About Third Girl by Agatha Christie: Three young women share a London flat. The first is a coolly efficient secretary. The second is an artist. The third interrupts Hercule Poirot’s breakfast confessing that she is a murderer—and then promptly disappears.
Slowly, Poirot learns of the rumors surrounding the mysterious third girl, her family, and her disappearance. Yet hard evidence is needed before the great detective can pronounce her guilty, innocent, or insane.…
My thoughts
Today was hard, hard day as far as reading my favourite mystery writer Agatha Christie. It hurts my heart to say I didn’t like this one.
While I loved Hercule Poirot in this and his little grey cells are not at all waning, I was slightly miffed by Ariadne Oliver who did not seem to have her usual common sense. The book starts with a young lady enlisting Poirot’s help proclaiming that she MAY have committed a murder … then she runs off! Investigating a possible murder apparently is much much harder than investigating an actual murder. Oliver messes things up even more recalling only MID-BOOK (!!!!) of a mysterious death in the same building where the proclaimed murderer lived.
Verdict: All this to say, this is not among my favourites. I say skip this, move to Christie’s better mysteries.
About The Selfless Act of Breathing by JJ Bola: Michael Kabongo is a British Congolese teacher living in London and living the dream: he’s beloved by his students, popular with his coworkers, and adored by his proud mother who emigrated from the Congo to the UK in search of a better life.
But when he suffers a devastating loss, his life is thrown into a tailspin. As he struggles to find a way forward, memories of his fathers’ violent death, the weight of refugeehood, and an increasing sense of dread threaten everything he’s worked so hard to achieve. Longing to start over, Michael decides to spontaneously pack up and go to America, the mythical “land of the free,” where he imagines everything will be better and easier.
On this transformative journey, Michael travels everywhere from New York City to San Francisco, partying with new friends, sparking fleeting romances, and splurging on big adventures, with the intention of living the life of his dreams until the money in his bank account runs out.
My two cents
I read JJ Bola’s The Selfless Act of Breathing a while back but having received it well after the publishing date, I unfortunately forgot to post my thoughts here.
This is a quintessential immigrant story where the struggle to assimilate is very real - I found this quite powerful and emotional. However, Bola’s prose is like verbal acrobatics, sometimes wonderful, at times off putting.
The story of a smart British Congolese teacher, Michael struggles with personal loss, the violence of racism, money problems, the need to connect. I personally disliked how this storytelling bordered on waxing philosophical and lecturing. I think I even rolled my eyes at one point but held judgment until the end. Trying to cram too much into the book really did it a disservice!
Since this is an ARC I hope the editors went in and helped out this book to become much more cohesive and even keeled in its storytelling.
Verdict: I stuck it out but I honestly think the payoff wasn’t that great. Too verbose and overly dramatic for me. This story needed to breathe.
Disclaimer: Thanks to @simonschusterca for a copy of this book!
About F*ckface and Other Stories by Leah Hampton:F*kface and Other Stories is a brassy, bighearted debut collection of twelve short stories about rurality, corpses, honeybee collapse, and illicit sex in post-coal Appalachia.
The twelve stories in this knockout collection—some comedic, some tragic, many both at once—examine the interdependence between rural denizens and their environment.
A young girl, desperate for a way out of her small town, finds support in an unlikely place. A ranger working along the Blue Ridge Parkway realizes that the dark side of the job, the all too frequent discovery of dead bodies, has taken its toll on her. Haunted by his past, and his future, a tech sergeant reluctantly spends a night with his estranged parents before being deployed to Afghanistan. Nearing fifty and facing new medical problems, a woman wonders if her short stint at the local chemical plant is to blame. A woman takes her husband’s research partner on a day trip to her favorite place on earth, Dollywood, and briefly imagines a different life.
In the vein of Bonnie Jo Campbell and Lee Smith, Leah Hampton writes poignantly and honestly about a legendary place that’s rapidly changing. She takes us deep inside the lives of the women and men of Appalachia while navigating the realities of modern life with wit, bite, and heart.
My two cents
I have a penchant for short story collections so I was happy to get my hands on this debut collection by Leah Hampton. With such great timing, it was like a lovely breath of fresh air during the first lockdown in 2020. It was a relief to have a physical copy of short stories that made me laugh-cry-cringe and everything in between.
There are 12 stories in all, and each offers insight into everyday people's lives in a rapidly changing Appalachia, a region known for its beautiful mountainous landscapes, rich natural resources, yet extreme poverty.
I enjoyed each of these stories -- they are simple, simply told, honest, and some, very raw. I feel that they will resonate with many as the human experience in these stories are wide and varied. While the setting or the circumstances may not be within your own set of experiences, I can guarantee that the emotions they can stir up within you are very much relatable. They'll evoke bittersweet emotions - a mix of sad, tragic, and yes .... even hopeful.
The stories
F*ckface is about Pretty, a young, very shy girl who works at the local grocery store. She's never imagined working outside of her small town but her more worldly friend triggers her discontent. Pretty finds an unlikely ally in her the person she and her colleagues dubbed as f*ckface.
Boomer is about Larry, a dedicated firefighter who slowly loses his wife while fighting the greatest fire their area has seen in decades.
Wireless is about Margaret, whose haunted past propelled her to leave her hometown. Ironically, family brings her back to confront her past and eventually come to terms with it.
Parkway is about Priscilla, a park ranger, whose otherwise humdrum outdoor job brings her face to face with the occasional and shocking dead body.
Twitchell features Iva who suddenly starts bleeding during a pottery class. This gets her started on a series of doctor's appointments which gets her questioning whether a job long ago at the local chemical plant - and economic bane of the town - is the culprit.
Mingo is about a woman who accompanies her husband to visit her husband's stubborn father in the hospital. She gets much more than she bargains for, but finds herself willing to go along.
Frogs is about middle-aged siblings, Carolyn and Frank, who try to spice up their mundane lives by joining in a nature walk. Ironically, they find themselves feeling uncomfortable and out of place as the only locals on the walk.
Devil is about tech sergeant Boggs, who visits his deeply religious parents to make amends. Unflinching in their belief, they denounce him as the "devil" they've always known him to be, and he leaves for Afghanistan sadly and tragically no closer to his family.
Queen is about a woman who tries to save her mother's legacy of taking action with her bee colonies.
Meat is about Alison, a young intern at the local dairy, faces small town life (and death) at a funeral after a big fire.
Saint is an homage to a beloved brother, a streams-of-consciousness meandering of precious memories throughout their lives.
Sparkle is about a woman who takes her husband’s friend to Dollywood, and gains insight into what a different life she could have had.
Verdict: These slice-of-life stories of everyday people in Appalachia will make you laugh and cry, together, and in a good way. Highly recommended! Hampton is definitely one to watch out for!
Disclaimer: I received a copy through the publisher Henry Holt and Co.
Hi everyone, I know it's been really quiet here. Lots of things have happened personally in the past year with me, and then COVID-19 happened. I hope you and your loved ones are safe and you continue to be so.
This blog has been always safe haven for me, and reading and the book blogging continues to be a source of comfort for me. I may not be that active in the community but I love following along (lurking) in the conversations that continue out there. I love the fact that a lot of my contemporaries out there are still quite active and still welcoming more people into the wonderful world of books, reading and blogging.
Like many of you, I've turned to reading to help me with the stresses of life. At the beginning of the pandemic, I couldn't for the life of me focus on a book. I have gotten over that hump and now have turned to rereading a lot of books I have on hand, reading books I haven't gotten to, and ... *heaven forbid* reading e-books!
I've got a mix of Filipino reads which I either bought myself in the Philippines or was a gift, a bunch of ebooks I borrowed on Libby through the library, two review copies from publishers. And ... I've re-read these two lovelies, which I didn't bother adding to Goodreads:
M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman, which I never reviewed on this blog because I loved it so much
Now, on to Libby. Who's Libby, you may ask? She's my new friend, my new shiny toy, and who I don't hate as much as I did when I started with ebooks. When the quarantine happened, this seriously limited my source of books. Libraries were closed and real books were off limits ... with the exception of what I already had on hand. All but the online choices for books ... ebooks!
I gave ebooks a whirl early on and never really warmed up to them. I still struggle with reading online because I already spend my entire day working on a computer. But I've learned to compromise. And it's opened up a lot of new reading material to me.
Libby is an app used by my local library so I can borrow ebooks. I'm still getting used to it but I have borrowed six ebooks thus far. I'm also still forming my opinion about it but so far, yay Libby!
Have any of you used Libby? What are your thoughts about this app?
About Educated by Tara Westover: Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling supplies and sleeping with her “head for the hills” bag. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard.
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or a nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to intervene when her brother became violent or when her father’s Mormon beliefs drifted toward the extreme.
Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She ultimately taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events such as the Holocaust. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if there was still a way home.
A riveting account of the struggle for self-invention, Educated is also a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties.
My two cents
I don’t know how many times I audibly gasped reading Tara Westover’s autobiography! When people talk of overcoming adversity and challenges, sometimes it’s hard to understand just how it really is. However, in this memoir, Westover doesn’t sugarcoat a thing. She recalls a a traumatic childhood of hard labour, abuse, and neglect in a family dealing with mental illness. Reading all this is tough, but it drives home the point that this is a reality for many of those who live in rural America.
What makes this particularly ingratiating is that Westover doesn’t seem to have an ounce of self pity as she tells her story. Nor does she seem to bear a grudge on her family members who perpetuated the cycle of abuse, neglect, and simply holding her back.
What particularly struck me was when Westover says:
“I worry that education is becoming a stick that some people use to beat other people into submission or becoming something that people feel arrogant about,” she said. “I think education is really just a process of self-discovery—of developing a sense of self and what you think. I think of [it] as this great mechanism of connecting and equalizing.”
Verdict:
I recommend reading this honest and matter-of-fact storytelling of her journey from illiterate country hick to a life of learning, believing in herself and her innate capabilities. Truly, you can’t keep a good woman down.
I am suffering from some serious book regret. If you were livid when you heard Marie Kondo purportedly declaring you should “only should have 30 books” (untrue, she never said it), then read on.
Close to a year ago, we had to move — about 2000 km away. We were moving from a two-bedroom house with basement to a one-bedroom apartment.
Moving costs money so everything oversized and heavy had to stay. I was brutal when culling my books and I even ignored the whole “spark joy” feeling. I had my other family members do their own culling - yes, I drank the Konmari Kool-Aid and was not going to make that decision for them.
I initially felt great after the purge. High fives all around. I knew I was oh-so-practical. I knew I was saving money.
So we hied off to the new home and before I knew it, I was craving certain books. My lovely short story collections - I looked up some of these books in the local library and surprise, surprise, many weren’t there (credit my obscure taste for short stories). The SO asks where I had put his copy of Cain, and gggrrr ... I tell him that he specifically said it was fine to give away, yes he did, he really did. The other month, I was looking back at old blog posts and realized that I had tossed a whole bunch of vintage Agatha Christies into my donation bin, collected over years of thrift store hauls. Over the months, I have been having these severe moments of regret.
My takeaways from the whole experience?
Take the time to find out which books spark joy in you. Why the hell did I cave in to pressure of practicality, I keep asking myself? Well, we we under a time crunch. If you have the luxury of time, don’t do your book decluttering when you feel you’re under duress.
When in doubt, don’t throw it out. The books you’re lukewarm about, keep them. Then do another culling. Or not. The problem with this whole spark joy business is that on the day I did the cull, I was in different mindset and didn’t have time to process what I was keeping and letting go of.
Don’t let anyone else dictate how you should feel about letting go of a book. ‘Nuff said.
Give yourself permission to keep some sentimental books. Sure these books are replaceable, and maybe even borrowable from the library. But there is something deeply personal about certain books. I loved my short story collections, with many of them being ARCs; I was among the first to read, love and and review them! I loved my vintage Christies; can I ever get back that feeling of holding those ARCs or that initial thrill of spotting them glinting on those shelves?
And with that, I say, be kind to yourself. Decluttering requires a ready mind, and in some cases, a ready wallet. Sometimes that extra few dollars will save you heartache.
About Dark Places by Gillian Flynn: Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice" of Kinnakee, Kansas.” She survived—and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, the Kill Club—a secret secret society obsessed with notorious crimes—locates Libby and pumps her for details. They hope to discover proof that may free Ben. Libby hopes to turn a profit off her tragic history: She’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club—for a fee. As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started—on the run from a killer.
My two cents
I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it.
Can someone say Truman Capote? Reading Flynn’s Dark Places, I had nostalgic twinges of reading In Cold Blood. I know this is fictional crime, but hey, it felt absolutely horrific getting into the minds of killer, survivor, witness. I felt myself flailing internally to keep reading. But Flynn had a disturbingly tight hold on me and I soldiered on to the end to find out the truth of The Satan Sacrifice Murders.
Libby is messed up. But she has every right to be - she survived the murder of her mother and two sisters by her older brother, Ben, 25 years ago. Cruelly, she was the one who had put her only surviving family member in jail for life. Libby is unable to hold jobs, and was living on funds donated by sympathetic do-gooders. With a failed book deal and funds running dangerously low, Libby milks any possibility of money to survive.
Enter the Kill Club, a group of people morbidly interested in high profile, notorious crimes. Libby is thrust into a precarious dilemma as she realizes that the club believes that Ben is innocent and she is practically accused of providing false testimony. Looking back, she realizes that she was coached in court since age seven, and as alternative theories and evidence are presented to her, Libby starts to question her own memories. The hope that maybe, just maybe, things aren’t what she thinks.
Why I liked this:
It’s got the Flynn trademark all over it. This is dark, twisted and sickening. It’s about a violent and gory massacre. It’s about perverse minds. It feels gritty, trashy, seedy, dirty, crude. And I feel the same way, a dirtiness on me that I don’t want. But, why oh why, does it all come together so well that you can’t put it down despite wanting to turn away and read something sunnier? Again I say it: Flynn is a brilliant and provocative storyteller.
Libby and the cast of characters. Flynn does it again with aplomb by giving us the flawed Libby as the centre of the story. Flynn never fails to deliver on interesting characters: Libby is severely damaged, troubled, selfish, crude, unlikable; she's not someone I’d care to know in real life. But she is relatable and realistic. The trauma she experienced as a child understandably has warped her in serious ways but I love her for her can-do survivor spirit.
The other characters are also flawed, unlikable and realistic. I was torn in believing Ben to be innocent but as the story moved along, his darkness slowly came through. Patty’s fierce sense of family resonated with me and her desperation for keeping her family financially afloat lends a rather odd mundanity to the massacre. The two sisters, while children, were painted as less than innocent. One standout character to me that links Libby to her family to the present is her aunt Diane. As the host characters walk through these pages, more and more you come to realize that people are inherently perverse, and that’s just the fact of the matter.
Multiple viewpoints and impeccable pacing. Propelling the storytelling is that this is told from different points of view as well as being paced for revelations to come to light at just the right time. This deftly voices out Libby (present day), Libby’s older brother Ben (1985) and their mother, Patty (1985). The massacre that transpired on that fateful day in 1985 becomes a pivot point for Ben and Patty to provide their own accounts, their sometimes chilling state of mind in their motivations.
Uh oh’s
If you’ve read Flynn, you already know that this is not a book for everyone because of its dark themes. It has graphic violence and gore, perverted sex, and depicts molestation and abuse.
Verdict
I’ve now read the Flynn trilogy of dark, twisted goodness. Seriously, if this review of Dark Places doesn’t convince you that she is worth your while, check out my reviews of Gone Girl and
Sharp Objects.
With true crime a hugely popular genre in film and books, I’ve no doubt this one will grab the attention of fans.
Bookmark Monday now has its own account on Instagram! Quick, go follow along! I’ll post your bookmarks!
I am also posting a new bookmark of my own ... a cute little origami terrier. I had some leftover Japanese wrapper and made this little cutie out of it! Want to make your own? Here are the instructions, easy peasy!
I’ve started reading Why Evolution is True by Jerry A. Coyne. This is now being read in many schools and universities, and it provides irrefutable scientific evidence of evolutionary biology. So far, it is compelling and fascinating reading. Why wasn’t my biology this interesting in uni? I have started/stopped with this because two of is were reading this ... now it’s my turn!
#BookmarkMonday is a weekly meme that started in 2009. Link up your bookmark below! Don't forget to share your love for bookmarks, whether yours or you dream of making them yours
Post about it on your blog / Twitter / Pinterest / Instagram and link up in the comments below.
If you're on Instagram please tag the BookmarkMonday account @bookmarkmonday) so I can comment. I will also repost your bookmark on the account!
Share your pic with the #BookmarkMonday hashtag on Twitter so we can all check it out!
If you'd like to post on the #BookmarkMonday Pinterest Board, shoot me an email at readerrabbit22 at gmail.com and I'll add you as a contributor.
About Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn: Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.
My two cents
You all know how much I love Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. I was able to borrow a copy off a fellow-Flynn fan and I dove into this amazing debut novel. I couldn’t help but race through it because I found it a compelling and provocative yet highly disturbing read.
This is a chilling tale about reporter, Camille Preaker, who is assigned to report on a series of child murders in - of all places - her hometown. In the course of investigating for her story, she must dig deep and reconnect with family, friends, neighbours, and people of her past. The truth leads her to a disturbing conclusion.
Here’s why I liked it:
It hits you viscerally. This is another brilliant psychological study by Flynn and Camille as the heroine of the story comes with some very serious baggage. There a full sections that made me seriously queasy at times ... but that just goes to show how seriously damaged Camille is. It is hard to read about some of the things that Camille inflicts on herself, physically and mentally. It made me feel scared to discover her scary skeletons in her closet. And yet, surprisingly, instead of being turned off, I felt for her.
This is about the dark side of family. Everyone admits how messed up families can be, but usually we say this with some fondness. Camille’s dysfunctional family takes this to the extreme. As the story unravels, Camille’s childhood is revealed to be a disturbingly unhealthy relationship with her very cold, proper mother, an oddity of a stepfather, and a teenage half sister. Her hometown also has a strange eeriness which is hard to shake off. Camille hadn’t escaped unscathed, and as she finds herself thrust into her old life, she is thrust into this unhealthiness once again. While she copes in new ways, she also finds herself sliding into her old ways. Moreover, she finds herself commiserating with the plight of her half-sister and she feels an obligation to help her in some way.
It’s an actual mystery. I love me my whodunits and Agatha Christie. Camille follows the tradition of mystery solving. While I think I had figured it out, I was often led astray. The best part: I was horrified by the ending.
Be warned: this is deeply disturbing on many fronts.The story is disturbing; the topics of abuse, self-harm, sex, and murder are disturbing; the characters are messed up in every way; and the general feeling I had throughout the book was of creepiness. There is something uncannily scary about reading this book - Flynn doesn’t shy away from the gory and graphic details, or the unhealthy, messed up thoughts of the characters. The result: a read that left me mentally exhausted and frankly, wanting to shake off this darkness. Honestly, it is a hard read to shake off.
Verdict
I highly recommend this to fans of Gillian Flynn and those who love dark twisted psychological tales, dark mysteries, and provocative reading. Stay away if you cannot handle disturbing details of abuse or self-harm.
About The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn: It isn't paranoia if it's really happening . . . Anna Fox lives alone--a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her days drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors. Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn't, her world begins to crumble--and its shocking secrets are laid bare. What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one--and nothing--is what it seems. Twisty and powerful, ingenious and moving, The Woman in the Window is a smart, sophisticated novel of psychological suspense that recalls the best of Hitchcock--an unforgettable thriller that Gillian Flynn calls "amazing."
My two cents
Sidenote: It’s been a long time (unbelievably over a year, almost two!) since I last posted a book review, so getting back into my blog has me wondering how I’ll fare this time around. I’ve pared the reading ao much that I’ve been down to about 20 books a year, with quite a few being rereads.
I got a hold of this particular novel because my colleague and I were discussing just how mindf*ckingly brilliant Gillian Flynn is! As this one is in the same genre as Flynn, and Flynn herself recommended it, I needed to see if her glowing review of “amazing” was true. Here’s why I enjoyed it:
It’s a slow burn. This starts off with the simple introduction of Dr. Anna Fox, a well known child psychologist and now recluse. As the pages turn, Anna’s story and circumstances become more and more apparent. She suffers from agoraphobia because of a yet-unknown-reason to the reader. She hasn’t stepped out of the house in close to a year.
She passes her days watching black and white films, drinking her favourite wine, and popping her plethora of drugs (note: note to be taken with alcohol), and logging online and giving advice to other recluses. Oh, and people watching.
Anna takes a particular interest her new neighbours across the park. One day, she believes she witnesses a murder. But no one believes her.
It’s a pyschological thriller that left me second guessing myself. After the murder, I was wholly on Anna’s side. The many, many pages before had made me “friends” with Anna. I knew her. I knew her family. I knew she wasn’t the type to imagine things. I was certain she was sane; she was just sad and traumatized. Wasn’t she?
As more layers were peeled back and revelations made, I hemmed and hawed. I seesawed from believing her, to writing her off as a drunk, overly drugged, and watching too much film noir. She was becoming paranoid, delusional, and was hallucinating.
Would you be like me, so easily gullible to Anna’s charms? Or will you be objective and see all the red herrings? Did the murder happen or not? You’ll have to find out!
Love the film noir twist.Throughout there are references to Anna’s favourite black and white films. It’s obvious that the author is a film noir aficionado. The references were quite lost on me but they lent interesting backdrops to Anna’s story. When I Googled the book, I was’t surprised to see that there was an old film with the same title. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_in_the_Window
It’s dark yet relatable. If you’re wondering, this is not as dark, graphic or disturbing as Gillian Flynn’s work. Everything is purely psychological which makes Anna’s story much more relatable to the everyday Joe. There is no violence or sexual perversions that seems to be hallmarks of Flynn’s work.
Verdict
In an homage to film noir, I found this psychological thriller hard to put down! I love it when a book exceeds expectations. Highly recommend!
It’s been too long since the last Bookmark Monday post. I am really happy a few of you kept posting on your blogs and Instagram while I was basically AWOL. Bookmarks will never go out of style ... or function. The problem with me is that function always trumps form. So many times I am scambling to find something to use a bookmark. I DO like to keep postcards on hand and I kept this one sent in by Pinoy author Catherine Torres (loved both her Sula’s Voyage and Mariposa Gang and Other Stories).
Torres, on the postcard, gives an excerpt of ghost stories and Filipino folklore. Zoom on the photo.
To add even a bit more of eeeee, check out my current Tim Burton read The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories. Odd much? I couldn’t hold back a few chuckles when flipping though this!
Do you like creepy reading? Are you joining any scary reading challenges?
#BookmarkMonday is a weekly meme that started in 2009. Link up your bookmark below! Don't forget to share your love for bookmarks, whether yours or you dream of making them yours
Post about it on your blog / Twitter / Pinterest / Instagram and link up below.
If you're on Instagram please look me up: @guiltlessreader) tag me so I can comment!
Share your pic with the #BookmarkMonday hashtag on Twitter so I can go check it out!
If you'd like to post on the #BookmarkMonday Pinterest Board, shoot me an email at readerrabbit22 at gmail.com and I'll add you as a contributor.
I love a good literary-themed anything so this lovely little store caught my eye. Everything looks so classy and classic! Here’s a quick little insight into the store through a chat with Melissa, the owner of Literary Book Gifts. And a little treat for all my readers. Thanks, Melissa!
[I did not receive compensation or any product to put up this post. Just helping out a fellow book lover and small business owner.]
***
I started the online store Literary Book Gifts to spread my personal love of reading and all things literature through iconic designs of some of our most beloved novels. Whether you are a Jane Austen fan or resonate with Henry David Thoreau’s ideas, there is something for every book lover in the collection!
I believe that great classics are meant to be read, talked about, and discussed. Each tee and tote is a perfect conversation starter. And even if it does not start up a conversation, maybe someone will see you wearing your A Tale of Two Cities shirt and pick up a copy of the Charles Dickens classic later at the local library. Graphics and artwork have a very powerful way of spreading information. This is one of the many things I love about having the opportunity to create visual representations of some of my favorite novels. I am selective about the authors and titles that make their way into the collection. Popular titles are great of course, but the lesser known ones are very important as well. I loved reading the existential tale of Gregor Samsa, and his transformation into an insect in The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. So I am pleased that it can have a place in the collection alongside more well known works such as Jane Eyre and Ulysses.
With every design you have a choice of a shirt or tote bag. The t-shirts come in women’s and men’s sizing. Each shirt is made of high quality 100% cotton composition, with the exception of some lovely heather color options that have a mixed fiber content. What really makes the shirts at Literary Book Gifts stand apart from the competition is that they come in a wide variety of colors. Each shirt comes in at least a few colors, and some of them up have up to twenty options. I believe the design itself is equally as important as the shirt color for the individual who wears it. Take the case of the Edgar Allan Poe shirt. In the women’s version choosing a pink or purple version gives off an entirely different stylish vibe than the indigo or grey options. Offering the same design to different and unique people is a great way for personalization and ultimately for the shirt to become a staple item in one’s wardrobe.
As a discount for the readers of Guiltless Reading, enter the promo code GUILTLESSREADING20 at checkout at Literary Book Gifts Book Gifts for a 20 percent discount! There is no minimum needed to order and this code does not expire.
I just needed a change. And there was a lot of change I was dealing with personally. Blogging wasn’t exactly a priority.
Thanks to those who asked how I am doing. A few of you reached out to me with friendly hi’s and hellos over social media where I didn’t just drop out of sight. I got a ton of emails from publishers and authors and for the most part I have just been quiet.
Until now. Baby steps back into blogging. Maybe, we’ll see.
Fate is a line free will twists into a spiral.
- p. 3
For Friday 56: "If ever there's a drop left in this box , or the King's, Miss," he replied. "It tasted of smoke and cherries," I said. He tilted the bottle to read the label."And rain. One of his favorites this one."
- p. 56
About The Plague Diaries by Ronlyn Domingue*: The astounding, epic conclusion to the Keeper of Tales Trilogy brings together the cryptic prophecy in The Mapmaker's War and the troubling mysteries in The Chronicle of Secret Riven--leading to an unforgettable reckoning between lies and truth. We are all born made of gold. Secret Riven--the mystically gifted heroine who now represses her uncanny telepathic power--works for the mysterious magnate Fewmany as an archivist in his private library. There, she stumbles upon the arcane manuscript that had vanished following her mother's untimely death. She suspects the manuscript contains a profound secret, and she is yet unaware of its link to a thousand-year-old war and her own family's legacy. The tasks before her are clear: Secret must finally learn what Fewmany wants from her as well as the meaning of a strange symbol she's dreamed of since childhood. At last, she must confront the questions haunting her and depart on a quest to find the truth about herself, her dead mother, and her fate--to unleash a Plague of Silences meant to destroy, and transform, the world as all have known it. A dazzling, genre-bending masterwork, The Plague Diaries illuminates the power of our choices, the scars they leave, and the wounds they heal.
***
That first line is a gem. And the page 56 snippet is intriguing - words that draw me in, intrigue me, and eventually push me to read.
I've been a little quiet lately on the blog as life has taken some twists and turns. But I am well and I hope you all are too! It's uncanny that I got an email recently from the author of today's feature book, Ronlyn Domingue, who I "met" through the first book in this trilogy. I loved that first book that the second made its way to me ... and now, four years later, the third and final book is now here!
Ronlyn has a guest post (involves lots of paper and pens) and a GIVEAWAY. So please, join !
1 paper copy The Plague Diaries by Ronlyn Domingue
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Leave a meaningful comment or question for Ronlyn in the comments below. Tweet about this giveaway (leave link in comments). Share on Facebook (leave link in comments).
Guest Post by Ronlyn Domingue
Author of The Plague Diaries, Book 3 of The Keeper of Tales Trilogy
* affiliate link
I've had the pleasure of working with Ronlyn Domingue over the years promoting her trilogy, The Keeper of Tales. Way back in 2013, I stumbled upon her first book The Mapmaker's War in a Goodreads Giveaway. I was quite entranced by this story, with its folkloric storyline, its gorgeous descriptions and its unusual storytelling style. With my rave review, the author reached out to me in 2014 with her second book The Chronicle of Secret Riven. She even joined me for a guest post (where she revealed works that influenced her unique work). I am happy to be part of her journey as rounds up her trilogy with The Plague Diaries.
After Ronlyn published her critically acclaimed debut, The Mercy of Thin Air*, she squirreled away for several years to work on her next project. What was meant to be one epic novel became a trilogy that can be read in any order. The third book, The Plague Diaries, is out now—the story of a young woman named Secret, fated to release a plague to end an ancient pestilence. Her mythic call involves an arcane manuscript, a strange symbol, and a 1,000-year-old family legacy.
Today, Ronlyn shares how she wrote these books—a method used for thousands of years.
***
I’m a Virgo, which means my entire life is oriented to do things the most efficient way possible the first time.
Imagine my horror when I received instructions—a feeling more so than actual words—that I was supposed to write my second novel by hand.
“No,” I argued with the book, which wasn’t yet a book, just a bunch of notes and ideas. “That’s ridiculous. Why would I handwrite when it’s so much faster to type? I’ll just have to type it up anyway.”
The book would not relent. Every time I tried to write on a machine, nothing would come. Eventually, I squirreled away in a room with the curtains drawn. In two weeks, 26,000 words spewed forth, on letterpress-quality paper in purple ink.
Sideview of the Mapmaker's manuscript
My debut novel, The Mercy of Thin Air, was written on a computer. The words showed up, and tap tap tap, they appeared on the screen. It was easy to procrastinate on days I didn’t really want to write because I could go back to what I had, shifting commas, tweaking sentences, moving paragraphs.
I had no such luxury with this second book, scribed in bold ink. When I sat to write, I had picked up where I left off the day before. The manuscript became too messy if I tried to noodle with what I’d already written.
What surprised me most was the intimacy. I could sit curled up in a comfortable place and feel the words in a way I didn’t when I was at a keyboard. Mind, words, page, one world.
And it made sense, frankly. My second novel, which became the first in the trilogy, and the two books that followed aren’t set in our contemporary time. In The Mapmaker’s War: Book 1, Aoife, the mapmaker, lives in world similar to the Dark Ages. In The Chronicle of Secret Riven: Book 2 and The Plague Diaries: Book 3, Secret’s world resembles our Victorian era.
Pen and pencil ...
In each book, there are references to pens and ink, tattered manuscripts and letters and old maps, things created through the direct touch of human hands.
All told, several purple pens, four boxes of Mirado Black Warriors, and a multitude of assorted other pencils gave their dark blood for these books.
In the end, I realized that handwriting the manuscripts didn’t take more time than if I’d typed them. These books had to be written the way they were. I could not impose my modern values on their world, their sense of time, and the way they chose to speak.
An attentive writer bows what the work demands and looks upon the resulting callous on one’s finger as a scar of honor.
About Ronlyn Domingue
Ronlyn Domingue is the author of The Chronicle of Secret Riven and The Mapmaker’s War, the first two books of the Keeper of Tales Trilogy. Her critically-acclaimed debut novel, The Mercy of Thin Air, was published in ten languages. Her writing has appeared in New England Review, Clackamas Literary Review, New Delta Review, The Independent (UK), Border Crossing, and Shambhala Sun, as well as on mindful.org, The Nervous Breakdown, and The Weeklings.
About The Plague Diaries by Ronlyn Domingue*: The astounding, epic conclusion to the Keeper of Tales Trilogy brings together the cryptic prophecy in The Mapmaker's War and the troubling mysteries in The Chronicle of Secret Riven--leading to an unforgettable reckoning between lies and truth. We are all born made of gold. Secret Riven--the mystically gifted heroine who now represses her uncanny telepathic power--works for the mysterious magnate Fewmany as an archivist in his private library. There, she stumbles upon the arcane manuscript that had vanished following her mother's untimely death. She suspects the manuscript contains a profound secret, and she is yet unaware of its link to a thousand-year-old war and her own family's legacy. The tasks before her are clear: Secret must finally learn what Fewmany wants from her as well as the meaning of a strange symbol she's dreamed of since childhood. At last, she must confront the questions haunting her and depart on a quest to find the truth about herself, her dead mother, and her fate--to unleash a Plague of Silences meant to destroy, and transform, the world as all have known it. A dazzling, genre-bending masterwork, The Plague Diaries illuminates the power of our choices, the scars they leave, and the wounds they heal.
1 paper copy The Plague Diaries by Ronlyn Domingue
Open US
Leave a meaningful comment or question for Ronlyn in the comments below.
Tweet about this giveaway (leave link in comments).
Share on Facebook (leave link in comments).
I couldn't stop clicking around in the Mods on Pods* Etsy Shop. Everything is made from the Banksia seed pods and look just how beautiful this bookmark is! Banksia grows in the bush of Australia -- so if you're looking for something distinctly Australian, I think you should pay this little shop a visit.
#BookmarkMonday is a weekly meme that started in 2009. Link up your bookmark below! Don't forget to share your love for bookmarks, whether yours or you dream of making them yours
Post about it on your blog / Twitter / Pinterest / Instagram and link up below.
If you're on Instagram please look me up: @guiltlessreader) tag me so I can comment!
Share your pic with the #BookmarkMonday hashtag on Twitter so I can go check it out!
If you'd like to post on the #BookmarkMonday Pinterest Board, shoot me an email at readerrabbit22 at gmail.com and I'll add you as a contributor.
Early in the morning, late in the century, Cricklewood Broadway. At 06.27 hours on 1 January 195, Alfred Archibald Jones was dressed in corduroy and sat in a fume-filled Cavalier Musketeer Estate face down on the steering wheel, hoping the judgement would not be too heavy upon him.
- p. 3
For Friday 56: Both women were momentarily embarrassed at what they were wearing, but, looking at each other gained confidence.
- p. 56
About White Teeth by Zadie Smith*: On New Year's morning, 1975, Archie Jones sits in his car on a London road and waits for the exhaust fumes to fill his Cavalier Musketeer station wagon. Archie—working-class, ordinary, a failed marriage under his belt—is calling it quits, the deciding factor being the flip of a 20-pence coin. When the owner of a nearby halal butcher shop (annoyed that Archie's car is blocking his delivery area) comes out and bangs on the window, he gives Archie another chance at life and sets in motion this richly imagined, uproariously funny novel.
Epic and intimate, hilarious and poignant, White Teeth is the story of two North London families—one headed by Archie, the other by Archie's best friend, a Muslim Bengali named Samad Iqbal. Pals since they served together in World War II, Archie and Samad are a decidedly unlikely pair. Plodding Archie is typical in every way until he marries Clara, a beautiful, toothless Jamaican woman half his age, and the couple have a daughter named Irie (the Jamaican word for "no problem"). Samad —devoutly Muslim, hopelessly "foreign"— weds the feisty and always suspicious Alsana in a prearranged union. They have twin sons named Millat and Magid, one a pot-smoking punk-cum-militant Muslim and the other an insufferable science nerd. The riotous and tortured histories of the Joneses and the Iqbals are fundamentally intertwined, capturing an empire's worth of cultural identity, history, and hope.
Zadie Smith's dazzling first novel plays out its bounding, vibrant course in a Jamaican hair salon in North London, an Indian restaurant in Leicester Square, an Irish poolroom turned immigrant café, a liberal public school, a sleek science institute. A winning debut in every respect, White Teeth marks the arrival of a wondrously talented writer who takes on the big themes —faith, race, gender, history, and culture— and triumphs.
***
I'm a Zadie Smith noob. I've seen her books around and heard raves and of course, now I want in on the fun!
Have you read any Zadie Smith? Any book recommendations for me?
I don't think I could every get tired of Harry Potter. Ukraine company Mere Leather* on Etsy preys upon Potterheads in the nicest possible way with these amazing handmade leather corner bookmarks that any Harry Potter fan would love to own. I couldn't choose from the three but have a special affinity for Harry's eyeglasses.
#BookmarkMonday is a weekly meme that started in 2009. Link up your bookmark below! Don't forget to share your love for bookmarks, whether yours or you dream of making them yours
Post about it on your blog / Twitter / Pinterest / Instagram and link up below.
If you're on Instagram please look me up: @guiltlessreader) tag me so I can comment!
Share your pic with the #BookmarkMonday hashtag on Twitter so I can go check it out!
If you'd like to post on the #BookmarkMonday Pinterest Board, shoot me an email at readerrabbit22 at gmail.com and I'll add you as a contributor.
There was a village once, not very long ago for those with long memories, nor very far away for those with very long legs. Wootton Major it was called because it was larger than Wootton Minor, a few miles away deep in the trees; but it was not very large, though it was at the time prosperous, and a fair number of folk lived in it, good, bad, and mixed, as is usual.
- p. 7
For Friday 56: "Yes Master. But do you really know what the star was made of? Don't trouble your mind about it. Someone swallowed it, I assure you."
- p. 56
About Smith of Wootton Major by J.R.R. Tolkien*: A charming new pocket edition of one of Tolkien's major pieces of short fiction, and his only finished work dating from after publication of The Lord of the Rings. What began as a preface to The Golden Key by George MacDonald eventually grew into this charming short story, so named by Tolkien to suggest an early work by P.G. Wodehouse.
Composed almost a decade after The Lord of the Rings, and when his lifelong occupation with the `Silmarillion' was winding down, Smith of Wootton Major was the product of ripened experience and reflection. It was published in 1967 as a small hardback, complete with charming black and white illustrations by Pauline Baynes, and would be the last work of fiction to be published in Tolkien's own lifetime.
Now, almost 50 years on, this enchanting tale of a wanderer who finds his way into the perilous realm of Faery is being published once again as a pocket hardback. Contained here are many intriguing links to the world of Middle-earth, as well as to Tolkien's other tales, and this new edition is enhanced with a facsimile of the illustrated first edition, a manuscript of Tolkien's early draft of the story, notes and an alternate ending, and a lengthy essay on the nature of Faery.
***
So was at the thrift store agin (yes again!) and look what the daughter found! I saw the author -- JRR Tolkien -- and without hesitation said "Take it." Being a huge Tolkien fan, I was surprised not to have even heard of this title or even thought he would make an illustrated book. Did you know, this is his last published work after Lord of the Rings? This is a 1975 copy and I love the illustrations in this edition.
