/ Blogger's Bookshelf

Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Being A Booktuber | Interview With Marie aka BookswithMarie

Welcome to another installment of 'Being A Booktuber'! After interviewing Heather of Bookables last month, I decided this would be great to introduce as a regular feature here at BB.
Today I'm talking to a lovely Norweigan booktuber named Marie who has a fairly new channel, BookswithMarie - here's what she had to say about being a booktuber...

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BB: For those of our readers who aren't subscribed to your YouTube channel could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Marie and I am a 25 years sold. I come from Norway, I love to read and I drink too much coffee;) On my channel, BookswithMarie, you can watch Book hauls, Tags, reviews and other book related videos. I also will be doing a book shelf tour very soon;)

BB: You're quite new to the world of booktube, how did you get started on YouTube and were you nervous to post your first video?

I just started my channel in February. I have another channel on YouTube as well, so I am used to making videos, but it was a bit scary to suddenly talk about books. The thing is that booktubers are really welcoming and nice, so I felt like home from my first video!

BB: What are your favourite kind of book videos to make and to watch?

Book hauls is my guilty pleasure. I can sit for hours and hours and watch book hauls. That is a fun way to discover new books that you never heard of, and to see that there are a lot of crazy book-buyers out there like me. Then I don't feel so bad;)

I also enjoy book reviews. I have not done many of those myself, but I am planning to do a lot of them in the future!

BB: We're always looking for new books to read, could you give us 5 books you recommend everyone should read?

If you were late like I was and have not read Divergent yet, then do it now;) Also if you would like to try out an Norwegian writer then you should read Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder. Then try something from Kate Morton, and if you really would like a page turner then pic up the first book of The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. I love those books!

BB: Which 2013 releases are you most looking forward to?

There has been so many releases this year already! But these are the ones that I was most exited about when 2013 started: Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare, Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, Prodigy by Marie Lu, The Elite by Kiera Cass, Shades of Earth by Beth Revis, and the last book in the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth.

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BB: If you could swap lives for the day with any fictional character who would it be and why?

Actually, I would swap lives with Tris from the book Divergent By Veronica Roth. I just hope that I could choose one of the days at the beginning of the book when she gets to know the faction that she has chosen because I would love to have one wild day like that... And to meet Four, that would really be something;)

BB: Finally, who are your favourite booktubers to watch and book blogs to read?

I love everyone. But I have to say that I like to watch these the most: Katytastic, booksandquills, polandbananasBOOKS, KimberleysBookNook and marlinelina.

You can find Marie's YouTube channel here & Goodreads page here

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I'd like to say a huge thank you from all of us here at BB to Marie for taking part in this interview.

If you are a booktuber or book blogger and would like to be featured in a similar post we'd love to hear from you - just email us at bloggersbookshelf@gmail.com for information!

Interview & post by Erin
Book cover images from goodreads.com

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Monday, 1 April 2013

Never Let Me Go | Kazuo Ishiguro | Review

“Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t ever see them fading.”

Never Let Me Go is set in a re-imagined version of England with the idyllic English countryside the backdrop to the novel.

Kathy is a 30 year old woman who's quiet adult life is interrupted by her past, in the form of her two friends from school, Ruth and Tommy. The three grew up in Hailsham, a sheltered private school cut off from the outside world. On the surface Hailsham students are brought up to be well rounded and happy, lead to believe their perfect childhood and health will one day be of service to society.

As Kathy rekindles her friendship with Ruth, she reflects on her life at Hailsham and beyond, questioning the meaning behind her own life and purpose, and her confusing relationship with Tommy. Her memory starts in the Hailsham classrooms with the rest of the school's special children, where creativity and health are encouraged. The children are isolated but seem content enough to live their lives in this way - in fact the outside world both excites and terrifies them at times.

The world only get more confusing at the Hailsham children enter young adulthood and leave the confines of the school, before accepting their inevitable fate to 'service society'.

So what's my verdict?

I realised whilst writing this review that Never Let Me Go is probably one of the hardest novels to describe without it sounding a) like it's a cheesy romantic drama and b) a weird school version of Stepford wives. In reality, the story and tone of Never Let Me Go is so unique that it simply doesn't fit into perfect genre box.

Kathy's passive narrative style allows the science fiction elements of the story to blend quietly into the background, whilst the reader concentrates on the purely human side of the story. Her relationships with both Tommy and Ruth are so uniquely different to each other, yet the three are inexplicably tied together right until the very end.

This is a very simple novel but Ishiguro manages to tie in themes of death, betrayal, friendship and love, all the while exploring the meaning of life and the idea of souls with the story getting more and more complex the closer you look.

Reading Soundtrack:

Never Let Me Go: Florence + the Machine; Sunshine & City Lights: Greyson Chance; Always You: Ingrid Michaelson; Secrets: One Republic; Seeing Other People: Belle & Sebastian; Everything Has Changed: Taylor Swift ft Ed Sheeran; Hallelujah: Jeff Buckley

For lovers of

The movie adaptation of Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro's work, Huxley's Brave New World and Lowry's The Giver.

The review was written by Ria, find out more about her here!
*all images (c) Ria Cagampang

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Sunday, 31 March 2013

Rivers of London | Ben Aaronovitch | Review

Peter Grant has spent the past few years training to become part of London's Metropolitan Police Service. However, when he gets the news that he's going to be spending the rest of his life on the other side of the police force - the side where paperwork gets sorted and the whole day is spent in an office - things seem to be taking a turn for the worse. That's before he meets Inspector Thomas Nightingale. The last wizard in all of England. After seeing what can only be a ghost, Peter is quickly taken under Inspector Nightingale's wing and he becomes the first wizard apprentice to be taught magic in fifty years.

Once Peter starts working for Nightingale, he starts to see a lot of weirdness. He meets the Gods and Goddesses of the rivers of London as well as vampires, trolls, demons and a dog that just won't leave him alone. Join Peter in the first installment of this amazing series.

So I became aware of Rivers of London when my dad came home with it and would not stop bugging me to read it. It was only when I reached chapter two that I realised why. This book is so gripping and action packed that you will not want to put it down. Ben Aaronovitch has brought a whole new meaning to the word magic and I found it really interesting to see the different terms and conditions on how magic must be used.

The characters in this book are really memorable and really stand out. I thought it was an amazing and original idea to make gods and goddesses of the rivers of London. A couple of examples of these are Beverley Brook and Lady Tyburn. There's also the lovely Lesley May who is Peter's colleague and she helps to get information for him when they go out to work.

I loved how modern it really was. There are books like Harry Potter and Beautiful Creatures which are modern but they still seem very fantastical books. Then you have Rivers of London which takes you through lots of landmarks in London and I think this helped me to get a very realistic image of what was going on through the book and it just seemed that if there is such a thing as magic then this is how it would look like.

This book is the first book in a series and I really urge you to read it as the story gets better and better in the sequels Moon Over Soho and Whispers Underground. The fourth book is called Broken Homes and comes out in June this year!

So in conclusion, I really loved Rivers of London and give it a four and a half rating out of five. I do have to warn you that there are a few disturbing bits in it, though the story is so good I didn't really mind it. I would definitely recommend this to people who are fifteen and older and for lovers of science fiction and magic.

This book was reviewed by regular reviewer Lucy, get to know her here!

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Wednesday, 27 March 2013

Ashfall | Mike Mullin | Review

“For the first time ever, I felt ashamed of my species. The volcano had taken our homes, our food, our automobiles, and our airplanes, but it hadn't taken our humanity. No, we'd given that up on our own.” - Mike Mullin, Ashfall

Alex gets to stay home alone for the first time when his family goes to visit his uncle and his family over the weekend. But Alex only gets to enjoy his new found freedom for a couple of hours. With a loud bang his house gets hit by something and Alex barely gets out of his partly collapsed house. Something called a super volcano has erupted in Yellowstone National Park and leaves big parts of the country in a grey, devastating ashfall. In the middle of this chaos Alex decides to go out on the road and look for his family. On his journey through the changed landscape Alex soon learns that in a world in chaos, people change. Some change for the better and some change for the worse. But at least he finds one travel companion that he can trust, Darla, and together they set out on a journey to find safety and Alex's family.

Ashfall by Mike Mullin is a pretty classic apocalyptic novel. Yes, I have to admit that some parts of it remind me of The Road by Cormac McCarthy, but in some ways it’s also completely different. You might have already seen the 5 stars in the end of this review so I’m not going to keep it secret that I truly enjoyed this novel. I think that Ashfall had all the elements that I need to really like (or should I say love?) a book. First of all I enjoyed Mike Mullin's writing style. I wouldn't call it that original or spectacular but it makes the story justice. I also really liked the characters and the character's development through the book. Both Alex and Darla and their relationship feels genuine and believable. And the most important thing for me is that the story kept me captivated and interested through the whole novel. I never lost interest or felt bored with the story-line.

I always enjoy good apocalyptic fiction about survival and the human relations in a world that turns upside down. And even if I'm a hardcore fan of zombie fiction I really liked the fact that the scenario in Ashfall felt quite realistic. That made the story even more interesting and a bit disturbing (in a good way). So I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys the apocalyptic genre! You won't be disappointed! Ashfall by Mike Mullin easily gets 5/5 stars from me!

This post was written by regular reviewer Niina, get to know her here.

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Monday, 25 March 2013

My Mum's Going To Explode | Jeremy Strong | Review

I had never read or heard of Jeremy Strong before September and now suddenly I’ve read 4 of his books! I’m not sure if that was by my own doing or my classes’ enthusiasm for them. Strong has written an endless list of children’s books over the years, some of which focus around one particular family. This is the third of these books which detail Nicholas’s (Slightly crazy) family in which Nicholas loses his status as an only child, Gran moves in and the new arrivals are born in quite an interesting place. (But I won’t give away all the details!)

These books are perfect for children from around the age of 6 to 10 years old, however as an adult reading a children’s book I was still kept amused and entertained. Strong has managed to create a humorous family, who happen to have some unusual neighbours and get themselves in the strangest of situations. I didn’t imagine that I would find myself laughing along to a children’s book at the age of 24. I just couldn’t help it, he takes normal conversations and situations and makes them humorous whilst adding a few extra extremities for good measure.

For many children this book is relatable, as it deals with an issue that many of the eldest children have had to go through when Mum is having another baby. Nicholas’s struggles and concerns are dealt with, whilst maintaining humour along the way.

I don’t think I was quite aware of how well my class would take to this book, however when you have 25 child sighing with annoyance when you stop reading for the day – you know you’re on to a winner!

Recommended for parents, children and anyone who doesn’t mind being seen reading a children’s book! 5/5 stars

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Sunday, 24 March 2013

Dune | Frank Herbert | Review

Dune, by Frank Herbert, is, apparently, one of those books that, if you love fantasy and science fiction novels, you have to read. Apparently.

I'd heard good things about it, mostly from sci-fi loving friends who raved and raved about this amazing world and the great characters. For me, it only sort of lived up to its praise. Perhaps that was because I was expecting it to be this amazing, epic story, when really it wasn’t that great.

The story is set on Arrakis, a desert planet somewhere out there in the universe. It has very little water, but because of a rich spice that covers that planet, life can survive on it. The main plot goes like this: The Artreides family have just been sent to govern the planet, but another large, powerful family (sounding anything like Romeo and Juliet? It’s not), the Harkonnen, have placed a traitor in their midst. Dun dun dun. Along with the desert-y conditions and the severe lack of water, there are sand worms that prowl the planet and attack everything that moves. Oh, and they’re like a mile long. Yes, it’s that book.

The main character is Paul Artreides , the son of the head of the family sent to rule the planet. When the family is betrayed and ratted out to the enemy, he flees into the desert (yes, where the creepy long worms are) with his mother. There, they join a desert tribe (as you do); a group of people who seem to be able to avoid and survive the worm attacks. Eventually, Paul becomes the leader of the tribe, and, after a multitude of various events, he begins to see the future and becomes the centre of a prophesy. Of course.

The story in itself was good. Despite it sounding weird and crazy, I did enjoy the overall plot and story line. I got a bit confused in the last 3rd I think, but perhaps that’s because I wasn't paying enough attention. I found it a bit difficult to read. Maybe it was the language used, or because there were so many characters, and jumps between things. I don’t know, but it took me a long while to get through it. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if it were a different writing style...maybe? To be honest, I’m not really sure...but there was something about it that I didn’t like.

Apparently there are about a million other books in the series, but only 6 have been written by Frank Herbert. The others were written by Brian Herbert and Kevin. J. Anderson. And there was a mini-series made in 2000, called Dune, and then another miniseries made in 2003, called Children of Dune. Maybe I will watch them. I don't think I'll read the rest of them. It would take a life time...and it may be more confusing.

But! Having said all this, and only giving it two stars, if you like sci-fi, fantasy, and you think you’re a bit of a geek, then do have a read. Let me know what you think.

2020 update: There's a new adaptation of Dune hitting cinemas in 2020. It actually looks decent, and while I'm not willing to give the book another shot, I'll definitely be checking out the movie.

This review was written by regular reviewer Anjali, get to know her here.
Image from GoodReads.

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WELCOME TO BLOGGER'S BOOKSHELF...

where our team of writers love to talk all things books, sharing reviews, features, lists, interviews and more.

Getting lost in a book is escapism at it's finest and it's what everyone who contributes here thrives on.

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Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Being A Booktuber | Interview With Marie aka BookswithMarie

Monday, 1 April 2013