Top Ten Tuesday | A Series of Failures

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Series I've Been Meaning To Start But Haven't', which is essentially the story of my life. I'm a bad finisher and I'm impatient, so I'm much better at reading standalones than series because I can't bear the wait. A series has to be very special to captivate me. That being said, I miss that feeling of being captivated by a series and a huge cast of characters the way I was when I was younger, from Harry Potter to The Old Kingdom to Twilight (yep, I went through that phase, too), so here are ten series I'd really like to get to at some point.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan: If I'm being honest I don't know if I ever will read this series now, I feel like I should have read them when I was a bit younger because I'm not sure I'll get the sense of humour now that I'm 25 (oh god I'm 25), but I still love the idea of the series. I may get around to it one of these days, maybe it'd be a fun, quick series to blast through over the summer months.

The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan: I actually tried reading A Natural History of Dragons a few years ago but ended up DNFing it, I just wasn't feeling it at the time, but I've heard so many people raving about the series and it ticks so many of my boxes (I love books about ladies in science) that I think I have to give it another chance. I'm going to give the audiobooks a try.

The Bel Dame Apocrypha series by Kameron Hurley: This sounds violent and gritty and so fun. I recently read Hurley's essay collection, The Geek Feminist Revolution, and it's made me want to read her fiction even more. This sci-fi series is set in a world where insects play a large role, I believe, and where the society is inspired by Islam rather than Christianity which sounds super interesting to me.

The Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley: I love me some historical crime, and this series set in the 1950s has a child protagonist who loves science. All the yes. I'm always interested by books written for adults with child protagonists because children can be so difficult to write, so I'm hoping this series will be a good one when I get to it.

The Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo: I should have read this by now, especially as it's only two books long. I've heard fairly mixed things about Six of Crows, but my friend Natalie @ A Sea Change loved it and I really enjoyed Bardugo's story in Summer Days and Summer Nights, so I'm looking forward to getting to it at some point this year.

The Gold Seer Trilogy by Rae Carson: The covers of these books are beautiful and I love the concept, so hopefully I'll at least give the first book a go soon after I received it the Christmas before last from the lovely Mikayla @ Mikayla's Bookshelf.

The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik: This series is essentially the Napoleonic Wars with dragons. What's not to like? Admittedly I'm not actually the biggest dragon fan, I'm much more of a unicorn girl, but I love the idea of including dragons in a well-known historical setting. I struggled a bit with Novik's writing when I read Uprooted (reviewed here) which is why I haven't started this series yet, but I'm hoping I enjoy it.

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon: I really want to watch the series but I want to read the books first, only there's so many of them and they're all HUGE. It's pretty intimidating.

The October Daye series by Seanan McGuire: Seanan McGuire (also known as Mira Grant) is one of my favourites, and though I'm not the biggest fan of faeries I do really like the sound of this urban fantasy series. There are already ten books in the series, though, so I have some catching up to do!

The Glamourist Histories series by Mary Robinette Kowal: Similar to Temeraire, this series involves slipping something fantastical into Georgian/Regency history. These books are essentially Jane Austen with magic and considering I own the first book, Shades of Milk and Honey, I'd like to start the series this year.

I actually own all but one of these books, The Lightning Thief being the only one I don't have a copy of, so perhaps I should set myself the challenge of reading the first book in the nine other series by the end of 2017...

Which series made your list this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | Summer TBR!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

I'm travelling from South Wales to North England with work today, so I won't get around to leaving my own comments and replies until tomorrow - I promise I'm not just being rude!

I'm not a fan of setting myself TBRs, but I do love seasonal TBRs! This is the first time... ever, really, where I haven't had a free summer. I'm working now, I'm not in school or university anymore, so I don't know if I'll have plenty of time to read, but I'm hoping I will because I've actually found myself reading more since finishing uni.

Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan: With a title like that, how could I not put this book on my summer TBR? Colgan's books are so much fun, and I love a bit of light reading during the hot summer months.

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier: If you've been following my blog for a while you'll know I fell in love with Daphne du Maurier last year when I read both Frenchman's Creek (reviewed here!) and Rebecca. I've been meaning to read Jamaica Inn for a while, and a story centered around smuggling on the Cornish coast sounds like a really fun summer read.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters: This book is set during the post-WWII summer in a decaying Georgian mansion. It sounds gloriously atmospheric, and I'm looking forward to crossing it off my TBR this summer.

Past Perfect by Leila Sales: As a history nut, I'm totally up for reading a story about a girl spending her summer working at a village dedicated to Colonial Reenactment.

Lumberjanes, Vol.1 by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis and Brooke Allen: A group of girls fighting monsters at summer camp? Yes please!

Ms. Marvel, Vol.3: Crushed by G. Willow Wilson, Takeshi Miyazawa, Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos: Due to be released in a week, I've already pre-ordered my copy of this. I can't wait to see what Kamala gets up to next!

Rebel Heart by Moira Young: I really, really need to continue with the Dust Lands trilogy, and with a post-apocalyptic desert for a setting I think this'll make for a pretty good read during the summer months. 

Raging Star by Moira Young: I'd like to finish this trilogy over the summer - it's been long enough since I started it!

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan: It's time to confess: I still haven't read this series. Much like Lumberjanes, though, Percy gets sent to summer camp, which sounds like an ideal setting for a summer read! I love Greek mythology, too, so it's about time I read this series.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray: I have another confession: I have yet to read anything by Libba Bray. I'm dying to read her Gemma Doyle trilogy and her Diviners series, but this book sounds like so much fun, too, and definitely a good read for summer!

Which books made your list?

Top 5 | Worst Book Adaptations

From Harry Potter to The Great Gatsby, over the past few years book adaptations have been absolutely everywhere. I've already done two previous posts in which I talk about my ten favourite adaptations, so now I think it's time that we address those adaptations that we wish had never been made in the first place.

This post isn't meant to be cruel or to make fun of anyone's tastes, these are just my five worst book adaptations!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)

dir. Chris Columbus

Based on The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

First up we have Chris Columbus's adaptation of the first book in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians series.

Now I have to admit I haven't actually read any of the Percy Jackson books. Yet. I actually started The Lightning Thief some time last year and I really enjoyed the chapters I read, but then my dissertation got in the way and I just haven't returned to it. While I have yet to really read the series, the chapters I did read were enough to tell me that the film isn't a very faithful adaptation.

That being said, I do actually like this film! If I watch it and forget it was a book first it's a lot of fun - something easy to watch on the nights when I just want to relax and not think. Even so, as much as it might be a fun film, it's not a good adaptation.

Inkheart (2008)

dir. Iain Softley

Based on Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

In many ways this adaptation of the first book in Cornelia Funke's Inkworld trilogy is the same as the Percy Jackson adaptations. If you forget about the books entirely and just watch this film then it's an enjoyable film; I remember seeing the film advertised in the cinema before I'd even heard of the books and I thought it looked really cool, but thankfully I read the trilogy before I watched it.

The main reason this book has made my list is because I love the Inkworld trilogy. I discovered it during my teens and I absolutely adored it; Funke's worldbuilding is fantastic and her characters are beautifully written (though I have to admit Meggie becomes less and less of a main protagonist after the first book). So when the film adaptation was relatively weak in comparison and the ending ruined the possibility of them making adaptations of the second and third books, I was so disappointed.

There's so much in this trilogy that I actually think it would make a brilliant TV series instead!

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

dir. Mel Stuart

Based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Whenever I tell someone I prefer Tim Burton's adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I'm usually met with gaping mouths and cries of: 'but the 70's adaptation is a classic!'

I, however, really cannot stand this adaptation. Why? Because rather than telling the story of a little boy whose luck finally changes when he finds the last golden ticket, this film is basically 'The Gene Wilder Show'. The fact that the name in the title has been changed is proof enough of that.

For me the 2005 adaptation is a lot more bizarre, fun and true to the original story. Obviously I don't expect an exact replica of a book when I sit down to watch an adaptation, but this film really takes the biscuit. It's also worth mentioning that Roald Dahl himself disowned this film, claiming that he was disappointed with the lack of emphasis on Charlie.

Eragon (2006)

dir. Stefen Fangmeier

Based on Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Do I really need to say anything?

I'm not a fan of Eragon. I tried reading the book a few years ago and I managed to get about three quarters of the way through before I just had to put it down. Whenever I've told fans of the Inheritance Cycle this they've often told me that the series gets especially good from the second book onwards, but I'm not the kind of reader who appreciates having to 'just get through' the first book before I can start to enjoy the story. I could be reading something else!

Having said that, even though I've never finished the book even I can recognise that this adaptation is just appalling. Like Percy Jackson and Inkheart, if you forget that this is an adaptation you can sit down and enjoy it on a lazy Sunday afternoon, but even then it's still a pretty bad film.

I really do feel sorry for fans of the Inheritance Cycle.

Birdsong (2012)

dir. Philip Martin

Based on Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Unlike the other adaptations on this list, this adaptation of Birdsong is a two-part BBC drama. And it's terrible.

If you haven't read Birdsong then I can't recommend it highly enough, and now that we're honouring the 100 year anniversary of WW1 it's the perfect time to read it. It's a story that takes place both in France during WW1 and in England during the 70's. In France we follow a soldier called Stephen Wraysford through his harrowing experiences, and in the 70's we follow Elizabeth, his granddaughter, who is trying to learn more about the war.

It's one of those stories that will haunt you forever. Every now and then it creeps back into your mind and it's just stunning.

So when I discovered the BBC were doing an adaptation I was both excited and extremely nervous. Then I watched it, and was devastatingly disappointed. So much so that I didn't bother watching the second part. Honestly, the majority of the first part was just Eddie Redmayne and Clemence Poesy staring at each other in what I think was supposed to be sexual frustration, but looked more like constipation. I wasn't a fan of the casting either; Redmayne looks nothing like the Stephen I imagined while I was reading.

Out of all the adaptations on this list this one is definitely my least favourite - just seeing the cover makes me grumpy.

So those are my least favourite book adaptations, what are yours?

J.

Jess Suggests | Postmodern Fiction

Ah, postmodernism, a term many English students are very familiar with even when they don't know what it means, and it's not surprising so many people don't as postmodernism doesn't exactly have a set meaning.
     One of the most confusing aspects of postmodernism is that it didn't come around after modernism, but during. Why postmodernism, then? I have no idea. While modernism tried to prove that literature could be completely new, postmodernism arose with the argument that new literature is impossible; stories will always come from other stories. The argument was often given rather sceptically - after all Angela Carter's fairy tale re-tellings aren't particularly charming - but as postmodernism has developed it has become more of a celebration of our oldest stories by giving them new life.
     It is this aspect of postmodernism I will be looking at today by showing you five books which would never have been written if it weren't for an older text to act as inspiration. There are hundreds of postmodern novels out there today so these are just five examples from a very, very long list:

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

Haroun's father is the greatest of all storytellers. His magical stories bring laughter to the sad city of Alifbay. But, one terrible day, everything goes wrong and his father runs out of stories to tell.

Haroun, determined to return the storyteller's gift to his father, flies off on the back of the Hoopoe bird to the Sea of Stories - and so begins a fabulous, exciting and dazzling adventure.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories has to be one of the ultimate postmodern reads. There are references from stories all over the world in this book - which makes sense, given that the main character's father is a storyteller - but the main inspiration has to be The 1001 Nights, perhaps better known as The Arabian Nights; the series of tales which originate from Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and from which we have famous stories like Aladdin and Sindbad the Sailor.
     After Haroun's mother runs away with their upstairs neighbour - as she no longer believes that being married to a storyteller is practical - Haroun's father Rashid begins to lose his ability for storytelling. With the help of Iff the Water Genie and Butt the talking Hoopoe bird, Haroun travels to the bizarre and fantasical Land of Gup, where the soldiers wear pages from Shakespeare and there are Plentimaw fish in the sea, to defeat the evil Khattam-Shud, who is so boring he is poisoning the stories.

     This book is an absolute delight to read no matter how old you are, and it's a wonderful book to read if you're looking to rekindle your love for some of the world's oldest stories. It's also a fantastic celebration of postmodernism and of the way that we reuse stories to keep storytelling alive. As far as I'm concerned this underrated book is a must read.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school... again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus' master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus' stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

Let's face it as far as stories go you can't get much older than Greek mythology. Yeah it can be pretty messed up - Athena burst out of Zeus's forehead fully clothed and poor Persephone was the daughter of a brother and sister who then married her uncle - but we love it all the same. 

     What's great about this novel - and this series - is that Riordan hasn't tried to rewrite the mythology or tame it, he's simply taken the idea of demigods and brought them forward into the present. Not only has he given the mythology the feeling of never having gone away, but he's also made it fun and accessable for younger readers; in a way Riordan is the bridge between mythology and children as Terry Deary is the bridge between children and history. 

     After finding out that he is in fact the son of Poseidon our protagonist Percy is sent to Camp Half-Blood, where all demigods are kept safe and are able to learn how to control their abilities. Throughout the story he encounters a satyr in the form of his best friend Grover, Annabeth the daughter of Athena, a centaur, a minotaur, Medusa, and even Hades and Persephone. This is an ideal book for any lover of Greek mythology and indeed for anyone with an interest in the mythology who feels a little intimidated by the original tales.

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

Meet Bridget Jones—a 30-something Singleton who is certain she would have all the answers if she could:

a. lose 7 pounds

b. stop smoking

c. develop Inner Poise

Bridget Jones' Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of Bridget's permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement — a year in which she resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult, and learn to program the VCR. 

Unlike the other books listed here Bridget Jones's Diary is a modern day re-telling of a much more recent classic: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Unlike the previous two novels mentioned this is a direct re-telling of its original, yes there are some differences, but the story is in fact very similar to that of Austen's novel.

     We have Bridget Jones, our modern day Elizabeth Bennet, Mark Darcy, our modern day Fitzwilliam Darcy, and Daniel Cleaver, our modern day George Wickham. Through her wonderfully witty diary entries we see the world through her eyes as she struggles under the pressure of being a singleton in her thirties in a world full of friends and family who are desperate to see her settled and married. Sound familiar? Of course. The entirety of Pride and Prejudice is centered around the Bennet family trying to marry off their five daughters to good husbands.

     What's brilliant about this book is that it doesn't jump out as an Austen re-telling or try to shove the 200 year old story down your throat. You don't need to be a fan of Austen's works to enjoy this, but if you are then consider it an added bonus. This book is funny and charming, Helen Fielding has done a wonderful job of bringing a famous story to a modern-day audience.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . . 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Following Bridget Jones's Diary we have another re-telling of a classic story, one that every child knows well: Cinderella. Originally Cinderella was one of the many fairy tales collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, more commonly known as the Brothers Grimm. It's a story which has been told again and again in many different formats including  operas, ballets, pantomimes and film versions such as Disney's Cinderella, Ever After, A Cinderella Story, Another Cinderella Story, and literary re-tellings such as Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted, Amber T. Smith's If the Shoe Fits and Gregory Maguire's Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. Obviously there's something about this story that we just can't get enough of, whether it's our adoration of true love at the stroke of midnight or simply our desire to root for the underdog, either way Cinderella is not going anywhere.

     And now? Now we have Cinder, a fantastic posthuman re-telling of the classic tale in which our Cinderella is a cyborg. Marissa Meyer has managed to give a well-known, age old story an utterly fresh spin and modernised it for an audience of people who are now obsessed with technology. Meyer has even opened up the fairy tale genre for sci-fi fans all over the world which can only be a good thing because this year sci-fi is huge, particularly with  the completion of Beth Revis's Across the Universe trilogy this January and upcoming films such as Man of Steel, coming this June, and an adaptation of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game set to be released in November.

     No longer is Cinderella a meek girl who sweeps the floors and waits for her fairy godmother, Meyer's Cinderella is a mechanic who really drives the novel forward by leading the plot in the way that all great protagonists do. Like Bridget Jones's Diary you don't need to be a fan of Cinderella to enjoy Cinder, for while it is indeed a re-telling it has been re-told in such a way that the story and characters feel brand new. This is a delightful book.

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

'R' is a zombie. He has no name, no memories and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.

Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows - warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can't understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins.

This has never happened before. It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave. He wants to breathe again, he wants to live, and Julie wants to help him. But their grim, rotting world won't be changed without a fight...

You know what would have made Romeo and Juliet better? Zombies, of course! William Shakespeare is credited with writing possibly the most famous love story ever, but it's Isaac Marion who has made the story dead cool. See what I did there?

     Yes apparently a rose by any other name really would smell as sweet, even if it was covered in rotting flesh. Warm Bodies is full of familiar characters disguised by tweaked names; we have our hero R (Romeo), our heroine Julie (Juliet), her boyfriend Perry (Paris), her friend Nora (the Nurse) and R's friend M/Marco (Mercutio). R is a zombie, and after he kills Perry and eats his brain he begins to develop feelings he no longer realised he had for Perry's girlfriend Julie. When Julie learns that R isn't quite what he seems her belief that a cure for the undead can be found is reignited.

     This story is very much a marmite kind of a story. You don't have to be a fan of Romeo and Juliet to enjoy it, but there is a very clear cut line between people who like it a lot and people who don't like it at all. One thing that can't be denied, however, is that it has brought zombie fiction to women; that's not to say that women can't enjoy zombie films and fiction filed under the horror genre - I'm a woman myself and I love a good zombie story just as much as the next person - but in creating a piece of YA zombie chick fiction Marion has introduced a lot more women to the undead in literature, and that can only be a good thing. Try it for yourself, and give the movie a watch too!

So if postmodernism is now something which interests you go and check it out! There are plenty of postmodern texts to be had.

     Thanks for reading! J.