The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman * Reading Challenge Recap *

Challenge – Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition – #15/792

Synopsis – When a baby escapes a murderer intent on killing the entire family, who would have thought it would find safety and security in the local graveyard? Brought up by the resident ghosts, ghouls and spectres, Bod has an eccentric childhood learning about life from the dead. But for Bod there is also the danger of the murderer still looking for him – after all, he is the last remaining member of the family. A stunningly original novel deftly constructed over eight chapters, featuring every second year of Bod’s life, from babyhood to adolescence. Will Bod survive to be a man?

My Thoughts – I read this book back in 2011 and my original review can be found HERE. I remember really enjoying this book and I wish I could say that I had read more by this author – sadly I havent yet but I have a lot of his books on my wishlist!

Rating – 4/5

Recommendations – Coraline – Neil Gaiman (Challenge Book), Elsewhere – Gabrielle Zevin (Challenge Book), Edge Cronicles – Paul Stewart (Challenge Book)

Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell * Reading Challenge Recap *

Challenges – #14/691 – Ultimate Teen Book Guide, #14/782 Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition

Synopsis – Set against the dramatic backdrop of the American Civil War, Margaret Mitchell’s magnificent historical epic is an unforgettable tale of love and loss, of a nation mortally divided and a people forever changed. Above all, it is the story of beautiful, ruthless Scarlett O’Hara and the dashing soldier of fortune, Rhett Butler.

My Thoughts – My orginal review can be found HERE. I really enjoyed this book – surprisingly so. I always struggle with long/classic books and I didnt think I would get into this as much as I did. I would definitaly re-read this at some point too.

Rating – 5/5

Recommendations – Ultimate Teen Book Guide – Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier, The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane, Katherine – Anya Seton.

Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition – Scarlett – Alexandra Ripley, The WInd Done Gone – Alice Randall, Katherine – Anya Seaton (Challenge Book), Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier.

Girls in Love – Jacqueline Wilson *Reading Challenge Recap*

Challenges – #13/691 Ultimate Teen Book Guide #13/782 Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition.

Series – Girls

• Girls In Love
• Girls Under Pressure
• Girls Out Late
• Girls In Tears

Synopsis – Meet Ellie and her best friends Nadine and Magda, three teenage girls just starting Year Nine with a lot on their minds – mainly boys! Told in the bright, sparky and authentic voice of Ellie, Girls in Love is a funny, frank and revealing look at their friendships, problems and heartaches that older fans of bestselling author Jacqueline Wilson will adore.

My Thoughts – I read this book back when I was a pre-teen – over and over again. I really really enjoyed it at the time but I never realised that it was part of a series! I also really enjoyed the TV show that it was made into. This was a really good read for a pre-teen/young teenager and I’ve just added it to my wishlist to read again!

Rating – 4/5

Recommendations – Ultimate Teen Book Guide – Girls Under Pressure – Jacqueline Wilson, Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging – Louise Rennison (Challenge Book), Mates, Dates . . . Series – Cathy Hopkins (Challenge Book), Notes From the Teenage Underground – Simmone Howells.

Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition – Girls Under Pressure – Jacqueline Wilson, Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging – Louise Rennison (Challenge Book), Ginger Snaps – Cathy Cassidy.

 

Flowers For Algernon – Daniel Keyes *Reading Challenge Recap*

Challenges – Ultimate Teen Book Guide – #12/691, Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition – #12/782

Synopsis – The classic novel about a daring experiment in human intelligence Charlie Gordon, IQ 68, is a floor sweeper and the gentle butt of everyone’s jokes – until an experiment in the enhancement of human intelligence turns him into a genius. But then Algernon, the mouse whose triumphal experimental tranformation preceded his, fades and dies, and Charlie has to face the possibility that his salvation was only temporary.

My Thoughts – I read this back in 2011 – and while I cant really remember too much about it my original thoughts were – ‘ i really enjoyed this book. It actually made me cry at the end! i thought it was a fantastic read and would highly recommend it.’.

I’d just started book blogging and recording y thoughts on books then so while it wasnt the best of reviews I did at least enjoy it!

Rating – 4/5

Recommendations – Ultimate Teen Book Guide – One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest – Ken Kesey (Challenge Book), Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck (Challenge Book), The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner.

Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition – One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest – Ken Kesey (Challenge Book), Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck (Challenge Book), The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner, The Wrong Hands – Nigel Richardson (Challenge Book)

The Eyre Affair – Jasper Fforde * Reading Challenge Recap *

Challenges – #11/691 Ultimate Teen Book Guide, #11/782 Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition.

Series – Thursday Next

• The Eyre Affair
• Lost in a Good Book
• The Well of Lost Plots
• Something Rotten
• First Among Sequels
• One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
• The Woman Who Died A Lot

Synopsis – There is another 1985, where London’s criminal gangs have moved into the lucrative literary market, and Thursday Next is on the trail of the new crime wave’s MR Big.

Acheron Hades has been kidnapping certain characters from works of fiction and holding them to ransom. Jane Eyre is gone. Missing.

Thursday sets out to find a way into the book to repair the damage. But solving crimes against literature isn’t easy when you also have to find time to halt the Crimean War, persuade the man you love to marry you, and figure out who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays.

Perhaps today just isn’t going to be Thursday’s day. Join her on a truly breathtaking adventure, and find out for yourself. Fiction will never be the same again …

My Thoughts – I tried to read this a few years back – I think in around 2014 ish but unfortunatly I really couldnt get into it at all – which was a shame as the plot sounds like a book I would enjoy and a lot of people really rate this series. I’m not sure if it was the timing of reading or something else but having just read through the synopsis again I do think I’ll give it another go. I’ve added it to my wishlist on audible as I’m really getting into audiobooks so hopefully it will appeal to me in that way!

Rating – A bit unfair to rate as I never finished it.

Recommendations – Ultimate Teen Book Guide – Is Heathcliff a Murderer? – John Sutherland, Good Omens – Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (Challenge Book), Austenland – Shannon Hale.

Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition – Nursery Crime Adventures – Jasper Fforde, M is for Magic – Neil Gaiman (Challenge Book), The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (Challenge Book)

Dracula – Bram Stoker * Reading Challenge Recap *

Challenges – Ultimate Teen Book Guide – #10/691, Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition #10/782

Synopsis – When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries in his client’s castle. Soon afterwards, disturbing incidents unfold in England: a ship runs aground on the shores of Whitby, its crew vanished; beautiful Lucy Westenra slowly succumbs to a mysterious, wasting illness, her blood drained away; and the lunatic Renfield raves about the imminent arrival of his ‘master’. In the ensuing battle of wills between the sinister Count and a determined group of adversaries – led by the intrepid vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing – Bram Stoker created a masterpiece of the horror genre, probing into questions of identity, sanity and the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire.

My Thoughts – I read this back in 2012 on my Kindle and actually really enjoyed it. I’ve always struggled with classic books as I seem to struggle to get into them but this one was really good. My original review can be found HERE.

Rating – I rated this book 5/5.

Recommendations – Ultimate Teen Book Guide – Carmilla – Sheridan Le Fanu, dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Stevenson (Challenge Book), Twilight – Stephenie Meyer (Challenge book), Peeps – Scott Westerfield (Challenge Book), The Historian – Elizabeth Kostova (Challenge Book), Jane Austen – Northanger Abbey (Challenge Book)

Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition – Carmilla – Sheridan Le Fanu, dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Stevenson (Challenge Book), Night World Series – L.J. Smith (Challenge Book), Twilight – Stephenie Mayer (Challenge Book), Interview with a Vampire – Anne Rice (Challenge Book), Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen.

The Day of the Triffids – John Wydham * Reading Challenge Recap *

Challenges – Ultimate Book Guide #5/672, Ultimate Teen Book Guide #8/691, Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition #8/782

My original review can be found HERE

Synopsis – When a freak cosmic event renders most of the Earth’s population blind, Bill Masen is one of the lucky few to retain his sight. The London he walks is crammed with groups of men and women needing help, some ready to prey on those who can still see. But another menace stalks blind and sighted alike. With nobody to stop their spread the Triffids, mobile plants with lethal stingers and carnivorous appetites, seem set to take control.

My Thoughts – I read this back in 2011 and it was one of the first dystopian books that I read. Although I don’t remember too much about it since it was so long ago I do remember that I enjoyed it. If you are interested in what I thought back then I’ve added a link above.

Rating – I rated this 4/5

Recommendations – Ultimate Book Guide – Chocky – John Wyndham, The midwich Cuckoos – John Wyndham, Z for Zachariah – Robert C. O’Brian, Why Weeps the Brogan? – Hugh Scott (Challenge Book), Enders Game – Orson Scott Card.

Ultimate Teen Book Guide – The Kraken Wakes – John Wyndham, The War of the Worlds – H. G. Wells (Challenge Book), Hatchet – Gary Paulsen (Challenge Book), Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton (Challenge Book)

Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition – The Kraken Wakes – John Wyndham, The War of the Worlds – H. G. Wells (Challenge Book), The Death of Grass – John Christopher, I Am Legend – Richard Matheson (Challenge Book), Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton (Challenge Book)

The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown * Reading Challenge Recap *

Challenges – Ultimate Teen Book Guide #7/691, Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition #7/782.

Series – Robert Langdon

• Angels and Demons
• The Da Vinci Code
• The Lost Symbol
• Inferno
• Origin

Synopsis – Harvard professor Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call while on business in Paris: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been brutally murdered inside the museum. Alongside the body, police have found a series of baffling codes.

As Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, begin to sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to find a trail that leads to the works of Leonardo Da Vinci – and suggests the answer to a mystery that stretches deep into the vault of history.

Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine code and quickly assemble the pieces of the puzzle, a stunning historical truth will be lost forever…

My Thoughts – Annoyingly I can’t find my original review for this book as I read it about 10 years ago and really enjoyed it. Dan Brown is an author for me that doesn’t really disappoint with his books. I really enjoyed The Da Vinci Code and it kept me guessing at the time the outcome of the book. I’ve also read Angels and Demons – another review that is missing and The Lost Symbol which is linked above. I do also have Inferno on my TBR along with Digital Fortress which I will get around to reading – the only thing that has stopped me reading this is that they have been packed away in storage and I have no idea where they have gone! I really would recommend this series/author. I’ve watched the films in the series and I have to say that they really don’t compare to the books at all, the books are so much better!

Rating – 5/5

Recommendations – Ultimate Teen Book Guide – Holy Blood, Holy Grail – Michel Baigent, Last Temptation – Nikos Kazantakis, Chasing Vermeer – Blue Balliett.

Ultimate Teen Book Guide 2nd Edition – Holy Blood, Holy Grail – Michel Baigent, Last Temptation – Nikos Kazantakis, Fatherland – Robert Harris (Challenge Book)

 

The Language of Kindness: A Nurses Story – Christie Watson

Format – Audiobook

Synopsis – Christie Watson was a nurse for 20 years. Taking us from birth to death and from A&E to the mortuary, The Language of Kindness is an astonishing account of a profession defined by acts of care, compassion and kindness.

We watch Christie as she nurses a premature baby who has miraculously made it through the night, we stand by her side during her patient’s agonising heart-lung transplant and we hold our breath as she washes the hair of a child fatally injured in a fire, attempting to remove the toxic smell of smoke before the grieving family arrive.

In our most extreme moments, when life is lived most intensely, Christie is with us. She is a guide, mentor and friend. And in these dark days of division and isolationism, she encourages us all to stretch out a hand.

My Thoughts – I downloaded this book from audible as it was on the Daily Deal for a day. The book is a memoir of Christie Watsons life as a nurse, the career that she has had and patients that she has treated. What makes this book really good is that she narrates it herself which for a medical audiobook can only be a good thing. You could tell with her as a narrator that she understood the medical terminology well and was able to explain it in a really easy to understand way.

This book is called ‘The Language of kindness’ and it really made me reflect on the times that I have been in hospital both myself as a patient and with my children. For example – I had my tonsils removed when I was five – over 20 year ago now and I can still remember the kind male nurse who looked after me in recovery. When my Son was born the kind nurses in the special baby care unit that care for him while I was recovering. The kind nurses that calmed me down when I had to have an emergency c-section early when my daughter was distressed and when she was readmitted to hospital at just 2 weeks old who cared for her so kindly.

I really feel that the author has captured what it meant to be a nurse. It was also quite thought-provoking in places – she was working really hard, being a mum and an author and still only just making ends meet. I honestly believe that nurses should have more funds available to them – but with the NHS the way it is at the minute I can see why this doesn’t happen.

Overall this was a really good book – one I would recommend.

Rating – 5/5

3096 Days – Natascha Kampusch Book Review

Format – Paperback Book

Synopsis – 3,096 Days is the remarkable and shocking true account of the kidnap of Natascha Kampusch in 1998, who relives her traumatic experiences in this amazing true story.

On 2 March 1998 ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch was snatched off the street by a stranger and bundled into a white van. Hours later she was lying on a cold cellar floor, rolled up in a blanket. When she emerged from captivity in 2006, having endured one of the longest abductions in recent history, her childhood had gone.

in 3,096 Days Natascha tells her amazing story for the first time: her difficult childhood, what happened exactly on that fateful morning when she was on her way to school, her long imprisonment in a five-square-metre dungeon, and the physical and mental abuse she suffered from her abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil – who committed suicide by throwing himself under a train on the day she managed to make her escape.

3,096 Days is ultimately a story about the triumph of the human spirit. It describes how, in a situation of almost unbearable hopelessness, she learned how to manipulate her captor. And how, against inconceivable odds, she managed to escape unbroken.

My Thoughts – I’ve had this book on my shelves for a while and to be honest I’ve put it off a little bit due to the fact that its a true story and I cant quite imagine how traumatic it would have been for her.

Natascha was 10 when she was abducted and held captive for 8 years. Now while this is horiffic written down you you cant imagine the pain and horror she must have gone through. I have a 10 year old cousin and I just cant imagine her going through such a thing at such a young age.  I do remember this story in the newspapers – both when she disappeared and when she was found. However I wasnt aware of the cover ups that the police had done and quite how close she was to being found a couple of times.

This book was a very harrowing read – I cant imagine how she must have felt or what she had to go through at the time. It was also very shocking that her captor used to take her out in public but she couldnt do anything to leave or brake free until one day.

A very powerful read

Rating – 3/5