In My Mailbox

This is my first "In My Mailbox" I have cheated slightly as it includes books I picked up last Sunday which, if I was a weekly IMM-er I would have included last week but I hope it doesn't matter too much!

In my mailbox is a meme hosted by The Story Siren as a way of letting people know what books you picked up this week, either from publishers or in the shop/library yourself. You can find more out about it here.

So this is my mailbox this week, I picked up That Summer - Sarah Dessen, Pretties - Scott Westerfeld and Matched - Ally Condie last Sunday at the library, Ive already read Pretties and I'm currently halfway through That Summer.
I also received Elliot Allagash - Simon Rich from Jazz at Even Butterflies Think who is working at Serpents Tail. I have read and reviewed this already and it's a very funny and intriguing story.
I was then really bad in the supermarket today by picking up Room by Emma Donoghue which I've heard really good things and I FINALLY picked up Cat Clarke's Entangled which I have been looking forward to for ever but had to wait until payday for!

Elliot Allagash - Simon Rich

“He just sat there, writing. Sometimes he ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook, crumpled in up and tossed it onto the floor. And once in a while he snapped his fingers before jotting something down with a flourish.” 

From the minute you start reading this book you can tell that Elliot is not a normal boy. He’s introduced by Seymour telling his parents that Elliot had pushed him down the stairs, and Seymour’s parents throw this comment away by telling him that Elliot was rich. It was like wealth was Elliot’s reason for pushing someone down the stairs, or for the strange things he did.

I was convinced that there was something magical about Elliot while I was witnessing him changing Seymour’s life. I was convinced he was some kind of fairy godmother sent to help Seymour out. It turns out that I was wrong, Elliot isn’t magical, he’s just powerful, but I suppose power is just like magic, you can do nearly anything with power! I think the main thing you can’t get with power however is strong relationships, this came across with Elliot and his father. It upset me a bit that Elliot didn’t seem to understand that underneath it all his father was actually a caring person. Maybe Elliot was just too mean to understand it, he just wanted to treat everyone like a toy, but I liked Elliot’s dad a lot.

I often think that the smaller characters in a book should be important too, they should have their own personalities and not just be there as a backdrop. I loved that there were very important aspects to the smaller characters in the book as well as the two main characters. As well as Elliot’s dad, Seymour’s dad played a great part and Ashley is probably the coolest person in Seymour’s school towards the end of it all. 

I loved the coming of age aspect of this book, that’s was what made me want to read the book. There were many parts of it where I couldn’t believe what Seymour was doing but I guess that’s what shy, geeky, teenage boys will do if they know it’ll get them the thing they want the most, girls and popularity!! I wanted to know where everything was leading so much that I read the book in just a couple of sittings. It was exciting and fast paced and as always with a good book, I was happy to get to the end to find out what happens but also sad because it was over!

I did think the book might be a little bit too guy-based, but in reflection I reckon it’s for anyone who knows what like as a teenager is like and who knows that during this strange time in your life there’s gunna be people out there who are stranger than you! 

New Blogger...

As I say further down my posts, this blogger is new today and I wanted to include all of the posts from my tumblr which I will be scrapping soon. The posts below are from New Year, 2011 obviously, to this week.

Pretties (Uglies #2) - Scott Westerfeld

The problem I have with series reviews is that I find it difficult to give them a review without ruining the first book. So I might just have to type what I think and hope I don’t spoil too much for anyone!

First of all… WOW! I love this series so far, I really hope that the library have the third in when I return this one cos I really can’t wait to read it! :D

I love the world that’s created in this series, but at the same time I hate it. Everyone should have a choice and this second book is a lot to do with Tally thinking about choices, if she made the right ones, if she could help the ones she made, if she was at all in charge of her own choices! I understood exactly how Tally felt when she was running through things in her mind about Zane and David.

I liked that Tally had managed to take control of her thoughts, maintain herself once she’d turned pretty. I love strong female characters and Tally is definitely one of those! However I didn’t like Zane, I’m a very sceptical person and I didn’t trust him, I thought that perhaps he was sent by Dr Cable to get information about Tally and what she was up to but I guess I should be more trusting, by the end of the book I liked him, but I think I’ll always prefer David.

I also love the tattoos that Tally and the Crims get, WOW! I want a tattoo that shows my heartbeat, it’s such an awesome idea!

I want to go straight onto the next one because I can’t wait to see what happens next, I need to know if Tally gets to see the smokies again, I need to know what happens to Zane, I need to know about the cutters. Man I have to get to my library! I may even be forced to buy it if the library doesn’t have it in!! :/

There was never a point where I was bored in this book, I read it and read it, only stopping when I had to, I found it so gripping that I had to force myself to stop whilst reading it on my lunch break because my break was over! I loved Uglies and I didn’t think I could love Pretties more but I really do. As soon as I have enough money I will be buying this series and forcing everyone around me to read it!! 

The Hunger Games (#1) - Suzanne Collins

May contain slight spoilers.

I’d read a lot about how awesome The Hunger Games was before I got round to reading it myself. I had however tried to keep away from knowing exactly what the book was about as I wanted the book to keep me on my toes and shock me. I’m glad I did this as I think if I’d read too much about the storyline I wouldn’t have enjoyed the book as much as I did.

Katniss Everdeen is a young girl who tries to get through her day to day live by breaking the rules that have been set to ensure that anyone who lives in the districts in Panem struggles through life and is constantly reminded that they are the lesser being. The Capitol, the main city of Panem, sets up The Hunger Games, a dangerous reality TV show which shows one male and one female tribute from each of the twelve districts around the capital fight to the death for survival.

Katniss (which is a beautiful name by the way!) saves her sister from the torment of The Hunger Games and put herself forward as a voluntary tribute. She finds herself in an arena which can change temperatures and start tidal waves of fire in the flick of a switch, controlled by the Gamemakers who will do anything in their power to create a good show for the Capitol and the people watching in the twelve districts around the capitol. She could not have braced herself of what was to come in that arena, the feelings she’d have to the first time and the battles with her own mind that she encounters.

I enjoyed the book and I do want to read the next two in the series. I am looking forward to reading them; however I do not think I could say I loved the book. I did like it, the best bit being the characters and seeing them encounter their terrifying surroundings and the actions they were being forced to take. The main thing I didn’t enjoy was the predictability of the story, I found myself thinking “well that’s happening so that that can happen later!” and I was more often than not right in my predictions.

I think the majority of the book that I liked actually took place in District 12, both the parts that actually happened at the beginning of the book and during the book when Katniss would describe her life from the arena. This gives me hope for the trilogy as I can assume events that follow will be in the Districts. 

I also think that the book ended on a bit of a low note. Even though you have just read the whole thing and you want to know what is going to happen to Katniss and Peeta I didn’t really pick up on as much of a “ARGH I have to know what’s going to happen next” as I thought I would. I want to see where the ending takes Katniss, I want to know that she is ok and her family is safe but I am not going to rush out and buy the next book as soon as I can, I will read it, and probably fairly soon, but I don’t think I’ll lose any sleep over not knowing about what Catching Fire holds. After all I’ve heard about this trilogy I can only hope that the next two instalments capture my heart more than this one does. 

Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby

I’ve just (finally) finished Fever Pitch. Its only 247 pages long and I have been reading it since last Monday. That’s a stupidly long time for a short book like that.

I have trouble reading non-fiction, I’m not gunna lie. I often find it boring and just want to escape into a world that’s strange to me. However Fever Pitch is strange to me. It’s about football… I’m not a football fan. In fact I hate football; anyone who knows me will tell you that! I have a strange fondness for my home town, Darlington, but other than that I refuse to watch or listen to any thing to do with football.

Of course this was a problem with picking up this book. Some of you may ask why I even bothered trying to read it. My boyfriend has spent the past couple of days telling me to put it down and read something else whenever I’ve complained about the book going on for too long. So why did I put myself through this? Because I love Nick Hornby.

I fell in love with Nick Hornby when I read High Fidelity, then became infatuated with him once id read About a boy and the amazing A Long Way Down (fave book!!) So I want to read everything Nick has ever written. That is why I put up with Fever Pitch.

Due to my severe dislike of football I found myself switching off in places when it goes into details of matches and stuff. The writing is brilliant, as with all Hornby’s books in my opinion, but too much detail of football will make me switch off and then become confused when he’s suddenly talking about real life experiences which aren’t to do with football. I found myself having to skip over the past few paragraphs a few times but that is due to my attention span not the writing!

I knew I wasn’t going to like this book anywhere near as much as other Hornby novels. I knew that I’d find it difficult to read as it’s about football and what’s more it’s about football between 1969 and 1991, I wasn’t even born until 1988!! But I found myself strangely enjoying certain bits of the book. I found it interesting to hear about the Hillsborough disaster, which I’d heard of so much but never really heard about, if you get me. The book also opened my eyes to the way I always assumed that to like books and music you had to hate football. This is really not the case and something Hornby does mention in the book.

As I say, I love Nick Hornby’s work. I would never say anything bad about it because of my love for it, the love for his characters that I have developed may be stronger than any other characters I’ve read about! And I will always, always recommend Hornby to people who haven’t read his work. But I’m afraid I wouldn’t recommend Fever Pitch to anyone unless I knew for a fact they love football. It’s difficult to get through when you have no interest in the subject, (that goes for any book no matter how well written it is!) and you find yourself missing some of the importance because you don’t understand football terms and such.

Overall the book is great, but only if you can handle a lot of football

Bad days result in good things

So yesterday I was at work. A woman called about a feature I’d written for the magazine I work at. She spoke to me for a little while then went to read my feature and make sure it was ok. 

An hour or so later she called back to speak to the sales rep who set up her feature. She told him that the feature was terrible and wanted the editor to completely re-write it. My editor couldn’t believe it, she picked up my feature and read it, saying that it was good, read well and was exactly what it should have been; a company profile. I hadn’t written anything negative about the company, the woman just hadn’t told us what she’d wanted.

It really upset me that this woman complained about my writing. However its not really the fact that she complained that upset me. Its more about the fact that she went around me to complain. She made it look like I wasn’t doing my job properly and its like she was trying to get me into trouble. I don’t understand why some people get a kick out of making others look bad. She could have called me and explained what she wanted and I could have fixed it! 

I’m going to try and forget about it, carry on and hopefully not get any more complaints. I do think that next time I pick up a company profile though my confidence will be shattered a bit and I’ll be nervous about the outcome of it. All because of that one woman. 

This woman did however made me think about my writing and how I am still just getting back into it. I mean throughout uni I did write but only essays and noone wants to read an essay in a magazine or on a blog (although i know this is starting to look pretty essayish!) so I’m gunna try and write so much more than I have been doing lately. I am going to go and read in a minute and hopefully finish my current book. I’m also going to try and post other bookish type stuffs as often as I can. I’m going to focuss my upset into good things and get my writing to be the best its ever been. 

And I hope that she doesn’t like my bosses feature either cos my boss will well go Jackie Chan on her ass if she doesn’t! 

Uglies - Scott Westerfeld

“The old bridge stretched massively across the water, its huge iron frame as black as the sky. It had been built so long ago that it held up its own weight, without any support from hoverstruts. A million years from now, when the rest of the city had crumbled, the bridge would probably remain like a fossilized bone. 
Unlike the other bridges into New Pretty Town, the old bridge couldn’t talk - or report trespassers, more importantly. But even silent, the bridge had always seemed very wise to Tally, as quietly knowing as some ancient tree.” 

The first of the uglies series introduce us to Tally Youngblood, Tally is an outgoing, fun loving 15 year old, but the loss of her best friend to New Pretty Town has changed her.

You see Tally is an ugly, uglies are kids who live in Uglyville, going to school and living in dorms, seeing out their teen years until they are old enough, at 16, to be made into a pretty. This is the way of life for everyone, except the rare ones who are born naturally pretty and there are very few of them. Everyone has to be pretty so that they all look the same, so that no one gets treated differently because of the way they look, or at least that’s what the uglies are told. They are ensured that as soon as you become pretty youre live is amazing.

Tally was one of the youngest of the uglies in her dorm, her best friend Peris - 3 months her senior – is enjoying himself in New Pretty Town while she just has to wait, bored and alone. That is until she meets Shay, then life is good again, playing tricks and having a laugh, all they have to do is wait a couple more months and they’ll both be pretty.

Then one day, after a terrible argument Shay drops a bombshell on Tally, she doesn’t want to be pretty and she’s heard about a place they can go to get away from the operation. Tally doesn’t feel the same, wanting it to be her birthday so badly so she can just have what she wants, and Shay leaves. Tally waits patiently for her birthday and it comes around, she’s finally going to be pretty, she’s in the hospital, waiting for her dream to come true. But something goes wrong, Tally doesn’t get to have her operation and she’s forced to make the hardest decision of her life and it’s not easy.

The outcome means that Tally has to experience events, thoughts and feelings that she never thought she would and she soon realises things aren’t exactly what they appear to be. Her life drastically changes and she makes choices based on her new experiences that go against anything she would have done before.

The world that Westerfeld creates is amazing, it reminds me of an Orwell inspired world, where the walls will decorate themselves whatever colour you want them to be and cars and trains drive themselves. It makes me laugh how the characters talk about the “rusties” because, well, I am a rusty! I think my favourite part of the story has to be the descriptions, which is why I picked the above quote and how the new towns contrast so well against the “Rusty Ruins.”

I have been recommending this book to anyone I’ve spoken too, I really do love the world, the characters, the technology!  It inspires me to read more sci-fi type books because if theyre all this good I will love them. I really need to buy the other 3 in the series and read them all soon!

Also, does Maddy remind anyone else of Mrs Wealsey from Harry Potter… there’s just something about her! 

My Blogger is new...

I started this blogger today in place of my tumblr. My posts below are previous posts from my Tumblr, I copied them over because I am going to delete my tumblr and use this site as my main blog. These posts were all written between September and New Year.

Preludes and Nocturnes - Neil Gaiman

I have just finished reading the first in The Sandman series of Neil Gaiman. I loved it and was actually shocked by the fact that *spoiler alert maybe* Death was a woman in the series. Maybe I’m not as open minded as I thought because I automatically think of death as being male! 

Anyway I’m not going to do a full review of the volume here. I am going to wait until I have read them all and do a long review of them all. I’m upset that I cant go out and buy them now but alas; Live is not all about books! 

Anyway I hope you’re all enjoying the fun stuff (obviously I mean books) that you got for christmas and you have all recovered fully from New year. I’m back to work tomorrow, unfortunately this means I cant get through as many books but I’ll try. 

One Day - David Nicholls

“He hoped to be successful, to make his parents proud and to sleep with more than one woman at the same time, but how to make these all compatible? … Things should look right. Fun; there should be a lot of fun and no more sadness than absolutely necessary”

After hearing good things about this book since its release I have wanted to read it. I read both The Understudy and Starter For Ten last year and I expected great things to come from One Day too. I was right, except I didn’t expect it to be even better than the previous books. I often hear great things in passing and keep away from stuff that might spoil the story for me so I went into this book knowing that it was about one day and that it was good. I’m glad I didn’t know anymore because every part of the story let me have my own emotions.

One Day is set over 20 years. It follows Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew on one day of the year only. This one day is July 15^th, it starts in 1988, the day after their graduation from university where the two find themselves up all night talking about life and then spend much of the 15^th together. You get the impression from the start that Emma and Dexter are very different people and are unlikely to become best friends but as the story progresses you realise this is exactly what they have become. You don’t actually find out about how until the very end of the book but I like that because I found myself trying to put bits together throughout the book.

I love that Nicholls has managed to get so much story into one day of the year without it sounding like a rushed diary entry, going over the past year without any true emotion. You find out about events that have happened throughout the previous year just in passing, like the passing away of Dexter’s mother, the new jobs and the changes in love interests.  The characters are actually very in depth and because of the time difference in each chapter you find yourself thinking about how much the Emma of 1988 would view the Emma of 1998 and so on.

The story is told by focussing on either Emma or Dexter at one time, there will be Emma’s perspective of things then Dexter’s perspective. I like that you get the feeling that you’re getting their thoughts and feelings but also getting the outside perspective too. I found myself wanting to shout at Dexter for being a prick sometimes, because in places he really is! But also I found myself wanting to bang the heads of the pair of them together because they were both being bloody stupid. Emma had an annoying habit of not doing what you knew she really wanted to do because of, I don’t know, being scared or not fighting enough and Dexter didn’t do stuff because he was scared of how it made him look to other people and he always had to be so cool… of course becoming less cool because his actions and not realising it.

I honestly can say that this book had its shocks and there were times when I was genuinely scared about where the plotline was going, thinking “oh no don’t do that!!” One of these times had to be right towards the end of the book and anyone who has read this will understand which part I mean. It’s not an overly happy story; there are some very sad bits, but with some very happy bits and some very odd bits to laugh out loud at! I love that it provides such a range of emotion just through the one day and you find yourself thinking about Dex and Em as you knew them in 1988 and how much they’d changed.

Christmas books!

I love Christmas, I usually get books or something to do with books. This year I got two books from my boyfriend and a £25 voucher from his mum for Waterstones. These are the books I bought with my voucher and the two that Tony got me. I cant wait to read them but I cant read them all at once. I’m reading One Day by David Nicholls at the minute but hoping to throw some of Neil Gaimans Preludes and Nocturnes in too at the same time. The Tolkiens Letter from Father Christmas was a surprise from Tony for Christmas, I had no idea that he’d got me it and it wasn’t even something I can remember telling him I wanted so it was a very very nice shock. The others, Uglies - Scott Westerfeld, Fallen - Lauren Kate, Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater and American Gods - Neil Gaiman, I bought today with the voucher. I still have £5 left and I cant decide whether to get The Hunger Games or Beautiful Creatures… which ever I decide I think I’m going to order today. I hope everyone had a good Christmas and it wasn’t too hectic!

Pretty Things - Sarra Manning

“When I look in the mirror I don’t recognise the girl I see staring back at me with her kiss-swollen lips and the slightly dreamy look in her eyes”

I love this book. It’s an amazing story about understanding just who the hell you are. The story follows four very different people who are at a summer theatre class together and end up hanging around together. Brie, Charlie, Daisy and Walker know each other through various means, Charlie and Brie being best friends for like ever, and find that their summer makes them explore things that they never dreamed of exploring before. Charlie is, as he points out on his t-shirt “gayer” than gay, he’s fun loving and dresses all emo-ey and really isn’t who you’d expect to be best friends with the prim and proper pop loving, body worrying, pretty girl Brie. Brie annoyed me, I’m not gunna lie. I don’t like girls who appear to be so thick they can’t count to 4 and it annoys me more when you realise they have a brain they’re just scared of using it. At least that was my initial thought; I grew to like her more as I got more into the story. She does have a brain and she does have feelings about more than carbohydrates, she’s a nice girl but I have to admit I’m probably more like Daisy and they just don’t fit together! Daisy is a lesbian, with all her thoughts about gay rights and society and generally probably a lot like I was at 17. Though I wasn’t quite on that scale, maybe because I’m not a full on lesbian, but is she really? Daisy is obviously struggling with what she knows and what she thinks she knows, it’s a difficult time being 17 and Daisy, like the others is really seeing what life can chuck at you. Walker is an interesting character. He’s almost like a typical teenage boy… but one of those typical teenagers who you don’t actually find that often. I found one in my first year of uni and my god they can be quite frustrating! He’s known as ‘shagger’ by most the teens in the area, his reputation is more known than his actual personality, though it’s not until the time in this book that he actually catches on to the fact that maybe he should change things. Walker has a lot more going for him than everyone thinks, he’s clever and sweet but because he started off his rep and is living to it he has a hard time convincing people of that, especially hot headed lesbian Daisy.

The story really is about love and the way it can come and smack you in the face. Leaving you hurting and wondering how the hell events happened to get you were you are. I thinks it’s about trying to work out who you are then realising that it’s just too screwed up and you may as well just carry on doing what you’re doing and hoping for the best. It’s one of the best interpretations of being 16/17 that I’ve come across and most importantly, there’s swearing, and sex, and gays!

I think when I read this at 17(…. I think it was around then) it was one of the first books I’d come across with gay characters in it. I was trying to work out what the hell was going on in my own life and it seemed reasonable to me that my life wasn’t screwed, it was just about as normal as most people my age! I loved that the characters were so real and Id come across them in my everyday life at college.

Another thing I love about this book is the song quotes at the beginning of every chapter. I think my love of music is one reason why I love this book and Sarra Manning’s other book, Guitar Girl, so much, the music explored isn’t just mainstream stuff either which is awesome. 

The read-look of books

I always think books should look read. I know people who try not to bend the spines of books as they’re reading them and I really don’t understand that! I fold the spine, bend the book, mark the pages, hell if I really love a book it’ll probably have food stains in it cos I haven’t wanted to put it down while I eat! They’re are certain books I’ll try my hardest to keep neat but even they will look read! Some of my Harry Potters even have small rips in the pages from when I’ve been that mad or excited I’ve torn the page when I’ve turned it over. Battered books aren’t tatty, they’re just well loved! What’s everyone else’s opinion on the state books should be in?

The use of Libraries

There’s a lot of stuff going around about Libraries shutting their doors due the cuts that the government are bringing in. I don’t like this, I don’t like that they believe that the falling number of people using libraries means that they should be shut. I personally don’t use the library in my city, it’s really bad, has rubbish opening hours and I usually can’t find anything i want. However it’s no wonder it has so much wrong with it because it doesn’t get a lot of help from the government to improve matters. It has 39 PCs and no access to the wireless, or a designated place to sit, if you want to take your laptop along to work in. The best library in Preston is the Uni library and you can only use that if you are a student (or for a year after graduating) obviously.

The government will not close this library, I’m fairly sure of that because its right in the city centre and also houses the main “museum” for the city (the museums a bit rubbish too). But i don’t think they’ll do much to improve it either, and that depresses me. I’ve seen what they’re doing to Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool libraries and that is what I think they should do to all City libraries, including mine. They are redesigning Manchester and Liverpool libraries, and building a completely new one for Birmingham. However these libraries aren’t going to just be Libraries, they will be cultural “hubs”. They will create spaces that everyone can use, internet cafes, a place for books and places to for people to meet or work or to let your kids meet other kids.

Some people think the idea of coffee shops in libraries is a bad idea, not wanting a Starbucks to share the space of what is meant to be a government run free to use place to read or take out books. I don’t agree, I would love to have something like Birmingham’s new library in my town, it looks incredible and I think that it will ensure that there is a future for the library. So what if it’s used for other stuff than to read, as long as you can still get books and read them in peace and quiet somewhere in that huge building then that’s fine for me! I just wish that the government would improve others instead of just shutting them down!

Images of the new library can be found here

Stravaganva - City Of Masks - Mary Hoffman

“He was in the floating city, he knew that. It was very warm and yet still early in the morning. The beautiful notebook was still in his hand. He put it in his pyjama pocket.” 

Stravaganza follows Lucien, a modern day boy, who finds himself in 16th century Talia; Italy unlike any Italy that we would know now. The city, Bellezza, is an older version of the city we would now call Venice and Lucien finds himself in it at a very dangerous time. 

In his modern life Lucien has cancer, Brain cancer. His father finds a notepad and gives it to Lucien to write in when he is in too much pain from chemo to talk. Little does his father know that the notepad was left purposely in the house where he found it by a man called Rodolfo, a 16th century Stavagante, who actually left it there for William Dethridge, a 16th century Englishman who had visited Talia many years before. The notepad is the key to a gateway that was opened by Dethridge and means that Lucien can visit Talia anytime he goes to sleep cluthing the notepad and thinking of his floating city.

Lucien soon finds his feet in Talia, makes friends and has adventures that he could only dream of in his modern life. The city is under threat from the Di Chimici, who want the whole of Talia under their rule but the Duchessa will not bow to their request. Lucien finds himself in Talia at the time when a number of assisinations are attempted on the duchessa. Having found himself in favour with the Duchessa and the senator, Rodolfo, Lucien makes friends with the right people and helps Bellezza as much as he can. 

The idea behind the story is brilliant, the way you can sleep in the real world and wake in a world that could only exist in your dreamland takes magical realism in its stride. However I found parts of the book a bit slow, and only managed to get into it properly at the end. Some bits appeared to be very predictable but I had read the book before, when I was still at school (around 7/8 years ago) so I don’t know if that had something to do with it. Its difficult to tell you my favourite part without spoiling the story entirely for you but lest just say, it happens in the part i got sucked into, right at the end. 

There is a sequel but I’m gunna give it a couple of books before trying that as this one dragged a bit. I like it when a book explores characters in depth and I don’t believe this one doe that well but it offers a relaxing read to anyone who has mastered the art of skim reading. I hate to admit it but when I was younger I was fickle and what did draw me to this book was the cover. Its one of the prettiest covers I’ve seen on a YA book, so its just how the saying goes “never judge a book by its cover.”

How I Paid for College: a tale of sex, theft, friendship and musical theatre – Marc Acito

This book was leant to me by my sister. She gave me it and told me that when I fancied a laugh I had to read it because it’s one of the funniest books she’d read. I read the blurb and thought it was my kinda thing so naturally I borrowed it but put it on my bookcase and it’s been collecting dust since last Christmas. I thought I should probably read it and get it back to her and that’s why I picked it up but I’m glad I got round to it eventually as it really was as funny as my sister told me it would be.

It’s a story of a rich boy, Edward, whose father, Al, pays for everything and whose ultimate dream is to go to The Julliard School in New York. His dreams are almost reality when his best friend goes off a year ahead of him and he gets an audition date. However his dreams are shattered when his father meets an Austrian photographer who drives Edward away and makes Al refuse to pay for Edward to go to a Drama school when Al thinks he should be majoring in business.

Edward is convinced that he has to go to Julliard but without his father’s money he knows he will never be able to pay for it so he and his friends embark on a crazy skilful journey into blackmail, sex, fraud and various other crazy situations to try and get Edward the money for his college. On this journey they discover their true identities and feelings about each other.

I love the wacky and wonderful situations that the “CV” guys get themselves into; it makes them feel so alive yet at the same time I can hardly imagine doing any of those things at 18. I think that in places it can seem a bit over enthusiastic but the relationships were almost as real as ones I have with my friends, without as much sex…

I would recommend this book to anyone… though I think you have to have been through certain stages of life before you fully understand it. I’m glad I didn’t read it till now because if I had picked it up only three years ago I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much. It probably should come with an age limit, some scenes were a bit graphic and I almost found myself going red reading it at work but it really is a hilarious book if you like coming of age type stories.

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

I got this book a few weeks or so ago but due to my rereading of Harry Potter I didn’t get chance to read it until this weekend. I finished the Potter series and didn’t know what to pick up next but as my love of Neil Gaiman is one that I believe will never falter I decided on The Graveyard Book.

The story follows a little boy called Bod, or Nobody Owens, through his life living in a graveyard from a baby til he’s ‘grown’. His family are the ghosts that have inhabited the graveyard since their bodies were buried there centuries before. Bod knows that life outside the graveyard is dangerous for him so sticks to the graveyard except for a few outings later on the his life. He makes friends and has fun and adventures until his past comes back to him. 

The story has all the imagination that you want from a book that’s aimed at all ages. Though perhaps a little scary for younger readers! I love it when you can read a book and be fascinated by the different worlds that are collected together without many people even noticing. The living, the dead and even the undead come together in this story and the imagination behind it is incredible! 

The adventures Bod has push your imagination to the limit when you start to think about the people and things he encounters look like and the way they act. His life is a crazy adventure in itself because of The man Jack who killed Bods real family when he was only a baby. The way that Gaiman writes aids the imagination so well in that his words flow so well with the action. Gaimans writing also makes it possible to be met with frighting characters whilst not being scared but at the same time in full suspense of what is going to come next as it could be a terrifying situation.

I didn’t know what to expect from the book at first. I knew it was more or less aimed at younger readers but as with Coraline I guessed that the age of reader doesnt matter as much as the imagination that the reader has. I think to fully enjoy the story of The Graveyard book you have to let your imagination run free and let the story take you into as many graves and dark places as it wants. 

Harry Potter Collection

I’m not gunna go into a long arse review of what I think of the books tonight, I’m a bit too sleepy! 

I just finished reading the last one and as I picked it up last week it dawned on me that I hadn’t actually read it since its release back in 2007. I loved the series so much that I didn’t wanna lose what I felt and how it touched me when I read the entire thing from 3am (after I’d picked it up from the midnight launch) til 1 the next day. The feelings that I had when I read the whole Deathly Hallows in that one sitting just had all the of the characters, the whole book, and the series, as real living things in my head. The way I read it in the one sitting locked up in my room not thinking of anything but Harry and the wizarding world made me think that the wizarding world was the real world and those people are my friends. I was scared that another read of the books would make me lose that feeling. That Harry and the other guys would become just descriptions on the page. 

I’m glad now that reading the book again, in-between work and having a real life has made me love the characters even more. I don’t care what anyone says Hogwarts is real and I believe in nargles :P haha. 

One thing that reading the whole series again has made me realise is the things that are wrong. The fact that the Creevey brothers are both in Hogsmede when Dumbledore’s army has its first meeting in the hogs head, when Dennis isn’t actually old enough to be. Also the fact that Harry gets his days mixed up in the fourth book and says that he woke up with a major pain in his scar the Sunday before the Quidditch world cup when really it was the Sunday. The way that in the first and second books the broomsticks of the Quidditch house teams are kept in the schools broom cupboard but by the fourth Harrys is in his dormitory. I picked up on these things for the first time when reading the books this time round and I thought that mistakes like these would make me dislike the books a little, like they’re wrong.

When I started thinking about these mistakes though it kinda started making me feel that perhaps it shows that they are more real. The thoughts behind them were real and the mistakes are just human. Lets face it, I sometimes mix my days up just like Harry and well Rowling is a person so even though the story isn’t ”real” it is inside her head and she makes mistakes like the rest of us. I think that finding these mistakes has actually made me love the series more and made me look up to Rowling more too. I never thought about the person behind the books. I knew who she was and how much shes made from these books but i never actually thought about her and know I’m thinking about her and just thinking that she has to have an incredible imagination to be able to pull the series off. 

I don’t care how many people say she has nicked other peoples ideas and how many people think that she just published the books rather than thought them up herself. I think that Rowling is amazing. I wish I could pull off what she has! 

Harry Potter - movie

I’m not gunna lie. This contains some serious spoilers!!! 

I saw the Harry Potter movie on Tuesday night. The Deathly Hallows part one, it was as I thought it would be, bloody awesome. However…. The one and only thing that let it down was the need to explain things that the previous movies didn’t. Bill waltzes in an introduces himself, and his scars but that wouldn’t have been needed if it wasn’t for the fact he wasn’t fighting the death eaters the night Dumbledore died in the movie. Also the character was soooo not cool enough to be the real Bill. I loved bill in the books! he sounded well fanciable! however I’ll move away from my taste in fictional characters! 

There were some characters that I thought we spot on. The guys who played Harry, Ron and Hermione when they had the poly-juice potion in the ministry! They were awesome, acted so well and just looked like the guys would have if they were themselves! (I hope that makes sense! It did in my head!) and also Xeno Lovegod, awesome character, you can see where Luna gets her slight strangeness from! 

The little snippets between Ron and Hermione were well developed also, the bit after he comes back and Hermione says “I’m always mad at him” made me giggle so much. I love how their relationship has been done in the films almost as much as in the books, which is saying something. On the subject of Hermione as well, at the beginning when she was in her house… Did not expect that!! It was absolutely shattering! i was crying my eyes out for her, the way she disappeared from the photo frames and everything, that was some great cinematography! It made you realise how much Ron and Hermione have had to give up for Harry which works well.

However around half way through the movie, my boyfriend leant over to me and whispered, “why they looking for horcruxes?” and this is the bit, I think, where the film really disappoints. It isn’t explained fully enough in the sixth film the importance of the horcruxes. It also isn’t explained in this new movie and the weight of the decision on Harry, between Horcruxes or Hallows, also isn’t focussed upon enough. There didn’t seem to be any point where harry stopped and thought about why he had to know about each and which was the one he had to focus on finding the most. The film didn’t disappoint me but the fact that I know it wouldn’t make as much sense to someone who hasn’t read the book did. I know its obvious that to put everything from the books into a movie would make the series around 12 films and not 8 but still, I think it misses out some major important bits… 

I’m trying not to be negative, but I also have to mention that they missed out one of my favourite parts of the books, probably in favour of showing the excellent Hermione scene; when the Dursleys are leaving and Dudley stops and asks why Harry isn’t going with them. This bit in the book makes perfect sense, it shows Harry as Dudley’s cousin who actually means something to him, not just a punch bag and it made me tearful when I read it. I’m gutted that is wasn’t put in the movie. I wanted to see the Big D have a heart for once! 

I cant wait for the second part of the movie but unfortunately due the arses in the movie business wanting a summer blockbuster I will have to. It should be pretty awesome though if the first is anything to go on! And I’ll try and get the boyfriend to read the books before then so I don’t have to explain it all ;)

I hope I haven’t been too harsh on the movie, so I thought I’d remind you guys of another excellent part before I leave you to ponder it yourself; “oh Bill, don’t look at me, I’m ‘ideous!” :)

A little something I wrote...

It also makes my brain go all funny and when I feel like writing around this time Its obviously got to be about something halloweeny. So I decided to write a Zombie love story. Its original, I hope you like it. (thanks to Ben who suggested I use my time in work wisely which is why this was written… at least I didn’t get caught!)

Zombified… ish 

Kate the zombie was a lonely girl having been zombiefied at the age of 15 after getting too close to the pet zombie in the basements cage. Kate’s father felt that bad about making her feed Zom Zom that he couldn’t bear to leave the house and couldn’t look at Kate anymore. She was only in the first stage of zombification so the disease hadn’t fully taken over yet. She kept out of the house for fear of upsetting her father more, only returning to for food from her mother and when it was too late for a girl of her age to be wandering the streets.

It wasn’t unusual to have a pet zombie since the major accident at Heraldhead Jail up the road. No one knew what had happened but the prisoners all got sick one day and turned into zombies. The medics at the prison managed to sedate all the zombies and it was decided that the government would give the prisoners to the local families who wanted one to reduce the waste consumption of their household. The zombies would eat anything and the tax for refuse was sky high lately so many families took up the offer. All you had to do for your zombie was inject the sedative, provided for a very small charge, every week and a half and your zombie was fine. It was that sedative that Kate had been to give the zombie. Just as she was giving it to Zom Zom he turned and bared his teeth. Kate was brave though, giving the rest of the sedative before going up to tell her father.

No one, to Kate’s knowledge, had been bitten before so she had no idea of what was to happen to her, except of course assume that she would end up like Zom Zom. Her father didn’t want her to be taken from him so he hadn’t told anyone and swore her mother not to either.

Three days had passed since the bite and Kate decided she couldn’t face her father being that upset. She knew that her family home on Mill Street was no longer the place for her. Being a smart girl she knew she should phone the police, but something stopped her, perhaps the fear of being given away just like Zom Zom. She only knew one place that she could rely on at times like this and that was the local library. It was quite and had computers, even if they were ancient. Sitting there on the age old computers she felt the urge just to be normal, go on facebook, ask one of her friends for help. But she didn’t know how to explain to her group of average 15 year old friends that she’d been zombiefied; she thought they’d probably take it as a joke. She decided instead to search for Zombie hideouts – the kinds of places zombies go in the movies go to. She found the perfect place – there was an underground subway in the town five miles away that was unused.

Leaving the library she took to the main road- walking the five miles seemed like the best option. She wanted so much to cry once she had started walking, the thought of leaving her family was terrible, but the tears would not come. Her tear ducts seemed not to work anymore.  After around two miles a car slowed to run alongside her. The man inside it seemed nice enough at first but then started making rude comments about girls her age being around at this time of night – it was getting late and it made Kate shudder to think of the creeps that could be around. She wanted to get away from him but when she tried to break into a run her legs didn’t seem to work, they had become clumsy and she nearly fell. The man laughed at her and decided to give up tormenting her. He drove away and Kate started to think about the warm bed she would have if she were home.

She wondered how long it would be till her family reported her missing. They were probably already in bed now, as shed come in late the previous two nights. They would probably notice when she didn’t go for breakfast the next morning. She hoped that she’d be long gone by then. The signs were telling her she was getting nearer and nearer to her destination. She knew that the subway had a depot on the very outskirts of the town, having gone past it a hundred times on her way to school. All she had to do was get to the depot, find a way in and hide out down there. She’d find some blankets and things around and about in the next few days and when the disease gets too bad she’ll just find a way to end it, somehow. She was trying to work out where she’d be able to find some of the sedative from when she turned a corner and noticed that the depot was in sight. She shocked herself at the distance she’d travelled without even realising it, lost in her own thoughts about how her life would turn out.

Getting closer to the depot she noticed that it was more derelict than she thought. There was easy access into the grounds and it only took her around half an hour to find a way into the building itself. Once she was in she couldn’t believe how dark it was. She had noting with her, having not come out prepared to be leaving home forever. She didn’t even have a change of clothes. She felt her way around and tried to remember what she could of the building when it was open, she used to use it when she went shopping with her mum because it was easier than driving into the centre of town.  She found some stairs that went down and followed those, assuming that they would lead the way down to the platforms. Once down there she managed to make her way onto the lines and head down on of the tunnels.

Her eyes were finally getting used to the darkness when she thought she saw something move ahead of her. She was already petrified and trying to stop herself from screaming she tried to tell herself that it was a rat or a stray dog or something and it had gone. Carrying on walking she saw something again. Then a voice came out of the darkness “is anybody there?” it was her own voice, so scared she could barely recognise it. The thing moved again and she went to turn and run. Again her legs failed her and this time she fell. The thing that moved ahead of her when she stood moved closer to her. Once it was next to her a bright light fell across the tunnel. The thing, it would seem, was a boy of around 17. He helped her up and asked her name. She replied and asked him what he was doing here and who he was. He told her he was called Damien and would get someone to answer her questions if she followed him.

Kate had no other option than to follow the boy. Even if she had tried to run away chances are she would have fallen and probably wouldn’t have found her way out anyway. The boy seemed to be very pale, and thin, he kept the light on now and she could see that the lines running in the tunnel were a lot clearer than she thought, with no rats scampering around anywhere. Every time she tried speaking Damien would ask her to be quiet. He was leading them through a series of tunnels, maintenance tunnels, now, away from the tracks. There were lights coming from the far end of a long tunnel that he turned into and Kate thought she could hear voices. The lights shut out when the people that she could hear heard them coming. Damien advised whoever it was that he was approaching and he had a visitor. The shouting down the tunnel echoed and Kate really didn’t like the loudness of it. She shuddered and wondered why he was leading her down this tunnel anyway.

When they got to the end of the tunnel Kate was greeted by a group of around thirty people. They were all ages and of both sex. Damien spoke to some of the older people while some of the younger ones starred at Kate. She didn’t know where she was but she noticed that they all looked pale and thin and were dressed in rather dirty, yet ordinary, clothes. When Damien finished one of the older people of the group, a Man around 30 years old came over and introduced himself. He was called Gabe and he was one of the elected superior members of the group.  He asked outright when Kate had been bitten, which struck Kate as odd considering she hadn’t said anything. She told him and asked what was going on. Gabe explained that various people, people of their group, had been bitten by their pet zombies and had taken refuge in the subway, he knew she had too by the paleness of her skin and the way Damien had said she fell when she tried to run away, also by the fact she looked scared and yet her eyes looked as dry as stone. The group ranged from being bitten a week ago to a year ago and were all fairly normal people. They had a tendency for raw meat sometimes and couldn’t run or walk very fast, but other than that believed they could function normally if they were allowed to in the real world. Kate asked why they didn’t and Gabe informed her that they were all too scared to try and go into the real world for fear that scientists would experiment to find out why they hadn’t been fully zombiefied. He believed that the Zombies created in Heraldhead only had the weakest form of the disease and couldn’t carry the full form on so those people who were bitten only developed some effects. He explained that if they tried to surface it was likely that the government would try and find out how their existence was possible and probably end up killing them through experimentation anyway so it was safer to stay here. He asked Kate if she wanted to stay or go back to the real world and risk quarantine.

Kate believed that she could go back, go home and tell her parents it would all be ok. She wouldn’t develop into a full zombie like Zom Zom and she could function more or less normally. But her father would probably want to know how she knew and that would risk telling him about these other people, people like her, and she didn’t want to risk their security. Besides if she told her father about them it was possible that he would tell the police about these people and then the government would get hold of them all. The more she thought about it the more clear it became that she must stay with them in the tunnels. She asked Gabe if he was happy to accept her into the group and Gabe announced her arrival to the rest of them, the zombie survivors. Kate was so scared still, knowing that she couldn’t see her parents of the world she used to live in, but at the same time she knew she couldn’t risk being treated like some kind of caged animal by the outside world. Damien comforted her that first night, and for many nights after that he became her shoulder to, almost, cry on. 

The Understudy - David Nicholls

OK so a few weeks ago I read Starter For Ten by David Nicholls, not sure now if I blogged about it but my word it was awesome and hilariously funny! having heard already that it was deeply hysterical I also bought The understudy and One Day by the same author. I read SFT and although couldn’t wait to read another Nicholls book I know there can be too much of a good thing so started reading something else. When I finished reading The Story Sisters I realised that I needed to read something that I know would be good just because that was so awesome so I picked up The Understudy. 

Having always heard good things about Nicholls, his books and SFT explicitly I knew The Understudy would be pretty damn good. What I wasn’t expecting however was for it to be even better than Starter for Ten! That book was awesome but it felt a little out of place for me because I couldn’t work out what kinda of era it was set. I know it was meant to be the 80;s but I’m a little too young for that so didn’t quite understand! However The Understudy, WOW, it could be set at any time, as long as films were around, I think anyone around these days can relate to it. Stephen Mcqueen, with a ph, makes an awesome main character just because he’s a regular nice guy trying to fulfil his dreams! You follow the character on the everyday run of his life and its just really funny to see the situations he gets himself into and the hilarity of his situation is really put across well. Of course you probably wouldn’t like to be in his situation but never mind its funny to see others in it! 

His situation is this; he’s divorced to the woman of his dreams who he still loves. He has a 7 year old girl who he gets to take out on day trips because shes scared of his “studio apartment” (bedsit). He is an actor though his biggest selling movie is one where hes dressed up as a 6 foot squirell singing kids songs and hes understudying for a handsome famous (English) actor. Not to give too much away but various different drunken, and sometimes sober, episodes land him in various different hilarious situations where, as a reader, your quite often smacking your own head going “you fool Stephen!” 

The handsome famous actor that Stephen is understudying is also a brilliant comic character. He falls in the category of famous fool and reminds me quite clearly of the footballers/actors/various famous men that appear in the daily newspapers in England. The idea that he’s just so irresistible but in reality he’s a bit of a prick and you’d be mad to be married to him! 

Again I don’t want to give too much away but I seriously think that the book is worth a read. Although its 400 and odd pages it really didn’t seem that long and I think I read about 100 last night purely cos I couldn’t wait to find out how it finished. The ending is surprising to say the least and a little out of character. It made me a little sad in a way because Stephen kinda does what I didn’t think his character would but also it makes you happy too. If you want a real laugh out loud book that will make you a little sad and a tad embarrassed but meanwhile also make you nearly wet yourself laughing I really think this is the best book, that fits the bill, I’ve read in ages! 

Watchmen - Alan Moore

Last night I finally finished a book I have wanted to read for years. I kept meaning to buy Watchmen or borrow it from the local library and every time I had money or was near the library I forgot. However my workmate, who seems like a very cool guy as he likes reading and graphic novels too, mentioned it a few weeks ago and insisted on my borrowing of his copy! the next day he brought it in but obviously I didnt want to damage it by carrying it to and from work everyday so I only read it at home, which means it took longer than my usual books! All I can say Is I’m glad Ive finally read it! Ive seen the film and unfortunately I kept trying to remember what was going to happen next all the way through, which is why I always try and read the books before the films! 

The novel is quite hefty compared to most graphic novels I’ve come across, Im used to manga which is obviously a lot smaller but I will never say no to anything graphicy! Obviously I can remember bits of the film and that was also pretty long but I thought they’d padded it out a lot for Hollywood! However it appears they didn’t and thankfully everything I can remember from the movie was there sat in the book! The drawings aren’t everyone’s style, my boyfriend in particular said that its not the style he usually likes, but the storyline behind the story was what made it so good! often you find in graphic novels that they just wouldn’t work without the pictures and although in some places this is the case in Watchmen, in others its not. This is emphasised by the in-between chapters that are extracts from books or magazines etc that you hear about in the story. Hollis Masons book “under the hood” for example is an excellent insight to part of the story that would have taken a while if done through pictures! I liked that it included those as sometimes I find my eyes getting distracted by all the different stuff proided by the pictures! 

One of the other things I loved about the novel was that it kept you on the edge. even though I’ve seen the movie I still kept thinking about what was coming and willing for it to come to give me answers. That’s what makes a good story in my eyes, if you need to know throughout what’s going to happen and it keeps you on your toes then its a keeper! 

I’m really glad I finally got round to reading it. If my workmate hadn’t brought it for me to read then it probably would have taken another few years or something! but its an amazing story with some amazing imagery and I really recommend that anyone who likes a good read sits down with this! 

Also as you may have noticed, I haven’t really posted anything substantial for a while. That’s due to reading two books at once (which always takes me twice as long!) and because various things out of my control that I’ve had to do other than read… Work mainly! haha but I promise you Ill keep on top of my blog more from now on!! really

The Story Sisters - Alice Hoffman

When I picked up The Story Sisters in the supermarket I did so with the intention of it being a quick simple read, something to tide me through in-between more complex reads such as Welsh or Dickens. Instead I got something completely different, expecting a throw away novel that would be skim read and then posted to the nearest charity shop I actually experienced an amazing novel that grabbed me and pulled me into the world that belonged to The Story Sisters.

The sisters are Elv, Meg and Claire who grew up in a beautiful house with a hawthorn tree in the garden. They were teenagers when the book began and the youngest is around 30 when it ends. The girls have their own fantasy world dreamed up by Elv after a terrible experience changed her life.  They speak a language that no one else understands, not even their mother and they keep to each other, not having any friends outside their own group. The story follows them through difficult life experiences, when Elv goes off the rails and ends up in a boarding school for uncontrollable teenagers. The other girls learn that she is not who she seems and decide they only need each other, having no one else as the whole town believes their sister is cursed. The book follows Claire and Elv as the main characters but with insights to the other people as well.

I don’t want to spoil the ending for anyone as I believe that anyone who reads this should go out straight away and buy it. It will have you laughing, seething and crying. I love the descriptions of both the fantasy world that Elv creates and the real world that the girls live in. The descriptions of Paris, where their Ama (grandmother) resides as one of two homes, are incredible offering visions of beauty and colour. You can tell that the girls feel most at home in the open, with Elv taking to sitting in her hawthorn tree and Claire gazing longingly out of windows. It’s a trait they appear to have obtained from their mother who appears more in her garden than inside through most of the book.

It is an amazing book, with vivid descriptions and characters who are so close to heart, I believe anyone who has been a teenager and especially a sister, and probably a mother will relate to this book so much. I honestly do recommend it to everyone, even the guys, because if you have a heart you’ll feel for the characters in this book. I finished it ten minutes ago and I’m now going to see if I can find an envelope to post it to my sister!