Author Event: Lauren Kate

So, last week I listened to and met Lauren Kate, author of the fantastic Fallen series and The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove .

Attendees waiting for Lauren Kate.

This was the first time I had ever met or heard an author speak before (mainly because the only "authors" that have events here are ex rugby or cricket players who are writing their biographies and let's face it, that's not exactly my cuppa tea).

Lauren Kate was pleasantly fascinating to listen to. She spoke of how she came to write the Fallen series and how she got into writing itself.  She also read a chapter from her latest novel, Passion, which was amazing. She read it so well and effortlessly - it was more like watching a performance.

She ended the event with a signing session. I waited a bit to let the masses have their turn, and because I couldn't be bothered standing around for 20 minutes when, instead, I could sit for those 20 minutes and then wait in line for 5.  When I finally got to the front of the line I asked Lauren how she was enjoying NZ, thanked her so much for going to Dunedin and complemented her on her necklace (two angel wings - simply gorgeous).  She was then gracious enough to pose for a photo with me.

Me with Lauren Kate.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson

This book, while being very short, was one of the longest I have read. It is written with what is now such a dated style of speech that it takes more time to get through each paragraph and then sometimes a few seconds is needed to decipher what has just been read.

I found half of what was written to be polite waffle and totally unneeded, but as it is such an old book I was content that it is still written in it's original format. For I'm sure I would have complained more if it had of been butchered and modernised so that every lay-man now days could understand it.

The crux of the story though was a good idea, but the first half of the book was so slow I had no desire to continue. However I found that, similar to "The Graveyard Book", I liked the last third of the book when something actually happened, in this case an explanation was given.

I do not profess to be a literary expert or have great knowledge into what makes a 'classic' book, but as a reader who enjoys a good story written well, I don't understand how this book is classified as a 'classic' and held in such regard.

All I can say is I am happy it was a short book.

Emissary - Fiona McIntosh

Fiona McIntosh really has a way of making a book so engrossing that you never want to put it down. Emissary, the second book in the Percheron Series, is no exception.

Following on from the previous story, Lazar the Spur is believed to be dead and so Ana is in mourning for him. With no glimmer of hope left in her harem life she is resound to live out her days with no chance of happiness, awaiting death, and in fact welcoming it. The Valide and Grand Master Eunuch Salmeo have plans that will aid in speeding such an end, to help rid Zar Boaz of the girl that has such influence over him.

When the threat of war is brought to the peaceful nation of Percheron, over no less than the Spur's death, it brings everyone's scheming plans to a holt. Who will be able to save the nation and will they be able to convince their enemies against such action in time?

Jaki's review

I could not put this book down. Just as Odalisque engrossed me when reading it, Emissary made me regret sleeping and having to go about my every day life, regretting not being unable to read the whole book in one sitting.

The writing is so fluent which makes for a flawless read. Fiona McIntosh has such a way

of drawing you into the story and making you love the characters that you feel their elation, despair, indifference and hatred along with them.

This book ends in a big cliffhanger, so do not finish this book unless you have Goddess, the third in the series, available to you.

The Cookie Club - Ann Pearlman

The Cookie Club (also known as The Christmas Cookie Club, which for some reason having the word "Christmas" in the title would have put me off completely) was a nice cute book. It didn't try to be anything I wasn't. It's simply the story of a group of women who gather each year and exchange cookies and their recipes, and catch up with each other. Plus being based on a real life cookie club made it that much more intriguing.

I loved the premise of the book and I actually jumped to the top of my reading list after an enthusiastic recommendation from the cashier where I bought it.

The book is written with such an ease that it makes you feel as though you are there or that Marnie is having a conversation with you and telling you everything that went on at The Cookie Club that year and nid bits of everyone's past.

There are some slight difficulties with this though. When Marnie starts talking about the past there is none of the usual literary hints that we are not just continuing what is going on at that time. The past is not written in italics, nor does it have a few lines left before the past text starts, making it sometimes hard to work out where the time line is. That could just be me with my simplicity and penchant for things being simple and in order, so other people may not be as bothered by it as I was.

All up this was a fun book that was easy to read over a long holiday weekend. If you are looking for a nice simple book where you don't have to think about complicated plots, then this is the book for you.

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book is about a living boy, Nobody Owens or Bod as he is know to his friends, who resides in a cemetery. Being raised by ghost parents and a whole graveyard of dead people from centuries past, Bod has many adventures that normal living people would never even dream of.

There is much adventure to be had for a young inquisitive lad who walks the line between the living and the dead, such as meet

ing the Witch in the unconsecrated grounds outside of the graveyard proper, learning all about history from those that were actually there and the ghouls world with its entrance through a cold gravestone called the Ghouls Gate.

All of this would just be part of Bod's world if he could leave the graveyard and walk amongst the living, but there is a man named Jack who is after Bod to finish what he started years ago when he killed his family.

Jaki's review

A slow book until about half way through, then I couldn't put it down. It started by intriguing me and making me want to learn all about this mysterious boy who lives in the graveyard. Then as I read about different adventures Bod (Nobody Owens) experiences, my interest started to waiver as it was slow and appeared that each 'chapter' (and I use that term very loosely) was an individual story involving the setting of the graveyard and the same characters only.

But I kept on with it, helped by a night void of TV, and got to where the story starts to flow and move forward and it sucked me in. From there I finished the book without even thinking about it.

There are twists and turns and bits from earlier in the book that are revisited that make this a wonderful story, even with the slow middle section and the strange language in which is it written. I fell in love with the characters, always wanting to hear more from the various inhabitants of the graveyard, and was upset when the book was drawing to an end knowing that I would not be visiting with them anymore.

I have not previously read anything by the author and so am not sure if this is a format he uses regularly, with it's strange language, phrases and style of writing. But if you stick with it, the book will pleasantly surprise you and leave you with a hole when it's over. Recommended to anyone who enjoys a quirky, character driven tale that will entrance you with it's story and make you feel for the characters.

Nadine's Review

Quite simply.. I found this story disappointing. I had heard so much about how clever, how unique, how wonderful and how quirky this story was. I am sad to say it was one that didn't live up to its hype. Saying that, I fear, the hype was the reason I found it disappointing.

It took me just over a week to read this story. Granted there were other things going on in my life and indeed the world, but a good, gripping story should be one that you pick up and just cannot put down.

Gaiman has an incredible reputation for creating such fantastic worlds and because of this, I am not going to give up on reading more of his works. Perhaps when I'm in a better mood I will read The Graveyard Book again and wonder why on earth I didn't enjoy it the first time.

Bookseer

Does everyone know about www.bookseer.com?

It is an ingenius website that gives book recommendations from Amazon (and LibraryThing in the future) based on a book title and author.  Give it a go now!

I tried it on "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner and it recommended the following:

•The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner Trilogy, Book 2) by James Dashner

•I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies) by Pittacus Lore

•The Journal of Curious Letters (The 13th Reality) by James Dashner

•Incarceron (Incarceron, Book 1) by Catherine Fisher

•Matched by Ally Condie

•Lockdown: Escape from Furnace 1 by Alexander Gordon Smith

•Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

•Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

•Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

•The Compound by S. A. Bodeen
 
Now some of these I have watched, but the others I had never heard of.  I have already added them to my Goodreads TBR list.

The Giver - Lois Lowry

I just finished this book. For my review and Nadine's previous review click this link.

http://literbugs.blogspot.com/2009/12/giver-lois-lowry.html

The Maze Runner - James Dashner

This is a book that has been sitting on my nightstand for a while now. I thought the idea of the story was good, but it just never made it to the top of my pile. That is until Nadine read it and told me that it was amazing and that I had to. So as soon as I finished the book I was reading I pulled this one out and went at it. My first book of 2011 for my +11 in 2011 reading challenge, The Maze Runner by James Dashner.

Boy am I happy I did. What a great book. You begin just as much in the dark as the main character Thomas, as he wakes up in a dark cold elevator. Then being introduced to a strange and heavily structured society of teenage boys surrounded by an ominous maze through which Runners search everyday for an exit. The catch is that the walls move every night. Along with Thomas, you learn that one boy arrives a month, every month, as it has always been. Until one day the elevator brings forth the unthinkable.....a girl.

Jaki's review from Goodreads

Wow, this book was pretty friggin good. I was thinking the whole way through, trying to work out the maze too. The I read the last paragraph and .... pow. I need to get the second book, and quick!

Out now in hardcover, The Scorch Trials.

 

The Keeper

Well I have finished the first of the 61 books I plan on reading this year and it was truly terrifying. Recommended by a friend, The Keeper was promised to give me nightmares, and although I didn't have any of those (because I didn't read it before bed time), it was very scary.

The Keeper by Sarah Langan tells the story of the Marley sisters; Liz and Susan. Susan grows up to be that girl in town that everyone talks about, but no-one can look directly in the eye. She doesn't talk to anyone, has sex with many of the males in the small town of Bedford and everyone in the town has nightmares about her.

When a tragedy hits Bedford, the nightmares about Susan begin to come true.

If you enjoy a great horror and a bit of gore then this one is for you.

DO NOT READ THIS ONE IN THE DARK.

+11 for 2011

Well 2010 was a good year for me. I managed to complete my challenge for the year which was to read 50 books. Finishing the 50th book at lunch time on the 31st of December was pushing it though.

The fantastic blog and podcast Books on the Nightstand have issued a challenge to read +11 for 2011 which means I will be attempting to read 61 books this year.  To make it a bit more interesting I have decided to split the books I read into six groups of 10 with one left over just in case there is a book I read that doesn't fit into the categories.  These six groups are:

• 10 books borrowed (whether that is from friends or the library)
• 10 books from the shelf (books that have been sitting on my bookshelf but have not been read)
• 10 books made into movies
• 10 books purchased in 2011 (really a reason to buy more books - sorry Martin)
• 10 classics (so far my list for this category includes Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights)
• 10 reviewed books (I want to increase the amount of books I review for work)

At the moment I am reading "The Keeper" by Sarah Langan which I borrowed from a friend who warned me that it gave her nightmares.  That warning was warranted because I can't take it to bed with me because I'm a bit wuss!  Great story though.  A review will be coming once I have completed it.