12 Days of Christmas - Day Two: 11 Favourite Characters

So day 2 of the Bookish 12 Days of Christmas brings us to favourite characters. My favourite characters of 2010 are:

Paul Carter from Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse.
Apart from the fact that I love the title of this book, Paul Carter brings his life as an oil rig worker to life with such humour you couldn't help but like the guy. I've since listened to a few interviews with him and he seems like the kind of guy you could sit down and have a beer with.

Will from The Ruins of Gorlan
A hero in a fantasy novel not racked with guilt, self doubt or trying to avoid being the hero. Will hasn't had the easiest of lives, but his willingness to learn and genuine niceness make me want to read more of this series.

Olive Martin from The Sculptress
Gotta love a good villain, especially when your not sure she is a villain! Olive Martin is so well written by Walters you are in turn repulsed and pity her. And in the end, you not sure if you've been played by her or not. Brilliant!


Mr Rosenblum's Wife from Mr Rosenblum's List
How embarrassing is it that  she is one of my favourites but I can't remember her name! She stood by and watched as her husband did things she did not understand with resignation. But in the end she saw the man it was making him. A true example of behind every great man stands a great woman.

Mma Ramotswe from Tea Time For The Traditionally Built
Mma Ramotswe has long been one of my favourite characters. Her lovely serene, calm, no nonsense, traditional approach to solving the mysteries that come into the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency puts her up there with the likes of Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes and Poirot.


Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird
Scout's view of her world and the summer described in this book are incredibly moving. Lee's portrayal of Scout truly bought her to life for me. An amazing read.

Vedran Smailović from The Cellist of Sarajevo
A very minor character, and the only one in the book based on a true person. Smailović was a cellist with the Sarajevo orchestra. A mortar shell outside his building one day killed 22 people waiting in line for bread. For the next 22 days, he took his cello down to the crater and played Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor. For me the fact that someone would honor the dead in this way is beautiful. It shows the best of humanity amongst the worst of it.

Edward Tullane from the Miraculous Journey of Edward Tullane
Edward's realisations about what is truly important through his journey in this book made a real impact on me. Told so beautifully from the point of view of a toy rabbit, Edward Tullane could teach us all something.


Precious from Push
A character who dares you to not like her, not cheer for her, not feel for her. Precious comes from a situation so horrible you wouldn't hold it against her if she raged against the world. Instead she realises the only way out is education. A better life for her will mean a better life for her children and that alone makes her an excellent mother.


Dolores from She's Come Undone
Lamb made Dolores so real to me I felt like calling her up and telling her to get a grip at times! Another character who realised she could be so much more than her circumstances suggested. Another who I cheered for as often as I despaired for her.

Offred from The Handmaid's Tale
Offred's appeal for me is in the fact she can remember life before it became controlled. She is aware of how things use to be, how they became what they are now, she's just not sure how to get back to it. For me a cautionary tale about being told what is good for you and not questioning decisions that affect your life.

Once again, thanks to Carly from Writing From the Tub for this brilliant idea! Tomorrow, the 10 most anticipated books of 2011. (Hmm, will have to do some research for that tonight!)

12 Days of Christmas - Day One: 12 Favourite Books 2010

Carly over at Writing from the Tub had this fabulous idea to do a bookish 12 Days of Christmas. I love the idea so much I've decided to have a go too!

The first is 12 books from 2010. I think Carly may have chosen ones published in 2010, mine come from anything I have read in 2010.

Every Secret Thing by Marie Munkara

 A book that made me laugh and cry, often within the same sentence. Munkara tells the story of an Aboriginal mission in the Northern Territory, it shows how white ideals and Aboriginal culture clashed so badly. How one side was willing to accept another's beliefs, but the other side couldn't consider the ideas of someone different.


Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Some loved it, others didn't get. I loved it! Gilbert got to do what I would love to do and take a year to do whatever I wanted! Bliss!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Ann Barrows

Written entirely as letters between a group of people, this book made me long for a pen pal. Pity I know I am so bad at writing letters!

Push by Sapphire

What can you say about a book that made you feel like you'd been clobbered over the head with a lump of wood? An incredibly moving and powerful read about the power of the written word and valuing yourself.


The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

A gorgeous children's book about a toy rabbit over stuffed with his own self importance and the journey he goes on to discover the truly important things in life. Beautifully written and beautifully illustrated, if this does not become a classic there is something seriously wrong!


The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

For me a rather scary look at an alternative future where woman are once again seen as possessions to be controlled and dictated to. What struck me most about this book is the narrator's memories of what life use to be like and how quickly and easily the freedom of women was lost.

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

  The best fantasy fiction I have read in a long time. Original, exciting, strong characters who weren't stereotypical. I'm not surprised to read rumours of a movie being made of this book, it would be perfect. Just hope they don't stuff it up!

What's Happening to Our Boys? and What's Happening to Our Girls by Maggie Hamilton

Two books that have become my bibles as I move towards a world where I parent tweens and teens. Hamilton gives a very clear run down on the vastly different world my children are experiencing and how I can help them navigate their way through it with out alienating them. Essential parental reading.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

So embarrassed that it has taken me so long to read this book. Easy to see why it's a classic. One I plan to reread and often.


She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

After struggling a bit with The Hour I First Believed, I was a little reluctant to try another Wally Lamb. By oh my goodness! I plan to read his backlist in 2011.

Mr Rosenblum's List - Natasha Solomons

  Just a beautiful read from beginning to end. Books don't get much better than this!

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

 In my opinion the best of the Hunger Games series. Having borrowed all three from the library I am planning to purchase my own copies as I know I will want to read these again.

So there is my 12 for 2010. Next on the list are 11 favourite characters!

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading

This is how it works

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page

•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.

 

This weeks teaser comes from

 

 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

 

 So you're waiting, even if you don't quite know it, waiting for the moment when you realise that you really are different to them; that there are people out there, like Madame, who don't hate you or wish you any harm, but who nevertheless shudder at the very thought of you - of how you were bought into the world and why - and who dread the idea of your hand brushing against theirs. The first time you glimpse yourself through the eyes of a person like that, it's a cold moment.

 

So what's your teaser this week? Leave me a link! 

It's Monday! What are you reading?

What are you reading Monday  is hosted by Shelia over at Book Journey. Head over and check out what others are reading!

I've missed a few weeks - busy, busy this time of year! I have however, finished Home Girl's Book Blog 100+ Reading Challenge.
 
What I finished since I last participated.

Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes 
Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater - MY 100th BOOK FOR THE YEAR!!!
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins

What I am reading now?

I have a few on the go!

At Home - Bill Bryson - A history of the house. I am enjoying this but with a little less than half way I am starting to struggle.

In the car I am listening to Minimum of Two by Tim Winton. The narrator can be a tad annoying at times, but I am enjoying the stories.


Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro -  I've read a few reviews of this or other Ishiguro books. I've picked it up as an alternative to At Home, but am only a dozen or so pages in.

What's next?

The plan at the moment is just to finish off what I'm currently reading! I'm looking forward to some time off over Christmas and hopefully the chance to get some reading done!

Mockingjay

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay finally came into the library for me the other week! Unfortunately I had a few other things that needed to be read first but I finally got to it on the weekend.

I approached with caution as I have heard mixed reviews. Some said it was the best book of the series, others the worse. Some seemed to be disappointed in the end.

Me? I loved it. Equal with Hunger Games, better than Catching Fire. I found Mockingjay meatier.

For me Collins didn't sugar coat things as much as some YA authors. Katniss did find her history of killing hard to accept, she was manipulated by the good guys, just like she was by the Capitol in Hunger Games. Life is more complicated than right or wrong.

The end was a little twee, a little too perfect, but in the end it is YA fiction and for me the ending was still a good way to finish. In the end I have really enjoyed this series and would recommend it to young adults at work who were looking for something to read. In fact, I think my nephew would really enjoy it - must email my sister!

Shiver

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

I'd heard about this from so many blogs and it was all good so I knew I had to eventually give in and give it a go.

To tell you the truth, I was prepared to be disappointed. So often people rave about books and I just don't get it. Twilight was OK, not brilliantly written, but great for its teen target. However, by the end of the last book I was totally over it. I didn't even make it half way through the first Sookie Stackhouse book. So I approached this with great trepidation.

I liked it. In fact, I more than liked it, I really enjoyed it. I find Stiefvater such a better writer than Meyers. The story was engaging and even though Grace and Sam had that all encompasing, total love, soulmate thing going on that annoyed the hell out of me in Twilight, I found it easier to handle because I was enjoying the story so much more. I also feel there was more going on in this book with other characters having more of a role in the story. All in all I am looking forward to the second book.

Flowers for Algernon

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

I read this for our book group last weekend. I had read it before many years ago so knew how it basically went.

Charlie Gordon has an intellectual disability. He has been selected for an experimental operation aimed at restoring his mental faculties to "normal." As part of the experiment he is asked to write progress reports, documenting his feelings and what happens to him in the time before and after the operation.

In the beginning Charlie's entries are full of mis-spellings and incorrections. He tells us about his friends at the bakery he works at, how they make him laugh. He gets upset by the fact that Algernon, the mouse who has already had the operation and shows every sign of success, continually beats him at a maze game.

As time goes on, Charlie's entries become more sophisticated as the effects of the operation start to take place. He starts to learn more about the world and not all of it is good. Those work mates, they didn't laugh with him, they laughed at him. And people often say what they don't mean. And those memories of his childhood are particularly good either.

And then Algernon starts to decline. Charlie now at a point where he is smarter than just about anyone, does the research and realises his own time is limited.

This is a great book for a book group. It bought up such great discussion. Do we have the right to interfere, play God? How far would you go to "fix" your child? Why does society feel there is a need to "fix" children who aren't neurotypical? Was Charlie better off happy and ignorant, or angry, sad and confused but intelligent?

The book is written completely from Charlie's point of view. This means the beginning can be hard going as the writing is at the level of maybe a grade 1 or 2 child. I found myself getting angry on Charlie's behalf as he talked about his "friends" and how they were so obviously using him for their own entertainment. For me it really bought about questions about why we feel we need to fix people with intellectual disabilities. At times I struggled with the language, remembering it was written in the late 50's, early 60's. Terms such as moron just don't sit well in today's society. I also had to constantly remind myself of the period when reading about Charlie's relationship with his mother. The stigma of having an "abnormal" child was high and she didn't deal well at all. In the end though, the book is timeless in a way. As I said, it raises so many questions that are just as relevant today as they were back in the 60's. I would highly recommend reading it.