meeplemaiden http://booklikes.com/photo/crop/50/50/upload/avatar/9/84/d3847bb6242b07f8f410d8cfedd0e748.jpg meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com 2017-07-25T23:52:20+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/rss text: Reading progress update: I've read 342 out of 560 pages. 2017-07-17T16:24:00+01:00 2017-07-17T16:24:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1579602/reading-progress-update-i-ve-read-342-out-of-560-pages meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com Not an easy read, the dialogue and inner monologues (of which there are quite a number) seem very stilted. I'm not sure if that's a Russian thing or the translation or a combination of both. Still, I am enjoying it.

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text: Reading progress update: I've read 18 out of 240 pages. 2017-07-12T14:46:00+01:00 2017-07-12T14:46:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1578383/reading-progress-update-i-ve-read-18-out-of-240-pages meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com So I picked this off my bookshelf yesterday while I was waiting for something. I have read only the first two chapters (again) but I had forgotten what an extraordinary writer Arthur C. Clarke was. The book itself is old with microscopic print and cost only £1.50! You wouldn't even get a coffee for that these days. I won't be in a hurry to finish it but I will dip in and out as I go savouring every quaint morsel.

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text: What a relief! 2017-07-11T15:11:00+01:00 2017-07-11T15:11:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1578148/what-a-relief meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com I never thought I would say this, living in England, but finally it's raining (and I left my reading chair out in the rain, not my best move as it's canvas and metal). 

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text 2017-07-04T11:20:00+01:00 2017-07-04T11:20:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1576565/post meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com Yay, I've actually read a German book this month already. I don't know why I shy away from reading them, as after reading the first few pages slowly and deliberately I forget I'm reading German and just enjoy the book like I would any other. Next stop, Dostoevsky? Maybe I'll finish Orange is the New Black first. (coward!)

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text: Challenge Update 2017-07-02T10:59:00+01:00 2017-07-02T10:59:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1576035/challenge-update meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com So, as I'm not very good at sticking to my guns I thought I would try something different this month. When it comes to classics, non-fiction and German books I am always daunted by the prospect of reading them, although there are so many that I want to read. The trouble is I always think that they are going to be hard work which mostly they aren't, at least not when you get into them. As I always find the first few pages slow going I quite often get distracted by contemporary fiction. I'm generally a mood reader and it is easy to distract me. So I have decided to plan my 'set' genres and leave my just-for-fun open. I don't know it if will work but I have chosen 'Orange is the New Black' as my non-fiction, which I started last month; Crime and Punishment as my classic, the pretty cover lured me in; and AchtNacht for my German book, the new thriller from Sebastian Fitzek. So far so good, I've made inroads into all but Crime and Punishment and I am liking them so far. We'll see what happens.

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text: June Wrap Up and Challenge Update 2017-07-02T10:41:00+01:00 2017-07-02T10:41:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1576032/june-wrap-up-and-challenge-update meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com I had a really good month of reading again last month although quality of read wasn't that great in some cases. 

 

Skendleby - Nick   Brown  Not a great way to start off the month. The first in a series I won't be continuing.

 

All of a Winter's Night - Phil Rickman  Another enjoyable read in the Merrily Watkins series

 

My Enemy's Tears: The Witch of Northampton - Karen Vorbeck Williams I don't know why I waited so long to read this one. It was excellent.

A Twist of the Knife by Peter James (2015-06-04) - Peter James I love Peter James's twisted tales and this book was full of them.

Stay with Me - Adebayo Ayobami  Oops, no cover for this one. It should be Stay With Me by Adebayo Adebami (I'm sorry if I mangled that). It was an emotionally intense read against the backdrop of civil war in Nigeria in the 80s. I enjoyed it but in my opinion it didn't live up to all the hype it has been getting.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde Hey, I actually read a classic this month! I can understand why this story has stood the test of time. Great read.

The Domesday Quest: In search of the Roots of England - Michael Wood Started this one ages ago but couldn't get on with it as it is a bit of a dry read. However, the further I got into it the more engrossed I became.

Some Rain Must Fall: And Other Stories - Michel Faber Not as enamoured of Michel Faber's short stories as I am of his novels. I prefer short tales with a twist, these were just weird for the most part.

The Black Death: An Intimate History - John Hatcher  An interesting read, part novel, part non-fiction. The introduction to each chapter was based on the historical records of the village, the rest of the chapter was a story that filled in the gaps with historically based fiction. 

3 a.m. - Nick Pirog As I was reading this novella on the night shift during my lunch break it almost felt like I was reading it in real time. A fun read, written with humour (I particularly enjoyed our hero's conversations with his adopted cat, Lassie) but lacking depth. Just what you need at 2 a.m. when you are dead tired but still have half a shift to go.   

The Seance - John Harwood  I listened to this one on audio and the voices of the narrators were so soothing that I kept falling asleep! The story was quite good as far as I could tell but one of the narrators really ruined it for me as she just couldn't read. She kept pronouncing sleeping draught as sleeping drought, iron filings as fillings and the raven in Ravenscroft rhymed with raven in ravenous. Really? Doesn't anybody proof listen to these things?

The Plague Charmer - Karen Maitland I love Karen Maitland's books and this one was no exception. It still couldn't measure up to my all-time favourite of hers though, Company of Liars.  

Hag-Seed - Margaret Atwood  I really wanted to love this one but couldn't. It was alright, certainly not a waste of time but once again the hype ruined it. Probably, if I had gone into this not knowing much about it I would have enjoyed it more.

 

So, there we go. I am now way ahead of my challenge in number of books but once again I am not sticking to my resolution of genres although I did manage a classic and 2 non-fiction books I still didn't read a German one. 

 

 

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text: Reading progress update: I've read 103 out of 262 pages. 2017-07-02T09:48:00+01:00 2017-07-02T09:48:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1576026/reading-progress-update-i-ve-read-103-out-of-262-pages meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com Based on the film The Purge I thought the premise for this book sounded interesting so why not treat myself, I thought, I'm worth it! So far I'm not disappointed. Ben lives in Berlin. He is a 39 year old ex band member who is amicably estranged from his wife and has a daughter lying in hospital in a coma after a suicide attempt. While walking home one night he sees his face on a larger than life screen but just doesn't know what is going on. So he gets out his phone and discovers that he has become the most wanted man in Germany for the next twelve hours. He is one of the targets of a 'government approved' game called the AchtNacht (the 8 night - so called because it starts on the 8th. August at 8.08pm) in which his name has been drawn from a countrywide lottery. He has been declared an outlaw and anyone can capture, maim or kill him for the next twelve hours without legal consequences. No one in their right mind believes the game to be legit, unfortunately there seem to be plenty of people not in their right minds and the 10 million Euro reward isn't helping. 

 

The start is a bit slow but it has picked up pace and I'm enjoying it more than the last one of his I read. 

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text: Need some help 2017-06-16T11:57:00+01:00 2017-06-16T11:57:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1571599/need-some-help meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com I'm looking to read War and Peace and Anna Karenina, has anybody any advice on the best translations?

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text: Mopping up - Epilogue 2017-06-14T16:11:00+01:00 2017-06-14T16:11:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1571126/mopping-up-epilogue meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com That's it - all done. I didn't think I'd do it but all eight of the books I started recently are finished! Yay! Not that I haven't started more mind you but that is OK. I'll read them too. 

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review: Can't See the Wood for the Trees 2017-06-14T16:08:00+01:00 2017-06-14T16:08:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1571125/can-t-see-the-wood-for-the-trees meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com Once I made up my mind to finish this book, I found it easier to read. That doesn't really make any sense, I know but I think I was just getting so hung up on the detail that I wasn't enjoying it. It's well written but kind of dry compared to today's standards of pop history. However, I did eventually get lost in the fascinating worlds of Dark Age and Early Medieval history even if I found Michael Wood's conclusions about pre-Domesday society hard to follow. There was a lot of conjecture which was all backed up by detailed scraps of transliterated original documents but this is where I got lost because most read like lists. I would read this again but for now it only gets 3 stars.

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review 2017-06-14T15:48:00+01:00 2017-06-14T15:48:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1571123/post meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com I didn't think I was going to finish this on, it has certainly taken me some time. The stories are weird and wacky but I just didn't 'get' a lot of them, I kept expecting some kind of punchline that just didn't come. Entertaining but I don't think I would read them again. I much prefer his novels.

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text: Mopping Up pt 3 2017-06-11T11:26:00+01:00 2017-06-11T11:26:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1570221/mopping-up-pt-3 meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com Thanks to feeling absolutely rotten this weekend I've finished two more books. That leaves me just two more then I've finished my mopping up. I've even made progress on Some Rain Must Fall. I think Hagseed will be my next read as it has to go back to the library soo. 

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text: Four Down, Four to Go 2017-06-09T17:14:00+01:00 2017-06-09T17:14:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1569721/four-down-four-to-go meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com Mopping up is going really well this month. That's another one done and dusted. There is something so satisfying to finishing off a book that has been hanging around on my shelf for a loooong time.The only book I can't see me finishing this month is Michel Faber's Some Rain Must Fall, I'm not really enjoying it all that much. The stories are just plain weird and don't seem to have much of a point to them. We'll see. Next up is Stay With Me as it has to go back to the library soon.

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text: Black and Twisted 2017-06-09T17:08:00+01:00 2017-06-09T17:08:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1569720/black-and-twisted meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com I'm not much of a short story reader. To me, most short stories feel like random excerpts of a longer story that don't make sense because the context is missing. I quite often come away thinking "what did I miss?". Well, not in this case. As with the few novels of Peter James I have read so far, every story has a sting in its tale tail and it contains some of the shortest short stories I have ever read: Knock being just four lines long. Although, some of the stories can be a little repetitive (it felt like the author was trying variations on a theme with some of them) I enjoyed every single one of them, even the ones that made me swallow very hard. There is a little bit of everything in there, supernatural, crime, sci-fi (ish) and the darker side of relationships. These are the kind of short stories I love.

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review: An All Too Familiar Story 2017-06-05T20:11:00+01:00 2017-06-05T20:11:00+01:00 http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com/post/1568780/an-all-too-familiar-story meeplemaiden http://meeplemaiden.booklikes.com This is the story of Mary Bliss Parsons, a young girl who moved from England to Massachusetts with her family in the early part of the 17th. century. The book is based on true events in the author's family history and follows an all-too familiar pattern of life as an outsider in a puritan society. Mary Bliss starts life as a servant girl but marries an ambitious man who works hard to become rich. He enjoys spending his wealth on his wife and family. The couple are fortunate that 'only' 2 of their many children die but this charmed life has its price - the jealousy of their neighbours. This jealousy turns to cries of witchcraft when her neighbours look for someone to blame for their misfortune. However, unlike so many of the trials for witchcraft at the time, Mary is so fortunate as to be found innocent. A really good read. 

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