Book Review- Steve Augarde 'The Various'

The one and only advantage I have found with having a useless knee thus far is the opportunity to catch up on all the sedentary hobbies which I have (although I am sure that my waistline will not be thanking me!) The most prominent of these being that I can finally catch up on my reading! I have a pile of un-read book so high that it is threatening to take over my life with associated guilt. (I know, weird, but I feel bad owning these stories and then never giving life to them in my imagination. Just letting them sit there on my shelf untouched feels wrong some how.)

First down in my quest to reduce this pile is ‘The Various’ by Steve Augarde. Now I will freely admit that I brought this book mostly for its beautiful cover. I knew nothing about it except that it had awoken some yearning in me for books with monochromatic line drawing covers, and due to this it became mine. That and I brought it in a charity shop for £2.99 so I could afford it. Always a major plus point in my life!



I could say many good things about this book, least not the readability of it. Now I know I am stuck sitting on my arse all day and I read quickly, but I finished this in about a day and a half. It was really good for that kind of fiction where you tell yourself you will just read to the end of the chapter, and four chapters later your still going!

Without giving too much of the plot away the story is centered around a young girl called Midge and her adventures with ‘The Various’ on her Uncles farm where she is sent to spend the summer by her touring musician mother. Now although I realise I have made to book sound incurably boring and Famous Five like, but it really much much better than the justice I can give it.

Forgive me people I am doped up on painkillers. You have no idea the overtime spell check is working at the moment!

I also have a soft spot for unusual names in fantasy novels and one of what I guess you could call recurring motifs was called Celandine in this book. Which just strikes me as inordinately pretty and helps me develop a rather large soft spot for the book as a whole!

I think my favourite thing about this book is the distinct voices which the characters have. Augarde has distinguished between the different voices of his characters really well, something which I always appreciate in a novel. The one detraction would be the haste with which the book seems to draw to its conclusion. I felt that the last 20 or 30 pages of the book were a little rushed and that the ending was a bit forced, but still. It was good. And due to the power of Google I now know that this is the first in a trilogy and I have two more books to look forward to the next time I manage to get paid! (You know that never ending pile of unread books- this is why!)

A good read for some one whose brain seems to be comprised of dandelion fluff at the moment.

**** Not a classic but I would defiantly recommend it and read the others in the series.

7 Good Things Vol 9

I'm posting a little later today because I failed to charge my ipad over the weekend- epic fail!

But I having a pretty good time at the moment so my 7 things were once again pretty easy to come up with.

1. My Persephone Books catalogue turned up at the end of last week and I enjoyed reading it immensely. Persephone books is a independent publisher which predominantly focuses on previously out of print early 20th century books by women. They are beautifully finished books with amazing end plates created from fabrics which come from the period or are in some way connected with the characters or author. My geek-o-meter topped out! Now I just have to save up some money to actually buy these beautiful things!
2. My Mum brought me back some rock for a recent seaside trip- so yummy!
3. Pretty new yarn to make me some fingerless mittens
4. These videos.... so fantastic and informative!
5. Delicious lasagne made by Jim
6. I left work early today and got to walk home in the sunlight!
7. I finally finished my Physics book, 'We need to talk about Kelvin'.... and my mind? Its blown. Review to follow later in the week!

Well I hope you are all having a fantastic time, please share some of your good things in the comments!

Happy Monday!

Love Lindy xxxx

Library Love

I think I may have mentioned before how much I love the library. In fact I love it so much, I even worked there for a short time and contemplated a career as a librarian. (I then concluded that those hallowed hall were not nearly so much fun when you weren't there to read the books, but hey, my love of the institution is unending.)

I love them so much that I braved the arctic snow conditions yesterday (hey I'm british, 3 cms of snow is a lot around these parts), and visited the library in the small town where I work. I had decided that the perfect antidote to staring at a computer all day was to have a little lunch time browsing, thus I went out in to the snow wearing heels. Yes, yes, your free to laugh at me too.

However, I did score some pretty dandy finds from a gentle browse of the shelves.

Number One: Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.



I had read about this book somewhere before and the title jumped out at me and had stuck in my brain. I'm about two thirds of the way through this one now, and its quite an interesting read. I have an ongoing interest in religious philosophy and the forms that religious experience can take so I was immediately drawn to this book, which I suppose is best described as a memoir of religious feeling.

Number Two: Called out of Darkness by Anne Rice.



There is a bit of a religious theme developing here, but this is Anne Rice's description of how she left 30+ years of atheism and returned to the Catholicism of her childhood. I had read about her conversion else where and was interested to see how she reconciled this centuries old unbending faith with her modern (post modern?) attitude to the last thirty years of her life. Particularly with regards to the fact that her son was openly gay, not a life that the church would endorse. I actually finished this book yesterday. For a writer who is as good, and as experienced as Anne, I found some of the prose a little clunky, like she was trying to express her childhood in terms beyonds the means of words. Over all an interesting read but she seemed to dismiss recent church history and events, happy to live in a state oblivious to the recent developments within the church- concentrating wholly on the sensual and emotional experience of religion. A sentiment that the rational me found difficult to accept fully.

Number Three: The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuscinski



I picked this up mostly on a whim. I would seem to be a mix of memoir and history based on the fall of the Ethiopian government in 1974. This is an area which I know absolutely nothing about about so should be an formative experience to read when it comes to my knowledge of recent (well fairly) politics! I also thought it was slim so thus would be easy to carry to work!

Number Four:A Thousand Miles of Dreams by Sasha Su- Ling Welland



Again this is another random pick that I found whilst browsing. I was not after this book. I was however attracted by it title and the fact that the jacket describes it as a mix between a novel with a large dose of anthropology- my kind of book!


Number Five: Life in the Medieval Cloister by Julie Kerr



Continuing the theme of by interest in orthodox expressions of religion I picked up this one. I think it is a brief historical introduction. Most of which I (hope) I will already know as this formed a rather large study component of my degree, but, what can I say I was feeling nostalgic! The writing style looks to be clear and engaging and it will be nice to used those brain muscles once more!

All in all a pretty good haul! Things to keep me busy during the snow for the next few days!

I hope the snow isn't affecting your life to drastically, and people, drive slowly and safely!

Lindy xxx

Catching Fire and Mockingjay

Spoilers Ahead!!

I thought I would combine my reviews of the next two Hunger Games books in too one long hyper review. Otherwise I fear I would be at risk of repeating myself for what I have to say on these two!

Overall I felt that they were a pretty good extension of the first book in the series. A number of the questions which I had stemming from the first in the trilogy were answered and this can only be a good thing.

Catching Fire was a good bridging novel between the other two. I enjoyed the expanding vision and understanding that Katniss gained of her world, and the reader developed their understanding of this world along with her. As I’ve said before these novels are written in the first person so this means that by their very nature the reader is stymied by Katniss’ limitations as a character and I couldn’t help but feel that I waned to know more. More about the political system. More about the history of Panem. More, more, more. But perhaps I’m just greedy!

My problem with this series as a whole, one which was encapsulated in the third book, Mockingjay, was that it seems to have been set up as some sort of tragic love triangle a la Twilight, between Katniss, Peetra and Gale. Through out the entire series, however, I have felt that Gale was criminally underdeveloped and used as a character. By the time the novel was trying to create some romantic tension I thought that it was almost obvious that Katniss wouldn’t end up with him, as Gale’s relationship with Katniss, and Gale as a fully rounded character with complex motives just hadn’t been developed enough to make it a viable prospect.

I read these books quickly and the story gripped me. I wanted to know what happened to these characters and where their lives would lead. On that level I would heartily recommend them as casual reading. But for books which deal which such a difficult subject area as their main concept (children being forcibly taken to kill each other for other citizens enjoyment) I just didn’t feel that this issue was addressed comprehensively on a moral level at any point. In fact the books seem to purposefully avoid any sort of moral discussion, which is a pity as I feel that this would have really added to the depth of the novels. A characteristic which I felt was sorely lacking here.

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games. It would seem that this book has received a lot of hype, most of which I seem to have been oblivious of. However, I have fancied reading it for a while as it struck me as interestingly more dystopian than most of what I may catorgarise as 'easy reading' texts. Thus when the dreaded question came round of what I wanted for my birthday (I can't be the only person who hates asking for things)I suggested this.

I should probably point out right now, that even though I am a girl, I don't realy like chick lit novels. I will go out of my way not to read about a woman who is struggling in her life, meets a perfect man and suddenly, with a few predictable hiccups all is resolved. So when I heard about this book; dystopian future, violence games, machievellian leaders, I thought perfect a little light holiday reading! Yes, I know I'm weird!

So I settle down, I start reading and three hours later, I look up and I've finished the book. It was addictive. That kind of addictive where you know that it isn't good for you, but you keep on reading. I thought it was written in an engaging style, the first person narrative could get a little annoying but over all, I though it was well structured. The pace was fast and the book felt well balanced between action and descriptive passages. The one point that I would make is that when a book is written in the first person it does kind of kill any tension that the author is trying to create about the uncertain future of the main protagonist!

This book is a lot like a box of chocolates. It's good when you begin, but then it's so addictive you keep on eating, way past whist is good for you, so once you've finished you feel more than a little sick. In fact it's so addictive that once finishing I ordered the next two books in the series just so I could find out what happened! My need to know was so great.

This book belongs firmly in the young adult genre, now there is nothing wrong with this, I am guilty as anyone as wanting a little easy reading from time to time, but for some reason this time I was left wanting more. As with many young adult novels, I felt that some of the characters were horrifically underdeveloped. I was left craving a fuller picture of this world, the why, why, why questions in my mind were just not answered and I really wish they had been. I am left hoping that the next two books in the series can fill in some of the gaps that I felt were left in the picture of the world presented in this one.

All in all, an addictive read, but thus far there are too many questions left unanswered. I can only hope that the next two books plug some of the gaps. I think what I really wanted was the concepts of this book transformed in to a fully fledged and developed 'adult' novel which I could really get my teeth in to.

29 Jobs and a Million Lies

If there was a prize for having read an awful lot of books, then I would most certainly be in the running for it. Unfortunately there aren't many jobs in the current market that call for having read a ridiculous number of novels, but never mind.



The last book that I read was a free ebook which I downloaded on to my iPad. Now you either get lucky when downloading free ebooks and get some thing that you really should have paid for, or you realise why it was free in the first place. Luckily this one falls in to the former, rather than the latter category.

In a nutshell this book is a travel through the numerous jobs (29 funnily enough) that the author has had. Everything from para legal secretary to moon lighting writing scripts for porno movies. Its an interesting career path to say the least. I think I enjoyed this book because I an relate to it pretty easily; in the last few years I've had no less than 7 different jobs and I'm still searching for what I want to do as a career long term. I think I admire this woman for aiming for what she wanted the consequences of it be damned. As with many of us what she wanted didn't necessarily correlate to what she needed, but still she tried. And that is an admirable quality- fearlessness. I know in my own career path I am far more likely to choose the secure path rather than the interesting one. I don't have the kind of gumption in my personally to say, I'm going to do this, because I want to do this and consequences be damned.

The book is well written engaging and well structured. As it seems with all ebooks there are few formatting problem- blank pages and the like, but it didn't detract from the over all picture. I would recommend downloading this book. It's a short and easy read, I read it over two days worth of train journeys on my way to work and back. Don't expect prose to the standard of Leo Tolstoy but rather accept this book as an interesting diversion into one womans life and her extraordinarily brave and varied approach to the time old question- what do you want to be when you grow up?

Saturday Steals Vol 17

Well I promised myself this week that I would make it back for Saturday Steals. I thought about my post during the week. Decided what I would ‘steal’. My organisation was going to be superb, nay enviable this week. You would have been blown away by the sophistication and thought which was going to have gone in to my post. It was going to be awesome.

Unfortunately yesterday I was in a minor car crash and I have ended up with whiplash. About the best description I can come up with of what this feels like, is that my back is clicking like an unholy xylophone, being played by an over enthusiastic ghoul. This has rather stymied the grand plans I had for my Saturday Steals extravaganza of a post since I’m not really in the position to take the *amazing* photos I had planned.

So this leaves me to tell you about another steal I managed this week. Unsurprisingly I am back on the bandwagon of buying books. But as my daily Notes From The Universe tell me, an amazing collection of books is something to strive for, and who am I to argue! (Honestly if you’ve never heard or read these little notes they are a fantastic way to start your day.)

This book cost me the grand total of 25p from a bargain bucket of books that was outside an independent book retailer on my way to work. Hannah Hauxwell is a woman from the Yorkshire Dales who came to fame in the 1970’s for her solitary lifestyle without modern conveniences (such as say, running water or electricity). A couple of TV programs were made about her and this is one of the accompanying books.



(As you can see my photography is not going any further afield than my sofa!)

Whilst you might be quite rightly wondering why on earth I was attracted to this particular tatty paperback, it is a quite convoluted tale. When I was a kid, my parents had one of the other books from the series, and it sat on our bookshelf for years. I never read this book. I just remember noticing it a lot. It was called ‘Hannah in Yorkshire’, had a black dust jacket, and a very large photo of the aforementioned Hannah on the front. I have no idea why I did not read this book. My parents were very liberal in what they let me read. I read plenty of other things off of their bookshelves. Except this one book. Yet it must have made enough of an impression that I remember it all these years later and then go out of my way to buy a similar book. Perhaps the world is telling me that after all these years I should simply borrow that book off of my Dad, as I should have done about a decade ago!

After all these years this is a pretty good book. Simple but affecting. Not a long or a difficult read, but Hannah herself is a very likable woman, who has lead a most extraordinary life. Maybe I would not have appreciated her story at 5 or at 10. Maybe I would have fixated on the fact that she didn’t have TV, or that she couldn’t wash her hair every day and I would have not really understood what I glean from this tale now. Maybe the world wanted me to wait before meeting Hannah in the pages of a tatty paper back, aged 21. But whatever age I am, I’m glad to have met Hannah in the pages of this book, finally, and she strikes me as the kind of woman who would mind that I turned up a little late for our meeting.

Saturday Steals Vol 13.

*Due to an extremely busy week, and my extreme tiredness, I'm replaying this round of Saturday Steals again! All shall be explained next week, I promise! Until then, have a fantastic weekend! xxx*

I have a bit of a hobby. Its not one of those formal hobbies that requires evening and weekend work, or hours slaving away to achieve a particular task. No, i’m a little too disorganised for such an arduous hobby. Sometimes months if not years can pass before I turn to this hobby once again, but this has no effect on how sweet the winnings are when I do find a particular item.

If you hadn’t already guessed, I collect old books.


This might not come as much of a surprise.

Now when I say old books, I don’t mean the guilt edged (although a little shiny glint never goes amiss), you can’t touch this its so old, put it in a glass case variety of old books. Mostly these are too expensive and I have no money, what with that whole student thing and whatnot. So I collect the books that slip through other peoples notice. The ones which end up on the back shelves of charity shops. The ones which my parents so generously gave to me to start this collection. The ones which nobody else wants.


A couple of weeks ago I hit gold in this department, and it was a find which most defiantly counts as a steal!

James and I were taking a walk in the small town of Woodbridge near us, in order to buy a new kitchen knife. (Yes we went to a different town to buy a knife, its a long story, don’t ask!) Where outside a charity shop was a table covered in books, now I can never resist a second hand book table so was soon drawn towards it like a moth to a flame. This was what you might call the bargain corner of a charity shop. They weren’t even asking a fixed price on any of the books, just a small donation of above 20p per book. This is like heaven, if you are me!

So between us we manage to pick up a travel guide, a Ben Elton novel, a crime book which I have since read, and was so bad I gave up on and won’t even dignify you dear reader with the title, and this....


my favourite of them all.

It is as 1925 copy of George Elliot’s novel Romola. In the inside cover it has an inscription dated 1929 which reads, 'With love and best wishes for a very Happy Easter from .... Simon and Vera 31 May 1929'. There was only one word which I couldn't really make out.



I love this. I actually love this. I love being able to hold a book in my hands and imagine all the people who may have held it before me. Now yes, the binding is going a little bit, but to me that just adds to its charm. I’m a firm believer that books are there to be read, this books binding just demonstrates that it has been used for its original purpose many times, and that can only be a good thing.



For a find so good, James and I gave them all the change which we had on us, which amounted to a little over £2.50. I cannot believe that I paid so little for this treasure, or at least its a treasure to me!

I hope everyone has a happy and relaxing weekend.

This post is part of Saturday Steals over at Archive of Our Lives, head on over there to find some more amazing bargains.

(And yes, I did go a little crazy with the antique effect on iphoto!)