Okay, so I didn't finish this book. I don't know if it's just that I'm not in the right mood for it or what but I just found that I wasn't as sucked into the story as I'd hoped I'd be.The premise sounds great and the protagonist Winnie is pretty cool - a foster kid with psychosomatic visual problems, she sees her world in blurry shades of grey. And yet I just couldn't seem to keep track of what was going on. I felt almost as though I'd stepped into the middle of an on-going series and I should already know what Winnie's visions were about and what kind of supernatural being Jace was. I'm guessing all this stuff will become clear as the plot progresses but I'm a need-to-know-now kind of gal and I like things to at least make a little bit of sense to me.I probably would have been more inspired to keep reading if the book had been more thoroughly edited. As it stands, I'd say that it could probably do with at least another proof-read and redraft. There were multiple grammar and syntax errors and sentences that didn't make sense. I almost began to get a sense of how it must feel to be dyslexic and have the words seemingly re-arrange themselves on the page.I think my gay-ness may have also got in the way of me enjoying this book more. I'll admit that I kind of got fed up of hearing about how fit Jace is, about his muscles and the fact that he wasn't wearing a shirt. Don't get me wrong, heterosexuality in fiction is not a problem for me but I found it irritating in this case (kind of like the whole topless Jacob thing in the Twilight books...).Anyway, it's not that this is a bad book. It's just that it's not my kind of book. I'll probably re-visit it in the future with fresh eyes and a clear mind and see how it goes because despite how I feel I really do want to find out what's going on with Jace and the big guy that follows him round.
This might possibly be my favourite read of this year so far. 'Sing You Home' is the first of Jodi Picoult's novels that I've read, she's just not a writer who is on my radar, you know? But a couple of months ago two of the women I work with were discussing this novel and the subject seemed close to my heart. And so I tracked down a copy and put it straight on my must-read list. I expected to leave it languishing on my bookcase, un-read for months but the subject matter just kept calling to me and I couldn't resist starting it. And I'm so, so glad that I did.
Music therapist, Zoe Baxter is desperate for a baby. It's the one thing she has always known will make her feel complete. And yet she has struggled through fertility problems, failed IVF, miscarriages and stillbirth. When Max, her husband of nine years divorces her, citing irreconcilable differences as the cause for the dissolving of their commitment to each other, Zoe is distraught. Her whole life has been turned upside down and she doesn't know how she is going to start over.
Until she meets Vanessa, a Guidance Counselor at the local High School. First as friends and then as lovers, Zoe and Vanessa can't imagine life without each other. They are the missing parts of each other. And yet there's only one thing missing in their perfect relationship. A child. Three frozen embryos left over from Zoe and Max's last round of IVF could hold the answer to fulfilling Zoe's dream of motherhood. But when your ex-husband has joined a gay-bashing Evangelical church, how do you convince him to let you raise his un-born child with your new lesbian wife?
Jodi Picoult immerses her reader in a world where being who you are means being hated, where falling in love can mean changing your whole perspective on life and your identity. She opens up the hidden world of the lesbian marriage and lets those on the outside see just how difficult it can be when your lifestyle will never be the accepted norm. She paints a tale of two very strong women, fighting for justice, for the family that others would deny them. And she doesn't hold any punches.
This novel had me close to tears at so many points. Not only did I identify with Zoe and Vanessa on such a personal level, but I also had a strong connection with the character of Lucy, a suicidal, depressed teen who Vanessa and Zoe are trying to save, to turn around through guidance and music.
There's something for everyone in this book and I swear you'd have to have a heart of stone if the story didn't resonate on some level, didn't bring a tear to your eye or a gasp to your throat at some point. I'll definitely be checking out more of Jodi Picoult's books in the future.
5/5
It’s such a dangerous place to be! Inside my mind. It flips and turns like the waves of the sea. It is sometimes gentle but other times it’s like the sharpest rocks from the bottom find me and hurt me. They prick at the skin.
~ Hannah Dee
I'll admit that I skimmed over some of the poetry in this book. Not because it wasn't good but simply because poetry wasn't the reason for me reading this book. After being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, I found myself in a strange position. I felt as though nobody could understand the pain I was feeling and the random thoughts that haunted my mind. It was scary.Discovering this memoir made me realize that I'm not alone, that there are others out there suffering with the same disorder. It made me feel understood. As I read, I found myself highlighting passages that specifically resonated with me. I was nodding along with what I was reading, sure that Hannah Dee had read my mind before writing this book. I felt such a connection with what she said that I could hardly believe it.This is a must read for any BPD sufferer or indeed their partner, parent or friend. It's a journey into the dark mind of the disorder. It's painful yet passionate and I know I'll be keeping it to hand to re-visit whenever I feel myself slipping.
I love Vampires. I'll read pretty much any novel that features those creepy blood-sucking monsters that sneak around at night and feast on helpless virgins. But, I have to admit I do prefer the traditional Stoker-esque Vampire to the sparkle-in-the-sun Twilight version. Which is probably why ''Salem's Lot' by Stephen King is one of my all-time favourite reads.
'Salem's Lot has never really been the quiet, peaceful town passers by would think it to be. There is a hint of darkness behind the town's picturesque facade. There is the mother who beats her baby and lies to her husband about how the injuries were sustained, there's the gossips who listen in on other's phone-calls and spy on their neighbours with much-used binoculars. There is the decidedly twisted school bus driver who likes to leave kids stranded four miles from home and the school bully who presides over the school yard like some crazy dictator. But the biggest darkness that hangs over 'Salem's Lot is the Marsten House, the crumbling un-inhabitable Mansion that watches over the town, whose tale is a ghost story to scare children with. The Marsten House was the scene of a murder-suicide that the town has never fully recovered from and that eveyone has a story about.
Ben Mears, disillusioned writer and ex-Salem's Lot inhabitant has his own story about the Marsten House, his own childhood memory that haunts his adult dreams. After the death of his girlfriend, he finds himself returning to the town he lived in as a child, hoping that something there will spark his creativity and help him write his next best-seller. But he finds more than he expected.
Around the same time that Ben arrives in 'Salem's Lot, so do Barlow and Straker, antiques dealers who have taken over an empty store to set up business and also, bizarrely, have bought the old Marsten House. Antique dealers are harmless, right? But it's a strange coincidence that not long after their arrival in town, one young boy goes missing and his brother dies of anaemia. And that's just the start of Salem's Lot's unraveling.
As more and more of 'Salem's Lot's citizens begin to suffer strange flu-like symptoms before dying several days later, Ben bands together with several other unlikely heroes - an aging English teacher, an alcoholic Priest, a doctor and a 12 year old schoolboy - to solve the mystery of the Marsten House's new owners and just what exactly they are doing to their town.
I adore this novel, I really do. The characters are so real, so believable. And it's just creepy enough that it stays in your thoughts when you're no longer reading it. It's typical Stephen King in the sense that it shifts from point of view to point of view (most fascinatingly in this particular novel, the perspective of the town itself). He builds the atmosphere and tension slowly and steadily, creeping to a startling crescendo, giving you time to identify with the characters and really begin to care for them before he puts their lives in peril. And you know, Stephen King takes that whole "kill your darlings" adage seriously, which is probably another reason I love his novels so much - he's not afraid. He does what's necessary. He's a cruel and unjust god to the creatures of his imagination. And it makes him a much better writer than those who aren't.
This book is up there with Dracula as a must-read for anybody who thinks they know the Vampire canon. King taps into the old mythologies and even references Stoker's work in his own. A fantastic, creepy, thrill of a read. I'd recommend it to everyone.
5/5
I've acquired several new books in the last week. It's pretty bad that I own so many un-read books and yet can't resist buying more. Oh well... Four of them were Birthday presents so that doesn't really count. Right?
'Beautiful Darkness', 'Beautiful Chaos' and 'Beautiful Redemption' were Birthday gifts from my parents. I read the first in the series a little while ago and I'm super excited to read the rest of the series.
'Homonculus' was a Birthday present from my friend Stacey who always knows exactly what books I love. I can't wait to get stuck into this one.
I've been after 'The Panopticon' and 'The Silver Linings Playbook' for a while now and couldn't resist buying them on a Buy One Get One Half Price offer in Waterstones. And while I was there I found 'Intrusion' and 'The Girl on the Stairs' equally irresistible. Plus they were on the same offer. A bargain really. And bought with Birthday money so that doesn't really count either.
'Whit Horse' was a bargain £1.95 in my local Tesco store. And it looks brilliant.
Anyway, that's a little peak at the new additions to my bookcase.
Have you bought any interesting books lately?
Firstly - Oh. My. God!
I read this novel in what was literally one sitting - several hours curled up on the sofa unable to release the book from my death-grip. When my partner came home from work, I carried on reading, practically ignoring her until I'd turned the last page.
Emily is... well actually there are two Emily's. There is the Emily that the tabloids have declared Evil and there's the Emily who pours out her heart in a diary night after night as she attempts to come to terms with what she has done.
Emily is a resident of the Psychiatric wing of Archway Young Offender's Institute. She is awaiting trial but everybody knows who she is and for Emily there's no doubt that she is guilty. The daughter of infamous London Gangster, Harry Koll, everybody is scared of Emily. And with reason. She was the one who ruined a girl. She is the one who did something 'Evil' and unforgiving purely to destroy 16 year old Juliet, the girl who stabbed her father.
Through a notebook found in one of the rooms after the Institute was closed, we get the chance to see into the crumbling mind of Emily as she pieces together her story, the fragmented reality of how she ended up behind bars.
The tabloids have labelled Emily Evil, the product of a Mobster family. But until the night Juliet stabbed Emily's father in self-defense after he'd murdered her own father, Emily had no idea that her dad was more than a mechanic. The tabloids however, would never print the story of how her whole world tumbled down around her ears that night, how her innocent eyes were opened to her father's murderous ways. The tabloids and the public only want to see what Emily did to hurt Juliet.
Tanya Byrne opens up the world of a Young Offenders Institute and candidly shows us the inside of a mind struggling to grasp the pain she has caused and the pain she is feeling.
We're not supposed to like Emily so much as come to understand her. But as I was reading I grew fond of this tortured teenager and wanted her to find some kind of personal resolution. I wanted her to find hope.
It probably helped that I saw a lot of myself in Emily. I don't mean that I'm capable of the things Emily did. It's just that so much of what she thinks and feels resonated with me. I wish I'd had this book as a teen. It's up there with 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' in terms of gripping, heart-wrenching, compulsive reading. I adored it.
5/5
14. 'A Conspiracy of Alchemists' by Liesel Schwarz: [4/5] A fantastic mix of Urban Fantasy and Steampunk. The beginning of what looks set to be a brilliant series.
15. 'Abandon' by Meg Cabot: [4/5] After a brush with death a teenage girl gets mixed up in an underworld she never knew existed.
16. 'Carrie' by Stephen King: [4/5] A tale of High School Horror as a teenage girl gets revenge on the bullies that have made her life hell.
Not a great achievement this month. I kind of got lost with stuff going on in the real world and failed to visit the fictional worlds that I love so much. I'm ploughing myself back into books in April and hopefully I'll have a better reading round-up for you next time.
