Friday Poetry: Edith Nesbit

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has some good plans for the weekend.

My chosen poem for the week is by Edith Nesbit (1858-1924).

Gratitude

I found a starving cat in the street:
It cried for food and a place by the fire.
I carried it home, and I strove to meet
The claims of its desire.

And since its desire was a little fish,
A little hay and a little milk,
I gave it cream in a silver dish
And a basket lined with silk.

And when we came to the grateful pause
When it should have fawned on the hand that fed,
It turned to a devil all teeth and claws,
Scratched me and bit me and fled.

To pay for the fish and the milk and the hay
With a purr had been an easy task:
But its hate and my blood were required to pay
For the gifts that it did not ask. 

Edith Nesbit

Happy Reading

Etsy

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April 2024 Wrap Up

Hello!

My reading was absolutely shocking in April and I’m not entirely sure why. What I do know is that I fully intend on doing better in May.

Statistics

Books

Pages: 536

Format Read: Paperback

Review

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

Old Book

Pages: 496

Format Read: Paperback

Review to follow

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲

New Book

That is one more book off the TBR and one book from the new ones I bought this year.

Goodreads Challenge: 12/50

Old Books: 1

New Books: 1

24 Books in 2024: 5/24

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Mid Week Quote: Alan Alda

Hello!

My chosen quote today is by the American actor, author, screenwriter, podcast host and director Alan Alda (1936).

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”

Alan Alda

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

WWW Wednesday: 1/5/2024

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.

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 am desperately trying to up my reading at the moment as I am really missing it but I keep getting bad headaches which I suspect means I need new glasses. Hopefully I can get to the opticians soon to get it sorted.

What I am Currently Reading

I’m getting closer to the ending of The Fires of Heaven and really enjoying it, I have been finding it a bit of slog but now it is finally picking up. A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women is proving to be a very interesting read.

What I have Recently Finished Reading

I really enjoyed this and my review will be following shortly.

What I Think I will Read Next

I have so many books that I want to read at the moment but here are probably the top contenders.

Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Goodreads Monday: 29/4/2024

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 so far. My day has been jam packed with very little reading time but I have managed a chapter of The Fires of Heaven. I really want to make a push with my Wheel of Time series challenge as I feel like I am falling behind and in danger of neglecting it.

My chosen book to feature this week is another relatively recent purchase but one I hope to read soon. I might even have it as a holiday read.

When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface he is forced to confront a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the physical likeness of a long-dead lover. Others suffer from the same affliction and speculation rises among scientists that the Solaris ocean may be a massive brain that creates incarnate memories, but its purpose in doing so remains a mystery . . .

Solaris raises a question that has been at the heart of human experience and literature for centuries: can we truly understand the universe around us without first understanding what lies within?

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

The Weekly Brief

Hello!

I hope everyone has had a good weekend. I managed to finish a book this weekend and have made good progress with The Fires of Heaven.

Blog Posts

Currently Reading

I have only read a couple of chapters of A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women but so far I am loving it.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: Radclyffe Hall

Happy Friday!

I hope you all have some good books planned for the weekend.

My chosen poem for today is by the English poet and author Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall (1880-19430). Hall is best known for her novel The Well of Loneliness.

On the Hill-Side

A Memory

You lay so still in the sunshine,
So still in that hot sweet hour -
That the timid things of the forest land
Came close; a butterfly lit on your head, 
Mistaking it for a flower. 

You scarecly breathed in your slumber,
So dreamless it was, so deep -
While the warm air stirred in my veins like wine,
The air that had blown through a jasmine vine,
But you slept-and I let you sleep. 

Radclyffe Hall

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

24 Books in 2024 – Update

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I meant to do this post at the beginning of the month but I completely forgot.

I have been really trying to read the books on my list of 24 Books in 2024 with the aim of reducing my TBR list. Here is the post with the original list.

I have so far managed to read a total of 5 books off the list which is behind on where I would like to be but I am hoping to catch up. Reading hasn’t been going very well this year but I live in hope it will improve!

Books I have read

Just 19 books to go!

How are your book challenges going so far this year?

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Mid Week Quote: Louisa May Alcott

Hello!

I hope everyone has had a good week so far. I have had a lovely day where I have been for a glorious walk in the woods in the sunshine and I have managed a good amount of reading for a change.

My chosen quote this week is by one of my favourite authors Louisa May Alcott.

“I ask not for any crown
But that which all may win;
Nor try to conquer any world
Except the one within.”

Louisa May Alcott

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Goodreads Monday: 22/4/2024

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 Everyone!

I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. My day has been jam packed with teaching so not much reading has happened but I’m hoping to get more in tomorrow.

My chosen book to feature this week is another one that I have recently added to my Goodreads TBR. I am really enjoying reading George R. R. Martin’s books outside of The Song of Ice and Fire series, especially his science fiction.

From the multiple award-winning, best-selling author of The Song of Ice and Fire Haviland Tuf is an honest space-trader who likes cats. So how is it that, in competition with the worst villains the universe has to offer, he’s become the proud owner of the last seedship of Earth’s legendary Ecological Engineering Corps? Never mind, just be thankful that the most powerful weapon in human space is in good hands-hands which now control cellular material for thousands of outlandish creatures. With his unique equipment, Tuf is set to tackle the problems human settlers have created in colonizing far-flung hosts of hostile monsters, a population hooked on procreation, a dictator who unleashes plagues to get his own way… and in every case the only thing that stands between the colonists and disaster is Tuf’s ingenuity-and his reputation as an honest dealer in a universe of rogues… Tuf Voyaging interior illustrations by Janet Aulisio. Included will be her original eight illustrations, along with 28 newly commissioned ones.

Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you