Top Ten Tuesdays: Newly discovered authors of 2015

It’s really starting to feel like we’re getting to the tail end of the year now. Everywhere is decorated for Christmas, the BBC’s starting to trail their winter programming and Top Ten Tuesdays is focussing more and more on 2015 wrap ups.

Usually I’m uncontainably excited about Christmas by this time, eating nothing that isn’t in some way cinnamon flavoured and decorating everything that’s stationary in baubles and beads. This year however the countdown to Christmas is also the countdown to me being unemployed so it’s soured the excitement somewhat. I’m trying to get enthusiastic about mince pies and candy canes but the whole thing just gives me that little nervous twitch in my stomach. And the next ’18 sleeps ‘til Christmas’ sign I see is going to be at risk of some serious vandalism.

So yes, I’m finally able to empathise with the scrooges of the world. Not a position I ever thought I’d be able to understand.

I do like a good list though. Not even the thought of unemployment could stop me wanting to write a list of my top ten newly discovered authors of 2015. And after discovering last week that The Broke and the Bookish actually releases the themes for the Top Ten Tuesdays in advance, here’s a post I prepared earlier, in true Blue Peter style.

There are some absolutely incredibly authors on this list. I stepped out of my comfort zone much more this year as I really embraced impulse buying in second hand book shops and the results have in general been a great success, introducing me to authors that I’m sure I’ll be on the lookout for for years to come. I also finally got round to reading the books my mums been recommending to me for years and, of course, she was right all along.

 

1. Anne Bronte

Ever since I read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall earlier this year I have been on a mission to get as many people reading Anne Bronte as possible. The way her astute feminism has been overlooked in favour of the mushy unrealistic romances of her sisters is just unforgivable.

 

2. Jeffrey Eugenides

The one person whose recommendations I always adhere to is Rory Gilmore. So when I came across a copy of The Virgin Suicides I had to buy it just on the strength of it being mentioned in passing in an episode of The Gilmore Girls. And wow, it did not disappoint. By far one of the best books I read all year. I’ve seen also read Middlesex and could only marvel at how amazing it was without having even one tiny thing in common with The Virgin Suicides. I cannot wait to find out what The Marriage Pact has in store.

 

3. Tessa Hadley

I bought The London Train by Tessa Hadley on a complete whim, mostly because I’d just finished Girl on the Train so was predisposed to like books with the word train in their title. The similarities between them stopped there as The London Train started to remind me more and more of an Ian McEwan novel, which is about as far from criticism as I can get. I’ve already got Married Love ready and waiting on my shelf.

 

4. Colm Toibin

Not long after I declared Tessa Hadley my new Ian McEwan along came Colm Toibin to threaten her for the crown. Brooklyn is more like Atonement Ian McEwan, atmospheric and maudlin but absolutely brilliant, whereas Tessa Hadley was more Saturday and Amsterdam. I’ve already bought Nora Webster to read next but haven’t found myself in the right mood quite yet.

 

5. Caitlin Moran

I’d read a lot of her non-fiction and columns before 2015 but not her one fiction book, How to Build a Girl, which almost justifies her place on this list. The more time that passes the more fondly I look back on this book, not just because it’s entertaining but it taught me something about growing up. I’m really excited for the next two parts in the story.

 

6. Donna Tartt

The Secret History by Donna Tartt was another slow builder – immediately after finishing it I was verging on disappointed by the more time that passes the more desperate I am to read something else by her.

 

7. Thomas Hardy

This time last year I had been stuck two chapters into Tess of the D’Urbervilles for months, every time I went to carry on with it getting distracted by something else. Well, when I finally did get around to reading it I was kicking myself for what I’d been missing. This is without a doubt one of the greatest books ever written and a shoo-in for my favourite books I’ve read this year. I’ve since read various other things by Thomas Hardy and the love affair shows no signs of dimming.

 

8. John Green

I actually can’t remember when I first read a John Green novel so I’m not sure it was 2015 but I’m going to assume it was so I can write about him. I wish YA fiction had been like this when I was a teenager. Not just girls moping after guys more popular than them but funny and thought provoking and a little bit different.

Top Ten Tuesday: Book adaptations I need to see

I have a real problem with book to film adaptations. I just don’t think they ever do the book justice. Of all the ones I’ve ever seen there are less than ten that actually lived up to my expectations (and I’ve listed them here and here).

So what, you may ask, is the point of me even taking part in this week’s Top Ten Tuesday from The Broke and the Bookish when the theme is all about the book to film adaptations we’re looking forward to? Well because I’m a consummate optimist. Every time a new adaptation is released I race to watch it thinking this time it’ll be different, this time they’ll have done it just how I would have wanted them to. Even though they barely ever do. Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?

I’ve actually broken the list below up into two categories – book to film adaptions I really need to see and book to film adaptions I’ve started but really need to get round to finishing. Oh and I’ve also included TV series adaptions. Because why not.

ONES I NEED TO SEE

1. Brooklyn

This hasn’t actually been released yet so it’s a bit of a stretch to be including it. When I read this book I could imagine how it would make a great film, conveying all the excitement of 1950s New York and the desolation of 1950s Ireland. And what I’ve seen of the cast fits pretty well with how I imagined it. So fingers crossed!

2. The Virgin Suicides

I’m apprehensive about watching this film as it’s not a book I can really picture working well as an adaption. But it’s such a highly regarded film and I’ve heard some great reviews, so I can’t really not.

3. Far From the Madding Crowd

I read this book almost entirely so that I could have it finished by the time the film came out earlier this year. And then never actually got round to seeing the film. My parents both saw it and spoke of it very highly but they’ve been wrong before.

4. Paper Towns

This is my favourite John Green novel so I have high expectations for the film. Although Cara Delivigne really isn’t how I pictured Margo so it’s going to take quite something for me to able to actually get over that and enjoy it.

5. Valley of the Dolls

I want to watch this more to remind myself why I loved the book so much than to see if they adapt it well, especially as I can’t imagine it has been when it’s on a list of The Fifty Worst Films of all Time. But knowing my subversive tastes that’ll probably mean I like it.

6. Lady Susan

I’ve heard tell that there is a film adaption of this in the offing. I love the idea of a new Jane Austen story (well not new, but new in the public attention). But if they mess up Jane Austen they’ll have me to answer to.

ONES I NEED TO FINISH

1. The Great Gatsby

I started this about a year ago, got almost to the end before I just couldn’t put off going to sleep anymore and then never actually went back to finish it. And now it’s just been so long since I started it that I know I’m going to have to go back to the beginning and watch it all over again.  Which isn’t a thought I particularly relish. I loved Baz Luhrman’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet so much but The Great Gatsby just wasn’t working quite as well for me so even the thought of two hours watching Leonardo Di Caprio hasn’t been motivation enough to actually bite the bullet and finish it. One day though.

2. The Fault in our Stars

The problem with this one is that I know I didn’t enjoy the end of the book anywhere near as much as the beginning so as much as I loved the first half of the film I’m expecting the second half to be a disappointment. And it’s hard to actively want to do something that you don’t think you’ll enjoy.

3. The White Queen

This probably doesn’t count as I’m actually in the process of watching this at the moment but there was a gap of about eight months between watching episode seven and episode eight so I think it just about qualifies. So far my impressions are mediocre at best but if it can finish with a flourish then it could be saved.

4. The Hobbit

Yes it’s incredibly slow but at least it was faithful to the books. I can only dream of a Harry Potter adaption that is as truthful to the source material. Even better if it could include as many extras as The Hobbit does. I’ve seen the first two films but then broke up with the boyfriend who always took me to see them (tiny violin for me). So watching the last film has just never happened. But now I’m putting it off to enjoy the anticipation of a completely free evening, a packet of some sugar filled snack, a duvet and the climax of a great film franchise.

This week I’ve been reading… The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

 

How long: Two days.

Where I finished it: Midair somewhere above Hungary.

Should be read while listening to: Rave On by Cults

Favourite quote: The Lisbons could hardly wait for night to forget themselves in sleep

The title of this post is completely inaccurate as it was at least two weeks ago that I was actually reading this book. In two days flat (almost all of that in one sitting).

I think if I’d known absolutely anything about this before I bought it I wouldn’t have bothered as it really isn’t the kind of book I usually like – no plot but lots of atmospheric description. Although I am partial to dark and depressing which this certainly is. As it is I bought it almost entirely on the strength of it’s being mentioned at some point in The Gilmore Girls which is the whole reason I bought Valley of the Dolls which is now on my list of top ten books of all time (and a little bit because the cover is very pretty).

I wouldn’t quite go so far as to place The Virgin Suicides as an all time favourite but it’s without a doubt a brilliant book and one I am going to start recommending to absolutely everyone.

There is practically no plot at all. We’re told right on the back cover that the five Lisbon sisters all commit suicide within a year of each other and the book is set twenty years later, looking back on some of the events of their lives, not chronologically, not attempting any tension or cliffhangers, not asking any questions or finding any answers.

The story is told from the point of view of five boys who have almost no involvement in the plot at all which only added to the meandering, almost pointless feel of the way it was written. They don’t claim to know or understand the Lisbon girls. Although they watch them the whole of their lives from the house across the street, once the doors are closed they have no way of knowing what was going on inside and what drove them to suicide.

For me The Virgin Suicides reminded me of Catch 22 though I can’t for the life of me think why. Maybe the detailed description, or the melancholy sense of impending doom but never quite knowing when that doom is going to come or what’s going to cause it. Whatever the reason, for me to be comparing things to Catch 22 (greatest book ever written) you know it’s got to be something special.

I started this book in the bath on Wednesday night and finished it on the plane the next morning. And it’s been a while since the end of a book has affected quite as much as this one did. I was seriously tearing up for the last few pages, partly because of the melancholy tone of the writing and partly because I didn’t want it to be over. I felt like the narrator; I wanted to know everything about these girls and not to understand why they had to die, not to make sense of it, for the first time ever I didn’t even want a clear cut ending, I just wanted to keep reading.

My book shopping list

The other day I worked out that almost a third of the books on my shelves I have yet to read. At the beginning of summer it was only a quarter and it’s not as if I’m a slow reader. Which means that I have bought A LOT of books. So I think it might be time to get my book buying addiction under control.

My answer to this, as with so many things, was to write a list. A list of books that I am allowed to buy and that I must not deviate from!

It’s still a really long list. It’s not as if I’m making myself go cold turkey or anything. And this may be my third draft because I kept thinking of more authors who needed including. But it’s a start.

This should keep me going until the end of year. Hopefully. With my insistence that all my books be second hand balancing my desire for nothing but beautiful editions on my shelves it can take me months before I purchase even a single book (or I could tick ten off my list on one day).

1. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

I’ve been hunting for a nice copy of this for a while as I hear such great things about it and I don’t read enough dystopian fiction.

2. Agnes Grey, The Professor, Villette or Shirley by Anne and Jane Bronte

Much like with Jane Austen I imagine that just because these books aren’t as famous as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights it doesn’t mean there won’t be a gem in there.

3. The Diary of a Provincial Lady by EM Delafield

I’m after this book mostly because it comes in the same series as my beloved copy of Valley of the Dolls.

4. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

This ones purely because I read it as ebook so I now must own a physical copy!

5. George Eliot

I’d like to say Middlemarch but it’s just so damn long! But I enjoyed Silas Marner so much that it seems silly I’ve never read anything else by her.

6. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

This plot of this makes it sound like my ideal book – about a woman writing her thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot. And I very much enjoyed The Virgin Suicides.

7. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Another one that I’ve read but don’t own my own copy.

8. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

I keep seeing this book mentioned places at the moment so I’m taking it as a sign that I should be reading it.

9. The Other Queen and The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory

These are the missing puzzle pieces from my complete collections of the Cousins’ War series and The Tudor Court Series. The Other Queen shouldn’t be too hard to find but The Taming of the Queen is still very new.

10. Thomas Hardy

One of my favourite authors of all time and yet I only own one of his books! This needs correcting.

11. The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

I got a bit nosy on the train at what the man sat opposite me was reading and it turned out it was this. And a quick google told me that I desperately need to read this book. I love anything that bashes neoliberalism.

12. Phillip Larkin

I really enjoy poetry but my knowledge is limited to the classics. So I’m trying to introduce some more contemporary poets into my collection too.

13. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E Lockhart

This one might be a long time in the coming but I really want to read it.

14. A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin

I’m slowly building up my collection of paperback George RR Martin’s but I’ve still got a long way to go (I currently have two of the seven).

15. Moranthology by Caitlin Moran

I borrowed this off a neighbour when I read it but now must have a copy of my own.

16. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I need this for my mission to read lots of New York based books. And although I’ve come across several copies, I’m holding out for the perfect edition.

17. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Another for the New York collection.

18. The Love Machine and Once Is Not Enough  by Jacqueline Susann

Because I loved Valley of the Dolls too much not to read more by her.

Top 10 Tuesday: My Autumn TBR list

Top 10 Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish which I always think looks like great fun but I barely ever actually get round to! But this week’s topic of my Autumn TBR seemed manageable and here it is…

First off I should say that there is absolutely no way at all that I will stick to this. Not a chance. At all. And even if I did try I think 10 books might be a bit optimistic for me with my current reading pace.

I pick my next book based on what I’m in the mood for at that exact moment. So these are simply predictions of things that I could believe I might be in the mood for. Maybe. But probably not.

1. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

I’ve actually already started this and although I wouldn’t so far say I’m enjoying it as much as The Virgin Suicides it’s good enough to keep me coming back.

2. The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde

I spent last night doing lots of those ‘The 100 books you need to read to be well-read’ and turns out I’m no where near as cultured as I thought. So a lot of these choices are based from that, this included.

3. Brave New World by Adolus Huxley

And this…

4. 1984 by George Owell

And this…

5. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

And this, which is a contender for longest standing member of the TBR list.

6. The Children Act by Ian McEwan

It has been too long since I last read an Ian McEwan. My binge earlier this summer put me off for a while but I think it’s time to get back on that horse.

7. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

I really want to like Agatha Christie. I like the idea of liking Agatha Christie. But it just hasn’t happened yet. However, I will not admit defeat until I’ve at least read this one.

8. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I will read this! I will!

9. In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume

I’ve never read any Judy Blume but I know she’s kind of a big deal in America and when I found this second hand I thought I might as well.

10. Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy

I really love Thomas Hardy and he’s definitely a contender for one of my favourite authors so I think it’s high time I read another of his books.

And now I can look back on this list in a few months time and know I’ve read not one of these!