Tag: Books

Blog Hop: Books for Low Days

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop1 Comment

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Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is:  What is a book that has helped you get through your lowest point in life?

I don’t know that I can point to any one book at any one moment in life helping me…but I do know that Terry Pratchett books are especially good if life is blue or stressful.  I also like rereading L. M. Montgomery’s journals.  I find biographies in general are often good for perspective, because they remind me how long and variable life actually is.  Right now, during rather a strange and anxious time in the world, I’m on my second Star Trek novel, because I appreciate a hopeful book at the moment.

I was fortunate to read When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold Kushner when I wasn’t going through a particularly bad time, but I think it would be a very good book for that kind of crisis.

What books have helped you in bad days?  Do you have go-to authors for difficult times?

The Phantom of the Opera Reading and Viewing Challenge – 1st Update

On By cherylmahoneyIn Phantom Challenge2 Comments

It’s April 1st, a quarter of the way through 2020 already, and that means it’s time for an update on Phantom reading and viewing adventures.  I hope you and yours are staying well in the midst of the pandemic situation, and maybe having time for some extra reading.  And remember – social isolation may be hard, but donning a mask and crashing chandeliers is never the answer!

I kicked off my Phantom exploration for the year with a reread of the original story, Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera.  This was my…third? fourth? time reading the book, and I enjoyed it immensely–and had lots of thoughts about the unreliability of the narration.

Read my written review of Leroux’s Phantom.

Watch my video review of Leroux’s Phantom.

If you’d like a refresher on the challenge, check out the launch post here.  And please share about your Phantom adventures so far in 2020 in a comment below.  I look forward to seeing what you’ve been exploring this year.

Shameless self-promotion: As a further update on my own retelling of the Phantom, The Guardian of the Opera: Nocturne will be out June 5th, and the cover reveal is this Friday, April 3rd.  Drop by Friday and see the awesome cover I can’t wait to share!

Blog Hop: Visit My Bookshelves

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop1 Comment

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Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is:  Share a photo of one section of your bookshelf randomly selected or go ahead and share the entire bookshelf.

I’ve been wanting to share a video touring my L. M. Montgomery shelves (so, not that randomly selected), making this blog hop prompt perfect!  Please enjoy the visit to my shelves in the video below. 🙂

Video Book Review: When Bad Things Happen to Good People

On By cherylmahoneyIn ReviewsLeave a comment

I don’t expect every review I do in the future will be by video, but right now I’m home a lot and it’s a good time to film.  I’m home a lot because, probably like many of you, my region is under a “stay at home” directive for the coronavirus pandemic.  I decided a very small thing I could do in response was to make a video reviewing a book I have found helpful (and recommended in the past) for dealing with scary, tragic, unfathomable things.

I wrote a review of When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold Kushner before, and yesterday I made the video below.  The book explores the role of faith and God in the face of inexplicable tragedy, and offers enormous insight.

Blog Hop: A Taste of a Story

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop1 Comment

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Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is:  If you could add one interactive feature to reading books, what would it be?

I’d love it if books could be more sensory somehow.  There are picture books (and movies) for the visual senses, and audiobooks sometimes include sound effects.  Beyond that we’d have to stray into fantasyland, I expect, but it would be awesome if books could somehow give you (as an option) a tactile sense when they describe, for example, soft silk or rough tree bark.  There are plenty of things characters feel I wouldn’t want to feel, so it would need to be optional!  Likewise, I’d like to experience some of the smells that are described in a story, but not all of them.

Taste would be the trickiest but maybe the coolest too.  I tend to be intrigued by food in books, especially fantasy-sounding food like bubbly pies (from Anne McCaffrey’s Pern) or butter pies (from Diana Wynne Jones’ A Tale of Time City).  I’m sure fans have made up recipes online, and I’ve even read a few books that included a recipe or two at the end, but the truth is I’ve never made any of them…so I guess what I really want is a replicator that would just spit out the food described in the book I’m reading!