The grass is greener on the other side.
Or is it? maybe your grass is just dry.
Saturday, 20 June 2015
Tuesday, 9 June 2015
The Losers Book Club - The Girl On The Train
We read Paula Hawkin's The Girl On The Train for this chapter of the losers book club (you know the format by now) a 90's movie style thriller noir for another unlikely (the best type) detective.
This was actually the book Andri wanted to read before but I accidentally picked up Elizabeth Is Missing which turned out to be a pretty fantastic read.
The tagline is that our main character, I'll explain why she's not the "hero" shortly, gets the train every day. On this train journey she notices a couple living in a house and daydreams about their perfect life together until she sees something that changes everything. She will then become part of this "perfect couples" life and nothing will ever be the same again.
Entwining both their story and her own life into a twisted tale of deceit, lies, missing people and a whole lot of booze along the way we find our self drawn into a world that no one seems to want to be in.
Our main character is not a hero. No one would describe her as a hero. She, as all good characters are is a massively flawed human being who has lost herself and is teetering on the edge of finding her way back to the real world or falling off and into oblivion and completely losing it.
The other characters we meet along the way are equally flawed and not without their own issues. That's one of the things that makes this book so enjoyable. What appears on the surface to be perfect isn't always the case. Scratch below and we find something hidden, a personal demon, a secret that can ruin lives, a characteristic about a person we never knew existed.
Now I would say that the first half of this book is pretty damn good, you are reading whilst scratching your head over the complicated characters, attempting to work out if they are good, bad or neither.
If the first half is anything its a set up for when it gets really good. We read the first half over the space of about three weeks. The second half of the book? all read in one night in the space of about six hours. There was only one time when I said do you want to carry on, I just got a silent nod and knew that we were going to finish the book that night. Other than that is was around ten to fifteen minutes reading and passing the book back and forth to read chapters. The only words spoken were the ever changing conspiracies we had drawn up in our minds about what was going to happen, pretty much changing constantly.
This is a brilliant book by any standards, to lump it in as another detective style mystery or to compare it to Gone Girl is wrong. It's so much more than that. It's creepy, uncomfortable in parts, you never know who is good and who is bad and in many ways you don't even know who to root for and by the halfway point you're baffled as to who you are meant to care about. You've almost given up on hope for some of the characters and are writing them off as lost causes.
The latest news seems to be that the movie rights to this has been picked up by Dreamworks and it would seem has found itself a director in Tate Taylor (The Help). The adaptation is being written up by Erin Cressda Wilson (secretary, Men, woman and Children), who seems perfect for the erotic style that I think this would need to work. It feels like a 90's thriller but set in today's time.
All this is what is kicking around the net at the moment, and it seems that they are flirting with the idea of Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, Edge of Tomorrow) for the main role and those dark eyes would be perfect. I think starting from youngest and going up dependant on age Gemma Arteton (St Trinians, Runner Runner) would suit the role or even Kate Winslet (like from Eternal Sunshie Of A Spotless Mind) and although it would never happen Helena Bonham Carter (like from Fight Club) would be perfect as a damaged woman on the edge.
This was actually the book Andri wanted to read before but I accidentally picked up Elizabeth Is Missing which turned out to be a pretty fantastic read.
The tagline is that our main character, I'll explain why she's not the "hero" shortly, gets the train every day. On this train journey she notices a couple living in a house and daydreams about their perfect life together until she sees something that changes everything. She will then become part of this "perfect couples" life and nothing will ever be the same again.
Entwining both their story and her own life into a twisted tale of deceit, lies, missing people and a whole lot of booze along the way we find our self drawn into a world that no one seems to want to be in.
Our main character is not a hero. No one would describe her as a hero. She, as all good characters are is a massively flawed human being who has lost herself and is teetering on the edge of finding her way back to the real world or falling off and into oblivion and completely losing it.
You don't know her. But she knows you.
Now I would say that the first half of this book is pretty damn good, you are reading whilst scratching your head over the complicated characters, attempting to work out if they are good, bad or neither.
If the first half is anything its a set up for when it gets really good. We read the first half over the space of about three weeks. The second half of the book? all read in one night in the space of about six hours. There was only one time when I said do you want to carry on, I just got a silent nod and knew that we were going to finish the book that night. Other than that is was around ten to fifteen minutes reading and passing the book back and forth to read chapters. The only words spoken were the ever changing conspiracies we had drawn up in our minds about what was going to happen, pretty much changing constantly.
This is a brilliant book by any standards, to lump it in as another detective style mystery or to compare it to Gone Girl is wrong. It's so much more than that. It's creepy, uncomfortable in parts, you never know who is good and who is bad and in many ways you don't even know who to root for and by the halfway point you're baffled as to who you are meant to care about. You've almost given up on hope for some of the characters and are writing them off as lost causes.
The latest news seems to be that the movie rights to this has been picked up by Dreamworks and it would seem has found itself a director in Tate Taylor (The Help). The adaptation is being written up by Erin Cressda Wilson (secretary, Men, woman and Children), who seems perfect for the erotic style that I think this would need to work. It feels like a 90's thriller but set in today's time.
All this is what is kicking around the net at the moment, and it seems that they are flirting with the idea of Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, Edge of Tomorrow) for the main role and those dark eyes would be perfect. I think starting from youngest and going up dependant on age Gemma Arteton (St Trinians, Runner Runner) would suit the role or even Kate Winslet (like from Eternal Sunshie Of A Spotless Mind) and although it would never happen Helena Bonham Carter (like from Fight Club) would be perfect as a damaged woman on the edge.
Wednesday, 29 April 2015
The Losers Book Club - Elizabeth Is Missing.
The second instalment in our book club where Andri and I read a chapter each to each other throughout is Emma Healey's debut in "Elizabeth is missing".
Tuesday, 17 June 2014
The Losers Book Club - The boy who could see Demons
We decided to start the losers book club, as a way of reading a book together and taking a moment from the hectic shifts and lives we lead.
Thursday, 24 April 2014
Summer Fashion. Wrong again.
Let's get straight to the point, I'm starting to lose faith in mans ability to do the fashion.
Just look at this...
Monday, 3 February 2014
Monday, 5 August 2013
Mother/Daughter fashion must haves. Summer 2013
The age old question of matching outfits, do we, don't we? Has anyone ever pulled this off without looking like the ghost of Primark past has thrown up some ill fitting out of date clothes all over two people?
Can it actually be done?
Can it actually be done?
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