‘Me, a name I call myself,…’
18 October 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Character Names, Top Ten Tuesday
Every Tuesday over at the The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic. The topic this week is :
Characters Names that I love
There are plenty of great characters in books and some very memorable names. Here are my top ten memorable names.
- Max/Maxim – I love this name- and in fact the novel that I first encountered it in – Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca.
- Oberon. What a wonderful name and one we all probably know in terms of him being King of the Fae. Brought to life in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream it’s a name that I also now associate with a rather large, unkempt and sausage loving wolf hound that keeps Atticus company in Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles.
- I really like the use of the months of the year that Seanan McGuire uses for her Toby Daye series. I think to date we’ve got characters called October, January and April – I wonder if we’ll complete the full calendar month? Kind of hoping that December will be used at some point as that’s my birth month! *winks at MsMcGuire*
- The Bastard. This is the name of a feisty horse, belonging to Imriel in Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series. It just makes me smile – I’m very easily pleased like that, I know it’s not big and clever but it’s just a name that really seems to fit on this occasion.
- Inigo Montoya – this character is brilliant and you certainly can’t forget his name – he simply won’t let you. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
- Sherlock Holmes – you can’t really ask for a more memorable name. How on earth you come up with a name like that is a mystery to me but it’s brilliant and a name that everyone knows, whether they’ve read the books or not!
- Dolores Umbridge – you really do have to hand it to Rowling – this name is inspired and suits the character to perfection!
- Ebenezer Scrooge – again, a name that everyone knows and more than that uses. Scrooge has become synonymous with tight fisted miserliness. Dickens A Christmas Carol.
- Samwise Gamgee – I don’t need to qualify this one do I! ‘I ain’t been dropping no eaves sir’! Okay, Lord of the Rings by JRRTolkien.
- Dracula – another name that really needs no explanation. I think everybody must know this name. Bram Stoker’s famous vampire creation!
Wait till they get a load of me…
4 October 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: The Broke and the Bookish, Top 10 Villains, Top Ten Tuesday
Every Tuesday over at the The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic. The topic this week is :
‘All About The Villains’
- Voldemort – needs no explanation! But, just in case. Seriously bad wizard with dreams of taking over the world of wizarding! Harry Potter series by J K Rowling.
- Game of Thrones – evil siblings – what on earth could be worse. GRRMartin’s Cersei and Jaime.
- Sauron – this guy only has a disembodied eye – an eye – okay it’s a huge eye, but still! and he’s still making a play for world domination with orcs and the like running amok.
- Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series: Rayseline – fae. In fairness she was kidnapped as a youngster and this has left it’s mark on her but even so – she plots!
- The Seven Forges series by James Moore – Sa’ba Taalor – God touched and basically war machines. They live to fight and seem to feel no fear. A great creation by James Moore.
- Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt – Katherine van Wyler – a witch, eyes and mouth sewn shut, she stalks the residents of Black Springs (where she was killed over 300 years earlier). Nobody leaves Black Springs and lives to tell the tale.
- The Kushiel books by Jacqueline Carey: Melisande a scheming woman who always has the long game in mind. A magnificent baddie!
- Mrs Danvers from Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca. You have to love Mrs Danvers – a woman obsessed.
- The White Witch from C S Lewis’s The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe – how can you like a person who froze Mr Tumnus!?! It’s just wrong!
- Wesley Chu’s Tao series: The Genjix – a nation of aliens divided (The Genjix and the Prophus) and at war with each other here on earth – where they have to inhabit the bodies of people!
Autumn reading
27 September 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Autumn reads, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday
Every Tuesday over at the The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic. The topic this week is :
Books on my autumn reading list
Nice and easy this week: these are my next scheduled books:
- Chasing Embers by James Bennett
- The Family Plot by Cherie Priest
- Summerlong by Peter S Beagle
- A Deadly Affection by Cuyler Overholt
- The Thorn of Emberlain by Scott Lynch
- The Witches of New York by Ami McKay
- A City Dreaming by Daniel Polansky
- The Apothecary’s Curse by Barbara Barnett
- Faithful by Alice Hoffman
- Congress of Secrets by Stephanie Burgis
Speaking for themselves: audio books
20 September 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Audio books, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday
Every Tuesday over at the The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic. The topic this week is :
Audio Freebie
In which I confess that I’ve never listened to a book. I think if I was to pick 10 books though to give audio a try they would be as follows:
- The 3 Fairytale retellings by Sarah Pinborough: Beauty/Poison/Charm – because these are relatively short books, they’re retellings based on fairytales and they’re quite fascinating and cheeky takes on the original stories – I don’t think my attention would wander.
- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – because I understand Neil Gaiman narrates this one on audio and so I would love to listen to it.
- The Road Brothers by Mark Lawrence – this is a series of short stories all connected to The Broken Empire series – I think it would be very easy to listen to these, one at a time, not all in one go but just every now and again.
- Something spooky that would give me the chills – The Haunting of Hill House of Shirley Jackson – I have a notion that listening to something scary would be excellent – providing it was narrated well, I suppose it could go horribly wrong!
- Monstrous Little voices – 5 stories retold, based on some of Shakespeare’s most famous works but given a more modern voice. Each five of the stories connect but I figure listening to these would be great – overall just shy of 350 pages but taken individually they’re lovely little chunks. As a rule I don’t like short stories but when they all connect in this way they’re excellent.
- I think I would like to listen to some of the Sherlock Holmes books on audio – particularly Hound of the Baskervilles.
- I think a book with excellent dialogue throughout – such as The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula – because of the style of narration I just imagine this would be an excellent audio book.
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J K Rowling – I think the first in the series had a lighter feel and would be a good starting point
- Suggestions – given that I’ve read all of the above – do you have any suggestions that feel similar??
10 Favourite Fantasy authors
13 September 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: 10 Favourite Fantasy authors, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday
Every Tuesday over at the The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic. The topic this week is :
ALL TIME Favorite Books Of X Genre
Impossible. It’s just impossible to give you 10 all time favourite books for the fantasy genre because frankly there are a lot of books that I love. I’m going to stick to 10 but I’m going to cheat a little by giving you more than one book by the same author – I love cheating!
- Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book, Stardust, Neverwhere, Coraline, The Sandman Series, The Ocean at the End of the Lane
- Mark Lawrence: Prince/King and Emperor of Thorns, Prince of Fools, Red Queen’s War, The Wheel of Osheim, Road Brothers, Sleeping Beauty, During the Dance,
- Patrick Rothfuss: Name of the Wind, Wise Man’s Fear, The Slow Regard of Silent Things
- Sarah Pinborough: Poison, Charm, Beauty, Mayhem, Murder, 13 Minutes, The Death House, The Language of Dying
- Scott Lynch: The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, The Republic of Thieves
- Brandon Sanderson: Mistborn Trilogy, The Emperor’s Soul, The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance
- Patricia Briggs: Mercy Thompson series 1-8
- JRRTolkien: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion
- Jen Williams: The Copper Promise, The Iron Ghost, The Silver Tide, Sorrow’s Isle
- Robert J Bennett: The Troupe, The Company Man, Mr Shivers, American Elsewhere, City of Stairs, City of Blades
Even with a bit of cheating I can’t fit in all my favourite authors but those are the first 10 and I’ve thrown in a whole heap of covers:
Books and travelling with Lynn 