Category: Memes

Spell the Month in Books – August 2025

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

Spell the Month in Books is a pretty straightforward meme. On the first Saturday of each month Jana at Reviews from the Stacks opens up a thread welcoming participants to leave a comment with a link to their post, but you can join at any point during the month. Find book titles that start with each letter in the month’s name, make a list, share your list, and that’s it!

This month’s theme is favourite authors!

These are just some of my favourite books from some of my favourite authors. I’ve given a very brief description of each book. For more information click on the book titles to go to my posts about them.

A is for The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie, a Poirot murder mystery. A series of murders advertised in advance by letters to Poirot, and signed by an anonymous ‘ABC’.

U is for An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas, the sixth in Fred Vargas’ Commissaire Adamsberg series in which he investigates a macabre murder.

G is for Gallows Court by Martin Edward, the first Rachel Savernake Golden Age Mystery novel, set in 1920s London. This is an intricately plotted murder mystery, dark and atmospheric, with plenty of suspense and intrigue.

U is for The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, the story of Her Majesty, not named, who visited a travelling library and the books she borrowed. It’s amusing and thought provoking as well. 

S is for Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville, set in 19th century Australia, where the convicts, transported or ‘sent out‘ are  now called ‘old colonists‘. It’s the sequel to The Secret River and it does reveals a significant part of that book, so be aware of that if you haven’t read The Secret River.

T is for Tombland by C J Sansom, a Shardlake novel, beginning in 1549, Edward VI is king, a minor and England is ruled by the Duke of Somerset as Lord Protector. Rebellion is spreading in protest against the landowners’ enclosures of the common land.

Are you participating in this meme? If you are, let me know, and I will visit your post. Enjoy your reading!

Spell the Month in Books July 2025

Published on by Margaret3 Comments

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted by Jana on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month. The goal is to spell the current month with the first letter of book titles, excluding articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ as needed. That’s all there is to it! Some months there are optional theme challenges, such as “books with an orange cover” or books of a particular genre, but for the most part, any book you want to use is fair game!

The optional theme this month is “set in a fantasy world or fictional place”. I thought this would be difficult but I managed to find books I’ve read for all the letters in JULY for this theme except for Y!

J is for Just So Stories for Little Children written and illustrated by Rudyard Kipling

This book contains Rudyard Kipling’s 1902 collection of short stories, Just So Stories. They are stories he told his daughter, Effie (Josephine) as bedtime stories – fantastic accounts of how various features of animals came to be. Kipling explained: ‘in the evening there were stories meant to put Effie to sleep, and you were not allowed to alter those by one single little word. They had to be told just so; or Effie would wake up and put back the missing sentence.’

My favourite is The Cat That Walked by Himself about when the tame animals were all wild. The wildest of all was the Cat and this is Kipling’s explanation of how the cat came to use humans for its own comfort but remained independent, walking in the Wet Wild Woods, ‘waving his tail and walking by his wild lone.’ Kipling’s illustrations in this book are perfect.

It also includes: ‘How the Whale got His Throat’, ‘How the Camel Got His Hump’, ‘How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin’, ‘How the Leopard Got His Spots’, ‘The Elephant’s Child’, ‘The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo’, ‘The Beginning of the Armadillos’, ‘How the First Letter was Written’, and more. 

U is for The Uncertain Midnight by Edmund Cooper

The author wrote that he had written this book before the Space Age, before the development of lasers, before it was possible to give a man a new heart.

I like it because of that; it’s low on technology and high on philosophy. It’s not set in outer space, but firmly on Earth  – but Earth in the 22nd century, a world run by machines, androids, who have taken over the burdens of work and responsibility, a world where the humans are required to spend their lives in leisure pursuits, but are subject to ‘Analysis’ (brain-washing) if the androids think they are maladjusted .

John Markham emerges in 2113 after spending 146 years in suspended animation, frozen deep under ground after an atomic holocaust had devastated his world. In 2113 not all humans were happy to leave everything to the androids. Known as Runners these humans believed in ‘human dignity, freedom of action and the right to work’. Markham struggles to adapt and this raises the question of whether the androids could be said to be alive – leading to discussions about the definition of life, the difference between determinism and free will, and eventually leading to war between the androids and the Runners.

L is for The Ladies of Grace Adieu and other Stories by Susanna Clarke

As a child I read all the fairytale books I could find and The Ladies collection takes me back to the magical world of those stories. They are full of deep dark woods, paths leading to houses that seemingly move locations, ladies who are never what they appear to be, princesses, owls, and above all fairies, including the Raven King.

The stories are all captivating and strange and set up echoes in my mind of such fairytales, as Rumpelstiltskin (in On Lickerish Hill). My favourite stories are The Ladies of Grace Adieu, Mrs Mabb, and The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse. The Ladies explains why Jonathan Strange prevented his clergyman brother-in-law from an engagement with Cassandra Parbringer as Strange discovers that his magic is no match for Cassandra and her two friends, the three bewitching ladies of Grace Adieu.

The story I enjoyed the most was The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse. I have not read any of Neil Gaiman’s books, but I think I really should. The story of the Duke’s horse is set in Wall, a village in the world created by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, where there is an actual wall dividing our world and the world of Faerie, guarded by burly villagers with cudgels. The proud Duke, the Nation’s Hero, passes unchallenged by the intimidated villagers into Faerie, in pursuit of his horse. His fate is then seemingly set in stitches in a magnificent piece of embroidery in exquisite pictures. The Duke’s fate depends on whether he can alter the future shown in the embroidery. The ending has a satisfying twist.

Y is for Young Wizards Series: The First Three Books  by Diane Duane. I haven’t read these books. If you have please let me know what you think about them.

Nita is just looking for an escape from her bullies when she stumbles upon an odd book in thelibrary: “So You Want to Be a Wizard.” Nita at first thinks it s a joke. But once she reads the mysterious book, an alternate universe of Manhattan reveals itself to Nita and her friend Kit. The pair embark on a terrifying adventure where real life and magic intertwine and they find themselves entrenched in a battle between good and evil.

Join Nita and Kit on their magical adventures in the Young Wizards starter pack dive deep into the ocean of Deep Wizardry where whales are wizards and ancient rituals are performed by sharks and dolphins. From the sea to the sky, join the dynamic duo on their third and most frightening challenge yet: Nita s little sister, Dairine. Not only is she too smart for a ten-year-old, but she just became a wizard with almost limitless power. Kit and Nita end up chasing her across the galaxy before she gets into trouble so deep no one can rescue her.

For fans of magic with a thirst for adventure, dive right in with the Young Wizards starter pack, which contains three books: “So You Want to Be a Wizard, Deep Wizardry, “and “High Wizardry. “”

The next link up will be on August 2, 2025 when the optional theme will be Written by your favorite author(s)

Spell the Month in Books: June 2025

Published on by Margaret3 Comments

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted by Jana on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month. The goal is to spell the current month with the first letter of book titles, excluding articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ as needed. That’s all there is to it! Some months there are optional theme challenges, such as “books with an orange cover” or books of a particular genre, but for the most part, any book you want to use is fair game!

This month’s Spell the Month in Books theme is Books that you found or currently see at the library. For this theme I’ve used books I’ve previously borrowed from the library for the letters J, U, and E and a book I’ve seen on the library’s website for the letter N.

Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear – Travelling into the heart of Nazi Germany, Maisie encounters unexpected dangers – and finds herself questioning whether it’s time to return to the work she loved. But the Secret Service may have other ideas!

Uncommon Appeal of Clouds by Alexander McCall Smith – an Isabel Dalhousie book – An unexpected appeal for help from a collector who has been the victim of an art theft threatens to take Isabel Dalhousie far outside her comfort zone.

None So Blind by Alis Hawkins – West Wales, 1850. When an old tree root is dug up, the remains of a young woman are found. Harry Probert-Lloyd, a young barrister forced home from London by encroaching blindness, has been dreading this discovery. He knows exactly whose bones they are. Working with his clerk, John Davies, Harry is determined to expose the guilty. But the investigation turns up more questions than answers and raises long-buried secrets. The search for the truth will prove costly.

An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell a Wallender thriller – Kurt Wallander’s life looks like it has taken a turn for the better when his offer on a new house is accepted, only for him to uncover something unexpected in the garden – the skeleton of a middle-aged woman. As police officers comb the property, Wallander attempts to get his new life back on course by finding the woman’s killer with the aid of his.

The next link up will be on July 5, 2025 when the optional theme will be: Set in a fantasy world or fictional place.

Spell the Month in Books May 2025

Published on by Margaret13 Comments

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted by Jana on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month. The goal is to spell the current month with the first letter of book titles, excluding articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ as needed. That’s all there is to it! Some months there are optional theme challenges, such as “books with an orange cover” or books of a particular genre, but for the most part, any book you want to use is fair game!

This month’s there isn’t a theme. I’ve read the first two of these three books and the third is one of my TBRs.

M is for The Madonna of the Almonds by Marina Fiorato, which I read soon after it was first published in 2009. It is a love story above all, but there is so much more as well. It’s set in Italy in the 16th century, about a young widow, Simonetta di Saronno, struggling to save her home, who meets the artist Bernadino, a protege of Leonardo da Vinci. 

Bernardino Luini, favoured apprentice of Leonardo da Vinci, is commissioned to paint a religious fresco in the hills of Lombardy. His eye is caught by the beautiful Simonetta di Saronno, a young noblewoman who has lost her husband to battle, and whose fortune is gone. Captivated by her beauty and sadness, Bernardino paints Simonetta’s likeness, immortalizing her as the Madonna in his miraculous frescoes in Saronno’s church. As the sittings progress, they fall in love, and Simonetta reciprocates Luini’s genius, with the help of a Jew, known as Manodorata (because of the golden hand replacing his own hand that had been chopped off by the Spanish Inquisition) by creating a drink for her lover a delicious liqueur, Amaretto, from the almond trees, the only crop growing on her estate.

I love the story-telling aspects of this book, its rich descriptions of art and the detailed history of the period. I love Italy, history, art history and almonds, especially Amaretto, so this book just could not fail to delight me.

A is for After the Funeral by Agatha Christie, one of her Hercule Poirot murder mysteries. I read this in 2012 and loved it.

When Cora is savagely murdered, the extraordinary remark she made the previous day at her brother’s funeral takes on a chilling significance. At the reading of Richard’s will, Cora was clearly heard to say, “It’s been hushed up very nicely, hasn’t it…But he was murdered, wasn’t he?”  In desperation, the family solicitor turns to Hercule Poirot to unravel what happened next …

I read it quickly and consequently had little idea who had killed Cora. I did spend some time looking at the family tree at the beginning of the book, working out the family relationships and who was present at Richard Abernethie’s funeral and their reaction to Cora’s question. It seemed to me that any of the family could have done it – Agatha Christie goes through the actions and thoughts of each character and there’s cause for suspicion for each one.

Apart from trying to solve the mystery I was interested in the glimpses into life in post-war Britain, where jobs are scarce, servants even more scarce and there are complaints about the economic situation, with high taxation and the prospect of properties such as the Abernethie house being turned into a hotel, or institute, or even worse being pulled down and the whole estate built over.

Y is for Yellowface by Rebecca F Yuang, one of my TBRs, which I bought because I’d read positive reviews from other bloggers.

THIS IS ONE HELL OF A STORY.

IT’S JUST NOT HERS TO TELL.

When failed writer June Hayward witnesses her rival Athena Liu die in a freak accident, she sees her opportunity… and takes it.

So what if it means stealing Athena’s final manuscript?

So what if it means ‘borrowing’ her identity?

And so what if the first lie is only the beginning…

Finally, June has the fame she always deserved. But someone is about to expose her…

What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.

Next month June 7: reflects the beginning of the library’s Summer Reading program: books that you found or currently see at the library.

The Summer Reading Challenge, delivered in partnership with public libraries across the UK, is back for 2025! Launching in June in Scotland and July in England and Wales, the Challenge invites children to embark on an exciting reading journey, either through their local library or online. This year’s theme, Story Garden, encourages young readers to explore nature and the great outdoors through reading. 

Spell the Month in Books – April 2025

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted by Jana on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month. The goal is to spell the current month with the first letter of book titles, excluding articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ as needed. That’s all there is to it! Some months there are optional theme challenges, such as “books with an orange cover” or books of a particular genre, but for the most part, any book you want to use is fair game!

This option this month is Animal on the Cover or in the Title, which I found much easier to do than some of the previous options. These are all books I’ve read, apart from Inchworm.

A is for Animal Farm by George Orwell is an allegorical novella, of the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union. It tells the story of a farm where the animals rebel against the farmer, Mr Jones, and throw him off the land. They hope to create a society where they are all equal, free and happy. Ultimately, the farm ends up in a state that is as bad, if not worse than it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon. It begins as the old boar Major tells the animals about his dream of overthrowing the human race when the produce of their labour would then be their own and he incites them to rebel. In the story that follows the Major is based on Marx, Farmer Jones on the Tsar, the pigs Napoleon and Snowball are based on Stalin and Trotsky respectively. Their revolution began by declaring that all animals are equal and ended with the added phrase but some animals are more equal than others.

P is for The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie. Neither Hercule Poirot, nor Miss Marple feature in this novel and Mrs Ariadne Oliver has only a small part. Detective Inspector Lejeune is in charge of the investigation into the murder of Father Gorman who was killed one night on his way home. A list of names is found on Father Gorman’s body, seemingly unconnected in any way. The title,  a reference from the Book of Revelation  to a pale horse ridden by Death suggested to me from the beginning that what they had in common was death.

The Pale Horse is an old house  which was formerly an inn in the village and is now the home of three weird women, thought by the locals to be witches. The Pale Horse is also the name of a sinister organisation that arranges murders based on black magic. It’s a fascinating book conveying a feeling of real menace.

R is for The Raven’s Head by Karen Maitland. Set in 1224 in France and England this is a dark book. I found parts of it very uncomfortable and disturbing to read and yet also very compelling. Life in the medieval world was cruel and brutal and The Raven’s Head describes that world in minute detail, evoking the superstitious fear of the period.

The story is told from the three main characters point of view – Vincent, Wilky, a young boy taken from his family to live in a monastery in Norfolk where unspeakable terrors await him and the other young boys, and Gisa also living in Norfolk, working in her uncle’s apothecary’s shop. Their lives are connected through Lord Sylvain who is trying to find a way to bring the dead back to life and the abbot, trying to find the elixir of life – both experimenting with alchemy.

I is for Inchworm by Ann Kelly. Gussie is a twelve year old girl from St. Ives in Cornwall. She is passionate about learning, wildlife, poetry, literature, and she wants to be a photographer when she grows up. But her dreams were put on hold as she struggled with a serious heart condition. Now she has got what she needed: a heart and lung transplant. But it isn’t working out quite the way she thought. Firstly she has to leave her beloved Cornwall to live in London and in the months following her operation she is unable to do very much except read and adopt a stray kitten, but she could do that when she was sick. She craves adventure and experience beyond her four walls, until, that is, she hits upon a plan – she is going to get her divorced parents to fall in love again. It’s not going to be easy, her mum is still dating her doctor boyfriend and despises Gussie’s father, who happens to be living with his new girlfriend – the Snow Queen. But Gussie is a determined girl and there is only one thing that could stop her now.

L is for Lion by Conn Iggluden. This is the first book in Conn Iggulden’s Golden Age series set in Amcient Greece in the 5th century BCE. I thoroughly enjoyed it which surprised me as generally speaking I’m not keen on reading battle scenes and the book starts and ends with battles. But I had no problem with following the action of the battles between the Greeks and the Persians, and was able to visualise what was going on without any difficulty. The characters’ names took me a little while to get clear in my mind but I soon got used to them. The two main characters are both young men, Cimon the older of the two has more authority than Pericles, the younger man. Lion is the story of their early careers.

The next link up will be on May 3, 2025 when the theme will be: Freebie

Spell the Month in Books – March 2025

Published on by Margaret3 Comments

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted by Jana on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month. The goal is to spell the current month with the first letter of book titles, excluding articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ as needed. That’s all there is to it! Some months there are optional theme challenges, such as “books with an orange cover” or books of a particular genre, but for the most part, any book you want to use is fair game!

This option this month is Science Fiction. I don’t read much science fiction these days, but I used to read a lot. I’ve chosen some books I read long before I began writing about books, some I’ve read more recently and some books that I own but haven’t read yet. The descriptions in italics are taken either from Amazon UK or from Goodreads.

M is for The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham (my review).

The story is set in an ordinary village, with a village green and a white-railed pond, a church and vicarage, an inn, smithy, post office, village shop and sixty cottages and small houses, a village hall, and two large houses, Kyle Manor and The Grange. A very ordinary village where not much goes on, which makes what happens there even more extraordinary. It’s eerie and very chilling, a story of alien invasion and the apparent helplessness of humanity to put up any resistance.

The Midwich Cuckoos is the classic tale of aliens in our midst, exploring how we respond when confronted by those who are innately superior to us in every conceivable way.

In the sleepy English village of Midwich, a mysterious silver object appears and all the inhabitants fall unconscious. A day later the object is gone and everyone awakens unharmed – except that all the women in the village are discovered to be pregnant.

The resultant children of Midwich do not belong to their parents: all are blonde, all are golden eyed. They grow up too fast and their minds exhibit frightening abilities that give them control over others and brings them into conflict with the villagers just as a chilling realisation dawns on the world outside . . .

A is for Artemis by Andy Weir – a TBR, a book I bought after watching, The Martian, the film of his first book.

WELCOME TO ARTEMIS. The first city on the moon.
Population 2,000. Mostly tourists.
Some criminals.

Jazz Bashara is one of the criminals. She lives in a poor area of Artemis and subsidises her work as a porter with smuggling contraband onto the moon. But it’s not enough.

So when she’s offered the chance to make a lot of money she jumps at it. But though planning a crime in 1/6th gravity may be more fun, it’s also a lot more dangerous.

When you live on the moon, of course you have a dark side…

R is for Rendezvous with Rama. This is a book that we bought many years ago. I’m not sure whether I’ve read it or not. It was first published in 1973, so I’m guessing we bought it in the 1970s, the period when we were reading lots of science fiction.

The multi-award-winning SF masterpiece from one of the greatest SF writers of all time

Rama is a vast alien spacecraft that enters the Solar System. A perfect cylinder some fifty kilometres long, spinning rapidly, racing through space, Rama is a technological marvel, a mysterious and deeply enigmatic alien artefact.

It is Mankind’s first visitor from the stars and must be investigated …

C is for Children of Dune by Frank Herbert, the third Dune novel. I read all the Dune books many years ago.

The Children of Dune are twin siblings Leto and Ghanima Atreides, whose father, the Emperor Paul Muad’Dib, disappeared in the desert wastelands of Arrakis nine years ago. Like their father, the twins possess supernormal abilities–making them valuable to their manipulative aunt Alia, who rules the Empire in the name of House Atreides.

Facing treason and rebellion on two fronts, Alia’s rule is not absolute. The displaced House Corrino is plotting to regain the throne while the fanatical Fremen are being provoked into open revolt by the enigmatic figure known only as The Preacher. Alia believes that by obtaining the secrets of the twins’ prophetic visions, she can maintain control over her dynasty.

But Leto and Ghanima have their own plans for their visions–and their destinies….

H is for The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – another book I read long before I began reviewing books.

Discover the dystopian novel that started a phenomenon.

Offred is a Handmaid in The Republic of Gilead. She is placed in the household of The Commander, Fred Waterford – her assigned name, Offred, means ‘of Fred’. She has only one function: to breed. If Offred refuses to enter into sexual servitude to repopulate a devastated world, she will be hanged. Yet even a repressive state cannot eradicate hope and desire. As she recalls her pre-revolution life in flashbacks, Offred must navigate through the terrifying landscape of torture and persecution in the present day, and between two men upon which her future hangs.

The next link up will be on April 5, 2025 when the theme will be: Animal on the Cover or in the Title.