An Alphabet of My Likes and Dislikes: “E”
This is a post belonging to a new blogging project — the title is pretty much self-explanatory, I think; the project’s introductory post can be found HERE. Credit for the idea: BeetleyPete. As always, the only thing linking the two items mentioned in this post in my mind is that they both start with the […]
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Festivus Scale of Strength: Weighty Books
24 Festive Tasks: Door 20 – Festivus, Task 2: The Scale of Strength: Pick 3 of your weightiest tomes and place them on a scale. Tell us the total weight. I used Shakespeare’s Complete Works, my copy of the illustrated guide to Houses of the National Trust, and Eye to Eye, a collection of […]
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Ngaio Marsh: Tied Up in Tinsel
24 Festive Tasks: Door 23 – New Year’s Eve, Book: Read a book about starting over, rebuilding, new beginnings, etc., or a book where things go “BOOM!”, or with fireworks on the cover. For this square, I decided to use my reread of Ngaio Marsh’s Tied up in Tinsel, which is a book where […]
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Margery Allingham: Death of a Ghost
Unlike my reading experience with Allingham’s fellow Golden Age Queens of Crime Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh, that with Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion series is a rather checkered one, where instances of true mystery reader’s delight repeatedly follow hot on the heels of groan-inducing forays into clichéd, implausible plots populated by cardboard […]
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Christmas Book Gifts
24 Festive Tasks: Door 20 – Christmas, Task 3: Did your Christmas celebrations include books? Share your book haul pictures with us! Trust Gaby to raid my wishlist and add to my book collection come gift giving time! Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/2022193/24-festive-tasks-door-20-christmas-task-3
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An “Out of My Reach” Book Wishlist to St. Nick
24 Festive Tasks: Door 14 – St. Nicholas’ Day / Sinterklaas, Task 1: Write a book wish list to St. Nick / Santa Claus for books that you’ve been eyeing but can’t justify the expense of purchasing. (E.g., art books? Collector’s editions? Boxed sets?) Dear Saint Nick, it would be really nice if one […]
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Louise Penny: Still Life
24 Festive Tasks: Door 13 – Advent, Book: Read a pastiche, a book authorized by a deceased author’s estate, the 4th book in a series, a book with the word “four” in the title, a book featuring four siblings, or a book with a wreath, pines or fir trees on the cover.) Turns out I […]
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Books With Antonyms in Their Titles
24 Festive Tasks: Door 5 – Bon Om Touk, Task 4: The South Korean flag features images of ying / yang (the blue and red circle in the center) and four sets of three black lines each representing heaven, sun, moon and earth and, in turn, the virtues humanity, justice, intelligence and courtesy. Compile a […]
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Chris Ewan: The Good Thief’s Guide to Paris
24 Festive Tasks: Door 7 – International Day for Tolerance, Book: Read a book about tolerance, or outside your comfort zone, or set in Paris (seat of UNESCO). What a timely recommendation by Tigus! How can I possibly resist? Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1994148/24-festive-tasks-door-7-international-day-for-tolerance-book
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: The Second Week
A day late (though hopefully not a dollar short), here’s my “second bingo week” summary; and it’s a summary of a much better week than the first one turned out to be. (So, yey!) For one thing this is due to the books, all of which were either outright winners or at least enjoyable on […]
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Peter Ackroyd: Hawksmoor
The first book I read in the second week’s of September, and for the longest time it was on a solid track for a 4 1/2 or even 5-star rating. Tremendously atmospheric, with London (both 17th century and present day) not so much merely setting but additional character and two timelines tantalizingly mirroring and winding […]
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Oscar Wilde: A Woman of No Importance & Model Millionaire
24 Festive Tasks: Door 19 – Festivus, Book(s): Read any comedy, parody, or satire. Wilde’s second play; an acerbic take on the narrowness of fin de siècle English morality; or more particularly, supremely hypocritical perceptions of women’s role in society. Unlike in Wilde’s later plays, the beginning comes across as a bit of an over-indulgence […]
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Ngaio Marsh: Tied Up in Tinsel
16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Square 15 – Boxing Day Book themes for Boxing Day/St. Stephen’s Day: Read anything where the main character has servants (paid servants count, NOT unpaid) or is working as a servant him-/ herself. Well, I guess one could count Roderick Alleyn as a public servant, seeing as he’s a […]
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Robin Whiteman & Rob Talbot: Brother Cadfael’s Herb Garden / Robin Whiteman: The Cadfael Companion
Shared five-star honors for two simply gorgeously illustrated coffee table books full of facts and knowledge about medieval monastery life (Benedictine and otherwise), the healing arts of the medieval monks, and the plants they used. Must-reads not only for fans of Ellis Peters’s Brother Cadfael series but for anyone interested in the Middle Ages, monastic […]
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Jackie Bennett & Andrew Lawson: Shakespeare’s Gardens
A lavishly illustrated coffee table book-sized guide to the gardens Shakespeare knew (or might have known) both in Stratford / Warwickshire and in London, as well as an introduction to the gardens of the five Shakespeare-related houses in and around Stratford, with an introductory chapter on Tudor gardening in general. The find of several great […]
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Ngaio Marsh: Five Assorted Roderick Alleyn Mysteries
A five-volume foray into Ngaio Marsh’s Roderick Alleyn series: next to Agatha Christie’s, Dorothy Sayers’s, Margery Allingham’s and Patricia Wentworth’s one of the major Great Detective series of the Golden Age; taken together, these five writers are unquestionably the era’s “Queens of Crime.” (I own print versions of all of Marsh’s novels, too, and pulled […]
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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 MoreThe Telegraph | 31 reasons why we love Scotland – Travel
The most irresistible things about Scotland, whether you’re looking for remoteness, wildlife, culture or whisky Source: The Telegraph | 31 reasons why we love Scotland – Travel
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