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!

I hope everyone has had a good start to the week so far.

My chosen book to feature this week is a nonfiction book that has been sat on my TBR since I last went to Bath.

Unfortunately, She Was A Nymphomaniac by Joan Smith

Bookshop.org | Ebook | Harper Collins | TG Jones | Waterstones

Writer, activist and journalist Joan Smith has worked for years to raise awareness of violence against women and girls. And has been instrumental in bringing the innate misogyny of the police to public attention. Her new book will reinterpret the bloody, violent story of imperial women at the hands of (in no particular order) Nero, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula – and others. These imperial mothers, daughters and wives – were the most privileged women of their time but their lives were overshadowed, dominated and controlled by these men. Raped, killed, ripped apart from their children, and mostly airbrushed from history, Joan Smith brings these women back into light and into focus, offering an account of their extraordinary and tragic lives.

In Unfortunately, She was a Nymphomaniac, Smith pieces together the stories of these women, showing how they struggled for control of their lives at a time when both the law and culture were stacked against them. It is not a conventional history but an interpretation of the original texts informed by what we know now about the mechanics of domestic abuse. There are no ‘nymphomaniacs’ here but the picture that emerges is one of spirited, inspiring and sometimes reckless resistance to male authority. The way these women have been misrepresented for two thousand years speaks volumes not just about ancient misogyny, but the origin and persistence of attitudes that continue to blight women’s lives today.

Happy Reading

Etsy

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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!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. Today has been another busy day of teaching so I am looking forward to some reading later.

My chosen book to feature this week is one that has sat on my TBR pile and Goodreads TBR for a very long time. It is a new author for me but the storyline looked really interesting.

Bookshop.org | Ebook | TG Jones | Waterstones

The Witchfinder’s Sister by Beth Underdown

1645. When Alice Hopkins’ husband dies in a tragic accident, she returns to the small Essex town of Manningtree, where her brother Matthew still lives.

But home is no longer a place of safety. Matthew has changed, and there are rumours spreading through the town: whispers of witchcraft, and of a great book, in which he is gathering women’s names.

To what lengths will Matthew’s obsession drive him? And what choice will Alice make, when she finds herself at the very heart of his plan?

Happy Reading

Etsy

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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!

I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. I have had a busy day of teaching so I am looking forward to my book later.

My chosen book to feature this week is another recent addition to the TBR and a new author for me as well. I love discovering new authors so I am really looking forward to reading this book.

One Day by David Nicholls

Bookshop.org | Ebook | TG Jones | Waterstones

15th July 1988: Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways.

So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that?

And every year that follows?

Happy Reading

Etsy

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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!

I hope everyone has had a good start to the day. I have had a day of reading, book moving and Etsy orders.

My chosen book to feature this week is a book by one of my favourite historians and authors.

Elizabeth The Queen Alison Weir

Bookshop.org | Ebook | TG Jones | Waterstones

In her highly praised The Six Wives of Henry VIII and its sequel, Children of England, Alison Weir examined the private lives of the early Tudor kings and queens, and chronicled the childhood and youth of one of England’s most successful monarchs, Elizabeth I. 

This book begins as the young Elizabeth ascends the throne in the wake of her sister Mary’s disastrous reign. Elizabeth is portrayed as both a woman and a queen, an extraordinary phenomenon in a patriarchal age. Alison Weir writes of Elizabeth’s intriguing, long-standing affair with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, of her dealings – sometimes comical, sometimes poignant – with her many suitors, of her rivalry with Mary, Queen of Scots, and of her bizarre relationship with the Earl of Essex, thirty years her junior. 

Rich in detail, vivid and colourful, this book comes as close as we shall ever get to knowing what Elizabeth I was like as a person.

Happy Reading!

Etsy

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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!

I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. I have had a busy day of teaching and Etsy orders so sadly haven’t managed much reading.

My chosen book to feature this week is another recent addition to the TBR pile. I’m really excited to read this book as I do love a Tracy Borman book.

The Stolen Crown by Tracy Borman

In March 1603, Queen Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch, lies dying at Richmond Palace. The queen’s ministers cluster round her bedside, urging her to name her successor – something she had stubbornly resisted throughout her reign. Almost with her last breath she whispers that James VI of Scotland should succeed her. She dies shortly afterwards and the throne of England passes peacefully from Tudor to Stuart.
Or so we’ve been led to believe…

But, as enthralling new research shows, this is not what happened. In the weeks and months that followed, history was literally re-written on the orders of James VI to hide the truth. Elizabeth went to her grave without naming an heir, so the notion of an approved succession from Tudors to Stuarts was an elaborately constructed fiction. Newly-discovered documents in the British Library even hint that James plotted to have Elizabeth murdered. The lie that began his rule in England had devastating consequences. The Stuart regime rapidly descended into turbulence and uncertainty, conspiracy and persecution, witchcraft and gunpowder – culminating in the destruction of the monarchy in the English Civil War.

With a combination of rigorous research and brilliant story-telling, Tracy Borman’s revealing new book shows that truth and monarchy have always been strange bedfellows…

Happy Reading

Etsy

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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.

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. I have been going through my book trolleys to see what books I have on them that I have forgotten about and I found this one lurking at the back. I might pop this one on to my Summer TBR pile.

Dirty Little Secrets by Jo Spain

Death stalked the Vale. In every corner, every whisper. They just didn’t know it yet. Six neighbours, six secrets, six reasons to want Olive Collins dead. In the exclusive gated community of Withered Vale, people’s lives appear as perfect as their beautifully manicured lawns. Money, success, privilege – the residents have it all. Life is good. There’s just one problem. Olive Collins’ dead body has been rotting inside number four for the last three months. Her neighbours say they’re shocked at the discovery but nobody thought to check on her when she vanished from sight. The police start to ask questions and the seemingly flawless facade begins to crack. Because, when it comes to Olive’s neighbours, it seems each of them has something to hide, something to lose and everything to gain from her death.

Happy Reading

Etsy

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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!

I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. I have had a good day of teaching and reading. I can’t wait to go on holiday where I can spend more time reading.

My chosen book to feature this week is the second book of a series that I have recently started. I absolutely adored the first book so I hope the next one will not disappoint.

Vertigo by G. S. Jennsen

The year is 2322 and humanity is under attack. An engineered war between rival superpowers escalates even as the shadowy Metigen armada begins attacking colonies on the frontiers of settled space. 

Individuals from across the galaxy fight for their own survival and to protect those they hold dear, while a group of unlikely allies race to expose a secret cabal. As the aliens draw ever closer, leaving utter destruction and death in their wake, the strongest defenders of Earth and Seneca fall to one another in a war of lies and misdirection.

Alex Solovy and Caleb Marano stand accused of terrorism and murder. In a desperate gambit to clear their names and find a way to defeat the invaders, they breach the dimensional portal at the heart of the Metis Nebula. In a strange, mystical realm where nothing is what it seems, they will uncover secrets about humanity’s past and future—and one revelation which will change everything.

Happy Reading

Etsy

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