2019 in Review

Finally, I have time to sit down and reflect on 2019!

Firstly, I want to say a massive thank you to all of you who support me, read my blog, follow my blog and for just being amazing. Thank you!

I have been blogging for over a year! This is quite a shock to me and I am really impressed that I have managed to keep this blog going for over a year. I have also thoroughly enjoyed reading and following fellow book blogs.

Overall, I have read 71 books that equals approximately 15921 pages.

I have also read a lot more poetry and explored a lot of quotes. I have also tried to read different genres from my usual comfort zones.

I have discovered a new favourite author, Elly Griffiths and a new favourite poet Christina Rossetti.

I haven’t visited as many Waterstones stores as I would like but I am hoping to tick off more in 2020, especially in London.

I bought loads of books in 2019 and sadly have not read them all, so my TBR Pile has grown alarmingly large. I really can not help myself where buying books is concerned!

The other thing I learned in 2019 was that I really do not like reading challenges. I really struggled to keep to my Goodreads Summer Reading Challenge and really hated feeling confined to list. I found it useful whilst away on holiday to know I have a list of books to read on my Kindle but as soon as I was home surrounded my all my lovely books, I just wanted to pick and choose what I wanted. So inevitably I did not complete the challenge and have decided I will not attempt one again in the near future other than my Goodreads challenge of how many books I plan to read in a year.

The other thing learnt this year was how to switch off properly. For the first time ever I went on a resort holiday and to begin with I struggled at this relaxation business and kept thinking I needed to do things but then I realised I could just spend the day by the pool and read and not feel guilty. It was a wonderful experience and one that I hope to repeat. I managed to read a wonderful amount of books as an added bonus.

So I think that is a round up of my 2019.

New Books 6/01/2020

As promised here are my new books that I got over New Year when visiting Bath. We always visit my favourite bookshop Topping and Company because it always has some very special books and quite often signed editions. Plus when my poor husband is exhausted from following me around the bookshop and carrying the books I’ve already chosen they always offer him a mug of tea.

So here are the books I bought, I tried to be restrained so there are not as many books as I would usually go for.

Goodbye to All Cats by P. G. Woodhouse

Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year edited by Allie Esiri

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Hardy

Drop me a comment if you have read any of these. I always love to hear your thoughts.

Christmas Bookish Presents

Hello!

As promised here is my post showing my Christmas presents with a book theme. Thankfully, I had quite a few books and a very groovy book light that I love.

Here are the books I received:-

The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

The Everyday Poet: Poems to Live By edited by Deborah Alma

Rossetti

Be More Cat by Alison Davies

Then there is my amazing new light!

A lot of these books have been on my wish list for some time so I was really pleased to receive them. Drop me a comment with your thoughts.

Christmas Reading List: Update

I have slowed down on the Christmas reading in the past week, this has been due to work and getting ready for Christmas. Being a musician at Christmas is always rather busy and I have been here there and everywhere recently. However, I now have no teaching till January 2020 and I have just two church services to play for tomorrow and then I am finished!

Here is the updated list!

Christmas Reading List (The crossed out ones are links to the reviews)

~~A Very Murderous Christmas by various authors~~

The Night I Met Father Christmas by Ben Miller

Miss Marley by Vanessa Lafaye

~~A Very Country Christmas by Zara Stonely~~

A Literary Christmas: An Anthology

~~Christmas on the Little Cornish Isles by Phillipa Ashley~~

~~Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson~~

~~Tidings by Ruth Padel~~

Murder at Christmas by various authors

~~The Nutcracker by E.T.A Hoffmann~~

Christmas at Woolworths by Elaine Everest

~~Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay~~

Christmas Cakes and Mistletoe Nights by Carole Matthews

~~The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton~~

~~One Day in Winter by Shari Low~~

As you can see only two books have been ticked off the list this time. Maybe now things are calming down I can enjoy some much needed reading.

How is everyone else’s Festive reading going so far? I hope everyone is ready for Christmas.

Happy Reading

Tidings: A Christmas Journey by Ruth Padel (Book Review)

Tidings: A Christmas Journey by Ruth Padel

About the author

Ruth Padel is a prize-winning poet, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and Reader in Poetry at King’s College London. Her most recent collections include Darwin: A Life in Poems on her great-great-grandfather Charles Darwin, The Mara Crossing on migration and immigration, and Learning to Make an Out in Nazareth on the Middle East. She lives in London, the place where she was born.

Blurb

It’s Christmas Eve and on this enchanted night Charoum, the Angel of Silence, can speak. As night turns to day, he unfolds a resonant story of a little girl, a homeless man and a fox…

In the tradition of Charles Dickens and Dylan Thomas, Tidings takes us on a journey into the heart of Christmas, showing us celebrations down the ages and across the globe – as dawn sweeps from East Australia to Bethlehem, from London to the Statue of Liberty in New York.

This is Christmas in all its magic, reminding us that it is a time not only of good tidings, but of loneliness and longing, compassion and connection.

Beautifully illustrated and exquisitely musical, Tidings is a poem to be read out loud and cherished.

Review

Wow, what a beautiful book, I am so pleased I bought this book. This book is absolutely stunning and I think it will be become a Christmas tradition to read it every Christmas in my house. It took me less than an hour to read and I could not put it down and afterwards I could not wait to tell my husband about this beautiful book I had just finished.

This is the first work by Ruth Padel that I have ever read and it will not be my last. I loved how it used the carols from the children’s church service in the poem and it was beautifully entwined together. I also loved how reminiscent of Charles Dickens the poem’s story is, it reminds us that Christmas is not just about celebrating but also about remembering that there are people out there that do not find Christmas a time of celebration but of loneliness, hunger, fear and bad memories.

The contrast between the homeless man and the little girl is brilliant. The little girl is wondering if Father Christmas got her letter about the puppy she wants, her life is full of safety, happiness, love and wanting for nothing. The homeless man is full of memories he wishes to forget. He’s hungry, unwashed, unloved and only has one friend in the world, a little fox.

This book is beautiful and if you only want to read one festive book this year or next year I fully recommend this one. I have already been recommending it to friends and family. It is definitely a festive 5 out of 5 Dragons.

Purchase Links

Waterstones

Book Depository

The Nutcracker illustrated by Niroot Puttapipat (Mini Book Review)

The Nutcracker by E. T. A Hoffmann, retold by Kate Davies, illustrated by Niroot Puttapipat

Blurb

A beautifully illustrated retelling of The Nutcracker, capturing the magic of the ballet and the excitement of Christmas Eve. Join Clara and the Nutcracker Prince on a journey to the land of sweets, brought to life in a spectacular pop-up finale.

Review

Every Christmas I read a different version of The Nutcracker, this does mean I have quite a few different versions of The Nutcracker in my house now. This year’s choice is a little children’s version which is very abridged with beautiful illustrations and a stunning pop up illustration at the end.

I must admit I did miss a great deal of the story but understand why it had been shortened in such a way. The other thing I loved was how the story flowed so well, even though elements of the story were missing it did not make the story disjointed in any way.

I thoroughly enjoyed this little book and highly recommend it to children and adults. However, care needs to be taken with the pop up illustration as it is very delicate and could easily be damaged. I give this little book a massive 5 out of 5 Dragons.

Purchase links

Book Depository

Waterstones

New Books: 17th December 2019

Hello!

So today has been a nice quiet day with a little bit of teaching thrown into the mix. Today also involved buying new books! This was not planned, we went into the supermarket for a few things and I came out with three new books.

Here are the new books:-

A Midwinter Promise by Lulu Taylor

I’ve read a few books by Lulu Taylor and have always enjoyed them so I am looking forward to reading this.

A Perfect Cornish Christmas by Phillipa Ashley

After just finishing ‘A Christmas on the Little Cornish Isles’ I thought I would give another of Phillipa Ashley’s books a try and hope it is as good.

A Wedding in December by Sarah Morgan

No reason for this choice other than I liked the sound of it. Fingers crossed it proves to be good.

So here are my new books! Please drop me a comment if you have read any of them and tell me what you thought.

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde (Review)

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

About the author

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He was a playwright, poet, novelist and short story writer.

Blurb

Everybody in the county knows that the great manor of Canterville Chase has been haunted for 300 years. But when the American minister Mr Otis moves in with his wife and family, they refuse to be frightened by something as Old World as a ghost.

The Canterville Ghost vows to have his revenge and terrify them all to death with his most despicable deeds. But after the minister offers practical solutions such as Pinkerton’s Champion Stain Remover for the bloodstain in the sitting room, and the twin boys torture him by pelleting him with their peashooters, it’s the poor ghost who is left severely spooked.

Can he possibly rescue his reputation, or will the family offer him a chance to finally lay his – detachable – head down forever?

Review

I was very excited to find this book whilst looking for Christmas presents at Waterstones. I love the film of this story where the ghost is played by Patrick Stewart.

This is a super little short story where you can not help but feel sorry for the poor ghost. He has spent all his ghostly life haunting and terrifying the residents of the manor and now all of a sudden he has a family he can not scare and who delight in scaring him instead. He tries all his tricks but to no avail and slowly it starts to affect his health. That’s if ghosts actually do have ill health?

The Otis family are stereotypically American and a real good laugh. They take everything in their stride and are not fazed by anything. Thankfully one member of this family can also be the ghost’s biggest aid.

I love this little story, I find it sweet and funny and just generally a fun read. I highly recommend this book to everyone and give it a massive 5 out of 5 Dragons.

Purchase Links

Waterstones

Book Depository

Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson (Review)

Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson

About the author

Kate Atkinson was born in 1951 and is an English writer of novels, plays and short stories. She is the creator of the Jackson Brodie detective novels. She has won the Whitbread Book of the Year in 1995 and in 2013 and 2015 she won the Costa Book Awards.

Blurb

Three Festive Stories

Review

This was a nice short read of only 68 pages and although I read it in one sitting it can easily be dipped into.

The first story is called Lucy’s Day and it is all based on Lucy a mother of four who has given up her top career job to look after her family and in a way look after her elderly cleaner who doesn’t do much cleaning anymore and really just needs company. This is just one day in the hectic life of Lucy and out of all the chaos it shows the Christmas spirit coming through and that no matter how busy you are over Christmas you can still take time to appreciate the magic of it all.

The second story Festive Spirit was my least favourite of the three. I really hated the ending of this story, I found it disappointing and frustrating. I was hoping for so much more from this story and it just felt like a major cop out at the end.

The third story was my favourite. It showed that, for some, Christmas can be a lonely affair and also a time of bad news. However, it also showed that Christmas can be the time of contemplation and planning new beginnings. My favourite part was when Gerald was walking Dog and came along to the church; it really warmed my heart. This story was truly beautiful and it brought a little tear to my eye.

I gave this book 3 out of 5 Dragons because I just did not enjoy the second story. However, the first and third story make this book a well worth read and I highly recommend it.

Purchase Links

Book Depository

Waterstones

WWW Wednesday: 11th December 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?

It’s that time again! I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I myself have been busy reading and thoroughly enjoying it, although I really do need to get back into studying, it has been nice to have a little break after my assignment hand in.

What I am currently reading

I have literally just started this so can’t really say much about it so far. I hope it proves to be good.

What I recently finished reading

It has been a busy week on the reading front, I really enjoyed all three of these books and reviews will shortly follow. My favourite out of the three was probably A Very Country Christmas.

What I think I will read next

Looking forward to this book and I have been desperate to read it but wanted to leave it till it was closer to Christmas. I can’t wait any longer though!

So that is another WWW Wednesday! Please drop me a comment with your thoughts and your WWW Wednesday links!

Happy Reading!