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. My day has been particularly exhausting but I have worked out a good reading routine whilst at school. I can average half a page of reading whilst I’m waiting for my next student to arrive and I must admit it soon adds up.
My chosen book to feature this week is one I picked up in Hay-on-Wye during the Summer. I thought it would the perfect read for October so I’m hoping I manage to read it this month. If it gets cold enough I might even manage to read it in front of a nice fire.
This is a book to be read by a blazing fire on a winter’s night, with the curtains drawn close and the doors securely locked.
The unquiet souls of the dead, both as fictional creations and as ‘real’ apparitions, roam the pages of this haunting new selection of ghost stories by Rex Collings. Some of these stories are classics while others are lesser-known gems unearthed from this vintage era of tales of the supernatural.
There are stories from distant lands – Fisher’s Ghost by John Lang is set in Australia and A Ghostly Manifestation by ‘A Clergyman’ is set in Calcutta. In this selection, Sir Walter Scott (a Victorian in spirit if not in fact), keeps company with Edgar Allen Poe, Sheridan Le Fanu and other illustrious masters of the genre.
Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.
Carcassonne 1562: Nineteen-year-old Minou Joubert receives an anonymous letter at her father’s bookshop. Sealed with a distinctive family crest, it contains just five words: SHE KNOWS THAT YOU LIVE. But before Minou can decipher the mysterious message, a chance encounter with a young Huguenot convert, Piet Reydon, changes her destiny forever. For Piet has a dangerous mission of his own, and he will need Minou’s help if he is to get out of La Cité alive. Toulouse: As the religious divide deepens in the Midi, and old friends become enemies, Minou and Piet both find themselves trapped in Toulouse, facing new dangers as sectarian tensions ignite across the city, the battle-lines are drawn in blood and the conspiracy darkens further. Meanwhile, as a long-hidden document threatens to resurface, the mistress of Puivert is obsessed with uncovering its secret and strengthening her power.
Review
This book was a holiday read for me so the review is rather late. Hopefully, I am starting to catch up with them now though. I really like Kate Mosse’s work so I was very excited to start reading this series.
I was really excited to read this book and it did not disappoint. The only problem I had with the book was I found the narrative a little bitty and at times this made the book drag. It didn’t feel like Kate Mosse’s usual flow of narrative.
This historical fiction novel was packed with adventure, mystery, conflict and some romance. Mosse takes us back to France’s Wars on religion the fighting between the Catholic Church and the Huguenots. The story is set in Languedoc in 1562, in Carcassonne. Minou Joubert is the main character of this book and when she receives an anonymous letter saying ‘She knows that you live’ her life is about to be turned upside down.
When Minou meets a Huguenot convert called Piet Reydon who needs her help to leave La Cite they find themselves drawn to each other in the most dangerous of circumstances. The story then begins to pick up pace and we are shown how family secrets can be hard to bear and the consequences of secrets.
As well as Minou’s story we also have the battle between the Catholics and Huguenot’s going on. Neighbour turns on neighbour and lives of innocents are caught in the middle. The story is fast paced and sets the scene for the time and location beautifully. I really enjoyed this book and the only thing that let it down was the bitty narrative. I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons.
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About the author
Kate Mosse is an international bestselling author with sales of more than five million copies in 42 languages. Her fiction includes the novels Labyrinth (2005), Sepulchre (2007), The Winter Ghosts (2009), and Citadel (2012), as well as an acclaimed collection of short stories, The Mistletoe Bride & Other Haunting Tales (2013). Kate’s new novel, The Taxidermist’s Daughter is out now.
Kate is the Co-Founder and Chair of the Board of the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction (previously the Orange Prize) and in June 2013, was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to literature. She lives in Sussex.
My chosen poem this week is by the minister, hymn writer, theologian and logician, Isaac Watts (1674-1748).
Against Idleness and Mischief
How doth the little busy Bee
Improve each shining Hour,
And gather Honey all the day
From every opening Flower!
How skilfully she builds her Cell!
How neat she spreads the Wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet Food she makes.
In Works of Labour or of Skill
I would be busy too:
For Satan finds some Mischief still
For idle Hands to do.
In Books, or Work, or healthful Play
Let my first years be past,
That I may give for every Day
Some good Account at last.
Isaac Watts
I’m going to try this TBR thing again. September went really badly as I actually didn’t read one single book off my planned TBR. I did read a book by one of the authors just not the one I had planned. I am a mood reader so planning my reads never works out brilliantly but I usually manage a couple of planned reads, but not in September it would seem. I am really hoping I manage some in October as I have some spooky reads planned!
Books I hope to read in October
Last month was a fantastic reading month for me so I’m really hoping October will prove to be as good.
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!
Reading has gone better today, the hour and twenty minute lunch break sat in my car always helps with my reading on Wednesdays.
What I am Currently Reading
I have just started this and I am finding it fascinating. It is really making me see the concept of the Greek gods differently.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I do love my Dr Ruth Galloway books and this one did not disappoint. Hetty Dorval was an interesting read and a fab introduction to Ethel Wilson.
What I Think I will Read Next
I’m not sure why but I’m still being drawn to more nonfiction reading than fiction. This is quite unusual for me especially when work is in full swing as I usually find fiction more relaxing.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
I hope everyone is having a nice week so far. I have had a busy couple of days teaching so far but I have managed a little bit of reading and guppy watching. Yes, I am obsessed with my new fish.
I thought it was time for a Reading Challenge update.
In September I managed to add 8 books to the pile.
The stack now measures exactly 46 inches. I now have just 21 inches left and I am feeling more confident that I might actually manage the challenge this year.
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.
Happy Monday!
I hope everyone has had a good start to the week so far. Mine has been rather exciting because we finally got some fish for our fish tank. We are now the proud owners of 6 male guppies.
My chosen book today is one that I have had preordered for ages and one that I will be reading next. I’m really excited to read this as it looks really interesting.
We meet Athene, who sprang fully formed from her father’s head: goddess of war and wisdom, guardian of Athens. We run with Artemis, goddess of hunting and protector of young girls (apart from those she decides she wants as a sacrifice). Here is Aphrodite, goddess of sex and desire – there is no deity more determined and able to make you miserable if you annoy her. And then there’s the queen of all the Olympian gods: Hera, Zeus’s long-suffering wife, whose jealousy of his dalliances with mortals, nymphs and goddesses lead her to wreak elaborate, vicious revenge on those who have wronged her.
We also meet Demeter, goddess of agriculture and mother of the kidnapped Persephone, we sing the immortal song of the Muses and we warm ourselves with Hestia, goddess of the hearth and sacrificial fire. The Furies carry flames of another kind – black fires of vengeance for those who incur their wrath.
These goddesses are as mighty, revered and destructive as their male counterparts. Isn’t it time we looked beyond the columns of a ruined temple to the awesome power within?
Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.
Lady Book Dragon 