Teens And Reading If you want the teenagers in your life to test the waters of the reading world, you’ll notice that there are quite a few genres to pick from. Teens don’t want to be wasting their time. So, let’s start from the beginning. Before you start browsing for books for your teens, let’s…
Continue Reading
Ahem … TV Series Versus Film! This time it’s a TV series rather than a film we’re comparing to its source material … But then we’ve done this before with several TV series before, catch up with them below. The Handmaid’s Tale Apple Tree Yard The Night Manager Check out the rest of the Book…
Continue Reading
Twilight In The Garden of Good And Evil? Is there any franchise as harshly and consistently maligned as Twilight? Fifteen years on from the first book, protagonist Bella is still lambasted as ‘lame’ and a ‘poor role model‘, whereas the Cullens are ‘stupid sparkly vampires’. In addition, various other interpretations insist Twilight is an advertisement for the Mormon…
Continue Reading
All About The Warriors In my youth I was completely oblivious to the fact that creative types would adapt movies from books, so when I discovered that The Warriors was originally a novel, I had to read it right away. The movie adaptation was instrumental to me creating my own novel, The Big Smoke. The…
Continue Reading
It’s Banned Books Week Books have been seen as dangerous since we first started writing them. And in 2019, governments around the world continue to censor them. From American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (Australia) to The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa (Cuba) to all works by political activist Liu Xiaobo in China, including…
Continue Reading
My Goodreads Challenge A bit later than last year, I thought I would post My Year In Books! For the last few years I have been keeping track of my progress via Goodreads, so 2018 was no exception. Whilst 2017 was my year of championing diverse books and writers, I thought I would be less…
Continue Reading
All About YA … Sex, assault, cutting, eating disorders, pregnancy, race, murder, death … There are so many issues in the world that it’s confusing for adults, never mind young people! This is why I am SO passionate about contemporary YA Fiction and why I have rounded up some of my favourites below. Enjoy! 1) Just…
Continue ReadingI love Young Adult fiction and that’s why it’s very difficult for me to choose my favourites. So here goes. My best three YA books feature two books from some years back and one very current work. 1) Alex Rider by Anthony Horowitz Alex Rider is a hero of mine. Created by the highly prolific…
Continue Reading
The Book So, READY PLAYER ONE has got everything that ticks all my boxes: a teen hero and his rag-tag bunch of friends; a shadowy evil corporate cabal; dystopian real world; even giant robots! And there ARE some flashes of brilliance that I really liked: the idea of The Stacks (trailers on top of one…
Continue ReadingMy Reading Pledge 2017 This year, I set a reading pledge for myself. I decided I would read at least 5: Writers of colour Classic literary titles (or modern prize-winners, i.e. Pulitzer) Non fiction titles Fiction titles that aren’t crime, mystery or thriller (or classics, prize-winners or non-fiction!) Plus a crime fiction subgenre I’ve never tried…
Continue Reading