Books I Read in March

Hi!

Oh lads. March was an awful month for reading. I got addicted to Dawson's Creek DVDs and I broke out a Dimensions cross stitch kit that I got for Christmas (this one) - there was no time at all for reading, unfortunately! I only managed to finish four books this month, a pitiful total for me. As usual, I managed to make time to buy more books - I bought at least 20, when I'm going to read them is anyone's guess!

Here are the ones I finished in March.

Book Club

Takashi Hiraide - The Guest Cat
A beautiful story translated from Japanese about a cat that comes into the life of a young American couple living in Japan. Slow moving and descriptive, I found it inherently boring and couldn't wait to finish it. I feel like a bit of a heathen because the writing was so pretty, but the main character drove me nuts. He never even bothered to give his wife a name, yet obsessed over someone else's cat. I know that there was a lot going on under the surface - it was probably more about the couple than the cat but my god, no. Didn't enjoy it at all.

David Sedaris - Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls
I've had this a while so I was delighted when it was picked as a book club read. The first half didn't win me over - sometimes I don't get David, and it takes me a while to just relax into his stories, but when I got to the "Obama!!" chapter it really took off for me. With great observations on people at airports, rants about how long it takes for official paperwork to be sorted out, and how hard it is to find a decent taxidermy owl - the second half of this book was very funny. It also contained this brilliant quote:

Books Sent to Review

Sheena Lambert - The Lake
I was lucky enough to be invited to read a couple of books this month - this being one of them. This is set in Ireland in the 70s, and surrounds the discovery of a body in a small rural town. It was really good and I hope that the author revisits the town and characters in the future. You can read my full review of The Lake here.

eBooks

Hugh Howey - Dust
The third and final installment in the Wool trilogy, Dust brings us back to where we were at the end of the first book. We're bang up to date with what's going on back at Juliette's Silo, and we know that something big is afoot. This was brilliant - fast paced, everything was tied up, and nobody underwent the major personality change that sometimes befalls characters in the third book of a trilogy. I thoroughly recommend this series - it's fantastic.

And that was it. Agh! I need to get back to reading and stop buying, my TBR pile is ridiculous at this stage.

I'm going to take this opportunity to check in with my reading challenge:

I'm trying not to double up on challenges, so that means I have 14/50 completed. I'm looking foward to seeing all those boxes go green!!

So - that's it for March, hopefully I'll be able to tear myself away from Dawson & Co long enough to make a dent in my ridiculous TBR pile during April.

Book Review: The Lake by Sheena Lambert

Book provided for consideration of review. As always, I'll give a fair and honest opinion.

Hi!

Recently, I was contacted by author Sheena Lambert to see if I'd be interested in reading her latest book. The Lake, published under the Killer Reads imprint at Harper Collins, sounded right up my street so I accepted.

Image:amazon

Set over the course of an All-Ireland weekend in a small village in Ireland in 1975, The Lake is a crime/mystery novel. In the small village of Crumm where nothing really ever happens, Peggy Casey is responsible for running the family bar. Her siblings are off doing their own thing - flamboyant brother Jerome seems to be more at home in Dublin, brother Hugh is working in London, and sister Carla is too busy causing trouble to help out regularly.

The main excitement in the village seems to be the possiblity of being able to watch the match on a colour television in Caseys - until a body is found on the shore of a local man-made lake. Detective Sergeant Frank Ryan is called down from Dublin to assist young Garda Michael O'Dowd with his enquiries, but although the locals are willing to help Frank - nobody seems to know anything about the identity of the person who died.

However - one person knows - and if the truth comes out, it will have a devastating effect on one Crumm resident.

I really, really enjoyed this book. The author could have gone down a very predictable route with Frank and Peggy, but she didn't. The mystery was given a satisfactory ending, and it was sad and touching in parts. I really enjoyed the whole atmosphere of the book, the setting of the Irish family pub isn't one I have come across before, and it was well written. It brought to mind the old smells of pool chalk, beermats and smoke - it was really atmospheric and all the characters were well written.

I liked Jerome a lot, I would have liked a bit more about him. I'd actually like a bit more on all of the characters - my only quibble with the book would be that it was too short, I seemed to race through it and I'd love another book featuring the same characters.

I'd be happy to recommend this, particularly if you're looking for something to read over a weekend or something to take on holiday. Despite the presence of death, it's not scary and it couldn't be described as gruesome - there was only one part with the pathologist that I found made me a bit squeamish but it wasn't overdone.

A really good read - it's out on March 19th, you can pre-order it for Kindle now here on Amazon, it's very reasonably priced and will also be available in paperback form.

I really liked the author's writing style, I've actually just bought her previous book on Kindle based on how much I liked this one. I'm delighted to have discovered another great female Irish author, and I'm really thankful to the author and publisher for getting in touch.

Recommended!

Books I Read in January

Hi!

It's the first round-up of the year, woohoo! I'm not sure if anyone else will be as excited as I, but anyway. Here it is. This also means a new page for Books in 2015, so you'll find that there on the right sidebar under the "books" heading --------->. As always, just click a book cover to go to my Goodreads review. On with the show!

In January, I read 17 books. I didn't even think I had read that many - probably because January felt like the longest month since time began. I read a good mix of paperback and eBooks, which was great because my poor books have been neglected in favour of the kindle lately.

Netgalley
I finished two ebooks from Netgalley in January:

The Room by Jonas Karlsson
Translated from Swedish, this is a short novel about a man who finds an escape from mundane office life when he discovers a private room at work that nobody else can see. Witty, sarcastic and a lot funnier than you'd think, a very enjoyable read.

Baby It's Cold Outside by Kerry Barrett
A fluffy, light rom-com story about a witch planning her wedding and all the obstacles that fall into her path. Meh.


Non-Fiction
I read three non-fiction books in January, all biographies/autobiographies.

Not Quite a Geordie by Holly Hagan
Holly from Geordie Shore, as she is better known. This book was ghostwritten, fair enough. What wasn't fair enough was the fact that it was riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. It promised to show us another side to Holly - but it didn't, she is exactly as she appears on TV. More power to her, if that's the way she wants to live her life then she's entitled to do that, the book was just not my cup of tea at all.

My Life and Other Unfinished Business by Dolly Parton
This was really warm and funny, just as I would imagine Dolly to be in reality. She tells stories about her childhood, about breaking into the music business during a very male-dominated time, and about the various friendships and loves she has had along the way. Her passion about her faith is admirable, and she doesn't push her beliefs on to anyone. Liked this a lot.

Kevyn Aucoin - A Beautiful Life by Kerry Diamond
I picked this up in a used book order, it's a beautiful hardback book full of pictures of Kevyn's makeup (not a makeup guide, though) and anecdotes from some of the people he worked with and called friends. It covers Kevyn's childhood right up to his tragically early death in 2002, and it's a lovely read.


Fiction
January was a great month for fiction - I got through 6.

Horns by Joe Hill
Ignatius Perrish wakes up after a wild night with a hangover and a pair of horns. Ig soon realises that the horns have a very strange effect on people - they tell him their innermost, darkest secrets or desires. Can Ig use the horns to discover who really murdered his girlfriend Merrin a year before? Loved this.

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
Maud has early dementia, and needs little notes to remind herself to do things. She hasn't heard from her good friend Elizabeth in a while, so when she thinks something is wrong, and nobody seems to be listening to her, she makes it her business to find out where Elizabeth is. There's an old mystery too - one that Maud can't quite remember, but the details slowly come back... adored this book, but I would proceed with caution if you've had a family member with alzheimers or dementia as I think it could be really difficult and upsetting to get through.

Room by Emma Donoghue
I was so late reading this, it's been on my to-read list for a long time. I really liked it - told entirely from the perspective of a five year old boy, it's the tale of a mother and son who are being imprisoned in an 11 foot square room and their attempt to escape.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Rachel passes a house every day on the train - a house with a glam young couple who appear to be very much in love. She knows them so well from watching them that she notices immediately when something is wrong - and sure enough, the woman goes missing. Can Rachel overcome her own battles and demons to help find out what happened? Thought this was excellent, even if the ending was a bit lukewarm for me.

I Was Here by Gayle Forman
Cody and Meg have always been best friends - so when Meg ends her life, Cody is shocked that Meg didn't confide in her. She goes to Meg's to pack up belongings, and there she meets people that knew Meg before she died - Cody begins to realise that perhaps there were things in Meg's life that nobody knew about. With the help of some of Meg's friends, Cody goes on a journey to find out why Meg swallowed a bottle of poison. This was brilliant - parts of it made me weep. It's a respectful look at depression and suicide among teens, and it was handled brilliantly. Hopefully this will make an impact on the YA (young adult) community and get peope talking.

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
This was a re-read due to the fact Sarah has just released a sequel to this - First Frost (reading it at the moment). Claire Waverley is a caterer, she knows just what ingredients to include for various purposes - remembrance, love, foresight, healing, etc. When her sister Sydney returns to the Waverley house after escaping an abusive relationship, the two sisters begin to help each other heal and enjoy life. Love this book so much!

Classics
I'm trying to be more open this year and tackle some classic "must-read" books - this month was Dubliners by James Joyce.

Oh, Mr. Joyce. You are not for me. I didn't enjoy this in the slightest - I actually felt less intelligent the more that I read. I thought a lot of it was just a thinly veiled reference to "being trapped" whether it be by religious or political issues, and I didn't really like any of the characters. I know that this was written in a time where it was hard to express an opinion on politics or religion, so I understand why it was important, but I thought it was pompous, and to be honest - a lot of it went over my head. Should I go and prepare for my lynching?

Harry Potter
One of my reading resolutions this year was to re-read the Harry Potter series. In January, I read the first four.

There's no point in reviewing these individually, they are all 5-star books for me except The Chamber of Secrets. I still find it amazing that the entire Hogwarts world came from the imagination of one person, it's unbelievable. I adore the books, and I had to stop myself from racing through the series in order to make it last longer.

Finally Finished
I had been slogging through this book since November, and I finally just gave up and raced ahead in January.

I had high hopes for US by David Nicholls, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. I found the protagonist, Douglas, inherently boring. I couldn't fathom why his wife ever married him in the first place, they were woefully unsuited. His son needed a lesson in respect and a kick up the bum. There were more art references in here than there were in The Goldfinch, and by the end of the book I not only wanted Connie to leave, I wanted her to run screaming. I skimmed a huge chunk of this - but there's a synopsis in one of the chapters near the end where Douglas is musing on everything that has happened since the night his wife told him she was leaving him. I gave this everything I could, but I just couldn't wait to get rid of it.

So - that's January done and dusted! See you in February!

Books I Read in December

Hi!

I'd usually have this round-up at the very start of the month, but as I had a few book posts around Christmas I held it back for a little while in case things started to get a bit samey around here.

I did okay in December - I managed 9 books - a few of them were very short. I tried to keep to a Christmas/December theme (apart from one).

First up - Netgalley approvals that had been sitting on my Dashboard for weeks:

A Christmas Horror Story by Sebastian Gregory
Set for the most part in present-day UK, Katie and her two siblings are home alone on Christmas Eve. They have all had strange dreams about young children being taken away by a black shadowed figure - and when strange things begin to happen, they realise that they may not have been dreaming....very spooky, a great fairytale, modern-day young horror akin to Goosebumps or some of the scarier episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark.

The Boy in the Cemetery by Sebastian Gregory
Boy lives in a cemetery, but he is not really alive. Carrie moves to a new town after enduring horrific abuse (very uncomfortable to read about) and seeks solace in the cemetery when she has a terrifying experience at school. This was a brilliant book, but quite dark. Sebastian Gregory is firmly on my radar.

I Will Marry George Clooney (...By Christmas) by Tracy Bloom
I requested this on Netgalley months ago and was just approved before Christmas. Michelle is a 36 year old single Mum (with a horribly rude 15 year old daughter) who works in a chicken factory. In order to try and stop her daughter doing something stupid, Michelle vows to track George Clooney down and ask him to marry her to show her daughter Josie that you should follow your dreams. A light, easy read, a bit ridiculous in parts but enjoyable enough all the same. Even though Josie was a total and utter wagon.

The Room by Jonas Karlsson
Translated from Swedish, this short novel (under 200 pages) is a deadpan look at mundane office life from the point of view of Bjorn, a workaholic who is determined to succeed and get promoted ahead of his new colleagues. When Bjorn finds a room he can think in, a room that seems to stimulate his creativity and help him achieve great things, he is overjoyed - but when Bjorn enters the room, all his colleagues see is him standing at a wall in a catatonic state. To everyone else, there is no room. As his colleagues become increasingly irritated by his oddness, and he becomes increasingly irritated by...well, by everything - something has to give. But will Bjorn give up his room without a fight? Is he playing his colleagues? Is he playing the reader? Or is he genuinely going mad? A fantastic read, very clever and highly recommended.

Next up was the book that Rick O'Shea chose for his book club for December:

The Thing About December by Donal Ryan
Set over the course of a year in the life of twenty-something year old loner Johnsey Cunliffe, this is a powerful, devastating story. Each chapter covers a month from one December to the next. It looks at how Johnsey deals with a terrible tragedy, and how lonely he feels. It's full of rural colloquialisms, but they aren't distracting. Johnsey's voice is so strong, and so pure. It may sound like the most miserable book in the world, but it's not. Johnsey is a lot sharper and stronger than he gives himself credit for. I don't think I took a breath for the last chapter - it's just powerful writing. An absolute must-read, unlike anything else I read in 2014.

Last up - four books that I picked up on Amazon:

Getting Over the X by Steve Brookstein
You may remember Steve as the first ever winner of the X Factor. Or you may not - and this book will tell you why. A really interesting read, reviewed in-depth here.

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
A compilation of holiday-themed stories from Sedaris - some true, some fiction. If you've read Me Talk Pretty One Day or Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim then you've read two or three of these stories already. It's not a bad thing, really - Us and Them could be included in every one of his books and I'd still laugh like a hyena at it every time. As usual, he completely crosses the line a few times but the humour in some of the other stories more than makes up for it. Almost. Except the dryer part. Ugh, David. Just Ugh.

How the In-Laws Wrecked Christmas by Fiona Gibson
This was free on Amazon, it's a short story that comes in around 60 pages. It had great potential - Anna and Ben are on their way to spend their first Christmas together with Ben's very posh parents. Anna feels self-conscious and feels left out - and then the whole lot goes downhill very quickly. The title is inaccurate - they weren't "in-laws", and they didn't wreck Christmas. Anna changed her opinion based on something she overheard, that's what "wrecked" Christmas. The ending was blah, with a predictable twist.

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
The movie version of this (Christmas with the Kranks) has long been one of my favourite Christmas movies. It's just a pure guilty pleasure, and it's something I watch several times every year during December. I have often wondered how the movie compared to the book, so I bought this. Holy moly - the movie is SO MUCH BETTER. In the book, Luther Krank isn't just crotchety - he is miserable, rude, and just horrible. I don't like the way Grisham writes women , either- "Even dressed, she felt like a slut" - this was in reference to Nora wearing a bikini under her clothes. Awful. Just awful. The book has no heart. Even though the movie has the stupid flying Volkswagen at the end, I'll take it - there's no contest, it's a million times better.

And that's it! That rounds off my reading year for 2014. If you want to have a look back at all the books I read in 2014, I've moved my book pages to the sidebar up the top where they're more manageable. Each book cover links to my review on Goodreads (feel free to add me as a friend).

See you in February!

Book Review: Getting Over the X by Steve Brookstein

Hi!

I saw a couple of people talking about this on twitter one night during the Xfactor (namely Kellie) and it sounded like a good read, so I took advantage of a special Kindle offer and downloaded it there and then.

"'One of you will leave with a million-pound recording contract, and the other will leave with nothing,' Kate Thornton had said on the night. Eight months later, I had never envisaged that it was possible to leave with both."

I've watched every season of the Xfactor from the beginning. In later years, I've become a bit disillusioned with it due to the trend of publicly humiliating people who aren't very good, or by putting novelty acts through (Wagner, anyone?!). The first year, I watched mainly because I had seen Tabby Callaghan's band Petronella live a few times the previous year while in college. I don't really remember being too concerned about the other contestants. The only thing I remembered about Steve was that he had released a cover of Against All Odds.

When people enter TV shows like the Xfactor, they are labelled pretty much straight away. For Matt Cardle, it was "House Painter". For Leon Jackson, it was "Works in a shoe shop". For Rebecca Ferguson and Stacy Solomon, it was "Single Mum". For Steve Brookstein, it was "Pub Singer". Steve was in actual fact far from a pub singer - he had already supported Dionne Warwick the year he applied for the competition, and turned down a job supporting Lionel Richie to take part in the show. Hardly a bog standard pub singer. In Steve's own words, he had "better irons in the fire." Steve was labelled overconfident from the very beginning, yet at one point Simon Cowell said of him "He found self belief when we gave him a stage." At the final, Sharon Osbourne tore into him in a most unprofessional manner, saying she had enough of his "Mister Humble" act. So which is it?! Overconfident, lacking in self belief, or humble? As you learn to watch out for certain phrases that the judges dole out, you realise they just recycle the same labels over and over again - if they take a dislike to you for whatever reason, they have the power to turn the public against you (ask Christopher Maloney). If they love you, they will champion you to the end, regardless of how the public vote goes ("the real winner").

As I read about the way Steve was treated when he won the show, I was disgusted. I'm not a fan of Simon Cowell anyway - that level of ego is not endearing to me. He comes across as incredibly self-involved, surrounded by people who are willing to fall at his feet and lick his boots. Steve's story is a cautionary tale of what can happen when you dare to put forward your own ideas, or step outside the Cowell 'bubble'. The sheer power of the "Simon Cowell Collective" is shocking. The press manipulation, misdirected quotes, false accusations - they can, as Max Clifford (don't even get me started on him) stated, "bury you".

"What have I become? I'm 35. I'm sitting in a mansion trying to impress a guy who turned up late to his own microwave dinner party. Why wasn't I saying 'What the f*ck's this sh*t?!'"

This stuff about the Xfactor having "a real winner" was obviously there from the beginning, as G4 were given the moniker in 2004. G4 themselves would later tell the press that the Xfactor was a pantomime, with staged bickering between the judges. You can see that in every year since - especially this year. One incident in particular this year was just ridiculous - "real winner" Fleur East (who came second to Ben Haenow) - was given a track called Uptown Funk to sing. Fleur rocked the song, and shot straight to number one on iTunes. If a contestant can score a number one before the show has even ended, what's the point anymore? The winners' careers seem to be lukewarm, and the management appears to lose interest before the next series begins. So what's the point of the prize? Of the competition?

Back to Uptown Funk - singer Lily Allen accused Simon of "industry corruption" because the song hadn't actually been released when Fleur performed it. As a result of her reaching number one, Mark Ronson had to push the single release date forward before people lost interest in the original (yet unreleased) version. In a media press conference, Simon claimed "This corruption thing is ridiculous. To be honest, I didn't even know what label it was on." Simon's record label SYCO is 50% owned by Sony, who also own Mark Ronson's record label. Presumably they wouldn't even have needed clearance from Ronson to perform the song on the show - are we supposed to be so stupid that we would think that Simon knew none of this?! Oh, and Mark Ronson's version is now head-to-head with Ben Haenow's debut single for Christmas Number one - but that doesn't matter anyway, because the song already seems old after hearing a contestant cover it. Well played, Simon et al.

Poor Ben seems to be the latest addition to a long line of male winners, set to be overlooked in favour of the "real winner" - he's already being referred to as "Ben Whonow?" on twitter and he only won it four days ago - I would be shocked if he were to be invited back to perform on next year's show.

I think Steve's book is a great read, it really exposes the staging and pettiness of the whole show. It was never a singing competition - it's about the judges, their egos, and how much money they can squeeze from the general public. If you do what you're told, you're wrong. If you step outside your comfort zone, you're wrong. The corruption, manipulation, and sheer deceptiveness regarding the media is shocking - but sadly, after recent revelations including the whole Max Clifford debacle and the demise of the News of the World - unsurprising.

Referring to 2014 contestant Jake Quickenden's stint in the Jungle (that's a whole other ballgame - a contestant on a TV show going straight into the Jungle as a "celebrity" before the show had even ended?!) Simon had this to say at a press conference: "I think with any competition, if you don't want to win, that tells me you haven't got that killer instinct to do well in the real world. If you're happy to come fourth or tenth and end up in the jungle.... what we want on this show are people who want to be recording artists in the real world. I mean, that's just the way it is."

But...........that's NOT the way it is. Every single year, Louis Walsh sits like a Pantomime Dame defending whatever novelty act he has chosen to put through to the live shows, while genuinely talented people go home. Simon Cowell plays with people as if they were puppets - putting people through to spite other judges (Raign & Cheryl Cole?!). Take a show like The Voice - I haven't seen a single novelty act on that show. I'm sure it's not perfect, it's still TV, but it seems so much fairer than leading lambs to the slaughter after telling them they're perfect for the TV rounds before tearing them to pieces and laughing at them. We have had whole hour-long shows dedicated to "The Worst Auditionees", yet people who actually won the whole blimmin' show have been snubbed.

Steve has proven that he definitely has that killer instinct - and here's hoping he continues to do well in the real world. The Xfactor bubble may be the dream of many a young starlet, but it's definitely not something I'd want any of my loved ones involved in. I'm really glad Steve wrote this book (with the help of Tony Horne), because it just confirms opinions I've had about Simon Cowell for a long, long time - does he have any actual interest in the music at all?!

A must-read.

You can get the book here on Amazon.

Books I Read in November

Hi!

November was a very light month for me on the book front. To be honest, the majority of my spare time was spent doing this:

When I had that finished, I started this: 

I want to get both stockings finished and made up as soon as possible, so the reading has been pushed to the sidelines a bit! Still, I did manage to read 5 books throughout November, and I'm making progress with 2 more.

Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner - Freakonomics
This was a Rick O'Shea Book Club pick for November. It reminded me a little of Ben Goldacre's Bad Science but with a lot less wit and a lot more filler. I didn't find it an enjoyable read at all, and found myself skimming it a fair bit. Much as Clarissa didn't actually explain it all, these guys do not "explore the hidden side of everything". I found this really boring.

Aimee Bender - The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Rose is almost 9. Without warning, she gets a hollow, overwhelming feeling of sadness after eating lemon cake made by her mother. The book follows Rose as she deals with her "gift" but the gift is not the subject of the book. Simply Irresistible this is not (that's probably a good thing) - it's a very strange quirky little tale that focuses more on family relationships than on Rose being able to taste emotions.There's a story arc involving Rose's brother that is just bizarre, but altogether it was a good book and wasn't a taxing read.

Amy Poehler - Yes Please
I enjoyed this. I thought that the idea to bring other people in to tell their opinions on some stories were genius - like her parents' anecdotes about Amy's birth. I didn't start this book as a fan of Amy Poehler, and I'm not sure I ended it as one, I just thought it was a funny, witty book that had a lot of heart without being too try-hard. I will take the quote "Good for her, not for me" to the grave with me, I have thought of it several times since reading the book. This isn't a behind-the-scenes of Saturday Night Live, nor is it Bossypants II. It's just Amy.

Neil Gaiman - The Ocean at the End of the Lane
I got a gorgeous hardback copy of this book last Christmas and to my shame never picked it up until I saw it one morning and it called out to me. I adored it - it's the story of a man returning to his homeplace for a funeral. He visits a spot he used to frequent in childhood, and reminisces about the summer that changed his life, when the family lodger took his own life and set in motion a series of horrible events. It's a beautiful book, I think fans of Coraline would enjoy it.

Andrew Kaufman - The Tiny Wife
Shortly after 3pm on Wednesday 21st February, a thief (dressed like Prince, it has to be said) walks into branch #117 of the British Bank of North America. He doesn't demand money from those inside - instead, he demands to have the item currently in their possession that holds the most sentimental value. As the customers and staff hand over their items, they are unaware of what will happen. What happens is a series of bizarre and unexplained events - the titular character begins to shrink, until she is the size of a car key. Another woman witnesses her lion tattoo jump off her ankle, grow to full size, and chase her. The husband of a third woman turns into a snowman. A fourth woman discovers she is now made of candy. A man's family history literally collapses on top of him. This was an odd book, and a quick read - but nothing was explained. It's filled with metaphors about facing fears, but we weren't told why the thief wanted the items or who he was. It was all a little disjointed and rushed for me, I would have liked a longer book with more explanation and more detail into the individual stories.

The two books I began in November that I'm currently reading are:

David Nicholls - Us
Written from the point of view of Douglas, who has just been told by his wife Connie that she wants to leave him. I'm finding this a hard slog, I don't like Douglas' voice as a narrator. He actually reminds me a lot of Don Tillman from The Rosie Project. I have heard that it picks up though, so I'll stick with it.

Lena Dunham - Not That Kind of Girl 
I'll be honest, I know nothing about Lena Dunham. I've never seen Girls and I don't think I've ever seen or heard an interview with the woman. I picked this book up after the recent controversy over supposed "confessions" made in the book, because I had some opinions on it but felt like it was unfair to speculate without reading the book. So far it's okay - pretty standard fare.



One pretty cool book-related thing happened in November - a while back, I reviewed Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng for Little Brown via Netgalley. They recently contacted me to get permission to incorporate some of my review into a graphic as part of a huge twitter drive on the day it was published - it was such a cool thing to be involved in!

If you haven't read the book, I really recommend it. You can see my full review on Goodreads here.

Bring on the Christmas reads! If I ever get the stockings finished........

Books I Read in October

Hi!

I had a massive reading plan for October. It included several books that I've wanted to read all year but had been 'saving' for Halloween. Then, two things got in the way.

Firstly, I decided on a whim to finally go back to a HUGE book after attempting to read it almost 20 years ago. That was pretty much the entire second half of October taken up. Secondly, I got Christmas fever halfway through the month and got the urge to make cross stitched stockings for the twins. I don't know if anyone else does cross stitch - but it's SO time consuming. You can stitch for 4 hours straight and have something the size of a small matchbox at the end. That pretty much ate into all of my reading time.

All that being said, I managed to finish 8 books this month, which was okay - considering my heart just wasn't in it. My original October reading list looked like this:

• Natsuo Kirino - Real World
• Mary Downing Hahn - Wait 'til Helen Comes
• Patrick Ness - A Monster Calls
• Joyce Carol Oates - Zombie
• Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House
• Katie Alender - Bad Girls Don't Die
• Curtis Richards - Halloween
• Stefan Kiesbye - Your House is on Fire, Your Children All Gone
• Jay Anson - The Amityville Horror
• Johan Harstad - 172 Hours on the Moon
• Robin Hardy - The Wicker Man
• Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
• Joe Hill - Heart Shaped Box
• Peter Straub - Ghost Story
• Kendare Blake - Anna Dressed in Blood
• Norman Partridge - Dark Harvest
• Shirley Jackson - The Lottery

This is what actually happened:

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
Every year, on June 27th, the 300+ villagers gather in the town square for the lottery. There are many preparations to do before people are allowed to draw from the box, and the story opens as the town is preparing. This was a ten minute read, full of suspense and tension, with a horrifying conclusion as the terror is slowly revealed over the last page. A fantastic short story!

The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson
112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, Long Island was the scene of a horrific homicide in 1974, where Ronnie DeFeo killed his parents and four siblings. The house was later bought by the Lutz family, who were not superstitious and didn't mind the history - at first. A mere 4 weeks after they bought the house, they fled, fearing for their sanity and their lives. This wasn't scary at all, and there were far too many exclamation marks. A huge let-down.

The Doll by JC Martin
I found this for free on Kindle while browsing - it's a short story set around "La Isla de la Munecas" or "The Island of the Dolls". Joyce and her 6 year old daughter Taylor visit the island as part of a vacation. They are told that the creepy dolls that adorn every part of the island are in honour of a little girl who drowned there, and whose spirit is said to haunt the island. As Joyce and Taylor return home after their holiday, Joyce thinks that they may have brought back something other than souvenirs.......this really creeped me out (not only because the island is a real place) and it was a great Halloween read. It could have been an episode of "Are You Afraid of the Dark" back in the day.

Dracula by Bram Stoker
I read this because it was mentioned on a thread in a book group - and several people raved about it. I think Dracula is partly to blame for the disappearance of my reading mojo around the end of the first week in October - it was a hard read. The first part, documenting Jonathan Harker's journey to Transylvania to meet the elusive Count Dracula was amazing. Atmospheric, dark, filled with suspense - it was just brilliant. Unfortunately, that all went to the dogs and we were then treated to a couple of hundred pages of letters, meetings, and general waffling about how to catch Dracula. There wasn't nearly enough of the man himself, and the ending was boring. Not remotely scary and I wanted Dracula to burst in and eat the stupid men at the end.

Diane Hoh - The Wish (Point Horror Nightmare Hall)
I had picked up some Point Horrors at a boot sale earlier in the year, and only remembered them last month. The Wish was pretty much a Big rip-off, but with a 90s horror twist - Alex is unnerved by the scary fortune-telling wizard booth in the local pizza place. When her friends start making wishes and they begin to come true in terrible ways, Alex remains skeptical about the wizard.......until she becomes a target.

Diane Hoh - Truth or Die (Point Horror Nightmare Hall)
Parrie just started at Salem University and doesn't know anyone. She attaches herself to a group of girls and gets embroiled in a game of Truth or Dare that turns very dangerous very quickly. But who is responsible for the dares that go wrong? And can Parrie stop them?

Peter Lerangis - The Yearbook (Point Horror)
David Kallas is 17 and pretty much obsessed with classmate Ariana. After a mild earthquake brings them closer, David finds himself agreeing to join Yearbook Staff as a way to spend more time with Ariana. David is on his way to the printers one night when he finds a body.........and it won't be the last.......

All 3 of these Point Horror books were standard fare - the scene is set, the tension builds, something happens to throw us off the scent, and BANG, there's the ending. I devoured so many of these when I was a child - I do have a couple more to read and I will read them, it was a nice way to spend a few hours.

Stephen King - IT
I bought a paperback of this book when I was about 12 - it was definitely the summer before I started Secondary School. The main problem I had with the book back then was that the thing was like a weapon it was that big - over 1100 pages. Also, the print is TINY. It has moved with me along with my other books for the past 19 and a half years, and when I saw it on the top of my wardrobe I thought it was about time I finished it. I'm so glad I did - while I didn't read it every day, I did find myself wanting to go back to it. It's the story of 7 friends who encounter and defeat terrible evil one summer - roll on adulthood, where 6 of the 7 are no longer living in their hometown. The seventh is now convinced that the evil is back - and asks the other 6 to return to help him defeat it once more. The book is split up into different sections, and as with all King books reads flawlessly. Every character was unique and had their own story and history. There aren't many books that top a thousand pages but never get drawn out or boring. Stunning. It may have taken me the guts of two decades, but I got there in the end!

And that was pretty much it for October - I didn't get round to reading most of my intended list, but I'll be pulling the odd one or two from it over the next month if I can shake the Christmas obsession that seems to have set in!