The Before Now and After Then by Peter Monn Book Review

This is another book I’ve received from NetGalley but this time I requested it because Sharon over at Behind Green Eyes recommended it. I decided to give it a shot as it’s a YA book and we all know I like a bit of YA every now and again! I actually did a brief review in my August Reads post but decided to do a proper review post for it too.

Danny and Sam are twin brothers, close but extremely opposite in personality. Sam may be the younger brother but he’s more confident, he is very popular and well loved by all. Danny is quieter, happy living in Sam’s shadow and tagging along. Danny is also gay and gets bullied in school but copes with it, especially since Sam is fiercely protective of him. On their 17th birthday, Sam hatches a plan that will allow Danny to tell his parents about his sexuality. But while on his way to tell them, he over hears them arguing about his father cheating on his mother. The door is opened, everyone looks at each other in shock and all Danny can do is burst out ‘I’m gay’. At that moment, there’s a knock on the front door. Danny expects it to be Sam, as part of the plan, but instead it’s the police and instinctively Danny knows something has happened to Sam.

Flash forward a few months later and some things have changed. His parents have separated and Danny and his mother live in another house across town. His Uncle Alex (really his mother’s friend) is coming to stay with them for a while and Danny is starting a new school. His first day starts off on the wrong foot when he is immediately picked on by a school bully for being gay. Things do pick up though when he makes a friend in Cher, a loud confident girl who is named after the singer. Danny also spots a cute boy called Rusty and he begins to fall for him. The book then centres around the progression of their relationship together.

This is the first YA book I’ve ever read that centres around a gay main character. But besides that, there’s no real difference between this and a YA novel involving a straight couple. It’s not distracting or different that they are gay, it just another teenage romance blossoming. Their sexuality does come up a few times in different ways, in that Danny’s mother is always buying him films where the main character is gay, which Danny hates and never watches. But when Rusty hears of this, he gets mad because he feels Danny doesn’t appreciate how cool and understanding his mother is trying to be and that so many young people don’t have that support when they share their sexuality with their parents. Another time it crops up is when Danny’s mother cautions him and tells him he should be careful because she can tell he’s falling hard for Rusty and that he should take his time. Danny asks if his mother ever had this talk to Sam when he first started going out with his girlfriend and that Sam told Danny he was falling in love with her within the first few days of dating. He points out that it’s a bit of a double standard to be talking to him like this when she didn’t with Sam.

Even though Danny and Rusty’s sexuality does come into it, this book is not about being gay, it is so much more than that. It’s about Danny trying to cope without his brother and his now broken family, learning to be one instead of two, finding out who he is. A coming of age story I suppose. It did kinda remind me a bit of Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. The only thing I had a big problem with is that the story seems rushed. In the sense that the main story, once Danny and Rusty start dating, takes place over just a week or so. That’s not to say some relationships and emotions don’t develop that quickly but I think I would have preferred it over a longer time period, I think I would believed the emotions more if that was the case. But honestly I do think at the same time that until it’s pointed out at some stage in the novel about the time passing, it does feel a bit longer. If that makes any sense?!

It’s a sweet novel, definitely worth a read, especially if you enjoy YA. I think it’s good to try and be a bit more diverse with your reading, be it reading more women authors if you only read men, trying new genres, reading more books written by people of colour or reading books where there are more diverse main characters, whether they are people of colour or LGBT people. And I think this is a great place to start if you’re interested in doing so.

This copy was requested from NetGalley, with no obligation to produce a review. All opinions are strictly my own.

August Recap

So I’m late with this one but I’ve still been crazy busy at work and haven’t been feeling great. In fact my voice is gone at the moment, probably shouldn’t have spoken as much as I did when my throat first started to get sore! Anyway, I had a great August and here’s a recap of what I got up to!

Celebrating- More stuff! Last month I started with celebrating and this month is the same. First came a friend’s birthday, I baked her a cake shaped like a rollerskate which you can see here. Then came my first English wedding, a friend my boyfriend has made since moving who got married and it was wonderful! Was super sad I had to leave early due to working at 6am the next morning. There was also the birth of my newest cousin which happened JUST after I returned home from Ireland (typical) and I’m super excited to meet her, hopefully in October. I also went to my uncle’s house one weekend for a ‘just for fun’ get together with some family members.

Top row: Cider tasting and cocktails at birthday celebration

Bottom Row: Enjoying the glow sticks and cute box to place well wishes for newly weds

Socializing- Besides the above occasions and my regular knitting group sessions, there’s been a knitting trip to Black Sheep Wools, extracurricular knitting nights (a.k.a. time for drinks!) and I got to meet with Rebecca from The Lucky Rainbow Blog for the first time! We went to Sugar Junction in Northern Quarter in Manchester and then after it closed we went to coffee shop. We ended up talking for over 6 hours and honestly, we could have kept talking as well if it wasn’t getting dark!

Top Row: Pics from Black Sleep Wools

Bottom Row: Beautiful treats from Sugar Junction

 

Playing- DuoLingo. Ok, so technically not a game but since they released Irish in Beta I’ve been doing a refresher course in Gaeilge and really enjoying it. I’ve surprised myself with how much I’ve actually remembered!

 

Watching- NickReboot! A website that streams old Nickelodeon shows 24/7. There is an on demand version you can pay for and chose what to watch, but I quite like going to the free one and just seeing what’s on! Favourites so far are Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Hey Arnold!, The Muppet Show and Action League Now!

 

Feeling Sad About- The death of Robin Williams. I know so much has been said about it over the past month but he brought so much joy and laughter to the world and was a big part of my childhood. Hook and Mrs Doubtfire are still big big favourites of mine. I hope people remember how important mental health is and why it needs to stop being taboo. Also, my cat Jessie died back home. She may have been a snob cat but she was my snob cat!

One of my fave clips from Mrs Doubtfire

Listening- To Bang Bang by Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj. It’s very catchy! And I love when groups of women in the music industry come together and support each other like this. Reminds me of Lady Marmalade in that sense.

 

Crafting- Knitting still and this time graduating from straight rectangles! This month I knitted a baby cardigan for my new cardigan! I’m so proud of it, first time I’ve tried something a bit more adventurous. I just need to sew in the loose ends and block it and it’s ready!

 

Reading- Click here to check out my August Reads post.

That’s about it! I’ve also been working lots, hence why I’ve neglected here. I do have a few days off though this coming week so hopefully I’ll get back on track then.

August Reads

Hello! Yes, it’s been a long time, I’ve been working hard lately and just haven’t had the energy to write up posts, despite having tons of ideas in my head. Though it’s the first of the month and I just had to make sure my August Reads went up!

August Reads

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi

This book arrived after BooktubeAThon ended but before I left for Ireland, so I read after before I left and the rest when I returned. It follows on from the first book, which sees Marjane leave Iran and her parents to go to Austria to study. We see Marjane adapting to a new culture, growing up and developing who she is and all the struggles she goes through. I felt the book was a lot darker than the first one but I still enjoyed it, I love the illustrations and Marjane’s voice throughout the book. I think both books are well the read and I definitely recommend them.

 

 

How To Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran

This book was on my 2014 Watchlist because I liked the sound of Moran doing a YA book. It tells the story of 14 year old Johanna who lives with her family in a housing estate in Wolverhampton. Her father is disabled, surviving on benefits and still dreaming of becoming a big time musician. The family are pretty poor and after Johanna says something about her family’s benefits to the wrong person, she spends the summer constantly worrying that they’ll be cut. Desperate to try make some money for her family, she enters a writing contest and wins. From there she decides to become a music journalist and reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde in the hopes of snagging her dream job.

On the positive side of things, I like that Moran isn’t afraid to talk about taboo issues like masturbation, poverty and UTIs. And even though the whole story is VERY similar to Moran’s own teenage and young adult life, I didn’t quite mind that. I think it made things seem a little realer, coming from someone who really knew what those experiences were like. The only thing that didn’t click with me believing I was hearing Johanna/Dolly talk and not Moran. There were just certain times where the voice just seemed too much like Moran talking and not Johanna. I do think this might be best for teenagers who are working out what they want to be as it does make you realise that sometimes you have to try on lots of different things personality wise until you find what’s right for you and that’s ok.

 

Disiraeli Avenue by Caroline Smailes

I wrote about this more in depth here but this is a novella about the residents of Disraeli Avenue in Newcastle. Each chapter tells a different story about the resident and all chapters are written in different ways. Some in text speak, some in diary form, some like a chat. It’s a great quick read if you’re interested in how the lives of others living near each other overlap and how sometimes big secrets can be kept around those same people.

 

 

 

The Art of Baking Blind by Sarah Vaughan

Kathleen Eaden was a cookery writer and the wife of George Eaden, who built up a supermarket empire. The Art of Baking was Kathleen’s biggest selling book and is used by generations of women. After her death, Eaden’s Supermarkets decides to hunt for the new Mrs. Eaden, a woman who will become the face of the supermarket and hold a baking contest. This brings together 5 very different people. Jenny, the older woman, struggling since her adult children have left home and becoming more distant from her husband; Claire, the single parent struggling to make ends meet, who put her dreams on hold after falling pregnant as a teenager; Vicki, who should be thrilled at being a stay at home mum to her young son but secretly doesn’t think it’s all it’s cracked up to be; Karen, 40 something year old obsessed with keeping hold of all she’s built up over the years, in fears of finding herself back where she began; and Mike, recently made a widower with 2 young children and trying to figure it all out. The chapters focus on the 4 women and the voice of Kathleen in the Sixties. All of them have their struggles and I honestly couldn’t chose who I wanted to win the competition. It would probably be very easy to dismiss this as chick lit but it’s definitely not. While some of the endings could have done with a bit more narration, I loved all the stories and I cried in certain parts of the book. If you like The Great British Bake Off then you’ll probably enjoy this!

 

The Antiques Magpie by Marc Allum

Another book I started during BookTubeAThon but didn’t get around to finishing until this month. After reading The Science Magpie, I bought this book and The Nature Magpie on Kindle when they were on offer. And then forgot about them. After reading The Kitchen Magpie, I decided to give this a go.

Now, I know nothing about antiques and while there are probably some facts in here that antique buffs would appreciate more than I did, I did still enjoy this book. I like learning about things I don’t know much about and the Magpie Series of books is perfect for that kind of thing. It’s full of short little stories and tales, sometimes even just a paragraph or two, and it’s great to dip in and out of. Once again, I also love the cover!

 

Lost, Stolen or Shredded by Rick Gekoski

I’ve wanted to read this book by Gekoski for a long time, the end of last year, after hearing him talk about it on a Guardian Books Podcast. Each chapter centres around something in the art world that has, you guessed it, been lost, stolen or destroyed. It starts off with the theft of the Mona Lisa, which tied in nicely with the Stuff You Should Know podcast on The Louvre. There’s a chapter on the lost poem from a 9 year old James Joyce called Et Tu, Healy, in which no copy has surfaced so far and is lost to time, one of Graham Sutherland’s infamous portrait of Winston Churchill, the burning of Byron’s memoirs and forger and murder Mark Hoffman. He brings up questions like should material be destroyed, if requested, after death and should countries keep works of art they have stolen or should they be returned to their country of origin. I think I preferred the first half of the book, each chapter was a lot more specific, whereas towards the end the chapters felt more general or vague, like the cradle of civilisation (art from Iraq) and the ransacking of Africa over the years. I did like the questions Gekoski posed and liked how he didn’t seem to come down on either side, as they are not black and white issues. I do think it’s a good read, especially if you’re an art lover.

 

Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi

Yes, another Satrapi book! This one is pretty short though, I read it in under an hour. It tells the story of Iranian women gathering for tea in the afternoon and all the stories they have to tell, mainly about love, marriage and sex. I felt like I was there in the room with them and could imagine them drinking tea, gossiping and giving advice. There’s a great quote from Satrapi’s grandmother that says ‘To speak behind others’ back is the ventilator of the heart’. I’d suggest reading Persepolis first and if you enjoy that, then you’ll probably like this too. And if you think you know what embroideries means, think again!

 

Because I Said So! The Truth Behind Myths, Tales, and Warnings that Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids by Ken Jennings

You’ve probably heard a bunch of these before like ‘if you cross your eyes they’ll stay like that’ or ‘If you swallow gum, it can stick to your guts’. In this book, Jennings goes through some of these myths and sayings and proves them right or wrong, often using news items, journals and reports to back up points. It’s another book you can dip in and out of and while I did find it interesting at parts, towards the end it started to lose my interesting, though maybe that’s because I knew the answer to a lot of the questions. An ideal book for reading in small chunks as a palette cleanser before diving into your next book.

 

The Before Now and After Then by Peter Monn

I chose to read this book because Sharon over at Behind Green Eyes recommended it to me and I trust Sharon’s judgement! I got this book on NetGalley so I’m going to write a post soon for it but to give you a brief description. Danny has always lived in the shadow of his twin brother Sam and despite being really close, they are opposites. On top of this, Danny is also gay and is sometimes teased. On their 17th birthday, Sam dies in a car crash and Danny must get to grips with his life without Sam. He moves school and almost straight away has to deal with being bullied for his sexuality. He does however also make a new friend, Cher, and falls for a cute boy, Rusty. It’s no secret I like YA but this is the first time I’ve read a YA novel that has a gay main character. It’s refreshing to have a different point of view, I feel like it made the story different from typical YA but at the same time it doesn’t stick out or distract either, it’s also just another typical YA novel about romance and coming of age. Does that make sense? I hope so! Parts of it reminded me of Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. A very sweet novel.

And that’s it for August! I’m surprised I managed to read so much really, considering I’ve been so busy with work, but I did start 4 of these books in July! Plus Disraeli Avenue and Embroideries are so quick to read and I did finish The Before Now and After Then in less than a day, including work! But hopefully seeing that I’ve managed to read quite a bit will keep me on track for the coming months.

August Stats

Number of books read- 9

Ratio fiction to non-fiction- 4:5

Number of eBooks- 4 (Disraeli Avenue, The Antiques Magpie, The Before The and After Now, Because I Said So!)

Number of books borrowed from library- 1 (Persepolis 2, How to Build a Girl, The Art of Baking Blind, Lost, Stolen or Shredded, Embroideries)

Number of books from Reading Resolutions- 1 (Read more books from genres I don’t usually read)

Throw Back Thursday: Music Singles I Bought

I started this post as just a throw back post to older songs I used to love that I had been listening to lately. But the more songs I ended up picking, the more I realised I was picking songs I bought the singles of! So I added a few more and voila! I had this post.

I’m starting with the first single I ever bought Baby…One More Time by Britney Spears. I had, of course, other music before this, I can think of 4 albums I had on CD (Spice, Spice World, What’s the Story (Morning Glory) and Now 36) but this was the first single I remember buying.

 

Of course, I was also a big Christina fan. And while I definitely had Genie in a Bottle on single, I picked Come On Over as I heard it recently at work and it’s been stuck in my head. I do find the video funny though, I think it’s the shimmering satin sheets in the background rippling.

 

I do really like Jennifer Lopez songs as well, they are so catchy. I remember with Love Don’t Cost a Thing, I played it on my cousins’ computer as it a video element to the CD. Oh the technology!

 

Speaking of those cousins, I remember playing Hero by Chad Kroeger and Josey Scott there when I bought the single. Ya ya, you can mock Nickelback all you want but I still like this song! And I was a massive fan of the Spiderman film it came from.

 

I still have Overload by Sugababes on CD, packed away in storage. It was, and still is, one of my favourite songs. I must really check out some MKS stuff.

 

There’s something about Kelly Osbourne that I’ve always loved. Back in the day, I think it’s because her punky style of clothing was very DIY, which I was into at the time, and I always wanted to be daring enough to pull it off! I bought the Papa Don’t Preach single when it was out, I really like the rocky edge to it.

 

Lastly I’ve been listening to Coldplay a bit recently, specifically the Rush of Blood to the Head album. I bought Clocks as a single, it’s just so beautiful and I still love it. I spoke about it a bit here in this post years ago.

That was fun! I think I’m going to do a post like this again in the future.Have any older songs that remind you of your childhood been stuck in your head recently? I’d love to hear which ones they are!

Palm Tree Nails

I’ve been wanting to do these nails for a while, but kept putting it off. Now that the weather isn’t as warm as it was, I decided to pep up my nails and keep summer going!

Pretend that the blue in background is the sea and not a car bonnet!

I had another orange polish in mind when I was thinking of this look but couldn’t find it. Probably for the best as I think this Rimmel Cocktail Colour in Shirley Temple works so much better as has that sparkle which just adds dimension. I used Barry M’s Nail Art Pen in Black to sketch and fill in the palm tree. It turned out much better than I thought it would! Just looking at these photos warms me up a bit, which is much needed as today I’m feeling very cold!

Essence Colour Flash Mascaras

I had hinted at these mascaras back in my post about the Essence Rock Style Hair Dye Powder. I had worn the purple mascara in that post but wanted to wait to put all the pictures together in one post. I have 3 out of 4 of the colours, I’m missing the blue one but I have the purple, red and turquoise ones!

Purple

     

Turquoise/Green

       

Red

         

I think the purple is my favourite, followed by the green. The red is definitely for when you want to make a statement, I think it would be great for Halloween too actually. These can also be used in your hair, which is great if you want a flash of colour, however they do make the hair crispy, so it won’t be it’s usual shiny and smooth self! But still fun to do every now and again, I used the green on the bottom of my hair and was really impressed with the results, it has seriously tempted me to dye the bottom of my hair green!

I kept the make up relatively simple to showcase the mascaras but I do have another post planned with different ways and looks to wear coloured mascara, I just have to finish taking photos.

Do you like the look of these? Which colour is your fave? Comment below and let me know!

These products were part of the goodie bag from the Essence UK Launch. All opinions are my own.

Disraeli Avenue by Caroline Smailes Book Review

 

When I saw this on NetGalley, something went off in the back of my head. I was sure I’d hear of it and I was sure I’d hear it was good but I just couldn’t remember where or when I’d heard it! After speaking to Beth from Plastic Rosaries about it, I decided to give it a go.

Disraeli Avenue is a novella with characters from Smailes’ previous book, In Search of Adam. It’s set around the houses and their tenants of Disraeli Avenue in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Each chapter focuses on characters from a specific house and a snippet from their life. Now, because it’s set around In Search of Adam, it DOES give away what happens in that book, so beware of that, there’s big time spoilers. That said, you don’t need to have read In Search of Adam to enjoy this, as I certainly did. If you like people watching or are fascinated by the secret lives of others, then you’ll probably enjoy this. I for one like to this about people who pass me on the street (not in a creepy way!) and what part of their life they’re thinking about at that time and how my life in some very small way crosses theirs. Does that sound a bit strange? I just find it so interesting that all these different lives and issues surround you every day and yet most of the time we never get to hear about these things.

If you’re looking for something consistent, then you might not enjoy this. There’s a mixture of different chapter styles, from conversations in text messages to diary format to letters and to people gossiping on the phone. Some chapters are written in phonetic Geordie slang, so you can imagine how the speaker sounds. I personally liked these elements, I found it mixed things up and contributed to the idea that there’s all these different characters.

This is a quick read, I read it in one day while on various buses. Also all profits from this go to One in Four, a charity which provides support for people who have suffered from sexual abuse and sexual violence. There’s no real plot in this book but if you love things that are character driven and are nosy about the lives of others, you might enjoy this short read.

This copy was requested from NetGalley, with no obligation to produce a review. All opinions are strictly my own.