A Blogging Good Read - December

Joining me for Blogging Good Read this month are Emma from Miss Pond and Lucy from Books and Brooches. Without further ado, onto the reviews!

My pick was Rivers of Londonby Ben Aaronovitch:

It's London, but not entirely as we know it... This books is set in what is essentially the modern-day capital city but magic exists there, and it exists in a somewhat old fashioned way. Our hero, PC Peter Grant, has a run in with a ghost and gets drafted into a very small and specialised branch of the Met. It's run by a wizard and he sets about teaching Grant how to solve magical crimes.

I love a good police procedural book so that side obviously appeals to me, but I'm not a big fan of urban fantasy. Well, maybe that's not entirely true. I like it when it's done well - Neil Gaiman and this series for example - but not so much when it's all people in leather coats running around chasing faeries. This is a lot more grounded in reality and I love how the author weaves in a real sense of the city. The mythology is equally grounded in the location - rivers are also people, each with their own distinct character. Altogether it's a book (and a series) that I find enormously entertaining and satisfying.


What did Lucy think of it?

I was so pleased that this had been picked as this is one of my favourite series. I used to live in London so really enjoy reading about all the places I knew (minus the murder of course!). I've always enjoyed fantasy fiction and like how this merges police work with the fantastical. The idea of the rivers being human, all with different personalities is such an interesting concept. I enjoyed re-reading this and am looking forward to the next in the series due in 2016.

How about Emma?

I must admit, despite loving Harry Potter, fantasy books are not usually my first pick since my teen years. However, I was intrigued by Rivers of London, as it describes itself as an ‘urban fantasy,’ which I’m still not sure what one of those is but I did catch on to the type of story… The story follows Peter Grant, starting out as a trainee wizard and a detective constable, which of course makes his job a little (a lot) more interesting than it was before. I love how Aaronovitch pulls you into London as the story is told, you feel like you can almost smell the city his writing is so capturing. For those of you questioning the magic thing, think sophisticated Harry Potter… I loved it so much I’m on to the third book now.

Emma chose The Rules of Attractionby Bret Easton Ellis:

So this was my pick, I have loved Bret Easton Ellis for years but I know others who don’t, his writing is very marmite and in cases not for the faint hearted (American Psycho). ROA is a story about a couple of college students (mainly Sean, Paul and Lauren) and their completely meaningless existence of sex, drugs and parties. This is Ellis’ usual writing style and it’s quite refreshing to read something from the people directly involved in the story. This means you get the different sides of the story of the people involved in the same love triangle and to see how the same situations, words and actions are perceived completely differently depending on what the person wants it to be. It’s not for everyone and I understand why, it is almost written as a nothing book, you get nothing at the end from it but somehow something during the duration. For those of you who can’t be bothered at all check out the film from 2002, with Dawson from Dawson’s Creek in it. I’m glad I’ve finally read it (it’s been on my shelf for some time) but it doesn’t beat Ellis’ first novel Less Than Zero or American Psycho.

If this is a marmite book, I'm afraid I fall into the "strongly dislike" camp. Sorry Emma! I gave it a fair shot but I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't going to be my cup of tea and sure enough, it wasn't. He's clearly an accomplished author but it's not a style or genre I particularly enjoy and the best writing in the world isn't enough to get me beyond that.

What did Lucy think of it?

I did try to read this book, honestly I did. However after the first chapter I just couldn't continue. The occasional swearing and vulgarity don't bother me but this was filled with them and that's just not something I want or need to read. So unfortunately (for BGR) I did not finish this.

Lucy went for The Shepherd's Crownby Terry Pratchett:

I am a die hard Terry Pratchett fan since I first read Johnny and the Dead in Year 6 (a very long time ago!). His writing is always clever as well as funny and his characters are brilliantly written. Although I have no desire to go off and fight the fair folk, this book had me yearning for a stay in the countryside again.

Having grown up with his Discworld novels it feels like I know the characters personally, so some tears may have been shed whilst reading this. To condense how I felt about this book is extremely difficult, particularly as I didn't want to write any spoilers! Safe to say if you are a fan of the Discworld books you'll love it. If you haven't read any of them before I'd suggest starting with something earlier, as this has lots of inside jokes/parts which you may miss. I will miss the excitement of getting a new Terry Pratchett book and devouring it in one sitting, his death is a huge loss.

Did Emma enjoy it?

I read a lot of Pratchett as a kid, but grew out of it when gritty crime novels came into my hands as a teen (and my obsession with science began). So this was a bit of a reminder of how much I have missed reading his spell binding works and the sadness that no more Disc World novels will be released. I really don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read it, but it was an emotional ride and I of course cried at the end. It is obvious from points that he had not completely finished the book, which was discussed before its release, but the story (beginning/middle/end) was there and still wonderful. A great book for the series to finish on I think!

I was a little bit torn before picking up this book. I love Terry Pratchett but I'm not a big fan of the witches books: my heart lies with the Guards series. As such, I haven't read any of the previous books featuring Tiffany Aching although I am familiar enough with most of the other characters.

In one way I got what I expected. I was irritated by the Nac Mac Feegles and I still don't love the witches the way I do the guards. And yes, there are certain parts where you can kinda tell that it wasn't properly finished before publication.  On the other hand, it's an absolutely wonderful book. All the very best things about Pratchett's writing shine through the whole story - it's funny, enthralling and hugely imaginative. It's also really emotional. I don't know if the knowledge of his fate coloured my reading of one particular plot strand but I didn't expect to be crying by page 36! It broke my heart.


Thanks so much Emma and Lucy! It was lovely to have you both taking part.

The book picks for next month are Swallows and Amazonsby Arthur Ransome, I Capture The Castleby Dodie Smith and The Readerby Bernhard Schlink.

The Chop

I braved hell last week.

I haven't been to the hairdressers for I don't know how long. 18 months? Probably longer than that. I hate people touching my hair and I can't abide small talk. I'm sure some of you can think of nothing nicer than being faffed over but I loathe it. Two of the hairdressers came over and stroked my hair and said how lovely it was. TWO. I genuinely had to fight my punching impulse. Uninvited hair-stroking is not ok, people.

Also did I mention I hate small talk?

The deed had to be done though. I have quite a lot of hair and it's also incredibly tatty. I don't have to do anything, it just gets into enormous (and painful) tangles. When it's as long as it was, it was a neverending battle to de-tatt it. And yup, it had got quite long.

I got it chopped.

Better pictures will follow at some point but for now, yay, hair chop!

It's Black and White Really

I was anti-leggings for a long time. That was the side-effect of being born in the 80s: you grew up wearing wildly patterned leggings and oversized tshirts and it wasn't the best of looks. Definitely not something I wanted to reprise in later life, so when they came back into shops a few years ago, I wasn't a fan.

Then I became a total convert. Of plain black ones, anyway. I have loads of long jumpers and too-short dresses (dunno how, I'm only 5'2!) and they were perfect to chuck on underneath. But then I bought a house and did all the redecorating whilst wearing my comfiest clothes. Et voila, all my leggings ended up covered in paint and I had no money left to buy new clothes. Wah wahhhh.

Pertz came to my rescue recently and asked if I wanted to try out a new pair of leggings to review. Obviously I did! Can't exactly get away with paint-stained ones outside the confines of my own home, can I?  I dusted off a dress that is verging on far-too-short (in its defence, it is from the Petite range and I'm at the tall end of that) and gave them a whirl.

Now I must admit that initially I was a bit "oh god, they're shiny" when I got them out of the packet as I was expecting cotton ones for some reason. I wasn't expecting to love them but it took about two seconds for them to win me over. They're so comfy! Also I won't bore on too much about my weight issues at the moment but suffice to say I am not content with my size right now and my problem area is always, always my dreaded stomach. These leggings are cunningly designed and cut to suck all that in without killing you and the fabric smooths over any potential cellulitey areas too. Yoicks! I might have fat legs but they look considerably better when wearing these!

Dress - Dorothy Perkins
Leggings - Pertz
Cardi - Gap
Heels - Irregular Choice (a few years old but you can find similar here)

A Blogging Good Read - November

Joining me this month for A Blogging Good Read are Liz from Distract Me Now Please and Charlie from Charlie, Distracted. I didn't pick them cos of their matching blog names - just a happy coincidence!


Liz went for Adorkableby Sarra Manning:

Adorkable been on my ‘to read’ list for ages until I finally found it in a charity shop a couple of months ago. I was expecting good things because I love YA fiction and several people had recommended Manning’s books to me. Plot-wise, it charts the love-hate relationship of a kooky blogger and the most popular boy in school. I groaned inwardly when first I realised this, anticipating 2D characters and cringey descriptions of life online but luckily the novel contained neither!

The characters are incredibly well-crafted; I loved the way that Manning plays on the stereotypes, slowly revealing information about the characters in a way that kept challenging my preconceptions. I think the characters are what make the novel work so well; I found that I genuinely cared about what happened to them (even the ones I didn’t particularly like). It’s one of those books that’s very hard to put down, and the plot kept on surprising me until the very end. The ending made me want to punch the air and celebrate the fact that I’m a bit weird (I’m not usually known for my unbridled enthusiasm so that’s a big deal). It also made me really glad that social media didn’t exist when I was at school! I want to go and reread it NOW.


What did Charlie think?

I first read a Sarra Manning book when I was 15. My best friend was on the cover of Guitar Girl so it was obligatory. Having this book as part of this challenge was also obligatory or I would never have gone near it. This is the YA entry point for girls who grow into women who read Cecelia Ahearn and Victoria Hislop (aka my mum). It’s teenage chick lit which is just a bit too mushy for me. I have to say that the main character being a blogger felt totally disingenuous. It reminded me of the main character in Eat My Heart Out (which is the worst book I’ve ever read, so don’t take this as a recommendation), where the author chucked every modern day cliché in there to be ‘relatable’ but totally misses the mark.

Am I allowed to squee like a teenage fangirl? Because this book is BRILLIANT. Despite loving Sarra Manning's other books, I didn't have high hopes when I started it. The protagonist seemed like a British ripoff of Tavi Gevinson and having just read a fairly rubbish book for BGR where the social media star heroine was not well written at all, I was anticipating more of the same. I shouldn't have worried. Manning really gets social media and more importantly than that, she gets consistent characterisation. With the aforementioned book, the main character seemed to have been given social media fame in order to give her some personality (it didn't work) and then it was forgotten about, but here Jeane rings very true thoughout (albeit with a forgiveable smidge of poetic licence when it comes to things like living arrangements).

It's hugely engaging - I stayed up far too late glomming it - and the story fairly rattles along. Yes, I'm a sucker for romance so I enjoyed that part of the plotline but the friendship elements were just as important and I must admit to having a proper cry near the end when Jeane was reading all the emails. It's a fab book and well worth your time.


And now for something completely different...I picked Cold Graniteby Stuart MacBride:



The usual quandary about what to do when your favourite in a series isn't the first book applied here, but I went for Cold Granite. Yes, it's the first of the Logan McRae books but it's a really strong start to a series and I personally think police procedurals make a lot more sense if you start at the beginning rather than with book 3 or 4. McRae has just returned to work with the Aberdeen Police after a year off and then the dead body of a child turns up and well, it all gets worse from there...

MacBride's books are on the grim side but they're also really funny - even 9 books into the series I'm still chortling at some of the descriptions he comes up with for DS Steel. I've worked my way through a lot of crime authors and I can safely say that I enjoy this series more than almost any other. The plots romp along and that's not always something you can say about police books. They should be fast paced and gripping but I've read a lot that aren't. You can't chuck that accusation at this author.  As an example of Tartan Noir, it's a really good 'un!

Did Liz like it?

As a Val McDermid aficionado, I’m no stranger to Scottish crime fiction, so I was excited about having the chance to try a new author.

I really enjoyed Cold Granite. I liked the way that McBride weaved the different plot threads together; the different cases gave the narrative variety and kept me engaged, without making the plot impossible to follow. I was surprised by some of the plot twists but I felt like they just about stayed within the bounds of realism. My only criticism is that I’d have liked more exploration of the main characters, because I found myself wanting to know more about their backgrounds and home lives. This might be something that will come with reading more of the books in the series though. I’m not ready to replace Val just yet, but I will definitely read the next Logan McRae book.

How about Charlie?

I’m 100% sure that if I wasn’t such a wuss, I’d have loved this book. The reason I’ve never read any Stephen King or watched many horror films is because I convince myself it’s real. The thing is, this story could be real and that just upsets me. I wanted to do a Joey style ‘book in the freezer’ thing at one point. Despite this, it did make me chuckle in places and I can see why people would read more in the series as the protagonist is a miserable sod but ultimately good with it.

Charlie chose The First Fifteen Lives of Harry Augustby Claire North:

There’s something about time travel books that has a neverending appeal for me. It leans towards dystopian but doesn’t quite hit fantasy which is the perfect middle ground. This book is just magical. Somehow it is completely believable even though it’s literally impossible (or so I presume!). The main character has a back story and real heart that helps him really grow as a character, despite the fact that he’s technically hundreds of years old. The mortal enemy part is a bit James Bond but it does provide some much needed action. The whole thing is bizarre but beautiful; I’m totally obsessed!


I enjoyed this book, but with reservations. Most authors going with a time travel style plot are going to struggle to make their world and rules really stand out from the norm and although this made a good stab at it, it was ultimately a bit too reminiscent of quite a few other novels. The overall pace and plotting did noticeably dip after the halfway mark as well.

But having said that, I still whizzed through it and it was a good, entertaining read. Harry isn't exactly a likeable character but his lives and the way they unfold are very interesting to read about. You do really root for him to overcome the big bad as the world spins further and further into chaos. I just wish it had been accomplished in a way that matched the first part of the book.

What did Liz think?

Time travel books make my head spin, and this one wasn’t any different! I feel like I have a lot of unanswered questions about how the time travel rules work in the context of this book (although that might well be down to my own stupidity, rather than the explanations given by the author!). I thought the concept was absolutely brilliant, and the notion of ‘kalachakra’ (people who live their life over and over again) really excited me. Ultimately though I found the plot a little disappointing. For me the ending fell a bit flat; it didn’t live up to the promise of the concept and the build-up of the first half of the novel. Overall I thought it was good, but it could have been a lot better.

I now find myself constantly wondering, ‘What if I’m a kalachakra and this is my first life so I’m not aware of it yet?’ Just me..?


Thanks so much to Charlie and Liz for joining in!

Next month we'll be reading The Rules of Attractionby Bret Easton Ellis, Rivers of Londonby Ben Aaronovitch and The Shepherd's Crownby Terry Pratchett.

I Dislike Halloween

I am really not a fan of this time of year. Bonfire Night is my autumn event of choice. Halloween is just hectic and exhausting. It's super busy for us at work and that's kinda sucked most of the fun out of it for me.

I do join in with the spirit of things occasionally though. Wizardly robes and a wand over a mildly themed outfit and I'm good to go.

I do enjoy this jumper a lot.

And the trusty orange tights with brown fishnets over the top combo always cheers me up. Tis also good for distracting the eye away from how dirty my trainers are!

Dress - H&M
Jumper - The Orphan's Arms
Converse - Spartoo
Cape - work
Wand - borrowed from Luna Lovegood

Happy Housewarming

I seem to be at that stage in life where everyone is buying houses. Sign of the times when you hit 30, I suppose. It's better than everyone being pregnant. I know what to do with houses and I am excellent at helping paint, decorate, buy cushions and haul lots of crap to the tip (I've had a lot of recent practice). I can also be relied upon to be v. enthusiastic about decor schemes and all things house. Babies I have zero idea what to do with. The whole process baffles me. I once distinguished myself by writing "Have a good baby!" in a card for a colleague about to go off on maternity leave...

However I think you'll agree it is much easier to buy a present for a baby than a house. All cute tiny things are automatically great so you're never short of options. I find housewarming presents much more tricky - trying to judge other people's taste in homeware is a lot more fraught than picking clothes, jewellery and the like. Hopefully you know their taste in most things but if there's a whole new house to decorate, you don't always know what look they're going for. There's nothing worse than landing someone with that deeply misjudged horrible present that they despise but have to hide in a cupboard and get out when you're due to visit. *shudders*  I don't ever want to be that sort of giftgiver. Especially not when all my pals did so well buying me lovely (green) things for my place!

The obvious place to turn is somewhere like Not On The High Street but they're a smidgen predictable for my tastes. I prefer sites like Etsy and Uncommon Goods (especially as the latter has a cracking sustainability policy which you can read about here) for the personalised touch and can merrily spend hours browsing through random things I've never have discovered otherwise. The more mainstream shops shouldn't be left out though - I'm a total convert to The Range (shop in store btw - their online CS is pretty dire) and have you been in Asda or Matalan recently? Woodland animals ahoy!

So what have I been buying/drooling over recently?

You don't know how hard I wish I'd known about this mixtape doormat back when my brother and his wife last moved house! (It's customisable, which is a good job, cos their surname isn't Smith).

These coasters are on order for a Game of Thrones-loving pal of mine. Not too in-your-face.

I don't know where these little bear tumblers from Asda will end up but they were too cute not to buy! Someone will love them.

Is it weird to buy someone a clock as a housewarming gift? It probably is. But it's so lovely! Told you The Range were great at the mo.


I think I'm fighting (and losing) the age-old battle of buying things you secretly want for yourself. Must...resist...

Whilst I'm talking house, it occurs to me that although I moved in nearly a year ago, I never did do any celebratory welcome-to-the-new-abode posts. I've got this week off work and am attacking all those pesky little DIY jobs that I was too exhausted/lazy to do after moving in. It may well be ready to take some photos of by the end of the week!


*[]*

Meet Phil

I went to the RSPCA cattery a couple of weeks ago for a wander round and rather lost my heart to this little fella. It's been nearly six months since Oscar went and although I'm still not over that (you never really are, are you? I'm going to miss my ginger bundle of fluff forever), the house needs a cat in it and I need something to spoil rotten.

Apparently poor Phil was very shy and bewildered about why he was in for rehoming. Everyone said he would take ages to settle in and probably be hiding underneath things for weeks. HA. Yeah, right. Took him about 20 minutes to get his paws well and truly settled in once he was through the front door.

His favourite things are:

Catnip mouse. Kills it dead at least three times a day.

Snoozing.

Sitting on me.

Not standing still long enough to have his photo taken.

Lounging around.

He's quite the dude.