The Empties Challenge - November Edition

Month 2 of my empties challenge and I think we've done okay this month! (even though this is a really late post!!!!!)



1: So...? Enticing Bodyspray

I received this in a 3 pack as a Christmas gift. It's taken me a while to use it, but it is a product that I use on a semi-regular basis, especially in the summer months! I like the scent of these - even if they make me think of teenagers and tweens. As it's an aerosol, the spray is always cold and refreshing. The scent is sweet and fresh.




2: Herbal Essences Naked Volume Shampoo

I was drawn to this shampoo because of the lack of parabens and colourants in it. Plus it was new and I wanted to try it out! When using it, I loved the scent, and it foamed up nicely in my hair. I did fee like it wasn't cleaning my hair as well as a normal shampoo, but once I had become accustomed to using it I didn't have a problem with it.










3: Herbal Essences Naked Volume Conditioner

Did someone say silky? No? Well, my hair is! I like this conditioner a lot, I have quite dry damaged hair, and this conditioner felt like it was working wonders on it. I like the scent and the way it makes me hair feel afterwards.







Voila - that' what I managed to empty in November. I won't be doing a December empties post, but I will be continuing these in the new year!

Goodreads Challenge Check-in

As you're aware from my book reviews, I've been doing a reading challenge this year. I also started a Goodreads reading challenge to coincide with the Popsugar challenge. I set a target of 55 books to be read this year - approx a book per week. I think usually, reading at the rate wouldn't be a problem for me. However, some of the books that were suggested for my work book club were incredibly long (The Count of Monte Cristo - I'm looking at you...) so they took much longer to read than just 1 Week...pushing me behind schedule. 

Progress thus far:

With 7 weeks left of the year, I have 25 books to read to complete this...so I'd need to be reading 3.5 books a week! That would be possible, if I stuck to short, easy-to-read books. Though bookclub interferes with that plan so...we'll have to see how I get on. I'm not likely to review all of the books I've read this year, but I'll try to get a couple of good ones posted! 

The Empties Challenge - October Edition

I realised while moving, that I have an obscene amount of toiletries that I've managed to collect. Toiletries that I am not in the habit of using, so they just pile up in boxes and drawers...which is an issue when moving from a 3 bedroom house into a 2 bedroom flat with limited storage space...

I thought it could be fun to challenge myself to try and use some of them each month to firstly, empty them and create space; and secondly to get back into the habit of looking after myself.

Through October I've been collecting my empties, and this is what I've managed to clear out:


1: Nivea Invisible roll on deodorant



I bought this roll on to use when travelling via airplane. I've actually had this for a while because I prefer sprays, so I'm glad I've finally used it all up!! I like Nivea - it's good to my skin and causes no irritation. This product is advertised as 48h deodorant which is invisible on black and white clothing. I didn't notice any marks on my clothing at all, however I wouldn't say this lasted for 48 hours...so I'd give it a solid 3.5/5.





2: I Love...Strawberries and Cream shower gel

I received this shower gel as a gift, and it was one of the deceptively biggest bottles of shower gel I have ever seen. It has taken months to finish it! However, I am finally to the end of it. I love the scent of this product - it smells sweet, but not too overpowering. It foams up nicely on my sponge, and creates a silky bubbly wash for my skin. There was nothing I disliked about this product, and it's excellent value for money! (PS - It's available from Superdrug...)




3: Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pore & Shine face scrub

I love face scrubs. I'll always go for a face scrub over a face wash - I really enjoy the clean feeling after scrubbing all of the dirt and dead skin off my face. I've never used this scrub before, and at the time there was a 3 for 2 offer so I bought a couple of them plus the pore & shine face wash. I have combination skin, so my face gets quite oily through the day and causes breakouts. This scrub actually did help. It's a mattifying scrub, so thankfully it did the job it was designed to do! I noticed my skin was much clearer when I used it regularly, however overuse made my skin dry out - as you would expect. I liked this product a lot, so I'm glad I have another one to get through!







That's it for October - barring hand wash and toothpaste. I haven't made much of a dent in my mounds of products, but I'll keep you updated for the end of November!

Life Updates

Hi!

It's been a while. No fault but my own on that one - soz.

I feel like a lot has happened in the past couple of months...here's a rundown of what I've been up to:

• I moved out of the house Andrew and I were sharing together.
• I moved halfway across the country into a flat (with Andrew).
• The move was not very well planned out, and took a lot of time over several weekends to get everything moved across.
• I successfully hired, drove, and crashed a transit van.
• Lots of reading - so many reviews to write up and post!
• Work got very busy very quickly - peak trading season is upon us.
• I joined a gym
• Found and joined a new Slimming World group
• Went to Ireland
• Made several Ikea trips to kit out our flat
• My car failed her MOT and is for sale...Click here if you'd like to adopt a wonderful little runner... 

  

  I love my little Tallulah! Sad to let her go.

• Found & bought a new car
• Named new car. 'Hogan' in case you were wondering.
• Had a spa day
• had a couple of haircuts - discovered a hairdresser who is really enthusiastic about cutting curly hair, epic win for me!
• Did, and am still doing, a hell of a lotta unpacking

Thought I might have a small pitiful list but actually it turned out to be quite long! Go me. Busy bee.

You can expect some more regular posts from me now that I've settled into our flat, there's not too much more unpacking to do! Let me know if you want me to elaborate on anything above, happy to throw in a random life post!

Anywho...I promised to get a box unpacked tonight...SEEYA.

Boop's Bookshelf: The Outsiders by S E Hinton

The Outsiders checks of 'A book by a female author' in my 2015 reading challenge.

The Author

S E Hinton was born in Oklahoma, and had always had a love of reading. However the reading material was not to her liking, so she wrote young adult stories that did reflect what she thought they should be. The Outsiders was her first novel, and a great writing career followed it. 

Synopsis

The outsiders tells the story of two rival gangs - the Greasers, and the Socials (Socs for short). The story is told from the perspective of Ponyboy Curtis - one of the Greasers. A gang rivalry goes too far, and Ponyboy finds himself on the run with his friend, contemplating what differences there really are between the two groups; and the importance of family. Despite the similar unhappy situations of both groups, nothing changes and the rivalry continues between the two groups throughout the book. Some huge scale events transpire, and we follow Ponyboy through these, and into his reconciliation with his brothers.

My Thoughts

I like this story. Once I became familiar with the dialect of Ponyboy and the way things were described, I found it to be a quick and enjoyable read. Things escalate very quickly at the beginning of the book, which took me by surprise, and the rest of the story is generally dealing with the fallout from the beginning of the book. I found myself drawn into the world depicted in the novel, and wanted to find out what happened next. Needless to say, because of this I flew through the book. I was a bit disappointed with the story ending. More or less everything about the characters situation stayed the same, except for some changes in the way the brothers relate to each other and look after each other. I left the novel feeling a little dissatisfied with the ending, but otherwise I enjoyed it. 

My Rating...

3 stars
Enjoyable but unsatisfactory

Boop's Bookshelf: Sex and Bacon by Sarah Katherine Lewis

Sex and Bacon checks off 'A nonfiction book' in my 2015 Reading Challenge. 

The Author

Sarah Katherine Lewis is a previous sex worker, who turned to writing about her experiences, and writes for a sex advice column. She has written two novels - Indecent: how I Make it and Fake it as a Girl for Hire and Sex and Bacon: Why I Love Things That are Very, Very Bad for Me. In both she writes about her experiences in the sex industry, feminism, and body confidence - interspersed with battles with her demons and favourite recipes.

Synopsis

Similar to a memoir or biography, this book is written by the author looking back on their life. Lewis reminisces about a time when she was working in the sex industry, and moving on from that into writing. There are interwoven themes through the book, most notably body image, depression, and sex.

My Thoughts

When I first started reading this book, I loved it. It was scandalous, candid, and funny. I enjoyed reading about the author's experiences and found her views on the beauty industry really interesting. However, The more of it I read, the more contradictions I noticed...One moment Lewis would say one thing, the next she would say the opposite. Which was irritating after it happened a few times. The writing style is short and choppy - almost like it was thrown together as she thought of things, or it was several short articles put together to form a book. Having said that, I still read it cover to cover and enjoyed it regardless!

My rating....

3 Stars

Entertaining, but a little inconsistent!

Boop's Bookshelf: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

The Luminaries check off 'A book by someone under 30' in my 2015 reading challenge.

The Author

Eleanor Catton is a Canadian-born New Zealand author. Her second novel The Luminaries won the Man Booker Prize in 2013, crowning her the youngest person to have won the award. Other than The Luminaries, Catton has also released the novel The Rehearsal, and some short stories published in various works.

The Synopsis

The Luminaries is essentially a mystery novel. Set in 1866 at the goldmines in Hokitika. We enter into the story with Walter Moody, who is new to the town and the strange affairs that have been occurring. He happens across a secret meeting of 12 men, and is pulled into piecing together events as each man recants his tale. What follows is an erratic story told from several different points of view, giving an overview of the crimes that transpired and who is actually responsible for them. The crimes in question, all revolve around the disappearance of a young, rich gold digger, a prostitutes multiple collapses, and the murder of a poor man. Everything points towards a ship's captain, or at least seems to.

My Thoughts

I really liked how the reader is brought into the story with another character. It's a good technique used to pull the reader in, and it worked with this novel - without this it would have been extremely difficult to get involved with the story. As each man in the meeting tells his tale, we see several different events that transpire around the same period of time. however, this was not in chronological order. there was a lot of back-and-forward and filling in gaps other character's stories had left. I found it difficult to keep track of this at first, but after spending a lot of time reading - I recommend dedicating an hour or more to it when you first start! - I finally got an overview of how each character's story fits into this mystery up to the moment we entered the story. And there was still a huge amount of the story left to go...

The zodiac signs and other heavenly bodies play a large part in this tale. Each main character represents a zodiac sign, and other essential characters represent the heavenly bodies. each section in the book (there are 12) start off with an image showing what stage all of the zodiacs are in. This probably had relevance to what happened to the characters in the story, but I didn't read too much into that and read the story instead. This novel had in interesting little quirk - each section was half as long as the preceding one. The beginning felt like a mammoth to read, then the further along I got the quicker I flew through the story - some of the chapters were only a few lines at the end!

I found this novel hard to read at the beginning, then the more I read, the more I enjoyed it, and the mystery of the story. My only main niggle with it is the unaddressed question of how two of the characters were inexplicably linked in the way that they were. I wont go into more detail - as it would give away some of the story - but it felt unresolved because there wasn't a satisfactory explanation.

My Rating...

3.5 stars

Not something I am likely to reread, but enjoyable and interesting regardless.

Boop's Bookshelf: Close Range by Annie Proulx

Close Range checks off 'A book of short stories' in my 2015 reading challenge 

The Author

Annie Proulx is an American journalist and author. She writes several collections of short stories, and her most well known work would be Brokeback Mountain - which was adapted into a film. (However, many people who have seen the film wouldn't know it was originally a short story). Incidentally, Brokeback Mountain is included in this collection of short stories.

She has won several awards through her career, including a Pulitzer Prize, the Dos Passos Prize and the O. Henry Prize twice - both for stories within the Close Range collection. 

Proulx currently lives in Wyoming, the area in which Close Range is set.

The Synopsis

How does one write a synopsis on a collection of short stories? 

Close Range is a collection of stories all set in the Wyoming - a mountain region in the West of America. The stories are set at different time periods, however there are common themes throughout such as life as a rancher and the open spaces of Wyoming. All of the stories and all of the characters revolve around life in Wyoming.

My Thoughts
It's very rare that I read a book of short stories. In fact, I don't think I have ever read a book of short stories! Annie Proulx was able to create scenes in rich detail, no matter how short the story was. each of her stories were written differently, some very differently which I think is an impressive talent - usually an author has a recognizable style that comes through in their writing, but with Proulx this was not the case. I found that engaging and impressive.

The hardship and moral ambiguity of the characters and their situations really stands out through all of the stories. The immoral situations that they find themselves in are often written in as throwaway comments, and treated as normal or expected - especially the rape of women through the different time periods. It made an impact, and helped to make the reader understand how things were and the character's attitudes to life. It made an impact.

All of the stories really drive home the feeling of an open, sparse area where you don't come across many other people. The characters all seemed to be stuck in Wyoming, or always coming back to it.

My Rating...

3.5 stars

I enjoyed reading it, I admire the authors writing skills and it's a collection I may reread in future.

A New Thing

I have two blogs, this one, and my health and fitness blog. I usually try to keep them separate, and not post about weight etc on here. However, I have undertaken a big change as of Thursday, so it seemed relevant to write about it on here too.

After struggling to battle my weight on my own, I finally took the plunge and joined Slimming World. This is going to be a big overhaul and I'll be acclimatizing to different eating habits. I would go so far as to say this is a lifestyle change...I'm commiting to attending the weekly meetings every Thursday, and to following the Slimming World eating plan.

I'm going to have to put in a lot of effort to plan out my meals - especially lunches at work...

I feel apprehensive about everything at the moment, so I'm not entirely sure how I feel about doing this. A part of me is looking forward to it, another part of me feels apprehensive about sticking to a plan - I'm worried I will fail and waste everyone's time. BUUUT there we go. I'm doing it and changing my food choices.

Today was day 1 of Slimming World, I'm finding it a bit confusing to work out how many syns things are actually worth, especially when the starter pack book says one thing, and the website says another. Annoying...Anyway, that's what's been going on with me recently.

Happy Friday!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I hate being hairy. Yes, I am absolutely going there. When I have hairy armpits I feel like a icky man-lady. Over the years I've tried all kinds of hair removal...shaving, waxing, that stinky hair cream stuff...the only thing I haven't tried is the slightly more permanent laser hair removal (I can neither confirm nor deny that it may be next on my list of things to try...)

I thought it would be interesting to write about my experiences with each method...ENJOY

1. Shaving

The standard. Where more or less everyone starts out...

Yay

• Feels great to get the hair off quickly and pain-free! 
• Quick
• Cheap
• Easy
• Can do it at home
• Convenient

Nay

• Itchy regrowth
• Does NOT last very long. At all. 2 days max
• Accidental slips or bad angles can cause uncontrollable bleeding and scarring
• Razors quickly go blunt
• Razor burn/razor rash
• Ingrown hairs
• Red bobbly skin

Krummometer says: 

P.S. Krumm is a character from a cartoon Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. It was always on Cartoon Network in the late evenings.

The convenience of shaving pushed it up to a 3 for me, and to be fair, I shave on my legs pretty much all the time. Though in other more sensitive areas - like armpits - it does not work very well for me.

2. Hair Removal Cream

Yay

• Quick
• Can do it at home

Nay

• It smells gross
• It doesn't work as well as I would like it to
• It's gloopy

Krummometer says: 

I did not like this. at all. Gross and smelly with unsatisfactory results...Boooooo!

3. Epilator

Yay

• Quicker than plucking each hair out
• Cheap (once you have bought the epilator)
• Reusable

Nay

• Painful. All the pain.
• Scary - there is no way I would use this on my underarms - legs are as far as I will go with this!
• Too violent - sometimes it breaks the hairs and I'm left with stubble

Krummometer says: 

Another hair removal method I did NOT like. It's too painful and does not give very good results.... Having said that, the last time I used an epilator was several years ago soo it might be worth giving this another shot. Maybe. 

4. Strip Wax (Home kits)

Yay

• Pulls the hair out from the root
• Lighter regrowth
• You can do it privately at home without the awkwardness of stripping off in a salon

Nay

• Painful
• Takes a lot of courage to pull off the strip yourself
• Messy and sticky
• It's hard to reach all the areas you want to wax 
• Takes a lot of time

Krummometer says:

It's hard to pull the strips off - correctly - on your own. It's also soo messy and sticky...I prefer the smoothness of waxing, but I prefer the convenience of shaving over the mess of waxing myself

5. Strip Wax (Salon)

Yay

• You don't have to do anything. Just lay back and let the beautician do the work
• Lighter regrowth
• Smooth results

Nay

• Going to a salon every month can get expensive
• Painful
• Having to grow the hair out long enough to be waxed again is neither fun nor attractive...

Krummometer says:

I love the smooth, clean feeling after a wax. However, I have sensitive skin so I do sometimes come up quite red and sore in the stubborn hair areas.

6. Hot Wax

Yay

• Gentler on the skin (no wax strips - just peels off)
• Gets the shorter hairs that can be missed in a strip wax
• Smells nice
• hairless for longer
• Grows back finer

Nay

• Gets expensive going to a salon every month
• Can be painful (but less painful than strip wax)
• I haven't seen this in many places - few and far between!
• Have to regrow the hair in-between treatments

Krummometer says: 

Pling Pling Pling! We have a winner. This by far is my favorite hair removal method. I prefer it over all other methods I've tried thus far! 

What method do you prefer? 

Krumm image sourced from here: http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/317/1/f/krumm_by_mollyketty-d6u5rsd.png

An Unexpected Trip to A&E

Since last weekend, (by last weekend I mean the 17th May) I've had abdominal pain. I thought I had eaten something bad so just got on with things and went into work as normal. By Wednesday I had violent chills, was sent home from work, then was alternating between chills and fevers. Alongside those, a pounding headache, backache and dizziness. When I got home from work I crashed out in the thickest onesie I own, wrapped in my duvet. I had a fitful sleep for a few hours, then got up to wait for Andrew to come home - I wanted him to take me to the doctors as I was not fit to drive with the dizziness. Once Andrew was back from his late shift at work, we called the NHS 111 number to get advice on where we should go. After answering questions about my symptoms, they advised we go to an Urgent Care Clinic. So we did. We waited to see the doctor there, he did some tests, prodded my belly and advised we go to A&E.

We drove over to A&E with a letter in hand from the Urgent Care Clinic doctor, saying he thinks it could be appendicitis. After I was seen by the A&E Nurse, I had a short wait before being taken through to the ward just off the A&E waiting room. I was to be put on an IV drip with fluids to re-hydrate me, and have intravenous paracetamol. Before that, I had to have some blood taken for testing. They couldn't find the vein in my left arm, so they moved to the right arm and were able to draw blood and insert a cannula for the IV bags. The A&E doctor examined me, and agreed that it looks like appendicitis, though there are other things it could be. He called a surgeon to examine me as well - as they would have a better idea of where the problem lies. Once the surgeon had prodded my belly, they decided to admit me and put me on the list for urgent surgery. I was wheeled through to another ward, to sleep before waiting for surgery the next day.

Thursday I wasn't allowed to eat as I was on the list for surgery. I was getting occasional strong waves of intense hunger - I hadn't eating anything since 11am Wednesday. Luckily, these would dissipate quite quickly - providing the breakfast/lunch/dinner trolley was taken away swiftly! I was also having some stomach issues - which were not pretty I can tell you that for free. It was a long day interspersed with a couple of visits from the surgical consult/anesthetist through the day. A loooong boring day. By the end of the day, I still hadn't had any surgery. Thankfully the night-time surgeon came to see me late in the evening (read: middle of the night) and gave me the okay to have some food (Hallelujah!). I had some toast, juice, and yogurt - Best. Meal. Ever. Then had very fitful sleep.

Friday was another long day. I was told I was at the top of the list for surgery, but still had to wait for most of the day before I heard anything. It was all too much, I was tired, felt crap and was bored out of my mind waiting to be called in for surgery. Also I was scared, I've never had surgery before. Around 5pm I was finally called down to theatre for my exploratory laparoscopy. It was nerve-wracking, but the surgical team made me feel at ease by cracking a couple of jokes. It all happened really quickly from when I was brought down to surgery, at one point there was two people talking to me at the same time and I had to work out who I needed to reply to! Quite disorientating. Especially as they had given me something which they forewarned would make me woozy (A prelude to being K.O.'d!).

I have some weird vague memories of waking up feeling panicked, hearing a voice saying my name, someone saying 'she's fighting us' and someone talking to me, telling me about my operation and saying I ripped out my cannula. That's all very fuzzy and I'm not sure what exactly actually happened. The next time I became aware again, I was on oxygen in the recovery room - waiting to be wheeled back to my ward. That felt surreal.

Anywho, it turned out to be appendicitis, so they removed my appendix and I'm feeling much better now. Yaaaaay

Radio Silence

I've had a very busy few weeks. A week in Scotland, a week in the office catching up, and a week in France returning last weekend. Since I got back, I was sick and ended up in A&E - I'll post about that another time. Anyway, for all of the above reasons things have been silent around these parts recently!

I'll be posting more regularly (hopefully!) soon...

JustGiving - Race For Life

Good morning, early birds!

If you're often around these parts, you may have noticed a new little button at the top of my sidebar...
It kinda looks like this:
 It's saying "Hello! please click on me"

Basically I am running in one of Race for Life's 5k events on 10th June. I did this event last year, with a time of just under 47 minutes. I'd like to do it quicker this time around! I'll be posting about the trials and tribulations of my training over on bekbek19.wordpress.com if you would like to read about that in the run up to the event...

I don't have a sad cancer story to tug on your heartstrings and incite you to donate. I know people who have died from it, and I know people who have recovered from it. Sop story or no, so many people are affected by cancer in one way or another.

If you feel strongly about supporting Cancer Research, please please don't hesitate to hit the sponsor button. It's an important cause, and there is still a long way to go before we can successfully beat cancer.

Boop's Bookshelf: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie checks off 'A book set in high school' in my 2015 reading challenge

The Author

Muriel Spark was a award winning Scottish novelist. She wrote several short stories, plays, poems, novels and biographies. She had several titles and honors awarded to her through her lifetime. She has written pieces for the BBC, and lived in several countries through her life. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is the best known of Spark's works.

Synopsis

This short story centers around a Miss Jean Brodie and her exclusively selected group of students at the school she teaches at. The relationship between her and her students is a special one - though that may not be a good thing. Miss Brodie is in the prime of her life and she shares her experiences with her students, while subtly shaping them into miniature versions of herself. Brodie's teaching methods are looked down on by the school's headmistress, who invariably tries to intervene with Brodies' 'set' and gain a reason to dismiss Miss Brodie. Through a love triangle and increasingly manipulative behaviour, one of the girls eventually betrays Brodie to the headmistress, handing her the tools to bring her down. However, Miss Brodie never finds out who that was.

My Thoughts

While reading this, it was difficult to keep track of which girl was which. This was exacerbated by the chapters jumping around in time through the time that the girls knew Miss Brodie. At the beginning I felt that Miss Brodie was a forward-thinking, liberal teacher who is being stifled by the traditionalist headmistress. However, as the story progressed and the power Brodie holds over the girls is abused, I felt that she was much more ominous and her views more dangerous. I mean...I hate to lay down a spoiler, but at one point she says that she was in Germany and she thinks Hitler's regime is a good thing...

She was more than a little obsessed with fascism and she pushed that onto her 'set'. She more or less turns these girls into her very own fascist group, and they hung from her every word. She specifically chose the girls in her set because their parents were disinterested or too naive to intervene in her relationship with them. All a bit ominous and it made me feel a little uncomfortable.

On the positive side of that, my reaction to the manipulative Miss Brodie is the result of good writing. I felt genuine emotion towards Miss Brodie, even if the feelings weren't all positive. It is a well written novel, however I didn't particularly enjoy the story. Then again that could just be because there was a lot about fascism that I didn't understand...

My Rating:

3 stars

Good writing, didn't like the story quite so much...

Boop's Bookshelf: The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Angel's Game checks off 'A book that was originally written in a different language' in my 2015 reading challenge

The Author

Carlos Ruiz Zafon is a Spanish novelist. He has written both young adult and adult novels, most notably the 4 book series nicknamed The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. This is the series containing Shadow of the Wind, The Angel's Game and The Prisoner of Heaven thus far. This series was translated to English by Lucia Graves, who is both a writer and a translator. She is the daughter of poet Robert Graves. 

Synopsis

The Angels Game is the second book in the series - however it's a prequel to Shadow of the Wind, so I didn't feel too bad suggesting it for my book club!! The story is set in Barcelona, Spain. The story follows the life of David Martin - a writer at a newspaper, with a tragic back story and a talent for writing that needs to be explored. It is a dark tale following David's descent into writing and pouring his soul into his work. He also uncovers a mystery that parallels his own life, which he feels he needs to uncover the answers to. We as the reader, follow him in uncovering the mystery.

My Thoughts

I enjoyed reading this novel. I was pulled into the story from the start, and I wanted to know what was happening, and why the mystery resembled David Martin so much. I am not sure how much I actually liked the main character. I felt like I was on his side, but then there were situations or moments when I didn't like him. The story was all from his point of view, which towards the end made me suspect there was some tunnel vision going on.I found one of the secondary characters really interesting - Isabella - and wished there was more of her thoughts and opinions incorporated into the story line. I would have been interested to see David Martin and some of the various situations in the book through other perspectives. I liked the parallels within the story to that of other stories where a character has effectively sold their soul to the devil. The Angel pin that Corelli always wears made me think of heaven and hell, temptations and succumbing to it.

Bookclub Notes

At our discussion, one person in bookclub mentioned a review he had seen that suggested you read it thinking that the main character has schizophrenia. When I thought back through the book and the events that occurred - including the nickname Martin earned from Isabella 'Jekyll and Hyde' - it does explain some events and how some things happen in the story telling. Very intriguing - I'm glads this was mentioned because it opened my mind to a whole new side of the story!

Overall it is an involved and unusual story, and I really enjoyed reading it. However, there are a lot of points that either don't make sense, or are left wide open to interpretation - which I do find a bit frustrating. I really want to re-read Shadow of the Wind, and the newest installment - The Prisoner of Heaven. SO many books to read! 

My rating:

4 stars

I found it very difficult to rate this one - I was torn between 4 and 4.5 stars! I enjoyed reading The Angel's Game, however the unanswered questions I have are just that little bit too niggly to ignore...