G. K. Chesterton
Happy reading my fellow Book Dragons.
I would love to hear what you are all reading this week. Please feel free to let me know in the comment section.
Lady Book Dragon.
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
About the author
Jean Rhys was born in Dominica in 1890, the daughter of a Welsh doctor and a white Creole mother. At sixteen she moved to England, where she worked at many different jobs, chorus girl, and artist’s model being just two of them.
After her first marriage broke up she started to write and was encouraged by Ford Madox Ford. She wrote The Left Bank, Quartet, Mr Mackenzie, Voyage in the Dark and Good Morning, Midnight between 1927 and 1939. However due to the themes being way ahead of their time, the books eventually went out of print and Rhys was sadly forgotten about.
In 1966 she made a come back with Wide Sargasso Sea and won the Royal Society of Literature Award and the W. H. Smith Award with it. She was awarded an CBE in 1978 and sadly passed away in 1979.
Blurb
Born into an oppressive colonialist society, Creole heiress Antoinette Conway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent sensuality and beauty. After their marriage, disturbing rumours begin to circulate, poisoning her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is driven towards madness.
Review
I know my review of this book might prove unpopular to most, but it is just my opinion and nobody has to believe the same. I bought this book a couple of months ago from the Bronte Parsonage Museum (one of my favourite places) with high hopes, as I had heard such good things about it and remember my English Literature teacher telling me I should definitely read it. So quite a few years later, I decided to listen to my English teacher. Sadly, I was greatly disappointed and I did not get on well with the book at all.
The book is written in three parts, the first part is told in Antoinette’s own words whilst she is a young girl. The second is in the words of her husband the young Mr Rochester telling us about his arrival in the West Indies, his marriage and subsequent events. The final part is again by Antoinette, but now set in England, in Thornfield Hall.
The first part I really struggled to get into and to be honest almost gave up on, I found it disjointed and difficult to read. I did feel sorry for Antoinette, her childhood was a not a happy one, her only real friend who seemed to be on her side was her Aunt Cora.
Mr Rochester was a complete alien to me and I was not impressed by his portrayal and I had to think of him completely unrelated to Jane Eyre just to continue reading. The plot is believable, of Mr Rochester having to marry for money, but he is way too gullible and quite frankly appears at times like a drunken lunatic himself.
Another major issue I had was Antoinette’s name, I just do not understand the change to Bertha, it just seems again too un-plausible a plot line to me.
I really struggled with this book, and it left me disappointed and to be honest slightly angry. My review is not all bad though I promise, I did really enjoy the third part of the book and how it linked up to Jane Eyre. The descriptions in the attic were good and well linked, in fact I would have liked a little more from the third part, as it is only short. I also really enjoyed how Rhys described the locations and the local people and you could really tell she was drawing on real life memories.
The book is only short and did not take me long to read thankfully, as I am not sure I would have completed it if it had been longer.
On Goodreads I gave this 2 out of 5 stars.
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Lady Book Dragon
Hello my fellow readers.
A massive thank you to all who have read my blog so far and my new followers. It is all greatly appreciated.
I thought I would share my latest book haul with you. I went to buy my nephew his birthday presents this week, I always buy my nephews and niece books for presents and thankfully they are all big readers, so this is a bonus. However, in so entering a book shop, I inevitably bought myself some books and a bag to carry them in.
Here is my wonderful book haul!
The books include:-
Coraline and other stories by Neil Gaiman
The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura.
If Cats Disappeared from the World my husband chose for me, fingers crossed it is a good read.
My black cat Pan was very impressed with the two books with cats on.
The books I got for my nephew were:-
Guards! Guards! By Terry Pratchett
Eric by Terry Pratchett.
Anyway happy reading my fellow dragons.
Lady Book Dragon.
The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook by Alan Lee
About the Author
Alan Lee was born in 1947 in Middlesex, England, he is an acclaimed book illustrator and conceptual designer and set decorator for films. His most famous works are the centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings and diamond edition of The Hobbit. He studied graphic design and the depiction of Celtic and Norse myths. He has illustrated many books and won many awards for his work. He was also the Conceptual Designer and Set decorator on Percy Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings.
Blurb
In The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook Alan Lee reveals in pictures and in words how he created the beautiful watercolour paintings for the special centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings. These images would prove so powerful and evocative that they would eventually define the look of Percy Jackson’s movie trilogy and would earn him a coveted Academy Award.
The book is filled with over 150 of his sketches and early conceptual pieces to show how the project progressed from idea to finished art. It also contains a selection of colour paintings reproduced in full page glory, together with numerous examples of previously unseen conceptual art produced for the films and many new works drawn specially for this book.
The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook provides a fascinating insight into the imagination of the man who painted Tolkien’s vision, firstly onto the page and then in three dimensions on the cinema screen. It will also be of interest to many of the 100,000 people who have bought the illustrated The Lord of the Rings as well as for budding artists interested in unlocking the secrets of book illustration.
Review
I was very lucky to receive this book for my birthday this year, as it has been on my wish list for some time. I must admit I had forgotten this book was on my wish list, so it was a great surprise to receive it. I remember my mom buying me the centenary illustrated edition of The Lord of Rings and it is one of my favourite books, so actually to be able to read how Alan Lee came up with his amazing art work has been rather exciting.
Firstly, I must admit I did not read the book, I just sat there looking at each page and the beautiful art work appearing on each page, remembering where the sketches fit in with the narrative. I was pleased I took the time to enjoy the art work first, as I know I am quite often guilty of getting too absorbed in the words and missing out on the beauty of the art.
Once I had seen all the artwork I then went back to the beginning and started to read. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from the book, sometimes with these types of books I easily lose focus and find it hard to finish the book. However, this book I could not put down. I loved how Lee described the history he has with the story and how parts of his childhood influenced his imagination for some of the scenes. Lee describes how when he read The Lord of the Rings he was constantly imagining what the scene looked like and thinking what was Tolkien wanting the scenes to look like and what images were influencing his descriptions in the book and Lee wanting to be as true to that as he could.
Seeing the little sketches and ideas that Lee worked through in the book gives you a glimpse into what it must be like inside Lee’s head. I can not imagine that he ever stops creating either in his head or doodling on paper, that is what comes across most in the book. He is always thinking and working.
The picture below shows the sketch of one of my favourite watercolour images in the centenary edition, Eowyn with Aragorn. I love this image so much and to see the sketch is wonderful, it is fascinating to see a rough version of one of my all time favourite images.
The following picture is also one of my favourites – Tom Bombadil’s house. I loved the chapter in The Fellowship of the Ring with Tom and I was really upset it was not in the film, so I was really pleased to see it included in the sketchbook and to read about how Lee created it.
The details in the book about how the film sets were created are fascinating and just magical. It really brought it home to me just how many people were involved in the making of one of my all time favourite film series. I also loved how Lee is happily telling the reader about his frustrations, the art work he wasn’t so happy with and particularly when he had to pull all nighters.
The thing I loved the most about this book was that Lee did not focus it all on the film and included so much about the centenary edition, the book I love so much. Lee is such a talented artist and it was wonderful to be briefly part of his world.
I truly loved this book and even though I have finished it, I still pick it up and dip in to look again at the stunning artwork.
I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.
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Lady Book Dragon
A little quote to keep us going through the week.
JRR Tolkien The Fellowship of the Ring
Just think, we are half way through the working week!
I took the picture on a walk recently and it made me think of Middle Earth, and inspired the quote.
Lady Book Dragon
Good morning my fellow book dragons! Thank you for all the likes, comments and follows so far. I really hope you are enjoying my blog so far. I hope you have a good day and happy reading!
Friend Request by Laura Marshall
About the author
Laura Marshall grew up in Wiltshire and studied English at the University of Sussex. In 2015 Marshall decided to complete a lifelong ambition to write a book, and enrolled on a three month creative writing course. Friend Request is Marshall’s first novel and it was shortlisted for the Bath Novel Award and the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize in 2016. Marshall now lives in Kent with her husband and two children.
Blurb
Maria Weston wants to be friends with me. Maybe that had been the problem all along: Maria Weston had wanted to be friends with me, but I let her down. She’s been hovering at the edge of my consciousness for all of my life, although I’ve been good at keeping her out, just a blurred shadow in the corner of my eye, almost but not quite out of sight. Maria Weston wants to be friends. But Maria Weston has been dead for more than twenty-five years.
Review
I saw a lot of good reviews about this book, on a few of my book related facebook pages and so I had to get a copy. I always take a list of possible books to buy when I go to Waterstones and I bought this last month with high hopes.
I was quite excited to read this book and although yes it was a good read, I was also rather disappointed. The lead character Louise sadly got on my nerves somewhat, as she just seemed to be rather weak and at times pathetic. At times I felt sorry for her son Henry as I couldn’t help but wonder what type of example she was setting him. Polly was the typical strong friend who everyone wants in their life. Sam is portrayed as the strong in control character but obviously a total jerk and the old school friends we have all gone to school with and are familiar with the different characters and social groups they were in.
The major element of this book is bullying and I was glad to read a book which discussed this in detail, as sometimes I find bullying is still hidden away and not talked about. I admit my life in school was not easy and I was a victim of bullying for my middle school years (I was in a three tier system). In some ways I was lucky I had a small group of friends but sadly my friends and I suffered a great deal at times and life was not easy. However I have no idea how I would have coped without those friends. This book shows the grizzly details of bullying and the hurt caused by excluding people from things and the consequences. I honestly wonder if Marshall is not drawing on experiences she might have had at school.
It was really interesting how social media played a major role in this book and how vulnerable it can make us if we are not vigilant. It really made me realise that anybody can pretend to be anyone on social media and you are none the wiser who you are really talking to. The fact that Maria Weston who has been dead for twenty-five years is suddenly adding people on social media is very haunting and better than a ghost returning in my opinion.
As a thriller, this book was good but I would have liked a bit more suspense and eventually it started to get a little predictable and I’m sorry to say but the twist was obvious to me. However all the elements all fitted together brilliantly and I did enjoy reading it. It was a fast paced read which had me hooked most of time.
As Marshall’s first novel I think this is brilliant and I can’t wait to read more of her novels especially if they draw on real life situations as Friend request has.
My rating on Goodreads is 3/5 stars.
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Lady Book Dragon
Last week was my birthday and I was very happy to have a good book haul in presents. So I thought I would share my book pile. I had loads of Tolkien always a favourite of mine and the complete works of Jane Austen in the Folio Society editions. I also had the limited edition of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty done by the Folio Society, it is so beautiful I have not opened it yet, as I am so scared of marking it. I love the Folio Society editions but can rarely afford them so it is wonderful when I get them as presents and I have never had a limited edition before so that is a real treasure.
Anyway here are a few snaps of my new book pile.
Lady Book Dragon
So here it is my first review of my new blog. I hope you enjoy. The picture below is of the book next to my cat Pantalaimon or Pan for short. I’m sorry but he is rather rude and refused to face the camera.
Cat out of hell by Lynne Truss
About the author
Lynne Truss born in 1955, Surrey England is the renowned author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves but is also a columnist, broadcaster and comedy radio dramatist. She was a originally a cat lover but made the unusual switch to dogs recently. Cat out of Hell is her first novel in more than ten years.
Blurb on the book
A dead librarian, a charismatic cat and a mystery involving the Devil himself. If you’ve ever been suspicious of that evil glint in your cat’s eye, this book might just confirm all your worst fears…
Review
After catching a rather nasty cold, I found myself unable to work and either sleeping or reading. So yesterday I read this book and I’m still not entirely sure what to make of it.
I remember buying this book and I must admit I bought it because of the title and cover (I know so shallow)! In my defence my husband and myself have two cats, one of which is black, like the cat on the cover, so inevitably I had to buy the book.
I really enjoyed the book hence why I couldn’t put it down, however it didn’t answer all the questions that I wanted answering and that is why it only got three stars. To be honest the ending really wound me up and I just ended up frustrated with the outcome.
The characters were fantastic and very well written, if a little stereotypical and by stereotypical I mean the character Wiggy. Alec, I found adorable and pitiable and his commentaries in places were hilarious, especially his obsession with the air freshener and sausage sandwich.
Roger and the Captain were fascinating and I really wanted to learn more about their past but sadly that was not going to happen. This novel left me with so many questions, what happened to the kittens? how old is the Captain? And many more! Also did Watson the dog really do that or was it a figment of Alec’s imagination?
The part I loved the most was how Truss uses cats normal behaviour that we take for granted and gives it a different meaning we would never have thought of. Why do cats purr? Why do cats knead our lap? Truss gives them a very different meaning.
This book definitely confirmed some of the worries I had about cats (I’m really not a cat person) and to be honest I don’t think I will ever trust my black cat again.
A good but frustrating read.
I gave this book 3 stars out of 5 on Goodreads.
Have good day!
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