Month: June 2022

Blog Tour and Review: Dolly Considine’s Hotel by Eamon Somers

Dolly Considine’s Hotel by Eamon Somers on July 8th 2021 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 320 Format: ARC Source: Travelling Pages Tours Buy on Amazon Goodreads Dolly Considine runs a late-night drinking establishment catering to the needs of thirsty politicians and theatricals in Dublin’s legendary drinking area, the Catacombs. Julian Ryder (aka Paddy Butler) is an eighteen-year-old aspiring writer in need of shelter from his bullying older brother. As the new live-in lounge assistant at Dolly Considine’s Hotel, Julian soon embroils himself in the shebeen’s gossip – and the guests’ bedsheets – and turns Dolly’s entourage into fodder for his literary ambitions. Reality quickly becomes difficult to separate from fantasy… Set against the run-up to the Pro-life Constitutional Amendment of September 1983 and moving fluidly between the 1950s of Dolly’s youth and Julian’s Summer of Unrequited Love, the hotel becomes a stage for farce and tragedy. Between Julian’s fictions, Dolly’s Secrets, and narrow party politics – and featuring a papier-mâché figure of Mother Ireland giving birth and clashing sword-wielding dancers – this rich cocktail threatens to blow them, and even Ireland itself, wide apart. Greetings! Welcome to our stop on the blog tour for Dolly Considine’s Hotel by Eamon Somers. This tour is […]

Posted June 11, 2022
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Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl

Danny The Champion of the World by Roald Dahl Published by Puffin on 1975 Genres: Fiction, Middle Grade Pages: 205 Format: Paperback Source: VCS Buy on Amazon Goodreads “My Father, without the slightest doubt, was the most marvelous and exciting father any boy ever had.” Danny is brought up by his father, who is a marvelous story-teller and a genius with motorcars, kites and catching pheasants. Life is wonderful… until Danny discovers his father’s one vice. Soon Danny finds himself the mastermind behind and incredible plot against a wicked and wealthy landowner. Can he pull it off? If so, Danny will truly be the champion of the world. One of our favorite authors in the school’s library is, Roald Dahl. The classic author whose books have sold over 250 million copies worldwide. I so wish that Mr. Dahl could still be alive to see his dreams and aspirations for children having a love for reading, come true. “I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives one a terrific advantage.” […]

Posted June 10, 2022
4 Comments

Wondrous Words Wednesday – Rune

Greetings you guys! Welcome to another edition of Wondrous Words Wednesday! Hopefully by now you know that we are your friendly host for this fun bi-weekly meme. We took over this brilliant initiative from Bermuda Onion Blog just over a year ago and we are still having fun. We hope you can join us! The concept is fairly easy. All you need to do, is share any new (or new to you) words you came across this week and share them with us. You are also welcome to share words you simply want to show off to us. For more on Wondrous Words Wednesday, you can click here. There is a Mr. Linky attached at the bottom of this post if you’d like to make your own post and add your link. Or you can just leave your word for the week in the comment section. As you will see from our About Page, my Mommy is a teacher/librarian and she’s mainly a language tutor. Afrikaans is our first language, so there are always new to us words out there. Sometimes those new to us words are part of my Mommy’s lessons as well. One of the words the kids at school really struggle […]

Posted June 8, 2022
19 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday – It’s About Time

Greetings you guys! It’s time for Top Ten Tuesday. Our favorite weekly blog hop and meme. This week’s prompt is Books With a Unit of Time In the Title (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, eternity, etc.) (Submitted by RS @ The Idealistic Daydream) Ha. This was easy. Just from the top of our heads, we came up with 24 books. Enough to fill a 24hour digital clock. The Time Traveler’s Wife (0:00) 4:50 from Paddington (01:00) A Time to Kill (02:00) One Hundred Years of Solitude (03:00) A Suffragette in Time (04:00) The 100 years of Leni and Margot (05:00) Time Stoppers (06:00) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (07:00) The Seven Dials Mystery (08:00) A Wrinkle in Time (09:00) Last Time I Lied (10:00) Night-Time is my Time (11:00) Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Book Shop (12:00) The Time Machine (13:00) The Evening and the Morning (14:00) Love in the Time of Cholera (15:00) The Remains of the Day (16:00) Leaving Time (17:00) Tuesdays with Morrie (18:00) The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (19:00) End of Watch (20:00) A Tale for the Time Being (21:00) The Time Keeper (22:00) Just One Day (23:00) We’ve actually read most […]

Posted June 7, 2022
47 Comments

The Sunday Post #73

Greetings you guys! How have you been doing? Our apologies for not saying hi last weekend. My Mommy decided to start moving the house back to a livable state and we haven’t even opened the blog. Or a book for that matter. The plan was that all renovations should have been done on Friday so that we can start unpacking a bit more. Alas…. Not that it’s all that bad, it’s only a few minor things that are left and one major project – My Mommy’s brand new home library…. As you can see, only the one wall’s shelves are done, the back wall’s is at the carpenters, but the alcoves haven’t even been started with. *Sigh*. This was all she wanted from all the renovations and now everything is just about done, except for this room. I really don’t get people’s priorities. Shouldn’t the library have been the first project to complete?? But still, we are giving hope and faith a fair chance here. My Mommy has school holidays in three weeks time and we will hopefully be able to unpack our stacks of books then. Talking about stacks of books, no new stacks or singletons added over the […]

Posted June 5, 2022
43 Comments

Old Bones and Ice Cream Cones by Elizabeth Pantley

Old Bones and Ice Cream Cones by Elizabeth Pantley Series: Destiny Falls Mystery & Magic #6 on May 20th, 2022 Genres: Cozy Mystery Pages: 350 Format: ARC Source: Author’s Copy Buy on Amazon Goodreads Old Bones and Ice Cream Cones follows the series format of combining two stories that blend into one. A murder mystery and the island mystery. The Island Mystery: Hayden’s boyfriend Han is missing. But she swears she saw him zoom by in his car. She’d thought it was a surprise, and that he was home early from his secret service case. She was wrong. The surprise is that his signal isn’t pinging, and no one knows where he is. There appears to be black magic behind his disappearance. Can they learn who’s responsible and bring Han safely home? The Murder Mystery: A pile of old bones is found in an ancient fishing boat. They could be tied to the disappearance of two young women years ago, back when many of the Destiny Falls people where in high school. Many of the citizens had bad history with the students. Do the bones belong to them, and what happened? Were they murdered? And could the murderer be living […]

Posted June 4, 2022
6 Comments

Weekend Book Friends #32

Greetings you guys! The day has finally arrived! This is the date that all our renovations should be done. The fact that it is not done, is completely irrelevant and it’s only 08:00 here in SA now. So a miracle might still be in the works here. And if it’s not, we really, really don’t care. If my Mommy comes home from school today, she is going to do nothing but read her book. We are busy with such an intriguing read: We did find the opening a bit slow, but it sure is taking off at speed now and I can’t wait for Mommy to come home and we can continue reading. We are quickly going to say hi to @ Reading is my Super Power for First Line Friday and to Gilion @ Rose City Reader for Book Beginnings. Every Friday you can link up and share the first sentence of your current read (or the one you plan to devour over the weekend), as well as your initial thoughts and impressions. “WE HAVE YOUR DAUGHTER.’ It’s the first Tuesday in September, the afternoon of her one very bad day and Frida is trying to stay on the road. On the voice […]

Posted June 3, 2022
33 Comments

Never Tell a Lie by Gail Schimmel

Never Tell a Lie by Gail Schimmel Published by Lake Union Publishing on November 30th, 2021 Genres: Fiction, Thriller Pages: 349 Format: Paperback Source: Pan Macmillan SA Buy on Amazon Goodreads From the author of The Aftermath comes the story of a whirlwind friendship―and the dark secrets lurking beneath it. After a tumultuous marriage, Mary Wilson is happy in her uncomplicated life, focusing on her twelve-year-old son. She’s always been content with her little family―but then she finds an old postcard that throws her whole past into question… When an invitation arrives for her high school reunion, Mary jumps at the chance of a distraction from the shock discovery, and meeting her old classmate April feels like a gift. Despite barely remembering April, Mary throws herself into the new friendship and finds her previously quiet social life reinvigorated. But as the bonds between them are forged, Mary finds herself drawn further and further into April’s life and marriage, increasingly fearing that everything is not as perfect as it seems. Is her own painful past clouding her judgement, or is Mary right to suspect that the people she trusts most are the ones with the most to hide? “The whole business […]

Posted June 2, 2022
2 Comments

Month: June 2022

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