in progress: to be read this summer

I had all these intentions of using my sick-time to provide you with loads of great content... It's still all sitting there, in dribs and drafts and unedited photographs - and it will be with you sooner or later. I didn't realise how tired recovering makes you, though! Thank-you, by the way, to everyone that left lovely comments on my sick-bed post, you're all sweethearts. :) Anyway, what I have been doing, is reading. Reading a bit, snoozing a bit, waking up and reading some more....

Here is the pile that I'm slowly working my way through. I talked a bit about Clariel previously, and it was a nice, fantasy read that took me back to my youth, and was easy to flick through and occupy me for a short while. Stardust by Neil Gaiman was such a sweet little book that I finished it in one sitting over a few hours, I'd like to write a proper review of this, so hopefully I'll get around to that.

Hyperion was recommend to me by my good friend Tam, and has since been pinched by my mother, who has told me it's quite interesting, and Satantango I bought years ago, whilst at uni. I started reading it and was interested, but as is the way with university courses, you have to put leisure reading on hold and read things for your course, particularly whilst writing a dissertation or some such essay. I think recently it has come out in paperback or had a resurgence, as I've seen it around in bookshops quite a bit - I remembered I left it unfinished, so will try again.

I'm currently in the middle of Vermilion Sands, which is a series of short stories by Ballard (annoyingly, I didn't realise I had all these already in an anthology of his short stories, but it's a nice edition to have, and a bit more easy to read than the giant tome of his short stories). The stories within it are all centred on a fictional desert resort, with the usual dreamy decay that he writes so well, and although I've read a couple of the stories in the collection already, it's nice to have them collected like this. 

The Drought (also known as The Burning World) has been on my list for quite some time, and I'm quite excited to read this - it comes as part of an unofficial collection with The Drowned World (which I am yet to finish) and The Crystal World, which is one of my favourite books of all time, so I have high hopes for liking this one, as well. 

What are you reading at the moment? Have you got any recommend summer reads?

And also, whilst we're on the subject, I know there is a whole world of 'book-tube' out there, however this is distinctly driven by the young adult audience (which unfortunately, I no longer am); so if you have any recommendations for more adult book bloggers, vloggers or youtubers, please leave below!

- book reviews -

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Clariel by Garth Nix Giveaway!

As a child, I literally devoured any book I could get my hands on. The bigger and the longer the better (I'm not much changed, I'm looking at you, ASOIAF). So when I was about nine, I can't remember exactly, a friend let me a copy of Sabriel, I sped through it as quick as I could, and asked for the next in the series (as I was big into series, as this kept my attention for longer), only to be extremely disappointed to find out there was none. Skip forward a few years, and to my delight, discovered Lireal, and subsequently Abbhorsen. 

So as you can see - I have long been a fan of the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix. If you've picked up any of his works, you know he's got a great writing style. One thing I do particularly love is the way that he writes young women - which you think would be poor or a pastiche, but it's really interesting to see the perspective of a realistic and flawed young woman. I think this is something that is becoming more prevalent in literature these days, but Nix has been doing this at least since 1995, when Sabriel was released. 

The story focuses on the titular character, Clariel, who has been moved from her life in the forest, where she enjoys the company of herself, to the capital city, and is immediately thrown into a world she doesn't care for, and a society she is at odds with. I could describe more, but I think I'd be in danger of giving the plot away, but it's a really fantastic story, set in a world that reminds me of nothing else. The magic in the book really intrigues me - as someone familiar with the magic in the later books, it's interesting to see it's foundations, and what things will become. The book weaves elements of intrigue, magic and action to become what it is, and if you like any of these strands, I think you'd like this book.

I always worry when books say they can be read alone, but considering it's been quite some years since I re-read the series - I can safely say that this is a great story for someone familiar with the Old Kingdom world, and also new to it. 

You can purchase Clariel by Garth Nix at Amazon, however, Hot Key Books have given me the exciting opportunity to give away a copy of Clariel! I've never done a giveaway before, so it's really lovely to be able to give something back to you my lovely readers.

To enter, simply follow me on Bloglovin' and leave your username in the box below - that's it! You can win an extra entry if you want to follow me on Twitter. 

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW OVER.

Terms and conditions: Giveaway is UK only. Prize is being awarded by Hot Key Books, so if you win, I will need to be given your name and address to pass on to them. Winner will be drawn at random on the 7th July - if the winner does not reply within 48 hours of me contacting them, I will pick another winner. Winner must be a follower on Bloglovin', I will check.

This copy was sent to me to review by Hot Key Books.

the goldfinch by donna tartt: an emotional review

"Sometimes we want what we want, even if we know it's going to kill us."

I'm going to try and write this review with no spoilers, and without sobbing, but I literally just finished The Goldfinch, and I have so many feelings about it, that I want to share. It might not be the most comprehensive review, but perhaps it is more of deconstruction of my emotional state, post-reading...

Firstly, I bought this book with some apprehension. The Secret History, also written by Donna Tartt, is one of my favourite books in the world, and I read it at a time in my life when I was very impressionable and emotional. It was one of those things that 'spoke to me', if you will forgive me for how cheesy that sounds. It's for this sort of reason that I've never had any desire to pick up The Little Friend by Tartt - I read The Secret History, with its classical themes, Dionysian characters and bacchanalia's at a time when I was studying Classics and English Literature school, and it was all wrapped up in everything I loved and felt at the time, and it seemed so perfect. It's like a snapshot of my time at college and my life, then.

But, I'm digressing, we were supposed to be talking about The Goldfinch, here! When it was released, I was reluctant to pick it up, taking a few months to actually getting round to reading it. I started this book at New Year, got about 4 pages in, and felt like it was too much to read? I don't know, I was very ill and suffering from the flu, so maybe I was feverish. Either way, the next day, I tried again, and devoured two thirds of the book within several days.

The novel follows the life of Theo Decker, which begins in New York, where he lives with his mother, after his father has left. It starts of slowly, I won't lie, and it takes some getting used to, in a way. I almost lose interest in the details and minutia of Theo's life, until the catastrophe happens, and his mother dies, and I am hooked, just like that. I am suddenly thrown into a story that I'm incredibly invested in, and I find myself caring deeply for characters with questionable morals and motives. The painting in question, The Goldfinch by Fabritius, feels like a character in itself, in how Tartt describes it and how much of a role it plays.

"My moods were a slingshot; after being locked down and anaesthetised for years my heart was zinging and slamming itself around like a bee under a glass, everything bright, sharp, confusing, wrong - but it was a clean pain as opposed to the dull misery that had plagued me for years under the drugs like a rotten tooth, the dirty ache of something spoiled."

Whilst the beginning is slow, the middle portion of the novel, detailing the teenage years of Theo, could drag, but the way that Tartt writes, eases the process. The novel feels like something is slowly winding up, coiling and getting tighter until it springs or snaps, and when it does, I was flying through the pages, practically inhaling the words.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact I studied art that I feel so strongly about it; but there is a line about how a painting speaks to you, when when you see something that you can relate to so precisely, that you feel like it was created for you. I think that is sort of how I feel about The Goldfinch - and I guess my way of relating to something is unique to me. I find the book so emotional (the last page or so, I was sobbing) because it speaks to my own references, my own experiences of things loved and lost, and I want to claim it, and make other people view it the way that I do. But it doesn't really work like that, does it? Cause you will have a completely different experience and references of reading this book to me, or of viewing my favourite painting...

"But if a painting really works down in your heart and changes the way you see, and think, and feel, you don't think, 'oh, I love this picture because it's universal.' 'I love this painting because it speaks to all mankind.' That's not the reason anyone loves a piece of art. It's a secret whisper from an alleyway. Psst, you. Hey kid. Yes you... Yours, yours, I was painted for you."

There is intrigue, obviously, violence and crime, and a bitterness and seediness that runs throughout the novel, and present always, is the distance you feel from Theo and everyone around him, because of the painting. This kind of thing is what I enjoy, as a bitter human myself; I enjoy romanticising things that are not and shouldn't be, and the last chapter or so, after everything has happened, I feel like I could've wrote myself, like Tartt reached into my conscience and poured out a bunch of my thoughts. I want to make people love things like I do, I want to protect beautiful things. People say I'm a marshmallow...

"That maybe even if we're not always so glad to be here, it's our task to immerse ourselves anyway: wade straight through it, right through the cesspool, while keeping eyes and hearts open."

book review: the snow child by eowyn ivey

This was a book I'd heard a lot about, I'd seen it for ages, on trains and in bookstores and charity shops. It seemed like my kind of thing, magical realism set in the Alaskan wilderness, with unreliable narrators and foxes... I saw it for £2 in a charity shop and thought I couldn't really go wrong. 

I wanted to write this review when the book was still fresh in my mind, however I didn't, and I think it says a lot about the book that I can barely remember anything about it. It was a very quick read, I think I read it in a couple of evenings, it captured my attention enough to finish it, which isn't always a given in my case.

I think though, I am not the kind of person this book is aimed at, and I'm highly surprised it's been rated so highly on Good Reads. The story focuses on an older couple, Mabel and Jack, who move to the Alaskan wilderness after Mabel cannot cope with the death of their child. The beginning of the book interested me, the emphasis on the loneliness of the wild they have moved to, but I really didn't invest anything in the characters, and after Faina appears several times and they begin to interact with her, my interested dropped off rapidly. The story from there on out was predictable, and I found myself skipping over the lack of plot, because I was bored.

It's sad, because I felt like the story had a lot of potential, but it really just fell flat, and I remember very little about it, except for a lot of descriptions of snow. Have you read this and did you enjoy it? Let me know, because I felt like I was missing something, as so many people seemed to enjoy it! 

current reads: whales and wyndhams

These two books have been sitting on my bedside table (well, the shelf above my bed!) for a few weeks, but I'm trying to make a conscious effort to get through them this week. It's not that I'm not interested in them, I just keep forgetting that they're there when I'm in the middle of making a quilt and knitting my current sweater. 

Leviathan, or The Whale is a non-fiction novel about one mans relationship with whales and the sea, and it's full of such amazingly interesting information, it's one of those charity shop finds that has been so good.

One of my favourite book-tubers (youtubers that talk about books, weirdly enough) Sanne Vliegenthart aka Books and Quills, recommended The Chrysalids, and it sounded right up my street. My mum dug out this pretty old copy with an awesome cover (the cool thing about having a nerdy mother is the great amount of seventies-eighties science-fiction book covers I can unearth in our house..

What are you reading at the moment?

review; people who eat darkness

People Who Eat Darkness: Love, Grief and a Journey Into Japan's Shadows, Richard Lloyd Parry

The other day I was in town with my mum scouring charity shops and came across a really good find - a book I've had my eye on since I popped in my Wishlist on my Amazon back in May 2013. It cost me a single hard-earned pound, saving me a good amount, too. Just to preface the review; I am well aware these kind of books aren't everyones cup of tea, but I have a strange interest in true crime fiction, that started when I read In Cold Blood back in sixth-form. I have a few books on criminal psychology and 'interview with serial-killer' style books, and whilst I understand how they can be problematic in glorifying the killer, not the victim, I found that this book did the opposite; honouring the victim, in a way.

People Who Eat Darkness: Love, Grief, and a Journey Into Japan's Shadows is so intriguing to me because Japan is a culture that is completely alien to me. It is very intensely researched, written by a journalist who investigated the case when it occurred when he lived in Tokyo, drawing from a huge archive of interviews with the family and friends and police that were involved with the case. It is the story of a British girl called Lucie Blackman who disappeared in 2000 from Tokyo, whose body was later found in a cave at the seaside. The case is something that I remember vaguely from my childhood, one of those things that was always hastily turned off by my mother, like that of Milly Dowler, whose body was discovered in my local woods: seen but never spoken about.

The book is well written, unfolding throughout a series of interview transcripts, with Lucie's father, sister, other friends, but told in such a way that it feels like fiction. The most interesting aspect was the view of the Japanese police force, which is alarming at best, and the way that they dealt with the case. I urge you to read it to find out the facts behind the case, because I have devoured the book in a matter of days, it's that engaging.

The most compelling reason for encouraging you to read this book, though, is the overwhelming humanity and sadness of it. I know I have the ability to completely separate my emotions from cases like these, but the  amount of depth and insight into her life and family at the beginning of the book made finding out what happened to her really intense and I actually got very sad and emotional reading it. 

I'll say again; I really do recommend this book with caution: it is quite graphic and sexual and definitely not for anyone unprepared or under eighteen, probably. That said, I think its a very interesting read, if a little hard at times.