The Gauguin Connection - Estelle Ryan

Again I now know why I love detective and mystery novels along with a little bit of a twist :) This is one in a series of 5 now I think!! and I am currently in the process of reading the rest as it is something that I have never ever read before ... and that means that it is a feat of ingenuity!!

The Gauguin Connection - Estelle Ryan

Genevieve Leonard is a body language analysts who looks into art fraud for an art insurance company! She has a form of high functioning autism and spent most of her childhood trying to be 'normal' which is why she now studies body language! She is one of the leading experts in her field of study but she enjoys her quiet and ordered life!

Until Colin drops into her life by climbing through the roof of her house ... and then nothing is the same again!

Eventually after a lot of arguing between French companies and lots of fake paintings and forgeries and investigation they find out what is happening with these paintings!

It is veryyy good!! And as I say there are more in the series also to get your teeth into!! SO it is very good and worth a read for definite!!

I am reading the next ones now :)

See you soon!
Thanks for reading :)
Leanne :) x

Want to Play? - P J Tracey

Now you have to know something about me .... the one thing that I love along with historical fiction is crime fiction! Any form of crime fiction and I am in my element! The scarier the better which is why I gravitate towards James Patterson, Karin Slaughter and Karen Rose. Now if you have never read anything from any of these authors I highly suggest that you do as they will introduce you to the fabulous world of the crime novel!!! SO I thought I would have a break from everything and lose myself in a crime novel and I chose ...

Want to Play? - P J Tracey

Now I have to admit that I did quite struggle with this book and you do have to preserve and if you do you will finally reap the rewards!

So basically a team of cyber geniuses come up with a computer game that they believe will make them a hell of a lot of money! This is based on a serial killer ... you are following a serial killer and trying to solve the crime! They release some of the game play onto a website in order to drum up some excitement for their game and convince people to play the game!

However unfortunately as usual in a novel like this you find that there is someone out there that is playing the game for real ... the first few murders that happen in the game happen in real life for these people. They realise and go to the police for help! And in this time the police do background checks into the people involved in the creation of the game and they cannot find anything!!!

Then another murder happens miles away from all of these and what seems to be completely unrelated but finally and this is why you have to persevere with this book everything does finally come together!! And the ending ... just read it and find out for yourself :)

The book isn't written in an amazing way buttttt it is very good in the end and you will enjoy and again you can then progess onto more as there are more of these books in a series now! However I don't think that I will be reading another one for a while!!

Thanks for reading! And take a look at my other posts!!
See you soon!!
Leanne :) x

Little Lies - Lianne Moriarty

SOoo I haven't posted in a longgg time but I have still been reading away every time I could get chance!!! Everything has been so hectic!! My beauty business has taken off and third year of uni has come with a vengeance! So finding time to read has been massively important to me as  reading is one way that I actually relax ..... Now to the book in question!!

After reading The Husband's Secret by Lianne Moriarty I can well and truly say I fell in love with her and would have gladly devoured anything by her again ... so I bought ....

Little Lies - Lianne Moriarty

The fact that Lianne and myself share a name means nothing, except she's obviously awesome! And to be honest it can be said that I had inflated notions of her writing after reading The Husbands Secret as that was just AMAZING. And lets just say I was not disappointed!

You start this book at the end and work your way back to it to find out what actually happened! The book starts at the end as someone is dead! You don't know who is dead or whether  they died naturally or were killed or anything!! Anything could have happened for all we know!!!! This Is such a good technique for writing because now I have to carry on reading in order to find out what happened!!

SO Jane moves to a quite suburban town with her son ... it isn't long before she is taken under the wings of Madeline and Celeste ... all the women are at crossroads in their lives and need help from each other. The local school where all the womens children go is a hive of drama and activity which results in Jane, Celeste and Madeline being pushed further and further to the outskirts of what is acceptable at the school!

Many things happen in between but everything is leading up to the big event and this happens at a Audrey Hepburn and Elvis party organised by the PTA!

The Writing of this book is amazing ... at the end of every chapter you are brought back ot the police questioning the people at and surrounding the party, which gives an extra dimension to the book itself and the narrative.

I literally cannot recommend this book enough and the rest of Moriarty's writing ... for anyone who enjoys a drama, chick lit or a bit of mystery and twists! Lots of twists!!!

Have a look at it as I know that you will be as hooked as I was and read it all in one sitting just like I did!!!


Have fun :)
See you soon!!!
Leanne :) x

The Best Thing that Never Happened to Me - Laura Tait and Jimmy Rice

After reading loads of things this weekend that have been hard work I decided the lure of the chick lit had me and I couldn't get rid of it no matter what I tried picking up to read!!  As much as I love an unhappy ending every once in a while I don't mind something with a happy ending and that's what I hoped this would be!

The Best Thing That Never Happened To Me - Laura Tait and Jimmy Rice.

So I started this book yesterday evening and finished it this morning, while I curled up in bed for 3 hours!! Yes I am indulging myself before I go back to University!!

Holly and Alex were best friends from the age of 11 when Holly moved to the small Yorkshire town and had no one! They forged a strong friendship that as they got older turned to love .. but they never acted on it for one reason or another .. usually a fault on both sides that could have easily been rectified (as is with all love stories, even Romeo and Juliet) and I have to admit I get pretty annoyed at these bits even in Romeo and Juliet. And Holly moves to London to go to University while Alex stays at home with his recently widowed Dad. Finally however many years later ... Alex decides to move to London when his Dad sells the family house in favour of a barge! Alex gets a teaching job and moves not without being given Holly's email address. In the meantime, Holly has a steady PA job and she is banging her boss (to put it crudely) which is not where she imagined her life to be! Her and Alex meet up and find it is just like old times and they sink back into their friendship .. however AGAIN and annoyingly ... everything else gets in the way of their love blossoming. etc etc etc ..... just like every other love story!!! Blaaaaahh :)

But I have to admit I did enjoy the way the book was structured as each chapter comes from each of the lovebirds! So you can understand that this was much more frustrating for me ... as you know how both of the characters are feeling but you see the same event and situation from both sides of the fence which again is such an interesting concept! I can truly say that for a quick Asda buy, because it had a pretty cover, It was okay and I would recommend to anyone who likes and easy read!

Back to my normal books now for a bit before I need something like this :)


See you soon :)
Leanne x

Shutter Island - Dennis Lehane

I always say that when a book is turned iinto a film it loses some of its magic! Which is what is going to happen with one of my favourite books 'Before I Go To Sleep' which is due out in the cinemas soon! One piece of advice read the book first!! Well this is what happened with this book ... I have not watched the film as I have not read the book and I am not in the habit of doing these things backwards, as watching the film always influences the book!! BUt again another piece of advice .. before succumbing to Leonardo DiCaprio and the film of Shutter Island ... do venture to read the book first as it has so much more to it!!
Shutter Island - Dennis Lehane


I hope everyone realises how hard this is for me as one slip of the finger and we don't have Shutter island but we have Shitter Island! The former is definitely more appealing even after reading the book!!
SO Shutter Island is an Island that contains an institute for the most dangerous criminally insane patients (or prisoners). Teddy is a US Marshal and is sent to the island to investigate the fact that one of the prisoners has managed to go missing! She cant have gone far ... as the institute is in the middle of the sea, miles away from anywhere else, it is surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, not to mention the armed guards on all the gates and every building. So how does one woman get past all of this? That's what Teddy is there to find out! He is assigned a partner to go with him to get to the bottom of everything. But when they arrive they find that the staff are not willing to tell them anything they don't already know and they find they are hitting brick walls constantly! That is until Teddy finds someone in that prison/hospital (depends on your outlook on life) that changed his life forever and then Teddy's ulterior motive starts to come to the surface!! And that's when everything begins to change. Chuck goes missing and after that Teddy's life will never be the same again!

Again this is the kind of book that I absolutely loveeeee ... it does not have  a definitive ending and it does not make sense in any way shape or form for the majority of it. And the whole time I was reading I didn't have a clue what was going to happen next! Obviously this is spoiled if you have already seen the film ... so it loses its magic (see I told you!!!) but the book is amazing. It makes you think about it the whole time but it doesn't let you go ... I was counting down the hours to go until I could finish work to go home and read it! And that time could not come quick enough!! I finally finished it after a really late night and very sore eyes but it was so worth it!!

As you can tell I cannot leave  abook alone when I have started it! Which means I go a long time not reading anything and then suddenly I read loads at once when I have some spare time!! SO I am keeping up to the time limits really but its like little sprints that I am doing before building myself up for the rest of the marathon.

Let me know what you think, especially if you have seen the film but not read the book!!

See you soon :)
Leanne x

The Gallows Curse - Karen Maitland

If you don't know me ... you should know ... I LOVE books that are unhappy! An unhappy, unresolved ending is one thing that I LOVE more than anything in a book. But its pretty difficult to find these now, as soooo many authors like to finish their books with a definitive ending. This is why I like Michel Faber as his The Crimson Petal and the White ends unresolved and this is why Maitland is one of my new favourite authors!

The Gallows Curse - Karen Maitland

Sooo ... The Gallows Curse is a book that I have had sitting looking at me for a longgg time! So I finally decided to give it a go and I am so glad that I did!!

Set in the middle ages (again my favourite period without a doubt) the prologue gives you the tale of a cunning woman (a witch nowadays) who is burned at the stake for killing a noble mans wife. She leaves behind a mandrake with her daughter. Jump forward in time and a young girl Elena is pulled out of her work and into the Lord's house. She is to serve as a waiting maid for the Mistress of  the house, Lady Anne. She eats from a wooden chest, which actually contains the Lord's dead body ... she eats bread and salt ... and from this moment on Elena has taken all of the dead man's sins into herself, and they will be carried with her forever! However she is pregnant at this time with Athan's baby. She is overjoyed as is he, but when she gets bad dreams about killing the baby, she does not want it. After the baby is born she gives her away to a cunning woman to look after! But in the village she is accused of killing this child and is sentenced to be hanged by the new Lord of the Manor. However is escapes and is sent into Norwich to live in anonymity in a brothel (of all places) from here on in her life is one long spiral of chaos and she finally ends her story walking away with NOTHING actually resolved!!

The book does draw you in to the story and the times, it makes you feel for the characters and also hate the characters. Elena is the one that you instantly feel for when her made up life suddenly takes a turn for the worse. But she is the one to blame for doing that to herself!! However Elena always seems to play the victim instead of trying to do anything about her situation and you sometimes do feel like screaming get a grip love and do something about it,  instead of sittiing back and waiting for it to happen!!



The way that Karen Maitland has written the book is by far my favourite thing though. Interspersed throughout the novel in between each chapter is also the story of the Mandrake's Handbook, which gives you common plants, animals etc and what they are used for and how they should work in the right hands! Which makes me smile as I love things like this in the middle of books, it breaks up all the boring bits. However it is one of those books that is well written so it is easy to read and easy to take in!!! I spent a couple of days solid reading this book as at the moment im just useless at putting down and picking up and still knowing what im reading. I also managed to class it as 'research' for my dissertation as it is written in the time of King John just after my Richards crusade. Therefore I didn't feel as guilty when I was reading it!!
Overall it is a  very good book and I am looking forward to reading more from Maitland!


See you Soon :)
Leanne x

The Fire Gospel - Michel Faber

So I have just had a look and found  that I am actually 3 weeks ahead of myself, which makes me feel so much happier!!!! I am getting there an documenting all of these books here is helping me to keep to a schedule :)


The Fire Gospel - Michel Faber

If you don't know who Michel Faber is, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!! Michel Faber is the bestselling author who's biggest novel was The Crimson Petal and the White (which by the way is another novel that everyone should read at least once in their lives!!) Now The Fire Gospel is one of the books that makes up the myth series! The myth series is where a group of well known writers take up a pen and rewrite a well known story!! Here Michel Faber writes about a Fifth Gospel being found in Iraq. This fifth Gospel is written by Malchius and was written just after he had met Jesus. He was there when Jesus was betrayed and he was there when Jesus was on the Cross (which is more than can be said for the other Gospels!!)

This book documents the finding of the Gospel, the translation, publication and aftermath of what happens. As can be expected the publication of such a book can change the way the world think as Malchius shows Jesus to have been no better than an average human being. When Jesus is on the cross - according to Malchus - he begs to be released, he wets himself and he loses control of his bowel! This gospel shows Jesus to be no better than any man that walked the Earth! Which is Earth shattering for many Christians all around the world. So when the book goes on sale and on tour the writer is threatened with guns etc ... until he is kidnapped! His kidnappers are very soulful and deep.

It is a very well written book from one of my favourite authors of all time! I really cant fault the book other than it is very short and didn't take me very long to read at all!! Definitley get it! And have a go with the other myth books! I have Philip Pullman - The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. I cant wait :)


See you soon :)
Leanne x

The King's Curse - Philippa Gregory

There is absolutely no doubt about it! I LOVE PHILIPPA GREGORY! The fact that she writes about my favourite period of history - the Plantagnets and the Tudors just makes her even better in my eyes!! I am now up to speed and have read all of her historical novels and a couple of her modern novels too! If you've never read any Philippa Gregory do start with The Other Boleyn Girl that book was the making of me! And I always go back to it when I can!! Some of you may have seen the T.V show The White Queen but I can tell you her books are so much better!!

The King's Curse - Philippa Gregory.

The King's Curse is a follow on novel from the Cousins war series which includes: The White Queen, The Red Queen, Lady of the Rivers, The White Princess and finally The King's Curse. The King's Curse follows Margaret Plantagnet who was cousin to Elizabeth of York (Henry VII's Queen and Henry VIII's Mum) so she was always held in high regard in Henry VIII's court. Margarets younger brother Edward (Teddy) who would have been an heir to the throne after the Princes in the Tower went missing, was brutally executed in order that Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain would send their daughter Katherine of Aaragon to marry Arthur Prince of Wales. The Plantagnets have always been an unlucky family in history with in fighting but also external fighting and it was when Richard III was cut down on Bosworth that their line finished on the throne. However the family was always kept close even though the females in the line were married to lesser gentry to hide their name. This is what happened to Margaret as she was married to a staunch Tudor Supporter Sir Pole. She managed to live in obscurity until he died but she was thrust back into the limelight when she least expected it and she ended up losing her family, two sons were executed, one went slightly mad and was hid away, another son was out lawed to Padua and her daughter was hidden away from her by her husbands family in the hope she wouldn't be tainted too!

This book documents the ups and downs the Pole family encounter as they fall in and out of favour with the court as the Queens change from Katherine of Aaragon to Anne Boleyn to the beloved Jane Seymour to Anne of Cleves and even Katherine Howard. As the court favours one over the other it is dangerous if you are not on the winning side which is what Margaret finds and tries to keep her sons and daughter away from. She later struggles to keep her grandchildren away from this as a few work as her ladies in waiting at court and in the Tower but her grandsons accompany her into the Tower as they cannot risk them having a shot at the throne!

I thoroughly recommend all Philippa Gregory's books as she is an amazing writer who brings history alive and actually makes it interesting! I would love if she would go further back and look at some of the ladies who have been missed out in history ... Berengaria of Navarre (Richard the Lionhearts Wife) Eleanor of Aquitaine (Richards Mother/Henry II Wife) and even Matilda!

Everyone!! get yourselves these books and start reading!!!!


See you soon :)
Leanne x

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Child 2 - Ransom Riggs

Hellooo :)

So I've sat down to write allll of these reviews all in one go!! Otherwise they will not get done! I'm still enjoying a lot of free time to sit down and read as much as I want but the university year is closing in fast!! I've done pretty well as I have managed to get through 11 books so far and I'm half way through 12 and 13 and I have started 14!!

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children 2 - Ransom Riggs


I can well and truly say that if you have never read the first Miss Peregrine then you are sorely missing out!! If you haven't ill do a quick overview. Jacob lives in modern day American he is a normal boy until his grandfather passes away! His grandfather leaves him with a lot of mysteries to solve and to find! Jacob as a result ends up going to England to a remote island to find a woman that his grandfather used to write to in the hope she would have some ideas about his grandfathers early life. It comes to pass that Jacob finds a secret world of children that never grow up and have peculiar powers - from floating girls, boys with bees inside them and girls who can make fire in their hands. And it turns out that Jacob is peculiar as was his grandfather!! He can see the giant monsters (that are usually invisible) which his grandfather could also see!! This changes Jacobs life. The loop that the children live in is threatened and their keeper Miss Peregrine is turned into a bird permanently. The end of the first book finishes with them leaving to go to London to find someone who can change her back!
Very action packed, I know!! And yes you can tell it is created for 'young adults' but I never listen to classification!!

So in the second book the children all get to London in pretty much one piece but being in 1940's lLondon comes at a price when the children end up being chased by scary invisible monsters, wrights dressed as Nazis and actual Nazis!! They travel London trying to get Miss Peregrine turned back human and they meet many peculiar children, people and animals along the way.

So overall both books are worth reading! They are both only short but they pack a punch. The best bit about the books is that they have pictures alongside the text. These pictures are all real vintage photos  that Riggs collects from carboot sales etc ... which he has then put together and then he has put a story together with it!! This is what makes the books even more genius! I don't think as a 'young adult' (which I still class myself as) being any younger I would not have appreciated this book in the same way that I do now! It has so much underlying in the book without the top story that even though it is an easy read it isn't necessarily shallow!!
Give them both a go! In the right order obviously and let me know how you get on!!!

See you soon :)
Leanne x

The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty

So I have cheated yet again!! This is the latest book that I have read however I have read others in between that I haven't reviewed yet!

But I just couldn't wait to do this one!! With the start if university looming I have been crazily trying to get some more dissertation reading done to no avail!! SO I have taken to reading what I want to read! I got some Amazon vouchers for my birthday so I spent them all on new books!! I got a total of about 24 books :) All ready to read alongside the other huge piles sitting waiting in my bedroom! (Sorry dissertation reading but you just cant compete with these!!!)

The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty

Usually I am not a person to like these sort of books! But after starting this book at 11 last night and finishing it today at 2 I cant help but say it completely drew me in and made me cry, want to scream and laugh simultaneously. I know I say this about a hell of a lot of books but it totally took over my life from the moment that I picked it up!! I did truly believe this was going to be a normal book about a husband cheating etccccccc ... BORING! But in fact this book was so cleverly written, intertwined and thought out that actually the book is amazing the characters are amazing and everything about it amazed me!!

Cecilia is the normal average housewife, with a doting husband and three girls. That is until she finds a letter her husband has written addressed to her but only to be opened after his death. Cecilia cant contain this desire to open the letter but when she does it turns their whole lives upside down and inside out. Forcing a chain of events that change their lives forever!

Tess is married to a husband that she loves, she has a cousin who is more like a sister to her , a son she adores, and they all have a successful business between them. She thinks her life is ideal until her husband and cousin sit her down for a conversation one night and in the heat of the moment she drags her only son to her mothers across the country and everything is changed for their lives, they will never be able to go back to how it was.

For Rachel one fateful afternoon in Autumn took her daughter away from her as she was strangled and left on a park slide to be found. Rachel has never gotten over this and as a result has never had the relationship she should have had with her son. Now her son is married with a son of his own, who he is now wanting to take from Australia to New York. Rachel doesn't know how she will live until she finds something startling which she believes will catch her daughters  killer. Rachels life is turned upside down when all these women's lives intertwine in Sydney in a place where they all grew up and all their children know each other.

When all these women's lives come together there are disastrous results for all involved. All three come out changed and not necessarily for the best or for the worst.

I can well and truly say that this 400 page book grips you from the very word go! And keeps you there long after you have finished. There is no way to describe how distraught I have felt when reading this book! How much my opinions of the people in the book  have changed throughout. It makes you think and consider your own lives and whether you would be able to make the decisions they do and would you react the same. If you found a letter from your husband/wife that was written to you to be read when they died, would you open it now? Or would you observe their wishes and ignore it until they did die?

The epilogue of the book also brings more questions into consideration, that a lot of the things that happened, were they predestined to be happy? Were they meant to happen for a reason? Does everything work out for at least one of them? Is there such a thing as karma? Should you really treasure the boring, mundane moments in life, as the exciting ones can be too much and can do too much damage?

I truly do recommend everyone to read this book and see what you think as I am struggling to describe how amazing it is in words at the moment!!

So as I have said I have read a few other books in between and I will be reviewing them also in between dissertation stuff and life!! I look forward to getting stuck into the rest of the books I got for my birthday and have Liane Moriarty's new book to read also!! I am extremely grateful that at the moment I have so much time to read and I am definitely making the most of it before the chaos that is life begins again in earnest at the end of the month!


See you soon :)
Leanne

Quiditch Through the Ages - J K Rowling.

Soo on my most recent visit to Warner Bros Studio Harry Potter Tour my lovely mum bought me two new books. One of them being Quidditch Through the Ages written by J K Rowling for Comic Relief.

Quidditch Through the Ages - J K Rowling.

 

 

I loveeeeee books like this!! When The Tales of Beedle the Bard came out I was veryy excited :D Little did I know that Rowling had written two other similar books.

I love books like this as they make Harry Potter feel real!! So if you dont know Quidditch Through the Ages is a book within a book. The characters of Harry Potter read Quidditch for their studies and reference.

 

 

Rowling has done a good job in recreating what this book would have been like. Including everything important in Quidditch, the positions, rules, fouls, players, famous teams, world cup .... which very much makes it like these football annuals that people get! However Quidditch Through the Ages covers everything from the 11th Century! It documents how Quidditch was created and how it has changed and progressed. It also gives you the American counter part which is also popular in Harry Potter!

 

Having books like this makes Harry Potter all the more real but it is also helping raise money for an amazing charity in Comic Relief.

 

Thanks for reading!

See you soon!

Leanne :)x

The Reapers are the Angels - Alden Bell

So this week is my BIRTHDAY so ive taken some time out to read what I want!! So here it is .... my one and only book that I had bought for my birthday!!!

So my Auntie always buys me books and she ALWAYS buys me the most amazing books ... she introduced me to Twilight and The Hunger Games before they were huge!! So when she bought me The Reapers are the Angels and the sequel I couldnt wait to start it!!

 

THE REAPERS ARE THE ANGELS - ALDEN BELL.

 

'Dying is easy - its living thats hard'

The Reapers follows a young girl called Temple, she us 15 years old when the book begins. The world as we know it is gone taken over by what coukd be called Zombies or in the book Slugs or Nightcrawlers. The majority of the American population is gone but if they are alive they exist in little communities living inside all the time. We follow Temple as she leaves her temporary home to travel.

 

Temple first hits one of these communities made up of 4 buildings. They have a school, shopping mall, rescue teams and protection teams. This community if trying to function like it used to. Unfortunately Temple gets herself in a bit if trouble after some sleaze  tries it on! She accidentally kills him! She runs with a bit of help ... but this guys brother us out for revenge.

After thus Temple isnt just running shes running from him! Along the way she meets travellers, a family in denial of what is happening and she picks up a great big 'dummy'. She gets captured by genetically enhanced hillbillies and she lives her life.

 

I wont spoil the rest of the story cos its something you have to read. I know it sounds like just another post apocalypse world but its not! Its a very well written and well executex book that keeps you turning the pages!! The young tough girl has been overdone in recent years (see The Hunger Games) bur I really did love Temple. She still had that but of human about her which just sets her apart. I cant wait to read the sequel cos I know its going to be just as good!!!

 

Look out for that but first .... I went to the Warner Bros Harry Potter Tour in London for my birthday and in the shop there I managed to buy some new books that I dont own!! Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quiditch Through the Ages. I have started reading these so look out for thsm too! Ive just bought Philippa Gregory's new book The Kings Curse so also expect that very soon.

 

Thanks for sticking with me :)
See you soon.
Leanne :)

Run up to my 21st - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Hello All :)

So in a week I will be turning 21 :D SO I have been reading for pleasure up until now in order to treat myself!! I have already had some celebrations but my most favourite and exciting one is on my actual birthday my mum is taking me to Harry Potter World in Watford!! I AM SO EXCITED!!! So in the run up to this I decided that I would revisit some of my favourite ever books and re read Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. I will be reading new books and I am hoping to get some nice new ones for my birthday :) I am currently 31 books into my dissertation research! So once I have managed to get through some more and have a plan written I will still be reading so much about Richard I but in doing this I have found that I can read more and I make myself :)


Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K.Rowling

Now Harry Potter books are some of my favourite books of all time but I haven't read them in what feels like forever  soooo I decided in the run up to my birthday treat of Harry Potter World, that I would re read them!! I have to start from the beginning! I am one of those people, I cant just dip into the books in any random order!!!

I can remember the first time I got this book, when it was brand new and there were no films no nothing!! And it was amazing!! I was a little bit young to read this book on my own as it came out in 1997 so I was only 4years old!!! SO my mum used to read the book to me on a night before I went to bed. I used to be horrible at going to bed but when she suggested reading this I loved it!! My mum used to read to me in a monotone voice in the hope that she would put me to sleep so she could also go  to bed .... but instead she used to get me telling her to 'put some expression into it' which I still tell her now :) I remember these books being magical to me when my mum first started reading them to me and over the last 17years they have not lost their magic no matter how many times I re read them!!!

Now I am assuming that everyone has either read Harry Potter or has at least watched a film!! SO I'm not going to go into the story etc.... But I would like to think about why these books capture a child's imagination and run with it. How magical it must have seemed at the age of 4 to be reading about a young boy ... a normal boy ... who goes off to become a Wizard! I have to admit for years I did hope that I would get a letter through the door so that I could go and learn to be a witch. I think it is the fact that Harry is normal up until he is 11 and then suddenly is plunged into a whole new world that means that children love it! There is a prospect of hope which makes that child think at 11 will I get that letter? Needless to say I am still waiting!!!! I love that the first book is so easy to read! With just over 200 pages it only took me 3 hours to get through the book with a dinner break in between!! So it was lovely to revisit this book :)


I think that next I am going to read 'The Gallows Curse - Kate Maitland' when I do get a chance to enjoy some reading!!!!


Again thanks for reading!!
See you soon :)
Leanne x

History, History, History.

Hello Again,

So the reading challenge is not going very well!! However ... I just thought I would do a little bit of an update. I am meant to be reading The Luminaries but I am struggling. My head is so full of Kingship in the Middle Ages, chivalry and masculinity, along with some good old Richard I. So instead I thought to keep myself going with some blog action that I would write a little bit about what I am reading other than my reading challenge. SOme of it is a little bit boring and nearly all of it is HISTORY but really this is to keep me going and to see if anyone else is even remotely interested in history!

Lionheart and Lackland: King Richard, King John and the Wars of Conquest - Frank McLynn.

So as you can tell this is very much a  history book that is related to my area of research for my dissertation (Richard I). However I wanted to write about this book as it is one that is accessible for anyone!! Many historians like to use big words etc.. that make them sound more intelligent and alienate their readers, but Frank McLynn is a history graduate who went into the world of journalism before he decided to write some history books!! I love his writing style as instead of writing like an academic book with subtitled sections to their books, McLynn actually writes in chapters like a normal novel. Which fortunately gives the illusion that you are reading a book and not an academic book!! SO I am progressing with this book really well. My only issue is that McLynn takes a very traditional approach with the good king Richard and bad king John. Even though I am TEAM RICHARD I I still love a historian who challenges this usual stereotype and goes for the opposite opinion. However McLynn does this very well and has a balanced argument unlike many of Richards historians.


The History of the Holy War - Ambroise

Apart from Ambroise referring to himself in third person ALL the time, this can be quite a readable book/poem. Written in the twelfth/thirteenth century Ambroise was a French poet who idolised Richard I and wrote his history. The poem is a little bit more stylised than most of the sources from the Third Crusade which is why it is more readable. Not quite as boring and the other longer accounts Ambroise bigs up Richard, exaggerates many aspects of the crusade  which makes the poem more like a story than real life. Personally I am enjoying this but I am a huge history geek that needs to get a life most of the time :)  But again with it being a poem it is very good and very accessible, even if it was written 800 years ago!!!


BBC History Magazine.

The BBC History Magazine is written by many different authors, journalists, historians etc.... Anyone who can specialise in anything!! I have been getting this magazine for quite a while and it is interesting, as everything that is going on in the world of history is in this magazine. Some obscure articles can sometimes grate and I do tend to miss out the ones that make me yawn just from the title!! But this months issue is very useful, very interesting and so moving! The First World War is one of those events that when I read anything about it or I watch anything about it, it really does make me cry (needless to say when a module was offered on the Great War this year at Uni, I avoided it as I don't think people would appreciate the amount of crying I would do over it!!). Yes I am pretty pathetic but just writing this is making me tear up! But the majority of the Feature parts of this issue are different aspects of the First World War along with many recommendations for books (That can be trusted). Therefore when I get around to finishing this issue off, there will be a lot of tears but a  lot of interest and a lot more reading!! If you have any interest in history or the First World War I would highly recommend the July issue of BBC History Magazine to you.



Sorry if I have bored you out of your brains but I thought I'd share a little bit of everything else that I do with you!!

I do promise that at some point I will actually get around to finishing some normal books so that it is something remotely interesting to read rather than my love for Richard I being professed!! So hopefully I soon will have finished the Luminaries, I have also bought many new books and I have been lent some more Terry Pratchett. SO look out for all these coming soon!!

Thanks for reading and persevering if your reading this part :)
See you soon,
Leanne :)

Dexter is Delicious - Jeff Lindsay

So I thought that I was lagging behind but actually im still in pretty good time :) so ive finished another book which is book number three but I also started book number four prematurely! ! Cant resist.

Dexter is Delicious - Jeff Lindsay

I can honestly say that if you have watched the tv show Dexter but not read the books your missing out!! I always always maintain that the book is better than the film/tv series and it is!!!

The more of Lindsays books I read the more I come to fall in love with Dexter, ehich may be a bit worrying seens as he is a serial killer who kills serial killers! If youve never seen or read a dexter book, Dexter Morgan is what appears to be an ordinary man but he is really a killing machine who hunts out serial killers the police havent found  and he takes his own kind of justice!! Dexter is charming but fake and in the book unlike in the tv shows you can hear what Dexter really thinks!!

So Dexter is Delicious is the fifth book in the seven book series!! They are all relatively short books (about 300 pages) and they are relatively easy reads that only take me about 3/4 hours at a time!! In this installment of Dexter the hero himself has now got a family !!! And he feels his dark side slipping away from him!! Until his work as a blood splatter analyst and his sisters role as Sargent of the Miami Police Department, brings him to a case of cannibalism. He twists and turns in some difficult positions he's usually left in by his sister Deborah. Dexter as usual gets a bit too close to the action but sorts himself out (kind of.) With a group of cannibals parading around Miami eating people, especially one girl whose remains they have found and they then find her best friend us missing brings more urgency to the case. Which leaves Deborah willing to risk her life for thus missing girl.

I thoroughly recommend these books bug do start from the beginning as otherwise they dont quite make sense! I cant wait for my next installment but im trying to drag it out as I dont want the books to end :)

Coming up next - The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton (which ive naughtily already started)

Thanks for reading.

See you again soon :)

The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Filer

So .... I am well ahead of myself in my 52 week challenge. I have now finished another of my books and I've done two in 1 week!! We all love an over achiever!!!

After this book I am going to have to take a quick break to try and catch up with my dissertation reading which is by far not as fun! But seens as I am ahead of myself I can take the time to catch up with myself in other areas!

The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Filer

So I started this book with a lot of expectations as it has been given many amazing reviews from everywhere!! However as I started to read it, its really not as amazing as it is said to be.

So The Shock of the Fall is about a boy/man who is documenting his life so far. He had a n older brother and he recounts what they used to do however his brother dies at a young age and this sends the other brother on a downward spiral into insanity. Which is when Matthew then begins to write his story, he writes from a day centre that he attends and from home. He tells the reader all about what his brother was like and what they did and how it felt to realise that you were different from the other kids at school and what happens when he realises.

Fair enough I have to admit that the book isn't a bad book!! The way that Filer writes the book is reminiscent of many books that I have read for my English Lit degree such as ... Slaughter House Five, Flaubert's Parrot and Miss Lonelyhearts in the way that Filer creates the idea of madness through chaos. This is an overdone thing in literature however Filer did manage to pull this off and the jumping from each story to the next and from past to present does make the book feel like you are in Matthews head.

The actual story does pull at the heartstrings a little bit, as I am renowned for being emotional, however the way the story is told does not evoke emotions. The way the book is written does not initially make you feel emotional or feel sorry for the people in the book as Filer is very distant from what he is saying. This in turn makes Matthew very distant from what he is writing and what he is thinking, so we don't really get a sense of emotion! And I have to admit that the story is a good story! I would say that to make this book better would be double it in size and go into more depth. Now I know this is probably not what the writer wanted when he was writing the book as being short, shallow and chaotic gives it a certain feel. BUT I personally think that if this was made longer and more in depth it could have been a really good, emotional novel looking at the effect that mental instability has on a life from a young age through the 19 years of age and the battle that happens.

Unfortunately the book does not do this ... however I would recommend the book to other people and with it only having just over 300 pages I would say its a quick and easy read for Summer (it did only take me about 3 hours to read the whole book!)

Next I'm onto a Dexter novel - Dexter is Delicious - Jeff Lindsay.

This one might take me a while longer as I say I need to get on with a bit more dissertation reading.

Thanks for reading!
See you soon..
Leanne :)

Life After Life - Kate Atkinson

Hi :)
So I had best just explain what I'm doing!!! This is my 52week reading challenge, in which I will read 52 books in 52 weeks and I will review them here. Plus keeping note here will help me to keep up with the challenge and keep myself going!!

So I have just finished my first book .... Life After Life - Kate Atkinson.

In one sentence this book has changed me!! Not quite as much as The Crimson Petal and the White did but it has!! It has left a lasting impression and I don't want to let them go!! So this book centres around Ursula, who is born on a snowy night in December 1910. Ursula dies as she is born, but she comes back to life again and relives her life and survives for awhile. Ursula is given chance after chance to live and to live her life right, which to me is such an interesting concept. There's so many times in my life where I would love to have been able to change what I have done, but I also find as I work my way through university that I am changing the path of my life, whether for good or bad I don't know yet but will know.

So Ursula eventually lives through the First World War and the Second in many different roles, which again is where the book gets interesting!! Its not just the fact that Ursula lives again she lives again and her life is changed!!! She manages to live due to small simple things that happen in order to prevent her dying!! These can be the smallest things from pushing a maid down the steps to rescuing a dog, to running away from a man in the street who seems harmless enough!! Again the way that Atkinson shows this in her repetition of the basic life that Ursula leads to the changes that are made in each chapter!!

After a while I found myself really rooting for Ursula and hoping that she could live and she could manage to have a happy life that she would be happy with. I have to admit I cried every time she died. Mainly due to me being emotional as the actual deaths in the novel are not as emotional to make most people cry!! However as I get so emotionally involved in a book I do find that I cry tremendously!! And this book did that to me. The fact that I am a history student also meant that looking at the history side was also interesting to me. Looking at the Second World War from both the British side, to the German side to a Wardens perspective and just a civilian perspective was a very good feat of engineering on Atkinsons side!! As I say this book really made me think and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a good read that will make them think!! Don't take it light-heartedly!!

Next on the agenda ... The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Filer.

See you soon :)
Leanne x