January 2020 Reading
January turned out a bit of a roller coaster in RL, continuing the course things had already taken in December: not quite whiplash-inducing, but with several sickness-prone twists and turns (for however much I’d expected them to materialize) surrounding one major glorious event (which was, however, truly glorious; even if this, too, was something I’d […]
Read More
Halloween Bingo 2019: Tracking Post — Blackout! (And bingos Nos. 12 and 13.)
Many thanks to Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue for hosting this game for the fourth year in a row, bigger and better than ever before! Witih today’s call, I’ve blacked out my card, in addition to collecting my final bingos (nos. 12 and 13). Somewhat to my surprise, after completing my books for my […]
Read More
Halloween Bingo 2019: Fifteenth Extra Square – Genre: Suspense
Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1969185/halloween-bingo-2019-fifteenth-extra-square
Read More
Halloween Bingo 2019: Thirteenth Extra Square – Free (Raven / Poe) Square
Well, as it turns out I’m halfway through another bingo card with the extra squares, so I may as well try and see whether I’ll get it together until the end of the month. So that means another Raven square … for which this entertaining Golden Age mystery radio anthology seems like just the thing. […]
Read More
Halloween Bingo 2019: Tracking Post — Bingo No. 3 and Reading Blackout
* Triple Bingo Happy Dance * Well, that went by much faster than I had anticipated … Many thanks to Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue for hosting this game for the fourth year in a row, bigger and better than ever before! I’ll continue tracking my bingos of course — and since we now have […]
Read More
For any mystery fans still looking for a book for the “Fear the Drowning Deep” bingo square …
… this short story compilation from the British Library Crime Classics series looks like it would fit the bill. (Link to Obi’s review HERE: obi.booklikes.com/post/1956924/post) Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1957146/for-any-mystery-fans-still-looking-for-a-book-for-the-fear-the-drowning-deep-bingo-square
Read More
Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (eds.); Various Authors: A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales
Considering that according to the preface the authors of this collection are supposed to be exploring “the dark side” of fairy tales, most of the stories here come across as unexpectedly light and fluffy. Maybe this is due to the fact that I actually grew up with the real thing — the Grimm Brothers’, Hans […]
Read More
Halloween Bingo 2019: The First Week
So, on the plus side, despite serious RL interventions progress on my card is well under way, with four squares (including the centre / free / raven square) marked “called and read”; three of these in a row — plus reading for the remaining two squares of that row also in progress — and several […]
Read More
16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Final Tally
The Markers: Stack of Books: Books read Red Bows and Ribbons: Other Tasks completed Joker cards used: The Squares, Books and Other Tasks: Square 1: November 1st: All Saints Day / Día de los Muertos & Calan Gaeaf Book themes for Día de Muertos and All Saint’s Day: A book that […]
Read More
A Cornucopia of Holiday Stories
Turns out I already knew five of the ten stories in this anthology: Ellis Peters’s The Trinity Cat Julian Symons’s The Santa Claus Club Ian Rankin’s No Sanity Clause G.K. Chesterton’s The Dagger With Wings and Marjorie Bowen’s Cambric Tea. So I skipped those (though I do really like the stories by Ellis Peters, Julian […]
Read More
Martin Edwards (ed.) & Various Authors: Silent Nights (BLCC)
16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Square 5 – Advent Golden Age Christmas Vignettes Book themes for Advent: Read a book with a wreath or with pines or fir trees on the cover Silent Nights is the first of (at this point) two Christmas mystery short story anthologies in the British Library’s “Crime Classics” series, […]
Read More
16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Updates / Blackout
I’ve yet to read at least one book for some of the squares, but I’ve completed a minimum of either one book or one task for all of the squares, and in several cases, more. The Markers: Stack of Books: Books read Red Bows and Ribbons: Other Tasks completed […]
Read More
The Dreidel Pick
16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Square 8 – Hanukkah – and Square 3 – St. Martin’s Day Tasks for Hanukkah: Light nine candles around the room (SAFELY) and post a picture. –OR– Play the Dreidel game to pick the next book you read. Assign a book from your TBR to each of the four […]
Read More
Various Authors: Murder Most Foul
This is a collection of eight short stories by different authors, read with great aplomb by five well-known British actors. It starts of with Bluebeard’s Bath by Margery Allingham — read by Patrick Malahide –, a “non-Campion” twist on the black widow trope (the twist being, as the title implies, that here it’s a black […]
Read More
Martin Edwards: Miraculous Mysteries – Locked-Room Murders and Impossible Crimes (BLCC)
This is one of several Golden Age mystery short story anthologies recently published by the British Library and Martin Edwards. I had initially contemplated only reading some of the stories for this square, but once I’d started I was hooked pretty much instantaneously and soon there was no question whatsoever that I would read the […]
Read More
Halloween Bingo 2017: Update 1
My Square Markers: Black Kitty: Read but not called Black Vignette: Called but not read Black Kitty in Black Vignette: Read and Called Current Status of Spreadsheet: Books Read / Listened to – Update 1: Terry Pratchett: Equal Rites The first book of the Witches subseries and one of the earliest Discworld […]
Read More
Halloween Bingo: For Those Looking to Fill Mystery Squares …
… without necessarily going the whole hog of a novel, or who are looking for a taste of several different things: The British Library recently published several Golden Age mystery short story anthologies, all edited by Martin Edwards, four of which exactly match the bingo squares created by Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue. They are: […]
Read More
Martin Edwards Haul
I swear, I really only opened my wishlist to order “The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books” … (sigh). Oh, wait, that would have been last year. Now it’s more like Yey!! Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1588906/martin-edwards-haul Merken
Read More
Stratford-upon-Avon — Oxford — London: Shakespeare, Hogwarts and Shopping
Stratford A Scene at the RSC Book and Gift Shop The date: June 17, 2017. The time: Approximately 10:00AM. TA and friend enter; TA asks for a shopping basket and makes straight for the shelves and display cases. An indeterminate amount of time is then spent browsing. Whenever her friend points out something and asks […]
Read More
TA’s Halloween Book Bingo Reading List
Read by Candlelight or Flashlight – E.T.A. Hoffmann: Das Fräulein von Scuderi (Mademoiselle de Scuderi) (novella) Magical Realism – Isabel Allende: La casa de los espíritus (The House of the Spirits) (novel) Witches – Terry Pratchett: Wyrd Sisters (or possibly Terry Pratchett / Neil Gaiman: Good Omens) (novel) Genre: Horror – Edgar Allan […]
Read More