Adult Fiction for YA Readers!

I've met quite a lot of readers in the past who read only YA and want to read a little bit of adult fiction, but don't know where to start. So today I thought I'd recommend some adult fiction for YA lovers by selecting a few adult books that share some similar themes to certain YA books!

The Gargoyle is Andrew Davidson's debut, and so far only, novel, and I fell in love with it when I first read it. I'll admit it's nothing like A Thousand Nights, really; the main character is a severely burned and suicidal pornographer. So why do I recommend it to fans of A Thousand Nights? Well, it's another book with a nameless protagonist and one that is heavily reliant on oral storytelling. While in the hospital, the protagonist of The Gargoyle meets another patient who claims they were lovers in a past life, and she continues to visit him to tell him love stories from throughout history. In some ways she is his Scheherazade. It's a stunning book, and I highly recommend it!

I only discovered Robin Talley this year and I think she's such an important voice in the world of YA. I thoroughly enjoyed Lies We Tell Ourselves - you can check out my review here! - and when it comes to adult historical LGBT+ fiction then I can't recommend Sarah Waters enough. Waters has written six novels, all historical fiction, and five of those six have a queer female protagonist. Fingersmith is a wonderful place to start with Waters' work; it's a fantastically twisty and turny novel, highly inspired by the Victorian sensation novels that Waters loves to read, and like Lies We Tell Ourselves it has a wonderful LGBT+ couple at its centre. You can check out my review here!

It's been years since I read Things I Want My Daughters to Know, but I absolutely loved it when I first read it. The Year of the Rat and Things I Want My Daughters to Know are very different novels, but at their heart they're both stories that tackle grief, and in particular the grief that comes with losing a mother.

I admit these two may in fact have more dissimilarities than similarities; one main protagonist is a teenage girl while the other is a grown man, and one focuses on travelling through space while the other barely focuses on the travel at all. That being said, I do think fans of Across the Universe, and any other YA sci-fi like it, should give The Book of Strange New Things a chance. There is a lot about Christianity in it, but it isn't a Christian book; the main character, Peter, is travelling to a new planet to preach the Bible - the 'Book of Strange New Things' - to the natives there while, back on earth, his wife Bea begins to struggle with her faith. It's quite a slow-moving book, but it's fascinating.

Which adult books would you recommend to YA readers? Alternatively, which YA books would you recommend to people who don't read much YA?

Top Ten Tuesday | Native American Characters

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 a Thanksgiving themed freebie, and here in the UK we don't celebrate Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd talk about some books that feature Native American characters because I just don't think there are enough out there, not only in books but in films and television, too. The recent film, Pan, is proof enough of that, where Tiger Lily was portrayed by Rooney Mara, who is whiter than milk.

More Native American representation please!

Witch Child by Celia Rees: Celia Rees is one of my favourite authors from my late childhood/early teens. Along with Eva Ibbotson, she's one of the authors I have to thank for sparking my interest in historical fiction when I read her novel Pirates! Witch Child was the second novel of hers that I read, and I loved it; it influenced me in a huge way in both what I read and what I write. Witch Child is told entirely in diary entries, from the point of view of Mary Newbury who is sent to 'the New World' after her beloved grandmother is executed for witchcraft. Once in America, however, she finds herself torn between the community of English settlers she should belong to, and the Native American tribe who seem to understand her abilities better than anyone else ever has. Love this book!

Sorceress by Celia Rees: This is a sequel to Witch Child, set in the present day, which follows a historian who is obsessed with Mary's diary, and Mary's descendent, Agnes, a young Native American girl. I didn't enjoy it as much as Witch Child, but it's still a good book.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie: This book, like most of the books on this list, is one that I haven't gotten around to reading yet. It tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist who leaves the school on his reservation to attend an all-white school where he is the only Native American pupil. It sounds fantastic.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer: I'm not even a little bit ashamed to mention this one. First off, I'm never going to deny that I went through the Twilight phase. I loved these books when they first came out, and I think they did a lot for YA in the publishing world. Secondly, say what you want about this series, but it's pretty much the only series I've read with a lot of Native American characters. Even better? None of them are white-washed in the movies. Just gonna throw that out there.

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie: I mentioned Tiger Lily before, so I had to give this book a mention. I read Peter Pan for my Victorian Popular Fiction module at uni, but I have to admit I didn't really like it that much. It's sold as this whimsical, childhood story, but it's creepy as eff, man. It's a weird book.

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney: This book takes place in Canada, so I guess they're really Native Canadians rather than Native Americans. I started this book and couldn't get into it, but it has such high ratings on Goodreads that I want to give it another try, and given the cold setting I think it'll be a great winter read!

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks: Last year I read Year of Wonders and really enjoyed it. I've been eager to seek out more of Brooks' work ever since and Caleb's Crossing is the one I'm most interested in; loosely based on the story of the first Native American to graduate from Harvard in 1665, Brooks tells the story of a young woman, Bethia Mayfield, who longs for the education that her sex deprives her of. Bethia's father, a minister, wants to convert the local Native American people, and so he sends Caleb, a Native American boy and friend of Bethia's, to university. Bethia finds herself working as his housekeeper, and I think this book'll be so interesting to read.

The Orenda by Joseph Boyden: This is another piece of historical fiction, and what I love about it is that it includes conflicts between Native American tribes as well as conflicts between Native American people as a whole and white settlers.

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs: This is the first book in the urban fantasy Mercy Thompson series. Mercy is a walker (skinwalker, I'm guessing, which is a creature in Native American mythology) with the ability to shift into a coyote at will, as well as a mechanic. She sounds pretty darn cool to me!

The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich: This is another one that sounds fantastic. It's set in a small town in North Dakota where, generations before, a farm family were murdered. The case has yet to be officially solved but, from the description, I'm guessing the murder was blamed on Native Americans living on a nearby reservation. I can't wait to read it! Also I want to read as much of Louise Erdrich's work as I can, because she seems to write about Native Americans quite a lot.

What did you talk about this week?

Film Recommendations for Austen Fans

Considering I'm not a huge lover of Austen, though I will begrudgingly admit that she's starting to grow on me, it might surprise people how often she gets mentioned on my blog; when you do a degree in English Literature she's literally impossible to pass by!

Though I'm not the biggest fan of the way Austen's books are written I do enjoy watching adaptations of her stories - they are good stories, they wouldn't still be everywhere if they weren't - and today I'd thought I'd recommend a few films that aren't adaptations of the original texts, but are still films I think any Austen fan would enjoy. I have three modern films, set in the '90s and onwards, and three period films to share with you.

I guess this is a pretty obvious one, but I love Bridget Jones's Diary so I couldn't not mention it. I still haven't read the book but I always enjoy the film, and particularly love watching it around New Year. If we're going to be technical we could argue that this is an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, in the sense that it's a modern day adaptation, but I'm still going to count it anyway. If you're after a fun film with a bad first impression and a happy ending, much like Pride and Prejudice, then you'll love this!

This is another modern day adaptation, so I'll get this one out the way with before we get onto the more obscure choices. If you're a fan of stories with semi-unlikeable protagonists who are ultimately good at heart, like Emma, you'll like this film - it's also a great film if you happen to be a lover of films like Mean Girls and 10 Things I Hate About You. If you're a huge Austen fan, however, I imagine you've already watched Clueless and Bridget Jones's Diary!

This is probably the most obscure recommendation on my list, but I think it works! Of the Austens I've read so far (I say 'read', but I've only really read two of them all the way through and others I read bits of for university) Sense and Sensibility is definitely my least favourite. I just don't find the story all that interesting, and I really hate the ending; in my opinion Elinor and Marianne both deserved better, particularly Marianne. A Royal Affair is based on a true story, of the affair between Caroline Matilda of Great Britain (sister of George III) and her husband's personal physician Johann Friedrich Struensee. Caroline was married off to Christian VII of Denmark who struggled with mental illness throughout his life, back in a time when mental illness was understood even less than it is now. Caroline and Johann's story is heartbreaking and this film is so beautiful. To me A Royal Affair has that same gloomy quality that Sense and Sensibility does; they're both fitting stories if you've just been through a break-up and you need a good cry.

Fun fact: Mansfield Park is the only one of Austen's novels in which slavery is mentioned. I guess that's not exactly a fun fact, but it's interesting, right? Mansfield Park is also one of the two Austen novels, alongside Emma, that I haven't read at all, though I admit it's also one of the ones I'm most curious about because I hear it talked about so little. Belle is another period drama based on a true story, on the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle. Dido was the mixed race daughter of Maria Belle, an enslaved African woman in the West Indies, and Sir John Lindsay, a British naval officer. When Lindsay returned to Britain he took Dido with him and entrusted her to the care of his childless uncle, Lord Mansfield, and his wife. The two of them raised Dido as a lady, alongside their orphaned niece Lady Elizabeth Murray. Mansfield was Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, and during his time in this role he brought about the formal end of slavery in Britain. In his will Mansfield confirmed Dido's freedom (as she had been born into slavery) and made her an heiress. Pretty impressive. This is a brilliant film, and both Dido and Fanny Price have quite a bit in common as they are both sent to live with wealthier relatives and both struggle to find their place in the world.

Letters to Juliet is cheesy and predictable and, at times, pretty naff, but like Bridget Jones's Diary and Clueless, it's fun. If you're in the mood to watch something you don't really have to think about, something you want to sit back and enjoy with a glass of wine and a bar of chocolate, then this is the film for you. If you're a fan of stories about second chances, about lovers who didn't get it right the first time and want to try again, like Persuasion, then I recommend watching this film. Plus it's set in Italy, and Italy's beautiful!

Finally, we have my favourite Austen: Northanger Abbey. I love Guillermo del Toro's work - I think Pan's Labyrinth is fantastic, and I love others films he's been involved in such as the Hellboy films and Mama - and Crimson Peak is right up my alley. I love Gothic stories, love love love them, and stories about women who move to creepy new houses are right up my alley; the synopsis of this film reminds me of The Miniaturist, actually! I think the story of a young girl who moves to a spooky house inhabited by a mysterious family seems like the perfect film for any Northanger Abbey fan!

Have you seen any of these films? Are there any others you'd recommend?

Late November TBR!

Today I thought I'd share with you some of the books I'd really like to try and read by the end of November, but as this is a very over-ambitious amount of books and I don't do well when it comes to TBRs, we'll see how it goes. The majority of these books are sci-fi, because there's no better time to read sci-fi than during Sci-Fi Month!

I received eARCs of both of these from NetGalley, so I'd really like to get them both under my belt soon. I'm actually reading The Only Woman in the Room right now, and I'm planning to get to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet very soon because I've heard nothing but great things about it.

I love historical fiction, and I love it even more when it has fantastical elements, so The Falconer has been on my radar for a while. I picked it up a few nights ago after I received an eARC of the second book, The Vanishing Throne from NetGalley, and I'm hoping to finish it soon and then jump straight into the second book and whack out some reviews!

I love the White Trash Zombie books and I always find them so quick and fun to read. If I can cross these two off my TBR during Sci-Fi Month I'll be a happy bunny, as I'd like to focus on Christmassy books in December and some other books I'd really like to have read by the end of the year.

I'm hoping I get to all of these. The Falconer and The Only Woman in the Room I'll definitely finish, and if I can read The Vanishing Throne and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, too, then I'll have crossed three of my eARCs off my TBR before I dive into my Christmassy eARCs! If I can, though, I'd love to get to those White Trash Zombie books, too.

What are you reading at the moment?

The Book Bloggers and Books Tag!

I saw Alexa @ Alexa Loves Books do this tag, originally created by Kaitlin @ Reading is My Treasure, and I thought it looked like too much fun to pass up. The Book Bloggers and Books Tag basically involves talking about some of your bloggers and the books you think they're advocates for, or the books you most associate with them.

So I've selected a handful of my fellow bloggers, and I'm going to do just that!

Natalie @ A Sea Change

Natalie is a huge fantasy fan. She loves Terry Pratchett - she's recently been reviewing the Tiffany Aching books on her blog - and Uprooted is one of her favourite books of the year, in fact I ended up reading it myself because she loved it so much. Poor Natalie also has the misfortune of knowing me in real life, which means I'm constantly throwing books at her while screaming 'READ THIS AND THEN TALK TO ME ABOUT IT', which is basically what happened with The Lunar Chronicles. It's one of those series I've been pushing on all of my friends, and luckily for me Natalie will often seek out the books I recommend to her. What a good egg.

Mallory @ The Local Muse

Mallory's one of the few people I know who makes me want to give Austen a second chance. For some reason Emma is always the Austen I associate with Mallory, I think purely because I can vividly remember her very enthusiastic review of it. She's also a huge Cat Winters fan, she's really made me want to check out her work, and I've lost count of the amount of times she's told me I should read The Handmaid's Tale. I promise I'll get to it, Mallory! I really recommend checking out her blog, especially if you're a fan of classics.

Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight

Is this cheating? Nah. I love The Hunger Games, I think it's an excellent trilogy, but I've never met anyone who loves it as much as Shannon does. I love it when people talk about the books that mean the most to them, and it's very clear that this trilogy is very important to Shannon - she's the blogger I most associate with it. Even if she does like Peeta...

Check out Shannon's blog for even better gif usage!

Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows

A very blue-toned selection for Micheline! I really like how those three look together, actually. Like Natalie, Micheline's another blogger I associate with fantasy. She wrote a post all about how much she loves Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for Harry Potter Month, which she co-hosted with Faith @ GeekyZooGirl, and I know she's a big fan of Brandon Sanderson and Garth Nix, too.

Deanna @ Deanna Writes

If there's one thing I've learned about Deanna, it's that she loves Meg Cabot. Somehow she's one of those authors who managed to pass me by when I was younger, but Deanna loves her books so much I really want to check one out for myself. She recently wrote a post all about her love for Ready Player One for Sci-Fi Month, hosted by Rinn @ Rinn Reads, which is another book I need to get to. Basically Deanna's responsible for a lot of the books on my TBR...

Cait @ Paper Fury

There are three things I know for certain that Cait loves: Maggie Stiefvater, Derek Landy and dragons. Basically if Stiefvater and Landy teamed up to write a dragon book I think it'd make all of her dreams come true. The Raven Boys is yet another book I still need to get to, but I read Demon Road a few weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Unfortunately I've never been able to get into A Song of Ice and Fire - I've tried reading it and I've tried listening to it - but the books have such a huge fanbase (including Cait!) so I'd like to give it another try in future.

I'm not going to tag anyone because I'm lazy, so if you want to do this tag then do it - I'd love to see which books you associate with other book bloggers!

This Week in Books | 18/11/15

This week I'm joining in with Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost & Found to talk about the books I've been reading recently!

NOW: Last night I decided to pick up The Falconer to see if I was in the mood to read it, and ended up reading the first hundred pages in an hour. It's not the best thing I've ever read, and I do fear there may be a dreaded love triangle, but it's a lot of fun! I haven't really read any books featuring fae and it's been a long time since I read a book set in Scotland, so I'm planning to finish this one soon. I'm also currently reading Eileen Pollack's memoir The Only Woman in the Room, and I'm enjoying it so far.

THEN: I finished, and really enjoyed, Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked at the weekend; it was very interesting to see how the story of Little Red Riding Hood has changed over the centuries, and how it's been used as both a moral tale and for advertising. I recommend it, especially to any fairy tale fans!

NEXT: The main reason I picked up The Falconer is because I received an eARC of the second book in the trilogy, The Vanishing Throne, from NetGalley. The Vanishing Throne is actually released tomorrow, but November slipped away from me before I could try and read it in advance. I'm hoping to finish The Falconer very soon, though, and then I'll jump straight into this one and review them both! Also you should all check out Elizabeth May's Twitter account. It's brilliant.

Top Ten Tuesday | Don't Quote Me On It

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 Quotes I Loved From Books I Read In The Past Year Or So', and I decided to only pick quotes from books I've read this year. Purely because I've read quite a few books this year!

Signal to Noise

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Burial Rites

by Hannah Kent

The Miniaturist

by Jessie Burton

The Little Stranger

by Sarah Waters

Simon vs.the Homo Sapiens Agenda

by Becky Albertalli

Jane Eyre's Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine's Story

by Jody Gentian Bower

Northanger Abbey

by Jane Austen

Beyond the Pale: Folklore, Family, and the Mystery of our Hidden Genes

by Emily Urquhart

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

by Elizabeth Gilbert

My Life as a White Trash Zombie

by Diana Rowland

Which quotes made your list this week?