Goodreads Monday: 31/07/2023

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!

How is it the end of July already? This month seems to have flown by and it is scary.

I have been going through my vast Goodreads TBR and there are so many books on there that I added years and years ago that I still want to read so I think it is time to bring them to the front of the list again. So here is a book that I added way back in 2018.

Nefertiti and her younger sister, Mutnodjmet, have been raised in a powerful family that has provided wives to the rulers of Egypt for centuries. Ambitious, charismatic, and beautiful, Nefertiti is destined to marry Amunhotep, an unstable young pharaoh. It is hoped by all that her strong personality will temper the young Amunhotep’s heretical desire to forsake Egypt’s ancient gods, overthrow the priests of Amun, and introduce a new sun god for all to worship. 

From the moment of her arrival in Thebes, Nefertiti is beloved by the people. Her charisma is matched only by her husband’s perceived generosity: Amunhotep showers his subjects with lofty promises. The love of the commoners will not be enough, however, if the royal couple is not able to conceive an heir, and as Nefertiti turns her attention to producing a son, she fails to see that the powerful priests, along with the military, are plotting against her husband’s rule. The only person wise enough to recognize the shift in political winds–and brave enough to tell the queen–is her younger sister, Mutnodjmet.

Observant and contemplative, Mutnodjmet has never shared her sister’s desire for power. She yearns for a quiet existence away from family duty and the intrigues of court. Her greatest hope is to share her life with the general who has won her heart. But as Nefertiti learns of the precariousness of her reign, she declares that her sister must remain at court and marry for political gain, not love. To achieve her independence, Mutnodjmet must defy her sister, the most powerful woman in Egypt, while also remaining loyal to the needs of her family. 

Love, betrayal, political unrest, plague, and religious conflict, Nefertiti brings ancient Egypt to life in vivid detail. Fast-paced and historically accurate, it is the dramatic story of two unforgettable women living through a remarkable period in history.

I’m so pleased I have rediscovered this book as I really want to read this book soon.

Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit. 

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: 24/07/2023

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 nice weekend and is ready for the week ahead.

My chosen book this week is one that I have been wanting to read for a very long time and I really hope I get to read it soon.

Socrates sits chained to a wall in a small prison cell. In a month he will die of hemlock poisoning. At night, by the light of a tiny oil lamp, on rolls of paper smuggled in by loyal friends, he tells his three sons the story of his life.

He writes vividly about the people and events that shaped him as a person. The mother who encouraged his questions. Teachers who promoted the Greek ideals of courage and glory. Bloody battles. Lifelong friends lost and enemies made. Being proclaimed the world’s wisest man.

Fearing his sons may follow in his ill-fated path, Socrates honestly reveals his thoughts and feelings, his successes and his failures, and his search for the answer to the ultimate question—how can I be happy?

What are your thoughts on this book if you have read it?

Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit. 

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: 10/07/2023

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 nice weekend and is prepared for the week ahead. I’m counting down the days till my holiday and I’m working out what books to put on my Kindle.

My chosen book to feature this week is one that has been on my Goodreads TBR since 2014 but I have actually only bought the book recently.

This short novel, already a modern classic, is the superbly told, tragic story of a Cuban fisherman in the Gulf Stream and the giant Marlin he kills and loses—specifically referred to in the citation accompanying the author’s Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.

I’m really hoping to read this soon as it is only a small book and one I think I will be able to read pretty quickly.

What are your thoughts on this book if you have read it?

Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit. 

Happy Reading

Etsy

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

WWW Wednesday: 28/06/2023

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.

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you will read next?

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I tried to blog yesterday but for some reason WordPress just wouldn’t work for me and kept crashing. My reading so far this week has been very good and I feel like I might be catching up with my challenges.

What I am Currently Reading

The Cicero Trilogy is a mammoth book which I will be reading for a very long time I feel so I have also started one of my all time favourite books Silas Marner.

What I have Recently Finished Reading

I couldn’t put The Taxidermist’s Daughter down and read it in no time at all. I also finally finished The Count of Monte Cristo!

What I Think I will Read Next

I am carrying on with my 20 Books of Summer Challenge so it will be one of these books next most likely.

Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.

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: 19/06/2023

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 day today. I managed to blow all the lights at the school I was teaching at today. Thankfully it was sunny enough to not cause too much bother but the bang scared the life out of me.

My chosen book today is another off my 20 Books of Summer list. I will be honest I am falling a little bit behind with my list at the moment but I’ve really tried to catch up with my reading today and hope to catch up even more this week.

Sussex, 1912. In a churchyard, villagers gather on the night when the ghosts of those who will die in the coming year are thought to be seen. Here, where the estuary leads out to the sea, superstitions still hold sway.

Standing alone is the taxidermist’s daughter. At 17, Constantia Gifford lives with her father in a decaying house: it is all that is left of Gifford’s once world-famous museum of taxidermy. The stuffed animals that used to grace every parlour are out of fashion, leaving Gifford a disgraced and bitter man.

The bell begins to toll and all eyes are fixed on the church. No one sees the gloved hand pick up a flint. As the last notes fade into the dark, a woman lies dead.

While the village braces itself against rising waters and the highest tide of the season, Connie struggles to discover who is responsible, but finds herself under suspicion. Is Constantia who she seems – is she the victim of circumstances or are more sinister forces at work? And what is the secret that lies at the heart of Gifford House, hidden among the bell jars of her father’s workshop?

What are your thoughts on this book if you have read it?

Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit. 

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: 12/06/2023

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 today. I had a reasonably easy day teaching today which was nice, especially in this heat.

My chosen book to feature today is another off my 20 Books of Summer Challenge. I must admit my challenge has slowed down some what after I flew through my first book. I plan some good reading sessions on Wednesday and Thursday so hopefully I might make a dent in the backlog.

Queen Elizabeth II is having a royal nightmare. A referendum divides the nation, a tumultuous election grips the United States – and the body of a staff member is found dead beside Buckingham Palace swimming pool. Is it a tragic accident, as the police think? Or is something more sinister going on?

As Her Majesty looks for answers, her trusted assistant, Rozie, is on the trail of a treasured painting that once hung outside the Queen’s bedroom. But when Rozie receives a threatening anonymous letter, Elizabeth knows dark forces are at work – and far too close to home.

After all, though the staff and public may not realise it, she is the keenest sleuth among them. Sometimes, it takes a Queen’s eye to see connections where no one else can …

What are your thoughts on this book if you have read it?

Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit. 

Happy Reading

Etsy

June 2023 TBR

Hello!

My TBR plans for May were only half successful but I was pleased with the amount of books I did manage to read.

For June I am mainly focusing on my 20 Books of Summer Challenge but I am hoping to mix it up with some books that are not on the list as well.

20 Books of Summer Choices

Other Options

I’m really behind on my Goodreads challenge so I am really hoping I can catch up a little bit this month.

I hope you all have good plans for June.

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: 5/06/2023

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 great start to the week. I have been back at school today so less time reading sadly.

My chosen book for this week is another book off my 20 Books of Summer Challenge. This is another book that has been sat on my TBR for way too long.

It was first serialised in the Merry’s Museum magazine between July and August in 1869 and consisted of only six chapters. For the finished product, however, Alcott continued the story from the chapter “Six Years Afterwards” and so it ended up with nineteen chapters in all. The book revolves around Polly Milton, the old-fashioned girl who titles the story. Polly visits her wealthy friend Fanny Shaw in the city and is overwhelmed by the fashionable and urban life they live–but also left out because of her “countrified” manners and outdated clothes.

What are your thoughts on this book if you have read it?

Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit. 

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: 29/05/2023

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 am off on an adventure today but you will know more later on in the week. I am on half term this week so I am hoping to catch up on my book review writing and reading.

My chosen book to feature this week on Goodreads Monday is another off my 20 Books of Summer Challenge.

I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time and I’m not sure why I have put it off for so long because I am quite excited to read it.

The great plays of Ancient Greece are among the most enduring and important legacies of the Western world. Not only is the influence of Greek drama palpable in everything from Shakespeare to modern television, the insights contained in Greek tragedy have shaped our perceptions of the nature of human life. Poets, philosophers, and politicians have long borrowed and adapted the ideas and language of Greek drama to help them make sense of their own times.

This exciting curated anthology features a cross section of the most popular–and most widely taught–plays in the Greek canon. Fresh translations into contemporary English breathe new life into the texts while capturing, as faithfully as possible, their original meaning.

This outstanding collection also offers short biographies of the playwrights, enlightening and clarifying introductions to the plays, and helpful annotations at the bottom of each page. Appendices by prominent classicists on such topics as “Greek Drama and Politics,” “The Theater of Dionysus,” and “Plato and Aristotle on Tragedy” give the reader a rich contextual background. A detailed time line of the dramas, as well as a list of adaptations of Greek drama to literature, stage, and film from the time of Seneca to the present, helps chart the history of Greek tragedy and illustrate its influence on our culture from the Roman Empire to the present day.

With a veritable who’s who of today’s most renowned and distinguished classical translators, The Greek Plays is certain to be the definitive text for years to come.

What are your thoughts on this book if you have read it?

Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit. 

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: 15/05/2023

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 spent a good chunk of today gardening which was nice but I think I will most likely ache tomorrow.

My chosen book this week is one on my 20 Books of Summer challenge.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enrol in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world’s centre for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire’s quest for colonisation.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realises serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organisation dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

What are your thoughts on this book if you have read it?

Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit. 

Happy Reading

Etsy

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