Hayley

The Starless Sea won for having the opening lines: ‘There is a pirate in the basement. (The pirate is a metaphor but also still a person).’ 😄

That’s an interesting one! I don’t think there’s any book I’ve avoided reading again because I loved it, as the article suggests. I don’t re-read books that I enjoyed because they had some sort of mystery or shock twist - because I image it would majorly ruin the fun knowing the ending in advance, but other than that I think I would re-read anything! I loved 1984 and I only recently realised that nearly everyone on this forum hates it 🥲😂

I’ve just realised that I meant to post my last update (that I finished The Leviathan) here in completed reads, not in the starter thread! Well, I did finish Leviathan and I’ve just finished From the Depths and Other Strange Tales of the Sea! Particularly enjoyed the last short story (and found the editors note that it could have inspired the TV series ‘Lost’ interesting!). Im fully sticking with the theme for these three months, so it’s time to choose my next sea-themed book. I have three more on my shelf that would fit - The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrove (based on a terrible incident at sea which kills all the men of a village - and also about witch trials again!), or The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (a fantasy where I have feeling the sea might be more metaphorical than literal…), or The Coral Island by R.M Ballantyne (a children’s classic about a being shipwrecked). I really have no idea which one to choose. I might just read the opening lines of all of them and see which one sticks 😄.

Definitely looking all of these up (I loved The Dark Crystal but found it a little unsettling at the same time, as a child!). As a fan of faerie, I think you’ll love Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell! The blurb doesn’t really do it justice, it is actually very much about a world of faerie realms and real magic. The only other book I know of by her is The Ladies of Grace Adieu, which is a set of short stories based in the same world as Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I think the short stories will be more enjoyable if you’ve read the novel first though

The folio society are asking people to fill in a survey about them. You can win £500 (or $1000) worth of books for it https://www.foliosociety.com/survey

Me too! I’d love a bigger collection of magical bestiary type books - I’m adding this one to my wish list 😄. I’m glad you liked Piranesi too. Susanna Clarke is one of those authors I would buy any book from - I think she’s incredible.

I did a family tree for my parents once and it was pretty much impossible to trace my dad’s side (Irish) by records. The Limerick record office burnt down many years ago and a lot of the stuff simply doesn’t exist any more. It’s very frustrating! Also doesn’t really help that Irish family members tend to refer to anyone even remotely related to you as your cousin 😄. I think Ancestry.com added Irish immigration records in the last few years, which could potentially help?

I still have the final few stories of From the Depths left and I’m not sure what I’m going to start afterwards! How is Treasure Island going for those who started that?

Has anybody else seen the new Folio Society edition of The Shadow of the Wind? It’s lovely but it’s one of their very limited runs, so it’s very expensive: https://www.foliosociety.com/uk/the-shadow-of-the-wind-limited-edition.html?Isbrand=true&gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp-HanIDZgAMVyuPtCh2XxwSVEAAYASAAEgJRavD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds I’m hoping they might bring out a less exclusive, less expensive version now!

I’m never going to look at seaweed in the same way again! 😅

Rosie is gorgeous! She looks like she has a little paint splotch on her nose 🥰. When you’re wild at heart but also very sensible lol. I love that 😄

That is true but I at least need a pumpkin before I start thinking about Christmas 😄

I’m only three stories in but I really like it so far!

I have this one and I’m really looking forward to it! I’m reading one of the sea-themed ones at the moment (From the Depth) and it is very creepy!

Yeah I had an email from them, saying something along the lines of ‘it’s never too early to start Christmas crafts’. I love Christmas but I would argue that, actually, it is 😅.

I finished The Leviathan last night and next I think I’m going to start From the Depths and Other Tales of the Sea, which I couldn’t resist when I saw it on offer last month. I do want to read Treasure Island too though. If I can hunt down a cheap copy, I might read them both 😁

Having just finished The Devil and the Dark Water, I decided to go through my shelves to see if there were any other sea-related books I hadn't read yet. Although it's not actually set on the sea, I do have The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews. I know it has something to do with a shipwreck and I'm assuming at least a little to do with a sea monster, so I'm going for this one next!

Actually I have a question for those who've read the book (it's about something that happens at the end, so big spoiler alert!)

Review time! Nicholas Nickelby by Charles Dickens 5/5 - I loved it, of course I have loved every Dickens book I've ever read, so my feelings about this one were already expected. Dickens loved showing individual goodness overcoming the evil schemes of the powerful and that's very much the theme in Nicholas Nickleby. I found myself particularly invested in the story of poor Smike, a young man who was abandoned at a boarding school and is used horribly by the people around him. Dickens really builds your sympathy for him before strongly hinting that something terrible might happen. The tension was killing me! And that's one of the things I appreciated in this pretty lengthy (just under 800 page) book - there are so many schemes and escapes and tragedies that it's never boring for a moment. It also helps that Nicholas is probably one of the most headstrong of Dickens' characters. It's difficult to say more on that without spoilers, but he is not afraid to get himself into trouble. It also left me strongly wishing that there were more real Cheeryble brothers in the world... The Devil and the Dark Water 4.5/5 - I loved it I really expected this to be a typical detective story and it is not. It has some of the same tropes (which you're clearly meant to recognise - like the detective/sidekick duo and the locked door mystery) but there are also twists and turns that I'd never have expected. The detective being imprisoned at the very beginning of the book is one of them! The fact that nearly all of the events of the novel happen onboard a ship really starts to build the claustrophobic tension as we go. It begins to feel like a case of 'solve the mystery or die trying' and it is not an easy mystery to solve... especially when nobody can be trusted. I stayed up far too late for two nights in a row reading this book and I think that says enough about how gripping it was. The author notes at the end of the book that he did sacrifice some historical accuracy (it's set in the 1600s) for the sake of the narrative and I can imagine that some people might be annoyed by that, but I didn't personally think that it mattered.

If someone passes Lilly (my dog) without paying attention to her, she stares at them as they pass - kind of like she’s saying ‘excuse me, where are my pets?’ 😅

(I hope you don’t mind, I did a tiny edit because there was a clue in your phrasing 😄) It was really good! I’ll post my review soon. About half way through, I actually thought

I stayed up WAY too late finishing this last night and I did NOT guess who it was!!! At what point did you guess @lunababymoonchild!?

Does everybody else’s brain imagine it being pronounced the way it’s spelled too? 😂. These are the kind of mistakes I’ve found most often!

Oh, that’s good . Some of the visitors will be people who’ve clicked through from search engines, looking for an answer to a particular thing. Undoubtedly a lot of the guests are just bots though, sadly! Edit: oh, and all the people telling me how great the site is and then trying to sell me things through the contact form 😅

I wish I knew what would make that many people join the forum 😅. You don’t need to worry about your personal details though. The forum’s software has good security, which is updated every month. The only way someone could get your personal information is if you posted it on the public side of the forum, which I know none of you would do 😄.