Hell hath no fury – like a woman!
26 October 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Halloween, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday, Witches
This week over at the Broke and Bookish the topic for Top Ten Tuesday is :
‘Halloween themed freebie’
With Halloween in mind I thought I’d put forth 10 wicked female characters for us with one main theme:
- The White Witch from CS Lewis’ Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Let’s face it – she froze Narnia and forbid Christmas!
- The Wicked Witch of the West, the Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum – well, she wasn’t very upset when her sister got squashed by a falling house, she was very mean to the straw man and basically a tyrant to the munchkins! “oh what a world”
- The Three Witches from Stardust by Neil Gaiman- you can’t just go around eating pure and innocent fallen stars!
- Ursula from the Little Mermaid – a plotter of nefarious deeds! Stealer of dreams and voices!
- Witch of the Waste from Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, robbed Sophie of her youth because she was jealous!
- Bellatrix LeStrange from JKRowling’s Harry Potter. Very powerful, evil and a death eater. Not to mention killed various characters.
- The Grand High Witch from Roald Dahl’s Witches – she has plans – massive plans – to destroy all the children!
- The Queen – from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves by the Grimm Brothers. She may be a queen, and was once the fairest in the land but deep down she’s an evil witch who wants the heart of snow white delivering to her in a box! tsk
- The Witch who cursed the trolls in Danielle Jensen’s Stolen Songbird. Can’t say too much for fear of spoilers!
- Dolores Umbridge from JKRowling’s Harry Potter. All dressed up in her pink suits looking like butter wouldn’t melt, drinking tea out of her bone china and surrounded by cats – but deep down (in fact not so very deep) she has a horrible mean streak – and don’t be caught talking in class because she’ll give you lines and they won’t be written on paper.
Tis all for me this week. Except for a little spell from the Sanderson Sisters:
Twist the bones and bend the back
Itch-it-a-cop-it-a Mel-a-ka-mys-ti-ca
Trim him of his baby fat
Itch-it-a-cop-it-a Mel-a-ka-mys-ti-ca
Give him fur black as black
Just…. like…. that!
‘Are you looking at me? Did you rub my lamp? Did you wake me up?’
19 October 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: 10 wishes from the book genie, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday
This week over at the Broke and Bookish the topic for Top Ten Tuesday is :
’10 Wishes I’d Ask The Book Genie To Grant Me’
Well, this could have been easy – I could just pick 10 books that I’m desperate to read!
- Instead, not to be greedy or anything, but I want ALL the books that I want and I want them NOW! And now, I still have 9 wishes left.
- Wish No.2 is easy, now I need a time turner – how else can I find the time to read ALL those books.
- I need Santa’s little helper to come and do all my chores – that helps with the reading time after all – I do have ALL those books to read.
- ‘I wish, I wish I had a wormhole’ – yeah, a wormhole to disappear down into! A nice comfy space with a huge soft chair. A cosy little hobbit hole type place.
- I need one of those magic bowls and a magic glass – the kind that just refills automatically with delicious things. I might forget to eat and drink otherwise. I haven’t got time for trivialities.
- I should probably get a bigger house – I have to fit ALL those books somewhere. It’s reasonable.
- I need to be able to shrink all my books so that they fit in my bag. Hang on – I already have that – a kindle!
Okay, I don’t need any more wishes from the book genie. These’ll do for now – perhaps I can keep my last three for a rainy day or the next available books from Patrick Rothfuss, Mark Lawrence and Scott Lynch.
Go together like a horse and carriage??
13 October 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Authors writing a book together, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday
This week over at the Broke and Bookish the topic for Top Ten Tuesday is:
‘Top Ten Author Duos You’d LOVE To See Write A Book Together’
Well, I think this is a real toughie to be honest. I thought I’d go for something a little different (also, I realise that some of these authors are no longer around but I’m still picking them):
- Neil Gaiman and Douglas Adams. Don’t ask me why other than strange quirky fantasy/sci fi and bags of humour.
- Joe Abercrombie and JRRTolkien – imagine a grimdark middle earth if you will! ‘f-bomb in-coming’.
- GRRMartin and Andy Weir – this could be the abridged version of The Martian – as GRRM likes to kill off his characters and Andy Weir wrote The Martian, which is mostly centred around one main character, well, let’s just say it’s going to be a quick read.
- CS Lewis and Bram Stoker – Dracula in Wonderland. Sorry.
- Sarah Pinborough and Louisa May Alcott – Sassy Little Women
- Mark Lawrence and Dr Seuss – The Prince who Stole Christmas: Jorg : ‘The nerve of those Whos. Inviting me down there – on such short notice! Even if I wanted to go my schedule wouldn’t allow it. 4:00, think of new ways to torture people; 4:30, stare into the eyes of a man before I chop off his head; 5:00, create world hunger, let everyone starve; 5:30, homicide; 6:30, dinner with Catherine – she better not cancel!; 7:00, wrestle with my inner demon – kick it’s ass… I’m booked. Of course, if I bump the inner demon to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into dreams of ruling the world. But what would I wear?’
- Arthur Conan Doyle and Jim Butcher – a new sort of detective agency starring Harry Holmes, and Dr Dresden
And that’s it for me. I only got 7 this week.
How to quit ??
6 October 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten bookish 'things' I want to quit, Top Ten Tuesday
This week over at the Broke and the Bookish the Top Ten Tuesday topic for discussion is:
Ten Bookish Things I Want to Quit
- Having messy book shelves – needs no explanation
- Rushing in and taking on more book reviews than I reasonably have time for. Foolish and as I don’t like to miss a deadline really not a good idea.
- Being unorganised – I need to keep a schedule – but, let’s face it, I’d have to be organised in the first place even to think of having one, or putting it together!
- Wanting all the books (see No.2 above)
- Buying books the second they come out (yes I will wait until the door is unlocked) and then not reading them for months – why, just why?
- Signing up to anything and everything in terms of emails – where they relate to books and bookish things that is – my emails are a mess. A big mess. This is bad because when I’m looking for a really important email – yeah, no chance of finding that little sucker.
- Letting people loan my books – this is a bad idea. First, I’m not a library, 2. I don’t keep track and (c) I very rarely see those books again. ‘goodbye favourite books’ Annoying much.
- Putting books before people – yes, you all know what I’m talking about so don’t even bother to raise your eyebrows or judge. Sometimes, If I’m near the end of the book (or even at the beginning) I’m so caught up that I actually don’t want to be social.
- Not savouring the book as much as I’d like. Again, I don’t think I’m alone. Sometimes I’m enjoying a book so much that I will stay up to ridiculous-o-clock, all by myself, to finish it. This isn’t a good idea really because basically it means I’m racing through the story (not skipping anything I hasten to add). Then, when I reach the end of a book I really loved I feel bereft – why did I rush to the end when I know that’s how I’m going to feel?
- Not writing my reviews quickly enough – I don’t like to come back to book reviews after the feelings have gone cold – this is bad for me. I like to review the book while my emotions are either on a high or in turmoil – or whatever feeling it happens to be – because I want the emotion to come out in the review.
What bad habits do you need to quit???
‘Wait’ll they get aload of me’
29 September 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten books if you like Urban Fantasy, Top Ten Tuesday
This week over at the Broke and the Bookish the Top Ten Tuesday topic for discussion is:
Ten Books To Read If You Like urban fantasy:
- The Mercy Thompson series by Patrician Briggs – all sorts of things going on in this series.
- The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher – a Chicago based private investigator who just so happens to be a wizard
- The Trueblood (Sookie Stackhouse) books by Charlaine Harris – lots of vampires
- The Generation V Series by M L Brennan – more vampires
- The Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger – a bit of everything, a book of manners, some steampunk
- The Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne – a druid and his trusty sidekick – or dog – Oberon
- Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch – I have a LOT of catching up with this series – but even so…
- The Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead – okay, there’s a pattern developing here!
- The Miriam Black series by Chuck Wendig – no vampires! Excellent series
- The fey series by Holly Black – Tithe, Valiant and Ironside
I did have a few more but thought I’d stop!
Books and travelling with Lynn 