Week three! Hello!
The topics for July 2014
July 14th – For Bastille Day, your favorite novel about or set in France
Ok, so the author had to gently remind me of this book when I exclaimed on twitter that I had NEVER read a book set in or about France, but once that reminder was duly made I was delirious as:
1) I was beginning to fear I was some kind of narrow-minded reader with a desperate need to cast my book net a bit wider (quelle horreur!)
and
2) I now have the opportunity to urge you all to get on This Is Life by Dan Rhodes. How I forgot about this book, I will never know, as I absolutely loved it! Hilarious, inventive, thoughtful – I ate up every page. I will add the overlook to the other pile of stuff I have forgotten this year – LIKE MY MUM’S BIRTHDAY (sorry mum).
If you weren’t quick enough to get a copy of When The Professor Got Stuck in The Snow you should definitely pick this up instead!
July 15th - I totally missed this! Argh! Sorry! Can anyone let me know what the topic was?
July 16th – Favourite book to take to the beach
I am not much of a beach bunny. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the sea, but my beach days are usually chilly and involve walking along as much of the front as possible, prodding at stuff. There’s not too much time to read when you are prodding at stuff. However, as the sun is beating down and I can get to the seafront by bus, if I was to go down I would be taking Under Your Skin by Sabine Durrant as its my current book and I am really rather enjoying it!
July 17th – Novel that surprised you most
For all the wrong reasons – Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. If I had taken a pound from everyone who banged on about how brilliant this was I would be Scrooge McDucked by now. In fact, I should have taken a pound from all those who banged on about how brilliant it was as I feel like they owe me. I read it all, because I’m some kind of sadist, and you can read my review here.
July 18th – Favourite crime novel of all time
I don’t often read crime books, I don’t know why as I [mostly - see above] always enjoy them. Possibly not the greatest crime book ever written (in fact I believe it was adapted from the show’s screenplay), but simply for giving the world the remarkable and flawed Jane Tennison I have chosen Prime Suspect by Lynda La Plante.
July 19th – Most memorable plot twist
Not so much a “twist” as a happening, but it has to be One Day by David Nicholls. I have never been punched so hard by a book, nor worried I might actually be ill over myself. A shocking, physical, moment the reader feels in the bones.
July 20th – Your Desert Island novel
It has to be To Kill a Mockingbird again! This novel has everything in it, I just wouldn’t need anything else and it would never bore me!