand in dog shit!”"

 

This was such a sweet, fun romance! Ollie is neurotic and ditzy and remarkably sweet when he wants to be. He's moved to New Zealand to escape the shadow of his mother's writing and maybe to write his own bestseller in the process. Unfortunately, he's become a little too enamoured with cat videos (we've all been there) and the sexy stranger who likes jogging past his house without his shirt (Haven't been there but I like what I've seen in the travel brochures) to get anything done!

Tom is a life coach who sees a man in some desperate need of coaching plus he's totally gorgeous in an ex-army I-will-solve-your-problems-by-taking-you-for-jogs type way. Not really the path to romance I would have chosen but it works for Ollie. Not that he's gay, of course. Oliver is gay. Ollie is... okay. Ollie is probably a little bit gay.

 I loved the interplay between Ollie's life and the fictional Oliver's. Oliver is a creepy, underage manipulator who uses sex to get what he wants. Despite their personality differences, Oliver's life has mirrored Ollie's but always just been a little bit better. If Ollie got into a good school, Oliver would get in, get perfect grades and probably be sleeping with the headmaster. Living with this constant comparison and knowing that his mother engineered it has left Ollie with an intense inferiority complex and makes every scene with his mother (who is blithely unaware of how weird the situation is)and her friends (hands down the best supporting characters ever) uniquely uncomfortable.

Word of warning. This is one of those books that didn't know when to quit. Chapter 21 has a sweet, charming ending that brought everything together in a way that leaves you feeling buoyant and happy. Chapter Twenty Two onwards is a mire of uncomfortable dithering and sex scenes that were better left somewhere far far away from the shining, silly perfection of everything previous. Do yourself a favour and just pretend that last quarter of the book doesn't exist. Do not make my mistakes.

If you like your romance sweet and silly and charming with just the right level of legitimate angst, Ollie, Always is an excellent choice to while away a few hours on your weekend!

Get it here https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01APNF1UK