When life gets in the way

Life is stupidly busy. This time of year work wise is always the toughest- lead up to GCSE and A level exams. And when all I have are exam classes, the pressure and marking load and stress of 'have they actually listened to anything I've taught them over the past two years?' takes its tole. Add to that mix university work (why oh why did I think that was a good idea?!) and you have one very stressed out little me. My evenings have been spent buried under a pile of exam practice papers and coursework folders until about 10pm, where I will then collapse on the sofa, read a little and then fall asleep, reading glasses askew, book on my face, cat next to me. 

Reading is my way of relaxing and it isn't an effort for me to make time for it. I just read faster than I blog apparently, as writing about books takes a little more time and effort! I actually have to get up from a horizontal position and look at a screen. And then, before I know it, my list of books to blog about becomes a little too long- a mammoth task. So above are the books I have read since my last blog post. Since doing these images, I've read three more. But we'll get to those. 

 1. Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller

Two of my year 13s are writing on this book in their coursework so I thought I should probably read it before attempting to mark their work. It's brilliant. Teacher (Sheba) / pupil (Connolly) illicit love affair narrated by a colleague of the teacher (Barbara). Barbara is an unreliable narrator, obsessive, creepy and morally questionable. It will have you gripped. I thought the most unsettling aspect of the text would be the love affair (female teacher and a 15 year old boy- not okay!) but there's so much more to this text than that. 

2. The Visitor by Katherine Stansfield

I picked up this book in my local library. I have a tendency to hide in Watersones or the Oxfam book shop when I'm feeling particularly crap about life- and that was getting expensive. 
This novel focuses on the memories of Pearl and the relationships she has with two of her childhood friends, Jack and Nicholas. It switches between 1880 and 1936 and is set in a rural fishing village in Cornwall, exploring aspects of love, loss, societal pressures and superstitions. I loved the descriptions of Cornwall and it really immersed you in the lives of the villages in 1880. Pearl is a little frustrating in the 1936 sections but I think that does make her more of an interesting character. 

3. The Secrets by the Lake by Louise Douglas 

Another library find. I knew it was probably going to be a little bit of an easy read but it did keep me hooked. 
Excerpts from the blurb: 
A family tragedy... A sister's secret...A web of lies... 
I'm a sucker for this kind of plot. And a creepy cottage by a lake? A disappearance? It'd be rude not to read it. 

4. I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

Lent to me by a friend and told I just had to read it, I couldn't say no. I literally could not put it down. And it's a giant book, a huge commitment of a read, but this really was one of those books where you wish reality would just shut up and leave you alone for a while until you've finished it. 
This crime thriller is intelligent and complex. There's a murder. A terrorist plot. Then another murder. Then more clues, more travel, more confusion. A dip into another character's story. Then another. Hayes piles more narratives and more clues one on top of the other and it keeps you guessing. It is stylishly written and the plot is a triumph. 
Hayes worked as a screenwriter- his work includes the screenplay for Road Warrior/Mad Max 2 and various other films and TV series. This is his first novel and in a way it makes complete sense that he is used to writing for the screen. But I would read any other novel this guy publishes. Up there with my top reads. 

5.  We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

My Head of Department (basically, my boss) lent this to me saying something along the lines of 'its full of murder, weird sisters and a creepy castle- just your type of thing'. Now, she's right, that is my type of thing, but it does worry be a little that I've somehow given off this impression at work... 

In this case, the blurb is probably the best thing I can give you here: 
Living in the Blackwood family home with only her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian for company, Merricat just wants to preserve their delicate way of life. But ever since Constance was acquitted of murdering the rest of the family, the world isn't leaving the Blackwoods alone. And when Cousin Charles arrives, armed with overtures of friendship and a desperate need to get into the safe, Merricat must do everything in her power to protect the remaining family.
It's brilliantly eerie and unsettling. I loved it. 

6. Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson

I enjoyed We Have Always Lived in the Castle so much that I have taken it upon myself to read all of Shirley Jackson's work. Hangsaman focuses on Natalie and her journey through her first year of college. Punctuated by voices inside her head, the text is chilling and, as the novel progresses, you are never really sure what is reality or merely Natalie's interpretation of it. The text is also loosely based on the real life disappearance of a sophomore girl at Bennington College in 1946 and from Jackson's own experiences. 
I preferred Castle, but this is still worth a read. 

7. Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill

Written with the dazzling lucidity of poetry, Dept. of Speculation navigates the jagged edges of a modern marriage to tell a story that is darkly funny, surprising and wise.
Meh. I don't agree. I really wasn't a fan. Moments of the text were beautiful and poignant and I do appreciate what Offill is trying to do with the short fragments of text, like brief diary entries, which explore the protagonist's marriage, but I just didn't like it. For me, Offill was trying too hard. Each fragment was overly philosophical and I laughed out loud when I turned the page to be faced with an entire page of the text 'I'msoscaredI'msoscaredI'msoscared'. Eurgh. Saying all this though, a friend on my MA course loved it, even recommended it to me before I voiced my opinion on it, and my last tutor also recommended I read it. So maybe it's just me. 

8. The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey

I read this book because I was writing a short story from the point of view of someone with Alzheimer's. And my Nana had it too so it's kind of a personal interest thing. It follows Jake, who over the course of the text disintegrates because of the disease. It moves between the present and Jake's memories of the past, his wife, his children, his love affair. You never really know what is real as there are lots of deliberate inconsistencies in his memories. At one point he muses over the fact that his mother and her boyfriend drowned. Which you know did not actually happen. It's a touching novel. 
(On a side note, if this subject interests you, read Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey. I read it a year or so ago and thought it was brilliant.)

9. Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafron

"We all have a secret buried under lock and key in the attic of our soul. This is mine."
You can probably tell by the cover that this is a YA novel. I chose it while waiting for a train at London Victoria- it was a bit of an impulse buy. But I've read The Shadow of the Wind by the same author and it is now one of my favourite books. So I thought I'd give this a shot. 
Marina focuses on 15 year old Oscar who lives in a boarding school in Barcelona. He meets a girl, Marina, while exploring the old quarter of the city, and she leads him to a cemetery where they witness a bizarre ritual. This is the start of their detective journey which leads them through a world of aristocrats, jealousy, murder and madness. Although a young adult novel, I enjoyed it. It does read like a novel for much younger children and I have since recommended it to some of my year 10s (14/15 years old). Some parts of it though, are really creepy and haunted me a little bit. 
If you're looking for a novel to read by Zafron though, I recommend The Shadow of the Wind, without a doubt.  

10. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

Again, I think the blurb serves this novel best:

The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a love story unfolding over half a century between a doctor and his uncle’s wife.Taking its title from one of the most famous books in Japanese literature, written by the great haiku poet Basho, Flanagan’s novel has as its heart one of the most infamous episodes of Japanese history, the construction of the Thailand-Burma Death Railway in World War II. In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the Death Railway, surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his love affair with his uncle’s young wife two years earlier. Struggling to save the men under his command from starvation, from cholera, from beatings, he receives a letter that will change his life forever.

It won the Man Booker Prize in 2014 but I just hadn't got around to reading it. I was listening to the second series of podcast Serial when I decided to give this a read (season 2 of Serial focuses on the story of Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S soldier who walked off from his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was captured and held by the Taliban for nearly five years). I was really interested in how people can survive such torment which lead me to Flanagan's novel. Unsurprisingly, it is brutally shocking and harrowing in many places. But the focus on the love affair too really adds an unexpected element to the text. I was also appalled by how little I know about this part of history so did spend a lot of time looking up pieces of information. Interestingly, Flanagan's father was a survivor of the Burma Death Railway and poignantly died the day Flanagan finished the novel.

11. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

A bit of an odd choice, I know, but apparently the KonMari method of de-cluttering is a huge thing. I saw it on Instagram (I follow a lot of book lovers...) and people seemed to rave about it. 

It's basically a guide to completely de-cluttering your home, the main principle of which is only keep things that inspire 'joy' when you hold them. Kondo advises you to go through your possessions , every single one, in categories (starting with clothes). You have to take each item in your hands and feel what emotion it inspires in you. If it is 'joy' it stays, if not, chuck it. 

I read it with a bit of an open mind but a very serious intention of actually getting rid a whole lot of my stuff. I have too much in my life and I genuinely find it stressful. And we're moving house again so it seemed like the right time to do it. You have to take the book with a pinch of salt I think. Some parts are very bizarre- Kondo writes about how your possessions have feelings and emotions and that, before you get rid of something, you have to 'thank it' aloud for what it has brought to your life...! But some of her other methods make sense. An easy read. 

So, to sum up- my top picks:

- I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

- Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller

- The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan 

If you've stayed with me this far, thanks! 

Reads of 2016 so far

So it's February half term. Finally. And, of course, I have a stinking cold. This always happens every holiday from school- my body is so used to running around at full pelt for weeks on end that when it is suddenly given a weekend of doing nothing but sleeping in and hibernating on the sofa, it can't handle it. It essentially shuts down. So while I'm feeling sorry for myself (and dreading the inevitable Tuesday/Wednesday of this week when I need to stop giving myself that split second break I need and start marking the 75 year 11 exercise books that are still in my car), I thought I'd catch up on this.
If you're so busy, how do you have time to read, some people ask. If I'm honest, I need to read every day. I notice it if I don't as my mind hasn't has a chance to shut off from the world and recoup. So since the last time I posted (just over a month ago on the 9th January), I have read the following:

- 'Dept. of Speculation' by Jenny Offal

He bought me flowers :)

- 'The Wilderness' by Samantha Harvey
- 'I Am Pilgrim' by Terry Hayes
- A short story from 'Little Black Book of Stories' by A.S Byatt
- 'Notes on a Scandal' by Zoe Heller
- 'The Secret by the Lake' by Louise Douglas
- 'The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up' by Marie Kondo

I'll be writing little reviews on each and will post a few pieces of writing I've had to do for uni just to spice things up.

In the meantime, Happy Valentine's.

'All My Puny Sorrows' by Miriam Toews

This was another suggestion from my writing tutor but it is now up there with my favourite books. It's very rare that that happens for me- I read a lot obviously and love many of them, but this one really got to me.

The novel focuses on two sisters- Yolandi, the younger, who is content with living, and Elfrieda, the elder, who desperately wants to die. Yolandi tries to keep her sister alive and the book explores the love, frustration, and fear this task has for her.

Sounds depressing, I hear you ask? It is an absolutely stunning book.

Author, Miriam Toews

Toews manages to capture something astounding here and I was not surprised to find out that, after finishing it and reading around the text, the novel draws heavily from Toews own life. Her father
killed himself and years later, so did her sister. Arguably, these experiences have enabled Toews to depict the labyrinth of emotions that surround death, creating a novel that is tender, truthful, utterly devastating, hilarious and poignant. She writes with desperation and gets across the bizarre puzzle of human experience that goes along with difficult family circumstances and grief- when everything is at the lowest, worst, most mind bogglingly difficult, something often happens which pushes you even further into the pit of despair, and often in this situation, the only thing you are capable of doing is laughing, having been pushed to near hysteria.

 In the novel, Elfrieda (Elf- who wants to die) is bursting with eccentricities, talents, charisma and that magnetic draw that makes those near her revel in her light and exuberant life. She is a talented, world renowned pianist, fiercely intelligent, a voracious reader (who believes she would have been married to Coleridge in a previous life) and an iconoclast. Her sister Yolandi, in contrast, is divorced, has children with two different men, and is an unsuccessful writer. Which character out of the two would you believe has a right to be depressed and want to escape the torments of life? And that is precisely the point. The book addresses that notion many people have that those feelings and wants stem from something rational, something concrete, an event that can be pinned down as a cause.
Something others can make sense of. Both Elf and her father (the chronology of the text moves between the present where the women are in their 40s to memories from their childhood, growing up in a Mennonite community) share similar traits which make them want to commit suicide. They do not fit into the world; the world shuns them, mocks them and what is important to them, and shows no sensitivity towards them. They burst with life and hope and desires to change things, connect with people, to find meaning and purpose and beauty in the mundane and unappreciated- and yet, Toews seems to be saying, such vibrant people cannot survive and thrive in a world such as ours.

How on earth can such a novel be funny? Trust me, it is brilliantly witty. In addition to the deep, existential questions the novel provokes, there is a hilarity to the text which demonstrates the bizarre confusion that is life so perfectly. Yoli frets over a broken shower curtain, the antics of her children, drinks too much on her cousin's porch and sleeps with random men. All the while trying to navigate her divorce. The black humour is biting- she receives a text from her estranged husband reading "I need you", replies with concern and love having been regretting her decision to leave him, only to receive a second text that reads 'Sorry. Pressed send too soon. I need you to sign the divorce papers".

This novel spoke to me in a way a book hasn't in ages and it really made an impression on me. Whether that is because it is truly a literary masterpiece or whether it is the subject matter and its effect on me personally, I'm not entirely sure. But I don't think that matters.

*

The text takes its name from a Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem about the death of his own sister. 'All My Puny Sorrows' is also littered with references to eminent works of literature throughout. Another tick for me! Below is an extract from that Coleridge poem. 

"I, too, a sister had, an only sister --
She loved me dearly, and I doted on her;
To her I pour'd forth all my puny sorrows;
(As a sick patient in a nurse's arms,)
And of the heart those hidden maladies ­
That e'en from friendship's eye will shrink ashamed.
O! I have waked at midnight, and have wept
Because she was not!"

Dec. 1794

Samuel Taylor Coleridge 

'Outline' by Rachel Cusk

I plucked 'Outline' off the shelves in Waterstones a while ago for several reasons. The blurb says it is about a writer going to Athens to teach a writing course and all about the people she encounters and converses with during her visit. I liked the idea of reading about a writer. I liked the idea of it being set in Athens. And I liked the idea that it focused on people, their relationship with the world and themselves. Despite how promising the book sounded to me, it remained untouched on my bookshelves at home for several months until my course leader at uni suggested I read it. Apparently, I write all about people and relationships too. And I needed to think about point of view. So, almost reluctantly (for some reason, I struggle getting through books I have been 'told' to read...) I settled down in the post New Year den I had created for myself on the sofa and began to read.

Author, Rachel Cusk

'Outline' is a bit of an odd one. It is written from a first person perspective but, unconventionally, this character remains a indistinct, a blur, a shadow of a person. Instead of reading about her thoughts, musings, emotions, actions as you do in the vast majority of books, the character becomes an audience to a chain of narratives, the lives, loves, heartaches and traumas of other people, those she encounters on her journey. And it is these narratives which make up the text. You are told the stories of countless people and hear their anxieties, perceptions on life, their pains and pleasures, their family lives, their memories. If you have ever people watched and truly wondered what stories the strangers surrounding you had, you should give it a read.

Through the tales of others, themes emerge (loss, the difficulty of intimacy) which give us an slight glimpse into the struggles of the narrator. Although it is only a sense. We never hear her thoughts or emotions. Nothing. We learn only a few details about the narrator: she is a writer, recently divorced, has two boys, is trying to get a mortgage loan. When her name is used towards the end of the novel, it is startling- you are almost ashamed at not having known it until that point. As the text progresses,  the slightly unsettling and upsetting feeling you have when reading it becomes almost unbearable. These people the narrator speaks to do not care about her. They offload their lives. She listens. She
makes brief comments, which we never hear. She takes things from their tales that make us realise

ultimately how alone she is. How disconnected. That she is moving through her life having now given up on making a real go at anything- she merely wants to drift through the rest of it unnoticed. It makes us realise how alone we ultimately are in the world, how self consumed we are, that relationships, with anyone, are doomed. One character spends several pages revealing intricate details of his life before asking the narrator, as an afterthought, "What about yourself...working on something?" which is where the chapter ends, our narrator never having answered, as her answer was never truly wanted.

Rachel Cusk's 'Outline' is not an easy read but it is fascinating, subtle and beautiful. If you are intrigued by the hidden lives of others, check it out.

'Wildflower' by Drew Barrymore

I've always had a bit of a thing about Drew. To be honest, I'm not really sure why. And if I ever happen to mention that I 'love Drew Barrymore', whoever I'm talking to tends to query my devotion.

She's apparently not an obvious choice. She's a huge name, she's been in some classic films which many of you would probably have loved when you were younger- 'E.T' (obviously), 'Never Been Kissed', 'Charlie's Angels', '50 First Dates'- and she's best friends with Cameron Diaz. But I don't think that's why I like her.

I think it's because she isn't such an obvious idol that I really admire her. She's clearly talented (not Oscar-type talented but, as I said, she makes a good rom-com- produces them too- 'He's Just Not That Into You' anyone?) She's clearly beautiful but she's, arguably, not drop dead gorgeous in an 'acceptable to the media' way. She tends to play the best friend of the lead. Or the 'quirky' choice of love interest. There's something a little different about her. The same way I love Kate Winslet, I would adore the opportunity to go for a coffee with her, have a chat, a bit of cake. She seems like that kind of person.

Like many people, I'm also intrigued by her childhood, what she went through at such a young age and how she managed to grow from there. She seems like such a strong, wholesome, loving and level headed person- remarkable seeing as she "had [her] first drink at age nine, began smoking marijuana at 10, and at 12 took up cocaine ", a line from the back of her 1990 autobiography 'Little Lost Girl'. Published at 15, Drew Barrymore had already spent a year in an 'institution' (as she often refers to it) and emancipated herself from her mother (I've tried to track down a copy of this book to read but it's currently going for over £60 on Amazon- anyone who has a copy buried on their bookshelf, do share!)

Drew Barrymore is evidently strong and hugely successful. Now 40, she is an actress, a producer, a photographer, beauty company co-founder, the creator of her own wine label and a mother to two young daughters. So when her book 'Wildflower' came out, I put it on my Christmas list.

Rather than a memoir or a traditional autobiography, 'Wildflower' is similar to Lena Dunham's 'Not That Kind of Girl' in that it is a collection of stories or recollections- the back cover of the hardback reads "We all have stories to tell. These are mine". Out of chronology, the book is designed for you to dip in and out of, yet I essentially read it in one sitting.

Other reviews of the book have declared it too guarded and bland. It doesn't have enough 'truth' in it. In other words it's 'not juicy enough'. As humans, we all want to know the private, dirty details of other peoples' lives; we have Instagram and read blogs; we slow down as we drive past car crashes; we binge watch murder shows on Netflix. I'm still interested in Drew Barrymore's difficult childhood but she clearly thought this book wasn't the place for those details. And why should it be? 25 years on, she obviously wanted to write about many of the other little moments in her life and that's fine by me.

You know those friends you may have had for years who know everything that's happened in your life? Every detail. When you speak to them, you may throw a sentence or two into conversation which references the 'big things', the 'tough things' you've had to 'get through', because the conversation calls for it. And to that friend, this isn't a big deal. They know immediately what you're talking about and they nod and the conversation continues. There is a level of intimacy there with old old friends. And Drew Barrymore's book writes to you just like that. In stories such as 'My Beautiful Laundrette' or 'The Royal Hawaiian', 'Bird of Paradise' or 'Seagull', she drops in details about her childhood because they are relevant and needed. But they are not really the main focus of the narrative. They aren't designed to make you go 'oh my god she did what at what age?!' There's a level of acceptance of her past and it feels like she's really letting you into it by leaving the grisly details out.


The book as a whole is uplifting. At times it is funny (after a naked Playboy shoot when she was around nineteen, Steven Spielberg, her godfather, sent her a quilt as a gift with a note telling her to 'cover up') Often, it is touching. At times some tales do feel a little like 'fillers' and verge on the mundane. And Drew Barrymore really overuses the exclamation marks to the point of being irritating. But there is a tenderness and a heart to the book. One of my favourite stories in there is 'Flossy', a narrative all about her dogs Flossy, Vivien and Templeton and how they were essentially her world for seventeen years. There's a real vulnerability in some of the stories and she is relatable in so many ways.

It is a very easy, very quick read. It won't win any prizes for literary merit. But it leaves you with a little insight into who Drew Barrymore has become, 33 or so years after 'E.T', the film which started it all.

a little light reading...

So seeing as I am currently confined to the sofa after a few beautifully festive days of eating and drinking myself into a coma, I thought I'd catch up on a little blogging. The year is nearly at a close and all around people are feeling contemplative, doing a little soul searching by reflecting on the year just gone. It only felt right to join them. In a book-y sort of way.

2015 has been one of big changes for me. One of the biggest was my decision to go part time in my teaching job, finally listening to my body and giving my mental health a little break- some much needed room to breathe. By doing so, I was able to apply for and start an MA in Creative Writing, one specifically geared towards getting a novel written and (hopefully) published. This is honestly one of the best decisions I have ever made. I'm fortunate enough to be able to do it purely because I want to and being able to have that time to pursue something entirely selfish has made everything so much more beautiful and bearable for me. I'm doing something for me. Just because I want to. My life isn't entirely consumed now by the torturous workload that teaching can generate. I feel more like a whole person, and I am beginning to actually enjoy teaching now- something I didn't think I'd ever be able to say.

With all this in mind, I thought I'd share the books from my set reading list of my first module. We read a lot. Two texts a week between September and December to be precise. Each week was focused on a different aspect of the 'writer's craft'- we read these books to see how the authors pulled things off, whether that be a genre or a character. We then did a lot of writing, trying to learn from, be inspired by, or mimic, to a point, what we had read.

I hated many of these books. I loved a handful. But they were all helpful. And all are relatively recent publications. So have a little look below, read a couple and decide for yourself.

1) The Seed Collectors by Scarlett Thomas
 Parts I liked. Mystical elements, family secrets. The character of Bryony (because she is fabulous to hate). Parts I didn't. Some sections felt a little trashy. Worth a read. 

2) Satin Island by Tom McCarthy

Boring as hell. Clever book, in theory. Hailed as a great text- hence the Man Booker nomination. I can see what McCarthy is doing. Didn't make it any easier to read. 

3) Killing Monica by Candace Bushnell

Chick lit trash. Hated it. Hated her. Hated everyone who would buy this book. Hated myself for being hooked enough to read to the end. Dear God. By the author who wrote the Sex and the City novels. I like the TV show. I've seen every episode. But TV is where vacuous characters and ridiculous narratives like this should remain.

4) Dexter is Dead by Jeff Lindsay

As genre fiction goes, this was better than Monica. I have been told the TV show Dexter is great. But I'm not convinced by the book. Maybe others in his series were better? This book is the last of seven by Lindsay and it reads like a thriller film. An awful, cliched one. 

5) Seize the Day by Saul Bellow

Call me a literature snob but this was more like it. The type of novel that has something to say and says it well. 

6) Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

Beautifully written. Stunning and disturbing. Loved it. One of my favourites on the course. 

7) On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

I'd read this twice before and taught extracts of it to my year 13s. Most readers have an opinion on McEwan. Apparently he's very marmite. I've only read three of his books (Atonement, Enduring Love and this) but I've enjoyed all of them, for various reasons. This one is poignant and frustrating (but it is meant to be so). A great read. 

8) Summertime by J.M. Coetzee

A really interesting text. It is the third in a series of 'fictionalised memoirs' and details the life of a John Coetzee from five people that knew him. Carefully crafted. Made me want to read up on the author and read his previous works. 

9)The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

A darkly humorous perspective of India's underclass. It won the Man Booker prize in 2008 which does surprise me a little. It almost reads like a YA novel at times. The is lovely. The story is disturbing at times and definitely thought provoking. I would recommend. 

10) The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

I didn't think I'd like this novel but I absolutely loved it. Full of history, superstition, details of a family across generations and science fiction references, it is a unique novel. Immerses you in the culture of the characters and, although the vast quantity of Spanish makes it hard to read at times, it is necessary to the story. A friend on the course listened to the audio book and I'm tempted to read it again just so I can do the same. Heartbreaking and humbling.

11) Baptism by Max Kinnings

'Thriller' week. I love a good thriller. This played on my worst fears, fears of the moment like many thrillers do. Terrorism. Tube trains. Being trapped. Eurgh! It was definitely a 'page turner'. It gets a little far fetched at times but it is also truly terrifying in parts. The lecture this week was also given by the author which was a big plus. I even went on to read the second 'Ed Mallory' thriller (the blind hostage negotiator who the text centers around), a novel called Sacrifice which I have just finished today. I'd recommend both, but Baptism more so. 

12) Sleep Walkers by Tom Grieves

 Thoroughly intriguing premise. A great set of ideas but fails to deliver. It felt like the start of a series of books as the ending and explanations were unsatisfying. Wanted a little more. 

13) If Then by Matthew De Abaitua

I was dreading Sci-fi week. Just not my thing at all. I was pleasantly surprised by parts of this text though. Dystopian world. People are controlled through implants in their skulls by 'The Process'. But it is just all a bit odd. All a bit confusing. I just didn't really get this one. Maybe if Sci-fi is your thing, you may do. 

14) The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin

Again, just not my thing. Too many planets for my liking! But it is really well written and I did enjoy parts. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to finish this one though...

15) Face by Benjamin Zephania

Teaching KS3, I knew of Zephania before 'Children's Fiction' week but wasn't ever hooked. I thought this was a great book for 11/12 year olds. Deals with issues of identity and physical appearance. 

16) Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephania

Now. I was having a bit of a stressful, emotional week but this book did reduced me to tears. It's a hugely important text for children to read, in my opinion, especially with everything going on in the world today. I've already recommended it a few times to the 14 years olds I teach. It's heart wrenching, touching and infuriating. 

17) Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 

I was meant to read this on my undergrad course but the first line (depending on which translation you read, it declares that 'When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed into a monstrous vermin') made me throw it across my room. No way was I reading a book about a man who turns into an insect! But I actually read it this time. It's obviously a classic. We now have the word 'Kafkaesque' (look it up). It's surreal, bizarre and disturbing. It is very much a text you 'study' but worth a read- even if it is just to be able to say you have when speaking to a bunch of literary snobs... 

 18) Vertigo by W.G Sebald

Very much in the same vein as Satin Island for me. Critics apparently love it. I can see what he's trying to do. But my god it's confusing and dull. 

19) American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Horror week. I'd been waiting for this one! Most people have probably seen the film. The book is amazing. It's vile, disgusting, hilarious and so so well crafted. A definite must read. If you can stomach both graphic sex and graphic violence of  course... Proceed with caution.

20) Haunted by Chuck Palahnuik

The same author who wrote Fight Club. Very weird book. A lot of smaller short stories held together by one larger narrative (each short story is supposedly written by a character from the larger narrative). It's not exactly scary. More unsettling. Stomach turning at times. Just a bit bizarre. 

21) Funes el Memorioso by Jorge L Borges

A short fantasy story about the nature of memory and lost opportunity. Again, one you would be made to 'study'. Interesting concept. A bit meh. 

22) Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

A classic, of course. You've heard of it. The novel and the phrase 'catch 22'. You've probably used it. I'm surprised I haven't read the novel until now. We read it to focus on how the author uses time in the narrative. But there are so many more aspects to it. Annoying at times, but I enjoyed it as a whole. I'd recommend it. 

If you're still with me, well done! There's a whirlwind tour of the novels I've devoured in the latter half of 2015. Try a few.

Hello again...

So I'm giving this another go. I never finished my best picks from last year. And now this year is almost over, terrifyingly. So once again with the long cold nights drawing in and the desperate count down until the Christmas holidays underway, I needed something to keep me busy. To trick myself into thinking I'm hugely productive. 

I'm calling time on the unfinished posts from nearly a year ago and starting fresh. They will still be books. There will still be little musings. Just a little shorter and hopefully a little more frequently. I may even include some writing of my own and a maybe a few more day to day 'what I got up to' posts. 

This year has been a busy one. I had a tantrum about my little life stagnating in a small village so I've upped and moved to Brighton and it's marvelous. I had a tantrum about teaching so dropped my hours and am now doing a writing MA. Again, marvelous. And a wonderful excuse to read even more books.