The Hunger Games

From the back of the book: In a dark vision of the near future, a terrifying reality TV show is taking place. Twelve boys and twelve girls are forced to appear in a lve event called The Hunger Games. There is only one rule: kill or be killed. When sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her younger sister's place in the games, she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.

Anyone who hasn't heard of The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins has been on holiday to the Moon for the last few years. When I was first starting to work in Publishing I was lucky enough to work for The Hunger Games' UK publisher and managed to get myself a copy of the first book. Being in the middle of my university English Lit course, however, I was swamped by a load of magical realism and post-colonial classics and never sat down and read it. Now, embarrassingly behind the rest of the world (even my mum has read it), I have finally opened it up to see just what all this fuss is about.

And it's good... it's really very good. The idea is one of those concepts that you just wish you came up with yourself. Reading that Suzanne Collins came up with The Hunger Games while flicking between a War documentary and a modern-day reality TV show, you can start to see why the book feels unnervingly possible. Admittedly it's a world we don't know but it's our world... just further down the line.

I'm not going to come out and say ahh the writing is amazingly sophisticated and beautifully done because it's not, but who cares when the plot is so compelling? There are plenty of successful books that are not written perfectly.

I wouldn't say any of the characters are 100% likeable but that's fine because you root for them and that's what really matters. No one wants a perfect protagonist because you end up disliking them for it!

This book has everything that any good story should have: excitement, fast pace, good characters, romance... I'm super excited to see the film (and Liam Hemsworth's arms) and can't wait to pick up the next 2 books!

6.5/10

Impulse Book Advert

A nice book-related advert for y'all. I saw this yesterday and loved it. Admittedly it's not actually an advert for books... more about making yourself smell good for attractive geeks who hang around in libraries who do NOT exist in real life. Plus the main girl's hair has a tinge of ginge so that makes me like it even more... It's basically an advert for my brain. Enjoy :P x

World Book Night 2012

Last night was the second World Book Night. What a great opportunity for a Children in Need-style programme to get everyone excited about books but nope. The whole thing, to me, is quite unsatisfactory. I’d quite happily spend my evening watching author interviews, learning about new books and authors, getting some ideas for my book club but it seems that the whole thing has been played down or is that just me? I just would have thought that, being in the industry, I would have a bit more WBN hype in my inbox…

If you’re like me and seem to have missed this year’s hype, here is the low-down on World Book Night 2012.

Essentially World Book Night was set up by organiser Jamie Byng as a celebration of books and to ‘raise awareness’ of reading by putting books in the hands of non-readers. On the night, 20,000 volunteers head out into their nearby cities armed with their favourite book from the list (this year’s 25 books look pretty good and you can see a full list here), and handed them out to people in the street. So basically 20,000 book geeks ambush your local city - hoorah!

From my point of view, in the Kindle age, it's quite nice that books are being given a bit of help. Unfortunately, the whole point is that they go out for free... quite the debate amongst the publishing community who, ultimately, have to provide the books and sacrifice the royalties. You will notice, though, and for that reason, that most of these are back-list titles, so it's a great opportunity to rave about and get your hands on some great modern, and not-so-modern, classics.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

From the back of the book: When he is asked to become involved in a project to create a salmon river in the highlands of the Yemen, fisheries scientist Dr Alfred Jones rejects the idea as absurd. But the proposal catches the eye of several senior British politicians. And so Fred finds himself forced to set aside his research and instead figure out how to fly ten thousand salmon to a desert country - and persuade them to swim there...

As he embarks on an extraordinary journey of faith, the diffident Dr Jones will discover a sense of belief and a capacity for love, that surprises himself, and all who know him.

Winner of the 2007 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction is just one sample of praise that Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday has received. I haven't read a comedy in a while. Sure I've read books with funny bits in it, but this was the first piece of comic fiction I've read in ages.

It's a satirical novel, which isn't something new, but this book is distinctly different from anything I've ever read before. Made up of diaries, articles, reports, emails and various other styles, the story is never told in standard, chaptered prose. At first I felt it was just a bit annoying, to be honest. Why can't Paul Torday just write a simple chapter? But as I kept reading, I began to find his style and structure really refreshing. What's also great about it is that you get to see different perspectives on the same event, whereas normally you see it for a limited character and/or viewpoint. So, for example, there are occasions where one character thinks something that is then proved wrong to the reader via another character later on.

I have to say, though, there were the odd bits where I skim read to get ahead. There were definitely parts of the story that I enjoyed more than others and sometimes I just wanted to know what happened next rather than read an article about it. The central idea, though, is so wonderfully original, clever and yet absurd that you can't help but enjoy it!

I would recommend this book, definitely, so don't be put off by my score. My score is lower largely because I wasn't satisfied by the ending. That doesn't detract from its creativity and cleverness, though. I'm looking forward to the film! Might wait a bit, though... need to forget the plot before I see the film!

 6.5

The Letters of F Scott Fitzgerald

The Fitzgeralds

F Scott Fitzgerald is one of those writers that can really right. You might think him flowery but somehow gets away with it. It’s too enjoyable! Fitzgerald’s novels have really stood the test of time – The Great Gatsby being his most famous. What have also appeared across the years, however, are his fantastic letters – both those written by and to him.

Some fantastic snippets that are available include praise from the likes of Edith Wharton:

“Meanwhile, let me say at once how much I like Gatsby, or rather His Book, & how great a leap I think you have taken this time—in advance upon your previous work.”

TS Eliot:

“I have, however, now read [The Great Gatsby] three times. I am not in the least influenced by your remark about myself when I say that it has interested and excited me more than any new novel I have seen, either English or American, for a number of years.”

…and Gertrude Stein:

“Here we are and have read your book and it is a good book. I like the melody of your dedication and it shows that you have a background of beauty and tenderness and that is a comfort. The next good thing is that you write naturally in sentences and that too is a comfort.”

His own letters range from complaints, “I am embroiled with the stupidest tax-collector since Louis XV”, to fantastic literary history:

“This is to tell you about a young man named Ernest Hemingway who lives in Paris (an American), writes for the Transatlantic Review and has a brilliant future… I’d look him up right away. He’s the real thing”

My favourite, however, is probably this adorable letter written to his daughter, Frances:

Dear Pie,  I feel very strongly about you doing duty. Would you give me a little more documentation about your reading in French? I am glad you are happy—but I never believe much in happiness. I never believe in misery either. Those are things you see on the stage or the screen or the printed page, they never really happen to you in life.

All I believe in in life is the rewards for virtue (according to your talents) and the punishments for not fulfilling your duties, which are doubly costly. If there is such a volume in the camp library, will you ask Mrs. Tyson to let you look up a sonnet of Shakespeare’s in which the line occurs Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

Have had no thoughts today, life seems composed of getting up a Saturday Evening Post story. I think of you, and always pleasantly; but if you call me “Pappy” again I am going to take the White Cat out and beat his bottomhard, six times for every time you are impertinent. Do you react to that?

I will arrange the camp bill.

Half-wit, I will conclude. Things to worry about:

Worry about courage

Worry about cleanliness 

Worry about efficiency 

Worry about horsemanship…

Things not to worry about:

Don’t worry about popular opinion

Don’t worry about dolls 

Don’t worry about the past

Don’t worry about the future 

Don’t worry about growing up 

Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you 

Don’t worry about triumph 

Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault 

Don’t worry about mosquitoes 

Don’t worry about flies 

Don’t worry about insects in general 

Don’t worry about parents 

Don’t worry about boys 

Don’t worry about disappointments 

Don’t worry about pleasures 

Don’t worry about satisfactions

Things to think about:

What am I really aiming at? 

How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to: 

(a) Scholarship 

(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them? 

(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?

With dearest love,
…

I hope you agree that his letters really are worth reading and if you do, you should pick up one of these fantastic compilations:

F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters: A New Collection

Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F.Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald 

Dreams of Youth: The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald 

London Book Fair 2012

Every year the book industry gathers under one roof for The London Book Fair. For three days Earls Court gets flooded with trade magazines, publisher catalogues and a lot of people all trying to convince themselves that they still love books and summon up the energy to find this decade's J K Rowling. (Of course if you're Little, Brown, you have that pretty sorted...). This year's Fair started on Monday and finishes today and will, as ever, have been an important opportunity for all those in the industry.

The Fair is, essentially, an international publishing marketplace where publishers, editors, agents, booksellers and rights teams (to name a few) from across the world all come together to negotiate deals for the next year. Everyone involved will have been gearing up for the event for several months and there are a lot of important questions to be asked. What are editors looking for? What's the new thing? What books have international appeal and what don't? Ebooks? Libraries? Debut authors?

I went to the Fair on Monday - the second time I've been - and it was just as intimidating... Rows and rows of stands with frantic people trying to pitch as well as possible. As a newbie, I was mostly attending other people's meetings, which is still always very interesting. The industry, as everyone knows, is having a bit of a crisis and this was a chance for me to hear what people beyond our own office walls have to say about it and what their plans are and how we can work with them. This year I really want to get on track with finding my own clients and what better opportunity than to hear what the editors I will, eventually, pitch to are looking for!

Managed to sneak in a cookery demonstration and some free tasters during the day as well, though, to - you know - keep me going... :P

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

From the back of the book: In 1985 Jeanette Winterson's first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was published. It was Jeanette's version of the story of a terraced house in Accrington, an adopted child, and the thwarted giantess Mrs Winterson. It was a cover story, a painful past written over and repainted. It was a story of survival.

This book is that story's the silent twin. It is full of hurt and humour and a fierce love of life. It is about the pursuit of happiness, about lessons in love, the search for a mother and a journey into madness and out again. It is generous, honest and true.

I first came across Jeanette Winterson at university. Her novels are far from conventional but are fantastic to read and great fun to study. I was lucky enough to meet her one time and she was so friendly and phenomenally bright and so when a friend of mine sent through a copy of her autobiography, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, I was really enthusiastic to find out what made the person she is today.

She has been openly gay since she was 16. Quite a brave thing to announce when you have been brought up as a Pentecostal Christian. In fact, Winterson had plans from a young age of being a Pentecostal Christian missionary - news to me! This book is largely, but not solely, about her childhood. It's a refreshingly honest piece of writing and you come out feeling that you have really got to know Jeanette Winterson. Saying that, she does not give you everything -and that's important. She has retained certain things for herself and the book benefits from it. It's not an outpouring of years of bottled-up pain; it's an expression, an exploration and an insight into her life and mind - and what a mind that is.

It's also important to say that this is not a misery memoir - I'm not a massive fan of those. I don't look down on them, but I find no enjoyment from them. Winterson has experienced pain certainly, but she's not without hope. It's positive even at the book's darkest points and she lets you laugh - a lot. You read about someone who is affectionate, funny, passionate, thoughtful and someone who, self-confessedly and realistically, flawed.

I really enjoyed this! 9/10

'Laugh-out-loud funny...proudly, and sometimes painfully, honest. It is also, arguably, the finest and most hopeful memoir to emerge in many years and, as such, it really should not be missed' John Burnside, The Times

'Brave and beautiful, a testament to the forces of intelligence, heart and imagination' Spectator

Waterloo Bridge Book Market

A frequent feature in my life since I was very little right up until this weekend has been the second-hand book stall on London's Southbank, under Waterloo Bridge. Anyone vaguely interested in reading will always feel a little leap of excitement when the rows and rows of books come into view. There are plenty of bargains to be had and a really eclectic range of titles, from classic novels to chick lit, from modern prize-winners to comics. There's poetry, children's books, illustrations, maps and plenty of non-fiction there too. If you're a Top Gear fan, you won't be disappointed... apparently Jeremy Clarkson recycles well...

Sheltered under Waterloo Bridge, you always feel (despite it always being packed with people) like you've stumbled across something secret. The prices are reasonable too and it takes great will power to walk away empty-handed. I even picked up some of my university course titles here.

Once you've had a browse around (and give yourself some time as there's a lot of books...) you can walk into the BFI bar/cafe and have a drink or some food. It's a nice setting, not cheap admittedly but not wildly excessive either - standard London prices. If you're really making a day out of it, you can even go on to the BFI itself and see a classic film in its old-fashioned movie setting. The whole area has got to me one of my all-time favourites and am always dragging people along!

Can sequels ever really work?

This week it was announced that William Boyd will succeed Sebastian Faulks in writing the next Bond book and will be published by Fleming’s original publisher, Jonathan Cape. But, the question I’m asking myself is: can there ever really be a successful sequel?

Sequels come about in lots of different ways – written by the author themselves, written by another writer (like Boyd) years later, film sequels, prequels, spin-offs – but it’s rare that I ever enjoy them as much as the original. One of the more famous sequels was Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James, who developed characters from Austen’s classic, Pride and Prejudice. I’ve heard that people have enjoyed it, certainly PD James is a phenomenal talent, but surely it can only be disappointing? Mr and Mrs Darcy are together now – why would we want to see them either move on in an unrealistically blissful manner or everything gets pulled from under their feet again so that we await another reconciliation.

There’s also the question, of course, of whether a writer has the right to do a sequel for a famous classic written by someone else. Susan Hill may, perhaps, be the best possible modern-day writer to tackle Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier but did Mrs. De Winter detract from the original novel’s conclusion?

Some have called Michael Cunningham’s The Hours a sequel but it’s slightly different. It is not a furthering of the story, more a new interpretation of the original Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. I really enjoyed this book but can understand people’s complaints that this, perhaps, might be a story better left untouched. Saying that, at least, I suppose Cunningham provides Woolf with a voice in his book… even if he, himself, is still in control of it…

That’s not to say these books don’t make any money or have any success – thinking of Death comes to Pemberley again, and Wide Sargasso Sea, to name just a couple. Then there are the great franchises of Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Twilight and Hunger Games etc – the list goes on and there are plenty of sequels in the pipeline too. Most recently Bret Easton Ellis has hinted that he may write a sequel to American Psycho.