3. Books of 2014 pt.1

from we heart it.

I'm obviously starting this blog mid-way through the year, but I've been keeping track of what I read and wanted to do some short catch up reviews. I'm not going to do them all in one post, so this is part one, in order, of the books I've been reading so far in 2014.



This Common Secret - Susan Wicklund. 
This book was pretty hard to read, not going to lie. It's a memoir, writen by Wicklund about her career as an abortion doctor in the US. Obviously this is a pretty difficult and hotly debated topic and the strong views of people are discussed in this book. Wicklund suffered ridiculous abuse, stalking, violence and death threats, purely because of her line of work. Everything is laid out bare here - she doesn't scrimp on details which may be difficult for some readers, but it's an honest picture of what goes on at these clinics. This book may be difficult for some but Wicklund writes honestly and without a real political agenda which is refreshing - despite her chosen career, she isn't extremely onesided, which makes this an interesting read despite the subject matter.
Tags: memoir, non-fiction


A Good and Useful Hurt - Aric Davis.
Right this was...weird. It's basically about a tattoo artist who tattoos clients and mixes the ashes of their dead loved ones into the ink, thus tattooing them into the person. As a girl with tattoos, the idea of this makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, without even knowing if it's actually safe of hygenic! Obviously there wouldn't be much of a story if it was just a guy tattooing for a couple of hundred pages. There's a serial killer involved which never ends well for anyone, however things take another turn as everything gets all paranormal and ghosty. I don't want to give too much away but it's definitely an interesting read, especially if you're interested in tattoos and body mods, as Davis is actually a piercer. I remember reading this quite quickly and enjoying the story.
Tags: paranormal, mystery


Defriended - Ruth Baron
Occassionaly I love a wee trashy young adult, easy read but this definitely different. It's one of those modern love stories of boy and girl meeting online, chatting on facebook and never actually meeting in real life. However, things don't always run so smoothly do they? Jason, the lead character, does some good old internet stalking of his girl and discovers she's actually dead. But then how has he been talking to her? Well, that's the whole mystery of the book. I had a phase of re-reading some point horror and this is definitely in a similar vein, except it was a pretty rubbish story, which was easy to work out. Definitely not a breathtaking work of literature, but it was a pretty easy and quick read.
Tags: young adult, horror, mystery
Identity Theft - Anna Davies
So I've just discovered this is part of the relaunch of Point Horror - a fact I love! I used to adore reading those books when I was younger, however unlike the above, I actually kind of enjoyed this one. Basically a girl is doing all the usual high school stuff of running for council and editor of the paper, when suddenly a fake facebook profile appears posting incriminating photos and information about her. As the name suggests, and it wouldn't take a genius to work out, the girl has a long lost twin! Who is evil! OF COURSE! Like I said about the last one, this was a quick young adult read which was reasonably enjoyable for what it is. 
Tags: young adult, horror, mystery

You cant Drink all day if you don't start in the morning - Celia Rivenbark
Bless your heart, Tramp - Celia Rivenbark
I'm going to list both of these together as they were pretty similar, as is my opinion about them. I don't even know how I got these on my Kindle but I had more and I do not want to read them. They're basically a series of essays writen by a Southern woman which are supposed to be funny but perhaps I missed that as I certainly never laughed out loud. Maybe if I was from the South of America I'd "get it" more but I just don't. 
Tags: memoir, humour, essays

5 People Who Died During Sex - Karl Shaw
This is a book of lists, which I guess isn't strictly a novel, or a book with a story but I enjoyed it! It's a series of "tasteless" lists, as the name kind of implies and there were some interesting and amusing facts in there. Obviously not all of them were amazing and it's not going to win any awards but a nice wee break from novels and stories. 
Tags: lists, humour, non-fiction


So that's part one of my Books of 2014 series done and dusted. They're just super short reviews that give you an idea of what I'd been reading and my opinions on them! I hope you enjoy and are maybe inspired to check some of these out! Let me know if you have or want to read any.

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