Review: The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel

Title: The Land of Painted Caves
Author: Jean M. Auel
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 2011
Rating: 3 stars



To start, here is a bit of information about the book, taken (again) from Goodreads.com:

The highly anticipated sixth book of Jean Auel's Earth's Children® series, THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES, is the culmination fans have been waiting for. Continuing the story of Ayla and Jondalar, Auel combines her brilliant narrative skills and appealing characters with a remarkable re-creation of the way life was lived more than 25,000 years ago. THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES is an exquisite achievement by one of the world's most beloved authors.

The Land of Painted Caves is a book that I (and many other people all over the world) have been eagerly anticipating for several years. The Earth's Children series was started by Auel back in 1980; now, more than thirty years later, the series finally comes to an end.

As you can see from this blog entry, I have spent a long time in recent days and weeks thinking about/obsessing over how the series would end. As it turns out, I didn't really need to be that worried. The Land of Painted Caves is written with the same attention to, and depth of, detail that is found in the rest of the series, with the prehistoric landscape vividly brought to life. As for the plot, well... it was a nice ending, I suppose. Everything was resolved, and tied up into a neat little parcel. Of course, there were some tense moments and some exasperating moments, but no issues that hadn't arisen earlier in the series. The good characters were still good - almost painfully so - and the bad characters were still devious and ruthless and malicious. 

I don't know what I was expecting from this novel, and my three star rating isn't to say that I was disappointed. I wasn't. This novel made me happy and provided the right amount of closure to the story. But really, not a lot happened. There were no big dramatic twists (well, not really), and nothing that really moved me. However, as I've said, it was an enjoyable read, and was very well-written. And, of course, meticulously researched. 

All in all, though, it simply doesn't live up to the earlier books in the series. It ends the series with a kind of quiet dignity that is, I suppose, fitting after its long 30-year life, but it is definitely an ending with less of a bang, and more of a whimper.

Three stars: enjoyable and a pleasant ending to the series, but definitely not for you if you're looking for something action-packed and dramatic!

The (possibly never-ending) Job-hunt

Phew. I was feeling too grumpy to do a blog post today, but I looked at some photos of really adorable kittens and that cheered me up. No, really. Who can stay miserable when faced with the super-adorableness of kittens?

Anyway. Today I was going to tell you about my job-hunting process. Perhaps you'll be interested. And if you're not, well, tough. It's my blog, and this whole job-hunt thing is what's taking up roughly 90% of my thoughts at the minute...

I'm currently in the last couple of weeks as an undergraduate student at university. I'm in my final year, and am just finishing off the last couple of pieces of coursework. When term ends on 8th April, that's it, I'm finished. Lots of my friends have exams after the Easter break, but my course wasn't structured that way so I'll be all finished and ready to graduate in July (fingers crossed). I'm hoping to come out with a 2:1 at the end, but one of my classes this term is really tough so I'm not sure how I'll do in that one. Hopefully my marks over the rest of the year will make up for it, and hopefully I won't have any complete disasters.

Being so close to finishing my degree is an exciting time, but also completely terrifying. I'm looking for a job in publishing - ideally as an agent's assistant - but there aren't that many jobs out there. By which I mean I can't afford to be too picky. I spent last summer doing work placements in the industry - a six week placement at a literary agency in London, and four weeks at an Oxford-based publishing company. Before that I'd spent a week at another literary agency, a placement that I got through the careers centre at university.

So I feel like I've got a decent knowledge of the industry. This summer I've lined up a bunch of placements between April and July. If I'm honest, I can't really afford to do them all. They're unpaid, for starters, but also there's only so much you can learn in a two or three week placement. I'm very keen to find something permanent, and as it is I'm waiting to hear back from a number of places - a couple of literary agencies, and then some entry-level positions at some publishing houses.

I find it's the waiting that's harder than anything. Waiting to hear back from employers, and waiting for jobs to come up. Publishing isn't a big industry, and there are lots of people trying to make their way in it. I feel like I've got a good C.V (or resume, if you're American...), and I feel pretty optimistic about my chances on a couple of these applications. But the lack of certainty is doing my head in, and I'm going round and round in little circles of worry that would put my worrier-housemate to shame.

Hopefully in the coming weeks I'll have some better news to share with you as my job-hunt continues. Of course, it'll probably be much more exciting for me than it will be for you, but I always like reading about other people's success stories. Hopefully soon I'll have one of my own. Hopefully.

Review: The Seas by Samantha Hunt

Title: The Seas
Author: Samantha Hunt
Publisher: Corsair, Constable & Robin, 2010
First published: Picador, U.S. 2006
Rating: 4.5 stars

Here is a synopsis of The Seas, taken from Goodreads.com:

The narrator of The Seas lives in a tiny, remote, alcoholic, cruel seaside town. An occasional chambermaid, granddaughter to a typesetter, and daughter to a dead man, awkward and brave, wayward and wilful, she is in love (unrequited) with an Iraq War veteran thirteen years her senior. She is convinced that she is a mermaid. What she does to ease the pain of growing up lands her in prison. What she does to get out is the stuff of legend. In the words of writer Michelle Tea, The Seas is "creepy and poetic, subversive and strangely funny, [and] a phenomenal piece of literature."

When I read the blurb of this book after seeing it on the longlist for the Orange Prize for Fiction, it was one of the books on the list I was most looking forward to reading.

When I first started reading, though, I didn’t like this book. Or, more precisely, I didn’t like the narrator or her style of narration. By the time I got to the end of The Seas, though, the style of the narration was probably what I liked most about it. It’s a very disjointed style of narration, as though she is fishing for the right words and only finding the wrong ones. This novel is one that’s obsessed with the right words. Unsurprising, when one of the main characters – the narrator’s grandfather – is writing a dictionary, of sorts. The novel spirals in on itself until all you’re left with are fragments of the narrator’s unstable consciousness, a few of the “right” words, and the sea. Of course, the sea.

The novel opens with the narrator trying to outrun the sea as its reflection fills her rearview mirror. It ends with the narrator and her mother swimming in the sea. And as for the rest of the novel, the sea batters it from every direction, a merciless presence in the troubled mind of a narrator who believes she is a mermaid. She is also in love with a man, Jude, thirteen years her senior. Her love for him is almost as strong a presence as the sea; it fills her every thought, nearly drowning her. And then constantly lurking in the background of the novel is the narrator’s father – missing, presumed dead. Her father, who she believes is also a mermaid, returned to the sea and waiting for her. As the novel progresses and the narrator’s grasp on reality becomes more and more tenuous, the sea and her love for Jude take over. Even ending up in prison does nothing to reassert her grip on reality.

I found myself wanting to believe what the narrator believed, but at the same time being completely terrified by her. Her gradual retreat from reality was spellbinding to observe, and the bizarre relationship between the narrator and Jude gave the story a heart that was alternately empty and overflowing with emotion.

This was a really well-written novel, hauntingly beautiful, but terribly sad. Highly recommended: nearly 5 stars.*

*I’ll admit that my 5-star system is flawed. I think of the books in relation to one another, rather than in relation to the system. So it’s possible that I’ll add another star or two to the rating system for incredible books like Norwegian Wood or something, but for now, we’ll let it be.

So many books, so little time...

Well, I had a really busy weekend and didn't have time to post here for a few days - it was my housemate's 21st birthday, and my boyfriend was visiting for a few days. But you don't really want to hear about my weekend, do you. (In a nutshell: I ate lots of junk food and got pretty drunk. Standard party stuff, really...)

So instead, I thought I'd show you some of the exciting new additions to my TBR list.

From top to bottom:
The Seas - Samantha Hunt
Repeat it today with tears - Anne Peile
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Babel Tower - A.S Byatt





The best thing about these? I didn't have to buy any of them. I got The Seas from my boyfriend as part of my birthday present, my mum got me this copy of P&P (no, I don't know how I've got to 21 years of age without reading it yet), I was given Babel Tower by my aunt, who got it from someone who was getting rid of a load of their books, and I got Repeat it today with tears from the awesome people at Serpent's Tail, the publishers, after they ran a book giveaway on Twitter.

So there we go. Tomorrow I'll hopefully be able to get my hands on a copy of The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel, which will most likely be fast-tracked to the top of my list. At the minute though, I'm about 100 pages from the end of The Seas, which is pretty good except the narrator scares me a little...

Happy Monday, everyone!

Countdown...

OK, I should probably let you know that I'm pretty excited at the minute.

Why, you ask?

Because the new (last?) book in Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series is out in a week! According to Amazon, the fifth book in the series, The Shelters of Stone, came out in 2002, 2003-ish. I'm not sure about that, because I'm sure I read the fifth book in hardback, borrowed from a friend, just after it came out. And I don't think I was reading this series at the age of twelve or thirteen.

ANYWAY. That aside, the point is that I've been waiting YEARS(!!!) for this book.

With the obvious exception of the Harry Potter series, I've never really had to wait for a specific book to be released. Probably because I'm a little slow on the uptake, and by the time I get round to reading a series, the final book has already been released. (I did that earlier in the month with Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games series...). And while I did have to wait a little while for the later Harry Potter books, it was only ever a year or two at a time.

So. After a wait of about eight years, I'm looking forward to getting a copy of The Land of Painted Caves. But, of course, I'm starting to worry about it too. What if the book doesn't live up to my expectations? What if the ending is terrible? What if my favourite character(s) die? What if everybody dies? I guess I'll find out soon enough..!

What is the longest you've ever waited for a new book to come out? What was it? Was it worth it? Tell me your tales of anticipation and (hopefully not) disappointment...

Review: Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson

Title: Grace Williams Says it Loud
Author: Emma Henderson
Publisher: Sceptre, 2010
Rating: 3 stars

To begin, here is a synopsis of Grace Williams Says it Loud, taken from Goodreads.com:

This isn't an ordinary love story. But then Grace isn't an ordinary girl. 'Disgusting,' said the nurse. And when no more could be done, they put her away, aged eleven. On her first day at the Briar Mental Institute, Grace meets Daniel. He sees a different Grace: someone to share secrets and canoodle with, someone to fight for. Debonair Daniel, who can type with his feet, fills Grace's head with tales from Paris and the world beyond. This is Grace's story: her life, its betrayals and triumphs, disappointment and loss, the taste of freedom; roses, music and tiny scraps of paper. Most of all, it is about the love of a lifetime.

Grace Williams Says it Loud tells the story of Grace, physically disabled and “mentally deficient”, as they put it in the book. We follow her from infancy, to the Briar Mental Institute, to a home in Hounslow. She makes friends and enemies, she falls in love with the wonderfully charismatic Daniel (my favourite character in the book), and then she loses him. Twice. We are shown the story of this life through Grace’s eyes, though it is the voices of all the other characters which fill the pages. Grace herself manages to speak only a maximum of two words at a time; the novel allows her thoughts the expression that her body is incapable of providing. It is this contrast, between the richly observant, descriptive narrative, and Grace’s stunted speech and her treatment by the nurses at Briar, that makes for some of the most moving sections of the book.

When I started reading this novel, I honestly couldn’t decide whether I liked it or not. I read it in three sittings: in the first, I reached page 70; in the second, I got to around page 170; and in the third sitting I read right to the end. But what struck me most about this book was that, by the time I reached page 70, I still couldn’t decide whether or not I liked this book. I found its narrative style didn’t quite sit right with me. I still can’t work out why. But what I then realised, whilst I was still puzzling over whether or not I liked this book, was that either way, it had made a significant impression on me in those opening few chapters.

Even now I have finished Grace Williams Says it Loud, I still can’t say whether or not I liked it. It was compelling, yes, and moving, and beautiful, in a way. It’s not a story – or a character – that I am likely to forget in a hurry. But I don’t think I enjoyed reading it. All the way through, the narrative style didn’t seem quite right. Grace’s observations seemed over-done, especially in the opening scenes of the novel. And then again at the end.

So: it was touching and beautifully done, in its own way, but not quite to my taste. Grace Williams Says it Loud was a good read, but not a book that I was able to lose myself in completely.

5 Books I Never Wanted To End

In my daily trawl around the internet, I came across The Next Best Book Club - a very interesting-looking book blog. Their most recent post is where I, uh, acquired the idea for this post from.

Have you ever read a book that you've enjoyed so much that you've wanted to be able to keep reading it forever? Well, I have. Here's my five:

1. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Wow. I don't know what to say about this book. But I haven't read another book that's had anywhere near the same effect on me. When I finished reading it I just sat there for a little while thinking "what's next?". As it was, I couldn't think of a suitable book to follow it that wouldn't pale in comparison, so the next day I picked it up and read it all over again. This is, I think, my favourite book ever. It broke my heart, and had particular resonance as a sometimes-friend recommended it to me after one of my school friends passed away, which is where the novel starts. Absolutely incredible.

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
I have friends at university who haven't read any of the Harry Potter series. I struggle with that idea, personally, because they're the series of our generation. They were the first books I'd stay up all night to finish, and I suppose they're what really got me hooked on reading. I could read this whole series again and again. While I didn't want the series to end, I'm glad they did, in a way, before they went downhill in quality and storyline... But yes, I really love these books.

3. Possession by A.S. Byatt
I have a little notebook in which I write down all the books I read. I started doing this in December 2009, so I could keep track. It has a little system: an asterisk if it's a book for university, one tick if I thought it was really great. A cross if I didn't like it. Possession was the first book that I had to give two ticks to, because I thought it was too good for just one. Like Norwegian Wood I didn't know what to read afterwards. It's been about a year since I last read it, though - time for a re-read?

4. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
If you've never read Margaret Atwood... you should. I've read a fair few of her novels, and this is, by far, my favourite. The Goodreads summary says that once you've read this, "nothing will ever look the same again". And they're right. All the science in the background of this novel seems a little too realistic. True, it's taken to the extreme, but you can't help thinking "what if...?". This book terrified me, but in a good way. I just wanted to keep reading, especially when Atwood just... leaves it at the end. (Though there is some resolution in its sort-of sequel, The Year of the Flood...)

5. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
Yes, I know this is the first book in Auel's Earth's Children series, but it is, in my opinion, the best by far. I loved the world of the Clan and Ayla's position within it - something that is missing from the rest of the series. I'm excited for the final book, The Land of Painted Caves, which is coming out at the end of the month, but I can't help feeling that it will never match up to the brilliance of the opening book of the series. I can't count how many times I've re-read this, but every time I notice something new. This is a wonderful, wonderful book. Everyone should read it. (Except you, Ollie. It's very long, it would probably take you ten years to read...)

Of course, I could've chosen many more than five books to enthuse about, but that would've been excessive, don't you think? What about you, then? Which books do you wish had never ended?

More book wrap enthusiasm...

Thanks to a helpful comment from my boyfriend, you can now see photos of my book wrap. He bought it from a company called Loose Leaf Paper on Etsy.com.

If you're a book lover (or, as my sister affectionately calls me, a "book freak") and you travel a lot, I'd recommend one of these. A while back I lent my boyfriend a copy of Slaughterhouse 5, and it travelled around with him for so long that it now has a huge crease running down the centre of the cover. No, he hasn't been forgiven yet. But if he'd had one of these, that wouldn't have happened. Maybe I should get him one for his next birthday... (I should add that Slaughterhouse 5 is the ONLY book he's read in all of the time we've been together. Over a year and a half...)

Simple Pleasures: My Book Wrap

As I mentioned in a previous post, my wonderful boyfriend got me a book wrap as part of my birthday present. (Inside the book wrap was a copy of The Seas by Samantha Hunt, which was on the Orange Prize longlist and has now been fast-tracked to the top of my To Read pile. But more on that another day...)

"What a great idea," I thought, as I opened the present. "One of the books I brought back from Norwich with me got its cover creased on the journey. Now I've got a nice way to protect it."

Today I went to London. Today I also took my book wrap out with me for the first time. A few days ago I finished The Swimmer by Roma Tearne, so was in need of a new book to read. I decided on Grace Williams Says It Loud, another novel picked for the Orange Prize longlist, and one I bought in my book-haul last week. As it travelled all the way back from Norwich with me, I thought I'd read that before The Seas which, as far as I know, hasn't travelled as far.

As it was, I didn't get any reading done on the train. But Grace Williams Says It Loud sat there in my bag, waiting patiently, snug, secure and uncreased in its pretty book wrap. It wasn't until this evening when I felt like doing some reading that I finally got it out of my handbag. And it wasn't until that moment that I realised the other great thing about this book wrap. Sure, it's very practical and will save many of my books from the torturous chaos of my handbag. But what I didn't recognise until that moment was the beauty that it adds to the reading process.

So: I take the wrap out of my bag and place it in my lap. The piece of ribbon is unwound from the button, and then once, twice, three times around the book. Then the fabric is folded open to the left, and then the other side is opened to the right. Grace Williams Says It Loud sits there, in the middle of the fabric, with its beautiful cover and the sea and the brooding sky... And that's it.

The beauty of the extended moment, perhaps. After all that I could finally pick up the novel and begin reading. Perhaps it just heightens the anticipation of starting a new book - that might be all it is. But there was something wonderfully pleasing about unwrapping that book before I could begin reading. Something that I'm sure most people wouldn't really appreciate.

My thought for today: it's the simple things in life that make me happy. I forget that too often.

Review: The Swimmer by Roma Tearne

Title: The Swimmer
Author: Roma Tearne
Publisher: HarperPress, 2010
Rating: 4 stars

It’s been a little while since I’ve written a review of any books, so to get me started, here is a synopsis of the novel, taken from Goodreads.com:

A gripping, captivating novel about love, loss and what home really means.  

Ben is a young illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka who has arrived in Norfolk via Moscow. Awaiting a decision from the Home Office on his asylum application, he is discovered by Ria as he takes a daily swim in the river close to her house. He is twenty years her junior and theirs is an unconventional but deeply moving romance, defying both boundaries and cultures – and the xenophobic residents of Orford. That is, until tragedy occurs.

Forty-three year old Ria is used to being alone. As a child, her life changed forever with the death of her beloved father and since then, she has struggled to find love. That is, until she discovers the swimmer.

The Swimmer is an incredibly moving story told through three different voices, each section of the novel still centring around (as the title suggests) the swimmer – Ben. A Sri Lankan doctor seeking asylum, Ben finds himself stranded in rural Suffolk when his money runs out and he is unable to reach London. He begins working illegally whilst waiting to hear back from the Home Office, and meets Ria as he struggles to survive, stealing food from her kitchen and swimming in the river close to her house to keep clean. It is an unlikely friendship between them which soon blossoms into romance, and still they await the decision from an impotent Home Office with regards to Ben’s asylum application.

This beautiful relationship is painted against a backdrop of barely-concealed racism in the Suffolk village of Orford. While the whispers of terrorism and news reports of ritually slaughtered animals fail to make an impression on Ria, we see the village closing in on itself, leaving Ben stranded on the outside. And then the sounds of gunshots ring out and their tragic repercussions echo through the rest of the novel.

Through the voices of a lover, a mother, and a daughter, the novel personalises the asylum process and the tragedy of loss and dislocation that is at the heart of this book. The three distinct voices of three very different women work to bring together the political and the personal, encouraging us to understand the predicament faced by so many refugees in this day and age. Writing at a time when immigration is a key issue in British politics, this novel sensitively gives us a glimpse at ‘the other side’ of the debate. For Ben and his mother Anula, Britain is a source of hope in their war-torn home country, a chance for a better, safer life. What we are shown in this novel is just how easy it is to put your hope in the wrong thing.

The Swimmer moved me to tears more than once – something I always consider to be the mark of a good book. Tearne’s writing is beautiful in the precision with which she depicts her characters and their world. The tensions between the characters are beautifully managed and conveyed; for me, it is Anula's section of the novel, filled with her undirected rage and her unarticulated hatred of Ria, which is most striking. This beautiful, heartfelt novel is Tearne's fourth, but my first look at her writing. I'll definitely be taking a look at some of her earlier works - this is a wonderful, touching work of fiction that I enjoyed immensely. Highly recommended.

Happy birthday to me!

(...for yesterday...)

Yeah. I turned 21 yesterday, and had a wonderful party with the whole family to celebrate. My mum had organised it all for me, so we spent the day at home with cake and presents and family arriving in small groups, before we headed out for dinner in the evening.

The meal was really nice - we'd had to make our food choices before the day, so everyone already knew what they were eating. It was a bit strange to have both sides of the family there - mum's family and dad's - but I think it went pretty well and I had a lovely time, either way. And then we had an interesting taxi ride home with my boyfriend squashed in the back with at least ten helium balloons, unable to see out at all. Ha. I think he drew the short straw there...

And speaking of my boyfriend, he got me a wonderful bookish gift - a book wrap! I'd never seen them before, but it's just what I need to keep my books nice with all the travelling I'm currently doing. Plus it's beautiful, and has come all the way from Australia! I want to put a photo up to show you how awesome it is, but my camera's back at university, and I can't find anything like it online. Probably because my brain is too tired to work at the minute from all the excitement of the weekend...

I also got a couple of books from him, and a book token from his parents. And then my aunt gave me a big box of books she'd got free from a friend who was clearing out her house, so all in all I've probably ended up with at least 15 new books since the start of the weekend! I want to get a photo of them, too, because few things are more exciting for me than A WHOLE BOX OF BOOKS! Obviously I got other gifts too, like some really nice jewellery, but you don't want to hear about that. I promise that soon you'll get to see my super-awesome second book haul of the week!

So, I've had a really great weekend. I'm going into London tomorrow to meet with some people at a literary agency (actually, two) about some work experience, so that'll be nice. And then I've got a couple of days back home before I head back to Norwich.

I hope everyone's had a good weekend? What have you been up to?

Coming home

Phew. Today's been a busy day. After a frantic morning spent trying to fit clothes for an undetermined number of days into a bag, I then had a four hour train journey from Norwich (where I'm studying) to Buckinghamshire (where my family lives).

I think that journey brought my total hours spent on trains in the last week up to 15. Ish. And I've got to go into London again on Monday, but that won't be so bad as it's only an hour each way.

The plus side of all these train journeys, though, is that they give me lots of reading time. On the train back today I finished The Swimmer, which I started a couple of days ago. So hopefully I'll get a review of that up in the next couple of days. I really enjoyed it, but it made me want to cry in several parts. Which would've been fine if I'd been at home, but as it is I think I'd get some odd looks if I was sat crying over a book on a crowded train...

And the plus side of being home (aside from seeing my family and my cat) is that I can now go and raid my real bookshelf for some of the many unread books I've got here, and take them back to Norwich with me to be added to my TO READ pile. Although I should start thinking about essays and stuff soon. I've only got three-ish weeks of term left, so the pressure's on!

Review of The Swimmer to follow soon. But it's my birthday tomorrow, so it won't be then!

Happy weekend, folks!

Book-haul

My name is Emily Smith, and I'm a bookaholic.

There, I said it.

After the Orange Prize for Fiction longlist was announced yesterday, I spent a lot of the afternoon thinking about books. I'll be honest - I didn't have much else to do. So it got to mid-afternoon and I started getting a bit twitchy and restless, so I decided to go into town. Except "town" for me (90% of the time) means "bookshop". And so I made my way down to the local bookshop, braving a bus full of small children which were having some sort of screaming contest, and picked up a nice selection to add to my TO READ pile.

From top to bottom:
The Swimmer - Roma Tearne
Grace Williams Says it Loud - Emma Henderson
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
The Long Song - Andrea Levy.




*Note: I only bought the top 3 yesterday. They were on a 3 for 2 deal, so I got The Book Thief as well because I've heard a fair bit about it recently. I got The Long Song a couple of weeks ago in my last book-haul. I bought Room at the same time, and then a couple of days later bought all of The Hunger Games trilogy. That was a good week.

**Note: This is only the most recent additions to my TO READ pile. Lots of them are at home, rather than with me at university, which makes me sad. Other than these, I think I've only got two other books on my bookshelves here that I haven't read yet, which makes me feel slightly nervous.

I started reading The Swimmer last night. I'm about 80 pages in now, and am enjoying it so far. My initial impressions were that it's got a great cover, and that it could do with a slightly larger font size. I won't go into my thoughts on the novel itself just yet; that's something for another day. I'm off to do a bit more reading now, before some pre-birthday celebrations with my housemates, hooray!

Orange Prize for Fiction: Longlist announced

The Orange Prize for Fiction announced its longlist this morning. The Prize is now in its sixteenth year, and is the UK's only annual award for books written by women. The Prize exists to celebrate the work of talented, original women writers all over the world. This year's longlist of twenty books features writers from twelve different publishing imprints and, most excitingly, nine of the twenty books are debut novels.


The full longlist is as follows:

• Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (Canongate)
• Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador)
• The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi (Bloomsbury)
• Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber)
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair)
• The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury)
• The London Train by Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape)
• Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson (Sceptre)
• The Seas by Samantha Hunt (Corsair)
• The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna (Faber and Faber)
• Great House by Nicole Krauss (Viking)
• The Road to Wanting by Wendy Law-Yone (Chatto & Windus)
• The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Viking)
• Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile (Serpent's Tail)
• Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Chatto & Windus)
• The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin (Serpent's Tail)
• The Swimmer by Roma Tearne (Harper Press)
• Annabel by Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape)

Of these twenty titles, I've only read Room by Emma Donoghue, which I really enjoyed. The novel is narrated by a five year old boy, Jack, who has lived his entire life in a single room with his mother. This was something fresh and original, with an engaging and believable child narrator. If you haven't read it, I thoroughly recommend it.

With less than a month before the shortlist is announced on April 12th, I want to try and read a couple more from this list. I'm going to try and get through Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile, Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson, The Seas by Samantha Hunt, and The Swimmer by Roma Tearne.

Let's see how I get on with these, shall we?

For more info on the Orange Prize for Fiction, see their 2011 page where the longlist and further details about the prize can be found.

Sparkbright magazine

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I run and edit an online magazine. We are currently preparing our sixth issue, which will be due out at the start of June. There are two of us on the editorial staff - me, and my friend Ami, who lives in the States and who I met online a few years ago now. Obviously we're working in different time zones, which makes communication quite difficult, and I hadn't heard from her for a few months. So the majority of this issue has been done by me. By which I mean most of the accepted submissions have been my decision - just me. I'm a little nervous about that, if I'm honest, but it's also quite exciting to know that I'm responsible for 90% of this issue so far.

I've also put together some prospective cover art - I always find it difficult to find suitable artwork, so I got myself a free trial of Photoshop and decided to have a go at it myself. I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out - as it's our summer issue, I wanted something quite bright. And as we don't have any set themes for the content we use, it's always difficult to choose a particular subject or object to focus on for the cover art. So I went for something more abstract... I like it, and I hope other people do too. I haven't worked with Photoshop for a good few years (since our home computer broke and I started university), so it took quite a few attempts before I ended up with something I was happy with.

I might make a couple of other possible versions before my trial runs out - it's always handy to have some cover art available for if it gets to the week before the new issue's due out and I realise we haven't got any artwork sorted!

If anyone's got any comments or suggestions as to how I could improve it, or if you like it, please let me know! I'm open to all feedback, and would love to hear from you.

Artwork © Emily Smith, 2011. Cover art is to be used by Sparkbright magazine, June 2011.

Reviews

I've done a little bit of book reviewing in the past. Last year I was contacted by Graham at Literature Scotland and he asked me to review a couple of titles for him. It was good, I enjoyed it, but sadly haven't had the chance to do any more for him since.

My first review was of 'At the Loch of the Green Corrie' by Andrew Greig (Quercus, April 2010). My review can be found at the Osprey Journal's website, here.

My second review, also published in Osprey Journal as part of the Literature Scotland group, was of Kenneth Steven's short story collection, 'The Ice and Other Stories' (Argyll Publishing, April 2010). You can find my review of Steven's collection here.

I found that I quite enjoyed reviewing books. Even better because I was getting paid to write these, and I was being sent a free copy of the books. Now I'm not so lucky, but I want to carry on reviewing books I particularly enjoy. They might not be super-current ones, but you never know. I've read a lot recently that I want to share, so watch this space...!

About Me

Hello there!

I'm new to this blogging lark, but for a while I've been wanting to set one up for book reviews and personal reflections. So here we are.

I'm a final-year university student trying to get into the publishing industry. I've previously had work experience at two literary agencies and one well-known academic publisher, and I've loved every minute of it. I'm looking forward to the placements I've got lined up for this summer, and to hopefully finding a permanent position in the business sooner rather than later.

I like most types of literature, with a special love for Young Adult fiction despite a general opinion at university that you should grow out of "that sort of stuff". But to be honest, I read most things. Except, perhaps, horror or really psychological fiction, because that gives me nightmares and leaves me unable to sleep for days. Which is pretty sad, but it can't be helped!

Other than my book-loving ways, I'm pretty normal. I have a love for original flavour hula hoops, and could quite happily eat my own body weight in cake. I drink a lot of tea. I'm learning to cook, but not very quickly, or very well. I run an online magazine which has been going for over three years now, which I am really proud of.

Look me up on Twitter, if you like: @ek_smith and @SparkbrightMag