tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35912124673652194582024-03-06T08:25:31.889+01:00Beyond Strange New Words“Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”
Nathaniel HawthorneJo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.comBlogger571125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-59713807202664674922021-08-22T18:45:00.003+02:002021-08-23T17:57:41.508+02:00Becoming Crone (The Crone Wars #1) by Lydia M. Hawke<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57769303-becoming-crone" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="A cover of Becoming Crone showing an older woman with shoulder-length silver hair in jeans and a long-sleeved blue top, her arms crossed over her chest. She's illuminated by white-blue light from behind. On her left, a large crow flies above her and there are many smaller ones in the air. There are fir trees in the background" border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="317" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlSVUsfUQZOmvg5Oa5wKVnqKl1xoPy6zPIbXINPA4Pp-gQpPBNFE0itJ3WuWzk64BB0vqAblhAsRaOx5ry41KY_ClcrPWmC_6ZKKfnfqQkxYKDE47OMfK-cYuCgbtcSG984ofXzFfJ4rqU/w134-h200/Becoming+Crone.jpg" width="134" /></a></i></div><i>Becoming Crone</i> deserves 5 stars for getting me out of reading slump alone, because this year has <i>not </i>been my reading year at all, but this story managed to keep my interest.<p></p><p>Starting with a refreshing concept where the main protagonist is a 60 year-old grandma who suddenly comes into her power as a witch - or, a Crone and continuing with assembling a cast of mismatched, quirky characters (and a cat), it follows Claire through discovery and acceptance of her new reality without a boring moment, from funny to scary and heart-wrenching ones.</p><p>I very much appreciated the real, tangible stakes and consequences, from the magic's impact on the real world to inflicted injuries that do not magically disappear.</p><p>And with the way it ended and my trust in the author, I one-clicked the sequel pre-order without a second thought. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyYGqeefRbW4t52wh_zXoh2kXZQAAgpZtpvD8vRVV3e1tdMYvlFpZtYEuU9mmnCQlJtWcAlMHoL7dbS81ylMIwWo3d6SfRSUY5h0AUgfGOVQhEpC8MTKljl9AaCmu6UPYwKhf9rHKm1FU/s180/5+stars.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="60" data-original-width="180" height="60" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyYGqeefRbW4t52wh_zXoh2kXZQAAgpZtpvD8vRVV3e1tdMYvlFpZtYEuU9mmnCQlJtWcAlMHoL7dbS81ylMIwWo3d6SfRSUY5h0AUgfGOVQhEpC8MTKljl9AaCmu6UPYwKhf9rHKm1FU/s0/5+stars.png" width="180" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-21877829753769435572021-01-04T18:42:00.012+01:002021-01-12T12:11:30.716+01:00Bout-of-Books 30<p><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px; font-style: italic;">The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 4th and runs through Sunday, January 10th in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are daily challenges, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. </span><b style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px; font-style: italic;">For Bout of Books 30 information and updates, visit the <a href="http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Bout of Books</a> blog. </b><span style="font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px; font-style: italic;">- From the Bout of Books team</span></span></p><div class="bout-of-books-button" style="margin: 0px auto; width: 200px;">
<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.boutofbooks.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">
<img alt="Bout of Books" height="200" src="https://i.imgur.com/j3Bzaos.jpg" width="200" />
</a>
</span></div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span face="arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">I'm participating on Twitter (</span><a href="https://twitter.com/StrangeNewWords" style="text-decoration-line: none;">@strangenewwords</a><span face="arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">), but I decided to have a summary-of-everything post on this blog after all.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><b style="background-color: white;">Monday, 4/1/2021</b><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Reading: <i>The Idea of You</i> by Robinne Lee (finished) and <i>A Winter Symphon</i>y by Tiffany Reisz </span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Pages/words: 39 + 81 = 120</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Challenges/other: </span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRcxgyH6o4BiU3eBwIDAdzfjcEWKukmHfYyOYzs4JTTrHJDU5U4QBOKlHzlgoeu_WCkb45R4_CwOEd-EzAbSggT8lV-SC0xfmWz0qUm1NeSGF_XV9h_KUA7k5bJSciuyT-is5yxYBiDyTL/s900/BoB30IGPhoto+-+Currently+reading.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="900" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRcxgyH6o4BiU3eBwIDAdzfjcEWKukmHfYyOYzs4JTTrHJDU5U4QBOKlHzlgoeu_WCkb45R4_CwOEd-EzAbSggT8lV-SC0xfmWz0qUm1NeSGF_XV9h_KUA7k5bJSciuyT-is5yxYBiDyTL/w400-h211/BoB30IGPhoto+-+Currently+reading.png" width="400" /></a></div><div><b style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Tuesday, 5/1/2021</b></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Reading: <i>The Star of Lancaster</i> (Plantagenet Saga #11) by Jean Plaidy, <i>Poly </i>by Lesli Richardson</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Pages/words: 12 + 68 = 80</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Challenges/other: /</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><b style="background-color: white;">Wednesday, 6/1/2021</b><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Reading: </span><i>Poly </i><span style="background-color: white;">by Lesli Richardson</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Pages/words: 99</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Challenges/other: </span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><b style="background-color: white;">Thursday, 7/1/2021</b><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Reading: </span><i>The Star of Lancaster</i><span style="background-color: white;"> (Plantagenet Saga #11) by Jean Plaidy</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Pages/words: 64</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Challenges/other: /</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><b style="background-color: white;">Friday, 8/1/2021</b><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Reading: </span><i>The Star of Lancaster</i><span style="background-color: white;"> (Plantagenet Saga #11) by Jean Plaidy (finished), <i>U</i></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit;"><i>nfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life </i>by Gary John Bishop</span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Pages/words: 33 + 31 = 64</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Challenges/other: /</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><b style="background-color: white;">Saturday, 9/1/2021</b><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Reading: /</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Pages/words: 0</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Challenges/other: I participated in the twitter chat! </span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><b style="background-color: white;">Sunday, 10/1/2021</b><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Reading: <i>Angel's Blood</i> (Guild Hunter #1) by Nalini Singh, </span><span style="background-color: white;"><i>U</i></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit;"><i>nfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life </i>by Gary John Bishop</span></span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Pages/words: 31 + 24 = 55</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Challenges/other: /</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><b style="background-color: white;">Wrap-up:</b><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">What I read: </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">I finished four books! That is, the following:</span></span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The Star of Lancaster</i><span style="background-color: white;"> (Plantagenet Saga #11) by Jean Plaidy, </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Poly </i><span style="background-color: white;">by Lesli Richardson, </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The Idea of You</i><span style="background-color: white;"> by Robinne Lee,</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>A Winter Symphon</i><span style="background-color: white;">y by Tiffany Reisz,</span></span></li></ul></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">and I made a dent in: </span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><i>Angel's Blood</i> (Guild Hunter #1) by Nalini Singh and</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>U</i></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit;"><i>nfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life </i>by Gary John Bishop</span></span></span></li></ul></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Pages/words: 482</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;">Challenges/other: Current Reads on Day 1, and I also participated in always great Saturday Twitterchat. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><b>All in all, another successful Bout-of Books! These are such a great way to make a head-start into the reading year. </b><br /></span></span><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-28254486801362766822021-01-04T12:35:00.000+01:002021-01-04T12:35:52.233+01:00The Idea of You by Robinne Lee<div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39963855-the-idea-of-you" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="A cover of The Idea of You with a face of woman with large tinted glasses" border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="230" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioc4GRE4UPsvcThkw1pjAwTeHwFN1lGdQmbg__hVLptgz5JISwCiTlPlVOG2DqL0erxvtI3s-qlPKb4Qq-oZ_kPaIAC4bqsPYtmr4qQxGAHtSxAuZMuHaOsG8g8D2wXUnI8z2U7XMCO_-2/w133-h200/The+Idea+of+You.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>The Idea of You</i> drew me in with the premise of a reverse age gap trope with having an older heroine and a younger hero. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />I basically devoured it in one day – I started with a few chapters on Saturday and couldn't stop reading on Sunday and I was going to give it 5 stars up until about 50 pages before the end when I started suspecting that it wouldn't have a happy ending. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />Which it didn't. And it is such a shame, because otherwise it is such an excellently written story, full of emotion, and the author really makes these two characters work. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />I love the age gap trope, but even in older-man-younger-woman version it is a hit-and-miss to find a story that really works out emotionally and shows the compatibility between the characters, much less in the reverse case of older-woman-younger-man, which there are also fewer books about. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />But Robinne Lee, despite the age difference, establishes the connection between her protagonists and makes us see the things they have in common that make them fall in love with each other. And then she ruins it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />What grates is that throughout the book the author pontificates on the invisibility of women above a certain age, with them and their work being underappreciated and undervalued, and emphasises the benefits of knowing oneself that aging brings. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />And all of that is great and necessary to be pointed out more often in our day and time, be it in everyday life or fiction, because it is the truth: women of certain age do not stop living and mattering. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />However, as nice and fine as the author putting all these notions in the story is, it is completely negated by the unhappy ending, which slams the point straight back into the stereotype: that an older woman can only find happiness within conforming to the role of a mother, putting her child and other people first, with perhaps a bit of a career on the side, but she most certainly cannot find happiness in an unconventional relationship, or, god forbid, define herself and her happiness on her own terms.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />And that is highly ironic, considering that earlier in the book the author explicitly points out the hypocrisy of people not batting an eye at all the 40-and-older-something men dating and marrying 20-somethings, but condemning a woman for it. Yet, Robinne Lee does the same to her own character in the end. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />So, I am mad at this book. It could have been everything, but with that ending it is a huge disappointment. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />All in the name of being realistic, I suppose. But, guess what? A 20-year-old boy band star falling in love with a twice-as-old, even if (or even more so if) sophisticated, art-gallery owner, is in itself unrealistic. It is all fantasy. That is why we have fiction. F*ck realistic. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />And now I need to find – which is so hard to do – another one with a similar premise but an actual happy ending to make myself feel better. See, that is how my TBR grows. BTW, recommendations welcome. ;)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjscEncCF1zZUg7y_EsdCMXA9kw4Rl0hOR3WYqgLIs7O5US9LP0wwJY_8Bd46ns2VydpBhSrPECL3tOj7USFEMHyNbxtUhDkMw8Cyj2nnqGx0WLs-1fGEfyTOCATRI8EXBLXJXw11M7ol9N/s180/3+stars.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="60" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjscEncCF1zZUg7y_EsdCMXA9kw4Rl0hOR3WYqgLIs7O5US9LP0wwJY_8Bd46ns2VydpBhSrPECL3tOj7USFEMHyNbxtUhDkMw8Cyj2nnqGx0WLs-1fGEfyTOCATRI8EXBLXJXw11M7ol9N/s0/3+stars.png" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-2772661270590063562021-01-02T14:30:00.004+01:002021-01-08T20:22:29.243+01:00New Year, A New Tradition?<p>Maybe. </p><p>I read 48 books in 2020 and I set the same goal for me in 2021, but as in the last few years, I'm taking it very flexibly with potential adjustments as the year progresses. </p><p>Nevertheless, I am very much in the reading mood right now, so much so I want to read ALL the books at once. </p><p>Usually, when that happens, I can't decide which one to read, so I procrastinate and then choose a completely different one from those I initially crave and forget about them.</p><p>Hence, I though why not make a list? And why not make a list in a blog post on my book blog? Isn't it why it's here, even if little used in recent years? (Which would also take care of said little use.)</p><p>Therefore, this is not a January TBR, because that kind of pressure is usually counter-productive for me I'm posting a list of books I want to read, like, right now, but with no obligation or deadline of actually doing it, more like a checklist for myself. As if in a journal. Except that it's public. (For those 5 people that may still stalk this blog?)</p><p><strike>I have <b><i>The Star of Lancaster</i> (Plantagenet Saga #11) by Jean Plaidy</b> to finish.</strike></p><p>Then there is the unholy trinity of smutty holiday novellas:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><strike><b><i>My Dad's Best Friend</i> (A Touch of Taboo #3) by Katee Robert</b></strike></li><li><b><strike><i>A Winter Symphony</i> by Tiffany Reisz</strike></b></li><li><b><i>When She Was Naughty</i> by Tessa Dare</b></li></ul><div>I want to do some rereads:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b><i>Shadow of Night</i> (All Souls Trilogy #2) by Deborah Harkness</b>, which I planned to do before S2 of the TV show and then got distracted and the show is returning within the week, but I think I should be able to manage 1/8 a week to keep in step</li><li>I've been wanting to do an IAD series reread for a while now and what better time than a new year to start with <b><i>A Hunger Like No Other</i> (IAD #1) by Kresley Cole</b>, although <i><b>The Warlord Wants Forever</b></i> is technically/chronologically the first, but I'll read that afterwards because it worked great in this order the first time around. </li><li><b><i>Angel's Blood</i> (Guild Hunter #1) by Nalini Singh</b> because after years of my incessant nagging my bestie is finally starting it (and I hope it lives up to my hyping it up) and I could use a refresher (not that it's any hardship ;))</li></ul><div>I have two nonfiction/self-help books I want to slowly go through and hopefully find something useful for my depressed & anxious brain:</div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b><i>Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life</i> by Gary John Bishop</b></li><li><b><i>Learn To Live: The Book That Can Change Your Life</i> by Mats and Susan Billmark</b></li></ul></div><p></p><p>And I also stumbled upon <b><strike><i>The Idea of You</i> by Robinne Lee</strike></b> on New Year's Eve (because what else would I be doing then than adding new books to my TBR?) and it sounds so intriguing I want to start it right away.</p><p>I'll be crossing out the ones I finish (as you can see, I've already already done one since I started writing this post yesterday) and I might do more of this kind of posts when the need arises.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-5316009476651636482020-12-25T16:58:00.003+01:002020-12-25T16:58:23.401+01:00Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5661151-letters-from-father-christmas" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="263" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSJmsMoIf-fJ59W-OXKSZUZDNhA9a388hOLg0kK2KOSKVzyjxuhbUyuDn0yB_5kIqmCElWzb79x5fXNx237FxApxWXI2UhsiqLxVKeOYWJfEZ581JNP48GofJbNSTnj7A_HoApbAKHiEKI/w131-h200/Letters+from+Father+Christmas.jpg" width="131" /></a></i></div><i>Letters from Father Christmas</i> is a collection of letters Tolkien wrote to his children as Father Christmas aka Santa Claus in replies to their letters to Santa.<p></p><p>I decided to reread it this advent about a letter or 8 pages a day and, although I missed some days due to real life calamities, I did slowly make my way through it by and by just in the perfect time to finish it on Christmas day.</p><p>The letters are such a delight to read, showing Tolkien's craftsmanship not only through the stories he comes up about Father Christmas and his friends and the exciting fortunate and less fortunate events in the North Pole, but also in the intricate handwriting he invents for each of the characters he emulates and even lovely drawings he includes with the letters. </p><p>From 1920 to 1943, the letters grow in number along with his growing family and diminish as the children grow up, all along hinting here at there at Tolkien's interests in his literary work as well as at the concerns of the real world, but most of all they give a testimony of his love for his children, thus making me admire him even more as a person rather than just an author. </p><p><i>Letters from Father Christmas </i>are a wonderful read for December and if you haven't read it yet, there is always next year. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyYGqeefRbW4t52wh_zXoh2kXZQAAgpZtpvD8vRVV3e1tdMYvlFpZtYEuU9mmnCQlJtWcAlMHoL7dbS81ylMIwWo3d6SfRSUY5h0AUgfGOVQhEpC8MTKljl9AaCmu6UPYwKhf9rHKm1FU/s180/5+stars.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="60" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyYGqeefRbW4t52wh_zXoh2kXZQAAgpZtpvD8vRVV3e1tdMYvlFpZtYEuU9mmnCQlJtWcAlMHoL7dbS81ylMIwWo3d6SfRSUY5h0AUgfGOVQhEpC8MTKljl9AaCmu6UPYwKhf9rHKm1FU/s0/5+stars.png" /></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-89462094556088158442020-12-20T02:00:00.020+01:002020-12-20T11:20:44.366+01:00Virtual Advent Tour 2020: Favourite Holiday Songs Vol. 2<p><a href="https://www.spritewrites.net/?p=10744#comments" target="_blank">Virtual Advent Tour</a> is hosted by <a href="https://www.spritewrites.net/" target="_blank">Sprite Writes</a>. Drop by her blog to see other stops on the tour with many interesting titbits about advent traditions. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.spritewrites.net/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUYdIRHXEiLRE6v9jIdRVscftuVT89v6_8Zxb61cERT8R_KgpzuNV7iMZG_ntPg3m3I35PLRVQxcM-heXVmUAaM-lYdo7sfY79tc23CS9smjqNd74JHAkUAGxtE6ZsAIMOAnwIaZ3aSJ8x/s320/2020VAT400px.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Music is an essential part of many if not most celebrations and that particularly holds true for Christmas time. </p><p>In 2016, I shared <a href="https://beyondstrangenewwords.blogspot.com/2016/12/virtual-advent-tour-2016-favourite.html" target="_blank">my favourite English holiday songs</a>. </p><p>This year, however, as the only non-native English speaking country participant, I want to provide some 'exoticism' 😉 and share with you what we call folk church songs, that is, songs for church/Christian holidays (in this case, Christmas) that are widely known and sung among people.</p><p>We have a long, centuries-old tradition of folk church songs, many originating from unknown authors and spreading among the people, others being written for choir but becoming widely popular among everyone, and some imported and translated from other languages and being loved so much they are now considered our own. </p><p>I will start with one of the latter, perhaps the most popular and most frequently translated Christmas song of all times across the world, <i>Sveta noč</i>, or, as you may have already guessed, <i>Silent Night</i>. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8RZLKfhtw3w" width="320" youtube-src-id="8RZLKfhtw3w"></iframe></div><p><i>Poslušajte, vsi ljudje</i> (<i>Listen, all people</i>) is a personal favourite because it mentions St. Joseph; it talks about how Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem where after looking for a place to stay they finally found it outside the town in a barn where Jesus was born.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LKxyjl_pbGk" width="320" youtube-src-id="LKxyjl_pbGk"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Another few of my favourites are <i>Glej, zvezdice božje</i> (<i>Look, heavenly stars</i>), <i>Rajske strune</i> (<i>Heavenly Chords</i>), and <i>Kaj se vam zdi, pastirci vi</i> (<i>What do you think, o, shepherds ye'</i>).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nfpSIy21nEQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="nfpSIy21nEQ"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VmDhVF4aLRQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="VmDhVF4aLRQ"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HFL3z5Ms7zw" width="320" youtube-src-id="HFL3z5Ms7zw"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>As I said, these are all very popular and sung by everyone<i> en masse</i> at church, but of course the above examples are choir and bands recordings, because unsynchronised people's singing would have been unintelligible. Then again, all of these are probably unintelligible to you, but I hope you at least enjoyed the catchy melodies. The music of the last one is played on European zither, which has an especially apt sound for Christmas songs.<div><br /></div><div>I will end with another version of <i>Silent Night</i> in honour of my uncle, because I learned halfway through writing this post (on Friday, <strike>and TBH continuing writing it in the breaks between crying kept me sane</strike>) that he had died. Lojze Slak, also deceased, is one of our most renowned musicians and my parents' favourite, he was from one of the neighbouring villages to that of my father and uncle's home village and my father – and, I think, also my uncle – knew him personally, so this is for him. At least they are all together now, I believe. </div><div><br /></div><div>I apologise for ending on a morose note. I wish you all happy holidays, even if you don't get to spend them with your loved ones due to Covid-19, I hope you are able to spend them at least with the knowledge that they are alive and well and that all of you stay that way!</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CQ_B3Y47p3M" width="320" youtube-src-id="CQ_B3Y47p3M"></iframe></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-45510001087392960552020-12-13T02:00:00.028+01:002020-12-13T02:00:04.097+01:00Virtual Advent Tour 2020: St. Lucy<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB">The
Earth keeps making its way around the Sun even in</span></span></span>
2020 and the time has come again for <a href="https://www.spritewrites.net/?p=10744#comments" target="_blank">Virtual Advent Tour</a>, organised
by <a href="https://www.spritewrites.net/" target="_blank">Sprite Writes</a>.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.spritewrites.net/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDCWoHklSMdEJ-aWgW3A2E44_Gm8zgw7aF6BD8tc_fk7mQ80DDu9kNdFzr6pOQ_eelYlgjOHXvKb9TbD6KUfXOMiwRYwN5qLnsRdVYDCBRsMDMw9J6BLK39Fp4QmP7Xw08bCZCEN8b9iiy/s320/2020VAT400px.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Today is the name day of
St. Lucy of Syracuse (283 – 304 AD). S</span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">he is associated with light and brightness </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">as
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">her
name</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">comes
from </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB"><i>lux</i></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">,
the </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">Latin
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">word
for light</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">.</span></span></p></span><p></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-style: normal;">A</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-style: normal;">ccording
to a legend, one of her suitors </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-style: normal;">fell
in love with her beautiful eyes, so she gouged them out and send them
to him, but an angel came to her and restored them; therefore, she is
a patron saint of the blind and a protector of sight. </span></span></span></span>
</span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4884610" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="A picture of a woman in mediaeval clothes with a pair of eyes on a brass platter." border="0" data-original-height="1162" data-original-width="773" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbQJUWZNmE3m8q9X_W70s2MoAaP-b5sr1ps9Yhg7BSd9p3tZdD70OtkLgBPK6LT20b6bTYbXlT164fkx6TCNxGixHsczDsXgLoVYk50NTqvR4BFiHnYmiM8xdS23rMF5QQjLfUFhH8UUg5/w213-h320/Santalucia.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Due to various legends telling of St. Lucy losing her eyes either by torture or her own hand, she is often depicted with a pair of eyes on a platter. (<a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/3591212467365219458/4551000108739296055#" target="_blank">Image source</a>.)</span></td></tr></tbody></table></span></span></span></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">Before
the Gregorian calendar reform, December</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">
13</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><sup><span lang="en-GB">th</span></sup></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">
was </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">considered</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">
the shortest day of the year, </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">symbolising</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">
the return of </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">light
into long winter nights and thus rebirth and new life, similarly to
the winter solstice.</span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-style: normal;">We
have a folk custom, especially in the countryside, </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-style: normal;">of
planting Christmas wheat on this day – </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-style: normal;">it
is believed that</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-style: normal;"> if it sprouts by
Christmas, it will ensure a good harvest the following year. </span></span></span></span></span></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxfiuLJqmIifEJUvvRpAkac4j4GK21HFMrc-_XHClCk1lQ3YNbJcMjIFPHwW5G1GrPvE1KgkLTjH15yrLHy_UHU66IvbpgmvEA0rcf77FjgQsJypc4BZk9WzVxupShx4ll9V6-RqBLhP5u/s410/bozicno_zito_131212.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="230" data-original-width="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxfiuLJqmIifEJUvvRpAkac4j4GK21HFMrc-_XHClCk1lQ3YNbJcMjIFPHwW5G1GrPvE1KgkLTjH15yrLHy_UHU66IvbpgmvEA0rcf77FjgQsJypc4BZk9WzVxupShx4ll9V6-RqBLhP5u/s320/bozicno_zito_131212.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Christmas wheat in a small pot is a<span style="color: black; text-align: left;"><span lang="en-GB"> nice decorative element </span></span><span style="color: black; text-align: left;"><span lang="en-GB">in</span></span><span style="color: black; text-align: left;"><span lang="en-GB"> a nativity scene or on its own. (<a href="http://druzina.enaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/bozicno_zito_131212.jpg" target="_blank">Image source</a>.)</span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="western" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="en-GB">Do
you have any special traditions or celebrations on this day? If so, I
would love to hear about them.</span></span></span></b></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-42411195640679416592020-11-21T17:07:00.000+01:002020-11-21T17:07:00.054+01:00Midnight Sun (Twilight #5) by Stephenie Meyer<p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53328856-midnight-sun" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;" target="_blank"><img alt="A cover of Midnight Sun showing a half of a pomegranate on black background." border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="314" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEClwtugkVj3mvuux0m_92aUEY7LCcutYrl8ztvlXSLmIRJn9XNzpJiUAmlIefOjZpBAgkLZgdO2P41Hf7tJCwWEoJAIuKLbI6RnAb4uyxFwAcPu5TQXadTe4i0GWl7COABim2h99PyTG4/w133-h200/Midnight+Sun.jpg" width="133" /></a></p><div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Midnight Sun</i> is a retelling of <i>Twilight</i> from Edward’s
POV – and a retelling of <i>only</i> Twilight, which with roughly
700 pages makes up for a rather long book.</span></div><div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />I found Edward’s POV
highly interesting and up to halfway mark I was going to<span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB">
give it stars. However, around the time of their first date, Edward’s
inner reflections become repetitive and between 50-70% the story is
rather tedious.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB">Fortunately,
after around 70% the pace picks up and the story brings up fresh
elements from the time when Edward and Bella are separated.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><br /> </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB">And
so, after about four months, I was able to finally finish it! And now
I’m back to wishing what I wished in the beginning: to see Edward’s
POV of the rest of the series, especially the beginning of </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><i>New
Moon</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB">,
when he is yet again away from Bella. Although I can also guess how
his agonising could once again turn boring.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 115%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB">On
the other hand, I also want Stephenie Meyer to continue </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><i>The
Host. </i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
any case, whatever she decides to write next, I will definitely give
it a shot, because </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><i>Midnight
Sun</i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span><span lang="en-GB"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
did reaffirm my impression that her books are, while not literary
masterpieces, not half as bad as certain online/book community
circles believe them to be</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, serif; font-size: 11pt;">. </span></span></span></span></span></div><p></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span lang="en-GB"></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9fphFlTH0r81AOiYLa7ZB1WTCv6CYTdlxJ9puSRUjUBQU5DPvj-YPaQ1TFAehRb8m8_dtjbEPQBXUcv7MHrcI14a_M2PUMwlhRKOWh7IMDHjFXqYHYSqL-2Ty18_LTRIiKtslj4hSFlPg/s180/3-stars_thumb" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="60" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9fphFlTH0r81AOiYLa7ZB1WTCv6CYTdlxJ9puSRUjUBQU5DPvj-YPaQ1TFAehRb8m8_dtjbEPQBXUcv7MHrcI14a_M2PUMwlhRKOWh7IMDHjFXqYHYSqL-2Ty18_LTRIiKtslj4hSFlPg/s0/3-stars_thumb" /></a></span></span></span></div><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-23812330588213892422020-10-09T20:14:00.010+02:002020-12-11T11:52:55.466+01:00Lord of the Flies by William Golding<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18964701-lord-of-the-flies" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="303" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP_tFGHDaCPWp7-w4kg97SyqLSrF8LSbM0UQy_Kk7zaxKNXqDdO_b7Ssqyo6Jwvw_QcNxDiiczSqE08w8pKQJ5ypvcgUA-r9bD63gwdOolFNXd1KXl1tNgcffl2plfSF6eFfKiFaOsvjaP/w127-h200/Lord+of+the+Flies.jpg" width="127" /></a></div><p class="western"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">I finally had to read <span><span><span lang="en-GB"><i>Lord
of the Flies</i></span></span></span> for <span><span><span lang="en-GB">tutoring</span></span></span>
purposes, because it is a required reading for our national high
school English finals, and at first it wasn’t as bad as I had
expected from all the bad things I had heard about it. I thought that
the boys’ behaviour wasn’t really any <span><span><span lang="en-GB">different
from how contemporary kids would behave in a similar situation.</span></span></span> </span></span><p></p>
<p class="western"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">About
two thirds in, however, I had to start agreeing: it was really that
bad. </span></span>
</span></p>
<p class="western"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">And
in the end, I am not so sure the behaviour was just a result of the
boys’ spoiled rich British origin. Perhaps any other group of
people (children) in the same uncontrollable, helpless, and scary
situation would eventually react similarly. </span></span>
</span></p>
<p class="western"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">I
will not even touch the issue of gender and the lack of girls in the
book – I do wonder whether </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">things
would be worse or better if the group included girls – </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">since
Golding himself was unwilling to explore that and was only able to
ask questions regarding that possibility himself. </span></span>
</span></p>
<p class="western"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">M</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">y
edition included study materials with useful chapter summaries and
discussion/reflection questions and additional information on the
issues connected with the novel, which were its saving grace. </span></span>
</span></p>
<p class="western"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">It
also</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">
included Golding’s essay on fables and his intentions regarding
what he wanted to show about the human nature and how it is governed
by nationalism and prejudice, especially in connection with Nazism
and fascism, which are certainly important issues to consider </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">(and
beware of perpetuating) </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">yet
again nowadays. </span></span>
</span></p>
<p class="western"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">Golding
does manage to show the worst of human nature when unfettered by
societal constraints </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">and
bolstered by fear (of the unknown, other) and I definitely agree with
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">his</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">
notion that we are all capable of the same atrocities if we fail to
check ourselves and each other to keep from succumbing to fear,
prejudice, and other-ing specific groups people.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">However,
I believe that without accompanying material</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">s</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">
and guidance </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">the
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">reader</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">s</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">who
are </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">unaware
of the story's connection to British exceptionalism </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">and
colonialism </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">cannot
really discern these themes and their messages, especially not ESL
student</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">s</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">who
are struggling with understanding the language itself. </span></span>
</span></p>
<p class="western"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">Even
without language understanding issues, I </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">could
only see</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">
the aforementioned connotations while reading through the additional
materials. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">Hence,
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">I
believe that among literally millions of books out there, our
national board for HS English finals could have certainly found a
better book to teach about such important topics as the dangers of
nationalism and prejudice in present times. </span></span></span>
</p><p class="western"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOiw3i-Bbkk91vQZ-h9qNIbDgMPOHVdGn8M3MeIVsvYOPvXzjODSW6EXhs9NaBQLkptPc42u7KIgVPRsMsC9U2U-evMn0GCELzw7AXeDYic8SugzsrCnz1oWnHGPw1Xuv_mWLGEnopSuaz/s180/2+stars.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="60" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOiw3i-Bbkk91vQZ-h9qNIbDgMPOHVdGn8M3MeIVsvYOPvXzjODSW6EXhs9NaBQLkptPc42u7KIgVPRsMsC9U2U-evMn0GCELzw7AXeDYic8SugzsrCnz1oWnHGPw1Xuv_mWLGEnopSuaz/s0/2+stars.png" /></a></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-74715253483983878222020-08-21T13:04:00.003+02:002020-08-25T13:26:06.034+02:00The Lost Blackbird by Liza Perrat<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54822591-the-lost-blackbird" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="The cover of The Lost Blackbird by Liza Perrat, featuring a little girl on a boat deck facing the sea and cloudy sky with a bird flying up." border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="317" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Nsqb98_lfU1SkJq-IHFm4awhwzROeyCruTpcpwbFkp3UDY9lMbYyEXEmvOEOkZoWMKWx9gdntu0DQZkDum0kC_spH-ZS2kl3ehYe5_1VR5CsjrY-4LIOp9ki7kGWokFLvLTxkc9LZCyD/w133-h200/The+Lost+Blackbird.jpg" width="133" /></a></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The Lost Blackbird</i> is a story about two sisters shipped from a
London orphanage to <span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">Australia,
where they are promised a better life awaits them.</span></span></span></span>
</span><p class="western"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">Separated
upon arrival, despite having been promised that they would be able to
stay together, they are both thrown in their own set of hardships.
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">T</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">he
older sister </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">has to endure </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">harrowing
circumstances of child labour </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">on
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">a
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">faraway
farm. The</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">
younger is adopted into a loving, well-off family, </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">but
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">her
life comes with its own kind of trauma. </span></span></span></span>
</span></p>
<p class="western"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">The
story is told alternately from both girls’ perspectives, proving
once more Liza Perrat’s masterful ability to convey children’s
voices from a very young age into adulthood, enabling t</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">he
reader to not only see but feel them grow up as well as witness the
world and people around them in vivid, palpable detail. </span></span></span></span>
</span></p>
<p class="western"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">Hence,</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang=""><i>
The Lost Blackbird </i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span face=""><span><span lang="">was
a fast and utterly absorbing read that taught me something new, as </span></span></span></span>I
had no knowledge of child migration from the UK to the other parts of
the former British empire (or perhaps I had forgotten about it.)
</span></p>
<p class="western"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On the whole, this story sucked me up into its
world and still didn’t quite let me go, and certainly left me with
a good feeling. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyYGqeefRbW4t52wh_zXoh2kXZQAAgpZtpvD8vRVV3e1tdMYvlFpZtYEuU9mmnCQlJtWcAlMHoL7dbS81ylMIwWo3d6SfRSUY5h0AUgfGOVQhEpC8MTKljl9AaCmu6UPYwKhf9rHKm1FU/s180/5+stars.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="60" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyYGqeefRbW4t52wh_zXoh2kXZQAAgpZtpvD8vRVV3e1tdMYvlFpZtYEuU9mmnCQlJtWcAlMHoL7dbS81ylMIwWo3d6SfRSUY5h0AUgfGOVQhEpC8MTKljl9AaCmu6UPYwKhf9rHKm1FU/s0/5+stars.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-8974998004556565882020-08-17T15:43:00.013+02:002020-08-24T16:11:43.790+02:00Bout-of-Books 29<span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span face="" style="color: #666666; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-style: italic;">The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins Monday, through Sunday, YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are daily challenges, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. </span><b style="color: #666666; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-style: italic;">For Bout of Books 29 information and updates, visit the <a href="http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00a9ac; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Bout of Books</a> blog. </b><span face="" style="color: #666666; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-style: italic;">- From the Bout of Books team</span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><div class="bout-of-books-button" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin: 0px auto; width: 200px;"><a href="http://www.boutofbooks.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #828282; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="Bout of Books" height="200" src="https://i.imgur.com/lAdsM9H.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(236, 236, 236); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="200" /></a></div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">I will be participating on Twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/StrangeNewWords">@strangenewwords</a>), but I thought it would also be handy to have a summary-of-everything post on this blog (so it gets used at least a little once in a while.)</span></span><div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Monday, 17/8/2020</b></div><div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Reading: <i>The Lost Blackbird</i> by Liza Perrat, <i>The Old Guard</i> fanfiction</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Pages/words: </span><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">24 pages of </span><span face="" style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>The Lost Blackbird</i><span style="background-color: white;"><i>,</i> ~14K </span></span><span face="" style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px;">fanfic</span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><strike>Instagram</strike> challenges/other: Currently reading</span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihb9atzc94RD8BJZBI5H4n1PkwsAw6-bcU25T0DwKEgnXqkJwPtv9PQ-7o5PT3CfctGMB2kQu8OuEMPbHK3uOz2GW0LLsPuqnGSeGMU5gEdJzkbLqlxlOt-2dfPfidVehESGSfkG9IG47L/s1024/BoB29IGPhoto+Day+1+-+Currently+reading.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A display of book covers for Midnight Sun, The Lost Blackbird, Poems of William Blake and fan-made (by me) covers for The Old Guard and Agents of Shield Daisy and Daniel Fanfiction on light blue background titled Currently Reading in black font" border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihb9atzc94RD8BJZBI5H4n1PkwsAw6-bcU25T0DwKEgnXqkJwPtv9PQ-7o5PT3CfctGMB2kQu8OuEMPbHK3uOz2GW0LLsPuqnGSeGMU5gEdJzkbLqlxlOt-2dfPfidVehESGSfkG9IG47L/w320-h320/BoB29IGPhoto+Day+1+-+Currently+reading.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Tuesday, </b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">18/8</b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">/2020</b><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Reading: </span><i style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The Lost Blackbird</i><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> by Liza Perrat, </span><i style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The Old Guard</i><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> fanfiction</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Pages/words: 123 pages of <i>The Lost Blackbird</i>, ~13K of fanfic</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><strike>Instagram</strike> challenges/other: </span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-QhC9s9t-E016VsXA7nWBgYWZyyDEgsZWoQ76asARdSYQL0pKikVaPUd7wEqQ-O3umbcVnVlzuz1FZ_BrXPL0YOc4J0CDYwglAcQtuZDCKZTEg7o0rn6xjITbPlLOxh8kimw60YLOik5g/s1024/BoB29IGPhoto+Day+2+-+Cover+love.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Cover of The Lost Blackbird by Liza Perrat on light blue background showing a girl on a ship facing stormy sky and a bird flying up" border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-QhC9s9t-E016VsXA7nWBgYWZyyDEgsZWoQ76asARdSYQL0pKikVaPUd7wEqQ-O3umbcVnVlzuz1FZ_BrXPL0YOc4J0CDYwglAcQtuZDCKZTEg7o0rn6xjITbPlLOxh8kimw60YLOik5g/w320-h180/BoB29IGPhoto+Day+2+-+Cover+love.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Wednesday, </b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">19/8/</b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">2020</b><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Reading: </span><i style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The Lost Blackbird</i><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> by Liza Perrat</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Pages/words: 8</span><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">3 pages of </span><i style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The Lost Blackbird, ~</i><span face="" style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">1.5K of <i>Revolution </i>fanfic (reread)</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><strike>Instagram</strike> challenges/other: </span></div><div><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_gRtHNj4s3gxbhNkbfoJs-Ppezkp8l0n7RYyd0nPyGm6_fOegxeKLQad1uihn6duHxwyasdFzPMjGMRdrfL1IbUi012Fel3-IAOkFFW-T9j0oyYGwefn6tRCQV8Ig9S5NIMqHqRZ4a0wr/s1024/BoB29IGPhoto+Day+3+-+Recent+5-Star+Read.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A cover of A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles featuring a young man lying on a bed on light blue background." border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_gRtHNj4s3gxbhNkbfoJs-Ppezkp8l0n7RYyd0nPyGm6_fOegxeKLQad1uihn6duHxwyasdFzPMjGMRdrfL1IbUi012Fel3-IAOkFFW-T9j0oyYGwefn6tRCQV8Ig9S5NIMqHqRZ4a0wr/w320-h180/BoB29IGPhoto+Day+3+-+Recent+5-Star+Read.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Thursday, </b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">20/8</b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">/2020</b><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Reading: <i>The Poems of William Blake</i></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Pages/words: 9 pages of <i>The Poems of William Blake</i></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><strike>Instagram</strike> challenges/other: /</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Friday, 21</b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">/8</b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">/2020</b></div><div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Reading: </span><i style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The Poems of William Blake</i><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Pages/words: 6</span><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> pages of </span><i style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The Poems of William Blake</i><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><strike>Instagram</strike> challenges/other: Wrote reviews for both <i><a href="https://beyondstrangenewwords.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-lost-blackbird-by-liza-perrat.html" target="_blank">The Lost Blackbird</a> </i>and <i>Poems of William Blake </i>(GR-only).</span></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Auto-buy Authors, to name just a few: Kresley Cole, Kit Rocha, Nalini Singh, Liza Perrat, Tiffany Reisz. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/boutofbooks?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#boutofbooks</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bob29igphoto?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#bob29igphoto</a></p>— Jo Kay (@StrangeNewWords) <a href="https://twitter.com/StrangeNewWords/status/1296845347629785090?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div><div><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Saturday, </b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">22/8</b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">/2020</b></div><div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Reading: <i>The Old Guard</i> & <i>AoS</i> fanfiction</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Pages/words: ~15K of fanfic</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><strike>Instagram</strike> challenges/other: I had a blast participating in the Twitter chat! </span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFoOQN-5Onak9UwlISEf3P-yThfCbpMjXNauVYS2ShobSPSsUQxA5ksCQRIC9XBJ2tJRdEgZlAMougvzl7HY1x-moB3cFuLFnFMuLp2xaX22mnYBKc57Mt9BHQ73WQeYzNc9MtlM8wH57G/s1200/BoB29IGPhoto+Day+6+-+Published+in+2020.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Covers of The Engineer by C.S. Poe, King's Crown by Maire Johnston, and Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo on a light blue background." border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFoOQN-5Onak9UwlISEf3P-yThfCbpMjXNauVYS2ShobSPSsUQxA5ksCQRIC9XBJ2tJRdEgZlAMougvzl7HY1x-moB3cFuLFnFMuLp2xaX22mnYBKc57Mt9BHQ73WQeYzNc9MtlM8wH57G/w320-h180/BoB29IGPhoto+Day+6+-+Published+in+2020.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Sunday, 23</b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">/8</b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">/2020</b></div><div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Reading: <i>AoS</i> fanfiction</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Pages/words: ~4.5K of fanfic</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><strike>Instagram</strike> challenges/other: /</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Wrap-up:</b><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">What I read: Finished <i>The Lost Blackbird</i> and <i>Poems of William Blake</i></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Pages/words: 245 pages +48K words</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><strike style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Instagram</strike><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> </span><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">challenges/other: I participated in 5 challenges, but on Twitter and also on Saturday's twitter chat.</span><br /></div><div><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>This was another great Bout-of-Books, I had a blast and certainly read more than I would have otherwise! </b></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-14393249937500936632020-07-29T16:32:00.002+02:002020-07-29T16:41:24.515+02:00A Seditious Affair (Society of Gentlemen #2) by K. J. Charles<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25241403-a-seditious-affair" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25241403-a-seditious-affair" border="0" data-original-height="424" data-original-width="318" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLgkhMec95gxtPB9L0syues84WBZfMU0cl-Jazp-RM48fMs5KgGFUsrecScs2LBAG6CfAS6oHFGR3uTCBt3x80oaW8nVeKyVOvLPMJPzztLNwkyL5THUrI4YOJETnap_ja4vPeYspbjZaM/s200/A+seditious+affair.jpg" width="150" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I have had <i>A Seditious Affair </i>on my to-read list for far too
long, because I wasn’t in the mood for the level of angst and the
type of characters I expected to encounter in it – and then my
expectations turned out to be completely wrong.
</span><br />
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Set
against the tumultuous end of 1820s London,<i>
A Seditious Affair</i>
turned out to be an utterly absorbing with
just
the right pace and the level of suspense that
kept me reading and reading, so
I could
barely
put down and finished it
in only a couple of days.</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
main characters grew on me quickly and I was rooting for them
throughout the story as they were such a fascinating pair of
contrasts that complement each other. Most importantly, however, they
were actually my age (why on Earth I expected them to be much
younger, I don’t know, but this age worked extremely well), and I
loved that!</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On
top of everything, the writing was not just good, but beautiful –
and I may have to go (re)read some darn romantics now (even t</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">hough
immersing too much the concepts of </span>romanticism<span style="font-family: inherit;"> are not good for my
mental well-being, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>precisely</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">
because I find them so very relatable.)</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">All
in all, <i><span style="font-weight: normal;">A
Seditious Affair </span></i>was
a captivating and wonderfully spun story with tangible sentiment and
vivid setting that engaged all senses and really brought the time,
place, and people to life. It was my first, but not last book by this
author. And really, why was I waiting so long? But better late than
never. </span>
</div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyYGqeefRbW4t52wh_zXoh2kXZQAAgpZtpvD8vRVV3e1tdMYvlFpZtYEuU9mmnCQlJtWcAlMHoL7dbS81ylMIwWo3d6SfRSUY5h0AUgfGOVQhEpC8MTKljl9AaCmu6UPYwKhf9rHKm1FU/s1600/5+stars.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="60" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyYGqeefRbW4t52wh_zXoh2kXZQAAgpZtpvD8vRVV3e1tdMYvlFpZtYEuU9mmnCQlJtWcAlMHoL7dbS81ylMIwWo3d6SfRSUY5h0AUgfGOVQhEpC8MTKljl9AaCmu6UPYwKhf9rHKm1FU/s1600/5+stars.png" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-41123840300828373172020-04-15T18:28:00.000+02:002020-04-28T13:30:12.800+02:00Ararat by Christopher Golden<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32840648-ararat" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="312" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2f2DGRSZ9OdL_GygysOsSgA6nQHXX_HadIb-w9A-g17DZMSxb7uXCj_tI8b38KDx17CvPoVIsPL8ryLQbd5FWDUwYWDVz6ZKzqicBqfN_PpTqch22NXpLne8NOO7NNyVNv4v8_qwbC9D9/s200/Arrarat+by+Christopher+Golden.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
Horror is far out of my comfort zone, but I felt like reading something different, specifically in this genre and Ararat had been on my to-read list long enough, so I did it and I am glad I did.<br />
<br />
Maybe I've desensitised myself a little by occasional forays into the genre, because it has somehow turned out not to be as creepy as I had expected, but it was still creepy.<br />
<br />
The creepiest parts are the first third of the book before the characters start realising what they unleashed (while the readers have more knowledge, or at least suspicions, than they) and, of course, the ending.<br />
<br />
In between and throughout the book there was, however, plenty of gore which I tried not to imagine too vividly.<br />
<br />
The story overall didn't offer anything new regarding concepts, but it was nevertheless compelling and well-written, and it definitely delivered enough material for a nightmare or two.<br />
<br />
All in all, I now feel weirdly accomplished for having read it. ;)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5LOwfinFIyMgxOS50AvNaY7adTEXJnBDP8gxP2jgwbXhbDPCNuALM6i3hCwWbko9hQWXcssFeISp7-J3TwBA3MpG6dZ_q4ZD7svpy5rmfFioIAv6F1Gc-_jJr8txYT3Ayy1n9kT77fLp7/s1600/4+stars.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="60" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5LOwfinFIyMgxOS50AvNaY7adTEXJnBDP8gxP2jgwbXhbDPCNuALM6i3hCwWbko9hQWXcssFeISp7-J3TwBA3MpG6dZ_q4ZD7svpy5rmfFioIAv6F1Gc-_jJr8txYT3Ayy1n9kT77fLp7/s1600/4+stars.png" /></a></div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-52197172462058223912020-03-25T18:30:00.001+01:002020-12-26T12:09:10.473+01:00Sins of the Angels (Grigori Legacy #1) by Linda Poitevin<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11776420-sins-of-the-angels" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="295" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYbMxfrzsqOP39vBsY5xxsuRf5PwO6V0YJitm84VOxtFrvKVUTM6RoRomr3IT6uVg5g_L2HR0riKsOkqhwjC0Ss6_XsszvJlwsua_oT4qUds-LUwZAUFCS3o1P57SjnC5q6QpaLOLaOiu8/s200/Sins+of+the+Angels.jpg" width="123" /></a></div>
The main culprit for the fact that this has only taken me almost four months to finish is that it employs a certain type of suspense that I find increasingly frustrating, namely, when the readers know something the characters don't and it takes them ages to get there.<br /><br />I don't consider it a spoiler, because it is evident right from the beginning of the story if not from the title itself, but I'm putting it under the SPOILER tag anyway: Obviously (or not), Alex, the main protagonist, doesn't believe in angels, heaven, etc. and when she starts seeing wings, she fears she is going insane, especially due to her family history. END OF SPOILER<br /><br />However, the very same thing is also one of the strongest points of <i>Sins of the Angels</i>, because such an attitude is rather more realistic than most books of the genre adopt, which is a quick and more or less easy acceptance.<br /><br />Anyway, that piece of knowledge the readers have but that Alex keeps trying to remain in denial about for nearly 70% of the story was frustrating as hell for me; I could only bear to read a few chapters at a time.<br /><br />And after that point, when Alex catches up with the facts, I finished the rest in one go, because <i>Sins of the Angels</i> is ultimately a compelling, well-written story that adds the previously explored concepts their own unique twists.<br /><br />Therefore, I am, now that we got over with that discrepancy between the characters' and the readers' knowledge, definitely interested to see where the rest of the series takes us. <div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvBYWzguOaeRYoMfpYEvtP3MgdnaboBwvDnncojbpB7alJJdK3cMqZofJPWGEpBZ9AZhReazJJaxtp2s3hMUFkDXZy2eVTmqtkYX3JsLlt7xwEygvN1d1u4JyF6h56hEDxcL8HNqjHVMrk/s1600/3%252C5+stars%255B4%255D" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="90" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvBYWzguOaeRYoMfpYEvtP3MgdnaboBwvDnncojbpB7alJJdK3cMqZofJPWGEpBZ9AZhReazJJaxtp2s3hMUFkDXZy2eVTmqtkYX3JsLlt7xwEygvN1d1u4JyF6h56hEDxcL8HNqjHVMrk/s1600/3%252C5+stars%255B4%255D" /></a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-40500568530351295352020-01-06T13:27:00.000+01:002020-01-13T20:08:08.810+01:00Bout-of-Books 27<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 13.2px; font-style: italic;">The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are daily challenges, Twitter chats, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. </span><b style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 13.2px; font-style: italic;">For Bout of Books 27 information and updates, visit the <a href="http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00a9ac; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Bout of Books</a> blog. </b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 13.2px; font-style: italic;">- From the Bout of Books team</span></span><br />
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Consider this my sign-up and updates post.<br />
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I have no goals other than to read, because I haven't read anything <strike>(not even fanfic!)</strike> this year, yet <strike>(Can you believe it? Then again, I did read A LOT last year.)</strike>, and what better way to finally kick it off than with <i>Bout-of-Books</i>? None, I say. And I'm doing updates on my blog this year to bring it out of neglect.<br />
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<b>Monday, 6/1/2020</b><br />
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Reading: <i>Sins of the Angels</i> (Grigori Legacy #1) by Linda Poitevin<br />
Pages/words: cca 66 pages or 20%<br />
Challenges/other: /<br />
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<b>Tuesday, 7/1/2020</b><br />
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Reading: <i>The Dandelion Girl</i> by Robert F. Young<br />
Pages/words: 11 pages<br />
Challenges/other: My 2020 reading goals, you ask? To read as much or as little as I want and whatever I want. That's it. (<a href="https://twitter.com/StrangeNewWords/status/1214602941002321921?s=20" target="_blank">Tweet</a>.)<br />
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<b>Wednesday, 8/1/2020</b><br />
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Reading: <i>Sins of the Angels</i> (Grigori Legacy #1) by Linda Poitevin<br />
Pages/words: cca 9 pages (3%)<br />
Challenges/other: /<br />
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<b>Thursday, 9/1/2020</b><br />
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Reading: <i>Sins of the Angels</i> (Grigori Legacy #1) by Linda Poitevin<br />
Pages/words: 33 (10%)<br />
Challenges/other: /<br />
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<b>Friday, 10/1/2020</b><br />
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Reading: <i>Slave to Sensation</i> (Psy-Changeling #1) by Nalini Singh<br />
Pages/words: 18<br />
Challenges/other: Why, yes, I can't committ to a book, so I started a new one. I also threw some <a href="https://twitter.com/StrangeNewWords/status/1215694474246066176?s=20" target="_blank">book recs out on twitter</a> for today's One with a Book in It challenge.<br />
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<b>Saturday, 11/1/2020</b><br />
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Reading: <i>Slave to Sensation</i> (Psy-Changeling #1) by Nalini Singh, and a lovely little fanfic (unrelated)<br />
Pages/words: 57, 1+ K of fanfic<br />
Challenges/other: I had a blast participating in the twitter chat!<br />
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<b>Sunday, 12/1/2020</b><br />
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Reading: <i>Slave to Sensation</i> (Psy-Changeling #1) and <i>The Cannibal Princess</i> (Psy-Changeling #1.1) by Nalini Singh<br />
Pages/words: 284<br />
Challenges/other: I guess I did stretch my non-existent goals!<br />
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<b>Wrap-up:</b><br />
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What I read: I finished <i>Slave to Sensation</i> (Psy-Changeling #1) and <i>The Cannibal Princess</i> (Psy-Changeling #1.1) by Nalini Singh, <i>The Dandelion Girl</i> by Robert F. Young, and I also read about a third of <i>Sins of the Angels</i> (Grigori Legacy #1) by Linda Poitevin<br />
Pages/words: 417 pages + 1+K of fanfic<br />
Challenges/other: I did two challenges and joined in Saturday's twitter chat.<br />
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All in all, that's a lot more than I'd expected going in and this has been a great readathon-ing week!<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-76404278784641280012019-12-31T11:56:00.000+01:002019-12-31T16:08:12.728+01:00My Life According to the Books I Read in 2019<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
I've set a new record and read 115 books this year!<br />
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That offers a lot of options to fill out <a href="http://theromanticlife.blogspot.com/2012/12/my-life-according-to-book-i-read-in-2012.html" style="color: #828282;" target="_blank">my-year-in-books-I-read</a> end-of-year wrap up meme, created by Christine at <a href="http://theromanticlife.blogspot.com/" style="color: #888888;">The happily ever after</a>, but it was still hard to find sensible answers. </div>
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<b>Describe yourself:</b> <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36059512-only-human" target="_blank">Only Human</a> </i>by Sylvain Neuvel</div>
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<b>How do you feel:</b> <i style="font-size: 13.2px;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29387343-broken" target="_blank">Broken</a></i><span style="font-size: 13.2px;"> by Nicola Haken</span></div>
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<b>Describe where you currently live:</b> <i><a href="hhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17826016-beyond-control" target="_blank">Beyond Control</a></i> by Kit Rocha</div>
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<b>If you could go anywhere, where would you go:</b> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29760149-wicked-abyss" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Wicked Abyss</a> by Kresley Cole</div>
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<b>Your favourite form of transportation:</b> <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36302614-master-class" target="_blank">Master Class</a></i> Linnea May</div>
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<b>Your best friend is:</b> <i style="background-color: transparent;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25500803-for-real" target="_blank">For Real</a></i><span style="font-size: 13.2px;"> by Alexis Hall</span></div>
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<b>You and your friends are:</b> <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25003119-reasons-to-stay-alive" target="_blank">Reasons to Stay Alive</a></i> by Matt Haig</div>
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<strong>What's the weather like:</strong> <i style="font-size: 13.2px;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42354665-arctic-sun" target="_blank">Arctic Sun</a> </i><span style="font-size: 13.2px;">by Annabeth Albert</span></div>
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<strong>What is life to you: </strong><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44048230-overture" target="_blank">Overture</a></i> by Skye Warren</div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px;"><b>Favourite</b></span></span><b style="color: #222222;"> time of day:</b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"> <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19438067-shadow-of-night" target="_blank">Shadow of Night</a> </i>by Deborah Harkness</span></div>
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<b>Your fear:</b> <i style="font-size: 13.2px;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21570318-crimson-bound" target="_blank">Crimson Bound</a></i><span style="font-size: 13.2px;"> by Rosamund Hodge</span></div>
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<b>What is the best advice you have to give:</b> <i style="font-size: 13.2px;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21899546-love-in-english" target="_blank">Love, in English</a></i><span style="font-size: 13.2px;"> by Karina Halle</span></div>
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<b>Thought for the day:</b> <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40309980-love-sincerely-yours" target="_blank">Love, Sincerely, Yours</a></i> by Sara Ney</div>
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<b>How I would like to die:</b> <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40767599-flash" target="_blank">Flash</a></i> by Kit Rocha</div>
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<b>My soul's present condition: </b><i style="font-size: 13.2px;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25963015-crossroads" target="_blank">Crossroads</a></i><span style="font-size: 13.2px;"> by Riley Hart</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Have a great New Year's Eve and I wish you all a happy New Year, reading and otherwise!</b></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-46234232115477117682019-12-16T02:04:00.000+01:002019-12-16T02:04:08.611+01:00Virtual Advent Tour: Santa's Train<a href="http://www.spritewrites.net/?p=9680" target="_blank">Virtual Advent Tour</a> is hosted by Sprite at <a href="http://www.spritewrites.net/" target="_blank">Sprite Writes</a>.<span id="goog_628246516"></span><br />
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I have always liked trains. And then, by a coincidence, I moved to live right along the railway. And I love it, especially in December when we get to see the so-called Santa's train.<br />
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For the past few years in December our national railways offer special rides in different directions across the country on a composition of a historic steam engine and old carriages, decorated with Christmas lights, with Santa and his elves aboard.<br />
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It is a great attraction, especially for families with children, but also for everyone else, even if you just watch it huff and puff by.<br />
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The steam engine was built during WW II for the German army's transportation needs <strike>(hmm, yeah)</strike> and was a part of reparations to our country. It is extremely gratifying that a tool made for our destruction was used to rebuild after the war and is now still used to bring joy. Choo-choo!<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-23459066164551303542019-12-09T00:56:00.000+01:002019-12-09T15:56:16.171+01:00Virtual Advent Tour 2019: Winter Evenings<a href="http://www.spritewrites.net/?p=9680" target="_blank">Virtual Advent Tour</a> is hosted by Sprite at <a href="http://www.spritewrites.net/" target="_blank">Sprite Writes</a>.<span id="goog_628246516"></span><br />
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There is something magical about winter evenings when you are warm and comfy while it is freezing and windy outside. With the fire going and a hot beverage, it is nice to just be in comfortable silence and perhaps enjoy a good piece of poetry.<br />
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One such piece is a poem that hit me straight in the heart when I first heard it many years ago, a romantically melancholic, just like a Slavic soul likes best, and I had that instant 'a-ha' feeling of relating to it, for back then I did literally live in an old house in the middle of the marshes and cold, wild wind knocking on our shabby windows was a familiar visitor during many a winter evening while sitting by the wood stove with my grandmother.<br />
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I know it by heart in Slovene translation and it takes me straight back to my childhood whenever I remember it. Incidentally, its title is <i>Winter Evening</i> and it remains one of my favourite pieces of poetry. I am pasting it below with some imagery that reminds me of the 'olden' days. ;)<br />
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Winter Evening<br />
<i style="font-weight: normal;">by A. S. Pushkin</i></div>
</h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><i><br /></i></span>
<a href="https://entertainment.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/29398/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="A brightly burning fire in a fireplace" border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="450" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio-IBx37mFymbYXGopHVb3FlHFojU6brqA70eVVJUwGZOlGzOleskCbY-kO2t7ZRsGWANM_Sq73xyR9WRk1gAQnxFlH4SzVW-IPY3X-zfsyBDgrFnyBBTF899CaHRoRDRU7fWXPahS2W1H/s200/Fireplace.jpg" title="Fire" width="200" /></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>O'er the earth a storm is prowling,</i></span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Bringing whirling, blinding snow.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Like a beast I hear it howling,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Like an infant wailing low.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Now the thatch it rustles, playing</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>On our roof; now at our pane</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Raps like someone homeward straying</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>And behighted in the plain.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i><br />Old our hut is, dark and dreary,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>By a candle dimly lit...</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Why so sad, my dear, and weary</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>At the window do you sit?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Is't because the storm is moaning</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>That so very still you keep?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Does your spindle's mournful droning</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Put you quietly to sleep?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i><br /></i></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://nature.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/2139338/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="An isolated cottage in a snowy landscape at night with full moon shining" border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="450" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwMBZ8HOHzfx_srD3wMcuCiW18mDipgVI8-sor4br9fZhx8Xi_0V6puF-HOgV8kqcRbyyE92_6bTEwccZf32SQ94E_8uxdx_eSnpJeCZFntnGS5v_T3KGLGG85P336oP233eo1RnAqTmBo/s200/Winter+cottage.jpg" title="Winter Cottage" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Come, O comrade solitery</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Of this cheerless youth of mine,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Take a cup, and let us bury</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>All our many woes in wine!</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Of a maid out by a river</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Sing a little song to me</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Or a tomtit, one that never</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Leaves its home beyond the sea.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i><br />O'er the earth a storm is prowling,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Bringing whirling, blinding snow.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Like a beast I hear it howling,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Like an infant wailing low.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Come, O comrade solitery</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Of this cheerless youth of mine,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>Take a cup, and let us bury</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i>All our many woes in wine!</i></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="https://russianlegacy.com/russian_culture/poetry/pushkin/winter_evening.htm" target="_blank">Translated by I. Zheleznova</a>.)</span></span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Do you have a favourite piece of poetry that reminds you of winter and/or childhood? </b></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-42640450393796033722019-12-05T12:13:00.001+01:002019-12-05T16:32:50.642+01:00I'm Still Alive... and I'm still reading, too. Actually, I'll set a new record this year.<br />
<br />
However, I don't know what to do with this blog. Hence, the nearly year-long hiatus.<br />
<br />
I don't want to abandon it, but even just posting this reminds me of why I'd been struggling lately over the last few years and then vanished into this hiatus - all the signing out and in already takes s much energy. Not to mention other hurdles.<br />
<br />
Blogger really isn't user-friendly. Or I've been spoiled by other platforms (*cough* tumblr *cough* - <strike>although that comes with its own set of problems</strike>). That and perhaps I burden myself with too high standards of what sort of posts both content- and format-wise I want to make. Maybe I should lower those.<br />
<br />
I am thinking of maybe setting up automatic cross-posting from GR - or at least try it to see if it works satisfactorily. And/or doing monthly (or some such) recaps of my reading and watching exploits. I will have to mull it over some more and then decide.<br />
<br />
But, first thing first, it is my favourite time of the year and that means <a href="http://www.spritewrites.net/?p=9624" target="_blank">Virtual Advent Tour</a>! I will have two stops here on the 9th and the 16th, but do check out everyone else's stops as well, because people always share interesting things.<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-59760555506841439182018-12-31T14:55:00.002+01:002018-12-31T14:55:56.694+01:00My Life According to the Books I Read in 2018<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
I've read a 100 books this year! That's a record!<br />
<br />
So, plenty of material to fill out <a href="http://theromanticlife.blogspot.com/2012/12/my-life-according-to-book-i-read-in-2012.html" style="color: #828282; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">my-year-in-books-I-read</a> end-of-year wrap up meme, created by Christine at <a href="http://theromanticlife.blogspot.com/" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;">The happily ever after</a>. Or so I had thought, but I also tried to showcase my favourite books of the year while making sense and being more or less truthful, which turned out quite a challenging combination.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, here we go:</div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<b>Describe yourself:</b> <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23303963-prisoner" target="_blank">Prisoner</a> </i>by Annika Martin</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<b>How do you feel:</b> <i style="font-size: 13.2px;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24874311-a-simple-heart" target="_blank">A Simple Heart</a></i><span style="font-size: 13.2px;"> by Gustave Flaubert </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<b>Describe where you currently live:</b> <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37783539-creative-incentives" target="_blank">Creative Incentives</a></i> by Kit Rocha</div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<b>If you could go anywhere, where would you go:</b> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36625948-point-of-contact" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Point of Contact</a> by Melanie Hansen</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<b>Your favourite form of transportation:</b> <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16139641-grounded" target="_blank">Grounded</a></i> by R. K. Lilley</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<b>Your best friend is:</b> <i style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 13.2px;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25087229-virtuous" target="_blank">Promises</a></i><span style="font-size: 13.2px;"> by Marie Sexton</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<b>You and your friends are:</b> <i><a href="http://v/" target="_blank">The Dirty Ones</a></i> by J. A. Huss</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<strong>What's the weather like:</strong> <i style="font-size: 13.2px;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35570079-the-hunger" target="_blank">The Hunger</a> </i><span style="font-size: 13.2px;">by Alma Katsu</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<strong>What is life to you: </strong><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17368138-gilded-ashes" target="_blank">Gilded Ashes</a></i> by Rosamund Hodge</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px;"><b>Favourite</b></span></span><b style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> time of day:</b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"> <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42903623-a-midwinter-night-s-dream" target="_blank">A Midwinter Night's Dream</a> </i>by Tiffany Reisz</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<b>Your fear:</b> <i style="font-size: 13.2px;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36043975-a-royal-mistake" target="_blank">A Royal Mistake</a></i><span style="font-size: 13.2px;"> by Elizabeth Davis </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<b>What is the best advice you have to give:</b> <i style="font-size: 13.2px;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38350837-archangel-s-prophecy" target="_blank">Archangel's Prophecy</a></i><span style="font-size: 13.2px;"> by Nalini Singh</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<b>Thought for the day:</b> <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25087227-victorious" target="_blank">Victorious</a></i> by Marie Force</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<b>How I would like to die:</b> <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15682.A_Happy_Death" target="_blank">A Happy Death</a></i> by Albert Camus</div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">
<b>My soul's present condition: </b><i style="font-size: 13.2px;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6630000-fugitive-pieces" target="_blank">Fugitive Pieces</a></i><span style="font-size: 13.2px;"> by Anne Michaels </span><br />
<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Have a great New Year's Eve and I wish you all a happy 2019 with lots of good books!</span></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-61421942203023273902018-12-18T00:01:00.000+01:002018-12-18T00:01:01.397+01:00Virtual Advent Tour 2018: Favourite Holiday Movies<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I am again
participating in </span><a href="http://www.spritewrites.net/?p=8593" target="_blank">Virtual Advent Tour</a>, hosted by Sprite at <a href="http://www.spritewrites.net/" target="_blank">Sprite Writes</a>.<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.spritewrites.net/?p=8593"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCyE2-pl39yQU70F3J-r2qLiBK8lSodamKfcPtFhKhW5q0UeJeo1cljtvoKf0Ion8QypXzNm-9jWUAq9uJXf_ucUdSzqAsHi-hy-AIlJUqvonRDA2T2GoEF_Z4ivbH-dnqis9tTMlpjMY9/s200/VirtualAdventTour2018-400.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">This year I
decided to share some of my favourite Christmas movies, because who doesn’t
like to bundle up in a warm blanket with some hot beverage of your choice and
watch something sweet or funny or touching or all of the above combined?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The first Christmas
movie that always comes to my mind and that I never find boring is the
first <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Home Alone </i>(1990)</b> movie, mostly hilarious, but poignant at times.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jEDaVHmw7r4" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></i></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Love Actually </span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">(2003)</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> is all of what I mentioned above, funny and sweet, sometimes sad and
thought provoking, and most of all simply showing the state of being human. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fOS-HMiVejo" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">While
You Were Sleeping </i>(1995)</b>, a lovely comedy about accidentally finding love and a family, t</span>he road to happiness is paved with good intentions and a few blunders.<br />
<br /></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AjcLQ4r8jIU" width="560"></iframe>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Artistically
well-made movies sometimes fail to emotionally resonate with me, but <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Holiday </i>(2006)</b> is wonderfully heart-warming and fun story about finding
love and friendship.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BDi5zH18vxU" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">A tale of the Christmas truce of 1915, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>Joyeux
Noel </i>(2005)</b> is a touching and poignant reminder that we are all only people
no matter the artificial sides we choose to divide us.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KRrr-CDXijs" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br />
What are your favourite holiday movies?<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-39676427105863564962018-12-09T15:52:00.001+01:002018-12-09T15:58:02.197+01:00The Dirty Ones by J. A. Huss<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42361309" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="317" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz1RpvytiRJEWmzwtfZb9U6XJZti1NltVi_lC7y053ODeep8in7py5aKIxvE6px9fjl1I1xf-cEMCPtOY6HbXDUJZgFNCPQ3GaYvoF60tqON7drR1a5gc3JrZQan3s0ROfMsIRLokyNxog/s200/The+Dirty+Ones.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><b>NOTE:</b> The book reviewed contains themes only appropriate for those above the age of majority.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">A group of
students at an elite college is pushed into an unusual – let’s call it adventure in
their senior year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Ten years
later someone writes a book about it that tells the truth. Or does it? As they
reconnect to uncover the book’s author, they fall into a spiral of memories,
intrigues, and convoluted relationships, both past and present. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The plot
that unravels completely blew me away, in particularly the twist near the end. </span><br />
<br />
I can best
describe <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Dirty Ones</i> as a
psychological erotic mystery thriller, the least emphasis being on erotic,
although it sure contains some filthy smut. But whatever you expect from this
book, I promise you are going to be wrong. A good kind of wrong, though.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Overall, this
world and story of this book are opulent, sensual, emotive, and above all very
human and will certainly stay with me for a long time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The Dirty Ones</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> was my first book from J. A. Huss, but I will
surely return to her for quality writing, vivid imagery, and fantastic
storytelling. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyYGqeefRbW4t52wh_zXoh2kXZQAAgpZtpvD8vRVV3e1tdMYvlFpZtYEuU9mmnCQlJtWcAlMHoL7dbS81ylMIwWo3d6SfRSUY5h0AUgfGOVQhEpC8MTKljl9AaCmu6UPYwKhf9rHKm1FU/s1600/5+stars.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="60" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyYGqeefRbW4t52wh_zXoh2kXZQAAgpZtpvD8vRVV3e1tdMYvlFpZtYEuU9mmnCQlJtWcAlMHoL7dbS81ylMIwWo3d6SfRSUY5h0AUgfGOVQhEpC8MTKljl9AaCmu6UPYwKhf9rHKm1FU/s1600/5+stars.png" /></a></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-41900510819985769812018-11-29T16:54:00.002+01:002018-11-29T16:54:52.626+01:00The Vow on the Heron (Plantagenet Saga #9) by Jean Plaidy<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4416142-the-vow-on-the-heron" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="310" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjadcj1pMIFMNZHuANnHq14sXBvVGj9wkSEkUmRh0rEDE-nC4-Wn45n_hqL5IT4MGKzikmggrtV83lfb5Fl0jWykOLuPaG8llxQKGBRtu8K_2vGNP5IermAMGPQqHJdQxclxtafrLBHChC1/s200/The+Vow+on+the+Heron.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The Vow on the Heron</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> depicts the reign of Edward III,
starting and ending similarly in disgrace and with an impoverished country, but
with a tumultuous journey in between. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Beginning
as a puppet boy-king, Edward III rose from his early failures of youthful
inexperience as a great military leader, often likened to his grandfather
Edward I and most notably remembered for staring the Hundred Years’ War with
France. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">What I
liked the most about his life was that he had a really good marriage and family
life and was for the most part a faithful husband and a good father, which
seems to be an exception more often than not when it comes to historical rulers
of whichever country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">As usually
with Plaidy, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Vow on the Heron</i> is
written in a simple but evocative language that makes what could be a boring
history rather interesting, although it could be edited a bit more
meticulously. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Overall,
this was a quick and easy but compelling read. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5LOwfinFIyMgxOS50AvNaY7adTEXJnBDP8gxP2jgwbXhbDPCNuALM6i3hCwWbko9hQWXcssFeISp7-J3TwBA3MpG6dZ_q4ZD7svpy5rmfFioIAv6F1Gc-_jJr8txYT3Ayy1n9kT77fLp7/s1600/4+stars.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="60" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5LOwfinFIyMgxOS50AvNaY7adTEXJnBDP8gxP2jgwbXhbDPCNuALM6i3hCwWbko9hQWXcssFeISp7-J3TwBA3MpG6dZ_q4ZD7svpy5rmfFioIAv6F1Gc-_jJr8txYT3Ayy1n9kT77fLp7/s1600/4+stars.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-15316988884756484682018-11-22T12:49:00.000+01:002018-11-22T12:50:28.501+01:00Alpha (2018)<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4244998" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="675" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvQYtTp9WgyQEzlgRusRQCtqWT_kaML8xrj0rTDGA8tmcIvXYPdNRdPs9AfTf6Y-PxxQb_Sq0Ac_s7O9-ExseVZXtbi7Bx8lcpvzClXTfljyxq_nPSozmfmp3FSvJxSewsUVVRYOl97UOh/s200/Alpha.jpg" width="135" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">DIRECTOR: </span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Albert Hughes; <b>CAST: </b>Kodi
Smit-McPhee, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Marcin Kowalczyk…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">SUMMARY: </span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">During the last Ice Age, a
friendship forms between a boy on the verge of adulthood and a wolf. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">MY
THOUGHTS: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Although I’m more of a cat than a dog person, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alpha</i> was one of my must-see films of this year ever since I had
seen the first trailer and it did not disappoint. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">A coming-of-age story follows a developing bond between an injured boy
and a wounded wolf in a suspenseful and oftentimes poignant arc that comes to a
heart-warming conclusion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The film is filled with stunning visuals and some breath-taking action;
CGI is not half-bad, either. And, with a fictionalised backdrop and taken with
a grain of salt as to historical accuracy, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alpha</i>
could have nevertheless been one of the versions of how people domesticated
wolves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">My only ‘complaint’ is that with </span>around an hour and a half the
film could have been longer; I would not mind watching more of Keda and Alpha’s
adventures at all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">RECOMMENDATION:
</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The film contains hunting and other animal injuries, so you might want to
be careful if you are sensitive to that (but all ends well for the main
protagonist.) Other than that, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alpha</i> is
an engaging film that is perfect for watching on one of these dark winter
nights when you need something to make you feel good. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5LOwfinFIyMgxOS50AvNaY7adTEXJnBDP8gxP2jgwbXhbDPCNuALM6i3hCwWbko9hQWXcssFeISp7-J3TwBA3MpG6dZ_q4ZD7svpy5rmfFioIAv6F1Gc-_jJr8txYT3Ayy1n9kT77fLp7/s1600/4+stars.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="60" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5LOwfinFIyMgxOS50AvNaY7adTEXJnBDP8gxP2jgwbXhbDPCNuALM6i3hCwWbko9hQWXcssFeISp7-J3TwBA3MpG6dZ_q4ZD7svpy5rmfFioIAv6F1Gc-_jJr8txYT3Ayy1n9kT77fLp7/s1600/4+stars.png" /></a></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3591212467365219458.post-74643444427517212322018-11-10T12:59:00.000+01:002018-11-11T18:50:08.342+01:00The Swooping Magpie by Liza Perrat<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42482664-the-swooping-magpie" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="316" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXrcLaRiBQORH7UqC1NJVWcg2lHu08Otkkik2iXlnq5z_MLVj5gX8BvYiukZ2c3sIGxyK-3_fMqz0Js8XC54eMi99vFbx7aMPxHAdygAniCAvGVpU0Wfv396wZ4F4OVdNm_0YApLry8S6F/s200/The+Swooping+Magpie.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>NOTE: This review contains SPOILERS. </b><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB">Sixteen-year-old
Lindsey crushes on her teacher, dreaming of escaping a cold home with a
violent father and an intimidated, emotionally absent mother. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB">But when she ‘seduces’ him – although the man, nearly twice her age, who turns out to be a truly
despicable character, should very well know better – and gets pregnant, her
in many ways sheltered world of wealth comes crashing down along with her dreams. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">On the cusp
of sexual revolution, pregnancy outside of marriage is still a taboo, unmarried
mothers shamed and shunned, sent away to have their children put up for
adoption. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB">In one such home for unmarried mothers, Lindsey is faced with a different
reality of poverty and exhausting work, coming face to face with people she
used to look down upon but who become her only friends when everyone else turns their backs on her and from whom she learns not only about
suffering she couldn’t imagine before but also about perseverance.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Initially a
deluded girl who stubbornly sticks to her pipe dream with her head in the sand,
Lindsey made me pity her, but I soon started empathise with her, being reminded
of how hard it must have been for women in the time where they were dependent
on men, purposely kept in the dark about the facts of life, with sex education non-existent, then shamed for the consequences of actions often
not of their own design, lied to, manipulated, and finally coerced into giving
their children up for adoption.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Set against
the backdrop of women’s emancipation movement, Liza Perrat depicts these issues
as well as the challenges of the aftermath of losing the children they are not
allowed to grieve for as their sole existence is shameful and best to forget in
the eyes of society, such as depression and suicide attempts, in a multi-faced
way that inspires a whole range of raw emotions in the reader, but most of all
an admiration for women like Lindsey and her friends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Thus, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Swooping Magpie</i> is above all a testimony
of women’s strength. With a collection of colourful characters and an exquisite Australian setting, it is a
truly gripping and quick read (I finished it in two days) and might be, in my
opinion, Liza Perrat’s best work to date.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyYGqeefRbW4t52wh_zXoh2kXZQAAgpZtpvD8vRVV3e1tdMYvlFpZtYEuU9mmnCQlJtWcAlMHoL7dbS81ylMIwWo3d6SfRSUY5h0AUgfGOVQhEpC8MTKljl9AaCmu6UPYwKhf9rHKm1FU/s1600/5+stars.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="60" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyYGqeefRbW4t52wh_zXoh2kXZQAAgpZtpvD8vRVV3e1tdMYvlFpZtYEuU9mmnCQlJtWcAlMHoL7dbS81ylMIwWo3d6SfRSUY5h0AUgfGOVQhEpC8MTKljl9AaCmu6UPYwKhf9rHKm1FU/s1600/5+stars.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><b>Thanks to
the author for kindly sending me a copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Swooping Magpie</i> in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.</b></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright by Jo Kay/Pepca. 2010-2019. All Rights Reserved.</div>Jo Kayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17041818732931215491noreply@blogger.com0