tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90765928810176804692024-03-21T06:32:29.227+00:00Rowen and Clarissa's Yearbook ChallengeThe Same 52 books each for charity in a yearUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-83104494448095906922013-01-12T17:00:00.000+00:002013-01-12T17:00:15.464+00:002001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2001: A Space Odyssey wasn't at all what I was expecting. I expected a fantastic story travelling through space. What I got was a weird beginning with it's basis in prehistoric man and an almost comic mass murder by a computer system with it's own awareness. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The interim was somewhat boring. There was a large amount of navel gazing as two characters travelled into space, they weren't really aware of a lot, they were just on a very long journey where they were able to spend most of their time reading and sleeping. After they'd been doing this for a couple of years the computer decided to identify a non-existent problem, repeatedly. While one of the characters was in the process of fixing this it detached then pod he was floating in causing him to float into a solar flare and make him the first person to the higher awareness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The computer then proceeds with the murder of the three sleeping passengers, and the attempted murder of the captain of the ship, at which point the captain proceeds to shut him down and eventually lose all contact with earth. He floats for some time and does eventually reach his final destination, by which point it has become useless since he cannot carry out the tests that were planned, or transmit the data back to earth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The story ends with the captain being 'upgraded' for want of a better term to a superior being.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">What I'd expected from this book was a pacy story, above all there for interest. It was in fact more of an inner reflection written in reasonably dry prose.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Rowen</span></div>
Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-88641685188773696102012-10-24T20:34:00.001+01:002012-10-24T20:34:51.172+01:00Sorry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wanted to say I'm sorry. I havn't finished reading the books, I'm about halfway, I currently have about three books in various stages of review I havn't posted yet, I'm not sure when I will. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wanted to say that it doesn't look like I'm gonna get through all these books this year, it was a great idea at the time, but it's an extra stress I just don't need right now. So I'm taking the pressure off.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm still gonna read the books, I'm not gonna apologise for mixing them up with other books, if I hadn't I probably would have given up completely. But at the same time it might take me an extra whole year to get through them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I really do have a lot going on right now, mostly Uni, but I'm not gonna give up completely just slack a little. This happens to fall behind my sanity which until a very helpful conversation tonight was just threads away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rowen</span></div>
Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-50911575813761423012012-10-02T11:53:00.001+01:002013-02-13T12:46:45.819+00:00Amsterdam - Ian McEwan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amsterdam was a frankly weird story of moral boundaries. It begins with the funeral of Molly Lane and then revolves around three of her former lovers and her husband in the fortnight that follows.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A bit of dynamic is added when you learn that two of the lovers are close friends, and the third they despise, while the husband wants them all out of the way. All four of them hold positions of power in some form or another. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You have the despised lover, Julian Garmony who is the foreign minister and subsequently a senior politician. His life becomes a little unstuck when George, Molly's husband, finds some interesting pictures of him that belonged to his wife. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You have Clive, the greatest composer in the UK, who lives alone and is working on a symphony for the millennium, which is to have a preview in Amsterdam at the end of the book. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You have Vernon, editor of flailing newspaper, The Judge. A bit of a general failure himself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">George offers the photos to Vernon's newspaper, Vernon buys the photos, Clive tries to dissuade Vernon from running the photos and subsequently 'shitting on Molly's grave', Vernon runs the photo's and they have a big bust-up. Clive escapes to the Lake District in order to find some peace and write the end of his symphony, just as he reaches an epiphany he sees a man and a woman arguing and the man treating the woman with some force. Vernon puts two and two together and realises this is the Lakes Rapist. He informs the police jeopardising the symphony for good. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Both fake apologies and sell each others lives to a rogue Dutch medical company which will bump off your elderly relatives for a small sum and their signature. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not quite sure why it's supposed to be a very good book, it held little appeal for me and it's moral messages loomed false. I think the only reason I felt comfortable reading it was that it was only 178 pages.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rowen</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://yearbookchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/book-seventeen-amsterdam.html" target="_blank">Clarissa's Review</a></span><br />
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Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-82137936875106089042012-09-27T19:20:00.001+01:002012-09-27T19:20:41.742+01:00The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I actually finished reading The Murder of Roger Ackroyd nearly a month ago now, I just was struggling to be able to write the review of it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Murder of Roger Acroyd frankly both exceeded and fell short of my expectations. I don't often read murder mysteries as they're part of a genre which doesn't much appeal to me. In that sense it exceeded my expectations as it managed to keep me fairly interested for the most part. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However I read an Agatha Christie book when I was about 12, it wasn't a part of one of her big series, it was set in Ancient Egypt. I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, but I do remember it ended with a twist which i thought was quite fascinating.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This book also ended with a twist. It's a twist which was probably somewhat innovative at the time it went to print, but it's now become fairly commonplace. The twist, and look away now if you don't want the plot ruined, is that the narrator is the murderer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have to admit I never entertained this possibility, I at some point or another suspected nearly every other character, but never Dr Sheppard. And the fact that it was him and that he was offered the opportunity to commit suicide somehow disappointed me to the extent that I've been conflicted enough to prevent me writing this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's still a worthwhile read though.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rowen</span></div>
Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-39043233269638550532012-08-14T09:39:00.000+01:002013-02-13T12:22:18.153+00:00Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Sunday I finished reading Ivanhoe, it took me a while, but I put this down to the Olympics, because it was fantastic!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ivanhoe is a book of daring adventure and turbulent times, it reflects it's period as we all know it. It has three distinct parts to the story, which takes place over the course of about a week as King Richard the Lionheart returns to England to defend his throne from his brother John. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I thought the title was a little odd given that in the first third of the book Ivanhoe was known only as 'the Disinherited Knight', in the second third he was mostly bed-bound, and in the final third he did his only really valiant act in saving Rebecca the Jewess in the second last chapter. However I suppose it wouldn't have sounded so good if it had been named after either Wamba or Gurth!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can see why this book is a classic for sure, and why so many people over so many years have loved to read it. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes an epic adventure, cos sure it's written in a different style of language to that we use nowadays but for the sake of one of the best tales ever told it's easy to overcome!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sir Walter Scott knew how to tell a good story that's for sure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rowen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://yearbookchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/book-five-ivanhoe.html" target="_blank">Clarissa's Review</a></span></div>
Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-83348634445516879132012-07-20T10:31:00.000+01:002012-07-20T10:34:53.089+01:00Orlando - Virginia Woolf<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Orlando was a weird book, there really is no other way to describe it. In what other world would a man simply go to sleep for a week and wake up a woman? In what other world would someone be alive for 400 years and yet only be 36 years old at the end of the time frame? I know that it is really a comment on literature and it's evolution in many ways and that's the reason behind it's oddity but still it weirded me out a little.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book had some pace at the beginning, and then Orlando changed sex. This threw me and I practically put the book down for a week. When I picked it up again I was by bribery able to make it to the end, but I can't say I relished the time I spent reading it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I felt some empathy towards the character of Orlando and sympathy for him in the beginning, he seemed to be someone who had feelings, was repressed and even rebuked for them. He left the country to escape their effect, and on his return was a woman who spent 300 years in a slightly mental state. She was cruel to a suitor as a woman she had suited as a man had been cruel to her.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was some small connection with her in the 10 pages or so leading up to her eventual marriage, but as her husband then left and was never really seen again it wasn't lasting. As for the son she gave birth to, he was mentioned only in the line informing of his birth and a vague reference to the need to buy 'boy's boots'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the whole it seemed disconnected and I would avoid reading it if I had my time again I think. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rowen</span></div>Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-25732935450143424572012-07-13T10:10:00.003+01:002012-07-13T10:10:44.766+01:00Fifty Shades of Grey - E.L. James<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn0UeXoBNY4wzDip1W12TDUQXfvyet7K9DUpvvA-Qt75GnUQwwuT1W871HR-7ptZ7Qqx1hmjcocGNr4i7vIorLHA4yg7CMJlhu8MXiz4GEyBfpGBOliZRd0B12NtGTUd_O7_U-AXtMyg/s1600/50shadesofgrey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn0UeXoBNY4wzDip1W12TDUQXfvyet7K9DUpvvA-Qt75GnUQwwuT1W871HR-7ptZ7Qqx1hmjcocGNr4i7vIorLHA4yg7CMJlhu8MXiz4GEyBfpGBOliZRd0B12NtGTUd_O7_U-AXtMyg/s320/50shadesofgrey.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It isn't on our list but considering it is the biggest selling book of the year, I thought I would see what the fuss was all about. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And I'm still waiting. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will admit the subject matter is... interesting, and much more vivid than D.H. Lawrence, which I thought might have prepared me for this. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet there isn't anything else gripping in the book.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Ana is constantly wrestling with her </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">conscience about whether she wants to do this and Christian just wants her. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That could be condensed to about 250/300 pages tops. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book is pretty simple to read and I can see why it has become the companion of so many women on the train. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For me however, I read it in my room for the pure fact no-one needed to know I was reading it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also I don't understand how you could want Christian Grey? Yes he has money and he can lavish you with everything under the sun, sea and sky but the man seems to have a few to many screws loose. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He is the modern day Heathcliffe and I didn't fancy him much either, look what happened to him and Cathy in Wuthering Heights! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In short the book is possibly the equivalent of sneaking a boy back to your room, your parents returning early and you having to throw him under the bed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It's not something to be proud of but you will do it once just to know what it feels like. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't think I will be reading the rest of the series so I will never know what happened to Ana. Hopefully she cuts her ties with him, though unlikely. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-18032157337512182992012-07-07T13:05:00.003+01:002012-07-07T13:11:45.057+01:00Book Nineteen - Cranford<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6tawUG-ijCQlRWy52NhiTBJ3uG9bpIPnaAn2rXKTHokzt2PhP6FloeOiI5iFOVH3bAu8e6YPZ0CeIwm6PBKOFSVtAxkdRxHPXehfh-VI7dTlQVJ-aNTO1eiGv8LNg5KhYvlj98zhnow/s1600/cranford.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6tawUG-ijCQlRWy52NhiTBJ3uG9bpIPnaAn2rXKTHokzt2PhP6FloeOiI5iFOVH3bAu8e6YPZ0CeIwm6PBKOFSVtAxkdRxHPXehfh-VI7dTlQVJ-aNTO1eiGv8LNg5KhYvlj98zhnow/s320/cranford.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How do I write about a book like Cranford? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was so sweet in the sense you cannot dislike any of the characters as they only have each others interests at heart but even in 174 pages it seemed to drag for me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maybe it was the way it was written. Mary Smith could be considered an outsider as she often spends time away from Cranford which seems in itself an entire different world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet she is centre to all the action in the lives of Miss Matty and the others but does not acknowledge that she has such a big part. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What did make me laugh is that the women have their own hierarchy, they moan about men when they dare to enter their society and do not care for what might be considered the norm outside of their small town. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That I did like. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I agree with Rowen's point that the book has many plots that would not be amiss in Eastenders or Coronation Street but the resolutions were not exciting or left me a little miserable. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I didn't connect with the book but I would recommend it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Read Rowen's thoughts <a href="http://yearbookchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/cranford-elizabeth-c-gaskell.html">here </a></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-1495288535380586372012-07-07T12:56:00.001+01:002013-02-13T12:45:23.404+00:00Book Eighteen - Casino Royale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSRGOOkMxFIqhk2O0D5DZJiVw5P3ALJkOC2WIWgRz4h8BDe-uud_SVZeH3qWZ9k11mb292Dcy9Xnin0l9FnraXhg50Fcun8ztaTyKdXBo-AEyQM8MyH56ljC6WFGleBuOrKiqwVHQInw/s1600/Casino+Royale+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSRGOOkMxFIqhk2O0D5DZJiVw5P3ALJkOC2WIWgRz4h8BDe-uud_SVZeH3qWZ9k11mb292Dcy9Xnin0l9FnraXhg50Fcun8ztaTyKdXBo-AEyQM8MyH56ljC6WFGleBuOrKiqwVHQInw/s320/Casino+Royale+cover.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For someone that generations of men have looked up to I was a little unimpressed with James Bond's first outing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If anything the 2006 reboot with Daniel Craig is a good interpretation of the darkness the book presents. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bond does not like closeness and tries to distinguish between love and work. He will dabble with women, but he cannot commit to them, let alone work with them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">enters Vesper Lynch, enigmatic and the first woman to shoot Bond where it hurts, in the heart. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She doesn't come across well in the book and her final actions make her former toughness seem false and seems to suggest that being a spy is a man's job. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The action scenes work much better on the screen, especially the torture scene where Bond suffers greatly at the hands of Le Chiffe. Le Chiffe is a terrible villain, in the sense he doesn't really do much and even the casino game can not build up much tension. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You cannot sympathise with Bond, he isn't a likeable character and Fleming always calls him Bond which seems to suggest that he doesn't care for the spy either.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether the series picks up I do not know, but the spy didn't leave me shaken or stirred. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://yearbookchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/casino-royale-ian-fleming.html" target="_blank">Rowen's Review</a></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-42034772745574060512012-07-03T08:23:00.001+01:002013-02-13T12:40:35.483+00:00Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcIRplkPrx8nlMFFtG0Mu-4cUY61PONYv8USuXuImFocZh9UzGeejk68aoq1IRhxe_qQqQ2Rs6NwgydmCDIYUdHRdonIQIn1PWP-LfkD__ao34Pr9w82t-pw7vQEIiFvqzydSXwLEXVBbO/s1600/IMG_1611.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcIRplkPrx8nlMFFtG0Mu-4cUY61PONYv8USuXuImFocZh9UzGeejk68aoq1IRhxe_qQqQ2Rs6NwgydmCDIYUdHRdonIQIn1PWP-LfkD__ao34Pr9w82t-pw7vQEIiFvqzydSXwLEXVBbO/s320/IMG_1611.JPG" width="219" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A tale of woeful reminiscence, Charles looks back on his
association with the Aristocratic Marchmain family, and appears hollow as he
reflects on how one by one he lost them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I loved this book, it was fantastic. The way that the sheer
emptiness and helplessness is related through the narrator. I loved the way
that the time period it was set in echoed through its pages. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I felt true sympathy for Charles as he lost first Sebastian
to Alcohol and then Julia to the same religion her mother had. A religion which
in several different ways had poisoned the relationships Lady Marchmain had
with all those she loved. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I thought it was interesting how well it was explained, or
perhaps demonstrated, the destructive effect that faith can have. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In fact I’m not sure there was anything I disliked in this
book, the worst I can say about it is that the story saddened me, but therein
lies it’s strength.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
Rowen</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://yearbookchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/book-eleven-brideshead-revisited.html" target="_blank">Clarissa's Review</a></span></span></div>
Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-90957356675193802702012-06-27T20:48:00.001+01:002013-02-13T12:46:09.531+00:00Book Seventeen - Amsterdam<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjORIrIdFbD8Y5icdAFUc5twGruovsiSrJIfGb9Jpd35y58GOfTVa2EUWn-uSrxs6r15i4o4ZJUgrvQB0R6MfOJC9RyKk7pJxMUSqnPx4FXheto_sQQsthSuljJvdJ8v_T9k7nqdEbJ2w/s1600/AmsterdamNovel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjORIrIdFbD8Y5icdAFUc5twGruovsiSrJIfGb9Jpd35y58GOfTVa2EUWn-uSrxs6r15i4o4ZJUgrvQB0R6MfOJC9RyKk7pJxMUSqnPx4FXheto_sQQsthSuljJvdJ8v_T9k7nqdEbJ2w/s320/AmsterdamNovel.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ian McEwan is a man I read so much of throughout A Level but he never ceases to amaze me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He is able to punch you in the gut when you least expect it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He always picks subjects which are contentious and wows you with his ability to lure you into one way of thinking before creating a tense or dramatic situation which questions your way of thinking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The story focuses mainly on the two of the three lovers of the recently passed Molly Lane. Vernon Halliday, an editor of The Judge newspaper, Clive Linely a composer and The Foreign Secretary Julian Garmony. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Molly's husband George is a shadow in the background in this </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">story of lies, deception, jealously and revenge. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All these themes simmer below the surface and make an epic climax as you cannot feel yourself getting close to the characters. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From a journalist point of views McEwan offers his views on tabloid sensationalism as Vernon holds a timebomb which ultimately ruins the three lovers in one way or another. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book won the Booker Prize in 1998 and still rings true in modern times with the discussion of euthanasia as Molly dies a undignified death and others do not want to follow suit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is a compelling read and I would most definitely recommend it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://yearbookchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/amsterdam-ian-mcewan.html" target="_blank">Rowen's Review</a></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-48201857915110368402012-06-27T20:36:00.002+01:002012-06-27T20:36:43.444+01:00Book Sixteen - Birdsong<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH4J46eiSoxLlpOT9LZWh828VB7h6g_3ZJgFyJ6SkSpgoEEmqXPzX_fvAMRGOERdMjBmZV0NgADSS4pshwl3EdAY8G_sgk2O4HXXUh_0Y94itlwKXcvG-vim5akPLih4U5RGiR_q3dkw/s1600/birdsong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH4J46eiSoxLlpOT9LZWh828VB7h6g_3ZJgFyJ6SkSpgoEEmqXPzX_fvAMRGOERdMjBmZV0NgADSS4pshwl3EdAY8G_sgk2O4HXXUh_0Y94itlwKXcvG-vim5akPLih4U5RGiR_q3dkw/s320/birdsong.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has been a while since I was able to pick up a good fiction book. Unfortunately the works of Politics and History of Journalism beckoned with first year exams. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So after a long departure I was able to soak up (some) sun and read what is entitled a modern classic. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well they were right in a sense, I really enjoyed Faulk's ability to capture the pain and suffering of the soldiers in the trenches. Yet it sometimes felt disjointed jumping from the past to the present just to compare similar plot lines. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also even as a huge romantic, I didn't enjoy the love story between Stephen and Isabelle. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They were drawn together by lust in my opinion as Isabelle's nature is compulsive and leave Stephen alone twice. It is her very underdeveloped sister Jeanne who is there to pick up the pieces. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This works well as we learn what she is like through Isabelle and how Stephen is able to retain some human qualities despite the miserable surroundings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The books emotions come from the supporting characters who have good qualities. Wier and Jack are two that you sympathise with as they try to coerce Stephen into giving life another shot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is the tragedy and irony of the situations that show that war is not fair. The graphic details also give you a true flavour of the suffering of the men. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book leaves you with hope because it finishes in the present day. However you do go through a range of emotions which is what you want to experience in a book.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am not going to say it is the best book written this century but for it opens a generation to the horrors we hopefully never have to experience. </span><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-34658651781795042942012-06-19T21:29:00.000+01:002013-02-13T12:16:20.954+00:00For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCtQp490PoOMUsW0F1-huHg-Zjao5ZzREb3PhcL9SWK_3Wn_r6CpucLNPn5erNCRmYgxC0U6Cn0rqZpUwMi2VX2_Jk6vUcFU7pIlDQEk097ZWUIVPRomG0wVq6r4279ELR1ZVn7-ulY0yL/s1600/IMG_1595.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCtQp490PoOMUsW0F1-huHg-Zjao5ZzREb3PhcL9SWK_3Wn_r6CpucLNPn5erNCRmYgxC0U6Cn0rqZpUwMi2VX2_Jk6vUcFU7pIlDQEk097ZWUIVPRomG0wVq6r4279ELR1ZVn7-ulY0yL/s320/IMG_1595.JPG" width="231" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I liked the story in this book. I didn't like the way it was written. I found the language stilted and it had a lot of repetition which I felt was unnecessary . It actually quite disappointed me because I'd heard a lot of good things about the book and as such I had high expectations of it.</span><span id="goog_984107963"></span><span id="goog_984107964"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I felt that the story, or rather the action within the story, really picked up during the latter half of the book. It had a better pace and I felt more invested in reading it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wish that the romance which took place and was one of the central themes had more background to it. Personally I found the whole situation rather rushed. They met each other and 12 hours later had slept together and were madly in love, it just didn't seem to click. Robert Jordan also seemed to have conflicting views concerning Maria, at times he just wanted to protect her and other times he looked on her as a form of lesser human.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I did feel that the romance, although not quite right, lent some extra depth and emotion, without which it the book would have rung hollow. I also have to say I'm glad that I can assume Robert Jordan died after the end, not because I dislike him, more because it felt right. He wouldn't have made sense in a world where they'd escaped.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rowen</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://yearbookchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/book-one-to-whom-bells-toll.html" target="_blank">Clarissa's Review</a></span></div>
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Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-33946523538025503732012-06-13T14:01:00.001+01:002013-02-13T12:43:56.503+00:00London Fields - Martin Amis<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLIPo0fg0FubyJJrkw6asljNKgFwOxAIMAiJJbOyQqfbUzltAf4a64o3Jjmc-pl4tqkYBNoo4kLq3Iqb57W033gYgMMnBWt9CwDpWDlBFhNMatUBJkb4lI9af2Fcel2zos1oRMcHKvjJgg/s1600/IMG_0179.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLIPo0fg0FubyJJrkw6asljNKgFwOxAIMAiJJbOyQqfbUzltAf4a64o3Jjmc-pl4tqkYBNoo4kLq3Iqb57W033gYgMMnBWt9CwDpWDlBFhNMatUBJkb4lI9af2Fcel2zos1oRMcHKvjJgg/s320/IMG_0179.JPG" width="203" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's taken me a while to write this post. I finished this book about a fortnight ago and even now I'm unsure what I make of it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Near the end it drew me in, but throughout the reading of it I struggled against it. At times, frankly, it bored me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I didn't like the use of language. Nothing happened, plot-wise, for most of the book. And most of the characters seemed shallow and underdeveloped. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I felt sorry for many of the characters, each being subtly abused. Mostly I felt sorry for Sam, who thinks he has it all worked out, but he really doesn't.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'd have liked for more to have happened. To have felt some movement. If the book had been a quarter of the length it was I feel it would have done a much better job of telling the story it had to tell. In and of itself the story was good.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I just didn't like the way it was told. Personal preference I guess.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rowen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://yearbookchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/book-thirteen-london-fields.html" target="_blank">Clarissa's Review</a></span></div>
Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-82512547636482646892012-05-22T08:54:00.001+01:002012-05-22T08:54:25.142+01:00Agnes Grey - Anne Bronte<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnu1xDZEmtjgPNTvD57I4X0gAilotWm0XuZHIytuF-Rb3PuELOAPZBaED18KrV4DsTnIeJZ8_aOdB-BTGxTe-6vHezNYVUT2LyifZyzz2ilAnyGdZ9FU5vQQhyphenhyphen055oA5sezqfx65xZ9GqZ/s1600/IMG_1613.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnu1xDZEmtjgPNTvD57I4X0gAilotWm0XuZHIytuF-Rb3PuELOAPZBaED18KrV4DsTnIeJZ8_aOdB-BTGxTe-6vHezNYVUT2LyifZyzz2ilAnyGdZ9FU5vQQhyphenhyphen055oA5sezqfx65xZ9GqZ/s320/IMG_1613.JPG" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Agnes Grey was a lovely book to read. It was an example of it's period both in the language used and the scenes and settings within the book. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The theme of the story was of a young girl moving away from home to become a governess after a financial crisis within her family and subsequently suffering disillusionment. She suffers at the hands of her employers in both situations she holds over a period of about 3 or 4 years, and the primary causes of these sufferings are unwilling pupils, neglectful parents and a tendency for others to look through her. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The story takes a brighter turn when one Mr Weston moves into the neighbourhood and becomes her friend. As one of the few people, and the only one of equal station with her, who treats her civilly and with the respect she deserves it is unsurprising that she falls in love with him. After her long period of doubt as to his affections it is a happy ending when she agrees to be his wife.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not sure really what the purpose of the first situation was within the book, unless to show how cruel and blind the very rich could be, or to make the second family who were by no means a fluffy fairy-tale seem much less harsh. I suppose it made her affection for her pupils within the second family understandable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not a bad book.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rowen</span></div>Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-28535152357325652652012-04-25T17:22:00.003+01:002013-02-13T12:44:52.729+00:00Casino Royale - Ian Fleming<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first thing I have to say about this book is how blatantly sexist Ian Fleming is and how he projects that onto his central character. Bond is a shallow protagonist who believes himself to be God's gift, and is interested in woman only for their attractiveness and willingness to sleep with him. </span></div>
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<a href="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179184463l/885850.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Casino Royale" border="0" height="320" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179184463l/885850.jpg" title="" width="208" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vesper, the female lead, is made out to be an empty-headed simpleton who turns out to be a double agent who has simply be stringing Bond along, although at some considerable cost to her own heart and health. When Bond finds out what she's done and why she did it, he completely compartmentalises her and removes all traces of her from his life. This being a woman who he was willing to marry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My second comment has to be on how surprised I am that Bond isn't dead. On page 8 of the book, and I quote 'he lit his seventieth cigarette of the day', forget about dying of lung cancer or a bullet, how isn't he dead from smoke inhalation???</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also thought it came across well how different a time period the book was written during than the present day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a good book, but having both read the book and watched the film I have to admit that the film was an excellent version of the story which brought it up to the present day brilliantly. If you're not one for shallow dialogue and would rather see the action played out than painstakingly reading about it it's probably more worth your while just watching the film, something I don't often say!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rowen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://yearbookchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/book-eighteen-casino-royale.html" target="_blank">Clarissa's Review</a></span></div>
</div>
Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-9130225935477903382012-04-23T09:59:00.000+01:002013-02-13T12:39:07.039+00:00Disgrace - J.M.Coetzee<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQFg1WXpPcXGNM5zRkjMHwh9QpxdasJM3kqbP2ly9D_kH8JCyYN" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQFg1WXpPcXGNM5zRkjMHwh9QpxdasJM3kqbP2ly9D_kH8JCyYN" width="214" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't know how to describe this book. I didn't enjoy it exactly, but I didn't not enjoy it either. It was a bizarre book of self-discovery in one who by rights should be too old to discover a lot about himself. He learns to hate himself and what he has become.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book starts with an act by him towards a young woman. Not rape, she was willing. But it is then echoed in the rape of his own daughter. After this event he begins to reflect more upon his own actions. He realises an apology from himself. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is odd becau</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">se where society would have accepted a false apology from him at the start of the novel they are unwilling to accept a true apology later on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David Laurie is made to feel continually awkward and so becomes a recluse. The only people he is able to capably interact with are the dogs which he puts in the incinerator.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rowen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://yearbookchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/book-nine-disgrace.html" target="_blank">Clarissa's Review</a></span></div>
Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-27395986618831372512012-04-23T08:59:00.001+01:002013-02-13T12:38:31.652+00:00The End of the Affair - Graham Greene<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not at all what I was expecting from this book it started out very bitter and ended very bitterly and had a joyous stage in the middle. I had been expecting a happy beginning and a bitter ending. The bitterness in the ending doesn't stem from the reasons you would expect either.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the center this book is a tale of two lives gone wrong. Two people who are so much in love you could say they are destined to be together who never get that chance and deliberately estrange themselves from one another.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS-ICappHKDYxLDAa3XOteJQOa8Mpv3xddLdpuGllkITSBxYLIndQ" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS-ICappHKDYxLDAa3XOteJQOa8Mpv3xddLdpuGllkITSBxYLIndQ" width="207" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You get the chance to see what religious fanaticism can do. How it can spoil lives on a small scale. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You observe jealousy and you empathise. It's easy to empathise, because at the center of yourself you know there is a part which would be exactly the same under those circumstances.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Observe in this novel the easiness with which multiple men, a string of them, fall in love with a beautiful, kind and caring woman. How they continue to love her, against their own reason, long after she has left them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a very good book, I can understand why it has become a modern classic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rowen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://yearbookchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/book-seven-end-of-affair.html" target="_blank">Clarissa's Review</a></span></div>
Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-30326756180539889832012-04-22T21:58:00.003+01:002012-04-22T21:58:33.246+01:00The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSkNSzjt9BjSlpaXRlmN8QcTPsGmLGkmpsp1jAS2aYeb-P9jUbzpw" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSkNSzjt9BjSlpaXRlmN8QcTPsGmLGkmpsp1jAS2aYeb-P9jUbzpw" width="205" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This book was
indescribably unique from the perspective to the composition. The style of
writing compelled you to read more and the story was all there. It was a book I
couldn’t face putting down. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">There were so
many things I loved about this book. Seeing as I’m studying maths all the
mathematical content couldn’t help appealing to me. I loved the fact that the
chapters were numbered using the Prime numbers rather than the Natural Numbers.
I loved the fact that the Narrator broke things up a bit. I loved the way he
took things to heart. I loved the fact that you could understand the
perspective of someone with Asperger’s Syndrome during the telling of this
novel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It was
brilliant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It was
possibly the best book I’ve read this year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I would definitely
recommend reading it. It’s almost definitely not inside your usual style of
book. But it’s definitely worth taking the time to read.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Rowen</span>
</div>
</div>Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-13134829971578224292012-04-22T21:56:00.004+01:002013-02-13T12:42:33.196+00:00Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day – Winifred Watson<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRjBwdagko9WCpIYg32tKw4yBb7uedYgwcBuFc04rPwf6x00aP-yQ" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRjBwdagko9WCpIYg32tKw4yBb7uedYgwcBuFc04rPwf6x00aP-yQ" width="228" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This was a
light-hearted novel about a downtrodden middle aged woman who has reached her
absolute limit, if she doesn’t get work today she’s headed for the workhouse,
as a result she has decided to grasp anything that comes her way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The novel
becomes a tale of her drastically changing herself to fit in with her new
friends. As you read it you delight in the carefree attitude that embodies the
specific class she has fallen into in the mid 1930’s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It’s
delightful watching a confirmed spinster lose her prudish attitude and fall in
love herself. It’s miraculous being witness to her successful attempts at
saving her hostess when she is constantly describing herself as a failure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The novel
seems to have little substance but is a delight to read none-the-less.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Rowen</span>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://yearbookchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/book-twelve-miss-pettigrew-lives-for.html" target="_blank">Clarissa's Review</a></div>
</div>
Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-14168098454273276292012-04-22T21:54:00.001+01:002012-04-22T21:54:45.483+01:00One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest was a strange experience. From it’s confines you could witness true madness, but it wasn’t madness which terrified, it was a madness which evoked pity and empathy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTfIVNZSfx_s8HP6ZM7OEmijNcv98nAUu5HdqpUtovdHdufEvRwSw" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTfIVNZSfx_s8HP6ZM7OEmijNcv98nAUu5HdqpUtovdHdufEvRwSw" width="196" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The Narrator of the story, Chief Bromden, was someone who had spent much of his adult life isolated and looked through, continuing to the extent that he started to pretend to himself that he didn’t exist. He acted both deaf and dumb while he was perfectly capable of speaking and hearing. His madness was primarily a sense of Paranoia which was perhaps justified from one who suffered not just one or two, but hundreds of electric shock treatments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The Main Character, McMurphy, probably was incredibly mad, but he was madness perfectly capable of acting within the confines of complete sanity. He was a leader of a revolution. While it was saddening to see him dead at the end of the book, you can understand why Chief Bromden killed him in the manner he did, to retain his pride and prevent him from further suffering.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The maddest Character of all is Nurse Ratchett. She dishes out medicines and treatments which she would probably benefit from some herself. Her overbearing nature is not helping any of the men who are supposedly under her care and from the very first page you come to despise her and her cronies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The whole book can, in some ways, be summarised in the words of the nurse on the disturbed ward, who voices her wish to keep the two men away from Nurse Ratchett’s control, but bemoans the fact that it is out of her power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This story is at it’s heart one of hope. How goodness and human nature and resilience can grow and flourish when nurtured even in the most difficult and trying of circumstances.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Rowen<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-21693748410554807472012-04-14T00:24:00.001+01:002012-04-16T22:12:30.507+01:00Book Fifteen- Captain Corelli's Mandolin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ZjcXJmq-gbnzgD-tRYlgrwpZSld2LS_OBWFtst1zSCCYMIskQ7WQzOWKHAJ76NndjxsPQxRiPTTvFr-QCCoY1tc9-uFi3JlQLYjaAyvDH_h604cntUvjWoSsKmL1l6q04snB-Vlk2w/s1600/ccm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ZjcXJmq-gbnzgD-tRYlgrwpZSld2LS_OBWFtst1zSCCYMIskQ7WQzOWKHAJ76NndjxsPQxRiPTTvFr-QCCoY1tc9-uFi3JlQLYjaAyvDH_h604cntUvjWoSsKmL1l6q04snB-Vlk2w/s320/ccm.jpg" width="201" /></a></div>
Captain Corelli is one of my mum's favourite books, so I had high hopes when I read it.<br />
<br />
Sadly I was disappointed.<br />
<br />
The story is great and it is the love story that you want to see but there is to much going on that the story does not really get going until three hundred pages in.<br />
<br />
Some would have given up by then, but I pushed through better than the first time I tried to read this book.<br />
<br />
It's the fact you do not meet Corelli until some 200 pages in, this confused me, why are you building up Carlo, Pelagia, Iannis, Mandras when the title clearly suggests someone else. It may be character development but it was slow in my opinion.<br />
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The best bits are when Corelli and Pelagia are together, this is what I want to read, are they going to be able to be together? Or is the fact that he's Italian and she is Greek going to separate them? Pelagia's romance to Mandras was never going to happen not when Corelli came along, and I don't like Mandras anything, especially at the end. But I won't spoil it, because in my opinion it is probably the best scene in the book.<br />
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The end could be called predictable, but then what do you want from this book? Do you want the romance? Do you want the impact of war and how gruesome it is? Because you certainly get it and the book is also historical, this little Greek village is changed forever, as are all the characters, that is the best thing about this book. It has a story and makes it readable until the last of it's 420 odd pages.<br />
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Maybe I missed something and that's why I didn't enjoy it. However it is worth waiting until the end and it didn't need Penelope Cruz or Nicolas Cage to convince me.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-60820572381089093152012-04-09T10:11:00.000+01:002012-04-09T10:11:24.560+01:00Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A short but witty novel about the interconnectedness of all things and the somewhat mad Dirk Gently who uses this system to solve crime and con his way out of paying the bills. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">This book is itself an example of the elemental concept upon which it is based. The first several chapters are seemingly unrelated but quickly resolve themselves into a single and cohesive whole.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The book is hilarious in the style which no-one but Douglas Adams would ever be able to replicate. The humour is unique but brimming and the sci-fi elements are subtle enough that most anyone could relate to them but definately present for the enthusiast. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, like other of Adams' books that I've read was written purely for pleasure and I thoroughly enjoyed the process. It was so easy to read I managed in a day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Rowen </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">On a side note I promise I'll try and read more of these soon and get up to date, it's nearly the summer and then I'll have much more free time.</span></div>Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-26168168201312622652012-04-09T10:03:00.000+01:002013-02-13T12:20:44.189+00:00Tom Jones - Henry Fielding<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was anticipating that this book would take a while to read, it's both long and old. I wasn't expecting it would be so tedious and consequently take me four weeks to read, it steered me off target when i'd been so well on target to that point.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The basic plot line of Tom Jones is very simple and as such I feel the story could have been significantly shorter than it was. While I know that it's length is a result of the way it, and many other books from the period, was published, it didn't fail to irritate me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The book contained a lot of waffle, with Fielding often repeating himself, or simply rambling aimlessly. The book was comprised of several shorter 'books' each of which started with a chapter devoted to fielding preaching about literary infidels and how he hoped he wouldn't be looked down upon. I've never come across this in any other book and it was a major sticking point for me as every time the story gained momentum i would hit one of these chapters and be stuck trying to force myself onwards. The book was full of purposeless details, such as four chapters describing the earlier life of a character whose only purpose was to let Tom sit in his living room overnight. Tom Jones also seemed somewhat cyclical to me. There was a seemingly enless series of Tom chasing Sophia, being caught in an act of moral failure and losing her only for it to once again resume. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The first 400 pages of this book bored me to the extent that I was using Chores to bribe myself through it. If asked I would say I have no idea how this tedium became a classic and would recommend you find a plot summary rather than read the book, you'd gain as much from it and waste much less time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Rowen</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://yearbookchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/book-four-tom-jones.html" target="_blank">Clarissa's Review</a></span></div>
Rowenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07577444088626363219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9076592881017680469.post-83776601283420940612012-03-12T20:33:00.000+00:002012-03-12T20:33:36.199+00:00Book Fourteen The Swimming Pool Library<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-q9c3lI75us2_Yck9f8bmhm4ohGyveC44p_hV3FBDGNJYRE1UJ8DcPPr4LdQ1Oly427YXjGKdnFLqWDOMuzwf8HefARyBwvkhwv91GNKjr9uVO4VztUsQTJkxtpNMMFQ6PuVhOgp8qg/s1600/swimming.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-q9c3lI75us2_Yck9f8bmhm4ohGyveC44p_hV3FBDGNJYRE1UJ8DcPPr4LdQ1Oly427YXjGKdnFLqWDOMuzwf8HefARyBwvkhwv91GNKjr9uVO4VztUsQTJkxtpNMMFQ6PuVhOgp8qg/s320/swimming.jpg" width="208" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alan Hollinghurst's novel is ground breaking, the first book to openly discuss homosexuality. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also it is honest view of a life most of us don't know about. There is promiscuousness to the highest degree from the main character Will Beckwith. Will can live without working due to the fortune of his grandfather Viscount Beckwith. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This makes him spoilt and for me the idea that he can do and have whatever he wants.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The physical descriptions of his conquests is not always for the faint hearted. He is obsessed with physical beauty, often acting on instinct and sleeping with random strangers. Will is carefree and often quite unbearable yet he slowly unravels and I do mean slowly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His relationship with Lord Charles Nantwich is the catalyst, you see a change in Will as it transpires his perfect life is not so perfect, particularly as he learns secrets closer to home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other side of the book is the homophobia, Will is violently attacked by skin heads, characters are arrested by policemen for their sexuality, it doesn't only reminisces to a time past, but the present controversies only reflect how little we understand homosexuality really. </span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0