#sassenachstories

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SassenachStories is on the move.

Sassenachstories can now be found at https://sassenachstories.blogspot.co.uk.

I decided to do this because I’ve had too many experiences with bots on Tumblr, and also feel like blogspot is more suited to the content I produce. I hope you will follow me on my move over to the new site, and that it is still the sort of thing you enjoy!

My social media handles have all stayed the same!

[strangebookseye]

“If you’re looking for a bit of weirdness in your life, then look no further than Mike Russell’s work. I really recommend this collection.” SassenachStories Reviews Strange Secrets by Mike Russell is available from Amazon here: viewBook.at/StrangeSecrets

[sassenachstories-blog]

I’m going on hiatus (again).

I move to university this Saturday. Yup. It feels weird to say, as I’ll be living in a different city away from my family and actually having to do my own washing (this doesn’t mean I haven’t packed far too many articles of clothing, however. I have a massive holdall that is literally filled to the brim with clothes and shoes. Best to be prepared, right?!?).

This does mean that I am rather busy at the moment, packing my room into various different bags, forgetting stuff and needing to squeeze yet more stuff into bags, shaving a teacher’s beard off (yes, really), and saying goodbye to people I’ve seen practically daily for years. I haven’t been reading much recently, nor have I been writing any new reviews or content.

I’m therefore going on hiatus again. I’m not sure how long for, or even if I’ll be back on a regular basis, I just know that I need some time to just appreciate this point in my life and everything exciting and new about it.

I hope you understand,

Jo.

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The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells

“The night after a shooting star is seen streaking through the sky from Mars, a cylinder is discovered on Horsell Common near London. At first, naive locals approach the cylinder armed just with a white flag - only to be quickly killed by an all-destroying heat-ray as terrifying tentacled invaders emerge. Soon the whole of human civilization is under threat, as powerful Martians build gigantic killing machines, destroy all in their path with black gas and burning rays, and feast on the warm blood of trapped, still-living human prey. The forces of the Earth, however, may prove harder to beat than they at first appear.“

I’ve been familiar with the story of War of the Worlds for a while now thanks to my parents. My mum absolutely hates it as her father used to play the musical version when she was going to bed as a child, and the sound effects creeped her out quite a bit. My dad, on the other hand, really enjoys the Jeff Williams musical adaptation and enjoys the film version as well (not the Tom Cruise one, though, I hasten to add!). As I want to get to know my parents more on a personal level before I move out, rather than just as my parents, I picked up a copy of my dad’s favourite book. I don’t tend to read that much Sci-Fi that often, and so I was surprised to find myself enjoying the novel.

The thing that struck me as most surprising about this novel was how forward-thinking the ideas are. H.G. Wells wrote the novel in 1897 and yet managed to write convincingly about lasers in the form of the Heat Ray, an invention that was nowhere near being created at the time. The way in which Wells explained and described his ideas were fantastic and highly imaginative, and I very much enjoyed it. Despite not being quite as familiar with London as the narrator (who remains nameless throughout the novel), I was still able to picture the events and the descriptions perfectly. A number of details in the description of the Red Weed, in particular, were fascinating and meant that later events in the novel were easier to follow, if silently dense at times.

It was interesting seeing the events from another person’s perspective in the form of the narrator's brother, although I wish the narrator’s wife had been explored more. I was intrigued by her character and the way she seemed to know that something bad was going to happen when the Martians first landed, while her husband was more excited by the prospect than anything else. It would, therefore, have been interesting to see the way in which she coped with the impending doom, perhaps through exploring her perspective either instead of or alongside the brother’s perspective. It would have given the novel a bit more diversity and shown a different side to the events that were unfolding.

By far my favourite aspect of the novel, however, was the use of realism to make the novel feel as though it was a true account of events. The references to names of experts and newspaper stories as well as to documents and pamphlets produced after the events of the invasion helped to create an almost academic atmosphere to the novel and make it seem very realistic. Despite how futuristic and advanced the Martians and their technologies are in comparison to our own lives, and the entire concept of the invasion, Wells managed to keep the novel grounded and not overly outlandish. Throughout the entirety of the novel, there was a very real sense of ‘this could happen to us’. When we bring back a probe from a foreign planet, who is to say that we don’t bring back another organism that could harm our ecosystem? Another comparison that was particularly poignant was brought up within the novel itself, with the link between the Martian’s actions on Earth to the way different countries have been colonised over time and the destruction of their cultures. The way this has been explored from the victims’ perspective made it very interesting and I was very much invested in the story and enjoyed the thought process of the colonised trying to work out what was being done to them and why.

Overall, I found this novel to be very interesting and creepy at points, and I enjoyed this introduction into Sci-Fi.

5 stars.

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All We Shall Know, by Donal Ryan

“Martin Toppy is the son of a famous Traveller and the father of my unborn child. He’s seventeen, I'm thirty-three. I was his teacher. I’d have killed myself by now if I was brave enough. I don’t think it would hurt the baby. His little heart would stop with mine. He wouldn't feel himself leaving one world of darkness for another, his spirit untangling itself from me” ‘Melody Shee is alone and in trouble. Her husband doesn't take her news too well. She doesn't want to tell her father yet because he’s a good man and this could break him. She’s trying to stay in the moment, but the future is looming – larger by the day – while the past won’t let her go. ‘What she did to Breedie Flynn all those years ago still haunts her. ‘It’s a good thing that she meets Mary Crothery when she does. Mary is a young Traveller woman, and she knows more about Melody than she lets on. She might just save Melody’s life. ‘Donal Ryan’s new novel is breathtaking, vivid, moving and redemptive.’

I hadn’t heard of Donal Ryan before picking up this book, one I was predominantly drawn to by the cover and the plot involving Ireland, a setting that I haven’t seen be explored in many of the books I tend to read. I found myself instantly enjoying this book, and I wanted to keep reading whilst also taking my time over it to enjoy every moment.

The novel follows a young married woman who falls pregnant after sleeping with a seventeen-year-old traveller boy she was teaching to read, and the events of her life in the nine months that follow as she grows increasingly immersed in traveller culture. I found this to be quite interesting, to have an Irish voice written by an Irish author, and to see the culture of travellers explored throughout the short novel. Whilst there are not a lot of pages in this novel, the depth of the characters and their emotions was rather impressive, and found myself knowing the characters on an almost personal level. I enjoyed the way that different layers were peeled back and the characters motivations became clearer to the reader.

The language of the novel was also beautiful. Ryan has a way with words for both the violent events of his novel and the more pleasant ones, and this was perhaps the most immersive thing for me. The most obvious example of this that comes to mind is when Melody describes the pain of her caesarean scar as “scalding” rather than searing or a similar word. The reader could get a clear sense of the image and the emotion that Ryan was trying to portray, and this helps the reader to imagine what they are reading more clearly in their mind. The descriptions that Mary gives also show Ryan’s awareness of the power of language and how it can change the emotion of a scene and the reader’s reactions to characters.

However, I did have some faults with this novel that meant I could not give it 5 stars. I found myself caring more about Mary than I did Melody, as I didn’t like the way that Melody treated others. I felt as though Melody didn’t grow or develop throughout the novel and instead passed her issues on to other people to deal with, rather than be directly involved with them herself. She also seemed to have a lack of understanding of the impact of her actions on others and was an incredibly selfish character. Mary, on the other hand, did have a few flaws but was a far more interesting character in my opinion, perhaps due to her background as a traveller being something that I hadn’t come across before. Regardless, I found her general pleasantness and amicability to be intriguing and endearing, and I would love to read a novel from her perspective and see how that progresses.

I also found fault in the conclusion of the novel, as I felt that the last two chapters were very rushed and not developed as much as the rest of the events. Without going into spoilers, one particular event in the conclusion of the story felt as though Ryan had meant to hint at it the whole way through the story, but hadn’t, or else had done so in such a subtle way that it was hard to pick up on it. There were reconnections between characters that I hadn’t seen coming and one particular storyline that I hadn’t expected to have ended so suddenly at all. I wanted to know more about the characters, not necessarily as more chapters but just as a further development of what had happened, just to provide a little bit more clarity.

Overall, however, I immensely enjoyed this novel and really recommend it. It was a quick and enjoyable novel with an interesting perspective and subject matter I hadn’t seen be explored before.

4 stars.

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Persuasion, by Jane Austen

WARNING: This review contains spoilers.

‘At twenty-seven, Anne Elliot is no longer young and has few romantic prospects. Eight years earlier, she had been persuaded by her friend Lady Russell to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a handsome naval captain with neither fortune nor rank. What happens when they encounter each other again is movingly told in Jane Austen’s last completed novel. Set in the fashionable societies of Lyme Regis and Bath, Persuasion is a brilliant satire of vanity and pretension, but, above all, it is a love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities.’

I’ve only ever read one other Jane Austen novel prior to this one, with that being Pride and Prejudice. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it is a book that I would very much like to return to at some point, but the length of time that it took me to finish reading the novel put me off going near her writing until I had plenty of free time. The adorable little antique copy I found a while back, however, provided me with all the motivation I needed to start this novel as soon as exams ended. I was not disappointed with what I found.

I really enjoy the way that Austen constructs her characters, particularly her lead characters. From what I’ve read of her characters so far, they stand out from the others around them, especially their family members, due to the difference in their opinions and their personalities. The characters of Elizabeth Bennet and Anne Elliott (of Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion respectively) each disagree with their families on the subject of marriage, with Elizabeth rejecting the hands of various suitors until she finds her equal, and Anne Elliott regretting the way she was persuaded to break off her engagement with the charming Captain Wentworth. The characters are remarkably strong and intelligent, with their own wits about them and refusing to give in to the popular opinion of those around them. 

I thought the romance between Anne and Wentworth was utterly adorable, from the way that she still loved him after all their time apart and the end of their engagement, to the way in which the two of them got back together again. I wasn’t aware of the way that courtship worked in Austen’s time, seeing as the only other book that comes to mind, Pride and Prejudice, features a much younger protagonist. It was interesting to see that Anne and her elder sister were not regarded as spinsters for not being married, something that I thought would appear as the pair of them do not work and are heiresses to a degree. The amount of female independence in this book was wonderful.

 Much like I found when reading Pride and Prejudice (apologies for all the comparisons, but I couldn’t help but compare the two novels whilst reading through them), the beginning of the novel was rather slow. The establishment of characters and their personalities takes quite a while, as Austen seems to build her characters right at the start of the novel through descriptions and a few actions, and the bulk of the characters are therefore understood almost in their entirety right from the start of the novel. This means that the opening of this novel was very slow for me, and I found it difficult to encourage myself to keep reading. However, once Anne moved away from her father and elder sister into the company of some more interesting characters with more diverse opinions, I found the novel far easier to pick up and keep reading. Chunking this book into chapters definitely helped me feel as though I was making progress through the novel as I was reading it. 

Despite my struggle with the novel at the start, I found myself very much enjoying this book. I loved the characters of Anne and Wentworth, and enjoyed seeing Anne grow and develop over the course of this book. Whilst Pride and Prejudice remains my favourite Austen novel so far, Persuasion has left me with an urge to keep reading more of her works.

4 stars.

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The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath

TRIGGER WARNING: This review discusses suicide, self-harm, and depression. Please do not read this review if you feel as though you will be triggered by the content.

The Bell Jar follows Esther Greenwood, a very intelligent young woman who has won multiple scholarships and is working her way through college. When Esther returns from an internship for a magazine in New York, she realises that she doesn’t know what to do with herself once her education is finished, and begins to fall into a deep depression. The saddest part about this novel is that it is semi-autobiographical, being a representation of Plath herself when she was younger. This book does not make for light reading and contains upsetting content that made it difficult to read at points. I had to take regular breaks from it to read something a bit more cheerful instead, as the descriptions and the events were so powerful.

One of the great things about this novel was the clever references to death. As Esther becomes more depressed and stuck in her emotions, every chapter begins with a reference to death in some form. From the Rosenburg’s to a play that Esther went to see on a date, the constant focus on death and suicide gave a real insight into the mindset that Esther found herself in. The reader gets an idea of how Esther saw herself as being completely surrounded by death and yet unable to achieve it herself despite her numerous attempts. Whilst this became disturbing at times with how deep Esther became absorbed in her melancholy thoughts, this technique was extremely clever and very immersive.

It was also very interesting to see Esther’s character develop from a dedicated student who achieved at everything she put her mind to, to someone who struggled to cope with her reality as she grew further depressed. Once again, Plath demonstrated her impeccable control of language and imagery, creating a character whose narrative perspective ignored the situation around her and instead focused on the things they didn't understand. The backgrounds and objects in Esther's life were described in less and less detail, especially once she returned home, a technique that showed the way she was losing touch with the reality around her. This was a very clever idea and showed how much promise Plath had as an author and the work that she potentially could have completed.

Esther's character was very relatable through the idea of the panic about finishing education. Whilst the novel is semi-autobiographical and therefore contains references to Plath's life and her thoughts and feelings about different ideas, the sheer relatability of the character was very impressive. There were a reasonable amount of personal details about the character to link her to Plath's own experiences, but Esther's motivations and her interactions with others were written in a way that made the character seem very realistic and as if they were someone you could meet anywhere. The descent into depression was also interesting to follow in this regard, as you could see Esther herself not truly recognise or connect with the person she was becoming, or the people that were in her life. This was particularly engaging and showed just how quickly a mental illness can impact someone's life.

The semi-autobiographical element to this novel was also engaging and showed the way that Plath noticed the change in her mental health herself. The only books that I have read that feature mental illness in this way are The Bird's Nest and The Yellow Wallpaper, all of which present different mental illnesses in different ways. The exploration of depression throughout this novel, and the desire to end one's life, was unique to this novel, and very complimentary to Ariel, Plath's last collection of poetry. Poems such as Cut and Morning Song demonstrate Plath's disconnect from life and her surroundings, much like Esther's narration in The Bell Jar. The patterns and similarities that can be found in both texts paint a clearer picture of what Plath was experiencing over the course of her life.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. Whilst hard-going and sad at times, the progression of the story was so interesting and the characters so easy to get invested with that I wanted to keep on reading.

5 stars.

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Milk and Honey, by Rupi Kaur

Poetry isn’t something that I tend to read unless I have to, or if it’s written by a comedian. There’s something about the imagery that tends to be used that throws me off, especially when a complex meter or rhyme scheme gets used that I start to get distracted with. But there was something so compelling about Milk and Honey beyond the incredible aesthetics of the book.

Rupi Kaur is both a poet and an artist, and she uses both talents to great effect in this book. Milk and Honey is a fantastic feminist poetry book that explores a different side to female struggles than I have seen in literature previously. Whilst discussions on rape and sexual assault can be found in the media more through increased independence in publishing, such as through blogging and sites such as YouTube, the topic has always been covered in not a lot of detail and in very straightforward language to avoid romanticising the event. The way that it is approached in Milk and Honey, however, is very different in that it is described using poetic language but in a way that is still very hard-hitting. Kaur pulls no punches with her poems and makes every emotion and every thought incredibly apparent to the reader. There is no possibility got the meaning to be misconstrued by the audience, and yet it feels as though it is possible to bring your own emotions into the poem as a reader. This is what makes this book so powerful to me, and marks Kaur as a truly fantastic poet.

What also impressed me was the amount of power and strong feminine ideas that could be found in each poem. Kaur covers very sensitive topics in the book, as well as some more accessible events such as breakups and the start of new relationships. I have not personally gone through a proper breakup (and hope not to anytime soon, at the very least), but after reading Kaur's poetry on the topic of breakups I felt as though I had the strength to tell that guy goodbye and to move on with my life and continue my own personal development. This is a hallmark of a truly great poet, someone who is able to make you connect with them and to see their story and their experiences through their eyes, whilst also being able to imagine yourself in that situation.

Perhaps my favourite thing about this book, however, is the structure to it. Each poem leads on seamlessly to the next and appears to follow some kind of plot. This was different to any other collections of poetry that I have read before, as they all tend to have a general theme but the connection between the poems featured tends to be deep and difficult to find at first glance. In this book, however, the poems appear to construct a narrative of the growth of a female speaker from the difficulties and struggles she has faced into the independence that she experiences towards the end of the collection. Seeing the speaker grow in this way was particularly interesting for me, and was perhaps one of the reasons why I found this book so enjoyable and so accessible. I enjoyed seeing the changes the speaker went through and the ways in which her attitudes shifted as the collection continued, and so this book felt more like a poetic novel than a poetry anthology.

For once, I felt as though a book actually lived up to the hype surrounding it. There is no understating the simple beauty of all the illustrations, as well as the imagery that is used throughout the poems. They are all perfectly complementary and form an utterly gorgeous collection. 

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book. If you are looking for a nice way into poetry, or simply a powerful book with feminist tones, then look no further than Kaur’s book. I simply cannot recommend it enough.

5 Stars

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The Bird’s Nest, by Shirley Jackson

This was the final book that we read as part of Book Club (sob) and the second of Shirley Jackson’s books that I have read, the first being We Have Always Lived in the Castle. As a result of this, I entered this book with high expectations and was actually left feeling a little disappointed by what I read.

The Bird's Nest follows Elizabeth Richmond as she struggles with her development of multiple personalities, each one more different from the last. This novel is one that delves deeply into uncertainty and an exploration of the unknown, as the unreliable and narrow-sighted narrators mean that the reader is never entirely sure of what is actually real and what is being imagined by the character at the time. This proves to be a particular problem during one incident with Betsy, Elizabeth's third personality that she develops, as the reader can only guess how much of what they're reading is intended to be real and how much is just being superimposed by Betsy. This, whilst frustrating at the time due to my own qualms of not being too keen on not knowing what's happening in a book, has its merits as it is a clear representation of the difficulty Betsy herself would have been having trying to navigate their surroundings.

This is not the first book I have read where the narrator suffers from a mental illness of this kind, with another example being Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper. However, the main difference between the two books is the way that the mental illness is explored. Whilst The Bird's Nest begins with Elizabeth suffering from the mental illness and progressing further before the eventual resolution of the novel, The Yellow Wallpaper began with the narrator being relatively sane before her mental health deteriorates. This meant that the reader was able to work out what was real and what was imagined. Whilst the uncertainty in The Bird's Nest was very clever, in my personal opinion, I would have preferred some more narration from Aunt Morgen or another character to contrast reality with Elizabeth's experiences.

The main issue I had with this novel was structure. The chapters were very long, making this book take longer to read than expected. Also, the winding sentences and the way that the personalities would switch so suddenly made it difficult to work out what was going on without getting lost and needing to reread passages.

I also found the character of Doctor Wright to be very pretentious and condescending which, whilst annoying, was rather entertaining when he was contrasted with the character of Aunt Morgen. They did make quite the odd pair at times, but it was good to see different personalities and characters being countered against one another in this manner.

Overall, I thought this book was quite good and worth the read, so long as you have enough time to dedicate to it.

3 stars.

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The possibility for overanalysing a text is something that I have been thinking about for quite a while. The problem with studying English Literature is that there is no wrong way to interpret a text provided that you can support your points with evidence. However, this means that sometimes points can be made that seem a bit too... out there.

This may just be me being pretentious, who knows?

It does seem as though there is a limit to the amount that a text can be analysed though, and the extent to which an author’s personal life can influence what it is that they’ve written. I’ve written previously about the impact I believe an author’s life can have on their work, and the extent to which I think the reader should understand the context of the time that the author was writing. My stance on that hasn’t really changed (and you can read it here if you’d like!), so that may be the reason why really in-depth analysis frustrates me so much.

The moment I realised I had a real problem with over analysis was when we studied Sylvia Plath’s ‘Ariel’, the collection of poetry. The way my teacher covers texts in class is to get us to research into the context of the time it was written and a brief overview of the author’s life. Poetry itself is a very personal form of literature, so in this instance, we did a full overview of Plath’s life. However, this meant that everyone became hyper-aware of Ted Hughes and the impact he had on her life. Plath’s poetry tends to be quite dark and depressing and filled to the brim with emotions, and so it seems very fair to assume her private life influenced what she was writing in a substantial way.

This does not mean, however, that everything she writes was about Hughes.

Sure, I’m willing to understand that there will be some images that are meant to refer to him, and that the impact that he had on her, seeing as she seemed to be a vulnerable person in terms of emotions (there’s no denying her core strength, of course, which comes through in all of her poems regardless of the subject matter through her strong imagery and brash language). What I don’t agree with is starting off analysing a text with an argument about something, regardless of the text, and then shoe-horning the evidence to fit with what you are trying to say. I’m a strong believer that you should build an argument off of a quote and evidence within a text, rather than coming up with an idea and having to try to find a quote that fully supports what you are trying to say.

I’m not sure whether my opinion on this subject will ever change. Part of me thinks that my aversion to poetry may have something to do with my prejudice against overanalysis, as I struggle at times to interpret what the author is trying to say. However, I also get frustrated at overanalysis of novels or plays in a similar way, where the argument seems to be constructed in a backwards manner.

Either way, this is a grudge I will bear for a very long time unless someone can change my mind.

What about you? Do you believe overanalysis is a thing? If not, why? I’d love to be enlightened to your point of view!

Until next week, 

Jo.

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Saga (#1), by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples

There was a lot of hype for this graphic novel in the book blogging community a while ago, and I had been curious about it ever since. The story follows a fantasy world and the conflict between two different races. In this edition, the first in the ongoing series, the reader gets introduced to the key characters and their motivations. Primarily, all characters revolve around Hazel, the daughter of two people who should be fighting each other in the war.

I found this graphic novel to be very entertaining. The art style is very pretty and the concept is also rather interesting. I was able to start predicting the way that the story is going to pan out and the different conflicts that will appear in it, but not in a way that meant the entire storyline is predictable. Rather, the character motives and the events so far have led to some overlap, and so the reader is able to start to piece together the narrative and guess who is going to interact with who. This is something that I enjoyed very much.

I also enjoyed the dimensions to characters that I didn’t expect. The storyline with The Will in this edition, for example, was entertaining and unexpected and showed the character to have multiple dimensions rather than just being the flat character that he had the potential of being.

This is not to say that I didn’t have any frustration whilst reading this graphic novel. On the contrary, I found the way that it was paced to be rather unusual and stilted. The narrative would be very fast-paced and be building up to a big revelation about a character, but then the chapter would end and a new one would begin. Whilst I understand that this was most likely done by the author to entice the reader and keep them wanting more (which it certainly did in my case), I did find it to be a bit stunted and unsure, as if the author didn’t have the confidence to actually reveal these ideas about their characters so early on in the series.

Another issue I had with this graphic novel (and this may be considered a spoiler, so please be warned) was the amount of characters that were presumed to be dead and then all of a sudden weren’t. Whilst I understand that it is supposed to be taking place in a warzone, it felt forced when the characters were almost immediately brought back following their deaths. Once again, it felt as though the author lacked confidence in making the decision to kill off characters and rather opted for the shock factor of killing them without the permanence of their being gone for good.

Overall, this was a very good story and I would definitely continue with the series. However, if they contain the same issues that I had with this edition, I will likely not pursue it further.

4.5 stars

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Vile Bodies, by Evelyn Waugh

“I know very few young people, but it seems to me that they are all possessed with an almost fatal hunger for permanence.”

Vile Bodies was another one of the book club picks, and this one in particular bears some similarities towards F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The novel tells the story of Adam Symes, a young man engaged to Nina Blount and his struggle to find enough money to marry her. Throughout the story, the reader meets a variety of different characters who crop up across the narrative in a very clever fashion, each time bringing something funny and interesting to the story. This was the first Evelyn Waugh novel that I had read, and I was thoroughly impressed with it and want to read more. 

The wittiness of the novel was reminiscent of the ‘Carry On’ movies, something that I always used to enjoy as a child. The innuendos in the character names were funny, their actions were funny, their interactions were funny, and their conversations were really witty. Whilst it was confusing at times with the lack of meaning behind the things that they were saying, such as the constant canceling of the engagement, but that is perhaps one of the great things about its commentary on the Jazz Age and the Bright Young Things. Their hectic lives are represented so well in the fast-pace of the narrative and the whirlwind of characters in the story. This is something rather similar to The Great Gatsby, as it also features a rather fast-paced narrative that goes through multiple different paths throughout the novel.

The novel was not particularly plot driven, and that tends to be something that frustrates me when I’m reading. However, the characters were so creative and funny that they drove the story forward in their development into detailed characters with individual personalities. I enjoyed this far more than I expected, and it set a very high bar for the rest of Waugh’s novels.

 All in all, I really enjoyed this novel. I strongly encourage anyone who enjoys comedic books to read this novel. It is very entertaining and a great insight into the Jazz Age.

5 Stars

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Wednesday 8th of March was International Women’s Day! I hope you all had a lovely day spending time with the lovely women in your life! To celebrate, I wanted to share with you my top 10 favourite books written by female authors that I highly recommend you read. Check them out:

1. The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling

It would be impossible for me to talk about important female authors without me talking about the Harry Potter series. The first book I remember finishing on my own, and the one that has molded my reading habits and preferences ever since. I know there’s hardly anyone who hasn’t read these books, but if you haven’t then I highly recommend it. There are so many strong independent women in the series, I love them.

2. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë

I studied Jane Eyre last year in college, and really enjoyed it. It was slow to start with, but I ended up really enjoying it in the end. I love the gothic features in it and found Rochester and Jane’s relationship to be quite cute in the end. I also liked how strong of a character Jane is, and how she sets up the relationship to suit her and be on her own terms.

3. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

This is one of my favourite classics, again because of how strong the characters are. I loved how Lizzie was in charge of what she wanted, and the decisions that she made in her life. I also loved how critical she was of the men who tried to court her, breaking apart the traditional expectations that one would normally hold about the era.

4. The Throne of Glass series, by Sarah J Maas

Another series with a strong female lead! I adore Celaena Sardothien, and can’t wait until the summer holidays when I plan to reread the entire series! She is such a strong character who owns her sexuality and acts like a complete and utter badass. Out of all of the books I recommend, this is the one that I am probably the most serious about. I love it so much.

5. Forever, by Judy Blume

This book was probably one of the first ‘adult’ books that I can remember reading. The story, for those of you who don’t know, focuses on Katherine and her first relationship she has. There are lots of different things that happen in the novel, from depression to sex. It was refreshing to see a story aimed at teenagers that didn’t have the traditional ending for the relationship.

6. All I Know Now, by Carrie Hope Fletcher

I’ve been a huge fan of Carrie Hope Fletcher since I found her YouTube channel a long time ago. She always comes across as so genuine and cheerful, and even though she has had some amazing opportunities she still seems to be down-to-earth. ‘All I Know Now’ is Carrie’s first book, and tells the story of the different things she has learned so far in her life. Carrie’s book is fantastic and sweet, and I highly recommend that people pick it up.

7. You’re the One That I Want, by Giovanna Fletcher

Another Fletcher! Carrie’s sister-in-law, I found Gi through Carrie’s channel and was following her when she announced that she was publishing a book. I devoured her first novel, ‘Billy and Me’, on the day it came out, but my favourite novel she has written is ‘You’re the One That I Want’. It’s such a beautiful and fluffy book, and I always turn to her writing when I need cheering up.

8. The Night Circus, by Erin Morgernstern

The descriptions in this novel are what make it perfect to me. Le Cirque des rêves is gorgeous and magical, and I absolutely would want to visit if it were real. I adore the description of the cloud room the most, I could picture the entire book clearly but the cloud room was the most gorgeous one to me.

9. Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl is another gorgeously fluffy book and another one that I devoured almost immediately. I really want to reread this one soon, as it’s such a nice little book to de-stress with. There’s not a lot of people that haven’t read this book, as it blew up on booklr and booktube a couple years back, but if you haven’t read it but want to 

10.  The Bloody Chamber, by Angela Carter

This book was one that was put into the mix for book club and is fantastically female. The extent to which the book can be considered feminist is debated, but I still really enjoyed it. It was a fun subversion of the fairytale genre and a book that I think everyone should read. A word of warning, though: this book is not one for the faint-hearted. Especially not The Snow Child.

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The Coffee Book Tag, as created by Ben of BangadyBangz on YouTube (you can find the original video here!), seemed like great fun and a good way both for you to find out more about me as a reader, and for me to learn more about myself! Feel free to tag yourself and give it a go!

1. Black: Name a series that's tough to get into but has hardcore fans.

I found Veronica Roth’s ‘Divergent’ series to be a little bit tough to get into, even though they were quite easy to read. My problem wasn’t that they were slow-going, but rather that I didn’t particularly care for what was happening to the characters in the repetitive plot ‘twists’ that occurred. There are lots of people that were/are huge fans of this series, but I personally feel as though it should have been kept as a standalone book.

2. Peppermint mocha: Name a book that gets more popular during the winter or a festive time of year.

The most obvious one that I can think of here is ‘Let It Snow’, a compilation of short stories from John Green, Lauren Myracle, and Maureen Johnson. I actually tried reading it last Christmas, and couldn’t get into the writing style myself, what with it being a while since I last read a YA book. However, I can see the appeal in the fluffiness and the cute relationships of the novel, and just wish I could get into it.

3. Hot chocolate: What is your favorite children's book?

This is quite a difficult choice to make! I think I’d have to go with Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’, as it was very much a formative book for me in terms of reading and showing me that it was okay to be different. It was also one of the first books that showed me the magic in reading, and how it could bring you comfort and show you cool things. I loved the idea of little Matilda walking herself to the library to find new books, and loved (and still love to this day) Danny DeVito’s film adaptation. It was fantastic! I’m actually going to see this in the West End on May 4th, and I’m super excited about it!

4. Double shot of espresso: Name a book that kept you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.

Suzanne Collins’ ‘The Hunger Games’ is the only book I can remember finding un-putdownable, what with the way that every chapter was so tense as I was reading it. I haven’t found another book that is that gripping for a very long time, so if anyone has any recommendations of interesting books, hit me up! ;)

5. Starbucks: Name a book you see everywhere.

I tend to see ‘The Raven Boys’ a lot, and haven’t yet had the chance to pick it up. I’ve been wanting to read it for quite a while now and just haven’t gotten round to it yet. The premise sounds pretty interesting though, and the cover is gorgeous, so I really need to add it to my TBR list and try and get round to it in the summer along with my uni reading.

6. That hipster coffee shop: Give a book by an indie author a shoutout.

I don’t really know that many books by indie authors, having mainly been reading books off my reading list for my A-level and making a start on my uni list. I’m looking forward to Megan Jayne Crabbe’s book about Body Positivity, whose inspiring photos and blogs can be found under the name bodyposipanda, but she’s signed to Penguin and isn’t independent. So I guess I need to take a rain check on this question!

7. Oops! I accidentally got decaf: Name a book you were expecting more from.

‘Aristotle and Dantë Discover the Secrets of the Universe’. Without a doubt. I definitely feel as though I have mentioned this one before in a previous tag, but it really annoyed me how I was promised a super cute novel and didn’t get one that lived up to the hype. Yes, there were moments that were kind of cute. But that’s all they were - moments. There were no utterly adorable moments that made me pause reading and think about how cute the pair were, as I was promised there would be. I don’t know, maybe I need to reread this one. It just struck me as disappointing when I first read it, and I haven’t looked at it in a positive light since.

8. The perfect blend: Name a book or series that was both bitter and sweet but ultimately satisfying.

Again, I’m not one hundred per cent sure what books to fill in here, as there’s not many that I can remember reading that could fit in. I guess the Harry Potter series, what with the death of so many lovely characters over the course of the novels. That was so upsetting, but the series was (and still is) so entertaining and so satisfying to read. I adore these books, and they’ve shaped me so much into the person I am today. But I’ve already said that multiple times on this blog, so I won’t go into detail on it anymore!

And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this post, let me know what you think of my choices and have a go yourself if you want to! Be sure to tag me in it or send me a link, and I’d love to have a read!

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Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë

I rather enjoy gothic novels, especially classic gothic novels. It’s a genre that I want to read more of and explore more, as the only books that I had read in the genre before this one were Jane Eyre and Dracula. I ended up really enjoying this novel, far more than I was expecting when I first went into it.

The slow start is quite deceptive of the fast progression of the rest of the storyline. The change in narrator is disconcerting at first, but it soon flows perfectly and fits with the narrative that is being spun. It is very macabre and gothic at points, but it also very enjoyable and interesting to read more about each character.

I hated each and every character in this novel, and normally that tends to slow me down in the progress that I make through it. However, the unexpected twists and turns make the narrative very interesting, and you want to continue reading it to find out what happens next. I found myself getting very invested in the storyline and very eager to read on to find out what happened next to each character, even though I didn’t particularly care for any of them.

This novel is very typical of the gothic genre, and I found myself enjoying each of the features that contributed to the genre. The ghost story, for example, was brilliantly described and very easy to picture in my head. Brontë’s language is poetic and brilliantly used in order to create a very precise effect on her audience, and I love it for it.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book. I would definitely read it again and encourage others to do so too.

5 stars

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Did you guys know I have a bookstagram account? Go check out @sassenachstories on there to have a looksie! :)