buy yourself something pretty

My image of 'a party dress'

So, my 40th is just around the corner (yes, scary and TOTALLY unbelievable, I know!) and so The Man asked me last night what I wanted as a birthday present.

Me:  Oh I don’t know, just something frivolous

Him:  Like what?Me:  I don’t know, surprise me

Him:  Do you want a party dress?

Me:  A party dress?

Him:  Yes, for your party.

Me:  Am I five?!

Him:  so, what DO you want then?

Me:  Well, I guess I need a decent haircut, it’s been a while.

Him:  OK, I’ll pay for you to have that

Me:  I wont like it though.

Him:  So WHY would I get it for you!?!?

My head hurts with all this thinking. Aren’t birthdays meant to be fun??

rivers of london – ben aaronovitch

Rivers of London

This was a recommendation made to me by Amazon, and it certainly caught my interest straight away from the blurb!

This is the first in the ‘Peter Grant’ series of books (I think there are just two at the moment, this and Moon Over Soho). Grant is a newly qualified PC with the Met Police, concerned that he’s been initially placed in a boring, admin heavy unit.

However, after being called to the case of a man whose head has literally been knocked from his body with a baseball bat, and interviewing possibly the only witness who claims to have been dead for a good few decades, Grant’s work (AND social) life seems to become somewhat more interesting.

He is placed under Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England and becomes his apprentice.  He then discovers more about the underworld of London, the city he thought he knew so well.  He meets the warring God & Goddess of the Thames, encounters vampires in Purley and has to get to the bottom of a malicious spirit that seems to be possessing Londoners and leaving them with their faces falling off!

This is the kind of fantasy book I love – one where it has its base in reality and then has an underlying fantastical world that we are unaware of.  I guess this could be sold as “Harry Potter for grown ups”, but I don’t like Harry Potter, and I loved this.

Peter Grant is a believable character, shoved into an unbelievable world. Admittedly he seems to take a lot of it far more in his stride than I think *I* would be if I was suddenly told that magic exists and I will be able to do it, but his actions feel well explained at every twist and turn of the story.

There is a lightness of touch about the writing, and there is a lot of humour throughout.  One particularly memorable line came after an explosion in a house when : “…the neighbours came rushing out to see what had happened to their property values.”

I am not sure how exciting and relevant someone not familiar with London would find the book, as Aaronovitch obviously knows his stuff about both the history and geography of our fabulous city.  I could always picture exactly where the action had moved too – and during scenes where Grant is running down back streets etc, I felt as if I was following him, but picturing exactly where I was.  Very well written!

I’m looking forward to reading the next one!

the knife of never letting go – patrick ness

The Knife Of Never Letting Go

I had never heard of this book before, but it’s apparently four years old.  I can’t remember how I came across it.  It sounded intriguing, but was billed as Young Adult Fiction and was the first in a series, so (like I have before) I thought I’d give it a read to see if it was suitable for my 12 year old daughter.

Todd is twelve years and thirteen months old and lives in Pretisstown with his stupid but loyal dog Manchee and Ben & Cillian, the two men that have raised him.  Prentisstown is populated entirely by men.  Todd has never seen a woman or a girl apart from in the images in the Noise of the older men around him.

The Noise is everywhere, it is made of what people are thinking and feeling, and is a constant stream.  Todd can recognise people approaching, simply by their Noise.  Even Manchee and other animals have their own Noise, although Manchee (just being a stupid dog) is kind of limited to things like “Poo, Todd!” and sheep don’t seem to think much more than “Sheep”.

One day, Todd makes a discovery that puts the lives of him and his loved ones at risk, and means that he has to leave Prentisstown immediately.  But how do you make your escape when everyone can hear your very existence?

The story took a while for me to fall into the rhythm of.  Manchee’s very basic language and Todd’s inclination to mis-spell certain words (and there didn’t really seem to be a pttern to which ones!) jarred somewhat BUT, right from the beginning, there was something thoroughly compelling about the story.  Something that just wanted me to find all the answers to my questions!

What happened to all the women?  What happens when Todd is 14?  Why do they have 14 months in their years?  Why does there seem to be no technology at all, and yet there are hints at it?  Where IS Prentisstown?

Luckily, all these questions ARE answered within the book, but the story progresses so far and is so action-packed that there are a whole load of new questions that I have now ready for the next book!

However, I am still undecided whether to let The Girl read it, as it was rather intense and dark in places and there was one scene that took me by surprise and made me actually cry!  There’s quite a bit of violence and I think it could be just a little too scary for her just now.  Maybe in another year I’ll suggest she reads it – she’ll probably have turned into an emo or some other rubbish by then.

I really, really enjoyed it, and even though I finished it more than 2 weeks ago, I still keep thinking about it which is a really good sign!

fated – s g browne

Fated

I think that this book could have been so much more than it was. It’s a real great idea.

Fate (or Fabio as he likes to call himself) has been involved in the life of humans for thousands of years. they are either on his path or on Destiny’s (Delilah to her friends) and just occasionally need a bit of a point in the right direction.

Recently, Fabio has been rather disenchanted with his job, spending more time drinking too much with his friends like Dennis (Death to you and me) and hoping that Jerry doesn’t pull him up on his performance. Jerry’s his boss. Well, Jerry’s everyone’s boss – he IS God, after all.

But then something happens that changes Fabio’s feelings towards everything – his job, humans themselves and his life as an immortal. He falls in love with a mortal.  This wasn’t part of the plan – or was it?

This was a brilliant idea, but seemed to be executed quite half-heartedly.  There were too many similar ‘immortal’ characters, such as Rumour and Gossip – there seemed to be an immortal for every occasion, which although they gave the opportunity for some witty one-liners, they meant that the concept of this world was really rather difficult to comprehend. How would they all work together?, where does Rumour end and Gossip begin?  It put my head in a bit of a tizz to be quite honest.

Also, apart from Fabio himself (and perhaps Destiny), the characters were so one-dimensional. They seemed to exist purely to give Fabio someone to go and see and bounce thoughts off of.  Even the mortal, Sara (who Fabio falls so heavily for), has no depth at all. She only seems to exist or do anything when he’s with her. There seems to be no motivation or back-story for her. For a human focus, she seems incredibly inhuman.

There were some lovely little nuggets (like the whole concept of immortals having to wear ‘man suits’ when they walk amongst humans, and the fact that they can be upgraded or wear out) but they tended to be few and far between.

It was an entertaining enough, easy read, but I was hoping for SO much more from it!

my day, by twitter

It’s been a funny old day – and I only realised when I popped onto my blog page and noticed my Tweets stripped down excluding any with mentions in them.

This has apparently been my day – there must be something in my water…

My tweets today!

However, i DO still think that I’m funny. Just occasionally!

the suicide effect – l j sellers

The Suicide Effect

I picked this book up free on Kindle last month – you know I’m one for a bargain.

It’s almost a month since I finished it, and it’s probably saying something that I had to re-read the blurb as I’d forgotten what the book was about!

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad read at all – it’s just not very memorable.

Sula works for a pharmaceutical company, and one day overhears a shocking revelation about one the company’s drugs in development.  She is indecided whether to act on this new knowledge as she is currently fighting for custody of her young son and any trouble could be detrimental to her getting him back.

However, events are taken out of control and she ends up embroiled in something a lot bigger than she was anticipating.

It’s an interesting enough story – pacey although not particularly realistic but with enough depth to it to keep you turning the pages.

Would be perfect for a holiday read – or if you’ve recently finished something heavy!

portal – imogen rose

Portal

This is another of those books that I read to ‘test out’ for The Girl.  It’s the first in a series, which is the kind of thing she likes, so I thought “I’ll give the first one a crack and then can hand the whole lot over to her if it’s OK”.  Plus it was free on Kindle (back in June when I forst downloaded it) – which is always my favourite price!

When pregnant, married scientist Olivia goes out on a friend’s hen night in London, she doesn’t realise that a seemingly chance-encounter with a handsome musician will change the lives of her whole family, but Rupert’s first words to her are “Olivia, I’m your Rupert. Come and find me two years ago”.

The later story then follows Olivia’s teenage daughter, Arizona who wakes up in the back of her mum’s car – but all is not as it was!  She isn’t the person that she believes herself to be, and isn’t in the life that she’s been living – and she’s also somehow 8 months in the past!  Far from the hockey-playing, mother-hating tomboy she has always been, she finds she apparently has a different surname, is a Barbie-style cheerleader – and her dad has been replaced by this guy called Rupert who everyone treats as if he has always been her dad!

What on earth is going on?!

I had to read this not as a grown woman, but as a tweenage girl – and if you read it that way, it’s a well thought out captivating story that leaves you wanting more (and luckily there IS a lot more!)

As an adult, I could pick holes in the plot or the seemingly rushed writing, but I don’t believe it was aimed at me – and I know that The Girl is going to love it!  I believe every young girl has had those “What if?” thoughts, that they’re not supposed to be living the life that they are, that their parents aren’t really their parents and one day some rich celeb/rich businessman etc is going to turn up on their doorstep and tell them that they’re their real long-lost parent!  This really plays to that unspoken fantasy!

And I enjoyed the journey – it’s a really fun story!

geekiful

Beautys & Geeks

It’s been rather a wearing time at home for the past couple of weeks as The Girl has had problems breathing due to an infection in her windpipe!

So, today is the first day back at work – and I have been working from home while she has watched Back To The Futures 1 AND 2!

After watching that, she’s watched a couple of other things, and has just settled on what is apparently the fist programme in Series 4 of Beauty & The Geek, which I have never seen before.  Personally, I am so exhausted that I can’t even be bothered to get her to turn it over – in fact, she wants me to TiVo it!

So I said to her “So, which would you be?  Beauty or a geek?” and she said “I have absolutely NO idea, mum! I think I’d be right in the middle, cos I’m just totally average. I know I’m really geeky, but I can be a little bit of a beauty too, can’t I?”

Bless her, and she’s right!  She’s geekily gorgeous!

I have no idea what happens in Beauty & The Geek?  Should I be letting her watch it?  Does it all come out right in the end?  Is it good for trying to break down perceptions of stereotypes, or does it play to them?

(She’s currently getting VERY vocally annoyed with the girls trying to do some IQ type test that she is doing without even thinking hard!)

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 27,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 10 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

hollowland – amanda hocking

Hollowland

I did actually try to read A Tale Of Two Cities with the E17 Book Club, but it didn’t really happen for me.  It was way too grim, and I found that I was reading newspapers, magazines, ANYTHING to stop from having to read the book, so I decided to pick up something a little lighter.  A friend recommended this to me – and what could be lighter than a young girl in a dying world out killing zombies?

A virus transfered via blood etc has turned the majority of the earth’s population into zombie-like creatures…although this time, they’re not exactly the living dead, but the no-longer-living, slowly decomposing and blood-crazed.  Remy is 19 and living in quarantine with her 8 year old brother Max, although he has been kept in a special section of quarantine that she hasn’t had access to.

The (pretty short) story starts in the middle of the action – the quarantine she is in is suddenly overrun by zombies, and she needs to escape with a couple of friends, before she realises that Max has been taken by the army and she travels to find him in another SafeZone, managing to pick up a pet lion and a rock star on the way (this is Vegas after all!)

OK, there was blood, killing and gore, but it was fun and light-hearted, extremely fast-paced and action-packed.  The perfect anti-Dickens remedy!  Remy was a great heroine – spunky but considerate.  I have read some pretty scathing reviews, but this is a fun, punchy zombie-killing book!  If you’re expecting literary greatness, and a believable plotline then don’t pick this up.  If you want a bit of a break from reality, then this will prove very entertaining and easy to read! (Plus it was free on Kindle – how can I possibly complain?!)