Winter Book Review: Jasper Jones

Still on the topic of finishing things. In celebration of the end of reports I read Jasper Jones. It's a good read that sucks you in from the word go. I couldn't put it down. So much so that I read most of it in one sitting. I'm in the process of re-reading because I think I read it a little too fast the first time!

It's been dubbed the Australian To Kill a Mockingbird and there are definitely strong resemblances in some of the characters and themes. I'm undecided yet as to if there is too much in common between the two. Would like to hear your opinion if you've read both!

The Verdict - Read it! At least once!

I finished a classic! And I even sort of enjoyed it!

This is a little celebration post. Nothing too exciting really, I've got a stupid cold so I'm celebrating the little things. I just finished reading Jane Austen's Emma! I'm not one for classics I'm afraid. We had to read Lady Chatterley's Lover for book club once - hours of my life I'll never get back*. But I made it to the end of this one! Admittedly I did fall asleep 7 or 8 times while reading the first half of the book but really got into the second half and didn't want to stop reading!

So, yay for me, I feel like a really good book clubber (I felt bad last month because I didn't even bother to get the book to try and read) and am very pleased with myself!

Now I'm on to Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go so I can refresh my memory before I see the movie. Much more excited about reading that one again.

Since I'm sticking to the positives I'm loving Sparkadia's new album The Great Impression at the moment. We went and saw them play last week. So cool. I'm thinking I'll put the album on my work computer and listen while I work tomorrow to see if it helps my cold brain fuzziness!

If you've not heard of them here's a song for you!



Hope all is well!

*The only reason I got through it was because I was taking the bus to work at the time and I wasn't getting those hours back anyway.

Mirror

Picture via Jeannie Baker's website

So last week after our "stopping to smell the roses" discussion at work. I excused myself from a two hour, after school, language teachers meeting an hour early. A little bit cheeky, but not too naughty. Instead, I went to a talk at the NGA by Jeannie Baker, author/artist of Where the Forrest Meets the Sea, Window, Belonging, and a handful of other beautiful books.

I remember looking at her early books as a child and poring over the collages. The creativity and detail  was inspiring and still amazes me. I was not surprised when she said it had taken 5 years to create her latest book Mirror. Nor was I surprised that, when asked which of the artworks she liked best in Mirror, she answered that there wasn't really one as after working on her projects for so long, she doesn't want to look at them anymore!

When you open the cover of Mirror you come across two stories that open outwards. One follows the life of an Australian boy in Sydney and the other the life of a Moroccan boy living near the Valley of Roses in Morocco. While the lives of the boys seem so different on the surface, at the heart of the story is the fact that there are also many similarities in their lives when it comes to family and values. It really is a beautiful book.

It was an hour well spent as I came out relaxed and inspired with a new book under my arm which always makes me feel good!

Summer Holiday Book Review - Ape House

picture via here

Even before the first page of this book I loved it.  Who doesn't love an author who thinks to compare the intelligence of a chimp with that of a pop idol?? And does it so simply

Give orange give me eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you.  Nim Chimpsky, 1970s

Gimme gimme more, gimme more, gimme gimme more.  Britney Spears, 2007

Ape House is the story of Isabel Duncan, a scientist studying language acquisition in bonobos and John Thigpen, a reporter who visits the lab on assignment. Shortly after his visit, the lab is blown up, Isabel is seriously injured and the family of bonobos disappear. The family are soon being advertised on billboards and become the stars of Ape House, a chimp version of Big Brother. The world, in its craze for reality TV, tunes in to watch. Isabel's desperation to get the bonobos back and John's desire to beat a rival to the real story sees them team up with a host of quirky, likeable characters each with their own agendas.

It's an easy book to read as the characters are well developed and the side stories, for the most part, enhance the main plot. Bonobo DNA is 98.7% the same as human DNA so it is fascinating to consider that in language research labs bonobos can communicate and reason with humans and do so willingly. As with Sara Gruen's previous book, Water for Elephants, Ape House is extensively researched and many of the human-ape dialogues and scenes in the book are based on actual conversations and events. With that in mind, the material about the treatment of animals in medical research labs is particularly confronting.

The verdict - Read it! At least once. Twice if you are like me and find yourself reading it as quickly as you can just to find out what happens in the end that you miss some of the finer details.

Things I love about summer - part 2

Books! I love having the time to sit and read and not feel as though I should be doing something else. The addition of my Kris Kringle hammock is a bonus this year. So far I've read Blossoms and Shadows by Lian Hearn, Ape House by Sara Gruen and David Attenborough's Life on Air. Stay tuned for reviews when I can drag myself away from the tennis long enough to write them!