September Reads

Once again, not a very impressive list this month. Just the one to report. I'm not sure why my reading has fallen recently. Maybe I am just not very enthusiastic about some of the books on my TBR list. I haven't been excited about reading something in a while. Sometimes it helps to know that I will review it later, but mostly I am just apathetic to a lot of the books on my shelf.

I have not been reading so much on my commute. I have been very happy to listen to podcasts and try to grab some more sleep than to strain my eyes reading so early in the morning.

But enough with the excuses, there is only one book to review so here it is.

After Me Comes The Flood
Sarah Perry
Serpents Tail 26/6/14 Paperback
7/10
Book Haul (Profile)

After a long drought John decides to close up shop in London and visit his brother in Norfolk. The heat in this book is brilliant, the minds of the characters are literally crackling in it. After some car trouble, he ends up stumbling on a strange house full of an odd collection of people.

He remains in the house as a guest, a somewhat intruder into their lives. They are isolated in the house and while the world waits for the storm to break John spends the summer unraveling the histories of his strange companions.

This is a story of torturous heat in more ways than one. The tension must break. In the weather and in all of their lives, John is not a catalyst but as he becomes further and further tangled in their story, he records it all down. This story telling technique is very old fashioned, but Perry has used it to incredible strength in her debut novel.

The book struggled to get off the ground at first and frustratingly the feeling of impending events does not abate until well into the second half. I think for many readers they would not get very far, but I hope most people will persist past the 50 page rule because Sarah Perry makes big promises of action in this novel - and she delivers.

Your Manuscript

When I speak to aspiring writers about what I do during my internships, I am often faced with anger. Everyday I lift a pile of envelopes and read the contents. Then there are two piles. Yes and No. and who am I to decide?

There is more that goes into this choice than you think. I have to decide first of all if the writing is good enough. Can they spell, is it well presented? What is the story line? Who would buy this (publisher wise) and does it fit in with the books already being published?  For example,even if I like it, but I know none of the agents at this agency would take it up: it's a No. 

But seriously, who are these interns? Who in a writers eyes aren't qualified to decide on an author's fate like that. Well we are and we aren't...I would say, after a year of learning and reading and judging, I am pretty qualified to decide which pile things go into. I also went to university for three years to understand how writers edit and work and change their manuscripts, I also heard of advice on how to improve writing and how to practice. I really do think I am qualified to decide. But I didn't have this much experience from the beginning, it had to be learned and as always, reading is subjective, no matter how much you try to remove yourself, your opinion is what counts. 

Why do they give what seems like the most important job to interns? For every book that is published there are 200 which didn't make it. That is 200 underdeveloped, badly timed and misdirected manuscripts just for each book. But more than anything else, the manuscript just isn't good enough. Agents have to work on the books they have already accepted, they cannot spend hours and hours reading many BAD manuscripts day after day. We are the filter system. 

Here are some mistakes that people make: 

Some writers didn't do the right research, 

only sent it to one agency, 

sent it to a publisher that doesn't accept manuscripts, 

didn't send a synopsis, 

wrote a bad/arrogant cover letter/didn't put their contact details anywhere, 

didn't follow the guidelines.

Advice to get published.

1) WRITE. SOMETHING. WORTH IT.

2) Read Simon Trewin's 'letter to an unsolicited author'. You can read the final chapter here. or the full version in the Writers and Artists' Yearbook 2014.

3) Find an agent. by sending your work to as many as possible.

 - make sure you follow the guidelines of each agency. 

 - write a new cover letter every time. 

4) If you get rejected, (which you will) send it in again a few weeks later. Don't mention it in your cover letter and just try again. WARNING most agencies will have a submission log, if you spam them they will know about it and automatically reject you. If you have been rejected more than twice go back to the manuscript. is it really ready?

5) submit the best product you can. re write, edit, change, improve. Or, submit something new.

6) Understand how publishing works, understand that the person reading your manuscript has read 10 already today, understand that you can and should try again. 

It takes a lot of work to get there but if your book is worth being published someone will recognize it. 

Squidgy Smooshy Smashy Tomato Recipe - Blog Extra

Cherry Tomatoes, I generally use a full packet and then use any leftovers for lunches. The amount of tomatoes dictates the quantities for everything else.
Olive Oil (A good slug to lightly cover the tomatoes and the tin)
Sugar a light sprinkling over all of the tomatoes
Salt again a light sprinkle. You can afford to go heavier on the sugar than the salt.

Garlic four cloves
Dried Chilli Flakes
Oregano
Tomato Puree 1 tbs (Generous)

Any Pasta


In a roasting tin (with steep sides) place the cherry tomatoes with the olive oil. cover the tomatoes in the oil. Add the sugar and salt to the oily tomatoes and stir around again. Put into the oven on a low heat, about 150.

Melt the butter in a small pan and crush 3 garlic cloves into the pan, cook gently, do not burn the garlic! When the garlic is translucent add the chilli flakes and oregano and cook for another minute. Set aside until tomatoes are ready. Before adding the tomatoes, stir in the tomato puree and make a kind of garlicy paste.

Cook the pasta Or for a lighter dish, I like to use rice noodles. You can also use linguinie or spaghetti.

You're looking for a wrinkly look on the tomatoes. Or full squidge, as I like to call it. There should also be quite a lot of liquid released into the roasting tin. After 15 minutes if they're not quite collapsing, wack the heat up to 200 for another ten minutes to give them a push.

When they're done carefully tip all of the liquid and tomatoes into the garlic pan. Stir and manipulate the tomatoes to smoosh them and release even more delicious juices. Stir until thickened.

I like to add a tiny knob of butter in at this stage to give it a shine. You should also spoon in some of the starchy water from the pasta/noodles

Serve.

Man Booker Shortlist

The announcement was made this Tuesday! This is the Man Booker Shortlist 2014. Fingers crossed for the winner. (14th October 2014)

Very interesting list, I was surprised that Mitchell didn't make it on. But I am very pleased to see Karen J Fowler on there.

How to be Both by Ali Smith - Hamish Hamilton (Penguin)

J by Howard Jacobson - Random House

The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee




















The Narrow Road to the Deep North

To Rise Again At A Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen J Fowler

One Lovely Blog

http://somerville66.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/one-lovely-blog.html

I recently got tagged in a One Lovely Blog award by Somerville66 (Liz Lloyd.) you can click on her name to see her post on One Lovely Blogs! Thanks Liz! xxx

Here are the rules for the One Lovely Blog Award:
Thank the person that nominated you and link back to that blog.  
Share seven things about yourself – see below. 
Nominate 15 bloggers you admire – also listed below. 
Contact your bloggers to let them know you've tagged them for the ONE LOVELY BLOG AWARD If I've nominated your blog, please don't feel under any obligation to join in.  I am just pleased to recommend your blog here.

Here are seven things about ME:

I grew up in Istanbul, Turkey. Until I was 11 when I came to the UK to take my exams. My mum still lives in Turkey with my step-dad while my dad, my sister and I all live here. I speak very bad, broken Turkish, and I forget it while I'm in England but I try to learn it when I'm home for holidays.

I am a publishing Intern in London and have been working in publishing gaining experience for 12 months! 

I had a pretty eclectic schooling let's go backwards: I went to Hurstpierpoint college, a boarding school in sussex, for four years, one year at Oundle school in Peterborough, 2 years at Reigate St Mary's Prep school, a year at MIA - an American academy in Istanbul which one day was mysteriously closed by the police for having no permits and IICS an international school in Istanbul. CRAZY.

I love to dance. I can tango, but my favorite is modern jive, or Ceroc dancing, which is loads of fun. I like it because they play pop music with a beat and so it is always really good fun. I also love to go to the Rivoli ballroom, they have a Jive night there once a month with live music and dancing.

I love to cook, I follow recipes most of the time but I can judge things to my own taste as well. I really like to feed other people and see them say how lovely it is. I'm my worst critic and am always trying to get better. I'd have to thank my other half for being one reason why my cooking has improved over the last few years. He always needs feeding when he comes over, so I have become more experimental and more daring and had a lot more reason to practice. He is also on a paelo diet so I have to really get creative to make something delicious we both like.

One of my favourite and most cathartic things to do is to reorganise my bookshelves. I always feel a huge sense of accomplishment when they are newly ordered and have had the dust shaken off them. I don't have a lot of space so I also have trinkets and nicknaks filling the shelf too. Maybe I'll do that today...

I can't get enough of period dramas. Any thing from Lark Rise to Candleford to the Illusionist. I was raised on a TV diet of Pride and Prejudice and Tess of the Durbervilles. Now that I am older I love to read those stories too but when it comes to movies, I cannot resist a spot of old time fashion.

Here are my recommendations! Go look at them. Immediately.

Chic It Yourself
Up The Hill And Round The Bend
A Seasonal Cook in Turkey
Catherine Bennett
Dark Readers
Damn Interesting
Bookables
Books, Biscuits, and tea
little paper pages
The Hungry Reader
So Many books So Little Time
the thrifty garden/home
eat like a girl
Writers and Artists Blog

August Reads

Time for the August round up! Shockingly low numbers here. I have actually read a third, but it is a manuscript under consideration so I can't tell you anything about it. If it ever gets published I'll review it though.

I do hope that I can bring my average up next month. I'd like to keep the average around 3/4. It is really tough to balance around work.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Karen Joy Fowler
Profile 19/06/14 Paperback
8/10
Off The Shelf

Waacbo, as it is affectionately called in the office, was long listed for the Man Booker Prize. Shortlist to be announced (9th Sept). I'm fairly certain it will be shortlisted, and might even win! It is outselling all the other long list books put together.

I was nothing to do with this book, it was all sorted before my time, but I was very glad to have read it. It has a very interesting look at a topic I knew nothing about. The characters are curious, and intriguing. They are not necessarily people I would want to know... But they make for fantastic reading. READ it. BUY it.

I found the book so interesting, (I can't give away the twist!) and it is written so well. A brilliant insight into humanity, how and why we do things and why it is important. Not to mention the bizarre nature of childhood memories.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Katherine Boo
Portobello Books 7/06/14 Kindle
8/10
Kindle

I hadn't realised that this was non-fiction until I read the acknowledgements at the end of the book. I discovered that Katherine Boo is a journalist (I didn't know she had won the Pulitzer, or that would have been a giveaway...) who threw herself into the slums of Mumbai and became so much part of the furniture that she could recount the incredible stories and events in this marvelous book.

What I loved about this book was not just the stories of poverty, but that within poverty there are different levels of ambition, pride and ability. That a garbage sorter's lively hood might not be as meager as others might think, despite the taboo of the job. An incredible and inspirational story.

See my review of what I thought of reading on a kindle here.

I may have only read two books this month, and one that I can't tell you about, but they were all 8/10. The highest mark I've given so far. I think 10s pretty much belong to old favourites like Diana Gabledon's Outlander series. By the way, is anyone else watching the Starz series of Outlander?

My First Kindle

I always swore I would never get a Kindle. I LOVE real print books.

When my Granddad died, one of the things that I took from the house, as well as two of my Grandmother's necklaces and a trinket or two was his Kindle. It seemed appropriate to take something like that, I like books, I used to recommend books to him and he to me. I was excited to see what was on there, his last recommendations, if you will. ;(

He had a few John Grisham's and both The Moonstone and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I had been reading The Moonstone to Grandma when I visited 6 months before, and had recommended it. So it was lovely to see what he had been reading and that I could carry on reading his recommendations for a few months after his death.

For the past couple of weeks, my Kindle has lived in my handbag. I read Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo on it, John Green has been mentioning it for years and Nerdfighters around the world have just read it for the book club.

So lets really get down to the pros and cons.

Pros
Kindles are great for having more than one book on it. You never have a moment without a book to read, without the hefty weight of carrying a shelf around with you.

On that note; very lightweight. I hardly notice it in my cavernous handbag. chosen for it's ability to hold paperbacks - Side note: how else do you choose a hand bag? Colour, yes. Pockets & secret pockets, yes. Does it hold a paperback, absolutely.

The size is also pretty good, I can hold it in one hand, and not feel like I have to juggle too much.

My last blog mentioned the best gadgets for books, many of them were to help hold a book open with one hand or no hands! With a Kindle you can stand up and read with one hand and turn the page. Which is really useful for standing up in the tube.

Sending word documents to my kindle is a god send. As an editor, carting around great sheafs of manuscripts is just ridiculous, with a kindle I can read what ever I have on the go

Cons
Covers. I don't like that I can't see what people are reading on the train. I love the little train conversations about books and the stories both of us are reading. I also do alot of my window shopping on the train, to really get a feel of what people are reading. Not having book covers with clear titles is a huge loss of effortless publicity for the publisher.

Covers. I inherited my kindle from my Grandfather, it never left the house and was carefully put on the bedside table. The poor thing has had a baptism of fire in the depths of my handbag and has something sticky on the screen, and the paint is chipping off a little. I now have to buy one of those fetching kindle covers I see people using. But I don't really want a cover, it makes it bulkier and

Locations? What is this "locations"? Non linear, random, totally mental deviation from the page number. Very irritating. My hackles are up!

The percentage, pretty useful when talking about the book you're reading: "I'm about 37% through, shes just found the cat..." That does make things simpler than holding up the book and saying: "errrr about that far." But you can't collaborate with people.

Verdict

It is more likely that I'll use the kindle for work stuff and utilise my currently 1hr 20 min commute every day, while pleasure reading would remain a more 3D experience.I hope people continue to read on trains so I know what to read next. This is one reason why I really like @Booksundergrnd. A company, putting print books into the tube system. Check them out!

I saw the shock of the fall only last week, making it's way along the platform at Piccadilly Circus.