Recent reads #1

I usually just do single book reviews on this blog but recently I've been loving mini reviews, and there are a lot of books I read that don't get reviewed so from now I'm going to start doing mini reviews instead. I may still do single book reviews if I have a lot to say on a book but for now at least it is bye bye single book reviews, and hello compilation of mini reviews.

Now that that's out of the way...

ELEANOR AND PARK - RAINBOW ROWELL

★★★★★

Eleanor and Park is the story of a couple of high school losers. Eleanor is the new girl in town with a dysfunctional home life to say the last and she doesn't really have any friends, until she meets Park. Park is a bit of a loser but he does have some friends unlike Eleanor. They sit with each other on the bus and Park lends her comics, and makes her mix tapes, and eventually they become friends, and then they start dating. This is the story of their relationship and how it works despite outside problems.

I got this book for my birthday (I did a post on the things I got here) but I didn't get round to reading it for quite a while clearly. As you can see by the 5 star rating, I loved it (it was good enough to get into my Winter Favourites having only read it a day so y'know). I read about half the book in a day, it was so so easy to read. I mean it's a 'coming-of-age' book so it's hardly going to be complex but I just loved so much about it. I loved the characters, I actually developed a bit of a crush on Park which a bit awkward given that he's a high school student and I'm 18 but hey. It's set in the 80s so they talk about The Smiths and Joy Division a fair bit, and The Beatles even got a few mentions so it's hard to go wrong. The book dealt with big themes like racism, gender roles, body image, and abusive family relationships, and whilst you have to get over the set up that Park and Eleanor basically become really close without really talking to each other, it's so so good and the ending had me so on edge.

YOU NEVER GIVE ME YOUR MONEY: THE BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE BEATLES - PETER DOGGETT

★★★★

This book is the story of The Beatles focusing more on the business side of things, and all the fights that tore them apart as a group. It's tells the tale of how they built up their financial empire at the same time with personal and business rivalry. It  gives you a look into the arguments between the Lennon and McCartney families, the inner conflicts of George Harrison, and Ringo Starr's alcoholism. It documents the changing relationships between the four as they try to dissociate themselves from The Beatles and it shows the transformation of Apple Corps 'from a bastion of 1960s counter-culture into a corporate behemoth'

I got this book for Christmas (I did a post on the things I got here) and I got round to reading it finally because my Dad's been wanting to borrow it off me but he wanted me to read it first and develop my thoughts on it, so that's what I did. This is more about the business side of The Beatles so you definitely have to be an invested fan to read it, but if you are an invested fan (like myself) you will enjoy this because all the facts are there basically and it will just build onto your knowledge. I found it dragged on a bit towards the end and I was glad to finish it, but it did greatly add onto my Beatles knowledge so I'm definitely more prepared for a potential Mastermind session.

THE GREAT GATSBY - F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

★★★★★

The Great Gatsby is the story of a guy called Nick Carraway who has just moved to West Egg of Long Island to seek his fortune as a bond salesman. In East Egg lives Nick's cousin Daisy who's married to his college friend Tom. Nick travels there shortly after moving and he becomes acquainted with their friend Jordan Baker. Daisy, Tom and Jordan are all a lot more privileged than Nick is. When Nick returns home, he sees his neighbour Gatsby staring out at the water with his hand out. Nick later gets invited to one of Gatsby's famous parties, and he becomes friends with the mysterious Gatsby, and the story follows the tale of their friendship and essentially the mystery of Gatsby.

I actually started reading this book a few years ago but I didn't finish it, I remember it was during my GCSEs so I didn't finish it possibly due to stress, lack of time, an increase in the existential crisis, whatever reason, I didn't finish it. Since then I've seen the Leonardo DiCaprio film a few times as well as watching a television adaptation, so I knew the story and I gave it another go as it's pretty short and I feel a bit silly not having read it given how much I love reading and books and classic literature and all that jazz. I really liked this book, it's written in such a beautiful way and I think the social commentary on the seedy underbelly of Capitalism and class distinction was very interesting to read as this is a subject I already am quite interested in (the revolution is coming guys). It's really easy to get into and whilst it's beautifully written, it's not so complex that you can't understand what's going on.

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S - TRUMAN CAPOTE

★★★

This story follows the tale of an unnamed narrator who meets a girl called Holly Golighty, she calls the narrator Fred after her older brother but that isn't actually his name. They're both tenants in apartments in Manhattan's Upper East Side. Holly is essentially a gold digger, she's unemployed and she spends her time with wealthy, elderly men in the hope that one of them will marry her. She likes to shock people by saying bizarre things, and as she slowly reveals herself to the narrator, he becomes interesting in her curious lifestyle.

In all honesty, this story didn't really thrill me. I liked the characterisation of Holly in the sense that she was so annoying and outrageous (and a little bit racist) that it was interesting to read about her, and the actual story was fairly interesting, but I didn't find it exciting to read, the writing style didn't enthral me and I'm not sure if I would read it again. I didn't enjoy the short stories that came with it either. I'm quite upset that I didn't really enjoy it that much because my parents quite like it, I'm hoping that I'll enjoy the film more when I watch it. I know it's very different from the book but I'm thinking I may prefer that (plus you can't go wrong with Audrey Hepburn)

HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY - DOUGLAS ADAMS

★★★★★

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy follows the story of a man called Arthur Dent who's taken off the Earth by his friend Ford Prefect. What Arthur didn't know is that he's actually a researcher for the revised edition of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and he's been posing as an out-of-work actor for 15 years. Together, they travel through space following the guidance of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and they meet a bunch of other travellers on their journey, including a couple of people he knew back on Earth and Marvin the paranoid android who's chronically depressed.

I've wanted to read this for a while because it's one of my Dad's favourite books (I'm pretty certain it was his first fandom ever with the radio show too and all that jazz) and I remember liking the film. I found the book took a few chapters to get going but once it got going, I couldn't put it down - I literally read about 90% of the book in a day. It's light sci-fi but if you're not into sci-fi I reckon you'll still find this pretty accessible, although I'm a big lover of sci-fi so I could be a little bit biased. I thought it was very humorous as well, and I loved Marvin just as much as I did in the film. He really reminded me of Morrissey and of myself which I loved. I definitely want to go on and read the sequels.

What books have you read recently?

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Book review - About a Boy by Nick Hornby

It's been about a month since my last book review (given that I'm supposed to be reading fifty books this year for my Goodreads challenge, this doesn't bode well for me) but I have another Nick Hornby book that I have really really liked, and that one is About a Boy.

I had seen the film for About a Boy years ago and I remembered loving it, I'm actually rewatching it as I'm writing this and drooling over Hugh Grant. I don't know what it is about Hugh Grant but he just has me feeling a certain kinda way.. but foetus Nicholas Hoult is in it too so I loved the film, it was funny and Badly Drawn Boy did the soundtrack so that's a good start. After reading High Fidelity, I had to read more Hornby so I decided to read this as I had seen the film and already knew I would love it.

Synopsis:

The book focuses on two people: Will and Marcus. Will is in his mid 30s, he doesn't want kids, he's a pretty cool dude, but in attempt to pick up women he joins S.P.A.T (Single Parents Alone Together) and he pretends that he has a kid. It's through S.P.A.T that his story crosses over with Marcus, who is in year 7 and he's a bit of a loser. His parents are divorced, and his Mum is suffering from depression and tries to kill herself near the beginning of the book, so his home life isn't great. After a while, Marcus decides to visit Will at his house various times in an attempt to get him to go out with his Mum but after a while he gives up on this plan, and Will becomes his friend who teaches him to be cool. The book follows their friendship and focuses on the effects of depression on other people, and growing up.

My thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book, I thought it was very straightforward to read but not simplistic. Although, I didn't find it laugh-out-loud funny like High Fidelity and it was less of a conversational style but it still did have that aspect. I liked how the story focused on how depression can affect the people around you and how it looks to a naive child. I liked the surreality of the book because the initial concept doesn't seem all that realistic but once you've accepted that, it's really enjoyable. 

I found some parts very funny, like Marcus was convinced that Kurt Cobain was actually Kirk O'Bane and that he was a footballer. I actually really loved the strong theme of Nirvana in this book, being a Nirvana fan myself, and the book covers Kurt's suicide attempt and then his death, and from researching the book it turns out the title 'About a Boy' is a reference to the song 'About a Girl'. I knew the song but I didn't really link them together, but Nirvana play a strong part in the book and they're referenced to quite a lot.

Overall rating:

I gave this book a 4/5 on Goodreads, I did really like it but it didn't captivate me quite as much as High Fidelity did and I think I was comparing it to that a lot just because they're both written by Nick Hornby. Although I did like this and it focused on more serious issues which I found interesting, the humour is a lot more subtle than High Fidelity so it did have funny moments but it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny.

Have you read or seen About a Boy?

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Book review - High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

I'm going to be frank. I love reading the book before the film generally, but it's very rarely that I do it because it's usually a film that brings the book to my attention - I am so sorry. That's how I came across this book, I really like the film, and I chose to read the book because I needed to read a funny book as part of my 2015 reading challenge so I googled 'funny books' to get some ideas and saw this there, so I thought I'd give it a go because I remembered finding the movie pretty funny. Furthermore, I felt as Valentine's Day was coming up (and this review is going up on Valentine's Day), a book about a bad breakup and the story of other breakups was just relevant.

Synopsis:

Do you know your desert-island, all-time, top five most memorable split-ups? Rob does. He keeps a list, in fact. But Laura isn't on it - even though she's just become his latest ex. He's got his life back, you see. He can do what he wants when he wants: like listen to whatever music he likes, look up the girls that are on his list, and generally behave as if Laura never mattered. But Rob finds he can't move on. He's stuck in a really deep groove - and it's called Laura. Soon, he's asking himself some big questions: about love, about life - and about why we choose to share ours with the people we do.

My thoughts:

I just want to say that this book is quite possibly my favourite book of all time, which is a sweeping statement, but that's how much I enjoyed it. I found myself constantly laughing, and I loved all of the references to music - I'm pretty certain I'm Rob, purely because he loves The Beatles (seriously like he's on my level of Beatlemaniac) and he quite likes The Smiths amongst other cool artists and groups, but he's a massive twonk - you can quite understand why Laura splits up with him, but you also sort of like him too, or at least I did but that's probably because I relate to him. Rob cares more about music than he does maintaining relationships whether they be with friends, family, or people of the romantic persuasion. I think my favourite character was Barry (who's played by Jack Black in the film and he does a brilliant job), Barry is sassy as heck and he's even less likeable than Rob but I think that's why I like him, I found myself laughing whenever Barry was mentioned. 

The storyline wasn't an epic story, it's not life changing in that sense, but it's so funny and if you're into music (y'know music history, pop music on the whole) this book will definitely be an enjoyable read. I really love Nick Hornby's writing style, it's conversational and straightforward but not in any means simplistic, just not overly complicated making it suitable for practically anyone.

I feel that because one of the recurring jokes in the book is the lists of 5, I should do a list of 5 best things about the book:
1. Barry (just Barry, no explanation needed)
2. The music references - especially the ones made to The Beatles
3. Rob's annoying behaviour (he's a loner who can't bear to be alone, it's pretty funny)
4. Hornby's comfortable writing style (I'm sorry if that's a strange way to put it, but it just is comfortable and conversational)
5. The recurring lists of 5 in the book

Overall rating:

I gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads, I really really enjoyed it and I'm rewatching the film as I'm writing this very review, and finding it even funnier than I did the first time now that I've read the book. As I said, I've discovered I love Hornby's writing style so I think I'm actually going to read another Hornby book very soon!

Have you read or seen High Fidelity?

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