Books, glorious books!

Hello,

I hope you are having a positive, peaceful day whenever you should be reading this!

So, January seems to be flying by already and 2018 is well under way. This year one of my goals is to get back into reading. I've always been a big bookworm, but recently I've neglected the wonder of fictional worlds concealed within books. I think it has partially been due to the fact at uni I barely have the time to read the books on my reading lists let alone find time for recreational reading! However, when I do have spare time, usually over holidays, I fall back in love with books and wonder why I ever stop.

Last year I think I read around 10 or so books (I didn't keep track!), which, though pretty low, is a better number than none. And this coming year I've set a goal to read 25 books, a pretty achievable target that hopefully I can surpass. I've already finished a few books in 2018 and I'm onto the next   (which is The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North, so far so good!), so we're off to a good start.

I thought I'd do a little review of some of the books I read last year and then list some of the books on my reading list that I'm looking forward to! A lot of these books I read over the summer so my memory is a little rusty but I'll add in some blurbs for ones I feel need it!

So, without futher ado, lets get started...

It's Kind Of A Funny Story - Ned Vizzini

In this book, we follow the story of near-suicidal 16 year old Craig as he checks himself into a psychiatric ward on which he spends a week meeting a cast of interesting characters and, where isolated from the crushing pressures of school and friends, he is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety.

I found it to be refreshingly realistic in its portrayal of mental health, especially from the viewpoint of a young male. There was very little cliche which speaks to the experience of the writer Vizzini who based this off of his own experiences with mental illness and hospitalisation. There was a good balance between humour and sober realism and I felt that Vizzini deals with the complexitiy of adolescent mental health and the pressures of youth very well.

I felt hopeful and positive upon finishing it and thankfully the book doesn't conclude in an artificially cheerful way, but left me with the realisitc message that with time and with hard work on your own part, things can improve. It helped me to acknowledge some of my own anxieties I saw reflected in Craig's story.

Overall rating 4/5


 If You Find Me - Emily Murdoch


What happens in the woods, stays in the woods. . .
Carey is keeping a terrible secret. If she tells, it could destroy her future. If she doesn't, will she ever be free?

This story follows Carey and her young sister who have been living in the woods in a caravan for years, abandoned by their unstable mother. Until one day they are discovered and returned to civilisation...

This is a great book about the bonds of family and how they can be a source of protection yet also potential restrictions to freedom. I really enjoyed the mystery behind the character's stories and how their past unravels as they create new futures for themselves in this new unknown society.

Overall rating: 3.5/5


Only Ever Yours - Louise O'Neill



eves are designed, not made.
The School trains them to be pretty
The School trains them to be good.
The School trains them to Always be Willing.

Well, this book had quite a substantial impact on me! It's super dark and follows these girls called 'eve's' who attend a school in which their learning prepares them to go into the world to serve men either as companions, concubines or by returning to the schools and living in chastity. It makes an incredibly interesting statement about the pressures placed on young women and how striving for perfection can completely destroy you. Although the setting is this dystopian world, the stories are completely relatable and each character faces a myriad of problems that young women deal with; social status, hierarchy, friendships, eating disorders and sexuality.

It sucks you in and gets under your skin. I'd recommend maybe not devouring it in a day like I did, because of how much it grips you and how I felt completely dettached and spaced out for at least a day afterward, but once I was sucked in there was no pacing myself!

I'd also recommend another of Louise O'Neill's books called 'Asking For It'.

Overall rating 4.5/5


Ink - Alice Broadway

Every action, every deed, every significant moment is tattooed on your skin for ever. When Leora's father dies, she is determined to see her father remembered forever. She knows he deserves to have all his tattoos removed and made into a Skin Book to stand as a record of his good life. But when she discovers that his ink has been edited and his book is incomplete, she wonders whether she ever knew him at all.


I liked the premise of this book but felt the writing just didn't deliver all that I wanted from the story. It's such a shame because the ideas surrounding the folklore and mystery of the mythology in this story had potential but just weren't elaborately explored. I finished it feeling there was still half of the story left untold, however upon futher research I think there might be a sequel to this book so I'll need to look into that!

I really enjoyed the whole concept about tattoos having such deep meaning to your life story and how much they say about who we are. It also made me just want to get all of the tattoos!! 

Overall rating 2.5/5

The Wonder - Emma Donoghue

An eleven-year-old girl stops eating, but remains miraculously alive and well. A nurse, sent to investigate whether she is a fraud, meets a journalist hungry for a story.

Now, I was reeled in by the mystery of this potential miracle child surviving without food for months, and I was truly intrigued! I won't reveal any spoilers but to be honest in the end I thought the story a little dull and the plot slow. It's not to deny how I enjoyed the insights into life in rural Catholic Ireland in the 1850's and I took pleasure in the simplicity at which life seemed to revolve around work, family and religion. There is a good atmosphere generated in this book but I found myself wondering if the same thing was going to go on for the entirety of the book and it pretty much did!

In all, it's not a terrible book but it also wasn't the most engaging read and I didn't find myself building much of a connection to the main character either, which it think also contributed to the dragging of the narrative.

Overall rating 2/5


Animal Farm - George Orwell


Everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others...

Like most school children I read this in English class but I thought I'd give this a reread, and it was still as powerful and satirical as it was back when I studied it!

I forgot how much I enjoy the irony and satire and I feel like everyone should read this at least once in their life! Orwell's use of analogy is still so instructive as to explain society and how power corrupts. 

I think maybe this year I might read some more of Orwell's work and other classics in literature that I may previously have been a bit afraid of! I don't know why but there is something so much more comforting about a familiar piece of YA fiction to fall back on! But here's to more reading challenges!

Overall rating: 5/5


Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur

A collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity.


An immensely popular book in 2017, I fell in love with the poetry of Kaur and found myself finishing it in under a day with many a tear shed at the beauty of her words.

It's hard to describe how brilliant it is to find an emotion encapsulated so easily within someone words and you just think 'yes that is EXACTLY how I feel!'. And the illustrations that accompany the prose really make this book a treat to read. It got me back into reading poetry and although a lot of people seem to satirise this work and don't see it as 'proper poetry', I think there is a great deal of bravery in Rupi Kaur's work and she unashamedly confronts issues of love, violence, abuse, sexuality and femininity. 

Overall rating: 5/5

So, I hope this post has been okay! It took me quite a while to recall what I thought of each book and it made me want to go back and re-read a few of them because I'd forgotten how much I'd enjoyed them the first time!

But I'm keeping track of all my books this year via the Goodreads app which has so far been super useful in organising my reading and also spurs me on to keep reading and working to my challenge of 25 books in a year! I'm on book 10 now so I feel like my reading fire has been re-kindled (that's a terrible pun... and considering I don't even own a kindle...). I'm going to try keep a record of my thoughts on what I've read so that come this time next year I have a better recollection of what I thought which will hopefully provide better reviews that these have been!

As for now, I'm off to read some more - I'm so glad I've rediscovered this love!

Love and light,

Lily