Armchair BEA: Non-Fiction

In the days before I was a blogger, I read more non-fiction than fiction.  My ratio must have been about 70% non-fiction to 30% fiction and I thought nothing of losing myself in a big, dense, history book for weeks at a time.  When I started blogging, I became exposed to lots and lots of fiction reviews and gradually my reading habits changed; I'm lucky if I get to 20% non-fiction now.  But I still enjoy non-fiction books, especially from the following categories:

History:

  

1.  Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser - Anything by Antonia Fraser is worth reading.  She writes excellent biographies of historical figures that are packed with research but still read like a narrative.  Marie Antoinette is my favourite of hers, and was the inspiration for the film.
2. Lords of the Horizon by Jason Goodwin - I just love the Ottomans, and this is by far the best book on them I have read.  It's beautifully written and full of quirky little facts about the different Sultans.
3. The State of Africa by Martin Meredith - African history after independence can be quite confusing, but this is an excellent overview of what happened in most of the major countries after the European powers left.  It's one I've read through once, but still keep dipping in and out of.

Biography / Memoirs:

  

1. Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire - Dallaire was the UN commander in Rwanda at the time of the genocide.  Shake Hands with the Devil chronicles his attempts to raise awareness and stop the horror.  It's not easy reading, but it's a book that will stay with you.
2. Tiger, Tiger by Margaux Fragoso - Again, this isn't easy reading.  Fragoso was groomed as a young girl and was the victim of a pedophile for many years.  Given the sensitive and sensational topic, Tiger, Tiger is honestly and bluntly written.
3. My Life by Bill Clinton - I love political memoirs, and this is my favourite. I liked Obama's Dreams from the Father too, but Clinton's is a fuller account of his life plus his political experiences.

Travel:

  

1. In Arabian Nights by Tahir Shah - A romantic, dreamy look at life in Morocco, based on the story-telling tradition of the country.  Will make you want to visit immediately!
2. The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski - Kapuscinski is a Polish journalist and this book is about his experiences reporting from Africa.  The politics is interwoven with his awe and wonder at the many things he sees.
3. Empires of the Indus by Alice Albinia - Albinia travels up the Indus river, from it's mouth in Pakistan  to the source in Tibet.  This one is packed full of interesting information.

Are you a non-fiction reader?  After writing this post, I definitely feel like I want to increase the amount of non-fiction I read.

Armchair BEA: Literary Fiction

Literary fiction for me is when books are about the writing as well as the plot.  Genre fiction can be absolutely fantastic, but it's all about the story and what is going to happen next.  Literary fiction is more than that, to me it can come from any genre but it has to impress with beautiful writing in addition to a good story.  Sometimes in literary fiction the story can take a back-seat and you get more introspective, character driven novels.

I enjoy literary fiction, and read a fair amount of it.  Lots of my favourite literary fiction books come from the Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Orange Prize).  I don't tend to get along with Booker prize winning books, but I've yet to be let down by an Orange winner.  Here are some literary fiction books that I would most definitely recommend:

  

1. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - This could be classified as historical fiction, but the beautiful writing of this retelling of the Trojan War from the point of view of Achilles' companion, Patroclus, make this definitely literary.

2. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan - This is a short and simple book about two newlyweds, Florence and Edward, on their wedding night in 1962. It's packed full of emotion.

3. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Regular readers will know that I love Adichie, and this was the first book of hers I read.  It's about the Nigerian civil war, in which the fledgling state of Biafra was created.  If you've not read it, you must!

  

4. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth - Yes, I know, this is a long book.  But it's completely wonderful - through the story of four families in post-Independence India, Seth manages to write completely about what it means to be a human being.

5. Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan - Yes, I know, there's a lot of historical fiction set in WW2 out there, but Half Blood Blues is different.  It's told from the perspective of a black jazz player in France and completely immerses you into his character.

6. Purge by Sofi Oksanen - This is one creepy book!  An old woman in Estonia, Aliide Truu, is disturbed one morning by the discovery of a badly beaten woman, Zara, in her garden.  Nothing is quite what it seems.

It appears that I like my literary fiction in the same way I like my genre fiction - set in a different time or place!  Have you read any of these titles?

Armchair BEA: Genre Fiction

One of the topics over at Armchair BEA today is genre fiction.  The other is blogger development, which I would struggle to write about, but I could write about genre fiction all day!  I try to be an eclectic reader and although I enjoy classics and literary fiction, I'm not one of those readers that turns her nose up at genre fiction.  I love a good chick-lit book when I'm having a busy / stressful time and there's nothing like a great horror book in the winter.  But these are by far my two favourite genres:

1) Historical Fiction

  

I have always adored historical fiction, as far back as I can remember.  I love to travel and I love history, so travelling through time and place in a book is one of my most favourite things to do.  When I started this blog, I tended to like Ancient Egyptian / Tudor historical fiction but now my tastes have definitely broadened; I have 73 historical fiction reviews posted (here) from places and times as far-flung as 1700s Venice, 1800s Finland and Ancient Rome.  These are the books I'd recommend to someone just starting out in historical fiction:

• Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier - Chevalier's books are always well written, and this story of the fossil hunter Mary Anning is my favourite, as it discusses some big themes such as the role of women and science vs. God.
• Shanghai Girls by Lisa See - I read this on honeymoon, and boy was it grittier than I was expecting!  Two sisters, May and Pearl are forced to flee Shanghai ahead of invading Japanese troops.
• The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman - I'm not Jewish but I'm fascinated with Jewish history.  This is the story of four women sheltering from the Roman army in the fortress of Masada, Israel.

2) Fantasy

  

I'm much newer to fantasy, but I'm so into it at the moment!  I'm by no means an expert on the genre, so I'm simply going to write about the books I have enjoyed.  If you know more about fantasy than me, I'd love recommendations, as I'm finding it hard to know what to read....

• A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin - This is the series that got me back into fantasy after a long hiatus from it.  This is the one I recommend to reluctant fantasy readers.
• The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan - I plan on rereading this series, as I only got up to book seven as a teenager.  I love big, epic, successful world building.
• Beauty by Robin McKinley - The other type of fantasy I love is fairytale retellings, and this is one of the best I've read.

Do you read genre fiction?  If so, what genres do you enjoy?

As always, link me to your BEA posts so I can visit lots of new blogs :)

Armchair BEA: Classics

I wasn't planning on two posts in one day, but classics are one of my favourite types of books to read, so I couldn't let the opportunity to write about them pass!

My love of classics started in childhood with Frances Hodgson Burnett. I lost count of the amount of times I read The Secret Garden, but more particularly, A Little Princess. I was an imaginative child and I loved the way that Sara Crewe used her imagination to help her get through tough times.  Alongside these, I read many abridged/children's versions of classics and soon started to love classic adventure stories too.          

As I grew older, I was introduced to many more classics in school.  I had a wonderful English Literature teacher who taught me to love Shakespeare and I continued to try them out on my own.  When I was 16, George Orwell was my hero, as I read 1984 at just the time when I was becoming interested in politics too.  It helped that my older sister was doing an English Literature degree when I was in secondary school, and was able to introduce me to lots of different classic books.

Now, as an adult, I still love classics and I'm getting to the point where I want to reread all of the classics I read as a teenager, to see if they feel any different.  These are the classics I particularly enjoy:

   

1. Anything Bronte - I am an intense person, so the Brontes speak to me in this regard!  Whilst I like Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, Charlotte Bronte remains my favourite, and Villette is probably my favourite book, ever.

2. Anything Gothic - My love of classic gothic literature started with Dracula, The Woman in White and Carmilla.  I've not read enough of this type of classic to satisfy me yet, but am hoping to read The Mysteries of Udophlo and then Northanger Abbey soon.

3. Epics! - I love a good epic, no matter where they come from.  I count Gone With the Wind as a classic, I loved this for its epic-ness, along with Anna Karenina and A Tale of Two Cities.  I suspect A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth will become a classic with time.

4. Politically Motivated Classics - I'm thinking of 1984 and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch.  I need to read some more books like these.

If you enjoy classics, you should really join The Classics Club.  I'm challenging myself to read 72 classics in five years, I've just finished book 9.  The list of books I plan to read is here and my reviews of classics I've already read are here.

Link me to your classics posts :)

Or, I'd love recommendations...

Armchair BEA: Introductions

I participated in Armchair BEA last year and had a great time, so I'm looking forward to this year's event.  Happily, it coincides with a week off work for me, so I should have lots of time to post and meet new bloggers.  The task for today is to introduce ourselves.

(I'm the girl!)

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? 

My name is Sam, I'm 27 and I live in the UK.  I work as a primary school teacher and I've been blogging for almost three years.  I've always loved to read and I was getting to a point in my life where my job was starting to completely take over and I needed to do something unrelated, just for me.  Book blogging seemed like a natural choice and in the last three years I've met some great people and never regretted starting.

Where in the world are you blogging from? Tell a random fact or something special about your current location. Feel free to share pictures. 

My husband and I just bought our first house, in Brentwood.  It's a great place but unfortunately it's known for being the home of The Only Way is Essex, an extremely tacky reality TV show!  It has a bit of a cult following and every Saturday night the town is full of Notherners who have come down for the 'Essex experience'; spray tan, blonde extensions and clubbing in the Sugar Hut.   We live in the more rural part, and this is five minutes walk from our back garden:

What literary location would you most like to visit? Why? 

I'd love to visit Haworth, home of the Brontes.  As far as classics go, the Brontes are my favourites with Villette probably being my favourite book, EVER.  I WILL make this visit happen one day!

What is your favorite part about the book blogging community? 

Definitely connecting with other bloggers.  I love getting recommendations of new books to read and seeing what people make of my reviews, but the best part is just meeting lots of new people, who like books just as much as I do!  Ever since I've been on Twitter, I've got to know my blogging buddies a lot better :)

Tell us one non-book-related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you.

I wish I had an obscure talent or wild past to reveal, but sadly I am extremely ordinary.  I dream of packing up everything and moving to New Orleans, where my husband and I had the most amazing honeymoon two years ago.  We could open up a little bookshop / cafe in the French Quarter and soak up the atmosphere....

Link me to your posts!

Armchair BEA: Introductions

This is my first year of participating in Armchair BEA and I'm hoping to meet some great new bloggers.  The task for today is to introduce myself by answering some interview questions:

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?

I'm Sam (the female kind), I'm 26 and I'm a primary school teacher from the UK.  I'm just finishing up my third year as a full time teacher and so far it's been a rollercoaster - I've come a long way but I still have so much to learn.  I'm studying astrophysics in my free time and I'm just coming up to my one year wedding anniversary.  I've been blogging for two years in August.  I used to have a livejournal and I got into book blogging when one of my livejournal friends started a book blog - Borough of Books.

2. What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?

Ever since reading Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, I've dreamed about visiting and touring Eastern Europe.  The furthest East I've been so far is Vienna, but one day I will make it to Romania, I'm sure.

3. What is your favorite feature on your blog (i.e. author interviews, memes, something specific to your blog)?

I don't tend to stick to any memes - I do the Sunday Salon every now and again and if I've just bought a few books I might do the odd post to show them off.  My favourite feature is honestly reviews and that's what I look for on other blogs too.  In my Google reader I tend to skim past memes and hunt out the reviews.

4. What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2012?

I'm currently reading Agnes Grey by Charlotte Bronte.  I've read more classics since starting blogging and I am enjoying this one, perhaps because as a teacher I can relate to the role of governess.  My favourite read of 2012 so far is Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch.  It's set in Victorian London and is about a street boy who ends up as a sailor.  I knew nothing about it before starting so was shocked and caught up with what happens when there is a shipwreck.

5. Where do you see your blog in five years?

I hope to still be posting reviews about books I've enjoyed and connecting with other book bloggers.  I'm not bothered about switching to Wordpress or buying my own domain, I just want to carry on enjoying book blogging.