REVIEW: The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

The Bloody Chamber isn’t necessarily a retelling of the fairy tales we grew up with, but rather a series of dark, sensual stories that have a foundation in these stories and have taken on a life of their own. The gothic is never far away, hinted at through the repeated motifs of blood, roses, virginity and secluded manor houses. These stories bring attention to the underlying elements of fairytales that are often disturbing, using these traditional tales to discuss contemporary issues. What’s prevalent is that the female voices are the centre of these stories.

WWW WEDNESDAYS: 25th January 2017

I can’t believe it’s already been a week. 2017 is trying to fly past me. Some of my new year goals are getting harder to keep up with, we all know the struggle towards the end of January where you want to gorge on chocolate and turn your bed into a fortress that you never leave. Right? That being said, my reading has been pretty good this week. So I’m not doing too bad.

WWW is hosted by Taking on the World of Words. Each Wednesday book enthusiasts share their read by answering three questions:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

BOOKISH FINDS: Borrowed Books

I’m not even pretending that my book-relate impulses can be controlled any more. I’m always going to be excitedly fumbling for the next book I can get my hands on, regardless of my TBR pile and it’s embarrasing size. ‘Don’t you have, like, a stack of books under your bed that you haven’t read yet?‘ I was asked when I came home from the library a few days ago. Yes, I do, but I didn’t have these books. I like knowing that my TBR pile is there, waiting to be read when I’m ready. At least if I’m borrowing books then I’m not splurging too much.

WWW Wednesdays

As a blogger, it turns out I’ve been set in my ways. I’ve been running What A Difference A Word Makes for a year now and, apart from a layout change a couple of months ago, it hasn’t really changed at all. I’ve fallen into the trap of a routine, which in my case makes me lazy. So I’ve set myself some blogging goals for 2017, and one of them was taking part in different memes. So, this is my first attempt to join in a meme. Forgive me if I make any blundering mistakes, I’m learning. WWW is hosted by Taking on the World of Words. Each Wednesday book enthusiasts share their read by answering three questions:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

REVIEW: Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence

Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a book that sparked controversy for decades after its initial publication because of its frank discussion of sex. Today it stills causes debate from readers. It seems that when reading D.H. Lawrence’s final novel you either love it or you hate it. Except, I’m still not sure where I stand.

BOOKISH FINDS: Post-Christmas Splurge

It happened; I fell of the literary wagon and bought more books. I think we all knew this would happen really. It was only a matter of time. Christmas money and festive withdrawal were bound to lead me into the comfort of a new read. I was in such a feverish state of need that I don’t actually remember when or where I bought Holding up the Universe. That’s bad, isn’t it? Anyway, the good thing is that now my pockets are lighter I can re-impose the book ban and we need never speak of this again. But before that, here are the books I bought while my will was weak:

REVIEW: The Accidental by Ali Smith

When it comes to prose, Ali Smith throws the rule book out the window. Conventional grammar, punctuation and formatting don’t always find a home amongst the pages of her books. Instead she draws up guidelines sensitive to her characters and their inner voices. In The Accidental there are five distinct narrators all clamouring to be heard and Smith manages to give each perspective its own unique key.

READING LISTS: New Year, New Reads

Happy New Year my lovely, lovely book enthusiasts! I hope 2017 is shaping up to be your best year yet! By the end of this month the blog will be officially one-year old. It’s the longest I’ve ever kept a blog running and I think that, despite how cliche it might sound, it’s because I’ve found something that gets me giddy with excitement: books!

So, a new year call for a new reading list.I did better than I thought with my list for 2016 and managed to read 11 out of the 19 books I chose. I knew I’d get distracted by all the other lovely books out there! I finished 2016 with 45 books under my belt but I’m hoping to make it to 50 this year. I’ve already started reading D.H Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover so I should have one book ticked off the list in no time! I didn’t realise when I was writing it out that the books I had chosen were almost all writen by women writers- it just goes to show how many great female voices there are out there!

If you didn’t know already, I’ve been contributing to the wonderul Imaginary Book Club over the last few months and I’ll be sharing my reading goals for 2017 over on the website very soon!

What are you planning to read in 2017?