The Reading Book Post, August 24th

Hello, everyone! The lucky number for the Classics Club Spin is 5. So, from my list, I'll have to read Daniel Deronda by George Eliot until October 23. I'll better start reading it soon. Also, the next themed read will be (most probably) books adapted to/from video games. If you have any suggestions please let me know. But, let's see what happened in the literary world the previous week.

• The Hugo Award Winners 2015 were announced. Among the winner is the Chinese Author Cixin Liu for the novel The Three Body Problem. Note: why so many No Award this year?

• Are you as excited as I am about The Girl in the Spider's Web, the new installment of the Millenium series? If yes, you can now read an exclusive excerpt from the upcoming novel.

• We are only two months away from the publication of The Slade House, the now David Mitchell novel. The UK cover was revealed and it's absolutely stunning. Also, if you're a twitter user look out because the author will begin a new twitter story from one of the characters of the new novel, which will lead to The Slade House.

• The University of Texas has acquired the archives of the novelist Kazuo Ishiguro. The archives cost the university a little over a million dollars and they include a discarded first chapter of the novel The Remains of the Day.

• Morrissey has decided to write a novel. Its title is List of the Lost and it will be published at the end of September. The exact date of publication will be made public later this week. 

• Can you Guess Which Numbers are Missing from These Book Titles? Take the quiz to test yourself! Also, Which Coming-of-Age Novel Should you Read This Fall? Find out from this quiz. I should read The Vacant Swing by B.N. Henry. What did you get?

Confession Saturday: Dear Lady Chatterley

Hello, everyone! Confession Saturday is a weekly feature, in which we will have the chance to express our feelings towards certain characters. This time of the week we will choose one character and write to him/her about all the things we would like to say. We can explain why we like or dislike each character, which of his/her actions we don't understand and generally whatever comes to mind. 

Today I'll write a letter to Lady Constance Chatterley from Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928) by D.H. Lawrence. She is a woman in an unsatisfactory marriage and has the courage to fight for what she wants. 

Dear Connie,

first of all, we have the same name. This doesn't happen often in literature, so I was so happy when I found out about it. And in a novel I've read numerous times and I love.

I'm not sure that I like what you did. Cheating is always cheating, no matter why it happened. Your husband is so cold towards you and your marriage is clearly not a happy one. But divorce wasn't easy at the time and there was also the differences in classes. This brings me to the thing that I like about you. You stood up for what you wanted. You needed contact, you needed to feel wanted and loved and when you found those feelings you didn't let them go. Again, I'm not saying that what you did was right, but you did offer some of the most sensual scenes in literature.

I don't know what I would do if I were in your position. I admire that you were brave enough, especially towards the end, but I don't know if I would be like that. I hope you didn't lose what you had with Mellors as the time went by.

Yours,

Konna 

The Classics Club Spin #10

The Classics Club is doing another Classics Club Spin. In this event, all the Classics Club members are called to read a classic book within a certain amount of time. But it's not that simple. Each one who wants to participate makes a Spin list, then the Club announces a certain number and the book that it's in that list's number is the one that you have to read. In the last spin, I read Dracula by Bram Stoker. I can't wait to find out which classic I'll have to read for this one!

So, here is my list:

1. Turn of the Screw by Henry James
2. Nana by Emile Zola
3. Flatland by Edwin A. Abbot
4. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
5. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
6. Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne
7. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
8. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
9. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
10. Howards End by E.M.Forster
11. Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
12. Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford
13. La Dame aux Camelias by Alexander Dumas-fis
14. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
15. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
16. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
17. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
18. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
19. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
20. Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore

From these books I'm eager to read Wives and Daughters, Sons and Lovers, Parade's End and Howards End.  The ones I am afraid of are Nana, Lorna Doone, Flatland and La Dame aux Camelias. Anyway, on Monday we'll learn the lucky number.

Thursday Quotables: Lips Too Chilled

Hello, everyone! Welcome to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. Every week we highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week.

Today I'll share you a few haikus from the book Lips Too Chilled (2014) by Matsuo Basho. They are all so simple and beautiful. I love them.

Have you read any haikus? Which one is your favourite?

Review: Funny Girl by Nick Hornby

Title: Funny Girl

Author: Nick Hornby

Publisher: Penguin Viking

Date of Publication: 2014

Number of Pages: 342

Summary

Make them laugh, and they're yours forever...

It's the swinging '60s and the nation is mesmerized by unlikely comedy star Sophie Straw, the former Blackpool beauty queen who just wants to make people laugh, like her heroine Lucille Ball.

Behind the scenes, the cast and crew are having the time of their lives. But when the script begins to get a bit too close to home, and life starts imitating art, they all face a choice.

The writers, Tony and Bill, comedy obsessives, each harbour a secret. The Oxbridge-educated director, Dennis, loves his job but hates his marriage. The male star Clive feels he's destined for better things. And Sophie Straw, who's changed her name and abandoned her old life, must decide whether to keep going or change the channel.

Review

My expectations for Funny Girl were pretty high since I was familiar with the other novels of Nick Hornby and I've enjoyed them a lot. In fact, whenever I would pick one of his books I would devour it within a day. Moreover, Funny Girl happened to be the last novel of the funny books themed read (the last one being a graphic novel) and I really wanted to have a nice finale.

First of all, I loved the setting of this novel. The '60s for the British comedy fit perfectly the plot. Sophie Straw wanted only one thing: to make people laugh. But she was in a decade when they were all men. Tony, Ernie, Eric, Ernie... There was nobody called Lucy or Barbara in that lot. There were no funny girls. Even her manager wanted her to pursue a career as a model, not star in a comedy series. It felt like a miracle of some sort that she managed to do so well.

But this decade also felt distant to me. I'm relatively new to comedy, so I had hardly heard of any of the comedians mentioned. When I researched the names for the Play(list) by the Book I began to understand the style of comedy that was popular then and so I felt more in context.

Although the title of the novel is Funny Girl, it's ultimately not only about Sophie. It's about five people getting together at the right time to create something innovative for television. Indeed Barbara (and Jim) was created when Tony and Bill met Sophie, their producer Dennis recognised the fresh idea and Clive saw his chance to become a tv star. Each one of them had their own lives and secrets, but they had found a point of communication that enabled them to reach success. As it usually happens in every relationship, this thing didn't last forever. Boredom, feelings of getting stuck, confusion of the fictional situations of the series with the reality were some of the things they all had to face.

The writing was the typical writing style of Nick Hornby. Quick-witted, funny, easy-to-read, but able to reach into the heart of the characters. Sophie wasn't as funny as I was expecting, but she was very likeable. The rest of the characters were also unique, each with their own history and choices they needed to make. But what impressed me the most is the fact that this could actually be the story of how a television series was created. Barbara (and Jim) was fictional, but I could imagine a pilot episode airing in Comedy Playhouse and then go on for several seasons.

All in all, Funny Girl sucked me into its world and left me feeling like I really knew Sophie, Dennis and the rest of the characters. It was a really quick read and I wish it were a little longer. Even though it wasn't perfect, I would recommend it to everybody. Don't hesitate to pick it up!

So, my advice is...

Be charmed by Sophie Straw from Blackpool!