Hi friends!! I thought I'd start a new monthly series about books on this blog!! Because I don't already talk about enough stuff on here!! Yes, you may well ask what I am on. But books are a big part of my life, being an English student and all, so I thought I might just talk about it a bit more. I also want to talk a little more about poetry and my love for it too so if you have any ideas on literature based posts you want to see please let me know!! But for now, I'm just going to talk you through six of the books that I've read and loved this month...
Maurice by E.M. Forster
This is a book I actually picked up in order to analyse it for my English essay on queer theory and queer/gender identity (sounds boring but definitely isn't, I'm so proud of that essay, took me long enough!) and I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I'd seen the film before I read the book which I always find helps a lot with classics since they're much easier to follow that way, but actually this wasn't so bad! It's set in 1913 and is based on the struggle of a young man, Maurice, on his path to discovering and accepting his homosexuality. Given that homosexuality was obviously illegal in England at that point (crazy) it's super interesting to see how much queer narratives have changed since then. Well worth a read if that's your sort of thing.
Trumpet by Jackie Kay
Another one I read for my essay, another queer narrative that focuses much more on gender identity. I LOVE THIS BOOK. It's the only one of my course books that I've actually categorically enjoyed this year, and that I actually wanted to keep reading. It focuses on the wife of a deceased famous trumpet player, Millie, who is keeping her husband's secret (won't tell you what it is though) but her son Colman is conspiring with a journalist in order to release the secret to the world. Everything about this book, from the way that gender and racial identities are discussed, to the changing points of view, is perfect and I love it.
1984 by George Orwell
Not another classic!! BUT it's the classic that founded dystopian fiction. A tough, tough read I'll grant you that, I haven't actually finished it yet because it's taking me so long to get through it but I'm really enjoying it. I love dystopian fiction so much, I think it's definitely up there with one of my favourite genres, and this just does it so so perfectly (as you'd expect from the book that made dystopia into a thing, right) and I'm really loving it so far.
Paris For One and Other Stories by Jojo Moyes
Anyone who knows me will tell you what a huge fan of Jojo Moyes I am, I adored Me Before You and I've read several of her other books since that one and loved them all. I won't lie, I was never a fan of short stories, I didn't really get the point of them and I felt I was always left wanting more, but with this, Moyes nails the genre so well. She ties up all the knots and into a beautiful little parcel at the end of each story and it leaves you not wanting more, but feeling fulfilled and happy because they're all such perfect stories. I love the beauty she writes romance, and the twists she always puts in her stories, and if you've read The Girl You Left Behind then you'll want to read one of the stories in this book as it's a little prequel and it's just so perfect.
The Beach House by Jane Green
Jane Green is another author who I've begun to get really into. I've read one of her other books, Falling and loved it, so when I was given this one for Christmas I was sure I'd love it equally as much. And it's not that I don't love it, but I don't love it as much. It's got that multiple narration thing going on in it, the same sort of thing we see in Love Actually, lots of different stories going on at the same time, and generally that's a really cool idea, I just felt that in The Beach House, there were almost too many narrations going on and I felt it was kind of easy to get lost in that, and forget which storylines belonged to which characters and so on, and lose the plot a little bit. That being said though, the actual way Jane Green writes is amazing, her detailed descriptions really draw you into the novel and she has this amazing ability to feed the reader information bit by bit and it does keep you hooked. I felt the twist at the end was a tad implausible, but then again, that's going to happen in every book we read!!
Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding
What a classic. More of a modern classic though, I'd say. I love Bridget Jones. I've seen all the films and adored them and most of all I just love the character of Bridget Jones so much. She's that character that everyone can relate to in some way, no matter if you're in exactly the same situations as her or just see your life playing out in the same way, there's going to be something that happens to Bridget or something that Bridget does that you'll be able to relate to. I also love diary narratives, I think they're such an immersive way of reading literature, they really make the reader feel like they're living the life of that character and I think it's so cool that a simple technique like a diary format can do that. Even just for a light read this is such a good book, I think everyone should read this at some point or anything because it's just fantastic.
And we're finally at the end of my rambling on about books!! Let me know if you like this and want to see more, or just in general if you want to see more literature based posts!
What books have you been reading recently?
Em xx
No comments:
Post a Comment