Happy Burns Night!
Is anybody celebrating Burns Night tonight? I have celebrated by playing some Scottish music and eating some shortbread.
My chosen quote for today is obviously one by Robert Burns.
“Dare to be honest and fear no labor.”
Robert Burns
Happy Reading
WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.
The rules are answer the questions below and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I saw a lovely thing today whilst at school. Children were outside during first break with their books reading together, apparently they have set up their own little bookclub and it was just wonderful to see a group of children enjoying reading together and talking about what they were reading.
What I am Currently Reading
I am only 15 pages into this so far as I started it during my lunch break at school today.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I must admit I didn’t really enjoy Who Killed Jerusalem? that much. It was one of those books that felt too much like hard work. Here is the review. I just finished The Greek Myths by Richard Buxton and I absolutely loved it! Review will follow shortly.
What I Think I will Read Next
I think I will definitely read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius in February as that is my next ancient text I want to read but I’m not sure what other books I will read In February.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
Happy Reading
Hello!
Now you might have noticed that Persephone Books in Bath is one of my all time favourite book shops. I love the books that Persephone Books produce because they have introduced me to authors I have never come across before. After a few trips to Bath I have a growing collection of Persephone Books to read and this year I have decided to really make an effort to read the books I own and also increase my collection of Persephone Books.
So lets see how many of the Persephone Books I can read…
I know the list is huge and books are always getting added but I would love to read more off the list.
Have you read any of these books?
Happy Reading
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 had an unexpected early finish today at school which was nice and I have a quiet day work wise tomorrow so I am hoping to go on a nice walk and catch up on some jobs.
This week I have chosen another book off my Classics Club list. I sadly didn’t read as many classics off my list as I had planned last year so this year I am really going to try and catch up and get a good load of books ticked off the list.
Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummelled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in “the best of all possible worlds.” On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan. Fast, funny, often outrageous, the French philosopher’s immortal narrative takes Candide around the world to discover that — contrary to the teachings of his distinguished tutor Dr. Pangloss — all is not always for the best. Alive with wit, brilliance, and graceful storytelling, Candide has become Voltaire’s most celebrated work.
Please drop me a comment if you have taken part in Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.
Happy Reading
Hello!
I hope everyone has had a nice weekend so far. I am still on track with my reading goals and my book reviews so I am quite pleased. I’m not sure if it will last but I will keep trying.
Posts this Week
Currently Reading
I have been really enjoying The Greek Myths by Richard Buxton and I have been really enjoying it. I am still reading a chapter a day of The Count of Monte Cristo.
Happy Reading
Who Killed Jerusalem? By George Albert Brown
Blurb
In 1977, Ickey Jerusalem, San Francisco’s golden-boy poet laureate, is found dead in a locked, first-class toilet on an arriving red-eye flight.
Ded Smith, a desperately unhappy, intelligent philistine with a highly developed philosophy to match, is called in to investigate the poet’s death. Thus begins a series of hilarious encounters with the members of Jerusalem’s coterie.
Ded soon realizes that to find out what happened, he must not only collect his usual detective’s clues but also, despite his own poetically challenged outlook, get into the dead poet’s mind. Fighting his way through blasphemous funerals, drug-induced dreams, poetry-charged love-making, offbeat philosophical discussions, and much, much more, he begins to piece together Jerusalem’s seductive, all-encompassing metaphysics.
But by then, the attempts to kill Ded and the others have begun.
Before Ded’s death-dodging luck runs out, will he be able to solve the case, and perhaps in the process, develop a new way of looking at the world that might allow him to replace his unhappiness with joy?
Review
Firstly, I would like to say a massive thank you to Mindbuck Media Book Publicity for sending me an advance copy of this book.
I was really excited to get the opportunity to read this book because I went through a massive William Blake phase when I was at University. I even composed a four part choral piece to Blake’s poem The Tyger and went to several exhibitions of his art work. This knowledge did help me whilst reading this book but I will be honest even at times I had to do some research to make sense of certain things which makes me worry that people with no experience of Blake’s work and his metaphysics would struggle with this book.
There are some great characters within this book and some characters that I really did not get along with. Sadly, the one character I really did not like was Ded. Ded is rather a sad character who has not had a very happy life so far. His childhood was sheltered and not happy and he has basically been just going through life working and just existing. Although I felt sorry for Ded I really did not like how he acted and found him painfully socially awkward. I also did not like his sexual habits very much. The other character I did not particularly like was Beulah. I found Beulah to be rather childish and very naive. At times I felt sorry for her but at the same time I just wanted her to get angry and react to things.
Most of the members of Jerusalem’s coterie were hilarious and were the reason I kept reading the book. Ghostflea the chauffeur was definitely my favourite character. Ghostflea had an interesting upbringing and I love how he learnt to drive by reading a book. The image of an erratic driver who really can’t drive driving like a drunk person around San Fransisco in an English hearse was hilarious and had me laughing a great deal.
The other character that had me laughing was Tharmas. Tharmas basically spends his life as high as a kite and going from one sexual encounter to the next. It was hard to imagine him as a business manager for Jerusalem.
I will be honest I did find this book a hard slog and what made it worse was that I guessed who the killer was very early on and when I was right it felt like rather a let down and extremely predictable. The ending where Ded explains all his theories in the plane was in my opinion not needed and it felt like Brown was trying to imitate a Poirot book but not as successfully as Christie. Overall, if this book had been shorter I think I would have enjoyed it more but from about half way through it was becoming too much like hard work. I give this book 3 out of 5 Dragons.
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Purchase Links
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About the author
George Albert Brown, a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Law, started as a hippie in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury and retired at the age of 40 after having co-founded a successful international finance company. Following stints thereafter as a humorous author (The Airline Passenger’s Guerrilla Handbook) and an angel investor in over a score of high-tech university spinouts, he built a catamaran in Chile and for more than a decade, cruised it across the globe with his significant other. Today, as a father of three grown children, a grandfather of four not-yet-grown children, and an involuntary lover of stray cats, he continues her peripatetic lifestyle by other means.
Happy Friday!
I hope everyone has some fab books to read over the weekend.
My chosen poem this week is by the Jamaican- American poet and writer Claude McKay (1890-1948). McKay studied in the United States and became a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
After the Winter Some day, when trees have shed their leaves And against the morning's white The shivering birds beneath the eaves Have sheltered for the night, We'll turn our faces southward, love, Toward the summer isle Where bamboos spire the shafted grove And wide-mouthed orchids smile. And we will seek the quiet hill Where towers the cotton tree, And leaps the laughing crystal rill, And works the droning bee, And we will build a cottage there Beside an open glade, With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near, And ferns that never fade. Claude McKay
Happy Reading
Hello!
I thought it was time for another Etsy update as I have been quite busy putting new products on the website. I also have a 10% discount code available for my book bloggers. LADYBOOKDRAGON10.
I had been wanting to do this product for a long time and over Christmas I finally got enough time to wrap loads of books.
Blind Date with a Book Valentine’s edition
This Valentine’s edition Blind Date with a Book contains a heart themed chocolate lollipop and a brand new paperback book of a genre of your choice plus a lotus biscuit. There is also the option to send a personal message on a book themed postcard in the parcel. There is also an everyday themed Blind Date with a Book available.
There are quite a few cards now available on the Etsy site as well.
Thank you for visiting my little shop. More products will be arriving soon!
My chosen quote for this week is by the American actress who was famous on Broadway and radio, and in silent and sound films Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke (1884-1970), otherwise known as Billie Burke. She was best known for her role as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical The Wizard of Oz (1939).
“Age is of no importance unless you’re a cheese.”
Billie Burke
Happy Reading
WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.
The rules are answer the questions below and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
Hello!
I hope everyone is well. Reading hasn’t been going quite so well this week, I’ve still managed some reading everyday but not as much as I would like.
What I am Currently Reading
The more I read this book the more bizarre it gets. I like how the author has used creations by William Blake within this book but at the same time it is just to strange and I really don’t like the main character.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I throughly enjoyed this book and it was great to get back into reading my classics again. Here is the review if you are interested.
What I Think I will Read Next
I have so many books I want to read this year and because of this I plan to be a lot more restrained with my book buying.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
Happy Reading
Lady Book Dragon 