Book Challenges
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Review: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Trapped in a love less marriage to a man with good social standing, Anna Karenina does the unthinkable–she enters into a doomed, passionate love affair with another man. Society will torment her, her husband will ridicule her, but her own guilt will drive her to the breaking point. With one of the most memorable opening scenes in western literature, Anna Karenina is a literary masterpiece about life, passion, and love. This lengthy novel is spread over eight parts featuring two alternating protagonists, Konstantin Levin and Anna Karenina. The elegant and proper Anna, is married to a high-ranking government official, Alexei Karenin. For the past eight years they have maintained a fragile facade.…
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Discussion #4: Outlander Reading Challenge 2012
The fourth discussion post for the Outlander Reading Challenge is up! As noted, I will be posting monthly meme’s/discussions for both reading challenges I am hosting, Outlander and Game of Thrones.These are meant purely for fun and by no means required to participate in the challenges. I will post five questions for you all to mull over and I will answer one of the questions myself to start off the discussion. I also invite you to post your favorite quote or passage from the book as well. Remember to link your responses or reviews back to your blog using the Mr Linky on the corresponding Monthly Meme page or you can simply leave your response in the comments. The goal is…
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Review: Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth
A single choice can transform you. One choice can destroy you. On Choosing Day, the people of five different factions make a choice that will change their lives. You can choose to leave your old faction behind in favor of a new one, but you will forever be bound to your new faction so it is not a choice one makes rashly. If you fail to meet the initiation for each faction, you become Factionless. Tris Prior is different. She is Divergent and her choices destroy her. Tris is in a dark place. Shas witnessed unspeakable horrors and is struggling to cope with the destruction and choices she has made.…
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Review: The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
All things have a way of coming back to us in the end. Even if just as a memory from long ago, they are still with us….always. Memories are a funny thing. How accurate are your memories? Has your subconscious twisted your memories and changed the from what really happened to what you remember? How much can you truly trust your memory? Those little moments of déjà vu, was it just that or perhaps you had really been there before in a past life. What recalls a memory most to you, scent? Sound? A place? There is much that science doesn’t know about memory and much that simply cannot be…
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Discussion #3: Game of Thrones Reading Challenge 2012
Here is the third monthly meme/discussions for the Game of Thrones Reading Challenge. This month’s discussion is on A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire Book #3). As usual, I will post five questions for you all to mull over and I will answer one of the questions myself to start off the discussion. I also invite you to post your favorite quote or passage from the book. These are meant purely for fun and by no means required to participate in the challenges. Make sure you link your responses or reviews back to your blog using the Mr Linky on the corresponding Game of Thrones Monthly Meme page or you…
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Discussion #3: Outlander Reading Challenge 2012
The third discussion post for the Outlander Reading Challenge is up! As noted, I will be posting monthly meme’s/discussions for both reading challenges I am hosting, Outlander and Game of Thrones. These are meant purely for fun and by no means required to participate in the challenges. I will post five questions for you all to mull over and I will answer one of the questions myself to start off the discussion. I also invite you to post your favorite quote or passage from the book as well. Remember to link your responses or reviews back to your blog using the Mr Linky on the corresponding Monthly Meme page or you can simply leave your response in…
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Review: A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire #3) by George R.R. Martin
Five kings. One throne. When you play the Game of Thrones you win….or you die. In George R. R. Martin’s epic high fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, plenty of characters meet their valiant demise, but there can only be one king who will sit the Iron Throne….but which king? In the third book, A Storm of Swords, many different plot lines and POV’s finally begin to come to maturation but just when you think you have the series, a plot line, or character all figured out and summed up….Martin takes you in an unexpected direction. For me, this was the best book in the series so far.…
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Review: Mr Churchill’s Secretary (Maggie Hope #1) by Susan Elia MacNeal
With flaming red hair to match the bombs bursting in air, Margaret Hope sits behind a typist desk in the Prime Minsters office at Number 10…waiting to be useful to someone….anyone. Air raid sirens sound throughout London in 1940. Bombs drop from the air threatening to destroy the heart and soul of the British people. In this dark time, Winston Churchill has been named PM and with any luck, he will keep the British spirit alive while war rages on….though he knowns a German invasion is eminent, all he needs is a little bit of hope to give the people. As luck would have it, Churchill does have Hope in…
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Review: The Bride of Lammermoor by Sir Walter Scott
Beware the Ravenswood! Sir Walter Scott’s, The Bride of Lammermoor is a must read for fans of the genre….a classic gothic romance! This is your ultimate indulgence gothic romance fans…honest and truly. This ridiculously over the top tale has it all…witches, women going mad, a family fallen from grace, degenerative castles, ruined fortunes, Byronic heros, star crossed lovers, a dark prophecy, ominous symbology….everything! It is MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Wuthering Heights all rolled into one. The novel is introduced as a tale based on a true story, set in Scotland at the time of Queen Anne (early 1700’s). Lord Ravenswood is dead and all that remains of the Ravenswood…
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Review: Divergent (Divergent #1) by Veronica Roth
Abnegation. Amity. Candor. Dauntless. Erudite. Where faction do you belong to? On Choosing Day Beatrice (Tris) Prior must decide but first she undergoes an aptitude test to see which faction she will most likely gravitate toward….then she must choose to define her identity for the rest of her life based on that information. Born into the Abnegation faction, she is supposed to be selfless and think only of others….but she feels like a square peg in Abnegation. Hoping the test will shed some light on her conundrum, the worst happens—her aptitude test is inconclusive. She is Divergent. Being Divergent is dangerous….if anyone find out, her life will be in imminent danger. She is a threat to…