Category: should I read…?
Should I read… Dark Romance?
| June 5, 2012 | Posted by Emma French under should I read...? |
If you’re like me, and frequently visit Waterstones (often unnecessarily), you may have, when it sprung up in the teenage section, despaired at the new addition of a “Dark Romance” genre shelf. But my weeping at the sight of it is not a mournful nostalgia for the time when that genre didn’t even exist – to some signifying the death of decent literature – but rather for the fact that the only reason for its existence is Stephenie Meyer – who is the death of decent literature. It seems a shame to me that this trend for supernatural stories, which made urban fantasy far more acceptable and accessible, only came to the fore to feed the dribbling hordes of Twilight fans… more
Should I read… Death Note?
| March 6, 2012 | Posted by Emma French under should I read...? |
I thought that this week I would consider something a bit different from the usual reading recommendations you get from friends. If you are working through a busy period of your life – perhaps exams, or, like me, a mammoth lump of coursework – you don’t always have time for a novel like Captain Corelli with its 500 pages and mighty-small text. And at those points, you can’t always be bothered either. After marathon research periods spent staring at textbooks, a serious classic novel feels a bit too much like hard work. So, while I’m not advocating manga as a replacement to a good novel, it is a good alternative if you want a lot of action and less reading.… more
Should I read… Never Let Me Go?
| February 22, 2012 | Posted by Emma French under should I read...? |
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is an example of a subtle type of dystopian novel – one which never completely acknowledges its dystopian genre and instead acts as if what happens in the book is completely normal. Unlike traditional favourites like 1984, there is nothing overtly sinister about the world which Kathy inhibits; if anything, it goes more to the other end of the spectrum, where everything is eerily perfect and only trivialities begin to shake the reader’s view of the world being normal. And in fact, the world is completely normal – no dictators, secret police, robots, drone-like working conditions – and only one thing in Ishiguro’s world differs from our own: science has been able to… more
Should I read… Pigeon English?
| February 1, 2012 | Posted by Emma French under should I read...? |
So, having just finished Stephen Kelman’s debut novel Pigeon English (shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize), I felt like I had to write about it. This is not just because of the somewhat awesome qualities of the book, but also because of the sense of frustration it has eventually left me with. First, I would like to place on record that I have nothing but praise for the book, and would definitely recommend it, particularly to fans of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, as the book follows much of the same premise. The narrator, Harrison, a year seven immigrant to Britain from Ghana, tries to uncover a murderer after a stabbing takes place in his London… more
Should I read… The Book Thief?
| January 25, 2012 | Posted by Emma French under should I read...? |
There are many books written about the Second World War and Nazi Germany. Some, such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, have reached worldwide acclaim (though personally I didn’t find it a particularly good book, even if the story was poignant). However, for me, the best book (forgive the superlative, given the subject matter) focused on this period is The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. The main reason for this – apart from a story which left me crying my eyes out and my mother asking me if I wanted her to take the book away, when that was the last thing I wanted – is that it perhaps gives the most impartial and appropriate account of the events,… more
Should I read… Child 44?
| January 17, 2012 | Posted by Emma French under should I read...? |
Anyone who has graced the AQA exam board for history even by the end of year 12 probably knows their fair share about Stalin and the totalitarian rule he held over the USSR (and I shall refer to it as totalitarian to simplify things, given that this review falls into the category of English rather history). And, while it is anything but boring (particularly in comparison with the British or *shudder* Irish courses), it can become dry in places and the textbook somewhat lacking. You’re fed statistics and you can’t really process them, for the collateral damage of the Stalinist regime is mind-boggling, and just end up being words on shiny paper. Therefore, what attracted me to Child 44 by… more
Should I read… A Study in Scarlet?
| January 10, 2012 | Posted by Emma French under should I read...? |
Following its revamp, courtesy of the BBC and Guy Ritchie (though it’s always going to be the BBC for me personally), Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are now both at the fore of detective literature once more. With Robert Downey Jnr and Benedict Cumberbatch bringing two very different and (if you’re a purist) controversial portrayals of Baker Street’s resident detective to the table, it’s perfectly understandable as to why people have been drawn in – the new, modern Sherlock Holmes adventures involve fast-paced action and witty dialogue that often goes so fast you have to rewind and listen through it twice before you get all the jokes (yes, Mark Gatiss, I’m looking at you). So, should you read A Study in… more
Should I read… The Night Circus?
| January 3, 2012 | Posted by Emma French under should I read...? |
Hey everyone, I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year – for me it was pretty awesome, so it would be nice if it was good all round. And of course, one staple of my own Christmas hoard is books… lots and lots of books. My first acquisition, and one which I am very grateful for, is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. One should never judge a book by its cover, and Night Circus proves this. Despite its very chic, black-on-white-with-a-splash-of-red (very relevant to the story) cover design, the small blurb on the back is anything but promising. Personally I found it cringingly clichéd: “The Circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it… It is simply… more
Should I read… The Chrysalids?
| December 22, 2011 | Posted by Emma French under should I read...? |
I’m a big fan of dystopian fiction, from young adult favourites such as The Hunger Games to the classics of Orwell and Huxley, but The Chrysalids by science fiction legend John Wyndham (see Day of the Triffids) is a new favourite of mine for how it doesn’t focus on a huge struggle against authority, but rather much smaller battles on a more minute scale – the book centres on the children of a tiny village in a future where a disaster has caused humans to revert back to more primitive, provincial roots. The story is narrated by ten-year-old David Strorm, who has been bought up in a claustrophobically Christian fundamentalist society, and whose god-fearing world is based on one attribute… more
Should I read… Life of Pi?
| December 13, 2011 | Posted by Emma French under should I read...? |
One of those books people talk about incessantly, and everyone feels they should read: Life of Pi. But, unlike the bizarre, ‘serious’ books that people think it sounds good to have read (say… Murakami?), this book by Yann Martel is worthy of ‘superior’ reputation. A captivating book from the very start, Life of Pi follows the life of Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) who, after the boat transporting his family and the contents of their zoo is caught in a storm, survives 227 days in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The story is told from the point of view of Pi as an old man, looking back on his childhood and adolescence. While the main bulk of the… more
