Monday Amusements 5

Read. Or else. Photo by Ben Newcomer

Note: This post doesn't have as many yesterday-recent links as I'd like. I've suffered with migraines for the past few days so pretty much just stuck the first link in today, the other links were ones-I-collected-earlier. Hopefully next week's post will be 'fresher'. 'Til then, there are still plenty of great links here, but many of them are a couple of weeks old.

Raimy is running a Malorie Blackman themed week to celebrate the new cover designs. I'm pretty sure it's also a slight rebundling of the series as well - I think 'An Eye for an Eye' was included in the last edition of Noughts & Crosses, and now it's included with Knife Edge. I like the new cover designs, they're very similar to the old ones but give the series a fresher, more up-to-date look.You can read my review of Noughts & Crosses here.

I've been thinking a lot about reading speed for quite a while now, as mine seems to have slowed considerably over the last few years. I have a theory that I'm reading slower because I'm reading more books by different authors than ever before. I used to stick with one author for a while and devour their entire ouvre before moving onto another, and I think this helped me to read more quickly. When I pick up a book by an author I've read before, I seem to read it faster than I would a book by an author that is new to me. It's like my brain is used to their style and the rhythm of their words, and I just slip back into it. Books by Sarra Manning and E. Lockhart fly by (pun intended...get it? No?), and I just finished the second in Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy, which seemed a faster read than the first. Read what Jen at Makeshift Bookmark has to say on the subject of reading speed, and contribute your own thoughts to the discussion.

'Is There Any Sense Left In The World (Of YA Fiction)' by Cicely is partly a personal post but I think it does make a good point about YA heroines. I do get a bit fed up if I read too many books in a row that feature protagonists who are well, a bit silly. When I was a teenager I was overdramatic and sarcastic and romantic in the way that's not quite healthy but I was also quite sensible and cautious. I just couldn't relate to fictional girls who would drop everything for the first boy to smile their way or fail to notice when somebody they trusted was actually clearly evil.

The Bookette asks: Do you remember learning to read? I taught myself to read before I started school and I can't actually remember a time when I couldn't read. I can remember being very competitive abiout it and wanting to move up the reading bands as fast as possible at school. I also used to read the dictionary to learn new words and write them down in my notebooks, with definitions. I still go through phases of doing this from time to time!

Y is for Young Adult is a cute poem about the joys of being a YA reader, by Jo at weartheoldcoat.

Red Riding Hood and Wolf, in Lego form!

This has been all over Twitter, but in case you haven't seen it: The Publishing Process in GIF Form

Atom are holding a launch for Libba Bray's new novel, The Diviners, this Thursday 20th September at Waterstones Oxford Street Plaza. I would be there in a heartbeat if I didn't have to work.

Jo at Once Upon A Bookcase is seeking recommendations for her LGBTQ YA theme month.

Now onto the most intriguing reviews I've read over the last couple of weeks! Jen at Makeshift Bookmark is surprised by the 'amazingness' of the self-published Angelfall, whilst I was surprised by how interesting Clover at Fluttering Butterflies found Ghost Flower, a book I'd left languishing on my TBR (and will now have to try soon). I'm also looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang, thanks to another of Clover's reviews.

Mel at Chicklish reviewed The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, which sounds excellent, as does Russian Winter, as featured by Kelly at The Broke and the Bookish. I love reading about dancers, I secretly wanted to be one for a while when I was a kid. From one kind of performance to another, Raimy's review of Five Flavors of Dumb, by Antony John, makes it sound like a really interesting twist on the teenagers-form-a-band novel.

Finally, a review of a book I've already read - The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett, reviewed by Jo at weartheoldcoat, included because her book heroine maths - "Hermione Granger + Mildred Hubble + Matilda Wormwood = Tiffany Aching" - made me laugh. Also, I loved that book, but have yet to get around to reviewing it myself.

Monday Amusements 4

Sh*t Book Reviewers Say:

It has to be said that most of these phrases are used more by srs bsns book reviews in srs bsns newspapers than by book bloggers. But there are a few that are awfully tempting to use sometimes, and may have snuck their way into a few reviews, such as: 'Gripping', 'Riveting', 'But I just didn't care about the characters' 'The characters come to life' and 'The pages practically turn themselves'!

The nominations for the Top 100 Best-Ever UKYA novels have been counted and you can now vote for your top ten. I voted for seven - I excluded most-likely-winners and books that were the first in the series and where I felt like I needed to read more of the story to fairly judge them. My selections:

Della Says: OMG! - Keris Stainton
Diary of a Chav - Grace Dent (side note, I'm addicted to Grace Dent's restaurant reviews in the Evening Standard Magazine. I'll probably never go to any of the restaurants she reviews because, well, my budget really only allows for Nando's and Pizza Express with a voucher code but I love her sense of humour. This review had me laughing out loud!)
Diary of a Crush - Sarra Manning (obvs)
Girls Under Pressure - Jacqueline Wilson (went against my usual 'not voting for most likely winners' rule because I loved this in my early teens and read it over and over!)
Slam - Nick Hornby (thought I had reviewed this, but bizarrely, I hadn't! It's a refreshing twist on teen pregnancy drama from the male point of view)
Tiffany Aching series - Terry Pratchett (haven't reviewed any of these but I love it!)
Noughts & Crosses - Malorie Blackman (I read this nearly nine months ago and I'm still recovering)

After all that hard work selecting and voting, how about some utterly bizarre fluff. Book covers matched with bikinis (via Gala). I've actually thought several times about doing a cross-blog project where I show what I'm wearing on my fashion/make-up blog and what I'm reading here. But I don't think I'd have the patience to match it that well...

Spread the Word have just published the listings for their Autumn 2012 programme of writing workshops and other events. This time round they've included a workshop about graphic novels and one about writing for television, as well as the usual range of workshops on different themes for poetry, prose fiction and drama. If you're a writer living in London or able to travel and haven't been to a Spread the Word workshop before, don't hesitate to book a place if one appeals to you. I have been to so many of their workshops that I have now lost count, both as a paying participant and as a volunteer and I think they're really low-priced for what you get out of each one, especially for the full-day workshops!

Finally, the most exciting reviews I've read this week! Cicely's review of Team Human, by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan is both enthusiastic and thoughtful. I'd never heard of that book before but now it's on my wishlist for sure. I'm not sure how I'll get on with Dying to Know You, by Aidan Chambers, but Clover's review has convinced me to give it a try. I loved the sound of Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman, in Evie's review - 'fresh ideas, clever plot developments, and fascinating dragons'? Yes please!

Monday Amusements 3

I've been meaning to post another one of these for ages! There has been so much good stuff shared in the last couple of weeks, I just had to get my butt in the chair and put it all together. Enjoy!

Above: a working version of the Weasley family clock! (I think someone posted this on Twitter, but I don't remember who. Sorry! If it was you, leave me a comment and I'll credit)

I appreciate and (mostly) agree with this post In Praise of Ripening at Writer Beware. Although the lowered costs involved in self-publishing these days are a good thing in that niche or marginalised writers whose work might never have been published can do-it-themselves and get their words out there, I dislike the DIY-as-fast-as-possible idea. I love the stories I'm working on, and I want the published versions to be the best they can be, and that requires a lot of work. I can't imagine there are any writers whose work doesn't benefit from the eye of a good editor or at least a practiced reader.

NPR is running a readers' poll for a top 100 list of teen novels. I voted for:

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
Boy Meets Boy, by David Levithan
Discworld/Tiffany Aching (series), by Terry Pratchett
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart
Fire and Hemlock, by Diana Wynne Jones
If I Stay, by Gayle Forman
Ruby Oliver Quartet (series), by E. Lockhart
Saving Francesca, by Melina Marchetta
and I couldn't decide on a ninth or tenth!

The nominations are pretty good! There are loads of books I really want to read on there and only a couple that I think are totally overrated (am I the only one who feels that way about The Perks of Being a Wallflower? Maybe I need to give it another go). I didn't vote for either the Harry Potter series, The Hunger Games trilogy, or His Dark Materials, as I'm sure they'll get plenty of votes, and I wanted to support books that were more likely to be underdogs. Also, aren't the Harry Potter books children's lit? I know Harry, Hermione and Ron are in their teens for most of the series, but due to the readers-younger-than-characters rule and the fact that bookshops shelve them in 9-12 (or on their own stand, of course), I always think of them as children's rather than teen.

As a counterpoint to the NPR list, which is rather heavy on American authors, the UKYA blog is now receiving nominations for their own top-100 of British teen novels. You have until Saturday 3rd August to leave a comment on the post linked above with your own suggestions. I know it'll take me quite some time to decide on mine!

The Guardian books staff have started a 'What are you reading today?' Flickr group in which members can post images of the book they are reading that day. I'm not quite sure how discussion will evolve from this but it'll be interesting to look at occasionally.

I know next to nothing about the Olympic athletes but Jo's post on weartheoldcoat pairing athletes with YA audiobooks made me smile! 'Usain Bolt reading The Hunger Games. Don’t even pretend you wouldn’t buy it.'

I've decided to include links to the most interesting reviews I've read recently from now on. I had two favourites this week. Luisa Plaja's review of The Twice-Lived Summer of Bluebell Jones by Susie Day was really intriguing, I loved Girl Meets Cake and the idea of a Susie Day book with a darker edge has sent this one straight to my wishlist.

I was drawn to Cicely's review of The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale because I love fairytale retellings and have never read a retelling of 'The Goose Girl', which is one of my favourites. It sounds similar to Robin McKinley's Spindle's End, which I really enjoyed.

Anything bookish you've seen that you think I'd enjoy? Please share it in the comments!

Monday Amusements 2

In late 2010 I posted my first round of Monday Amusements on this blog. I intended to make it a semi-regular feature...and didn't post a single one in 2011. But now it's 2012, and January, traditionally a time to start new efforts, or at least to try again, and I want to be able to share all the book-related fabulosity that I stumble across with like-minded folk, so I'm going to give it another go.

Unfortunately I was ill just before Christmas and this scuppered my plans to get all the reviews for the books I'd read up by the end of the year. Hopefully I'll be posting the last couple of 2011's book reviews in the next few days. After that I'll post my Top Ten of 2011, but for now, enjoy these links.

 Photo by eflon

Spread the Word are rerunning their amazing free mentoring scheme for young writers, Flight! If you're a writer aged between 18-24 and live in Greater London you should definitely consider applying (closing date: 30th January 2012). I went on a course with some of the mentees from the previous programme and it seemed like it was a fantastic experience for them.

If you would like a reading challenge with minimum commitment, the 1001 Books community on Livejournal intends to review every book recommended in the book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. If you sign up, you'll be assigned a book by the moderator to read and review. Once you've reviewed your book, you can request to be assigned another. I think it's a great idea and if I manage to get my TBR down, I'll be joining in.

I've really enjoyed reading the winning and shortlisted entries to Mookychick's Feminist Flash Fiction competition.

Spread the Word are now running a competition too - just write 300 words inspired by the picture here (closes 2nd March 2012). If you write fiction that takes a longer form, the Mslexia 2012 Women's Short Story competition is also open (closing date 19th March 2012).

Finally, what will you be doing on February 4 2012? Celebrating National Libraries Day?

Hey! Look!

Should you deign to, you can get yourself a copy of a book that includes a short story of mine! When Amazon get it back in stock, anyway. This book is an anthology of work by writers that graduated from my MA programme at Goldsmiths between, I think, 2006 and 2009, selected by some of the staff. I would list the contributors, but there are forty.

My story is 2,846 words long and is about a girl with a strange name ('The Secrets of Millennia Nolan'), no real friends, a fair-sized secret, and a longing for a decent summer. Everybody else has quite dull names, as names go. I guess I was running low on name-fuel that day (I have since bought another baby naming book. The first one really freaked my mum out when she saw it. The conversation went something like this: 'Li, I'm not sure I want to ask this, but why is there a copy of Baby Names For Dummies in the boxroom?' 'Because I'm a writer. I have to name characters.' 'Oh. Riiiiight.'). It is set at a party. There are only two references to Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the story, which shows remarkable restraint on my part. Nobody dies. There is vodka.

My sister said it was really good, if that encourages you, though I'm quite sure that precisely nobody reading this will buy the book. Then, years later, obsessed fans of mine will be trawling through the blog archives, and they'll read this and kick themselves. 'Where was I in 2011,' they'll say, 'before that tiny print run ran out?'

And they'll pay £££££s for a copy on eBay. Two months later, I'll announce a collection of short stories about girls with strange names, which will include a reprint of 'The Secrets of Millennia Nolan', and they'll kick themselves. HAHA! Don't worry, it's an investment for your (great?)grandchildren, when in the centuries to come my work is rediscovered and all relevant paraphernalia becomes worth gazillions of creds.

I have read too many sci-fi books in which the currency is 'creds'. Why isn't it Earthos, like Euros? Possibly because 'Earthos' sounds stupid, and kind of like a breakfast cereal. I think the universal currency should be called the yen, like the current Japanese currency, because then, in English, 'I have a yen for that' would take on a whole new double meaning! Just me?

Book Review: The Artist's Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self, by Julia Cameron

Photo by Ian Sane

The Artist's Way is one of the best books I have ever purchased. I had been recommended it several times before I finally went out and got it. It is a twelve-week course, with essays, exercises and tools designed to help you unblock your creativity and become a happier, more freely creative artist. It is suitable for anyone practising any form of art, or who wishes to do so. Writers, visual artists, musicians, actors, directors, comedians - all can find something useful in this book. This book does not teach you how to be creative, exactly, but it will hopefully show you how to be creative and happy, how to be creative without drugs or other addictions. It can help you shed your creative inhibitions. The Artist's Way teaches you how to let go of negative beliefs that can hold you back from realising your creative potential.

I think anyone who wants to be a artist of any variety, professional or amateur, should read it because it will help you discover what has been holding you back. It changed my life. I completed the course for the first time in 2006, and I'm doing it again now, because there is much in it that I think I need to revisit. The Artist's Way will not make you successful. You will still need to work on your craft, and learn to market yourself - none of which is covered in this book. It's more about getting going in the first place than learning to be good at what you do.

My main criticism of this book is that it is very spiritual, although not confined to one particular religion. At the start of the book Cameron says that you don't need to believe in God to follow the path in the book - but if you don't believe in God you will probably not engage with some sections of the book so well. Cameron also talks a lot about 'synchronicity' and the universe helping those who help themselves, seemingly believing that once a person has recovered their creative ability, all they need to do is create, and then they will be successful! It's very "New Age" in this way, and if you are the type of person who enjoyed The Secret and believes in the law of attraction then you will have no problems following what Cameron teaches.

I will make one point that goes against the ideas in the book - with practice, you can type your morning pages. I nearly always do, because my handwriting is appalling and I don't have room for all the notebooks I'd need to keep. When I first started doing them I hand wrote them, but my writing hand got tired quickly and I couldn't bear the thought of using up all that paper, so I trained myself to do them on the PC. As long as you can type fast enough to keep up with your thoughts it's fine!

I didn't complete The Artist's Way within the twelve weeks. I've been on week three of my second go for about a month now. If you need to start and stop, it's easy to read through the previous chapters and remind yourself of what you've missed. The main thing is keeping up with the morning pages. I've stopped writing them at various times, and when I get myself writing them again it's like coming home, and I wonder why I ever stopped. Committing to them really works.

Don't you just love it when

you have a book by an author you love so you know you'll love the book and then when you read the book you love it and keep stopping to say silly things like 'Oh my god I love this book!' or 'Author-name you are a genius'. I love it. You don't say? Yeah. I say.

Last time I had this experience I was reading The Boy Book by E. Lockhart, which obviously I was going to love as I adored The Boyfriend List. I am having it again with Nobody's Girl by Sarra Manning. I swear she just keeps getting better and better! Every new book is just so much more detailed and powerful than the ones before, although of course those still remain brilliant and stand up to being re-read afterwards. I'm only on chapter five, but I can recognise improvement right from the start.

I always read with my 'writing hat' on. Some writers complain that learning the craft of writing can spoil the pleasure of reading unless you make a deliberate effort not to think like a writer whilst you're reading just for fun. This has not been my experience so far. Some advocate reading each book twice, once as a 'reader', and once as a 'writer', but my critical faculties are always on and usually at maximum power when I'm reading a book. I think this at least partly comes from having studied cultural theory, I always say that beginning to learn theory was like discovering that I live in the Matrix. I look at everything through that lens I developed as an undergraduate.

Yes, it involves thinking a lot. Yes, I can no longer bring myself to watch crap films in which a beautiful woman falls in love with some stupid man after various tedious slapstick things have happened. But I get to experience a added level of pleasure when I read or watch something that has been done right. I also admire nice plot twists, detailed characterisation, great dialogue - oh, how I love dialogue! I see how they did that, and I love it! I get especially excited when one of the things I particularly love to see in teen fiction turns up at the start of a book, because there is almost no way that it can fail to be good with one of these things in it. I first made up this list when talking to one of my postgraduate tutors about why I love teen fiction, and I included it in the commentary for my MA portfolio. I've added to it since, so now along with such things as 'intelligent, critical narrators', and 'teenagers with slightly-more-glamourous-than-mine lives', I have listed 'quirky families' and 'characters with hobbies'. One day I'll have to make a post about this list.

But today I am going to type up some reviews for Body Image and Self Perception Month, and then carry on with Nobody's Girl. I am so excited! When I have read Nobody's Girl I will be well prepared for the Chicklish birthday event having read every book by Sarra Manning and Simmone Howell and one of Luisa Plaja's. Unfortunately my local library does not have Della Says: OMG! by Keris Stainton and I won't have a chance to get it before Monday, but still, this is amazing, as most of the time when I go to see authors speak I haven't actually read any of their books!

I haven't posted anything that wasn't strictly a review on this blog for ages. How did I do?

Book Review: Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh, by Mo Yan

This is a short story collection by a writer who has been described as a Chinese Kafka, and whose magical realist style is compared to that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. There are eight stories of varying length, written over twenty years, and a preface.

My favourite part of this book was actually the preface, which was absolutely amazing. Mo Yan talks about why he writes, explaining how hunger and loneliness were his muses, how his life growing up in China prepared him to write. It's a really fascinating glimpse into the mind and life of this writer.

The stories have a range of different themes, all relevant to contemporary life in China. Love, politics, unemployment, and the effects of the one-child-law all feature. There are some very funny but dark moments. Most of these stories lack happy endings, instead they show how people get in the way of each other's happiness and how trusting hearts are broken when people innocently believe the lies of those in power.

Although I was fascinated by the culture in these stories and found the descriptions of the Chinese landscape very beautiful, and admired Mo Yan's skill, I was never truly drawn into the stories. I suspect that this is the point, however. Readers are not supposed to escape into Mo Yan's writing, they are meant to be entertained but take away the messages and critiques of society that the writer offers. I did appreciate this, but it means I didn't get hooked on the book and was happy to finish it over several weeks, reading on train journeys mostly. Although there are parts of these stories that I will probably always remember and I may re-read the preface at some point, I can't imagine reading the whole thing again.

I would recommend this book to fans of Mo Yan's novels, short stories in general and magical realism, and those interested in contemporary Chinese life. The stories and preface are extremely well-written and you can take a lot away from this book. It is a short book, only 224 pages long and is ideal for reading on the train or whilst otherwise travelling as it will slip into a decent sized handbag or rucksack easily.

TV Review: Murder Most Famous

Isn't it exciting whenever a television programme about books and/or writing appears? And then ultimately crushing when it gets cancelled, unless it's Richard and Judy-related? Well, it is for me. Unfortunately, Murder Most Famous is only on for a week. Fortunately, it's not very good anyway.

Murder Most Famous is Celebrity Big Brother/Fame Academy but with writing. It features six "celebrities", two of whom have a bit of an unfair advantage really, being a journalist and a TV writer. The person who writes the worst piece each day has to leave the house, and the competition. The winner at the end gets their novel published. Each day they are set a research task and a writing task. Today's research task was quite ludicrous. They went to the "scene of a murder" and to a morgue to see a pretend dead body. Because real wannabe crime writers get to do this stuff all the time! They had to write a short scene with a murder ending on a cliffhanger. The part where Minette Walters gives her feedback on each of the celebrities' pieces is definitely they most interesting, and I think I'll keep watching it for that, although I'll probably fast foward to those parts - I have to record it for the rest of the week because of uni.

The worst part about this programme is that everything Minette Walters says besides the writing feedback she says, is a giant cliche, uttered without any sense of irony! Examples include:

"Will they have what it takes to survive the cutthroat world of crime writing?"
and when the losing celebrity was out:
"And then there were five."

She also introduced each celebrity the same way:

"_name_ is a _positive adjective_ _job_ but, will they be about to _positive adjective_ _reference to writing_"

All in all, a pretty cringeworthy programme. Please, somebody produce something decent!

Murder Most Famous, BBC 2, 1:30pm daily for this week only.

Book Review: The Journalist's Handbook

Originally posted to this second's obsession, but removed when I decided to focus that blog towards fashion and aesthetics.

I have had this book out from the library for a couple of months and I returned it yesterday, having learnt two things: one - I don't want to be a news journalist, ever and two - I don't want to have a job as a journalist. Okay, I generally don't want to have a job, but journalism as a job is a stressful, deadline focused, competitive career and is not at all for me. Fletcher is obviously devoted to his career. He is proud of being a journalist, serious about the moral and ethical dilemmas the job often involves, and would definitely inspire someone who was interested in a career in journalism. His enthusiasm seemed totally alien to me, which helped me realise that I could never make it as a full-time career journalist.

I think Kim Fletcher's The Journalist's Handbook isn't really deserving of its title as it is not that comprehensive. It focuses on how to build a career as a journalist, how to work your way up and deal with different people, and it does this really really well. There are lots of personal anecdotes from the writer and other journalists. Different stages in a journalist's career are covered in detail. It barely touches on the subject of how to write a piece. It compares the different emphasis that different newspapers will give to a story, offers some advice about interviewing people and that's about it. I don't think it is worth a permanent place upon my bookshelf because there is little in the book that I would want to refer back to. I was hoping for a little more information on how to structure a piece, because all have currently is from the course on journalism I took at university, and from one chapter in Teach Yourself: Creative Writing (an excellent all-round book for absolute beginners, or people who like things to be consise! Buy buy buy!). Sadly, this book doesn't deliver at this level.

If you are looking for information about journalism as a career, this book is great. If you are looking for some advice on practical writing, so am I. Still.


Six out of ten Eight out of ten