Top Ten  Books I Recommend The Most

1) We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver. Thebes book I read last year, absolutely stunning and you just can't put it down, I wish everybody would read this.

2) The Perks Of Being A Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky. Beautiful, soulful and ageless. Ignore the hype about John Green because I think this beats anything he's ever done.

3) Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk. My very favourite Palahniuk, and one of my most loved contemporary romances, I love this book.

4) ASOIAF Series - George R.R. Martin. I don't think there's any reader who wouldn't enjoy this series -- it has everything! Dragons, war, death, sex, wolves, beautiful northerners, king's, queen's, imp's, intrigue, betrayal....Read it!

5) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte. The best love story ever written.

6) Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen. Because Mr. Darcy.

7) Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov. I had to have one banned book on this list, and this is one of my very favourites. I think before you read it it can be an easy tale to judge, but once immersed you'll wonder why you ever saw any problem with it.

8) Fiesta/The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway. One of my favourite novels, and I think a game changer for those who say they dislike Hemingway's writing.

9) The Most Beautiful Women In Town - Charles Bukowski. This was the first Bukowski I read and I've never looked back.

10) The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath. I think it's really important for young women to read this book. Everyone always talks about coming of age stories and recommends The Catcher In The Rye, and while it's a great book, I think it's very easy to grow out of and I think it's important to have a female presence in that genre. The Bell Jar feels like it will be with me always, while now I'm at an age when I just want to tell Holden to grow up.

Top Ten Tuesday

This week is a Top Ten Tuesday rewind, meaning we can pick a past topic we've missed, and as I only started these a few weeks ago, I had quite a lot to choose from, in the end I decided to do Top Ten Book to Movie Adaptations, seen as I'm a film student and all (plus the date of this original prompt was on my birthday!)

1) Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk/David Fincher - If you've read any of my blog posts before you've probably come across my love for Fight Club, but just in case you've not - I love it. I read the book first and fell in love with it when I was around 16 and then luckily enough the film was on TV a few nights after I'd finished it...and then a few days later one of my brother's friends gave me the DVD - kismet I'm telling you. The way Fincher portrays the story is incredible - if you've read the book you'll know there is a big "hidden gun" (as Palahniuk calls the reveal) and he brings it across on the screen so well! And the casting! I swear I now cannot imagine any voice other than Edward Norton as the narrator. The film is just incredible, I promise. 

2) Batman Begins/The Dark Knight/The Dark Knight Rises - Frank Miller/Chris Nolan - The best film series and best comic book adaptation of all time in my eyes. In a word: INCREDIBLE. Nolan brings Gotham into this world and makes it something that could so easily be happening, nothing is too outrageous or theatrical, it's just right. Chris Nolan is without a doubt one of the best film makers out there at the minute and he seems to have this Midas touch, everything he works on is unbelievable and these films are no exception. The Dark Knight Rises was just everything I wanted it to be and more, I don't think anyone will touch Batman for a long time now, because really what could beat Nolan's version? 

3) The Road - Cormac McCarthy/John Hillcoat - I really loved this book, I bought it after reading All The Pretty Horses by McCarthy, because once I find an author I like...I pretty much try to read everything else they've written, anyway; The book was great, the perfect mixture of love, horror and dystopia and left me with a lot of thought. I think the film was at the cinema when I read the book but I didn't see it until it was released on DVD; I was not disappointed. Kodi Smit McPhee who plays "The Boy" was fantastic considering his age, and Viggo Mortenson was just WOW. His dedication to that role must have been very strong considering all the changes to his appearance that he committed to, and it really paid of because this film will remain one of my favourites for a very long time. There are hardly any characters, and most times we focus only on the boy and his father; this film is carried entirely on story and it shows, and it's wonderful.  

4) I couldn't not mention - The Harry Potter series - J.K Rowling/David Yeats Chris Columbus/Alfonso Cuaron/Mike Newell - I don't know how it is in other countries, but being British I have grown up with Harry Potter. We would be read the books in story time through school and they were a pretty huge playground topic, then as I got older and the films were made I saw each one at the cinema with family, and then as I got older with friends, and that seems to be how it is for most people I know, I think I'd be very hard pressed to find someone around my age group who hasn't seen these films, and after The Deathly Hallows Part 2 was released my social network pages were filled with peoples sad thoughts about being left behind by Hogwarts, because we, I, truly have grown up with these stories, and I still cry when I watch that last film.

5) Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë/Peter Kosminsky/Cody Giedroyc - I'm mainly mentioning the 1992 Ralph Fiennes/Juliette Binoche version here, but also giving a nod to the 2009 ITV series which starred Tom Hardy (yum). As I mentioned last week in my Top Ten Books You Don't Want People To Forget About; I adore this story. It's my favourite love story of all time and Heathcliffe is one of my top male literary characters. The two versions I' mentioning are (I think) the best. They are both great and I don't think I like one better than the other. I will say though that adaptations of this novel can go wrong - I cannot stand Andrea Arnold's 2011 version, which in my opinion besmirches (that's right! Besmirches!) Brontë's story.

6) Romeo & Juliet - William Shakespeare/Baz Luhrmann - We all know the story so I won't go into that here, but I will say that if you think you've seen adaptations of this play and this is just another, stop! watch it! because I promise it's not like any other Shakespeare you've seen. Yes, okay, this version is not how Shakespeare is intended to be seen; it's loud and brash and overly theatrical, but it's brilliant. One of my favourite moments is Romeo's entrance, which is accompanied by Radiohead's Talk Show Host and just beautiful  Honestly, just go and watch this film, you'll love it. 

7) American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis/Mary Harron - Christian Bale's acting in this film is top notch, I'm telling you. The book is wildly satirical and darkly humorous, and this adaptation really lives up to that. There is (of course) gory scenes but I actually tend to forget to look at all those parts in a bad light when thinking of the film because the rest of it is just so, as I said, darkly humorous. I really like all of Ellis's adaptations actually, I don't think his films are particularly easy to adapt but those who take them on seem to do a great job, if you're looking for something similar to this film try out The Rules Of Attraction, which was adapted in 2002, and which I love. (Side note: One of the main characters, Sean Bateman is actually a literary younger brother to American Psycho's Patrick Bateman, cool, huh?)

8) Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen/Joe Wright - I'm talking about the 2005/Keira Knightly version here - not the BBC version! The reason for that is....Colin Firth is not Mr. Darcy in my eyes and I actually don't think much of Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet either. The Joe Wright version is by far my favourite  I love it, know all the words, etc, It's just such a lovely version of the classic; the cinematography's wonderful, the music is beautiful, and Matthew McFayden is such a good Darcy. I adore that scene in the rain where he proposes! and the ending..gah! All the roles are filled by such great actors - Donald Sutherland manages to portray a caring Mr. Bennet, and Tom Hollander as Mr. Collins is so pathetic and hilarious at the same time, I just can't find fault with this adaptation, it's wonderful.

9) Into The Wild - Jon Krakauer/Sean Penn - This book was my first foray into "adventure" writing, and I really enjoyed it. Krakauer writes the non fiction book about a young man Christopher McCandless who, literally went "Into The Wild" and sadly died there. I wasn't sure at fist how Penn would adapt the book, but it'd from McCandless own view, and used the book as a guideline as Krakauer had collected as much information as he could about McCandless time travelling from various people he had met and diaries he had kept. Because of this obviously some parts of the film are guessed at but it feels no less authentic and is a completely respectful take on the young man's life. McCandless is portrayed by Emile Hirsch, who I thin is a really great actor, but at the end we do see the real Christopher, in a smiling picture he took of himself before he died. Amazing film and book.

10) Factotum - Charles Bukowski/Bent Hamner - Factotum is the only Bukowski adaptation I've seen, though I believe Tales Of Ordinary Madness, Barfly and Crazy Love are all adaptation from his various works as well. Matt Dillon stars as Chinaski (Bukowski) which I think was a great choice! I really like Matt Dillon and he works so well in the role, Bukowski fans have probably seen this one but if you haven't then definitely do so; it's not the world best adaptation but I really enjoy it, and I like seeing Bukowski's words come to life.

Well...That was a pretty hefty list! I know there are so many amazing adaptations coming out if the next few months - what are you all looking forward to seeing? Has anyone seen The Perks Of Being A Wallflower yet? What did you think of it? I'll hopefully be seeing it this week and I can't wait!

Diary - Chuck Palahniuk

I know I posted a review on Fight Club where I stated that as my favourite Palahniuk novel, but Diary only just missed out on that top spot. I love that Palahniuk writes both male and female lead protagonist characters, not that that's unheard of, of course, it's just that he writes both sexes so believably. I never doubt his characters.

“It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.” 

Diary is about a woman, Misty, whose husband Peter is in a coma after attempting suicide. He becomes her life size voodoo doll as she spends her time at his bedside stabbing him with pins to see if he will respond, though this isn't done maliciously. They live in Peters home town, the seaside idyll of Waytansea Island (I do love a good pun...) Back when she was in College, before Misty became Peters wife, she was studying art but gave it up to be a mother to her daughter Tabbi, trading her paintbrush for a waitress's notepad in the Hotel where she works as her husband works building houses.

After Peter enters his coma, Misty begins to receive complaints from her Husbands clients. She discovers that he had been building secret rooms into the houses he has constructed and covering the hidden walls in graffiti...

“Just for the record, the weather today is partly suspicious with chances of betrayal.” 

While immersed in the mystery of her comatose husbands hidden rooms, Peters mother begins encouraging Misty to paint again, and sadly she gets her wish when Misty is thrown into a tumult of emotions she can only expel through her art when Tabbi accidentally drowns in the sea below the Hotel. Misty throws herself into her art. It is all she thinks about and soon an exhibit is announced to showcase her paintings for the town in the Hotel.

Spoiler Alert! I don't normally reveal an entire plot when I review a book, but, just this once...I'm breaking the rules, so if you want to find out what happens in Diary by yourself, stop reading now!

However...There is a much darker side to this story. We discover that Misty's entire life has been a plan conjured by the residents of the island. Every four generations a young man from the island leaves to find a wife. The young woman he finds must fit one condition; she must be attracted to an item of jewellery given to her by the young man. The residents believe these items of jewellery which attract the women, belonged to them in previous lives, and so they are in a way, controlled by their desire to have them again. 
Once married they must return to Waytansea and have children. The husband will later die, as will the child/ren, pushing the mother into a creative flourish in which they will produce items to attract tourists to the Hotel. Complicated? It's not over yet...Once the tourists are attracted by the works produced they will be trapped inside the Hotel and killed, in Diary's case, by a fire. The residents of the island then claim a huge insurance for the lives and live in luxury until it is time for the cycle to repeat. I won't completely reveal the plot here because things to change slightly in Misty's case, so the above isn't exactly what happens, I just had to write about it so I could talk about my favourite part of the book, Stendhal Syndrome. 

Stendhal syndrome is defined as:

 "A psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly beautiful or a large amount of art is in a single place. The term can also be used to describe a similar reaction to a surfeit of choice in other circumstances, e.g. when confronted with immense beauty in the natural world."

and it is hands down one of the best things I've ever read. I love that this syndrome exists, reading about it in Diary, (as it's what's said to hold the tourists in the room with the art even though it's burning) is the first I've ever heard of it, but since I've researched it quite a lot because it's just such a beautiful idea. I can't really describe why I like the idea of this syndrome or why I felt the need to include it in this post, but I think it's because I don't just see art as paintings, I see it in everything creative, whether it be a poem, a novel or a song and this brief description above describes so well what I feel when I experience art that I just felt I had to share it. 

“Your handwriting. the way you walk. which china pattern you choose. it's all giving you away. everything you do shows your hand. everything is a self portrait. everything is a diary.” 

Diary is written via a 3rd persons perspective so we don't necessarily feel like an integral part of the story as a reader, but I'd define Diary as a mystery, in which case I think it's the norm to be on the fringes of the story, though we are still shown Misty's thoughts. I also class this as a sort of love story too, though not Hollywood love, more Palahniuks brand of truthful, realistic tenderness. As I said, this is a favourite of mine from this author so I absolutely recommend you pick it up, it's one of the best written novels I own. I think it would absolutely appeal to all ages, and maybe more so if you're a reader looking to get into this kind of transgressive genre as I think it would be a great gateway novel.

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is run by The Broke and the Bookish. This weeks question is;

Top Ten Books That Make You Think (About The World, People, Life, etc.) 

I think this is quite a difficult question to narrow down into 10 as in my opinion that what most books do; they make us think and they change opinions, so I've tried to narrow it down into books that had (to me) a really strong message that made an impact. (In no particular order).

1) Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk. "The things you own, end up owning you". Just how materialistic are we?

2) Into The Wild - Jon Krakauer. There really is nothing stopping us from just picking up one day and going out to find beauty or purpose or meaning in the world, it does't have to be novelised.

3) 127 Hours - Aron Ralston. See above. The instinct to survive can make you do incredible things.

4) Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk. The way you look does not define who you are.

5) Fiesta - Earnest Hemingway. Love is not a fairytale, but "Isn't it pretty to think so."

6) 1984 - George Orwell. We are all under others control.

7) A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess. Violence is everywhere. It is senseless and consuming.

8) The Road - Cormac McCarthy. Love will always exist, even in the absence of all else. It can be a strength and a weakness, but what would we rather have? A loved one to share in despair? Or the ability to survive longer, alone.

9) Hey Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland. "God is Nowhere. God is Now Here."

10) Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy. Women's rights have really come such a long way in the 120 or so years that this book was published.


What books changed the way you think? 

It starts with a favourite - Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk.

Looking at my bookshelves it wasn't hard to pick one "old favourite" which I could just talk on and on about without re-reading then and there, I bought this book when I was around 15 and I haven't been able to pass a Palahniuk by since. His books are just exactly what I look for, strong characters, interesting story lines, and above all absolutely beautiful prose. Palahniuk describes the book as

" The Great Gatsby, updated a little. It was 'apostolic' fiction - where a surviving apostle tells the story of his hero. There are two men and a woman. And one man, the hero, is shot to death. It was a classic, ancient romance but updated to compete with the espresso machine and ESPN."

So, if you haven't read the book, It's written from the point of view of a 20-something year old man who lives alone and works in the car insurance business. He has no friends or family and his lack of an identity is mirrored in his lack of a name.

A lot of people have different interpenetrations of what Palahniuk was trying to do with Fight Club; create a modern satire of consumerism, bring back the age old theory of what a "man" should be, encourage violence etc...but I think that the story is trying to convince us that love can exist in a modern word exempt from all the Hollywood nonsense that we have come to expect from a "love story". Granted certain parts of the modern world Palahniuk presents us with are glorified, but the bones of the story come back to what we know, this is certainly not a tale of hearts and flowers romance, it is not a happily ever after, shiny, pretty-Disney tale. In that way, the story doesn't really fit into what we come to expect from a love story, but instead fits into a more realistic version, simply: boy meets girl. boy wants to be more like girl. boy alters his world. boy gets girl.

The character of The Narrator is one of my favourite protagonists of all time. The way Palahniuk writes him, in his informal style and repetition and quoting of other characters, namely Tyler Durden makes his lack of self worth and quiet desperation so apparent, the informal simplicity of his writing is completely clear and original.

 "It's only after you've lost everything," Tyler says, "that you're free to do anything."

Life seems to begin for The Narrator when he meets a girl at a support group for testicular cancer, which he (perfectly healthy) goes to in order to feel real emotion. Searching for another let for his emotions, as the support groups no longer work with another "faker" present (Marla) the character embarks on a path to self destruction with new friend Tyler Durden. They invent "Fight Club" in which men get together to, you guessed it, beat the crap out of each other for catharsis. The protagonist is at peace with his new form of release. Tyler, however wants destruction and freedom which he plans to achieve with a new idea; "Project Mayhem". The narrator disjointedly attempts to stop Tyler's plans for this which culminates in Palahniuk's "hidden gun".

In meeting the girl, Marla Singer, The characters life spins out of his carefully crafted control. In the book he tells Marla, "You met me at a very strange time in my life" but it was meeting Marla which caused the changes and created Tyler. I love that if you strip away all the craziness and the fights and the bombs...Fight Club is a story about a man who totally realigns his way of life and thought just so he can be with a girl, this is at it's core a love story. Marla is free in a way that the narrator is not and upon first realising this he creates another persona, one who could feasibly be with a girl like Marla. He can't be with her the way he is, invite her over to his place to sit on his Swedish design strine green stripe pattern sofa unit and eat dinner with him from his glass plates with the tiny imperfections, she just wouldn't fit in that world, so he creates a new one, one with power cuts every time it rains, bloodstained shirts, cut lips, bruises, desperation and self loathing. He blows up his condo as an excuse to talk to her, but when he picks up the phone he's not yet ready for her to be part of his life, he still has so much more control to loose, so instead he calls new acquaintance Tyler Durden.

My signed copy

I just really can't fault this book whatsoever and it in reading it and becoming familiar with Palahniuk's work I just got involved in so many other authors work which I just would not have come across otherwise. If you haven't read this book...do.