The Eyre Affair - Bloggy Book Club Review

Hi all! It's that time again to review the Bloggy Book Club read of the month.My choice was The Eyre Affair which I first read almost 10 years ago and reading the book again this month, I wasn't surprised by how much I still enjoyed reading about the characters and their odd predicaments. I love all of Mycroft's mad inventions and the way Thursday's time-travelling dad keeps dropping in (regardless of whether it's a good time or not) Then there's the deliberately silly but clever names - Jack Shitt and the Goliath Corporation spring to mind of course but there's also Acheron Hades (a reference to Hades, the Greek God of the underworld - the name means 'unseen' which fits perfectly with Acheron's character - actually, come to think of it I think 'Acheron' itself is also a reference to the underworld!) There are infact so many references and so much 'intelligent silliness' in this book, I could literally be here all day listing and commenting on it all! Also, I have to say that reading the book for the second time, there were scenes I had totally forgotten, like the bit with Spike and the vampire and the scene with the Earthcrossers meeting - always great when you get to experience something again as if for the first time!;)

I suppose overall what I love about the book is that really anything can happen - Thursday Next lives in a world like ours, except it's a whole lot more insane! When I first read this book, I thought it was a genius ides for Jasper Fforde to create a world where the characters in books were literally alive: '"an inexplicable cross-fertilisation between works of fiction and reality." It's got that whole Narnia secret-door-in-the-back-of-the-wardrobe feel to it. The book is just so many things rolled into one and it definitely gets a 5/5 from me, but what did you all think?

Feedback I got during the month told me you guys found the book confusing at the start: it does take a while to get accustomed to the writing style but I do hope most of you gave it a chance and stuck with it! I did say in my previous post that probably not all of you would like it, so it'll be great to hear all your thoughts on why you did or didn't enjoy the book...

A quite note for those of you who enjoyed reading this book, you may like to know that this is only the beginning for Thursday Next and there are five other books in the series with a sixth to be published very soon. Also check out Jasper Fforde's website for more of the same farcical madness experienced in the book.

You can join in the book club chatter at any time: just get a hold of the book of the month and get reading!  The book club is moderated on twitter by @icklebabe_com #bloggybookclub – each month it’s a new book hosted by one of the club members – we all review at the end of the month.

Yummy Swirly Biscuits

I’ve had quite a sweet craving since last night and, clearly not content with the chocolate orange I fed it, I found the craving had honed itself into a major biscuit craving by the morning. So, I got baking and made these...

This recipe is much-loved by my family and the biscuits are lush. They will taste buttery if you eat them while they’re still warm but become sweeter when cooled.

You can substitute the milk chocolate spread for an alternative chocolate spread or jam if you prefer.

Ingredients

185g Plain Flour

125g Caster Sugar

100g Butter (from the fridge)

1 Egg Yolk

1 tablespoon of Milk

About 2 heaped tablespoons of Chocolate Spread (I used a generous 3 this time and ended up with messy chocolate swirls – if you don’t mind this, go ahead and use more chocolate: use less for a neater result)

How to make them

1) Mix the flour, sugar and butter until the mixture is crumbly.

2) Add the egg yolk and milk and mix with your hands: you will get a dough-like mixture. Knead into a ball.

3) Stick the dough ball into the fridge for 45 minutes.

4) Roll out the dough between sheets of baking paper until you get a rectangle (aprx 30cm x 20cm)

5) Smother the rectangle with chocolate spread.

6) Roll the dough tightly starting from the long side. You should have a 30cm long roll: wrap your baking sheet around  the roll and stick it back into the fridge for 30 minutes.

7) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius (160 for fan ovens like mine), gas mark 4.

8) Cut 1cm slices from the roll and place on a baking sheet ready to bake. Leave atleast a 2cm gap between each biscuit (important because otherwise the biscuits will stick together when baking)

9) Bake for 20 minutes in the centre of the oven.

10) Remove from oven and wait 5 minutes before you move to a wire rack to cool (if you try to transfer them straight away, they will disintegrate) The biscuits will have a softer cookie-texture while they’re warm but will start to harden as they cool.

Enjoy!

P.S. The biscuit craving HAS been satisfied! Mmmmmm!:D

Bloggy Book Club: my recommendation

Well it’s October already and I’m hosting this month’s Bloggy Book Club read. If you haven’t heard, Bloggy Book Club is a fab new online book club run by my twitter chum @icklebabe_com – search #bloggybookclub to join in the chatter.

The Eyre Affair

It's coming up to 10 years now since I first read this book. What I remember most about it is the central character Thursday Next and how I was blown away by the book’s nonconformist approach and wacky storyline. For those of you looking for a book that’s going to give you answers to deep philosophical questions, look somewhere else because this isn’t it.  

The Eyre Affair is a light-hearted adventure story, incredibly well-written. It’s multilayered in its construction and manages to be both mind-boggling and incredibly entertaining - if you give it a chance. Yes, I know some of you will find it has a confusing start but this is deliberate to catch you off-guard: I urge you to stick with it.

The book requires a total suspension of reality as we know it. I didn’t know anything about the book when I started reading and maybe that’s the best way to enjoy the surprises. For the more bookish amongst you, there are dozens of literary references from Shakespeare and Alice in wonderland to of course Jane Eyre woven into the story, for your amusement and enjoyment.

This is an interesting and original piece of work with a whole bunch of laughs and surprises: it IS ultimately utter nonsense but that’s the whole point!
 
Not sure yet how my choice will go down with Bloggy Book Club members but I suspect it’s going to be a bit of a marmite-choice! Time will tell... ;)

Prepare yourself for a mind-bending ride and get reading!


Sophie    x

Reading Again...

There is something undeniably special about books.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been big on reading: I like all kinds of books but for now, I’m just talking about fiction. There’s something about reading that you can’t get from doing anything else and a good book has magic dust sprinkled between its pages (if you can't see it, that's because it's invisible) If you're not so into books, you may be easily tempted to just wait for the film – don’t. Obviously not every book becomes a film and those that do may or may not do the book justice. Films are great of course and they excite your senses in so many ways but it’s a completely different experience: no matter how good a film is, there’s always something more in the book.

I was absolutely fascinated by books as a child and saw them as a doorway into another world, invariably a world a million times more exciting than my own. I have so many fond memories of reading as a child, most notable perhaps are Roald Dahl's very humorous and heart-warming characters and the awe-inspiring, rich world described by C.S. Lewis in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, for which I see definite parallels, what with my love of Harry Potter as an adult!

Being an adult now, I read my fair share of ‘serious’ books – fiction is actually a great place to learn new things and see through someone else’s eyes. I like books that can make an impact on you and get you thinking but reading is still very much a form of escapism for me and I’ll always enjoy a good old sweeping adventure story, preferably one with a sorcerer or spy thrown in for good measure. Oh, I love to lose myself in a good book, I really do.

And now to what has prompted this blog post… For someone who loves reading books so much, I really haven’t been reading much at all lately. For whatever reason for the past two years or so, I’ve been going through a phase of sorts where I’ll start numerous books only to give up half way through: the ones that do cross the finish line will have taken an extraordinarily long time to complete.

Maybe it’s the kind of books I’ve been picking up… maybe I haven’t been in the mood to read a book  or maybe quite simply, I’ve just been too busy to ever really have the time to lose myself in the chapters of any book, good or bad. 

I’ve always thought book clubs are a great idea but I didn’t think I could commit to going to meetings. So, back in August this year, when one of my twitter buddies started an online book club, I took it as an unwavering sign to get back on the straight and narrow: no more having five books on-the-go and not finishing any one of them. I’ll review all the books I read for the book club and any other books I read that are worthy of mention, right here on my blog.

You can join in the book club chatter at any time: just get a hold of the book of the month and get reading!  The book club is moderated on twitter by @icklebabe_com #bloggybookclub – each month it’s a new book hosted by one of the club members – we all review at the end of the month.