Goodreads Monday is now hosted by Budget Tales Book Club. All you have to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re looking forward to reading.
Hello
I hope everyone has had a good start to the week so far.
My chosen book this week is another that has been on my TBR pile for way too long. I plan to read all of George Eliot’s books eventually so this one would be a good step in that direction.
One of George Eliot’s most ambitious and imaginative novels, Romola is set in Renaissance Florence during the turbulent years following the expulsion of the powerful Medici family during which the zealous religious reformer Savonarola rose to control the city. At its heart is Romola, the devoted daughter of a blind scholar, married to the clever but ultimately treacherous Tito whose duplicity in both love and politics threatens to destroy everything she values, and she must break away to find her own path in life. Described by Eliot as ‘written with my best blood’, the story of Romola’s intellectual and spiritual awakening is a compelling portrayal of a Utopian heroine, played out against a turbulent historical backdrop.
Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.
I hope everyone has had a fab weekend. I had a lovely day yesterday spending time with family and having a mooch around a craft fair. Today has been more work based with church in the morning and this evening has been busy making up orders for my Etsy.
From ancient times the ice dragon was a creature of legend and fear, for no man had ever tamed one. But Adara was not afraid. For Adara was a winter child, born during the worst freeze that anyone, even the Old Ones, could remember. The ice dragon had always been in her life, glimpsed from afar as she played in the snow long after the other children had fled the cold. In her fourth year she touched it, and in her fifth year she rode upon its broad, chilled back. Then, in her seventh year, on a calm summer day, fiery dragons from the North swooped down upon the peaceful farm that was Adara’s home. And only a winter child – and the ice dragon who loved her – could save her world from utter destruction.
Review
I bought this little book last week and I thought it would be a nice quick read before I start another longer book.
This little story really reminded me of the Grimm’s fairytales, it just had the feel of a fairytale about it. The illustrations also helped build the fairytale atmosphere. The story is based around the little girl Adara. Adara loves winter, she is a winter child born in the worst freeze ever remembered and because of this the Ice Dragon becomes a part of her childhood.
Adara is a child who nobody understands. She barely smiles and hardly ever shows emotion, she lives for winter where she builds her snow castles and sees her Ice Dragon. The other thing that she loves though is her family and she would do anything for them just as the Ice Dragon will do anything for her.
This is a children’s story with beautiful illustrations but I think it is perfect for adults to read as well. This is a lovely little story that I read in one sitting but I will be honest I didn’t like the ending but without that ending it would lose the fairytale element. 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
George Raymond Richard Martin (1948) is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer and short story writer.
First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!
Hello!
I haven’t taken part in First Lines Friday for a long time, mainly because I haven’t been starting any new books on Fridays. However, today I have started a new book so I thought I would take part.
As usual the answer is below the cat pictures.
“The Didelis Bell tolled the death of a king. It sounded from high on the Gura and echoed across the famed white city. Valdas Zalecki felt the sound in his skull.
Get guessing
In this new epic fantasy, three societal outcasts must work together to fulfill the orders of a dead king’s ghost or risk their nation falling to a tyrant
The king is dead, his queen is missing. On the amber coast, the usurper king is driving Zavonia to the brink of war. A dangerous magical power is rising up in Biela Miasto, and the only people who can set things right are a failed bodyguard, a Landstrider witch, and the assassin who set off the whole sorry chain of events.
Valdas, Captain of the High Guard, has not only failed in his duty to protect the king, but he’s been accused of the murder, and he’s on the run. He’s sworn to seek justice, but his king sets him another task from beyond the grave. Valdas doesn’t believe in magic, which is unfortunate as it turns out.
Mirza is the healer-witch of a Landstrider band, valued and feared in equal measure for her witchmark, her scolding tongue, and her ability to walk the spirit world. When she’s given a task by Valdas’ dead king, she believes that the journey she must take is one she can never return from.
Lind is the clever assassin. Yes, someone paid him to kill the king, but who is to blame, the weapon or the power behind it? Lind must face his traumatic past if he’s to have a future.
Can these three discover the real villain, find the queen, and set the rightful king on the throne before the country is overcome?
Did anybody guess correctly?
Please drop me a comment with your First Line Friday and I will head over for a visit.
I hope everyone has some fun plans for the weekend. I’m hoping to get some reading in as I’m doing really well with my reading so far this month so I don’t want it to slip.
My chosen poem this week is by the African-American writer, poet, literary critic, anthologist and publisher William Stanley Braithwaite (1878-1962).
Rhapsody
I am glad daylong for the gift of song,
For time and change and sorrow;
For the sunset wings and the world-end things
Which hang on the edges of to-morrow.
I am glad for my heart whose gates apart
Are the entrance-place of wonders,
Where dreams come in from the rush and din
Like sheep from the rains and thunders.
William Stanley Braithwaite
Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History by Tracy Borman
Blurb
Anne Boleyn is a subject of enduring fascination. By far the most famous of Henry VIII’s six wives, she has inspired books, documentaries and films, and is the subject of intense debate even today, almost 500 years after her violent death. For the most part, she is considered in the context of her relationship with Tudor England’s much-married monarch. Dramatic though this story is, of even greater interest – and significance – is the relationship between Anne and her daughter, the future Elizabeth I.
Elizabeth was less than three years old when her mother was executed. Given that she could have held precious few memories of Anne, it is often assumed that her mother exerted little influence over her.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Elizabeth knew that she had to be discreet about Anne, but there is compelling evidence that her mother had a profound impact on her character, beliefs and reign. Anne’s radical religious views shaped those of her daughter, and as a woman who wielded power over a male-dominated court, she provided an inspiring role model for Elizabeth’s queenship. Even during Henry’s lifetime, Elizabeth dared to express her sympathy for her late mother by secretly wearing Anne’s famous ‘A’ pendant when she sat for a painting with her father and siblings.
Piecing together evidence from original documents and artefacts, this book tells the fascinating, often surprising story of Anne Boleyn’s relationship with, and influence over her daughter Elizabeth. In so doing, it sheds new light on two of the most famous women in history and how they changed England forever.
Review
I have always loved Tudor history and Elizabeth I is my favourite monarch from history so when I saw this book I was intrigued to read it. It was also my first Tracy Borman book and it definitely won’t be my last.
The thing I loved about this was how Borman had such a fresh and different take on Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I. Usually history books keep them quite separate but Borman has their two histories running together. Even though Anne Boleyn was executed when Elizabeth I was only 3 years old, Borman shows how Elizabeth I was influenced by her mother through all of her life and reign.
Borman pieces together historical evidence from surviving letters, documents, paintings, books and more showing the link between mother and daughter. Borman takes us right from Anne Boleyn’s birth to her death and the same for Elizabeth I.
The other thing I liked about Borman’s take on the evidence is that it felt so truthful and not sugar coated. So many history books either describe Anne Boleyn as an angel who was severally wronged or as an evil woman who deserved her fate. However, Borman shows Anne from all angles. She shows Anne’s faults, her character flaws, her lack of restraint and all her good points. We know that Anne Boleyn was wrongly accused and executed but Borman paints her as a real person and not a saint, which I liked.
The only reason this book didn’t receive the full 5 out of 5 dragons, but only 4, was because it just felt a bit dry at times. It felt like a big list of events and lost the feeling that other historians put into their books which I missed. However, I still thoroughly enjoyed the book and found it very interesting.
(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
Tracy Borman, PhD, FRHistS, FSA is a historian and author from Scothern, United Kingdom. She is most widely known as the author of Elizabeth’s Women.
Borman was born and brought up in the village of Scothern, England near Lincoln. She was educated at Scothern Primary School (now Ellison Boulters School), William Farr School, Welton, and Yarborough School, Lincoln. She taught history at the University of Hull, where she was awarded a Ph.D in 1997. Elizabeth’s Women was serialized and became a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week in September 2009. Tracy Borman appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, also in September 2009
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!
How is everyone’s week going? I’ve had rather an annoying week so far with work but hopefully things will settle down soon. One good thing is that I have been thoroughly enjoying my recent reads.
What I am Currently Reading
This is my first Nicholas Orme book and I am absolutely loving it. I’m finding out so many interesting facts and probably driving my husband mad by telling him them all.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
Two very interesting books. I found The Wolf-Girl, The Greeks and the Gods by Tom Holland a really interesting take on the Persian Wars.
What I Think I will Read Next
I’m still going for shorter reads but I’m not sure what it will be yet. I recently bought a lot of Tudor history books so I might be reading more of those.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
Lady Book Dragon 