Summer Reading Challenge: Short and Sweet

I have suddenly realised that my Summer Reading is fast approaching and I have not yet decided on all the books I will reading.

I still have not decided on The Book is Better but hopefully will have that decided this week.

This book prompt Short and Sweet: Read a book with less than 100 pages, I’m not entirely sure on as I could read any of my little Penguin black books in one session. However, I have decided to check out some other options as well to see what else might be about.

Moral allegory and spiritual autobiography, The Little Prince is the most translated book in the French language. With a timeless charm it tells the story of a little boy who leaves the safety of his own tiny planet to travel the universe, learning the vagaries of adult behaviour through a series of extraordinary encounters. His personal odyssey culminates in a voyage to Earth and further adventures.

First published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is regarded as Jack London’s masterpiece. Based on London’s experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness and his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, The Call of the Wild is a tale about unbreakable spirit and the fight for survival in the frozen Alaskan Klondike

A very young woman’s first job: governess for two weirdly beautiful, strangely distant, oddly silent children, Miles and Flora, at a forlorn estate…An estate haunted by a beckoning evil.

Half-seen figures who glare from dark towers and dusty windows- silent, foul phantoms who, day by day, night by night, come closer, ever closer. With growing horror, the helpless governess realizes the fiendish creatures want the children, seeking to corrupt their bodies, possess their minds, own their souls…

But worse-much worse- the governess discovers that Miles and Flora have no terror of the lurking evil.

For they want the walking dead as badly as the dead want them.

These are a few thoughts so far. I will have a good think and work out what I might like to read in one sitting. I’m starting the challenge on 21st June the first day of summer.

Any thoughts please drop me a comment.

Happy Reading!

Down the TBR Hole #10

Down the TBR Hole was the brain child of Lost In A Story. The idea is to reduce the length of your Goodreads TBR.

How it works:

Go to your Goodreads want to read shelf.
Order on ascending date added
Take the first 5 or 10 books.
Read the synopses of the books.
Decide: keep it or should it go

Hello again!

So it is time for another Down the TBR Hole, but I must be honest I have added a few more books to the list this week. The list is now at 474.

1. The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle

1942: Boldly advancing through Asia, the Japanese need a train route from Burma going north. In a prison camp, British POWs are forced into labor. The bridge they build will become a symbol of service and survival to one prisoner, Colonel Nicholson, a proud perfectionist. Pitted against the warden, Colonel Saito, Nicholson will nevertheless, out of a distorted sense of duty, aid his enemy. While on the outside, as the Allies race to destroy the bridge, Nicholson must decide which will be the first casualty: his patriotism or his pride.

I’m not entirely sure I still want to read this book as my reading tastes have changed quite a bit since 2014 when I added the book. So sadly I think this book is coming off the list.

2. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther’s breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palpably real, even rational—as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.

This definitely stays as I studied Sylvia Plath’s poems for my GCSE English and loved them so I really want to read this book and thankfully own a copy.

KEEP

3. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, a Tamil boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

I’ve never been entirely sure what to make of this book and whether I really want to read it or not, so because I’m still undecided I have decided to remove it from the list for now.

4. What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge

Twelve-year-old Katy is constantly making and quickly breaking resolutions about how she will change her ways and treat others, especially her five younger brothers and sisters, with more respect and compassion. When Katy meets her Cousin Helen, an invalid, Katy is awed by her kindness, prettiness, and generosity. Katy is determined to become more like Helen, a resolution that lasts only a few hours. Soon, however, Katy gets a chance to become more like cousin Helen than she ever wished as she finds herself confined to her bedroom for four years as a result of an accident. Much of the story is focused on the change Katy undergoes during her illness. Helen visits again to advise Katy to learn from her experience and to try to become the center of the house by making her room and herself more attractive to others. One way Katy decides to take Helen’s advice is through assuming the responsibility of running the house, a job that consists of giving the servants instructions and ringing her bell to summon her sisters when she has a task for them. As soon as Katy has learned the lesson about how to care for others, she recovers and regains the ability to walk.

This is another that will stay on the list as I have been meaning to read it since I was little and have owned the book for many years.

KEEP

5. The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf

Woolf’s first novel is a haunting book, full of light and shadow. It takes Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose and their niece, Rachel, on a sea voyage from London to a resort on the South American coast.

Sadly I just cannot get on with Virginia Woolf so this book is definitely not staying on the list. Her books just drive me a little bit crazy.

6. Middlemarch by George Eliot

Taking place in the years leading up to the First Reform Bill of 1832, Middlemarch explores nearly every subject of concern to modern life: art, religion, science, politics, self, society, human relationships. Among her characters are some of the most remarkable portraits in English literature: Dorothea Brooke, the heroine, idealistic but naive; Rosamond Vincy, beautiful and egoistic: Edward Casaubon, the dry-as-dust scholar: Tertius Lydgate, the brilliant but morally-flawed physician: the passionate artist Will Ladislaw: and Fred Vincey and Mary Garth, childhood sweethearts whose charming courtship is one of the many humorous elements in the novel’s rich comic vein.

To be honest I could have sworn I had read this book but apparently I have not. Possibly I tried to read it when I was little and gave up. So I will give it one more chance and keep it on the list.

KEEP

7. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum’s classic tale we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

An astonishingly rich re-creation of the land of Oz, this book retells the story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, who wasn’t so wicked after all. Taking readers past the yellow brick road and into a phantasmagoric world rich with imagination and allegory, Gregory Maguire just might change the reputation of one of the most sinister characters in literature.

I have always liked the idea of reading the Wicked books and finding out the history before the Wizard of Oz, so this definitely stays.

KEEP

8. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens

Dickens’s first historical novel is a thrilling tale of murder, treachery, and forbidden love with rioting mob scenes to make any reader’s hair stand on end
Barnaby Rudge is a young innocent simpleton who is devoted to his talkative raven, Grip. When he gets caught up in the mayhem of the Gordon riots and a mysterious unsolved murder, his life is put in jeopardy. This is a powerful historical tale of forbidden love, abduction, and the dangerous power of the mob.

It is Dickens! Hence it stays.

KEEP

9. Felix Holt: The Radical by George Eliot

When the young nobleman Harold Transome returns to England from the colonies with a self-made fortune, he scandalizes the town of Treby Magna with his decision to stand for Parliament as a Radical. But after the idealistic Felix Holt also returns to the town, the difference between Harold’s opportunistic values and Holt’s profound beliefs becomes apparent. Forthright, brusque and driven by a firm desire to educate the working-class, Felix is at first viewed with suspicion by many, including the elegant but vain Esther Lyon, the daughter of the local clergyman. As she discovers, however, his blunt words conceal both passion and deep integrity. Soon the romantic and over-refined Esther finds herself overwhelmed by a heart-wrenching decision: whether to choose the wealthy Transome as a husband, or the impoverished but honest Felix Holt.

I think I will take this one off the list for now and see what I think of the other George Eliot books first.

10. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl’s virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction – at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful – and completely unforgettable.

I’ve always wanted to read this book so this will stay on the list.

KEEP

That’s another week done and 4 books off the list! The list is now down to 470.

I would love to hear your opinions on these books and also please drop me a link to your blog if you are also doing the Down the TBR Hole.

Bye for now.

Summer Reading Challenge: The Book is Better

Well it is back to planning my books for the reading challenge. I have decided I’m going to try not to read books I have read before but go for all new reads.

I have chosen The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling for the first prompt Good as Gold.

The prompt I have to work with next is The Book is Better: Read a book that is being adapted for film or TV this year.

So I have been having a little look around and have come up with a few options to mull over. They are as follows:-

The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook

Hamburg, 1946. Thousands remain displaced in what is now the British Occupied Zone. Charged with overseeing the rebuilding of this devastated city and the de-Nazification of its defeated people, Colonel Lewis Morgan is requisitioned a fine house on the banks of the Elbe, where he will be joined by his grieving wife, Rachael, and only remaining son, Edmund.

But rather than force its owners, a German widower and his traumatized daughter, to leave their home, Lewis insists that the two families live together. In this charged and claustrophobic atmosphere all must confront their true selves as enmity and grief give way to passion and betrayal.

Where’s You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

When her daughter Bee claims a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for perfect grades, Bernadette, a fiercely intelligent shut-in, throws herself into preparations for the trip. But worn down by years of trying to live the Seattle life she never wanted, Ms. Fox is on the brink of a meltdown. And after a school fundraiser goes disastrously awry at her hands, she disappears, leaving her family to pick up the pieces–which is exactly what Bee does, weaving together an elaborate web of emails, invoices, and school memos that reveals a secret past Bernadette has been hiding for decades. Where’d You Go Bernadette is an ingenious and unabashedly entertaining novel about a family coming to terms with who they are and the power of a daughter’s love for her mother.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don’t know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.

As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love-and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle

Roy is a conman living in a small English town, about to pull off his final con. He is going to meet and woo a beautiful woman and slip away with her life savings. But who is the man behind the con? What has he had to do to survive a life of lies? And who has had to pay the price?

When Roy meets a wealthy widow online, he can hardly believe his luck. Just like Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley, Roy is a man who lives to deceive—and everything about Betty suggests she’s an easy mark. He’s confident that his scheme to swindle her will be a success. After all, he’s done this before.

Sure enough, Betty soon lets Roy move into her beautiful home, seemingly blind to the web of lies he’s woven around her. But who is Roy, really? Spanning almost a century, this stunning and suspenseful feat of storytelling interweaves the present with the past. As the clock turns back and the years fall away, long-hidden secrets are forced into the light. Some things can never be forgotten. Or forgiven.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

The novel is set during World War II, from 1942 to 1944. It mainly follows the life of Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier. Most of the events in the book occur while the fictional 256th Squadron is based on the island of Pianosa, in the Mediterranean Sea, west of Italy. The novel looks into the experiences of Yossarian and the other airmen in the camp, who attempt to maintain their sanity while fulfilling their service requirements so that they may return home.

So these are my options to mull over and decide what I would like to choose, to be honest I want to read them all and have put them on my TBR list but I need to choose one for my challenge.

Any help would be most welcome, please feel free to let me know your preferences.

Happy reading.

Friday Poetry

Morning everyone!

After an amazing dog walk yesterday, I decided to choose a poem with a dog theme. Coco went on her biggest walk since her operation yesterday and managed to get to the top of Kinver Edge. She also dragged my husband and myself at top speed around the route that should of taken 45mins and we did it in 30mins. Not bad for a woof woof with three legs!

The chosen poem is by Ogden Nash. Frederic Ogden Nash (1902-1971) was an American poet known for his unconventional rhyming schemes. He wrote over 500 pieces in his lifetime.

“The Dog”

The Truth I do not stretch or shove

When I state that the dog is full of love.

I’ve also found, by actual test,

A wet dog is the lovingest.

Ogden Nash

Happy Friday Everyone!

The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins (Review)

The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

About the Author

Sara Collins studied Law at the London School of Economics and worked as a lawyer for seventeen years. In 2014 she embarked upon the Creative Writing Masters at Cambridge University, where she won the 2015 Michael Holroyd Prize for Recreative Writing and was shortlisted for the 2016 Lucy Cavendish Prize for a book inspired by her love of Gothic Fiction. This turned into her first novel, The Confessions of Frannie Langton.

Blurb

1826, and all of London is in a frenzy. Crowds gather at the gates of the Old Bailey to watch as Frannie Langton, maid to Mr and Mrs Benham, goes on trial for their murder. The testimonies against her are damning – slave, whore, seductress. And they may be the truth. But they are not the whole truth.

For the first time Frannie must tell her story. It begins with a girl learning to read on a plantation in Jamaica, and it ends in a grand house in London, where a beautiful woman waits to be freed.

But through her fevered confessions, one burning question haunts Frannie Langton: could she have murdered the only person she ever loved?

Review

I must admit I was really excited to get this book and read it after seeing it on Facebook with rave reviews. I was also really pleased to get a signed copy from Waterstones. So it was moved to the top of my TBR pile. Sadly, I was very disappointed.

I found this book really annoying, when I first started it I was happily reading away, however it then began to get on my nerves and I was reluctant to keep going. I even stopped reading it for about a week but did return because I wanted to know what happened at the end.

I’m not entirely sure what it was that got on my nerves so much but I think it was the writing style. It just made me reluctant to pick the book up and read it. I also did not like the fact that the blurb pointed that there would be more of a trial being featured and sadly there was hardly any of the trial in the story, it just felt like an afterthought added at the end.

This book includes many themes, slavery, drug abuse, abuse, depression and much more and I think overall there are too many themes covered and it makes the story murky. I also found that certain elements of the story were highly predictable and that made it rather dull to read at times.

Overall, I felt no sympathy for the characters especially Frannie and some of them really got on my nerves, mainly Madame. I felt no real love for the story and will not be reading it again. Most people I am sure will enjoy this book but sadly it was just not my cup of tea. I have given this book 2 out of 5 Dragons.

Purchase links

Waterstones

Book Depository

Mid Week Quote: Franz Kafka

We are half way through the week so that must mean it is quote time.

This weeks quote is by Franz Kafka. Kafka was a Czech author, most of his work was published after his death. Kafka instructed his friend Max Brod to burn all his work once he died, however Brod ignored these instructions and instead got Kafka’s work published.

“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”

Franz Kafka

(Letter to Oskar Pollak 1904)

Happy reading everyone.

New Books 4/06/2019

Happy Tuesday!

I have recently bought a load of books to help me complete my Level 3 Diploma in Diet and Nutrition. So far I have really been enjoying dipping into the books and finding out more facts.

The books are:-

Nutrition for Dummies by Carol Ann Rinzler

The Optimum Nutrition Bible by Patrick Holford

Your Body’s Many Cries for Water by F. Batmanghelidj, M.D.

You Are What You Eat by Dr Gillian McKeith

The Digestive System by Margaret E. Smith and Dion G. Morton

Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Phyllis A. Balch

So these are the books for my course, I do not think I will read them cover to cover but I will definitely be using them a lot. The Water book I have started reading from the beginning and so far can not put it down.

Happy reading.

ABC Book Challenge

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend.

I’m returning to the ABC Book Challenge this week for the letter C.

To see my previous posts please click on the links.

A | B |

Books I have loved beginning with C.

Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett

Caste-Off by Jeffrey Archer

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Celtic Saints by Martin Wallace, Ann MacDuff

Chocolat by Joanne Harris

Christina Rosenthal by Jeffrey Archer

Christmas at the Beach Hut by Veronica Henry

A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher

Coming Home by Michael Morpurgo

Coraline and Other Stories by Neil Gaiman

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths

Books on my TBR list beginning with C

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

Catch – 22 by Joseph Heller

Charlotte Bronte: A Fiery Heart by Claire Harman

Circe by Madeline Miller

Circe and the Cyclops by Homer

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough

Well that is another letter done! Some very good books on the TBR list.

I hope you all have a good week.

Happy Birthday Thomas Hardy

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday dear Hardy!

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Yes, today is the day that Thomas Hardy was born in 1840. As I might have mentioned a few times already, I love the novels of Thomas Hardy and am beginning to love his poetry as well.

Hardy was an English novelist and poet. His work was influenced by Romanticism and focused heavily on the failings of Victorian society, especially on the struggle of people living in rural areas. Hardy wrote poetry all of his life but his first works of poetry were not published till 1898. He was first known as a novelist before his poetry took hold with the general public.

I have read a few of Hardy’s books and I intend to one day read them all. My current favourite is A Pair of Blue Eyes which I have read more than once. I love the fact that he was influenced by his own courtship of his wife Emma for this book.

Anyway that is my brief little homage to Thomas Hardy.

I would love to hear your thoughts on Thomas Hardy.

Happy Birthday Mr Hardy and thank you for your amazing legacy.

May 2019 Wrap Up

Well another month is over and a new one has begun, so I thought I had better reflect on May. In my reflection of May I realise just how little reading I did. No wonder I’ve felt stressed, if I don’t read enough I always get grumpy. June I must read more!

Firstly, I would like to say a big thank you for all the likes and comments in May and also a big hello to my new followers, I hope you will enjoy reading my blog.

There were good elements of May on the blog, for one thing we celebrated Star Wars Day and I have decided to tackle my first every reading challenge over the Summer, which I am very excited about.

Sadly, I only managed to read 5 rather short books over May. Here they are (if you click the picture it will take you to the review):-

Star Sullivan by Maeve Binchy