Hello ladies and gents. Long time no speak! Whilst I still haven't healed from my surgery yet, I have finished university for the summer so that means I can finally focus all my energies into Little V. I've been scribbling post ideas in my journal but I'd love to know what sort of things bring you to this little space of the internet in the first place so let me know below! I'm hoping to fill this summer with lots of book, general lifestyle and adventure style posts so hopefully that all sounds pretty delicious to you. Starting as I mean to go on, I thought I'd share this month's 'To Be Read' pile with you. Each month, I'd love to show you what books I plan on reading, and share any initial thoughts I have on them, before bombarding you with my mini book reviews. I'm hoping that it'll be a great way to introduce new texts to my readers and I'm also hoping you lot will humour me with the books that you're going to be reading in the comments section because girl needs new book ideas. By the way, all of these things were bought with my own ££ before anyone thinks otherwise. Anyway, enough of my rambling (you can tell I spend the majority of my week in my house alone can't you?!).
NEVER LET ME GO BY KAZUO ISHIGURO AND EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED BY JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER ♥
Raccoon slippers from Accessorize, Glasses from Specsavers, Lip stuff from L'occitane, Tartan rug from the 1990's
I've had these books in my bookcase since last summer but I'm only just getting round to devoting time to them which is just bloody typical of me! Everyone everywhere seems to have a copy of NEVER LET ME GO BY KAZUO ISHIGURO so I'm very much looking forward to giving it a go. First impressions, I'm a little bit worried as to just how dark this novel is going to be but I have every faith in Ishiguro because I've heard nothing but good things about his writing. Furthermore, the novel was a bestseller and it was also shortlisted for the Man Booker prize. Fancy! Wondering what it is all about?
'Narrated by Kathy, now thirty-one, Never Let Me Go dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship and memory, Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life'
I tend to read a lot of literature that concerns itself with the individual and the 'fragility of life', so I'm hoping that it is my sort of thing. I haven't seen the film adaptation because I prefer to read novels first, so I will have nothing to compare this to and I've heard that that is a good thing. I'm dubious but I'm sure it'll be a novel that really surprises me and, hopefully, wins me over. Watch this space!
The second book I'm planning on reading this month is EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED BY JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER. This also seems like a very popular choice in the bookosphere (is that a thing?!) / booktube community so I'm looking forward to actually picking it up from my bookcase. I have even bigger hopes for this novel because I have previously read, and rather liked, Safran Foer's writing and the blurbby summarisy bit sounds highly interesting and also slightly bloody awesome:
'A young man arrives in the Ukraine, clutching in his hand a tattered photograph. He is searching for the woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Unfortunately, however, he is aided in his quest by Alex, a translator with an uncanny ability to mangle English into bizarre new forms; a 'blind' old man haunted by memories of the war; and an undersexed guide dog named Sammy Davis Jr, Jr'
I'm hoping to be taken on a hilarious adventure but one that will be hugely emotive and extremely sensitive to the horrors of war. I do hope I get it! I have a great interest in history yet I don't tend to sway towards literature that explores historical events so it should be quite eye opening for me. Without sounding too superficial, but who am I kidding, I also really bloody like the cover design. I know, I know. You shouldn't judge a book by its cover but, well, I'm a bit of a design snob when it comes to that sort of thing. I actually read the 'overture' to the book whilst lounging about in the sunny garden yesterday and I found Alex's interesting grasp of the English language highly entertaining, and I already feel like this novel promises some really intelligent storytelling from Foer. I'll let you know how I get on with it!
That's all folks! By the way, if you're wondering why I'm only planning on reading two books this month it's because my attention span is really poor at the moment. My immune system is attacking itself so I'm dealing with all sorts of nasties that tend to mess with my body so focusing on things is nigh on impossible. Let me know your thoughts on these books in the comments below and, also, why not share your own 'to be read' pile in the comments too?! Oh, and feel free to leave post ideas, etc. I'll hopefully let you know what I thought of these two books at the beginning of next month so keep your eyes peeled. I'm off to devour a plate of smoked salmon for lunch. Oh, yes! ♥
