Christine's Book Adventures

There are quite a few tutorials on how to change the layout of your BookLikes blog. I figured it's good to have them all in one post, and I'd like to thank all who put a lot of work into making them so others can enjoy BookLikes. 

 

Let's start with the customization blogs posted by BookLikes: 

 

• Edit Your Design Theme With HTML on BookLikes 
• Your Blog on BookLikes - Custom-Made

 

 

Tutorials made by BookLikers for BookLikers: 

 

• Litchick's Easy Tips for Customization
• Litchick's How to Change Your Followers/Following to Something Fun
• AnHeC's How to Move/change your Followers/Following conters
• Jane's How to Customize your BookLikes Blog using CSS
• Jane's Customizing your BookLikes Blog Pt.2
• ThreeRs' Blog about Fonts
• AnHeC's How to change font colour (text, link, comment section)
• AnHeC's Background for Search Bar

 

 

Note: All links open in a new window and take you to the original posts and their creators. Leave comments, likes and reblog the hell out of them so others can see it too :) 

 

I am only just befriending myself with the booklikes system, therefore my formatting might be off :(

 

Recently, I have been browsing the shelves at my library. I do this about every 10 days or so. I love grabbing books at the library :) Last time, I went especially crazy and brought home a total of 10 books (see the list above).

 

Now I am questioning myself what to read next. I do this frequently although I am currently cross-reading 6 books. I love nothing more than books (and my family but that does not count here) and love putting new books on my shelves virtually and in real life. 

 

THE LIST

 

1. Bonds of Justice (Book 8) + Angel's Blood (start a new series "Guild Hunter") by Nalini Singh

 

I fell in love with the Psy-Changeling series back in September 2013 - haha! that wasn't too long ago - when I started off with "Slave at Sensation" and I am now at Book 8: "Bonds of Justice" which I borrowed as well (lucky me). I have to admit that I was reading this one nearly non-stop :) Nalini Singh really is a gem, I love those steamy hot scenes, her writing is addicting. I figured when I like this series so much there is room for more and I can't be nothing wrong checking out the other one. I did not even read the blurb. Only when I hit home I opened the book and read the first few sentences (that's a habit of mine).

 

..."When Elena told people she was a vampire hunter ..." She had me with the first sentence :)

 

But... I fear that I compare it too much with the Psy-Changeling series, therefore I might wait just a little bit more before I start this and read book 8 in the meantime. Bad me!

 

2. Coraline by Neil Gaiman

 

This is for my buddy read with my book club :) I didn't watch the movie but maybe afterwards when I like it enough. We're focusing on the author Neil Gaiman including the new one "Ocean at the end of the lane" for which I striked a kindle deal (yay!). Ocean at the end of the lane will show up in November or December again. 

 

3. Hounded by Kevin Hearne (start a new series "The Iron Druid Chronicles")

 

I have heard the series is goodish and found out that my library has that one (yay! I don't need to spend extra money.) Therefore it ended up in my bag. It does not hurt that the protagonist is an Irish sword-wielding hot male :)

 

4. The Summer Book by Tove Janssen

 

The cover made me do it :) It's fall and I am a tiny bit sad that the summer is over again. Therefore I picked up a book that reminds me of summer.

 

5. The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar

 

 

Steampunk. That says it all.

 

 

 

6. Firelight by Sophie Jordan

 

Dragons. Dragon-Shapeshifters. That did it. I love to read books about dragons and this even has dragon-shapeshifters. 

 

 

7. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

 

I don't read crazy scary stuff. I can't sleep when I read or watch stuff from nightmares, yes, I am that person, who needs to turn on the light in the unexpected case that I watched something scary on TV. But - it's Halloween - therefore I will read this little book. Love!

 

 

8. Poison Throne by Celine Kiernan

 

 

Good old fantasy with some magic thrown in for good measure.

 

 

9. Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

 

I tend to avoid hyped books like the pest but this gem has been recommended to me by good friends, so the book ended up in my bag.

 

"The circus arrives without warning." I love, love, love the intro. 

 

 

 

Hmmm. Which one will it be? I'm still not sure, they all sound good, which is why I picked them up in the first place. C'est mon, the decision is difficult this time.

 

There are so many different kinds of readers out there: voracious readers, leisure readers, reluctant readers, OCD readers, etc. Then there are people like me. I amass huge quantities of books, both paper and electronic. I get advance reader copies (ARCs), I buy paperbacks, I buy used books, and I shop at the local bargain bin at my local bookstore. I can’t remember leaving a bookstore of any kind without a purchase in hand, despite having hundreds of unread books at home. Lets not even talk about what books are waiting for me to read on my ereader. For some reason my ereader feels very heavy even though it has weighed the same since I bought it.

 

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I can't wait to read the Psy-Changeling novella Whisper of Sin by Nalini Singh!!
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description from BBC.UK

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A compelling exploration of the making of one of Britain's most influential First World War poets - Edward Thomas, who is perhaps best-remembered for his poem 'Adlestrop'.

Matthew Hollis's new biography is an account of Thomas's final five years and of his momentous and mutually-inspiring friendship with the American poet, Robert Frost.

Although an accomplished prose-writer and literary critic, Edward Thomas only began writing poetry in 1914, at the age of 36. Before then, Thomas had been tormented by what he regarded as the banality of his work, by his struggle with depression and by his marriage.

But as his friendship with Frost blossomed, Thomas wrote poem after poem, and his emotional affliction began to lift. The two friends began to formulate poetic ideas that would produce some of the most remarkable verse of the twentieth century. But the First World War put an ocean between them: Frost returned to the safety of New England, while Thomas stayed to fight for the Old. It is these roads taken - and those not taken - that are at the heart of this remarkable book, which culminates in Thomas's tragic death on Easter Monday 1917.

Read by Tobias Menzies

Abridged by Richard Hamilton

Produced by Emma Harding

'Now All Roads Lead to France' is published by Faber and Faber.

Matthew Hollis is the author of a volume of poetry, 'Ground Water', which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize for Poetry, the Guardian First Book Award and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. This is his first prose book.
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Poem

Adlestrop

Yes, I remember Adlestrop --
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop -- only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
Edward Thomas

I haven't read a book with rat shifters (wererats) before (wait, no! that's not entirely true, Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling series has them as well, but they only have one sentence in a whole book, poor rat shifters). Here, they are the villians and it suits them well. Kit Colbana is part aneira, but more human than aneira. She has an enchanted sword and can make herself dissappear from anyone's sight for a short period of time. Cool. I wish I had an enchanted sword and could slice through my imagined enemies, disappearing in thin air is a cool ability. *want this*

The story in a nutshell is this: Kit is looking for a missing girl in the wererats lair. The girl seeks salvation with the wererats because she is sick. Her mother wants her back in one piece. Kit rescues her with the help of a supernatural = happy ending.

************************************************************************
www.bbc.co.uk

American tycoon Theodore Racksole buys Europe's most exclusive hotel on a whim, but is warned by the seller that he will live to regret it. Soon, a mysterious death occurs and Theodore and his daughter Nella find themselves in danger in their own hotel.

************************************************************************

until now I've only read Alpha&Omega 0.5.

www.bbc.co.uk
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In the years after the funeral of the Dane's warrior King Shield Sheafson, the evil fiend Grendel rises to prowl the land. At the court of Hygelac in Geatland, a great warrior prepares to help King Hrothgar.

Radio 4 pays tribute to Seamus Heaney, Nobel Prize-winning poet, internationally recognised as one of the greatest contemporary voices who passed away earlier this month at the age of 74.
Composed towards the end of the first millennium, the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf is one of the great Northern epics and a classic of European literature. Seamus Heaney's translation , completed near the end of the second millennium is both true, line by line, to the original, as well as being an expression of his own creative, lyrical gift.
Here, in a recording made ten years ago, Seamus Heaney brings his vibrant powerful writing to life as he reads ten fifteen minute extracts from the narrative.
The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and then living on, physically and psychically exposed, in that exhausted aftermath. It is not hard to draw parallels between this story and the history of the twentieth century, nor can Heaney's Beowulf fail to be read partly in the light of his Northern Irish upbringing.
But it also transcends such considerations, telling us psychological and spiritual truths that are permanent and liberating.

Produced in Salford by Susan Roberts.
Radio Drama North.
*********************************************************************

www.bbc.co.uk
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Dramatisation of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.

One of the great works of English literature, this powerful, compelling story explores love from its first tentative beginnings through to passionate sensuality and eventual tragic disillusionment. Lavinia Greenlaw's new version for radio brings Chaucer's language up-to-date for a modern audience while remaining true to his original poetic intention.

After seeing the beautiful widow Criseyde at the temple in Troy, Troilus falls instantly in love with her. Inexperienced in love, he is unable to act on his feelings and locks himself in his room to compose love songs. Pandarus, worried for his friend, eventually persuades Troilus to tell him why he is so miserable and is delighted to hear that the cause is Troilus' love for his niece Criseyde.

Worried about her reputation, Criseyde is at first reluctant to enter into a relationship with Troilus. After much cajoling and manipulation, she reluctantly comes around to the idea. Pandarus is frustrated that the relationship is moving too slowly and engineers a complex plan to get Criseyde and Troilus in bed together.

Troilus ...... Tom Ferguson
Criseyde ...... Maxine Peake
Pandarus ...... Malcolm Raeburn
Servant/Friend ...... Kathryn Hunt
Calchas/Servant ...... Kevin Doyle
Priam/Servant ...... Terence Mann
Hector/Diomede ...... Declan Wilson

With music composed by Gary Yershon and performed by Ehsan Emam, Tim Williams and Mike Dale.

Directed by Susan Roberts.
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quotes I like & don't want to forget

“THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN A BOY WHO HATES YOU A boy who loves you.”

“She was a girl with a mountain to climb”

“Not leaving: an act of trust and love, often deciphered by children”

“...the stars were dragged down again, into the waters of the German sky.”

“Smoke was rising out of Liesel's collar. A necklace of sweat had formed around her throat. Beneath her shirt, a book was eating her up.”

“We might be criminals, but we're not totally immoral. Much like the book thief, he at least drew the line somewhere.”

thoughts

I don't know why I thought that I would not like that book and why I have avoided it for such a long time.

In general, I do not read books about the Holocaust/WWII because they are really depressing (in a lack of a better wording). I do not like to read cruel books either. Most of the books about the Holocaust/WWII I read left me crying, disturbed about the people, the past, the history, the war, just everything. It's hard to put these feelings I have when I think of it in words.

I like the writing style of [a:Markus Zusak|11466|Markus Zusak|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1376268260p2/11466.jpg] and I feel a certain pull so that it's hard to put the book down.

The burning of books reminds me a lot of
[b:Fahrenheit 451|17470674|Fahrenheit 451|Ray Bradbury|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1366411587s/17470674.jpg|1272463].

The standover man p232 ff.

All my life, I've been scared of men standing over me.

I suppose my first standover man was my father, but he vanished before I could remember him.

For some reason when I was a boy I liked to fight. A lot of the time, I lost. Another boy, sometimes with blood falling from his nose, would be standing over me.

Many years later, I needed to hide. I tried not to sleep because I was afraid of who might be there when I woke up. But I was lucky. It was always my friend.

When I was hiding, I dreamed of a certain man. The hardest was when I travelled to find him.

Out of sheer luck and many footsteps, I made it.

I slept there for a long time. Three days, the told me... and what did I find when I woke up? Not a man, but someone else, standing over me.

As time passed by, the girl and I realised we had things in common.

But there is one strange thing. The girl says I look like something else.

Now I live in a basement. Bad dreams still live in my sleep. One night, after my usual nightmare, a shadow stood above me. She said, "Tell me what you dream of." So I did.

In return, she explained what her own dreams were made of.

Now I think we are friends, this girl and me. On her birthday, it was she who gave a gift - to me. It makes me understand that the best standover man I've ever known is not a man at all.

That was one of the better ones. There are always ups and downs in this series. I have yet to become used to it.

I definitely like the fact that Ethan is back in the picture. I have liked him since book #1 and was terribly sad when he turned up dead. Now that he is "alive" again I can enjoy him again bickering with Merit. Did the back and forth between them really come to an end?

I am still not satisfied with the Mallory part though. Less tears and more plot please. However, I do like that she is not in prison but the shifers are taking care of her punishment and that I like that she tries to atone for her sins. More explanations about the magic & a little history of the head of the order would have been appreciated (what was his name again? Al Baumann? He made such a short appearance that I cannot remember exactly. When someone pops up as a side character who is leading a whole fraction I would have at least dedicated him a paragraph. Just a suggestion!!).

Chloe Neill still treats her readers like children. I really do hate repetitions - things that have been explained already in earlier books are exploited again and again. Are you counting words?

Chloe Neill not at her very best but at least I look forward to the next one.

I am not really into short stories and those are introductions to other books to follow. A really strange start to a series, but whatever.

I have finished the first story with Adam and the girl and I liked it, but then I saw that this story would be book #3. That baffled me. Why would someone put a story at the beginning of a book of short stories and then it would be released as book #3 in the actual series. *strange* I started to read into the second story but that one did not suit me at all. I am really unsure if I should read book #2 which I know I will not care for because of the characters to finally make it to book #3.

The other reviewers wrote that these books are to be read in order. So I have still no clue if I will ever start this series. ...