Giovanni's Room

One of those few rare books that gave me lots of feels, this was beautifully written and heartwrenching to read. This is the story of a man unable to come to terms with his sexuality and then finding someone with whom he has a true connection but letting his own deep set prejudices plus the stigma of the times cloud his feelings.  I cannot begin to think about how this must be for someone, bearing in mind this is set in the 1950's where society wasn't quite as accepting as it is now (in most places anyway). 

Absorbing and beautiful.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

For me, this would fall somewhere between 3 and 4 stars - it was an excellent story with good plot twists and great relationships, particularly between our heroine Agnieszka and her best friend Kasia, but some points were a little *too* convenient. For example, Agnieszka discovers that she has a latent magical ability that develops, but the rate of which this happens is a little too unbelievable, one minute she is fluffing spells left right and centre, next she is summoning great illusions and casting spells that haven't been cast for hundreds of years!  The other part of the novel that felt a little odd for me, and i never thought that I would find myself writing this, was the sex scene...yes yes, that's right, I thought the sex scene was not in keeping with the rest of the story and was unnecessary! It kinda came from out of the blue (so to speak) and didn't really have much bearing on anything else in the story to be honest.  The rest of the book read like a grown up fairytale which would have worked perfectly well without the scene in question.  Still, it was a great read however I read it in fits and starts (as I have been having staying awake for more than 10 minutes at a time whilst reading recently) and I really would have benefited from reading it in bigger chunks to appreciate it more fully.  Plus the main baddy is great and would happily read a stand alone about them alone!

Still Here!

Hi!

Sorry for being so pants and not updating for a little while, been a little busy at work, life etc. and generally been rubbish at doing things like updating blogs!

I'm still reading as much as I can, and have updated my Read Harder list as appropriate, although I have read lots more that don't fit into those categories.  Still, it gives me some challenges to complete before the year is out.

I will try harder to update more often, but for now I'll leave you with a little music, with Notre Dame...