12/150

"The message was short. I want to see you now. I want you to come to me, it doesn't matter how late it is, and tell me exactly what you want from me.'

At the dawn of the twenty-first century Adam Kellas finds himself hurled on a journey between continents and cultures. In his quest from the war-torn mountains of Afghanistan to the elegant dinner tables of north London and then the marshlands of the American South, only the memory of the beautiful, elusive Astrid offers the possibility of hope."

We Are Now Beginning Our Descent is a novel that I was obliged to study on my Contemporary Writing module at university. It took a while for me to get into this book, as the context and themes of the novel are all very current to the news everyday, and I tend to read books as an escapist hobby rather than a depiction of the reality of which I'm currently living in. When one puts that aside, the novel is rather good.

The text has thematics such as war, long distance love, obsession and trauma. Our protagonist Adam Kellas is a brilliant character because he develops along with the novel. Due to the clever opening of the novel, the reader is immediately thrown into the centre of a young afghan person's life, I didn't realise that this wasn't actually happening but was the musings of Adam. We discover he is a reporter out in the Middle East who is also aspiring to write a novel. Due to the opening, the reader is immediatly put into the mind set that is needed to really get behind the meaning of this text.

I believe that Meek is initially making us realise and think about the effects of seeing the ongoings in the middle east from an outsiders point of view, but due to his friend from the country we are also given the perspective of a person who is actually from the Middle East. By bringing Astrid into the novel, Meek is not only creating a sort of 'relief' character for the reader, but once again a different dimention, as Astrid's character also shows us how even though there are this incredibly horrendous things occurring abroad, she also has her own problems.

Overall this book was a good read, but I found it rather difficult to keep flicking between the various settings of the UK, the Middle East and the USA. I also question the realistic quality of Adam's decision to just jump on a plane one night and go to Astrid. Yes, I realise novels are supposed to be escapist, but one questions that idea in this scenario due to the rest of the novel seeming to be so realistic and accurate.

For me, this is about a 3 star read - Sophie.

BOOK 11/150

So, it was seeing this advert for the book that really made me want to read the book. In some ways, I think adverts for books are a great idea. They help promote books to a wider audience I suppose, but in some ways, for me they help shape the reader’s idea of the book before they read it and possibly diminish the use of the reader’s imagination when reading. When I started the book I very much had the advert in my mind and was looking out for bits in the advert as I read the book. I think it’s a bit of a shame really and wonder whether the characters would have looked completely different in my head had I not seen the advert? Anyway, if you take the advert and the book as two standalone entities, they’re both very good. The advert succeeded in its purpose and did really make me want to read the book. As a student, buying the hardback would have been a bit pricey and waiting for the paperback probably would have killed me, but luckily, Maura Bricknell (@red_books on twitter) from the Headline Publishing group flew to my rescue. She saw a tweet I posted about desperately wanting to read the book, and kindly offered to send me a copy.

So here we are. You probably don’t need my review to get you excited about the book as I think the advert really is wonderful. However I think the book actually goes a lot further than the advert. It follows the life of Elly and her brother and all the people she meets along the way. The book starts when she is around 4 years old and the beginning is written with a very fitting naive innocence that very slowly begins to unravel as we see some of the darker events that affect her life. I won’t say much more than that for fear of ruining the story for you. But there are a lot of very different interweaving storylines through the book with the two main themes being her relationship with her brother and secondly a relationship with a school friend, which comes full circle and is nicely tied up at the end.

Having two brothers myself, it was really interesting for me to see Elly’s relationship with hers, and it made what happened near the end even more heartbreaking and terrible to imagine for me. The book ties in with modern events and there are mentions of the holocaust and of 9/11 for example (something which ends up playing a huge part in the sibling’s relationship). There are also some very touching family moments and some very amusing moments to boot, for example; the children’s disastrous Nativity play. The characters are all engaging and I mean every single one of them; from their parents and dramatic auntie right down to the school teachers and their next door neighbours. There is also a bit of a fairytale-like twist where it comes to the talking Rabbit that they own called God...which also leads to some very funny occurrences. A lot of the book is serious but there are light moments throughout to alleviate this and it really is very true to life.

Finally, I know you’re not meant to judge a book by its cover but When God Was a Rabbit really does have a beautiful dust cover and I felt rather proud reading it on the train to Uni. It got quite a few admiring glances! It’s intricate yet simple...and it’s shiny, which normally helps.

So I’m going to give this 4/5 stars. I’m so glad I read it and it really is wonderfully written but it did not grip me as much as some books have before. It was a comfortable interesting read but not one that I clutched at every spare moment to read it. It’s a great debut novel by Sarah Winman, and I look forward to following her career as a writer as I’m sure she’s going to produce many more great books like this.

Next up to review is The Vanishing Acts of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell

-Char x

BOOK 10/150

Firstly, I’d like to apologise for a huge lack of updates from me recently. I have actually been keeping up with my reading and not doing a whole lot else. I’ve had two terrible bereavements in the last two weeks and a few other horrible occurrences and so I’ve just been milling around, not really doing anything useful but trying to get back to normal as much as possible. So here we are, you’re going to get three reviews in quick succession, with a whole lot more to come soon. I’ve got a huge pile of books building up due to lots of love book publishers seeing my tweets and offering to send me things! So that’s brilliant! A huge shout out of thanks needs to go to @red_books on Twitter, and the Headline Publishing group in general. But anyway, on with the reviews! The first one is Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro:

I have to admit, I didn’t really know anything about this book before I read it. I mainly chose to read it because I always like to read the book before I see the film, and as most of you probably know, this has recently been turned into a major film starring Keira Knightly and Carey Mulligan. Annoyingly, I still haven’t actually got round to seeing the film yet, so I needn’t have hurried so much reading the book, but it was pretty addictive anyway.

I knew next to nothing about the book, having only heard of the author due to a lot of my friends doing another of his books (The Remains of The Day) for their A Level English course and having picked up on a vague romantic storyline from the film trailer. I was, therefore, fairly surprised by what I ended up reading. There is indeed, a strong romantic thread throughout the book, however, it is in very strange circumstances. And I mean, very. Without giving too much away, it’s set in a boarding school, with a twist, in England in the 1990s. It is a seemingly idyllic place and the characters look back on their childhood fondly, but there was a deep secret lurking at the heart of the community, which only becomes really clear once they leave and try to carry on with their lives, which end up being so completely different from those of a normal person.

You are thrown right into the story at the beginning or “in media res” as my literature lecturers would say (It means “in the middle of things” in Latin, joyful, eh?). I found it very difficult at the beginning to really get what’s going on, and it’s not really explained until a lot further on into the book. The element of suspicion and suspense on our behalf as to what is really going on at the boarding school is evidently created on purpose, but it did mean that I spent the first half of the book wandering through, not really getting what was going on, but enjoying the writing nonetheless.

Kazuo Ishiguro really is a very interesting writer and it’s no surprise that the book was Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Despite the storyline not really being plausible (well I hope not anyway) I did still managed to get completely stuck in and felt greatly attached to the characters throughout their difficult plight through life. I was truly touched at the end, and it is very sad. I’ve heard people say great things about both the book and the film so it would seem it’s not just me that really enjoyed the story, I’d really recommend the book if you want something a bit different to get stuck into and also if you need a fairly quick read. It’s quite short and I absolutely flew through it.

I’d give this book 4/5 stars. It was brilliant, and although it did all seem very realistic, the idea of the secret that lurked behind the children’s lives really did jar with me for some reason, and I did sometimes feel myself reading it from a distance, being a bit cynical about the whole idea. I’d really like to explore Kazuo Ishiguro’s works further though and will try and read some more of his books before the year is out.

Next reviews will hopefully be up tomorrow morning. Was planning on doing them all tonight but this took my a horrendously long time to right.

-Char

BOOK 9/150

From Notting Hill...With Love Actually- Ali McNamara

A brilliant girlie novel centred around Scarlett, a movie obsessed woman who relates every event in her life to a film. She moves to London to house sit a property in Notting Hill leaving behind her sensible boyfriend David. Whilst in London she searches for the mother she has never met and she also meets a number of new friends on the way. I don't really want to say much more about it as I will give too much away.

There isn't a huge amount of plot to the book and it is very predictable but I absolutely loved it. It made me want to get out my film collection and visit all the places in London that are mentioned. The book even comes with a guide to London at the end and holds the details of the places Scarlett visits in the book and her favourite films and where they took place.

A light and frivolous read that will appeal to chick-lit fans and chick-flick watchers alike.

I am going to give this 4/5. At present this is the author's only book but it has definitely left me waiting for the next book which is released later on this year.

-Hayley

BOOK 8/150

Last Night At Chateau Marmont-Lauren Weisberger

As a massive fan of Lauren Weisberger I am always disappointed that more of her books don't exist. I realise that there are probably less because she focuses on the books that she publishes being of higher quality which is of course admirable. I have saved this book for a few weeks so that I could read it as a real treat. I started reading it during the end of my revision period and finished it very shortly after my exams. This in itself is a credit to the book as I am a fairly slow reader but I managed to read this very quickly.

I always find Lauren's style easy to read and the subject matter of this book sucked me in like no other. The book focuses on the lives of Brooke and Julian. Brooke attempting to support her husband in the start of his music career by working two jobs. Their lives change forever when he is signed as an artist by Sony and the book follows the couple as what should be the happiest times of their lives creates turmoil and distress within their relationship. It brings to the forefront of your mind just what a life followed by paparazzi would be like and that even when dreams come true they aren't always what you imagined they would be.

Written in her usual slick style you find yourself empathizing with Brooke but the one thing that this book lacked, unlike her other novels, was the razor-sharp wit that she was renowned for from the Devil wears Prada. This said I still really enjoyed it and it was nice to see Weisberger produce a departure from her other novels.

I'm going to go for a 4/5 as for me it just wasn't quite as good as Chasing Harry Winston or The Devil Wears Prada. Even if you haven't read one of her books though I would definitely give it a go and see what you think

-Hayley

BOOK 7/150

I Heart New York-Lindsey Kelk

It has been a few weeks now since I finished this so apologies for only just getting round to reviewing it now. This is a typical chick-lit book and was brilliant for a bit of light reading around the time of my university exams.

The story focuses on Angela Clarke, a woman who flees the UK after discovering her fiance had been cheating on her. All of this takes place on the day of her best friends wedding who also knew about the affair. Feeling betrayed she boards a plane to New York in just the bridesmaid dress she was wearing, with a pair of Louboutin shoes and her passport. It is a story of self-discovery and moving on which is told in a light-hearted manner. She soon finds herself writing a blog on her life in NYC and the two guys that she is dating.

This would make the perfect beach read however since it's been a few weeks since I have read it I feel rather underwhelmed by the book. This said I would probably read the other books in the series as a bit of relaxation and I can be quite sure that fans of chick lit will love this book.

I'm going to give it 3/5 and say that to read another one I would have to be in the mood for it. Check out review number one of the blog though as this includes Carly's review of I Heart Paris, the final book from the same series.

-Hayley

BOOK 6/150

LOVE ALWAYS - HARRIET EVANS

Harriet is one of my favourite authors of all time and I have loved every single one of her books. She also happens to be a complete legend is absolutely lovely on twitter! But, back to the book; Love Always has not disappointed at all. When I received the book I was quite surprised at the size of it! It’s a pretty hefty book, but with an absolutely gorgeous cover that just made me want to jump straight into it.

The subject matter of the book actually surprised me quite a lot, I was expecting another very romance centric book, which don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love, but this was something very different. There are moments of beautiful romance but there is much more to the book than that. It is about family dynamics and secrets and the life changing effects that they can have. There’s an element of the crime mystery in the book and a lot of underlying secrets to discover which all wind together very cleverly.

I don’t think I can actually fault this book at all. It surprised and shocked me in all the right ways and even managed to give me that warm fuzzy feeling we all search for. Finally, Harriet’s descriptions of that part of London are absolutely fantastic and actually caused me to take a trip over that way on Sunday. I explored the delights of Spitalfields markets and even bought a necklace while I was there in tribute to Natasha.

If you’re looking to explore chick lit a bit more I’d really recommend this, as it has some elements of it but has a great serious side as well with some gripping passages. The use of the diary of young Cecily is also very interesting and really contrasts nicely with Natasha’s narration and yet compliments it at the same time. This book is all round good stuff and I’m going to be lending it to all my friends.

5/5 stars again for me here! I’m a roll!

------

Also, we don't seem to be doing too badly with our target and I believe we've actually read more than we've reviewed so far! I've also got a HUGE backlog of things to read but have been focusing a lot more on uni books at the moment as I'm sure we all have.

My next two book reviews to look forward to will be Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro & You Don't Have To Say You Love Me by Sarra Manning

I'm also really interested to know what books anyone would recommend to me at the moment. Is there anyone out there dying to give us some recommendations, because we'll definitely try and follow them up.

I'm also thinking of trying to organise a little giveaway of some sort, so let me know if you'd be interested in that too.

And, FINALLY, if you're liking the blog, please follow us so we can know who's out there and try and catch up with your blogs too!

Thanks, Charlotte x