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spooky_missFinally I have a chance to update the books I have read! This week has been a bit strange, as I've been quite stressed out with my OU course. I had to write a 1000 word essay, which I thought would be quite straightforward, but it was harder than I thought, as I ended up writing 1600 words and it was really hard to cut it down. Which really annoyed me, because I actually found the writing of the essay quite easy! Now I think I've got it down to the right amount...well...on one computer its 1127 words and on 1144, so I just have to take out one or two sentences. Apart from that its a really interesting course :)
Now on to the books I've read :)
Books Fourteen to Nineteen
Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris
I actually found this book really boring, nothing much happened at all! Its basically about a group of people who work for an advertising agency, and them worrying about whether they will be getting fired or not. It describes things from their lives, and how it will affect them getting fired, but was quite boring. And when you thought something finally would happen - it turned out it was a paintball gun! This was part of the Richard and Judy book club, I know those books aren't the most deep and meaningful, but they're usually not bad, so I was quite disappointed by this. 4 / 10
World War One in Postcards by John Laffin
This is a non fiction book about postcards sent between soldiers and their families during World War 1. It is divided into sections for the different types of cards, e.g. factual, comedy, and "silks", which were cards with embroidery on them. It was information, but I felt there wasn't much information, and there weren't really many german postcards, mainly just english and french, so it wasn't very balanced. So, I only give it 5 / 10
Double Fault by Lionel Shriver
Unfortunately this was another boring book! I loved We Need to Talk about Kevin, but that seemed to be just a fluke! This was about two tennis players and their relationship with each other, and how their tennis playing affected their romantic relationship with each other, as one went up in the rankings and the other went down. They weren't particually nice or interesting characters though, so I just didn't really care about their relationship. Not recommended! 4 / 10
From Newbury With Love edited by Anne Horsburgh-Porter and Marina Aidova
This is a lovely book. It is a non-fiction account of a bookseller from England in the 1970s who started to write to a child in Russia, through Amnesty. It was a bit of history at the beginning and then a little bit throughout the book, and it was really interesting to see how the lives of the two families were so different. The family in England sent many things to the Russian family which they were not able to get in Russia, and they sent books back to the man in return. It was lovely to see how the relationship between the families developed, even though they never met. The Russian family met the children of the couple in the 80s. Definately recommended to see the contrast between the lives of a family in England and Russia at the same time. 10 / 10
Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah
This is a children's book by the poet, I think its one of his early books. Its about a boy who comes to England from Ethiopia, and his struggle to get asylum in Britain. It is well written and takes you through all the process that he has to go through to get asylum. It was good because it was very sympathetically written, you felt sympathy for the boy but didn't feel like Benjamin Zephaniah was trying to make out that any part of the system was wrong or unjust. It just laid out the facts in an easy to understand way. Recommended. 8 / 10
Leaders of the 20th Century - Alan Jamieson
This was surprisingly good. It contains profiles of 13 of the most important leaders of the world in the 20th Century, in a chronological way from Lenin to John F Kennedy. It was good as it clearly went through their lives, highlighting the key events. One interesting this is that it was published in 1970, before some of the leaders, such as Franco, had died, and before some of the *other* most important leaders had come around - people like Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela, for example. It did seem a bit biased at times, especially when talking about the leaders who were still alive when the book was published, but it was good. I like books like this as it provides a quick summary of important events and people, which is always good. 9 / 10
I am currently reading The Hidden Life of Otto Frank by Carol Ann Lee, its good so far. Last time I started it I couldn't really get into it, but this time it seems ok.
Films 17 and 18
La Reine Margot
This is a french film, based on an episode of french history that I don't know too much about, so at first I found it quite hard to get into. But I do love historical films, so once I worked out who everyone was, it was great :) Not sure if I could necessarily tell anyone the story now, but it was still good!
Changeling
I am currently watching this film, and so far it's excellent. I'm not sure about Angelina Jolie as a person, but she is a good actress, and is great here as a woman who's son goes missing, and then the child returned to her is not her own son. She gets put in a mental asylum, and then they find out that bodies of some children who have been killed, one of which is believed to be her son. I've just got to the bit where she has just been let out of the asylum, and now I think the police are going to try to cover it up. But I could be wrong! :)
I've had a lovely day today, went to see my grandparents in Rochester. Spent part of the day trying to explain to my grandad the different ways to transfer files and photos from his desktop to laptop computer, which was amusing as it always is when he tries to work out technological things..the classic quote today was "This is the slow computer as its not..you know, fast..." :D
Now on to the books I've read :)
Books Fourteen to Nineteen
Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris
I actually found this book really boring, nothing much happened at all! Its basically about a group of people who work for an advertising agency, and them worrying about whether they will be getting fired or not. It describes things from their lives, and how it will affect them getting fired, but was quite boring. And when you thought something finally would happen - it turned out it was a paintball gun! This was part of the Richard and Judy book club, I know those books aren't the most deep and meaningful, but they're usually not bad, so I was quite disappointed by this. 4 / 10
World War One in Postcards by John Laffin
This is a non fiction book about postcards sent between soldiers and their families during World War 1. It is divided into sections for the different types of cards, e.g. factual, comedy, and "silks", which were cards with embroidery on them. It was information, but I felt there wasn't much information, and there weren't really many german postcards, mainly just english and french, so it wasn't very balanced. So, I only give it 5 / 10
Double Fault by Lionel Shriver
Unfortunately this was another boring book! I loved We Need to Talk about Kevin, but that seemed to be just a fluke! This was about two tennis players and their relationship with each other, and how their tennis playing affected their romantic relationship with each other, as one went up in the rankings and the other went down. They weren't particually nice or interesting characters though, so I just didn't really care about their relationship. Not recommended! 4 / 10
From Newbury With Love edited by Anne Horsburgh-Porter and Marina Aidova
This is a lovely book. It is a non-fiction account of a bookseller from England in the 1970s who started to write to a child in Russia, through Amnesty. It was a bit of history at the beginning and then a little bit throughout the book, and it was really interesting to see how the lives of the two families were so different. The family in England sent many things to the Russian family which they were not able to get in Russia, and they sent books back to the man in return. It was lovely to see how the relationship between the families developed, even though they never met. The Russian family met the children of the couple in the 80s. Definately recommended to see the contrast between the lives of a family in England and Russia at the same time. 10 / 10
Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah
This is a children's book by the poet, I think its one of his early books. Its about a boy who comes to England from Ethiopia, and his struggle to get asylum in Britain. It is well written and takes you through all the process that he has to go through to get asylum. It was good because it was very sympathetically written, you felt sympathy for the boy but didn't feel like Benjamin Zephaniah was trying to make out that any part of the system was wrong or unjust. It just laid out the facts in an easy to understand way. Recommended. 8 / 10
Leaders of the 20th Century - Alan Jamieson
This was surprisingly good. It contains profiles of 13 of the most important leaders of the world in the 20th Century, in a chronological way from Lenin to John F Kennedy. It was good as it clearly went through their lives, highlighting the key events. One interesting this is that it was published in 1970, before some of the leaders, such as Franco, had died, and before some of the *other* most important leaders had come around - people like Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela, for example. It did seem a bit biased at times, especially when talking about the leaders who were still alive when the book was published, but it was good. I like books like this as it provides a quick summary of important events and people, which is always good. 9 / 10
I am currently reading The Hidden Life of Otto Frank by Carol Ann Lee, its good so far. Last time I started it I couldn't really get into it, but this time it seems ok.
Films 17 and 18
La Reine Margot
This is a french film, based on an episode of french history that I don't know too much about, so at first I found it quite hard to get into. But I do love historical films, so once I worked out who everyone was, it was great :) Not sure if I could necessarily tell anyone the story now, but it was still good!
Changeling
I am currently watching this film, and so far it's excellent. I'm not sure about Angelina Jolie as a person, but she is a good actress, and is great here as a woman who's son goes missing, and then the child returned to her is not her own son. She gets put in a mental asylum, and then they find out that bodies of some children who have been killed, one of which is believed to be her son. I've just got to the bit where she has just been let out of the asylum, and now I think the police are going to try to cover it up. But I could be wrong! :)
I've had a lovely day today, went to see my grandparents in Rochester. Spent part of the day trying to explain to my grandad the different ways to transfer files and photos from his desktop to laptop computer, which was amusing as it always is when he tries to work out technological things..the classic quote today was "This is the slow computer as its not..you know, fast..." :D
