Classics Club

I've done it! I've joined the Classics Club! I realised that most of the books in my own 100 book challenge were classics anyway so why should I miss out on the fun?! I didn't just want to replicate the same books so I decided to throw myself a curveball and only allow books published prior to 1900. Say what?! Think a whole lot of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, Brontë, Hugo, Hardy, Twain...  Oh yeah it's party time!

Check out my full list here!

My Book Club

When I spotted this over at The Broke and the Bookish I knew instantly it was talking about my book club. Love you girls!

It's Monday. What are you reading? 26 March 2012

It's Monday. What are you Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey to outline what you have been reading and what you plan to read this week.


I'm just finishing up Rosetta (Barbara Ewing) and I'm on the last few chapters so it's freaking exciting! I don't want to be working... I need to find out what happens!

Next I'm going to be reading The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins) as part of Reading Rambo's readalong starting next week! But I hope to fit in before then Room (Emma Donaghue) which I picked up at the library this weekend. I've just joined the library in my new location so it's fun checking out their selection. It's only a very small community library (we only have about 2000 people in my area) but they've been super friendly and there's enough there to keep me going for now. I also picked up an audio book from the library, an Alexander McCall Smith one - Blue Shoes and Happiness. I actually have this book on my book shelf but I'm driving at least 5 hours a week at the moment and so I thought I'd try out some audio books and this one seemed like a good pick to ease me into it.

I also had book club a couple of weeks back and I forgot to post what books I picked up from there. I borrowed Emily of New Moon (L.M. Montgomery) and The Red Tent (Anita Diamant).

Commenting issues

Hi everyone,

If you are having any issues viewing your comments on my site I do apologise. It seems blogger has made an update which has broken my intensedebate commenting widget. I have made some updates (if anyone else is using intensedebate read this to check you're not affected) and hopefully it should all work going forward but unfortunately some comments in the past week may be lost. But don't worry I have read them, they just may not appear on the blog post sadly.

Friday Pondering - Hunger Games

I've been internalising a really complicated situation in my head...*

And I've come to the conclusion that I need all you guys to help me make the decision. Because who else would know the answer to this question better than you?

Should I read The Hunger Games?

Okay before you all shout out "YES - Why are you asking such a stupid question?" let me put this into some context.

Firstly I don't read YA. It's certainly not my chosen genre as some of you may know from the books I review. I prefer meaty chunky novels, something you can sink your teeth into (with the odd chick-lit thrown in to break up the monotony). I can count on one hand the amount of YA books I've read (okay two if you count each Harry Potter book separately) and can honestly say I only liked half of them. Overall they just don't interest me.

Secondly I didn't like Twilight. I didn't hate it in one of those - I refuse to watch this and buy into the hype kind of way - I just genuinely didn't like the book. The movies were coming out and there was a lot of talk about it and one of my good friends actually really liked it so I decided to read the first book. I read the whole thing and got to the end and thought - Meh! I didn't think the writing was great, the story was boring and the whole love triangle thing drove me mad. I watched the movie on dvd just in case I missed something in my interpretation of the book but I wasn't. Nope I found the movie boring too. So I didn't bother with the rest of the series. After that I'm now pretty cautious about reading another over-hyped YA book.

And finally the story itself doesn't really appeal to me. The idea of a bunch of teenagers thrown into an arena to fight to the death just doesn't sit well with me. And if that's the main story plot then I'm worried. But if it leans a lot more heavily to more interesting dystopian undertones and themes then maybe it's worth a shot.

So now you've got the full story please Help. What do you think I should do? Should I read it?

---

* Sorry bit of a kiwi reference there - if you're not smiling to yourself then here's the link :)

Lucky Man (Michael J. Fox)

Title: Lucky Man: A Memoir

Author: Michael J. Fox

Publication Date: 2003

Publisher: Hyperion
Pages: 272

Source: Borrowed from a family member

Genre: Autobiography / Memoir

Goodreads | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

I grew up watching Michael J. Fox on Family Ties re-runs (I was still in diapers when the first season aired ;) ) and Back to the Future was a major part of my childhood history. So of course I was super dooper excited to read the first memoir written by Mr Fox titled Lucky Man. This memoir starts off with a very heavy topic - being diagnosed with Parkinson disease - and then shifts focus to his early life growing up in Canada and moves on to his acting career while swinging back into the major life changes and upheavals that his diagnosis causes.

Michael J. Fox is an incredible story teller. His sharp wit and down-to-earth personality really shines in this book and it was seriously a real pleasure to read. I found the insights into the movie and tv industry incredibly fascinating and he was brutally honest about so many aspects of his life including his relationship with his father and issues with alcohol. I had no idea it took him around 7 years before he decided to go public with his diagnosis and even then it was a hard choice to make.

Regardless whether you grew up worshipping the DeLorean and knowing you were going to own a hoverboard one day (seriously - hurry up already!) or you only caught a couple of episodes of Spin City and found him a bit of a laugh I highly recommend you give this memoir a go as it's one of the best I have read.

This is only his first book and I loved his writing style so much I'm already sourcing Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned. Plus he gets my award for longest titles.

Read It

Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox

Order from Amazon.com| Amazon.co.uk

Oh no. What have I done?

I've decided to bite the bullet (and risk pulling out a few hairs along the way) by getting myself a twitter account. Uh oh what have I gotten myself into?! You can now follow me @booksinthesun. I've also added some handy links to my twitter feed on the right along with my goodreads profile which I hadn't done much with yet.

Anyhooo come say hi and help me to learn how this whole thing works! Bear with me I'm new to it all ;)

It's Monday. What are you reading? 19 March 2012

It's Monday. What are you Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey to outline what you have been reading and what you plan to read this week.


So things haven't changed since I last posted as I'm still reading Rosetta (Barbara Ewing) but that's because for once I have something far more fun to do then read. I know right? What could that possibly be?

Play with two little kittens of course! Yep we have once more added to our family with two gorgeous little ones rescued from the SPCA.

They are as yet un-named because we're still getting to know their personalities but after only 2 days of knowing them they have stolen my heart for good. The black boy loves to ride on my shoulder and pines if he doesn't know where I am. While the torty girl is a real snuggle monster who is crazy playful too.

The Lollipop Shoes (Joanne Harris)

Title: The Lollipop Shoes (aka The Girl With No Shadow)

Author: Joanne Harris

Publication Date: 2007

Publisher: Transworld Publishers
Pages: 459

Source: Book club borrowed

Genre: Travel

Goodreads | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

The Lollipop Shoes is the follow up novel to the very popular Chocolat, bringing us back into the lives of Vianne Rocher, her two daughters Anouk and a new addition to the family. These days they have changed their names to Yanne, Annie and Rosette and live in relative anonymity in the streets of Montmartre.

I have to admit I went into this book with some preconceived ideas as I had read and seen quite a few reviews that didn't land very favourably on this new edition in the series. So I didn't expect too much from it and was pleasantly surprised to find it, if not as good as the first, a perfectly enjoyable read.

The book centers around Zozie de l’Alba, an enigmatic character with a number of past lives herself. She blows into their lives and creates all sorts of havoc. I think Zozie was a interesting new character to bring into the mix but I didn't like the direction the writer took Vianne's character in. She became a bit of a wallflower trying to lead a more normal life and well became far more snooze worthy until later in the book. Roux does make an appearance of course which I definitely think helped move the story along. There is also a significant increase in the amount of magical references in the novel which I believe made the book less enjoyable. I understood that it may have been necessary for providing context around Zozie's character but I just couldn't relate to it.

Overall it's very different to Chocolat and I think that's why the reviews have been pretty bad. As a stand alone book it is a good read but in comparison to the first it just doesn't have that special something. Basically don't expect the same thing as Chocolat and you'll probably enjoy it.

Read It if you want to know what's happening with the characters but don't expect another Chocolat

The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris

Order from Amazon.com| Amazon.co.uk

New Releases - March 2012

New releases for March. I have read a couple of Jane Green novels but haven't gotten into them too much. I love the sound of How to Eat a Cupcake although I really don't think I need any help in that department ;) I adore cupcakes! Forgotten country sounds the most intriguing out of this lot.

NEW RELEASES BY GENRE

fiction

historical fiction

It's not quite Monday but here's what I'm reading

Okay so I completely missed this weeks Monday meme post for It's Monday. What are you Reading? but I just really want to update you on where I'm at so you get an extra Wednesday post instead.


I've just read  A Visit From the Good Squad (Jennifer Egan) which was quite different to what I thought it would be so I think I'm going to have fun trying to write up a review of that one. It's just very different which is quite cool. It's good to get out of my comfort zone! And now I've just started Rosetta (Barbara Ewing). I've read two of her books so far The Fraud and The Mesmerist and they were fantastic so very happy to get my hands on this one.

So now I need to start looking at my 2012 challenges and start reading some of the books on my list. It's very easy to get distracted with books you pick up at second hand book shops. So after Rosetta I'm going to pick up one on my challenge list. I'll let you know which one I decide.