Friday Face Off : ‘nomad is an island’
Here we are again with the Friday Face Off meme created by Books by Proxy . This is a great opportunity to feature some of your favourite book covers. The rules are fairly simple each week, following a predetermined theme (list below) choose a book, compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future week’s themes are listed below – the list has been updated to help out those of you who like to plan ahead – if you have a cover in mind that you’re really wanting to share then feel free to leave a comment about a future suggested theme. I’ve also listed events that take place during the year, that I’m aware of, so you can link up your covers – if you’re aware of any events that you think I should include then give me a shout. This week’s theme:
‘nomad is an island’ – A cover featuring a desert landscape
The first book that jumped into my head this week was Dune. It has some great covers and definitely fits the theme but I know I’ve used it before so wanted to come up with something different. I’ve come up with a book instead that I read as a teenager. It was one of my dad’s books that had three stories in one and at the time I read all three and was totally fascinated – I’m not sure how I’d feel about them if I was to reread but the author was H. Rider Haggard and the three stories in the volume were King Soloman’s Mines, She and Allan Quatermain (which is the sequel to King Soloman’s Mines. So this week my book is Allan Quatermain and here are a small selection of the covers:
My favourites are the covers with the lion and the elephants:
My favourite this week is the lion – just look at that face:
Which one is your favourite?
Like last week I’ve added a Mr Linky here so that you can leave a link if you wish or please leave me a link in the comments so we can all visit and check out each others covers. Thanks
I’ve updated the list and included themes through to the end of 2019 – I’ve also included events that I’m aware of so that you can perhaps link your themes up where possible (if you know of an event you’d like to share that let me know in the comments). I also have a list prepared for 2020 and so will set up a separate page soon for forthcoming themes. As always, if you wish to submit an idea then leave me a comment.
Next week – A cover featuring a longboat
Future themes: (if you’re struggling with any of these themes then use a ‘freebie’ of one of your favourite covers)
2019
12th April – ‘Odin, Odin, send the wind to turn the tide – A cover featuring a longboat
19th April – ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – A cover featuring a school
26th April “The sunrise was the colour of bad blood” – A cover featuring a sunrise/sunset
(May is the month of Wyrd and Wonder – details here, Twitter: @wyrdandwonder)
3rd May – “How sweet to be a cloud, floating in the blue” – A cover that is predominantly blue
10th May – “As full of spirit as the month of May” – A cover featuring a festival/party/celebration
17th May – “The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow!” – A cover featuring a fantasy beast
24th May – “bibbity, bobbity, boo” – A cover that features ‘magical things’
31st May – “simples” – A favourite fantasy cover
7th June – “One swallow does not make a summer” – A cover that makes you think of Summer
14th June – “Coraline opened the box of chocolates. The dog looked at them longingly.” – A cover featuring something sweet
21st June – Summer Solstice – the longest day of the year – Pagan rituals/standing stones/blazing suns – a cover with your own interpretation
28th June – “And who decided which people wore the striped pyjamas” – A cover that is striped
5th July – “The question of whether or not we are alone in the universe… has been answered” – a cover featuring something/somebody historic
12th July – A wrap around cover
19th July – “You can’t choose between life and death when we’re dealing with what is in between.” – A cover that is grainy or looks like ‘white noise’
26th July – “Ludo ….. down” – A cover that is Upside Down
2nd August – “There are children here somewhere. I can smell them.” A cover featuring children
9th August – “I’m disinclined to acquiesce to your request.” – A cover featuring Pirates
16th August – “The haft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagles own plumes” – a cover featuring feathers
23rd August – A cover that is a movie tie in
30th August – “I wandered lonely as a cloud” – a cover that is predominantly yellow
6th September “Warm September brings the fruit” – a cover that is seasonal for Autumn/Fall
13th September – Friday the 13th – unlucky for some! A cover with ‘curse’ in the title
20th September – “Your hair is winter fire,January embers.” – A cover featuring hair
27th September – Freebie
4th October – “Feed me Seymour” – A cover that is 60s horror
11th October – ““And, though there should be a world of difference between the smile of a man and the bared fangs of a wolf, with Joss Merlyn they were one and the same.” – a cover featuring an Inn
18th October – “It’s your favorite scary movie, remember? He had on the white mask, he stalked the babysitters.” – A cover featuring a scream
25th October – for Halloween – pick any scary cover you like
(I’m hoping that November will once again bring to us SciFiMonth – Twitter @SciFiMonth)
1st November – A cover that is predominantly grey
8th November – “big badda boom” – a cover that features an explosion
15th November – “No thinking thing should be another thing’s property, to be turned on and off when it is convenient.” – a cover featuring a robot
22nd November – A cover that is Futuristic
29th November – “When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.” – a cover that is 60s sci fi
6th December – Now is the winter of our discontent, Made glorious summer by this sun of York” – a cover that puts you in mind of winter
13th December – A cover that features a temple/or religious icon
20th December – Longest Night – a dark and foreboding cover
27th December – the festive season – a cover that is glittery or sparkling
(2020 – January is Vintage SciFi month so I’ll be including possible themes to take that on board.)
Throwback Thursday : The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
4 April 2019
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Lauren Beukes, The Shining Girls, The Tenacious Reader, Throwback Thursday
Throwback Thursday, is a new feature created by Tenacious Reader with the aim of highlighting books from your reading past. This can be virtually anything, a book that you previously read and loved, a book that you want to highlight again, maybe it’s a book in a series and the next book is due out shortly so you want to focus some attention on the series. Anything goes – so long as your book isn’t a current release as there are already plenty of ways to highlight the latest books.
The book I’d like to shine the spotlight on this week is : The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. This is an author that I really like. The books of hers that I’ve read have been simply amazing, dark and imaginative. I haven’t read all her books and that is something that I need to address but for today I’m going with The Shining Girls, difficult to believe that this was published in 2013 – I wonder if it’s due for a reread! A book that brings to us a time travelling serial killer. This is a dark read but it’s also absolutely compelling read and I couldn’t put it down.
The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die Hunts the Killer Who Shouldn’t Exist
The future is not as loud as war, but it is relentless. It has a terrible fury all its own.
Harper Curtis is a killer who stepped out of the past. Kirby Mazrachi is the girl who was never meant to have a future.
Kirby is the last shining girl, one of the bright young women, burning with potential, whose lives Harper is destined to snuff out after he stumbles on a House in Depression-era Chicago that opens on to other times.
At the urging of the House, Harper inserts himself into the lives of the shining girls, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. He’s the ultimate hunter, vanishing into another time after each murder, untraceable-until one of his victims survives.
Determined to bring her would-be killer to justice, Kirby joins the Chicago Sun-Times to work with the ex-homicide reporter, Dan Velasquez, who covered her case. Soon Kirby finds herself closing in on the impossible truth . . .
The Shining Girls is a masterful twist on the serial killer tale: a violent quantum leap featuring a memorable and appealing heroine in pursuit of a deadly criminal.
The Raven’s Tale by Cat Winters
The Raven’s Tale is an imagining of a short period of Edgar Allan Poe’s teenage years spent under the care of his foster parents the Allans. The story begins with Edgar poised on the brink of leaving his home to attend university. A move that he looks forward to with great relish. Not just to work hard and make something of himself but to also escape the clutches of his ‘pa’ who constantly browbeats him regarding his artistic calling.
This is an almost poetic tale, dark and gothic with plenty of imagination worked into the pages that could easily have inspired this young author to write such poetry and stories.
Ultimately, I have mixed feelings for this one but I think that’s more because I’m not really a reader who enjoys poetry and so whilst this is beautifully written it probably appealed less to me than it will to others.
The description of the books has this to say:
Seventeen-year-old Edgar Poe counts down the days until he can escape his foster family—the wealthy Allans of Richmond, Virginia. He hungers for his upcoming life as a student at the prestigious new university, almost as much as he longs to marry his beloved Elmira Royster. However, on the brink of his departure, all his plans go awry when a macabre Muse named Lenore appears to him. Muses are frightful creatures that lead Artists down a path of ruin and disgrace, and no respectable person could possibly understand or accept them. But Lenore steps out of the shadows with one request: “Let them see me!”
As the story begins we make the acquaintance of a young Edgar, an orphan, cared for by the Allans. Straight away it’s clear that Edgar is unhappy in his day to day family life. His pa constantly berates him about his poetry and the two frequently argue. Edgar is desperate to attend university but his attendance hinges on his behaviour and the cessation of his need to pen romantic or macabre poems. When his muse appears to him literally, made manifest by his own wild imagination and dressed in cinders and soot Edgar fears that his dreams may all be ruined. He needs to keep his muse hidden but she longs for recognition.
Edgar has a young love interest in one of his neighbours, Elmira Royster. Unfortunately, the Allens being new money and the Royster’s being an old established family of Richmond a match between the two will never be forthcoming but they can but dream, making puppy eyes and promises to each other whenever they can steal a moment of privacy.
So much of Edgar’s happiness rests on his ability to make a success of himself and yet when he eventually leaves for university he is immediately thrown into a calamity by a shortage of funds. His pa has not left him with sufficient to meet his needs and so Edgar eventually resorts to drastic measures all the while with his muse refusing to be hidden.
What I enjoyed about the Raven’s Tale was the gothic feel and the way the author has wrangled certain elements into the story that give a possible glimpse of where Edgar found inspiration. His own tragic family background led him to a fascination with death and the dead. He’s a very sensitive boy, quite prone to let his emotions and imagination run amok and he definitely suffers from angst. From this story, and whether it bears any relation to true events in this respect I’m not sure, but it becomes very apparent that Edgar and his pa are pretty much polar opposites, chalk and cheese. Their opinions and sensitives couldn’t be further removed even if they tried and they simply can’t get along together. This is what drives part of the narrative, Edgar’s struggle to either come to terms with who he is and accept his muse and embrace his artistic calling, or follow in a more traditional way of life, working for his pa and earning a ‘respectable’ living.
If you look at Edgar and his pa you could actually find fault with both to be honest. I did have a good deal of sympathy with Edgar but at the same time I could see how he was in some respects his own worst enemy. Take for example the debts he runs up whilst in his first year of university. His debts certainly suggest a level of extravagance that even had his father left more money – it would hardly have covered his eventual expenses.
In terms of criticisms, I think this was a fairly quick read and quite a short story. For me it felt a little thin in parts and I think the gothic elements could have been expanded on a little to create more atmosphere. I found myself a little perplexed by the manifestation of Edgar’s muse and felt it was a very strange storyline – particularly as Edgar and Lenore both narrate alternate chapters, and it was just so difficult to like Lenore – her chapters were so unusual. I think I would have preferred it if Lenore was only visible to Edgar, maybe to appear in shadows and the like giving the book an added creep factor, as it was I just really struggled to come to terms with the situation.
Overall, this one didn’t quite work for me but I imagine it will work well for others. I think that had I known that the poetry would be more the focus for the story, and indeed the style of writing, I probably wouldn’t have requested a copy as I know that poetry isn’t really my style and I rarely read any. Sorry, but there it is and I cannot tell a lie or pretend otherwise.
Like I said, this is beautifully written and I do feel guilty that I couldn’t love it more but I still recommend this, particularly to a young adult audience and to lovers of poetry and Poe. On this occasion I think it’s more ‘me than you’.
I received a copy courtesy of the publisher, through Edelweiss, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
Can’t Wait Wednesday : The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
3 April 2019
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Alice Hoffman, Can't wait Wednesday, The World That We Knew, Wishful Endings
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that was originally created by Breaking the Spine. Unfortunately Breaking the Spine are no longer hosting so I’m now linking my posts up to Wishful Endings Can’t Wait Wednesday. Don’t forget to stop over, link up and check out what books everyone else is waiting for. If you want to take part, basically, every Wednesday, we highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. This week my book is : The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman. Because – ALICE HOFFMAN. I love this author, I was so excited when I saw this book was due out that I nearly had a conniption!
In Berlin in 1941 during humanity’s darkest hour, three unforgettable young women must act with courage and love to survive, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dovekeepers and The Marriage of Opposites Alice Hoffman.
In Berlin, at the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime. She finds her way to a renowned rabbi, but it’s his daughter, Ettie, who offers hope of salvation when she creates a mystical Jewish creature, a rare and unusual golem, who is sworn to protect Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she and Lea and Ettie become eternally entwined, their paths fated to cross, their fortunes linked.
Lea and Ava travel from Paris, where Lea meets her soulmate, to a convent in western France known for its silver roses; from a school in a mountaintop village where three thousand Jews were saved. Meanwhile, Ettie is in hiding, waiting to become the fighter she’s destined to be.
What does it mean to lose your mother? How much can one person sacrifice for love? In a world where evil can be found at every turn, we meet remarkable characters that take us on a stunning journey of loss and resistance, the fantastical and the mortal, in a place where all roads lead past the Angel of Death and love is never ending.
Expected publication : September 2019
All the reasons for picking up books (as if you needed any reasons)
2 April 2019
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: That Artsy Reader Girl, Top 10 things that make me pick up a book, Top Ten Tuesday
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic. Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here. This week’s topic is:
10 Things that make me pick up a book
The author – this has to be the first reason. Certain authors are just naturally on my ‘go to’ list. I always keep an eye out for their next piece of work and as soon as I hear the merest hint of a book on the horizon, even the far horizon, like, so far on the horizon that it’s barely even a dot, I’m am all about that book. I want it. I want it now. Give it us preciouss..
What’s that you say? A new book, tell me more…
Bloggers – I follow a lot of you folks and you definitely keep my TBR in a perpetual state of ‘impossible to complete and dangerous should it ever fall over’. Yes, I’m talking to you – you know who you are!
Photo taken from Irish Times
The cover – Yes, I know this may sound very fickle but, in my defence, cover art can be a seriously beautiful thing, it’s the first thing that draws your eye on a shelf, you can usually find a description for the book, the price and quite often some information on the author – so yep, I stick by this. Covers are the bee’s knees and the camel’s hips – here are a few of my more recent lovely looking covers. Are you not entertained:
Sales/discounts/giveaways – If you buy books on an almost constant basis reductions and giveaways are always nice. I like to support authors so even though I receive a good number of ARCs I usually buy two or three books a month and I also pay a monthly subscription to Audible. So discounts and giveaways = happy me.
Next in series – I realise that I have a lot of uncompleted series in my stacks of books. I think I have completionist issues or something! But, sometimes the final book in the series might not yet be released – I’m just trying to find excuses for not completing all my series really. I actually need help. Send help.
The description – see the cover item above – I like to read the blurb. Sometimes they can be a bit over chatty, sometimes they can lead me in the wrong direction (usually by my own determination to go down the wrong route to be fair) and sometimes they can be spot on and incredibly enticing. Those ‘spot on’ blurbs give me a serious case of the ‘grabby hands’.
Publisher invites/catalogues – I can’t help wanting to accept invites. It just feels rude not to! And catalogues – you simply have to browse them. It’s actually compulsory – you just have to. Tell me I’m not alone in this.
Hype – we all like to jump on hype and generally cat-call and boo it from the stands, but then at the same time we can’t help but be drawn to the books that are receiving all the hype – nobody wants to miss the next ‘best thing’.
If it’s being adapted to a movie/series – as soon as I see that one of my unread books is being made into a film or series it makes me desperate to read the book first. Don’t ask me why, but once I’ve seen the adaptation I just can’t go back and read the book. I have a mental block. Check out this rather wonderful post for a list of forthcoming (or already released) adaptations. I’m very excited for some of these. NOS4A2 looks particularly scary – I’m going to have to pick up the book very soon.
What about you?
