What Book Have You Read Multiple Times?

I was chatting to a friend about books yesterday and we discussed books that we have read multiple times. My friend has read “The Go Between” by L.P. Hartley many times, reading it from the points of view of different characters and finding lots of new points and enjoyment from the reading.

The Go Between by LP Hartley – the first line is “The past is another country, they do things differently there”.  My friend first studied it for her A level course and loved it – She has revisited it four or five times since then and sympathised with different characters each time.  “It perfectly captures the carefree days of summer, the loss of innocence, the British class system, the rising temperatures and building tensions of a doomed love affair.  Read it.  It’s one of my favourites.”

My friend has also read “The Diary of a Provincial Lady” by E. M Delafield.  Screamingly funny.  Written in a diary format for a magazine originally (like Bridget Jones).  All about keeping up appearances – it is a glimpse of life for a middle class woman in the 1930s.  She has bought it for lots of friends. How about you? Have you a book that you have bought for friends because it was so good?

I’ve read the Harry Potter series numerous times and I always find something I’ve forgotten or a detail I remember enjoying.

Diagon Alley, Warner Bros. Studio Tour, London.

Why don’t you tell me about a book or series that you have read multiple times and we will feature it here on the blog. I’ll let you take the floor and tell the readers about the book and what it is that has made you go back and re-read the book or books.

Artists drawing of Dobby at the Warner Bros Studio Tour, London.

Fill in the form below, telling me the Title and Author of your favourite book that you’ve read multiple times and briefly explain why, add your contact details and I’ll come back to you and we can feature the book as long as it is suitable for the blog. No cheating and promoting your own books though!

This has been a great feature, I have now removed the form to reduce my spam mail, you can still contact me via the contact tab at the top of the blog if you have a book you’d like to tell us about. Or just post a comment below. Thanks.

The Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delaney

The Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delaney

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s the Spook’s job to protect the County from such things as ghouls, boggarts, and witches. He’s getting on in age and needs to train an apprentice to take over. Tom Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son and that makes him special, he’s Mam’s gift to the County.

The Spook takes Tom on for a months trial, first they deal with the Ghasts at Hangman’s Hill, fragments of souls that have moved on. Next Tom must last a night in a haunted house. At the Spook’s home in Chipenden, up near the fells, Tom begins his lessons. First he must learn about boggarts and how to bind one. He’s also told not to venture into the garden after dark and to stay away from Mother Malkin who is kept in a pit in the garden.

Tom is warned to also stay away from girls with pointy shoes and his first big mistake comes when he is rescued from bullies by Alice. When the Spook is called away to deal with the witches of Pendle Hill, Tom falls into a trap laid by Bony Lizzie who intends to release Mother Malkin. Fearing the Spook dead, Tom takes on the evil witches, but it takes a lot to kill off a witch as strong as Mother Malkin as Tom is about to find out.

This is the first in the Wardstone Chronicles, written for older children. If they can cope with Harry Potter then this will be fine. The warning on the back on the book says “Not to be read after dark”. There certainly are some chilling pages which make me shiver as an adult. I’ve loved re-reading these books as an adult and shall continue with the series.
Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

View all my reviews on Goodreads

May 19th- 25th Week of Good Deeds

Continuing my attempts to follow in greater footsteps, by completing one Good Deed a day for a year;

May 19th – Have spent most of my day at a sporting event with my oldest child. Managed to find and keep a parking space for a friend in a very full car park, and it was under a tree for some extra shade. Added money to my jam jar. Found myself a nice little space to sit and do some reading while the athletes all warmed up. Had to do a double check on my location when people descended on my position like sunbathers on a Spanish beach. Someone actually sat on the corner of my coat with me! Talk about invading my personal space.

May 20th – My morning volunteering at school, a shorter one today as a couple of the children were off school today. Bit of a scary moment when the teacher told me she’d had a dream about me having a third baby. I’m going to take that as symbolic because in the words of Mr Olivander the wand maker in Harry Potter a third baby would be “No, no definitely Not!” I love the two I’ve been blessed with and that’s plenty for me. Helped promote a new book launch with a post, tweet etc.

May 21st – Picked up litter on my way to the post box. Considering taking a bag with me when I go out next time because there was so much litter left lying around. Found some competitions and book giveaways for writers, readers and authors and spread the word.

May 22nd – In between providing a free taxi for my kids today I managed to fit in a trip to the opticians, spied some charity boxes in reception and made a donation to the Royal Air Force Benevolent fund. Sneaked in one more good deed, was able to give a friend a lift home. Looking forward to writing a post to promote a new community WordPress blog that a set of friends have launched today.

May 23rd – With the 2nd May Bank Holiday approaching I agreed to change the day I do next weeks work to fit in with the computer access and the wages run. Popped over to see the parents and made sure they were behaving themselves. Did I tell you that I won a whole years worth of rice and pasta the other day? It’s that Karma thingy working for all the cakes I’ve been baking and taking to friends. 64 packs of rice and pasta! I feel a pasta party coming on.

May 24th – Desperately searching for a Good Deed opportunity, did finish reading a book today and sent off the book review to the author. Found the review to be one of my biggest challenges yet, not sure if the author will think it worthy of a Good Deed! Popped in a teeny tiny piece of honest advice which I may get slated for, not everyone is happy to receive improvement suggestions. It’s the end of a gruelling week, it’s freezing cold and chucking it down with rain, I’m just not going to step outside and go in search of another deed today. I’ll strike a deal, I’ll double the amount of money that I add to my jam jar today, deal? Ok that’s 4 whole pence then! I’m so sad, perhaps it’s time for a glass of wine.

May 25th – All sorts today, finished reading a book ready to write a review, downloaded The Unicorn Girl by Melissa LeGette (who featured as my guest author yesterday) which is free this weekend. Provided afternoon tea for relatives and helped them take another step forward in the family quest for the 999 year lease documents (Taken out in 1783 by relatives), by composing and sending an e-mail on their behalf.

 

Guest Author Sarah Cradit

My guest author today is Sarah Cradit, Sarah talks about recently re-reading one of the Harry Potter books. This household loves Harry Potter, we’ve all read the series, I think I’ve read the series 4 times now! We have all of the films and I think the kids know the words off by heart! On New Years Eve we visited the Studio tour here in London see my post http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-6C We can’t persuade any of our friends to help us finish eating our packet of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans!

Here are Sarah’s replies;

1) Tell me your name: Sarah M. Cradit

2) Where do you live?: Portland, OR

3)When did you start writing?: I started writing when I was 7; I wrote a bunch of short stories that were actually somewhat inappropriate for school and my parents got called down to the office. This was the start of the marriage between my imagination and a pen.

4)What type of books do you like writing the most?: I generally write mainstream fiction, with a special focus on the human condition. Why do we do what we do? It’s not black and white, and its important to me to have character-driven stories that reflect that.

5)Pass on 3 tips about writing or publishing.
1. When I am having trouble finding inspiration, I will force myself to rigid word count goals. It sounds counter-intuitive to the creative process, but it actually, for me, does just the opposite; forcing me to write helps me get back into that process.
2. Free-writing is another way I’ve gotten over the writer’s block hump. Setting a timer and writing, without stopping at all, until the timer stops often brings out subconscious thoughts that help me advance my story. This is how I found the end to my first novel.
3. Most of us have trouble turning off our inner editor when writing; to appease mine, I often highlight the pieces I am having troubles with, or make minor notes (like: “this needs to die a slow death”), so that when I come back for edits I know which spots needed my attention most.

6)What was the last book that you read? How would you rate it?
I most recently re-read Harry Petter and the Half Blood Prince. I would give i an 8/10. There are not many Children’s authors that can write simply enough for children, but engaging enough for adults. Rowling is a master storyteller…her writing is just “so so”but I can’t decide if that’s because of the audience or skill. I’d like to read her adult stories for comparison.

The story itself is filled with suspense…it’s the final transition for Harry into adulthood and there’s no longer any doubt that evil has a real chance of winning the battle. I like that Rowling does not shy away from dark topics, like death and loss, because these experiences are what shape Harry and allow him to do what he needs to do in the next book. I’m always surprised at some of the criticism her stories get.

7)Now choose just one of your books and add a link to it.
St. Charles at Dusk: http://www.amazon.com/Charles-House-Crimson-Clover-ebook/dp/B005RT0ZKE

Thanks!
Sarah

Serenity by Willow Rose

Serenity by Willow Rose

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I quite liked this book which is most suitable for the YA audience. The start was good and made me want to read on. I think that perhaps care needs to be made with the storyline, as I found myself making several comparisons to the Harry Potter series. For instance the teacher who prefers living and working in the forest who has a wolf and teaches the pupils about flying horses (Hagrid?). The pupil who can change into a creature of the night (Sirius/ Lupin etc). The magic invisibility stone (Harry’s cloak of invisibility), The evil Angel reaching out to people in their dreams (Voldermort). So many people know the Harry Potter series that others make similar links too.

View all my reviews

Wander Dust by Michelle Warren

Wander Dust by Michelle Warren

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I started this book I wasn’t sure about it, it reminded me of Percy Jackson tales mixed with Harry Potter, but then it got into its stride and made a story for itself which was gripping to the end. Well done.

View all my reviews

Munching through Bertie Botts every flavoured beans!

The Harry Potter Studio Tour was really worth seeing. We are eating our packet of Bertie Botts every flavour beans and we just thought they were plain old Jelly beans!!!!! So far the yuckiest have been “dirt and grass!” It’s causing a lot of laughter. Not looking forward to getting a “rotton egg or vomit flavour”

Happy New Year to all my readers!

Off to see Harry P….

Today we are off on a family trip to see the Harry Potter Studio Tour. I don’t know who is more excited me or the kids? Since I booked the tickets a couple of weeks ago I’ve been counting down the days. Apparently it’s all dressed up for Christmas to add to the appeal. There’s loads to see; the great hall, diagon ally, classrooms, the knight bus, the flying car and more. Just a shame the cast won’t be there!

Bits and Bobs and Harry Potter

It’s the school  half term holiday this week, on top of changing the clocks at the weekend, so we are doing lots of different things. Today I tried to work from home around the kids, and was happily distracted when they wanted to re-watch a Harry Potter film. We love Harry Potter in this house.

Meanwhile we are all thinking about everyone caught up in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Keep writing, blogging and reading folks!

X Rosie

Hogwarts Houses

There’s a quiz going around the internet , where the program will decide which Hogwarts house you should be in depending upon your answers. We all entered with enthusiasm and laughed at the results!

It lead to the decision to have a Harry Potter day during the next school holidays. We’re going to watch the entire film series from start to finish (again!). Meanwhile we thought we’d have fun with our own Hogwarts questions. Feel free to join in.

1) Professor Snape has just deducted 10 points from your house because of your bad attempt at todays potion making, but you weren’t the worse! Do you;  a) Argue back and risk loosing more? (G) b) Keep quiet it’s only 10 points.(S)c) Vow to revise the lesson so it works next time,(H) or d) Try to regain the points in the next lesson with a different teacher?(R)

2) You’ve found an old diary, do you; a) keep it, it’s the best thing that’s happened to you,(G) b) Hand it in, it could be full of Dark magic,(R) c) Get rid of it, put it in Neville’s bag (H). d)Keep it and hope it reveals the answers to next weeks exams.(S)

3) You can’t get on to platform 9 3/4, do you; a) Take the flying car? (G) b) keep trying you may get through (H), c) Buy a ticket for an ordinary train and hope it gets you near Hogwarts (R), d) Go back home, school stinks anyway! (S)

4) You’ve found Draco Malfoy’s wand, do you; a) Keep it (S), b) Hand it in? (H) c) Snap it in half. Malfoy is all bad (R) d) Challenge him to a duel for ownership of it? (G)

5) It’s charity week at Hogwarts, do you a) help Hermoine knit hats for the house elves? (H) b) Try raising money by selling some of Fred and Georges jokes to muggles (G), c) set up a sponsored Quidditch goal shoot (R), d) reluctantly hand over some of the bribery money you’ve been taking from the first years?(S)

When I did the internet quiz, they made me a Ravenclaw, aww! I wanted to be in Gryfffindor.