Tag: Oxford University

Books

Book 861: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? – Jeanette Winterson

Geoff W

Book cover of "Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?" with Amazon Affiliate linkI picked this book up way back in November 2014 because I’d been hearing great things about it and remembered enjoying Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit in undergrad (and still languishing on my TBR shelf).

I only read this at this moment in time because a few months ago I created a spreadsheet of all the books on my TBR shelf that were under 250 pages that randomly spits out a book title so when I had a bit of a gap or wanted to actually make progress on my shelves I had an easy tool to select a book.

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Books

Book 670: A Weekend with Mr. Darcy (Austen Addicts #1) – Victoria Connelly

Geoff W

book cover of "A Weekend with Mr. Darcy" with amazon affiliate linkHello, TBR pile, it’s been a long time. I picked this e-book up EIGHT YEARS AGO. Who knows why I didn’t read it that summer, but I finally read it and thoroughly enjoyed it.

When I picked up the book, there were only three books in Connelly’s Austen Addicts series, but since then it’s increased to six. I’m not sure I’ll read past Mr. Darcy Forever since it looks like Connelly may have switched publishers and those last three covers are frightful, but never say never right? It’s also probably a good thing I didn’t read it eight years ago when I had more time day-to-day because Connelly introduced me to the Republic of Pemberley, a Jane Austen message board/forum. I did a cursory look over it and yeah, I definitely would’ve gotten lost in that quagmire!

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Books

Book 504: Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart (Adventures with Jane Austen and Her Legacy #2) – Beth Pattillo

Geoff W

I really don’t know why I have such a backlog of Jane Austen fan-fiction on my shelves.I truly enjoy reading them and they’re so quick that it’s like why do I delay the gratification?

But then again, on days like yesterday, I realize that stocking them up isn’t necessarily a bad thing because they are WONDERFUL beach reads. Hopefully, this means I’ll be going to the beach more this summer (it’s like maybe a 10 minute walk) and reading quite a few more of these 😀

Seriously, though, this one has been sitting on my shelf since 2013 when Alie sent it to me, which is just a shame because I blazed through it in less than 12 hours. I started it on the beach yesterday, see very end of the post, and finished it on my way to work this morning.

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ARC, Books

Book 441: The Madwoman Upstairs – Catherine Lowell

Geoff W

Lowell, Catherine - The Madwoman UpstairsBack-to-back Brontë fan-fictions you say? Hell yes, I say! I honestly didn’t plan it this way, but both books were burning holes on my TBR pile and I wanted to read them before I headed out to China.

I really do need to up my game though, I had no idea this (or Jane Steele) were coming out this year. Unlike Jane Steele, this one doesn’t seem to be making as big of a splash. It could be because it’s a debut novel, or it could be because it’s by a smaller publisher, but I couldn’t tell you for sure what it is.

I know I stumbled across The Madwoman Upstairs after I finally got around to reading an article from The Daily Beast titled Life Lessons From the Brontë Sisters (article link). So of course I reached out to the publisher and they kindly sent a review copy*, which once I started reading I blazed through.

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Books

Book 396: The Oxford Murders – Guillermo Martínez

Geoff W

Martínez, Guillermo - The Oxford MurdersAfter reading Tropic of Capricorn I needed a break from reading anything remotely difficult and this had been on my shelf for quite a while (June 2013) and I figured it was pretty short and murder mysteries are usually a quick read and thankfully it was both quick and interesting.

What really stood out to me was how excellently written and easily flowing the text was. Similar to Blindness and some of Paulo Coehlo’s works (Witch of Portobello Road and The Alchemist) I wonder if it is the translator, this is a different one, or if it is just the beauty of the Spanish/Portuguese language and the translation that results. I wish I would’ve read Martínez before going to Spain because I would’ve looked for one (or more) of his books in Spanish!

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