44 books down....

So guys, it turns out keeping up with a blog like this is a lot harder than I ever thought. Especially seeing as the second half of my year has been taking up with moving to France and starting university over here. Luckily, it's not been detrimental to my reading and I'm still on track with my 50 book challenge.

I'm on 44 books at the moment and am pretty sure I can make it to 50 before the year is out. I've got quite a few on the go at the moment and my Kindle has been a godsend seeing as I've been travelling a lot.

If you'd like to see all the books I've got through so far there is a link.....here!

I've read so many great books this year so I really do want to get round to writing a little bit about most of them.

The one that has really touched me the most recently was Before I Die by Jenny Downham. It is an incredibly powerful book. I'd definitely recommend it but I would warn you that you really need to prepare yourself for it. I mean, the premise is kind of given away by the title: it is about a teenage girl with cancer who writes a list of things she'd like to achieve before she dies. However, knowing this does not soften the blow at all. There are parts that will make you laugh and touch your heart but I have to admit the ending nearly broke mine. I have never had such an emotional reaction to a book. I don't know whether perhaps it's due to the fact that I've recently been touched by grief which made it feel particularly pertinent and it ended up bringing back a lot of feelings and memories of that time and it was consequently particularly hard to deal with. This didn't make me any less eager to read it though...I'd often pick up the book meaning only to read for about 15 minutes and ending up carrying on for nearly a good hour. It is an incredibly well written and touching book. Go and read it....but don't say I didn't warn you when you end up sobbing all over it while you feel like your head is about to implode with the injustice of it all.

So that's my little message done really. I will endeavour to post about as many books as possible but do know that I am still beavering away at my target despite being snowed under with French university work and the prospect of then moving to Spain in two months...(yes, it's all go with me at the moment!). Also, finally, please excuse any strange grammatical bits and bobs that have appeared into this post...my English syntax and way of speaking has gone a little bit awry due to the amount of French that I am currently subject too! Haha!

Until next time, Char x

17/150

You Don't Have To Say You Love Me - Sarra Manning

Sarra Manning has been one of my favourite authors for quite some time. I adored her Diary of a Crush books as a teenager, and have followed her all the way into adulthood. I was not too sure about her first adult novel ‘Unsticky’, but I have to say I enjoyed ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’ much more.

Before I started reading it, I had been warned by a friend with very similar literary tastes that she’d actually had to set it aside soon after starting it because she’d found it unnecessarily…how shall I put it….’sexually graphic’? My friend is not a prude by any means, I guess it’s just not what she was expecting from the book, and fair enough really. I didn’t see it coming either. I thought ‘nooooo, that can’t be true’. Consequently I started reading the novel in the doctor’s waiting room a couple of days later and immediately found myself going ‘oh dear God, I hope no one is reading this over my shoulder!’. That said, I did manage to get used to all the sexual moments (which at times seemed a rather unnecessary…) and ended up really enjoying the novel as a whole. As ever I got completely addicted and could barely put it down. I did find the main character, Neve, fairly frustrating at times and my empathy for her came and went throughout the different episodes in the book. However, by the end, I was firmly back on her side and was pleased with how the book ended.

Another thing I really enjoyed was the fact that it was set right in the heart of London and I found myself recognising so many of the places mentioned. It’s lovely to read a book set in your hometown and around all your regular haunts. This really added something for me! So all in all, I’m going to give this book 3 and a half stars out of 5. There were moments I really loved and which compelled me to keep reading but I’ve not given it four stars as I have to many others, just because I occasionally found the main character so frustrating and the book did sometimes feel rather long. Can’t wait to see what’s coming next from Sarra Manning though, she’s such a great author whose books I think I will always read whether they’re adult or YA.

Char x

16/150

Antes Que Anochezca (Before Night Falls, in English) - Reinaldo Arenas

This is a book that I read for my university module ‘Culture and Identity in Latin America’ so I won’t go into great detail about it.

It is an autobiographical novel written by Reinaldo Arenas who was a homosexual man living in Cuba under Fidel Castro. He was greatly persecuted and ended up fleeing to America where he sadly committed suicide in 1990 at the age of only 47. It is astounding to read first-hand what horrors he went through in such recent times and what life in Cuba was really like then. Another surprising part of the book is how sexually explicit it is, it is not a book for the faint hearted in that respect. Whilst shocking it is written in such a beautiful way by Arenas that you can really appreciate the literary genius behind it. The book shows us snippets from throughout his life, from his childhood in the countryside with his mum, grandma and many aunts to his final freedom and happiness in New York before he became ill with AIDS.

As well as this biography put together and finished just before his death, Arenas has also written a number of other novels, all of which are said to have some sort of autobiographic aspect to them. I’d really love to read some of these as his life and writing has really captured me just through reading this book and I’d really recommend it to anyone who was interested in this area of study and interest. There is also a great film adaption of the book starring Javier Bardem which is well worth a watch if anybody does happen to be interested but the book seems a bit hard going.

The book is available in the original Spanish and English to get from amazon and I ended up reading both…does that mean I can count it as two books? I’m kidding. I won’t. Anyway, to wrap this up, I’m going to give this book 4 and a half stars. It’s definitely not something I would have picked for myself had I not had to study it but it really did interest me in the end and I (shock horror) actually enjoyed revising it for me exam!

Char x

15/150

Getting Away With It - Julie Cohen

I got sent this book by the lovely publishers, Headline Review and am really glad they did. It’s probably not a book I would have picked for myself in a book shop. It’s fairly long at over 500 pages and is a “big” book, if you know what I mean, not just a normal handbag sized one, but a sort of ‘oversized’ one. Not that I’m complaining, sometimes it’s nice to have a big book to dig into. Having said that, it can be tricky if you get addicted to and can’t put down a book of over 500 pages, which is exactly what happened here.

The novel is about a set of twins who end up doing a swap, but not in a completely cliché way. The one unreliable and carefree twin is left with no choice but to take over her serious and organised sister’s life. She must take over the family business without anyone noticing the swap and is left with her mother who has rapidly declined with Alzheimer’s disease. Having had first-hand experience of this terrible condition, it was really interesting to see it being dealt with in a book like this. From the book’s cover you might think that it was a chick-lit book full of sweetness and light, but amongst some lighter moments (the family owns an ice cream factory and Liza must invent a new flavour…Beetroot and Horseradish!!), these more serious moments with her mother and the difficult twin relationship are dealt with very well and really give a great insight into both situations.

It is a funny, warm and sometimes sad novel with great characters and intriguing twists and I would say it’s a great book to take on holiday with you. At 500 pages it’ll last you a good while but there’s pretty much no chance you’ll get bored with it. It’s fast paced and should really capture your attention as soon as you sit down on your sun lounger. I definitely wish I’d had something like this to take on my hols with me. So all in all, I’m going to give this book 4/5 stars. It surprised me and I really did enjoy it. It’s probably not a book I would read again but it was greatly satisfying at the time. I look forward to hunting down some more of Julie Cohen’s novels to add to my enormous ‘to read’ list!

Char x

BISCUITS - Fox's Chunkie Extremely Chocolatey Cookies!

So, this blog is called Books and Biscuits for a reason!!! It was originally a name that Hayley and I came up with for a book group at school which we decided to carry on here. The three of us love our biscuits.

My favourite is probably some sort of double chocolate massive fat cookie or those ones you get from Lidl which are rectangular and have a chocolate top! Although shortbread would have to come as a close second....

Not that I ever get to eat the shortbread from a selection because that is Sophie's favourite, and she has been known to fiercely guard her good old fashioned scottish biccies with a vengeance and is not afraid to use physical violence to get me out of the way where they are concerned. I hasten to add this is only the case with shortbread....she's lovely to me all the rest of the time!

Hayley also has a bit of a dilemma for her favourite, as she can't decide between a good old cookie like me, or a more traditional bourbon.

Luckily the laws of this land don't limit us to only one kind of biscuit so we can....and we do, enjoy all these different types. A massive armchair, a cup of coffee or tea, a good old biscuit and a book are one of the greatest pleasures in life. So here, on this blog we are going to celebrate our favourite biscuits and our new discoveries and let you in on our biscuity secrets.

This weeks featured biscuits (hee! Feel like I should congratulate it...!) are Fox's Chunkie Extremely Chocolatey Cookies....which are only £1 in Tesco at the moment. AMAZING. Wish I'd bought more than one packet.....me..? Greedy? Never.

They're huge, have massive pieces of chocolate and nut in them and one side is covered in chocolate....what more can you ask for??? Having said that, I think it's actually possible to get even more chocolately ones as well so I shall have to hunt them down!

I hope we've helped give you a craving to settle down with a book and a biscuit today and I hope you're awaiting our next biscuit rec eagerly. I shall see if I can get Hayley to do some of her amazing home-made ones and post the recipe! Ooooh! Look forward to it!

Char x

14/150

Absent Love: A Chronicle - Rosa Montero

Read for uni, don't ask, just don't ask. Most horrific module to revise for ever. After having slaved through this book, in Spanish AND English, then found out I couldn't even write about it in the exam. *grumbles*.

However, I think under other circumstances I might have quite enjoyed the book, so I'm going to give it 3/5. It's well written and gives and interesting insight in the transition into democracy in Spain after the death of Franco and the end of the dictatorship. It also focuses very strongly on the lives of women and furthermore, the fact that it is written by a strong independent woman novelist is something that was very unusual for the time.

13/150

Unfortunately due to exams, I have got horribly far behind with my reading and reviewing. It was way back near Easter that I read this book but have not had time to review until now. I have a few uni books to add in that I won't review fully as they're quite specific, and frankly I don't want to think about my exams any more that I have to!

The Vanishing Acts of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell

The Vanishing Acts Of Esme Lennox was an absolutely great book which grabbed me from start to finish and has helped truly cement Maggie O’Farrell as one of my all-time favourite authors. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is I love so much about her books but I really truly do. I know part of it is how real the books are, absolutely everything is believable. I often struggle to suspend my belief for certain stories which just go too far beyond reality, but with Maggie O’Farrell’s books this problem doesn’t even present itself. The characters are so real you feel like you can almost touch them, and whilst the story lines are dramatic and attention-grabbing, they are not ridiculous or far-fetched.

I’d really recommend this book to anyone. It was originally a book for my mum’s book group and I just happened to grab it and start reading to pass some time and ended up getting completely carried away and reading it in one go. I can really understand why it was chosen as a book group read, it’s a classic novel which I know will be popular for years to come. Whilst being half set in the present, the book will never age or be out of place due to the clever narrative and not being too specific to the time it is set. The portrayal of the past is much more important in the book and is set in a very specific time period where society was very different and things which were commonplace then, seem shocking now. The book links the present and past brilliantly and finally reaches a climatic end with an actually fairly shocking finale. I was quite surprised by it, and am still slightly confused by it. I’d love to hear what other people thought of the ending, as I’ve read many people saying it was unnecessary, but I am still undecided. Either way, it was a great read, and the book really ended with a spectacular bang. I’d give it 4 and a half stars because I’m still not quite sure what to make of the ending, but then again, I like the fact that it’s given me something to think about. Could it have ended any other way? Maybe I’ll nudge it up to a 4 and ¾ out of 5……? Hmm….

Char x