Song Recommendation: Victim Of Ritual by Tarja

I know, I didn't post a reading recommendation last week, and I'm not posting one this week either, but that's not because I haven't got one. For anyone who read any of my earlier blog posts, it's clear there's an obvious favourite of mine which I've missed; I haven't forgotten it (or should I say, them; it's a trilogy and I might well give each book an individual post), I just thought it would be best to leave it a bit since I know I went on about it rather a lot. Either way, I wanted to share a song I've been listening to today, I may be becoming slightly addicted to it. It's called Victim Of Ritual by the amazing Finnish singer Tarja Turunen, from her upcoming album Colours In The Dark, and it takes "I'd like to sing along but I can't sing" to a whole new level. As in, "I'm not even going to try, because my voice will not physically be able to do that." (And I wish I could roll my "r"s like that)

TO READ: The Light Between Oceans

Sorry this is a couple of days late, but there we go.

I hadn't heard of this book by M. L. Stedman before I picked it up despite the cover claiming it to be an international bestseller (apparently it's also destined for the big screens). Either way, once I started reading it, I couldn't stop. It tells the story of ex-soldier Tom Sherbourne in Australia in the 1920s after the First World War as he becomes a lighthouse keeper on a small remote island called Janus Rock. The main action begins in 1926, when a boat containing a dead man and a baby wash up on the island and Tom and his wife are forced to make a decision that will change their lives.

This is an enticing debut novel which I would recommend firstly to fans of Kate Morton and secondly to anyone who will listen. I found myself getting rather fond of the characters, most of whom just want to do the right thing in a difficult situation, although I did start getting confused between the minor characters towards the end. It isn't often that a book makes me particularly emotional, but this book did almost make me cry, which I consider an achievement on M. L. Stedman's part.

One thing I particularly liked was the detail. I'm not talking about minute detail in lengthy and boring descriptions here, there's none of that (which I recall) but rather all important events are given a mention. You might think this is obvious, but I think something that has annoyed me about books in the past is that they mention something important from the past only later, and that annoys the reader as there is no possible way that they can attempt to predict what's going to happen since they didn't previously know about this event. This is not the case in this book; the past event in question is given in its place in the chronological order of things, leaving the reader wondering its relevance, and we are only enlightened on this point later in the book, something which, for some reason, I did like (this is quite possibly only the writer in me picking up on this). It's only a small point, and something I imagine most people wouldn't notice, but I apparently thought it important, so there we go.

In conclusion, I very much enjoyed this book from the first to the last word, and found it, overall, gripping, intriguing and fascinating with a hint of something enchanting. And no, I can't lend you my copy, because I'll be lending it to all my friends first. :)

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.