2024

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 finished teaching today so my Christmas holidays have officially started! I still have lots of playing jobs on the run up to Christmas but it is nice to have a break from teaching.

What I am Currently Reading

I’ve finally caught up with my poetry reading! Death Comes at Christmas is a bit hit and miss at the moment. Some stories are better than others.

What I have Recently Finished Reading

I’m doing really well with my reading at the moment and have finished several books. I’m also for the first time this year behind on my book reviews! Here is the review for Catherine de’ Medici: The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen.

What I Think I will Read Next

I’m still reading through my Christmas books so my next read will definitely be one of these.

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: 16/12/2024

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 haven’t had any teaching today so it has been a day of Christmas prep and making up Etsy orders.

My chosen book this week is another Christmas read that I am hoping to read this month.

Death Comes at Christmas edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane

The award-winning Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane invite you to a festive gathering of bestselling, critically acclaimed and award-winning writers in tribute to classic, British period crime stories. From locked room mysteries on Christmas eve to devilish whodunits and tales of simmering rivalries unfolding at the dinner table, these thirteen original seasonal tales will delight and shock at every twist and turn. So, unwrap the presents, pour a mug of mulled wine and follow the bloodstained footprints through the freshly fallen snow as winter descends and darkness lurks in the shadows.

Featuring stories by: Fiona Cummins, Angela Clarke, A.K. Benedict, Susi Holliday, J.T. Ellison, David Bell, Sarah Hilary, Claire McGowan, Tina Baker, Sam Carrington, Liz Mistry, C.L. Taylor, Helen Fields, Russ Thomas, Tom Mead, Vaseem Khan, Samantha Hayes & Belinda Bauer

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: 9/12/2024

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 my last day of school today and can now enjoy some time off until I’m back in January. I really hope this means more reading!

My chosen book this week is one I have recently treated myself to.

I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest with You by Miranda Hart

I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You. I know – what an intriguing title!

Basically, I have had an unexpectedly difficult decade – there have been surprising joys, but also deep revelations and challenging lows. I shall be honest about those, because what I discovered in the difficult times were my, what I call, treasures. Treasures – practical tools, values, ways, answers researched from some great scientists, neuroscientists, therapists, sociologists (all the ‘ists’) out there, that have genuinely led to a sense of freedom, joy, peace and physical recovery I never would have thought possible. Life now, amazingly, with what I will share, is – SUCH FUN! (always important to quote your own catch phrases. . .)

If you fancy having a read, then I hope my story might help your story. After all, we are in this beautiful, mysterious, challenging life together. Rest assured there are funny stories along the way – we will have a laugh too, my dear reader chum. Oh, and I couldn’t possibly say if there is a love story in it . . . (There is – shush) Exciting.

Happy Reading

Etsy

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

December 2024 TBR

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I am slowly getting ready for Christmas and have just come back from playing for a Carol service which was lovely.

I am really hoping to get a lot of reading done over December and I have some fab books planned.

I’m going to read the Christmas themed books first and then move on to the non Christmas books if I’m doing well.

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: 4/12/2024

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 have had a busy day teaching so I haven’t managed much reading but I plan to do more later.

What I am Currently Reading

I have been reading my poem a day from my new book and I find it a nice way to start the day. I have nearly finished Catherine De’Medici and I am already looking at my next read from Mary Hollingsworth.

What I have Recently Finished Reading

I read this little book yesterday as it is one of the books on my Christmas TBR list. Review will follow soon.

What I Think I will Read Next

Here is my planned reading for December but not sure what I will read first.

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: 2/12/2024

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 to work today after a week off from being ill and it has been rather a shock to the system.

I haven’t managed much reading today but hopefully I will tomorrow.

My chosen book to feature this week is another off my Christmas reading list.

Everyone This Christmas has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson

My name is Ernest Cunningham.

I’m not a detective. I just happen to have a knack for what makes mysteries – and murderers – tick. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any killers out there might be willing to take a break for the holidays.

I was wrong.

So here I am, backstage at the Christmas show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. From the magician’s assistant to the hypnotist, my suspects are all professional tricksters. Masters in the art of misdirection.

My clues are even more of a mystery:

A suspect covered in blood, with no memory of how it got there.

A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens.

And an advent calendar. Because, you know. It’s Christmas.

Solving the murder is the only gift I want this year.

But can I catch a killer, and make it home for Christmas alive?

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: 27/11/2024

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 can’t believe it is nearly December. I am still throughly enjoying my Nonfiction November reading and I might let it continue into December as well. However, I do have a lot of Christmas books planned for December.

What I am Currently Reading

Why have I never come across Mary Hollingsworth before? I can’t put the Catherine De’ Medici book down which does mean my Wheel of Time reading has been a little neglected recently.

What I have Recently Finished Reading

Really enjoyed these two books. Here is my review of Children of England.

What I Think I will Read Next

I suspect I will be into my Christmas reading next so here are some of the possibilities.

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: 25/11/2024

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. My day has been full with teaching with very little reading sadly. If I can keep my eyes open I plan to do some reading later.

My chosen book this week is by one of my favourites. I absolutely love The Expanse series so I am very excited to read another series by James S. A. Corey.

The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey

How humanity came to the planet called Anjiin is lost in the fog of history, but that history is about to end.

The Carryx – part empire, part hive – have waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy. Now, they are facing a great and deathless enemy. The key to their survival may rest with the humans of Anjiin.

Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team. Then the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them.

They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure. Only Dafyd and a handful of his companions see past the Darwinian contest to the deeper game that they must play to survive: learning to understand – and manipulate – the Carryx themselves.

With a noble but suicidal human rebellion on one hand and strange and murderous enemies on the other, the team pays a terrible price to become the trusted servants of their new rulers.

Dafyd Alkhor is a simple man swept up in events that are beyond his control and more vast than his imagination. He will become the champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people.

This is where his story begins.

Happy Reading

Etsy

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

Top Ten Tuesday: Oldest (aka Earliest Published) Books On My TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For more info please check out Jana’s blog.

Hello!

I was going to do a book review today but when I saw the prompt for today for Top Ten Tuesday I thought it was perfect. I love reading the classics and although I haven’t read many recently it is my plan to get back into reading more next year.

Here is my list:

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Quite a few Gaskell and Hardy but I’ve always hoped to read all of Hardy’s full length novels. I’ve also hoped to read all of Dickens’ books so Little Dorrit would be quite a substantial book to tick off the list.

What old books do you have one your TBR?

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: 18/11/2024

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. I have managed a little bit of reading between lessons today which has been nice.

My chosen book to feature off my Goodreads TBR is another recent addition but one that I am really excited about reading. I have read all the previous books from the series and loved them. It is a nonfiction book so I think I might read it during my Nonfiction November.

Diddly Squat: Home to Roost by Jeremy Clarkson

Welcome back to Clarkson’s Farm.

So, that went well . . .

The spring barley crop failed.

Just like the oil seed rape.

And the durum wheat.

Then the oats turned the colour of a hearing aid and the mushrooms went mouldy.

Farming sheep, pigs and cows was hardly more lucrative. Jeremy would be better off trying to breed ostriches.

But in the face of uncooperative weather, the relentless realities of the agricultural economy, bureaucracy, a truculent local planning department and the world’s persistent refusal to recognise his ingenuity and genius, our hero’s not beaten yet. Not while the farm shop’s still doing a roaring trade in candles that smell like his knacker hammock, he isn’t.

On the face of it, the challenges of making a success of Diddly Squat are enough to have you weeping into your (Hawkstone) beer, but misery loves company and in girlfriend Lisa, Farm Manager Kaleb, Cheerful Charlie and Gerald his Head of Security Jeremy knows he’s got the best. And it’s hard for a chap to feel too gloomy about things when there’s a JCB telehandler, a crop-spraying hovercraft and a digger in the barn.

Because as a wise man* once said, ‘there’s no man alive who wouldn’t have fun with a digger . . .’

*Jeremy

Happy Reading

Etsy

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