Friday Poetry: Tony Hoagland

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has some fun plans for the weekend. I’m hoping to get some jobs done and get some reading in.

My chosen poem this week is by American poet Anthony Dey Hoagland (1953-20218).

The Word

Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,

between "green thread"
and "broccoli," you find
that you have penciled "sunlight."

Resting on the page, the word
is a beautiful. It touches you
as if you had a friend

and sunlight were a present
he had sent you from someplace distant
as this morning - to cheer you up,

and to remind you that,
among your duties, pleasure
is a thing

that also needs accomplishing
Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds

of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder

or a safe spare tire?
Tomorrow you may be utterly
without a clue,

but today you get a telegram
from the heart in exile,
proclaiming that the kingdom

still exists,
the king and queen alive,
still speaking to their children,

-to any one among them
who can find the time,
to sit out in the sun and listen.

Tony Hoagland

Happy Reading

Etsy

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

Little One by Fiona Holloway (Review)

Little One by Fiona Holloway

Blurb

Seven years ago, Isabel Warren’s life unraveled in a single afternoon. Now she’s back reliving the same nightmare again… 

She left the past behind, changed her name, and started over in a quiet town with her husband and their young son, Noah. But when he vanishes from their backyard without a trace, Isabel is forced to confront a terrifying some shadows never stay buried.

As suspicion tightens around her once again and whispers of her past grow louder, Isabel knows this is no random disappearance. Someone out there knows who she is. Someone has been watching. Waiting.

Now, to save her child, Isabel must unravel a mystery that began long before Noah was born and before the world decided who she was.

Haunting and propulsive, Little One is a chilling psychological thriller about buried secrets, fractured identity, and the impossible choices that define a mother’s love.

Review

I discovered this book from an advert on Facebook and when I saw it was only 99p on Kindle I decided to buy it for a holiday read. 

I really wanted to like this book and was excited by what I read in the blurb but the amount of errors in this book was off the scale. I have never read a book with so many errors in. The storyline was so promising and even though I could see what was happening with the plot I really got into it but then the errors began. 

The first half of the book was excellent but once the half way mark was passed the story became rushed and full of errors. It was almost like another had taken over and hadn’t reviewed what had been written before. 

One of the mistakes was that the children started off as 3 and 5 years of age and then later in the book they became twins. Another error was that Isabel described how she met her husband in two entirely different ways. She also described how long Isabel had known Claire in two different time lengths. There were other errors as well. 

I honestly don’t think the author had read her work back after reaching the end of writing and don’t think anyone looked over it for her before going to publish. This book had such promise but was severely let down by the errors and the errors really detracted from the story. I give this book 2 out of 5 Dragons. 

🐲🐲

About the author

Fiona Holloway has written one standalone novel so far. This novel is called Little One and it was released in 2025. 

Etsy

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

WWW Wednesday: 24/9/2025

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 have been having a massive book purge recently and now have quite a few books to box up to send to World of Books. I’m trying to be really strict with myself as we really need more room in the house.

What I am Currently Reading

I am thoroughly enjoying this book so far and I love how it is written. It has made a very welcome change after finishing Villette.

What I have Recently Finished Reading

I was so happy to finish this book as it took way longer than it should have to read.

What I Think I will Read Next

I’m really not sure what I will read next. I feel like I want to read more classics at the moment but I’m not sure.

Happy Reading

Etsy

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

Villette by Charlotte Bronte (Review)

Villette by Charlotte Bronte

Bookshop.org | Harper Collins | TG Jones | Waterstones

Blurb

Left by harrowing circumstances to fend for herself in the great capital of a foreign country, Lucy Snowe, the narrator and heroine of Villette, achieves by degrees an authentic independence from both outer necessity and inward grief. Charlotte Brontë’s last novel, published in 1853, has a dramatic force comparable to that of her other masterpiece, Jane Eyre, as well as strikingly modern psychological insight and a revolutionary understanding of human loneliness. 

Review

I tried to read Villette a few years ago and gave up just before I got to the half way point. I had clearly forgotten why I had given up and decided to try and finish the book this time. Thankfully I did manage to finish it this time but it seemed a very hard slog. I also really struggled with all the French in the book and found it broke up the dialogue when it kept switching between French and English. 

I love Jane Eyre and have read it many times but I just did not gel with Lucy Snowe in this book. She’s writing her story for the reader to read and so many times I was almost screaming at the book to get to the point. I understand that Lucy had a difficult childhood and had to fend for herself as an adolescent but she seemed to make some very random and risky decisions. I still can’t understand how she made the decision to spend most of her money and go to Villette when she had no friends there or even contacts there and didn’t even know the language. I never had a problem liking Jane as a character but I just could not bring myself to like Lucy. 

Lucy gets walked all over by the people around her. Even her own godmother drops her when someone more interesting arrives and then remembers her again after weeks and weeks of no contact. She gets put upon by her employer and she just takes it. However, the most frustrating part is that she lets a certain professor treat her like absolute dirt. He criticises her dress when she dares to wear a pink dress, he criticises her lack of intellect, her religion, in fact he pretty much criticises everything and then she spends the last few hundred pages of the novel crying about him when she is told he will be disappearing on a voyage. 

Villette is Charlotte Bronte’s last work and I will be honest it surprised me. I really expected a stronger main character with an overall maturity to the storyline but I just found it lacked the finesse that Jane Eyre had and also Jane Eyre was a much stronger character who didn’t take everything lying down. I found this book such a hard slog to read but I am glad I managed to read it. I give this book 3 out of 5 Dragons. 

🐲🐲🐲

About the author

Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) was an English novelist and poet, and was the elder sister of Emily, Anne and Branwell Bronte.

Etsy

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

Goodreads Monday: 22/9/2025

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 a super busy day yesterday and with teaching today I am super tired and looking forward to an early night.

I bought this book when I was last in Bath and I am quite excited to read it but I will be honest the size of the book is rather daunting.

Great Eastern Hotel by Ruchir Joshi

A rich, teeming, involving epic of war, famine, love and culture-clash in imperial Calcutta during World War Two Joshi is The brand new experience after a megashow, Russian in size, Indian in soul’ (India Today)This is the second novel from Ruchir Joshi, author of The Last Jet-Engine Laugh which many stubbornly continue to believe is a twisted, flawed masterpiece of a debut novel. In India that book was greeted as the most significant Indian debut since Rushdie’s Midnights Children.Joshi is the real thing, and here to stay and thrive as a writer. This new book is a brilliant prospect, promising a rich, teeming, involving tale with an unusual, fascinating setting the fading imperial city of Calcutta in the 1940s, with world war, famine, culture-clash, colonial retreat, exile, rebellion, idealism and religious strife all in the mix.It will be less formally daring than his first (i.e. less jump-cutting time-wise), which, commercially speaking, is probably good news. And it will have all the epic sweep, resilience of the human spirit and war-torn romance that make for blockbuster success!

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 have had a fab weekend of reading which has been lovely.

Blog Posts

Currently Reading

I am absolutely flying through this book and I love the way it is written.

Happy Reading

Etsy

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

Stacking the Shelves: 20/9/2025

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. I have had one new book this week which was another preorder from Waterstones.

This is a new author for me but the story and format it is written in intrigued me so I preordered it.

I’m really excited to get reading Hekate by Nikita Gill.

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: Harriet Beecher Stowe

Happy Friday!

My chosen poem this week is by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896). Stowe was an American author and abolitionist who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Think Not All Is Over

Think not, when the wailing winds of autumn
Drive the shivering leaflets from the tree, -
Think not all is over: spring returneth,
Buds and leaves and blossoms thou shalt see.

Think not, when the earth lies cold and sealed,
And the weary birds above her mourn,-
Think not all is over: God still liveth,
Songs and sunshine shall again return.

Think not, when thy heart is waste and dreary,
When thy cherished hopes lie chill and sere,-
Think not all is over: God still loveth,
He will wipe away thy every tear.

Weeping for a night alone endureth,
God at last shall bring a morning hour;
In the frozen buds of every winter
Sleep the blossoms of a future flower.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

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: Mother Teresa

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I had a few students cancel today so I throughly enjoyed some extra reading time today.

My chosen quote today is by the Roman Catholic Nun and missionary Mother Teresa (1910-1997) also known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”

Mother Teresa

Happy Reading

Etsy

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