tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36970898083977447192024-03-14T14:30:58.949+00:00Books From BoxesA novel look at literatureJasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-54375023368350001792016-03-08T09:23:00.000+00:002016-03-08T09:27:57.648+00:00Badass Ladies of Literature - International Women's Day 2016<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</xml><![endif]-->Today is International Women's Day, an important day in which we remind certain corners of the world, the internet and sometimes society that women are equal to men and deserve to be treated as such. In light of this, I'd like to share with you my favourite Ladies of Literature and why they're the best female role models for both men and women. Spoilers, ho!<br />
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<b>Lyra Silvertongue from<i> <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/knife-lights-and-spyglass-his-dark.html">His Dark Materials</a></i><a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/knife-lights-and-spyglass-his-dark.html"> by Phillip Pullman</a></b><br />
First and foremost of the made-up ladies, we have the star of <i>His Dark Materials</i>, Lyra. She's passionate, arrogant, cunning, occasionally violent and very often a liar - but above all else, she is brilliant. She’s not a sweet, well-behaved little
girl (despite Mrs Coulter’s efforts), and she's certainly got her faults, but she's the most loyal friend you could ever have, and between her shape-shifting daemon and her armoured-bear protector, she's the kind of person you want on your side in a fight. <br />
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<b>Elizabeth Bennet from <i>Pride and Prejudice</i> by Jane Austen</b><br />
It's easy to dismiss <i>Pride and Prejudice</i> as merely a romance novel, because it's hard for us to
comprehend the fairly dire situation Eliza Bennet and her sisters were in. Their only option in life was to make a good marriage: careers were not an option for women in the Regency era, and with their father's estate entailed away to the male line, they were very much at risk of poverty (relative to their current situation) on their father's death. So in short, Elizabeth has no money to her name, no career prospects, and sisters that are both her allies and enemies in her search for a husband - and yet she still holds out a courageous hope that she will marry love.</div>
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<b>Hermione Granger from <i>Harry Potter </i>by J. K. Rowling</b><br />
No list on the best ladies of books about would be complete without Miss Granger. She;s known for being book-smart, logical and determined to get the best from her education, no matter how people try to shame her. But on top of that she's also fiercely loyal, extremely capable and - <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/danieldalton/boss-witch?utm_term=.vjR9bBQo9#.lcxq58mGq">as shown in this Buzzfeed article</a> – a #BossWitch who is clearly the
actual hero of the <i>Harry Potter</i> series. No, seriously - read the
books again and, excepting the incident with the troll, she basically
bails the boys out every. damn. time.<br />
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<b>Janie Crawford from <i>Their Eyes Were Watching God </i>by Zora Neale Hurston</b><br />
What I love about Janie is that, throughout a novel which looks strongly at identity, Janie never forgets hers. Even though her life is defined by her marriages to three different men - the older Logan, the ambitious Joe and the romantic Tea Cake - she always retains a sense of self, even when downtrodden and treated as a trophy wife. Her teenage ideals that marriage should involve love never leave her, and although her life is rarely easy, she always holds true to her ambition for herself - to love, and be loved, without agenda.</div>
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<b>Delysia LaFosse from <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/review-miss-pettigrew-lives-for-day-by.html"><i>Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day </i>by Winifred Watson</a></b><br />
Next up, the anti-Lyra - Delysia is as (stereo-typically) feminine as you can get - flirty, flighty and
beautiful. Throughout this rags-to-gladrags story she is unapologetic in both her sexuality and her ambitions, and won't be tied down by a man who is anything less than her equal, demanding their respect and putting her own career first. It's true that she does hope to settle down one day, but she'll have her fun in the meantime. In short, she's independent,
career-minded and not willing to settle for anything but the best.</div>
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<b>Jane Eyre from<i> Jane Eyre</i> by Charlotte Bronte</b><br />
I have many issues with this novel - mostly surrounding Mr Rochester being a bit of a nob - but I have no issue with Jane. She spends an entire novel pretty much telling men to piss off - when her cousin and Mr Brocklehurst both try to stamp out her flame as a child, she fights back. When her rich, influential, besotted admirer tries to make her his mistress, she tells him where to get off. When her OTHER cousin tries to force her into a loveless marriage, she tells him where he can shove it. Jane doesn’t compromise on her
principles and refuses to be anything but true to herself.</div>
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<b>Medea</b><br />
She of infamous Greek Myth fame, Medea is another #BossWitch. She marries several different
kings of Greece throughout her life, performs some miraculous spells, plays the
politics game like a true pro - eat your heart out, Cersei Lannister - takes no shit from anyone and then flies off to
heaven on a chariot pulled by flying serpents. WINNER.<br />
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There were a few other women I thought about adding to the list - Arya Stark, Minerva McGonagall and Flora 717 being just a few - but these have been my favourite badass ladies of literature. Any others you'd like to throw into the mix? </div>
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Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-5762267471890829602016-02-12T12:24:00.000+00:002016-02-12T12:47:01.601+00:00Books for 2016<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It’s shaping up to be a banner year for reading, a banner
year. Already I’ve got a pretty hefty hit-list of books-to-read in 2016, and
here are some that I’ve been looking forward to the most:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijNlFwEs8svhoL2-cesrnKPGyXMlGbVM5yQBouuDGjCqzMkA_Zzt-Y5I9akyMxVIeFx6Z-fZMUNy2U8THLSjy6XxCNbChl9N9JbyPzMknF49rz4RUv0ix1r7f8viVViIJXJ6keTct3l4o/s1600/Stiletto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijNlFwEs8svhoL2-cesrnKPGyXMlGbVM5yQBouuDGjCqzMkA_Zzt-Y5I9akyMxVIeFx6Z-fZMUNy2U8THLSjy6XxCNbChl9N9JbyPzMknF49rz4RUv0ix1r7f8viVViIJXJ6keTct3l4o/s200/Stiletto.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stiletto</i> by Daniel O’Malley (Publishing June 2016)</b></div>
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I’m not convinced on this publishing date because it’s been
bumped around a lot – believe me, I know, I’ve been waiting for this book for
ages – but I hold out hope. A sequel to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/review-rook-by-daniel-omalley.html">The Rook</a>, </i>this picks up on my favourite amnesiac bureaucrat, Myfanwy Thomas, the
Rook in a super-secret chess-based organisation called The Checquy that
protects Britain from supernatural threats. This latest turn focuses on The
Grafters, a time-old foe of the Checquy that started to rumble in the distance
at the end of the last book (that’s not a spoiler, not really) and is now
flexing its muscles once more.<i> The Rook</i> was a good mix of humour, action and
mystery, with the supernatural element slotting in perfectly into our world, and I'm hoping for much of the same but with more world expansion.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw2jepkRlpArd_Jepn4vuNyR7_1ag5-H3UGTEP4kiy7QsClhO-UIiM31xlAysBh-NHH0wvLq_Nfdb9zZjsWRjN90OGv4wdCaRURUbc9VqIpYDJWaCMq47p0EfbNYUuI_00tDdYgVMg0TU/s1600/foolsquest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw2jepkRlpArd_Jepn4vuNyR7_1ag5-H3UGTEP4kiy7QsClhO-UIiM31xlAysBh-NHH0wvLq_Nfdb9zZjsWRjN90OGv4wdCaRURUbc9VqIpYDJWaCMq47p0EfbNYUuI_00tDdYgVMg0TU/s200/foolsquest.jpg" width="127" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw2jepkRlpArd_Jepn4vuNyR7_1ag5-H3UGTEP4kiy7QsClhO-UIiM31xlAysBh-NHH0wvLq_Nfdb9zZjsWRjN90OGv4wdCaRURUbc9VqIpYDJWaCMq47p0EfbNYUuI_00tDdYgVMg0TU/s1600/foolsquest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fool’s Quest</i> by Robin Hobb</b></div>
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This came out last summer, and usually the lure of another
FitzChivalry Farseer novel is so great, I normally would’ve read this
already. However, I’ve been put off by the high ebook price – it’s been
hovering around the £9.99 mark and I don’t think I’ve ever spent that much on
an ebook. I’ve elected not to buy the hardback either because a Robin Hobb
averages around 690 pages, based on the 8 books of hers that I’ve read so far, and that’s
just too hefty for me these days. So, regrettably, thus far my only option has been to
wait for the paperback to come out (July 2016) and the ebook price to
drop accordingly. Time has lessened my desperation to read this book, but Hobb
is so consistently excellent with her stories, characterisation and settings,
that I know as soon as I start reading this next volume in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fitz and the Fool</i> trilogy, I’ll<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>be hard-pressed to put it back down.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4kUhShskpCxE8WTLHS8QthRMgTdu7hE2fQK5CKJ6LKuMp6FG_BOY4kpxBiFcKulDRn9AqaCFAFCXs4MW1wzej-amml0PK9EnMw2_YV29ZWzanrFFgQbLNSf8uNsFw-dNNyiTiYUOG3As/s1600/hangingtree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4kUhShskpCxE8WTLHS8QthRMgTdu7hE2fQK5CKJ6LKuMp6FG_BOY4kpxBiFcKulDRn9AqaCFAFCXs4MW1wzej-amml0PK9EnMw2_YV29ZWzanrFFgQbLNSf8uNsFw-dNNyiTiYUOG3As/s200/hangingtree.jpg" width="122" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hanging Tree</i> by Ben Aaronovitch (Publishing June 2016)</b></div>
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Due out in November last year but for some reason pushed
back to June 2016, I’m especially impatient for the latest instalment in Peter
Grant’s supernatural crime-fighting series (he’s in no way related to the Checquy –
though that’s a cross-over I’d welcome). Moving the action back to London after
a rural turn in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Foxglove Summer</i>,
Peter is investigating some blood-based magic haunting the mansions of Mayfair,
near where the Tyburn Gallows once saw London’s criminals dance their last. I’m
hoping for a return from Lady Ty, goddess of the Tyburn River, maybe
another look at the Faceless Man, who was ominously absent from the last book, and much more Nightingale.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhokdpdONc2I7MBnQbF8DU4_gmCqBbjzzDOa2m6xQRVSSx998l0VKvgf-Jqde_Svbz6gHQ0OIEmcQNyskq-oRtPja8SXYooiI3eguaYCwmqwp8GMxRo-sA3jzAFbrKBKQWCotFlCtLxVj4/s1600/restofus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhokdpdONc2I7MBnQbF8DU4_gmCqBbjzzDOa2m6xQRVSSx998l0VKvgf-Jqde_Svbz6gHQ0OIEmcQNyskq-oRtPja8SXYooiI3eguaYCwmqwp8GMxRo-sA3jzAFbrKBKQWCotFlCtLxVj4/s200/restofus.jpg" width="126" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Rest of Us Just Live Here</i> by Patrick Ness</b></div>
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Going to start on a tangent here but I will get back on subject soon, trust me: one of my favourite scenes in the Harry Potter novels comes in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Deathly Hallows</i>, when Harry, Ron and
Hermione return to Hogwarts and hear what the rest of the school has been doing in their absence: even crowd-fleshing characters like Terry Boot get a name-check, and
it’s one of those moments when you realise it isn’t just about the trio,
everyone is fighting this war – it just so happens that Harry, Ron and Hermione
have better tools and more knowledge about how to win it. So Ness’ story, which
focuses on a group of friends who live in the same town as a similarly-gifted
group, but have no powers themselves, really appeals purely because it’s not
about the superheroes, but about the people who, in another story, by another author, would be assigned the
one-liners and bit-parts.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjljEnHZdnyLXgvhaRlkokjGEvhhtxqfDT2FBY5gZKlIS2jLfBGssSWckkLP7f2qsAxwQkfh2wbVEQJfYG_VFASNIjHJYwQVYwCXky7x8EA-nha9ASfZXPtV2DAPNkiOYnco8s0l1UQpdI/s1600/ballroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjljEnHZdnyLXgvhaRlkokjGEvhhtxqfDT2FBY5gZKlIS2jLfBGssSWckkLP7f2qsAxwQkfh2wbVEQJfYG_VFASNIjHJYwQVYwCXky7x8EA-nha9ASfZXPtV2DAPNkiOYnco8s0l1UQpdI/s200/ballroom.jpg" width="122" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ballroom</i> by Anna Hope (Publishing February 2016</b>)</div>
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I can’t quite recall why, or indeed when, this title made it's way on to my radar, but since I’ve picked up on it I've begun to think it might be a prize-contender. Set in a Yorkshire asylum in 1911,
the male and female inmates are kept separate from each other except for one
night a week when they come together in the ballroom to dance, and this is
where the principle characters, Ella and John, meet. On the surface I think it
sounds like it might be primarily a romance, but the setting suggests there will
be more to it than that, and I’m expecting it to be unsettling and haunting.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYRaADUF05FXOk8X8vX9Oxd4o0bgRkt6x3XU6-oAi8irsV66LCB2TDgEVuPLPFinBmBrEOirqZXEk7gXeCmVjOoWd4aBuUNy-x30vEu1tRIExa65qW6rxC4gRnkvYgCY-JbTsbtoVZJrA/s1600/babyganesh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYRaADUF05FXOk8X8vX9Oxd4o0bgRkt6x3XU6-oAi8irsV66LCB2TDgEVuPLPFinBmBrEOirqZXEk7gXeCmVjOoWd4aBuUNy-x30vEu1tRIExa65qW6rxC4gRnkvYgCY-JbTsbtoVZJrA/s200/babyganesh.jpg" width="123" /></a></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown</i> by Vaseem Khan
(Publishing May 2016)</b></div>
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I listened to the first book in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Baby Ganesh Agency</i> series, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><i>The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra</i></a>, at the end of last year on audiobook and I just loved it
– the setting, the characters and the plot were not exactly revolutionary, but put together so well that the lack of originality - bar Ganesh the elephant - wasn't missed. As my mother perfectly summed up, it’s inoffensive, simple, good fun, and sometimes
that’s all you really want from a book. I’m particularly looking forward to this
next instalment, which will see Inspector Chopra investigating the
seemingly-impossible-but-nevertheless-accomplished theft of the Koh-i-Noor
diamond, with his elephant companion to assist in the case-solving.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisOWVVOG4Sto7efuFCVS9XVQPoAfPETTbWUIhjuX26uoyIYzEQ-EOisRm4GDZIYC1yS5tAXMwz8o5XA_-f-rmSZVVQONYv0MSEsvar5k0qEhNWcKOANp851nAewpd50tvr6cWd77YEwQU/s1600/mostbeautiful.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisOWVVOG4Sto7efuFCVS9XVQPoAfPETTbWUIhjuX26uoyIYzEQ-EOisRm4GDZIYC1yS5tAXMwz8o5XA_-f-rmSZVVQONYv0MSEsvar5k0qEhNWcKOANp851nAewpd50tvr6cWd77YEwQU/s200/mostbeautiful.jpg" width="133" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Most Beautiful</i> by Emily Hauser</b><br />
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I only just found out about this the day before it published
and I can’t believe it took me so long to clock it, because it’s RIGHT up my
street – a new retelling of the Trojan War, but this time from the perspective
of women in the story. Now I’ll be the first to admit – there’s no end of
re-imaginings of the Iliad knocking about (just off the top of my head – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Troy</i> by Adele Geras, which looked at
sisters living inside the palace of Troy during the war; <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/review-troy-trilogy-by-david-and-stella.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Troy Trilogy</i> by David and Stella Gemmell</a>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Song of Achilles</i> by Madeline
Miller, which was about the fabled love story of Achilles and Patroclus). But
there are so many retellings because it’s such a fantastic story – a Trojan
prince carries off the wife of a King of Greece, refuses to give her back and
so begins a war that lasted a decade and ended the age of heroes, and I’m not
tired of them yet. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1RJt44RrMoLnTFlnua3D7J42S3PjXjVKFRn2G5QyuYCmVJ5V1Ep4X_hWh6EMONjtqwFRHsqkBnPOjnvEf5fdaH0QdX96CaoMv9fwH_BD28620g7mBYezdlLtG8QivG2qx7eR82B5zlgE/s1600/hiddenbodies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1RJt44RrMoLnTFlnua3D7J42S3PjXjVKFRn2G5QyuYCmVJ5V1Ep4X_hWh6EMONjtqwFRHsqkBnPOjnvEf5fdaH0QdX96CaoMv9fwH_BD28620g7mBYezdlLtG8QivG2qx7eR82B5zlgE/s200/hiddenbodies.jpg" width="125" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hidden Bodies</i> by Caroline Kepnes </b></div>
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This was an entirely unexpected sequel, which makes it all the more appealing to me - I thought we were finished with Joe, the anti-hero of 2014's <i>You</i>. Joe has decided to leave New York after all the, hmm-how-shall-I-put-it,
unpleasantness with Beck, and has moved to LA after falling madly, obsessively
in love with a new woman. But has Joe met his match in the anti-Beck? I’m
hoping – I’m certain – that we won’t get a rehash of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You</i>, but I am definitely intrigued to see just what happened to Joe
after the events of <i>You</i>, and if he really got away with it all. Incidentally, if you haven’t read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You</i> yet, get on it immediately – it was one of my<a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/2014-best-of-year.html"> favourites of 2014</a>, and there are few books out there that will unnerve you as much, or make you more paranoid about Twitter. </div>
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<br />
And finally...<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fate of the Tearling</i> by Erika Johansen (Publishing November
2016)</b></div>
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Anyone who reads this blog
regularly (hi guys *waves*) will
already have noticed I am a BIG fan of the Tearling series, and I am –
quite
frankly – devastated that I have to wait until November before the
concluding
volume comes out. The blurb on the early pre-order pages isn’t giving
much away, and the cover hasn't been revealed yet - not that the covers
of the first two books reveal much as it is -
but from the sounds of it, the action will pick up where <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/best-of-2015.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Invasion of the Tearling</i></a> left off, which means that the Mace –
Queen Kelsea’s right-hand man – is going to have a lot of work to do. </div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-2482599846420977992016-01-29T12:25:00.002+00:002016-01-29T15:05:56.158+00:00Worst of 2015<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">As I was once taught by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lD8t_x9BVI">Merlin in Disney's The Sword the Stone</a>, opposites make the world go round</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, and having shared my <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/best-of-2015.html">best reads of 2015</a> with you last week I can only restore balance by telling you the ones I did not enjoy. It's a shorter list than last year so I've obviously chosen my books more wisely this year, but just as controversial in some places...</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdjOYxZiRIGMuzZHBINX1quyRnSAvaxu9cUQDTIXhD-lppRYvdn1L-eQsga3dWrj8Eq11KQoqvnXbjHhB_gSLM9W3KGEzeg2xd-wBKjszzRMDvuGt4I-igZk-_zl4EwK6avd54JkbSVj8/s1600/catcher.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdjOYxZiRIGMuzZHBINX1quyRnSAvaxu9cUQDTIXhD-lppRYvdn1L-eQsga3dWrj8Eq11KQoqvnXbjHhB_gSLM9W3KGEzeg2xd-wBKjszzRMDvuGt4I-igZk-_zl4EwK6avd54JkbSVj8/s200/catcher.png" width="128" /></a> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Catcher in the Rye</i> by J D
Salinger (1951)</b></div>
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I’m probably going to get a lot
of stick for this, I know, but the truth is, I didn’t like it. I read the whole
thing, and came to the conclusion that – as I have always suspected – I read
this at least 10 years too late. On one hand, I could sympathise with
Holden’s fear of the unknown, his desperation to be taken seriously as an
adult, his nostalgia for childhood. On the other, I found him whiny and a
constructor of his own misfortune. Maybe he reminded me of me as a teenager,
and that’s why I didn’t get on with it: perhaps I recognised too much of my teenage self in Holden, and didn’t like what I saw. Or maybe he was just a really annoying,
moody little so-and-so with too much entitlement and not enough compassion for
anyone besides himself and Phoebe, I don’t know. But sorry, Caulfielders – I’m
not a fan. I am, however, a fan of <a href="https://twitter.com/david8hughes/status/473127276653985792">this tweet</a>:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsnR3u36GWBj_j_L1ArGUcEQDrjqM87KpK1STBcwCVbTt-CWWBSzaf1CNZbO7zkf1_0VDy6gOghfbGVrhZGBePQkC_vPxWonoNgW7elIeTqr23zYesgLic_HZbw9GKZD6PjIEJIz0WCwE/s1600/secondlife.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsnR3u36GWBj_j_L1ArGUcEQDrjqM87KpK1STBcwCVbTt-CWWBSzaf1CNZbO7zkf1_0VDy6gOghfbGVrhZGBePQkC_vPxWonoNgW7elIeTqr23zYesgLic_HZbw9GKZD6PjIEJIz0WCwE/s200/secondlife.png" width="121" /></a></div>
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<b><a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/reviews-in-miniature.html"><i>Second Life </i>by S J Watson (2015)</a></b></div>
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This was the first of several disappointing books in 2015,
particularly given Watson’s shocking debut <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Before
I Go to Sleep</i>, which was nigh unputdownable and still gives me the willies. Naturally, after reading such a stonking good thriller, I was
pretty excited about getting my hands on a second offering. However, this tale
of a woman investigating her sister’s murder quickly became bogged down in
unnecessary red herrings, difficult-to-follow twists and unremarkable,
unlikeable characters. The biggest crime it committed though, was to be
forgettable: there was nothing, in my opinion, that made this book stand out
for any reason – so much so, I had to look up the blurb in order to remind
myself what the book was about. Hardly a glowing recommendation. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaDhX6UlJOzVQQoq5xXugO8Evj3tQJtrH3lCkuNVGJdAH9MNL2e0SyeswLe_xH4K7Dn2-tIvXv4IrVgCxQ4XEmjwAJid9LADAEaqx2Qfac6o2RhQkDr9l1ZtPuwkomFEinz9Hx8-4UuhU/s1600/dragon.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaDhX6UlJOzVQQoq5xXugO8Evj3tQJtrH3lCkuNVGJdAH9MNL2e0SyeswLe_xH4K7Dn2-tIvXv4IrVgCxQ4XEmjwAJid9LADAEaqx2Qfac6o2RhQkDr9l1ZtPuwkomFEinz9Hx8-4UuhU/s200/dragon.png" width="128" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</i>
by Stieg Larsson (2005)</b></div>
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Before I get into my reasons for
including the immensely popular <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Girl
with the Dragon Tattoo</i> on my Worst-of 2015 list, I just want to say two
things: firstly, I enjoyed a lot of this book. Secondly, <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/my-first-audiobook.html">it was my first audiobook</a>, and I struggled a bit with the format, which I admit did have a negative impact on this book. Now that’s out of the way, I can get onto
my main disappointments: for example, the very gripping and interesting main
story – of Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander’s investigation into the messed-up
Vanger family – was buried into the middle of the book, flanked on either side
by a lot of filler. The first third was spent establishing that Blomkvist was a
rogue journalist who had been out-manoeuvred on a damning-but-unprovable
article he’d written, and that Salander was as messed up as she was proficient
in hacking. I’m no writer, I’ll be the first to admit, but I don’t think it
should take a third of a book to establish your principle characters. Then
there was the bizarre ending that took up the last third – obviously Larsson was setting up for another
book, but it took a long time to wrap up and involved what seemed to be a very
un-Salander-esque act that jarred with how I knew her as a character. Finally, I
took umbrage with a ‘character-building’ episode involving Salander. It was, in
my view, entirely gratuitous and yet another example of an author using assault
as a means to show the strength or courage of a character, whilst
simultaneously cementing another’s evil. I recognise it's important to discuss rape and not shy away from it in media, but in this case it just came across as a vehicle to demonstrate Salander's strength and difficult life, and having her brutally attacked can't be the only way to do that.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We All Looked Up</i> by Tommy
Wallach (2015)</b></div>
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The premise of this YA novel was, to me,
promising: when the news breaks that an apocalyptic meteor has a 30% chance of
hitting the earth, five teenagers re-evaluate their feelings towards life,
love, friends and family as they deal with the possibility they may soon all be
dead. It should be a refreshing take on what can be viewed as a tired genre –
most apocalypse novels tend to focus on the immediate aftermath, with some
stretching a bit further forward, sometimes leaping back, but this one focuses
solely on the weeks running up to the will-it-won’t-it meteor either hitting or
missing the planet. However it quickly devolves into now-or-never romances,
parental rebellion and general sticking-it-to-the-man. I don’t really know what
I was expecting, but I had hoped it would be a bit less John Green.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZuN8meD197bbg8IlRr2-U6Jrxx5vc_ptusGbUzwyjBj9Zq9l8tnFupx4MiVWBsW3Ly_2_RLrlaSxkhEGDsYZjwUIf064HiF661spzwlFyfQsqNNbZNZ5Pk9UQqKsCkfu2izDvWftkYlQ/s1600/redcoat.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZuN8meD197bbg8IlRr2-U6Jrxx5vc_ptusGbUzwyjBj9Zq9l8tnFupx4MiVWBsW3Ly_2_RLrlaSxkhEGDsYZjwUIf064HiF661spzwlFyfQsqNNbZNZ5Pk9UQqKsCkfu2izDvWftkYlQ/s200/redcoat.png" width="130" /></a></div>
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<b><a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/review-girl-in-red-coat-by-kate-hamer.html"><i>The Girl in the Red Coa</i>t by Kate Hamer (2015)</a></b></div>
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The third in my little
triumvirate of 2015 Disappointments, this was a huge one for me - I was looking so forward to it, so maybe (as
I've done before) my expectations were just too high. I won’t go into
too much detail
here because I already reviewed this, but essentially I felt this story
of a
young girl kidnapped by a man claiming to be her grandfather posed too
many
questions that went unanswered. </div>
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Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-38042336394671395572016-01-22T13:32:00.000+00:002016-01-22T13:32:13.075+00:00Best of 2015<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
2015 was a <i>really </i>good year for books - I read less than in 2014, but enjoyed more of them, so I figure it balances out. It was actually quite hard to pick my favourite finds of last year - it started out as a huge list - but I've whittled it down to the these seven, which I would recommend to everyone and anyone. Yep, fewer than last year, and the year before that - I'm getting more discerning in my old age.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj45T-czP9jSSEQXBj49BfoNxZHEOYzj4T2ZaoHjIF1y62n6Fg9T6itaStxLSNk2ehniIU3zzmc0WcUHEhqW8Hk72oi4kiNYbeNwbLukpgYbzI3UH5P2S4rb9ZDKbbZ63S2hS-bIdCfWek/s1600/InvasionOFT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj45T-czP9jSSEQXBj49BfoNxZHEOYzj4T2ZaoHjIF1y62n6Fg9T6itaStxLSNk2ehniIU3zzmc0WcUHEhqW8Hk72oi4kiNYbeNwbLukpgYbzI3UH5P2S4rb9ZDKbbZ63S2hS-bIdCfWek/s200/InvasionOFT.jpg" width="128" /></a><a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/living-in-in-serial-world-sequel.html"><i>The Invasion of the Tearling</i> by Erika Johansen (2015)</a></div>
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It’s no coincidence that two of
the four books I read twice in 2015 were Erika Johansen’s Tearling books –
they’re utterly fascinating, with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Invasion of the Tearling</i> having only the slightest of edges on its
predecessor (in my opinion). It’s ostensibly about a young queen, Kelsea, reclaiming
her throne from her corrupt uncle and waging war on his seemingly-immortal ally,
but there are many more facets to this story than such basic fantasy fare and
it is certainly a lot darker and uglier than I expected it to be. I’ve not
found another novel this year that blindsided me so much, in that it defied every
expectation without disappointment. The best way I can think to describe it is
that it’s got the strong female protagonist of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/living-in-serial-world-i-am-serial-girl.html">Throne of Glass</a>,</i> mixed in with the murky morals and power-struggles
of <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/topnotch-reads-of-2012-part-three-winner.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Song of Ice and Fire</i></a>, finished
off with a dash of <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/thoughts-on-margaret-atwood-or-why-i.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Handmaid’s Tale</i></a>
– quite a potent mix, I’m sure you’ll agree.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsjfF3HOBwQ2V9_pRB0vAX_9QaVnQETgFSEM0ZvIhwREXB95mYZK1oU8gy8j4089wmnc4XxgTmUH9maLGElyw3ef2UmvxlRUsSwQmgbg6X6YxYqG2f1dnDWHa-47r95Qcv2gSR_R4oGBY/s1600/Hisforhawk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsjfF3HOBwQ2V9_pRB0vAX_9QaVnQETgFSEM0ZvIhwREXB95mYZK1oU8gy8j4089wmnc4XxgTmUH9maLGElyw3ef2UmvxlRUsSwQmgbg6X6YxYqG2f1dnDWHa-47r95Qcv2gSR_R4oGBY/s200/Hisforhawk.jpg" width="123" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">H Is For Hawk</i> by Helen
MacDonald (2014)</b></div>
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The only wholly non-fiction title
on this year’s list is one I almost certainly would not have read, given that
I’m generally not a fan of non-fiction, and (until I read this) I had precious
little interest in birds of prey and how to train them. Nevertheless, I was
drawn to it early last year because I heard that it was mostly about the author
grieving for her father after his sudden death, and – at the time of reading – I knew I was about to
lose a close family member. Whilst I can’t say I expected any tips on how to
handle grief (something I’ve been privileged enough to not experience often),
the subject matter did strike a chord that normally would not have existed, and
was an unexpected source of comfort, as well as knowledge. MacDonald does not
sugar the pill here – she can be quite stark - but her impeccable writing and a
knack for striking phrase makes this an honest but beautiful book to read.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrPM07VFnHtc7TAp-uL0ok7WPN9yQdkTumIWXFudW1tRCVWVo7UV3O8hk_Yxrjz8Aus0pOkkhg52QRQPjcLV4XjNT8cwiWMLNVquxQkM8sT-VHrhyphenhyphenTTnGs3fWXhpJ9lPGFDTkuzNlr1IE/s1600/wallflower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrPM07VFnHtc7TAp-uL0ok7WPN9yQdkTumIWXFudW1tRCVWVo7UV3O8hk_Yxrjz8Aus0pOkkhg52QRQPjcLV4XjNT8cwiWMLNVquxQkM8sT-VHrhyphenhyphenTTnGs3fWXhpJ9lPGFDTkuzNlr1IE/s200/wallflower.jpg" width="140" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Perks of Being a Wallflower</i>
by Stephen Chobsky (1999)</b></div>
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What I love about this book is the
gentle optimism: Charlie, the titular wallflower, is a shy freshman with a
lot to be sad about – his best friend committed suicide before the beginning of
the book, his favourite aunt has died, and Charlie himself is suffering from an
unspecified emotional trauma. Yet his befriending of the older siblings Patrick
and Sam shows him that he has something to offer to the world, that life can be
lived wholly and happily, despite what it might throw at you. It’s a novel full of heart and
feeling, carefully eking out its secrets for maximum impact without ruining the
overall redemptive feel. Comparatively, the only book to make me feel as
bittersweet in recent times as <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/2014-best-of-year.html"><i>Wonder</i> by R. J. Palacio</a>.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg32r4zLrQxfAQnqjHgGMfhdAxEnGcFnEchjcAtqoTYibZoSInBQf6IOWgXt7DjAafr-i7jO3Y9HFOzGXSkU7hpTYq6XQgmh1xIL5TsKexqPlUQhyTfXIpu0JxzBrVwE7Nq-jJenV430Co/s1600/iwantmyhat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg32r4zLrQxfAQnqjHgGMfhdAxEnGcFnEchjcAtqoTYibZoSInBQf6IOWgXt7DjAafr-i7jO3Y9HFOzGXSkU7hpTYq6XQgmh1xIL5TsKexqPlUQhyTfXIpu0JxzBrVwE7Nq-jJenV430Co/s200/iwantmyhat.jpg" width="143" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I Want My Hat Back</i> by Jon
Klassen (2012)</b></div>
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I make no apologies for this
inclusion. Yes, it’s a picture book for children. Yes, it’s only 40 pages long.
That doesn’t make it any less entertaining or clever, and there are several
books I have read this year that were much, much longer and much less interesting
than this. A bear has lost his favourite red hat, and so goes asking around his
woodland pals if they have seen it without much luck. Hope is lost, and the
bear is desolate, until a deer helps him recall a rabbit that was acting rather
suspiciously… It’s really quite dark for a kids’ picture book, and it doesn’t surprise
me that a lot of the reviews on Amazon mention that whilst some children don’t
think much of it, the adults certainly do. Personally, I think it’s hilarious,
beautifully illustrated and very clever.</div>
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<a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/reads-for-early-15.html"><i>In Cold Blood</i> by Truman Capote (1966)</a></div>
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I’d been warily circling this
novel for some time before I read it: my recently discovered love of crime
novels had lead me to it, as had the tantalising pull of a novel researched and
written with the assistance of Harper Lee, but its status of ‘true-crime’ put
me off (I’ve never been a fan of those kind of books). Eventually though, with
the urging of an author I admire, I took the plunge and immersed myself in the
novelisation of the true, brutal murders of Herbert Clutter and his family in
Kansas, 1959, and the subsequent hunt for the killers. This is a confusing book
to read: on one hand, everything – including <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323951904578290341604113984">blatant suppositions and questions on the truth of certain events</a>
– is presented as fact. On the other, the story-like narrative makes for
compelling – and distancing – reading: it’s all too easy to forget that these
are not characters but real people, real murderers and real victims. I read
this compulsively, constantly having to remind myself to not take Capote fully at his
word, and spent several hours after finishing reading about Truman Capote, the
Clutters, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKl2XfitMQmQxZgX9t-OHq4TM7ccSkpiy7iC8GPv66lH-p62QxJFDyVCjyTalKf0vXxiYSNLNucL6vy-Z7Qei9ZNHeaxqLoaKwCdxhhyfvwgPrQnPqN1iH8wAIfqdjMB8fiOoA_4XiRT4/s1600/gracekeepers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKl2XfitMQmQxZgX9t-OHq4TM7ccSkpiy7iC8GPv66lH-p62QxJFDyVCjyTalKf0vXxiYSNLNucL6vy-Z7Qei9ZNHeaxqLoaKwCdxhhyfvwgPrQnPqN1iH8wAIfqdjMB8fiOoA_4XiRT4/s200/gracekeepers.jpg" width="130" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gracekeepers</i> by Kirsty
Logan (2015)</b></div>
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This is the only audiobook on
this list: I’m still tentatively listening to them, but on the whole I find
that unless I’m allowed to pay as much attention to them as I do a print or
ebook, they can be forgettable and confusing (not to mention more expensive).
This, however, bucks the trend, and I do have a theory on this: the author was
the narrator, which meant she had a deeper understanding of how the novel
should be read than any other voice-actor. She knows the characters, the
dialogue and the world better than anyone else, and that shines through in her
narration, making it a pleasure to listen to. Even so, the tale of a girl
called North, her bear and a floating circus in a world swallowed by water
would be beautiful no matter what format you experienced it in.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Station Eleven</i> by Emily St. John
Mantel (2014)</b></div>
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This came out towards the end of
2014, and swiftly became one of the most talked about books of 2015 with good
reason. Set in the immediate weeks before, and the years after, an apocalypse,
there are comparisons to be made with Atwood’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">MaddAddam</i> trilogy - not least Mantel's chillingly casual turn of phrase. However, her approach is refreshing
in that her vision of a post-apocalyptic world spreads much further forward
in time than you might expect – instead of focusing on the immediate aftermath, the
survival instincts and the tentative attempts at rebuilding society, her
attention is on a society already rebuilt (albeit rudimentary) and functioning. The main action
is in the vein of a thriller, with a troupe of Shakespearean actors incurring
the wrath of a so-called Prophet on their travels around settlements, but the bits
that really hooked me were those casual, almost Atwood-esque references to the
terror of the plague, which I'll end this post with: </div>
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<i>"Of all of them there at the bar that night, the bartender was the one who survived the longest. He died three weeks later on the road out of the city."</i> </div>
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Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-23039281720438527502015-12-07T13:35:00.003+00:002017-08-04T09:44:39.326+01:00Living In A Serial World - The Sequel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In my opinion, any time is a good time to get stuck into a great book series, but there are two optimal seasons of the year for it: the first is the summer, when you’re going on holidays and want to slip seamlessly from one book to the other on the beach. The second is winter, when a good long series is just an excuse to stay put on the sofa. <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/living-in-serial-world-i-am-serial-girl.html">Back in June</a> I wrote a list of recommended series, but since then I’ve discovered or thought of a few more, and with Christmas creeping closer I thought now was a good time to pass on the new discoveries so you’re all set for the holidays. Bit more of a mix, here – you’ll see some detectives, some fantasy and some pretty gritty YA. As before, images are taken from the first book in each series. Get stuck in.<br />
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<b><i><span id="goog_1015534430"></span><span id="goog_1015534431"></span>The Tomorrow Series </i>by John Marsden (7 books, with a sequel trilogy)</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW1TbWzDmxV3yh75B9kb1sxYDCmZMCgLa1ZUvf_0A2IR-o88J7wzpA9US5KDg7XY8mIuwSB9YPNHUwMSypGc4Bp4po_me-_AV7FvW7i9jy1Z0myy1uilxsGfFgGHXt6JnPLqbAWbeNlL4/s1600/2015-12-02+14_32_27-tomorrow+when+the+war+began+book+cover+-+Google+Search.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW1TbWzDmxV3yh75B9kb1sxYDCmZMCgLa1ZUvf_0A2IR-o88J7wzpA9US5KDg7XY8mIuwSB9YPNHUwMSypGc4Bp4po_me-_AV7FvW7i9jy1Z0myy1uilxsGfFgGHXt6JnPLqbAWbeNlL4/s200/2015-12-02+14_32_27-tomorrow+when+the+war+began+book+cover+-+Google+Search.jpg" width="131" /></a>I’m going to get this one out of the way fairly early because, whilst it’s an amazing series, it’s also incredibly bleak at times. Set in Australia, a group of teens make a camping trip into a remote part of the bush. When they try to return about 5 days later, however, they find that their town has been invaded by an unknown hostile nation, and all their families imprisoned in the Showground (where, conveniently for the invaders, the town had all gathered to celebrate Commemoration Day). The teens, living in the 90’s without the internet or mobile phones, have no idea how much of the country is affected, or what’s happened to their families. They have two choices, then: surrender to the invaders and hope for the best, or try to avoid their clutches by waiting out the war and occasionally waging guerrilla warfare (guess which option they pick...). If this sounds far-fetched that's because it is a bit, but the way the story is handled is not: this isn’t a few kids digging ditches to make people’s ankles twist, or siphoning petrol out of trucks (much how I imagine the Famous Five would take care of ‘baddies’). People get maimed, captured and blown up; kids get killed and kill in turn. People suffer from PTSD and relationships change dramatically. I wasn’t expecting it to be as blood-soaked or grim as it was but for all that, I read the books compulsively and was at a bit of a loss when it was over.<br />
<b><br /><i>The Queen of the Tearling </i>by Erika Johansen (3 books and counting)</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVRH8bSdi0LqZ2oOzbgKxWsaqbCtPAXbohW_AstggN6dcixhQC0KCJtPtMp0h6wp5XUO6SkoWh1dOzvvjIQNqH6QjgENlZ2OrAMws3BH2E55yCk0hOo_TFMPa7D13S7eTG858MLudKxEs/s1600/2015-12-02+14_33_19-the+queen+of+the+tearling+uk+cover+-+Google+Search.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVRH8bSdi0LqZ2oOzbgKxWsaqbCtPAXbohW_AstggN6dcixhQC0KCJtPtMp0h6wp5XUO6SkoWh1dOzvvjIQNqH6QjgENlZ2OrAMws3BH2E55yCk0hOo_TFMPa7D13S7eTG858MLudKxEs/s200/2015-12-02+14_33_19-the+queen+of+the+tearling+uk+cover+-+Google+Search.jpg" width="129" /></a>The first in this series was one of those books where I saw it everywhere but refused to read it for ages, but when I eventually caved (as I always do), I found I'd been a stubborn ass who’d hurt only themselves because it's really, really good. At the beginning of the first book, Kelsea (stay with me – I know the name is a bit crap) is hiding out in the forest with her elderly foster parents. Kelsea is not like any other orphan, though – she’s the heir to the Tearling throne, which is currently under the corrupt rule of the Regent, her uncle, who wants her dead so he can rule as King. Then there’s the threat of the Red Queen, the sorceress who rules a neighbouring kingdom with a bloody fist and has a grip on the Tearling already - Kelsea’s ascension to the throne is not going to be an easy one, especially when only a handful of people know she lives. The best thing about this series is, you think you have the measure of it at the beginning – forgotten princess, corrupt relative, nemesis Queen, etc etc. You really, really don’t. These books are not quite fantasy, are a bit sci-fi, with some Game of Thrones-esque politics and most importantly, are utterly unputdownable.<br />
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<b><i>The Cormoran Strike Novels</i> by Robert Galbraith (3 books and counting)</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjToxiJROh8AH3ra5r5Jyt5w4AUuXfYK7hNEclkUOl3IwQGo66OBpzlGSFhsCpt9p-E7qy659SgsLoI0tRzAIOatKqSbK2BcOejZv_o8FojaTYw0w0HoJaD10wdp4bc5m5EDBy6OMG_DAw/s1600/2015-12-02+14_33_45-the+cuckoo%2527s+calling+uk+cover+-+Google+Search.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjToxiJROh8AH3ra5r5Jyt5w4AUuXfYK7hNEclkUOl3IwQGo66OBpzlGSFhsCpt9p-E7qy659SgsLoI0tRzAIOatKqSbK2BcOejZv_o8FojaTYw0w0HoJaD10wdp4bc5m5EDBy6OMG_DAw/s200/2015-12-02+14_33_45-the+cuckoo%2527s+calling+uk+cover+-+Google+Search.jpg" width="129" /></a>I’ll start out by admitting: I have a few problems with these novels. Rowling (alias Galbraith) can write a great story, but there’s been barely any attempt to differentiate Cormoran Strike from any other modern detective. He drinks too much; he’s got a war record; his ex-girlfriend still exerts control over him even though he knows they’re bad together. His main USP is that he’s the bastard offspring of an aging rock-star and a super-groupie, which does get used from time to time in the series but on the whole is for character back story. That being said, they’re really enjoyable stories that keep you on your toes – the first novel in particular, <i>The Cuckoo’s Calling</i>, kept me guessing all the way through. You know that Cormoran’s relationship with his younger, dazzling secretary, Robin, is straight out of How To Write a Crime Novel 101 but you’re still invested all the same, and Robin’s professional and efficient approach to crime-solving contrasts typically - but nicely – with Cormoran’s own bull-in-a-china-shop attitude. I guess what I’m trying to say is, if you don’t mind your detectives being cut from the usual cloth, you’ll enjoy these. If you don’t – well, the crimes and criminals should still be enough to hook you, but you have been warned.<br />
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<b><i>The Amy Lane Mysteries</i> by Rosie Claverton (4 books, 1 novella and counting)</b><br />
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This (currently) ebook-only detective series is, to use a tired metaphor, a breath of fresh air in a fairly overcrowded detective market. Sure, it shares a few tropes with Cormoran Strike: odd-couple team? Check. Romantic tension? Check. Crotchety contact in the police who reluctantly helps out? Check. But the detective in question, Amy, is an agoraphobic hacker; her assistant Jason is her ex-con cleaner, and the action takes place in Cardiff and the surrounding countryside. The books rumble on at great pace and the storylines are really well plotted, but the appeal here is Amy: in a double-whammy, Claverton has created a main character with a debilitating mental illness who uses technology as the main way to solve crimes, rather than trying to dodge it for ruining the fun (‘Unfortunately, Detective McCrime’s electricity was cut off and his phone drowned in the whisky he’d drank last night, so it looked like he’d have crack this case, old-style… Just the way he liked it’.) if you like crime novels but you’re getting bored by the tropes, then these books are for you.<br />
<b><br /><i>Percy Jackson and the Olympians</i> by Rick Riordan (5 books)</b><br />
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First thing you should know about the Percy Jackson novels: they’re written with middle-grade kids in mind (is that year 7/8 in UK schools?). Second thing you should know about the Percy Jackson novels: that doesn’t matter one bit, because they’re extremely clever and fantastic fun. After being attacked by a harpy on a school trip, Percy is taken by his best friend Grover (who turns out to be a satyr) to Camp Halfblood, a summer camp for the offspring of Greek gods run by a disgraced Dionysus and Chiron the Centaur. There, he discovers that not only do the Gods exist and have children running around the world, but that he’s the son of one of the Big Three, Poseidon, and that his Uncle Zeus has got it in for him because he thinks he’s a thief. So begins Percy’s adventures as he struggles to prevent a war between the gods, and comes to terms with his own demi-god status. The stories are crammed through of retellings, allusions and easter eggs – my favourite being Medusa running a garden centre that specialises in statues – so there’s plenty here for people who are fans of Greek myths, but even if you’re not it’s still a great story. If you’ve seen the films, don’t be put off – <a href="http://www.rickriordan.com/about/frequently-asked-questions">Rick himself has never seen them</a> because he had no involvement in the screenwriting or production, so you can be sure the books are much, much better.<br />
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<b><br /><i>The Baby Ganesh Detective Agency</i> by Vaseem Khan (3 books and counting)</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSU5L7VXDWU3QJyURpgImfY8yvNSSybzduMchZlmTEzT50GdRayY_mniz6IHfj5RSyHLzFnZNiUvwwHQykNtw_0gDmaNSbHvCKBxW-s024uhWVdru1SYe1CxbHRrRCCEVcgCyKemF8Hgw/s1600/2015-12-02+14_35_23-The+Unexpected+Inheritance+of+Inspector+Chopra+uk+cover+-+Google+Search.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSU5L7VXDWU3QJyURpgImfY8yvNSSybzduMchZlmTEzT50GdRayY_mniz6IHfj5RSyHLzFnZNiUvwwHQykNtw_0gDmaNSbHvCKBxW-s024uhWVdru1SYe1CxbHRrRCCEVcgCyKemF8Hgw/s200/2015-12-02+14_35_23-The+Unexpected+Inheritance+of+Inspector+Chopra+uk+cover+-+Google+Search.jpg" width="120" /></a>This one didn’t quite make it onto the list because it’s a new series with only this title currently available, and my criteria for this list was that there had to be at least two titles released with more to come. But I couldn’t NOT give this one a mention because it was just so much fun to read. Again, like the Cormoran Strike novels it can be quite trope-y and a bit predictable, BUT THERE’S A BABY ELEPHANT IN IT (I’m not giving away any spoilers, it’s pretty much on the first page). On the day Inspector Chopra retires, two things happen: a young boy turns up seemingly drowned but possibly murdered, and Chopra’s uncle leaves him a baby elephant, Ganesh. I can neither confirm, nor deny, that Ganesh helps Chopra solve the mystery of the dead boy, but I can tell you that this was an utterly charming book with moments of genuine tension and even more genuine hilarity, and I’ll definitely be reading the second when it comes out.<br />
<b>UPDATE</b>: two more books have since come out, at last legitimising the inclusion of this series in the list.</div>
Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-72307391538698597472015-11-07T12:42:00.001+00:002015-11-07T12:52:10.068+00:00I Forgot That Reading Is Fun<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
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Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
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</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
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<![endif]-->This might sound like a really odd thing to say but, last
weekend, I realised that it has been a long, long time since I last read for
fun. I voiced this discovery to my boyfriend the other night who – completely reasonably
– laughed at me and replied, ‘But you’re always reading!’ This is an undeniable
fact: I read on my commute, in lunch breaks, in the bath and before bed. On a
bad day I’ll read for just under an hour – on a good one, nearer two. <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/2014-my-bookish-year.html">This is why I can steam through around 12 books a month</a> – I read fast and frequently.<br />
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<br /></div>
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But when I read, I’m usually
doing it to fill time. I read on my commute because it’s a 25 minute train
journey. I read on my lunch breaks so I get a break from my computer. I read in
the bath because having a good soak can get boring quickly without some
literature to hand. I read before bed to help wind my brain down. I enjoy the
books I’m reading, and I enjoy these little parcels of Designated Reading Time
in my day, but it’s become part of my routine, and that’s kind of the problem –
reading has become so institutionalised into my day, that when I have free time, I rarely reach for a book. Instead, I’ll watch a TV show or film, exercise, do some
colouring in, go shopping, to the pub… all the things, in short, that I don’t usually
get to do during in a working day. Reading is not one of those things – until last weekend.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir7cYkU-g9uVZBnY4MfA0k6cKlT1TV2A9TO15f1xUqJg95Sq0q1oori2DzYofzXQJyfruYXLONpUCejBRmb-rmWSUzHRSJlvpbEX52mvpOsrCbQPdN_sTeaZ-TR2gDuP-yFms5s6SGvjk/s1600/careerofevil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir7cYkU-g9uVZBnY4MfA0k6cKlT1TV2A9TO15f1xUqJg95Sq0q1oori2DzYofzXQJyfruYXLONpUCejBRmb-rmWSUzHRSJlvpbEX52mvpOsrCbQPdN_sTeaZ-TR2gDuP-yFms5s6SGvjk/s200/careerofevil.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
I gave myself a payday present of
two books last week – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lake House</i>
by Kate Morton, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Career of Evil</i> by
Robert Galbraith. Normally these are books I’d buy on my Kindle, but when I
discovered on Amazon that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lake House</i>
hardback was only 30p more expensive than the ebook, that<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Career of Evil </i>was actually cheaper to buy in print, and that if I
got the two together it would get me free delivery – well, it was a no-brainer.
Conveniently, the books arrived on the following Saturday, and the temptation
to just ‘start’ one of these was pretty strong. However, not being a
frequent hardback-buyer, I discovered an immediate problem with my new
purchases: at 500-600 pages each, these were hefty books. Not exactly easy to
cart back and forth to work, nor to hold comfortably in the bath or in bed. No,
the only way I was going to be able to read these books was if I deliberately
sat on the sofa or in the chair and read these, upright, like all good readers do
in stock photographs. This, obviously, cut in on my film/TV/colouring/pub-going
time, but I’d spent good money on these books because I wanted to read them,
not just for the sheer fun of spending.</div>
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I wouldn’t say I was reluctant to
deliberately choose to sit and read, but I was startled at how unnatural it
felt. At first I thought I should be doing something else, but there wasn’t
anything else that needed to be done – this was free time, leisure time, to be
spent how I wanted. I didn’t need to explain myself or justify my decision to
anyone, but I still had a nagging feeling of ‘you could be doing more with your
time’. However – and this is hardly the plot-twist of the century – that feeling
didn’t last long: within a few chapters I was thoroughly engrossed in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Career of Evil</i>, allowing my tea to turn
cold as I became more invested in Cormoran Strike’s latest investigations. I read for
over an hour, and at the end of it I still had that slightly-guilty feeling of
wasted time – but now, I welcomed it, like an illicit treat. The next day I did
the same thing, and the day after that, too. I was reading not just to pass
time, but because I wanted to, because I chose to, because it was the thing I
wanted to do most at that moment. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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I think the problem I created in
my mind is that, reading is a rather singular activity, as Mr Hurst of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pride and Prejudice</i> once said – my Designated
Reading Times are nearly all points of the day when I’m on my own, and so when
I’m not alone, I choose to do things that might be more inclusive of company
and my boyfriend. I know I read a lot anyway – it seems silly to choose to read
a book over any number of other activities, when I read so much in a normal day
as it is. However, when I deliberately sat down and carved out some time in my
day to read – as I’ve recently been hypocritically, pompously advising a friend to do –
I found that actually, reading is fun. It’s not a time-waster, or a
moment-filler – it’s something that can be done for the sheer joy of it, with
the knowledge that you won’t have to put it down because you’ve reached your
stop, or it’s time to go back to work, or the water has gone cold. I read so much,
I forget that sometimes the best part about reading a book, is knowing you don't have to
put it down.</div>
</div>
Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-10588768316673060912015-10-22T17:22:00.003+01:002015-10-22T17:25:58.364+01:00Recommended Reads (and Drinks) for Autumn<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</xml><![endif]-->As the evenings draw in and the clocks go back, I always find myself reaching for the same kind of books. These are usually the kind that are perfect for snuggling up with - crime novels, romances, thrillers - the kind of books that make you glad it's blowing a gale and raining sideways outside, so you can stay in and keep reading. Here I've recommended some of my favourites for the season, and a drink to accompany them as you read away the dark autumn days (well, you've got to keep yourself hydrated, right?):<br />
<br />
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</div>
<b><a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/review-rebecca-by-daphne-du-maurier.html"><i>Rebecca</i> by Daphne Du Maurier </a></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I love reading this book especially in autumn because I
always imagine Manderley, the house where most of the story occurs, is shrouded in the kind of mists you only get at this time of year. It is,
essentially, a ghost story, which is perfect for the season – the narrator is
haunted by the memory of Rebecca, her predecessor as the wife of Maxim de
Winter. Everything about this book is full of tension and foreboding, from the
narrator’s first view of the great house to the descriptions of the stormy
night that Rebecca died. Throw in the menacing Mrs Danvers and you’ve got
a Gothic romance that, sometimes, is as creepy as a true-blue ghost story like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Turn of the Screw. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Recommended Drink</b>: A large glass of red wine, to help calm
your nerves whenever Mrs Danvers appears on page.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Miniaturist</i> by
Jessie Burton </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another novel in a setting I always imagine as foggy, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Miniaturist</i> is the tale of another
young bride, Nella, arriving at her new husband’s house, apprehensive but
hopeful. What she finds, however, is a household run by her intimidating
sister-in-law, where all the inhabitants appear to be keeping something from
her. A distraction arrives in the form of a doll’s house replica of her new
home, which she sets to furnishing with the help of an unseen Miniaturist, who
quickly becomes a menace when un-ordered items arrive that seem to foretell the
future. Before long, Nella is unravelling her new family and home’s secrets, all
the while unsure of whether the Miniaturist is an ally or an enemy. It’s not
quite a thriller, nor a mystery, nor a historical novel, but a good mix of the
three and perfect for curling up with.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Recommended Drink:</b> The story is set in Amsterdam, so I’m
going to suggest a beer – a proper one, mind, none of this Fosters business.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/review-girl-on-train-by-paula-hawkins.html"><i>The Girl on the Train </i>by Paula Hawkins </a></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I get the train every day, usually at the same time, along
the same route, and rarely does the countryside look as beautiful as it does in
early morning autumn sunshine. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Girl on the Train</i> takes
place in the summer, so really it’s just the connection of trains that gets
this book a place in this list – that, and Rachel’s (one of our narrators)
familiarity with her own commute route. She’s a little too familiar with it,
actually, concocting a backstory for a couple she espies from her train every
day, and becoming so involved in her fantasy that, when she sees something that
threatens it, she begins to insinuate herself into the couple's lives. It’s got a
great pace and hooks you into the story pretty quickly, so it’s perfect to start
on a grey Sunday afternoon as day seeps into night. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Recommended Drink: </b>Given the alcoholism of one
character, it might be in poor taste to recommend alcohol, so I’m going to go with a <a href="http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/174606/virgin-mojito">virgin mojito</a> (it’s a thing…)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Secret Place</i>
by Tana French</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bit of a hollow connection here, but this is set in a school,
autumn is the season of going back to school, etc. After a boy is found murdered in the grounds
of a prestigious all-girls school, the police throw all their resources into
solving it – but the cliques of teenage girls are a hard nut to crack and the
murder goes unsolved. Until, that is, a pupil finds a note tacked in The Secret
Place – a noticeboard that allows pupils to spill secrets anonymously – stating
only, ‘I know who killed him.’ The story is told in the popular dual format –
part of the story comes from the perspective of a young officer helping
re-investigate the murder, and the other is a third-person narrative detailing
the lives of a core group of girls in the years and events leading up to the
murder. It’s a bit slow-going at times – at over 500 pages it might be a bit overlong
– but French keeps you guessing all the while, and the climax is worth slogging
through the duller patches.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Recommended Drink</b>: Cider, to help get you back into the mindset of being a teenager.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And Then There Were
None</i> by Agatha Christie</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What better companion to a wild and windy night, than a
murder mystery? And what better murder mystery than the Queen of Crime’s <a href="http://worldsfavouritechristie.com/books">best work</a>? Ten strangers, with no apparent connection to each other, are lured to a house on a remote Devonshire
island under false pretences – it’s not until one of their number drops dead
and a record plays that they realise the true reason for their presence. With
no escape, numbers dropping fast and suspicion breeding distrust and
paranoia, the inmates of the house find themselves driven close to insanity as
they struggle to identify their assailant in time to save their own skins. It’s
as creepy as any traditional ghost story and incredibly tense, so carve out an
afternoon for this one – you won’t want to put it down.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Recommended Drink</b>: It’s got to be a classic cocktail, to
match the time period – a <a href="http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/drinks/recipes/a3696/gimlet-drink-recipe/">gimlet</a>, perhaps?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Time Traveller’s
Wife</i> by Audrey Niffenegger</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A warming romance now, featuring Henry de Tamble who, due to a
rare genetic condition, frequently finds himself displaced in time, physically returning to events that have already occurred. This is how he meets his future wife,
Claire, an artist whose early years and teens are haunted by a man who claims
to know her in the future. It’s a bit dodgy on the science front – obviously –
and I did sometimes get the heebie-jeebies thinking about how Henry spends a
lot of time hanging around with a child he later marries. But ultimately
it’s sweet, poignant and clever, dividing time equally between the man who can
never stay in one place, and the woman who gets left behind.</div>
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<b>Recommended Drink</b>: A big steaming mug of tea,
to compliment the warmth of the story.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/best-of-books-part-three-snow-child-by.html">The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey</a></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a great book to read on a cold day when you’re all
toasty-warm inside. Set in Alaska in the early years of the 20<sup>th</sup>
century, Jack and Mabel are hoping to get a second chance at life after a
personal tragedy. But the bleak Alaskan landscape, the hardness of the farming
life and the weight of the past threatens to destroy everything they hoped to
build. It’s not until they’re befriended by their nearest neighbours, the hardy
Esther and George, and the mysterious girl Faina appears from the woods, that
their new life seems possible. It’s a fairy tale that’s not afraid to address
loss and depression, and the origins of Faina is a tantalising mystery that
keeps you guessing throughout the novel.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Recommended Drink:</b> Hot chocolate, made with
milk (NOT hot water), with marshmallows in.<br />
<br />
Any particular books you always find yourself reading at this time of year? </div>
</div>
Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-3201780190942685922015-10-04T15:31:00.002+01:002015-10-04T15:31:10.991+01:00Food, Glorious Food<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Well, I’m back from my (completely intentional and not at all
accidental) summer hiatus and quite frankly, I am more than ready for autumn.
Don’t get me wrong, I love summer – pub gardens, leaving the house without a
jacket, long sunny evenings – but at heart, I like jumpers and chunky scarves and
boots, and these items of clothing are just not compatible with warm weather. I
have a very romantic idea of what autumn is like – crisp sunny mornings,
brightly-coloured leaves, sitting by a roaring fire in the pub... Never mind that
the reality is usually grey drizzly days that cause leaves on the ground to
turn to a mushy, slippery pulp, or that it’s nigh impossible to get near the
fire in any pub, if they have one – I <i>love </i>autumn. And one of my favourite things about autumn is
FOOD, because regardless of how little my autumnal expectations match up to
reality, food is never an issue. Be gone, light summer dishes and salads!
Hello, roast dinners, bangers and mash, lasagnes, casseroles, baked potatoes…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No, this hasn’t morphed into a food blog over the
summer - I am going somewhere with this, trust me. A little while ago, <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/thoughts-on-my-second-favourite-thing.html">I wrote about some of my favourite passages about food</a>, and since then, I’ve come across a
few more. In the spirit of what I like to think of as the
Training-For-Christmas period, I’m going to share them with you:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Danny’s Pie – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Danny,
the Champion of the World</i> by Roald Dahl</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dahl is surprisingly good at describing food – it's easy to miss between all the other crazy, hair-brained stuff he came up with but some great food is in there too - the
sweets of the Chocolate Factory, and Mr Fox’s fantastic feast, are two such
examples that spring to mind. However, one that particularly gets me salivating
is a short passage in my favourite Roald Dahl book, <i>Danny, the Champion of the
World</i>. It’s just after Danny’s dad has broken his foot, and the doctor’s wife
is worried about Danny eating, so sends a package with her husband when he pops
by for a check-up:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>'Very carefully, I now began to unwrap the grease-proof paper from around the doctor's present, and when I had finished, I saw before me the most enormous and beautiful pie in the world. It was covered all over, top, sides and bottom, with a rich golden pastry. I took a knife from beside the sink and cut out a wedge... It was a cold meat pie. The meat was pink and tender with no fat or gristle in it, and there were hard-boiled eggs buried like treasures in several different places.'</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Minnie Frying Chicken – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Help</i> by Kathryn Stockett</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Minnie is a maid in 1960’s Jacksonville, a gourmand, and a
brilliant cook. She’d be in high demand, if it weren’t for the fact that her cooking is 'nearly as sassy as her tongue’ (that’s a quote from the
blurb, not me – makes you cringe, right?). Naturally, if you’re a writer,
you’re not going to give a character a particular skill or trait unless you can
back it up in the story, and there are several passages in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Help</i> that lend credence to this claim on Minnie’s culinary
wizardry. One that always sticks in my mind though – probably because it’s
something I love to eat, when it’s done properly – is when Minnie is teaching
her inept new employer how to make fried chicken:<br />
<i>'I turn on the flame and we watch [the Crisco] melt down in the pan.... "Chicken's been soaking in buttermilk," I say. "Now mix up the dry." I pour flour, salt, more salt, pepper, paprika, and a pinch of cayenne into a doubled paper sack. </i><br />
<i>"Now. Put the chicken parts in the bag and shake it." Miss Celia puts a raw chicken thigh in, bumps the bag around... Real careful, I lay the dark meat in the pan. It bubbles up like a song and we watch the thighs and legs turn brown.' </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Elsa’s Big Breakfast - <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Bed and Breakfast Star</i> by Jacqueline Wilson</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Weekend/occasion breakfasts are one of my favourite things.
Whether out in town or at home, there are few things that feel as weekend-y to
me as a proper breakfast. No cereal, toast or porridge here (unless as
accompaniments) – I’m talking bacon sandwiches, a Full English, smoked salmon
and scrambled eggs, Heuvos Rancheros – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">proper</i>
breakfasts, that are meals in their own right rather than just something to get
your day started. Elsa’s breakfast at the Star Hotel, towards the end of the
book, is probably an early influence for this appreciation:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>'I had milky tea and cranberry juice and cornflakes sprinkled with rainbow sugar and then muesli with extra sultanas and apple rings and then scrambled egg on toast with tomato sauce and then sausages stuck in a long roll to make a hot dog and then a big jammy Danish pastry and I ate it all up, every little bit.'</i> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b> Miss Pettigrew’s Meals – <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/review-miss-pettigrew-lives-for-day-by.html"><i>Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day</i> by Winifred Watson</a></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To be honest, everything about this book is delicious, but
there are multiple, all-too-brief descriptions of food in it that just get me every time –
and, as I can read this book in one sitting, by the time I’ve finished it I’m nearly always
craving some cold chicken, some ham and coffee (I don’t even like coffee),
or a huge sundae:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Breakfast</b><i>: 'Soon the blissful aroma of fried ham and eggs and coffee filled the air. She discovered an electric toaster. Toast took it's correct place. She went back into the room. "Everything is ready, Miss LaFosse."'</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Lunch:</b><i> 'They lunched at home, and Miss Pettigrew prepared it. She discovered the remains of a cold chicken in the pantry. Cold chicken, to her, was the height of luxury. Miss LaFosse opened a bottle of Liebfraumlich and made her drink some.'</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Ice:</b><i> '... The ice was a marvellous concoction... There was cream and fruit and nuts and ice cream and a wonderful syrup, all skilfully blended. She slowly turned each ambrosial spoonful round her tongue.'</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Molly Weasley Makes Dinner – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harry Potter</i> by J. K Rowling</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/unpopular-opinions.html">I think some of the death scenes in the earlier Harry Potterbooks leave something to be desired</a>, but one thing JK does well, in my opinion, is food. In my
last post on the subject I mentioned Harry’s first feast at Hogwarts, but let’s not forget
Ultimate Mum, Mrs Weasley, and her literal culinary wizardry. Molly’s meals never fail to make my mouth
water, and here are just two examples:<br />
<b>The Chamber of Secrets:</b><i> 'Mrs Weasley was clattering around, cooking breakfast a little haphazardly, throwing dirty looks at her sons as she threw sausages into the frying pan... "I don't blame you, dear", she assured Harry, tipping eight or nine sausages onto his plate, "Arthur and I have been worried about you, too. Just last night we were saying we'd come and get you ourselves if you hadn't written back to Ron by Friday. But really," (she was now adding three fried eggs to his plate), "flying an illegal car halfway across the country - anyone could have seen you"... </i><br />
<i>"They were starving him, mum!" said George. </i><br />
<i>"And you!" said Mrs Weasley, but it was with a slightly softened expression that she started cutting Harry bread and buttering it for him.'</i><br />
<b>The Half-Blood Prince:</b><i> 'She tapped the pot again; it rose into the air, flew towards Harry and tipped over; Mrs Weasley slid a bowl neatly beneath it just in time to catch the stream of thick, steaming onion soup. </i><br />
<i>"Bread, dear?" </i><br />
<i>"Thanks, Mrs Weasley." </i><br />
<i>She waved her wand over her shoulder; a loaf of bread and a knife soared gracefully on to the table. As the loaf sliced itself and the soup pot dropped back on to the stove, Mrs Weasley sat down opposite him.'</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Bakery – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender</i> by Leslye Walton</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are many beautiful descriptions in this book, but some
of my favourites are from scenes within the bakery owned by Emilienne, the titular Ava's grandmother. I love baked goods – crunchy bread,
cream cakes, iced buns – and the description of such delights in this book do
<i>nothing </i>for any of my half-hearted attempts to stay away from such
treats. This particular passage about a woman finally giving in to temptation is one of the most delicious in the book:<br />
<i>'Before her neighbour had a chance to object, Emilienne marched out to the front of the store and stuck the frosting-covered spoon in Marigold's mouth. </i><br />
<i>Few people know this feeling: what it is to give in to a long-denied desire, to finally have a taste of the forbidden. After swallowing that mouthful of frosting, Marigold stumbled backward out of the store... In a daze, Marigold walked straight to her kitchen, tracking muddy footprints across her spotless linoleum floor. She pulled out her dusty cookbooks and began marking pages of the sweets she never allowed herself to eat. Then she tied an apron around her waist and set to making a coconut cake. </i><br />
<i>Later, still wearing the apron - now covered in gratings of coconut and splashes of vanilla extract - Marigold ate the cake: the whole cake, including every lick of frosting left in the mixing bowl and on her fingertips.'</i></div>
</div>
Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-2501971612599974942015-07-12T20:52:00.002+01:002015-07-13T12:44:05.614+01:00Why I'm Mad About The Go Set A Watchman Reveal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I'm going to level with you - I'm
pretty damn mad at the moment. With 4 days to go before publication, the first
chapter of <i>Go Set A Watchman</i> was exclusively revealed in the Guardian on
Saturday. Except, it wasn't that exclusive in the end, because obviously
everyone went insane and before you knew it, a big plot twist of a book NOT
EVEN PUBLISHED YET was casually being discussed on social media.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I work in the publishing industry
and, whilst there are certain areas that remain a complete mystery to me, there
are some corners I'm familiar with. One of these is the use of ebook samples,
print booklets and paper exclusives as a way of luring in tentative customers.
For example, if you offer the first 3 or 4 chapters of a book for free - as a
giveaway or download then, hopefully, you'll gain some on-the-fence buyers.
It's a common, effective method: it worked on me with <i>What Kind of Mother
Are You</i> by Paula Daly, and Robin Hobb is currently doing it with the first
book of her latest trilogy, <i>Fool's Assassin</i>. Similarly, selling the
rights to exclusively publish a chapter or more in a newspaper before release
is another way to hopefully win more customers around to buying your book -
people who may not have found it otherwise. In this sense, the publishers of <i>Go
Set A Watchman</i> haven't done anything new.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The bit I take umbrage with is
WHY. The reveal of the first chapter of one of the most talked about, and
arguably, the biggest books of the century seems kind of pointless and, as one
sympathiser on Twitter, Jamie Thunder (<a href="https://twitter.com/jdthndr">@jdthndr</a>), suggested, <a href="https://twitter.com/jdthndr/status/619934035188580352">'heartless clickbait</a>'. This book, like <i>Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows</i> by JK Rowling, or <i>Grey </i>by PL James, probably
could've got away with a publicity budget of zero: the reclusive author of a
lone book (widely revered as one of the greatest novels ever) that has never
gone out of print, suddenly publishes a new one featuring the same characters,
but older? No wonder the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-33474630">pre-orders have surpassed those of the final Harry Potter</a>:
even with all the controversy and questions over Harper Lee's mental state and
her knowledge/understanding of the publication of <i>Go Set A Watchman</i>,
this was always going to sell big. I'm a perfect example of the ideal customer
in this: even though I find the whole thing sketchy, my curiosity and
excitement is going to win over. I love, and am fascinated by, <i>To Kill A
Mockingbird</i>: I was always going to read <i>Go Set A Watchman</i>. And the
media-storm around the announcement back in February was always bound to spike
curiosity in others who had never read <i>To Kill A Mockingbird</i>: in short,
this was never going to be anything but a success, which is why I don't
understand the need for the exclusive.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It's also the timing; they did
this FOUR DAYS before publication, which to me is a bit of a slap in the face.
It's been over 50 years since Harper Lee last published a novel: it's been 5
months since the announcement was made that <i>Go Set A Watchman</i> was being
published: why on earth would you, mere days from the publishing, give away a
chapter with crucial information in, if not to be sensationalist about it? They
always knew it would be trending on Twitter and picked up by media worldwide,
and probably knew the Big Reveal in the first chapter would make it's way into
common knowledge... Which leads me on to my final grievance.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I've waited 5 months for this
novel. I know, it's not the longest wait, but to have a spoiler revealed to me
a few days before I could've discovered it myself just feels like I've been
cheated. I haven't read the chapter yet - I'm refusing to on a point of
principle now - but I may as well have, because I know what the Big Reveal is
anyway, because it's fucking EVERYWHERE. And it's all the worse for the fact
it's the first chapter, days before publication. If you're going to do it, why
not reveal the first chapter a month, or more, before publication? Get people
talking then? Surely that's allowing more time to whet appetites and inspire
interest before publication?Take George R R Martin: his next <i>A Song Of Ice
and Fire</i> novel, <i>The Winds of Winter</i>, has been nearly 5 years coming
and, with Game of Thrones being one of the biggest TV shows ever, it's just as
anticipated as <i>Go Set A Watchman</i> has been for the past few months.
Martin knows his fans are impatient and he's up against it, so he's revealed a
few teaser chapters: nothing too spoilery, just enough to soothe the baying crowds.
The reveal of <i>Go Set A Watchman</i>'s first chapter is, in comparison, near
pointless: so close to the publication date, when the wait hasn't been nearly
as long... It just seems mean-spirited to me.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I was always going to read <i>Go
Set A Watchman</i> so, in the grand scheme of things, this doesn't matter. It's
a reveal that comes in the first chapter; it's now in the public domain and not
restricted in any way; it's not actually THAT much of a spoiler, really: it's
hypocritical of me because I'm a terror at accidentally giving away spoilers,
(in my defence, there's never any intent to that, I just forget). Really, my
stressing about it amounts to nothing, and it will cease to matter once I get
my paws on a copy and read the offending chapter in book form. But -<span style="color: windowtext;"> <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/the-second-coming-of-scout.html">after umming and ahhing over whether to read ToKill A Mockingbird one more time</a></span> before <i>Go Set A Watchman</i>
changes everything - the VERY DAY I started it again, the reveal came out, and
now I'm analysing everything I'm reading with the unwillingly-discovered
context this reveal unleashed. Call it bad timing, call it inevitable, but the
fact remains my last re-read of my favourite book as a standalone novel has been
marred, and that bothers me.</span><br />
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of authorities"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="macro"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
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Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-63177568186161897562015-07-10T12:39:00.000+01:002015-07-10T12:55:06.148+01:00The Second Coming of Scout<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This is it, folks. In 4 days’ time, the new(ish) novel by
Harper Lee, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set A Watchman</i>, will
be unleashed upon the world. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-33474630">The biggest release since the last Harry Potter</a>, the
novel has been courting controversy since the bombshell announcement was made back
in February – questions have been raised over the legitimacy of the release,
given Harper Lee’s deteriorated mental state, and the timing of it coming
relatively soon after the death of Alice Lee, Lee’s notoriously protective
sister. <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1422123/harper-lee-happy-about-mockingbird-sequel">Lee has disputed these claims via representatives and has insisted she has fully approved the release</a>, but still concerns circulate over this. We can
argue ‘til the cows come home over whether we should trust Lee’s lawyers and
publishers, or whether it’s insulting to assume Harper doesn’t know what’s
going on, but the fact remains that this release is one of the biggest
curveballs the literary world has seen.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFkbVfkDjRhGdCOxx-7d6eDpHMxIUOQimhfC68HMzCeDozGcgOhC1In7Szpq2NFl-1OTO-HNlRhg9qERdYitfVo3Xws5AY_mP28AS6O1OSMF0EGcHhoxER_yVjYPWTd3JLZMqXs3fy0Oc/s1600/2015-07-10+12_05_48-go+set+a+watchman+uk+cover+-+Google+Search.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFkbVfkDjRhGdCOxx-7d6eDpHMxIUOQimhfC68HMzCeDozGcgOhC1In7Szpq2NFl-1OTO-HNlRhg9qERdYitfVo3Xws5AY_mP28AS6O1OSMF0EGcHhoxER_yVjYPWTd3JLZMqXs3fy0Oc/s200/2015-07-10+12_05_48-go+set+a+watchman+uk+cover+-+Google+Search.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
This post isn’t about the question of whether I should read
the book or not, though – despite it possibly looking like that was the
direction I was taking. Despite some scruples on my own part, <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/harper-lee-is-releasing-new-book.html">I knew from the moment I read the announcement </a>that, come hell or highwater, scruples or no, I
would be reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set A Watchman</i>,
and I’ve had it on pre-order ever since it became available. Unlike many
fans, though, I chose not to re-read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To
Kill A Mockingbird</i> because I didn’t think I needed to, and because I
wanted to approach <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set A Watchman</i>
with fresh eyes, but now I’m starting to wish I had. Not because I think a
re-read will enhance my experience of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go
Set A Watchman</i>, but because I think this might have been my last chance to
read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill A Mockingbird</i> as a
standalone novel. I don’t know if we’re, as a hive mind, considering <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set A Watchman</i> as a sequel or not,
but there’s no doubt that it will irrevocably change the perspective of what
happens in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill A Mockingbird</i>:
even if the story is completely different, we’ll still have extra knowledge
about characters and their fates, and the interpretation of events – things
will change, and whilst change can be a good thing, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill A Mockingbird</i> is (in my eyes) such a perfect novel that now
I’m unsure I even <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want </i>to revisit
Maycomb, Alabama with Scout anymore. It’s a bit like revisiting a favourite
childhood haunt: at first you’re excited to return, but then you begin to worry
things will have changed too much, and your memories will forever be tainted by what
you see <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">now</i> in comparison to what you
saw <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">then</i>. Once I crack the spine and
read the first line of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set A Watchman</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill A Mockingbird</i> will cease to
have the same meaning as it once did. Characters will become fleshed out by
their older counterparts; events of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To
Kill A Mockingbird</i> may be clarified and lose their innocent tinge;
characters may become flawed. Take Atticus, for example: at the beginning of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill A Mockingbird</i>, he’s not the best
father in his children’s eyes: he can’t play with them because he’s too old; he
has an aversion to guns; he’s distant, although friendly (shown in the way the
children address him as Atticus – never father, or daddy, or Pa). By the end of
the novel, though, we’re all aware that he’s an excellent father and man, a
defender of truth and innocence, with more layers and nuances than his children
could previously appreciate. What if he’s revealed to be otherwise in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set A Watchman</i>? What if his attempts
to save Tom Robinson were done more out of loyalty to truth and law, and less
to his fellow man? What if Atticus isn’t as honourable as we thought he was?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4S3GhJm3-mtBDnYvXxakb_eYLlExE_kbFNeRZBqlw_-SVxB89i_FPfJBR5jsHXOR_heT9TA7St_nyNsIIrFARAQAQo5As3yvZmwwR6Yp7-rtdy34wI8bBcD-p4VtfJv9DqXEQYIIV-IY/s1600/tokillamockingbird.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4S3GhJm3-mtBDnYvXxakb_eYLlExE_kbFNeRZBqlw_-SVxB89i_FPfJBR5jsHXOR_heT9TA7St_nyNsIIrFARAQAQo5As3yvZmwwR6Yp7-rtdy34wI8bBcD-p4VtfJv9DqXEQYIIV-IY/s200/tokillamockingbird.png" width="123" /></a>This is all speculation, of course: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set A Watchman</i> may only share characters and their memories <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill A Mockingbird</i>, and may
actually be a more different story than we’ve been led to believe – it’s now
common knowledge that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set A Watchman</i>
was the first novel Lee actually wrote, but she was encouraged to write from a
young Scout’s point of view, which turned into <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill A Mockingbird</i>, so it is reasonable to wonder if <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set A Watchman</i> will be the same
story, but from a different point of view. But just because the two books share
characters – who, in turn, have shared experiences – doesn’t mean the
content will necessarily rehash the events of<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> To Kill A Mockingbird</i>: doubtless they’ll come up, I’m sure, but it
doesn’t mean they’ll be discussed at length. I suppose I’m just resigned now to
the fact that – and call me dramatic if you like – from the moment the release
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set A Watchman</i> was announced, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill A Mockingbird</i> changed. We’re
going to meet adult Scout (what if she goes by Jean-Louise now?): we’re going
to see an elderly Atticus: we’re revisiting Maycomb, which doubtless means we’ll
revisit some events of that fateful summer, even if only in passing mentions.
How could the events of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set A Watchman</i>
not change how we read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill A
Mockingbird</i>?<br />
with
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I am looking really forward to reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set A Watchman</i>: I’ve always been curious about what happened
after the events of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill A Mockingbird</i>.
What kind of woman did Scout turn into, and what kind of man did Jem become? Is
Dill is still around? What happened to Boo Radley? Were there any repercussions to
the final climax of the novel? Is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go Set
A Watchman</i> semi-autobiographical, like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To
Kill A Mockingbird</i> is? The problem is, now I know that the answers to some
(if not all) of these questions are within reach, I’m also aware that this
knowledge will alter how I read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill A
Mockingbird</i> in the future, and after the excitement and anticipation, I’m
not quite sure how much I want to know anymore.</div>
</div>
Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-45190546398676287542015-06-18T20:45:00.001+01:002017-08-04T09:39:42.688+01:00Living In a Serial World (I Am a Serial Girl)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]-->I love a good book series: when you’ve got a story that pans out across several books, you get so much more space to spread out in. Worlds
are bigger and clearer; characters have wider story arcs, so we get to see more
of them and how they work, and the resolution to storylines are more important
because we, the readers, are that much more invested in them. If you imagine a book like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory,
standalone novels can seem like the fleeting glimpses into passing rooms, like the Fudge Mountain and the Oompa-Loompa village. On the other hand, serialised novels are more like the rooms we get to spend more time in, like
the Inventing Room – a place we can get familiar with, that we’ll remember more
clearly and for longer after we’ve left. With this in mind, I’d like to let you
know a few of my favourite series and trilogies, ones that I’d thoroughly
recommend to anyone. Fair warning: there’s a definite bias towards fantasy novels in this
list, but I think there’ll be something for everyone here regardless. All images are of the first titles in each series, so you know where to start.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFF-FCs-7x7SGEK4jUysp3_eX-gYpKuNumGlw6uMvJq39ZcEH-kJiiH5TmBNJ0Ayh0ZNwbO8AAvTutIPTEGLYUD8DtJcBvidlxWA4l5USqej9hhmqLdyvnf8W5ADDJRAkeA_xhnJEUNYA/s1600/HP1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFF-FCs-7x7SGEK4jUysp3_eX-gYpKuNumGlw6uMvJq39ZcEH-kJiiH5TmBNJ0Ayh0ZNwbO8AAvTutIPTEGLYUD8DtJcBvidlxWA4l5USqej9hhmqLdyvnf8W5ADDJRAkeA_xhnJEUNYA/s200/HP1.png" width="131" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harry Potter</i> by J. K. Rowling (7 Books)</b></div>
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We’ll start with an obvious one, shall we? The infamous boy
wizard and his battle with the dark wizard, Voldemort, is a story pretty much
everyone is at least vaguely familiar with - but if you haven’t read the books,
I really urge you to. The first couple do read like the age group they’re
written for, but don’t be put off: it gets a lot darker, a lot more complex and
a lot more adult as the series goes on, and before long you’ll be marvelling at
how intricately-woven the story is. Rowling drops hints about characters and
gives clues about important events sometimes several books ahead, which makes
you appreciate just how much work and planning went into this series. It’s
funny, heart-warming, frustrating and tear-jerking, but most of all Hogwarts is the best, most richly-imagined world I've
ever visited. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFE5k-cc7bYHGtLIfr_gJp4MHBHqXYhQ0nOeGjtG7D-GieuR3BxF6478z07zcRhF7b0yN0Y0IvnQrgPgeIzm3IdI5Nr5NFxjZhZGgZOptkxYU_Dgl_krQhGyJ_lcJRYfSXaTHaHntcgBE/s1600/NL.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFE5k-cc7bYHGtLIfr_gJp4MHBHqXYhQ0nOeGjtG7D-GieuR3BxF6478z07zcRhF7b0yN0Y0IvnQrgPgeIzm3IdI5Nr5NFxjZhZGgZOptkxYU_Dgl_krQhGyJ_lcJRYfSXaTHaHntcgBE/s200/NL.png" width="125" /></a><a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/knife-lights-and-spyglass-his-dark.html"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">His Dark Materials</i> by Phillip Pullman (3 Books)</b></a></div>
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I wrote about this trilogy recently so I won’t go into too
much detail (read the full post instead for the full recommendation, though there are spoilers in it), but this
is one of the most important series of my life, and I’m not exaggerating. The
third and final book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Amber Spyglass</i>,
is the first book I remember truly, absolutely loving and, even if I don’t read
it as often as I used to, that hasn’t changed. This is still a dangerously
captivating series, with a fascinating cast of characters, several different
worlds to explore and an awe-inspiring plot in which serious questions are
asked on the natures of religion, politics, love, duty and fate. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFxleWxwJxNVCqJx7PQVM20iiBC0lTaCAmgommZJ6fF3-Z3tU-_HWNkrFfAZtb_u9oAVhj6nBVRIxGuRa4CcKeiBF0nOA-7ypgYijwjSRLmWNNeAcSDfOsl1fkHDe5cRi3Sr9KwmLk5UA/s1600/riversoflondon.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFxleWxwJxNVCqJx7PQVM20iiBC0lTaCAmgommZJ6fF3-Z3tU-_HWNkrFfAZtb_u9oAVhj6nBVRIxGuRa4CcKeiBF0nOA-7ypgYijwjSRLmWNNeAcSDfOsl1fkHDe5cRi3Sr9KwmLk5UA/s200/riversoflondon.png" width="123" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The PC Grant Mysteries</i> by Ben Aaronovitch (6 Books and counting)</b></div>
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Peter Grant is your average bobbie-on-the-beat in London:
living in station accommodation with his fellow graduate coppers, trying to
impress the guv'nors and dealing with run-of-the-mill crimes in the city centre. Until
one night, standing guard over a murder scene, a witness approaches him with
some information about the case. This isn’t your normal witness though: he’s a
ghost, dead over a hundred years. At first Peter doubts his discovery, until he
gets word that there’s a peculiar arm of the Metropolitan Police dedicated to
dealing in cases with paranormal circumstances - previously a one-man department
but now, with Peter established as being sensitive to the paranormal world, it
becomes two. He moves into The Folly on Russell Square (his new base) with his
new boss, the enigmatic Nightingale, to begin his training as a wizard-cop.
This is a crime series with a magic twist, a larger storyline tying all the
books together, and a decent dash of humour and pop-culture. One of my
favourite aspects is that a lot of the series is set around Soho and Camden,
which is near where I work, adding an extra element of possibility for me –
more than once I’ve walked around Russell Square trying to work out which building is The Folly.</div>
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<b><a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/topnotch-reads-of-2012-part-three-winner.html"><i>A Song of Ice and Fire</i> by George R. R. Martin (5 Books and counting)</a></b></div>
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The TV show based on these books is called – as you
undoubtedly already know - <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Game of Thrones</i>,
after the first book in the series. But it’s actually really important to remember that this
epic saga is called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Song of Ice and
Fire</i>, because we’re almost certainly getting a major clue about the ending
of the series in that title. It’s as gruesome and ugly as the show has
led you to expect; the cast is enormous (over a thousand named characters!)
and the world is even bigger. It’s passed off as a fantasy series, but has some of its
roots in the power-battle between Houses York and Lancaster, otherwise dubbed
the War of the Roses, so you should expect a healthy dollop of politics – far
more than you’ll get dragons and magic, anyway.
It’s a definite investment series: the shortest book so far clocks in at 776
pages (not including the huge ‘Who’s Who’ appendix that appears in
every book), but I promise you, it’s worthwhile.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiInFVtZAIipQJFeSgZu-tKfNcjMr21d9mrapbB2uztFpY3Y2s9Dh2cewAw4ukEcCH04BjN2ZhM9CnXPYTwNhQylKUEs8OhMBll0M00XMryRcoJkKkzFWNbTfOP4STHI5BSGvGEoHbIXac/s1600/oac.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiInFVtZAIipQJFeSgZu-tKfNcjMr21d9mrapbB2uztFpY3Y2s9Dh2cewAw4ukEcCH04BjN2ZhM9CnXPYTwNhQylKUEs8OhMBll0M00XMryRcoJkKkzFWNbTfOP4STHI5BSGvGEoHbIXac/s200/oac.png" width="122" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maddaddam</i> by Margaret Atwood (3 Books)</b></div>
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<a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/thoughts-on-margaret-atwood-or-why-i.html">I love Margaret Atwood’s work</a>. Specifically, I love her
speculative fiction and you don’t get much more speculative than this series,
which covers the world just before and after an apocalypse called The
Waterless Flood, when swathes of humanity are wiped out by a man-made plague.
The scary parts of this series, however, are not in the apocalypse itself: it’s
in the eerily familiar world the story is set in, where huge Corporations
control every aspect of life, where if you live outside a Compound you
basically don’t exist, where hardened criminals are sentenced to ‘Painball’
(essentially paintball but with real guns and no rules) instead of prison.
Atwood has an uncanny knack of creating worlds we recognise twisted into darker
versions of themselves, and they don’t get much creepier than the <i>Maddaddam</i> books.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Magicians</i> by Lev Grossman (3 Books)</b></div>
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Imagine if Harry Potter had the option to go to university, then
afterwards spent a gap year in Narnia, and you’ve basically got the first book
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Magicians</i> trilogy. Our
anti-hero, Quentin Coldwater, is a disillusioned, socially-inept high school
graduate who finds himself testing for Brakebills Academy, a college he never
applied for, or indeed heard of – a secret school for magicians. As his academic
career continues down this unexpected path, he discovers that the fantasy world
of his favourite childhood books, Fillory, is in fact a real, tangible place. But, in the same way that Brakebills is darker and more menacing than
Hogwarts, so Fillory is not as pastoral or perfect as the books written about
them, or Narnia. Quentin’s not the nicest guy – he’s selfish and impetuous with
it, which makes him a weirdly relatable character, and the arrogant way in
which he accepts his magical skills is a nice contrast to the usual
‘oh-my-goodness-you’ve-picked-little-old-<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">me</i>?’ schtick we usually get in world-discovering novels. I’ll admit the similarities
between Brakebills and Hogwarts (and Fillory and Narnia) was something that
grated on me a little – even though it’s supposed to be a massive in-joke
– though on the whole this is a dark, entertaining, violent series, and one that
you can enjoy even if you haven’t read Narnia or Harry Potter.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrB4_NpF0SOoKjYsW8K3s94daAeebNwLQucp4IqWzdbAmvkH7Gazusodb7JVIqKn-EzL_feKmuf7-Az8puXAOc1jjJTHWeln59JydmDWhH8AaN6nta8dnCD_21WEe1vr2zMJ-5xWHurMc/s1600/AA.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrB4_NpF0SOoKjYsW8K3s94daAeebNwLQucp4IqWzdbAmvkH7Gazusodb7JVIqKn-EzL_feKmuf7-Az8puXAOc1jjJTHWeln59JydmDWhH8AaN6nta8dnCD_21WEe1vr2zMJ-5xWHurMc/s200/AA.png" width="129" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>The Farseer Trilogy</i>
and <i>The Tawny Man Trilogy</i> by Robin Hobb (6 Books)</b></div>
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These are two separate trilogies, but feature the same
protagonists, so I’m lumping them together. The stories focus around Fitz, the
bastard son of the erstwhile King-in-Waiting for the throne of the Six Duchies. Not
formally recognised as a member of the royal family, he is nevertheless kept on
and trained by the current King to become an assassin for the family, working
with Chade, another assassin. The first trilogy follows Fitz’s attempts to
find his way in a world of royalty where he is not royal, avoid his uncle,
Prince Regal’s, vicious attempts to discredit him, and suppress his ability to
communicate telepathically with animals, which is feared and reviled by many in
the kingdom. There’s a lot here to recommend the story, much like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">His Dark Materials</i>: questions about
love, loyalty, shame, politics, fear, friendship and duty, plus the added
allure of the mysterious, androgynous Fool, an ally of Fitz’s who proves to be far more
than their name suggests. This is a commitment akin to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Song of Ice and Fire</i>, though: these six books total over 4,000
pages, and Hobb has recently started a third trilogy set in the same world. The
woman is a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">machine</i>.<br />
<b>UPDATE</b>: The third trilogy, <i>Fitz and the Fool, </i>was completed earlier this year, bringing this saga up to a whopping 9 books - if you don't include the companion novels, <i>The Liveship Traders Trilogy</i> or <i>The Rainwild Chronicles</i> quartet, which are set in the same world and frequently feature cameos or character crossovers.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Throne of Glass</i> by Sarah J Maas (6 Books, 4 Novellas and counting)</b></div>
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Caelena Sardothien is 17, beautiful and the deadliest
assassin around – or, at least she was, until she was betrayed, arrested and
sentenced to a life of hard labour in salt mines. She’s near breaking point
when the Crown Prince, Dorian, turns up to recruit her as his champion for his
tyrannical father’s tournament where, if she wins, she'll be pardoned for her previous crimes, granted relative freedom and employed as the King's personal assassin. Caelena must fight
it out with thieves, rogue soldiers and murderers for this dubious honour – she
has some beef with the King – and the stakes are raised even higher when other
champions start to get killed off in grisly ways. This isn’t even the full
story: the tournament is just the beginning of Caelena’s journey as she grows
to accept who she really is and her place in the world.
Caelena is a flighty upstart with a healthy appetite for food, fashion and
books, but we’re left in no doubt over just how lethal her skills are and what she
is capable of. The first book is probably the weakest of the series so far and
that’s saying something, considering it’s nigh unputdownable, so if you like
your heroines with a dark side then Caelena’s the girl for you.<br />
<b>UPDATE</b>: A companion novel, <i>Tower of Dawn,</i> is out in September 2017 which will be from Chaol Westfall's point of view and will, essentially, explain what he was up to when missing from <i>Empire of Storms</i>.The series is set to complete in 2018.</div>
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Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-8164997702304608192015-04-26T15:22:00.003+01:002015-04-26T15:22:17.824+01:00Knife, Lights and Spyglass: His Dark Materials and Me<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Northern Lights</i> (or<i> The Golden Compass</i> to anyone Stateside),
the first book in Philip Pullman’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">His
Dark Materials</i> trilogy, is twenty years old this year. TWENTY. That, to me,
is incredible – firstly, that that much time has passed, and secondly, that I
didn’t even realise it. I only clocked it because I saw a hashtag on Twitter about
a month or so ago (#NorthernLights20), clicked the link and there it was… people
discussing the 20<sup>th</sup> anniversary of one of my most favourite books of all time, and I hadn’t even noticed. </div>
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I could argue here that it’s because <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Northern Lights</i> is a timeless, ageless book that transcends
generations, and so applying an age to it is a meaningless number, blah blah
blah – but that’s bollocks because you could say the same about Margaret
Atwood’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Handmaid’s Tale</i>, which
is thirty this year, and I was marvelling at that anniversary in February. No,
the truth is, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">His Dark Materials</i> no
longer matters to me as much as it once did, and so the arrival of such an
anniversary caught me completely off-guard. Yet I’m kind of glad – the shock
has suddenly sent my mind whirring, remembering just what it is about this
series that I fell in love with. Fair warning: some spoilers to the series, including details about the ending, will come out in the course of this post.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8n5FCVlfQlK5Y0cV_rY5TK9HsTtRFc6VWMioYRnGeTcoo6qoxqCPPGIEIsp3e07fFQuZeImG9riAkVq6UX2HiHBTdzqab0cXPWuEkpKE54OBoglzhZ5n0oaSXT5VLRLJJkFcOAPRQ_Sw/s1600/insidecovers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8n5FCVlfQlK5Y0cV_rY5TK9HsTtRFc6VWMioYRnGeTcoo6qoxqCPPGIEIsp3e07fFQuZeImG9riAkVq6UX2HiHBTdzqab0cXPWuEkpKE54OBoglzhZ5n0oaSXT5VLRLJJkFcOAPRQ_Sw/s1600/insidecovers.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I claimed both copies in the end, like Mrs Coulter claimed Lyra.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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It’s not often that I remember how I acquired books – for
example, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill a Mockingbird</i> may as
well have grown organically onto to my bookshelf one day, for all I remember
about buying it. I don’t even remember reading it for the first time, not
really. But I DO remember that I got <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Northern
Lights</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Subtle Knife </i>for
Christmas 2000 (partly remembered because I quite clearly marked it in my copy, in naughties-tastic metallic pen, complete with circles over the i's). Actually, that’s not quite right – that year, my parents gave my sister <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Northern Lights</i>
and me <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Subtle Knife</i>, and when I sat
down to start my book I had no idea that it was the second in a trilogy, or
that my sister was in possession of the first. This meant that my first meeting with Lyra
Silvertongue was the same as Will Parry’s – I was as unfamiliar with
Pantalaimon, the Alethiometer, Dust and the many-worlds as he was, and I was
utterly enthralled by it. Admittedly, Lee Scoresby’s storyline, and Serafina
Pekkala’s, were parts I skipped over to begin with, because at that point I had no attachment
to those characters and so their plots seemed irrelevant to me. Nevertheless, the strength
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Subtle Knife</i> is that (even
though it’s now my least-favourite of the trilogy) I enjoyed it whilst under
the impression it was a standalone novel – even with all the questions I had
about the worlds and Lyra. In fact, reading the novels out of sequence only
strengthened their impact in the end: nearly all my questions from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Subtle Knife</i> could be answered by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Northern Lights</i>, and my attachment to Will was increased by my
first experience in the various worlds being through his eyes. Even though I read the
books completely out of order - <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Knife,
Lights, Spyglass</i> - it didn't matter, because this is a story beyond
structure.</div>
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So why did <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">His Dark
Materials</i> matter so much to me? Well that’s a tricky question, so
let’s start with the obvious, easiest, shortest answer: it’s a great story. A
young girl sets off to the far North of the world to rescue her best friend,
accompanied only by her daemon, Pantalaimon, the animal embodiment of her soul.
On her quest she encounters monsters, a kingdom ruled by a despot
and a lab conducting unspeakable experiments on children. She makes incredible friends and discovers terrible truths. There’s intrigue and
murder and fights, and she meets talking bears, ages-old witches, Texan
balloonists, finger-sized humanoids and distant father-figures. Pullman’s world – Lyra’s world - is
Narnia, Hogwarts and Oz rolled into one, with a sprinkling of Stephen King.</div>
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Those characters she meets, the bears and witches and Texans
– they’re another reason the trilogy is so fascinating<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>. No
one is perfect in Lyra’s world, and that’s a strong message to send to
impressionable young people. Grey character casts have become increasingly
popular in recent years, the most famous being the sprawling crew of <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/topnotch-reads-of-2012-part-three-winner.html"><i>A
Song Of Ice And Fire</i> by George R. R. Martin</a>, where little girls can
become murderers and men lose their lives for being honourable. But what I've
now realised is, <i>His Dark Materials</i> has the same - and <i>Northern
Lights </i>predates <i>A Song of Ice and Fire</i> by a year (<i>A Game Of
Thrones</i> was first published in 1996). No one in <i>His Dark Materials</i>
is purely good, or without conflicted morals - Lyra famously survives throughout
much of the story by lying through her teeth; Will kills a man within his first
chapters; Stanislaus Grumman breaks a promise he made a dying man; Lee Scoresby
murders thirty men to save one. Even Iorek Byrnison, the bear-king who can talk
with humans but can't empathise with them, finds himself conflicted over the
fate of the world he lives in. That’s a powerful thing to read when you’re
a young girl - that the world is not black and white, that sometimes doing bad things or telling lies doesn't necessarily make you a bad person.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7AWr5-kpM9b0lrP6Uk7B9xRkyVO7YjEH3JfyxozZSkmbD8TIv6pLcA7xn_5dWsQcKgYe6IaenS03H8bEf9iHJLGgmunuBJ8rSbEOJEVI2smX4UHIN_TZ_iJSkDNLhs6OETS_2pE-nYqw/s1600/stacked.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7AWr5-kpM9b0lrP6Uk7B9xRkyVO7YjEH3JfyxozZSkmbD8TIv6pLcA7xn_5dWsQcKgYe6IaenS03H8bEf9iHJLGgmunuBJ8rSbEOJEVI2smX4UHIN_TZ_iJSkDNLhs6OETS_2pE-nYqw/s1600/stacked.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My original copies - well-loved and dog-eared.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Then of course, there was the Homeric feel to
Lyra and Will’s journey through the worlds. As a teenager I hadn’t yet become
acquainted with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Iliad</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Odyssey</i>, but as I got older I
realised that Pullman had littered his work with allusions to Greek mythology
and Homeric epic. Take, for example, the Land of the Dead in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Amber Spyglass</i>: it’s basically Hades
and, if you know your mythology, you’ll know that Greek heroes frequently made
trips down to retrieve lost loves or seek counsel from the dead – just like
Lyra and Will. Then there’s the Land of the Dead <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">itself</i>. See, the Greek underworld was never a pleasant place, like
the Christian Heaven is purported to be: it had nice corners, sure, with the
Elysian Fields and the Isles of the Blessed for particularly worthy souls, and Hell-like counterparts called Tartarus and the Fields of Punishment
where, if you were evil, you were punished accordingly. However, if you just
happened to be a normal person who didn't do anything particularly evil in your
life, but never did anything particularly good either, you ended up in the
bleak Fields of Aspodel, a dull wasteland where souls spend their
eternities doing nothing. All of this was separated from the mortal world by
the river Styx, the domain of Charon, ferrier of the dead. Pullman's underworld
could be the Fields of Aspodel – it’s an endlessly empty landscape, grey and
flat and full of souls without anywhere else to go on to. It even comes
complete with a boatman, who ferries the souls across from the living world to
the Land of the Dead. And all this is in addition to the shape-changing
daemons, who are souls manifest in Lyra’s world but messenger-spirits in
mythology, or the Harpies, the half-woman half-bird hybrids who torment Lyra
just as they once tormented blind Phineas, the seer. And they're probably the tip of the iceberg -there’s undoubtedly loads
more allusions if I could care to scour for them. </div>
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The ending of the series also taught me a powerful lesson:
that sometimes the right endings are not necessarily happy ones. The first
time I read <i>The Amber Spyglass</i>, by the time I finished it I was in
floods of tears, and even now – fifteen years later - there are some passages
that will still cause my face to crumple. This is because Will and Lyra, the
children who saved the worlds, suddenly find at the end of it all they have
fallen in love, but just as they realise this - just as they recognise their souls
match - they are informed that, in order to maintain the new equilibrium they
have created, they must separate forever, with Will to live in his world and Lyra to
live in hers (I'm not going to explain exactly why because that will take forever). There are no loopholes, no compromises: they must give up the
love of a lifetime, with the only comfort being that they might find each other
in the Land of the Dead again, and that in the meantime they will share a bench
across worlds for one hour, one day a year. Their final parting is desperately
poignant, and yet there is no avoiding that this is the best course: Will and
Lyra sacrifice each other so they can both live strong, healthy lives apart,
instead of a short and sickly one together, and in doing so will also save all
the people across all worlds from having to endure the unending misery of the Land
of the Dead again.</div>
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Quite frankly, I could go on forever like this, and never
quite manage to make my point over what an incredible series of books this is:
it’s an adventure story at it's core, but with huge emphasis on both politics and religion, which you
don’t often encounter in children’s literature (at least I don’t). It's sprawling, covering several different worlds yet somehow never
confusing them, and the imagery used to describethem is rich and
satisfying to read. It boasts a huge cast where, somehow, everyone is memorable,well-developed and unpredictable. It covers all the definitions of love you can think
of - maternal, paternal, passionate lust, first love, vocational,
friendship – and how it affects everyone, regardless of how they started out. When I read it as a
teenager, I saw it only as an adventure in a world akin to Narnia or Hogwarts. As I grew older, however, I came to recognise the powerful, controversial subjects it brought up and questioned, which enriched the story
and deepened my understanding and appreciation of it. I don’t know why I forgot about this
series, or why it fell out of favour, but I’m so glad that the <i>Northern Lights</i> anniversary reminded of it with
such a jolt: it’s made me truly think about what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">His Dark Materials</i> means to me, and has made me realise that, of
all the books I’ve read, all the fictional worlds I’ve visited and all the
characters I’ve met, Lyra and Will have influenced more than any other.</div>
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Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-79810525289848683442015-04-23T20:24:00.000+01:002015-04-28T11:32:59.143+01:00My First Audiobook<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</xml><![endif]-->I’ve been pondering the idea of using audiobooks for some
time now: I’ve never listened to one before, and when I was younger they
came in clunky cassettes boxes, usually with several tapes if the book was a
long one. They seemed to be aimed at older people who had vision problems and
couldn’t read a book – certainly not for me. But the rise of digital media has
pulled audiobooks into the limelight, with companies such as Audible regularly
touting their wares on public transport, aiming them at people too busy to
read, or those who travel on routes that are so crowded that holding books,
Kindles or papers are near impossible. It was actually an advert for Audible –
‘first 30 days free trial’ – that finally pushed me over the edge. I’d been so
reluctant, after all, about ereaders, and yet now I’m seldom without mine, so
who’s to say audiobooks won’t be a similar revelation? I decided to take
Audible up on their trial offer.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First things first: I needed an Audible account. This was
terrifyingly easy to set up because it’s an Amazon company so, naturally, I
could sign in under my login for that site. Everything – including payment
details – was transferred without a hitch. So far, so 1984. That unnervingly
simple step out of the way, it was time to choose my one free audiobook, as per
the terms of the trial offer – but hang on, I thought the offer was a 30-day
free trial? Doesn’t that mean I get as many free audiobooks in a month as I
want? Actually, no: the slightly confusing bit about Audible is that (as a
card-carrying member) you pay a monthly fee of £7.99, and for that you get ONE
free audiobook a month; after that, you have to pay per audiobook you download.
My free trial meant I didn’t have to pay the monthly subscription fee this
month, but would still get a free audiobook. Once that had been cleared up –
and chalked up as a bit cheeky, but understandable, particularly from an
author’s perspective – I continued on to my selection process for my free audiobook.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Dwpi8VVfGXe7k4McbeadBRrLtCf92_CgiZ7H0Awdf_d9YBgKUqp6GIW0p9RGkB4GO6jV9fE7J6vXDQJSMO7KLbJu7iTnUqCmu65HG_i98JUVuKOt_Dx8aFvwX6bBjspDvfjn4KchMOY/s1600/TGWTDT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Dwpi8VVfGXe7k4McbeadBRrLtCf92_CgiZ7H0Awdf_d9YBgKUqp6GIW0p9RGkB4GO6jV9fE7J6vXDQJSMO7KLbJu7iTnUqCmu65HG_i98JUVuKOt_Dx8aFvwX6bBjspDvfjn4KchMOY/s1600/TGWTDT.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another slight hiccough: it seems the free audiobook is
taken from a chosen selection – mostly bestsellers, which is good, but I had
been under the impression I could choose any that I wanted. I might’ve been
less cranky about that if I hadn’t read most of the titles on offer already,
and I thought my first audiobook should be one I’ve never read before.
Eventually I settled on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Girl With the
Dragon Tattoo</i> by Stieg Larsson (narrated by Saul Reichlin), which everyone
has been telling me to read for ages but I’ve never gotten round to. It was at
this point I discovered yet another issue – ish – with Audible: if it wasn’t
free for me this time, the audiobook of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Girl With the Dragon Tattoo</i> (unabridged) was about £25. Now, I understand
that there are additional costs involved in creating an audiobook – hiring
voice actors, recording studios, etc – so I was expecting it to be higher than the
ebook or print, but considering Amazon currently have the paperback available
for £3.85 (discounted from £8.99), 25 quid seemed a bit steep. If I wasn’t
getting it for free, I definitely wouldn’t have bothered. That’s not because I
don’t think the book itself is worth it, but £25 is a bit out of my price range
for a print book or ebook, and they’re formats I’m already very comfortable
with.<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You’ve probably surmised (correctly) by now that I had a few
misgivings with Audible, but I figured Audible wasn’t my only source for
audiobooks, so I could always take my custom elsewhere if I decided I liked the
format: so far, my only qualms were with the service, not the product. However,
I had some issues with the audiobook too.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Firstly, I’ll be honest: I overestimated my ability to work
and listen at the same time. I started listening to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo</i> during work, assuming I could
merrily work away whilst listening the story. That was not so, as may well be
obvious to you – I found that I kept tuning out the dulcet tones of Reichlin so
I could concentrate more on the task in hand. I only even noticed I was doing
this when I suddenly realised the narrator was reading, ‘in hindsight, this was
a mistake’. WHAT WAS THE MISTAKE?! I’d completely missed what could well have
been a crucial plot point. In a print or ebook, if I’d skim-read the page, or
zoned out for a moment, I could go back and re-read the passage again – but
with an audiobook, it seems really difficult to replay a specific passage. Even
when I left work and entered the realm of the relatively mindless – i.e. my
commute – I struggled to concentrate, because external noise kept drowning out
the narrator, even with the volume turned up quite high. Buses speeding past,
mopeds, even the beep-beep-beep-beep of a pelican crossing all managed to drown
out words and passages. So I can’t listen at work because I’m, well, working,
and I can’t listen on my commute because my surroundings are too noisy. When
CAN I listen to it?!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I also had not anticipated how long an audiobook would be –
<i>The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo </i>is about 18 hours and 50 minutes long. Being
the nerd I am, I did some maths on how long it would take me to get through in
other formats – feel free to correct me if I’m wrong because maths was never my
strong suite at school!</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Let us assume that, on average, I read for an
hour and a half every day – 90 minutes. 18 hours and 50 minutes translates into
1130 minutes. So we can assume that, listening to <i>The Girl With the Dragon
Tattoo</i> every day (instead of reading) would take me 12.5 sessions – let’s call
them days – to get through, at a rate of 90 minutes per day. This made me
realise how probably inconsequential it is to gripe about having to pay for the
audiobooks AND the subscription – if it would take almost 2 weeks to listen to
a 500 page book, it’s not like I’m going to burst my bank downloading audiobooks. </li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Additionally, as mentioned, this is a 500-page book - 542, to be exact, according to
Amazon. Since I started my book log in January 2014, I can say I have read 10
books with page counts between 529 pages and 578 pages – an average of 554. The
average reading time for those 10 books was, based on the log, 8.6 days. Excluding
one title that took 31 days to read - an anomaly – the average is even lower at
6.1 days. </li>
</ul>
So based on that (possibly hairy) maths, providing
I didn’t dawdle, it would take me roughly half the time to read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo</i> than it
will to listen to it. If it would be far quicker – and more enjoyable – for me
to read, then why am I even bothering? Because, despite all my misgivings, I am
enjoying the story itself, which – so far – is quite gripping, when my
environment permits me to be gripped. It’s slightly annoying though, because
now that I’m getting quite into it, I still don’t know if I want to continue
listening to it, and me being me (also having missed a fair bit through not
paying attention), I think I’d have to re-read it from the beginning once I
procured a copy. And I know I got it for free, but there’s still that niggling
thought in the back of my head that as I already own this in one format, why
should I buy it in another unless I really love it – which I won’t know for
certain until I finish it? Talk about a dilemma.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I suppose it all comes down to one big disappointment: audiobooks
are not something you can multi-task with. I had visions of me being able to
spend an entire day at work, listening to a great story whilst I went about my
daily business, but this is not so. Audiobooks require as much attention as reading
a print book or ebook. If you’ve ever tried reading at the same time as trying to do something else, you’ll know that one or the other will suffer –
either the pan boils over, or the hoovering doesn’t get done properly, or you
walk into someone on the street, or you just put the book down. I thought
audiobooks would be a way to experience a novel without encountering those kind
of issues, but it now seems that, if anything, it’s actually easier to be
distracted away from an audiobook. This begs the question: why listen, when you
can read? I’ll probably stick with <i>The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo</i> on audio for
now, see how I get on and if my opinion improves, but – with 15 hours and 30
minutes still to go – I’m not sure anything will change.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a></div>
</div>
Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-14851970340116811662015-04-14T21:33:00.002+01:002015-04-14T21:33:25.150+01:00My New Favourite Book<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I have a new favourite book. Sorry, Harper Lee, sorry J. K.
Rowling, Margaret Atwood, George R. R. Martin and Phillip Pullman. It’s
honestly nothing personal, I still love all your work – I’ve just found
something new. I’ve not even finished this new book – barely started it, in
fact – but already it’s found its way to my heart. There’s all the usual signs
of love-at-first-page: when I’m not spending time with the book, I’m thinking
about it, looking forward to when I can next see it. When I am with it, I
savour the time we have together, dreading already the arrival of the last page
and realising it’s over. Now I have this book in my life, everything just feels
a bit better. So what is this gift from the bookish heavens, you might be
asking? What book has had such an impact?</div>
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It’s a colouring book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Animal
Kingdom</i> by Millie Marotta.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6DNqouwc65-lg9d5zZOvqT2meRLfYDTDC0bT0yRVRK1Rg3oBBAkjGV4y0x5dRc8PL2DgClzRXTIvHO8LGFZ_5IPNMaQJqhMDaYc_BA_n0pdDM5np4p3Tqf7e3x-0Rr_sqmTX69uqhXF4/s1600/IMG_3382.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6DNqouwc65-lg9d5zZOvqT2meRLfYDTDC0bT0yRVRK1Rg3oBBAkjGV4y0x5dRc8PL2DgClzRXTIvHO8LGFZ_5IPNMaQJqhMDaYc_BA_n0pdDM5np4p3Tqf7e3x-0Rr_sqmTX69uqhXF4/s1600/IMG_3382.JPG" height="251" width="320" /></a></div>
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Now stop rolling those eyes and judging and tsking and whatnot. Alright, it’s not a
book like you might’ve been expecting, and it’s certainly not literary fiction
– it’s barely got any words, in fact – but I’m telling you guys, it has been a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">revelation. </i>The trend of colouring books
for adults – I hesitate to use the term ‘adult colouring books’ in case it
gives anyone the wrong idea – is one that has been on the rise recently, and a
quick Amazon search will show to you just how many are actually out there.
These aren’t pictures of puppies in baskets or princess castles or teddy bears
– these are genuinely complex images that are as beautiful in monochrome as
they are in colour, ones that require concentration, a steady hand and time. </div>
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</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIiBbd2LYRnpBTmZ-PXI0gkHAbM_do4BgAXlDcZa8ncjAFs22CwAtAjY5jh9JB8NkktBV3M_a1QOfE-R2a0qv8-f0Mi8JkLz8W8v51r7iKueHYv5tw_XzHQ8ItDsvvdxVumqbB-P8AWFs/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIiBbd2LYRnpBTmZ-PXI0gkHAbM_do4BgAXlDcZa8ncjAFs22CwAtAjY5jh9JB8NkktBV3M_a1QOfE-R2a0qv8-f0Mi8JkLz8W8v51r7iKueHYv5tw_XzHQ8ItDsvvdxVumqbB-P8AWFs/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first double-page spread.<em></em> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I actually only heard about adult colouring books about a
month ago – like so much of my knowledge on news, trends and fandoms these
days, there was a <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelzarrell/this-woman-created-gorgeous-coloring-books-for-adults-and-so#.ieN62Wxn6">feature on Buzzfeed</a> about them. I read the article with the
same kind of detached interest you may be reading this (I flatter myself anyone
has got this far…) but forgot about them, until an unpleasant and stressful few
months finally hit their zenith and I was in a bit of a low place. Suddenly, I
recalled the article and found myself thinking about how <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nice </i>it would be to just sit for half an hour, and colour something
in. I’m no artist – several attempts at painting and sketching have taught me
that – so drawing something for myself to colour was out of the question.
Naturally, a grown-up colouring book was the ideal – someone who could draw,
providing me with the outlines I needed. So I ordered myself a copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Animal Kingdom</i> and some pencils, and
eagerly awaited its arrival.</div>
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<br /></div>
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When it did eventually turn up (why is it the stuff you’re
only marginally fussed about always arrives the next day, when things you
REALLY want take aaaaaaages?), it was completely worth the wait and money. It’s
a beautiful book to look at, never mind to colour in, and the many images
inside are a mix of the immensely detailed and intricate, and the somewhat
simpler – ostensibly to allow you to add your own details and flourishes if you
like, but I’m interpreting them as just being for simpler souls, like me, or
people who don’t want to squint too much. A bit like the easier crossword vs.
the cryptic in the papers. Some are double-page spreads, others are single
images, and all of mammals, amphibians, insects, birds and fish. The artist
puts her botanical experience to good work as a lot of the images incorporate
flowers, leaves and general flora to make up and decorate the fauna.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the best thing about this book wasn’t the beautiful
pictures – it was the peace of mind it gave me.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXH5HwMW6pGd-lUHfMB5lS0IPRIoZQIDqDAu3BTMB03iU-hEqHATO2j3S-XYIlv9nFhsdEIf9pJXvGUNF1-Rmb8wn1rwZ6K0cbu-8v9tjD0JXOLlQTEUuNXZUhqLkKV2Kn9yN-P7YhFZw/s1600/partialelephant.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXH5HwMW6pGd-lUHfMB5lS0IPRIoZQIDqDAu3BTMB03iU-hEqHATO2j3S-XYIlv9nFhsdEIf9pJXvGUNF1-Rmb8wn1rwZ6K0cbu-8v9tjD0JXOLlQTEUuNXZUhqLkKV2Kn9yN-P7YhFZw/s1600/partialelephant.JPG" height="240" width="320" /> </a></div>
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I sat down on Sunday afternoon
with a cup of tea, my new colouring book and pencils, put Classic FM on and
then entered into one of the most relaxing hours I’ve ever spent in my life. In
that time, my only worries were when I selected the wrong shade of blue, or got
a bit of hand-cramp because I’m not used to holding pencils for that long
anymore, or wondering why Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen has a show on Classic FM. I
didn’t think about work, or chores around the house, or personal problems – I
just sat and coloured, and it was fantastic. Johanna Basford, artist of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Secret Garden</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Enchanted Forest</i> colouring books, made the suggestion that, <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Colouring seems to help people think about a
time when life was simpler and more carefree,” and it’s so true– the last time
I did any colouring for fun (I don’t include schoolwork in that) I was probably
about 10, maybe 11, when my biggest concerns would’ve been getting to stay up
late on Fridays, maintaining my not-very-convincing ruse that I watched
Eastenders to friends and whether I’d be allowed to play outside after dinner.
I’m not saying that this colouring book made me feel 10 again, but it certainly
allowed me a few minutes of peace that I’ve not felt in a long time – emptying
out my brain of all those worrisome thoughts that can interrupt even the most
pleasant of tasks or intervals, concentrating just on the page and colours. And
best of all, it wasn’t a one-off – later on, I went back to do some more, and
managed to capture the same feeling as before.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Colouring in books are the ideal hobby for someone like me –
not particularly talented at anything, too lazy to learn a new skill and too
poor to invest in the supplies needed for a more complicated hobby. Like all
hobbies, it’ll cost, but with plenty of colouring books available for under a
tenner and pencils for the same (depending on how fancy you want to get with
them), I reckon it’ll be cheaper than taking up, say, knitting, or watercolour
painting. It’s certainly proving cheaper than my chain-buying book habit. I’m a
complete convert: it’s fun, simple, cheap and requires minimal mental strain
(unless you lose your shit over whether to go red or green on a section, in which case, you probably should talk to someone about that).</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1DmT53KoWBxBHcjlJZzcpG1QUxDgC1R-vpqDE_vbVSXucuz8Rs9OVYhg5YTsugyMtfF10dn77rX8iiD7km7COd83WbSeSzNFYdsjE-3aQ4rOQUMyVCQvM7GiJPS0SnudcUtBu3pKGYCQ/s1600/FullSizeRender(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1DmT53KoWBxBHcjlJZzcpG1QUxDgC1R-vpqDE_vbVSXucuz8Rs9OVYhg5YTsugyMtfF10dn77rX8iiD7km7COd83WbSeSzNFYdsjE-3aQ4rOQUMyVCQvM7GiJPS0SnudcUtBu3pKGYCQ/s1600/FullSizeRender(1).jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><em><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></em></div>
</div>
Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-80708506667096984462015-03-23T21:07:00.000+00:002015-03-24T11:37:35.153+00:00Thoughts on Margaret Atwood - or, Why I Need To Stop Making Assumptions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
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You may've heard that the inimitable Margaret Atwood is releasing a new
book this year, <a href="http://www.thebookseller.com/news/new-margaret-atwood-novel-autumn"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Heart Goes Last</i></a>.
It’s about a couple who swap living hand-to-mouth in their car for an idyllic,
comfortable life in a closed community with one catch – they must spend every other month in prison. I am so psyched about this because it’s a return to the
speculative-fiction (her term, not mine) that I’ve come to love Atwood for, and rather timely too – I’ve
recently been experiencing a wobble in my Atwood-worship. I’ve read seven of
her books so far, and it’s been a rollercoaster of emotions, with peaks and
troughs as I discovered just how varied a landscape her writing covers. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTgZFQvzR-a19cH_u6jAvvsegm7nyBokyZtRk9kMLn2rlalZyRR84TK272TyiRzCiYtB41gLr-U7cl2HWSyxwEPzTfM_OjFDKEg9dBrgQ70-MU644pKEinEJhoLBKkv_3wHybJdPHEGzg/s1600/YOTF+image.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTgZFQvzR-a19cH_u6jAvvsegm7nyBokyZtRk9kMLn2rlalZyRR84TK272TyiRzCiYtB41gLr-U7cl2HWSyxwEPzTfM_OjFDKEg9dBrgQ70-MU644pKEinEJhoLBKkv_3wHybJdPHEGzg/s1600/YOTF+image.png" height="320" width="201" /></a></div>
You see, the first book I ever read by Margaret Atwood was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Year of the Flood</i>: it was a purely blurb-based purchase as I didn’t know who Margaret Atwood was (boo! For shame!). There was no 'Ooh I've heard she's good," or "I liked that other one so maybe I'll like this one," about it - I just
bought it because I was browsing, I liked the cover, and it just sounded like a
really good story:<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The sun brightens in
the east, reddening the blue-grey haze that marks the distant ocean. The
vultures roosting on the hydro poles fan out their wings to dry them. The air
smells faintly of burning.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> The waterless flood - a manmade plague - has ended
the world.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But two young women
have survived: Ren, a young dancer trapped where she worked, in an upmarket sex
club (the cleanest dirty girls in town); and Toby, who watches and waits from
her rooftop garden. Is anyone else out there?”</i></div>
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It was actually really incredible: a time-jumping story about
two women struggling to deal with their worlds before and after an
apocalypse referred to as The Waterless Flood. It was funny, terrifying, clever, tense and set in a world that was eerily recognisable and full of uncomfortable topics – MoHair sheep, bred purely for wig-making; Chiklits, genetically-engineered chicken-like creatures created only for meat; the Corps, massive private conglomerates in charge of every
section of life, from security to prostitution, and the God’s Gardners, a religious faction with emphasis on the protection of the natural world. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Year of the Flood</i>, Margaret Atwood
held up a magic mirror to our society and world, showing what we could become
if we’re not careful, and it was exhilarating in its horror.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Then I discovered that <i>The Year of the Flood</i> was not, as previously thought, a standalone novel - it is preceded by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oryx
and Crake</i>, which focused on two characters I’d briefly met in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Year of the Flood</i>, and is set mostly before The Waterless Flood. Although I enjoyed it less
than what had turned out to be its sequel, I devoured it (I 'll admit that my
enjoyment of reading it was lessened by my ill-feelings towards one character –
even though he’s meant to be our anti-hero in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oryx and Crake</i>, I strongly disliked him because of his portrayal by
another character in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Year of the
Flood</i>, and because I met HER first, HE suffered - in the same way you
immediately judge people you don't know for mistreating your loved ones). I liked it, even if I didn't love it, because it was clever, and scary, and full of foreboding for our own society and world.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then I hit a slight stumbling block, <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/review-penelopiad-by-margaret-atwood.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Penelopiad</i>.</a> On paper – and partially in reality – I should’ve
LOVED this book: a retelling of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Odyssey</i>,
but from the point of view of Penelope, Odysseus’ abandoned wife. I love <i>The
Odyssey</i>, and have always, like many people, felt for Penelope: her husband
disappears for 20 years, she has no idea if he’s alive or not, and every day
young arrogant men turn up at her house to eat her food, drink her wine and
sexually harass her into marrying one of them, occasionally screwing her
servants to pass the time. It was one of those times when you pick up a book
and just think ‘YES, this is everything I was looking for!’ and then… it
wasn’t. Not because there was anything wrong with it, but there was something wrong with me - I had expected something like <i>The Year of the Flood </i>or <i>Oryx and Crake</i>, and hadn't got it. I had made assumptions about Margaret Atwood that were wrong, and I didn't like it.</div>
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<br /></div>
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But no need to deal with uncomfortable realisations -at least, not about my reading habits - because the next two Atwoods I read were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">MaddAddam</i>, the conclusion to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oryx and Crake</i> trilogy, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Handmaid’s Tale</i>. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">MaddAddam</i> took me back to that warped
world where I’d first met Atwood, amongst familiar characters and creatures.
The novel didn’t quite pan out how I’d expected – I still believe <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Year of the Flood</i> was the best of the trilogy – but it was nevertheless
a great book, uncomfortable in its razor-sharp wit and on-point criticism of
what we’re making the world into. Dystopia ruled the pages, with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Handmaid’s Tale</i> the next in line.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgugfUI75ILYx1O5WAG-z6r9ezqK6PFQEBaonuzk0GipLVmUj3gK5VnYgZkOBha-5FserwI-QW13N2frtwrMpcfpXuy2xKSGxCpJu80Cd__TU4XfkwS9dzdNszhxOU7SRbFHFlqxOriS78/s1600/handmaidstale.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgugfUI75ILYx1O5WAG-z6r9ezqK6PFQEBaonuzk0GipLVmUj3gK5VnYgZkOBha-5FserwI-QW13N2frtwrMpcfpXuy2xKSGxCpJu80Cd__TU4XfkwS9dzdNszhxOU7SRbFHFlqxOriS78/s1600/handmaidstale.png" /></a>Oh, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Handmaid’s
Tale</i>, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways (is it kind of messed up to feel so passionately about such a messed-up book?). Now officially my favourite
Atwood book (and edging its red-clad way into my all-time favourites list), just
one of the many ways this book is incredible, is that it was published THIRTY
YEARS AGO, and it’s still so unhappily relevant. It’s another dystopia – North
America ceases to exist, replaced by Gilead, an ultra-religious regime-led
country where women are simultaneously revered for their reproductive ability
(if they are lucky enough to still retain it) and repressed for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">being</i> women:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">There is more than
one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days
of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t
underrate it.”</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That sentence TERRIFIES me because it’s so very, very true.
If you identify as a woman, this is a huge deal, because what would you choose
– freedom to go about your business without a chaperone, to have a job, to
spend your own money? Or freedom from harassment on the street, from fear of
walking alone in the dark, from media pressure to look a certain way? It’s not
necessarily an easy choice, if you’re given it (although if you're asking me, it's ‘Freedom To’).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So Margaret Atwood: Dystopian Queen, Holder of the Magic
Mirror, the person who terrifies and fascinates me in equal measure. Except
she’s not, because recently, I’ve read two books by her that pull her firmly
aside from the future-warning I’ve come to expect from her, that nudge her
towards a more humanist view I first glimpsed in <i>The Penelopiad</i>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Blind
Assassin</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cat’s Eye</i>.
Suddenly, my perceptions have been forced to change, and I’m struggling. See, I
loved Atwood’s speculative-fiction work, but finding out that’s not necessarily her modus
operandi<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was a bit of a shock,
especially – horror of horrors – I don’t like either of those novels very much.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyf00Glot8Y98GnomOQCBYf_NkDEpbdWRS5Wb8YoikRXxrhi0KILCZssJswEem346DU-dx2vPTRuV1Rh_4VXwqzijob1SvD5ohu9V8FWL2B88fiPFAFjVVNTTkMeJTdNg1XlP2YM_dqA4/s1600/blindassassin.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyf00Glot8Y98GnomOQCBYf_NkDEpbdWRS5Wb8YoikRXxrhi0KILCZssJswEem346DU-dx2vPTRuV1Rh_4VXwqzijob1SvD5ohu9V8FWL2B88fiPFAFjVVNTTkMeJTdNg1XlP2YM_dqA4/s1600/blindassassin.png" height="320" width="201" /></a>You mustn’t misunderstand me on this: they’re still very
good books, and if I had read them first,<i> </i>who knows? Maybe I would've felt a lot more positively about them: after all, I can't pretend I didn't know they were of a different ilk when I bought them. One, <i>The Blind Assassin</i>, is about
two sisters and the secrets that hold them apart, whilst the
other, <i>Cat’s Eye</i>, is about the poisonous effect a year’s worth of emotional
bullying can wreak on a young girl for the rest of her life. Both interesting subjects - worthy, even - but they didn't fit in with how I had categorised Atwood in my brain. The problem was,
in my mind she is a dystopian writer, and it's been difficult to shake that – obviously, as I've now realised, she has a far
wider breadth of talent than that, but my first encounter with her work was in
a post-apocalyptic world that didn’t seem implausibly different to our world,
so even though I might know a book of hers isn’t dystopia, it still doesn’t
quite sit right with me. It's an unfair judgement, I know: "This book does not challenge my world-views in respect to the environment, nor does it hold a powerful feminist message, so therefore it's not good enough". I started with <i>The Year of the Flood,</i> which set the bar so high that I’m comparing Atwood's old work constantly
against herself, and only <i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i> competes in my narrow view.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Really, this whole post is less about what Margaret Atwood
writes, and more an admission of my own naiveté in regard to someone I would
rank amongst my favourite, and most influential, authors. I had Margaret Atwood
pegged
as a writer of eerily-familiar worlds, not-too-distant futures where our
descendants could be realistically reaping the unpleasant rewards of our presence. Instead, I’ve had to realise that I don’t actually know
how, or what, she writes, which is not a comfortable experience – much like reading one of her speculative-fiction novels, actually. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Funnily, this is probably exactly what she wants - for her readers to be not just constantly guessing her work, but questioning their own perceptions of it. And let’s face
it, she’s a goddamn queen – she can write whatever the hell she wants and even
if it’s not what I wanted from her, I’ll still think she’s a living legend, a
woman to aspire to be like. ALL HAIL MARGARET ATWOOD. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Still, super-psyched for <i>The Heart Goes Last</i>. </div>
</div>
Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-26056343676294690812015-03-04T13:56:00.004+00:002015-03-04T13:59:33.734+00:00REVIEW: The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDLQh8DyHy3wLah9ixKITk9xK5d2o7i41GqzglR6BDblrJNwhwN5Htgcui_dEg4aQtZj2nuauWHVgVO-tLbLZ5u7-XlKnd4IvlevzMO-0-M-utBlLJlXeHrRjMq_bSFuRdDsmYQlIpL0/s1600/thegirlintheredcoat.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDLQh8DyHy3wLah9ixKITk9xK5d2o7i41GqzglR6BDblrJNwhwN5Htgcui_dEg4aQtZj2nuauWHVgVO-tLbLZ5u7-XlKnd4IvlevzMO-0-M-utBlLJlXeHrRjMq_bSFuRdDsmYQlIpL0/s1600/thegirlintheredcoat.png" height="320" width="205" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Title</b>: The Girl in the Red Coat</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Author</b>: Kate Hamer</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>First Published</b>: February 2015</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Published By</b>: Transworld</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Rating</b>: 3/5<br />
<b>Review Summary</b>: It's Promising, But...</div>
<br />
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Firstly, I’d just like to say how much I was forward to
reading this book - it didn’t quite make the <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/reads-for-early-15.html">Reads for Early ’15 list</a>, but
nevertheless I’ve been hotly anticipating it. I’ve really gotten into my
crime/thriller novels in the past year, and at first glance, this seemed to fit
the bill really well: eight-year old Carmel gets separated from her mother,
Beth, at a story-telling festival, when she is approached by a man. He says he’s
her estranged grandfather, that her mother has had an accident, and that he’ll
look after her now. Except Beth has <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
had an accident, and the man is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
Carmel’s grandfather - so far, so intriguing. The story is told from both Carmel
and Beth’s perspective, so we get to see what happens to Carmel after her
kidnapping as well as Beth’s search for her daughter. This split-perspective
method of story-telling is a very popular device in fiction at the moment –
just in 2015 alone I’ve read several books which employ it. In some cases it
helps to build tension and create mystery (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Secret Place</i> by Tana French and the similarly-titled <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/review-girl-on-train-by-paula-hawkins.html"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Girl On The Train</i></a> by Paula Hawkins), whilst in others it’s to give
a broader sense of time and space than could usually be managed with a one-character
narrative (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rooms </i>by Lauren Oliver and
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Station Eleven</i> by Emily St. Mandel).
In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Girl in the Red Coat</i>, Hamer is
trying for both, and it doesn’t quite work out.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The curious thing about this book is, as I was reading it, I
was really enjoying it. There’s an unusual reason behind Carmel’s kidnapping,
which adds a fantastical twist to the story and separates it from the pack of
other missing-child novels, whilst Beth was a sympathetically-written character
- a woman suffering an unbearable loss, trying to deal with it as a single
woman whilst her ex-husband turns to his new wife for support. It wasn’t until
a few hours after I’d finished reading that I realised I wasn’t entirely
satisfied – the more I thought about it, the more I thought of the many
questions are posed throughout the novel, yet are mostly left unanswered. For
example, who was Mercy, and what happened to her? What is the strange power
Carmel supposedly possesses? Who is ‘Gramps’ really? How exactly did he find
Carmel? And those are just a few: I won’t go into any more that I thought of because
they start to get spoiler-y, but I can assure you there <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are </i>more. I guess you could argue that we can only know as much as our
narrators know, but I still don’t see why Beth and Carmel couldn’t have found out at least
<i>some </i>of these answers . After all, the principle of Chekhov’s Gun is that,
if something is mentioned, it must have significance – so why would Hamer
allude to so many questions if she had no intention of answering them? There’s
a point at which things stop being mysterious, and start being annoying. This
brings me back to my earlier point: that Hamer was trying to do too much, with
too broad a spectrum. Her novel is just under 400 pages long, and transcended
several years, 2 continents, 2 narratives and about 15 characters all-in, and I
just think there wasn’t enough space for it all. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t want you to think it’s a bad book, though: it’s
really not. Like I said, I was enjoying it immensely whilst I was reading it,
it was just after I finished that I got frustrated with it. I can’t help but
feel that some characters were superfluous, maybe intended for a greater part
in earlier drafts but slowly whittled down in later edits, whilst some
questions raised could’ve been scrubbed out with no real effect on the full
plot. If this turns out to be one of a duology, or a trilogy, then I’ll
definitely be back on board (and it’ll certainly make a lot of sense), but at
the moment I just feel that Hamer tried to cram too much plot into one novel: I definitely
would’ve preferred a slower-burn, longer novel with more detail, than the
get-thrills-quick read I think this was aiming for.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ll almost certainly read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Girl in the Red Coat</i> again at some point, because it was
(despite what you might think from everything I’ve said so far) a clever novel
with an original take on a sometimes-tired genre, and there is definitely
something about it that makes it worth the reading. And maybe, on a second
read, I’ll find that a lot of the questions I had are actually answered in the
novel, it’s just because of my shoddy reading that I missed them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the meantime though, I can’t help but feel
a little bit frustrated that this didn’t live up to everything I felt it
promised. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><b>REVIEW IN A GIF </b></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH-T0R4DOcr1dhjXQAsqZ1CbXL8_RWiPvTBCefBiI7lDpaKnzasx-gluFsWrbN3nNTZE6YXeBPL3X26_e3gI-HN89b9SMqRniakn1BTefs_N-Bjzs3hlTd_GsgBM9MySULnpkFx1Tv0yI/s1600/shaking_head_breaking_bad.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH-T0R4DOcr1dhjXQAsqZ1CbXL8_RWiPvTBCefBiI7lDpaKnzasx-gluFsWrbN3nNTZE6YXeBPL3X26_e3gI-HN89b9SMqRniakn1BTefs_N-Bjzs3hlTd_GsgBM9MySULnpkFx1Tv0yI/s1600/shaking_head_breaking_bad.gif" height="158" width="320" /></a></div>
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Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-68657960593524681432015-02-11T13:39:00.005+00:002015-02-12T10:22:56.501+00:00Unpopular Opinions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</xml><![endif]-->Sometimes you read a book, and for whatever reason, you just don't connect with it. That's fine - not everyone loves every book, and if we all liked the same thing then we'd all get bored of each other really quickly. However, every now and then you read a book that you dislike intensely, or get bored by, and it's a chart-topper that is sending everyone else into a spin. Everyone is reading it, or about to read it, or talking about it, and quite often the press for it is good. So your friends like it, the critics like it, the award-givers love it and you're indifferent at best, met with a chorus of 'What?!' every time you sheepishly admit that you gave it a go but you're not a fan. Sometimes, it's easier to just keep your unpopular opinions to yourself so you don't have to explain - usually at length - why you disagree with what appears to be the rest of the world. Well NO MORE, I say: it's time we all stood up and said what we really thought about those authors/books we're not keen on (yes I know some of you don't need encouragement but others do). I'll go first then - here's my less-than-popular opinions on some of the bigger books of recent years<b>.</b><br />
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<br />
<br />
<b>I Read <i>THE FAULT IN OUR STARS</i> By John Green, And Felt Nothing. </b><br />
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Everyone seemed to go nuts for this, the story of Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace, teenage lovers<b> </b>who find each other through a cancer support group. It's a bittersweet romance about appreciating your life and living it to the full, regardless of how much time you've been allotted, which is certainly a good message. It's also apparently a guaranteed tear-jerker - except, my tears remained unjerked. I read this book TWICE and there was nary a wet eye in the house, despite scenes I know I would have found emotive in another book, with characters I liked more (whilst I really liked cynical-for-a-reason Hazel, I found Augustus insufferably perfect for much of the story, and a bit smug). Sorry guys, it just didn't get to me. Maybe that makes me a soulless harpy, but I just couldn't take the love story seriously. Also, whilst I'm at it, I'm not that much of a fan of John Green generally (possibly more on that later).</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>I Couldn't Finish<i> I AM PILGRIM</i> By Terry Hayes.</b></div>
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Much like <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/2014-worst-of-year.html"><i>Under The Dome</i> by Stephen King</a>, this book started so well for me, with a murder that wasn't as
straight-forward as it seemed, and a ex-Special Forces type trying to
avoid getting sucked back into a life of deceit whilst helping solve the grisly murder. Except, for me, it went downhill pretty quickly after that, with a plot that jumped all over the place, really long exposition-y passages and not an awful lot of direction - yet everyone was talking about this book! I hardly heard anything negative about it, and it even won the <a href="http://www.nationalbookawards.co.uk/award/crime-thriller-of-the-year/">2014 Specsavers Crime/Thriller of the Year award</a>. So was I really the only one who couldn’t get on board
with it? Actually, no, I wasn't - I know of one other person, crime author Paddy Magrane, who agrees with me, but I feel we may be the only ones:<br />
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I'm in the minority on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IAmPilgrim?src=hash">#IAmPilgrim</a>. Found it earnest and plodding. But it's just won best crime novel at <a href="https://twitter.com/natbookawards">@natbookawards</a>, so I must be wrong.<br />
— Paddy Magrane (@PaddyMagrane) <a href="https://twitter.com/PaddyMagrane/status/537673025655955456">November 26, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<b>I Don't Get The Hype Around <i>THE HUNDRED YEAR OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT THE </i></b><b><i>WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED</i> By Jonas Jonasson.</b><br />
I'll
have to be really honest here and say I have only read this once, and
that was about two years ago, so it may not be entirely fair for me to
include this here, because I may change my mind if I re-read it... but whatever, I'm writing it now and right now, I'm not keen. Anyway, I bought this
on the strength of the reviews and the title, which at the time I found charmingly
eccentric, but now just responsible for the plethora of annoyingly-long
titles that are everywhere. All I can remember about this book, beyond the basic plot, is disappointment: whatever I was expecting, I didn't get. The thing with this - and with other titles on this list, actually - is that when I realised I didn't like it, I felt a bit stupid and heartless, like it was my own fault for not liking it. But then I thought about it and realised that I
just thought that the whole thing was just a little bit contrived,
deliberately - and obviously - aiming for ultimate charm and whimsy.<br />
Plus, the more I think of it, the more I really loathe that does-what-it-says-on-the-cover title. <br />
<br />
<br />
<b>I Prefer <i>A SPOT OF BOTHER </i>By Mark Haddon to <i>THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG
IN THE NIGHT-TIME</i>.</b></div>
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Now let's get something clear: I’m not saying <i>Curious Incident</i> isn’t good, so you can get those hackles down. It <i>is </i>very good - an elegantly told story with the right amount of humour and emotion, raising many questions about the lengths we go to for people we love, and how everyone copes differently with various types of stress (also, <a href="http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time-at-the-gielgud-theatre">go see the play</a> if you can. It's truly fantastic).
But <i>A Spot of Bother</i> also has many of those elements: it's about a recently-retired man who discovers a skin condition on his thigh, becomes convinced it is cancer and begins to quietly lose his mind whilst his family
fall into disarray around him, with everyone struggling to deal with their own problems. To me it’s funnier than <i>Curious Incident</i>, sweeter, more foreboding, scarier, and
just generally better.<br />
Incidentally, I tweeted about this a while ago and Mark Haddon himself replied (also saying he liked my mug), so I feel vindicated by this:<br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
@Booksfrom_Boxes thank you. Good to hear a dissenting voice. Plus... I used to own that excellent mug before it got smashed.<br />
— mark haddon (@mark_haddon) <a href="https://twitter.com/mark_haddon/status/462513666429296640">May 3, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<b>I Don't Think The Death Scenes In HARRY POTTER by J. K. Rowling are very well written. </b><br />
Possibly THE most controversial thing in this post, but I stand by it. Now, I <i>love </i>Harry Potter - I re-read the series probably once a year, and it never fails to have an impact on me. However, I don't think very good things about some of the various deaths that occur in the latter half of the series: Sirius Black and Cedric Diggory in particular. The problem I had with these was that, when they occurred, I had to go back and re-read the scenes - not because I was shocked by them, or horrified, but because I actually didn't fully register that these were death scenes I was reading. I remember very clearly that I didn't even realise that Sirius had died in<i> Order of the Phoenix </i>until a few pages later when Harry thinks 'Sirius couldn't be dead' or something like that, and I was genuinely shocked, having to rifle back through pages to confirm that I had, indeed, completely missed the death scene of a major character. Admittedly Rowling did get better at writing these scenes in later books - I realised a lot quicker that poor old Fred Weasley had copped it in <i>The Half-Blood Prince</i> (you know you love a book when you're sobbing hysterically at 2am over the death of a fictional character) - but I just don't think the earlier deaths were clear. Maybe that's what she intended, but when you're sat there going 'So are they actually dead?' it doesn't strike me as a huge success.</div>
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Alright, let me have it...<br />
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Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-35058908860102148782015-02-05T13:37:00.001+00:002015-02-05T16:47:17.328+00:00A Harry Potter Summary<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A re-read of the Harry Potter books last year - and a <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/475975334597492736/photo/1">tumblr post of Harry Potter from Draco Malfoy's point of view</a>, as tweeted by J. K. Rowling herself - got me thinking how the <i>Harry Potter</i> books can - more or less - each be broken down into one sentence. Luckily (depending on your point of view), despite not blogging at the time, I remembered to write down what I thought, and seeing as it's Harry Potter Book Night today I figured now was as good a time as any to share. WARNING - GIFS (that aren't always fully appropriate) AND SPOILERS AHOY (if there's anyone left who hasn't read these books/at least watched the films...)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b> HARRY POTTER AND...</b></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b> The Philosopher's Stone</b></span><br />
Harry's a Wizard<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8nFgRUFnUwYU0i7IpQRdobDsuus8tZ86r1VZvDmT6KD7bDlyzYMIHD58zxMtJL0whH5nZXKTvOgYU3BBSJWXFGQUB4y9XClIZVphtKIC_vrhr159hAEPOn9WukqWzhOhyRZ0MHnONIMU/s1600/wizardharry.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8nFgRUFnUwYU0i7IpQRdobDsuus8tZ86r1VZvDmT6KD7bDlyzYMIHD58zxMtJL0whH5nZXKTvOgYU3BBSJWXFGQUB4y9XClIZVphtKIC_vrhr159hAEPOn9WukqWzhOhyRZ0MHnONIMU/s1600/wizardharry.gif" height="119" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b> The Chamber of Secrets</b></span><br />
Harry can talk to snakes<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4vjGQExSGbtjtiTqF6b6W5b-viTnG7-Q8lM7KBOKlRSbcQLXUA_ui6lN1IrWgRv2Z8og_t1y5iWKpYe0sjpLQ1XWACfjUdtktQI275Ea9NYLREJw9TsYCH7uIPv9jeLynGiZ7rPhO1Q4/s1600/parselmouthharry.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4vjGQExSGbtjtiTqF6b6W5b-viTnG7-Q8lM7KBOKlRSbcQLXUA_ui6lN1IrWgRv2Z8og_t1y5iWKpYe0sjpLQ1XWACfjUdtktQI275Ea9NYLREJw9TsYCH7uIPv9jeLynGiZ7rPhO1Q4/s1600/parselmouthharry.gif" height="133" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Prisoner Of Azkaban</b><br />
Harry's got a Criminal Godfather<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZfD-GLCED970L4obJDnIdJCzzViu0hZ5q53-f3ZfYNUTOuNDvIbM_wb42ci8AeAyTmVDDxblUMf6-mfiYzEv71ME0LncaxlfFRhyDFJY7XxrU2gbmLqcwkEmpzdRJ8HS4e9IkfDIAIY/s1600/siriusharry.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZfD-GLCED970L4obJDnIdJCzzViu0hZ5q53-f3ZfYNUTOuNDvIbM_wb42ci8AeAyTmVDDxblUMf6-mfiYzEv71ME0LncaxlfFRhyDFJY7XxrU2gbmLqcwkEmpzdRJ8HS4e9IkfDIAIY/s1600/siriusharry.gif" height="153" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Goblet Of Fire</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Harry's in a Tournament<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-h5rolvJovfz3p65LaWNSiU8TJxv02CU58Oc5hE8f0wiXbo13DtB0rDX8D53DN3DBRRnfziKmvrTQ_895XbuC5yPB4JnAuwNuuTmsmJCz2cDb4YTFepDAsIbvxvq1yUv4STxpVUregvw/s1600/gobletharry.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-h5rolvJovfz3p65LaWNSiU8TJxv02CU58Oc5hE8f0wiXbo13DtB0rDX8D53DN3DBRRnfziKmvrTQ_895XbuC5yPB4JnAuwNuuTmsmJCz2cDb4YTFepDAsIbvxvq1yUv4STxpVUregvw/s1600/gobletharry.gif" height="254" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Order Of The Phoenix</b><br />
Harry's in a Prophecy<b> </b></div>
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<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Half-Blood Prince</b><br />
Harry's got a Book that's cleverer than him</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Deathly Hallows</b><br />
Harry's a Horcrux </div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Thoughts??</div>
</div>
Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-30307811646756697552015-02-03T17:53:00.000+00:002015-02-04T09:06:38.173+00:00Harper Lee Is Releasing A New Book<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This is BIG FREAKING NEWS, people. Harper Lee, reclusive author of my favourite-ever book, <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/review-to-kill-mockingbird-by-harper.html"><i>To Kill A Mockingbird</i></a>, is releasing <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/03/harper-lee-new-novel-to-kill-a-mockingbird?CMP=twt_gu">her second ever novel this year</a>, <i>Go Set A Watchman</i>, and it will feature Scout as a grown woman returning to Maycombe to visit Atticus. Considering <i>To Kill A Mockingbird</i> was first published in 1960, that's a hell of a break between books - fifty-five years, in fact, so I'd say she's done an excellent job of trolling us all. I never even imagined she'd ever write another a book, so for her, aged 88, to just basically turn around and say, 'oh look, what's this that I've found lying around? Oh wait, it's only ANOTHER FREAKING BOOK ABOUT SCOUT!' is just... it's big. To me, it's as big as when they found that <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30206476">Shakespeare folio in a village library in France</a>.<br />
<br />
<i>Go Set A Watchman, </i>due to be published in July 2015, was actually written before <i>To Kill A Mockingbird</i>, with Scout looking back on her childhood. But when editors advised Lee to write from Scout's point of view entirely ("<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/03/harper-lee-new-novel-to-kill-a-mockingbird?CMP=twt_gu">My editor... persuaded me to write a novel from the point of view of the young Scout. I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told</a>."), the original manuscript got set aside and was believed lost until her it was rediscovered last year - according to <a href="http://thebookseller.com/news/mockingbird-follow-harper-lee">The Bookseller, </a>"the original manuscript of the novel was considered to have been lost
until the autumn of 2014, when Carter [Lee's friend and lawyer] discovered it in a secure location
where it had been affixed to an original typescript of <i>To Kill a Mockingbird". </i>Can you believe it? It's like stumbling up in to the attic and finding your dad had forgotten he has a mint condition, first edition copy of <i>Superman</i>. Except bigger. I can't even begin to imagine how Tonja Carter felt when she realised what she was holding. I hope it was reverence and an overwhelming desire for a stiff drink.<br />
<br />
I'm not yet sure how I feel about this news - actually that's a lie, I'm so excited I can barely sit still. I'm on the same kind of high I usually only get from booking holidays. But obviously, as many people have been quick to point out on Twitter, she's got quite a lot riding on this, a lot of hype to live up to:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
No pressure, Harper Lee.<br />
— Sarfraz Manzoor (@sarfrazmanzoor) <a href="https://twitter.com/sarfrazmanzoor/status/562641884104122368">February 3, 2015</a></blockquote>
<br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
A 55 year gap between novels is a hell of a way to put pressure on yourself. Unless she's just been procrastinating.<br />
— ~ (@daniel_barker) <a href="https://twitter.com/daniel_barker/status/562639783890284545">February 3, 2015</a></blockquote>
<br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Lazy author Harper Lee to release 2nd book.<br />
— Mike Birbiglia (@birbigs) <a href="https://twitter.com/birbigs/status/562637272223580160">February 3, 2015</a></blockquote>
<br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
<br />
But I don't really think we've got anything to worry about. I've not been expecting, or even hoping, for another novel from Harper Lee - let alone one that features Scout - so it's not exactly like expectations are riding high. I think most people are just delighted, like I am. <br />
<br />
So sorry <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/18/jonathan-franzen-new-novel-purity-september-2015">Jonathan Franzen</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/kazuoishiguro">Kazuo Ishiguro</a> - I know it's been a while since your last novels came out, but your thunder has officially been stolen. Tough break, guys.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, I'm just gonna be doing this on repeat:<br />
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<b><br /></b>
<b>UPDATE (04-02-2015):</b><br />
<br />
My excitement over this news had been somewhat tempered by <a href="http://jezebel.com/be-suspicious-of-the-new-harper-lee-novel-1683488258">this article on Jezebel</a>, which speculates on the inconsistency between Lee's previous stance on publicity and publishing, and the news that she is now releasing a new title. This is just one article, collating several points made in various corners of the internet, but now my initial excitement has died down a bit there is the nagging concern that maybe Lee hasn't actually consented to the publication of <i>Go Set A Watchman</i>. Read the full article for more, but the points made relate to Lee's declining mental health, her tendency to sign whatever is put in front of her, and the coincidence that this news comes three months after the death of her fiercely-protective sister, Alice. I'm not saying this news is fact, not by a long shot, and I'm really hoping it's not true, but now I think on it, it is a massive coincidence and certainly concerning that an old woman might be being taken advantage of.<br />
<br /></div>
Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-51147058603176228042015-01-28T12:14:00.000+00:002015-03-04T13:46:55.523+00:00REVIEW: The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgox1ECeRB-XDYsD-2LCaSMBffnjpr298heoUggdVEF0Hbuh4RIHX55EXZDIWQPy9Zab-373qBQs6SwUCBpkger3e8AgUCIgvqwfnsXzPvJYUkSZhZG8H7CvN8QKYF0KGae_oXwNNUT8Tc/s1600/TGOTT.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgox1ECeRB-XDYsD-2LCaSMBffnjpr298heoUggdVEF0Hbuh4RIHX55EXZDIWQPy9Zab-373qBQs6SwUCBpkger3e8AgUCIgvqwfnsXzPvJYUkSZhZG8H7CvN8QKYF0KGae_oXwNNUT8Tc/s1600/TGOTT.png" height="320" width="207" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Title</b>: The Girl On The Train</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Author</b>: Paula Hawkins</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>First Published</b>: January 2015</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Published By</b>: Transworld</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Rating</b>: 5/5<br />
<b>Review Summary</b>: Something Is Not Right Here</div>
<br />
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When I bought this about a week and a half ago (with
an unexpected windfall courtesy of a backlog of void-day train refunds, coincidentally), the
bookseller putting the sale through enthusiastically informed me that they'd just received a review that described <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Girl On The Train</i> as “a mix between Hitchcock and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gone Girl</i>.” “There’s even birds on the back cover!” she quipped (albeit
truthfully). I smiled and said I liked Hitchcock films (who doesn’t?) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gone Girl</i> (who doesn’t?), so this book
should suit me fine, but in my head I was thinking, ‘Great, here we go…’ The truth is,
I don’t really like reading – or hearing – reviews of books before I’ve read the books themselves: I’ll happily sit down and plough through them after I’ve finished
to see if my ideas correlate with anyone else’s, but I don’t like my opinion
being clouded by theirs beforehand. As soon as that good-natured bookseller told
me that quote, I was immediately thinking exactly what everyone else is now
thinking about this book: it’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rear
Window</i>, with a really messed-up relationship thrown in for good measure. Sorry for the spoiler, guys,
but if it got spoiled for me, then I’m spoiling it for you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Except I’m not really spoiling it, because that comparison, whilst a
legitimate one to make, barely scratches the surface of this novel: there’s so
much more to it than just witnessing things you shouldn’t have. I’m going to
have to keep this review short (don’t cheer!) because I want to avoid giving
away as little as possible, but there will be a few things I’ll have to tell
you, so bear with me.<br />
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The novel begins with Rachel, our main character,
commuting into London on the same train every morning, which always stops at
the same signalling point for a little while, opposite a row of houses that
back onto the tracks. One of these houses is the home of Jess and
Jason, a couple who are frequently seen out on their roof terrace in the mornings,
enjoying breakfast, chatting about the day to come and generally revelling in
their love and life. At least, that’s how Rachel sees it: she
doesn’t know them, of course, and their names aren’t Jess and Jason, but she
looks out for them every day, envying their lives, wishing she had what they
have – until one day, she sees something on that roof terrace that changes
everything, leading her to interfere in their lives. It’s not as straightforward as that,
though, because Rachel – and this is the other thing I need to tell you – has a
drinking problem, which makes her a very unreliable narrator. Now, I love an
unreliable narrator, but with Rachel it’s not just a case of ‘what is she not
telling us?’; it’s also, ‘Does she even know what she saw?’. It certainly puts a different spin on things, not knowing if your only source is A) telling you everything or B) knows what she's talking about.</div>
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This is not a fast-paced novel – at least, not for a lot of
it. A good chunk is spent establishing just how unreliable Rachel is, and
the changes her drinking habits have wrought on her life (incidentally, it sounds like a lot of people don't like Rachel, and I can understand that. To me though, she cuts a rather pathetic character, one who deserves pity rather than censure). The slow-burn works
here, however; there’s a sense of dread throughout the novel that grows as it
progresses, and the overwhelming feeling I had whilst reading this book was
‘there is something not right here.’ Admittedly I did find it a bit jarring –
and disappointing – that first time I turned the page and realised this was one
of those multiple-viewpoint books with alternating chapters between
characters: there’s been a lot of those lately and whilst they do allow many
facets of a story to be covered, I do sometimes get a bit bored with them. Hawkins, however, uses this as a plot device as well
as one for storytelling (much like Gillian Flynn does in <i>Dark Places</i>), with flashbacks told from one point of view, and the
current story from another… but I've already said too much! What I mean is, the
pace might not be as rapid as you might expect, and the switching between
characters might make it feel slowed down but trust me, it benefits from that.</div>
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I was really excited to read this book, mostly because my
commute involves a train that overlooks houses at various points, and like Rachel, I
sometimes wonder is was happening behind the net curtains I pass
every day. Once, when the train paused at a signal – much like Rachel’s trains
– I saw a woman walking her dog through a field, all alone, and out of nowhere I
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>thought, ‘What if she was attacked,
right now – and I was the only person who witnessed it? I couldn’t do anything about
it because I’d be moving again before I could get any help!’ The sudden shot of fear
I felt as soon as I thought that was surprisingly thrilling, so when I found out
someone had written a book that played exactly on that circumstance – well, it was a
no-brainer that I would have to read it. Thankfully, though, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Girl
On The Train</i> is not nearly as straightforward as my imagined scenario, making for a
fantastically twisty, turny novel that only stumbles slightly at the end.</div>
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Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-59693876817852140862015-01-27T19:12:00.004+00:002015-01-27T19:12:52.770+00:00REVIEW: Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Title</b>: Five Children on the Western Front</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Author</b>: Kate Saunders</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>First Published</b>: September 2014</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Published By</b>: Faber & Faber</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Rating</b>: 4/5<br />
<b>Review Summary</b>: It's Not Divergence: It's Canon</div>
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Like so many, I've read <i>Five Children and It, </i>E.
Nesbit's charming tale of the adventures the titular five children - Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane and The Lamb (the baby) - have with It, a grumpy, vain sand-fairy known as the Psammead (pronounced 'Sammy-ad') that has the power to grant wishes.
In the original novel, the children get stuck on church spires, are barred from their own house for being unrecognisably beautiful, and generally abuse their power with absent-minded wishes that (luckily) expire at the end of each day. It's all very pastoral and sweet and exactly the kind of thing one wants from a fairytale. So when I first heard that someone had written a sequel in which the children are grown up and about to live through the First World War, I can't say I was exactly impressed: generally speaking, I'm not a fan of sequels written by people other than the original authors, especially in cases such as this, where the author is long dead - even less so of 'all grown up' sequels. In fact, had this title not just won in the <a href="https://www.costa.co.uk/costa-book-awards/welcome/">Costa Awards</a>, I probably would not have
read it at all - but when an author wins awards for a story using characters created by someone else over a century ago, you have to give credit where it is probably due, and give it a chance.<br />
<br />
As is the time-old expectation of any book with magic in it, there are two children of an age at which magic is still a very real possibility: The Lamb, now grown up to the age of nine, and Edie, a little sister of around five who was born after the events of <i>Five Children and It</i> and its other sequels, <i>The Phoenix and the Carpet</i> and <i>The Story of the Amulet. </i>They discover the Psammead has reappeared in the gravel pit of the White House once more, but this time lacking the power to grant wishes for them or himself. The two take him to Anthea - now a grown woman studying art - who, despite being an adult (to whom the Psammead is usually invisible), is able to see him - a telling sign of his waning power. Soon after, all the children - most no longer actually children - are reacquainted with their old friend, though unable to fathom why he has returned, or why he has lost his magic.<br />
<br />
There's not enough time to worry about that, though, as Cyril - the eldest - is departing for the Great War to serve on the Front. It's a sombre contrast between the heady, carefree days of on-demand wishes when we previously saw him with the Psammead, and this blend of painful nostalgia and stark, grown-up reality is constant throughout the novel. Eventually, the Psammead regains some of his strength, and also his ability to grant wishes (to which only Edie and The Lamb are usually privy). But instead of the usual whimsical adventures, the two children and the Psammead witness scenes from the his previous life as a desert god - in which he does <i>not </i>come off well - and pay invisible visits to their older siblings embroiled in the war - Anthea and Jane as nurses in England, Cyril and Robert as soldiers in Europe.<br />
<br />
Saunders doesn't shy away from the horrors of the war, despite the excellent mimicry of Nesbit's gentle style: there are casualties, fatalities and injuries to endure, but in between times there is still the delightfully cantankerous Psammead to ease the pain - although he now has a story of his own, rather than appearing as the foil for others' adventures. Saunders captures his persona very well, so that the subtle character development of the creature throughout this novel feels natural, rather than the contrived plot it could have appeared as. It's certainly a bold direction to take: part of the delight of the Psammead in previous encounters is that he is irrevocably conceited, reacting with outrage and sulks if he is doubted or criticised. He still maintains his vanity and bad-tempered behaviour in <i>Five Children on the Western Front</i>, but there is a definite lean towards a more civil, repentant sand-fairy as the novel progresses.</div>
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The most jarring thing about this novel is Saunder's visions of the children as adults: I never would have pictured Jane as an aspiring doctor, or Robert as a studious man, so in many ways the only connection between Saunders' children and Nesbit's was, for me, actually the Psammead himself, which made it easier for me to enjoy reading it: once I'd gotten over the shock of not getting larger versions of the characters I knew, I was able to separate the children of Nesbit's creation, allowing <i>Five Children on the Western Front </i>to stand on it's own, as it should do. It seems foolish now to expect to recognise the characters as they are in Saunders' tale from the children they were in Nesbit's: after all, I highly doubt anyone who knew me as a ten year old, then saw me as I am now, would be able to connect the two, so why should I know Saunders' Cyril as well as Nesbit's?</div>
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Saunders may have used Nesbit's characters for her story, but this
doesn't diminish her work in the slightest: if anything, I've found it
actually enhances the experience of reading the original
stories - something Saunders was no doubt aiming for with her reference to the children's moving visit to their friend the Professor in the future, taken from <i>The Amulet</i> (as <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/11325338/Costa-Prize-Winner-Kate-Saunders-I-couldnt-have-written-this-book-if-I-hadnt-lost-my-own-boy.html">Saunders said herself</a> in an interview in The Telegraph, "These little children come back to visit and he knows what
has happened to them. Of course they leave him crying"). <i>Peter Pan</i> is the only character no one expects to grow up, after all, and given that we're in the midst of the 100th anniversary of the First World War it now seems almost sensible to acknowledge that some of our best beloved characters from classic children's fiction would've grown up into that tragedy. </div>
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As a standalone story, this might not appeal to many: you really need to know about the Psammead and his connection to the children in order to feel the full impact of Saunders' tale, and you won't get much of an explanation of the back story here. But if you've ever read <i>Five Children and It</i>, <i>The Phoenix and the Carpet</i> or <i>The Story of the Amulet</i> then I think you should put aside any preconceived notions of what should and shouldn't be done with other people's creations, and read this. It's an addition to the Psammead canon, not a divergence, and worth the reading just for that.</div>
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Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-20703605598790602702015-01-23T17:18:00.003+00:002015-01-23T20:16:14.958+00:00REVIEW: Tampa by Alissa Nutting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Title</b>: <i>Tampa</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Author</b>: Alissa Nutting</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>First Published</b>: July 2013</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Published By</b>: Faber & Faber</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Rating</b>: 4/5 </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Review Summary:</b> A Different Kind of Horror Story </span></div>
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I've wanted to read this book for a while, but have been wary about it because the main character and first-person narrator, Celeste, is a teacher with a ravenous sexual obsession over 14 year old boys. It's not exactly the usual book I read, nor does it sound like particularly pleasant reading material, but sometimes you've got to move out of your comfort zone - even if just thinking about it makes me feel a bit ill. Yet despite my distaste for the plot, I have to confess I was intrigued by this novel, mostly because someone <i>actually </i>wrote a book about a teacher seducing a male pupil, and from the perspective of a teacher who <i>intends </i>to do it. I tentatively read an excerpt a little while ago and, despite being thrown in at the deep end (Nutting does <i>not </i>hold back), I was hooked by it, and had to see where this was going. I was a bit concerned that I might become sympathetic to Celeste, like I have done in the past towards other morally-reprehensible characters: Joe, from <i>You </i>by Caroline Kepnes, stalks his victim and goes to extreme, violent measures in his pursuit of her, yet because he rationalised his actions to me, I more readily accepted them. Similarly, Alex of <i>A Clockwork Orange </i>by Anthony Burgess recounted his most violent crimes in a slang of his own creation, lessening the impact of what he had done until it was too late and you were on his side. In much the same way, I feared Celeste would win me over.<br />
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No such thing occurred, because she is not a character you can have much sympathy for: Celeste is a cold, calculating predator, a blonde beauty on the outside but rotten to the core. I'll tell you early on, so you can duck out if you want to: this is not a woman who fights against her feelings, but wholeheartedly embraces, encourages and indulges them. She does not rage against her unnatural urges, or feel conflicted about what she does: she lives for it, even explaining early on that she had become a teacher specifically to be around her preferred age-range. <br />
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When we first meet her, Celeste is preparing for her first day as a
qualified teacher to middle-school children, and she is eagerly
anticipating picking her victim. She quickly establishes that she has a
'type': youthfully androgynous, but obviously male; not too
confident (he might boast to friends) and
secretive, potentially with negligent parents to make getting to him easier. She is a
vampire, from her glamorous appearance and predatory nature, right down to her insatiable
appetite for virginal flesh, and she is despicable. The true edge of the novel, however, comes in the form of Jack, Celeste's fourteen-year-old victim. It's easy, in a world of
Augustus's and Edwards, to give teenage boys a maturity
they don't actually have - admittedly, the love interests of <i>The Fault in Our Stars</i> and <i>Twilight </i>are
slightly older than Jack, but the point still stands that these are
teenage boys, credited with more wisdom and worldliness than many of
their real-life contemporaries would have. Nutting's Jack is portrayed
exactly as he should be: childlike, innocent, <i>young</i>. If Celeste's tastes
had run towards the older-looking, more confident boys she
dismisses for being exactly that (she finds any male even slightly resembling adulthood repulsive), then we'd be treading a dangerous line
between titillation and violation: instead, we're firmly placed in the
violation camp. By keeping Jack deliberately young, from his skinny legs
to his too-long fringe, we're constantly reminded that this isn't some
extended teacher-pupil fantasy scene: this is abuse.<br />
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Celeste is a very interesting character: she recognises that others would view her as a pervert, but refers to her proclivities as 'a preference', like there's no real reason for anyone to think badly of her just because she 'prefers' something different. It's a mind-boggling way to think about such a thing, and yet the fact that Nutting is able to create a character like this is testament to the quality of her writing: whilst Celeste regularly disgusts, she also fascinates with her outlook on her actions. The way she rationalises her actions, the brazen manner in which she reveals her fantasies, and the matter-of-fact way she plans to ensnare Jack are the kind of car-crash reading I don't come across often: I was revolted and utterly hooked. She also has a dry sense of humour that throws you off guard: you don't expect a monster to be able to make jokes, and laughter is, after all the great unifier - so it's uncomfortable and terrifying that by making you laugh Celeste can (even for a second) make you forget what she really is. As she sinks deeper into her depravity and becomes careless in her indulgences, the novel becomes less about her obsession with Jack and more about her cold, inhuman attitude to those around her, and the lengths that she will go to in order to conceal her secret, giving the novel far more depth beyond its original subject matter.<br />
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It feels weird to say I enjoyed reading this book, but the truth is, I did, in a malicious way: from page one I found myself rooting for someone to identify Celeste for what she is and call her out on it, so she could be punished. I had similar feelings about her as I did Amy Dunne when I read <i>Gone Girl </i> - I was horrified by Amy's actions and reasons for them but also admired her in a perverse way for her determination and ingenuity. I can't say I admire Celeste, but I certainly recognise those qualities in her: she is nothing if not scheming. I suppose I would say that, if you've got a strong constitution when it comes to subjects that make you feel a bit ill, and enjoy reading about a psychopath being, well, psychopathic, then this would definitely be up your street. Nutting has created a deliciously wicked, depraved character who is as enthralling as she is disgusting: you'll not find an anti-hero here to root for, but you will be feverishly turning those pages to discover if Celeste's crimes finally catch up with her. It does lose pace towards the end, which is disappointing, but not so much as to diminish the rest of the novel. I suppose I'm going to lean on the <i>recommend </i>side because the bottom line is - <i>Tampa </i>has a lot of bad things in it, a lot that will make you uncomfortable, but is ultimately a <i>very good book</i>.<br />
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So to summarise with my new feature....<br />
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Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-57128748549340110792015-01-19T18:27:00.002+00:002015-02-02T17:12:02.334+00:00Reads For Early '15<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Before I got an e-reader, I was - to say the least - an erratic book-buyer. Whatever I saw in a shop, if I liked it, I bought it. I didn't follow any book blogs or columns, and whilst I was always aware of the big summer hits, I can honestly say that I didn't have much of a clue about up-and-coming books, or the must-reads. I just read whatever I happened across. But since browsing on the e-reader isn't exactly as easy as browsing in a shop (which I still do, by the way), I've had to find new ways to get my book fix, and Twitter - with it's myriad of fellow bloggers, authors and book-pluggers - has become that source. I'm now far more aware of what books are getting people talking, what ones are coming out this year, and which ones I've missed but should really get on to. To this end, I now present the books I'm hoping to read in the first half of 2015 - some published already, some still to come:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47JOaS6ro0vLfNk6zr-WRs9QTFahbUfbXa_XCI9u8UaVPPCh5oeiz_0bMhyphenhyphenXZmeNnEicBKwiW5z6LnEKiAU_yvbkH62QX0JXq8RDXMm1K8vvQhMfQaxzG7lSSmYDofjMsuie1SA-sdZs/s1600/R.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47JOaS6ro0vLfNk6zr-WRs9QTFahbUfbXa_XCI9u8UaVPPCh5oeiz_0bMhyphenhyphenXZmeNnEicBKwiW5z6LnEKiAU_yvbkH62QX0JXq8RDXMm1K8vvQhMfQaxzG7lSSmYDofjMsuie1SA-sdZs/s1600/R.png" height="200" width="126" /></a><b><i>Rooms</i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><i> </i>by </span>Lauren Oliver</b><br />
I'm not entirely sure why I want to read this, because it sounds like a slightly less hammy version of the Nicole Kidman film <i>The Others</i>, which gives me the heebie-jeebies (I'm an absolute coward when it comes to ghost stories or anything remotely paranormal). In it, a wealthy man dies, and his estranged family descend on his home to tie up the ends of his life. What they don't realise is, the house is inhabited by ghosts of former residents, who witness the bitter family exchanges and sometimes try to intervene. I'm hoping this will be a ghost story more along the lines of <i>Her Fearful Symmetry </i>by Audrey Niffenegger, which I really enjoyed, and less <i>The Turn of the Screw</i> by Henry James, a book that I can't sleep in the same room of.<br />
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<b><i>A God in Ruins</i> by Kate Atkinson (publishing May 2015)</b><br />
I discovered Kate Atkinson last year, when I read - and really enjoyed - her time-lapsing novel, <i>Life After Life</i><b>, </b>which follows Ursula Todd through the many possible lives she could have had, all results of various decisions made by herself and others along the way. I've not read any other books of Atkinson's yet, but when I heard there was to be a companion novel about Ursula's brother, Teddy, it was only natural I should want to read it. I am a bit wary, however: I don't want to suggest Atkinson is cashing in on the success of <i>Life After Life</i>, but I really hope that <i>A God in Ruins </i>will be as entertaining as its sister, and also readable as a standalone novel. Whilst I love revisiting an established world as much as anyone, there has to be some added value to it, not just a recognition of that world - or novel's - popularity. Also, a bit of a stronger ending than <i>Life After Life</i>'s would go down quite well, too.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0dleyNL5FQHCiF2Od3h5djRIRtNrHHwZL9gGCnVVrlud48MR4nr6iNMMTJ5ULrCml6Vy-h0D9P6XdH7YHgCXFaXB9vujyYtuWFG6RitQhyDx1aWA1Cw28yxHuXOKlzdmUYxMtu5nto-w/s1600/AMYIAD.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0dleyNL5FQHCiF2Od3h5djRIRtNrHHwZL9gGCnVVrlud48MR4nr6iNMMTJ5ULrCml6Vy-h0D9P6XdH7YHgCXFaXB9vujyYtuWFG6RitQhyDx1aWA1Cw28yxHuXOKlzdmUYxMtu5nto-w/s1600/AMYIAD.png" height="200" width="123" /></a><b><i>A Million Years In A Day</i> by Greg Jenner (publishing January 2015)</b></div>
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Greg Jenner, if you don't know him, is the historical consultant - and occasional extra/writer - of one of my favourite TV shows, <i>Horrible Histories</i>, based on the inimitable Terry Deary series: so obviously I am quite excited about this, his first book. The main attraction is that it focuses less on the major historical events throughout time, and more on the parts that get overlooked - the day-to-day bits and bobs that aren't considered as important as the dissolution of the monasteries, or the Restoration, but are nevertheless huge parts of history - essentially, how people like us lived throughout time, 'from stone age to phone age'. I'm really looking forward to this one in particular - plus, I get to meet the author in February, so doubleplusgood.<br />
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<b><i>A Court of Thorns and Roses</i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> by </span>Sarah
J Maas (publishing May 2015)</b></div>
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If you haven't heard of S. J. Maas, and you're a fan of fantasy novels, then WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! She's an up-and-coming author in the YA-wing of the genre, penning the excellent <i>Throne of Glass</i> series, which began as a twist on the Cinderella fairytale (as <a href="https://letthewordsflow.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/i-hear-music-mighty-fine-music/">Sarah described it herself</a>: what if Cinderella was at the ball to assassinate the prince?). This, her second series, is of a slightly more romantic and adult nature, and this time turns the tale of Beauty and the Beast on its head. Here, the Beast is Fae, and Beauty is a hunter who shoots (with a bow and arrow, of course) a Fae whilst in it's wolf form. Cue brooding, flirting and yes, a little bit of Stockholm Syndrome.</div>
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<b><i>Fool's Assassin</i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> by </span>Robin
Hobb</b></div>
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Robin Hobb is a <i>machine</i>. She churns out fantasy novels like you wouldn't believe, and - making her a rarity in writing - she not only keeps returning to her readers' favourite characters, but does so well, without compromising her previous novels. Now concentrate, because this bit is tricky: <i>Fool's Assassin</i> is the first book in a new trilogy about the characters Fitz and the Fool, who together have already featured in two other trilogies (<i>The Farseer Trilogy</i> and <i>The Tawny Man</i>), although there is a third already finished that takes place in the same world, called <i>The Liveships Trilogy</i>, which only features the Fool. Keeping up? So basically, she's starting her FOURTH trilogy set in one world, and her THIRD featuring the two same protagonists. Oh, and they're all at least 500 pages long. See? A MACHINE.<br />
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<a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/review-tampa-by-alissa-nutting.html"><b><i>Tampa </i>by Alissa Nutting</b></a><br />
I've been wanting to read this for ages but been a bit scared to: the main character is a sexual predator who abuses their position as a teacher by embarking on an affair with a pupil, and doesn't appear to shy on some of the more unpleasant details. It's told in much the same way as <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/2014-best-of-year.html"><i>You </i>by Caroline Kepnes,</a> or <i>A Clockwork Orange</i> by Anthony Burgess, in that you are forced to see the story through the predator's eyes. Now I've read both and have felt uncomfortably sympathetic with the narrator in each at times, so I'm reluctantly anticipating much of the same. Oh, and did I mention? The sexual predator of <i>Tampa </i>is a beautiful young woman with a particular penchant for 14 year old boys. Yeah, I know.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYqIw1Y0L672rJHjN7NBZ36mX56IZ9zgjT05AAPvaQmFcSCfQLZhcqJwEaEIvunHV9JUWoaVYJOzLKX058JOXa5YAlJT1zM0Na4bFaqD7lI6ZiN8M7-2axW0D7ze0sswk1BiskAZMdqlA/s1600/SS.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYqIw1Y0L672rJHjN7NBZ36mX56IZ9zgjT05AAPvaQmFcSCfQLZhcqJwEaEIvunHV9JUWoaVYJOzLKX058JOXa5YAlJT1zM0Na4bFaqD7lI6ZiN8M7-2axW0D7ze0sswk1BiskAZMdqlA/s1600/SS.png" height="200" width="133" /></a><b><i>Shadow Scale</i> by Rachel
Hartman (Publishing March 2015)</b></div>
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This is the sequel to 2012's <i>Seraphina</i>, and quite frankly, it's been a bloody long time coming: I read <i>Seraphina </i>in 2013, I think, so I've been waiting for nearly two years for this. For those of you who don't know this series, it is set in a world where humans and dragons (who can assume humanoid forms) uneasily co-exist, until some traditionalist dragons decide to try reasserting their dominance over the humans, despite a peace treaty. <i>Seraphina </i>is refreshing in so many ways: for starters, the main character is a musician and teacher with a skin condition, so she's not your usual perfectly-formed, athletic heroine with an uncanny ability for ninja-techniques and martial arts. Secondly, there is a love story, but it is sensibly in proportion to the rest of the plot (i.e. not a big deal), so it somehow means more than the burning gazes and brushing hands one usually encounters in romantic storylines. Finally, the most interesting aspect of it is that it is very political: there are factions disrupting the fragile peace, persecutions, prejudice, delicate dances performed by those in power to maintain equilibrium, etc, which makes for a fascinating, tense read. In short, I loved <i>Seraphina</i>, and I cannot wait for<i> Shadow Scale</i>. I could pretend I'm a bit nervous it won't live up to my expectations, but truthfully, I think this is going to be great. Also: BEAUTIFUL COVER ALERT, amiright?!<br />
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<a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/review-girl-on-train-by-paula-hawkins.html"><b><i>The Girl On The Train</i> by Paula Hawkins </b></a><br />
I get trains. I use the tube. Therefore, I can RELATE to this book, and isn't relating to a book - be it geographically, socially, personally - the main attraction? Well, okay, I haven't developed any obsessive relationships with people I observe from my train or tube - but I did once see a woman walking her dog through an otherwise empty field, and found myself imagining, 'What if I saw a crime, like a murder, being committed from this train, and it was only a fleeting glimpse, and it seemed like I was the only one who saw it?' Well thankfully nothing like that has ever happened to me, but this book sounds a bit like that, with bonus stalking, so that's why I want to read it - because it's a mix of my imagination and <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/"><i>You </i>by Caroline Kepnes</a> (actually, that's a bad - and concerning - combination. Never mind.).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6OpgzUxtYfI78AUiL4V8oHJE3Vh24d8rSkyAPF36MgUR9c9ehFztxV2UmiLU65YfYl8ELbtvRTGr2Mx-InUzxBHt3IEy8o4F4cLWIIPeMIGaIyX56O9EcLlm9A5fU0TJ_e8QTEmbwbg0/s1600/TCITR.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6OpgzUxtYfI78AUiL4V8oHJE3Vh24d8rSkyAPF36MgUR9c9ehFztxV2UmiLU65YfYl8ELbtvRTGr2Mx-InUzxBHt3IEy8o4F4cLWIIPeMIGaIyX56O9EcLlm9A5fU0TJ_e8QTEmbwbg0/s1600/TCITR.png" height="200" width="126" /></a><b><i>The Catcher in The Rye</i> by J. D. Salinger</b><br />
I've always felt like I missed the boat with this one: I never read it as a teenager, and by the time people started incredulously asking me how I'd got so far without reading it, I kind of felt that I was too old for it. Actually, that's not right: I felt that I was beyond the age where I'd find Holden Caulfield to be anything but a whiny teenager, because I am no longer a whiny teenager (not to say all teenagers are whiny, of course). I suppose I just didn't think I'd be able to relate to the narrator in the same way as I would've done say, ten years ago, and knowing that may cloud my impression of it. However, there are only so many excuses one can make, and when I read <i>My Salinger Year</i> by Joanne Rakoff last year (the autobiographical tale of Rakoff's time working for literary agency, replying to Salinger fan mail), I started to reassess my accidental no-Salinger policy, and now I'm actually looking very forward to finding out more about Holden Caulfield.<br />
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<b><i>In Cold Blood</i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> by </span>Truman
Capote</b></div>
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The only other non-fiction title on the list, this is the account and analysis of the brutal murder of the Clutter family in 1959. Penned by the childhood friend of Harper Lee, and the inspiration for the character Dill in <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/review-to-kill-mockingbird-by-harper.html"><i>To Kill A Mockingbird</i></a>, this is the rare true-crime story that I'm actually interested in reading - I don't think I'll ever understand the morbid fascination people have with those real-life-murder mysteries and true-abuse books. I can't say it's the grisly details that particularly draw me in - it's more the connection between the author and Harper Lee, and my new-found appreciation for Agatha Christie, which has lead to a new-found love of crime novels.</div>
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<b><i>A Pale View of Hills</i> by<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Kazuo
Ishiguro</b></div>
I've read two and a half of Ishiguro's novels: <i>Never Let Me Go</i>, which I love and frequently re-read; <i>The Remains of the Day</i>, which I enjoyed and will read again, I'm sure; and <i>The Unconsoled</i>, which I never finished and can't say I ever will. It's a mixed bag so far, which is why - rather than getting all excited about <i>The Buried Giant</i>, his first novel in a decade that's out later this year - I'm going back to the beginning, to his first-ever novel, <i>A Pale View of Hills</i>. It's the story of a Japanese woman in England, reflecting on the aftermath of the Nagasaki bomb when she was a young woman, and her relationship with her daughters. I think it's a bit darker than I've made it sound, but I'm hoping it will rekindle my interest in Ishiguro's novels.<br />
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Are there any books you're looking forward to, or any that you've put off for ages but now intend to read, in 2015?<br />
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Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-64509768285727525662015-01-17T15:37:00.001+00:002015-01-17T15:52:11.540+00:002014: Worst of the Year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've not done this before - listed all the books I disliked the most from the past twelve months. But, now I've got my Reading Log, it's that much easier for me to remember those books that really disappointed, annoyed or bored. So here they are: the books I <i>least </i>enjoyed in 2014. I've actually been really lucky this year in that there have been very few books I've actively disliked or been really disappointed by - I was trying to aim for ten, for symmetry with the <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/2014-best-of-year.html">Best Of list</a>, but on reflection some of the titles I'd selected were actually just filler, and I wasn't so bothered by them that they merited inclusion. So here are the eight titles I liked the least in 2014. Similar rules to the Best Of list apply - all books listed have been read by me FOR THE FIRST TIME in 2014, but weren't necessarily published in 2014. A few extra caveats here, though - firstly, I have to have finished it. <insert final="" here="" number="">And secondly, consider yourself warned - there may be some VERY unpopular opinions here!</insert><br />
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<b><i><span id="goog_1580940818"></span><span id="goog_1580940819"></span>Murder on the Orient Express</i> by Agatha Christie - first published 1934</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Q5uABRVmTWdZNKWCH0mh_2ptJGrETSIkT4TjoxFBRwsOqf53T-C-FivUYpB2_DvTrfzCOOq0wE-VyFlGR-yAxB7yLh59Q1nn3gYXTuZwa3weAfGvhIeZt4L2WOPb4Jt-IizFtzGlvVw/s1600/MOTOE.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Q5uABRVmTWdZNKWCH0mh_2ptJGrETSIkT4TjoxFBRwsOqf53T-C-FivUYpB2_DvTrfzCOOq0wE-VyFlGR-yAxB7yLh59Q1nn3gYXTuZwa3weAfGvhIeZt4L2WOPb4Jt-IizFtzGlvVw/s1600/MOTOE.png" height="200" width="151" /></a>Bit of a controversial place to start: for starters, Christie featured in my <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/2014-best-of-year.html">2014: Best of the Year </a>list, and<i> Murder on the Orient Express</i> is one of her most well-known, best-loved stories. This may well be why I didn't get on with it: when a title's reputation precedes it, expectations are naturally going to be higher (expect quite a few of those kind of books on this list). Easily one of the bigger disappointments this year, Christie's tale of Hercule Poirot investigating a murder on a stranded train is infamous, and yet it didn't do anything for me. I don't want to go into it too much because (despite my antipathy) I don't want to give it away, but a lot of the story felt quite contrived, and I thought the ending was a bit of a cop-out. Others may - and probably will - disagree with me, but it fell short of the standard I had come to expect from Christie. It may well be that I saturated myself - I read nine Christie books last year, most of which featured Poirot - but I felt deflated when I finished this one. Not the worst book I read last year by far, or indeed the worst Christie, but possibly the starting point of my increasing dislike for Poirot as a character (still just finished another, though. Christie has become my crack). <br />
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<b><i>Lady Chatterley's Lover </i>by D. H. Lawrence - first published 1928</b><br />
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I've no idea why I started reading this. It's never been something I've wanted to read before, and I've not read anything else by Lawrence to make me want to pick up another; I just happened to find it for free download on my ereader, so I got it, and I'm so glad I didn't pay any money for it. <i>I just don't get it</i>. I mean, yes, I do - I get the whole commentary on the unnatural divides in society, the reawakening of a woman's sexuality, the question of what love actually is - but the actual story? Nope. I got bored with the endless shagging, I got bored with the supposedly-titillating instances when Mellors lapses into his 'real' accent, and I got bored with their romance. I just didn't connect with it: I know that Connie was filling the gap (ha!) her impotent, paralysed husband left with a solid, strong, dominant man, and was in part obeying his suggestion to provide an heir by any means, but the whole relationship - whether it was about love, or power, or sex, or whatever - just wasn't convincing. I struggled gamely on in the hope of finding something to actually care about, but, to be honest, I spent most of the time reading it just feeling actually quite angry and bored with it all. <br />
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<b><i>We Were Liars</i> by E. Lockhart - published 2014</b><br />
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This is going to be another controversial one, isn't it? <i>We Were Liars</i> was one of <i>the </i>YA books of 2014: thousands of people of all ages appear to have been captivated by the story of the messed-up, super-wealthy Sullivan family spending their summers on their private island. Admittedly, there's a lot in this book to think about, and I have to say it's a really well-plotted story: there were some parts of it that I just did not see coming, although in retrospect they made a lot of sense, which is the mark of a good writer, I think. What actually bothered me about this book was the narrator: maybe Lockhart wrote her too well, but I just could not stand her, and as it was written from a first person perspective, I never got to get outside of her head. Again, I'm probably missing a point here, and maybe on a re-read I'll change my mind, but my first impressions were that it was a book full of self-pity with few redeemable characters and not all that much point to it.<br />
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<b><i>Stoner </i>by John Williams - first published 1965</b><br />
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This was an unexpected hit of 2013/2014 - Vintage Books released it as part of their Classics series, and suddenly a novel that had faded from modern memory experienced a revival, with many a person on Twitter expressing praise for it alongside the hashtag, #<a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=typd&q=weareallstonernow">Weareallstonernow</a>. It's this exposure on Twitter that led to me this book - that, and the fact that it sounded like the opposite to <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/presents-for-me.html"><i>Any Human Heart</i> by William Boyd</a>. Instead of Logan Mountstuart's dazzling experiences, undulating careers and celebrity brushes, with William Stoner I'd be getting something more akin to real life: a man who lives a quiet life, doing quiet things, quite often making poor decisions. In many ways, this is the story's appeal: it's far easier to relate to, and therefore - theoretically - more resonant with its readers. Unfortunately, it tipped a little bit too far into 'real life' for me, and instead, I just got bored. I did, however, learn something from this: I learnt that I like books that transport me, that force me to imagine new worlds and experiences. Seeing as <i>Stoner </i>lived in a small world, and had few experiences, there just wasn't enough here for me. To be blunt, I think I missed the point of it.<br />
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<b><i>We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves </i>by Karen Joy Fowler - published 2014</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL2fwBTNrTTlRnm0ZbCwIcKTt01o35gy0vfFR4nW01Bje03fA96nCKn0eIz11fXN3cZk0FMSzemqOVver6Lhnc6S9Gvk62B8SVX2rcqKsjyV6mFsL-TuvCT2ckk0tbNKVMdxGHCVVRbuM/s1600/WAACBO.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL2fwBTNrTTlRnm0ZbCwIcKTt01o35gy0vfFR4nW01Bje03fA96nCKn0eIz11fXN3cZk0FMSzemqOVver6Lhnc6S9Gvk62B8SVX2rcqKsjyV6mFsL-TuvCT2ckk0tbNKVMdxGHCVVRbuM/s1600/WAACBO.png" height="200" width="128" /></a>Yet another controversial entry (I'm sensing a theme), this is a book that everyone seems to be falling over themselves to praise, but I just don't get. This is probably more to do with my expectations of the book, and the mood I was in when I was reading it. See, I thought it was going to be one of those novels that, whilst dealing with some kind of Major Issue or Question, was still light-hearted in tone and left one feeling better once finishing it. I also hoped it would be this, because when I started reading it I was in hospital, and could've done with cheering up. It was not quite what I was expecting (or at least, not to my consideration) and it certainly didn't cheer me up. This may be clouding my judgement, so it may benefit from a re-read. However, my main issue with it was a lack of connection with the main character, Rosemary; simply put, I didn't like her much, and so I didn't like her story. Now, you can have narrators that you don't like, but are still enthralled by - Joe from <i>You </i>by Caroline Kepnes is such a narrator, as is Nick from <i>Gone Girl</i> by Gillian Flynn. Rosemary is, for me, not part of this group, mostly because I found her boring as well as unlikeable. Also - and I think this is a fault with the marketing of the book - it's made pretty clear that there is a BIG TWIST early-ish in the book (they even give a page number). Now, I don't know about you, but I (despite my accidental habit of giving away spoilers) don't like it when people tell me I've got a twist to look out for, so we got off on the wrong foot pretty early, because I was expecting a twist, and when it arrived it just confused me rather than amazed (as I think was the intention). After that, it was just downhill, and whilst I may read it again at some point to give it a fighting chance, my overwhelming impression of it was just disappointment.<br />
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<b><i>The Shock of The Fall</i> by Nathan Filer - published 2013</b><br />
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And again, another book that everyone else loved and I don't get, <i>The Shock of The Fall</i> (a beautiful title, I'll admit) won the Costa Book Award in 2013. Now, don't judge me too harshly for featuring this title in a 'Worst of' list: it's not here because I hated anyone in it, or didn't like the story. In fact, I quite liked the plot (if 'like' is the correct word to use) and I sympathised with the main character (indeed, all the characters). But I didn't love it, I wasn't stirred by it, it didn't make me reconsider anything and it didn't stay with me after finishing it. To tell the truth, I got a bit bored with it. I don't know why this was: I'm inclined to think that, as quite often happens, the hype surrounding it meant my higher-than-usual expectations weren't met. Then again, apparently everyone else thought it <i>was </i>worth the hype, so I guess the problem is with me setting the bar too high. Either way, the main reason this is on the list is not because it was a bad book, or because I didn't like the subject matter, or the people in it: it simply did not resonate with me, and it's hard to be pleased with a book you thought you'd like a lot more than you actually did.<b> </b><br />
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<b><i>Just What Kind of Mother Are You? </i>by Paula Daly - published 2013</b><br />
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I got handed a free sample of this outside of a tube station one sunny morning; it featured the first three chapters or so of the book, finished on an appropriate cliffhanger and by the end of the day, I'd bought it, thoroughly impressed with what I'd read so far (the plot, by the way, centres around a frazzled mother-of-three, Lisa, forgetting to pick up a friend's daughter after school, who promptly goes missing). Sadly, the strong beginning gave way rather quickly to a soggy middle and a limp finish. It wasn't the characters this time - they were quite good, especially Lisa, who you're sympathetic to from the get-go - but more the plot: what started out as a fairly pacy novel with a twist on the missing-child theme turned into something a bit clunkier with the whodunnit element pretty obvious from a mile off - and this is me talking, who has rarely ever been able to correctly identify the perpetrator in any crime stories I've read or films I've watched. I guessed so early on that I have to admit, I assumed for most of the book that I was (as always) wrong, so when it turned out I was <i>right </i>- well, the sudden pleasure at getting it right was quickly dampened by the reflection that actually, it was a bit obvious. When a book simultaneously makes you doubt yourself AND disappoints, you know you're not exactly on to a winner.<br />
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<b><i>Under the Dome</i> by Stephen King - published 2009</b><br />
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It all started <i>so well. </i>I was thoroughly hooked from page one: a town is suddenly and inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible, indestructible dome; no one can leave and no supplies can get in. A quickly-established cast of heroes and villains, combined with the political and social strains, get the plot going quite quickly. I especially enjoyed King's imagining of all the fates of those people who were in or around the dome as it appeared, such as a witness to a rodent sliced in half as it came down, or the plane that crashed into it; it all felt very convincing, very well imagined. The problem came with the length: after that initial plot-setting beginning, it just fell into a vicious cycle of: someone tries to foil the Main Villain's plans and gets foiled themselves; society crumbles a bit further; an attempt to solve the Dome problem fails; someone tries to foil the Main Villain's plans and gets foiled themselves; society crumbles a bit further; an attempt to solve the Dome problem fails. Foiled; Crumbles; Fails, over and over again. FOR NINE-HUNDRED PAGES. And then, after all that, the ending is just... not worth it. If I hadn't gotten so interested so quickly I may never have finished this - and I kind of wish I had just given up.<br />
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Any books that you've read recently that you didn't like? Were you told you'd love one, then found you hated it?</div>
Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697089808397744719.post-16139559277101182622015-01-11T15:27:00.002+00:002015-01-11T15:33:06.449+00:002014: Best of the Year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In previous years, I have chronicled my favourite books over the previous 12 months by counting down the top 10 over 3 entries. This year, I was going to opt for something a little different. I WAS planning to list it by best book for each month, but this has proved more difficult than anticipated - basically, some months I read only good or so-so books, whereas other months yielded a bumper crop of amazing reads. So, instead, I'm just going to list the best 10 books I read in 2014 - there's no countdown here, just the ones I loved best. Otherwise, usual criteria apply: all books listed have been read by me FOR THE FIRST TIME in 2014, but weren't necessarily published in 2014:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8cW4BSoYkXscaYwKvl7nprZLb6WEQf8iLRQXmHuQPgTZWG9mPeehz88pGdSJnflsf7aeP9blOtszYHsgD9d5Y7DyHq2WB-N-KDOXkfut7DfdPeRWNogVxC1o7PWdpTixG9QNzJzRB9FY/s1600/ATTWN.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8cW4BSoYkXscaYwKvl7nprZLb6WEQf8iLRQXmHuQPgTZWG9mPeehz88pGdSJnflsf7aeP9blOtszYHsgD9d5Y7DyHq2WB-N-KDOXkfut7DfdPeRWNogVxC1o7PWdpTixG9QNzJzRB9FY/s1600/ATTWN.png" height="200" width="121" /></a><b><i>And Then There Were None </i>by Agatha Christie - first published November 1939</b><br />
This has a special place in my heart as it is the FIRST EVER Agatha Christie book I have read, and it was - to get all British on you - a ripping corker of a yarn. Ten complete strangers are mysteriously summoned to an island off the coast of Devon. Suddenly, during dinner on their first night all together, a record begins playing - revealing that each person present has been responsible for the death of another person, in one way or another. As the bodies start piling up - in eerily similar circumstances to a nursery rhyme, Ten Little Indians - the main question on everybody's lips is: who knows of their crimes and summoned them? And who will get out alive? It's a pacy, tense thriller with more than a few genuinely scary bits more akin to horror stories than crime novels, and you'll not fully know what's going on until the very last page. I haven't been this consistently misled by an author since reading <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-autumn-review.html"><i>Apple Tree Yard</i> by Louise Doughty</a> last year.<br />
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<b><i>You </i>by Caroline Kepnes - published September 2014</b><br />
Many people describe books as 'unputdownable', but it's quite rare that I find one that actually <i>is</i><b> </b>unputdownable; a book that you are almost surgically attached to from beginning to end. You can see where this is going now: <i>You </i>fits the unputdownable bill perfectly. From the moment I read those first few lines - <i>'You walk into the bookstore and you keep your hand on the door to make sure it doesn't slam. You smile, embarrassed to be a nice girl, and your nails are bare and your V-neck sweater is beige and it's impossible to know if you're wearing a bra but I don't think you are.'</i> - I was instantly hooked: it's unusual to read a book that's addressed entirely to someone else in this fashion (I can only think of<i> Dolores Clairborne</i> by Stephen King as another example) and it is<i> </i>such a compelling and tricky thing to pull off. Yet Kepnes does it, and does it well, and suddenly you're inside a seriously disturbed young man's head as he pursues the girl of his dreams in a less-than romantic manner. It's surprisingly sexy, quite horrifying and whilst it does lag in a few spots, the pace picks up again pretty quickly. Can't recommend it enough.<br />
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<b><i>Everything I Never Told You</i> by Celeste Ng - published August 2014</b><br />
This was one of those books where you inexplicably avoid it for ages, then suddenly pick it up and wonder why you took so long. Lydia, the middle child of three and the eldest daughter, suddenly disappears one night and whilst we, the readers, know from the first line of the book that she is already dead, that's a horror the family have yet to deal with: first, they must endure the fear and sickening worry of finding their child and sister is missing. It reminded me of <a href="http://booksandboxes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/review-lovely-bones-by-alice-seabold.html"><i>The Lovely Bones </i>by Alice Seabold</a>, in some ways: the reliable daughter suddenly gone, the family left behind to pick up their lives, a pentagon made into a square. It's also a fascinating insight into the life of a Chinese-American family in 1970's America, with prejudices confronted and dissected in a straightforward, no-nonsense manner. It's far less depressing and sad than I've made it sound<i>, </i>with some positive moments amongst the misery, but it is less of a thriller than I was expecting - I thought that the many things Lydia never told were going to be more exciting and inflammatory than they actually are (which, in a way, makes it more realistic, and so much more relatable). Nevertheless, it was one of those books that sticks with you long after you've finished it, and makes you question exactly what you'd do if you were put on a pedestal you never wanted.<br />
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<b><i>The Luminaries</i> by Eleanor Catton - published July 2013</b><br />
You've probably heard of this book for several reasons: it won the Man Booker Prize in 2013; Catton is the youngest ever recipient of said prize; it's structurally dazzling. So I'm just going to focus on the story, which is, at it's core, a whodunnit. In 19th century New Zealand, a wealthy man has gone missing, a drunk is found dead with a small fortune, and a prostitute is discovered near death's door, apparently by her own doing. These three events are all connected to each other, and to twelve men who congregate to piece their versions of events together to solve the mystery - and possibly absolve themselves. Into all this walks Walter Moody, a man who seeks to make his fortune in the nearby goldfields, with his own contribution to the narrative. Yes, this story <i>does </i>drag in places; yes, thanks to the various accounts from each of the twelve men, there is <i>some </i>repetition - but stick with it, after the first third it picks up massively: it's an ambitious novel that deserves your attention, and you will be rewarded.<br />
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<b><i>The Lemon Grove</i> by Helen Walsh - published February 2014 </b><br />
I bought this because it's set in Majorca, which is hot and sunny and a place I've been to on holiday, and because when I first read it in March 2014 it was cold and wet and I wanted to be on holiday. So if you want a book to help you escape to sunnier climes in your mind, well, this is not it. I mean, yes, it does have that holiday air to it - snoozes in the sun, late-night dinners in tavernas, drinking too much and not caring - but this idyllic setting just sets off the dark edges of the novel perfectly. When Jenn's stepdaughter brings her new boyfriend, Nathan, on the family holiday, Jenn begins to develop a dangerous, obsessive attraction to him, which appears to be reciprocated. It's unexpectedly thrilling, more than a bit sexy and looks into the motivations behind the attraction between an older woman and a younger man - this 'cougar' thing that seems to have started with Mrs Robinson, gained steam with American Pie's MILF and just hasn't slowed down. It's morally conflicting, with fascinating - if unlikeable - characters and is another one to add to the 'unputdownable' shelf. Plus, at a mere 225 pages long, it's a short, pacy read with hooks that keep on coming until the very last full stop.<br />
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<b><i>The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender</i> by Leslye Walton - published March 2014 </b><br />
Firstly, look at that cover. JUST LOOK AT IT. Ain't it pretty? That cover is Reason One I bought a print copy not long after reading this for the first time on my Kindle. Reason Two, of course, is that it's a beautiful story, a fairytale in so many ways. As the title suggests, the novel circles around Ava, but she is only barely the main character - her mysterious and unusual relatives also share top billing. It starts with an immigrant family arriving in New York at the beginning of the 20th century. Various misfortunes befall the rather extraordinary family, leading to one member moving as far west across the country as she can, to Seattle, where Ava is eventually born. I won't give away too much more from here but - seeing as it's revealed in the first few pages - I do feel it's important you know that Ava is born with wings, and these unexpected appendages are what lead to the strange and beautiful sorrows of the title. It's a mournful book (as you might expect), slow and flowing, but the language used - especially in relation to food and weather - is just lovely. I don't want to talk too much about this book in case I either don't stop or ruin the magic, but it <i>is </i>magical, and if you're the kind of person who loved <i>The Time Traveller's Wife </i>by Audrey Niffenegger, or <i>The Ocean At The End Of The Lane </i>by Neil Gaiman, I reckon you'd like this.<br />
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<b><i><span id="goog_1930087753"></span><span id="goog_1930087754"></span>The Girl With All The Gifts</i> by M. R. Carey - published January 2014</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6NMS02Im1wJgNNU9YEBWqvuPU3JbqBD2TmdtPuiKwBw6jzhrXGBfEhgCczlZFoeUC3wkpAGrEhqdu-TCjBMberQpbNEhyphenhyphenZ8SukdkGkfBFeDTaYVs2SPNk0K6DIiTsj3vavqQbW5301Ho/s1600/tgwatg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6NMS02Im1wJgNNU9YEBWqvuPU3JbqBD2TmdtPuiKwBw6jzhrXGBfEhgCczlZFoeUC3wkpAGrEhqdu-TCjBMberQpbNEhyphenhyphenZ8SukdkGkfBFeDTaYVs2SPNk0K6DIiTsj3vavqQbW5301Ho/s1600/tgwatg.png" height="200" width="126" /></a>You've probably heard of this, if you've not been living under a rock, because it was one of the bigger sleeper titles of 2014 (not so big as <i>The Miniaturist </i>by Jessie Burton or <i>I Am Pilgrim </i>by Terry Hayes, but big enough). It's going to be a tricky one to discuss because there's a lot in this that can be easily given away, but shouldn't be; however, I will do my best to avoid spoilers. Picture a school where the kids are all strapped to their chairs; where they're supervised by armed guards; where they're barely fed more than once a week. Sounds like a modern horror story, doesn't it? Well this is, in many ways - because what if the kids are treated like this, because the adults are scared - <i>terrified </i>- of them? This is exactly what's going on: Melanie, a young girl kept in such an establishment, is a source of fear and hatred for many of the adults around her, except Miss Justineau, her teacher, who tries to treat the children like they're people, despite her revulsion. The story follows - amongst many other things - the development of the relationship between these two characters, against a backdrop of a dramatically altered England. I don't really want to say any more now because I'm getting close to giving too much away, and ruining it for you, but I will say this: the myth of Pandora, with the box from which she loosed all the horrors of the world, is a recurring motif throughout the book, and the more you read, the more you realise just why Carey was so inspired by that legend.<br />
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<b><i>The Handmaid's Tale</i> by Margaret Atwood - first published 1985</b><br />
I genuinely don't know how to start talking about this book, so forgive me if I lapse into stream-of-consciousness here. Firstly, I'd just like to state for the record two things: I LOVE Margaret Atwood, and she scares the hell out of me. She scares me because she seems to have an uncanny ability to not just call out humanity on it's darker tendencies - things claimed to have been done in the name of something greater, or for progress - but does so in a way that makes it perfectly possible that such-and-such an outcome COULD occur. That's pretty much what happens in <i>The Handmaid's Tale</i>; an ultra-Christian religious sect stages a coup in America and seizes power, instigating their version of an ideal society that involves a strict hierarchy, particularly for women who have basically no rights in this society. It's a fascinating, compelling, horrifying book which asks all sorts of questions over consent, control, fanaticism, religion and women's rights - particularly in regards to their own bodies. I'll stop there before I say too much, but I will leave it with the line that scared me the most in the entire novel, when the main character visits a place where the bodies of executed criminals are displayed:<br />
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<b><i>Jurassic Park</i> by Michael Crichton - first published 1991</b><br />
This is going to be a bit of a short one because you must know what happens in <i>Jurassic Park</i> - you've surely seen the film. Well, that's a pretty faithful adaptation - all the main points of the book are covered in the film (the arrogance of man, chaos theory, life always finds a way etc.), so I don't need to discuss the plot. But the reason I enjoyed this story so much is because, despite there being a LOT more of the convincing-sounding-but-really-dubious science in it than the film has, it's pacy, fun to read, with better-developed characters and a few twists and character endings (NOT necessarily deaths!) that the film didn't find time for. It is a long book (my copy has 399 pages in it, with quite small print) so don't be put off if you were expecting some printed version of the film - I can honestly say that this book is better, and I happen to think that <i>Jurassic Park </i>the film is great, so I can't give much higher praise than that.<br />
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<b><i>Wonder </i>by R. J. Palacio - published March 2012</b><br />
The last book in this list is coincidentally also the last book I actually finished in 2014, and what a final book it was. It's the tale of Auggie, who is born with a face very different to everyone else's - so different, he has to be homeschooled for most of his life as he's been too ill to attend regular school, and there is a concern of how other children will react to him. However, when his various necessary surgeries peter out and his life becomes less of a medical rollercoaster, his parents decide to enrol him in Beecher Prep, a local private school, which is where the story begins. Auggie, who knows his face is different but otherwise is a normal ten-year-old boy, expects children to react badly to him - and in some cases, he's completely right, whereas in others he's pleasantly surprised. It's an uplifting tale, albeit not without it's harrowing moments - it's amazing how unkind and prejudiced children can be, when you consider they're born with no such tendencies - and there are a few moments that may cause tears (the kind of tears, I may add, that <i>The Fault in Our Stars</i> by John Green never wrung out of me), but ultimately it's beautiful, funny, sweet and a reminder that judging by appearances is never the way to go.<br />
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And finally, a mention for the other great books I read this year, but didn't quite make this particular cut:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><i>Foxglove Summer </i>by Ben Aaronovitch</li>
<li><i>Fight Club </i>by Chuck Palahniuk</li>
<li><i>The Miniaturist</i> by Jessie Burton</li>
<li><i>My Salinger Year</i> by Joanne Rakoff</li>
<li><i>The Table of Less-Valued Knights</i> by Marie Phillips</li>
<li><i>The Cuckoo's Calling</i> by Robert Galbraith</li>
</ul>
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Did you read any of these recently? What did you think of them? <br />
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Jasmine to a Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923742707432584324noreply@blogger.com0