Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Well everyone we liked as kids is dead, Europe thinks we're the worst and an evil butternut squash is president. But despite it being the most depressing year ever, I discovered some absolutely amazing books! I also read some actual shite. Where I have done a full review of a book mentioned, it will be linked in the title.
Let's start with the things I loved this year.
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet* and A Closed and Common Orbit* by Becky Chambers
Long Way was the very first book I read this year and it still gives me butterflies when I think of it. The world that Becky Chambers created and the way she folded you in the arms of her lovely cast of characters and made you feel a part of the team made this book truly special and it's sequel is no different. Her book are all about humanity and confronting difference in a positive way and facing your fears with the people you love by your side. The sci-fi novel incarnation of a group hug and a set of BFF necklaces. There's going to be a third and I'm actually incapable of being more excited about it.
Cut by Hibo Wadere
A very different topic. Cut explores the devastating truth of FGM and Hibo's experiences as a victim, both in her native Africa and here in the west, where she thought she had escaped the culture. Hibo's testimony is vivid and terrifying and was a real wake up call for me in terms of clarifying my own thoughts about feminism, and what it is we are actually trying to achieve. Women's rights are often dismissed as women getting offended when they're offered help with manual work, but Cut shows the reader just what the stakes really are and how much suffering goes on directly due to gender inequality. FGM is happening and little girls are being viciously mutilated right under our noses and we are ignoring it. This book needs to be read by everyone.
The Girls*by Emma Cline
This novel is the one I wish I'd written. A compelling, claustrophobic novel about coming of age and how easy it is to be drawn into things you don't understand when you're looking for somewhere to belong. Screw you Emma Cline, with your effortless, dreamy writing style and your poignant thoughts expressed so intelligently and your compulsive interesting plot and your ability to express the goddamn truth about what it is to be a teenage girl all in your debut novel. Like how dare you. Who gave you the right??
Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb.
My first foray into Hobb's world. If you've tried the Assassin's books as an 'in' with Hobb but found yourself stalling, I'd definitely recommend trying these instead. They were recommended to me by a seasoned Robin Hobb reader as an alternative starting point from the Fitz and the Fool series and I got along with this so much better. All of the characters were completely infuriating in a thoroughly understandable and human way. The human drama would have been enough to sustain my interest but the incredible and original fantasy elements woven throughout cemented this as a favourite. Despite being a bajillion pages long and taking nearly a month to read (plus reading a few things in between,) there was never a point in Hobb's plot where I wasn't interested and invested in the story. It's chunky but it's worth the effort, and the other two books in the series are some of the first things I'm reading come the New Year.
My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix.
Some of my friends at work absolutely love this book, and I put it off for a while because it was labelled as a horror novel, but eventually I decided to give it a try and I'm so glad I did. This is a horror book... in that it has some scary, creepy moments in it and is kind of about demon possession, but it's also way more about friendship, and girls growing up together and about what it means to really really love someone, and how far you'll go to help that person. This book is an utter delight, rich and fun and so incredibly satisfying.
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Before this year my graphic novel collection had been 70% Batman and pals, with the other 30% being essentially 'other superheroes n' shit'. Over 2016 I've really branched out and found some amazing graphic novels that have captured my heart. The one I've probably enjoyed the most is Saga. A wacky, oddball space adventure following two star crossed lovers from opposing sides of a war. The story and world are so creative and interesting, the characters, despite being some of the weirdest creatures imaginable are so human and real, and every issue ends with you wanting to keep reading to find out where the hell things are going next.
***
Positivity over with, let's get on to what sucked ass:
All That Man Is * by David Szalay
Apparently all that man is, is a boring horny narcissist with zero depth or human interest. Szalay can write with the best of them but the pretty words are wasted on a jumble of dull pointless snippets about people who want nothing but to bang the nearest thing to them.
Harry Potter and The Cursed Child by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany and JK.
I understand that this probably worked well as a play, but it feels like the printing of the screenplay was a bit of a cash grab and it led to a lot of people being very dissapointed. The result was a shrug worthy plot, a big fuck-you to previously established rules within the universe, some really oddly thought out characters (Christ Rose how did Hermione and Ron raise you to be such a shitbag?) and the possibility for the first openly queer couple in the Potter canon being thrown away like an old chocolate frog wrapper. Uncool J.K.
The Wicked + The Divine by some people my bookshelves are far away and I'm not walking over to see.
So the art in this is absolutely gorgeous. The premise is incredibly promising. The storyline is erratic and makes literally zero narrative sense and whoever did the dialogue between the characters appears to have been copying from a transcript in which there was a printing error and half the lines got lost. The sequence of events that we follow feel like they get picked out of a hat, which is a shame because the premise is so cool and the art is fucking amazing. I'm sure the storyline is building up to a big conclusion where all the gaps will be filled in and everything will fall into place but graphic novels take a long time to come out between volumes and there's no way I can stay interested in something that seems so badly thought out for that long. I finished volume three and what was supposed to be a big plot twist felt completely bizarre and gimmicky and I really don't want to put myself through volume four.
The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkowski
This years foray into the Young Adult genre. Still can't get on with it. Thought the characters were flat and unconvincing, the writing was perfectly nice but lacked any real personality, the romance made me do an Office style fourth wall stare several times and STOP USING RESCUE FROM AN ATTEMPTED RAPE AS A WAY FOR THE ROMANTIC LEAD TO BE THE HERO WE'RE SO MUCH BETTER THAN THAT. Also this book completely undermines the idea of the slave narrative and how harrowing life as a slave is and given that I was reading 'The Underground Railroad' at the same time I just really couldn't be doing with it. I attempted to start the second book but got fifteen pages in before realising I didn't give a fuck. Next year is Patrick Ness! Hopefully he'll do better.
What did you love and hate this year?
All books provided by publishers are marked with a *. All opinions are my own :)
Despite having been published in 2014, and receiving fairly modest attention at the time, The Winner's series has started doing the rounds on Booktube. I've seen two or three people review it and it's been garnering fairly positive reactions from readers who, like myself, aren't generally YA readers and wouldn't normally look twice at this book.
I've been getting through some pretty heavy reads in the last few weeks and felt like I needed a break and to get lost in some gratuitous, brainless entertainment. But I can't just pick up anything, I'm too fussy about tropes and stereotypes and shitty writing. So given that this seemed like a good balance between the two and I bit the bullet and ordered all three books.
The Winner's Curse took me two days to finish and is a fast easy read. It follows the stupidly named Kestrel, the daughter of a General of the Valorian Army. The Valorian people are in the midst of expanding a vast empire across their world and Kestrel and her father live in the recently occupied Herrani territory. Ten years prior to the start of the book the Valorians conquered the Herrani people, enslaved them and now live in houses that used to be theirs.
At the start of the book Kestrel and her friend Jess find themselves accidentally at the slave market and watch the auctions. A young man with blacksmith skills and who, supposedly, sings beautifully is put up for auction and, despite never buying a slave before, Kestrel bids for him and wins.
The story then follows the two of them navigating the world of high society and gossip that Kestrel lives in, as well as their relationship with each other and the conflict between their two people.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It had some really interesting ideas in it and the characters were multi-faceted and complex, particularly Kestrel. She was a 'strong female character' in that she was flawed, made mistakes but also had admirable qualities. She's a completely shit fighter (which I enjoyed because far too many YA heroines are kickass for no obvious reason) but is able to best people with her sly and perceptive nature. She is kind and fair to the slaves in her household but, as the narrative points out, how kind can you be to someone while you keep them as a slave.
This book did slip into some cheesy eye-roll YA moments. There are plot points that are stupidly convenient. Several times she is privy to important meetings between people who regard her as their enemy. Why is she allowed to sit in on these meetings when her knowing this information could be their downfall? There is also an awful lot of 'What is this feeling? Why did I do this? "She felt something in her chest that she refused to name" bullshit hand-wringing which is just annoying, woman just admit you fancy him it's cool. Also there is an 'attempted sexual assault' scene that is just stupid and predictable and something out of a bad fanfiction.
That said there was a lot going on in this book and some really interesting concepts and ideas were explored. I would love to know more about other parts of the Valorian empire and the military which is not gender specific. There are hints of an interesting mythology and spirituality in the Herrani people but it's never more than hinted at. Unfortunately because the book is preoccupied with the plot moving forward we don't get much in the way of world building, or exploration of the moral ambiguities of some of the characters and the choices they make. That was a shame, as even a little more discussion about this would have added some richness to the book. This is the first in a trilogy so perhaps I will find the world expands later.
I don't know the extent to which I'd recommend this book. It was good fun, I did enjoy it and it seems to be one of the better YA fantasy romances out there. However it does still suffer from the family traditions of love triangles, dropping the bulk of the story for angsty love and bland side characters. I also feel the last third of the novel let down the rest of it. The ending is good but the way we travelled to get there was a strange decision to make and felt like the author was trying to make a literary point and failing terribly. I think it's still worth a read if you enjoy the genre, or if you're looking to zone out for a bit and think about pretty dresses and cute boys.
Let me know if you've read this book and what you thought!
Milk and Honey is split into four sections, each dealing with an aspect of love and relationships, there's the hurting, the loving, the breaking and the healing and each has a number of different poems exploring aspects of life and love connected with these titles.
I read this pretty sporadically so I'm not sure that I have actually read every single poem in there but I've definitely gone through the majority at least once. My work mates have been raving about this collection so I felt I had to check it out.
I always say that I don't like poetry but actually this gave me really lovely nostalgic feelings of being back in A Levels and University where we'd analyse poetry and it made me realise how much I'd missed it! And as a return to academia is currently in the works, this reaffirmed just how much I miss being in that setting.
I found the collection to be a mixed bag. There were some that amounted to little more than a fake deep Tumblr post, which I suppose makes sense given that these garnered attention on social media. I would read them over pen in hand and find nothing of any merit there. A few vaguely emotional sounding lines with nothing more to it is not poetry Rupi, I'm sorry it just isn't. Line breaks that seemed pointless, imagery that was sporadic and didn't mesh with the tone of the poem, and some pages were little more than two lines saying something cringey like
"I flinch when you touch me, I fear it is him." ... wut? Did nobody take Rupi's work and sort it into piles labelled 'dope' and 'um no'? It seems like everything she's done ended up in here regardless of it's individual quality.
But then there was just as many poems that I absolutely loved. I filled the space around them with analysis and fawned over how much depth and richness there were to her words.
There's one in particular titled Solo Performance in which she explores the idea of female masturbation for the pleasure of a man watching and I found it so interesting and clever. The idea that female masturbation has become, or perhaps it always was, something that men often see as for them, and their benefit, rather than the woman who is engaging in it.
An aside to any men, if you've ever watched porn of a woman masturbating, know that irl it doesn't look much like that. That sexy lip-bitey half lidded eye thing? Nope. That's called acting. Women's 'nobody's watching' orgasm faces aren't much different from men's. Just letting you know. Oh? Your girlfriend does it though? Is that when she knows you're watching? Cool.
There are a lot of poems about relationships and gender and I felt that, while a few times she missed the boat and came off sounding like a fifteen year old sat in the rain, her overall approach to these topics and the ideas she explored were very profound, especially for someone so young. The healing section has some poetry that is so uplifting and passionate, full of pride and hope for the future of young women, particularly women of colour, and our ability to appreciate and look after one another.
There's also one that cut me to the quick. So much so that the only annotation I could write beside it was the name of the person who made me feel exactly like that. I've never had a poem sit in my heart the way that one did.
I did enjoy this and it's definitely made me want to go and read more poetry, but I feel like quite a lot of this book was just junk. Perfectly good for a teenagers diary, but not something to be published. Doubtless Rupi has some serious talent and will go on to be a very important voice, but I feel like a lot of this is going to be reconciled to her juvenilia and, when she is older and more established, she's going to look back at this first collection and wish she'd cut a lot of it.
Regardless definitely worth a read :)
Let me know if you've read this and what you thought!
I'm going on a little trip next week! As part of my new job I'm being sent on a four day jolly trip to the Waterstones in Cirencester to see their very successful coffee shop and essentially steal all of their ideas. But that also means that my week is going to involve to long train journeys and three nights in a hotel room with a wi fi connection I'm feeling skeptical about. So this means treating myself to some new books to wile away the hours spent waiting for The Walking Dead to buffer:
Ship of Magic - Robin Hobb
Robin Hobb is one of those authors that I've wanted to get into for a long time. I started reading Fools Errand but realised about a third in that having not read the first trilogy, I was missing out on a lot of information that I needed to really engage with the story. I started the first book in the original farseer trilogy but just wasn't in the right place for it. However Luke (name you might recognise, went to Canada, ended up coming back early, whole other story) has read a lot of Robin Hobb, and tells me that The Liveship Traders trilogy is also a good place to start, so I've bought the first book which is a nice chunky volume that will hopefully keep me quiet, and if I enjoy it, I might purchase the next to from the Waterstones in Cirencester!
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
Another paving slab of a book. I've been very apprehensive about getting this, I have friends who thought it was incredible, truly life changing, but I've heard others call it melodramatic and worthless. Honestly I wasn't really intending to read this, but I'm just so curious to see which side I fall on and how I respond to it that when it finally came out in paperback I caved and bought it. I'm hoping I'll enjoy it, it's going to be quite a time commitment so hopefully it'll be worth it.
Nod - Adrian Barnes
There we go, that was exciting wasn't it? I know I don't do those impressive, ridiculous, double digits books hauls, but when I do that I just find that about two thirds of them go unread and that makes me sad. I find it much easier to buy two or three books, read through those, then treat myself to another two or three. That means they all get read and I don't spend way beyond the realms of sensibility which, when you're a dedicated book buyer, is easy to do.
If you've read any of these and have opinions, let me know!
Thank you for reading!
Isabelle
xox
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr - 2015 - Scribner
So I saw this book getting a lot of praise, but all I knew about was that it followed a blind girl, and an orphan, in World War II. Quite frankly that immediately put me off and made me dismiss it in my mind as a cheap yank on the heartstrings with no real substance. However two of my bookish besties, housemate Holly and fellow bookseller Kieran, told me that it was so much more than that, and that it was a book they KNEW I would love.
I was still unsure, but pulpy quick buck war stories don't win the Pulitzer, so finally I was convinced to pick it up and God I'm so happy I did! ATLWCS is a beautiful novel, and a refreshing take on the well trodden path of the WWII narrative. It took me a good fortnight to get through, I won't say its a gripping read that kept me frantically turning the pages, but every time I opened the book I was drawn into the worlds of Marie-Laure and Werner. Their stories were so rich and beautifully written, made up of these fragmented moments of life, scattered through time, glittering like gems.
What I love most about this novel is that it sets itself apart from the more traditional World War II novels by setting out to find the light in the darkness. Both characters are caught up in tragedy, of course they are, but even in the most harrowing of times the beauty in human relationships remain. Rather than attempting to shock with gory battlefield scenes or forcing tragedy down the throat of the reader, Doerr crafts a story of survival, of quiet defiance and sheer will. It's a story about wonder, and the importance of owning your own mind. Werner is driven by scientific curiosity but restricted by the rise of the Nazi regime as they attempt to stomp out any characteristics that do not adhere to their vision of 'perfection', Marie lives adventure after another through her braille books and the games of imagination she plays with her great uncle but is housebound in the midst of the French resistance. We follow both characters through two very different coming-of-age stories and watch as their two stories wind ever closer together.
The writing is beautiful but very occasionally slips into being bloated and a little over flamboyant. and the story has moments where it's so dense you have to wade through it a little bit. The novel also jumps around in time which can become disorientating now and again. For me the biggest flaw in the novel is in the ultimate climactic scenes in which the various threads finally weave together. These passages honestly feel slightly rushed, as if Doerr had actually become slightly bored with building up to the ending and just wanted it out of the way so he could get on with the 'ten years later' style ending chapters. Having flitted in and out of the situation the entire way through the novel I was expecting something a little more sensational than what I got. But perhaps that was the point. The novel consistently refuses the melodramatic and seeks out the subtle moments buried under the drama. These qualms aside it is a glorious read. Gentle and understated but honestly unforgettable. It's definitely a novel I'd recommend. For the most part the gentle story and short chapters make it a relatively easy read but it has so much substance and is an incredibly enjoyable, sumptuous reading experience.
Let me know if you've read this, and what you thought!
Thank you for reading,
Isabelle
xox
I don't generally follow recommendations when it comes to books. I usually like to browse through books in shops or online and figure out what I'd like. There's something lovely about finding a gem among rows and rows of choice, and going into a book with no expectations and knowing very little about it. However this Sunday I found myself buying three books, all because other people who share my reading tastes have read and loved them and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
The Vegetarian - Han Kang (trans. Deborah Smith)
I've seen this doing the rounds on Booktube, and have become intrigued by the praise it's been receiving. It seems like every booktuber I enjoy and respect the opinion of loves this book, while a few whose tastes differ vastly from my own were not impressed. It's a dark, gnarly portrayal of South Korean family dynamics and as I've been wanting to read more books in translation and non - white authors, love shorter books and am a sucker for strange unsettling slightly creepy stories, this seemed perfect for me.
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
Ok so I knew this was about a blind girl in WWII. And honestly that is a premise I felt like I would hate. It sounded like another Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and that is a book I honestly hate. Nothing annoys me more than a book that just cranks out the sad to try and pull the heartstrings and roll in the money. So this was on my 'never going to read this list for several months, however one my oldest friends Holly and my buddy and fellow bookseller Kieran both absolutely love that book have specifically told me I need to read it. So I'm taking the plunge and giving it a try. I'm actually about 50 pages in and honestly I'm really liking it so far!
All the Birds in the Sky - Charlie Jane Anders
I had seen this book on various tables at work. I really liked the cover but never found myself interested enough to pick it up and turn it over to see what it's about. I figured it was probably one of those stories that's described as 'a dazzling portrayal of childhood and identity' or some shit like that. However I started to see it cropping up over Booktube and blogs, and again it seemed to be loved by everyone who shares my tastes. It turns out it's about a mad scientist and a witch who team up to save the world...which sounds amazing!!
I'm really looking forward to reading these now, and if I enjoy them I'll probably find myself taking recommendations more often!
Thanks for reading,
Thanks for reading,
Isabelle
xox
Ok, so you see this falling apart, disgusting, might be moulding or maybe that's just a stain, not sure where page 118-19's actually gotten to, scuffed and creased to shit book? This is one of my most prized possessions. Like most kids my age I went through the Harry Potters and loved them, I had other series I became heavily invested in and wolfed Jacqueline Wilson books one after the other. I read plenty as a child and have plenty of books saved from my younger years.
The thing about this book though, is that nobody else has read it. It's a translation from a little known German author and was bought for me by my mother in a Borders about 5 months before the company closed it's stores. Whereas most of my childhood reading experiences are shared and loved by many, Mimus is all my own. I've never known anyone else who's even heard of it before I've told them, and yet it's one of my favourite books. Mimus was my first experience as an individual reader, to read and experience a book all by myself, not just another Jacqueline Wilson read at the same time as all my friends. I also read this book to my younger brother when I was a teenager, doing all the silly voices. For years I read this book over and over again, sometimes cover to cover but often just picking out my favourite passages and plot points and revisiting them. My point being that this book is well loved, and in becoming well loved, it has also gotten battered to within an inch of it's life.
It's easy, when you keep up with book-tube and book blogging to fall into the trap of seeing books as aesthetic objects. The 'dream' is usually peddled as rows and rows of white shelves lined with pristine books, clothbound editions and series with matching covers, and for a few years I bought into that. I was obsessed with keeping my books like new, I didn't want to bend the spines or write in the pages, I only wanted to buy books in the prettiest editions available, or, if the only covers I could find were ugly, I was sometimes completely put off buying the book! I barely even read the books I bought. I realise that for a little while I stopped actually being a reader and just became a collector.
It was Mimus that got me to come to my senses. I found it in an old schoolbag tucked away in a drawer as I was moving out of my parents house, and when I first saw how creased and stained it was, how the pages were coming loose and the spine was cracked to shit, my first thought was "Oh God I used to love this book, but this is ugly, I'm going to need a new copy." But then I remembered sitting on the floor of my messy bedroom with my brother doing the stupid voices while he laughed. And of sitting in bed on cold evenings flicking through to find my favourite bits and reading them again and again, getting food on the pages and bending the cover as I rolled over in the blankets. I sat down and started reading Mimus and suddenly books were books again. The rows of beautiful, pristine, unread books on my shelves seemed soulless and stupid.
It was Mimus that got me to come to my senses. I found it in an old schoolbag tucked away in a drawer as I was moving out of my parents house, and when I first saw how creased and stained it was, how the pages were coming loose and the spine was cracked to shit, my first thought was "Oh God I used to love this book, but this is ugly, I'm going to need a new copy." But then I remembered sitting on the floor of my messy bedroom with my brother doing the stupid voices while he laughed. And of sitting in bed on cold evenings flicking through to find my favourite bits and reading them again and again, getting food on the pages and bending the cover as I rolled over in the blankets. I sat down and started reading Mimus and suddenly books were books again. The rows of beautiful, pristine, unread books on my shelves seemed soulless and stupid.
In the last three years I have grown up, stopped being a tool, and am now financially responsible for myself. Second hand bookshops are my best friends, I love highlighting and scribbling in all my books and I enjoy a certain satisfaction looking at the creased spines on my bookshelf. I recently discovered The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison in a charity shop for £1.20, with two different sets of scrawls and underlining already in the pages. I love the idea that two people have already owned my book and I get to see how they felt about the same story as I was reading through. I'll probably donate it again at some point, to pass it on to someone else, so they can have the same experience I did.
Let me know how you feel about this? Are you happy to let your books get ugly? Or do you prefer to keep them in good condition?
Thank you for reading!
Thank you for reading!
Isabelle
xox
It's Valentines Day at the end of this week! And for the first time in four years I actually have a Valentine! Yay for romantic validation! It won't be a big thing as we both have work but we're swapping presents and sarcastic cards and I'm making him dinner so provided I don't land us both in A&E with food poisoning it should be a good day.
I'll be honest I'm not a really big fan of 'romance' books. I find the genre can be too soppy and mushy, completely humourless or unrealistic, or sometimes what's shown as love in the narrative actually translates to creepy, scary, 'what the fuck are you doing in my bedroom watching me sleep ew ew ew gtfo!'
Nevertheless, there are a few books that I would count as 'love stories' that I thoroughly enjoyed for one reason or another, so if you're a grumpy little cynic like me, give some of these a try and maybe you'll find yourself warming to the romance genre.
Maurice by E. M. Forster - Follows a man in the dawn of the twentieth century, coming to terms with his attraction to men. Forster's narrative deals with the pain of feeling like the only way you can experience love is one for which society will call you sick and put you in prison. This was the classic that I read that made me realise that I could love classics. It's beautiful and emotional and has stayed with me for years.
A Simple Story by Elizabeth Inchbald - From something tragically beautiful to something fuzzy and hilarious. A sombre Catholic Priest suddenly becomes guardian to his old friend's daughter. The clash between the quiet studious Dorriforth and the witty, outgoing Miss Milner is hilarious and the characters surrounding them rolling their eyes at the inability of these two idiots to just get together already for god's sake is just the best thing. Miss Milner is also a treasure, far from the fragile, delicate pot plants you usually get in this period, Inchbald gives Miss Milner a sex drive, a personality and a razor sharp wit. There's also a second half of the book that completely changes and is just as fantastic as the first. Elizabeth Inchbald was one of Austen's favourite authors and if you find a lot of classics very dry and dull, this may change your mind.
Nevertheless, there are a few books that I would count as 'love stories' that I thoroughly enjoyed for one reason or another, so if you're a grumpy little cynic like me, give some of these a try and maybe you'll find yourself warming to the romance genre.
Maurice by E. M. Forster - Follows a man in the dawn of the twentieth century, coming to terms with his attraction to men. Forster's narrative deals with the pain of feeling like the only way you can experience love is one for which society will call you sick and put you in prison. This was the classic that I read that made me realise that I could love classics. It's beautiful and emotional and has stayed with me for years.
A Simple Story by Elizabeth Inchbald - From something tragically beautiful to something fuzzy and hilarious. A sombre Catholic Priest suddenly becomes guardian to his old friend's daughter. The clash between the quiet studious Dorriforth and the witty, outgoing Miss Milner is hilarious and the characters surrounding them rolling their eyes at the inability of these two idiots to just get together already for god's sake is just the best thing. Miss Milner is also a treasure, far from the fragile, delicate pot plants you usually get in this period, Inchbald gives Miss Milner a sex drive, a personality and a razor sharp wit. There's also a second half of the book that completely changes and is just as fantastic as the first. Elizabeth Inchbald was one of Austen's favourite authors and if you find a lot of classics very dry and dull, this may change your mind.
The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm - Something a little different, this is actually a non fiction book discussing love in all it's forms. From instinctive motherly love to religious devotion, love shown as innocent hand holding all the way to a BDSM relationship. It's incredibly interesting and engaging, and my mama bought my copy at a used bookshop, and it's full of little scribbles, bits of paper and a note in the front saying 'Much love, for Christmas 1971, S' and I love that the book has been aprt of someone else's love story already!
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart - Smart's landmark work reads almost like an epic poem. It records the tragic true story of Smart's love affair with poet George Barker. It's a story told almost entirely in emotional waves that come crashing through the narrative. But far from soppy and insipid, Smart's writing is searing and powerful, presenting the sheer force of love in all it's stark reality.
Therese Raquin by Emile Zola - Zola's masterpiece makes my list for presenting love in it's most dark, twisted nature. The eponymous heroine is trapped in an unhappy marriage with her sickly cousin. She finds freedom in a turbulent love affair, but the passion of the lovers pulls them down a dark path. Therese Raquin is a dingy, gripping novel about how gnarly and destructive love can be. Perfect for if you really want some anti-valentines sentiment.
Frenchman's Creek by Daphne Du Maurier - Finally, one of my favourite love stories of all time. Daphne Du Maurier is known for Rebecca and Jamaica Inn, two very dark gothic stories, but Frenchman's Creek is bawdy, silly and equally excellent. Set in the 1600's, Lady Dona has always been 'one of the boys', but secretly longs for a life of love and passion. She runs away to Cornwall and...wait for it... begins a passionate romance with a sexy French pirate who is hiding out in caves near her summer home. Like what the actual fuck? Frenchman's Creek is RIDICULOUS and, I imagine, if you had come off the back of the rest of her works and were looking for something of the same literary quality as Rebecca then you might be disappointed. But if you take it for what it is, which is silly, trashy, period drama pulp then it's an absolute joy. Frenchman's Creek had me rolling around by bed squealing with laughter at the sheer perfection of the whole thing, and it's something I am saving to reread when I really need my spirits lifting.
So these are my Valentine's Day reads. If you've read any let me know what you thought and feel free to leave your own recommendations!
Thank you for reading,
Isabelle
xox
Hey look! It's been less than a month since I last posted! What are the chances?
So I'm back at university and you know what that means, my already unimpressive blogging consistency takes a nosedive. But I am trying to keep up some regularity and have been reading all my favourite blogs even if I haven't had the time to leave any thoughtful or insightful comments.
I thought I'd keep the ball rolling by featuring my October 'TBR' books (I term I'm stealing from BookTube). I mentioned on my Instagram how much I liked that they were all quite colour appropriate for the autumn and, although none of them are especially 'spooky' they all sound quite dark and creepy and great for Halloween reads.
The Gunslinger ~ Stephen King
I'm a big fan of Stephen King but I've never tried his long running fantasy series, which is bizarre because I love me some fantasy. The Gunslinger is the first in what I usually see described as something like 'A Western style Game of Thrones' which sounds really fun. I mentioned a while ago that since finishing what's written of the A Song of Ice and Fire books and the entirety of the Emperor's Edge Chronicles (which I'll be reviewing in the coming weeks) I've missed having a series on the go. There's something so great about a big world with characters you spend a lot of time with so I'm hoping this'll rekindle my spirits and give me another fantasy world to flail hopelessly over.
The Shining Girls ~ Lauren Beukes
I know next to nothing about this book but my friend Holly has said it's amazing and she has excellent literary tastes so I'm looking forward to it. I get the impression it's a crime thriller in the vein of the Gillian Flynn books but with some type of supernatural/ magic realism elements to it so I'm really intrigued. It's not the genre of books I usually go for but I'm always looking to branch out so I'm excited to try something new.
Alias Grace ~ Margaret Atwood
For those who don't know, I love me some Margaret Atwood. She's a sassy bamf who writes awesome literary fiction in a wide variety of genres but that all fit together in a very distinct style. I'm actually lucky enough to be studying a module dedicated to her this year so that's really exciting! This is one of three books on the reading list I have yet to tackle and it's one of her chunkier ones. It's historical fiction of sorts surrounding the true story of Grace Marks who is accused of murdering her employer in 1840's Canada. I'm already a few chapters in and enjoying it so far, though like all Atwood novels you have to let the narrative wind round you for a bit before she closes in on you and smacks you in the face with her sheer amazing-ness.
So that's what I'm hoping to read in the next few weeks. I will probably review The Shining Girls independently, Alias Grace along with a few other Atwoods (I'll have read eight by the end of the year so I'll probably review them in groups.) and The Gunslinger depends, I may wait and see if I read on in the series before I form any major thoughts.
Let me know what you think or if you've read any of these books. I should be back in the next few days with some beauty and skincare so stick around and I have a free day Wednesday so I'm going to come and perv on all your blogs and catch up with you all.
Did I mention I was getting back into graphic novels? Probably.
I adored graphic novels back when I was in my early teens but the demands of school life meant that I had to cut back on more frivolous past times to make time for studying and unfortunately graphic novels didn't make the cut. As a result I couldn't keep up with my favourite titles and after a while found that I had lost interest, as I tend to do with things I know I can't commit to fully.
However recently I've been getting the graphic novel bug back and getting it bad! I thank (or blame) Tumblr to be honest. I wandered into the DC fandom section and immediately found myself right back where I used to be. Batman comics and cartoons where a huge part of my childhood but having been out of the loop I had no idea how much the DC Universe had changed! I suddenly found myself being simultaneously flooded with nostalgia for my old childhood loves and excited to see what the new rebooted series were like so once my University exams were over I went out and grabbed a few titles to reintroduce myself the the Batman universe.
I've read quite a few of the more recent installments now as well as a couple of classics I had missed out and thought I would share some with you. To keep the posts from being being abhorrently long I decided to split them up and review them in little bundles rather than ambush you with a whole summer's worth of deranged 'catch-up' reading. This consists of the first of a big series and two classic stand-alones.
Batman and Son
Grant Morrison's run is one of the most popular and well known series in the more recent canon, so I figured there could be worst places to start. This is the first of the trade paperbacks (when all the little single comics are collected into one big volume) so I picked it up and jumped straight in. I really enjoyed it and can see why it's so popular. In terms of the individual issues collected in it, there are a few that were a bit of a miss and one that just seemed pointless and forced in but overall the story arc was great and the artwork in most of it was really crisp, clean and bright which I love. In this series Batman finds out he has a son! I already knew this as it was something that was hard to avoid while browsing Tumblr fan pages but I was really excited to see what Damian would be like, I pictured him as this cute little baby 'Bruce Wayne' who would be the perfect little batman in training. LOLWRONG. As it turns out Damian Wayne has been raised by his mother, the daughter-of a-war-lord and all around badass Thalia Al Ghul and as a result he's not exactly been brought up with the best of moral guides. When Batman allows him to stay at Wayne Manor he promptly beats the crap out of Tim Drake (the current Robin) and declares himself entitled to the position of Batman's sidekick. Oddly enough Bruce Wayne isn't hugely impressed. To add to Bats' troubles there seems to be various Batman 'tribute acts' running round Gotham taking the law into their own hands.
I thought this was loads of fun and already adore the homicidal little brat that is Damian Wayne. Probably not somewhere to start if you have no background knowledge of the DC universe beyond the movies but if you know your basics and can tell your Dick Grayson from your Tim Drake I think this could shape up to be a really good series, I'll keep you posted as I get through the run.
The Killing Joke
Everyone knows the Joker. Even if your Batman knowledge extends to 'that guy with the cape and the silly voice' the Joker is an iconic villain and probably one of the greatest in superhero history. Or maybe that's just me.
The Killing Joke begins with Joker having broken out of Arkham Asylum and going after Commissioner Gordon and his daughter. It's dark and pretty brutal and the grisly contrasted with this very bold art style with a bright acrid colour palette which gives the whole thing a wonderfully creepy, macabre edge. The narrative flashes back and forth between this and what we are told is the Joker's back-story, detailing how he went from an ordinary man to maniacal clown prince of crime, although even by the end of the book it's hard to decide how much of what we are told is true given the form in which we are given the information.
I also really enjoyed this, my only complaint is that is was very short, it took me less than an hour to get though which, when you've paid eight pounds for something, is a bit of a disappointment in terms of getting your money's worth. Regardless I'm not a bit sorry I bought it as it's one of the most famous stand alone volumes and it's a great addition to my newly growing graphic novel shelf. Again this might not be right for complete beginners simply because it is so short but if you don't mind paying the money I think it's great.
Arkham Asylum
Most superhero storylines are very fast paced and action orientated. This one is something a little different. It's April Fools Day and the inmates, led by the Joker, have taken over Arkham Asylum, declaring they will kill all the staff unless Batman agrees to take their place and lock himself in with them.
In terms of plot... well there isn't really one. It basically boils down to Batman having a wander through Arkham Asylum encountering some of the people he put away: Scarecrow, Harvey Dent etc while every so often the story flashes back to the origin of the Asylum and Arkham, the man who built it. What the story lacks in 'POW' fight scenes and cheesy hero/villain banter it makes up for with expertly wound tension and an art style like nothing I've ever seen in a Batman comic before. The whole thing looks like one of those dreams that's not an outright nightmare but that's horribly unsettling and creepy and from which you can't make yourself wake up.
I bought the fifteenth anniversary edition, which has, at the back, the original manuscript and a few pages of sketched storyboards too and I absolutely loved that. I loved reading Grant Morrison's manuscript scene by scene and flicking back to see how the artist, Dave Mckean, had interpreted his words into art. Honestly that for me was one of the best bits so if you were to buy it I would highly suggest spending a little extra just for that. Not really one for beginners (again... I really haven't thought this through) but if you're looking for something a bit different to try this is a really interesting one. I keep opening up my favourite pages and just marveling at how creepy and beautiful they are and it's made me interested to see if Dave Mckean has done anything else for the DC Universe.
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So those are a few that I've read so far. I might make this something I do every few months perhaps? I can't justify buying enough graphic novels to do them more regularly, as they're quite expensive for how long they take to read and I do have rent and bills to pay (oh the joys of being a grown up.) But if you enjoyed this and would be interested to see more please let me know. I feel like I neglected to factor in that most of you aren't particularly well versed in graphic novels even if you're interested in getting into them, so I might try and put together a sort of 'crash course' reading list for introducing yourself to the DC/ Batman universe without getting confused in all the different runs and stand-alones and crossovers and spending a fortune in the process.
I'm going to go do something useful now. If you've made it this far good on you! Here's something embarrassing as a reward: When writing the title of this blog I knew I'd done something wrong but couldn't figure out what it was. I read it over and over, confused about what I'd messed up and why my brain was telling me I'd dome something stupid and then, after about ten minutes, I finally realised: I'd written "Batman Addition" rather than "Batman Edition".
That £9000 a year course in English is clearly paying off.
.JPG)
Ready Player One ~ Ernest Cline
Ready Player One
is a novel that’s been all over the blogging world and been receiving great
reviews so I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and see how it went.
I admit I found it very slow going at the beginning. It takes place in a dystopian future where most of humanity spends its time plugged into a virtual reality so there’s a hell of a lot of world building and explaining to get through but it’s done very well and it’s not boring, just a bit slow but once things started picking up a few chapters in I actually finished it in less than two days.
It describes a teenage boy living in this world who is one of millions on a quest to follow clues to find the coveted ‘Easter Egg’ (special rewards in video games for anyone who’s cool enough to need to know that) left somewhere in the virtual reality by the owner, the finder of which will inherit his vast fortune and control of the world.
The characters are great, lots of fun and where they could easily become clichéd and predictable they stay interesting and keep you wondering what they’re going to do next. The book is also packed with geeky eighties references which are always a good laugh and, even if you don’t understand all the film, video game and music allusions (I didn’t) the book is still easy to follow and thoroughly enjoyable.
One of my favourite aspects of the book was the detail the Cline put into the world he created. Sometimes when reading these sorts of books you find yourself asking questions about the world that never get answered, or finding things that aren’t quite explained fully so that you can’t quite get your head around it. In Ready Player One I found I had a thorough understanding of the situations without having to stop and read through big chunks of description in the middle of action scenes.
I really recommend reading Ready Player One. It’s fun and unpredictable and, whether you are a fan of geeky things like video games and eighties pop culture or not, it definitely strikes a chord in our current culture where we are so dependent on technology. While it makes for a great story, let’s hope it’s not too close to our own future.
I admit I found it very slow going at the beginning. It takes place in a dystopian future where most of humanity spends its time plugged into a virtual reality so there’s a hell of a lot of world building and explaining to get through but it’s done very well and it’s not boring, just a bit slow but once things started picking up a few chapters in I actually finished it in less than two days.
It describes a teenage boy living in this world who is one of millions on a quest to follow clues to find the coveted ‘Easter Egg’ (special rewards in video games for anyone who’s cool enough to need to know that) left somewhere in the virtual reality by the owner, the finder of which will inherit his vast fortune and control of the world.
The characters are great, lots of fun and where they could easily become clichéd and predictable they stay interesting and keep you wondering what they’re going to do next. The book is also packed with geeky eighties references which are always a good laugh and, even if you don’t understand all the film, video game and music allusions (I didn’t) the book is still easy to follow and thoroughly enjoyable.
One of my favourite aspects of the book was the detail the Cline put into the world he created. Sometimes when reading these sorts of books you find yourself asking questions about the world that never get answered, or finding things that aren’t quite explained fully so that you can’t quite get your head around it. In Ready Player One I found I had a thorough understanding of the situations without having to stop and read through big chunks of description in the middle of action scenes.
I really recommend reading Ready Player One. It’s fun and unpredictable and, whether you are a fan of geeky things like video games and eighties pop culture or not, it definitely strikes a chord in our current culture where we are so dependent on technology. While it makes for a great story, let’s hope it’s not too close to our own future.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius ~ Dave Eggers
I found this book in a charity shop quite a while ago, I was first intrigued by that oh so modest title and decided to shell out the £2.99 to see if I really would come away with my heart broken. (This is someone who stayed dry eyed at Bambi, My Sisters Keeper and The Notebook so I was skeptical)
The book is a more or less true story of Dave Eggers who is orphaned and left as guardian of his very young brother while only a teenager himself. It was a really interesting account of someone who has all that fresh-eyed 'going to change the world' feeling of youth and the slightly frantic jaded feeling that comes with age all at once. He frets about bills and housing and giving Toph an 'undamaging' childhood where he protects him without coddling him, making him smart but not smug and trying not to do anything that could screw him up. At the same time he's trying to grow up himself and create an anti-establishment magazine that will change the world and sleep with girls. The two lives of a youth and a parent running parallel within one being was really interesting and brought to light a lot of ideas about what it means to be young or old, and how both have their own difficulties and neither really understand one another.
The book is a more or less true story of Dave Eggers who is orphaned and left as guardian of his very young brother while only a teenager himself. It was a really interesting account of someone who has all that fresh-eyed 'going to change the world' feeling of youth and the slightly frantic jaded feeling that comes with age all at once. He frets about bills and housing and giving Toph an 'undamaging' childhood where he protects him without coddling him, making him smart but not smug and trying not to do anything that could screw him up. At the same time he's trying to grow up himself and create an anti-establishment magazine that will change the world and sleep with girls. The two lives of a youth and a parent running parallel within one being was really interesting and brought to light a lot of ideas about what it means to be young or old, and how both have their own difficulties and neither really understand one another.
The writing style is very personal and 'stream-of-consciousness'. A little bit Holden Caulfield. At times this felt really powerful and deep but there were also times when Eggers comes across as a bit of a smarmy git. I think this book is best read over the course of quiet a long time, the plot isn't complicated or confusing so you wouldn't be lost. I think if you slogged through it all in one go you could end up burning out, but dipping in and out over the course of a few weeks lets you absorb it and enjoy it without it becoming a chore.
I would recommend AHWOSG for anyone looking for something quite contemporary with an emotive punch to it.
I would recommend AHWOSG for anyone looking for something quite contemporary with an emotive punch to it.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell ~ Susanna Clarke
I just finished this great hulk of a book a few days ago and it was such a good feeling to finish. Not because I didn't enjoy it, but because it's always an accomplishment to get through over a thousand pages.
I didn't know much about this book when I started it, my only knowledge was that it takes place during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s, but somewhere along the line there's magic. And the does pretty much sum it up. The magic in this book is interesting in that, when the book begins no one actually practices it any more. It's become something from history that is studied and written about and discussed but never actually done. Then along comes Mr Norrell, who has lived his life in near solitude but who can actually do practical magic. He's sought out by a few theoretical magicians and soon becomes a celebrity, using his powers to help England's efforts fighting Napoleon. Then we meet Jonathan Strange, a young charismatic man who can also do magic. The two falter between rivals and friends throughout the book but as it turns out the magic they wield is part of a much greater power that neither of them can really control.
I found this book really fun and interesting most of the way through. Though it's a hefty thing the chapters are short so it wasn't hard to blaze through ten at a time. We see events through the eyes of a lot of different and very diverse characters and the interactions between them are very complex and realistic, however that does mean that sometimes we know more than some of the characters and it the dramatic irony can be frustrating as we watch the idiots bumble about coming to the wrong conclusion about something or doing something we know is going to backfire. Other than that I did enjoy it, there were a lot of interesting facets to the story and Susanna Clarke creates some really powerful images of the magic performed, e.g Norrell makes the statues of a great Cathedral come to life and the stones that have been voiceless for hundreds of years start screaming about crimes they've seen committed and things they've found out but haven't been able to tell anyone about.
I had mixed feelings about the ending. We follow a lot of characters in detail throughout the story but it seems that only some of them have stories that come to a meaningful conclusion, I felt like some of the side characters are left dangling a little, which was annoying because I, as always, got quite attached to some of the minor characters. There is also an event that I felt the whole story was building up to that would come to a great climactic ending but that I'm not sure actually happened... or if it did it was very small and quite confusing. I wish I could elaborate further but it would seriously spoil the book.
I would still definitely recommend it though, I had great fun reading it and was sad to leave the characters behind. It's definitely made me interested to read more of Clarke's work.
I had mixed feelings about the ending. We follow a lot of characters in detail throughout the story but it seems that only some of them have stories that come to a meaningful conclusion, I felt like some of the side characters are left dangling a little, which was annoying because I, as always, got quite attached to some of the minor characters. There is also an event that I felt the whole story was building up to that would come to a great climactic ending but that I'm not sure actually happened... or if it did it was very small and quite confusing. I wish I could elaborate further but it would seriously spoil the book.
I would still definitely recommend it though, I had great fun reading it and was sad to leave the characters behind. It's definitely made me interested to read more of Clarke's work.
Let me know if you've read any of these books and what you thought of them or if you're interested in picking any of them up after this review.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for reading!
My exams are finally over! I disappeared for a little while when the only thing that was going on in my life was revision and mindless procrastination-geared scrolling through Tumblr but thankfully I've made it through those few weeks and can get back to doing things I love, like reading and blogging!
I thought I'd come back with a review of Wool by Hugh Howey, given to me as part of a swap with the lovely Toni. This has been getting a lot of attention recently so I was excited to get stuck into it.
The first hundred or so pages had me hooked, it was full of twists and turns and I loved the feeling of under the surface menace. I also loved Juliette, the protagonist. She didn't have the dreaded 'feisty' syndrome. She was just a smart, kind, tough, slightly world weary young woman who gets thrown into something beyond what she should have to handle and I really enjoyed that.
Where this book let me down was in the writing. God it dragged at times. This pretty hefty tome could have easily been 200 pages shorter but everything was narrated in such precise detail. A character we cared about would be in a dangerous situation where short snippy sentences were needed to ramp up a sense of urgency, Howey for some reason felt the need to describe to us just HOW stuck someone's foot was or the exact details of the action of jamming a spanner into a piece of machinery. We spend paragraphs reading about someone just changing clothes or having introspective reflections at really inconvenient moments. The plot also feels rushed at times, with certain things happening just to push the story along. It's just not as well crafted as I would have liked.
It's worth pointing out that Wool was originally published in segments which might account for this (That's why a lot of Victorian fiction drags) but you'd have thought they could have edited it a little bit to make it suit a single volume format. The writing and slightly messy plot just smacks of 'not-quite-finished' and although I finished the book, I found myself skimming bits toward the end of it just to finish and find out what happens.
I did enjoy it overall and as I said large chunks of it were great and I really enjoyed the moral complexity of the situation the characters were in but I just wish a bit more time had been taken on refining the plot and making the writing flow better. It just feels quite a lot like someone rushed it through editing and processing to get it on the shelves while dystopian fiction was popular and I hate to sound cynical but that's just the feeling I get.
If you enjoy dystopian I would still recommend it, even if just for how much I enjoyed the first third or so, you may have more patience with the writing than I did.
Let me know if you've read Wool and what you thought of it, I'd love to hear other's views on this one!
>> On Repeat . Touch - Shift K3Y <<
I have a vague memory of saying that I wasn't particularly bothered with summery colours in my last wishlist post where I showcased a palette of greys, blues and tans translated onto floaty fabrics and summery prints... well I lied.
I always do that. I get comfortable in my Autumn/Winter colours and when the summer clothes first start coming out I'm still in that mindset, but then a few weeks go by and my eyes start wandering to the brights and pastels and before you know it my wishlist looks like a fight at a fruit factory. This season I'm particularly drawn to fluro shades, which are those weird pastelly-neons that are cropping up. I love how they look as Accessories paired with whites, washed out denim, simple makeup and hair scraped into a messy bun, I think they're fun, inoffensive and really flattering.
I also just have to include this book as well. I absolutely love Terry Pratchett, his Discworld books especially are a joy to read, wonderfully written with brilliant characters and just so much fun. So imagine my delight when I was browsing through Waterstones and found these amazing special editions! I have a serious soft spot for beautifully covered books and just couldn't resist. Straight away I bought Good Omens (which he wrote with Neil Gaiman) and this one, Mort, is next on my list followed by several others... A long row of these have already materialised on the fantasy section of my future dream bookshelf.
Let me know if you like anything from this list and what's been on your wishlist recently!
At the beginning of February my friend, the lovely Beth, owner of Beth Tinkerbell organised a blogger book swap in which we were each paired up with another blogger, exchanged a few emails about our favourite types of books and went on the hunt with a £10 budget for some books to send to our swap partner. I was paired with Toni over at The Left of Perfect.
Yesterday I received Toni's half of the swap and thought I'd show you what she chose for me. I did have to chase the postman down the street with my jeans on back to front to get them as when he rang the doorbell I was still snuggled up in bed in my pyjamas... it wasn't noon yet it was fine.The three titles Toni sent me are perfect. I love things that are dark and a little twisted and I love a good fantasy series to sink my teeth into so I can't wait to curl up with these reads
The Gunslinger - Stephen King The first in a long running fantasy series that Toni tells me has a similarity to Game of Thrones (which we both love.) I love Stephen King's horror books but have never tried out his fantasy stuff so I'm looking forward to enjoying this and hopefully finding a new series to start obsessively devouring.
Wool - Hugh Howey Another in the seemingly endless flow of dystopian fiction. I usually get bored of book 'trends' really quickly but this one looks different from anything I've read yet. From what I gather it tells the story of a community of people living in an underground silo protected from the uninhabitable outside world, but things are not as simple as they seem. I've already read a few chapters and am really enjoying it. My mouth dropped open at one point and we're only a few chapters in!
Really excited to get through these now I've got a bit of time over Easter so a big thank you to Toni for some fab additions to my bookshelves! Look out for reviews once I've read these and I'll let you know how I get on with them.
Thankyou for reading!
>> On Repeat . Dreams - Wet <<
I don't really do individual book reviews, I tend to wait until I've read a selection and then choose a few that have covers that will look nice together in the photos. Here for example. The major issue with this is that at University I do so much 'required reading' for classes and researching essays that I don't get much of a chance to really read proper books... which to me seems like it defeats the object of an English degree if I'm completely honest, or is that just me?
This is actually a book I read last term for a Nineteenth Century Novel module which I enjoyed. I found that I liked a lot of the books but none of them quite touched my heart like this one, so I thought I'd share one of the few books I read on this course that I genuinely loved.
North and South is, in a nutshell, the story of Margaret Hale. She's a young middle class woman who moves with her parents from a very comfortable environment in the South of England to live in the industrial town of Milton where she develops a passionate sense of social justice and a complicated relationship with mill owner John Thornton.
For anyone interested in Classic Literature, or who likes reading but can't find a classic that they like I would highly recommend this, particularly if your usual lurking area of bookstores is the 'Chick-Lit' section. It's sweet and girly but with dramatic, heartbreaking moments, a wonderfully complex cast of characters and really powerful commentary on Victorian class culture. Margaret Hale in particular is a brilliant character. She's not perfect by any means, what interesting character is? She's haughty and proud but is at the same time incredibly kind hearted and refuses to back down from what she believes.
A lot of people shy away from classic literature because they worry that the language will be too complex and "ye olde" for them, but honestly I read this with little to no problems at all, there were moments where I didn't quite understand a bit of grammar or didn't understand a reference but I just glossed over them and at no point felt like I'd missed anything important.
The romantic thread that runs through the plot is often compared to that of Lizzie Bennet and Mr Darcy's story in Pride and Prejudice. I may be committing literary heresy to some of you, but I think this is actually better. Lizzie and Darcy jar simply because they don't like each other and are both too stubborn to back down. The romantic interests in North and South clash on important social issues and it's the passionate debates that the two engage in that create heat and tension between the couple as they try and push each other into their way of thinking. For me this is far more entertaining and makes the romance far more fiery and exciting.
I think I've gushed enough. Go read this book! Not only is it a beautiful story with strong characters and a breathtaking plot, but you can sit next to people who are reading Nicholas Sparks and whatever '50 Shades style garbage' has been churned out recently on the train, and feel smug that you're reading and enjoying a piece of fine English literature. No downside!
.JPG)
I bought books! Since having started my English Literature course at university last year I've really found my reading slowing down. I know that might sound counter-intuitive, but the downside of a literature course for book lovers is that instead of reading books for enjoyment at your own pace, you have to read them in a limited time frame and read them with a critical eye which often takes from the enjoyment. In addition you begin to associate reading and books with deadlines and essays which is just the worst.
But in 2014 I want to begin to take up reading as a past time again, and get through some really good works of literature. No YA or 'holiday reads' for me at the moment, I'm going to keep it all high brow for the time being until I get burned out and have to delve into something a bit more relaxed. All but one of these was picked up in my local charity shop so I've made quite the saving as well.
The Books I Bought -
Slaughterhouse 5 ~ Kurt Vonnegut
Metamorphosis and Other Stories ~ Franz Kafka
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius ~ Dave Eggers
The Hobbit ~ JRR Tolkein
The Monk: A Romance ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis
Oryx and Crake ~ Margaret Atwood
So quite the selection. I'll definitely be doing reviews of these and some other books I've accumulated recently, maybe in threes as I get through them. I'm really looking forward to punctuating the masses of renaissance literature (that, don't get me wrong, I really love) by dipping into the fantasy lands created by Tolkein, revelling in the bleak lucid writing style of Kafka and navigating the twisted, unhinged creations of Lewis and Atwood.
Let me know if you've read any of these books and what you thought! I'm really excited to get some personal reading under my belt this year. What are you looking forward to reading in 2014?
Been a while hasn't it? I started back at University at the beginning of October and so have been pretty much absent from the blogosphere while I've gotten back into the swing of things. If you're a fresher this year definitely have a look at my homesickness post from a few weeks ago. I'm having a good time, though the work's actually starting now so there's no days spent in bed watching rubbish on Netflicks (probably a good thing)
These are a few books I've read over the last year that I never got round to reviewing for whatever reason, so I thought I'd throw the reviews together in a post, as they were three really unusual reads for me and I definitely feel they're worth reviewing and sharing with you.
Have Mercy - Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett
Based in a fictional world where mechanical dragons fueled by magic are used in warfare, Havemercy tells the story of four men living in the capital city of Volstov as it nears victory from it's long war with neighbours the Ke-Han. This was a book I'd heard very little about going into and therefore really didn't have any expectations either way. In the end while this book had some amazing plot points and really interesting, conflicting main characters, it lacked a certain something. One relationship seems to develop far too quickly, and reads a little like fanfiction of some other book, while another takes forever and is never fully formed before the book ends, leaving on something of an unsatisfactory note. I definitely enjoyed it, and would recommend as a fun, adventurous read with some really sweet romantic bits if you don't want anything too heavy. I just wish that it had maybe a little more depth and time taken to explore the characters. However this is the first installment in a quartet and so I'm hoping when I get round to reading the second which I fully intend to, due to my love of the world created and it's characters, we might get a little more depth and expansion. After all, the Darren Shan series had a really shaky debut novel and became one of my most beloved childhood series.
Spindle's End - Robin McKinley
First off can we just take a second to appreciate the loveliness of that cover... and the crappy rendition my camera has decided to give me. Sad day. Anyhoo, Spindle's End is a retelling of the tale of Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty was one of my favourite childhood stories and my Dad still knows all the words to the 'Once Upon A Dream' song because I made him watch it with me so many times so I was really excited to give this a try.
The story itself was charming and full of lovely characters and really interesting plotlines. It's only downfall for me was the twisty-turny, often contrived and very overdone narrative style. Obviously world building requires a lot of explaining and description, but I believe the phrase 'Show don't Tell' would have been useful here. Far too often we'd be engrossed in the story, watching the scenes play out and it would be like someone had pressed pause and stood in front of the characters and started to explain all of these different bits of backstory and 'world' information, going off on tangents, using odd confusing phrases and generally being slow and a bit annoying. By the time they got out of the way I'd lost track of the story and, particularly during more action-y scenes, felt that the pace had been completely thrown off by this big chunk of boring-ness.
It's actually quite disappointing because the plot was a really lovely refreshing take on the fairy tale (The heroine in this is far more complex and pro-active without being the worst trait of all: 'feisty' *shudder*) and the story is really beautiful, but if you like pacey novels and witty dialogue this might not be your cup of tea.
How to Be a Woman - Caitlin Moran
Last one! I read this one very slowly over a long time, dipping in and out of it between reading other books, but that's not to say I didn't absolutely love it. I am a feminist. Not a flag waving, man are evil and women are better feminist, just someone who would like to promote the radical notion that women are people too.
There's a lot of feminist literature out there, much of it angry and dramatic and emotive with good reason, these are women who've been subject to great prejudice. However Moran takes a different view: she, in a lighthearted manner, takes us through some of the issues that women deal with, from being overlooked in the workplace to the pressure to be entirely hairless from the lower eyelids downwards, all of the time. There is no great anger, no preaching, just a woman throwing her hands up and going "remind me why this is ok again?" Some of her best chapters tackle strip clubs, and the 'horror' that is being fat. It puts in a really articulate but chatty way feeling's I've had for a long time, just not known how to express and opened my eyes to other ways in which both men and women are constricted and trapped by patriarchal ideals. I really enjoyed this and would definitely urge anyone who is confused about feminism or doesn't think it necessary anymore to have a flick through and just consider the ideas being presented, if it doesn't change your mind that's fine, but we'll both know at least you've considered another point of view.
Let me know your recent reads, or if you've tried any of these books tell me what you thought!
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