BookBath Turns Two - Present Time!

Today is BookBath's second Birthday!

I know it might not seem like such a big Birthday but I feel there are definitely reasons to celebrate. When I started blogging two years ago I really did not have many expectations for where I wanted my blog to go or what I really wanted to get out of the experience - it was simply a spot for me to record my thoughts and impressions about the books I was reading and to celebrate my favourite hobby.

Now I feel that my blog offers me a creative outlet in my life - something I was crying out for but didn't even know it! BookBath has also allowed me to connect with a wonderful worldwide book blogging community - I feel like I have made some amazing 'book buddies' through this experience.

So, as a small way of saying thank you to you all (but in particular one of you!) I would like to offer my very first book giveaway. I will send a copy of one of my favourite reads so far this year - The Legacy by Kirsten Tranter which I reviewed here to one lucky person. This offer is open to anyone anywhere in the world! You just need to leave a comment to this post telling me what has been your favourite read of 2010 so far (so that I can add to my ever growing TBR pile!). Please include your email address in the comment too.

I will randomly draw a winner on Saturday 10th April.

Mad Men - Series Two

I have written about my obsession with the show Mad Men before. The third series of the show has recently started on Australian pay tv but I am a little behind the times as I have just finished watching series two on DVD - I binged on the whole series over three nights while my partner was in Sydney for work last week so that I could start to catch up.
The show oozes charm and style, the costumes and sets are gorgeous and refined and the characters and the script are sharp. New York in the 1960's is definitely a time I would like to visit (if I'm truly honest just for the clothes and the cocktails!) but I am realistic enough to know that my role as a woman in that society would most likely have been restricted to the role of housewife or secretary - neither of them roles I would enjoy or excel at I fear.
My favourite character and actress in the series is Christina Hendricks who plays feisty Joan - a woman with definite power in series one but I have found it interesting the direction in which her character has been taken in this second series - I feel some of the power has been lost - to a man none the less. It will be interesting to see where this heads in series three.

Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen

We are supposed to be at the beginning of autumn in Australia at the moment but we have been experiencing some gorgeous summer weather instead so I took the opportunity to take my first book for the Once Upon A Time Challenge, Garden Spells, out into our garden this weekend.

Garden Spells in set in a small US town, Bascom, North Carolina where the community is clearly divided into types of families. The Waverley family is known as the "strange" family of the town - they have a weird apple tree in their back garden that produces fruit that when eaten brings on visions, they use the flowers in their garden to create food that enables spells to be performed on the individual who eats it and they have a "crazy" cousin who is compelled to give strange gifts to people in the town.

The two adult Waverley sisters, Claire and Sydney couldn't be more different on the surface. Claire has stayed on in Bascom to create a thriving business - haunted by an early unstable childhood before her sister was born and Sydney has recently returned to Bascom with her young daughter in an attempt to escape a violent relationship. The book focuses on the sister's attempts to heal their damaged relationship as well as the creation of other relationships in their lives.

I really felt that this book was not much more than a "sweet" story. I found the stereotypical descriptions of the different families and individual characters frustrating and predictable. Surprisingly enough it was actually the "fantasy" or magical elements of the story that I was able to get board with easily - it was a shame the human elements didn't uphold their part of the story. I'm not put off by the genre as a whole though - I'm keen to read more - I just need to look in a slightly different direction I think.

Inside The Whale - Jennie Rooney

I have had Inside The Whale on my shelves for a while now - it even travelled over to the UK and France with us on our trip last year - but I had not yet got around to reading it. I ended up lending it to my best friend who read it quickly and said that I had to read it - soon! I took her advice and actually finished the book today in virtually one sitting - it is a beautiful, and a beautifully told, novel.

The novel is told from the alternate perspectives of the two main characters, Stevie (Stephanie) and Michael as they meet just prior to the start of WW2 and then as their lives progress through the war years and into adulthood and old age. The author plays with the narrative - moving backwards and forwards in time so that we actually "meet" Michael for the first time as an elderly man in a hospital bed whereas Stevie starts telling her story as an adolescent on the day that war is declared in 1939. This technique works perfectly for this story - a linear progression would not have been as effective - the story is not that simple. Each character has a clear and distinctive voice and story - they both fill the reader in on their childhood's and their histories - the decisions and actions taken both by themselves and others that have led them to each separate stage in their stories. The reader can see both Stevie and Michael as individuals and then there is a third character - their relationship which develops genuinely.

I loved this book - it has left me feeling and wanting more and yet at the same time it was just right - perfectly satisfying, sad and honest.

A Real Challenge For Me...

I have thought about this for a few days and I have decided to jump into the Once Upon A Time Challenge being hosted, as always, by Stainless Steel Droppings. I have thought long and hard about participating in this challenge partly because one of my reading plans this year was not to over commit myself to challenges but the main reason is that the fantasy and fantasy related genres are not usually my thing - at all! My partner reads almost exclusively in this area so I will have no shortage of options around me but I really do feel like stretching my reading a little at the moment and one of the best ways I have found of doing this is by participating in reading challenges or read alongs. The group atmosphere and levels of support with these blogging activities always encourages me.

I have decided to join the challenge at the Quest The First Level which requires you to read at least 5 books from any or all of the fantasy, folklore, fairy tale or mythology genres and the challenge runs from March 21st until June 20th.

Now on to my (possible) reading list:

Tender Morsels - Margo Lanagan

Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen

Where Three Roads Meet - Salley Vickers

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll

I realise these might not seem like very brave choices to true fantasy readers but I don't want to scare myself off!

Any suggestions for my fifth book??

Ransom - David Malouf

Ransom by Australian author David Malouf is a re-telling of the epic story, The Iliad. As you can tell from the photo above I do own a beautiful copy of The Iliad which I bought quite a while ago now after deciding to participate in my own classics reading challenge inspired by the book Classics by Jane Gleeson-White. Needless to say my challenge sort of fell by the wayside - which is why I was glad that I came across Ransom - a book to make the classic it is based on more accessible I thought.
Malouf's telling of the original story of Troy is moving, compassionate and interesting - it has a modern twist in terms of the storytelling style but I think it still plants the reader firmly in the world in which it is based. I really enjoyed it - it was quick to read and yet there was nothing superficial or fluffy about it at all. I am now wondering if I should give the original Iliad a go??? What do people think? Has anyone read The Iliad and lived to tell the tale?

Shades Of Grey - Jasper Fforde

I am a huge fan of Fforde's Thursday Next series but I was not so sure about diving into his latest release, Shades Of Grey. I admit that the Thursday Next series really hooked me with it's references to books and literature and after reading the summary of Shades Of Grey I thought it might be a little too "out there" for my tastes. I have to say now that I have finished the book I am glad that I took the risk and dove in.

In Shades Of Grey Fforde has created a world based on our own (loosely!) but where the hierarchy of the community is based on their vision and what types, and amounts, of different colours they can see. The main character of the book, Eddie Russett, is classified as a Red - not as high up as a Purple but definitely not as low down as the Grey's who are unable to see colour in any great detail.

As I was reading this one I felt there were a lot of similarities with the latest Margaret Atwood books I have read, Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. All books take elements from our current world but project them into a future that has twisted and turned. I felt Fforde offered a lot more humour in his vision than Atwood though!

The first half of the book just flew by for me - I was really enjoying how Fforde was introducing and explaining the world he had created and there was so much to take in and process about how the community was structured. The middle section got a little bogged down I thought but the ending redeemed the book and has left the way wide open for the next two planned books in the series. Overall I really enjoyed this one - a great humorous read but also a very insightful commentary and reflection on our own current community and the way in which we "rate" and prejudice people and groups in society.