😻 It's our Sixth Blogoversary 😻

Six years ago I took a leap of faith and decided that, with Jaffa's help, I would start to record, on my own website, my thoughts about the books I was reading. I was already an active reviewer on Goodreads and Amazon and also reviewed books for Newbooks Magazine, Love Reading and Real Readers, so reviewing wasn't new to me, however, blogging was a completely different way of sharing my thoughts, both on my blog and also on social media. Social media was something of an enigma and when I started to blog, I didn't use either Facebook or Twitter, so getting to be familiar with both was a huge learning curve, and something I needed to get the hang of quickly if I wanted Jaffareadstoo to survive in a huge pool of blogs and bloggers.

A few of my online friends had already started to blog, some using Wordpress and others using Blogger to host their sites. And whilst I looked at both options, I decided that I rather liked the look of Blogger and its easy way of adding posts and pictures - so I decided to give it a try. My 'blogging' friends were a big help in the early days of Jaffareadstoo and they continue to be a huge support and an endless source of both help and inspiration. I am indebted to the excellent bloggers who continue to support my endeavors and who are always around to share nuggets of wisdom, and of course, their love of books and reading. 

Once I had the basic design, the blog needed a name, and some time previously my daughter had taken a photograph of, the then, kittenish, Jaffa, perched on my knee reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and she made the comment .." Jaffa reads too, and of course, there it was, my magical name, and thus, Jaffareadstoo was born.

Six years, and nearly 2000 blog posts later, Jaffareadstoo continues to survive and thrive in a world where book bloggers sometimes get a hard time. The notion that we get paid for reviewing books rears its ugly head time after time. To put the record straight - I DON'T get paid to review any of the books I share on my blog. I buy just as many books as I get for free and I spend hours and hours online making sure that Jaffareadstoo is both informative and fun.

As long as my love of books survives then so will Jaffareadstoo. Thanks for being with us over the last six years - we couldn't do this without the people who read and support us every day. Nor could we survive without all the wonderful authors and publishers who grace our pages and who make this blogging experience so much FUN 😊

As a  I have six lovely books to giveaway to new homes

Entry is really simple - just leave a nice comment on here, or on our Jaffareadstoo Facebook page.

Tell us which book you fancy reading and Jaffa will add ALL the names into his sorting hat on the 15th May - 😻

If by chance, you have read all these lovely books then opt for a mystery prize which Jaffa has put together in secret...

  

    

Just a few points:

Please be kind and follow our blog if you do not already do so or follow us on Twitter @jaffareadstoo or like us on Facebook

Leave a comment either on here or on our Facebook page and don't forget to tell us which book... or  mystery prize !

And leave us some contact details - either an email or Twitter username

We will post within UK and Europe 

👇You've just a week to add your lovely comments 👇

Good Luck.

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Review ~ Cousins by Salley Vickers

Viking Penguin
2016

The book blurb..

Brilliant and mercurial Will Tye suffers a life changing accident. The terrible event ripples through three generations of the complex and eccentric Tye family, bringing to light old tragedies and dangerous secrets. Each member of the family holds some clue to the chain of events which may have led to the accident and each holds themselves to blame. Most closely affected is Will's cousin Cecelia, whose affinity with Will leaves her most vulnerable to his suffering and whose own life is for ever changed by how she will respond to it.

Told through the eyes of three women close to Will, his sister, his grandmother and his aunt, Cousins is a novel weaving darkness and light which takes us from the outbreak of World War Two to the present day, exploring the recurrence of tragedy, the nature of transgression, and the limits of morality and love.

My thoughts...

When student, Will Tye suffers a devastating accident, not only does it shock his family but it also reopens old secrets which have been allowed to linger for far too long in the shadows.

In Cousins, the author, Salley Vickers lays bare the very fabric of family life, in a story which evolves through the narration of Will's grandmother, his sister and his aunt, namely, the three women who are closest to him and who each have a part to play in the eventual outcome of the story. The three narrators are very different people and this comes across in their individual stories and yet, their stories coalesce and intertwine to form a cohesive portrayal of a family which has been shattered into a million pieces.

What I enjoyed about Cousins was the way the story was allowed to evolve at entirely its own pace. It seems, on the surface, to be a rather slow and thoughtful story, and yet, it is no less powerful because of that, rather it demonstrates just how good the author is at getting right into the heart of what matters. The secrets at the centre of the story are perceptively written and the author writes beautifully about thoughts and feelings, and also, of the insecurities which can, so often, blight a generation. 

Ultimately, Cousins is a story about the delicate intricacies of familial relationships. It’s about the devastating consequences of love and sacrifice and of the dangerous risks that families will take in order to protect each other from the pain of heartbreak. 

Best Read With ...a glass of bitter shandy , heavy on the lemonade...

About the Author

Salley Vickers was born in Liverpool, the home of her mother, and grew up as the child of parents in the British Communist Party. She won a state scholarship to St Paul’s Girl’s School and went on to read English at Newnham College Cambridge.Her first novel, ‘Miss Garnet’s Angel’, became an international word-of-mouth bestseller. She now writes full time and lectures widely on many subjects, particularly the connections between, art, literature, psychology and religion.

  

Website

Twitter @SalleyVickers

Amazon UK

My thanks to Josie at Penguin Viking for the opportunity to read and review this novel




**While it's Christmas -  I'm giving away my read "only once" Hardback copy**

a Rafflecopter giveaway





***Good Luck ***

Charlotte Brontë Bicentenary 1816-2016

Charlotte Brontë was born on April 21st 1816 in Thornton, a suburb of Bradford. In 1820, she and her family moved to the small town of Haworth which snuggled into a corner of the wild Yorkshire Dales.

 ©Digital Images

In 1820, Charlotte's father Patrick took over as minister at the church of St Michael’s and All Angels and the Brontë family moved into the adjacent parsonage.

 ©Digital Images

Sadly, Maria, Charlotte’s mother, died in 1821, leaving husband Patrick, and her Maria’s sister Elizabeth Branwell, to look after the children,Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell.

In August 1824 Patrick sent Charlotte, Emily, Maria and Elizabeth to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire. Charlotte maintained that the school's poor conditions permanently affected her health and physical development, and hastened the deaths of Maria (born 1814) and Elizabeth (born 1815), who both died of tuberculosis in June 1825. After the deaths of her older sisters her father took Charlotte and Emily from the school. It is thought that Charlotte used the school as the basis for Lowood School in Jane Eyre.

Back at the Howarth Parsonage, Charlotte and her surviving siblings Anne, Emily and Branwell escaped into a fictional world, where they made up stories to entertain each other. These fictional escapades laid the foundation for what was to come.

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Emily grew to adulthood and was educated between 1831 and 1832 at Roe Head in Mirfield. She later spent time there as a teacher in 1835-1838. In 1839 Charlotte took up the position of governess to a Yorkshire family. In 1842, Charlotte and her sister Emily travelled to Brussels where they enrolled in a boarding school run by Monsieur Constantin Héger and his wife. In return for board and lodgings, Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music. This experience in Brussels and Charlotte’s infatuation with Héger gave Charlotte the inspiration for her novels, The Professor and Villette. The sister’s time at the school was cut short by the death of their aunt Branwell and Emily returned to Haworth in 1842, whilst Charlotte returned to Brussels only to return to Haworth in 1844.

In May 1846 Charlotte, Emily and Anne now living together at the Parsonage decided to self-finance the publication of a joint collection of poems under their assumed names of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.

On the use of a male pseudonym Charlotte wrote:

"Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because — without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called "feminine" – we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise"

Charlotte Brontë Novels

1847 Jane Eyre

1849 Shirley

1853 Villette

1857 The Professor (published posthumously)

1860 Emma (unfinshed)

Tragically, the Brontë family suffered the deaths of three of its members within eight months. In September 1848 Branwell died of an illness made worse by heavy drinking, although Charlotte believed that his death was due to tuberculosis. Emily became seriously ill shortly after Branwell’s funeral and died of pulmonary tuberculosis in December 1848. Anne died of the same disease in May 1849.

Charlotte Brontë continued to live at the Howarth parsonage with her father. In June 1854 she married her father’s curate Arthur Bell Nicholls. Charlotte became pregnant shortly after their wedding but sadly, died with her unborn child, in March 1855, just three weeks before her thirty-ninth birthday. She is buried along with other family members in the family vault in the church of St Michael and All Angels.

 ©Digital Images

All the images you see were taken on my visit to Haworth were I spent time in the shadow of the Brontës , making literature come alive in my imagination.

To celebrate this Bicentenary I am giving away a paperback copy of my favourite Charlotte Brontë  classic...

Jane Eyre

a Rafflecopter giveaway





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