Skellig - David Almond

I owe this entirely to Nick Hornby. Skellig was always a book that jumped out at me when I was working at the bookshop, but despite it being very short, I somehow never read it. Until Nick Hornby, self-confessed YA fiction-phobic author extraordinaire wrote his fabulous review in one of his Believer columns (Shakespeare Wrote for Money).

Skellig is the tale of love, loss and hope. It is the story of Michael, a young boy whose prematurely born sister is fighting for life in a hospital incubator while he and his family move home to try and make a new start. Michael loves his sister, feels an strange and strong connection with her, but he also feels lonely and detached from the events taking place. His parents attentions elsewhere, Michael spends his time exploring the new house and garden, and becoming friends with Mina, the home-educated girl next door. But it is the crumbling run-down garage that Michael discovers Skellig, a strange ailing creature huddled in the dark, living off scraps. Is he a man, an owl? Or something very very different?

Skellig could not have been more beautiful if David Almond had tried. It was perfect. A perfect, special tale that brought a tear to my eye and a lump in my throat. I could do nothing after putting the book down but sit and smile to myself, bathing in all Skellig's tender glory. Certainly one of the most beautiful books I have ever read, I bought a copy for a friend right away and heartily recommend it to everyone. Thankfully, this is part of the school curriculum for Year Five and Six (9-10 yrs old) in the UK, so most children will get a chance to enjoy Almond's wonderful writing. As for myself, I shall thank Nick Hornby for this one and will be reading more of the great David Almond's work in future.

Skellig has been performed as a radio play, on stage in London and Broadway as an opera, and has recently been made into a television film, starring the indescribably wonderful Tim Roth and will be airing sometime over Easter on Sky One. I for one will be tuning in.

Other blog reviews:
Valentina's Room: "A short novel that feels like a little treasure, special and rare."
Penny's Pages: "This book leaves you with a sense of wonder and hope, because of the mystery it creates."

(let me know if I missed yours)

(p.s. dear readers, please note that I have not used the adjective "gentle" in this review once. surely that deserves a cookie?)

Library Loot

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
Twilight (audiobook)
My Swordhand is Singing - Marcus Sedgwick
Leviathan - Philip Hoare
Inkspell - Cornelia Funke
How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff
Graceling - Kristin Cashore
Dream Angus - Alexander McCall Smith

I tend to borrow one or two books every couple of weeks from the library, just to satisfy my craving for introducing new books into my home, as I'm still adhering to my book buying ban. This week's is the largest booty I have returned home with, most due to the Once Upon a Time challenge, and other recommendations from bloggers. I've already started on Inkspell!

Once Upon a Time III

I had the pleasure of participating in Carl V's wonderful RIP Challenge last year, so am jumping at the chance to join his other annual challenge, Once Upon a Time. This challenge is about fantasy, fairy tales, folklore and mythology

fan⋅ta⋅sy: a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting.(Wiki)
fairy tale: a fictional story that may feature folkloric characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and talking animals, and usually enchantments, often involving a far-fetched sequence of events. (Wiki)
folk⋅lore: the traditional beliefs, legends, customs, etc., of a people; lore of a people; The traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people, transmitted orally. (Dictionary dot com)
my⋅thol⋅o⋅gy: a body of myths, as that of a particular people or that relating to a particular person; a set of stories, traditions, or beliefs associated with a particular group or the history of an event, arising naturally or deliberately fostered. (Dictionary dot com)

This is the third year of this challenge, which begins today, Saturday, March 21st and ends Friday, June 2oth. There are many reading options for this challenge, including the very flexible "Journey", so head on over to Carl's site to choose your path and sign up to the challenge!

As I am so rubbish at challenges, I am following Carl's suggestion and will post a “pool of potential reads” rather than a list, although I may well deviate from them anyway! I will be following:

"Read at least 5 books that fit somewhere within the Once Upon a Time III criteria. They might all be fantasy, or folklore, or fairy tales, or mythology…or your five books might be a combination from the four genres."

My pool of potentials (for now!):
My Swordhand is Singing - Marcus Sedgewick
Inkspell - Cornelia Funke
UnLunDun - China Meiville
Dream Angus - Alexander McCall Smith
Dreams Underfoot - Charles de Lint
The Wood Wife - Terri Windling
Tam Lin - Pamela Dean
I am Morgan Le Fay - Nancy Springer
The Complete Fairy Tales - Hans Christian Anderson
The Faery Reel - Ed. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling
Graceling - Kristin Cashore
Strange Roads - Peter S Beagle
American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Happy reading!

Shakespeare Wrote for Money - Nick Hornby

What a delightful surprise. For some reason, I assumed Housekeeping vs The Dirt contained the last of Nick Hornby's beloved columns for the Believer. So you can imagine how pleased I was to discover that he had continued writing for the literary magazine for two more years (albeit with a little break), and thus another collection had been produced.

What I love about Nick Hornby's columns is that ultimately, he is one of us. Book lover, geek, afficionado. However you want to think of it. He is someone who gets excited about the prospect of going hunting for books, who buys far more than he ever plans to read, someone who can't help himself...just like us. It is this, along with his hilariously witty writing, that makes his columns so readable.

Shakespeare Wrote for Money is a highly enjoyable return to Hornby's wit and honesty, and wonderfully random detours into complete nonsense. Standout moments in this book are Hornby's discovery of young adult fiction, abandoning a month of reading to watch and rant about the World Cup, discovering how ants find their way home.

However, I did not find this collection quite as engaging as Hornby's previous work for the Believer. I did not find as many side-splitting laughs as before, and a lot of the books reviewed did not interest me as much. But that is personal preference of course, and I did pick up several recommendations from this collection, some of which I was already thinking of reading:

Skellig - David Almond
The Accidental - Ali Smith
Field Notes from a Catastrophe - Elizabeth Kolbert
On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
Poppy Shakespeare - Clare Allan
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
American Born Chinese - Gene Luen Yang
Tom's Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz

Definitely worth a read, though I recommend the other two collections even more! Nick Hornby, the worst bad bloggers of all! We'll miss your columns.

Other blog reviews:
Things Mean a Lot

(have I missed yours?)

Outcast and Oath Breaker - Michelle Paver

I was working as a children’s bookseller when Michelle Paver sold her six-book series Chronicles of the Ancient Darkness for a record-breaking advance of just under £2 million, so I vividly remember the hype that ensued! The first in this highly anticipated Stone Age series was immediately a modern classic, with everyone and his grandmother racing out for a signed copy. Wolf Brother began the tale of Torak, a young Wolf Clan boy who becomes violently orphaned and left to fend for himself, when he befriends a wolf cub. Each consecutive book has seen Torak face more trials and tribulations in his journey toward adulthood.

Outcast and Oath Breaker are the fourth and fifth books in the Chronicles of the Ancient Darkness. Following on from the end of the last book, Soul Eater, Torak has been branded with a tattoo by the Soul Eaters, mages corrupted by power and dark magic. Carrying their evil mark, Torak is suspected to be in league with the Soul Eaters and is cast out from the Raven clan, the place he had begun to call home. As he flees, Torak finds himself not only in a fight for his life, but for his very sanity as his link with the Soul Eaters triggers his descent into madness. In these two books, Torak must battle the impending ecological disaster that will shake the very core of his world, and face the death of someone very close to him.

Perhaps the best asset to Paver’s series is her attention to detail. She has spent several years meticulously researching prehistoric life, spending time with Inuit and Sami tribes living in the wilds of Finland and Greenland. But it is this research that gives her story such realism, such depth. Interestingly, I have been enjoying this series far more than Clan of the Cave Bear, where I personally felt that Jean Auel had become too bogged down in the details of prehistoric life. The society that Paver has created is that of the hunter-gatherer, but the people she describes are surprisingly, yet believable advanced, socially and spiritually as well as technologically. I can imagine myself being quite at home in the world she created (aside from the evil Soul Eaters of course!).

Her characters are also completely believable, each with their own story and own journey. By far my favourite character is Wolf, the cub rescued by Torak, whose love and devotion to the boy provide the true heart to this series. Wolf has his own journey, often separate to Torak’s, but their fates are always linked with the bond they share as wolf brothers. My favourite parts of the story are often from his perspective, with Paver using unique vocabulary to describe how Wolf sees the world around him, such as Fast Wet and Bright Beast-that-bites-hot. Wolf’s journey in Outcast and Oath Breaker is especially touching, as he discovers his own desire to be part of a wolf family, along with a shocking revelation about his friend, Tall-Tailless.

This is an excellent series, but I implore you to read it as such. Though Michelle Paver does make a considerable effort for new readers, true enjoyment of these stories comes from following the saga from its beginning. I can only guess what struggles Torak will face in the forthcoming concluding chapter in this epic journey. I do hope Torak finds peace at last!

The Happy Prince & other stories - Oscar Wilde

Read for: Challenge with Rhinoa

Sadly I was never given this delightful little book to read as a child, and it was not until Rhinoa bought me a copy that I finally had the chance to experience the fairy tales of the infamous Oscar Wilde. Tales in this collection include The Devoted Friend, The Remarkable Rocket and The Selfish Giant, but I will briefly mention my two favourite stories.

The Happy Prince is the heartbreakingly beautiful tale of a golden and jewelled statue of a prince overlooking a city, where he mourns the injustice and poverty he sees before him. He is befriended by a swallow who has delayed his migration (because he fell in love with a reed!) and persuades the bird to distribute his jewels and gold to the poor and needy. The swallow grows to love the Prince but realises that he must leave before the winter grows too cold. I cannot describe how much I loved this story. I won't reveal the ending to those who do not already know it, but needless to say, I shed more than one tear (while reading the book in the bath!).

The Nightingale and the Rose is the story of a nightingale who overhears a student saddened because he is unable to give a red rose to his beloved, to win a dance with her. The nightingale searches for such a red rose, but discovers that the only way to produce one is if she is prepared to sing the sweetest song all night and impale herself on the rose-tree's thorn staining it with her heart's blood.

Wilde's fairy tales are far darker than I imagined, but I have seldom read such beautiful writing. I highly recommend this collection for anyone who enjoys fairy tales, and will definitely be reading it to my baby cousin in a few years. Thanks Rhinoa!

Too busy to blog!

Craziness. I haven’t been this busy in years! There’s me complaining about not having a life when I’m working offshore, and now I finally have an onshore job there’s not enough time to do everything! So I really shouldn’t complain. but unfortunately it’s really cutting into my reading habits, and I had to abandon blogging for a little while, just to save the time to read a bit. Things are calming down a bit now, well rather its more organised chaos so I should be able to keep an eye on my blog more regularly. Phew. This having a life malarkey is really exhausting! So apologies for not having the time to comment on everyone's blogs recently, I am slowly making my way through all your posts!

On the up side, I have just booked my flights to the States for May. I’ll be flying to Minnesota and spending a week there for a good friend’s wedding, then driving (hopefully, if I can afford a rental car) west through several states including Montana, where I hope to do some horse-riding, and Wyoming (Yellowstone!) and then ending up in Washington, where I can explore the forests of the Olympic Peninsular, the bookshops and café’s of Seattle, and have time for a quick visit to Vancouver Island to see some orcas. Ambitious for three weeks? Possibly, but I can’t wait! I have the travel bug, and as I was planning on going to the wedding, it seemed silly to spend all that money and travel so far without making the most of it. I will however, be taking a week off my book buying ban while in Seattle, so I can grab those elusive US publications not available over here! So I’m planning some stops along the way and am very open to recommendations if fellow bloggers know the area!