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Hayley's 2016 Reading


Hayley

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I enjoyed Labyrinth and Sepulchre, haven't read Citadel yet though.   I think with the other 2 books I preferred the historical story to the modern day story, but then with timeslip I normally do prefer the historical bits.  The Mistletoe Bride is a good  read too, normally I don't like short stories but these are good, a mix of spooky, sad and in a couple of cases quite humourous stories too.

 

There was a TV adaptation of Labyrinth on a few years ago but it was very clunky!

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I enjoyed Labyrinth and Sepulchre, haven't read Citadel yet though.   I think with the other 2 books I preferred the historical story to the modern day story, but then with timeslip I normally do prefer the historical bits.  The Mistletoe Bride is a good  read too, normally I don't like short stories but these are good, a mix of spooky, sad and in a couple of cases quite humourous stories too.

 

There was a TV adaptation of Labyrinth on a few years ago but it was very clunky!

 

There was!? Clunky doesn't sound good but I'll have a look at it anyway  :smile: I'm glad to hear there's a good mix in The Mistletoe Bride, I wasn't really expecting that, especially not humour!

 

 

I just read your review of Tanglewood Tales, it's free from Amazon so I picked it up. I grew up reading D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths which was such a neat book.

 

Wow I didn't know it was free on there! I hope you like it. I've never heard of D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, I'll have to look it up  :smile:

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The TV adaptation was on about 3 years ago or so, I think it was on Channel 4 so it might be available on their download site?  Might be worth a look.  Kate Mosse had a nice little cameo at the end as a tour guide!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a couple of updates because I've been on holiday. I'm still reading A Tale of Two Cities but since my copy of that book is a really pretty edition I was reluctant to bring it to the beach or out in the heat (I left a book out in the sun once and all the pages fell out - lesson learned!) so I read the other two books I had with me first while I was there. Which were:

 

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany -  Nostalgic

 

I did enjoy reading this script but if I'm honest it was enjoyable for the novelty rather than the quality. I started reading the Harry Potter books when I was about 10 so I really grew up with them and I did love them. This play takes you back into that world, with all the familiar characters and for that reason it's fun to read. On the other hand the plot is really not very original, the behaviour of some of the characters feels a bit odd at times and it relies very VERY heavily on references to the previous books. One of my first thoughts when I put it down was, I can see why it wasn't written as a novel, it wouldn't have worked. 

 

 

Bellman and Black: A Ghost Story by Diane Setterfield - If Ghosts were Memories

 

This book was one of those that was nothing like I expected. For a start, I thought it was going to be a ghost story and it really isn't. From the blurb and the cover I understood that it was going to be a book about a boy who kills a rook, the opening of the first mourning emporium and ghosts. Based on this I expected it to be quite fast paced, maybe a little dark and scary but it's not that kind of book at all. When I was half way through and there was still no mention of a mourning emporium I started to get a bit annoyed with it. It seemed to just be the story of the life of a man who's very good at business. I think I was probably 3/4 of the way in before I realised I was reading it wrong. What this book actually is is quite a deeply metaphorical story about memory and how it defines us.

I was actually going to give this book two stars on goodreads after I finished it but then I decided that would be harsh because, if I had known what kind of book it was and had been reading it without the expectation of something that was never going to happen, I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more. It's actually a very clever concept and well written. It merges so many themes together under the theme of memory; light, sound, colour, death, mythology. I would recommend reading it as a thought provoking book but not if you mind there being little action. 

 

 

September is going to be a fairly stressful work month so I'm just going to be squashing in reading whenever I can. I'm over half way through A Tale of Two Cities though so I'm hoping to finish that soon and then maybe start Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor  :smile:

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Thanks Chesil, I've only read a few pages so far but I have high hopes for it  :smile:

 

Another Jodi Taylor fan here, they're good escapist reads, very funny at times.

That sounds like just what I want at the moment!

 

 

 

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - Emotional but slow moving

 

I've heard a few times that this is Dickens' worst book and I have to say, it wasn't my favourite but it is still a good book. There are definitely times when it seems to be moving very slowly, far more than in any other Dickens book I've read. As it moves towards to second half of the book however the pace does pick up. I thought there were a couple of characters that fell a bit flat, although they had multiple appearances, I just didn't care about them, they didn't have any depth, but then there were others that absolutely balanced that out, making you really hate them or feel heartbroken for them. I've never read a book set during the French Revolution before and I really expected Dickens to completely take the view of the working class but there was an interesting balance in the suggestion of who is right and wrong. You can really see Dickens' belief in the importance of the individual as you feel your sympathy shifting from the starving man to the brutally murdered young woman who has done nothing personally but be born into the wrong class. It's definitely thought provoking, I liked that about it.

I thought the end was very sad though. I felt so bad for Carton :(

 

 

 

 

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Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor - Crazy Historical Fun

 

This book has that same fun madness that The Eyre Affair had, only this time it's with history as the subject, rather than literature. It's very fast paced, there's always something new happening, a new time period to explore or a new twist in the plot. This does add to the madness, but it fits. Like Madeleine said above, it's a good escapist read. I found it hard sometimes to really get some of the characters. It wasn't a big problem overall but sometimes it felt like they acted out of character.

Like Chief being the sensitive, intelligent, quiet one, who then crashes a car, throws the protagonist over the bonnet and literally rips her knickers off. I just didn't really get that part!

 

But anyway, it was a fun read and I'm looking forward to seeing what time periods they'll travel to in the next book  :smile:

 

I've started reading The Brothers Grimm Selected Tales that my sister bought for me. There are 57 stories in it but they're all obviously quite short so I should be able to review it soon  :smile:

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Glad you liked it - well they say that the quiet ones are often the most surprising... or maybe that scene is her fantasy ;)   I really enjoyed the second book too, they go back to Elizabethan London and meet Elizabeth I herself, and there's also a dodo hunt which is very funny, although there are some serious moments too.

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I'm glad you enjoyed it!  Re your spoiler
 

I think there was always incredible sexual tension between Leon and Max, and he was so totally unprepared for what she suggesting while he was driving, and suddenly being outside of St Mary's together and alone, it was one of those moments where passion overtook reason, so although it was a surprise to a certain extent, I don't think it was necessarily out of character.  That was what I thought anyway! :D

 

 

Like I've said before, I've read all the novels and short stories now, and I'm completely hooked.  I've actually read them all on Kindle and bought all the audiobooks too, and I've read/listened to them all at least twice now, and don't think there's any drop in the enjoyability across the whole series. :)

 

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Glad you liked it - well they say that the quiet ones are often the most surprising... or maybe that scene is her fantasy ;)   I really enjoyed the second book too, they go back to Elizabethan London and meet Elizabeth I herself, and there's also a dodo hunt which is very funny, although there are some serious moments too.

 

Like I've said before, I've read all the novels and short stories now, and I'm completely hooked.  I've actually read them all on Kindle and bought all the audiobooks too, and I've read/listened to them all at least twice now, and don't think there's any drop in the enjoyability across the whole series. :)

 

Thanks both of you, it's good to hear the next one is going to be good too, I'm particularly looking forward to the dodo hunt now!  :D

I've been thinking about my spoiler and I think maybe...

 

It wasn't that it was out of character but that it made me feel like I didn't understand the characters as well as I thought, because I never would have expected that to happen. For a start I would have thought at least one of them would have been worried about someone driving past! :P   

 

 

 

I really enjoyed A Tale of Two Cities.   I agree with your spoiler.   :)

 

I think I've read all the Dickens' books I find less intimidating - I need to tackle something a bit heavier by him this year, I think.  :hide::lurker:

 

I honestly think A Tale of Two Cities is the heaviest book by Dickens I've read! Even though it's a lot shorter than some of the others it seemed more dense and the writing was definitely not as light-hearted as it is in others. I suppose it was fitting though, when the subject was so sad. Which ones have you read already? I think I'm going to try The Old Curiosity Shop next  :smile:

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I've read:

 

A Tale of Two Cities

A Christmas Carol (every year!)

Nicholas Nickleby

Oliver Twist

Hard Times

 

I did wonder whether I might find them easier if I watched a TV/film adaptation beforehand.  I know the film Oliver! is a much more whimsical version of the book but I do think it helped having seen it first.  I think Oliver!, Great Expectations and various versions of A Christmas Carol are the only ones I've watched. 

 

Which have you read?  :)

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A Tale of Two Cities

A Christmas Carol and a couple of the other Christmas books

Oliver Twist

Hard Times

Dombey and Son

Little Dorrit 

Great Expectations

David Copperfield

 

My favourite is probably David Copperfield, I think it has the best characters, and there's a good film of it too  :smile:

 

What did you think of Nicholas Nickleby? I've had it on my shelf for a while, I just never get round to reading it!

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I very much enjoyed it.  :)  I read it in installments with Claire and Alex and it was lovely to share the experience, but it also made it feel a little disjointed - we read in installments like it was originally published.  

 

David Copperfield is my Mum's favourite Dickens.   :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I very much enjoyed it.  :)  I read it in installments with Claire and Alex and it was lovely to share the experience, but it also made it feel a little disjointed - we read in installments like it was originally published.  

 

That's an interesting idea! I'm not sure I'd have the patience to actually wait though, I might end up sneaking a look at the next chapter  :giggle2:

 

This is going to be a bit rushed because I'm not going to be at home for the rest of the week and I have loads to sort out but, before I forget what I wanted to say about it:

 

The Brothers Grimm Selected Tales - Historically Interesting

 

There is one thing I absolutely love this book for and that is, despite the saying, the cover. It's one of the penguin hardcover classics (bought for me by my wonderful sister who understands my love of pretty books  :D ) which is a very dark pink embossed in gold with lovely quotes on the front and back. For the way it looks, I would absolutely recommend it for any shelf.

As far as the content goes I was impressed with the variety of stories they included. As I said earlier in the thread there are 57 in total, including a few variations on the same concept. So, for example, there are at least 3 which are identifiable as the Cinderella story we all know, but with different twists. I thought that was really interesting. 

On the other hand, if you weren't looking at them as an interesting part of literary history, I'm not sure you'd want to read them just as good stories. For either adults or children. There is a lot of unnecessary violence, multiple moments that are clearly racist and sexual equality is just non existent.

So if you're interested in the history of the fairy tale or Victorian literature then it's a really interesting read but, if not, probably avoid it.

 

 

I went to Astley book farm yesterday and sold quite a few books, including some I haven't read yet! Part of me really didn't want to, I like to at least try everything on my shelf, but I decided it was stupid to clutter my shelves with books I was avoiding reading, and there are things coming up I could really do with saving some money for. I'll update my shelf list on here once I have this week out of the way!

 

I also had a book voucher I hadn't used and I managed to find the next two Dresden Files books (Grave Peril and Summer Knight) as well as two Joe Abercrombie books I wanted (Best Served Cold and Red Country). I couldn't resist starting Grave Peril last night so that's my next read  :P

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My parents used to read some of these fairy tales to me (it was a Dutch translation, though I don't know if it was a special children's version or whether such a thing even exists). I liked them when I was a child. They also read the tales of Hans Christian Andersen to me. They have two huge books, one with Grimm's and the other with Andersen's.

 

I hope you enjoy your new books :)!

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My parents used to read some of these fairy tales to me (it was a Dutch translation, though I don't know if it was a special children's version or whether such a thing even exists). I liked them when I was a child. They also read the tales of Hans Christian Andersen to me. They have two huge books, one with Grimm's and the other with Andersen's.

 

I hope you enjoy your new books :)!

 

Thanks Athena :smile:  I'd love to get a collection of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales in the same style as my Grimm one as well, I'll be keeping a look out! I have seen children's versions of some of the stories before, there were a couple of times while I was reading that I realised I'd read that story as a child, but a version with easier language and less violence! 

 

 

I finally have my crazy week over with! I went to bed early last night, thinking I'd just unwind by reading a few pages of my book and then getting a good nights sleep - then stayed up until nearly 2 in the morning because I had to find out what happened at the end  :doh: . So, on that book:

 

Grave Peril (Dresden Files book 3) by Jim Butcher - Completely gripping but slightly confusing!

 

Firstly, this really felt different to the first two books. It seemed like other characters were playing a much bigger part, the danger felt more serious and it gave the impression of a main plot that will be carried on throughout the rest of the series (rather than being a single detective case) and those things were all good. On the other hand, it added so much so suddenly, I felt like I was missing something a lot of the time. I seriously wondered if I'd missed a book at one point, but I hadn't. A lot has happened between book 2 and this one that you just have to pick up as you go along. I thought that was a bit weird. And to get all the negatives out the way at once (and I know I've probably said the same thing about this series before) sometimes I just feel like it's being really unnecessarily sexual. When it's part of the plot, that's fine, but the majority of female characters get a detailed description of their breasts at some point and are frequently wearing something either extremely tight or barely there.

But, putting that aside... clearly, since I stayed up until 2 in the morning reading it, it was a gripping read. I did think a couple of the things Harry was trying to work out were actually pretty obvious, but there's a lot happening so it's not too bad. There are quite a few very dramatic moments, the kind where you think 'how can they possibly get out of this?' Which is always fun, and it was really nice to see more of the supernatural world (the Nevernever) and learn more about how it works. I definitely feel like this book has set up a deeper story line for the future so I'm interested to see where it's going next!

 

I'm going to save the next Dresden Files book for a while so I decided to give The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan a go. Someone gave me this book because they'd been given it and they don't read. It says on the blurb 'for fans of Kate Mosse' so fingers crossed, it will be good  :smile:  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Athena, I definitely think they're worth trying  :smile:

 

Goodreads - Jim Butcher - Hayley, there are some ` fill in the gaps` short stories, and a book callled Side Jobs, with some of them in it. :)

 

I`m up to Book 12 of the Dresden Files, and still sometimes get the ` have I missed a bit ?` feeling.  :giggle2:

 

Well that would explain it! Thank you!  :D  Glad the others must be worth reading, if you're up to book 12! I think I'll wait a while before looking for Side Jobs, since I don't want to read ahead and spoil anything!

 

 

The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan -  Enjoyable but Frustrating

 

This is going to be one of those reviews that's difficult without spoilers, so it might be fairly short! 

The blurb of this book compares it to Kate Mosse, and the similarities are very obvious. The format of one chapter following a character in the past and the next a character later in history, for a start, and also the verging-on-the-supernatural edge. Personally, I really like that and both characters in this case were interesting and had developed, very different, personal stories.

There are two key themes in the book. The first is sexism and the position of women (specifically in the late 1800's compared to the early 1930's) the second is mental illness, which is closely linked with the first. As the book progressed I found the haunting psychological aspect really intriguing and started to think I was really going to like this book. Unfortunately, for me anyway, I felt like it never developed the way it could have. It left me feeling that, although the story is all wrapped up at the end, it was anti-climactic.

(putting this part in spoiler not because it actually tells you the end but because I think you might find the ending easy to guess from it - if you starting reading the book)

It felt as though it descended into a cheesy romance, losing the earlier points in the process.

 

So although I enjoyed reading the majority of the book, I just didn't feel it was quite as good as it could have been.

 

 

I'm not really sure what I feel like reading now. I think I might go with The Mistletoe Bride and other Haunting Tales by Kate Mosse since it seems appropriately Halloween related :smile:  

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The Mistletoe Bride is perfect for Halloween, I've actually read a version of that story before.  Most of the other stories are good too, has your version got the pictures before each story?  They're not too creepy either!

 

I've read Kate Riordan's other book, The Shadow Hour, which I enjoyed, and have The girl... on my tbr pile.  I think she's a good writer.

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The Mistletoe Bride is perfect for Halloween, I've actually read a version of that story before.  Most of the other stories are good too, has your version got the pictures before each story?  They're not too creepy either!

 

I've read Kate Riordan's other book, The Shadow Hour, which I enjoyed, and have The girl... on my tbr pile.  I think she's a good writer.

 

Yes, I didn't realise until you mentioned it but it does have a picture before each story! They all look suitably creepy  :D I'm glad you think it will be good for Halloween!

I would agree that Kate Riordan seems like a good writer, I'll definitely have a look at what else she's written  :smile:

 

 

The Girl in the Photograph sounds interesting, it's now added to my TBR list!

 

I'll be really interested to see what you both think when you get round to it!  :smile:

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