bookmavenmary.blogspot.com
Book Maven: December 2014
http://bookmavenmary.blogspot.com/2014_12_01_archive.html
Monday, 29 December 2014. Losing the plot - what Peter Jackson did to The Hobbit. Photo by Stefan Servos. Well, I've done it. I've seen the third Hobbit movie, The Battle of The Five Armies. When I first heard there were going to be three films made of the slender children's book that prefaced Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, I knew they wouldn't be good. It was clearly a commercial decision not an aesthetic or literary one. We were as a family very charmed by Peter Jackson's vision of Tolkien's worl...
bookmavenmary.blogspot.com
Book Maven: May 2015
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Wednesday, 27 May 2015. Egypt's answer to Montmartre *. It can be hard reading and reviewing books by someone you know. My reputation is as a pretty rigorous critic and this can come into conflict with warm feelings for a writer. I heard a lot about Cleo. In Bologna, not just from its agent Sophie Hicks but also from its author, my travelling companion and good friend Lucy Coats. And I'd already been seduced by that gorgeous cover by Thy Bui. Together the three young people, Cleo, Charm and Khai, with th...
bookmavenmary.blogspot.com
Book Maven: Endings, Beginnings and a one-off
http://bookmavenmary.blogspot.com/2014/06/endings-beginnings-and-one-off.html
Tuesday, 24 June 2014. Endings, Beginnings and a one-off. The Carnegie Medal has just been awarded to Kevin Brooks for The Bunker Diary, prompting criticism of YA books which are bleak or have unhappy endings. I haven't read the winning book so will reserve judgment but I HAVE been reading lots of YA over the last few months while I've been away from here and am now going to bring you the best of them. To begin: two final books, one in a series and one in a "cycle.". There's an interesting story behind t...
rhiannonlassiter.com
Rhiannon Lassiter
http://www.rhiannonlassiter.com/author.html
Making things up since 1977. Rhiannon Lassiter is an author of science fiction, fantasy, contemporary, 'realist magicism', psychological horror and thriller novels for juniors, teenagers and young adults. She was born in 1977 and is the eldest daughter of award-winning children's author Mary Hoffman. Rhiannon’s first novel,. Was accepted for publication when she was nineteen years old. She completed the book and a sequel while at university reading English Literature at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
rhiannonlassiter.com
Rhiannon Lassiter's website
http://www.rhiannonlassiter.com/books.html
Making things up since 1977. Books by Rhiannon Lassiter. Rhiannon Lassiter is the author of fifteen titles for children and young adults including. Which was long-listed for five national awards. And the internationally acclaimed. Click on the book covers for more about each book, including photos from launch parties and book signings, sample chapters. And other specials and downloads. Visit the international editions page. To see which books are available in your country. Ghost of a Chance.
rhiannonlassiter.com
Rhiannon Lassiter's website - extras
http://www.rhiannonlassiter.com/extras.html
Making things up since 1977. The first chapter of each of Rhiannon's books is available for download here. Links to Rhiannon's web presence on other sites and networks. Rhiannon's lists of recommended books across a variety of genres and categories. Recommended reading categories including " Hungry for Games. The Female Future", "Books of Colour".
bookmavenmary.blogspot.com
Book Maven: A Rhino, a Rainbow and an icon
http://bookmavenmary.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-rhino-rainbow-and-icon.html
Thursday, 22 January 2015. A Rhino, a Rainbow and an icon. Anyone on here remember "bibliotherapy"? It was big in the '70s and meant that there should be an "issue" book to go with most "issues" that a child would encounter - everything from a new sibling and first day at school to death and divorce. The best books just had a good story - like John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat or Badger's Gifts and children took what they wanted from them. But then he had a whole new career as Geordi La Forge in Star...
bookmavenmary.blogspot.com
Book Maven: April 2014
http://bookmavenmary.blogspot.com/2014_04_01_archive.html
Monday, 21 April 2014. Friendship and Fresco-bombing in Florence. I had only a week at home before setting of to Italy again, this time to possibly my favourite city: Florence. I have been visiting this treasure-house of art and much else since my first summer holiday from university. It was love at almost first sight and since that formative occasion I have been back more times than I can count - well over thirty, including two separate months when I have lived there. I had arranged to meet Julie after ...
bookmavenmary.blogspot.com
Book Maven: August 2014
http://bookmavenmary.blogspot.com/2014_08_01_archive.html
Tuesday, 12 August 2014. A masterclass in storytelling. At the end of July I was in Normandy, at the time of the ongoing D-Day 70th anniversary celebrations. I flew to Caen, as a guest of Flybe, who can hop you across the Channel in an hour from London Southend airport. It's like the Eiffel Tour or the Taj Mahal or Michelangelo's David - one of those immediately recogniseable works of art that lodge in the collective consciousness. About the "tapestry" - actually an embroidery with wool on linen. Suc...
bookmavenmary.blogspot.com
Book Maven: The Problem of Authorship by Mary Hoffman
http://bookmavenmary.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-problem-of-authorship-by-mary.html
Sunday, 14 September 2014. The Problem of Authorship by Mary Hoffman. A huge row erupted via Facebook last week involving three novelists, one journalist and a major publishing house. One novelist claimed, incorrectly as it turned out, on a thread on the private page of another novelist that a third novelist did not write all the books published over their name in a popular series. I don't think so. I actually think it's shabby not to credit the Ghost, but perhaps publishers fear shattering the illusion.
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