Category: Bookish Delights

My Friday Bookish Post: Book Beginnings and The Friday 56

 

book beginning

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS is hosted by Gilion Dumas at Rose City Reader: http://www.rosecityreader.com/

https://www.facebook.com/RoseCityReader

Here’s the book beginning that captured my interest:

Dr Iannis had enjoyed a satisfactory day in which none of his patients had died or got any worse. He had attended a surprisingly easy calving, lanced one abscess, extracted a molar, dosed one lady of easy virtue with Salvarsan, performed an unpleasant but spectacularly fruitful enema, and had produced a miracle by a feat of medical prestidigitation.

CAN YOU GUESS WHICH BOOK THIS IS? OR HAVE YOU READ IT ALREADY?

Watch out for the cover reveal and author’s name at the end of this Book Beginnings and Friday 56 Post. This book has also been made into a film, and the author is coming to Cambridge UK, to do a talk in June, more details below.

The Goodreads Synopsis:

It is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces. At first he is ostracised by the locals, but as a conscientious but far from fanatical soldier, whose main aim is to have a peaceful war, he proves in time to be civilised, humorous – and a consummate musician. When the local doctor’s daughter’s letters to her fiance go unanswered, the working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable. But can this fragile love survive as a war of bestial savagery gets closer and the lines are drawn between invader and defender?

 

Friday 56

THE FRIDAY 56 MEME

I initially came across The Friday 56 Meme via Caffeine and Books, https://caffeineandbooks42.wordpress.com/

It is a weekly meme hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, click on the link to her blog, and the rules are pretty simple:

  • Grab a book, any book.
  • Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
    (If you have to improvise, that’s OK.)
  • Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it).
  • Post it.
  • Add the url to your post on Freda’s Voice.

As soon as he entered the kapheneion he knew that something was amiss. Solemn martial music was emanating from the radio, and the boys were sitting in a grim and ominous silence, clutching their tumblers, their brows furrowed.

So of course the book is Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. If the book sounds enticing, and you live locally, here’s details of an author event at Stapleford Granary:

An Evening with Louis de Berniéres in conversation with BBC broadcaster Stephen Chittenden

19 June 2015  7.30pm

This event is being held at Stapleford Granary, Cambridge, UK,  here’s the link to find out more: https://staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/an-evening-with-louis-de-bernières.aspx

 

th thCD9VD64Lth571TBB1W

My Friday Post: Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56 Meme

 

 

 

 

 

 

book beginning

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS is hosted by Gilion Dumas at Rose City Reader: http://www.rosecityreader.com/

https://www.facebook.com/RoseCityReader

Here’s the book beginning that captured my interest:

Kell wore a very peculiar coat.

   It had neither one side, which would be conventional, nor two, which would be unexpected, but several, which was, of course, impossible.

Watch out for the cover reveal and author’s name at the end of this Book Beginnings and Friday 56 Post.

 

Friday 56

THE FRIDAY 56 MEME

I initially came across The Friday 56 Meme via Caffeine and Books, https://caffeineandbooks42.wordpress.com/

It is a weekly meme hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, click on the link to her blog, and the rules are pretty simple:

  • Grab a book, any book.
  • Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
    (If you have to improvise, that’s OK.)
  • Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it).
  • Post it.
  • Add the url to your post on Freda’s Voice.

There’s no page 56 on the book I have before me so here is a tantalising quote from page 55:

How had he ended up on this shelf? What had happened when his eye turned black? Was he born that way and hidden, or did the mark of magic manifest? Five years. Five years he’d been someone else’s son. Had they been sad to let him go? Or had they gratefully offered him up to the crown? 

Have you guessed the book from the quotes? It’s from one of my favourite authors:

V.E. Schwab – A Darker Shade of Magic.

 

th

This is Victoria Schwab’s fabulous list on Goodreads,  about the main aspects of A Darker Shade of Magic:

–Magic

–Cross-dressing thieves

–(Aspiring) pirates

–Londons (plural)

–Sadistic kings (and queens)

–A royal who is equal parts Prince Harry and Jack Harkness

–More magic (blood magic, elemental magic, bad magic, etc. etc.)

–Epic magicky fights scenes

–Angst!

–And coats with more than two sides

 

This sounds awesome, can’t wait to read it. That list just sounds so appealing. What about you? Have you read any Victoria Schwab novels before?

 

Here’s the Goodreads synopsis:

Kell is one of the last Travelers—rare magicians who choose a parallel universe to visit.

Grey London is dirty, boring, lacks magic, ruled by mad King George. Red London is where life and magic are revered, and the Maresh Dynasty presides over a flourishing empire. White London is ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne. People fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. Once there was Black London—but no one speaks of that now.

Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, personal ambassador and adopted Prince of Red London, carrying the monthly correspondences between royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell smuggles for those willing to pay for even a glimpse of a world they’ll never see. This dangerous hobby sets him up for accidental treason. Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs afoul of Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She robs him, saves him from a dangerous enemy, then forces him to another world for her ‘proper adventure’.

But perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, Kell and Lila will first need to stay alive—trickier than they hoped.

Victoria Schwab’s website: http://www.victoriaschwab.com

 

My Friday Post – Book Beginnings and The Friday 56 Meme

 

 

book beginning

BOOK BEGINNINGS by Rose City Reader: http://www.rosecityreader.com/

https://www.facebook.com/RoseCityReader

You would have searched a long time for the sort of winding lane or tranquil meadow for which England later became celebrated. There were instead miles of desolate, uncultivated land; here and there rough-hewn paths over craggy hills or bleak moorland.

 

THE FRIDAY 56 MEME

I came across The Friday 56 Meme via Caffeine and Books, https://caffeineandbooks42.wordpress.com/

It is a weekly meme hosted by Freda’s Voice, click on the link to her blog, and the rules are pretty simple:

  • Grab a book, any book.
  • Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
    (If you have to improvise, that’s OK.)
  • Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it).
  • Post it.
  • Add the url to your post on Freda’s Voice.

The blaze illuminated some faces sharply, while leaving others in shadow, but after a time, Axl came to the conclusion that these people were all waiting, in a state of some anxiety, for some-one or something to emerge from the timber hall to the left of the fire.

Can you guess which book these words are from?  It’s The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, which I am currently reading for the book club I am a member of here in Cambridge, more to come about The Buried Giant soon.

th

 

Goodreads Synopsis :

You’ve long set your heart against it, Axl, I know. But it’s time now to think on it anew. There’s a journey we must go on, and no more delay…”

The Buried Giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years.

Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel in nearly a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge, and war.  

Author Information:

Kazuo Ishiguro (カズオ・イシグロ or 石黒 一雄) is a British novelist of Japanese origin. His family moved to England in 1960. Ishiguro obtained his Bachelor’s degree from University of Kent in 1978 and his Master’s from the University of East Anglia’s creative writing course in 1980. He became a British citizen in 1982. He now lives in London.
His first novel, A Pale View of Hills won the 1982 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. His second novel, An Artist of the Floating World won the 1986 Whitbread Prize. Ishiguro received the 1989 Man Booker prize for his third novel The Remains of the Day. His fouth novel, The Unconsoled won the 1995 Cheltenham Prize. His latest novel is The Buried Giant, a New York Times bestseller.
His novels: An Artist of the Floating World (1986), When We Were Orphans (2000), Never Let Me Go(2005) were all shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

 

My Friday Post: The Friday 56 Weekly Meme: The Song of Achilles

 

Friday 56

I came across The Friday 56 Meme via Caffeine and Books:

https://caffeineandbooks42.wordpress.com/

So I thought I’d do something different and have a go at The Friday 56 Meme for my Friday post this week.  I chose The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller  as it is definitely a book that I intend to read soon.

WIN_20150421_150911

It is a weekly meme hosted by Freda’s Voice, click on the link to her blog, and the rules are pretty simple:

  • Grab a book, any book.
  • Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
    (If you have to improvise, that’s OK.)
  • Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it).
  • Post it.
  • Add the url to your post on Freda’s Voice.

“And I? I was shy and silent with all but Achilles; I could scarcely speak to the other boys, let alone a girl. As a comrade of the prince, I suppose I would not have had to speak; a gesture or a look would have been enough. But such a thing did not occur to me. The feelings that stirred in me at night seemed strangely distant from those serving girls with their lowered eyes and obedience. I watched a boy fumbling at a girl’s dress, the dull look on her face as she poured his wine. I did not wish for such a thing. “

Now doesn’t that short quote just make you want to read the book? It certainly sets my curiosity into hyper drive!

Here’s the Goodreads synopsis :

A tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly re-imagines Homer’s enduring masterwork, The Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, Miller’s debut novel has already earned resounding acclaim from some of contemporary fiction’s brightest lights. Fans of Mary Renault, Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series will delight in this unforgettable journey back to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes.  

Have a Happy Friday and a great weekend.

Happy Reading, Writing, and Creating. Enjoy yourselves, let me know what you’re reading, or intending to read. I’m currently about half way through Lisa Williamson’s debut novel The Art of Being Normal, more to come on that soon!

Are you a “Professional Reader” at NetGalley?

Very informative. Post from Heena Rathmore P. about Netgalley a site for professional readers to request galley proofs of new books

Heena R. Pardeshi's avatarVerbatik Media

Print

Do you love to discover new books? Do you review and recommend books online, in print, for your bookstore, library patrons, blog readers, or classroom? Then you are what we call a “professional reader,” and NetGalley is for you. Registration is free, and allows you to request or be invited to read titles, often advance reading copies, on your favorite device.

-NetGalley

First of all, lets clear what NetGalley really means. In publishing world, galley is the uncorrected or in some cases corrected copies of the books that are not yet printed. And when these galleys are provided on the internet as e-books, you have what we call as NetGalley.

NetGalley offers a wide range of books for reviewers, journalists, librarians, professors, booksellers, and bloggers.

View original post 1,201 more words

TO IMAGINE, TO HOPE, TO TRANSCEND, TO TRANSFORM

Amazingly inspiring post from Writer, Lecturer and Broadcaster, Pandaemonium on global access to books and libraries. This is a must read for all bookish souls.

Kenan Malik's avatarPandaemonium

jacob lawrence library 1

I gave a talk at the launch at London’s Institut Français of Libraries without Borders, the charity inspired by Patrick Weil that aims to increase global access to books and libraries. Also speaking were Ian McEwan, Lisa Appignanesi, Barbara Band and Patrick Weil himself. Here is a transcript of my talk.

Let me begin with a story not of a library or a book but of a grand piano. The one grand piano in Gaza, that was discovered still intact in a theatre destroyed by an Israeli missile during last year’s war. A piano that has been restored string by string, hammer by hammer, by Claire Bertrand, a young French music technician who travelled to Gaza specially to bring the piano back to life, in a project financed by Daniel Barenboim.

Last week, the piano formed the centerpiece of a concert, in which 15-year old Sara Aqel, the…

View original post 1,055 more words

Happy Puzzling Sherlock Saturday: My latest read The House of Silk

Happy Puzzling Saturday

It’s  Happy Puzzling Saturday. How can that be? Never heard of such a thing. Has Marje, aka, Kyrosmagica, gone bonkers? No, she’s just in a playful, poetic, puzzling, Saturday kind of mood.

12179798

I think my reading The House of Silk, has done it, Watson, I’ve gone all Sherlock Holmes like. My detective cap’s on, but don’t worry I haven’t started smoking a pipe, or ended up in an opium den.

Have you read The House of Silk? What did you make of it? Are you a Sherlock Holmes fan?

Can you guess where I’m at in the novel?  Have a go, see if you can  puzzle out the answer. Have I finished, or am I half way through, have I arrived at a particularly exciting juncture? Do feel free to leave comments below.

Let’s find the key to a fantastic time this weekend! My detective work tells me that you will not be puzzled by any perplexities or stumped by any unfathomable doubts that you can’t solve during your weekend break! As ever enjoy, stay out of the cold weather, keep warm, drink hot chocolate, and don’t think too hard. Confound it! Sherlock, I mean it!

I’m leaving you with these pearls of Sherlock wisdom:

Top Ten Sherlock Holmes Quotes:

#1:  “Excellent! I cried. “Elementary,” said he.

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1893)
Watson and Holmes in “The Crooked Man” (Doubleday p. 412)

#2: “It seemed to me that a careful examination of the room and the lawn might possibly reveal some traces of this mysterious individual. You know my methods, Watson. There was not one of them which I did not apply to the inquiry. And it ended by my discovering traces, but very different ones from those which I had expected.”

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1893)
Sherlock Holmes in “The Crooked Man” (Doubleday p. 416)

#3. “You will not apply my precept,” he said, shaking his head. “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? We know that he did not come through the door, the window, or the chimney. We also know that he could not have been concealed in the room, as there is no concealment possible. When, then, did he come?”

The Sign of the Four, ch. 6 (1890)
Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four (Doubleday p. 111)

#4. “Good heavens!” I cried. “Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?”
“They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.“

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
Sherlock Holmes in “The Copper Beeches” (Doubleday p. 323)

#5. I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air—or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence, and spending such money as I had, considerably more freely than I ought.

A Study in Scarlet, ch. 1 (1887)
Dr. Watson in A Study in Scarlet (Doubleday p. 15)

#6. To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen…. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
Dr. Watson in “A Scandal in Bohemia” (Doubleday p. 161)

#7.  At this moment there was a loud ring at the bell, and I could hear Mrs. Hudson, our landlady, raising her voice in a wail of expostulation and dismay.
“By heavens, Holmes,” I said, half rising, “I believe that they are really after us.”
“No, it’s not quite so bad as that. It is the unofficial force—the Baker Street irregulars.“

The Sign of the Four, ch. 8 (1890)
Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four (Doubleday p. 126)

#8.  She looked back at us from the door, and I had a last impression of that beautiful haunted face, the startled eyes, and the drawn mouth. Then she was gone.
“Now, Watson, the fair sex is your department,” said Holmes, with a smile, when the dwindling frou-frou of skirts had ended in the slam of the front door. “What was the fair lady’s game? What did she really want?”

 The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
Sherlock Holmes in “The Second Stain” (Doubleday p. 657)

#9. Colonel Ross still wore an expression which showed the poor opinion which he had formed of my companion’s ability, but I saw by the inspector’s face that his attention had been keenly aroused.
“You consider that to be important?” he [Inspector Gregory] asked.
“Exceedingly so.”
“Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
“To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
     “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
     “That was the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes.

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1893)
Inspector Gregory and Sherlock Holmes in “Silver Blaze” (Doubleday p. 346-7)

#10. “But one false statement was made by Barrymore at the inquest. He said that there were no traces upon the ground round the body. He did not observe any. But I did—some little distance off, but fresh and clear.”
“Footprints?”
“Footprints.”
“A man’s or a woman’s?”
Dr. Mortimer looked strangely at us for an instant, and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered:
“Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!“

The Hound of the Baskervilles, ch. 2 (1902)
Dr. Mortimer in The Hound of the Baskervilles (Doubleday p. 679)

More details of these quotes can be found in full at the following link:

Link: http://www.bestofsherlock.com/top-10-sherlock-quotes.htm#elementary

 

I’ve won Summertime

 

thHKE22552

I  liked the title of this blog post: I won Summertime. Sounds good doesn’t it? But, nothing is as it seems……

Anyway you’ll gather from the photo of the book that I’ve won a copy. Yes, I just heard on twitter that I’m one of the lucky winners to have won a copy of Summertime by Vanessa Lafaye via Holly’s Giveaway rafflecopter.

Goodreads synopsis of Summertime:

Horrifying and beautiful, Summertime is a fictionalised account of one of the most devastating natural disasters in US history.

Florida Keys, 1935. Hurricane Season.

Tens of thousands of black and white men scarred by their experiences of war in Europe return home to find themselves abandoned to destitution by the US government.

The tiny, segregated community of Heron Key is suddenly overwhelmed by broken, disturbed men with new ideas about racial equality and nothing left to lose.

Tensions flare when a black veteran is accused of committing the most heinous crime of all against a white resident’s wife.

And not far off the strongest and most intense hurricane America has ever witnessed is gaining force.

For fans of The Help and To Kill a Mockingbird, this is the story of the greatest tragedy you’ve never heard of.

(Summertime is the title of the UK edition of Under a Dark Summer Sky)

Sounds good, looking forward to reading Summertime.

 Links:

Holly’s wordpress:  https://bookaholicconfessions.wordpress.com/

Author Vanessa Lafaye wordpress site: https://vanessalafaye.wordpress.com/

THIS BLOG claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to its respectful owners. The majority of images on this blog are from http://www.pixabay.com or google/bing search. All images are copyright free images. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it to appear on this site, please contact me with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

 

Booktube Bites: What Customers Say in a Bookstore

The crazy things customers say in bookstores! Reblogged from Rachel at life of a female bibliophile. Video of Booktuber padfootandprongs07

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Fabulous Non-Fiction Favorites

Had to reblog – Very interesting list of Non-Fiction books to read from Bookshelf Fantasies. I have Jon Krakauer Into Thin Air. So many other choices take a look……….