BookGeek20
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Posts posted by BookGeek20
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I just watched Moulin Rouge for the first time and its made me cry! Its such a beautiful love tragedy, and for those of you who have not seen it, see it! It is a great, funny, lovely, heart-wrenching love story that will touch you!
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I finished No Time For Goodbye last night and really enjoyed it, i shall be reviewing it later :)Very rarely do i find such a good book that keeps me gripped all the way through! It was an awesome book. Now onto Anita Shreve Where or When!
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Cool ^^ im more than halfway through No Time For Goodbye, its been a long time since i read such a good book!
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*droooolz* Mm cannot wait to see eclipse
hehe maybe its cos i have a huge crush on rpatz? 
I love Twilight so much! *girlish squeal* ok *calm* hehe BTW loved New Moon, i skipped a seminar to see the first showing of it in Bedford in November <3 -
Ill have to admit i feel a bit deprived having never been to a Barnes and Nobles store in my life, i thought that Waterstones was the best bookstore ever, (this is coming from a small island girl who got all her books from local bookshops, one of which closed down last year
) Anyway as for book activity hmm i have now read up to chapter eleven of No Time For Goodbye, a tad slow at the start ill admit, but gripping so far. i really want to find out what happens next! (At this rate ill read it late into the night!)
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oh my gosh i know nicola, i hate it when im engrossed in a really good book and someone talks to me it just annoys me because im 'in the zone!'
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One book that called to me i swear it did was when i visited my local library a few years ago and it was sitting on the shelf calling my name and saying "Read me! Reeeeaad Me!" (ok i exaggerate, give me some creative license! hehe) Anyway I picked it up and read the blurb on the inside cover for it was a hardback, borrowed it out and read it in a day i was that engrossed in it! So much that the very next day i had to go out and buy it
I was 13 at the time i think, gosh that was a good 7/8 years ago now! The book you ask? it was Sabriel by Garth Nix. He has to be my most favorite fantasy writer. I shall have to read it again soon. Anyway it has a pretty cool cover: 
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Some of my earliest memories from reading was on my eleventh birthday when my mum had bought me The Animals Of Farthing Wood Series, I also remember enjoying The Winds in the Willows books, Roald Dahl books and reading encyclopedias when i was young. I had a big imagination when i was young and to this day still do. I think it was the thirst for new adventures mainly and the thrill of reading about other things that didnt exist! I still remember lying in bed many a time with my bedside lamp on engrossed in a good book that i would read till the early hours. I read for escapism, pleasure and a good story well told, as well as inspiration. Time sure does fly when you read. It also inspires me to write ideas/stories one day i dream of seeing one novel of mine being published. As I constantly tell myself, My story is still being written
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Great Review about The Luminous Life of Lily Aphrodite, i read this book last year and really enjoyed reading it
I agree i felt so much for both of the characters, i might just have to re read it at some point! -
hehe great i now have a craving for a huge french fancy! hehe, i wonder if i could make one.... hmm
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Born in Guernsey Channel Islands
Currently Residing in England whilst doing my degree
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i keep munching on rich tea biscuits
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I just finished reading this book and in my opinion it was an enjoyable albeit a little strange to get into read. It was interesting to look into the characters pasts, what happened, how a strange childhood impacted upon the central characters life and so on and so forth. I found it a very dysfunctional novel as the theme of death and sadness ran throughout. The main character Helen was cold, unfeeling and unsympathetic towards her family and the plot at the end was in my opinion unresolved. It is a strange book and in my opinion should be read only if you are a fan of Alice Sebold's work.
On about.com the book review is:
"In The Almost Moon, Alice Sebold has created a memorable but wholly unlikable character. Helen Knightly is emotionally cold and distant, even from her best friend. Divorced, she is physically and emotionally estranged from her daughters. That she is mentally ill is readily apparent.
Helen is coming to grips with a parable shared by her father when she was a girl. "I like to think your mother is almost whole," he said. "So much in life is about almost, not quites." "Like the moon," Helen had responded.
The whole moon is always there in front of us, although we cannot always see it in its entirety. Except on those nights when it is full, we can do no more than almost see it. So it is with Life. Our life and the lives of those around us are always there in front of us; however, we seldom see the fullness of Life. We almost see it, then it is gone.
In this dark and unsatisfying novel, no one seems to be whole. Death permeates everything. "When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily," reads the first sentence. "When I was a teenager, I thought every kid spent sweaty summer afternoons in their bedrooms, daydreaming of cutting their mother up into little pieces and mailing them to parts unknown." As the next twenty-four hours unfold, we see into the murky depths of her relationship with her mother, her father, her ex-husband, and her daughters. There is nothing there to make the reader connect and care about a single one of them, and we never fully understand what drove any of them.
Her "mother's core was rotten like the brackish water at the bottom of a weeks-old vase of flowers." Her mother was severely agoraphobic. Her father, who went away for 90 days "to visit family," was warm and caring, but came home one evening and put a bullet through his head. At that point, Helen assumed the burden of caring for her mother. And, we quickly learn, it was a burden.
A major theme of the novel explores in a superficial manner the choices we make as individuals and as members of a family. As the pressure to care for a contemptible mother grew, Helen had choices to make; the choice which led to the murder of her mother is never made clear. The interior monologues simply do not ring true, and the plot remains unresolved.
Never has one novel had more dysfunctional characters. No one is whole, barely "almost whole." Everyone in Helen's family has issues; her mother's neighbors have issues. Her father used to say, when Helen's mother was off to a bad start in the morning, "It's a hard day." Helen, who likes hiding in "my own darkness" is having a hard day from which there seems to be no release.
Sebold's first, highly acclaimed novel, The Lovely Bones, is a cheerful walk in the park in comparison. It provided a protagonist for whom we felt great sympathy, as did Lucky, a memoir of her rape, published in 1999. In an interview with David Weich of Powells.com in July of 2002, Sebold said, "When people say, "I enjoyed Lucky," and hesitate, my response is, 'Yes, thank you.' It's a book. It's meant to be read. Even if it's about something horrible, it should be written in such a way that you enjoy it as a reading experience." The Almost Moon does not rise to the criterion of being an enjoyable read.
In the acknowledgments to his most recent novel, John Hart writes, "I have often said that family dysfunction makes for rich literary soil, ... the perfect place to cultivate secrets and misdeeds, grow them into explosive stories." Even in fertile soil, one has to plant good seed stock and tend it appropriately. Sebold's novel simply does not succeed on this level."
I agree with this point of view in the fact that after finishing the book it left me unsatisfied and didnt really meet my expectations whereas i have read The Lovely Bones before and enjoyed it. Anyway, lets hope that No Time For Goodbye will be a better read!
My rating: 5/10
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i agree ^^ i was freaked out by E.T too, which might explain why alien horror films make me poo my pants!
Also The Shining, i watched it last year on sky once with my parents and man it was a freaky film, its psychological mainly and how you can just go crazy in a big abandoned hotel in the middle of nowhere... I am happy that the ending was ok!
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For me my scariest film has to be The Descent! I loved it, yet scared everytime i watch it. I love the ending and stuff. I went to watch Paranormal Activity last year which was rubbish until the ending which was scary too. Uhm I love horror films, but i really cant stand alien films, ever since i watched Signs, ive been freaked out by aliens ever since!!!
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Wow i am amazed at the amount of people that put His Dark Materials on their lists, its one of my favorite trilogies i read when i was younger, i bought it with money from my nan. Im thinking i might have to read it again, however it is all the way in Guernsey... Btw you guys who are fans of good old Victor Hugo? did you know he was exiled to Guernsey? Ive been round his house and everything! *smug grin* *sigh* i do miss Guernsey (my home) at times whilst at uni but anyway on with the topic here are my top 5:
1. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
2. The Old Kingdom Trilogy- Garth Nix
3. Romeo and Juliet- Shakespeare (By far my fave play ever and i enjoyed studying it at school!)
4. The Lovely Bones- Alice Sebold
5. The Memory Keeper's Daughter- Kim Edwards.
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Hmm indeed how very insightful Vinay, i am so close to finishing my book atm :/ I think this forum will definitely encourage me to read more
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Thank you guys for support, i think i shall read it next after the almost moon, nearly finished it, just keep running out of time what with uni work, social life, sleep etc :/
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Hehe thanks vinay, but tbh i buy loads of books from charity shops so its all for a good cause, charity shops are like a treasure trove for book lovers!
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Thank you all again! I am loving this place
And i totally agree Bigwords about the victorian leather bound books, i found a great bookshop called the eagle bookshop here in bedford where i bought 4 books under 5 pounds -
Welcomes
My mum loves Catherine Cookson books, i dont read them myself, but it was because of her that i got into books at an early age! (im new too, just signed up today!) -
Hey Thanks, I kind of read half of the time travelers wife lost my place and then never got back into it. And I am looking forward to reading growing up again!
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Jan: Started reading The Almost Moon.
Feb: Finished The Almost Moon. Started Reading No Time for Goodbye. Finished No Time For Goodbye. Started Reading Where or When.
Mar:
Apr:
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Hey,
I have to say that i love Twilight too! but anyway, You will really enjoy Marian Keyes- This Charming Man. I read it around this time last year and i really got into it after watching a her in a TV interview. It is really interesting how all the characters connect in the book and how all the different plots are interwoven to make a very good read. I might just have to re-read it!
Oh and i am a huge fan of Trudi Canavan's books. The Magicians Guild trilogy is by far one of my favorite trilogies and she really inspired me to start writing. So best of luck with your reading list!
Bookgeeks Books for 2010
in Past Book Logs
Posted
Synopsis by Waterstones.com:
"On the morning she will never forget, suburban teenager Cynthia Archer awakes with a nasty hangover and a feeling she is going to have an even nastier confrontation with her mom and dad. But when she leaves her bedroom, she discovers the house is empty, with no sign of her parents or younger brother Todd. In the blink of an eye, without any explanation, her family has simply disappeared. Twenty-five years later Cynthia is still haunted by unanswered questions. Were her family murdered? If so, why was she spared? And if they're alive, why did they abandon her in such a cruel way? Now married with a daughter of her own, Cynthia fears that her new family will be taken from her just as her first one was. And so she agrees to take part in a TV documentary revisiting the case, in the hope that somebody somewhere will remember something - or even that her father, mother or brother might finally reach out to her...Then a letter arrives which makes no sense and yet chills Cynthia to the core. And soon she begins to realise that stirring up the past could be the worst mistake she has ever made..."
This book was a cracking good read! It was a real page turner from page one and i enjoyed reading it immensely! It was addictive from page one and totally exceeded my expectations! I thought something different all the way through and the ending was not what i had expected! Awesome book i would give it 9/10.