A Cup of Tea & Biscuits

I will never get bored of claiming that, to me, one of the greatest love stories ever written is Pride & Prejudice. So far every companion novel, and the so called prequels and sequels, I've read, all recount the love story from different perspectives, hence, I was rather curious to see what a mystery novelist would make of it! Death Comes to Pemberley  written by  P. D. James , author of the Adam Dalgliesh  mysteries, was published in 2011 - I mention this because her first novel Cover Her Face  came out in 1962 and she, the author - Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, is 91 years of age! Why is this significant to me? Personally, she is the oldest living author that I've read. Anyway, the book. The book is about the murder of Captain Denny, whom we know to be George Wickham's comrade-in-arms and, quite possibly, only male friend. Set primarily in Pemberley and the surrounding woods, the story begins with a recap of the events in Pride & P...

I don't normally read things off the 'best-seller's' list. If I do, then it's either by recommendation or I'm so completely bored with everything else that I need to indulge myself in the commercial world of writing. But I'm still uncertain as to what possessed me to pick up Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James . My excuse, which is the whole honest truth, is that I saw it on Amazon's 'Top 10 List', didn't read the reviews, barely skimmed through the book cover summary before I read it. So, in all honesty, I didn't know what I was in for. Quite like the female protagonist, Anastasia Steele, a twenty-one year old soon-to-be college graduate who stumbles into the office of a mega-rich modern day Adonis named Christian Grey. She is instantly attracted to him, what with all his to-die for looks and secret-hiding smiles. She doesn't know it, but he becomes just as, or much more, smitten by her. Quite soon he makes an 'indecent proposal...

I have a habit of stumbling upon the nicest of songs/artist while on Pandora! My latest trip was over a German metal band called  Agathodaimon , sub-genred in gothic and black metal. I heard them on an instrumental metal radio channel on Pandora and am now very please that I did! I expected them to be an instrumental metal band, but was pleasantly surprised to their songs hovering between gothic and black metal (I'm not big on black metal), with harsh and soothing vocals. Yesterday's Reprise  from  Chapter III  (the instrumental song) Alone In The Dark  from  Phoenix To Our Ashes  from  Phoenix  (one of my favorites)

I haven't read too many American historical novels, only because there are so many more European historical novels that took up most of my time and not because I'm geographically biased or anything :) A colleague, who mostly reads crime, mystery and thrillers, recommended this book telling me that she never expected to like it, but did. I must say I concur with her opinion. I didn't expect to like it, but I did. Water for Elephants , written by Sara Gruen , is written in the first person by Jacob Jankowski, a ninety or ninety-three year old resident of a nursing home. The story drifts between the ninety or ninety three year old and the twenty three year old. Jacob, a veterinary student at Cornell, loses his parents in a car accident just before his final exams. Shocked and taken over by this intense loss, which also costs him his family house and his father's practice, Jacob wanders about and in a moment of, what I term, insanity, climbs aboard a train hoping to get bac...

My brother, ten years my junior, literally bullied me into reading Suzanne Collins ' The Hunger Games trilogy. He ranted and raved about how good the books were and I was convinced that they should be, to have caught his attention! He who doesn't read unless it is for school work or only if he is truly impressed by the novel. I've read my fair share of young adult novels as an adult that occasionally dabbles in a quick read just to keep myself occupied (and the count of books going), so I wasn't skeptical about this book (as I had been about ' The Host '). I read it in two days and was, I must admit, thoroughly taken by it. As gruesome as the summary might sound, this is definitely one of the nicer, better written young-adult books currently in the market. No stupid vampire love triangles or supernatural presences. Just a nice story of adventure, loyalty, love, and survival. ( Since I've read only the first book, as of February, 2012, I shall base this post...

It was my grandfather's interest in the Lady Chatterley trial  that first brought my attention to  Lady Chatterley's Lover  by D. H. Lawrence . I was, at the time, too young to even consider reading the novel (I must've been fourteen or fifteen), but, after a bit of research, I was able to ascertain the story and why it was so controversial. The novel concerns the notorious relationship between a lady of the aristocracy and the game-keeper of her invalid husband's grounds. Says it all? Most of the novel explores the necessity/desire for a physical relationship that Lady Chatterley, a young woman, longs for, now that her husband has been paralysed waist down in the First World War. Truth is, he is the one that pushes her towards it because he wants an heir, a boy, to carry on the Chatterley name and take care of Wragby, the family seat. There is the tone of class distinction, how Lady Chatterley, Connie, is rather sympathetic towards the lower classes but her husband, Si...

I have loved libraries for as long as I can remember. I have loved books even longer than that. There's just something about the way a library is structured - architecturally and internally - that draws me to them, the sights and smell. Ah! The smell of a thousand books waiting to be read… I've been to my fair share of new cities, and the first place I seek out is the local library (or, God forbid, if there isn't one close enough, the closest bookstore). I’ve carried a library card far more often than I have an ID card! It’s FREE  - You join for free and you get to take books out for free! You pay nothing - well, perhaps you do, by way of tax, but that's different. You have access to a multitude of books and they exist solely for your pleasure! They are just sitting on shelves, waiting to be picked up!! All they want is some indulgence from you, and your time to enjoy what they have to offer :) The collection  – Where else would you find a physical collection of the wri...