Sunday Salon and Weekly Geeks

Last week I sais that it was unlikely that I would be reading many books this week as a result of a last stressful week at work, a night a the theatre and a wedding (which I didn't go to as I was full of a cold). I actually finished 4 books! That sounds impressive but two of them were graphic novels: Persepolis and Mirrormask, and the other two were both under 150 pages: Breakfast at Tiffany's and Siddartha. I've also read half of Staurt: A Life Backwards which I should finish tonight or tomorrow. This week I shall have plenty of time to read as I'm now officially on holiday from work for 6 weeks! Yay! Which takes me on to this weeks Weekly Geeks.

Weekly Geeks, see here to participate, is asking other bloggers to ask us questions about books that we have to blog. Now I'm up-to-date with my blogging so I'm going to leave a list of the books I hope to read this week. If you have a question about any of these books please leave it in the comments here and I'll try and answer it in my review of the book.

The list:

Stuart: A Life Backwards

Persepolis 2

Tomaree

The Unabridged Pocketbook of Lightning

The Awakening

Cold Mountain

Bellefleur
and possibly start The Famished Road

My Thoughts: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

Of course I've seen the film, hasn't everyone? But I always meant to read the book, it's one of those classics that you just feel you should have read, and when the Classics Challenge came along I pushed my butt to finally get around to reading it, and boy I wasn't disappointed.

For anyone that's been living on another planet, Breakfast at Tiffany's is about Holly Golightly, a stunning New York girl who has men falling at her feet. As well as being beautiful Holly has a way of charming all the men around her, they know that there are others but they just feel drawn to her. Even the reader falls in love with Holly, we can see all the things she does wrong but as she is not malicious, we like the men forgive her.

The novella, at only 100 pages, is a real quick and easy read, its light tone and humour were just what I needed after a tiring last week at school bogged down with a cold, and spending my Friday night in.

Challenges:

The Classics Challenge: Book 3 of 6

What's in a Name? Challenge Book 4 0f 6

July Book Blowout: Book 6

20th Century Project: 1958

If you have reviewed this book please add a link in the comments and I'll place it into this page.

Booking Through Thursday: Holiday Book Buying

Do you buy books while on vacation/holiday?
Do you have favorite bookstores that you only get to visit while away on a trip?
What/Where are they?

I haven't been on holiday for ages, if I go away I always take plenty of reading material. I think I have only run out of books once, I went to Vietnam for 2 weeks, I took 9 books at least 4 of them were over 500 pages long, yet I still run out. I didn't realise that the majority of places in Vietnam shut at 9 at night, there were a few places that stayed open but as a female alone on holiday I didn't want to be halfway across Hanoi on my own when the majority of places were closed. I had one American channel which showed old American sitcoms and an Ipod which I couldn't charge properly, needless to say I got through a lot of books. I went and brought The Quiet American off a street stall and some holiday trash reading from a second hand stall to get me through.
When I go to my mums in Cambridge for a couple of days I always take 2 or 3 books, I never get through them because the house is rarely quiet and we're out a lot but I like to have them near. If we go into Cambridge on a Sunday there is a second hand book stall with good quality books and a shop called Galloway and Porter, they sell books which are supposedly slightly damaged. I used to go there to look for text books as they sell loads, most fiction in there is £1 but you do have to search. I also love Heffers in Cambrigde, there are several of them in the town but the one opposite Trinity college is fantastic, it has a huge selection but is very pricy.

A Night at the Theatre

Last night I went and experience a little bit of culture, I went to the stunning Open Air Theatre in Regents Park. The park itself is lush, and luckily for us the rain held off so we could lay on the grass with our picnics and Champagne (none of that for me as I was driving :( ). The theatre is set in a bank in the park, and we were surprisingly high up, I wasn't expecting it to go up so far. I've seen plays outside before, mainly Shakespeare in the gardens of Cambridge University but it has always been a sitting on a blanket affair, I was glad of a seat and a higher elevation point, just a shame that it wasn't as warm as the previous night and that the little moggies had a taste for my blood and kept nibbling away at my legs.

We went to see Twelfth Night a Shakespeare play I wasn't at all familiar with. Personally I was bored stiff for the first half an hour but then it got started and I started enjoying myself. Next year I'm going to see if I can get tickets to see Midsummer Night's Dream as that is by far my most favorite play and would be stunning in that location.

I've added some pictures for you, they are taken off the net as cameras were banned!

My Thoughts: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

I wasn't to sure if I wanted to read this novel, but it was part of the Noble Spiral (I get sent one Noble winning book roughly each month then pass it on to the next participant) so I had to give it a go.

The book has a simple enough plot, Siddartha is a Brahmin but he wishes to push his philosphy further, he is seeking peace and being at one with the world. As he journeys through life in various guises his philosophy changes as he understands more about himself and the world around him. Underneath this simple plot is all the philisophical discussions and theories. The ideas are mainly centred around Buddhism and drawn out from this way of living.

The novel is not really my type of thing, it reminded me of the type of 'clever' books I read at University and I'm sure it would be a great text to study, I feel that had I known more about Buddhism, India at that time and the author I probably would have got a lot more out of the novel. Having said that the book was highly readable, mainly down to the beautiful use of language, it certainly descerves it's subtitle 'An Indian Poem'.

Challenges:

Read the Nobles

Classics Challenge

Reading Around the World

20th Century Project

July Book Blowout Book 6

If you have reviewed this book please leave a link to your review and I'll add you to mine.

My Thoughts: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi & a book blowout meme

Last month I had my first introduction to graphic novels with Dream Country by Neil Gaiman, Persepolis showed me what a Graphic Novel can do with a serious topic. Persepolis is about a little girl growing up in Iran during political change. Life goes from being free to having strict rules forced upon the people. Marji's parents generally tell her the truth, she is allowed to hear vivid details about the torture of prisoners, they take her to demonstrations and she reads political and marxist texts for her bedtime stories. Coming from a very political family she finds it extremely difficult to be the obedient little girl which is required under the new regime.

I found this book extremely easy to read and a very powerful look at life in Iran, I have read books about Iran before but this one is very powerful in it's message. I thought that the torture scene was particuarly hard hitting. I'm not sure if this is because the image is below to reiterate what is happening or because it is seen from the eyes of a child.

I shall be reading Persepolis: The Return in the next week.

Other Reviews:

Rebecca's Reads

Corinne

Raidergirl3

Marg

If you have reviewed this book please leave a link to your review and I'll add it on.

Challenges:

The Graphic Novel Challenge Book 2 of 3

Young Adult Challenge Book 3 of 12

July Book Blowout Book 5

Mrs S has set this mini-meme for the July Book Blowout

The Where’s your book set? meme
Here’s how it works - just answer some or all of the following questions about the book you are currently reading (or just finished if you are between books). You can either post your answers on your blog and link us up using Mr Linky below - or post your answers here in the comments.
Here’s the questions:
1. Title and author of the book

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.
2. What year is the book set in?

1980-1984
3. What happened on this day in that year? Go to google and type in the date ie 13 July 1952 and see if you can find a news item for that day

July 13, 1980 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk U.S.S.R.
4. Where is your book set?

Iran
5. Have you visited that place before? If yes tell us something about your trip. If no, look the location up on google and tell us an interesting fact about the city/country.

Cyrus the Great's "Cylinder", found during excavations in Babylon, was inscribed with the first known declaration of human rights.

Elam, the oldest known civilisation in Iran, was founded in 1250 BC.

Cuneiform writing, a form of picture writing, was used in Iran over three thousand years ago.

My Thoughts: Mirrormask by Neil Gaiman

I grabbed this book whilst I was in the library today, I then came home and read it all in one go. This novella is about 15 year old Helena, she is a member of a circus and like all teenagers she wants out, she wants to be 'normal' and live in the real world.

When her Mum gets sick, Helena is drawn into a dream world full of flying books, winged hungry cats, police beetles and Valentine her side kick through this world. Quickly Helena realises she much prefers her old life and has to go on a quest to return herself to her family.

This was a strange little book, every page is illustrated with either cartoon like pictures which we would expect in a graphic novel or pictures from the film Mirrormask, it's like it can't quite make up it's mind which it wants to be. Personally I much prefered the graphic novel-esqe pictures. The story was interesting enough, well written, I wasn't gripped though, maybe it was because it was a novella but things seemed to move a bit too fast. One minute Helena has entered a strange world, the next she is a Princess eating tea with the Queen (I actually went back to see if I'd skipped a page).

Challenge

Young Adult Challenge Book 2 0f 12

July Book Blowout Book 4

If you have reviewed this book, leave a link to the review in the comments and I'll add it to the bottom of my review