I thought it was time for an update which is outside reading. We’ve been quite quiet since Christmas as we have been back at work and trying to do work on the house but we have managed a few little adventures.
Walking
I have really got back into my walking recently and I just love been outside. I do a few sessions a week on the treadmill but mainly I try to get outside as I find a walk outside really helps my mental health and helps me sleep better. My husband and myself are still trying to finish the last Lord of the Rings medal on the Conqueror Challenge but it taking a very long time. I really want to finish it because I have a big list of medals I want to earn next.
Library
The outside of the house is now basically finished so we are really cracking on with the inside now. The room we have planned for the library needs quite a bit of work as we have found a few horrors since stripping the wallpaper off the walls (the problem with old houses). We also had to remove a sink from the room and deal with a large hole in the wall. This week my husband filled in the hole and now I can finish stripping that wall of wallpaper. The next thing we need to sort is the electrics as we need the sockets moving to fit around all the shelving we have planned. I will post pictures when it stops looking like a horror story!
Dinning Out
Last week was half term and I took the week off teaching so we decided to go out for a treat. We had a meal at a lovely restaurant which is quite close to our house and the food was amazing. We will definitely be going back. We’ve also had a few lunches out as well.
So there are our few little adventures. We are really looking forward to the National Trust places opening up fully again but the main thing at the moment is pushing forward with the library so all my lovely books can have a proper home.
My chosen quote today is by Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) who was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author.
“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”
In a quiet house in the countryside outside London, the finishing touches are being made to welcome a group of young women. The house and its location are top secret, its residents unknown to one another, but the girls have one thing in they are fallen. Offering refuge for prostitutes, petty thieves and the destitute, Urania Cottage is a second chance at life – but how badly do they want it?
Meanwhile, a few miles away in a Piccadilly mansion, millionairess Angela Burdett-Coutts, one of the benefactors of Urania Cottage, makes a discovery that leaves her her stalker of 10 years has been released from prison . . .
As the women’s worlds collide in ways they could never have expected, they will discover that freedom always comes at a price . . .
Review
Stacey Halls is one of my favourite authors and is definitely an auto buy author for me so I was very excited when I bought this book. As usual though it got added to my TBR pile and didn’t get read straight away.
The thing I always love about Halls’ books is how well researched her history is and this books makes no exception. This book features Urania Cottage which was a second chance for women who had fallen. Urania Cottage was a refuge for prostitutes, thieves, criminals and the destitute. It gave them new skills and a new chance at life. The cottage was real and just like the book was founded by Charles Dickens and the heiress Angela Burdett-Coutts. However, the thing I love about this book is that Halls features the women in this book and Dickens is only mentioned at certain points. It could have been so easy to make a big feature of such a famous author but thankfully he only gets a very tiny bit part and we get to learn more about the actual women in Urania Cottage and Angela Burdett-Coutts.
There are various women featured in the book whose histories we only learn about as we read through the book. Martha and Emily (who were actual inspirations for people in David Copperfield) and Josephine and Annie. At the other end of the social ladder we get to learn more about Angela Burdett-Coutts which is again based on the true history of Angela Burdett-Coutts. Angela is hugely wealthy and loves to help others, she also loves to travel and host parties. She is a woman of means who should have no worries but sadly she is plagued by a stalker who has stalked her life for the past ten years. As the book goes on these characters’ worlds collide and it is fascinating to see it all unfurl.
I enjoyed this book but I did find it lacked the special something Halls’ previous books had. I found Annie very annoying so I was quite pleased she wasn’t featured massively. The one thing I really liked though was that these women who had totally fallen never lost their strength, their pride and their drive. They remained strong characters throughout. This book also also drove me to do further research of my own into Urania Cottage and Angela Burnett-Coutts. I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons.
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About the author
Stacey Halls grew up in Rossendale, Lancashire, as the daughter of market traders. She has always been fascinated by the Pendle witches. She studied journalism at the University of Central Lancashire and moved to London aged 21. She was media editor at The Bookseller and books editor at Stylist.co.uk, and has also written for Psychologies, the Independent and Fabulous magazine, where she now works as Deputy Chief Sub Editor. The Familiars is her first novel.
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. I have been back to teaching this week and it has been a super busy day. I am really looking forward to curling up with a book later.
My chosen book to feature this week is another new purchase but one that I really want to read soon.
Nephthys by Rachel Louise Driscoll
Quiet and reserved, Clemmie is happy in the background. But although her parents may overlook her talents, her ability to read hieroglyphs makes her invaluable at the Egyptian relic parties which have made her father the toast of Victorian society.
But at one such party, the words Clemmie interprets from an unusual amulet strike fear into her heart. The beautiful and dangerous glyphs she holds in her hands will change her life forever.
Five years later, Clemmie arrives in Egypt on a mission to save what remains of her family. The childhood game she used to play about the immortal sisters, Isis and Nephthys, has taken on a devastating resonance and it is only by following Nephthys’ story that she can undo the mistakes of the past. On her journey up the Nile she will meet unexpected allies and enemies and, along with long-buried secrets and betrayals, Clemmie will be forced to step into the light.
I hope everyone has had a good weekend. I have been doing ok with my reading this week but blogging hasn’t gone so well. I am also way behind with my book reviews.
Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality. It is all about sharing the books that you have recently added to your bookshelves. These books can be physical books, ebooks and of course audiobooks.
Hello!
My plan to buy less books in 2025 is really not going well so far. There are just so many good books out there!
My two latest purchases are:
Nephthys by Rachel Louise Driscoll is a book I spotted on Bookstagram and really liked the look of so I popped it on preorder and it arrived this week. I really hope it won’t disappoint.
The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon is purely because I want the set all in hard back. I hate having a mix of hard backs and paperbacks in a series. It really upsets my OCD!
My chosen poem today is by the American poet, essayist and journalist Walt Whitman (1819-1892).
To a Stranger
Passing stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you, You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me as of a dream,) I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you, All is recall'd as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured, You grew up with me, were a boy with me or a girl with me, I ate with you and slept with you, your body has become not yours only nor left my body mine only, You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass, you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return, I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone, I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again, I am to see to it that I do not lose you.
My chosen quote this week is by the Russian-born American writer and philosopher Alice O’Connor (1905-1982). Alice O’Connor was better known by her pen name Ayn Rand.
“Why do they always teach us that it’s easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It’s the hardest thing in the world–to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want.”
Lady Book Dragon 