Body Swap - Jerome Parisse

Body Swap – Jerome Parisse

Pages: 167
Publisher: CreateSpace
Release Date: 7th October 2010

Other Titles by this Author: The Wings of Leo Spencer

From Goodreads: William and Pat receive a mysterious text message pleading for help from a girl in a deep coma. They try to help, but a disastrous mix up occurs, and William ends up trapped in her body, leading him to difficult and sometimes comedic situations. The situation becomes even more desperate when Pat falls in love with Stephanie. The boys confront awesome challenges and meet with an unexpected enemy.

As I really enjoyed The Wings of Leo Spencer, I was quite looking forward to this. But I was a little disappointed.

My main problem with Body Swap was that I didn’t find that William and Pat spoke naturally. It often seemed a little stilted and unrealistic; almost forced sometimes. There was no slang and very little abbreviations as well as their topic of conversation being very unusual for thirteen year old boys. I wasn’t entirely convinced.

I also thought that their immediate response to Stephanie’s text was unrealistic. I think that it would take a little longer for an average person to be convinced by receiving texts from the other side. There was so little hesitation in their decision to help her.

The thing I did love about Body Swap was William’s reaction to being in a girl’s body. His confusion over putting a bra on, immediate discomfort in dresses and the horror at heels were brilliantly funny. It was excellent seeing a boy struggle in a girl’s world.

Sophie

Across the Blogosphere Challenge

ENTER THE ‘ACROSS THE BLOGOSPHERE’ CHALLENGE AND WIN A ZERO GRAVITY EXPERIENCE FOR YOU AND A FRIEND!!

Come on board and enter the ‘Across the Blogosphere’ challenge to celebrate the UK launch of Across the Universe by Beth Revis & WIN the chance to experience zero-gravity!

All you need to do is follow the blog schedule below and make a note of just ONE item that ONE of the bloggers would like to add to a time capsule of 2011. You will also need to make note of Beth Revis’ time capsule item, which will be uploaded to the Across the Universe UK Facebook page AT RANDOM during this week.

Become a fan now, so you don’t miss out! http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Across-the-Universe-book-UK-page/135193489876515

So, that’s only TWO items in total- ONE from any of the blog sites listed and ONE from Beth Revis that you’ll find on facebook.

ACROSS THE BLOGOSPHERE CHALLENGE BLOG SCHEDULE
Monday 28th February: Wondrous Reads http://www.wondrousreads.com/  
Tuesday 1st March: Once Upon A Bookcase http://onceuponabookcase.blogspot.com/  
Wednesday 2nd March: So Many Books, So Little Time http://solittletimeforbooks.blogspot.com/  
Thursday 3rd March (PUBLICATION DAY!): Narratively Speaking http://www.narrativelyspeaking.com/  

THE PRIZE IS AIRKIX KIK-START vouchers for you and a friend to experience the thrill of indoor skydiving! (Manchester & Milton Keynes). Find out more here: http://www.airkix.com/

Enter here to WIN!
http://www.spinebreakers.co.uk/Competitions/Pages/Acrosstheblogospherechallenge.aspx

Good luck!

I found the decision of what to put in the time capsule very difficult to decide. I began thinking about this with my favourite things and the first thing that came to mind was my housemates. But that's slightly impractical and so I had to think further.
Then I came up with books which is way too obvious, then chocolate which Jo beat me to and so i decided to go with something I genuinely couldn't live without: my laptop. Here it is in it's shiny, red glory on my hideously messy desk:

Sophie

Poetic Ponders (3)

During this year studying English Literature and Creative Writing, I’ve developed a new appreciation for poetry. With this in mind, I thought that I’d start a new weekly feature on So Many Books, So Little Time in which I share with you my favourite poems. They may be ones I discover on my course or ones I’ve loved for a long time.

Hopefully some of you will join me in sharing some awesome poems.

Continuities – Walt Whitman (1855)

Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost,

No birth, identity, form--no object of the world.

Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing;

Appearance must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain.

Ample are time and space--ample the fields of Nature.

The body, sluggish, aged, cold--the embers left from earlier fires,

The light in the eye grown dim, shall duly flame again;

The sun now low in the west rises for mornings and for noons continual;

To frozen clods ever the spring's invisible law returns,

With grass and flowers and summer fruits and corn.

Unlike the poems of the previous two weeks, I discovered this poem through a book; The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. It’s a beautiful and moving poem that reminds me of Noah and Allie’s story every time I read it. It’s absolutely stunning.


Sophie

Across the Universe - Beth Revis

Across the Universe – Beth Revis

Pages: 398 (ARC)
Publisher: Razorbill (Penguin)
Release Date: 3rd March 2011

From Goodreads: A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone--one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship--tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Across the Universe is a mind-blowing sci-fi tale of epic proportions, and I loved it to bits.

One of the first things of many about Across the Universe that made me smile was that it’s written in dual narrative; my favourite form. I loved seeing life on Godspeed from two characters in such opposing situations; the ultimate outsider and the ultimate insider. The snippets of frozen Amy and Elder before Amy were fascinating in comparison to later in the novel, so much so that I almost want to re-read it to get the full effect!

The first chapter, as most people have already seen, completely draws you in by throwing you head-first into Amy’s world. So many mysteries and questions were set up that it would have been impossible not to carry on reading. And while the world she begins the novel in doesn’t seem that different to ours, but the one she wakes up in most certainly is. It’s a miniature replication of earth with a city, a hospital, gardens and homes, but there is only one race, one language with a strange dialect and no religions. There is also a subtle scheme of slang running through the novel by those who live on Godspeed which really adds reality to Across the Universe that contends with the ridiculously sophisticated developments in technology and genetics that our scientists could only dream of.

But with this, there are also some serious downsides. There is the crushing power of Elder and the attempted murders on the frozen people, the utterly disturbing and unnatural Season and the empty Feeders. As well as that, all of the things we take for granted on Earth – the sky, rain, clouds, fresh air, throw-away materials and, ultimately, freedom – are not available for those who live, work and die on Godspeed.

All in all, I loved Across the Universe. I think it could be one of my favourites that I’ve read so far this year and I’m VERY excited for the sequel.

For my 2011 Debut Author Challenge

A huge thank you to Puffin for sending me a copy to review.

Sophie

Poetic Ponders (2)

During this year studying English Literature and Creative Writing, I’ve developed a new appreciation for poetry. With this in mind, I thought that I’d start a new weekly feature on So Many Books, So Little Time in which I share with you my favourite poems. They may be ones I discover on my course or ones I’ve loved for a long time.

Hopefully some of you will join me in sharing some awesome poems.

London – William Blake (1794)

I wander thro’ each charter’d street,

Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,

And mark in every face I meet

Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,

In every Infant’s cry of fear,

In every voice, in every ban,

The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry

Every black'ning Church appalls;

And the hapless Soldier’s sigh

Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro’ midnight streets I hear

How the youthful Harlot’s curse

Blasts the new-born Infant’s tear

And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

For A-level English Lit. I studied Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience and he quickly became one of my favourite poets and you’re very likely to see me featuring a lot more of his poems in the future.

Sophie

Other poetic ponders: Once Upon a Bookcase