Recent reads July 2014.

Unless you don't know me at all then you will realise that it is a miracle if I can find time to do anything other than survive most days what with chasing after the hunter of electrical wires... so when the diminutive terror is asleep I mainly attempt to contain the chaos. (As well as other mundane but sadly necessary activities.) In spite of all this I have managed to find some time to write a few blogs and even read a couple of books!

One of the books I managed to read was World War Z by Max Brooks which I got out of my local library whilst grabbing a few family/baby recipe books to help me feed my little monkey.

Now I guess I'm a bit weird because I'm a bit squeamish about the idea of death and dismemberment but I do enjoy a good zombie book.  I don't know why but I guess it's the idea of surviving insurmountable odds and impossible situations.  That and I find the status-quo of modern life a bit boring so I prefer the drama of dragons, space battles or just a load of reanimated corpses.

One of the things that I liked about this book is the narrative style as it is not just told from one point of view you end up finding out how people experienced the outbreak in China, America, Cuba, Japan and a lot of other places. Some stories seemed a bit boring where as others were a little close to home for me and made me sit up thinking what I would do with my little one in a crisis situation like a civil war. (My brain hates me and wants to think about all the things at the wrong times of night. Annoying brain!)

After I worked out how this book's narrative worked I ended up getting hooked and reading it in a few days which is a lot faster than I have managed to read anything recently.  I would recommend this book as it is interesting to look at the idea of a zombie apocalypse from a number of different perspectives and it's always good if a book makes you think. Probably not so good if it gives you nightmares but swings and roundabouts, eh?

The next book I read was The Long War by Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett which is a sequel to their previous collaboration The Long Earth.

This story is set 25 years from the start of the previous novel and the events of step day are still being felt in the original or Datum Earth and across the stepwise Earths.

This book tells the story of the mistreatment of sapient natural steppers known as the Trolls, tensions between the Datum and the colonists who have stepped away to other Earths and the people exploring even further into the long Earth than has previously been managed. While I enjoyed this book I didn't find it quite as engrossing as World War Z but then again it is a different type of improbable/impossible scenario... none the less as the book follows at least four possibly more different characters it takes time for the situation to be explained.

I enjoyed the different ways the characters we follow saw the long Earth and how their adventures intertwined so I carried on reading despite it seeming like it was taking a long time for the war in the title to actually happen.  I felt like the main event which was foreshadowed was reserved for the last few chapters to get the readers hooked just like in the last book, so you will need patience if you're waiting for the action.  Despite the slow pace of this book I want to know what happens next and read The Long Mars! I wonder how long it will be until the library gets that in?

So whilst I wait for the library to get The Long Mars in I'm reading Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett which I could describe as a guilty pleasure but I'm not po faced.

I love Terry Pratchett's writing style even if it isn't considered literature. Then again James Joyce's Ulysses is still sitting on my bookshelf... I tell myself that I'll finish reading it one day.  So that's what I've been reading other than Tabby McTatt & What the Ladybird Heard x 100.

Blogging break.

It may or may not have escaped your attention that I've only managed to post one blog this year despite it already being more than a quarter of the way in. I started off this year full of good intentions and plans but somewhere in January I found the desire to blog wane.  Maybe it was because I was feeling a bit tired or maybe it was because I was focused on writing my novel...  Then near the end of January I found out that I was pregnant and my writing fell behind in my list of priorities along with my dancing, writing and gig going as I started to feel sick. Which isn't fun!

So this year has been a quieter one than I had initially expected so far I've only been to two gigs; however, I've seen my first intraleague roller derby bout and finished my first home made dress.  (Well my Mum did the lions share but I helped!)

The dress me and my Mum made!

I've also had the honour of attending the first few League of Witty One Liners film nights/ premiers at the Red Deer.  I've also enjoyed a few family parties, as well as drinks and meals with friends. As well as that I've also been getting quite addicted to George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire aka A Game of Thrones and am currently enjoying reading the first part of a Dance with Dragons.

 My team at work also tried to sell a few of our excess books for charity...

Sometimes I think these books breed overnight! I'm not entirely sure how we ended up with so many! I have also recently enjoyed reading Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter's Long Earth and am looking forward to reading the sequel when it is released even if it is slightly different to what I've been reading recently.

 

I've also spent a bit of time the other week relaxing and trying to sort out my house on a little holiday from work and I had a little go at twiddling on my Ukulele.  Then when I got back from work I was lucky enough to receive this book from my friend Emma!

It was a great surprise to come back to!  I'm taking this as a sign that I ought to practice more and not just because I've been thinking about playing my uke more either...

One of the main reasons the blog has suffered for the last few month is that I've been coming to terms with my lack of energy and strange lack of appetite.  Struggling to eat or want to make food it completely alien to me as I'm sure you can imagine! Nevertheless I'm hoping to find a few more things to post about until my will to cook new recipes returns. Thanks for sticking with me!