The Great Gatsby

So old sport, the Great Gatsby is a tragic love story of Jay Gatsby and Daisy. It's set in the era of flappers, prohibition and gangsters so it's no wonder that this novel comes off with a slight edge. Nick Carraway, neighbour of Gatsby, narrates the story. He doesn't exactly like Gatsby, but despite this holds a certain respect for him.

Reading this I could see straight away why it would be used as a set book at school; it is beautifully written. It's one of those few books that you actually make you itch to get out a pen and underline and annotate the beautifully constructed quotes. It was such a pleasing read; like a journey I felt like I had travelled somewhere by the end of it and I love that in a book. With so many books being pumped into production good books, really good ones can be hard to find. It is satisfying to know that a good book will stand the test of time as seen with 'the Great Gatsby'.

The Fault in Our Stars- John Green

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Am I the only one that found this book incredibly predictable?

Yes, yes it was great and heartbreaking and everything but I was expecting more. I guess you do have to take into account that it's evidently a 'young adult' book; that will at least account for part of the predictability of the book.

Despite this it was good, not one of my favorites, but it wasn't a waste of time to read it.

I read it after my sister had read it when we were on holiday in Berlin. I was a intrigued by it; when we had been there the book had followed my sister around everywhere to such an extent that you could hardly see her face. And then on top of that she seemed to be eating the tissues they were going down so fast. I think it's safe to say that she found it pretty heartbreaking. I will give it that; John Green took my heart, tore it to pieces and threw it in the bin. Thanks for that John Green.

I did enjoy the read, and I'm certainly pleased I read it but I'm still not sure about it. I'm just hoping that the film does it justice

Paper Towns by John Green

'What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person'


Read it. If that's the only thing I can persuade you to do then that's enough. Just read it.

When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin into the middle of the night- dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign for revenge- he follows her. Margo's always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she's always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q.. until day breaks and she's vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues and they're for Q.

It wasn't the blurb that drew me in and to be perfectly honest I didn't think it looked to good. Or at least not my type. But as soon as I got reading BAM and in I was drawn. John Green writes delicately and with care weaving the book together and reeling in the reader until you find yourself up at three in the morning reading with a fury that isn't often found when it comes to books. There was something about 'Paper Towns' that got me hooked and that kept me thinking about it and turning it over long after I'd finnished it. It's a book that stays with you, one of the few that really does. Read it if you can. I loved it, and I hope you will too.

Nothing to envy by Barbara Demick

The journalist Barbara Demick is seen to follow the lives of North Koreans over the period of 15 years showing us a lot about the hidden and harshly controlled of their communist state.

As a rule I'm not keen on purely factual books, but, this is one of the few that I would say is worth reading. IT portrays life in North Korea as Orwellish making it unbelievable to readers in free societies. It constantly changes between the different people and weaves between their storys. It is surprisingly understandable for all the stories and it helps to keep it flowing and interesting to the reader.

To me the most interesting was the fact that not all of the people that were interviewed for the book had been completely against the regime. In fact most of them seemed to find it very positive at first with them genuinely being heartbroken when Kim Il Sung died. This made it a lot more believeable and therefore made it seem (wether it's true or not) to portray the North Korean way of life.

I'd give it maybe a 4/5 and I suggest that if you want to read a factual book then you should read this; it was as hooking as a fiction book.

Sorry that I haven't been on in forever. I had a lot going on. Bad excuse but that's all I have. I'll definitely be a lot better now. If any of you have any blogs to check out then please let me know because I really need to follow some more people!

Howards End

First of all let me get this straight; I'm not exactly into classics. I mean they're ok and I enjoy them enough to make myself read at least one a year during the summer but they aren't my cup of tea.

Howards End is the house of Mrs Wilcox. The house, although vital to the book, is not used that often. And the book is based around three families; the Schlegle's, the Wilcox's (a rich capitalist family) and the Bast's (lower middle class). It is based around the Schlegle sisters, Margret and Helen who throughout the novel attempt to make the Wilcox's less prejudiced and to help the Bast's. So it comes as no surprised that they are portrayed very positively.

The novel reminds me of Lady Chatterley's Lover in style (I'm a third of the way through that at the moment). The ideas presented about gender and class also seem to be very similar, it wasn't surprising to find out that the author of Howards End defended Lady Chatterley.

I think that overall I would give it 3 stars. For such a great literary book that feels mean but then again there are parts that Forster could have really milked. At the end, something happens, which could have been incredibly exciting and perhaps even scandalous  Yet in comparison to the rest of the book it is incredibly rushed and makes me think that by the end Forster had given up on it. I just think that Forster could have really done something with it, made the book that one chapter longer, maybe not even. It would have made it better considering that exciting bit is so badly done and the characters have very little reaction to it which detracts from how believable they are in the novel and before that Forster had built it up really well.

So 3 stars I think, I'd be tempted by 2 but even I cannot be that harsh to what is undoubtedly a great piece of literature.

Hello

Hi, I'm Anne and it occurred to me I should probably say hi and introduce myself before I carry on with the reviews- I get carried away a bit. I'm sorry.

So a bit about me, I like to read. Sorry, understatement; I love to read. I've recently moved from England to France and I was actually having problems at my school library with running out of things to read that interest me. (I'm going to add that it was an amazing school library). Now I've started on my new school library with Bridget Jones's Diary being the first thing I read there.

I'm afraid you're going to have to please give me some time to sort everything out, as it says on the introduction bit on the sidebar I am hopeless with technology and it's going to take a while for me to get used to it all. I spent forever last night trying to find the settings and in the end I had to print screen for my friend to help me. And this is supposed to be the modern generation of technology.

Please do follow while I get everything set up, or come back again when things are less on their head.

Thanks for coming and taking time to read this. Have a good day.

Anne xx