Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon: Hours 5-8

 

Welcome to the second post of the April Dewey readathon!  This one will take me through until 9pm here in England; if you want to catch up on all my challenges, updates and photos so far, you can check out my post for Hours 0-4 by clicking HERE.  Onwards!

~ Hour 5 (6pm) ~
I've been reading:  The Suicide Shop by Jean Teulé
Pages read since my last update:  33
Pages read altogether:  158
Mini challenges completed:  3
The menu:  The pizza's a-cookin'!
In six words:  I've finished my first book already!

Thoughts:  Man, I feel so tired already!  It's not even frickin' bedtime yet, but my eyes are so sleepy, I could drop off right now...  On the plus side, I kept reading for a few extra minutes past the hour before I stopped to do this update, and managed to finish my first book!  The Suicide Shop was weird and charming and intriguing, a little detached and offbeat at times, and it ended on a note so unexpected that it'd have floored me if I hadn't accidentally caught a glimpse of the last line as soon as I turned the page (don't you hate it when that happens?).  Glad I finally picked it up - and it was the PERFECT way to feel like I'd had a productive start to the readathon, especially as it looks like I might not be awake for quite as much of it as I'd originally anticipated!  ;)

 

MINI CHALLENGE: Operation: Quotation!

Hosted by Geeky Library

"Life is the way it is.  It's worth what it's worth!  It does its best, within its limitations.  We mustn't ask too much of life, either.  Nor should we want to suppress it!" 
- The Suicide Shop by Jean Teulé

 

~ Hour 6 (7pm) ~
I've been reading:  Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell
Pages read since my last update:  8
Pages read altogether:  166
Mini challenges completed:  3
The menu:  A couple of slices of Goodfellas pepperoni pizza; coffee
In six words:  An hour for doing other things.

Thoughts: This hour's mostly been about finishing cooking the pizza, EATING some of the pizza, and catching up on Instagram, to be honest.  Plus I'd already spilled over into this hour to finish my book from the LAST hour.  Aaaaanyway, a couple of pieces of pizza have been consumed, my mum had a nibble as well because "it smells so gooooood", then Domino (feline readathon buddy) decided SHE needed to investigate, and THEN I managed to get them all to sod off and picked up my next book - Kindred Spirits, the World Book Day mini novella quick read thingy by Rainbow Rowell, about a girl waiting in line for the new Star Wars movie.  It's another of my shortest book choices (oops) but I'm feeling lazy and also like I want something nice to read post-Suicide Shop!

 

 

~ Hour 7 (8pm) ~
I've been reading:  Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell
Pages read since my last update:  25
Pages read altogether:  191
Mini challenges completed:  3
The menu:  The last dregs of my coffee from before
In six words:  Ugh, is it bedtime yet?  #FAIL

Thoughts:  I'm really, genuinely knackered, ugh.  I don't know if it's my new medication, hormonal shittiness (ah, the joys of womanhood), the fact that I've been staring at my books and/or laptop for seven hours solid... WHO KNOWS?  I've read a bit more of Kindred Spirits anyway - very fun, very easy to read, very Rainbow-y - so I'll carry on with that for a bit now and see what happens.  Most of the challenges so far either aren't appealing or aren't actually available for me full stop (like this hour's Facebook one) which is at least freeing up a few extra minutes each hour for other things!  ONWARDS!

Accurate representation of my reading speed.

 

 

~ Hour 8 (9pm) ~
I've been reading:  Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell
Pages read since my last update:  41
Pages read altogether:  232
Mini challenges completed:  4
The menu:  Nothing this hour, that pizza was quite enough!
In six words:  Another book done!  I'M ON FIIIIIRE!

Thoughts:  I finished Kindred Spirits!  And the little teaser extract of a different book in the back, which only served to highlight how good Rainbow Rowell is compared to other YA novelists, haha.  It was really cute anyway, all about Star Wars and fandom and these three people sitting in a non-existent line for the new movie for several days, just for the experience and thrill (or not) of being there.  I loved it, and it's so tiny and quick to read that I'll definitely be keeping hold of it to reread next time I need a little pick-me-up!  Now, I'm off to do a few chores and generally surface for air, so I'll leave you with Victoria Wood, who sadly died this week, and her wonderful Ballad of Barry and Freda (Let's Do It), possibly the most hilarious musical skit of all time ever.  Sometimes mid-readathon you just need a good giggle...




MINI CHALLENGE: SHARE A QUOTE
Hosted by My Life is a Fairytale That Will Never End

"I have never been able to understand why people who come over as all weak and watery are said to be weeds.  Those posh plants with their double-barrelled names and a family tree as long as your arm, with roots that go way back, they don't know they're born.
'My dear, I simply can't cope with this soil - far too acid for my liking.  And look, there's a horrid little stone in the way.  It's just too much.'"

- From A Play on Words by Deric Longden

 

 

And so we come to the end of Hour 8, and this post.  There'll be a new post up for Hours 9-12; by the end of that one it'll be 1am here, when things start getting trippy...

 

March: What I Read

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (4*) - FINALLY, I HAVE CONQUERED THE BEAST.  Yes, fifteen years after my teenage self combed through this book for 'good bits' and nearly lost her lunch, my adult self read it in its entirety and to her surprise, rather enjoyed herself!  This book is not going to be for everyone, or even for most people.  The eponymous Patrick Bateman's relentlessly monotonous cycle of brand names, outfit descriptions, expensive restaurants, pill-popping and bed-hopping will put many off before they even GET to the torture, murder, sadism and frenzied cannibalism - but actually, I ended up finding the repetitive detail quite soothing, and found that not only did this shallow everyday rhythm counter the (incredibly) graphic scenes beautifully, but it also allowed Bateman's black humour and moments of sudden wisdom and humanity to shine through with unexpected brightness.  I got quite fond of him by the end - like somehow as reader and character we had been through the wringer together, each inside the other's psyche - and I still can't quite work out how much of his narrative was 'real' or whether some interactions and moments were purely the product of his increasingly desperate mind.  Now I'm going to allow myself to revisit the (much tamer and more obviously funny) movie, and my mastery of this novel will finally be complete!

Little House in the Big Woods (Little House 1) by Laura Ingalls Wilder (4.5*) - I'm waaaay behind on Bex's 2016 Little House readalong, so this month I finally picked up the first book to get started - and it was wonderful.  Set in the early 1870s in Wisconsin, it's an autobiographical year in the life of four year-old Laura's pioneer family - Ma, Pa, Mary, Laura and baby Carrie - and their log cabin in the woods.  What really struck me was how connected the family is to its surroundings: how the shifting seasons are enjoyed; how the natural world is respected and seen as something to coexist with, not conquer; and how each meal, each foodstuff, each item for the house is carefully planned and created from scratch, often with help from Laura's wider family.  It's a wonderful antidote to modern living, with charming illustrations to add to the reading experience, and I loved every minute.  It's a rose-tinted tale to be sure, and it lost half a star for a couple of slightly muddled descriptions of the objects and processes Laura observed - but they were minor gripes.  Roll on book 2!

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín (4*) - I'm not a massive reader of historical fiction, but when the film buzz first arose (with a bunch of my favourite actors attached to the project) it really whet my appetite for this one.  It's the story of a young Irish girl, Eilis, who travels from Enniscorthy to Brooklyn in the 1950s to start a new life full of expanded opportunities and interesting people.  The novel explores her growth from a timid girl to a poised young woman, and the way she is torn between her Irish roots and American lifestyle.  It's written in a slightly detached tone, and the ending was a bit too abrupt for me (albeit realistic), but I loved Eilis's journey and the many little details that brought her experiences to life, whether it was the rough crossing to New York, working in a department store, Christmas at the local parish hall, or spending the day at the beach with friends.  A compelling, subtle little novel that didn't rock my world, but made me very glad I picked it up and gave it a chance.  Just one word of warning - don't (re)watch the movie trailer if you plan to read it; it spoils (and therefore ruins) one of the most important plot points of the whole novel!

P.S. I watched the movie last night and it was BEAUTIFUL.  The music is to die for, it streamlines some of the fussier strands of the original, and the slight air of detachment in the novel gives way to a deeply emotional screen adaptation that ends on a perfect note.  My only issues with it were that some of the key characters lacked the depth and spark they had on the page, and it skipped over most of the novel's romantic scenes that served to heighten the stakes in Eilis's dual lives and make the necessity to choose between them all the more poignant.


Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (4*) - Yup, I finally read it - which is good, because I was starting to feel like the last person in the universe to pick it up, and it's been on my shelves for TWO AND A HALF YEARS already.  I didn't like it as much as Attachments, but I appreciated the slow-building and refreshingly joyful nature of the relationship between Cath and Levi, and I loved Reagan's sass and Mr Avery's dry wit (I was imagining him as Stanley Tucci all the way through!).  The focus on the Simon Snow fandom brought back some great Potter memories, and given my Carry On purchase last week it's probably a good thing that I preferred Cath's fanfiction to the 'real' Simon book excerpts peppered through the novel.  Overall I think it was maybe a little longer than it needed to be, but it finally succeeded where Anna and the French Kiss (and others) failed for me - it's a fun, bookish college novel full of interesting and multifaceted characters and different types of relationships and issues, and has a self-awareness and charm that help to excuse its more clichéd moments.  Bring on the next Rainbow! 


It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini (5*) - This book's been on my radar for the longest time (you know how much I love a good mental health novel) and HOORAY, it was so worth the wait!  First of all, let me say that it's quite refreshing to read one of these stories from the perspective of an average guy; not a painfully innocent or shy boy, or a kooky girl, but a regular, testosterone-driven, vaguely worldly fifteen year-old who likes video games, pot and jerking off.  Craig's description of his five days in a mental hospital, which he checks himself into after a long battle with depression and a night of suicidal crisis - is not only pithy, warm and very realistic (it is drawn from Vizzini's own experiences), it is also, as the title suggest, really kind of funny.  It's filled with wonderful characters and it's possibly the most relatable mental health novel I've read yet; I've scrawled so many notes and hearts and stars in the margin to mark passages to go back to next time I need to feel that I'm not alone and that other people have had the same weird thoughts as I'm having.  I also watched the movie adaptation, which is quite faithful to the book and put a big smile on my face by the time the credits rolled.  Highly recommended!

Gold by Dan Rhodes (4*) - This is an odd little book.  Nothing much happens, and yet it completely won my heart back in 2009 with its mixture of small-town characters, gentle charm and earthy British flavour.  It opens with three friends - short Mr Hughes, tall Mr Hughes and Mr Puw - chatting idly in their local pub.  Septic Barry is sitting across the room with his band, and Mr Edwards is pulling pints behind the bar.  All is as it should be.  And then a Japanese-looking girl walks in, orders a pint and sits down in the corner.  "Welcome back," everyone says.  But who is she?  Every year she arrives in this little Welsh coastal town and stays for a fortnight, alone, walking and drinking and reading.  Why is she here?  The book meanders through each day of her stay, adding little by little to the quirky tapestry of the town and the people in it as their stories unfold, and reaching deeper into Miyuki's life back home.  It's funny and delightful and strangely beautiful, and I loved reconnecting with it - and its sweetheart of a protagonist - all over again!

Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction by Tom Raabe (4.5*) - Another reread for me - and one I would wholeheartedly recommend to a large swathe of my fellow book lovers, be they LibraryThingers, GoodReaders, bloggers, BookTubers or just die-hard lifelong readers.  It could have been written for us - or by us, for that matter!  In short, this is a comprehensive guide to biblioholism and all the various quirky traits and habits that go along with it.  It is evident that Raabe is 'one of us' and he drives right to the heart of our affliction with humour and insight.  Alongside chapters on book buying, reading, collecting and storage, he also includes a hilarious alternative history of the book and a section on the extremes of bookish behaviour - eating books, stealing them, burying them and even destroying them.  With a wealth of interesting and amusing examples of biblioholic behaviour drawn from literature and history, this is a definite keeper for me - and I was delighted to find that when it came to the self-help-esque quiz (just how bad DO you have it?) I had actually increased my score a few points since my last reading; I can now rest assured that I'm still on my chosen path to eventually dying happily under a collapsed bookcase.  Good to know.  :)

 

 

Aaaaand that was my March...  Hope you all enjoyed your reading this month too!

A long-overdue EIGHT mini-reviews

It's time for a mega mini-review catch-up!  I think that I'm now up to date with everything I've read up to the end of February, so... shall we get started?

The Pearl by John Steinbeck (4*) - It's been a while since I read this, and honestly I think it will be quite forgettable in the long run - but I obviously really enjoyed it at the time, hence the four-star rating!  A kind of fable about greed, materialism and envy built around the discovery of a great pearl by a poor Mexican freediver, it's short, folksy, lyrical and poignant, and I very much enjoyed the musicality and dreamlike feeling of the reading experience.  Not necessarily one I'd rush to read again, but quite beautiful!

 

Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser (3.5*) - This is essentially a novel for young teens about bullying and gun violence, in particular the school shooting phenomenon. Its moral is perhaps a little simplistic and obvious to an adult, especially so long after it was first written, but the evolution of the two boys at the centre of the story has played itself out so many times in the intervening years that it still rings all too true. It's clear that the novel has used genuine incidents to formulate the story, with Strasser including footnotes to show where specific details echo real-life cases. If this makes even one kid stop and think differently about how they treat others around them, then that's got to be worth something.

 

The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet by Dr Michael Mosley - I can't really rate this one yet, and it's very unusual for me to read anything like this - but diet book, yaaaaay! I've put on weight since my last mega-depression, and with my family history of diabetes, high cholesterol, heart problems and all kinds of other ticking time bombs, I thought this would be worth a try! Michael Mosley is known here in the UK for his well-researched, well-presented TV health documentaries, which time and time again have thrown things into new perspectives and flipped over decades-old received wisdom, so I have high hopes. The book itself is made up of a swathe of detail about Type 2 diabetes (which this diet has been proven to actually reverse), blood sugar, the Mediterranean diet and the science behind the resurgence of the VLCD (very low calorie diet).  All very interesting and persuasive.  The last section is all recipes, most of which I didn't like the look of - but I HAVE started the diet, using my own menu made up from the same foods and principles, and it's going well so far, cake cravings aside!

 

A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (4*) - This was one of the longest-standing books on my TBR, and I'm SO GLAD I finally read it.  It's about four very different strangers who meet on top of a tall building on New Year's Eve, each planning to jump off - only they don't.  Instead, they grudgingly head back down the stairs together, and after a rocky night, end up making a pact to stay alive until Valentine's Day and see how things go.  I loved the four voices - disgraced TV presenter Martin, downtrodden Maureen, madcap young Jess and musician JJ (he was my favourite) - and the way this single shared experience unites them, separates them, brings them meaning but also trouble, creates opportunities but also slams doors.  It was real and blackly humorous and strangely uplifting and I can't wait to read my next Nick Hornby novel!

 

 

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Napoleon by Gideon Defoe (3*) - The fourth in the humorous Pirates! series, this one actually doesn't involved that much pirating.  After humiliation at the annual Pirate Awards, the Pirate Captain (with his luxuriant beard and pleasant, open face) has decided to retire - only his tropical island of choice actually turns out to be a bleak goat-riddled chunk of rock, and he'll be sharing the hearts of the local townspeople with none other than Napoleon Bonaparte.  Bring on the clash of the egos!  Funny, slightly surreal, and heralding the return of all my favourite pirates including Jennifer (former Victorian lady) and the long-suffering pirate with a scarf.  A fun way to while away an afternoon!

 

 

Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish by Sue Bender (4*) - Reading this slim little volume was like sitting down in your favourite armchair with a hot cup of tea at the end of a long day: soothing, comforting and deliciously peaceful.  Built around Bender's fascination with Amish quilts, this is the story of how her interest became a full-fledged quest for a better and calmer life.  Bender went to stay with two different Amish families over the course of a few years, and tried to use her experiences in their communities to pinpoint what was missing from her life and reframe it in a way that balanced Amish values with modern American living.  Unexpectedly relatable, interesting and quite lovely.

 

An Age of License: A Travelogue by Lucy Knisley (4*) - This was my third Lucy Knisley book (after Relish and French Milk) and despite the lack of all-out foodie emphasis this time, it was definitely my favourite of the three.  This time Knisley documents her trip around Europe promoting her books, meeting up with old friends and enjoying her three loves - comics, food and culture.  There's a dash of romance and a cheerful appearance from Knisley's lovely mother, and the overall tone is light and welcoming; she's mercifully lost that whining self-pity that made French Milk so much less appealing than it should have been.  Definitely a keeper!

 

Breathing Room by Marsha Hayles (4.5*) - I picked this up on Amazon when it happened to pop up in my recommendations at the same time as one of those sudden 'last copy of the current stock' price drops.  I had never heard of it before and had no idea what to expect - but I'm glad I took a chance!  It's a YA novel set in a Minnesota TB sanatorium in 1940, and is told from the perspective of Evelyn, a 13 year-old new arrival on the girls' ward.  Although it's undoubtedly sanitised for younger readers, there are some genuinely shocking moments alongside the friendships, intrigues, medical interventions and the relentless strict monotony of the sanatorium routine.  Whenever I started to forget, something drew my attention back to the fact that these patients were literally fighting for their lives, every single day.  I cried several times, and learned a lot both from the novel itself and from the historical images, background information and research details that Hayles includes in the book.  A well-written little gem.

 

 

Aaaaand that's me all caught up, finally!

September: What I Read, What I Watched

Du du DUH DUH DUH... another month bites the dust...  sing it with me!  Yes, you will have that song stuck in your head for the rest of the day.  YOU'RE WELCOME.  :)
 

 

~ What I Read ~

 

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn
I've wanted to read this for a while, because I wanted to watch the movie and you know I always prefer to read FIRST - but sadly I didn't like it any more than Dash and Lily's Book of Dares.  It was a quick read, quite fun, quite amusing - but also 100% forgettable.  Like Dash and Lily, there were some brilliant little moments and some profound lines in there, but it wasn't enough to redeem the book as a whole and I've already forgotten all but the bare basics.  I'm glad I borrowed it from the library instead of shelling out for a copy of my own!  3 stars.


Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter 1)
by Thomas Harris
My first book of the Halloween season - and what a pleasant surprise it was!  Hannibal himself is only in it for about 3 seconds, so what you're really left with is a well-written crime novel that focuses almost entirely on two characters: the murderer, Francis Dollarhyde, and the fascinating Will Graham, brought in by the FBI to use his empathic and imaginative talents to get inside the mind of the 'Red Dragon', who has already slaughtered two completely unlinked families in their homes.  I found the psychology of both these individuals to be the book's strongest element, with Dollarhyde's terrifying delusions and Graham's intuitive understanding dancing around each other as the FBI gets closer and closer to the truth.  I can't wait to read more from this series - an unexpected 4.5 stars!


And the Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks
by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs
Finally, my first Beat novel!  It's been a long time coming, though I'd always assumed On the Road would be my first... but whatever.  I got this one from the library right after I bought Kill Your Darlings on DVD and realised that the book was essentially a thinly-veiled novelisation of the real events depicted in the film.  Labelled a 'crime noir', I actually didn't think it felt that way at all; the murder is a fleeting thing right near the end of the book.  It's incredibly easy to read, filled with tiny mundane details that build up a picture of a bohemian alcohol-fuelled lifestyle largely consisting of bar hopping and drifting in and out of each other's homes to eat, sleep, love, talk and dream.  I also liked the insight into how boys would 'ship out' to work at sea, and how that process worked.  An odd one, this, in that I didn't rank it THAT highly, yet I'd really like to reread it and have my own copy at some point in the near future.  3.5 stars.


Ketchup Clouds
by Annabel Pitcher
This was another book that ended up being a little different from what I expected.  From the 'teenage girl writing to a serial killer' premise, I'd expected a thriller more akin to Belinda Bauer's Blacklands.  What I GOT was something that was more like a fusion of Laurie Halse Anderson and Malorie Blackman: a pitch-perfect, wry and beautifully told story of a young woman spilling her darkest secrets to someone she hopes might understand.  It's gripping, yes, and provocative, but in a heartstring-tugging and realistic way rather than a chilling one.  4 stars - I might read her other novel at some point too.  Has anyone read it already?  Do you recommend it?


Woolgathering
by Patti Smith
This is an odd one.  In well under 100 pages, Smith manages to cram in photographs, vignettes from her life and a dose of poetry.  I picked it up at the library after I saw it reviewed on BookTube, and I'm glad I did, even though I've forgotten most of it already.  It's undeniably well written and has its profoundly beautiful moments - I particularly liked the vignette entitled 'Nineteen Fifty-Seven', which manages to combine fire, grief, family and a dog into a heartbreaking few pages - but the poetry and more random 'artistic' moments didn't do much for me, I'm afraid.  It came across as a bit pretentious where I think it was just meant to be honest.  If Just Kids sticks with Smith's talent for writing and nixes the odd tangents, I think we'll get on just fine.  A tentative 3 stars, maybe?


World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
by Max Brooks
My last complete read for the month!  Despite having owned it for years, pretty much all I knew about this one was that everyone seems to love it, and it does what it says on the cover - it's an oral history-style zombie novel.  I thought it was fantastic!  It's so convincing that occasionally, when I was reading a segment more focussed on something not directly zombie contact-related (military tactics, say), I forgot I was reading fiction.  In these more technical areas I genuinely have no idea how much detail is real, and how much was entirely fabricated by Brooks.  The oral history format also made it extremely addictive, because each person's perspective only lasts a few pages at most, so it's too easy to read 'just one more'.  This isn't light reading, exactly, but if I've managed to make it sound even remotely intriguing then I highly recommend giving it a try!  4.5 stars.

~ What I Watched ~

 

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)

Starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, directed by Peter Sollett
Meeeeeeeh.  So, I read the book because I wanted to watch the film, yes?  And the trailer looked quite amusing, and MOST of all I wanted to watch it because I have a tremendous crush on Kat Dennings.  I have to say, she made a great Norah, and her and her perpetually-intoxicated friend pretty much made the movie for me.  Whoever cast Michael Cera as Nick should be shot, but that's another matter entirely.  Once again, the ingredients for a good romcom were there - funny bits, kooky characters, great one-liners - but somehow it just didn't come together for me.  I watched it on Netflix, and it's definitely not one I'll be buying to rewatch or anything.  Oh well.  (watch the trailer)


Manhunter (1986)
Starring William Petersen and Tom Noonan, directed by Michael Mann
This one, on the other hand, completely outshone its trailer, and even managed to make the awful synth soundtrack feel faintly ironic instead of just cheesy.  I was urged to watch this adaptation of Red Dragon instead of the remake with Anthony Hopkins - and I have to say, it was a good call.  Will Graham is portrayed really well (not Hugh Dancy-well, but SSSSH) and Brian Cox's miniscule role as Dr Lecter is the perfect mix of charm and cunning.  It also alters the odd double ending of the book, which was possibly an improvement.  I'd definitely recommend reading it first - there were so many character details that made more sense that way - but if you're going to watch an adaptation this is WAY better than I expected!  (watch the trailer)


Kill Your Darlings (2013)
Starring Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan, directed by John Krokidas
This was another one that surpassed my expectations - though I had pretty high ones anyway, so it's aaaaaaall good.  I absolutely loved it.  I'd never even heard of it until I saw it in Tesco, but I bought it on the spot because it's baaaasically another version of the true story behind And The Hippos Were Boiled in their Tanks.  It's from the perspective of Allen Ginsberg, and is about him meeting Lucien Carr, being introduced to William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, and ultimately witnessing the fallout from the murder of David Kammerer, who had been obsessed with Carr for years.  As with the novel, however, the film is more about the build-up - the music, the alcohol, the poetry and flirtation and shabby decadence and the development of ideas that would shape the Beats for years to come.  It's funny and intoxicating but has its sudden dark, heartbreaking moments, the soundtrack is wonderful, and both Daniel Radcliffe (Ginsberg) and Dane DeHaan (Carr) are amazing.  Ben Foster is particularly impressive as Burroughs too.  I'm sure Beat experts can find plenty wrong with it - as always happens when real events are translated onto the screen - but it's one of my favourite movies of the year so far.   (watch the trailer)

~ What I'm Reading ~

  

Aside from a brief return to Charles Bukowski's The Pleasures of the Damned, which I dip in and out of whenever I remember I'm reading it, I've been concentrating on Lord of the Flies.  I'm not gonna lie, it's taking me a while - though I'm not sure why.  It's easy enough to read, and the dark undertones are building nicely - it's maybe just getting a bit... repetitive?  I'm not getting enough of life on the island and how the mindsets of the boys are shifting - it's all a bit "and then we traipsed around the beach a bit again and OH BY THE WAY SOME OF US MAY BE GOING MAD".  No real insight into why, or how - it just is.  I mean, I understand, I just think it would have been more effective to have explored that descent a little more deeply instead of just having another scene of small children eating fruit or playing in the water. 

Yeah, give it about fifty pages love.

Hopefully I'll finish it early this week, I've got so many I want to read this month!  Upcoming books may or may not include Pride and Prejudice, Austenland, The Great Gatsby and hopefully some of the non-fiction I've got checked out of the library at the moment.  Stay tuned!

 

Aaaand that was my September!

 

July: What I Read, What I'm Reading

Good grief, another month's gone by already!  It's terrifying how fast the weeks are flying by at the moment.  This month's been a fairly slow one for reading, partly due to a duff book choice making me not want to read that much (oops) and partly due to a few long days spent prepping and painting my bedroom, usually finishing at around 7:30pm, by which point all I've wanted to do is flop down somewhere comfortable with a DVD.  Still, the next Bout of Books readathon is coming up next month, and I'm back in the swing of things a bit now, so hopefully August will see more books being toppled from my ever-growing to-read list...
 

 

~ What I Read ~

 

The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave 1)

by Rick Yancey
This one took a really long time to read, for some reason.  I started it on holiday at the end of June and didn't finish it until about a week into July, even though it's really good and quite the page-turner.  Seriously, I don't know what happened this month!  Anyway, I've had the book for ages, the sequel's coming out soon and it's also being made into a film, so it seemed a good time to read it - and I wasn't disappointed.  It's a fascinating alien apocalypse story mostly focussing on an isolated survivor called Cassie.  Her parents are dead, her little brother has been taken to an army camp somewhere, and Cassie has no idea who are the good guys or the bad guys any more.  Instead she is focussing only on her goal of being reunited with little Sam, however dangerous that journey might be.  I really enjoyed this; I thought the characters were interesting, the extra-terrestrial invasion was well thought-out and compelling to read, the inevitable love storyline was pleasantly secondary to the wider plot, and the seeds have been sown for a complex and exciting sequel.  I've already preordered my copy!  4 stars.


How to Build a Girl
by Caitlin Moran
If you've been around this corner of the internet at all over the past few weeks you can't NOT have noticed the readalong going on right now.  I'm not officially taking part, but I bought the book and read it anyway (because CAITLIN MORAN), which means I can at least read everyone's posts and join in the discussion a bit every week!  This is a semi-autobiographical novel about Johanna, an awkward, bookish but wonderfully spirited teenager living on a Wolverhampton council estate, who reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde, a wild-child pop culture fiend, in order to get a job in music journalism and earn money to help keep her family out of abject poverty.  It's absolutely hilarious, brutally honest and deliciously earthy, and I've underlined half the book; there are so many brilliant one-liners, beautiful little philosophies and moments of painfully real political and social commentary.  Love, love, love. 4.5 stars!


A Match to the Heart: One Woman's Story of Being Struck by Lightning
by Gretel Ehrlich
This would be the duff book I mentioned.  I've been reading it since May, and jeeez, it's been hard going for such a tiny book.  It sounded so fascinating, but sadly what I EXPECTED from it turned out to only be a small part of the book as a whole.  When Ehrlich is talking about the science of lightning, about the mechanics of a lightning strike, about its effects on the human body, about the medicine behind recovery from such a devastating electrical surge - all this is SO interesting.  Unfortunately a large proportion of the book is instead devoted to restless, self-indulgent, self-absorbed, faux-spiritual wallowing, and in these moments the author often plunges into prose so purple it actually made me laugh a few times.  It was like reading bad teenage poetry.  I've included an excerpt below to illustrate the kind of moment that literally had me laughing aloud - suffice it to say, I wouldn't recommend this one.  2.5 stars, purely for the on-topic interesting bits.

"Our large sleeping tent, staked farther up the slope, was shaken by the glacier's detonations and echoing thunder all night.  I wrote in my journal by flashlight: "I feel as if I were a fish feeding at the crumbling edge of the universe."  I wanted to wear clothes made from that place - perhaps an auklet feather skirt - and sleep on the white fin of an orca."

LOL, whatever.

~ What I'm Reading ~

 

 

Now that I've finally finished slogging through the Gretel Ehrlich, I've switched my attention back to Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.  I've got about 120 pages left and it's SO GOOD.  Philosophical and hilarious and tongue-in-cheek and naughty and just utterly fantastic.  After that I have a couple of library books on their last possible renewals (oops), and after THAT I'm probably going to read Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell.  I've seen the Richard E. Grant adaptation a few times - it's one of my favourite rainy-day movies - so it's really about time I read the original!

 

Aaaand that was July!  Hope you're all having a lovely summer...  :)

 

June: What I Read, What I'm Reading

Yeah, yeah, this is a week late, but SSSSSH BUSY.  Last month was quite an interesting one - the Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour, a week basking in the Croatian sun, etc etc - so despite not reading as much as I expected on holiday I actually finished quite a few books, yay!

 

~ What I Read ~

 

Lady Audley's Secret

by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
I started out the month by finishing up this potboiler of a Victorian novel for Alice's readalong.  It was just as melodramatic as I remembered from my first reading at university, and a lot of fun even if it's definitely not the best novel I've ever read!  Plenty of melodrama and romantic intrigue, with all the suspenseful subtlety of a sledgehammer.  3.5 stars, plus bonus points for the beautiful PEL cover.  :) 


Doomed (Damned 2)
by Chuck Palahniuk
Next up was the second book in Palahniuk's Damned trilogy, which I started last month.  I actually liked it more than Damned; that one was crazier and more shamelessly grotesque, with Madison traversing Hell with her new friends, whereas in this one she's stuck in Purgatory (drifting around on Earth as a ghost) watching the consequences of her accidental phone call to her grieving parents in the first novel.  It was still mad, and occasionally disjointed, but it felt a bit more grounded than the last book, which helped.  3.5 stars.


Boys Don't Knit (Boys Don't Knit 1)
by T.S. Easton
Hands down one of the funniest, most charming books I've read in ages.  If you threw Shameless, Skins, Adrian Mole and a bag of yarn into a magical bookish blender, this is what you'd get.  It's about a boy called Ben who joins a knitting class as part of his parole after accidentally taking out a lollipop lady with his bike... only to find that he's good at it.  Really, really good.  It's very British, very funny, very earthy, and anyone who's been to school here in the last fifteen years or so will feel right at home with these characters.  LOVED IT.  4.5 stars!


Lisey's Story
by Stephen King
You know how sometimes someone on the internet recommends a book that you'd not normally give a second glance, but then you see it somewhere serendipitiously and it rings a bell and you decide to give it a go because WHY NOT?  That's what happened with this book, and it was SO GOOD.  It's Chris from The Reading Rhodes's favourite book, and I spotted it in the library one day, and that was that.  It's a big novel - 700 pages or so - and quite slow-building, but so worth it.  It starts out as a gentle story of grief and recovery after the loss of a spouse, and becomes a fascinating and exciting novel taking in everything from sisterly love to other worlds to mental illness to stalker violence.  Not one I'd have picked up on my own - but I'm glad I did!  4.5 stars.


Geek Girl (Geek Girl 1)
by Holly Smale
Awww, this was so much fun.  Bex bought it me for the Ninja Book Swap last autumn, and I took it to Croatia with me at the end of the month and devoured it over a couple of long hot sunlounger days.  It's perfect poolside reading, like a cross between The Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada.  It's about a fashion-clueless geek called Harriet who is accidentally 'spotted' during a trip to The Clothes Show live with her best friend Nat, who has always dreamed of being a model.  The novel's about how she takes this opportunity to do something new, finds a way to reconcile it with her own values, and deals with the fallout with her friends and family.  It's smart, easy to read and very cute - bring on book 2!  4 stars.


Lullaby (Watersong 2)
by Amanda Hocking
I read Wake last year by the pool in Fuerteventura, so it felt right to read the second book in the series this year by the pool in Rovinj!  In fact, this series has become so entwined with beautiful holidays, hot sun and sea breezes in my mind that I think I'm going to re-buy the first book and keep them all.  Anyway, in this second book Harper is trying to find Gemma, her younger sister, who has been spirited away by the beautiful Penn, Lexi and Thea, and is struggling to resist the darker side of her new life as a siren.  It's an easy read, and I enjoyed this one more than the first novel.  Hopefully I might even finish the series this summer!  4 stars.

 

 

~ What I'm Reading ~

 

While I was on holiday I also read the first 200 pages or so of Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore, and the first chunk of The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey.  I've nearly finished the latter and have already preordered the sequel, which is exciting!  After that I hope to go back and finish Lamb because I was really enjoying it, it just wasn't quite light enough for sweltering days on a sunlounger when my brain was melting.  I'm also still reading A Match to the Heart: One Woman's Story of Being Struck by Lightning by Gretel Ehrlich, which I started reading last month but which proved so frickin' purple of prose that it was driving me nuts; I put it aside for a while and haven't picked it back up since.  Oooops.

 



Aaaaaand that was June!

 

A Book a Day in July: 1st-6th

So, over on Twitter last month, there was this thing called #bookadayUK, where bookish types Tweeted their responses to a series of daily prompts.  After its June success, it was taken up by Doubleday UK, who have continued it into July.  Since I'm not feeling much like writing reviews and stuff at the moment - partially due to the summery weather, probably - I thought I'd use the same prompts in blog posts to share some recommendations over here too!

 

Here we go!  And don't forget to leave your responses in the comments, or head over to Twitter to take part in the original project...

 

 

July 1st: A book that made you laugh out loud

I think I'd have to go with a book I read just last month: Boys Don't Knit by T.S. Easton.  It was everything I love about British humour: honest, dry, a bit mad...  It's basically about a boy, Ben, who ends up joining a knitting class as part of his parole after an unfortunate accident involving a lollipop lady, a bike and a bottle of Martini Rosso.  Part Skins, part Shameless, part Adrian Mole, only with more wool!

 

July 2nd: Favourite SF/Fantasy novel for World UFO Day!

Ohhhhh hell.  I've got four to pick from and I can't choose!  If you held a weapon of your choice up to somewhere vital upon my person and threatened to do me grave harm if I didn't settle on one, I'd probably have to go with... ummmm *pained expression* *much wringing of hands*... The Princess Bride by William Goldman.  Just because it's more unique than Good Omens, less icky than Warm Bodies (which is amazing, but has a couple of non-dinnertime-friendly moments) and more concise than Lord of the Rings.  And it gave me that happy 'awesome book' feeling all the way through.  BUT I LOVE THEM ALL.  (My review)

 

July 3rd: Favourite novel in translation

Hmmmm.  My number one choice will actually fit perfectly as a recommendation for a later prompt, so I'm going to have to go for Perfume by Patrick Süskind, originally written and published in German.  At the time I wasn't 100% sure how I felt about it, but as the years have gone by (I read it in 2011) it's turned out to have stayed with me more profoundly than many novels I loved in the moment but have barely thought about since.  It's dark and twisted and deeply enmeshed in the olfactory world, and Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is one of the most memorable characters I've ever come across; I'm very much looking forward to reading it again sometime!  (My review)

 

 

July 4th: All-time favourite American novel for 4 July/ Independence Day

Having finally read it this year and been absolutely blown away, it's got to be To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  It's moving and amusing and thought-provoking and deeply rooted in its southern heritage, and I don't know whether to be annoyed with myself for not reading it sooner, or glad I read it when I did because the timing was obviously just right for me and this book to bond!  (My double review)

 

July 5th: Most delicious novel about food

I think my favourite novel about food (so far - I have more on Mount TBR!) is probably Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements.  It was a surprise hit last year - I thought it'd just be a fun frothy summer read, and I ended up absolutely loving it!  Two sisters inherit an ice cream shop on the Brighton coast, and one of them also flies to Florence to attend a course for the business, so between the two locations it has so many delicious descriptions of ice cream, gelato and sorbets, in all kinds of wonderful flavours... It made my mouth water!  (My review)

 

July 6th: Which book will you put down today to watch the Wimbledon final?

I was pretty sure I'd barely end up reading a thing today, because not only was it the Federer-Djokovic Wimbledon final (I really thought Federer was going to triumph for a while there!) but I also discovered that Waddington Air Show was being streamed live on Planes TV.  My entire family set off there at about 6am this morning and had a wonderful day - but I got to enjoy the planes with multi-angle cameras, official commentary (which they couldn't hear, the nearest speaker was too far away), funny internet commentary, full WiFi access for dull moments, my own toilet, plenty of drinks and a Domino's pizza.  All that was missing was the smell of aeroplane fuel and the full roar of the displays (which was particularly noticeable when the Lancaster flew in, I LOVE THOSE MERLIN ENGINES)...  Anyway, the book I set aside to enjoy all of this was The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey.  I've been reading it for waaaaay too long now, I really should settle down and finish it soon.  Maybe tomorrow!

 

That's everything so far!  I'll be back in the week with more!