Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Announcement
This blog is no more (sort of). If you like what's here, go here and find some more. Thank you and good night.
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Shortcuts and news
Stories - Edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio.
I finally got around to finishing this anthology of short stories, as previously mentioned here.
I really liked it, as I said in the previous post, it's not something to be read in one sitting, I suggest dipping in and out of it. The stories themselves are fun, weird and somewhat wonderful. If you can, try and get hold of a copy.
I'm still contemplating combining this blog with my other blog. I don't get to post very often at the moment, because I'm busy with work and uni. If I did combine it, would those of you who read this come too? Also if you have any suggestions about ways to improve it/make things simpler please comment and let me know. I like writing about the books I'm reading and other literature related stuff, but having it all on one blog might just simplify things, or possibly complicate them, I'm not sure. So anything anyone wants to add to my internal debate, please feel free to say.
Here are a few book/lit related links to give you something to click on this week!!
This is a nice little online graphic novel
Book Depository's Book of the Week
Penguin launch their Puffin Digital Prize 2011
Neil Gaiman related PostSecretalike site!!!
This is hilarious!
If you're not already following Clarissa Draper you should be (especially if you like crime fiction/want to be a writer)
If you have any links for me, please post them in the comments. Right, off to attempt another assault on Dickens!!
I finally got around to finishing this anthology of short stories, as previously mentioned here.
I really liked it, as I said in the previous post, it's not something to be read in one sitting, I suggest dipping in and out of it. The stories themselves are fun, weird and somewhat wonderful. If you can, try and get hold of a copy.
I'm still contemplating combining this blog with my other blog. I don't get to post very often at the moment, because I'm busy with work and uni. If I did combine it, would those of you who read this come too? Also if you have any suggestions about ways to improve it/make things simpler please comment and let me know. I like writing about the books I'm reading and other literature related stuff, but having it all on one blog might just simplify things, or possibly complicate them, I'm not sure. So anything anyone wants to add to my internal debate, please feel free to say.
Here are a few book/lit related links to give you something to click on this week!!
This is a nice little online graphic novel
Book Depository's Book of the Week
Penguin launch their Puffin Digital Prize 2011
Neil Gaiman related PostSecretalike site!!!
This is hilarious!
If you're not already following Clarissa Draper you should be (especially if you like crime fiction/want to be a writer)
If you have any links for me, please post them in the comments. Right, off to attempt another assault on Dickens!!
Under a Blood Red Sky - Kate Furnivall
Furnivall returns to Russia, the setting for her previous novels, The Russian Concubine and The Concubine's Secret (and also her new novel The Jewel of St Petersburg). But this is unconnected to those.
Opening in one of Stalin's labour camps in Siberia, Under a Blood Red Sky, tells the story of Sofia and Anna, two women forced to dig ditches and cut trees, as punishment for being related to people deemed enemies of the Communist State. Anna is sustained by the support of her friend and the memory of her love Vasily. As she becomes ill, Sofia vows to escape and find Vasily, bringing him back to rescue Anna from a slow and painful death in the camp.
Escape she does, and eventually makes it to the village of Tivil, where Vasily is said to be hiding. There she meets Mikhail Pashin, the man she believes she's come to find, and the other villagers, including the mysterious gypsy Rafik, who possesses strange powers.
Sofia will learn about herself, about the mess Russia is in, and how to save herself and her friends. But will she save Anna?
I liked this book, and I picked it up because I enjoyed the previous two, they're well written and easy to read, you might even learn something!
Opening in one of Stalin's labour camps in Siberia, Under a Blood Red Sky, tells the story of Sofia and Anna, two women forced to dig ditches and cut trees, as punishment for being related to people deemed enemies of the Communist State. Anna is sustained by the support of her friend and the memory of her love Vasily. As she becomes ill, Sofia vows to escape and find Vasily, bringing him back to rescue Anna from a slow and painful death in the camp.
Escape she does, and eventually makes it to the village of Tivil, where Vasily is said to be hiding. There she meets Mikhail Pashin, the man she believes she's come to find, and the other villagers, including the mysterious gypsy Rafik, who possesses strange powers.
Sofia will learn about herself, about the mess Russia is in, and how to save herself and her friends. But will she save Anna?
I liked this book, and I picked it up because I enjoyed the previous two, they're well written and easy to read, you might even learn something!
Monday, 1 November 2010
The Secret of Lost Things - Sheridan Hay
This book tells the story of Rosemary Savage, who leaves Tasmania after her mother's death and travels to New York in search of a new life. There she finds work in the Arcade bookshop and becomes entangled in the lives and secrets of her eccentric colleagues, Pearl the pre-operative Opera singing transsexual, Walter Geist the secretive albino manager, money obsessed owner George Pike, fat, gay Arthur in Art, rare book specialist Mr Mitchell and nonfiction's fastidious, obsessive Oscar. As she searches for meaning, love and a lost manuscript she finds that some things are not as they seem and some people you will never understand.
A book about literature, the love of reading, and finding out who you are meant to be.
A book about literature, the love of reading, and finding out who you are meant to be.
Saturday, 9 October 2010
One Day - David Nicholls
There's been a lot of hype about this book, currently being made into a film with Anne Hathaway (odd choice considering it's set in the UK and there are plenty of British actresses capable of carrying a film, but that's a rant for another day.)
Several friends have raved about it as well, and I quite liked his previous book, Starter for 10.
If I'm being completely honest, this struck me as a rather typical novel, where boy meets girl, they have sex, drift in and out of each others lives, it all goes a bit When Harry Met Sally, then eventually they get together. The twist near the end I didn't expect or see coming, so I suppose that sets it apart from other novels similar to it (such as those by Nick Hornby). The characters themselves were well written, Dexter isn't very nice to start with, and I can see that readers are meant to gradually warm to him, while Emma is much more likable straight away.
I wasn't completely won over by it, but it was a nice read, considering I read it to give my brain a rest from more academic reading.
Several friends have raved about it as well, and I quite liked his previous book, Starter for 10.
If I'm being completely honest, this struck me as a rather typical novel, where boy meets girl, they have sex, drift in and out of each others lives, it all goes a bit When Harry Met Sally, then eventually they get together. The twist near the end I didn't expect or see coming, so I suppose that sets it apart from other novels similar to it (such as those by Nick Hornby). The characters themselves were well written, Dexter isn't very nice to start with, and I can see that readers are meant to gradually warm to him, while Emma is much more likable straight away.
I wasn't completely won over by it, but it was a nice read, considering I read it to give my brain a rest from more academic reading.
Monday, 4 October 2010
Poetry Corner
This coming Thursday (7/10) is National Poetry Day here in the UK. Last year the BBC had an entire season devoted to poetry, but it seems a bit quieter this year. The theme is Home.
So I was wondering, what poems make me think of home.
My favourite poem is one of G.K Chesterton's. However it doesn't make me think of home, it's quite atmospheric and weird.
I can't really think of a poem all about home, although I know there are plenty, usually written by writers far from home (in fact this is something that came up last week at uni!). Daljit Nagra's collection Look We Have Coming to Dover! and Grace Nichols' The Fat Black Woman's Poems both contain poems about moving from one place to another and reminiscing about home.
I walked across Westminster Bridge the other day, and Wordsworth's Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, popped into my head, I suppose that's a poem about home, or at least about my home. Wordsworth wrote it while visiting London from his home in the Lake District.
A poem that refers directly to my home town, is John Betjeman's Harrow-on-the-Hill. But it doesn't make me think of home. I suppose I'll have to keep looking for poems that sound like home.
What poems make you think of home? and do you have a favourite poet/poem?
So I was wondering, what poems make me think of home.
My favourite poem is one of G.K Chesterton's. However it doesn't make me think of home, it's quite atmospheric and weird.
I can't really think of a poem all about home, although I know there are plenty, usually written by writers far from home (in fact this is something that came up last week at uni!). Daljit Nagra's collection Look We Have Coming to Dover! and Grace Nichols' The Fat Black Woman's Poems both contain poems about moving from one place to another and reminiscing about home.
I walked across Westminster Bridge the other day, and Wordsworth's Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, popped into my head, I suppose that's a poem about home, or at least about my home. Wordsworth wrote it while visiting London from his home in the Lake District.
A poem that refers directly to my home town, is John Betjeman's Harrow-on-the-Hill. But it doesn't make me think of home. I suppose I'll have to keep looking for poems that sound like home.
What poems make you think of home? and do you have a favourite poet/poem?
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