The Carbon Diaries 2017 by Saci Lloyd

The further adventures of Laura Brown, an ordinary English girl living in a time when natural disasters and right-wing politics plague the world and carbon is rationed. Doesn't seem implausible does it?

In the first book, Carbon Diaries 2015, we got a real taste for what life was like with carbon rationing. In this one, the idea is more established and accepted, the focus is more on social tensions and politics. This is a year of water shortage, student revolt, immigration problems and poverty. How is a poor student supposed to survive? Plus, all of Laura's friends are getting more and more revolutionary, resulting in a trip across Europe which proves that things are just as bad (if not worse) across the continent. Poor Laura.

I really like these two books, it's a fantastic idea for a story. Like I said when I read the first one, I hope that many young people are reading stuff like this and hopefully deciding to change behaviors so that we can avoid this kind of situation. No one wants to live in Laura's world.

Challenges: 2010 Countdown Challenge

Chicken with Plums

Oh my, I read this so long ago now that I can't remember that much about it! I know I loved it when I read it as it's marked as a favorite on my list. And I know that it's written by Marjane Satrapi, who also wrote the fantastic Persepolis. Chicken with Plums was just as good in terms of the genius of coupling serious subject matter with the graphic medium and complicated issues with the simple drawings.

I got this book from the lovely Melody, my secret santa. Thanks Melody, I really enjoyed it!

If you're not into comics but would like to try them, Marjane Satrapi is a good place to start and Chicken with Plums is a good one of hers to start with, as it's short but endearing.

Anyway, enough vague comments! I hope that all of you are well. I'm fine, back at work now and trying to find a balance between that and family life and my own stuff. It's hard but I'm having a great time!

Challenges: Graphic Novels Challenge, 2010 Countdown Challenge

The Babysitters' Club

I used to love these books when I was a kid and decided to re-read them now that I'm often in need of simple, brainless activity. They totally hit the spot - great for reading a few pages while doing night-time feeds with Baby! I liked the thought that I was a child when I read them the first time and here I am now, re-visiting them with my own child in my arms.

The collection I got has the first three books - 'Kristy's Great Idea', 'Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls' and 'The Truth About Stacey'. I doubt you'd like them unless you read them as a kid - there's no great philosophy to the story lines, they're just about a group of 12-year-old girls who form a babysitting club. There are more books in the series than I remember, I'll see what's available on Bookmooch!

Hope everyone is doing well - I still don't have the hang of fitting blogging into my days, but I'm working on it! Everything else is going well, I'm loving being a Mom and dreading going back to work in June! :-)

Challenges: Flashback Challenge

The Hunger Games - Catching Fire

Sequels aren't always very good so I was very pleasantly surprised that the second book of The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins was just as gripping and enjoyable as the first. Seriously, this is such a page turner! I read it in just a few days despite having a new baby in the house so you can really believe me when I say that I couldn't tear myself away from it. :-)

The story of Catniss against the Capitol continues and takes several unexpected turns. I don't want to say anything about it so as not to spoil the suspense aspect... But go read it right now, it's that good! :-)

I love the imagination that went into the future world portrayed in this series... the differences between the districts, how the people of the Capitol look and act, the history, the technology, all the little things. It's very believable.

I'm still rooting for Peeta and I hope that that's where the story will end up. I have to wait to find out though, I can't believe the third part isn't out yet!!!

Challenges: 2010 Countdown Challenge

Coraline

Hmmm.... I hope this isn't for kids! :-) Neil Gaiman wrote a pretty freaky story here and I would be scared for ages if I'd read this as a child! :-)

Reading Coraline was like reading a Tim Burton film. If you see what I mean. The one that readily comes to mind is The Corpse Bride, I guess that's how I imagined the characters.

Coraline is the child in the center of this story - she goes through a door she's not supposed to go through in her new house and ends up in a parallel world where someone really, really wants her to stay. It's a twist on the Alice stories, but spooky rather than silly.

I suppose what makes Coraline good (as well as scary) is how normal the strangeness is. There are no fantastic creatures or monsters, it's all bizarre but in a natural way. That makes no sense when I re-read it, but I can't think of a way to explain it better.

I guess you should just read it yourself and see!

Challenges: 999 Challenge, Dewey's Books, Once Upon a Time III

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I read F. Scott Fitzgerald's now-famous story through Daily Lit, which I'm completely in love with. Reading a short story like this was very enjoyable - except I kept wanting to find out what happens next so I read more than one installment per day. Oh well.

The story is about Benjamin, who is about 70 when he is born and who progresses through his life by steadily getting younger and younger until he dies as an infant. The idea was really good - kind of too good for a short story because there isn't much scope to develop it. I now want to watch the film, has anyone seen it?

I want to count short stories as something towards my goals for the year and am stealing the idea that Lezlie had - once my short story page count reaches 300-350pp I will count it as a book. I won't count this towards my goal of 100 books this year, but I will count it as part of my end-of-year tally. Thanks Lezlie!

Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch

I think it was J. Kaye who alerted me to the fact that Harlequin was celebrating their 60th birthday and therefore had some e-books available for free download. They're still doing this, so have a look if you're interested. Now, I had never read a Harlequin novel before this one, but I thought that they would be nice and pleasant and easy and would go nicely with my coffee break at work. I was right about that.

Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch by B.J. Daniels is from Harlequin's Intrigue series and exactly what I thought it would be. Basically a romance with a crime and mystery added in. I don't really have much to say other than it was pleasant, light reading.

I'll go through the other ones I donwloaded too. This one certainly relaxed my brain between serious work tasks! :-)

Challenges: A-Z Challenge, Every Month is a Holiday, Romance Reading Challenge, Suspense and Thriller Challenge

Code to Zero

My first book of the year was a Ken Follett - Code to Zero. I picked it up while at my parent's place at the end of 2008, but since I only finished it this year, it counts for 2009.

I think I've read a few of the older Ken Follett books - most of which I enjoyed as great fast-paced thrillers. I then read Pillars of the Earth, which was completely different and fantastic. I still have to get World Without End...

Reading Code to Zero meant back to thrillers for me... I can't remember the last time I read anything in the genre, which is strange, since I remember always liking thrillers. This one was good, action-packed and with a human side, which I like. Basically, a man woke up in a train station and couldn't remember who he was. He started on a quest to find out the truth and found a lot more than he bargained for - including the FBI and an interest and involvement in the space race. He eventually found out the truth about his life, of course.

What I liked most about this book is that as the main character was finding out more and more about the life he led, he often couldn't understand the choices he made. As soon as he was no longer emotionally involved and did not remember any of the baggage, life and the important things in it looked completely different. And looking at things differently helped him make decisions that were better for him and which made him happier.

Oh, and I read it in Polish. :-)

Challenges: A-Z Challenge, 999 Challenge, Genre Challenge, Numbers Challenge, Suspense and Thriller Challenge

Confessions of a Reformed Dieter

The subtitle of A.J. Rochester's book is How I dropped 8 dress sizes and took my life back. The memoir was my latest audio book and I chose it because I'm trying to lose weight myself and I thought it would inspire me. I enjoyed it and it did.

A.J. goes from being an obese and unhealthy woman to being a size 12 running addict. That's gotta be inspirational. She's 32 years old and an Australian comedian and performer. In fact, she lost all the weight 'in public', as part of a tv show.

Her story is realistic and has its wise moments, as well as its funny moments. Being funny is what she does, after all. I liked it, but I think you'd only enjoy it if you're also trying to lose weight. I'm sure all the 'lessons learned' by the author are simply common sense to those without weight issues.

Challenges: 888 Challenge

The Carbon Diaries 2015

I borrowed The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd from my friend's 15-year-old son. I must say that, although the story is certainly not optimistic, if today's teenagers are reading stuff like this then maybe our world can be saved somehow.

The book is actually the diary of Laura, a 16-year-old girl loving in 2015 London. Her world is completely different from ours, after climate change starts to have some serious effects on the weather and environment. In her diary, she chronicles the first year of carbon rationing in the UK. Basically, each person gets a card with a certain amount of carbon points they can use in the year. Going over is simply not an option anymore. Laura describes her and her family's daily trials in this new system - how they conserve heating and are cold at night, how they stop buying anything that's not local, how using the car is an unthinkable luxury and even the bus is only for times when you have enough points on your card.

The books paints a very grim picture of where we're heading. It's even more terrifying because it is set in 2015 - not very long from now at all. And I can totally imagine this world happening. Really. I think that this is where we're heading. Hopefully the fact that Al Gore is out there and the fact that people like Saci Lloyd are writing books for teens about the consequences we are facing will help our future.

Laura, a normal teenager who likes to go to concerts and is worried about love, realises very quickly what matters and what doesn't. Watching tv is not essential. Protecting yourself and your loved ones in a storm is. It can't get any simpler.

I'd definitely recommend this book, I think that it has a very worthwhile message for us all.

Challenges: Genre Challenge, Countdown Challenge

A Concise Chinese- English Dictionary for Lovers

I bought Xiaolou Guo's book at the beginning of the year to have an X author for the A-Z challenge. It sounded really good - unique story from a Chinese perspective. I wanted to like it so much I saved it and saved it to make the anticipation last longer. But I just didn't like it, no matter how hard I tried.

I really didn't like the main character. She annoyed me. Really annoyed me. I thought she was whiny and I can't really stand whiny. As the story progressed she got less whiny and more wise, but I just didn't believe that it was happening that way. Her character developed in ways that didn't make sense to me.

Plus I thought that a lot of the jokes were forced. I felt that the author was actually trying to insert a certain number of national identity related jokes at certain intervals. Some of the were amusing, yes, but they still seemed to belong to a different story.

Because I didn't find the characters or their actions believable, I didn't really care about them. That's never good.

It's such a shame, because I think that the author's idea was fantastic. I just think that the development of the idea could have been a lot stronger.

Challenges: A-Z Challenge, Orbis Terrarum Challenge

Chocolat

I saw the film made of Joanne Harris' Chocolat ages ago, but didn't really like it so never bothered with the book. Then recently my friend Amy read another book by this author and I was intrigued to try it again. I love these sorts of stories, about magic but not the Harry Potter kind, the kind that makes life special and beautiful. This feeling didn't come through in the movie for me though - what a shame!

This book is about Vianne and her daughter Anouk - they arrive in a small French village and open a chocolaterie. They make some friends and more enemies, mostly due the fact that they view life differently and don't go to Church. I loved the pagan symbolism in the book and I loved the way the use of magic really made the atmosphere magical, rather than flashy.

And I loved the chocolate! I've totally been craving chocolate for the past couple of days. Vianne can totally set up shop in my neighborhood!

Challenges: 888 Challenge, Book to movie challenge, Lit Flicks, Naming Conventions, Unread Authors

Chloë

Freya North's novel Chloë is my 'N' author book for the A-Z Challenge. It's been sitting on my shelf for years - in fact, I don't think I bought it myself, I think that an old roommate left it behind when she moved out. I've been kind of wanting to read it, but I wasn't sure that I would like it so I kept putting it off.

I liked it. I thought the beginning was a bit slow and it took me a while to get into it, but once I did I didn't want to put it down. It's the story of Chloë's journey of self-discovery but it's not cheesy or pretentious. Chloë's godmother dies and leaves her instructions (and money) to go to specific places in the four parts of the United Kingdom. So Chloë leaves London and travels to Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England - her adventures are interesting, amusing and thought-provoking.

Having expected a mediocre book, I'm happy to say that I give it 4 stars, recommend it readily and will be reading Freya North's other work.

Children of Men

I finished reading P.D. James' Children of Men a few days ago, but was waiting to watch the movie before I posted my thoughts... Truthfully, I don't know why I still insist on sometimes watching the film after reading the book. It's almost always a disappointment. The film had nothing of the atmosphere of the book. And the story was SO different!! That really bugged me, even relationships between characters differed. I'm no movie maker but I could think of a few places where sticking to the original story would not have been that difficult. Oh and the ending was so cheesy that even I couldn't stand it.

The book was good. I'm not normally a fan of suspense/thriller type books, but I wanted to read this one because I loved the storyline. It's the future and the youngest human dies at 18. People are infertile and the human race is close to dying out. Aside from the storyline, I liked the detail with which P.D. James painted the world where children don't exist. All the little touches were fascinating. Some were horrifying - the book reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go in that it explored what people are capable of ignoring or pretending not to know if only it benefits them.

I decided to try rating books and I'm giving this one 3-stars: good, enjoyable, I'd reccommend it as a fun read. The movie gets one star. If that.