Summer Reading Challenge: On the Bandwagon

Hello my fellow Book Dragons!

I am currently sat here listening to the rain, waiting for the BT engineer to come and fix our internet, as the BT engineer who was working in our road yesterday very kindly gave us somebody else’s phone line and we lost our lovely fibre broadband. Thankfully, I can use all my lovely phone data to blog with.

Summer is fast approaching and I still haven’t planned my reading list for the challenge. The challenge will start on the 21st June and finish on 23rd September 2019, also if by any chance I finish the beginner list early I will try and do some of the expert level reading prompts.

The chosen books so far:-

Good as Gold:- The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling

The Book is Better:- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Short and Sweet:- The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Just another 9 books to choose!

This prompt, On the Bandwagon, is to read one of the ‘most read’ books right now on Goodreads.

I have been having a look at the list and have chosen two likely targets that appeal to me.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now…

This has been on my TBR pile for a very long time and to honest is a very strong contender.

The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Tonight, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed… again.

It is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy. As fireworks explode overhead, Evelyn Hardcastle, the young and beautiful daughter of the house, is killed.

But Evelyn will not die just once. Until Aiden – one of the guests summoned to Blackheath for the party – can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself, over and over again. Every time ending with the fateful pistol shot.

The only way to break this cycle is to identify the killer. But each time the day begins again, Aiden wakes in the body of a different guest. And someone is determined to prevent him ever escaping Blackheath…

Another strong contender that has been on my TBR pile for way too long. This is going to be hard choice I feel.

To be honest looking at the list these are the only two that jump out at me, the others I have either read or just do not fancy reading. Hopefully only having two to choose from will make the choice easier. I am really starting to look forward to this challenge, I just hope I can stay on track and complete it.

Please let me know your thoughts on the two books and help me decide.

Happy reading.

Mid Week Quote: Edmund Hillary

Happy Wednesday!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far and if you are not I hope your week will start to get better.

My chosen quote this week is by the climber Edmund Hillary (1919-2008), who along with Tenzing Norgay became the first climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest. What made Hillary different from other climbers was that instead of focusing on the physical needs of the climb he focused on the mindset needed to achieve the summit.

“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”

Edmund Hillary

Toodles for now.

Star Trek Discovery: The Way to the Stars by Una McCormack (Review)

Star Trek Discovery: The Way to the Stars by Una McCormack

About the author

Una McCormack is the author of seven previous Star Trek novels and four Doctor Who novels. She has also written numerous short stories and audio dramas. She lives in Cambridge, England, with her partner of many years and their daughter.

Blurb

Despite being an inexperienced Starfleet cadet, Sylvia Tilly became essential to the U.S.S. Discovery finding its way back home from the Mirror Universe. But how did she find that courage? From where did she get that steel? Who nurtured that spark of brilliance.

It’s not easy being sixteen, especially when everyone expects the best from Tilly. It’s even harder when her mother and father are Federation luminaries pressing her to attend one the best schools that the Federation has to offer. Tilly desires to achieve great things-even though she hasn’t quite worked out how to do that or what it is she wants to do. But this year, everything will change for Tilly, as she is about to embark upon the adventure of a lifetime- an adventure that will take her ever closer to the stars…

Review

This is the fourth Star Trek Discovery book I have read and another that I loved. I love how the books tie in so brilliantly with the TV series and give you such excellent back stories. I have preordered the next one and I can not wait for it to arrive on my door mat!

I found this a wonderful little story of a young girl becoming a young woman and most importantly finding out her true self and worth. Poor Tilly has spent her life trying to please her mother, father, grandmother and Quinn her grandmother’s husband. She has always tried to be her best at everything but it has not always made her happy. It was fascinating to learn how Tilly entered Starfleet and where she got her bravery and confidence.

Tilly is adorable if rather awkward and at one point dam right rude and in need of a good shake and somebody teaching her some manners but somehow I always found myself forgiving her.

I really did not like Tilly’s mother in this book and was pleased she did not feature greatly in the book, the woman was every child’s worst nightmare. I am surprised Tilly did not turn out very differently with that much pressure in her life. Tilly’s dad is quite different but really should have stuck up for Tilly better and been there more for her.

The other element I really liked was seeing Michael Burnham in a totally different light, although she did not really feature in the book the part she was in was lovely and showed her to be an amazing friend to have in your corner.

This book read very much like a YA book but that did not effect my opinion of it or my enjoyment. If it was not for the reason I needed sleep to go to work in the morning I would have not put it down. The only reason I did not give the book a full 5 Dragons and only 4 was because the ending was a little bit too perfect for my liking. This is a fantastic read and I highly recommend it to any Star Trek fan.

To Purchase

Waterstones

Book Depository

Summer Reading Challenge: Short and Sweet

I have suddenly realised that my Summer Reading is fast approaching and I have not yet decided on all the books I will reading.

I still have not decided on The Book is Better but hopefully will have that decided this week.

This book prompt Short and Sweet: Read a book with less than 100 pages, I’m not entirely sure on as I could read any of my little Penguin black books in one session. However, I have decided to check out some other options as well to see what else might be about.

Moral allegory and spiritual autobiography, The Little Prince is the most translated book in the French language. With a timeless charm it tells the story of a little boy who leaves the safety of his own tiny planet to travel the universe, learning the vagaries of adult behaviour through a series of extraordinary encounters. His personal odyssey culminates in a voyage to Earth and further adventures.

First published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is regarded as Jack London’s masterpiece. Based on London’s experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness and his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, The Call of the Wild is a tale about unbreakable spirit and the fight for survival in the frozen Alaskan Klondike

A very young woman’s first job: governess for two weirdly beautiful, strangely distant, oddly silent children, Miles and Flora, at a forlorn estate…An estate haunted by a beckoning evil.

Half-seen figures who glare from dark towers and dusty windows- silent, foul phantoms who, day by day, night by night, come closer, ever closer. With growing horror, the helpless governess realizes the fiendish creatures want the children, seeking to corrupt their bodies, possess their minds, own their souls…

But worse-much worse- the governess discovers that Miles and Flora have no terror of the lurking evil.

For they want the walking dead as badly as the dead want them.

These are a few thoughts so far. I will have a good think and work out what I might like to read in one sitting. I’m starting the challenge on 21st June the first day of summer.

Any thoughts please drop me a comment.

Happy Reading!

The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins (Review)

The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

About the Author

Sara Collins studied Law at the London School of Economics and worked as a lawyer for seventeen years. In 2014 she embarked upon the Creative Writing Masters at Cambridge University, where she won the 2015 Michael Holroyd Prize for Recreative Writing and was shortlisted for the 2016 Lucy Cavendish Prize for a book inspired by her love of Gothic Fiction. This turned into her first novel, The Confessions of Frannie Langton.

Blurb

1826, and all of London is in a frenzy. Crowds gather at the gates of the Old Bailey to watch as Frannie Langton, maid to Mr and Mrs Benham, goes on trial for their murder. The testimonies against her are damning – slave, whore, seductress. And they may be the truth. But they are not the whole truth.

For the first time Frannie must tell her story. It begins with a girl learning to read on a plantation in Jamaica, and it ends in a grand house in London, where a beautiful woman waits to be freed.

But through her fevered confessions, one burning question haunts Frannie Langton: could she have murdered the only person she ever loved?

Review

I must admit I was really excited to get this book and read it after seeing it on Facebook with rave reviews. I was also really pleased to get a signed copy from Waterstones. So it was moved to the top of my TBR pile. Sadly, I was very disappointed.

I found this book really annoying, when I first started it I was happily reading away, however it then began to get on my nerves and I was reluctant to keep going. I even stopped reading it for about a week but did return because I wanted to know what happened at the end.

I’m not entirely sure what it was that got on my nerves so much but I think it was the writing style. It just made me reluctant to pick the book up and read it. I also did not like the fact that the blurb pointed that there would be more of a trial being featured and sadly there was hardly any of the trial in the story, it just felt like an afterthought added at the end.

This book includes many themes, slavery, drug abuse, abuse, depression and much more and I think overall there are too many themes covered and it makes the story murky. I also found that certain elements of the story were highly predictable and that made it rather dull to read at times.

Overall, I felt no sympathy for the characters especially Frannie and some of them really got on my nerves, mainly Madame. I felt no real love for the story and will not be reading it again. Most people I am sure will enjoy this book but sadly it was just not my cup of tea. I have given this book 2 out of 5 Dragons.

Purchase links

Waterstones

Book Depository

Mid Week Quote: Franz Kafka

We are half way through the week so that must mean it is quote time.

This weeks quote is by Franz Kafka. Kafka was a Czech author, most of his work was published after his death. Kafka instructed his friend Max Brod to burn all his work once he died, however Brod ignored these instructions and instead got Kafka’s work published.

“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”

Franz Kafka

(Letter to Oskar Pollak 1904)

Happy reading everyone.

Happy Birthday Thomas Hardy

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday dear Hardy!

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Yes, today is the day that Thomas Hardy was born in 1840. As I might have mentioned a few times already, I love the novels of Thomas Hardy and am beginning to love his poetry as well.

Hardy was an English novelist and poet. His work was influenced by Romanticism and focused heavily on the failings of Victorian society, especially on the struggle of people living in rural areas. Hardy wrote poetry all of his life but his first works of poetry were not published till 1898. He was first known as a novelist before his poetry took hold with the general public.

I have read a few of Hardy’s books and I intend to one day read them all. My current favourite is A Pair of Blue Eyes which I have read more than once. I love the fact that he was influenced by his own courtship of his wife Emma for this book.

Anyway that is my brief little homage to Thomas Hardy.

I would love to hear your thoughts on Thomas Hardy.

Happy Birthday Mr Hardy and thank you for your amazing legacy.

May 2019 Wrap Up

Well another month is over and a new one has begun, so I thought I had better reflect on May. In my reflection of May I realise just how little reading I did. No wonder I’ve felt stressed, if I don’t read enough I always get grumpy. June I must read more!

Firstly, I would like to say a big thank you for all the likes and comments in May and also a big hello to my new followers, I hope you will enjoy reading my blog.

There were good elements of May on the blog, for one thing we celebrated Star Wars Day and I have decided to tackle my first every reading challenge over the Summer, which I am very excited about.

Sadly, I only managed to read 5 rather short books over May. Here they are (if you click the picture it will take you to the review):-

Star Sullivan by Maeve Binchy

128 pages

3/5 Dragons

Under the Garden by Graham Greene

87 pages

3/5 Dragons

The Brontesaurus: An A-Z of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte (and Branwell) by John Sutherland

176 pages

5/5 Dragons

The Immortal City by Amy Kuivalainen

324 pages

5/5 Dragons

Too Many Coincidences by Jeffrey Archer

40 pages

1/5 Dragons

Total pages:- 755

Total pages this year so far: 7420

Rather disappointing I know but fingers crossed for a better month in June.

Poems Celebrated in May 2019

Desiderata by Max Ehrmann

Life by Charlotte Bronte

There Is No Frigate Like A Book by Emily Dickinson

Mary Celeste by Judith Nicholls

The Throstle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Quotes Celebrated in May 2019

So that is my month of May, hopefully June will be better on the reading front. I hope you all had a good May and have some exciting plans for June.

Please drop me a link to your May Wrap Ups I would love to read them.

Happy Reading.

Star Sullivan by Maeve Binchy (Review)

Star Sullivan by Maeve Binchy

About the author

Maeve Binchy was born on the 28th May 1939 in County Dublin and was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer and journalist. After a short spell as a teacher Binchy became a journalist with the Irish Times, for which she wrote feature articles and columns. Her first novel Light a Penny Candle, was published in 1982, and from then she has written more than a dozen novels and short stories. Several of her novels have been adapted for cinema and television. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award at the British Book Awards in 1999. She sadly passed away in 2012 at the age of 73.

Blurb

Molly Sullivan said that the new baby was a little star. She was no trouble at all and she was always smiling… so she became known as Star.

Star Sullivan just wanted everyone to be happy- her father to stop gambling, her mother not to work so hard, her brother to stay out of trouble, her sister to stop worrying about every little thing she ate. Then Laddy moved in next door – and everything began to change, until Star was no longer the sweet, thoughtful girl everyone loved and no one worried about…

Review

I’ve never read a book by Maeve Binchy and when I saw this in the book pile at church I thought I would give it a try as it was only a quick read of 106 pages. I must admit I read it in one sitting but shouldn’t have started it so late at night because I ended up going to bed at 1am. Not good when you have work in the morning.

I really enjoyed Binchy’s style of writing and I will definitely read more of her books. I liked how real life the story was and how well it all flowed. I also appreciated how Binchy fit a good story into such a short space without the story suffering.

Star, the main character of the book, in my opinion has been let down massively by her family. She is a beautifully kind soul who worries about everyone, she worries so much that she doesn’t notice or care about her own wellbeing. She is very naive and her parents and older siblings do not try to help, teach or really notice the poor girl. Everyone is wrapped up in their own lives and worries that they do not nice Star worrying about everyone else and not growing up herself.

The other element I do not understand in this book is why they turn on her? When I read the blurb I thought it was going to be a typical tale of good girl goes bad because of bad friends etc. However that is not the case, Star still remains her good natured self just trying to help her family and friends.

I also did not understand Laddy at all especially at the end when he turned on Star’s family. The whole thing was rather a mystery to me as was Kenny’s sudden turn of character.

Overall I enjoyed the book and was pleased with the ending, although I was a little confused in places, may be the confusion is just me though. I think Star was very let down by her family and friends but thankfully rose above all this and turned into a mature, hard working adult, who didn’t worry so much about others. I gave this story 3 out 5 Dragons and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a quick little read.

To purchase

Waterstones

Lady Book Dragon

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (Review)

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

About the author

Samantha Shannon studied English Language and Literature at St. Anne’s College, Oxford. She is the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of The Bone Season series. She currently lives in London.

Blurb

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction–but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

Review

I got very excited about this book and dragged my husband out to Waterstones to buy it for me (he is very good at feeding my book addiction) on the day it came out. I had the last copy in the store. Needless to say I went straight home and started reading it. However due to a heavy work load and falling asleep instead of reading it has taken longer than expected to finish.

I loved this book and at times I could not put it down. I loved the idea of good dragons and bad dragons and that the two dragons are very different from each other. The history and religion in this book are fantastic and very well thought out by Shannon, she gave a thorough background of both, where no holes were visible. I adored the world Shannon created and did not want to leave it.

Ead was such a strong powerful character who you couldn’t help but support and love. I did find Queen Sabran a little bit trying at times and to be honest that is when I had to put the book down for a while and also why the book got 4 dragons instead of 5 but I suppose all monarchs can be trying at times.

The other element I found enchanting was Tané and her relationship with her dragon. I was so worried for both of them and found myself tense with worry and anticipation. It reminded me of the love a human has with their dog or horse, as a dog or horse are fiercely loyal to their owner and will generally do anything to help and protect them. I could not get enough of dear Tané.

I desperately wanted to know more about the history of the trees and magic in this world and I really hope that Shannon does decide to do another book instead of keeping this book as a stand alone. I WANT TO KNOW MORE! Shannon in my opinion has been clever with the ending as she could easily do a sequel. I gave this book 4 out of 5 Dragons because I did love it and have recommended it to friends and family. The reason it didn’t get the full 5 Dragons was because of Queen Sabran and the fact in the middle I found it dragged slightly, but overall an amazing book.

Purchase

Waterstones

Lady Book Dragon.