I Spy Book Challenge

As many of you already know, I have a TBR problem. Throughout the year, I have been looking for various ways to highlight my plight and focus on these books in the hope of reducing these staggering numbers. Every meme, every book tag that makes me go through my piles searching for books that fit the criteria is another reminder of 1. just how how many unread books I have and 2. a reminder of exactly which books I have gathering dust around the house.

I first spotted this tag at Joseph’s The Once Lost Wanderer, then Fanda @Classic Lit picked it up. It seemed like something I'd enjoy playing along with too.

The I Spy Book Challenge is pretty simple. Find a book on your TBR pile that contains either imagery or words that portray each subject. A separate book for all 20 please.


All my books are about the word.

1. Food

2. Transportation

3. Weapon

I had to stretch the friendship on this one a little.

I don't read a lot of crime so the best weapon I could find was an ancient curse!

4. Animal

5. Number

6. Something you read

7. Body of water

8. Product of fire

9. Royalty

10. Architecture

11. Item of clothing

12. Family member

13. Time of Day

14. Music

15. Paranormal Being

16. Occupation

17. Season

18. Colour

19. Celestial Body

20. Something that grows

One day I promise to read you all!

Have you read any of these books?
Which one should a read next?
If you've made it all the way to the end of this post, consider yourself tagged. Proceed at your leisure.

Books With My Favourite Colour On the Cover (or In the Title)

The Artsy Reader Girl is the new host of the weekly meme Top Ten Tuesday.

Each week she nominates a topic to encourage those of us who love a good list to get all listy.

This week it's all about Books With My Favourite Colour On the Cover (or In the Title).

My Top Ten Purple Books Are:

10.

I love this cover soooooo much.

9.

I have yet to read this book, but I did love Hay's earlier book, The Railwayman's Wife.
Anyone who follows my Instagram page also knows how much I adore Jacaranda trees in bloom!

8.

My dream cover for my favourite Bronte book.

7.

Not my favourite cover design - it's a bit too, well, neon, but it is purple and a great read.

6.

Interesting combo of books, but hey, it's purple with pretty gold trim!

5.

I recently read & enjoyed Nevermoor, which is when I discovered the pretty purple cover due for book 2 later this year.

4.

This has been on my TBR pile for years....

3.

How gorgeous is that lotus flower?

2.

It's purple, what else can I say?
Read my review here.

1.

One of my all-time favourite books (& movies) and lots of luscious purpleness wherever you look!

Can you add to my purple passion?
#coverlove

The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson

I found the The Vanishing Futurist to be a rather peculiar read.

I'm always fascinated by the Russian Revolution and this was a curious and different angle from which to view it. But it was rather weird reading a book that I wasn't completely sure if I was enjoying it or not. The cover by LaBoca, on the other hand, I adored every time I saw it!

I loved learning about Russian avant-garde art which I knew next to nothing about before. I also wasn't aware of the English governesses who travelled to Russia at the turn of the century and got caught up the revolutionary fervour of the times.

The disintegration of Russian society, the poverty, the hardships and how so many of them simply adapted to and accepted the massive changes was, as always, mind-boggling. And how quickly society, just with different faces in charge, reverted back to those who had stuff (including the power) and those who didn't. How idealism quickly turned to cynicism, hope became drudgery and freedom lost out to total control.

Less convincing was the love story between Gerty and Nikita, mostly because I wasn't sure that I liked either of them very much. It took me quite a while to work out all the people living in the IRT commune, I kept getting them mixed up - perhaps not enough character development to make them gel for me? The sudden jumps forward to modern day Gerty writing her memoirs for her daughter in England also felt a little contrived.

Alexander Rodchenko: Cpstume design for We, 1919-1920
© A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum

The Vanishing Futurist was shortlisted for this year's Walter Scott Prize. I had never heard about the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction before, which I thought was a terrible crime, given my love of historical fiction.

I quickly learnt that it is,

Sponsored by Sir Walter Scott’s distant kinsmen the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, the Prize celebrates quality, and innovation of writing in the English language, and is open to books published in the previous year in the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth. 

Reflecting the subtitle ‘Sixty Years Since’ of Scott’s most famous work Waverley, the majority of the storyline must have taken place at least 60 years ago.Honouring the achievements of the founding father of the historical novel, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the world. With a total value of over £30,000, it is unique for rewarding writing of exceptional quality which is set in the past. 

The Prize was founded in 2010, and is awarded at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose, Scotland, in June every year. The winner receives £25,000 and shortlisted authors each receive £1000.

and that this year's shortlist looked like this,

Jo Baker A Country Road, A Tree (Doubleday)

Sebastian Barry Days Without End (Faber)

Charlotte Hobson The Vanishing Futurist (Faber)

Hannah Kent The Good People (Picador Australia)

Francis Spufford Golden Hill (Faber)

Graham Swift Mothering Sunday (Scribner)

Rose Tremain The Gustav Sonata (Chatto & Windus)

What an amazing feast of historical fiction!
I have now created a page so that I can follow this award in the future (see pages tab on right hand side of this blog).

Vladimir Tatlin: Costume design for Life for the Tsaw, 1913-1915 © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum

I'm glad I finished the book because I do love learning about new-to-me stuff.

The Russian avant-garde movement began around the 1890's under the Tsarist Empire and wound up by the 1930's (although these dates are often debated). It included Suprematism, Constructivism, Russian Futurism, Cubo-Futurism, Zaum and Neo-primitivism. 
The Russian avant-garde reached its 'creative and popular heights' during the 1917 Revolution, but eventually it clashed with the newly emerged ideals of Socialist Realism (which 'is characterized by the glorified depiction of communist values, such as the emancipation of the proletariat, by means of realistic imagery') Wikipedia

Anna Aslanyan summed up her review on The Vanishing Futurist in The Spectator with,

The disappearing act at the centre of the plot serves as a powerful metaphor for the demise of revolutionary art. The fate of the idealist inventor anticipates that of the Russian avant-garde, best described by Bruce Chatwin in his 1973 essay: ‘The Party did squash it. But it also died of fatigue.’

If this era intrigues you as much as it does me, you might like to check out these Russian avant-garde articles:

NY Times piece about MoMA exhibition 2016

Russia Beyond article about the V&A exhibition 2015

I can feel a new obsession percolating!

Anton Lavinskii, Battleship Potemkin, 1926

Raven Flight by Juliet Marillier and Friday Memes

This week for Book Beginnings on Fridays and The Friday 56 I've selected Raven Flight by Juliet Marillier.

This is the second book in her YA Shadowfell series. I was pleasantly surprised by my love for the first book (although very disappointed in the cover choice). Raven Flight has been given a much better cover - far more suitable for its intended audience, so we're off to a good start!

Book Beginnings:
As the lone traveller approached, the five Enforcers spread out in a line across the path.

Page 56:
The five tiny folk came forward, bearing their wreath. It was about the size of a woman's wristlet. They stopped in front of Regan and held it up. 

What Were They Thinking #1

With all due respect to Elise Hurst, the cover artist, this would have to be the worse cover imaginable for this book.

Shadowfell is a wonderful fantasy novel aimed at YA readers with high hopes for a cross-over adult readership.

Not any more!

In real life the jacket is a virulent green and the young girl looks 11 years of age. No sign of mature 15 year old Neryn anywhere.

The cover of this book caused my colleagues to assume that Shadowfell was headed for the junior fiction section of the shop. If I hadn't already read and enjoyed this book, I would never have picked up this cover from the teen shelves to read.

It is such a pity because Marillier's adult Australian covers are often the glamorous, mysterious John Waterhouse girls such as the Heart's Blood cover.