Author: elzaread

Bout of Books read-a-thon

Bout of books read-a-thon update! Saturday 14 May 2016 The Widow – 154 pages (finished) The Mystery box – 4 pages Total pages read: 156 Books finished: 1 Friday 13 May 2016 The Widow – 120 pages The Little Prince – 26 pages (Finished) Total pages read: 146 Books finished: 1 Thursday 12 May 2016 It was a hectic day – if only we can always escape into a book and books can always be the only comfort we need. The Widow – 40 pages Total pages read: 40 Wednesday 11 May 2016 Three men in a boat – listened to 5 chapters (finished) The little prince – read 19 pages 11/22/63 –read 9 pages Total pages read: 28 Books finished: 1 Tuesday 10 May 2016 Recipes for love and murder – read 166 pages (finished) Three men in a boat – listened to 3 chapters The little prince – read 2 pages 11/22/63 – read 17 pages Total pages read: 174 Books finished: 1 Monday 09 May 2016 Recipes for love and murder – read 93 pages The Little Prince – read 9 pages Three men in a boat – listened to 4 […]

Posted April 26, 2016
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Cover characteristics

Today’s cover characteristic – CIRCUS (oh yea!) Cover characteristics is a meme hosted by Sugar & Snark – each week they post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favourite covers with that characteristic. The museum of extraordinary things by Alice Hoffman. This book was so amazing. Maybe the cover is not all that whoay Circus – I’ll just call it intense loyalty. The setting of this novel is Coney Island. And that was the ultimate circus experience. Another Coney Island setting (partly) – Church of marvels by Leslie Parry Yes, I am also going to list The night circus by Erin Morgenstern. When I saw the theme, this was the first book I thought of. I don’t believe it matters if everybody uses this one. To quote from the novel: “The truest tales require time and familiarity to become what they are.” I haven’t read Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley. I’ve just searched for it on Goodreads and immediately listed it as a TBR. Has anybody else read it? I’m Afrikaans first language and like most Afrikaans girls, I’ve grown up with Saartjie Baumann. I do suspect that this cover might give away my age. Saartjie se sirkus deur Bettie Naude. Note: I love circus-themed novels. […]

Posted April 25, 2016
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The girl who saved the king of Sweden – Jonas Jonasson

The Girl who saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson Published by Fourth Estate on April 24th 2014 Genres: Fiction, Humor Pages: 421 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads Just because the world ignores you, doesn’t mean you can’t save it . . . Nombeko Mayeki was never meant to be a hero. Born in a Soweto shack, she seemed destined for a short, hard life. But now she is on the run from the world ‘s most ruthless secret service, with three Chinese sisters, twins who are officially one person and an elderly potato farmer. Oh, and the fate of the King of Sweden – and the world – rests on her shoulders. On June 14th, 2007, the King and Prime Minister of Sweden went missing from a gala banquet at the Royal Castle. Later it was said that both had fallen ill: the truth is different. The real story starts much earlier, in 1961, with the birth of Nombeko Mayeki in a shack in Soweto. Nombeko was fated to grow up fast and die early in her poverty-stricken township. But Nombeko takes a different path. She finds work as a housecleaner and eventually makes […]

Posted April 23, 2016
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Cover characteristics

Cover Characteristics is a weekly meme hosted by http://sugarandsnark.co.za/ This week’s cover characteristic is: Alcoholic beverages Right ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. Next to wine, I can highly recommend this as an excellent remedy for a sour disposition. The Portuguese cover of Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding features not one, but two lovely bottles of wine. And we all know just how much she loved her wine…. Five little pigs by Agatha Christie is on my TBR list for April. Will keep you posted. I haven’t read The last of the wine by Mary Renault, but from The Goodreads description https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67696.The_Last_of_the_Wine?from_search=true&search_version=service I take it you might need a nice big jar as featured in this cover photo. And may you not have to utter the words: “This is the last of the wine”. I am quite sure that I won’t be the only one featuring Drink Slay Love by Sarah Beth Durst, but I might be the only one not going to read it. Nice cover though.

Posted April 19, 2016
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After Anna – Alex Lake

After Anna by Alex Lake Published by Killer Reads on July 30th 2015 Genres: Thriller Pages: 309 Format: eBook Source: My Kindle Buy on Amazon Goodreads The real nightmare starts when her daughter is returned… A bone-chilling psychological thriller that will suit fans of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Daughter by Jane Shemilt, and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. A girl is missing. Five years old, taken from outside her school. She has vanished, traceless. The police are at a loss; her parents are beyond grief. Their daughter is lost forever, perhaps dead, perhaps enslaved. But the biggest mystery is yet to come: one week after she was abducted, their daughter is returned. She has no memory of where she has been. And this, for her mother, is just the beginning of the nightmare. A five year old girl is missing. Taken in broad daylight right outside her school gate. These things happen. Way to often in this day and age. Thanks to the media, it doesn’t take too much imagination to sketch a vivid picture in our minds of what can happen when a five year old girl disappears. You hope and pray that the child […]

Posted April 18, 2016
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The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah Published by St Martin’s Press on February 3rd 2015 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 448 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads In love we find out who we want to be. In war we find out who we are. FRANCE, 1939 In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says good-bye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive. Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gaëtan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only […]

Posted April 14, 2016
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Author: elzaread

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