Eloise Aston ( of 101 Things You Thought You Knew About the Titanic . . . but Didn't!)

Eloise is now friends with Celia

Eloise liked Eloise Aston's blog post: NEW ACQUISITION – Death on a Longship

"Attica is delighted to announce the acquisition of world English language rights from the Teresa Chris Agency for DEATH ON A LONGSHIP by Marsali Taylor, first of a series of mysteries set amid the ..." ...read it »

Eloise gave

to:

WWW: Wake (WWW, #1)
by Robert J. Sawyer

My rating:

Eloise gave

to:

Half of the Human Race
by Anthony Quinn

read in February, 2012

My rating:

Really enjoyed this. This is a much much better cover than the one I saw - actually gives you an impression of what the book's about - from the cover and blurb of the paperback edition I read you'd hardly know it was about suffragettes.

An absorbing...more

Eloise gave

to:

Awakening
by S.J. Bolton (Goodreads Author)

My rating:

Eloise gave

to:

Long Lankin
by Lindsey Barraclough

My rating:

Eloise gave

to:

A Mango-Shaped Space
by Wendy Mass

read in March, 2012

My rating:

Probably the best fiction I've read so far about synaesthesia (yes, I'm British so I'm going to spell it like that). A well-structured and paced read, with some interesting characters, which comes so so close to getting the synaesthesia right.

That is...more Probably the best fiction I've read so far about synaesthesia (yes, I'm British so I'm going to spell it like that). A well-structured and paced read, with some interesting characters, which comes so so close to getting the synaesthesia right.

That is, it gets it right a lot, but there are a couple of things that made me wince a little. I was annoyed to discover that this book won an award for the artistic portrayal of life with a disability, though I can't really blame the author for that. There may be a few rare subtypes of synaesthesia where living with it actually interferes with the ability to live a normal life - I wouldn't want to have the hearing-taste variety as it would make dinner parties and even just family dinner rather difficult, and in the rare instances that it's bidirectional (ie the sound, or whatever, triggers the colour but also vice versa) it may be overwhelming.

However, protagonist Mia has neither of these types, and once she realises she's not mad and doesn't have a disease, she actually enjoys her colours and doesn't find them disabling. I was a little bit sceptical about the vivid 'presence' of Mia's colours, as though life were like one big Joseph's Technicolour Dreamcoat. I find this tends to happen a lot when non-synaesthetes imagine synaesthesia, but I've certainly never had a problem with maths or foreign languages because of the colours (Richard Feynman, the physicist, was a synaesthete - he saw equations in colour, amongst other things).

On the other hand, I'm what's considered to be an 'associator' rather than a 'projector' as Mia is - in other words, I don't 'see' my colours out in front of my eyes, I'm just aware that they're there. So maybe it is like that for 'projectors' - I don't know, and the synaesthetic experience is very subjective; I'd love to hear from any 'projectors' who've read this book and hear what they think of the 'bath colours' scene. I'm not going to criticise Wendy Mass too much about this as she did get a lot right - she clearly did her research, talked to some synaesthetes and, importantly, actually listened - I can think of other books where the author's talked about the extensive research they've done and all I can think is that they must have decided to ignore everything they found out.

The only thing I wasn't convinced by was the acupuncture scenes and the crazy colours thing she gets afterwards - however, maybe it does happen to some people and I've just not heard about it. I'm prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt based on the rest, and go and look it up.

In general, I'd happily recommend this to adults and children, including synaesthetes - and I hope it might educate more people about synaesthesia and the fact that most of the time, it's not a disability or a disease, but more of an enhancement.

I'd love to see a novel on this topic written by a synaesthete though.(less)

Eloise marked as to-read:

Dark Fire (Matthew Shardlake, #2)
by C.J. Sansom

My rating:

Eloise marked as to-read:

Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake, #3)
by C.J. Sansom

My rating:

Eloise liked Heidi's review of The Frozen Lake:

" All I can say is READ THIS BOOK! It is my favorite read for 2011 and I loved each moment of this one. I hated for it to end. It is an exciting story about two wealthy families in England in the early 1930s. The threat of war hangs over the country... "
Read more of this review »

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Eloise is now friends with Celia
14 minutes ago
Eloise liked Eloise Aston's blog post: NEW ACQUISITION – Death on a Longship "Attica is delighted to announce the acquisition of world English language rights from the Teresa Chris Agency for DEATH ON A LONGSHIP by Marsali Taylor, first of a series of mysteries set amid the ..." ...read it »
Mar 22, 2012 07:29pm
Eloise gave to: WWW: Wake (WWW, #1) by Robert J. Sawyer	My rating:
Mar 16, 2012 05:07am
Eloise gave to: Half of the Human Race by Anthony Quinn read in February, 2012	My rating:
Really enjoyed this. This is a much much better cover than the one I saw - actually gives you an impression of what the book's about - from the cover and blurb of the paperback edition I read you'd hardly know it was about suffragettes. An absorbing...more
Mar 13, 2012 02:07pm · see review
Eloise gave to: Awakening by S.J. Bolton (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Mar 13, 2012 01:59pm
Eloise gave to: Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough	My rating:
Mar 13, 2012 01:24pm
Eloise gave to: A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass read in March, 2012	My rating:
Probably the best fiction I've read so far about synaesthesia (yes, I'm British so I'm going to spell it like that). A well-structured and paced read, with some interesting characters, which comes so so close to getting the synaesthesia right. That is...more
Mar 13, 2012 12:10pm · see review
Eloise marked as to-read: Dark Fire (Matthew Shardlake, #2) by C.J. Sansom	My rating:
Feb 29, 2012 07:20am
Eloise marked as to-read: Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake, #3) by C.J. Sansom	My rating:
Feb 29, 2012 07:19am
Eloise liked Heidi's review of The Frozen Lake: " All I can say is READ THIS BOOK! It is my favorite read for 2011 and I loved each moment of this one. I hated for it to end. It is an exciting story about two wealthy families in England in the early 1930s. The threat of war hangs over the country... " Read more of this review »
Jan 13, 2012 04:25am · see review

Eloise's Bookshelves

Eloise's Friends (18)

Eloise's Fans

Eloise Aston

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16 postsEloise Aston's Blog

combine editionsBooks by Eloise Aston

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rssEloise's Recent Updates

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16 posts
Eloise Aston's Blog

combine editions
Books by Eloise Aston

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Eloise's Recent Updates