By Amanda Hocking

Part 1 of the Trylle Trilogy

***~~ (3/5)

Switched By Amanda Hocking

Click here to buy the book Switched by Amanda Hocking form The Book Depository (with free delivery)

Book Synopsis:

Wendy Everly knew that there was something different about herself when her mother had tried to kill her on her sixth birthday. She accused her of being a monster that had been switched at birth with her real baby.

Wendy doesn’t feel like a monster, but she can’t help but feel that she doesn’t quite fit in. She is bored and frustrated with life in her small town, and to top it off, she’s the new girl in school. There is also a secret that she has discovered about herself that she can’t tell anyone…. Wendy has the mysterious ability to influence people’s decisions just by willing it to happen.

The one night, Wendy’s world is turned upside down and inside out when she finds Finn, the strange and intense boy from school, who also happens to be darkly handsome, right outside her bedroom window. All Wendy’s questions may finally be answered…

Book Review:

I quite enjoyed reading this book by first time author Amanda Hocking. Hocking is 26 from Minnesota, and has apparently become a self-published ebook phenomenon, having sold one million books to date. The Trylle Trilogy is now being published in hard copy form by St Martin’s Press New York.

I have to qualify: if you are one of those people who wouldn’t touch Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight with a barge pole, please stay away from this book as it is very similar in genre and I’d have to say not as gripping in plot. But if you are a fan of Twilight, you may enjoy reading Switched too.

One more note on Switched’s similarity to Twilight –it seems that every boy Wendy comes across is GORGEOUS and a potential mate. The main character goes on and on about how attractive he is. There’s even a line in the book where she says she is thinking of setting up a life with the boy – she’s just met him! This may be a teenage thing, but there seem to be superflouous amounts of fluttering over how good looking a boy is and how unsure she is are of if they like her or not. Ok…fine… thinking back to my teenage hood, this was often pretty much the case, so maybe this is a true reflection of teenage hormones combined with lack of experience in such matters.

The book is funny at times and a very easy read. I kept reading because I wanted to know more about the changeling world, which was quite interestingly set up.

I questioned some of Wendy’s motivations – why wasn’t she thinking more of her family? As a reader, I was frustrated along with Wendy about how little she was being told, which is a good sign that I’m on her side.

I hope do first time writer Hocking will develop into a more sophisticated writer. Maybe we might even see this develop in the next two books of the Trylle Trilogy, just as we saw with Stephenie Meyer’s books. Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to reading the following two books Torn and Ascend.

x

Julie

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by Judi Dench

as told to John Miller

***** (5/5)

Autobiography: And Furthermore by Judi Dench

Click here to buy the book And Furthermore by Judi Dench (with free delivery)

Book Review:

This autobiography of Judi Dench’s career was a fun and easy read. As an actor myself, I loved reading about her stage productions and the different experiences, directors and actors she encountered. Dench comes across extremely down to earth and hard working actor with a playful sense of humour. I read the book with a mixture of envy and awe – Dench was actually fought over to play Shakespeare’s Cleopatra by two directors, Peter Hall and Terry Hands, who had both decided to direct the play at the same time!

The autobiography, as told to John Miller, contains lots of stories about the productions that she acted in throughout her long career, a couple she directed and also touches on some major personal life events – meeting her husband Michael Williams, their daughter Finty, the fire that destroyed their first home and Michael’s death. I was surprised about how candid she was in recounting her bad experiences with productions – run-ins she had had with theatre directors, or how disorganized a film set was. She goes into the negative experiences she has had as much as the positive ones.

I loved reading about Dench’s playful side. She is such a trickster, always enjoying a good laugh. One example is the long running challenge that developed between her and one of her actor colleagues Tim Piggot-Smith to see who could return a black leather glove to the other in the most unexpected places – usually on stage. The game has become so well known over the years that when questioned by the audience, someone always asks, ”Where is the glove now?” I guess it’s stunts like this and other more subtle games Dench and her fellow actors play on stage that keeps them going through a 6 month run of the same show!

Dench recounts her Oscar experiences when she was nominated for Mrs Brown and Shakespeare in Love. She even kept a diary of the days leading up to the first one because she knew how surreal it would be. It was fun to read about her amazement and awe at the experience, to know that even seasoned actors get excited and swept up in it all. Dench, who won the Oscar for her supporting role in Shakespeare in Love, said, “I was so surprised to win it for eight quick minutes with bad teeth.”

This is a good book for actors as well as people interested in theatre, not to teach you about acting, but to get an insight on how Dench lives the life of an actor, as well has her attitude towards working in theatre. I read ‘And Furthermore’ with a healthy dose of jealousy, but moreover received inspiration from a veteran actor whose work I really admire.

I’ll end with an anecdote about Anthony Hopkins who was playing Anthony to Dench’s Cleopatra in Peter Hall’s production for the National Theatre (Hall won out in the end). Hopkins never minded not being in the fifth act, in fact he actually loved it. In his death scene, as he was lying cradled in Cleopatra’s arms, he would whisper, ”I’m going upstairs to have a nice cup of tea. You do Act V, and I’ll have a nice cup of tea.”

Love that!

x Julie

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by Chetan Bhagat

***~~ (3/5)

Fiction / Light Reading

Click to buy Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat with free delivery

Book Synopsis:

3 friends, Hari, Alok and Ryan, are students at IIT, India’s most prestigious technological university. Instead of mugging their lives away like the rest of the cohort, they decide to have the time of their lives.

All the things not to do at university and more: mess up your grades, drink vodka on the faculty rooftop, date a professor’s daughter…

A funny and dark story of friendship and trying to survive IIT with a five-point something GPA. Will they make it?

My Book Review:

I picked up this book at a bookshop in Mysore, India, when I was attending a wedding there last week. I thought, I’ve experienced this country, so I should experience more of its contemporary fiction. Chetan Bhagat is apparently a lauded writer in India having written 4 novels to date:

Five Point Someone – What not to do at IIT

One Night @ the Call Center

The Three Mistakes of My Life

and

2 States – The Story Of My Marriage

He is among the ‘trio of modern Indian writers that have re-written Indian publishing rules and brought a new scale to the Indian publishing landscape with previously unheard of book sales’ (courtesy of Wikipedia).

So I thought… Promising…

Chetan Bhagat is a humourous, down to earth writer, with a flair for writing identifiable characters – as I read, I kept thinking that parts of one of the characters reminded me distinctly of my boyfriend.

Set at India’s premier engineering school IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) in Delhi, 3 students decide that they want to actually experience life whilst in college and not just mug 4 years away (Apparently unheard of in IIT culture). There’s the ring leader Ryan with crazy his schemes, Alok the responsible cry baby and Hari, whose point of view this novel is written from, a bumbling yet extremely likable guy.

I find I value stories about friendship and loyalty. In stories, despite the huge mistake a person is about to make, if the decision is based on loyalty, it makes it all okay. It’s like they’re making the right decision, even though they are making the wrong decision.

Halfway through reading Five Point Someone, I described it as Lad-Lit, Chick-Lit for Men. It got deeper as it went along, and although it’s not great literature it’s definitely a quick, fun read with heart. I enjoyed it.

I have 2 more of Chetan Bhagat books on my shelf, so I will be reading and reviewing them in the near future.

x Julie

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Nanny Returns

Nicola Kraus & Emma Mclaughlin

(Sequel to The Nanny Diaries)

***~~ (3/5)

Click here to buy Nanny Returns by Nicola Kraus & Emma Mclaughlin (free delivery)

Book Synopsis:

Nan from the Nanny Diaries is back in New York twelve years after the ill-fated nanny-cam night, the night Nan was fired. She is now married to HH (Harvard Hottie) who how has a name, Ryan. Nan is finally settling down and renovating her new (falling apart) home, and is trying to get her consulting business up and running. But is surprised at Ryan’s sudden desire start a family. What startles her the most is her resistance to the idea.

Then, Nan gets a drunken visit in the middle of the night from Grayer X, now 16 years old. He has found the nanny-cam tape…

Because of Nan’s guilt and soft heartedness, she ends up helping Grayer and his younger brother Stilton though Mr and Mrs X’s malicious divorce. Nan finds herself yet again caught up in the vortex of the venomous Upper East Side world of power, money and dysfunction.

My book review:

I absolutely loved The Nanny Diaries. It was absorbing in its humorous yet cringe-worthy portrayal of the rich and the spoiled mothers (a more accurate description would be: a woman who once gave birth, handed her miniature-self to a nanny, then recuperated at a spa for the net 18 years) of Upper East Side New York. Nanny’s experiences in The Nanny Diaries, plus the love story going on with Harvard Hottie, induced both wide-eyed shock and butterflies in the tummy.

Nanny Returns, set 12 years after the disastrous end of The Nanny Diaries, doesn’t contain the warmth of new love, but the commitment of a 12 year old relationship, in which Ryan (HH) and Nan are working through the idea of whether to have children, as well as trying to renovate their brand new dilapidated house. I think the idea of family-planning is a natural and obvious-yet-interesting path for the writers to take Nan on after her experiences with her ex-employers The X’s. And Nan is freaked out– what if she doesn’t make a good mother? What if she screws up her children? However, the readers know she’d make a wonderful mother, she just needs to realise it.

I didn’t enjoy Nanny Returns as much as I loved The Nanny Diaries. But it does make for a fun light read. The reader (at least I did) still gets the feeling of incredulity at what the rich and powerful feel they can get away with, and I loved the character of Grayer’s younger brother, Stilton, who is charming, delicate and quirky. It’s interesting to see what Grayer has grown to up be, as the last time we saw him, he was four years old. Nan seems to be surrounded by screwed up people with their head in the clouds, and it’s a breath of fresh air when she encounters the few down to earth people in the book.

Nanny Returns is quite funny, and if you enjoyed The Nanny Diaries, you may have fun reading Nanny Returns to see how things turn out for Nan, Grayer and the daunting Mrs X.

x Julie

Book Reviews – Reading Like Rabbits

P.S. I was listening to the’ B&N Meet the Writers’ podcast from iTunes and found out how Nicola Kraus and Emma Mclaughlin write their books together.

They share every idea and talk though the story a lot, especially in the beginning. They said they share every idea because sharing every other idea in such a collaboration just didn’t work, they’re not mind readers!

Then they divvy up the scenes within chapters and write them individually. They said they were lucky that their writing styles and voices matched really well. They also used their strengths, one would be better at writing Mrs X, while the other had Grayer down pat. They also said they do A LOT of editing.

by Cally Taylor

***~~ (3/5)

Click here to buy this book (free delivery)

Book Synopsis:

Lucy Brown is about to marry a wonderful man. Dan is handsome, caring and funny. Lucy has never been happier, she is about to get everything she has ever wanted.

But, on the eve of her wedding, Lucy dies in an accident.

Lucy has a choice to make: she can go to heaven and be separated from her soul mate, or she could be with Dan forever…as a ghost.

Lucy will not leave Dan, and she makes her choice. But things are not quite so easy for Lucy. She has a task to complete before she can become a ghost. First, she has to find true love for a total stranger.

My Book Review:

I was really excited about reading this book after seeing that it received 10/10 reviews on chick lit websites, beating Bridget Jones’s 9/10. (I love Bridget!) However, although I enjoyed Heaven Can Wait, I didn’t love it like others did. To me, Briget Jones still leads the pack by miles.

I enjoyed the fantasy of the story: Cally Taylor’s vision of heaven, limbo, tasks and ghosts. I particularly liked Lucy’s housemates from ‘The House of Wannabe Ghosts’. Brian, the endearing smelly train-lover and Claire the petulant young goth.

You know when you read a synopsis or watch a movie trailer and it basically tells you the whole story? I wish I hadn’t read so much about this book before I actually read it. I removed the last sentence from the synopsis above, so that there will be a bit more surprise in the story for you. I think my biggest issue with this book is that that last quarter of the story is rather predictable. Its a case of the reader being a step ahead of the character.

I’m still waiting for another book to overtake my esteem for Bridget Jones but until then, if you enjoy this genre or need a fun, perk-me-up read, definitely give Heaven Can Wait a chance.

x Julie

Book Reviews

Reading Like Rabbits

p.s. I know I’m constantly raving about it, but if you haven’t read Briget Jones’s Diary, you’re missing out. She’s a menace to herself but she’s lovely.

Click here to read my review of Bridget Jones’s Diary.

by Eoin Colfer

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Book Synopsis:

Artemis Fowl, a genius criminal mastermind has succeeded in establishing the existence of fairies, and is determined to catch one. After staking out over 100 fairy locations, Artemis succeeds in kidnapping LEPrecon Captain Holly Short.

But these aren’t the toadstool-dancing creatures of fairy tales, these are trained law enforcement fairies, and they are ready to fight back. Just when Artemis Fowl thinks he has them cornered, the fairies stop playing by the rules.

FYI: Artemis Fowl is a twelve-year-old.

My Book Review:

I flew through this book.

Artemis Fowl is just like a hostage-situation action movie. The only difference being, the bad guy is 12-years-old and those under siege are tech savvy fairies who live near the earth’s core. In fact, Eoin Colfer has described it as “Die Hard with faries”.

The characters in Artemis Fowl include Artemis, a villainous scheming child (who reminds me of Stewy in Family Guy) who may have a prickling of a conscience (unlike Stewy), a centaur (very much like Q in James Bond), a huge hunk of a bodyguard, a fuming LEP-recon commander, and history’s first female LEP-recon officer.

I should explain. We humans don’t know this but “the word ‘leprechaun’ actually originated from LEPrecon, an elite branch of the Lower Elements Police”. No bucked shoes and knickerbockers in this book! (That was their old uniform).

Eoin Colfer creates a vivid fairy culture, dispelling our pre-conceived ideas of the fairy world.

This is a fast paced, funny story packed with action and other-worldly intrigue. This is the first of 6 in the series so far and I’m definitely going to read the rest of the series!

These books also come as BBC Audio Books which you can buy as a gift for kids for bedtime story listening or to keep the peace on long car journeys.

x Julie

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by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

**~~~ (2/5)

Fiction / Chick Lit / Light Reading

Click to buy this book (free delivery)

Book Synopsis:

How would you get your revenge if your ex-boyfriend vanished on the night before your prom, then reappeared with a song detailing your first sexual experience (which by the way topped the Billboard charts), then proceeded to write chart-topping personal songs about you for the rest of his career?

Kate finally has the opportunity to confront Jake. But how is she going to confront the man who has messed up her life? The man who constantly chased by millions of adoring fans? She has a plan. But things don’t always go according to plan, do they?

My Book Review:

I loved The Nanny Diaries by the same authors. I thought it was right on the mark. Dedication, however, sorely disappointed me. It’s a story about Kate, 30, who wants to make her high school boyfriend who is presently an insanely successful rock star ‘regret his entire existence’ – for walking out on her and his band without a goodbye, for claiming the boys music as his own and for recording album after album worth of Kate and his most intimate and tragic moments together.

The novel shifts between the present Kate, to flashbacks of Katie in 8th grade to her university days. I liked the present day chapters, there was movement and an urgency in the story. But the first half of the flashbacks took ages to set up the back story with a lot of extraneous 80s references and school politics that didn’t really connect to the main arc of the story.

I was born in the mid 80s, and therefore didn’t have the pleasure of experiencing the bad-hair do’s and huge shoulder pads. So the majority of the references passed me by and I didn’t feel the nostalgia that I may have felt if I could connect to that decade. I am sure if you remember the 80s, (and understand some other American references, which also flew over my head) you’d enjoy the flashbacks much more.

Aside from the slow pace, leading to a draggy set up of the back story, I found the premise itself while on the one hand understandable (love of your life, leaving you without a goodbye, publicly crooning about your sexual exploits and airing your parents dirty laundry, hard to get over and you’re angry – fair enough), on the other hand, I though it was rather… blah. I get disappointed reading stories like this because it neither entertains me, nor makes me think. I love Bridget Jones’s diary because I empathise with her and laugh uproariously at her. Maybe the intention of this book was something entirely different, but I do know that this book gave me little warmth and no intellectual stimulation. I just felt blah after reading it.

This woman is 30 and she still hasn’t gotten over it. Reading about weak women is not fun. She’s angry and wants revenge, but why wait till he lands in town 11 years later for closure? And all artists write personal material, and hardly anyone’s going to know it’s you he’s singing about – she moved state because of the ‘shame’. I understand he is the love of her life, and there are a couple of much appreciated and satisfying passionate moments in the book, but she’s an adult. 11 years have passed. Get over it. And this is what this book’s about getting over a man. But the thing is, I’m not sure if I like him, or hate him. I want want to like him. I guess I’m supposed to want them to get together or to strongly want her to make him ‘regret his entire existence’. Maybe both. It wavers and I guess this is where this novel toys with the reader. – reader hates him, reader loves him, reader hates him again.

I did like the moments of vulnerability that Jake Sharp has and I have to say the ending was clever and befitting. And maybe I should simply take this as it is – chick lit filled with young love, rock stars and revenge.

I have noticed that my negative book reviews are much longer than my positive ones. I guess I feel I have to justify why I’m trashing a book (coming from the point of view of a performer, I know it’s not nice to read a bad review about your hard work).

But when I love a book, I all I want to say is ‘Read It’. I adored the Nanny Diaries by the same authors, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, so read The Nanny Diaries!

x Julie

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by Wendy Holden

On the grand scheme of good books: **~~~ (2/5)

On a fun light-reading  level: ***½~ (3.5/5)

Fiction / Light Reading

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Book Synopsis:

Jane is an ordinary journalist. She has love-life stress, stress from work and she just can’t seem to shed those extra pounds. Then, the gorgeous celebrity-for-celebrity’s-sake social butterfly Champagne D’Vyne is thrown into her life. Champagne is as different from Jane as could be. As their worlds become strangely entangled, Jane discovers that this busty blond goddess will do everything to get what she wants. She lets nothing get in her way. Including Jane.

My Book Review:

I think this is a book you will either love or hate. It’s very very fluffy, and centers on a most foul and fabulous celebrity-for-celebrity’s sake character Champagne D’Vyne . She is truly horrid, and frustratingly beautiful. She is a piss take on all the ridiculous celebrities like Posh Spice, Paris Hilton and Jordan – multipiled by about 5000.

However, there are also characters you empathise with, Jane – the Bridget Jones-esq, muddled protagonist who does her best to keep her life ordered amidst the whirl-wind of Champagne. And the young dowdy aristocrat Tally who is doing her best to save her crumbling family estate.

So, if you hate the glorified over-privileged (untalented) celebrity, and want a bit of fluffy weekend reading, and to have a bit of a laugh, this chick lit is for you. I have to say, it didn’t enhance my life in the slightest, but it did give me a giggle.

This is definitely a chick’s book, but surprisingly, my friend who lent Simply Divine to me said that her brother found it in the bathroom, started reading it, and got hooked, thoroughly enjoying it!

x Julie

Light Reading Chicklit Book Review

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by Helen Fielding

***** (5/5)

Fiction

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Book Cover Synopsis:

Bridget Jones wants to have it all – and once she’s given up smoking and got down to 8st 7lbs, she will. Bridget Jones’s Diary is about a year in the life of a single girl on an optimistic but doomed quest for self-improvement. A dazzling urban satire of modern human relations? An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family? Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something? Bridget Jones is everyone’s favourite Londoner. This is your chance to reacquaint yourself with the funniest, most heart-warming young lady ever to grace the pages of a Picador book.

Why I love Bridget Jones’s Diary:

I do love Bridget. She’s gawky, clumsy, does insanely stupid things, doesn’t look perfect, is terrible in love, kind, loyal and therefore adorable. Her quirky language and desperate measures to improve her love life, career and general appearance are both identifiable and amusing. There are some priceless moments of humour in that book.

I rarely read books twice over, but I have read Bridget Jones at least three times. I read it when I want to feel better and have laugh. A curious thing happens when I am reading her diary – I tend to start thinking like her, seeing things from her point of view. It’s weird but rather fun, and I feel safe with the knowledge that though I understand her, I’ll never be quite as ridiculous.

The movie of Bridget Jones’s Diary is just as good, one of the few adaptation films that I think lives up to the original. With the charming Colin Firth, dashing Hugh Grant and a Renee Zellweger with a decent amount of flesh on her, what’s not to like.

The sequel, Bridget Jones, The Edge of Reason, is also enjoyable, though her first diary is still top of my light reading book list.

So if you need cheering up or just want a bit of a laugh, I highly recommend reading Bridget Jones’s Diary.

It would be great as a gift for a girl friend (if she hasn’t already read it).

x Julie

Book Review

- Reading Like Rabbits