My Week: My Month: My excuse for being late with persona augustus Wendy-the-Super-Librarian’s TBR Challenge of ‘Something Different’: True Story. I did actually complete it though. Really Valancy? You broke your cardinal … Continue reading Something Different: Tangled Reins, Stephanie Laurens, (or 4 Georgette Heyers in 1…so maybe not REALLY that different…)
Urgh. I would just like to alert the judges to the fact that my reading month was TERRIBLE-AWFUL-NO-GOOD-HORRID. Where have all the good books gone???? I think they hide and … Continue reading Bingo @ BlueCastle, February (Or, 7 books that contributed to a new frown wrinkle on my forehead…*mutter mutter*)
It has been one of THOSE months.
You know, the ones where each week is ascendingly more awful than the week preceding it, until you are at this zenith point of Terribleness, but there is nowhere escape and you think: yep, this is it. Hell has frozen over and I am just waiting for a nod from one of the four horseman before the End of Days is officially declared.
Yeah, one of those Novembers.
They say the first step to recovery is admitting it…so I am just going to come out and say it: this month was 31 consecutive days of over-reading, glomming and bingeing on authors that I insta-loved. In other words: single-author book bacchanalias.
That moment when post-filling your BINGO card, you realise the first 5 books you read this month made BINGO?
#awkward…
Yeah. Note to self: Be more Organised.
Anywhoo. This month’s BINGO; brought to us by the fabulously sagacious Shallowreader
I think I have possibly mentioned in the past that I’m not usually favoured by Lady Luck in the winning department. As such, I have a rather jaundiced view of people, … Continue reading Lovers, Haters & Lost Recipes (or July’s TBR Challenge – which almost kicked my butt…)
Last month I was late with my TBR challenge (*hangs head in shame*), so I was determined to be AT LEAST almost on time with this one…
This month’s TBR Challenge, pulled from Wendy the Super Librarian’s Cliffs of Insanity was Favourite Trope. Which is kind of like asking me which of my cat-children I love best, or which M&M flavour I horde secretly so I don’t have to share…Or my favourite type of alcohol…
I mean really who can decide?
I had great hopes for May…Alas – twas not meant to be. In short: I read books, I filled squares. And NOTHING lined up in a row. It didn’t help that some of the books were so incredibly bad, that really using them as a BINGO square was the only thing that kept me going….
But here are the contenders:
I don’t THINK it has been a while since I posted – but it FEELS like it.
Life has been too – too…just TOO.
It also hasn’t helped that I’ve been stranded on a monadnock (YES – the COOLEST new descriptor ever) of terrible books. At times I wondered if I was going to have to go all Hatchet on them just to get out alive – but last night there was a break through(!) (*tears of relief*)
SO, Valancy never wins at anything. ANYTHING.
Not at knocking over the milk bottles or ring toss. Laughing clowns have NEVER paid up. And, it is always the person next to me that guesses how many jellybeans in the jar.
But I will lament my horrid luck more
Warning: ranting follows. This is a day and age of snark. Which is fine by me, because I am in general a little (a lot?) bit snarky. I don’t care … Continue reading When in Rome, Amabile Giusti, (or Calling for a SNARK-reprieve)
<<TBR CHALLENGE: JANUARY 2016>> It has been silent on the moats of Blue Castle…the water still and unmarred by the movement of crossings, heroes on horse back, steely eyed warriors … Continue reading The World Forgetting by The World Forgot…(or my forgetful (heh) foray into Amnesia)
When I was young, the next (big) town up from our non-existent village had an annual used book sale – it was HUGE (at least to my 8 yr old eyes). There were thousands of books, piled onto tables, stacked in boxes against the walls, leaning and supporting each other like so many lopsided towers of pisa.
I am nosy by nature. I like ferreting out information, seeking clues, finding answers and generally just knowing. My previous life was filled with research, statistics, funding submissions, quotas and … Continue reading Banished to the Harem? (or my foray into the world of sheikhs…)
My understanding, going in was that is was a RE-IMAGINING of Jane Eyre. A contemporary Korean American retelling of Charlotte Bronte’s inimitable classic. It looked modern, bright, full of potential…But having learned from bitter experience, and previous forays in to this type of thing, I kept my expectations low. So, say, anything above a blank piece of paper was going to be a good thing.
If there is one thing I can not resist in the world – it’s a romance with food & food peoples. You know how some people are about cowboys? How they start fanning themselves and getting heart palpitations at the mere mention of a jingling spur??? Well, Foodie Romances (is that a thing? I’m not sure – but BlueCastle is making it so), are like my own personal catnip. I can’t resist them. Chefs, cooks, B&B’s with food, kitchens, restaurants, food vans, catering, fast food* – it’s like a book buffet.
Musings, reflection, rumination, cogitation: more of this than an actual review – because I am just not sure how I feel about the whole book really. I discovered Barbara Claypole White’s The Unfinished Garden, whilst browsing.
It was in that nifty little section that triumphantly advises ‘people who liked your book also liked these’; meaning if YOU had the good taste to stumble upon this book, then surely you will like to purchase these OTHER books that people who may have BETTER taste then you liked too…
Dear More Than You Dreamed.
I don’t know if you remember me, but I am the individual, who just last week, threw you at my wall and left you lying awkwardly and splayed in the corner of my lounge-room. I apologise sincerely for any injuries sustained in the course of this event, and I have since (you will note), picked you up, unbent your cover, generally un-smooshed you and placed you high on a shelf in my study. You may be wondering about the highness of the shelf, its relative distance from my lounge room, and its relative closeness to the two daddy long-legs that are inhabiting the corner of said study…
I am sad to report and and even more loath to write it… BUT I think it may be possible that I have entered a wee doldrum of book reading.
Yes, like the muppets of treasure island ilk, I have sailed the distant oceans, traversed the waters and just when the I was avast ye-ing into the horizon, I encountered the doldrums…or in this case: the-enormous-pile-of-books-I-started-and-threw-down-again-in-frustration/hatred/annoyance/disdain.
It’s a big pile. My cats edge quietly around it, wondering if its precarious lean to left will end in a squished tail.
Blue Castle Considerations 
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