Wordle

Anyone have a play with Wordle? I found it on Eva's blog at A Striped Armchair and have wiled away many a tea break playing with this fun little gadget, creating wordclouds. Below is the wordcloud created using my blog's url...

The Last of the High Kings - Kate Thompson

Last of the High Kings is sequel of sorts to Kate Thompson’s first novel, The New Policeman. While Kings does reintroduce us to the Liddy family, it can also be read as a stand-alone tale, and is a very quick read at that.

This is the tale of JJ Liddy and his family, and their beautiful home in Kinvara, Ireland. JJ is not the most reliable of men, perhaps because of a journey he made in his youth, to Tir na n’Og, the land of eternal youth. JJ returned from that land to become a musician, marry Aisling and build a life with their four children, Hazel, Jenny, Donal and Aidan. All of their children are special in their own way, but Jenny is particularly unique. She never wears shoes, often forgets to go to school, and spends much of time up on the mountainside, having conversations with a ghost and a goat, the latter of whom turns out to be a puca. Both the ghost and the puca have their own stories, which come together in the most surprising and frightening of ways, leaving not only the Liddy’s but the whole of humankind in danger. It is left up to Jenny to decide the fate of all involved, with the help of Aengus Og of the Tuatha De Danann, and to discover where her true destiny lies.

The best word I have seen describing Last of the High Kings, and I can’t remember where I saw it (!), is whimsical. This book is full of whimsy! And whimsy of the subtlest and gentlest kind. There’s that word gentle again, I seem to be either using it a lot recently, or reading a lot of gentle books… My point being, Last of the High Kings is a nice book, in the truest sense of the word. In all honesty, I thought this would be a silly, fun read, and don’t get me wrong, it was fun, but I was pleasantly surprised by the book’s intelligence, warmth and humour. I became very fond of the Liddy family, especially Jenny’s somewhat forgetful and wonderfully capricious father JJ, and her calm, gentle (there’s that word again), musically inclined brother, Donal.

I highly recommend this as a wonderful read for child and adult alike and particularly enjoyable for anyone with an interest in Irish history, folklore and faerie.

Looking for Alaska - John Green

Read for: Dewey's Books Challenge

"I go to seek a Great Perhaps." - Francois Rabelais’ last words

Culver Creek, one hundred and thirty six days before…

From the moment the reader is introduced to Looking for Alaska’s protagonist, Miles Halter, we are graced with a charming, naïve and idealistic fifteen-year old, with a penchant for remembering famous figures’ last words. Miles becomes entranced by some of these words, and decides to attend his father’s former boarding school to seek out Rabelais’ Great Perhaps.

So we follow Miles to Culver Creek in rural Alabama. There he meets a motley crew of teenagers; his roommate, Chip, amusingly and appropriately referred to as the “Colonel”, who gives a skinny Miles the nickname “Pudge”; Takumi, the mild-mannered and loyal Japanese rapper; and Lara, the beautiful and sweet Romanian. And it is here, on his first day, that Miles meets Alaska. Sexy, impulsive, and dangerously alluring Alaska. This small group of friends orbits around the enigmatic young misfit, getting themselves into all kinds of harmless mischief, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, breaking curfews and scheming pranks. For Miles, Alaska is unobtainable but addictive, and he is drawn closer and closer into her web of chaos. She catches his attention from the off, the voracious reader bestowing him with the mysterious last words of Simón Bolívar…

"How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?"

After. A shocking event occurs half way through the book that shatters this little world and causes the circle of friends to spin into a whirlwind of emotions; guilt, anger, love, betrayal and grief. Most of all, they learn about loss. The loss of childhood, the loss of before and the shock of after.

There is a beautiful, poignant symmetry to this book. We begin one hundred and thirty six days before, and end one hundred and thirty six days after. In that time, all our characters have traversed a long and difficult journey from adolescence to adulthood, learning about life and love along the way. Interestingly I read this book directly after Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book which, though a completely different story and style of writing, has many parallels in theme to Alaska.

Devastatingly compelling, quietly philosphical and ultimately brutal, Looking for Alaska is possibly the best young adult book I have ever read, and is a remarkable debut for the effervescent John Green who seems to be popping up all over the place (see his blog here). I'm not sure my words will do justice to how I felt about this book. After finishing it, I could not even think about reading another book for over three days (very unlike me), and I still find myself thinking about Alaska now. An absolute joy to read.

A deeply personal coming-of-age tale of what to do when the unthinkable happens. And the ultimate question, as Alaska herself asked. How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?

Other blog reviews:
The Hidden Side of a Leaf
The Written World
Things Mean a Lot
Becky's Book Reviews
Stuff as Dreams are Made on
Books & other thoughts
Muse Book Reviews
Valentina's room
Melody’s Reading Corner

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book was my final read of 2008 because I had seen so many great reviews, and wanted to end the year on a high note. I was not disappointed. However, due to the fact that I'm very behind in all my reviews and that there have been so many great reviews of this book already, I'll keep this short.

When we meet Nobody Owens, he is a baby, and his parents have just been murdered by a mysterious assailant. The boy wanders from the scene, and into a graveyard, where he is adopted by the dead who are buried there, and another who is not dead, yet not among the living. Over the following pages, we watch Nobody, or Bod for short, grow into a young man, with no fear of the dead and full of curiosity about the living.

I didn't love The Graveyard Book. Well, not right away. I wasn't sure about it at all at first, and I can't put my finger on the moment that I fell for it. And boy did I fall. The word that springs to mind whenever I think about the Graveyard Book now is "gentle". There is an absolute gentleness about this book, despite its rather gruesome opening chapter. There was so much that reminded me of The Jungle Book, the inspiration behind this story, of a young boy's innocence, and of his friends' and family's attempts to shelter him from the unknown and fearsome world outside. I really grew to care about Bod and his journey, I wanted him to find the truth that he needed, but to be safe. He became family and I wanted to protect him.

This is at its heart, a ghost story. But one not about a ghost. Bod is a living, breathing human, and above all, this story is about him. It is about the wonders of childhood, and the loss of it. It is about the excitement and fear of the journey. I have some strong memories of childhood, but there is also a great deal that I have lost, events and moments that I cannot get back, and sometimes that leaves me with a terrible sadness. The transient nature of our lives. I wish that perhaps I had written more as a child. But many of my abiding memories come from the stories that I read, or were read to me. The Graveyard Book could have been such a story, and I wonder how much I would have loved it as a child. As an adult, I shall continue to appreciate it for another example of Neil Gaiman's beautiful writing. And perhaps more wistfully, I shall lose myself in more memories of the past.

Other blog reviews:
Stainless Steel Droppings
The Written World
Stuff as Dreams are Made On
Things Mean a Lot
Rhinoa's Ramblings
Books & Other Thoughts
Melody's Reading Corner
You Can Never Have Too Many Books
Bold.Blue.Adventure
The Hidden Side of a Leaf
Valentina's Room

The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter

Read for: Short story challenge

Whether or not Angela Carter’s stories are indeed retellings/reworkings of fairy tales or fresh stories containing familiar elements of fairy tales seems to be a point of some conjecture amongst literary circles. Whatever you decide them to be, these interpretations vary a great deal in tone and length, with the title story being half the length of the entire book. Carter’s work is notably sexual and subversive in nature, with dramatic and gothic overtones that permeate every facet of her storytelling. Though more adult in tone, and certainly not suitable for younger readers, Carter’s work should not be dismissed as mere erotic fairy tales. There is so much more to these stories, emotionally and culturally. The descriptions alone are sumptuous and palpable.

The Bloody Chamber is based on the tale of Bluebeard. A teenage girl marries an older, wealthy French Marquis and is whisked away to live in his castle. When he is called away, he leaves the keys to the castle with his young wife, with strict instructions not to unlock one particular door. But the young woman cannot resist taking a look, only to discover the true extent of her husbands sadistic and perverse nature. Typical of Carter, this tale is more sexual in nature, revolving around the sadistic Marquis, and his infatuation with his previous wives. Shocking and gruesome, yet one of the most powerful stories in this collection.

A beautiful tale of love and loss, The Courtship of Mr Lyon is a relatively familar adaptation of the story of Beauty and the Beast. After his car breaks down, Beauty's penniless father is given aid by a stranger who becomes angry when he steals a perfect white rose for his daughter. He is allowed to leave with the rose but ordered to send Beauty for dinner. The stranger, revealed as a leonine beast falls in love with her and allows her to leave but when she does not return he begins to succumb to heartbreak and only Beauty's love can save his life and humanity.

The Tiger's Bride also contains elemens of Beauty and the Beast, but with a very different ending, a reversal of any I have read or seen in the past. This is not Disney!

Puss-in-Boots is an elaborate and garish tale of a cat named Figaro who lives a life of freedom and debaunchery with his young human companion. But when the young man falls in love, it is left to Figaro to factor their union and extricate the girl from her unhappy marriage. Gloriously over the top, this story had me smiling.

Possibly my favourite story due to my love of folklore and nature, The Erl-King is based on many a folk tale of the man of the woods. A young woman is lured to the mysterious Erl-Kings's home deep in the woods, where she discovers his true plan for her and is forced to escape by any means. Dark and sinister, Carter's writing practically had me drooling.

An interesting spin on the tale of Snow White, The Snow Child especially intrigued me as I have recently read Neil Gaiman's adaptation. In this story however, it is the Count who wishs for a young girl as white as snow, quickly becoming obsessed with his creation, much to the dismay of his wife. This story is short and brutal and left me feeling quite cold. No pun intended.

A fabulously morose tale, The Lady of the House of Love concerns a young soldier who stumbles across a vampire living in her mansion. The pure and innocent young man has a curious effect on the campire who is not content to simply feed on him. Another masterful example of Angela Carter's beautiful prose.

The Werewolf is a slightly twisted tale of a girl (Red Riding Hood) who visits her grandmother, only to make a horrifying discovery. But what the girl does was most suprising to me!

The Company of Wolves is a slightly closer adaptation of the Red Riding Hood fable, with the girl meeting a young man in the woods on route to her grandmother's cabin, only to discover that he has beaten her to it and is not what he seems. With words straight from the fairy tale itself, this story put a big grin on my face. Delightful.

The third wolf story in this collection, Wolf-Alice creeped me out. Perhaps because Carter's descriptions of a feral little girl were so realistic, I could almost imagine this child ripping apart chunks of flesh with her teeth!

Carter’s use of language is sophisticated and intoxicating, I found myself in utter awe of her powerfully descriptive writing through which she has masterfully twisted these predominantly patriarchal stories into tales of feminine power, liberation and sexuality. These stories are not for the faint-hearted though; they are dark, cruel and often violent. Carter once described herself as drawn to “Gothic tales, cruel tales, tales of wonder, tales of terror, fabulous narratives that deal directly with the imagery of the unconscious”. But perhaps most of all, the stories in The Bloody Chamber are about desire, both feminine and masculine and altogether inescapable. I cannot express how much I admire what Angela Carter has achieved and created here, I will certainly be reading more. Highly recommended.

Other blog reviews:
A Striped Armchair
Stainless Steel Droppings
Tripping Towards Lucidity
The Written Word

(let me know if I've missed yours!)

Guardian review (certainly worth a read)

I'm Tink Approved!

The charming LadyTink has sprinkled a little fairy dust my way and granted me her Tink Approved award. Many many thanks! For anyone who doesn't read her blogs, check them out for some wonderful book and film reviews!

Speaking of films, I just finished watching Deep Impact again, after many many years, and managed to find myself blubbing at exactly the same spot that moved me to tears the first time I watched it. (I won't spoil it for anyone, but suffice to say it involves sacrifice and saving the ones you love). Curious...apparently though I may have aged (and one hopes, matured) over the years, the same things have an emotional impact on me! And I don't usually get that teary at films, so that's saying something.

I also watched Inkheart with Rhinoa last week. I really enjoyed it, though it differed from the book a fair bit. Brendan Fraser is always fun on camera and Paul Bettany was quite frankly hot!

2009 YA Challenge

Yeah I know...I said I wasn't going to join any more challenges but seeing as I'm a huge YA fiction reader, this one is just so perfect for me. So...see J.Kaye's Book Blog to sign up and here are the rules.

1. Anyone can join. You don't need a blog to participate.
2. Read 12 Young Adult novels. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed.
3. Challenge begins January thru December, 2009.
4. You can join anytime between now and December 31, 2009.

I've chosen a list already, because I want to read these books this year anyway, but this list will grow/change throughout the year!!

1. Ghost Hunter - Michelle Paver
2. The Black Tattoo - Sam Enthoven
3. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing - M.T. Anderson
4. Paper Towns - John Green
5. An Abundance of Katherines - John Green
6. Graceling - Kristin Cashore
7. Checkmate - Malorie Blackman
8. The Once and Future King - T.H. White
9. How I Live Now- Meg Rosoff
10. Nation - Terry Pratchett
11. The Underneath - Kathi Appelt
12. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - E. Lockhart

Enjoy!