The Kabul Beauty School - Deborah Rodriguez

Hi Guys! 

It's been a while since I posted - had a lot of reading to do!

This book was one that I picked up in Waterstones as it was a part of a buy one get one half price deal and it had a pretty cover! 

The book is actually an autobiography of the authors time in Kabul, however when I started reading this I thought it was a book of fiction due to the way that it was written, it wasn’t until I got to the photographs in the middle of the book that I realise she was retelling her personal experiences.

The book tells us each women's story interwoven within each other and the author does a good job of drawing us in to each story - as I said I did think that it was a book of fiction so I don’t think that I was appreciating the bravery of these women and the things that they were going through.

Once I got to the point in the book where I understood that we were reading about real women and real events it became much easier to connect with the book. I particularly enjoyed? Reading the story of Roshanna who is hiding a secret of not being a virgin due to a failed marriage and events in her past. I did think that there was something lacking and possibly Rodriguez could have delved slightly deeper with each of these women as they each had a moving story to tell and the author tends to focus too much on her personal life and can come across at some points as slightly ignorant.

The most positive point of this book was the amount of information it provided on daily life in Afghanistan and although the writing isn’t the best, Rodriguez went to Afghanistan as a hairdresser and the style of the book does make it feel like you’re having a chat with your hairdresser!

I think this book is definitely worth a read if only for the interesting insight that it provides on life after Taliban, don’t go into this book expecting a deep and insightful autobiography as I said it reads like story book and after reading the authors non-fiction book (which I will eventually write about) the style of writing is the same and I don’t think I’m the only one who will have been surprised to find out this wasn’t a work of fiction.

I’d give this book 5 out of ten.

Sucession- Livi Michael

 Afternoon Guys,

The next book I’m going to write about is Succession a book by Livi Michael.

I bought this book when I was just browsing Waterstones in Kingston and they had it down as one of their "biggest reads" for the summer so I thought I’d give it a go since it's historical fiction and set in the time of the Wars of the Roses - a subject I’ve been reading a lot about recently, so here we go!

Set at the commencement of the Wars of the Roses, Succession is the tale of two Margarets (Margaret of Anjou and Margaret Beaufort) both who in their own way had a significant impact on history.

The book intertwines the stories of the women with excerpts from contemporary chronicles giving us a point of view which links the storytelling with historical accounts written during or just after the events of the book.

I’ve read a lot of historical fiction recently and in some books I really feel for Margaret Beaufort and in others I feel particularly antagonistic towards her - unfortunately in this book she was portrayed as the stereotype that we have been guided towards throughout history.

In this book I found Margaret Beaufort to be portrayed as a spoilt woman who was adamant to get her way no matter what and a woman that was forced into marriage to men that didn't benefit her. One thing I found interesting from this book is the depiction of Margaret’s first marriage to John de la Pole. I often wondered on this as it was annulled due to take in place before her 12th birthday. I like that in this book the author has attempted to show us her feelings toward this marriage and I particularly found interesting the fact that possibly she didn't want this marriage to be annulled and that she could have possibly enjoyed a long happy marriage with this man this poses the question- had this marriage not been annulled would there have been aTudor dynasty?  Could the entire course of British history been different? However those questions remain unanswered as we find in the book that the policy of Henry VI found it more expedient to marry her to his half-brother Edmund and so founded the line which would become the Tudors possibly the most famous royal family in British history. 

I also found that in this book Livi Michael has opted to depict Margaret Beaufort’s relationship with Jasper Tudors as tumultuous when so many other historical novels set in the period, as well as television series’, portray Margaret as being in love with Jasper. 

The other main character in this book is of course Margaret of Anjou - wife of henry VI - the woman who took on the might of The York’s in the place of her comatose husband. 

In many books that I have read I have been simply unable to like the person of Margaret of Anjou, however in this book she has been portrayed sympathetically, possibly since this book focuses on the earlier part of her marriage and reign and before she became the she-wolf commonly portrayed.

At first glance this book appears to be another long chronicle of the wars of the roses. Don’t be misled by the synopsis which appears on the cover “Succession tells the thrilling, bloody story of the fall of the House of Lancaster and the rise of the Tudor dynasty.”

In fact this book provides an in-depth yet interesting and compelling rendition of the early part of these wars and actually the fall of the Lancasters and Yorks doesn’t feature in this book as it ends long before the Tudors claim the throne of England.

As I mentioned earlier in the post the prose is intertwined with small titbits of chronicles written during or just after the period and provides a historical viewpoint of the events that are unfolding in the book.

Overall I would say this book is well worth a read - it certainly raises many questions and I would recommend anyone reading this book to look up more information on the period afterwards.

We all know the mnemonic Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain for learning the colours of the rainbow and I would encourage all you readers out there to read more about him and his house of York and their battles with Lancaster and Tudor, especially after all the recent news stories that have been published relating to that final battle due to the remains of Richard iii being found under a car park!!

I would recommend this book to fans of history, of historical fiction and people who have maybe had their interest piqued in this period by the recent discoveries.

I give this book six out of 10.

And for anyone that is interested in finding out more, I have added a couple of links to stories/news articles about the period.

http://hnn.us/article/156065-who were the Plantagenets and why should we care?

http://www.royal.gov.uk/historyofthemonarchy/kingsandqueensofengland/theplantagenets/theplantagenets.aspx

http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/plantagenet_18.htm

Top Ten Books I Think You Should Read In The Next Year

Hi book readers!

I've just finished the book that i'll review next but I thought that i'd share with you the top ten books  that I think are well worth a read and I will post on each of them in due course.

1. War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy 
Bit of an epic book but an excellent social commentary of the effects of the Napoleonic wars.

2. The Da Vinci Code- Dan Brown
This one needs no introduction really - a mystery surrounding the holy grail and the descendants of Christ.

3.Cold Mountain- Charles Fraser
An excellent book full of imagery set in the American civil war

4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest- Ken Kesey
Jack Nicholson immortalised this character on screen but the book and its depictions of mental health and reactions towards it are even more compelling in print.

5. Nineteen Minutes- Jodi Picoult.
How can nineteen minutes change your life? As the characters in this book find out everything can change.

6.The Book Thief-Markus Zusak
A NewYork Times bestseller and now a movie adaptation- narrated by death and set in Nazi Gemany, it follows a young girl and her relationships with the people around her.

7. the magicians apprentice-trudi canavan
A fantasy novel which won the Aurealis Award in 2009 for the best fantasy novel.


8. I Claudius-Robert Graves
Written in an autobiographical form it follows Claudius from his succession as emperor to his death.


9. Birdsong- Sebastian Faulks

A fantastic book set in the first world war and tells the story of Stephen and his abrupt arrival in war torn France.
10.Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie
Set during India's transition from British rule to independence it is told from the point of view of Saleem and the story takes place in line with real historical events.


and let me leave you with this quote 

“Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination.”

-Oliver Sacks

Happy Reading!

My very first book review!!

So hi, I've decided to start writing a blog about all the different books I read as I tend to read a lot and thought it was time to start sharing the good bad and the ugly with the world!

Everything I write is completely my own opinion, however please feel free to comment and you'll never find any spoilers in my posts, I just want to give an overview of the books and hopefully enough to pique your interest and make you want to pick up the book.

I read lots of different genres of books, so hopefully there's something here for everyone!

I'm going to start with a book that I finished just yesterday, so it's nice and fresh in my mind.

The Secret Scripture-Sebastian Barry

I bought this book as it won a Costa book award in 2008- it is told from the point of view of an old Irish lady who has been institutionalised for many years and her psychiatrist, Dr Grene.

It tells the story of Roseanne and her doctor, told in the first person in the form of diary entries from the main characters. In this way we have the memories of Roseanne and Dr Grene interwoven with the present day and through these journals we learn the histories and thoughts of both characters.

The book is set in the Republic of Ireland during the years of the fight for Irish home rule and the years after the Great war. The book deals with the themes of Irish nationality, the turbulent politics of the time and the misogyny faced by women in that era.

Initially, I didn't find the characters likable but as the story progressed and I learnt more about Roseanne I became vested in the outcome and truly felt like i was immersed in her life. I then felt as though I had a real reason for learning the truth about her story and in many ways she became my favorite character.

The author has created only a few characters, so he is able to spend time building each one and the personalities of each come through in every page and we are taken into a world that feels as real as can be - As i mentioned all the action is set in Ireland - a place I am not familiar with however the author does a fantastic job of describing the area that it becomes easy to imagine living in that world. His descriptions of the time and era are thought provoking and moving and you get a real sense of the way in which people lived.

Roseanne's story is full of twists and turns and I was certainly guessing all the way to the end - a real page turner, I needed to know what happened!

The only thing that I can say I disliked is that I wish there was more of it - the ending had me wanting to know more - where did the characters go after this book? How did everything that had happened affect them?

All in all this story was gripping, it had me wanting more and more - i'd certainly recommend this book to any type of reader - although if jumping between past and present isn't your thing then i'd avoid it!

The author has published many more books, plays and poems.

To find out more about Sebastian Barry please see the link below to the Man Booker website where you can read a bit more about him.

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/people/sebastian-barry


This book gets a 7 out of ten from me!!