I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I thought it was time for a post which doesn’t involve books.
House and Garden
Our house is still covered in scaffolding and work on the roof and the rest of the house is progressing. We have been busy inside the house whilst the builders have been busy outside. We have been clearing the room that is going to be turned into the library. Yesterday I was taking tiles off the wall as the room has a bathroom sink in it from the previous owners. The library is proving to not be as simple as we originally thought but I’m still hoping to get it all finished before Christmas.
Garden wise we have now had two massive clear outs and filled nearly three skips! Now we have some space to lay slabs and create our new pond area.
Powis Castle
We managed to both get a Sunday off together which is something my husband and myself very rarely manage so we went to visit the pea fowl at Powis Castle. We love Powis Castle and always love seeing the peacocks so it was nice to visit the super cute peacock babies.
West Midlands Safari Park
This week we went on our annual visit to the safari park. We always go in the Summer and sometimes to the other events they run during the year. It was a super hot day so we were very grateful for the AC in the car and we got a little pink walking around during the afternoon but it was so nice to see all the animals. My personal favourites are the elephants and hippos.
Walkingand Dining Out
We have also been trying to keep our walking going and thankfully we have had some good weather to help with this. We have also been treating ourselves to a few nice meals out, hence the need for so many walks. We haven’t managed a holiday this summer due to the work on the house so we are making sure we go for some nice treats instead.
My chosen quote today is Epictetus c. 50-c. 135 AD. Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher who was born into slavery. Epictetus spent his youth in Rome as a slave to Epaphroditus, a wealthy freedman and secretary to Nero. His social position was a complicated thing because he had the low status of a slave but high status of someone connected to Imperial power.
“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will.”
The rules are answer the questions below and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you will read next?
Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I haven’t done much reading so far this week but I have managed quite a few jobs around the house and work on the library is progressing well. Today I was chiseling tiles off the wall because the room has a bathroom sink in it.
What I am Currently Reading
I am really struggling with House of Odysseus the first 40 pages or so have just been random ramblings of Aphrodite. I’m really hoping it picks up as I enjoyed the first book in the series. Lord of Chaos is still plodding along and I’m still enjoying it but I really want to move on from it now and get it finished.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I really enjoyed this and it is another book ticked off my 24 Books in 2024 list. Review will follow soon.
What I Think I will Read Next
As usual I have no idea what I will read next. One these may be a contender but I can’t be certain.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
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. I’ve managed a little bit of reading which has been nice.
My chosen book is by an author who fast becoming a favourite. Last year whilst in Bath I bought quite a pile of her books and added them to my TBR pile.
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Mayan god of death sends a young woman on a harrowing, life-changing journey in this one-of-a-kind fairy tale inspired by Mexican folklore.
The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own.
Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.
In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.
I hope everyone has had a good weekend so far. I have had a day of adventures and have another day of adventures planned for tomorrow all being well. This week has been a better week for blogging and reading.
White lies. Dark humour. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American—in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel.
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.
So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese labourers during World War I.
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.
But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.
Review
This is another book that I bought because of the hype I saw on social media and the blogging world but surprisingly it did not disappoint like so many of these hyped books usually do. To be honest I am surprised I decided to read this as I really struggled with Babel but I am so pleased I decided to pick it up and give it a read.
I really enjoyed this book and found it really interesting especially all the information regarding the world of publishing. Yellowface really gets to grips with the world of publishing and the question of authenticity. The book features around June Hayward, a struggling writer who has so far spent her life in the shadow of the author Athena Liu. Athena has everything that June wants, she is a successful author who has sold millions of books and is known worldwide. June has managed to publish one book that barely sold and nobody has heard of. June and Athena do have a form of friendship though and after a night out goes wrong June steals Athena’s latest manuscript and edits it so she can palm it off as her own work.
From the moment June makes that decision to steal and claim Athena’s work as her own she also has to protect herself and constantly keep the lie from being found out. Her publisher rebrands her as Juniper Song and makes her publicity shot seem very ambiguous and all this June allows. June argues her book is a story that needs be told so why can’t she tell it even if it isn’t her past. However, there a lot of people who disagree with this.
There were so many times during this book that I wanted to shake June and tell her to stop digging the hole deeper and deeper and to come clean but it was fascinating to see just how far June would go to be successful, to get out of Athena’s shadow and make a name for herself.
I really liked the character of June and her first person narrative and I loved seeing her character develop, devolve and develop again. This book was superbly written and a joy to read and I give it 4 out of 5 Dragons.
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
Rebecca F. Kuang is a Marshall Scholar, translator, and award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy and Babel: An Arcane History, among others. She has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford; she is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.
Deep in the Chalk, something is stirring. The owls and the foxes can sense it, and Tiffany Aching feels it in her boots. An old enemy is gathering strength.
This is a time of endings and beginnings, old friends and new, a blurring of edges and a shifting of power. Now Tiffany stands between the light and the dark, the good and the bad.
As the fairy horde prepares for invasion, Tiffany must summon all the witches to stand with her. To protect the land. Her land.
There will be a reckoning…
Review
I have a confession to make. This book has sat on the top of my TBR since the day it was published but I haven’t been able to bring myself to read it. Terry Pratchett is one of my all time favourite authors and I just couldn’t bring myself to read his last Discworld book knowing there would never be another one. Finally in July I decided it was time and it was so nice to be back in the world of Nac Mac Feegle’s and Tiffany Aching.
I know this book isn’t actually finished but it has a beginning, a middle and an end and I thought it was wonderful. Yes, certain sections are not very well written and some sections clearly need more work but it is also clearly Sir Pratchett’s story and characters.
Tiffany is working hard being the witch of her steading but Jeanie the Kelda of the Nac Mac Feegle’s is worried that Tiffany is overworked and has no life outside of work. But something is brewing, an old enemy is rising and getting stronger and Tiffany must find a way to conquer the enemy and keep her people safe.
One of my all time favourite characters from Discworld is in this book. Nanny Ogg is just the best and of course her cat Greebo. Nanny Ogg is always a character but in this she really showed her caring side and her strength.
We meet a new character in this book called Geoffrey. I really liked Geoffrey and would have loved to have seen him in more books especially with his goat. Geoffrey is an unconventional character and I think that is one of the reasons I like him so much. Geoffrey is a peaceful character who brings peace to everyone around him and sheds. I love how sheds feature in this book!
Reading this book made me so happy but also very sad and I will be honest when I got to the end I had a little cry. This is the last Discworld novel and I didn’t want it to end. I have read every Discworld book and they have got me through some hard times. Whenever I have been stressed or hurting a Discworld book has helped me and I will always go back to them. I give this book a massive 5 out of 5 Dragons.
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
Sir Terence David John Pratchett OBE (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humorist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his Discworld series of 41 novels.
My July TBR plan didn’t exactly go to plan and I only managed to read one of my planned reads. This month I am planning to read as much as I can and try to make a dent in my Goodreads challenge. I am also sorting out a lot of boxes of books which is quite fun as I am discovering so many books I want to read but I had also forgotten about.
I think this month will mainly be mood reads but these are the big contenders.
Lady Book Dragon 