Tag: Blog

WWW Wednesday: 2/12/2020

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?

Another Wednesday has arrived and I am definitely in the Christmas reading mode. So here is how my reading is going.

What I am Currently Reading

I’m loving my little poem book. Christmas at Woolworths is rather confusing at the moment because Everest’s writing style is rather all over the place and its all rather hectic trying to work out who said what.

What I have Recently Finished Reading

Loved both of these books and I was really pleased to discover a new author, Sarah Morgan who I will definitely be reading more of. Here are the reviews A Perfect Cornish Christmas and A Wedding in December.

What I think I will Read Next

It will be one of these as it is all Christmas books in December and I have loads of them to read. I just need to make sure I don’t buy anymore!

So there is my WWW Wednesday, please drop me a comment if you want a chat and of course please drop your link to your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.

Happy Reading!

November 2020 Wrap Up

Wow, how did the end of November arrive? I am getting so excited about Christmas and my Christmas books are really helping me get into the festive spirit. Today I am sending my husband in to the loft to get the decorations down.

November has been a really good reading month and I appear to be catching up on my Goodreads reading challenge.

So here are the bookish stats!

I will be honest I don’t think the page number chart is quite correct because Story Graph didn’t have the correct editions for a few of the books I read, but they are close enough.

Books I Read in November (click the picture for the review)

Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime by Oscar Wilde

Pages: 50 pages

Format Read: Paperback

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲

Rossetti Poems by Christina Rossetti

Pages: 256

Format Read: Hardback

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

Mythos by Stephen Fry

Pages: 416

Format Read: Hardback

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

The Ickabog by J. K. Rowling

Pages: 304

Format Read: Hardback

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

A Midwinter Promise by Lulu Taylor

Pages: 546

Format Read: Paperback

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲

Sonnets by William Shakespeare

Pages: 160

Format Read: Paperback

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲

A Perfect Cornish Christmas by Phillipa Ashley

Pages: 400

Format Read: Paperback

Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

So that is my November wrap up. Please drop me a comment if you have read any of these books.

Happy Reading!

The Weekly Brief

Happy Sunday!

I hope everyone has had a good weekend so far. I must admit I am thoroughly enjoying my Christmas reading list so far and it is a welcome relief from the ancient death rituals I am currently studying for my course. I will be honest it isn’t the cheeriest of subjects to be studying on the run up to Christmas.

Anyway, here is what I have been up to in the world of blogging…

Posts this Week

Books I am Currently Reading

Books Acquired this Week

I really must stop buying Christmas books!

Happy Reading!

First Lines Friday: 27/11/2020

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

Well it is Friday and I am about to start a new book so I thought I would take part in First Lines Friday.

So you know the rules and as usual the answer will be below the cats.

When her phone rang at three in the morning, ripping her from a desperately needed sleep, Maggie’s first thought was bad news.

Her mind raced through the possibilities, starting with the worst-case scenario. Death, or at least life-changing injury. Police. Ambulance.

and the answer is …

Amazon | Book Depository | Foyles | Waterstones | Wordery

In the snowy perfection of Aspen, the White family gathers for youngest daughter Rosie’s whirlwind Christmas wedding.

First to arrive are the bride’s parents, Maggie and Nick. Their daughter’s marriage is a milestone they are determined to celebrate wholeheartedly, but they are hiding a huge secret about their own: they are on the brink of divorce. After living apart for the last six months, the last thing they need is to be trapped together in an irresistibly romantic winter wonderland.

Rosie’s older sister Katie is also dreading the wedding. Worried that impulsive, sweet-hearted Rosie is making a mistake, Katie is determined to save her sister from herself. If only the irritatingly good-looking best man, Jordan, would stop interfering with her plans…

Bride-to-be Rosie loves her fiance but is having serious second thoughts. Except everyone has arrived – how can she tell them she’s not sure? As the big day gets closer, and emotions run even higher, this is one White family Christmas none of them will ever forget. 

Did anybody guess correctly? Please drop me a comment with your thoughts if you have read the book. Also if you are taking part in First Lines Friday today please leave your link and I will head over for a guess.

Happy Reading

(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.)

Shakespeare Challenge Update

Hello!

I’m still working on my Shakespeare challenge and I think I will try to read a play before the end of the year maybe The Winter’s Tale for over Christmas. My most recent read has been the Shakespeare’s Sonnets. So here is my updated list. Click on the crossed off titles to be taken to the review.

Plays

  • All’s Well That Ends Well
  • Antony and Cleopatra
  • As You Like It
  • The Comedy of Errors
  • Coriolanus
  • Cymbeline
  • Hamlet
  • 1 Henry IV
  • 2 Henry IV
  • Henry V
  • 1 Henry VI
  • 2 Henry VI
  • 3 Henry VI
  • Henry VIII
  • Julius Caesar
  • King John
  • King Lear
  • Love’s Labour’s Lost
  • Macbeth
  • Measure for Measure
  • The Merchant of Venice
  • The Merry Wives of Windsor
  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream
  • Much Ado About Nothing
  • Othello
  • Pericles
  • Richard II
  • Richard III
  • Romeo and Juliet
  • The Taming of the Shrew
  • The Tempest
  • Timon of Athens
  • Titus Andronicus
  • Troilus and Cressida
  • Twelfth Night
  • The Two Gentlemen of Verona
  • The Winter’s Tale

Non Plays

I would love to hear if you have any reading challenges. Please drop a comment for a chat.

WWW Wednesday: 25/11/2020

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?

Happy Wednesday!

I have a surprisingly busy day teaching today and it is two of my students last lessons before their exams. I think I am more nervous than they are with all the extra Covid 19 precautions that have to be in place for exams and as I am not allowed to be there on the day I just hope I don’t forgot to tell them anything.

Anyway, here is what my week in books has looked like.

What I am Currently Reading

I am about a third of the way in and thoroughly enjoying it so far.

What I have Recently Finished Reading

Not what I was expecting to be honest. The review is here.

What I think I will Read Next

Yes, it is all Christmas reading now. The only problem is I keep finding more Christmas books I want to add to the list.

So there is my WWW Wednesday. Please drop me a link with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.

Sonnets by William Shakespeare (Review)

Sonnets by William Shakespeare 

Blurb

‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate . . .’ Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets contain some of the most exquisite and haunting poetry ever written, dealing with eternal themes such as love and infidelity, memory and mortality, and the destruction wreaked by time. This new edition collects them in a pocket-sized volume, perfect for gifting. William Shakespeare was born some time in late April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon and died in 1616. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist.

Review

I’ve read some of Shakespeare’s sonnets in the past as our Drama teacher used to make us memorise them and then recite them on stage but that was a long time ago. So being as I am trying to read all of Shakespeare’s works I decided to read his sonnets next.

This little book has been perfect to dip into when I have a few minutes free and I will be honest I have been reading it when waiting for my next student to appear on Zoom. 

I really enjoyed reading this little book and although the sonnets are mainly love sonnets there are also sonnets on the seasons and other things. Some are a bit similar in my opinion but they are still enjoyable to read and really show the talent of Shakespeare.

A highly recommended little edition that literally just gives you the sonnets and is perfect to just dip in and out of when the mood takes you. I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons and I will leave you with one of my favourites.

116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments; love is not love

Which alters when alteration finds, 

Or bands with the remover to remove.

O no, it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle’s compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor to man ever loved.

🐲🐲🐲🐲

Purchase Links

Amazon | Book Depository | Foyles | Waterstones | Wordery

(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

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely known as the greatest writer in the English language and is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”.

The Weekly Brief

Happy Sunday!

Another busy week in the blogging world. I have also set up an instagram account for the blog you can find it at theladybookdragon if you want to follow.

So here is what I have been up to in the blogging world.

Posts this Week

Books I am Currently Reading

Books Acquired this Week

Happy Reading!