Category: Memes

This Week in Books: 8 April 2015

Published on by Margaret16 Comments

My week in booksThis Week in Books is a weekly round-up hosted by Lypsyy Lost & Found, about what I’ve been reading Now, Then & Next. A similar meme is run by Taking on a World of Words.

Now:

I’m currently reading The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld. I have mixed feelings about it, alternating between thinking it’s good, not so good, and just about OK, so I carry on reading. It’s historical fiction based on Freud’s visit to New York in 1909, accompanied by Jung, when a young woman is brutally murdered and a second is attacked and left unable to speak. A mixture of murder mystery and psychoanalysis with an interpretation of ‘Hamlet‘ thrown in. I’ve nearly finished this book.

I’m also reading Dreamwalker: The Ballad of Sir Benfro Book One by James Oswald on my Kindle. This is fantasy fiction, not the sort of book I read very often, so it makes a refreshing change. This is inspired by the language and folklore of Wales, following the adventures of a young dragon, Sir Benfro, in a land where his kind have been hunted near to extinction by men. I’ve read about 25% of the book so far.

Then:

I’ve recently finished reading Dacre’s War by Rosemary Goring, a new book which will be published in June. My copy is a pre-publication review copy courtesy of www.lovereading.co.uk. I loved this book, historical fiction set in the Scottish and English Borders and London between 1523 – 1525, full of political intrigue and personal vengeance. My review will follow soon.

Next:

There are several books lining up that I’m keen to read next. I’m not sure which one to choose. It’s been a while since I read an Agatha Christie, so it could be The Moving Finger, a Miss Marple mystery. Or it could be Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey, or Nora Webster by Colm Tobin, or The Last Girl, the third Maeve Kerrigan book by Jane Casey. Or something completely different!

Six in Six: a Selection from the last Six Months of Reading

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

Jo at The Book Jotter  is running this meme again this year to summarise six months of reading, sorting the books into six categories – you can choose from the ones Jo suggests or come up with your own.

Here is my version for 2014, with links to my posts on the books where appropriate. I’ve only listed each book in one category, although some of them could have gone in more than one. I’ve not listed the books in order of preference:

  • Six books I loved (there are more books in the other categories I could have included here):
  1. The Dance of Love by Angela Young – review to come later
  2. A Whispered Name by William Brodrick
  3. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  4. Crucible by S G MacLean
  5. The Office of the Dead by Andrew Taylor
  6. The Potter’s Hand by A N Wilson
  • Six historical novels:
  1. The Last Enchantment by Mary Stewart (historical fantasy 5th century Britain)
  2. The King’s Evil by Edward Marston (1666)
  3. The Sea Change by Joanna Rossiter (1940s and 1971)
  4. Pictures at an Exhibition by Camilla Macpherson (1940s and present day)
  5. Dying in the Wool by Frances Brody (1922)
  6. The Witch’s Brat by Rosemary Sutcliff (12th century England)
  • Six Crime Fiction books:
  1. In the Woods by Tana French
  2. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie 
  3. Death Under Sail by C P Snow
  4. Vengeance by Benjamin Black 
  5. The Cabinetmaker by Alan Jones
  6. No Stranger to Death by Janet O’Kane 
  • Six authors I have read before:
  1. The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves
  2. Not Dead Enough by Peter James
  3. Playing With Fire by Peter Robinson 
  4. They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie 
  5. The Time Machine by H G Wells 
  6. North Sea Cottage by Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen
  • Six new authors to me:
  1. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
  2. The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers
  3. Tantalus by Jane Jazz 
  4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman 
  5. The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing 
  6. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton 
  • Six authors I read last year €“ but not so far this year and their books I have yet to read
  1. Barbara Kingslover (Flight Behaviour)
  2. Kate Morton (The Secret Keeper)
  3. Ruth Rendell (Put on by Cunning)
  4. Josephine Tey (Miss Pym Disposes)
  5. Jane Gardam (I have three of hers to read)
  6. Iris Murdoch (The Unicorn)

Today's post is brought to you by the letter…

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

Simon T of Stuck In A Book has started another meme. He randomly generates a letter for you and then you have to name your favourite book, author,song, film and favourite object beginning with that particular letter.

  My letter is L

I didn’t find it very easy – in some cases I had too much choice and in others (eg favourite object) very little choice.

Favourite Book – here is where I’m spoilt for choice, with Lark Rise to Candleford (Flora Thompson), The Last Enchantment (Mary Stewart), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Pierre Choderlos de Laclos), The Last Time They Met (Anita Shreve) and The Light Years (Elizabeth Jane Howard) in the running. but I’ve decided on

Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski, a book I read a couple of years ago. It’s a beautiful book – one of those that once I start reading I can’t put down, and yet a book that I don’t want to finish as I’m enjoying it so much. This book is emotional, heart-wrenching and nerve-wracking, full of tension, but never sentimental.

Favourite Author … well it could be Marghanita Laski, Harper Lee, Laurie Lee, Donna Leon or Andrea Levy, but it has to be:

Penelope Lively, an all-time favourite and I’ve read more of her books than the other authors’.

Favourite Song …  Let It Be by the Beatles

Favourite Film … for the letter L it has to be The Lord of the Rings, which could equally as well be my favourite book, especially as I prefer the book (my own images etc).

Favourite Object … I found this the hardest one of all and in the end I decided on this:

This is my Lakeland electric yoghurt maker, which I’ve had for years and use every week. It makes lovely yoghurt. All you do is put in a couple of spoons of natural yoghurt and some milk and the yoghurt maker does the rest. I strain it to make it even thicker – like Greek yoghurt. 

Thinking of ‘objects’ on a wider scale there are of course, Libraries!

 If you’d like to join in go on over to Simon’s post (link back at the top) and wait for your letter.

A Bookish Meme

Published on by Margaret12 Comments

I’ve taken part in this meme a couple of times in the past. So I when I saw it again on Irene’s blog, she found it on Carrie’s blog, I thought I’d have a go too.  Here are my answers using the titles of the books I’ve read so far this year.

In school I was: Quiet 

People might be surprised I’m: The English Spy

I will never be: The Hobbit

My fantasy job is: Searching for the Secret River

At the end of a long day I need: The Hand that First Held Mine

I hate it when: Mrs McGinty’s Dead

Wish I had: The Kashmir Shawl

My family reunions are: A Time of Gifts

At a party you’d find me with: The Birthday Boys

I’ve never been to: The Black House

A happy day includes: Wildwood: an Journey Through Trees

Motto I live by: Not the End of the World

On my bucket list: Treasure Island

In my next life, I want to be: Cat Among the Pigeons

Sixes: a Selection from the last Six Months of Reading

Published on by Margaret13 Comments

Jo at The Book Jotter started this meme last year to summarise six months of reading, sorting the books into six categories and she’s done it again this year. Here is my version for 2013, with links to my posts on the books where appropriate:

Six books I have enjoyed, not including Crime Fiction:

Wild Swans etc

  1. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang (non-fiction)
  2. The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell
  3. The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien
  4. After Flodden by Rosemary Goring
  5. Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville
  6. The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland

Six Crime Fiction books I’ve enjoyed:

Redemption etc

  1. The Redemption of Alexander Seaton by Shona MacLean
  2. Dead Water by Ann Cleeves
  3. The Glass Room by Ann Cleeves
  4. The Frozen Shroud by Martin Edwards
  5. Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie
  6. Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter by Ruth Rendell

Six authors new to me:

  1.  Roger Deakin – 
  2. Carola Dunn
  3. Julia Stuart
  4. Peter May
  5. Julius Falconer
  6. Patrick Leigh Fermor

Six authors I have read before:

  1. David Lodge
  2. Agatha Christie
  3. J T R R Tolkien
  4. Charles Dickens
  5. Erle Stanley Garner
  6. Kate Morton

Six Books ongoing reading or books on hold, which I’ll be getting back to €¦

 

  1. Charles Dickens: Life by Claire Tomalin
  2. Agatha Christie: an English Mystery by Laura Thompson
  3. Between the Woods and the Water by Patrick Leigh Fermor
  4. The Drowning by Camilla Lackberg
  5. Parade’s End by Ford Madox Ford
  6. Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser

Six books that were not as good as I’d expected:

  1. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
  2. Airs and Graces by Erica James
  3. Small Kindnesses by Fiona Robyn
  4. The Daughters of Fire by Barbara Erskine
  5. The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris
  6. Peaches for Monsieur Le Curé by Joanne Harris

W…W…W… Wednesdays

Published on by Margaret12 Comments

Image for weekly meme W... W... W...This is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB, over at €˜Should Be Reading’. I’ve been reading it for a while and have not contributed before. It is quite simply to answer the following three questions€¦

€¢ What are you currently reading?
€¢ What did you recently finish reading?
€¢ What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m currently reading two books:

Daughters of Fire by Barbara Erskine. This is a long book, taking me longer to read than I like. I’ve read 66% (statistic from Goodreads). I am enjoying it, although wishing the pace would pick up. Maybe it will from now on.

Two thousand years ago, as the Romans invade Britannia, the princess who will become the powerful queen of the great tribe of the Brigantes, watches the enemies of her people come ever closer. Cartimandua’s world is, from the start, a maelstrom of love and conflict; revenge and retribution.

In the present day, Edinburgh-based historian, Viv Lloyd Rees, has immersed herself in the legends surrounding the Celtic queen. She has written a book and is working on a dramatisation of the young queen’s life with the help of actress, Pat Hebden.

Cartimandua’s life takes one unexpected turn after another as tragedy changes the course of her future. But the young queen has formidable enemies €“ among them Venutios, her childhood sparring partner, and Medb, a woman whose jealousy threatens not only her happiness but her life.

Viv’s Head of Department, Hugh Graham, hounds her as she struggles to hide her visions of Cartimandua and her conviction that they are real. Her obsession grows ever more persistent and threatening as she takes possession of an ancient brooch that carries a curse. Both Pat and Hugh are drawn into this dual existence of bitter rivalry and overwhelming love as past envelopes present and the trio find themselves facing the greatest danger of their lives.

The other book I’m reading is Balthazar Jones and the Tower of London Zoo by Julia Stuart. This is very different from Daughters of Fire and I like the contrast of this quirky book. I’ve only read 29%, so I’ve yet to decide whether I really like it.

Meet Balthazar Jones, Beefeater at the Tower of London. Married to Hebe, he lives and works in the Tower, as he struggles to cope with the tragic death of his son Milo, three years ago.

The Tower of London is its own magical world; a maze of ancient buildings, it is home to a weird and wonderful cast of characters – the Jones’s of course, as well as Reverend Septimus Drew, the Ravenmaster, and Ruby Dore, landlady of the Tower’s very own tavern, the Rack & Ruin. And, after an announcement from Buckingham Palace that the Queen’s exotic animals are to be moved from London Zoo to the Tower’s grounds, things are about to become a whole lot more interesting€¦

Komodo dragons, marmosets, and even zorillas (‘a highly revered yet uniquely odorous skunk-like animal from Africa’) fill the Tower’s menagerie €“ and it is Balthazar Jones’s job to take care of them. Things run far from smoothly, though €“ missing penguins and stolen giraffes are just two of his worries!

I’ve recently finished reading:

After Flodden by Rosemary Goring, historical fiction due out in June. I loved it.

This is a fantastic book and I’ll be writing more about it, but for now I’ll say that it’s a dramatic story of what happened to several of the characters involved in the Battle of Flodden that had taken place on 9 September 1513 between the forces of James IV of Scotland and Henry VIII of England. Well written, well researched this is a compelling and powerful book, bringing the characters and the Edinburgh and Borders of 1513 vividly to life.

What am I going to read next?

I’m not sure, as I have several new books crying out to be read as well as books that have been sitting unread on my bookshelves. It could very well be The Frozen Shroud, Martin Edward’s new Lake District mystery, but then again it could be something else.