First.

Tomorrow is The Big Bad Booklist's First Birthday!

Not on this exact blog (it humbly began on Tumblr), but the concept was born almost exactly a year ago and I've got to admit I couldn't be happier about it. I never ever thought I'd still be doing this a year on and that I'd still be enjoying it as much as I do. I'm forever getting bored with things and I find I've never really updated my blogs as much as I say I'm going to.
A huge thank you and masses of love going out to all of you who take the time to read my reviews and for the continued support, it really means the world to me.

My first ever reading challenge went incredibly well, 11 books over my target! (I tried to take a picture of them all. but they just wouldn't fit. I gave up.) I'll be raising the bar to 65 books in the coming year. It's still a massive challenge and a huge commitment but I feel it can still be accomplished.

I've had a lot of literary based opportunities in 2012, from participating in World Book Night to being in a reading group for The Guardian First Book Award. As well as reaffirming my love for the written word I have recently been getting to know the world of spoken word, which has been a real treat for me. I'm hoping that I have even more fantastic literary based memories in 2013, I have a few ideas hiding safely under my wizard's hat but more on that later.

I've received a fair few books over the Christmas period (some will technically be re-reads), so I already have a lot of ammunition for this coming reading challenge. I honestly can't wait! I'm so excited! Although, I really have no idea where I'm going to start.

Happy New Year, you fabulous, amazing, wonderfully inspiring people! I'll see you in 2013.
And as always, happy reading!

--Kaveeta.

Review: The Lifeboat

The year is 1914.
A mysterious explosion sinks the Empress Alexandra and Henry manages to secure his wife a last minute seat on (what turns out to be) an overcrowded lifeboat. Now lost at sea, the 39 survivors discover what it is to have a true willingness to survive.

Through a series of flashbacks, the story is told from the point of view of newlywed 22 year old Grace Winter, who is now off the boat and standing trial for murder.
Adrift somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Grace recounts tales of the forming of alliances and rivalries, the crumbling of hierarchy, the shift between trust and suspicion; and not knowing whether you are going to live or die.
This has all the elements of a typical survival story: lies, deceit, moral ambiguity, some form of mystery and the questioning of faith and humanity. With some politics and possible ulterior motives thrown in for good measure.

I started reading this with a very cynical mindset, it's not the sort of thing would usually pick up, even on a recommendation. The only other lost-at-sea book I've read is The Life of Pi, which has since turned into one of my favourite books. This already put The Lifeboat in an impossible situation of filling a pair of gigantic shoes.

The novel isn't jam packed with action, in fact this is more of a thought provoking book if anything. (At times, I admit the book seemed to crawl a bit.) There isn't a disaster at every turn of a page and people don't start dropping like flies. It's not a white knuckle book, nor should I have expected it to be- there's about as much action as you can expect in a tiny lifeboat in the middle of a vast body of water. Where is lacks in this respect it makes up for in the introspection of the main character, the novel is pretty much fueled by it.

Grace however, isn't a likable character in any way; her obvious attraction to powerful people is unbecoming and it fuels her motives in every aspect of the book. She seems to get what she wants through a series of calculated plots and the manipulation of others, there doesn't seem to be any warmth to her at all.
Speaking honestly, I don't think I really took to any of them, none seemed to possess any redeeming qualities, so I their fate meant little to me. There were a lot of characters, some of them barely mentioned which led to some confusion on my part as I had no prior experiences or memories to attach the names to.

My inability to fall in love with at least one of the characters usually ruins the experience of a book for me, I don't do well with feeling cut off. It is beautifully written though, so I did enjoy it in spite of myself and it was entertaining enough for me to read it fairly quickly.
I really enjoy the writing style of the first time author and I think it's definitely worth reading The Lifeboat just to experience it. While I know I won't be rereading this book, she's already persuaded me to pick up her next book when the time comes.

RATING: ★★★☆☆

Review: The Origins of Sex

Faramerz Dabhoiwala explores the shift in attitudes of all things sex from seventeenth century England and how the changes have ultimately affected the present day. Or in short, 'A History of the First Sexual Revolution'.

I'm positively terrified of non-fiction, injecting it with a dose of social history will have me cowering in a corner. It most likely has to do with my rubbish memory and my short attention span so I'll freely admit I wasn't excited about reading this book. Although I was willing to power through it in hopes of some interesting tales of debauchery.

And tales of debauchery there was. Dabhoiwala covers everything from Church law and state regulation to bawdy houses and good old fashioned Buggery. The book is divided into subtopics where the author is free to explore certain topics in more detail be it the change in attitudes to prostitution and the rise in sexual celebrity.

This book should definitely be aimed at an academic audience and not a curious reader, at times I felt as though I was reading a string of words and sentences without fathoming a single meaning from them, so at best I got a very vague idea of what I was being told. However, when I begin to understand what was being said I did start to find the information interesting.

I noticed throughout the book that there were a fair amount of quotes from Lord Byron and I'm not entirely sure what they were doing there. Lord Byron left the country in 1816 because of the sexual repression, never returning to England until his death in 1824. With this in mind, I feel that the quotes were an unnecessary and inaccurate addition and it made me wonder which other parts of the book have questionable historical merit. With my limited knowledge on the subject (save the free love movement) I have no other choice in believing it to be a true depiction of life at that time.

Overall, it did make for an interesting read although I do wish that a wider perspective was used. After all, you can't have a complete sexual revolution without the world following suit. I would have seen how the rest of the world dealt with the changes.
I'm offering up a word of caution to anyone who wants to pick up this book- it is fairly academic and very verbose. Full attention is required.

RATING: ★★★☆☆

Review: Quiet

Susan Cain looks at the plight, sorry, power of the introverts in a seemingly extrovert world in her debut book Quiet.

I had no choice but to read this, I'm fairly certain if I was given one, I would have put it down and walked far, far away. It wasn't from a lack of interest but rather the sheer grating feeling I got from reading it.

It seemed to focus a lot on corporate America and how introverts can actually be an asset to the work force and even more valuable to their extroverted counterparts. It seemed less about equality and understanding at work and in society and more about how much more advantageous it is when you're an introvert. This is something that didn't sit right with me, perhaps it was too much for my British taste buds but I felt this could have worked a lot better if she had spoken about personal experiences and struggles rather than other people's anecdotes on success over their rivals.  It's almost as if she wants to counteract the 'Extrovert Ideal' with an introverted one.

The book was split into several sections all of which seemed to reiterate information over and over and over again. There was enough repetition to drive me to madness. The kind of madness that introverts suffer at the hands of an open-planned office.
The levels of stereotypes were astounding, I have come to the conclusion that extroverts are rash, love to party and don't really think all that too much and the introverts, well they're the serious thinkers, the creative types; level headed. It acts as much as a validation tool as it does as a self help guide: You're an introvert? Don't worry, you're a thinker, you're smart. J.K Rowling is an introvert, so was Steve Jobs, they were rich and powerful. You're going to be a-okay. 

There are parts that do get quite interesting, you know as much as informal science experiments can get. She seems to bollix it up by making out as if introverts are a league of extraordinary hipsters, with their bespeckled faces, poor fashion choices and curiously described facial hair.


My problem is I hate anything that tells me we live in a one-or-the-other society. Gay or straight, male or female, good or evil and yes, introvert or extrovert.
The current world population stands at approximately 7 billion. With such a staggering number to consider, I'm not sure why or how we allow ourselves to think so simply.

RATING: ★☆☆☆☆

A New Home.

November 2011 started with a book list, compiled from the endless unread tomes stacked around my house. As the list grew, my determination to read them all grew with it and in January 2012, I set up a review blog on Tumblr documenting my progress along the way.

I didn't realise how much writing reviews and literally becoming one of the greediest readers I know, would end up meaning to me. It really got me involved in a lot of amazing things not only did participate in this year's World Book Night but I recently ended up being part of a reading group for this year's Guardian First Book Award, too. Equally amazing and wouldn't have been at all possible if I hadn't thrown myself in front of the literature train. 

As much as I love my Tumblr account, which you can find here- I felt I needed a space without all gif images and photo sets of Harry Potter going in between my actual written words. Essentially, it'll be the same blog but with less Severus Snape and more literature based activities, (as well as my usual review stuff). I'll be keeping my old one too, I've grown rather attached to it. In the mean time I'll move all my old reviews on to this blog.

So here's to a new, grown-up home.
Thanks for joining me. 

Kaveeta