Lucybird

Sarah's Key- Tatiana de Rosnay Synopsis (from Amazon) Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old Jewish girl, is arrested by the French police in the middle of the night, along with her mother and father. Desperate to protect her younger brother, she locks him in a cupboard and promises to come back for him as soon as she can. Paris, May 2002: Julia Jarmond, an American journalist, is asked to write about the 60th anniversary of the Vel' d'Hiv'--the infamous day in 1942 when French police rounded up thousands of Jewish men, women and children, in order to send them to concentration camps. Sarah's Key is the poignant story of two families, forever linked and haunted by one of the darkest days in France's past. In this emotionally intense, page-turning novel, Tatiana de Rosnay reveals the guilt brought on by long-buried secrets and the damage that the truth can inflict when they finally come unravelled. Review It is very true that little is told about the German occupation of France during the second world war, until I read Sarah's Key I had never heard of the Vel' d'Hiv and knew next to nothing about the German occupation of France (in fact it is sad to say that most of what I knew came from watching 'Allo 'Allo, which I am sure is very historically accurate!). I have read a lot of novels set around the world wars but I haven't come accross one set in France in the second world war before. I'm not sure if this is because they are rare or just that I happen not to have come accross them. Sarah's Key has certainly piqued my interest to read more about France during this time, it's been a long time since I've read a work of historical fiction that has done that, and I would love some recommendations if any of you guys can think of another book like Sarah's Key. I feel I am going off on a tangent a little. Sarah's Key was beutiful, heart wenching, at times it was so sad I did not want to keep reading, but I did, I had to, and I'm glad I did. I loved Sarah. I loved her strenght and determination. Seeing how she changed was so sad, no child should have to grow up that fast, but I think it was done well, I felt it shouldn't have happened but in a way it gave a sense of hope. I didn't like Julia's side of the story so much but it was good to see how people looked back at that period of time and it broke up the sadness a little which made the book easier to read. Some parts of Julia's story I found unnecersary Other bits I found unbelievable, The ending kind of spoiled the book for me too, it made it kind of cliched, 4.5/5

I would quite like to see the film just to see what it's like.

I Am Number Four- Pittacus Lore This was by book recommended by a loved one for the Take a Chance Challenge. My wonderful boyfriend lent it to me. Synopsis (from Amazon) John Smith is not your average teenager. He regularly moves from small town to small town. He changes his name and identity. He does not put down roots. He cannot tell anyone who or what he really is. If he stops moving those who hunt him will find and kill him. But you can’t run forever. So when he stops in Paradise, Ohio, John decides to try and settle down. To fit in. And for the first time he makes some real friends. People he cares about – and who care about him. Never in John’s short life has there been space for friendship, or even love. But it’s just a matter of time before John’s secret is revealed. He was once one of nine. Three of them have been killed. John is Number Four. He knows that he is next . . . Review Right from the start this book was predictable, I could have predicted what happened at the end right from the onset, although I couldn't have predicted how we got there I could predict almost everything before I got to it. It was just so formulaic. It felt as if it was put together by a team trying to decide what teenagers would most like. After all (sorry to break it to you guys) Pittacus Lore is not just one person, but a collaboration between James Frey and Jobie Hughes (hmm where have we seen James Frey lying before?). Okay maybe I am being a bit harsh, it was enjoyable enough, and an easy read, I pretty much read it in two days. The predictability reduced the excitement quite a bit, but I liked the characters enough to find the end moving, and I will probably read the next one, although I won't rush out to buy it when it comes out. All in all there are better, more exciting fantasy stories but if you are after an easy read with a bit of bite you can't go wrong with this one 3/4

Finished I am Number Four and started Sarah's Key Oh no more books to buy!

I am jealous, I somehow managed to miss what appears to be the only showing in Birmingham Just finished A Wild Sheep Chase on Sunday, was a little disappointed in comparison to other Murakami novels, but still enjoyed it

Finished A Wild Sheep Chase- Haruki Marukami yesterday and am now racing through I am Number Four- Pittacus Lore.

A Wild Sheep Chase- Haruki Murakami Synopsis (from Amazon) His life was like his recurring nightmare: a train to nowhere. But an ordinary life has a way of taking an extraordinary turn. Add a girl whose ears are so exquisite that, when uncovered, they improve sex a thousand-fold, a runaway friend, a right-wing politician, an ovine-obsessed professor and a manic-depressive in a sheep outfit, implicate them in a hunt for a sheep, that may or may not be running the world, and the upshot is another singular masterpiece from Japan's finest novelist. Review I was really looking forward too reading another Murakami but it really took me a long time to get into this one. It felt very normal and that's not what I've come to expect from Murakami, I was looking forward to some surrealism. For a long time it felt like a pretty standard mystery, maybe to sheep business felt a bit strange but it didn't really feel like a sheep hunt most of the way through- I would have expected to find sheep. It did get more towards what I would call Murakami's style, and I came to like this end, it felt a bit like a crazy, fast dream, but I felt like that was how the majority of the book should feel when really it was a majority. I think it says a lot that it took me over a week to get through a 300 page book. That's slow reading for me. So not the best Murakami I've ever read, but the end saves it. 4/5

Lol I was wondering if someone would have got in before me. I hear he is more interested in men though.... I finished One of Our Thursdays is Missing- Jasper Fforde today. Not sure what to read next

One of Our Thursdays is Missing- Jasper Fforde Synopsis (from Amazon) It is a time of unrest in the BookWorld. Only the diplomatic skills of ace literary detective Thursday Next can avert a devastating genre war. But a week before the peace talks, Thursday vanishes. Has she simply returned home to the RealWorld or is this something more sinister? All is not yet lost. Living at the quiet end of speculative fiction is the written Thursday Next, eager to prove herself worthy of her illustrious namesake. The fictional Thursday is soon hot on the trail of her factual alter-ego, and quickly stumbles upon a plot so fiendish that it threatens the very BookWorld itself. Review For the purposes of this review Thursday refers to the real life Thursday Next, Thursday refers to the written Thursday Next. I found One of our Thursdays is Missing quite different from the other books in the Thursday Next series, not least because you could tell it was written Thursday who was speaking. Although the tone was similar the way in which Thursday approached things was markedly different to that of Thursday. Partly because of this I found the One of Our Thursdays is Missing was a little slow to start, however I did also find this about First Among Sequels so it may just be the pattern the series is taking, certainly in both there was more that needed to be explained, Having said that having Thursday speaking made a big difference which somewhat slowed down the plot I did like the new Thursday. She was much more pondering and less action focussed than Thursday and it felt like she was discovering things along with the reader rather than leaving them puzzling. I suppose that could be a bad thing but at points she left little tantalising details which suggested that she knew more, I liked that because it made her seem more like a written person, like she was trying to make a narrative, and it kept me interested to find out what she knew. There were a lot of things I did love about this book. I loved how where before there had been references to novels now there were references to writing, I especially liked when the characters got lost because of lack of references to who was speaking! I loved Thursday, she was like a softer version of Thursday and it was nice to have a little change, even if it meant the book was more pondering. I loved learning a bit more about the book world, about the politics, about how in joined up and how different areas interacted with each other, supported by the rather intriguing map at the beginning and the quotes from Bradshaw's Guide to the Bookworld. There was less about the real world too, I always preferred the Bookworld side of the storyline so I liked that. Plus where the real world was included in the story I found it really interesting to see it from a fiction point of view. Again the end seems to lead on to another Thursday Next novel which makes it seem more series like than it once was. In ways I don't like that, it somehow makes Thursday Next seem more commercial, but I won't complain about there being more to come! As a side note the acknowledgements are well worth the read (I was on the bus when I finished, it's not usually a section I read). There is a section about what happened while Fforde was writing One of Our Thursdays is Missing which is rather entertaining and makes me like him even more (and no, not just because he's a fellow mac user!) 4.5/5

The Lucifer Effect- Phillip Zimbardo. It's about how our social roles can effect our actions and talks about a mock prison experiment, it's a bit scary that it's true but it's one of my must read books (there is a review on my blog)

Hi Faisal. It's unlikely that a member here will have the book you are looking for but I had a quick look on google and it seems the book you are after is not a book at all but an article from a journal. Try looking up the Journal of Semitic Studies, if you have access to a library (particularly a university library) they are likely to have a copy

Personally Shades of Grey has been my favourite so far (but not another one till 2013 boooo!) but it is a little more serious. As a starter I'd say go for The Eyre Affair

Am about 200 pages into One of Our Thursdays is missing, really enjoying it although it does seem a little slower Am about to read the first chapter of Pigeon English from the Waterstones site

Finished First Among Sequels and started One of Our Thursdays is Missing, both Jasper Fforde

First Among Sequels- Jasper Fforde Synopsis (from Amazon) Thursday Next is back. And this time it's personal . . . Officially, Literary Detective Thursday Next is off the case. Once a key figure in the BookWorld police force, she is concentrating on her duties as a wife and mother. Or so her husband thinks . . . Unofficially, Thursday is working as hard as ever - and in this world of dangerously short attention spans, there's no rest for the literate. Can Thursday stop Pride and Prejudice being turned into a vote-em-off reality book? Who killed Sherlock Holmes? And will Thursday get her teenage son out of bed in time for him to save the world? Review I must admit to start off with I wasn't especially impressed with First Among Sequels when compared to other books in the Thursday Next series, it seemed pretty slow to get going and it felt like more of an artificial sequel than the others had. It felt a bit like it had been written for the sake of writing another rather than because the series lent itself to a further book after Something Rotten. Having said that we did know that books would be written about Thursday at the end of Something Rotten and the idea of a fictional Thursday is a little too intriguing to pass by. The different Thursdays were very well done too, it created so much comedy, especially when the two fictional Thursdays were so different from each other. There were some very clever parts of this book too I especially liked By the end it did actually feel more like a series book than the others, because it definitely lends itself to there being a further book. I now understand why Jasper Fforde said that One of Our Thursdays is Missing is the first sequel that is really a sequel, and I can't wait to get started on it, In retrospect First Among Sequels could actually be my favourite Thursday book. 4.5/5

Hi Habeebi. You can leave the books where ever you want, the site is to log the books so you can find out where they have gone

I'm glad to hear there are more original ideas in the next one Chrissy, my boyfriend has it so I will probably be borrowing it from him

Magyk- Angie Sage This book is the first in the Septimus Heap series Synopsis (from Amazon) A baby girl is rescued from a snowy path in the woods. A baby boy is stillborn. A young Queen is taken ill. An ExtraOrdinary Wizard mysteriously resigns from his post. And all on the same night. A string of events, seemingly unconnected, begins to converge ten years later, when the Heap family receive a knock at the door. The evil Necromancer DomDaniel is plotting his comeback and a Major Obstacle resides in the Heap family. Life as they know is about to change, and the most fantastically fast-paced adventure of confused identities, magyk and mayhem, begin. Review I was given this book by a fellow Harry Potter fan who described it as the new series he was addicted too. It's taken me a while to get round to actually reading it, partly because despite some of my favourite books being fantasy I'm not a big reader of fantasy as a whole, and partly because I didn't want to compare Magyk to Harry Potter, because I knew it would be pretty hard to meet up. Luckily to compare the two would be quite difficult, apart from tragic beginnings, and similar aged main characters the two have very little in common. Plot wise there were some pretty good ideas going on but, partly because of the way Magyk was written I did find it very predictable, the main twist is given away because of some bad decision making- which may be on part of the publishers rather than Sage herself. I must admit a fair bit of the plot didn' seem particully original either, partly because I think Sage had used myths to do with magic- which is probably a good thing, and partly because it was predictable. There were some really good ideas though, I particully liked the dragon ring and it's surrounding storyline. I will read the rest in ther series, because I dislike leaving a series unfinished but I wouldn't activelly seek them out. 3/5

Finished Magyk- Angie Sage and started First Among Sequels- Jasper Fforde

I have trouble writing reviews for him too, but somehow manage to write longer reviews as I try to get my thoughts into words!

I forgot to mention a couple of days ago, got First Among Sequels- Jasper Fforde from the library

Just finished watching Bleach 276...still catching up

lol I'm glad I'm not the only one. I really do not see why so many people love it!

Started Magyk- Angie Sage. The first in the Septimus Heap series

Our computer did that when the graphics card went Katerina, I don't know if it could be that. I hope not because it cost about the same ammount to fix as getting a new computer