#British novel

[sandytrish008]

Fanart I did of the english novel Watership Down, specifically the 1978 animated movie 🐇🐰

[theaskew]

Gods Without Men, a novel by Hari Kunzru, 2011. [London: Penguin]

[lilianeruyters]

Andrew Miller || The Land in Winter

The Land in Winter describes a few months in the dire winter of 1962. Two couples are struggling with the snow and their relationships. Whilst the British West Country is undergoing the coldest winter in ages life reveals nasty surprises for the two couples. Andrew Miller has succeeded in writing a novel in which relationships, village life and  community are put to the test. Main characters of…

[lilmackiereads]

One Day (2009) by David Nicholls - Spoiler Filled Review

In addition to this review, a spoiler-free review of the book will also be posted if you haven’t read the book or watched the movie. While I recommend reading the book, I didn’t like the movie. See that version of the review for why.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

There are many parts of this story that are a bit cliche. Boy meets girl, they have crushes on each other, spend the next grand amount of time avoiding their true feelings for each other, they get together. YET, the end of the novel was very unexpected and the emotion and the humor these characters had toward each other was so moving. Nicholls said loud and clear: This. Is. A. Drama. Tragedy. NOT. A. Romantic. Comedy. The dialogue was top notch and I honestly had to look up quite a few phrases and words because I am not familiar with all of the British jargon. 

Plot and Structure: 3.5 out of 5 stars

I also liked that he split the book into smaller sections based on the ages of the characters as each section was a new turning point or challenge in their lives. The bits of literature preceding each section were well-chosen and foreshadowed major events and themes. Docking points only for the cliché plot aspects that all romance novels do to make the tension last longer. I like that we see into each year of their lives, but some years not a lot happened, and I would have been okay with skipping a few extra years into the future.

Part 1 - Early to Mid 20s

I really related to Emma in Part 1 of wanting to do all these amazing things for the world like protesting and volunteering and traveling and then realizing that you have bills and have to work a demeaning customer service job. Life sucks ass sometimes and I’m sad for her that she was stuck in that emotional and financial space for so long, but happy that she was brave enough to quit the restaurant and do more for herself. I was irritated with Dexter because I had to work to put myself through school and I know wealthier students who had a free pass and gap year like him that just grind my gears. On top of that, Dex getting quasi-famous for basically being hot and annoying just made it worse.

Nevertheless, I really wanted them to bang out the tension they’d had those couple of years during their trip to Greece, but alas, dreams didn’t come true for any of us. I thought the skinny-dipping scene was super fun and steammmyyy!

Part 2 - Late 20s

I think that the hardest part of this book for me to get through was Part 2 because a lot of it revolved around Dex’s grief. His downward spiral with mood-influencers like sex, drugs, and alcohol while his mom was sick was all too real for me as I am someone who has a parent with cancer (luckily, I never went down this path like Dexter, but there are a lot of people who do who can’t get out). It is hard to see him hurt himself that way because it’s already written and can’t be changed. As a reader all I could do was watch him tumble even further down the rabbit hole and it sucked.

I was excited at first when Emma branched away from Dex and started dating Ian because he’s a bit of a goober, but he’s really nice and fun (just not funny). When Dex started parading sexy Suki in front of Emma and bullying Ian I was SEETHING.

I definitely think Emma did the right thing cutting Dex out of her life because he was being an ass and so full of himself, which is sad because he was masking his grief. IF HE HAD JUST BEEN HONEST WITH HIMSELF AND HER---- ugh, I’m wasting my breath.

I was broken (again) when Emma dumped Ian. I get it, she didn’t love him, but she treated him like shit and all he ever wanted was someone who loved him just the way he was. I’m glad that Nicholls showed us that Ian got a happy ending in Part 5. 

Part 3 - Early to Mid 30s

Looking back at Part 3 there was SO MUCH to unpack here. It feels like three separate parts within it because it has adultery and marriage and parenthood being added into the mix. 

When I found out that Emma was working as a theater teacher (cool) and trying to become a writer (even cooler) and sleeping with the principal (not so cool) I wanted to scream: GIRL, YOU NEED SOME GIRLFRIENDS TO HYPE YOU UP AND GET AWAY FROM THIS YUCKY GUY. I could have been her Hype Girl. Oh well.

When Dex met Sylvie’s parents and played that stupid game, I had second-hand embarrassment for him. Yikes. I felt bad that he was so out of place and bullied when he was starting out with Sylvie, but at the same time he was doing that to Emma for years with her and Ian so I was somewhat satisfied that he got knocked off his high horse. 

I feel like literally the worst thing that Dex could have done was getting married to Sylvie and telling Emma about it in such a public place (coward) instead of dealing with his grief and being single for a while. Adding a baby to the mix was like going from the frying pan to the fire. Oi. Boy loves himself some drama. I think he ultimately became a good husband and dad in Part 5, but Sylvie. Is. Not. His. Match. As seen with their on-again and off-again relationship with each other and Dex’s other on-again off-again relationship with alcoholism.

Ok, so I low-key was so tired of Dex’s shit that I just wanted Emma to stay in Paris with the sexy Jean-Pierre and leave Dex in the dust but nOOooOOoOoo. It’s fine. Where’s my A.U. where Emma was right about Dex and he’s fat and bald with a zillion ex-wives and she’s married to JP?

Part 4 - Late 30s to Early 40s

Something I appreciated in Part 4 was that even though Dex and Em FINALLY get together, it’s not all smooth sailing. It’s not a “happily ever after” and I think this is super important because it is so honest. Getting divorced and married is hard, and even harder with a kid (Dex), especially to someone who has never been married or had children (Em). They have known each other for almost two decades, but they had such different interests and addictions throughout their lives that they had to come to terms with (they didn’t) and never fully showed each other that dark side of themselves. I think it’s a great lesson because Nicholls is showing that even the perfect person for you is not going to be perfect all the time because we are all imperfect people with our own problems. 

I wish I hadn’t seen the movie before I read the book because Emma’s death would have hit so much harder if I didn’t know it was coming. It definitely would have been a moment where I would have had to reread the passage because she is just going about her normal routine and is killed out of nowhere. The shock factor would have been devastating since they had just officially gotten together and most romance novels have the “happy” ending.

Part 5 - Mid 40s

My favorite part of the entire story was in Part 5 which seamlessly went between the night they met in 1988 and the mid 2000s when Dexter reflected on the photo of him and Emma from their hike in 1988 to Arthur’s Seat. Dexter choosing to bring his daughter, Jasmine, there was a sweet and humorous moment that Emma would have loved. An honorable mention is when Sylvie and Dex’s dad help clean him up after his drunken night trying to ease the pain of being a widower. It pulled at my heartstrings to see the kindness of Sylvie despite her jealousy of Emma and later when Dex and his dad bond over being widowers. I also liked that Sylvie got a taste of her own medicine when she found out that while cheating on Dex with Callum that Callum has been cheating on her with someone else. Ha. Ha.

Characters: 4 out of 5 stars

The way he wrote the characters made it seem like they were real people who actually did know each other for a long time. It is hard to write three-dimensional characters, so kudos to Nicholls.

Even though I prefer first person, I think his choice of third person limited made quite a wonderful story to go back and forth between not only Em and Dex, but also Ian, Sylvie and a few one-scene characters. At times I LOATHED Emma and Dexter when they were whining or making terrible choices, like dating the wrong person to avoid loneliness, drinking to drown out the sadness, staying in the wrong job because they’re unconfident, and lying to each other. At other times I wanted to give them a hug and a kiss and tell them I was proud of them, especially at the end of the story when Dex FINALLY got his shit together. 

I think my favorite character was actually Ian Whitehead, who is Emma’s partner for a time. I admired his desire to go for his dreams even if they were a long shot, his loyalty to Emma, and his choice to take the high road in the end. There was one point that I didn’t like his character when he and Emma were fighting about the breakup, but to be honest, if I was in his position, I probably would have felt the same way if my significant other was in love with their best friend and not me.

Themes, Motifs, & Symbols: 3.5 out of 5 stars

St. Swithin’s Day:

I wasn’t familiar with St. Swithin’s day on July 15th other than the fact that it’s also my mother’s birthday, so I will now use it as more of a marker for the year ahead. While the mythos is more in regard to summer weather, I considered it more of a symbolic reasoning of whether or not Dexter and Emma were going to have a good or bad year. For instance, many of the rainy days it seems that the whole next year that they had terrible experiences while on the sunny days their lives seemed to be getting better. For instance, it was raining on the day Emma died and then Dex had a rough year ahead while other years that it was sunny were years where on the sunny days where when Emma and Dex had lots of love in their lives, whether it be with each other or others. One of the best examples of this is when they go on holiday together in Greece and get very flirtatious with each other but are too coy to do anything but skinny-dip. 

Yin and Yang:

Toward the beginning of the book, Dexter gets a yin and yang tattoo while on holiday. In my opinion, it greatly resembles their differences and similarities to each other. Not only does it represent their personalities and how they complement each other, but it also seems to foreshadow that when one of their lives was great, the other’s was terrible. Together they are strong. Apart, not so much. They were two halves of a whole and they needed each other to balance.

Making a difference:

The first lines of the novel are these quips between Em and Dex:

E: “I suppose the important thing is to make some sort of difference… you know, actually change something.”

D: “What, like ‘change the world,’ you mean?”

E: “Not the whole entire world. Just the little bit around you.”

This theme is super important throughout the whole story as they both take on the world in their own ways and I had to go back and re-read the first page again after finishing the book to really understand and enjoy the impact of the theme.

I think both Emma and Dex made an impact on the “little bit around” them, but just not in the ways they expected. Dex wanted to be a famous media professional and life-long womanizing bachelor, yet he ends up becoming a divorcee (and widower), has-been tv-presenter, and a single dad. Emma, on the other hand, became a children’s author instead of an activist or journalist and never got to have her own biological child despite becoming interested in motherhood toward the end of her life. She didn’t publish anything Nobel Prize winning or Earth-shattering like she wanted to, but she did shatter Dexter’s life for better and for worse. 

Re-readability:

Would I read this book again? Probably not because it is a very emotional book and rather long as it is single spaced and over four hundred pages. On the plus side, this is the best romance novel that I have ever read. I appreciate that is not super lovey-dovey gooey and gets into the real issues of cheating, drinking, family, self-esteem, depression, loneliness, and loss. It’s raw and real and isn’t unrealistic like those Fabio-model romance novels your naughty housewives read and war romance novels (ie: Nicholas Sparks).

[lets-get-lit]

No one is ever holy without suffering.

- Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited

[velvet4510]

Harry Potter is just a lesser ripoff of The Lord of the Rings, let’s be honest.

Everything HP does, LOTR does better (aside from female representation, and even then Éowyn is far more memorable and developed than any HP women). All of JKR’s themes of death vs. immortality, love, loss, hope, friendship, corruption by power, anti-fascism, and anti-racism, were already covered much more deeply, thoroughly, and consistently by Tolkien. She even flat-out stole the “main villain, known as the Dark Lord, was presumably vanquished long ago but has now returned with part of his essence transferred into a physical object that must be destroyed.”

I think the difference in quality can be summed up by the fact that Harry Potter is one of many fictional Chosen Ones, whereas Frodo Baggins is a completely ordinary person who willingly volunteers to do the impossible because it must be done. Harry saves the world by beating the villain in combat; Frodo saves the world by creating a fateful ripple effect from acts of pity, compassion, and courage.

This has all probably been said already - but it’s worth saying.

[brandyschillace]

Pre-order Book Sale!

To my #author and #reader pals: You can PREORDER a copy of my upcoming #mystery (w/ #autistic #neurodivergent protagonist) at B&N for 25% off! (That's like $8!). JUST TILL FRIDAY--please share around! #fiction #book THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE (out Feb.13)

Link:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/1143600531

[eloquenthubak1982]

Sherlock Holmes

Sir Arthur conan doyle

The classical literature

[hitomisora2412]

Odxny of SeekL Visual Novel 🔮

Recently i was going travel just for my therapy. So i couldn't present for a weeks, also i wasn't active much on social medias and when in mood i just draw for fun fanart.

I was just to know that game was release in mid-June, my favorite streamer(Hello Yinny) was play it too :3

Btw sorry for messy sketch not much details

[hopeforchanges]

Remember when Deborah Chow was like "this is a love story" lol I wonder what makes people see it, realize it, what is THE moment in the SW saga that makes people go "this is a love story" since there's no official acknowledgement in the text, all we have is breadcrumbs in the subtext.

I do remember lol

Well my friend, most of the most beautiful things in life are left unsaid, but boy what glorious crumbs we have in the subtext with this ship. Can't speak for Deborah Chow, but the first time it hit me - that this is indeed a love story - was when I saw Anakin raging to Padmé, screaming and ugly-crying and throwing things about how everything is Obi-Wan's fault in aotc.

Cause let me tell you, I've never said goodbye to my weird codependent relationship on a landing platform readying myself to go to arrest an asthmatic cyborg while said codependent relationship looked at me with 'please don't go" googly eyes. I have never screamed at my codependent relationship how he fucking ruined a mystical energy field that surrounds us and penetrates us or something and how I loved him but fuck him he should have known better.

But standing with eyes wide, mouth open, unable to say or do or even move anything, listening to someone I care about yell and rage and scream and cry and throw things about how this one person ruined everything in their life because they're this and that and not what they need them to be, and they never listen, they never understand, they hold.me.back.

Oh. Honey. I've been that girl. I've been Padmé. I've listened and watched and stood, shocked, aghast, while a person tore themselves apart because of this one relationship they don't have a word for - they don't know what the word is, because love is too much of a taboo, it's too raw and too true and too pure and too narrow and too much.

Long story short, that was the moment I realized - oh shit. This is a love story. The characters may not even realize, maybe George didn't fully realize it either. Although based on rots novel which he approved, I'd say, he did. He does.

I'm glad so many of us do.

[theaskew]

The Woman In White, a novel by Wilkie Collins (1824-1889). (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1932. First Edition.)

[logophilist1982]

Jane Eyre

[lilmackiereads]

One Day (2009) by David Nicholls - Spoiler Free Review

This morning I finished a lovely, bittersweet romance novel by David Nicholls called One Day. Despite the fact that it was published nearly 15 years ago, this is a spoiler free review in case you haven’t read the book or seen the film. I have only seen the film once and it was before I read the book. I didn’t actually enjoy the film very much because it felt like it was lacking. What was it lacking? I’m not sure. It just felt like it was missing something. While I swoon over Jim Sturgess as Dex (because I’ve had a crush on him since Across the Universe in 2007), I didn’t really like Anne Hathaway in the role of Emma because I hated her British accent. However, I decided to give the book a try as I tend to believe that books are better than films since they hold so much more content. I’m very happy that I did because I really enjoyed the original text. In addition to this review, a spoiler-filled review of the book will also be posted if you want to compare your opinions to mine after you complete the story.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

There are many parts of this story that are a bit cliche. Boy meets girl, they have crushes on each other, spend the next grand amount of time avoiding their true feelings for each other, they (may or may not) get together. YET, the emotion and the humor these characters had toward each other was so moving. The dialogue was top notch and I honestly had to look up quite a few phrases and words because I am not familiar with all of the British jargon.

Plot and Structure: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Nicholls’ choice to revolve a story around one day a year was a bit refreshing because it allows so much more growth for the characters. Instead of the story being crammed into a few short years, it spans over twenty years and the characters have many ups and downs from their twenties to their forties. I also enjoyed that the story was mostly chronological except for Part Five which seamlessly went between 1988 and the mid 2000s.

I also liked that he split the book into smaller sections based on the ages of the characters as each section was a new turning point or challenge in their lives. The bits of literature preceding each section were well-chosen and foreshadowed major events and themes.

Docking points only for the cliche plot aspects that all romance novels do to make the tension last longer.

Characters: 4 out of 5 stars

Even though I prefer first person, I think his choice of third person limited made quite a wonderful story to go back and forth between not only Em and Dex, but also Ian, Slyvie and a few one scene characters. At times I LOATHED Emma and Dexter when they were whining or making terrible choices, like dating the wrong person to avoid loneliness, drinking to drown out the sadness, staying in the wrong job because they’re unconfident, and lying to each other. At other times I wanted to give them a hug and a kiss and tell them I was proud of them, especially at the end of the story.

I think my favorite character was actually Ian Whitehead, who is Emma’s partner for a time. I admired his desire to go for his dreams even if they were a long shot, his loyalty to Emma, and his choice to take the high road in the end. There was one point that I didn’t like his character when he and Emma were fighting, but to be honest, if I was in his position, I probably would have felt the same way!

Themes, Motifs, & Symbols: 3.5 out of 5 stars

St. Swithin’s Day:

I wasn’t familiar with St. Swithin’s day on July 15th other than the fact that it’s also my mother’s birthday, so I will now use it as more of a marker for the year ahead. While the mythos is more in regard to summer weather, I considered it more of a symbolic reasoning of whether or not Dexter and Emma were going to have a good or bad year. For instance, many of the rainy days it seems that the whole next year that they had terrible experiences while on the sunny days their lives seemed to be getting better.

Yin and Yang:

Toward the beginning of the book, Dexter gets a yin and yang tattoo while on holiday. In my opinion, it greatly resembles their differences and similarities to each other. Not only does it represent their personalities and how they complement each other, but it also seems to foreshadow that when one of their lives was great, the other’s was terrible. Together they are strong. Apart, not so much. They were two halves of a whole and they needed each other to balance.

Making a difference:

The first lines of the novel are these quips between Em and Dex:

E: “I suppose the important thing is to make some sort of difference... you know, actually change something.” 

D: “What, like ‘change the world,’ you mean?”

E: “Not the whole entire world. Just the little bit around you.”

This theme is super important throughout the whole story as they both take on the world in their own ways. It is very heart-wrenching when it comes full circle at the end. I think they did both make an impact on the “little bit around” them, but just not in the ways they expected. 

Re-readability:

Would I read this book again? Probably not because it is a very emotional book and rather long as it is single spaced and over four hundred pages. On the plus side, this is the best romance novel that I have ever read. I appreciate that is not super lovey-dovey gooey and gets into the real issues of cheating, drinking, family, self-esteem, depression, loneliness, and loss. It’s raw and real and isn’t unrealistic like those Fabio-model romance novels your naughty housewives read and war romance novels (ie: Nicholas Sparks). 

[macrolit]

The Confidential Agent Graham Greene This is 1 of 12 vintage paperback classics that comprise our current giveaw@y.

[brandyschillace]

We approach the launch of my book!

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If you are local to Cleveland—Launch is Feb 15!