Another detail from this lovely book.

My brother gave me this gorgeous graphic novel for Christmas.

"Uncompromising purpose and the search for eternal truth have an unquestionable sex appeal for the young and high-minded; but when a person loses the ability to take pleasure in the mundane--in the cigarette on the stoop or the gingersnap in the bath--she had probably put herself in unnecessary danger."

This was a lovely book, suitable for tweens to adults, about a girl who moves from New York to the Dorset countryside and discovers and befriends a ghost girl from Jacobean times and meets other creatures of the night. It is told in first person with fully developed characters. I remember the Bloody Assizes from Stuart England class and that history is brought to (after) life.

#currentread with tea.

'They say I‘m cursed.'

'Do you believe them?'

'Yes. I do.'

To my surprise, he smiled, and patted me on the back. 'You are absolutely correct, Dr Abbey. It is marvellous.'

He sprang back to his feet as if propelled by a catapult, slung his jacket over one arm and his shoes round his neck, and gave his fiercest battle cry: 'Now we drink iced beverages and celebrate.'

A fascinating premise, a relatable narrator, first-person narration, and realistic dialogue make this a great read. 5/5.

It wasn't my favorite Diana Wynne Jones, that honor goes to Dogsbody, but still quite good. It kept me reading. As a child of divorce, I certainly appreciated it.

Guess what I spent a Christmas Amazon gift card on? I had a birthday party where no one came as a kid and the kitten always gets me. I had a tortoiseshell kitten I was bonding with and had sleep in my room as a kid, then Mom took my brother and I on vacation and her second husband had to stay and work. My kitty was gone when I got home. Her name was Ziggy.

"Only thin, weak thinkers despise fairy stories. Each one has a true, strange fact hidden in it, you know, which you can find if you look."

"There are some upon this earth of yours,” returned the Spirit, “who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us."

"An emperor who breaks laws is a mad dog and a danger, but an emperor who will never break a rule is nearly as bad, for he will never be able to recognize when a law must be changed.”

I love this book. I am re-reading it currently. Also... look at this Spanish cover!

This was a charming entry in the Ladies no. 1 series. It was the literary equivalent of a warm, fuzzy blanket and just the thing to break my reading block.

There were flowers, she said to herself; there were flowers that covered the land in the spring, tiny flowers that you might not notice unless you got down on your hands and knees and looked for them; and these flowers were in themselves a sign of the goodness that was still in the world, and in people‘s hearts, no matter what was happening on the outside.

Did I mention I have the Charles Vess-illustrated Earthsea?

#30daybookchallenge #day1 #favbookinaseries Tombs of Atuan.

One by one that night Loki insulted the gods and the goddesses. He told the gods that they were cowards, told the goddesses that they were gullible and unchaste. Each insult was woven with just enough truth to make it wound. He told them that they were fools, reminded them of things they thought were safely forgotten. He sneered and jeered and raised old scandals, and would not stop making everyone there miserable until Thor arrived at the feast.

'O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the marketplace." ~Shakespeare, Beatrice, Much Ado, Act 4, Scene 1

“The world was f*****g awful. It was a wretched, desolate place, a desert of meaninglessness, a heartless wasteland, where horrific things happened all the time for no reason and nothing good lasted for long.

He'd been right about the world, but he was wrong about himself. The word was a desert, but he was a magician, and to be a magician was to be a secret spring - a moving oasis.”
― Lev Grossman, The Magician's Land

I've been listening to the Dan Stevens-narrated audiobook of Frankenstein and it is everything I could have wished! It's an amazing reading.

"I no longer see the world and its works as they before appeared to me. Before, I looked upon the accounts of vice and injustice that I read in books or heard from others as tales of ancient days or imaginary evils; at least they were remote and more familiar to reason than to the imagination; but now misery has come home, and men appear to me as monsters thirsting for each other's blood."

/ Illustration by Lynd Ward

I have loved the Greek myths since early childhood and Stephen Fry's retelling was exceptional.

Leontes. Break up the seals and read.

Officer. [Reads]. Hermione is chaste;
Polixenes blameless; Camillo a true subject; Leontes a jealous tyrant...

Lords. Now blessed be the great Apollo!

Hermione. Praised!

Leontes. Hast thou read truth?

Officer. Ay, my lord; even so As it is here set down.

Leontes. There is no truth at all i' the oracle...

I really was loving this book, up until the very end. I'm afraid the ending kind of ruined it for me.

This is an excellent book. The audio is excellent as well. I've loved the Greek myths since I was a small child. I also love Stephen Fry, so this is definitely up my alley.

"I‘ve always been suspicious of game changers,‘ she added. ‘Sometimes the game doesn‘t need changing – or no one has a clear idea of which game will be changed, and for what and how much.‘"

"‘She punched me in the eye so hard she detached my retina,‘ he said, ‘and all I did was place the preposition at the end of the sentence.‘

‘That‘s grounds for an investigation, certainly a reprimand, maybe even charges,‘ I said, ‘against Toccata,‘ I added, in case he misunderstood"

"‘I need a new Novice with a good memory to train up. Good career path. Exciting too. Lots of challenges. Bit of cash, extra pudding. Medium to high risk of death.‘

‘What was the last bit again?‘

‘Extra pudding.‘

‘And after that?'

‘Coffee and mints?‘

‘I meant on your list.‘

‘Oh – medium to high risk of death.‘"

A book from 1884. It belonged to my great grandmother, though it was published before her birth.

This is really good so far.

Before I read Edinburgh, I read The Institute and I really enjoyed it. I feel it is definitely one of the better Stephen King books. Cate Blanchett should play Mrs. Sigsby in the dramatization.

So, this was a well-written book with beautiful, word-smithy language but not my usual read. I was kind of afraid I would want to toss it across the room like A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, which I hated for ending up being purely misery porn. Edinburgh had it's share of misery but didn't leave such a bad taste in my mouth. I found it a quick read and I should have posted some of the quotes I loved. 4/5 with the caveat this is a tough story.

The was a perfect sequel to Handmaid's Tale and, in my opinion, a superior book to Handmaid's Tale. When Handmaid's Tale came out, I was 12. I heard a talk about it on NPR as my mother had that station on when taking me to school. I thought it sounded amazing and, six months later, when I was 13 and had a adult library card, I saw it and checked it out. The Testaments is everything I could wish.

"How tedious is a tyranny in the throes of enactment. It‘s always the same plot."

From The Testaments: The Sequel to The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood -

"There was a third kind of person who came into The Clothes Hound without buying anything. These were the young women in long silvery dresses and white hats who called themselves Pearl Girls and said they were missionaries doing God‘s work for Gilead. They were a lot creepier than George."

"History is what you call a Level Two Chaotic System."

From Brehm's Thierleben Alfred Brehm, illus. by Frederich Schiller. 1870. This belonged to my second great grandfather Hindermann.

Continuing my ramble in Thra. I love the Dreamfasting.

As the Netflix series is so good, I thought I would read this. It's a swift read. I'm almost done and this is only my second day reading it. It's quite enjoyable.

Completely charming. I was only overseas during the student trip I took when I was 17 but now I want to see the Tower again.

This was a quick read but, after reading about a third of the book, I decided I couldn't take the "Dirk Dangerness" of it all. Also, the dialogue was awful and the flipping between first person and not-first-person didn't work for me. Ugh. I finally gave it up. 2/5 just for.an interesting premise.

I should find an English translation of this. It belonged to my great grandmother when she was a child.

The Friendly Banshee.

A favorite book and a favorite illustrator.

I got this in the mail yesterday! 1977 Folio Society Beowulf. Lithography by Virgil Burnett, translated by Kevin Crossley-Holland.

This must have belonged to second great grandfather Fallon. It's in terrible shape. 1881.

I found THIS at Goodwill, too! Stunning and in great condition. I have a well-worn paperback this is replacing.

I got this at the Goodwill today! 50 cents and the illustrations are charming. My niece will love it.

This is a great book. Wright has so many wonderfully hilarious, snarky, relatable asides.

"When we are electing government officials, it is not stupid to ask yourself, “If a plague broke out, do I think this person could navigate the country through those times, on a spiritual level, but also on a pragmatic one? Would they be able to calmly solve one problem, and then another one, and then the next one? Or would bodies pile up in the streets?"