Books I read in July! Part 1: The Lives of Christopher Chant, The Uncommoners: The Crooked Sixpence, Rooftoppers

Helloo! Here's part one of my July reading roundup. I read 9 books in July so I'm splitting the reviews up into chunks. I read three lovely middle grade/ children's books, which was such a nice, cosy, comforting thing to do. The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones, The Uncommoners: The Crooked Sixpenec by Jennifer Bell, and Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell.

The Lives of Christopher Chant

This wonderful prequel is set years before Charmed Life and follows Christopher Chant's childhood before his adult role of Chrestomanci begins. Christopher has the ability to travel between worlds, which he does at night in his sleep, unbeknownst to his parents visiting wonderful vivid lands. Upon his Uncle Ralph's discovery of this power, Christopher is sent to these lands to bring back magical objects and artefacts. These dangerous trips lead to several disastrous injuries and it isn't long before Christopher's nine lives are discovered. Now destined to be the next Chrestomanci (for whom having nine lives is very important), and down several of those lives already, Christopher is sent off to Chrestomanci Castle to receive his magical education, much to his dismay as he has ambitions of being a cricket player. If you've read Charmed Life, you'll see a lot of Cat in Christopher as he gets used to the grim loneliness and strange magic of the castle. The goddess he meets in one of the worlds is a brilliant character, as is the cat Throgmorton. Full of Diana Wynne Jones' wonderful world building, charming details, and the perfect grumpy little boy voice. Definitely read this, Charmed Life and Howl's Moving Castle. I'll be getting myself a copy of every other Diana Wynne Jones book asap!

The Uncommoners: The Crooked Sixpence

After their grandma Sylvie has a fall and is rushed to hospital, Ivy Sparrow and her big brother end up travelling through a suit case to a land beneath London, where everyday objects like colanders and belts have very Uncommon special usages in a very magical way. Their grandmother's past is intertwined with this underworld, but unfortunately that past is a big mystery as Sylvie lost her memory in a car crash years ago in 1969.  They have to figure out how their grandmother is linked to this uncommon world in order to ensure the safety of their family. The world building is vivid and wonderful creating one of my favourite alternate Londons. Ivy is a great lead character too. It really reminded me of Heap House by Edward Carey, with its uncommon objects, and had much of the charm of Diana Wynne Jones about it too!

Rooftoppers

This is a beautiful book. As a baby, Sophie is found floating in the sea in a cello case after a shipwreck in the English Channel, by a man named Charles. He raises her, but her place with him is threatened by the childcare authorities, who believe no young lady should be raised by a man alone. Sophie believes her mother was in that boat and has vivid memories of her playing the cello. She strongly believes her mother is still alive. So Charles and Sophie run away following a clue in her cello case to a Parisian music shop. With a fondness for high places, Sophie learns all about the city from its rooftops and along with some new rooftop dwelling friends, goes in search for clues to the possible whereabouts of her mother. It's a really magical-lovely-spellbinding-wonderful rooftop world, with a heartwarming and impossibly exciting story. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. 

That's it for part 1 of my July reading round up. Part 2 coming soon, featuring Passenger, Uprooted, On the Other Side and Ctlr, Alt; Delete!

One Year of Book Blogging/ Books I read in December: Heap House, The Wolf Wilder, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Hellooo! Long time no blog! No excuses just somehow managed to have a whole January away from blogtown. Oopsie. I started book blogging a year ago in January, mostly to keep track of what I was reading and to encourage me to read more. I hit my 50 book challenge, which I was very pleased about, and have a blog full of posts with my thoughts on those books. I also managed to blog everyday in August, which was a total challenge, but I was super proud of myself for following through. This year I'm gonna keep book blogging, and really really properly try to do some popular culture commentary style blogging, in a bid to keep my essay writing skills up to scratch.  Sticking to the 50 book challenge again, although this year I'm allowing in graphic novels to that count. For some reason last year I decided to keep it strictly to novels, but graphic novels totally count! I intend to keep my eyes peeled for blogging opportunities and collaborations and be super duper active in the book blogging community. Cos if something's worth doing, it's worth doing properly. Hear, hear!

I finished the year off with a relatively small number of reads, but I did start the year off aiming for three books a month so it's perfectly reasonable really. Those books were Heap House by Edward Carey, The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell, annnnnd a reread of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by Her Majesty J.K. Rowling. 

Heap House

I really enjoyed this book and despite it taking me ages and ages to read, I really enjoyed being in its world. Heap House is set in a world of rubbish heaps outside London, in a sort of trash based steam punk Victorian alternative history. Heap House is owned by the Iremongers, a family who rule the heaps and all have very close relationships with their 'birth objects', items which have been assigned to them at birth. Clod Iremonger has a special ability to hear these objects speak their own names, and the story unfolds to unravel the meaning behind this mysterious gift. I got very wrapped up in the world following Clod and Lucy Pennant at their opposite ends of the house and social hierarchy. I have books 2 and 3 in this series so I'm looking forward to diving right back into that world. For Lemony Snicket lovers and Steam Punk appreciators.

The Wolf Wilder

I think I might give this it's very own stand alone review because I loooooooved it. I picked up The Wolf Wilder at the Edinburgh Book Festival last year and saved it til the winter months to get in the right cold, dark mood for some Russian wolf based adventuring. The story follows Feodora, who lives with her mother in a very snowy remote part of Russia, where they 'rewild' wolves who have been the fancy pets of fancy people in the cities. The horrible, evil Russian army come and ruin everyone's day, leading to a departure from this beautiful way of life, to one on the run. Feo travels through terrible snow storms with her pack of wolves to seek justice. There are quite a few sad bits (my copy is currently lent out to Katherine, who can't keep reading for fear of more wolf-harm), but I promise there is a happy ending, and it really is an exciting, snowy, wolfy adventure. For lovers of wolves, mother-daughter relationships, and baddies getting poked in the eye. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Wellll of course this is a reread, but I don't think I've read it in several years, possibly even not since my last reread the year it came out. But that can't be true suuuuurely! As it had been so long there were loads of little things I had forget/had been written over by the films in my brain: Harry's birthday at the Burrow with the giant snitch cake; Harry on Polyjuice potion for Bill and Fleur's wedding to look like a random Weasley cousin; the final goodbye between Harry and Dudley; poor Kreacher left behind at Grimmauld Place; Harry mending his own wand, then putting the Elder wand back in Dumbledore's crypt; and ohhhh my that final show down in the great, with Harry firing curses from under the invisibility cloak then appearing to shock everyone, and then the rising sun hitting his and Voldemort's faces after Harry's big monologue where suddenly he understands everything, and then the final spells pow! Ohhh so great. So so great. My heart was facing. It's facing again just thinking about it now. I should probably so start from the beginning again, which I could do with the illustrated Philosopher's Stone I got for Christmas!

Sooo that's all folks, I did start reading My True Love Gave To Me but I finished it in January so it'll appear in my post on that month. January was short stories month and it was raaaather fun. It was my birthday in January too, so I think I'll do a post on the books I got for Christmas/Birthday from people/presents to myself. 

Heap House was sent to me by Hot Key Books in return for an honest review. The freeness of the book in no way affected my opinion.