Kentish Book Boy returns - part four

 

SkyWake Invasion by Jamie Russell (Walker Books)

Synopsis:

Casey Henderson – aka CASEY_FLOW – is obsessed with online team shooter SkyWake, which has taken the world by storm. The Ghost Reapers are a high-ranking team, and when Casey’s in the zone, anything seems possible.

Then, at a live SkyWake tournament, things start to get weird. The Red Eye alien “cosplayers” seem to have real guns, a massive spaceship looms overhead… and kids are going missing.

My view on the book:

Personally, I find this book very weird. I don't really know how to put my true view into words.

However, I am intrigued as to what the sequel has to offer.

Recommendation:

Honestly, I am giving it a 3.5/5 because it could be better.

Maybe more action/drama is needed; however, mine's just one opinion among many.

I think that this is one of the lowest starred books that KBB has sent over and while not every book can be a hit I admire his perseverance in getting to the end and then in being just curious enough to want to know what happens next. This is very much my reading style so I love that the traits of a bookworm are a family thing!

When he let me know this was the book he'd picked for the month I was really impressed at how far out of his comfort zone he was happy to go. I could see that the sci-fi aspect would appeal I was more surprised at the appeal of the computer game as I didn't know he was into multiplayer games...

I've added this one to my list as again it isn't my normal type of book but I have to confess that I won't be in a huge rush to reserve a copy from the library.

Kentish Book Boy returns - part three

 

The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Drama and Danger by J T Williams, illustrator Simone Douglas (Harper Collins)

Synopsis:

Lizzie Sancho and Dido Belle live very different lives. Lizzie works at her family's buzzing Westminster tea shop, while Belle leads a quieter life at the majestic Kenwood House.

Their worlds collide when disaster strikes at the Theatre Royal, Dury Lane and Lizzie's father's life is put under threat. Why is someone after Ignatius Sancho? And who is the shadowy figure on the theatre balcony?

My View on the Book: 

I was really gripped into this book. The prologue encouraged me to read more, and it has a surprising plot twist as well. A very well written book and I want to read the sequel: Portraits and Poison.

Recommendation

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; I give it 6 out of 5 stars!

More people should read this because it is based on the black rights movement ad that is significant in history, all over the world.

When I saw the Bookily book token subscription at the end of last year I thought that it was a fun idea but I never dreamt just how many book recommendations I'd end up with thanks to the books the Kentishbookboy is choosing. 

I'm seeing him this weekend and hope to borrow this one from him too a book rated as 6 stars out of 5 can't be ignored. Interestingly I also have an adult novel on my TBR pile about Ignatius Sancho so perhaps I should read them back to back to compare...

Hic!

Gin Glorious Gin by Olivia Williams.

Electronic proof provided by netgalley.com

I'm not sure this book was good for me, until I read it I didn't think I liked gin but after reading this book it may be that I don't like the tonic rather than the actual gin. I do think that a great deal of taste testing may be called for...

Olivia Williams' book takes us through the history of gin - how it went from being a luxury drink to being Mothers' (and almost London's) ruin - think Hogarth - and then back again to being a premium drink.

There is a nice balance in the book between history, anecdotes to amuse and recipes to try or avoid. There are also detailed descriptions and illustrations of how the different stills work to make the different types of gin.  The convoluted history of the distilleries, and product, always remain clear and I loved seeing how it all fitted together to make an interesting snapshot of social history.

At the very end of the book there are some recommendations of bars to try, pubs to find and also of different gins, their flavours and their mixers.  All of this is useful information, especially to a gin novice like myself.

Gin is again an up-and-coming fashionable drink, in Norwich there will be two gin specialist bars before very long, and after reading this book I did head out to one of them to try the product. Apologies for any incoherence and typos this has caused in this blog entry!

for the record today's choice of Elephant gin, ice, fresh strawberries and bitter lemon was very palatable :)

Something entirely different

War Requiem (Britten & Jarman)

Having just read a book featuring Benjamin Britten and it being the centenary of his birth Mr Norfolkbookworm and I visited the cinema recently to see this film.

I'm not sure what to make of it.  The film is Jarman's response to the Requiem and the first 3rd was stunning telling the simple narrative of a soldiers and nurses in the First World War.

After this I'm not sure what it was about apart from the segment that was set to a crescendo of music as it showed the futility of all wars since 1914.  It was graphic but the images really fitted the music.

The parts of the film that were obviously symbolic passed me by totally I just didn't understand the images at all.

If the whole piece had been like the first movement I think I'd have been totally spellbound and profoundly moved. In the end I was just confused.

On reading about the piece of music I can see why it moved away from being totally a WW1 story - it wasn't written about that war, and wasn't about the 'Glorious Dead' of this war despite using the poems from then.

The music also wasn't quite to my taste, I can see (hear?) that it is technically good but I didn't connect with it totally.

On the whole I'm really glad that we had the chance to see this on a big screen thanks to having a great art house cinema but I don't think I shall be hurrying to anything else by either Britten or Jarman.

Theatrical Interlude 6 (2013)

Proof, Chocolate Menier Theatre, London. April 2013.

It finally seemed as if spring had sprung. It was a warm(ish) day, the sun was shining and the daffodils were in bloom along the South Bank. Were Rebecca and I mad for spending so much of a lovely day on trains and then in a dark theatre seeing a play which we knew little about?

The simple answer to this was absolutely not.

We had a very nice morning pottering in the sunshine, and while we didn't manage lunch outside we did have a swift drink outsides at The George Inn, this pub is the subject of Pete Brown's book Shakespeare's Local which I read recently and will blog about soon.

As well as the play being new to us so was the theatre, but when I mentioned it to my mum she instantly said that she knew it because she could see it form the train when she comes to London. This hint was invaluable as we were wandering around the side streets of Southwark as we started our zen navigation by looking for the railway arches!

We knew that the venue was small however it was a little unnerving to get to a theatre 10 minutes before curtain-up and see practically no one around.  The theatre was accessed through a bar/restaurant and then down a few steps into the auditorium.  Due to the size I don't think that there can be a bad seat in the house and for this play the stage was dressed as the back porch of a run down house which was revealed to be in Chicago and while small was used to far more purpose than some of the larger ones in the West End.

The play itself was a four-hander, a mathematician father, his two daughters and a former student.  It was about many things - metal illness, death of a parent, family relationships, love, maths and proof being the topics I saw.  I feel that every person who sees this play takes something different from it, depending on personal circumstances. Being married to someone who works in a science based department at a university I found a lot of the throw away lines about faculty departments funnier than the people next to me for instance.
The scenes between the family members felt very realistic and unlike some domestic dramas I found the  ensemble piece to be true to life and neither under played nor overblown.

Proof wasn't a long play but I found it to have quite a punch, and I am really glad that I saw it.  I wish more plays like this happened in the provinces.  If we are honest the draw of this play was the actors. If we hadn't and admired Jamie Parker in other plays we'd probably never have tried an unknown play, in an unknown theatre and that really would have been our loss.
This was worth the seat price and the train fare, it has given me a lot to think about - like the best books, plays and films should.

Trying New Things

Dancing on Ice, Nottingham Arena, April 2012

I didn't intend 2012 to be a year of new challenges and experiences but that does seem to be how it is panning out so far - and that includes the blog as blogger seems to have changed quite radically since I last posted.

On Saturday I took a friend to see Dancing on Ice Live in Nottingham.  This really was a treat for her and I admit that I was dreading it a little bit.  I am the clumsiest person around on solid ground and can't ice skate to save my life, plus I've never watched an episode of Dancing on Ice.  However I do remember watching the Olympics back in 1984 and seeing Torvill and Dean winning their gold medal with Ravel's Bolero.

The arena was huge and we were *pretty* high up - jokes about oxygen masks and nosebleeds felt pertinent!  The advantage to these seats became clear as soon as the skaters appeared on the ice as we could see all of the skaters at once and the patterns they were creating on the ice.  There were big screens to the side so that seeing close ups were possible.

I only knew one of the 'celebrities' who was skating and so that part of the show left me a little cold but I was blown away when Torvill and Dean or the professional took to the ice - the speed, grace and moves that these people performed were truly incredible.  Skating whilst hula-hooping fire has to be seen to be believed.

What surprised me the most was how influenced I was by the lighting (and costumes) when the ice and lights were yellows and oranges I instantly disliked the routine but the pinks, blues and purples really captured my attention.

I did surprise myself with how much fun I did have, but this was a one off - I don't think I'll be doing it again.

The trying new things continues today as it is World Book Night and I will be the MC for an Open Mic poetry night...

Trying New Things

Reading Rut

With my reading currently being stuck in a bit of a rut - since Christmas I've read just one new book but in the most part have just re-read old favourites such as Little Women - I thought I would try something new. Not just new but a real departure for me.

A graphic novel.

I think I can count on one hand the number of graphic novels I've read. Looking through my reading journals I can see Persopolis, Maus and Fun Home plus one about the dropping of the atomic bomb in Japan in 1945 listed. All pretty intense novels about topics I'd read in traditional book form.

300 was a slight departure from this although it is still about a weighty topic that I'd read about in traditional format! This one was in full colour and the action took place over entire double page spreads rather than in small boxes which are read left-to-right and top-to-bottom.

I think I enjoyed it, I liked the way that the story was simplified and through the use of the illustrations I could really see the differences in the armies, something that is harder to do from just text.

But...

...I don't think it was very historically accurate, and I think that a lot of things were glossed over, especially about the history of the Spartans themselves.

I can't help thinking that if you are writing a book, a book of any genre, about a historical event then it should either be accurate or clearly marked as a 're-imagining'.

This isn't a criticism of the genre at all and I will be searching out more graphic novels - all recommendations gratefully received.