taryn k.
Profile

My name is Taryn. I'm in my twenties. I come from the land down under. I'm married. I work full time. I like pretty things. My favourite food is watermelon. I hate dancing. I like to talk. I tend to contradict myself. I hate snails. I like you for reading my blog.

Layout: vehemency
Email: here
Twitter: here
Bloglovin: here
SHOP TARYN K: here



Archives
Reads

15 Steps, Then A Beauty Blog
A Cup Of Style
A Knuckle Sandwich Is Not Edible
All That Exists For Me
Autilia
Buy Now, Blog Later
Dania On The Street
Fashion Toast
Goss Makeup Artist
HRH Collection
Jessica.Hart/Blog
Leflassh
Lisa Eldridge
Little Bits Of Lovely
Llymlrs
Mariannann
ML 3.0
Natasha's Soiree
The Oatmeal
Pink Is The New Blog
Raspberry Jam
Sprinkle Of Glitter
The Sartorialist
Stylizimo
Whitney Port
Who What Wear
Xsparkage
Yellow Brick Home
Zoella
15 July 2011, 2:24 PM
What I'm Reading

It's been quite a while since I did a "What I'm Reading" post, so I've got a few books to review for you.  Everything I've read lately, I've really enjoyed, with the exception of one that I'm a little bored with, but am trying to get through.  Winter has well and truly set in over here, so I've been loving getting into bed early with my ereader and reading for hours and hours.  Where shall we start?

When I last wrote, I listed a whole bunch of books I was planning to read - first of all Garden Of Shadows by Virginia Andrews, the prequel to Flowers In The Attic, since I was in a nostalgic mood at the time.  So I read it again.  It's so damn trashy! I love it! This is probably the third time I've read this book and it always draws me in.  I feel like it's almost a rite of passage for teenage girls to read Andrews' Gothic romances, even though the content is a little unsavoury at times.

For those of you that haven't heard of the series, the novels follow the Foxworth/Dollanganger family, an upper class Viriginian family living in the 70s (I believe).  The general gist is that Corrine, the mother of the central main characters, Chris, Cathy, Cory and Carrie, is disinherited by her wealthy and cruel father, Malcolm Foxwoth, when she marries her half cousin. Upon her husbands sudden and unexpected death Corrine is left to raise the children herself, and with no form of income she feels she must attempt to get back into her fathers good books.  She returns to her childhood home, but must hide the fact that she has borne children to her half-cousin, otherwise she will never be granted forgiveness.  At the time the novels start it is believed her Malcolm is on his deathbed, not expected to survive a month.  The children are hidden away by Corrine and her evil mother, Olivia, in a room with attic access in an unused wing of Foxworth Manor, with the intention of Corrine winning her father back, receiving her inheritance when he passes and then living comfortably with her children.  Unfortunately for the kids, Malcom clings on to life for quite a long time.  What follows is a soap-opera like family drama with so much scandal and shock (incest anybody?), you're left laughing (but enjoying) at the absurdity.  Rumour has it the series was based on a true story, but who really knows how much further Andrews' takes it.

The prequel to the series is told from Olivia's point of view, starting when she and Malcolm courted, right up to the arrival of Corrine and her children of the night of their imprisonment.  There is so much more scandal and so many more secrets in this book that are never even alluded to in the rest of the series, so it is a fun read if you enjoy the other novels.

This novel, and series, is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine, and has been since I was about 12. I'll definitely get around to rereading the rest of the books in this series, but other more exciting books became available to me as soon as I finished this one.  

Namely, the most recent Sookie Stackhouse novel, Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris. I LOVE these novels. Love them.  Especially at this stage of the game where Sookie has broken up with her beloved Bill and moved on to better and blonder things.  Like Eric. Sigh.

I wouldn't really say that this is a spoiler for the TV show since they seem to be going in an entirely different direction than the novels take.  It was a while ago that I read this, so I can't remember all the details, but from what I remember, Sookie is quite happily coupled up with Mr Northman - vampire married actually - and living in relative peace after his maker was killed and the vamp political hierarchy had been shaken.  Then back along comes Eric's boss, with whom there is a long standing grudge since the revolt against the royals a few books back.  He pretty much wants all the people Eric loves dead. Including Sookie.  Poor Sookie.

So then Sookie prances around a little, as she does, interacting with a bunch of different people and kind of wallowing that she is all tied up in supe business, as she does, and making STUPID decisions. As she does.

I did really enjoy this book, but it didn't really seem to end.  There wasn't a whole lot of questions unanswered and it didn't move forward with Sookie and Erics relationship.  We basically left off exactly where we started - which is Sookie isn't sure who she really wants.  At least if theey'd broken up (which I am totally against, just to be clear), we would have at least had some sort of progression. I'm pretty sure Harris has said there are only two or three books left about Sookie, so they're gonna wanna start getting to the point soon. 

I have a terrible feeling she's going to end up with Sam. And that will piss me right off.  I'm just not a fan.


The Hunger Games. Oh my god. I am in love with this series.  I could not put it down.  I downloaded the entire series in a big omnibus form from Amazon (in fact, I downloaded all these from Amazon), because I couldn't find the separate books in ereader format.  So I was reallllllly hoping I liked it.  So yeah, it turned out well.  This is one of the best series I have read in a long time.  You will notice I am quite partial to the teen-fiction genre. Even though I'm nearly twenty four. *shrugs*

Katniss Everdeen, a teenager living in Panem, an almost post-apocalyptic world.  It's Earth, but not as we know it.  The novel takes place, probably a couple hundred years in to the future, in what was the US.   Panem consists of the Capitol, an incredibly wealthy and excessive city, and twelve outlying, poverty stricken districts, which are very much under the thumb of the Capitol.  At some point during Panem's history, the districts tried to revolt against the Capitol and failed miserably.  As a reminder of the failed attempt at taking them down (although it's thinly veiled as entertainment and as a prestigious event), the Capitol produces an annual TV reality show, where they take two teenagers, a boy and a girl, from each district as tributes and have them fight to the death in an arena. So yeah, not a happy world.  Katniss becomes one of these tributes and we see her journey and struggle through this unfair world.

There is a romance factor to these novels, but unlike most teen novels, it's not the most prominent theme.  I think a lot of readers try to reduce it to this (ie. Team Peeta!! Team Gale!!! Team Finnick!!!!!!) but it is so much more than that.  It's a war series, a series about survival, about protecting what is important to you, about how far you would go to protect your own life, about valuing your life above others, about politics and inspiration.  It's also more realistic than other teen novels, in that good characters die.  As I was reading Mockingjay, I got to the point where I was thinking "Is ANYBODY going to survive this??".

I can't say enough good things about these books.  I can't wait for the movie to come out - I really hope they do it justice.

I'll leave it there for now, because I can just see myself rambling on and on - I'll post the next few books in the next couple of days, I promise.  As always, thanks for reading. Talk to you soon :)

Labels: ,

Leave A Comment


Newer Posts Older Posts