TO READ: The Secret Keeper

This is my favourite book by Kate Morton, and, since she is one of my favourite authors anyway, you can take it that the other three took some beating. The Secret Keeper tells the story of Laurel, who, at the age of sixteen, saw her mother Dorothy kill a man. Years later, after a successful and on-going acting career, and as Dorothy nears death, an almost elderly Laurel attempts to find out why her mother did what she did, and who she was before she was a mother. Just as in Morton's other books, the story is told from different points in time; we follow both Laurel searching for information in 2011, and as Dorothy's drama unfolds in wartime Britain in the 1940's.

My mum is reading this book for the first time at the moment, and she's usually pretty good at seeing where things are going, but with this book, every theory she presents to me when I ask where she's read up to is wrong, and the real answer is unexpected. It's full of mystery and intrigue that deepens as the book goes on, and of course a bit of romance. I recommend this book to anyone who will listen.

TO READ: The Importance Of Being Earnest

This is a play I'd like to recommend young people to read, people my own age, because I don't think people my age read things like this enough. I can't remember what my impression of Oscar Wilde was before I read this book in English Literature, but it wasn't good, and I wasn't looking forward to reading it. I thought it would be boring.

Oh, how wrong can you be?

I absolutely loved The Importance Of Being Earnest. My and my friend both thought it was brilliantly hilarious, and declared ourselves in love with Oscar Wilde after the first lesson studying it, despite him being dead and gay. Unfortunately I'm not sure the rest of the class agreed with us; while we were trying to make sure our giggles were silent, none of them seemed to crack a smile.

But I do think it's important for young people to appreciate the genius of the great classic writers such as Oscar Wilde. And, yes, you can watch a film adaptation or a play version of The Importance Of Being Earnest but I think the best way to get the full meaning is to read it.

I don't know what the title of this post should be...

Currently listening to this song on repeat. I thought people would like to know. :)

Also, I attempted writing continuously for fifteen minutes. I thought it would get my thoughts flowing meaning that I could do some serious writing. It didn't work, and what I ended up with was pretty odd - no, I'm not sharing it :P.

I went on a week-long residential Creative Writing course a few weeks ago and it was amazing and I met a load of awesome people and I feel it really improved my confidence (I'd never been on a train on my own before, and I managed two changes travelled halfway across the country, and I also read out a piece of my writing in front of about thirty people, I was pretty proud of myself for that). Anyway, so since this blog is about writing as well as other stuff, I thought maybe it would be nice to share some of the things I learnt, which was more than I expected. I'd also like to maybe read out a few of my pieces on camera and post them, since the whole reading-aloud thing was recorded, and I thought that might be fun, especially if it'd just be me. So maybe that might happen, one day. One day. :P

TO READ: The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern creates a beautifully vivid world and an enchanting atmosphere in her novel The Night Circus. Trying not to give too much away, it's a story of magicians, of romance, and of a lifelong battle to the death set on an elaborate and unconventional stage. There's something about it, some sense of magic and mystery, that makes it inspiring, un-put-down-able and unique. Perhaps it's in the intriguing storyline with its jumps between the past and present; perhaps it's in the second-person passages which bring The Circus Of Dreams to life; or perhaps it's in the style of Erin Morgenstern's writing which just combines everything so wonderfully.

Whatever it is that makes this book so special, it is indeed special, and if you could only ever read one book in your entire life and I had to recommend that one book to you, it would be this one. It certainly captured a part of my heart and still hasn't let it go.