Rae of Light

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett So, as most of you know, I’ve possibly made another crazy decision this year. I’m going to attempt to read every single book Terry Pratchett wrote in his lifetime.  I was kindly given four Pratchetts by Sheffield BF’s son for my birthday. I’ve started with the Disc World series after buying the first two books for my Kindle using another birthday gift – an Amazon voucher. When I was younger I often read Fantasy because it was a way for me to deal with the stresses and strains of everyday life. To some degree I think I chose to hide too deep within the covers of these books, using them to ignore issues I needed to address. Now that I’m older (and hopefully wiser) I choose to read a wider variety of genre rather than wallow too deep inside one. There are however occasions when I revert to my younger self and read Fantasy for pure comfort. With Pratchett’s work, I read them for pure enjoyment and the certain knowledge that at some point i...

11 Months ago Ruskin Readers , along with several other community groups, were ousted from Carnegie Library by Lambeth Council.  The council had made little effort to engage with the groups to ensure they would be safely housed and accommodated elsewhere. It was left to the community group leaders to find new premises and endure the agony of how they would do that with limited funding or none at all. As a Ruskin Readers tutor I found myself in the midst of the anxiety faced by our Lead Tutor (Caroline Knapp).  I was angry and astounded at Lambeth for their lack of thought regarding this matter.  And you know from my Private Protest post in January how I went about dealing with my anger.  But the fact still remained that Ruskin Readers was effectively homeless. At The Cambria For a while we had to split the club into two with the Monday night group putting up shop at The Cambria and the Wednesday group parcelled off to Norwood Library.  Our ...

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness I had to read A Monster Calls in a bit of a hurry as one of my students is studying it at school and only let me know last week. Luckily I had a bit of training in speedy reading last year when I foolishly took on my 100 book Goodreads challenge.  REVIEW For me, the most effective element of A Monster Calls is that the monster is introduced as soon as the story opens. “The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do.” This leaves the reader in no doubt about the fact that something is seriously amiss with our protagonist Conor. I would have liked to see more interaction between Conor and his mother, especially at the start of the book but perhaps Ness tackles it in this way to indicate that she is slipping out of this world. Naturally, I found myself thinking about other books related to grief as I read this and couldn’t help but compare it to Skellig and Savage by David Almond. I confess that I have...

It's that time of year again. I love celebrating my birthday and have never placed much store in chronological age. I'm as old as I care to feel. My annual birthday list has become a bit of a feature, particularly on my Facebook   page. But this year, as I’m celebrating a significant birthday – half a century – I thought I’d up the ante and ask for things I really really want. For some of you who’ve been following the blog for some time now, you may recognise a theme and also see a recurrence of past sort after gifting ideas. Buy Books - Review Books Firstly, buying and reviewing any of my books is always a terrific present to give me.  I am after all a self-published writer and every sale increases my current single figure royalty total. Secondly, as can be seen from my pre-birthday 2014 post , the humble gift voucher still remains a firm favourite for me.  And I feel will remain so until the day I’m packed off in my fully recyclable cof...

Shortly after Lambeth Council shut Carnegie Library and before I became a trustee with the Carnegie Library Association , I felt such utter helplessness in the face of a government body and its relentless disregard for what local residents actually want and need.  Yes, I’d supported The Occupation.  Yes, I’d gone on the marches.  Yes, I’d inundated my Twitter feed with anything and everything to do with loving my library.  But I didn’t feel it was enough. As a tutor with Ruskin Readers I was in the midst of the plight faced by community groups ousted from Carnegie Library.  While I tried to assist our lead tutor Caroline Knapp as she emailed and made Facebook appeals for us to secure a suitable venue, I quietly seethed within. I wanted to do SOMETHING . Then I got a notification email from my Google Calendar to renew my library books.   I made a sudden resolution.    I would not return any of the library books I c...

I managed to finish ahead of time which was a small miracle to be sure So last year I foolishly set myself the challenge of reading 100 books in a year.   I wasn’t really thinking clearly and the number 100 just popped into my head when I spotted the challenge on Goodreads .    I won’t be doing that again because it was an almost impossible task and I hate setting myself up to fail.   Luckily, I didn’t fail but that was predominantly down to the help of my wonderful students. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but I do try to do something different or learn something new every year if at all possible. This year I’m opting to do things a little differently.  I’m giving myself a very practical challenge combined with one I know is going to be filled with fun.  So firstly I’ve decided that if I want to fulfil my ambition of eventually retiring to an Italian island I’d better improve on the smattering of Italian I currently ...

I’ve done it.   And I'm ahead of schedule.   I can scarcely believe it myself.   I anticipated a scramble towards the end to get it done but I was wrong.   However, w ithout the numerous children’s books loaned to me along the way I would never have achieved this at all.   So massive thanks to all my students who lent me their darlings. So here for you, are my top 10 reads this year: Best Adult Reads of 2016 Snuff This book reminded me yet again of why Pratchett is one of my favourite authors.  It covers world and local issues with insight and great wisdom while making me guffaw at the very top of my lungs.  I have yet to read a Pratchett which doesn’t make me howl with laughter in several sections.  I loved, loved, loved it.  And am delighted there is still much of this great genius’ oeuvre for me to discover as well as all my favourites to reread. The Crane Wife In this wonderful book by Patrick Ness, Geo...