Lost in a Good Book

Book Bingo 2016: The End of the Journey (With a Win!)

30 Dec 2016 Leave a comment

by Amy in Book Bingo Tags: book bingo, book bingo 16

Bingo As 2016 comes to an end, so too does my 2016 Book Bingo challenge. Given the hectic nature of the past few months, I did admittedly entirely forget about doing this so there are no updates or anything which I’m a bit sad about. The good news is that looking at my read pile I realised I covered a lot of ground in the past few months. I may not have been able to finish my card, but I managed to secure a bingo so I’m taking that as a win. I’m sure the point it to get a line anyway, not fill your card. So I’m pretty stoked, and looking at all the red on my chart I did well considering I thought it fell off the wagon a few months ago. My full list of books read is below, some of them managed to get a review, others didn’t, but I’ve linked in those that had and included their Goodreads link. I may still write reviews for some of these but this is where we stand at the moment. I loved doing this again, I haven’t made up next year’s yet but I have a bunch of new ideas and categories to cover so I’m looking forward to creating it. Did you do any book bingos this year? It definitely helps you read things you may not typically pick up and I’ve discovered some amazing books this way.

bingo-card-2-in-use-line

Was a Gift – Elianne by Judy Nunn

Child Main Character – Yellow by Megan Jacobson – REVIEW

Set in Australia – Dead, Actually by Kaz Delaney – REVIEW

A Fairytale Retelling – The Princess Companion by Melanie Cellier – REVIEW

Author You’ve Never Read – Time and Time Again by Ben Elton

More Than 50 Years Old – My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin

That ‘Every One’ Has Read – The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Second Hand Book – The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham

On TBR List for More Than a Year – Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

Free Choice – Heart and Brain Comic Collection by Nick Seluk

LGBTQIA Character – The Sidekicks by Will Kostakis

Recommended by a Friend – Darkest Place by Jaye Ford

Chosen for the Cover – The Memory Book by Lara Avery – REVIEW

Self Published – The Crow Box by Nikki Rae – REVIEW

Involves Greek Mythology – Antigoddess by Kendre Blake

Turned into a Movie – Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Reimagining a Classic – Hamlet by John Marsden – REVIEW

The Memory Book by Lara Avery

29 Dec 2016 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars Tags: lara avery, three stars, young adult

Published: 7th July 2016
Publisher: Quercus Children’s Books
Pages: 357
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

“They tell me that my memory will never be the same, that I’ll start forgetting things. At first just a little, and then a lot. So I’m writing to remember.”

Samantha McCoy has it all mapped out. First she’s going to win the national debating championship, then she’s going to move to New York and become a human rights lawyer. But when Sammie discovers that a rare disease is going to take away her memory, the future she’d planned so perfectly is derailed before it’s started. What she needs is a new plan.

So the Memory Book is born: Sammie’s notes to her future self, a document of moments great and small. Realising that her life won’t wait to be lived, she sets out on a summer of firsts: The first party; The first rebellion; The first friendship; The last love.

Through a mix of heartfelt journal entries, mementos, and guest posts from friends and family, readers will fall in love with Sammie, a brave and remarkable girl who learns to live and love life fully, even though it’s not the life she planned.

I was delightfully surprised with this book. I picked it up thinking it sounded interesting and I wasn’t disappointed. As someone who has not got the greatest memory at times, it was fascinating to read about someone who has a disease that robs someone of their memories. The irony is, as Sammie mentions, is that she relies on her memory. It is her strongest thing, her proudest part of herself. To have that taken away is nothing short of unfair.

As a debater, planned Valedictorian, and future lawyer, Sammie’s big plans are thrown into chaos when she discovers she has an incredibly rare disease that will slowly affect her memories. To preserve the ones she has and to keep a record of goals for Future Sam to attain to, she starts a journal dubbed her Memory Book where she records her life in the tiniest detail, determined to show everyone she can fight her fate and still have the life she’s spent years working towards.

I loved that this book is told entirely through Sammie’s Memory Book. There are no deviations or ‘outside’ moments not recorded in the book. This is interesting and you see how Avery works things into the book through Sammie that tells her story but also includes the lives of others.

Sammie was an interesting character and I quite liked her. She is passionate and headstrong; she knows what she wants and does everything in her power to get it. She knows she hasn’t got the best social skills, she admits she is selfish, others know she is selfish, but despite her faults in that respect, it is hard not to love her straightforwardness and her desire to go for what she wants. Her determination is adjusted to her circumstance and she is a fighter.

Avery tells the story of Sammie and her life and progression through the disease really well. Time passes and events happens which are all mentioned seamlessly in Sammie’s account. Seeing Sammie’s deterioration and her down moments through her words are all you need to understand, there’s no need for long explanations or anything. Sammie isn’t telling herself what is happening, she is writing down her memories, and that doesn’t include telling us about each new failing, it’s about recording how she’s living. From fleeting references and writing changes you can see what is happening, understand what is going on. It breaks your heart a little which is remarkable since Avery only shows a limited perspective.

I did get emotional at the end; I wasn’t quite expecting it if I’m honest. But having a few tears welling up is never a bad thing in emotional storytelling like this. From page one you hear Sammie’s voice, her determination, her fight against the unfightable and you can’t pity her, but you do mourn her lost chances. The brightside though is seeing her follow a new path, seeing her forge ahead and accept her new life, understand herself better and realise she doesn’t have to be the person she has always been and in doing so can still have a wonderful life.

You can purchase The Memory Book via the following

Amazon | Book Depository

Booktopia | QBD

Mad Men, Bad Girls and the Guerrilla Knitters Institute (#1) by Maggie Groff

20 Dec 2016 3 Comments

by Amy in 3 Stars, Audiobook, Mystery Tags: Audiobook, maggie groff, mystery, three stars

Published: 3rd March 2012 (print)/6th August 2012 (audio)
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia/Bolinda Audio
Pages: 364 pages/7 discs
Narrator: Georgie Parker
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Mystery
★ ★ ★ – 3 Stars

When a secretive American cult moves to the Gold Coast, freelance journalist Scout Davis’s investigative antennae start quivering. She sets out to expose the cult’s lunatic beliefs and bizarre practices, but when she learns the identity of a recent recruit, her quest becomes personal. And dangerous.

But Scout has her secrets too. In the dead of night she sneaks out with an underground group of yarn bombers to decorate the locality with artworks. The next mission ticks all the right boxes – it’s risky, difficult and extremely silly. However, Scout has a sneaking suspicion that the local police sergeant, Rafe Kelly, is hot on her tail.

Jess from The Never Ending Book Shelf reviewed this a while back and since then I have been keen to read it. It came across my desk at work and I borrowed it right away to give it a go and I was… satisfied, I think that’s the best word to use.

The story itself is quite interesting, the investigation into a cult and the second mystery and investigation at the school is really good. Scout is a great investigative journalist and seeing how she maps out her stories and her plans are a nice insight into the mind of someone in her profession. She is headstrong and good at her job, she is clever and creative and seeing her work is an engaging part of the story. But having said that, I wasn’t a fan of Scout herself at times. Yes, admittedly, she is strong and confident and snarky and sarcastic and knows how to laugh and enjoy life, but she also isn’t the most faithful, and while she is having adulterous thoughts about a friend she doesn’t seem the least bit guilty. I kept waiting for her to snap out of it, to realise she couldn’t have these thoughts while her partner is overseas. It annoyed me she didn’t try to stop herself and that she went on with no remorse. It didn’t make you like her as a character in that regard.

Also while the guerrilla knitting part was interesting, I couldn’t see the point in relation to the rest of the story. It was more like a side quest that had no relation to anything else. It is like Groff has just put a few weeks of Scout’s life together and is telling us. Which is fine, but while the rest of the events sort of blended together or connected in some way, this never really needed to be there in terms of story.

This snippet of a life approach is supported by the fact Groff goes into a lot of detail about Scout’s day to day business, a lot of little details and descriptions are included about what she does, from shopping to what she eats and her daily routine. Whether this has to do with her diabetes and Groff felt like in the daily routine we needed to know the practices and how they fit into her life otherwise it wasn’t believable I’m not sure. When exciting things happen it all comes back to her diabetes and how it comes into play. Whether it would be as saturated with detail and description if she didn’t have diabetes I don’t know, I’m not sure I really needed to know every little thing Scout did though.

As a narrator Georgie Parker probably isn’t the best choice and maybe this also came into play of how I enjoyed the story. She adds emotion as she reads into odd places and doesn’t read it…I don’t want to say normally, but she pauses at odd times in sentences, it’s very casual and seems like a fun activity rather than trying to read the book as it were. Not to mention there is little difference in the voices she uses for characters, sometimes it disappearing altogether at times. Granted you don’t always need it, but it was something I noticed. Like all audiobooks you get used to some things, but I couldn’t quite get used to Georgie’s style and her voice annoyed me more often than not, it kept bringing me out of the story and while I accepted her style, I never stopped noticing it like I have done with other audio books when I become more invested in the story than the voice telling it.

Overall it was interesting for the investigative style and the story surrounding it. Groff frames the story well and shows how Scout moves from one part of her research into another, how she fits it into her day with life’s little dramas and adventures. The writing is good, the action and suspense was good, the balance of the serious and the every day worked well and Groff flows from one event to the next successfully. It was enjoyable and I might have to find the next book to see if it really gets me into the series and maybe see more of the Guerilla Knitters in action.

You can purchase Mad Men, Bad Girls, and the Guerilla Knitters Institute via the following

Booktopia | Pan Macmillan Aus

Angus & Robertson | QBD

Audio

Booktopia | Angus & Robertson

Misquotes and Misattribution

25 Oct 2016 Leave a comment

by Amy in 90 Years of Winnie the Pooh Tags: 90th winnie the pooh, a. a. milne, disney, quotes, winnie the pooh

I’ve mentioned in previous posts over the years the inaccuracies between quotes attributed to Milne and Winnie the Pooh. For some reason Milne has become the new Mark Twain where quotes become their’s whether or not they actually are. I probably helped spread some of these wrong quotes in past posts but I try to correct them when I realise.

Not a quote from Milne

I have a few theories on how these wrong quotes get spread around. Aside from Milne getting credit when a line is spoken in a Disney film, another theory is that people were placing quotes over Winnie the Pooh pictures and that started it, or maybe they think things sound like a Milne quote and they aren’t.

Websites like MyTownTutors that have ‘Great A. A. Milne Quotes‘ are great and all but the fact that barley any of those quotes are actually from Milne is only perpetuating these misquotes. Thankfully people on the internet have done some of the work for me so I don’t need to spend a week checking them all. Of the 59 listed on the MyTownTutors website only 14 were from ANY of the four Milne books. Another dozen or so were paraphrased or variations on the real quote. The rest weren’t Disney or Milne. One I know to be false is “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” Not Milne or Disney but a 1975 movie..

Not Milne, actually from Disney’s Pooh’s Grand Adventure

This Buzzfeed quiz tests your knowledge of Pooh against other great quotes. The only problem is, none of those attributed to Pooh are actually from Milne. There is one that comes close, paraphrased incredibly but as close as the rest get. The popular quote “Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day” is simplified a bit from the House at Pooh Corner quote “By the time it came to the edge of the Forest, the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and being grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, “There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”

There was even a Quotation Audit done to Winnie the Pooh’s Goodreads page that assessed what was correct attribution and what wasn’t. The result was that 14 quotes (just over one fifth of all those listed) that were not from any Milne publication nor Disney movie. Then the rest were from House at Pooh Corner, a different book entirely, but at least it was a Milne work.

Not a Milne or Disney

There is a list of Essential and Authentic Milne Quotes that are just as beautiful and funny as the incorrect ones. I’m not sure if there is a way to stop the spread of misattribution, but it’s not for lack of trying. There are a few sites dedicated to clearing up this confusion. I’ve mentioned Pooh Misquoted in the past, and the DailyKos page is another good one that tries to weed out the true from the not. They are few and far between but a great source to make clear Milne didn’t write every single Pooh quote, nor as it turns out, has Disney.

As the wise Abraham Lincoln once said:

Image result for quotes lincoln internet

Return to the Hundred Acre Woods by David Benedictus

21 Oct 2016 Leave a comment

by Amy in 90 Years of Winnie the Pooh Tags: 90th winnie the pooh, a. a. milne, david benedictus, e. h. shephard, mark burgess, winnie the pooh

80 years after the original books were published, a third official Winnie-the-Pooh book was released in 2009, taking readers back to the Hundred Acre Woods and back to Winnie-the-Pooh.

Written by David Benedictus and illustrated by Mark Burgess, the story is in the style of Milne and Shepard and aims to capture the next stage in the life of Christopher Robin and his toys. Picking up where House at Pooh Corner ended, Benedictus’ stories bring the magic of Milne’s writing to life again with a new set of adventures.

There are some surprises, one of them being a new character is introduced; a friend called Lottie the Otter comes to the Hundred Acre Woods. Lottie is described as being feisty and, according to Benedictus, she “truly embodies Winnie-the-Pooh’s values of friendship and adventure seen throughout Milne’s work, thus making the perfect companion for everyone’s favourite bear”.

Benedictus is no stranger to Winnie-the-Pooh stories, having written two short stories of his own in the mid-1990s. Benedictus submitted his short stories to the Milne estate but was told they could not be published because Disney owned all the rights. Ten years later however, the sequel rights had returned to the trustees and Benedictus was asked to make some changes to a story he had already submitted and to write some more.

Image result for mark burgess winnie the pooh The estates of both Milne and Shepard had been searching for a sequel for years, wanting to find one that did the originals justice. This is what Benedictus has produced; ten new stories with the same much loved characters that reflect all that embodies Milne’s originals, including over 100 gorgeous new illustrations.

I was originally wary when I first heard about this sequel, but seeing both men try so hard to capture the original Milne and Shepard spirit, it’s an absolute delight to be able to return to these beautiful characters again for all new adventures.