Saturday 1 March 2014

February reads


1. I was persuaded to read Cold Comfort Farm after its mention in How To Be A Heroine and subsequent comments here and on Twitter in support of it.  I suppose that led me to expect too much, as I didn't totally love it: I found the small futuristic touches bizarre and the mock-pastoral language a bit of a grind to get through.  That being said, there's no doubt that Flora is a very good heroine.

2. Oh my gosh, I loved Fangirl so much. I'm a sap for a hapy ending and the reason I love a lot of YA fiction is because, although (like Fangirl) it often deals in tough realities like mental illness, it tends to also work towards an uplifting finish.  I fell hard for all the characters, who are so well realised that they felt like friends by the end of the book, but especially heroine Cath, a writer of fan fiction who is trying to navigate her first year at college without her identical twin sister.

3. The Rosie Project is my latest book group choice and I raced through it. I'd read so many glowing reviews on the blogosphere and was happy to learn that they were all completely accurate.  When genetics professor Don decides, at the age of 39, to embark upon a hunt for a wife (he has, up to this point, been chronically single largely due to - the reader realises, although Don doesn't - undiagnosed Autistic Spectrum Disorder), he comes up against a most unsuitable match, the Rosie of the title.  Although in many ways this is a predictable boy-meets-girl romance, it is also laugh out loud funny and very sweet and true.  I loved the character of Don and found his journey towards understanding how love and relationships work very moving. 

4. I'm a massive fan of American YA writer David Levithan, so when I saw his new novel, Every Day, in the Waterstones buy-2-get-1-half-price offer I was pretty excited.  This is the story of A, who wakes every morning in a different sixteen year-old body, takes over that person's life for a day, and moves on the following night.  My favourite element of the novel was A's musings about body and belonging, which is heightened when he lands in the body of a transgender teen, and his various misadventures as he tries to get to grips with a new life every day.


5. I wrote a full review of How To Be A Heroine a week or two ago, because I loved it so much.  See here for my thoughts (which the author of the book, Samantha Ellis, only fricking well retweeted!).

6. At the time of writing I haven't quite finished Be Awesome, a collection of pieces by Guardian writer Hadley Freeman.  So far, though, I've enjoyed the chapters about film and culture but found her brand of feminism to be annoyingly heterosexist: there is no recognition here that a woman might have sex with anyone other than a cis man.

7. How England Made The English was an interesting read - I think I annoyed The Boy by constantly interrupting his own reading to tell him fascinating facts - about how the geology, geography and architecture of England have shaped its inhabitants.

10 comments:

  1. There's a Rainbow Rowell book on my TBR pile that never seems to make it to the top! I should probably push it up there!

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    1. Ooh which one? I liked Eleanor & Park but I LOVED Fangirl.

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    2. Eleanor and Park - haha!

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    3. I did really enjoy it - the main characters are fab. But I definitely preferred Fangirl.

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  2. I tried to read Cold Comfort Farm before and gave up on it! Was in Waterstones recently and saw Fangirl, it does look good so I may have to check it out. Also want to read How to be a Heroine, thanks for the recommendations!

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  3. Oh I really want to read Fangirl! I don't think they have a copy in Dutch libraries yet so I might have to order myself one online, should put that on my to-do list. I read Every Day a while back, and even though I really enjoyed the story, I can remember that I was ab it annoyed by the things he made up to fit to the story. But all in all, great book. I enjoy David Levithan's work as well!

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    1. I think reading Every Day so quickly after reading novels I'd absolutely adored meant it suffered a bit by comparison, but still better than most other books!

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  4. I saw Fangirl the other day and was not sure if I would like it but might give it a go after I finish my next book and of course How to be a Heroine.

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  5. I am always in awe of how many books people manage to read in a month! Glad you liked The Rosie Project. :D

    Jen | gingerellaj.blogspot.co.uk

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