Recently we celebrated our review team’s six year anniversary by revealing fourteen of the team’s favourite books.
You can find out which books they were in part one and part two.
I invited some of my team members to tell us more about being part of the book reviewing team.
Welcome to Robbie Cheadle, who also writes book reviews at Robbie’s Inspiration Blog
I have always been a reader. I read books at such a fast rate when I was a young girl that my own four library cards were not enough. I used to use my younger sister’s three library cards as well as my own [Cath was not a big reader back then and preferred to visit her friends down the road than read] and I still had to make two trips a week to the local library. That mean I read at least fourteen books a week. I used to ride to the library on my bicycle which my dad fitted wit a basket for my books.
Even back then, I never read the same books as my friends. I read strange books like Fattipuffs and Thinifers by André Maurois, Helter Skelter, the Charles Manson story by Susan Atkins and all the Eva Ibbotson books, which I didn’t think were unusual, but my friends definitely did. I lived in a Catholic community and books about witches, wizards, dark magic, banshees, and other magical creatures were not encouraged. When I was ten, I ran out of books to read in the children’s section of the library, so I resorted to reading my mom’s books behind the couch. My reads included The Shining and Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. My peer group were not reading these books in the fifth and sixth grade.
The result of my unusual and advanced reading tastes was that I never participated in reading groups at school. I was a “lone wolf” reader and was never interested enough in popular peer group reads to change this position.
As an adult I never belonged to book clubs as they seemed to involve more socializing and drinking of wine that discussion of the books I like to read. As a result, I never joined one, so I don’t know if my views are actually fact or not.
When I started to blog, I quickly saw that a lot of readers shared their reviews on-line. There were all sorts of book reviewing groups among blogging groups and on Goodreads where people read the same book and discussed their opinions of the books and the writing style. This interested me and I started following lots of book bloggers and reading lots and lots of book reviews. One book blogger that particularly interested me with her detailed reviews was Olga Nunez. I realized that Olga belonged to an on-line book reviewing club called Rosie’s Book Reviews and was sufficiently interested to find Rosie’s wonderful blog and follow many of her reviewers.
Often, more than one reviewer would read the same book offered to the club and I loved reading the different viewpoints. All the reviewers have a different reviewing style and I learned to look for, and appreciate, different things in books. This has helped my own writing as well as my own book reviewing process. I decided to ask Rosie if I could join her book reviewing team and she graciously added me to her group. I still have rather different tastes in books and read and review a lot of classics, but I do like to read at last one book a month from Rosie’s lovely list. I always look for other reviews of the same book by other team members as I am fascinated to learn what they enjoyed about a book I have read and what they did not enjoy. I have found that certain of the team members share similar tastes to me, so I look out for books they have reviewed and sometimes request them from Rosie.
Some of the recent books and authors I have read and enjoyed during my time as a Rosie’s book reviewer are as follows:
- The Zelda Richardson series (The Vermeer Deception being the most recent book) by Jennifer S. Alderson;
- Congeal, Night Service and Burntbridge boys by John F Leonard;
- Upon Us Post-Apocalyptic Romance (Hope & Darkness Series) by Blakely Chorpenning;
- Chills & Creeps Vol 1: Eight Scary Stories by Nick Clausen;
- Secrets of the Galapagos by Sharon Marchisello; and
- Art & Soul by Claire Huston.
I enjoy being part of Rosie’s team and have discovered some great new authors this way. She had a splendid team of reviewers whose opinions on books I value, including Rosie’s own reviews. If you like to read a wide variety of different genres and authors and like the idea of being part of a book reviewing team, then I would recommend this lovely group.
Thank you Robbie, I enjoy seeing all the different books that team members enjoy.
Reblogged this on Robbie's inspiration and commented:
I am over at Rosie Amber’s blog today with a post about what I’ve gained by joining an on-line book club. The post is part of Rosie’s series of post celebrating 6 years of Rosie’s Book Review Team. Thank you, Rosie, for all you do for readers and authors.
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Thank you for sharing this posts, Rosie, and for everything you do to support readers and authors.
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You’re welcome Robbie, I am lucky that I enjoy it all.
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I’m so pleased to find out my blog helped you discover Rosie’s group… You’re a great addition to the team and I enjoy your reviews (and your recipes and stories). I had a similar experience with my writing as a child, although as a teenager I did find quite a few girls in school who had also quite advanced tastes and were big readers, so we used to exchange books. Thanks for being another amazing member of the team, Robbie.
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Thank you, Olga. I really appreciate your detailed reviews.
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Wonderful, Robbie. You must have been a real terror with a library card in your childhood!
Nice to learn a little more about you.
Cheers,
Frank
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Thank you, Frank. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
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I did indeed. Cheers, Robbie.
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I still can’t get over using up so many library cards!
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A real library fiend, Rosie. In the best of ways.
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This sounds like a wonderful group to be part of. And you are right about regular book clubs; they tend to be more of an excuse to drink some wine and socialize. Nothing wrong with that, but there’s not a lot book discussion going on. You’re making me think about reading a Stephen King book. I know you are a big fan, and he is my oldest son’s favorite author as well. I’m currently reading Pat Conroy’s set of essays on writing, maybe it will be time for a King novel after that…
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Hi Jim, it is fun to be part of a reading group. I enjoy reading what other people think of books, particularly ones I have also read. I am a bit King fan and my favourites are his older books, including the Bachman books.
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Thanks for mentioning some King books…
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Thanks for stopping by today, Jim.
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you are welcome, Rosie!
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Wow, Robbie, I can so relate. There should be a club for voracious readers.
And congratulations to Rosie’s book review site as well. Happy Anniversary!
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Thank you, Meeks. It is fun to belong to a book club.
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I’ve never belonged to one, probably because I prefer sci-fi to all other genres. Maybe one day. 🙂
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Thanks for dropping in today.
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My pleasure, Rosie. 🙂
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One member of our team also runs her own scifi and horror review blog, which you might enjoy try https://www.scifiandscary.com/
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Thanks Rosie! Just checked out the website and asked to be included in their list of female scifi authors. -dance-
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Thank you, Rosie. I have also looked this up. I love scary.
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It is always such a pleasure to learn more about you Robbie. I wasn’t a reader as a child. I cant say I am much better now. But I force myself to read now.
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Finding the time, the motivation and the right book can be hard.
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Thank you, Bella. Not all children like to read. My boys both did but they weren’t offered many options. It was 30 minutes of reading and then they got 1 hour of TV or computer games. I read and so does my one sister. The youngest two don’t read much at all.
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Oh you are 4 sisters
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Yes, my poor Dad. I am the oldest and the two youngest were my live dolls. I loved playing with them.
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Your childhood reading makes a lot of sense, Robbie, because many of the books you read now I haven’t heard of, and are out of the normal “realm,” which is good. I learn new authors/books from you. For instance, I’m now slowly reading C.S. Lewis’ book The Great Divorce. I never would have tried this one without your review.
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I love it when any review inspires another reader to pick up a book.
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The best kind of reviews, for sure!
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Hi Pam, I am delighted you are reading The Great Divorce. What a great book, I this C.S. Lewis was highly gifted as a writer. I look forward to hearing what you think of it. I am considering The Count of Monte Cristo as my next read but it is 1 200 pages or 56 reading hours which is a big time commitment. My son, Greg, and are are going to read three books with revenge as a theme, and this is one of them.
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You inspire me so much, Robbie! You read so many different genres of books. But. 1200 pages!! Yikes. That’s at least the equivalent of three ‘regular’ novels.
C.S. Lewis is an amazing author (although deceased, his words/writing/theology and philosophy live on in his books forever).
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You are right, Pam, C.S. Lewis’ works are enduring. That is the case with most classics.
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Thank you Robbie for sharing your experience with reviewing books. I had always wondered how your devour books at the speed of lightning. Now I know. I stayed away from book review clubs as I assumed we were to read every book on the list but this sounds interesting. I would like to join the club too.
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We are, hopefully, a little different, please feel free to check out some of the team reviews to see if joining might be appealing. I post most days with either a team review or one from my own review list.
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Hi Smitha, thanks for visiting me here. You get to chose the books you want to read and have a whole month to read and review it so there is no pressure. It is always interesting to read what other people think about a book. I find it fascinating to compare other peoples views to my own.
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I enjoyed reading about your reading life, Robbie. I also was odd-girl out on reading front in school. I didn’t manage 14 books a week, though!
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Thank you Liz, yes that is a lot of books.
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I was a bit naughty, Liz, and used to read in bed at night with a torch. Often late into the night. Thanks for visiting me here.
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Hello Rosie, I came via Robbie’s,
That was an impressive amount of books to read Robbie at such a young age… And even today I dare not read Stephen Kings books lol… 🙂
My own interest in books was sparked aged 11 or 12 when I moved to my Secondary Girls School, My spelling wasn’t the best, and my English teacher took me under her wonderful wing, as I too was a loner, never fitting in, and Books gave me a whole new world where I could dive in, bury my head, and keep myself to myself.. I would love the books she gave me from her own personal library, I would become the heroine of the book. 🙂 As most were historical fiction, I was then able to shut out the bullies which were always constant in the side wings..
Thanks for sharing Robbie. 🙂 And thank You Also Rosie … You have a lovely blog 💛🙏
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Ah bless you, thank you so much for popping in today.
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Loved my visit Rosie, thank you 🙂
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HI Sue, I am sorry to hear you were bullied at school. That is not nice at all. I also had a teacher, Sister Agatha, who gave me a lot of unusual books to read. Not Stephen King, of course, but I am David and The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Teachers have a big influence over children and I am glad I had Sister Agatha as a teacher although I don’t think I appreciated her as much as I should have at the time. She was a bit old fashioned and strict so I was scared of her. I don’t read King’s more recent books because the content is a bit to over the top weird for me. I enjoyed his original stories like The Shining and Shawshank Redemption. Very clever story lines.
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Yes my teacher also gave me Anne Frank’s Diary too 🙂 Snap… 🙂 I look upon my Old English teacher Mrs Woodhouse was her name as my saviour.. If it wasn’t for her my days at school would have seemed even worse..
The year after I left school she died, she was a widow, and due to retire the year after that, she passed in her sleep…
I often send a thought in her direction and say Thank you… 🙂
And yes nodding my head with Kings newer books.. 🙂 My Son is a reader of his books…. He once got me to try and read one of them before he left home, and I only got a few chapters in and said no thank you.. 🙂
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Congratulations Rosie on six years! You have a dedicated team, Robbie being the member best known to me!
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Thank you Mark.
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