MAC: FACTS AND UPDATES

My Favourite Books

So.. I do quite like reading to be honest. Although lately I've been slacking; but it's almost summertime and I'm getting back into the reading! So, if you've liked my books then you'll probably like a few of these as many of mine have been inspired by these books.

From the ages of 9-12 I was into the 'Warriors' series. I'm sure quite a few of you have read these books. There are about thirty books in total but woah when you get to the end of the series it is a TRUIMH! I do remember having a big ol' cry! It's about cats. Okay. I adore cats, but these cats are wild cats and they are divided into four clans. Initially I thought that there were far too many characters to know, but the author(s) Erin Hunter, made it really easy to get used to the characters and introduce them to you gradually over the course of the first couple books. When you get into this series you honestly can't stop!

In school I was introduced to a lot of classic books, and they actually left me quite battered at the end. When I was 14 I studied To Kill a Mocking Bird. This was the first 'grown up' book I ever read and it really excited me, it's said to be one of the most influential books of all time. It is set in the early 1900s after the war when there was no racial equality about a man called Atticus Finch, a philosopher and an amazing lawyer who has to defend an innocent black man. However I explain this isn't going to do the book justice. It is just so real and tense in areas. Really opened up my eyes.

For my gcse year I read The Power and the Glory. Initially I hated his book, as everyone hates books they have to analyse. However I have to admit this one was, in the end, pretty shocking! Again, I'm not going to do this book any justice when I explain it but here we go anyway..
In Mexico, again in the early 1900 century, there is a revolution against the Catholic Church, all priests are shot. Except one priest who escapes. This priest, by whom we never actually learn the name, has a secret daughter, and this driving force to see her again keeps him running from the police. Okay, this seems pretty bad, and it's got pretty strong vocabulary, but in the end it is pretty shocking.

One of the most shocking books HANDS DOWN that I've ever read has to be All My Sons. This is actually a play, so it's simple to read. It is about a man named Joe Keller who had two sons and a wife. One of his sons, Larry, was a pilot in the war. Joe Keller owned a company that provided the engines for the planes in the war and found that there were cracks in all the engines but sent them off anyway. So 21 men were killed, all pilots. In court this was blamed on Joe Keller's coworker and he is arrested for life. So.. that's where the drama unfolds.. it's a big family tragedy with a shocking end!

There are three books I also adore by J K Rowling under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith. These books are called The Cuckoos Calling, The Silkworm and Career of Evil. There are more books coming out in the future. These books have also been turned into a TV series on BBC. I've never been so hooked to a book! These are crime novels, Detective Cormoron Strike and Robin Ellacott figure out murders together, which brings out my inner detective! But also the personal connection between Strike and Robin, they have this gentle friendship which you really want to be more than a friendship but you know it won't. It's that ongoing almost-relationship between them I guess that keeps loads of people reading.

Another book I just remembered that I loved was Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan. I read this when I was 13 but I thought it was really touching. It's about a very unfortunate 12 year old girl called Willow, who's parents died, and her adopted parents died too. It's about her way of getting back into reality. It's an easy-read that I really liked and learnt quite a bit from.

I didn't want to include The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, but I guess I really did like that book. I haven't watched the movie, and I'm not generally into soppy love stories but this one really stuck with me. I admit I did cry quite a lot in this book, and you'll fly through it if you read it. I read it when I was 12 and I still remember everything, I guess that says something? It's a romance between a teenager girl with cancer called Hazel and a teenage boy with cancer called Gus. It's easy to read, really really sad but it's good.

I just finished a book called The Little Life and OH MY GOD! I am shaken! I finished it about a week ago at 2 o'clock in the morning and I had my biology gcse at 9am! (Let's see how well I did in biology haha) but I honestly have never read a book like that. I guess what I love the most about it is that there are homosexual relationships, but that isn't the whole plot of the book, there are transgender people, but that's not the focus. The author, Hanya Yanahinara, has such a unique writing style and has pulled everything to its limits. This book supports the LGBT community without being an LGBT book, and I guess that's what I love about it. The book really horrified me quite a bit as it deals with depression, suicide and self harming and at many points it was very difficult for me to read. There were twists I didn't expect and some I didn't want to expect. It's almost a love story but it'll really beat you up! I don't think I'd be able to fully understand it if I were any younger than 16 though. It was a very hefty book of 720 pages and I felt rather broken in the end!