A single Summary of my Summer

Dear Reader,

I must apologise for being so late. Anyway, with the beginning of September and university, the weather here in the UK also seemed to realise that Summer is over: the clouds have clung to the sky with great resolution to make my mornings misrable. Subhanallah. So I decided to post a single post that conviniently summerises my summer, rather than lots of long posts with plently of perfectly tedious details.

So first things first.Yes, it happened. I finally went to watch "Wicked: The Musical". As you might I know (if you don't then click here) I been wanting to watch this ever since I finshed reading Gregory Maguire's wickedly wonderful book. So as a treat, on the wednesday after my birthday, my friends took me to Apollo Theatre, Victoria (in London, U.K).

All I can say is that it was absolutely amazing/awesome. I've been to the theatre several times now, but being the first ever musical that I've ever seen, I was gob-smacked at the perfomers' stamina. They were singing and dancing and acting all at once; the actress who played Glinda (the Good Witch of the North) had no scruples in making a fool out of herself, just to make us laugh. It was truly wonderful. I don't want to give too much away, in case you might want to go out and watch it for yourself, but I have to admit I'm quite glad they didn't stick to Gregory Maguire's original ending. The ending of the book, though brilliant and worthy in it's own right, had left me feeling sad but thoughtful. That day I walked out of the Apollo Victoria, a huge grin on my face, laughter in my eyes and a lightness in my heart. I really owe my friends, Codenames: Pixie and Beauty, for such a wonderful day out.  

On a minor - but no less important - note, my two monkey-for-brothers were at a loss for what sort of present I'd like for my birthday (I mean having lived with them for some twenty-odd years now, you'd think they'd know me better) so they ended up giving me £130 worth of Debnehams' gift cards, which of course I didn't mind at all. So me and my  mum went on a little shopping spree. I ended up buying two bags, a frilly-peacock-print top, a practical-(but stylish)-grey-cardigan and brought my mum a lovely-but-classy pair of peach and white shoes. Aside: I felt sort-of selfish spending all that money on my self. We also popped into WH Smith on my insistence and I brought quite a number of books , one of which happened to be Linger, for which I shortly thereafter wrote a little review, right on this very blog.

Aside: of course I already owned Shiver, but I thought it would look nice in the photo 

So that was July. August brought with it lots of work and writing, but I granted five days of reprieve when I went to Snowdonia, north Wales, in a ginormous group of 15 people. (This group consisited of the five members my family. The rest were two sets of cousin-families, five members each as well - we seem to have a thing for the number five!) Here are some 'Life: as I see it' pictures from my trip, taken by me especially for you. Make sure you click on them to see them bigger!

A view of my lap during the car rides. (This bag is in fact one of the two that I bought at Debnehams)

Wales is absolutely littered every where by breathtakingly beautiful rivers and lakes.

                                                                                                                                       

As it turns out, most of the mountains and cliffs in the area we went to were made of slate!

I have to say, Snowdon is one of the most beautiful places in the U.K., and thats coming from a person who has traveled through every inch of the it (well, other than Scotland and Northern Island, that is). It was one heaven-of-a-Road-Trip, with the 15 of us all packed in to 3 cars, along with masses of food, clothes and plenty of play things (from cricket bats to Monopoly). We caravaned for a day or two, camped, picniced, went hiking and did so, so much in those few days. I could probably go on and on about the amazing time I had but I don't think it'll be too interesting for you, so here are just the key events: (these event didn't exactly happen in this order but they are in the order of most memorableness).

• I got my first ever driving lesson on this flat, spectacular, beach called Black Rock Sand (which sounds like a cool rock band name if you ask me):

• After about fourteen years, we finally beat my oldest cousin (codename: Ray-Man) in a game of Monopoly. It took six of us on one team against one of him.

• We went hiking along countless streams/rivers/lakes in Snowdonia...
• ...and then I badly injured my shoulder and knee after slipping off a rock and falling into the most sceneic river I've ever seen. I walked away from it partly in awe, mostly laughing, and didn't actually realise the seriousness of my injury until the day after. But don't worry over me, my dear reader, I'm perfectly fine now, with both arms still attached.

The big pointy rock on the right side, in the foreground, was the evil rock which I slipped off ;-) 

• We also drove around on the these minor A-roads that took us up and down and around the glorious sheep-covered mountains of Gwynedd. (Sometimes we were a bit more adventurous and followed random single-lane roads through desserted and mysterious forests and we once ended up finding a hall/hotel where my brother decided he will host his wedding someday - can't wait!).

Now I wish I had taken a picture of all the sheep!

• After a night's stay in Tremadog bay, we went walking around in this medieval ruined castle in Criccieth, which reminded me strongly of the legends of Kings Arthur.

That's our whole group minus 1 (the photographer) standing at the gate of the castle - ready to invade and conquer. Let's see if you can guess which one I am!

That's my little cousin, codename: Mini-Me, sitting in the place where archers use to sit, always on guard and ready to pierce arrow-holes through any invading army.   

• And finally, while we were half-way between London and Wales, we stopped at a fancy restaurant in Manchester for dinner, but most of us, including me, ended up getting food poisoning instead. Yet I still went into to work the next day (injured shoulder and all). My supervisor took one look at me and sent me straight to the on site walk-in-clinic. They, in turn, sent me packing home with instructions to take painkiller, drink plenty of water and have lots of bed-rest - I had no problem complying with that!

Nevertheless and on the whole, the bout of the 24-hour-vomiting-bug aside, I had a brilliant-but-busy shiny summer which, to tell the truth, is just how I like them to be.

I hope you enjoyed your Summer as much as I did. Let me know about all the thing that you got up to as well, in the comments section. Live life and take care,

Nida

Autumn reading List and mini Reviews

Dear Reader,

Yes, with the beginning of September, it's that time of the year again (it only comes four times per annum) to jot down some of the books I aim to read within the next three months. I won't add any surplus books from summer that have been shifted over to the autumn list. However, if you are desperately dying to know which books I've read, then don't despair dear reader, just check the side bar under "Reading Update". --->

But before I give you a comprehensive list, I just wanted to show you what my current bed-side-books-still-to-be-read pile looks like: 

BTW - you may notice that the order in which the books are piled is NOT the order in which I read them, but are that way purely for stability's sake. And yes, that is the plaster-of-pairs model of my teeth in the background

So here are a few new books on the list:

1. Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore 
2. Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Laevitt
3. The Replacement by Brenna Yavonoff
4. The Anatomy Murders by Lisa Rosner
5. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfield
6. The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse
7. The Small Hand by Susan Hill
8. Paper Towns by John Green
9. The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
10. I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
11. Sense, Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters
12. The Girl Next Door by Elizabeth Chandler
13. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

Okay, so I lied (sort of). I've already read the first two books on the list: Magic Under Glass and Keturah and Lord Death. To tell the truth, they were both very quick reads (Magic filled up the two days of the weekend, while I began and finished Keturah today). So I'm just going to write my quick review and thoughts on each book.

(*** = some spoilers may be up ahead.)  

Magic Under Glass:

In the bustling, smoky city of New Sweeling (our equivalent to Victorian London) in the country of Lorinar (Victorian England) Nimira, a poor singer/dancer, notices that a well dressed, handsome, mysterious gentlemen has taken an interest in her. He says his name is Hollin Parry and invites her to his estate to sing with his automaton. Knowing her situation can't get any worse than it already was, Nimira accepts Mr. Parry's offer and soon finds herself with a silver key that winds up an incredibly beautifully-crafted, life-size clockwork man, who can only play the piano. But when she is left alone with him, she discovers that there is 'fairly' more to this machine than meets the eye; and some how they gradually begin to fall in love. But happiness in Nimira's life has always been short-lived because - in a world where floating cities, sorcerers and mer people are very much a reality - Lorinar itself is on the brink of another war with the neighbouring Fairy capital, on the other side of the western wall. So in an attempt to save her love, Nimira is inadvertently pulled into the midst of a convoluted conspiracy, rife with death, blackmail, deception and desperation...

When I began reading this book, I hadn't read a "fairy" tale for over two months, so it came to me like a breath of fresh air. It's a lovely "good vs. evil" kind of book, where the side are clearly marked out for some characters and not so much with others. Also, Jaclyn Dolamore's writing reminds city dwellers, like myself, to appreciate nature and greenness once in a while. Though I have to admit that the book wasn't 'blow-me-away-brilliant', I really like the originality of her clockwork romance, with a pinch of action/adventure and the good-sized helping of hope at the end. Overall, it's a enjoyable, comfortable, read for a dark and gloomy day.     

***

Keturah and Lord Death:

I have no way of summarizing this exceptional and inspired book, but to say that it is like Shahrzad meets British medieval folklore.  

One thing I would like to mention however, is that I very much agree with Maggie Steifvater when she talks about the heroine of this book, Keturah. A strong female heroine doesn't need to be an Angelina Jolie/Lara Croft-butt-whooping-not-afraid-of-anything-this-world-can-throw-at-me-sort-of-a-girl, and Keturah shows us exactly that. She's a peasant girl who desires nothing more that to have a loving husband, a house of her own and a baby to hold; but she's also immensely brave and loyal and, despite all her fears, stands up to Death night after night asking, no, demanding the safety of the villagers and the life she loves so much. And what's more, she's not afraid of being scorned by her own people, as long as she knows and believes that what she is saying and doing is right. If that's not a strong female character, then I don't know what is, even after having read the 300 or so books that I have.  

Anyway, the story is unique, yet realistic in it's own right. But if it had ended any other way I would have put it aside and never given it much thought after, nor recommended it to anyone else. It is the ending - which a part of you hopes for while the other half fears it - that brings this story into perspective. It's depressing and beautiful and provocative all at once. But most of all it made me think. And I realised that, though we might not all get our fairy-tale true loves, we can still strive hard to make our lives happier for ourselves, and for those we do love.    

There is a quote right at the end that I can't stop reading over. And every time I read it, I find another connection, something else to marvel at (when you read it replace 'he' with 'death', for that is who the author meant and that is the only way you can possibly begin to understand all that she is trying to say):

"...when he speaks, the most ordinary words become poetry. When he stands close to you, your life becomes a song, a praise. When he touches you, your smallest talents become gold; the most ordinary loves break your heart with their beauty." ...

This reminds me of my favourite verse from one of my favourite poems, To a Skylark by Percy B. Shelley. Here's a poster I made of it quite some years ago, but it still hangs on my walls:

I'm sorry about the ink smudges and stuff, this poster is quite old now and has stood the test of time.

If you can't make out the text, it says:

"We look before and after,

And pine for what is not:

Our sincerest laughter

With some pain is fraught;

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought."

Such a bitter-sweet summary of human nature. And so eloquently put that you cannot help but agree...

And I shall leave you now, my dear reader, with these heavy thoughts.
Nida

P.S - don't forget to vote in the poll for the title you like the best. ---->

a Title and a Poll

Dear Reader,

As you know, I've been doing a lot of writting for 'The BIG ONE', as I've come to calling it. So I've been giving a lot of thought to what to call this novel. As you can guess 'The BIG ONE' isn't exactly an appropriate title. So I decided I'll let my dear readers have a say in the matter. 

On the most basic level, the story is about this girl called Nabiha and all the major changes she goes through in her most formative years (i.e. from 17 to 29 years old). She lives in modern time London. Oh, and she also happens to be suffereing from Sickle Cell Anaemia. 

Initially, it started off with the working title 'The Life of my Alter-Ego' for reasons explained in a previous blog, but I always planned to change that title. So as I was writing, I realised that the novel was centred around a lot of very important conversations, which led me to a couple of new titles, e.g. 'Life in Conversations' and '...in Conversation with Nabiha'. 

Anyway, I've set up a poll in the side bar ---->, where you can vote for which ever title catches your eye, or would make you want to read that book. But if you like none of them, then I'm happy to take suggestions. Just leave them in the Comment section and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. And here's a nice little treat, if I really like your suggestion then I'll add it to the poll as well. :-)   

Well that's all I have to say for now. Make sure you vote or leave a comment - we do leave in the age of democracy after all.  

Anyway, take care.  

Nida