Belated World Book Day "classics" recommendations

Although it has been a few days since world book day I wanted to post a quick few suggestions for anyone wanting a great read, wether a classic classic or contemporary!

Rebecca -Daphne deMaurier
Wuthering heights
Pride and prejudice
Jane Eyre
Lord of the flies
Handmaids tale
Kite Runner
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Harry Potter (if you haven't read this, you must)
Phillipa Gregory books

A review of reviews of books 1 and 2 of the All Souls Trilogy (Deborah Harkness)

I have been wanting to blog about the first two books of Harkness' All Souls Trilogy for some time now, but I got distracted doing uni paperwork, family visits and things, so now I am not really sure if I could remember enough to structure a whole blog post of original content...
SOLUTION! I am reading reviews on each of the books and am going to comment on points which i strongly agree/disagree with.

Book 1
Jenny Turner for The Guardian (February 2011)
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/12/discovery-witches-deborah-harkness-review

"As will be obvious by now, this is a very silly novel. Characters and relationships are stereotyped. The historical background is a total pudding. The prose is terrible. And yet, the ideas have just enough suction, somehow, to present an undemanding reader with some nice frissons."

Obviously, as a large fan of these books someone saying that it is a very silly novel was a little hurtful. I am not sure what she means about characters and relationships being sterotyped, however it does bring me to the twilight-esque nature of the relationship between the main characters... Matthew is very protective over Diana much like Edward is over Bella. In Harkness' books however she does give a valid reason for his protectiveness (given after a large section of the story, but better than none at all). I also like the Diana seems a lot less helpless than Bella does.
I'm not sure about the historical background as I do not claim to be an expert on that time period, but I think what Turner has failed to understand is that what makes historical fiction so great is the ability to take real events and personalities and mold them to fit your story so that it feels like it really happened that way. I don't think the point of a historical novel is to be 100% accurate...

I liked, for example, the way Diana tries to sublimate her magic powers in running and rowing and doing yoga

Also a big fan of this, it seems to be something not really addressed in other books with magic in (that I've read anyway). Many talk about the dangers of using too much magic, but none talk about how to deal with excess magic which remains in your system. This was really great to see.

But think about it: a history professor dropping scholarly research for toshy fantasy. Some actions really do speak louder than words.

This is just a bit harsh really! I think Harkness is just trying to combine two things she really loves...

Book 2
Sherryl Connelly for New York Daily News (July 2012)
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/book-review-shadow-night-deborah-harkness-article-1.1103095

"“Shadow of Night” is such rich, period fun, particularly delightful in its witty characterization of historical immortals. William Shakespeare, for instance, trails “Kit” Marlowe begging for ideas while making his living as a forger."

I've got to say that I really did love the historical element of the second novel. And getting someone's take on the characterisation and behaviours of historical individuals was really fun.


Margot Adler for NPR Books
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/10/155358905/witches-sequel-casts-a-complex-spell 

The book is too complex at times, with so many characters, although anyone with a huge interest in Shakespearean England will find a host of fascinating details and descriptions.

I did find it a little complex at times, but it wasn't to such an extreme extent that it disrupted from the flow of reading. It really did feel like I had been plunged into Elizabethan England with the pair of them!

Dump a book!

I used to give up on reading books all of the time, but I found that once I had given up on a book, I was never willing to go back and have another try. So naturally when my interest in John Grisham's 'The Appeal' dwindled, I was determined to keep on with it and get to the end.

However, I found that after 120 pages I did not look forward to picking up the book at lunch time out in the garden with the dogs, and, honestly, really didn't care about the outcome of the book (except on moral grounds!).

I have read Grisham before ('The Client' and 'The Rainmaker') and his writing style was gripping and I felt for the characters. However, this book just really did not do it for me, so I have decided to give up on it - which I do feel a little guilty for.

I have decided now that unless it is a classic or a 'must read' book, it definitely makes more sense to dump a book rather than continue in an indifferent relationship with it (corny, I know!)

Since giving up on this book a few days ago I have moved on to 'A Discovery of Witches' by Deborah Harkness, which is AMAZING... I look forward to reading it, and blogging about it very soon!

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The Kingmaker's Daughter by Phillipa Gregory (and other Cousin's War books!)

Ok, so Phillipa Gregory is a wonderful writer. One of my A Level English Lit teachers really wasn't a fan and told me I should move onto more literary historic fiction like Jean Plaidy (I haven't got around to it yet...). But I still think that Phillipa's books are fabulous!

The Kingmaker's Daughter is the third of 5 in the Cousin's War series of books all about the Plantagenets, the royal family before the Tudors, and the key female 'leaders' of their reign. I had been wanting to read this series for a while, but then I saw a trailer for the BBC drama so decided that I really needed to read 'The White Queen' before it came on TV; thankfully my sister had given it to me a year or so previously, so it was already sitting, waiting on my bookshelf. It read fantastically well and was so compelling. I really love the way that Gregory uses real events and uses both historical resources and a little artistic licence to make a novel out of something real. True to expectations; the two are practically disentangleable (apart from points she makes in her afterword of course).

Obviously, as a woman herself, and a historian with such particular interest in strong women at that time of English History, her books were historically believable. What I am finding so incredible about reading the series is how they all tell the same story, yet reading them all is not repetitive or boring. Each novel of the series (that I have read so far...) are based around the same main events *SPOILERS* the overthrow of various kings, the birth of babies, exiles, battles etc. But what Gregory does so well is starting and ending each novel at the point which is relevant for each protaginist. She also does well to include different historic viewpoints about the Plantagenets through her different lead females; for example the mystery of the boys in the tower, where Gregory presents the various historical views as rumours from different sides (or indeed, the viewpoints come from these rumours... who can be sure?!)

So, having read books 1-3 and owning book 4, I imagine I will be reading The Lady of the Rivers some time soon, and very much look forward to it. Then all that remains is to treat myself to The White Princess (book 5).

This didn't turn out so much to be about The Kingmaker's Daughter, but rather the series and Gregory's accuracies, but oh well! Enjoy.

Happy Reading :)

Finishing the final book in the series

As promised, I am blogging about this. It will probably be a short one and I'm not going to go over this post because I have SO much uni work going on at the moment, but I am trying to blog regularly because... well just to do something else I guess!

When I said that I would be blogging about finishing that final book in a series, I mainly had in mind the book 'The Traitor Queen' by Trudi Canavan (http://www.trudicanavan.com/books/), which is not only the end of a trilogy,  but the end of a sequel trilogy. So after 5 other books set in this world, with the same family as the core protagonists, I was massively upset that it had to end, especially when Trudi announced that there would be no more novels set in the fantasy land of Kyralia.

BUT I had that conflict inside me: read the book quickly to find out how the characters pan out and where they end up, who wins, who dies, VS no! read it slowly then it won't end.

Given that I read it after my January exams, as a reward for my hard work and lack of reading at easter, I ended up reading it ridiculously quickly... and I was sad, but at the same time it is an incredible experience. With any good book I feel like I'm 'consuming' the whole world its set in at an alarming rate, but with the end book of a series, it always gets taken to a whole new level.

I wonder if I'm the only one who reads the closing part of a series much faster than the other parts....?

Happy reading
Grace

Just a quick one

I just wanted to take a moment to share a wonderful quote from tumblr

“Some books are so familiar that reading them is like returning home again.”

—	Jo March, Little Women

Books, series, worlds, authors. Familiarity is just as good as pushing yourself into a new world.

Happy reading,
I'm back when I get around to finishing my book!
Grace xxx

Apologies for my absence!

Hello all (or any...),

I have been away from blogging for a long time, so I figured it was time to come back to give me something outside of Uni work to get on with!

Hopefully coming soon:

• Why deviating from your standard genres can be a valuable literate experience
• Finishing the final book in the series
• Starting the first book in the series (!)
• My top authors and books (various genres)

So that's what you have to look forward to over the next few months as I struggle along with Year One, Semester Two of Geography here at Hull Uni!

Much love and happy reading,

No place better to get lost than in a book.

Grace xx