Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. I have had a good week of blogging but not as much reading as I would have liked.
Blog Posts
Currently Reading
I have been really getting into Belgravia now but keep taking little breaks on Tuf Voyaging.
Happy Reading
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 enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend so far. I have managed a little bit of reading so far but I will be honest and say the snooker is distracting me at the moment.
I recently did a book order of some preordered books and on Waterstones and also added some of the books I would like to read soon. Here are the ones which arrived this week.
I can’t wait to get reading these books and hope to read them over the summer.
Happy Reading
Happy Friday!
My chosen poem this week is by the Victorian writer and nursery rhyme creator William Brightly Rands (1823-1882).
The Wonderful World
Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful World,
With the wonderful water round you curled,
And the wonderful grass upon your breast -
World, you are beautifully dressed!
The wonderful air is over me,
And the wonderful wind is shaking the tree, -
It walks on the water, and whirls the mills,
And talks to itself on the tops of the hills.
You friendly Earth, how far do you go,
With the wheat-fields that nod and the rivers that flow,
With cities and gardens, and cliffs, and isles,
And people upon you for thousands of miles?
Ah! you are so great, and I am so small,
I hardly can think of you, World, at all;
And yet, when I said my prayers to-day,
My mother kissed me, and said, quite gay,
"If the wonderful World is great to you,
And great to father and mother, too,
You are more than the Earth, though you are such a dot!
You can love and think, and the Earth cannot!"
William Brightly Rands
Happy Reading
Hello!
After such a fab month of reading in March I was excited for April and hoping it would also be a good month, but sadly it didn’t go according to plan. I did manage to read 4 books and some of those were quite big books but I had hoped to read more.
Statistics
Books
Pages: 387
Format Read: Hardback
Review to follow
Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲
New Book
Pages: 560
Format Read: Hardback
Review to follow
Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲
Old Book
Pages: 35
Format Read: Kindle
Review to follow
Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲
New Book
Pages: 212
Format Read: Hardback
Review to follow
Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲
New Book
Goodreads Challenge: 21/50
New Books: 3
Old Books: 1
Happy Reading
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.
Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I have had a busy day teaching but when I have had any spaces I had been busy reading.
What I am Currently Reading
I’m really enjoying both of these books so far. I did struggle with Belgravia to begin with as I found the writing style a bit stilted but I’ve finally got used to it.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I could not put The Bone Season down and absolutely loved it. I found Channel Island Monsters quite interesting and I loved the illustrations. Reviews will follow shortly.
What I Think I will Read Next
I have so many books I want to read at the moment and I’m not sure what I will choose.
Happy Reading
Hello!
My quote this week is by the American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart (1897; disappeared 1937; declared dead 1939).
“I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.”
Amelia Earhart
Happy Reading
Happy Easter!
I hope everyone has had a good Easter so far. Blogging has been going well this week and my reading has been quite good as well.
Blog Posts
Currently Reading
I am throughly enjoying this so far. I really do enjoy George R. R. Martin’s sci-fi work.
Happy Reading
The Catch by T. M. Logan
Bookshop.org | Waterstones | WH Smith
Blurb
Ed is delighted to meet his twenty-three year old daughter’s fiancé for the first time. Ryan appears to be the perfect future son-in-law. There’s just one problem. There’s something off about Ryan. Something hidden in the shadows behind his eyes. And it seems that only Ed can see it.
Terrified that his daughter is being drawn in by a psychopath, Ed sets out to uncover her fiancé’s dark past – while keeping his own concealed. But no-one believes him. And the more he digs, the more he alienates her and the rest of the family who are convinced that Ryan is ‘the one’.
Ed knows different. For reasons of his own, he knows a monster when he sees one…
Review
This book had been sat on my TBR trolley for several years so I thought it was high time I read it.
I will be honest I found this book very frustrating and nearly gave up on more than one occasion. The first half of the book was just far too unbelievable for me as Ed’s obsession was ridiculous and very annoying. Ed alienated everyone around him and basically destroyed his own life all because of a hunch and no real evidence. I began to really dislike Ed’s character and I was relieved when the narrative was taken over by Ryan.
The other characters weren’t great either and really lacked substance. I would have loved to have learned more about Abbie but all her character showed was that she was a teacher, loved cats and was blind to all else other than Ryan. Claire had a little bit more about her but the part at the end where she found Abbie was also verging on the unbelievable.
Ryan was probably the most interesting character in the book and to be honest I would have actually liked to have learned more about his past. However, my favourite character in the whole book was most definitely the cat!
All in all The Catch lured me in with its interesting blurb but the actual story was just completely lacking and the only reason I kept reading was because I find it impossible to DNF a book. I give this book 2 out of 5 Dragons.
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About the author
Tim was born in Berkshire and studied in London and Cardiff before becoming a national newspaper journalist. He lives in Nottinghamshire with his wife and two children, and writes in a cabin in the corner of his garden.
Happy Friday!
My chosen poem this week is by the Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator and diplomat Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004).
Gift
A day so happy.
Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden.
Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers.
There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.
I knew no one worth my envying him.
Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.
To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me.
In my body I felt no pain.
When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.
Czeslaw Milosz
Happy Reading
How It Unfolds by James S. A. Corey
Blurb
Roy Court and his crew are taking the trip of a lifetime—several lifetimes in fact—duplicated and dispatched across the galaxies searching for Earthlike planets. Many possibilities for the future. Yet for Roy, no matter how many of him there are, there’s still just one painful, unchangeable past. In what world can a broken relationship be reborn? The universe is so vast, there’s always room for hope.
Review
I love James S. A. Corey books so I was really excited to read a short story and so I downloaded the full Far Reaches collection onto my Kindle.
I struggled with this short story and found it hard to get into. In fact I did abandon it for a few months so when I picked it back up I read it from the beginning again. I enjoyed the concept of the story and really thought more could have been done with the story but I felt that too much was being crammed into a short space and this led to it feeling rather confused at times. I would have also liked more things explained which I think would have also helped me with the storyline.
I couldn’t help but root for Roy and really hoped that at least one version of him found happiness in love. However, I would have loved to have learnt more about his fellow crew mates.
This short story had so much potential but I just felt like it missed the mark for me and it didn’t feel like a typical James S. A. Corey story. I really wanted more from the story but just felt disappointed. I give this short story 3 out of 5 Dragons.
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About the author
James S. A. Corey is the pen name of fantasy author Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, George R. R. Martin’s assistant. They both live Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Lady Book Dragon 