The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, John Boyne (Random House)

This blog isn't going to be all that detailed. By now I'm sure a lot of people will have read this book, or seen the film and will therefore know the ending, but there will still be people around who are oblivious to the contents of this wonderful fable and I do not want to be a part of ruining this for them.

Up until a couple of weeks ago I was one of the oblivious. Of course I had heard of the book and seen adverts for the film but I didn't really know much about it other than it centered around two boys and a concentration camp.

This beautiful wonderful book sucks you in with immense force and then spits you out quite unapologetically at the end. I was left distraught after reading it, though that may have been partly because I read it entirely, with no breaks, in just over an hour and that always makes me feel more connected to and invested in the characters than if I pick it up and put it down.

Up until reading this book, I had never really connected with the true horror of concentration camps. I read Anne Franks diary and found it sad, but it didn't linger in my mind and I didn't feel particularly empathetic towards her or her situation. In primary school my teacher tried to get us to understand how awful it was for the Jews to be persecuted for just being a Jew. Her attempt at this was to compare it to being like everyone in the class with brown eyes being sent away and punished- at that I just thought "Ha, I have blue eyes, unlucky brownies" and didn't really think much further than that.

This book however is scary. It truly brings home to you the frightfulness of the nature of the concentration camps, and, as most of the reviewers featured inside the cover of the book agree,
it will linger in your mind for a very very long time to come. I will definitely be giving this book to my children to read when they are learning about the Second World War, and I recommend this book to all adults as well.

Put quite simply, John Boyne has created a masterpiece.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog. By Muriel Barbery (Gallic)

I came across this book one day whilst browsing Waterstones and picked it up on a whim. Despite it apparently selling over 2.5 million copies worldwide and being serialised on BBC Radio 4 I had never heard of it, but I felt instantly attached to it once I had picked it up and read the blurb; I truly felt like I couldn't leave the shop without it, and when that happens I go with my instinct.

I was not disappointed. This little novel I found tucked away in the far corner of the bookshop is filled to the brim with charm, grace, beauty and inspiration.

It focuses around a grand Parisian apartment building, where an older lady named Renee is the concierge. Deeply philosophical and cultured, Renee keeps her true identity a wonderful secret from the outside world, fearing that if the self-important residents knew she was more knowledgeable than them then they would go to great measures to dispose of her (by sacking her, I don't think murder would have been on the cards!). Renee is the perfect example of why one should not judge a book by its cover. Rough and shabby on the outside, and yet admirable with a sparkling personality on the inside, the reader feels themself rooting for her to keep her magnificent secret from the residents; and to have the opportunity to escape her tiny apartment in the bottom of the building and experience some of her dreams.

Living in Renee's building is 12-year old Paloma Josse; precocious, charming and suicidal. This impossibly clever young girl is determined to end her life before she enters her teenage years in order to avoid living the predictable, privileged bourgeois future that she knows she is destined for. It is a credit to Barbery that she has made Paloma so likeable. Upon seeing the word "precocious" my initial thought was that I hoped she would commit suicide and give her spoilt whining a rest! However, within the novels first few interactions with Paloma she quickly endears herself to your heart. Not to mention how amusing it is that she wishes to kill herself to avoid a life of boredom and has no real feelings of depression. Her attitude is that it is a regrettable but very necessary action for her to take. Barbery has managed to perfectly capture the strange workings of a pre-teens mind, and that is no easy feat for a 41 year old adult to achieve.

Perhaps the most important turning point in the story is Kakuro Ozu's arrival. This brilliantly cultured Japenese Gentleman moves in and turns both Renee and Paloma's lives upside down (or the right way up if you think it about). Kakuro brings their lives together, forming an unlikely triangle of friendship and producing many philosophical and beautifully heartwarming moments along the way.

Barbery pulls off this philisophical masterpiece with such flare it's difficult to imagine a reader not being irrevocably connected to the characters and sentiments she presents. If you're looking for inspiration in your life, or enjoy philisophical discussions regarding the point of existence (amongst other topics) then this charming novel is for you.

My to-do list!

My book problem is getting out of hand again...

Last year I had so many unread books piled up that my Boyfriend installed a "three-out-one-in" rule. So, after reading three books I could go to him and then he would let me buy a new one. Sounds controlling but believe me, I need this discipline or I would be coming home every day with at least three books. My problem is I'm not fussy.
If it's a book, I want it. I even collect different copies of the same book; different covers; print runs... Yeah, it's a problem.

So it's got to that point where I don't even know how many I have to read, and the rule has sadly been reinstated. In the last two weeks alone I have bought 8 books; and i'm supposed to
be on the ban! I blame Boyfriend for this though as he's been encouraging me to buy books as treats for various successes in my life (getting a work experience interview at a publishing firm, getting two firsts in my University assignments).

A list is going to be the best way to keep track of my addiction, and it may be of interest to you to see what kind of reviews will be appearing in the next few months to a year. I will be including the books I have to read for my dissertation in this list as well, and as they are probably the must urgent it makes sense to put them at the top of the list!


1. Narrative as Virtual Reality; Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media. By Marie-Laurie Ryan (John Hopkins University Press)

2. The Art of Case Study Research. By Robert E. Stake (Sage)

3. The Art of Reading. By Morag Hunter-Carsch (Blackwell)

4. Narrative Theory and the COgnitive Sciences. By David Herman (CSLI Publications)

5. Reading and Response. By Michael Hayhoe and Stephen Parker (Open University Press)

6. A Companion to the History of the Book. By Simon Eliot and Jonathan Rose (Wiley-Blackwell)

7. The Happiness Hypothesis; Putting Ancient Wisdom and Philosophy to the Test of Modern Science. By Jonathan Haidt (Arrow Books)

8. New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors; The Essential A-Z guide to the Written Word. (Oxford University Press)

9. 14,000 things to be happy about. By Barbara Ann Kipfer (Workman Publishing)

10. How to get a job in Publishing; A really practical guide to careers in books and magazines. By Alison Baverstock, Susannah Bowen, Steve Carey (A, C & Black)

11. Beatrix Potter; The Extraordinary life of a Victorian genius. By Linda Lear (Penguin)

12. On Writing; A memoir of the craft. By Stephen King (Hodder and Stoughton)

13. The Seamstress. By Frances De Pontes Peebles (Bloomsbury)

14. Arthur and George. By Julian Barnes (Vintage)

15. 84 Charing Cross Road. By Helen Hanff (Virago Modern Classics)

16. Henry; Virtuous Prince. By David Starkey (Harper Press)

17. Anne Boleyn. By Joanna Denny (Portrait)

18. The Observer. By Jane Harris (Faber and Faber)

19. The Last Days of Henry VIII; Conspiracies, Treason and Heresy at the Court of the Dying Tyrant. By Robert Hutchinson (Orion Books)

20. The Forsythe Saga; The Man of Property and In Chancery. By John Galsworthy (Granada)

21. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. By Maggie O'Farrell (Headline Review)

22. The Winter Ghosts. By Kate Mosse (Orion Books)

23. Perfect Match. By Jodi Picoult (Hodder and Stoughton)

24. Publisher. By Tom Maschler (Picador)

25. Katherine Swynford; The Story of John of Gaunt and his Scandalous Duchess. By Alison Weir (Vintage)

26. Human Traces. By Sebastian Faulks (Vintage)

27. The Princes in the Tower. By Alison Weir (Pimlico)

28. Surfacing. By Margarat Atwood (Virago)

29. The Gunpowder Plot; Terror and Faith in 1605. By Antonia Fraser (Pheonix)

30. The Acid House. By Irvine Welsh (Vintage)

31. Quidditch through the Ages. By Kennilworthy Whisp (J.K. Rowling) (Bloomsbury)

32. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. By Newt Scamander (J.K. Rowling) (Bloomsbury)

33. Selected Tales. By Edgar Allan Poe (Penguin Classics)

34. The Equivoque Principle. By Darren Craske (Friday Fiction)

35. Captain Corelli's Mandolin. By Louis De Bernieres (Vintage)

36. The Dante Club. By Matthew Pearl (Vintage Originals)

37. Birdsong. By Sebastian Faulks (Vintage)

38. Behind the Scenes at the Museum. By Kate Atkinson (Black Swan)

39. Tales From Shakespeare. By Charles and Mary Lamb (Penguin Classics)

40. The Hunchback of Notre Dame. By Victor Hugo (Penguin Classics)

41. Madame Bovary. By Gustave Flaubert (Penguin Classics)

42. Crime and Punishment. By Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Penguin Classics)

43. Horus Rising. By Dan Abnett (BL Publishing)

44. The Reading Group. By Elizabeth Noble (Coronet)

45. The Shakespeare Secret. By J.L. Carrell (Sphere)

46. Les Miserables. By Victor Hugo (Penguin Classics)

47. The Accidental. By Ali Smith (Penguin)

48. Notes from a Small Island. By Bill Bryson (Black Swan)

49. Emma. By Jane Austen (Penguin Popular Classics)

50. To Kill A Mocking Bird. By Harper Lee (Arrow Books)

51. The War of the Worlds. By H.G. Wells (Penguin Classics)

52. 1939; The Last Season. By Anne De Courcy (Pheonix)

53. Quicksilver. By Neal Stephenson (Arrow Books)

54. Mr Timothy. By Louis Bayard. (John Murray)

55. Hitler. By Ian Kershaw (Allen Lane)

56. The Year of the Flood. By Margarat Atwood (Bloomsbury)

57. The Lady in the Tower; The Fall of Anne Boleyn. By Alison Weir (Jonathan Cape London)

58. Wolf Hall. By Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate)

59. The Children's Book. By A.S. Wyatt (Chatto and Windus)

60. Her Fearful Symmetry. By Audrey Niffenegger (Jonathan Cape London)

61. The White Queen. By Philippa Gregory (Simon and Schuster)

62. 1599; A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare. By James Shapiro (Faber and Faber)

63. C.S.Lewis; The Boy who Chronicled Narnia-A Biography. By Michael White (Abacus)

64. The Colour of Magic. By Terry Pratchett (Corgi)

65. Tipping the Velvet. By Sarah Waters (Virago)

66. A Foreign Field; A true story of love and betrayal during the Great War. By Ben Macintyre (Harper Collins)

67. Dancing With Wings. By Amelia Carr (Headline Review)

68. Brick Lane. By Monica Ali (Black Swan)

69. Hamlet's Dresser; A memoir. By Bob Smith (Pocket Books)

70. Life Before Man. By Margarat Atwood (Virago)

71. Old London Bridge; The Story of the longest inhabited Bridge in Europe. By Patricia Pierce (Review)

72. Medievel Lives. By Terry Jones (BBC Books)

73. Plain Truth. By Jodi Picoult (Flame)

74. Bluebeard's Egg. By Margarat Atwood (Virago)

75. The Oxford Murders. By Guillermo Martinez (Abacus)

76. Vanishing Acts. By Jodi Picoult (Hodder and Stoughton)

77. Saturday. By Ian McEwan (Vintage)

78. Misfortune. By Wesley Stace (Vintage)

79. Bastard Prince; Henry VIII's lost son. By Beverly A. Murphy (Sutton)

80. The Boy I loved. By Marion Husband (Accent Press)

81. Wormwood. By G.P. Taylor (Faber and Faber)

82. The Edible Woman. By Margarat Atwood (Virago Modern Classics)

83. A Step in the Dark. By Judith Lennox (Headline Review)

84. Paper Moon. By Marion Husband (Accent Press)

85. The Bullet Trick. By Louise Welsh (Canongate)

86. The Woman in White. By Wilkie Collins (Vintage Collins)

87. The Pirate's Daughter. By Margarat Cezair-Thompson (Headline Review)

88. Pinkerton's Sister. By Peter Rushforth (Scribner)

89. Bleak House. By Charles Dickens (Penguin)

90. The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl. By Belle de Jour (Pheonix)

91. Ulysses; The 1922 text. By James Joyce (Oxford World Classics)

92. The Affair of the Poisons; Murder, Infanticide adn Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV. By Anne Somerset (Pheonix)


Wow. 92 unread books... That ban definitely needs enforcing. Doesn't it?

Under the Dome: Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton)

Stephen King’s latest epic “Under the Dome” was a good 25 years in the making, and boy was it worth it. This apocalyptic vision of what could, and horrifyingly probably would happen if a small population of us were left to our own devices, cut off from the rest of humanity manages to grip the reader from the beginning and transport them directly to the small town of Chester’s Mill, Maine and the nucleus of the trouble.

The story follows the inhabitants of Chester’s Mill from the day an impenetrable dome descends over them. Typical of the ever-complicating King, the tale consists of a vast amount of characters, most of who are central to the plot and therefore need to be remembered. In his favour though, King is a master of characterisation, making this job easy for his readers. Big Jim Rennie, second selectman and chief villain of the narrative is a perfect depiction of all that is and ever has been wrong within politics. King appears to have taken all of the most terrible parts of all of the most despicable politicians in history and moulded this figure from them, adding a few psychopathic profiles in for good measure. Jim Rennie is a creation that sends chills down the reader’s spine purely because of how easy it is to see how he almost effortlessly manipulated himself into power despite being the barbaric person he is.

Other characters, such as Andrea Grinnell and Samantha Bushey strike the reader because of the stark contrast in the strengths and weaknesses of their personalities. Both women have great troubles to overcome in this novel, and they handle them in completely divergent ways. The fascinating element of these characters narrative is that right up until the climax of their individual stories the reader is unsure of whether their strengths or weaknesses will win.

Conversely, an aspect of “Under the Dome” I personally found disconcerting was King’s treatment of religion. In this book only the corrupt and evil characters believe in God. Piper Libby, the town’s vicar, is a “good” character, but she no longer believes in her religion. It is as if King is suggesting that only nutcases and extremists still believe in religion, and as someone who isn’t wildly religious but does have religious beliefs I found this mildly offensive.

If I could have changed something about this narrative it would have been the ending. It’s difficult for me to express my feelings here without spoiling the end somewhat. Suffice to say, I was a little disappointed and felt it could have been cleverer. My ending would also have made more sense and aligned with the theme of the novel a lot more, but King obviously had a different purpose for his epic and his ending does make sense. It just felt a bit lacklustre to me after the preceding story.

Which brings me nicely to the length of “Under the Dome”; at over 800 pages some readers may be put off from picking up this book. I wholeheartedly encourage you to give it a go. Not one page, storyline or character could have been cut out. It is a complete masterpiece and an almost effortless read. Even if you have previously hated Stephen King’s writing, (I for one wish I hadn’t wasted time reading “The Shining”), this is one novel that deserves to be read.

"All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning"

So this is my ridiculous beginning! I wanted a place to practice my writing, and my book critiques and here seemed as good a place as any. Hopefully this blog is the first step to me becoming a writer and reviewer for the Bookseller magazine...

My blog is mainly going to be book reviews and updates of what i've read and what I am going to read. There will probably be odds and ends which are unrelated to reading as well, depending on what is going on in my life, but as my life tends to revolve around reading and making the boyfriend coffee and food I doubt i'll stray too far off the point.

So, as you can see theres nothing up at the moment whilst I get my reviews together, but within a few days I expect i'll post two or three in a row to get this thing going :)