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.

TO READ: Throne Of Glass

I was drawn to this fantasy novel by American writer Sarah J. Maas because of its promise of an intriguing and different story and a strong female lead character, but I soon found another reason to read it. Throne Of Glass began on writing website FictionPress.Net when Ms. Maas was sixteen. This got my attention because I joined FictionPress when I was thirteen, so I was really excited to find a brilliant, published book which started with a teen author on FictionPress. And a brilliant book it is, too, with elements of a romance and a murder mystery as well as fantasy.

This is the story of 18-year-old Celaena Sardothien, an infamous assassin serving a life sentence in a gruelling work prison which should already have killed her. Celaena dreams of freedom, and it is a chance at freedom she is offered when she is asked to represent the prince in a competition to become the King's Assassin, but will mean either death or a return to prison if she loses.

As I said, I picked up this book because of its promise of something different to the usual teen fantasy fare of vampires and werewolves, so I was disappointed when I found the first signs of a love triangle developing. I have grown sick of love triangles; I hate the things. But Sarah J. Maas actually pulls it off very well, and if you want to know how, or what I mean by that - well, you'll just have to read the book, won't you?

It isn't what I expected from reading the blurb, and there were bits I wasn't satisfied with, but overall the positives outweigh the negatives, and Throne of Glass is definitely worth reading.

TO READ: Mockingbird

Not to be confused with Harper Lee's bestseller, Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine is the story of a young girl named Caitlin who is struggling not only with her brother's death but also with Asperger's, a form of autism. It's well-written and thought-provoking, giving the reader an insight into how someone who lives with Asperger's might think, which was interesting for me as I know someone with a form of autism similar to Asperger's. I know that they read the book too, with somebody else, and apparently they really opened up to discuss the problems that they themselves have in dealing with autism while they were reading the book. It kind of helped me to understand things from the point of view of someone with autism; it's not that they're being stupid or awkward deliberately, it's because they are genuinely struggling with certain things, and this book helped me to see that.

The back of my copy of this book describes it as "bittersweet" and "unforgettable" and I would certainly agree with this. Even if the topic of autism has no relevance to you, I would still recommend you read it.

NOT TO READ: Flying Blind

Again I'd like to point out that I feel bad for criticising other writers' hard work but this is just my opinion, I'm sure there are many people who like this book. It's Flying Blind, book one of a series called The Dragon Diaries by Deborah Cooke. It took me a while to get into this book mostly because I didn't like Ms Cooke's style of writing. I thought the protagonist seemed childish (at least , at the start), a bit too full of herself and dramatic for me; it felt like she was trying too hard to get the reader's sympathy. As a writer I have been told over again that it is best to show the reader what you mean rather than tell them straight out, and I just thought that we were told too much rather than shown it. I must say that I did get into it eventually, the storyline did get better - but I do think it was slightly overdramatic at parts. I did just feel like it was trying too hard to be good, it wasn't natural. However, as I said, it improved as it went on, I thought.

If anyone's read it, then I'd like to know your thoughts, I know a good few people will disagree with me (I just read an online review that absolutely sings its praises, but I do agree with it when it says it's probably aimed at the younger end of the YA spectrum, which may be why I didn't enjoy as much as others did). I personally won't be reading the sequel, though, and you may well find my copy in a charity shop at some point in the future.