Come and escape from the world in some great books!
This is a lovely sweet topic - a nod towards Thanksgiving in the USA - and pretty useful considering I am in the midst of Ofsted inspection at work. Day one is done; day two still to go! So, as I assume that we all are readers - I mean, who else would be attracted to a blog entitled The Book Lover's Sanctuary? - we are all grateful for books in our lives... but can I enunciate why?
This theme asks us to look at and reflect on those super-popular - possibly over-hyped? - novels that we have not yet read. In fact I have just begun reading Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi which I have heard so much good about and would otherwise have been on this list. And where better to look for 'mainstream popular authors' than that bastion of populism, booktok? So these are popular booktok books that I have not yet read... but books that do actually appeal to me...
This is a fun little topic! There are some parallels between headlines and book titles I suppose: they both summarise a longer text, intending to grab the attention of the reader in a crowded market, neither can reveal too much or give spoilers... But there is a great tradition - certainly in the more lurid redtops in the UK - of inventive and over-the-top sensationalist headlines.
It is in fact Hallowe'en today! And I do love Hallowe'en! There is something delicious about giving into the spookier elements of life, reminding ourselves that there are more things in Heaven and on Earth than are dreamed of in our philosophies (to misquote Shakespeare). A time when it is ok to acknowledge and to revel in some of our primal and atavistic fears - whether that be werewolves, witches or vampires. And alongside the date, as the clocks fell back an hour last weekend, and the nights are drawing in, the weather turning unsettled and stormy and the river beside which our house sits swells and threatens to break its banks again, we are really in autumn - that season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. This week's TTT theme is a Hallowe'en Freebie and I have certainly been casting my net around for chilling books to read - it seems a long time since I read a really chilling ghost story so I am genuinely looking forward to perusing your recommendations.
This week's TTT theme is a list of atmospheric books - and Jana gives us the following explanations of what we might understand by that term. The Novelry explains this concept as: “A novel feels atmospheric when the setting and the narrative are deeply involved with one another; when characters and plot are physically embedded in their surroundings, and a near-tangible mood lifts from the pages and wraps itself around the reader.” Study.com explains that, “The atmosphere is how a writer constructs their piece to convey feelings, emotions, and mood to the reader. The atmosphere in literature might be tense, fast-paced, mysterious, spooky, whimsical, or joyful and can be found in poetry, stories, novels, and series.” Okay, yes I get those definitions... for me, a book is atmospheric when our feelings as a reader are brought to the fore - often by a genuine investment in setting and sense of place, where the setting is used to contribute to and enhance the experience. But it can also come across from characterisation, language and any other tool in the writer's toolkit. And the very real difficulty for me is narrowing this down to just ten... atmosphere is possibly
As the weather starts to close in, it is perhaps telling that this week's theme focuses on weather events in the titles of books - and my choices below seem to be distinctly autumnal and wintry with a preponderance of snow, storm and wind!
An incredibly engaging science fiction romp and buddy narrative, so replete in energy, enthusiasm and charm that we can forgive the occasional absurd plot premise and the meagre characterisation.
This is a little bit of a milestone: my first TTT as a fifty-year old... half a century. Realising that I pre-date the internet, Space Invaders, the Rubik's cube, Jaws and Concord was an eye-opnener. And realising that those people who I've always seen as 'old' were actually much younger than I am now is mind-boggling. And as my Dad is in the final stages of terminal cancer and is only 26 years older than I am now ... that's a humbling thought! Will my taste in reading suddenly change? Suddenly my TBR fill up with books about slippers and geraniums..? I doubt it! Anyway, this week's theme is to consider what goals I might want to achieve by the end of the year - those remaining three months.
I had such high hopes for this novel, after loving Girl, Woman, Other and was hoping for something joyful and sparkling; unfortunately, I found the main characters - however well crafted - unpleasant.
I am not entirely sold on this topic: there have been too many cheap re-hashes of existing novels, claiming to be original by being from a different point of view. I might sigh dramatically in despair as I point out Suzanne Collins' A Ballad of Songbird and Snakes, or E. L. James... or for that matter Disney's Cruella and Maleficent... That said, when done well, when the right character is chosen, we get gems like Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. And the propulsion of a minor character into their own novel is the identifying quirk of the Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French. So, who might I put forward?
I do enjoy these seasonal to-be-read lists, even if I consider myself in no way bound by them. Which is just as well really: looking back at the Summer To-Read list, I managed to read just one, a single solitary one, of them! Do I feel any shame? Hell no - no one should ever feel shame for what they read, how they read, how much they read or how often they read! As my mood shifted and changed over the Summer - and it was a little hectic! - so to did the things I fancied reading. I read what served a purpose at the time and that was great! So with that in mind, what vague notional TBR do I have for the coming season as the nights draw in, the mornings grow darker, the temperatures drop and leaves turn...?
This week's TTT is one that I would want to devote more time and thought to than I realistically think I have available right now, so instead, as I am falling behind in my reviews, these are the books that I have read most recently and which still need to be reviewed. Perhaps this will generate some accountability for me as well! Therefore, this week, nothing connects these novels except for the fact that something about them had piqued my interest...
The new school year has now begun and summer is over: my daughter has had her first day at her new school, a slew of paperwork has been thrown at me at work, another heatwave has (somewhat gently) gripped the UK. And the backlog of reviews on my blog is continuing to grow: finishing two books last night was both satisfying and a little overwhelming! This week's theme is also one that deserves a little thought: books that defied my expectations, Submitted by Sia @ everybookadoorway.com, which is glossed as books you thought you would didn’t like that you loved, books you thought you’d love but didn’t, books that were not the genres they seemed to be, or in any other way subverted your expectations! Sometimes, it's great to get a book that does exactly what you expect: a favourite author, a favourite genre, a title like The Kaiju Preservation Society or The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires which really do give you a heads up about the content. But this post celebrates those that unsettled and defied my expectations.
Water is such a potent symbol in writing: it is a setting that takes humanity literally out of its element, creating a vulnerability that we don't always feel on land; it remains largely unexplored and alien and home to utterly foreign and incomprehensible creatures; it is an image of chaos, calmed by the word of God in so many cultures and mythologies. What is one of the most iconic lines in film? "Release the kraken!" The ocean can be a metaphor of our minds and emotions and imaginations - look at the language we use for our interiority be it shallow or deep, turbulent or calm, we apply maritime language to it continually; it can be symbolic of female sexuality, birth and the creation of life. There are so many oceans to choose from that this is in no way an exhaustive list, nor could I limit it to ten!
I am so incredibly proud of our daughter: for all the anxiety and nerves prior to the flight, she seemed to feel completely at home in Italy almost from the first day, certainly the second. Nowhere where we ate questioned her wish for plain pasta - even if I wish we could have got some more protein into her! I was recording 15,000 - 25,000 steps a day here, so her little legs have kept up so well and she has been incredibly good company. Yes, once or twice, we had minor meltdowns; yes, our days were shorter than otherwise; yes, there were some things like the Vatican that we thought would be too overwhelming. But she has been interested and engaged and happy throughout... and now is slightly annoyed at my telling her how proud I am of her.
Benvenuti a The Book Lovers' Sanctuary, questa settimana aggiorno il blog da Roma! Well, technically I am not in Rome yet: I fly out tomorrow and am scheduling this to post on Tuesday! I am currently experiencing that Christmas Eve feeling: I think everything is ready, I am looking forward to tomorrow, I am anticipating that something will have been forgotten! Tickets printed? Check. Currency? Check. New clothes? Check, and it will be a change to wear clothes that fit - apparently I am a 28 inch waist now, who knew? - and oh my god my first pair of loafers! So Italian. So freaking comfortable! So these are the ten bookshops I might be most interested in seeing... such a shame that we only have 6 days there! And whilst I may have taught myself some Italian - enough to have a good go at a GCSE exam and sort of get the gist of an Italian newspaper - I have no real concept of Geography or where these might be in relation to each other!
Apologies for the non-bookish content, but I thought I'd record a few details about my trip to Rome with an autistic ten year old daughter! Our flight was on Friday and we had spent a week or two prior to that on very real tenterhooks! This was her first time abroad, her first time flying,… Continue reading Rome 2023
A rewarding conclusion to a great series that plumbs the depths of unspace whilst remaining tethered in the real as well: each of our main Vulture God crew had their specific role to play and came into their powers in a deeply satisfying way.
For me, Top Ten Tuesdays has become a prime source of discovering new books, new authors and new series and it is a genuine delight and pleasure to recognise and celebrate that. One issue, however, is that TTT lists are one amongst other social media including Twitter, Bookstagram, Booktok, Booklr. I am so grateful to you all, but I have been horribly remiss about remembering or recording who recommended what. Usually, it is a scribbled note to myself on a post-it, back of an envelope, a receipt, the back of my hand. So it is a little tricky to do what I would love to do: to give proper credit and thanks where due! So instead, I offer my heartfelt and humble thanks to all of you who offer up your favourite books each week and who comments and visit my little blog.
A fantastically enjoyable romp through the medieval Middle East with swashbuckling pirate queens, demons and djinni, giant squid and rapacious magically enhanced Europeans. A great, thrilling yarn!
This week's theme is an interesting one: Jana invites us to Spread love for books that people don’t talk about much anymore! I am not exactly sure what that means, but I will offer up books that I have loved in the past but which I have not really thought about and reconsidered and which have not received as much social media hype as they deserve... perhaps underrated books.
This is a bit of a challenge for me because it is really rare for me to give up on a book! I like to think that this is because I find it easy to find something to enjoy in most books: the genre may not be a favourite, but I may like the characters; I may not like the characters but the language could be sublime; I may find the language pedestrian but the plot could be thrilling; the plot might be cliched and quotidian but the ideas and themes might be powerful. And oftentimes, if I do put a book down, its because I was not in the right headspace for it then but I may well go back to it later... a pause does not a DNF make, does it? On the other hand, it may also reflect negatively on me as a person. I am generally a completionist, keen to finish a book - or a series - just because I started it. Yes, I am that sort of person who cannot leave a sidequest incomplete in a game! I also fall foul of the sunk-cost fallacy easily: I feel that when I have invested in a book (the time to start reading it probably more than the price), I must "get my money's worth" from it, even if giving up and finding a book I do love would be a much more enjoyable use of my time. And perhaps my eternal optimism: even halfway through a book, even three-quarters of the way, I might still be thinking This could get better any moment...
Many thanks to Angela from Reading Frenzy Book Blog for this theme it is a list of books with one-word titles, which should bring together a range of books from different genres which is always fun! And the rules I set myself are that I will share the most recently added one-word titles in my library, excluding books whose title is the protagonist's name... although I am stretching that a little with the last book on the list!
This week's freebie topic, I thought I'd use to celebrate the fact that I am going abroad for the first time in ... decades! Unless you count EuroDisney which is technically in France but felt about as French as, well, Disney. I mean, I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it - even I found it hard to be cynical there - but it did not feel real, let alone foreign! And in preparation for the trip I decided to sign up to DuoLingo and learn Italian - which has taught how to ask for a coffee - posso ordinare un caffè per favore? or vorrei un caffè per favore - how to ask directions - dov'è la libreria - and bizarrely philosophical questions such as perche moriamo or che succede quando muori... To the writers and editors of DuoLingo, are you okay? Anyway, as a reader I also wanted to pre-visit in my reading the city where I am going so these are a series of books set in Rome. To be fair, many of these are yet to be read!
I do love these cover-themed topics, because they pull together a very random selection of books and are a chance to remind ourselves of books we have loved but half-forgotten, or perhaps books that piqued our interest but then never got read... but maybe that's just me! But in terms of colours for this week's theme, it is the classic red, white and blue...
The Book Lovers' Sanctuary 
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