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eadalong review policy older posts i m currently reading posted on january 9 2013 leave a comment moranthology by caitlin moran i am no longer blogging at novel insights but that doesn t mean you can t follow me on twitter novel_insights i ll also be guest posting now and then on savidge reads wonderful blog so look out for me yonder leave a comment posted in random ramblings first resolution of the year not blogging posted on january 1 2013 28 comments well firstly i d like to wish everyone a massive happy new year i personally am very excited about 2013 as with every year i expect that there will be ups and downs but i am hopeful that it will be a good one there will be wedding bells for my fiance and i and a place of our own i am also keeping my fingers and toes crossed that there are good times in store for some of my nearest and dearest who have had a tough couple of years so on to the main topic of this post a farewell to blogging geek alert i take my new year s resolutions seriously i know that i can set a goal at any time of the year however i also find that as the year draws to a close and the holiday provides a bit of extra time for thought and reflection it is helpful for me to consider what i want to keep and to change in my life over the past few months i ve had a recurring hunch that it might be time to give up blogging so finally last night i sat down and penned the following pros cons list novel insights has evolved quite a bit since the early earnest days i ve been blogging for four years now i ve loved the opportunity to express myself and to learn and enjoyed developing my thoughts about books that i have read as well as spamming the interweb with various bits of personal waffle knitting running baking yes blogging has revealed my not so secret granny side but the past year novel insights has been on a visible wind down hence the recent blogging break partly because i ve been busy but perhaps more because if i m being honest then i m just not as motivated as i once was i won t rule out taking up blogging again sometime in the future but the conclusion that i ve come to is that it is just not right for me now so i m drawing a line under it i ll leave you with some of my favourite personal literary moments being introduced to some of the more obscure forgotten authors by simon of stuck in a book my favourite the vet s daughter by barbara comyns being entirely baffled and frustrated by kafka and calvino which made me feel like something of a philistine challenging the trial and if on a winter s night a traveller some fabulous book group reads i loved middlesex never let me go and how to be a woman being seduced by sensation novels courtesy of savidge reads who introduced me to blogging in the first place the best female villain award goes to lydia gwilt in armadale by wilkie collins thank you to everyone who has read and shared their thoughts on novel insights and warmest wishes for a fantastic 2013 over and out xxx novel insights 28 comments posted in random ramblings seasons greetings posted on december 25 2012 7 comments as i m reading a christmas carol i thought i d share one of arthur rackham s cheerful illustrations today mr and mrs fezziwig having fun dancing together wherever you are and whoever you are with i hope you have a wonderful day 7 comments posted in random ramblings mellow yellow meyer lemon drizzle cake posted on november 27 2012 5 comments thank you to everyone who posted suggestions on my when life gives you lemons post asking what to do with the fruit from my meyer lemon tree the one that really took my fancy was the idea of making a lemon drizzle cake and i did just that on sunday zesting cooling on a wire rack after being drenched in a glossy lemony syrup lemony icing sugar is drizzled on top ready to eat it was a really delicious and light and fluffy although more a testament i think to this excellent recipe than my baking i d like to think mary berry would be proud i have a couple of littler lemons ripening still on the tree so i ll save those for that g t 5 comments posted in random ramblings tagged cake lemon drizzle lemons meyer lemons recipes the song of achilles by madeline miller posted on november 20 2012 12 comments 5 5 the song of achilles is the first book that i have read in recent months that has really transported me to another world i was so wrapped up in the story that i was thinking about it frequently in between picking up my kindle bloomsbury 2012 kindle edition 368 pages book group choice that might simply make you question my reading choices however recently i have read books that were well written or interesting but they haven t inspired as much pleasure in reading as madeline miller s book did it takes a particular quality of writing to really whisk me away i can count probably on my fingers those that have examples off the top of my head would be captain corelli s mandolin middlesex the night circus and of course daphne dumaurier s rebecca or jamaica inn i loved reading greek myths as a child and studied classics at school so it would be fair to say that i m pre disposed to enjoy this kind of novel i do believe though that it is accessible to anyone and might even inspire an interest in mythology in readers who haven t read stories of this kind essentially it is simply a story of love and of war but mainly of love the quality of madeline miller s storytelling is the thing that really stands out for me she often embellishes and intrigues the reader with fleeting references to other greek heroes gods and goddesses but never lets detail get in the way of the flow of the tale her descriptions are often lush and sensual such as patroclus watches achilles eating ripe figs the dark flesh parting to pink seeds under his teeth the fruit was perfectly ripe the juice brimming i cared about her characters tenacious briseis kind patroclus with his constant but gentle love for achilles and enjoyed the sparring between the proud warriors i don t know accurate it is from a scholarly perspective and i know miller takes some liberty with the stories which she freely admits but she has obviously taken care to really research before elaborating on the original tales just like in the red tent the author has taken a fleeting piece of the original and then expanded it adding her own creative flourish you could say in homeric style a wonderful novel and an absolute pleasure to read chasing bawa and savidge reads and farmlanebooks also loved this novel if you want to find out what they thought 12 comments posted in madeline miller tagged descriptive gods greece love magic mythology war when life gives you lemons posted on november 19 2012 7 comments it s been pretty busy the last couple of weeks what with the new job so i thought i d pop by quickly to share a picture of my lovely meyer lemon tree actually my fiancé s but i take care of it which is looking splendid it s the first time i ve ever really grown or kept something growing successfully anyone got any good ideas about what i should do with the first fruit of my labours so far gin and tonic or pancakes with lemon and sugar is all i have come up with 7 comments posted in random ramblings happy birthday bram stoker posted on november 8 2012 leave a comment oooh what a fabulous design on google today if you haven t read it then dracula is available for free for download on kindle happy birthday mr stoker 165 years today a mere infant in vampire years leave a comment posted in random ramblings sweet tooth by ian mcewan posted on november 1 2012 5 comments 4 5 if you are a fan of ian mcewan s writing then sweet tooth shouldn t disappoint jonathan cape 2012 edition 336 pages gift set in the early 1970s in the shadow of the cold war and ira violence the story follows sylvia frome an attractive and bright young woman as she muddles her way through cambridge university and then after a brief affair with an older man tries to find her feet in the secret service at a time when women were considered most usefully employed as paper shufflers or secretaries sylvia s expectations are fairly low until she becomes involved in a special mission to seed literature with appropriate political undertones into public consciousness sylvia is a likeable character passionate about reading and knowledge she has a quality about her which spark s miss brodie might call instinctive she doesn t always seem to know what path she is treading but makes the best of what is given to her she doesn t pass as a true heroine because she isn t quite formidable or solid enough the reason for this lies at the end of the novel i admit that i was thrown a bit by what i expected from the novel from the premise and early part of the story i would recommend that you don t pick this up thinking ooh ian mcewan does female james bond sweet tooth is really much more a book about character development the feeling of a certain era and literature with the spying element being more of a vehicle for this have i confused you enough with that explanation the pace of the novel is fairly leisurely and mcewan skilled writer as he is uses language to create sounds scents and to pull the reader into his character s memories i marked the page for this short but lovely sentence it became one of those childhood paradise places burnished by nostalgia i found it fascinating to read about how the government tried to influence people s political views through literature especially in light of some of the recent discussions i ve heard since the olympics about china s use of soft power to increase it s national profile worldwide it is worth mentioning that critics of sweet tooth would probably say that it doesn t really go anywhere concrete and some readers may feel tricked by mcewan it won t be for everyone especially if you are looking for a thriller but i really enjoyed this perhaps because i rather like to be led down unexpected paths when i m reading an enjoyable and surprising read for me and thanks simon for giving me a copy for my birthday his review is here have you read or would you like to read sweet tooth 5 comments posted in ian mcewan middling tagged contemporary literature female protagonist secret service spies in the post posted on october 29 2012 7 comments a exciting week is ahead for me as today was my first day in my new job lovely people and fab office good start i ve still got a pretty serious commute so plenty of time for reading currently i m totally absorbed in the song of achilles by madeline miller and possibly blogging as i have a nice light laptop courtesy of work so it s just a quick post today to share some lovely arrivals in the post firstly i was delighted to receive a lovely new edition of the master and margarita by mikhail bulgakov and the intelligent woman s guide to socialism capitalism sovietism and fascism by george bernard shaw both alma classics i m hoping that the guide is one that i can just dip into rather than read cover to cover as i do normally prefer novels however i do also love george bernard shaw also a copy of my brilliant friend by elena ferrante which looks dauntingly chunky but interesting i m very excited about my tickets to sleeping beauty i ve seen a couple of other matthew bourne s adaptations courtesy of mr savidge reads and really enjoyed them plus it s just the thing for the christmas season finally the dvd of jane eyre arrived from love film so that ll be one to curl up with at the end of my busy week has anyone read or seen any of my new arrivals 7 comments posted in random ramblings and here are the books i read while i was away posted on october 21 2012 14 comments over the past few months i guess i maybe haven t read as much as i usually would i m not sure if that was just being very busy doing other things or a bit of reading fatigue i do think i felt less motivated to read as my head was so full of to dos and as you may have gathered from my previous post on blogging principles it had started to feel a bit like a chore participants of riverside readers will also recognise that the selection below are almost exclusively book group choices when you re on a slow reading run reading a monthly book group choice can mean you don t get to read much else but thankfully our members made some good choices favourites wide sargasso sea was my choice for riverside readers a dark and moving tale which imagines the background and once vibrant personality of antoinette cosway a character rhys plucks from jane eyre rhys sparing prose and darkly vivid descriptions of post colonial jamaica kept me spellbound one that i would like to re read erin morgenstern s the night circus will always bring me fond memories as i was reading it during my holiday to prague where i became engaged to be married it was such a delight to read about the magical world of the circus and it s also a romantic story on many levels unusually for a book i m enjoying i found myself wanting to read it slowly so that i could savour it one of the things that i loved was how the circus popped up all around the world including prague so i could enjoy the descriptions of all the places that i have been i also loved the imaginative characters sweet tooth is the last book i put down a certain savidge reads gave me a copy about a month ago we are both big fans of mcewan i was a little uncertain about how much i would enjoy it as his last book solar review here was was well written and topical but i wasn t blown away with it as i was with other novels like atonement or enduring love in the end it was that perfect combination of being both enjoyable to read and clever too i also enjoyed reading from the point of view of serena and the secret service plot line although the storyline turned out a little differently than i thought it might in a good way worth checking out i also enjoyed charlotte rogan s debut the lifeboat which uses the plot device of a stranded lifeboat to examine human behaviour in a claustrophobic and life threatening situation for me it read like a very well written television series it was gripping but ultimately accounts of human behaviour under pressure such as golding s lord of the flies or shute s on the beach review here disturbed me much more deeply god s own country was excellent and also very dark in the wild setting of the north yorkshire countryside we meet local sam marsdyke who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young girl who has just moved to the area with her family raisin keeps the reader in an ambiguous haze as to sam s mindset is he just a naive country bumpkin or are his motives more sinister the house of sleep is the first novel that i ve read by jonathan coe and one that i very much enjoyed featuring an insomniac and a narcoleptic who have a tormented relationship as well as a slightly evil doctor who studies sleeping habits it is an original and involving story i found the narrative at the start of the book which jumps between...