Tomorrow’s Still To Come.

Hey all, here’s another song sang  by Sophie & Hatty – you may remember their rendition of  ‘Use Somebody’ that I posted a couple of months ago. It’s beautiful, give it a listen.. this is what Sophie had to say on the girls’ Youtube channel ‘HattyandSophie’..

This song was written by my grandad who was a successful organist. Sadly, cancer took my grandad’s life, but it never took away his amazing music. This song has been sung by my family for years, and my Mum promised my grandad that she’d get it recorded. As a christmas present, I managed to record mine and Hatty’s own version, and my mum loved it. I hope I made my Grandad proud, and I love you and we all miss you. xx This song (Along with others) will be available to buy on CD, and for download on Itunes as soon as possible.

Tomorrow’s Still To Come – ‘Grandad’s Song’ by Sophie & Hatty.

Scintillating Selby.

Yesterday I settled down for a Sunday in front of the television, as The Masters snooker started at 2pm and I intended to watch my favourite player Ronnie O’ Sullivan, face Mark Selby. It was an excellent start and by the end of the mid-session interval Ronnie had moved into a 3-1 lead after losing the first frame. He then came back after the interval to knock in another century break, extending his lead to a 4-1 advantage. Selby answered with a wonderfully crafted 83 break of his own, although it could quite easily have been a break of 141, to bring the score to 4-2. The frame after, a break of 112 by Selby made the score 4-3 and suddenly things looked a lot closer and a lot more interesting. After a tricky 8th frame, Ronnie extended his lead to 5-3, to conclude the snooker for the afternoon. Some superb snooker in the afternoon session set it up for a very interesting final indeed. In the end, when the players came back for the evening, we had a truly spectacular final, one of the best I have ever seen; Selby keeping in touching distance but Ronnie eventually extending his lead to 9-6 (just one frame away from winning the tournament). It was scintillating snooker up until this point and it looked like Ronnie would just snatch victory away from the very resilient Mark Selby. It seemed an impossible task for Selby to overcome if he wanted to go away the victor, but he slowly began to make his way back. With the score standing at 9-7, in the 17th frame Selby produced a magnificent break of 109, which was crafted out of what seemed like nothing when he first came to the table. It was 9-8 and getting tense, Selby dared to dream. After some more wonderful snooker Ronnie managed to get Selby in a tremendous snooker, putting the white in the jaws of the corner pocket. Amazingly Selby managed to get out of it and claw himself back to 9-9, setting up a deciding frame; which was really what this final thoroughly deserved. He had won the last three frames to claw himself back into the match and now it was anyone’s game. In the final frame the standard of snooker that we had seen throughout the entire tournament was epitomised, Selby quickly racking up a decent break. Before he knew it, it was frame and match ball for Mark, something he had waited for a long time. He missed it; the pressure was on, the concentration slipped, in stepped Ronnie O’ Sullivan, amazed at being given another shot at the match. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, as not long later Mark Selby risked an incredible double shot of the cushion and into the middle pocket, to back himself the top prize of £150,000 and the title of Masters Champion for this year. It was an excellent game to watch, both these players fantastic and at the top of their game. As Selby collected his trophy on the stroke of midnight, the stadium erupted in cheer and applauded what has been a truly fantastic tournament to watch.

Breakneck.

Okay, here’s my fourth book of the year; Breakneck by Erica Spindler and I really think this looks good. I have decided to put Someone Like You aside for a while to start this..

Synopsis.

M.C. Riggio and Kitt Lundgren, detective partners at the Rockford Violent Crimes Bureau, have been through a lot together. Lately, though, things have begun to look up: M.C. is getting married, while Kitt is slowly coming to terms with her daughter’s death.

Suddenly, their world is shattered when a brutal murder strikes close to home for M.C. Nothing will be the same again. A killer is on the loose, someone who systematically works his way down a seemingly unconnected list of victims. With the body count rising, Kitt and M.C. struggle to walk that fine line between protecting the law – and taking it into their own hands..

Over the finishing line..

That’s it, done and dusted, all three of my AS Exams are done; Philosophy, Psychology and History. My last exam was History today.. and my God it was awful. Unfortunately, I feel that I have failed.. and I’m really not just saying that. The questions that were ‘most likely’ to come up in the paper were nowhere in sight and not one question was focused around Stalin – which is ridiculous. A choice of three questions and all three were stupidly narrow and vague, I get the impression my History teachers will be complaining about these questions as they were awful. In any case, exams are done now.. just got to wait for my results. I haven’t done very well – they were tricky, but I know what to expect if I take re-sits in June at least. Glad to be finished though, time for some well earned reading & watching TV time I think. In any case when I came home that’s exactly what I did; I watched the snooker for a little while – my favourite player Ronnie O’ Sullivan played fantastically to win rather comfortably 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of The Masters. I am starting a new novel tomorrow and hopefully I will be able to catch up on my reading now I have spare time.. watch this space.

Exams.

Hey all.. Sorry I have not updated this for a while, been busy the past few days, revising and whatnot. School was closed on Monday and open yesterday and it was good to be back a day before the exams. Gave me a chance to have a word with my Psychology teacher about the exam. My exams started today; although school was closed because of icy conditions again, A Levels were still on, of course. They were okay; I had Philosophy first, then Psychology and I can honestly not even say whether I have done well or not, I’ll just have to see. Good thing is I answered everything and basically did as well as I could, so that’s that I guess. Tomorrow is History and then I’m done and can start reading & watching my TV series’. Woo!

Book Purchases.

I bring news of the first purchases of 2010. Congratulations to me on lasting seven days.. Oh wait, due to weather conditions I’ve barely been able to get into town for the past week or so. No congratulations deserved after all. In any case, WH Smiths was beckoning and here is what I walked out with.

Breakneck. – Erica Spindler.
The Historian. – Elizabeth Kostova.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. - Steig Larsson.
Kiss Of Evil. – Richard Montanari.

Happy Reading!

Crocodile Tears.

Finished Crocodile Tears, my second book of the year and have to say I was extremely impressed. I will definitely admit to it being one of my favourite Alex Rider novels so far!

Synopsis.

New Years Eve in Scotland and for once Alex Rider is enjoying a normal life. But then he meets Desmond McCain, the dynamic chief of an international charity, First Aid, and what starts as a simple card game rapidly becomes a duel to the death. Suddenly Alex is in more danger than ever before and his life is threatened without his even knowing why.

Things get worse when he is confronted by a journalist who threatens to publish the truth about his life as a teenage spy. Forced to ask MI6 for protection, Alex finds himself being manipulated in a deadly game that could lead to the destruction of an entire East African country.

Alone, out-numbered and with no way of escape, this is Alex’s most action-packed adventure yet.

Started: 03/01/10.
Finished: 04/01/10.

Review coming shortly..

Snakehead.

First book of the year completed, Snakehead – Alex Rider. A re-read in preparation for reading his new Alex Rider novel, Crocodile Tears.

Synopsis.

No sooner has Alex splashed down off the coast of Australia than he finds himself sucked into another adventure. This time he’s working for the ASIS – the Australian Secret Service – and his target is the criminal underworld of South-East Asia: the ruthless world of the Snakehead.
But this time Alex isn’t working alone. He’s teamed up with Ash, once his father’s best friend and now a secret agent with the key to unlock Alex’s past. But the odds are stacked against them. An old enemy has returned with a plan that will destabilize half the world. Caught between two secret services, with no one he can trust, Alex will need all his wits to survive.

Started: 02/01/10.
Finished: 02/01/10.

Review.

Well, to be honest I am wondering where to start with this one; the seventh Alex Rider book in the series, is certainly very enjoyable. I was eagerly awaiting the release  of the new – eighth – Alex Rider novel, Crocodile Tears, due to loving this series over the past years; particularly Scorpia, which I enjoyed immensely. The series begins with Stormbreaker, if anyone is interested in getting started. In any case, I was patient; it had been a while since I read an Alex Rider novel when Crocodile Tears came out, so I persevered and read Snakehead, the previous instalment, instead. Even though it was a reread, I was soon once again immersed in the gadgets, the action and the fights to the death, all over again..

Alex Rider lands in the South Pacific after falling from outer space in the previous book Ark Angel and is soon taaken to a military compound in Australia. Alex is instantly thrown into a challenge, while he is there the Australian Secret Intelligence Service test his mettle by trapping him and seeing how he reacts to a situation with a land mine. The enemy that Alex faces this time, is probably his worst yet; the infamous Snakehead gang that are responsible for sabotage and corruption all over the world. Alex asked to go on a mission with an agent named Ash to Thailand to infiltrate the Snakehead smuggling operation between Bangkok and Australia and initially Alex refuses, reluctant to get involved with this sort of thing again. He soon realises that there is more to this than meets the eye however and let’s just say agent Ash is a good reason to partake in the mission and delve further into his parents’ past..

Once again the infamous organization Scorpia are back, plotting to assassinate a group of rich celebrities who have organized a make poverty history-type conference on Reef Island. Major Yu, on the executive board of Scorpia, and leader of the Snakehead, organises the stealing of a powerful bomb, codenamed Royal Blue by the British Government. Major Yu plan is more severe than it first seems; if he can not be stopped, thousands of people will die..

While in Bangkok, after getting himself into trouble – this involves a rather large explosion which is always good to see – he meets an old friend who works for MI6. This is the point that he is told about the bomb by MI6; they ask him to locate the bomb and Alex’s gadget friend makes another appearance to kit him out.

Things soon quickly progress, a Snakehead member smuggles a disguised Alex and Ash, to Darwin aboard a container ship. Alex spots Royal Blue but things don’t go his way, and he soon finds himself in extreme trouble. Alex is taken to a special hospital in the rainforest and he faces a slow and painful death. Can he find his way out of a seemingly impossible place to escape and make it to MI6 in time to inform them of Yu’s plan..

There are a lot of surprises and revelations throughout the book and it seems once again that Alex can trust nobody but himself. This keeps you turning the pages all the way to the end, praying that Alex can save the day once again. The author Anthony Horowitz has obviously spent a long time writing this; two years he says on the back cover and the time he has spent concentrating/researching this is evident.

Fast-paced, action-packed a real thriller..

4/5.