Follow Friday :)

Follow Friday time again :) This months question is: Define what characteristics your favorite books share. Do they all have a kick ass heroine or is the hot love interest the Alpha Male?



Answer: It's all about the characters for me. The writing quality and style, the setting, the storyline, the dialogue etc etc yes of course it's all important but I have to really engage with the characters. If there are brilliant characters then I can forgive problems in any other area. I don't necessarily have to like or love the characters, some of my favourite books have characters I cannot STAND - it's more that I have to feel some kind of emotional connection to the characters, they have to be interesting,  complex, fully fleshed, out, believable people that could exist. The best books for me have characters I wish were real as I'd love nothing better than to meet them to find out even more about them, and what makes them tick.

It's the characters that I'll always remember from my favourite books, above anthing else, and it's them that keep me reading and engaged, they completely make or break or book. If I feel nothing but... meh towards the characters then the book has no chance of making it to my favourites list. This could be a controversial opinion but it's discovering new characters that's at the heart of why I am and always will be a book lover and feel joy upon starting a new book.

Heather xx

The Kite Runner: My Thoughts...

 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Story:

The story follows the life of our protagonist Amir, a rich boy from Kabul in Afghanistan, throughout his life. He is best friends as a boy with his servant Hassan, but their friendship sees some dark moments. Later on in his life, Amir is forced to move to America with his father and starts a new life there, only to return yet more years later, haunted by his past, his mission to save Hassan’s son Sohrab from some really awful circumstances in order to redeem himself for his betrayal of Hassan as a boy.

My Thoughts:

This is actually a book I had on my shelf for months before reading it. A friend lent it to me and told me it was fantastic, but for some reason, I couldn’t summon up the enthusiasm to pick it up. But I couldn’t be gladder that I did in the end! It was such an amazing experience, to read a book set in a completely different culture, that I previously knew absolutely nothing about and to then become so immersed in it. Of course I can’t know that it was actually an accurate representation, but I think I got a real feel for a whole different way of life. This book is probably nearly unique in the way it portrays an afghan culture to a western audience. It highlights the differences between the two cultures perfectly, when Amir and his father move to America.

The story is one that really touched my heart. I felt for the characters more than I usually do, which is saying something and they felt like real people to me. I liked how Amir as the main character wasn’t perfect and faultless as some main characters can be. He was a coward and he let down his best friend so deeply that I wanted to travel through the pages to get through to him and make him change his actions. But he acted as many human beings would, and it had to happen that way, for this is a story about cowardice and bravery, friendship and betrayal, right and wrong, guilt and redemption and the nature of evil. One of the key scenes early on in the book is horrific on a number of levels, so be warned, but again it’s crucial to the story.

The story is split into three parts and it’s the last third which is the most heartbreaking, as Amir attempts to make amends by saving Hassan’s son. I don’t feel he ever got the redemption he was seeking but I was so glad this very sad book ended on a hopeful note, and I like to think of the characters who are left alive, living happily ever after.

In a Nut Shell:

I really, really love this book. I don’t think ‘enjoyed’ is the right term for this book as at its core this book a truly sad story. But it’s a powerful story and one that will always stay with me, beautifully written and incredibly thought provoking. It also portrays the differences between two very different cultures. I would recommend it whole heartedly to anyone!

Heather xx

Follow Friday: Music! :D

Hello Lovelies <3

I haven't blogged much in a while, but I thought I'd join in with Follow Friday again this week- only to find out it's now a monthly thing! But last weeks question turns out to be perfect, as I was considering doing a post about music already, since I've been busy spending my chirstmas itunes vouchers today, and deciding which artists and which songs I liked enough to buy. Not that I want to buy the artist themselves! So, it's not last Friday, but is a Friday, so I shall answer anyway :P
Follow Friday is a blog hop posted by  Parajunkee’s View and  Alison Can Read.

This weeks (last weeks) question is: Many readers/bloggers are also big music fans. Tell us about a few of your favorite bands/singers that we should listen to in 2012.


Some singers/groups I've loved for a long time include: Muse, Paramore, Tokio Hotel. Plain White T's, Kate Bush, Taylor Swift, Ellie Goulding, Adele and Lady Gaga. However, I've recently been looking for some new artists (well new to me) by looking at some friends blogs and looking up the soundtracks to tv shows when I hear a song I like... and  there are several female artists,whose music I'm loving and listening to all the time at the moment, so see if you like them too:

Christina Perri





Ingrid Michaelson




Kate Walsh





Agnes Obel





Gabrielle Aplin: who I am going to see in March!





Oh and I also have to reccomend 'Silently' a charity single by a friend of mine Chlay, an ME sufferer like myself, although much more severely affected than me. This single is raising money for the ME association, Chlay's really talented and so it's a beautiful song, you can buy it for 79p from itunes and it's for a good cause, so please do listen and buy it if you like it!





I have posts coming up on the Kite Runner and the Little House, and then hopefully in the not too distant future the Hunger Games and Catcher in the Rye, so keep an eye out for those if you're interested.

Love to all

Heather xx

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Story

Good-natured Mole makes friends with a rat named Ratty and they live happily by a river. Ratty’s mischevious friend Toad causes lots of trouble and together with their serious friend badger they have to get him out of scrapes. Toad escapes them however and ahs some adventures on his own before returning- and since this is a classic children’s book I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say they all lived happily ever after!

My thoughts

At the end of the day this is a book aimed at young children so all the criticisms I have aren’t really fair and are only because I’m reading it as a teenager! But I’ll share my thoughts anyway... I was fine with the animals talking and being intelligent, that’s all well and good... and even animals dressing in human clothes, eating human food including tinned sardines and furnishing their houses...  I can even cope with that- but an animal interacting with humans who don’t bat an eyelid at talking animals and can even be fooled into thinking a toad is actually an old lady- that’s just too far! :P  And since mole being called mole since he is one and toad being  called toad because he is one is just ridiculous- does every other toad and mole have the same name? How confusing! But anyway, my only non jokey criticism is I found that not enough actually happened in this book, there was a lot of dialogue and some chapters exploring emotions which I liked but it just felt like too much of it was very slow paced- although there were some faster moving sections involving toad.

However on the positive side, I loved the characters and they’re really memorable and loveable... mole is so adorable and I even have a soft spot for toad, as conceited as he is- he reminds me a little of someone I know and love actually! I also love how emotions are explored in some of the chapters and prefer these chapters more than those focusing on toad’s adventures.

In a nutshell...

This is wonderful classic children’s book, I would 100% recommend it to anybody 12 or under. If you’re over that age I’d still recommend it, it’s a quick, funny read that could take you back to your childhood J It’s obviously not aimed at you and you’ll have to get past the talking animals but you may find you enjoy it- I did!

Heathere xx

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest: My thoughts

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Story
This novel is set in a mental institution in America in the 60’s. The narrator ‘Chief’ Bromden is a Native American confined the ward, who pretends to be deaf and mute. The ward is run by Nurse Ratched who the Chief views as ruthless and mechanical and represents order and control. The patients on the ward are split into ‘Acutes’ who are there to be treated and eventually return to normal society, and ‘chronics’ who will be in hospital forever.

A new patient, McMurphy, who represents anarchy and freedom, is introduced early on in the book: he claims to be a psychopath but his behaviour shows he is in fact perfectly sane. He is faking insanity in order to serve a prison sentence in more comfortable surroundings. Through the Chief’s eyes we see McMurphy quickly become the leader of the group and see the battle of wills begin between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy. There is conflict between the two characters throughout the novel as McMurphy attempts to weaken Nurse Ratched’s fierce control of the word and this escalates to a shocking ending.

My Thoughts
I found this a hard book to get into, I didn’t ever fully relate to the Chief- which at first is because I didn’t understand what was going on. I completely missed the point that when things get scary for him his subconscious imagines fog everywhere and he stops being able to see and hear, it’s his way of hiding from the world, the fog is also a metaphor for his mental clarity... but I thought originally that the nurses were literally pumping the ward full of fog -and couldn’t for the life of me figure out why! :P  I also failed to realise that he had hallucinations so when an air raid took place in the ward I was most confused :P But  presuming that you’ve got more brains than me and don’t make the same mistake you may well find it easier to understand what’s actually happening!

However once I’d got past my misunderstandings, I still didn’t quite empathise with any characters or care much about their fate, something was missing to me.The story was interesting and I kept reading but I wasn’t hooked, I could quite easily put it down and go to bed, it’s not a book that would keep me up reading into the early hours at all. I didn’t really relate or empathise with any of the characters, I don’t know why... perhaps because it’s all from the chief’s rather strange point of view, even once I had a grasp of how his mind worked I was always struggling to work out what was the reality, and what was his projections. I think that the chief is supposed to be unreliable as a narrator and as the reader you should look to McMurphy who is the only sane patient but for me it was just too much effort to read a book narrated by somebody who struggles to hold on to reality for the majority of the story.

However it is a book with deeper meaning, if you give a little time and have the desire to think thought it all, it raises big questions and explores important themes and issues. I think it has the potential to be a book I’ll come back to and get more from the second time round.

In a Nutshell...
This is a book that I’m glad I’ve read now that I’ve finished it but I didn’t particularly enjoy reading and to be honest I doubt I’d ever recommend it to a friend. But at the same time I do strongly  feel it could just be me, it seemed to have the ingredients of a really good book with many layers to it, so it is most likely a much better book than I’m giving it credit for.

Heather xx

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray... My thoughts

I wan't  impressed by this book I have to say...I really enjoyed the first in the series, looked forward to the second, was a bit dissapointed, semi looked forward to the third... and was simply unimpressed with it. I felt the first book in the trilogy, A Great and Terrible Beauty was a fantastic read and built up the potential for such a good trilogy but it just didn't happen.

It had been a long time since I'd read the first or second book, but I presumed I didn't need to re-read them-to understand the third- big mistake. The 'magic' and the 'realms' in this book simply weren't explained at any point, I couldn't remember how it all worked and was hoping in the first few chapters that it would be re-explained but it never was, in fact there was barely any summary of the first two book at all which I feel massively let the book down. I would need to have the prequels fresh in my mind to understand 3/4 of what happened, it seemed to flow straight on from the previous book but gave zero mention to any events that has already happened, so I was struggling to remember what had happened and who all the characters were. I was just confused and subsequently irritated throughout the magority of the book.

Not only this, but anything new wasn't made at all clear either. There was a very confusing storyline based around 'The tree of all souls' which frankly I just didn't understand, it simply wasn't explained. I also felt the story dragged on far too much and just wasn't interesing enough. The only few things I was interested in weren't explored in enough depth, in my opinion. Namely, the relationship between Gemma and Kartick and the revealed relationship between Pippa and Felicity- this could have been such an interesting area to explore, sexuality in the very constrained setting of the victorian finishing school where 'young ladies' had to conform to the expectations of society- but oh no, it was just glossed over and Gemma hardly seemed affected. If I discovered two of my friends been having a secret relationship I know I'd have more to say!

Overall, I didn't enjoy this at all, between the prequels not being summarised, nothing new being explained and the story dragging on and on and on, I was just put in a bit of a bad mood every time I picked the book up. I kept on hoping it would get better but it never did. When I got to the end- which in tune with the rest of the book, made no sense to me- I was just extremely glad to banish it to the back of my mind, return it to the library and never pick it up again.

Sorry not to have reviewed this very well, I realise it's more of a rant than a review, in my defense, I couldn't summarise the story even if I wanted to, I couldn't for the life of me, give you any indication of what on earth was going on. I'd be interested to hear anyone else's opinion though as I'm wondering if it's just me, I very rarely dislike books so much and don't think I've ever told anyone not to bother with a book (with the exception of Just in Case!) but that's what I'm saying here, it didn't feel worth the effort of reading.

Heather xx

Follow Friday: My First :D

Feature and Follow Friday is a blog hop hosted by http://www.parajunkee.com/ - a fantastic blog! I'm really excited to be joining in :) However, I've not figured out how it works yet myself so can't explain how to join in-this post may not work in fact :P You'll have to visit to find out more!

This Week's Question: Let's step away from besties...What is the worst book that you've ever read and actually finished?

I love this question! Without a question of a doubt my answer is Just In Case by Meg Rosoff. I read this book several years ago as a year nine student taking part in my school's Carnegie Shadowing Club.... and I absolutely couldn't stand it... at all... not one single page. I finished it as I have a big thing about finishing books and never giving up on them however rubbish they seem- of course also wanted to earn the six house points available for finishing all six books on the carnegie shortlist :P

 I can't honestly say I remember why I hated it I just thought it was awful, as did the majority of the shadowing club. I was gutted when it won :( This is pretty much the only book I've ever hated as I tend to get some enjoyment out of any book I read even when it's not quite cup of tea- as is the case with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest which I've nearly finished and will be reviewing soon :)

Heather xx

Captain Corelli: My Thoughts

Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres

This book was nothing like I expected it would be, I have to say. My preconception was that it was a straightforward love story which isn't the case at all. Love is certainly a theme but there is a much bigger theme of war throughout the book and in many ways Captain Correlli and Pelagia are but minor characters. This isn't a bad thing however, it is much more than a love story and I was glad it was, although I felt the love story itself was beautiful. Overall this book was actually much better than I had anticiapted it to be!

The Story

There is a mix of true political history and then the ficticious story of characters lving through this period of history.Throughout the book there is commenty on the nature of war and of facism and communism which are portrayed as bad as each other. We are taken through the decision process in some of the leaders heads, these decisions have huge effects on the lives and deaths of the ordinary people in the novel which they failed to fully consider.

Captain Corelli is an Italian soldier posted to occupy the greek Island of Cephallonia, where a beautiful young girl Pelagia- which I have no idea how to pronounce :P- lives with her father Dr Iannis. She had been engaged to Mandras, a handsome young fisherman in her village but he goes away to fight in the war, not replying to her love letters and she falls out of love very quickly once he has left.
She and Corelli slowly fall in love, a much stronger beautiful love, but they cannot openly be together as they are on different sides of the war. Does their love survive the war and do they live happily ever after- you'll have to read the book to find out :P

There is another smaller story within this book- the story that captured my heart, which is about a character named Carlo. He experiences much inner turmoil and never felt he fitted in anywhere because of his secret- that he is gay. He joins the army and falls in love with a young soldier named Francis, only to tragically have hime die in his arms. He is then posted to Cephallonia with Correlli, falling in love with him and eventually choosing to make the ultimate sacrifice.


Any Negatives?
If I were to be really picky there were a few things I could mention that I personally didn't like about ths book. As a rule I really enjoy books where each chapter is from the viewpoint of a different character or follows a different character, I really love it when severa of the charcters have real depth, not just a few. But somehow in this case I didn't like how this it done. I felt it followed too many characters, some very briefly with only a chapter or two based on them where I would have preffered many more about them or none at all. I would have liked more chapters following Carlo but really that's just becasue he was my favourite character!

I also didn't like how obviously Pelagia and Mandris's love was purely lust based. I realise that it was meant to contrast with the much genuine ever lasting love between Pelagia and her father and Pelagia and Corelli but I thought it was far too obvious from the start that there's was a not a love that would make it and was clearly shallow, I would have liked it to perhaps appear more real.

The only part of this book I didn't enjoy was the laast few chapters. After the war had ended, Pelagias life over the next several decades is played out very quicklywith characters rapidly introduced such as her grandson or son in law, who I really don't feel are gicen the chance to develop in any way and didn't feel to me like fully fleshed out characters if that makes sense? I just felt like I was struggling to keep up with the pace which was fairly slow throughout the book and suddenly sped up to a crazy speed where years and years were going by with each turn of the page!


 Parts that stood out?
Chapter One was actually one of my favourite's, it successfully drew me in and the story of the pea stuck in the old man's ear had me laughing hysterically- this could just be my odd sense of humour but  defy you not ti chuckle at it :P

The death of Francis and the reactio of Carlo was the part of the book that tore at my heart strings the most , it was so emotional and sad, it had me crying my eyes out, i felt for Carlo so much and wanted to travel through the pages to comfort him.

The massacre of the Italian Soldiers wasn't enjoyable to read as such, but it was well written and one of the most emotional, tragic parts of the book, made worse because it was based on truth. It's certainly a scene that sticks in my mind after finishing the novel.

And of course the words of Dr Ianis to his daughter, about the nature of love, that are read at many weddings today were nothing but beautiful :)

In a Nutshell
I really enjoyed this book and how it portrayed how political history has such a profound effect on the lives of individuals.The best thing about Captain Correlli's Mandolin in my opinion is how it could swing from being laugh out funny to desperately tragic so quickly. There was so much humour in this book, often a dry sattical humour which often seamlessly led into the sad and bleak scenes. At the end of the day this book made me chuckle and laugh and made me cry- at the death of Frances and the death of Carlo, and this is the most I can ask from a book, it drew me into it's world enough to make me really believe in the characters and cry at their losses. If anyone hasn't read this book, then my advice is to drop what you're doing and head straight to your nearest library, this is a must-read!


Has anybody else read this book or want to? What are your thoughts?

Heather xxx