Money chat book club

Nicole Cliffe is very very right on this.

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The Fever – Megan Abbott

(please enjoy my new blanket, which is a recycled wool one from the National Trust)

There’s something bad happening in Dryden.

When Lise Daniels collapses to the floor during math class, a cloud of fear and speculation settles over the school. Parents and teachers scramble to protect the students, but how do you stop what you can’t contain?

Because Lise, beautiful Lise, is only the first: one by one the girls become victims, betrayed by their bodies, becoming strangers to themselves.

As hysteria swells, swecrets will spill, and the safe world we’ve been building for our children will start to come apart.

The Girl Of Ink & Stars – Kiran Millwood-Hargrave

Forbidden to leave her island, Isabella dreams of the faraway lands her cartographer father once mapped. When her friend disappears, she volunteers to guide the search. The world beyond the walls is a monster-filled wasteland – and beneath the dry rivers and smoking mountains, a fire demon is stirring from its sleep. Soon, following her map, her heart and an ancient myth, Isabella discovers the true end of her journey: to save the island itself.

Alice in Wonderland – The British Library

A few weeks ago, I met up with some friends to go to the Alice In Wonderland exhibition at the British Library. Despite having lived in London most of my life, and working in a library for over three years, I’d never actually been into the British Library before: I’d been to a talk about women and regional diversity in media, and I went to an Amanda Palmer gig there, but as those were both in the auditorium, I don’t feel like they really count as actual visits… So I was very pleased to finally go!

Book challenge #35: A book more than 100 years old

White Fang and Call of the Wild – Jack London

Back in May, I was feeling sad so I walked along the Southbank to London Bridge to go home, via the Southbank book market. As well as a copy of Love in a Cold Climate (which I no longer have), I bought a copy of White Fang and Call of the Wild. I used to have the Children’s Classics edition of White Fang as a child, one of a big set which, sadly, disappeared.

Reading challenge #5: A book with a one word title

Warpaint, Alicia Foster

I was given Warpaint for Christmas (by a friend whose recommendations have made me fall in love with such books as The Selected Works of T S Spivet and The Art of Fielding and who therefore is always to be trusted). I then got distracted partway because, as we’ve previously established, I am an idiot.

Reading challenge #4: A book based on a true story

The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan

It doesn’t seem right to say that I enjoyed this, even though I was compelled by it. It’s too harrowing to be enjoyed. Scenes of horrific beatings, of disease, of operations without anaesthetic, of fires and floods and drownings, of starvation, of the cruelty that people can, and do, inflict on one another, of the cruelty that nature inflicts, too. The fact that it is based on real events (Flanagan’s father was a survivor of the Burma Railway, and died the day the book was finished) makes it haunting, terrifying, and utterly gripping.

Reading challenges!

2015:

It is February, but challenges aren’t just for new years, months, weeks or days… So I’m doing this reading challenge, along with a couple of friends (who will turn it into a competition, because it’s always a competition – any suggestions for prizes are welcome!). I’m going to read a different book for each one, which means I need to get a wriggle on as I’ve only finished two books so far this year…  I’ll update each time I’ve ticked one off.

• A book with more than 500 pages (#6)
• A classic romance (#30)
• A book that became a movie (#15)
• A book published this year (#1)
• A book with a number in the title
• A book written by someone under 30 (#28)
• A book with non-human characters (#10)
• A funny book (#12)
• A book by a female author (#7)
• A mystery or thriller (#14)
• A book with a one word title (#5)
• A book of short stories
• A book set in a different country (#22)
• A nonfiction book (#27)
• A popular author’s first book (#20)
• A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet (#25)
• A book a friend recommended (#3)
• A Pulitzer Prize-winning book
• A book based on a true story (#4)
• A book at the bottom of your to-read list (#13)
• A book your Mum loves
• A book that scares you
• A book more than 100 years old (#35)
• A book based entirely on its cover (#18)
• A book you were supposed to read in school but didn’t
• A memoir (#8)
• A book you can finish in a day (#21)
• A book with antonyms in the title (#32)
• A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit (#17)
• A book that came out the year you were born
• A book with bad reviews (#34)
• A trilogy
• A book from your childhood (#16)
• A book with a love triangle (#11)
• A book set in the future
• A book set in high school (#23)
• A book with a colour in the title (#9)
• A book that made you cry (#29)
• A book with magic (#19)
• A graphic novel
• A book by an author you’ve never read before (#24)
• A book you own but have never read (#26)
• A book that takes place in your hometown (#2)
• A book that was originally written in a different language
• A book set during Christmas (#31)
• A book written by an author with your same initials
• A play
• A banned book
• A book based on or turned into a TV show
• A book you started but never finished (#33)

Wish me luck, join in, tell me what you think of any or all of the books I talk about, or anything else you’d like to tell me, in the comments!

2016:

New year, new reading challenge! This year I’m doing Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge:

• read a horror book
• read a nonfiction book about science
• read a collection of essays: Sightlines (16/6/16)
• read a book out loud to someone else: Mr Chicken Lands On London (21/9/16)
• read a middle grade novel: A Monster Calls, 23/10/16
• read a biography (not a memoir or autobiography)
• read a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel
• read a book originally published in the decade you were born: Calendar Girl (29/5/16)
• listen to an audiobook that has won an Audie award
• read a book over 500 pages long
• read a book under 100 pages
• read a book by or about someone who identifies as transgender
• read a book that is set in the Middle East: Salmon Fishing In The Yemen (19/9/16)
• read a book that is by an author from Southeast Asia
• read a book of historical fiction that is set before 1900
• read the first book in a series by a person of colour
• read a non-superhero comic that debuted in the last three years: Star Wars: Shattered Empire (16/1/16)
• read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie. Debate which is better: Love, Nina (29/12/16)
• read a nonfiction book about feminism or dealing with feminist issues: Shrill (4/7/16)
• read a book about politics, in your country or another
• read a food memoir: Garlic, Mint & Sweet Basil (7/11/16)
• read a play
• read a book with a main character that has a mental illness: The Manifesto On How To Be Interesting (12/3/16), The Rest Of Us Just Live Here (21/3/16), All The Bright Places (13/5/16)

Reading challenge #1: A book published this year

The Shadow Cabinet, Maureen Johnson

The first book I finished this year starts me off nicely, because it’s “A book published this year”: The Shadow Cabinet, by Maureen Johnson, which was published on the 5th of February.