About stories of all kinds
The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher MorleyMy rating: 4 of 5 starsI really loved this book on first read—the atmospheric bookshop, the eccentric proprietor, the silly love-story, and the espionage plot shoe-horned in throughout. What’s not to like? Recently when I was skimming through it in search of a quotation, I got caught on so many… Continue reading Judging Spies by Their Covers: The Haunted Bookshop Review
Therefore, if we built splendid castles... and pictured beautiful scenes, among the fervid coals of the hearth round which we were clustering, and if all went to rack with the crumbling embers, and have never since arisen out of the ashes, let us take to ourselves no shame. In my own behalf, I rejoice that… Continue reading ‘Let us take to ourselves no shame’
“[W]e... care not what you set up, so you pull merrily down what stands in our way... for it is our profession to turn the world upside down, and we live ever the blithest life when the downer side is uppermost.”The Monastery by Sir Walter Scott The Monastery by Sir Walter Scott Some days the… Continue reading “To turn the world upside down”
Besides, you are bound to bear yourself as agreeably as you can toward those whom nature or chance or your own choice has made the companions of your life. Utopia by Sir Thomas More The world’s still not utopian, and neither are the people within it perfect—including myself. Others put up with me as much… Continue reading ‘Nature or chance or your own choice’
Little is left to us but the air we breathe, and that appears to have been reserved with much hesitation. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott I won’t pretend to equate current pandemic restrictions with the condition of serfs under feudalism, but the sentiment is surprisingly relevant nonetheless. Here’s to the (slow) lifting of the embargo… Continue reading ‘The air we breathe’
It’s fall. Yikes. I’m not even halfway through my 100 book recommendations. I was intending to have this list finished up this year. Not that you should read them in a year. I think we’ve established that’s a bad idea. Trust me. But how long does it take to just crank out a suggestion list?… Continue reading 10 Short Stories and Collections: 100 Books to Read #5
One of the enduring types of fiction, one of the most prolific types of stories told to this day, through whatever medium, is the adventure story. There are quests, colourful characters, cut-throats, intrigues, losses, rescues, betrayals, cloaks, daggers… the works. I’m categorizing ten of my 100 books to read as predominantly adventure stories. 1. Kidnapped… Continue reading 10 Adventure Books: 100 Books to Read #4
Peveril of the Peak by Walter ScottMy rating: 4 of 5 starsWhen I started Peveril of the Peak I had no idea what it was about, which turned out to be fine because the first chapter or so pretty much lays it all out. There are, in fact, two Peverils of the Peak, a father… Continue reading Peveril of the Peak Book Review
Twenty Years After by Alexandre DumasMy rating: 3 of 5 starsTwenty Years After brings back the old guard of The Three Musketeers (TTM), as D’Artagnan rises in the service of the Mazarin and seeks out his old friends in their various places of residence to join his cause. I was curious to see where the… Continue reading Twenty Years After The Three Musketeers: Book Review
Cromwell. The Roundheads. The Cavaliers. Bonny Prince Charlie. Wait, wrong Charles. Recently, I read three books in a row set in and around the English Civil War and it has definitely brought the time period to life for me. I’ve realised that when I read historical fiction I absorb a lot unintentionally about historical events,… Continue reading Recent Reads: Three Perspectives of the English Civil War
Fictitiously Yours 