2023

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 so far. I am on half term so I had a lovely morning reading and drinking tea.

My chosen book today is one I have only recently purchased but one that I have wanted to read for a while.

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

WWW Wednesday: 18/10/2023

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. My reading is not going very well this month but I keep trying to catch up.

What I am Currently Reading

I started this yesterday and so far I am really enjoying it. The print is rather cramped which makes it harder to read whilst tired but I will keep trying.

What I have Recently Finished Reading

Divine Might took me quite a while to finish but I really enjoyed it. A Stroke of the Pen was an excellent book that I flew through.

What I Think I will Read Next

As per usual I’m not sure what I will read next but these are some possible contenders.

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

The Classics Club: Spin #35 – Results

Hello!

The results are in and I am so happy! The number for the Spin event was 2. Number on 2 my list is Persuasion by Jane Austen. This will be a reread for me but as I love Austen and Persuasion is my favourite Austen novel I am not complaining. I can’t wait to get reading this fabulous book. I am still hoping to read Northanger Abbey this month so the end of this year will be a filled with Austen.

Persuasion is Jane Austen’s last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma, completing it in August 1816. She died, aged 41, in 1817; Persuasion was published in December that year (but dated 1818). Persuasion is linked to Northanger Abbey not only by the fact that the two books were originally bound up in one volume and published together, but also because both stories are set partly in Bath, a fashionable city with which Austen was well acquainted, having lived there from 1801 to 1805. Besides the theme of persuasion, the novel evokes other topics, such as the Royal Navy, in which two of Jane Austen’s brothers ultimately rose to the rank of admiral. As in Northanger Abbey, the superficial social life of Bath-well known to Austen, who spent several relatively unhappy and unproductive years there-is portrayed extensively and serves as a setting for the second half of the book. In many respects Persuasion marks a break with Austen’s previous works, both in the more biting, even irritable satire directed at some of the novel’s characters and in the regretful, resigned outlook of its otherwise admirable heroine, Anne Elliot, in the first part of the story. Against this is set the energy and appeal of the Royal Navy, which symbolises for Anne and the reader the possibility of a more outgoing, engaged, and fulfilling life, and it is this worldview which triumphs for the most part at the end of the novel.

I really hope I finish the book before the 3rd December 2023.

Please drop me a comment if you are doing the Classics Club challenge or if you have taken part in the Spin Challenge.

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: 9/10/2023

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 particularly exhausting but I have worked out a good reading routine whilst at school. I can average half a page of reading whilst I’m waiting for my next student to arrive and I must admit it soon adds up.

My chosen book to feature this week is one I picked up in Hay-on-Wye during the Summer. I thought it would the perfect read for October so I’m hoping I manage to read it this month. If it gets cold enough I might even manage to read it in front of a nice fire.

This is a book to be read by a blazing fire on a winter’s night, with the curtains drawn close and the doors securely locked.

The unquiet souls of the dead, both as fictional creations and as ‘real’ apparitions, roam the pages of this haunting new selection of ghost stories by Rex Collings. Some of these stories are classics while others are lesser-known gems unearthed from this vintage era of tales of the supernatural.

There are stories from distant lands – Fisher’s Ghost by John Lang is set in Australia and A Ghostly Manifestation by ‘A Clergyman’ is set in Calcutta. In this selection, Sir Walter Scott (a Victorian in spirit if not in fact), keeps company with Edgar Allen Poe, Sheridan Le Fanu and other illustrious masters of the genre.

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

October 2023 TBR

Hello!

I’m going to try this TBR thing again. September went really badly as I actually didn’t read one single book off my planned TBR. I did read a book by one of the authors just not the one I had planned. I am a mood reader so planning my reads never works out brilliantly but I usually manage a couple of planned reads, but not in September it would seem. I am really hoping I manage some in October as I have some spooky reads planned!

Books I hope to read in October

Last month was a fantastic reading month for me so I’m really hoping October will prove to be as good.

What are your book plans for September?

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: 4/10/2023

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!

Reading has gone better today, the hour and twenty minute lunch break sat in my car always helps with my reading on Wednesdays.

What I am Currently Reading

I have just started this and I am finding it fascinating. It is really making me see the concept of the Greek gods differently.

What I have Recently Finished Reading

I do love my Dr Ruth Galloway books and this one did not disappoint. Hetty Dorval was an interesting read and a fab introduction to Ethel Wilson.

What I Think I will Read Next

I’m not sure why but I’m still being drawn to more nonfiction reading than fiction. This is quite unusual for me especially when work is in full swing as I usually find fiction more relaxing.

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: 2/10/2023

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 so far. Mine has been rather exciting because we finally got some fish for our fish tank. We are now the proud owners of 6 male guppies.

My chosen book today is one that I have had preordered for ages and one that I will be reading next. I’m really excited to read this as it looks really interesting.

We meet Athene, who sprang fully formed from her father’s head: goddess of war and wisdom, guardian of Athens. We run with Artemis, goddess of hunting and protector of young girls (apart from those she decides she wants as a sacrifice). Here is Aphrodite, goddess of sex and desire – there is no deity more determined and able to make you miserable if you annoy her. And then there’s the queen of all the Olympian gods: Hera, Zeus’s long-suffering wife, whose jealousy of his dalliances with mortals, nymphs and goddesses lead her to wreak elaborate, vicious revenge on those who have wronged her.

We also meet Demeter, goddess of agriculture and mother of the kidnapped Persephone, we sing the immortal song of the Muses and we warm ourselves with Hestia, goddess of the hearth and sacrificial fire. The Furies carry flames of another kind – black fires of vengeance for those who incur their wrath.

These goddesses are as mighty, revered and destructive as their male counterparts. Isn’t it time we looked beyond the columns of a ruined temple to the awesome power within?

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: 27/09/2023

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. My reading has been reasonably good so far this week. I’m hoping to finish one more book before the end of the month.

What I am Currently Reading

I needed a comfort read this week so I went to my favourite book series. Dr Ruth Galloway never fails to bring a smile to my face.

What I have Recently Finished Reading

I could not put The Beautiful Ones down and I think it must be one of my favourite reads for 2023. I really enjoyed Kings and Queens by Tony Robinson, it was quite interesting to read a book about the monarchy by someone who is clearly quite anti-monarchy.

What I Think I will Read Next

As per usual I have no idea what I will be reading next but here are some 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: 25/09/2023

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 so far. Mine has been super busy with teaching so sadly I have only managed to read the grand total of 4 pages so far today.

My chosen book this week is one by one of my favourite authors, Martha Wells. I absolutely love her books and can’t wait to read this one.

After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.

But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?

Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.

He’s not going to like the answers.

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: 20/09/2023

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’s week is going well so far. I had a lovely lunch break reading today which was a nice break from all the teaching.

What I am Currently Reading

I started this book today and I have not been able to put it down it is so good!

What I have Recently Finished Reading

This took me a while to read but I really enjoyed it. Review will be arriving soon.

What I Think I will Read Next

I’m still keeping up with my hardback reading. I really need to catch up with my reading challenges as I’m still falling behind.

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