Book Club

Hello!

I hope this post finds everyone safe and well.

So, since Monday we have been on lockdown but before this my husband and myself started self shielding from Wednesday last week as my health is not great, so other than going out for a walk each day and checking on our parents we have been at home. This has meant lots more reading, studying, music and just generally wondering what to do next. I have now started to write a daily To-do list!

However, before the self shielding a local independent bookshop that set up in the town where my sister lives announced they were planning on starting a Book Club. I was very excited about this because I’ve always wanted to join a Book Club but because of work etc I’ve never found one that I can actually get to. This Book Club was going to be on my day off though, so I was planning on joining. Then things got put on hold due to the present circumstances we all find ourselves in. However, I am pleased to announce the book shop has decided to set the Book Club up on Facebook and have accepted my request to join.

This wonderful book shop is called Wyre Forest Books which is in Bewdley, and I was so excited when it opened as some of my fondest memories as a child were visiting an independent book shop called Bewdley Books and sometimes following our visit with a visit to a little sweet shop, what could be better than books and sweets? So I made sure I visited the new book shop as soon as I could. Now I am very worried about this book shop and all independent book shops during this difficult time and want to do my part in keeping them going. However, I am also not currently working and as I am self employed not earning so fund wise I don’t really have many pennies to spare and have decided that if I want to buy a book I will use whatever Waterstones points I have. But to support Wyre Forest Books today I gave them a ring and ordered the first club book read and I plan on ordering all future Book Club reads from there, funds allowing.

So what is the book?

The book is Half a World Away by Mike Gayle

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Strangers living worlds apart.
Strangers with nothing in common.

But it wasn’t always that way…

Kerry Hayes is single mum, living on a tough south London estate. She provides for her son by cleaning houses she could never hope to afford. Taken into care as a child, Kerry cannot ever forget her past.

Noah Martineau is a successful barrister with a beautiful wife, daughter and home in fashionable Primrose Hill. Adopted as a child, Noah always looks forward, never back.

When Kerry reaches out to the sibling she lost on the day they were torn apart as children, she sets in motion a chain of events that will have life-changing consequences for them both.

 

Mike Gayle was meant to be visiting Wyre Forest Books but has sadly had to cancel due to present circumstances but is planning to visit when hopefully normality returns. Hopefully I might get my copy signed!

So that is my exciting news! I will keep you updated about my Book Club adventures.

Here is the Facebook link to my little book shop Wyre Forest Books

My final word today though is support your local book shop if you can, let’s help keep them going so we have a wonderful shop to visit when all this is over and not another closed book shop never to return again. Order a book over the phone or online, buy a book voucher, anything to keep them going, and if you can’t support them financially give them a like and share on social media and show them some love. Thank you my fellow Book Dragons!

Please drop me a comment for a chat!

Stay safe everyone.

Happy Reading

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New Books 18/02/2020

I have bought my first fun books for 2020! I have bought a lot of books this year but they have all been for my Masters, but I have given in and treated myself a little.

 

Star Trek Picard: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack

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I am so excited about this book even if to be honest the TV series is painfully slow and in certain places annoying beyond belief. This book is written by Una McCormack and her previous Star Trek novels are just amazing so I am looking forward to her take on the new series.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Cats by Jenny Parks

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This one I could not resist, I bought the first one in the series for my husband as he loves Star Trek and cats and after reading it I immediately bought the second one.

 

So only two books as I am trying to be well behaved this year as I have so many books to read already and I know I won’t get to read many non study related books.

 

Happy reading

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New Books 6/01/2020

As promised here are my new books that I got over New Year when visiting Bath. We always visit my favourite bookshop Topping and Company because it always has some very special books and quite often signed editions. Plus when my poor husband is exhausted from following me around the bookshop and carrying the books I’ve already chosen they always offer him a mug of tea.

So here are the books I bought, I tried to be restrained so there are not as many books as I would usually go for.

Goodbye to All Cats by P. G. Woodhouse

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Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year edited by Allie Esiri

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The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

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Hardy 

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Drop me a comment if you have read any of these. I always love to hear your thoughts.

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Christmas Bookish Presents

Hello!

As promised here is my post showing my Christmas presents with a book theme. Thankfully, I had quite a few books and a very groovy book light that I love.

Here are the books I received:-

The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett

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Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

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The Everyday Poet: Poems to Live By edited by Deborah Alma

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Rossetti

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Be More Cat by Alison Davies

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Then there is my amazing new light!

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A lot of these books have been on my wish list for some time so I was really pleased to receive them. Drop me a comment with your thoughts.

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New Books: 17th December 2019

Hello!

So today has been a nice quiet day with a little bit of teaching thrown into the mix. Today also involved buying new books! This was not planned, we went into the supermarket for a few things and I came out with three new books.

Here are the new books:-

A Midwinter Promise by Lulu Taylor

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I’ve read a few books by Lulu Taylor and have always enjoyed them so I am looking forward to reading this.

 

A Perfect Cornish Christmas by Phillipa Ashley

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After just finishing ‘A Christmas on the Little Cornish Isles’ I thought I would give another of Phillipa Ashley’s books a try and hope it is as good.

 

A Wedding in December by Sarah Morgan

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No reason for this choice other than I liked the sound of it. Fingers crossed it proves to be good.

 

So here are my new books! Please drop me a comment if you have read any of them and tell me what you thought.

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Christmas Book Haul

Hello!

Today I have had a wonderful day off, as I spent the morning reading and then went and spent the day in Birmingham book shopping and exploring the German Christmas Market.

I had a lot of fun in Waterstones and bought quite a few books and my husband also got some as well so the lady on the check out was quite surprised at the varied selection. I also had a lot of fun looking at the children’s section.

 

Here are my lovely books:-

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I bought this book because my best friend, nicknamed Tufty Seal highly recommends Adam Kay as a writer so I am really looking forward to reading this book.

 

AVGEC

I saw this today and just had to buy it as I absolutely love the film!

 

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I must admit I got this because the cover was pretty, I know very shallow, but sometimes a pretty cover is all you need to buy a book.

 

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I bought this because I loved the last book with Murder Christmas stories I hope this one does not disappoint.

 

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Another book from the Christmas table at Waterstones. I hope it does not disappoint.

 

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This book I got in the children’s section. I always get a version of The Nutcracker each year and this year I got this little one with a pop up surprise at the end!

 

I also got two very pretty decorations from the German Market.

 

Please drop me a comment if you have read any of the books.

Happy Reading.

 

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Book Haul 4/11/19

Guess what?

I’ve been buying books again!

Only four books I promise.

Two of the books I got because I found them interesting and linked to my Masters and the other two are pretty and Christmas books so I just had to get them.

Here they are:-

Miss Marley by Vanessa Lafaye

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A Literary Christmas: An Anthology

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Ancient Rome by Virginia Campbell

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Ancient Greece by David Michael Smith

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I cannot wait to start reading them!

Happy Reading!

 

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Book Haul 28/10/2019

Hello everyone!

Well today is my first day of half term and I celebrated by having a lie in and a leisurely day. I had to run into our nearest town to run some errands and my husband suggested visiting Waterstones for a browse. Well a browse is something that never happens with me, it always ends in buying books. I was just going to buy Now You See Them by Elly Griffiths but my husband said that Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver looked good so I ended up buying another book because it was on buy one get one half price.

Not too much damage with just three books bought.

Now You See Them by Elly Griffiths

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Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver

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A Keeper by Graham Norton

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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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New Books: 15/09/2019

Hello everyone!

I thought I would share with you all the books I have bought so far in September because I have not updated you all on my purchases recently and the number is growing at an alarming rate. Two of the books were the damaged ones and I have just recently received the replacement copies.

 

New Books

 

Classical Archaeology Edited by Susan E. Alcock and Robin Osborne

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Latin for Dummies by Clifford A. Hull, Steven R. Perkins and Tracy Barr

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Handbook for Classical Research by David M. Schaps

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Too Much To Know by Ann M. Blair

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Collins Latin Dictionary and Grammer

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Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis by J. K. Rowling

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The Poems of Catullus by Gaius Valerius Catullus

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Andromache, Hecuba, Trojan Women by Euripides

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On Chapel Sands: My Mother and other Missing Persons by Laura Cumming

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The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

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As you can see a lot of books so far this month. Most of these are either for my new challenge or my new course starting next month, you can probably guess which ones I have bought for fun reading.

Please drop me a comment if you have read any of these.

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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