Discuss: what makes a perfect book?

Thanks to my fellow reviewer over at Novelicious, CescaReviews, I have been thinking recently about what makes the perfect book. She recently gave Room by Emma Donoghue a 9.5 out of 10 and I asked her why not a 10? She couldn't say. She speculated that it's the teacher in her which must give an A- never an A.

There is normally that tendency to vear away from giving top marks, whether it's to encourage constant improvement or just because there is a niggling voice that says that a little tweak here or there would have made it perfect. But actually being able to quantify what changes these are is a difficult matter.

So it got me thinking - what are the perfect books? That rare breed of literature that I have read and found impossible to find a single flaw. Well there are the Harry Potter books of course (I make no secret of my love for them!) and then more recently the mindblowing debut of Sister by Rosamund Lupton which had me gripped from start to finish and MORE than passed my tube test. I gave serious consideration to being late for work and staying on the tube just to keep reading.

But for me personally I would have to say that a 10/10 book does something other books don't dare to do. It challenges the beginning-middle-end with a neat and tidy ending and thinks outside the box. Books like My Sister's Keeper (Jodi Picoult) dare to discuss taboo topics with care and conviction and other books like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (Mark Haddon) choose a perspective not normally explored and explore it with sensitivity and affection.

Then there are those books which are considered great because they have stood the test of time - basically anything by Jane Austen or Charles Dickens. Even Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham had a timeless quality and apolocalyptic books will never stop being relevant!

So what is your perfect book? What warrants a 10/10?

Over to you... LE xx

Top Perspective-Altering Must Reads

This week, the fab people at Chance for Autism (@ChanceForAutism) pulled off a great eye-opening and fun day with the help of the lovely Gizzi Erskine and Scott Mills among others. Their aim? To prove that Autistic people are not useless, that they have something to offer the world and can be valuable employees.


This caught my attention because I work with many Autistic children but sadly these children are at the other end of the Autistic spectrum and employment for them is not really a possibility. But there is something they could use - understanding. I have lost count of the number of times I have received stares and judgemental looks from passers by when we take the kids out for trips and I realise that it comes from a total lack of understanding of what Autism is. Ignorance - in this instance - is not bliss!


And it made me realise that before I worked with these children, I was exactly the same. I didn't know a thing about Autism because I had never needed to. And then I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon and my perspective on Autism and Asbergers was transformed. Its genius is that it is still fiction. The plot is entirely made up, but brilliantly written by Haddon from the perspective of a young boy with Aspergers Syndrome. By exploring the world through his eyes, the reader is forced to see what he endures, how society treats him and how his mind works.  It really is a book that everyone needs to read at some point in their life - and the sooner the better.

Here are my top books that have altered my perspective:

1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - arguably started the idea that a book written from the child's perspective offers a naive but pure and innocent view on society. Deals beautifully with the civil rights issues in America where blacks were considered lesser citizens.
3. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne - once again explores the horror of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust through the eyes of a young German boy who doesn't really understand what is happening. Gripping from start to finish. Absolutely brilliant.
4. Freedom Writers - For a non-fiction book, the honesty of the class in their entries is mind blowing. Very courageous and admirable stuff. Brings positivity out of an otherwise bleak situation.

So take a look at life from a different perspective and see what you think.


As always - enjoy! :)


LE xx

5/5