Saturday 29 December 2012

Book love

Here's the second instalment in my monthly Book Love feature - a wee recap of what I've been reading over the last month. December was pretty busy, so I didn't go through that many books, but I am looking forward to a chilled out January curled up on the sofa with a good read.


The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events) - Lemony Snicket
I'm reading quite a lot of kids & young adult books at the moment, as I'm working on my second draft of my novel (which is aimed at 12 year olds). I love the narrator in Lemony Snicket, it's so cleverly done. Annoyingly, because I'd seen the film a few years ago I knew exactly what was going to happen, but it's still a really fun read.

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Philip Pullman
Hmm. I wasn't expecting much from this book, but found it quite flat & was quite disappointed overall. Oh dear! The book retells the story of Jesus & apparently is quite scandalous, but I just found it boring. Perhaps it's better if you are religious (I'm not at all). Still, Pullman remains in my very favourite authors list because of the absolutely wonderful His Dark Materials trilogy (if you haven't read that yet, get it bought!).

The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
As I'd recently had to drag myself through a couple of books (Good Man Jesus & Tommyknockers) I thought I'd treat myself by re-reading an old favourite. I don't think I can quite sum up how much I love this book. I think it might be my very, very favourite. I love the narrator (so clever and so perfect), I love Sugar (the main character), I love how quickly & utterly you fall into the world they are in, and how tied up you are at the end (I cried at the end... partly because I didn't want to stop reading about her!). It's a pretty gritty read & a little bit sweary (she's a prostitute after all), but I couldn't recommend it more. LOVE!

6 comments :

  1. A series of unfortunate events is amazing! Even if it did take me about 3 years as a child to get through them all! The narrator Lemony Snicket is just legend! xxx

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  2. I love hearing of new-to-me books to read! Kind of bummed that the Phllip Pullman isn't as good as his "His Dark Materials" trilogy though D,:

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  3. I loved A Series of Unfortunate Events and all its quirky details right down to the clever way it drops big words into the book and explains them! I'm starting a job in a few weeks as a librarian with a focus on teenage borrowers so if you've any other young adult recommendations I'd love to hear them. In the meantime I'll be jotting The Crimson Petal down on my to-read list :) Just after stumbling upon your lovely blog by the way and I'm an instant fan!

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  4. I love the Crimson Petal - can't wait to read prequel/sequel, The Apple, although I hope the short stories live up to expectations after enjoying the novel so much.

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  5. I love reading kids books, and series of unfortunate events would have to be one of my faves. I love the feel of the pages and the depressing nature of the books.

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