Review: Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



A funny well written collection of short stories about the afterlife, 40 hilariously written versions of how the world see on the afterlife. A great book which amused me from beginning to end, Eagleman is a great and clever writer and Sum is a book everyone will enjoy!



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Review: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I utterly loved this play, never seen the film , but now I have to and. I could really see Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman as the obsessive wife and the drunken husband struggling with marital issues. A beautifully written story with characters that are so well rounded that it's hard to grip that the story is actually quite short, way too short if you ask me, I want to know what happens after, I want to know what Brick actually felt for the friend he lost, I want to know how Maggie wound up, about Big Daddy about everything. An amazing play which probably wouldn't have been as good if we did find out all those things.



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Review: Casino Royale

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I would have given this book a higher grade if it wouldn't have been for the unbelievably sexist view on women, well I guess I always knew the Bond series was a little like that from watching the movies but the book was So much more evident on his view on women and their capability on doing a 'man's' job. However, it was a great story and as said I am a huge bond-fan, always been, so I enjoyed reading the material that became the movies and Fleming is a great writer... but yeah, seeing how women are portrayed through his eyes on paper was more evident than I thought.






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Review: Breakfast at Tiffany's

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I completely loved it, even though it is a mere 100+ pages I fell for Holly's character right away and I really wish the novel was longer.



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Review: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

My rating: 4 of 5 stars







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Review: The Dwarf

The Dwarf by Pär Lagerkvist

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



A truly AMAZING novel from master writer Pär Lagerkvist. It is probably the best Swedish book I have ever read after Doctor Glas. A beautifully written eerie story with a haunting narrative from a Dwarf working in renaissance Italy for a Monarch who uses him for his evil deeds. A true classic which I recommend everyone to read.



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Review: What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal

What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



this novel instantly drew me in, I felt like I could have read it in just one go, a gripping story of a subject which most people find fascinating I think, the forbidden love or desire between an middle age woman and her 15 year old pupil. Heller writes beautifully and unpretentious making the reading so easy and with the method of the narrator being a third person looking at the relationship from the outside telling their story adds to originality and cleverness. I truly enjoyed this book and would recommend it highly!



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Review: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Not my favourite Joyce book, very heavy with religious talk and references, I believe that was the reason I didn't really enjoy it. Joyce is a brilliant writer but in this novel it is too much of that, too much of nothing really happening, more Stephen's struggle of finding his place in the world. My Literature teacher told us a lot of background of this novel and the impact Joyce actually made for writing this, considering he is questening religion, god and struggles with his sexuality so I do appreciate that, hence the 3/5 rather than 2/5. This is my second time reading this so perhaps I need to research Irish history and catholicism beforehand to really understand it because I believe it is a great novel I just need another go to really appreciate everything I think.



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Review: Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Another amazing novel from Kazuo Ishiguro, whenever I pick up one of his books I have the highest of expectations and I am never dissappointed. He is the elit amongst authors for me because his style of writing and storytelling is utterly captivating and even though he was soley writing about the life of hosue flies, it would be a masterpiece.
Nevel let me go is a realist novel which brushes sci-fi since it is set in an alternative universe where our tenchological skills in cloning is beyond of what's possible now and Ishiguro portrays the life of three of them that are only brought up to donate their organs to "real" people with diseases or injuries. So Ishiguro explores friendship, love and what it is to be human. A fantastic novel well worth reading.



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Review: Kingdom Come

Kingdom Come by J.G. Ballard

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A great satire of our over-consumerism world and what it can do to your mind. I think Ballard writes something real even though it is set in a dystopian society and it is not far fetched from the real world which is sadly filled with racism, violence and consumerism. Ballard is a master writer and when he died we lost a man who could brilliantly criticize our flawed world.



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Review: The Heir of Night

The Heir of Night by Helen Lowe

My rating: 0 of 5 stars







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Review: Pure

Pure by Julianna Baggott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A really great dystopian novel from Julianna Baggott. I was hooked from the very first page and when I finished it the pace had kept up through the whole book and continually given me fascinated reading. She creates original dark characters and events which makes me hungry for more.



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Review: The Faerie Queene

The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A beautifully written text by Edmund Spenser.



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Review: Sheepshagger

Sheepshagger by Niall Griffiths

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



An Amazing novel about a boy Ianto who is robbed of his family and country left broken, alone and disturbed.
it is not a happy book but oh my goodness, it is quite brilliant.



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Review: Titus Andronicus

Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Revenge, blood, murder, deceit, violence, more blood and more murders. Most gruesome Shakespeare I have ever read and it was brilliant.



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storytelling through pictures

I was shopping at Waterstones today and saw a tote bag they were selling with a drawing on it and I instantly recognised the style and I was thrown back in to a nostalgia trip of my first love of books and reading, I was so over joyed by the discovery and to own the tote bad was ow a necessity. The drawing is made by Quentin Blake, he used to draw all the Roald Dahl books and his writing was my first love and a part of that was Blake's drawings. So I started thinking about images in books and how much it can effect us as children and adults as well as I fully found out today. So, what artist has affected me the most, for me the answer is crystal clear.

Quentin Blake.
A master illustrator who has enriched many lives I am sure. I discovered him, as many did, through the magic worlds of Roald Dahl, I remember the first book I ever read by him was The Fantastic Mr Fox, I was about 8 and I was hooked in every way. After that I read everything Dahl ever wrote, borrowing his books from the library over and over again, and to this day, I just completely relish in his writin,  And Blake's drawings was a part of that, it brought everything to life as you imagined it in your head making the stories almost seemed real. For me he is by far the illustrator to book, which drawings I treasured the most.

 Hans Arnold.
A master illustrator for horror novels, and for me, being Swedish, he is extremely well known. In all major weekly magazines who had mystery or horror short stories in them, Arnold was most likely the illustrator. He made the most gruesome and morbid pictures of, monsters, murderers, ghost and thieves and I used to cut them out and hang them on my walls. Perhaps he didn't draw for classic children books but somehow for me he is very connected to my childhood and what I read, I probably was reading stories a bit more to the grown-up side. However, for me he will always be the artist who made me inspired to read in those magazines, he was actually the sole reason why I even looked in those magazines, a true artist.

Paul Kidby.
Well. If Roald Dahl represented my childhood and first love for books and reading, Terry Pratchett represents my early teens and the big doorway in to fantasy. I started reading Pratchett when I was around 12, I absolutely adored him and in our library in school they had quite a collection of his work so I was obviously hooked from the get-go. Paul Kidby illustrated all the covers to Pratchett's books and he did it, or does it brilliantly... the details, the humour, the references, everything is just perfect for the magic of Pratchett's world. I have a copy of 'The Last Hero' which is fully illustrated and more of a work of art than anything else. This is when I saw Rincewind, the luggage, Death, the chimpanzee and of course the Discworld in its full glory for the first time and I can not imagine a book from Pratchett now without seeing these characters brought to life by Kidby. He truly created something wonderful and even though Pratchett is a genius as an author Kidby's remarkable drawings pushes it to yet another level of greatness.


Another artist that must be on my list, and despite the fact he actually drew for comic books and not books or short stories I can not exclude him, fore he was such a big part of my childhood when it came to story telling and me being completely mesmerized by pictures, and that is 
Don Rosa.
Everyone who ever read Donald Duck must have seen his art, His style was quite different from other artists drawing Scrooge and his friends, and perhaps not everyone appreciate the meticulous work he put in to his pictures, for instance my mother did not like his style at all and preferred the more straight forward, clean style of Donald Duck that is for me typical Disney. However, I and I'm sure many others, looked forward to those attached complex stories of Scrooge and the rest out on adventures all over the world (and space) and I even cut everything out and put them up on my wall, Still have many of them and they still satisfy me enormously, because for the stories and art work it's more grown up and twisted than you would imagine be in a kids comic book. Nevertheless, I'm glad it did since it introduced me to Rosa's magnificent world which I can read and look at over and over again.

Review: Surface Detail

Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A fantastic science fiction novel with almost uncountable layers to it which made it feel like reading 5 different novels. A must-read for sci-fi fans



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Books

Well, As you may or may not know I am a complete Book Worm. When I grow up I want to be a Book Critic, I just started university to do a BA in English Literature, and I don't think any education would suit me better than that

I have since I could read, read, I am also an intern at the Sci-Fi-London Film festival where I do admin stuff but just recently started reading and reviewing sci-fi/fantasy books for them, which I find extremely rewarding and useful. The best practise is to study and work for experience and I am doing both so I am really excited about the future and I so want to learn how to write and find new books to love.

My father had a comic book / second hand book shop so growing up I spent all my free time in that shop, my most vivid comic book- memories of reading down there was, Beetle Bailey, The Phantom, Blondie, Modesty Blaise, MAD, everything I could find from Don Rosa and all the westerns I could lay my hands on. And books, I remember my dad had this enormous collection of horror novels, can't recall what the name of the series was but I loved them! The covers were drawn in this horrible great exciting way, and sometimes I could just sit and look at them. I also loved the classics and the great adventures in fantasy. I was in this book club that every month gave me a new fantasy novel, and amongst these were, Stardust from Gaiman, all the Pratchett's you could imagine and Zelazny's master series The Chronicles of Amber. So my passion has always been there, and not much has changed, I still read all of that only more authors and books added to my list.

So, the reason why I wanted to start this blog is for my own practise of writing critically and objectively, to expand my views of genres and to share what I think.

My reading list right now is very varied since I started Uni. I have never read much modern non-fiction for some reason but one of my modules are Writing Contemporary Britain, so I am very excited about that one since I want to broaden my reading and not be stuck with Science Fiction, Fantasy, Classics and Biographies (which is all I read)

Therefore I am reading for three different aspects for University, Work and my own personal pleasure.

So, Right now my reading is this.

Blue/Orange - Joe Penhall (uni)

Mary Barton - Elizabeth Gaskell (uni)

Surface Detail - Iain M. Banks (work)

Human Bondage - W Somerset Maugham (self)