Blue Archipelago

I’m pretty sure that many of you have met Rob by now as he was a participant in the recent Readathon as well as a regular Sunday Saloner. But just in case you haven’t…

This is just a message to anyone who stopped by yesterday that ‘radio silence’ on my recent posts prompted me to do some digging - and it appears my shiny new theme broke my comments!

The good news is that they are now fully operative. The even better news for those of you who hate CAPTCHA tests is that it appears that’s what broke the comments - so for the next few days I’m going to see how things go without it. If you are a first time commenter you will be moderated, hopefully regulars should be ok. And if I get a lot of spam I’ll have to try and reinstate the tool.

Sorry about the inconvenience - please revisit yesterday’s posts; especially the one where I need help reviewing the Lord of the Flies!

Coraline is about… A young girl who goes exploring in her apartment and opens a door to another world where her ‘other mother’ tries to kidnap her and her parents.

I’ve heard fantastic things about this book over recent months and thought it would be a good opportunity for me to experience my first graphic novel - but I think it will unfortunately be my last. I just didn’t get it.

I was hooked from that very first line and thoroughly enjoyed this book. In a move away from most novels the whole story is pretty much told using dialogue between the characters rather than any descriptive narrative. This works perfectly and I felt like I was right alongside Greg, through the training, the beatings and the fires.

I was quite surprised when I finished the book to find this was a work of fiction; I was so sure it was a biography. Every year we hear on the news about the wildfires burning in California; next time I will definitely spare a moment to think about the brave men who risk their lives to save the locals, while understanding a bit more about how they go about it.

If you’re looking for a gripping read that’s a little different from the norm I can highly recommend One Foot in the Black by Kurt L. Kamm.