Before I Die - Jenny Downham

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jenny Downham ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jenny Downham, was born in Britain in the year of 1964. Jenny Downham is a extremely successful author despite the fact she has only one published book. Before Jenny turned to writing, she was a full time actress. She used to work in a youth community theatre, who often visited terrifying places such as prisons and friendlier places, for example hospitals and youth clubs. Part of her job was to tell stories to people, and she adored this. Her acting career was fairly successful, however after having her second child, she found she just didn't have the time anymore, so she gave up her job and ...  Read the complete review

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jenny Downham ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jenny Downham, was born in Britain in the year of 1964. Jenny Downham is a extremely successful author despite the fact she has only one published book. Before Jenny turned to writing, she was a full time actress. She used to work in a youth community theatre, who often visited terrifying places such as prisons and friendlier places, for example hospitals and youth clubs. Part of her job was to tell stories to people, and she adored this. Her acting career was fairly successful, however after having her second child, she found she just didn't have the time anymore, so she gave up her job and ...  Read the complete review

I bought this book on a whim one day as I was browsing in Waterstones and I am so glad I did because it has touched me in a way that many books just can not do. The story is of a teenage girl called Tessa who is suffering from terminal cancer and she has a list of things that she wants to do before she dies. Her list doesn't consist of the normal sweet, appropriate things you might expect such as swimming with dolphins or going in a hot air balloon, it includes things like taking drugs, losing her virginity, committing crime and saying yes to everything people ask her for a day. The book follows Tessa as she crosses each activity off her list as her ...  Read the complete review

What would you do if you only had a few months to live? See the world? Jump out of a plane? Spend time with your loved ones? Go 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu? (Hey, Tim McGraw seemed to think it was a good idea). That's the dilemma facing 16-year-old Tessa, who has been diagnosed with leukaemia and has a list of experiences to cross off her to-do list before she dies. Her wishes aren't anything near as outrageous or imaginative as you could come up with if you gave it a lot of thought. Being so young she simply wants to experience normal moments in life that a lot of people take for granted but, to a 16-year-old, mean everything; having sex, driving a ...  Read the complete review

I recently was lucky enough to escape to Tunisia for a lovely week of very much needed sunshine after our rather dismal attempt at a summer. Now if there's one thing I like to do on holiday more than sun bathing it's sun bathing while reading, on average I've been known to go through nearly a book a day on holiday. As I left it rather late to get myself organised for this holiday I had only a couple of days to stock up on all my holiday essentials, including books. While browsing on Amazon for books I came across one called "Before I Die" by Jenny Downham, it was recommended by people who had read the same books as me in the past so I quickly requested it from ...  Read the complete review