Lizixer's Updates en-US Fri, 06 Jun 2025 02:00:27 -0700 60 Lizixer's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Rating864982359 Fri, 06 Jun 2025 02:00:27 -0700 <![CDATA[Lizixer liked a readstatus]]> /
Lizixer liked Mark’s status update
Mark Edwards Mark Edwards wants to read Vanity Fair
]]> Rating864982356 Fri, 06 Jun 2025 02:00:25 -0700 <![CDATA[Lizixer liked a readstatus]]> /
Lizixer liked Mark’s status update
Mark Edwards Mark Edwards wants to read Pride and Prejudice
]]> Comment291438653 Fri, 06 Jun 2025 02:00:08 -0700 <![CDATA[Lizixer commented on Mark's review of The Once and Future King]]> /review/show/2672359648 Mark's review of The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1-5)
by T.H. White

What?! Only three stars. I am disappointed. ]]> Rating864982164 Fri, 06 Jun 2025 01:58:57 -0700 <![CDATA[Lizixer liked a review]]> /
Lizixer liked Gerald's review of Silas Marner:
Silas Marner by George Eliot
"My first George Eliot and I enjoyed it. You could write a full plot synopsis in less then a page and this took over 200, not only that, it didn't really kick off until page 122!

But despite the scene setting and characterisation taking it's time, it was then a rollicking read and there's so much packed into this that feels ahead of it's time... marriage, religion, role of a woman and above all class."
]]> Review7631923774 Fri, 06 Jun 2025 01:44:47 -0700 <![CDATA[Lizixer added 'Footsteps by Richard Holmes (18-Mar-2012) Paperback']]> /review/show/7631923774 Footsteps by Richard Holmes (18-Mar-2012) Paperback by Richard Holmes Lizixer gave 4 stars to Footsteps by Richard Holmes (18-Mar-2012) Paperback by Richard Holmes
Part memoir, part mini biographies of his four subjects, part reflection on the craft of biography, we follow Holmes as he tries to track down Robert Louis Stevenson in rural France, Mary Wollstonecraft in Revolutionary France, Shelley in Italy and Gerard de Nerval in 19th century Paris.

The portraits of their lives are fascinating as are Holmes� reflections on his practice and his sense of tracking these people through space and time but still not really able to know if he is right about what motivates them.

There’s also a bit of travelogue in the back through a 20th century world that is almost certainly lost in the 21st but which might just be remembered by anyone born in post-war Europe.

As always with Holmes, he is a good writer but not gripping. His treatment of Mary Shelley (which he does go some way to acknowledging) is harsh because of his hero worship of Shelley (I mean I’m not sure I’d be thrilled that my husband had a deep and tempestuous relationship with a young woman who I had to tolerate living in my house while I struggled with my own health and creativity).

Nevertheless his attempt to trace the thread of Romanticism across Europe and through time is worth four of any one’s stars ]]> ReadStatus9513083797 Thu, 05 Jun 2025 15:02:44 -0700 <![CDATA[Lizixer started reading 'Circles of Stone: Weird Tales of Pagan Sites and Ancient Rites']]> /review/show/6890911342 Circles of Stone by Katy Soar Lizixer started reading Circles of Stone: Weird Tales of Pagan Sites and Ancient Rites by Katy Soar
]]> ReadStatus9509146018 Wed, 04 Jun 2025 14:47:22 -0700 <![CDATA[Lizixer is currently reading 'Intervals of Darkness']]> /review/show/7628071637 Intervals of Darkness by Ray Newman Lizixer is currently reading Intervals of Darkness by Ray Newman
]]> ReadingNotesCollectionPlaceholder4156783 Wed, 04 Jun 2025 07:48:18 -0700 <![CDATA[#<ReadingNotesCollectionPlaceholder:0x00005555891224b8>]]> UserStatus1074403139 Wed, 04 Jun 2025 07:47:07 -0700 <![CDATA[ Lizixer is 59% done with Tell Me the Truth About L ]]> Tell Me the Truth About Life by National Poetry Day Lizixer is 59% done with <a href="/book/show/50885359-tell-me-the-truth-about-life">Tell Me the Truth About Life</a>. ]]> Review7617448933 Sun, 01 Jun 2025 04:15:09 -0700 <![CDATA[Lizixer added 'Best British Short Stories 2015']]> /review/show/7617448933 Best British Short Stories 2015 by Nicholas Royle Lizixer gave 4 stars to Best British Short Stories 2015 (Paperback) by Nicholas Royle
The secret with a book of short stories I think is to take it slowly. One a day or even longer gaps between them to let the ideas settle. There’s a danger with short stories that you consume them all in one sitting and feel like you’ve just eaten a big bag of delicious crisps but now you wish you’d eaten them more slowly to keep getting the hit.

With this set of British writers probably only Hilary Mantel became very well known outside of literary circles (although Jenn Ashworth may disagree with that! )

Many of these stories showcase the British love of the weird, the drawing out of the eerie from the mundane, the underlying sense of unease in provincial English towns, I particularly liked Alison Moore, and Charles Wilkinson for that.

Some are exemplars of British magical fantasy, I intend to track down more of Helen Marshall and some of the paranormal or supernatural.

There’s humour too and clever commentary on British life.

Hilary Mantel remains one of my favourite writers and many of her books are already on my bookshelf but
I intend to read more of many of these writers although some are hard to track down to anything like anthologies. The ideas, the scenarios and/or the sheer Britishness of most of these stories made them an enormous pleasure to read ]]>