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Authors who begin with the letter R

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JK Rowling

The Casual Vacancy

I devoured this book, in a matter of hours. This is true of all of Rowling’s work though, I have reread the Harry Potter books numerous times, and each time find different things to enjoy about them. I was curious to see how she carried over her enviable talent into writing for adults alone, and was relieved that she was even more adept in her sketch of character, and mastery of plot.

The plot of The Casual Vacancy revolves around a small town called Pagford, one of the councillors, Barry Fairbrother passes away very soon into the novel, and it impacts all of the other characters in a variety of ways. His seat is obviously vacant, the casual vacancy of the title, and three townspeople throw their hat into the ring.

I wasn’t overly interested in the political issues, but the myriad of different characters, who all had varied issues, and quirks were all fascinating. Howard Mollinson, a obese man who possesses incredible appetites both for food and other hungers, battles against those on the council he sees looking after ‘feral’ members of the Fields, as well as his daughter in law, Samantha, a owner of a lingerie shop.

I found the emotional core of the book to be the relationship between Barry Fairbrother and those he cared about in life, namely his wife Mary and one of the pupils, Krystal Weedon.

It isn’t a plot rich book, rather focusing on the day to day life that can occur in British small towns, but is a incredible work nevertheless.

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hgolightly1982

I'm a thirty something woman who lives in the north of England. I have been a writer for as long as I can remember, creating stories both written and verbal since childhood. While studying at Edge Hill College, I got several poems published by a small publisher in the USA, and in Europe. I have been part of several writing groups, and done quite a few courses in a attempt to hone my writing skills further. I love reading different genres of fiction, knowing that the best way to develop my own writing, and my vocabulary is by exposing myself to the different ways that other people choose to describe things. The most recent writing course that I've been part of, run by a published author, included a exercise in which we were challenged to read things that we would never usually even look at. It inspired me to take up a challenge. Namely to attempt to read at least one book by every author which is stocked in my local library. I soon realised that I was being far too ambitious, especially given the fact that every library rotates their stock too often for me to keep track. I've decided to instead attempt to read a book every day, starting with a author whose surname begins with A, and ending with a author whose surname begins with Z. It doesn't matter what the topic of the book is, or if it's fiction or non fiction, everything is useful for me at the minute.

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