In an alternate 19th century, there are two warring continents on an reimagined earth: the scientific Anglica (England) and magical Bharata (India). Emboldened by her grandfather’s final whispered secret of a magical lotus, Tori Harding, a young Victorian woman and aspiring botanist, must journey to Bharata, with its magics, intrigues and ghosts, to claim her fate. There she will face a choice between two suitors and two irreconcilable realms.
3. Hop around. Visit as many or as few blogs as you’d like, but make sure if someone leaves a comment saying they followed you, visit and follow them back.
4. This is a once a week event for now, on Sundays at 1pm she may make it once a month down the road. You are only making a commitment to participate for one week. She would love to see you back next week, but that is your choice. You can make your post on whatever day you wish, and if you chose to host a giveaway, run that as long as you’d like.
5. Make sure to add the link to your post not your homepage so people can find it easily in the link tool below.
6. This isn’t a giveaway hop, although you are free to host one. This is a follower hop.
Thank you so much for participating!
If you want me to follow you as well, please let me know in a comment that you followed me via Bloglovin. If there is another way you want to follow me, feel free to follow me there, just make sure you let me know in my comments! I’m looking forward to seeing your blog and following you as well!
Click the Image to Follow Me
Click here for a list of the other participating blogs and a giveaway 🙂
I just found this over at Jessie’s Book Place and I think it’s great, so I joined in and thought I’d let you know about it too.
There’s this Summer Book Exchange going on and it’s hosted by Ruby’s Reads. (It’s something for people who love gifting and getting gifts. And those who miss Christmas, haha)
If you want to know more about the Summer Book Exchange, click this picture 🙂
I’ve been gone for a few days because my grandpa turned 80 and had a huge birthday party. My family and I went there and I made him a book stack cake (which took me 2 days to make). I’ll post pictures and the links to the how-tos soon.
I also started reading a new book and I won another book which I’ll start reading today, ’cause taking part in a book discussion is part of the deal. I’ll tell you more about these two books in the upcoming posts. (The first is an ARC, the second a best-seller)
Lovelybooks is offering free bookmarks right now. They are super cute, but have a look yourself. You can order them here: click (I’m sorry, this page is German. They’ll probably send the bookmarks all over the EU as the postage is the same within the EU. There seems to be no country restriction).
Last week, I went to see EPIC and I really liked it (although I’m not a huge fan of the computer animated three-dimensional look most computer animated movies have nowadays [and by the way, I hate 3D!]).
EPIC was a lot of fun to watch and I loved the magical cinematography. Mub & Grub are my personal favorites. Here’s the trailer (I decided to post the one that’s not that funny, because it doesn’t have that many spoilers in it):
It’s hardest to belong when you’re closest to home . . .
One wet Friday evening, Professor Andrew Martin of Cambridge University solves the world’s greatest mathematical riddle. Then he disappears.
When he is found walking naked along the motorway, Professor Martin seems different. Besides the lack of clothes, he now finds normal life pointless. His loving wife and teenage son seem repulsive to him. In fact, he hates everyone on the planet. Everyone, that is, except Newton. And he’s a dog.
Can a bit of Debussy and Emily Dickinson keep him from murder? Can the species which invented cheap white wine and peanut butter sandwiches be all that bad? And what is the warm feeling he gets when he looks into his wife’s eyes?
My Thoughts:
The Humans is mainly set in Cambridge, England. The setting is very believable and realistic.
The book is written from the perspective of the person who took Andrew Martin’s body (let’s call him “the alien”). It is written in conversational style. As if “the alien” was talking to the reader, who, in his opinion, is one of his species. I think this is a very interesting and entertaining writing style, which is also very clever. This way, Mr Haig takes the reader by the hand and leads them right into the story. He makes them part of it instantly.
The main characters of The Humans are “the alien”, Andrew Martin’s wife Isobel and their son Gulliver. For me, they were all very easy to empathize with, especially “the alien” and Gulliver. I was able to follow “the alien’s” problems, his discoveries, his moral changes and his feelings throughout the book. I also had no problems understanding Gulliver’s teenage world and all the problems and feelings that he had. I could feel “the alien’s” and Gulliver’s relationship with all their highs and lows. I could also feel the relationship between Isobel and “the alien” but it wasn’t depicted as intensely as the relationship between Gulliver and “the alien”.
I really enjoyed the plot. It was a little predictable but had its twists and turns. I don’t think The Humans is a book you read for suspense, it is a book that is full of fun and creativity. The only thing I would have left out is the “Advice for a Human” list at the end. I didn’t really see a point in it and it was somehow boring. Other than that, I had great fun reading The Humans and I can fully recommend this novel to anyone who wants to read something different for a change.
This week is Children’s Book Week and this is why I’d like to talk about one of my favourite children’s books, A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond.
One day, the Brown family find a bear from Darkest Peru at Paddington Station in London. They decide to take him in and name him Paddington. That is when Paddington’s new life and his adventures start. He soon becomes part of the family. The children Jonathan and Judy enjoy Paddington’s company and Mrs. Bird, the housekeeper, quickly warms up to him. Paddington makes friends all over the place, his best friend being Mr. Gruber. The only person who can’t stand Paddington is the Browns’ neighbor Mr. Curry…
My Thoughts:
A Bear Called Paddington is set in and around the Browns’ house in London. The setting is very believable and nice and so are the characters. The stories are told by a third person narrator and usually revolve around Paddington, so the reader has a character to connect with.
The book is divided into short stories that are connected to each other and should be read in a consecutive order. In each story, Paddington usually learns something from his or others’ behaviour. So each story has its moral.
I really like A Bear Called Paddington because it is entertaining, easy to read and I think Paddington is simply cute. Also, I learned to read the time with Paddington when I was very young. This is a book I would recommend for both, children and adults 🙂
I am thrilled to announce that Clarkson Potter provided me with an advance reading copy (ARC) of Provence, 1970 by Luke Barr. The book will be out in October 2013. I will read it as soon as I can and then I’ll get back to you with a review.
Provence, 1970 is about a singular historic moment. In the winter of that year, more or less coincidentally, the iconic culinary figures James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Richard Olney, Simone Beck, and Judith Jones found themselves together in the South of France. They cooked and ate, talked and argued, about the future of food in America, the meaning of taste, and the limits of snobbery. Without quite realizing it, they were shaping today’s tastes and culture, the way we eat now. The conversations among this group were chronicled by M.F.K. Fisher in journals and letters—some of which were later discovered by Luke Barr, her great-nephew. In Provence, 1970, he captures this seminal season, set against a stunning backdrop in cinematic scope—complete with gossip, drama, and contemporary relevance.
This year my mom got a book for Mother’s Day, because we can’t see each other. I ordered her The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon and I hope she’ll like it.
It is 1968. Lynnie, a young white woman with a developmental disability, and Homan, an African American deaf man, are locked away in an institution,the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, and have been left to languish, forgotten. Deeply in love, they escape, and find refuge in the farmhouse of Martha, a retired schoolteacher and widow. But the couple is not alone – Lynnie has just given birth to a baby girl. When the authorities catch up to them that same night, Homan escapes into the darkness, and Lynnie is caught. But before she is forced back into the institution, she whispers two words to Martha: “Hide her.” And so begins the 40-year epic journey of Lynnie, Homan, Martha, and baby Julia-lives divided by seemingly insurmountable obstacles, yet drawn together by a secret pact and extraordinary love.
All That Magic 