Little Pixie Posted May 8, 2014 Author Share Posted May 8, 2014 And I thought I'd bought a lot this year . . . Getting to 100 was a little scary, though exciting to realise that I`ve come across some lovely new series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidsmum Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 Getting to 100 was a little scary, though exciting to realise that I`ve come across some lovely new series. I usually stop adding new books to my Books Bought list at some point in the year as seeing the amount i've indulged my book buying habit makes me feel guilty & a little out of control Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted May 9, 2014 Author Share Posted May 9, 2014 I usually stop adding new books to my Books Bought list at some point in the year as seeing the amount i've indulged my book buying habit makes me feel guilty & a little out of control I thought keeping a big list of books bought and the cost would have a restraining effect on me. However.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted May 10, 2014 Share Posted May 10, 2014 I thought keeping a big list of books bought and the cost would have a restraining effect on me. However.... :rolol: I know, I know....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted May 16, 2014 Author Share Posted May 16, 2014 I think the last time I gave up on a book was over a decade ago, but I`ve given up on this one. Earlier books in the series have really good reviews, so I assumed this might be good - it really wasn`t. I got it in The Save the Kitties Shop for £1, and I feel annoyed at the waste of money. It`s set in the 14thC, but drifts into modern vernacular ; for instance, a Nun wants to visit a shrine, but is afraid that the number of pilgrims around will turn the event into ` a bunfight`. If there was twerking going on at Ye Olde Tavern, it wouldn`t have surprised me in the least. I didn`t care for the characters - when I could tell them apart - and it felt research-heavy ( lists of what people would`ve eaten at the time, their armour, and long discussions of the politics of the day ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted May 16, 2014 Author Share Posted May 16, 2014 :rolol: I know, I know....... I haven`t bought a book for a couple of weeks now - go me ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted May 16, 2014 Author Share Posted May 16, 2014 Mary Stewart Dies I`ve cut-and-pasted the Obituary since The Times has a paywall. The Times - Last updated at 9:00PM, May 15 2014Novelist and first lady of the romantic thriller who topped bestseller lists on both sides of the Atlantic but shunned publicityA tall, good-looking woman with striking grey-blue eyes, Mary Stewart was a writer with an unceasingly vivid imagination. She began writing aged five but it was not until a personal tragedy — the discovery that she was unable to have children — that her first novel was published and she became a best seller on both sides of the Atlantic.Writing a book a year for more than two decades, she constantly topped the bestseller lists — and delighted critics — as the mistress of the romantic thriller. Her plots were woven around intelligent heroines and Stewart’s own passions for ancient history, the natural world, Italy and Greece.She responded with some amusement whenever she was asked if she had shared all the experiences of her heroines. “I personally have never been threatened with a gun while driving a racing Mercedes at 90 miles an hour. I have never been hunted with a fish-spear off the coast of Crete. I have never even been alone with a homicidal maniac on a Scottish mountainside. But I think I know how it would feel if I were.” And although born during the First World War, her best-loved historical novels — the Merlin series — went far beyond the grim reality of the trenches to the world of Arthurian legend.At her peak each new book had an assured paperback sale of 250,000 in Britain and a million in the US. Some of her heroines outsold even Ian Fleming’s James Bond. The Moon-Spinners (1962) was turned into a film by Disney and her sales earned her considerable wealth. However, Stewart retained a deep aversion to celebrity. That she had a flair for story-telling she never denied, but said simply that one was either born with it or not. “It’s no virtue of mine,” she said. “It’s just there.” The “unknown bestseller” some called her. She never lost her aversion to giving interviews, while she considered that speaking in public about herself would be “immodest”.Although reluctant to discuss money, she moved to a large Victorian house in the Scottish Highlands — with her husband, a distinguished academic with whom she had a whirlwind romance — after years in a modest Edinburgh townhouse. Stewart would, however, talk about her treasured Rolls-Royce, occasionally travelled first class and had one Balmain dress.She was born Mary Florence Elinor Rainbow in Sunderland in 1916, the daughter of a Durham clergyman, and her intelligence became evident from an early age. She began to read when she was three and before her next birthday was plotting her own stories. But being bright proved a distressing burden when she was sent to boarding school at the age of eight. “I was bullied because I was — to be honest — a clever child,” she recalled, “and I was too innocent to try to hide how clever I was.”She was moved into a class with older children, but still came out top, which caused great resentment and more bullying. “I cried when I should have hit back, so I had a foul time, and when I was ten, my mother realised that it was sending me into a nervous breakdown.” Stewart won a scholarship to another school, but the memory of the bullying was never erased: “It does stay with you all your life,” she said.The experience didn’t stop her being offered places at both Oxford and Cambridge, but a lack of money did prevent her taking up the offers. Her father’s profession may have made the family middle-class, but that status wasn’t matched by his clerical salary. So when Durham offered her a better bursary, she accepted the offer; she was later awarded a first in English.The Second World War brought another grim phase in her life. She taught in Middlesbrough, but with frequent bombing raids the children were not allowed to assemble in schools, obliging Stewart to trek from house to house in all weathers to teach a group of eight children at one house, then on to another to teach the same lesson.Returning to Durham to teach soldiers arriving back from hostilities, she was introduced to the source of her greatest happiness. On May 9, the day after VE Day, she fell instantly in love with a man wearing a girl’s gymslip, when she met her husband-to-be, Fred Stewart — who became Sir Frederick Stewart, a well-known professor of geology at Edinburgh University — at a fancy-dress ball at Durham Castle.“The moment he asked me to dance, I thought ‘You’re the one’, ” she recalled. Three weeks later they were engaged. They were married until his death in 2001, playing the hosts delightfully at their house in the Highlands where Stewart nurtured the 25 acres of gardens and her husband built a lab for his studies. They hired helicopters to explore the mountains and the house was filled with tapestries, chair covers and pastel drawings of her own making.Stewart had looked forward to having children. She wanted four and had even chosen their names when her hopes were dashed by the belated discovery of an ectopic pregnancy. “It wasn’t diagnosed for several weeks until finally I was rushed to a specialist and underwent three operations. I very nearly died.”She returned to her work as a lecturer in English at Durham. “I’d always wanted to be a writer, but I suppose what really started me was losing an unborn child and being told I could never have another one. Something was needed to take the place of a family, which I’d always desperately wanted, and writing was the thing.”However, she needed considerable persuasion to send her first work submit her work for publication and when Hodder and Stoughton, with whom she was to remain for the rest of her life, sent her a £50 advance and a proof copy, she was sent into a panic.“A novel is such an intensely personal thing,” she said. “I couldn’t stand the thought of thousands of eyes reading my private thoughts. I was terrified . . . it felt like walking naked down the street. I told Hodders to stop publication at once.”The publisher overcame, or dismissed, her reluctance and Madam, Will You Talk? (1954), a story about a schoolteacher involved in a murder case in the south of France, became the first of many bestsellers. Stewart said her mystery-thrillers were intended as an antidote to an accepted convention of the time: “The silly heroine is told not to open the door to anybody and immediately opens it to the first person who comes along.” Her heroines — aged around 25, “the thirties are out” — often became involuntarily involved in perilous situations, and fell deeply in love, but their education and intelligence usually made them more than a match for the male characters.She found writing far from effortless. She injured her wrist in composing her early novels as she wrestled with the heavy carriage return of an old portable typewriter, later graduating in turn to an electric model, a dictating machine, when the tapes were sent to a professional typist, and, finally, a word processor. There were locations to research and she travelled for several months a year around locations such as Damascus, the Greek islands, Spain and France, carrying tape recorders everywhere and talking to local people.Each book would entail four drafts and she was as disciplined as the neat award-lined shelves in her study, working from 2pm after finishing household chores and breaking only to cook for and dine with her husband. She relished her other role as the wife of a don.Some days she would write only one paragraph, so intent was she on finding the right words. She began as a poet and believed that there was “a need in a tremendous number of people for poetry and the sense of an eye open for beauty in the use of words.” She managed to produce a best-selling book even while nursing her father through cancer.However, Stewart had always wanted to write a historical novel. Her special interest was Roman history, but one day in the library of her house in Edinburgh, reading Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, she was seized by the idea of writing about the time of King Arthur.“I came to the part where the young Merlin, aged 17 or so, is brought in front of Vortigern, who intends to make him a human sacrifice, and I thought, that’s my story. I had found my hero. After that, all I did was try to find out what was known about him, which wasn’t much, so my book was largely pure invention, with very little taken from tradition.”The resulting book, The Crystal Cave, was published in 1970, with the publishers not sharing Stewart’s enthusiasm: “If one horse is doing well, publishers never want you to change horses.” However it proved commercially successful, although not necessarily with all of her existing readers, and Stewart continued the story in several sequels.The series proved her most impressive work, yet each of the books had been intended at the outset as her last on the Arthurian theme, which caused her problems: “You kill off people you wish you hadn’t killed off; you keep people alive that you don’t want; and you turn them in the wrong direction.”Stewart resolutely resisted attempts to categorise her novels into genre. “I’d rather just say that I write novels, fast-moving stories that entertain,” she said. “To my mind there are really only two kinds of novels, badly written and well written. Beyond that, you cannot categorise . . . Can’t I say that I just write stories? ‘Storyteller’ is an old and honorable title, and I’d like to lay claim to it.”Mary Stewart (Lady Stewart), novelist, was born on September 12, 1916. She died on May 9, 2014, aged 97 What a shame ; I`ve so enjoyed her books. Still, to get to 97 is good going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted May 16, 2014 Author Share Posted May 16, 2014 Books read : 72 TBR 772 New Books Bought : 100 Total Cost : £206.45 Book # 73 Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon Also called Outlander 1. Excellent historical adventure. Army Nurse Claire and husband Frank go on holiday in the Scottish Highlands just after WW2 to research his family history. Claire is drawn to a stone circle near their boarding house, goes between the stones and finds herself having gone back 200 years in time. She`s swept up in fighting and finds herself taking care of the injured James Fraser ( hubba hubba ) whilst his family investigate her as a possible English Spy. It`s all great fun and a real page turner. The characters are skilfully drawn, it feels historically accurate and - one thing I particularly liked - the nastier bits are related by one of the characters after the event, so you don`t get any real-time graphic stomach-turning stuff. Book # 74 Poison in Jest by John Dickson Carr Set in Pennsylvania in the 30`s, this is a murder mystery set in a creepy, gothic home. Hugely atmospheric. Book # 75 Death at the President`s Lodging by Michael Innes 1930`s detective Inspector Appleby investigates when the President of an Oxbridge-style college is bumped off in his home in the College ; clever and convoluted whodunnit. Book # 76 Twice in a Blue Moon by Patricia Moyes The last of the Henry Tibbett mysteries, it had so-so reviews, so I decided to get it out of the way early on, before going back to reading the rest of the series. It`s pretty readable, but not a patch on the other books. You can easily work out whodunnit. Book # 77 Wilful Behaviour by Donna Leon Great stuff. Inspector Brunnetti`s wife Paola is approached by a student seeking help with an old family problem ; it`s not long till she gets bumped off and Brunetti investigates. We find out some things about Count Falier in this one... Book # 78 Storm Front by Jim Butcher The first in the Harry Dresden - Chicago Wizard books aka, The Dresden Files. It`s such an accomplished book that you feel the character must`ve been in a few books already ; he`s a hard-boiled detective who works with magic. It`s dark, it`s very funny and it has some cracking scenes when Harry does heroic things in a believable way, ie, he`s scared daft by what`s happening and chooses to be the hero rather than hide behind the sofa. Book # 79 Fanged and Fabulous by Michelle Rowan Meh. Couldn`t get into this one at all - new vampire is torn between two male vampires, swoon. And yawn. It talks too much about previous events and looks forward too much in setting up the next book, when it really should be focussing on the present events in this book. I did wonder if I was just too old for this sort of thing, and maybe someone tweenage would like it though. Book # 80 Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor Fantastic ! But I can say very little about it without spoiling all the wonderful surprises from the first book, Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It`s about Karou, a teenage Czech girl who is drawn into a fantastical yet believable world, and how she stands up and does the right thing, rather than the easy thing. Beautifully written and so uplifting ( you feel better for having read it ). Book # 81 Death and the Dutch Uncle by Patricia Moyes Inspector Henry Tibbett and wife Emmy investigate a murder, which takes them to Amsterdam and Sneek. There are lovely descriptions of the waterways and small towns. Book # 82 Hamlet, Revenge ! by Michael Innes A very cleverly done whodunnit from the 1930`s, which was really spoilt by the use of the ` N` word. Perhaps later editions are edited for racism, but this was obviously off-putting and nasty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted May 16, 2014 Author Share Posted May 16, 2014 Books read : 82 TBR 762 New Books Bought : 100 Total Cost : £206.45 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted May 16, 2014 Share Posted May 16, 2014 Hah, quite a few good ones on your list! Great sketches of each. Thanks so much for posting the article on Mary Stewart. I'd seen a similar, but not as good, article on the NYT this morning. I loved her books, and this makes me want to go back and reread my favorites. I grew up reading her books all through my teens and then my twenties. Then when her Merlin Trilogy came out, I absolutely loved it! I thought she captured the essence of the man/magician. I loved the relationship she crafted between Merlin and Arthur. Just wonderful! Funny, another author of that time frame comes to mind. Helen MacInnes. Hers were more spy stories, and excellent. http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/28VWM1S7W0GLP Interesting woman. I've read lots of her books too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 I'm sorry to hear about Mary Stewart . Good job on not buying any more books! You've read a lot so far, I'm glad you've been enjoying reading your books . Cross Stitch is on my TBR, I'm particularly glad you liked that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted May 17, 2014 Author Share Posted May 17, 2014 Hah, quite a few good ones on your list! Great sketches of each. Thanks so much for posting the article on Mary Stewart. I'd seen a similar, but not as good, article on the NYT this morning. I loved her books, and this makes me want to go back and reread my favorites. I grew up reading her books all through my teens and then my twenties. Then when her Merlin Trilogy came out, I absolutely loved it! I thought she captured the essence of the man/magician. I loved the relationship she crafted between Merlin and Arthur. Just wonderful! Funny, another author of that time frame comes to mind. Helen MacInnes. Hers were more spy stories, and excellent. http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/28VWM1S7W0GLP Interesting woman. I've read lots of her books too. Aw, you`re most welcome. I must look into her Merlin books once I`m done with her thrillers. Thanks for the Helen MacInnes clicky ; I`ve got a couple of her books in my TBR ( Assignment in Brittany, Above Suspicion ), I might bump them up `cos I`d managed to forget about them ( ) and I was looking for a spy thriller to read recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted May 17, 2014 Author Share Posted May 17, 2014 I'm sorry to hear about Mary Stewart . Good job on not buying any more books! You've read a lot so far, I'm glad you've been enjoying reading your books . Cross Stitch is on my TBR, I'm particularly glad you liked that one. Well, looks like I ordered 4 books this today - how did that happen ? I was looking at Steven Saylor`s Gordianus the Finder series yesterday and thinking about ordering the first book ; just as well I didn`t, `cos the Kindle Daily Deal has the first four of those books for a total of £1.09. Whee ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted May 17, 2014 Share Posted May 17, 2014 You are quite welcome. What a great sale! btw, if you like the Dresden Files books, the first 7 are on sale at Amazon U.S. for 1.99 USD each. http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=pe_837390_118613540_dotd_h_learn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 Well, looks like I ordered 4 books this today - how did that happen ? I was looking at Steven Saylor`s Gordianus the Finder series yesterday and thinking about ordering the first book ; just as well I didn`t, `cos the Kindle Daily Deal has the first four of those books for a total of £1.09. Whee ! x Wow, that's a wonderful deal! Congrats on the new books . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted May 18, 2014 Author Share Posted May 18, 2014 x Wow, that's a wonderful deal! Congrats on the new books . Thanks ! I forgot to say yesterday, hope you like Cross Stitch when you get to it ; I really liked how the heroine is all alone in a separate time, but you never feel like she`s a victim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted May 18, 2014 Author Share Posted May 18, 2014 You are quite welcome. What a great sale! btw, if you like the Dresden Files books, the first 7 are on sale at Amazon U.S. for 1.99 USD each. http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=pe_837390_118613540_dotd_h_learn Rats - they`re £5.99 over here. I`ve got the next two in the series lined up in my basket for £1.55 and £1.97 ( used books ), which isn`t bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted May 18, 2014 Author Share Posted May 18, 2014 Oh ! I inadvertently clicked on something on my Kindle yesterday and found I`d signed myself up for the Kindle Daily Deals ( again ). I opted out of it, `cos I figured I didn`t need two emails ; Amazon emailed me today and said if I signed up for the Daily Deals, I could have a free book ! I got a code and a list of books, and chose Garth Nix - Newt`s Emerald ( I loved his Abhorsen series ). Thank you, fat fingers ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 Glad to hear you enjoyed Storm Front, Sarah. I've read the first six now, and they're getting better and better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 Glad to hear you enjoyed Storm Front, Sarah. I've read the first six now, and they're getting better and better Me too! Me too! Reading the first one, really liking it a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted May 20, 2014 Author Share Posted May 20, 2014 Glad to hear you enjoyed Storm Front, Sarah. I've read the first six now, and they're getting better and better Ooh, good to know. I`ve ordered books 2, 3 and 4 from Amazon now. And some other books, `cos of this need to get up to £10 to get free p&p now. Grr. Naked in Death - Nora Roberts/JD Robb £1.75 This series is up to book 38, so I thought I`d give it a go. It`s a futuristic police thriller. The Brutal Telling ( £2 ), Bury Your Dead ( £1.78 ) - Louise Penny`s Inspector Gamache books. Grave Peril ( £1.97 ) , Fool Moon ( £1.55 ) , Summer Knight( £2.79) - Jim Butcher And some books which won`t get delivered till next March, since I wanted to pre-order one of them. Rose Cottage £1.88 ), Nine Coaches Waiting (£1.50), My Brother Michael (£1.38) - Mary Stewart Lucia Triumphant (£1.97 ) - Tom Holt Blackberry Pie Murder (£4.35 ) - Joanne Fluke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted May 20, 2014 Author Share Posted May 20, 2014 (edited) Books read : 82 TBR 762 New Books Bought : 111 Total Cost : £229.37 Edited May 20, 2014 by Little Pixie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 I hope you'll enjoy all your new books ! They seem quite cheap, when I buy off Amazon books usually cost quite a bit more. 111 books bought is a nice number. 82 books read, you're just ahead of me! Go Sarah . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted May 20, 2014 Author Share Posted May 20, 2014 I hope you'll enjoy all your new books ! They seem quite cheap, when I buy off Amazon books usually cost quite a bit more. 111 books bought is a nice number. 82 books read, you're just ahead of me! Go Sarah . Hee, thank you ! Go me, indeed ! Also - go you with your readingness ! Most of those books are used, that`s why they`re such a good price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karsa Orlong Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 And some other books, `cos of this need to get up to £10 to get free p&p now. Grr. Yeah, that's really annoying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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