Pages and Ink

I do A2 English Lit and for my coursework, I have to do at least 1 self-taught book. My teachers gave me a huge list of books they suggested would be good for me to read and possibly use so me & mum ordered them the other day. They arrived a couple of days ago and its so nice to have a pile of unread books with unread stories in them! Even though they're potentially for a subject, I'm really excited to read them because I've wanted to read most of them for a while.

Top to Bottom: The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway, David Golder, Jezebel and Suite Francaise all by Irene Nemirovsky, The Sunday Philosophy Club - Alexander McCall Smith, The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood, Dubliners - James Joyce, The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath and The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman

After reading The Paris Wife last month, I've been wanting to see what Hemingway's writing was like. After reading the first chapter and a half, I really like it so far! It also makes it interesting because this book was based around his friends and a trip to Spain, written about in The Paris Wife. I feel like I already know some of the back story which makes it fun to guess which character is supposed to be which person I have read about previously. I can't wait to read more of it!

I'd never heard of Irene Nemirovsky but my teacher suggested the books to me as she is her favourite author. I read the blurbs and some back story of Nemirovsky and all three look interesting! I'm looking forward to reading them! 

I bought the next two in the series of The Sunday Philosophy Club, not realising that there was one before them so I've actually almost finished the second one which I've completely loved! I really love McCall Smith's style of writing so I can't wait to read this one! 

I've heard good things about Margaret Atwood and the book, even though it doesn't seem to be my usual thing to read, sounds interesting and exciting. A friend is also reading this for English and she says it's really good so I'm hoping I like it!

Dubliners is a text we are going to study in class so I have to read this but I've been meaning to read some Joyce for a while now so I'm excited! We're also not looking at the entire book so I look forward to reading the rest of it if I get the chance!

I've heard a lot about Sylvia Plath, both good and bad, so I've been wanting to read The Bell Jar to gain my own opinion of her writing! As it's one of her most well known books, it should be a good indication hopefully! I'm excited to read it because from the blurb it seems to be exciting and a really interesting book! 

Due to only being 17 pages long, I read The Yellow Wallpaper in about 20 minutes. It's about a woman who descends into madness. It's written as diary entries which gives it a more personal view. The story starts off fairly normal, only getting slight hints of her illness and descends into descriptions of the wallpaper and very little about anything else. It also shows people's attitudes to mentally ill people of that time which I find interesting. Even though it's only short, it's quite a strange book but interesting at the same time! I'm not sure if I would read it again because it's clever but also quite uncomfortable because of it being a personal, and in this case, secret diary. I also find it interesting how you never find out her name from her or any of the other characters mentioned in the book. It's creepy so if you like that sort of thing then read it! 

I'm so excited to read the rest of the books and I hope they're all good because they seem to be from what I've read and been told so far!

Jess xx