Explore Your World - Lancashire, England

Inspired by the setting of the current series I'm reading (The Wardstone Chronicles), my first Explore Your World will spotlight the county of Lancashire, England. Author Joseph Delaney modeled his "County" on the real-life places in the area, and the scenery, history, and customs of Lancashire can be glimpsed in the stories.

For example, I could imagine the Ward farm looking like this:

And the village of Chipenden (based on real-life Chipping, Lancashire) as something like this:

And sometimes, I don't need to let my mind wander too far, because Delaney describes a real-life place, like Pendle Hill, the abode of witches!

But let's return to Lancashire as it exists in reality. The county is a lively blend of bustling big cities and cultural hubs (like Blackpool or Blackburn - Go Rovers!) to rolling hills and quaint villages. From Blackpool, Britain's most popular seaside resort, to the haunting fells of the rural countryside, you'll discover all sorts of places to explore in Lancashire. Ancient Roman ruins, medieval monasteries, historic town centers, and scenic hikes await you!

So let's get a basic Itinerary:

- Blackpool: Major, major tourist location here! This seaside resort peaked in the early 20th century as a resort town for the factory workers of northern England. Reputedly, the city still has more hotels than the entire country of Portugal! Though not as lively as it once was, Blackpool still remains the most popular seaside resort in Britain (hmm, my money would have been on Southampton).

- English towns at their most charming!

* I would visit Lancaster and Preston in particular because they feature prominently in the Wardstone world. In the series, Lancaster is named "Caster" and Preston is appropriately named "Priestown," probably on account of it being referred to as the "Most Catholic City in England." I personally love church architecture, so Preston would be a fun place to visit if for no other reason than to gape at all the spires and flying buttresses

Preston also has:

- 5 museums (including the National Football Museum - which houses, among other things, the winning ball from the 1966 World Cup Final! I find that in itself enough reason to pack up and trek up there straightaway!)

- an active nightlife... it's a university town with 35,000 students to keep entertained.

- Nearby Beacon Fell, a famous country park with a mix of woodland, moorland, and farmland. Yes, "moorland" - as in the famous English moors! Climb up to the top of the hills and scream out "Heathcliff!" to your heart's content!

- West Pennine Moors: Nature in all its splendor! The Moors feature 90+ miles of unspoiled wild, rolling countryside, and contrasts nicely with the larger urban areas we've already explored! If you're into walking/hikking, there are some awesome trails you can follow...or if you have a car, you can drive them.

Pendle Hill: The Salem (MA) of northern England! This historic site has a long and fascinating (but ominous) history, dating back to the Bronze Age, when it was used as an ancient burial mound. As my comparison to Salem suggests, Pendle Hill is also known to history for its association with witchcraft, which reached an apex in the 17th century. That story can be found here.
- You'll be able to walk the Pendle Witches Trail, a tour which takes you around some of the locations synonymous with the infamous Pendle Witches. Personal note: My cousin Julia and her family did the tour and they absolutely loved it!

- After you're finished, stop by the Witches Galore cafe in nearby Newchurch!

And now...let's not forget about the FOOD

No matter where you are, be sure to keep a lookout for Lancashire hotpot, a celebrated county dish traditionally made with lamb.

And also, you can't call your trip to Lancashire complete without sampling some Lancashire cheese - probably the most famous food item of the area.

So there you have it! Who knows when the travel bug may bite, and if it will at all. Thanks to the trusty internet, though, you can explore your world without all the mundane downers that go with actual traveling. And it all traces back to reading! This may sound cliche, but when you read, you really do go on a sort of expedition - to faraway lands or lands that only exist in the imagination. So thanks to Joseph Delaney and the Wardstone Chronicles for sparking my interest in beautiful, exquisit Lancashire, England. So when you finish reading this post, take a moment to think about the importance of a story's setting - how it becomes an image in your mind, how it seems to become real and accessible... Maybe there's a world waiting to be discovered in your current book, too!

Another Challenge!

This will be my second reading challenge and lucky for me, I can count these books with the books on my other challenge. Isn't it wonderful when things work out?
Okay, the reason why I think this is an above-and-beyond awesome challenge is because it applies exclusively to series books - and for some reason, those seem to be the only books I read nowadays...
Here's how it works:

- It will run from August 1, 2009 to August 1, 2010
- You may sign up at any point in this time period
- To complete the challenge, you must read THREE books from one series, FOUR books from another series, and FIVE books from another series
(For example: Song of Fire and Ice trilogy by George RR Martin, the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, and five of the Chronicles of Narnia books)
- You do not have to choose your books ahead of time (but are more than welcome to)
- You do not have to 'complete' a series (i.e. you don't have to read a trilogy for your three book requirement - just 3 books from the same series)
- Only books that you read between August 1, 2009 and August 1, 2010 count
- The books you read may count for other challenges

To join the challenge, Click Here

5 Books from a Series (The Wardstone Chronicles - Joseph Delaney; hey I was already reading these to begin with!)
- The Spook's Apprentice
- The Spook's Curse
- The Spook's Secret
- The Spook's Mistake
4 Books in a Series (The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis; I have to read these again for school, anyway...)
- The Magician's Nephew
- The Horse and His Boy
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
- The Last Battle
3 Books in a Series (The Great Tree of Avalon - T.A. Barron)
- Child of the Dark Prophecy
- Shadows on the Stars
- The Eternal Flame

PS - does anybody know how to put one of those "chart my progress" boxes in the column? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

The "Definitely...Maybe" books...

Have you ever been interested in a book or series but wasn't quite sure enough to actually start reading it? I guess it's a bit like everybody's TBR shelf, but in this case, I find a difference between definitely going to read - at some point and maybe going to read...

Right now, I've got a couple that I'm dancing around. I wonder if anyone's heard of them?

* The Atherton Trilogy by Patrick Carman

(The House of Power, Rivers of Fire, The Dark Planet)

* The Great Tree of Avalon series by T.A. Barron

(Child of the Dark Prophecy, Shadows on the Stars, The Eternal Flame)
* The Hourglass Trilogy by Lisa Magum (The Hourglass Door, The Golden Spiral - unreleased, Untitled Third - unreleased)

* Woves of Mercy Falls by Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver, Linger, and Forever- unreleased)

* Sea Change by Aimee Friedman

* Rampant by Diana Peterfreund

Who knows?! I'm usually a very picky reader... I like reading, and a good book is worth its weight in gold to me, but bad books are like a virus, and I try really hard to root out certain titles...but you never know. Reading has pretty much become my #1 pasttime :)

Teaser Tuesdays!

My blog is relatively new, and so I'm always looking for new things to add to my posts. I found this on a friend of mine's blog and thought it would be fun to incorporate here, as well!
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should be Reading.
Here's how it works:

- Grab the current book you're reading
- Open up to a random page
- share 2 "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page - just don't include spoilers!!!
**Note: I personally will probably fudge on the numbers and do more than just 2 sentences...!

Here's my teaser, from Joseph Delaney's The Spook's Curse (The Wardstone Chronicles, #2)

"No, Alice had just been brought up in bad company. I couldn't let her be burned as a witch. Somehow I had to find a way to rescue her, but at that moment I didn't have the slightest clue how it could be done..."
- The Spook's Curse, pg 80

HOW FUN!!

Reading Recap!

How many books did you read last week?


I read 2 1/2 - I know, "whoop!" right? I wish I could bump the number up to 3 - but I finished The Spook's Apprentice last night, which technically counts as this week. Oh well.


I also want to develop some kind of accurate rating system - it's one thing to say "I give this book 4 stars!" but what exactly does that mean?! So hopefully I'll have that hashed out sometime this week.


For now, the three books I read from Monday-Saturday were:



Cold indeed is the heart not made warm by this bubbly fairy-rale romance...Kirkus Reviews
Well said, Kirkus! I never thought I'd find "over-the-top" so funny and refreshing! Take all the things considered necessary for a good book nowadays - complex, complicated and ultra-flawed characters, excessive backstories, social commentaries, and sad, morbid endings - and flip them over like a flapjack, and you'll have a good idea of what Once Upon a Marigold is! Yes, the characters are lovably simple, yes the story is a bit on the predictable side (that's the nature of fairytales, after all!) and yes, there is a (da-da-dum) HAPPY ENDING! And I loved it all, and so will you! Here's the setup: a commoner raised by a troll who falls in love with a princess and must rescue said princess when the evil queen plots to take over the throne! Exciting! No, I'm not being sarcastic, it's truly exciting! Somehow, the fact that Jean Ferris wrote this book specifically as a good'ol fairytale story makes everything so much easier to digest. You know going in that this is going to be a fun and uplifting read. This story is like Lean Cuisine: it tastes good and it's good for you! In fact, while reading this book I was reminded of the "Comedy Tonight" song from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: "Something familiar, Something peculiar, Something for everyone - a comedy tonight!" This is a book that definitely wants to be read! I was in Borders about a month ago, minding my own business, when my eyes fell on this title and its sequel (which I will be starting straight away), and I just had to buy it. It's like it wanted me to find it (kind of like the Ring, only not as evil and creepy). So I would recommend this book to anyone who likes being happy! It's a simple read (less than 300 pages) and only took me 2 nights... "No royal curse, No Trojan horse, and a happy ending, of course!" (Actually, there is a royal curse in this story, but whatever, you get the point!) This book has just made me giddy-happy, can you tell? Too much realism is bad for the soul! And the stomach! Read Once Upon a Marigold!

Rating: 5/5. This book has all the ingredients for an awesome, near-perfect read! A very fun experience!


I finished the book late last night, and I still haven't entirely gathered my thoughts about it. While I really liked Jean Ferris' writing style, and while I found a lot of the things she had to say cute and uplifting, this book just really didn't measure up to the first. Both books are supposed to be light and fluffy and over-the-top, but somehow this one seemed (at times) almost shallow. I liked the idea of having a sequel (the cutie-patootie ending of Once Upon a Marigold certainly allowed for a second installment) so it's not like I was against the idea of continuing the story. The story that she crafted, however, didnt quite work for me. For example, the two main characters - Christian and Marigold - are practically in the background until about the second half of the book, and the perspective follows the main villain, Olympia, almost exclusively in the beginning. That got real old, real fast. And also: her characterizations seem a bit wackier here...as in, these are the same characters from her original story and yet they're not quite the same. Christian and Marigold have suddenly become crabby, and Olympia goes from being a cold-and-calculating kind of evil villain to a spazzy, hyperactive banshee evil villain in the second novel - stuff like that. It just made me frown. And a lot of her conversations seemed really forced - like she was poking her characters with a stick in order to get a reaction out of them! And above all, this book was not NEAR as readable as the first one. Ironically, there's a quote on pg 111 that reads "The next few days passed very, very s-l-o-w-l-y..." and that about sums up my reading experience for the most part. I literally had to *force* myself to keep chugging along, and that annoyed me. I've got to force myself as it is to read class assignments, and I don't particularly like having to do it in my spare reading. The first book flowed so simply; this book was a much rockier ride. - So why am I still giving this 4 stars instead of 3? It has to do with Jean Ferris' quality of writing. There were several flecks of gold in the rocky boulders of this story and some really cute messages to be learned as well. Often nowadays, books are really superficial: there's no lesson to be learned and nothing to be gained once the story ends, but in keeping with fairytale fashion, there are lessons in Twice Upon a Marigold and you just have to admire that. Her characters grew on me - the old ones and the new ones - and by the end of the book, I had my warm, fuzzy feeling again. I would NOT discourage ANYONE from reading Twice Upon a Marigold, but rather I would caution not to expect the same level of superb storytelling found in the first book.

Final Rating: 3.5 Stars. This book will still be likable to fans of the original - just so long as they're aware that it's not as good as the first.


Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! I have a very, very good feeling about the rest of the books in the Wardstone Chronicles after completing this book (it's called Revenge of the Witch in the US)... - First of all, a very, very engaging and rather original plot! It's similar to HARRY POTTER in this: both take place in England, and both have a lot to do with folkoric creatures and legends: witches, boggarts, and the like. But there's where the similarities end. You can read the synopsis up at the top and know that this will be the story of Thomas J. Ward, the seventh son of a seventh son (hey Angie Sage--that's like your story!) who becomes the apprentice of the County's Spook (hold your horses - fellow Americans! That's the dude's title) and through all sorts of adventures learns the lessons of the trade. - Second, I am a new, big fan of Joseph Delaney's writing style. His prose is simple (not highfalutin' like some other authors out there!) and yet incredibly descriptive; he draws you fully into the world of his story. Every word is engaging, every word flows with ease to create an image in your mind. - With that in mind, I do want to make a declaration: I READ THIS BOOK AFTER DARK! The book warns readers specifically not to do that. And I huffed and I puffed and I said, "this book won't be scary! I'm 21 years old now!" and within a few minutes I was opening up my rommmate's door just to make sure I wasn't alone. So this book isn't really *scary* so much as it's incredibly eerie in some sections. There are parts that read like a good'ol fashion ghost story. In my opinion, Delaney doesnt overdo himself and really hammer home what's going on - rather he paces everything so that you are drawn in to the suspicion and the intensity of the story and you can't put the book down! - Now here's my fine-print: I think this book would be enjoyed best by the +13 crowd. I got the number 13 just because that's the age of the main character and I personally think that anyone lower than maybe 7th-8th grade might potentially have a hard time with some details of the story. However, I didnt find anything "inappropriate" per see, and if there are any fellow religious people out there, this info is for you: there are a couple parts where characters speak critically of priests. Not God, priests. It all seems reasonable within the story, and if it didnt bother an ultra-sensitive person like me, it probably won't bother you, either. :) So CHECK OUT this book!!!! Again, in America, it's called Revenge of the Witch and it's part of the Last Apprentice series.

Rating: 4.5 Stars Nearly every aspect was perfect! The mature content prevents a perfect rating, though. Definitely recommended to the 13+ crowd!

Quote of the Week!

It's the beginning of a new week, and time for an Uplifting Quote!

I especially picked this out with all the teachers and students in mind who have had to trek back to school...

Note: This looked a lot cooler on the website when I made it, and now it's kind of hard to read - apologies!

The quote is from the movie Big Fish:

"There are some fish that can't be caught. It's not that they're bigger or faster than the other fish, they're just touched by something extra."

Have a great week, everybody!

Upcoming Books!

A lot of blogs have those "Mailbox Monday" things, and this is going to be kind of similar to that... I usually don't get have that many books routinely delivered to my house, and since I'm away at school in another state, I really don't get that many books delivered. However, I always have several titles waiting in the wings to be read next, and so I think I will showcase those titles with my Shimmy Down the Shelf section.

Shimmying Down the Shelf for the rest of this month 7 eager titles, most of them Christmas or early birthday presents and a few of them the result of random "judge a book by its cover" shopping!

- The Warrior Heir (The Heir Trilogy, 1), Cinda Williams Chima
- The Spook's Apprentice (Wardstone Chronicles, 1), Joseph Delaney
- The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, 1), Suzanne Collins
- Wildwood Dancing, Juliet Marillier
- Heart's Blood, Juliet Marillier
- Daughter of the Forest, Juliet Marillier
- Aurelia, Anne Osterlund

I most definitely will not get to all 7 (these titles don't include required reading for school), and the ones that are left over will be shimmied for February. I will try and showcase the two most likely books to be read in the current timespan, and will include the basic information (title, author, pub year, type of edition, number of pages) along with a brief summary and a preview (I'll flip open to a random section and type 3-5 lines...ideally without stumbling across a spoiler...

FIRST UP:

I have been dancing around this series for a few months now, trying to get enough basic information about it to know if I would want to read it. Then I went home for break a few months ago and my youngest brother (17) raved and raved about. I snatched the first few books out of his room, and they've been hanging out on my shelves ever since!

The Wardstone Chronicles: Joseph Delaney
The Spook's Apprentice is the first in a 7-series by English author Joseph Delaney, and was originally published in 2004. In the United States, The Wardstone Chronicles have been renamed The Last Apprentice, so if you are in a bookstore, the book will look like the

<---THIS (for some reason, we own the original British editions, which is featured next to the American one) Of The Last Apprentice, Goodreads says: "A wonderful and terrifying series by a new writer (Joseph Delaney) about a young boy training to be an exorcist. Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son and has been apprenticed to the local Spook. The job is hard, and the Spook is distant and many apprentices have failed before Thomas. Somehow Thomas must learn how to exorcise ghosts, contain witches, and bind boggarts. But when he is tricked into freeing Mother Malkin, the most evil witch in the County, the horror begins..."


Seventh son of a seventh son? Hey Angie Sage, isnt that YOUR concept? Oh well. This series sounds awesome, and according to my brother (who is pickier than I am), this book sets the stage nicely for a series that delivers on originality, quality writing, lovable characters, and ultimate excitement.

Preview!

"I snatched up the candle and shrank into the furthest corner. Thump, thump, nearer and nearer, came the sound of heavy boots. Who could have been digging down there in the darkness? Who could be climbing the stairs now?
But maybe it wasn't a question of who was climbing the stairs. Maybe it was a question of what..."
- The Spook's Apprentice, pg 42

The Spook's Apprentice (The Wardstone Chronicles, Book 1)
- Joseph Delaney
- (my edition) published June 30, 2005 by Red Fox (first published in 2004)
- paperback, 336 pages
* Goodreads reviews: 532 (5 stars), 598 (4 stars), 326 (3 stars), 63 (2 stars), 15 (1 star)