The poem I have chosen for today is a new poet for me. Harold Munro (1879-1932) was an English poet. As the owner of the Poetry Bookshop in London, he helped many poets to get their poetry into the public light.
Overheard on a Saltmarsh
Nymph, nymph, what are your beads?
Green glass, goblin. Why do you stare at them?
Give them me.
No.
Give them me. Give them me.
No.
Then I will howl all night in the reeds,
lie in the mud and howl for them.
Goblin, why do you love them so?
They are better than stars or water,
Better than voices of winds that sing,
Better than any man's fair daughter,
Your green glass beads on a silver ring.
Hush, I stole them out of the moon.
Give me your beads, I want them.
No.
I will howl in a deep lagoon
For your green glass beads, I love them so.
Give them me. Give them.
No.
Harold Munro
I have been busy with Lyra’s Pawsome Books over the last couple of weeks. I have a Christmas stall next week to get ready for and of course I am busy making sure I have plenty of stock for my Etsy site. I know I am still in the very early stages of my little business but I am really enjoying thinking up ideas for products and putting them on my Etsy site.
I have started working on developing Christmas and Birthday cards which I hope to release in the next few days and I am finding the making of the cards and wrapping of the books quite therapeutic in an evening.
Anyway, here are the latest products on my Etsy site.
This book box was inspired by some of the things that I love at Christmas. I love curling up with a Christmas themed book and a mug of mulled wine near Christmas and perhaps some chocolate to snack on later. I also love a Christmas candle and hot chocolate in the evening.
– Brand new paperback book (genre of your choice) – Cat themed puzzle book – Dancing Cat pen holder – Bookmark – Dreamies (flavours vary) – Hot chocolate spoon – Tea bag – Coffee bag – Popcorn – Lotus biscuit – Border biscuits (flavours vary) – Cat shaped post it notes (colours vary) – Black biro
This book box was obviously inspired by Lyra. There are lots of cat themed goodies within this box including a bag of Dreamies for your feline friend. My personal favourite item is the Dancing Cat pen holder and I must admit I have had to stop my husband from pinching them for himself. A percentage of the proceeds from these box sales is also going to Lyra’s favourite charity which is Cats Protection.
The rules are answer the questions below and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you will read next?
Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I am having another busy week and don’t even get my day off tomorrow but hopefully I will get some reading time in this week.
What I am Currently Reading
What I am Currently Reading
Sadly, nothing has been finished this week.
What I Think I will Read Next
It isn’t looking good for my plan to read loads of books off this list this month as I just seem to be too tired all the time.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
I love this weeks topic because I do like a book set in the future as generally they are Sci-fi books and I love Sci-fi.
Worst Martian Playlist by Corriea Garrett– I read this book in one sitting and I absolutely loved it. In fact I now want to reread it. It was a random find for me from a post I saw on a fellow bloggers site and I am so glad I found it.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir – Andy Weir is definitely one of my favourite authors and I just find his books keep getting better and better. I love the characters he creates.
Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey– I include all of The Expanse series here because I just love the series. It is probably my favourite Sci-fi series.
The Martian by Andy Weir – I love this Book!
The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex – I saw the film of this first and loved it and for our first Easter together my husband bought me the book to read.
I could have chosen a lot more books but I went for my favourites. What are your favourite books that are set in the future?
Please drop me a link if you have taken part in Top 5 Tuesday and I will head over for a visit.
On the 11th November 1918, the fighting ceased on the Western Front, marking the end of WWI. 11th November is known today as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day.
Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) was a poet and a soldier who enlisted to fight. This poem was written in 1914 just as the war was about to begin.
The Soldier
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Rupert Brooke
Under the Greenwood Tree is Hardy’s most bright, confident and optimistic novel. This delightful portrayal of a picturesque rural society, tinged with gentle humour and quiet irony, established Hardy as a writer.
However, the novel is not merely a charming rural idyll. The double-plot, in which the love story of Dick Dewey and Fancy Day is inter-related with a tragic chapter in the history of Mellstock Choir, hints at the poignant disappearance of a long-lived and highly-valued traditional way of life.
Review
Thomas Hardy is one of my favourite authors and I am hoping to one day manage to read all of his novels. This book had been sat on my TBR pile for way too long so I decided it was high time to read this book.
To start with I absolutely loved this book and could not put it down. I think what drew me into this book so much was the church musicians. As a church organist and a musician myself I found the church musicians fascinating and I also found it sad as the church traditions were slowly being eroded away by a forward thinking vicar who is not quite so considerate of his congregation but is very happy to blame the church wardens for his decisions. Having recently read Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot I found quite a few parallels between the two books.
I also loved how the church band are very anti clarinets and clarinet players. As a reluctant clarinet player myself I found this hilarious! I also loved how they use Dumbledore as an insult, turns out Dumbledore doesn’t just mean bumblebee.
The other plot in this book is the love story of Dick and Fancy. Dick is a hard working lad who falls instantly head over heels for Fancy and in that moment decides to make himself worthy of her. In all honesty Fancy is not worthy of Dick, she is clearly very spoiled and quite frankly vain and shallow. Dick on the other hand will walk for miles in the rain to be a pallbearer for a friend’s funeral, Dick will go out of his way to help people and is honest and kind hearted.
I struggled after a while with this book. I disliked Fancy’s character which didn’t help because I really wanted people to see her true character. I also struggled with the local dialect. Having to constantly read the local dialect slowed things down for me and made reading a bit of a hard slog. Overall, I liked the plot line of the church musicians, although I did find it sad but the storyline of Dick and Fancy I could have happily done without. I give this book 3 out of 5 Dragons.
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain.
My chosen quote today is by Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909-2012) who was an Italian Nobel Laureate, honoured for her work in neurobiology. She was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine jointly with Stanley Cohen for the discovery of nerve growth factor. On 22 April 2009, she became the first Nobel Laureate to reach the age of 100.
“Above all, don’t fear difficult moments. The best comes from them.”
The rules are answer the questions below and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you will read next?
Hello!
I hope everyone has been having a good week so far. I have had a very busy week so far so I am looking forward to my day off tomorrow. I have been very grateful for my bits of reading time I have managed so far this week.
What I am Currently Reading
I am thoroughly enjoying this book so far and find it so interesting. I have a list of women I want to do further research on and learn more about the amazing things they accomplished.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I really enjoyed this and plan on reading the rest of the books about Mrs Harris. Mrs Harris is a wonderful character who you can’t help but love.
What I Think I will Read Next
I have decided that my November TBR will be made up of the books I bought in Bath and I will see how many I manage to read before December. These are just some of the books I bought because the books from Persephone books are not included.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
Lady Book Dragon 