Rereading Jane Eyre

#AtoZChallenge 2019 #Audiobooks ‘F’ is for Ken Follett @KMFollett @Audible ‘The Century Trilogy’

#AtoZChallenge 2019 Tenth Anniversary blogging from A to Z challenge letter

I’m thrilled to continue my AtoZ Blogging challenge with one of my favourite authors, the masterful writer of thrillers and historical fiction, Ken Follett, who has been writing engaging, literary fiction for over forty years.

Ken Follett

If I had to save a trilogy from the last library in the world which was on fire, I’d save The Century Trilogy, and if I had to save just one book, it would be The Winter of the World.

Fall of Giants, Winter of the World and Edge of Eternity, make up the Century Trilogy. This Trilogy, is a tour de force, which narrates the main events of the 20th century, following the lives of five families in – America, Germany, Russia, England and Wales, who will gradually become interrelated, as the original characters and their descendents experience the First World War, the Russian Revolution, the struggle for Women’s Suffrage, the Second World War, The Cold War, The Civil Rights Movement, The Race to Space, and finally the reunification of Germany.

I loved every word of The Fall of Giants. Every single sentence, paragraph and page is engaging. The characterisation is extraordinary. Every character, and there are plenty of them, has a unique appearance and personality. The plot is thrilling with plenty of drama and historical detail that make it an unforgettable read.

Winter of the World, my favourite, is a brutal and honest fictional account of WWII. It should be compulsory reading at High Schools, because the historical events portrayed affect the reader, much more than a set of facts in a history book or lesson. Let’s not forget what happened in order to be alert and compassionate and never let it happen again. Ken Follett illustrates the horrors of war as well as the goodness and self-sacrifice that we are capable of.

Although the writing is brilliant, I’m really glad I listened to the trilogy as an audiobook, because John Lee is the best audiobook narrator I’ve heard.

Lee does all the voices so perfectly that you know at once who is speaking, and there are five nationalities, with their own accents and different social classes, as well as male, female and children’s voices. The novels are lively and authentic due to the great deal of dialogue included, yet it’s no easy feat for the narrator. Chapeau!

****

The Century Trilogy, is especially for readers who enjoy historical novels and dramatic family sagas, which explore political, social and personal issues through various generations.

Ken Follett’s Audible Author Page

By the way, Ken Follet has a fabulous Author Webpage, which has ‘Writing Advice’. I’ve found it very inspiring and thought-provoking.

What? You’ve never read an Audiobook? Here are my 34 reasons why you should be reading audiobooks!

I’ll be reviewing an audiobook a day throughout April, so come back on Monday! There will be a round-up tomorrow!

Would you like to read about the other authors and audiobooks I’ve posted about during the challenge, which started on 1st April? Here they are!

Find out more about this blogging challenge here!

#SoCS Fabulous Stream of Consciousness #Novels ‘Mrs Dallaway’ & ‘My Name is Lucy Barton’

This post was written in response to Linda Hill’s weekly Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. Follow the link on the banner for more information!

This weeks prompt is“fab.” Linda Hill says, “Use it as a word or find a word beginning with “fab.” As always, use any way you’d like. Have fun!”

****

I’m going to ramble about two fabulous, stream of consciousness novels.

The first novel is Mrs Dallaway, Virginia Woolf’s unforgettable and inspiring masterpiece, which takes place in one single day in the month of June, in the early 1920s, shortly after the end of WWI.

Mrs Dallaway (Clarissa) is preparing an important society party while her thoughts come and go in diverse directions and timeframes in erratic flashbacks, as the reader discovers Clarissa’s unhappy marriage, the childhood sweetheart she loved but didn’t marry, her insecurities as a society wife, her bisexual tendency’s, and social issues, such as postwar depression and traumatized war veterans.

It’s a novel without a specific plot, in which nothing ‘important’ happens during the specific day, except the preparation of the party, and yet everything that’s happened in Clarissa’s life passes through her mind in that single day.

The protagonist is struggling unsuccessfully to find meaning in her life.

Resultado de imagen de mrs dalloway quotes

Bearing in mind the carefully plotted, character driven, traditional 19th century novels, such as those written by the Bronte sisters, Mary Shelley, or even George Elliot, Mrs Dallaway, represented a significant turning point.

Virginia Woolf initiated an innovative approach to the novel in the early 20th century. The novel no longer adhered to a strict timeline and tight plot, instead, the narrator could wander wherever his/her mind went.

Now I’m going to jump forward to the 21st century. It’s 2016 and we have another major and innovative Stream of Consciousness novel by Elizabeth Strout, called, My Name is Lucy Barton, which I discussed amply in my blog yesterday.

Imagen relacionada

This fabulous, stream of consciousness novel, takes Virginia Woolf’s approach even further. On this occasion, there is no plot at all, very little by way of characterisation and a disjointed timeline with erratic flashbacks and forwards, and some unsettling hospital visitors, while Lucy is in a hospital bed, recovering from an unspecfied illness.

Lucy should have read Camus or Sartre, they would have told her that her futile and obsessive search for the meaning of her life, was doomed to bring her distress, because there is none. The only solution for Clarissa and Lucy, and all of us, is to accept the fact that life is absurd, and still find reasons to be happy.

Resultado de imagen de camus quote on life

Life isn’t always fair, random events occur, sometimes bad things happen to good people, and bad people get away with murder. We don’t choose our parents, our country or place of birth, our language or religion, and so many other things which shape our lives, and yet, there are still plenty of things we can choose and change.

I enjoyed reading both novels, but I have no sympathy for either Lucy or Clarissa. I suggest they stop blaming others, i.e. their childhood, parents, nationality, religion, politics, society, etc. for their problems.

It’s up to each one of us to decide what we’re prepared to accept and what we’re prepared to fight to change or rebel against.

Resultado de imagen de camus quotes

So, do you enjoy reading stream of consciousness, almost experimental, literary novels, which explore a character’s psyche intensely, but have little by means of a traditional plot or timeline?

#NaPoWriMo Day 6 ‘Flowers’ #poetrymonth #April Colleen’s weekly #Tanka #Poetry Challenge #SynonymsOnly

National Poetry Writing Month is a poetry writing challenge to write a poem a day, which takes place every year in April. Follow the link to find out more, be inspired, get daily prompts and meet other poets!

For Day 6, I’m joining in with Colleen Chesebro, also known as the The Faery Whisperer’s, weekly poetry challenge in which she gives us two words, and we have to choose synonyms from those words for our poetry.

Click on the banner for more information about this fun weekly poetry challenge!

This week’s prompt words are Happy and April, and my synonyms are cheerful and spring.

Spring Smiles

Spring smiles at gravel

Flowers sparkle in your eyes

Cheerful cheeks do blush

Joyful lips grin and giggle

Petals shine brighter than sun

****

Flowers are always quiet, peaceful and so pretty. It’s impossible to feel upset or angry while looking at flowers, their light shines straight into our hearts.

So, this weekend, look for flowers, they’ll make you smile!

Send me a picture of a flower on twitter and I’ll write you a poem:)

****

#AtoZChallenge 2019 #Audiobooks ‘E’ is for Elizabeth Strout @LizStrout @Scribd @Audible ‘My Name is Lucy Barton’

I’m thrilled to continue my AtoZ Blogging challenge with another of outstanding writer, Elizabeth Strout, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, Olive Kitteridge, in 2009.

The audiobook I listened to on Scribd, which I will be discussing in this post is, My Name is Lucy Barton, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2016 and the Bailey Women’s Prize for fiction in the same year.

This is the blurb

Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable.

My Review

My name is Lucy Barton isn’t an easy novel to read and much less to review. There’s no traditional plot, a confusing time-line, plenty of gaps in Lucy’s erratic story, and very little by way of characterisation.

The novel is about a writer, Lucy Barton’s, disjointed memories regarding her deprived childhood and dysfunctional family, mainly told with tense and sometimes unnerving conversations with her mother, while she’s in hospital, much later in life.

The timelines are blurred, as we learn that although she’s a successful novelist, she is a lonely and emotionally damaged person. After her first marriage broke up, she remarried and abandoned her family in search of ‘herself’. Her daughters never visit and don’t seem to have a close relationship with her, but strangely, it doesn’t seem to bother her.

There were times I wondered where the novel was going, as there was no plot or chronological order to help me find my bearings, yet I kept on reading, because it was well-written and I expected some sort of a plot might develop, but it didn’t.

When I finished, l realised it’s not about plot, or even character. It’s about the inexplicable and existential quality of life.

Resultado de imagen de camus quote on life

Lucy was born with a tragic destiny: the futile and obsessive search for the meaning of her life. The novel hints that this obsession was due to her loveless and emotionally and financially impoverished family. She has difficulty loving herself or anyone else, even her own children.

Lucy left her poor, narrow-minded and cruel family thanks to a scholarship, years later, she left her own family, still in search of herself and the elusive meaning of life. She’s trying to ‘find peace’ with herself through writing, but there’s a limit to the power of so much introspection. In the end, you’re responsible for your own choices and your own happiness or unhappiness.

Resultado de imagen de camus quote on life

I ended up not liking Lucy very much and feeling very little sympathy for her, because she could have done so much more to improve her own life and her relationship with her daughters and her husbands.

It certainly gave me a great deal to think about, especially regarding the art of writing a novel, because Elizabeth Strout breaks all the rules to great effect! It’s the kind of novel I’m sure I’ll read again, at a later date.

It is a short read and it’s the kind of novel that really benefits from listening to the audiobook. The narrator, Kimberly Farr, does a really excellent job, because she reads each page with the appropriate rhythm and pace to Lucy’s changing moods. I could imagine Lucy as I listened. I’m sure I would have been more confused, especially at the beginning, if I had read the paper or kindle version.

****

My Name is Lucy Barton, is especially for readers who enjoy complex, almost experimental, literary novels, which explore a character’s psyche intensely.

Elizabeth Strout’s Scribd page

Elizabeth Strout’s Audible Author Page

What? You’ve never read an Audiobook? Here are my 34 reasons why you should be reading audiobooks!

I’ll be reviewing an audiobook a day throughout April, so come back on Monday! There will be a round-up tomorrow!

Would you like to read about the other authors and audiobooks I’ve posted about during the challenge, which started on 1st April? Here they are!

Find out more about this blogging challenge here!

#NaPoWriMo Day 5 ‘Wild #Flower’ #poetrymonth #April #Poems #Haiku

Day 5 poem, Wild Flower, was inspired by a photograph of a flower on fellow blogger Paul Militaru’s Blog, where he posts his photography portfolio, which brightens my day with his beautiful pictures.

Wildflower

Delicate and free

As quiet as a whisper

Will make your heart smile

****

A tiny wildflower is a beautiful and vital part of our ecosystem. Flowers attract insects, birds and other living beings, including humans!

Flowers are always quiet and peaceful. It’s hard to feel angry while looking at a flower, and remember, you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

So, this weekend, look for flowers, they’ll make you smile!

Send me a picture of a flower on twitter and I’ll write you a poem:)

****

#NaPoWriMo Day 4 ‘Doors’ #poetrymonth #April #Poems #Haiku & #Tanka #ThursdayDoors

Day 4 poem, Doors, was inspired by Norm 2.0’s weekly challenge, Thursday Doors. Check out his challenge and blog with plenty of inspiring and fabulous doors every week!

Doors

Some doors are prisons,

Others are like a fortress,

Some lead to God’s house,

Some are so spooky

Others are very ancient

The best are open

Inviting a short visit

To explore hidden treasures

****

Writing poetry is like walking through a doorway into your mind and soul. It’s the place where conscious and subconscious images and thoughts melt into rhythmic words and suggestive lines…

#AtoZChallenge 2019 #Audiobooks ‘D’ is for J. P. Delaney @Audible #Thriller

I’m thrilled to continue my AtoZ Blogging challenge with another of my favourite writers, J. P. Delaney, who I have just discovered is not a woman! I don’t know why, probably due to the use of initials, I assumed the writer was a woman, but I’ve just discovered on his Facebook page, that J. P. Delaney is a pseudonym and that he is in fact this man:

He has published two brilliant psychological thrillers, The Girl Before and Believe Me, and I’ve listened to them both on Audible. His third novel as J P Delaney (I’m not sure if he has other novels with another pseudonym), The Perfect Wife, which will be out in August 2019, is in my wish list.

When I reviewed The Girl Before, in July 2017, a few months after it was released on Audible, I called it a masterpiece.

It’s superb from the first word to the last. No one is who they appear to be and nothing is what it seems. Suspense is guaranteed from the first page to the last.

The Girl Before is the story of a very special house and its successive occupants. The author gradually builds an intense plot which is claustrophobic in its obsession to tell the story of the house at number 1 Folger Street, which will soon become a fictional landmark, like Satis House or Manderlay, and I don’t say that lightly, both Dickens and du Maurier are two of my most respected authors. In fact, I think ‘One Folger Street’ would have been a perfect name for the book!

I’m glad I chose to spend my monthly credit to listen to the audio version, which was fabulously read by three different readers.

Believe Me is another 5-star read or rather, listen.

Again, nothing is what it seems and nobody is who they appear to be, and yet finally everything is exactly as expected, falling into place, with a nerve-wracking, yet satisfactory ending.

There was so much to enjoy in this novel, especially the constant references to Baudelaire and his work, Les Fleurs du Mal, as well as references to acting techniques, and personality disorders.

I highly recommend the audiobook version because of the excellent, multiple (5) audio narrators, and because there are some scenes in the novel, which are written as a screenplay, so the narrators vividly bring it to life.

Believe Me is undoubtedly the best audiobook production I’ve ever listened to, and I’ve heard plenty in the last two years.

****

J P Delaney’s novels are especially for readers who enjoy intense, twisted, tightly plotted and brilliantly written, psychological thrillers.

J P Delaney’s Audible Author Page

What? You’ve never read an Audiobook? Here are my 34 reasons why you should be reading audiobooks!

I’ll be reviewing an audiobook a day throughout April, so come back tomorrow!

Would you like to read about the other authors and audiobooks I’ve posted about during the challenge, which started on 1st April? Here they are!

Find out more about this blogging challenge here!

#AtoZChallenge 2019 #Audiobooks ‘C’ is for C. J. Archer @CJ_Archer @Audible #TuesdayBookBlog #Fantasy

I’m thrilled to continue my AtoZ Blogging challenge with another of my favourite writers, C. J. Archer is an Australian author of historical fantasy and mystery novels.

C.J. Archer

I don’t normally read fantasy novels, especially not a ten book series, which I never expected to finish! So far I’ve read the first five, and I’m looking forward to gradually working my way through them in between contemporary psychological thrillers!

The Last Necromancer (The Ministry Of Curiosities Book 1) by [Archer, C.J.]

l’ll be totally honest with you, I didn’t expect to like this book, so why did I start the series? Well, I love Victorian fiction, I don’t mind fantasy that’s rooted, at least partly, in some form of reality, I love the covers, (aren’t they stunning?) The title of book one was intriguing (what’s a necromancer?), the blurb drew me in, and book one was free, so nothing would be lost, except my time, and if I hadn’t liked it, I wouldn’t have given it more than thirty minutes to convince me to continue reading (that’s my maximum, sorry, life’s short and there are so many books to read).

This is the AUTHOR’S NOTE, which was a great incentive for me:

If you like some or all of the following then you’ll enjoy THE LAST NECROMANCER: plot twists, waifs, assassins, secret societies, supernatural or paranormal fantasies with romantic elements, feisty heroines, cold-hearted heroes who melt, a slow-burn romance, ghost stories, a dash of humor, mysteries, history, quirky secondary characters, strong female characters, dissident noblemen, Victorian London.

****

Well, I didn’t need half an hour, the first paragraph of the first novel drew me right into the story. I checked on Audible and saw that there was a boxed set available with the first three novels, over 26 hours of listening. I listened to a sample and loved the narrator, Shiromi Arserio’s voice, so I bought it with my monthly credit and enjoyed every minute of the story!

Here’s my review of Book 1

It’s such a fun series, with likeable characters, nasty villains who get what they deserve, intricate plots, fantasy mixed with steam punk, mystery, the supernatural, and a sweet, ongoing romance.

Here’s the blurb:

A waif, her abductor and a twist you won’t see coming.

For five years, Charlotte (Charlie) Holloway has lived as a boy in the slums. But when one theft too many gets her arrested, her only means of escape lies with a dead man. Charlie hasn’t raised a spirit since she first discovered she could do so five years ago. That time, her father banished her. This time, she brings even more trouble upon herself.

People are now hunting Charlie all over London, but only one man succeeds in capturing her.

Lincoln Fitzroy is the mysterious head of a secret organization on the trail of a madman who needs a necromancer to control his newly “made” creatures. There was only one known necromancer in the world – Charlotte – but now there appears to be two. Lincoln captures the willful Charlie in the hopes the boy will lead him to Charlotte. But what happens when he discovers the boy is in fact the young woman he’s been searching for all along? And will she agree to work for the man who held her against her will, and for an organization she doesn’t trust?

Because Lincoln and his ministry might be just as dangerous as the madman they’re hunting.

****

The Ministry of Curiosities Series is an escapist read, especially for lovers of historical fantasy with supernatural elements, set in Victorian England.

C J Archer’s Audible Author Page

What? You’ve never read an Audiobook? Here are my 34 reasons why you should be reading audiobooks!

I’ll be reviewing an audiobook a day throughout April, so come back tomorrow!

Would you like to read about the other authors and audiobooks I’ve posted about during the challenge, which started on 1st April? Here they are!

Find out more about this blogging challenge here!

#NaPoWriMo Day 3 ‘Roads’ #poetrymonth #April #Poems #Tanka ‘Cee’s Fun Photo Challenge’

Day 3 poem, Roads, was inspired by Cee’s Fun Photo Challenge. This week the topic is Roads: country, freeways, streets, dirt. Cee has plenty of inspiring weekly challenges on her blog. Check them out!

Roads

Some roads lead to work,

Others take you straight back home.

The best routes of all,

Uncover the unexplored,

Secret corners of your soul.

****

Writing poetry is taking a journey into your mind and soul. It’s the place where conscious and subconscious images and thoughts melt into rhythmic words and suggestive lines…

#NaPoWriMo Day 2 ‘Sparrow’ #poetrymonth #April #Poems #Haiku

Day 2 poem, Sparrow, was inspired by a photograph of a sparrow on fellow blogger Paul Militaru’s Blog, where he posts his photography portfolio, which brightens my day with his beautiful pictures.

sparrow in waiting for better days

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Spring Smiles

Spring smiles at gravel

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Wildflower

Rate this:

Share this:

Doors

Some doors are prisons,

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Roads

Some roads lead to work,

Rate this:

Share this:

Sparrow sits on branch Proud like a King on his throne He fears no eagle

Rate this:

Share this:

Sparrow sits on branch
Proud like a King on his throne
He fears no eagle