Lemonade Mouth
I came across the Lemonade Mouth film while looking for episodes of Phineas and Ferb (awesome kid's cartoon) on the Disney channel. I gave it five minutes expecting to hate it and instead found it sweetly funny and filled with pleasant songs (well constructed teen pop, nothing revelatory).
So when I saw the book the film was based on for sale in the Kindle store on Amazon for a couple of quid I decided it was worth trying.
It differs from the film in that the characters less obviously photogenic and the music they play in the book sounds insanely off the wall, but most of the character's themes and motivations are there.
In the book the story is told from the perspectives of the individual band members and some other people involved in the events related.
It's a sweetly funny, very readable young adult book and I'm not surprised it translated so well into a tv film.
Recommended if you enjoyed the film or like charming young adult tales where misfits band together to become something greater. Personally I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.
Espedair Street
The last review I wrote of this book is still a pretty accurate precis of the book and my feelings about it.
I get the impression that Banks was obsessed with rock music growing up. He must have been to have constructed this ur-myth of rock stardom. He takes elements from several real bands to make his perfect vision of musicial success, excess and hubris.
What struck me during this re-read was how influential this book must have been on my idea of what a band should be like and my understanding of the music industry. So many of the music crazy people I know have read Espedair Street and I can't help but think that there has to be a generation informed and maybe even inspired by Banks' charming but slight tale.
I'd still recommend this book to people but with the caveat that the 25 years since publication have rendered this a period piece and that it contains attitudes that seem wildly out of date now.
How To Be A Woman
Moran's book is a funny autobiographical feminist polemic.
Each chapter illustrates an aspect of growing up and living as a woman using events in her own life.
Her anecdotes are usually hilarious, occasionally moving and nearly always enlightening.
I found much to admire in her take on feminism, but that's not too surprising given how well it chimes with my own views.
It's currently available as a cheap paperback or ebook and is well worth buying.
Life After God
This was one of the few remaining Douglas Coupland books that I hadn't read.
It's a collection of short stories, each one told in a series of short vignettes.
To be honest these are messy pieces filled with pre-millenial malaise. As such they come across as lazy and self-indulgent.
Coupland's usual effortless style is the only thing making this collection worthwhile.
Unless you're a fan of Coupland's work in general I'd not recommend this particular work at all.
War For The Oaks
Back in 2008 when the tor.com website first started up they gave away a load of ebooks from the Tor catalogue to people who signed up to be members. This is one of those books.
I read it when I first got my hands on it, on a Palm pilot. Not the greatest reading experience but I did enjoy the book.
Earlier this year I had a sudden craving to re-read War For The Oaks and went scouring through the hard disks of various old PCs and I just couldn't find it anywhere. A few days ago I was idly tidying up files on my iMac and lo and behold there was the ebook file.
Reading the book on the new 'retina' iPad is a world away from the Palm - it's amazing the speed at which technology has improved.
Anyway back to the book. This is an excellent early example of urban fantasy. It's particular strength is in the author's understanding of music and the music industry, which I can tell is pretty much spot on.
It's hard to get hold of in the UK, but I'd recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone looking for a good fantasy read - especially fans of urban fantasy.
Mockingjay
The final volume of the trilogy puts Katniss and her loved ones through further horrors.
The onset of war burdens her with further guilt when she's forced into unpalatable decisions from the resulting moral quandaries.
I raced through this book, desperate to find out how things turned out. While I'm happy with the ending, I felt that there were a lot things I would have liked to have known that were left out because we're limited to only Katniss' view of events.
Overall I think I'd recommend the series but I'm pretty sure that some readers will find a lot to annoy them about the books.
Catching Fire
The second book in Collin's popular series deals with the repercussions that follow Katniss' actions in The Hunger Games.
Another enjoyable read, however, it definitely feels like the middle book of a trilogy.
A lot of the ground covered feels familiar from the first book and the ending is just there to tee up the final volume.
The lead character remains compelling. A flawed, deeply damaged person attempting to survive a horrific world.
I'm pretty sure if you read the first of these books you'll know whether you want to move on to this one.
The Hunger Games
This hit teen novel's film adaptation is about to land at the cinema in the UK and prompted me to finally read the kindle copy I picked up on the cheap in the Amazon Xmas sale.
In this dystopian world the children of the Twelve Districts are placed in the lottery to be chosen as Tributes in the Hunger Games, one male child and one female over the age of twelve from every District. The Hunger Games act as a reminder of the consequences of rebelling against the Capitol and take the form of a vicious reality show where the participants have to kill each other with the final survivor winning a lifetime of relative luxury.
The book is a first person narrative told from the point of view of Katniss Everdeen. Katniss is old beyond her years, trusts pretty much no one and has become very skilled at hunting wild game in order to provide food and extra income for her family after the death of her father.
When her sister, Prim, is chosen for the Games Katniss volunteers to replace her and from that point she’s thrown into a media frenzy and ultimately into the Games themselves.
This not a terribly original book but it has strong characters (especially Katniss), a compelling narrative and a convincing world.
I enjoyed reading this book and I cared enough about the characters that I’m currently reading the second book in the trilogy. Recommended if a compelling young adult piece of dystopian science fiction sounds like your kind of thing.
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