May TBR

** Before I start this post I just want to remind all of my UK readers that the general election is being held on Thursday. Please, please vote. If you're not sure on who to vote for this is a really good site which separates policies from parties. This is an excellent series by Jazza giving reasons to vote for each of the major political parties. This is his wrap up video, which I urge you to watch even if you don't have the time to watch any of the others **

Term has officially ended for me, which means I finally get to read purely for pleasure. Because neither of the modules I took this year had books to read I have painfully behind on my 50 books goal, so I'm hoping to get back on track over the next couple of months. According to GoodReads I'm currently 9 books behind schedule, so this is going to be a pretty ambitious TBR in order to begin to get me back on track.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche - I'm actually 300 pages into this already, having started it in February. I'm loving it so far and can't wait to get stuck back in.

This is a story about a woman who moves from Nigeria to America and back again. It's really rather good!

S by J.J Abrams and Doug Dorst - Another book that I'm part of the way through. This book is seriously incredible, but it's such a time consuming read considering it's two stories simultaneously.

Story A is about a man who wakes up and doesn't know where he is and is written by a fictional author. Story B is the annotations of two people researching Story A. It contains loads of little pieces of paper and notes scribbled on napkins - it's really cool!

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer - I've heard mixed reviews about this, but it sounds really interesting so I'm hoping I'll enjoy it!

'I'll tell you what happened because it's a good way to introduce my brother... in a couple of pages he'll be dead, and he was never the same after that'

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North -  This book sounds so intriguing so I can't wait to get stuck in!

'As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. "I nearly missed you, Doctor August," she says. "I need to send a message."'

Stardust by Neil Gaiman - I got this book free on kindle not long back, and I love the film, so I'm hoping for good things! I've got a mixed relationship with Mr Gaiman, but I've got my fingers crossed. This is also the only book I don't have a picture of because my Kindle was out of charge when I took the photos. Stardust is about a town called Wall and one mans search for a fallen star.

The Hourglass Factory by Lucy Ribchester - I saw Carrie Hope Fletcher pick up this book, and she's got pretty good taste. It sounds like it's going to be a fun read.

Set during the suffragette period (1900's), a circus performer dissappears during a performance and a reporter attempts to find out what happened.

The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - I'm pretty sure this is a 'middle grade' book, so I might use this as a trump card if I decide to take part in any read-a-thons this month.

I can't even really tell what this will be about from the blurb, but it appears to be about a girl and a boy during a summer where the girl's mother works for a mysterious toy maker.

There you have it! 4/6 of the books were gifts from my sister and not necessarily things I would have picked up from the shelf, but I trust her taste so I'm really looking forward to reading them. I think she's looking forward to me reading them too so I can pass them on to her! If you're wondering, my nails are painted with the decidedly not cruelty free Rimmel Lasting Finish polish in 200 Orange Your Life (let me know if there's a cruelty free dupe out there because I love the vibrancy of this colour!)

What are you reading this month? Tweet me @VickiMaitland, leave a comment below, or tag me on Instagram in a pic of your TBR pile (@vickimaitland). You can also friend me on GoodReads to keep up with my reading progress!

Busy Busy Busy! And Semester T.B.R

As anyone who's a university knows, the start of term is always super busy - prepping to start new modules and lots of socialising really eats into otherwise abundant free time.

Personally, I've been running around everywhere since I got back to university last weekend. Any free time I've had I've sat down with my current read (S. by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst - incredible but really difficult to read!) and tried to chill out.

All of this is trying to apologise for the late upload of this blog post. Sorry!

One of my big goals this year is to read for pleasure during my semester. This semester I don't have that many books to read (although I do have a lot of short stories and theoretical texts). I'm hoping to use the time I would normally spend closely reading a novel for my course to read for pleasure instead.

To account for course reading and socialising, I'm giving myself the goal of one book a fortnight. This really should be doable, it just relies on my getting off the laptop and opening up a book!!

Here the the books I'm planning on reading over the semester. I'm also thinking about picking up Yes Please by Amy Poehler in order to join in with Estee's book club!

My sister got me this for Christmas, and I've heard good things about it.

I've been wanting to read this ever since it came out, and especially after reading her essay on 'Why We Should All Be Feminists'

I bought this book for my bestie as a Christmas present, but I loved it so much I picked up another copy for myself!

This is the outer case for the book. Below is the book inside.

It looks like an old library book - with notes scribbled in the margins and loads of bits of paper stuck in from two students exchanging research notes. Two stories in one book!

Another book that my sister got me for Christmas - I've picked it up already and am enjoying so far!

There you have it! In order to make me get mroe organised, I'm going to tell you next weeks posts! Tuesday's post is (hopefully) going to be a book review - either S. if I finish it, If I Stay (which I'm also currently reading) or To Rise Again At A Decent Hour. Next Friday will be a Taylor Swift inspired make-up look (using cruelty free, drugstore products).

As always, if you've read any of these books or have any recommendations, you can leave a comment below or tweet me @VickiMaitland. I'm also vickimaitland over on Instagram, and I've been posting loads of pictures of the inside of S. so if you're interested in it it'd be well worth a browse!

Blogmas 4: Semester Wrap-Up and Holiday TBR

I realised today that I haven't done a reading wrap-up or TBR for almost 3 months - so I thought I'd give you a quick catch up of what I've been reading over the past semester.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer - I actually did a book-to-film review of this in September. It was before my seminar on the book though, and I think I have somewhat different thoughts on it now that I've studied it in more depth. I still really recommend it - both as a book and as a film.

If This Is A Man/The Truce by Primo Levi - I had to read both of these books for my course. Primo Levi was an Italian Jew who was sent to Auschwitz during the end of the Second World War. If This Is A Man documents his life inside Auschwitz and The Truce documents his long return home from Poland back to Italy. Both are very enlightening texts, although I much preferred If This Is A Man as I felt like The Truce wasn't giving me what I wanted from it (as problematic as that is considering the autobiographical nature of the novel). I gave it 3/5 on Goodreads.

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels - Another book I had to read for my trauma module. This is a story in two parts. The first follows a young boy Jakob who escaped Germany after seeing his mother and father killed and his sister taken by the Nazis, and who grows up under the care of a kind Greek stranger. The second begins after Jakob's death, and follows Ben - a young man who admired Jakob - go on a journey of self-discovery, confronting his own relationship with The Holocaust. This book is very lyrical and metaphorical - which was both beautiful and distracting at times. I gave it 4/5 on Goodreads.

Bastard Out Of Carolina by Dorothy Allison - This is a harrowing story of a young girl growing up in the Deep South of America who gets sexually and emotionally abused by her step-father. As you may have guessed, this was another book I had to read for my trauma module. I adored this book - and I am currently doing my end of year project on it. I really recommend reading this - particularly if you're a young woman. I gave it 5/5.

Ugly Shy Girl by Laura Dockrill - I got this book because it was 99p on Kindle. It is a super short, very light read about a girl who is bullied at school before finding her friendship niche. I enjoyed it for the most part, but the ending confused me, so I gave it 3/5. It was also the first book I read which wasn't for my course.

Beloved  by Toni Morrison - I went into this book having already tried to read it three/four years ago. I was not looking forward to the experience at all, but I actually ended up really enjoying it. It is very hard to get into, but as soon as you become accustomed to the narrative style it is very rewarding. I ended up giving it 4/5.

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  - This is a short essay on feminism. I really enjoyed this, although I did find it somewhat problematic in places. I am planning on putting up a review at some point this month once I've had time for a re-read to collate my thoughts.

In The Heart Of The Country by J M Coetzee - The final book I had to read for my trauma module, and possibly my least favourite. It follows a young woman called Magda who repeatedly acts out the death of her father and his new wife, as well as her own rape by her servant. Magda is very aware of her own insanity, making this a very confusing book to read with no real sense of truth and fiction or even right or wrong.

They were all the books I've read over the semester. I probably won't be able to do anymore reading until after my essay deadline on the 15th, as all my reading will be focused around that. However, I do have a couple of books in mind for when I finish my project.

To Rise Again At A Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris - I got a copy to review from my university newspaper, so I need to get on with this book as soon as possible. I'm currently 50 pages in and really enjoying it so far. This book was also Booker nominated.

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith - My sister got this book from my grandparents earlier this year, and although crime fiction isn't really my scene I really want to read this outing from J K Rowling.

Do you have any recommendations for me? Or have you got any opinions on any of the books I've mentioned? Tweet me @VickiMaitland or leave a comment below! Tomorrow is my Christmas Present Book Guide - so I'll see you then!

August Wrap-Up and September TBR

I didn't have a very productive reading month. This was partly intentional, as I explained in my August TBR post, but a couple of other factors got in the way of more reading too. Firstly, I spent ten days away at a festival (not a lot of reading time), and secondly I split up from my boyfriend of two years (trash tv being a much easier distraction than literature, and my own writing being much better therapy).

The first book I finished this month was We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, and you can see my review of it here if you haven't checked it out already.

The next book I read was If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch. This is about two young sisters who live in the woods with their drug taking, mostly absent, mother. One day, a strange man and women find them, and it is revealed that the man is the girls father who has come to take them home. I was mostly disappointed in this book, and felt it could have gone into a lot more depth of the lead characters trauma. YA books are normally very good at exploring trauma in a young person without it being too in your face, but this book almost brushed off the trauma completely, making the traumatic passage at the end feel very heavy handed.

The final book I finished this month was The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. This book is centered around the rape and murder of a young girl, and is told from her point of view as she watches over her family and friends after her death. For me, this book almost had the opposite problem to If You Find Me. The traumatic scene is right at the beginning of this book, and is very well written but the story looses its momentum as soon as the reader is made aware that the family are going to be okay. The last fifty of so pages felt almost redundant, although the rest of the story is excellently written.

I also started reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. I am just under 400 pages through and mostly enjoying it so far. I've also started watching the film, and I'm planning on doing a combined book/movie review once I've finished both.

This month, other than finishing Cloud Atlas I have very few concrete reading plans. I've borrowed How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid from the library, so I'll have to read that before the month is out. My term starts on the 22nd of this month too, so I'll have to start reading Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer too. Other than that, I need to do further work on my dissertation plans and do more preparatory reading for my Traumatergies module.

If you are interested in any of the academic reading I'll be doing at uni, let me know and I can make a post about what sort of things I'll be reading. To get in contact, you can either leave a comment below or tweet me @VickiMaitland

July Wrap-Up/ August TBR

Before I started writing this I thought that I'd had a bad reading month. Turns out, checking out my Goodreads, that I'd actually had a pretty good reading month - mostly thanks to BT's shoddy service and Patrick Ness's incredible writing.

So the first books I read in July were The Ask and The Answer, Monsters Of Men  and More Than This by Patrick Ness. I powered through the whole Chaos Walking Series in a matter of days, and moved straight onto More Than This during my Patrick Ness binge. My review of The Chaos Walking Series can be found here.

I then read The Misinterpretation of Tara Jupp by Eva Rice. I enjoyed this book more than I thought I was going to, and even though I felt it could still have done with an edit (a fact I've excused as my copy is a proof copy and not the final edition), it was pretty enjoyable, sweet and lighthearted. I really liked the character of Tara, Lucy was the perfect mixture of infuriating and sympathetic, and even if the plot was a tad predictable it was still fun to read - mostly because of the period it was set in (the 50's-60's).

Next on my list was Trouble by Non Pratt - the story of a 15 year old who finds herself pregnant and the new boy at school who pretends to be the father. Once I got into the story I found it surprisingly touching and deep, particularly as I really did not like the girls voice in the first couple of 'chapters'.

The last book I finished this month was the much anticipated and reviewed We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. For me, it pretty much lived up to the hype, and you'll be able to read my review soon.

I also started We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Its taken me a while to get into but I'm really enjoying it so far, and I'm about 3/4 of the way through.

All I'm going to say for my August TBR is that I'd like to finish We Need To Talk About Kevin. I want to start on some of the critical reading for my Trauma module, and work on planning my dissertation properly, so reading isn't no.1 on my list of priorities this month (although that probably means I'll procratinate by reading)

June Wrap-Up and July TBR

 The month of June sped past this year – helped along I’m sure by the week long read-your-bookshelf-a-thon. I read some great books this June, many of which I’ve got in a pile to-be-reviewed, but I’ll give a brief gloss over of my thoughts here.

Johnathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach – a poetic fable about accepting your dreams and ignoring others who try to stop you from living them. A short a sweet read, it took me around half an hour to read.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith – Not as good as NW, which will forever be my favourite Smith book, but a good read none the less. The voice of her characters are always so engaging, and I love the identity conflicts in this book.

Mr Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan – I read this book in practically one sitting. Fantastical, a little bit magical, wonderful. I highly recommend it.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith – I’ll be reviewing this in tandem with White Teeth as I feel they largely express the same kinds of issues, and for me were pretty much on a par as a reading experience (although I think I prefer White Teeth, the jury is still out).

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – What a book. If you haven’t, read it. Just, read it. Okay?

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce – It took me a while to get into this book, but it does become quite a sweet read (which is what I wanted from it). Think it could have done with a bit of an edit either end and a bolster in the middle, but that might just be me.

Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann – I could see what this book was trying to do, but I’m not convinced it ever really got there. It was a decent read, but didn’t fill me with vigour.

The Misinterpretation of Tara Jupp by Eva Rice – I enjoyed reading this book, set predominantly in the early sixties it’s a sweet coming of age story. Tara was a very well written character, but I feel there were a couple of things which ended up largely unanswered towards the end of the book. But it was a sweet way to finish the months reading.

So that is it for June! 7 books read, I’m more than pleased with that!

It’s already a week and a half into July, so Ill jot down the books I’ve already read as well as the ones I’d like to read.

Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness – I read these books almost one a day. Fantastically gripping trilogy.

More Than This by Patrick Ness ­– Another wonderful book, although I felt in places it was too much of a parody of itself that it started to get slightly ridiculous.

I’ve started reading Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman. I’ve read this book before and it didn’t do anything for me, but the fella loves the series so I figure I better give it another shot. It’s slightly the wrong time of year for this kind of book, but we’ll see where it takes me.

I’d like to read 1984 by George Orwell if I can this month. I got it for Dad for his birthday and he enjoyed it. Besides, it’s a classic, so I should probably give it a read.

Trouble by Non Pratt is also on my TBR pile this month. Hopefully I’ll get round to it, as by August I want to be reading books from my Uni required reading list.

I’ll leave it there for now. Have you read any of the books I’m planning on reading this month? What did you think of them? Tweet me @VickiMaitland or let me know in the comments what you thought!

May Wrap-Up and June TBR

May Wrap-Up

May has felt like a very long month! I had an exam right at the beginning of the month, and I’ve got another at the start of June. Because of that, May has been a month of re-reads and revision. But I thought I’d wrap it up anyway!

The first book I read was Virginia Woolf’s A Room Of One’s Own. It’s a transcript of a speech she gave to a lady’s college on the topic of women and fiction. The premise of the speech is that women need money and room of their own to be able to write fiction – although she also talks about Jane Austen who wrote in the main room, covering up her work every time someone came in. It’s a meandering speech with multiple contradictions, but it’s really worth a read.

Next I read both House of Mirth and The Reef, which are both by Edith Wharton. House of Mirth is the story of socialite Lily Bart who, at the age of twenty-nine, is under pressure to find a husband and get married. Not wanting to settle for anyone, whilst simultaneously desperate to marry into big money, she find herself in debt in an attempt to keep up appearances. In The Reef, George Darrow is on his way to France to marry the woman he has been in love with all his life. Whilst waiting in Paris, he bumps into Sophy Viner, a maid for a woman whose house he used to visit, and decides to treat her for the weekend. Six months later, and things appear to be right on track for Darrow and his fiancé Anna until her son Owen announces his intention to marry the governess. When the governess arrives, it turns out she is Sophy Viner, and things become a bit awkward for everyone.

I loved House of Mirth and somehow on the re-read it was even better. Lily Bart is an intensely likable character, despite her many flaws, and her plot is truly heart-breaking. I spent the entire book begging people to believe her, begging Selden to see her and hoping she would come to her senses. A really good read.

The Reef was slightly less enjoyable for me as I felt less sympathy towards all of the characters. I also didn’t really understand what the big fuss was, and why Darrow and Sophy couldn’t just have been honest with Anna and Owen right from the off. Still a good read though!

Finally, the last book I read was a collection of Virginia Woolf’s Selected Short Stories. I enjoy Woolf’s fiction but not as much as her essays, so these were relatively ‘meh’ for me. I feel like Woolf’s style is much more suited to the short story (particularly after reading her Novel Night and Day a couple of months back). Somehow having a shortened work means the lengthy sentences and surreal descriptions are more manageable. I particularly enjoyed The Lady in the Looking Glass and Lappin and Lapinova.

And that’s all I read in May. It doesn’t look like a lot, but I was reading lots of critical material alongside it.

June TBR

I am super excited for June as it means I finally get to read entirely for pleasure! There are loads of books on my shelf that I’m just dying to read.

First things first, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I got this book for Christmas and I’ve heard so much about it but haven’t got round to picking it up just yet.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith. I love Zadie Smith’s writing, but haven’t read this yet! Same goes for my next read…

On Beauty by Zadie Smith.

Johnathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. Again this was a book I got for Christmas and haven’t been able to read. Its only tiny, so I should speed through it!

And finally, Mr Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookshop by Robin Sloane. Both my sister and my dad have read this and enjoyed it, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what all the hype is about!

I'm also going to be participating in the Read-Your-Book-Shelf-A-Thon. This runs from the 16th -23rd of June, wherever you are in the world. The premise of the read-a-thon is to literally pick a place in your book shelf and just read from there, along the entirety of your shelf. If you've already read the book then you are allowed to skip it. I won't list all the books I'm planning on reading, but basically I'm going to start from whichever book I'm currently reading and read on from there. I'll try and post daily (or at least every-other-day) updates about my progress and will be tweeting using the #RYBSAT tag. I'll also post a proper TBR the day before the read-a-thon begins. Blog will resume normal service after the read-a-thon.

I think I’ll cap my reading list there for now! I’ve got a lot of plans for June, and I want to enjoy reading these books rather than feeling like I have to just because I said I would. What are your reading plans for June? Have you read anything I’m planning on? Let me know in the comments or by tweeting me @VickiMaitland.

September Wrap-Up and October TBR

Wow. This last month has gone so quickly. I've moved in to my new house and have spent the past two and a half weeks living with my housemates. We've gone out a couple of times as returners during freshers week, drunk a tad too much, danced a lot and had sing-along washing-up times. University started last week so I've been attending lots of first lectures and seminars too, as well as beginning to organise the creative writing society. Amongst all that crazyness there hasn't been loads of time for reading, I'm afraid, so this Wrap-up might look a little pathetic. But there you have it!

September Wrap-Up

The first book I read this month I finished in a couple of days when I was on holiday. The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N. Murari was incredible. Set in 2000 during the middle-end of the Taliban's reign of Afganistan, the book is based in fact (although the work itself is fiction), and follows the life of a young lady. Rukhsana hates life under the Taliban. They have forced her to give up her job, where a burkha and she cannot leave the house without a male companion. All she and her family want to do is find a way to escape Afganistan and get across the boarder to Pakistan and freedom. When they discover the governments decision to set up a cricket team, Rukhsana believes she has found her cousins way out. Having learnt cricket at university in Delhi, she vows to teach her cousins and help them escape. This book was a fascinating read about the lives of young women under brutal regimes. I was only young during the outbreak of the war in Afganistan and didn't really understand fully the Taliban and its laws. This was an eye-opening read for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 4/5

I also read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman whilst on holiday. The only other Gaiman book I'd read was Coraline and I hadn't really enjoyed it, but after hearing him on BBC Radio 3's Arts and Idea's podcast I thought I'd give him another go. I enjoyed this book - or rather collection of interconnected short stories which follow the life of a boy growing up in a graveyard - and gave it 3/5.

The final book I read this month was A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka. This book is a lot more enjoyable than it sounds. From the perspective of one of two feuding sisters, this is a surprisingly light read about family life. The father in this is both funny, infuriating and pitiable, the sisters well balanced and not caricatured, and the 'villian' both contemptible and lamentable. I wouldn't palce it in the top 1001 books you have to read before you die, but it's a nice little read. 3/5

And that, sadly, is it, which means I've read 941 pages this month. Which, it's fair to say, is a little bit disappointing after last months success. I did get halfway through The Life of Pi, however, and if I get the chance to finish that tomorrow or Monday I can add that to the pile!

October TBR

I'm not really sure what to put in this. Most of the book I'll be reading will be university stuff, but fingers crossed I'll get around to reading some other bits and bobs too!

As I said, I plan on finishing Life of Pi by Yann Martell in the next couple of days or so, and hopefully I'll also finish Vagina, a new biography too!!

The first of the novels I'll be reading for uni this month is Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. I have always wanted to read this, and am not really sure what it't about, so hopefully that'll be interesting.

The second novel I'll be reading is Gulliver's Travels  by Johnathan Swift. Again, despite going to Gulliver's Kingdom when I was little, I don't really know what this book is about. 

I think I'll leave it at that to be getting on with. Hopefully I'll get into a bit of a routine and I'll post more frequently again!

Best Wishes

xx

August Wrap-up and September TBR

Hello, sorry this is coming to you so late but I was away on holiday in the over the end of August and the first week of September, then I've been moving into my new house and saying goodbye to old friends and preparing for uni and yeah. Generally been crazy! But enough of that, let's get down to it!

August Wrap-up

The first book I read in August was Attachments by Rainbow Rowell, and I reviewed it here. Same goes with the second book I read (Divergent by Veronica Roth).

Then I picked up Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. I really liked the concept of this book - the struggle to produce words when letters dissappear is super intersting, particularly as a writer. The world building in this book (which is an epistolary story) is amazing, it doesn't feel like it's being explained just for the reader, which could have been difficult as the author is almost solely speaking to characters which already exist in the world. This said, I never really got involved with the characters - there were too many names flying around with not enough backstory. I gave it 3/5.

This was followed by two books which weren't on my TBR - City of Bones by Cassandra Clare and The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, which I also reviewed here.

Back on piste I read The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith. Following the life of Alex Li-Tandem (an autograph salesman) this story is about his coming to terms with the death of his father and his obsession with the autograph of Kitty Alexander and how these impact his daily life. Whilst this book didn't live up to NW, it was still a really good read and I gave it 4 stars.

Finally, the last book I read in August was The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern. This book was incredible, it managed to skate the line been childish fantasy and young adult novel perfectly. In it, we watch the circus and take part in the lives of the people who work there - particularly the lives of Celia and Marco whose destinies have been preordained since their youth. It is wonderfully written, an easy enough read that anyone with a touch of imagination and the desire to be taken on an adventure would really enjoy. I gave it 4/5.

So that was it! Sorry my wrap-up wasn't as detailed as they have been in the past, but there are 4 full length reviews hidden in those hyperlinks, so it's not as short as it might appear. I did pretty well with my TBR from last time - the only book I didn't read was Vagina, but I wasn't in the mood for non-fiction. Maybe next month, eh? In total I read 2921 pages in the month of August, which I'm very pleased about.

September TBR

I feel a tad cheeky putting two of these on here as I've already read them, but here goes.

The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri N. Murari. This book is about Rukhsana, a young Afgan women living under the brutal reign of the Taliban in 2000. Partially based in fact, we follow her as she risks her life teaching her cousins cricket in order to help them escape the country she has grown to fear.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Beginning life as a collection of bedtime stories for his daughter, The Graveyard Book features Bod, the boy raised by ghosts, as he grows up and discovered the real reason for his supernatural upbringing.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka. Recently my friend gave me a copy of 1001 books to read before you die, and this was in there so I thought I'd pick it up. Fingers crossed nit's as good as they say!

The rest of these books I'm adding tentatively, as Uni starts on the 23rd and I'll have got a tonne of reading to do for it.

The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler - I've heard so many good things about this book that when I saw it on Amazon Kindle for 99p I had to have it!

White Teeth by Zadie Smith - Loving her at the moment, and when I saw this in a charity shop for a bargin 75p I had to pick it up.

And once again, Vagina, a new biography by Naomi Wolf. Maybe.

Till next time,

xx

July Wrap-Up and August TBR

Hey guys, sorry about the brief unintentional hiatus, but I've been picking up shifts at work, trying to sort my house stuff and taking every opportunity to sit outside in the glorious sunshine we're having in little old Blighty! I've really missed blogging and I've sat down so many times about to start, but then tumblr happens and it all sorta goes out the window. So, to ease myself back into things, even though its not quite the end of the month yet, here's my July Wrap-up and August TBR!

July Reading Wrap-up

The first book I picked up in July was NW by Zadie Smith. As I said in my previous TBR post I hadn't really enjoyed the first Zadie Smith I'd read, but oh my goodness I ADORED this book. NW is the voice of London, it captures it's spirit and its soul. Free indirect discourse that imitates stream of consciousness, poem, graphology, this book is a writers book. I really must write a full review of it, but in the mean time I cannot more highly recommend it. 5/5.

Then I started reading The Red House by Mark Haddon. Now,  in direct contrast to Smith, I had loved my first exposure to Haddon (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime). I enjoyed Red House, but after reading NW it felt like it was trying to do what Smith had done, only more clumsily. It was a good story with some nice plot twists and a decent capturing of an awkward family holiday, but it wasn't anything special per say. 3/5.

I then read three books from the same series on the trot - these were Douglas Adam's The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life, The Universe and Everything. I really enjoyed all of these, even if there were moments in each book where I felt a bit bored with the plot, the good moments more than made up for these. Adam's is such a delicately witty writer - aside from the typical slapstick. I gave them 4/5, 3/5 and 3/5 respectively.

As it was such baking weather, I decided it was perfect to read the end of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. I'd seen the Disney adaptation with the fella a few days before picking it up again, and I'm sad to say it may have hindered my enjoyment of the book slightly (Treasure Planet is one of my favourite Disney films). This being said, I was gripped during the last part of the book (where it most drastically differs from Treasure Planet) and really enjoyed my reading experience. I gave it 3/5. I also would really recommend watching the two-part Sky adaptation staring Eddie Izzard as Long John and Elijah Wood as Ben Gum, as well as Rupert Penry-Jones, Daniel Mays, Phillip Glenister and Donald Sutherland. It's pretty faithful to the book from what I can remember (although I watched it a while ago).

Luckily for me, the heat wave in Britain still hadn't abated, so I could lay outside and read Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamed. I was slightly apprehensive as I began reading this as I had adored The Reluctant Fundamentalist so much, but Moth Smoke did not disappoint. There were a few dodgy patches in the second person address that weren't present in The Relucantant Fundamentalist,  but I guess that is to be expected as Hamed hones his skills. The story was fast paced and claustrophobic, just perfect, and I gave it 5/5.

I'm really pleased with the amount I read this month (1738 pages!) - I think I've probably got the gorgeous weather to thank - and I'm going to try to keep it up next month. I've got loads of books out of the library, so I really need to start getting through them. With no further ado, here's my

August TBR

I have literally piled all my books up in size order (ie, how tall the book is rather than how long it is), so I'm just going to go through them one at a time.

Divergent by Veronica Roth - I've heard loads of good things about this book, and I know there's a film coming out, so I really want to read it.

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell - I really wanted to read Eleanor and Park by the same author, but the library didn't have it, so I've picked this one up instead. I think its a pretty light, romantic read, so it might be a nice breather from some of the heavier things I've picked up.

The Autograph Man  by Zadie Smith - What can I say, I've got the Zadie Smith bug! Again, this wasn't the book I really wanted (I wanted On Beauty or White Teeth) but beggars can't be choosers, so I'll see how this one goes.

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn - I first heard about this book when we studied OULIPO in CWS and the concept of it intrigued me: a world in which the letters of the alphabet were slowly disappearing until only l, m, n, o and p were left. I'm really looking forward to this.

Vagina, a new biography by Naomi Woolf - I've been getting more and more interested into the concept of female sexuality and how its treated in relation to male sexuality etc recently, so when I saw this sitting on the library shelf I had to pick it up (much to the embarrassment of my sister). Again, I'm really intrigued about this and cannot wait to read it.

I think that's all for this month. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to get through, I should be picking up the keys to my house on Thursday (provided the insurance goes through ok - I perhaps shouldn't have left it so last minute) so I might be a bit busy moving in etc to do read through all this stuff. Fingers crossed though!

Best Wishes,

xx

June Wrap-Up and July TBR

Why hello there chaps! It's been a while since my last post because, as I may a have mentioned just a couple of times, I spent the last two weeks in Le France!

Since I've got back (late Friday) I've been meaning to write a little post, but I've had loads of ideas and couldn't really settle on one, so I've decided to do a wrap-up and tbr blog to get me back into the swing. Goodreads tab is open, so lets get on with it, eh?

June Reading Wrap Up

The first book I read (or rather finished) in June was The Bronze Horseman by Paulina Simons. I've already reviewed this book, so you can click here if you want to read that. As a quick summary: It's 1941 and Russia is at war. A young girl called Tatiana meets a solider and the inevitable happens. Expect a lot of strife, heartache and sex. For the most part I really loved this book, but there was a horrible section in the middle that did not sit well with me at all and I couldn't really get over it to give it a higher rating than 3.75/5.

After this book I slipped into a reading slump, but on holiday I managed to get my self out of it by picking up The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. Oh my goodness I cannot more highly recommend this book. It's brilliantly written, hilarious and the perfect pick me up. I am going to review this book soon, as I adored it and gave it 5/5.

I also read On The Road by Jack Kerouac. I read this because it was a classic and you're meant to read it whilst you're away from home in a different environment, but for me it didn't live up to the hype. I really struggled with it, especially in the first two parts of the book. The final two parts definitely changed my mind on it and I began to enjoy it more. I gave it 3/5 on Goodreads, and probably won't review it unless you guys want me to?

After I'd finished these two books I forgot what the third book I said I'd attempt on holiday was, so I started reading another book I said I might try if I had time: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. As with all Austen, the story is centred around a young girl/ young woman growing up in Regency England. In the case of Mansfield Park we follow the life of Fanny Price, who is brought up by her much wealthier Aunt and Uncle in their family home (Mansfield). I didn't enjoy this Austen as much as I have enjoyed previous ones (baring in mind that Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite books of all time), but that isn't to say I didn't like it. Austen's writing carries the story and I laughed out loud at several points.

The last book I read in June was The Wild Things by Dave Eggers. I'll probably review this soon(ish) because I have some very mixed feelings on this book, and I'd quite like the see the film (the book is a companion) in order to construct any proper thoughts about it. At the moment though, I'll just say I started out loving it and sped through, then took a break and never got back into it. (I started reading this before my holiday, but as I only took my Kindle I couldn't finish it till I got home).

So there you have it! I'm quite please by how many books I read (about 1,500 pages (not counting The Bronze Horseman as I read the majority of that in May)).

With June wrapped up, here's my July To Be Read:

On the bus home from the airport, with Mansfield Park sitting finished, I remembered the the final book I said I'd read - Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. So began to read it, but then my Kindle battery died, so I'd really like to finish it. At the moment I'm 50 pages in (27%).

Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamed. I got this book out of the library at the same time as Bronze Horseman and The Wild Things but still haven't read it, so I really need to get on and do that!

NW  by Zadie Smith. I bought this book on a buy one get one half-price deal in Waterstones, so I really have to read it now. The cover is beautiful and YouTubes Missxrojas raved about it, so I'm looking forward to this, despite not really enjoying the only other piece I've read by Zadie Smith.

The Red House by Mark Haddon. This was the other book I bought on the deal. I really liked The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, so I'm super excited to read some of Mark Haddon's other stuff. I have no idea what this book is about and can't wait to pick it up!

I've also recently got a couple more books on my Kindle that I'd like to read (including The Hitchhikers series and Lord of the Rings), so I may or may not be making a start on those. This month I should also find out what modules I'm on next year, so any or all of these books may be abandoned in the name of getting ahead in my reading for next year!

Well, that's all for now, so

TTFN and Happy Reading!

xx

Currently Reading: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson