Flame in the Mist

So I was torn between Clariel and the first book from my Fairyloot box, and decided something easy going and interesting would be good. I remember the box described this as a cross between 47 Ronin and Milan so I thought this would be a good read. 

Now I have seen 47 Ronin, but I can’t remember much about it, so I don’t know whether the similarities are right, but the only thing I could see in common with Mulan was that this follows a girl pretending to be a boy amongst a group of fighters.

I did rate this as 4 stars as there as less gripping books I’ve rated the same. But the more I think about this book, the more I’m inclined to lower it to 3 stars. I found it gripping enough to keep me reading, but the plot was a fairly predictable and the writing a bit clunky.

So (spoiler alert) the story follows Mariko, who is on her way to the emperors castle to marry his (illegitimate) son, when her convoy is attacked by who she presumes is the Black Clan. Aptly named because, guess what…., they dress all in black, so she cannot be sure who it was exactly. Luckily, Mariko gathers enough courage to save herself from the burning carriage, makes her way through the forest and after a run in with a horrible old man, discovers their regular watering hole and lays in wait for the Black Clan to appear. They somehow decide to take her on board and so she begins her life with the clan, with the intention of discovering why they had been commissioned to kill her. 

Now right at the beginning of the book, we see a young boy who watches his father kill himself, and on his way through the crowd he makes eye contact with a young girl. So when Mariko first meets the leader of the Black Clan, my first thought was ‘shes going to fall in love with him and decide she wants to be with him’. So, guess what… She did fall in love, just not with who I thought, but that’s mainly because (now here’s the plot twist) the leader isn’t actually who he says he is, he’s the best friend of who he claims to be. But that doesn’t really matter, as she does actually fall in love with the little boy from the beginning of the book. I found it all too predictable and a little bit lacklustre as you could see it coming from a mile off. Who would have thought that you would fall in love with the one person you hate more than anyone else?? 

Aside from the predictable plot, I felt the style of writing was a bit clunky and didn’t feel quite as natural. There’s a lot of short, quick sentences, used to add tension, which I admit it did, but I felt it didn’t need to always be there. I also felt it was a bit strange to make the Japanese words stand out from the rest of the text, so you felt like you had to process them separately.

The last annoyance of this read, was that it is the first of a series, and although I knew this when I started, I hoped more would be resolved by the end. In fact, I don’t think anything was resolved by the end, which made it all the more frustrating. 

Nevertheless, this has thankfully taken a short enough time to read to knock one off my challenge, leaving me only 2 books behind. The next on I have chosen to read is Daughter of the Burning City. Im hoping this will be much better than Flame in the Mist, but we’ll see. 

Well that didn’t go as well as I hoped

So it has been a few months since I have actually posted something and now I have a week off work (with almost no plans! Yay!), I fully intend to devote this time off to getting my life in order.

It’s been a full on few months, with application’s and interviews to complete, a relative in the hospital, and an exciting holiday to Rome, and I haven’t been able to read as much as usual. As a result, I am 3 books behind schedule *cries* despite having read an incredible 16 books since The Amber Shadows. Thankfully, most of these have been a better read since that dreadful book!

In the time that has passed I have read the following:

• Fishbowl by Bradley Somer – a quirky little book of the intertwining lives of a block of flats, interspersed with the thoughts of a fish as he drops from one of the high flats. Would recommend this one.
• North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell – this one follows the blossoming romance between Margaret, who moves from the country to an industrial town in the north, and John, the owner of a mill who just wants the best for his workforce. This was a great read as I found it a lot more accesible than other works from around that time. Would also recommend this one.
• Under Milk Wood – I read this for my book club, and did struggle with it despite it being 80ish pages. Unfortuntely, this is not my thing but i could appreciate the lyrical way it was written once I’d gotten over the discomfort of reading it aloud to myself.
• Skios – another book club choice, this one a comedy piece about a guy that pretends to be someone else when he lands on the island of Skios and finds his girlfriend won’t be arriving until the next day. This was a light read and easy to get through but the comedy was lacking through much of this.
• The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson – the first thing i always find astonishing with Richard Matheson is that his books are decades old but sound so modern. The main character of this is already small enough not to be seen by the time the books starts, and then we follow his journey as he slowly gets smaller and smaller,  all while trying to survive in a land of monstrous beasts. 
• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (which is technically 2 books as it is split that way) – this was my first Murakami and although I have read another since, I’m still not 100% sure whether I like it. I found the idea of an alternate reality interesting and the story was good, I’m just not sure I could get on with the way he writes. 
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik – this one is about about an unlikely girl chosen as she shows magic she didn’t know she had. She has to put up with a grumpy tutor and fight to do what she thinks is right. Overall a great read and I would recommend this one too. 
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot – I don’t really read non-fiction but decided that even though I couldn’t go to book club to discuss this one, I still wanted to read it. This is a fascinating account of the journey a scientist went through to discover who the HeLa cells came from and what they had done for the world since they had been taken. 
• Temeraire by Naomi Novik – having enjoyed Uprooted so much and discovering Naomi’s other books were about dragons (which I love), i decided I had to read them, and I was not disappointed. The dragons in this series are intelligent creatures who love to have a relationship with their riders. The story was good too, although I feel as this one was more to introduce you to the characters, I assume the story really gets going in the books to follow, which I hope to read in the future. 
• The Princess Bride by William Goldman – this was a re-read and I enjoyed it as much as I did the first time round. This is full of fencing, fighting, torture, true love, chases, escapes, miracles,and beautiful ladies. What more could you want from a story?! I urge you to read this if you haven’t already. 
• Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami – I thought I would give Murakami another go to see if I could make up my mind. And I still haven’t. Again I thought it was an interesting story, but again, I didn’t find his writing style easy to get on with. Maybe its just a relationship not mentioned to be. Saying that there are a few others I’d like to read.
• Red Rising & Golden Son by Pierce Brown – the first 2 in one of my favourite trilogies (which reminds me, I still need to read the last one), which I loved just as much on a second read. These are so brutal and full on, they just keep you guessing from one shock to another. This follows Darrow, a lowly Red who has no idea that his whole life has been a lie. So when his wife is cruelly stolen from him, he is recruited by the Sons of Ares to be carved into a Gold and take them down from within.
• A Man Called Over by Frederik Backman – this one was another book club selection, and I think my favourite to date. It follows Ove who is intent on taking his life in order to be laid to rest with his life, however, life has other plans for him. At first he seems grumpy and selfish, but bit by bit his heart is opened up to the neighbours and he’s sees there is more to live for. 
• Flood by Stephen Baxter – I’ve never read any Stephen Baxter before but I have to say I quite like it. The writing style was good, with an interesting story of how things would play out if the world had a second flood. It follows a couple of people who were rescued from a group holding them hostage. Throughout the novel the waters gradually rise and at each stage we see how the world is coping with the loss of the land. There is a sequel (Ark) which I would like to read too.
• Blood Music by Greg Bear – I find that I tend to sway more to science fiction than fantasy a lot of the time, which led me to pick this one up from the library. I can’t quite decide how much I liked it, as it was a bit too scientific in places for me to understand fully what was happening. Nonetheless, I did find the story fascinating. 

Phew! That’s a lot of books, although I still have 29 more to before the end of the year. Hopefully I’ll make it and keep you updated this time! I’ve forgone the lucky dip for the moment as my current list consists of a book I’ve borrowed (Clariel by Garth Nix), one I want to lend out (Goldenhand also by Garth Nix), my book club book (Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris), and the last in the Red Rising Trilogy (Morning Star by Pierce Brown). In the meantime, I’ve decided I should start reading the books I’ve been getting in my Fairyloot box, so I’ve started Flame in the Mist (by Renée Ahdieh). I hope it’s good, I’ll let you know.

The Amber Shadows

In just under a week I have managed to finish my next lucky dip pick, The Amber Shadows. This was a random buy from the supermarket and the synopsis sounded interesting enough for me to pick it up. I hoped that this would prove to be an thrilling read full of mystery, espionage and a world wind romance. Sadly, this was not the case. 

I found that I had a very love hate relationship with this book, as the plot was just enough to keep me reading to the end but the writing itself jumped around too much and was really clunky. 

So the plot… The book follows Honey, a typist at Bletchley Park who one evening receives a mysterious package containing a small Amber panel. She receives more of these within a few days and finally sets out to find out where they come from. Now this sounds like an interesting plot, but what follows is actually a far cry from what you expect. She is delivered the first by a guy called Felix Plaidstowe, who appears more frequently throughout the novel, and actually manages to seduce Honey despite having the personality or depth of character of a paper plate. Anyway, Honey first thinks they are coming from her father who we are led to believe escaped to Russia just before she was born, and is smuggling the Amber panels out of the Amber Room and sending them to Honey. She hears that her fantastical idea of who her father is, is far from the truth and runs off to demand the real identity of her father from her mother. The ending is also a bit of a letdown. I don’t want to tell you how it ends but the origin of the Amber was disappointing. I felt that so much effort was put into making Bletchley Park feel real and giving life to what the lifestyle was like that very little effort was put into the journey, how we got there and how it ended. 

As I said before the writing was clunky, and I found that I was told far more than I wanted to know. It also jumped between third and First person quite frequently and went of on a tangent whenever Honey had a thought, which meant you would then get a stream of consciousness from Honey, which again was far more than I was actually interested in. There also were memories thrown in at what seemed the most random points, which made it quite jarring to read. 

Overall, I gave the book 3 stars, as it was obviously interesting enough to get me to read it in less than a week. I wouldn’t say I was hooked but I was definitely intrigued to get to the end and discover where the Amber was coming from. 

So I have made my next picks, from both my ‘to read’ and ‘classic’ mug. As you can see, I picked out the Shrinking Man from my to read jar. This is by Richard Matheson, who wrote I Am Legend (a fantastic read). I also picked North and South for my classic. I am extremely pleased with both of these, but have decided to wait on either and read a book I have had for ages, borrowed from a colleague, called Fishbowl. Until next time…

A Mountain of Music

I love to have music in my day as much as I love to read, and although I hate the time it consumes, my 40 min to an hour commute to work often gives me the right amount of time to enjoy a small portion of the music I own. Although, I’d just like to point out that despite needing to have music in my life, I have no musical talent whatsoever and you will never find me even singing in front of someone else. 

Today the weather here is beautiful blue skies with a refreshingly warm sun, albeit with a bit of a brisk breeze! This is somewhat unusual for where I am as we seem to be forever in a cycle of rain, wind and cold. So with this beautiful weather I felt the need to find some music that matched this feeling of goodness from the sun. Now I have been collecting music for over 10 years and have managed to find room for about 150GB worth. And now I have thousands and thousands of songs I find it harder and harder to decide what to listen to.

I find myself, as probably most of us do, listening to the same songs by the same bands/artists. So maybe I should challenge myself in the same way as I have done for my books. Maybe I should challenge myself to listen to all those artists who have sat in my collection for many years waiting to be heard. 

As a rock chick through and through, although, I do have quite an eclectic mix and will even admit to a secret love of pop music (don’t blame me, the 90s pop was what I grew up on!), this will be interesting to see whether this broadens my taste. The next question is how to go about fulfilling this challenge? I must have hundreds of bands, some with multiple albums. Any suggestions, write them on a postcard! I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

My next lucky dip

These are my three jars (well mugs, but they were all I had to hand at the time!) of lucky dip reading. My unread mug is the fullest and what I hope to be picking from the most. I have a small amount of books I want to re-read, and have separated my classics as I obviously find those more of a challenge. 

I finished Speaker for the Dead yesterday morning and made my next pick from my unread mug and got The Amber Shadows. I purchased this on a whim when I went to Tesco’s, and I’m hoping it will be good. If any one has read it, let me know your thoughts. 

Enders Game & Speaker for the Dead

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t read both of these, come back when you have or continue at your own peril!
So in my quest to read my long standing pile of unread books, I started with a re-read in the hopes it would lead to crossing an unread book off my list. I had just finished reading Far From the Madding Crowd, which although I enjoyed, led me to realise that Classics are not my forte. I picked Enders Game and couldn’t have been happier. If you are not familiar with the book and love science fiction (as I do), I urge you to give it a read. And, although there was a movie a few years ago, the book is far better (as is more often the case). Enders Game follows Andrew ‘Ender’ Wiggen as he is taken from his family and put through Battle School in order to fight for the survival of the human race in the coming war against the Buggers. The writing is excellent as it gives you an insight to Enders brilliant mind, who at 6 years old is humanity’s best hope. Ender is put through a series of tests and mind games to keep him working at the peak of his intelligence, and at the tender age of 11 (or is it 12?) becomes commander of his own group. In the end he does exactly what his superiors were hoping he could do and he wipes out an entire alien species, saving the human race. What he doesn’t realise, however, is that the War was all a misunderstanding. He grieves for the lives he has ended and in an act of redemption writes a book detailing the lives of the Buggers to help everyone else understand the true value of what he has done. 

Speaker for the Dead is a different kind of novel entirely, but puts good use to the brilliance and understanding we saw from Ender in the first book. The Speaker for the Dead is an almost holy presence who can be called to speak for someone following their passing. They find out who the person is, what makes them tick and tells their story as true as can be in all its glory, and sometimes all its darkness. Within the first few chapters a Speaker is requested and Ender just so happens to be the closest one. By the time he reaches the planet requesting his presence, there have been 2 more requests and with 3 deaths to investigate, Ender has his work cut out for him. At its core it is a science fiction novel, there are elements of interstellar travel, alien life and humanity has spread out in all directions to the depths of the universe using fantastical technology. However, the themes that this book investigates are deeper, leaving you to question your own moral grounding. I, for example, loved the idea of having a Speaker for the Dead, someone who would ask the questions needed to understand you. I’m not sure a Speaker would have much to say about me but the idea of hearing the whole of someone’s story and not just the highlights would give more to those grieving. There is a religious presence throughout the book, but it also explores how different belief systems can work together to overcome any obstacle. 

The Speaker for the Dead did take me much longer to read (partly due to the significantly smaller font) but it had me just as gripped as Enders Game. There are many more books following Ender and even some that follow other characters in parallel storylines. Whether I’ll read these, I don’t know. The opinions of the others seem to be mixed and I’m not sure I want to taint my love of the novels by adding lesser books into the mix. Either way, I hope you enjoyed these books as much as I did.

The first of many

My most passionate conquest currently is to overcome the mountain of books that have been sat in my room for many years, waiting for their chance in the limelight. So in a challenge to overcome this, 3 lucky dip jars were created containing unread, classic, and re-read slips of paper. I am hoping in time I will pick up those that have stood unread the longest and find delight in long overlooked reads. The start has been satisfying, picking a re-read I loved as much the second time as I did the first, and led to a first time read of the fantastic sequel. I hope the rest to be as good as these, and I hope the purchases made on a whim, or by being seduced by the cover lead to some hidden gems. In short, wish me luck on this long journey to conquer the mountain!