Wednesday 4 September 2013

The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

Blurb:

The hero-narrator of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.

Review:

Ok so after reading that blurb I'm pretty sure I've missed an awful lot of the 'deepness' of this novel, but I'm just going to talk about the stuff that I noticed in the novel, so hopefully this won't be super pretentious or full of literary condescension. 

'Catcher' is one of those books that millions of people hold very close to their heart, it provided comfort and understanding to them as they were growing up. And while I didn't love it as much as others, I do understand what makes this book such a classic.

My first question is what is Holden's problem with the movies? He seems to hate them because they're fake, but doesn't everyone know that. They're just mindless fictional entertainment, what's so wrong with that. Maybe it's based on his hatred of phoniness. There are very few people in the novel who Holden doesn't describe as a phony, and to be honest a lot of the time I agree with that label. He hates the fakeness of the adult world, and most of the adults and teenagers in the novel act in a shallow and vapid way, which really gets Holden's goat. 

Holden is thought to be one of the whiniest protagonists of any young adult novel, and I agreed with this until I realised that Holden is only whining because he can't get anyone to listen to him, but  as the novel progresses he stops whining and begins telling.

The voice of Holden is particularly unique. While he sounds like an adult, he also sounds like the typical teenager. He says 'goddamn' and 'sorta' so much it gets annoying but somehow it works. Holden speaks in a detached manner, as if he's trying to distance himself from the story he's telling, probably because he's uncomfortable with it.

Half way through this book I watched a youtube video, Crash Course, where John Green explained the subtleties of the novel. I had never noticed it before, but once it was pointed out to me that the book is all about the protection of innocence and Holden's quest to be a 'Catcher in the Rye'  all the little references became clear to me. The whole episode with "Fuck you" written on the wall in Holden's old school for example, would have made no sense to me, but they all fit now. The book deals with the idea of growing up and losing innocence, while transitioning into the phony adult world. I think nearly all teenagers would be able to relate to that concept, I certainly do at this time in my life. 

I would recommend this book to all teenagers, it's an easy read while also being comforting and giving food for thought. While there was so much  hype built up around the book, it didn't really live up to my astronomically high expectations, but it was still brilliant.

Four and a half stars ****1/2

Wednesday 28 August 2013

Girl with Green Eyes - Edna O'Brien

Blurb:

The 'Girl with Green Eyes' follows the story of childhood friends Kate and Baba, now both twenty-one, as they navigate the rocky, sometimes treacherous pathways of urban life. With hearts as big as Dublin, and hopes as bright as new pennies, they move bravely and eagerly toward the future. Yet the two couldn't be more different. Kate toils in a grocery shop and lives out her romantic fantasies in books. Baba entertains more earthbound dreams. Their principles - and friendship - are tested when Kate meets a dashing married man, and discovers the exhilaration of passion...and the consequences of falling in love.


Review:

When this book was first released in Ireland way back in the fifties, it caused quite a scandal. It ended up getting banned by the Catholic Church , so when I began to read it I expected a lot more shenanigans than it actually contained. Caithleen and Baba escaped form the country and scrape a living in Dublin. But when Caithleen meets the older, sophisticated and already married Eugene, she looses a lot of her country innocence.
The main characters of Caithleen, Baba and Eugene all kind of got under my skin. Baba, overtly confident
but quietly insecure party-girl, really got on my nerves, but maybe that's just me. To me she embodied all the false, frivolous and careless people I know, but on the other hand, maybe she was just a girl trying to enjoy her youth. Caithleen came across as a bit of a wimp, but really she was just an unconfident young girl who is way out of her depth and gets swept off her feet by an older experienced man. Caithleen is innocent and malleable, she can't really stand up for herself around Eugene and Baba, and though she tries her best to defy her father, sometimes she fails. But by then end of the novel Caithleen proved that she was not the chicken I had once believed her to be and actually grew quite a bit throughout the novel. Eugene on the other hand failed to impress me. He transformed from this trustworthy, loving, prince charming style character to a sleazy, self-centred cad.
 The plot of  the novel is quiet good, with nothing major happening though. While the events were probably a lot more shocking back when the novel was first released, I couldn't help but feel the plot was a bit dull. While nothing much happens we witness Caithleen wrestle with her feelings, whether or not to do what is expected of her or what her heart tells her to do.
I'm not sure if I'd recommend this book but it's good if you want an easy chick-lit style read.
Two Stars**

Monday 26 August 2013

The Casual Vacancy - J.K. Rowling

Blurb:

A BIG NOVEL ABOUT A SMALL TOWN ...

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.
Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.
Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils ... Pagford is not what it first seems.
And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?


Review: 

I will try not to do what everyone else reviewing this book has done and continuously reference Harry Potter, but seriously,  just because HP changed your life and defined your childhood ( like it did mine), does NOT mean you will like this book. It seemed fitting for me that, having grown up with HP, Rowling would publish her first adult fiction novel the year I turned eighteen.  But I've been reading adult fiction for a while now , so when I started reading 'The Casual Vacancy' I wasn't blown away by the drastic change in genre. This book is definitely not for younger readers, and I stress that point whole heartedly.
The book begins with about a two hundred page introduction into characters and setting, which a lot of people seem to have a problem with, but I fortunately didn't. Don't be discouraged if you don't like this sort of character driven fiction, the plot picks up before the half way mark and really pulls the reader in.
This book has received a lot of criticism for it's 'bad' language, violence,  sexually explicitness and downright unpleasantness. Not that I can claim to live in the society that some of the characters in this book do, but I know for a fact that some real people act, speak and think like the way the characters in the book do, and if Rowling wanted to capture real life, she was very accurate in her portrayal of some people in our society. 
The book has also been criticised for it's lack of likeable characters, but I can't remember the last time I read a book with characters more realistic than this one. Sure most of them are basically messed up wrecks of flaws and weaknesses, but that's quite an accurate description of a lot of people in real life. It's the characters pettiness, selfishness and cruelty that drives the plot, so without these deeply flawed characters the book wouldn't have worked. The characters never really earned my sympathy, despite the truly heart wrenching ending, but that didn't stop me for calling out for the sequel that so many others are asking for aswell.
Nothing amazing happened in this book, which is the polar opposite to HP, (crap, a comparison) but that's nearly what's great about it. The mundane-ness (is that a word??) of this book is striking, how nothing remarkable happens and yet I was captivated by it. It's a fantastic book about how we can make others lives better or worse by the little things we do and the way we behave.
I don't give out five stars lightly, and 'The Casual Vacancy' definitely deserves all the stars I can give it. I wouldn't change a thing, except perhaps the ending, but I won't spoil it for you guys.

Five Stars *****

  

Sunday 11 August 2013

Butter - Erin Lange

Blurb:

A lonely obese boy everyone calls "Butter" is about to make history. He is going to eat himself to death-live on the Internet-and everyone is invited to watch. When he first makes the announcement online to his classmates, Butter expects pity, insults, and possibly sheer indifference. What he gets are morbid cheerleaders rallying around his deadly plan. Yet as their dark encouragement grows, it begins to feel a lot like popularity. And that feels good. But what happens when Butter reaches his suicide deadline? Can he live with the fallout if he doesn't go through with his plans? 

Review: 

So it's been a while since I read this book, so I'll do my best to try and remember it accurately. Leaving the issue of obesity aside,this book is probably the most accurate description of bullying I've ever read. Butter is a thoroughly unhappy person, and the treatment he suffers from his classmates is truly horrific.  But after Butter decides to eat himself to death live online, he starts to receive a morbid following from the other kids at school. Despite his new found popularity, Butter knows that if he doesn't go through with his plan his new friends will abandon and hate him for being a "fraud". 
The surprising thing about 'Butter' is that most of the characters are unlikeable and some are down right horrible. But these realistic characters, in my opinion, make the story a lot more interesting than a troupe of perfect people. While Butter is portrayed as a victim, he like every other character is painted in various shades of grey. In other books I've read, Butter-like characters remain innocent and pure, Lang shows how someone can be changed by bullying, for the worse, and for the better. While Butter's new 'cool-kid' friends treat him badly , they're not all bad.
While this book is kind of preachy, I think it works. It talks about how online, or any type of bullying is bad, and how suicide is never the only answer, no matter how much it looks like it could be.

Four Stars ****



Friday 9 August 2013

Flipped - Wendelin Van Draanen

Published: 2003
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Pages: 211

Blurb:

Flipped is a romance told in two voices. The first time Juli Baker saw Bryce Loski, she flipped. The first time Bryce saw Juli, he ran. That’s pretty much the pattern for these two neighbors until the eighth grade, when, just as Juli is realizing Bryce isn’t as wonderful as she thought, Bryce is starting to see that Juli is pretty amazing. How these two teens manage to see beyond the surface of things and come together makes for a comic and poignant romance.

Review:

Flipped is a charming story about infactuation told by two voices , Juli and Bryce. I feel as if I'm a bit old for this book, thought that has never stopped me from reading kid's books before, but I would have loved this book when I was fourteen or so.
Bryce is a fairly boring, shallow, two faced character to begin with, but i suppose it is forgivable considering he just wants to fit in and not embarrass himself in his new school. Juli on the other hand is smart ambitious and kind, and for some reason is completely in love with Bryce.
While the storyline does have some depth to it, the whole thing is very naive and innocent, probably because it's a preteen book. Van Draanen is an excellent writer, very easy to read, the book deals with the issue  of discrimination against people with mental disabilities extremely well and the characters undergo some very interesting development.

Three Stars ***  recommended for 12 to 14 year olds

Wednesday 29 May 2013

Artemis Fowl and the Last Guardian ( Artemis Fowl #8) - Eoin Colfer



Published: 4/4/2013
Publisher: Puffin
Pages: 306

Blurb:

It's Armageddon Time for Artemis Fowl

Opal Koboi, power-crazed pixie, is plotting to exterminate mankind and become fairy queen.

If she succeeds, the spirits of long-dead fairy warriors will rise from the earth, inhabit the nearest available bodies and wreak mass destruction. But what happens if those nearest bodies include crows, or deer, or badgers - or two curious little boys by the names of Myles and Beckett Fowl?

Yes, it's true. Criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl's four-year-old brothers could be involved in destroying the human race. Can Artemis and Captain Holly Short of the Lower Elements Police stop Opal and prevent the end of the world
?

Review :

I read my first Artemis Fowl book when I was about eight and I have never looked back since. It was around the same time I first discovered Harry Potter, and looking back on it, Harry Potter is to Artemis Fowl what Emma  is to Clueless.  While Harry Potter has everything a girl could ever want in a novel, Artemis Fowl has a certain revelrous, comic element that wouldn't work in Harry Potter, and that I am very fond of. And though I'm nearly eighteen and should be long past the stage of reading flamboyantly ridiculous children's books, I couldn't help but feel a pang of nostalgia and sadness when I heard the series was ending. 
I must say I wasn't disappointed by the big finale. (Well, I was in one respect but I won't say it for fear of spoiling the book.) It was full of ridiculous inventions, comic dialogue, Opal Koboi being power crazy and Mulch Diggums swooping in to save the day at the last minute, yet again. While Eoin Colfers series will never be Nobel prize winning literature , it does what it sets out to do, which is entertain. Though I'm certainly out of the intended age demographic, it still didn't fail to make me laugh. I may be a bit biased but I think this was the perfect ending to a fantastic series ( apart from that one thing,  God it makes me angry !!!!!!!).  Definitely a must read if you're a fan of Artemis and his cohorts, but if you're not you'll probably just think it's insane.

Four Stars ****

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green and David Levithan

Pages: 310
Published: 5/4/2011
Publisher: Speak

Blurb : 

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers cross paths. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, culminating in heroic turns-of-heart and the most epic musical ever to grace the high school stage.

Review : 

The biggest compliment I can give this book is the fact I just couldn't put it down. I literally couldn't put it down, a spent a whole day reading it, a day i should have spent studying for upcoming exams. First of all, the book is written from two points of view, both David Levithan and John Green write from two different Will Grayson's perspective. Personally I found Green's Will easy to read. I found Levithan's Will hard to get used to, he writes in all lower case letters ( which is supposed to signify that he doesn't think much of himself) and all dialogue is written like an IM conversation. But as the book went on I realised  it really enhances the character. Before i began I thought this book would be really preachy, a book about gay people and how they're just the same as straight people. But really this is a book about love and being yourself, and some of the characters just happen to be gay. I know that sounds really cheesy but I promise it's not. I have always been a big fan of John Green, he has an effortless style that is easy to get stuck into. This is the first book I've read by David Levithan and I wasn't too enchanted  by his writing, but maybe that's just the style he's taken on for this character. Green and Levithan have created some really realistic, memorable characters in "Will Grayson, Will Greyson" and a captivating plot line.  I really recommend this book if you want a quick, easy and interesting read.

Four Stars **** 

Tuesday 14 May 2013

Missing Me - Sophie McKenzie (Girl Missing #3)

Published: 1/2/2013
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Pages: 315

Blurb : 

Six years have passed since the end of Sister, Missing and Madison is now a teenager. During a visit to her older sister Lauren, Madison learns that their biological father was an anonymous sperm donor and sets out to track him down. Her search bears fruit sooner than she expects, but is the father she discovers all he seems? As Madison gets drawn into a mysterious investigation involving missing girls and secret hideaways, she finds herself in more and more danger. A tense and thrilling end to the bestselling series, not to be missed!

Review : 

I read "Girl,  Missing" and " Sister, Missing"  a few years ago and was really excited to read "Missing, Me " . I think I left it too long before reading this book, because there were several holes in my memory when it came to plots and characters, but if you're in the same position that I was in don't worry, McKenzie does a great job subtly filling in the blanks.  This book is narrated by Madison, Lauren's little sister, and treads the familiar plot path of bad guys stealing children. The plot is pretty good, not fantastic, but unpredictable enough to keep you on your toes. There was one major " I saw that coming" moment, but maybe that's just me and my need to to predict the plot line of  every novel I read. The characters are pretty standard, nothing completely original but pretty realistic. McKenzie's writing flows, and the book is really easy to read, I read it in about two days (when I should have been studying), which is a compliment to the novel.  I really enjoyed this book, but I feel as if McKenzie took quite a good idea and stretched it beyond it's limits. But it's not as if she should have finished with the second book, McKenzie managers to make the plot work for a third time. I recommend this novel to anyone who wants a short quick easy read that doesn't ponder any big questions about what it is to be human etc, just a plain old kidnapping/action story.

Three Stars ***


Wednesday 8 May 2013

Reached - Ally Condie

Blurb:

 After leaving Society and desperately searching for the Rising—and each other—Cassia and Ky have found what they were looking for, but at the cost of losing each other yet again: Cassia has been assigned to work for the Rising from within Society, while Ky has been stationed outside its borders. But nothing is as predicted, and all too soon the veil lifts and things shift once again.

Review : 

would like to begin by saying that I loved "Matched". I mean I really  loved "Matched". It was the first dystopian novel I had ever read, long before "The Hunger Games" and "Fahrenheit 451 ".  I loved the world Condie created, a society where everything is chosen for you, even your life-partner. but after "Matched" everything went down hill. "Crossed"  was a nightmare , so bad I don't even want to talk about it. Because of the tragedy that was book two I really didn't feel like continuing on , but I had so much time invested in it I decided to keep going and find out where Cassia, Xander and Ky end up.  This is where my first problem comes in. To me, Cassia, Xander and Ky all had the same personality. They just seemed like they were exactly the same person, which is really confusing and awkward when the story is supposed to be of told by three different points of view. The plot centres around a virus epidemic , which I thought was a very interesting idea. But I feel like Condie may have glossed over some of the details, like the dots don't fully connect, so this also confused me. Obviously with a massive virus running around some characters had to die ( I won't tell you who.... ), but I just didn't seem to care, Condie didn't really afford any sort of emotional connection to the characters. I think Condie broaches a very interesting idea, that when you have the right to choose, sometimes you choose wrong, which I thought was really the antithesis of the idea Condie had been pushing from the beginning.  To be fair to Condie, she is a good writer and the book was hard to put down once something exciting began. I think the operations of the Rebellion were accurate, it wasn't a purely 'the society is bad, anarchy is good ' simple plot line. But to be honest, I feel like I only read this book because of the first two and if it had been a stand alone book I wouldn't have bothered to finish it.

Three Stars  ***


Friday 3 May 2013

Top 5 Favourite Books





Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
J.K. Rowling - 1997

I first read "The Philosopher's Stone " when I was seven and I've loved it ever since.  I can find no fault in this magnificent book, I read it every time I feel sick or upset or stressed, it's my literary comfort blanket.  This book has the perfect combination of insane fantasy and beautifully crafted realistic characters. Hopefully my kids will grow up with this book just like I did. I think it's one of the best books of all time, hopefully you do to. :)

Five Stars *****

Pride and Prejudice 
Jane Austen - 1813

My mum gave me a copy of this book for my twelfth birthday, and since then I've been a little obsessed. Of course as a twelve year I missed a lot of the finer points of the novel, but it's all become clearer as I've grown older. It's a classic love story, with brilliant characters and a captivating plot. The language is a bit tricky if you're not used to it, and there's a lot of dialogue which can be hard to follow, but offers great insight into the characters. I think this book deserves all the recognition it receives, well, it has lasted 200 whole years.

Five Stars *****


The Book Thief
Markus Zusak - 2006

My favourite book of the last few years. It's perfect for me because of it's setting in WW2 Germany and it's unusual narration by death himself. This is a fantastically touching and inspirational novel that I couldn't put down once I started. Believe it or not, I've only read this once , but it remains one of my favourite books. I'm not really one for preachy books, but I think this sends a really powerful message about perseverance and strength in the bleakest of times.

Five Stars *****



Atonement
Ian McEwan - 2001

I probably read this book too young so I may have missed some of the more subtle references in this book, but I'm pretty sure that I got the basics. This is the only book I've read by McEwan but in my opinion he's an amazing writer. I think this book really had a profound effect on me because it shows how a need for drama can really ruin someone's life, which I feel, looking back on it, is an important lesson for a teenaged girl to learn.

Five Stars *****



The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky - 1999

You're probably thinking that this is going to be a complete cliché of a review, but I'll really try not to let it be. Unlike basically everyone else I've spoken to about this book, I did not feel a moment of sudden insight at the " I feel infinite " quote, and I know that in two to five years I'll have this book of this list, but right now I think it's a great book. It's really the only book written by an adult that I fell captures how we feel in our teenage years, a feeling we probably forget pretty soon after we grow out of that awkward stage. I think this book is unnecessarily profound, but I do think this is a teenage must read.

Five Stars *****

Monday 29 April 2013

Gabrielle Aplin - The Academy , 29 March 2013


I first discovered Gabrielle Aplin on this program about The Beatles "Please Please Me" album. She did an acoustic cover of "There's a place" , a song I had never heard before , but instantly fell in love with it.


I then googled her and found "Home", "Please Don't Say You Love Me" and "Panic Cord".  Gabrielle has done a cover of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "The Power of Love", which went to No. 1 in the UK and No. 20 in Ireland. I described her to a friend as a kind of female Ed Sheeran, all accoustic guitars, piano and strings, which is actually my favourite genre of music.

On the 29 March , my cousin and I went to Gabrielle's gig in the Academy in Dublin. For those of you who have never been to the Academy, it's a small-ish venue, so that's why I call it a gig not a concert. Warned by my father that it was going to be a dive, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was actually really nice, in a small pretentious hipster sort of way, which I actually really liked. When we got there this guy was playing support, and I'm really trying to find his name on the Internet, but I can't so you're just going to have to trust me that he was really good. Her next support act was a girl called Hannah Grace, who was ridiculously good. She sang an amazing version of Etta James' " I would rather go blind" and some of her own songs. All I can say is that she has the kind of voice that makes you feel like every thing you do is shit and there's no point in trying to do anything because you will never be as good as her. Seriously, she is that good.


And then after Hannah Grace finished up, and an unreasonably long wait ( during which my cousin got very impatient and insisted that Gabrielle had better have a good reason for making us wait so help her God).Gabrielle finally appeared a few minutes later, bringing with her a mug of tea and a severe case of laryngitis, which unfortunately meant that she couldn't sing any high notes, or low notes, and explained the massive delay. But despite the fact that we were essentially ripped off by a performer who couldn't perform to the best of her ability, nobody seemed to care. And I didn't care either, I really admire her for going on with the show even though she was obviously very ill. 
She started off with "Panic Cord", and the effect of the laryngitis was immediately evident, she just couldn't sing. And I should have been mad, but I wasn't, just extremely amazed and impressed by how well she was doing despite her illness. The gig continued on pretty much the same thread, with the audience joining in to help out on the high notes in "Salvation"  and "Rings Round Roses". But probably the best example of audience participation was a girl called Aoife , pulled a banner proclaiming " Can I Sing With You", and got pulled up onto the stage just in time for "The Power of Love" . And thankfully she was really good, kudos to Gabrielle for taking a gamble on that random girl from the crowd.
Just I final note to say that Gabrielle's band was amazing. Tom Crouch, a guitarist, Tadgh (Spelling??) on the fiddle, a pianist ( Tadgh's brother I think ) , a drummer and another guitarist I don't remember the name of, and they were brilliantly tight and talented. Don't quote me on any of this, because I don't even trust my own memory when it comes to minor details. But do trust me on the fact that the gig was excellent, I can only imagine how good it would have been if Gabrielle had been well. I'm definitely going to see her again when she comes to Vicar St. in November , and I would advise you to go if you have the chance to . 



Saturday 27 April 2013

East of Eden - John Steinbeck

Published: 5/2/2002
Publisher: Penguin books
Pages: 601

Blurb:

Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. Here Steinbeck created some of his most memorable characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity; the inexplicability of love; and the murderous consequences of love’s absence.

Review:

To be completely honest, I first heard of this novel in an interview with Kristen Stewart, where she named it as her favourite book, and not to sound full of my self or anything, but I figured that if she could read it so could I. Well, at this point I have to say fair dues to Kristen because she really picked a winner here. According to my goodreads it took me about four months to read this, but really if I had had enough time to actually read recently, I would have had it finished in a flash. Essentially, I found this was the sort of book I had a lot of trouble putting down once I had started, simply because the story was so riveting. Sometimes Steinbeck goes off on a tangent with minor characters , which I usually hate, but he still managed to keep me interested. I found the connection between the story of Cain and Abel and Steinbeck's characters really easy to follow, which was good for me because I'm not that familiar with the story and I'm kind of dense when it comes to these sort of things. Also, I was sort of confused when Steinbeck wrote himself into the story, but I read on East of Eden's wikipedia page that Samuel Hamilton is based on his own grandfather, which makes a lot more sense now. I'm sure there was a lot of really deep meaningful ideas that went right over my head, such as the nature of human beings and how they can be inherently evil, and the whole Timshel thing which I think is to do with free will or something. I think this novel was supposed to be really inspiring, but really I was just focusing on the absolutely brilliant plot and characters that Steinbeck created so superbly. I would really recommend reading this if you have the time to invest in it, it's definitely not a light read, but completely worth it.

-Four Stars ****

Catching Fire Trailer !!!!!!!!




 Catching Fire is out November 22nd, 2013 in the States so hopefully it will be out here soon after, yay!
I found this on Mean Girls of Panem blog which is ridiculously funny, I really advise you to check it out if you love Mean Girls or The Hunger Games :)


Sunday 21 April 2013

Hudson Taylor


I first heard of Hudson Taylor at a Gabrielle Aplin gig in the Academy , and apparently they are well known around Dublin. As far as I know , the band is compromised of two bothers, Harry and Alfie, but in all the videos I found of them on youtube they are playing with these two other guys. I would liken them to Mumford and Sons, but I have to much respect for them. They are actually so much better. I suppose you would call their style "folkey", but it's the vocals you really need to listen out for. You may have heard them on "The Host" soundtrack with their song "Chasing Rubies", but I don't think it's one of their better songs. I'm going to have to get my hands on their album, but for now here's a link to two my favourite songs of theirs. Hope you enjoy as much as I do. :)

Link to Hudson Taylor's Breaking Tunes