Tuesday Teaser - Game of Thrones George R R Martin

"The Direwolves were with him. He stopped by the door wide-eyed but the wolves came on"

From George R R Martin's Game of Thrones, book 1 of A Song of Ice and Fire. First published in 1996, I remember my husband, a great fan of fantasy fiction, avidly awaiting publication of each new book in the series. Now my children are watching the TV show.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

50 books every child should read

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson-Burnett
The Talking Parcel by Gerald Durrell
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
The Beasts of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson
Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilde
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall
Because of Winn-Dixie Kate DiCamillo
Emil and the Detectives Erich Kästner
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
A Wrinkle in Time By Madeliene L'Engle
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Tom's MIdnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
Magic series by Edward Eager
Anne of Green Gables by by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Boy by Roald Dahl
Holes by Louis Sachar
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Pheonix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit
The Latern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Sheep-Pig by Dick King-Smith
Bridge to Terabithia by  Katherine Paterson
The dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper
The Mozart Question by Michael Morpurgo
The Pendragon Adventure Series by D. J. MacHale
Pery Jackson and The Olympians by Rick Riordan
Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel
The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black
Stig of the Dump by Clive King
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling
Leven Thumps series by Obert Skye
A Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket

List compiled by Richard Davies in response to British Education Secretary Michael Grove stating that 11-year-olds should read 50 books a year.

Friday Finds - May 27th

I wasn't going to do a Friday Finds post this week but then I clicked on Friday Finds and started looking at what others were posting about and what do you know?

Yes that's right I almost instantly found two books I'd like to read:

 On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle

Fatal Fixer-Upper by Jennie Bentley

Thank you Ninth Factor for the inspiration.

W...W...W...Wednesday - 25th May

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I'm still reading Maureen Lipman's Something to Fall Back On it's not a book that I'm actually sitting down to read, I just pick it up from time to time and read a bit and very cheering it is too.

ISBN 0-9545886-06

I'm also reading Haunted Ely a little book put together by two friends,Margaret Haynes & Vivienne Doughty, who were Blue Badge Tourist Guides for the cathedral city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, Great Britain.

"Any place with an inhabited past is bound to have ghosts and the Isle of Ely is no exception. This is a selection of stories about a few of the city's former residents whose return to their previous haunts haas not gone unnoticed by many present day residents. The informaton for this book was collected from people who live in Ely, and from accounts of those who have passed through at some time in their lives."

So I find myself reading about  St. Etheldreda, the founder of the City of Ely. Her ghostly hand has been seen gliding up a staircase at King's School, Ely, by 'three mesmerised boys who watched ... as they shivered beneath their duvets on a warm summer night in 1995'. The ghost dog, which is sometimes seen crossing the A10 between Ely and Cambridge,  Benedictine monks and even Oliver Cromwells' ghost.

Again it's a book I'm just dipping into.

I have finished reading The Redeemed by M R Hall, it was okay but maybe a little predictable. I also finished reading The Plague Maiden by Kate Ellis and I might just look out for another of her Wesley Peterson mysteries for my next read. Do you do that, discover a new to you author and then read everything they have ever written?

The Dukes Own or The Adventures of Peter Daly by Col. J. Percy Groves 1887- Teaser Tuesday

 Grab your book

 Open to a random page

Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page:

"But then should the rebels and their allies prove victorious, - even for a time,- she would be left penniless, and without a friend in the land."

 This weeks Teaser Tuesday is from an antique book by Col. J. Percy Groves, The Dukes Own or The Adventures of Peter Daly.

It's beautifully bound in olive green cloth with heavily decorated front and spine with a frontpiece illustration.Published by Griffith Farran Browne & Co. Limited, 35 Bow Street, Covent Garden, London.

 This copy is undated but the book was orginally published in 1887, the author J. Percy Groves was the first Librarian of the Priaulx Library, Guernsey. He had started his career in the army with the 67th South Hampshire Regiment of Foot, and ended it in 1873 in the 27th Inniskillings, before selling his commission and retiring to Guernsey. He wrote many regimental histories as well as adventure stories.

It was orginally given as a Sunday School prize and thus has a book plate.
Teaser Tuesdays, a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

The Plague Maiden A Wesley Peterson murder mystery by Kate Ellis - Library Loot

 (ISBN 0749906685)

Loving the library at the moment as it is giving me the opportunity to try loads of different authors without the risk of disapointment. After all if I don't particularly like the book I can just take it back and it hasn't cost me a penny. No guilt, brilliant.

Anyway this one I did like:

"When a letter arrives at Tradmouth police station claiming that the man convicted of murdering the Vicar of Belsham during the course of a robbery in 1991 is innocent, it causes quite a stir. DI Wesley Peterson, however, already has his hands full when threats are made to local supermarket chain, Huntings, and the last thing he needs is an alleged miscarriage of justice to investigate. But, with political pressure from above, it seems that he has no choice.
Meanwhile archaeologist Neil Watson is surprised to uncover a medieval plague pit at a site near Belsham church earmarked for Huntings' new superstore. And when Neil is attacked, it seems that someone is willing to use violence to ensure that the plague pit keeps its secrets.
As Wesley's investigations continue, he begins to suspect that the vicar's murder, the disappearance of a former Sunday school teacher and the threats to the supermarket my be linked in some way. Then comes the disturbing discovery that the ancient plague pit is home to a more recent resident..."

I liked the characters they are very human with real everyday concerns and I enjoyed the mix of archaeology and murder. I'll certainly be looking out for more of Kate Ellis. Actually I wonder how long it will be before Wesley Peterson hits our television screens?

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

W...W...W...Wednesday - 18th May

 I've finished Rory Clements' Revenger and whilst I found it a little harder to get into than the first John Shakespeare, Matyr, I still found it an enjoyable read. His next is published tomorrow but I'll probably wait until it's out in paperback.

1592. England and Spain are at war, yet there is peril at home, too. The death of her trusted spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham has left Queen Elizabeth vulnerable. Conspiracies multiply.

The quiet life of John Shakespeare is shattered by a summons from Robert Cecil, the cold but deadly young statesman who dominated the last years of the Queen's long reign, insisting Shakespeare re-enter government service. His mission: to find vital papers, now in the possession of the Earl of Essex.

Essex is the brightest star in the firmament, a man of ambition. He woos the Queen, thirty-three years his senior, as if she were a girl his age. She is flattered by him - despite her loathing for his mother, the beautiful, dangerous Lettice Knollys who presides over her own glittering court - a dazzling array of the mad, bad, dangerous and disaffected.

When John Shakespeare infiltrates this dissolute world he discovers not only that the Queen herself is in danger - but that he and his family is also a target. With only his loyal footsoldier Boltfoot Cooper at his side, Shakespeare must face implacable forces who believe themselves above the law: men and women who kill without compunction. And in a world of shifting allegiances, just how far he can trust Robert Cecil, his devious new master?

 I'm currently reading The Redeemed by M. R. Hall:

The body of a dead man is discovered in an overgrown cemetery in Bristol, the sign of the cross gouged into his flesh. At first it seems to coroner Jenny Cooper that all the evidence points to a horrific, if routine, suicide.

Then an enigmatic young priest, Father Lucas Starr, arrives on Jenny’s doorstep, entreating her to hold an inquest into the death of Eva Donaldson, a high profile political campaigner whose past life continued to haunt her. A young man, Paul Craven, has recently been sentenced for Eva’s brutal murder. But despite Craven’s conviction and the evidence against him, Father Lucas is convinced of the man’s innocence.

Jenny’s lone quest for justice will take her to the dark heart of an establishment who wish to silence her, and on an inner journey to confront ghosts that have haunted her for a lifetime. For Jenny Cooper answers to no one but the dead . . .

It's dragging me through the pages, I do want to find out what happens but have found myself skipping some of the narrative in an effort to get on with it.

 I'm also delving into Maureen Lipman's Something to Fall Back On:

Maureen Lipman is one of the UK's favorite actresses and also the author of several humorous books: "How Was It For You?" (1985), "Thank You For Having Me" (1990); "You Can Read Me Like a Book" (1996) and "Lip Reading" (1999). "Something To Fall Back On" (1987), a collection of random stories about her chaotic lifestyle is one of my favorites.

Ms. Lipman reminds me of a British version of Erma Bombeck. Like Bombeck, Maureen writes about what she knows best - her life and the pursuit of happiness. She revels in the perils of deflowering her garden; her jewels; the Tory Party; her career in the theater, and a friend's King Charles Cavalier puppy - "Now what do nine inches of silky, tumescent fun mean to you??" It is really difficult to get through a page without laughing out loud.
 
Maureen was married to playwright Jack Rosenthal for over thirty years, until his death in 2004. They have two children - Amy, who is the writer-in-residence at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theater, and Adam, a Cambridge graduate. In 1999 Maureen was awarded a CBE, (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), by the Queen for meritorious achievement. She was the second person in her family to receive this honor. Husband Jack was presented with his award in 1993.

It is very funny and ideal for picking up and reading a quick chapter whilst having a cup of tea.

If I'm being honest I'm not sure what to read next, there are always plenty of books waiting on The Vintage Bookshelf.... The question is which one to read?
WWW Wednesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.