Books and Music

I’m someone who can’t read in silence. There needs to be some other noise, preferably music, but if that isn’t possible then the sounds of other people or rain outside is a must. Something about having to force my mind to focus on the book instead of the music helps me to read, though if the plot is particularly complex then the low-fi beats are what I choose.

Sometimes though, I end up listening to one song on repeat while reading and whenever I read that book or hear that song, I think of the other.

This has happened memorably with three books and songs.

The first was The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. Reading this series as a teen, I was deep in my Panic! at the Disco phase and so the whole time I read this series I was listening to ‘The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage’ from their first album. Does this relate to the series in any way? Not really, though I suppose connections can be made by the story that the song tells and it saying to not trust those in power which the series explored to some extent. Still, whenever I hear that song, I think of the Iron Fey series.

The second was The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, and while I was reading those three books I was listening to ‘Bloom’ by The Paper Kites. To me, the song is quite magical, and it put me right into the historical, Russian-esque setting. Despite all the action in those books, listening to that song and having it as my reminder of them makes my memory of the series take on a calm and relaxing nature. I’m sure if I reread them, I would be taken aback by how unlike that they are.

And finally, and most recently, while I was reading Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell, I was listening to Harry Styles’ Fine Line album, which soon switched to just my favourite song from that album, ‘Golden’. Now all I can think of when I listen to that song is Simon, Baz and Penelope taking their road trip across America. I think of all the songs that I’ve made a connection to books with, this one holds the strongest connection in terms of fitting the themes of the book. To me, it symbolises how Simon and Baz think of each other, how they’re scared of being with each other and how much they really like each other. I think without this connection to the song, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the book half as much and it makes me more invested in their relationship than I was before.

Review: Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Whilst there’s no doubt in my mind that after reading this book I’ll be picking up the next when it comes out, Wayward Son didn’t amaze me. The premise of this book was promising. I think the idea of looking at what happens after a hero’s journey “ends” was good because it’s true, we get to the end of a book series, film or TV show and just accept that it’s over and everybody has their happily ever after. Seeing Simon’s mental health improve throughout the course of this book definitely helped lift my own spirits and having the group together again to fight off forces meant this book was hard for me to put down, for sure.

The large fight at the end wasn’t a satisfying climax to this book. The quick switches between the characters that were narrating instead of making the scene fast-paced meant that I kept losing track of where each person was in the fight and the general progress of it. I think without the switching narration and with fewer components to the fight, it would have been much easier to grasp and made a more fitting conclusion to the book.

This next point might make it seem like I’m knit picking, but as a British person, the way Penelope, Baz and Simon spoke really bugged me. Things like Penelope not knowing what a tornado was and Simon saying he was “shagged out” (I know shagged can technically mean tired, but no person, British or otherwise, that I know uses it in that way and let me tell you, no one in this book was having the experience of the main meaning of this word from my recollection) really drew me out of the story. It was made more annoying because it was something that could have easily been fixed by switching phrases.

[Goodreads parallel]

Review: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I had no idea what to expect when I started reading this book and my expectations from the first few chapters were very different to how the book ended up turning out. Initially it seemed to be more of an urban fantasy tale, but by the end there was no doubt that it was a suspenseful thriller. I ended up not being able to put this book down, especially towards the end when the mystery started to unravel, and I was constantly scared that any character would die.

That being said, even though there is no doubt in my mind that this book is a five star read because of the suspense and mystery, there were things that I disliked about the book. One of the things was the constant sexism throughout the book, which exuded from almost every character; though it can be partially be put down to the time when the book was set, at times it seemed to go a bit far. The second thing that I didn’t like was the casual mention that Daniel was going to die because it took all the suspense surrounding Daniel’s well being away from me and made me not only know that his death was coming but also that he would survive. Without that mention I would have been none the wiser and that part of the book wouldn’t have been spoiled.

[Goodreads parallel]

Review: Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. Montgomery

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

This was by far the best book in the Anne of Green Gables series. Rilla was such a well-developed character and you could so clearly see her change and progress throughout the book. This book made me laugh at some of the awkward moments, but it also managed to make me cry at the sadder moments. What made the difference in this book was the continuing thread of the war throughout the story. It gave a driving force to everything that happened and served to bind the characters together in a way that we didn’t get to see in the previous books. I could also clearly see the development of Montgomery’s writing from her previous books and I couldn’t be happier that this was the end to the series.

[Goodreads parallel]

Review: Rainbow Valley by L. M. Montgomery

My rating: ⭐⭐

The start of this book was promising. With a new set of interesting characters, there was a chance to make a good story and an effective plot. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case and there wasn’t enough of the likable qualities of Anne present to make up the deficit.

This is probably something that is edition specific, and I checked in the front to find that this should be the exact same version as that which was printed in 1919, but I absolutely hated the use of capitalised words within sentences for emphasis. It was something that wasn’t in previous books and seemed like a very unnecessary addition.

While the story of the Meredith’s was initially interesting, eventually it just became a repetition of the same story, but with a different child punishing themselves for stepping out of line. To keep interest in the plot, for me, Mr Meredith would have had to have come to his senses sooner and started acting like a proper father. However, the way the plot is, the story became far too predictable and boring.

There’s a lot more that I could say about this book, but I want to avoid ranting, so I’ll make one more comment, which fittingly is about the final part of the book. Out of nowhere on the last page, the narration starts to talk about the coming future, specifically the war. I completely understand the relevance of this, with the book being published in 1919, but it seemed completely out of place from the rest of the book and really drew me away from the story. When reading a book that forms part of a series, you want to be encouraged to stay in that world a little longer and by having that part tacked onto the end, it did the opposite for me.

If there wasn’t only one book left in the series, I would be severely tempted to stop reading after this book.

[Goodreads parallel]

Review: Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. Montgomery

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

This was another quick and enjoyable read from the Anne of Green Gables series. There wasn’t an oversaturation of side-characters as there had been in other books with enough mention of characters outside of the periphery to remind you that they still existed without it becoming overwhelming. The side-characters that were present were well developed and I found myself caring about them more than previous ones, especially the story about Leslie and Dick/George Moore.

However, Anne’s pregnancies and the loss of baby Joyce, I feel, were handled poorly. Firstly, I didn’t even realise Anne was pregnant until she was almost giving birth in both cases and secondly, the loss of Joyce was covered only in half as much detail as I thought would be necessary for the reader and Anne to understand the weight of the situation. I understand that I’m writing this from a modern perspective where child mortality levels are much lower and post-natal depression and other related topics are discussed more openly, but brushing this storyline aside so quickly, in my opinion, did this book a great disservice.

[Goodreads parallel]

Review: Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Though I enjoyed reading this book, the parts of the first two books in the Anne of Green Gables series that I didn’t like only became more amplified in this novel.

Firstly, everyone seems to love Anne. In the first couple of books I would go along with this to a certain extent because a lot of the people introduced were children and Anne herself was a child, so you have people who are likely to like someone on first impression and someone who is easily likable. But in this book, the stream of people who adored Anne for seemingly nothing was endless. If I am counting right, she was proposed to six times by five different people and some of them she barely knew. Did they propose just because she is that likable? I wouldn’t mind as much if proper reason was given to them liking her, but I couldn’t find much to suggest that she would be so universally adored.

Secondly, there was another large introduction of secondary characters in this book. This was of course necessary with Anne going to study at Redmond, but a lot were never expanded upon more than appearance and Anne’s opinion on them. It got annoying because I wanted to be able to form my own opinion on them based on their actions, but it seemed that most of their actions only reflected the necessary points of Anne’s plot. It’s a shame because I feel like this book would have been so much richer if it hadn’t been that way.

Having said all that, I did still enjoy this book and I did want to know what was going to happen in Anne’s life, though I do think the main reason was to see whether Anne and Gilbert would end up together, which I knew already, but still interested me.

[Goodreads parallel]