Mareli Thalk ink ......

Welcome to the 4th Annual ARC August   - All August, all the ARC's. This is proudly hosted by  Read Sleep Repeat . So what is ARC August? No, it's not just A nother R eading C hallenge, which I happen to be very bad at. But a girl can always try. ARC August is a way to read all the ARC's filling up your Netgalley and ARC shelves. Past or future ARC's, printed or electronic editions, it doesn't matter, just read them.   The rules are very simple: each week in August a linky will go up @ Read Sleep Repeat  where you can share your progress. At the end submitted books will be confirmed, so you must review them somewhere. Either on your blog or on social media. If submissions can't be verified you may be disqualified, so make sure to say something, somewhere. Seeing that I haven't done anything annually here, my ARC list is still very short. I've only registered on Netgalley last month and almost jumped through the roof when I was approved for my first...

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by  Caffeinated Book Reviewer . This is a post to recap the past week on your blog, tell  everyone  about books and things you can showcase and share news for the upcoming week. Remember to link your post and to visit others who have linked up. When I was young, we had this really cool add on tv "The end of the month salticrax". Dumb and Dumber and me never knew that salticrax is proudly South African! I've used this add for my Friday Meets on Friday and was quite surprised that nobody thought my "end of the month toppings" were clever. Gmpfff. Until my husband pointed out that most of my readers do not know the add, or salticrax, and will thus not understand.     

The devilish parts: Title: Froelich's Ladder Author: Jamie Duclos-Yourdon Published by: Forest Avenue Press Publication date: 09 August 2016 Genre: Adult Fiction Pages: 248 (Paperback) ISBN: 978-1-942436-19-5 (Paperback) Description: Froelich nurses a decades-old family grudge from his permanent perch atop a giant ladder in this nineteenth century madcap adventure novel. When he disappears suddenly, his nephew embarks on a rain-soaked adventure across the Pacific Northwest landscape to find him, accompanied by an ornery girl with a most unfortunate name. In their encounters with Confederate assassins, European expatriates and a general store magnate, this fairy tale twist on the American dream explores the conflicts between loyalty and ambition and our need for human connection, even at the highest rungs.  Forest Avenue Press Mareli's rating: 4 stars Recommend to: Readers/believers/tellers of Tall Tales Froelich's Ladder  is a Tall tale/Folk tale set in the O...

It's the last Friday afternoon of a rather long and tedious month. The toppings on my Salticrax are thinly spread and unimaginative. Mweh - let's just leave the toppings. Who cares? As long as there's still some wine and a good book to read.  Meet me on Friday @  Friday 56  for a bit of  Book Blogger Hop   to kick-start the weekend with  Book Beginnings .

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry   Kindle edition. Read between 26 April - 05 May 2016. The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy Paperback.  Read between 07 - 24 July 2016.   We were a tall,married man who was kind and a short, single woman who loved him. It was better to eat sweets and sing backwards than risk unbalancing the small thing we had. "This may come to you as some surprise. I know it is a long time since we last met, but recently I have been thinking a lot a about the past. Last year I had an operation on a tumour, but the cancer has spread and there is nothing left to be done. I am at peace and comfortable but I would like to thank you for the friendship you showed me all those years ago. Please send my regards to your wife. I still think of David with fondness. With my best wishes" And so, with the pink letter, their journey ends. And once again, begins.

For this week's Cover Characteristics, we are featuring Schools Cover Characteristics is a weekly meme hosted by  Sugar and Snark . Every week they give us these gorgeous themes and then you have to pick 5   covers featuring that theme. If you want to participate:  Pick your covers  Post it to your blog Share your post's URL in the linky provided by Sugar and Snark Go and check out the other guys who also posted!  (This might influence your current TBR list a great deal.) I've been out of school long enough to be able to say: It was the best days ever! Today I'm going to take a trip down memory lane and feature two schools that inspired me to attend boarding school and one school that I know inspire a large number of boys in South Africa to go to boarding school. 

Today's Top Ten Tuesday - Ten books that inspired me to do/not do or learn something new Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly link-up/meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish   where they provide a prompt and other lovers of list-making   (me! me! me!)  join in with their own top ten list. Feel free to have less than 10 or more if you need to at times and put a spin on the topic if you need to. Just please link back to  The Broke and the Bookish   if you are participating. Link up with your  BLOG POST   (not your blog)  in the linky provided and remember to pay it forward!

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by  Caffeinated Book Reviewer . This is a post to recap the past week on your blog, tell  everyone  about books and things you can showcase and share news for the upcoming week. Remember to link your post and to visit others who have linked up. I've just finished  The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennesy   and I can hardly see where or what I have to type through my red and swollen eyes. Please don't expect any quirky remarks from me today. But really please do read Miss Queenie. If you can read it alongside her companion The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry  so much the better.     As sad songs and sad books always go, they make you lose track of what you were suppose to do. I actually had this really nice Sunday Post planned, but I have no idea where to find the blueprint under the pile of tissues. The one thing I can remember is that I wanted to change My Sunday Post subheadings to matc...

Kindle edition (353pages) Read between 19 July - 23 July 2016 "You're going to feel uncomfortable in your new world for a bit. But I hope you feel a bit exhilarated too. Live boldly. Push yourself. Don't settle. Just live well. Just live. Love, Will" Louisa Clark is back!  You're not quite sure who that is?    The crazy girl with the massive smile and quirky dress sense who went to a concert with a man in a red dress?  ( She  was wearing the red dress)  Yes!  That  one. The girl who helped the utterly gorgeous Will Traynor do that thing in the highly acclaimed novel by Jojo Moyes,  Me Before You .  18 months after we last saw Lou clutching Will's letter to her heart and straddling along the streets of Paris in her bumblebee tights, we meet her again in the much anticipated sequel,  After You .  

I didn't attend my scheduled Friday Meets last week Friday as: I wasn't on page 56 or even close to 56% on any book The only New Beginnings that were discussed, were our new beginning. (More about that at a later stage) The only hopping was done on the lawn  Let me rephrase: I only hopped on the lawn with children   NO hopping was done I do apologize profoundly and I come prepared today! Meet me on Friday @  Friday 56  for a bit of  Book Blogger Hop   to kick-start the weekend with  Book Beginnings .

Just to clear up any possible uncertainty regarding The Bookish Time Travel Tag : It is NOT a tag that you can put on your bag to ensure that your luggage will be safely returned in what ever dimension you happen to find yourself during your time travels. (Yes, I also agree that a tag like that will be a marvelous invention. Seeing that we are all such jet-setters in the Time Travelling realm) The Bookish Time Travelling Tag is originally created by  The Library Lizard  who claims that this is her first book tag. But really - how can we believe that? How must we know if she hasn't tagged a hatbox containing only books in the Victorian era? But let's give her the benefit of the doubt and play by her rules. Answer as many questions as you can/want. Tag other people - as many as you like.  Please leave a link to The Library Lizard containing your post Explore! Go travelling in other people's Bookish Time Travels and remember to comment. I was tagged a...

Today's theme: Have all your eggs in one basket Cover Characteristics is a weekly meme hosted by  Sugar and Snark . Every week they give us these gorgeous themes and then you have to pick 5   covers featuring that theme. If you want to participate:  Pick your covers  Post it to your blog Share your post's URL in the linky provided by Sugar and Snark Go and check out the other guys who also posted!  (This might influence your current TBR list a great deal.) The first books that popped in my head when I saw this week's theme, were children's books!     

This week's theme for Top Ten Tuesday is ten books set outside the US  (Nope, it's not us (aka earthlings: human; vampire; zombie etc) it is US -United States) Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly link-up/meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish   where they provide a prompt and other lovers of list-making   (me! me! me!)  join in with their own top ten list. Feel free to have less than 10 or more if you need to at times and put a spin on the topic if you need to. Just please link back to  The Broke and the Bookish   if you are participating. Link up with your  BLOG POST   (not your blog)  in the linky provided and remember to pay it forward! Seeing that I was born in the RSA (YES! You can actually sing it to the tune of the iconic Bruce Springsteen song -just do it in the right voice and facial expression as well) - I am proudly waving my flag.            Today I will give yo...

Ever wondered what turned Rachel into  The Girl on the Train   with a serious drinking problem? Or what drove  The Widow 's husband to steal a child? Or why Miss Marple had to investigate  The mirror cracked from side to side ? Or why did Mabel and Jack build  The Snow Child ? (No, they did not name her Elsa and it was very hard to let it go) What forced Griet to find solace and company in  Entertaining Angels ? And exactly what was it  What Alice forgot ?        

It's been a hectic week. I've been away from my computer and I am only online for an hour or so. Mainly just to catch up on all the posts AND to quickly do Cover Characteristics! Cover Characteristics is a weekly meme hosted by  Sugar and Snark . Every week they give us these gorgeous themes and then you have to pick 5   covers featuring that theme. If you want to participate:  Pick your covers  Post it to your blog Share your post's URL in the linky provided by Sugar and Snark Go and check out the other guys who also posted!  (This might influence your current TBR list a great deal.)   This week's theme is balconies. I could think of a couple of books where balconies played a big part, but alas - all the action doesn't happen on the covers you know. So you might have to use your imagination for a few... 

Top Ten Tuesday - Ten things you probably did not know about me Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly link-up/meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish   where they provide a prompt and other lovers of list-making   (me! me! me!)  join in with their own top ten list. Feel free to have less than 10 or more if you need to at times and put a spin on the topic if you need to. Just please link back to  The Broke and the Bookish   if you are participating. Link up with your  BLOG POST   (not your blog)  in the linky provided and remember to pay it forward! It's Thursday already, but there is no way that I am missing out on this week's Top Ten Tuesday. I mean honestly, who doesn't like to talk about me? 

I really love my Sunday visits with you guys, but today I have a serious case of a dreamy far off look with my nose stuck in a book Seeing that this is a very serious condition, I am just quickly stopping by to give a quick recap of the past week. The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by  Caffeinated Book Reviewer . This is a post to recap the past week on your blog, tell  everyone  about books and things you can showcase and share news for the upcoming week. Remember to link your post and to visit others who have linked up.

Exciting weekend ahead! My bestest friend in forever is coming to visit me. So I am quickly drafting all my weekend posts and will have them all posted right on schedule (hopefully). I don't know how much reading will be done as my friend is not a reader (unbelievable - I know!),  but luckily one needs to go to the bathroom ever so often and who needs sleep? Meet me on Friday @  Friday 56  for a bit of  Book Blogger Hop   to kick-start the weekend with  Book Beginnings . Friday 56  is hosted by  Freda's Voice . For this date, you will need the following:  Grab a book  (Yes, any book. But it might get you to your other Friday activities a bit quicker if you just grab the book you are currently reading) Turn to page 56 or 56% on your e-reader Find a sentence or two  (your other Friday activities might determine this) Post it! Remember to post your link on  Freda's Voice  and to visit the other guys i...

Cover Characteristics is a weekly meme hosted by  Sugar and Snark . Every week they give us these gorgeous themes and then you have to pick 5  (or more - whatever ruffle your feathers)  covers featuring that theme. If you want to participate:  Pick your covers  Post it to your blog Share your post's URL in the linky provided by Sugar and Snark Go and check out the other guys who also posted!  (This might influence your current TBR list a great deal.)   As you know by now, I tend to list the book that pops in my mind first as my favourite pick. Every now and again (like last week)  there is no popping and I have to rely on other, secondary resources. Like Google. Luckily there were a few pops this week:

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly link-up/meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish   where they provide a prompt and other lovers of list-making   (me! me! me!)  join in with their own top ten list. Feel free to have less than 10 or more if you need to at times and put a spin on the topic if you need to. Just please link back to  The Broke and the Bookish   if you are participating. Link up with your  BLOG POST   (not your blog)  in the linky provided and remember to pay it forward! When I first saw the theme of this week's Top Ten Tuesday, I thought: Huh?? Scratch-scratch, tap-tap finger or pencil - now how must I know that? Luckily as you know:  Readers are achievers  If you can read , you will succeed If all else fails, read the instructions The instructions were nicely included with the theme, accompanied with step by step instructions for dummies. Or the technologically impaired. Or infants. Like me.  ...

"Disappearance of unpleasant English female dog fancier puts hubby on spot; law asks lots of questions"   - Quoted from  Saturday Review  25 April 1964 The devilish parts: Title: The Benefits of Death Author: Roderic Jeffries Published by: Endeavour Press Publication date: 24 June 2016 Genre: Mystery & Thrillers / General Fiction Pages: 176 (kindle) ISBN: 9781534893436   Description: There is no love lost between Charles Leithan and his wife, but with inheritance money at stake, neither will instigate divorce. So when she goes missing, the police are convinced he's responsible.  Endeavourpress Rating: 3 Stars Recommend to: Cozy mystery readers and fans of Midsomer Murders

As a by-the-way mention in my  Sunday Post   yesterday, today is my first quarter anniversary (and tomorrow is only a day away. There - yesterday, today and tomorrow - all in one sentence).    Remember to treat yourself today - it's on me! In case you missed the various options, you can choose between: Buy as many sweets as you can for a quarter Go on a date with a quarter back Treat yourself to a quarter  pounder Click, click, click and start following me (now that's a treat) Aah no, don't mention it.  You know what is the one thing greater than giving presents?  Receiving presents!! Three months is basically infancy. That means that everything I come across for the first time in the blogosphere is cause for:  a stunned expression  a happy dance  jumping up and down waking-up my husband with a " look look!! I have a comment!!!!!" (high-pitched, shrill voice accompanies this) My first comm...

Sunday 03 July 2016 - It's a celebration! The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by  Caffeinated Book Reviewer . This is a post to recap the past week on your blog, tell  everyone  about books and things you can showcase and share news for the upcoming week. Remember to link your post and to visit others who have linked up. It's a celebration!  Tomorrow will be my first quarter Anniversary! Yes, I've been gracing The Blogosphere with my inky presence for exactly 3 months now. Yea! In order for you to celebrate with me, you can choose between 4 amazing treats:  

What to read in July 2016 As explained in my  June InkStains   post, my Library Card for June 2016 was a bit of a disaster. I really feel very bad about this, but will stick to my defenses. AND to make amends, I will not send the selected books for June to the bottom of the stack (again) .   I will simply add a few more books to the stack and get reading here.....

After almost 3 months of blogging, I'm starting to notice what comes around and goes around - monthly roundups.  This is my first post of the henceforth monthly update of the books that left a stain on my reading mind. In other words, all the books read by me during the past month. I will combine this with the monthly Library Card page . Still need to find a quirky title though, so watch this space! My  Library Card   for June 2016 ended up being a bit of a disaster. I only managed to finish 1 (yes, one) of the scheduled books.

We came back from holidays last Friday and the past week has been hectic:  Revamping the blog  Struggling to get the hang of social media  Registering on Netgalley  Begging for new followers Yes okay, it does sound as if I'm just making up excuses for not reading enough. But  I do solemnly swear to pledge my weekend to reading.  Meet me on Friday @  Friday 56  for a bit of  Book Blogger Hop   to kick-start the weekend with  Book Beginnings . Friday 56  is hosted by  Freda's Voice . For this date, you will need the following:  Grab a book  (Yes, any book. But it might get you to your other Friday activities a bit quicker if you just grab the book you are currently reading) Turn to page 56 or 56% on your e-reader Find a sentence or two  (your other Friday activities might determine this) Post it! Remember to post your link on  Freda's Voice  and to visit th...