What I'm Reading - November 23, 2015

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This weekly reading list meme is hosted at Book Date. Join in to see what others are reading and maybe get some ideas of what to read next!

I recently finished reading...

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux - I finished this the previous week, but didn't get the review written until a couple days later. (Read my review HERE.)

 


I'm currently reading...

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo



The Fatal Tree (Bright Empires) by Stephen R Lawhead



The Darcys of Pemberley by Shannon Winslow


You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station by Chris Hadfield




 Next on the stack...

A Christmas Escape: A Novel by Anne Perry
Until the Dawn by Elizabeth Camden
Worship Changes Everything: Experiencing God's Presence in Every Moment of Life by Darlene Zschech

     


  On my blogs last week...

Here on Just A Second:

Scripture and a Snapshot - The Trees of the Field
Book Blogger Hop - November 20, 2015
Top Ten (Or More) Quotes From Recent Reads
Recent Reads - The Phantom of the Opera #Collaboreads October 2015
Wordless Wednesday - Frosty Morning
Teaser Tuesdays/First Chapter First Paragraph - The Darcys of Pemberley


And on my homeschool blog, Homeschool Coffee Break:

Homeschool Weekly - Colors Edition
From the High School Lesson Book - Greenhouse Field Trip
Virtual Refrigerator - RIP Pepper
Coffee Break!
Congratulations to the 2015 Blue Ribbon Award Winners!

What are you reading?

©2008-2015 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Scripture and a Snapshot - The Trees of the Field

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You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and hills will burst into song before you,

and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

~Isaiah 55:12~

Scripture & a Snapshot is hosted by A Glimpse of Our Life.

Weekend Whispers is hosted by Barbie Swihart.


Verse of the Week is hosted by Counting Pinecones.

©2008-2015 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Book Blogger Hop - November 20, 2015

 Time for another Book Blogger Hop question from Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.

Do you read every day? If so, do you have a page goal? 

I do read every day, even if it's just a little bit. But no, I don't have any goals of how many pages to read. Usually, my goal is to read until I'm sleepy, or until I have to go get something else done! Sometimes I read just a page or two here and there throughout my day, and other times I will get through several chapters at a sitting.

©2008-2015 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Top Ten (or More) Quotes From Recent Reads

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This week's list is the Top Ten Quotes from books read in the past year or so. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

I have more than ten quotes here. What I did was took some of my favorite Tuesday Teaser quotes from the past year or so.

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Whenever I read a Pride & Prejudice retelling or sequel or spin-off I wonder whether it will be worth the paper it's printed on. This year I read a couple that were excellent. 

 At that she looked up, a twinkle in her eyes. "I am so glad that you prefer me to 

handsome women," she said teasingly. 

 For the first time she had ever known him to do so, he rolled his eyes. Elizabeth burst out laughing, and he soon followed with his quiet chuckle. "Did I not say that your propensity is to willfully misunderstand?" he retorted.  ~Unequal Affections: A Pride and Prejudice Retelling by Lara S. Ormiston, page 78  (Read my review)

"The hermit had a daughter?" Darcy said. "Hermits are supposed to be solitary."
"He wasn't a very good hermit, what with having a family and all," Mr. Parker admitted.

~The Suspicion at Sanditon (Or, The Disappearance of Lady Denham) (Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mysteries) by Carrie Bebris, page 79-80 (Read my review)

  

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I also enjoyed this Georgette Heyer novel, set during the Regency period.

 'Mercy on us! You hold Mr Brummell by your side for half an hour and then ask me what it can signify?'

Judith gave a gasp, and turned pale. 'Ma'am! Oh, good God, ma'am, that surely was not Mr Brummell?'

'Not Mr Brummell Of course it was! But, my dearest love, I particularly warned you! What have you been about?'

~Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer, page 125 (Read my review)

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One of my favorite authors is Deanna Raybourn. I read two from her during the past year, the final installment in the Lady Julia series, Bonfire Night, and the eagerly awaited first novel in her new Veronica Speedwell series, A Curious Beginning.

"...You can't expect a fellow to sleep through moans and chains without a bit of help," Plum protested. "What's all this about?"

"We were forcibly sedated by nefarious means," Portia informed him. "Isn't it thrilling?"

"Thrilling? I should think not," Plum replied. "It's damned impertinent."

~Bonfire Night by Deanna Raybourn, at 49% through Kindle version. (Read my review)

I did not bother to explain that it could hardly be considered a proper abduction when I was clearly there of my own volition. I might have escaped him a dozen times, but it seemed unkind to raise the point when he thought he was doing such a masterful job of keeping me in tow.  ~A Curious Beginning: A Veronica Speedwell Mystery by Deanna Raybourn, page 73 (Read my review)

"Your sleeve is soaked in blood. Do you feel faint?" "Not in the slightest," I lied as I pitched forward into darkness.  ~A Curious Beginning: A Veronica Speedwell Mystery by Deanna Raybourn, page 211 (Read my review)

   

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Anna Lee Huber has become a favorite author as well, and I love her Lady Darby series.

I could see now that he had loved his wife, in his own warped, possessive way. Which didn't mean he wasn't capable of having killed her. ~A Study in Death (A Lady Darby Mystery) by Anna Lee Huber, page 184 (Read my review)

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Speaking of wives . . . how's this for a heart-warming proposal?

 "I need a wife because . . ." He paused, knowing he sounded as weak as water. Then he shrugged and went on speaking because there was no avoiding it. "Because my mother's coming to visit."

 ~Fire and Ice (Wild at Heart) by Mary Connealy, page 112 (Read my review)

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Or this one, from the steampunk novel Ticker -

"My dearest Miss Farthing, will you do me the unutterable honor of wearing this cheap bit of metal that will most likely turn your finger green, pretending to love and honor me as your husband for the purposes of subterfuge and strategem?" "My hearts and stars, that will go down in the history books as the most romantic business proposition of the century, I am certain." Still my Ticker thudded in its new, horrible way as Marcus slid the ring onto my finger. ~Ticker by Lisa Mantchev, 68% on my Kindle (Read my review)

Ticker is about a young woman with a clockwork heart, and it opens with this line:

A girl with a clockwork heart shouldn't be running late, but I was. 

The story opens with the young woman finding out that although she owes her life to the doctor that invented her mechanized heart, that invention came at the cost of the lives of many people he'd experimented on.

Somewhere deep inside him still dwelled the caring surgeon and gentle man I'd known, but the blood of more than twenty people stained his hands, people he'd kidnapped off the streets of Bazalgate and experimented upon, testing different clockwork ventriculators...
All to save me.
~Ticker by Lisa Mantchev, 5% on my Kindle (Read my review)

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I re-read a Robertson Davies novel in which the main character is murdered in the very first sentence. And it had lots of quotable lines, but this was one I chose for a Teaser:

I have never given any consideration to the matter of haunting before, and what I recollect from ghost stories does not especially appeal to me. To be a crude spectre, appearing in doorways or discovered squatting by the fireside when people enter rooms, is out of the question for such a spirit as I. My intended prey lives in an apartment, and has no fireside; I shall certainly not make a fool of myself squatting by his thermostat.

~Murther and Walking Spirits by Robertson Davies, page 21 (Read my review)

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I re-read a childhood favorite too - Anne of Green Gables. It's also full of wonderful quotes.

"I wouldn't give a dog I liked to that Blewett woman," said Matthew with unusual vim.

"I don't fancy her style myself," admitted Marilla, "but it's that or keeping her ourselves, Matthew."

~Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables Collection (for Kindle)), Loc 700 on my Kindle. (Read my review)



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How do you narrow down all the fantastic lines from a classic like The Princess Bride? Here are just two of the many that I loved, and that many of us have memorized from the movie.

"Fool!" cried the hunchback. "You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia,' but only slightly less well known in this: 'Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.'"
He was quite cheery until the iocane powder took effect.
~The Princess Bride by William Goldman, page 180 (Read my review)

"You see," Max explained as he pumped, "there's different kinds of dead: there's sort of dead, mostly dead, and all dead. This fella here, he's only sort of dead, which means there's still a memory inside, there's still bits of brain. You apply a little pressure here, a little more there, sometimes you get results."
~The Princess Bride by William Goldman, page 317 (Read my review)

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And finally, on a serious note . . . I do read some non-fiction as well.

 Corporate worship is all about Jesus, and if it is not about Jesus, it is not Christian worship.
We do not go to church to hear helpful living tips, nor do we go to church merely to serve or merely to exercise our spiritual gifts.
We go to church to look at Jesus.
~Look and Live by Matt Papa, page 128 (Read my review)

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Recent Reads - The Phantom of the Opera #Collaboreads October 2015

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The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux - Even those who have never attended the Broadway show or seen an entire movie version have a general idea of how the story goes. I had never read the book, so I thought the latter part of October - and the October #collaboreads challenge - would be a good time to get it done. The novel is written as if a collection of eyewitness accounts and research by a crime historian. In fact, author Leroux was a French journalist and author of crime fiction before writing The Phantom of the Opera; and was even involved in an investigation and coverage of an opera house in Paris that later became a ballet house. The basement of that opera house had a cell that once held prisoners in the Paris Commune during the Franco-Prussian War.

The story features a young Swedish singer, Christine Daae. When her musician father died, he had promised her a protective Angel of Music to guide her, and from that time she lived in the Paris Opera House. Eventually she began hearing a voice which taught her to sing beautifully, and which she assumed to be the promised Angel. Later her childhood friend Raoul sees her on the opera stage, and they renew their friendship. The voice, which belongs to the deformed, murderous 'ghost' (Erik) of the opera house, grows extremely jealous. Erik's anger and violence escalates, until Christine disappears, and her fiance Raoul must partner with a mysterious Persian from Erik's past in an attempt to save her and the entire opera from the disaster planned by the 'opera ghost'.

Riveting. {What part of the book could you NOT get enough of?}  I loved some of the dry humor, especially near the beginning. I would have liked to know more about the Persian. He seemed like a character deserving of his own novel.

Elements. {How did you relate to/care for the characters?} It actually surprised me how much I liked and cared about Christine and Raoul. Although under the threatening influence of Erik, Christine showed strength and courage. Once Raoul was convinced that Christine was not playing him false, he was admirably single-minded in his determination to protect her. And the Persian - he was fascinating, and I would have liked to know more about him and his background.

Associate. {What other books are like this one? Does it remind you of a TV show or movie with its themes and characters? Did it serendipitously line up with things going on in your life or in the news right now?} Of course I pictured the characters, especially Erik, as they were portrayed on stage and in film, in particular the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical.

Design. {You know you judged this book by the cover. What did you think of it? How did it relate to the contents of the novel?} I happened to read the generic cover version for Kindle, but again, I was usually picturing the cover based on the musical. This one. And I love this cover, although the mask shown in this cover tends to make Erik look more like a tragic hero character deserving of sympathy; whereas in my opinion the novel portrayed him as a much darker and a very evil character.

Stars. {How many out of five do you give this book? Would you recommend this book to a friend?} I'd give it four out of five stars. It's a classic example of Gothic horror, with fantastical suspense.

This review is linked at Rachel A. Dawson for #collaboreads (October's theme was Thriller or Horror published before 2010.)

©2008-2015 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Wordless Wednesday - Frosty Morning

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This post is linked at Wordless Wednesday, hosted by Life at Rossmont.

©2008-2015 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/