Review: Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

We started this month not at the start of the month, so this first one's going to be a little shorter than the rest. This challenge will end tomorrow, and a new challenge shall be posted on Saturday once I've come up with one (though it's a choice between two at this point).

Also there's a new poll up on the left hand side, just for some info, you know :)

Send me your reviews so I can post them and we can get some book recommendations going. Click the tab and use the google questionnaire. 


Title: Northern Lights
Author: Philip Pullman
How long did it take to read: 14-21 days
Rating: 10 - definitely recommend
Review: This is a book I've been recommended since I was young, but I'm glad I read it now instead of when I was 11. It's the sort of book that moves slowly to start put picks up pace very quickly. Pullman's world is fantastical and sparks my imagination in a way not many books really manage.
Lyra is brilliant. She's such a precocious little girl, with such odd knowledge hot-spots. She's brave and excitable, and the relationship between her and Pan is heart-breakingly beautiful. The friends she makes and the people she meets are just as full and real as she is. I feel I knew her after reading this book.
This book made me feel...good. In a strange way. I'm dying to read the next one!

19 Days to Go

So we're just over a week into the first 'challenge', and how are we all going?

I'm ~150 pages in to Northern Lights and I'm loving it! It's the sort of book I would have read when I was 11, but probably not liked because I didn't quite understand it, it also doesn't move nearly as fast as my 11 year old self would have wanted. But now I'm twice that, it's perfect. so much intrigue and mystery, and I love Lyra, she's my kind of girl. I've seen the film adaptation - The Golden Compass - but remember nothing about it, so this is all going very well so far.

I bought another book today - I know, I have a problem - Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. I've heard good things about it, so no doubt there'll be a sci-fi challenge.

Glad to see so many people following this blog! And I hope you all participate, looking forward to seeing some reviews coming in.

Have you finished your book for the month already? If so remember to send me a review through the tab above once you've finished a book :). If not, share your goodreads progress, and your username so we can all follow you :D

Book for the Month

I've decided what I'm going to read! Seeing as though I spoiled it by reading Perks too quickly.

 Goodreads Summary: When Lyra's friend Roger disappears, she and her dæmon, (pronounced 'demon') Pantalaimon, determine to find him. The ensuing quest leads them to the bleak splendour of the North, where armoured bears rule the ice and witch-queens fly through the frozen skies - and where a team of scientists is conducting experiments too horrible to be spoken about.

Lyra overcomes these strange terrors, only to find something yet more perilous waiting for her - something with consequences which may even reach beyond the Northern Lights...

I've never read this, and it's been sat on my shelf for two years now. My dad's read this though, and he really liked it, which is funny because he was 33 when this came out (but I'm 22 and still read young adult, just don't expect it of my dad lol).

I'm looking forward to reading this, if only because I've heard such good things about it so far.

From the poll it's looking like everyone's interested in young adult haha, but I'm not sure I have enough young adult books on my shelf! Reckon I'm going to have to get creative with the genres :).