Kindle Vs Kobo

Published 29/02/2012 by Amy

I’ve been using the Kindle keyboard wifi for over a year now and I love it for the most part, there are however obvious limitations. My parents did some research and surprised me a couple of weeks ago by buying me the Kobo Vox! I’ve been using it pretty much non stop since I got it so I thought I would do a comparison review and maybe help other VI and AB people out there to see what’s on the market, what might help, what improvements might be useful stuff like that. I’m still pretty new to WordPress and how it works. I’ve been trying for a couple of hours to get paragraphs and photos in alignment so it makes contextual sense but I can’t seem to get it formatted quite the way I want it, me being OCD perfectionist again? I have attached all the photos in a slideshow at the end so do please, feel free to pause the images and you can scroll up to re read the paragraph relating to it, I know it’s not the best way. Again I’m sorry.. any WordPress geeks out there willing to give constructive advice much appreciated in the comments. I’ve done a previous review solely on my Kindle and you can read that here. This is just a quick comparison and my likes/dislikes so far.

The main difference between the Kindle and Kobo Vox is that the latter is a colour and touch screen. I’ve always found the Kindle menu to be really hard to navigate as the text is tiny and cannot be enlarged. It also does not offer a spoken option which means whenever I want to buy a new book from the store, check to see if it’s downloading and then find it on my home screen once it has downloaded, I need assistance because it’s just too small for me to read independently. The Kobo Vox boasting a bright and dynamic visual menu is perfect for me. Instead of a list of titles I can’t read the Kobo Vox offers me a screen full of colourful book covers with titles and bookmarks making the most current reads obvious. I’ve been relying on colours for most of my life rather than text, so this both appeals and makes things a lot easier and less frustrating for me. I usually research the books I want to read online first enabling me to find and memorise the colour/cover and therefore making it easier to locate in my library!

The Kobo Vox and the Kindle both have small menu settings, which can’t be altered or spoken, so this isn’t really any different. I still need help to set it up but once settings are chosen you don’t need to go back and reset them every time you read a new book or turn it on, unless you have multiple users using the device. As far as I’m aware the Kindle only has one option when it comes to colour scheme, black on grey more than black on white, making it easy to read in bright sunlight. What I like about the Kobo Vox is that you have the option for Sepia and White on Black, which to be fair.. you do get that option on Kindle Apps for phones and pc, just not on the actual Kindle device. I usually have the brightness set to the minimum with Sepia during the day and Black and White when my eyes are tired but still want to read. I haven’t noticed any difference in the size of font between both devices even though the Kobo Vox boasts having 25 font size options and the Kindle only offering 8, with both set at the largest they look exactly the same.

I didn’t use the Kindle store option because it was just a list of tiny unreadable text in grey and black, basically impossible, the Kobo store isn’t much of an improvement but the fact that again, like the menu it’s all colourful book covers, browsing titles and genre are a lot easier but searching for specific titles in the search bar and reading blurbs is still not something I can do independently as there is no zoom function or colour scheme alteration, you can only change the colour scheme in a book, which I think is a little stupid that it can’t be made to cross the whole device, which means.. I still rely on having a computer to research and download the ebooks from, so it looses some portability points there.

I never really had a problem with the weight or turning page buttons on the kindle, I do have a skin on mine so it meant that only one of my page turn buttons worked but luckily they have buttons on both sides so it didn’t render it unusable! To get the real book feel which I miss I have fold over cases on both devices. The Kobo Vox is heavier but not uncomfortably so, it’s a touch screen and it also runs Android, this is my first device running Android so I didn’t really know what to expect. The screen isn’t as sensitive as other touch devices I’ve worked with so it took a while to get used to punching the buttons rather than tapping on the screen keyboard and I also find it can be laggy when switching screens from the home screen, the library and to the extra features such as reading stats and badges. It’s also a good 5 second delay when opening a book from the menu which is a little annoying as the Kindle doesn’t have that lag. Overall the Kobo Vox is slower than the Kindle and the battery life is pathetic compared to the Kindle which lasted me a good 3 weeks on one charge and using it every day, the Kobo doesn’t even last a day on one charge with the same amount of use as the Kindle so it’s practically plugged in the whole time, this could be a problem when I go on holiday this summer. With both devices the batteries do last longer if you turn wifi off when you’re not using it. I rarely had wifi set to ‘on’ on my Kindle because I never used the in store function and I didn’t share anything to social networks. The Kobo Vox encourages you to share things to social networks and lets you collect badges and stats which is fun and quite addictive so I’ve been tempted to keep my wifi on and share things of interest, which could be why the battery charge doesn’t last as long as I’d hoped but even with it turned off the battery still seemed to be zapped, you read and your battery dies, you leave it on but don’t read it keeps it’s charge and lasts for ages. I think it will always be the case with these devices.

The only thing I miss from the Kindle are the pictures of authors when it’s on standby, you don’t get that with the Kobo Vox it’s just a black screen that shows up every finger print but there is a nice touch that when you press the sleep/wake button your most recent read book cover comes up with the percentage of how far you are, which is a nice touch, and if you aren’t currently reading anything it pops up with a quote.

Regarding ebook and audio book prices I’ve only checked out a few of my favourite authors but both Amazon and Kobo seem to be level with their pricing, some Kobo ebooks have been more expensive, a few pounds nothing major and Kobo do boast having more free downloadable ebooks than Amazon which appeals to most of us, especially the classics! I’m a huge Ted Dekker, Philip Pullman and Markus Zusak fan and Kobo have far more titles by these authors than Amazon or Audible.co.uk ever had.

I’m a big Amazon fan I get a variety of things from there so I won’t be leaving them just because I’m on a different eReader, however, I think both sites could look and learn from each other. While Kobo is thankfully letting everyone have the option of gifting ebooks which is awesome and for some stupid reason, Amazon.co.uk does not support this feature and I don’t know if it’s something they will ever bring here, kind of like the Kindle Fire, Kobo do not have a wishlist function which I really miss having! because my Amazon one is very useful and usually full. I don’t see a reason for not having one and I’m hoping it will happen soon.

Text to speech: The Kindle provides text to speech in some books and you have to check in the book description to see if this function is enabled. It’s a synthesised voice and I personally cannot listen to it for very long, however the Kobo news is that they provide proper audiobooks embedded within certain downloadable ebooks, I have yet to check this out and see if the price is more due to the extra content but this is exciting news! I’ll edit this paragraph when I have more news/reviews about this function.

Overall for a VI person I think the Kobo Vox has more advantages than the Kindle at the moment and even though it’s more expensive I think it’s worth it in this case for the colour and layout more so than the touch screen feature. I think both devices would benefit from letting you change the menu settings in both the device and the ‘store’ enabling colour scheme, audible and zoom options. Kobo making the battery life longer and fixing the laggyness between screen switching and book opening.

If you have any questions regarding both devices or you want to see a feature I have missed out please comment! I know I’m bound to miss something out and thanks for reading, or listening!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Collections, do you collect anything?

Published 26/02/2012 by Amy

I didn’t really collect anything as a child but I seem to collect all sorts of things these days and I probably should put my time and savings account to a better use. I received an email from the Royal Mail the other day, not really sure why but it doesn’t really matter, the point is, they were advertising the official Roald Dahl stamp collection coming out and it included The BFG which was one of my favourites, if not my favourite book through my childhood so I couldn’t resist. I had a good look around and was pleased to see that they do variations, normal size stamps would be pointless collecting as I couldn’t see them to enjoy collecting, but when I stumbled across postcard stamps it was an eureka moment.

I grabbed The BFG postcard stamps and also had a browse around to see what else they had. They don’t seem to keep a lot of stock collection online, mostly because they are limited edition type things. I picked up a pack that has Terry Pratchett’s DiscWorld characters in, also Harry Potter, Narnia and Arthurian legend characters, which don’t seem to be available anymore, The Age of The Hanovarians, The Age of The Windsor’s and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and lastly Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee pack. If you’re interested to see what packs they have or what’s coming up soon check out www.royalmail.com they do presentation packs, all sorts.

I thought I’d share some of my favourite on here. Do you collect anything? Leave a comment and share your collections I have a video on my youtube, you could leave a video response to that if you like.

Book Review: Me Before You – Jojo Moyes

Published 24/02/2012 by Amy

Blurb:
Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick. What Lou doesn’t know is she’s about to lose her job or that knowing what’s coming is what keeps her sane. Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he’s going to put a stop to that. What Will doesn’t know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they’re going to change the other for all time.

Rating: 3/5

Review:
This book caught my attention within the blurb, which is always a good thing. Primarily because for years I’ve memorised the steps and routes to get to places, it’s a life long habit, it’s your life when you are visually impaired and later blind. Your feet become your eyes. Although Lou nor any character in this book are visually impaired, it caught my attention non the less because I wanted to see what other kind of person took refuge in counting and memorising steps and routes in their daily life.

Me Before You is about a guy in his mid thirties called Will, he was a high flyer, over achiever, attack each day of your life kind of guy until his accident, which left him a paraplegic with no use of his limbs, and the only things that work are his brain and his mouth. Lou on the other hand flies under the radar and retreats from the idea of being who she should be and was because everyone in the family makes her feel that her younger sister is a better version of her than she ever was. In my opinion, her family are complete idiots except for the Grandfather and they are welcome to Katrina who’s selfish and pushy and hopefully her fictional son doesn’t turn out to be the same as his mother. Brains are good but if you don’t understand feeling, the world is lost to you. I’m glad at the end when Lou walks out on them, she deserves better. In typical love story fashion, the two leads can’t stand each other at the beginning but forced to work with each other they develop a relationship and by the end you couldn’t tear them apart. Lou has 6 months to change WIll’s mind about going to Dignitas to end his existence, he wouldn’t call it a life and the friendship that forms between them in that short amount of time will have a impact on both of them for the rest of their lives, long or short. It will make you laugh and if you are the over emotional type, perhaps cry. I thought it was a bit drawn out, almost 500 pages I didn’t think it needed to be that long.

I read my version on the Kobo eReader and there were more than the usual amount of typo’s, not sure if this was down to a bug, the proofreader and checker didn’t do their job properly or if the original author didn’t know how to spell. I’m hoping it’s the first reason. I don’t know if it’s the same for the Paper back or Kindle editions. It was off putting and because of the number of errors it made you slip out of the story world and into reality which is not what you want to happen.

The plot moved at a good pace mostly throughout the book but I felt the characters didn’t really feel fully formed. I like substance to my characters as well as the plot lines and I felt this was neglected. Being disabled myself although not a paraplegic I definitely lent more towards Will’s character than any one else, but I could see the value and understand both points of view. I had a deja vu moment in the first few chapters like I had read this storyline before but I’m pretty sure I hadn’t picked this book up before and I know I haven’t read any other works by this author. I enjoyed the descriptions of the places, especially at the end it was a good image to finish on.

Book Review: Ethereal – Addison Moore

Published 16/02/2012 by Amy

Blurb:
Sixteen year-old, Skyla Messenger is a dead girl walking.
When her newly remarried mother moves the family to Paragon Island, to a house that is rumored to be haunted, Skyla finds refuge in Logan Oliver, a boy who shares her unique ability to read minds. Skyla discovers Logan holds the answers to the questions she’s been looking for, but Logan’s reluctance to give her the knowledge she desires leaves her believing Logan has a few secrets of his own.
Skyla’s bloodlines may just be connected to the most powerful angelic beings that roam the earth, and the more she knows, the more danger she seems to be in. Suddenly an entire faction of earthbound angels wants her dead, at least she still has Logan, or does she?

Other books in the Celestra Series include;
Tremble (Celestra Series Book 2)
Burn (Celestra Series Book 3)
Wicked (Celestra Series Book 4)
Vex (Celestra Series Book 5)
Expel (Celestra Series Book 6)

Rating: 4/5
Review:
“Falling in love is a lot like death. It chooses you. It decides the moment and the chain of events that will preclude the precise intersection of life in which it occurs. It uses you treats you as though you were malleable in its warm pliable hands. It doesn’t bother to ask if you want it, or need it, just fills the gaping hole of destiny’s design”.
Ethereal is a paranormal romance for young adult readers, it feels very Twilightish but it’s Angels not Vampires. It doesn’t have the same impact that Daughter of Smoke and Bone has on me but it was a breath of fresh air compared to the last few disappointing books I’ve read. Skyla is a sixteen year old average American teenager complete with LA cheerleading looks. The family has just moved from LA to the island of Paragon where her step father’s business has taken them. Skyla as well as being an average teenager is also a Celestra the highest rank of earth bound Angel, her father was also a Celestra but as events unfold and she discovers more about who she is it becomes apparent that she is a pure Celestra meaning that her mother has to be one as well. This discovery opens up a whole can of worm trouble with other Angel factions wanting to be rid of pure Celestra’s so they can’t mate and produce more that could intern over throw
the balance. With the help of Logan and Gage the high school heart throbs who also happen to be cousins, plus Angel’s themselves. Skyla can learn to use her power and keep her life. With the background of cheerleading competitiveness, no parents at home weekend parties, and the usual crush fest it’s an amusing quick read. I liked the pace and wittiness of Moore’s writing and portrayal.The characters are well developed and very believable in their roles. I did cringe at the cheesy cheerleading cat fighting trio, so I was pleased they didn’t feature much, if they had I probably wouldn’t have finished the book. The twists and turns of the plot are fun and not overly predictable. I didn’t think swearing/cussing was particularly necessary or conducive to the story, it’s not overly done but not all teenagers use offensive language and there are other ways of portraying shock and annoyance.

I enjoyed the plot turn where we’re all fuelled by Skyla’a distrust of her step dad to go along with thinking that the hidden money is his I was surprised and I love that in a book! For a sixteen year old Skyla seems pretty immature so I’m hoping she grows up a bit more in the next few books.

Book Review: The Fall of Ossard (The Ossard Trilogy)

Published 15/02/2012 by Amy

Blurb:
Ossard is falling…
Growing up in a city of Merchant Princes, Juvela discovers she can see what others can’t. The very currents of the celestial are open to her, and that includes the truths they hide: An escalating series of unsolved kidnappings have been haunting the city-state, leaving its shadows pooled deep with innocent blood.
Has Juvela been cursed with the Witches’ Kiss – or perhaps something worse?
Yet, more is to come, for not only has she witnessed an abduction, but she will have to endure a role in the victim’s ritual death. For Juvela is about to become forsaken, and that’s before she learns the real truth of not just the crimes plaguing Ossard’s bloody streets, but the wider world: A world at war, and governed by gods whose highest pleasure is to sup on the taste of death.

Rating: 2/5
Review:
The premise of this book sounded really good and I was excited to follow the journey, however it was evident from early on that this was going to be a long and frustrating read. I hate to give up on books so early on I was determined to keep the hope that it would get better. It didn’t, I feel cheated of wasting a day reading this and not ‘progressing’ as a book should. The fact that this is book 1 of a trilogy fills me understandably with trepidation, most openings to trilogies are often the best in the series, they can stand alone. Not in this case. I don’t enjoy writing negative reviews, I also don’t enjoy not enjoying stories and having to push myself to read them with the stubborn hope that something of interest actually comes across a page. Especially when they promise a good plot line. I felt through the entire book that it dragged, the dialogue was repetitive, there were strange uses of the word ‘it’. The main character Juvela started of interesting but then once you discover not only her mother dosing her up on love drugs so she’ll be acceptable to any guy that looks her way, Juvela herself goes along with it! a capable 17 year old girl, who should know her own mind goes along with it, first mistake. Second mistake, the predictable.. lets herself get drunk and then pregnant by a playboy.

The sumptuous descriptions of the rose garden, the streets, market squares, port are the only light in this book, they hold some interest but they are so many chapters apart from each other I couldn’t recommend you boring yourself with the whole book just to pick out a few lines of interest. It’s very slow paced read and drives you insane at the snails pace and then you aren’t rewarded at the end of it. The action scenes happen almost over one page and it’s over too soon and then you’re back to boring back chat.
The characters aren’t that interesting or believable, Maria barely makes any impact on the storyline despite being the kidnapped daughter. The husband has such a presence in the first few chapters, even being an unlikelable character at least he feels like a real person. Then he’s practically a mute ghost until the end. It’s a shame! I usually really enjoy first person narrative but the fact I couldn’t stand the main character made this even harder to read, I don’t think it was best suited to this format.

I finally pushed myself towards the end only not to be rewarded with an interesting battle, or the truth being revealed, just the ghost like characters floating off back into nothingness. A disappointing read and I find it hard to believe it got a 4 star rating on Amazon. I know this is the debut book of it’s author and I have high hopes that this is just a little blip that we all have and great stories and better quality writing will come from him.

Book Review: Unwind – Neal Shusterman

Published 14/02/2012 by Amy

Blurb:
Connor’s parents want to be rid of him because he’s a troublemaker. Risa has no parents and is being unwound to cut orphanage costs. Lev’s unwinding has been planned since his birth as part of his family’s strict religion. Brought together by chance, and kept together through desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing all the while that their lives are hanging in the balance. If they can survive until their eighteenth birthdays, they can’t be harmed. But when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.

Review:
Unwind is a gritty story that throws us sometime into the future, where humanity has clearly lost it’s humanity and given it up to denial. After a war called The Heartland War which was about the age old question, is termination of a baby good or bad, should it be legal or illegal etc. Neither sides won and in the end the military came in with a suggestion. Unwinding and The Bill of Life. Whereby parents/guardians could sign the Unwind papers and have their unwanted or troublesome offspring unwound, not killing them you understand, just unwound. Each and every part of the unwind is used to benefit the population, if someone needs a new eye, a new limb, a blood transfusion, that is what unwinds are for, so they aren’t technically dead, because their soul/spirit is still living, in other people, so it can’t be called murdering, but it solves the problem of what to do with an unwanted child or troublesome teenager you can’t handle anymore. Storking is another loophole, if a mother doesn’t want her baby she can ‘stork’ it to someone else, and providing she doesn’t get caught in the act of leaving a baby on a doorstep, she no longer has responsibility for it and the family who find the baby on their doorstep, who have been ‘storked’ have to legally take care of the new baby. unless they stork it to another family and also do not get caught in the act, they are then free of all obligation.
Unwinding has to take place before the child turns 18 after that they are legally adults and cannot be unwound.

“The Bill Of Life
The Second Civil War, also known as “The Heartland War”, was a long and bloody conflict fought over a single issue. To end the war, a set of constitutional amendments known as “The Bill of Life” was passed. It satisfied both the Pro-life and Pro-choice armies. The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen. However, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a parents may choose to retrospectively “abort” a child on the condition that the child’s life doesn’t “technically” end. The process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called “unwinding”. Unwinding is now a common, and accepted practice in society”.

Conner is the main and first character we meet in the book, he is a typical teen who doesn’t get on with his parents most of the time and takes little or no interest in school, however, his anger towards his parents has boiled up to an all time high now that he’s found out they’ve signed the Unwind papers for him and to top it off, next to the signed document are three plane tickets to the Bahamas. Two for his parents and one for his younger brother. Conner has gone through all the expected emotions but anger stays prominent and bubbling under the surface. Conner doesn’t plan on sticking around for the cops to come and pick him up on his Unwind date, he grabs what little still means to him in a bag and makes a run for it. At first Conner seems like a lot of boys I knew growing up evident attitude problem but deep down he really does care, despite his logical kicks he’d prefer to be in charge, sometimes it’s his emotional side that wins and this is what makes most of the differences when it comes to survival and me respecting him a lot more.

Risa is a ward of state like countless others, trouble is as always state homes need money and there is never enough to go around, which means budget cuts and Risa has won the lucky opportunity of being worth more in a divided state than she does currently in her whole state. I think out of all the characters Risa is my favourite, she grows into herself the most, she’s always been smart, mature and keeps her thoughts grounded in practicality. But if it wasn’t for Risa the glue of the unusual unwind group, everything would turn out differently. I’m also glad that the author didn’t go mad with the ott romance storyline like a lot of YA fiction authors do, there’s so much more to a story that just a tragic romance, it’s over done and I’m glad to say, if you’re just into the story, the drama or survival than this is it, it’s not The Hunger Games but it’s better than Twilight in my opinion, plus no stupid vampires.

Lev is a Tithe. He was born and raised to be unwound but for religious purposes only, he has a greater purpose. Lev has been spoilt and known no evil in his life up until his 13th birthday, he is given a great send off by his friends, family and church. He has no doubt in his mind that being unwound is his destiny and he will meet it with dignity. At first I think you are purposefully directed to dislike Lev for what he is, but I found it hard to dislike him even from the start, being of a religious background myself I think I can relate to the bullying, the judgement and suspiciousness of peers, not being completely sure myself, then being totally sure, listening to elders for guidance and then realising they’re just as clueless as me. Lev changes the most mentally in the story he goes to extremes and back again, a really interesting character and I was left wanting to know a bit more about him and his family, but that might just be because we come from faiths and that’s naturally an interest point. And YES I know this is fiction, but still. I get emotionally involved with characters ok I make no apologies for it.

Overall I did enjoy reading the book, despite it’s difficult issue nature. I am and will always be against abortion/termination, It was a turn pager and I invested in the characters, really felt their passion for survival. I have to admit I didn’t think they would really go through with Unwinding …’s character at the end, it was a shock and I didn’t feel at all like “Yes! finally justification” I just felt sort of sad, no matter how evil someone is, death is never the answer, death is a release not a punishment. I hoped and wanted to make sure they did come out with a big middle finger to the authorities who clearly were power mad and lost their humanity, I wasn’t disappointed. Tbe ending was the perfect ending for the book and I hope people do take the time to read this book and make sure THIS is not our future.
One of my favourite mental images from this book is of the three of them hiding out in the forest before the whole journey begins.

Rating: 4/5

Book Review: Liesl & Po – Lauren Oliver

Published 13/02/2012 by Amy

Blurb: On the third night after the day her father died, Liesl saw the ghost.’Liesl lives in a tiny attic bedroom, locked away by her cruel stepmother. Her only friends are the shadows and the mice – until one night a ghost appears from the darkness. It is Po, who comes from the Other Side. Both Liesl and Po are lonely, but together they are less alone. That same night, an alchemist’s apprentice, Will, bungles an important delivery. He accidentally switches a box containing the most powerful magic in the world with one containing something decidedly less remarkable. Will’s mistake has tremendous consequences for Liesl and Po, and it draws the three of them together on an extraordinary journey.

Review:
Although this features a young girl called Liesl and she rides on a train that sets her on a life changing journey, this is not The Book Thief.
Liesl and Po, is a essentially a fairy tale. It’s about loss, lonelyness, friendship, family, adventure and magic!

Liesl is 11 years old and is imprisoned in a tiny attic room by her stepmother. She whiles away the endless hours staring out of the tiny window, sleeping and drawing in the early hours of the morning. Three nights ago her father died, poisoned by his second wife, Augusta, Liesl’s step mother. The butler didn’t do it but the soup certainly did.
Liesl hates her step mother for not letting her see her father for 13 months, the entire time shes been locked away and even more so for not getting the chance to say goodbye for ever.

Po is a ghost who’s been on ‘the other side’ for so long it can’t remember if it’s a boy or a girl or if it’s constant pet companion Bundle is dog or cat. Po is drawn to Liesl as it senses the light from her room coming through the fabric of the universe, but when the light doesn’t glow for 3 days Po finds itself crossing over to seek out why and in doing so the two lonely souls become friends. Po takes messages back and forth to Liesl’s dad, back on ‘the other side’. Liesl’s dad wants his ashes to be buried under the willow tree to be by his first wife whom he still loves.

So Liesl and Po plan Liesl’s escape with the ashes to fulfil her fathers last wish. However, due to a mixup of misidentified boxes, one containing the ashes of Liesl’s father and the other containing the most powerful magic ever made, also several people including a ‘useless’ alchemist’s apprentice, the insulting alchemist himself, Augusta and her daughter Vera who pretends to be Liesl to keep up public appearance, a proud woman with a dark history now reffering to herself as The Lady Premiere, her slow minded but endlessly kind guard Mo and his cat Lefty, a policeman aided by a very nosey old bag who has nothing better to do but stick her nose in everyone and anyone’s business and thinks her opinions should be laws, and finally a long lost brother who’s been waiting a very long time for, in his mind, justice.

Reactions:
I didn’t really start getting into the story till chapter 10 and I think over all the plot was drawn out unnecessarily, it was a distraction.. The climax of the story I felt was rushed in comparison and not totally satisfactorily. Besides, what happens to Vera? She just disappears. I found it quite hard to believe that anybody, and we all know a very nosy person, would drop whatever their plans were to chase a strange girl they didn’t know and had only talked to for a few minutes on a train journey, and see it as their life goal to have them ‘locked up for the better good’. I don’t have an issue with Mo’s character being determined to track Will down and present him with a hat to keep his head warm, because I can see many autistic/asperges friends with that passionate determination to fulfil a stubborn thought or challenge and he reminds me fondly of them.

At under 350 pages it’s a short afternoon read aimed at middle school readers and still an enjoyable escape. A good moral showing that pride comes before a very big fall and justice will always happen, and with a little sprinkle of magic… Anything can happen if you just BELIEVE.
I was really touched by the authors note describing the book as an emotion confession, working her way through the journey of losing a close friend and that in fantasy,
we can have our happy endings so it doesn’t matter too much if in reality we don’t. And inevitably things usually get much worse before they get better.

Rating: 3/5

Book Review: The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern.

Published 12/02/2012 by Amy

‘Anticipation. The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices on the downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not’.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is a beautifully written, imaginative and captivating read. I couldn’t put it down and I wish I had paused over it a little more and spread it out over a week or so rather than devouring it in less than two days.   The story takes place in the late 1800’s and into the early 1900’s and has three intertwining parts, with you as the reader being one of them. The main story is ‘The Challenge’ between two schools of thought, one methodical and studious the other practical, Celia and Marco are entered into the binding challenge without their consent at a very young age and they are never told in great detail about the rules of the challenge, how it will finish or even how long it will last. The challenge takes place in a unique venue created for the purpose, which is the Night Circus.

‘There is a complicated looking lock holding the gates shut, and a small sign that reads: Gates Open at Night-fall & Close at Dawn’

Celia and Marco train separately for years each with their own instructor, Celia’s instructor is her father Prospero the Enchanter. A narrow minded and in some places abusive man who will stop at nothing, even if that means sacrificing his own daughter in order to win the challenge. We learn later in the book that this challenge isn’t the first and that he lost last time with his student giving up and killing themselves. When Celia is left in his care after her mothers suicide, he realizes she has a natural talent for magic or what he calls enchanting. He see‘s this as a great opportunity to get one up on his former instructor and prove that books and study mean nothing when you have a natural talent providing you can keep in control or your emotions.

Marco’s instructor was Prospero the Enchanter’s previous instructor, and he instructs him in a completely different way. He doesn’t engage with him much, and leaves Marco alone in his room, pouring over books for many years, learning the theory of how things can be manipulated and going to theaters to watch the mechanics of tricks and learn the difference.

Neither one are told who their opponent is but they can sense each other as they leave a trace of energy once they have made a move.   The second thread is a character called Bailey, a farm boy growing up knowing he wants more than to carry on the family tradition of sheep farming but not expecting anything to come from the growing arguments between his Grandmother and his Father about going to Harvard. Things start to change when the Night Circus comes to a local field and he can’t stay away from the place.

The third thread is you. You are taken along to the Night Circus to enjoy it’s many
wonders, smell the unique caramel and smokey vibe and feel part of it for a few hours.   The challenge takes place over many years and in the book it tends to flip back and forth, a lot of people expressed that reading this in the Kindle version was a little confusing because of the flips but I didn’t find this. However I am tempted to buy the hardback print version so that I can keep coloured markers in the different sections. I think reading it from cover to cover as I did is perfectly fine and probably intended. But I look forward to reading it from the different years together, I expect it will flow differently.  Also, the British hardback edition is beautifully designed with the pages being edged in black which ties in with the theme and spirit of the book. I don’t know what other country versions are like but I’ve seen the American printed edition and the cover and pages are different.   It’s a slow paced book, one to savour and pause over, you don’t want to rush this book and it’s one that the more you read it the more you will get out of it, something different each time. It’s an adult book but not for overly sexual or violent references I think it’s more for the description of scenes and atmosphere. A YA audience, nearer 12-15 might find it overwhelming, boring and not understand it. But I think older YA readers will enjoy it and appreciate the time needed to take over it.   It’s a story of dreams, love, finding your potential and rising to the challenge of life. The characters really come alive from the page, you are instantly transported to a very descriptive time in history, you feel a part of it. Poppet, Widget, Bailey, Celia, Marco and even Isobel become close friends. It’s a night time journey and the train is leaving, are you coming for the ride?

‘You think. as you walk away from Le Cirque des Reves and into the creeping dawn, that you felt more awake within the confines of the circus. You are no longer quite certain which side of the sense in the dream’.

Rating: 5/5

First After Care Visit

Published 10/02/2012 by Amy

This afternoon Ellie and I had our first After Care Visit with the new lady who’s taken responsibility over our local area. Ellie and I had been out in the rain so we rushed back to get home in time, dry and brushed before the meeting and just made it.
All good news, Ellie is fine and healthy, her teeth and good, her skin is good, working well and happy as always. We chatted about how we were getting on and if I had any issues. The only issue I really had was going down steps. I just freeze up and panic. I had avoided going down steps for so long that I couldn’t remember how I was taught to go down them during training and was pretty sure Ellie felt the same way.

It had stopped raining but was still icy cold with the wind, but we headed out anyway as the steps in question were just down the road. We went up them fine and then I was instructed to drop the harness and hold on to the rail, it was a bit hard as it was soaking wet and icy cold. I thought if my hand doesn’t slip off, it may freeze to it instead. Neither happened and we eventually got down the steps with my heart in my brain. Ellie seemed non plussed.

Afterwards we walked around down with the trainer behind us and Ellie decided to take me to Grandma’s. Then we found the crossing and started up the high street in search of a coffee shop, all three on the road were closed, something to do with it being winter an wet perchance?
Eventually the trainer spotted one across the road, which was open, so we dived in.

I had the biggest, work of art, hot chocolate you have ever seen. It had syrup and chocolate sprinkles in a flower shape. It was hard to swirl the spoon in and drink it, wrecking that carefully crafted chocolateness. I got over it pretty quickly and it was very nice too, we hardly talked about Guide Dogs or how I was getting on at all, we talked mostly on books and art. She had noticed my painting up on the walls and asked me about them, I told her the painting of Lily that she liked the most was a character from one of my short stories, I thought she deserved to have a face so I painted one. Then we got onto writing and self publishing and what sort of things I wrote. I explained I’m really into epic fiction and that I loved the Ted Dekker Circle Trilogy and how I wanted to write something like that one day. Also our shared love for Philip Pullman’s His Dark Trilogy and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.

A couple of things she did mention were to take the harness of Ellie when we are sitting in a cafe setting for more than 5 minutes. I’ve never done this because if Ellie isn’t wearing the harness people aren’t going to know she’s a working dog and will tell me off for having a dog in a setting like that. But as we don’t go out much in those types of settings I don’t think it will matter much. I do remember my trainer M telling me to take the harness of when we’re on a bus but that’s more for me to carry and be conscious of not leaving behind. Ellie’s had no problems lying down with the harness on for the past two years, seems a bit silly to start to change now, but we’ll see. Another thing was Smokey bones. I give Ellie minty treats but I don’t very often give her hide bones or smokey bones. I worry about the calorific content and don’t want her to get obese, you see so many overweight dogs, it’s not good, humans don’t realise just HOW much they give their pets and what it does to their systems. Most people know not to give dogs chocolate because it’s bad for them, well giving them your left over English breakfast is also not good for them. But she explained that I could give her smokey bones and just deduct some from her evening meal as she’s only on one can of food a day.

Off to the vets tomorrow for worm stuff, ear cleaning stuff and cotton wool! what an exciting life we lead.

Tesco’s has just pulled up so it’s time to sort out the shopping and put it away. find some munchies, make a cuppa and….. R E L A X.

Old Favourite Meets Instagram

Published 09/02/2012 by Amy

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I can’t explain why The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is one of my favourite books. I have no problem going back and rereading over and over again. It’s an emotional story, and naturally I favour some passages over others and some I just can’t bring myself to reread every again.
But I like it all the same, it’s the only book I have on pretty much every format because I like to have it wherever I am. Audio CD for my daisy reader, audio download on my iPod touch, large print book for when I used to be able to read more visually, on Kindle because I can supe up the text, I even have a paperback version from when it first came out, I knew I couldn’t read it but I can always find someone around me read things for me.

The Hunger Games and The Circle Trilogy also have special places in my heart. I might Instagram my favourite passes of those someday.

BlindStyle

Reader, Writer, Nutter.

Archives

All posts for the month February, 2012