So maybe you remember that a while ago, I posted a list of books I'd decided to read in 2011, which is still fairly new and therefore was going to be the year that everything was perfect, as everyone feel's around New Year's Eve. But I also this list here, of a mixture of instruction manuals, classics I haven't read yet and things that just looked good, and so far I'm sticking to it pretty well. I did worry I'd get off track and start to just reread everything I already have, I do that a lot. So seeing as this blog is sometimes about books (is it, is it about books? well I can make it be about books if I want to!) I thought it'd be a good idea to regularly keep you and myself up to date about what I've been reading over here and whether I liked them.
NOTE: Here I called it a list, there's actually only two of them because I've already written about "The Kite Runner" and "Catcher In The Rye" somewhere or other. Meh, sorry.
CRACKED UP TO BE
by Courtney Summers
... was recommended by a friend, and although it wasn't really everything I've wanted from a fully developed storyline I liked it quite a lot.
Parker is around 16, I think, a high school student who'd been balancing a perfect boyfriend, her responsibilities as cheerleader captain, a lot of friends, and straight A grades up until a recent mental breakdown. After downing a bottle of Jack Daniels and a lot of painkillers, Parker's decisions are crucial and everyone in her life is patronisingly on edge. When Jake comes into the story, a new student at our average American high school, Parker is on the brink of a second failure, until she meets someone who doesn't try to hard to see into her but only deprives her of what she really thinks she wants: to be left alone.
I liked the novel at first, it was written cynically and every few chapters, one is made up of flashbacks. By the middle of the story, I partly detested main character but I had to find out what would happened, or more what already had. Sometimes reading this was a test of patience, mainly just because the protagonist was whining so much, but it's fairly well-written and it's easy and, sometimes, maybe even relatable. Shameless, angsty teenage chick-lit, something all of us need sometimes.
4.5/10
REBECCA
by Daphne du Maurier
"Last night, I went to Manderly again..."
Thinking about it, I honestly don't think I've ever read a book you could describe as a "classic" outside of English class - I know this is also quite modern, but I think it counts, but from what my mum had told me I was really expecting to like "Rebecca" after a while.
When "Rebecca" drew me in, it did so slowly. Our narrator (who's name is never revealed) is a young, employed "companion" to a rich American woman when she meets Max de Winter, widower and owner of Manderly, a huge house and estate in Cornwall. She marries him, partly out of love and partly to get away, and wasn't expecting to be so overwhelmed, not by the size of the house and the quality of living, now, but by the sudden change of lifestyle, the unfriendliness of the servents at Manderly, particularly housekeeper Mrs Danvers*, and the presense in the house, in the eyes of all of the people she meets of Maxim's beautiful late wife, Rebecca, who the second Mrs de Winter will never compare to.
I loved this book so, so much. There are two shocking twists (spoiler coming up, go way down if you plan on reading it)
and after reading the book I read the afterward in my copy by Susan Hill who'd read so many things into the story which I didn't notice, most of all, Rebecca's sexuality, which was again hinted at much more in the film I saw.
9.5/10
* THIS WOMAN SCARES ME MORE THAN VOLDEMORT.
That's all. There will be more about these.
Speaking of my list, the book I'm currently reading is "Neverwhere", which is by Neil Gaiman, and anyone's reading who's a Neil Gaiman fan, you'll know that on Twitter recently, a trending topic has been #worstneilgaimanpickuplines
This has been making me laugh all day, from the moment I got home, so I compiled a list, because I like lists.
LIZZIE'S FAVOURITE NEIL GAIMAN RELATED PICK-UP LINES FROM TWITTER IN THE LAST 24 HOURS
"I killed Batman. No, really."
"Need company? We can get them for you wholesale."
"Y'like Duran Duran? 'Cuz I wroted a book 'bout those guys."
"I should like very much to be your falafel."
"Do you wanna see an offensive passport photo?"
"Let's go back to my mausoleum and work this out."
"You. Me. Macabray. You won't remember a thing."
"Wanna see why Facebook removed my photo?"
"Mind if my bees watch?"
"I've been in an episode of Arthur."
"You know, Terry Pratchett told me that the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact..."
"I'd give up my entire collection of troll dolls to be with you."
"This wine is from Atlantis..."
And my personal favourite,
"I can go all night, 'cause you'll Neverwhere me out!"
thankyou for your patience if you aren't nerdy enough to have understood those.
More tomorrow. (more blogging, I mean, not Gaiman related pick-up lines. Well, you never know.)
k then. goodnight.
- Lizzie
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