About Me

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Surrey, B.C., Canada
I have always been an avid reader and history has always been a passion of mine. I am a huge historical fiction fan, who also enjoys reading gothic tales with chills and thrills, mystery and suspense and who loves stepping back in time..... A quote I once read stated: I don't live in the past..the past lives in me!.. Perhaps that's why I am a Family History/Genealogy Addict too!

Thursday, 19 February 2015

I just came across this..32 reasons to read more books..please share!

32 reasons to read more books...
To escape your normal life.
To travel to real destinations.
To explore new worlds.
To imagine more than you could on your own.
To understand something new.
To understand something old.
To connect with the author.
To connect with other readers.
To dream a new life.
To compare dreams, realities, and in-between.
To laugh and enjoy.
To deepen your understanding and insight.
To know more than you could learn on your own.
To learn what you don’t know.
To learn what you do know.
To discover something extraordinary.
To meet incredible characters.
To build a larger vocabulary.
To cry after a great read.
To be entertained by a great story.
To relax with a great storyteller.
To stimulate thought.
To grow your spirit.
To find motivation to do more.
To go on a great adventure.
To learn how others live or have lived.
To expand your horizons.
To explore inner dimensions.
To educate yourself.
To inspire your own writing.
To learn how to change the world.
To discuss in a reading group.
To share a good book with your friends.

Wednesday, 4 February 2015

JUDITH SCHARA.. Author of the wonderful book SPIRAL


JUDITH SCHARA, author of the wonderful historical time slip novel SPIRAL who passed away January 2015

Monday, 26 January 2015

Historical & Time Slip Novels Book Club


This is a wonderful book group on Facebook, for book readers who love Historical and Time Slip Novels....
We are happy to welcome you to our group.  This is where you can connect with people who have the same interest in books. We share recommendations and discuss our love of books, have laughs, share pictures, support each other's views.  If you have time, please feel free to read past posts, join in discussions and share with us your favourite books


Just click on the link below:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/463020810398738

Friday, 23 January 2015

Book Seven in the Bradshaw Chronicles about Flavia de Luce's is a thoroughly enjoyable, adventure with plenty of intrigue and added humour.




As Chimney Sweeps Come to Dust.                     
By Alan Bradley
Released: Jan 6, 2015
Read: Advanced. Readers Copy (ARC)

My rating: 4 out of 5

Alan Bradley adds a new twist to an already outstanding series...think of a 12 year old female version of Sherlock in the 1950's, shipped (literally) by her father and Aunt Felicity (and to Flavia it feels it is more like being Banished) from her stately home in England and placed in Miss Bodycote's Female Academy in Canada.  This is the same boarding school as her mother Harriet attended.
In the seventh book in the Flavia du Luce series, (or Buckshaw Chronicles as they are known,) Flavia is feeling lonely in Canada where the language is somehow different at times and this combined with being miles across the sea from home and her family, and our heroine, Flavia feels homesick...that is of course, until charred remains of a body, falls out of a chimney and practically land at her feet.  There is nothing better to take Flavia out of this funk, than a mystery and a dead body.  Suddenly Flavia discovers that all is not as it seems.  There is more to this school than she thought.  Flavia curiosity has been aroused and her super sleuth skills are tested.  Flavia discovers that several girls from the school have gone missing and that one of the staff had been charged and acquitted of a previous murder. Flavia also discovers that her mother is well know amongst the staff and some of her classmates.  Flavia is admired by some and disliked by others and she must find out who is actually on her side and who is not.  Flavia can not trust anyone until she knows what is really going on.
There are some wonderful new characters in this book from the stern but admirable Miss Bodycote, to the St. Trinian type school girls attending the school.  This is but a year out of Flavia's life, but what an exciting year it is.  
I did miss some of the old characters from Buckshaw such as Flavia's sisters and Dogger in the beginning, but once the mysteries took hold and the adventure began, I too like Flavia, forgot the aching to return to Buckshaw.
I could really empathise with Flavia when she first left England for Canada.  I too had done this around the same age as Flavia.  I was homesick for the comfort of England and my extended family and it felt quite strange and lonely at first.  It must have been very hard on Flavia for at least I had my Mum, Dad and sister with me.  Flavia was alone.
Flavia is an exceptional brave young lady and she prove this throughout this book too.  Her determination to find the answers, to solve the mysteries and still find time to be a 12 year old girl alone in a new country is admirable.
How does Alan Bradley manage to continue to write such wonderful mysteries about a precocious preteen age girl from England during the 1950's with such passion, plenty of intrigue and humour astounds me.  The characters in his books no matter how minor are always so well developed that they are believable and well remembered. Alan Bradley puts his heart and soul in his writing, he believes in Flavia and as readers of the Buckshaw Chronicles do as well.
Writers could learn a lot from this man. Alan is a truly gifted writer who not only immerses himself into the writing process with passion and love for the characters in his stories but is the author of one of the best classic mystery series out there. It is a thoroughly enjoyable, adventure with plenty of intrigue and added humour which appeals to both the female and male reader of varying age groups....No wonder they are going to make this a TV series.


Tuesday, 2 September 2014

Susanna Kearsley how she became my favourite Historical Time Slip Author

I still remember the first time I discovered Susanna's first book Mariana.  It was just after Susanna won the Catherine Cookson Award for Mariana.   I remember thinking I love Catherine Cookson Books so I will take a look at this one.  I bought it and instantly fell in love with Susanna Kearsley as a writer.  I thought, she is writing for me.  Her book contains everything I love in a great book, history, paranormal such as a time slip, mystery, suspense, it was a book I could not put down, a book which transported me into another time and place.  I became the protagonist Julie and I found Greywethers.  It was a remarkable book and she reminded me of Daphne Du Maurier and Mary Stewart two other authors I loved.  She also reminded me of Barbara Erskine.  Barbara Erskine wrote similar "TIME-SLIP" Historical Fiction books and who was at the time was my very favourite Historical Time Slip author, (Diana Norman is my "All Time" favourite "Historical Fiction" Writer) that is Time-Slip novels without being overly a Romance novel (where the Romance is the focus of the story as opposed to the mystery,) these books were really hard to find at that time, but I had found Susanna Kearsley and my book shelves screamed with joy!  Susanna has become my number one favourite author and for good reason.  Susanna's books get better and better as each new novel comes out.  Firebird is my favourite of her books, but I am waiting feverishly for her next novel "a Desperate Fortune" to come out next April 7th. 2015.

Saturday, 30 August 2014

A major deal has been struck for the film rights to Irish Independent columnist and author Martina Devlin's latest novel, The House Where It Happened.

From the Irish Independent - http://www.independent.i.e
Published 30/08/2014 | 02:30
John Spain

A major deal has been struck for the film rights to Irish Independent columnist and author Martina Devlin's latest novel, The House Where It Happened.

The gothic novel, inspired by Ireland's only mass witchcraft trial which took place in Antrim in 1711, is published on Monday. Eight women were prosecuted for witchcraft - the last conviction for the felony in Ireland.

The rights to the book have been optioned by Samson Films, the company that made the Oscar-winning film Once starring Glen Hansard. Samson's productions also include The Sea, the recent adaptation of John Banville's novel, starring Ciaran Hinds and Sinead Cusack, and the comedy-drama Run and Jump.

"I stumbled across the story which forms the basis for my novel by chance," Devlin said. "I was flicking through a newspaper, and paused at the 'It Happened This Day' column. It said that on this day, in April 1711, eight women were convicted of witchcraft at the spring Assizes in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim.

"I thought there must be some mistake. There hadn't been any mass witchcraft trials in Ireland, surely? They had happened in Salem in Massachusetts, and in Scotland - in other parts of Europe.

"I felt compelled to dig deeper - and the more questions which were answered, the more questions I had. The trial caused a sensation at the time, and hinged on an 18-year-old named Mary Dunbar who arrived in the community and almost immediately started complaining about being tormented by witches."

International bestseller Joseph O'Connor said he was "utterly gripped by the book's power".

In an unusual move, the deal for The House Where It Happened, published by Ward River Press, was struck even before the novel was published.

Devlin's awards include the Royal Society of Literature's VS Pritchett Prize, and a Hennessy Literary Award. Her previous books include Ship of Dreams and Banksters.

Irish Independent