WORLD BOOK DAY

World Book Day is a celebration! It’s a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and, most importantly, it’s a celebration of reading. 23 April is a symbolic date for world literature. It is on this date in 1616 that Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors, such as Maurice Druon, Haldor K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.

It was a natural choice for UNESCO's General Conference, held in Paris in 1995, to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those, who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.

The World Book Capital for 2018 is Athens, Greece.

Books did not always look the way they do today, with their glossy covers and creamy pages. When writing systems were invented in ancient civilizations thousands of years ago, clay tablets were used. Later, humanity moved on to using papyrus. In the 3rd century, the Chinese were the first to make something that resembled today’s books in that they consisted of numerous thick, bamboo pages sewn together. Then, in the mid-15th century, Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press brought books into the industrial age, making them readily available to anyone who wanted to read them.

Challenge:

In no particular order; Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden (yes, i know, glaringly inaccurate) Empress Orchid, Anchee Min. Half Blood Prince, JK Rowling.

Memoirs of a Geisha is about a young girl called Chiyo, who is sold to a Geisha house when her Mother has bone cancer, and her Father cannot afford to keep her and her sister, Satsu. Chiyo is taken in by the Nitta okay, Satsu is sold to a whore house. Chiyo is treated horribly by the resident Geisha in the Okiya, Hatsumomo, who sees her as competition, and rightly so. Chiyo tries to escape and run away with Satsu, but she falls off the roof of the Okiya, and is resigned to life as a maid, running errands for Hatsumomo, Mother and Auntie in the Okiya. A few years later, she catches the eye of a beautiful and kind-hearted Geisha, Mameha, who takes her under her wing and trains her to be one of the most influential and successful Geisha in all of Kyoto. My signature is a quote from Memoirs.

Empress Orchid is a dramatised sympathetic version of events about Empress Orchid, or Empress Dowager Cixi. It follows the life of young Orchid Yehonala, from her struggle to bury her father, once a governor of Wu-hu.Empress Hsien Feng issues a decree looking for 'new mates', and Orchid is chosen as a Concubine of the 4th Rank and later bears the Emperor a son, elevating her rank above Nuharoo, who was chosen as the Empress. Nuharoo tries hard to disrupt Orchids life, but Orchid clings on, and is bestowed the title of "Empress of Holy Kindness Tzu Hsi".

Half Blood Prince is, in my opinion, the best of the Harry Potter novels. As with the other two books I've commented on, the scenery, imagery and feeling the novel describes is incredible. It follows Harry, Ron and Hermione in their 6th year at Hogwarts, it explores Voldemorts past in detail, and shows the Trio preparing for the final Battle of Hogwarts.

I'm currently reading "The Last Empress of China', a historical account of Orchids life, from a set of 30 books called "Women Who Made History", published by Heron books.

My HA is Empress Orchid, beside her favourite place, the Lake of Heavenly Tranquility.

What I used as guidance Private Outfit

@ ulalena My top three: No Flying in the House: I read this when I was in grade five. This story took place in Europe. It tells the story of a six year old girl named Annabel Tippens. Her parents were away so she needed to be taken care of. Her dog, Gloria, who has been accompanying her, helped her find a family, the Vancourts, as her temporary guardian. In their house, there’s also a cat named Belinda who is a witch. She knows the secret to flying. The cat, who is evil, taught her how to fly. The cat also told her how her mother is a princess, which makes her a fairy. She was very proud of her flying skills and was flying everywhere when Mrs. Vancourt got mad and told her to stop flying in the house. In the end she loses her flying ability because she knew the cat’s secret and at the same time her parents are back. Girl with a Pearl Earring: I read this when I was in high school. This story took placr in the Netherlands in the 1600s. It talks about a youth named Griet who have to work for a Christian family as a maid. When she just became a maid, the male home owner, who is an artist, tells her to wear a set of clothing that her wife can only wear, because he’s going to paint her. He paints every maid that have worked in their house. When she started working for them, she talks about the sorrow she have to face and her limited freedom. For example, she can only go home every Sunday. One time there was this plague that hit her street, she wanted to go back and see her family but they disallow her going back in fear of her getting infected and bringing back the plague. She then received the devastating news that her sister died of the flu. She still have to work nonetheless. Fast forwarding a few years into when she’s a grown up adult, she was shocked to hear that the artist passed away. She can go home now and before she left the female owner told her to take the items she once owned... Where the Red Fern Grows: I read it when I was in high school too and it took place in New York City. It talks about this family who is poor, so the daughter dropped off school when she’s in her early teen to work. Their family went through WWI, in which they suffer the most because food prices increases. Both the parents work but their income is very little. Because of the immense pressure, the father passed away, which puts more burden to the mother and the daughter. In the end, the mother remarried to a friend whose wife passed away a long time ago. Good news is that the man earns ten thousands dollars a month, so the mother don’t have to work since bills are very low back then. I did a HA of Annabel, she’s pretty simple though! Outfit Not Found

Three favorite books

1. Harry Potter - just going to leave this generic because I love them all Harry Potter is about a wizard that does not know he is a wizard at first and then blossoms into one of the best wizards the world knows while fighting an evil wizard the whole time Harry Potter fans for the win!!!
2. Game of Thrones - same Game of thrones is about several different families clashing against each other in attempt to be king or queen of all the kingdoms. Lots of twists and turns are involved in these books and lots of back stabbing.
3. Hunger Games - I just love all of them! It is about 12 districts fighting against the government to be their own people and make a new government. They have these hunger games to keep the people in line and people go against the government and make a new government

I made Katniss from the Hunger Games Outfit Not Found

Going to try and use the most basic descriptions just in case some one hasn't read them and wants too XD Don't want to spoil it lmao

1. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - About the 4 Pevensie siblings who discover another world by going through a wardrobe. They are then pulled into a war by the lion Aslan to save the world from the White Witch.

2. Shadow Dance Series - Follows a boy named Hearn, the son of a famed thief, grow up over the series and his struggles as he tries to solve the never ending problems of the Veldaren and stay out of his father's shadow. Behind all this there are two opposing religions that can't come to peace and strong mage that wishes to control Veldaren himself.

3. The Name of the Wind - The first part of a series where the innkeeper Kvothe, regales his tale to the Chronicler. He starts with his childhood when he first learns about magic and follows his life as he tries to find out the name of the wind.

Kvothe from The Name of the Wind:

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My top 3 books (I think, it's hard to pick only 3!): -Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury I love dystopian books a lot, and this is maybe my favorite of the ones I read. A future version of America bans books, and firemen burn them to censor knowledge. The main character starts to realize something is wrong and goes against the rules. -The Hobbit by Tolkien I used to read it every summer. It's been a few years since I read it. But, it was always full of such fun and whimsy. It reminds me of good times. A friend (who I'm no longer friends with) bought it for me, so there's that memory, too. And, my girlfriend and I went to see one of the Hobbit movies together when it came out, before we were even dating, and she eventually bought me a copy of the movie :3 -Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman There's a lot of great short stories in this one. Some of Neil's best writing is in his short stories, I think. There's A Study in Emerald, How to Talk to Girls at Parties, October in the Chair, The Day the Saucers Came, Instructions, ... The stories can be dark and gritty, or whimsical, or strange.

The Avatar Private Outfit The HA is actually from another of Gaiman's works, the Sandman series! She's Delirium, who used to be Delight. I made this a bit ago, and didn't finish it, so I think it's a good time to finish it up and show it off. Her appearance changes often, but I used the two pictures below as my biggest reference.

Two Pictures of Delirium

I spent ages trying to narrow down favorite books to only three. I have probably at least 200 favorite books :D But here's three I feel especial love for in the past couple of weeks.

1. Lilith's Brood by Octavia Butler. Originally published as the Xenogenesis Trilogy, where the individual novels were called Dawn, Adulthood Rites and Imago, this book made an already beloved author (two of her other books that would make my favorites list are Wild Seed and Kindred) even more so. While probably more than half of the 200 favorites are science fiction, this was the only science fiction to make the top three cut for this contest.

The Oankali are aliens who have invaded to save life on Earth by having the humans interbreed with them to create a new human/Oankali breed who will be able to take proper care of Earth. Some few humans are OK with this, others are making the best of it despite being unhappy or angry about it, but probably most are unwilling to cooperate. Still, there's no choice in the matter and the book chronicles how it eventually works out.

The first book has as its main character Lilith, who is a human woman. The second and third books have human/Oankali hybrid main characters, each with a different view on how everything is going in the great task of saving Earth.

2. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. This is a fantasy novel with throwback style to the 19th century novel tradition. It's got excellent characters and plotting, but the style is what makes it truly great.

The story is that there used to be a lot of magic in England, but it has become pretty much a purely academic/theoretical study because it doesn't seem to work anymore. But two men with very different temperaments (the title characters) are fated to change that. Mr. Norrell obsessively collects books about magic, hoarding them like a dragon, and is able to do practical spells like no one else in decades. Mr. Strange just can't seem to figure out what he wants to do with his life and tries out some magic, discovers he has a real gift for it, and ends up being even more powerful than Norrell. It doesn't go especially smoothly for them because a powerful faerie is messing with them... but the Raven King and fate have their destinies well in hand.

My favorite characters are not the two title characters, though; there are large roles for the aforementioned faerie, a member of Parliament that Norrell helps early on, his wife (who Norrell heals), his butler (who is probably the third main character and arguably the protagonist of the novel), and Strange's wife, as well as a magician who is a witness to the first works of magic by Norrell and has his life upturned entirely by that experience.

3. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

This is a surprise candidate as it's a fairly new book, but it was really enjoyable and I keep wanting to re-read it, and joined a fan group dedicated to it, so I thought it was only fair for it to take the 3rd top position of favorite books. It's a fantasy novel about the youngest son of the emperor, who, when his father and three older brothers all die in an airship crash, becomes the emperor himself as was never expected to happen by anyone.

Maia was the son of the Emperor's third wife, who died when he was fairly young. Since then he was raised by a distant cousin who resented having to be exiled from court to raise him. He wasn't taught everything he would need to operate in the very political and complex court, but he is fortunate in who he meets early on, and a decent judge of character, and manages somehow, though a lot of not so great things happen (including an assassination attempt or two).

He also must marry whoever his Council chooses. That and the plot of figuring out whether the airship crash was accidental or sabotage is most of the book - Maia learning to deal with politics, getting a bride chosen, trying to stay alive, and having the crash investigated. It's long and intricate and just... utterly adorable! The characters are wonderful, endearing, and the whole novel is a beautiful work of art.

Private Outfit

This is an elf from the court as portrayed in The Goblin Emperor. They have pure white skin and hair, and so I made a nearly monochrome HA. The goblins are pure black skin and have red or yellow eyes - and the main character Maia, being half and half, has slate gray skin and hair! It's very interesting to visualize.

Picking three books is hard! Here goes:

1. The Portable Door - Tom Holt: A man starts a new job only to find that not all is as it seems - the office is full of secrets and his pen is actually a sword.
2. Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch: A London cop discovers magic and becomes part of a secret division of cops tasked with dealing with magical crime. The division consists of himself and one very old magical practitioner.
3. Dot.con - James Veitch: A book of hilarious responses to scammers in an attempt to waste the scammers' time. :D He also has a comedy show based on the same and similar responses. link (I went to see him live last week! Was excellent.) (Also:
4. Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett
5. Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny)

Private Outfit Peter Grant - Rivers of London

Feeling gross so my reviews are awful, sorry!

Thank you all so much for your partizipation! I think there are one or two books I definetly plan to read now from the ones you suggested! <3

Here are all your wonderful HAs together, don´t they look lovely?

The winners of the HA & book recommendation contests are

🏆 1st place goes to for her monochrome elf, please choose a book out of the gallery, love! <3

🏆 2cd place goes to with Katniss, I am going to ping you later after Truff has choosen, sweets <3

🏆 3th place goes to with Kvothe, the inkeeper, very lovely! <3

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Thanks :D

Thank you !

I'd like The Clean Guide to Making Soap please. I'm so glad you liked my entry. All the entries were amazing, congratulations to all the winners! I'd also like to mention to that Delirium is one of my favorite characters too, and I love your version of her as a HA! And I think you really captured Kvothe, he is so annoying of a character to me that he is not one of my favorites, but he is super memorable :D

Sending! ^-^

Do you want or as your prize, love? ^-^

I missed the ping somehow. Can I get Canine Facts please ^^ Darkmontre hasn't read it yet :D

Sending, and also the last one to Xaria! Locking this now.