Book Review: The Dark Heroine: Dinner With A Vampire by Abigail Gibbs

There’s plenty of vampire-related literature around at the moment: so much so that readers are spoilt for choice.  If I’m honest, it’s not my favourite genre (I think it deserves to be called a genre in its own right).  I don’t mind the vampires (I have an over-active imagination and am quite prepared to scare myself silly on a dark night wondering if a thirsty, sharp-toothed mythical being is lurking in the shadows).  My problem is with the fact that modern vampires tend to be bratty teenagers: they never seem to be quiet bookish types or suave and sophisticated charmers; they all tend to be a bit gobby, full of self-confidence, and/or very angsty.

However, I found myself drawn to the teenage vampire at the centre of this novel: prince of the vampire kingdom, Kaspar. 

Are you Classically Challenged?

Are you someone who reads a lot of classic novels?  Or someone who hated them at school and still can’t face a 19th century novel?  Or are you somewhere in the middle?  Maybe you’ve tried a few classics in the past and you’d quite like to read more, but you just never seem to get round to prioritising them over more modern literature?  Perhaps the thought of struggling through difficult language puts you off!

Wherever you fit in on the classics scale, you might be interested to know about a read-along which has been started up by Simon Savidge of Savidge Reads and AJ of AJ Reads called Classically Challenged!  

Book Review: Shakespeare’s Restless World by Neil MacGregor

Shakespeare’s Restless World provides an insight into Shakespeare and the world in which he lived through the exploration of his plays.  Neil MacGregor, the writer, is Director of the British Museum and has put together this book following the success of BBC Radio 4’s A History of the World in 100 Objects series and his best-selling book of the same name.

I found this to be an extremely accessible and very enjoyable discovery of the Elizabethan and early Stuart age of Shakespeare and his theatre-going audience.  MacGregor shows us objects dating back to this period – objects which would have been instantly recognisable to the people of the time – and uses each one to expand on a particular theme.

Two nights at Gwydir Castle

I’m aware that I’ve not been blogging as frequently as usual… apologies but I’ve been doing a lot of reading rather than writing!  It’s lovely to indulge in a reading frenzy now and again.  I’ve got lots of books to catch up on and review for you, so watch this space…

The other explanation for being out of action is my recent visit to North Wales’s Gwydir Castle: the setting for the rather wonderful Castles in the Air by Judy Corbett, which I reviewed a few months ago.