A Little Rant

Hello!

Now I am sure my little rant that I am about to have a lot of my fellow Book Dragons will agree with.

I have been waiting for a very large order of books to arrive for the course I am starting in October and today it finally arrived. Needless to say I was very excited when two big boxes arrived. However, that excitement went to disappointment very quickly when I realised two of my books were badly damaged. The one book has many pages with chunks missing out of them and the other book is stained on every single page.

Now I have sent an email to the company with pictures and sadly I have not had a response today, hopefully tomorrow. I did not ring because they recommended emailing due to a waiting time of approximately 20 minutes on the phone.

The thing I was most annoyed about was that both these books had clearly not been checked at all by the person who packed the box and both books especially the stained one are very much in the face, wrong! I have had this happen before and it really upsets me that people do not check the books and instead of a box full of lovely, exciting books you have a box of disappointment.

Anyway that is my little rant.

Please let me know in the comment section if you have had any book delivery disasters.

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The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (Review)

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

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About the author

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Donna Tartt is an American writer who received critical acclaim for her first two novels, The Secret History and The Little Friend. Tartt was the 2003 winner of the WH Smith Literary Award for The Little Friend. Her novel The Goldfinch won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014.

Blurb

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 Goldfinch combines vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and suspense, while plumbing with a philosopher’s calm the deepest mysteries of love, identity, and art. It is an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.

Review

I must admit I was excited to read this book to begin with but sadly that excitement did not last. Several times I almost gave up on the book and went for days when I did not read it but I kept coming back to it because I wanted to get to the end and see what happens.

Theo is a very troubled young man who really needs help, even at the end of the book he still in my opinion needs help and I just hope he gets some. I also found him to be terribly frustrating at times and wanted to shake him.

I did not like Kitsey at all in the book whether as a child or an adult, she was simply spoiled and rotten to the core. Boris however has a very troubled life and at times acts very disturbingly but he has a good heart and tries to help his friend Theo.

My favourite character and the reason I kept reading was probably Hobie, he was such a sweet kind hearted man who only wants what is best for the people he knows. Hobie teaches everything he knows to Theo and gives Theo amazing opportunities to better himself and give him a fantastic career but Theo takes advantage.

In my personal opinion I think the book could have been a lot shorter as there was a lot of waffle which just made the book drag on. It was like the author did not know how to stop or edit her work. I really do think that if it had been shorter and more to the point it would have been a good book but I was just losing the will to live and the ending was a massive disappointment to me. I even had to switch off the percentage on my Kindle because the lack of movement just depressed me.

Overall I did not enjoy this book at all but because I finished it I gave it 2 out of 5 dragons. I do not think I will read it again and I am not sure I will try Tartt’s other novels. However, this is only my opinion and I know a lot of people would not agree.

Purchase links

Waterstones

Book Depository

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August Wrap Up

Well I can’t believe it is the end of August, it really has flown by.

Happily I’ve read quite a few books in August and thankfully I have also finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt that has just been dragging.

Books I have finished (as usual click the picture to go to the review)

Captain Marvel: Higher, Further, Faster by Liza Palmer

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4/5 Dragons

249 pages

 

Your Body’s Many Cries for Water by Fereydoon Batmanghelidj

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5/5 Dragons

196 pages

 

My Cat is a Dick by Malcolm Katz

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3/5 Dragons

144 pages

 

Matilda by Roald Dahl

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5/5 Dragons

240 pages

 

Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise by Katherine Rundell

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3/5 Dragons

80 pages

 

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

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2/5 Dragons

881 pages

Total pages: 1790

Total pages this year: 11550

 

Friday Poetry

2/8:- John Rice

9/8:- Robert Graves

16/8:-Christina Rossetti

23/8:- John Bunyan

30/8:- Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti is definitely a firm favourite of mine.

 

Mid Week Quotes

7/8:- Bill Watterson

14/8:- Sophocles

21/8:- Euripides

28/8:- P. G. Wodehouse

 

Book Tags

Down the TBR Hole #13

ABC Book Challenge: G

Down the TBR Hole #14

 

So that is my August wrap up. Thankfully I read a few more pages than last month.

Please drop me a comment with your august wrap up links or if you want to chat about the listed books.

Happy reading

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New Books: 27/08/2019

Hello Everyone.

I have been busy trying to complete my Diet and Nutrition Diploma and this has also involved getting a few more books. So my new books are course related but some fun ones as well.

Course books

Fed Up with Asthma by Sue Dengate

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By the author of the bestselling books Different Kids, Fed Up and The Failsafe Cookbook, Fed Up with Asthma tackles one of the most dangerous and insidious health issues to be associated with the Western lifestyle: asthma. Sue Dengate examines the scientific research to show links between a whole range of synthetic and natural food chemicals such as sulphites, MSG and salicylates and the steadily increasing numbers of children and adults diagnosed with asthma; and also shows how to avoid them using the failsafe diet. If you are interested in good health and being free of asthma, you can’t afford not to read this book.

 

The Inflammation Syndrome by Jack Challem

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Completely revised and updated-Jack Challem’s powerful plan to safely prevent and overcome inflammatory disorders

Inflammation is what happens when our body’s own defenses turn on us-and it is a huge and growing problem. Written by the author of the groundbreaking Syndrome X, this essential updated edition of The Inflammation Syndrome draws on cutting-edge research conducted around the world to provide a revolutionary approach to healing inflammation-related problems through an easy-to-follow nutrition and supplement program.

Includes new recommendations for individualized diet and supplement plans
Presents fourteen steps for restoring dietary balance, plus recipes and menu plans
Reveals the powerful role inflammation plays in a wide variety of common health conditions-from simple aches and pains to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, and athletic injuries
Features dramatic case histories and the latest information on dosage recommendations for anti-inflammation supplements such as fish oils, vitamins, and herbs
Other books by Jack Challem: Syndrome X, The Food-Mood Solution, Feed Your Genes Right, and Stop Prediabetes Now

Read The Inflammation Syndrome and learn just how easy it can be to take charge of your diet and health.

 

Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom by Dr Christine Northrup

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‘Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom’ demonstrates that when women change the basic conditions of their lives that lead to health problems, they heal faster, more completely, and with far fewer medical interventions. This book offers up-to-date information on every aspect of women’s health.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun books

Tidelands by Philippa Gregory

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THE BRAND NEW SERIES FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR

England 1648. A dangerous time for a woman to be different . . .

Midsummer’s Eve, 1648, and England is in the grip of a civil war between renegade King and rebellious Parliament. The struggle reaches every corner of the kingdom, even to the remote Tidelands – the marshy landscape of the south coast.

Alinor, a descendant of wise women, crushed by poverty and superstition, waits in the graveyard under the full moon for a ghost who will declare her free from her abusive husband. Instead, she meets James, a young man on the run, and shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marsh, not knowing that she is leading disaster into the heart of her life.

Suspected of possessing dark secrets in superstitious times, Alinor’s ambition and determination mark her out from her neighbors. This is the time of witch-mania, and Alinor, a woman without a husband, skilled with herbs, suddenly enriched, arouses envy in her rivals and fear among the villagers, who are ready to take lethal action into their own hands.

 

The Last by Hanna Jameson

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For fans of high-concept thrillers such as Annihilation and The Girl with All the Gifts, this breathtaking dystopian psychological thriller follows an American academic stranded at a Swiss hotel as the world descends into nuclear war—along with twenty other survivors—who becomes obsessed with identifying a murderer in their midst after the body of a young girl is discovered in one of the hotel’s water tanks.

Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife’s text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he’s waiting in the lobby of the L’Hotel Sixieme in Switzerland after an academic conference, still mulling over how to respond to his wife, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC has been hit with a nuclear bomb, then New York, then London, and finally Berlin. That’s all he knows before news outlets and social media goes black—and before the clouds on the horizon turn orange.

Now, two months later, there are twenty survivors holed up at the hotel, a place already tainted by its strange history of suicides and murders. Those who can’t bear to stay commit suicide or wander off into the woods. Jon and the others try to maintain some semblance of civilization. But when the water pressure disappears, and Jon and a crew of survivors investigate the hotel’s water tanks, they are shocked to discover the body of a young girl.

As supplies dwindle and tensions rise, Jon becomes obsessed with investigating the death of the little girl as a way to cling to his own humanity. Yet the real question remains: can he afford to lose his mind in this hotel, or should he take his chances in the outside world?

 

Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise by Katherine Rundell

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As you can see, lots of lovely new books. I’m hoping that my course books, will prove useful in helping my asthma, as well as writing essays. Tidelands by Philippa Gregory has been preordered for so long that I had forgotten I had ordered it, so it was a wonderful surprise when a signed copy arrived in the post. 

Please drop me a comment if you have read any of these books, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Happy Reading

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July 2019: Wrap Up

July has been a very busy month and thankfully I have managed a bit of reading, most of it to be honest when on holiday. I spent the end of July struggling through some text books for my Diet and Nutrition course and reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt when I had some spare time.

So here are the books I read, if you click the pictures you will get sent to the review:-

Awaken the Darkness by Dianne Duvall

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352 pages

4/5 Dragons

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fireside Gothic by Andrew Taylor

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256 pages

4/5 Dragons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jaws by Peter Benchley

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340 Pages

4/5 Dragons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

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130 Pages

2/5 Dragons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total pages in July: 1078

Total pages this year: 9760

 

Poems this month

5/7/19- Rain in Summer by Henry Wordsworth

12/7/19- To You by Langston Hughes

19/7/19- Morning Song by Sara Teasdale

26/7/19- High Flight by John Gillespie Magee Jr

 

Quotes this month

3//7/19- Song of Solomon

10/7/19- Nigel Kennedy

17/7/19- Neil Armstrong

24/7/19- Lee Hamilton

 

So that is my July Wrap Up. Fingers crossed I manage a few more books in August.

Happy Reading

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Jaws by Peter Benchley (Review)

Jaws by Peter Benchley

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About the author

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Peter Bradford Benchley was an American author best known for writing the novel Jaws and co-writing the screenplay for its highly successful film adaptation. The success of the book led to many publishers commissioning books about mutant rats, rabid dogs and the like threatening communities. The subsequent film directed by Steven Spielberg and co-written by Benchley is generally acknowledged as the first summer blockbuster. Benchley also wrote The Deep and The Island which were also adapted into films.

Blurb

The classic, blockbuster thriller of man-eating terror that inspired the Steven Spielberg movie and made millions of beachgoers afraid to go into the water. Experience the thrill of helpless horror again—or for the first time!

Review

This is a book that has been sat on my TBR list for way too long and because I was going to be swimming in the ocean and sat on the beach a lot I thought I had better read a book about a man-eating shark.

I have always loved the film adaptation of this book and the book did not disappoint me. From the very beginning of this book I was hooked. I think the main thing that immediately caught my attention was the fact that Benchley has written the shark’s perspective in the book and he has not done it in a corny manner but in a realistic way that a shark would think.

The character I did not like was Ellen, she was in my humble opinion a vile woman who did not deserve the life she had. She did not appreciate her husband or the life he is working so hard for. She was never happy and made her long suffering husband unhappy as well. All Chief Brody wants is to make his wife and children happy and his kids ignore him and watch TV and his wife takes sleeping pills rather than talk to him.

Chief Brody is a typical town chief trying to keep his town safe and happy but never in his life expecting to deal with something like a man-eating shark. I really liked the character of Brody because he was down to earth and just a generally likeable guy.

Hooper is another character I am not keen on, he is cocky and arrogant and a clear trouble maker. I could have happily lived without him in the book. However the character of Quint more than made up for Hooper. Quint was a real character and quite disturbing at times but this just added to his character. He was a man that has lived on the sea hunting for the biggest catch and the biggest payday and that is all he cares about. Quint made me laugh quite a few times in this book.

I must admit I did find the book a bit tummy turning at times and certain parts of the book I had to skim through, maybe I am too squeamish for these things. I really enjoyed this book and did not take me long to read. I would happily read it again and recommend it to friends and family. I gave this book 4 out of 5 Dragons. DUUUUU NUN DUUUUN NUN DUN DUN DUN DUN.

Details of the edition I read:

Format: Kindle

Pages: 340

Published: 2012

 

Links to purchase

Waterstones

Book Depository

 

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New Books: 13/07/2019

Happy Saturday everyone!

I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. I must confess I have not done any reading since coming back from holiday, as I just keep falling asleep all the time. Jet Lag is taking its toll. This has also affected my book reviewing.

However, I have bought two new books!

The first book I have bought is because I watched the film adaptation on the plane and cried my eyes out. I loved the story so much I hope the book will be as good if not better.

Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott with Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis

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Stella Grant likes to be in control—even though her totally out of control lungs have sent her in and out of the hospital most of her life. At this point, what Stella needs to control most is keeping herself away from anyone or anything that might pass along an infection and jeopardize the possibility of a lung transplant. Six feet apart. No exceptions.

The only thing Will Newman wants to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. He couldn’t care less about his treatments, or a fancy new clinical drug trial. Soon, he’ll turn eighteen and then he’ll be able to unplug all these machines and actually go see the world, not just its hospitals.

Will’s exactly what Stella needs to stay away from. If he so much as breathes on Stella she could lose her spot on the transplant list. Either one of them could die. The only way to stay alive is to stay apart. But suddenly six feet doesn’t feel like safety. It feels like punishment.

What if they could steal back just a little bit of the space their broken lungs have stolen from them? Would five feet apart really be so dangerous if it stops their hearts from breaking too?

 

The second book I have bought is by a fellow blogger, Fractured Faith Blog who has just had his first book published. I read this blog everyday and I am very excited to read and review the book. 

The Kirkwood’s Scott Chronicles: Skelly’s Square by Stephen Black

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They want him to save the world. But, first, he must save himself.

Kirkwood Scott is having a bad day. Languishing in a dead end job and recently dumped by his girlfriend he struggles with a crippling form of OCD which manifests itself in the form of Colonel Augustus Skelly, a phantom voice from Kirkwood’s childhood who controls his every waking moment via a series of tortuous routines, ‘The 49’.

Kirkwood has little to look forward to, bar a weekend of drunken oblivion in Belfast with his equally deadbeat friends. All that changes when he meets Meredith Starc, a young homeless woman struggling to survive on the streets and come to terms with her own troubled past. Kirkwood realises Meredith may hold the answer to him finally being free of his mental demons.

But what if Skelly is more than just a voice? Kirkwood and Meredith join forces to unearth a supernatural battle raging on the city’s back streets between ancient forces of good or evil, the outcome of which will decide the fate of the planet. Between them, they hold the key to saving mankind from a new Dark Age but can they survive long enough to do so as Skelly unleashes a legion of vicious ghost soldiers upon the unsuspecting city?

‘The Kirkwood Scott Chronicles: Skelly’s Square’ is a fast paced and darkly humorous supernatural fantasy guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.

 

Very excited to read both these books.

If you have read any of these books I would love to hear your opinions, drop me a comment.

Happy reading.

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Mini update

Hello my fellow book dragons.

I just thought I would do a little update on what I have read so far whilst on my holibobs.

Some are on the summer reading challenge list some are not.

Awaken the Darkness by Dianne Duvall

I read this on the plane and really enjoyed it.

Jaws by Peter Benchley

Loved this so much!

Fireside Gothic by Andrew Taylor

This one I borrowed off Lord Book Dragon and it was a nice discovery. I definitely plan on reading more by Andrew Taylor

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Hmm still not sure on this one. Just could not get on with Henry James’ writing style.

I’m about to start reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.

Reviews will follow next week when I’m home and back to my laptop.

Happy Reading.

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

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The Optimum Nutrition Bible by Patrick Holford

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

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You Are What You Eat by Dr Gillian McKeith

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

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Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Phyllis A. Balch

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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.

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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

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128 pages

3/5 Dragons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under the Garden by Graham Greene

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87 pages

3/5 Dragons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Brontesaurus: An A-Z of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte (and Branwell) by John Sutherland

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176 pages

5/5 Dragons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Immortal City by Amy Kuivalainen

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324 pages

5/5 Dragons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Too Many Coincidences by Jeffrey Archer

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40 pages

1/5 Dragons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total pages:- 755

Total pages this year so far: 7420

Rather disappointing I know but fingers crossed for a better month in June.

 

Poems Celebrated in May 2019

Desiderata by Max Ehrmann

Life by Charlotte Bronte

There Is No Frigate Like A Book by Emily Dickinson

Mary Celeste by Judith Nicholls

The Throstle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

 

Quotes Celebrated in May 2019

Laozi

William Congreve

Robert Frost

George Eliot

Claude Debussy

 

So that is my month of May, hopefully June will be better on the reading front. I hope you all had a good May and have some exciting plans for June.

Please drop me a link to your May Wrap Ups I would love to read them.

Happy Reading.

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