
Favorite Fictional Societies and Ingredients of a Well-Functioning Real Society
24 Festive Tasks: Door 3 – Saturnalia, Task 2: Saturnalia was originally a celebration in remembrance of the “Golden Age” of Graeco-Roman mythology, ruled over by Saturn (Kronos in Greek), and during which humanity existed in a utopian state of innocence, living off nature’s bounty without having to work. Name a book describing / set […]
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Quotes and Poppies for Veterans’ / Armistice Day
24 Festive Tasks: Door 17 – Veterans’ / Armistice Day, Task 1: Post a quote or a piece of poetry about the ravages of war. Here are three quotes from E.M. Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front: “Comrade, I did not want to kill you. . . . But you were only an idea […]
Read MoreThe Halloween Creatures Book Tag
Rules: Answer all prompts. Answer honestly. Tag 1-13 people. Link back to this post. ( For me it was SnoopyDoo!) Remember to credit the creator. (Anthony @ Keep Reading Forward)< Have fun! Witch A Magical Character or Book Terry Pratchett’s witches, particularly Granny Weatherwax. And DEATH (preferably in his Hogfather incarnation). No contest. […]
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Royalty Moonlighting as Commoners in Fiction
24 Festive Tasks: Door 10 – Russian Mothers’ Day, Task 2: Towards the end of the 17th century, there was a Russian apprentice carpenter and shipwright going by the name Peter Mikhailov in the Dutch town of Zaandam (and later in Amsterdam), who eventually turned out to be none other than Tsar Peter the Great, […]
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My Most-Missed Authors Who Died in 2019
24 Festive Tasks: Door 6 – Veterans’ / Armistice Day, Task 2: In keeping with the minute of silence, tell us about the authors who have passed this year that you will miss the most. Here’s hoping this year won’t see any more authors’ deaths, because too many of the great ones have already left […]
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My Favorite Children’s Books
24 Festive Tasks: Door 8 – International Children’s Day, Task 1: What was your favorite children’s book growing up? Your favorite middle grade book? The first books I really loved, even before I had learned to read myself, were a number of recorded fairy tales that I owned (in actual record format) — a little […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: Eleventh and Twelfth Extra Square – Film at 11 & In the Dark, Dark Woods
Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1968395/halloween-bingo-2019-eleventh-and-twelfth-extra-square
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Halloween Bingo 2019: The Fourth Week
Reading blackout before the end of the first bingo month and two more completed bingos in week 4 for a total of three bingos so far — if anybody had told me this going in, I’d have questioned their sanity. Not least because I had a major project to complete this month, which I knew […]
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Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale & The Testaments
~ Gilead ~ Well, that was as soul-drenching as any double bill ever was (even though The Testaments is marginally more optimistic than The Handmaid’s Tale). It’s not always a good idea for an author to revisit one of their standout classics decades later, but in this instance it clearly worked. Atwood stays faithful to […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: Final Square
For my final bingo square — “International Woman of Mystery” — I’ve decided on a Margaret Atwood double bill: a reread of The Handmaid’s Tale followed by its recent sequel, The Testaments … if I can stand that extended exposure to Gilead, that is, and don’t end up bailing out of The Handmaid’s Tale halfway […]
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Toni Morrison: Beloved
The book that accompanied me throughout this third week of September 2019, bit by bit, in both audio and the print version. And oh, what a writer the world lost when Toni Morrison died. This wasn’t my first book by her, but it brought home her extraordinary qualities as a writer all over again: There […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: The Third Week
Well, the third week really hit my bingo experience out of the ballpark this year — and not only Pbecause it finished with my first completed bingo; that was actually just the icing on the cake. But it included no less than three absolutely knock-out fabulous books, plus a fourth that was almost as good […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019 PreParty — Question for 08/07 (Day 7): Favorite Halloween Bingo Authors?
Going by the list of my favorite reads from years past, my favorite Halloween authors so far have been (in alphabetical order and not entirely surprisingly): * Raymond Chandler * Agatha Christie * Arthur Conan Doyle * James D. Doss * Daphne Du Maurier * E.T.A. Hoffmann * Shirley Jackson * Ngaio Marsh * […]
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