Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far.
My chosen quote this week is by the American singer and actor Elvis Presley (1935-1977).
“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t going away.”
Elvis Presley
Happy Reading
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. I have been busy in the library, what was meant to be a simple job is now a huge job and will take a long time before it is anywhere near a library.
My chosen book is one that I bought last year but sadly it got put away when work started on the house but now I have found it again and have put it back on the TBR pile.
The Princes in the Tower by Philippa Langley
In 1483, Edward V (age twelve) and his brother Richard, Duke of York (age nine), disappeared from the Tower of London. History has judged they were murdered on the orders of Richard III. The Princes in the Tower now reveals the truth behind the greatest unsolved mystery in English history.
Philippa Langley took the world by storm when, against all the odds and after a seven-year investigation, she discovered the grave of King Richard III (1452-1485) in a Leicester car park. A king finally laid to rest, the rediscovery and reburial of Richard III was watched by a global audience of over 366 million.
Now, in The Princes in the Tower, Langley reveals the findings of a remarkable new research “The Missing Princes Project.” In the summer of 1483, Edward V (age 12) and his brother Richard Duke of York (age 9), disappeared from the Tower of London. For over five hundred years, history has judged that they were murdered on the orders of their uncle, Richard III.
Following years of intensive research in British, American, and European archives, Philippa has uncovered astonishing new archival discoveries that radically change what we know about the fate of the princes in the Tower. Established by Langley in 2016, “The Missing Princes Project” employs the methods of a cold-case police inquiry. Using investigative methodology, it aims to place this most enduring of mysteries under a forensic microscope for the very first time.
In The Princes in the Tower, Langley narrates the painstaking investigative work and research of the project. By questioning received wisdom, she and her international team of researchers shed light upon one of history’s greatest miscarriages of justice, in turn revealing a surprising and phenomenal untold story.
Happy Reading
Hello!
I hope everyone has had a good weekend. We have been working hard on the library and we have no got all the carpet and underlay out and we have started stripping the wallpaper off. I can’t wait to get it all finished.
Blog Posts
Currently Reading
I’m still reading these two books but I have been focusing more on Lord of Chaos as I have been really enjoying it.
Happy Reading
Happy Friday!
I hope everyone has some fun plans for the weekend.
My chosen poem today is by the Anglo-Irish poet and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death in 1972, Cecil Day-Lewis (1904-1972). He also wrote mystery stories under the name Nicholas Blake.
Walking Away
It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day -
A sunny day with leaves just turning,
The touch-lines new-ruled - since I watched you play
Your first game of football, then like a satellite
Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away
Behind a scatter of boys. I can see
You walking away from me towards the school
With the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free
Into a wilderness, the gait of one
Who finds no path where the path should be.
That hesitant figure, eddying away
Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem,
Has something I never quite grasp to convey
About nature's give-and-take - the small, the scorching
Ordeals which fire one's irresolute clay.
I have had worse partings, but none that so
Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly
Saying what God alone could perfectly show -
How selfhood begins with a walking away,
And love is proved in the letting go.
Cecil Day-Lewis
Happy Reading
Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I thought it was time for a post which doesn’t involve books.
House and Garden
Our house is still covered in scaffolding and work on the roof and the rest of the house is progressing. We have been busy inside the house whilst the builders have been busy outside. We have been clearing the room that is going to be turned into the library. Yesterday I was taking tiles off the wall as the room has a bathroom sink in it from the previous owners. The library is proving to not be as simple as we originally thought but I’m still hoping to get it all finished before Christmas.
Garden wise we have now had two massive clear outs and filled nearly three skips! Now we have some space to lay slabs and create our new pond area.
Powis Castle
We managed to both get a Sunday off together which is something my husband and myself very rarely manage so we went to visit the pea fowl at Powis Castle. We love Powis Castle and always love seeing the peacocks so it was nice to visit the super cute peacock babies.
West Midlands Safari Park
This week we went on our annual visit to the safari park. We always go in the Summer and sometimes to the other events they run during the year. It was a super hot day so we were very grateful for the AC in the car and we got a little pink walking around during the afternoon but it was so nice to see all the animals. My personal favourites are the elephants and hippos.
Walking and Dining Out
We have also been trying to keep our walking going and thankfully we have had some good weather to help with this. We have also been treating ourselves to a few nice meals out, hence the need for so many walks. We haven’t managed a holiday this summer due to the work on the house so we are making sure we go for some nice treats instead.
Happy Reading Everyone
Hello!
My chosen quote today is Epictetus c. 50-c. 135 AD. Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher who was born into slavery. Epictetus spent his youth in Rome as a slave to Epaphroditus, a wealthy freedman and secretary to Nero. His social position was a complicated thing because he had the low status of a slave but high status of someone connected to Imperial power.
“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will.”
Epictetus
Happy Reading
WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.
The rules are answer the questions below and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I haven’t done much reading so far this week but I have managed quite a few jobs around the house and work on the library is progressing well. Today I was chiseling tiles off the wall because the room has a bathroom sink in it.
What I am Currently Reading
I am really struggling with House of Odysseus the first 40 pages or so have just been random ramblings of Aphrodite. I’m really hoping it picks up as I enjoyed the first book in the series. Lord of Chaos is still plodding along and I’m still enjoying it but I really want to move on from it now and get it finished.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I really enjoyed this and it is another book ticked off my 24 Books in 2024 list. Review will follow soon.
What I Think I will Read Next
As usual I have no idea what I will read next. One these may be a contender but I can’t be certain.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
Happy Reading
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. I’ve managed a little bit of reading which has been nice.
My chosen book is by an author who fast becoming a favourite. Last year whilst in Bath I bought quite a pile of her books and added them to my TBR pile.
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Mayan god of death sends a young woman on a harrowing, life-changing journey in this one-of-a-kind fairy tale inspired by Mexican folklore.
The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own.
Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.
In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.
Happy Reading
Hello!
I hope everyone has had a good weekend so far. I have had a day of adventures and have another day of adventures planned for tomorrow all being well. This week has been a better week for blogging and reading.
Blog Posts
Currently Reading
Just started the House of Odysseus yesterday and I must admit I’m struggling to get into it at the moment.
Happy Reading
Yellowface by R. F. Huang
Blurb
White lies. Dark humour. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American—in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel.
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.
So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese labourers during World War I.
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.
But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.
Review
This is another book that I bought because of the hype I saw on social media and the blogging world but surprisingly it did not disappoint like so many of these hyped books usually do. To be honest I am surprised I decided to read this as I really struggled with Babel but I am so pleased I decided to pick it up and give it a read.
I really enjoyed this book and found it really interesting especially all the information regarding the world of publishing. Yellowface really gets to grips with the world of publishing and the question of authenticity. The book features around June Hayward, a struggling writer who has so far spent her life in the shadow of the author Athena Liu. Athena has everything that June wants, she is a successful author who has sold millions of books and is known worldwide. June has managed to publish one book that barely sold and nobody has heard of. June and Athena do have a form of friendship though and after a night out goes wrong June steals Athena’s latest manuscript and edits it so she can palm it off as her own work.
From the moment June makes that decision to steal and claim Athena’s work as her own she also has to protect herself and constantly keep the lie from being found out. Her publisher rebrands her as Juniper Song and makes her publicity shot seem very ambiguous and all this June allows. June argues her book is a story that needs be told so why can’t she tell it even if it isn’t her past. However, there a lot of people who disagree with this.
There were so many times during this book that I wanted to shake June and tell her to stop digging the hole deeper and deeper and to come clean but it was fascinating to see just how far June would go to be successful, to get out of Athena’s shadow and make a name for herself.
I really liked the character of June and her first person narrative and I loved seeing her character develop, devolve and develop again. This book was superbly written and a joy to read and I give it 4 out of 5 Dragons.
🐲🐲🐲🐲
Purchase Links
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About the author
Rebecca F. Kuang is a Marshall Scholar, translator, and award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy and Babel: An Arcane History, among others. She has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford; she is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.
Lady Book Dragon 