Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality. It is all about sharing the books that you have recently added to your bookshelves. These books can be physical books, ebooks and of course audiobooks.
Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. This week I visited the second hand bookshop at Attingham Park and I came away with a book that is brand new and clearly never read. New books at a second hand bookshop is always a favourite find.
I’ve got a few Jo Nesbo books dotted around the house but I still haven’t read many of his books. This one looks really good so hopefully I will read it soon.
I thought it was time for a post about everything non book related going on currently. It has been a busy couple of weeks here with all the work on the house beginning but it is very exciting because once everything is done on the outside we can start work on the inside which will eventually mean I get my library! I am still learning Greek with Duolingo and I have also started some courses with the Centre of Excellence.
Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron
We recently visited the Museum of Iron and it was really interesting and fascinating to see all the things people had made out of iron. There is a lot of reading to do there and I found it hard to take it all in so I hope to go back soon and read the rest and also see the things which were outside as we missed the outside things due to the weather.
Coughton Court
Coughton Court is one of our favourites and we went to visit when we actually had a nice day. Coughton Court are also having a lot of work done so half of the house is currently covered in scaffolding. It was really interesting to see how they are storing the paintings and keeping the house safe during all the work that is going on.
Attingham Park
Today we took a break from all the roofing work and spent a few hours at Attingham Park. It was so nice to go for a walk around the grounds and go around the house. We learned all about how they clean the valuable carpets. It was a shame to not be able to see the Drawing Room properly but it was interesting to see what work they were doing. Sadly, yet again we weren’t allowed upstairs even though on the website it said upstairs was open. It seems every time we go the upstairs is closed due to lack of volunteers! Of course I also paid a visit to the second hand bookshop.
Croome Court
Over half term I met up with my friend and we had a lovely few hours at Croome Court. Croome Court doesn’t have much furniture in it but it is still fascinating and has beautiful grounds to walk around. We were blessed with another day of good weather.
We have also spent quite a bit of time working in the garden and managed to fill a skip in one day with all the stuff we removed.
My chosen quote today is by the American clergyman and author best known for popularising the concept of positive thinking, Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993).
“What the mind can conceive and believe, and the heart desire, you can achieve.”
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 have managed quite a bit of reading this week and this is basically because we have a lot of work going on on the house which involves a lot of early mornings. Hopefully, I might start to catch up on my reading challenges.
What I am Currently Reading
I just started the Alison Weir today and so far I am really enjoying it but I’ve never found a book by Alison Weir that I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed. Still plodding along with my nightly reading of Lord of Chaos.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I really enjoyed this book and will definitely read more by Parrish. Review will follow soon.
What I Think I will Read Next
I’m doing really well with my planned reading for June so far so I am really hoping it will continue.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
For years, rumours of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her.
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life’s lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens.
Review
I have owned this book for a very long time but kept putting off reading it because I never seem to get on with books that are really hyped up. However, my sister in law recently read it on holiday and told me I must read it. I’m glad I listened because finally I have found a hyped up book that I enjoyed!
I flew through this book and it definitely helped me get out of the reading rut I have been in recently. I loved Owens’ writing style and the detail she put in about the marsh. I always think of marshes or swamps as damp smelly places but Owens made the marsh sound positively beautiful and a place of great tranquility. I also loved the descriptions of the animals in the marsh.
Kya has not had an easy life but her love of the marsh and the wildlife that lives within it makes her life bearable and she finds purpose and joy from it. Most people in her circumstances would have either left or gone mad but instead Kya flourishes in her own way. She learns from the marsh, she studies it and loves to learn new things and the marsh looks after her. When Kya is scared the marsh hides and protects her, when she is upset it comforts her. The marsh is her guardian and greatest friend.
However, Kya does have friends looking out for her and Jumpin’ and his wife Mable are definitely some of my favourite characters in this book. Jumpin’ and Mable help Kya when she is most in need and show her love and friendship when nobody else would. They don’t judge, all they do is love.
This book has so many good things going for it; a murder mystery, a loveable main character, atmosphere, drama, coming of age, romance and even poetry. I absolutely loved this book and will happily read it again in the future. I give this book 5 out of 5 Dragons.
Delia Owens is the co-author of three internationally bestselling nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist in Africa—Cry of the Kalahari, The Eye of the Elephant, and Secrets of the Savanna. She has won the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing and has been published in Nature, The African Journal of Ecology, and International Wildlife, among many others. She currently lives in Idaho, where she continues her support for the people and wildlife of Zambia. Where the Crawdads Sing is her first novel.
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 had rather a stressful start to the week but I’m hoping it will be calmer now. I did manage quite a bit of reading today which was nice.
My chosen book to feature this week is one that I really hope to read soon as it has such good reviews and has been on my radar for quite a while. I picked up a copy a few weeks ago so I’m hoping that means I will read it rather than add it to the never ending TBR.
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
I am really not happy with the lack of sunshine we have been having and I long for some proper Summer weather. Due to this I have chosen a poem named Summer.
This poem is by John Clare (1793-1864) who was an English poet who celebrated the English countryside in his poetry.
Summer
Come we to the summer, to the summer we will come, For the woods are full of bluebells and the hedges full of bloom. And the crow is on the oak a -building of her nest, And love is burning diamonds in my true lover's breast; She sits beneath the whitethorn a-plaiting of her hair, And I will to my true lover with a fond request repair; I will look upon her face, I will in her beauty rest, And lay my aching weariness upon her lovely breast.
The clock-a-clay is creeping on the open bloom of May, The merry bee is trampling the pinky threads all day, And the chaffinch it is brooding on its grey mossy nest In the whitethorn bush where I will lean upon my lover's breast; I'll lean upon her breast and I'll whisper in her ear That I cannot get a wink o'sleep for thinking of my dear; I hunger at my meat and I daily fade away Like the hedge rose that is broken in the heat of the day.
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 has had a good day today. I have been at school all day but I have managed to read a page of my book every 20 minutes when my students change over. I read this page whilst marching on the spot to get my step count up, this got me a very strange look from the head when she walked in to collect something from the room.
What I am Currently Reading
I am thoroughly enjoying The Hedgerow! Parrish’s writing style just reminds me of Dorothy Whipple and I love it. Lord of Chaos is still plodding along but the story is getting slower and slower.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I could not put this book down and pretty much devoured it over the weekend. Review will be appearing this week.
What I Think I will Read Next
I’m doing quite well with my reading so far this month and I really hope it continues as I am so behind with my challenges. Hopefully, one of these books will be my next read.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
Lady Book Dragon 