Books

Book Review: Memoirs from the House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky

January 27, 2021February 11, 2021 Amy5 Comments

Title: Memoirs from the House of the Dead Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky Translator: Jessie Coulson Publisher: Oxford University Press Date: 2008 (1862) Genre: Semi-autobiographical / Philosophical Fiction / Classics Summary: In this almost documentary account of his own experiences of penal servitude in Siberia, Dostoevsky describes the physical and mental suffering of the convicts, the squalor and the degradation,… Continue reading Book Review: Memoirs from the House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Books

The Mystery Blogger Award

January 25, 2021January 23, 2021 Amy13 Comments

Hello, hello, hello! I haven’t done a blogger award in a long time but the lovely Florence over at Miscellany Pages tagged me in the Mystery Blogger Award back in September 2020 and I didn’t see it until recently so I thought I’d take part. The award was created by Okoto. Rules: Put the award… Continue reading The Mystery Blogger Award

Books

Book Review: Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

January 23, 2021February 11, 2021 Amy8 Comments

Title: Wives and Daughters Author: Elizabeth Gaskell Publisher: Oxford University Press Date: 2009 (1863) Genre: Fiction / Classics Summary: Molly Gibson is the daughter of the doctor in the small provincial town of Hollingford. Her widowed father marries a second time to give Molly the woman’s presence he feels she lacks, but until the arrival of Cynthia,… Continue reading Book Review: Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

Books

New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2020

January 20, 2021January 19, 2021 Amy11 Comments

2020 was a year of discovery for me. I read a lot of new-to-me authors and I found a few new favourites to add to my list. This is just a list of the new-to-me authors I read in 2020 and the books I read. Giovanni Boccaccio – The Decameron (c.1353) I started 2020 by read plague… Continue reading New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2020

Books

Shakespeare Saturdays: Francis Beaumont (Shakespeare’s Contemporaries #5)

January 16, 2021January 14, 2021 Amy5 Comments

I’m really enjoying these posts about Shakespeare’s contemporaries. No-one else cares but I like the surface level research I’m doing – I never knew reading biographies and whatnot could be so interesting. Francis Beaumont, born 1584, was the son of Sir Francis Beaumont of Grace Dieu, near Thringstone in Leicestershire, who was a justice of… Continue reading Shakespeare Saturdays: Francis Beaumont (Shakespeare’s Contemporaries #5)

Books

2020 Reading Stats

January 13, 2021January 10, 2021 Amy11 Comments

Welcome to the nonsense that is my yearly reading stats post! As you will find out, I like graphs and charts but I’ve tried to keep this as short as possible. I like doing these posts because I find the breakdown really interesting – of other people’s reading habits as well as my own –… Continue reading 2020 Reading Stats

Books

Best Books I Read in 2020

January 9, 2021February 8, 2021 Amy9 Comments

Although I managed to read 49 books in 2020, it was, at times, a struggle to get through books. I can comfortably say that I was in a reading slump between the beginning of April and mid-December. However, I did read a lot of great books last year and these are my favourites. I haven’t… Continue reading Best Books I Read in 2020

Books

ARC Book Review: The Stranger Times by C. K. McDonnell

January 6, 2021February 2, 2021 Amy3 Comments

Title: The Stranger TimesAuthor: C. K. McDonnellPublisher: Bantam PressPublication Date: 14th January 2021Genre: Mystery / FantasySummary: There are Dark Forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular) and so thank God The Stranger Times is on hand to report them. A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but more often… Continue reading ARC Book Review: The Stranger Times by C. K. McDonnell

Film · Music · Personal · TV

2020 Favourites

January 2, 2021January 2, 2021 Amy3 Comments

A yearly round-up of my favourite things that aren’t book-related! I’ll post a list of my favourite books of 2020 at some point. I listened to a lot of music this year. Not as much as I usually would – probably because I wasn’t commuting every day – but I have a lot of favourite… Continue reading 2020 Favourites

Books

January 2021 TBR

January 1, 2021February 3, 2021 Amy1 Comment

Pale January lay In its cradle day by day Dead or living, hard to say. – from Primroses, Alfred Austin Earthlings by Sayaka Murata Translator: Ginny Tapley Takemori Summary: Natsuki isn’t like the other girls. She has a wand and a transformation mirror. She might be a witch, or an alien from another planet. Together with her cousin Yuu,… Continue reading January 2021 TBR

Curiouser and Curiouser

A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. – Italo Calvino

Book Review: Memoirs from the House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Mystery Blogger Award

Book Review: Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2020

Shakespeare Saturdays: Francis Beaumont (Shakespeare’s Contemporaries #5)

2020 Reading Stats

Best Books I Read in 2020

ARC Book Review: The Stranger Times by C. K. McDonnell

2020 Favourites

January 2021 TBR