The Story of Brexit: A Ladybird Book by J. A. Hazeley and J. P. Morris (Review)

The Story of Brexit: A Ladybird Book by J. A. Hazeley and J. P. Morris

About the authors

J. A. Hazeley and J. P. Morris are best known for having written episodes of Miranda and That Mitchell and Webb Look.

Review

I have not read all of the new Ladybird books for adults mainly the husband and wife ones as when I got married my husband and myself got them for Christmas off the family for a joke. As I mentioned in my last Waterstones post this one was at the till and it just jumped into my hand.

I did find this book funny to start with but then it started to drag a little and was just a bit repetitive along the lines of ‘those who voted out did not understand what they were doing’ etc. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had been shorter, short and sweet was the key in this case. It would have also been better if it had been a bit more balanced and made fun of both sides.

The illustrations as per usual were excellent and went brilliantly with the writing and added to the book.

An OK little book to read with a mug of tea and a biscuit, if you are not too easily offended about Brexit. I only gave this book 3 Dragons out of 5 and probably would not bother to read it again.

Lady Book Dragon.

Waterstones Challenge: Worcester

It’s half term so I decided to go a bit further out for the next Waterstones visit and Worcester was the one we chose. We turned it into a National Trust visit as well and visited Elgar’s Birthplace.

The visit to Elgar’s Birthplace was really good and quite different since the National Trust has taken over. I went a few years ago and it was quite a different layout, my husband has never been though and really enjoyed it, apart from basically all the signs using it’s instead of its, that drove him insane.

After our visit, we went into Worcester and found the Waterstones, it is quite small but really well laid out, I loved the top floor it was so spacious and welcoming and it also has an escalator which I thought was excellent for easy access. The book I went in for was The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon but it was not there and after my husband looked it up it was because I had got the release dates wrong and the book is not out until the 26th February 2019. I’ve never been good with numbers, let alone dates. It was not a wasted journey though, because I managed to buy three books. I will be honest, I went to the till with just two books but then the third just jumped into my hand and I ended up buying it as well.

The three books I got are:-

The Crossing Places: A Dr Ruth Galloway Mystery by Elly Griffiths

I have just recently discovered Elly Griffiths’ Dr Ruth Galloway and I just can not put the books down so I was happy to find one that I have not read.

Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher

I wanted to read another Rosamunde Pilcher book after falling in love with Coming Home so it looks like this will be next on my list.

The Story of Brexit: A Ladybird Book

This was the book that jumped into my hand at the till, I do find the Ladybird books rather funny and good to read with a mug of tea.

We celebrated the latest Waterstones visit by going to Pizza Express for a treat and then we went to my parents’ house and had Coco cuddles. Coco is my dog who has always been one of my reading buddies. Sadly when I moved out she stayed with my parents so I go over as often as I can for cuddles. Coco loves using piles of books as a pillow.

Lady Book Dragon

Friday Poetry

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has some exciting reading planned for the weekend. Yesterday was the first day of the year that I got to sit outside in the sun and read, it was glorious.

Days

What are days for?

Days are where we live.

They come, they wake us

Time and time over.

They are to be happy in:

Where can we live but days?

Ah, solving that question

Brings the priest and the doctor

In their long coats

Running over the fields.

Philip Larkin

Lady Book Dragon.

Book Sleeve Product Review

After years of reading and never leaving the house without a book, I decided to get a Book Sleeve, so my poor books would stop getting dog earred and battered in the neverending pit that is my handbag.

I had a good browse on Amazon and finally chose a medium book sleeve with Sloths on so it would match my diary, the price was £10.59. I think they match quite well but I must admit when it first arrived I was quite shocked how bright the green background was, it does not come across that bright in the picture below or on Amazon but believe me it is bright.

I have been using the sleeve for about a week now, I have used it for a tiny book that was about a 100 pages long so the sleeve swamped the book somewhat but the book did not get damaged and stayed safe in the sleeve. The next book I am using it for is a great big hard back book pictured below. It just about fits so really I do need a slightly bigger size for hardbacks but for paperbacks it is wonderful and so far my hardback book has stayed safe and sound.

I love my sloth book sleeve and I will definitely be using it on a regular basis, although due to the colour I imagine it will mark easily but I think it looks like it should wash quite successfully if something bad happens to it. I think I will get a bigger one for the hardbacks and a smaller one for the small paperbacks I read. This one is well made and of good strong material so I am hoping it will last me for many more reading years to come. Really happy with the product and was expecting it to be more expensive if I am honest, so the surprise with the price was a big bonus.

If you are interested in getting the Sloth Book Sleeve the Amazon link is here.

Happy reading my fellow Book Dragons!

Lady Book Dragon.

Mid Week Quote

Happy Wednesday!

What is everyone reading this week?

Today’s quote is from The Compleat Gentleman by Henry Peacham.

The book was written as a guide for young men of the period to become well-rounded, couteous members of society. It was full of practical advice on how to travel, what to read and much more.

“The desire to have many books, and never to use them, is like a child that will have a candle burning by him all the while he is sleeping.”

Henry Peacham

Lady Book Dragon

A Tiny Book Review for a Tiny Book: The Book Lover’s Guide to Tea (Review)

The Book Lover’s Guide to Tea

This is a tiny review for a tiny book. This book was in the box with the book tea infuser I blogged about here.

Firstly, it is possibly one of the cutest books I have ever read, being only 7.5cm tall and 6.5cm wide, it is tiny but surprisingly it is 47 pages long.

Secondly, it all about tea and I love tea. It has some excellent tea and book related quotes in it and the best part is it has some recipes for the perfect accoutrements to afternoon tea. I plan on trying out the recipe for the cookies and lemon squares as they look easy to make and yummy, and it also tells you which tea will go best with the said recipes.

Thirdly, it also tells you how to make the perfect cup of tea with the book tea infuser and gives you timings for the different types of tea.

A perfect little book that took a matter of minutes to read but was an interesting read to enjoy with a cup of tea. I gave this little book 5 Dragons out of 5 and I hope the recipes turn out to be a success, I will keep you posted.

Happy tea drinking and reading.

Lady Book Dragon

New Book – 14/02/2019

Hello my fellow readers!

I hope you have all had a good week and have a full weekend of reading planned ahead.

I just thought I would tell you about my latest new book. My wonderful husband took me to Waterstones on Valentine’s Day and told me to choose a book and he would treat me. I was very restrained as he had already spoiled me with some other presents and a big bunch of flowers, he is brilliant. My choice in the end was The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths. I have been looking forward to this book and so grabbed it when I saw it on the shelf, although it was hidden away right at the bottom. Another exciting book to add on to my TBR pile!

I am hoping to read a bit more next week and get down my TBR pile, work has got in the way recently and falling asleep on the sofa but next week is half term so I am hoping for a bit of reading time as I am only working on three days and they are not full days.

What will everyone be reading this weekend?

Lady Book Dragon

100 Books Scratch Off Bucket List

I mentioned at Christmas that my best friend bought me the 100 Books Scratch Off Bucket List and I decided that I would start reading the books on there that I have not read before. Anyway the list has been sat looking at me since Christmas and I still haven’t made a start on reading some of the books off the list.

So I thought I would make a few lists and enlist you my fellow readers to help me decide on which book to read next.

Here is what the poster looks like

Firstly, the books I have already read:-

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Matilda by Roald Dahl
The Complete Art of War by Sun Tzu
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Harry Potter (Series) by J. K. Rowling
The Picture of Dorain Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
A Game of Thrones (Series) by George R. R. Martin
MacBeth by William Shakespeare
The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy) by J. R. R. Tolkien
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
Winnie the Pooh (Complete Collection) By A. A. Milne
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
Watership Down by Richard Adam
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Bird Song by Sebastian Faulks
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Books I have not read (the ones I own are in blue):-

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
Naughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo by Stieg Larsson
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
His Dark Materials (Trilogy) By Philip Pullman
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Ulysees by James Joyce
Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Wild Swans by Jung Chang
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson
A History of Venice by John Julius Norwich
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally
London Fields by Martin Amis
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
My Man Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Commitments by Roddy Doyle
Gladys Aylward the Little Woman by Gladys Aylward
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
Dissolution by C. J. Sansom
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Misery by Stephen King
The Odyssey by Homer
Tell No One by Harlan Coben
Moby – Dick by Herman Melville
Middlemarch by George Eliot

So out of the books on the list that I have not read and own which do you think I should read next? Whichever book is the most popular I will read next. Thank you in advance for your choices.

Happy reading.

Lady Book Dragon.

Friday Poetry

This poem I chose because believe it or not I am currently doing a Chicken Behaviour and Welfare course online with Edinburgh University. After owning chickens for quite a few years I decided to learn more about them. After all you are never too old to learn new things.

Also this is my 100th blog post. Thank you for all the ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ everyone.

Cock – Crow

Out of the wood of thoughts that grows by night

To be cut down by the sharp axe of light, –

Out of the night, two cocks together crow,

Cleaving the darkness with a silver blow:

And bright before my eyes twin trumpeters stand,

Heralds of splendour, one at either hand,

Each facing each as in a coat of arms:

The milkers lace their boots up at the farms.

Edward Thomas

This was the first cockeral that I ever owned his name was Charles and his hens were Queen Elizabeth, Eugenie, Victoria, Diana, Beatrice and Catherine.

Happy Friday Everyone!

Lady Book Dragon.

Happy Birthday Charles Dickens!

Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday dear Charles Dickens!

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Another of my favourite authors was born on this day and that is the great Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens was born on this day in 1812 in Portsmouth. Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in debtors prison. Despite his lack of education Dickens went on to write 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non fiction articles, lectured and performed readings, he also edited a weekly journal for 20 years. He was also a campaigner for children’s rights, education and social reforms.

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was the first Dickens novel I read and also the first classic book I read at the young age of 9 years old. Later I fell in love with A Tale of Two Cities and have since read it many times. I have not read all Dickens’ novels though sadly but hope to remedy that soon. I do own a beautiful set of old Dickens’ novels that are a joy to behold and read and a complete set of Vintage Classics that are paperback. I tend to read the paperbacks though as I do not like to take the old antique ones out of the house. Sadly as we are trying to get our library room finished my Dickens collection is stacked up in the living room, but I have included a few snaps of my antique Dickens books.