Top 10 Quick Reads

With everything going on and the way the world is right now, a lot of people have more time on their hands...which means people have more time to read! Now as we all know sometimes it's not that easy to just pick up a book and get right into it. Then again some people just prefer quicker reads.
Today we thought we would share with you some of our favourite books that have helped ease us out of a reading slump or that we just couldn't put down and whizzed through, to hopefully give you some reading inspiration.

Mrs H's Picks.

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
Most people will be familiar with these books in some way, whether it be reading the actual books, with the Jim Carey movie or the more recent series on Netflix starring the brilliant Neil Patrick Harris. The books are definitely a great easy to follow, quick read way to get you into a story in easy bites. 

The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge

One of the best books I've read this year, The Twisted Tree gets you hooked pretty fast meaning I didn't want to put it down and completed it in only a couple sittings.

The Doomspell by Cliff McNish

You can never go wrong with a good fantasy and I think this is a little underrated gem.

The Land of Oz by L Frank Baum
I couldn't just pick one of these to share because any of the 14 L. Frank Baum stories from the land of Oz fits the bill. Classics, fantastical, and relatively short, I think these (like most books to be fair) are able to be enjoyed by all ages.

Tales from the Haunted Mansion by Amicus Arcane
There are currently 4 books in this collection. I bought the first one a couple months after it was released and have pre-ordered each sequel since, if that isn't evidence enough that these are super fun and enjoyable I don't know what is. 

Mr H's Picks

The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss

I choose this book because I love the author's other works, This book is a great little read with one character and an amazingly descriptive world which will get you turning page after page.

The Firework Maker's Daughter by Philip Pullman

I read this book in one sitting!! The first and probably last time I will ever get to say that.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

I went into this book thinking it's going to be great all about fairy and dwarfs etc however, it is a bit more on the sci-fi side of what I normally read. That did not bother me great story even if the best thing about this book for me was one of the support characters!

Alice in Wonderland by T.T. Sutherland

Probably an unpopular opinion but the reason I enjoyed this book so much is because I had already seen the movie, but maybe that's just because I love the quirkiness of the movies.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis

I've recently read this whole series I found it great how so a big world and so much can happen in such short books I thoroughly enjoyed this whole series and can see why they are or of  Mrs H's all-time favourites!

Well there you have it 10 quick/easy reads have you read any of them? Do you have any suggestions for quick reads?

Our Top 10 Reads of 2019

We ended up taking an unplanned, unintentional break at the end of December and although this and other posts have been in various stages of completion, I ended up just un-scheduling them all and reorganizing the whole of January's planned posts. This was meant to be published on the 30th so only a week later isn't going to make too much difference. This is 10 of our top favourite books we read during 2019, well 5 from each of us otherwise we'd be here a while. They are all (as far as I'm aware) 5 star rated on our Goodreads accounts too! Here they are.

Mrs H's Top 5

The Ghost of Marlow House by Bobbi Holmes

This was just a random free ebook I found on Play Books and surprise, surprise turned out to be a 5* rating... and that is a great example of why I very rarely listen to awards, best sellers and what everyone else is reading. It was fun, well paced and just generally an interesting story.

The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London by Christopher Skaife

I've followed Christopher Skaife on social media for a few years and as soon as he announced he was publishing a book it was on my wish list. I have no excuse as to why it took me until this year to get around to it but I'm glad I chose to get the audiobook as Christopher narrated it himself. Everything I wanted and more.

The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge

I was going to say this was my top book of the year, maybe it is, but looking back at this list it makes it a lot tighter. Yeah, I'll let it take the number one spot. To read a better summary of my thoughts on this you could always click this link and check out the 'What I Read This Quarter' post!

The Doomspell by Cliff McNish

A book and author I'd never heard of made it into my all five star, top five of 2019. When someone is travelling to somewhere other than where we live, I'm into it. Narnia, Oz, and now Ithrea.

Switching Well by Peni R Griffin

Writing these makes me feel like a broken record or completely empty of all literary skills because I either can't express what I'm trying to say or don't know what to say. But this is another of those 'random' books that was unexpected to make this list. It was in the recommended section on Goodreads because of other things I'd read and here we are, it ended up a good recommendation.

Mr H's Top 5

The Name on the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

This was the first book I read this year, I was in a major reading slump it took it a very long time to get through maybe like 3 months!!! A lot of people don’t like the protagonist Kvothe in this series, I love how all the generic fantasy stereotypes are embraced by this book and executed very well! For a first book in a series the story progressed well and leaves you dying to read more.

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

As previously said Patrick Rothfuss leaves you wanting to read more... well I did and he did not disappoint, I loved this book and I neeeed the finale of this trilogy to come out. I feel like a lot happened in this book which it did this book was packed full of character development and travel and adventure. With that being said I’m struggling to see how Patrick Rothfuss will come to a conclusion with the King Killer Chronicles in just one more addition but if anyone can do it I’m sure he can.

Beorn the Proud by Madeleine A. Pollard

I got this book for my birthday in 2019 from Mrs H! So it’s special to me and a beautiful book, it makes it even better than I over this read a great adventure story and I thought the character arcs was awesome. I love vikings and all things Norse mythology and it was great to read a truly fiction book based in the Viking era.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K Rowling

Well what can I say... I wish I had a S.P.E.W. Badge to me Hermione's house elf movement really made this book for me even more than the triwizard tournament. I think this was my favourite instalment in the series so far it was action packed with the triwizard tournament and this book started to bring in the darker side of Harry Potter which is where things start to get a lot more exciting and I’m so excited to read more the only reason I haven’t is because the next book is huge!! But I will get around to it.

Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs

Well this is a truly great read I love Ransom Riggs writing, and these short story’s are awesome massively entertaining I loved the story of the pigeons and St Paul’s Cathedral. Currently reading the the books in the Perculiardom and the way these tales relate to the series is so cool.

Our Top 10 Book Covers

"Don't judge a book by it's binding", "All that glitters is not gold", "You can't judge a book by it's cover"...and everything along those lines!
The quote was apparently originally recorded a newspaper in 1867: “Don’t judge a book by its cover, see a man by his cloth, as there is often a good deal of solid worth and superior skill underneath a jacket and yaller pants.” and obviously means that you shouldn't or can't base your opinion on someone/something due to appearance alone.
As 'different' people ourselves, we don't. When books are involved however, we do! haha Don't tell me you haven't ever picked up a book from the shelf because it looked pretty!

That being said, we thought we'd like to share a handful of our favourite covered books from our collection each today.

Mr's Top 5

Tales from the Haunted Mansion 4 by Amicus Arcane
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Prachett
Tales of the Borders
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
Breverton's Complete Herbal by Terry Breverton

---

Mrs's Top 5

Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs

Fabled Stories from the Zoo by Albert Alberg

Tales from the Haunted Mansion II by Amicus Arcane

The Brightest Star in the North by Meredith Rusu

Have Courage, Be Kind: The Tale of Cinderella by Brittany Candau

For my (Mrs H) picks in particular, I can say that I have at least read 3 out of the 5 of my picks so really can attest to them not only beautiful covers but being awesome stories too...though the same can't be said for my husband with a total of 0 read out of 5 haha!
Mr H and I have found some great books in charity shops purely based on first appearances and a quick blurb scan! We also own some wonderful books with not such appealing covers as well as multiple copies of the same book in different cover formats, so yeah. 

💀 Mr & Mrs Hallow 💀