The Immortal City by Amy Kuivalainen

Happy Weekend Everyone!

This post is a little bit of a throw back.

Today my preordered book of The Immortal City by Amy Kuivalainen arrived and I must admit I am very excited. My regular readers will know that I had the privilege of reading this book and reviewing it on NetGalley a few months back and I loved the book so much I immediately preordered it. This at the moment is one of the best books I have read in 2019 and I can not wait for the next one in the series.

I know it sounds weird but I am planning on reading this book again very soon because when I read it a few months ago I could not put it down and flew through it and now I want to read it again and savour it a bit more. Is this just something that I do or do other people do the same?

Anyway if you love fantasy, murder mysteries and romance this is definitely the book for you. I cannot recommend this book enough. If you want to check out my review please click the link.

Purchase links

Book Depository

Waterstones

Happy Reading

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ABC Book Challenge: H

Time for another instalment of the ABC Book Challenge.

I hope everyone has had a good start to the week so far.

 

Books I have loved beginning with H

 

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Harlequin by Bernard Cornwell

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

Helen of Troy by Margaret George

Heretic by Bernard Cornwell

Heroes and Villains by Angela Carter

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

Holes by Louis Sachar

Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead

Howard’s End by E. M. Forster

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

 

Books on my TBR list beginning with H

 

Hades’ Daughter by Charlotte Carol

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Rather surprisingly I only have one book on my TBR list beginning with H!

I would love to hear your thoughts on some of these books. Please feel free to drop me comment. Also if you are taking part in the ABC Book Challenge please drop me your link in the comments and I will head over and check it out. 

 

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WWW Wednesday 4/09/2019

WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.

The rules are answer the questions below and a 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?

 

What I am currently reading:-

Classics: A Very Short Introduction by Mary Beard and John Henderson

Started this a couple of days ago and really enjoying it. This is preparatory reading for my course in October.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Started this last night, so far so good.

 

What I recently finished reading:-

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Just recently finished this and must admit I have never been so pleased to finish a book before.

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Really enjoyed this and was good to read after seeing it live a couple of years ago.

 

What I plan on reading next:-

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Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Been on the reading list for way too long and is one of my summer reading challenge books.

 

Please drop me a link if you are also taking part in the WWW Wednesday.

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Mid Week Quote: P. G. Wodehouse

Happy Wednesday Everyone.

This weeks chosen quote is by an author I really want to read but at the moment his work is on my TBR list however my husband is currently working through his Jeeves and Wooster books.

This quote I completely agree with.

“There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.”

P. G. Wodehouse

 

Happy Reading

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New Books: 27/08/2019

Hello Everyone.

I have been busy trying to complete my Diet and Nutrition Diploma and this has also involved getting a few more books. So my new books are course related but some fun ones as well.

Course books

Fed Up with Asthma by Sue Dengate

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By the author of the bestselling books Different Kids, Fed Up and The Failsafe Cookbook, Fed Up with Asthma tackles one of the most dangerous and insidious health issues to be associated with the Western lifestyle: asthma. Sue Dengate examines the scientific research to show links between a whole range of synthetic and natural food chemicals such as sulphites, MSG and salicylates and the steadily increasing numbers of children and adults diagnosed with asthma; and also shows how to avoid them using the failsafe diet. If you are interested in good health and being free of asthma, you can’t afford not to read this book.

 

The Inflammation Syndrome by Jack Challem

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Completely revised and updated-Jack Challem’s powerful plan to safely prevent and overcome inflammatory disorders

Inflammation is what happens when our body’s own defenses turn on us-and it is a huge and growing problem. Written by the author of the groundbreaking Syndrome X, this essential updated edition of The Inflammation Syndrome draws on cutting-edge research conducted around the world to provide a revolutionary approach to healing inflammation-related problems through an easy-to-follow nutrition and supplement program.

Includes new recommendations for individualized diet and supplement plans
Presents fourteen steps for restoring dietary balance, plus recipes and menu plans
Reveals the powerful role inflammation plays in a wide variety of common health conditions-from simple aches and pains to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, and athletic injuries
Features dramatic case histories and the latest information on dosage recommendations for anti-inflammation supplements such as fish oils, vitamins, and herbs
Other books by Jack Challem: Syndrome X, The Food-Mood Solution, Feed Your Genes Right, and Stop Prediabetes Now

Read The Inflammation Syndrome and learn just how easy it can be to take charge of your diet and health.

 

Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom by Dr Christine Northrup

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‘Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom’ demonstrates that when women change the basic conditions of their lives that lead to health problems, they heal faster, more completely, and with far fewer medical interventions. This book offers up-to-date information on every aspect of women’s health.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun books

Tidelands by Philippa Gregory

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THE BRAND NEW SERIES FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR

England 1648. A dangerous time for a woman to be different . . .

Midsummer’s Eve, 1648, and England is in the grip of a civil war between renegade King and rebellious Parliament. The struggle reaches every corner of the kingdom, even to the remote Tidelands – the marshy landscape of the south coast.

Alinor, a descendant of wise women, crushed by poverty and superstition, waits in the graveyard under the full moon for a ghost who will declare her free from her abusive husband. Instead, she meets James, a young man on the run, and shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marsh, not knowing that she is leading disaster into the heart of her life.

Suspected of possessing dark secrets in superstitious times, Alinor’s ambition and determination mark her out from her neighbors. This is the time of witch-mania, and Alinor, a woman without a husband, skilled with herbs, suddenly enriched, arouses envy in her rivals and fear among the villagers, who are ready to take lethal action into their own hands.

 

The Last by Hanna Jameson

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For fans of high-concept thrillers such as Annihilation and The Girl with All the Gifts, this breathtaking dystopian psychological thriller follows an American academic stranded at a Swiss hotel as the world descends into nuclear war—along with twenty other survivors—who becomes obsessed with identifying a murderer in their midst after the body of a young girl is discovered in one of the hotel’s water tanks.

Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife’s text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he’s waiting in the lobby of the L’Hotel Sixieme in Switzerland after an academic conference, still mulling over how to respond to his wife, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC has been hit with a nuclear bomb, then New York, then London, and finally Berlin. That’s all he knows before news outlets and social media goes black—and before the clouds on the horizon turn orange.

Now, two months later, there are twenty survivors holed up at the hotel, a place already tainted by its strange history of suicides and murders. Those who can’t bear to stay commit suicide or wander off into the woods. Jon and the others try to maintain some semblance of civilization. But when the water pressure disappears, and Jon and a crew of survivors investigate the hotel’s water tanks, they are shocked to discover the body of a young girl.

As supplies dwindle and tensions rise, Jon becomes obsessed with investigating the death of the little girl as a way to cling to his own humanity. Yet the real question remains: can he afford to lose his mind in this hotel, or should he take his chances in the outside world?

 

Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise by Katherine Rundell

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As you can see, lots of lovely new books. I’m hoping that my course books, will prove useful in helping my asthma, as well as writing essays. Tidelands by Philippa Gregory has been preordered for so long that I had forgotten I had ordered it, so it was a wonderful surprise when a signed copy arrived in the post. 

Please drop me a comment if you have read any of these books, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Happy Reading

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Friday Poetry: John Bunyan

Hello my fellow readers.

I hope you all have exciting bank holiday plans this weekend.

My chosen poem this week is also one of my all time favourite hymns because I just love the words, especially “Hobgoblin, nor foul fiend.”

John Bunyan was a Puritan preacher and writer best known for The Pilgrim’s Progress. Bunyan also spent three years fighting for the Parliamentarian army.

 

Who Would True Valour See

 

Who would true Valour see 

Let him come hither;

One here will Constant be,

Come Wind, come Weather.

There’s no Discouragement,

Shall make him once Relent,

His first avow’d Intent,

To be a Pilgrim.

 

Who so beset him round,

With dismal Stories,

Do but themselves Confound;

His Strength the more is.

No Lyon can him fright,

He’l with a Gyant Fight,

But he will have a right,

To be a Pilgrim.

 

Hobgoblin, nor foul Fiend,

Can daunt his Spirit:

He knows, he at the end,

Shall Life Inherit.

Then Fancies fly away,

He’ll fear not what men say,

He’ll labour Night and Day,

To be a Pilgrim.

 

John Bunyan

 

Happy Weekend.

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Goodreads Summer Reading Challenge: Update 2

Another update and as you will see still not much progress made. However, over the last few weeks I have been busy writing my first assignment for my Diet and Nutrition Level 3 Diploma and this evening I am pleased to report that I have passed! Now to complete the second and final assignment. Fingers crossed it goes well.

I am still reading The Goldfinch and I am enjoying it but I do find it very long winded at times and frustrating, I am looking forward to seeing how it ends.

So here is the list, the crossed out books are also links to take you to the reviews.

 

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

The Book is Better:- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

On the bandwagon:- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Attwood

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

Actually want to read:- Jaws by Peter Benchley

Not from around here:- Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

In a friend zone:- The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

Wheel of format:- Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Past love:- Matilda by Roald Dahl

Armchair Traveler:- A Room with a View by E. M. Forster

 

I hope everyone who is also doing challenges is getting on better than myself.

Happy Reading.

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ABC Book Challenge: G

This post should have been last week but I was sadly behind posting, thankfully I have all caught up now.

So here is the next letter in the ABC Book Challenge, if you would like to see my previous posts please click on the links below:

A | B | C | D |E | F |

 

Books I have loved beginning with G

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Gin O’clock by The Queen [of Twitter]

The Gods Trilogy by Terry Pratchett

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott

Gooseberries by Anton Chekov

The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

 

Books on my TBR list beginning with G

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracey Chevalier

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

 

If anybody has read any of these books please drop me a comment with your thoughts.

Happy Reading.

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Friday Poetry: Robert Graves

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has a good weekend planned.

I am sticking with my fairy theme this week and have gone for another fairy related poem.

This poem is by Robert Graves (1895-1985) who was an English novelist and poet. He is perhaps most famous for his fictional autobiography of the Roman Emperor Claudius, I, Claudius. 

 

I’d Love to Be a Fairy’s Child

Children born of fairy stock

Never need for shirt or frock,

Never want for food or fire,

Always get their heart’s desire:

Jingle pockets full of gold,

Marry when they’re seven years old,

Every fairy child may keep

Two strong ponies and ten sheep;

All have houses, each his own,

Built of brick or granite stone;

They live on cherries, they run wild – 

I’d love to be a fairy’s child.

 

Robert Graves

 

Happy Reading

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ABC Book Challenge: F

It is time for another instalment of the ABC Book Challenge and this letter is F.

If you would like to see the previous letters please click on the links below:

A | B | C | D | E |

 

Books I have loved beginning with F

 

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander, J. K. Rowling

The Far Side of the World by Patrick O’Brien

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

Felix the Railway Cat by Kate Moore

The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett

Fireside Gothic by Andrew Taylor

The First Christmas and Other Bible Stories From the New Testament by Enid Blyton

Five at the Office Christmas Party by Bruno Vincent

Five Escape Brexit Island by Bruno Vincent

Five Forget Mother’s Day by Bruno Vincent

Five Give Up the Booze by Bruno Vincent

Five Go Adventuring Again by Enid Blyton

Five Go Off in a Caravan by Enid Blyton

Five Go to Smuggler’s Top by Enid Blyton

Five Lose Dad in the Garden Centre by Bruno Vincent

Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton

Five on Brexit Island by Bruno Vincent

Five on Kirrin Island Again by Enid Blyton

Five Run Away Together by Enid Blyton

Flying Ace: Jack Fairfax, Royal Flying Corps, 1915-1918 by Jim Eldridge

The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith

Books on my TBR list beginning with F

 

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry, Tobias Iaconis

 

So that is another letter complete. I hope everyone has had a good weekend.

There are certain books that have review links attached, just click the book title.

Please drop me a comment if you have read any of the books above and want to chat.

Happy reading.

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p.s. I have a massive Famous Five addiction.