Holiday Reading - week 1

School's out for summer... at least the kids are and most of the staff are. I'm not on holiday yet, though I had a couple of days off last week. I have started getting some reading done though.
Week 1 reads:
Half of a Yellow Sun (as mentioned below) - I wouldn't exactly say I enjoyed this as the subject matter is quite traumatic, but I'm glad I read it. I didn't know anything about the war in question before I started it so my horizons are feeling broader!
The Garden by Elsie V. Aidinoff - the story of Adam and Eve, with a difference. I imagine this will have created a huge amount of trouble in some Christian circles, and although I don't agree with some of it (the idea of God as a spoilt, self-centred creator who wants his own way) I loved it as a novel.
Waves by Sharon Dogar - I'd read good reviews of this but it didn't do it for me. A good enough concept, (Hal and his family return to their holiday home where his sister had a near fatal accident the previous year. She's still in a coma and Hal tries to find out what happened), but I found it rather repetitive and a bit dull. Disppointing after I'd looked forward to reading it.
Now to choose what to read this week...

Back, back, back

Well, I haven't been on here for a while, so I'd better cast my mind back to what I've been reading. I re-read I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith. It's a book I loved when I first read it a few years ago, because it came as such a surprise. Dodie Smith is best known for writing 101 Dalmatians, but this is totally different. It's a beautiful coming of age story, and from Cassandra's opening line, "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink", we wait to see if the marvellously eccentric Mortmain family can extricate themselves from their poverty-stricken situation. If you're a fan of period drama, this is definitely a read for you, and it has been filmed - so here's a review.

As a complete contrast I'm currently reading Half of a Yellow Sun in which Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche writes with the backdrop of the Biafran seccession from Nigeria in the 1960s. It's a topic I know nothing about, and it's already a harrowing read.