The Endgame by Jeffrey Archer (Review)

The Endgame by Jeffrey Archer

About the author

Jeffrey Archer was born in England in 1940, he is a former politician and author. Archer was a member of parliament from 1969-1974 but did not seek re-election due to a financial scandal that almost bankrupt him. Facing bankruptcy Archer began to write and in so doing revived his fortunes. Archer’s political career has been filled with scandal and in 2001 he was sent to jail for perjury and perverting the course of justice, in 2003 he was released. All his life experiences influence his writing and make for interesting reading.

Blurb

Taken from To Cut a Long Story Short, Jeffrey Archer’s fourth collection of short stories, The Endgame is an irresistible, witty and ingenious short read.

After he becomes a widower, wealthy Cornelius Barrington decides to test the loyalty of his family and friends to himself, or his money, by declaring himself bankrupt, enlisting the help of his old friend and trusted lawyer, Frank Vintcent, to make the ruse authentic. Soon though, Barrington is left pondering whether blood really is thicker than water . . .

Review

Today I had a very gap filled day teaching so I thought I would read a short story in the little gaps. This made a nice change from the recent short stories by Jeffrey Archer that I have read as the recent ones have all involved men dropping everything to run after a young pretty woman.

This is a beautiful little story where the main character Cornelius needs to rewrite his will but first he wants to see who deserves his wealth. Cornelius has always suspected that certain members of his family and friends prefer his money rather than himself, so he decided to put his theory to the test.

When Cornelius pretends to be made bankrupt he watches his family and friends reactions to what has happened and finds out who his true friends are. As the story develops it is interesting to see Cornelius’ plan unfold and how each member of his family reacts and how his friends react.

This story shows how money can make people react differently, even act like crazy people and yet there are people out there who money does not touch and who remain true. I really enjoyed reading this short story and I was upset when it ended as I did not want it to end but for the story to develop further. Considering it is a short story there is a lot of content within it and there is never a dull moment. It just shows Archer’s talent as a writer to make a story work so well in such a small space of time. I gave this story 5 Dragons out of 5 Dragons.

To buy the complete book of short stories from Waterstones please click here.

Lady Book Dragon.

The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue by Anon (Review)

The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue

About the author

The author is sadly anonymous but this is a well known Icelandic saga composed at the end of the 13th century.

Blurb

Ranging across Scandinavia, England and Ireland, a Viking-age epic of two poets in doomed pursuit of Helga the Fair

Review

This is the third book of the Penguin Little Black Classics and a quick little read of just 52 pages. The book contains 25 verses of skaldic poetry which are scattered through the story.

This book is essentially a love story, where two poets are in pursuit of Helga the Fair, both travel around earning glory and renown hoping to make themselves worthy of Helga’s hand in marriage.

I enjoyed this book to begin with and found the verses of poetry enjoyable, however as the story went on I found the poetry began to get on my nerves and broke up the flow of the story. I must admit I started to skim read it as I could not bare it any longer, the story was still really good though. The thing I found a struggle to get used to in the beginning was the big lists of names, but once I got used to the style this was ok. A lot of store is held in one’s ancestors and family in this book so great lists of names are often given, even if those characters are not featured in the story.

I also enjoyed how the characters travelled around Scandinavia, England and Ireland and the accompanying adventures. It was interesting learning about the kings and rulers of that time and what they were like. The other element I enjoyed was how Christianity moved across the countries and the old ways were forgotten. This was considered a really good thing in the book but I wonder whether everyone was so willing to drop the old ways and take on the new faith. In my opinion I think this element is seen through rose tinted glasses by the author.

“All the men who have been mentioned were living at the same time, and it was about this time that the best thing ever to have happened in Iceland occurred: the whole country became Christian and the entire population abandoned the old faith.”

This is an excellent little book, which will not take long to read and was a good introduction for me to Icelandic sagas. I enjoyed reading the book but because the poetry got on my nerves I only give this book 3 Dragons out of 5.

To purchase this book please click here

Lady Book Dragon

A New Page

Happy Saturday!

Firstly, welcome and thank you everyone for the new follows. I hope you will enjoy reading my blog and please feel free to comment and talk about any of the books I talk about on the blog.

Some of you may have noticed a new page on the menu called Currently Reading. This page I have recently added so anybody who is interested can see what books I am currently reading and know that a review for these books will hopefully be appearing soon.

I am hoping this new page will also give me a little kick up the behind when I get a little slack with my reading.

Hope you enjoy and Happy reading!

Lady Book Dragon.

Star Trek Discovery: Fear Itself by James Swallow (Review)

Star Trek Discovery: Fear Itself by James Swallow

About the author

James Swallow is a British author who is a BAFTA nominee, a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller. He is also the only British author to work on the Star Trek television series. He has written several Star Trek books, scripted the video game Star Trek Invasion and over four hundred articles in Star Trek magazines. He currently lives in London.

Blurb

Lieutenant Saru is a Kelpian, a member of prey species born on a world overrun by monstrous predators… and a being who very intimately understands the nature of fear. Challenged on all sides, he is determined to surpass his origins and succeed as a Starfleet officer aboard the U. S. S. Shenzhou.

But when Saru breaks protocol in order to prove himself to his crew mates, what begins as a vital rescue mission to save a vessel in distress soon escalates out of control. Forced into a command role he may not be ready for, Saru is caught between his duty and conflicting agendas of two antagonistic alien races. To survive, he will need to seek a path of peace against all odds, and risk compromising the very ideals he has sworn to uphold…

Review

I found this book a really hard read, I struggled to get into it and kept forgetting what I had read and had to re read certain parts. I am pleased I stuck with it though as towards the end I began to enjoy it and got into it. I am not sure whether it was the writing style I struggled with or just the general storyline but I just couldn’t gel with the story.

This was an interesting story focusing on Saru and it helped me understand him a bit more, as so far watching his character in the TV series and reading about him in the previous two books I have not liked his character and found him unfeeling to others and a bit of a wet blanket. This book however showed that he did have feelings towards others and that he can be brave, decisive and commanding.

I enjoyed the character of Captain Georgiou. She is fast becoming a favourite and I would have liked her to feature a little bit more in the story. I also liked how Saru found her an inspiration and always thought of what Georgiou would do when trying to decide his next course of action. Michael Burnham also started to show her human side in the book which was nice to see.

The character I did not enjoy and was pleased that he did not feature greatly in the book was the Shenzhou’s first officer Commander ch’Theloh. I found him bad tempered, grumpy and way too hard on his underlings.

The storyline was a good storyline and I enjoyed meeting the Gorlans and Peliars and would have liked to have found out a bit more about both species and what happened to them.

Overall I found this book to be quite a let down after Drastic Measures, and I did not enjoy the book nearly as much. It was hard work to read and follow and at times rather boring. Sadly this book only got 2 out of 5 Dragons. It has not put me off the series though and I am looking forward to reading the next.

To buy this book from Waterstones click here.

Lady Book Dragon

New Book: 4/03/2019

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I do enjoy a good short story and have been reading the free Jeffrey Archer short stories on Kindle. Well after a bit of research I discovered they are all in a book and so I bought the book. As much as I love my Kindle, I only really use it when out and about, otherwise I much prefer a real life book.

New book is:-

The New Collected Short Stories by Jeffrey Archer

I will continue to review the individual short stories but I now will be reading them on both formats, I’ve also noticed there are short stories in the book that are not on the Kindle, which makes me very happy.

Happy reading everyone.

To purchase this book from Waterstones Click here.

Lady Book Dragon

The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths (A Dr Ruth Galloway Mystery) (Review)

The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths (A Dr Ruth Galloway Mystery)

About the author

Elly Griffiths was born in London and began her career in publishing, she then turned to writing full time. In 2016 she won the CWA Dagger in the Library for her work. Griffiths lives in Brighton with her family and the cat Gus.

Blurb

The past is reaching out for Dr Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson, and its grip is deadly.

DCI Harry Nelson is receiving anonymous letters, and their resemblance to those that first drew him to the Saltmarsh, and his first case with Dr Ruth Galloway, has left him uneasy. After all, the author of those letters is dead.

Or are they?

Then he gets a call from Ruth. She is digging on the Saltmarsh, on the site of a henge – a stone circle. And she has found the bones of a young girl.

When the body is identified as that of Margaret Lacey, a twelve-year-old who went missing thirty years ago, the North Norfolk police reopen the cold case. Are the letters a coincidence, or did someone really know all along where Margaret could be found?

Then another body is discovered. Is this death linked to Margaret’s? It seems that feelings run high and someone is guarding their secrets. What else might they know, if only Ruth and Nelson can find them?

Review

I have never read a book by Elly Griffiths before but I saw this one in Waterstones and loved the blurb so thought I would give it a go. I am so pleased I did as I absolutely loved it and I could not put it down. When I should have been sleeping I was reading but being tired in the morning was worth it. I am fast becoming addicted to crime mystery books, I only really started reading them last year and now I am hooked and discovering more and more favourite authors.

Having not read any of the previous books I was a little worried that I would not follow the storylines between the characters but I soon found the book was possible to read as a stand alone. I also loved that there were mini character biographies at the back of the book, this helped me a lot to understand a bit more about what type of people the main characters were. The first thing that became clear was that most of the police force have complicated relationship histories, which is probably made clearer in the previous books.

This book had me hooked just with the first page, the mysterious letter, I immediately wanted to know more. I loved the idea of an archaeological dig uncovering more than expected and the mystery involved behind it.

I really enjoyed the concept of this book, most crime novels centre around the chief detective but this centres around a Doctor and not any Doctor, a forensic archaeologist. Seeing the crime from Dr Ruth’s point of view is very interesting and eye opening. I found Ruth an interesting character, she loves her daughter deeply and is still madly in love with the father of her child even though they are not together. She also lives for her work and should be thinking of progressing up the career ladder but can not seem to bare leaving Norfolk, for many complicated reasons.

My first impression of Harry Nelson is that he does not know what he wants in life and is a bit like a lost little boy but he is an excellent police officer who can work out any crime and does not let his problems in his personal life get in the way of his work.

I really enjoyed meeting Harry Nelson’s team and would love to know more about them and so I definitely plan on reading more of the books, I have in fact bought the first one in the series to read next. The other element that I absolutely loved was that I had no idea who the culprit was, I had the completely wrong person in my mind. Quite often with crime mysteries I guess the culprit quite early on, but not this book.

I can not recommend this book enough, I could not put it down. If you love crime mysteries and archaeology then this book is for you, but I must warn you, you might end up with a few sleepless nights because you can not put it down. I gave this book a massive 5 out of 5 Dragons.

Purchase from Waterstones

Lady Book Dragon

Waterstones Challenge: Wolverhampton

Today after teaching we ventured off to Wolverhampton in search of the Waterstones there. This really was an adventure, mainly because we got lost a great deal.

The traffic was a nightmare getting into Wolverhampton so it was a rather slow journey, then we could not find our planned car park and after driving around in circles we just dumped the car in the nearest car park and hoped for the best. The next problem was finding the store, my phone said a 6 minute walk, this ended up taking about half an hour after getting very lost, again!

Eventually however we found the store and I went in search of The Priory of the Orange Tree by Sammanth Shannon. After a bit of searching we found the book and I think luckily I managed to get the last copy in the store. To be honest I was rather surprised how big the book is but I am very excited to start reading it.

This store is sadly not a favourite of mine, I found the ground floor very cramped and claustrophobic but the top floor was wonderful, it was open and well organised and a relief from being downstairs.

After our adventure we found a Cafe Nero and had hot chocolates and treats. I thought my ginerbread girl was rather Harry Potteresque.

Another Waterstones is ticked off the list and I hope to do at least one more this month, I will keep you posted.

Lady Book Dragon.

February 2019 Wrap Up

Another good reading month!

This month has been great blogging wise, more follows and likes off people and feedback on a review from an author, which I really appreciated.

I managed to read 7 books this month, granted some of them were only short but sadly work has got in the way and my reading has slowed. This month I discovered two things: one, I love the Star Trek books and plan on reading as many as I can and, two, I have discovered a new possible favourite author Elly Griffiths. I read her latest book (review on the way) and I could not put it down. I would have happily not gone to sleep and carried on reading all night but my husband needed his beauty sleep.

Books I read this month

(If you click on the picture you’ll go to the review)

4 out of 5 Dragons.

5 out of 5 Dragons.

5 out of 5 Dragons

3 out of 5 Dragons

4 out of 5 Dragons

3 out of 5 Dragons

5 out of 5 Dragons.

I also managed to visit a few Waterstones stores and tick some more off my list, oh and buy some new books, which is always good.

Plans for March

For March I would like to read the next two Star Trek Discovery books and The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon anything else is a bonus. I also plan on visiting a few more Waterstones stores.

Have you got any plans for March?

Happy reading.

Lady Book Dragon.

The Story of Brexit: A Ladybird Book by J. A. Hazeley and J. P. Morris (Review)

The Story of Brexit: A Ladybird Book by J. A. Hazeley and J. P. Morris

About the authors

J. A. Hazeley and J. P. Morris are best known for having written episodes of Miranda and That Mitchell and Webb Look.

Review

I have not read all of the new Ladybird books for adults mainly the husband and wife ones as when I got married my husband and myself got them for Christmas off the family for a joke. As I mentioned in my last Waterstones post this one was at the till and it just jumped into my hand.

I did find this book funny to start with but then it started to drag a little and was just a bit repetitive along the lines of ‘those who voted out did not understand what they were doing’ etc. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had been shorter, short and sweet was the key in this case. It would have also been better if it had been a bit more balanced and made fun of both sides.

The illustrations as per usual were excellent and went brilliantly with the writing and added to the book.

An OK little book to read with a mug of tea and a biscuit, if you are not too easily offended about Brexit. I only gave this book 3 Dragons out of 5 and probably would not bother to read it again.

Lady Book Dragon.

A Blue Poetry Paintbox chosen by John Foster (Review)

A Blue Poetry Paintbox chosen by John Foster

Blurb

You’ll find castles and giants, and dragon to dance with, races to run and snow to have fun with, monsters, monkeys, magicians and foxes, in this fourth colourful Poetry Paintbox anthology, for children aged six years and over.

Review

Ok, so I know I am way over six years of age and not a child but I like to think I am a child at heart. I have been sorting through some of the books that are still at my parents’, house and found my first ever poetry book out. This poetry book holds a lot of memories, I believe I got it from the Book People who used to come into schools and you could order books from them. I also remember bringing it into school for an assembly and the teacher borrowed it and then lost it, I was devastated and my mom was furious. Thankfully the teacher found it about two years later just before I left school. The other day I sat down and happily read it cover to cover remembering my old favourites and the poems I did not enjoy so much.

As a child I did not appreciate how this book was laid out, I never realised that all the poems are linked in pairs. So there are two poems about dragons, two poems about the sea and so on and so forth. The poems are by different authors and all have wonderful illustrations. The two poems about dragons were my particular favourites as a child.

The only thing that annoyed me with certain poems was that they went rolling along and then the last line makes the whole poem stumble, because it does not feel like it quite fits. However this could be because the adult me is now getting too picky.

There are 54 poems in the book, some better than others but mainly all enjoyable and a fun read for children and adults. I gave this book 4 Dragons out of 5 Dragons for all the happy memories it has brought back. I leave you with one of my favourites.

There was an old pirate

There was an old pirate called Pete

Who captured a whole fishing fleet.

He said ‘Don’t be scared.

All your lives will be spared.

I only want something to eat!’

Wendy Larmont

Lady Book Dragon.