Tuesday Top Ten: Settings (#11)

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and The Bookish

NOTE: I shall be doing between 5-7 instead of 10 because they may look easy but these memes are actually quite hard to think about and remember. Also, with the other things happening in my life at the moment (yes I have one full of revision), I simply won't have the time. But I love doing these so they are happening still, just reduced.

This week's theme is Top Favourite Bookish Settings

1. Colby from Along for the Ride, Last Chance - Sarah Dessen - This is my ideal beach place. I'm not much of a beachy person but this sounds like the place I would go to shall I get the chance. However, it is not real, sadly. Well, I don't think anyway. I can imagine going to the Last Chance cafe, going on the beach, staying in a beach house. Going to Clementines, Laundromat...ah.

2. Lakeview from The Truth About Forever, Just Listen - Sarah Dessen - Let's just say that Sarah Dessen makes the best places? Agreed? This seems like a suburb and I live in a suburb and it isn't as nice as this sounds. This sounds like everything happens there! Why not in my own suburb!?

3. Pemberley from Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - I want to live here. End of.

4. Alternate London (old fashioned but set in the 21st Century) from Shadow Web - N.M.Browne - I prefer this to real London to be honest, but without the bombings. But I guess we get that here. I would love to be still in the old fashioned era for clothes and conduct but modern in the year and technology. I don't know why but a world like that sounds appealing and great. 

5. 1582 from The Other Countess - Eve Edwards - I want to live in this era. This is the one era I would love to go back to. I am doing this era for my A Level History so YAY.

Annexed - Sharon Dogar

I found this in my local library when my mother dumped me there to entertain myself so she could go around the corner to get an eyebrow wax - something I don't yet want to try as it looks so painful.
I got it out mostly based on the fact that it had something to do with Anne Frank. Having read The Diary of Anne Frank after seeing the 5 episode BBC dramatisation of the book, this seemed like the perfect book that I would like, as well as the fact I am doing my History GCSE on Tuesday on Germany. I thought this might help.
I was sceptical about Sharon Dogar though. I tried to read Waves a couple of years ago and after 30 pages, I gave up. I hated it, the word Charley was in every single sentence and it drove me mad. So I've been ignoring her ever since...until now.

Synopsis: Everyone knows about Anne Frank and her life hidden in the secret annex – but what about the boy who was also trapped there with her? What was it like to be forced into hiding with Anne Frank, first to hate her and then to find yourself falling in love with her?   Especially with your parents and her parents all watching almost everything you do together.   To know you’re being written about in Anne’s diary, day after day?   What’s it like to start questioning your religion, wondering why simply being Jewish inspires such hatred and persecution?  Or to just sit and wait and watch while others die, and wish you were fighting. Anne’s diary ends on August 4, 1944, but Peter’s story takes us on, beyond their betrayal and into the Nazi death camps. 




Review: First thing first, this is SUCH A HARD REVIEW TO WRITE. I don't know why but it just seems hard and nothing much really to say in a way. Sorry.


Having loved all my past experiences of The Diary of Anne Frank, I thought that I would love this one especially as Peter has always intrigued me. No-one knows very much about him apart from the romances described in Anne Frank's diary and that she hated him at the beginning but as she grew older, started to have comfort and companionship in him. 
   However, this books was...well average. There were good bits mostly but there was just something missing that you normally get in books like this one that are re-telling history. Anne Frank personally is one of my heroes, as well as Jane Austen (theme of writing here) and so I may be a bit more critical because of that.


My baddies for the novel. It was just too...poetical. Too vague. Too much trying to make you feel sad. I started not to like Peter's voice because he kind of got a tad annoying after a while. There was also a lot of German words running throughout the book which is fine if you can read German but not if you can't...like me.  There was no translation in to German on most of the words and it took me a German dictionary or to find out much later on, what they actually meant.
Peter's voice, I think, was just bland. There was no real engaging tone to it for me, I just wasn't completely interested. Even the BIG scene where they get found out for living in the Annexe wasn't great. There was no building tension for me. No spark. No sad moment. There was just a description of what the Gestapo said and their reactions to it and then going outside. 


The book is split into two (well more like the first bit 3/4 and the other 1/4). The first part describes what life was like in the Annexe: how Peter got to know Anne, how he coped with being stuck in there, how his real life haunted him throughout being there. That part is the best, it's interesting and well-researched. It's also great as it is the events of Anne Frank's diary, just from Peter's point of view. I think it could be confusing to those that have never read her diary as they do mention things happening that aren't described or mentioned before, as well as the other characters. 
The second bit was...alright. I think it was that bit which let the book down and made me not enjoy it as much. It showed definitely what it was like to be in a concentration camp and the way they treated you but for me, if writing about that, I would add shock, sadness - things like that and I didn't feel any of those emotions. It was just bland as I said. The footnotes are both interesting and annoying. They tell you which bits aren't exactly true which angered me slightly as why change the diary? Maybe for fictional preferences but still why - Anne Frank's diary has been read by millions and she is the role she wanted to be: a novelist. I don't see why she should change it for the benefit of her story telling.
The bit that really did grip me was the epilogue. It describes the way each person died and when. It is so interesting and shocking to read and really shocking. What is so tragic about this story is that most of the people that lived in the Annexe died within days/months of the camp being liberated. For both Peter and Anne, they died within days of it being liberated. 


Overall, Annexe was an average read. For me, there was no attempt to make me feel these emotions. However, it really did give an insight into what it was like to live at both the Annexe and the concentration camp. It also showed Anne's personality and Peter's thoughts clearly which was interesting. The idea has so much potential to be a great, interesting, fabulous book but it just lacked something - it just didn't feel right for me. 
A good attempt at it but nothing amazing. I would recommend reading The Diary of Anne Frank before tackle this one.


I give it a 3.5 out of 5


Author's Website: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/401544.Sharon_Dogar
Pages: 320
Publisher: Andersen Press
Challenges: British Books Challenge, Historical Fiction Challenge

A-Z Authors - C

I found out about this through Phanee from funny wool and is hosted by Heather at Proud Book Nerd. I thought it looked quite fun so this month, I shall be doing a post every day (except Sundays) where I shall tell you about amazing authors that have surnames beginning with that letter. I hope you enjoy and tell me if you know any more with that letter and I'll add it to the post! Thanks.

NOTE: As I am doing my exams at the moment, I may miss days so shall combine letter together, I'll say if I do in the title - Thanks.

Here we go....

C

  Emma Craigie

She may have only written two novels, one of which I have read, but I really did love her book 'Chocolate Cake with Hitler'. There was such a huge amount of research gone into that book, it's amazing really - you can just tell by reading it. Now, whenever I hear about the death of Hitler, the death of the Goebbels or see anything to do with her father or herself, I smile and think of the book and her voice within it. The other day I was watching 'Valkryie' and it shows them running out the office and it made me think of her then. 

Emma Craigie's writing is great and so enjoyable for those that are historical fans like me. 

Other Books: Who was King Henry VIII: The Exploding King

A-Z Authors - B

I found out about this through Phanee from funny wool and is hosted by Heather at Proud Book Nerd. I thought it looked quite fun so this month, I shall be doing a post every day (except Sundays) where I shall tell you about amazing authors that have surnames beginning with that letter. I hope you enjoy and tell me if you know any more with that letter and I'll add it to the post! Thanks.

NOTE: As I am doing my exams at the moment, I may miss days so shall combine letter together, I'll say if I do in the title - Thanks.

Here we go....

B

Malorie Blackman

   Malorie Blackman used to write children books for much younger children until 1992 when she decided to write for young adults and published Thief! after 18 months of writing and editing her first young adult book. She is most famous for the Noughts and Crosses series which targets racism of whites instead of the more traditional racism towards blacks.

   I met Malorie Blackman last week actually and she is the loveliest person to talk to and made me and my friend laugh so much and was really interesting to talk to. She is one of the authors that I have grown up with and I loved her Noughts and Crosses series a lot, especially the first book. 

Other Books: Hacker, The Stuff of Nightmares, Boys Don't Cry

Robin Benway

   I have only read Robin Benway once with Audrey, Wait! which I fell in love with and enjoyed a lot. It is one of the best books I have read this year so far. It is funny (sometimes 'Laugh Out Loud' funny) and just so enjoyable and entertaining! She is a must for any teenage reader with it being enjoyable yet really good writing.

Other Books: The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June.

N.M.Browne

I have read Shadow Web the total of about 3 or 4 times, I love it so much. I have no idea why but I just love her writing, the way its such an original idea and how enjoyable to read it is. I love the blend of modern and old in the story and also, the fact it's set rather near where I live (that does help...). I haven't ever read anything else by her (although I really should) as for some reason I think it will ruin Shadow Web for me...I don't know why. But anyway, this is one of the books I read annually.

Other Books: Hunted, Basilisk, The Story of Stone

A-Z Authors - A

I found out about this through Phanee from funny wool and is hosted by Heather at Proud Book Nerd. I thought it looked quite fun so this month, I shall be doing a post every day (except Sundays) where I shall tell you about amazing authors that have surnames beginning with that letter. I hope you enjoy and tell me if you know any more with that letter and I'll add it to the post! Thanks.

NOTE: As I am doing my exams at the moment, I may miss days so shall combine letter together, I'll say if I do in the title - Thanks.

Here we go....

A

Jane Austen

    Jane Austen was an English writer born in 1775 and wrote stories, mostly love, until her death in 1817. She had four brothers and a sister, Cassandra and lived in Steventon, Hampshire mostly with her parents at a parish as her father was a clergyman (priest). She based many of her characters from her stories on her family and the people around her in the small village. Her debut novel was Pride and Prejudice (published 1813) which is also probably her most famous. It took her years to get it published as in those days, women were seen to not publish books about love, like Austen wrote about. 

I personally love her after falling in love with Pride and Prejudice when studying it in English Literature. She has a real sense of how people behave and how they interact with one another. All her characters seem original yet relatable. A lot of her books have been made into films which makes them so much more enjoyable without having to tackle her writing style which is quite complicated.

Other books include Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park and Persuasion. 

Books that follow her life or spin-offs of her novels:

- I was Jane Austen's Best Friend by Cora Harrison

- Cassandra's Sister by Veronica Bennett

- Love, Lies and Lizzie by Rosie Rushton (and others by Rosie Rushton)

Tuesday Top Ten: Books that SHOULD be in your beach bag (#10)

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and The Bookish
This is such a good topic, I'm so excited. I could only think of 8 this week, but more than the normal 5/6! These are the best reads for summer, personally, after that they wouldn't have fitted so well.

This week's theme is Books which are the perfect summer read

1. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen - This is my favourite Sarah Dessen book ever. It had just everything anyone could possibly want in a book and I love the characters within it. I also read it every year, normally in the summer and as my summer is going to be a long one, this will be coming to a book blog near you....or this one.

2. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen - I first read Just Listen (and it was my first Sarah Dessen experience) over the summer of 2007. Yes, I am not as old a fan as some but I do like her books as much. So far, I seem to read this too every year for mostly the same reasons as The Truth About Forever. I do love this book too.

3. The Other Countess by Eve Edwards - My first read of this one was late last summer on my last holiday at the end of August where I fell in love with Eve Edwards. I just could not put this book down at all, it's ridulous I know.

4. I was Jane Austen's Best Friend by Cora Harrison - although I didn't read this over the summer, I did read it when it was supposed to be sunny and warm so I think that qualifies. This is a definite summer read I think, and I know in years to come I may read this book again. AFTER I GET MY HANDS ON THE SEQUEL TO THIS ONE. Which might come onto the blog this summer....if I can get my paws on its glossy annoyingly lovely cover.

5. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson - I read this in September last year when I started Year 11 (God, that seems ages ago!) when also it was still summery although autumn was coming closer. Anyway, I could also see this as a summer read - get the UK hardback version - it's amazing and lovely and I treasure it.

6. Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin - I read this time last year. My friend also read it recently and said to me that it was nice to read outside in the sun. It is a nice summer read, continuing this theme of love and relationships here, ha! I can imagine reading this one outside by the pool in the sun with sunglasses, a cold drink and floppy sun hat on.

Looking outside at the cloud, that isn't going to appear any time soon.

7. The Luxe by Anna Godbersen - This is a book, for me, that you can read anytime, all year round. I first read it in the Spring and last read it in the winter and enjoyed it both times. I don't know why but I can see it as an 'any-season book'

8. Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen - Okay, Okay, I had to add another Sarah Dessen book. You can read any of her books in the summer and like, The Luxe, all year round although, summer is best for a bit of Sarah Dessen. This one is almost as good as The Truth About Forever but I think I like TTAF because it was the first book of hers that I properly fell in love with. 

Wintergirls - Laurie Halse Anderson

Laurie Halse Anderson is the renown author of hard-hitting novels aimed at a young adult audience - something she has been criticised for greatly, especially with her first novel, Speak which was banned in some schools in America because of the way it was written and the fact it happened fictionally and in real life in American schools. I know some of the events in Speak happen in my own school.
I was a bit dubious about Wintergirls when I first picked it up in the library, but I'd seen good (and some bad) on the blogosphere and it's about a subject people wouldn't dare write a whole novel about: anorexia in teenage girls.
I'm glad I did.

Synopsis:  This novel follows senior year for Lia, a seventeen anorexic who also has to battle with the horrific death of her former best friend, Cassie who continuously haunts her and tells her how she isn't good enough - too ugly, too fat, too-everything. However, the death is slightly her fault, Cassie's last act was calling Lia 33 times before dying alone in an empty motel room of shock. Lia feels stronger and stronger, the lighter she becomes and feels more in control of her life with her difficult mother, father and step-mother. Maybe she can make herself disappear altogether.


Review: Laurie Halse Anderson, for me, has done it again. She's made this terrible, disturbing tale into an emotional, heart breaking novel for young adults. Now, I'm not saying it's a perfect book, there are some flaws but it's a pretty good book for what Anderson has to do: show what it is like to be anorexic without scaring kids. For me, she's done it.

My dubious-ness continued from the first page, it DOES take a couple of chapters to get into it and get used to Anderson's writing style and Lia's voice. Actually, at the start, I was close to stopping and not even continuing. However, something made me continue and I'm glad that I did because it did get better as it went on. It's not the type of book that catches your attention straight away but lets you gently get into it until delivering the shocking killer punches.
I've read some reviews of people being annoyed by the crossing outs that run throughout the book. To be honest, I liked them. They showed the real Lia and showed how there is conflict between her real self and the anorexia side of her. They weren't so frequent to be annoying personally and they only cropped up in big serious situations.

The story is sad, let's face it, but for me, it's not tears-running-down-your-cheeks sad. Although, it does make you think about what it would be like to be anorexic, it really does show you the mentality of one and why they do it - something that they are also criticised about as people just don't understand why a young girl would do that sort of thing...well, here you are. Read this and find out why.
I could even say that I too started behaving slightly like an anorexic. I am pretty thin, I admit. I don't put on much weight and I am only a size 12 because I'm tall and lanky. I have also been called anorexic numerous times, especially when I started secondary school. Actually, one of my friends now, when I first met him five years ago, whenever he saw me he would call me the name until I told him to shut up and hit him (on the arm in a kind of 'I'm-not-joking-but-this-punch-is-not-going-to-hurt' kind of way). He stopped after that. But still, it's not a nice thing to be called that at all. This week, I started worrying more about the way I look, what I'm wearing, what I'm eating, do I look bloated. I have no utter idea why. I can only think I'm doing it because of the book.

Now, I'm not saying this book turns you into a self-conscience freak for a week but it does make you think a little like her and get into her head a little.
   What I also liked was the way Cassie was there throughout...but then not. You never find out if Lia is dreaming or actually serious, although Cassie is a little bit creepy. The word wintergirls is referred to in the book and from what I can tell, it means like really thin girls. This theme of winter is also used really cleverly.

Overall, apart from some flaws and being an sort of anorexic for a week, I enjoyed this book completely. For me, it was better than Speak although it is slightly hard to compare when they are such different books. I loved the ending for this book and just reading about Lia and finding out more and understanding more about anorexia. This is one I would recommend for older readers and for ones that don't mind this kind of subject and Lia's obsessive voice on what she looks like and, especially, eats.
I take my hat off to Laurie Halse Anderson for this book.

I give it 4 out of 5

Author's Website: http://madwomanintheforest.com/
Pages: 278
Publisher: Scholastic
Challenges: None
Related Posts: Review on Speak

On My Bookshelf (7)

Have received a lot of books in the past week so I thought I'd make a post out of it!

My Books:

Bought:
- Where She Went - Gayle Forman - I screamed when I opened this from Amazon....that basically shows how I felt about it I guess

From The Library:
- Numbers - Rachel Ward - I've been meaning to read this for a while but never had the chance so jumped at the chance when I saw it in the library
- Annexed - Sharon Dogar - I picked it up because of the subject and the person it's based about but I once read something by this author...and didn't finish it and heard some not great reviews about the one...could be interesting.

Friend Gave Me:
- The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory - seen the film...could be interesting.
- The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette - Carolly Erickson - Again on the 'interesting' level. Been told it's a good'un though.
- Wicked - Gregory Maguire - I have seen the stage production which was AMAZING but then, I've heard the book lets it down...well, the book WAS written before the stage musical.


LAST MINUTE ADDITION:

Bought: 

- War of the Worlds - H.G.Wells - I got this today for £1 in a National Trust second hand bookshop that I went in with my parents as it's Bank Holiday weekend. It smells amazing - that rustic smell from old books. And I looked in the front and it's from 1946! So happy with this purchase :)

Malorie Blackman Signing

Last night, I was lucky enough to go to a signing and interview with Malorie Blackman at my local library with my best friend, Tijana (yes, the one that got me Looking for Alaska). Tijana has seen the poster about it when she was in there the other week and rushed home (well probably not but she informed me quickly afterwards) about it and we decided to go.

Malorie Blackman is the author of many, both Children and Young Adult, books such as Thief!, Pig Heart Boy, Boys Don't Cry and the Noughts and Crosses triolgy/quartet. I became involved in her reading at about 10/11 when I joined secondary school when Noughts and Crosses first came out. I read it as a library book and then got given a copy for Christmas 2006 by my family which is the one I got signed.

It was really intesting to hear about where she gets her ideas for books, what inspires her and how her past has impacted on her books now. I learnt a lot of things and she is such a talkative, funny, bubbly person and for me, you can really tell she loves what she does and loves any praise for her books.
She was such a lovely person to speak to and for us, you can tell she loves writing children's literature.
I really enjoyed the evening, it was nice to see an author that I've kind of grown up with. For anyone that's never read her books, take a look at Noughts and Crosses. This is one of the best written novels I have truly read. Great evening.

Here are some pictures!

Tijana, Malorie, Me (above, below)

My Signed book!

Then on the way home from the library, we had a lovely walk over the river and saw this view of the sun setting. I had to make it darker to see the redness, it was much more lighter than this picture shows.

 Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Movie: The Wave

Today, while I should have been slaving away at revision, I went over to my friend's house for a 'History-Revision-moviethon' which consisted of one movie not set in Nazi Germany or Prohibition America or just America in general (our topics).

However, we did watch a German movie called The Wave. 

It is based on a true event in California, America in 1967 in which a teacher had to teach a class about autocracy and dictorships. When asked the question 'Would a dictorship happen again in the modern age much like The Third Reich under Hitler?', there was a complete NO answer. So, the teacher embarked on a social experiment to treat the class like Hitler would have treated them, building it up every day with rules, regulations and a proper name, salute and logo. The class started off with 30 people, girls and boys.
They decided to call themselves The Third Wave (ringing any bells?) after the fact that every third wave is always the strongest and the biggest. They believed in discipline, community and leadership.

But the third day, there were 200 students in the class.

By the Thursday, the fourth day, it was starting to get out of hand. People were bulling other pupils who weren't apart of the group, the logos were seen everywhere throughout the local town and the members were starting to do and carry stupid things. On the Friday, he called a meeting to witness an announcement that 'The Third Wave would do national'. They were met with an empty channel on a TV and afterwards, the teacher announced they had been a part of an experiment to show that fascism was possible even in a democracy like America. He showed a film on Nazi Germany and the experiment ended.

Although this may sound like a weird, slightly disturbing (a bit I guess) movie to you, it really puts it into perspective. I hadn't heard of this before, neither had my parents who were alive then but it is such a poignant story really. I mean, a group of teenagers behaving like Nazi Germany in just the space of a week? That is pretty scary. The movie symbolises the steps Hitler took in Germany: intimidating non-believers or those that are different, forcing people to do things, following the leader's every move and feel they have a duty, although they really don't know what that is. It's so scary, well-made and so poignant, it's amazing. One of the best films I have seen.

Me and my friends kept stopping it to discuss how it was like that in Nazi Germany from our knowledge for the exams and how that could possibly happen now. I mean it's unlikely that that will ever happen in this day and age but then, but then well they said that about the genocide of the Jews during that period and well, things like that have happened again all over the world. The same with dictorships e.g. Libya at the moment.

I don't know, it just kind of really hit home for me, it made me understand why no-one stopped Hitler, why no-one wanted it to end, why it happened within a year of Hitler being Chancellor and it made me realise that it can happen again and it's up to my generation to learn from past mistakes and make sure it never happens again. Easier said than done, right?

I would completely recommend this film - it opens your eyes to the world, I guess.