Janet
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Posts posted by Janet
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Well done, frankie!
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Awww, bless you - thanks.
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Thanks guys.
I am feeling a lot better today, although I'm still not 100% right. I have managed to finish my book though so it's not been all wasted time! -
My copy of Newes from the Dead by Mary Hooper has this on the back...
Which I think is good, as lots of her books are aimed at younger readers (I think this, combined with the 'blurb', gives parents an idea of what children are going to encounter in the book).
I wouldn't necessarily like an age rating - just a warning of some of the content like above.
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Thanks, guys.
I feel so bad,.
It's just a cold really, but it's a stinker and has gone to my head, sinuses and chest all at the same time. I got up for breakfast (which I couldn't taste!) and then went back to bed. I've been reading and dozing on and off all day, but I've got up for a bit of lunch (which I also couldn't taste!) and thought I ought to try to stay awake so that I sleep later. It's lucky that a) my husband is working away this week so I'm not keeping him awake at night (although I miss his warmth), and b) I'm not working again until Saturday when hopefully I'll be over the worst of it. I got a couple of 'ping pings' for the kids (microwave meals!) when I knew the cold was coming, just in case, so they can fend for themselves (although both can cook proper food if they feel like it!).
I have managed to read 88 pages of The Ruins of Time by Ben Woolfenden between sleeps, so it's not all bad!
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Sometimes, yes.
I'm not feeling at all well today though so I've done most of my reading today in bed! -
That's your prerogative, of course, but it seems an extreme reaction to what was just a simple question, politely asked.
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The Seance is definitely my favourite book so far this year.
I hope you enjoy it when you get round to it, Julie and Kidsmum. I finished Wonder by R J Palacio this afternoon. Very good.
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And Janet - now that you've pointed that out - I'm a bit nervous about The Black Dahlia sitting unread on my shelf
Oh dear - I hope I haven't jinxed it!
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I finished The Seance by John Harwood today. The lovely Noll bought it for me for Christmas and it's my favourite read of the year so far!
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I love it when a plan comes together...!
Looks like you're doing really well.
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I am glad to hear that...I am sure I have this on one of my shelves somewhere!
Finished Dark Places and starting Rebecca
To my frustration I've had no reading time today! I'm going to go to bed shortly and read for a while!
I hope you enjoy Rebecca - it's one of my favourites.
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Janet, try Divergent, which is generally really liked by Hunger Games fans. Slated is also really good, and Unremembered is fast paced, so good for reluctant readers.
Thanks for the recommendations, Michelle.
They have a copy of Divergent in the library in the next town - I will see if I can get it for her. I would recommend Divergent too, the third in the trilogy is being released later this year so not too long to wait if she enjoys the first two.. I thoroughly enjoyed the first books, as did my teenage son and now my 11 year old daughter is reading them and also enjoying them.
Your son did brilliantly, one of my sons friends was diagnosed with dyslexia in Year 6 (now Year 9) and he gets all sorts of help and extra time in tests, so to achieve what he did without that help is fantastic..
Thanks.
We were so proud of him at the time - and we still are. He's in his second hear of an apprenticeship and he loves it! -
First off I need to say that my son is wonderful! He's kind, considerate, polite, hard-working, conscientious... he's always been a nice teenager (he's an adult now - he was 18 in November) so he shouldn't be judged on this but when it comes to reading it's almost like a badge of honour for him to not like it.
He was diagnosed as dyslexic just a few weeks ago (which makes his GCSE results even more impressive - he was predicted Ds and Cs - more Ds than Cs - and instead got Bs and Cs!) so I think now that this might have some bearing on his dislike of books. He's not a computer-game person either - he's always been a Bike/Skateboard/Fresh air kind of guy so it's not like he sits on his backside all day and does nothing.
I need to investigate whether there are any other books similar to The Hunger Games that my daughter might enjoy.
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This year so far I have read two children's/YA books (and thoroughly enjoyed them). I've also read a couple of classics - my reading is fairly eclectic, I think.
My children don't read - my son doesn't even like reading - my daughter chooses not to. They see me and their Dad reading all the time but still they don't pick up books. This saddens me, but what can I do? They were always encouraged to read as youngsters - I read to them, I took them to the library, but still they don't like reading. Does this make me a bad parent?! However, my daughter (15) recently devoured the Hunger Games trilogy. She's also read the Twilight books. I'd rather she read things like that than didn't read at all.
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I'm now on page 176 of The Seance by John Harwood - I can't put it down!
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Lovely pic, Pontalba
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Not a bad guess from memory!
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The Girl from the Fiction Department: A Portrait of Sonia Orwell by Hilary Spurling
The ‘blurb’
George Orwell's second wife was portrayed by many of her husband's biographers as a manipulative gold-digger who would stop at nothing to keep control of his legacy. But the truth about Sonia Orwell -- the model for Julia in Nineteen Eighty-Four was altogether different. Beautiful, intelligent and fiercely idealistic, she lived at the heart of London's literary and artistic scene before her marriage to Orwell changed her life for ever. Burdened with the almost impossible task of protecting Orwell's estate, Sonia's loyalty to her late husband brought her nothing but poverty and despair.
(I am referring to Sonia Orwell as Brownell (her maiden name) – or just Sonia - in my review, to distinguish her from George Orwell).
Being a massive George Orwell fan, I picked this up on a whim when I spotted it for £1. I didn’t really know much about Sonia Brownell, although I had read that she was a gold-digger who married Orwell for his money. Hilary Spurling, a friend of Sonia’s, determined to set the record straight in this biography of Sonia’s life.
The earlier parts of the biography are interesting, detailing Sonia’s early life in India and the UK, and her entry into literary and artistic circles in London and Paris. Originally though of as a ‘hanger-on’, she showed her true abilities after getting a job editing Cyril Connolly's literary magazine Horizon’ in the 1940s. After a number of failed affairs, she married Orwell, who immortalised Sonia as Julia in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and, after his death, she was fiercely protective of his works and estate – although she died penniless due to a number of bad decisions. It is Brownell who was responsible for Orwell’s essays and letters being published. Orwell stipulated in his will that no biography was to be written. Eventually Brownell did commission one, but only because an unauthorised version was due to be published and she wanted a more reliable version of Orwell’s life to balance things.After Orwell’s death, Brownell had other relationships and eventually married Michael Pitt-Rivers but he was gay so naturally their marriage didn’t last. Brownell continued to be fiercely loyal to her friends until the end of her life but to my mind never achieved real happiness and died virtually penniless.
Obviously Spurling portrays Brownell in a favourable light. Some people will still think of her as an opportunist who married Orwell for her own gain, but Spurling’s side of things shows her as someone who enriched what little life Orwell had left, and it seems she really did love him. I’m not sure to whom this biography would appeal, but as an Orwell fan I found it very interesting, if a little dry in places.
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I started The Seance by John Harwood last night. It was a Christmas present from Noll. I'm only on page 32 but I'm already hugely enjoying it
It's meant to be quite scary! 
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I, Coriander by Sally Gardner
The ‘blurb’
I am Coriander Hobie.
I was born in the year of Our Lord 1643, the only child of Thomas and Eleanor Hobie, in our great house on the River Thames in London. Of my early years I remember only happiness. That was before I knew this world had such evil in it, and that my fate was to be locked up in a chest and left to die.
This is my story. This is my life.
“I have often wondered what would have happened if I had done as I was told and left the silver shoes alone. Would everything then have been all right?”
This young adult novel is set in the period following the English Civil War and Charles I’s beheading. Coriander lives with her father, a wealthy merchant and her mother in a house backing on to the River Thames. Life changes suddenly for Coriander the day she tries on a pair of silver slippers against her mother’s wishes and starts a chain of magical events that will have a huge impact on her family.
After her mother dies suddenly her father, a Royalist, is urged to marry a Puritan woman in order to appease the Parliamentarians. Maud, Coriander’s new stepmother is a cruel and unpleasant woman and things go from bad to worse after her father is forced to flee and Maud moves in a preacher, Arise Fall. It is only when Coriander is shut in a chest and left to die that her adventure really begins.
Sally Gardner’s story cleverly integrates the fairy world with the mortal one in this Cinderella-style tale. The ending was a bit corny, perhaps, but nevertheless I enjoyed it.
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Personally, I think we're all doing very well to stimulate the economy through the selfless act of book buying
Oooh, I like that excuse reason - good one!
I read Chocolat quite a few years ago and enjoyed it - hope you do too.
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This is so odd! I remember someone read the book last year or the year before that, and they didn't much like the book, and I had been thinking it might've been you or Kylie. I already asked Kylie about it but she's not read it yet, and now you say you loved it. I wonder who it was, then... But I'm happy you loved it! It's really great, I couldn't put the book down last night, I read maybe 200 pages in one sitting/lying down (minus brushing teeth and getting to bed and that sort of business). Now I can't wait to try other books by David Mitchell!
I wonder if everyone who bears the name is blessed ...
I just checked my review and I gave it 10/10 (I score out of 5 now - much easier!). I haven't read anything else by him though! I think it helps that Jason is a similar age to me so lots of the references in it were very pertinent!
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I'm focussing on my dissertation this month, so I'm expecting to read Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy a couple of times *yay*
Actually, I really do adore these books.
I've only read the first one. I meant to read the other two but never got round to it. I have them on my 'to read' list but I'm not sure where they actually are!
Meanwhile, in counter reality: Janet did not buy one single book today, just like she didn't in the other past days for so and so years...
I finished Dangerous Liaisons last night (still need to figure out what I made of it) and started reading Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (which I'm absolutely loving).
Oi! I'll have you know I haven't bought any new books today
although I did nearly order two and am still considering them...!I read Black Swan Green a few years ago and loved it!
Your Book Activity ~ March 2013
in General Book Discussions
Posted
I finished The Ruins of Time by Ben Woolfenden this morning. I bought it recently after reading about it in Kidsmum's blog and looking it up on Amazon. I really enjoyed it.
I've just started The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson which Kay bought me for Christmas.