Books 2010- Dickens, David Copperfield

A novel I have re-read after many years, this is a brilliant classic. It took me a while to get into it but once I was in I was hooked. I have never studied this book, and the experience of reading a ‘classic’ for yourself is vastly different to reading novels as a set text – you miss out on the analysis and discussion, and also so many nuances pass you by. But, on the positive side, reading and exploring a classic alone means you can interpret for yourself, make assumptions and perhaps just enjoy it a bit more as you can just let loads of things you don’t understand just wash over you as you enjoy the narrative and story. also, as ever when a novel references places you know and love its always a bit thrilling and a lot this book is based in London and Kent.

It’s hardly surprising that David Copperfield is such a great novel, it’s funny with lots of twists and turns and great characters - I especially love the Micawbers and truly detest the villainous Uriah Heep and that ‘murdering sister’.

Books 2010 - Pratchett

I genuinely haven’t been reading that many books over the last couple of months, just enjoying reading newspapers and magazines (particularly at the weekend), catching up with blogs and also watching lots of rubbish telly. But the other day a book arrived that I’ve been keen to get for a while: Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook - A Useful and Improving Almanack of Information including Astonishing Recipes

Nanny Ogg is a discworld witch – and who is basically a bawdy, pervy, smart and hilarious woman. This book is a discworld spin off, and has some recipes and etiquette guide, and as its 'written' by Nanny Ogg its basically just a load of innuendo, quasi-phallic, nudge-nudge-wink-wink type stuff, with strong feminist and anti monarchist undertones, and can really make you laugh out loud. I haven’t tried any of the recipes out but I plan to, and I think I’ll start with the chocolate delight with special secret sauce, and also maybe the sticky toffee rat onna stick….

Whilst it does stand alone, I recommend that you read this book after you have enjoyed a couple of the witches discworld novels so you get the in jokes and shout outs. It’s quite easy to dip into every now and then, or read in one sitting, as I did.

"The Pill is born"

Today I learned that The Pill is celebrating it's 50th anniversary, in the USA. The introduction of this straightforward to use, efficient and relatively safe form of birth control, heralded the dawn of a new age for many women. Women were finally able control their own fertility. Allowing women to control our destinies and our bodies as we had never been able to do before. A freedom and control many of us now take for granted. This powerful freedom is unfortunately not available to all women. Even in countries where we may have thought access to birth control is well established, many women are unable to access The Pill or even information about The Pill or other forms of birth control. This needs to change, 50 years on and we still need to ensure all women can take for granted the power and freedom that comes with being able to control our fertility.

I learned about this significant anniversary via Daily Candy. I joined Daily Candy for updates about events, entertainment etc in my area, never imagining that I would learn about such an important anniversary through their website

Image Courtesy of: Cosmos Magazine