With a roar of triumph not too unlike Gerard Butler’s in the 2007 movie I have reached my 300th post.  As I seem to spend a lot of my time telling you what I am reading I thought I’d turn the tables somewhat and take a look of what you have been reading since the start of the year when I did my last little retrospective for my 200th post.  Back then “Mary Portas Secret Shopper” was at the top of the pile but there has been quite a bit of change since then- although there is one in that February Top 5 which has remained very popular ever since, but more of that later.  Looking back the site has broadened a bit with more reviews of CDs and TV programmes  and the author interviews alongside the books so I thought this time I’d section things off and with the Paralympics still going strong have my own bronze, silver and gold medals in each of the categories.  Thank you all very much for continuing to read reviewsrevues.com, for the followers new and old and for all your comments which are always much appreciated.  Now before I get too emotional to carry on, here is what you have been reading, all nicely linked so you can follow up any you might have missed.

Author Interviews

Bronze- Vaughn Entwistle– .Posted in May 2016, Vaughn tracked me down on this site after I posted my review of his “The Angel Of Highgate” I was delighted that he was keen to take part in my Author Strikes Back thread.

Silver – Benita Jayne – Posted in July 2016,  Benita found me on a School Reunion Site and after a touch of reminiscing on school days mentioned she had written a book and would be up for an interview.  A lot of people have read Benita’s interview and it was great to welcome her to reviewsrevues.com

Gold- Chris Whitaker – Posted in April 2016, Chris was such a good sport I got to interview him twice- once for this site and once for my good friends over at Nudge  where his book was chosen as Book Noir featured book of the month.  The Nudge interview can be found here.  Chris was really prepared to get us to see the real him in these interviews!

Books   (And proof that the author interviews do drive readers to check out the book reviews – with only Vaughn just missing out on “doing the double”.

Bronze- Day Of Judgement – Salvatore Satta – Posted in May 2016.  This was not my favourite of the Apollo Classic series I read but it is the one that became the most popularly read review.  It seems a lot of you are interested in this tale of Sardinia in the early twentieth century.

Silver – The Sacred Crystal Pyramid – Benita Jayne – Posted in June 2016.  Just in case Benita needs a little prompting to complete her second novel in her Angel Messenger series here is proof that a lot of people wanted to read  about her novel intended for older children.  Benita has been getting quite a bit of attention in the press (double page spread in “Soul And Spirit” magazine)  and has had a busy summer of promotion.

Gold – Tall Oaks – Chris Whitaker – Posted in March 2016.  It was great to see Chris’ deserved inclusion in the alternative Not The Booker Longlist published by The Guardian.  As well as this he also has the glory of having the most read book review on reviewsrevues.com!

CDs – Unlike the other sections the CD reviews tend to be slow burners with two of the most read actually being posted last year.

Bronze- Greatest Hits – Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons – Posted in February 2016. 82 year old Frankie had recently announced a Four Seasons UK tour in April 2017

Silver – You Change – Lindsey Webster– Posted in November 2015 as one of my Music Now reviews (which seem to have taken a back seat of late – sorry about that).  Great voice and since this review has topped the Billboard Jazz charts but there are greater commercial things to come I would imagine especially as this review gets a lot more interest here than a lot of very established artists.

Gold – Let’s Groove – The Best Of – Earth Wind & Fire – Posted in October 2015.  The winner in this category by a clear mile and one that was sitting pretty at number 2 in my Top 5 most read reviews 100 posts ago.  I thought then that was because of the interest in this group following the sad death of Maurice White in February this year  but the interest in this group and this review has sustained throughout the year.  There’s a lot of people yearning for a real-life Boogie Wonderland!

TV Reviews

Bronze- Giles Coren: My Failed Novel – Posted in March 2016 A one-off documentary on Sky Arts which proved that this writing game is not always easy.  Giles was lamenting his sales of his novel “Winkler” but the interest here might suggest that it’s worth re-issuing!  Part of Sky’s Failure season this was a joy.  Giles has managed to overcome failure by hosting a week of ITV summer quiz show “500 Questions”!

Silver – Make! Craft Britain – Posted in June 2016. Another one-off documentary, this time on BBC4- a lovely relaxing programme which should be made into a series.  It has attracted a lot of interest here and for those of you wondering, yes I did finish making my Clanger and I was pleased with the result even if it looks like he has had open heart surgery.

Gold – Scott and Bailey – Posted in 2016.  Now cancelled first-class ITV cop show is already being missed judging by the number searching and finding the review of Series 5.  Not only is this the most read TV review it has managed to knock-out all competition as the most read review on reviewsrevues.com this year.

 

And where do these readers come from?  The Top 5 countries

1. UK (no surprise there)
2. US
3. France
4. Brazil
5. Australia

It really is a world wide web, isn’t it.  Thanks for all your support!