tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39236950226503368452024-03-06T06:50:42.391+00:00Booking In HeelsBecause why should I have to choose?Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.comBlogger709125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-76037544327424332582017-11-05T12:13:00.000+00:002017-11-05T12:13:02.930+00:00Review: One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8e1Q-DS5d0Tde3917vnL2NmpCIz19FwkvhQXaNKMXQ96kn7YkZb7Ji8dyKs5I-d9liDTq7vdy66meB1NFPlmCnxV3Fy3HnLdUFDOdGOA6EYw1gHuBbWrguG9hAj3fyAwQ21WOUn1kK_yj/s1600/one+of+us+is+lying+book+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="one of us is lying uk book cover by karen m. mcmanus" border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="255" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8e1Q-DS5d0Tde3917vnL2NmpCIz19FwkvhQXaNKMXQ96kn7YkZb7Ji8dyKs5I-d9liDTq7vdy66meB1NFPlmCnxV3Fy3HnLdUFDOdGOA6EYw1gHuBbWrguG9hAj3fyAwQ21WOUn1kK_yj/s200/one+of+us+is+lying+book+cover.jpg" title="one of us is lying uk book cover by karen m. mcmanus" width="130" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I should actually have reviewed <i>One of Us is Lying </i>ages ago, ideally some point after I read it way back in August. I wasn't going to bother because I had ridiculously conflicting opinions about this book, but then I've seen just one two many glowing review to not stick my oar in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Plot summary: </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span id="freeText17013028294242075633">On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.<br /><br />Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.<br /><br />Only,
Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention
Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an
accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy
reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all
four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for
a killer who’s still on the loose?<br /><br />Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText17013028294242075633">I suppose the most important thing is that I enjoyed reading this book. It's written reasonably well, the dialogue isn't stilted and weird, and the narrative isn't clunky. It flows great and I kept turning the pages.</span><i><span id="freeText17013028294242075633"> </span></i><span id="freeText17013028294242075633">My problem was that I didn't think certain...<i> issues </i>are dealt with in a respectful fashion.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText17013028294242075633">The narrative follows four characters, each with their own chapters told in the first person. Perhaps surpringly for a YA contemporary novel, I actually quite liked them. Each character fits neatly into one of the teenage stereotypes - the vapid popular girl, the sports star, the tortured soul and the nerd. I think this is done intentionally so it's not as cloying as it sounds.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText17013028294242075633">They're actually pretty great. Each character has a distinctive voice to separate them from the others and their personalities have a surprising depth. My favourite was Addy, the popular clique girl who is slowly starting to break free of her pre-determined role and consider whether this is really who she wants to be after all. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText17013028294242075633">Each of these characters has a secret, hence their potential motive for murdering the person about to reveal it. Some of these 'secrets' are infinitely more interesting than others - Bronwyn's, for example, is most definitely not a big deal and Nate's is practically plastered on his forehead. That said, I really liked Cooper's grand reveal, which I didn't see coming at all. It's a mix, in short. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText17013028294242075633">So who killed Simon? ARGH, I really need to talk about this but it's obviously ridiculously spoilery. I'm just going to have to say that I was really disappointed with the ending. I guessed the ending almost immediately but decided I was wrong because it was too obviously and there must be a twist. There wasn't.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText17013028294242075633">But that's fine, I can deal with a predictable ending because I really enjoyed the characters. I have massive issues with another area of the book though, but it's an issue that would be spoilery if I even told you what the issue <i>was.</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText17013028294242075633">Essentially, a certain character's actions are promoted and almost encouraged in a very damaging way. There's no discussion as to the reason behind their actions and it results in only benefits to that person, which is <i>horrific. </i>Nobody gets any comeuppance for their actions, neither for the issue that I'm dancing around or for the 'secrets' that made the characters suspects in the first place.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText17013028294242075633">So yes, while I enjoyed the act of reading <i>One of Us is Lying</i> due to the great character development, the ending was predictable and certain serious issues are dealt with in a very cavalier light. <i> </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText17013028294242075633"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>If you've read this, <i>please</i> talk to me about it. Am I the only one who had similar issues?</b></span><i> </i></span> </span></div>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-71198899766709119872017-11-05T00:27:00.001+00:002017-11-05T00:28:37.913+00:00My To Be Read List - November 2017<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><img alt="MyTBRList" class="aligncenter wp-image-6301" height="206" src="https://www.becausereading.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/MyTBRList-1024x661.jpg" width="320" /> </span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">As I mentioned in my October Wrap-Up post quite literally eight minutes ago, due to the massive amount of library books that fall into my bag every weekday, I've been struggling to get to my own books.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">I was sat here dramatically swooning in dismay, when I stumbled across <a href="https://www.becausereading.com/read-list-november-2017-lets-vote-link/">this fun new feature</a> by Michelle at <a href="https://www.becausereading.com/">Because Reading.</a> </span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">The idea is that on the first Saturday of the month, you post a poll with three of the books on your TBR list. Your readers choose which of these books you should read that month, and then you post a review of said book by the <i>last</i> Saturday of the month.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Fun!</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">To aid with the issue outlined above, I'm going to pick from only the books I own and I'm going to give you one book that has been on my TBR <i>forever, </i>one that is newly acquired and one that's sort of middle ground. </span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><u><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Newly acquired</span></b></u></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Added: September 2017</span></b><u><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicUc0L-LqyK1etTrVJfqxO5UJaizgoU0T2-RIceD1Dju6tAxarzbcqTD6EPN4t_IBAI6PoHsv4-i6ll71oO6bmwkheRkOgaWMBFs_Py11bxjMZZ-PLdgl2rEVJIHvOhVuNwsC2PIF1h6pL/s1600/29385546.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="311" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicUc0L-LqyK1etTrVJfqxO5UJaizgoU0T2-RIceD1Dju6tAxarzbcqTD6EPN4t_IBAI6PoHsv4-i6ll71oO6bmwkheRkOgaWMBFs_Py11bxjMZZ-PLdgl2rEVJIHvOhVuNwsC2PIF1h6pL/s200/29385546.jpg" width="130" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText70402097382771863">For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.<br />
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Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.</span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText70402097382771863"><u><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Hovering in the Middle</b></span></u></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText70402097382771863">Added: February 2016 </span></span></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy0xOzBxqMAZMnm3sFPXfXb840DIme5OoCsSICaLybXASNOXKHX2ezWeBLhljt3k-aY9iiiJKUn3BpWYtIhFnMErw7VbV-i_NE-_cbsPrqA_xDFP5kQrunv9H5mP56PJiKCBzXYhOb_Y8E/s1600/dorothy+must+die+book+cover+paige.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="314" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy0xOzBxqMAZMnm3sFPXfXb840DIme5OoCsSICaLybXASNOXKHX2ezWeBLhljt3k-aY9iiiJKUn3BpWYtIhFnMErw7VbV-i_NE-_cbsPrqA_xDFP5kQrunv9H5mP56PJiKCBzXYhOb_Y8E/s200/dorothy+must+die+book+cover+paige.jpg" width="131" /></a><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText70402097382771863"><span id="freeText10773304738998614362">I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero. But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado - taking you with it - you have no choice but to go along, you know?<br />
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Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little bluebirds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There's still a yellow brick road - but even that's crumbling.<br />
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What happened? Dorothy.<br />
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They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe. My name is Amy Gumm - and I'm the other girl from Kansas. I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked. I've been trained to fight. And I have a mission.</span></span></span></span></i><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText70402097382771863"> </span></span></b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText70402097382771863"> </span><span id="freeText70402097382771863"> </span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText70402097382771863"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><u><b>The TBR veteran</b></u></span></span></span><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText70402097382771863"> </span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText70402097382771863"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><br />Added: February 2013</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMGaQuzudoH0OtvxCCZ-O2Rx7MHC_yjEYzvnIKi9c_TDIKcm0QRAfPzRc7UmTGvDYnYG0AG3bhbHLKbNx_KKsFyOCNoGFbx76_i2CnszYguJAxKTyEuI8TuwWzNnsA-CdZsO6Lg382cbz8/s1600/loki+book+cover+mike+vasich.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="186" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMGaQuzudoH0OtvxCCZ-O2Rx7MHC_yjEYzvnIKi9c_TDIKcm0QRAfPzRc7UmTGvDYnYG0AG3bhbHLKbNx_KKsFyOCNoGFbx76_i2CnszYguJAxKTyEuI8TuwWzNnsA-CdZsO6Lg382cbz8/s200/loki+book+cover+mike+vasich.jpg" width="133" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
<span id="freeText70402097382771863"><span id="freeText14478775255062930973">God of Mischief. Father of Lies. Harbinger of Destruction. Exiled and tortured by the gods, Loki swears vengeance. He will summon the mighty Fenris Wolf and the legendary Midgard Serpent, and they will lead an army of giants and all the dead in Niflheim. Brimming with the power of the most destructive being in the Nine Worlds, he will not rest till Asgard is in ashes and all the gods are dead under his heel.</span> </span></span></i></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Definitely make sure to vote for one of the above and check back next week to see which book I'll be reading. If you want to take part, visit the <a href="https://www.becausereading.com/read-list-now-meme-update-post/">rules page</a> at Because Reading.<br />
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</span></span></span></span></span> <noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/9867615/">Which book should I read in November?</a></noscript></center>
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Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-77278535206197158092017-11-04T23:57:00.000+00:002017-11-04T23:57:01.136+00:00September and October 2017 Wrap-Up<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have so many books to review and so many posts to write, but I just haven't had the time. It's hard to say why, really. Although it's taking me longer to get too and from work now, I'm not really working any longer than I was previously. Obviously there is the new household resident who is taking up a lot of my time, but I can't really begrudge her that. I think I just need to find the balance between spending time with my family whilst ensuring I also get Hanna Time in which to read.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I didn't get round to doing a September Wrap-Up, but considering how little I read, I didn't feel too bad about it. That was Moving Month, so I feel like it can be excused. I've read a bit more this month, thankfully.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I feel really lucky in that I've had such a good run of books over the past few months. I've started thinking about my Best of 2017 list already and, for the first time ever, I think I'll be leaving books out instead of scrabbling for additions so I can reach the total.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp7qzpXBj_76M0hw1TKKGyMT2oQaHXQIJRzaVj-gSNCNRy0t_T-vlobNWg2M1xcz76GtY9uaGoHecs0-Gmas0yB87cN5NcwS1fO9beQH-OGH-CxVgrKuCCXf2aIj8mUKVVVhLsMOvzwpxR/s1600/IMG_5663.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp7qzpXBj_76M0hw1TKKGyMT2oQaHXQIJRzaVj-gSNCNRy0t_T-vlobNWg2M1xcz76GtY9uaGoHecs0-Gmas0yB87cN5NcwS1fO9beQH-OGH-CxVgrKuCCXf2aIj8mUKVVVhLsMOvzwpxR/s320/IMG_5663.JPG" width="240" /></a><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>Fiction</u></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">September:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>The Miniaturist </i>by Jessie Burton</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>The Birds and Other Stories</i> by Daphne du Maurier</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/10/review-natural-history-of-dragons-by.html">A Natural History of Dragons</a> </i>by Marie Brennan </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>A Court of Thorns and Roses </i>by Sarah J. Maas</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">October:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/10/review-rise-and-fall-of-dodo-by-neal.html">The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.</a> </i>by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>How To Stop Time </i>by Matt Haig</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>The Red Knight </i>by Miles Cameron</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Fangirl</i> by Rainbow Rowell</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>The Tropic of Serpents (Natural History of Dragons </i></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span class="st">#2)</span></i><span class="st"> by Marie Brennan</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="st"><i>Mrs Dalloway </i>by Virginia Woolf</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgXFx5Wsp6KyrtBCN2i2uPKfukgaF_J2GjcAXVALy_cCXAjsxCE2nGo9VhlSRYMzYMkzgHQbFbyiXpAXVx6ozZvFuG3oifhtUfGKi31Gb0H5NufVIEIl2zPuxGPKxQ2CTT3x8_ew76SGYd/s1600/IMG_5525.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgXFx5Wsp6KyrtBCN2i2uPKfukgaF_J2GjcAXVALy_cCXAjsxCE2nGo9VhlSRYMzYMkzgHQbFbyiXpAXVx6ozZvFuG3oifhtUfGKi31Gb0H5NufVIEIl2zPuxGPKxQ2CTT3x8_ew76SGYd/s320/IMG_5525.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>Non-Fiction</u></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">September:</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Teach Yourself: Art History </span></i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">by Grant Pooke</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/10/review-radium-girls-by-kate-moore.html">The Radium Girls</a> </i>by Kate Moore </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">October:</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Past Mortems: Life and Death Behind Mortuary Doors</i> by Carla Valentine </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War </i>by Mary Roach</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">There are so many of these books that I'm dying to review and talk about - I have pages and pages of notes for <i>My Friend Dahmer, </i>the graphic novel by one of Jeffrey Dahmer's classmates, and I have Things To Say about <i>How To Stop Time</i> as well.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">I'm definitely not going to do a book haul this month because my trips to the library have become <i>ridiculous. </i>I don't feel too bad about it because I haven't yet had to return a book unread, which means that at least I'm not unnecessarily hogging books that other people could be reading. Of course, it does mean that I haven't really been reading my <i>own </i>books a whole lot, but that's not the end of the world.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Huddersfield Library really is brilliant though - they get so many new releases in and they seem pretty good at purchasing the latest trending books as well. Hence my groaning library card. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Between that and a book buying trip with Charlotte, I have more unread books than every before. It's hard to complain though, when so many of them have been brilliant and I haven't actually paid for the majority of them.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Best Book of September 2017:</span></span></b></span></span> </span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/10/review-radium-girls-by-kate-moore.html"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The Radium Girls</span></span></b></span></i></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> by Kate Moore</span></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Best Book of October 2017:</span></span></b></span></span></span></span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/10/review-rise-and-fall-of-dodo-by-neal.html">The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.</a> </i>by Neal Stephenson </span></span></b></span></span> </span></span></b></span><br />
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Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-38241405070990524122017-10-18T21:55:00.001+01:002017-10-18T22:00:05.185+01:00Review: The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_VqbaW_CX0VsTr1jmZWvlUOMkkpHYmeD4RqVU_fJnIg05zFcT6yvYaWd4G30YWhaS-rk3Uj9h4T_CIwAsi_UIocSJ4HYrQ9hb48n20PyDOKzDWZ1ArZw4gmYtFZeaPpd_OiENvfea18ro/s1600/rise+fall+dodo+uk+book+cover+neal+stephenson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="UK book cover of The Rise and Fall of Dodo by Neal Stephenson" border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="301" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_VqbaW_CX0VsTr1jmZWvlUOMkkpHYmeD4RqVU_fJnIg05zFcT6yvYaWd4G30YWhaS-rk3Uj9h4T_CIwAsi_UIocSJ4HYrQ9hb48n20PyDOKzDWZ1ArZw4gmYtFZeaPpd_OiENvfea18ro/s200/rise+fall+dodo+uk+book+cover+neal+stephenson.jpg" title="UK book cover of The Rise and Fall of Dodo by Neal Stephenson" width="126" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I knew as soon as I stumbled across this book online that we were destined to be together. A chunky book about a time-travelling government department attempting to reinstate magic? <i>Yes please. DEFINITELY yes. </i>So when I accidentally stumbled across a signed copy in London's Forbidden Planet, I honestly didn't shut up about it for days. I got home, read it immediately... and <i>still </i>haven't shut up about it. Sorry everyone (but not that sorry).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Plot summary:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><u>1851 England</u><br />
The Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace has opened, celebrating the rise of technology and commerce. With it the power of magic – in decline since the industrial revolution began – is completely snuffed out. The existence of magic begins its gradual devolution into mere myth.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><u>21st Century America</u><br />
Magic has faded from the minds of mankind, until an encounter between Melisande Stokes, linguistics expert at Harvard, and Tristan Lyons, shadowy agent of government, leads to the uncovering of a distant past.<br />
After translating a series of ancient texts, Melisande and Tristan discover the connection between science, magic and time travel and so the Department of Diachronic Operations – D.O.D.O. – is hastily brought into existence. Its mission: to develop a device that will send their agents back to the past, where they can stop magic from disappearing and alter the course of history.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>But when you interfere with the past, there’s no telling what you might find in your future…</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I loved this book. Loved, loved, <i>loved </i>this book. I always knew I was going to, but I feel like it defied even my highest of expectations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i></i>It's almost like a way more detailed and technical version of <i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2016/08/review-just-one-damned-thing-after.html">The Chronicles of St Mary's</a> </i>series - I always complained that the concept was great but it was <i>hugely </i>lacking in detail - and now we have <i>The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O</i>. In this book, we get to see the creation of the organisation from the ground up, as the machines are invented and the concept of D.O.D.O. (Department of Diachronic Operations) comes together. It could be boring, but it's not. It's time travel and so I will suck up every scrap of detail and <i>love it.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It's told through a variety of different formats, but not so many that it becomes wearing (I'm looking at you, <i>Illuminae). </i>We mostly see mission reports and journal entries, but there's the odd internal company memo or policy briefing to add a dry and fun sense of humour. I wasn't over keen on the letters from Grainne O'Malley (a 16th Century witch) as I really didn't like her and they dragged on a bit but, looking back, they probably were necessary to the overarching plot, so I won't complain too much.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ohhhhhh, the plot. It's ingenious. A lot of time is spent on setting the scene and I loved every second. However, the actual over-arching <i>point</i> of the novel is deeply hidden and quite subtle, so that you start to feel genuine little twinges of anxiety before you even really know what's going on. It's hard to pinpoint, but it's there. When it really gets going, towards the end, my stomach actually <i>hurt, </i>I cared so deeply about the characters. It's honestly a masterpiece.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Of course you get some detail of their time-travelling exploits - what's the point of a time travel book otherwise!? I loved Melisande travelling back to bury a rare book, and managing to navigate the 16th Century slightly better every time she headed back. I'd probably have liked <i>more </i>of that, but not at the expense of the amazing plot so I'll pipe down. There's a reasonable amount there anyway, in fairness. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I can only imagine how long it took Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland to plan this book. Not only the set-up of D.O.D.O. but the intertwining threads of narrative that come together to make absolute sense. It is time travel, after all - it's not <i>meant </i>to be simple. This is the only book I've read by these authors, but I've already added a few more to my wishlist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The only problem with <i>The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. </i>is that I was torn between frantically needing to read it, but then not wanting to read it because then I'd have finished it and couldn't read it anymore... *breathes into a paper bag*</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Visit Neal Stephenson's website <a href="https://www.nealstephenson.com/">here</a>, or find him on <a href="https://twitter.com/nealstephenson">Twitter.</a> </b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Nicole Galland can be found <a href="https://www.nicolegalland.com/">here.</a> </b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>NOW READ THEIR BOOK. </b></span> </span></div>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-88222819103227855282017-10-07T20:28:00.002+01:002017-10-07T20:28:41.656+01:00Review: The Radium Girls by Kate Moore<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy_7TwDSKfOGwzltHZvQ5fUT3t6pJACwPSXM8IyUM-mf83VAICMyzymuvpVlo4B66KoBFvKhKFYiSzvwkxhDp14MV8ARfo1VEazr4Q4ZWHhW_LZd7tASuoyXXDgSlOxyCjRrmSpisZTfwL/s1600/the+radium+girls+book+cover+uk+kate+moore.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="UK book cover for The Radium Girls by Kate Moore" border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="181" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy_7TwDSKfOGwzltHZvQ5fUT3t6pJACwPSXM8IyUM-mf83VAICMyzymuvpVlo4B66KoBFvKhKFYiSzvwkxhDp14MV8ARfo1VEazr4Q4ZWHhW_LZd7tASuoyXXDgSlOxyCjRrmSpisZTfwL/s200/the+radium+girls+book+cover+uk+kate+moore.jpeg" title="UK book cover for The Radium Girls by Kate Moore" width="130" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Arrrrrrgh, this book. This book, this book, this book. I've been putting off reviewing it for ages because my notes are a garbled mess of exclamation points, page numbers and quotes, and every time I think about this book my heart (and head) hurt all over again. It's a brilliant, brilliant book and, even if you can't make it to the end of this mess of a review, I <i>really </i>encourage you to read it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Summary: </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">1917. As a war raged across the world, young American women flocked to work, painting watches, clocks and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous – the girls themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in the dust from the paint. They were the radium girls.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span id="freeText11411892734682566670"><br />
As the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses. The very thing that had made them feel alive – their work – was in fact slowly killing them: they had been poisoned by the radium paint. Yet their employers denied all responsibility. And so, in the face of unimaginable suffering – in the face of death – these courageous women refused to accept their fate quietly, and instead became determined to fight for justice.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span id="freeText11411892734682566670"><br />
Drawing on previously unpublished sources – including diaries, letters and court transcripts, as well as original interviews with the women’s relatives – The Radium Girls is an intimate narrative account of an unforgettable true story. It is the powerful tale of a group of ordinary women from the Roaring Twenties, who themselves learned how to roar.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">This is <i>technically</i> a non-fiction work about the women who earned a living by painting luminescent dials on watches in the 1920s. I say 'technically,' because I have never cried <i>this much</i> over a non-fiction book (or any fiction book either, in fairness). The tone is a rarely-seen perfect mix of the emotional and the technical - although every single page contains near constant quotes from the women and their families</span><i><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">, </span></i><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">the remaining text tells the women's story </span><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">with a very sympathetic narrative.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">That's not a criticism. I never felt like I was being emotionally manipulated and it would be very, <i>very </i>difficult to write a book of this nature and be objective. Aside from the original horror of the women being told to put radium in their mouths in the first place, they were lied to nigh-on continuously by the company and even so-called medical experts. Their bodies collapsed, their hearts broke and their bank accounts emptied, but the company continued to Appeal, even after the Courts had already made a decision.</span><span id="freeText11411892734682566670"> </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAlDrfY70OAkXfHRow-hQLGhPlYPsmYlbILZQgBeVJRRWrtfVdGFv1L6TKoBD-Qxm4BEK6DXlrwuctqQYgd_WYo_6NzqGi4-c9yWYpmEGiYQX6S2ie2YKsuimWaHV496GJSF34aP4vZ7TK/s1600/IMG_5503.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAlDrfY70OAkXfHRow-hQLGhPlYPsmYlbILZQgBeVJRRWrtfVdGFv1L6TKoBD-Qxm4BEK6DXlrwuctqQYgd_WYo_6NzqGi4-c9yWYpmEGiYQX6S2ie2YKsuimWaHV496GJSF34aP4vZ7TK/s200/IMG_5503.JPG" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">The tone of the text is light and very accessible, but the subject is <i>not. </i>Their jaw bones literally <i>fell out of their mouths. </i>There are photographs in the middle of the book - most are included to emphasise that these women were real, human, living people (temporarily, at any rate) but there are a few that show the size of tumours, disintegrated bones, etc. There is one particular photo that I kept turning back to and I cried every single time I looked at it. One of the women collapsed during a Court hearing after she was told that her condition was fatal (her well-intentioned doctors had decided to keep this information from her) and a photographer somehow got a shot mid-collapse. It really demonstrates the lack of knowledge provided to these women and their emotional state at that time.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">There aren't words to describe how much these women suffered. It's not just the physical horrors, but the way they were treated. One woman was posthumously slapped with a 'syphilis' label even though there was no indication of any sexually transmitted disease and another woman's body was pretty much <i>stolen </i>from the hospital by the organisation before the family could pay their respects. They were shunned by their communities for creating trouble for the factories that provided jobs for local people and some of the women's husbands became jealous of their (later) wealth and threatened to gas them.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText11411892734682566670"><br />I cried on a train, I cried on a bus and I cried in a cafe. This was real, this happened and people did <i>nothing.</i> My eyes are watering with angry tears as I write this <i>six weeks</i> after I read it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">It's very hard to separate the topic from the book, but I'm going to try because I don't think Kate Moore's skill deserves to be overshadowed by the tragedy she writes about. She writes very well - to say that a good 300 pages of <i>The Radium Girls </i>is about a legal battle, it flows, it's interesting and it's engrossing.<i> </i>She has clearly put a tremendous amount of effort into research and interviewing the relatives of the deceased, and she appears to genuinely care about the plight suffered of the radium girls. </span><i><span id="freeText11411892734682566670"></span></i></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">And Grace Fryer was never forgotten. She is still remembered now – you are still remembering her now. As a dial-painter, she glowed gloriously from the radium powder; but as a woman, she shines through history with an even brighter glory: stronger than the bones that broke inside her body; more powerful than the radium that killed her or the company that shamelessly lied through its teeth; living longer than she ever did on earth, because she now lives on in the hearts and memories of those who know her only from her story.</span><i><span id="freeText11411892734682566670"> </span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">Please </span></i><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">read this book. Firstly, it's important that we acknowledge these brave and strong individuals who were so profoundly abused in so many different ways. Their bodies and their fight went on to form the basis of ground-breaking legislation that is still in place in the US today, and allowed for progress to be made with preventing radiation toxicity in others. They were ignored and shunned when they were alive, and that was not acceptable. At least now we can look back and retrospectively apologise.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">Secondly, I'm desperate to talk about this book so hurry up and read it! I want to talk about the women, the people and especially how radium affected the whole town. The factory was eventually used as a meat locker - so naturally everybody who ate the meat became severely ill. After that the factory was knocked down... and the rubble was deposited around town. Dogs died prematurely, citizens developed an inordinate amount of tumours... you get the idea. I want to talk about it. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">Lastly, it's just a brilliant, brilliant book. Kate Moore is a wonderful writer who has tackled an extremely difficult subject with dignity and grace. Every second that I wasn't reading this book, I wanted to be. It's riveting and completely engrossing.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText11411892734682566670"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText11411892734682566670">So there, you go. Read <i>The Radium Girls </i>because it's important, discussion-provoking and enjoyable.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText11411892734682566670"> </span><i><span id="freeText11411892734682566670"> </span></i></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText11411892734682566670"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Read Ellie's review of <i>The Radium Girls </i>at <a href="http://www.curiositykilledthebookworm.net/2017/09/the-radium-girls.html">Curiosity Killed the Bookworm.</a></span></b></span><a href="http://www.curiositykilledthebookworm.net/2017/09/the-radium-girls.html"><i><span id="freeText11411892734682566670"> </span></i></a> </span></div>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-45171783112355380282017-10-01T19:34:00.000+01:002017-10-01T19:38:54.584+01:00Review: A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGM-i3S71wNFzdSmaSdDk2aq670Y6nCd1Ve1dtxBxwbgwp3cVN3Esa53WFGTdbyDYoZ-6ZuwPXu4YqsMajXuBfQ-iHLS4VFP0DxfTu0f3DMbvaBEhyphenhyphen2mTkPRA0OwH-r9cx0caeY8102XVu/s1600/natural+history+dragons+marie+brennan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Book cover of A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1070" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGM-i3S71wNFzdSmaSdDk2aq670Y6nCd1Ve1dtxBxwbgwp3cVN3Esa53WFGTdbyDYoZ-6ZuwPXu4YqsMajXuBfQ-iHLS4VFP0DxfTu0f3DMbvaBEhyphenhyphen2mTkPRA0OwH-r9cx0caeY8102XVu/s200/natural+history+dragons+marie+brennan.jpg" title="Book cover of A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan" width="133" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It really profoundly irritates me that I've had the opportunity to read this since 2014, when <i>A Natural History of Dragons </i>was first published. Did I read it? No. Did I even consider buying it? No. And this, people, is why I shouldn't be trusted with my Book Blogger Practising Certificate. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Plot summary: </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span id="freeText17567278125004613355">All the world, from
Scirland to the farthest reaches of Eriga, know Isabella, Lady Trent, to
be the world's preeminent dragon naturalist. She is the remarkable
woman who brought the study of dragons out of the misty shadows of myth
and misunderstanding into the clear light of modern science. But before
she became the illustrious figure we know today, there was a bookish
young woman whose passion for learning, natural history, and, yes,
dragons defied the stifling conventions of her day.<br /><br />Here at last,
in her own words, is the true story of a pioneering spirit who risked
her reputation, her prospects, and her fragile flesh and bone to satisfy
her scientific curiosity; of how she sought true love and happiness
despite her lamentable eccentricities; and of her thrilling expedition
to the perilous mountains of Vystrana, where she made the first of many
historic discoveries that would change the world forever.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span id="freeText17567278125004613355">I loved this book from the very first page. I was completely hooked by the premise which, for some reason, I'd never bothered to take in for three whole years, even though this is <i>absolutely</i> my sort of book. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span id="freeText17567278125004613355">Lady Trent writes her memoirs from several decades in the future, when she's clearly an accomplished scholarly adventurer of some renown. In her twilight years, she has taken some leisure time to finally write an honest account in response to the hundreds of letters she receives from young fans, clamouring for details on her exploits. This results in a charming first person narrative that has the benefit of hindsight - the elderly Lady Trent looks back on her younger self with some fondness (and occasionally frustration) and muses on how the world has changed.</span></span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span id="freeText17567278125004613355">Not a day goes by that the post does not bring me at least one letter
from a young person (or sometimes one not so young) who wishes to follow
in my footsteps and become a dragon naturalist. Nowadays, of course,
the field is quite respectable, with university courses and intellectual
societies putting out fat volumes titled <i>Proceedings of</i> some
meeting or other. Those interested in respectable things, however,
attend my lectures. The ones who write to me invariably want to hear
about my adventures: my escape from captivity in the swamps of Mouleen,
or my role in the great Battle of Keonga, or (most frequently) my flight
to the inhospitable heights of the Mrtyahaima peaks, the only place on
earth where the secrets of dragonkind could be unlocked. </span><i><span id="freeText17567278125004613355"> </span></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">This does not interrupt the action-filled plot in the slightest, however. In <i>A Natural History of Dragons, </i>Isabella (as she then was) tags along to the perilous mountain region of Vystrana, at the affectionate sufferance of her somewhat bemused husband. She's slightly out of her depth, but determined to prove that she can be a useful addition to the party due to her lifelong love of dragons.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Isabella's favourite topic is, of course, the natural history of dragons and the narrative spends some time discussing her theories on their anatomy and whether they have since been proved correct. However, as she's writing from a more advanced age, she recognises that are other books (including her own) that detail these issues and so she has chosen to focus on the more personal and exciting aspects of her adventures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYI41Kc4PB4_UQq-pwptVa9hZk-Le41Z-W1Yi5g7oIlmSxsvESONUGx8J9HyQILcXsCqygpZkgVXKpyRiP1m6e08tzWZglTzvnuGDv2s8juPNItUBmiCagahyI0qwYydDv9MNpI-fZPU-T/s1600/IMG_5497.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Sparkling illustration - Lady Isabella Trent - Natural History of Dragons - Marie Brennan" border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYI41Kc4PB4_UQq-pwptVa9hZk-Le41Z-W1Yi5g7oIlmSxsvESONUGx8J9HyQILcXsCqygpZkgVXKpyRiP1m6e08tzWZglTzvnuGDv2s8juPNItUBmiCagahyI0qwYydDv9MNpI-fZPU-T/s200/IMG_5497.JPG" title="Sparkling illustration - Lady Isabella Trent - Natural History of Dragons - Marie Brennan" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And hey, it's dragons! I'm more than willing to sit through discussions regarding the provenance of a dragon's fiery breath. It helps that the novel is interspersed with beautiful illustrations sketched by 'Isabella' herself. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The overarching plot relates to the sudden aggression shown by the dragons in the Vystrana region and the potentially related disappearance of their pre-arranged guide. It's a really good story, with some really clever ideas and plot devices that I just didn't see coming.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">In short, I have absolutely nothing negative to say about <i>A Natural History of Dragons </i>and I genuinely wish that I'd read this three years ago. I've actually already bought the next two books in the series and I'm eyeing up <i>The Tropic of Serpents </i>already. Definitely read this - it's charming, well-written and a great story.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Visit Marie Brennan's <a href="https://www.swantower.com/">website</a>, or find her on <a href="https://twitter.com/swan_tower">Twitter.</a></b></span> </span> </div>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-45730114404375474792017-09-26T15:02:00.000+01:002017-09-26T15:02:12.251+01:00Review: Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaosEJ8HJNCmljqzWWyHI4tXdpQ6hkXNpEanoxRoPwjqRthZ9y0gwizQ9rEPnxKBeQTOSiEZ_e_SN7pXEFdZPRSbicO55vrJXt4n8P2aO3BICwOzeO9gTfsCF0VcoXT9mURDFlzJ3cwgVw/s1600/sleeping+giants+uk+book+cover+neuvel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="UK book cover of Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="325" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaosEJ8HJNCmljqzWWyHI4tXdpQ6hkXNpEanoxRoPwjqRthZ9y0gwizQ9rEPnxKBeQTOSiEZ_e_SN7pXEFdZPRSbicO55vrJXt4n8P2aO3BICwOzeO9gTfsCF0VcoXT9mURDFlzJ3cwgVw/s200/sleeping+giants+uk+book+cover+neuvel.jpg" title="UK book cover of Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel" width="130" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So one day I roll up to work without a book, which is quite a distressing situation considering I work about an hour away by public transport. Naturally I go to the library to grab a book (or four, actually, but that's a whole other issue) with which to entertain myself on the way home. One of these, and the book I actually started reading, was <i>Sleeping Giants. </i>I knew nothing about it going in but it turned out to be amazing.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Plot summary: </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span id="freeText3487242106657599613"><i>Deadwood, USA. A
girl sneaks out just before dark to ride her new bike. Suddenly, the
ground disappears beneath her. Waking up at the bottom of a deep pit,
she sees an emergency rescue team above her. The people looking down see
something far stranger...<br /><br />That
girl grows up to be Dr. Rose Franklyn, a brilliant scientist and the
leading world expert on what she discovered. An enormous, ornate hand
made of an exceptionally rare metal, which predates all human
civilisation on the continent.<br /><br />An
object whose origins and purpose are perhaps the greatest mystery
humanity has ever faced. Solving the secret of where it came from - and
how many more parts may be out there - could change life as we know it.<br /><br />But what if we were meant to find it? And what happens when this vast, global puzzle is complete...?</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think it's probably best to read <i>Sleeping Giants </i>without knowing too much about the plot, like I did, so I'm going to keep it vague. Suffice it to say that the story just <i>flies </i>past and I'd finished the book before I knew it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's not told in the standard, narrative prose. Instead, it's comprised of a series of interviews conducted by a myserious, yet ever present, figure. Part of the mystery is determining exactly who this individual is, and why he's so interested in the recently discovered rare metal. The interviews allow each of the characters to move the story on, but also to share their own views and opinions which are occasionally controversial.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It works really well - you never actually <i>see </i>anything happen, as you're told about everything second-hand, but it still somehow feels like an action-packed novel. It also means that you can feel the characters reactions more viscerally than if you were merely reading it from the distance of a third person voice.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The plot takes some quite dark turns, which demonstrate that it's clearly not meant for a younger audience. I think I might have actually gasped twice. It's a very odd experience, being shocked by an event that you're reading one person relay to another, and it possibly makes even more of an impact.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Sleeping Giants </i>ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but quite an obvious one. I <i>did </i>see it coming, but it's a twist that I feel positive about so I can't say I really mind. I've already reserved the next book, <i>Waking Gods, </i>at the library and I'm definitely looking forward to reading it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'd really recommend this book if you're looking for accessible, action-packed sci-fi with a dark twist.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Visit Sylvain Neuvel's blog <a href="http://www.neuvel.net/index.html">here</a>, or find him on <a href="https://twitter.com/neuvel">Twitter.</a></b></span></span></div>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-4275005822836227752017-09-18T16:56:00.002+01:002017-09-18T16:57:34.585+01:00Review: Where Am I Now? True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame by Mara Wilson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWccrdwNkSfw00EyoXYVUTjmtwqHUuWw1qQP2vabD3PnTXlkPU-Z14D-XrgHFaa6U6qoHzBW-K64PzfHECPpxT7hmgTukC7lcBdTBIR7ViB6lbyrJ6GPP_dCbxY8JDd2n07fCwmeKEJRAm/s1600/where+am+i+now+book+cover+mara+wilson+matilda.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="UK book cover of Where Am I Now? by Mara Wilson" border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="299" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWccrdwNkSfw00EyoXYVUTjmtwqHUuWw1qQP2vabD3PnTXlkPU-Z14D-XrgHFaa6U6qoHzBW-K64PzfHECPpxT7hmgTukC7lcBdTBIR7ViB6lbyrJ6GPP_dCbxY8JDd2n07fCwmeKEJRAm/s200/where+am+i+now+book+cover+mara+wilson+matilda.jpeg" title="UK book cover of Where Am I Now? by Mara Wilson" width="132" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">For the benefit of those of you slightly younger than me and for those of similar age who were living under a rock during their childhood, Mara Wilson was the child actress who starred in <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117008/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Matilda</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107614/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Mrs Doubtfire</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110527/?ref_=nv_sr_3">Miracle on 34th Street</a>, </i>etc. She doesn't act much anymore but after stumbling across her <a href="https://twitter.com/MaraWilson">Twitter</a> and, subsequently, <a href="http://marawilsonwritesstuff.com/">her blog</a>, I desperately wanted to read her recent memoir.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Summary: </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span id="freeText3169240089695295562">Mara Wilson has always felt a little young and a little out of place: as the only child on a film set full of adults, the first daughter in a house full of boys, the sole clinically depressed member of the cheerleading squad, a valley girl in New York and a neurotic in California, and one of the few former child actors who has never been in jail or rehab. Tackling everything from how she first learned about sex on the set of Melrose Place, to losing her mother at a young age, to getting her first kiss (or was it kisses?) on a celebrity canoe trip, to not being “cute” enough to make it in Hollywood, these essays tell the story of one young woman’s journey from accidental fame to relative (but happy) obscurity. But they also illuminate a universal struggle: learning to accept yourself, and figuring out who you are and where you belong.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span id="freeText3169240089695295562">I loved this book from the second I started flicking through it on the train on the way home, and from the minute I began sneaking pages when I was meant to be cleaning. The Boy is used to this by now, however, and my wails of 'BUT IT'S <i>MATILDA!' </i>did not prevent the obligatory eye roll and dramatic presentation of furniture polish.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span id="freeText3169240089695295562">It's brilliant because I now love Mara Wilson both as a person, and because she can actually write really, really well. I admit that I haven't given her a whole lot of thought since I last turned off <i>Matilda</i> because, well, why would I? I had no idea what she was doing with herself nowadays and it hadn't occurred to me to wonder. I probably wouldn't have reserved her book if I hadn't had a glimpse of her writing on her blog and felt compelled to read more.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU6gW5HEwFs4GYNhTIJ0QVGhpuL0e-baicNsHYJvFkT_X5dATIvllphpJN1XPlgnCpNQofM-HNZU6BM1xHPij_TuzpLQBn6hQDMeuoILQFIt-fIXKHRPflEKrHsTCWEwxnFKUZVYt5TzBL/s1600/mara+wilson+matilda+adult.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Adult Mara Wilson" border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU6gW5HEwFs4GYNhTIJ0QVGhpuL0e-baicNsHYJvFkT_X5dATIvllphpJN1XPlgnCpNQofM-HNZU6BM1xHPij_TuzpLQBn6hQDMeuoILQFIt-fIXKHRPflEKrHsTCWEwxnFKUZVYt5TzBL/s200/mara+wilson+matilda+adult.jpg" title="Adult Mara Wilson" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText3169240089695295562">I really love that it's not a chronological memoir - it's not 'I was born here and then I did this, and then I went to this school...', but it's not really an essay collection either. It's a wonderful blend of those two things. It is about Mara's life and her experiences, obviously, but cutting out the boring bits that come with chronological memoirs, and without briefly skating past topics like with the standard essay-style collections.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span id="freeText3169240089695295562">Topics include her experiences with competitive choir as a teenager, her childhood anxious existentialism, the need for feminism and, of course, her transition from childhood star to... not. I adore how candid she is about this period of her life. She freely admits that she was a cute child who grew up to not really conform to the Hollywood standards of beauty, so she was Out. She puts it much more bluntly, of course:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span id="freeText3169240089695295562">Even with my braces off, with contact lenses and a better haircut, I was always going to look the way I did. I knew I wasn’t a gorgon, but I guessed that if ten strangers were to look at a photo of me, probably about four or five of them would find me attractive. That would not be good enough for Hollywood, where an actress had to be attractive to eight out of ten people to be considered for even the homely best friend character. </span><i><span id="freeText3169240089695295562"> </span></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I (now) know that she has experience in writing (both academically and through her one-man shows, etc) so perhaps it's it's only to be expected, but she writes very well. Not just '... for a celebrity,' but it's actually, <i>objectively, </i>good. I felt angry when she was describing the joys of seeing comparisons of your childhood and adult faces of the Internet when you least expect it, and I teared up when she was expressing her sadness over the loss of Robin Williams. She's very self-deprecating and never woe-is-me, but you end up sharing her emotions, or at least those she chooses to project.</span></span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Every week or so, a well‑meaning friend or fan sends me an article about me. Below some variation of “What Do They Look Like Now?” there is inevitably an unflattering photo of me and hundreds of comments from people who think I'm ugly. <br /><br />Some are delighted, schadenfreudic: I was once paid to be cute, but now the child actor curse has caught up with me, and I'm not so cute anymore, am I? Others seem angry. My image belongs to them and they aren’t happy that I don’t match up to what they pictured. This type is the most likely to give advice: I should colour my hair, get a nose job, lose twenty pounds, go die in a hole somewhere.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">There are, of course, humorous anecdotes about shooting those iconic films with Danny DeVito and Robin Williams. There's a whole chapter dedicated to the former, which was expected, but none the less moving for it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I'm gushing, I know, but <i>Where Am I Now? </i>is a wonderful, surprising book, and one that I wanted to reread immediately after finishing it. I feel that I now know more of her as an insightful, self-deprecating person, not just a former childstar. I'll honestly read anything she ever writes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Visit Mara's blog, <a href="http://marawilsonwritesstuff.com/">Mara Wilson Writes Stuff</a>, or find her on <a href="http://twitter./">Twitter.</a></b></span><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=mara%20wilson&src=typd"> </a></span> </div>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-68108938053125257912017-09-01T15:28:00.001+01:002017-09-01T15:28:19.763+01:00August 2017 Wrap-Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpAGj29xbDelKEfnlmAkyyCntr1zHx2fULU2H1rFfIDviI5F9AEhN2C8vpY59BZTiGKBlqIyvyaDmVk6O4YznFY-xlqNjFWLFgY0KQcLZZQuv5-M_Zh_xKeKRNC1-sQ76rc90Y-NH-Hv6v/s1600/FullSizeRender%252812%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="578" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpAGj29xbDelKEfnlmAkyyCntr1zHx2fULU2H1rFfIDviI5F9AEhN2C8vpY59BZTiGKBlqIyvyaDmVk6O4YznFY-xlqNjFWLFgY0KQcLZZQuv5-M_Zh_xKeKRNC1-sQ76rc90Y-NH-Hv6v/s320/FullSizeRender%252812%2529.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I just have no idea where this month has gone. I've started a new job, my housing situation has completely changed and now I spend half my evenings grudgingly waiting to be woken up by a small crying child.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I haven't been reading all that much, so it surprised me when I realised I've finished nine books this month. Not as much as normal, but the second half of the month was very chaotic. I'm hoping things will settle down and I can get back to reading more because I miss it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It didn't help that two books - <i>The Haunted Hotel </i>and <i>The Dark Circle </i>seemed to take forever to finish, and <i>The Shadow Rising </i>(which is the book <i>after The Dragon Reborn </i>pictured - I just couldn't find it) actually did take forever. At 1,006 pages long it really felt like it was dragging and I was getting quite frustrated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Fiction</u></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The Haunted Hotel </i>by Wilkie Collins</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>One of Us is Lying </i>by Karen M. McManus</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/08/review-power-by-naomi-alderman.html">The Power</a> </i>by Naomi Alderman</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The Shadow Rising </i>(Wheel of Time #4) by Robert Jordan</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/09/review-meg-by-steve-alten.html">Meg</a> </i>by Steve Alten </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The Dark Circle </i>by Linda Grant</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Sleeping Giants </i>by Sylvain Neuvel</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Re-reads</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Magician's Gambit </i>(Belgariad #3) by David Eddings</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Non-Fiction</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Where Am I Now? </i>by Mara Wilson</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's weird, but it seems like every book I read in August is a candidate for either the 'Best of August' <i>or </i>'The Worst of August' categories. I just haven't read a lot of middle-ground books this month.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The Power </i>completely blew me away when I read it, but then <i>Meg </i>was a fun read, <i>Sleeping Giants </i>was an unexpected gem and <i>Where Am I Now? </i>made me cry in three places and want to be instant best friends with the author.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I barely managed to finish <i>The Dark Circle</i> because it was written so badly, <i>The Haunted Hotel </i>and <i>The Shadow Rising </i>sent me to sleep, and I have major issues with <i>One of Us is Lying.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All this will be explained in reviews, but I quite frankly just haven't had time this month. Still, I'm grateful that I've read some really great books this month and I'm looking forward to talking about them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana",sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Best Book of August 2017:</span></span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana",sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> </span></span><span><span style="font-family: "verdana",sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i>Where Am I Now? </i>by Mara Wilson</span></span></span></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggbx_YBUj9cyT5_ZqqkYahV7RKRrwX4Zuonewij8vJZiQdB8Lp-hO2g7Zw4ozbRFWVORmElYB9Zim4myfiEIj1TvFytsmygYAhEzFRE_XGbMZehTD7ae8NXi2_Kjf8fu7qAQiPRBDj3oWX/s1600/FullSizeRender%252813%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="640" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggbx_YBUj9cyT5_ZqqkYahV7RKRrwX4Zuonewij8vJZiQdB8Lp-hO2g7Zw4ozbRFWVORmElYB9Zim4myfiEIj1TvFytsmygYAhEzFRE_XGbMZehTD7ae8NXi2_Kjf8fu7qAQiPRBDj3oWX/s400/FullSizeRender%252813%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"></span></span></span></b><i> </i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've had way, <i>way </i>too many books come into my house this month. Twenty-three in total. And I've read nine, one of which was a reread. <i>Great.</i></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVRVNif-V9dJ_JXNxRCXX2wHK5eWeqHL_IpHdQCYYOtoISbSNP6Kp5B7mk_Y_P2iK4zXLaW0vw8_TlKKvHFercBqm0258TbLod70TI_6rCXm3H1UPbXbqiMaAX97cj4nPdctr7zJCB4PFR/s1600/radium+girls+uk+book+cover.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="181" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVRVNif-V9dJ_JXNxRCXX2wHK5eWeqHL_IpHdQCYYOtoISbSNP6Kp5B7mk_Y_P2iK4zXLaW0vw8_TlKKvHFercBqm0258TbLod70TI_6rCXm3H1UPbXbqiMaAX97cj4nPdctr7zJCB4PFR/s200/radium+girls+uk+book+cover.jpeg" width="130" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The pile in the middle is my birthday pile - the lovely <a href="http://litaddictedbrit.co.uk/">Charlotte</a> bought me a copy of <i>Maus, </i>which I've been dying to read forever and also <i>The Unseen World, </i>which we're going to buddy read at some point. I also used Amazon vouchers to buy <i>Strange the Dreamer</i>, <i>A Natural History of Dragons </i>and <i>The Radium Girls. </i>I'm super excited about all of these, particularly the latter which is non-fiction about the young women encouraged to use radium as make-up before the dangers were properly understood, but obviously I have read <i>none </i>of them yet. Figures. I'm hoping to start <i>The Radium Girls </i>this weekend though.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The pile on the right is my library pile, of which I have actually read three, in fairness. Admittedly I've now had most of them for three weeks. There's an amazing new library literally a two minute walk from my new office and they have so many new releases that I got over-excited. I've read <i>Sleeping Giants, The Dark Circle</i> and <i>Where Am I Now? </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The pile on the left is my usual Hanna-Can't-Control-Herself pile. Charity shops, book swaps, the usual suspects.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>How many books have you read this month? Have you read any of my TBR pile? Which should I read next?</b></span> </span></div>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-4435519301742900612017-09-01T14:26:00.000+01:002017-09-01T14:26:46.228+01:00Review: Meg by Steve Alten<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTKoYvqFgIDTRKlSVKXHsIVMlKdJTi4OYSV699CDR5Khb95HFV0iaxQr74OFhiM0hdKyOKbTrLnnHQCEdJP5D7ch0FyXc4wHRakRwqWTNNW3l6jU6wpxQX8VlV4iObFZRDTQp25lqAHKi4/s1600/meg+book+cover+original+steve+alten.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Book cover of Meg by Steve Alten" border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="301" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTKoYvqFgIDTRKlSVKXHsIVMlKdJTi4OYSV699CDR5Khb95HFV0iaxQr74OFhiM0hdKyOKbTrLnnHQCEdJP5D7ch0FyXc4wHRakRwqWTNNW3l6jU6wpxQX8VlV4iObFZRDTQp25lqAHKi4/s200/meg+book+cover+original+steve+alten.jpg" title="Book cover of Meg by Steve Alten" width="126" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Alright, so it's hardly a literary masterpiece. It's not going to win any prizes and the author isn't up for a Novel any time soon. <i>Meg</i>, however, is currently being made into <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4779682/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">a movie</a> featuring Jason Statham and Rainn Wilson, and the book itself is, quite frankly, <i>awesome.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">High praise considering I'm scared of fish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Plot summary: <i><span id="freeText7885357908097390603">On a top-secret dive
into the Pacific Ocean's deepest canyon, Jonas Taylor found himself
face-to-face with the largest and most ferocious predator in the history
of the animal kingdom. The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor is
haunted by what he's sure he saw but still can't prove exists -
Carcharodon megalodon, the massive mother of the great white shark. The
average prehistoric Meg weighs in at twenty tons and could tear apart a
Tyrannosaurus rex in seconds. Taylor spends years theorizing, lecturing,
and writing about the possibility that Meg still feeds at the deepest
levels of the sea. But it takes an old friend in need to get him to
return to the water, and a hotshot female submarine pilot to dare him
back into a high-tech miniature sub. Diving deeper than he ever has
before, Taylor will face terror like he's never imagined. MEG is about
to surface. When she does, nothing and no one is going to be safe, and
Jonas must face his greatest fear once again.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText7885357908097390603">In the interest of full disclosure, I'm scared of <i>fish, </i>not sharks. And yes, I'm well aware that sharks are technically fish, blah blah blah. But I'm scared of the more traditional fish (goldfish, carp, trout, etc) instead of the ones that could actually, you know, <i>hurt me.</i></span><span id="freeText7885357908097390603"> Justifiably, therefore, setting aside my phobia as an irrelevant aside, <i>Meg </i>is still great and still really creepy. <i> </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText7885357908097390603">It's a fairly standard pulpy action novel, but I enjoyed every second, and not just because I was amusing myself by muttering <i>Jurassic SHARK</i>! to myself every few seconds. There's a lot of action in the very fast-paced plot and that's written very well. At one point when I couldn't sleep I had to be reminded that it was inherently unlikely that a 60 foot shark was about to come crashing through the wall, so I could probably chill out.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText7885357908097390603">I really like the plot. It's not ingeniously unique, but apparently the author has been studying Megalodons for more than a decade and it shows. The detail and near-reverence with which he describes the prehistoric sea creatures are fascinating. He also provides a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalodon">believable premise</a> as to <i>how </i>the Megalodons have remained undiscovered for so long - a theory which is supported by some scientists in the real world. The mechanical equipment and submersibles are perhaps a little <i>too </i>detailed, but the man clearly knows what he's talking about. <i></i></span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText7885357908097390603"><i>No other scavengers approached the Megalodon as it fed in the tropical waters. It had no mate to share its kill with, no young to feed. The Meg was a companionless creature, territorial by nature. It mated when it must and killed its young when it could, for the only challenge to its reign came from its own kind. It could adapt and survive the natural catastrophes and climatic changes that caused the mass extinctions of the giant reptiles and countless prehistoric mammals. And while its numbers would eventually dwindle, some members of its species might survive, isolated from the world of man, hunting in the isolated darkness of the ocean depths. </i></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The prose is acceptable, probably to about a Dan Brown level. It's not a masterpiece, but it's mostly definitely readable without being irritated. The dialogue is a bit clunky at times but that's survivable as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My only complaint about <i>Meg </i>at all, is one of the female characters. It's not a huge part of the book by any stretch of the imagination but she did really annoy me - complaining that the protagonist was being sexist, when he really wasn't in the slightest. I'm not sure if the author was trying to appeal to the female readers or if he was trying to be funny or what, but it's frustrating.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Oh! And the ending was a bit far-fetched and odd. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Still though, I really recommend you read <i>Meg, </i>for a fun and thrilling adventure involving giant prehistoric sharks. And I can 95% guarantee that they won't come crashing through your bedroom wall.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Read more about Steve Alten's books <a href="http://here./">here.</a></b></span><a href="http://www.stevealten.com/"> </a></span> </div>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-46646535132504821802017-08-13T18:10:00.002+01:002017-08-13T18:10:40.131+01:00Review: The Power by Naomi Alderman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRRBHOSItNmQUo3KmOOm56lVQwR-BlUAdotaHFN380AxBavnoKuLANxA2eg3tq9pscAg88YSFjc_XlK0MzYGi-lj0WPFJAYu1w7kAt_GW2I0YK-WlC2HdTF8R8v0BhujlhmGQ6v5ZrKair/s1600/power+book+cover+naomi+alderman+uk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="UK book cover of The Power by Naomi Alderman" border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="309" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRRBHOSItNmQUo3KmOOm56lVQwR-BlUAdotaHFN380AxBavnoKuLANxA2eg3tq9pscAg88YSFjc_XlK0MzYGi-lj0WPFJAYu1w7kAt_GW2I0YK-WlC2HdTF8R8v0BhujlhmGQ6v5ZrKair/s200/power+book+cover+naomi+alderman+uk.jpg" title="UK book cover of The Power by Naomi Alderman" width="130" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I don't even know where to start with this book. It doesn't surprise me that it won the Baileys' Women's Prize for Fiction, and I'm also not surprised that I've seen a few reviews by men that <i>hated </i>it. <i>The Power </i>is, at heart, a very female book with a very clear Message, but that in no way detracts from what is also a very compelling story.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Plot summary: <i>All over the world women are discovering they have the power. With a flick of the fingers they can inflict terrible pain - even death. Suddenly, every man on the planet finds they've lost control. The day of the girls has arrived - but where will it end?</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So we've got a very basic premise - women can suddenly create sparks from their fingertips, via a skein that has grown alongside their collarbones. A sort-of explanation is provided for why this happened, but that's not really the point of the story. It's more about the societal, militarial, religious and political repercussions of men no longer being the physically dominant race.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What I particularly appreciated about this book is that it follows a different format than it would if the same concept were played out in a sci-fi novel. There's no slow discovery, long-winded explanations or sitting around talking about how weird it all is. We start at the discovery, but then jump forward two years, then four, five, nine and finally ten years, checking in to see how the world has changed in that time. It works so beautifully. The small gaps in time allow the reader to follow developments more objectively and watch as <i>huge</i> consequences unravel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We follow several different characters throughout the novel:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Allie, a runaway teen who becomes Mother Eve, the founder of a new maternally-centered religion.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Roxy,<i> </i>the daughter of a criminal overlord.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Margot, a female politician aspiring to reach new highs in her career.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tunde, a male journalist who is travelling the world and documenting the chaos.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Two further characters are added roughly two thirds of the way through, but that's slightly jarring and I'm not convinced of the need for them. However, on the whole, the changing point of view allows us to watch the consequences in multiple spheres at multiple points across the globe. Whilst I found Margot's perspective the most interesting, Tunde's experiences were incredibly moving at times, as he observed women who had been oppressed for decades finally free themselves and their sisters from their shackles.</span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"They do not let us drive a car here," she says, "but watch what we can do." <br />She puts her palm flat on the bonnet. There is a click and it flicks open.<br />...<br />There are young women advancing across the centre of the screen, each of them backed by the fire, each of them walking with the lightning. They are going from car to car, setting the motors revving and the engine blocks burning into a molten heat. Some of them can do it without touching the cars; they send their lines of power outfrom their bodies and they are all laughing. <br />Tunde pans up to look at the people watching from the windows, to see what they are doing. There are men trying to drag their women from the glass. And there are women shrugging off their hands. Not bothering to say a word. Watching and waiting. Palms pressed against the glass. He knows then that this thing is going to take the world and everything will be different and he is so glad that he shouts for joy, whooping with the others among the flames. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I almost cried at these parts. They really affected me and I read in a sort of stupor. The other parts that really made me sick were the reaction of the men to the new state of affairs. It's actually quite well balanced, in that the male gender isn't described to be generally stupid or or evil or even whiny, but the outward reaction of a few is fascinating and sickening. Much like the real world.</span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The CDC is hiding things from us, Tom says, that's what they're protesting. Have you seen some of that stuff online? Things are being kept from us, resources are being channelled in the wrong direction, there's no funding for self-defence classes or armour for men, and all this money going to those NorthStar girls' training camps, for God's sake - what the hell is that about? And fuck you Kristen, we both know you've got this fucking thing, too, and it's changed you, it's made you hard; you're not even a real woman any more. Four years ago, Kristen, you knew what you were and what you had to offer this network, and what the fuck are you now? </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's not a very subtle book and at times it is very sledge-hammery with the Point it's trying to make. That said, it is indeed a very <i>good </i>Point, and it's not like anybody who picked up a book where one gender develops power abilities really expected a subtle agenda. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The thing that really brought it home for me, was the fact that <i>The Power </i>is theoretically written many, many years into the future, where nobody can even imagine the world being any different. The concept of men wielding any sort of power is amusing to them, cute, even. Again, not subtle, but it works so, so well, as a lot of the language used echoed familiarily in my head as that usually used about women.</span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Surely it just makes more <i>sense </i>that it was women who provoked the war. I feel instinctively - and I hope you do too - that a world run by men would be more kind, more gentle, more loving and naturally nuturing. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Please read this book. It's important. It's enjoyable and accessible, yes, but it makes a very good point about the fragility of the gender identity perpetuated by society and the sledgehammer used to emphasise the point does not detract from the importance.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Read Ellie's review of <i>The Power </i>at <a href="http://www.curiositykilledthebookworm.net/2017/05/the-power.html">Curiosity Killed the Bookworm.</a></b></span> </span> </div>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-85635029792974874292017-08-13T13:31:00.002+01:002017-08-13T13:31:48.639+01:00The Reading Quest 2017 - Sign-Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixZo_Xq9o2cxQqZNNuwZuA8Ehc07MkoQ1qZ5g6RzwEsDvuE-fve_3wr9D8Xnpx_Dc8ALb34O8KCdFQAW9fVCwqRIQt26wql4K9rHIpS3V9YqFW9FQZDTZyvP1rhiiEdPaHUdxy8B-jb97A/s1600/reading+quest+game+board.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="656" data-original-width="656" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixZo_Xq9o2cxQqZNNuwZuA8Ehc07MkoQ1qZ5g6RzwEsDvuE-fve_3wr9D8Xnpx_Dc8ALb34O8KCdFQAW9fVCwqRIQt26wql4K9rHIpS3V9YqFW9FQZDTZyvP1rhiiEdPaHUdxy8B-jb97A/s400/reading+quest+game+board.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Current score: </b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>XP: 10 </b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>HP: 12 </b></span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This might be my favourite thing that I've seen all year.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's a new reading challenge created by Read at Midnight, and it runs from 13 August 2017 to 10 September 2017.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The object is to choose a character, either a Knight, Bard, Mage or Rogue and then move around the board, collecting XP and HP as you read books from your TBR. The full rules are <a href="https://readatmidnight.com/2017/07/29/thereadingquest-sign-up/">here</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My instinct is always to choose a mage in whatever game I'm playing, so this time I'm going to branch out and pick Bard, at least at first. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My TBR pile is likely to change as we progress, but for now I've put together this provisional pile:</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh52JLO1EzyE-5cjMj5nj2wgj-DTngEab58QDPDDD0LUrHKL__ame-rzkznIe66LI_2h9m3V2z-BhcOr0yayfxK3sUnIgg81JGNZhiXodo6xdE8AGbW5z8bX1Oy38iZSQPc6jRLsnIyxjcF/s1600/IMG_5317.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh52JLO1EzyE-5cjMj5nj2wgj-DTngEab58QDPDDD0LUrHKL__ame-rzkznIe66LI_2h9m3V2z-BhcOr0yayfxK3sUnIgg81JGNZhiXodo6xdE8AGbW5z8bX1Oy38iZSQPc6jRLsnIyxjcF/s320/IMG_5317.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A book that has a movie/TV adaptation</span></span><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Okay, so <i>Meg </i>doesn't technically have an adaptation <i>yet, </i>but it is <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4779682/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">due for release next year</a> with Jason Statham, and the challenge doesn't say it has to have an <i>already released </i>adaptation (#technicalities). It looks like a fun, pulpy horror novel about prehistoric sharks. Yay!</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"> </span> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A fairy tale retelling</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">The only fairytale retellings I've read that I've really enjoyed is the <a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2015/07/review-cinder-lunar-chronicles-1-by.html">Lunar Chronicles series</a>, and Mercedes Lackey's <a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2012/02/review-reserved-for-cat-by-mercedes.html">Elemental Masters series</a>. Imagine my delight when I was scanning my TBR shelves for inspiration and realised that I actually have one of the latter still to read! It's <i>Blood Red </i>and I'm super excited.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"> </span> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A book cover with striking typography</span></span><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">This is one of my most newly purchased books (with birthday Amazon vouchers only this week), so I'm disappointed I have to wait three books into the challenge before I can read it, especially as I've heard it's brilliant. It has especially striking typography - it's gold and shiny, and just beautiful.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"> </span> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A book translated from another language</span></span><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Shame on me, but I actually struggled to find something from my TBR to meet this requirement. I eventually found <i>Like Water for Chocolate, </i>which I've been meaning to read for ages.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"> </span> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A banned book</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">I've actually already read a decent portion of the more well-known banned books - <i>Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty Four, Lady Chatterley's Lover </i>(twice)<i>, To Kill A Mockingbird, </i>etc. Instead, I'm going to read <i>Lolita </i>which will also count for the purple squared 'respawn' challenge, as I tried to read it previously but DNF'd it.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">I'll be keeping track of my progress at the top of this page and I'll probably check in at the halfway point too. I'll also be tweeting at @bookinginheels.</span></span></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Good luck everybody!</span> </span></b> </span></span></div>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-85835740894701998332017-07-31T19:44:00.001+01:002017-07-31T20:00:48.748+01:00July 2018 Wrap-Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPzZ8eJOgYB0z70ebShHANx_uCpN48IpWUhQFV9t3PUgjTjY3qxP1lTH7oxLUmxhbohVpVudzS2qMQxRV89nwjd2tcmy32BDk51i-Yh7gp1VauGrHFBiGhraMkc4i_Bi-nveu498OIxKIm/s1600/FullSizeRender%252810%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="550" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPzZ8eJOgYB0z70ebShHANx_uCpN48IpWUhQFV9t3PUgjTjY3qxP1lTH7oxLUmxhbohVpVudzS2qMQxRV89nwjd2tcmy32BDk51i-Yh7gp1VauGrHFBiGhraMkc4i_Bi-nveu498OIxKIm/s320/FullSizeRender%252810%2529.jpg" width="275" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I'm very surprised I managed to get through all of these books in July, especially considering the length of some of them! </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Everything is chaos here at the moment - I start a new job in a new city on 14 August and I'm trying to prepare for that, as well as cleaning out and packing my possessions in order to move. It's not going well. Many angry tears have been shed and many unintelligible noises have been made.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">My new job has a library literally <i>right next door </i>though, so I can't complain :)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Why yes, there is definitely a fantasy theme to my July reading. I read <i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/07/review-eye-of-world-wheel-of-time-1-by.html">The Eye of the World</a>, </i>the first book in the Wheel of Time series, because <a href="http://www.litaddictedbrit.co.uk/">Charlotte</a> told me how amazing it was and then I <i>had </i>to get the next book immediately.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">At the same time, she was reading <i>my </i>favourite fantasy series, The Belgariad by David Eddings, and then I had a sudden urge to reread those as well... so I ended up alternating between series. I've currently finished neither series (understandably considering The Wheel of Time books are <i>long</i> and there are fourteen of them) but I'm persevering! </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I finally finished <i>Wilkie Collins: A Life of Sensation, </i>which I was reading as part of <a href="http://www.reading-rambo.com/">Alice's</a> read-a-long. I enjoyed learning more about him (and his multiple STDs), but I didn't also need to learn more about everybody he passed in the street. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> <div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><u>Fiction</u></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/07/review-eye-of-world-wheel-of-time-1-by.html">The Eye of the World</a> </span></span></i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(Wheel of Time #1) by Robert Jordan</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/07/review-great-hunt-wheel-of-time-series.html">The Great Hunt</a> </i><span style="color: black;">(Wheel of Time #2) by Robert Jordan</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>The Dragon Reborn </i>(Wheel of Time #3) by Robert Jordan</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
I love this series and I'm simultaneously annoyed and thrilled that I haven't read it before. The first book is mostly scene setting, but the second is amazing. So much plot development and twists and... argh. There are some really great plotlines.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
I didn't review the third book because a) the reviews are probably going to start getting repetitive, but also b) I didn't like it quite as much as the others. It was in the middle of frantic packing and throwing a strop-fit, so I possibly wasn't the most impartial! </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
<u>Graphic novels</u></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br><i>Super Mutant Magic Academy </i>by Jillian Tamaki </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><u>Rereads</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2015/01/review-ready-player-one-by-ernest-cline.html">Ready Player One</a> </i>by Ernest Cline</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Pawn of Prophecy </i>(Belgariad #1) by David Eddings</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Queen of Sorcery </i>(Belgariad #2) by David Eddings</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">David Eddings was one of the first adult authors I ever read. As a teenager, I devoured this series and his other books on multiple occasions, and so I was really concerned that they would stand up twelve years down the line. They do, they really do. The dialogue is still very dry and witty and, whilst I've now seen the same plot devices used in other books, it doesn't matter as it's still done well. I'm looking forward to reading the others!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I'd say that I enjoyed <i>Ready Player One </i>slightly less than I did on my original reading, but only slightly. I think I was so blown away by all the references to my favourite things that I wasn't paying attention to the actual plot! There are a few holes and there is some shoe-horning in relation to a certain character, but it didn't stop me from loving it overall.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><u>Non-fiction</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Wilkie Collins: A Life of Sensation </i>by Andrew Lycett </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Best Book of July 2017:</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; "><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The Great Hunt </span></span></i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">(Wheel of Time #2) by Robert Jordan</span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> </b></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyutX9idrpNjjZs4anUkkDiGXCjwVaWr6uvGjezy8J1A-YaOu6JIDtGAemw4O7EmSh-JG-0SlVZ_ddLZ8ObGOdQGj9jPLIMapAeQ30rg_0vj4mCcCfRd24Ze_-nQC_KmzOlixRGw_oc_l0/s1600/FullSizeRender%252811%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyutX9idrpNjjZs4anUkkDiGXCjwVaWr6uvGjezy8J1A-YaOu6JIDtGAemw4O7EmSh-JG-0SlVZ_ddLZ8ObGOdQGj9jPLIMapAeQ30rg_0vj4mCcCfRd24Ze_-nQC_KmzOlixRGw_oc_l0/s320/FullSizeRender%252811%2529.jpg" width="255" /></a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">Despite the fact that I'm moving and I'm meant to be depleting my possessions, I have somehow still managed to accumulate <i>eleven </i>more books. I know. It's space I don't have... but hey, they were <i>books </i>I didn't have! :)</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><br>I bought <i>The Great Hunt </i>and <i>The Dragon Reborn</i> whilst reading the previous book and each time deciding I would absolutely need the next installment. On one such occasion, Charlotte accompanied me to Waterstones and, after rearranging the shelf to her liking, encouraged me to buy <i>Across the Nightingale Floor </i>too. Which I did, because I have no will power.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><br>All the rest are from charity shops, aside from <i>The Power </i>(which I bought at 2am using next day delivery because I was that desperate to read it - which, naturally, I still haven't done) and <i>The Haunted Hotel, </i>which is a Wilkie Collins novel that I heard about from his biography.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><br>I'm particularly excited about <i>Saplings, </i>an adult novel by Noel Streatfield, the author of <i>Ballet Shoes. </i>I can't even remember what it's about but I know I want to read it!</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><br>August is my birthday month so it's highly unlikely that there will be no books coming in... but hopefully I'll have finished moving soon so I can justify books again. Not that my lack of justification matters, clearly!</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i> </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">What was <i>your </i>favourite read from July? Which book are you most looking forward to reading in August?</span></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span> </span></div></div>Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-56834242007540490082017-07-22T08:44:00.001+01:002017-07-22T23:56:09.243+01:0024in48 Readathon: Day One<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The readathon started at 00:01am ET, but over here in the UK that means 5:01am. Needless to say I did not set my alarm for this ungodly hour. It's now 8:28am and I'm blearily awake and ready to start reading. Admittedly I'm still in bed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My target was originally going to be 12 hours over the whole weekend, because I need to sort, pack and clean in order to move house <span style="color: #3d85c6;">as well as read!</span> I now also have plans on the Sunday, so we're probably looking around the 6-8 hour mark. I'm going to leave my official target as it is, but I'm not going to worry about it too much and just aim to read more than I would normally, which is about two hours a day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><u><b>8:28am (Hour Four)</b></u></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time spent reading: 0 minutes</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Books read from: 0 books</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Pages read: 0 pages</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time spent blogging: 20 minutes </span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><u>Introduction Survey</u></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>1. Where in the world are you reading from this weekend?</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">I'm reading from West Yorkshire, England. I live a few miles away from Haworth, where the Brontes lived.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">I haven't opened my curtains yet, but I can hear it's currently absolutely <i>pouring </i>with rain. Sounds about right for July.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> 2. </span></span></b></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Have you done the 24in48 readathon before?</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">I have not! The timing has never been quite right. It's still not right, to be honest, but I figure that I'll just be relaxed about it and see how it goes.</span></span></span></div>
<ol style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>3. Where did you hear about the readathon, if it is your first? </b></span></span></ol>
<ol style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> </b><span style="color: black;">Weirdly, I actually just fancied doing a readathon so I googled it about Wednesday. This readathon came up and it sounded perfect, so here we are.</span></span></span></ol>
<ol style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> </b></span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>4. What book are you most excited about reading this weekend?</b></span></span></ol>
<ol style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">Well we'll have to see how it goes. I'm currently reading <i>The Dragon Reborn, </i>the third book in the Wheel of Time series. I love it, but it's quite heavy going at times.</span></span></span></ol>
<ol style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">If I need a break from that, I'm going to read either <i>One of Us is Lying, </i>which is a light YA, or <i>The Super Mutant Magic Academy, </i>a graphic novel.</span></span></span></ol>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiyTHYstCIyZylzPR_T9bBvkk5sDubWhlp7MSAsLyNivAdFRd9bw3Xs59OV8AF1SfcGHVWBx4DniMxdBcWtwB5lgKWFwChBEWIMFVh5vLdmHulYDHAytRj2XlB0vgQxoYieZmn3FpHED5W/s1600/super+mutant+magic+academy+book+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="260" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiyTHYstCIyZylzPR_T9bBvkk5sDubWhlp7MSAsLyNivAdFRd9bw3Xs59OV8AF1SfcGHVWBx4DniMxdBcWtwB5lgKWFwChBEWIMFVh5vLdmHulYDHAytRj2XlB0vgQxoYieZmn3FpHED5W/s200/super+mutant+magic+academy+book+cover.jpg" width="155" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ73rApqW_TzfHBW6jSqUEhj-IGU4KEULfJTPaJ-gqZPN4vtYCJ9p-6ZvMPHj8fGnRwpUfK2UAQsPx944YrymfnejvApzI6EriEoVcCyqAjruqmzEQelJyqQZiv-sctTmtyNDfujLWAJzU/s1600/dragon+reborn+modern+book+cover+robert+jordan+wheel+of+time.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ73rApqW_TzfHBW6jSqUEhj-IGU4KEULfJTPaJ-gqZPN4vtYCJ9p-6ZvMPHj8fGnRwpUfK2UAQsPx944YrymfnejvApzI6EriEoVcCyqAjruqmzEQelJyqQZiv-sctTmtyNDfujLWAJzU/s200/dragon+reborn+modern+book+cover+robert+jordan+wheel+of+time.jpg" width="126" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmUn3pt5iNf0jWhtk7Mu6fa-Hdd1hRIdvXsM2Dh9Hc1f6Qk8PMGJVuOX1_BlEBNEgxZslS84-KKH7l5gh55jlz07X1kgxhW9tcBinOomofn6ZDuUQoT3d6cFkATtsmybA1EI9bXgzH2b2k/s1600/one+of+us+is+lying+book+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="255" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmUn3pt5iNf0jWhtk7Mu6fa-Hdd1hRIdvXsM2Dh9Hc1f6Qk8PMGJVuOX1_BlEBNEgxZslS84-KKH7l5gh55jlz07X1kgxhW9tcBinOomofn6ZDuUQoT3d6cFkATtsmybA1EI9bXgzH2b2k/s200/one+of+us+is+lying+book+cover.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"> </span><b> </b></span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>5. Tell us something about yourself.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">I collect different editions of <i>Pride and Prejudice</i> - I have 77 so far.</span><b> </b></span></span></div>
<ol style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>6. Remind us where to find you online this weekend.</b></span></span></ol>
<ol style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">Here, mostly, on this post. I'll also be rambling on my Twitter, which is @bookinginheels.com</span><b> </b></span></span></ol>
<ol style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><u>10:07am (Hour Six)</u></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> </b></span></span></ol>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time spent reading: 1 hour 1 minute</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Books read from: <i>The Dragon Reborn</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Pages read: 62 pages</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time spent blogging: 28 minutes</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHqkAu7b-oS-zNLluRfyWGQgCtCiN0FA1zBhgj1YyNLl0hlj31seDZxjq1fj6ulQEhMvf4hH9gCMOaAHPFzTmp7q_yC0B3Ddisw3-aSe42d0NjMAcK120XSqtSLPZ6XlljtNP7dP80K6IL/s1600/IMG_5108.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHqkAu7b-oS-zNLluRfyWGQgCtCiN0FA1zBhgj1YyNLl0hlj31seDZxjq1fj6ulQEhMvf4hH9gCMOaAHPFzTmp7q_yC0B3Ddisw3-aSe42d0NjMAcK120XSqtSLPZ6XlljtNP7dP80K6IL/s200/IMG_5108.JPG" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">Well that's a good start, at least! After setting up this post and completing the introductory survery, I spent a solid hour reading in bed. I'm up and dressed, and unfortunately I now have to do a bit of packing and other life admin.</span><i><span style="color: black;"> </span></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i><span style="color: black;">The Dragon Reborn </span></i><span style="color: black;">probably isn't ideal readathon fodder, to be honest. Whilst I do really enjoy this series, it's a little heavy and I'm beginning to get frustrated with the characters. After my break to deal with my real world responsibilities, I might try for a little more of it, but then switch over to <i>Super Mutant Magic Academy </i>for a while.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">Hope your reading is going well!</span></span></span></div>
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<ol style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><u>11:47am (Hour Seven)</u></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> </b></span></span></ol>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time spent reading: 1 hour 13 minutes</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Books read from: <i>The Dragon Reborn</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Pages read: 79 pages</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time spent blogging: 28 minutes</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time being Life Productive: 1 hour 12 minutes</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">Pfft, tired now. I've been packing up clothes and I've done a trip down to the Post Office, and now I'm wiped. I've not been that well, so I'm fatiguing easily at the moment. Probably a good time to get some reading done. Or I will when I clear up the pile of irritating stuff that I can see out of the corner of my eye, anyway.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">Oh, and here's our first challenge!</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><u>Snap a Shelfie</u></span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL-vSl7gfmYrBsNHjB1ApM3unGnodf3eP70m9O5aZ2z8OZlQZ3WdJZIHeQXut_I-p_Mr9uOj3VRXJYiGj9XwsYp-WZJeQ7ZzlZBFuYV2mzd0SgdL0cOpdtSi01xpyigqvDYVOUvXlGZD5D/s1600/11407292_10152855983610759_9064669913601063739_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL-vSl7gfmYrBsNHjB1ApM3unGnodf3eP70m9O5aZ2z8OZlQZ3WdJZIHeQXut_I-p_Mr9uOj3VRXJYiGj9XwsYp-WZJeQ7ZzlZBFuYV2mzd0SgdL0cOpdtSi01xpyigqvDYVOUvXlGZD5D/s320/11407292_10152855983610759_9064669913601063739_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"> </span> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"> Here are some of my lovely bookshelves!</span></span></span></div>
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<ol style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><u>2:20pm (Hour Ten)</u></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> </b></span></span></ol>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time spent reading: 2 hours 8 minutes</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Books read from: <i>The Dragon Reborn</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Pages read: 145 pages</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time spent blogging: 36 minutes</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time being Life Productive: 2 hours 7 minutes</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">It's weird how I keep spending almost exactly the same time reading as I do with my packing - it's unintentional but I'm happy with that.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">I've read a little more and I'm happier with my book though. I'm still a bit frustrated with certain parts, but my grumpiness from this morning has worn off.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">I had to go on a drive to a village a few miles away to return one of my Cub Scout's possessions (it's almost an end of year ritual, by this point) as well as stop for some lunch, but I'm home now and ready to read some more!</span></span></span><br />
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<ol style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><u>4:18pm (Hour Twelve)</u></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> </b></span></span></ol>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time spent reading: 2 hours 53 minutes</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Books read from: <i>The Dragon Reborn (176 pages)</i></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i> Super Mutant Magic Academy (37 pages) </i></span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Pages read: 213 pages</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time spent blogging: 41 minutes</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time being Life Productive: 2 hours 30 minutes</span></span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgpt7eWN6Iiew5FtV7zYpnfml-UL9OoNGbreHKhE2bT1SPKtOt9ZgNq1mkihdQLAC5UBcKDsxEc4-qCiYqhzvpZcXsWUg3Q54raI2KTfaQdtB3NtN4Dvm-l8NIlZDlbf9_an6ly9lKG5Aw/s1600/IMG_5109.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgpt7eWN6Iiew5FtV7zYpnfml-UL9OoNGbreHKhE2bT1SPKtOt9ZgNq1mkihdQLAC5UBcKDsxEc4-qCiYqhzvpZcXsWUg3Q54raI2KTfaQdtB3NtN4Dvm-l8NIlZDlbf9_an6ly9lKG5Aw/s200/IMG_5109.JPG" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">I've changed books for a little bit - I'm now reading from the <i>Super Mutant Magic Academy, </i>a graphic novel by Jillian Tamaki<i>. </i>I'm very achy and very tired, and my mind just wasn't able to deal with the dense prose of <i>The Dragon Reborn </i>anymore! I like it so far - it's drawn very basically and it has a dark sense of humour that's quite amusing at times.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">My progress on packing has slowed somewhat as it hurts when I move. I'm still persevering, but perhaps not as enthusiastically as I was.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">My original reading target was 12 hours which boils down to 6 hours per day. There's no reason that I shouldn't make that at this stage, so I'm quite pleased really :) </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<ol style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><u>9:17pm (Hour Seventeen)</u></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> </b></span></span></ol>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time spent reading: 4 hours 31 minutes</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Books read from: <i>The Dragon Reborn (266 pages)</i></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i> Super Mutant Magic Academy (104 pages) </i></span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Pages read: 370 pages</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time spent blogging: 48 minutes</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time being Life Productive: 2 hours 39 minutes</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">Every time I do a readathon, it amazes me just how much time there is for reading, if I only focus. It's not even particularly late and I've managed to read for 4.5 hours as well as running errands, milling about and spending thirty minutes looking for a viable Women's Institute that doesn't meet on a Thursday (there isn't one).</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">There's probably a lesson to be learned there - maybe I should spend less time faffing about and messing around on my phone, and more time reading.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">I'm 56% into <i>The Dragon Reborn </i>now. I do like it, but probably not as much as the second book, <i>The Great Hunt. </i>I was hoping to finish the whole thing this weekend, but considering I have plans tomorrow, that's not likely now. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<ol style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><u>11:52pm (Hour Nineteen)</u></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> </b></span></span></ol>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time spent reading: 6 hours</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Books read from: <i>The Dragon Reborn (352 pages)</i></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i> Super Mutant Magic Academy (142 pages) </i></span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Pages read: 494 pages</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time spent blogging: 55 minutes</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Time being Life Productive: 2 hours 39 minutes</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">Well that's it for today. It's bedtime. I admit to getting a bit distracted towards the end - I kept checking to see if I'd reached six hours yet (halfway to my goal of twelve hours). I'd probably naturally have given up around 5.5 hours, so not that much earlier really.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">I'm very unlikely to make twelve hours overall as I've ended up with plans tomorrow, but at least I reached my goal for today. </span> </span></span></div>
<ol style="text-align: center;">
</ol>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-14354729470465203022017-07-21T16:54:00.000+01:002017-07-21T16:54:10.430+01:00Review: The Great Hunt (Wheel of Time series #2) by Robert Jordan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz2VL-gE8CdhqKZ_aW5vhqvJsrHW0uOisNQfIp-OOMghjZd_sFy9vMDPQYw7rCuD0djSaqCjE83T_zCE7FXlYnZQDuIo5QHok0LLcKhwMRJDkveiufb9RZdPubBhZVeTzGTzNG_E3Uzm2D/s1600/great+hunt+book+cover+wheel+of+time+robert+jordan.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Great Hunt modern book cover by Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time series" border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="179" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz2VL-gE8CdhqKZ_aW5vhqvJsrHW0uOisNQfIp-OOMghjZd_sFy9vMDPQYw7rCuD0djSaqCjE83T_zCE7FXlYnZQDuIo5QHok0LLcKhwMRJDkveiufb9RZdPubBhZVeTzGTzNG_E3Uzm2D/s200/great+hunt+book+cover+wheel+of+time+robert+jordan.jpeg" title="The Great Hunt modern book cover by Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time series" width="127" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I seem to be having a bit of a Fantasy Summer. I'm currently alternating between the Wheel of Time books and the Belgariad series by David Eddings. Honestly, I'm having a great time of it, and reading the two (completely different) series means that I'm not getting bored either.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I read the first book in this series, <i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/07/review-eye-of-world-wheel-of-time-1-by.html">The Eye of the World</a>, </i>last week and really liked it. I called it 'proper' fantasy and lauded the world-building and the characters, although I admitted it was sort of slow. Enter <i>The Great Hunt, </i>which is very much more energetic, and I <i>loved </i>it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Spoiler-free.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Plot summary: </span><i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span id="freeText5467148939127209337">The Forsaken are loose,
the Horn of Valere has been found and the Dead are rising from their
dreamless sleep. The Prophecies are being fulfilled - but Rand al'Thor,
the shepherd the Aes Sedai have proclaimed as the Dragon Reborn,
desperately seeks to escape his destiny.<br /><br />Rand cannot run for
ever. With every passing day the Dark One grows in strength and strives
to shatter his ancient prison, to break the Wheel, to bring an end to
Time and sunder the weave of the Pattern.<br /><br />And the Pattern demands the Dragon.</span></span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whilst there is still quite a lot of walking, it's an 800+ page high fantasy novel, so what did we expect, really? And it's walking with a purpose, so we'll survive. The difference between the books is that I can actually point to Things That Happened in <i>The Great Hunt, </i>which isn't strictly true with the first novel </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So much is going on in this book and it's all just brilliant. Some of the events and subplots really grasped me, to the point where I genuinely gasped and did a little excited dance. It was very attractive, I assure you. I'm going to be vague, but I loved what happened to Egwene, and Nynaeve's trials were perfectly executed. There were some really dramatic passages about <strike>Garion</strike> Rand (oops, wrong series) being forced to accept his destiny. Which we knew he would because, hey, it would be a remarkably short series otherwise, but it was just wonderfully written.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's strange, but it's simultaneously more action-packed but also more political than the first book. Part of the novel revolves around the different factions of the Aes Sedai and the significance of the different-coloured cloaks, and I found that really interesting. I liked seeing a bigger cross-section of their order than just Moraine and I imagine it's going to become very important in the later books.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What I particularly appreciate about these books, and what makes me grudgingly condone the sheer length of them, is that there's hardly ever an information dump. New places, characters and backgrounds are introduced gradually and I rarely find myself having to flick back to remember what's going on. It's rare in a book of this nature that I don't find myself confused at least once, but I never felt particularly overwhelmed here. </span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivikaFAjd7xo4n7nMuUgUcnXk7d_KNOSxglxgJF_QyX_dHhI2Xin6WPNjI4-ajkTs_MvZO0d7bNZhjeI69X1r-XJtfdV7ipguUWiQdTKL8oH0HD17sF-Oy78uP33fmSCHBoTell169sXzq/s1600/JonSnowTightened-S4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1284" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivikaFAjd7xo4n7nMuUgUcnXk7d_KNOSxglxgJF_QyX_dHhI2Xin6WPNjI4-ajkTs_MvZO0d7bNZhjeI69X1r-XJtfdV7ipguUWiQdTKL8oH0HD17sF-Oy78uP33fmSCHBoTell169sXzq/s200/JonSnowTightened-S4.jpg" width="160" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My one quibble with this series is the characters. Some of them are great - I love Perrin in particular. In my head, I see him as the guy who plays this person in Game of Thrones (I don't know the character's name because I don't watch it, but I've seen him everywhere) and he's the most pleasant and interesting of all of them. He doesn't really like using his axe but accepts that it is occasionally necessary, he's so patient with both Rand and Mat (which is more than I could manage) and his subplot is fascinating. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I like Nynaeve too. She went through a particularly harrowing ordeal in this book and she came out the better for it. My mother says that she wants to choke her with her own plait, but I think she provides the common sense desperately needed by the rest of the group.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The rest of the characters are more or less completely unlikeable. Mat is bitter and whiny (I've been told there's a reason for that by multiple people, but I think my irritation is too firmly ingrained now), and I really, <i>really </i>want to hit him a lot of the time. Even the minor characters, like Ingtar, aren't great. Don't get me wrong, they're fully fleshed out with backstories and motivations, but it doesn't make me feel any sympathy towards them.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And Rand. RAND.</span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Watching Verin's smile, small and mysterious, Perrin felt a chill. He did not think Rand knew half what he thought he did. Not half. </span> </blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjly0njzZ2v_SHhqQKvpQtUGaSZbfkZ11H2sDAUWtTqvxV_02TkT5zCeTb-GmlpvGq7xiXHRbcEdLRciha8d1W4kx8osidWLS0MJ9VUe-XIUixQWNBphQBBBEmZ_1Fj2WRZb7nXcawatjEW/s1600/this.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="254" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjly0njzZ2v_SHhqQKvpQtUGaSZbfkZ11H2sDAUWtTqvxV_02TkT5zCeTb-GmlpvGq7xiXHRbcEdLRciha8d1W4kx8osidWLS0MJ9VUe-XIUixQWNBphQBBBEmZ_1Fj2WRZb7nXcawatjEW/s200/this.gif" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Look, I get it. He wants a quiet life back in Two Rivers, and lots of different people and forces are telling him that it just isn't an option anymore. I'd be pissed off too. But does he <i>have </i>to be so naive and stupid!? 'Nope, you've told me to do this because it'll save my life, but I'm going to do the opposite - that'll show <i>you!' </i>And repeat. It was really quite annoying. Like, <i>really.</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Luckily, there are enough interesting characters to offset the annoying ones, and the plotlines are so brilliant that I'd read this even if <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Blobby">Mr Blobby</a> were a character. It's a lengthy book, but unlike <i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/07/review-eye-of-world-wheel-of-time-1-by.html">The Eye of the World</a>, </i>I'd argue that this one probably <i>does </i>need to be this long. So much happened that the pages just flew by. Whilst I really liked the first book, I really do think that <i>The Great Hunt </i>is so much better.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And yes, of course I've bought the next book, and yes, I am obviously already reading it.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Read my review of <i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/07/review-eye-of-world-wheel-of-time-1-by.html">The Eye of the World</a>, </i>or another review of <i>The Great Hunt</i> at <a href="http://litaddictedbrit.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/wheel-of-time-re-read-2-and-3-great.html">Lit Addicted Brit.</a></span></b> </span></div>
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<br />Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-84129088123194228692017-07-14T18:56:00.000+01:002017-07-14T18:56:17.640+01:00A Life of Sensation Read-a-Long: AND WE'RE DONE.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0jBWxt3Fn8DcQEHsu8boaEaWKxxalu0EPGi-LlA6AuFnxCuYPgeZnRZ0niOd1JdlD00X2J4oEyAzqlDyaGgGakAW0Z6YRAjfR0CjCOAFfXIExPQq1Jy8RBIq2Pb4G1wtPj2TtPLzkOtMg/s1600/SUMMER+WILKIE+READ.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0jBWxt3Fn8DcQEHsu8boaEaWKxxalu0EPGi-LlA6AuFnxCuYPgeZnRZ0niOd1JdlD00X2J4oEyAzqlDyaGgGakAW0Z6YRAjfR0CjCOAFfXIExPQq1Jy8RBIq2Pb4G1wtPj2TtPLzkOtMg/s200/SUMMER+WILKIE+READ.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Two days late - sorry, sorry. I'm currently going through the twin joys of moving and also moving in with somebody and, whilst we haven't yet murdered each other, it's been a near thing. Nothing makes you want to move in with somebody less than the actual <i>process </i>of moving in with somebody.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But yay! We've finished the book! I have to admit to a pleasant feeling that arose when I realised that a goodly chunk of this book was the bibliography, and so it took much less time than I expected when I eventually settled down to read.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, the final check-in of Andrew Lycett's <i>A Life of Sensation:</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>(</i>Alternate title: Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Victorian Copyright Law)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i> </i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At one point, Wilkie took both Caroline and Martha (both his long-term mistresses) to the seaside, installed them in different houses... and then buggered off to France.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I do like that he made equal provision for all his children in his will, including Harriet, who was technically not <i>even </i>his step-daughter.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFb1tbCut5QIHm19RVJ1mGmoalQh3nZ7r0ddOa37d5UrXXyxNmg7YV_q7AYhMxtdbieSiLW7-LIQJMQ3onceyHDh9W6sMdkhG5B_qd3SC05nteCRcx4r77N5cfD__v23oOfmyCj8wIUfEG/s1600/FullSizeRender%25287%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFb1tbCut5QIHm19RVJ1mGmoalQh3nZ7r0ddOa37d5UrXXyxNmg7YV_q7AYhMxtdbieSiLW7-LIQJMQ3onceyHDh9W6sMdkhG5B_qd3SC05nteCRcx4r77N5cfD__v23oOfmyCj8wIUfEG/s200/FullSizeRender%25287%2529.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Martha Rudd</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The chapter entitled 'TWO HOUSES, TWO FAMILIES' is a tease. It remains <i>entirely </i>centered on copyright law and American publishing houses and has pretty much zip to do with either Caroline or Martha.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For all Wilkie's talk about Martha's buxom-ness (buxomity? buxomitude?), she wasn't a looker, bless her, was she? I can only assume she was fucking <i>amazing </i>with his Person.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wilkie is some sort of Victorian Charlie Sheen, and can <i>'down a tincture that... would be enough to kill a dozen people,' </i>which he carried around in a hip flask.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody> </tbody></table>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He had a weird relationship with a twelve year old girl, which Lycett is quick to point out was <i>absolutely fine </i>because her mother saw all her letters. Honestly, he's the least impartial biographer ever. Wilkie called her 'dearest wife' and 'Mrs Collins,' and used her to <i>'prattle on about his' excellent friends Opium and Quinine... which is <u>not</u></i> <i>the Christian name of <u>another</u> wife.'</i></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="210" data-original-width="245" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuD6enN7BSqtVyfHAtup5C0HAd5S2i3gRw8GwsgQghsmay0RLjpCPQGLCE6al4eIBgTWrek2tX83WRy3qB_rtjRcYS-HECyTWCRQwUZyans7nzKhTq6pV9KR2sKHkG29OObHOl8UgogZGP/s320/inappropriate.gif" width="320" /></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">By this point, I was sort of hoping that Wilkie would hurry up and die already. He did, many pages later, and I did genuinely feel quite sad. I think I might go visit his grave at Kensal Grave the next time I'm in London.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So here we are. Did this book need to be this long? No. Did we need a biography of everybody Wilkie Collins passed in the street? Probably not.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'd have liked to know more about Caroline and Martha, who get very little air-time in this book and who Andrew Lycett judged pretty much constantly. Did they ever meet? Were they actually happy with the arrangement? I'd have been way more interested in this than a who's who of Americal copyright law. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thank you to <a href="http://www.reading-rambo.com/2017/07/wilkie-collins-in-summation.html">Alice</a> for running this and I'm 100% up for reading another of Wilkie Collins' novels now!</span></span>Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-58900956857702627292017-07-11T12:26:00.000+01:002017-07-11T12:26:03.388+01:00Review: The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time #1) by Robert Jordan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmqnq6LMRlT6tFSxdVPopXuLdYTcmzOqzFyEIj4NfQPAhWbDMLT4nZS9mauhhC-twdgAWM1GAZLw7tF6RT_qAus7JOFhkHIo-wCRkyKg-7rEUrY2AvwPCf2M9ALDNPVZ9D4kK_aRuVueV3/s1600/eye+of+the+world+book+cover+wheel+of+time+robert+jordan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Eye of the World UK book cover by Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time" border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="313" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmqnq6LMRlT6tFSxdVPopXuLdYTcmzOqzFyEIj4NfQPAhWbDMLT4nZS9mauhhC-twdgAWM1GAZLw7tF6RT_qAus7JOFhkHIo-wCRkyKg-7rEUrY2AvwPCf2M9ALDNPVZ9D4kK_aRuVueV3/s200/eye+of+the+world+book+cover+wheel+of+time+robert+jordan.jpg" title="Eye of the World UK book cover by Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time" width="125" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My over-riding question is - <i>why didn't I read this sooner? </i>I was <i>aware </i>of the Wheel of Time series, of course. It's one of those absolute fantasy staples and so, logically, I should have been champing at the bit to pick it up. Not so. I think I must have read the blurb of one of the much later books, been ridiculously confused and backed away slowly, intimidated and bemused. The lesson: don't judge a book by it's tenth installment.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let's all bless <a href="http://litaddictedbrit.blogspot.co.uk/">Charlotte</a> for rereading this series herself, and subsequently sending me a copy. It only took me four years to read it.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Plot summary: </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span id="freeText30718986410092674">Life in Emond's Field has
been pretty boring for Rand Al'Thor and his friends until a strange
young woman arrives in their village. Moraine is an Aes Sedai, a
magician with the ability to wield the One Power, and she brings
warnings of a terrible evil awakening in the world. That very night, the
village is attacked by bloodthirsty Trollocs - a fearsome tribe of
beast-men thought to be no more than myth. As Emond's Field burns,
Moraine and her warrior-guardian help Rand and his companions to escape.
But it is only the beginning of their troubles.</span></i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText30718986410092674">I admit that <i>The Eye of the World </i>took a bit of getting into. Whilst it didn't help that I was trying to trudge through it after an exhausting 48 hour Scout Camp, it's quite slow to start. It begins with an unknowing farmboy going about his routine, as these things usually do, but it lasts a <i>while.</i> It is relevant and does provide some backstory for later events, but it's possibly not the best way to entice a new reader into the series.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText30718986410092674"><i> </i></span><span id="freeText30718986410092674"><i> </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText30718986410092674">It soon picks up though, and we're off into the wider world. <i>The Eye of the World, </i>and presumably the whole series, is what I call 'proper' fantasy. There's lots of dialogue, lots of sub-plots and lots of interesting characters. Not a whole lot of action, but the bits that are present are excellent and riveting.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText30718986410092674">The simultaneous best and worst thing about this book is the level of detail. I loved it most of the time, but occasionally I did get bogged down in the description of a solitary leaf. Nothing is missed out, which really helps from an immersion point of view, but there's no avoiding that this 800+ page book could have been an awful lot shorter. Would it have suffered from some hefty trimming? I'm not sure. The pages flew by because I was so riveted in the story, but I remain unconvinced that every single adjective was absolutely required from a plot perspective.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText30718986410092674">Speaking of, I love this plot. Or I'm sure I would, if I knew what it was. The Dark One is threatening to break free, which would be less than ideal... and that's it. The world-building is so thorough and the prose is so detailed, that there's only the vaguest of overarching plots so far, which is fine. This is off-set by some wonderful side-stories. Each of the nine (I think?) characters travelling with the party is equipped with their own backstory, motivation and sub-plot and they're all pretty great. I'm torn between Perrin and Mat as in whom I'm the most interested, although the Ogier is wonderful too.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText30718986410092674">There's a strange sense of realism throughout this book that really impressed me. I mean, there's magic and gods and whatnot so I'm not going for hyper-realism here, but a lot of things that usually annoy me about fantasy novels simply aren't present. For example, the characters discuss simply <i>not </i>blindly following the prophecy - they actually consider shirking their responsibilities, just like real people. Characters who inherit magical powers aren't an instant prodigy within a day - they're actually pretty rubbish, <i>as they should be. </i>It's possibly because the slow pace allowed time to expand on all these things, but I loved it. It's so rare in these books. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText30718986410092674">There is some romance of a sort, but it's very subtle and in no way overshadows the remainder of the book. If anything, I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText30718986410092674">I wasn't a huge fan of the ending, but considering that <i>The Eye of the World </i>is only the first part of an epic series and presumably exists pretty much solely as an introduction, I'll let it slide.</span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText30718986410092674"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText30718986410092674"> It was the only part of the whole book that went over my head.</span></span> It was slightly abstract and I'm not 100% sure I understood every single aspect, but I'm sure it will be explained in the next book. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText30718986410092674">In essence, I'm not convinced that this book needs to be this<i> </i>long or that any series requires fifteen books to adequately tell a story, but I did really love <i>The Eye of the World. </i>I'm completely willing to be convinced that the lengthy, weighty books are worth it and I've already ordered the second book, <i>The Great Hunt. </i>If you're a fan of epic fantasy, don't leave it as long as I did to pick this up.</span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText30718986410092674"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Read Charlotte's review of <i>The Eye of the World </i>at <a href="http://litaddictedbrit.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/wheel-of-time-re-read-1-eye-of-world.html">Lit Addicted Brit.</a></b></span> </span> </span></div>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-14677891449414062052017-07-06T11:00:00.002+01:002017-07-06T11:00:30.508+01:00A Life of Sensation Read-a-Long: EPOCH FOUR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0jBWxt3Fn8DcQEHsu8boaEaWKxxalu0EPGi-LlA6AuFnxCuYPgeZnRZ0niOd1JdlD00X2J4oEyAzqlDyaGgGakAW0Z6YRAjfR0CjCOAFfXIExPQq1Jy8RBIq2Pb4G1wtPj2TtPLzkOtMg/s1600/SUMMER+WILKIE+READ.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0jBWxt3Fn8DcQEHsu8boaEaWKxxalu0EPGi-LlA6AuFnxCuYPgeZnRZ0niOd1JdlD00X2J4oEyAzqlDyaGgGakAW0Z6YRAjfR0CjCOAFfXIExPQq1Jy8RBIq2Pb4G1wtPj2TtPLzkOtMg/s200/SUMMER+WILKIE+READ.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm a little bit late with my check-in this week - three days at Scout Camp doesn't leave a whole lot of time for reading (I love my Scout Kids, but they're exhausting) and in any event I got totally distracting by racing through the first book in the <i>Wheel of Time </i>series.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Anyhow, we're back to Wilkie now. A short read this week, luckily, and I'm thrilled to finally see <i>The Moonstone </i>make an appearance.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here are the highlights of this week:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wilkie has met the second lady of his life, Martha Rudd. It's heavily implied that she was on the curvier side, whilst Caroline was a little more petite. The author refers to her as a 'buxom wench.' The <i>author.</i> Nice.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>'A feature of mid-Victorian sexuality was that men were often aroused by women in socially inferior positions.'</i></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <br />
<br />
Yeah, but... really? Are you sure it's not just that those were the women they could abuse because they weren't really able to say no? Because, honestly, I'm pretty sure it's that.<i> </i></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Apparently Wilkie was drawing on his own experiences of opium whilst he was writing <i>The Moonstone.</i> You don't say. </span></li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It does note, however, that he treated the Indians in the story with respect, with a fitting and appropriate conclusion, unlike other authors of the time period *cough* Dickens *cough* <br />
<br />
I think I said much the same thing when <a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/06/review-moonstone-by-wilkie-collins.html">I reviewed it</a> a few weeks ago, passive-aggressive Dickens references aside.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dickens and Wilkie are sort of falling out now. My favourite burn <i>ever </i>is <i>'It is part of the bump in Wilkie's forehead that he will not allow his brother to be very ill.'</i></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I really want to read <i>Man and Wife, </i>for his take on the injustice of the matrimonial laws. I can't seem to find a decent copy though.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Caroline went off, married somebody fifteen years younger, decided she didn't like it and came back to live with Wilkie again. So now she's <i>married to someone else </i>whilst living quite comfortably as a mistress.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Oh, but the biggest WHAT THE FUCK moment in the whole thing is where Wilkie has a second child with Mistress B... and calls it the same name as the child of Mistress A. </span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV8DCAB8T7TyHS4f8zogm-7pyO5H7GeFBlTC64lkeOaifNJFqUpcXmw7tp2RAFWKvd6g-qJSpw4FkB_SqLsifYNda_rS12GP8QIGNd-EF-hMTl19bbcRelutj4urA4Ev9WIIhL8Dc5dldH/s1600/great+idea.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="263" data-original-width="468" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV8DCAB8T7TyHS4f8zogm-7pyO5H7GeFBlTC64lkeOaifNJFqUpcXmw7tp2RAFWKvd6g-qJSpw4FkB_SqLsifYNda_rS12GP8QIGNd-EF-hMTl19bbcRelutj4urA4Ev9WIIhL8Dc5dldH/s320/great+idea.gif" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What!? No. Why would you DO that!? I mean, I know that some names were fairly common in Victorian England, but there were more than <i>two</i> names, you selfish, inconsiderate wazzock. At this point I'm really starting to wonder if these two women were as <i>fiiiiiine </i>with the situation as history makes out.<i> </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Next week, we're finishing the book. Stay tuned!</b></span><i> </i> </span></span></div>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<ul></ul>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-29604325086626747192017-06-29T12:11:00.001+01:002017-06-29T12:11:39.609+01:00A Life of Sensation Read-a-Long: EPOCHS TWO AND THREE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Please note that alternative titles for this book include:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <i>The Lives of Everybody Wilkie Collins Passed in the Street</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">AND</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Wilkie Collins: A Life of Infection.</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Welcome to the second check-in of the read-a-long hosted by <a href="http://www.reading-rambo.com/">Rambo Reads</a>. We're reading <i>Wilkie Collins: A Life of Sensation</i>, a biography of the weirdly-shaped-headed author of <i>The Woman in White</i> and <i>The Moonstone.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Not only have I completed the reading sort-of-on-time (even if this post is late), I also finished my reread of <i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/06/review-moonstone-by-wilkie-collins.html">The Moonstone</a> </i>(click for review) which I loved possibly even more than I did the first time.<i> </i></span></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After you've removed the detailed ramblings about every single person that featured in Wilkie Collins' life, here is what we're left with:</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wilkie knew a <i>lot </i>of people. By definition, we therefore now also know <i>about </i>a lot of people. I admit to skimming some of these lengthy portions about people I have never before heard of, and never will again. Although I do intend to name my first-born 'Augustus Egg.'</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We've finally started learning about his novels, although we haven't got to <i>The Moonstone </i>yet. <i>The Woman in White </i>made Wilkie a rich man - about £100,000 in today's money. I've ordered some of his other books already, so I've tried to skim past the plot explanations.</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>'Although not yet thirty, Wilkie was already showing signs of wear.'</i>Ha. Same.</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">His gout is starting to play up quite badly, which sucks because he's still in his 30s.<i> </i>Partly self-inflicted, but I don't think they knew as much about the causes back then so we probably shouldn't judge him too harshly?</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Somehow </i>he runs into the Pope down a random street in Italy. Somehow. Am I the only one starting to take his anecdotes with a pinch of salt?</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS_fexfbc_wk2GZnICHwafCMLY6MoRGjx_jDhyphenhyphen9KpS4FQPUuP3gLPcdz5D-TLHFA4ATxHXwDN5G9PxMvYuGYTn-huHOXAHubuQHzEg6wywYCfyhVXUPFRgg6h0XJN2Uq68HJZdC2dMPePt/s1600/lies.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="500" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS_fexfbc_wk2GZnICHwafCMLY6MoRGjx_jDhyphenhyphen9KpS4FQPUuP3gLPcdz5D-TLHFA4ATxHXwDN5G9PxMvYuGYTn-huHOXAHubuQHzEg6wywYCfyhVXUPFRgg6h0XJN2Uq68HJZdC2dMPePt/s400/lies.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He also tells all his friends that his maid is trying to watch him pee. Is she though, Wilkie? <i>Is she!? </i><br /><br />Because, while I'm sure there's nothing quite as erotic as a gouty, middle-aged, stoned womaniser trying to pee, I quite simply doesn't trust you. Or your 'Person.'</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></span><ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Charles Dickens referred to himself as 'Inimitable.' Of course he did. And to Wilkie as an '<i>amiable fantasist,' </i>which makes a lot more sense.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></span><ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">They also had facial hair growing competitions. <i>These </i>are the men we idolise and cherish for their literative skills... and they amuse themselves by seeing who can grow the biggest moustache *headdesk*</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></span><ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8dIIV74lNkn-Pocc1im1Bauz2AdONvr85-AxdKQI2MYPwSxvg7O4MZNYUW8W2JYwVnubVDs5LR4tY5aTx4z3yMGxNobOOTpGS199igpv7z7eZYgpQeuLEujaEJ2IfpXtg8wUs5bPR3GeE/s1600/disgust.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="355" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8dIIV74lNkn-Pocc1im1Bauz2AdONvr85-AxdKQI2MYPwSxvg7O4MZNYUW8W2JYwVnubVDs5LR4tY5aTx4z3yMGxNobOOTpGS199igpv7z7eZYgpQeuLEujaEJ2IfpXtg8wUs5bPR3GeE/s200/disgust.gif" width="200" /></a>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wilkie and Dickens caught a lot of veneral diseases. Like, a lot. We should play a drinking game where every time Lycett says 'this can be interpreted to mean that he was again suffering from gonorrhea,' we take a shot. Except we'd end up with gout.<br /><br />So. Many. Diseases. </span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I love how Wilkie has a reputation for being sort of interested in the right of mental health patients, or at least the ones who have been locked away for having an inconvenient vagina. I have a Masters in Mental Health Law and that period of time is fascinating.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>See you next week for Epochs Four and Five!</b></span> </span><i> </i></span></div>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-60337790328672791182017-06-28T18:26:00.001+01:002017-06-28T18:30:31.403+01:00June 2017 Wrap-Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVIGRJsNxba-rhc-FLgmZ9TpTkbiiMx4FNeq5TJNvXEXIOh49o7x9Rl9rTRCllCHyZTSHf7Mkq7JK_eks28w8_MgQ3VxwZsBu6XdZmPZlC7HVwZ0in0LezKq3LJR7w7eF9GynF73-pxS49/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="640" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVIGRJsNxba-rhc-FLgmZ9TpTkbiiMx4FNeq5TJNvXEXIOh49o7x9Rl9rTRCllCHyZTSHf7Mkq7JK_eks28w8_MgQ3VxwZsBu6XdZmPZlC7HVwZ0in0LezKq3LJR7w7eF9GynF73-pxS49/s320/FullSizeRender.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">June wasn't a great month for reading, but then I hadn't expected it to be. The boyfriend and I had a week off together (in which we seemed to achieve very little), I had an important job interview to prepare for and I've generally had to clean and sort the house for future plans. Add to that a fun dose of illness flare-up and we're only 5.5 books further on with our lives.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I can't complain too much though, as I was completely blown away by two of those books and I really enjoyed a third. Let's have a look at what's been happening at Booking in Heels. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> <br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><u>Fiction</u></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/06/review-my-cousin-rachel-by-daphne-du.html">My Cousin Rachel</a> </i>by Daphne du Maurier</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/06/review-warbreaker-by-brandon-sanderson.html">Warbreaker</a> </i>by Brandon Sanderson</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Song Rising </i>(Bone Season #3) by Samantha Shannon </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><u>Rereads</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/06/review-moonstone-by-wilkie-collins.html">The Moonstone</a> </i>by Wilkie Collins</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><u><br />
</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><u>Non-fiction</u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Man Who Couldn't Stop: OCD and the True Story of a Life Lost in Thought </i>by David Adam </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Wilkie Collins: A Life of Sensation </i>by Andrew Lycett </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Best Book of June 2017:</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i>My Cousin Rachel </i>by Daphne du Maurier</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">(I'd say that <i>The Moonstone </i>is <i>sliiiiiightly </i>better, but it was a reread so doesn't count!)<b> </b></span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span> <br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I've had such a good reading month that three of the books I've read ended up on my <a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/06/the-ten-best-books-of-mid-2017.html">Top Ten Books of 2017 So Far</a> list.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I'm reading the Wilkie Collins biography as part of a read-a-long hosted by <a href="http://www.reading-rambo.com/">Reading Rambo</a>, and I'd say we're about halfway through. Or I will be, anyway, once I finish the required reading for today!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The one thing I can say for sure is that the above lack of reading <i>in no way </i>justifies the huge amount of books that have come into my house this month.</span> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSFkYVvIfq1aWcfuJPFI3Vta5Y0Qv-VmfVxotFTw0SaMGaSXjfGeSMcrxY8RzMYeG2qXWyMFvHs658IJmqxABfsIcv9AP9BWitmUa3_qYLjXl0yJHyZTX_pCf-glI9gvoyWI7jnV7bFFVd/s1600/FullSizeRender%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="640" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSFkYVvIfq1aWcfuJPFI3Vta5Y0Qv-VmfVxotFTw0SaMGaSXjfGeSMcrxY8RzMYeG2qXWyMFvHs658IJmqxABfsIcv9AP9BWitmUa3_qYLjXl0yJHyZTX_pCf-glI9gvoyWI7jnV7bFFVd/s320/FullSizeRender%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I know, I know. Let's evaluate why Hanna has a Problem:</span></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I don't even like Dickens. Can't stand him. The above <i>eleven </i>books just happened to be cheap and pretty, so what can you do?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(<i>not </i>buy them?)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I already own <i>Jane Eyre. </i>Six times over.</span></span></li>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I already own <i>To Kill a Mockingbird. </i>Twice over.</span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">I already own <i>Rebecca. </i>Twice over.</span> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></span></li>
</ul></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I <i>am </i>looking forward to reading <i>Frenchman's Creek, </i>due to my success with <i>My Cousin Rachel, </i>and as I've heard that it's a sort of swash-buckley version of <i>Rebecca. </i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br>Fingers crossed for a more prolific reading month in July!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i> </i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">What was <i>your </i>favourite read from June?</span></b><i> </i></span></span></div>Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-43370567730703773422017-06-28T17:06:00.001+01:002017-06-28T17:06:37.589+01:00Review: My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTm9xKo_BHFHSURzvtJd2JaWR5cctegQqKHE351TKlU0yKKNmFVPZ6dQ9RzBkBKyQxTS2WOU7fpwJ4gWI7RBlF1CQFbFFE1cRWOP7zZCCY3Bf8rrWy03w21o_zi-Rv07h7sbzlD14_QRDa/s1600/my+cousin+rachel+uk+book+cover+daphne+du+maurier.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier - book cover UK" border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="316" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTm9xKo_BHFHSURzvtJd2JaWR5cctegQqKHE351TKlU0yKKNmFVPZ6dQ9RzBkBKyQxTS2WOU7fpwJ4gWI7RBlF1CQFbFFE1cRWOP7zZCCY3Bf8rrWy03w21o_zi-Rv07h7sbzlD14_QRDa/s200/my+cousin+rachel+uk+book+cover+daphne+du+maurier.jpg" title="My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier - book cover UK" width="127" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In my defence, I bought this in 2013 and obviously <i>not </i>because of any current Rachel Weisz-starring film. However, to my detriment, I will admit that the aforementioned film is pretty much entirely the reason I'm reading it now.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Plot summary: </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span id="freeText12677385368948169172">Orphaned at an early
age, Philip Ashley is raised by his benevolent older cousin, Ambrose.
Resolutely single, Ambrose delights in Philip as his heir, a man who
will love his grand home as much as he does himself. But the cosy world
the two construct is shattered when Ambrose sets off on a trip to
Florence. There he falls in love and marries - and there he dies
suddenly. </span></i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span id="freeText12677385368948169172">Jealous of his marriage, racked by suspicion at the hints in
Ambrose's letters, and grief-stricken by his death, Philip prepares to
meet his cousin's widow with hatred in his heart. Despite himself,
Philip is drawn to this beautiful, sophisticated, mysterious Rachel like
a moth to the flame. And yet... might she have had a hand in Ambrose's
death?</span></i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText12677385368948169172">I've had <i>My Cousin Rachel </i>summed up to me by numerous friends as 'Like <i>Rebecca, </i>but not as good.' Luckily, it's been years since I've read <i>Rebecca </i>so I wasn't able to compare the two. Whilst I recognise that the tone and prose are very similar, I can't help thinking that <i>My Cousin Rachel</i> might actually be, you know... <i>better?</i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText12677385368948169172">I LOVED this book. I've heard complaints that it's very slow moving and I suppose it is, but it's almost purposeful. You can't pick up a du Maurier and expect constant action, violence and scenes of a sexual nature. </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText12677385368948169172"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText12677385368948169172">It's slow, I suppose, but it has to be, and the pages flew past me regardless. </span></span>The beauty lies in the gradual layering of information and context, each page adding a new shadow and new depth to your perception of the characters. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText12677385368948169172">That's the key to <i>My Cousin Rachel, </i>the characters. Even more so than <i>Rebecca, </i>the plot relies completely on two people, Philip and Rachel. I have <i>never </i>seen such perfectly nuanced characters in the whole of fiction. I feel as if I have known these two people for always - I've been so engrossed in their world and in their minds that I swear I have relatives I don't know this well.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText12677385368948169172">The importance is the interpretation, however. The most obvious question that arises throughout the book is 'Did Rachel kill her husband?' We know that, that's fine (although presumably not for Ambrose). But there are so many other questions as well - Is Philip a reliable narrator? Has he been swayed by his feelings? Was it Rachel's fault or unavoidable? Was the ending intentional? <i>None </i>of these questions are resolved by the narrative and they've been driving me mad ever since.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText12677385368948169172">It could go so many different ways depending on your interpretation of the novel, and for this reason I think it might be more masterful even than <i>Rebecca. </i>I love that book, don't get me wrong, but it's pretty clear cut what happened by the end. Not so much here. I discussed it with the one other person I knew who had read it, and naturally she'd understood it completely differently to me (although this is the person with whom I nearly came to blows over <i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2014/09/review-we-need-to-talk-about-kevin-by.html">We Need To Talk About Kevin</a>) </i>so we don't trust her view <i>entirely </i>;)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText12677385368948169172">One interpretation (which I admit didn't occur to me as I was reading) is that <i>My Cousin Rachel </i>is a feminist masterpiece, a pre-emptive strike against the sexist notion of friend-zoning. Rachel did nothing wrong - you only see her through the eyes of Philip</span><i><span id="freeText12677385368948169172">, </span></i>who comes to resent her beauty and charm, and her lack of willingness to marry him. I'm not so sure of this concept, but it highlights the many, many different lights in which this book can be viewed.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I do know that Philip Ashley needs a shake. He infuriated me. Don't get me wrong, he was perfectly crafted, but he was such a naive, wet, sulking little brat.I appreciated the masterful way in which he was written, but that appreciation didn't stop me from simultaneously wanting to throttle him.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Please read this. I don't care if you've read <i>Rebecca </i>or seen the Rachel Weisz film, or you're allergic to authors called Daphne. Go away and read this, and then come back <i>immediately </i>and talk to me about it.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>What do you think? Was Rachel guilty? </b></span> <i><span id="freeText12677385368948169172"> </span></i> </span></div>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-12132143196202865432017-06-27T11:12:00.001+01:002017-06-27T11:15:04.354+01:00The Ten Best Books of Mid-2017<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I seriously can't believe that we're nearly at the end of June 2017. An awful,<i> awful </i>lot has changed since January in both positive and negative ways, but we're more interested in books, so let's talk about that!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was actually sort of a struggle to put this list together. It's not that I haven't read some great books this year, because I have, but several of them have been series and I only really count them as one entity. I couldn't actually come up with ten individual books to make up this list, so I clearly<i> </i>need to up my reading game for the second half of the year!</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Books read: <span style="color: black;">39</span></span></span> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Rereads: <span style="color: black;">9 </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Pre-2017 books: <span style="color: black;">13</span></span></span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Non-fiction: <span style="color: black;">3</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Average date of publication: </span>1993</span></span></div><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've clearly re-read an awful lot this year! Such is the advantage of reading <a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/01/the-year-of-reading-whatever-hell-i.html">whatever the hell I want. </a>Not so much non-fiction, but that's fine, and I'm happy with my average publication date as well. I've read more newer releases than I normally would (<i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/05/review-see-what-i-have-done-by-sarah.html">See What I Have Done</a>, </i>for example) which has dragged my average date forward a bit. Ah well.</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Hanna's Best Books of Mid-2017</b></span></u></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">1) <a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/04/review-six-of-crows-and-crooked-kingdom.html"><i>Six of Crows </i>and </a><i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/04/review-six-of-crows-and-crooked-kingdom.html">Crooked Kingdom</a> </i>by Leigh Bardugo</span></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYrUV80UW7fv02ipQEdjY-RRtCmBxjZTvHiaZOHFyxEQP8xJucjrZGaofjzc21utt-BjrFygO-w3nM8gXsKg8hqPa1yAWt2yfD9zmgZRJ1_b_CnFAJxsWdh7gkJFEE_o_QpABHINCRwwf4/s1600/six+of+crows+book+cover+leigh+bardugo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="318" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYrUV80UW7fv02ipQEdjY-RRtCmBxjZTvHiaZOHFyxEQP8xJucjrZGaofjzc21utt-BjrFygO-w3nM8gXsKg8hqPa1yAWt2yfD9zmgZRJ1_b_CnFAJxsWdh7gkJFEE_o_QpABHINCRwwf4/s200/six+of+crows+book+cover+leigh+bardugo.jpg" width="135" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">'I CRIED. I actually sat there and properly cried. It's an actually perfect ending that suited all the characters. I loved that it wasn't perfect, that not everybody got a happy ending and that it wasn't what I had hoped would happen - it was better than that. It was brave and awful and amazing and... ARGH.'</span></i></span></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br>I wish I could read this fantasy duology for the first time all over again. I couldn't even finish the author's Grisha series as I really wasn't a fan, but it's hard to tell that this series is even by the same author. It's dark and unique and has so many twists that I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. A genuinely <i>perfect </i>fantasy series.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>2) <i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/05/review-smoke-gets-in-your-eyes-and.html">Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematorium</a> </i>by Caitlin Doughty</b></span></span><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></i><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> </span></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3XuDjJTUH2hgYQBrlhuiERbje8V_gt1mIYY6h2CXugJXBYD2GcngVS4ctq3R4vNvb4zp5YtDgC_JG8pE-5He6OWthWwGBOiWnfSKJi4fdSQ6IBGXENQTeP9ISASrB3dSXRGEiyTWW6nF6/s1600/smoke+gets+in+your+eyes+book+cover+uk+crematorium+caitlin+doughty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="226" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3XuDjJTUH2hgYQBrlhuiERbje8V_gt1mIYY6h2CXugJXBYD2GcngVS4ctq3R4vNvb4zp5YtDgC_JG8pE-5He6OWthWwGBOiWnfSKJi4fdSQ6IBGXENQTeP9ISASrB3dSXRGEiyTWW6nF6/s200/smoke+gets+in+your+eyes+book+cover+uk+crematorium+caitlin+doughty.jpg" width="130" /></a></span></b></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">'This is not a book for those of a sensitive disposition. We read about decay, leaking and mechanisms for keeping the eyes of the deceased firmly closed (spoiler alert: they use caps with spikes on). I like that about this book though. I like that it goes slightly beyond the realms of propriety to explain the details that I had never considered were an issue.'</span></i></span><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br>Whilst this might seem an odd choice for a Top Ten list, it really blew me away. Not only did it make me laugh out loud with hilarious anecdotes, it also made me really think about the culture of death denial perpetuated in Western civilisation. I couldn't get it out of my head for days afterwards and this book deserves to be on that list for purely that reason.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br />
<b>3) <i>My Cousin Rachel </i>by Daphne du Maurier</b></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggr17cFCDi7YaPuSPgjN2b602JMZwVxcIiJ0U1ECD2lb1oEPWNtSHf0Gv22Pwo7L3lrNj2vCyNTMjmGgrI7y3FUX6kVDK2GgfFAMYKEdzKUeip81aHIdZ_pnYgPdRCn78XE6T2qVio6bBq/s1600/my+cousin+rachel+uk+book+cover+daphne+du+maurier.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="316" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggr17cFCDi7YaPuSPgjN2b602JMZwVxcIiJ0U1ECD2lb1oEPWNtSHf0Gv22Pwo7L3lrNj2vCyNTMjmGgrI7y3FUX6kVDK2GgfFAMYKEdzKUeip81aHIdZ_pnYgPdRCn78XE6T2qVio6bBq/s200/my+cousin+rachel+uk+book+cover+daphne+du+maurier.jpg" width="127" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> </b></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Alright, so I haven't actually finish reading this yet, but I <i>know </i>it's going to annoy me when I finish this tomorrow but couldn't add it to my list.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></i> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I love it. I've had it for years and it irritates me that I didn't pick it up sooner, because I could have had this creepy, mysterious pleasure <i>years ago.</i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
It's just so du Maurier-y. And yes, that is an excellent quote that I'm sure the publishers will be adding to the cover of the latest edition. There's an aura of sinister innocence, somehow, that just seeps off the pages and I LOVE IT.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i> </i></span><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></i> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><br />
4) <a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/05/review-mistborn-series-by-brandon.html">The Mistborn series</a> by Brandon Sanderson</b></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCv8F7toIq_bbHncPKPKeCZEN8jkfc6_F0oH2ATH17wmK_LKPBONXV3BjLPf0JV376lgMuK066fx6D0HIsyyMBT7xVNfNGYydRXEVVwaT7C8hSCTClYpZDnzA0-zOu2NCPGRvTkiSZAY1y/s1600/hero+of+ages+book+cover+uk+sanderson.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="190" data-original-width="124" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCv8F7toIq_bbHncPKPKeCZEN8jkfc6_F0oH2ATH17wmK_LKPBONXV3BjLPf0JV376lgMuK066fx6D0HIsyyMBT7xVNfNGYydRXEVVwaT7C8hSCTClYpZDnzA0-zOu2NCPGRvTkiSZAY1y/s200/hero+of+ages+book+cover+uk+sanderson.jpeg" width="130" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> </b></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">'</span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's what I'd call 'proper' fantasy. There's a completely developed world with its own class system and politics, and the characters spend a lot of time sitting around discussing the latest plot development to really give you an in-depth understanding of what's going on. There's lots and lots of dialogue and scheming, with no sex and no pointless, graphic violence for shock value.'</span></span></span></span></span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
Whilst I had some issues with the characterisation in the second and third Mistborn books (and despised the ending), this series remains one of my favourite reads of this year. It was completely engrossing, the magic system was fantastic and the lore of the Kandra was some of the most interesting I've <i>ever </i>seen in a fantasy series. Read my review for more fence-sitting!</span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>5) <a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/05/review-french-lieutenants-woman-by-john.html"><i>The French Lieutenant's Woman</i></a> by John Fowles</b></span> </span></span><b> </b></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI6AwiB7HPUlxFL-zoqAya-SQ2yKPIGflyPVfJI_T8RliBhIdqPlljgD6BMqoH5XL6n6IVG4GD2Eb400N7wp2FGJZrGars5WvLwMA4WKPVG0Vpm6yYzDPnBw1NjbXrkORM-FImWTYPmOpe/s1600/french+lieutenants+woman+book+cover+john+fowles+vintage+edition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="652" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI6AwiB7HPUlxFL-zoqAya-SQ2yKPIGflyPVfJI_T8RliBhIdqPlljgD6BMqoH5XL6n6IVG4GD2Eb400N7wp2FGJZrGars5WvLwMA4WKPVG0Vpm6yYzDPnBw1NjbXrkORM-FImWTYPmOpe/s200/french+lieutenants+woman+book+cover+john+fowles+vintage+edition.jpg" width="130" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> </b></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText7615445865874488872">'The beauty with this novel, however, isn't the plot, it's the beauty and ingenuity of the prose. It's sort of meta, or it would be if that didn't seem an inappropriate word to use regarding a setting of 1867. The narrator spends a lot of time talking directly to the reader, with phrases such as 'you'll have to excuse Charles, he was merely a product of his time.'</span></span>'</span></i><b> </b></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;">The ending was sort of bizarre in this book as well (it's a theme of 2017 apparently) but, like I said above, you don't read this novel for the plot, you read it for the wonderful tone and beautiful prose. It's as if you put <i>Crimson Petal and the White </i>and <i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2016/06/review-collector-by-john-fowles.html">The Collector</a> </i>in a bag, and then shook them up. Absolutely wonderful, if slightly meta.</span><b> </b></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> 6) <i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/06/review-warbreaker-by-brandon-sanderson.html">Warbreaker</a> </i>by Brandon Sanderson</b></span></span></span></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPlL2eYPivGVmEZRfHLs8UP3MrgpVQSV83BhXq8DlEMlKkrNvkkzWYx4il1ueMPoViHS7Icq2YneS7n7TR_FBXAQuuohJybM_c1mDhyphenhyphenGi63RsKLp3NBWTRuy_ApV5g7gfZ53CPELhgpreM/s1600/warbreaker+book+cover+uk+brandon+sanderson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="310" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPlL2eYPivGVmEZRfHLs8UP3MrgpVQSV83BhXq8DlEMlKkrNvkkzWYx4il1ueMPoViHS7Icq2YneS7n7TR_FBXAQuuohJybM_c1mDhyphenhyphenGi63RsKLp3NBWTRuy_ApV5g7gfZ53CPELhgpreM/s200/warbreaker+book+cover+uk+brandon+sanderson.jpg" width="130" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b> </b></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768">'I particularly appreciated that when The Person In Question obtains new magical ability, she is not suddenly an expert, contrary to the Mistborn series and honestly 85% of all fantasy novels I've ever read.'</span></span></span></i></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768">Another Brandon Sanderson. This is a standalone novel (or so I believe) that I think I sort of liked <i>more </i>than the Mistborn books, but considering that most of my issues with that series were in the latter books, it isn't really fair to judge <i>Warbreaker </i>and that series on the same standard. Anyway, I loved this book and would happily read the remainder of the books if it <i>did </i>turn into a series.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>7) <i><a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/06/review-moonstone-by-wilkie-collins.html">The Moonstone</a> </i>by Wilkie Collins</b></span> </span></span></span><i><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768"> </span></span></span></i></span></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmupRnJONoT4j3-ntCnitB6X3Cep3AdrMzxiGQ7xqa0rufAXL_w2VaDN0YR3E2P2VnZiHjJub1U7_1Ws_thPomtEDVYSBHG9tn05L6XLN_dUW1DyX_jDCH1Q4Q1R1hyphenhyphenvAV0Sq4HuaLpedZ/s1600/vintage+moonstone+collins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="390" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmupRnJONoT4j3-ntCnitB6X3Cep3AdrMzxiGQ7xqa0rufAXL_w2VaDN0YR3E2P2VnZiHjJub1U7_1Ws_thPomtEDVYSBHG9tn05L6XLN_dUW1DyX_jDCH1Q4Q1R1hyphenhyphenvAV0Sq4HuaLpedZ/s200/vintage+moonstone+collins.jpg" width="130" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">'I love how the characters all now <i>know </i>who stole the diamond as they're writing their narratives but have been forbidding from setting it out. It results in them sort of bickering amongst themselves as they criticise decisions that have already been made and indignantly rant about accusations levied at the time. It's so petty and clever and perfectly done.'</span> </span></span></span></i></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768">This is the first time that I've ever included a re-read on a 'Best Books' list, but I don't care. I just had to talk about <i>The Moonstone </i>some more. I originally read it as part of a read-a-long but reading it in one large chunk just makes it wonderful. It's hilarious, clever and ingenious, so I really, <i>really </i>recommend picking this one up.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768">__________________________________________________</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768">Well, it makes a pleasant change to have actually already reviewed almost everything on one of these lists! Fingers crossed I'll be back in December with a complete list, actually making it all the way to ten books!</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>See you n December!</b></span> </span></span></span><i><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768"> </span></span></span></i><b> </b></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b></b></span></span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPlL2eYPivGVmEZRfHLs8UP3MrgpVQSV83BhXq8DlEMlKkrNvkkzWYx4il1ueMPoViHS7Icq2YneS7n7TR_FBXAQuuohJybM_c1mDhyphenhyphenGi63RsKLp3NBWTRuy_ApV5g7gfZ53CPELhgpreM/s1600/warbreaker+book+cover+uk+brandon+sanderson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></b></span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-11168024129890067302017-06-23T17:40:00.003+01:002017-06-23T17:40:49.224+01:00Review: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmupRnJONoT4j3-ntCnitB6X3Cep3AdrMzxiGQ7xqa0rufAXL_w2VaDN0YR3E2P2VnZiHjJub1U7_1Ws_thPomtEDVYSBHG9tn05L6XLN_dUW1DyX_jDCH1Q4Q1R1hyphenhyphenvAV0Sq4HuaLpedZ/s1600/vintage+moonstone+collins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="UK Vintage book cover of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins" border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="390" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmupRnJONoT4j3-ntCnitB6X3Cep3AdrMzxiGQ7xqa0rufAXL_w2VaDN0YR3E2P2VnZiHjJub1U7_1Ws_thPomtEDVYSBHG9tn05L6XLN_dUW1DyX_jDCH1Q4Q1R1hyphenhyphenvAV0Sq4HuaLpedZ/s200/vintage+moonstone+collins.jpg" title="UK Vintage book cover of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins" width="130" /></a></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Moonstone </span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">has to be one of my all-time favourite books. I originally read it as part of a read-a-long hosted by <a href="http://www.litnerd.co.uk/">Lit Nerd</a> in 2013 (!) and I subsequently read <i>The Woman in White, </i>which I liked but possibly not <i>quite </i>as much. As I'm now participating in a read-a-long of a biography of Wilkie Collins (see my <a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/06/a-life-of-sensation-read-long-epoch-one.html">first check-in post</a>) and, as I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself anyway, I thought that re-reading <i>The Moonstone </i>alongside might be just the thing to cheer me up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Plot summary: </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span id="freeText14949948036631096099">When Rachel Verinder
receives a gift of an astonishing yellow diamond from her bitter old
uncle for her eighteenth birthday, she has no idea that the stone brings
great danger with it. When the diamond goes missing during the night
the ensuing investigations gradually bring to light the sinister history
of the jewel and the passions and plots of those close to Rachel.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span id="freeText14949948036631096099"> </span></i><span id="freeText14949948036631096099"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span id="freeText14949948036631096099">Whilst that is an accurate summary, it's almost irrelevant. The fascination with <i>The Moonstone </i>isn't the plot or the mystery; it's how <i>wonderfully </i>it was written.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span id="freeText14949948036631096099">The basic premise is that the mystery of the diamond has now been concluded, but one of the principal characters is now trying to put together a file on what happened and has asked several other characters to relate their understanding in a sensible, logical manner. We're left with a chronological narrative, from the (extremely biased) perspectives of several changing points of view.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span id="freeText14949948036631096099">Some parts of this novel are downright hilarious. My favourite characters are Mr Betteredge, a gently sexist butler with absolute loyalty to his Lady, and Miss Clack, an extremely devout and irritating younger relative. It makes me happy that I bookmarked the same quotes this time as I did during my first reading.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span id="freeText14949948036631096099">From Mr Betteredge: </span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span id="freeText14949948036631096099"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is a maxim of mine
that men (being superior creatures) are bound to improve women - if they
can. When a woman wants me to do anything (my daughter, or not, it
doesn't matter), I always insist on knowing why. The oftener you make
them rummage their own minds for a reason, the more manageable you will
find them in all relations of life. It isn't their fault (poor
wretches!) that they act first, and think afterwards; it's the fault of
the fools who humour them.</span> </span><i><span id="freeText14949948036631096099"> </span></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">From Miss Clack: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Here was a golden opportunity! I seized it on the spot. In other words, I instantly opened my bag, and took out the top publication. It proved to be an early edition - only the twenty-fifth - of the famous anonymous work (believed to be my precious Miss Bellows), entitled <i>The Serpent at Home. </i>The design of the book - with which the wordly reader may not be acquainted - is to show how the Evil One lies in wait for us in all the most apparantly innocent actions of our daily lives. The chapters best adapted to female perusal are 'Satan in the Hair Brush'; 'Satan behind the Looking Glass'; 'Satan under the Tea Table'; 'Satan out of the Window' - and many others. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I love how the characters all now <i>know </i>who stole the diamond as they're writing their narratives but have been forbidding from setting it out. It results in them sort of bickering amongst themselves as they criticise decisions that have already been made and indignantly rant about accusations levied at the time. It's so petty and clever and perfectly done. I love (and sympathise with) Miss Clack's petty hatred of Rachel Verinder especially. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's funny and an absolute joy to read. Reading Wilkie Collins' biography alongside this book has provided a slight insight into certain matters. Druscilla Clack, for example, highlights Mr Collins' distaste for the religion into which his parents tried to force him and the strong female characters throughout the novel confirm (as the biography alleges) that he was quite sympathetic towards women in general. Unlike Mr Betteredge, clearly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The Moonstone </i>isn't all fun and games, however. It's quite dark in parts - a cursed diamond is stolen, sinister 'Hindoo' men are lurking about, massive debts are entered and hearts are broken. It's lauded as being one of the first modern detective novels (it preceded Sherlock Holmes by 19 years) and I can absolutely see why. There's an all-seeing detective who is never taken seriously, a locked room mystery and witness accounts almost always hold something back. For all that, though, it has dated <i>really well </i>and I still couldn't figure out whodunnit until the very end.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Speaking of timelessness, the thing that impressed me the most about this book was the ending. For a novel about a precious jewel that was stolen from an Indian tribe, the ending is <i>very </i>respectful towards different cultures. It was something that I expected to jar with me throughout my reading, but it was a very pleasant surprise. Very ahead of its time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I can't explain how much I <i>adore </i>this book and it has to be on my Top Ten Favourite books ever. The characters are delightful (even if you wouldn't exactly want to have dinner with them), the mystery is riveting and the writing is hilarious. Please, please read <i>The Moonstone </i>and then immediately come back here and talk to me about it. </span>Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-40466973837507288932017-06-22T01:11:00.000+01:002017-06-22T01:13:00.275+01:00A Life of Sensation Read-a-Long: EPOCH ONE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoG9x_6O2xc2vlsdogSVDNbNCV3TSbOWuK5bChUUZA5fI5-OnDw8Purkic5pbQVmI7upJAudobzeKt6Slc7vWDqMQP58hWZTuAU615nLHSlO8g0j119vodwhAQglGgmRbC1Hk6C3kchFjz/s1600/SUMMER+WILKIE+READ.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoG9x_6O2xc2vlsdogSVDNbNCV3TSbOWuK5bChUUZA5fI5-OnDw8Purkic5pbQVmI7upJAudobzeKt6Slc7vWDqMQP58hWZTuAU615nLHSlO8g0j119vodwhAQglGgmRbC1Hk6C3kchFjz/s200/SUMMER+WILKIE+READ.png" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And it begins! Welcome to the first check-in of the read-a-long hosted by <a href="http://www.reading-rambo.com/">Rambo Reads</a>. We're reading <i>Wilkie Collins: A Life of Sensation, </i>a biography of the weirdly-shaped-headed author of <i>The Woman in White </i>and <i>The Moonstone.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here are the salient points of Epoch One:</span><br />
<ul><li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I do not much care about the life of Wilkie Collins' father and I admit to skimming much of it. I want to know about Wilkie, damn it!</span></li><br>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I did pick up that Mr Collins wanted his son to make something of himself professionally. Not objectively unreasonable, although it does make you raise an eyebrow when you realise that he was a <i>painter. </i>A successful one, mind, but <i>still.</i></span></li><br>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">His head had a strange bump, probably due to misapplication of the obstetric forceps at birth. <i> </i></span></li><br>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens eventually became bestest buds after Wilkie filled in a minor role for Dickens in one of his self-promoting, Dickens-wank-fest plays.</span></li><br>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In later life, he told Dickens about losing his virginity to some older Italian woman when he was able thirteen. Whilst it's acknowledged that this may not be strictly true, NOBODY IS OUTRIGHT DISMISSING THIS AS IMPLAUSIBLE.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></li>
</ul><ul><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUqq9dt2L0CpXDnbHI4iEuNvazDhEENAb6fgQsRoqTDTmjHLqQMNpIIrapX2H9gfbDAP5g87Nph3ihsz_v_M1jWb9Tff1CDNfzQ0ktrxhaxABkMjLAr4GpfPwUOEtNWPspVWwTo2LtiXjZ/s1600/flirty+weird+gif.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUqq9dt2L0CpXDnbHI4iEuNvazDhEENAb6fgQsRoqTDTmjHLqQMNpIIrapX2H9gfbDAP5g87Nph3ihsz_v_M1jWb9Tff1CDNfzQ0ktrxhaxABkMjLAr4GpfPwUOEtNWPspVWwTo2LtiXjZ/s1600/flirty+weird+gif.gif" /></a></div></span></ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He studied at the Bar, with Gray's Inn. I'm a Middle Temple girl myself, but there's no accounting for taste. *prances around in her robes*</span></li><br>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">OH! My absolute favourite part was where he assisted in the secret wedding of a 31 year old friend and his 16 year old love interest. But, you know, it's <i>fine, </i>because it had been going since for four years. Since she was twelve, presumably. SEE!? <i>FINE.</i></span></li>
</ul><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So yep, one Epoch down. I was super excited when I opened my second hand copy of this book and realised that I'd unknowingly bought a signed copy!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm rereading <i>The Moonstone </i>at the moment, alongside the autobiography. I loved it when we read-a-longed it (see my thoughts here and here), but I'm really, really loving it now. Mr Betteredge and Druscilla Clack are my favourite people in the whole world.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">See you next week for Epochs 2 and 3!</span></b> </span></div>Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3923695022650336845.post-55831433740683658062017-06-21T16:34:00.002+01:002017-06-21T16:34:58.838+01:00Review: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi878_lURE6xNWgqijomKNr0UdWQxhxpVfMG-8XixtuY_fTjY5UoSElfQW8nmFqJBXjBW7S0P6uRGbu4AayQX-ZJ9nTWOaYX5_fq0fzdt7neX6ecebE6jRD8GjGUweMwaaUPwcyw1yHcrtN/s1600/warbreaker+book+cover+uk+brandon+sanderson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="UK book cover of Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson" border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="310" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi878_lURE6xNWgqijomKNr0UdWQxhxpVfMG-8XixtuY_fTjY5UoSElfQW8nmFqJBXjBW7S0P6uRGbu4AayQX-ZJ9nTWOaYX5_fq0fzdt7neX6ecebE6jRD8GjGUweMwaaUPwcyw1yHcrtN/s200/warbreaker+book+cover+uk+brandon+sanderson.jpg" title="UK book cover of Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson" width="130" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After I finished reading Brandon Sanderson's <a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/05/review-mistborn-series-by-brandon.html">Mistborn series</a> (click for my review), I knew I was absolutely going to pick up some of this other books. But which!? Every time I was in a bookshop, they either had the entire second Mistborn series (which doesn't really appeal) <i>or </i>the second/third books of the other series, which weren't really much good on their own. Eventually I stumbled across <i>Warbreaker </i>or, as I can never remember the name of it, what has now become known (admittedly only by me' as 'Battle Purple.'</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Plot summary: <i><span id="freeText942672738974238768">Warbreaker is the
story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses, the God King one of
them has to marry, the lesser god who doesn't like his job, and the
immortal who's still trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of
years ago.<br /><br />Their world is one in which those who die in glory
return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren's capital
city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an
essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.<br /><br />By using breath
and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles
and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities
of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri,
princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of
bravery, and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768">Damn it, I actually typed 'battle purple' </span><span id="freeText942672738974238768">into GoodReads to obtain the above summary. Shockingly, <i>Warbreaker </i>did not appear in my search results.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768">I loved this book. I possibly even prefer it to the Mistborn series, although I admit that my view may just be skewed by how much I disliked the ending. See my review for details, but just thinking about it is irritating me all over again.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768"><i>Warbreaker </i>has a completely different system of magic than the Mistborn books - instead of drawing power from previously ingested metals, those with the requisite ability are able to pull colour out of fabric to instruct inanimate objects to do their bidding. It's slightly more complicated than that (involving the creation of Lifeless soldiers, the amount of power being dependent on how many Breaths a person has, etc etc), but that's the gist. It was an interesting concept that is explained in wonderful detail, but not so much as to become overwhelming. My favourite thing about Brandon Sanderson's books is how intricate and evolved the magic systems he creates are. I have no idea where his ideas come from or how much time they take to flesh out, but they're amazing.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768">I particularly appreciated that when The Person In Question obtains new magical ability, she is <i>not </i>suddenly an expert, contrary to the Mistborn series and honestly 85% of all fantasy novels I've ever read. That Person is a bit crap with magic to begin with and it honestly takes them a while to get to grips with it. I see that as <i>normal</i> and it adds a little realism to the whole concept. Nothing annoys me more than YES, I HAVE POWERS AND SUDDENLY I AM THE MOST POWERFUL <strike>MISTBORN</strike> PERSON EVER. It's done well and it was notable for it.</span><span id="freeText942672738974238768"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768">I really enjoy the tone of Brandon Sanderson's writing. It has a Proper Fantasy Sound - it's slightly formal with lengthy descriptions and lots of dialogue, but offset by some pithy conversations and unique magical systems. It's really engrossing and the books are difficult to put down. He's very, very skilled, no doubt about it. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768">However, if you read my Mistborn review, you'll know that my primary issue with those books was the characterisation. The characters just didn't feel real and had a habit of altering their personalities to fit whatever attribute was required of them at that time. Luckily, <i>Warbreaker </i>is much less guilty of that particular fault. Siri, one of the two protagonists, is quite likeable but, more importantly, is fairly consistent throughout. She's independent, but not obnoxiously so, and her decisions rang true to what I would reasonably expect from somebody with herpersonality.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768">Vivenna, Siri's sister, is a <i>tad </i>more irritating. She's quite preachy and holier-than-thou. I understand that she's <i>meant </i>to be those things, but it grated occasionally. The writing isn't quite as consistent with Vivenna - as in the Mistborn series, she does occasionally change on a whim to do whatever the plot requires, regardless as to whether it made sense or not. It's fine though and honestly, I probably only noticed it because I was looking out for it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768">There was only one time where this chronic fault really got to me. There's a twist mid-way through the book, and it made so little sense with regard to what we had known of the characters' mannerisms and personalities, that I kept waiting for it to twist <i>back </i>in a sort of double bluff. It didn't, and it left me confused and irritated. If you've read <i>Warbreaker</i> and know what I'm rambling about, <i>please </i>talk to me about this!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768">Other than that, I loved <i>Warbreaker. </i>I can't tell if this is a standalone or part of a series, as the ending could have it going either way. If it's a series, then I will definitely read the next book, but if not, it was rounded off with an interesting conclusion and I'm happy with that too.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768">I'd really recommend this book, regardless of whether you've read Brandon Sanderson previously or not. The plot is interesting, the tone is lovely and the magic system is engrossing. One day I'll get over my irritation with the characterisation and these books will be perfect!</span></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="freeText942672738974238768"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Read my review of the Mistborn series <a href="http://www.bookinginheels.com/2017/05/review-mistborn-series-by-brandon.html">here.</a> </b></span> </span><i> </i></span></div>
Hanna @ Booking in Heelshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17705048655467252248noreply@blogger.com8