Tuesday 29 April 2014

April reads


1. Gossip From The Forests: A Search For The Hidden Roots Of Our Fairytales is a lovely book, packed full of fascinating facts about both the natural and social history of British forests (really - she genuinely makes the history of our forestry sound incredibly interesting!) and how they influenced the development of fairy tales (and how fairy tales have, in turn, influenced the forests). Taken together with her own versions of the tales, this makes for a genuinely absorbing read.

2. Finally! I finished the currently published A Song Of Ice & Fire series with the behemoth that is A Dance With Dragons. If I found the first 400 pages hard going, things certainly heated up after that and I was soon just as much in love with the book as with the others in the series. But the final chapters: major WTF-ness! I actually gasped out loud while my eyes filled with tears.

3. You might recognise Longbourn from my December reads list, but in fact on the first time around I didn't quite finish the book before it had to go back to the library (I was also reluctant to finish it as it seemed to be on course for a heartbreaking ending and I'm too sentimental!). When it was picked as our April book group read, I returned to it with joy, as it's quite simply one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. The story of the servants from Pride & Prejudice, I loved how Baker gave the servants parallels to the events of the Bennett family, and it opened my eyes to the hardship suffered by those in service.  A lovely book.


4. The Humans by Matt Haig has been all over my Twitter feed lately and, perhaps because of the enormous number of "this is the best book evah"-type tweets, my expectations were extremely high. And I don't know whether I just wasn't quite in the mood for it, but I didn't love it. The story of an alien lifeform's attempts to fit in with humans after being sent to Earth, the book is full of great soundbites that sounded profound and meaningful when they were being tweeted by fans of the book but which, when read in the context of the narrative, I found a tad facile. It's a book I'll shelve and try again in a couple of years.

5. I was inspired to read Divergent after reading Hannah's review, which promised something in the vein of The Hunger Games. While the quality of writing doesn't come close to that - I found the constant repetition of Tris touching her forehead to indicate anxiety wearing - it is a largely a satisfying YA dystopian action adventure. I think I will, slightly reluctantly, end up reading the other two books in the trilogy (despite one of my pupil's warning me today that they decline in quality as the series goes on).

6. The Outcast Dead is the latest Ruth Galloway thriller and a welcome improvement on the previous novel, which I found a tad silly. Linking the exhumation of the body of a convicted Victorian baby-killer in the grounds of Norwich Castle with a spate of child abductions in modern Norfolk, it moved at a cracking pace and with the usual fantastic characterisation.


7. Jennifer Weiner can always be relied on for an enjoyable read. I suppose one could call her books chick-lit, but they're fantastically written with characters that are always believable and well-rounded. Then Came You was no exception. Like a few of her previous novels, this one featured multiple first person narrators, which is a very effective device for getting a reader to sympathise with a range of characters, and although the surrogacy storyline contained a few rather far-fetched touches, I nevertheless enjoyed it wholeheartedly.

8. When, a few days after the sad death of Sue Townsend, I found a copy of The Growing Pains Of Adrian Mole in a Glasgow bookshop, I knew it had to be mine. There was much written about Townsend's genius after she died, and as someone who lives just a few miles from where she grew up, went to school, lived and wrote, it was particularly sad. I read all of the Mole books as a teenager and it was fun to revisit his world with an adult eye.
 
9. After reading a glowing review of Kiss Me First (and learning that it had been nominated for The Guardian First Book award - I basically take whatever The Guardian says as gospel!), I was really disappointed. The tale of computer whizz Leila, who is recruited to take over Tess's online presence so that the latter can kill herself, it sounded an interesting thriller and just up my street. However, it was clunkily written and had very little tension: the blurb pretty much tells you all you need to know about the plot. Although I quite liked some of Leila's observations (her description of going to Topshop was priceless) and her complete inability to understand social norms reminded me somewhat of Don from The Rosie Project, it wasn't enough to save the novel being, essentially, a little dull.


10. 11. & 12. I decided to have a Poppy Z Brite splurge and re-read three of her novels set in the culinary world of New Orleans.  In The Value Of X the reader is introduced to G-Man and Rickey as teenage boys and best friends, just figuring out their love for each other and their love for cooking.  Liquor finds them opening their first restaurant, while D*U*C*K is a novella at the end of the series.  If you've not read Brite before, I'd suggest perhaps starting elsewhere - her vampire novel Lost Souls , or the black-as-pitch romantic thriller Drawing Blood - but if you enjoy her writing and are a lover of food, or New Orleans, or both, then the Rickey & G-Man books will satisfy too.


13. Days Of The Bagnold Summer is a lovely graphic novel following a single mother and her teenage son across one summer.  Full of emotion and pathos, it reminded me forcefully of being a moody, black-wearing adolescent and made me want to apologise to my own mum!

14 comments:

  1. I read Days of the Bagnold Summer last year and it was great. Also quite fancy re-reading Adrian Mole now too, a trip to the library is in order!

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    1. I'd forgotten how funny the Mole books were, definitely worth a re-read.

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  2. Ooh I'm always on the lookout for something chick-lit-but-not when I want something easy to read, I may give Jennifer Weiner a go... Library still doesn't have Longbourn, I'll need to order that next time. The alien one sounds kinda interesting, I'll look out for that too :)

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    1. If you're after chick-lit-but-not, Jennifer Weiner is perfect! I really love The Next Best Thing and Best Friends Forever too

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  3. Wow. I am super impressed with your reading volume! I can manage 2 books a month at the moment, if I'm lucky. How do you fit it in around your crazy teacher's schedule!?

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    1. When I'm in the mood to read, I really read! So for most of April I didn't watch films (hence no seen & heard post this month), hardly watched TV, I just ploughed through book after book. Having two weeks off and travelling helped as well.

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  4. A good selection! I've got A Song of Ice and Fire on my Kindle to read (I couldn't face the paperback, they're so big!) and I'm hoping to read it soon...I always try to read the books before I watch a TV programme/film, and my boyfriend is now several series ahead of my reading!

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    1. The paperbacks are daunting, it's true, I ended up buying the second book for my Kindle because the text was so tiny in the book I'd borrowed. So worth a read, as long as you don't mind giving up six months of your life because you WILL need to finish the entire series!

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  5. This looks like a great selection. I need to get my reading mojo back as it seems to have disappeared. Then I need to get looking at all your book lists for some recommendations.

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  6. I haven't read any of the other books, but Divergent is one of my recent reads too. The other two left in the trilogy are good and I couldn't put them down, but I have to agree with your pupil: I think the first one is the best.

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  7. I've had the second two - the George RR Martin and Longbourne, on my list for ages but never actually got round to them, I've not been reading as much as I'd hoped to this year. Very excited about starting Game of Thrones when I'm on holiday though!
    The first one sounds right up my street too - a social history? of something random? Sold.

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  8. My goodness, that's an impressive month's reading list, especially for a busy teacher! Gossip from the Forest has been on the bedside table for a while; you've given me renewed excitement to read it. (And I'm with you on the Guardian as gospel! ;)

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  9. That's an impressive reading list for anyone, let alone a busy teacher! Gossip from the Forest has been on my reading pile for a while, but I am seriously going to read it now. (And I'm with you on the Guardian as gospel!)

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  10. Your book reviews are great Jane; it's always really clear which ones aren't worth bothering with and those that are. I could never read the sheer number of books you read as I read far too slowly. :( I'm sure I've said that before.

    Jen

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