I will be honest I am very disappointed with how little I managed to read in May. It felt like I had read a lot but obviously I was wrong. I am hoping June will be a much better month.
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 had a good start to the week. I was back at school today which was chaotic as most of my students had forgotten their books.
My chosen book to feature today is one that I have had on my Kindle for a couple of years but I am hoping to read it for my 20 Books of Summer challenge.
Lessons by Ian EcEwan
When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines’s life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother’s protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade.
Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life.
Haunted by lost opportunities, Roland seeks solace through every possible means—music, literature, friends, sex, politics, and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without causing damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past?
Epic, mesmerising, and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times—a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man’s lifetime.
I hope everyone has had a good weekend so far. I have had a lovely couple of days of reading. I always get loads of reading done when the Grand Prix is on.
I’ve got back into Under the Dome and so far I am enjoying it but finding it very different to the TV series. I have also started my reread of The Three Musketeers. This is one of my absolute favourite books and I am so excited to reread it. It is a different translation to the one I am used to though and I am finding it a bit different. My old copy completely fell apart and I sadly lost a few of the pages during a house move.
The Channel Islands have a vast treasure trove of ancient tales. Their rich legacy of interwoven folklore sparkles like an antique tapestry full of fairy creatures and mythical beasts. This book weaves a web of deliciously dark monster stories from centuries of fables and fragments. It contains fantastic adventures and fearsome fairy tales, forgotten treasure, tall tales, horror and high romance. Some monsters of the islands will seem familiar, there are Werewolves, and Mermaids, Changelings and Dragons. There are also monsters which are strange and unique to the Channel Islands; the Vioge, Les Cocagnes, the Belengi and L’Emanue and more. These ancient creatures wait to be rediscovered, in whispering woods or rushing waves, with their eyes still shining and their claws still sharp.
Review
Whenever I go on holiday I always try and find a book connected to the place I am visiting and whilst in Jersey I found this book and knew I had to buy it and read it as I love a good story based on local legends.
The book is made up of beautifully written short stories all to do with legends that are based on the Channel Islands. This means the book is excellent for dipping in and out of like I did or reading all the way through. Some characters are featured in more than one story but mostly the stories aren’t linked. Some of the mythological creatures are also featured in more than one story as well.
The thing I loved about this book apart from learning about all the legends was to see how the people on different islands feel about each other. For instance the Jersey residents and the Guernsey residents really don’t like each other and I saw hints of that whilst visiting Jersey. When they are all gathered around a table in a pub it makes for an interesting story.
The illustrations in this book are also excellent and really add to the book. Each monster is beautifully depicted with its own illustration and they are so detailed and vivid. Amelia Wilde is a very talented artist.
I really enjoyed this little book and loved tying it in with places I had explored on Jersey. It is clearly well researched and I highly recommend it to anyone who is planning a trip to the Jersey Islands. I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons.
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About the author
Erren Michaels has a BA (Hons) in Literature and ten years experience of marketing in the Arts. While working in theatre she wrote, and performed in, live sketch shows. When her first two THP books, Jersey Legends and Jersey Ghost Stories, were published she used those skills to perform shows and book talks for both publications. Ghe participated in the inaugural Jersey Festival of Words, did library talks, a number of radio interviews appeared on local TV news for a short reading. She has also worked extensively with Jersey Heritage, did charity events for (Gerald Durrell’s) Jersey Zoo. She has done multiple school talks and every year Legends is taught to Year 7s in Jersey’s largest secondary school. She has been delighted to see children, island-wide, engage with the subject matter.
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 have had a busy day of Etsy orders which has been nice. The 12 Month Book boxes are proving very popular at the moment.
My chosen book to feature this week is another that has been sat on my Goodreads TBR for a very long time.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
I Capture the Castle tells the story of seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Here she strives, over six turbulent months, to hone her writing skills. She fills three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries. Her journals candidly chronicle the great changes that take place within the castle’s walls and her own first descent into love. By the time she pens her final entry, she has “captured the castle”– and the heart of the reader– in one of literature’s most enchanting entertainments.
I hope everyone has some fun plans for the weekend.
The Windhover
I caught this morning morning's minion, king- dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing, As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding Stirred for a bird, - the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.
I didn’t take part in the 20 Books of Summer last year and I will be honest I really missed it so I knew that I had to take part again this year. I am so pleased that Annabel at AnnaBookBel and Emma at Words and Peace have taken over the challenge. Of course a big thank you goes out to Cathy at 746 Books for creating this amazing challenge.
The challenge runs from June 1st to August 31st. You can find all the details of the challenge here.
I am planning on reading a mix of physical books and kindle books with the hope of lowering my my physical and kindle TBR lists. Some of these books are recent additions to the TBR and some have been sat on the TBR for a very long time.
Medea by Rosie Hewlett
Hera by Jennifer Saint
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
The Royal Game by Anne O’Brien
The Last Song of Penelope by Claire North
Lessons by Ian McEwan
Lady Catherine and the real Downton Abbey by The Countess of Carnarvon
The Princes in the Tower by Philippa Langley
The Curator by Owen King
The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal
The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon
The Shadow King by Harry Sidebottom
Wish me luck! If you are taking part please drop me a link and I will head over for a visit.
Lady Book Dragon 