children's literature

Summer Books To Read: #20BooksOfSummer

11th June 2018 by Gemma Leave a Comment

20 Summer Books to Read

We’ll ignore the fact that I have been an absent blogger (I’m kind of back, and that’s all that matters, right?) and head straight to this fantastic idea by Cathy at 746books.com.

In essence, from the 4th of June ’til the 3rd of September, I will be reading 20 books of my own choosing. That’s 13 weeks, 21 days, and 20 books.

Like Cathy, I may swap one book on the list for another, because life is too short to spend one’s time reading book/s one doesn’t feel like reading at a particular moment.

I’ve mostly chosen books I already have on my shelves, including my e-shelf. The only exception would be the books for the book club I attend monthly which we don’t get to decide on until the month before.

So without further digressing, here’s my #20BooksOfSummer —

In The Country, Mia Alves
America Is Not The Heart, Elaine Castillo
Reaper At The Gates, Sabaa Tahir
The Summer Book, Tove Jansson
The Bees, Laline Paull
Godsgrave, Jay Kristoff
~~Legendary, Stephanie Garber~~
Emma, Jane Austen
The Improbability Of Love, Hannah Rothschild
One Of Us Is Lying, Karen McManus
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
A Room With A View, E. M. Forster
The Surface Breaks, Louise O’Neill
How To Stop Time, Matt Haig
Exit West, Mohsin Hamid
Conversations With Friends, Sally Rooney
A Crown Of Wishes, Roshi Chokshi
The Light We Lost, Jill Santopolo (July Book Club read)
August Book Club read
September Book Club read

I am undeniably in a YA mood as evidenced by more than a quarter of the books listed. And if you consider the books by Paull, Austen, and Forster as YA, then that’s almost half of the list! We’ll see where the mood takes me at the end of the season, eh?

And yes, I have already started — a week has gone by already, after all!

How about you? Do you have your own #20BooksofSummer?

From The Publisher’s Desk: Caraval

30th January 2017 by Gemma 4 Comments

Scarlett and Tella are sisters living on Trisda, a tiny island in the far corners of the Meridian Empire, with dreams of escaping their miserable life of being with their harsh and unloving father. It’s not exactly easy when he’s the most powerful man and the governor of their little isle, and despite being arranged to marry a man she has never met, Scarlett believes it’s the only way to become free from their father.

Not until she gets an invitation to come to Caraval, the carnival-slash-game-slash-show, where the audience is not just a group of sitting guests, but can active participants in the spectacle. Scarlett has always dreamed of going, especially since whoever wins the game gets granted a wish as a prize, and this is her only alternative for freedom — or she can get married. With the help of a mysterious man, Tella gets Scarlett and herself off from Trisda only to be kidnapped by Caraval’s gamemaster, Legend. The game, it turns out, is a race to find Tella, and Scarlett has to be an active participant, or risk losing her sister. It can get very immersive in Caraval, and Scarlett is finding it difficult to delineate between game and reality. Is it truly all just for show, or are the stakes for real?
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On The Nightstand: The Graveyard Book

28th December 2015 by Gemma Leave a Comment

Gosh, it has been awhile, eh? Between comings and goings for work holidays and stressing over the wedding, I did not have much time to sit and make up a nice post (other bloggers would know how much time it actually takes to put one of these together!). Then when I was ready to do so, I was struck by the dreaded reading slump, and was stuck uninspired with any book I pick up — Sense & Sensibility and We Have Always Lived in A Castle could not pull me in how ever much I tried. It wasn’t that I did not want to read and I was forcing myself; I very much wanted to read something, but nothing was just clicking! That happens to a lot of readers too, right?

Anyhow, the book that broke my slump came at the most random moment — I was out shopping for Christmas presents and was at a Waterstones looking for stocking fillers, when I felt my tummy calling for lunch. I did not want to sit through a meal looking at my phone, so I determinedly tried to find a ‘lunch book’. Nearly went for a John le Carré, but found The Graveyard Book at the ‘Books for Syria’ pile. Loved the cover, loved the little blurb at the back (which is a dying thing at the moment — another rant for another day), so went straight to the counter and bought it! It’s not exactly a Christmas read, but I couldn’t care since I was just so glad I can get rid of this slump!

Neil Gaiman, author of this lovely novel, said that it was inspired by watching his then two-year-old son riding his tricycle between gravestones in the sunshine. This is in stark contrast to the boy in the book, Nobody Owens, who plays around his world — the graveyard — when the moon is high. Known to the “community” as Bod, his playmates, teachers, and guardians are otherworldly, incorporeal beings, and he is taught that there is great danger to himself beyond the gates of the graveyard.

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Reading Challenge 2015: Anne of Green Gables

5th February 2015 by Gemma Leave a Comment

My ebook had the entire Anne Shirley series in one collection so I didn’t have a cover of just the Anne of Green Gables book.

Anne of Green Gables is a work of fiction by Lucy Maud Montgomery. First published in 1908, it is a popular children’s novel about the adventures of eleven-year-old orphan Anne Shirley in the fictional town of Avonlea in Prince Edward Island in Canada. Anne mistakenly gets sent to be adopted by siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who originally wanted a boy to help around their farmhouse called Green Gables. Matthew liked Anne from the start, in contrast to Marilla’s gradual fondness for the girl. She initially wanted to send Anne back to the orphanage, but decided to let her stay after a few days. This first book in a series of eight narrates of Anne’s life with the Cuthberts, building relationships with people in the Avonlea community, and her time in school.

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