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. I have been back at school today which has been a bit of a shock to the system. I took my book to read between lessons so I did manage a little bit of reading which was nice.
My chosen book to feature this week is one that has sat on my TBR for quite a long time and I’m not sure why as I love the author.
The Mistletoe Bride and Other Haunting Tales by Kate Mosse
Rooted in the elemental landscapes of Sussex, Brittany and the Languedoc, here are tales of ghosts and spirits seeking revenge, grief-stricken women and haunted men coming to terms with their destiny.
I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. This week has been really good for reading and blogging but next week I am fully back teaching so I might not manage to be so productive with my reading.
Lynda and her teenage son Rust prepare for Christmas, hanging fairy lights and making decorations. The first door of the advent calendar is opened, but the chocolate inside tastes off. Rust receives his first Christmas card, it’s unsigned and the message is aggressive rather than festive.
The cards keep coming, one each day and each more sinister than the last, and a frightened Lynda recalls a seasonal TV show from her childhood that featured similar happenings, and while she remembers it vividly, there is no evidence that it was ever broadcast…
As their Christmas cheer is gradually poisoned, with real dead robins replacing plastic ones, the turkey rotting in the freezer and Rust becoming increasingly unwell, Lynda begins to wonder if her childhood Christmases were in fact as joy filled as she remembers…
A terrifying tale of seasonal dread from a master of horror.
Review
I picked this up on my last trip to Bath just before Christmas. I don’t usually read ghost stories but I was intrigued by the prospect of reading a Christmas ghost story and as the book was only small I thought it looked like a great little Christmas read.
Now I will be honest at first I really thought this book was going to be a great ghost story but then it seemed to go along the lines of Lynda and her son Rust having some sort of shared hallucination which just got stranger and stranger.
Lynda is the mother of Rust and she clearly has some mental health issues. These issues are hinted at by Rust in the book and it is clear he is used to his mother’s strange ways and moods but I do feel sorry for Rust who has had to live with this from birth. I can’t imagine Lynda being an easy mother to live with especially as Rust gets older and begins to realise his mother clearly has some problems.
Rust is also a complicated character. Rust is at that awkward stage of being a teenager but with some childish traits and tastes still lingering. He is also obsessed with the paranormal and hosts a podcast. Rust has a mixed education of being home schooled and going to school for certain times of the year and it is clear that the isolation of being home schooled by his mother is probably not good for him.
I’m not entirely sure on what I think about the outcome of the hauntings in this book. I have my theories but I don’t want to spoil anything. I really enjoyed this book, I loved the descriptions of the house and the Christmas decorations. I loved the character of Rust but I wasn’t that keen on Lynda but I suspect I wasn’t meant to really like her that much. This was a great little ghost story and one that I couldn’t put down. I give this book 4 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
An expert on horror and sci-fi cinema (his books of film criticism include Nightmare Movies and Millennium Movies), Kim Newman’s novels draw promiscuously on the tropes of horror, sci-fi and fantasy. He is complexly and irreverently referential; the Dracula sequence–Anno Dracula, The Bloody Red Baron and Dracula, Cha Cha Cha–not only portrays an alternate world in which the Count conquers Victorian Britain for a while, is the mastermind behind Germany’s air aces in World War One and survives into a jetset 1950s of paparazzi and La Dolce Vita, but does so with endless throwaway references that range from Kipling to James Bond, from Edgar Allen Poe to Patricia Highsmith.
In horror novels such as Bad Dreams and Jago, reality turns out to be endlessly subverted by the powerfully malign. His pseudonymous novels, as Jack Yeovil, play elegant games with genre cliche–perhaps the best of these is the sword-and-sorcery novel Drachenfels which takes the prescribed formulae of the games company to whose bible it was written and make them over entirely into a Kim Newman novel.
My chosen poem today is by a new poet for me. Susan Coolidge is the pen name for Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (1835-1905). Coolidge was an American children’s author.
New Every Morning
Every morn is the world made new. You who are weary of sorrow and sinning, Here is a beautiful hope for you, - A hope for me and a hope for you.
All the past things are past and over; The tasks are done and the tears are shed. Yesterday's errors let yesterday cover; Yesterday's wounds, which smarted and bled, Are healed with the healing which night has shed.
Yesterday now is a part of forever, Bound up in a sheaf, which God holds tight, With glad days, and sad days, and bad days, which never Shall visit us more with their bloom and their blight, Their fulness of sunshine or sorrowful.
Let them go, since we cannot re-live them, Cannot undo and cannot atone; God in his mercy receive, forgive them! Only the new days are our own; To-day is ours, and to-day alone.
Here are the skies all burnished brightly, Here is the spent earth all re-born, Here are the tired limbs springing lightly To face the sun and to share with the morn In the chrism of dew and the cool of dawn.
Every day is a fresh beginning; Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain, And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning, And puzzles forecasted and possible pain, Take heart with the day, and begin again.
IT’S THE NIGHT BEFORE HOGSWATCH AND IT’S TOO QUIET.
Where is the big jolly fat man? Why is Death creeping down chimneys and trying to say Ho Ho Ho? The darkest night of the year is getting a lot darker…
Susan the gothic governess has got to sort it out by morning, otherwise there won’t be a morning. Ever again…
The 20th Discworld novel is a festive feast of darkness and Death (but with jolly robins and tinsel too).
As they say: You’d better watch out…
Review
This was a reread for me but I really wanted to read it over the Christmas period as it is one of my favourites.
This book is a story about the nature of belief. How without belief then things don’t exist and that people have to at work belief. Oh and Death is meddling again. I love it when Death meddles in the Discworld books and that he has a thing for cats. Death is one of my favourite characters in the Discworld series so I love the books where he is one of the main characters.
I also love Susan’s character. Sadly, we don’t see much of Susan in the Discworld series but I think she is wonderful. Susan tries so hard to be normal and the more she tries the more it all seems to go wrong. However, one thing is certain when she is told to do something she generally does the opposite and her Grandfather knows this.
We also have the Unseen University and the wizards feature heavily in this book which always promises to be amusing. They really are like a group of naughty school boys but with much bigger waist lines and an army of servants.
This book is the perfect festive read which includes all the necessary elements that a festive book needs. It has robins, snow, sherry, a jolly man in a red suit, chimneys, presents and of course an elf. Oh and a very naughty pig who did a very big wee. I absolutely love reading this book and I think I might make it a new Christmas tradition and read it each Christmas. I give this book 5 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
Sir Terence David John Pratchett OBE (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humorist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his Discworld series of 41 novels.
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 have had a busy teaching but in every gap I have had I have managed some reading which has been nice. I am thoroughly enjoying my chapter a day of my buddy read book and I am finding it a nice way to start my day.
What I am Currently Reading
Unleashed which is my buddy read is going really well and I am finding it really interesting so far. A Three Dog Problem is absolutely brilliant and I can’t put it down. I am already looking forward to the next book in the series.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I quite enjoyed this but it wasn’t what I was expecting. My review will be posted soon.
What I Think I will Read Next
As usual I have no idea what I will read next. I have so many books planned at the moment that I feel a bit overwhelmed and have no idea what to read next as I just want to read them all!
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
Death Comes at Christmas edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane
Blurb
The award-winning Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane invite you to a festive gathering of bestselling, critically acclaimed and award-winning writers in tribute to classic, British period crime stories. From locked room mysteries on Christmas eve to devilish whodunits and tales of simmering rivalries unfolding at the dinner table, these thirteen original seasonal tales will delight and shock at every twist and turn. So, unwrap the presents, pour a mug of mulled wine and follow the bloodstained footprints through the freshly fallen snow as winter descends and darkness lurks in the shadows.
Review
I’m not a huge short story fan but at Christmas I always make an exception and buy some short story books because you can’t beat a good Christmas murder mystery.
I will be honest I wasn’t overly enthralled with this book. There were some stories that really caught my interest but most just lacked the lustre that I usually enjoy in a short story about a Christmas murder mystery. I won’t go into every story but here are the ones which have stayed with me for good and bad reasons.
One of the stories that I really enjoyed was one of the first stories in the book. How to Commit Murder in a Bookshop. I thought this story was very clever and I really had no idea what was going on till the very end. It was beautifully written and I loved the characters, especially the bookshop staff.
The Red Angel was also a good story and was very surprising. I loved the ending and really didn’t see it coming.
Christmas Yet to Come was a piggy back on the classic A Christmas Carol and to be honest I thought it was rather an insult to Dickens. I could see what the author was trying to do but I didn’t enjoy the story and didn’t find that it flowed very well. It was also rather predictable.
Icarus was probably my least favourite story of the collection as it felt unfinished and it was also the shortest story in the book. It just felt like the author had forgotten the storyline and then not bothered to finish it.
Overall, I could take or leave this book as it just felt a bit ‘meh’. 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.)
I hope everyone has had a good start to the week so far. I’ve not managed any reading yet but I am hoping to do some reading later.
I currently have a huge pile of books on my landing which is one of my many TBR piles. I really want to reduce this pile so that is the inspiration for my January TBR.
I doubt I will manage to read all of these books but I’m hoping to make a reasonable dent in the TBR.
I hope everyone has had a good weekend so far. I am back teaching tomorrow and I must admit I will miss my extra reading time. Blogging has been back on track this week but I still have a few book reviews to catch up with.
Unleashed by Boris Johnson is my current buddy read with my best friend. We are reading a chapter today and really enjoying it so far. I have also recently started A Three Dog Problem and I am thoroughly enjoying it so far.
Lady Book Dragon 