TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED BY ROALD DAHL

Roald Dahl is famous for his classic childrens' books... Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox and many more... but Tales of the Unexpected, a book of short stories for adults, is VERY different to these light-hearted, fun stories.

All the stories contain at least one shocking twist, many of them being of a violent or disturbing nature. I am going to review one of the stories from the book (there are 16) to give you a taste of what it's like.

Lamb to the Slaughter is the story of Mary Maloney. She is a pregnant young woman married to a policeman. One night her husband comes home and tells her he is going to leave her. Mary, as if in a trance, tries to act normally and gets a leg of lamb from the freezer to make for her husband's dinner. But he becomes very angry with her. In a fit of rage and terror about her future, Mary strike her husband over the back of his head with the leg of lamb and kills him.

She then goes to great lengths to cover up her crime, including doing away with the evidence in an ingenious but horrible way.

The story is shocking, like all in the book, but the character Mary is very well-developed in the short story format. She displays varying emotions and character facets and Dahl's amazing story telling abilities and his apparent sixth sense for when to end a story leave the reader gasping and flipping eagerly to the next story.

That said, the stories are disturbing and shocking, and it is amazing to think that the same man who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory managed to think of these violent ideas.

Butterflies: 6.5 out of 10
Recommended for: teenagers and adults who are not too easily shocked!
Warnings: where do I begin... violence and very shocking moments. Not for the faint hearted!

THE CARDTURNER BY LOUIS SACHAR

Louis Sachar is the author of the bestselling novel Holes, but this book is very different to Holes.

The Cardturner is the story of Alton Richards, who is forced to drive his blind, dying uncle Lester Trapp to bridge games, and then act as his 'cardturner'. This means he plays the cards that Trapp asks him to play. Trapp believes Alton has no idea how to play bridge, but secretly Alton learns with the help of Toni, a girl whose grandmother shared an interesting past with Trapp. As Alton learns how to play bridge, he also learns more and more about Toni and about the secrets in Trapp's past. The book takes a slightly supernatural turn towards the end, which is an unprecedented and slightly weird twist.

The characters in this book are the highlight. Trapp, in particularly, is a vivid and fascinating character and although he is not the narrator of the book the whole plot revolves around him. Alton is a fairly boring character comparatively, but Toni is very interesting and there are a host of bridge players and other family members as well.

The main problem with this book is the fact that it is filled with bridge terminology and long accounts of bridge games. While there are frequently very detailed explanations of how different bridge techniques work these are quite boring and very, very complicated. I found myself skipping these sections, but then having trouble understanding later sections of the book.

The supernatural twist is also fairly bizarre and unexpected, but Sachar pulls it off quite well. The book has a good mix of humour and seriousness and is overall a well-crafted, if not slightly complicated concept.

Butterflies: 6.5 out of 10
Recommended for: patient people over 13 who will be able to stick with a book that they may not always understand. Or bridge players, I guess.
Warnings: boring bridge chapters, but no sex, swearing or drugs.

so behind!

It's about 6 weeks till the project ends, and I have to read a grand total of 13 books before then.

More than two books a week! Yeah, I read a lot, but I've NEVER read that much before, and I have to do it when exams are coming up.

So I need your help. I need suggestions for books that are short, or are VERY easy reads. Even really sophisticated picture books would be brilliant! I really REALLY want to finish this project, cause I know I am capable, but I do need your help.

I am reading The Cardturner by Louis Sachar at the moment, and it is good and a fairly easy read. I need more books like that! Young adult is particularly good because I can read them very quickly.

I also am trying to increase the numbers of people viewing this blog. So if you enjoy reading it, I'd love it if you could tell your friends, maybe post it on facebook... and if you do read the blog I'd love to hear from you, so comment and follow!

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD BY HARPER LEE

To Kill A Mockingbird has been called the best book of the 20th century by many individuals and groups, and it's not hard to see why.

Harper Lee's iconic novel was published in 1960 and tells the story of the events in a small town in the Deep South of America called Maycomb. It is narrated in the first person by eight-year-old Scout, the daughter of lawyer Atticus Finch. When Atticus is assigned to a case defending a black man who is accused of raping a white girl, the whole town is affected. Scout sees the case and the surrounding incidents with both innocence and a sense of wisdom that many adults today would envy. She, and her older brother, see the case for what it is: a result of the racism in the town.

The Finch children also are very interested in their mysterious neighbours, the Radleys. Why does Boo never come outside? And who is leaving them secret gifts in the hole in the tree? All these events will come to a climax on one night, where many secrets are finally revealed.

This is such a clever book, as having a young child narrate the story shows the court case for what it really is without the bias of pre-conceived adult ideas: unfair and racist. Scout is a likeable, clever narrator and her brother Jem is also very endearing. Neither of the children are perfect, but they are very realistic characters. The other characters in the novel, including Atticus, his sister Aunt Alexandra, the Finch's Negro cook Calpurnia and the townsfolk, are all wonderfully created and believable. Atticus is an amazing character, being both a loving father and an accomplished lawyer, and his actions affect everyone in the town.

The way the many plot lines in the story interlock is also admirable. The novel is a rich tapestry of stories that weave in and out of one another effortlessly and realistically. While the events in the book are far from commonplace these days, Lee's writing ensures the reader instantly gets caught up in the story and feels like they are viewing the story just as the townsfolk did.

One crticism is that Scout, as an eight-year-old, speaks in a very mature way. However as it seems she may be telling the story as an adult looking back on her childhood, this issue is not a large one.

Overall, this book is absolutely brilliant and everyone should read it at least once in their life, if not more than once.

Butterflies: 9 out of 10
Recommended for: EVERYONE over the age of 12. Younger people may not pick up all the aspects of the story but it will still have a lasting, positive effect.
Warnings: references to the rape of Mayella Ewell, slightly graphic, and violence, but this is all counteracted by the wonderful social messages in the book.

lack of reading

Once again I'm in a bit of a reading lull. I'm trying hard to read To Kill a Mockingbird, but lately I've been tired at night, and I was away for three days this week! I am enjoying To Kill a Mockingbird though, it's really interesting and much better than Lord of the Flies, so I think I'll enjoy studying it in English a lot more!

After this I'm going to read two young adult novels (possibly three), to do a bit of a catch-up, then 1984. After that, I'm going to need some more suggestions, so please suggest some more books for me!

I'm thinking at the moment about what I'm going to do after this project is finished... I love blogging, so I'll probably keep blogging, though on a different blog so this one can stay up for future reference! I think it will be a general blog, not one with a set topic like this one, possibly with shorter entries and then more feature-article style entries. I love writing and I want to go into journalism one day, so I'd love to practice those skills.

Anyway, keep commenting and suggesting! I got to look at the blog stats recently and I saw that I've had over 1000 views! That's so exciting, so thank you so much everyone for your support :)