'The Hunger Games Trilogy' by Suzanne Collins

I know I'm possibly the last book blogger on earth to read Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games Trilogy, so I'm not going to go on about them because, frankly, what's the point? There must be thousands of beautifully written reviews of these three books out there and I don't feel a great need to add to them, so let me just say I LOVED these books. 

I ate up all three in three days and haven't stopped thinking about them since. And Katniss! What a character. What a feminist icon, although I imagine she's sick of meaning so much to so many, so I'll say that once and move on. Full, fleshed-out, flawed characters in a beautifully conceived world that presents both a horrifying reality and an almost impossible range of obstacles, which a fabulously diverse and powerful group of people manage to overcome, albeit it at devastating cost to themselves. I take a thousand hats off to Suzanne Collins, and a thousand hats off to the keener-than-me readers who made this such a great word-of-mouth hit.

And the second film trailer is out...

  





In Which I Have Some Quiet Time...

Hey all, apologies for the quiet on here as late, but I am tres busy doing many things and have rediscovered a somewhat forgotten pleasure: reading for myself, and myself alone. It won't last too long I don't think - I'll very soon have something I am desperate to say - but for now I'm enjoying the experience of it being just me, myself and my page.

In the last few weeks I have read Lewis Hyde's The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World, which was quite beautiful and profound, and made me realise some truths like I'm not at all unusual for the type of person I am, and that I'll never be rich unless my writing takes off as I'll always put a lid on my professional activity to leave room for my creative endeavours. A really great book if you're into that kind of thing. I also read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a devastating work of schmaltz, and disappointing similar to Everything is Illuminated, which I think is the superior novel. 

Last week there was a glorious re-read of Girl With a Pearl Earring, a quiet classic ever-present in my mind, and also a delve through The End of Men: And the Rise of Women, which made me both sad and excited for the future, but seemed to willfully ignore the fact that not all women in the workplace are Google execs who can demand that their company pay for a business class flight for their nanny so they can commit fully to family and the workplace at the same time, and the some such. 

There was also too much focus on one socio-economic and racial group, not enough consideration of welfare, single parenthood or the fact that not everyone has all the components of family and economic life lined up like ducks waiting to be utilised, like idle grandmothers and houses near head offices so they can be the CEO, if just their husband would help them with the washing up. It was well-written though, clipped along at an entertaining pace and I did recognise several people in my life within it.

Anyway, should you miss me until my next post there's always my column to read, as well as my short story Poinsettias, which appears in Danse Macabre #66 (if you click through, turn your sound up.)

x 





Links and an Update

My new logo!

Hello all, I have a few new links to share with you before my next Peirene post on Thursday:

My beautiful, new, shiny website - click to find all my links, writing and info in one happy place.

A link to Homespun Threads, a fairytale e-anthology featuring my first ever children's story, Firefly Mountain, which is available via Amazon and Smashwords and is raising fab funds for Homespun Theatre to take their latest children's show on tour in 2013. So buy it for all and sundry this Christmas!

And lastly, my latest post on Side B Magazine, as part of my fortnightly Small Island Culture series on the site, about the Peirene Press literary salon I attended on 1st December with Andrew Motion in attendance, which might interest those of you following mine and Sam's Peirene Press readathon series.

Thanks all! :) 

  





'The Widow of Charroux' on Inkapture

I have some lovely news. The fabulous and discerning people at Inkapture Magazine have included my short story, 'The Widow of Charroux' in their new issue for Sept 2012.

Click through for a read. I'd love to know what you think.







Guest Post: 'The Music Behind the Written Word' by Lenore Skomal

Today we have a guest post from Lenore Skomal, whose bio and new novel excerpt can be found at the bottom of this post. Take it away Lenore!

'Words can do exactly what music can: inspire, torture, and bend the human soul. But for me, the written word is often a product of the musical stimulation. And for all of the books I’ve written, I have listened to music while writing them.






Blogaversary Series: Day Five

So, here we are on the final day of Tolstoy is my Cat's two-year blogaversary week, and thanks to everyone who's stopped by! I've had lots of new readers pop in, especially from Stumbleupon (hi guys!), which has been fab; who knows, maybe if people continue to stop by, there'll be a third anniversary and a fourth etc. :)

Anyway, don't forget to enter yesterday's giveaway of 'The Teleportation Accident' by Ned Beauman; here are my last two links from the archive:

1.  'Show Me Something New' is one of my more craft-of-writing earlier posts, which discusses the issue of originality and expressed my frustration at the time about finding out that my novel, when described in brief, sounded like lots of books that people had read before.

Reason: Originality is obviously an on-going concern, for others as well as myself, and I find it telling that my thoughts on this haven't really changed since writing this post 18 months ago and, rather exasperatingly, that the same novel isn't finished yet either! I must get and finish it, mustn't I? Ah, well. Until then, I'll entertain myself by watching hilarious word sketches like the one included within it.

2. My final blogaversary link is to a piece of flash fiction called 'Früh', which is one of the first pieces I ever wrote, sometime before I even started this blog.

Reason: It's not perfect - far from it - but is so full of the optimism and fun I felt, and still feel, when I get down to writing that it's the highest note I could possibly end on, and it's a delight for me to go back and read it once more. I hope you like it too.

Thanks for everything guys, and don't forget to click back and enter the contest!







Blogaversary Series: Day Four

Howdy campers, and welcome back to day four of my little blogaversary! It was two years ago today that this little blog sprung into existence :) As promised in the week's previous posts, today we have another post from the archive and my very first giveaway!

The link first:

1. Today's choice is the, I'll admit, rather idiosyncratically named Lyndsay, Put the Pen Down..., in which I explore the notion that I've been trying too hard, to my detriment.

It's a timely piece, seeing as the Elle UK Talent Competition is now open til the 17th Sept, and is about how I over-wrote and over-wrote until I just hated entry from last year, finally coming to the realisation that my grip was way too tight on the pieces I really cared about.

So,  I reworked it for another magazine (Side B Magazine), deliberately letting the wheels run whilst writing it and, lo and behold, it worked! It was an important lesson for me, and one I'd never read about elsewhere, although I can't believe I'm the only one who's made this same mistake. So, care less: it might do you good :)

2. Now, giveaway time! I have one copy of Ned Beauman's 'The Teleportation Accident' to give away, and all you need to do to enter is either share this link on Twitter (tagging me at @lyndsay_wheble so I see it), or sign up for my email subscription list (the box above on the right).

 So, easy! This book was recently long-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2012, which speaks very highly of it, especially as the short list has yet to be announced. The tag-line seems to be

'History happened while you were hungover...let's hope the party was worth it.'

which is a good 'un, but I really  chose it for the breath-takingly beautiful cover that had me swoooonniing in the store. I love it, so judging it by its cover, I'll love the book too, which hopefully means you will too.

I'll leave this open for a week, so tweet this link or sign up above by midnight GMT next Thursday, the 23rd August, to be in with a chance of winning. I'll chose the winner at random, of course, and am already excited at the thought of passing this lovely cover on! International entries are fine, FYI.

So, the final day of my blogaversary series will be published tomorrow - see you there! :)








Blogaversary Series: Day Three

So, my blogaversary series continues apace, and today I have two more links for you from the archive:

1. The first is my review of Wilkie Collins' 'The Woman in White', entitled, quite dramatically, 'I am a Literary Sensationalist!' , from October last year.

Reason: I think 'The Woman in White' was the first book that I read purely because it had been so highly recommended in the book blogs I read. Before I started blogging about books a lot myself, my reading choices were based on things that caught my eye in the library or store, things by authors I already knew, and the classics that you hear so much about and feel you should get on and read. This book fell into none of those camps, as, to be honest, it was never a book I'd really heard of and there is no reason nowadays to place it at the front of the library or store. It was pure book blogger love that did it, and it was pure love that I felt for this book. Also, my review got a bit feminist-political at the end, which is always nice. A complete win all round. 

2. Link two today is a post called 'This is Why Writing is Awesome', which describes a realisation I had at a career mentoring day for teenagers, where I was the writing representative.

Reason: Well, obviously I knew before the day I wrote this post that writing is awesome, but it was so nice to see that reinforced back to me on the faces of kids that I really wanted to write about it. A lot of Twitter discussion followed this post and it was nice to see that other writers felt the same way. And it's good to do something for the kids, of course *air grab* and nice to feel that you can be a role model of sorts.

Check back tomorrow for another look and a sneaky giveaway...







Blogaversary Series: Day Two

So, following on from yesterday's post, which kicked off this blog's two-year-anniversary celebrations (aah!), I have two more links for you that you might not have seen unless you've been reading this blog since way back when...

1. First of all, we have the rather narcissistically named post Tolstoy is my Cat?, one of my first ever posts, in which I explain why my blog has the name that it does.

Reason: It's quite interesting for me to chart my blog's progress, re-reading posts like this, as it started out very much as a showcase blog for the writing I was doing and to chart this writing journey as I progressed down its rocky and confusing pathway. Gradually over the last two years, it has become more book-based, which I think happened because my writing progress began to happen elsewhere - professionally, in short stories sat on my hard-drive and, more recently, in other publications - and I became irritated with the notion of pretending I had real writing advice when I was just a newbie myself. 

I still quite like this post though - such optimism! and it's true that my cat Tolstoy - who has little idea of his internet presence - is still my biggest fan, and no matter what happens, that will probably never change! Such are pets and owners, I guess.

2. Today's second link is far, far more recent, and features a review of both the book and the play of Mikhail Bulgakov's 'The Master and Margarita', which has been causing mini explosions in my head whenever I've thought of it since.

Reason: I've chosen to highlight this post particularly as I am proud of the two-handed review, but mainly because this books screams to the world that BOOKS. ARE. SO. IMPORTANT.

I am never happier than when I'm being schooled in the ways of life and literature by a book that I know I do not fully understand, but know that maybe if I read it over and over and over again as I get older, maybe I will. Or I won't, which almost doesn't matter, as I will gain so much more each time. It gives me optimism for my own personal and spiritual development, and a great amount of faith that these fabulous, wonderful, life-changing books might remain my constant, life-long friends.

Also, BEHEMOTH (yes, I'm capitalising again.) Oh my goodness. Did ever an animal have more personality than the lowly cat?

Check back tomorrow for my third blogaversary retrospective post! (I'm having such fun:)







Blogaversary Series: Day One

Hello readers! As you might have guessed for the title of this post, Tolstoy is my Cat is two years old this week!

I wanted to celebrate this as a way of saying a big THANK YOU to all my readers who've visited and perhaps stayed during that time, so I thought I'd delve back into the archive and post two links every day with a little explanation of why I have chosen to bring them from the dusty basement of my back-list back into the foreground once more. Also, look out for a give-away on one of the days this week...

1. My first link of the day is my post How Pathetic is your Fallacy? from January 2011, in which I talk about reading Emma Forrest's 'Your Voice in My Head' and Boris Pasternak's sublime 'Doctor Zhivago' whilst in Austria in the snow. 

Reason: When I first started this blog, I was quite focused on exploring the techniques of good writing, probably because I was doing a number of writing courses at that time. In a way, I used blog posts like this one as a test for myself, to check that I really understood what I was talking about when it came to things like literary devices and also to check that I could somehow incorporate them into something I was writing.

Pathetic fallacy was always a literary device I revered and was entertained by, even when I'd sit in the classroom becoming quietly obsessed with such things, probably like a lot of other bookish people out there. Also, this is a nice post for me to re-read as it features two of my favourite books from recent years and reminds me of a really beautiful, peaceful holiday.

2. My second link for the day is 'Snow', a flash fiction piece I posted on the blog early last year, which was nominated for the 3 Quarks Daily Art & Literature Prize 2011.

Reason: It was so exciting for me to be listed amongst pieces from The Millions, Millicent and Carla Fran and the oft mentioned Simon from Stuck in a Book: it was a real confidence booster for me, and brought many new readers into my fledgling blog. It was also my first experience of the connective power of blogging - I asked people to vote for me and they very kindly did, so much so that I finished first - and it was my first piece of fiction to be approved in some way by anyone other than a course-mate or a relative, which was obviously lovely and, again, gave me a great confidence boost.

So, check back tomorrow for two more of my favourite links from the archive... 

Also, feel free to share this post as a small blogaversary present to me, as what is a party without some new friends?







'A Suitable Boy' Readathon, No. 1

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm participating in a readathon of Vikram Seth's Indian masterpiece, 'A Suitable Boy', with Sam at Tiny Library, JoV at Book Pyramid and many others, and I'm excited!

If anyone else wants to join, the plan is to read to part 7.46 by the end of Aug, part 13.38 by the end of Sept and to the end by the end of October. I'm currently at 1.7, so need to do some serious reading to catch up over the next few weeks. It is really good so far though, so that will be a pleasure, I think.

As is easy to believe if you've ever seen a physical copy of this book, it is a front-runner for the longest book ever published in a single volume, at 1349 pages. Lols. 

I picked my copy up from the library last week and had to keep shifting my bag on my shoulder with the weight of the book combined with all my usual paraphernalia. This might not be one for carting pretentiously around my usual cafes; more one for balancing on the edge of a sofa or knee for long, cosy stretches...

Regular sized from the front...

...and two inches thick from the side!







Blogs You Must Read

A few weeks ago, the lovely Ali at 12 Books, 12 Months nominated me for a 'Versatile Blogger' award, passing on the baton that she'd received from two blogs a while back. And I'm thrilled! I love this big-up-the-community aspect of blogging - thanks Ali!

The rules of receiving it are that you then have to pass it on to 15 other blogs that you read and love, and then reveal 7 fascinating facts about yourself. The blogs first:

1. 12 Books, 12 Months, and not just because she nominated me - having actually managed to get through the writing of 12 books in 12 months, Ali also features interesting industry Q&As, guest posts (including mine!) and articles about her own writing work, which are great.
2. Martini and a Pen, run by the lovely and talented Tom Andrews, who posts his own mad-cap fiction in the run-up to the publication of his first novel, which I am beside myself with excitement about. He was also one of the first ever commentors on my blog, way back when.
3. Tiny Library, which is a more recent addition to my reading routine, features fab reviews and community features, like the Vikram Seth readathon that I am excited to be participating in over the next few months.
4. Literary Musings is another great book blog, and a recent discovery of mine. Brenna reviews a great and interesting variety of books, and I love that these often have an American Lit focus, as I know little about US lit and enjoy learning more.
5. The Lost Beat is a fabulous poetry blog, run by Tom Andrews (from Martini and a Pen, above) and Natasha Gdansk: reading just a few posts is a great invigorator for getting on with your own stuff as it is So. Damn. Inspiring. A lot of the poetry is tres funny too.
6. Alas, Book Lush has been sleeping for a good few months now whilst the lovely Nicole does other things, but it's still a fave site of mine for the great book reviews and articles, and for learning some things about baseball too (!)
7. A very popular site, Reading Matters, is the perfect email subscription for keeping me up-to-date with newly published fiction - particularly British, Irish and Australian - without me having to actually search it all out for myself :)
8. Changing tack for a second, Bear and Bug is a great craft blog run by Anna who I used to work with that posts interesting and beautiful things. She also custom-made me a cuddly toy monster for my godson which he LOVES, so it's a win all round.
9. Back to book blogs again, A Room of One's Own, run by Jillian, was the original home on 'The Classics Club' (see my list above). She writes really, really well about how books have shaped her life so far, helping her deal with some rather big issues along the way.
10. Kirsty Logan's site and work are totally inspiring (and intimidating): she is so talented that it turns me rather green :)
11. Chasing Bawa, which recently turned three (congratulations!), is a great blog which features fiction from across the world, written by Sakura, who sure as hell knows her stuff. We've also done one or two work things together in real life, so I know also that she's a lovely person to boot.
12. Another fab blogger/lovely person is Simon at Stuck in a Book, who rarely writes about books I've actually read - his tastes centre around middle-brow pre-WWII fiction, I think - so it's great for colouring in my black spots and pointing me to things I really should read.
13. I know they won't notice that I've nominated them, but I adore The Hairpin and feel weirdly like every contributor to it could be my friend. Some great, great writing.
14. Same for McSweeney's, if you're not familiar with it...
15. And I'd like to leave this fifteenth space free for all the great blogs I'll find in the next few days, weeks, months...one thing I love about the book blogging community is that new people are arriving all the time.

 So, to the seven things about me:

1. Like Ali, my accent also changes at will, so much so that I sometimes have to watch it. I think it comes from years of language learning and generally moving around.
2. Ali was sad to discover that her first gig wasn't The Deftones; I'm proud to reveal that mine was to see 3T (remember them? Jacko's nephews) at Plymouth Pavilions, supported by Shola Ama. My friend and I went with our mums. Good times.
3. As you all know, I have a cat called Tolstoy. If I were to get a dog, I'd get a red King Charles Spaniel and call it Joan, in tribute.
4. The only times I really realise how small I am (155cm) are in the mirrors at Pilates next to all the taller people, and when I have to stand on tip-toes to order at bars. Otherwise it never occurs to me. Naturally, I get ID'd ALL THE TIME.
5. When I studied in Japan, I did a several-month-long stint of hair modelling for a local salon. Photos of yourself in crazy Japanese wigs in regional, Japanese-language hair magazines = best souvenirs ever.
6. I'm a pretty good cook. My favourite things to make are Greek salad, Scandinavian beetroot and ginger soup and pasta of all types. Tomorrow night I'm making a three course Thai feast for some friends.
7. And my final thing...having worked in the arts/theatre for a few years now, I've met a good number of famous literary, thespy and general celebrity-esque people. The majority are disappointing in some way, so it's with pleasure that I reveal that the nicest celeb I've met is Deborah Moggach, who has written many things, including the 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel', which was recently made into a film. She was so nice and friendly that she wanted to talk at length about my writing - where I was with things, how I find it, what my writing is about etc. - and waved away any suggestion of talking about her own. 

 

So, who would you nominate? And what secrets would you tell?







The Million's Most Anticipated List

A few days ago The Millions published their Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2012 Book Preview, listing all the book they were most excited about coming out before the end of 2012. I urge you to check out the full list yourself, but these are my personal picks from the list:

'Dare Me' by Megan Abbott, which is actually already out in the UK, published by Picador, is a dark look at the competitive world of cheer-leading and the modern adolescent psyche.  Her last book, 'The End of Everything', was highly acclaimed and The Millions reckons this book could make her 'the head honcho of suburban noir', so very curious about this.






 'NW', out in September in the UK and the US, is Zadie Smith's first novel in 7 years and concerns a fictional council estate called Caldwell in north-west London and the people who live there.

 
'White Teeth' has always been an important book to me, and I really enjoyed 'On Beauty's treatment of Howard's End, so I hope this new one will be just as good. Fingers crossed she doesn't go all 'Autograph Man' on me - that book went way, way over my head.

'Heroines' by Kate Zambreno is my next pick, although this book will be the first of hers that I've read. It's about, interestingly, the wives and mistresses of artists who are essential muses in their heydays but often end up silenced or erased. I think I become more political by the day, if I'm honest, especially with regards to women's politics, so this is the kind of book that I need. Also, Jezebel loves her, as does The Hairpin, and seeing as those are the two places I generally hang-out online, I reckon I will too. This one's out in September.

'Sweet Tooth' by Ian McEwan is my final pick, which is out in the UK in August and the US in November, and is apparently le Carre-meets-'Atonement' which makes me very excited as I recently made my happy way through 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' and 'Atonement is one of my all-time faves.







The Book Blogger File - about Me!

[via]

Hello all,

Quite excitingly, Ali over at 12 Books 12 Months has interviewed yours truly, about writing, books and my WIP. 

 

Amongst many things, she asks about my reading habits, my life outside blogging, and also the slightly awkward question of why 'Dickens from the Start' has, shall we say, floundered :)

You can read the interview here.








The Rejection Generator

Only click this link if you are feeling brave, and wish to steady yourself against all thoughts of possible rejection in the future. C'mon, we're writers, rejection is just grist to the mill!

This is the humdinger I got:

Dear Writer,
 
We know the feeling of hope with which any writer opens a message from a publisher, 

expecting a new breakthrough, a new recognition. That is a good feeling, and you 

deserve to feel good. Savor it. Maybe jot down a few sentences describing your 

dizzy near-elation at this moment. It's about to end.
 
Your piece is not for us.
 
Regards,
The Editors

Ha!

via The Millions 





B*tches in Bookshops and 'On the Road' Trailer

B*tches in Bookshops. YES. So funny. Love that people make these things.

via Literary Musings, The Huffington Post and about a thousand others...
(here's the transcript)

And really excited about this - the trailer for Kerouac's insane masterpiece, On the Road. Kirsten Stewart looks really intriguing as Mary-Lou, although Garrett Hedlund isn't much like how I imagined Dean. Might re-read it before it comes out...







Friday Miscellany

So, I've read/found some cool stuff lately, so I thought I'd share:

Firstly, I've joined  The Classics Club! Follow that hyperlink, or click the above tab, to see my carefully crafted list of 83 (!) classic books that I aim to read in the next 4 years, so by March 2016. The idea of it, cleverly crafted by Jillian at A Room of One's Own, is that you choose 50+ classics that you always meant to/fancied reading, and then set your own time limit for reading them, as long as its within the next 5 years. I'm really excited about this, and am looking forward to getting started.

This is a really interesting article from The Millions, about finding inspiration in writing class:

I LOVE the idea of the 'skinny skeleton' and the tiny boxes of ideas.

Also, I'd like to draw your attention to all the exciting new people on my blogroll, which I gave a little make-over/face-lift last week. Hopefully you know some, don't know others, and enjoy exploring these funny, quirky, clever blogs as much I did. It never ceases to amaze me how many great book bloggers out there I just haven't found yet.

And one last thing - I managed to get tickets to see Regina Spektor at the Royal Albert Hall in July, so I've been dancing now for roughly two days :D
 






Songs that Feature Bits of Literary Texts







Emotional Reactions in Reviews

My Friend Amy wrote a great piece the other day about the validity of emotional reactions to art, and the appropriateness of including this in reviews, which perhaps should be based on more objective factors, such as the quality of the writing and the originality of the piece. Here's an short excerpt to give you an idea, but click through for the whole piece:

'A couple of weeks ago, one of the TV journalists I follow on Twitter mentioned how they find it strange that people equate their emotional reaction to a film with the film's objective quality. I wish I had screen capped the tweet as I cannot remember who said it, but it forced me to start thinking about how we determine the worth of art.

I would say the reason we have professional critics is so that we have people who are supposed to evaluate a film, book, TV show, album, etc. based on what are considered to be the more objective qualities of a piece of work, to evaluate if they accomplish what they set forth to do, and if they take new risks. To do this, though, a professional critic must deny their emotional reaction to a piece of work and I wonder if that's entirely possible. The way we take in and perceive art will always be colored by our own understandings and limitations so while I do think professional critics strive to do this in a way the casual consumer of art does not, it is still just that...very limited.'

This got me thinking about the way I include my own emotional reactions in reviews, and whether this is the right thing to be doing in order to give the book or film a fair deal. Like anyone else, I have things I know are derivative nonsense that move me (some silly, weepy films  immediately spring to mind) and things that I know are 'great' or 'ground-breaking' but leave me entirely cold. When speaking about them on this platform, because I've always thought people want to hear what I think, I will gush about the ones that move me, and I will be cool about the ones that leave me cool, whilst adding caveats for objective factors like quality of writing and originality etc.







Songs about Literary Characters