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!

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 :).

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

During summer I devour books, I literally eat them for breakfast. This is because, during summer, I'm not at uni. I'm generally not stressed out about the gazillion assignments I have to do, and with doing a science degree I'm left with little time to read books, and the time I do have I chose to do other things (like knit and write).

So when we thought of this book club, Ashleigh and I, we said one book a month. We're both at uni (Ashleigh's in her final year of her English and Creative Writing degree), and therefore have often better things to do with our time than read - although we wish this weren't true. But one book a month made sense. Ashleigh can read a book in a day, while I can take months to complete a tome.

You can imagine my surprise, then, when after starting The Perks of Being a Wallflower yesterday, I finished it this morning.

First Challenge

Today I went shopping. I needed more of my Rocky Horror costume and a book for my dad. But Waterstones have this stamp card thing, and if I bought another book I'd get two stamps instead of just one - so I had to do it!

I recently saw Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I really wanted to read it, so I bought that.

Goodreads summary: Charlie is a freshman.
And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his year yet socially awkward,he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.

Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But he can't stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.

So this is the book I'm going to be reading this month :) It's only short, and it looks to be an easy read. *cross fingers* I'll finish it.

This month pick a book on your shelf, preferably that you haven't read yet or even one that you have, that is perhaps young adult, coming of age, sort of a book. 

Or, better still, if you have Perks, read that, and then I have people to talk about it with :)