Hi everyone & happy Monday!
As you all know, I'm a huge fan of reading. I read everything and anything, and it'll all be finished in a very short space of time. However, now that I'm back to school, my afternoons are taken over by classes, homework and studying instead of reading. This gives me less time to read.
Sigh. Even still, this post is about the books I've been reading recently (this month). Enjoy!
Here is the little collection I have for you:
The Australian Women's weekly Delicous Gluten-Free Food cookbook
What a long name! This isn't a novel like the others, but I think it deserves a mention.
As you all know, I'm a celiac, which means I can't eat gluten. This cookbook is beautifully designed, and has loads of delicious, creative gluten free recipes. Obviously, I haven't tried all of them, but I've tried about 8 recipes from this book, and they've all been successful!
Rating: 5/5
The Apple Tart Of Hope (by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald)
I read 'Back To Blackbrick', which is also by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, quite a while ago. Whilst this book has been out a while, and I've been meaning to read it for just as long, I never really got around to reading it. I'm glad I did, though!
The book is about a girl called Meg, who lives in Ireland and then moves (reluctantly) to New Zealand with her parents. She leaves her friend Oscar behind her, and they're both really sad to see each other go. A new girl moves into Meg's house, and makes friends with Oscar. Then, Oscar dies. No body is found, though and Meg is certain he's still out there.
Note- the 'Apple pie' part of the title is because Oscar made delicious apple pies. Lots of people ask whenever I tell them about this book...
I really enjoyed reading this book and would definitely recommend it.
Rating: 4.5/5
What was never said (by Emma Craigie)
This book made me cry! It took me only a day to finish this short little book, because it was just... amazing.
This book is the story of a girl called Zahra. She moved from Somalia to Bristol and many chapters give us flashbacks to her life back in Somalia - the beautiful trees, her family, and the sad war. The main topic of the book though is that Zahra, along with her (adorable) little sister Samsam, are trying to escape from 'the cutters', and the horrible practice of FGM. For obvious reasons, the book isn't overly
detailed in certain parts. Zahra addresses the book to her her sister Rahma, which I found a bit confusing at first, but I copped on quickly enough.
Rating:5/5 (My favourite of this collection!)
Birthmarked (by Caragh O'Brien)
I'm not sure how I felt about this book. The storyline was great, I think, but the way it was written was slightly disappointing.
Here, we follow Gaia Stone, a 16 year old midwife living outside the Enclave city, in the future. The people from outside the Enclave must deliver a quota of babies to the Enclave every month. These babies are then raised by parents in the Enclave. However, this also leaves parents from outside the Enclave without their own children. When Gaia's parents are arrested for seemingly no reason, Gaia must try to find them, using a combinaion of a hair ribbon given to her that has a variety of strange symbols on it, and sheer courage. Sounds good, doesn't it? Sadly, Caragh O'Brien doesn't give it enough 'oomph' to turn it from the 'meh' level to the 'omigod I need this book in my life!' level. Gaia isn't that easy a character to relate to, and there are many loopholes in the book. I won't explain these in detail, in case any of you want to read it.
Rating: 3/5
I'd love for one of you to read this one in particular, because I'd love to know how other people feel about rhis book.
So there you go! Have you read any of these bnooks before? What did you think of them? If you have any book suggestions, please leave them in the comments below!!!
Kisses, Rose
xxx
