Top 5: Books to give as gifts this Christmas

Christmas is coming! It's really soon! But you should still have to make it to a book shop for these gift ideas. I've gone for especially pretty books that will make perfect presents, but the content is all good I promise!

1- The Encyclopaedia of Early Earth- Isobel Greenberg

This is a beautiful wonderful hardback graphic novel. Perfect for lovers of really nice illustrations and made up worlds. 

Isabel Greenberg also has a good etsy:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/IsabelNecessary

You can get it for a good price on the BBC shop which is weird but cool!

http://www.bbcshop.com/all-factual/the-encyclopedia-of-early-earth-hardback/invt/9780224097192

2- The Wolf Wilder- Katherine Rundell

I just finished reading this and it so snowy and wolfy and heartwarming, perfect from winter reading by a roaring fire, sheltered from the cold outside! The hardback has a really nice matt dust jacket with silver title and the pages feel soo nice too. The illustrations by Gelrev Ongbico are the icing on the cake.

It's currently under a tenner with free delivery from Book Depository:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Wolf-Wilder-Katherine-Rundell/9781408862582

3- Asking For It- Louise O'Neill

Now this ain't exactly a winter romp. It's about rape culture and slut shaming and is by the brilliant Lousie O'Neill. A perfect gift for the teenage feminist and the grown up feminist too. Make sure you use the hashtag #NotAskingForIt when you're talking about how great it is online. The hardback copy is pretty too.

Louise O'Neill is good person to follow on twitter!

https://twitter.com/oneilllo

It's just over ten squid on Wordery the noo with free shipping too!

https://wordery.com/asking-for-it-louise-oneill-9781784295868

4- A Portable Shelter- Kirsty Logan

Now THIS is a beautiful book. It's a small hardback with shiny silver shells on the cover and lovely illustrations through out too by Liz Myhill. It also has a character called Ruth in it, so an all round winner really. 

"A Portable Shelter is a collection of linked stories about loss, identity and the purpose of stories, inspired by Scottish folktales."

They only made 1000 of this edition so you really better snap it up!

Also under a tenner!

https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-portable-shelter/kirsty-logan/9781906841232 

5- A Winter Book + Moominland Midwinter- Tove Jansson


A Winter Books is a lovely wintery Tove Jansson short story collection, perfect for dreaming of a white Christmas! I would also recommend Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson for some Moomin wintriness. 

Only £6.06 on Wordery and yep free delivery:
https://wordery.com/a-winter-book-tove-jansson-9780954899523

Moominland Midwinter:
https://wordery.com/moominland-midwinter-tove-jansson-9780140305029




Bonus! 6- Dungeon Fun- Colin Bell and Neil Slorance

This collected edition of the first four issues of Dungeon Fun is a wonderful fun gift! It's a great adventure story to whiz through on Christmas Day with lots of laughs and in full colour no less! 

You can buy it from Dogooder Comics:
http://dogoodercomics.bigcartel.com/product/dungeon-fun

And also Neil's etsy store where he has a bunch of other cool stuff!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/artbyneilslorance

August Wrap Up

We made it! I blogged everyday in August! Thanks everyone who has read along and shared my posts throughout the month. It's been fun! I've had over a thousand views this month, which is exciting. The most popular posts were Best Harry Potter Food and Feasts and Top 6 High School Young Adult Fiction. And you can have a scroll through all of the August posts here. I still have plenty of ideas so stay tuned for upcoming posts, including more Harry Potter ones. Look at this pretty graph of all those views:

August Wrap Up:

I have read six books this month in between all that blogging and also started reading Frankenstein as part of my mission to make my way through more classics. They were all gooduns! Plenty of YA fiction, with Church of Marvels thrown in there too. I'll get my reviews up next week, but I got right into Holly Bourne's books, and was hugely impressed by Julie Mayhew's The Big Lie. 

Did I Mention I Love You?- Estelle Maskame

The Manifesto On How To Be Interesting- Holly Bourne

Church of Marvels- Leslie Parry

Am I Normal Yet?- Holly Bourne

The Big Lie- Julie Mayhew

Trouble is a Friend of Mine- Stephanie Tromly

Favourite First Lines

These are some of my favourite first lines. Capturing the attention of the reader, setting the tone for the rest of the book, and using a lot of commas, apparently:

I Capture The Castle- Dodie Smith:

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink."

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone- J.K. Rowling:

"Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Peter Pan- J.M. Barrie:

"All children, except one, grow up."

The Hobbit- J.R.R. Tolkien:

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

The Slow Regard of Silent Things- Patrick Rothfuss:

"When Auri woke, she knew that she had seven days."

Howl's Moving Castle- Diana Wynne Jones:

"In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three." 

Mid-Year Round Up

We're over halfway through the year now so I thought I would look at my favourite books so far this year! I've read 33 books so far (not including graphic novels), and I was aiming to read 36 in total, so I've upped my reading challenge to 50. I thought I'd have a go at choosing my favourites so far:

We Were Liars

The Country of Ice Cream Star

Vivian Versus the Apocalypse

The Gracekeepers

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Wild Song

Everything Everything












I'm currently reading Holly Bourne's Am I Normal Yet?, which is so far so good! This list might look very different by the end of the year, there are some very exciting releases that might just knock a few of these off the top spots. I'm especially looking forward to Louise O'Neill's Asking For It, The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness, and Rainbow Rowell's Carry On.

 

 

Be More Slytherin

I am a Slytherin. I was sorted into Slytherin on Pottermore (as was my brother), and I am a pretty proud Slytherin. I believe in non-evil Slytherins, we just have a bad rep, probably due to our founder being a bit evil. Recently I was reminded of a Slytherins key traits: ambition, cunning, and resourcefulness, and realised I am currently kinda lacking in all these areas.

"Or perhaps in Slytherin,

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means,

To achieve their ends."—The Sorting Hat[src]

I want to be more cunning and ambitious and not let anything get in the way of my success. I could certainly do with being more cunning to achieve my ends in my current jobless state. Perusing the Slytherin Wikia I learned a little more about Slytherin ways:

"Slytherins tend to be ambitious, shrewd, cunning, strong leaders, and achievement-oriented. They also have highly developed senses of self-preservation.[9] This means that Slytherins tend to hesitate before acting, so as to weigh all possible outcomes before deciding exactly what should be done. 

According to Albus Dumbledore, the qualities which Salazar valued in the students he chose included cleverness, resourcefulness, determination, and "a certain disregard for the rules." Dumbledore noted that all of these were qualities possessed by Harry Potter, who was in Gryffindor."

So I am endeavouring to Be More Slytherin. I will embrace my Slytherin traits. I will be ambitious, shrewd and cunning. I think I already hesitate before acting, which I believe is also an introvert thing, thinking things over carefully first. I will be clever, resourceful and determined and maybe even employ a certain disregard for the rules. Also their common room in UNDER THE LAKE:

"The Slytherin common room is found in the dungeons of Hogwarts Castle, and is located underneath the Black Lake. Because of its location, the light in the common room is green."

So I'm presuming you can see out to all the lake creatures swimming around and hear the merpeople's song. And finally, only bloody MERLIN himself was a Slytherin.

Instagram! August Book Challenge

Follow me on Instagram (@ruthlily) for bookish pictures. I'm doing #AugustBookChallenge, doing a mix of #celinereadsaugust15 and #abc15 and some other tags too. Come follow!

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink." 📖 Day 4 of #augustbookchallenge favourite quote. From Dodie Smith's I Capture The Castle which I love. 💙🏰 When I opened the book I found my notes for a talk I did on Cassandra's character development when I must've been about 16 😊📖 #celinereadsaugust15 #abc15 #augustblogchallenge #augusttbr #dodiesmith #icapturethecastle #oldbooks #paperbacks #bookquotes #iwritethissittinginthekitchensink #bookstagram #bookbeda

A photo posted by RuthLily (@ruthlily) on Aug 4, 2015 at 6:21am PDT

A photo posted by RuthLily (@ruthlily) on Aug 2, 2015 at 5:04am PDT

A photo posted by RuthLily (@ruthlily) on Aug 2, 2015 at 7:49am PDT

A photo posted by RuthLily (@ruthlily) on Aug 3, 2015 at 10:24am PDT

Childhood Favourites: Jacqueline Wilson

Jacqueline Wilson was one of my favourite authors as a child. I still have a big collection of her books, with loads of hardbacks; I was always super keen to get new releases. My first Jacqueline Wilson book was a "double decker" of Double Act and Bad Girls. I remember standing reading it in the Waterstones on George Street in Edinburgh, while on a family shopping trip, and reading the whole first chapter, trying to send a strong hint to my parents that I wanted this book. Up until this point I had struggled with reading and was in the bottom reading group at school (this must've been in about 1998, when I was 8, I didn't find out I was dyslexic (with specifically slow reading skills) until I was 16). My hinting must've worked because they bought the book and I still have it. I couldn't stop reading this book, and soon my Jacqueline Wilson collection grew. I used to act out scenes from Double Act with my friend Clare in the play ground, where as the twins Garnet and Ruby we would become pop stars and play at Wembley, I think we even performed our work at Brownies. 

Her stories were so real and wonderful, covering mundane and terrible and brilliant lives all with the same care. Her own story is really interesting too. I haven't yet read her stories based on her life, but I really should soon. I loved the Girls Out Late/In Love etc. books and The Illustrated Mum too. Also, Nick Sharratt's illustrations became synonymous with the whole Jacqueline Wilson experience. I think I had one of books with a different illustrator and it just felt so wrong. He is so great at capturing her characters. She inspired me to love reading and I think my mum thanked her for this when we went to see her at the Edinburgh Book Festival. Thank you Jacqueline Wilson, I owe you!

Childhood Favourites: The Claidi Journals - Tanith Lee

Law of the Wolf Tower, Wolf Star Rise, Queen of the Wolves (and Wolf Wing, which I've only just realised exists- oops) make up The Claidi Journals series by Tanith Lee. News broke of Lee's passing a few weeks ago, so it felt like a good time to write about this childhood favourite of mine. I absolutely loved this series, which I must have read around the age of 10-12, and reread many times again. I just got so lost in the worlds Lee created- the gardens of (the second book?) especially, and all the different towns they had to travel through, which seemed to be almost completely isolated communities popping up across a kind of post-apocalyptic wasteland. The sheep land is maybe my favourite. The travelling Hulta were wonderful too.

I had no idea Tanith Lee had written 90 novels, so I should probably get to work on remedying that!

REVIEW!: Books I read in March: Station Eleven, We Are Pirates, The Sin Eater's Daughter.

Not much of a theme for this month's reads, just books that caught my eye or were in the to-be-read pile- they're gooduns though! So we've got Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, We Are Pirates by Daniel Handler, and The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury.

Station Eleven

I do love a bit of post-apocalyptic fiction, so I was very much looking forward to reading this. The story follows a travelling Shakespearian acting troupe and orchestra across America, twenty years after a devastating global outbreak of avian flu. The story follows several character narratives pre and post flu, each linking up through shared objects or experiences. It beautifully links up past and present, showing connections only the omniscient author can share with us, leaving you hoping the characters will figure it all out too. It had a lot of what I like about post-apocalyptic stories, but no zombies or dystopian regimes, and less focus on loneliness and survival. Instead there was community and civilisation growing out of the remnants of the past. Death and violence were there, but love and relationships were too, and theatre and music. Mandel also added references to the rest of the world outside of America throughout, the lack of which annoys me in other stories as I want to know what happened EVERYWHERE. It was good! Read it!

We Are Pirates

This gem caught my eye in the book shop with its beautiful cover and dust cover, both with really nice designs. So I read it in real book form (I usually read on Kindle)! This is the first Daniel Handler book I've read, having of course read a lot of his work as Lemony Snicket. On the cover there is a quote from Neil Gaimen saying it is "the strangest, most brilliant offering yet" from Handler, and strange it truly is! It is dark, witty, weird, disturbing, charming all at once, which is fairly disconcerting, but it's an entertaining read throughout. Handler's quirks are ever present in his writing as they are when he's Lemony Snicket. It takes place in such a 'normal', mundane, modern setting that the story really takes you by surprise. I definitely recommend reading this, but be prepared for the weird with the wonderful. 

The Sin Eater's Daughter

A dark fairytale story set in a corrupt kingdom, with a mad Queen and bizarre traditions. Twylla is the daughter of the Sin Eater, and so it was her destiny to become a Sin Eater too, until the Queen plucked her out of the village and brought her to live in the castle under the belief that Twylla is in fact the embodiment of a Goddess. This position means she has to serve as the executioner of traitors, killing them with the touch of her skin, and also means no will touch or go near her for fear of death. I greatly enjoyed this book, and was very pleased to realise it would be a trilogy. There were points in the book that I grew tired of the romantic storyline, it felt unnecessary and a little out of sync with the tone of the rest of the book, but this all began to make sense as a I read on. This really did feel like the first act of a bigger story, so I'm looking forward to the next act, in which I hope there will be a bit more movement, in the form of travel, and also depth as more of the veil is lifted for Twylla and she discovers more about the world outside of her sheltered childhood. 

I'm reading Sally Green's Half Bad at the moment, which is real great, then I've got a few others lined up, possibly Ice Cream Star and maybe Half Wild. Childhood favourites coming soon too!

Book Memories: Childhood Favourites

Almost Forgotten Childhood Favourites

Sometimes I forget that I actually read a few books which were NOT part of the Harry Potter series when I was growing up. There were whole other series that I adored, authors whose every book I had to own, stories I would revisit again and again. So, to honour these almost-forgotten-favourites, I will be taking a little trip down memory lane over a series of blog posts to share my favourite childhood books and probably a few teenage favourites too! A lot of them are still popular with children and teens today, which makes me very happy, and some may have been forgotten, but either way I'll be giving them all a little bit of attention here.

What were your childhood favourites? Let me know!

March reviews coming soon too! I read We Are Pirates by Daniel Handler, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, and The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury. I'm almost finished Sally Green's Half Bad, so that may sneak into the March reviews too!

REVIEW!: Books I read in February: The Miniaturist, Burial Rites, Life After Life.

What ho! I've only gone and read some more books. February turned into some kind of historical fiction month starting off in 17th Century Amsterdam, visiting Iceland in 1829, before ending up in snowy England in 1910 through the wars and out the other side. What's more they were all BOOKS FOR ADULTS. And all written by women! Ideal.

The Miniaturist

Jessie Burton's story begins in 1686, with young bride Nella arriving in Amsterdam at her new husbands townhouse. He's a busy, thriving merchant type, and also pretty old, and doesn't give Nella much attention, apart from in his gift of a cabinet dolls house replica of their home. Nella orders a few items for the cabinet from a miniaturist found in the city's business listings and soon receives some startlingly accurate dolls and pieces of furniture. Events that follow seem to be connected to these mysterious miniatures and all is soon not as it seems. 

I really enjoyed reading this on dark February evenings. What was maybe most interesting for me was just how long ago 1686 was, and how Amsterdam was the centre of a massive trade empire. It wasn't until the 1800s that Glasgow, where I live, became an important merchant city. I went to the museum during the time I was reading this to learn some merchant trade history and everything! 

So as well as being fascinated about how old Amsterdam is, I also greatly enjoyed the dark winter city atmosphere, and the growing relationships between the characters, as Nella slowly learns more about their lives in both truth and gossip. I was left mostly confused at the end, with a lot of questions, but I think it was supposed to mysterious and I'm going to search out some other readers' theories online!

Burial Rites

Hannah Kent's Burial Rites brings us up to 1829 in Iceland where Agnes Magnusdottir has been sentenced to death, along with another man and woman, for the murder of two men. She is taken to live on the farm of District Officer Jon Jonsson and his family to await her execution. She lives and works there for several months as the story takes place, with much of Agnes's story being told through her confidences with her appointed spiritual guardian, Assistant Reverend Toti. 

What struck me, reading Burial Rites so soon after The Miniaturist, was that although the book is set 143 years later than the story in Amsterdam, it just seems so much older. I guess this is probably owing to the rural setting, and also Iceland's history of being owned by other countries. Again what was really interesting  for me was the history; the way of life on these small farms, travelling on foot for days, maids in even the poor farms, everyone sleeping in the same room. It helped humanise a lot of other historical sites I've seen, especially those of crofts and cleared villages in the highlands. 

The story was great, and its turns out, a true one, researched for 10 years by the author. The historical characters are very successfully rounded and I had become entirely invested in them by the end. Historical fiction sure is working on me!

Life After Life

Beginning in 1910, Kate Atkinson's Life After Life is practically set yesterday as far as 'historical' goes. But I think it still counts in my historical fiction month because that's still ages ago. The book begins in England during a snowstorm in 1910, when Ursula Todd is born. She dies repeatedly, and lives again, but only ever with the smallest sense something has happened. She in fact goes to therapy for her Deja-vu. She lives and dies during two world wars. In some of her lives you're willing for her to die, in others you wish she could undo certain events, in others you're hoping this will be the one that sticks. Most of these things all end up happening. 

An exceptionally clever and witty book, with Ursula and her family playing out a series of 'what ifs'. I've had this waiting on my Kindle for ages, and I'm glad I finally read it. Seeing the same character grow and change in different ways was fascinating. It must feel quite self-indulgent for a writer getting to give your characters all these different lives. There was still plenty of historical intrigue for me, with maids and housekeepers, young marriages, secretarial college, bombs and wardens. But this time of course I have living relatives who were there for some it. Loads of great character names too, especially Ursula, Sylvie and Teddy. 

I'm currently reading Station Eleven, so I might just make March a post apocalypse month. Enjoying it so far! I have my eye on The Country of Ice Cream Star which is also post apocalypsey, so that might have to be the next one. Then I might try and find a non American dystopian to read, as I spend a considerable amount of time when I'm reading American-dystopias wondering what's happening in the rest of the world. 

REVIEW!: Books I read in January: We Were Liars, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Fangirl.

I read some more books hooray! I managed to read four and start one more in January which is real good for a slow reader like me. Up for "review" today are: E. Lockhart's We Were Liars (2014), Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (2013), and Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl (2013). Let's go!

Fangirl

So I enjoyed reading this, got right into the Simon Snow fanfic, I REALLY want the Simon Snow series to be real (there's room in this world for Harry and Simon), and I loved that it was about fandom, but I didn't really like the main character Cath or main love interest Levi. I don't know what happened, I connected with her at the beginning when she was too scared to find the dining room and hiding in her dorm and eating tacos with her dad. I think I found her relationship with Levi a little off putting, he seemed sort of fatherly towards her... it was kind of icky. But that didn't stop me enjoying the book amazingly!

All that aside, I enjoyed reading it and I am kinda thrilled that the world of fandom has been so sensitively explored in the capable hands of Rainbow Rowell. I am also now very happy I can join in on the excitement about Rainbow Rowell's next book being Cath's fanfic 'Carry On'!

I've read Eleanor and Park, which I enjoyed- any other Rainbow Rowell books I should be picking up?




We Were Liars 

I highly recommend reading this book. I felt completely drained after reading it, which has to be a sign of a well written book. Most reviews and recommendations I've seen on We Were Liars give absolutely nothing away, so I may follow suit on that. What I will say is that from the beginning  there is some great... experimentation with the creative writing. There are metaphors that you don't realise are metaphors until you're half way through them and figure the character's heart hasn't actually fallen out her body and rolled down the lawn. It turns to poetry at points, to great effect. It's really great to see this kind of clever writing in a young adult book, young adults definitely deserve to be seen as clever readers.

The reader follows with Cady as she slowly regains her memory, the story slowly revealing itself to the reader through the same fog the character is experiencing. There's romance, friendship, family, tragedy, heartbreak, memory loss, the works.

Go read it now! ...And then make sure you have somewhere to have a lie down when you finish it.


We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Hey look! An adult book! Like a real adult I read this book for real adult people, finishing it on the train on my 25th birthday. A really unique story, told from the perspective of a character whose experiences would never have crossed my mind otherwise. The 'twist' happens fairly early on, but still far enough into the book for it to have full twisty effect. Rosemary is a trustworthy and amiable narrator, who guides the reader with humour though a story of family heartbreak and moral questions under less than usual circumstances.












I'm having a bit of a historical fiction February, having read The Miniaturist and now Burial Rites, I might try and round off the month with another historical type thing because having a theme is nice and I've had Kate Atkinson's Life After Life sitting on my kindle for a while now. However I do have something a little more witchy- Half Bad- and something a little more dystopian- Station Eleven- so I'll have to see what takes my fancy.
Most of my book recommendations are coming from book vloggers at the moment- Carrie Hope Fletcher, Lex Croucher, booksandquills, lucythereader