See you in September!

I'm taking a blogging break for a couple of weeks but I shall see you all in September! X

The Art of Fielding

 ‘It's left a little hole in my life the way a really good book will’ Jonathan Franzen

A small American college. Five very different lives. One terrible mistake.

At Westish College, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for the big league until a routine throw goes disastrously off course. His error will upend the fates of five people. Henry's burgeoning self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight falls unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight returns to Westish, determined to start a new life.

As the season counts down to its climactic final game, all five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets.

It has been a while since I read a book where I was 100% submerged in its world. I really loved this book, The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. I do have a soft spot for vaguely academic-set novels and this didn't disappoint.

I want to say now that my personal knowledge of baseball is limited but this did not ruin my enjoyment of this book, so please do not be put off. Although it is mostly set in the present, the novel manages to create really well-rounded characters, each with their own history. Through this novel you watch the rise and fall of the five excellently drawn characters, feeling genuinely uplifted at their achievements and nail-bitingly frustrated when things go wrong - and things do go wrong. 

The world itself is probably Chad Harbach's real achievement here. Even though Westish College can be seen as claustrophobic, incestuous and, at times, bleak, you can completely understand the characters' attachment to it. It is, generally, a loyal institution that provides a home and family for people who are young and desperately hoping to find themselves and know their respective futures. Some of the characters' futures have already happened, some are being shaped.

As you can tell, I'm a bit of a fan and it gets a good 8.5/10

Jumpy

It was a busy weekend for me this week but in all the right ways. A gorgeously sunny music festival, a cinema trip, a big breakfast and some great seats for Jumpy, a play by April de Angelis starring Tamsin Greig.

I'm a big Tamsin Greig fan from watching Green Wing, Love Soup and Black Books but she's done her fair share of stage and 'serious' television too and these two different sides to her team up in Jumpy. In April de Angelis's play directed by Nina Raine, Hilary - a fifty-year-old wife and mother - is battling her on going conflict with her teenage daughter. Bel Powley takes on the role of the argumentative teen in the middle of an adolescent rebellion and does so in style. She completely holds her own on stage with this fantastic cast and you are able to be equally infuriated by and feel affection for her.

It has been billed as a 'frank and funny drama' and that really is the best way to describe it. I suspect you could see this play in very different ways depending on who you are (mother, daughter, father, singleton, married, someone with no children, the list goes on) but you can still all laugh, take comfort, feel touched (or all three!) by the careful observations that De Angelis has written into this production.

All set against a sparse set of mostly white, the characters are entirely on show so nothing goes unmissed. I definitely recommend going to see it if you have a chance. Grieg and Powley are a tour de force... and Doon Mackichan... well, you'll just have to watch it!

Phone Box Libraries

Book swapping, be it ad hoc charity projects or long term library schemes, occurs all over the place. Sites like ReadItSwapIt, top blog London Book Swap, Booklending.com, BookMooch.com - the list goes on - have done wonderful things in encouraging us all to get everyone reading regardless of whether they can part with their cash for the latest hardback.

What has just appeared on my radar, and I appreciate I'm a bit slow off the mark, is a whole new project that I just love. Iconic red phone boxes are being appropriated by book geeks in villages across Britain as book swapping sites.

One phone box, which was originally provided in celebration of King George V's silver jubilee, faced removal after years of disuse but the villagers weren't having it. So they bought the box and turned it into one of the smallest libraries you will ever see.

It is thought British social media whiz, James Econs, was the first to instigate this idea, coining the term and book swap project, 'PhoneBoox' near his home in Horsley, Surrey.

It's not just the Brits at it though. Architect John Locke has been giving New York City's phone booths a literary makeover, building shelves inside them and filling them with books that can be borrowed and exchanged by anyone who happens to walk by.

Book Club: Ghostwritten

Blurb: An apocalyptic cult member carries out a gas attack on a rush-hour metro, but what connects him to a jazz buff in Tokyo? A woman on a holy mountain talks to a tree - and the tree talks back - unaware of the effect the financial irregularities of a burnt-out lawyer will have on her life. Add to this a Mongolian gangster, a redundant English spy in Petersburg with a knack for forging masterpieces, a despondent 'zookeeper', a nuclear scientist, a ghostwriter, a ghost, and a late night New York DJ whose hard-boiled scepticism has been his undoing. All of them have tales to tell, and all must play their part as they are caught up in the inescapable forces of cause and effect.

I honestly had no idea what to expect when I was told that the next book club read would be Ghostwritten by David Mitchell. "That's that guy that wrote Cloud Atlas" was pretty much the beginning and end of my immediate response but I was very eager to get started as I'd heard such good things.

The opening chapter grabbed me immediately but it turned out quite quickly that I'd slightly misread the opening pages. Some how I had managed to think the whole chapter was, at least loosely, science fiction. It wasn't at all but it began what became an interesting and oddly regular occurrence... Throughout this book, my prophetic powers were completely faulty. I kept assuming certain things about the characters - be it their gender, their location, their situation - that turned out quite quickly to be wrong. I'm not entirely sure what it says about the book other than it is amazing how differently one person can read a story from another.

This book is, essentially, a group of different stories that are all, albeit often very loosely, interlinked. It covers all different histories, countries, ages, cultures, even mediums and so, as expected, there are always going to be certain stories that grab you, speak to you, more than others.

As a whole I really liked this book. It was completely different from anything I had ever read before, each story was amazingly detailed and well-crafted and the way in which Mitchell interlinked the stories so subtly and maintained such pace despite each story being short, was really very impressive both while reading and in hindsight. For this reason, it made the perfect book club title because each one of us picked out different details, different references, different characters that the other had not understood in the same way or even, in many cases, registered at all!

My only real problem with the book - and it lies largely in me as a person, as a reader - was that my mind had a very clear idea of how this story would end, how each story would inter-connect and the novel didn't fulfil that idea. While this is an entirely subjective point and many people won't find this a problem, it was interesting that the book didn't end in the way that any of us in the book club expected or hoped. Like I said, though, that is entirely subjective.

Overall the book club gave an average of 7.5 - one of, if not the, highest mark we've given a book so far!

Despite not connecting with each individual story and despite being disappointed with the ending, overall I enjoyed it and above all it impressed me with its scope and Mitchell's impressive ambition, so I gave it:

8/10

Save the Sci Fi Campaign

It is no secret that the book industry is suffering but if you imagine that bestsellers are losing out, imagine what is happening to the less read genres like Sci Fi. Well new Brooklyn bookshop, Singularity & Co is on the case. The brand new shop opened last week at 18 Bridge Street in Brooklyn, New York, alongside an online shop that will sell eBooks. Now what exactly are they doing, I hear you ask.

Well it's brave, certainly. Second-hand bookshops are suffering, closing down all over the place but this one has a mission. Singularity & Co is aiming to bring back into print at least one cult Sci Fi novel each month and make it available on eBook via their website... for FREE.

Cici James, Jamil V. Moen and Ash Kalb, the people behind this idea and self-named "time traveling archivists", have insisted that this is not a 'for-profit' project. "It doesn’t have to make any money at all," they say, "since our day jobs cover our rent." What a revolutionary thought in the modern world that a business doesn't have to make money... and all in the name of books and getting people reading? Brilliant.

It's not just the founders that are involved, however. They are asking you, the readers, to vote on which book will get saved each month.

The project has already raised over $52,000 - over three times more money than they originally aimed for.

If you want to show your support, vote, visit the shop or simply get reading, visit their website: http://singularityand.co/index.php

If you're a Londoner like me, why not follow SF Gateway? SF Gateway is part of the Orion Publishing Group, which is home to the UK's oldest Science Fiction publisher, Gollancz. The aim is to make sure that this genre does not drift out into space (forgive me) and get lost forever.

You can visit their website here: http://sfgateway.com

Sassy Gay Friend: Shakespeare

Today the sun is shining, I've been on the beach all day and I'm feeling pretty chirpy so what better way to celebrate said mood than sharing this with you. For anyone who hasn't come across the genius that is Sassy Gay Friend, this appeals to that childish sense of humour that I like to wear as often as possible. I've posted here my personal favourite: his interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. Don't worry, though, there are plenty of others and its not all Shakespeare. Enjoy! x

Chariots of Fire

I'm aware that this really isn't anything about books but in my brain, for every film and stage production... there's a screenplay and that's like, practically a book really isn't it? Ok I'll stop trying to justify... and just say that last night I went off to see Chariots of Fire on stage and loved it.

Amazingly I ended up with tickets right on the stage. Now, you may think that just means row A or a box, but nonononono. Our seats literally formed the back of the stage so that we were looking out at the rest of the audience, as if we ourselves were the actors. Naturally my sister and I panicked somewhat that we may be spotted yawning at an inopportune moment or inadvertently flash the audience in our summer dresses... 

After the stage fright dispelled, though, we were able to enjoy what felt like a thoroughly interactive stage performance, with actors running in front of us, behind us, around us at full speed to the sound of Vangelis's famous theme. Anyone that's been watching the Olympics this year will know that tune off by heart by now but it really is the perfect choice to elicit those patriotic emotions. Together with the great acting, screenplay and set design, the whole audience found themselves applauding the wins and sighing with disappointment at each loss as if it were a real Olympic stadium.

To receive their applause the cast changed out of their 1924 kit and paraded the stage in the 2012 Team GB sportswear and quite frankly I was pretty jealous. I could do with one of those, I thought. Surely wearing the Olympic kit would make me exercise more. With that kit and Vangelis on my iPod, I'm set for Olympic stardom... see you in 2016!

aMAZEme: A Literary Labyrinth

The Olympics are almost over but the London 2012 Festival is still in full swing. One of the latest features is an installation at The Clore Ballroom in the Royal Festival Hall on London's Southbank. This art piece is more specifically a part of the Southbank Centre's Festival of the World.

Watch this video to see the construction of aMAZEme, a maze constructucted out of 250,000 books. The books, old and new, have come from all over the place, including remaindered copies, publishing houses and 150,000 are on loan from Oxfam.

aMAZE me was designed and created by artists Marcos Saboya and Gualter Pupo of Brazil. It is said they were inspired by the writer JL Borge. To make this literary labyrinth a reality, the artists worked together with the production company, HungryMan, and built the structure that now covers over 500 square metres and reaches a height of 2.5 metres.

Aside from just being a maze, the installation includes performance, images and cinema. aMAZE me is open to the public who are invited to discover 'new textures, images and imotions' as they become completely entangled in the world of books. Touch screens have been installed so that users can look up information as well as watch selected footage which will also be screened throughout the maze.

The maze will be open until 26th August and will feature daily performances from literary figures. Check it out!

Credit: Marcos Saboya / Gualter Pupo / Hungryman Projects 2012

United States v. One Book Called Ulysses

In 1918, The Little Review, an American literary magazine founded by Margaret Anderson and aided by the likes of publisher Jane Heap and the writer and critic Ezra Pound, serialised the seminal work of James Joyce, Ulysses. For any of you who have read Ulysses, I applaud you - it's a real beast and I put my hands up and admit that I have never got past the first 10 pages. It took Joyce seven years to finish writing and its serialisation was published for over two years but it was ultimately lauded as one of the most important and influential books of Modernist literature.

As with any form of art that is less than accessible, however, be it a piece of writing, painting, film, photograph etc, it wasn't loved by everyone...Joyce's Nausica episode, which gradually becomes more obviously a scene of voyeurism and sexual fantasy, subsequently led to a prosecution for 'obscenity'. In 1920, following The Little Review's recent publication of a scene in the book in which the main character masturbates, a trial began that would lead to the effective banning of the novel in the USA. The book was also banned in the UK until the 1930s.

United States v. One Book Called Ulysses was the name of the case that began in 1933 that would determine finally whether or not Joyce's novel should be banned.

It took until 7th August (and now you get the relevance of the post...) 1934 for US District Judge John Munro Woolsey's ruling that the book was not pornographic nor obscene to be affirmed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The USA subsequently became the first English-speaking nation to publish the book freely after decades of American tourists smuggling in copies of the novel from Paris, where it was first published in its entirety in 1922 by Sylvia Beach at Shakespeare and Company.

Catching Fire

Katniss survived the Hunger Games. Now the Capitol wants revenge. It's payback time, and her chance of survival is even slimmer than ever... After winning the brutal Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta have returned to District 12, hoping for a peaceful future. But their victory has caused rebellion to break out - and the Capitol has decided that someone must pay. As Katniss and Peeta are forced to visit the other districts on the Capitol's Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. Unless they can convince the world that they are still lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying. Then comes the cruellest twist: the contestants for the next Hunger Games are announced, and Katniss and Peeta are forced into the arena once more... 

August has been a bad month for blogging so far but you will just have to forgive me! I read an article today about how the Hunger Games trilogy has suddenly made archery cool. I've got to say, though, that it's a little disappointing watching the Olympics archery events without fun robin hood outfits... Turns out there are no feathers involved...

Anyway, this last week I have whizzed through a different Games altogether: the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire. Following in the path of the Twilight and Harry Potter series, the Hunger Games seem to have drawn in people of all ages with adults trying to hide the eye-catching covers on the train or cheating altogether by reading on Kindle.
 
While I can't help cringe at some of the writing, once again I've got to ignore it. It is, after all, first and foremost, a book for children. Once again Katniss is taking on the Capitol and gets herself into a few more scrapes. If you liked the twists and turns of the first in the series, Catching Fire doesn't disappoint. The twists in this one are, in my view, slightly more sophisticated. The 'clock', for instance, was pretty awesome.

This book is fast-paced, provides plenty of action and there is again a hint of romance running throughout. Nothing like a few smooches to get a plot going.

I would say my only disappointment really was the fact that they go back into the Games again. The blurb tells you before you even open the book, though, so I can't say I wasn't warned.

I don't warm to Katniss - she certainly has flaws - but who wants a protagonist who's perfect? Harry Potter certainly wasn't, nor Bella Swan. All I ask is that some time she stops trying to act like she is the mother figure, where all responsibilities are hers. Sometimes it would be nice to see her being a little reckless because she's a kid and she has different drives than an adult who might have a job or children to feed etc. That said, she does have the whole world on her shoulders in this one... not helped by the Capitol, Haymitch or the Districts...

Anyway, if you liked the first one, you'll get on well with this. I really liked it. In fact, probably a little more than the first one which was a surprise. It's a guilty pleasure that everyone should be able to enjoy.

7/10

See my review for Hunger Games here.