2025

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 was back at school today which was a bit of a shock to the system but it was nice to see returning students and meet new ones.

My chosen book to feature today is another recent addition to the Goodreads TBR. I’m really excited to read this book because as a musician I’m intrigued read about Austen’s love of music and hopefully find out which composers were her favourite.

She Played and Sang: Jane Austen and Music by Gillian Dooley

Like her much-loved heroine Emma Woodhouse, Jane Austen ‘played and sang’. Music occupied a central role in her life, and she made brilliant use of it in her books to illuminate characters’ personalities and highlight the contrasts between them.

Until recently, our knowledge of Austen’s musical inclinations was limited to the recollections of relatives who were still in their youth when she passed away. But with the digitisation of music books from her immediate family circle, a treasure trove of evidence has emerged. Delving into these books, alongside letters and other familial records, She played and sang unveils a previously unknown facet of Austen’s world.

This insightful work not only uncovers the music closely associated with Austen, but also unravels her musical connections with family and friends, revealing the intricate ties between her fiction and the melodies she performed. With these revelations, Austen’s musical legacy comes to life, granting us a deeper understanding of her artistic prowess and the influences that shaped her literary masterpieces.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Goodreads Monday: 4/8/2025

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 recently attended a talk at the Harvington Hall History Festival by Tracy Borman and it was on The Ambassadors by Holbein. I found the talk absolutely fascinating so of course I had to buy the book. The book is only short so I am sure I will read it soon.

Holbein: The Ambassadors by Tracy Borman

Holbein’s Ambassadors is one of the most famous paintings in the National Gallery.

It is also one of the most intriguing. Laden with hidden symbols and mysteries, the work has been the subject of intense debate among historians during the five centuries since it was created.

Here Tracy Borman unpicks the secrets of this enigmatic artwork, painted during a turbulent time in English history as Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church in order to marry the young Anne Boleyn. From Holbein’s experiences as a German-Swiss

émigré who rose to a position as the ‘King’s Painter’, to the two French ambassadors’ troubles at court, this book illuminates the fascinating story behind a masterpiece of the Tudor era.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Goodreads Monday: 30/6/2025

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 Everyone!

I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. I have had a busy day of teaching but I have also been enjoying Wimbledon on TV.

My chosen book to feature this week is one that has been sat on my Kindle for a couple of years. I remember buying it for a holiday but not getting around to reading it.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

In the early 1900s, a young woman embarks on a fantastical journey of self-discovery after finding a mysterious book in this captivating and lyrical debut.

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place.

Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Goodreads Monday: 23/6/2025

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

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Goodreads Monday: 16/6/2025

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

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Goodreads Monday: 9/6/2025

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 but I have managed a little bit of reading in my breaks.

My chosen book to feature this week is a recent addition to my Kindle and a possible holiday read.

The Golden Age of Magic by Luanne G. Smith

Against the backdrop of 1920s Hollywood, a young fairy godmother on a mission is embroiled in malicious magic, mystery, and murder in a thrilling historical fantasy by the bestselling author of The Vine Witch.

Celeste is about to become one of the thirteen Fées Gardiennes, a centuries-old sisterhood of fairy godmothers. To be granted full status, she must usher her first protégé onto their path of destiny. Where better to find a starry-eyed ward than in the land of magic and illusion called Hollywood?

It’s 1927. The moviemaking business is booming when Celeste befriends a young studio seamstress whose dreams outshine everyone else’s. Rose is talented and underappreciated and could use some enchanted intervention in her life. Plans proceed swimmingly, and Celeste even catches the eye of a handsome producer. But after a series of unexplained accidents on the studio lot stir up rumors of a curse, Celeste fears the trouble is more personal―the spiteful meddling of a fellow Gardienne out to thwart Celeste’s success.

But the sabotage turns sinister when a starlet is murdered and it’s Rose who stands accused. As vengeance, dark magic, and betrayal wreak havoc, Celeste must come into her full power to save her innocent protégé and secure her own future in a cherished, ancient, and now threatened sisterhood.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Goodreads Monday: 2/6/2025

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 had a good start to the week. I was back at school today which was chaotic as most of my students had forgotten their books.

My chosen book to feature today is one that I have had on my Kindle for a couple of years but I am hoping to read it for my 20 Books of Summer challenge.

Lessons by Ian EcEwan

When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines’s life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother’s protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade.

Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life.

Haunted by lost opportunities, Roland seeks solace through every possible means—music, literature, friends, sex, politics, and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without causing damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past?

Epic, mesmerising, and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times—a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man’s lifetime.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Goodreads Monday: 26/5/2025

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 Etsy orders which has been nice. The 12 Month Book boxes are proving very popular at the moment.

My chosen book to feature this week is another that has been sat on my Goodreads TBR for a very long time.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I Capture the Castle tells the story of seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Here she strives, over six turbulent months, to hone her writing skills. She fills three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries. Her journals candidly chronicle the great changes that take place within the castle’s walls and her own first descent into love. By the time she pens her final entry, she has “captured the castle”– and the heart of the reader– in one of literature’s most enchanting entertainments.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Goodreads Monday: 19/5/2025

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 been back at school today but I did manage a little bit of reading when I had a break.

My chosen book to feature today is one I am very excited about because I finally get to read a Miss Marple book on my Agatha Christie challenge.

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

‘Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe,’ declared the parson, brandishing a carving knife above a joint of roast beef, ‘would be doing the world a large favour!’

It was a careless remark for a man of the cloth. And one which comes back to haunt the clergyman just a few hours later – when the Colonel is found shot dead in the clergyman’s study. But as Miss Marple soon discovers, the whole village seems to have had a motive to kill Colonel Protheroe.

The first Miss Marple mystery, one which tests all her powers of observation and deduction.

Happy Reading

Etsy

Goodreads Monday: 12/5/2025

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 Everyone!

I have had a wonderful day of reading today. Usually I am teaching but because of SATs there are no music lessons in my school so I have had a day off for reading and walking.

My chosen book to feature this week is another recent addition to my TBR pile and one I plan on reading over the summer.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future—to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save humankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire—both scientists and scholars—and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation.

The Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are among the most influential in the history of science fiction, celebrated for their unique blend of breathtaking action, daring ideas, and extensive worldbuilding. In Foundation, Asimov has written a timely and timeless novel of the best—and worst—that lies in humanity, and the power of even a few courageous souls to shine a light in a universe of darkness.

Happy Reading