Guess who's only a billion years behind everyone else?

That's right, me!

I've finally got a twitter account at twitter.com/Simply_Hannah
Sharon has compiled a good list of book blogger twitterers which I am slowly working my way through.

Book review - If I Stay by Gayle Forman

If I Stay releases in the UK as a hardback on 7th May. It's already out in several other countries.

Mia has a close family, friends, and a wonderful boyfriend. Sometimes this makes it harder for her to decide about the future. However difficult her decisions are though, her life is set to be full of music, happiness, love. Then in an instant, on a snowy road, her life changes forever. She faces the hardest decision of all, and she’s more alone than she’s ever been.

‘Just listen,’ Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel.
I open my eyes wide now.
I sit up as much as I can. And I listen.
‘Stay,’ he says.

I thought I knew what this book was going to be. Having read the reviews, I figured I knew the plot. I expected it to be an amazingly written book that could only really end one way.

Then I started reading. Mia’s family were so believable, especially her little brother Teddy. I could almost see the whole family chatting around the breakfast table. Thankfully the pacing at the beginning was fast – I was expecting a long and dragging build-up. And suddenly, I wasn’t so confident that it could only end one way. The writing gripped me and I was invested in the characters. Not just Mia, but also her grandparents, Adam, Kim. I not only cared what would happen to Mia, but I cared how it would affect all those who had joined together to support her. The past and present was weaved together nicely to give a greater depth to all of the characters.

The book reads quite quickly, maybe because I was paying so much attention to it. For a relatively small book (210 pages), it’s packed with breath-taking story and doesn’t feel at all rushed. There is just enough plot to sustain it, especially as it's so short, but If I Stay is more a character study, a snapshot of Mia's life and choice than anything else. I wasn’t quite sure about the ending at first. It left me wanting more, wanting to know how her decision affects everyone instead of cutting off so quickly. Now I’ve considered it, I feel that the book is a story about a decision – it’s about the choice itself. The difficulty of the choice as opposed to the difficulty of the effects of that choice.

Mia’s decision was especially poignant. I cried more than once reading this, and I don’t cry when I read books. I not only felt her sadness, but understood it. A good writer can make you care when their character is in trouble. A great writer can make you understand the trouble, even if it’s something that you yourself can’t personally comprehend. For me, If I Stay was an example of the latter. It was a beautiful, uplifting book. I recommend it for those looking for a book with substance and heart.

Giveaway Reminder

The Exteme Kissing giveaway ends this Wednesday, March 6th. I haven't had many UK entries, so if you are from the UK and want to read this fun book, enter! Or if you've already read it and liked it, please spread the word and give your friends a heads up about this.

The contest is also open internationally (the rules are explained here) So the upshot is, wherever you're from, you can win!

Read my review of Extreme Kissing here.

An update

Neon shoes + fabric paint = A Bad Idea

Also

If my post yesterday wasn't enough, Steph Su has posted an interview with me as her Friday Featured Blogger! Her blog is one of my favourites, with very thoughtful book reviews - if she likes a book then I try to look out for it. Thanks for having me Steph.

Also also,

Lenore said she'd like to see my uninteresting cat. So here she is. She hates the camera, so this is actually quite rare to get a photo with her eyes open.

Despite what you might think from my description of her, I do actually like Sophie. But it can't be denied that she doesn't do very much. She's very good at lying but I don't think this counts as interesting like sitting in a pan does. And she definitely wouldn't let me put scrabble tiles on her.

Ten things about me you didn't necessarily know before and maybe didn't want to

I hear your questions, your burning desire to know more. Who is the person behind that fascinating letter? you ask. It's about time I did an About Me post. (Yes, it's also about time I did a Series Spotlight post, being Thursday and all, but I'm finding it hard choosing a series. This was much more fun to write.)

So I present...

Ten Things About Me That You Didn't Necessarily Know Before And Maybe Didn't Want To

1. I have a pair of orange neon shoes. They are hideous.


2. When I told my mum I might start reviewing books, she laughed a lot. ‘Why not?’ I demanded. ‘You couldn’t even keep a book log,’ she pointed out. This is true but I wasn’t going to concede defeat. ‘I could if I WANTED to,’ I said. At primary school we had about half an hour reading to start off the day, reading anything we wanted. Then fifteen minutes to write in our book log our THOUGHTS and IMPRESSIONS. What might happen next. Er, how about I forego pointless exercise writing about what I think could happen next, and use the fifteen minutes READING MORE OF THE BOOK and finding out!? So I did. Then I mean really, what’s the point in writing about it after I’ve finished? I could be STARTING A NEW BOOK! I never wrote in my book log ever. My teacher never noticed. I’m actually not sure how my mum knew. I probably told her as a very smug ten year old.


3. I’ve never drawn on my shoes. I feel I’ve missed an important rite of passage for every teenager. Everyone in teen lit seems to have a pair of beat-up converse that someone has drawn on. This must be where I’ve been going wrong all these years.


4. I giggled a lot when I was sorting out the interview for Luisa Plaja. Not were we Extreme Emailing right up until I posted it, but I googled her name to see what else was out there and make sure that what I was posting hadn’t been done before. On the first page, I saw the same quote twice for two websites. It looked familiar. Did I write that? Maybe. I can’t remember. I click to check. Yes I did, and one of the websites is a bookseller website. My quote is listed under ‘what the critics say.’ This is so very cool, both that I’m quoted, and that I’m a ‘critic.’ I guess I am one, but you know, it’s cool to be referred to as one.


5. My spell check tells me that my grammar above is wrong. It shouldn’t be ‘I’m a critic,’ but ‘I are a critic.’ I think I ARE A CRITIC should be my new tagline. It should also be on a T-shirt.


6. It is no coincidence that there is a cup of tea in my profile photo. I love tea. My friend and I are almost single-handedly upholding the stereotype of English tea-drinkers. Though not from dainty teacups with doilies. Or with crumpets. Just the tea.


7. I think maybe I’ll cover the neon shoes with fabric paint. It might make me look like a walking paint-pot explosion, but at least I could wear them.


8. My grandparents owned a narrow boat. I grew up spending part of my holiday every year on the canals. I really recommend it. The feeling of lying on top of a narrow boat with a book and the sun so strong that it makes the paint you’re lying on almost too hot to touch and the sound of the motor chugging along and the very slow movement? One of my favourite things EVER.


9. Also, I’ve never fallen in. My middle brother (the incredibly competitive one) has. This makes me happy. This in turn makes me a bad person :)


10. When I was about eight, I learned the piano. One week, the teacher told me off for not practicing even though I had (probably not enough, but I DID.) A few weeks later, I didn’t practice. At all. In my lesson, she praised me and said she could tell I’d tried really hard with the piece. I was disgusted and from then on convinced that practicing achieved no result whatsoever. It was just a form of torture that parents and piano teachers dreamed up to keep kids out of the way. Needless to say, I am not a pianist today.

Book review - My Dating Disasters Diary by Liz Rettig

Releases in the UK on 7th May
Kelly Ann doesn't understand why all her friends are suddenly getting love-crazy. Personally, she'd prefer to play football or video games than talk about boys. But as everyone else is getting boyfriends/girlfriends and leaving less time for her, she decides that she needs to find a boy too. Unfortunately for her, all her attempts seem to land her in trouble. Fortunately for us, the trouble she lands in is pretty hilarious. As Kelly Ann goes from thinking love just makes people do stupid stuff to having her first crushes to attempted dates, she also meets a favourite celebrity, forgets she's wearing pants on her head, and goes on a mission to get herself expelled.

Apparently this is a prequel to Liz Rettig's other Kelly Ann books – My Now or Never Diary and My Desperate Love Diary. I hadn't read either of these, but as it was a prequel this didn’t cause any problems. I'm looking forward to reading more about Kelly Ann.

First off, Kelly Ann is a straight-talking, no-nonsense character. While quite often she's completely wrong about things, she's never afraid to speak her mind, and Liz Rettig has vocalised a young teen's fairly well. At times however, she seems a bit immature for fourteen. With best friends Liz, who is always trying to analyse her, and Chris, who recently seems to be acting differently towards her, Kelly Ann does get into hilarious scrapes.

By the end of the book, which spans a year, Kelly Ann has grown a lot. She's still interested in football and video games, but she's also interested in boys and 'girly' stuff. I liked that it wasn't a complete change, and either/or situation, that she changes while also remaining the same. Liz Rettig has created a fresh young voice in a story full of entertaining scrapes and misunderstandings. I think this will be a hit with many younger teens, for fans of similar books such as the Georgia Nicholson series.

'Why can't we read interesting stories for a change? Like ones that have plots where stuff actually happens without a hundred pages of description just to tell you it's raining. And then another hundred to tell you how the character feels about the fact that it's raining.' – page 46

This was exactly how I felt about English in secondary school, I think most teenagers will relate to feeling this at some time or another. It's a good example of how great Rettig is at catching a teenager's thoughts and putting them onto paper.

Retirement Rescue - The Swish of the Curtain

The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown
Published - 1941
Pages – 308
In print? – Yes. Longwater books reprinted this in 2006
THEN – 4.5 stars out of 5
NOW – 4 stars out of 5

Jacket description:
When seven bored children discover an abandoned chapel in their home town, they decide to renovate it and to form the Blue Door Theratre Company. The talented and resourceful group soon discover that they are serious about their theatrical ambitions, but will their parents stand in their way?
This classic children’s novel remains a timeless inspiration to any young reader with a passion for the performing arts.

Seven children (all of whom have some special talent or other – singing, composing, dressmaking etc) set up their own theatre company. Yes, it’s more than a little unbelievable, but it’s also the sort of thing every child would have enjoyed. It’s also set in a time when such a thing is less hard to believe. The Swish of the Curtain is very quaint, old-fashioned but still charming and holds its appeal for children. The kids, especially nine-year-old Maddy, are some of the best characterised I’ve ever read, having an old-fashioned innocence along with extra maturity, especially when dealing with their nemesis Mrs Potter-Smith, head of the Women’s Institute. Mrs Potter-Smith (or ‘Smither-Pot,’ as Maddy refers to her) is constantly out to undermine the children’s plays because people enjoy them more than hers. Some critics have said that they talk as if they’re older than they should be, but Pamela Brown was only 14 herself when she wrote this. The Swish of the Curtain is definitely a children’s classic, and will appeal to many children today.

‘An answering thud was heard offstage, and Mrs Potter-Smith puffed on, wearing a Greek tunic, with primroses in her hair which she had “let down” for the occasion. She flung out her plump arms towards the audience, declaiming, “I am the Spirit of Spring!”
The ginger girl stuffed her hankie in her mouth, and Maddy whispered confidentially to Sandra, “Are we supposed to laugh?”’ – page 10-11

'“Personally, when I was eight, a really juicy murder appealed to me as much as anything,” Maddy told them.' – page 136