I hope everyone is having a nice weekend so far. I have had a lovely day of reading today and I hope to do the same tomorrow.
I didn’t do very well with my planned reading for September. In fact I didn’t even read one book off my September TBR. I am hoping to do better in October.
Great Eastern Hotel by Ruchir Joshi
She Played and Sang: Jane Austen and Music by Gillian Dooley
The Stolen Crown by Tracy Borman
Medusa by Rosie Hewlett
I have gone for a smaller selection for October because the Great Eastern Hotel is over 1000 pages! I really hope I get to read these books this month.
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 had a super busy day yesterday and with teaching today I am super tired and looking forward to an early night.
I bought this book when I was last in Bath and I am quite excited to read it but I will be honest the size of the book is rather daunting.
Great Eastern Hotel by Ruchir Joshi
A rich, teeming, involving epic of war, famine, love and culture-clash in imperial Calcutta during World War Two Joshi is The brand new experience after a megashow, Russian in size, Indian in soul’ (India Today)This is the second novel from Ruchir Joshi, author of The Last Jet-Engine Laugh which many stubbornly continue to believe is a twisted, flawed masterpiece of a debut novel. In India that book was greeted as the most significant Indian debut since Rushdie’s Midnights Children.Joshi is the real thing, and here to stay and thrive as a writer. This new book is a brilliant prospect, promising a rich, teeming, involving tale with an unusual, fascinating setting the fading imperial city of Calcutta in the 1940s, with world war, famine, culture-clash, colonial retreat, exile, rebellion, idealism and religious strife all in the mix.It will be less formally daring than his first (i.e. less jump-cutting time-wise), which, commercially speaking, is probably good news. And it will have all the epic sweep, resilience of the human spirit and war-torn romance that make for blockbuster success!
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…
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.
I will be honest my August TBR didn’t go very well and I only read one of the books I planned to read.
I will try better with my September TBR I promise!
She Played and Sang by Gillian Dooley
Unfortunately She Was A Nymphomaniac by Joan Smith
Holbein The Ambassadors by Tracy Borman
The Last Song of Penelope by Claire North
Hera by Jennifer Saint
Aphrodite by Phoenicia Rogerson
I really hope I get to read some of these but I have just started Villette by Charlotte Bronte and i know that will take me quiet a while now I am back at work.
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 September so far. I have had a busy day of taking my bedroom apart and putting it back together. I never knew getting a new rug would cause so much of a problem!
My chosen book to feature this week is one that has been on my TBR for a very long time but I needed to read the previous book in series before I get to this one. I can’t wait to get reading this as I just love the series.
Tiamat’s Wrath by James S. A. Corey
Thirteen hundred gates have opened to solar systems around the galaxy. But as humanity builds its interstellar empire in the alien ruins, the mysteries and threats grow deeper.
In the dead systems where gates lead to stranger things than alien planets, Elvi Okoye begins a desperate search to discover the nature of a genocide that happened before the first human beings existed, and to find weapons to fight a war against forces at the edge of the imaginable. But the price of that knowledge may be higher than she can pay.
At the heart of the empire, Teresa Duarte prepares to take on the burden of her father’s godlike ambition. The sociopathic scientist Paolo Cortázar and the Mephistophelian prisoner James Holden are only two of the dangers in a palace thick with intrigue, but Teresa has a mind of her own and secrets even her father the emperor doesn’t guess.
And throughout the wide human empire, the scattered crew of the Rocinante fights a brave rear-guard action against Duarte’s authoritarian regime. Memory of the old order falls away, and a future under Laconia’s eternal rule — and with it, a battle that humanity can only lose – seems more and more certain. Because against the terrors that lie between worlds, courage and ambition will not be enough…
This post a little bit late this month but I haven’t been great with my blogging since been on holiday. I need to get back into the blogging routine.
Here are the books I am planning on reading this month.
The Cardinal by Alison Weir
Murder Most Royal by S. J. Bennett
The Mime Order by Sammantha Shannon
The Last Song of Penelope by Claire North
Hera by Jennifer Saint
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
I’m not sure if I will manage all of these books but I will give it a try as they have been sat on my TBR pile for way too long. I also need to start catching up on my reviews as I am very behind.
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 quiet day so I have caught up with jobs around the house and garden and obviously done some reading.
My chosen book to feature this week is a new addition to the TBR pile and one I am hoping to read very soon. I got am email from Harper Collins about this book and knew I wanted to read it.
Under the Lemon Tree by Emma Cowell
Can one Greek summer heal the secrets of the past? Could rediscovering her roots help Kat rebuild a life without her brother…?
Shattered by the sudden loss of her beloved twin, Nik, Kat is struggling to find meaning in a life turned upside down. The comfort of family is both smothering and soothing, but when an unexpected inheritance surfaces — a house on the breathtaking Greek island of Agistri from a mysterious uncle she’s only just heard of — she dares to dream of a new beginning.
Arriving in Agistri, with its crystalline waters and endless blue skies, Kat finds herself surrounded by lush pine forests, secluded coves, and the scent of citrus in the air. Among white-washed houses, the warmth of the island’s people begins to heal the emptiness in her heart. And in their company, she finds both the courage to face her grief — and maybe even the spark of unexpected love…
But as she slowly unearths her family’s buried past, Kat must confront her own fears about belonging, forgiveness, and the possibility of rediscovering happiness in the unlikeliest of places.
I have a holiday planned in July and work is winding down for the Summer so I am really planning on a lot of reading this month. I have kindle books and physical books planned.
Kindle reads
Vertigo by G. S. Jennsen
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Compulsory by Martha Wells
Lessons by Ian McEwan
Physical Reads
The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon
The Cardinal by Alison Weir
Hopefully I might even be able to read more than just this selection.
Lady Book Dragon 