Quarterly Book Review #1 ❤️
Reviews for some of the books I have read during September, October and November, plus my favourite book of the quarter and some of the books I am hoping to read next. 📚☕️
Hello, hello to the members of my “Confirmed Bookworms” Club!
In this post to you all I will be sharing some reviews, the books I have read and the books I would like to read in the next quarter. 😊
If you would like to see my reviews for all of the books I have read in this quarter, head over to my Goodreads profile to check them out!
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Books read in September…
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Gully Farm by Mary Hiemstra
Persuasion by Jane Austen
A Cairngorm Loop on the Hoof by Clair Alldritt
Books read in October…
Stancliffe’s Hotel by Charlotte Brontë
The History of the World in Bite-sized Chunks by Emma Marriott
Five Have a Wonderful Time by Enid Blyton
Meet Me Under the Clock by Annie Murry
The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
My Story, Suffragette by Carol Drinkwater
The Remains of the Day by Katzuo Ishiguro
Books read in November…
The Chronicles of Downton Abbey by Jessica Fellows
The Queen by A. N. Wilson
The Orchard Book of Shakespeare’s Stories by Andrew Matthews
The Horseman by Tim Pears
Downton Abbey on Location by J. P. Sperati
Atticus the Storyteller’s 100 Greek Myths by Lucy Coats
The Mennyms by Sylvia Waugh
Favourite Book of the Quarter…
This was so hard, but I pick… Persuasion by Jane Austen! Full review coming soon. :)
Persuasion was the last novel written by Jane Austen and maybe because Jane was older when she wrote it, it felt different to her other books. For me, there was so much more feeling in her way of writing and the love story between Anne Elliott and Captain Wentworth… it almost felt like Jane’s un-told love story hidden in plain sight, or at lest parts of it for me… but that might be my own romantic notions!? At first I was not sure if I would enjoy it as it was much slower to start than her other novels, but once I got to know the characters and the love story began to unfold I couldn’t wait to finish it! A tragic story about love lost, and a new favourite of mine. 😊
Runners up - in no particular order…
(1). The Remains of the Day by Katzuo Ishiguro:
This book is a new favourite of mine! I so loved the way Katzuo wrote about the characters and plot in this book, I was very engaged throughout and I enjoyed the “old” style in which it was written. I understand how some people might possibly find the story slow with the way it is written, for even though the book was published in the 1980s it feels like it is from the 1950s, which I personally just love.
The story is simple, but charming! Written like a diary from the perspective of the main character, Mr Stevens, a butler who works in a fine house, it follows his week off touring around the south of England in his employer’s motor car. Reminiscing about his earlier days working for the late Lord Darlington, the days of the Second World War and the other staff who worked alongside him, we learn about him as a person. It so reminded me of Mr Carson from Downton Abbey!
Even though the entries are written over the course of a week or so, the story feels like it spans over Mr Stevens entire lifetime. It is in the way he recalls all of his past memories as a younger man, his failings, the work he did to become a butler and to do his service well. ❤️
I was a little sad when the book suddenly ended as I was imaging something was going to happen, but it didn't turn out to be so! After sitting with it for a few days though, I did feel like the author may have left the ending open for his readers to believe in their own conclusions of what might of happened?!
(2). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum:
What a charming children’s story, perfect for grown ups too! I grew up watching the old classic movie (1939) staring Judy Garland and listening to the audio book when I was younger, but I have never actually read the book until now?! I enjoyed seeing how they changed the stories in the movie and how many little adventures they had to miss out. I was very much surprised and sad that Dorothy’s shoes were actually little silver shoes in the book and not at all like the iconic movie’s sparkly “Ruby Slippers”. 🥲
I so enjoyed reading about the adventures of the five friends I grew up with, Dorothy Gale, The Cowardly Lion, The Tin Woodman, The Scarecrow and of course little Toto, and what they get up to in the Land of Oz. ❤️
I really liked the introduction written by L. Frank Baum himself in 1900, especially where he says “For the time has come for a series of newer “wonder tales” in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all of the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Having this thought in mind, the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.”
With this in mind, he did achieve the wonderment and joy of this fairy tale, but he still enjoyed adding in a couple “off with their head” moments to the villains and creatures of the story! 😂
(3). Gully Farm by Mary Hiemstra
The story is simple — about a family leaving England in the 1900s to start a new life in Canada as new settlers — but you soon become attached to the characters as you read about their struggles, their happy memories, and their homesickness for their old home. I so enjoy reading about peoples lives back then and the pioneers who left their homeland to settle in the new and strange lands! I would highly recommend. 😊
This is one of my favourite books, which I could read again and again! It is perfect for those, like me, who are Little House on the Prairie fans. ❤️
A few books I would like to read in the next quarter…
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Sailing Alone Around the World by Captain Joshua Slocum
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Some of the Heartland books by Lauren Brooke
Feel free to ❤️ this post, leave a comment below or send a message in the “Confirmed Bookworms” group chat. I always love to hear your thoughts!
My next Quarterly book review will be out sometime in March, happy reading. 📚
Isabella Ann x
