Goodreads Monday #9

Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren @ Lauren’s Page Turners. To participate, choose a random book from your TBR and show it off! Don’t forget to link back to Lauren’s Page Turners and link up to the inlinkz so others can see what you picked!

I've never been much of a short story reader, however lately I've started to put some short story collections on my reading list because, you know, sometimes you gotta read outside your comfort zone. Let me show you one such collection that sounds especially promising to me.

Death or Ice Cream?

by Gareth P. Jones

Synopsis:

Larkin Mills: The Birthplace of Death!

Larkin Mills is no ordinary town. It's a place of contradictions and enigma, of secrets and mysteries. A place with an exquisite ice cream parlour, and an awful lot of death.

An extraordinary mystery in Larkin Mills is beginning to take shape. First we meet the apparently healthy Albert Dance, although he's always been called a sickly child, and he's been booked into Larkin Mills' Hospital for Specially Ill Children. Then there's his neighbour Ivor, who observes strange goings-on, and begins his own investigations into why his uncle disappeared all those years ago. Next we meet Young Olive, who is given a battered accordion by her father, and unwittingly strikes a dreadful deal with an instrument repair man.

Make sure you keep an eye on Mr Morricone, the town ice-cream seller, who has queues snaking around the block for his legendary ice cream flavours Summer Fruits Suicide and The Christmas Massacre. And Mr Milkwell, the undertaker, who has some very dodgy secrets locked up in his hearse. Because if you can piece together what all these strange folks have to do with one another... well, you'll have begun to unlock the dark secrets that keep the little world of Larkin Mills spinning ...

I have a rather strong suspicion this book was inspired by Wallace Stevens's poem called  
The Emperor of Ice-Cream. 

Call the roller of big cigars, 
The muscular one, and bid him whip
 In kitchen cups concupiscent curds. 
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
 As they are used to wear, and let the boys
 Bring flowers in last month’s newspapers.
 Let be be finale of seem.
 The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

 Take from the dresser of deal,
 Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
 On which she embroidered fantails once
 And spread it so as to cover her face.
 If her horny feet protrude, they come
 To show how cold she is, and dumb.
 Let the lamp affix its beam.
 The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream. 

Do you often read short stories? 
If you can recommend me some good collections, go ahead, please.

Review - Ain't He Precious? (Sex and Sweet Tea #1) by Juliette Poe

Title: Ain't He Precious? (Sex and Sweet Tea #1)

Author: Juliette Poe

Synopsis:

Welcome to Whynot, North Carolina, population 3,872. It has one stoplight, one bar, and the one-and-only Trixie Mancinkus.

Eleven years ago, Trixie graduated Harvard Law, turned down a job offer from one of the most prestigious law firms in Boston, and headed home to Whynot to open her own firm. Not only did she leave behind the big city, but she also left her boyfriend of three years. And just so we’re clear… that would be me.

So what am I doing in Whynot at this very moment? It seems Trixie needs help with a legal case and for some insane reason, she called on me for assistance. I’ve been in town for five minutes, and I’m every bit as out of place as I feel. Trixie is all sweet, southern curves to my tailored suits and high-priced haircuts. It’s a culture clash of north versus south and about the only thing we have in common is our physical attraction to each other.

But I have a new motto since coming to Whynot: When life hands you lemons, all you need is a little sex and sweet tea to make things better.

My Thoughts:

I swear to God I really wanted to like this novella but it lacked the charm with which I hoped it would sweep me off my feet.

Sure, there was southern family coziness, which was nice and the small town surroundings were described in a very attractive way but these things didn't really make up for what I felt missing regarding the romance side of the plot.

We have Ryland and Trixie who haven't met for eleven years. Before, they'd been in a serious relationship and planned a life together. They broke up because Trixie wanted to move back to Whynot while Ryland wanted to stay in Boston. After eleven years Trixie invites Ry to Whynot to help her with a legal case and things start to warm up between them.

The situation was a tiny bit unrealistic for me. I mean, they haven't talked for eleven years. Maybe it's just me but I would totally not call an ex I haven't talked to for ages to ask a favour of him, especially if the favour includes a long plane ride. I'd rather look for another solution, but then maybe Trixie didn't have another lawyer friend to turn to... Anyway, it was strange.

Once Ry arrives he finds Trixie standing on her desk in her office changing a light bulb and  what is the first thing he does? He checks out her ass, that's what. I was rolling my eyes at this part and at many others later when Trixie's physical appearance was emphasised over...well... any other qualities of hers. Probably right now you're wondering why I read romance if it bothers me. The answer: I've read romances before where I didn't come across this issue. 

The number of sex scenes was just right and they were well placed inside the novella, I just wish they hadn't talked during them (I like sex scenes being described, not littered with dialogue).

I could relate to the the problem Trixie and Ryland faced back then and now; that they wanted to settle down in different places, yet they wanted to stay together. It's a tough dilemma to solve and they both had to get their priorities straight before they could plan a life together.

The ending was a bit too convenient for me but all is well that ends well, right? I wish I could give Ain't He Precious a higher rating but this is the highest I can muster because of the issues I mentioned above.

Goodreads | Amazon

Weekend Wrap-up #1

The Sunday post is a weekly meme hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer. It's a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things you have received.

This weekend is a long one in Hungary because March 15 (Thursday this year) is a national holiday and everyone got Friday off as well. My cousin came to visit so we had a family get-together where we indulged in board games and home-made doughnuts.

The weather is a bit gloomy, I wouldn't mind to see the sun a bit more but I'm sure we'll get there.

Yesterday I went to the cinema to watch an NTLive screening of Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead. I'm so glad I could catch a screening because I've been planning to watch it for so long. I enjoyed it immensely, I'll write a post with more details about it in a few days. I'm very eager to share my highlights with you, it was a truly awesome experience.

Now onto the books. 

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews that makes it possible to share with other bookworms what books you added to your shelves – physical or virtual – during the week.

I acquired two new ebooks this week.

Purchased:

Title: The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum

Author: Kirsten Weiss

Source: Amazon

Goodreads 

Synopsis:

When Maddie Kosloski’s career flatlines, she retreats to her wine-country hometown for solace and cheap rent. Railroaded into managing the local paranormal museum, she’s certain the rumors of its haunting are greatly exaggerated. But a new ghost may be on the loose. A fresh corpse in the museum embroils Maddie in murders past and present.

With her high school bully as one of the officers in charge, Maddie doubts justice will be served. When one of her best friends is arrested, she’s certain it won’t be.

Maddie grapples with ghost hunters, obsessed taxidermists, and the sexy motorcyclist next door as outside forces threaten. And as she juggles spectral shenanigans with the hunt for a killer, she discovers there truly is no place like home.

ARC 

Title: The Stolen Girl (The Veil and the Crown #1)

Author: Zia Wesley

Source: NetGalley

Goodreads

Synopsis:

The legend of Aimée Dubucq de Rivery, has survived on three continents for more than two hundred years. The Stolen Girl tells the first part of her extraordinary story, her adolescence on the Caribbean island of Martinique, and her voyage to Paris where her hopes of finding a husband are shattered. Resigned to live as an old maid at the ripe age of eighteen, she decides to become a nun and sets sail to visit her relatives on Martinique one last time. On the journey, she meets and falls in love with a dashing young Scotsman. But fate had other plans for Aimée, ones that were foretold by an African Obeah woman when she was fourteen years old.

My review of Ain't He Precious (Sex and Sweet Tea #1) by Juliette Poe will be up tomorrow and then boom, another week is over. Seriously, time is flying, guys.

How was your reading week? What are you reading at the moment? 

Please leave your links below!

Have a nice weekend!

Book Beginnings on Friday and the Friday 56 #8

It's that day of the week again!

Let's rock n' roll!

Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56 are weekly memes hosted by Rose City Reader and Freda's Voice.

Rules: 

Book Beginnings: Share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. 

The Friday 56: Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% in you eReader. Find any sentence (not spoilery) and reflect on it if you want.

The book I bring to you today is:

The Red Tent

by Anita Diamant 

Synopsis:

Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood--the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of her mothers--Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah--the four wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through a hard-working youth, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate connection with the past.

Book Beginning:

Prologue:

We have been lost to each other for so long. 

Chapter one:

Their stories began with the day that my father appeared.

In the prologue it is the reader the narrator addresses. I could feel an instant connection with Dinah, because she was talking directly to me right in the beginning. Then she starts telling her tale...

The Friday 56:

Whenever she saw running water, she lay down in it, hoping for the life of the river to inspire life within her.

Someone is very desperate for a baby :)

I have high hopes for this book to be good, so far it didn't disappoint.

What are you reading this Friday? Drop your Friday link in a comment below, please!

Creating the atmosphere

Lately I've started burning candles while reading, mainly beacuse I realised I own so many and I never use them (most of them were gifts from friends). I'm obsessed with them now... Looking at the flame has a calming effect on me and some of them have scents that fill my room, creating a perfect atmosphere for reading and relaxing.

Above you can see some of the candles I own. The one in the middle changes its colour every minute, I think that might be my favourite.

I'd really like to own some bookish candles in the future, the ones you can buy on Etsy and have book or character-inspired scents.

I have my eye on the Red London and Jamaica scents in LiberdeStella's shop that were created based on A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab and Voyager by Diana Gabaldon.

I'd also be really happy with PretAGeek's Lady Macbeth inspired scent or the one that smells like Mrs Weasley's cookies! 

There are so many awesome bookish candles out there and right now I want to own them all. I better start saving money I guess.

Do you ever burn candles while you read? Do you own any bookish candles?

WWW Wednesday #8

Hey Friends! What a lovely Wednesday we have awoken to! 

I hope you're all having a wonderful day!

As you've probably noticed, I have a brand new banner up for which I added a fitting button too (see on the sidebar). My rating system changed as well, check out the delicious pinapples I'll use from now on under the 'Review Policy' option above!

With the banner the blog's whole theme changed, from angelic to Caribbean bliss I know, but I felt I needed to rethink the paradisian concept a little bit – we all need changes from time to time.

How do you like it? Do you prefer the new banner or should I change back to the old one? Your opinion matters!!

What am I up to these days reading-wise? My regular WWW post will answer this question:

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words. 

WWW stands for three questions:

What are you currently reading?

It's unlike me, but I'm currently reading three books at the same time. 

The Red Tent

by Anita Diamant

As I mentioned before this is a biblical story told from the perspective of Dinah, daughter of Jacob. In the Bible she was raped and her brothers slaughtered a whole town to avange her tainted virtue. I have a feeling there will be a twist in this book compared to the original story, but I'm still in the beginning. We'll see... I love how the author describes the life of the women's community, there is a very strong bond between the females in this novel.

 



The Lightning Thief

(Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1)

by Rick Riordan 

I'm reading this with my little brother (I purchased the book for his 10th birthday). He reads a few pages aloud, then I read a few. We did this before, with the Harry Potter series. He usually doesn't sit down with a book alone but he enjoys reading like this a lot. I love it too because it means I can spend quality time with him. He is a sweetheart.

Ain't He Precious?

(Sex and Sweet Tea #1)

by Juliette Poe

I heard about this series on Lexxie's blog, Unconventional Book Views. It consists of novellas that are set in Whynot, a small town in South Carolina. This first instalment follows Trixie and Ryland, two people who were a couple in the past but broke up because they couldn't agree on where to settle down. Rylan comes to visit Trixie to help her out with a legal case. I suspect soon the southern sunshine won't be the only thing that turns the air hot in Whynot.

What did you recently finish reading?

Song of Blood & Stone

(Earthsinger Chronicles #1)

by L. Penelope

Since I was asked to join the blog tour of Song of Blood & Stone, my review will arrive closer to the publication date. All I'll say now is that it was a great adventure!

What do you think you'll read next?

I'll leave this blank here for now. I'll let my mood dictate when the time comes.

What are you in the middle of right now? What's next? Leave your link to your WWW post below, so I can visit your blog!

Some quotes to brighten your day

  

I'm your avarage bookworm who uses sticky notes to mark her favourite lines in a book. (Talking about sticky notes, don't you just hate when you run out of them? Because I do, arggghh. They are quite expensive where I live too... Rant over.)

I collect quotes like I collect books. These two are inseparable, are they not? Today I'll share with you some of my all time favourite quotes that stuck in my head and will probably stay with me always. Here they are:

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The other day I had a silly thought: I imagined what would happen if I turned blind all of a sudden (I noticed that my eyesight is a tiny bit worse than it used to be and the thought followed). When I realised that would mean I'd lose my ability to read I panciked for a moment until I reminded myself it is unlikely to happen. Reading is like breathing for us booklovers, it's hard to imagine living without the stories we dive into each day.

"Somewhere between God and the Devil passion is and the way there is sudden and the way back is worse."

Passion by Jeanette Winterson

If you haven't read this book yet, I highly recommend you to do so. The writing is out of this world and Ms Winterson analyzes the human condition in a very unique way. The quote above has a personal meaning for me these days, therefore I'm very fond of it. (Read my review of The Passion here.)

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Oh, I could rain so many Shakespeare quotes on you... I'm obsessed with his plays. But this one will suffice for now. It rings true, doesn't it?

 "I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell, I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world." 

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

So poetic. I will never get over this book. Did I mention I bawled my eyes out during the last twenty pages? I read it years ago but nothing has compared to it since then.

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

My dear Gatsby. I've read this book twice; first time I didn't like it, the second time I couldn't shut up about it. That is what a few years do to a reader. Pick it up if you haven't yet, it will stay with you, I promise.

What are some of your favourite quotes? Do you mark your favourite passages in your books? How?