NORTHANGER ABBEY By Val McDermid

Hey folks! Now I know what you're thinking - 'Didn't Jane Austen write Northanger Abbey?' And you are right. Miss Austen did in fact write the original novel named Northanger Abbey. McDermid wrote this as part of 'The Austen Project' which, although researching it a little, I seem unable to really pinpoint what this project is. As with most books, I found this while doing some shelving at work and decided to see whether or not this fancy orange book was deserving of its title.

If I'm honest, I had no trouble reading the book and I finished it relatively easily yet, things didn't quite seem to fit together as they should. The blurb on the back of the book is very misleading. I genuinely thought I was in for a good vampire novel with some dark romances and a bit of drama on the side. That was the impression I got from the blurb and to be honest, I couldn't have been further from the truth. It was only when I found the actual blurb tucked away on the inside cover that I actually got the hang of what was happening.

Basically, Cat lives in a small isolated village in Dorset. She has been home schooled, thinks little about the future and longs to see something outside of the Piddle Valley. (Yes, she lives in the Piddle Valley, lol). When she gets invited to spend a month at the Edinburgh Fringe with their neighbours, she thinks this is the break from reality and her chance to see the real world she has been waiting for.

Cat seemed a little too naive, even for someone who has lived a sheltered life, and I just found her character to be a little too unbelievable for my liking. Her relationships with other characters seemed predictable and almost as if the writer had to force them fit how she wanted them to.

The other odd thing was that Northanger Abbey itself only appears in the books once you get about two thirds of the way through and even then there is nothing special about it, it is merely a location for the story to take place. There's nothing particularly special about it at all.

Of course there is a very clichéd happy ending and everyone gets what he or she wants apart from the father who is portrayed as the villain.

I'm not really going to recommend it. Its not a book you're going to find me raving about, but hey, if you find yourself with nothing else to read on a rainy day, its not going to be the worst thing you could pick up.

RED DUST ROAD by Jackie Kay

Here we go!! First blog post from my new desk and new writing chair... very exciting! :)

I read this book for the category A Memoir. This is a very beautiful and insightful book, and i am glad to have read it.

Red Dust Road is Jackie Kay's (Famous Scottish author and poet) story of how she one day realised that her parents had a different skin colour to her and that maybe there was more to her family than she first thought. This is the journey that Kay takes to track down her birth parents, her Nigerian father, and her mother from the highlands of Scotland. In this brave and honest book, Kay talks about the experience of meeting her biological parents for the first time and the excitements and disappointments she is met with along the way.

Before I say anything else, I am glad I have read this and it is a wonderful, beautiful story which illustrates the true meaning of family, as well as being an interesting insight of racial differences from a time period different to our own. The only slight issue I may have to raise about this is it is quite repetitive and I feel that this book would be just as powerful, even if were half the size.

I know this is a short one, but I'm not entirely sure what else to write other than this is a lovely book about a women trying to find herself in her family, and find out where she came from. A book I would certainly recommend to those looking for a heart warming and poignant yet fairly easy read.

HALF BAD By Sally Green

As with many of the other books I've read recently, I found this one on the returns shelf at work and I liked the look of it so I thought I'd give it a shot. Just in time to, just as I was craving something of the fantasy genre.

I must say that this is a jolly good read. It well written, it's easy to read and it's incredibly satisfying.

Half Bad is set in an England where witched are common and living among the 'fains', also known as the normal, unmagical people. There has been war between the good white witches and the supposedly evil black witches, however for one young boy, things aren't as easy as black and white. Nathan is a half code. His mother was a white witch, and his father is the most notorious and feared black witch in the country. Scared of Nathan, the council keep him chained up for a couple of years. When he turns seventeen, Nathan must have received his Giving or he'll die. The only snag is that the only living relative of Nathan is his father and no one has seen him in years, so he sets off in search of Mercury, the only witch who can save him now.

As I said previously, this is a really satisfying book. There's not so much in this book to analyse. Just to enjoy. The protagonist is lovable and relateable, the antagonists are hateable and there are just enough twists and turns to keep the story interesting while keeping it so you don't have to think to much, just sit back and enjoy the story.

I would definitely like to read the sequel and then the third part when it comes out later this year. This is a book I would recommend to anyone and everyone, a brilliant read.

THE EDIBLE WOMAN By Margaret Atwood

I was unsure which book I should choose for a famous author's first book and it took me a while to sus out who I wanted to read, but finally I decided... or rather I was looking through the college library and just happened to come across Margaret Atwood's first novel, so I decided why the heck not and gave it ago. If you've been following my blog for a while, you will have seen that about a year ago I did a series of blog posts analysing The Handmaid's Tale, but is probably one of Atwood's most notable novels. As much as I 'enjoyed' reading The Handmaid's Tale, (I'm not sure enjoyed is the right word to use), I found it quite thick to plough through and it took a certain mindset. Going from my previous experience, I set myself plenty of time to read this book. As it was, I finished it in about a week.

The Edible Women is a story of Marian, and the strange effect her recent engagement has on her. When the last of her boyfriend Peter's friends get married, he finds himself lonely and depressed, finally coming round to the idea that he should propose to Marian and get married himself. Of course Marian says yes and everything looks peachy. However shortly after getting engaged Marian finds that she starts struggling to eat certain foods and eventually goes completely nil by mouth. Meanwhile she starts an affair with Duncan although she has no idea why or what grounds the affair is based on. The only thing she really knows is that Duncan is using her and she begins to wonder if she is using him in return, though what she is using him for remains a mystery.

While all this is going on Ainsley, Marian's flat mate, decides that men are over rated and purposefully gets herself pregnant to prove that a mother can raise a child better on her own that with a father figure beside her. Everything was going to plan until, at a pre-natal class, Ainsley is told that boys born without a father figure will almost certainly grow up to be homosexual, and with this Ainsley's whole objective changes. Now she must find a husband.

This is a very bizarre book. I found it much easier to read than the previous Atwood I had read, but I also found that what I was reading wasn't actually very much. Nothing really happens in the book, although lots does, if you get what I mean. A lot of the feminist attitudes that Atwood is famous for can be seen very clearly even in the first of her novels, but still the actually events in the book are a little underwhelming.

I would have liked to have a little more explanation and reasoning to what happened to Marian. The main points in the book seemed to take place with little or no though to cause and effect leaving you unable to concentrate on the rest of the book because you're still trying to work out what happened in the last part you just read.

One thing I did find very effective (Once I worked out what Atwood had done) was the way the parts 1 and 3 were in the first person, while part 2 was in the third. This was effective in showing how the events of the novel had almost separated her from herself and she didn't really feel part of anything. You really understand, that in the middle section of the book, Marian feels as if she is an observer to her own life rather than the person living it. At the end of the book, the narrative returns to first person and you get the impression that she has found who she is again and has found peace in her life. She can direct and live her own life.

Although I'm not to sure about this one, I did 'enjoy' reading the Handmaid's Tale and I think that I will in fact read 'Oryx and Crake' which is sat on my desk at home. as you would expect, there are plenty of pointers that this is a debut novel, written by an author who, now, has honed her gift to near perfection.

As always, just because I didn't particularly get this book, doesn't mean you wont. Give it a shot, see what you think. If we all enjoyed reading the same books then life would be very boring indeed.

LOGAN'S RUN By William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson

"The terrifying novel of the 23rd century!" Read for the category, A book set in another country, Logan's Run is set in futuristic American where it's a utopia for some, and a dystopia for other; and nearly everyone has second thoughts on Lastday.

Logan 3 is a Sandman; a Deep Sleep Operative. It's his job to send people to 'sleep' as soon as their palm flower turns black; when they turn 21, however Logan isn't as keen to send himself to sleep when his own palm flower starts blinking black and he knows he's on Lastday. The last runner he chased muttered the word 'sanctuary' just before he died, and Logan begins to believe there might be some truth in the old urban myth. Refusing to end his life at 21, Logan 3 begins the journey to find sanctuary, that's if it even exists.

I have been waiting years to read this book! For three, four years now, I have been trying to find a copy of this elusive book which was actually affordable for my student budget, and finally I have found one.

Everything about this book sets it apart from other sci-fi, dystopian novels. It's like 1984, Brave New World, Handmaid's Tale and every other dystopian novel rolled into one magnificent novel. So easy to read and deeply satisfying when finished.  I love it. I've heard people talk about it negatively, but I honestly cannot see where those opinions can be formed on such a book. It's unique, its original, it's captivating, it's satisfying, what more can I say?

A definite read for both sci-fi kings and novices alike.  The journey beginning at chapter 10 and finishing at chapter 1 is an incredible journey which you can't help but read on, and Nolan's use of characters is a spark of genius which proves that not everyone is who you think they are.

AN ACT OF LOVE By Alan Gibbons

I know, I know.... technically it isn't based on a true STORY, but the story does follow a real life series of events that did really take place in the UK.

This is the heart breaking story of two little boys who come from very different families. One is a white British family, the other is a committed Muslim family. The relationship that these two boys have a children is amazing and a true weapon against a world full of racism and discrimination. However as the two boys grow up and the so called 'war against terror' begins, each boy gets caught up in their own countries battles and are eventually separated. One becomes a British front-line soldier, the other becomes a extreme Islamist soldier, and a beautiful friendship is torn apart.

This is an incredible, thought provoking and poignant story which really does highlight the way that prejudice can split families and communities, and also how easy it is for one person, or group of people to drum up enough support to start a war.

The main puzzlement that the book presents is that it is an older children's book. Personally, I found this emotionally difficult to read as an adult, so I'm not sure how a child would do with it. Never the less it is a really good book and one that I would recommend to more mature younger readers, as it is a brilliant vehicle for telling young people about recent history which they were too young to remember happening. This war was a big event in modern British history which we need to learn from, and I believe that this is a book which we can use to help us do that.

Give it a place on your reading list and share it. Everyone.

THE SKIN COLLECTOR By Jeffery Deaver

Good book. Really good book. Definitely a perfect contender for the Mystery/Thriller category of the reading challenge.

Picked this one up in the supermarket on special, I'm terrible for buying books on special offer, I really am.

This is the story of Lincoln Rhyme; a paraplegic, independent criminalist and consultant to the NYPD and this time, he's got a slightly different case to solve. A perp is taking happenstance victims, sedating them, and tattooing messages on their stomachs. Only, the killer isn't using ink... after all what's the fun in that? No. This perp is tattooing with poison.

I really liked this book a lot. It is incredibly well written, twists and turns on every page; enough to keep you entertained but not so much that you get confused and lose the thread of the story. Even without the amazing writing of Jeffery Deaver, the unusual choice of murder weapon is enough to catch the eye and make this a book you're going to remember having read.

I've got to admit, that towards the end, I felt that there were places that Deaver could have ended the book and I was a little unsure as to whether i wanted to risk reading on in case he had ruined the end of the book and tried to hard to end it, but I should have had more faith in him. He delivered amazingness throughout the entire book and the ending was no exception. I

I've read so many crime novels now, that I can usually tell you did within the first few chapters, but Deaver kept me thinking and rethinking all the way through!

An excellent book, but definitely not one for the faint hearted. In fact I'm kinda glad the book hangover was minimal...