karen.d

I'll try and join you! I need a push to get back into reading!

Weekly Update 25/03/2018 This week has been a time of discovery for me. First, I discovered the wonderful novel ‘Three Things About Elsie’ by Joanna Cannon and then, I discovered poetry. Poetry is a realm of writing, which I have always kept at arm’s length. It seemed to me, that Poetry was the kind of thing that I wasn’t able to access and understand. I always imagined it to be something that was only reserved for intellects and so called ‘knowledgeable’ people. However this week, I discovered writer Jen Campbell’s ‘Dissect a Poem’ series on her YouTube Channel and I have found it, fascinating. It has made me realise that in whatever way you interpret a poem, there is no right or wrong answer. Each of these videos has a different guest interpreting a poem and the variety of opinions and interpretations, has been really diverse and has really got me thinking about poetry as an art form. When I think about it, poetry can be compared to painting. As a person who enjoys painting, I know that my work can be interpreted at an aesthetic level, but also each person can take something different from looking at a picture. The same goes, with poetry. So I will no longer be scared of reading poetry; I haven’t got the guts to write my own at the moment, but I’m eager to read and dissect more. I have had Mark Haddon’s poetry collection, ‘The Talking Horse and The Sad Girl and The Village Under The Sea’, sitting on my book shelf for a few weeks now, so I will read this. However, any of your poetry recommendations, would be great. Whether it is poetry or a novel, do you dissect what you read? If so, how? Do you annotate books? I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Thank you! I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the book, after you have read it

Bunny

Runner

Weekly Update 18032018 This week has seen the first DNF (Did Not Finish) book of 2018. I started reading 'Labyrinth' by Kate Mosse and managed about 70-80 pages, before completely giving up. Now, you must know that I'm not the sort of person who abandons books without reading at least 100 pages, so it was difficult to decide whether to leave this book unfinished, or plough on to finish it. However, with 'Labyrinth' I had problems with it from the very beginning. It had a very tenuous opening and then when it settled into the main story, the fact that most of the story was told in description and had very little dialogue, meant that I felt distanced from what was going on and in general, it made for very undynamic reading. Now, I'm reading 'Three Things About Elsie' by Joanna Cannon and even though I'm only about 123 pages in, I adore it already. Look out for my review, in the near future. Apart from that I haven't done much, apart from trying to avoid all of the noise from the local fiestas that are going on at the moment. On Thursday, I went to the cinema to watch 'The Shape of Water' and even now, I'm still confused about what I thought about it. I have a few days which are not as busy as usual , so I hope to get some more reading done. I don't know when I will be going to the cinema again, but I would love to hear your film recommendations. In the meantime, have a great reading week!

Great Review! I think that there is a pressure nowadays, when reading/watching something everyone is raving about, for you to like it too. It's good that you managed to get to the end of the book!

I've just had my first DNF (Did Not Finish). I got about 80 pages into 'Labyrinth' by Kate Mosse and I had to put it down as I didn't really enjoy it. The story was good, but I think there was far too much description, which for me, made very dull reading. It's a shame.

Hi everyone! Just thought I would give you an update on how I'm getting on with the challenge. I have just had my first DNF. I got about 80 pages into 'Labyrinth' by Kate Mosse and had to give up. The idea was interesting, but the writing was too dull for me. It had far too much description and not enough dynamic sppech. Disappointing.

Tin

Thanks! It's very rare that a book/film is even (for me it depends on what I experienced first, usually that is the one I like best) but these both worked for me, even with some changes. I hope when you get round to reading 'The Handmaid's Tale' you enjoy it as much as I did!

Review: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood Publisher: Penguin Random House What the ‘Blurb’ says: ‘The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire- neither Offred’s nor that of the two men on which her future hangs. Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful vision of the future gives full rein to Margaret Atwood’s irony, wit and astute perception.’ My Thoughts: Last year, I was totally gripped by the television adaptation of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. So I was a bit hesitant to read the novel, it originally was adapted from. The reason for this was because I loved the series so much, I thought that maybe I would be disappointed, when I read the novel. There are some differences between the TV programme and the novel but one thing is for sure, both are brilliant and powerful in their own right. The writing in this novel had impact, but was also beautiful. Whilst this novel wasn’t quite as overtly shocking as the TV programme, the horrors of the repressed society of Gilead and the struggles that Offred and the other Handmaids go through, were still as alarming. I thought the way in which these shocking events were combined with the most beautiful, poetic observations of even the simplest of things, added to the strength of the words on the page and brilliantly contrasted with the more sinister parts of the novel. Due to the fact that this book is written in the first person, I think I was able to get into this story very quickly and I believed that Offred was a real person, talking to me. I liked the way in which this book flowed seamlessly between the present and the past. You even find out more about Offred, than you do in the TV programme. Usually I find that when a novel is adapted into a film or television series, the book or the adaptation, is never as quite as good as the other. With ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ however, I think that the book and TV series, complement each other brilliantly. It’s a coincidence that I read this novel around the time of International Women’s Day, but if you are looking for a novel which has strong, powerful female characters, then ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is a book you should read. I couldn’t find fault with this novel and I look forward to reading this again in the future. My Rating:***** Have your read this book? What did you think? What other novels featuring strong women characters, would you recommend?

I thought it was a brilliant read, I would recommend it. I will try and post a review of it on my book thread on this board, on Thursday. I'm looking forward to the next read-a-thon already!

Here's what I read over the read-a-thon weekend: Friday: 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood- 47 Pages Saturday: 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood- 39 Pages Sunday: 'The Handmaid's Tale' By Margaret Atwood- 96 pages Total Pages read: 182 Pages I read the last few pages of 'The Handmaid's Tale' this morning.

Publisher: DoubleDay What the ‘Blurb’ says: ‘Salem’s Lot is a small New England town with the usual quota of gossips, drinkers, weirdos and respectable folk. Of course there are tales of strange happenings – but not more than in any other town its size. Ben Mears, a moderately successful writer, returns to the Lot to write a novel based on his early years, and to exorcise the terrors that have haunted him since childhood. The event he witnessed in the house now rented by a new resident. A newcomer with a strange allure. A man who causes Ben some unease as things start to happen: a child disappears, a dog is brutally killed – nothing unusual, except the list starts to grow. Soon surprise will turn to bewilderment, bewilderment to confusion and finally to terror . . .’ My Thoughts: I was challenged to read ‘Salem’s Lot’ as part of the ‘Year Long Round Robin Challenge’. Although, it wouldn’t have taken much persuading, for me to read this book. Stephen King has been one of my favourite authors, since I was about 15 and that is quite a few years now! One of the things that drew me into this book, was the suspense that was created from the very first chapter. There was a sense of great foreboding in the small town of Jerusalem’s Lot. Having read the majority of ‘The Dark Tower’ series, I already had an inkling as to what was going to happen, as one of the characters in ‘The Dark Tower’ series, featured in ‘Salem’s Lot’. However, you don’t necessarily have to have read any of ‘The Dark Tower’ series to enjoy this and vice versa. So when the mystery of the town was revealed, I wasn’t as surprised as I should have been. I also like the play on the horror genre within this book. At one point during the story, one of the characters was going to do something very stupid and the character even jokes about it, to one of the other characters. Two reasons I love Stephen King’s writing, are that he is a great story teller and he is able to create fully formed characters, without having to rely on large paragraphs of description. Whilst I think that ‘Salem’s Lot’ had a very good plot, I was disappointed at how indistinguishable, some of the main characters in ‘Salem’s Lot’ were. A lot of the main characters were male and several times during the book, I had to go back to previous chapters to clarify who was who, before continuing the story. Whilst reading other King’s novels, I have never had to remind myself who each characters was, even when reading some of King’s lengthier stories. So it was a surprise to me, how similar some of the characters were in this book. There were also a lot of secondary characters within the story and sometimes, it was also difficult to keep up with them all. Another problem I had with this novel, was that the suspense kept building in the novel and I was expecting a dramatic climax to this novel. Whilst I think that ‘Salem’s Lot’ has a reasonable ending, I felt it went a little flat at the end. That being said, I really enjoyed ‘Salem’s Lot’. It was a fun read, with plenty of atmosphere. So if you enjoy a good scare, you may enjoy ‘Salem’s Lot’. My Rating ****

Crowd

Thanks for clarifying this Noll!

'The Iron Lady' was better than I expected. You don't necessarily have to be into politics, to enjoy this film.

Yes, I put the quotation marks to indicate that it was the title of the book. Sorry for the confusion!

Have a great reading year!

Wow! Your book lists are very extensive! I wish I were that organised.

I missed last week’s update, mainly because I hadn’t made much reading progress and didn’t really have much to talk about. In the last week, I have finished read number 6, which was ‘Salem’s Lot’ by Stephen King and although it had its faults, I really enjoyed this novel. I’ll post a proper review of ‘Salem’s Lot’, on Thursday. Now, I’m reading ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood. This book isn’t included in 'The Year Long Round Robin Challenge', but I really wanted to read this. I’m giving the challenge a bit of break, until I have finished this and maybe, some of the other books I received for my birthday. I’m a massive fan of the TV adaptation of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and so far, even though there are some slight differences between the novel and the TV show, the book isn’t disappointing. Apart from reading, I haven’t done much else. Yesterday, I watched the film ‘The Iron Lady’, a film about the first British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. I’m not really into politics, but I really enjoyed Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Margaret Thatcher. What I also enjoyed about this film, was it was interesting to follow the political life of Margaret Thatcher and also had a sad, tragic story line of loneliness, running through it. This week, I’m looking forward to reading more of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and look out for my review of ‘Salem’s Lot’ on Thursday! How has your reading week been?

Yes, I think I will be able to take part!

I may get into making it pretty at some point, but for now, it functions quite well for what I want it for.