Back for the Summer!

I found this on Tumblr... I think it sums up the dream pretty well!

Well Hello,

Damselfly I have missed you, I have neglected you and I am sorry for this. Life picked me up by my ankles and swung me over its back a good 10 months ago and it took me a while to get my feet back on the ground again!

I am currently enjoying my official ‘summer’ although the likelihood of me spending even one day in seven on the beach is slim according to the weather forecasts. It has been the wettest June on record and July doesn’t seem to be shaping up to much either. Safe to say I have been enjoying my time anyway. Last week I played ‘lawyer’ at a large firm near my parents’ home and loved it. This week I return to Cornwall to start my new seasonal job as that-girl-who-runs-that-bookshop. I will be sporting a pair of geek chic glasses and trying to dress a little less casual. Most importantly, I will be reading a great many books.

During my degree amongst the towers of legal textbooks and journals my enjoyment in reading gets a little bit lost. In the last two weeks I have chowed down on five books. I thought I’d begin with a little review.

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern: Rating *****

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho: Rating ****

Before I Go to Sleep - S J Watson: Rating ****

The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes: Rating **

Fifty Shades of Grey - E L James: Rating **

I cannot emphasize enough just how much I loved The Night Circus. Its dreamy, imaginative and haunting I haven’t read anything quite like it in a long time. Morgenstern wrapped me up in her magical world and I wasn’t able to escape until I had reached the very end of the story. Very few books have had this effect on me.

As a polar opposite, despite being the best seller of the moment I did not enjoy Fifty Shades of Grey at all. The plot was lacking and there was frankly so much sex I got bored of it (ironic huh?). I found myself skimming over large portions of the book as there’s only so many times I want to read about Grey’s ‘impressive length’ - so she enjoys ex with him... I get the picture - I got it about 200 pages back! Frankly, the point of this novel must have flown over my head. It goes without saying I shall not be reading the second or third installment. I get the impressive this novel is like Marmite. All credit to E L James for writing such a popular book but I’m sorry its just not for me.

Of them all I think The Alchemist is the only one I will reread. I will do so armed with a highlighter to expose all the beautiful poetic and deeply proverbial saying that crop out throughout the fable. It was very easy to read once I had got into it and past the strange sentence structure and the moral behind the tale will stick with me for a while yet.

I have never stuck to a particular genre - I am a girl of many tastes - but I have never read a huge amount of crime fiction aside from the occasional John Grisham novel (the law student in me just cannot help herself). Before I Go to Sleep felt new and refreshing to read, I devoured it in just less than 24 hours because I had to know what was going on! Whilst slightly predictable towards the end, you find yourself doubting everything and everyone and although not particularly challenging to read S J Watson definitely had me hooked which isn’t bad considering its her first novel!

Finally, A Sense of an Ending, winner of the Manbooker prize in 2011 and without sounding to much like a literary snob I couldn’t quite understand why. I did not relate to the protagonist at all and to be quite honest I felt a little bored. Still I am not one to give up on a published novel (after all there’s usually a reason they’ve been published) and I pressed on. It got a little better towards the end.

I hope I haven't bored you too much and perhaps even succeeded in recommending a book or too. I'll post very soon Damselfly, and I'll keep to my word this time!

xoxo