Books Forty Two, Forty Three, Forty Four, Forty Five and Forty Six, and Gig at Slimelight!

[spooky_miss]

Another update...now fully updated! :D

Birdman by Mo Hayder

This book is about a serial killer who kills women and leaves a bird in the chests - hence the nickname "Birdman". It goes through all how the police try to find who it is, has a variety of suspects etc. Its just a straightforward crime thriller, although Mo Hayder does go into too much detail her books about the serial killers mind and why he wants to do the things (this time it was sex with dead bodies...euww), almost like she's explaining it and excusing it! But apart from that it was an ok read. 6 / 10

Gig at Slimelight featuring Nightporter, The Mumbles, Luxury Stranger and Voices of Masada, with XP8 during the night

This gig was at Slimelight on 15th May 2010, with the goth bands before the club, and XP8 during the night.

Nightporter I only saw about half a song of, so can't really say whether they were great or not, but they seemed ok for half a song, hehe.

The Mumbles were actually great though!! :D Definate and very obvious Sisters of Mercy influence, which is what I want in a goth band, hehe. It started well when the smoke machine kept going and the lead singer had aviators on in a dark room..haha. They were just a guy with a keyboard and a singer, but it worked really well, despite the keyboards being a bit loud at first. The vocals were proper deep atmospheric goth vocals, and you could tell as the set went on the singer got more confident, which was good. I'd definately see them again and definately recommend them :) 10 / 10

Luxury Stranger were basically The Cure if they'd kept on being goth - which was actually quite good, although at first I wasn't sure about it because they sounded so much like the Cure. The vocals were very similar, although the music was a bit "heavier" in a goth way. Quite good though. 7 / 10 - only because of the too obvious Cure influences

Voices of Masada were actually brilliant - I don't know why on earth I hadn't seen them before!! I really disappointed that it was their last gig! The vocalist was amazing, really deep goth vocals, sort of similar to Fields of the Nephilim and Sisters of Mercy. It was good because, obviously they were the band everyone wanted to see, and so the crowd were really enjoying it, which was great. But I only give them 9 / 10 as I won't be able to see them again, grr, haha

Another band I was disappointed with - XP8. They were due to play in Sheffield this night, but the gig was cancelled, so they played at Slimelight instead. I was looking forward to seeing them, but they played a "hard dance" set, so it wasn't really the sort of thing I like, unfortunately.

The rest of Slimelight was great though :D

Gig - Anathema

This was "A Night With Anathema" at Islington Academy, and it was really great! I got there about 20 minutes after it started, after sitting in Trafalgar Square just people watching for about an hour, which was fun :D The main guy in Anathema has such a great voice, and the female vocalist they have on some of their songs is great too. They played all their old favourites - including A Natural Disaster, which is one of my favourite songs ever! - and also some songs from their new album, which were also really good. I think I'm going to buy it when I get paid. The crowd were a lot more "normal" than I thought it would be, but then they have become more just rock instead of metal, while still staying good though, which is great :) Highly recommended! :D



Book Forty Three - The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

This is about Susie Salmon (like the fish!) who gets murdered, and she can see her family and friends as they live their lives in the weeks and years after her death. Although it is one of those mega popular books, it is actually quite good. You really feel for the characters and how they are coping after Susie's death. It all affects them in different ways and they're all written well. Its not a work of great literature or anything, and if you read a lot of books its a quick read - I read it in a day, but I would recommend it. 8 / 10



Book Forty Four - The People's Manifesto by Mark Thomas

This is a short book I bought for someone's birthday and cheekily read before I gave it to them! Mark Thomas is a comedian who had a radio show in which people gave suggestions of what they would want to do if they were politians - eg "Have the Daily Mail put on its front page 'We supported Hitler'" :D Some of them are great, haha. Recommended if you like a giggle :D



Book Forty Five - The Last Dickins by Matthew Pearl

This book is set mainly in America in the 1860s and 70s, swapping between the time when Charles Dickens was doing a speaking tour of some American cities, and after his death in Rochester in London. It also concerns his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which was unfinished when he died. The main character is Osgood, one of his publishers in America. During the speaking tour there is a strange woman who appears to be stalking Dickens, and when Charles Dickens dies it appears she has something to do with the end of the novel, which a lot of people think Dickens has hidden somewhere. There is also another bit which is set in India, which I didn't really get, but I think it was to do with the opium trade, which is a main part of Edwin Drood. I won't tell you what happens at the end...but really the book could have been so much better! It got a bit confusing, and there were a few characters which I wasn't sure what they were doing there. This could have been a great book, but it was a bit..cluttered. I have read another book by Matthew Pearl, The Dante Club, which at the time I really liked, so I think I would read more by him, but not too sure about this book. 6 / 10



Book Forty Six - I Am Ozzy by Ozzy Osbourne

I really enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would! Its basically Ozzy's autobiography, written in the way he would say it - so lots of swearing - but it was really entertaining and interesting. I also liked how he didn't really shy away from things like his split with Black Sabbath and when he nearly strangled Sharon, he seemed quite honest about it all. Although I know there was probably loads of half truths and bits missed out, but it was a good, fun read. Recommended if you're into metal, or Ozzy, or music biographies :) 9 / 10

To keep up with my goal for the year (10 books a month), I'll have to read four more books by Monday...I might read 3, but 4 might be a bit much! For the last few weeks the Times has been giving away books with it, a few of them look really good, and some are lesser known novels by famous authors, so they should be good. I might read a few of these to catch up as they are quite short! :)

Currently watching the second part of "Money", the adaptation of Martin Amis' novel, starring Nick Frost. I haven't read the book, but I have quite enjoyed the adaptation. Plus it has lots of great 80s music, even the mainstream stuff is really good. Hmm now they seem to be in the Winchester..haha.

This OU Archaeology course I'm doing is quite different from the other course, theres a lot more things to actually do and work out instead of it just being reading, but it is interesting. Although it has made me glad I didn't choose to do archaeology at uni - its a bit too much maths and science rather than just history. But still good! :)

Comments

[ashestothestars.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review on I Am Ozzy, going to pick it up after I'm done moving (urgh). Have you read Slash yet?

[spooky-miss.livejournal.com]

No, haven't read that one yet, but I'm going to borrow it from the friend I borrowed Ozzy's from when he's finished reading it! :) If you like that kind of thing Lemmy also has a good autobiography - I think its just called "Lemmy" :)