AHHHHHHHH IT’S NEARLY JUNE.
But let’s talk about May!
This month I read a YA contemporary, a children’s classic, a chick lit, a poetry collection, finished a YA sci-fi series and a play!
Yeah so there’s quite a bit to get through so let’s go!
The Manifesto On How to be Interesting by Holly Bourne.
This is a fantastic YA contemporary about an aspiring writer who is told to make her work more interesting. She sees the popular clique, wonders why they’re so interesting and manages to become a part of them while blogging about them anonymously. Holly Bourne has a fantastic way of weaving subplots together. This book not only follows Bree, the main character, through her quest as part of the popular clique but through her relationship with her parents, her relationship with a certain teacher and her emotional issues. Should note that I did a full review HERE < and there is a couple of references to self harm so if you’re triggered – proceed with caution!
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
What I didn’t know when I picked up this book was that this is actually a short story collection with a few poems/songs in there too! The first two short stories follow the well known characters like Mowgli and Shere Khan and Baloo. But there’s also other short stories that follow different characters in different areas of the jungle.
Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this. I did like the poems/songs but I found the stories really tedious. I couldn’t connect with anyone and I had trouble visualizing the setting. It just wasn’t for me I’m afraid!
I adored this novel! This is Rainbow Rowell’s latest novel (published July 2014) and I thought it was time to catch up. This novel follows Georgie, a television writer who is close to a breakthrough with her show but that means not being able to spend the Christmas holidays with her husband and daughters. While they’re on holiday, Georgie finds a phone that allows her to talk to her husband Neal… just from 15 years prior. I preferred this to her other non-ya novel Attachments, the plot moved along quite nicely, there was diversity within the characters – of whom I enjoyed getting to know! This book is filled with Rainbow Rowell goodness so if you’re into her YA work and want to read more general fiction – highly recommend you start with Landline!
The World’s Wife by Carol Ann Duffy
I adored this poetry collection! A very imaginative and creative take on famous male dominated stories but through the point of view of their wives or sisters or mothers in some cases. Some of these poems are inspired by people such as Darwin (Mrs Darwin), King Kong (Queen Kong) and The Kray Sisters (The Kray Twins). This is a very clever poetry collection that I highly recommend!
Shades of Earth by Beth Revis.
This is the conclusion to the Across The Universe series by Beth Revis. This is a dystopian/futuristic/sci-fi series that follows Amy and Elder. Amy’s parents are invited to live and start a world on this other planet but they have to be frozen for 300 years on a ship called Godspeed that will take them there and Amy goes along with them but when she’s on the ship she’s woken up about 50 years before they’re due on the planet. Elder is the second in command on Godspeed and they fall in love with each other. This is a good series. There’s lots of terminology in the first book that can be confusing and the instalove makes me want to bash my head against a wall. However, the development of the series is really great. I really like how each book improves. In this book there is a poor attempt at a love triangle but compared to the other two this book had so many twist and turns that I could not see coming! It’s quite an underrated series and I do suggest checking this out if sci-fi is your thing!
A hilariously dark rock’n’roll play set in London’s Soho in 1958. On the back of my copy the play has been described as “Beckett on speed” and I think that sums it up! Having seen a production of this play in the West End a couple years ago, I was excited to revisit it. Everything major that seems to happen, happens off stage/in the background. The dialogue is unbelievable though, it’s so fast paced and quick witted I tripped over my words a lot just reading it! I do recommend this if you like comedic dialogue!
Thanks for reading!! 🙂
Categories: books!
Hayley Sprout 