Boop's Bookshelf: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevski

Crime and Punishment checks off 'A book more than 100 years old' in my 2015 Reading Challenge.

The Author

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821 - 1881) was a Russian writer who predominantly explored human psychology in 19th century Russia in his literary works. He wrote several novels, short stories and essays throughout his life based around the social, political and spiritual clime of troubled Russia.

Synopsis

An impoverished student theorises that an extraordinary person can commit crime with no ramifications, if the result is to benefit mankind. Raskolnikov tests this theory and explores the mental impact this has on himself. 

My Thoughts

My first impressions from reading this, is that it is not going to be an easy read. Classic Russian literature is hard! all of the characters have several names depending on who is addressing them, and the names are not easily remembered. It took me a long time to get my head around who everyone was and how they were connected. We see this story through the perspective of the main character - Raskolnikov. Unlike many novels, the main character is not particularly likable, especially from the beginning as you (the reader) realises that his convulouted thoughts are contemplating how easily he could commit a murder. Raskolnikov stays unlikeable through the novel, mistreating his family and friends throughout. However despite all of that, you still don't want him to give himself up. 

He never shows remorse for commiting murder, I thought his main issue was realising that he is not an extroadinary person exempt from the ramifications of the crime he commited. he does eventually turn himself in, after wrestling with himself through all of the preceeding chapters. The punishment part of the title comes into play more with the mental torture he is afflicted with, rather than the coporal punishment of being sent away to do manual labour. that section of the story is incredibly small and pales into almost insignificance when compared with the rest of the text.

I found this a very hard book to get through, however I do feel that it was worth the read. 

My Rating...

Not particularly enjoyable, but it is an interesting read.

Goodreads Challenge Check-in

As you're aware from my book reviews, I've been doing a reading challenge this year. I also started a Goodreads reading challenge to coincide with the Popsugar challenge. I set a target of 55 books to be read this year - approx a book per week. I think usually, reading at the rate wouldn't be a problem for me. However, some of the books that were suggested for my work book club were incredibly long (The Count of Monte Cristo - I'm looking at you...) so they took much longer to read than just 1 Week...pushing me behind schedule. 

Progress thus far:

With 7 weeks left of the year, I have 25 books to read to complete this...so I'd need to be reading 3.5 books a week! That would be possible, if I stuck to short, easy-to-read books. Though bookclub interferes with that plan so...we'll have to see how I get on. I'm not likely to review all of the books I've read this year, but I'll try to get a couple of good ones posted! 

Boop's Bookshelf: The Outsiders by S E Hinton

The Outsiders checks of 'A book by a female author' in my 2015 reading challenge.

The Author

S E Hinton was born in Oklahoma, and had always had a love of reading. However the reading material was not to her liking, so she wrote young adult stories that did reflect what she thought they should be. The Outsiders was her first novel, and a great writing career followed it. 

Synopsis

The outsiders tells the story of two rival gangs - the Greasers, and the Socials (Socs for short). The story is told from the perspective of Ponyboy Curtis - one of the Greasers. A gang rivalry goes too far, and Ponyboy finds himself on the run with his friend, contemplating what differences there really are between the two groups; and the importance of family. Despite the similar unhappy situations of both groups, nothing changes and the rivalry continues between the two groups throughout the book. Some huge scale events transpire, and we follow Ponyboy through these, and into his reconciliation with his brothers.

My Thoughts

I like this story. Once I became familiar with the dialect of Ponyboy and the way things were described, I found it to be a quick and enjoyable read. Things escalate very quickly at the beginning of the book, which took me by surprise, and the rest of the story is generally dealing with the fallout from the beginning of the book. I found myself drawn into the world depicted in the novel, and wanted to find out what happened next. Needless to say, because of this I flew through the book. I was a bit disappointed with the story ending. More or less everything about the characters situation stayed the same, except for some changes in the way the brothers relate to each other and look after each other. I left the novel feeling a little dissatisfied with the ending, but otherwise I enjoyed it. 

My Rating...

3 stars
Enjoyable but unsatisfactory

Boop's Bookshelf: Sex and Bacon by Sarah Katherine Lewis

Sex and Bacon checks off 'A nonfiction book' in my 2015 Reading Challenge. 

The Author

Sarah Katherine Lewis is a previous sex worker, who turned to writing about her experiences, and writes for a sex advice column. She has written two novels - Indecent: how I Make it and Fake it as a Girl for Hire and Sex and Bacon: Why I Love Things That are Very, Very Bad for Me. In both she writes about her experiences in the sex industry, feminism, and body confidence - interspersed with battles with her demons and favourite recipes.

Synopsis

Similar to a memoir or biography, this book is written by the author looking back on their life. Lewis reminisces about a time when she was working in the sex industry, and moving on from that into writing. There are interwoven themes through the book, most notably body image, depression, and sex.

My Thoughts

When I first started reading this book, I loved it. It was scandalous, candid, and funny. I enjoyed reading about the author's experiences and found her views on the beauty industry really interesting. However, The more of it I read, the more contradictions I noticed...One moment Lewis would say one thing, the next she would say the opposite. Which was irritating after it happened a few times. The writing style is short and choppy - almost like it was thrown together as she thought of things, or it was several short articles put together to form a book. Having said that, I still read it cover to cover and enjoyed it regardless!

My rating....

3 Stars

Entertaining, but a little inconsistent!

Boop's Bookshelf: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

The Luminaries check off 'A book by someone under 30' in my 2015 reading challenge.

The Author

Eleanor Catton is a Canadian-born New Zealand author. Her second novel The Luminaries won the Man Booker Prize in 2013, crowning her the youngest person to have won the award. Other than The Luminaries, Catton has also released the novel The Rehearsal, and some short stories published in various works.

The Synopsis

The Luminaries is essentially a mystery novel. Set in 1866 at the goldmines in Hokitika. We enter into the story with Walter Moody, who is new to the town and the strange affairs that have been occurring. He happens across a secret meeting of 12 men, and is pulled into piecing together events as each man recants his tale. What follows is an erratic story told from several different points of view, giving an overview of the crimes that transpired and who is actually responsible for them. The crimes in question, all revolve around the disappearance of a young, rich gold digger, a prostitutes multiple collapses, and the murder of a poor man. Everything points towards a ship's captain, or at least seems to.

My Thoughts

I really liked how the reader is brought into the story with another character. It's a good technique used to pull the reader in, and it worked with this novel - without this it would have been extremely difficult to get involved with the story. As each man in the meeting tells his tale, we see several different events that transpire around the same period of time. however, this was not in chronological order. there was a lot of back-and-forward and filling in gaps other character's stories had left. I found it difficult to keep track of this at first, but after spending a lot of time reading - I recommend dedicating an hour or more to it when you first start! - I finally got an overview of how each character's story fits into this mystery up to the moment we entered the story. And there was still a huge amount of the story left to go...

The zodiac signs and other heavenly bodies play a large part in this tale. Each main character represents a zodiac sign, and other essential characters represent the heavenly bodies. each section in the book (there are 12) start off with an image showing what stage all of the zodiacs are in. This probably had relevance to what happened to the characters in the story, but I didn't read too much into that and read the story instead. This novel had in interesting little quirk - each section was half as long as the preceding one. The beginning felt like a mammoth to read, then the further along I got the quicker I flew through the story - some of the chapters were only a few lines at the end!

I found this novel hard to read at the beginning, then the more I read, the more I enjoyed it, and the mystery of the story. My only main niggle with it is the unaddressed question of how two of the characters were inexplicably linked in the way that they were. I wont go into more detail - as it would give away some of the story - but it felt unresolved because there wasn't a satisfactory explanation.

My Rating...

3.5 stars

Not something I am likely to reread, but enjoyable and interesting regardless.

Boop's Bookshelf: Close Range by Annie Proulx

Close Range checks off 'A book of short stories' in my 2015 reading challenge 

The Author

Annie Proulx is an American journalist and author. She writes several collections of short stories, and her most well known work would be Brokeback Mountain - which was adapted into a film. (However, many people who have seen the film wouldn't know it was originally a short story). Incidentally, Brokeback Mountain is included in this collection of short stories.

She has won several awards through her career, including a Pulitzer Prize, the Dos Passos Prize and the O. Henry Prize twice - both for stories within the Close Range collection. 

Proulx currently lives in Wyoming, the area in which Close Range is set.

The Synopsis

How does one write a synopsis on a collection of short stories? 

Close Range is a collection of stories all set in the Wyoming - a mountain region in the West of America. The stories are set at different time periods, however there are common themes throughout such as life as a rancher and the open spaces of Wyoming. All of the stories and all of the characters revolve around life in Wyoming.

My Thoughts
It's very rare that I read a book of short stories. In fact, I don't think I have ever read a book of short stories! Annie Proulx was able to create scenes in rich detail, no matter how short the story was. each of her stories were written differently, some very differently which I think is an impressive talent - usually an author has a recognizable style that comes through in their writing, but with Proulx this was not the case. I found that engaging and impressive.

The hardship and moral ambiguity of the characters and their situations really stands out through all of the stories. The immoral situations that they find themselves in are often written in as throwaway comments, and treated as normal or expected - especially the rape of women through the different time periods. It made an impact, and helped to make the reader understand how things were and the character's attitudes to life. It made an impact.

All of the stories really drive home the feeling of an open, sparse area where you don't come across many other people. The characters all seemed to be stuck in Wyoming, or always coming back to it.

My Rating...

3.5 stars

I enjoyed reading it, I admire the authors writing skills and it's a collection I may reread in future.

2015 Reading Challenge

You heard it here first, folks. I'm attempting to complete Popsugar's 2015 reading challenge. 

I started this in January, however I haven't posted about it! Big oops. Well, to be fair I have been busy with setting up a bookclub at work...Yay me! My first book club!!!

I'm currently three books in, and I'll be posting about them at some point - I can't promise when that will be however...

The work book club are also following this challenge, we split the categories that don't require a personal book choice up between us, and came back with our selections for those categories - they are all listed below so have a look! This way we are all reading things that we may not have thought of or read before. We have some really interesting suggestions so far, I'll list a few for you!

A book with more than 500 pages: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

A book with nonhuman characters: Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton

A book with a colour in the title: Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

A book more than 100 years old: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A book that was originally written in a different language: The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

And many, many more! I'm really looking forward to reading all of these great books, and all of the ones that I am choosing for myself!

 

Winter Bucket List Recap

The end is nigh...

Winter is coming to a close, and with it I have run out of time to complete my winter bucket list! 

Therefore, it's time for a recap!

1: Try a recipe from my Clean Eating Recipe book!

I did not complete this, at all!

 

2: Run the whole of a 5k (no walking breaks)

Nooope. Didn't happen

3: Post 3 book reviews (1 a month seems achievable!)

Man, I have not done much on this list at all...

4: Plan a trip

YES. I did do this! (1 out of 4 so far...) I have planned my Scotland trip, and Ireland trip. Both are booked! 

5: Lose weight over Christmas and New Years

I maintained my weight over Christmas and new years...nope doesn't count.

6: Have enough saved up to move out

I moved out, so I think this is a tick.

7: Clear out/tidy up the pile of stuff in my room

Yes - I did this when I moved out

8: Dye my hair one last time before the end of December (NYR to come involving this...)

Yes I did this - and I have stuck to my New Years Resolution of not dying my hair ever since...I am beginning to show some roots now

9: Fit back into some of my old clothes

No, did not complete

10: Do something awesome for my birthday

My actual birthday was very low-key, but I did do a couple of things - one of which was going to see Wicked which was pretty awesome, so that is a yes.

Final verdict: 5/10 completed!

All in all, not too bad. I would have liked to done the book reviews and recipe but there we go...there's always spring! 

#BLOGTOBER14 - Day 25

Day 25!

Favourite Book

...

I can't...

This is too hard.

I'll list some of my faves instead! 

1. Harry Potter (the whole series - AS IF you could pick just one?!) J K Rowling
2. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
3. Matched series - Ally Condie
4. A Song of Ice and Fire Series (Game of Thrones) - George R R Martin
5. Dark Carpathian series - Christine Feehan
6. The Black Dagger Brotherhood series - J R Ward
7. Divergent Series - Veronica Roth
8. Sookie Stackhouse Series - Charlaine Harris
9. Crossfire Series - Sylvia Day
10. Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
11. The Mortal Instruments - Cassandra Clare
12. The Woodcutter - Kate Danley
13. The Casual Vacancy - J K Rowling
14. Witch Child & Sorceress - Celia Rees
15. House of Night Series - P.C. and Kristen Cast
16. Dark Hunter Series - Sherrilyn Kenyon
17. Night Huntress Series - Jeaniene Frost

There are so many more that I love, but I need to stop or I could go on forever...

I like this prompt because I can find some great book recommendations!! 

Heleneinbetween.com

#BLOGTOBER14 - Day 18

Day 18
Share A Secret About Myself

Well, a not-so-secret secret is my love for Harry Potter books films and the whole shabang. Though I think if you have been reading my blog through Blogtober you may have already picked up on that...

My secret is:

Sometimes I prefer to read over talking or socialising with people. At time I have intentionally avoided people so I can read uninterrupted. This happens more when I'm really into a book. It gets to the point where all I can think about is the story and the characters, and what might happen next.

So, yepp. There are times when I prefer books to people.

Link up here to share your secret:

Heleneinbetween.com

Life in Reveiw - 2014 6 month life update

Well...I kind of missed the previous 6 months of this year in reviews, but such is life. I'll do a round up from January aaaall the way until now! Aren't you lucky.

I totally dropped the ball on this blog, I have about 4 drafts which sit unfinished and I haven't posted in forever!! I'm sorry world, I don't mean to be such a disappointment.

Well, life updates are in order I suppose.

Career: Still working at Bluw as a Sales Administrator, work is quite stressful at the moment with a huge system switchover and transferring everything. The days feel long, and the commute feels longer-while making my budget fall short. However, the people are good, I get time to read on the train, and being employed is always a bonus so...

Driving: Haven't passed my driving test yet. I did a test in June, but failed on 1 major and 4 minors. Which as you can probably imagine was very annoying at the time...Have re-booked and I'm hoping to bring better news in the next update. 

Blogging: Well as you know I've been really crap with this blog, however over on my health blog haha health, what is that? I've been pretty consistent in posting at least once a week. yaaay. My plan is to be more active on this blog by setting a day where I have. To Post. Not because this blog is a burden, but because I want to, despite my laziness! I also want to update the name of this blog, as I really don't feel that the blog name is relevant anymore, because I haven't been blogging about my wasted clothing! Any suggestions are welcome...I will be brainstorming the brain out of this!

Relationships: Mr Gandyman and I are really good, as always *wink*. Family are all good, and friends also. Though I do not like my bestie being so far away...but hey ho - I'll be seeing miss RoanRider and her handsome MrMan soooon!

Health & Fitness:  I regularly update my BekBek blog on this front, but as it's quite a large part of my life and one of my new years resolutions I figured it was worth a mention! I am not on track to loose 2 stone by July as I set out to in January, however I believe I can reach this by the end of this year (I hope). I recently ran a Race For Life 5k, and am coming up to doing a Pretty Muddy - which I am both terrified and excited for.

Sister Update: I asked Sisterbell to write a guest post on here, but she didn't want to (I think she was too shy...Read: Lazy). As we speak she is putting a mini Christmas tree up my sleeve. She has finished her exams, and is rehearsing for her school summer play - Beauty and the Beast. This evening she has also spent a large amount of time raiding my wardrobe for a dress to wear. She is much smaller than me, so my old dresses are like a second hand shop to her, and to be honest, someone may as well wear them.

Books: I've been reading quite a lot on the commute to work, and recently finished the Divergent Trilogy - which I really enjoyed. Though I was hoping for a different ending...I may post some reviews up here, I hope I will, but who knows in this wacky life what I will actually have time to do!

Life in general: Is good. I feel a little like I'm plodding along waiting for something to happen though...I'm not sure if that's because I'm feeling lethargic, or if I'm dissatisfied with something. Probably my job, or it could be monetary based, but who knows.

Coming Up: Things I'm looking forward to in the remainder of this year. 

• Passing my driving test
• Pretty Muddy
• Eurogamer
• Hovercraft Driving this month!!
• Christmas I know it's early...but who cares!
• Blogging regularly
• Finally losing some weight - it will happen this year. I can feel it.

January in Reveiw

Well, January was both excruciatingly long (while waiting for payday to roll around) and flew by. A month into 2014 already. I decided to do a monthly Reveiw of my goals and achievements to keep myself on track for my resolutions and other goals.

Resolutions:
1. Lose 2 stone minimum by July
2. Pass my driving test
3. Be more responsible with money
4. Look after my skin
5. Declutter my stuff

Progress:
1. Lost a couple of pounds, you can read about this here
2. Started driving lessons again just after Christmas, working towards passing it!
3. I made a financial plan, however this month was difficult as there were the devious January sales! A work in progress.
4. Kind of been doing this, but can definitely improve it with Moisturiser.
5. Made a start, nail polish and makeup went first! Much more to do on this though.

January achievements:
-Finalised a holiday: going to Scotland for a week to climb Ben Nevis
-went to the gym at least once a week (obviously this needs to improve, but I'm impressed I have actually been going)
-This one isn't my own achievement, but I'm proud none the less; my sister applied to college (I helped ;) )

It was a busy month, I feel like I didn't stop!  The crazyness will no doubt continue through Feb, especially as it's 9 DAYS UNTIL MY BIRTHDAY. Just saying. :D

Things to look out for in Feb:
-My birthday
-Matilda the Musical
-Harry Potter Studio Tour
-lots more books

And to round off my list making, here's my February goals:
1. Book my driving test
2. Go on 2 hikes
3. Save, don't spend

Enjoy your Monday!

A Risk Worth Taking & Silent Revenge by Laura Landon

Two books by the same author. Figured it would be worth writing about these together! Also, SPOILERS ALERT! Only some, and only things that I found obvious.

The genre this story firmly sits in is historical romance. I quite like this genre, it's all old world-y and very different from today's society. Reading in this genre transports me into a whole world of different society values and expectations.

A Risk Worth Taking

I was unsure about what to expect from this novel. I liked the sound of the synopsis and the reveiws were mostly OK, so I thought it was worth a go.

The story focuses on our hero and heroine, and is told from both of their perspectives. First we meet our hero, an ex-intelligence officer who is guilt ridden, has a hero complex, and a drinking problem. (developed while trying to forget his guilt). This self hated comes up a lot through the book, and if it weren't for the antidote of our heroine's monologue, it would be very tedious. Griff has been avoiding his family (Griffs brother and his wife & children) for fear of old enemies from his intelligence days. His only friend is killed suddenly, leaving him quite distraught and torn over his friends last words "look after Annie". (This also adds to Griffs pile of guilt and tips him into drinking oblivion).

Our heroine-Anne-is left destitute after her brothers sudden death. She has a younger sister to support and no means of income. She does not wish to marry, as her parents had an unhappy marriage due to her father being a drunkard. She does not wish to end up like her mother-trying to make her husband love her, failing, then dying (we assume of heart break/losing the will to live). However, her situation is dire and she can't see any other solution. The distant cousin who claimed her brothers lands and title offers her the only solution possible. This character is the villain. The reader knows this from the offset due to the way Anne interacts with him. His solution is marriage to him, as the only way to survive. That is, until dear drunken Griff arrives with a different offer. An offer to come and stay with his brother and his brother's family for a season so she can select a suitable husband.

Griff becomes more and more involved with Anne's selections, being rude and overbearing towards all of her suitors. As the reader, we can decipher that it is because he cares about her. However he will not admit it. I won't explain the story further, as I wouldn't want to give it away!

I enjoyed reading this and finding out if the predictions I had made were correct (usually they were) and I liked the way the characters interacted. 

I wrote this review while on the train.
Then lost it when I accidentally hit the back button when jolted. So annoyed, had to re write everything!!!

Silent Revenge

I got this novel for a discounted price when I bought another romance on my Kindle. I recognised the artwork on the cover and checked to see if the author was the same as the above book. It was, so I decided to get it as I liked the first one I read.

First and foremost, not very impressed. It's the same basic storyline as the other one. Strong male with hidden past, some sort of illness making heroine look after him breifly without him knowing, a villain who wants something from the heroine&hero, who is involved in the same thing as the villain in the previous book...You see my point.

Having said this, there are some interesting twists to the story. The heroine's two secrets, for example. That part was well done, even if Jessica did go on about it in her internal dialogue...There were some well planned out parts of this, but it was like the two books were an entity with the same DNA, arranged differently. I do feel as though the author has a basic template for these storys and threw in different situations and characters.

Despite all of this, I still enjoyed reading it. Perhaps when I come to read my next Laura Landon's novel I'll make sure I havent recently read any others!

Sorry for the waffling on!
Happy Thursday!

Review: DISenchanted by Robert Kroese

Did I ever mention I love a good read? I  bought this book from the recommendations that come up on the first page of my Kindle Paperwhite (best invention ever) as it was on sale. It's not the sort of cover that would usually catch my eye, but I read the synopsis and decided that for such a small price, it was worth a shot. I was completely right. SO worth it.

This novel started out as episodes in Kindle Serials, where you (the reader) receives the episodes as the author finishes them. I'm glad I didn't have to wait for it to be finished. That drives me a little crazy because I'm impatient. I always have several unfinished series on the go!

The story is set in a fairytale-esque land called the kingdom of Dis. The story focuses on one character throughout, and has several flashbacks which explain his personality and how he got to where we meet him- at his death. Boris' death does not mean that the remainder of the book is retrospective, we follow Boris in his afterlife as a wraith. I found the storyline to be humorous and suprising. I liked that there were several moments when I couldn't decide if I actually liked Boris, It's refreshing to have a main character whom you are not always fond of.

The book includes helpful footnotes which assist in explaining obscure facts about Dis. Usually I find footnotes a little irritating, however these are worth reading as they are often quite funny. These added to the humour in the book.

Overall I found this to be a lighthearted and engaging story. One which I will most definitely be reading again.

Work-Related Jargon

I like my job.

It's based in London, and the people are all great, and I'm gaining some good experience. The commute is a bit of a pain at times, but at other times it's great because I can read uninterrupted for an hour! Additional to reading time, once I procure a tablet I can catch up on the monumental list of TV programs I need to watch! (I will list these at another time!) I could, of course, use my laptop. However I don't fancy carrying this around with me!

Another (debatable) good thing about work is the weekly food shop. yay for free food! We order food for the office, which generally consists of tea, coffee, bagels, alcohol and biscuits. (and various breakfast & luncheon items). Now, I love biscuits. I could eat a whole packet to myself very easily. Can you spot the problem? 

I have no willpower. At all. This is why I'm fat.

So having biscuits just sitting in the kitchen is not helping! I'm not eating packets of them (obviously-that would squander the office's biscuit supply!) but it is still so unbelievably tempting to eat them. Om Nom Nom. To avoid the biscuits I am attempting to eat fruit to fill me up. This doesn't always work, as when I am waiting for my lunch to finish cooking/toasting/whatnot I reach for the biccys out of boredom & hunger!

Such a derp-head.

I will never fit into any of my old wardrobe at this rate...