I recently came across a duo on YouTube called Stripped Cover Lit, two guys from Kansas City who smoke cigars, fawn over Dickinson and Chuck Palahniuk (or however the fuck you spell it) and argue about the merits of Harry Potter. Essentially my dream content. Recently they announced that they were going to be hosting a summer writing challenge, something like NaNoWriMo but considerably more chill, and far less terrifying, and I decided I needed to join in.
The #HotandSticky challenge sounds like a great way to cultivate a writing lifestyle. Rather than the month long hysteria of NaNoWriMo, the plan for #HotandSticky is to write 488 words a day over June, July, August and September. At the end you will have a slightly longer word count and will have spent a longer amount of time with your novel in your head and will have a worked on a writing practice that is actually far more sustainable in the long run, which are all excellent things!
Basically I love imagining and playing out scenes, creating worlds and characters and finding story lines that perfectly express some big world changing truth I've apparently decided needs to be shared. I love the planning, the character maps and scratching out phrases in freshly bought moleskines, as they come organically from mind to paper, beautifully formed and perfect just as they are.
And then I remember that writing is hard. Most of the time the words come out ugly and clunky first time, there are huge great gaps between the scenes you've already thought up that you have to try and fill with something interesting and anything, everything seems to get in the way of getting words down.
I have been struggling with motivation to write since I graduated in July last year, having left University and my English Literature with Creative Writing degree. I was used to being in a community of people who loved and appreciated literature and spending hours at a time having my writer's ego stroked by tutors and students in my creative writing seminars, now I work a full time job and have limited access to 'writer friends' or people whom I can bounce ideas off, and have generally found myself stagnating creatively. I have been slowly coming back round to writing, in a sort of grouchy, resigned acknowledgment that if this is what I want to do with the rest of my life the I should probably start doing it the fuck now.
So to recap: Over the summer, June, July, August and September (and one day of October because that'll get a nice neat word count at the end) I'll be writing 488 words a day, or more realistically writing double that sometimes because I was too lazy to do my words the previous day. If you'd like to get involved, go watch the video and get stuck into the Twitter conversation where I think most of this will be happening over at #hotandsticky.
I'm currently in the process of recruiting Kieran and Holly in joining me so I will hopefully have real life buddies to write with too... and will be able to indulge that fantasy of a 'Moveable Feast' style writer's friendship group I've always wanted.
I have rambled for a long time and let's face it, after a while all this just becomes me distracting myself from actually writing. I'm hoping to post some weekly updates and progress reports, as well as any advice I formulate along the way. If you fancy giving this a go please do! It'll be so much fun!
Thank you for reading,
Isabelle
xox
Tampa is a book I was surprised I had not heard more about. It is described as a modern day Lolita, and follows our protagonist Celeste Price, a beautiful, cunning young woman with a near manic lust for fourteen year old boys.
The novel is incredibly compelling. Horrible yes, but compelling. I read this in two sittings, unable to really get it out of my head until I was done with it and even then it hung around in my brain, gnawing away at me. Nutting pulls no punches with her story and the reader gets every grisly detail of a very unapologetic plot. To say the story is enjoyable might be pushing it, but it was certainly 'entertainment'. The story moves surprisingly quickly and it's hard to put the book down when you are being pulled into this hideous but fascinating character study. There are incredibly graphic scenes involving teenage boys, and the ways in which Celeste's narration describes people around her, particularly those she considers ugly are pretty gruesome and unsavoury. The novel is excellent at really confronting the reader. The scenes that we would rather look away from are written so well we can't help but keep going and there are certainly moments where the reader is challenged in their own fascination. All of this is awful, all of this is terrible, and yet we keep reading, we sit and watch these events unfold, out of the sick fascination we all have when it comes to 'taboo' sex.
My major qualm was how incredibly simple the character of Celeste Price is. She is very interesting and you watch her with this sort of horrible fascination, but ultimately as a 'realistic' character she lacks any depth. She is not just a pedophile (hebephile technically), she is also a nymphomaniacal sociopath. Her entire brain is filled, all the time, with wanting to bang teenage boys and how much she hates literally everybody else... and that's it. There's no hint of moral dilemma, no attempts to understand herself or appreciate her husband for what he does for her. She is a one track mind the entire time and undergoes zero character development from the first page to the last. Even at the moment in which she is faced with what she has done, and the consequences for those around her, all she can do is shrug and say 'It's just what I like.'
In some ways I can see Nutting's intentions with this. Celeste is incredibly beautiful and as such gets away with everything she does. I think partially this book serves as a critique on how we treat beauty as somehow equating to morality, and Nutting shows that even the prettiest face can often belong to a thoroughly nasty piece of work. On the other hand it does nothing to add to the current discussion about sexual attraction to children and sex abuse. In fact it takes a step backwards and reduces the idea of 'the pedophile' to this mindless, abusive animal with no other aspect of their life, as opposed to what they are: People, some of whom do terrible things, and some of whom resist their feelings, never acting upon them at all. Casting a pedophile in the light of sprouting out of the ground and prowling off to find victims does nobody any good at all, and I may have preferred a more nuanced portrayal, whereas Celeste is nothing but a caricature.
I feel Nutting had clear objectives when setting out to write this book, and managed to achieve what she wanted and create a really good book while she was at it, however I wish she had made things more complex, more nuanced, and not resorted to shock factor to propel the book forward. I would certainly recommend it, and did really enjoy the experience of reading it, but I feel any book that tackles a topic of this magnitude socially, it must be done cleverly, and with care, and I feel in some ways Nutting blundered into this without crafting the novel that her ideas and intentions deserved.
If you've read this let me know what you thought! I imagine there are some pretty strong opinions out there.
Thank you for reading.
Isabelle
xox
So obviously now that we've had like two and a half days of really nice weather, it's officially summer in England and we must now adopt the traditions of impractical footwear named after the sound they make, incessant barbecues regardless of the weather and, of course, 'summer reads'. which are apparently different to 'reads' at any other time of the year because they tend to describe in more detail how sexy the ill-advised romantic interests are.
Me being a dick aside, I do actually love me a little bit of the light fluffy summer reading that comes out this time of year, and I'd heard that this was an example of how 'summer reads' could have some substance to them. Plus Paperback Castles really liked it and I worship the ground she walks on, so I decided to pick it up.
My favourite thing about this book is it's protagonist. A lot of 'romcom' books have main characters with all the charisma of potted plants, who just watch the events of the book unfold and cry at the appropriate moments. Delia is awesome. Very likable but far from perfect, she is complex and interesting and grows throughout the plot. She also wears adorable clothes and exercises a level of authority over her own story which I loved. Although she finds herself in situations completely out of her depth and as a result makes very naive decisions, she is mature and smart, and doesn't flap around waiting to be saved.
My least favourite thing however, was the love interest. UGH. Identifiable straight away as the handsome douchebag with a secret heart of gold, he came into the plot, make Delia's life very difficult for about 400 pages, then suddenly did a full U-turn with a pretty feeble explanation to wave away his previous shitty behaviour. It's not really spoilers to talk about him this way, you can tell who he is and that he and Delia are going to get together by the end pretty much straight away, and the fact that I hated him from the start and could see where it was going all the way up to the end really got on my tits.
There are a few other flaws, a frankly ridiculous sleazy pantomime baddy as the antagonist, and a few other pretty caricature characters, but that aside the story is really entertaining. I especially love a section in which two women meet, one of whom was being cheated on by her boyfriend with the other, and after some awkwardness they are able to have a frank conversation without any animosity.
The writing was pretty sound. Nothing that's going to be quoted in years to come but the writing was smooth and nice and never jarring or clunky, which I appreciate from a genre of book that doesn't necessarily need to be well written to do well. There are moments that are pretty funny and the tone is witty and sassy, but I have to admit I didn't find it as pant-wettingly laugh-out-loud as some other reviewers I've found. Nevertheless I was entertained the whole way through.
There are also a few pages written in comic strip form, as Delia dabbles in writing her own graphic novel, and I really really loved these, but they're few and far between and I would have loved to have seen more of that.
Overall I would say this book is worth a go. Definitely something nice and chill to read on holiday or bring on a long journey. I gave it a solid three stars and am planning to read McFarlane's next book 'Who's That Girl' when it comes out in paperback towards the end of this year.
Let me know if you've read this, and what your thoughts were.
Thanks for reading!
Isabelle
xox
Part spoof, part pep talk, part genuine reflection on the every day ways we waste our time, energy and money on things that just don't matter. I absolutely loved this book, and have every intention of reading it again in the next few days just to really let things sink in.
The basic premise of Sarah Knight's book is that in our everyday lives so much time, energy and money gets wasted on things that just don't matter to us, because we feel some sort of obligation, or because we're so worried about what people think of us. Knight argues that we only have limited resources of said time, energy and money to give and she calls these 'fucks'. When we use up all our fucks on things we don't truly care about we're left without enough time/energy/money to actually use living a life that makes us happy. Much of the book is spent helping you figure out where you are giving these fucks, and which ones matter and which you can let go. The rest involves navigating the tricky worlds of family ties, friendships and work obligations, and working to set your boundaries, using honestly, politeness and a sprinkle of sass to remove the unnecessary fucks from your life, leaving you plenty to be used on things you actually give a shit about.
Sarah Knight writes the whole book in a very pally, dont-give-a-fuck-big-sister way. The book is liberally sprinkled with swear words so if that bothers you, either get over yourself or give it a miss. Knight does a great job of avoiding the preachy rhetoric that a lot of self help books have. It's your mate giving you a pep talk, not a guru helping you improve your pathetic existence.
I think a lot of people feel like something like this encourages an attitude that is mean and apathetic. It couldn't be further from the truth. Sarah actively encourages you to conserve your 'fucks' without being an asshole and has a lot of tips on getting out of seemingly obligatory fuck-giving without hurting feelings in the process. There is also a lot of emphasis on the transferring of fucks from stuff that's making you annoyed or angsty to things that give you joy. The money you save not going to that second cousin's wedding in Vietnam? That can go into the fund for the kid's trip to Disneyland! Time saved no longer going to the gym means time used going to a book group instead, and energy saved trying to keep that toxic friendship going can now be spent doing good for that charity you feel strongly about. The book is ultimately is about putting your life in perspective, and realising that there might be some fucks you HAVE to give no mater how much you don't want to, but there are plenty that you can work out of your life to make room for things that make you happy.
There is a lot in this book that is hyperbolic and facetious and silly, and I did feel that maybe that was paper wasted on spoofing rather than actually being helpful, but the moments of humour do make the book more engaging and enjoyable so I should probably just shut up.
I would definitely recommend this little delight, it's not going to change your life, but it might make you see just how much of it you're wasting on bollocks you don't care about and how you can change that and live a life that is more free, more healthy and more satisfying.
I love fantasy, but since I finished the current installments of the A Song of Ice and Fire series I haven't been able to find anything that really engulfed me and drew me into the world in the way good fantasy should. Not for lack of trying, I'd tried several authors, including one of Hobb's earlier books, but just never found anything that clicked. I was lamenting this issue to Luke and he suggested not starting at the beginning with Robin Hobb, but with the Liveship Traders. I also know that Mercedes ADORES this trilogy so it's come highly recommended. The only thing that was putting me off was the sheer size of the damn things.
Ship of Magic is a grimace worthy 880 pages long. I'm not the fastest and I'm easily distracted. This took me most of April, with me reading two books and three graphic novels at various intervals. I found that that stopped me burning out and giving up, but it also means that I felt like by the time I finished it on a blurry eyed morning before work, I had been reading the book for about ten years.
However, this was time well spent. Ship of Magic is a masterful piece of fantasy, written by someone who truly understands the genre, and has the skill to create a story that is at once a classic, traditional fantasy novel, yet subverts the genre in all the right places. She plays with gender and the tropes that go with it, her world is at once the epitome of a fantasy land yet something fresh and original.
Ship of Magic follows the Vestrits, a family of Traders who sail aboard a 'liveship', a ship that will come to life when members of three successive generations of a family die aboard her deck. The story starts as the ship Vivacia is readied for her ageing captain, and the third in a row, to come aboard and pass away on her decks so she can be brought to life. The story follows various members of the Vestrits as well as several characters connected with the ship. There are also a number of seemingly unrelated strands of narration, that begin to weave together throughout the novel.
Hobb's real standout are her characters. When I read, I have trouble forgetting that I'm reading a book, I can never treat the characters as people, instead reading them always as things that have been designed and crafted. I can appreciate a well written character, or get annoyed at one that follows stereotypes, but they are always 'creations' in my mind. This book completely obliterated that, Hobb's cast was just so real and complex and dynamic, each character incredibly just as well developed, self contradictory and impossible to truly understand as real people. I found myself abandoning any attempts to critically analyse her ability to build character and just flinging myself into a huge emotional investment. The last few pages, where we see certain characters in great distress saw me putting the book down for a few minutes at a time, because I couldn't bear to watch this character I'd spent so long with and come to really love, suffering in the way they were. Even more impressive are Hobb's villains. The assholes of the book are relatively apparent. It's not like Game of Thrones where people slide around on the scale of grey, we know, more or less, who our bad guys are. However we get a number of chapters from their points of view, and so while they infuriate us with the utterly prickish way they behave, with each character you also completely understand their motivations. It's hard to explain without giving spoilers away, but Hobb has created a number of 'bad' characters, that are still completely human and totally justified in their own minds. That is something I rarely see done properly in any story and Hobb just does it with such ease.
The story is sprawling and complex, but never in a way that feels gratuitous, or purely for reader frustration (which is something I often felt reading ASOIAF) it doesn't feel like the reader is being flung in a tornado of events, rather that, although we don't necessarily understand the full scale of the story yet, we are in completely safe hands and things will be revealed at the right time. The end of the story saw a lot of questions answered... and even more raised, and I cannot wait to start the next one. I think I'll give myself a few weeks break, just so I can read a few books without having a massive tome hanging over my head.
If you've read this, let me know what you think. If you haven't read it, for God's sake read it and if you've read the whole trilogy keep your spoilers away from me or endure a painful death.
Thank you for reading!
Isabelle
xox
Earlier today I saw that the amazing Bee from Vivatramp posted her TBR for the authorathon, and being the easily influenced little person that I am, decided to join the fun. The AuthorAThon runs from the 18th to the 23rd of April, midnight to midnight, and was created by Sam and Joana. I haven't tried a readathon in quite some time, and have quite a bit of time off this week so I thought, what better way to work through a little of my TBR? There are six categories, the goal is to pick a book to match each and to see how far you can get through them. As I started yesterday, and there are some pretty chunky books on the cards I'm going to cheat a little and allow myself until the 26th to tackle my little pile. That's still a butt tonne of pages to get through in under a week, so I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't manage to finish everything. I'm just going to dig in and do my best and see what I can accomplish.
01. Read a Book by One of your Favourite Authors - About Grace by Anthony Doerr.
I've only read All the Light We Cannot See by Doerr, but it stole my heart completely earlier this year. I've been looking to read his debut novel About Grace from the moment I closed ATLWCS and I thought now would be the perfect opportunity to get on it.
02. Read a New-To You- Author - Nod by Adrian Barnes
This is a book of a slightly more optimistic length. An author I hadn't heard of before I picked this book up, intrigued by the cover, and utterly drawn by the description on the back. I've been so excited to read this book but have just been distracted by other reads, the length makes it perfect for a readathon however, so time to get on it!
03. Give an Author a Second Chance - Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb
Yes I know, I know, this is a long ass book. But I'm already just over half way through and am absolutely loving it. I started to read the Assassin's Apprentice, the first of Robin Hobb's books but for whatever reason it just didn't happen. Luke is a huge Robin Hobb fan and when I explained that I hadn't quite clicked with her, he suggested I try the Liveship Traders trilogy instead. I started reading it maybe a week ago and am absolutely loving it so far.
04. Read a Debut Author - The Girls by Emma Cline
I was kindly sent this proof for review, the Girls will be released in June and has been creating quite a stir in the book community. I know very little about it, but what I do know involves a young girl being drawn into a cult in the intoxicating 1969 Californian summer. How can I pass that up?
05. Read a Book Written by More than One Author - Saga Volume 1 by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Stapler
I read this one yesterday and already have a review up. Saga is one of those graphic novels everyone's either read or is meaning to read. If you need to know whether I enjoyed it, I bought the second volume earlier today.
06. Read a Book by an Author from A Different Continent from You - The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
(That'd be Africa by the way) I feel like a short story collection is a good form for a readathon. Little glimpses of story like penny sweets in a bag to just be enjoyed one at a time. And Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie can always been relied on for powerful, engaging storytelling.
So that's my little stack for the Authorathon. As I said I'm not really aiming to finish all of them, but I'd like to push myself to get through as big a page count as I can. Here's hoping!
Let me know if you're doing the readathon and definitely link my to your TBR if you've posted about it.
Thank you for reading!
Isabelle
xox
The amount of soil that ended up on my bed due to these photos was not worth the end result...
We see some of the most bizarre life forms anyone could imagine, and watch as they have explicit sex, get into bloody fights, swear, argue and generally dick about during an intergalactic war. The story revolves mostly around the two new parents trying to find a way off the war torn planet with their newborn baby, but we also meet those hunting them. A robot prince with a pregnant wife, a woman who looked like Meryl Streep had ten seconds to dress as a unicorn, a strange but awesome topless dreadlocked spider assassin lady and 'The Will' a bounty hunter with a giant lie detector sphinx cat, who looks to be being set up as the 'not all bad' bad guy. It really does seem like they had a brainstorm where anything goes and then couldn't bear to lose any of the ideas. I won't pretend it's not weird as balls but Saga does seem to be carrying it off so far!
As graphic novels are so damn short there isn't a whole lot more to say. The story is incredibly silly, a tonne of fun and the art is absolutely excellent. I'll be purchasing the next few volumes soon and will do a catch up review once I have more story to talk about.
In the mean time let me know if you've read any of Saga and what you thought!
Thank you for reading,
Isabelle
xox
Hibo Wadere's memoir is utterly devastating, but should be compulsory reading around the globe. I read this in less than 48 hours, unable to really focus on anything else. I had no idea the brutality of the practice, and more shocking was how prevalent it is, even here in the UK.
We follow Hibo from a six year old awoken in the early hours of the morning, led into a tent at the bottom of her garden by her mother, held down by her aunts and mutilated in a painful, undignified and barbaric manner. It does not make easy reading, Wardere spares no details of her ordeal, however the descriptions of the pain and fear she felt are incredibly powerful, and truly bring home how hideous the practice is.
We follow Hibo from a six year old awoken in the early hours of the morning, led into a tent at the bottom of her garden by her mother, held down by her aunts and mutilated in a painful, undignified and barbaric manner. It does not make easy reading, Wardere spares no details of her ordeal, however the descriptions of the pain and fear she felt are incredibly powerful, and truly bring home how hideous the practice is.
Her story describes growing up, living with FGM; the shame, the pain, the constant infections, and the now destroyed relationship with her mother who she saw as the reason for her troubles, until she grew up and decided to start a new life in England, where she could protect her own future daughters from the fate she suffered. She begins her new life, falls in love, settles into the English culture, and has some minor surgery to relieve some of the difficulties of her mutilation. However she comes to realise that her new sanctuary isn't as safe as she had first thought and slowly faces the reality that FGM is a prevalent problem in many communities in the UK, and that there were girls at the school in which she worked who could be in danger.
Hibo could have buried her head in the sand, ignored the issue and continued to live peacefully. Instead she decided this was her chance to take a stand. She used her position as a classroom assistant to bring attention to the teachers, many of whom knew little to nothing about the practice. A few even thought it was a harmless, even joyful, coming of age ritual. Wardere used her own testimony to educate the staff, and she found herself being invited to speak at other schools, explaining the reality of FGM and it's consequences, and teaching them to spot the warning signs of vulnerable girls. Hibo's message has since spread and she is nationally recognised as one of the leaders in the movement against FGM today.
Her story is harrowing all the way through, however it is ultimately one of triumph. She has survived one of the most disgraceful abuses still considered acceptable in parts of the world and used her experience to save other women. She talks with grace and conviction and her testimony is engaging. She highlights the importance of the role men must play in ending FGM, by taking a stand and saying that preserving a woman's supposed purity is no justification for removing sections of a child's genitals and stitching them up, leaving them with a hole the size of a hole-punch puncture through which they must urinate and bleed. All so that their husband can be assured that his wife is untouched on their wedding night... before getting to break her in... leading to several days in hospital.... But y'know we don't need feminism anymore. She also does a beautiful job of talking delicately about the women who allow the practice to continue, and get their daughters cut. Rather than vilifying them, she looks instead at the culture that fears female sexuality, and brainwashes them into prioritizing purity over all else, because it will ensure a good marriage, and therefore a good secure future for their daughters, who have no other opportunity to create a good life for themselves.
I would urge anyone to read this book, it has truly opened my eyes to something that I have allowed myself to ignore for too long. Maybe I don't have any power to stop this happening as an individual, but part of eradicating this is creating the conversation, ensuring that we as a society are informed and united against this practice. Only by creating an open dialogue about a problem that is so taboo can we begin to develop legal policies protecting children, and perhaps engage with supporters of FGM and present a united front against their way of thinking. Steps have already been taken in the right direction but there is a long way to go. It's not simply a matter of implementing laws or catching the cutters, it's a case of changing a cultural mindset that has gone mostly unchallenged for generations. It's a long uphill struggle but Hibo Wardere's passion and power make me feel like perhaps it can be done.
All of this aside, go read the fucking book. Deal with the discomfort and come out a more educated person, with a deeper knowledge of something that is often treated as a shameful secret. You will not regret it.
Here are a few other resources for anybody interested in finding out more.
Hibo could have buried her head in the sand, ignored the issue and continued to live peacefully. Instead she decided this was her chance to take a stand. She used her position as a classroom assistant to bring attention to the teachers, many of whom knew little to nothing about the practice. A few even thought it was a harmless, even joyful, coming of age ritual. Wardere used her own testimony to educate the staff, and she found herself being invited to speak at other schools, explaining the reality of FGM and it's consequences, and teaching them to spot the warning signs of vulnerable girls. Hibo's message has since spread and she is nationally recognised as one of the leaders in the movement against FGM today.
Her story is harrowing all the way through, however it is ultimately one of triumph. She has survived one of the most disgraceful abuses still considered acceptable in parts of the world and used her experience to save other women. She talks with grace and conviction and her testimony is engaging. She highlights the importance of the role men must play in ending FGM, by taking a stand and saying that preserving a woman's supposed purity is no justification for removing sections of a child's genitals and stitching them up, leaving them with a hole the size of a hole-punch puncture through which they must urinate and bleed. All so that their husband can be assured that his wife is untouched on their wedding night... before getting to break her in... leading to several days in hospital.... But y'know we don't need feminism anymore. She also does a beautiful job of talking delicately about the women who allow the practice to continue, and get their daughters cut. Rather than vilifying them, she looks instead at the culture that fears female sexuality, and brainwashes them into prioritizing purity over all else, because it will ensure a good marriage, and therefore a good secure future for their daughters, who have no other opportunity to create a good life for themselves.
I would urge anyone to read this book, it has truly opened my eyes to something that I have allowed myself to ignore for too long. Maybe I don't have any power to stop this happening as an individual, but part of eradicating this is creating the conversation, ensuring that we as a society are informed and united against this practice. Only by creating an open dialogue about a problem that is so taboo can we begin to develop legal policies protecting children, and perhaps engage with supporters of FGM and present a united front against their way of thinking. Steps have already been taken in the right direction but there is a long way to go. It's not simply a matter of implementing laws or catching the cutters, it's a case of changing a cultural mindset that has gone mostly unchallenged for generations. It's a long uphill struggle but Hibo Wardere's passion and power make me feel like perhaps it can be done.
All of this aside, go read the fucking book. Deal with the discomfort and come out a more educated person, with a deeper knowledge of something that is often treated as a shameful secret. You will not regret it.
Here are a few other resources for anybody interested in finding out more.
A Guardian Article about FGM becoming increasingly medicalised for profit
A Map showing the rates of FGM across England.and Wales
A Map showing the rates of FGM across England.and Wales
Thank you for reading
Isabelle
xox
The Vegetarian - Hang Kang - 2015 - Portobello Books
While scrolling through my pictures that I'd taken of this book while reading it I became very aware that I hadn't managed to get a single one where I wasn't about to eat something... The irony is not lost on me but at least I didn't use the McDonald's pic...
This book has been getting a lot of attention recently, and I've been making more of an effort recently to read more diversely, and to read translated works. I'd also just finished All the Light we Cannot See and The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet which are both pretty chunky, slow burning books, so I was looking for something short and snappy to break things up. All of these factors culminated in me reading the Vegetarian, and I'm so glad I did.
This book is short, but it is not an easy read. It is a rather harrowing account of a meek, submissive Korean housewife, beginning to lose her mind. It's hard to explain too much of this book without ruining the very carefully constructed narrative, but essentially her story is told in three acts, through the eyes of first her husband, then her brother-in-law, and finally her sister. We follow her through the eyes of other characters so we never get a true account of what is going on inside this woman's head, how mentally sound her decisions are, to what extent she understands what she is doing. It's impossible to truly identify with her, as such she remains a distant, though not unsympathetic character throughout the novel. In many ways this story isn't really even about her, it's about the people around her, and their reactions to watching this woman completely turning her back on societal expectations and decisions. It's about her husband, worrying more that his wife's eating habits will embarrass him in front of his co-workers, than the reasons she is suddenly eschewing meat. It's about her brother-in-law, an ageing failed artist, who sees his sister's wife's sudden transformation as a spark that could rekindle his artistic fervor. Through all of the acts, it is about her sister, a self made woman who has survived by always doing the right thing, faced with this sudden act of rebellion, wondering whether her own life is simply slavery to societal expectation and nothing more.
This book is appalling, without being melodramatic. Kang does a beautiful job of treading this fine line of controlled hysteria. The novel shows one awful scene after another, but each is relayed in this incredibly restrained way, never getting to the stage where we're rolling our eyes and the suspension of disbelief has worn thin. Deborah Smith's translation is gorgeous as well. Obviously I cannot compare to the original Korean, but the sparse, beautifully written prose perfectly relays the bleak, bizarre narrative and the ways in which imagery and natural scenes are described is rich and melancholic.
I would really recommend reading The Vegetarian, I'm definitely going to reread it in a few months, as I don't feel the first time round was quite enough to truly absorb the intricacies of the novel and I definitely want to spend some more time picking it apart.
Let me know if you've read this book and what you thought!
Thanks for reading,
Isabelle
xox
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
*Alternative title - Take a Drink at Every Use of the Word 'Read' and See if you Can Still Stand Up'
I have only really gotten back into reading in the past three or four months. Before I went to University I was what you would call a 'big reader'. I got through the first three A Song of Ice and Fire in as many weeks, blasted through six books a month easily and read consistently one after another. However once Uni life began to settle I essentially found myself reading
1. Get into the habit.
Making reading just another part of daily life takes a few weeks of effort. Like going to the gym or tending a garden, making reading a regular habit takes actively forcing yourself into it for a little while until it just becomes something you do. Try and find space at least once a day to read, you can set yourself a page count or timer if you like, or just make sure you're reading, however little, every day. You could choose a specific time of day, on the bus in the morning or while dinner is in the oven. If you find it hard to set a certain time try using something like Don't Break the Chain to give you motivation or get someone else to hold you to account. After a while reading will stop feeling like something you need to make time for, and be as much of a habit as brushing your teeth.
2. Stop adding to your TBR pile.
I know this will sound strange, but the more unread books I see on my shelves, the harder it is for me to actually read any of them. I know, I'm insane. For the time period that I was really not reading, I was still buying books, because I wanted to read, I wanted to get out of this slump and get back to being the avid reader I was before. But I would try and start my new books, then feel guilty about all the unread books already sitting on my shelves and think I should really get through some of them first. But what do I pick? Do I finish that series I enjoyed but never got to the end of? Do I go for one of the classics I really should have read by now? Do I read these new books I've just bought while they're still relevant? Being overwhelmed with choice is a huge detriment to getting anything done. I had the bookshelf equivalent of the woman rifling through a stuffed wardrobe complaining of having nothing to wear. In the end I took most of my unread books and put them in a suitcase. I go back now and again and some make it out and get read, but I will probably end up donating most of them. It's silly to waste them on my shelf when they could go to someone who will read and love them. The likelihood is I'll forget about them. And if I find myself pining to read some in later years I can just pick up another copy and actually read it straight away this time. So stop crowding yourself with more and more unread books. Trust me.
3. Figure out if you're a 'TBR reader' or a 'Mood reader'.
In the book blogging/ booktube community there's a trend in which we post a declaration of our TBR, a pile of books 'to be read' over that month/summer/weekend and for some people that structure and planning really works. I however, have learned that if there's one way to guarantee a book goes unread forever, it's to put it on a TBR pile. I find that for me this method works once a year (bizarrely) and that's making a long list of books to get through over summer. Even then there must be no order or time frame or I will just never get to them. I don't really have an explanation for this. Maybe I just really don't do rules and 'limits' even when I'm the one deciding them? Whatever the reason, I find I read more consistently and enjoy my reading more when I just buy two or three books, read them and then buy some more once I've finished. This means I'm unlikely to have those massive haul posts/videos that I actually quite enjoy reading and watching, but it does mean that I'm a much happier reader. So work out whether a TBR is something that works for you, or if you find that just going one at a time suits you better.
4. Balance dense or complex books with lighter reads.
I love literary fiction, but sometimes reading can feel like a chore because you feel like you have to concentrate to get through it. Fortunately I also love fluffier reads and find that reading one alongside the other works beautifully! I read a lot of non fiction this way, and got through Quiet by Susan Cain, which is dense and deals with a lot of research and studies, alternating with the first three books in The Emperors Edge series by Lindsay Buroker (incredibly trashy, moreish steampunk books that take less than a day to get through each). You can see my reviews here. I did a similar thing with Wool, a book that I began to find heavy going and slow about half way through but really wanted to finish. I began to read fifty pages of it, then treat myself to fifty pages of Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman which is a joy the whole way through and kept me motivated to finish Wool. It worked perfectly! If like me you often find yourself reading dense or slow moving books, balancing fluffy humour or fast paced fantasy can be a great way to keep your reading pace and finish your books.
5. Make Reading 'Your' Time.
Reading for me is one of the few activities that I have to be completely focused on. You can watch TV and play on your phone and have your emails up on your laptop all at once, but reading needs all of your attention, and for me that means that reading is one of the few activities I do that allow me to be completely switched off from everything else. For a while I had trouble really sinking into reading, as I'd find myself having to come back out and check my phone or refresh twitter. Now it's become the ultimate 'me time'. Something that is about taking time for myself, to do something I enjoy without feeling the buzz of connectivity that is part of modern life. So turn your reading time into a treat. Create a comfy reading area on a soft rug by the fire, sinking in pillows and blankets on your bed or stretched out on the lawn in the sunshine. Reading in the bath is a bit of a stereotype but it's a good one. Occasionally I treat myself to some LUSH goodies, toss them in the bath and relax and read until I go all pruney. Books are an escape from daily life, to enter a different world or meet different kinds of people, or be exposed to different ideas, and I think that makes reading a perfect opportunity to take some time completely for yourself. Make reading part of your wind down at the end of a long day or your Sunday lie in and it'll become something you look forward to and crave.
6. Chill man, it's just reading.
God we all make a fuss about reading. We can attach so much weird guilt when we don't feel that we're reading as much as we want, or as much as others are. You only have so many hours in the day and we all have to figure out our priorities to fit them. Maybe you're happy to give up reruns of Next Top Model in favour of curling up with a book. Maybe you aren't. Maybe you can dedicate a whole evening to reading, maybe you've got other shit on. Reading should be something you enjoy and yes, if you want to cultivate a reading lifestyle, there will be pockets of time where you have to push yourself to read, but most people who consider themselves 'readers' have worked out a pace that suits them and their lifestyle. I have some days where I will do nothing but lie in bed and read, I have days where I catch twenty minutes reading on the train to or from work. I have days where I just don't read at all. I also read pretty slowly. It can take me a couple of weeks to get through one book, particularity if its very dense and something to savour and pick apart as you're going through. This can be frustrating as it feels like every book is a time commitment, unlike my housemate Abby who can inhale books in days. But it's not something I let myself get stuck thinking about. The more you stress and guilt yourself about how much you 'should' be reading, the more you'll give yourself analysis paralysis and not be able to get started. Let go of this obligation to be reading, start to see it for what it is: a past-time. Literally a thing you do because you enjoy it and it gives you a pleasing way to spend your time, as well as having some benefits to you (if you make that masturbation joke I swear to God.) Sometime you might want to do other things or just not feel like it and that's fine.
So those are my tips for making reading part of your lifestyle. Feel free to share any tips and also check out this similar post by Bee over at Vivatramp, which I remember being really helpful to me last summer.
Thank you for reading.
Isabelle
xox
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