I’ve already featured a few books from my uni course but my favourite book I read at school has to have been J.D. Salinger’s Catcher In The Rye.
Summary (From GoodReads)
Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with “cynical adolescent.” Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he’s been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists.
His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.
Last year I entered a micro-fiction competition where you had to write a story of 300 words or less. 300 words really isn’t many and I blogged about how I struggled to get my piece the right length.
Needless to say, I didn’t win. I still quite like my piece though and Carole’s post today over on Carole’sCharactersreminded me of it and prompted me to post it.
Sunburn
Heather ground her teeth as she stared through the window watching the playground fill with hyperactive children. She burned with jealousy.
“Come, Heather.” His harsh voice made Heather’s scowl deepen.
“Yessir.” Heather backed away and flopped into a cheap plastic seat, sticky in the heat. She wished again that skirts weren’t compulsory uniform.
“There’s no point being like that. Here.” A large leatherbound notebook dropped on her desk. “Do your diary before dinner arrives.”
Heather opened the notebook at the next clean page and glowered. Stupid diary. Stupid stupid stupid diary. She slammed it shut.
“No.”
Her teacher pulled the blinds across the windows just before the sun burst out from behind the clouds.
Heather closed her eyes for a moment then reopened the book. She rummaged through her pencil case for her brightest red pen, removed the lid and contemplated the empty page.
“Go on,” he said. “It’ll help.”
Growling under her breath, Heather began to draw.
Angry red circles covered the page. All different sizes, each surrounded by short lines. A thousand blood-stained sunshines.
Heather pressed harder and harder. Her movements jerky. Violent. Eyes squinting in concentration. A hand on her shoulder stilled her motions and slowly she realised her pen had torn through the paper onto the page below.
“Dinner’s here, Heather. That’s enough for today.”
Heather ate in silence and waited for her classmates to pour in from their break.
Home time. Heather waited for everyone to leave before slipping into the stationery cupboard and pulling on her full body suit and mask. She hated being different. Hated her diary. Hated her suit.
Most of all she hated the sun. The sun that made her skin burn and flake. The sun that forced her to stay inside. She felt like a monster.
I struggled with this one – most of my favourite scenes are in books I’ve already mentioned. Though I must say I loved the house decorating scenes in The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee and they pop into my head whenever decoration is mentioned. However the fact that the rest of the book was, er, dubious could explain why that bit stands out.
Summary (from GoodReads):
Love is made of more than mere flesh and blood….
Tanith Lee is one of the most thought-provoking and imaginative authors of our time. In this unforgettably poignant novel, Lee has created a classic tale—a beautiful, tragic, erotic, and ultimately triumphant love story of the future.
For sixteen-year-old Jane, life is a mystery she despairs of ever mastering. She and her friends are the idle, pampered children of the privileged class, living in luxury on an Earth remade by natural disaster. Until Jane’s life is changed forever by a chance encounter with a robot minstrel with auburn hair and silver skin, whose songs ignite in her a desperate and inexplicable passion.
Jane is certain that Silver is more than just a machine built to please. And she will give up everything to prove it. So she escapes into the city’s violent, decaying slums to embrace a love bordering on madness. Or is it something more? Has Jane glimpsed in Silver something no one else has dared to see—not even the robot or his creators? A love so perfect it must be destroyed, for no human could ever compete?
(Yeah. Robot porn. Classy. This out-of-print ‘classic’ was another set text at university. We read some good stuff…)
Click here to link up & see everyone else's Dear So-And-So letters
Dear Prince William & Kate,
Only an hour and a half to go – good luck!!
Lots of Love,
Carole, Tori & Arthur (glued-to-the-tv)
*****
Dear Tori,
You are very snotty today – please accept this and let me wipe your nose without throwing a tantrum. Snot down to your chin is so not a good look….
All My Love,
Slightly-Disgusted-Mummy
xxxx
*****
Dear Arthur,
Your smiles this morning when you were playing with Hoo Pig were even more beautiful than all the dresses on the TV put together.
All My Love,
Mummy
xxxx
*****
Dear Victoria Beckham,
1) You are at the event of the year – SMILE for Heaven’s sake.
2) As pointed out on Twitter, your hat looks like a pork pie with a double helix stuck to it – was that the best one you had in your extensive wardrobe?
3) All black? It’s a wedding, not a funeral.
Yours,
Bemused-ex-Spice-Girls-fan
*****
Dear Sy,
I will do the housework after the Wedding – Royal Weddings happen once in a blue moon, housework is always there.
Sorry.
All My Love
Carole-e
xxxx
*****
Dear Most-Women-At-The-Wedding,
You all look like your hats are falling off the way you are wearing them halfway down your faces like that. Is it not horribly irritating??
A book you tell people you’ve read, but haven’t (or haven’t actually finished)
Well I already confessed to having given up before the end of LOTR so I will use the other book I always say I’ve read which is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.
I absolutely adore the musical Les Miserables and have done ever since I studied it for GCSE (and A-Level) Drama & Theatre Studies and I was over the moon when my friend bought me the book to read. I always say I read it but, if I’m honest, I gave up about ¹/3 of the way through Volume 1.
I know the musical off by heart though, if that makes up for it? No? Oh well…
Summary (from GoodReads)
In this story of the trials of the peasant Jean Valjean–a man unjustly imprisoned, baffled by destiny, and hounded by his nemesis, the magnificently realized, ambiguously malevolent police detective Javert–Hugo achieves the sort of rare imaginative resonance that allows a work of art to transcend its genre.
Nick and his brother, Alan, have spent their lives on the run from magic. Their father was murdered, and their mother was driven mad by magicians and the demons who give them power. The magicians are hunting the Ryves family for a charm that Nick’s mother stole — a charm that keeps her alive — and they want it badly enough to kill again.
Danger draws even closer when a brother and sister come to the Ryves family for help. The boy wears a demon’s mark, a sign of death that almost nothing can erase…and when Alan also gets marked by a demon, Nick is desperate to save him. The only way to do that is to kill one of the magicians they have been hiding from for so long.
Ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Nick starts to suspect that his brother is telling him lie after lie about their past. As the magicians’ Circle closes in on their family, Nick uncovers the secret that could destroy them all.
After a lovely day out with my friend and the kids at Hoo Farm I came home to a tweet from the Fairy Hobmother who lives over at Appliances Online. They put the icing on the cake of an already great day by giving me £10 to spend on Amazon in return for me writing a little post to send you in their direction.
If you leave a comment on this post, you never know – the Fairy Hobmother might visit you too! And while you’re hanging around why not pop on over to Aplliances Online and check out their brilliant range of cookers? I quite like the look of their duel-fuel range myself…
It’s Spring, but not only that, it’s been the most beautiful April I can ever remember and all this has put me in a rather good mood. I thought I’d share this good mood by hosting another book giveaway (Open to UK entrants only).
I’m giving one lucky blog reader the chance to win not one, but THREE shiny new books – I have the first 3 books of Marianne De Pierres’ Sentients of Orion series to give away.
All you have to do is leave a comment below and your name will be entered.
For an extra entry just tweet the following (and make sure you mention it in your comment with your TweetName so I can enter you twice!):
The giveaway will be open to enter until 5.30pm on Tuesday 10th May. I will then get Tori to pull a name out of a hat to choose the winner. She still can’t read and is very impartial.
Make sure you leave me some way of contacting you in your comment (email or Twitter) so I can let you know if you win!
While drifting in space, lost, due to navigational failure, a mineral scout discovers God. When word gets out, academics from the studiums across Orion scramble to gain the Entity’s favour. However, not all the sentients of Orion hold this ‘god’ in awe – some, like the philosophers of Scolar and the Transhuman’s of Extropy are deeply suspicious. Onto the grand stage of inter-planetary academic politics, intellectual conceit and dubious theology walks Baronessa Mira Fedor. Her planet has been torn apart by the invasion of a race of giant tardigrades. Only the Orion League of Sentient Species can lend aid, but OLOSS are preoccupied with communicating with god. Mira, together with the larrikin, misogynist Jo-Jo Rasterovich, is left to her own resources to find help. In doing so she unmasks a galaxy-size intrigue. But will she live long enough to tell anyone…?
Chaos Space
Having fled the invasion on Araldis, Mira Fedor travels to the nearest Orion League planet seeking aid for her devastated world, but the authorities seem more interested in stealing her bio-ship, Insignia, than in rendering help. While Mira flees from world to world, Araldis burns. The more Mira uncovers, the more mysteries she finds: why is the initiate Tekton taking such extreme measures just to acquire a mineral alloy? Why do so many of the protagonists in this galaxy-wide drama have links to the Stain Wars? And what part does the Sole Entity – literally, God – have to play …?
Mirror Space
Araldis is still under occupation by hostile forces, and with the Orion League of Sentient Species seemingly unable – or unwilling – to help, Mira Fedor is forced to turn to the mercenary captain, Rast Randall, if she is to save her planet. But while Rast’s contacts may be free of political constraints, what they lack in red tape they more than make up for in ruthlessness. As some of their hidden strategies are revealed, others become even more opaque. Why have the philosophers of Scolar been targetted? How far does the Extropist influence extend into Orion space? From Lasper Farr, the Stain War veteran and ruler of the junk planet Edo, to the Sole initiates at Belle Monde to Rast herself, everyone is pursuing their own agenda. But are they really separate goals? Or are events rushing to a single, terrifying conclusion …?
I’ve already mentioned a few picture books during this challenge but I have to say one of my all time favourites has to be Good-Night, Owl by Pat Hutchins.
I love the beautiful style of the pictures and I love the simple story. I can clearly remember reading along with my Mum and the fact that my tired, well-loved, dog-eared copy is sat on the bottom bookshelf in my front room within easy reach of Tori and Arthur makes me a little fluffy inside – I hope that one day it will be a favourite of theirs too.
Summary (From GoodReads)
Owl couldn’t sleep — not while the bees were buzzing, the crows croaking, the starlings chittering, and the jays creaming. Every time there seemed to be some peace and quite, someone else landed in the hollow tree and woke Owl up again. Would Owl ever get any rest?
Pat Hutchins’s simple, cumulative story ends with a surprising twist that will send children off to sleep laughing.
I’ve already featured a few books from my uni course but my favourite book I read at school has to have been J.D. Salinger’s Catcher In The Rye.
