Going back to basics

I’ve had a lot of attention lately on my post about the classics, questioning their importance but lately I have realized what is really important. I’m not talking about Austen,Dickens, Bronte or Shakespeare forget them all. Do you remember reading a book as a child that made you who you are today? Honestly? The answer is most likely no, we all hope we can but I doubt many people can remember the exact book! We all have favorites and so we should! 

Me on my school trip age 9? By this point I was already rushing to read books! 

 

Why is this important you may ask? Well I am setting myself a new project. As well as ‘Top Tuesdays’ and the normal reviewing I will be re-reading and reviewing my favorite children’s books for you all! This is where you my lovely readers come in! What are your favorite books? What did you love to read as a child? Let me know! I’m hoping while doing this it will get my creative flair going! Damn writers block! 

I thought it might also give you all a chance to get to know me as a person and my earlier influences. My love for British author Jacqueline Wilson was an obsession, I had to have every new book that came out as I would race through them (to the point where my Dad would test me on what I was reading to make sure I wasn’t racing). Likewise I became obsessed with Harry Potter, I still read the series every summer cover to cover in my garden normally. There was also Allan Ahlberg,Roald Dahl, Lemmony Snickett (another series where I had to have the next novel), Robert Muchamore’s C.H.E.R.U.B series (although  I didn’t get into these until I was 14) and a spell of obsession with Holocaust stories and Anne Frank (which a lot of the kids found weird when I was reading these gruesome stories at the age of 12). As you can see this is going to be on going! 

Thanks for reading! get commenting! 🙂

Our fate lives …

Our fate lives within us, you only have to be brave enough to see it

A Quote from Disney’s Brave. A beautiful film 🙂

Top 25 on my iTunes

I saw this on someone elses and thought this might reflect who I am (although I’m not too sure looking at the list!). As a musician my influences are everything so here we go! 

1. Hello Cold World – Paramore Whe this song came out at frist I wasn’t keen the I loved it. This was what I thought would be the new Paramore and honestly I was dissapointed with their new album. THIS is a great tune though! 
2. The A Team – Ed Sheeran  Who hasn’t heard this song? I listen to quite a lot of Ed Sheeran at night before I go to sleep because it soothing. I also done this song for a college assesment. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. 
3. Small Bump – Ed Sheeran When I first listened to this song the ending shocked me. I got upset the first time but I love this song so much. I think it’s because its about a mans perspective of becomign a father and losing the child. Ed Sheeran really does know how to write beautiful songs! 
4. Skinny Love – Birdy I don’t know why this song is so high up? I do like it but it’s not a total favourite. 
5. Wake Up Alone – Amy Winehouse Amy Winehouse? What can I say what a voice, what a talent! I really loved Amy she was incredible and this song is just so powerful! 
6. Hold On – Don Broco – Aha I think I like this song because its a bit naughty and a bit cheeky! I performed this for my final music performance and oh it was so much fun! Don Broco are really a band to watch great album!! 
7. Lego House – Ed Sheeran Again what can I say about the lovely Mr Sheeran! Simple but lovely love song 🙂  
8. The Lady is a Tramp – Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga This was a beautiful song! You wouldn’t think that these two would come together but it was a corker! I just want to be Gaga! She shows she’s not just a pop girl! Amazing.
9. Wake me up – Ed Sheeran And again! 
10. Somebody That I Used to Know – Gotye This song really gets in you head, again I don’t know why it’s so high but I’m not going to complain. 
11. Rehab – Amy Winehouse  Who didn’t love this song. I love how Amy is so blunt in her music, she says what she want to say regardless of anyone else. 
12. Some Unholy War – Amy Winehouse This is a real bittersweet lovesong when you know Amy’s story. Still incredible, that voice!! 
13. Addicted – Amy Winehouse I feel a bit off about this song because although it’s funny in another its really sad because we know she died of a relapse. For entertainment though a quite funny song. 
14. In The Mourning – Paramore Another song which would have made Paramore amazing. It has a country feel and I could personally just relate to the lyrics. I think thats why I loved Paramore so much I could always relate to the lyrics.
15. Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy – Queen Oh this song is brilliant and hillarious. I think it’s camp as hell but brilliant. I love Queen, I love Freddie and this to me is just brilliant and shows the randomness of his mind! 
16. Never Grow Up – Talyor Swift  This is the sweetest song and it relates to three/ four different parts of my life. The first part whe nshe sings about a little girl, innocent and with the whole world in her hands reminds me of my beautiful little cousin Lola as well as my Goddaughter Lexi. I dont want them to ever grow up, I want to protect those little girls forever. The second part about the young teenage reminds me of my sister shes nearly 12, again I want to look after her and want her to be a baby forever (a baby would not have her attitude haha!). The last part makes me think about myself as Im moving out and how I’ve been each of those little girls. Such an emotional song! 
17. Both Sides of the Story – We Are The In Crowd  Aha Love this song! The video is brilliant and so,so funny. I love W.A.T.I.C Can’t wait to see them Friday night!! 
18. Take It All – Adele I saw a friend perform this and ever since I’ve been hooked I think it just the amount of passion in Adeles voice.
19. Tears Dry On Their Own – Amy Winehouse Another brilliant Amy song and again mixed emotions. I’m addicted to her voice!
20.  Sex On The Radio – Good Charlotte  This is just a really fun song and I’d love to play it to a big crowd it would be so fun! This is one where I imagine playing to Wembly in my head 
21. Love is a Losing Game – Amy Winehouse This was the song playing on the TV when I heard of her death. Although it fitted it just seemed so,so sad. R.I.P Amy.
22. Muppet Show Theme Song – The Fray  A great cover, so funny but brilliant! 
23. Walk – Foo Fighters What can I say about this beaut of a song! The Foos always pull it off and this is my personal highlight of the album.
24. Lights Out – We Are The In Crowd  – Again just love WATIC
25. The Past Six Years – Deaf Havana I love, love, love Deaf Havana! This was one of my absolute favorties off of the Fools and Worthless Liars album. I think as a band they guys are getting the aire time they deserve! GREAT British talent with album 3 on the way….omnomnom! 

An introduction to ‘Top Tuesday’

I thought that the blog needed a bit more of a regular feel to it! I know usually I do reviews and my own writing but I thought it might be fun to have a regualr little insight. Welcome to ‘Top Tuesday’ each Tuesday I will be writing a kind of ‘top’ list! I could be about anything form student stuff, books, music , life in general. I’m really excited for this one and hope you will be as well! 

Your comments–they are like crack

Totally understand this!

readful things blog

What is this? A comment? I am so excited! Does anyone else have an addiction to getting comments on their blog? I swear I do. When I get the little notification thingy that says there is a comment my heart picks up speed with the anticipation.

I have become an addict. I may require treatment. Wondering what someone has to say about something I have posted has driven me to the edge of insanity. it isn’t a bad place you should visit with me. The cocktails are good and come with free, small, white pills. The men with the white coats are also very nice.

Really the only reason I am posting this is because I am hoping you will feed my addiction. I would rather do this than work. I can quit any time though. I promise.

“likes” are wonderful, but comments–oh those devilish little things–they are like water…

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Fat is failure? Why Samantha Brick is a shameful example of a British woman.

Back in 2012 I tuned in to This Morning to watch as scandal unfolded as the women of Great Britain cried out in out-roar over an article by Samantha Brick. After the somewhat ballsy journalists declared that because of her ‘beauty’ men adored her while women hated and punished her. She went further to comment on the many female bosses she had previously had  and how ‘jealous’ they had been of her in male company

‘…when you have a female boss, it’s best to let them shine, but when you have a male boss, it’s a different game: I have written in the Mail on how I have flirted to get ahead at work, something I’m sure many women do’

Brick went further than this saying how she had lost many friends over their husbands simply enjoying her company. For many, reading through Bricks many articles proves to be humorous and a source of entertainment and then you remember not only does this woman believe in what she is saying but she also represents the women of this great country through her writing. I do not blame women for being angered for what she has written, she portrays women in a horrific light making her out to be an angel among demons. Towards the end of the famous article that launched around the world she tries to gain sympathy from her readers over how cruel women can be to a ‘beautiful woman’ (although in a television interview she did not appear emotional, simply arrogant  see here) 

I can’t wait for the wrinkles and the grey hair that will help me blend into the background.

Perhaps then the sisterhood will finally stop judging me so harshly on what I look like, and instead accept me for who I am.

So imagine my absolute joy when I find out she has yet again released another anti feminist, pathetic and I ended up finding many others. I was aware via twitter that another article had been released stating that ‘Fat is failure’ and using Joan Collins as an example of how great it is to diet. Brick carries on to say that as a 42 year old woman she has been on a permanent diet for the last 30 years (cue the first bout of laughter or sympathy depending on how you look at it) and that YOU should too if you want to be beautiful. When I read that line I felt sorry for her, if it’s true, she has been watching her figure since she was 12. I have a 12 year old sister and feel that if someone had said this to her I would want to kill them and so in that respect I feel sorry for Brick if someone has made her feel this way. This was quickly dismissed however as Brick portrayed herself as a spoilt brat and this proves why women would not ‘like her’. 

‘when one friend arrived and thrust a hefty box of chocolates into my hands, I rewarded her with ice-cold contempt rather than the grateful smile she was clearly expecting’

To be honest if I had gone to all of that trouble I would have been pretty annoyed at this calorie counting monster. I couldn’t believe what I was reading! ‘Fat is failure’ it’s things like this that lead girls into eating disorders. Brick then went on to say how she invented the ‘polo diet’ how she lived off of packets of mints and the fainting was worth it ‘because she got dates’. Disgusting, absolutely disgusting.

Following her misogynistic views on other women other articles about how a husband should ‘prize your looks not your mind’. At that I was disgusted as the article went on to say how much she loved her successful, tradition husband and how she was perfectly happy and proud to be a ‘trophy wife’.

‘many of you will be thinking I’m little more than a trophy wife for my husband, Pascal, and you’re right. I am a trophy wife — and what’s more, I’m proud of it.’

Now don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with being a housewife, as Samantha claims she is (and comments how she ‘squeezes’ her writing around daily chores in television interviews), a lot of women in my family have taken up this position, my own mother for example. I do have a problem however when a woman makes the assumption other women should not strive to find a partner who finds her mind more attractive than her body. For some who read this they will ask what do I really know about having a man find you attractive? This is where I bring in my own partner Ali, a loving caring man who I have been with since the age of 13. As we have grown older the thing he has fallen more in love with me for is my intelligence and talent rather than my looks, this is a man I am proud to be with. Samantha goes on to talk about how in her first marriage she hated having to pay for things being the higher earner, (finding it ‘unattractive’ that he was dependent on her) this to me is ridiculous. As a woman I do not expect to be paid for, although I do occasionally let Alistair pay for a night out, I generally feel better when we both go halves or one buys dinner and the other pays for the film tickets. This is I believe in equality in a relationship, the equality that Brick apparently abandoned after her second husband showered her with gifts and would give her a credit card to buy whatever she wanted because she was beautiful…..enter the bimbo.

‘My formative years were during Thatcher’s Eighties. Being a kept housewife was out; becoming a financially independent career girl was in.’ 

Honestly as this started with Samantha stating that ‘women hate me because I’m beautiful’ here is a newsflash. I am an 18 year old young woman when I see a beautiful woman who is confident in her appearance I don’t hate them, I applaud them because in my line of work if your beautiful you have to have balls to be taken seriously. What I do hate and DO NOT find attractive in any context is an arrogant woman who can sit at home and live off of her husband while judging other women around her. I feel that Samantha Brick is a shameful example of British women, a nation of women who are strong, open minded, intelligent individuals. So to conclude I ask my readers and the wider world to not judge us on this woman’s drivel to take us British women for who we are as individuals (as I’m sure many of you will!).

 

Thank-you for reading

Quotes from 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2310797/Samantha-Brick-Joan-Collins-right-Any-woman-wants-stay-beautiful-needs-diet-day.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2124246/Samantha-Brick-downsides-looking-pretty-Why-women-hate-beautiful.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2147212/Samantha-Brick-Independence-A-career-Who-needs-A-husband-prizes-looks-key.html

The problem with politics..

If you want to divide a room do it with religion or politics. Last Monday Baroness Thatcher passed away and if you live in the the UK you will know it caused a bit of a stir in the way of politics. Lover her or hate her everyone suddenly had an opinion of the Iron Lady as she was nicknamed. It caused me to question what I thought of not only British politics but also politics in other countries and how much I wanted to be a part of it. 

Growing up the political figure I knew was Tony Blair, politics was never really a massive thing in my house. As you would guess as I got a little older I heard of Bush and after 9/11 I started to become more aware but after all when 9/11 happened I was still quite young and in primary school and I didn’t really understand what was going on. I was actually supposed to be travelling to America a few weeks later for a family holiday with my just born baby sister, so Mum and Dad tried not to put much emphasis on it. I found out at school though, although my memories are hazy of the assembly I was just about to turn 7 years old and it was exactly a week before my birthday so my little mind was a bit preoccupied. We didn’t go to the states in the end, we went to Lanzarotte my parents decided this would be better (I wont complain this is when I got my first Gameboy!). Getting back to my meaning though the point is that it was at that time I started to become vaguely aware of this politics thing although as a little girl it was quickly forgotten.

It wasn’t until I was quite a bit older I started to understand why politics was important, after a while Tony Blair left number ten and a new man came in his name was Gordon Brown. I didn’t really understand why Blair had left and thought Brown looked a bit like a dog and was very British ( I know but can you blame me I was 11/12 at the time). Before the last general election I started trying to gain an understanding as I was in my last year of senior school and really wanted to know what was going on and who I would vote for if I could. There was also the debate of should 16 year old be able to vote I was on the side of yes after trying to follow what the politicians proposed and I was adamant that I wanted Labour to win again although I knew they were in deep water at this point. We spoke about it excitedly in my Religious class (I had an amazing teacher for my last year Miss Guyver who really encouraged us to argue our point and consider things). I had a gut instinct that if the Tories won we were all in deep trouble (oh how right my gut was!!) but the Lib Dems were ok, they were going to cut Uni fee’s weren’t they? (again oh how wrong were we all, they screwed us over massively!). As soon as the Tories got majority I sat on a warm summers evening with a frown on my face and wrote down This is where it ends. It’s all over they’ve won. 

Since then its got harder for us in Britain but in general I had to wait until I could vote and change things for myself. Although I have little faith in politicians I hope the people of this country know what to do to make it great again. This thought was at the back of my mind until Thatcher died. We were thrown ruthlessly into the past, the North were holding parties as well as in Brixton that she was dead after what had happened to them. At the same time we had those who puffed out their chests and said that Thatcher pulled this country out of the gutter and should be celebrated. I decided to make my own mind up and tried to learn more and I wasn’t amazingly impressed with what I found especially with what happened in the North. On the other hand it was true that after her Britain was back on its feet after a long time of being nothing, you could not deny she was a patriot but I didn’t like her manner, her tone and generally how she was. Now I know changes had to be made but in retrospect I feel this was too ruthless and the divide over Maggie Thatcher can still become a heated argument. 

Honestly I feel cheated and lied to by British politics and I really do want to make a change but I’d rather do that by writing than standing in the commons arguing like school children. Although I’ve found something out recently, apparently I’m not allowed an opinion on past events because I wasn’t there. I’m not allowed an opinion on modern politics because I’m not old enough and I don’t know the world. I’m not allowed to have an opinion and make it heard because it makes me a bitch (being a woman that is).  There are so many barriers and rules and frankly it’s ridiculous. I want to change the world but I want to do it in a way where people will respect MY opinions not the lies I tell to get into power. I feel like the protagonist in Look Back in Anger by John Osborne, I want more from life, from this country! I don’t want the elite looking down on me despite my intelligence and I want to be allowed to get angry about it! So move over classic ‘angry young men’  give me a pen, a melody and maybe a guitar and that is exactly what I’ll do.

How important are ‘The Classics’?

As an English student I sometimes get asked the question of ‘who is your favorite author?’. When people ask me this knowing that I am going on to do a degree I think that sometimes they expect me to say Eliot or Austen, Shakespeare or Woolf. In all honesty when I was younger I desperately tried reading these big names to prove that I was smart and a good reader, I still find it hilarious that at the age of about 13 I picked up the complete works of Shakespeare and treated it better than any bible I’ve ever been given! Or perhaps what is even funnier is the determination I had at the age of 11 or 12 to read Dickens because I knew he was important (for the record I never did manage to read it, even as an 18 year old A Level student I’m still bored to tears). After coming across an article called ‘should we ever tire of Anne Frank’ it got me thinking, why do we always cling to what we are told are ‘great works of literature’? If we are spending so much time reading and studying classic texts are we missing out on what might be classics in the making? 

Throughout my entire educational life I have always been told that the classics are best, without any reason what so ever. The problem with that when you teach someone like me is that I like to ask questions, in particular I like to ask why? As you can imagine this caused no end of annoyance for my teachers (especially maths which I despised, it got to the point where I got so frustrated over why the question was answered that way my teacher just said BECAUSE IT IS and left it at that). Now I’m older the questions have never stopped, as soon as I started AS and got into my texts I wanted to know what the point was in studying some of them. I have to say that in every text I have studied at AS & A Level there is only one of them I would consider to be ‘great’ and that is Chaucer’s the Wife of Bath’s tale and prologue. In education especially I think there is this overwhelming need to prove yourself by reading the ‘right’ books and this is where I feel it goes wrong. In all honesty I think that in relation to everything I have studied in education there are 2 novels that have made me appreciate them. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is recognized around the world as a great novel and is taught all over the world and thank goodness for that! Way’s to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls however is rarely taught I was lucky to have been given this to read as it was a really challenging book for a 14 year old. 

The problem I find is that if we keep telling children and young adults that all there is in literature is the classics we are at risk of creating a very boring generation of writers. By all means we should know about the greats and study them in some light but shouldn’t we also encourage readers to go and find new writers? 

 

That was just a snippet into my brain 🙂 I hope you enjoyed it…Oh and just so you know my favorite author is Jodi Picoult, has been for years! 

The World’s Wife – Carol Ann Duffy

Do you ever wonder what the wives of great men in history and mythology would have said about their husbands? What the sister’s of famous think of their brothers. What did Mrs Tiresias think when her husband came home as a woman? What would Mrs Faust be like in a modern world? How kick arse was Little Red Riding Hood really? and would the girl who married a beast really be that dainty as we are lead to believe by Disney?

Welcome to The World’s Wife, a series of hilarious poems of the women behind great men. I have to say that Duffy has really done a marvelous job and has an incredible imagination. I first came across this in a creative writing summer school I went to where we read the poem about Medusa (there are also poems from the voices of women of myth and legend in their own right) and instantly wanted to read more. Luckily or me there was was a Waterstones directly across from where I was studying so I popped in and spent a whole lunchtime looking through. The collection is marvelous with so many characters and quite frank opinions you can just imagine these women. I have been told that a lot of Duffy’s work is like this, she is not afraid to have quick wit, brilliant cheek or use ‘inadvisable language’ but do you know what? I think this is what makes it so damn funny and realistic.

I loved Mrs Darwin and Mrs Icarus they were short, sweet and just downright funny. There were other poems that were a little longer than I anticipated. Its not that I didn’t enjoy the longer ones but at times I could get a little lost or sidetracked. There are such a wide variety of characters, some of which have been brought into the 21st century from long ago. Others on the other had have been left to put a hilarious spin on classics, specifically from The Oddyessy. I have to warn you that if you are not familair with it you may have to look up who these women are and why their tale is relevant but a quick google search quickly showed me what I needed to know to carry on reading.

What you cannot criticize Duffy on is her ability to get into a characters head, as a reader I felt like I knew these women. I felt like I was sat at a table with all of these women and was laughing at their jokes. Now there will be some who say that the poems directly laugh at men but I do not think this is fair. There is no maliciousness in the poetry it is all a bit of fun, yes some men may get a bit huffy about it, but some women would get huffy about presentations in other poems. The bottom line is you can’t please everyone. I also realize that a lot of people don’t enjoy poetry and would wonder how I can review it. You must remember that the actual purpose of poetry is to be read aloud, performed even. I think if you put this on a stage so many people would come to see it, it would have people in stitches!

I urge anyone who wants a giggle to go and pick up a copy, it put a smile on my face!

**** 4/5 stars!

The World’s Wife

Carol Ann Duffy

Picador

Review by Chloe Metzger

My lucky number :)

I now have 18 followers! My lucky number! Thanks again guys 🙂 New review will be up of ‘The Worlds Wife’ collection if poems by Carol Ann Duffy!

Thanks again guys! 🙂