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dweomeroflightWell. So much for me staying off lj to do uni work haha! I think I'd go mad without this blog. As for Dr Who and The Rebel Flesh- as that it a two parter I'll review it as a whole after next Saturday night.
Now onto the books (no spoilers)
Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
This is a collection of short stories by Gaiman, collected at different points in his career. I have never read a short story collection before but I really enjoyed this one and I am now considering buying Fragile Things for my kindle (anyone read that and is it good flist?) I especially liked the addition of different text types, including drabble for a postcard, a hidden story in the introduction which reminded me of an adult Lemony Snicket tactic, poetry, verse poetry, short stories, drabble and tryptich pieces.
My favourite pieces were The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories: a longish story about writing, Holllywood, film, celebrity and the cult of the personality. Actually, I think this one might be my favourite.
The Introduction hid a very distrubing, clever story about a marriage and the realm of what could have been.
Troll Bridge was about a man who literally sold his soul to a troll with interesting themes explored...
Fifteen painted cards from a Vampire's Tarot: Where Gaiman did vampires before Meyer did and with much more interesting results as well as some shattering prose. I also liked this because I would think about this kind of thing.
Bay Wolf: a verse novel about sea creatures, tourists, crime and sex and romance
Snow, Glass, Apples: A retelling of Snow White that really does reshape everything you've ever read about this fairy story before.
For those who have read this, what stories were your favourites?
Dreaming of Amelia by Jaclyn Moriarty
Sadly, Jaclyn has said that this is her last book following the trials and tribulations of Sydney side teenagers who attend private school Ashbury and public "crime gang" school Brookerfield High. I suppose it is fitting. This last book is set in the awfully confusing days of the HSC (our final high school year), the point where everything really does change and the future beckons. I will be very sad to see the back of my own high school alter egoes though; Lydia, Emily, Cassie, Elizabeth, Astrid, Toby, Bindy, Charlie and Seb... those characters summed up school so perfectly for me and Moriarty did this in a way that was always hilarious and disturbingly accurate.
Her first book "Feeling sorry for Celia" I won in a story writing competition when I was eleven or twelve. Other than Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, it was the only book I won that I actually liked and kept, and the only one that I consistently loved. Elizabeth and those letters from 'The Society for Teenagers who are about to fail high school and most probably life as well' really spoke to me and made me laugh and I really associated with Elizabeth's adolescent awkwardness, her Mum troubles and her family troubles in general (and God the part about wine tasting was so bloody accurate!). I also loved how Elizabeth saw her pen friend Christine as everything she wanted and sought to be and yet when she finally meets Christine, Christine says the same of Elizabeth. It was a truly wonderful book.
In about Year Nine my friend and I discovered the companion book Finding Cassie Crazy which was somehow even better and funnier than Feeling Sorry for Celia. I loved the letters and secret assignments of Cassie, Lydia and Emily and I especially loved Lydia's notebook TM (as a wannabe writer I really associated). I loved the grand finale with the unmasking of the real baddie and I loved how Cassie coped with what happened. It remains one of my favourite teen reads ever. True story: The account of Lyd, Em and Cass skipping school and forgetting that their history teacher had organised a "fun" study session with cake and drinks and then going to apologise when they discovered no one at all went, is totally something that happened to me. Every time I read that part of the book I still feel guilty about poor Mrs Graham waiting with juice and crossionts for our entire history class to turn up for a morning study session. No one did. The accuracy of these books to my high school years is scary.
In about Year Eleven I found The Betrayal of Bindie McKenzie: she of the quick typing, the multi coloured nails, the straight A's and obnoxiousness and boring job at kmart. Also, Bindie reminded me of one of my best friend's at school (only my friend was nicer) I think this book was just as funny as Finding Cassie Crazy, albeit I did like Cassie, Em and Lyd slightly more (though even this depends on mood). The part about learning to drive was such a mirror image description of me and my Mum that every time I read that part I have to laugh. Around this time, Moriarty got more adventurous with a main plot centering on criminal conspiracy as well as the usual high school antics.
In Dreaming of Amelia, the stakes are upped again, this time with the gothic fiction element of the HSC (higher school certificate: the results gets a NSW student into university) paralelling a ghost story within the novel that becomes harder and harder to seperate fact from fiction. I almost never wanted this story to end. I've followed these students from the age of twelve to twenty one and I never want to let them go. These books are possibly the most accurate school books I have ever read in terms of my own Sydney high school experience and the hilarious scenario's are ones I can remember myself being in eg gossip sessions going wrong, conflicts with teachers, friendship dramas about nothing, what it means to grow up etc.
I love how Moriarty uses humour and epistlary methods to tell her story; always an inventive and unusual way of doing things and I love that there is always truth in the humour and the heightened surrealism. I especially loved "Shadowgirl's" blog poetry on "The Journey," (only a student my age who has completed their english HSC can understand the true horror those words reproduce when some poor fool happens to utter it; the groaning, the moaning, the hunt for bloody additional texts, the frantic attempts to link stuff together under the stupid idiotic broad title of 'journey'... etc) I loved the ending and I loved Amelia and Riley and their past.
This is a book about truth and who owns it, about redemption and failure, about who is allowed a new start, about poverty, about second chances (in more ways than one). In the end Moriarty leaves us to wonder "Is this all just the efforts of kids to get a good test mark by spinning a good yarn," or is this real, did this really happen? Which perspective of Amelia and Riley is the correct one? Toby's? Lydia's? or Em's? Are the Ashbury kids all just rich brats or are they more than that and can they change to rise above the past? Are we only seeing facets of each student or the real thing? And when is it ever ok to stop reaching for the stars, can anything ever disqualify you from trying?
The back cover actually says it all for once (though not in a way you can understand without first reading the book).
This is the story of ghosts and secrets, of passion, of locked doors and femme fatales; of final year of high school tension and intrigue.
This is the story of the PAST, and the FUTURE that has come to get YOU.
Past, present and future intersect in more ways than one and when the story ended I realised why Moriarty had to leave it here. What better time is there to end a book about young women and men, then at the time when the future is ahead of them and yet the past is still not so very far behind and when truly anything, anything at all might happen, if we only dream and strive hard enough?
I'll miss you Ashbury kids and I'll never ever stop reading about you in the books I have with you. My school years are in your pages. Guard them well.
My friend got me Touching Evil for my 21st. Damn it. If I get a credit for my two politics subjects, I blame Nicola Walker for my lack of study.
Now onto the books (no spoilers)
Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
This is a collection of short stories by Gaiman, collected at different points in his career. I have never read a short story collection before but I really enjoyed this one and I am now considering buying Fragile Things for my kindle (anyone read that and is it good flist?) I especially liked the addition of different text types, including drabble for a postcard, a hidden story in the introduction which reminded me of an adult Lemony Snicket tactic, poetry, verse poetry, short stories, drabble and tryptich pieces.
My favourite pieces were The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories: a longish story about writing, Holllywood, film, celebrity and the cult of the personality. Actually, I think this one might be my favourite.
The Introduction hid a very distrubing, clever story about a marriage and the realm of what could have been.
Troll Bridge was about a man who literally sold his soul to a troll with interesting themes explored...
Fifteen painted cards from a Vampire's Tarot: Where Gaiman did vampires before Meyer did and with much more interesting results as well as some shattering prose. I also liked this because I would think about this kind of thing.
Bay Wolf: a verse novel about sea creatures, tourists, crime and sex and romance
Snow, Glass, Apples: A retelling of Snow White that really does reshape everything you've ever read about this fairy story before.
For those who have read this, what stories were your favourites?
Dreaming of Amelia by Jaclyn Moriarty
Sadly, Jaclyn has said that this is her last book following the trials and tribulations of Sydney side teenagers who attend private school Ashbury and public "crime gang" school Brookerfield High. I suppose it is fitting. This last book is set in the awfully confusing days of the HSC (our final high school year), the point where everything really does change and the future beckons. I will be very sad to see the back of my own high school alter egoes though; Lydia, Emily, Cassie, Elizabeth, Astrid, Toby, Bindy, Charlie and Seb... those characters summed up school so perfectly for me and Moriarty did this in a way that was always hilarious and disturbingly accurate.
Her first book "Feeling sorry for Celia" I won in a story writing competition when I was eleven or twelve. Other than Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, it was the only book I won that I actually liked and kept, and the only one that I consistently loved. Elizabeth and those letters from 'The Society for Teenagers who are about to fail high school and most probably life as well' really spoke to me and made me laugh and I really associated with Elizabeth's adolescent awkwardness, her Mum troubles and her family troubles in general (and God the part about wine tasting was so bloody accurate!). I also loved how Elizabeth saw her pen friend Christine as everything she wanted and sought to be and yet when she finally meets Christine, Christine says the same of Elizabeth. It was a truly wonderful book.
In about Year Nine my friend and I discovered the companion book Finding Cassie Crazy which was somehow even better and funnier than Feeling Sorry for Celia. I loved the letters and secret assignments of Cassie, Lydia and Emily and I especially loved Lydia's notebook TM (as a wannabe writer I really associated). I loved the grand finale with the unmasking of the real baddie and I loved how Cassie coped with what happened. It remains one of my favourite teen reads ever. True story: The account of Lyd, Em and Cass skipping school and forgetting that their history teacher had organised a "fun" study session with cake and drinks and then going to apologise when they discovered no one at all went, is totally something that happened to me. Every time I read that part of the book I still feel guilty about poor Mrs Graham waiting with juice and crossionts for our entire history class to turn up for a morning study session. No one did. The accuracy of these books to my high school years is scary.
In about Year Eleven I found The Betrayal of Bindie McKenzie: she of the quick typing, the multi coloured nails, the straight A's and obnoxiousness and boring job at kmart. Also, Bindie reminded me of one of my best friend's at school (only my friend was nicer) I think this book was just as funny as Finding Cassie Crazy, albeit I did like Cassie, Em and Lyd slightly more (though even this depends on mood). The part about learning to drive was such a mirror image description of me and my Mum that every time I read that part I have to laugh. Around this time, Moriarty got more adventurous with a main plot centering on criminal conspiracy as well as the usual high school antics.
In Dreaming of Amelia, the stakes are upped again, this time with the gothic fiction element of the HSC (higher school certificate: the results gets a NSW student into university) paralelling a ghost story within the novel that becomes harder and harder to seperate fact from fiction. I almost never wanted this story to end. I've followed these students from the age of twelve to twenty one and I never want to let them go. These books are possibly the most accurate school books I have ever read in terms of my own Sydney high school experience and the hilarious scenario's are ones I can remember myself being in eg gossip sessions going wrong, conflicts with teachers, friendship dramas about nothing, what it means to grow up etc.
I love how Moriarty uses humour and epistlary methods to tell her story; always an inventive and unusual way of doing things and I love that there is always truth in the humour and the heightened surrealism. I especially loved "Shadowgirl's" blog poetry on "The Journey," (only a student my age who has completed their english HSC can understand the true horror those words reproduce when some poor fool happens to utter it; the groaning, the moaning, the hunt for bloody additional texts, the frantic attempts to link stuff together under the stupid idiotic broad title of 'journey'... etc) I loved the ending and I loved Amelia and Riley and their past.
This is a book about truth and who owns it, about redemption and failure, about who is allowed a new start, about poverty, about second chances (in more ways than one). In the end Moriarty leaves us to wonder "Is this all just the efforts of kids to get a good test mark by spinning a good yarn," or is this real, did this really happen? Which perspective of Amelia and Riley is the correct one? Toby's? Lydia's? or Em's? Are the Ashbury kids all just rich brats or are they more than that and can they change to rise above the past? Are we only seeing facets of each student or the real thing? And when is it ever ok to stop reaching for the stars, can anything ever disqualify you from trying?
The back cover actually says it all for once (though not in a way you can understand without first reading the book).
This is the story of ghosts and secrets, of passion, of locked doors and femme fatales; of final year of high school tension and intrigue.
This is the story of the PAST, and the FUTURE that has come to get YOU.
Past, present and future intersect in more ways than one and when the story ended I realised why Moriarty had to leave it here. What better time is there to end a book about young women and men, then at the time when the future is ahead of them and yet the past is still not so very far behind and when truly anything, anything at all might happen, if we only dream and strive hard enough?
I'll miss you Ashbury kids and I'll never ever stop reading about you in the books I have with you. My school years are in your pages. Guard them well.
My friend got me Touching Evil for my 21st. Damn it. If I get a credit for my two politics subjects, I blame Nicola Walker for my lack of study.