Bout of Books 15: Sunday and Wrap-Up

It's the last day of Bout of Books 15 - and as usual, it both feels like it's lasted forever, and like it's flown by in about twelve seconds.  Unlike usual, on this final Sunday I'm up early because NOISY CAT and HEADACHE and also JUST PLAIN AWAKE, so I might actually get a decent reading day in again, woohoo!  Let's get started, shall we?  *reaches for painkillers and coffee determinedly*
 

~ SUNDAY ~

Books I've read from:  Zoo by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge; The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens; 21st Century Dodos: A Collection Endangered Objects (and Other Stuff) by Steve Stack

Pages read today:  156

Books finished today:  None

Running total:  2 books; 846 pages 

The menu: Coffee; pains au chocolat and mixed tinned fruit; Nutella hot chocolate; lasagne with sweetcorn; cocoa puffs with sultanas; vanilla rooibos tea

Today #insixwords:  "WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, MY FRIEEEEENDS..."

5:30am:  Yup, definitely an early start over here.  And on a Sunday too.  Ugh.  Aaaanyway, the sky is already starting to shift from navy black to that lovely pre-sunrise blue, and I have coffee, and Domino has ARRIVED, so I'm going to start reading Chapter 2 of The Pickwick Papers and have some headache tablets, and we'll go from here.  More sleep afterwards?  Breakfast?  More reading?  WHO KNOWS?!  When you're up at 5:30am, the options are endless.  Lovely.  :)

7:30am:  Weeeell, that 'going back to sleep' thing's probably shot to pieces at this point to be honest.  More coffee and the REST of Chapter 2 of Pickwick I think.  Also I need to make some review notes and copy down some notable quotables from Knots and Crosses so it can go back to the library, which is something else easy but productive to cross off nice and early.  Might as well start this last readathon day RIGHT.

1pm:  I switched to Zoo a bit ago, after I finished my chapter of Pickwick.  I was GOING to have delicious pains au chocolat for breakfast about two hours ago, but then we discovered a little stray piece of cat poo on the stairs (Domino's so fluffy she doesn't always notice these things while they're actually upon her person) and I accidentally stuck my finger in it when I went to clean it up, SO I kinda went right off the 'gooey chocolatey breakfast' idea for a bit.  I had a good long shower instead, washed my hair, shower gelled the shit out of the offending hand (literally), and NOW I've got pains au chocolat and fruit and coffee for a late breakfast-slash-brunch.  It's aaaaaall good.

So, I'm carrying on with Zoo, and it's getting very interesting as Oz and his fellow scientists try to work out what's going on with the world's mammals.  It skipped forward in time by five years a bit back, just as I was starting to wonder how the story could sustain itself as it was, and now it's getting scientific and political and weird and shocking, and I THINK my earlier theory about what could be happening just turned out to be correct.  Don't you love it when that happens?!

4pm:  Weeeeeell, look at me!  Despite a sore hip from yesterday's walk, I was determined to go out again, because it's a lovely day today, AND because tomorrow it's given rain all day so I probably won't go then.  Anyway, I found a mini route with slightly less steep inclines up and down and walked that.  The views across town were surprisingly good, the clouds were beautiful, the air was crisp...  it was nice.

I'm not gonna lie, my lower back and my hip are now cricked in such a weird way that I feel like I might not be able to move properly at ALL tomorrow, but every little walk should help counter that.  I sort of forgot it was Sunday, and that there would therefore be lots of other people out having a wander too, and I end up trying to walk more 'normally' (straighter, faster) around them rather than walking comfortably.  Ooops.  Still, it was a good excuse to make Nutella hot chocolate and sit down for a few minutes with my book when I got home!


5:30pm:  Yummy.  I set the books aside, and ate lasagne and sweetcorn, and drank coffee, and watched the episode of Being Human where Annie babysits and George tries to get his life in order and Mitchell breaks apart and sobs all over Doctor Lucy and totally gets in her pants.


*licks screen experimentally*

6:30pm:  Aaaaand I fell asleep.  Not to dream of Aidan Turner with his shirt off, tragically, and it was only for ten minutes, but... let's try that 'reading and being awake in the early evening like a normal person' thing again, shall we?  I might listen to Michael Ball's radio show on Radio 2 for a bit while I do a bit of internetty shizzle, then it'll be time to turn off the screen again for tonight's digital sundown.  I'll be ready to go back to my book by then for one last push towards the end of Bout of Books!  And I'll be back tomorrow to add the week's wrap-up onto the end of this post, of course.  Arrivederci, fellow readers!


Quote of the day:  "What I was feeling wasn't even quite fear.  What I was feeling was the fear equivalent of when you're so sad you laugh.  The wheel of fear went around a whole turn, came out the other side.  I thought, well, this is it."
- from Zoo by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

~ Wrap-Up ~

 

We've come to the end of another readathon - so how did I do?  Well, pretty darn well, actually, now you mention it...  I read a total of 846 pages, including the second half of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, all of Knots and Crosses, the first Rebus novel by Ian Rankin, most of Zoo by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge, a big chunk of 21st Century Dodos by Steve Stack and two chapters of The Pickwick Papers.  Not bad considering that my 'daily page average' goal in previous years has been to read about 50 pages a day - this week I've averaged a whopping 121 pages a day.  Hooray!  I love getting a new year's reading off to a flying start.

 

Aside from the reading, I've posted every day, with pictures, stats, challenge entries and reading updates.  I took part in three challenges, the fun 'Would You Rather' challenge (Tuesday), the now practically traditional Rainbow challenge (Wednesday) and the cosy Comfy Reading Spot challenge (Saturday).  I also managed to squeeze in a couple of episodes of Being Human, watching Disney's Peter Pan for the first time since I was a child, going on a couple of nice little walks to start boosting me out of my agoraphobic backslide, a trip to the dentist and a potter round Tesco, amongst other things.  Not too shabby really!

You can read all my updates, see all my photos and GIFs, and check out my challenge entries in one handy package by clicking here!

 

I hope you've enjoyed coming along for the ride with me, and that you've had a fantastic week of reading, whether or not you were taking part in Bout of Books this time!

Bout of Books 15: Thursday

The last couple of days have had their fair share of distractions and I haven't read THAT much - though still way better than recent weeks, obviously - so today I'm going to make a concerted effort to really read.  Laptop off, book open, the way I like it.  :)

~ THURSDAY ~

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; Zoo by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

Pages read today:  180

Books finished today:  Knots and Crosses (Rebus 1) by Ian Rankin

Running total:  2 books; 439 pages 

The menu: Blueberry muffin, mixed tinned fruit and coffee; sweet tea; cheese and bacon quiche, peas and sweetcorn; apple; buttered toasted teacakes; cocoa puffs with sultanas; vanilla rooibos tea

Today #insixwords:  Reading thrillers is a GREAT strategy!

12 noon:  I've had another great start to the day, reading over breakfast, ploughing on through the morning, alternating between Knots and Crosses and 21st Century Dodos every time I needed a change of style.  Things are all kicking off in Knots and Crosses - there's been a sudden colossal break in the murder case which has sent the pace rocketing - and I'm on the 'newsagent' section of 21st Century Dodos, which is bringing back lots of memories of old sweets and magazines that I used to get as a kid.  And NOW I'm going to carry on reading with half a cheese and bacon quiche and a heap of peas and sweetcorn, and see if I can finish this book today!

 

5pm: YEEEES, I FINISHED IT!  It certainly kept me turning the pages towards the end, even though it wasn't the most gripping or earth-shattering finale I've ever read.  One more review to write when this week's over, hooray!  So.... what next?  I was contemplating starting We Were Liars, but I was flicking through the pages and not feeling it so instead I've moved onto Zoo by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge.  It's about a global animal uprising against humanity, it's already been made into a TV series, it's got big font, it's super-easy reading... it screams 'readathon', in other words.  If I can sail through it by the end of tomorrow there'll still be two days left to cram in another book!  I'm going to make some hot buttered toasted teacakes and get stuck in.

 

9:30pm:  Blech.  The lingering headachy feeling I had this morning has grown and to be honest I'm not feeling amazing - hopefully I'm not succumbing to whatever my family's had, which we've established is probably a bug but mercifully sans vomiting, to my overwhelming relief.  Anyway, I'm still weirdly hungry despite feeling icky, so I'm going to fetch some cereals and tea and watch an episode of Being Human for a bit.  Each one's only an hour long, so I might still have time to read before bed, and hopefully the distraction and something in my stomach will leave me feeling better by the time it ends.  Also, Aidan Turner ALWAYS helps.  Obviously.  :P

 

Quote of the day:  "Sometimes it was hard to hold onto reality when that reality was overpowering.  The shield came to protect you.  The shield of the breakdown, of forgetting.  Laughter and forgetting." -
from Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin

October: What I Read, What I Watched, What I'm Reading

Another month comes to an end, ALREADY.  I mean, Jesus, where the hell is 2014 going?  Summer's dead (R.I.P. Summer), the clocks have gone back, my winter coat has been brought out of retirement for another cold season, and wintery drinks like chai tea and hot chocolate have suddenly started to feel very appealing.  Even more scarily, the first 2015 reading challenges have appeared on A Novel Challenge.  IT HAS BEGUN.

So, let's get to the books and movies I consumed in October, shall we?  It's actually been a fairly slow reading month (it hasn't felt like it), but I DID watch quite a few movies, which is something I love but tend to let slide when I'm in a reading fever.  I think it balanced out okay in the end!
 

 

~ What I Read ~

 

Lord of the Flies

by William Golding
This was the second of the two books (the other being To Kill a Mockingbird) that I was determined I would definitely read this year - so hooray!  I've had it on my bookshelves since I was a young teen, so it was about time really.  Unfortunately for such a highly anticipated read, I wasn't as blown away by it as I'd hoped.  I wanted a kind of Coral Island-esque adventure that gradually descended into savagery and violence; what I GOT was a disappointingly jerky, uneven allegory that glossed over the survival element almost entirely, skipped forward in time in unspecified bounds, and grew quite repetitive at times.  As a result, some of the most important and moving scenes didn't have that much impact at all, and the hunters' savagery was less "diminishing sense of civilisation" and more "well, that escalated quickly".  It took me a surprisingly long time to read such a short novel - well over two weeks - and sadly the cover remains my favourite thing about it!  2 stars.


Austenland (Austenland 1)
by Shannon Hale
This book's been drifting on and off my reading radar for a while, when it first hit bookshop shelves and then again when the movie came out, but I finally picked up a copy from The Works this month and devoured it pretty much whole.  It was a nice break from the relentless misery of LotF, and FAR better than I expected.  It's about a Darcy-obsessed woman who travels to England to visit a holiday estate which promises a complete Austen experience - manners, men, a grand ball, and a happily ever after.  Jane hopes to use it to purge herself of her life-squashing romantic fantasies - only to find that maybe she's not quite done with love and the Austen magic after all.  I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to the sequel - same premise, new character - which I bought at the same time.  A cheery 4 stars.


Our Zoo: The Real Story of My Life at Chester Zoo
by June Mottershead
I was midway through the TV series when I found out this existed, and I bought it on the spot.  I actually read JUST this for the whole of the most recent Dewey's readathon (not something I normally do during a 24-hourer) because it was such an easy read, so charming and interesting and generally lovely to immerse myself in.  It's different to the BBC drama - that portion of the story is done within a couple of chapters, and the book moves on to the development of Chester Zoo from a tiny idyll to the world-famous force it is today - but the tone is just right, enthusiastic and entertaining, sharing stories from a magical childhood yet not shying away from the inevitable sadness that comes with working with animals, wild or otherwise.  June's voice is so warm and it's rather nice that now, in her eighties, her family's dream and decades of hard work are finally being recognised by a wider audience.  3.5 stars.


The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This was a buddy read with Bex from An Armchair By The Sea (who is also hosting a readalong of The Pickwick Papers before Christmas, if anyone's interested), and it provided an excellent excuse to FINALLY read it!  It's so many people's favourite book, it's a classic I missed out on at school... it just had to happen, sooner or later.  Most people probably know the basics - the yearning love of the enigmatic Jay Gatsby for his old flame Daisy, set against a backdrop of moneyed twenties life in all its bittersweet glory.  It didn't have as high an impact as I'd hoped, admittedly - the end was spoilered for me, for a start - but it had all the alcohol, parties, wit and style I could possibly have wanted from my first Fitzgerald.  3.5 stars, and you can read my full review here.


I Remember Nothing, and other reflections
by Nora Ephron
Just sneaked this one in under the wire before midnight on Hallowe'en, whew.  And oh Nora.  How I love you.  In much the same vein as I Feel Bad About My Neck, which I read last year, this is a loosely-linked collection of wryly humorous sketches and vignettes, of various lengths, about family and getting older and life in New York.  It's not hysterically funny, it's not deeply profound, it's not life-changingly memorable - but it is warm and real and lovely to read.  Considering that I read a large portion of it alongside the decidedly less-than-lovely Beloved, that was exactly what the doctor ordered.  3 stars.

~ What I Watched ~

 

Seann to be Wild (2012)
 Stand-up comedy, by Seann Walsh
Not much to be said about this one really.  Seann Walsh is a young comedian who appeared on things like Stand Up for the Week and Live at the Apollo for a while, made me laugh hysterically every time, and that was that.  He sort-of reminds me of a bewildered lion, like he should be in Oz when he's not on stage.  His stand-up is of the 'everyman' observational comedy type, particularly aimed at 20-somethings and students I'd say, and I love him.  Yaaaay! (watch a clip)


Harold and Maude (1971)

Starring Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon, directed by Hal Ashby
Guys.  GUYS.  This movie is amazing.  Barry recommended it in a film video aaaages ago (possibly even before I started watching him - I binge watch BookTubers when I first find them to see if I like their stuff) and I spotted that it was on Netflix, so I gave it a go and IT WAS SO GOOD.  It's about a boy obsessed with death (mostly to try to get his ridiculous mother's attention) and an almost-eighty year-old woman overflowing with life, and their unlikely friendship-turned-romance.  It sounds so icky, but it's not, it's bittersweet and hilarious and I laughed and cried and the characters are wonderful and the soundtrack is by Cat Stevens and YES.  I want my own copy now, I adored it.  (watch the trailer)


Lost in Austen (2008)
Starring Jemima Rooper and Elliot Cowan, written by Guy Andrews
I was really fancying a little Jane Austen time in the middle of the month, but was already reading other things - so I went on a mini Austen TV and movie binge instead.  Rather than watching straight-up adaptations I first went back to this TV series, in which feisty Londoner (and die-hard Pride and Prejudice fan) Amanda Price finds a magical door into Longbourn in her bathroom and switches places with Elizabeth.  It's actually better (and funnier) than I remembered, watching Amanda completely screwing over the original plot and desperately trying to get everybody's storylines back on track - and Elliot Cowan's Darcy is seriously fine, WET SHIRT OR OTHERWISE.  So much fun!  (watch the trailer)


Austenland (2013)
Starring Keri Russell and JJ Feild, directed by Jerusha Hess
Hanna mentioned really liking this when I met up with her in September, hence buying the books and the DVD soon afterwards.  I watched it as soon as I was done with the novel, and I LOVED IT.  It's smart and cheesy and ridiculous and romantic, and JJ Feild is basically what would arrive on Earth if Tom Hiddleston and Alan Cumming had a love child, so...  Yes.  GREAT fun for Austen fans who aren't too precious about modern twists on the original stories, which I'm not.  Interesting fact: Jennifer Coolidge was actually on Shannon Hale's fantasy cast list before the movie was made, so it's nice that what's on screen at least partially matches up to what the author had in mind on the page! (watch the trailer)


Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
Starring Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton, directed by Jim Jarmusch
FINALLY!  It feels like I've been waiting for this movie forever - buzz started early, festival fever fanned the flames (ALLITERATION), the rest of the world saw it, we finally got a limited release (which meant nowhere round here bothered), and then forever and a day later the DVD arrived...  It was worth the wait.  I think.  The immortal and slightly weary characters are beautifully portrayed (Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, Tilda Swinton and John Hurt, come on), the cinematography is dark and interesting, and the soundtrack is one of my favourites of recent movies.  It's definitely a slow-burner - not much really happens - but it's gorgeous and intimate and I had a deep feeling of satisfaction when the end credits rolled, which is always a good sign for me.  Definitely one for a rewatch sometime soon. (watch the trailer)


Our Zoo (2014)
Starring Lee Ingleby and Liz White, written by Matt Charman
This is actually a TV series rather than a movie, but since I'm planning on acquiring the box set at some point I thought I'd include it here like I would any other series I own on DVD.  It's basically the story of the creation of Chester Zoo - a dramatized and enhanced version of the earliest part of June Mottershead's story (see above).  George Mottershead, a shell-shocked WWI veteran, and his young family move to a large house in Upton with the intention of opening a zoological gardens, a 'zoo without bars', where animals can live comfortably and safely while also providing an educational opportunity for visitors.  Unfortunately, the conservative residents of Upton have other ideas...  It's a beautiful BBC period piece, with superb acting across the board, a great cast, adorable moments and some really nail-biting ones, even though obviously you know it all came good in the end!  Lovely cosy cold-weather viewing.  (watch the trailer)


Catching Fire (2013)
Starring Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, directed by Francis Lawrence
Do I really have to explain this one?  No, probably not, but here we go.  I rewatched the movie at the end of the month, because I want to finally read Mockingjay in November before the first instalment hits the big screen.  Unlike last year, I don't want to reread the first two books - not yet - so I watched the film instead.  It was as brilliant as I remember, from the thrilling moments of rebellion to the ingenious arena to that incredible Mockingjay dress.  I've heard bad things about the last book, but my love for the first two and their corresponding films goes undiminished! (watch the trailer)


World War Z (2013)
Starring Brad Pitt and Mireille Enos, directed by Marc Forster
First up, can I just say that this movie was NOWHERE NEAR as awful as I expected it to be from the dreadful reviews and tirades of abuse I've seen around the internet.  It was never going to be a straight-up adaptation of the book (which I read in September), because an oral history-style novel by its definition has no cohesive narrative or prominent character to root for - but I thought the compromises made to bring the overall story to the screen were excellent.  The tone remained quite faithful: the emphasis was on military intervention, and the zombie apocalypse as a contagion, rather than on gore and cheap thrills.  It did manage to cram in plenty of horror-movie staples - terror on a plane, terror in a military facility, terror in an apartment building - but although they were noticeable, I didn't mind.  It just added to the feeling of zombie saturation and the fact that literally nowhere was safe.  It's not going to be my favourite movie of the year, but I'm really glad I gave it a try and formed my OWN opinion.  Definitely one I'll be returning to next time I fancy an easy-to-watch sci-fi action movie of an evening.  (watch the trailer)

~ What I'm Reading ~

  

This has actually changed a tiny bit since I started writing this post (and took the photo for it), but let's go with it...  I've finally remembered that I'm working way my way through The Pleasures of the Damned, the collection of Bukowski's poems, so I've read a few more of those recently.  I picked up Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley, a cute graphic memoir that I'd originally planned to read during the Dewey Readathon but set aside in favour of Our Zoo, so I'm a couple of 'chapters' into that as well.  It's very cheerful and chirpy, providing the perfect happy-break from my final current read, Beloved by Toni Morrison.  I've actually finished it this evening and Jesus, it's brutal.  Beautiful, but brutal.  More on that in next month's wrap-up...  I haven't picked my next novel yet, but it'll probably be something from that groaning library pile that never seems to go down, haha.  Or Mockingjay!  Must read Mockingjay... *wanders off to have a look*

 

Aaaaand that was my October!

 

August: What I Read, What I Watched, What I'm Reading

Flying in late YET again with my August reviews and wrap-up, oooops.  Hello!  How was your late-summer reading?  I feel like mine finally picked up a bit last month; I finished Lamb at last and leapt head-first into some long-awaited novellas from the library.  The impending 'final deadline' really boosted me to drive hard at my reading towards the end of August, because I desperately wanted to read these books and I'd had them for so long I couldn't renew them any more!  It's amazing how much time you find to read when you have the threat of library fines at your back.  :)
 

 

~ What I Read ~

 

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

by Christopher Moore
My first priority in August was to FINALLY finish Lamb, which I'd been reading since I went on holiday at the end of June.  I'd put it aside for some frothy summer reading and to finish a non-fiction book I'd been struggling to get through, so it was about time!  Happily, it lived up to all the rave reviews and Moore-hype I've seen everywhere over the past few years.  The basic premise is that Christ's oldest friend Biff has been resurrected by an angel and locked in a hotel room to write his own gospel - the real story of Joshua's life, filling in the massive gap between 'born in stable' and 'thirty and preaching the Word'.  Christopher Moore being a clever and hilarious dude, this manages to incorporate everything from Buddhist philosophy and the wisdom of the Kings of Orient to kung-fu and a Yeti, as Joshua sets about learning how to be the Messiah.  It's such an absorbing read, very intelligent, very funny, yet surprisingly wise and poignant sometimes too.  Definitely a keeper - I gave it 4.5 stars - and I see many more Christopher Moore novels in my future!


The Forest of Hands and Teeth (TFoHaT 1)
by Carrie Ryan
I'd heard a lot of good things about this book, and had been looking for it at the library for AGES, so when I finally spotted it on the reshelving trolley I grabbed it!  A zombie novel whose synopsis reminded me a bit of The Village - human enclave, very insular and ordered, evil things trying to breach the fences - this sadly turned out to be a tad disappointing.  The actual zombie mythology of Ryan's world is interesting, and the book definitely kept me hooked, but I had some problems with it too.  I felt like it set up more questions than it answered, paving the way for future books in the series in a way that was more frustrating than enticing, and I really wasn't keen on the main character, Mary.  She is extremely self-absorbed and self-obsessed, playing with people's hearts and constantly putting herself and others in danger through her reckless need to follow her whims instantly instead of thinking them through.  Of course everyone around her pays the price, and yet she never seems to learn!  I've picked up the next book, The Dead-Tossed Waves, mostly because it has a complete character shift so... no more Mary and her stupidity!  Hopefully I'll like this one better, and it'll fill in some of those unanswered questions that bugged me in the first book...  3 stars.


Ghost World
by Daniel Clowes
I loved the movie version of Ghost World as a teenager, so when Ellie (the Curiosity Killed the Bookworm branch of the Ellie Army) offered to send on her copy of the graphic novel, I eagerly accepted.  And I'm so glad I did!  To start with I wasn't sure I was going to like the style, either in terms of the art work OR the dialogue, but the further I delved, the more I appreciated it.  It's actually made up of several short and largely self-contained vignettes that fall along a linear timeline, rather than following one big story arc, which probably helped, because I could dip into it for light relief in between chapters of the Carrie Ryan novel.  It had its kooky moments, and its poignant ones, and it was a good excuse to watch the movie again for the first time in years.  I think I like the adaptation more, but it was still a lot of fun!  4 stars.


We Have Always Lived in the Castle
by Shirley Jackson
Finally, I read my first Shirley Jackson!  Jean over at Bookish Thoughts talks about her a fair bit, so I thought it was about time I gave her a go.  My local bookshops failed epically, but the library fared better and I picked We Have Always Lived in the Castle to start me off.  This book is more about atmosphere and character than plot, concentrating on an insular household comprising eighteen year-old oddball Merricat, her older sister Constance, her cat Jonas, and their eccentric uncle.  The rest of their family was killed in bizarre circumstances and the townspeople hate, ridicule and fear them in equal measure - all they have is their house, each other and their unchanging domestic routine.  Until a money-grabbing cousin unexpectedly arrives and brings their world tumbling down around them, that is...  The description and prose in this novella is beautiful, and the inside of Merricat's strange mind is quite fascinating.  It's fairly sedately paced, with the exception of one genuinely heartbreaking scene of chaos and misery that made me feel sick to the stomach, but it flows well and I never felt like it was dragging at all.  A hard one to describe all round, really... My best advice is just to read it for yourself!  4 stars - I'll definitely be reading more Shirley Jackson soon!

A Single Man
by Christopher Isherwood
Another beautiful little novella that's far more focussed on character, thought and ambience than it is on plot - and is thus difficult to describe or review in any meaningful way.  This was my first Isherwood - and again, most definitely not my last - and is pretty much a 'day in the life' of George, a British college professor living in Los Angeles.  He is still mourning the (fairly) recent loss of his partner Jim, and finds himself irreparably estranged from the world: from his neighbours and colleagues, because of his sexuality, and from his students, because of his age.  He spends his time perfecting his outer façade, searching for understanding, reflecting on life, and fielding the neuroses of his larger-than-life friend Charlotte.  It's gorgeously written and quietly devastating, and I plan to buy the film soon because if it's even NEARLY as good as this, it's going to be something special.  Another solid 4 stars.

~ What I Watched ~

 

The Double (2013)

Starring Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska, directed by Richard Ayoade
This film was the reason I finally read my first Dostoyevsky novella back in April (jeez, was it that long ago?!).  The DVD was released in August and I bought it the same week, thanks to the winning (for me) combination of classic source material, 'what is real' mind-fuckery, and the combined talents of Jesse Eisenberg (who is rapidly becoming one of my favourite actors, he's amazing), the lovely Mia Wasikowska and the genius that is Richard Ayoade.  It was... slow, not in a bad way... extremely dark, blackly funny, strange and unsettling, picking up pace and getting simultaneously more coherent yet more warped as the movie went on.  The numerous cameos from Ayoade's fellow comedians (Tim Key), IT Crowd friends (Chris O'Dowd, Chris Morris) and cast members from his previous film Submarine (Sally Hawkins, Craig Roberts AND Paddy Considine) were fun to spot, but felt a bit out of place in such a pitch-black film.  I definitely preferred it to the book and will be watching it again at some point to see how much more I get from it the second time around.  Cautiously recommended.  (watch the trailer)


Ghost World (2001)
Starring Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi, directed by Terry Zwigoff
I finished the graphic novel during the last Bout of Books readathon, so it made sense to round off my BoB week by watching the movie, for the first time in YEARS!  It had so many little moments and snippets of dialogue that translated straight from the page to the screen (as you might expect, given that the screenplay was written by Daniel Clowes), but also gave the characters one film-friendly overarching plot which helped ease the transition between media.  The double act in the film is actually Enid and Seymour (a new character drawn together from several in the book) rather than Enid and Rebecca (who still has an important role, just... less so), but I didn't mind because the dynamic between these two soulmates-yet-polar-opposites was so much fun.  Seymour's a sweetheart and offsets Enid's confident feistiness a bit... it works.  The dialogue is still superb and the whole thing felt as warm and hilarious and full of heart as I remembered.  I also LOVE the music - lots of old blues and country rock, it's great.  Recommended! (watch the trailer)


House, Season 2 (2006)
Starring Hugh Laurie and Omar Epps
I actually watched most of this season aaaaages ago, then recently decided to rewatch it from the start so that I could finally finish it off and move on.  It's pretty much more of the same magic House formula as the first season - brilliant deduction, bucketloads of sarcasm, some nasty moments and lots of medical intrigue.  This season involves everything from a prisoner on death row to a famous doctor with possible TB, a woman with Munchausen Syndrome to an immuno-compromised heart transplant patient, all with a side dose of team bickering, hospital politics and House's ever-present leg pain.  Funny, brilliant, fascinating and moving by turn.  If, like me, you're a latecomer to this series and haven't started it yet, get on it - it more than lives up to the hype! (watch the ridiculously overdramatic US trailer)

~ What's Up Next ~

  

I finished my first book of September - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - on the first of the month, and moved straight on to my Red Dragon by Thomas Harris.  It's my first foray into the world of Hannibal Lecter, so me being me I decided I might as well dive straight in the deep end and not only READ ALL THE HANNIBAL, but also watch the movies and both series as well.  I figured I might as well stick with Hannibal's storyline instead of veering off into the worlds of Norman Bates or Dexter Morgan again just yet.  Each serial killer in his own sweet time!  So far I've been very impressed by the book AND the new series; the book, in particular, is far more accomplished than I expected, and the series is every bit as addictive as the hype suggested.  Bring on the rest!


I have highly inappropriate fantasies about being in this particular man sandwich. NOT LITERALLY DR LECTER PUT THE KNIFE DOWN.

 

Aaaand that was August!  I hope you've all had a wonderful summer and are looking forward to some great autumn reading!

 

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. 

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!