Hello!
Another disappointing month on the reading front sadly and even less pages than last month. I must admit I seem to be in a bit of a slump for some reason but hopefully I will be out of it soon.
Books
Pages: 57
Format Read: Hardback
Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲
Pages: 352
Format Read: Paperback
Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲
Pages: 150
Format Read: Paperback
Dragon Rating: 🐲🐲🐲
Review to follow
Goodreads Challenge: 10/60
Happy Reading
Hello!
Last week I decided to take part in the Classics Club Spin Event to decide my next read off my Classics Club List. The post can be found here.
Well the results are in and the chosen number was 11. This means my next read will be The New Magdalen by Wilkie Collins and I have to finish it by 30th April 2022.
I have only read one book by Wilkie Collins but I did love it so fingers crossed I will enjoy The New Magdalen just as much.
I am thoroughly enjoying my classics reading after so long without reading any.
Please drop me a comment if you are doing the Classics Club challenge or if you have taken part in the Spin Challenge.
Happy Reading
Wonderlands by Una McCormack
Blurb
In a desperate attempt to prevent the artificial intelligence known as Control from seizing crucial information that could destroy all sentient life, Commander Michael Burnham donned the “Red Angel” time-travel suit and guided the USS Discovery into the future and out of harm’s way. But something has gone terribly wrong, and Burnham has somehow arrived in a place far different from anything she could have imagined—more than nine hundred years out of her time, with Discovery nowhere to be found, and where the mysterious and cataclysmic event known as “the Burn” has utterly decimated Starfleet and, with it, the United Federation of Planets. How then can she possibly exist day-to-day in this strange place? What worlds are out there waiting to be discovered? Do any remnants of Starfleet and the Federation possibly endure? With more questions than answers, Burnham must nevertheless forge new friendships and new alliances if she hopes to survive this future long enough for the Discovery crew to find her….
Review
I do love a Star Trek novel by Una McCormack but I must admit I struggled to get into this one to start with but once I got used to the characters I really enjoyed it.
Burnham is now alone in the future and it is very different to what she imagined or hoped for. Everything is terribly wrong and this future she finds herself in is full of people who can’t be trusted and who will betray you for their own gain without a thought. The remnant of Starfleet Burnham finds is one lone man called Sahid who is holding together a damaged space station. Sahid is a valuable friend to Burnham who helps her when she is most in need and is a comfort to her when she needs a friend, he is also someone she can trust completely.
Book is Burnham’s main friend though and he teaches her everything she needs to know to survive this new and harsh future but sadly Book is very anti Starfleet and does not have the same drive like Burnham to try and find Starfleet. Book’s cat Grudge is also one of my favourite characters of the book and it was nice for her to appear quite often in the storyline.
I did find this book rather melancholy at times, poor Burnham is clearly struggling. When she tries to move forward with her life something always pulls her back and quite often it is Sahid with another link from the past to do with Starfleet. Burnham knows that in order to make any sort of life for herself she will have to let go of her past and her friends on Discovery but she doesn’t want to. Burnham is essentially grieving but there are bright spots in the story for her. She makes new friends and starts to build a life for herself but at times it is very sad.
Overall, I enjoyed this book but I did miss the other characters from the Discovery and the banter between friends that occurs and I think that is what I struggled with when I first began reading the book. I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons and I can’t wait for the next book.
Purchase Links
Book Depository | Foyles | Waterstones | Wordery
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
Una McCormack is the author of seven previous Star Trek novels and four Doctor Who novels. She has also written numerous short stories and audio dramas. She lives in Cambridge, England, with her partner of many years and their daughter.
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’m not doing as much reading at the moment because I am struggling to read at night like I usually do but hopefully I will get back into it soon.
What I am Currently Reading
Absolutely loving this so far. I really like finding out more about Alex and Amos and their past in this book.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
Really enjoyed this and loved reading more about Grudge the queen of cats. Review will follow shortly.
What I Think I will Read Next
I’m not entirely sure what I will read next but I am hoping to get into my Maigret books again at some point because they make excellent books to read whilst the husband is watching the Grand Prix.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
Happy Reading
Hello!
I have decided to take part in my first Spin event for The Classics Club. To join in you simply list 20 books left off your Classics Club list before Sunday 20th March 2022 and then the club will randomly select a number. The selected book then has to be read before Saturday 30th April 2022. I have a lot of titles left to read as I have only recently started the challenge so it has been a difficult selection but here is my list:
I’m really looking forward to what the random selection will be and I hope I will be able to read the book within the time frame.
Wish me luck!
Please drop me a comment if you are taking part in the Spin event or if you have read any of the books on my list.
Happy Reading
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!
Happy Monday! I hope everyone has had a good start to the week so far.
It is time for another book off my Classics Club list, which is my main TBR at the moment and any books I read not off the list are just my usual mood reading choices.
Pressured by her unscrupulous family to marry a wealthy man she detests, the young Clarissa Harlowe is tricked into fleeing with the witty and debonair Robert Lovelace and places herself under his protection. Lovelace, however, proves himself to be an untrustworthy rake whose vague promises of marriage are accompanied by unwelcome and increasingly brutal sexual advances. And yet, Clarissa finds his charm alluring, her scrupulous sense of virtue tinged with unconfessed desire.
Told through a complex series of interweaving letters, “Clarissa” is a richly ambiguous study of a fatally attracted couple and a work of astonishing power and immediacy. A huge success when it first appeared in 1747, and translated into French and German, it remains one of the greatest of all European novels. Its rich ambiguities – our sense of Clarissa’s scrupulous virtue tinged with intimations of her capacity for self-deception in matters of sex; the wicked and amusing faces of Lovelace, who must be easily the most charming villain in English literature – give the story extraordinary psychological momentum. .
I’m really looking forward to reading this book as it will be something for different for me as I haven’t read many books where the story is told through letters.
Please drop me a comment if you have taken part in Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.
Happy Reading
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Blurb
The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.
Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.
The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.
When The Two Rivers is attacked by Trollocs-a savage tribe of half-men, half-beasts- five villagers flee that night into a world they barely imagined, with new dangers waiting in the shadows and in the light.
Review
This is the third time I have read this book because I have tried to read The Wheel of Time series on more than one occasion and sadly never finished it. However, I am determined that this time I will finish the series.
Every time I have read this book I have loved it and this time round was no exception and I found that I had in fact forgotten a few parts of the story that made a nice surprise. As a massive Tolkien fan I realise that The Wheel of Time series is heavily influenced by Tolkien’s Middle Earth but that does not put me off. After all hasn’t all literature from as far back as Homer and Virgil done the same thing?
This book introduces us to some main characters that are clearly going to be important in future books. Five young villagers from the village of Two Rivers have to flee after a Trolloc attack on their village. By fleeing they hope to save their beloved village from any further attack and to do this they are helped by Moraine and her warder Lan. The fiver villagers are Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene and the village wisdom Nynaeve. Nynaeve is slightly older than the other four but not by much. Nynaeve is also the character that at times I find quite annoying, she is very stubborn and is always questioning and second guessing Moraine which at times just gets boring. Mat is rather a spineless character who you know is not going to be good news for the group of friends. Perrin is my favourite character out of the five as he is down to earth, caring and patient. Rand is rather bland at the moment but you can see he will develop as a character.
As the adventure continues the group meet new people who help them on their journey but they also learn that no one can be trusted because anybody could be a dark friend. One of these new friends is the Ogier named Loial who is also one of my favourite characters. Loial is never hasty and likes to think everything through, he also loves reading and always has a pile of books with him which is just like me when I go anywhere.
The world of Aes Sedai is fascinating and I can’t wait to learn more about it all and I also have so many questions regarding what happened in the past that made the Aes Sedai’s power start to dwindle. I really hope I get my answers in the following books. I really enjoyed the book and have already started book two. I give this book 5 out of 5 Dragons.
🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲
Purchase Links
Book Depository | Foyles | Waterstones | Wordery
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
James Oliver Rigney Jr. (1948-2007) was an American author of epic fantasy who wrote under the pen name Robert Jordan. Jordan also wrote historical fiction under the name of Reagan O’Neal, a western as Jackson O’Reilly, and dance criticism as Chang Lung.
First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
Happy Friday!
I hope everyone has had a good week so far. I haven’t taken part in a First Line Friday this year so I thought it was high time I joined in again.
The answer is below the cat pictures!
The twin shipyards of Callisto stood side by side on the hemisphere of the moon that faced permanently away from Jupiter. The sun was only the brightest star in the endless night, the wide smear of the Milky Way brighter by far. All along the ridges of the craters, harsh white work lights glared down onto buildings, loaders, scaffolds.
and the answer is…
Nemesis Games by James S. A. Corey
The fifth novel in Corey’s New York Times bestselling Expanse series–now being produced for television by the SyFy Channel!
A thousand worlds have opened, and the greatest land rush in human history has begun. As wave after wave of colonists leave, the power structures of the old solar system begin to buckle.
Ships are disappearing without a trace. Private armies are being secretly formed. The sole remaining protomolecule sample is stolen. Terrorist attacks previously considered impossible bring the inner planets to their knees. The sins of the past are returning to exact a terrible price.
And as a new human order is struggling to be born in blood and fire, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante must struggle to survive and get back to the only home they have left.
Did anybody guess correctly?
Please drop me a comment with your First Line Friday and I will head over for a visit.
Happy Reading
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Blurb
The novel follows the life of its eponymous heroine, Moll Flanders, through its many vicissitudes, which include her early seduction, careers in crime and prostitution, conviction for theft and transportation to the plantations of Virginia, and her ultimate redemption and prosperity in the New World. Moll Flanders was one of the first social novels to be published in English and draws heavily on Defoe’s experience of the topography and social conditions prevailing in the London of the late 17th century.
Review
This is my second classic of the year and I could not put it down. Defoe is also a new author for me and I was not disappointed. The novel is supposedly an autobiography and was first published as an autobiography rather than saying by Defoe.
Moll was born in Newgate prison and then put into a children’s home where she honed her skill with needlework and developed her skills and character to be taken in by a wealthy family. Then things became interesting in Moll’s life but one thing that Moll knows how to do is survive.
Moll is always striving to make money, to become a wealthy woman because this means security. To make this money Moll tries to marry well even if this means tricking men into thinking she is wealthy so she can get to their fortunes. This leads to Moll marrying five times. She also plays the role of mistress to certain wealthy men and then she becomes a master criminal but through all of this she saves whatever money she can and tries to gain that security she strives for.
I loved the character of Moll because you never knew what she had planned next. She changed her name to hide from undesirables and knew how to stay hidden. She knew how to take advantage of situations and she definitely knew how to make a man fall head over heels in love with her. She also never let anything hold her back especially her children who she clearly did not care about. To be honest I spent a lot of time wondering where some of them had disappeared to as they just seemed to vanish from the story. It was also quite clear that the only child she showed any affection for was because she knew she had something to gain from that affection.
This book has humour, adventure, danger, romance and much more and I couldn’t help but root for the woman who is at times very mischievous and does tend to hurt people. I absolutely loved this book and give it 5 out of 5 dragons.
🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲
Purchase Links
Book Depository | Foyles | Waterstones | Wordery
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
Daniel Defoe (1659/1661 [?] – 1731) was an English writer, journalist, and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel The life and strange surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe: of York, mariner (1719). Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest practitioners of the novel and helped popularise the genre in Britain. In some texts he is even referred to as one of the founders, if not the founder, of the English novel. A prolific and versatile writer, he wrote more than five hundred books, pamphlets, and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural). He was also a pioneer of economic journalism.
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.
This weeks book off my Classics Club List is another new author to me and one that I have been meaning to read for many years and own a lot of her books already.
When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction.
In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fuses individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale creates one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.
Purchase Links
Book Depository | Foyles | Waterstones | Wordery
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
Hopefully I will get around to reading this book this year and it will be another classic off my ever growing TBR pile.
Please drop me a comment if you have taken part in Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.
Happy Reading
Lady Book Dragon 