Transcription by Kate Atkinson Review

Another fantastic novel by Kate Atkinson. I adore everything she writes including this book. It begins in 1980 then flashes back through Juliet Armstrong’s life in WWII and then in 1950. Juliet was recruited to MI5 during the Second World War as a typist, at first she was doing fairly dull office work until she was drafted to a specific mission. An MI5 agent was pretending to be in contact with the Nazis and was running a group of Nazi sympathisers in Britain, they passed all their information to him instead of Germany actually getting hold of it. It’s Juliet’s job to transcribe all the meetings. The sexist attitude towards Juliet in the 40s is hard to read, it was how they treated women at the time but it made me so angry! It got a bit better when we get to the 1950s but not much.

In the 50s Juliet has left the secret service and now works for the BBC producing radio shows for schools. But she starts to get paranoid that she’s being followed, she recives a threatening note. Is her past coming back to haunt her?

The book is a fascinating window into the 40s & 50s in Britain. It’s got none of the usual violence of a spy novel but it does have tension and I felt a strong connection to Juliet. Definitely worth a read.

Top Ten Tuesday – Childhood Favourites

I’ve always loved reading so this was a very easy list for me to make! It made me feel really nostalgic.

1. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Of course this has to be at the top of my list. I loved the book as a child and I still love them just as much, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read them all and Hogwarts will always be there to welcome us home.

2. The Famous Five by Enid Blyton

Me and my sisters used to love these books! Our Mum used to read them so we have some of her old books and we managed to complete our collection with newer editions. I just loved reading about all their adventures and solving mysteries.

3. His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman

I’ve just finished re-reading these books, they’re so good. I used to live the idea of having a part of your soul (your daemon) outside of your body as an animal as Lyra and everyone else in her world does. I’ve wanted to go and see the magical Northern Lights ever since I read the first book!

4. Dustbin Baby by Jacqueline Wilson

Jacqueline Wilson was my favourite author when I was younger, all her books are so well written, they’re all completely different and yet you connect with every leading character in them. Dustbin Baby was always one of my favourites, it’s quite sad really. April was left in a bin when she was only a few hours old. She’s been in and out of the foster system since and now in her teens she decides to try and find out who her mother was.

5. Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson

In 1910, Maia is sent to live with distant relatives on their rubber plantation along the Amazon River. The book is full of adventure and so vivid, I loved traveling to South America with Maia.

6. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

This series is so strange and bleak but I used to really enjoy when I was younger. I remember it took me a while to get used to Snicket’s writing style but once I did I was enthralled by the series and the Baudelaire’s sad stories.

7. The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett

This was the first Terry Pratchett book I read , my aunt lent it to me. I still sometimes think about the people that might live in my carpet when I hoover!

8. The Lottie Project by Jacqueline Wilson

This book like so many of my other favourites swaps between different times, Charlie has to do a history project for school, when she sees a picture of a Victorian girl who looks just like her she decides to write a diary of ‘Lottie’ a maid in the early 1900s.

9. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

These books are so precious, Eeyore is just everything, I definitely relate to him nowadays! I can’t wait to read these stories to my future children.

10. The Hobbit by J.R. Tolkien

This starts as a fun adventure with the dwarves and Bilbo but gets more and more dangerous. I’ve read this book a few times, I find it way more enjoyable than the Lord of the Rings, no idea why.

What were some of your favourite books as a child?

Top Five Tuesday – Alphabet

A new Top Five Tuesday, the prompts are created by Bionic Book Worm. This week we’ve got to choose five books that start with the first five letters of the alphabet. I thought this was going to be harder than it was, thank goodness I have all my read books on Goodreads!

A – Atonement by Ian McEwan

This was the first A book that came into my head, I adore this book, even though it is quite a sad read. Oddly I like to have a good cry with a book, out of sadness or joy. I love to connect to it that much that it moves me emotionally.

B – The Boleyn King by Laura Andersen

This whole series is fantastic, a historical au where Anne Boleyn bears Henry VIII a son so isn’t executed. Yes please! It’s filled with well written characters, some we know, some who are new to us and it shines a light on the shady goings on in the Tudor courts.

C – Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Again this was the first book I thought of for this letter. It’s set in space in the future, the Earth is dying and humanity needs to find a new home. But an experiment to terraform a planet is sabotaged so that instead of intelligent apes evolving there, the genetic accelerant is absorbed by spiders! So clever and fascinating.

D – Dominion by C.J. Sansom

Another historical ‘what if’! But this one is completely terrifying. What if Britian didn’t take a stand against Hitler and we made peace instead. There is resistance in Britain, can they overthrow the facists? Can they save a very important scientist?This book is so cleverly written, I was shuddering at parts it felt so real. It’s scary to think how close this was to coming true. Thanks Churchill for not backing down.

E – Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

This is one of the first Discworld books that I read, it’s got the witches and wizards in it and they crack me up! It starts when a dying wizard tries to pass on his powers to an eighth son of an eighth son. The fact that the son is actually a daughter is realised too late. Now the girl must try to make it at the Unseen University where the wizards are completely terrified that a girl has the same powers as them.

Top Five Tuesday – Fantasy Books

A new Top Five Tuesday, the prompts are created by Bionic Book Worm. I love fantasy as a genre and here are my favourite five picks:

1. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

I don’t think anyone is surprised that this is the top of my list. I can barely go five minutes without talking about this series, it’s phenomenal. The world of Westeros and Essos that George has created is so real, it’s a cruel and brutal world with dragons, undead ice zombies and devastating wars. Wherever we go in this world the detail George describes is incredible, when we change to a different point of view you know where you are almost immediately.

2. The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett

This world that Terry Pratchett created is so brilliant, it’s quirky, random, it’s a flat disc with land and sea like ours on top. The disc rests on four elephants who in turn stand on the Great A’Tuin, a giant turtle who swims through space. Every single book in the series is funny and thought provoking. Death is probably my favourite character and I think my favourite book is either Hogswatch or Soul Music.

3. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

I read the Hobbit when I was about ten. I absolutely loved it, I’ve read it again since and it doesn’t get less magical. I think it’s the adventure side of it I really enjoyed and of course it sets the scene for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

4. His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman

I’ve been re-reading this series and I hd forgotten how good it was. The original world in the first book is home of Lyra, everyone in her world has a daemon, a piece of their soul in the form of an animal, always with them but they’re able to converse and play together. Children’s daemons can change form until the grow up and stick to one thing. We then travel to different worlds, one like ours, one where shadows come and steal the grownups souls. It’s quite a dark series for children actually! In the third book there is a war approaching between God himself and Lord Asriel’s army of combined forces. It’s detailed, complex and fascinating.

5. Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb

I really enjoyed this series, it starts with a boy being abandoned by his family to the heir to the kingdom claiming he was his bastard son. Fitz grows up in the castle kept out of sight and eventually he is trained to be an assassin.

What are some of your favourite fantasy books?

Top Ten Tuesday – Summer TBR

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic by thatartsyreadergirl is the top books on my Summer TBR list. It’s the summer! Although it really doesn’t feel like it at the moment, the weather is rubbish!

1. Transcription by Kate Atkinson

I’m reading it at the moment and absolutely loving it! We follow Juliet’s story through WWII when she joins MI5 and then through the Cold War.

2. Guards! Guards! By Terry Pratchett

A dragon has taken over Ankh-Morpork, and is burning or eating everything in sight. The City Watch are in disarray and even the Wizards haven’t got a clue what to do. I’m really looking forward to this one, the City Watch are my favourites also dragons!

3. The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton

Kate Morton’s books are always great summer reads. This book is set in the summer of 1862 in London, a group of artists spend the summer in a beautiful manor on the Thames. But by the end of their time there one woman has been shot dead and a family heirloom is missing. In the present day, a young archivist finds drawings of the manor with a photograph of a beautiful woman, will she be able to uncover the truth?

4. The Shadow Sister by Lucinda Riley

This is the third book in the series and I’m really looking forward to finding out more about Star and her roots. These books are so well written, they really take you on the sisters journeys with them.

5. The House At Riverton by Kate Morton

This will be a re-read and a wonderful pick for the summer. This is Kate Morton’s first book it’s set in the 1920s/30s and it’s been a while since I read it so I’ve forgotten what happ, it’ll be nice to fall back in love with the book.

6. Sunday Morning Coming Down by Nicci French

The seventh Frieda Klein novel this leads straight from the end of Saturday Requiem which ended dramatically with Frieda finding the dead body of a policeman under her floorboards. Frieda is sure her stalker Dean Reeve is behind it but he’s been (supposedly) dead for seven years.

7. Nightflyers by George R.R Martin

I saw this book in a shop a little while ago and I didn’t know George had written any space books, I’m so excited to read it.

8. The Virgin’s Spy by Laura Andersen

I really enjoyed the first book in this series and meeting some of the knew characters. The Tudors are so fascinating, Elizabeth I is on the throne and her daughter has finally been allowed to join the court in London.

9. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

Another re-read, I’ve started reading the Jackson Brodie series again and this is the second book. Jackson is a private investigator and former police officer. This time he’s in Edinburgh and witnesses a brutal attack on a man stuck in a traffic jam.

10. The Day of the Dead by Nicci French

I think this is the last Frieda Klein novel which makes me sad! I didn’t want to read the blurb because it might have spoilers from the seventh book! But I know however they decide to end it it’ll be a brilliant read.

So there are my Summer TBRs, I don’t think I’ll make it through all of them but we’ll see!

Top Five Tuesday – Male Characters

A new Top Five Tuesday, the prompts are created by Bionic Book Worm. I usually relate way more with female characters and are drawn to them much more but I did manage to find five of my favourite male characters, just about!

1. Harry Potter

“There’s no need to call me “sir” Professor.”

This adorable human had to be on the list. I still can’t get over how lovely and giving Harry is despite his upbringing. Who taught him to be a good person? Harry goes through so much in his teenage years, he has all the pressure of saving the world on his shoulders and yet he’s not arrogant *cough* like his father *cough* he fights to the very end and sacrifices himself for the greater good even though the man he trusted most essentially set him up to die, Harry does it anyway. Obviously Harry isn’t perfect, but he certainly tries!

2. Tyrion Lannister

“A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.”

This man! Tyrion is so witty, I love his chapters, most of the time you get to laugh. He’s also incredibly intelligent and resilient, he’s had to be. It breaks my heart how horribly he is treated by his father and sister and by most of Westeros actually. But he still carries on, I just want to give him a hug most of the time because everyone else is so mean.

“It all goes back and back. To our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance on in our steads.”

3. Peeta Mellark

“Our lives are not measured in years, but are measured in the lives of people we touch around us.”

Peeta is such a lovely person, he cares so much about others. He’s charming, kind, determined. I really admire his inner strength, especially when he volunteered to go back into the games so Katniss wouldn’t be alone. They were both traumatised by their first games and their fight with the capital. He was tortured for months, made to hate the person he loves the most but still that love shone through and he was able to break free from that dark place in his mind. I’m just so proud of him.

4. Jaime Lannister

Oh Jaime…he’s definitely the problematic favourite of this group. At the start of ASOIAF, Jaime’s moral compass is non-existent. He’s spent most of his adult life scorned and hated for betraying his vows and killing the Mad King, the King who was about to burn 250,000 people alive in the city of Kings Landing. Thanks to Ned Stark (not a fan) no one found out about the Kings promise to ‘burn them all’ instead everyone sees Jaime as corrupt. However Jaime goes on quite the journey, he looses his sword hand and as he sees it, his worth. But he saves his companion from being slaughtered by a bear, a woman he had scorned from the moment he met her. He’s a complex anti-hero and I love reading his POV chapters.

“And me, that boy I was … when did he die, I wonder? When I donned the white cloak? When I opened Aerys’s throat? That boy had wanted to be Ser Arthur Dayne, but someplace along the way he had become the Smiling Knight instead.”

5. Jackson Brodie

“A coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen.”

Jackson is a private investigator, he likes his job, it pays well and he mainly just has to follow people around whose spouses think they’re being unfaithful. But he does care about his clients, especially when he has to deal with old missing persons cases or unsolved murders. He’s quite a broody character, he has a daughter who he doesn’t see enough and he’s desperate to go and live in rural France for his retirement. I recently started re-reading his series and I forgot how much I loved them, the fifth book in the series is out this year which I’m very excited for!

There they are, my five favourite male characters! Who are some of yours?

Quotes of the Week

Another rainy week here in England, I’ve been watching the Womens World Cup to keep we occupied and reading of course, here are my favourite quotes from the week:

“They were parcelling the impossible height into manageable sections. Just like time. That’s how we survive infinity, we kill it by breaking it up into small bits.” – Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

I love the imagery in this and it’s true, we get through days by taking them an hour at a time, that’s what I do at work anyway!

“It was all such a waste of breath. War and peace. Peace and war. It would go on for ever without end.” – Transcription by Kate Atkinson

This is so sad, the book is set during WWII and the Cold War and this quote broke my heart. Somewhere in the world terrible things are happening and it’s never ending.

Top Five Tuesday – All Time Favourites

A new Top Five Tuesday, the prompts are created by Bionic Book Worm. This week we actually get 10 picks which is definitely needed my favourites! I’ve probably mentioned all of these at least once before because I can’t ever forget about them!

1. Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

Because I grew up reading HP I genuinely think the books have shaped who I am! I could read them forever, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read them over the years but the magic is still there whenever I go back to Hogwarts.

2. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

I think I will always be obsessed with these books, the characters, the complex plot. I still don’t know everything and I’ve read all the books at least twice. George has created such a real (and incredibly cruel) world that I can’t possibly tear myself away.

3. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

The characters in the Forgotten Garden are the main reason it’s one of my favourites. Eliza Makepeace is a writer herself, she lives in the early 1900s and is adopted by her uncle when her mother dies. Her mother had run away from her privileged life to marry for love, Eliza doesn’t ever feel truly at home in the grand house but she adores the gardens. The story crosses generations going between Eliza’s world to Nell and then Nell’s granddaughter Cassandra who both live in Australia. It’s a magical story that I fell in love with when I first read it.

4. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

This book is so incredible it’s kind of my dream book, it’s set in the 1920’s-40’s and it all about the possibilities of life and the decisions we make affecting our lives. We follow the Todd family, specifically Ursuala through their lives. It’s another one of my all time favourites. We follow Ursula down different paths and some of the possible lives she could have led during WWII. I can’t tell you how much I love this book and how beautiful it is.

5. The Book Thief by Markus Zuask

I absolutely love this book from start to finish. Death is the narrator and his passages are so profound and beautiful. The book is set in 1940s Germany. Death tells Liesel’s story, how she found a book by her brother’s grave and found a love of the written word.

6. Atonement by Ian McEwan

It’s set from 1930s-40’s and then jumps to the early 2000s. Briony Tallis is a curious, over-confident child, she likes to write and perform plays and this summer is no different. Except she winesses something and doesn’t understand it’s innocence. An accusation is made and lives are changed forever. This book is so beautiful and the time it’s set is such a scary but fascinating time.

7. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

I will always come back to this series because of the emotional connection I have to it and how brilliant it is. It’s set in a post apocalyptic version of America. Humanity lives in strict districts and under harsh rules imposed by the Capital and it’s repulsive inhabitants. Every year they force children to fight to the death, for their entertainment and to remind the districts what happens when you rebel. But one girl in District Twelve is about to change all of that, unintentionally she gives the people hope and the courage to fight back.

8. Dominion by C.J. Sansom

It’s 1952, Germany won the war. Britain surrendered after Dunkirk. Germany are still at war with Russia but we are under Nazi rule. The press, radio and television are controlled. Resistance is growing though with the leadership of Winston Churchill. This book is truly brilliant and utterly terrifying. I don’t think I’ve read a scarier book. So convincing it made me physically shudder in parts.

9. Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

This book is my favourite from the Discworld series so far because of its impact on me. It’s about the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork during a revolution. The Watch make barricades with the people of the city to protect themselves from a serial killer and some of the Watch themselves. The leader in it all is Sam Vines who has somehow travelled back in time so he is now at the revolution twice. Once as a new officer and again as an experienced policeman near to retirement. The book is funny of course but is also filled with so much truth about the nature of humanity.

10. Children In Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This book is so good. Humanity are branching out into the stars, a project has identified different planets to terraform and make suitable for human life. But it’s also an evolutionary experiment, they send down insects and animals and some of our primate ancestors. But there are people back on Earth who believe this is wrong, we are meant to live and die on Earth. They sabotage one of the spaceships. The captain sends the monkeys off towards the planet along with the evolutionary accelerator. Then she is trapped in a tiny escape pod, orbiting her planet, transmitting a distress signal. 100 years later survivors of Earth find the planet and attempt to make it their home, but something has gone wrong. There are no monkeys here, instead the world is covered in webs. I loved this book, it was so interesting!

So there are my ten favourites! What are some of yours?

Top Five Tuesday – Debut Novels

A new Top Five Tuesday, the prompts are created by Bionic Book Worm. I’ve realised that I don’t read enough debut novels as I struggled to make this list! I do tend to stick with what I know so I might need to branch out and find different authors more. Anyway here are my top five debut novels:

1. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton, Published in 2007

This is such a good book and already Kate’s style is clear, the theme of past mysteries, old houses and brilliant written characters that stay with you. It’s set in England between WWI and WWII, a story about an aristocratic family their house and a mysterious death, told in flashbacks by a woman who witnessed it all.

2. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, Published 2015

It is hard to believe this is a debut novel, it’s full of suspense and really clever. It follows three women and their involvement in each others lives. Rachel gets the same train into London every day and it stops opposite some lovely town houses, every morning she sees a couple on their balcony having breakfast together, she makes up a story about them. But one day the woman goes missing.

3. The Boleyn King by Laura Andersen, Published 2013

I absolutely love this book and the rest of the trilogy. What if Anne Boleyn had given Henry a son? Would she have been executed? In this story Anne gives birth to a baby boy and survives to raise her children. Henry IX becomes King at age seventeen. He’s known to his friends as William and there are only three people in the world that he truly trusts, his older sister Elizabeth, his best friend Dominic and Minuette a young orphan raised as a royal ward by Anne. It has all the drama of a Tudor court, a really brilliant read.

4. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett, Published 1985

The whole Discworld series is quirky, funny and genius and the Colour of Magic is no exception. Our introduction to the Discworld and the wizards is led by Rincewind, a former wizard who was thrown out of the University for reading one of the spells that could end the world.

5. The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan, Published 2012

This book is set in the early 1900s, a ship to the USA goes down, the passengers are huried on to lifeboats and have to watch as the ship goes down. Now they are stuck in the middle of the ocean not knowing if help is on its way. The survivors on one lifeboat soon realise they are over capacity. Their supplies are dwindling and the weather is worsening. If they are going to survive they will have to make sacrifices. This book is chilling and thought provoking, as the reader I was constantly wondering what I would have done in the same situation. A fascinating take on humanity’s determination to survive at any cost.

What are some of your favourite debut novels?

Quotes of the Week

It’s summer! Unfortunately I’m stuck at work today but I had a lovely beginning of the week in the sunshine. Here are my favourite quotes from this week:

“It’s one thing to destroy Democracy. It’s another to destroy the monster you replace it with.” Spooks 5×02

This quote gave me chills which was the intention I believe. Although our government here in the UK sucks right now, at least we have the opportunity to choose them and hold them accountable for their actions.

“We have language, we invent, we analyse, we build cathedrals and cities and society. We write music and poetry, we fall in love. Aren’t we lucky, to be alive, to have life. Isn’t every tiny moment an inexplicable delight, packed with potential.” – Anne Lister, Gentleman Jack episode 2

Sometimes I loose all hope in humanity, but this quote gave me hope. This show is so important and I love every second of it.

Hope you all have a good weekend!