Tom's treasures of fiction, poetry, literature and more...

Apologies for not posting last Friday (31st October). I had no internet connection; I believe something to do with it being Halloween is the reason why... Superstitious, maybe... Moving on! This post here is the one from Friday; there will be another one published for today (Monday 3rd November) so keep a look out for it. I am now going to delve into what I read during October. 1: Zom-B  (2012) by Darren Shan.  Last month, when the theme of the month was horror, I picked Darren Shan as author of the month. When I was a teenager my hands somehow grabbed hold of my book, not sure how exactly but I read it. I decided to read again last month to remind myself what gory details happened. Also I wanted to be able to follow when I read more of the novels in the series, which I did. Read my review if you want to know what I really thought of it. 2: Hotel websites. I am going away and am needing to book somewhere to stay when I travel. Though this is not the easiest thing to do when ot...

Lately I have been thinking about horror and its subgenres. There is gothic, which I have mentioned here on my blog. There is also the supernatural, which I have not covered yet. That is about to change... For today's blog post I am reviewing the supernatural novella  A Christmas Carol  (1843) by Charles Dickens. I remember first reading this Victorian ghost story back when I was at school. What stands out most to me is how Dickens makes us realise that people can change and that does mean anyone. At the start of the novella we see that Scrooge is a grumpy man who despises Christmas. To him Christmas Day is just another ordinary day. But when the ghosts start to appear, Scrooge is made to rethink some of his attitudes and opinions. As the ghosts continue to offer him the versions of what was, is and could be, Scrooge changes. Sometimes I think now that we showed some people what could be if they continue to make the choices they make, then we could do some good. However, that ...

No! No! No! There are some gothic novels which strike terror and cause absolute shock in readers alike. Then there is the subject of today's review post - Matthew Gregory Lewis' petrifying 1796 novel The Monk . Where do I begin with a novel as evil and as twisted as this one? The extremes of gothic are present here in this affrightening  tale and to the maximum I might add. As the title suggests, the novel centres around a monk who gives in to commit lustful sins. What gets me is how sexually detailed it is. There is rape, incest, murder and everyone tricking everyone. This leads to someone becoming victim to an angry mob and someone else becoming the victim of a ghost. Every however many chapters, this novel had yet another big moment that had me in gasp in shock, fear or disgust; though sometimes this was all at once and in equal measure. I have to say that this novel is not for the faint-hearted. During the time when this was released, it became marred in controversy and Mat...

Hi everyone. I'm back to tell you some of the stuff I have been reading in September. Over the past month I have enjoyed reading some different stuff and I am looking forward to stuff I shall read this month. Here is my list for September. 1: For the millionth time - my French.  Those of you that regularly read my blog will be aware that I am learning French daily on my phone. Every day I get various tasks to improve my knowledge of French. These include speaking, listening, typing and reading. I am slowly making progress and have no plans to stop. I find it fun and it will help me if ever I go to France, which is not out of the question. 2: Castle Dor  (1940) by Daphne du Maurier.  As Daphne du Maurier was author of the month, last month and I had the book sitting on my shelf, I decided to read her 1940 novel Castle Dor . Check out my review from last month to see what I thought of it. 3: Facebook and Instagram. I use these two to keep connected and updated on things tha...

Welcome back everyone! I hope autumn is nice for you. Yes summer is gone but cosy jumpers and warming soups are coming right at us! For today's blog post I give to you my review of Arthur Quiller-Couch's and Daphne du Maurier's tragic tale of 1940 - Castle Dor . Quiller-Couch started the novel but died before he could finish and it was du Maurier who got it completed. This novel, set in Cornwall is the story of lust and tragedy. As readers we are introduced to two characters that end up colliding with one another, leading to a journey of hidden desires. We have the Rose and Anchor pub which is owned by Mark Lewarne, who has recently married Linnet Lewarne. There is Deborah who is Linnet's maid. Now she plays a vital role throughout the novel though I will not spoil how. To begin with we are introduced to these two characters and then the character Amyot. As the novel progresses the two characters Linnet and Amyot keep crossing paths until they realise their feelings for...

Hello all,  I wanted to do a post to explain my love of the dystopian genre. When I first started reading dystopian books I grew to love them because to me the dystopian genre offered a form of escapism. It is a sub-genre of the science-fiction genre  ‘ with a heritage reaching back into ancient times, to a pre-scientific world inhabited by peoples whose myths, legends and superstitions became a way of thinking about and explaining the wonders of the universe. ’ ¹ This is according to Marshall B. Tymn in the American Studies Journal. He also states  ‘Science fiction has its beginnings as least as early as the 2nd century with a Greek named Lucian who satirized his own society through the device of an imaginary moon voyage. ’ ² While this highlights the possibility of a new literary genre it was not until 1818 with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein  which was published two years after writing it at the infamous Villa Diodati in Switzerland. Villa Diodati was rented by autho...

  Hi all, I know I have not been on my blog in a long time but the past several months has seen me focus on a lot of other stuff that was more important to me and mentally I was unable to focus on it. I just think that last year was not my year and I did consider giving up on this blog of mine here. However, the new year has arrived and so has a new me. I decided I wanted to have a new beginning with my blog because I love reviewing books that you can enjoy to read yourselves. That is not all I will be posting on my blog as I hope to share other things with you that are related such as things I consider can relate to various types of books or perhaps something I have written myself, as I do write. The reviewing of books is probably what will interest me most though and I hope to have a theme of the month, for each month. I have decided this will change every two months because one month just is not long enough. For January and February, I am going to be reviewing texts that are wit...