My first few reads of 2016

 1.  Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (4*) - Probably don't need to say much about this one, right? Classic vintage children's fare: a charismatic yet dangerous young main character, a small army of assorted children, lots of adventures, some dubious attitudes towards women and Native Americans, a dose of tongue-in-cheek humour and plenty of magic. I actually really enjoyed it!

 
2.  Knots and Crosses (Rebus 1) by Ian Rankin (3.5*) - I've never read any Ian Rankin before, but I liked this! I especially liked John Rebus - an old-school British smoking, drinking, book-loving, slightly unstable detective - and the way Edinburgh became a character in its own right, from the bright touristy areas right down to the sleaziest bars and most dangerous neighbourhoods. The story itself wasn't the height of excitement, but it was only the first in a very successful series so I think I'll read on, see where the characters go from here.

 
3.  Zoo by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (4.5*) - Now, THIS one had me glued to the pages. It's an eco-pocalypse thriller in which the natural behaviour of animals across the globe starts to shift, including their hunting and feeding habits, and there is a corresponding rise in brutal attacks on humans. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, has been monitoring this for years, but as things escalate it becomes a matter of international importance to finally get the message into the public eye and try to work out what's causing the change. It's been made into a TV series, which I haven't seen yet, and I found the book gripping, infuriating, suitably shocking in places, and oddly plausible.


4.  Very British Problems Abroad by Rob Temple (2.5*) - I really like the VPB Twitter feed (hilarious AND relatable!), sailed through the first book, and then a TV series arrived, and now here's a 'Brits on holiday' book. To be honest all of the above could probably be enjoyed by anyone quite reserved, socially anxious, polite and well prepared - though being British definitely helps. This took me only an hour or two to read, and once again there are some dud entries and some silly editorial slips that really shouldn't be an issue in a book this easy to comb through, but it was fun!

 
5.  21st Century Dodos: A Collection of Endangered Objects (and Other Stuff) by Steve Stack (3*) - Another British-skewed humour book that could probably be enjoyed by other people too, at least in part.  This one is about objects and concepts on the verge of going extinct (or already long gone) in our modern life: mix tapes, dial telephones, milkmen, Opal Fruits, half-day closing, 10p mixed bags of sweets, chocolate cigars, Smash Hits magazine, Woolworths... Things I don't remember at all, things I must have only ever come into contact with as a tiny child, perhaps at my grandparents', and things that lasted all the way into my early teens and beyond and now wear the rosy halo of nostalgia for me too. Lovely.
 

6.  Newtown: An American Tragedy by Matthew Lysiak (4.5*) - Oooh, now, this one's a difficult one to talk about, especially knowing how many of my readers live in the US. As a Brit who, like most people here, has never even SEEN a gun that isn't being worn by a soldier outside an army barracks or by armed security in an airport, mass shootings are one of the few areas of life where America, so similar to us in so many ways, suddenly seems like another planet. I found this book fascinating, sad, respectful, compelling and gratifyingly well-balanced. It tackles Sandy Hook from multiple angles - the children and their families, their teachers, the Lanzas, the events of December 14 2012 and the subsequent days in Newtown - before looking at the roles of various elements such as mental health care, media, gun control and community, and the way these elements continue to impact on EVERYONE involved, from those at the heart of the shooting (victims and survivors) out into the town and beyond to the rest of the country. It was hard to read at times - so much loss, pain and rage - and sometimes I had to stop because I was in tears or just needed a breather, but I thought it was an excellent account and surprisingly fair and objective, albeit written in a slightly overblown style that betrays its author's tabloid newspaper roots. Definitely the best book I've read this year so far.

Aaaand that's my reading year so far!

Bout of Books 15: Tuesday

*flits into the blogosphere merrily*  Afternoon all!  Yesterday was a really good day for me readathon-wise; I finished my first book of the year, and read more than I have in months.  Today has a couple of distractions mixed into it, but should be another relatively open day for reading, so we'll see how far I get with my next novel by bedtime!

~ TUESDAY ~

Books I've read from:  Knots and Crosses (Rebus 1) by Ian Rankin; 21st Century Dodos: A Collection of Endangered Objects (and Other Stuff) by Steve Stack

Pages read today:  50

Books finished today:  None

Running total:  1 books; 185 pages 

The menu: Blueberry muffin, mixed tinned fruit and coffee; Goodfella's deep pan pepperoni pizza; bran flakes with sultanas; Graze toffee apple punnet; vanilla rooibos tea

Today #insixwords:  A busier day - but reading happened!

11:30am:  HALLELUJAAAAAAH!  I had a dentist's appointment this morning, which always gives me serious anxiety despite the fact that the dentist and his nurse are just lovely, and I WAS OKAAAAAAY.  One very painful but satisfying scale and polish later, and I was set free for another year or so, yaaay!  Anyway, before this appointment I countered my anxiety somewhat by reading over breakfast, and then when I came OUT of my appointment I made the most of the peace in the waiting room to read a bit more while Mum had her checkup.  So far, so productive!

 

1:45pm: PIZZAAAAAAA! Yes, I realise I'm doing a lot of excited shouting in this post, but ssssssh.  I'm definitely enjoying this Rebus novel so far, though the fact that this seasoned policeman doesn't think to so much as tentatively link a massive abduction/murder case in the city with the cryptic letters he's started receiving is kiiiiind of irritating.  I'm only 40 pages in though, so I'm sure he'll catch on soon enough!

 

 

5pm: My reading detoured off a cliff a bit this afternoon, because I was on the radio, wheeee!  Every day on BBC Radio 2 they do a 'non-stop oldies' half hour (during Steve Wright in the Afternoon) where a listener picks the music, and today it was me!  I actually submitted my list a few months ago, so my little bio was a bit out of date, but I still got major household brownie points for mentioning 'my lovely mum'. 

 

They managed to squeeze eight songs into my half hour - you submit about twenty-five for them to choose from - including two I used to sing in the car with my mum (Circle in the Sand by Belinda Carlisle and I Just Can't Stop Loving You by Michael Jackson), one from car trips with my dad (Keep the Customer Satisfied by Simon and Garfunkel), one my mum detests (Jumping Jack Flash by The Rolling Stones), plus four more that have made it onto my favourite songs playlist over the years!  They kicked off with this one, which I first heard in an episode of Dexter.  Season 1, when Dexter, Rita, Rudy and Deb clear his dad's house and he brings some of the records home?  LOVED IT.  Now I can head off for a shower and go back to my book!

 

 

 

8pm:  Weeell, I think that's my internetting done for tonight.  I've done a bit more reading, eaten bran flakes and watched an episode of Being Human, so I think it might be time to switch off and go back to my book before bed.  Happy reading all!

 

Quote of the day:  "It was everywhere, crime.  It was the life-force and the blood and the balls of life: to cheat, to edge; to take that body-swerve at authority, to kill."
- from Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin


CHALLENGE: BOOKISH WOULD YOU RATHER?
Hosted by Writing My Own Fairy Tale

Would you rather:
Lend books to someone who dog-ears pages or to someone who reads with cheesy Cheetos fingers?
Dog-ear pages, definitely.  The book might look a mess at the end, but at least it wouldn't be dirty!

Would you rather:
Be able to meet one character of your choice or meet one author of your choice?
One character, I think.  It'd open the possibilities up to all the wise and magical characters out there, people who've had incredible adventures or have intriguing world views.  Obviously, this all comes from the author to begin with, but... what about the things that don't make it onto the page, the things the character could tell you that even the author doesn't know about?  I may be overthinking this.

Would you rather:
Never be allowed in a bookstore again or never be allowed in a library again?
Bookstore, sad though that would be.  A library is ever-shifting, convenient, free, has great facilities, can order books in, is fantastic for the most expensive books and fleeting interests as well as more mundane stock... why would I ever want to be without that option?!

Would you rather:
Have to choose one of your favourite characters to die in their book or have to pick one of your favourite couples to break up in their book?
Oh, break up, definitely.  Life goes on, more fish in the sea, etc etc.  Unless... UNLESS... the character I was killing off was already on that road anyway.  Maybe someone in a terrible situation, or very ill, or 105 years old.  Then maybe, MAYBE, I would think about saving love over life.

Would you rather:
Be required to read Twilight once a year for the rest of your life or The Scarlet Letter once a year for the rest of your life?
I haven't read The Scarlet Letter yet, so I'm going to have to say Twilight.  I really liked it when I read it all those years ago, and it's a quick read, so it wouldn't take up a massive chunk of my reading life even if my feelings about it shifted upon rereading.

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!

 

A Book a Day in July: 13th-18th

It's time for my third Book a Day post, based on a current Twitter project called #bookadayUK, where bookish types can tweet their responses to a series of daily prompts.  Talking about the books here on the blog instead means I don't have to worry about the 140-character limit, and I can group a few days together; click on the links to read my answers for Days 1-6 and Days 7-12!  This post is also the first to contain a 'lucky dip' day, in which Doubleday invites prompt ideas and then Tweets the chosen question on the day itself.  :)

 

Here we go!  Feel free to leave your recommendations in the comments, and head over to Twitter if you fancy taking part in the original project...

 

  

July 13th: Best title for a novel

In trying to come up with an answer for this prompt, I decided to consult this Goodreads list of 'most eyecatching or distinctive book titles'.  OH, IT'S WONDERFUL.  Some of my favourites include I Still Miss My Man But My Aim Is Getting Better by Sarah Shankman and Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off by Cara North - but the king of amazing novel titles has to be Robert Rankin.  His offerings include The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse, Armageddon: The Musical, The Sprouts of Wrath and Raiders of the Lost Car Park.  Ingenious.  I don't know why I haven't read any of them yet, except that when they came into the shop they sold again reaaaaally fast.  As for books on my own shelves, I'd have to say either The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (my review) or We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.  They both have a nice cadence to them, and both perfectly sum up their contents without giving anything away: they're a tiny bit intriguing without being obtuse.  I LIKE THEM IS WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY.  They're also both amazing books, obviously!

 

July 14th: For Bastille Day, your favourite novel about or set in France

Hands down, no contest, it has to be The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.  Not only was it the first book I ever reviewed on this blog, back in 2010, it's also one of my favourite novels of all time.  I read the crystal-clear Penguin Classics translation by Robin Buss, which I highly recommend, and found that once the story and characters were thoroughly built up - about halfway through - I was turning the pages faster and faster through the rest of the book, desperate to find out how everything would play out in the Count's painstakingly meticulous plot for vengeance.  Brilliant.  (My review)

 

  

July 15th: LUCKY DIP - The last book(s) you bought
Last time we went grocery shopping at our local Tesco I ended up buying three books.  I always tell myself I'll "just have a look to see what's out this week" - but I usually end up buying something because... well, that's how addiction works!  On this occasion I came home with How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran (new out in hardback - I've nearly finished it already), The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (recommended by Katie) and Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan (a summer foodie novel).

July 16th: Favourite book to take to the beach
The last couple of years I've taken beach-or-ocean-related books on holiday, which has felt quite appropriate as packing has commenced each summer.  The most perfect one for sunlounger reading turned out to be On the Island by Tracey Garvis Graves, which isn't the most well-written of novels, but which is PERFECT thematically.  It's about a young tutor and her teenage student who are stranded on an island in the Maldives for several years, learning to survive and eventually falling in love.  It's a real page-turner, and what better place to read it than during a sweltering day by the ocean?  I'll definitely be reading it again sometime!  (My review)

 

July 17th: Novel which surprised you most
One of the most memorable surprises for me was reading King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard, for Hanna's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen challenge in 2012.  It was one of the books I wasn't looking forward to that much - I expected it to be dry and dull and generally outdated - but as it turned out, it was a brilliant adventure novel that got gradually more and more gripping until it hit some amazing setpieces at the end that wouldn't have been out of place in an epic blockbuster movie.  Possibly directed by Peter Jackson.  It wound up being one of my absolute favourite reads of the year! (My review)

 

July 18th: Favourite crime novel of all time - it's the Harrogate Crime Festival!
Ummmm.  My favourite crime book is without doubt In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - but that's not really a novel.  One of my surprise favourites has actually turned out to be Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.  I haven't read on with the series yet, but obviously the premise is intriguing (as anyone who has ever watched Dexter will know) and I found his inner monologue, with its playful menace, dark humour and flights of alliteration, to be quite addictive.  I still have six more books to read, and six more series to watch, so I've got plenty more Dexter Morgan ahead of me yet! (My review)

 

That's it for this installment!  I'll be back soon with more...

May: What I Read, What I'm Reading

Flipping 'eck, the months are just rocking by in 2014 aren't they?  It's terrifying, really.  It's actually been quite a busy month for me, heralding my valiant attempt to get up and start living again after my months of crippling depression.  The sun's finally started shining after the long damp winter, and I've been outside on a sunlounger every day it's been warm enough, absorbing Vitamin D and relaxing.  Here on the blog, life has been quiet, despite the fact that I've taken part in a readaTHON, a readaLONG, and been book shopping with Hanna. 

I'm just... not feeling the whole 'writing about what I'm reading' thing at the moment.  It's actually been quite liberating.  For the first time in YEARS, I'm reading books without stopping to scribble notes and page numbers on a piece of paper every five minutes!  My reading is more eager, knowing that I don't have to write a book report before I can fully commit to my next read.  I guess after everything that's happened, I'm just enjoying reading in the moment, living in the moment, sunbathing in the moment, without worrying about sharing these experiences online immediately afterwards.  HOWEVER, that doesn't mean I can't share the love at the end of each month, does it?  :)
  

 

~ What I Read ~

Life Support

by Tess Gerritsen

This is my second taste of Tess Gerritsen's medical thrillers, and although it didn't live up to Bloodstream (which I read and reviewed back in 2011), I still really enjoyed it.  I think part of my disappointment stemmed from the poor blurbing, to be honest.  It was made out to be a kind of bio-weapon imminent-epidemic novel (at least, that's how I read it) whereas it's actually far more contained and subtle than that.  It's more about medical ethics and the pursuit of youth than anything.  That said, it was still veeeery creepy in parts, outright shocking in others, I liked the characters, and it definitely kept me glued to the pages enough that I finished all 460-ish of them within a couple of days.  3.5 stars, tentatively recommended.

 

 

Bossypants
by Tina Fey
I'd initially decided not to bother with this book, even though it sounded funny, because I haven't really seen any of Tina Fey's work and I thought that might exclude me from great swathes of what she was writing about.  Then I read Charlotte's audiobook review and decided to give the paper version a try after all.  The blurb on the back made me laugh, which seemed to bode well!  Happily Fey has the same knack - like Caitlin Moran and Charlie Brooker - of making her writing accessible and hilarious even when the reader hasn't seen the sketches or shows being referenced, and I ended up really enjoying the insight into things like photoshoots and TV production, even when I wasn't familiar with the end results.  There's also plenty about TV comedy, family and being a woman in the public eye, which I found thought-provoking and relatable even as it was making me smile.  An easy, interesting and very enjoyable read for the summer, 4 stars!

 

 

Damned

by Chuck Palahniuk

Although this still hasn't topped my first Palahniuk - Rant - I definitely felt a sense of the familiar madness descending as I plunged headfirst into this novel.  Basically, Damned is the testimony of a thirteen year-old dead girl called Madison, who wakes up in a cell in Hell and proceeds to take Hades by storm, befriending a demon (and a bunch of other teenage inmates), defeating Hitler, finding she has a knack for telemarketing (one of the two career options in Hell - the other being dodgy porn webcam sites) and generally becoming a bit of a celebrity in the Underworld.  Meanwhile, we slowly piece together bits of her life and death, while Madison hunts for Satan to try to find out exactly why and how she ended up here.  It's all very bizarre, a bit gross, vaguely jumbled and occasionally shocking - and I raced through it, as usual.  I'll be reading the sequel in June!  Very tentatively recommended (Palahniuk is definitely not for everyone!) - 3.5 stars.
 

 

~ What I'm Reading ~

Yes, that's four books on the go again, ooooops.  I actually finished Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon yesterday - I only had one chapter left, plus the short essay in the back of my PEL edition - so that'll be the first title on my June wrap-up.  I'm also reading A Match to the Heart: One Woman's Story of Being Struck by Lightning by Gretel Ehrlich, which is a tad purple of prose at the beginning, but already extremely interesting, so hopefully it'll turn out to be a winner.  Alongside that I randomly started reading The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort, mostly because it sounds so much fun to read, all scandal and excess.  Perfect summer reading, in other words.  I haven't seen the film yet, but I will!  And finally, I'm still slowly working my way through The Pleasures of the Damned, a collection of Charles Bukowski's poetry. 

April: What I Read, What I'm Reading

Another month down already - how time flies - and even though I've been a bit better on the blogging front in April, I've quite enjoyed doing these monthly wrap-ups, so I think I might carry on with them for a while.  Since I'm always a bit behind on my reviewing, and I've finally learned that it's not compulsory to review EVERYTHING I read, this feels like a nice compromise.  I can talk about the books I've been reading even if I don't end up reviewing them all, which takes the pressure off a bit without me having to skimp on doing what I started this book blog to do - spreading the book love and tempting all you lot to go and read them!  Anyway, it's been a great reading month for me - THREE five star reads, a couple more that weren't far off, and an unprecedented NINE books in total - so let's get right in there!
 

 

~ What I Read ~

Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs: The Left Bank World of Shakespeare and Co. 
by Jeremy Mercer
Yes, I FINALLY reread this book and you got the review I've been promising pretty much since I started my blog!  It was a great choice to get me back into reading more regularly and widely again, given its focus on books, bookselling and the bohemian literary world; it was my third time reading it and every single time it's given me a huge motivation boost, so... yay Paris!  I wrote a kind of 'three different stages in life, three equally wonderful reading experiences' review about how my friendship with this book has evolved, which you can read here.  Needless to say, I loved it more than ever and gave it a happy 5 stars! 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs
I... had mixed feelings about this one.  On the one hand, the creepier elements of the novel - the hollows and wights, and the utterly chilling moment with the bomb, which has been the stuff of my nightmares for years - were wonderfully scary and made my skin crawl in a way I haven't really experienced since I read Long Lankin back in 2011.  On the other hand, the Peculiars weren't nearly as X-Men-awesome as I'd hoped, and sometimes it felt like Riggs was trying a bit too hard to match their characters to the photographs he'd collected.  The Miss Whatever-Bird-Name thing got a bit ridiculous at times too, rich though the ymbryne mythology might have been.  I liked the novel, it freaked me out nicely, but somehow I don't feel an immediate urge to read Hollow City anytime soon.  3 and a half stars.


To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
Ohhhh, this book was love.  LOVE, PEOPLE.  I finally read it, for the first time, after well over ten years of it sitting staring at me from my bookshelves, and... it was worth the wait.  I also watched the movie, and pulled both together for a double rave review which you can read here.  I fell in love with the characters (and want to marry Atticus, obviously), I cried quite a bit, and even though it started quite slowly, by the time I hit around the 70-page mark I was completely engrossed in Scout's funny, innocent, moving and completely wonderful narrative.  A very deserving 5 stars.


The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton
I don't really know where to start when it comes to talking about this one - the book WAS my teenage years, and the movie was a big part of my Hinton obsession too.  The angst, the testosterone, the rough-edged and yet completely irresistible characters... I felt like I'd found a soulmate in Ponyboy Curtis when I first read his story at age 14 or so.  I would have given it five stars, but I know it so well now that it had lost some of its suspense and shock value, obviously.  Four and a half stars, then?  I STILL LOVE IT.


The Library of Unrequited Love
by Sophie Divry
This little novella was okay - basically a librarian monologuing to a guy who's accidentally been locked in the basement all night, filling in the time until the library opens and he can leave - with some interesting thoughts on library culture and life in general, but ultimately I think it's going to prove very rapidly forgettable.  3 stars, maybe - I'm glad I got it from the library instead of shelling out £7 to buy it!


The New Hunger (Warm Bodies 0.5)
by Isaac Marion
I read this during the most recent Dewey's readathon, and it was the undisputed high point of the day.  I absolutely loved Warm Bodies when I read it early last year, but I didn't really expect that much from this prequel.  I WAS WRONG.  If anything, I maybe liked it even BETTER than WB, because it has all the wonderful writing and endearing characters and horribly compelling zombieness, only WITHOUT the wacked-out ending, and WITH the squee-inducing fact that you know how these characters interact later and it makes everything meaningful.  I haven't 'happy-eeked' so much since Attachments.  It's amazing that Marion can make me love M and R this much when they eat brains, y'know?  Another 5-star read!


And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie
I read this one for the readathon too, mostly anyway - I was so hooked I carried on reading for a couple of hours after the day was officially over to finish the last 50 pages!  This (possibly) most beloved of Christie's novels definitely lived up to expectations, with the claustrophobic island setting and the 'one of us, one of us!' creepiness, although the fact that I guessed one of the 'how?' plot twists did take the suspense down a notch.  I hadn't worked out who or why though, so there was still plenty to nod wisely over at the end.  Four stars for my first Christie in YEARS - I'll definitely be picking up more now!


Robin Ince's Bad Book Club
by Robin Ince
I picked this up on a whim after chortling my way through a segment about it on a TV Book Club episode ages ago, and happily my instinct was right - it was so much fun to read!  Basically Robin Ince likes to pick up bad, weird and cheesy books in charity shops and jumble sales, and this is the result: a wander through the world of sheikhs and their mistresses, man-eating crabs, terrible poetry, testosterone-drenched thrillers, bizarre New Age lifestyle guides, crap autobiographies and anything else that catches his fancy.  He's got a very dry sense of humour and his affection for these 'bad books' has actually ADDED one or two titles to my wishlist! 4 stars.


The Double
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Aaaaand so to the last book I finished this month, picked up from the library because the new Richard Ayoade-directed Eisenberg-and-Wasikowska movie is coming out and IT LOOKS SO TRIPPILY AWESOME.  The book, on the other hand (my first Dostoyevsky, no less) was... well, definitely trippy.  Not that awesome, sadly.  It's chaotic and fractured and although I did enjoy it, and felt very sorry for poor Golyadkin as he slowly went mad, by the end it had become so disjointed and hard to connect with him at all that I was glad to have finished it.  It was only 137 pages, but it took me a long time to read because it was - purposely - so choppy.  Three stars and still very much looking forward to the adaptation, which I think will probably work better for me!

 

 

~ What I'm Reading ~

Lady Audley's Secret
by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Yes, May has arrived, and with it comes Alice's readalong of Lady Audley's Secret, which started on Thursday and has already made my week.  I've read it before - at uni - but remember so little that I'm coming into the book with only the occasional vague inkling of what might happen, as some distant memory rattles deep in my brain and points out some detail that rings a bell.  So far it's just as soapy, scandalous and unapologetically cheesy as I remember, and I'm loving every minute of it! 


The Pleasures of the Damned
by Charles Bukowski
I only bought this last month, but I've already dived in and start working my way through the book: a poem over breakfast here, another in an idle five minutes there, a couple in between chapters of Lady Audley's Secret perhaps...  It's extremely accessible poetry, and as always there have been hits and misses so far.  The poem comparing a cocksure young man to a smug tabby cat was a good one; the one listing a million different things before closing with a pointless punchline about a nagging wife wasn't so great.  I'm enjoying them though; it feels good to be diving into some poetry again and I've been meaning to read Bukowski for a long time now!
 

Aaaand that was April!
 

REVIEW: Darkly Dreaming Dexter, by Jeff Lindsay (4.5*)

(Orion Books, 2005)

"If I am ever careless enough to be caught, they will say I am a sociopathic monster, a sick and twisted demon who is not even human, and they will probably send me to die in Old Sparky with a smug self-righteous glow."

Dexter Morgan is a nice guy.  He has a sweet girlfriend whose kids adore him, he gets on well with his foster sister Deborah, and he's fantastic at his job, working in forensics as a blood spatter analyst.  Those spookily accurate hunches he gets during homicide investigations... well, they just make him even more of an asset to the police department, right?  No, actually.  Dexter's 'hunches' stem from personal experience.  Because Dexter Morgan is a sociopath and a serial killer.  Thanks to a hefty amount of teenage guidance from his late foster father, wise cop Harry, he channels his need to kill into a vigilante-style hunt for bad guys who've escaped the law, and with his finely honed and careful methods, he's never been caught.  Except now there's a new serial killer in town.  And with his rapidly increasing body count and sly personal 'messages' that no one else understands, it seems that maybe Dexter finally has a playmate...

I'd obviously heard about Dexter, the TV series, a long time ago, and the premise really appealed.  When I realised it was based - at least the first series, anyway - on a book, I knew I had to get hold of a copy.  So I waited, and looked, and waited some more, and finally this first book in the series arrived at the bookshop and IT WAS MINE.  It came home with me the same day.  I bought the next three in a '3 for £5' remainder deal last year, and thank heavens I did, because I LOVED THIS BOOK SO HARD.  I wasn't expecting that much because both Hanna and Sarah had already mentioned that they didn't rate it, but WOW this was a good reminder that sometimes good old-fashioned gut instinct is a better guide to what you'll enjoy than what other bloggers think.  Y'know, like how we used to pick our books BEFORE the blogosphere took over.  Good times...

What made the novel for me was definitely Dexter Morgan himself.  Like R in Warm Bodies, his compelling narrative voice is a means of rendering a rather dark and macabre subject matter (and a potentially frightening character) more readable, more enjoyable, more absorbing and yes, more amusing.  I loved how playful his narrative was at times, twisting words into alliterative flights of description, often making me chuckle at the bone-dry, midnight black humour and well-placed jabs of sarcasm.  At the same time, as you might imagine, the 'Dark Passenger' (as Dexter calls his inner killer) is a threatening and ever-shifting presence in the background, and Lindsay never lets us forget - via little glimpses of this instinct, and via Dexter's constant awareness of his sociopathy and the need to appear 'human' - that our friendly forensics geek is actually a deadly menace whose benevolence in his choice of victims can only be maintained with absolutely rigid self-control.

This, perhaps, for someone with a keen interest in social sciences, psychology and mental health, was what made the novel as a whole so fascinating.  Dexter is fascinating.  The way he so closely emulates human emotion while understanding so little of it is fascinating.  The way he sees himself as a monster, as an outsider, yet works so hard to fit in is fascinating.  The way he lives so rigorously by 'the code of Harry', the way he respects his foster father's memory despite not being able to love him, is fascinating.  The way he will gleefully enjoy killing a serial rapist or a murdering paedophile, but his girlfriend Rita's kids absolutely adore him, is fascinating.  I guess this is probably what draws people to the TV show too - this is a unique character, and watching his constant struggle to appear 'normal' makes him a hugely interesting and even sympathetic protagonist.

Of course, Dexter isn't the only character worth mentioning.  His cop sister Deb is a lot of fun - feisty, foul-mouthed yet strangely vulnerable - and her political manoeuvring against inept Detective Maria LaGuerta is quite a compelling subplot, particularly as each time LaGuerta gets something wrong it has further implications for Dexter's own interest in the new serial killer.  The dialogue was occasionally a tad clunky, but it improved if I read it sort-of aloud, like maybe it had more to do with the fact that I was silently reading it in my own accent, which didn't work very well.  Does that make sense?  The other key characters - like Angel, Doakes and even Dex's girlfriend Rita - don't play a huge part in this book, but I'm assuming they'll maybe get more page time in the next few novels.  I also really enjoyed the Cuban influences in the book.  I had no idea that Miami had such strong Cuban culture (ssssshhh, Brit girl here), so that was a kind of fun bonus for me.  Maybe more so in the TV series, where a lot of the (fantastic) soundtrack has a distinctly Cuban flavour.

To sum up... well, did I mentioned that I loved this book?  I think me and Dexter are going to get on just fine for the rest of the book series as well as all eight seasons of the show (which I just bought after enjoying the first half of my sister's season 1 box set).  If I knew where the hell I'd put those next three books I'd probably have read on by now - but since I don't, I'm going to finish season 1 of the TV series and go from there!

Notable Quotables:

• "In spite of feeling so very moved by the thing, I didn't have any immediate theories about what it meant.  Sometimes great art is like that.  It affects you and you can't say why."
• "I began to feel unsettled, dizzy, confused, hyperactive and lethargic at the same time.  I walked to the window and looked out.  It was dark now and far away over the water a light rose up into the sky and at the sight of it a small and evil voice rose up to meet it from somewhere deep inside."
• "I felt the Dark Passenger become the new driver for the first time.  Dexter became understated, almost invisible, the light-coloured stripes on a sharp and transparent tiger.  I blended in, almost impossible to see, but I was there and I was stalking, circling in the wind to find my prey.  In that tremendous flash of freedom, on my way to do the Thing for the first time, sanctioned by almighty Harry, I receded, faded back into the scenery of my own dark self, while the other me crouched and growled.  I would do It at last, do what I had been created to do.  And I did."
• "Weren't we all crazy in our sleep?  What was sleep, after all, but the process by which we dumped our insanity into a dark subconscious pit and came out on the other side ready to eat cereal instead of the neighbour's children?"

Source:  I nicked this book from our shop as soon as it came in, because I knew it was the first in the series and I wanted to give it a try!

DOUBLE REVIEW: Psycho, by Robert Bloch (4*)

 

~ The Book ~

by Robert Bloch (Robert Hale, 2013)
My rating: 4 stars

"You're a Mamma's Boy.  That's what they called you, and that's what you were.  Were, are, and always will be.  A big, fat, overgrown Mamma's Boy!"

I didn't even know Psycho was originally a novel until very recently, but since I wanted to watch the film this year around Halloween I thought maybe I should bite the bullet and read the book as well!

By now most people know the basics - Norman Bates, lonely motel, a girl murdered in the shower, a psychotic mother - but it was interesting for me to go back to the original and fill in the gaps before I watched the now-iconic Hitchcock movie.  The rest of the story was new to me!  It opens with Mary Crane stealing forty thousand dollars and taking off, with the intention of passing it off as inheritance money and giving it to her fiance Sam, who has refused to get married until he has finish paying off his late father's debts.  Losing her way en route to Sam's town, she ends up at the Bates Motel, where she meets overweight, bookish Norman, who runs the motel and cares for his sick elderly mother despite her constant venomous nagging.  That night the supposedly infirm old woman, jealous of Norman's attraction to their pretty guest, kills Mary, sparking off a chain of events that will pull Norman deeper and deeper into darkness and put everyone Mary loves in danger too...

It's actually quite a gripping little novel despite its age - it was first published in 1959 - and if the twist wasn't now so famous it would have been even more effective as a thriller.  Of course, the film has now eclipsed it almost entirely, and in my mind I read the whole thing in that half-English-sounding posh movie-star American accent that is so ubiquitous in old black and white movies.  The psychology behind the villainy is quite fascinating - Norman seems to know quite a bit about it already - and Norman's inner monologues have a kind of intoxicating, brutal poetry to them as he rattles through his conflicting thoughts and emotions.  It was a quick read, but I'll definitely be keeping hold of it to reread again in the future.

Notable Quotables:

• "Cold-blooded murder is one thing, but sickness is another.  You aren't really a murderer when you're sick in the head.  Anybody knows that."
• ""It's all right," he said, wondering at the same time why there were no better words, why there never are any better words to answer fear and grief and loneliness."
• "Funny, Sam told himself, how we take it for granted that we know all there is to know about another person just because we see them frequently or because of some strong emotional tie."
• "I can't even hate Bates for what he did.  He must have suffered more than any of us.  In a way I can almost understand.  We're all not quite as sane as we pretend to be."

Source:  I ordered this book from Amazon UK.



 

~ The Film ~

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock,  starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh (1960)
My rating: 4.5 stars

I actually did a paper on Psycho at school for a creative writing practice exam... but I'd never seen it.  I watched it during my first week at university... but my friend talked all the way through it.  So really, I was coming to this first 'real' viewing of the movie as a kind of half-knowledgeable half-new spectator.  Which was probably the best way to be, because I knew what to look for but couldn't quite remember all the details!

So, let's start with Norman Bates.  In the book, he's in his thirties or early forties, overweight and homely, and in my head I imagined him as a kind of cross between Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons and Chris from Family Guy.

 

Not all that attractive, shall we say.  Aaaaand then there was the movie.  In the movie, Norman Bates is famously played by Anthony Perkins, who looks like this:

 

 

Yup, Norman Bates is cute.  I read that Hitchcock deliberately made the choice to cast a handsome guy in his twenties rather than stick to the description in the book, because he wanted viewers to genuinely sympathise with Norman and see him as a boy-next-door type.  I remember watching Psycho the first time (over the top of my friend's chatter, obviously), not knowing the storyline or the twist at all, and thinking Norman was a sweetheart.  This time, knowing about the murderous Mother and about Norman's psychosis, I STILL thought he was a sweetheart - even more so than the book, where he was a little more aggressive and kind of sad.  Aaaaaaand then this happened:

 

Yeah, that was the moment I stopped watching the film as a proper horror movie and I fell in love with Norman Bates.  Possibly this makes me as psychotic as he is.  :)

Of course, crushes aside, this is a GREAT film.  There are other changes besides the boyish charms of Anthony Perkins, but for me they only added to the movie.  Mary Crane becomes the now-famous Marian (a tiny and fairly pointless change, admittedly), and she gets more attention in the adaptation.  Her part in the story is lengthened and fleshed out, and in turn, the investigation being conducted by her sister Lila, fiance Sam and a private detective after her disappearance is shortened and sharpened (which not only keeps the pace up, but also renders Lila feistier and less whiny).  Hitchcock, though daring for his time, does actually tone down the violence of the book, in which Mary is beheaded, not just stabbed, but he keeps Norman's horrified response at a high pitch to retain the same suspense.  And Perkins IS fantastic, playing a much more sympathetic Norman Bates than the one Bloch wrote: a sweet shy man-boy whose mother has him well and truly under her thumb - in more ways than one.

What I really liked was the ending.  Lila's exploration of the house, particularly the slow panning around Norman's little room, with its small bed, gramophone and childhood toys - that of a boy who was never allowed to become a man - struck a sad note that helped set the tone for the revelations to come.  The famous 'Mrs Bates in the fruit cellar' moment was just as awful and just as tense in the film, even though I knew it was coming (and I DEFINITELY remembered that image from my previous semi-viewing), and Norman's frenzied arrival was that much more 'psychotic' and that much less 'weird guy who needs to get out more'.  The psychiatrist's concise explanation of everything that's happened (no spoilers, just in case!) has greater clarity than in the book, giving it more impact than Bloch's original.

Of course, this is pure Hitchcock, so there's plenty to appreciate in terms of the cinematography.  The camera zooms in through a window at giddy speed; the scenes in which Mother attacks her victims are shot in innovative and interesting ways; tense moments are lit creatively to add to the dramatic feel.  Admittedly, the now-famous 'Arbogast falling down the stairs' moment, then a pioneering piece of filmmaking, actually made me laugh out loud, it was so hilariously awful - but at the time, it would have been the height of special effects!  And the penultimate scene, with Mother's voiceover and Norman wrapped in his blanket, is made utterly memorable by the death's head imposed over his devious smile.  He may have been weird, but Hitchcock was a genius!

Happily I still have the three later Psycho films (NOT with the same director, but apparently still pretty good), plus two more Hitchcock movies (The Birds and my old favourite Rebecca) waiting on my R.I.P. shelf for October, so the fun isn't over yet!

~ The Verdict ~

To read or to watch?  That age-old book-lover's question.  Personally, I'd hedge my bets with this one and recommend that you just do both.  The book only took me about a day to read and does fill in some of Norman's internal confusion via those intriguing flights of thought - but the film is pure Hitchcock magic, beautifully made and with his own distinctive flavour apparent in every camera trick and lighting angle.  Also, the film has that smile, so... *scrolls back up for another look*  Yeah, both.  Do both.