A Book-Lovers Paradise

I'm breaking my blogging hiatus (sorry about that) with a post inspired by a YouTuber called Rhiannon Ashlee. For the first few videos of Vlogtober she's been in Scotland, and it reminded me of the mind-blowing bookshop I visited when I was on holiday in the Scottish Borders, called Barter Books in Northumberland.

Barter Books is one of the largest secondhand bookshops in Britain and it's based on a swap system. The magnificent setting for the bookshop is the Victorian railway at Alnwick, stuffed with shelves on every topic and packed with perfect little corners to sit for hours upon end if you wish.

With its electric toy train encircling the first room of books, to its numerous quotations linking bookcases and its majestic sun-shaped light display on the wall the bookshop has a charming and unique character, that had me constantly looking upwards in awe. Enjoy open fires in the winter and the Station Buffet, a delightful café ideal to sit and read in.

This magical bookshop is well worth a visit if you're in the area. Let me know if you have been and tell me what you thought!

Part I: Half Bad Trilogy Review - Half Bad

***Spoiler Alert***

SYNOPSIS

If you're into gripping beginnings, Half Bad does not disappoint. We find Nathan locked up in a cage being treated like an animal by Celia, a white witch. With years of abuse, Nathan manages to escape, but the world outside his cage is an unpleasant one. His mother is a white witch whilst his father, Marcus, is a nefarious black witch and is known for heartless murdering. Nathan is a 'half code', half-white and half-black. The white witch Council make their hatred known for half codes, and with Nathan's father notorious for the brutal murder of white witches, he is top of the hit list. Nathan is constantly on the run from the militant force sent out by the Council, the hunters, meanwhile desperate to receive his three gifts from his father before his seventeenth birthday in order to become a proper witch. He is forced to run from white witch, Annalise, the girl he loves as their love is condemned by her horrible white witch brothers. Marcus arrives just in time to give Nathan his gifts, but disappears again, leaving Nathan alone and still on the run from the hunters. 

REVIEW

I never would normally have picked out Half Bad as 'Witchy YA' is not usually my thing at all. However, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Half Bad is fast paced and exciting. I was totally caught up in Nathan's struggle, being trapped in a world that doesn't accept him. This was definitely helped along by the strong first-person narrative, almost stream of consciousness style in parts. 

Having watched all the videos reviewing the Half Bad series, one thing that lots of people are saying is that the romance between Annalise and Nathan is improbable and one that seems to 'stem from nowhere'. I disagree. She doesn't judge Nathan regardless of his situation and offers him a place of comfort and escape in their weekly meet-ups. I think naturally he would fall for her. Plus there's the whole 'forbidden romance' thing. It's classic! Comparatively we don't spend much time on Annalise in the novel, and perhaps her character isn't developed too much, and that's why people find it's quite hard to warm to her character (it doesn't help that her brothers torture Nathan!). 

The chapters are very short and the prose is very easy to follow. The narrative is interspersed with lists and bullet points and symbols. I really like that this is feature of Sally Green's writing, as it just creates a little extra point of intrigue when you read the story. 

Something I take from this book (and indeed its sequel, Half Wild) is Nathan's ability to be positive in any given awful situation. Through being captured and beaten in the beginning, he trains his mind to get through it. The book starts with a quote from Shakespeare's finest, Hamlet: "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so". I think that's a fantastic life lesson!

I'm rating this one 4/5. A great read, available on Amazon here. 

Watch this space for Part II of this review, for Half Wild, which will be along shortly. 

   

Dear Stranger: Letters on the Subject of Happiness

I first came across Dear Stranger through an extract published in The Times. Published by Penguin in partnership with the mental health charity, Mind, Dear Stranger is comprised of 'letters' written by various authors, journalists and bloggers on the subject of happiness (including Marian Keyes, Rachel Joyce, Alain de Botton, Caitlin Moran). The extract was Caitlin Moran's letter. That was enough for me to decide to put this book on my birthday list, because I have a full-blown obsession! Observe the brilliance of the below quote from Caitlin Moran's letter.

"...you must not treat yourself any less courteously than you would a loved one, or a team-mate. You cannot spend days bitching at yourself, saying 'You are worthless', 'You said a stupid thing', 'You always make these same mistakes, and your knees are fat. Indeed the mistake you keep making is to have fat knees. You are a terminally fat-kneed clown.'

You would not stay silent if you saw someone being so repeatedly vile to someone else - if someone spoke to your brother, or sister, like this. You would find them. You would ride into battle on a horse against them. And yet, look at all the things you are saying to you."

Most of the letters are just two to three pages of thoughtful snippets about mental illness, depression, recovery and happiness, each providing food for thought on the subject. I love reading something that I know will stay with me long into the future, and this book certainly provides many sentiments that will do that.

Also contributing to the book is the illustrator of Alfie childrens' story books, Shirley Hughes, childrens' illustrator, Nicholas Allan and Private Eye cartoonist Tony Husband, with thoughtful insights given in picture-form.

The letters in the book are set out like chapters, one for each contributor, which makes it easy to flick through and read them in any order that takes your fancy. It's not necessary to read them consecutively as they appear in the book, though of course you could if you wanted to. This would be a great book to read alongside a novel (I know some people hate this idea), because reading a few pages really isn't at all taxing.

The last thing I will say about Dear Stranger is that I was rather disappointed that Stephen Fry didn't appear in the list of contributors. As the President of the Mind charity, I would have thought this would be a no-brainer for him, and I think he could have done something really interesting, but no such luck. His autobiographies serve much the same purpose, I suppose.

All profits from the sale of Dear Stanger (at least £3 per copy sold) will be donated to Mind (a registered charity, number 219830), available on Amazon here and through Waterstones here.

Goldsboro Books: Crime in the Court

Due to technicality issues involving not having a working laptop in London for about three months, there haven't been any blog posts for a while, but I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.

I am late to the game to write about this, but I went to Crime in the Court last Thursday (June 25th), an event held at Goldsboro books, which is a lovely independent bookshop just off Leicester Square which specialises in signed first edition copies.

This was the fourth annual Crime in the Court event, which takes place in the lovely space outside Goldsboro bookshop. Crime writers of all sorts attended the event as well as fans, publishers, publicists, agents. As the publicity agency I work for was responsible for the PR for four of the authors there, it was great to all have an informal chat and a glass of wine.

I have listed the authors who attended below: 

Rebecca Whitney, Elizabeth Haynes, Terry Stiastny,

Susan Wilkins, Clare Mackintosh, Antonia Hodgson,

Louise Millar, Christobel Kent, Kate Rhodes,

RC Bridgestock, Charles Cumming, SD Sykes

William Shaw, V.M.Giambanco, Ali Knight

Elly Griffiths, L.C.Tyler, Dreda Say Mitchell & Tony Mason,

Elena Forbes, Julia Crouch, Mick Herron,

Colette McBeth, T.R.Richmond, Vaseem Khan

Jenny Blackhurst, Robin Blake, Sabine Durrant

JS Law, Clare Carson, Erin Kelly,

Jane Lythell, Stuart Prebble, Simon Toyne

Anya Lipska, Fergus McNeill, SJI Holliday,

Helen Giltrow, Claire McGowan, Eva Dolan,

Mark Billingham, SJ Watson, Sharon Bolton,

Renee Knight, David Hewson, Emma Kavanagh,

Sarah Hilary, Alison Joseph, Cal Moriaty,

Saul Black, Diana Bretherick

I highly recommend any crime fans to go next year as it's always great to meet authors whose books you have enjoyed. I even got my copy of The Insect Farm by Stuart Prebble signed  - definitely a highlight!

Blogger Tag (Interrogation)

Good afternoon,

I just had an urge to do another totally pointless yet weirdly fun-to-write tag. As always, I tag anyone who wants to do this as well, not before you've read mine though!

1. How many times do you check your email everyday?

I'm logged on to my work email all day, and pick it up at the weekends now too (yep, I'm starting to become one of those people). My personal is lesser used, but I do try to look at that one when I remember.

2. How many times a day do you go on Goodreads?

First of all, find me on Goodreads here!

I don't go on Goodreads every day, but I do like it, as the reviews are helpful, and I love reading them after I've finished a book to see if other people thought the same as I did. I find though, it encourages me to see the books I've read as 'just a number' and I always want that number to be bigger than it is!

Goodreads is quite helpful for my job sometimes; most recently the book quotes pages have been useful.

3. How long does it take you to edit your posts?

In my typical lazy fashion, after I've written my posts, I do the quickest of skim-throughs and then press 'publish'. I like looking at my post on the actual blog, rather than on the view you see when you're editing it, so then when I do have a look, I usually notice a ton of mistakes and go back and edit! I'd have made a terrible editor!

4. What kind of laptop do you use?

My own laptop died a death in a very untimely fashion during my university dissertation! I have since been using an ancient hand-me-down which is a HP (not sure which specifically but it has pretty swirly patterns on the top and the inside!).

5. How often do you check Twitter?

I go through phases of being massively into it and then not so much. Most of the time I'm on there pretty regularly and it gets quite addictive! I've been on it more recently now, because there is a lot of Tweeting and Twitter checking I have to do at work. So much so, that I had to get Tweetdeck the other day, which confuses me slightly, but I'm sure I'll work it out sooner or later!

6. Why do you use Blogger, Wordpress, etc?

Obviously I'm on Blogger at the moment, and I chose this platform because all the blogs I tended to be reading were using this one too. I like it because it's relatively easy to use and I think it looks quite good.

I've actually had a blog on a ton of platforms over the years, including WordPress (it still exists, but I'm going to leave you to find it for yourselves).

7. Are you good at keeping up with your reviews, tags, etc?

In a word: no! I definitely go through phases; some weeks I'll be great and other weeks, work just gets on top of me and I just can't find the time, unfortunately. I do love blogging though, and book reviews are always fun to write. The longer I leave them, the harder they are to actually write, as I just forget what I really thought of the book!

8. How many times a week do you post? 

It's really not regular, and I don't stick to a schedule for blogging at all! If I made one, I would only fail at keeping it! The aim is to get better though!



xx

Book Review: Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

I hope you're all having a lovely Easter weekend!

I thought I'd stop by with another book review. I bought Bridget Jones's Diary a few years ago whilst I was at university, and somehow it took this long to make its way into my hands again. Most of my reading time occurs on the train to and from London for work. If like me, you read in public spaces, let me warn you now, you will laugh out loud and you won't be able to control it!

Bridget writes to us in diary entries for a year, detailing her hysterical exploits in love, work and friendship (I'm sure you've seen the film...who hasn't!). Despite knowing all the words to the film backwards, it was nice to read the book, as there were some differences in plot! In the book, Bridget's mother gets into quite shocking situation with a criminal who relieves the family and friends of all their money, leaving Mark Darcy to save the day!

I loved this book, and although some of the references now are rather outdated (confusion over how to use the TV recording set and lack of mobile phones), it doesn't affect the story at all! In fact, I think I really read this book at the right time as I am about to move to London, and I have just got a job in Publishing, like Bridget! So from that perspective it was fun to read!

I recommend this book if you have done a lot of 'heavy' reading recently and want something lighter for a change!

I am rating this book 5 stars because Bridget Jones is the ultimate chick-lit novel! It doesn't really come better!

A Month In Book-World

So much has happened in my first month of work in PR, it's madness! I thought I'd share some of it here, in case it helps anybody who is thinking of working in books, publishing or PR to find out what goes on. My first month was quite events-heavy (no complaints, I met some amazing people!).

The first thing on the schedule was the YA Book Prize, an event to celebrate and recognise the growing success of young-adult fiction. This was the first year that it has run, and I think all will agree, it's a fantastic idea. 

The event, hosted by The Bookseller, was held at Foyles in Charing Cross and was a fantastic evening. Most of the authors including Sally Green (Half Bad), Non Pratt (Trouble) and YA Book Prize winner Louise O'Neill (Only Ever Yours) were there to celebrate. 

Highlights for me were spending the evening amongst such a talented bunch and meeting some really lovely people, including Rosianna from YouTube (I fangirled a little bit), who was on the judges' panel and was there to announce the award! 

Rosianna Halse Rojas announcing the winner

Louise O'Neill accepting her award

 The shortlisted books on display in Foyles, Charing Cross

The Shortlistees

A few days later the British Library held The Folio Prize Fiction Festival. Panels of shortlisted authors (a favourite of mine was Jeanette Winterson) were given a topic to discuss (conflict, desire, betrayal etc.). Watching these was fantastic, as they all had thought-provoking, insightful things to say on their topics, and it was interesting to watch the small panels of authors bounce off each other. The floor was then opened for the audience to ask questions, which was a nice idea.

From a work perspective, the main job was to look after the authors and running the book signings after each lecture. Having this responsibility was a first for me, and the experience of meeting authors I love was incredible! A couple of the authors really stood out to me during their lectures, and I definitely want to check them out based on how they came across; Colm Toibin (Nora Webster), Ali Smith (How to be Both) and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Dust).

I took lots of photos of the weekend, but here are a few of my favourites...

Book signing with Yvonne, A M Homes and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Jeanette Winterson 

 Press photos 

 Colm Toibin 

 Ali Smith

 Lecture: On Inheritance with A M Homes, Jeanette Winterson and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor in conversation with Mark Lawson

 Lecutre: On Endings with Jon Dunthorne, Jon McGregor, Justine Picardie and Suzi Feay in conversation

On Betrayal: Ben Lerner 

The Monday after the Folio Prize Fiction Festival weekend, was prizegiving event. This was held at St Pancras Rennaisance Hotel, and was a very fancy affair with frocks and cocktails! The main job here was to welcome guests through the doors, helping the authors sign the books and being on hand when they went up on the stage. Congratulations goes to Akhil Sharma for winning the Folio Prize on the night, for his book Family Life! I will leave you with this picture of the team (I am on the right!).   

xx