Book Review: The Insect Farm by Stuart Prebble

I have never really dabbled in crime or thriller fiction before. I started The Shining by Stephen King, and freaky though it was, for some reason or another, I never got to the end (nothing against Stephen King, if anything, it might just have been 1) the fact that it's a HUGE book and 2) it gave me nightmares). I certainly didn't have that problem with The Insect Farm. The plot is so brilliantly strange, that it kept me eagerly reading as fast as possible so I could find out what happens. 

Two brothers, Jonathan and Roger each have an obsession; for Jonathan it is his talented and beautiful girlfriend, Harriet. For Roger, it is the ecosystem of butterflies, beetles and creepy crawlies that he has collected which inhabit the shed at the bottom of the garden. Tragedy strikes in the family, leaving Jonathan to look after Roger on his own. However the circumstances of the tragedy are curious, and Jonathan is left to try and understand what really went on. The story tells the tale of how far we go to protect those we love. 

I was gripped from the very beginning of this novel. It starts: "If you have been lucky enough to be able to tell the truth for most of your life, you probably cannot imagine how exhausting it is to spend forever living a lie". I love this line as an opening sentence because right away it forces you to reflect and look inwards. In some ways I think the way it does this to start with, then allows us to almost understand how the strange and horrifying events which subsequently occur could actually really happen. 

For me, as the plot unfolded, I was more and more horrified at the uncovered truth, but it is like looking at something really foul but being too intrigued and mystified to look away. I had to carry on reading! 

Buy The Insect Farm by Stuart Prebble from Amazon 

Published by Alma Books

This was 5/5 for me!! Let me know what you think!

What I'm Wearing

I'm about to start work in London tomorrow, at the PR company I previously had an internship with. As I was sorting out what I was going to wear (trying to be organised and do it the night before as my brain barely functions when I get up at 6.30am!), I thought I'd share it.

Laying out my outfit on my bed is a thing I've done forever - does anyone else do this? I even tuck things in on the bed so I can see how it'll look. After I photographed this outfit I even put tights underneath the skirt to make sure they'd go! To clarify, the top is a mustard colour but I don't think it came out very well in the photos - I don't want to start another 'blue/black or gold/white dress' situation!

I haven't decided what's going to go over the top of this yet, because if the weather is anything like it has been today, I'll need about six layers!!

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Top - Warehouse, bought in the sale
Skirt - Monsoon
Necklace - Vintage

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Mother's Day

I hope you all had lovely Mother's Days!

I love to make Mum breakfast on her birthday or on Mother's day, as it's a simple way of doing something nice! I made poached eggs with salmon and hollandaise sauce on brioche toast this morning for Mum, of course with a cup of tea!

We then went for a lovely walk in the town of Buckden, where Mum grew up, not too far from us. We went to the church where she and Dad got married and had a little look round.

For lunch we took Mum out to East Restaurant in Peterborough, which is actually on a boat, which I find really cool! They do wonderful pan-Asian food; things like crispy noodles, Singapore curry, tempura vegetables, all so delicious!

 Mandarin Toast (above) 

After this delightful lunch, we came home to our dessert (after a rest!). I made orange and almond cake with passionfruit icing. This seemed to go down a treat, especially with a cup of tea (again, essential!). The recipe for the cake came from This Morning on ITV, the details of which can be found here. I definitely recommend this one, it was easy, and that's coming from me!!

I sprinkled some freeze-dried raspberries on the top, which wasn't in the recipe but I went a bit crazy down the cake aisle of Waitrose! I had no idea which petals they were on about in the video (linked), but I couldn't find them, so I went for some delicate little iced rosebuds.

The cake seemed to be generally appreciated by the whole family, evidenced by the above picture!

I hope you all had a lovely time and managed to celebrate in some way! Let me know in the comments or link your blog if you posted anything, as I'd love to read about it!


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Book Review: The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Thériault

Wow, this book...! It is probably one of my favorite books to date!

The story follows Bilodo, a French postman who earnestly delivers post, has his lunch in a little café after his shift and then promptly comes home to his quiet little flat to some alone time, rarely breaking his routine. However he has a secret. The thing sustaining Bilodo is the time he spends steaming open and reading the letters between a long-distance couple, who write to each other in only beautiful Haiku poetry. For Bilodo these letters are a curious feast for his guilty eyes, but his obsession becomes his undoing.

The poetry of the writing combined with the intense and curious plot and the genius ending meant that this book stayed with me for a good while after I'd read  it. As well as being swept up in the goings on in Bilodo's life, I liked the fact that we learn, along with Bilodo, about elements of Japanese culture and tradition, of course, all written stunningly. This book was truly a pleasure read from cover to cover, and I would recommend it to anyone (in fact, my Mum has it now, hence why I have not managed to take my own photo!).

The last thing to say is that this has been wonderfully translated by Liedwy Hawke, especially the Haikus!

♥♥♥♥♥ (5/5!)




Buy from Amazon
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Book Blogger Tag

I found this tag on The Bookish Owl's blog. I tag everyone who wants to do this to do it, whether you're a book blogger or not (hey, I'm clearly not!). I've changed it round a little bit, so do have a look at the original if you want to do it!


1. Which book, most recently, did you not finish?

An Experiment in Love by Hilary Mantel. This was the first (and only) Mantel novel I've picked up so far. I spent a lot of the novel hoping something would just happen. Anything. I didn't care, but there was just nothing! I got about 20 pages from the end, incredibly, and just couldn't be bothered to finish it!! I think there are 'subtleties' to be appreciated such as the explanations of the characters, by delving into their entire life story. Even when I try and say something positive it comes out badly. I'm going to stop now!



2. Which book is your guilty pleasure?

One Night: Promised by Jodi Ellen Malpas. Similar to 50 Shades of Grey (though I haven't actually read that series), cheesy clichés and extremely questionable storyline. Yet I can't stop reading! The description of this 'perfect man' is intriguing and just strangely addictive to read!



3. Which book would you throw into the sea?

Getting Over Mr Right by Chrissie Manby. I read this book a few years ago now, so can't entirely remember the plot (probably for the best) but in sum, we encounter the recently dumped-via-facebook Ashleigh go to extreme measures to win over her ex. These include blowing all her funds on psychic readings, voodoo dolls and sitting by the telephone for days on end waiting for this 'Mr Right' to call. She's such an annoying character it's actually hard to explain how frustrating it is to read about her mistakes! Argh!




4. Which book have you read the most?

I've never been one for rereading books. However I used to have the Harry Potter audiobooks read by Stephen Fry and (if this counts) then these for sure. I used to listen to them so much that I knew them off by heart!














5. Which book would you hate to receive as a present?

Anything I wouldn't read, because I'd just feel guilty. I'm not really into historical novels (although I want to give Philippa Gregory a go), or sci-fi, or anything supernatural (I could deal with Twilight, but other vampire/ghost/strange mythological beasts aren't really my thing). Things like Game of Thrones don't interest me so anything like that with gory battles are also probably a no.

6. Which book could you not live without?



Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro, which is a series of short stories with themes of music and love running through them all. I've read them all a few years ago, so it's lovely whenever I come back to these wonderfully written little stories again and remember the curious tales. This book will come with me wherever I live.

Equally, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. I bought this book as a present for my Mum, and ended up hijacking it. I was so struck by the story, and I identified with Holden Caulfield's cynical view of 'fake' people, and I've come back to this story a couple of times, and will always remember it fondly.

7. Which book made you cry the most?



Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling and I believe The List of My Desires by Grégoire Delacourt made me cry on a train to York!

8. Favourite book cover?


 

This question initially was 'least favourite book cover' but I really don't think I have one, so I changed it! The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency reminds me of linocut print, and it's just so colourful that it portrays the lovely positive atmosphere Alexander McCall Smith describes in Botswana. The cover for Mischeif by Fay Weldon is stunning, helped by the fact that it's cloth bound, and woven in is a beautiful entanglement of colourful butterflies. Must read this.

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Books, Glorious Books!

I have just finished six weeks at a literary PR company in London (I wouldn't have had a clue what that even was two months ago!!). The company do the PR and media relations for authors and publishing houses. They also help organise events like book prizes. 

Along my exciting and very insightful journey into PR in the past six weeks, I picked up a total of NINETEEN books!! Mental! I'm quite a slow reader (doesn't help when you want to go into publishing!), so these will no doubt take me into next year! 

If you've read any of these books do leave a comment and tell me what you thought! 

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Graduate Work Tip

Here I am, being good and finally getting round to doing this post, which has been in my brain for a really long time now.

As I have said here before, being a graduate and looking for a job is seriously no easy thing. Along with the difficult application forms, getting your CV right and knowing what it is you even want to do (argh!), there's the stress of it all! I found that after weeks of solidly filling out applications to jobs, I was losing motivation and getting, if I'm honest, kinda depressed. Speaking to various friends, I know I wasn't alone in this.

One simple, yet amazing little tip I wanted to share is document what you apply for. It sounds like an obvious thing, but imagine if you spend a month applying for jobs, you'd definitely start losing track of what you'd already applied for. My method was using an Excel spreadsheet.

Surprisingly, I found this a really motivating thing to do. I found huge satisfaction out of watching the list grow as I put the effort in. It's something that you can always come back to. Now I'm coming to the end of the work experience I'm currently doing, I can come back to this list and add to it as I start applying again. As a fan of lists, I just love the organisation of this, and it actually encourages me to apply for more.  

More to come, 

Good luck guys!

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