Goodreads Monday: 7/10/2024

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 had a busy day teaching but I have also managed a bit of reading.

My chosen book to feature this week is one by my favourite author and historian Alison Weir.

Mary I Queen of Sorrows by Alison Weir

Adored only child of King Henry VIII and his first wife Katherine of Aragon, young Princess Mary grows up as the sole heiress to the English throne. But her father wants a son, and soon Mary’s world begins to fall apart.

With her parents’ marriage – and England – in crisis, Mary is banished from the court and kept apart from the mother she adores. The King promises to restore his daughter to favour, but first Mary must do something for which she will never forgive herself.

She seeks solace in her faith. But when her brother Edward VI dies, she finds herself fighting for the crown – and for her life. Emerging triumphant, all seems fair for the reign of Queen Mary. And then, very quickly, things began to go badly wrong…

MARY I. HER STORY.

Alison Weir’s new Tudor novel, a tale full of drama and tragedy, tells the story of how a princess with such promise, loved by all who knew her, becomes the infamous Bloody Mary.

Happy Reading

Etsy

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

October 2024 TBR

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I have been doing really well with my reading this week and I have so many books that I want to read before the end of the year. Sadly, I didn’t read any of the books on my September TBR but I hope to do better this month.

Here are the books I really want to read this month.

I’m really looking forward to reading these books.

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: 30/9/2024

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 finished earlier than expected due to students been off ill so I came home early made myself a lovely mug of tea and read my book until dinner time. It was absolute bliss!

My chosen book to feature this week is one that I have wanted to read for a very long time and this year I bought a copy and added it to my extensive TBR pile.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

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: 25/9/2024

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 have had a lovely day of teaching and reading today. I’ve also had rather an exciting book delivery which is always fun.

What I am Currently Reading

I am completely hooked on Fourth Wing and have been reading it today in every available spare minute I have had. I’m so pleased I have the next book lined up to read as well. A Crown of Swords is still plodding along and I’m still really enjoying it.

What I have Recently Finished Reading

Thoroughly enjoyed this and review will be published soon.

What I Think I will Read Next

As usual I have no idea what I will read next but here are a few 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

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Autumn 2024 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 hope everyone is having a good week so far. I have had a lovely day with a little bit of teaching, reading and book buying! I only went into my local bookshop to have a browse but I ended up buying 3 books.

I really want to dedicate November to nonfiction books so my TBR list for Autumn is a mix of fiction and nonfiction.

  1. The Last Song of Penelope by Claire North
  2. The Princes in the Tower by Philippa Langley
  3. Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard
  4. Hera by Jennifer Saint
  5. Klova by Karen Langston
  6. The Household by Stacey Halls
  7. What the Greeks Did for Us by Tony Spawforth
  8. Medea by Rosie Hewlett
  9. The Shadow King by Harry Sidebottom
  10. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Bettany Hughes

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: 23/9/2024

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 chosen book this week is actually the next book in a series I have been reading. This whole series has been sat on my TBR since I bought them all in one go. I love this series and I hope to read the next in the series soon.

Persepolis Rising by James S. A. Corey

An old enemy returns.

In the thousand-sun network of humanity’s expansion, new colony worlds are struggling to find their way. Every new planet lives on a knife edge between collapse and wonder, and the crew of the aging gunship Rocinante have their hands more than full keeping the fragile peace.

In the vast space between Earth and Jupiter, the inner planets and belt have formed a tentative and uncertain alliance still haunted by a history of wars and prejudices. On the lost colony world of Laconia, a hidden enemy has a new vision for all of humanity and the power to enforce it.

New technologies clash with old as the history of human conflict returns to its ancient patterns of war and subjugation. But human nature is not the only enemy, and the forces being unleashed have their own price. A price that will change the shape of humanity — and of the Rocinante — unexpectedly and forever…

Happy Reading

Etsy

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

24 Books in 2024 – Update #2

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. I had meant to post this post near the beginning of the month but I fell behind.

I have been really enjoying my challenge and even though I doubt I will finish it this year it has significantly lowered my TBR pile which I am happy about. I am definitely going to do a similar challenge next year but next time I will try and choose shorter books as most of the books on my current list are huge! Here is my original list.

I am very far behind with the challenge but I have managed to read 10 books so far this year and I have 30 pages left of book 11.

Books I have read

14 books to go!

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: 16/9/2024

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 done 8 hours of teaching today so my brain is feeling rather frazzled but I’m looking forward to my book later.

My chosen book today is one that I hope to read soon as I really enjoyed the previous book.

The Last Song of Penelope by Claire North

This is the story of Penelope of Ithaca, famed wife of Odysseus, as it has never been told before. Many years ago, Odysseus sailed to war and never returned. For twenty years his wife Penelope and the women of Ithaca have guarded the isle against suitors and rival kings. But peace cannot be kept forever, and the balance of power is about to break . . .A beggar has arrived at the Palace. Salt-crusted and ocean-battered, he is scorned by the suitors – but Penelope recognises in him something her husband, Odysseus, returned at last. Yet this Odysseus is no hero. By returning to the island in disguise, he is not merely plotting his revenge against the suitors – vengeance that will spark a civil war – but he’s testing the loyalty of his queen. Has she been faithful to him all these years? And how much blood is Odysseus willing to shed to be sure?The song of Penelope is ending, and the song of Odysseus must ring through Ithaca’s halls. But first, Penelope must use all her cunning to win a war for the fate of the island and keep her family alive, whatever the cost . . .

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: 9/9/2024

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 sadly haven’t managed much reading today as I have been catching up on household chores and working.

My chosen book to feature today is another book that has sat on my TBR pile for way too long and is also one of my books off my 24 Books in 2024 list.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders…

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

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

September 2024 TBR

Hello!

I will be honest August TBR did not go to plan and I didn’t read any of the books I had planned but I did manage to finish another Wheel of Time book so that was progress for one of my 2024 challenges.

Anyway, I will try a September TBR and hopefully I will do better this month than last month.

I’m really enjoying Greek mythology retellings at the moment but as I am back to school and full teaching soon I will be veering towards easier reads rather than the more challenging reads.

Happy Reading

Etsy

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