Athena

Iain M. Banks - Against a Dark Background Genre: Science-fiction Format: Paperback Pages: 487 Synopsis (back of the book):Sharrow was once the leader of a personality-attuned combat team in one of the sporadic little commercial wars in the civilisation based around the planet Golter. Now she is hunted by the Huhsz, a religious cult which believes that she is the last obstacle before the faith's apotheosis, and her only hope of escape is to find the last of the apocalyptically powerful Lazy Guns before the Huhsz find her. Her journey through the exotic Golterian system is a destructive and savage odyssey into her past, and that of her family and of the system itself. My thoughts: This was the next Iain M. Banks book to read on my book shelf. I felt like reading some science-fiction, I hadn't done so for quite a bit of time. It took me a bit of time to get into this book. For some reason I felt my reading was going slow and I wasn't making much progress. I think it's because each sentence takes me a bit longer to process. I can't quite put my finger on why this was, though I think it has to do with the writing style and the word use. Sometimes words were used that I didn't know the meaning of, either because I haven't heard of them before in other English books, or because they were words specific to this universe and it wasn't yet explained what they meant. Sometimes there were good explanations of the environment, technology, items, people etc., other times the explanation came a bit late in my opinion, if there was one at all. The story sometimes jumps from present to past and then to present again and at a few of these passages it wasn't clear to me at first if it was taking place in the past or in the present. At other times it's very clear but there were a few times where I didn't know it at first and found out in the middle of the section or something. The story is pretty tense and has good plot twists that I didn't see coming. I'm not sure if I understood everything at the end, some characters were referred to and I'd forgot who they were a bit . It could also be that I was just feeling tired, that's very possible. The story is well written. It doesn't read easily for me, but I enjoyed reading the book even if it took a bit more effort on my part. I'm not sure what the title refers to. It's not very important perhaps, but I normally like to have figured it out by the end of the book. Overall I quite enjoyed reading this book, if not as much as some other science-fiction books I have enjoyed. My favourite book so far by Iain M. Banks is still Culture 2: The Player of Games (rated 9/10). Sometimes I wish the focus in this book (Against a Dark Background) was a bit less on the thrilling action and more on the science-fiction elements that I like, but I guess I have to read different science-fiction books to find more of that. It was a pretty tense thrilling ride, to have read this book. Rating: **** (8/10)

x Thanks ! It might also take some time away from reading though . I brainstormed and let it rest for a bit. I'll come back to what I've written and see what I think of it after a few days, usually then I'm more critical of my work and can see it with a fresh eye. x x Thanks Julie . In the meantime I've read one more book and bought several books. Review and book list to follow. I actually bought the books before I finished the next book but I've already written the review and not yet catalogued the books, so the order will be messed up.

I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy the book at all. I hope your next read will be more enjoyable !

x I look forward to read your review. That is sad yes . I hope to own and read the whole series at some point.. I own most of the books, just a few of the newer ones I don't have yet.

x Congrats on the new book !

x That's not nice ! Your English is pretty good though .

x I haven't. I much prefer reading over watching TV series, though I watch TV series now and then too. If it's ever on TV here I might take a look. I haven't really been in a vampire mood lately to be honest.

x Good luck with passing high school, I hope it all goes well ! It's great to hear about your love for reading . I have some of the Sherlock Holmes books on my TBR, I don't read that many classics but I hope to get around to them one day. My boyfriend doesn't call me love, most of the time if he calls me anything it's by my name (Gaia) .

Nice review ! It sounds interesting.

Oh I have that on my TBR! Well done Chrissy !

Yesterday we watched Man of Steel, which was good though it had a few flaws. I enjoyed it quite a lot though .

I think it's ridiculous that somehow there should be more attention on women gaining weight than men. It's okay to gain a bit of weight (I mean a lot of people are a bit overweight), it's not good to become really overweight for either gender.

x No, I'm not sure why you would think that . I'm disabled (autism) and getting benefits from the government, I hope I will feel better enough to get a part time job in a while. I just graduated university a few months ago, it was really difficult for me. I live with my parents. x x Wow.. I hope it will work out for you in the end, it's a difficult situation. I hope you enjoy your time off and that you get the job and that the Union will help you. x x Good luck! What will your thesis be about? x x I can understand this, I don't like it either when I'm forced to read something. I did enjoy some of those books (back in secondary school) but not as much as if I'd been free in my choice etc. I liked part of my studying but other parts I really didn't. I studied Chemistry and didn't like being in the lab at all. I liked some of my courses but overall the whole study was very tiring for me. Which study year are you in?

I'm so sorry to hear books are so expensive where you are and that you have trouble reading digital books . My glasses are minus 4 something so it must be very difficult for you! In my town there aren't a lot of English books in the library either (there are Dutch translated ones though), though there are a few. New books cost quite a bit in the book shops around here, but the charity shop and second hand books are cheaper. I also regularly go to a book fair where they sell books bookshops don't want to sell anymore and they're normally pretty cheap while new (though on occasion they aren't in great condition, but most of the time they are). I also order books from the UK and on occasion when I'm in the UK I go book shopping there too. I have an ereader and have to buy my Kindle books from Amazon.com where I pay extra because I live in Europe and not in the US, sometimes the price is good and sometimes it can be expensive compared to a paper copy (that said, if you want to buy ebooks from a Dutch site it often costs more). I prefer paper books anyway. When I was a child I'd mainly go to two libraries and I'd very often re-read my favourite books (this was before I could easily read books in English). Later on as I got more allowance I'd mainly use it to buy books and for savings. It wasn't until I was a student at the university that I started to read more and more English books. My boyfriend's British and my English has improved so much from talking with him and reading all the English books that nowadays I prefer to read books in English rather than Dutch (unless the original is Dutch). I hope your situation improves in the future! It must be really difficult to not be able to buy and read many books. Can I ask what you're studying? (maybe you've mentioned it elsewhere, if so I'm sorry )

x I'm glad to hear you enjoyed The Lost Daughter ! x x Nice ! I finished reading Iain M. Banks - Against a Dark Background (review to follow shortly) and started reading Penny Vincenzi - Windfall.

I have one book in the series, The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries 3: The Craving, but I haven't read it yet.

I'm not sure if this book is on my wishlist or not but I might be interested in reading it someday .

x Vimes' name comes from the character Vimes in the series .

Great review! The book sounds interesting .

x I love this film!

Chesilbeach, I hope you feel better soon! Sadia Tahna, I hope things will work out for you in your life. The past few days we've had builders fix our path, which made it very noisy. One day we got out of the house and went shopping (which was a lot of fun) and bought some nice things (including books..), the other day we didn't want to go out again since it's very tiring for both of us (expectations were it'd only take one day but..) so we stayed in the bakery instead where it was a bit quieter. At some points the whole floor vibrated because of the drill the builders were using. This is also the reason I wasn't on the forum much, since in the bakery there is no internet connection. I'm glad it's all over now.

Thank you, Kay !

Sophie Kinsella - The Undomestic Goddess Genre: Chick-lit Format: Paperback Pages: 416 Synopsis (GoodReads):Workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting has just done the unthinkable. She's made a mistake so huge, it'll wreck any chance of a partnership. Going into utter meltdown, she walks out of her London office, gets on a train, and ends up, in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she's mistaken for an interviewee and finds herself being offered a job as housekeeper. Her employers have no idea they've hired a lawyer; and Samantha has no idea how to work the oven. She can't sew on a button, bake a potato, or get the #@%# ironing board to open. How she takes a deep breath and begins to cope - and finds love - is a story as delicious as the bread she learns to bake. But will her old life ever catch up with her? And if it does - will she want it back? My thoughts: I love Sophie Kinsella's writing so I thought I'd read another one of hers. This book was a great read. Like the other Sophie Kinsella books I've read, it reminds me a bit of a funny (romantic) comedy. The book reads easily and the writing is good. I particularly enjoyed seeing how Samantha eventually comes to grips with the housework, it was very comedic to see what happened while she wasn't much capable of it yet. I recognised some things from myself, there are things I wouldn't know how to do either. Some of the plot was a bit predictable, other plot twists less so (those were pretty good plot twists!). I don't mind that though, it's easier on my brain and sometimes it's just nice to read something a little less 'complicated' or full of input. There are definitely underlying issues discussed though (ie. things related to identity, jobs, happiness, workaholism), I don't want to say it has no depth. In my opinion it does. It is a light read, it's not literary, but it's very much enjoyable. I didn't enjoy this one as much as I did Twenties Girl (rating 10/10) or the Shopaholic series (all rated 10/10), but I enjoyed it more than Can You Keep a Secret? (8/10). Overall I quite enjoyed reading this book. Rating: ***** (9/10)

x Thanks so much for your suggestions ! I'm going to write them down for when I need inspiration. x x Thanks ! x x Thanks ! x x Thank you ! x x Thanks ! Normally I go through periods where I read a lot and periods where I don't read so many books. I'm kind of dreading that my mojo might disappear any moment but we'll have to wait and see . I have a program that is handy for writers, so I'll try and make a little layout of the book and see what I can come up with, brainstorming I guess you'd call it perhaps?

x Ah, I see what you mean! Here on BCF when someone isn't reading much while they want to and have the time and energy, but somehow just don't seem to read fast or get into a book, we say that their 'mojo' has disappeared or is low. I've heard people on YouTube call it 'a reading slump'. For myself, I seem to go through periods where I read more and periods where I read less. At the moment I'm reading a lot (and fast), but I don't doubt that any moment really, I'll be in a period where I read less (I'm dreading it already ). We have to see how things go though. I hope things get better for you soon .