BOOKS I'VE READ LATELY

I don't know about you, but for the first half of 2020 I found it IMPOSSIBLE to concentrate on a book. Normally that's one of my favourite go-to hobbies, but I just could not settle, and kept getting distracted after just a few pages. In the end I just had to stop worrying about it, and I eventually lured myself back to reading with a few trashy adventure novels, and finally found the brainspace for it again.

Since then I've been on a roll, and I thought I'd share some of my favourite books I've read lately.

Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi

Yaa Gyasi's first novel, Homegoing, was one of the best books I read last year, so I was excited to finally get my hands on this! Transcendent Kingdom is a really moving and poignant story of a young neuroscientist who is trying to carve out her career and step into her adult life, while haunted by the grief of losing her brother to addiction, and looking after her mother who is suffering severe depression. I found it very heavy at parts, but it's such a beautiful look at love, family, faith, science and religion. Can't wait to read whatever she does next!

Earthlings - Sayaka Murata

This is an absolutely bonkers book, and I'm not sure how to describe it (and a huge part of the joy is just the wildly surprising journey it takes you on, I don't want to spoil it!). It's dark and twisted, it covers pretty shocking, intense and taboo topics, it's totally unsettling (do not be fooled by that adorable cover), but it also just draws you in, and is a super entertaining coming-of-age story. It's definitely not for the faint of heart, but it's a bold, magical, unique novel that uses pretty grim imagery to explore questions of love, family and what it means to be human and be part of a society. 

The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett (not pictured, read on kindle!)

 I loved this book! It follows the lives of the Vignes sisters - identical twins who grow up in a small, Southern black community and run away at age sixteen. More than a decade later they are living completely different lives - one sister has returned to the town she grew up in, and the other is passing as white, with a white husband who knows nothing about her past. This is a really complex, powerful, beautiful and poignant book, which deserves all of the hype it's been getting.

The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón

I've had this book on my shelf for years, and I am so glad I finally got round to picking it up. It took a little while to pull me in, but when it did I was transported to the streets of Barcelona! It's an incredibly immersive and atmospheric tale of a young boy who discovers a mysterious book, hidden in a secret library, the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. He starts an innocent quest to find the author, and gets wrapped up in a plot of mystery, murder, love and revenge. The memory of the book has sat with me, it feels like a wild adventure I went on a few summers ago, or as if I was told the tale by a stranger in a smoky bar, drinking wine on a rainy evening. Just a beautiful experience! 

OUTFIT: LIBRARY LOOK

As an life-long book worm, as soon as I spotted this dress I knew I had to have it!

Dress - Lindy Bop
Shoes - H&M

Made by UK brand Lindy Bop, this is their Bletchley Book dress - a 1950's style shirt dress, with a flare skirt, cute matching belt, and pockets!! 

I'd eyed up Lindy Bop dresses for a while now, I'm a big fan of swing skirts, vintage styles and cute patterns which they have in abundance (how nice is this woodland print dress, for example!) but it took a dress covered in books to make me race for the buy button. Only problem was it was sold out on their site, but a bit of googling led me to Little Wings Factory who helpfully had it in stock. Phew!

The dress is made from a matte finish fabric, and is essentially a fancy polyester dress, but it feels nice to wear, is sized well, and has a concealed zip fastening. You could easily wear a petticoat with it if you wanted to go full 50s, and I reckon - despite being quite a bold print - you can style it up or down, depending on how fancy you want to look. 

I wanted to look quite fancy as I wore it to go to the Queen's Garden Party in Edinburgh. I'd been invited through work, which gave me the excuse to dress up and head off to Holyrood Palace for an afternoon in the scorching sunshine, drinking elderflower cordial, eating tiny posh cakes, and lounging in very cute flowerbeds (whilst ignoring the actual Queen, sorry Lizzie!).

BOOKS I'VE READ LATELY

I realise I'm pretty late to the party with this one, but this year I finally got introduced to Goodreads, and guys, it's really good?

If you are stuck in the past like me, let me introduce you. It's a social media site just for reading, so you can track the books you've read, make lists of the books you want to read, set yourself reading challenges, and easily discover things you might like. No more panicking that you're about to go on holiday and haven't worked out what books to take! Or being hopeless at remembering exactly what you've read (I am bad for this - if I like a book, rather than love or hate it, it sort of disappears in my brain. I have read Girlfriend in a Coma twice without realising until the end, because I thought it was 'fine' so it disappeared into my brain's netherworld).

So it's great! And as I'm paying a bit more attention to what I want to read next, I think it's making me read more, which is wonderful! Here's a little recap of what I've read lately.

The Sunlight Pilgrims - Jenni Fagan
I was lucky enough to read Sunlight Pilgrims in the very perfect place. I was up north, staying in a tiny yurt with a crackling fire, tending the logs and reading this book while the wind whipped the tent and rain lashed overhead.

Set in a Scottish caravan park during a freak winter, this book tells the tale of a small community living through what people think may be the end of times. It feels like you are going on an adventure, that you're looking for yourself in the stars, that you are standing in deep snow, about to take your next step. It was a delight, and I can not wait to read more of Jenni Fagan's work.

Normal People - Sally Rooney
Let me join the entire world's chorus: I loved this book. Somehow it reached into my head and my heart and articulated every moment of hopefulness and anxiety I have ever had. It described the exact moment that I kissed my first boyfriend, the emptiness of my break ups, the feeling of steadying your heart and mind, ready to take on the world again. How?! It's perfect, oh my god, you need to read it.

The Way of All Flesh - Ambrose Parry
My expectations were always going to be sky-high after Normal People, so I think The Way of All Flesh got a slightly short stick in my world. It's a really fun 19th century Edinburgh medical thriller, where we follow a scrappy-but-well-meaning medical student who is sent to train under the intimidating eye of the famous Dr Simpson. There's scandal and murder and suspense and it's set right where I leave (I can't tell if it's fun or distracting to read your own street-name as the scene of the crime! Maybe both?). I liked it.

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott 
I have owned this both for YEARS, but have never managed to motivate myself to pick it up. I have just finished it, and WAHHH, what took me so long? Sometimes old classics can be a slog to read, but it is sweet and funny and surprisingly progressive! Yes, the religious morals are a bit much and it can be overly saccharine in places, but I was surprised by how much I liked the characters and how quickly the story trotted along. I'm looking forward to Greta Gerwig's hipster remake of the movie now too!

If you'd like to follow me on Goodreads, you can do so here!

WHAT I READ ON HOLIDAY

Ages ago I used to write a monthly Book Love feature, where I chatted about what I'd been reading each month. It was a great way of keeping track of what I read and what I loved (and I am amazed at how quickly I powered through books! Past Juliet was definitely a better reader and puts current me to shame).

This year I'm pretty determined to make more time for books (particularly as I'm bad at wasting time looking at social media, when I could actually be reading something interesting...), and I'm off to a great start - thanks to going on a mega indulgent January holiday where I spent a joyful time hanging out in a hammock, 60p beer in hand (thanks Fuerteventura!) and catching up on books I've wanted to read for ages. Here's what I thought...

A Darker Shade of Magic - V. E. Schwab
Reminding me slightly of China Miéville's Un Lun Dun, A Darker Shade of Magic is the tale of a world of parallel cities, those that can travel between them, and what happens when power travels to the wrong places. It's got cool elemental magic! Pirates! Amazing jackets! Peril and danger and flirting and messed up heroes! Aaaaand I really liked it.

I'm a big fan of fantasy novels that create worlds that both enchant you with exciting, interesting world-building AND manage to feel gritty and dangerous and pretty real, and this book does a good job of feeling magical but not childish, and full of depth without being self-indulgently complex. It's a bit of a slow starter (the first few chapters I wondered what the fuss was about), but when I got into the story I had a really fun time.

The Snowman - Jo Nesbo
The 7th book in Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series, I read this out of sync as I was so keen to see what all the fuss was about, after hearing loads of praise for the book when the terrible film adaptation came out last year. You follow the (slightly cliched) dysfunctional detective Harry Hole - he's a bit of a drunk, he's got serious avoidant issues, and he can't play by the rules... but he's still likeable enough to root for.

It's really creepy, and the author does a wonderful job of keeping you guessing right up until the very last minute. It felt a little surreal to be stuck into a murder mystery set in freezing snow while I was basking in the sun, but it makes for a pretty perfect holiday read.

The Silent Companions - Laura Purcell 
I loved this book so much! I am such a sucker for creepy gothic horrors, and The Silent Companions was BRILLIANT. You meet Elsie, who's newly married, recently pregnant, and suddenly widowed, who moves to her late husband's creepy old country estate. The servants don't like her, the villagers actively despise her, so Elsie's trapped with a mysterious locked room, an old family diary, and a wooden figure that looks bizarrely just like her.

It's SUPER CREEPY, I would not have been able to read it at home alone, and I am very excited to discover that the author's also written a series following the lives and loves of Georgian era queens (I'm equally a big historical fiction fan).

THE GRACEKEEPERS

Behindcurtains, North and her bear waited. Their cue wouldn't come for a while yet. The air back here was still chilly, though the smell of sweat and soil was getting stronger. North never felt comfortable with her feet touching land. She didn't trust its steadiness, its refusal to move or change in the honest way of the sea. The landlockers hadn't given the circus much room on their island—it was small, north-west, not a capital—and behindcurtains was a narrow space.

I picked up The Gracekeepers on a total whim, after the beautiful cover caught my eye. I hadn't heard of the book or the author before (although, as the world is such a tiny place, it turns out she's a friend of a friend), but it looked to be so perfectly my type of book, that I couldn't walk by and leave it behind.

The Gracekeepers tells the tale of a future world flooded by the sea (think Waterworld, but without Kevin Costner prancing around). Callanish is a gracekeeper, who lives alone with only tiny birds for company, looking after funerals for people who die at sea. North is a circus performer who lives with her bear, within a choatic floating troupe of acrobats, clowns, dancers and horses. Their paths cross, their lives change, and you, the reader, are spell-bound by every step.

I absolutely raced through this book - I had to remind myself to take breaks, just so I could enjoy it for longer! The author has created a world that is heart-breaking and beautiful, and just feels so real - even in it's most fantastical moments, it feels genuine and true. It's part myth, part fairy tale, and a little bit apocalyptic, and it talks about love and identity and gender and loss, but never in a heavy-handed way. It just presents these honest, brilliant characters that are fighting to be true to themselves, and sweeps you along on the ride.

A brilliant, brilliant book. Read this if you're looking for something to lose yourself in.

BOOK LOVE: TERRY PRATCHETT

It's been a while since I wrote a Book Love post, so here's what I've been reading lately...

It has taken me years, and a few false starts, but I have finally caught the Discworld bug and I am OBSESSED. I keep trying to read other books, but it's a struggle, and I'm somehow always left, Pratchett in hand.

They are the kind of books I wish I had read when I was wee (but I am very glad I have found them now!). They're funny and filled with a whole world of brilliant, complex, awful and insane characters. It's fantasy, yes, but it's fantasy that isn't afraid to laugh at itself, and is just so ruggedly brilliant and brave and honest that you frequently have to stop to re-read sentences - each book seems to be scattered with phrases that sum up the human condition and life just SO perfectly, it's almost a punch to the gut.

So, no matter your age, or the type of books you'd normally read, or if reading ain't usually your thing (whaaaa?), I'd hugely recommend you take a look at Discworld. I was recommended to skip the first few books (early works that can be a bit tricky to get into), so do that, and start with Wyrd Sisters - one of the witches books, which you can currently buy for ONE PENCE on Amazon (or for mega cheap in any second hand bookshop). One pence! I promise it's worth it.

Book love

Each month I chat about what books I've been reading in my monthly Book Love feature.

The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger
I don't think I would have ever gotten round to reading this book if I hadn't been given it as a you've-had-a-stressful-day-here's-a-book present (one of the best kinds of presents), as I always thought that you had to read it as a teenager, or it just wouldn't make sense. So I was a wee bit apprehensive about starting it, and then was very pleasantly surprised at how quickly it hooked me in.

I can totally understand why some people hate it. Holden Caulfield is frustrating and cynical and thinks everything is phony ("goddamn phonies!"), but I really took to him. He's very blunt and desperately trying to prove to himself that he's in control, but he's actually a bit scared, a bit sad, and very lost. It's funny and rebellious and sad and full of old-school American slang. I really loved it.

Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein
I also loved Starship Troopers! I've watched the film before, so I was expecting a bit of hilarious sci-fi action, but there's so much more to this book (they are actually very, very different things). I get very easily lost in a character when I like them, and I had a lot of time for Rico - so when he was musing on the philosophy of war and describing why, of course, it's important to take part in military service and live in a limited democracy, I was thinking yes! Totally! That all makes perfect sense! Hmm.

If you like sci-fi (why wouldn't you like sci-fi?) then this is a good one. And unlike the other Heinlein book I've read (Stranger in a Strange Land), Starship Troopers isn't full of weird 60s sexism. Hooray!

Book love

Each month I chat about what books I've been reading in my monthly Book Love feature.

The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson
I hadn't read anything by Jon Ronson before, but I'm hooked after just one book. He's such an intelligent writer, and is super witty and funny too - even when looking at quite harsh topics. What a chap! This book races through psychopathy, psychiatry, Scientology, conspiracy theorists, mysterious hoaxes, and all sorts of strange behaviours. You'll speed through it.

Watership Down - Richard Adams 
This is a novel about rabbits, but it is so so so much better than that sounds. Think Animal Farm and you're on the right track... it's surprisingly gritty and violent in places, and the effort that has gone into creating the history & mythos of the rabbits is just BRILLIANT. I've been obsessed with the film since I was wee (the opening scene absolutely terrified me) and can't imagine how many times I've actually watched it, but hadn't read the book since I was a teenager. It's really just SO good, and worth taking a chance on (even if you don't really like rabbits).

Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
Aw, Neil Gaiman. If you haven't read anything by him then you need to immediately go to a bookshop and purchase something with his name on it. Doesn't really matter what. Ocean is his newest book for sort-of-kids-sort-of-everybody, and it's just lovely and magical and scary and sad and poignant and wonderful.

Warm Bodies -  Isaac Marion
Before starting Warm Bodies I knew it was going to be ridiculous. It's a zombie romance novel. A zom-rom. The front cover has a quote from Stephenie Mayer (her of Twilight fame, obv). It was going to be daft, but brilliant, I thought. And.. well... oh. I was just SO annoyed with it! I didn't care about any of the characters, they did stupid, stupid things, sulked about & just wound me up. I think it mainly frustrated me as I really liked the concept, and some of the imagery was just lovely. But it didn't deliver. Grr!

Book love

Each month I chat about what books I've been reading in my monthly Book Love feature. I haven't read much this month (in my defence, I've had quite a lot on!), but ohhhh have they been good ones.

A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness
Oh boy. A Monster Calls comes from an idea by Siobhan Dowd, an author who died of cancer before she could finish the book. Patrick Ness took on the characters, the idea, and the start she had made, to put together a heart-breaking story that is powerful and raw and scary and brutal. It's the story of a teenage boy who is struggling to cope with grief and loss... it's hard to sum it up really. I finished the book on the bus home, and I absolutely sobbed (thank god for dark sunglasses, and bus passengers too polite to say anything). Super powerful stuff. Read it. (But make sure you get the illustrated edition).

Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
I've had a copy of Gone with the Wind sitting on my bookshelf for years, but I always put off reading it as I thought it would be a bit boring (just looking at it brought back horrible memories of Middlemarch, which I struggled through at uni). But one day I was feeling a bit cross and miserable, and I really fancied reading something that was a little miserable too.

It's quite hard to sum up how I feel about Gone with the Wind. On one hand, I absolutely loved it. I love Scarlett - she's brash and she's cunning, she knows exactly what she wants, and despite being so utterly unlikeable at (many, many) points, I adored her. The book follows the epic journey of her life, from her start as a spoiled rich girl obsessed with beaux, through the Civil War, marriages, deaths, betrayals and heartbreak. It gripped me from the opening pages, and I actually felt a bit emotionally shaken throughout - I was so invested in Scarlett, so hurt when she did something foolish, or when she lost things through her own pride and stubbornness. As a character novel it's incredible.

But, bloody hell, it's unbelievably racist. If a book was written a long time ago, can you forgive racism, or sexism, by just writing them off as being "a thing of their time"? Scarlett grows up on a plantation, slavery is a constant throughout the whole book, characters (that you like!) are part of the Klan... Scarlett accepts that, you follow her lead, and that's terrible. So what does that mean for the book itself? Should it not be read?

I've been struggling against this since reading it, and found a few essays online that were pretty interesting (Reading against the Wind by Rohan Maitzen is particularly good). If you have any thoughts on this, please feel free to comment - it would be interesting to hear what others think.

Book love

Each month I chat about what books I've been reading in my monthly Book Love feature.

The Crane Wife - Patrick Ness
Oh dear. I had such HUGE expectations for this book - I am utterly in love with Patrick Ness' Chaos Walking trilogy, and was so excited to begin his newest work. But it just fell flat. It's a story that retells a Japanese folk tale in a normal (fairly boring) world. There are very beautiful passages (he is a brilliant writer after all), but I just did not care about the main characters at ALL, and a lot of it felt like he was trying very hard to say very clever things, without actually succeeding. Wah!

E. E. Cummings - Selected Poems 1923 - 1958
Beautiful, quirky, lovely poetry. It somehow manages to both be simple and easy enough to dip into every now and again, and deep enough to catch your breath and give a little more sense to the world. If poetry just brings back memories of dire days over-analysing classic works in school, I hugely recommend looking out ee cummings - you won't regret it.

Book love

Each month I chat about what books I've been reading in my monthly Book Love feature.

The Princess Bride - William Goldman
How have I lived for twenty seven years without reading this book? This was a gift from a pal, and has sat, slightly neglected, in my library for over a year. How little I knew. I saw the film a few years ago, and because it's quite funny and lovely and very good, I didn't think I needed  to rush and read the book. But, oh. Buttercup! Westley! The narration (which could come across as contrived and a bit ridiculous - but is actually perfect, and leaves you just on the verge (ahem) of googling Morgenstern to find the original text). It's a brilliant, funny, wonderful, sharp fairytale of true love and devestation and YOU SHOULD READ IT.

Illium - Dan Simmons
Imagine the Iliad (you know - Homer? Troy? That pesky Helen?). Now imagine setting it on MARS, throwing in some Shakespeare-obsessed robots from Jupiter, and an earth populated by the last of the humans. It's bonkers and it probably shouldn't work, but it really does! Dan Simmons is brilliant, I really love everything I've read by him. If sci-fi isn't your thing, and you want something scary, I would hugely recommend The Terror - ahhhhh!

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
I'm so late to the Gatsby party, and didn't read the book until after watching the film (bad English Literature graduate, bad). You all know what it's about, right? Wealth! Love! Mystery! Broken hearts! The roaring twenties! It's good, I flew through it, there's lovely turns of phrase every now and again, but I feel like I missed out a bit by not getting to experience the story properly through the book (as I had literally just seen the film - which was beautiful, but a bit flat). I should really make a list of classics I'm still to read, and get started on them before this happens again!

Book love

Each month I chat about what books I've been reading in my monthly Book Love feature.

Good Morning, Midnight - Jean Rhys 
 I've owned Good Morning, Midnight since I was at university, but have never gotten round to reading it before (even though it was one of my prescribed texts, sorry lecturers!). One lazy Sunday I was looking for a book to accompany me into town for a day of drinking coffee & mooching around second hand shops, and this jumped out at me. Oh, and how I fell in love. It's a haunting tale of a woman living in Paris, who has hit rock-bottom and is tearing herself apart through strange encounters, cheap hotels and too much wine. It's fairly short, but super intense and beautifully written.

Essays In Love - Alain de Botton
This book follows the story of a relationship: from a chance meeting on a plane, to anxiety and heartbreak. Each chapter reads like a philosophy paper, with the smallest moments being pondered over and subjected to intense thought and discussion. It's a bit twee, and I think you probably do have to be either loved up or slightly heartbroken to enjoy it, but I liked it!

Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut - Mike Mullane
I thought I needed to mix things up after my last two books, so I picked up a book that I bought absolutely ages ago (when I was last in Florida!). This is the memoir of an astronaut, Mike Mullane, who talks about his life as an astronaut... and is very, very blunt about what he thinks about NASA. I love a bit of space, and found it absolutely fascinating... you tend not to think about the politics, or office-life that exists behind sending people to the moon!

Patrick Ness - The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask & the Answer and Monsters of Men
I read the Chaos Walking trilogy for the first time late last year, and have already given in and re-read them again. They are just wonderful, amazing, beautiful books, and I love them so.

Book love

Each month I chat about what books I've been reading in my monthly Book Love feature.

Atlantis - David Gibbins
I am a sucker for archaeology-mystery books, so thought this was probably a good shout when I spotted it in a charity shop. It was alright in a sort-of-trying-to-be-Dan Brown way, but the characters were quite wooden, and the villains (scary Russians who ALSO want to find Atlantis, how dare they? etc etc) were a bit boring. The author is an underwater archaeologist so clearly knows what he's talking about, even if it's not the most thrilling of tales.

Gentlemen of the Road - Michael Chabon
I've tried to read a couple of Michael Chabon books but always struggle to get into them... which frustrates me when I know so many people that rave about him! Anyway, the same thing happened with Gentlemen of the Road - I really wanted to like it, but just couldn't engage with it. It's a swashbuckling adventure novel about two travellers who make their way around the Caspian Sea (& get into all sorts of peril!). Sounds awesome, but I wasn't that fussed.

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? - Jeanette Winterson
After battling through a few difficult books, I picked up a book by my very favourite author as I knew I would be in safe hands. I'm not usually into autobiographies or memoirs, but this is something else. I LOVE HER. It's the story of her life, and it's powerful and disturbing and lovely and just brilliant. She is a writer who loves language, and almost every line could be a poem.

Written on the Body - Jeanette Winterson
After reading her memoir, I then had to re-read Written on the Body - it's my very favourite book of all time. It's a beautiful book about falling in love (and I promise it's not as sappy as that sounds). Jeanette Winterson doesn't write in a typical narrative structure, it's more like a stream of consciousness (but not in a terrible James Joyce way!). Nothing I can say will do it justice - it's a beautiful, gritty, honest (sometimes heartbreaking) book that just makes so much sense. Read it!

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein
I have slightly mixed feelings about this book. On the whole I really enjoyed it - it's about a man who grows up on Mars & is brought to earth... and despite being quite old-school I found that I really cared about the characters & the peril (there's obviously peril) that they were in. But when reading it you have to remember that it was written in the 60's... some of the characters come out with terrible statements, things can be unintentionally hilarious & things get quite weird towards the end. If you like sci fi then you should definitely read it! If not, the next book is more for you...

The Passage - Justin Cronin
Ahhh, it's so scary! This is an epic apocalyptic thriller, where experiments go horribly wrong & vampires are actually scary (and definitely don't glitter in sunshine). I absolutely flew through this book, it's the type that once you start reading you definitely don't want to stop! It's also being made into a film so you should read it now before the movie comes out.

Book love

Each month I chat about what books I've been reading in my monthly Book Love feature.

The Red Pyramid - Rick Riordan
Immediately after finishing the Percy Jackson books I went straight into another Rick Riordan series, I just couldn't resist! I found this book a little harder to get into, but probably because the set up was the same ("hey kids, ancient gods exist, you have powers, the world is ending!"). I still think he is a wonderful story-teller though, and it just goes to show that very good kid's fiction can be read by anyone.

The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
This is a really lovely, daft, fun, old school sci-fi novel. There's quite a lot taking place (the novel skips around a lot and covers an entire lifetime), but that's what I think classic sci-fi is about - epic, sometimes ridiculous tales taking place over a huge landscape. There's armies on Mars! Brain-washing! Time distortion! Mystery! Aliens! Hooray!

Life of Pi - Yann Martel
I tried to read this book years ago, but gave up before Pi even got on his boat (it's one of the few books I've ever quit). Friends that had read it all insisted it was worth struggling through the start for, but I didn't pick it up again until after watching the film (which I sort of regret). Anyway - it's a weird one, I really loved the book on my second attempt, but I knew I would because I had loved the film! I feel a bit robbed & cross at myself for giving up all those years ago. Definitely worth powering through!

Tollesbury Time Forever - Stuart Ayris
I knew nothing about this book or author, but saw that it had LOADS of five star reviews on Amazon, so thought I'd give it a go. Oh boy. It really isn't my cup of tea at all. It picked up a lot in the second half, but I just couldn't stand the protagonist... at ALL. I stubbornly stuck with it (because I really hate quitting half way through & I wondered if I'd suddenly realise what all the fuss what about), but vented my frustrations one night on twitter. To my HORROR, the author had obviously been searching for his book name & replied! He was really lovely about it (just thanked me for giving it a go), but I was mortified.. and then felt like I definitely had to continue reading to the end as an apology. Oh dear. Never again.

Book love

Each month I chat about what books I've been reading in my monthly Book Love feature.

World War Z - Max Brooks
This feels a little like cheating as I first read WWZ a few years ago, but I thought a reread was in order before the movie comes out this year! (Fun fact - part of it was filmed in Scotland AND my best pal worked on it). I really love this book - it's written as a series of reports by survivors of the zombie war and parts are seriously scary! It also made me realise just how hopeless I'd be in a zombie apocalypse...

The Children of Men - P. D. James
Oh, I loved this book! Children of Men is set in the near-future, at a time when infertility has swept the human race, leaving an aging population to struggle in a childless world. I saw the film & assumed the book would have an identical plot, but no! It's a very clever book, and quite disturbing in places. I absolutely raced through it. Definitely recommended!

Contact - Carl Sagan
I knew that Carl Sagan was an eloquent fellow (have you seen this? Love love love it), but I hadn't expected him to be such a good fiction writer. This is a pretty good sci fi novel, but I did find that every now and again the science got pretty intense & a bit difficult to read (meaning I had to battle to power through the technical theory parts, without giving in and skimming over those pages!).

The Last Song - Nicholas Sparks
After the intense astrophysics chat in Contact I fancied something a bit lighter & went for this sugary book by The Notebook author Nicholas Sparks. I don't normally read chick-lit as I find it all a bit cringey, but this was an easy, sweet novel. Good if you're looking for something simple to get lost in.

The Percy Jackson Collection - Rick Riordan

The Lightning Thief | The Sea of Monsters | The Titan's Curse | The Battle of the Labyrinth | The Last Olympian

I've mentioned a few times before that I'm reading quite a lot of young adult fiction these days to help inspire my writing, and I'd fancied Rick Riordan's books for a while. I wasn't prepared for how much I would LOVE them though, or how fast I'd speed through them! They are based on Greek mythology and are wonderfully epic and lovely and funny and sweet. Hand them to the closest 12 year old you know & insist they read them (or if you are a child like me, get on it!).

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!

Book love

One of my very, very favourite things to do is read. I love it. I can't understand why you wouldn't read (and to be honest, I slightly distrust people who don't like reading...sorry!). I have always been a very speedy reader, but doing an english literature degree really stepped it up a notch.

So I've decided to start a new monthly feature on my blog - a wee recap on the books I've read in the last month. I think it'll be fun to see how many I go through in a year, and hopefully will provide reading inspiration if anyone out there is looking for a new book!

As this month has been taken over massively by nanowrimo I'm including October's reads too (which includes all of my holiday reading!). I should point out, these aren't meant to be 'real' reviews (I'm too rambly for that), just my thoughts of each one!

Summer of Night - Dan Simmons 
Dan Simmons writes terrifying books. I couldn't read The Terror if I was alone in the flat. I had to stop reading Drood because I had really mental nightmares about it (an embarrassingly true fact). This book is a total cracker though! It's one of his earlier books, and it is so so so scary. Read it & freak yourself out. Then read the Terror, because it's amazing.

Embassytown - China Mieville
I am a big fan of China Mieville, but found this a really tricky book to get into. I sometimes think I'm maybe just not smart enough for his books because they are always based around such a clever concept.. and with this one it meant I was spending more time trying to figure out what was happening, than enjoying the plot. He's an incredible author though - Perdido Street Station is a brilliant piece of fantasy fiction.

Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
I'm writing a young adult book at the moment, so thought it would be useful (and fun!) to read some books aimed at the same age group. This looked pretty good ("number one bestseller!" etc), but ohhhh I HATED Artemis Fowl. What an annoying character. He's just amazing and clever and perfect at everything. And he's not nice to his mum. No thank you.

Un Lun Dun - China Mieville
More young adult reading - this time a good one! I raced through the book really quickly, which was a nice change after my slow pace through Embassytown. He's just so creative and funny and good. I like him a lot. I can't wait until my book-loving niece is old enough for this, I think she'd love it.

Warlock - Wilbur Smith
I am a sucker for historical fantasy - I had read River God a few years ago, so was quite chuffed to find out that there was another novel in his Egyptian series (even though it came out in 2007... I am seriously behind the times). It was a perfect book to read on holiday - light enough to dip in and out of, but exciting enough that I absolutely raced through it!

American Gods - Neil Gaiman
This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for years, but I hadn't gotten round to reading it until last month. Neil Gaiman is really wonderful and you should read at least something by him, if you haven't already. Next up on my list is Anansi Boys, which (sort of) follows on from American Gods.

Patrick Ness - The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer & Monsters of Men
These books make up the Chaos Walking trilogy and they are practically perfect in every way. Buy them buy them buy them! (I really can't recommend them strongly enough. Love love love).

Those in Peril - Wilbur Smith
I am usually quite of fan of an action/adventure book, but in this case - oh, bore off Wilbur Smith! If you've read any of his other books you really don't need to read this one. It's packed with one-dimensional characters who do daft things in daft situations. I really can't be bothered with female characters who are presented as being SO STRONG until they melt in the arms of an even stronger man. Whatever.

The Tommyknockers - Stephen King
I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this book. At the beginning and end it was exciting & scary & quite thrilling. But the middle went on FOREVER and it did feel like it was taking me months to read it.

The Casual Vacancy - J.K. Rowling
Ahh, we're definitely not in Hogsmeade any more! Like the rest of the world, I would have bought J.K. Rowling's new novel regardless of what it was actually about... she is an amazing storyteller and character writer. But small-town political dramas aren't really my cup of tea. I sort-of liked it. I definitely wouldn't re-read it though (sorry JK, I still love you).

Edinburgh's mystery book sculptures

I really love this. Since earlier this year something very magical has been happening in Edinburgh. Mystery sculptures made from books have been left around the town by an anonymous artist.

The first sculpture appeared in March at the Scottish Poetry Library.

Photo by Chris Scott

It was a paper tree with this note:

It started with your name @byleaveswelive and became a tree.… ... We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books… a book is so much more than pages full of words.… This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. a gesture (poetic maybe?)

This was followed by a gramophone left at the National Library of Scotland. 

Photo by Chris Scott

 For @natlibscot - A gift in support of libraries, books, words, ideas..... (& against their exit) 

& a cinema (how incredible is this?) found at the Filmhouse. 

Photo by Chris Scott

For @filmhouse - A gift in support of libraries, books, words, ideas..... and all things *magic*

The next one popped up in July at the Scottish Storytelling Centre... a dragon egg sitting in a window.

Photo by Chris Scott

For @scotstorycenter - A gift in support of libraries, books, works, ideas..... Once upon a time there was a book and in the book was a nest and in the nest was an egg and in the egg was a dragon and in the dragon was a story.....

Two more appeared in August at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. One for the festival...

Photo by Chris Scott

To @edbookfest 'A gift' This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas...... & festivals xx

 & one for Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature.

Photo by Chris Scott

To @edincityoflit 'A gift' LOST (albeit in a good book) This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas.... "No infant has the power of deciding..... by what circumstances (they) shall be surrounded.. Robert Owen

The next one was found on a shelf in the Central Library - a magnifying glass on top of a book. I really love this library - I wrote most of my dissertation in there, and have (surprisingly) fond memories of the experience.

 For Central Library ‘A Gift’ @Edinburgh_CC This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas…. LIBRARIES ARE EXPANSIVE

The final (or so it was thought) sculpture was found in the Scottish Poetry Library in November. It was a paper feather cap with a pair of paper gloves.

Photo by Chris Scott

To @ByLeavesWeLive....... THE GIFTS "Gloves of bee's ful, cap of the Wren's Wings......." Norman McCaig .... maybe sometimes impossible things... In support of Libraries, Books, Words Ideas....

Then the wonderful National Museums of Scotland announced that they had received one (but had needed to delay the announcement as they were a bit distracted by hitting their millionth visitor mark!).

Photo by Chris Scott

For @NtlMuseumsScot A Gift Your friends at @edbookfest suggested you might like this. .... In support of libraries, books, words, ideas and those places that house our treasures......

& this was closely followed by the final one,  a spooky street scene at the Writers Museum.

Photo by Chris Scott

@CuratorEMG A Gift "The stories are in the stones" Ian Rankin In support of Libraries, Books, Words, Ideas ...... and Writers.

No one knows who the artist is (there are rumours floating about, but it's widely been accepted that most people just don't want to know). It's just such an amazing story.

Photo by Chris Scott

Things like this make me love Edinburgh even more.

Mark reads...

I really love books. I have such a mixed taste these days, & I ain't ashamed of it. My current favourites are hist-mysts (historical mysteries.. like so), but I will go for anything I can get my hands on. I used to be far more particular, mainly when I had first started uni and decided that as a first year english literature student I probably knew more about books (good books, in particular) than ANYONE else (ugh, such shame. Sorry world). I abhorred chick lit (er, still do) and thought Harry Potter was awful & entirely plagiarised (although am now convinced it's a take on greek tragedy).

Anyway. Everyone is an idiot when they are a teenager, so I eventually grew up a bit, stopped being such a book brat and realised that people are allowed to like different things. It's even okay to like things that are clearly a bit crap. It's all good. Phew! Anyway, this all exists purely to say the following:

• I like books.
• I've read loads of them.
• This means I have read the Twilight series and enjoyed it.
• I don't really think much about it, life goes on, and so on.

BUT THEN. I find this! It's an amazing review of every Twilight book.  It's just so good! He's so right! It's really funny! (exclamation marks). I don't know if I will ever sum up anything so well. Well done, stranger on the internet. It fills me with a bit of shame for enjoying it so much when EVERYTHING HE SAYS ABOUT IT IS TRUE, but ahh, awful-book loving happens, I guess.

There is no point in this entry. Other than pointing at this link again -> hello.

Philip K. Dick is really brilliant

Last night Craig & I went to see the Adjustment Bureau, the film (loosely) based on Philip K. Dick's short story the Adjustment Team. The film was good, but it made me realise how long it has been since I last read anything by him (& as he is one of my favourite authors, this is a massive crime!).

My dad got me into PKD when I was in high school by giving me loads of his short stories. I got a bit obsessed & when I was in fifth year, I wrote my RPR (which is a review of personal reading, don'tcha know, & the scariest essay you have to do in high school) on PKD's story 'Of Withered Apples' & his search for god. It's a ridiculously good short story & only twelve pages - if you can find it then you should read it.

At uni, I kept it going and wrote my dissertation on PKD & Edgar Allan Poe (I think the official title was the breakdown of reality? Or something). Anyway. It was a bit of a panicked decision - we were meant to work on our dissertations for TWO YEARS and I didn't, realistically writing the whole thing within three weeks. But looking back (& now happy in the knowledge that I got my highest grade in fourth year uni from said dissertation) I think it was the best decision as it allowed me to just fall completely into his life, changing it from a boring attempt at critically dissecting his work, & I got to just gush about him.

One of the best books that I found while researching (aka, staying in the library until 3am) was "Philip K. Dick: In His Own Words" by Gregg Rickman. It was brilliant. The intro basically read - 'I had planned to write a biography of PKD & interviewed him for the project. But when it came to it, nothing I could say would beat the way he worded it.' & so, the book is essentially a massive transcript of their many interviews.

He's just incredible. & moving. & what touched me most was just how much he needed his characters. Quite often he would finish a full novel within two months, as he took amphetamines, & so got SO wrapped up in his characters that he would be practically destroyed when it was over.

See, these people are no longer freaks to me, I mean in the sense of being incompetent and fucking up their lives. Because I had completely fucked up my life, I was completely incompetent, and I loved my characters for their incompetence...I could never write down to my character.

What matters to me is the writing, the act of manufacturing the novel, because while I am doing it, at that particular moment, I am in the world I’m writing about. It is real to me, completely and utterly. Then, when I’m finished and have to stop, withdraw from that world forever – that destroys me. The men and women have ceased talking. They no longer move. I’m alone (qtd. in Williams).

He was rejected by the mainstream literary world for writing sci-fi (when no one was writing sci-fi) & struggled for money throughout his life. Now look at it. Disney's making another of his short stories into their Christmas 2012 film. It's mad!

Read anything you can find by him, if you can. He's incredible.