Scarlette

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I joined Library Thing a while ago... but I've been too lazy to catalogue.

The Vampyre: The Secret History of Lord Byron Infamous poet Lord Byron comes to life with incendiary brilliance in this spellbinding blend of gothic imagination and documented fact. Wandering in the mountains of Greece, the supreme sensualist is drawn to the beauty of a mysterious fugitive slave; soon he is utterly entranced, and his fate is sealed. He embarks on a life of adventure even his genius could not have foreseen; chosen to enjoy powers beyond those any vampire has ever known, Byron traverses the centuries and enters a dark, intoxicating world of long-lost secrets, ancient arts and scorching excesses of evil. But Byron's gift is also his torment: an all-consuming thirst that withers life at the root, damning all those he loves. With its impeccable scholarship and breathtaking storytelling, THE VAMPYRE is a wonderful combination of fact and fantasy. (synopsis from loot.co.za) This is the perfect novel for anyone who loves history as well as grisly old-fashioned vampire tales (no sparkly vamps, here ). I have been interested in Lord Byron's history in the past, but never cared much to research any details until after I read this novel - and I would suggest to anyone intending to read it, to do a bit of research on its main character, either before or after reading The Vampyre. The fact that all the (non-vampiric) events taking place and all the characters are based on actual events and people, makes this novel all the more fascinating. I have to give Tom Holland full marks for research. What disappointed me most, though, was the novel's beginning and end - I felt they were hastily written and had the potential to ruin an otherwise perfectly well written novel. They're worth suffering through, though, since once the vampire's story gets on its way you'll feel entertained and horrified all at once. This book is grisly, as I've mentioned above, and I found myself feeling terribly disgusted at times... and yet compelled to continue reading. I found the novel's depiction of the classic vampire we all know and love, very interesting, too... but I will not give anything away regarding that. If it wasn't for the lack of a good start and finish, I'd give it a 10, but Tom Holland's almost masterpiece will have to make do with a 7. I absolutely encourage all vampire fiction lovers to give this one a try - you won't be disappointed.

That is my greatest fear: not having another few books ready and waiting for me once I finish reading my current book. It's the reason I try to maintain my TBR pile, making sure I have three or four to choose from - at the moment I have 18, though... I have been giving into the bookstore's many temptations again, lately...

I get very nervous when strangers start talking to me. At work, it's okay, because I expect it, but if it just randomly happens, I usually just want to run away very fast. Those are my smile-and-nod moments.

Hello, Prue! I'm a huge fan of war stories and mysteries, myself.

I have been looking forward to reading this novel for the longest time. I think I'd like to have it just for light reading.

I bought a purple lily, today. At least I think it's a lily - this is what happens when they don't have those little name stickers on the plant holders... . It's such a gorgeous deep purple, though. I just hope I'll be able to take care of it... anything with flowers usually doesn't last long in my care *mourns her past attempts at looking after African violets*.

Hello! You're going to have lots of fun, here.

Sin City. I just couldn't stand it.

Thanks for the recommendations of The Book of Lost Things. I hope nobody bought it at the book sale, though, since they only had one copy. I guess I'll see tomorrow!

I knew this book sounded familiar when someone mentioned it in the book activity thread! I've read it, too. I thought it was quite entertaining. I don't usually read chicklit, but I love chocolate, so I thought I'd give it a go. It was very funny, quite sad, and a good read overall.

I saw this book at a book sale and wasn't sure whether to buy it or not. HAve you started it, yet? What do you think of it?

I buy most of my books new. I love having a look through the sale shelves, because usually they have a lot more interesting books on there than in the rest of the store - my experience, anyway. If I have the time to, though, I visit the secondhand bookstore.

Those Who Save Us - Jenna Blum: 'Impossible' Max breathes. 'This is impossible - ' Anna bends to put her lips to his ear 'No, it's not' she whispers. 'I know where to hide you. I have the perfect place.' For fifty years Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald. Driven by guilt about her supposed Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth about her mother's life. Love Without Resistance - Gilles Rozier: An exquisite novel about love, faith and the transforming power of language. With a passion for the limpid, crystalline prose of the great German writers, the narrator of Gilles Rozier's sublime novel lives, in other respects, on the fringes of life. A tutor in occupied France, it is the conjugation of verbs rather than the mystery of conjugal relations that comes naturally. Marriage was a duty. Language is a passion. But not, even remotely, the living language of love. That exists only in the literature devoured in the basement; the forbidden volumes of Heine, Mann and Rilke. Then Herman appears, awakening desire of the deepest sort. Impelled by adolescent memories, the narrator saves him, a Polish Jew, from the Germans. Hidden with the other secret, buried passions in the basement, Herman also shares them, unexpectedly devouring the literature of love. And so develops an extraordinary and shattering affair within which two bodies and two antagonistic languages, Yiddish and German, are magnetically attracted. Sparely told, compelling, and both morally precise and uncertain, Gilles Rozier's novel invites comparison with Bernhard Schlink's The Reader. An achingly beautiful exercise in emotional intelligence, it sees its protagonists wrestle with collective guilt, individual motivation and the power of words - words that are written, spoken and left unsaid. Two of the best (and most disturbing) WWII novels I've read.

Oh, I loved the Goosebumps series! They really scared me. There were two books in particular (although their titles elude me now) that was particularly creepy. One was about a camera that takes horrific pictures that actually come true, and the other about a mirror that makes people disappear - I love it when everyday objects take on a sinister quality in stories.

What on earth will they think of, next... One can only imagine... Twilight breakfast cereal, anyone? Oh, no, wait, I'd better shut my mouth before that one actually happens...

My grandmother loves to read - these days she complains that she's read everything the library has to offer! - and my mother adores books, aswell. So I think part of my love for literature is genetic. But, growing up, I really couldn't find anything else that made me as happy as reading did, anyway.

I very much wanted to read Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, but then I realized that I already know the plot and the plot twist - I think everyone does, by now, since the story has been retold in a hundred different mediums - so I didn't think there would be much left for me to enjoy...