Wondrous Words and Can’t Wait Wednesday : The Women of Troy by Pat Barker
31 March 2021
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Can't wait Wednesday, Elza Reads, Pat Barker, The women of troy, Wishful Endings, Wondrous Word
“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 Women of Troy by Pat Barker (I loved The Silence of the Girls by the same author.)
From the Booker Prize-winning Pat Barker, author of The Silence of the Girls (“An important, powerful, memorable book” –Emily Wilson, translator of The Odyssey), a retelling of the Trojan War from the perspective of the women who endured it
Troy has fallen and the victorious Greeks are eager to return home with the spoils of an endless war–including the women of Troy themselves. They await a fair wind for the Aegean.
It does not come, because the gods are offended. The body of King Priam lies unburied and desecrated, and so the victors remain in suspension, camped in the shadows of the city they destroyed as the coalition that held them together begins to unravel. Old feuds resurface and new suspicions and rivalries begin to fester.
Largely unnoticed by her captors, the one-time Trojan queen Briseis, formerly Achilles’ mistress, now belonging to his companion Alcimus, quietly takes in these developments. She forges alliances when she can, with Priam’s aged wife the defiant Hecuba and with the disgraced soothsayer Calchas, all the while shrewdly seeking her path to revenge.
Expected publication : June 2021
This meme was first created by Kathy over at Bermuda Onion Blog and has now been adopted by Elza Reads.
Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered, or spotlight words you love.
No rules just enjoy and for further info check out Elza Reads.
I’ve not made a note of any particular words this week but instead I’m taking inspiration from the title of a recent book – A Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop.
This week I’m looking at collective nouns:
‘In linguistics, a collective noun is a collection of things taken as a whole. Most collective nouns in everyday speech are not specific to one kind of thing, such as the word “group”, which can be applied to people or dogs or other things. ‘
A Murder of Crows originated in the fifteenth century during which time it became popular to give ‘poetic’ collective nouns for groups of animals and birds, for example a gaggle of geese or a pride of lions. The noun was usually a reflection of the perceived qualities of the animal/bird, etc. Crows were associated with death. They are scavengers and so would often congregate at the site of death, such as battlefields, and so became known as harbingers or omens of death. Crows were also, in folklore, believed to sit in judgement of other crows, gathering together to decide the fate for one that had committed wrongs.
Wondrous Words and Can’t Wait Wednesday : Sidewinders, (The Fire Sacraments #2) By Robert VS Redick
17 March 2021
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Can't wait Wednesday, Elza Reads, Robert VS Redick, Sidewinders, The Fire Sacraments, Wishful Endings, Wondrous Word
Every Wednesday I take part in Can’t Wait Wednesday, I’m also hoping to take part in a new meme being hosted by Elza Reads called Wondrous Words Wednesday. I’ll be combining these into the same posts as they’re both short and sweet.
“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 :Sidewinders, (The Fire Sacraments #2) By Robert VS Redick.
Two brothers flee an army of fanatics across a vast and magical desert in this white-knuckle sequel to Master Assassins from Robert V.S. Redick, author of The Red Wolf Conspiracy.
The worst of rivals, the closest of friends, the two most wanted men in a war-torn world: Kandri and Mektu Hinjuman have cheated death so often it’s begun to feel like a way of life. But nothing has prepared them for the danger and enchantment of the Ravenous Lands. This sprawling, lethal desert is the brothers’ last hope, for they have killed the favorite son of Her Radiance the Prophet, and her death-priests and magical servants are hunting them day and night.
But there are dangers even within their caravan. Some of their fellow travelers worship the Prophet in secret. Others, including Mektu, have become obsessed with a bejeweled dagger that seems to afflict its owners with madness or death.
At stake is far more than the lives of two runaway soldiers. Kandri is carrying an encoded cure for the World Plague, a disease that has raged for centuries—while far from the desert, certain criminals have learned just how lucrative a plague can be. Are they using the Prophet, or being used by her? Who, in this game of shadows, can Kandri trust?
He knows one thing, however: they must reach Kasralys, great and beautiful fortress-city of the east. Only there can the precious cure be deciphered. Only there can Kandri seek word of the lover who vanished one night without a trace.
But Kasralys, never conquered in 3,000 years, is about to face its greatest siege in history.
Expected Publication July 2021
This meme was first created by Kathy over at Bermuda Onion Blog and has now been adopted by Elza Reads.
Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered, or spotlight words you love.
No rules just enjoy and for further info check out Elza Reads.
My word this week is :
OPHIDIOPHOBIA
Ophidiophobia is a particular type of specific phobia, the abnormal fear of snakes. It is sometimes called by a more general term, herpetophobia, fear of reptiles. The word comes from the Greek words “ophis” (ὄφις), snake, and “phobia” (φοβία) meaning fear.
About a third of adult humans are ophidiophobic, making this the most common reported phobia.
Are you afraid of snakes or are you an Arachnophobe?
Anyway, this is the book that inspired the thought process:
Wondrous Words and Can’t Wait Wednesday : The Past is Red by Catherynne M Valente
17 February 2021
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Can't wait Wednesday, Catherynne M Valente, Elza Reads, Sarah Gailey, The Echo Wife, The Past is Red, Wishful Endings, Wondrous Word
Every Wednesday I take part in Can’t Wait Wednesday, I’m also hoping to take part in a new meme being hosted by Elza Reads called Wondrous Words Wednesday. I’ll be combining these into the same posts as they’re both short and sweet.
“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 Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente:
Catherynne M. Valente, the bestselling and award-winning creator of Space Opera and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland returns with The Past is Red, the enchanting, dark, funny, angry story of a girl who made two terrible mistakes: she told the truth and she dared to love the world.
The future is blue. Endless blue…except for a few small places that float across the hot, drowned world left behind by long-gone fossil fuel-guzzlers. One of those patches is a magical place called Garbagetown.
Tetley Abednego is the most beloved girl in Garbagetown, but she’s the only one who knows it. She’s the only one who knows a lot of things: that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it’s full of hope, that you can love someone and 66% hate them all at the same time.
But Earth is a terrible mess, hope is a fragile thing, and a lot of people are very angry with her. Then Tetley discovers a new friend, a terrible secret, and more to her world than she ever expected.
Expected Publication July 2021
This meme was first created by Kathy over at Bermuda Onion Blog and has now been adopted by Elza Reads.
Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered, or spotlight words you love.
No rules just enjoy and for further info check out Elza Reads.
My word this week is :
Lividity
noun
- a discolored, bluish appearance caused by a bruise, pooling of blood due to congestion of blood vessels, strangulation, etc.:When the dead person is lying on their back, lividity will form on the buttocks, back, or backs of the legs.
- a grayish or ashen appearance of the face; pallor:The traditional ghost image usually involves a certain paleness of the face—a corpselike lividity.
- furious anger:When the generator they’d ordered arrived late and then failed to work, her lividity knew no bounds.
- a reddish appearance of the face, as from strong emotion or embarrassment:I was on the shore with my parents, watching the sky flush scarlet with a hue like lividity rising to an angry face.
This is from my most recent read and the meaning used in this instance is the first given meaning above. I tend to think of this word more in terms of anger for some reason – the word Livid:
Livid (adj.)
Early 15c., “of a bluish-leaden color,” from Old French livide (13c.) and directly from Latin lividus “of a bluish color, black-and-blue,” figuratively “envious, spiteful, malicious,” from livere “be bluish,” earlier *slivere, from PIE *sliwo-, suffixed form of root *sleiə- “bluish” (source also of Old Church Slavonic and Russian sliva “plum;” Lithuanian slyvas “plum;” Old Irish li, Welsh lliw “color, splendor,” Old English sla “sloe”).
As mentioned above I picked this up from my most recent read which is a book which completely hooked me with it’s strange cold horror like feel :
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey (my review to follow shortly):
That’s it for this week. If you’re taking part in both of these or either please don’t forget to link up.
Wondrous Words and Can’t Wait Wednesday : The Broken God (The Black Iron Legacy #3 by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
10 February 2021
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Can't wait Wednesday, Elza Reads, Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, The Broken God, Wishful Endings, Wondrous Word
Every Wednesday I take part in Can’t Wait Wednesday, I’m also hoping to take part in a new meme being hosted by Elza Reads called Wondrous Words Wednesday. I’ll be combining these into the same posts as they’re both short and sweet.
“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 Broken God (The Black Iron Legacy #3 by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
Enter a city of dragons and darkness.
The Godswar has come to Guerdon, dividing the city between three occupying powers. While the fragile Armistice holds back the gods, other forces seek to extend their influence. The criminal dragons of the Ghierdana ally with the surviving thieves – including Spar Idgeson, once heir to the Brotherhood of Thieves, now transformed into the living stone of the New City.
Meanwhile, far across the sea, Spar’s friend Carillon Thay travels towards the legendary land of Khebesh, but she, too, becomes enmeshed in the schemes of the Ghierdana – and in her own past. Can she find what she wants when even the gods seek vengeance against her?
Expected Publication : May 2021
***
This meme was first created by Kathy over at Bermuda Onion Blog and has now been adopted by Elza Reads.
Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered, or spotlight words you love.
No rules just enjoy and for further info check out Elza Reads.
My word this week is: – well, I had quite a few to choose from this week (I made notes – I can learn)
Stovies
Stovies (also stovy tatties, stoved potatoes, stovers or stovocks) is a Scottish dish based on potatoes. Recipes and ingredients vary widely but the dish contains potatoes, fat, usually (but not always) onions and often (but again not always) pieces of meat. In some versions, other vegetables may also be added.
The potatoes are cooked by slow stewing in a closed pot with fat and often a small amount of water or sometimes other liquids, such as milk, stock or meat jelly. Stovies may be served accompanied by cold meat or oatcakes and, sometimes, with pickled beetroot.
“To stove” means “to stew” in Scots. The term is from the French adjective étuvé which translates as braised. Versions without meat may be termed barfit and those with meat as high-heelers.
***
So, potatoes – gotta love em. Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew (or stovie). Plus I love that included in the definition is the names for different versions – so if you include meat your stovies are known as ‘high-heelers’ – I assumed that was based on whether you could afford to put meat in your stew or not – and this does seem to be the case as ‘barfit’ (without meat) translates to barefoot. So you either went barefoot or high heeled.
Stovie – it has a lovely warm feeling to it somehow.
And the book where I noted this was the Library of the dead by TL Huchu. Description here.
That’s it for this week. If you’re taking part in both of these or either please don’t forget to link up.
Wondrous Words and Can’t Wait Wednesday : The Girl and the Mountain by Mark Lawrence
3 February 2021
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Bethany Clift, Book of the Ice #2, Can't wait Wednesday, Last One at the Party, Mark Lawrence, The Girl and the Mountain, Wondrous Word
Every Wednesday I take part in Waiting on Wednesday, I’m also hoping to take part in a new meme being hosted by Elza Reads called Wondrous Words Wednesday. I’ll be combining these into the same posts as they’re both short and sweet.
“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 Girl and the Mountain (Book of the Ice #2) by Mark Lawrence. I’ve been waiting for a description for this one so that I could showcase it. Here goes:
On the planet Abeth there is only the ice. And the Black Rock.
For generations the priests of the Black Rock have reached out from their mountain to steer the fate of the ice tribes. With their Hidden God, their magic and their iron, the priests’ rule has never been questioned. But when ice triber Yaz challenged their authority, she was torn away from the only life she had ever known, and forced to find a new path for herself.
Yaz has lost her friends and found her enemies. She has a mountain to climb, and even if she can break the Hidden God’s power, her dream of a green world lies impossibly far to the south, across a vast emptiness of ice. Before the journey can even start, she has to find out what happened to the ones she loves and save those that can be saved.
Abeth holds its secrets close, but the stars shine brighter for Yaz and she means to unlock the truth.
Expected Publication : April 2021
You can also check out the first chapter here.
Check out both covers here: do you have a favourite?
***
This meme was first created by Kathy over at Bermuda Onion Blog and has now been adopted by Elza Reads.
Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered, or spotlight words you love.
No rules just enjoy and for further info check out Elza Reads.
My word this week is:
Schadenfreude
Now, as this is my first week, I helpfully made a note of a couple of words that I fancied using and then very unhelpfully didn’t write down which book I read them from. Yeah…. So, I’ve wracked my tiny little pea sized brain and I’m fairly certain I know where I picked this week’s nugget from. So, definition:
Here’s an interesting article about the secret joys of the word.
And here’s the book where I’m 99.8% certain I read this last week, for which my review is due on Thursday:
Last One at the Party by Bethany Clift. Description here.
That’s it for this week. If you’re taking part in both of these or either please don’t forget to link up.
Books and travelling with Lynn 