Jackie's bookshelf: 2013-reading-challenge
There's just something about the way Junot Diaz writes that I love. Even when he's writing about loss and sexual infidelity his "voice" is warm, humorous and strangely tender.
The men in his stories are all seriously flawed in their rel...
A thoroughly enjoyable retelling and combining of fairy tales from various sources.The message the same, even if the meaning is a little different: True love conquers all.
In this case however, true love is not the romantic, Disneyfied ...
This edition is beautifully illustrated, with a pleasingly tactile hardback cover and printed on high quality paper.
If you are unfamiliar with the story, it is the tale of a fir tree that wishes away it's life waiting to be fully grown...
"I don't like the word soon because you don't know when it's going to sneak up on you and turn into NOW. Or maybe it'll be the kind of soon that never happens."
I loved this tender, moving and funny book. I loved the references to "To K...
A beautiful, moving and uplifting book that covers puberty, dysfunctional relationships (both familial and sexual), friendship, first love, depression and loss.
There are very few characters, so I came to feel like I knew Joe and Nel v...
This was a quick, undemanding read. I read it in a couple of hours and it passed the time entertainingly enough, but I was left feeling like something was missing and not feeling any real connection with the characters.
Perhaps it's bec...
I loved the warmth of these poems. Even when the mood was darker, there was something about the use of language that made me feel I was being invited to share an experience rather than being held at arms length to merely observe.
For su...
This set contains some wonderful ideas and some fairly ordinary ones. I really enjoyed "Snow White Blood Red" "Ashes to Ashes & Cinder to Cinder" and "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut" but was left cold by the others.
I also found myself distracted...
A lovely little collection of short stories. The ones I enjoyed most were:
"The Island" by Mark Haddon. Disturbing and darkly beautiful.
"Aflame in Athens" by Victiria Hislop. A tale of youthful passion,both personal and political.
...
Wow...just WOW! This book took my breath away. It made me feel important as a reader; As if this story did not exist unless I was reading it. As if by reading it I was contributing to it.
It makes a weird kind of sense. After all, no t...
A wonderful end to an incredibly enjoyable trilogy. I find myself hoping for a "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" style trilogy in five parts.
The missing words and errors of the first set of volumes are no longer apparent. This was a great relief, as these things can really spoil my enjoyment as a reader.
The stories in this selection are not as much to my taste as the previ...
Confession: I only bought this book because I fell in love with the cover and was intrigued by the blurb on the back and the complete lack of endorsements by other writers, critics, celebrities (in fact, not a word of endorsement from an...
Perfect holiday reading. Eli and Charlie are compelling company. Despite the harsh, grim violence of their lives, Eli retains a certain innocence & gentleness that makes following the pair on their ventures both bearable and occasionally...
I practically inhaled this book.
When you're scared and angry and hurting, both silence and the idea of numbness are so inviting. Especially when you feel like you don't belong. Melinda as outcast was something I identified with. Her s...
This was so very nearly a 4 star read, but the spell broke for me at the lighting of the last candle.
It's a beautifully engaging read right up until that point; A proper fairy-tale with a dash of historical drama. I have a strong feel...
This is a very clever book with no emotional heart, but an embarrassing wealth of humour, camp and coincidence. The main character is self-absorbed and pretentious but incredibly entertaining.
I really enjoyed it, despite feeling I reall...
Read this in less than a day and loved every minute of it. I would have loved it even more if I'd read it in my teens when I was obsessed by runes, Vikings, shape-shifting, magic and death.
Did I tell you it has Vikings in it? What more...
In 1984, Kate Meaney is 10 years old and living in Birmingham. In 1984 I was 11 years old and living in London. The depiction of a shabby community in the 1980s brought back vivid memories of newsagents with easily pilferable "pocket-mon...
I loved this book from the very first page to the very last.
It made me laugh out loud, cringe with embarrassment, ache with loneliness, radiate with love.
It made me want to go and watch my children sleeping, while I still can.
It m...
It's difficult to write a meaningful review of this book, but I absolutely loved it.
Simply, this is the story of Dave, who lives a clean and ordered life in "Here" where people fear disorder and everyone & everything is well groomed; F...
This book is just too damn quotable! I fell into the first half of the book as if it was an old friend.
This memoir reminded me of everything that is good about religion as well as everything that made me reject it. While reading it, I...
"I'll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name's Simon. I think you're going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he'll be dead. And he was never the same after that."
This is ...
I want to give this 3 and a half stars as it's so much better than some of the other books I've given 3 stars to, but not quite a 4 star read.
I loved the main character. She is smart, brave but not invulnerable, has the ability to spee...
"And in the midst of all that, one preacher by the name of Jesus died. And either something miraculous happened or someone lied."
This is not the story of Yehoshuah (Jesus)but of the way his existence affected those around him. It is an...
How far would you go to help a friend?
Alex is a socially awkward, intelligent teenage protagonist (I have a real soft spot for this type of character) who, aged 10, gets hit on the head with an iron-nickel meteorite the size of an oran...
This is a beautiful story of hope, sacrifice and love. The setting, heroine and elements of "magical realism" all reminded me of Isabel Allende's "Eva Luna" only with fewer individual strands in the story and aimed at a younger audience....
This book transported me to a different time and place. I was there, shyly standing behind Rachael. I was her shadow and her witness, simultaneously cheering her on and worried for her - for her inability to pretend to be what was expect...
There were bits about this book that didn't sit quite right with me, but there was much that I loved too:
For the first few pages, I thought Pat was an adolescent. It came as a shock to realise that he was a grown man in his 30s. His o...
Quite honestly? I don't know what I think about this book, only that I was completely caught up in it.
For a book dealing with the subject of sexual assault, it was surprisingly ... I can't think of the right word ... The word "calm" i...
Drea is definitely a person.
That might seem like an odd thing to say, but I have felt let down in the past by books with characters who have ADHD/Aspergers/autism. They either fudge the issue by not naming it or treat the character wit...
Enjoyable but no fireworks. Mildly disappointed, as I adored A Monster Calls and the Chaos Walking trilogy
I love the way Simon Van Booy uses language; His words sing. But there is a large portion of this book that just didn't work for me.
The prologue is a thing of beauty, and Book One is a heartbreaking joy of beautiful prose and gorgeousl...
The first book was great: fast paced, with interesting characters I cared about. I found the second confusing with too much time spent on characters & relationships that didn't interest me and the third seemed like an afterthought; a bri...
Lazy writing and irritatingly shallow characters, but enjoyable enough as an I'm-on-holiday-and-my-brain-needs-a-rest / oo-look-at-the-shiny type of read.
Moving and effective, but incredibly short. My heart went out to Emily and I found myself hoping one day she can look in the mirror and see her true self.
Enjoyable enough with some lovely ideas, but it didn't hold my attention; I would read a chapter or two, then get distracted and not return to it for days.
Honest, enlightening & sometimes painful to read, but always beautiful. I'm so glad I found this.
This book is beautifully illustrated and a joy to look at. It gives a small but important insight into the thoughts and emotions of three transgender youths. All different, each engaging in their own way and all beautiful in their honest...
Too much everything. Too much action, too many perspectives, too many characters. Disappointing & confusing after the utter brilliance of Ashes. Hope Monsters is better.
The hardback version of this book is a beautiful thing in it's own right. The cover and internal illustrations are of a style I find both gorgeous and comforting. This, in combination with the style of the story within, reminded me of th...
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