Strictly Saturday: Predictions!

Yes I know Strictly Come Dancing isn't back until next Saturday, but since there is little to watch this weekend (until Victoria tomorrow at least) I thought it would be nice for me to post my predictions for this years lineup! I am beyond excited for Strictly's return! 

I am going to split my views into two separate areas: Should do well, and rooting to do well. Sometimes I love a dancer that I know may struggle slightly, so I like to show my support for them as well. Although last year I was glad to see my favourite dancer take home the crown. Go Ore! Here's his famous jive if you fancy a trip down memory lane! 

Now I want to precede this with the note that these predictions are in accordance with my opinion on the celebs, mainly from watching Strictly for over a decade, and what many others are saying about the lineup. I'm not a dance expert, so I'm going on how similar celebs have done in previous years. There could be wildcards in there. No one pinned Ore as a winner, along with Jake Wood doing so well a few years ago!

So without further ado here are my Strictly predictions:

SHOULD DO WELL
Gemma Atkinson
Gemma is very fit with the kind of body that could easily take up dancing. She's been partnered with Alijaz, and I can see them making a very nice pair. He's won before with Abbey Clancy. Also her actress background means that she can 'act' the dance very well. She's got the cha-cha first, which is a nice one to start on, so we shall see. Also her acting past, mainly Emmerdale, will get the public voting for her.

Aston Merrygold 
We all know JLS can dance, and while some people like to moan that Aston's background means he has an advantage, JLS dancing is different to the Strictly kind. But the experience will definitely help, and so I can see him taking to the faster dances quite easily. I am not so sure about ballroom, but with a foxtrot as the first dance I could be proven wrong! And I am sure I do not need to say that JLS fans will want to vote for him, so he has the fanbase behind him.

Alexandra Burke
This is kind of the same points as Aston. She can dance from her music and stage career, and that will always help on Strictly. However, I would say it is more helpful in the Latin routines, so with a waltz first, I am very excited to see how it will be performed. I can see her being very delicate in ballroom, like Abbey Clancy again.

Mollie King
People are already pinning her as a good dancer, because of her performing background, and the fact that Frankie Bridge was also stellar when she competed. I cannot hugely elaborate much else, except that she is doing a jive first. I LOVE a jive! I can see high scores for her from the outset.

Davood Ghadami
The only reason I am including Davood here is because he has a similar build as Danny Mac, who was amazing last year. His samba blew me away! He could be very very good, but we have also seen similar guys struggle. A cha-cha could go either way. 

All of the above celebrities have established fanbases from their main works that can be very vocal in their voting. Sometimes that's a good thing, and sometimes it isn't. It can save them on a bad week, or keep them in the running when better dancers are voted off. Obviously we cannot call anything yet until we see them in action!

ROOTING TO DO WELL
Ruth Langsford
Hands down my favourite celebrity this year. I love Ruth on This Morning, and I was over the moon to see her paired with Anton! Ruth could be a good dancer, and I am so desperate to see Anton do well again after so many duds. He's one of two OG pros from the show, and it's clear he is an amazing teacher. I can see him putting together fabulous routines for Ruth. And with a waltz up first, I am very excited! Also I will be Eammonn spotting in the audience each week.

Simon Rimmer
Me and my Mum are both on the same page with Simon, as he could be a dark horse a la Ore, Jake Wood and Chris Hollins. He's been partnered with Karen Clifton who has done well in the past with Mark Wright. That and I just like him in general!

Brian Conley
Yes I squealed a bit with delight when Brian was announced. It was a shame to see him leave I'm a Celebrity so early, so I am already buzzing to see how he gets on. I can imagine him going the 'entertaining' route with his routines, which I am OK with as long as it is not overdone. Judge Rinder did something similar last year, and I loved him!

Jonnie Peacock
I am team Jonnie all the way! Mainly because I love his appearances on The Last Leg. He's been partnered with Oti who put together some amazing dances with Danny Mac last year (back to the samba again! And the jive! And the Charleston!). I am a fan of his, so fingers crossed!

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So that's my main Strictly predictions. I haven't mentioned everyone, as I wanted to focus on the main people I can see doing well or I will be supporting. Strictly is such a fun show, so whoever does well I will root for, but these are my thoughts ahead of the first dances next week.

I am not sure if I will be blogging every single week, but I will try to live-tweet @bylauramfox if I am watching it live! 

So watch this space, and in the meantime....keep dancing! (sorry couldn't resist!)

Kindle Chronicles: Top 5 weird books!

So I've been reading a lot about Darren Aranofsky's new film mother! which comes out this weekend. I have no desire to watch that film, since Black Swan was enough Aranofsky for my liking. That film was weird. One of my favourite critics online called it 'horror ballet porn'!

While I am sure his films have some amazing deep meanings, the main result of this internet binge is that it got me thinking about some of the weirdest books I have ever read! As a former Lit student, there are some books I have read that just made my brain hurt, or were just plain weird but I loved them anyway. So what else could come of these musings but a blog post?

So, in my objective opinion (MY opinion! Obviously read the books yourself to see what you think!) and no particular order, here are the top 5 weirdest books I have ever read in my life!

1.The Golden Notebook (1962) by Doris Lessing

This book is the story of Anna, and the four notebooks she uses to record her life. I think the main issue I had with this book is that the narrative is very erratic, in the way it floats from one notebook to another, without much of an actual plot! And it's a long book too! Since I'm not sure what the novel was supposed to be about, I couldn't even analyse what sort of meaning it was supposed to put forward!

2. Crash (1973) by J.G. Ballard

This was a divisive book in terms of me and some of my friends. They really enjoyed it, mainly because it's pretty filthy. Now I am not a prude, but some of the stuff in this book just made me think 'what is the point in all this?' It could be interpreted in how people try and express their sexual desires, but some of is just so weird I wanted to smack my head against the wall!

3. Trainspotting (1993) by Irvine Welsh

Now I understand the film is a bit of a 90s classic, and I love Danny Boyle because of Slumdog Millionaire and the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. But the book was just a bit confusing for me. I get that it's about drugs and is trying to show the effect of drugs on the human psyche, but I just couldn't grasp this one! I think I found the narrative a bit jarring as well.

4. Poor Things (1992) by Alaisdair Grey

Now this book was weird, but I LOVED it! Yes really! I read the whole book in a day, and was very passionate about it during theory lectures. It was about this woman Bella Baxter, and provided all these different themes of life, identity and memory in a Victoria setting. The Victorian element is what sells me on it. Bella is quite an erratic person, and the plot doesn't really have a start and end point. In this case, it worked for me, although when I finished the book I laughed as to how absurd the entire novel was!

5. The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) by James Joyce

I remember seeing a statue of James Joyce in Dublin and wincing a bit. I get that he's one of the iconic authors of Irish literature, and the above book is a biographical one in some sense. I may be bending my own rules here as well since its not so much weird, but I just found it a bit confusing. I couldn't even finish the novel! I think if I want to learn about James Joyce I will read a bio about him. I did learn a bit about him when I visited the Irish writers museum in Dublin as well!

I would be intrigued to see if my views are shared in terms of some of these novels. None are substantially modern, so it would interest me to see if they all have a legacy still today, regardless of film adaptations. The novels have to be considered on their own (hence why people moan about film adaptations so much and how they don't do the book justice). 

I think I prefer my Victorian classics at this time, and I plan to re-read Pride and Prejudice soon!