Goodreads Monday: 19/2/2024

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 must admit I found my first day back at school rather a shock to the system.

I am determined to start my Agatha Christie challenge back up, so for today I have chosen the next book on the list for me to read.

A practical joke goes chillingly, murderously wrong in Queen of Mystery Agatha Christie’s classic detective story, The Seven Dials Mystery.

Gerry Wade had proved himself to be a champion sleeper, so the other houseguests decided to play a practical joke on him. Eight alarm clocks were set to go off, one after the other, starting at 6:30 a.m. But when morning arrived, one clock was missing and the prank then backfired, with tragic consequences.

For Jimmy Thesiger in particular, the words “Seven Dials” were to take on a new and chilling significance…

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

Stacking the Shelves: 17/2/2024

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality. It is all about sharing the books that you have recently added to your bookshelves. These books can be physical books, ebooks and of course audiobooks.

Hello!

I am still trying to buy less books this year and so far this month I haven’t bought any books but this week a very nice author sent me her book for me to read and review. I am quite excited about this book and hope to get reading it this month.

This book is partially set in Greece so I am very excited because I just love Greece!

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: 12/2/2024

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.

Happy Monday Everyone!

I have had a lovely day enjoying the sunshine on a nice walk and National Trust visit and I have also done some teaching.

My chosen book to feature today is a book from a series I started a couple of years ago and I have sadly not finished yet. This is the next book in the series I need to read and has been sat on my TBR for way too long!

A revolution brewing for generations has begun in fire. It will end in blood.

The Free Navy – a violent group of Belters in black-market military ships – has crippled the Earth and begun a campaign of piracy and violence among the outer planets. The colony ships heading for the thousand new worlds on the far side of the alien ring gates are easy prey, and no single navy remains strong enough to protect them.

James Holden and his crew know the strengths and weaknesses of this new force better than anyone. Outnumbered and outgunned, the embattled remnants of the old political powers call on the Rocinante for a desperate mission to reach Medina Station at the heart of the gate network. 

But the new alliances are as flawed as the old, and the struggle for power has only just begun. As the chaos grows, an alien mystery deepens. Pirate fleets, mutiny and betrayal may be the least of the Rocinante’s problems. And in the uncanny spaces past the ring gates, the choices of a few damaged and desperate people may determine the fate of more than just humanity.

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: 7/2/2024

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

My reading seems to have improved a little bit this month so I am really hoping it continues to improve because I really do miss it when I can’t get a proper reading session in.

What I am Currently Reading

I have fallen slightly behind with my reading challenge for the Wheel of Time books but I am hoping to catch up over the next couple of days. I have only just started the first few pages of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau but so far so good.

What I have Recently Finished Reading

I will be honest, I didn’t really enjoy The Midnight Folk but I absolutely loved World of Wonders and will be writing the review tomorrow.

What I Think I will Read Next

There are so many good books that I want to read and not enough time. I am really trying to fit in more reading but some days it is hard.

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: 4/2/2024

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.

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. I only had a little bit of teaching today as school has been moved to Thursday for this week so we went to Hanbury Hall for a day out.

My chosen book to feature off my Goodreads TBR this week is a book I bought last year and I am quite excited about. I think this book will be a fascinating read and a different take on the history we know so well.

Here’s how the history of the Roman Empire usually goes…

We start with Romulus, go on to Brutus overthrowing Tarquin, bounce through an appallingly tedious list of battles and generals and consuls, before emerging into the political stab-fest of the late Republic. From there, it runs through all the emperors, occasionally mentioning a wife or mother to show how bad things get when women get out of control, until Constantine invents Christianity and then Attila the Hun comes and ruins everything. But the history of Rome and empire is so much more than these Important Things.

In this alternative history, Emma Southon traces the story of the Roman Empire through women: Vestal Virgins and sex workers, business owners and poets, martyrs and saints. Each gives a different perspective on women’s lives and how they changed, across time and across class lines.

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

February 2024 TBR

Hello!

I have decided that every month I will choose four books to try and read in the month. Out of the four books I had planned in January I actually managed to read two of them and I started another one yesterday. The one book I finished yesterday. I’m not great at sticking to a TBR list so I was quite pleased that I had actually managed to read two.

Three of these books have been sat on my TBR pile for way too long and one is a brand new book. I am still reading another book off my January TBR so once I have finished it I will hopefully move on to one of 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: 29/1/2024

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 and Happy Monday!

I must admit I am not very happy with my lack of reading in January, I can’t remember such a bad month reading wise and I’m not even in a reading slump. I just can’t find the time like I usually do.

I am really hoping my reading increases in February. One of the books I think I would like to read in February is this one.

From beloved, award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction–a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us.

As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted–no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape–she was able to turn to our world’s fierce and funny creatures for guidance.

“What the peacock can do,” she tells us, “is remind you of a home you will run away from and run back to all your life.” The axolotl teaches us to smile, even in the face of unkindness; the touch-me-not plant shows us how to shake off unwanted advances; the narwhal demonstrates how to survive in hostile environments. Even in the strange and the unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship. For it is this way with wonder: it requires that we are curious enough to look past the distractions in order to fully appreciate the world’s gifts.

Warm, lyrical, and gorgeously illustrated by Fumi Nakamura, World of Wonders is a book of sustenance and joy.

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

Stacking the Shelves: 27/1/2024

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality. It is all about sharing the books that you have recently added to your bookshelves. These books can be physical books, ebooks and of course audiobooks.

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. Now, I know I said that 2024 was the year I buy hardly any books and instead read through the books that I own. Well so far that hasn’t gone exactly according to plan. In my defence these books were bought in my new independent local bookshop which I hadn’t visited yet and wanted to support. February will be a better month for not buying books but my new local bookshop does have a loyalty card scheme so all hope on that front might now be lost.

Anyway, to the books!

  • 365 Poems for Life – I love these poetry books compiled by Allie Esiri and I now own several of them so when I saw this new one I knew I had to have it and so far it does not disappoint.
  • A Death in Diamonds by S. J. Bennett – I have read the first book in this series and my husband has read the second book but not the first so between us we are going well with the series. Hopefully, I will read more of this series this year.
  • The Shadow King by Harry Sidebottom – This is a new author for me but I loved the sound of the book so I bought it and hope to read it soon.

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: 22/1/2024

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 an unexpected day where quite a few of my students were off sick so it meant a shorter day for me. My chosen book today is one I got this month but I’m really hoping I get around to reading in February.

Their names still echo down the ages: The Great Pyramid at Giza. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Temple of Artemis. The statue of Zeus at Olympia. The mausoleum of Halikarnassos. The Colossus at Rhodes. The Lighthouse of Alexandria. The Seven Wonders of the World were staggeringly audacious impositions on our planet. They were also brilliant adventures of the mind, test cases of the reaches of human imagination. Now only the pyramid remains, yet the scale and majesty of these seven wonders still enthral us today.

In a thrilling, colourful narrative enriched with the latest archaeological discoveries, bestselling historian Bettany Hughes walks through the landscapes of both ancient and modern time; on a journey whose purpose is to ask why we wonder, why we create, why we choose to remember the wonder of others. She explores traces of the Wonders themselves, and the traces they have left in history. A majestic work of historical storytelling, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World reinforces the exciting, and nourishing, notion that humans can make the impossible happen.

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

The Classics Club: Spin #36

Hello!

It is time for another Classics Club Spin event! I’m really hoping to make a dent in my Classics Club list this year as I haven’t done very well so far.

I’m looking forward to seeing what my next read will be. The end of the spin period is the 3rd March so that is my deadline to get the chosen book read by.

Here is my list:

  1. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
  2. Persuasion by Jane Austen
  3. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
  4. Villette by Charlotte Bronte
  5. Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
  6. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
  7. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
  8. Middlemarch by George Eliot
  9. Cecilia by Frances Burney
  10. Evelina by Frances Burney
  11. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
  12. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
  13. Love in Excess by Eliza Haywood
  14. The Runaway by Elizabeth Anna Hart
  15. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
  16. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
  17. Candide by Volatire
  18. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
  19. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
  20. Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Have you read any of the books off my list? I will be honest some of mine are rereads but you can never read Jane Austen too many times!

Happy Reading

Etsy

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