Notes on Lana

I finally went to see Lana Del Rey this week and she was AMAZING!

– Her voice sounded fantastic. I was actually slightly concerned that she wouldn't be that amazing a singer, as I've seen videos of some dodgy performances from her in the past, but she's either improved or those performances were due to nerves - she sang brilliantly.
– She opened with Cola and the last song was National Anthem: altogether she sang about 7 songs from Born To Die and 5 songs from the Paradise Edition, plus Young & Beautiful, Burning Desire and a partial cover of Knockin' on Heaven's Door (I suspect the Guns N' Roses version rather than Bob Dylan's - she sang the 'hey hey hey' bit that Axl Rose sings!)
– She sang the original chorus of Born To Die, ie the line 'let me fuck you hard in the pouring rain' rather than 'kiss'
– The whole monologue intro to Ride was played before she came on and started the song proper - I was so happy about this, although I wish the set had opened with this rather than it happening halfway through
– Her band were really good, she had a string quartet on stage... I didn't realise they were really there until about halfway through, I thought the music was partly recorded/the video recordings of the violinists had been done somewhere previously (lol)
– The set was really nice, featuring Art Deco-style lighting, lion statues, palm trees, a screen thing at the back which images (including her music videos, for the songs that have them) were projected on to: there were also two big screens either side of the stage which showed close-ups throughout the show (happily the video quality was amazing)
– Her belt said 'live fast, die young' on it :,)
– She was very appreciative of her fans and kept ~thanking everyone and spent ages at the end signing things and taking photos with the people at the front of the crowd. I've never seen anyone do that at a show before and it was nice to see! You can tell she really, genuinely loves interacting with her fans.

My camera is absolutely RUBBISH (seeing people in front of me taking better photos with their phones than I could get with my camera really made me realise I need to get a new one...) but here's the best of the lot anyway!

May adventures (brb)

I haven't had much to post about the last few weeks - I've been working hard and, er... reading hard. I am really looking forward to the rest of this month, though.


I'm going to see Lana Del Rey in a few days! I booked these tickets in the fan pre-sale in something ridiculous like November, so I can't really believe it's actually here. I will be using the look above as inspiration for my outfit, since I have that vest in black - although I think I'll have less luck with recreating the hair. I know what the setlist is going to be... but I'm still hoping she'll spontaneously burst into Driving in Cars with Boys.




Then, at the end of this month, I'm going to Marrakech! I haven't had as much time to read up on stuff I want to do as I would have liked, so if anyone has any must-see recommendations/essential survival tips, please comment and let me know! I'm obviously planning to a) go to the souks, b) visit the Jardin Majorelle and c) relax. In the HEAT (I hope).

Reading round-up: April

24. Ghostwritten by David Mitchell - 10/10 (full review). A series of interconnected stories, each as vivid and captivating as the last. Hugely entertaining, intellectually engaging, funny, fast-paced and addictive - I didn't want to tear myself away from it.
25. The Quickening by Julie Myerson - 8/10 (full review). Past misdeeds come back to haunt a newlywed couple in an atmospheric ghost story, in the unconventional but very effective setting of Antigua. Very tense and very enjoyable.
26. The Palace of Curiosities by Rosie Garland - 6/10 (full review). Set in Victorian London, this debut seeks to emulate Angela Carter with an adventure-slash-romance set among a freakshow-style variety performance. Readable, but lacking in depth.
27. Jellybird by Lezanne Clannachan - 7/10 (full review). A new friendship is the catalyst for the protagonist to revisit her past in this slow-burning, but fascinating, psychological drama.
28. Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley - 4/10 (full review). An interesting premise - a woman and her two daughters become stranded on a remote farm while fleeing from a polygamous cult - which is, unfortunately, executed poorly. More of a dull domestic tableau than the intriguing story it could have been.
29. The Asylum by John Harwood - 8/10 (full review). In Victorian England, a young woman wakes up in a lunatic asylum and is told her beliefs about her own identity are all part of a delusion. Can the reader believe her own account of who she is? Hugely compelling and great gothic fun.
30. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - 8/10. The sort of book that needs no introduction, really. A luminous and haunting story with memorable characters, elegant prose and many very striking scenes. Wish I'd read it sooner!
31. The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan - 5/10 (full review). A 15-year-old girl is admitted to a home for chronic child offenders. Is she really guilty of putting a police officer in a coma, and is there some darker force at work in determining her fate? Well-written, but this didn't live up to my expectations, as it's more character portrait than mystery.
32. Death: A Picture Album - 8/10. I mentioned this in my spring post and I was really pleased with it. A beautifully bound volume containing an impressive number of artworks and accompanying artistic and cultural history.
33. Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight - 8/10 (full review). In this fast-paced, gripping mystery, a mother attempts to unravel the mystery of her teenage daughter's apparent suicide. The narrative patches together various sources, making for a brilliantly readable popcorn thriller.
34. Accidents Happen by Louise Millar - 6/10 (full review). Another solid domestic thriller from the author of The Playdate, in which an extremely paranoid woman is persuaded to abandon her inhibitions by an enigmatic new friend. Not exactly remarkable, but a decent read which ends well.
35. Cooking With Bones by Jess Richards - 10/10 (full review). Difficult to describe but absolutely excellent, Richards' second novel is a mixture of dystopian fantasy, fairytale, mystery, coming-of-age, and ghost story. It follows two sisters from a futuristic city and a child in an old-fashioned village, in a multi-layered tale with lots of themes and meanings. Fascinating and beautiful.

My favourite book of April has to be Cooking With Bones - an entirely unique concoction of a novel that was completely unlike anything I've read before. I also loved Ghostwritten - similar to the author's more widely read Cloud Atlas, but better - and The Great Gatsby, which was much more vibrant and readable tham I expected from a 'classic'.

The high number of books I got through this month is probably down to the fact that I read quite a few 'lighter' books, which could probably be (loosely) collectively described as thrillers. Of these, I would really recommend Reconstructing Amelia, a very enjoyable mystery; The Quickening, a very atmospheric ghost story; and The Asylum, a Victorian gothic romp. Jellybird was also very good and Accidents Happen a bit more mediocre - although the latter did have a good ending.

I really hope I can keep up this pace in May. As my recent post about 2013 releases will testify, I have loads and loads of books to get through - so many that I'm kind of hoping some of them turn out to be rubbish and I can abandon them!

Book review: Cooking With Bones by Jess Richards

Cooking With Bones (25 April 2013) by Jess Richards

I almost don't know where to start with describing Cooking With Bones. This is a novel with a lot of different elements and influences, but the story as a whole is unlike anything else I've read. It's a bit like a more refined, complex, fantastical, modernised, and even more original version of Richards' debut, Snake Ropes.

The book opens in a city called Paradon. Here we meet two sisters, Amber and Maya. While Amber is an 'ordinary' girl, Maya is a formwanderer - human, but genetically engineered to mirror the desires and needs of anyone she encounters. To Amber, who as a child was desperate to have a twin sister, she is exactly that: a perfect reflection of Amber herself. To the sisters' parents, she is the perfect daughter, the favourite child. Amber, however, is growing out of her yearning for a twin and is starting to want Maya to find her own identity. At the same time, there is growing hysteria about formwanderers in the Paradon media - due to their nature they are able to act on others' unconscious desires, and as a result they are thought to be capable of killing. When the girls' parents find them separate jobs as 'Lab Assistants' (Amber in 'the Tear Lab, where sadness is measured'), Amber persuades Maya they must leave Paradon.

So this is fantasy - kind of. When the action moves outside Paradon, we see that the city is the only part of this world where society has advanced to such a stage. In Paradon, huge mirrored panels keep the city permanently sunny and warm; but in the countryside, life is simple, even backward. In a small village - its name is given as Seachant, but that's only mentioned once; for the most part, it is just 'the village' - the residents are in thrall to an ancient, unseen witch they call Old Kelp, the local school is closed because there's no coal, and the only medical assistance comes from an inexperienced doctor who lives miles away in the next town. Here we encounter the secondary protagonist, ten-year-old Kip, who delivers the 'fair' - a daily offering consisting of baking ingredients and other food - to Old Kelp's cottage every morning.

The story is about what happens when Amber and Maya come to the village, and discover Old Kelp's cottage. It's also about how an affair, two disappearances, a possible death and some difficult secrets affect the lives of the villagers, as seen through Kip's eyes. Ultimately it is about how these events come together with the stories (and beliefs) that have made this place what it is.

Cooking With Bones feels like a fairytale, replete with magic and enchantment, and indeed there are elements of myths, legends and stories woven throughout the narrative - both in the tales the villagers tell each other about Old Kelp, and how the sisters make sense of their old and new lives. Like Snake Ropes, this is a largely female-dominated story: although there doesn't seem to be any hierarchy among the villagers, it's Old Kelp who effectively rules the village, terrifying its residents so thoroughly that they won't even approach her cottage or look through the windows for fear of being cursed. And when the legend of Old Kelp is told, it's not the witch who is the hero of the story, nor her lover, the farmer Gilliam, but Gilliam's wife. In turn, this story is mirrored through the actions of the characters, with more than one 'tangle of three' affecting what happens to them all.

There are so many different things to be fascinated by in Cooking With Bones: while it's an oddity, it also has something for everyone. It's a dystopian fantasy, a murder mystery, a ghost story and a coming-of-age tale (about more than one character), with sex scenes that are more erotic than most of the stuff you find in erotic novels, but are also weird and discomfiting. It's a story about a girl who wants to be a woman, a girl who doesn't know what she wants to be (even though she could be anything at all), and a boy who might want to be a girl (or might just want to wear their clothes). It's about loving your family, leaving your family, taking on a new identity, the enduring power of stories; the power of fear, fearlessness, lust, fate, and getting to know who you really are. It's like science fiction rewritten by an author of centuries-old fairytales and then rewritten again by a modern-day feminist. There are so many ways it could be read - so many layers of meaning and mystery - but at its heart, it's also an enjoyable, emotive, funny story with great characters, and despite all the strangeness, it's very human.

I really loved this book. It's so rare to find something so unpredictable and unique yet so coherent, interesting and memorable. It's beautifully written - lyrical and evocative (with distinct voices for the three protagonists) but not so much that it feels pretentious or stops you from relating to the characters. I paid £9.99 for this - the most I've ever paid for a Kindle book, and I did wonder whether it would be worth it. However, I can now quite happily say that it most definitely was. Another beautiful cover, too - I suppose I'll end up buying the hardback edition as well, to match my gorgeous copy of Snake Ropes!

Rating: 10/10 | My full review on Goodreads (with minor spoilers!) | Buy on Amazon: Kindle & Hardback

£10 well spent

Since I did really well at not buying any new clothes or other 'unnecessary' things in March, I've been trying to keep it up in April too. I HAD to break the ban, though, to get some new black jeans (my old faithful Topshop Jamies decided to develop an attractive rip in the crotch area and have now been replaced with the Topshop Joni jeans, which are very stretchy and comfortable). I also finally treated myself to a Western-style belt from New Look (here) and got a couple of things from the Topshop sale: a polka-dot dress and a pair of faux-leather biker trousers, which were FIVE POUNDS.

Anyway, Primark must have been calling my name at the weekend because I wandered in with no intention of buying anything and found myself faced with some newly stocked sale racks. I ended up buying four tops - two Isabel Marant-inspired embroidered sleeveless shirts (one with tassels!), a black vest with silver spikes on the shoulders, and a green & black dip-hem top with gold collar tips - for £10. The green one was an absolute steal at £1. Perfect timing, since I've been really wanting to update my work and casual wardrobes with some warm(ish)-weather appropriate tops but haven't had the cash.

PS: I went to see Iron Man 3 a couple of days ago and I haven't been able to get this song out of my head since. SEND HELP.