I had been meaning to read this book for a while and have deliberately held off watching the Netflix series until I read the book – something I’d always recommend with TV/film adaptations if at all possible! After finishing the novel, I was quite surprised that they had chosen this book to turn into a series but I think that the series must explore and expand on the novel, filling in the gaps that Jackson leaves deliberately blank.
I found the fear in ‘Hill House’ was in the blank spaces; the unexplained and the unmentioned. I was expecting the novel to be quite explicit in the horror and scary scenes it described, but this isn’t what evoked the terror of the book. The novel explores the psychological side of terror: not as shockingly scary, but the kind of terror that lingers with you in the back of your mind. As such, I’m interested in how this translates to a television series and I’m imagining that some liberties will have been taken, but I’ll review once I’ve watched the series (don’t hold your breath as it always takes me an age to get through a series!!!)
I found the characters quite interesting: I always enjoy novels with unreliable narrators. I think Eleanor/Nell definitely fits into this category. I also think this adds to the unsettling nature of the novel. There was something uneasy about the narrative: something you couldn’t quite put your finger on and something that wouldn’t leave you alone. I found the other characters to be fairly interesting and I enjoyed the Doctor’s wife as a character, but the main interest for me (character-wise) was definitely Eleanor. I could never quite figure her out and this is what I found so intriguing.
Ultimately, I would really recommend this book and I can see the influence that it has had on later writers that I also enjoy; Neil Gaiman being the main one that springs to mind. I loved Jackson’s narrative style and I am keen on reading some more of her work in the future.
My music choice for this week is: Haunted by Evanescence. Hope you enjoy 🙂
The Forever Girl was March’s selection for my book club and is the first book I’ve read by Alexander McCall Smith. I’d been meaning to read something by McCall Smith for a while and a stand-alone story was a good starting point.
One of the most striking things about the book was his writing style: the novel is written in the third person. I found this quite interesting as you felt like an outsider looking into the lives of the characters. However, the descriptions were wonderful and really painted a good picture. I really enjoyed the various settings throughout the novel, particularly the depiction of the Cayman Islands as almost a boring paradise.
The overarching themes of the novel are love & loss and the relationship between childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The pacing of the novel increases dramatically as the main character, Clover, gets older. I felt this reflects the way that life feels, with things seeming to move much quicker the older you get.
The novel also raises an important question: how long do you hold out for love? I feel the idea of having a ‘forever girl’ or a ‘one true love’ is slightly toxic, despite being a lovely ideal. During her teenage angst I felt quite sympathetic for Clover, as she waits for James to notice her. However, as time went on, I found her pining to be quite irritating, as she was seeming to build a relationship out of very little physical evidence, whilst letting opportunities pass her by.
Overall, I found most of the characters to be quite one dimensional and I was more interested in the lives of the supporting characters: the likes of Ted, Margaret and John. I wish that McCall Smith would have fleshed out these characters a little more, although I understand why he didn’t. These characters gradually become less important to Clover and her mother as time progresses, so they get described in less and less detail.
I did find the ending a little disappointing as it felt quite abrupt and wasn’t quite the ending I would’ve liked. Despite this, The Forever Girl was certainly an interesting read and raised some important questions about how we love and how we live our lives.
My music choice is a track by Gabrielle Aplin and Nina Nesbitt – Miss You 2. Hope you enjoy as much I do 🙂
2019 is definitely the year when I read the fewest amount of books since I started reading – I only managed to get through 12 books last year, and even that’s loose as one was only a short story! Although I am pleased that I finally, finally, FINALLY got Jane Eyre read! Such a good book and I’m glad I read it, after wanting to since about 2010!
The twelve I read were as follows:
Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes? – Holly Bourne (2018)
The Tunnel Under The World – Frederick Pohl (1955)
The Plague – Albert Camus (1947)
Dragon Games – Jan-Philipp Sendker (2016)
Ubik – Philip K Dick (1969)
Divergent – Veronica Roth (2011)
Insurgent – Veronica Roth (2012)
Allegiant – Veronica Roth (2013)
Four – Veronica Roth (2014)
The House At The End Of The Street – Lily Blake (2012)
They Both Die At The End – Adam Silvera (2017)
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte (1847)
As for my 2019 reading challenge, I actually managed to achieve most of these.
1 ~ A book with a one-word title
Ubik
2 ~ A book with more than 600 pages
x (the longest books were Jane Eyre and Allegiant, both over 500 pages but just short of 600)
3 ~ A book with a time of day in the title
x (possibly could have got away with ‘end’, but didn’t really think that counted!)
4 ~ A book set in a country not in Europe or North America
Dragon Games (set across China and Hong Kong)
5 ~ A book set in a post-apocalyptic world
The Divergent series
6 ~ A book that you find intimidating
Jane Eyre (loosely, but this is a book I’d been meaning to read since about 2010)
7 ~ A book based on, or incorporating fairy tales, myths and legends
x (none directly incorporated fairy tales, myths or legends from my memory)
8 ~ A book involving time travel
Ubik (the story centres on time regression)
9 ~ A book by an author you like that you’ve never read
Are We All Lemmings And Snowflakes? or The Plague
10 ~ A book about a villain or antihero
x
11 ~ A book by an author with the same first or last name as you
They Both Die At The End (author is Adam Silvera, same first name!)
12 ~ A debut novel
Divergent or Jane Eyre
A few stats & facts:
12 books:
6 of these I own.
2 were borrowed from my brother.
3 were borrowed from the library.
1 (The Tunnel Under The World) I accessed online – technically my first ever e-book!
8 were published in the 2010s – of the other four, 3 were published in the 20th century and 1 (Jane Eyre) was published in the 19th century.
Earliest publication was Jane Eyre in 1847 and the most recent was Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes? in 2018.
All 12 books were new to me and all are fictional.
9 authors:
4 female authors and 5 male authors
The majority were either British or American. The two exceptions are Sendker (German) and Camus (French Algerian).
4 of these authors are dead: Pohl, Dick, Camus and Bronte.
I have previously read works by 3 of the authors: Bourne, Bronte and Camus.
Hopefully, I will be able to read a LOT more in 2020: we’re already off to a better start!
Now, to turn to my film challenges. I actually managed to watch 43 films last year – nearly 1 a week!
The challenge results:
1 ~ Watch all of the films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe
I watched 4 – Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: End Game and Guardians of the Galaxy.
2 ~ Watch at least 3 of the films nominated for Best Picture at the 2019 Oscars
I watched 1 – A Star Is Born
3 ~ Watch The Lord of The Rings Trilogy
X
4 ~ Watch all the theatrical Disney animated films I haven’t already seen, or at least don’t think I’ve seen (Fun and Fancy Free, The Rescuers, Fantasia 2000 and Ralph Breaks The Internet)
X – BUT weirdly enough I’ve already watched 2 of these in 2020 (thank you Disney+!)
5 ~ Watch all of the Studio Ghibli films
X (but I feel I may achieve this in 2020, thanks to Netflix)
6 ~ Watch a Christmas film before Christmas Day
We watched Mickey’s Twice Upon A Christmas on Christmas Eve!
Some facts and stats:
32 of these films were live action (a lot for me!) and only 9 were animated
27 of these films I’d never seen before, so 16 were re-watches (quick maths!)
I went to watch 5 films in the cinema: Dumbo, Pet Sematary, Avengers Endgame, IT Chapter 2 and Joker.
I didn’t watch any film more than once.
2020 Film & Book Challenges
I’m not going to set any specific challenges for 2020 as we are already in month 4! My overall goal is to just read more than last year & hopefully finally get those Studio Ghibli films watched!
My music choice has to be from Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa. I’ve decided to go with Break My Heart – because I love the music video! Enjoy 🙂
It has been a really long time since my last post – nearly 15 months! A lot has happened in that time and it hasn’t always been the easiest time for me on a personal level. It has meant that a number of things have fallen by the wayside over the last year or so – writing and blogging being a major one!
In spite of the negative points, the last 15 months have seen some really positive changes for me as well – it is never all bad! In September I started a new job doing admin & IT support for the NHS – taking this job was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made! Also, as of the start of this week I have changed jobs again and I’m back to being a book wizard, or librarian if you are looking for the technical term! Also had some lovely times with family and friends old and new, a LOT of concerts and theme park visits as well as buying my first car and first laptop!
Ultimately I am feeling in a much better headspace than I was when I was last blogging and feel much more positive and proactive in moving forward. Which is always a plus. I am also very slowly getting back into my creative writing and just writing and creating in general. As such, I am aiming to post something on my blog, ideally weekly but possibly fortnightly depending, on Fridays, starting tomorrow. That’s the plan at the moment, but we will just have to see how I go.
For my song choice I’ve gone with “Dance Again” by Selena Gomez, one of my favourites of her latest album. Enjoy 🙂
4 ~ A book set in a country not in Europe or North America
5 ~ A book set in a post-apocalyptic world
6 ~ A book that you find intimidating
7 ~ A book based on, or incorporating fairy tales, myths and legends
8 ~ A book involving time travel
9 ~ A book by an author you like that you’ve never read
10 ~ A book about a villain or antihero
11 ~ A book by an author with the same first or last name as you
12 ~ A debut novel
2019 Film Challenge
1 ~ Watch all of the films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe
2 ~ Watch at least 3 of the films nominated for Best Picture at the 2019 Oscars
3 ~ Watch The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
4 ~ Watch all the theatrical Disney animated films I haven’t already seen, or at least don’t think I’ve seen (Fun and Fancy Free, The Rescuers, Fantasia 2000 and Ralph Breaks The Internet)
5 ~ Watch all of the Studio Ghibli films
6 ~ Watch a Christmas film before Christmas Day
P.S.I’ve decided to make my song choice the song I’m listening to at the time : Diet Mountain Dew by Lana Del Rey!
So, it’s been a while since my last blog post. 2018 was a very strange year. Lots of good things, but also a lot of changes and lots of shifts. Some for the better and some for the worst, but I guess that’s kind of how life goes sometimes…
But anyway, enough on that. I’m going to really try and crack on with my writing this year. I’ve been waiting too long to actually get round to writing my novel and the stories in my head need to make their way onto paper/screen at long last. This means I’ll be trying to blog more frequently.
For my first post of the year, I’ll be doing a summary of my 2018 reading & film challenges: something that I made so long ago it feels like a lifetime ago…
2018 Reading Challenge
As with last year, I didn’t manage to meet all my reading challenge targets… To be honest I didn’t expect to as I didn’t target my reading based on the challenge. I justifiably managed 8 of the 12 categories, one less than 2017’s challenge. Again, I could have included more than 1 book for some categories but have only included 1 for each target…
1 ~ A book you’ve been meaning to read for a long time
Odd and the Frost Giants – Neil Gaiman
25th July – 29th July
I’ve always been a fan of Neil Gaiman, but had never got round to reading this one.
2 ~ A book you read a long time ago
The Subtle Knife – Philip Pullman
20th April – 29th April
I read this trilogy when I was a teenager, but don’t think I’d read them for close to 10 years!
3 ~ A book that’s over 600 pages
X
Like last year, I didn’t quite manage this. I think the longest book I read this year was La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman, which was 546 pages. Close, but no cigar unfortunately!
4 ~ A collection of short stories
Eight Ghosts – various authors
16th January – 25th January
A collection of 8 ghost stories based on English Heritage sites.
5 ~ A historical murder mystery
And Only To Deceive – Tasha Alexander
1st November – 17th November
A murder mystery/crime novel set in Victorian England.
6 ~ A classic of children’s literature you haven’t already read
X
Sadly, I don’t think anything I read this year can count as a children’s classic. Possibly, His Dark Materials could be considered a modern classic but I’d already read them.
7 ~ A book originally published in 1968, 1943, 1918, 1868, 1818 or 1768
X
Sadly, nothing for this one. Out of the books I read last year, the one with the earliest publication date was Northern Lights, which was 1995.
8 ~ Read at least 3 books from a series you haven’t read before
The Isle of the Lost Trilogy – Melissa de la Cruz
23rd September – 13th October
I’d not read this trilogy before.
9 ~ A book with a child or teen protagonist
It Only Happens In The Movies – Holly Bourne
1st January – 6th January
The protagonist is a teenager.
10 ~ A book that’s been made into a film
Northern Lights – Philip Pullman
4th April – 19th April
It was made into the film The Golden Compass in 2007.
11 ~ A book that was originally published in a language other than English
The Vegetarian – Han Kang
13th October – 22nd October
Originally published in Korean
12 ~ A book that you haven’t read before because you find it intimidating
X
As with last year, there’s none for this target…
A full list of the books I read last year can be found below:
It Only Happens In The Movies – Holly Bourne
Blue Exorcist Volume 4 – Kazue Kato
All The Bright Places – Jennifer Niven
Eight Ghosts – Various Authors
Copy Cat – Alex Lake
The Girl Who Drank The Moon – Kelly Barnhill
After The Fire – Will Hill
Paddle Your Own Canoe – Nick Offerman
Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
Northern Lights – Philip Pullman
The Subtle Knife – Philip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass – Philip Pullman
La Belle Sauvage – Philip Pullman
Eat Him If You Like – Jean Teulé
Odd And The Frost Giants – Neil Gaiman
I Was Born For This – Alice Oseman
A History Of Wolves – Emily Fridlund
So Much Life Left Over – Louis de Bernieres
Eleanor and Park – Rainbow Rowell
The Isle Of The Lost – Melissa De La Cruz
Return To The Isle Of The Lost – Melissa De La Cruz
Rise Of The Isle Of The Lost – Melissa De La Cruz
The Vegetarian – Han Kang
The Life Of Hunger – Amelie Nothomb
Neverworld Wake – Marisha Pessl
The Death Of Bees – Lisa O’Donnell
And Only To Deceive – Tasha Alexander
White Rabbit, Red Wolf – Tom Pollock
A Thousand Perfect Notes – C G Drews
Some facts & stats:
~ 19 books were borrowed from the library; the other 10 I own copies of
~ 14 of these books were published between 2016 and 2018 and I read 5 books that were published in 2018
~ Only 3 of these books were published before 2000, and the earliest of these was published in 1995
~ I read 1 nonfiction book: the rest were fiction
~ I read one manga volume and 1 collection of short stories
~ I read novels by 30 different authors – this includes the 8 authors who contributed to the “Eight Ghosts” short story collection. Of these 30, I had previously read works by 9 of them
~ 19 of these authors were women; the other 11 were men
~ Most of these authors are either British or American as far as I can tell. The 5 exceptions are: Kazue Kato (Japanese), Jean Teulé (French), Amélie Nothomb (Belgian), Han Kang (South Korean) and C G Drews (Australian).
~ As far as I am aware, all these authors are still living
~ I re-read 3 books this year (“His Dark Materials” trilogy)
~ I read multiple books by 3 authors: Philip Pullman (4), Melissa de la Cruz (3) and Neil Gaiman (2)
~ As far as I can tell, I read 4 debut novels (A History of Wolves, The Death of Bees, And Only To Deceive and A Thousand Perfect Notes)
~ The longest book I read was La Belle Sauvage at 546 and it also took me the longest time to read at 57 days. The shortest book that I read (I think) was Eat Him If You Like at about 100 pages. However, the quickest book I finished was Blue Exorcist Volume 4, which was read in 1 day.
2018 Film Challenge
My challenge was not a huge success. I had set 5 targets…
1 ~ Watch as many Disney/Pixar films as I can
I managed 12 films in this category, which leaves a lot of them unwatched!
2 ~ Watch at least 3 Studio Ghibli Films
Didn’t watch a single one sadly…
3 ~ Finally watch all the Hunger Games films
Didn’t happen again…
4 ~ Watch at least 3 films in the cinema
I actually watched 7 films in the pictures this year: Coco, Jurassic World 2, A Quiet Place, The Incredibles 2, The Spy Who Dumped Me, Halloween and Fantastic Beasts 2
5 ~ Watch at least 3 musicals
If you count Teen Beach Movie as a musical I managed this… The other 2 were The Greatest Showman and La La Land
Some facts & stats:
~ I watched 38 different films, slightly less than last year. Of these, there were 26 I had never seen before.
~ I watched 1 film twice: Coco.
~ I just about managed to watch 1 film a month. The month that I watched the most films in was March (6) and the fewest films were watched in May and December (1 each).
~ 17 of these films were animated and 21 were live action.
P.S. My music selection for this post is a track from KT Tunstall’s latest album: “Dark Side of Me”. Enjoy 🙂
“After The Fire” was a great holiday read, as it was a readable and gripping page-turner. It dealt with some pretty heavy themes, but I feel that it was handled in a thought-provoking, yet sensitive manner. Dealing extensively with the themes of religion, power and trauma, the novel tells the story of a cult that exists just outside of Texas. Due to its content, it reminded me of another fantastic novel: The Followers by Rebecca Wait. Both books use a cult organisation to discuss broader themes and I thought both were absolutely fascinating reads.
“After The Fire” picks the story up after the cult has been broken up and uses a “before” and “after” approach to discuss the cult and the after effects on the survivors (interestingly enough, all children). Each chapter is either categorised before or after and sees the protagonist, Moonbeam, interact with the “outsiders”, as she tries to process and deal with what she has just experienced. Being a member of the cult from when she was a baby, Moonbeam offers an intricate look at the way the cult worked and the changes that took place when the charismatic but frightening Father John took control.
One of the most interesting points for me was the discussion of blind faith versus reason and we see this most through Moonbeam’s later interactions with Honey and the other survivors as they discuss the cult and their faith. Moonbeam is surprised to find that some of the others in the camp were not necessarily true believers, whereas she has fully believed in the words of Father John until a much later point.
All in all, the book discusses trauma and the after effects on the victims and we see a host of various characters who represent different aspects of this aftershock: mainly Moonbeam, Honey and Luke. We see how deep these effects can run but also shows how much human beings can handle. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys books dealing with religion, cults, power and psychological effects. Although the themes can be quite heavy, Moonbeam’s attitude and her interactions with Doctor Hernandez and Agent Carlyle lightens the mood slightly and I found her an engaging and likeable protagonist. All in all, a gripping and thought-provoking read.
PS. My music choice for today is “Fire Under My Feet” by Leona Lewis. It’s one of the singles from her most recent album and a good motivation for Monday morning! Enjoy 🙂
Unsettling, yet oddly captivating, After Me Comes The Flood meanders through the story of John Coles: an unassuming bookseller who stumbles across an unusual house on his way to visit his brother. The house feels almost haunted, as its inhabitants seem ethereal and the house feels like it’s a different world. We begin to question what is reality and what is illusion, as John is worryingly welcomed with open arms, as if he’s been expected.
And so begins one of the most unusual novels I have ever read. We begin to learn about the house’s inhabitants. Hester is the matriarch and head of the household and Elijah is a priest who has lost his faith in God. Eve and Alex are both troubled in their own ways, whilst Clare and Walker seem to be along for the ride. We see many subplots and other stories weaved into the main narrative, as John meets and interacts with all the inhabitants of this weird house.
Themes of faith, identity, instability, corruption and destruction drive the novel forward and water is unsurprisingly a prevalent theme. Music and prayer are also common images over the course of the novel and the story almost lilts along, as if the narrative has a mind of its own. I loved the dreamlike nature of the book and Sarah Perry’s style of writing is absolutely sublime. It is unsurprising that her debut and follow up, The Essex Serpent, have been so lauded by critics.
The novel is undeniably unusual and may not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, I really found the book fascinating. Things were insinuated rather than stated and the dreamlike nature of the narrative was oddly captivating. The novel didn’t actually contain any explicit supernatural elements, but the novel was eerie and unsettling. There was a haunted, otherworldly element to the house, which felt isolated and the unclear end adds to the element of mystique. An unusual yet unique debut from an author who should have an incredibly successful career ahead of her.
Photography: Matthew Jones
My song choice for this post is “Weird People” by Little Mix. Hope you enjoy 🙂
Just before Christmas, I decided to read Shaun Bythell’s 2017 memoir The Diary Of A Bookseller. This was on a bit of whim, as I don’t often read non-fiction, but the book caught my eye after a customer returned it. This is one of the perks of working in libraries – there is never any shortage of books to read. However, it also means that titles are constantly being added to my already enormous ‘to-be-read’ pile. But that’s a different story…
Shaun Bythell owns ‘The Bookshop’ in Wigtown, Scotland’s biggest second hand book store. The concept of the book is simple: he has set out to detail the day-to-day runnings of the store, in a diary like format that is incredibly readable. Each day starts with a summary of the number of books ordered and found online and ends with the total number of customers and the till total at day’s end. I enjoy figures and statistics, so I found this a fascinating insight into the realities of actually running a bookstore.
His acerbic tone and no-nonsense approach makes for a colourful read, as Bythell holds no punches when he is describing the ridiculous and often downright rude behaviour of customers in the shop. This tone is also prevalent on his Facebook page, which makes for some interesting further reading. I am sure anyone who has worked in retail or customer service roles can relate to his frustrations. However, most of Bythell’s anger is aimed squarely at big business, particularly Amazon. His feelings are made abundantly clear after he shot an Amazon Kindle and mounted it to the wall of the shop. And after reading some of his experiences with Amazon, I can completely understand his frustrations.
I also found it interesting to learn about Wigtown, a small rural town near Galloway that has been revived in recent years by an abundance of bookstores and the creation of the Wigtown Book Festival. Bythell’s store runs a writer’s retreat during the festival, where visiting writers and tourists can rent a room in the flat Bythell owns above the shop. He has also developed a scheme where aspiring bookstore owners can test-run what it is like to run a bookstore.
He details his visits to auctions and old houses, sifting through book collections of the deceased and the stock of closing libraries and museums. This was an aspect I hadn’t fully considered when thinking about the second hand book trade and I found this a fascinating insight. Each month (effectively a chapter) starts with a quote from George Orwell about bookselling back in the 1930s, with Bythell then discussing the differences and similarities between bookselling then and bookselling now.
Between his sarcastic and cynical views on rude customers, odd requests and quirky members of staff, it is clear that Bythell loves what he does and is obviously passionate about physical books and reading, in whatever form this comes. This is refreshing and I really enjoyed reading this memoir. As the book moves on, you find yourself becoming attached to the host of characters who keep cropping up and I found it an incredibly entertaining read.
Photography: Matthew Jones
My music choice for the week is ‘Bad Liar’ by Selena Gomez. I really enjoyed the track and am looking forward to her next album (hopefully out this year!). Enjoy. 🙂
So, here is my reading challenge for 2018. Like last year, I’m not going to read books necessarily just to complete this challenge, but will be interesting to see if I meet these targets anyway. I have included the 3 challenges I missed from 2017, as well as 9 new challenges and I have tried not to duplicate anything from last year.
So by 1st January 2019, I will see if I can read a book in each of the following categories…
1 ~ A Book You’ve Been Meaning To Read For A Long Time
2 ~ A Book You Read A Long Time Ago
3 ~ A Book That’s Over 600 Pages
4 ~ A Collection Of Short Stories
5 ~ A Historical Murder Mystery
6 ~ A Classic Of Children’s Literature You Haven’t Already Read
7 ~ A Book Originally Published In 1968, 1943, 1918, 1868, 1818 or 1768
8 ~ Read At Least 3 Books From A Series You Haven’t Read Before
9 ~ A Book With A Child Or Teen Protagonist
10 ~ A Book That’s Been Made Into A Film
11 ~ A Book That Was Originally Published In A Language Other Than English
12 ~ A Book That You Haven’t Read Before Because You Find It Intimidating
As for my 2018 film challenge, this will be slightly different this year. My aim is between 25th December 2017 and 25th December 2018 is to watch every Disney animated film, which is a lot. I am trying to include Pixar and sequels as well, but we’ll see how that pans out. Maybe I should change that to as many as I can.
So, I will set 5 targets for films in 2018 and see how far I get:
1 ~ Watch as many Disney/Pixar films as I can within the year
2 ~ Watch at least 3 Studio Ghibli Films
3 ~ Finally watch all of The Hunger Games films!
4 ~ Watch at least 3 films in the cinemas
5 ~ Watch at least 3 musicals
So there we are. Let’s see how 2018 pans out!
For my music choice this week, I’ve opted for JP Cooper’s ‘We Were Raised Under Grey Skies’, which I just think is sublime! Enjoy 🙂
![IMG_0946[1]](https://adamedwardrambles.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/img_09461.jpg?w=171&h=228)
I had been meaning to read this book for a while and have deliberately held off watching the Netflix series until I read the book – something I’d always recommend with TV/film adaptations if at all possible! After finishing the novel, I was quite surprised that they had chosen this book to turn into a series but I think that the series must explore and expand on the novel, filling in the gaps that Jackson leaves deliberately blank.
The Forever Girl was March’s selection for my book club and is the first book I’ve read by Alexander McCall Smith. I’d been meaning to read something by McCall Smith for a while and a stand-alone story was a good starting point.
The Isle of the Lost Trilogy – Melissa de la Cruz
Adam's Random Ramblings 