I came across this quite by accident in a cheap book shop opposite the British Library, when I had popped in to buy a cheap book to see me on the tube back home. And since I have recently become an aunt, a role that I love and am looking forward to growing into, I decided to get this book.
Rupert Christiansen has certainly done his research. There were literary aunts, creations of wild imaginations, both wise and wicked, historical aunts, poems about aunts, biographical accounts of aunts, fictional and factual aunts, aunts designed to sell food and other wholesome homely fares, personal stories both ancient and modern about aunts, and elderly family friends known as Aunt. I'm not quite sure where I would come into this book, as a more modern aunt that isn't a spinster but also hasn't produced any cousins yet, but hopefully I'll be more like the much loved aunts than the annoying or downright horrible aunts!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Before I Die by Jenny Downham
When I picked this book off the school library shelf, the librarian warned me, "There's sex and drugs in it"; she went on to tell me that she wouldn't let just anyone read it, but also that she hadn't read it yet herself, but it had had good reviews.
Thus forewarned, I set about reading it on the tube on the way home. And barely a paragraph had gone by before Tessa, the narrator, had decided to lose her virginity, which, before the end of the chapter, had gone. However, that does not really do justice to this sensitively written book, which deals with death, and love, friendship and family.
Although Tessa's father hopes that Tessa will survive, that a cure might be found, it isn't, and she doesn't. She burns brightly, then dies, one, sentence, at, a, time. It is quite beautiful. So much of the writing sounds as if Jenny Downham must have experienced all the moments, senses, described by Tessa. But then, she wrote the book, so she hasn't.
Thus forewarned, I set about reading it on the tube on the way home. And barely a paragraph had gone by before Tessa, the narrator, had decided to lose her virginity, which, before the end of the chapter, had gone. However, that does not really do justice to this sensitively written book, which deals with death, and love, friendship and family.
Although Tessa's father hopes that Tessa will survive, that a cure might be found, it isn't, and she doesn't. She burns brightly, then dies, one, sentence, at, a, time. It is quite beautiful. So much of the writing sounds as if Jenny Downham must have experienced all the moments, senses, described by Tessa. But then, she wrote the book, so she hasn't.
Saffy's Angel by Hilary MacKay
Saffy learns more about her family and her birthplace in this colourful and sweet story, which begins when she realises that her name, Saffron, isn't on her mother's colour chart, unlike her sisters Cadmium and Rose, and her brother Indigo. The story eventually leads her to a garden in Italy, then back home. Well written, entertaining, a quick and enjoyable read from the school library.
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