June Book Haul

I wasn't aiming to buy any books this month. I was on a ban, because I'm waiting for a book shelf to be made and therefore have no books in the room, so buying some was completely out the question right? WRONG. So this is whats been added to the ever increasing 'to be read' list..

1. The Last Honeytrap: Florence Love 1- Louise Lee (rec'd from publisher)
2. The Accident - C.L. Taylor
3. Labyrinth - Kate Mosse
4. No Safe House - Linwood Barclay
5. Dream a Little Dream - Giovanna Fletcher
6. The Dish - Stella Newman
7. From Notting Hill with Love... Actually - Ali McNamara
8. The First Assistant - Clare Naylor

I'm really looking forward to reading From Notting Hill.. as this is the first book in the series and I've already read and loved the second, will be great to know what happened before that. I also can't wait to read The Last Honeytrap, the debut book by Louise Lee and the cover is jsut amazing!

Probably going to ban any books unless they are already on pre-order for July. Although thats birthday month so i wont' say no to them in gift form and i still have a voucher to use up from christmas.

Very Good Lives

Title: Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination
Author: J.K Rowling
Type: Hardback
Read: 28th June
Rating: 5/5
Published: 14th April 2015 by Little, Brown and Company

In 2008, J.K. Rowling delivered a deeply affecting commencement speech at Harvard University. Now published for the first time in book form, Very Good Lives offers J.K. Rowling’s words of wisdom for anyone at a turning point in life, asking the profound and provocative questions: How can we embrace failure? And how can we use our imagination to better both ourselves and others?Drawing from stories of her own post-graduate years, the world-famous author addresses some of life’s most important issues with acuity and emotional force.

J.K Rowling was asked to deliver the commencement address at Harvard University in 2008. This book, is just that exact speech. It's short, but very thought provoking. I adore the HP series and J.K Rowling is a real insperation for everyone. This book just allows you to think about how you view your life and the decisions you make. It's something that will stay with you for a long while to come.

There are also some cracking quotes in the speech, some taken from the HP books and some not.

'And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life'

'Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself and what those closest to me expected of me'

The best thing of this book, all sales go directly to Lumos - J.K Rowling's charity. 

Go get it from: Amazon UK | Book Depository | Waterstones

Americanah

Title: Americanah
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Type: Paperback
Read: 14th June - 26th June
Rating: 3/5
Published: 27th February 2014 by Fourth Estate Ltd

As teenagers in Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are leaving the country if they can. Ifemelu departs for America to study. She suffers defeats and achieves triumphs, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze had hoped to join her, but post 9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into undocumented life in Britain.
Years later, Obinze is weathly in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of an eye-opening blog about race in America. When Ifemelu decides to return home, she and Obinze will face the hardest decision of their lives.

This book took me far too long to read and the only reason I can really give for it, which sounds very petty, is the font type. It seemed too small and therefore took me too long to read. But also the story, it just did not keep me interested at times.

The story is about Nigeria and America. What it's like growing up in both and being black in America. Whilst in Nigeria this isn't an issue, during life in America Ifemelu became so aware of how she was black and therefore treated differently. How she fought to be treated as she should be regardless of race. At times I didnt' find Ifemelu all that interesting and she was annoying, everything was so difficult with her. I enjoyed reading about her early days in America, about growing up in Nigeria.

I also enjoyed at times Obinze, who from the early pages was great. But then having never achived his dreams of going to America, being deported from the UK, he became someone who wasn't nice. He seemed very fake in the end and it was almost like, he had money but it wasn't happiness and thats what he needed.

The changing of times, from early days in Nigeria to the changing of UK/US was good. It's a strange insight to what the two were going through, how different the countries really were. But when they both evenutally returned to Nigeria, and met finally, it seemed wrong. They might have been so inlove when younger, but I didnt' buy it the second time around, it seemed forced. Obinze had a whole life, a family away from Ifemelu but totally ripped it apart just because she was back in his life.

My favourite character was Dike. He was great and i just generaly enjoyed reading all scenes with him in. I've never read anything by this author before, so I'm not sure how great the other books are. I just really struggled with this and it's most likely down to the fact this isn't the kind of books i tend to pick up ever.

Go get it from: Amazon UK | Book Depository | Waterstones

Daughter

Title: Daughter
Author: Jane Shemilt
Type: Paperback
Read: 9th June - 12th June
Rating: 4/5
Published: 28th August 2014 by Penguin

Jenny is a successful family doctor, the mother of three great teenagers, married to a celebrated neurosurgeon. But when her youngest child, fifteen-year-old Naomi, doesn’t come home after her school play, Jenny’s seemingly ideal life begins to crumble. The authorities launch a nationwide search with no success. Naomi has vanished, and her family is broken.

As the months pass, the worst-case scenarios—kidnapping, murder—seem less plausible. The trail has gone cold. Yet for a desperate Jenny, the search has barely begun. More than a year after her daughter’s disappearance, she’s still digging for answers—and what she finds disturbs her. Everyone she’s trusted, everyone she thought she knew, has been keeping secrets, especially Naomi. Piecing together the traces her daughter left behind, Jenny discovers a very different Naomi from the girl she thought she’d raised.

The basis of this book attracted me to it, a child goes missing.. and my first thoughts are why and do they find her? We then see the stroy told via Jenny (mum), who is a very successful and busy doctor. Her husband Ted too works none stop at the hospital. Both are always preoccupied and rushing about, never having time to listen. They also have three children, twins Ed and Theo and their only daughter Naomi.

The story is told via Jenny, from the night Naomi goes missing then switching back and forth to the days before and the months/year afterwards. We catch glimpses of what Jenny see's - what she thinks she understood and really, what she actually misses through her busy schedule. How its pretty impsosible to balance a hetic career and expect your children to grow up without you there. That as they grow older, things change and secrets happen.

Like i said the basis of the story i liked. I think it was simple enough to read and you get drawn into the world of Jenny, you want to know where Naomi has gone and whats happened. I also got annoyed with Jenny. Her guilt was sometimes too much, almost at times too late. She tried to justify everything when as a reader you could see through it. Children aren't innocent, especially when teenagers. They have many secrets and thats just what Naomi had. She played so much on the fact her parents weren't around to watch her, she even played them against each other. I understand loosing a child would be hard, especially when you think there's no reason of it.

I felt mainly sorry for the twins Ed & Theo, as it almost at times seemed like they were forgotten. That all the focus was on Naomi and what they thought/felt wasn't important. And as twins they were the total oppoisite of each other it was all the more sadder.

The reason i am giving this story four stars and not five, is the ending. We get through approximately 95% of the book before we even get any idea of what happened to Naomi and then the ending twisted. Like there was something solid and then it just changed and your left wondering what kind of mother would even accept that. I wouldn't. I don't understand why it ended so. I think there could have been a little more added to conclude the book properly. But overall a great read. I'm looking forward to what else this author has to offer next.

Go get it from: Amazon UK  | Book Depository | Waterstones

Son of a Witch

Title: Son of a Witch (The Wicked Years #2)
Author: Gregory Maguire
Type: Paperback
Read: 27th May - 8th June
Rating: 4/5
Published: 2007 by Headline Review

Back in the land of Oz, the adolescent boy Liir was last seen hiding in the shadows of the castle after Dorothy did in the Witch. Bruised, comatose, and left for dead, Liir is tended to at the Cloister of Saint Glinda by a silent novice called Candle, who wills him back to life with her musical gifts. What dark force left Liir in this condition? Is he really Elphaba's son? He has her broom and her cape - but what of her powers? In an Oz that, since the Wizard's departure, is under new and dangerous management, can Liir keep his head down long enought to grow up?

It took me a while to read this book, as it did so with 'Wicked'. This is the second book in the series and it's after Dorothy has killed Elphaba. We learn or well find out more about Liir, who has been left at the castle and who decides to go with Dorothy back to the land of Oz. Originally parts of this did confuse me, it felt like it was jumping back and forth between time, and I soon realised this was the point. Liir is found naked along the roadside and is taken to the mauntry to either die or live. How he has become in the state he did is where the story starts. It is almost dream like status where Liir is in a coma or at deaths door and inside his head we find out almost what happens upto to the point. Then beyond that, when Candle takes Liir to the woods and they try to get more of his memory back. 

It's a slow book, most of the interesting stuff happens towards the end and thats what dragged it out for me. I wanted fun and adventure and drama straight away. But i think the slow build upto it was worth it in the end. Liir did make it to Oz with Dorothy but his quest is to find Nor, which takes him through the dangerous parts of the city and the hidden depths below. He meets Shell, Elphabas brother, sly and devious he is. He escapes, and joins the guards and surives for so long there. He grows up and all the while he keeps with him Elphaba's broom and cape. He doesn't have a clue if he is her son, or related to her in anyway shape or form. But he keeps the only things he has connecting him to Elphaba.

The crazy thing about this book, is the change we see Liir go through. From being immature to almost finding himself out. He seems to try everything that is thrown his way, even falling in love with Trism. Where i really liked that relationship, originally started out as a chance encounter to rid Oz of all the terrible things. They were a good pair together. But i also wanted him, to figure out his feelings towards Candle. Who was baring his child. And the ending of that, was wicked. I can only assume it answers the main question posed, was Liir, Elphaba's son.. 

This is the next magical journy through the wicked times. I loved the musical and the first book was good, but i certainly think you should read it before seeing the show. However the second is a little better. You can forget almost all of what you knew and see a whole new bunch of characters grow up. I can't wait to get my hands on the last two books. 

Go get it from: Amazon UK | Book Depository | Waterstones