The Thornthwaite Inheritance by Gareth P. Jones

The Thornthwaite Inheritance is a book that I really enjoyed.
The main characters are orphaned twins, Ovid and Lorelli Thornthwaite. For as long as the children can remember, they have been trying to kill each other. On their thirteenth birthday, Lorelli and Ovid decide to make a truce, inviting a lawyer to come and stay with them in thornthwaite manor, where they live under the care of their butler, their cook, their nurse and their gardener. But even as the lawyer is amending their parents will to confirm their truce, more attempts on the twins lives are being made.
This book was really well executed because I loved how seemingly unimportant details at the beginning played a role in solving the mystery. I also liked how the other characters plots tied in with the twins' plot in surprising ways.
Although the themes in this book seem quite dark, (death, greed, betrayal, murder,) it does not go into any gory details, and is told in a style that makes you relate to the characters, it is emotional without being to gushing or sentimemtal, and at times it is funny.
I would reccomend this book to my friends aged about 9 and up.
This book is outstanding in the style and ideas of the book.

Mr Gum books by Andy stanton

The series of mr gum books by Mr stanton are like no other I have seen. They are exceedingly funny. I read them when I was much younger but still occasionally pick them up to have a laugh.
They are suitable for readers of all ages and even adults like them. I have proof of this. When I was younger my uncle sometimes read these books to me. This usually ended up with him and I (mostly him) rolling on the floor laughing, uncontrollable laughter.
I do not know how Stanton does it but he does.
These are not witty books, they are not rude to anyone, the sheer randomness and hilarity of his writing style are what make it funny.
Although, sometimes I wonder how these books actually got published, they have been      an important part of my childhood reading experience.
the plot of these books don't even seem to matter, because of the funny and  sometimes infuriating characters. Although I will tell you that they involve a strange windmill, a dancing bear, goblins, martin laundrette who runs the laundrette, and a fruit chew of babylon.
So, if you want to read about a girl with an incredibly long  name, a ginger bread man with electric muscles, or a bad man called Mr gum, this is the series for you.
"THE TRUTH IS A LEMON MERANGUE!!!" - Friday O ' Leary

Hi!!

It has been about a year since I last wrote on this blog but now I will be posting a lot more book reviews!!

Camp Nanowrimo

Camp Nanowrimo is like a spin off of Nanowrimo.

Both challenges are the brainchild of OLL founder  Chris Baty.

The concept in simple. Write a book in a month. It is not a competition as such, but there are winners and... not winners. To win the challenge you must write a novel of 50,000 words in one month. (Nanowrimo is in November and Camp Nano is in June and August) This demands you write 1667 words per day, but on some days you will probably write much less and on others much more. It is all part of the challenge. You can join other nanoers on the forums

The rewards, you ask? A finished manuscript that you have written yourself. (Plus if you do it in November and win, you get five free copies of your finished book.)

There is also a month (April) where you write a  100 page script. (script frenzy)

For younger writers, there is the young writers program of Nanowrimo and Script Frenzy where they can set their own goals if 50,000 words seems a bit daunting

Audio Books

This post is about two websites where you can find audiobooks.

Audible often pops up in the adverts in this blog (although I have no control over the ads.) so that is  why I have decided to post about it. I happen to be a member of audible, and every month I get one credit which allows me to choose one book. There are many popular audio books, and almost all of the ones I have searched for  have appeared. One downside of audible is that you have to pay, however the books are read well, some of them by famous faces, well voices, such as the author of the book, various actors, etc. Soem of the books are mildly entertaining in the way that they are read, such as the girls voices read by mean, and vice versa. You can find the audible website here:

www.audible.co.uk

Another source of audio books, these ones are free, is librivox. the downsides of this site, is that you have to click on each chapter, and some of the chapters in the same book are read by different people. So this means just as you are getting used to one reader, another one starts reading. There are not as wide a range as the books in audible, but if you enjoy classics, like peter pan, swallows and amazons, then this is the site for you.
Here is the link

librivox.org

Enjoy listening to audio books!!!

Holes By louis Sachar

Holes, published in 1998 written by Louis sachar is a book about a boy named Stanley Yelnats who always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. When he is accused of stealing the trainers of his hero which were donated to the homeless shelter, he is offered a choice. Prison or camp greenlake, a youth detention camp. He choses (as anybody would) the camp. when he gets there he finds that all the boys are forced to dig a five foot  hole each day, under the blistering heat of the sun. At the camp he meets a boy known only as "Zero," and he teaches him how to read, and Zero, the fastest digger digs his hole for him. It continues like this until the mysterious warden finds out about it, and turns up even though no one else at the camp had ever seen the warden.

This amazing book is clever the way there are flashbacks to the past which are mentioned, and readers can really relate to the unlucky stanley.

Casson family stories

One of my favourite series of books is The Casson family stories. They are about the casson children, Cadmium, (Caddy) Saffron (Saffy) Indigo, Rose, and their parents, (who are both artists,) Eve and Bill. The books are Saffy's Angel, Indigo's Star, Permanent Rose, Caddy ever after, Forever Rose and Caddy's World.
The children are all named after colours. Below is information about the first book, Saffy's Angel.

Saffy's Angel

Saffy's Angel is about when saffron casson finds out that she is adopted. Five years later, when her grandfather dies, he leaves her a stone Angel that she used to play with in her garden. Nobody knows where that garden is, until saffron realises that it is in her old home, in sienna, italy. She stows away in her friend, sarah's car, when sarah and her family go on holiday to italy, the same place she had last seen when she was three years old. She is determined to find her angel, whatever it takes.


It is a brilliant book which I really loved, and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.