BlackSheepBooks

Hi, remember me?

2011-04-18T04:17:00.000-07:00

After several months of not blogging, I think it's safe to say that my blog has seen its better days. That's why I'm moving on to new, and hopefully better things with a couple of friends, Inkysticks and Thepinksheep. We've decided to band together and blog as a group which we hope will provide a more entertaining way of communication all 'round. Unlike BlackSheepBooks, our new blog, SheepandInc.com, won't be a dedicated book blog, but will offer more variety. All of us are knitters and readers and we'll be discussing these things and more. If you have the time and inclination, swing by and take a look.

N.B. I will still be updating my reading lists here, just because it's handy, so if you want to take a look at what I'm reading, that will still be here.

The Ghost by Robert Harris

2010-11-16T21:46:00.000-08:00

When the former British Prime Minister, Adam Lang, decides to publish his memoirs, he hires a ghost writer as per usual. Only not all too far into the project, the “ghost” dies after falling off a bridge. A replacement is procured and he becomes The Ghost who tells the story of writing Lang’s memoires.

The new Ghost is never named, but nevertheless serves as the narrator throughout the book. He knows that his predecessor is dead and that he cannot be certain that his death was a natural one, so he goes into the situation knowing that he needs to be careful. Just after beginning with the book, all hell breaks loose as Lang is accused of working with the Americans by approving the transfer of British citizens to Gitmo in clear violation of international law. As the Americans don’t recognize this law, they cannot be held to account, but Lang, as an Englishman, can be tried for his offenses. Suddenly the priority switches from writing the memoires to practicing damage control for Lang.

As the novel progresses, the Ghost begins to try and piece Lang’s stories together with known facts about him and keeps coming up short. He begins to dig and isn’t sure he likes what he finds. This puts him in direct conflict with his job and his conscience. Should he just do the job he was hired to do and write the book or should he go after the truth? The first option would make his wealthy, but a traitor to his conscience; the second might just be suicide. He settles for jostling for time so that he can gather information and make up his mind, but the situation continues to heat up and his time starts to run very short indeed.

The Ghost is basically a political thriller which is so blatantly based on Tony Blair that even I couldn’t have missed the connection. Frankly I’m quite surprised that Harris didn’t find himself in a liable suit after this book came out. However, I’m not looking to discuss politics or the rights and wrongs of Harris’ conjectures, so I’m just going to view the book as a generic political thriller and leave it at that.

In general, I thought it was OK. It was all a little vague and one-sided for my taste. There was a distinct lack of balance and counter argument in the book, i.e. there was The Ghost and his conjectures and that was pretty much it. Yes, it did look like he was following the right path, but there were too many questions that went unanswered and a distinct lack of hard evidence to fuel his search. There was too much conjecture and guesswork for my taste. I also never really felt the connection to the narrator since he himself didn’t really seem to know where he belonged. It was like he was floating out at sea being taken to wherever the wind and tides took him. Yes, he’d pick up things along the way, but he never really seemed to be in any control and couldn’t even really decide if he had an opinion one way or the other.

That said, it was entertaining enough that I read the whole book and didn’t feel like it was a waste of my time. However, that is all it was for me, entertainment. 3/5

The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo

2010-11-15T03:48:00.000-08:00

Santiago is a young shepherd boy who continually dreams that he is destined to find a treasure near the Egyptian pyramids. As he travels with his sheep, he thinks about the soul and the language of the world. He believes if he listens long enough to the world, it will tell him how to reach his own destiny.

During his travels, he realizes that it would be easy to give up and settle for something comfortable like many people do. They ignore what the world is telling them because conventionality and society tells them they should do the sensible thing and settle down to a modest job with a modest income and start a family. The boy believes that they lose their meaning in life by doing to and that only the possibility of fulfilling a dream and following that dream gives life a purpose. Several times he is tempted to give in and compromise, especially when he finds his true love in the desert, but something always comes along to spur him on in his travels. Thus he comes to believe that the entire universe is there to help anyone who undertakes the journey along to find his dream and that only people themselves stand in their own way.

This was a quick, neat little read. I enjoyed the book, but found that it didn’t really live up to its reputation. Again it’s one of those I suppose would be better from a younger person’s perspective, but for me it didn’t offer much in the way of new or uncharted territory. The entire time I was reading it, I was reminded of Siddartha by Hermann Hesse. Despite the novel’s differences, they are both about the journey to oneself and learning the meaning of life. Their conclusions serve to show that there really is no universal meaning of life, but that each person must decide for himself if he wants to seek knowledge of the world or not and that the answer may be different for each person. Santiago’s journey does, however, lead him to believe that the world is all one and that it’s cohesive is love. This knowledge became his greatest treasure.

3/5

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

2010-10-28T21:44:00.000-07:00

Clarissa Fray is a young girl who has been raised in New York by her single mother. Until now, her life has been ordinary. Then one evening when she goes out with a friend, she begins to see people her friends can’t see. Then her mother is abducted from their apartment and her whole world is turned upside down. Clary discovers that she is not ordinary, but is a shadowhunter as was her mother. Until now, her mother had protected her from the magical side of New York, but now that she’s gone, Clarissa will have to learn to fend for herself in this new world the best she can. Fortunately she has her new friends, Jace, Isabelle and Alec, as well as her old friend Simon to help her out as she finds her feet and begins to search for her mother.

Usually I like YA books and I’m quite fond of supernatural type stories, but this particular book didn’t do anything for me. It was if “Clary” was too shallow a character to really get into her and the story too predictable to be of interest. Having said that, I’m fairly certain teenagers will find this a good read, but it wasn’t for me and I won’t be reading the sequals.

Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones

2010-10-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

The Faceless ones is the third in the Skulduggery Pleasant series. For those of you who have never read any of these, here are the basics:

Skulduggery Pleasant – a detective for the other world who is actually a skeleton who is held together by magic. He does not remember how he came to be as he is, but he spends his days fighting crime and saving the world from evil. Skulduggery was the friend of Stephanie’s uncle.

Stephanie Edgely (aka Valkyrie Cain) – is the niece of a famous novelist who apparently had more than his imagination available for the creation of his stories. Stephanie inherits her uncles estate after his untimely death, only to her surprise, she inherits just more than weath and material goods. Skulduggery seems to have been thrown into the bargain and she becomes his apprentice in crime fighting (greatly reducing the odds of a long life).

China Sorrows – A “librarian” who has a lot of sides to her you just don’t want to meet. Status as good or evil: variable.

Tanith Low – a warrior (one of the good guys)

The Sanctuary – The Law of the magical world. These are supposed to be the good guys, but don’t always act the part.

There are sundry other characters vital to the story, but these are the main ones. Skulduggery and Stephanie are fighting to prevent the ancient gods, The Faceless Ones, from being recalled to earth. Their return would bring about the ultimate destruction of the world so it’s kind of vital that they do. In The Faceless Ones, the an organization known as the Diablerie returns to try and bring The Faceless Ones back into the world using teleporters to aid them in the creation of a portal from one world to the next. Stephanie and Skulduggery are alone in their fight against the Diablerie as the Sanctuary has cut Skulduggery off and hired another, rather inept detective. The story heats up as all three parties search for the last of the teleporters who are vital to everyone’s plans.

Personally, I’m quite fond of this series. I love the dry humour, I love the one liners, I love that they’re easy to read and relaxing and don’t take themselves too seriously. If you’re looking for a fun, light read, (or are in the target YA age range) this is a great series. 4/5

A Crown of Lights by Phil Rickman

2010-10-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

Merrily Watkins is the diocesan exorcist for Hereford and is the one they call in when things seem a little out of the ordinary. That is, she gets called in any time anything seems spooky or inexplicable. In the beginning, Merrily was unsure if she had found the right place for her within the hierarchy of the church. In the meantime, she still has her doubts, but has become much surer of herself and is less inclined to doubt her instincts. In a Crown of Lights, after Merrily answers a call to look in on an older gentleman who is taking the care of his dead wife’s body to extremes she becomes embroiled in the feud between the growing pagan movement, the church and an odd Christian sect which seems to have sprung out of nowhere. As events unfold and Merrily, with the help of her teenage daughter Jane, finds out more and more about the background of those involved, the pieces start to come together to form a rather unsavoury picture on all sides and she begins to wonder if she’ll be able to extract herself from the situation with life, limb and reputation intact.

This is the third book in the Merrily Watkins series and I quite liked it. Rickman manages to give the books and his characters a touch of the supernatural without going overboard. He’s left the series realistic by creating situations that are just a little bit off, thereby not requiring the reader to decide if he actually believes in the supernatural or not. You could choose to see the events in that light if you wanted to, but you can just right it all off as one of those things men create to spook themselves. Even if you choose not to put too much faith in the otherworldly, the books remain entertaining. Merrily is a down to earth, realistic woman who brooks no nonsense and only half believes in the whole business herself. She certainly believes in evil and the power of evil, but she’s not the type to go in for an all out supernatural frenzy. She’s belief without fanaticism, which is probably much more appealing to the average reader than if she were to go to one extreme or the other.

Jane’s daughter also adds a good layer to the book as Jane is more inclined to believe in all things mystical than her mother is. As a teenager with alternative beliefs, Jane often goads her mother into thinking about things more than she might do otherwise. She also incites her to act where Merrily wouldn’t. So while much of their relationship is pretty much the same as between any teenage daughter and her mother, Jane keeps the story moving along. She provides normalcy with a kick.

All in all, the books are entertaining without actually entering into the “Twilight” Zone (pun intended because I just couldn’t help myself). A Crown of Lights still holds as much interest as the first two novels while developing the characters at the same time. 4.5/5.

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

2010-10-20T03:57:00.000-07:00

Hannah Baker committed suicide. She opted out of life and now she wants people to know why. Shortly after her death, Clay receives a package of audio tapes made by Hannah before her death detailing the 13 reasons why she no longer wants to live. These 13 reasons translate into 13 people and Hannah makes it clear that if any one of them doesn’t pass the package along after her death, a second set of the tapes will surface publicly exposing them to their peers, and in some cases, the law.

Clay has no idea why he should be one of the reasons, but curiosity and a certain respect for Hannah drive him to listen to the tapes. As he does, the cruelty of his fellow students is revealed to him and a picture of what Hannah’s life was like began to form. It all began with a simple lie that only teenagers could take seriously. But they did and it changed Hannah’s life. That lie caused more and more little events to happen which snowballed into one great burden which Hannah could no longer carry and when even her teacher failed to understand and help, Hannah ended her life, but left the tapes as a way of getting back at the life and people that so disappointed her.

I’ve seen some reviews which paint Hannah as a whiny, weak person who should have had more courage, and in a sense, this is true. A stronger person would have been able to deal with the situation and would probably have never allowed things to go as far as they did. However, the book is about more than just her failings. It’s about social interaction and the failure of society as a whole. Humans are supposed to differentiate themselves from animals by their compassion, sympathy and capacity to support those who need help. In Hannah’s case, not only did they not help her, they didn’t even bother to get to know her before they started wearing her down. They didn’t know what kind of a person she was, whether she was good or bad, whether she was kind or unkind, whether she could take the kind of punishment they were handing out. In the end, you find yourself asking what kind of people we are raising today and if society will continue to develop or if we’re reverting back into a bunch of compassionless Neanderthals. Granted, her peers will probably have learned something about themselves after having listened to the tapes and may become better people for it.

The second question you’re left with is how often you yourself have unknowingly, unwittingly participated in such a campaign yourself. We often forget that we are not the only force in the universe and the things we do can be like drops of water on stone. One drop alone does no damage, but every drop contributes to the destruction of stone over time. Humans are, in general and always to some extent, egocentric. Everything we do or experience is always viewed in relation to ourselves, which often gets in the way of seeing the full picture. Seen in this light, some of what Hannah experienced is understandable, if not excusable. Might we have unknowingly acted the same? How does that leave us in the end? Are we really better than animals that kill their own in an attempt to survive themselves? It’s all really quite complex. The 13 reasons throw up a lot of questions about ourselves and the human race, which is what makes the book so powerful. It’s not just that Hannah committed suicide or that she could have gotten help, it’s that we all could have been as guilty as the 13 without intending it.

Frankly, I think this is a book everyone should read. It’s compelling and thought provoking without being soppy and over dramatic. It’s Hannah saying, I did this and this is why without asking for pity or tears. Yes, she is getting her own back in a way as it will surely wound those who listen (unless they are psychopaths), but it’s not a vicious attack and may even have a positive effect in the end.

5/5

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

2010-10-11T21:38:00.001-07:00

After having read The Lightning Thief, I had to see where Riordan was going to take his series, thus The Sea of Monsters.

Percy Jackson is half human, half god (his dad’s Poseidon) and as such, leads a very non-ordinary life. This year, he’s in a new school waiting for the end of the year so he can take off for Camp Half Blood where he’ll learn the things he really needs to know to survive in the world like sword fighting, archery, Mythodic History, Monster Identification…you get the gist. Being normal during the rest of the year is difficult for Percy and this year, although better than most, has been no exception. Still, he manages to make it to the last day with nothing worse than poor grades, until PE. Suddenly he is attacked my monsters on the dodge ball court with his only help being the large, but not particularly bright, Tyson. They manage to fend them off and with Annabeth’s help, run off to Camp Half Blood, where Percy finds there is yet more trouble which he must help fend off. His new adventure leads him to the Sea of Monsters where he meets up with, and fights, many creatures straight from the Odyssey.

Although Percy is sometimes as dense as granite, he’s still a pretty likeable guy with good friends and an interesting life. Riordan really knows how to cobble together all the elements to make a good story which will appeal to younger generations. What he really should be applauded for though was actually making me want to go back and read the Iliad and the Odyssey, neither of which I really cared for much the first time around. Then it was just a long, boring story about a guy running around sticking his nose in a lot of business that wasn’t his. Riodan’s version takes on new life with his younger and not quite so arrogant character. He makes it all sound so much more adventurous.

Again this is a YA book, so it’s geared towards a younger crowd. Nonetheless, it’s a good tale and worthy of a read. 4/5

The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris

2010-10-06T21:47:00.000-07:00

The Southern Vampire Mysteries

1. Dead Until Dark
2. Living Dead in Dallas
3. Club Dead
4. Dead to the World
5. Dead as a Doornail
6. Definitely Dead
7. All Together Dead
8. From Dead to Worse
9. Dead and Gone
10. Dead in the Family
11. A Touch of Dead

I came a little bit late to the Sookie Satckhouse party. I was never quite sure that I really wanted to read these books, especially after Twilight. I think I’ve mentioned that I find the whole idea of Twilight stupid (teenage vampire romance, UGH!), the writing is poor, the teenage angst and romance bits are annoying and generally I should hate everything about those books. That’s why I’ve read them all. Twice. I don’t know what it is, but once you get started, they kind of grab you. Since Twilight, I’ve read a lot of similar books, like the House of Night series (I have yet to make myself finish, huge ugh!), and Shiver, which I hated, so going down the Sookie Stackhouse road didn’t appeal that much. Then Audible offered one on sale. And I was hooked.

Sookie Stackhouse lives in the little backwoods town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, works at the bar as a waitress and is a telepath. Most of the residents of Bon Temps know there is something wrong with Sookie, but they just assume she’s stupid or strange and leave it at that. Because of her abilities, she finds it hard to make and keep friends and dating is next to impossible (how do you date a guy when you really know he’s only got one thing on his mind?). Sookie tries to fit in, but it’s difficult.

Ever since Vampires had come out of their coffins, she, like just about everyone else, had been eager to meet one, and lo, one fine night in walks Bill the Vampire. Bill changes Sookie’s life in a whole lot of ways. Not only can she not hear his thoughts, which she finds terribly relaxing, but he introduces her to the super natural world. Her life suddenly becomes a whole lot more interesting as she tries to navigate and survive both the natural and the supernatural worlds by both hiding and using her telepathic abilities without falling under control of either side.

I’m not going to say a whole lot more about these books and I’m not going to review them all individually. I might have had I not read them all in one lump go, but it seems silly to review all ten in a row. So, I’m just going to say that no, they will never win any nobel prizes and no they aren’t going to become great literature, but they are highly entertaining. They’re also charming. The characters are likeable and real, in that you could see that this is just the way real people in Louisiana would react if Vampires and things that go bump in the night did come to town. Some think it’s cool, some are enamored, some want them all destroyed and a few are completely indifferent. It’s like a slice of life that you (the reader) don’t have to take seriously. The whole series reminds me of a phrase we used to use for an internet site I visited when discussions got a little heated – pretendy fun-time games. It’s not real, it’s just fun, don’t get your knickers in a twist over it. The Southern Vampire Mysteries are pretendy fun-time games for when you want to block out the world as it is and have a little fun.

If you’re looking for a good, light, fun read with a little supernatural and a little romance thrown in, you’ll like these books. On the basis of being fun and entertaining, they merit 4.25 out of 5.

The Spook’s Curse by Joseph Delany

2010-10-05T04:04:00.000-07:00

This is the second in the Spook series by Joseph Delany. The Spook and his apprentice Tom roam the country seeking out and containing all things that go bump in the night so that the residents of their county can sleep safely. Many of the elements they battle are fairly harmless; indeed, the Spook’s home help is a temperamental boggart who’s behaviour is largely dependant on the Spook’s manners (he could teach many neglecting husbands a lot about manners and showing appreciation for their wives!).

Mr. Gregory is poorly and Tom now has to shoulder much of his responsibilities. Meanwhile, a darkness is growing and taking over those who live above the catacombs below Priestown. Those who were once good people are being infiltrated and controlled by The Bane, a dark creature who seeks to become master and destroyer of all. When he realizes that the Spook himself is concerned about his own ability to stop The Bane from taking over, Tom becomes worried and no longer knows who he can trust. His only allies are the Spook himself, the Spook’s brother and Alice, a witch of questionable moral character. Tom must learn and grow up very quickly if he wants to prevent the worst from happening as the Bane grows stronger and tries to escape his prison.

I read the first of these over a year ago, and have wanted to read more. However, they are children’s books and thus not really high on my list of books to purchase. Still, Delany tells a good story and it made a great weekend read. There’s just enough darkness and action to keep it interesting without becoming too scary. The series lacks the wit of Derek Landy’s Skullduggery Pleasant, but it’s still quite good, especially if you’re in a more serious mood. Perfect for a relaxing weekend when you can let your inner child out to play.

As a children’s book, I rate it 4 out of 5.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbary

2010-09-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

I picked up The Elegance of the Hedgehog after having read so many rave reviews on it in different blogs and sites. I’m normally a bit wary of books that tend to capture the masses because what makes it onto the best seller list isn’t always to my taste. However, it sounded intriguing so I went ahead and got it. Unfortunately, I’m afraid this book did not live up to its reputation, at least not for me.

Renée Michel is a concierge in a posh apartment building in Paris where the young girl Paloma Josse lives. Neither person is what they seem to be. Renée is an autodidact who has taught herself much which a normal concierge wouldn’t normally even be interested in. Paloma is a highly intelligent child who is too old for her age. Both of them hide their intelligence so they can melt into the crowd and remain anonymous spectators who watch the world around them going by as if the rest of the people were ants in a farm who have no idea what their purpose in life is. Paloma decides that there is no point in living such a life, so she plans to commit suicide on her 13th birthday. Before she does this, she takes it upon herself to write down as many meaningful things as possible, through which the reader realizes that Paloma suspects Renée’s deception. Renée also begins to realize that Paloma is more than a vapid child and becomes interested in her.

The whole premise is interesting and the characters are well drawn, thus I hoped for more out of the book. However, two things got in the way of making this a really great work. The first was the attitude of the child. She was arrogant and annoying and I spent much of the time wanting to slap her. Yes, she was just a child and it was a phase, but I could have lived without this being the centre of attention for so long. The second is that it read a bit like a philosophy primer. It was as if I were back at uni in a philosophy 101 course going through the basics instead of reading about the relationship between and old woman and a girl. The two things did not mesh well together and it disrupted the rhythm of the story; it was a bit like talking as you bump down stone steps while on a cart. Had the story been smoother, the book would have been fantastic. As it was, I spent the first two-thirds wanting to slap the child and the last third regretting that the author hadn’t arrived at that point sooner.

All in all, I give the first half 2/5 and the last half 4/5, so a decisive 3/5.

Unplanned Hiatus

2010-09-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

I should have realized that I woulnd't be blogging last week and mentioned it, however, it never occured to me that between a visit from my cousin and a company outing that I wouldn't have time to blog at all. Add a few sick days to that and voilà, you have a blogging outage! So, just to get me started again, I'll post the meme I did a while back and forgot to post before going on vaccy.

1. Why did you start blogging? I frankly just don’t remember.
2. If you could travel anywhere in the world with no restriction of costs, where would it be and why? Canada and Alaska including a kayaking trip somewhere cool.
3. Did you have a teacher in school that had a great influence on your life? If so, what? I don’t remember many of my teachers and I don’t think any one particular teacher had any great influence.
4. If you could spend the day with a famous person, who would it be, and what would you do? I don’t think I’d want to spend the day with a famous person. It would be too odd. I also think their lives weren’t/aren’t as great as we think they are and finding out that were true would just be depressing. Just imagine visiting Victorian London. That would just kill the romance of the age methinks.
5. Toilet paper – over or under? Is under an option? I wasn’t aware that it was.
6. Name one thing in your life that you would do over if possible. My whole education and choice of occupation.
7. Tell about your pets – if any. I’m down to one dog, Biscuit the Great Dane and Sydney the really annoying cat. Biscuit is 6 and is a lovely dog who is so well behaved she’s very nearly boring (but not quite and I would take boring over misbehaved any time!). Sydney is a 10 year old second hand cat who was abused at her former home. I’m the only person she’ll let near her and she would turn herself into Velcro and attach herself to me if she could. It’s terribly irritating.
8. Do you live in a small town or a large town. A small village.

Now back to our normal programming.

The Sacrifice by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

2010-09-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

The Fey are a race of conquerors with fighting and battle in their blood. Thus far, they have conquered all the lands within their reach and to extend their empire even further, they will have to take Blue Isle. As the people of Blue Isle are peace loving traders, the Fey assume that it won’t take more than a morning’s work to overrun the isle and claim it for their own. When this proves impossible for them, they must come to terms with their shock and create new battle plans, for the Fey never lose and to do so now against such a weak opponent would be more than an extreme embarrassment. The Islanders, however, are far from willing to relinquish what is theirs and set out to do the impossible and defeat the Fey.

From the beginning, I struggled with this book. The idea was good but the story never really gripped me. There were two things that really bothered me about the story. The first was that both parties were introduced on an equal basis with the introduction to the Fey being the first. Then, just as the affinity for the main character, Jewel, starts to set in, you realize that her race is actually entirely reprehensible and you really don’t want to know her. I got the feeling that Rusch was trying to convey that the same situation can look very different from different perspectives, but the effect was off-putting. Jewel and her father were evil by modern standards, so it was hard for me to care about what happened to them. Nicholas and his father were much more sympathetic characters, but earned relatively little page time. The second thing that irritated me was the repetition and lack of much action. It felt like she kept covering the same ground time and time again and after having spent a lot of time listening, not much actually happened. Finally, after having many times considered whether or not to finish the book, the ending wasn’t actually an ending but a lead in to the next book, which left me with no satisfaction at knowing the outcome and little desire to read the next book.

There are many good things about this book, the setting is good, the idea is good, there are several intriguing ideas about religion and magic which I’d never run into before and some of the characters have real potential. I could also see the next book being better than this first one. However, I’m going to have to give this one a 3/5 because, as I mentioned, it just never grabbed me like I had hoped it would.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

2010-09-06T03:43:00.000-07:00

This is another one of those books we’ve all heard of but few people have actually read. As a result, people often have the impression they know what the book is about, but don’t actually because much of the story has been dramatized and Hollywoodized over the years. I don’t actually mean that as a criticism even if it does sound like one. It’s brilliant that people can take an idea and expound on it to create other stories and I wouldn’t want to give up our Mr. Hyde of today, or our green Frankenstein, or our Coca-Cola Santa Claus. It’s just that often the successors wind up overshadowing the original to the point where it almost disappears except to the few who choose to look at the origins. Granted, there still are a lot of people out there who have read the originals, but the average person hasn’t.

Dr. Henry Jekyll has gone a bit soft in the head. He shuns visitors, changes his will in an odd manner leaving all to Mr. Hyde should he die or disappear, and his friends are becoming increasingly worried. Most of all they are concerned about his connections with the man Mr. Hyde who is seen running down a small girl in the street. Mr. Hyde gives a check signed in Jekyll’s name to the father in the way of compensation, but doesn’t show much remorse. Jekyll swears afterward that he is finished with Hyde, but when Jekyll’s friends find his cane at Hyde’s house, they know he’s still under Hyde’s influence and soon they find out that the truth is even more horrible than they had imagined.

It won’t be giving anything away to mention that Jekyll and Hyde are one in the same. Hyde is the creator of a potion which changes him into a being free from moral subjugation and Jekyll revels in the freedom this gives him at first. However, like most addictive substances, it soon takes over his life and his free choice is removed so that he is subjugated to the beast he has created. Here’s where “fact” and fiction separate though. Hyde is often portrayed as a larger than life figure with great strength and power. However, in the book, Jekyll is the larger of the two men and Hyde much the smaller, more crude looking figure with no particular powers except his lack of morals which allows him to do things forbidden to most humans. Stevenson also doesn’t present the case from Jekyll/Hyde’s point of view, instead choosing to tell the tale through the rather clinical and Victorian observation of his friends. This lends the book a bit of a dry air as opposed to making it a thriller. Thus, Stevenson wasn’t actually trying to create a monster for our Halloween pleasure, he was presenting us with the dichotomy of man vs. the monster within himself, or what we would be without voluntary moral or ethical subjugation.

I think he also, perhaps unknowingly addresses the subject of addiction and its ends. As mentioned, the potion becomes the master of the man until the effect is no longer the one desired, and instead reflects the essence of the potion which is evil. Many drugs have the same effect of being pleasurable in the beginning, but soon grow to control the user instead of the user controlling the drug. Finally, he also, rather obviously, addresses split personalities and mental illness. Jekyll and Hyde being one and the same makes that pretty much a given. Although, to his credit, Stevenson doesn’t make the split black and white, as Jekyll tells his friends, while Hyde was wholly amoral, this did not make Jekyll his diametric opposite and render him wholly good. Jekyll remained much as he was while Hyde only embodied the evil in him. Thus, it was less of a split than a personality graft, like cutting off one pit of a plant so that it grows into its own plant, only this particular bit only contained certain parts of the makeup of its parent plant. In essence, this is a more accurate reflection of mental illness as it is seldom comprised of a simple black and white split.

I could babble on about this forever because it is a terribly interesting book which opens up a lot of room for discussion. Yes, it is a bit on the dry side as a read, especially if you’re expecting fast paced action, but the subject matter makes up for that in leaps and bounds. It’s one I can recommend to anyone, so it’s another 5/5 book.

Requiem Mass by Elizabeth Corley

2010-09-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

Five girls went out onto the cliffs during a school outing, only four returned. One of the girls fell off the cliff in a horrible accident which went unwitnessed by her friends. Her loss was tragic but life went on and the girls’ lives continued as planned. Twenty years later and one of the girls, now a wife and a mother, disappears after leaving for a day trip. Her husband is shocked and upset but knows his wife would never leave the children. Unfortunately, the police don’t believe him and her disappearance is only a blip in their records, and only then because the husband lodged a complaint. Had it not been for DCI Fenwick, no one would have ever looked at the case again, but Fenwick feels there are just too many warning bells about the case and can’t leave it alone. Then another crime is committed which may be connected and Fenwick sets off down the path which will lead him to investigating the girl’s death 20 years ago while trying to prevent even more murder.

I can’t even remember where I came across this book, but I’m glad I did. Corley creates some interesting characters from remarkable perspectives and presents her detective with several moral dilemmas which make the reader stop and think about justice in its entirety. What is justice and can it be wrong to pursue it in every case and at all costs? She also created a rather incongruous detective. Many of the protagonists in modern crime novels are young and single with no children or have a drink problem etc. etc. Fenwick is a family man who cares deeply about his children and his own effect on their lives. As such, Corley adds an element of reality by introducing a man who, like the rest of us, has to juggle his career and desire to rise in the ranks with his life without dropping the ball on either. I suppose the potential for the dysfunctionalism which is so prevalent in today’s society and modern literature, but it’s refreshing to find a character who is fighting it and hasn’t just given in and accepted that he must sacrifice his family to his career. Not that Fenwick doesn’t have his problems, but they don’t take pride of place in his life as they so often seem to nowadays.

Interesting plot, engaging characters, enough tension to keep it interesting and a depth which is often lacking in crime novels. 5/5

Skullduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire by Derek Landy

2010-08-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

Valkyrie Cain has taken a liking to her dead uncle’s friend Skullduggery Pleasant and is now something of an apprentice in his detective agency. Only it’s a bit special this agency. For one, Skullduggery is a skeleton, for another his clients and cases are seldom normal. They mostly belong to the parallel world where vampires and demons really do exist and are usually trying to escape or find something that isn’t really walking on the right side of the law. Valkyrie vastly prefers this life to the dull, boring one she grew up in and cleverly ditches school on a daily basis to learn much more interesting and useful things like how to kill a vampire and use elemental magic.

When Baron Vengeous escapes from his jail cell somewhere deep in the heart of Russia, Skullduggery knows that problems are bound to appear soon. Vengeous wants to continue his quest to return the Faceless Ones to power (anyone called Faceless has just got to be evil, haven’t they?). With the help of Dusk the Vampire, the assassin Billy-Ray Sanguine and various other unsavoury characters, he intends to reanimate his grotesquery as a first step. Skullduggery knows he must stop this before it goes to far to stop it and so he and Valkyrie set out to save the world, again.

I love Skullduggery. Yes, it’s a children’s book, yes, it’s a bit silly, but it’s fun. I especially love the really dry humour that keeps it from taking itself too seriously. Right up my ally. It’s also not always easy to discern where the plot will take you, so it’s a bit of a roller coaster ride and never gets boring. Again, it’s an easy, enjoyable read, perfect for Sunday afternoons when you don’t want to think too much. It’s not going to win a Nobel prize any time soon, but I don’t care. I loved it. 5/5 for sheer fun.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

2010-08-29T21:52:00.001-07:00

How to go about reviewing this book. I almost don’t know where to start, so I guess I’ll start by saying that I thought it was a really, really good, well told story which earns a 5 out of 5 rating. I don’t know where to start because it’s a complicated story which spans generations. Some of which the reader is privy to before the characters in their own time and some of which the reader doesn’t know.

Morton essentially tells us the story of Nell, an English woman who was sent to Australia as a small child. No one knows her story, not even Nell. For a long time many things were hidden from her in an assumption to best let things Nell herself forgot remain forgotten. Nell’s granddaughter Cassie, sets out years later to find out what happened all those years ago.

I can’t actually say much more about it without giving parts of the book away. The story is written in a complex manner crossing time and space to fill in the pieces of the puzzle one at a time and although Nell’s story is central to the novel, hers is not the only story told. Understanding the one story requires knowledge of other’s pasts and futures. The events of one era come crashing together to cause waves which will be felt far into the future and, in turn, create further waves of their own. By including so much in the novel, Morton conveys that understanding is imperative; that to judge without knowledge is to judge falsely and unwisely. Not even the figures central to the plot understand how things came to be as they are until the past comes together to explain the future.

In a sense, the book is a mystery in reverse. You know where you’ve gotten to, but not how you arrived there and nothing in the past seems to make much sense. Little bits of the future are revealed as the stories are told. Morton uses this to her advantage by omitting or revealing small facts or clues by way of which she keeps enough tension in the plot to coax the reader along without creating unnecessary tension. It’s almost as if she’s leading you through the maze to the forgotten garden, but all of the maze and not just the path that leads through. She takes you down all of the twists and turns that lead to dead ends, but instead of letting it frustrate the reader, she uses it to help them understand the maze as a whole. Understanding the construction of the maze helps in understanding the way through the maze and what is at the other end. As such, the maze is really a metaphor for the whole story. She repeatedly refers to people getting lost in the maze; even those who once knew the way through can no longer find the correct pathway without thought and reflection. The maze came to be a way to hide and bury the past from the future as family secrets and letting it become overgrown only helped ensure that the past remained buried.

This is another one of those books I could write volumes about but as that would pretty much give the whole thing away, I won’t. I can say that it reminds me a bit of Rosamund Pichard’s novels (the books, not the much less praise worthy films) as far as style is concerned, only The Forgotten Garden adds a mysterious element which I thought added a lot to the book, especially with it’s well-timed revelations. Like I said, 5/5.

Nation by Terry Pratchett

2010-08-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

I may have mentioned a few times before that I adore Terry Pratchett. Just maybe. Well, I do. With the exception of the Bromeliad Trilogy, I’ve loved everything I’ve ever read by him. Some books more and some less, but they are consistently good and always entertaining. The Bromeliad Trilogy are children’s stories and knowing that Nation is essentially a children’s book made me wonder if I’d like it, but it’s Pratchett, so the risk is low and of course I wanted to try it. My opinion in general? It was worth the read. It’s not one that will list very high on my favourite read list, but it’s still a good book. It’s also another one of those so chock full of sly comments that you could read it ten time and still not have cottoned on to all the remarks. It’s one children will go back and read in ten years time and think, wow, I missed all of that the first time around! As such, it’s not strictly a child’s book and I can recommend it to anyone who has a sense of humour. It helps if you know a little bit about Polynesian and Victorian culture as well, but it’s not absolutely necessary.

Mau is set to become a man. He goes off to the little island alone, finishes his tasks and is already tasting the BBQed fish and hearing the congratulations that will welcome him when he arrives back home. Then the wave hits and wipes out Mau’s world as if the Gods wanted a gigantic do-over. At a total loss, Mau carries on as best he can alone, that is until he meets the shipwrecked Ermintrude, oh, sorry, Daphne. Daphne is the diametric opposite of Mau. She is the product of an English Victorian aristocratic family (her father is 138th in line for the throne; her grandmother is plotting 138 ways of death). She considers being barefoot just short of nudity, eating with your hands is just not done and talking to strangers without a written letter of introduction is a brazen act of wantonness. Consequently, neither understands the other. Fortunately, Ermin…Daphne is intelligent enough to realize that when needs must, convention has just got to pick up and go on an extended vacation and the two rapidly, as children tend to do, begin to understand each other and get on with the business of living and integrating the other stragglers into their Nation.

Nation is a very eclectic book. It tackles any theme that gets in its way and a few that don’t. The obvious ones are coming of age, the excesses of Victorianism, religion, idolatry and belief, but Pratchett really takes on anything that happens to come up. To say much more would be giving too much away, so if you’re interested, I recommend you read the book. It’s a quick and pleasant read but offers a lot to think and to laugh about. 5/5

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

2010-08-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

If I were a more outgoing person, I might start this post with something like “Avast ye hardies!” or Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum! But I’m not, so a quiet dram of rum and the dog wanting a cracker will just have to suffice.

Treasure Island is a book I had been beginning to think never existed. Growing up, we heard about all the Pirates like Long John Silver, Bluebeard etc. but never really knew where they came from. I personally never ran across any pirate stories and I doubt my brother did either or I would have known about it. Anyway, I was beginning to think it was all just random bits of history when I finally found Treasure Island. I can’t for the life of me figure out why no one ever thought to give us this book to read. It’s a brilliant story. This is the stuff little boy’s pirate dreams are made of. Ships, mutiny, maps, buried treasure and gold doubloons, they’re all in there.

Jim Hawkins is a young boy living with his family on the south west coast of England. His parents run an inn there and one day an old seaman, Billy Bones, shows up seeking refuge. He’s a very mysterious character and it quickly becomes apparent that he has something to hide. He even goes so far as to pay Jim to keep his eyes peeled for a sailor with one peg leg. All goes fairly well for a while when suddenly Billy Bones starts receiving visits from fellow sailors who he’s not overly pleased to see. One of them agitates him so much that he has a stroke and must be cared for by Jim. While Jim is nursing Billy, Billy lets slip that he has a map which leads to a mass of buried treasure and that’s what the others are after. Not long afterwards, Billy dies, Jim snatches the map out from under the other seamen’s noses and sets off with the village doctor and squire to find the buried treasure.

It’s an old story, but I won’t give away any more just in case there are people out there like me who manage to spend half their lives avoiding this book like me. As mentioned, I loved it. It’s full of adventure and danger and is just really fun. One surprising feature is that Long John Silver is never really quite as bad as you expect him to be. I always assumed that such a character would be portrayed in the blackest of lights, but he’s actually quite congenial and takes a genuine liking to Jim. In retrospect, the man is a masterpiece because he can wear more than one face as it pleases him. Although this doesn’t actually fit in to the stereotype of a Pirate aux Pirates of the Caribbean, it creates an even greater aura of evil about him as you’re never quite sure which side of himself he’s going to show. In this sense, he translates well into modernity where it’s long since been expected that really brilliant criminals aren’t laden with the neon “I’m the Villain” sign, but are multi-faceted and can adapt themselves to their environment.

The story also belongs to an era where right and wrong, good and evil are clearly marked (with the aforementioned exception of Silver) and as such provides a good role model for children whose world really is still pretty much black and white. While I’m not always for dumbing down things for children, I’m of the school of thought where avoiding confusion in role models for young children is a good thing. They’ll grow up and realize the world is more complex soon enough. If we had more of these types of stories, kids might be a little less confused nowadays. Now I think I’ll just stop before I begin to sound too much like my grandmother. Brilliant book, a good read for all ages: 5/5

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

2010-08-24T04:10:00.000-07:00

I’d heard of this book from other bloggers and thought the idea sounded intriguing. After all, I like fantasy/paranormal/vampire stories, so the idea of Werewolves in the forest sounded interesting. It’s also gotten great reviews and was on the bestseller list for quite a long time. Unfortunately, I didn’t read the reviews and blurbs well enough, or didn’t grasp what they were saying because this basically turned out to be a teenage romance story which was completely overrated in my opinion.

A young girl, Grace, is attacked and hauled off into the forest by a wolf during a particularly hard winter. As she is being bitten, one single wolf steps in and saves her from certain death. Ever after, this wolf becomes her wolf. What she doesn’t know is that the wolves in the forest are werewolves. They are people doomed to the transition into a wolf every winter as the temperatures drop, the transition period becoming shorter with each passing year until they no longer turn into humans at all. That end is nearing for Sam, the wolf Grace thinks of as her wolf.

I was disappointed that the main focus of the book turned out to be romance and not the werewolves or even tension within the pack or tension with the human community. There were one or two lines the author picked up and then just sort of dropped as the romance took total control of the book. The whole thing would have greatly benefitted from a branching out to include more of the peripheral characters in the story or including more lore and a longer, more complex plot.

If you’re a teenager looking for a romance story requiring little to no challenge, then this would be a good book for you, otherwise I cannot recommend it.

2/5

Maximum Ride by James Patterson

2010-08-19T21:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks for Sync for this free audio book! I know I don’t actually belong to the target audience for either the book or the free book offer, but I do appreciate anything that doesn’t cost me and is entertaining.

Maximum Ride is the first in a series of 7 books for young adult readers. Maximum, or Max, is one of several children who grew up as a lab rat, cage and all. They are, in short, all the products of scientific experimentation. They are also the most successful of the experiments. Most of the creatures created in the lab don’t last very long, so after so many years, Max isn’t sure how long she and the others have. What’s so special about Max and Co? Well, for one they have functioning wings and can fly. They are also faster and stronger than normal humans, so it’s no wonder the scientists want to keep them under lock and key. However, four years prior to the beginning of the book, one of the scientists, Jeb, took pity and helped them escape. Ever since, the children have lived together in a cabin, fending for themselves even after Jeb disappears. Everything is going smoothly and they are all fairly happy until one day, their idyllic existence end abruptly as the lab security personnel drop in on them unexpectedly. They only get away with one of them, but one is too many for Max who sets out to find the lab again and free her friend.

I liked the characters, the plot and the creativity in this one. I think a young reader would find it quite fascinating and I’m not at all surprised there are more in the series. Personally, however, I found the writing geared too much to a younger audience to be really enjoyable. There was too much repetition and too much explanation. Sometimes I felt like I was being hit over the head with a hammer in that Max’s character would stop and explain a reference like the reader wouldn’t be able to get the point on their own. I got it the first time and didn’t need the explanation so it bothered me. A younger audience on the other hand, might have found the references useful and a skilful teacher could even put it all to good use in teaching the basics of literary tools such as foreshadowing, metaphors, symbolism, etc., so I don’t really want to add that as a general negative, just a personal negative. One thing that did bother me as a whole is that the ending is rather abrupt and isn’t really an ending. It feels more like a new chapter should start than a new book. Even if you are going to have a series, some sort of conclusion is in order, otherwise why bother finishing the book?

This is the kind of series I would continue reading if I had access to a free library, but since I haven’t got that option and I don’t have children who would read them as well, I won’t. It just wasn’t good enough for me to justify spending my money on more.

3/5

Paloma: A Retrieval Artist Novel by Kristine Katryn Rusch

2010-08-19T04:07:00.000-07:00

Miles Flint is a Retrieval Artist. He finds people who have gone off to hide from alien governments who are searching for them. In a universe full of different races and peoples, sometimes even picking a flower can earn you a death sentence and people often wind up fleeing for their lives. As treaties between worlds shift and change, so do the results of those treaties and often people who are on the run no longer need to be, some of them have inherited money, some are proven innocent. Flint has made a business out of finding these people. After returning from a prolonged absence from the Moon, he receives a call for help from his mentor, Paloma. He arrives to find Paloma dead in odd circumstances with himself at the top of the list of suspects. Now Flint must use the resources, wealth and knowledge he gained from his years as a Retrieval Artist to find Paloma’s killer and exonerate himself.

This is another one of my Audible sales purchases. It’s a little bit outside my normal comfort zone, but I thought I’d like to try something new for a change. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really what I was expecting. Basically, it’s a murder mystery set in the far, distant future. The setting was neither different nor exciting enough to really capture my imagination. The characters were realistic, but predictable and not really very interesting. It’s a bit of a B novel, not really very good, but not really bad either. I was able to finish it, but I won’t be reading any more of these. Still, if you’re looking for a non-challenging fluff read and enjoy futuristic settings, you may want to give it a try.

3/5

Who Guards a Prince by Reginald Hill

2010-08-18T03:52:00.000-07:00

Royalty is always a target and Doug McHarg spent many years of his life protecting the prince’s life. Only when he own wife falls so ill she can no longer spare him does he leave the job to protect her and becomes a policeman. His wife’s death creates a rift between him and his daughter which leaves him virtually alone in the world. Then one day, a tongue is found buried on the beach. It looks human, but when the results come back that it was a dog’s tongue, McHarg smells a rat and, terrier like, refuses to let it go. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, The Connelly Family has problems of their own. The clan’s leader Dada has found out that Dree is having a relationship with the English prince and cannot stomach what he deems betrayal to their Irish roots. He makes the entire family’s stake in the will dependant on her behaviour, leaving Dree in an impossible situation. What no one realizes is that there is a plot against them all which may take down some of the most prominent people in the world unless McHarg can figure it all out in time.

This one started off a bit on the slow side, or maybe that’s just my take on it. I hadn’t realized there would be an Irish/IRA side to the book and was worried that the story would go down the same old roads with the same old problems. It does to a certain extent, but it also goes much further as Hill pulls the Masons into the whole scheme, which adds an element of interest. The whole plot quickly becomes quite involved with unknown and uncertain alliances taking place as several groups strive to gain or retain control. McHarg is unknowingly stuck in the middle of it all and may possibly be the only one who could figure the whole thing out as the shadowy figures start to take shape. It turned out to be quite a good read in the end. By the last half of the book I was riveted. I also think this one is going to be a good re-read someday. Kind of like the movie Sixth Sense where the connections all come together when you watch it for the second time. Warranting a re-read is always a sign of a good book.

4.5/5

Deadly Intent by Lynda La Plante

2010-08-16T21:50:00.000-07:00

Deadly Intent is the first in the Anna Travis/James Langton Series by Lynda La Plante. I reviewed the second of the novels in June. Having bought the book in a sale, I didn’t realize it belonged to a series, and even thought it was a good stand-alone read, I liked it well enough to go back and read the first and will continue to read the rest of the series.

DC Anna Travis is a young, green detective who is following in her famed father’s footsteps as a police detective. She gets her break when another of the DCs is taken ill and James Langton needs someone to step in. He takes on Travis more out of curiosity than anything else; with the hope she will prove to be her father’s daughter. He isn’t disappointed. Travis quickly becomes fully embroiled in a serial murder case where the victims have hitherto been older prostitutes but are becoming younger. With the death of a teenage girl, things begin to heat up very quickly indeed. Anna swiftly proves her worth as a team member with her dogged determination to be of use to the team and her quick mind which picks up on details and avenues others have missed. Unfortunately for her, she is a little too good and winds up playing roles even the most experienced police officers would find difficult.

Again, this is just a really good read if you like detective/crime novels. The characters are brilliant and I found myself often trying to give them advice of the, “no don’t open that door!” type because I actually cared what happened to them. La Plante has finally created a female heroine who is insecure, but doesn’t let those insecurities encroach upon her life. She gets on with things and as such is a good role model. I find a lot of female characters who have to have strength do when they need to, but only when they need to. The rest of the time they lean on others for support. Travis avoids this by using her own strength without making it an issue that gets in the way of her life. She seems balanced and well rounded as a person, which is just such a nice change.

The story itself is well written and contains enough suspense to make it interesting without losing plausibility. It’s also creepy without dipping into Horror, i.e. simply reading it will not give you nightmares. All in all, a really good book.

5/5

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

2010-08-15T21:46:00.000-07:00

Mary’s family dies in an outbreak of disease and she is forced onto the streets of London and must live as an urchin. She does so for a while under the protection of a gang, but when that gang’s leader dies, she sets off on her own. She soon realizes that her chances as a boy are much better because at least she’d be able to find work. So she changes her appearance and her name (to Jack) and sets off as a ship’s boy on the Royal Navy ship, the HMS Dolphin. Even though the work is hard, it’s still an improvement on her previous life and she is content for the time being. She always knows that she will be discovered at some point, thus her time is limited and she sets out to make the most of it, engaging in all the adventure she can while she can.

I got this book from the ABC Sync site during their free summer download program. All of the books are YA and are designed to get young readers interested in books, reading and listening so there’s something for all age ranges. I think this particular book would be more suited to younger audiences, despite the references to swearing and carousing (she was on a ship in the early 1800’s so it was appropriate and only referred to, not spelled out, so to speak). The story is one that would appeal to young girls. Even though I like YA books, this one didn’t really do much for me. It was too unrealistic and fanciful for my personal taste. However, I was able to listen to the entire book and be mildly entertained, so it’s still a good book, somehow I just don’t think it’s one that would be universally appealing.

3.5/5

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

2010-08-11T21:49:00.000-07:00

I’ve never found myself particularly attracted to the African continent (it’s hot there and I hate the heat!), nor am I at all fond of boxing so The Power of One isn’t a book I would have normally picked up. It’s actually an Audio Book and was offered for free last month from Sync, so I thought I’d give it a try. It was worth it. I was pretty much riveted from start to finish. The book is well written with a good style that flows, the characters had a lot of depth to them, even though many of them weren’t on the scene for very long and the story was just superb.

Courtenay himself prefaces the book by saying that the reader should remember that it’s all a little larger than life, but most fiction is, so we should be forgiving of that particular flaw, but being larger than life is what made this book really. At this point I have to draw the parallel to Forest Gump. Although the circumstances and stories are totally different, the method is the same. The things that happen to the protagonist, Peekay, are fantastic through their realism. Peekay, as Forest, handles them unknowingly and sometimes unwittingly with a finesse and grace that endear them to the reader/viewer (I’ve never actually read Forest Gump, just seen it).

Peekay is a little boy growing up in South Africa in the early 1940’s. He is happy at home with his black nanny and grandfather, but when his mother has a nervous breakdown, Peekay is packed off to an Afrikaner boarding school where he is derided as being an English Rooniek and is bullied by the other students. Peekay’s experiences at the school help set his character and form the rest of his life as our early experiences often do. The bullying forces him for the first time to use his intelligence to help himself since he doesn’t yet possess the stature to protect himself physically. Peekay eventually leaves the school when his family moves to the East Transvaal where he meets the two most important influences in his life. The first is a German doctor of music who teaches Peekay about botany, music and life. The second is the local boxing group where he hopes to learn the art of protecting himself, and to further himself in his goal of becoming the welterweight champion of the world. The story goes on to follow Peekay through the Second World War and finally prep school, learning and boxing all the while. The older he becomes, the more Fate seems to be moulding him into someone great, although Peekay himself feels quite distanced from it all. It is perhaps this distance that endears Peekay to the reader. While his schemes at prep school can be a bit wild and self-serving, he remains true, honest and fair through it all. Unspoiled is the word I’m looking for. He’s never spoiled by his good fortune and retains his sense of fairness for others.

As mentioned, it is all a bit larger than life but it never crosses the boarder into the impossible or even ridiculous. It all remains quite plausible. The amazing variety of characters helps with this as they each have something different to impart to Peekay along his journey. They also prevent the book from becoming tedious or boring. It is a very long book, but one that’s well worth the read/listen in my opinion. I didn’t often find myself becoming bored and my concentration rarely lagged, which is quite a feat for such a long book. I give this one a resounding 5 out of 5 and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good read.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

2010-08-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

Percy Jackson has constant problems at school and home. At school because he is dyslexic and has ADHD, at home because of his horrible step-father Gabe who treats his mother like a slave and Percy as if he were an intruder. Because of his learning difficulties, Percy is vaulted from school to school, finally landing at Yancey where he meets his friend Grover, who has difficulty walking and his teacher Mr. Brunner, who believes in him and challenges him to do his best. Then one day the school takes a field trip to a museum where one chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, turns into a Fury and nearly kills him. Percy’s world is turned upside down over night when he finds out he’s not quite as human as he thought he was and the Greek Gods weren’t quite myths after all.

This is the kind of book that makes me glad I still enjoy reading young adult books from time to time, or perhaps even more often than that. There are just some really fabulous stories out there and The Lightning Thief is one of them. I enjoyed reading this and can recommend it to anyone who wants a light, fun read. The only negatives I have about the book are: sometimes the writing doesn’t flow as well as it could and Riordan occasionally demands a little too much willing suspension of disbelief, or better put, his explanations for some phenomenon fall a bit short. However, for someone who wrote the book for his kid, he does pretty well for himself and I’m fairly certain he’ll get better as he goes along. I will certainly be checking out the rest of the series to see if I’m right or not.

Where the book gets huge plus points from me is with the integration of mythology. Learning about the Greek gods can be a bit tedious, especially when learning the list of “Zeus is and he did this”. It’s easier in the context of the stories and will be even easier in this context. It might even inspire some to go on and read the original stories. Any book that gets someone interested in learning for learning’s sake is a good book in my opinion, so big thumbs up for that.

Overall, 4 out of 5 for The Lightning Thief.

A Meme Stolen from The Scrabblequeen Knits, Too

2010-08-09T03:48:00.000-07:00

1. Favourite childhood book:
I have absolutely no idea how to go about choosing one. There were the Laura Ingles books, The Wrinkle in Time series, The Narnia series, The Nancy Drew Mysteries, etc. etc. etc. There are so many fabulous books out there for kids that I could never choose just one, especially as I may have forgot a few of them in the interim. I love rediscovering those!

2. What are you reading right now?
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morten. It’s about a little girl who was “left over” from the passengers of a ship which arrived in Australia from England. That’s really just the starting point as the story engulfs the lives before and after the event. It’s turning out to be very good indeed.

3. What books do you have on request at the library?
I don’t go to the library because I lack the time to go to the only one with a good English selection (and I really don’t like reading in German for pleasure)

4. Bad book habit:
I cannot pass up an Audible sale and Amazon really knows where to get me too. I have enough books to keep me for a while and yet I still buy more.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
See #3

6. Do you have an e-reader?
NO. I dislike reading books off a screen and only do so when there is absolutely no alternative.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
I would say I prefer one at a time, but there are many exceptions. I usually have one audio book going and one DT version for pre-bedtime reading. Sometimes I will switch audio books at the weekend when I'm feeling like something for frivolous than the book I already have on the go.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
Yes and no. I read more and I think more about it. I also get a lot of great ideas about new books to read from other's blogs. So rather than change my habits, it's gotten me to branch out a bit more and read genres I otherwise wouldn't have.

9. Least favourite book you read this year:
Don Quixote hands down. I didn't actually finish this one. 2/5ths of the way through I was ready to scratch my eyeballs out at the stupidity of it all and gave up. I've just never found stupidity funny and this book was no exception.

10. Favourite book I've read this year:
Again with the favourites! How to choose?I loved The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. There were also a few good YA books like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and The Maze Runner by James Dashner which I really enjoyed. Then there was Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett which is a new favourite.

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
I do try and make the odd foray out. It doesn't do to be stuck in one zone and be nice and comfy when it’s possible that there's a lot out there you’re missing. Reading other people's blogs has helped with this immensely as have audio books which give me more reading time so I’m less miserly with that time and am more willing to take a chance on something I may or may not like.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?
Mysteries, crime and some fantasy

13. Can you read on the bus?
I could if I ever rode the bus.

14. Favourite place to read:
On my couch or in the hammock on the balcony in summer.

15. What's your policy on book lending?
I loan more books than I should, but never anything I'm not willing to risk losing because they so seldom get returned.

16. Do you dogear your books?
No, but I used to. I will always remember what my mother told me about dog-earing in reference to library books: You may do what you like with your own books, but never cause any damage to a book which isn't your own. I live by this. I don’t dog ear because I want my books to live as long as possible, which is silly because I regularly break the spines when necessary to my comfort. I like being able to read in comfort, which one cannot do when one constantly has to peer into the dark fissure the words in the middle of the book disappear into. If only the publishers would get a clue and print them properly! Sheesh! :P

17. Do you write notes in the margins of your books?
Not unless I’m planning on discussing the book with someone or writing an essay on it. Even then, post its are more helpful.

18. Do you break/crack the spine of your books?
See #16

19. What is your favourite language to read?
English. I could read in German, but don't often as it's not as relaxing as in English. Plus I get German all day and want the comfort of English when I read. That said, I won’t read a book which was originally written in German in English because that would just be silly. I do read some French now and again for learning purposes. My vocab goes down hill so fast since I don’t often use it. I haven’t even tried to read in Italian for years so I don’t know how well that would actually work nowadays.

20. What makes you love a book?
The characters and the language. It must be well written and I have to care about what happens to the characters. Plot is important too since there’s no point in having great characters who spend the whole book sitting at the kitchen table eating cheese sandwiches (or doing something else equally mundane).

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
If I liked a book and I think someone else would like it, I'll recommend it. That said, reading taste is very personal and individual, so I'm careful about my recommendations.

22. Favourite genre:
Mystery and sci-fi and classical lit.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did):
There isn't one that's applicable here. If I wish to read something, I do, end of story. See the next question for more.

24. Favourite Biography:
I would love to want to read biographies, but I don't. They don't interest me in the slightest. This probably screams that I'm anti-social and uninterested in people, but there you have it. Wish I weren't, but I am. Forcing myself to read something I'm not interested in is not going to change this.

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
I was probably given books to read on how to lose weight when I was a teenager, but they never did any good so I've disregarded the whole genre ever since.

26. Favourite Cookbook:
Backen für Weihnachten (Baking for Christmas). I dislike cooking, so cookbooks are out. Backen für Weihnachten gets used copiously every Christmas.

27. Most inspirational book you've read this year (fiction or non-fiction):
I can't honestly say I've read anything inspirational, but then I tend to be very non-inspired, so maybe I just missed the point.

28. Favourite reading snack:
Jelly Bellies – This is a very, very, very unhealthy habit and not one I often indulge in.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience:
Well, I just finished Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater and it most certainly didn't live up to the recommendations it got. I’ll be blogging about this one soon.

30. How often do you agree with the critics about about a book?
I don't really care much what the critics have to say. I'm usually only worried about whether I like a book or not. Recommendations I get from other bloggers and the reviews on Audible or Amazon. They’re much more reliable than critics.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
I don’t like railing on books and usually try and point out its positive features as well as the negative. I also always try and point out that it's my point of view and that someone else may find it a brilliant read (case in point, Dan Brown and just about any book he’s written. I don’t like him; he cares all the way to the bank.). However, there’s no point in giving a book a good review if I didn't like it. That would be tantamount to lying. Finally, only books I finish make it into my blog. The really bad ones don’t even get that far.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you choose?
Latin. I really wish I knew Latin (well) since it's the basis for a lot of modern language. Baring that, I suppose I'd choose French. I can read some, but I'd love to be able to read perfectly.

33. Most intimidating book I've read
I'm not sure I've ever been intimidated by a book, unless it was a math book.

34. Most intimidating book I’m too nervous to begin:
See #33

35. Favourite Poet:
Ouch, here's where I have to admit to not caring too much for poetry. *ducks*

36. How many books do you usually have checked out from the library at any given time?
See #3

37. How often do you return books to the library unread?
See #3

38. Favourite fictional character:
Ebenezer Scrooge

39. Favourite fictional villain:
I suppose I could use old Eb for this answer too, but he's really not a villain, or is at least a redeemable one, so in lieu of Eb, Fagin.

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation:
Something light that takes little to no brain power and can be put down at a moment's notice to go do other vacationy things.

41. The longest I've gone without reading:
A day. Maybe three when I was in the hospital. Oh wait, there was the time of the concussion which lasted about a week. So voluntarily maybe 24 hours. Involuntarily, a week.

42. Name a book you could/would not finish:
Don Quixote. See #9

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
Easily? The noise from the kids next door. I'm not JUST a grumpy old woman, they own a vuvuzela and a trampoline which is apparently not fun unless they are screaming at the top of their lungs.

44. Favourite film adaptation of a novel:
As The Scrabblequeen said: Pride and Prejudice, the Colin Firth version.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation:
There is a Mansfield Park adaptation (1999) which should really be renamed Mansfield Park as I would have written it had I been a 21st century woman living in the 1800s. It was so bad it's put me off watching the adaptations.

46. Most money I've ever spent in a bookstore at one time:
$200 when I was buying books for the semester at Uni

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Never

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book halfway through?
If it’s ridiculous, has become painful to read or just can't hold my attention.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
Yes, I have sections like Fiction and Classics and then by author's last name.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once they've been read?
Keep. I am loathe to relinquish books once they are in my possession.

51. Are there any books that you've been avoiding?
Why would I avoid reading a book? If I want to read it, I do, if I don't, I don't.

52. Name a book that made you angry:
Angry is relative. I wouldnt read a book that was likely to make me angry, or was geared to do so, like political books etc. T'his is mostly because the more they intend to play with your emotions, the less likely they are to be true. The point of playing with people's emotions is to distract them from the failings in a book, so if it makes me angry, I ask myself where I'm being duped. I did, however, get angry reading The Power of One and Uncle Tom's Cabin because of the racist attitudes of some of the characters. That's not really the same kind of angry though, since those are archaic attitudes. (I'm not saying they don't exist today, because I know they do, I'm just saying they are archaic, like believing the god's will strike you dead if you don't sacrifice a lamb to the oracle on St. Peanut’s day kind of archaic. People may still believe it, but those who do are not really playing with a full deck if you see what I mean.)

53. A book I didn't expect to like but did:
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. I know I keep banging on about it, but it was a good book. I did^'t expect to like it because it’s about boxing and S. Africa, neither of which are subjects that fascinate me.

54. A book I expected to like but didn't:
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. It sounded good but turned out to be mostly teenage romance, which is just not my thing.

55. Favourite guilt-free guilty pleasure reading:
Terry Pratchett and cosy mysteries. Some fantasy.

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

2010-08-06T03:51:00.000-07:00

Viktor Frankenstein is a wealthy Swiss scholar who becomes obsessed with science and chemistry. He takes his studies in his own direction and eventually comes upon a method of giving life to inanimate objects. Although he knows that the creation of life in a laboratory is morally reprehensible, as a scientist, his drive to discover if his theories work and can be expanded upon pressures him into doing just that. He creates his own monster made from bits of the human body he has collected from various places. Upon finishing his creation, he is appalled by what he has done and neglects to take any further responsibility for his work. The monster is therefore forced to learn to survive on his own wholly without the help of Frankenstein, who himself falls ill with the shock of his own audacity and exhaustion from working so hard. Before it is all over though, Frankenstein will be forced to confront both the monster and the true and widespread consequences of what he has done to the monster, himself and the world.

After all these years, it’s good to read the real story about Frankenstein and clear up the inconsistencies between how it all began and what it has become. Today we refer to Frankenstein as the monster when in reality he was the creator, at least on the surface of it all. It’s arguable which really was the monster, the man or his creation. After all, what Frankenstein did was monstrous from start to finish. Not only did he take on the role of God and mess with Creation, he then proceeded to wilfully neglect his responsibilities towards his own work. He created a soul and then left it to itself with no guidance and no help which ultimately caused great harm to himself, his family and his creation. He played God and failed miserably making him the real monster of the two.

The Monster himself shows great depths of feeling and humanity. Instead of laying the land to waste in order to survive, his first thoughts were to learn about the world so he could eek out his own place in it instead of living off others. He showed desire to help and be generous with his time and effort. The reader is left with the distinct impression that the Monster was intrinsically good, or at least better than his own creator. It was his own maker who was determined to make the Monster into something evil. The only evil in him was created out of a desperate loneliness, which really only proves how human he was despite his appearance. The monster really was a Modern Prometheus. He took the blame for the evil of his creator and the lack of humanity in the world at large despite his own innocence.

Frankenstein, on the other hand, was not a good man. It’s not really possible to say outright that he was evil, but he lacked all those things he “gave” to his creation: social responsibility and compassion being the greatest of these. Had he lived up to the responsibilities he incurred with his experiments and shown compassion for the monster, the harm done would have been greatly lessoned. However, he did not and therefore showed himself to be the lesser of the two beings.

Mary Shelley intended this to be a warning about the evils of modernisation and the industrial revolution, but it became so much more. The story is teaming with lessons for humanity, all of which still apply today. There are also the more abstract themes such as conflict between father and son, good verses evil and just what it means to be human. It’s a great story and well deserved of its status as a classic. 4.5 out of 5 for this one. The loss of the half point is debateable since I felt the telling of the story was a bit convoluted, but that’s probably down to the old-fashioned style of writing. More shame on me I suppose.

The Joy of Sales, or, The Victim in Victoria Station by Jeanne M. Dams

2010-08-05T03:53:00.000-07:00

Audible sales are deadly, especially since they really know that if they give you one book of a series and you like it, you’re going to want to by the others, ergo, more sales for them. On the one hand, this is a good thing, on the other, it can truly be evil.

Pros:
• You can pick up a lot of books on the cheap (especially their $4.95 sales)
• If you don’t like it, at least it didn’t cost a fortune
• If you do like it, it still didn’t cost a fortune
• The sales are usually limited to a about 100 books or so, so it limits your focus and makes you look at and buy books you might otherwise not have given a second glance
• Said books can widen your horizons by introducing you to new authors and genres
• It helps to keep you from running out of reading material and the resultant state of shock and horror. This is especially important once you’ve gotten used to cleaning with a book. Not having a book to clean to now usually results in little to no cleaning of living area/car/dishes…you get the point.

Cons:
• You spend more money on books than you wanted to
• You spend more money on books that you needed to
• You spend more money on books than you really should
• You spend more money on books than is good for you
• You spend more money on books period

The entire con section can, however, usually be overruled with the argument “there are many, many worse things to spend your money on”, and besides, needs be you can always just go hungry at the end of the month – if you’re me, this will not hurt you in the slightest.

So, brought to you courtesy of Audible and their sales (again) is The Victim in Victoria Station.

Dorothy Martin is an elderly middle aged woman with a penchant for finding herself in the middle of a lot of trouble, mostly because she can’t leave it alone. On this particular occasion, her husband, a recently retired chief of police, is out of town and she is recovering from a broken leg. While on the train to London, she chats with her fellow passenger for a while before settling down to their own thoughts. She assumes that he has drifted off to sleep, but when she tries to wake him upon arrival, she realizes he’s dead. A doctor happens by and confirms that the man is indeed dead. After noting her name and address, he assures her he will take care of the situation. Dorothy, reassured and relieved, goes off to her appointment. Only later when strange things start to happen does Dorothy realize she has landed herself in the middle of another murder and has made herself a target to boot. With the help of friends, she sets off to get to the bottom of the whole business.

At first I was a little shocked that the reader read with an American accent, but Dorothy is an American, as is the author. Well done to Dams for this because if an American is going to write an English Murder Mystery, it’s a great point of view to write it from. Neither author nor character is pretending to be something they aren’t, so it works well. The narrator was also a good choice, even though her voice is quite a bit younger than the character. Kate Reading, a.k.a. Jennifer Mendenhall and Johanna Ward, is an American who grew up in England and Switzerland, so she’s good with all of the accents. I’ve heard her before under Johanna Ward and like her a lot.

The story itself was a good, comfy English murder which relies more on the characters than action. Dorothy and her friends are likeable, there’s little violence or language and the plot is fast-paced enough to hold the reader’s interest without becoming hectic. All in all, I found it quite a pleasant read, which is what this particular genre is really all about. Since I like me a good, comfy mystery to relax to, I’ll certainly be trying out more of the books in this series.

As a cosy mystery, 4 out of 5.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

2010-08-02T03:35:00.000-07:00

FBI agent Brad Wolgast took an assignment to gather 12 prisoners from death row and save them from the needle. In return, they sign over their lives to the Federal Government even thought they really don’t know why. With their only alternative being certain death, it’s not hard to convince them that the government is offering them a better option. All go willingly in the end, even Carter, who is not like the others.

Then one day, Wolgast and his partner Doyle are asked to pick up a little girl who was abandoned by her mother at a convent. Suddenly, the whole thing seems a little less morally acceptable to Wolgast. Sending convicted murderers who are destined to die anyway off to be used as lab rats is one thing, using a little girl for the same is another. Wolgast suddenly finds his whole world collapsing around him as he comes closer and closer to an experiment which will change the world. “32 minutes for one world to die and another to be born.” (quote from blurb).

I’d love to go on about this, but don’t want to give anything away for those who still might want to read the book. I bought this on a whim because Audible was selling it for only one credit instead of two for a limited time and I thought why not. 1 Credit for 40 hours of entertainment is not a lot and most of the reviews were good. It was worth it in the end. It’s a highly entertaining, well written book. The prose is good, the characters are good, the story is good and the plot is totally unpredictable, what’s not to like? - I should add that the narrators were all good as well, which is a real bonus when you spend 40 hours listening to a book. - It’s the kind of good book you can’t put down. I finished it in just under 5 days, despite the length. Like I said, the plot was mostly unpredictable which kept me on the edge of my seat. At most points, I could imagine 5 or 6 ways he could have taken it, but Cronin took the novel in directions I never even thought of. It was also easy to care about his characters, even though there are an awful lot of them and it’s not always clear which are going to be the most important. Some seem like they will have a huge effect of the novel, and then pretty much just disappear. Some seem like they are important, but then events change their standing in the book and the fall along the wayside, but those who take their places are just as interesting as the ones who are no longer there.

What I also find interesting is that Cronin leaves quite a bit open to guesswork. In some respects, the reader knows a lot more than the characters, but in others, the reader is clueless. This means that guessing at what’s going on is a bit of a hit and miss and not everything is always clear, even to the reader who is privy to more information than the characters. This is what keeps the story interesting through the parts of the novel where the pace slows up. You never quite know what’s really going on and you desperately want to find out.

The only negatives I have about the book is that it is really long and by the time you finish it, you really are ready for the story to end – and even all good things do come to an end. It only ever drags a bit in one spot, which is part 5 where there’s a lull in actual action, but even that is negligible (see comments above). What I really mean is that you’re just ready for the story to come to some conclusion. This moves us right along to my only other criticism, which is the conclusion. After all the reading and all the worrying for the characters, there really is no conclusive ending. No one expects a Disney ending with all loose ends tied up and a bunch of happy campers running around singing The Circle of Life, but something a little more satisfying would have been in order. As it is, the ending is left wide open, leading me to assume there will be a sequel. I’m perfectly happy for there to be a sequel too, but I would have liked a little bit more of a conclusion of some sort. It feels a bit like having your ice cream fall out of your cone when you’re only half way through, you get a bit of something, but not as much as you would like. At least many of the answers to the many mysteries are more or less provided; otherwise I think Cronin might just have gotten himself lynched at one of his book signings. Reading through all of that and not getting answers? That just wouldn’t be acceptable!

My rating? 40 hours in 5 days? For me to listen that much in so little time means it’s a really good book (either that or someone forced me to listen at gun point…). This one gets a flat out 5 out of 5 from me.

PS, I do wonder if this isn’t a bit of an Anti-Edward book because the “vampires” in this one may glow a bit, but they certainly don’t sparkle!

Necropolis by Anthony Horowitz

2010-07-29T21:44:00.000-07:00

Four of the Five have been found and have come together in Peru. Just as they are about to leave the country to go off in search of the Fifth, they are attacked and their plans are thrown awry, forcing Matt to make decisions he would rather not have to make. Should he keep them all together or should he split them up? It seems whatever he does is doomed to fail. What use is finding the Fifth if the rest of the group is scattered to the winds? Meanwhile the Fifth, Scarlett, is fighting a destiny she does not yet know is hers while she tries to figure out what’s wrong with the world.

Necropolis is the fourth book in The Power of Five series. Again, this book shifts perspective as Scarlett is introduced and her tale is told. In itself, this wouldn’t have been a problem, but Horowitz not only switches between perspectives but sometimes goes backwards and forwards in time. This gets a little irritating as much of it seems repetitive. The story loses continuity and I can’t help but feel that it’s as if he wasn’t paying much attention to the book while he was writing it. It’s as if he had too many other things to think about to concentrate on making the novel a really good one. Almost as if he’s frankly just tired of writing the series and wants to get it over with so he can move on.

Having said that, it’s still a pretty good story and younger readers will certainly like it. Personally I don’t think it’s as good as the last two so it only gets 3 out of 5 from me.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence

2010-07-27T21:47:00.000-07:00

Naughty, naughty Lady Chatterley goes off and has an affair with her groundskeeper causing much strife and controversy throughout the world in the first half of the 20th century. How could you!

Seriously, I think the main reason I decided to read this book was to see what the fuss was about. I read, I saw the fuss. Seriously, this book is a little racy even by today’s standards. OK, so maybe there’s a lot more sexually explicit material available today, but it’s still not a book I can see showing up in a high school library any time soon despite its literary relevance. In any case, I can see why the book was banned when it first came out. It must have been a real shocker, although I’m certain it was sold and lent and borrowed and passed on a lot more often than people would have admitted, although I’m sure a great number of people read it for the same reason I did, namely to see what the fuss was about.

Lady Chatterly marrys Clifford before the war half thinking that he would never return. Defying all the odds, he does, but was wounded and lost not only the use of his legs, but his “manhood” as well. Lady Chatterley does the decent thing and remains with him, both of them trying to convince themselves that the really important thing is that they are close in mind and spirit, if they can’t be in body. Constance, however, soon realizes, although perhaps not so concretely, that mind and body are not only two separate things, but that they both need attention for a human to be healthy. She becomes bored with Clifford and his friends with their talk of intellectualism, especially as she is supposed to be the pretty, decorative piece on the occasions when they are together and her taking part in the discussion does not come into question. The men are happy for her to listen, but only listen. She also tires of the constant care her husband seems to require. For him it is the only way for them to be physically close, for her it is a chore, like taking care of a child all day long.

As she becomes increasingly discontented with her life, she begins to seek out other sources of amusement, i.e. men. Not that she became veritably promiscuous, but she does have the odd affair before meeting, and falling in love with, the grounds man, Oliver Mellors. They come from different worlds and Mellors is the exact opposite of Clifford. He is taciturn and uncouth, a man more of action than of words. His own personal life is less than ideal but instead of seeking refuge in intellectualism, he seeks solace in nature and in work. At first he is reluctant to allow Constance anywhere near him, but soon relents and their relationship begins.

The whole book is one big juxtaposition of physical and mental well-being. One is no good without the other and those who try and resist either become something like half people. Constance, Clifford and Mellors are all half-beings, but those who have a choice, i.e. Constance and Mellors, soon come to realize that they are only half alive. That one without the other is simply no good. Even poor Clifford seems to realize that it’s all only pretence. He betrays his own postulations on the subject when he repeatedly tells Constance he would claim any child of her for his own and make it his heir, the only stipulation being that she remains with him.

Because she is already throwing all caution to the wind, Constance also feels free to discover herself and think about her own needs and wants, which was frowned on by society. Women were there to care for men and behave themselves, not to act as sentient beings with wants and needs just like men. She also doesn’t feel bound to propriety anymore. Somehow, considering the situation with Clifford, her affair would have been acceptable had it only been with an acceptable man, i.e. someone from her own class. Instead, she really does abandon all propriety and takes up with the groundskeeper, something her own sister takes exception to despite her intense dislike of Clifford. It’s as if she must stick to rules while not sticking to rules. It’s sort of the sexual equivalent of Thou Shalt not Lie, but little white lies are OK as long as no one gets hurt. Her behaviour would have been acceptable had it been carried out discreetly within certain bounds. Alone the fact that Lawrence choose to air such a thought would have been considered scandalous at the time, regardless of how true it may have been.

His confrontation of social rules and boundaries coupled with the philosophical bent of the book is what keeps this book alive as a classic. Had this been lacking, it would have been nothing more than a blip in literary radar with its only note being that it caused much moral outrage and indignation. My only qualm is that it occasionally seemed repetitive and overly dramatic on the philosophical front, the latter is probably down to the change in moral behaviour between last and this century. It would have all seemed much newer than and less old hat. Still, it is undoubtedly a classic and the fuss is justified by more than just its racy reputation. 4 out of 5.

The Memoires or Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

2010-07-26T03:31:00.000-07:00

The Memoires or Sherlock Holmes is a collection of short tales about the feats of Sherlock Holmes written in the form of Memoires by his ever faithful sidekick Dr. Watson. They give what purports to be the most interesting of Holmes’ cases, including his finale with Professor Moriarty and how Holmes came to his death. Fortunately for us, the readers of the day kicked up such a fuss about killing Holmes off, that Doyle resurrected him in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Having read both works recently, I can see why Doyle did what he did. First of all, there really is no other suitable death for Holmes because his character simply isn’t one that would grow old contentedly. Imagine a old, decrepit Holmes unable to go about his business chasing after criminals. He’s not particularly stable at the best of times, but inactivity would send him over the brink. Death by and with Moriarty was the best possible scenario in my opinion. However, Doyle was a bit premature with killing off his character and was forced to bring him back from the grave so to speak. Since Moriarty really was dead, that particular scenario couldn’t happen twice (that would have been cheesy anyway). I

I can also see why he was so eager to kill off Holmes. The more you read, the more similarities you start to see between the cases and they becoming increasingly easier to solve yourself, or at least to imagine where Doyle will take the reader. I think Doyle might have been afraid that he would become stale and tried to do what so many others before him should have done, i.e. quit while he was ahead.

I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the book, because I did, it’s only that I can see Doyle’s reasoning. 5 out of 5 for this lot because how could you give Holmes any less!

Evil Star and Nightrise by Anthony Horowitz

2010-07-22T03:41:00.000-07:00

These are the second and third books in the Power of Five series by Anthony Horowitz. I reviewed the first, Raven’s Gate not all too long ago. Although I don’t really feel either of these books warrants a blog entry a piece, I will say that they are much better than Raven’s Gate. Raven’s Gate felt like it never really got off the ground, but Evil Star and Nightrise were both what I was expecting for the series. I did like Evil Star just a bit better than Nightrise, but I think that’s because of the switch in characters. Just as you were feeling comfortable with Matt, Nightrise takes you somewhere different. However, that’s not to say that Nightrise isn’t worth the read, it just foreshadows lots of change for the series.

Evil Star is the continuation of Matt’s story. Just when he thinks it’s all over and can resume his life, he’s whisked away to Peru to try and prevent the second gate from opening.

Nightrise is the story of two twin brothers, Scott and Jamie, who are performing on stage in Reno, Nevada with their mind reading trick, only there is no trick. They really can read each other’s minds. That is their power as given to them as two of the five. Scott and Jamie must flee for their lives when men from the Nightrise corporation come for them. They don’t know it yet, but Nightrise is their greatest enemy and they will do anything to get their hands on the boys for reasons Scott and Jamie have yet to understand.

None of these will ever be my favourite YA books, but they are a good read none the less. Maybe I would be more enthusiastic if I were in the target age range, but I still think they’d take a back seat to books like Harry Potter or the Bartimaeous Trilogy. Still, I can recommend them as a good, light read to anyone who likes the magic genre. 3 out of 5.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

2010-07-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

I think the biggest reason I had for reading this book was the fuss it makes. When people get onto the subject of banning books, this one seems to pop up every time and I wanted to know why it would be on that list. I had tried to read it before, but had a lot of difficulty reading the dialect and gave up after the first few chapters. It was just one of those books that was too tiring to read after work. So, I bought the audio book. That made a huge difference. It’s still a long work, but it only took me a week or so to get through the 21+ hours. The story is compelling and the subject matter full of emotion and frankly, I think every American student should have to read it in a classroom situation, possibly in combination with a history lesson.

After having read it, I agree that there are some aspects of the book which could still have a negative impact, such as the stereotypes it probably helped create. That’s why I think it should be read in a classroom situation, because that’s a subject that needs to be discussed, especially with younger children who may not be able to distinguish stereotype from reality. Although I will say that even as a child I found those types of negative stereotypes ridiculous and unbelievable because they are overdone. However, on the whole, I see no reason for banning the book. The whole story is one long lesson in the wrong that was done and thinking back, I would have liked to have, as I said before, have this a part of my history lessons in school. It certainly would have driven the point home in a much more tangible way. Some of the things mentioned, such as whipping houses where the slaves were sent to be whipped, are so horrifying it beggars belief that so called civilized people could have thought of this as even remotely acceptable. That particular point was the worst of the whole story for me because it seems to take de-humanization to a whole new level. It’s bad enough to whip someone at all, but to send them out to be whipped by a “professional” is beyond belief. On the one hand, the owner can’t be bothered or doesn’t have the stomach to do it himself and on the other it’s like sending out a shoe to be mended, a thing to be dealt with by someone else. Horrifying and shameful. It makes me mad just thinking about it, but then I got mad after about a half a page and just stayed that way throughout the book. I can’t believe the things people can do to each other. Sometimes we really are a nasty race. Fortunately we are able to learn and grow as people and now recognize our faults and can better ourselves, otherwise what would be the point?

I won’t go into the story for this entry. It’s long and complicated with several lines running at once. Stowe obviously wanted to cover as many aspects of racism and slavery as possible to make her case against it. Tom is, of course, the central figure and supported by his belief in God throughout the good and the bad times. One of the things Stowe did well was to give some of her characters a halfway decent life, if only for a time. It kept the book from becoming too dark and too focused on evil and made it more palatable for the reader in that time. She gave the slaves a good range of characters that would have fit the white population just as well as the slaves showing them to be equal in all but their social position. Above all, Stowe’s story was a good one which it needed to be to catch people’s attention and sway their opinions. An out and out diatribe would have surely been disregarded and never have managed to motivate change and cause such a furore. So well done to Stowe, even if she wasn’t perfect and doesn’t fit today’s ideal. 5 out of 5 for a book every child should have to read in school.

The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy Sayers

2010-07-19T03:41:00.000-07:00

Sandy Campbell is a drunken, aggressive painter who manages to make enemies of nearly everyone in the small village in Galloway. Lord Peter Wimsey is in the area fishing and as he knows, and likes, most of the people in the village, he offers his assistance and with his help, the police set off to find out which one of 5 men killed Campbell.

There’s not much to say about this one. Sayers has never grabbed me like Christie did, so unless I get them on sale or from the library, I haven’t really put much effort into reading her books. They’re cosy, comfortable mysteries good for a pleasant bout of reading that doesn’t require a whole lot of thought or effort. This one is neither brilliant, nor horrible. It earns a solid 3 from me.

The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowels

2010-07-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

Figuring I needed to get myself out of my wallow in crime and YA literature, I decided I needed to read a classic and went with The French Lieutenant’s Woman as a cross between classic and future classic; it’s not quite a heavy book, but not a light read either.

Sarah Woodruff is a woman jilted in love, or is she? She can be seen pining day after day on the Cobb in Lyme Regis staring out to sea apparently after her French lover whom she nursed during his recovery from an injury sustained in a shipwreck, but who left her as soon as he’d recovered. She is penniless and alone and the society of the time would have condemned her to the life of an outcast for her “crimes”, but through the charity and kindness of others, finds a place as a lady’s companion. Mrs. Poulteney takes Sarah in out of a need to prove her piety. Sarah accepts that she must suffer for her past indiscretions, at the same time refusing to divulge any details or even hint that she may feel penitent. She lives her life seemingly without hope for improvement or thought of the future, often refusing to take advantage of offers of assistance given to her. The only comfort she does allow herself is the confidence of Charles, who is affianced to Ernestina, a wealthy woman of the rising classes. Charles and Sarah enter into a relationship which may lead to both their ruin.

This book is destined to become a classic, or already is one despite its relatively recent publishing date. It was written in 1969 but takes place in Victorian England. It’s written from the point of an omniscient narrator who provides insights and commentary into both today’s society, i.e. that of 1969, and Victorian society, often offering praises and critique of both. He imparts not only the character’s feelings, but the reasons behind those feelings as well. Victorian England can often be a complicated and incomprehensible world for modern society as it’s based on many rules and regulations which often seem to have no logical derivation even though they are obviously motivated by Religion an purity of soul.

That Sarah is based on Tess of the D’Urbervilles is obvious to anyone who has read the latter. Fowles not only includes many quotes and references to Hardy, but Sarah, at least on the surface, is really just a clone of Tess, who also feels the constant need for penitence and punishment. The twist is that Fowles includes Doctor Grogan in his story who offers another possible interpretation to Sarah, namely that of a maniacal, twisted woman who is out to manipulate others to her own benefit. He changes Charles perspective and forces him to confront his feelings and opinions. Fowles also offers the reader several scenarios within his own book, all of which are possible and believable. He forces the reader into thinking about which ending he would chose for the characters. I won’t give my choice away because it would ruin the story for anyone who hasn’t read it. Besides, that would just lead me to spending an age discussing all the variants.

It’s an interesting read and well worth it. The modern commentary and the twists Fowles introduced kept it from being as gloomy and doomy as Tess and Hardy are, thus making it the more pleasant read. I now understand what all the fuss was about. 5 out of 5.

Death in a Far Country by Patricia Hall

2010-07-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

Suprise, suprise, suprise! This is another one I got through an Audible sale. What can I say, I bought a few during their last $4.95 sale.

I’m afraid it’s yet another crime/mystery as I remain in my relaxing, shut down summer mode.

DCI Michael Thackeray is just back from sick leave after having been shot. He’s still facing an inquiry from his last case where his girl friend, Laura Ackroyd a local journalist, became involved in his case with deadly consequences. He has no time for respite on the job as he is catapulted into a new case involving the local football club and human trafficking when a young girl of unknown identity is found dead. Again this leads him and Laura down a path they don’t want to take, but must deal with all the same. Both face difficult decisions as they race against the clock to find a murderer and those who brought the girl into the country.

Frankly, I didn’t care for this one. Despite the potentially loaded subject matter and moral quandaries of human trafficking and abuse of those in no position to defend themselves, the whole thing seemed much too formulaic and one dimensional. Thackeray is a standard detective with his girl friend who is often in the way of things. Hall spent much too much time going over the past instead of focusing on the present. It wasn’t a long book as it was, but if you removed the discussion about events in the last book, there wouldn’t be much left of the current one. What was left felt a bit like Hollywood schema #47. It felt unoriginal and unrealistic, and if the recaps of the last book are anything to go by, the plot was fairly repetitive with Ackroyd doing the same thing all over again. The ending was also too pat and too convenient to be realistic and left me feeling a bit like Disney had its oar in there somewhere. 2 out of 5 with a recommendation to read only if you’re bored or not in the mood for challenging.

Dead Like You by Peter James

2010-07-12T04:06:00.000-07:00

I’m beginning to feel a little bit top heavy on crime novels lately, but I do like them and it’s summer, which is my busy season at work, so I’ve been choosing my books for fun and relaxation.

I also have to admit that I often read other reviews before I write my own, mostly because I’ve already read several other books before I get around to writing a review and I need reminding of what the book was about. Usually a word or two suffices and the memory comes flooding back, but it’s often necessary all the same. What disturbs me about this is that some of the reviews can be the exact opposite of what I think of a book. It makes me doubt my own judgement, especially if I enjoyed reading it. What bothers me most though is that it seems to me that many of the critics are judging books against others which aren’t really relevant or even against an invisible wall of criteria which don’t really apply. When I review a book, regardless whether it’s Literature, crime, YA or a children’s book, I try and review and judge it within its own genre. I don’t expect anything profound from a crime novel, just as I expect children’s books to be fun and enjoyable. I can only rate a book in comparison to others like it, even if an author has hitherto written books of a different kind. You cannot really compare an apple to an orange even if they do come from the same garden. I guess what I’m trying to say is that most crime or mysteries are never going to be Nobel Prize material, but that doesn’t change my liking, or my regard for them. My reviews might just be a bit shorter because these types of books aren’t meant to be analysed to death. They were written for enjoyment and not to compete with great literature giants.

Having said my piece (which I have the sneaking suspicion isn’t the first time I’ve done that), on to the book.

This is one of the Superintendent Roy Grace series and follows the possible re-emergence of the Shoe Man, a rapist with a fetish for shoes, who eventually became a murderer. Grace is worried that he’ll continue to be able to pray on women and that his crimes may escalate if he cannot find and stop the man. The whole scenario was enough to make me glad that I haven’t a shoe fetish, or at least not a high-class, high-heel, designer shoe fetish. I could buy walking and hiking shoes/sandals from here to kingdom come, but you won’t get me into a pair of high heels (frankly that would just end in a visit to the hospital and possible several weeks of intense pain).

Back to the book at hand, the reader is also treated to a more in-depth look into Grace’s life with his wife Sandy opening up the book to a second dimension. Until now, Sandy has pretty much been put on a pedestal while Grace searches for her and the reason for her sudden disappearance. As Grace remembers the first investigation into the Shoe Man, James fleshes out Sandy and Grace’s relationship with her, offering the reader insight into possible motives for her vanishing act. It’s another reminder that things are often not as they seem, even with inside information.

I thought this was one of the better Grace novels. The mystery held my attention, James kept up the suspense well without becoming tedious and there’s enough character connection that you care what happens to them. 4 out of 5.

The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill

2010-07-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

Once again, thanks to Audible for their sales because I’ve just found a new author to follow. The Various Haunts of Men is the first in the Simon Serrailler series and it’s brilliant. But before I wax enthusiastic on this one, let me tell you what it was about.

A geriatric night-nurse with a well-ordered life goes running one morning and never returns, even though it was obvious she intended to do so. The only person who misses her is her employer, who held her in high regard and swears she wouldn’t just not show up for work, despite the statistics that tell her differently. She pressures the police into taking an interest which DI Freya Graffham does. She also can find no reason for the woman to have disappeared, she does however, discover the woman had a secret life and secret love, but they are just that, secret. There are absolutely no hints as to who the man is or where she met him, just and bills for gifts she gave him. The case seems to be going nowhere and Freya is even losing ground with DCI Serrailler who believes in her instinct, when they suddenly start connecting more and more disappearances. There is a particular hill that seems to swallow people up leaving no trace as to where they went.

Parallel to the disappearances, a couple of new alternative therapists arrive on the scene. DCI Serrailler’s sister, who is a doctor, is trying to figure out who they are and just how dangerous they may be.

This is a fairly complicated book with several stories running parallel to each other with seemingly no connection. I’ve read books where this has been the death of the novel because they move too slowly and the reader loses interest. Hill prevents this her life-like characters. She draws the reader in and makes them interested in what has happened to these people and what’s going on in their lives. When she leaves one hanging for a while and then returns to them, you find yourself wanting to know what the character has been doing in the meantime. I also found myself trying to make the connection between the incidents and people, just as Graffham was, which gave me an extra bit of affinity with her. I could feel her frustration and determination to find out just what was going on. Hill also doesn’t leave you out in the cold with clues and hints you aren’t privy to or can’t possibly understand. It’s actually quite the opposite, because the reader is privy to the many different stories connected with the disappearances. Even if you do figure it out before Graffham does, it doesn’t detract from the suspense because you switch back to worrying about the characters and egging them on to do what you already know would be the most sensible thing.

Brilliant story, well written and woven together, great characters. For the first time in a while I can give a book an unreserved 5 out of 5.

Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy

2010-07-06T03:47:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I know! I keep swearing I won’t read anymore Hardy, except for Jude the Obscure, and then I keep doing it anyway. What can I say, the mini-series was good and it was on sale, so I thought I’d give it a whirl in the hopes that Hardy took a happy pill like when he wrote Return of the Native.

Someone should have given the man a larger supply of happy pills. Seriously, Hardy can make a jovial party sound like a dirge.

Fancy Day returns to her native village to become the new school mistress. Dick Dewy falls in love with her at first sight and tries his best to make a good impression on her. Fancy likes Dick, but is hesitant to return his affections as she knows her father wants better for her. She is educated to a much higher standard than Dick and as such, her father meant her to rise in the world instead of remain where she was born. Nonetheless, she is attached to Dick. When she receives proposals from both Dick and the new vicar, she is at a loss as to what to do. Meanwhile, the village is undergoing a struggle between the musicians, who have always provided music for the church services, and the new vicar, who would like to replace them with an organ, played by Fancy Day.

There’s not really a whole lot to this story, and frankly, the mini-series was better. They fleshed the story out a bit and made Fanny less wishy-washy and better able to stand on her own. They also left out the melancholic note that Hardy manages to let seep into all of his works. It gives the story a happier air, even though not everyone in it is a winner. All in all, it was so-so. If you’re looking for a quick introduction to Hardy, this is probably a good place to start. Still, it’s definitely not the best of his work. 3 out of 5.

Raven’s Gate by Anthony Horowitz

2010-07-05T03:48:00.000-07:00

Matt Freeman lost his parents when he was 8 years old. Ever since, his life has gone downhill. He aunt allows him to live with her, but doesn’t like him, he hooks up with the low life little brother of career thief and his school work starts to suffer. Then, one evening, he is caught stealing DVDs with his new best friend, who then stabs the security guard and then blames it on Matt. Matt is given one more chance to get his life back on track, the New Leaf Program. He is taken off to live with an elderly lady in the depths of Scotland, out of the tempting reach of criminal life in the big city. Only this old lady is not what she seems to be, and neither is Matt.

I had purchased Necromancer in an Audible sale without realizing that it was the 4th book in The Power of Five series, so I decided to go back and read the others first. Raven’s Gate is the first and sets up the story line for the rest of the books. There’s a little magic, a lot of stealthy mystery and sinister happenings but little proof of anything. Anyone trying to help Matt simply dies in a convenient accident before they can really do anything for him. Matt is alone and must learn to help himself.

I was a little disappointed in this one. I like a lot Anthony Horowitz’s work and assumed that this would be his usual high quality writing, but it just lacked something. You never really connect with the characters, possibly because you just keep expecting something more of them that’s constantly foreshadowed, but never comes. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good story, just not a great one. I will however, continue to read the series because, not only do I already own book 4, but I want to see where he takes it and if it gets better as it goes along. I know they usually don’t, but I’ll give it a chance all the same.

3 out of 5, readable, but not brilliant.

Midwinter of the Spirit by Phil Rickman

2010-07-02T03:37:00.000-07:00

After her first brush with the otherworldly, Merrily is asked by the new, aggressive/progressive bishop to become the official Diocesan Exorcist, or Head of the Deliverance Department. Reluctantly she takes up the challenge, only to find herself thwarted at every turn. Her tutor actively seeks to turn her away from the challenge with the reasoning that women should become more comfortable with their new role within the church before moving on to tackle such grey areas. The newly retired diocesan exorcist is openly against women in the church and blatantly tries to sabotage Merrily’s first efforts before she can get a toehold in. His old secretary, on the other hand, is thrilled to have Merrily fill his shoes as she is convinced that there are things going on in the cathedral which shouldn’t be.

Whilst struggling to find her place within the church, Merrily must also help her daughter find her place in the world. Jane is also interested in the paranormal, but rejects the church and sets off on her own to discover for herself what she really believes and really doesn’t. As most teenagers do, she rejects her mother’s help and advice and winds up in trouble of her own.

I think I mentioned in my review of the first Merrily book, The Wine of Angels, that this isn’t really a genre I would normally be attracted to. I’m not overly enamoured with anything New Age or as Old Age as exorcism. However, Phil Rickman really does manage to make the best out of all the directions this book takes. It’s a combination of clerical mystery, crime, thriller and ghost story, all of which he pulls together nicely. He has good, strong characters who are easy to care about, a great setting and just enough action to keep the reader interested without going overboard. I also like that he’s outlining the struggles women still encounter today because even if they are set within the church, it’s still a reflection of the way society functions as a whole.

This book could have gone either way, but Rickman pulls it off well. 4 out of 5.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

2010-06-30T03:42:00.000-07:00

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie tells the tale of an innovative and very different teacher at a girl’s school in 1930’s Edinburgh. Miss Jean Brodie chooses to dismiss the standard classroom exercises, along with the classroom itself, in favour of real knowledge garnered from a life lived with the intention of ever improving the mind. She takes her classes outdoors and tells them of her life, her loves, her passion for art and of her extensive travel in Europe, occasionally asking them to repeat certain parts of the lesson so as to relate them to the standard curriculum. She invites the class to teas and takes them on unconventional excursions, leading them through part of Edinburgh they would not otherwise see, i.e. the impoverished sectors. As she does so, the students learn not only of art, but of life and its many facets. Miss Mackay, the headmistress of the school, doesn’t care for Miss Brodie or her methods and repeatedly tries to catch her out so she can dismiss her, but Miss Brodie’s success with the girls prevents her from being able to do so.

After a while, the girls begin to stand out in the school and become known as the Brodie set, a mark which they never loose. The story also begins to drift more and more into the personal life of Miss Brodie as she makes the girls into her friends and not just pupils. This, as is repeatedly is mention in the flash forwards, turns out to be her downfall as one of her pupils betrays her. Even when the girls go on to other classes and forms and Miss Brodie herself teaches new students, this particular set of girls continues to play a pivotal role in Miss Brodie’s life.

Superficially, this book is a quick and good read, but it offers a lot of food for thought if you care to think about it. Miss Jean Brodie, who constantly professes to be in her prime, is a passionate, somewhat unorthodox woman with deep undercurrents of malcontent and disappointment. She loves where she cannot and cannot return love where she should. She wants to keep her pupils from becoming boxed in as society would have it and free them to widen their horizons. In some ways, it’s quite reminiscent of the Bloomsbury School, even though it’s being written decades later. Unfortunately for Miss Brodie, she also possesses a naïveté which she uses as a buffer against the real world. It’s almost as if she knows, but ignores, that the world is a much harder place than she feels it should be. If she consequently disregards the inconvenient truths of life, in part by romanticising everything she sees and hears, they will not affect her. It’s as though she believes that her convictions will materialize if she simply believes in them long enough and hard enough. She is trying to shape the world through will instead of pragmatism. It is this forced ignorance of reality, or romanticism, that finally leads to her betrayal as she is finally incapable of seeing things how they are instead of how she would like them to be.

My first impression of the book was to chalk it up onto my “have read” list and relegate it to the back shelf. It turned out to be a bit more difficult than that. Somehow it’s worked itself into my subconscious and keeps popping up at the most unexpected times with an analogy or a sudden flash of understanding about what Spark intended. It’s almost like it’s haunting me and challenging me to think, as Miss Brodie was trying to do for her pupils. In my opinion, that’s one of the things that makes a book great and I can now understand what all the fuss is about with this one. 5 out of 5. A must read.

A Wind in the Door Part Two

2010-06-29T03:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I got to thinking about this book whilst driving home from work. I can't remember what sparked it, but it had something to do with the universe and being very small, etc. etc. Just then, I realized that the first time I was confronted with thoughts of relativity and the universe was when I read A Wind in the Door. When Meg, Calvin, Mr. Jenkins and Progos are with the teacher learning about the farandolea, their role in the body and what is causing Charles Wallace's illness, L'Engle broaches the subjects of relatively and interpretation. She challenges the children to think outside the box when she presents the Farandolae to them as a macroscopic being with roughly the same physical size (or a little smaller than a human child). They have difficulty grasping that the being before them is usually not visible at all, let alone to the naked eye. They must extend their minds and think not of where they are in relation to what they know, but to where they are, i.e. when they enter Charles Wallace's cells, their universe become Charles Wallace and time slows to where a heart beat lasts a decade. They must also learn to move and think without actually moving, which they have a great deal of difficulty. It's their first brush with the idea that their world is not the norm for the whole of the universe and that they must learn to adapt as their situation changes. i.e., they must learn to think outside of the box.

Along with Meg and Calvin, my first reading of this book lead me into new worlds which started me off into thinking for myself and helped me not to assume that things are always as they seem on the surface. It's an invaluable life lesson and can be applied to many situations in any ordinary day. In retrospect, it was also my first brush with both science as an applicable field and philosophy, both of which I found terribly interesting.

Basically, I just wanted to add these thoughts on the book because they made me realize how important this book, and many others as well, were to my education even though they were read for fun. I also realize there are kids out there who miss out on such opportunities and that makes me infinitely sad. Everyone should be able to experience books this good as a child. If they did, we'd have more readers and most certainly a better educated society.

A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle

2010-06-27T21:49:00.000-07:00

Meg Murry’s little brother Calvin isn’t well. Meg’s mother, an important biologist, believes his mitochondria might be ill, but doesn’t know how to fix it. Charles is also being bullied at school because he doesn’t fit in. Meg is frustrated with her lack of ability to help Charles on either front, even thought Charles knows himself that he must learn to adapt. Then Charles begins to see things. He tells Meg he’s seen a dragon in the garden, which she at first does not believe, but when they find one of it’s feathers, Meg begins to see that another fight between good and evil is inevitable. Once again, Meg must find the will to grow and become wiser while committing herself to fighting the darkness which is beginning to surround and overtake the earth.

This was another of my favourites as a child. I loved all of the Wrinkle in Time books back then, which is why I’ve got back to them in my old age I suppose. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with the character growth in this one. As with A Wrinkle in Time, the focus is on Meg’s shortcomings and although she should have learned quite a bit in the first book, she seems to be right back where she started in this one. I would have expected more of her. However, that’s my opinion when reading it as an adult. As a child I remember having much more understanding for Meg and thinking she was thoroughly justified in her self-doubts and obstinacy.

The references to Christianity were less noticeable in this second book, but the fight between good and evil was still there in full force. The children must face, and fight, things they don’t understand and resist the urge to remain stagnate while the world goes on without them. It’s a good metaphor for life, either Christian or non- Christian. There will always be things we must choose to do or not to do even if we don’t fully understand them. The most difficult thing is to learn to chose the right thing despite that lack of understanding and the desire to do what’s easy. L’Engle does a good job at presenting this to children in a way they can understand.

A Wind in the Door is an excellent book I can recommend to anyone with children. 5 out of 5.

House of Night

2010-06-24T04:12:00.000-07:00

After having finished Crime and Punishment, I felt as if I’d earned a break and decided it was time to wallow in what I like to call reading junk food. Boy did I wallow. Audible was having a sale, so I purchased the House of Night series by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast and started reading.

Frankly, I’m not going to bother writing a review of each book in itself. I’m up to book four and decided that, although entertaining, they simply aren’t worth a review a piece. They do not live up to the hype of Forget Harry Potter nor do they even measure up to the Twilight series – let me just add here that I still cringe at the whole idea of the Twilight series and if you look at the individual elements such as plot and writing style the word shameful comes to mind, but somehow Meyer manages to get you hooked all the same. Hat’s off to her for doing so. There aren’t many who could have pulled that off.

Back to the House of Night: The books are set in normal, modern society with the twist of everyone not only believing in vampires, but knowing that they exist. Vampirism is genetic in origin and those who experience the change, i.e. are marked, have no choice in the matter. Not all of those who are marked survive the metamorphosis into Vampirism either. Some people’s bodies reject the Change. Since they are no longer human, those who are marked must attend the local House of Night school. In Zoey’s case, this means the one in Tulsa. She must leave behind her human friends, boyfriend and zealous Christian family to attend.

From here the books go on to the usual, predictable plots of rejection by friends and family, making new friends, and facing the evil that is to come. Zoey is, of course, special and has special talents that will help her and her new friends to defeat the coming evil. All in all, they’re entertaining enough, but they fail to really grab one in the way Harry Potter or even Edward Cullen did. The characters are likeable and engaging enough, although occasionally a little flat. The constant obsession with sex becomes more than a little annoying as well. If this is an accurate reflection of today’s youth, no wonder the world’s in trouble. I mean honestly, I was once a teenager too, but no one in our school of 1000+ students was that constantly focused on sex. The Casts would have done well to focus more on some of the unusual lessons or lore included in the school. After all, it is important to the plot, but it’s usually added as an after thought instead of making it central character’s lives and discussion topics. It's almost as if they couldn't be bothered to do the research.

Also, it just has to be said that the main character Zoey is just a ho. I don’t say this lightly, but the girl is a ho by anyone’s standards. I can understand the confusion and not wanting to decide, or waiting until marriage etc. etc., but someone who is apparently supposed to be so special that the fate of the world will eventually rest in her hands ought to possess a little more common sense in regards to mere boys and sex. Honestly, if she can’t focus on something else for longer than a few minutes at a time and be honest with the people involved, I want another super-hero please.

I’ll also probably get branded a homophobe for this – let me just say I frankly just don’t care if people are gay or not. What counts for me is how they interact with me, not the person they go to bed with. - but the constant Issue of homosexuality gets annoying after a while. It’s not enough to say that Damian and Jack are boyfriends; they have to make an issue about it every time it comes up. It seems to me they would be doing more to advance the cause if they just write the whole thing in as if it were the accepted norm and no one ever questioned it. After all, no one introduces the heterosexual characters as, this is Erik, e.g., he’s hetero, so why do it with anyone else? Making it an issue, well, that makes it an Issue instead of the non-issue it should be. They’re gay. We get it. Can we move on please?

I read somewhere that Kristin is a co-writer because they wanted to keep the teenage bits authentic, but personally, I would have preferred a little less realism. I’m certainly old-fashioned on this front, but I can’t help but feel that instead of writing down to people, we should be giving them something to aim at. Characters who are likeable, but follow a good moral code, e.g. Harry Potter. A good editor wouldn’t have hurt this book either. Some of it is so poorly written that even I notice how bad it is. N.B. My blog may be poorly written, but no one is paying to read it.

As scathing as that all sounds, the books are still entertaining, if annoying from time to time. I may (or may not) finish the series, if only to see where they go with it, but I wouldn’t be in a rush to read any more of their work. The whole series gets a 2 out of 5 from me.

Not in the Flesh by Ruth Rendell

2010-06-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

Once again, Inspector Wexford finds himself confronted with a body. This time it’s several years old and is found in a ditch by a truffle hunter. The gruesome find turns into a hunt for someone who must have disappeared years ago. In his search to discover the identities of both the victim and the perpetrator, Wexford runs into a second body and more problems. As if he didn’t have enough problems to deal with, he becomes involved with the Somali community and the fight against Female Genital Mutilation as he realizes that there are things out there which are often more disturbing even than murder.

OK, this one isn’t going to win any prizes and it isn’t Rendell at her best. The murder mystery isn’t particularly memorable in any way other than being a very intricate puzzle that Wexford must piece together; luck being served up in healthy portions to help him complete this task. What one does remember is the FGM. Although I knew it existed, it’s not a subject I’ve personally been confronted with and some of the details Rendell gives in the novel are quite disturbing. Especially distressing is that it becomes obvious that it is, like so many other crimes, almost impossible to prevent and difficult to prosecute for. Few people follow laws they know they won’t be punished for, but prosecution and punishment can only occur if the crime can be established after the fact. That means waiting until the crime has been committed, putting the investigators in charge in the difficult position of allowing a crime to go ahead and one child to suffer so that others can be saved in the long run. What an awful decision to have to make.

Often times, using entertainment media to underline the importance of political or social issues winds up putting people off. Who wants to be preached to while they’re relaxing on their couch at the end of a day’s work? Most of us get enough of reality during the day, so please don’t shove it in our face at night. I have to applaud Rendell for addressing issues like FGM, racism and familial violence without making the reader feel as if it’s social lesson time. She weaves it into her story, making it clear what she thinks without beating the audience over the head with it.

She’s also been much criticised for her lack of modern policing and that Wexford doesn’t seem to have grown with the times. Personally, I think we’re lost in modernism today. After all, Just because the police Can Do all of the tests they show on any of the 100+ CSIs, doesn’t mean they have the budget or the time to do them. It also doesn’t mean that the men and women who are leading investigations get to turn their brains off and rely solely on the latest technology. They still have to be astute and observant. I’m also sure that some of them still prefer to rely on old fashioned methods, at least for the bulk of the investigation. Hard work is still the crux of most things, modern or not. So I’m prepared to forgive the old-fashioned Wexford with his lack of forensics and up-to-date technology. Besides, I’m still a fan of the good old English mystery and that’s what I expect from Rendell. Frankly, I’d be disappointed if she did change it all to fit the critics taste.

This isn’t Rendell’s finest, but if you’re a fan, it’s still worth a cosy Sunday afternoon.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

2010-06-21T03:46:00.000-07:00

Once again, big thanks to Trish who hosts the Classics Challenge every year. I like reading classics, but because of the challenge, I read more than I might otherwise and I can challenge myself to read some I probably would never read without a bit of a push. Crime and Punishment definitely belongs to this last category. I have tried repeatedly read it but could never get past the horrible murder scene. I even once tried to watch the BBC adaptation, but, again, couldn’t get past the murder scene. I’ve always found the story disturbing and uncomfortable to read. The only thing that could make it any more disturbing is if I enjoyed reading it, because that would truly worry me.

Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov is a young student in St. Petersburg who has dropped out of his courses and finds life difficult in all respects. At the beginning, he seems a little odd and slightly unstable. This quickly progresses to serious flirtation with insanity. He feels pressured from society, his family and himself in regards to finances and in the end talks himself into murdering an old pawnbroker and her sister, ostensibly to enable him to steal their fortune from them. He works himself up into quite a state in order to go through with it, so much so that he bungles the robbery, takes only a small amount of what was available and then uses none of it for his own benefit. Indeed his financial situation goes from bad to worse as the creditors move in and start to demand money from him. The stress of the robbery, his sister’s impending marriage to a man he feels is unworthy of her and the continual hounding by a policeman who suspects him of the murders but has no evidence weighs heavily on Raskolnikov in the following days. He becomes trapped in his own, no longer quite sane, mind and cannot judge how to act or react to the life which goes on around him. It’s as though he is living in a continual, delirious fever which makes him see life in a distorting mirror, completely preventing him from rational behaviour. He could pay his debts with the money he stole, but somehow doesn’t seem rational enough to do so. Even the money his mother borrowed to give to him goes on the funeral of a friend instead of towards his own comfort. Raskolnikov seems to be torn between his own social conscience, i.e. the need and goodness of helping other less fortunate people and his own need to survive. His initial intention was to steal to help himself, yet his conscience forces him to help others to the point of his own destitution.

Raskolnikov finally finds himself in a very difficult position. He knows they will never be able to prove he murdered and robbed the women, but neither can he stand the pressure. What to do? Dostoevsky compels the reader to ask himself what he would do himself in that situation. Knowing that the police would never be able to prove the slightest guilt seems to make the decision a given, but seeing Raskolnikov’s rapid decline forces the consideration of conscience and guilt. Would it really be so easy to ignore your own conscience or would it force you to yearn for penitence? After learning Raskolikov’s fate, it’s evident that Dostoevsky believes punishment is unavoidable. Either Raskolnikov will punish himself through his own conscience, or he will have to confess and receive formal punishment. It is also clear that Dostoevsky considers that (self) forgiveness and redemption can only be obtained through official punishment. The confession is necessary for true redemption of soul.

As I said, I found the whole book rather disturbing and uncomfortable. I suppose you could say that Dostoevsky achieved his goal by simply making the whole ordeal a worthless waste of life and sanity. That aside, I can see why this book is considered a classic and is still read today. Dostoevsky provides lots of material for discussion and food for thought with this work as despite the early 19th century setting, it still reflects modern social conflicts such as materialism vs. social conscience and the purposes or effectiveness of punishment. Did I like it? A resounding No to that. Did I find it a worthwhile read? Definitely, although I’m glad I won’t ever have to read it again. 5 out of 5 for being a great classic book.

The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf

2010-06-17T03:50:00.000-07:00

Rachel Vinrace journeys out to South America on one of her father’s ships. It is her first foray into the world at large and she is overwhelmed by the impressions others leave upon her. As she meets more people with different views, she begins to see that there is more than just one way to look at life and that she mustn’t necessarily stick to the path others would choose for her. Her observations of other people open her eyes to the differences in the way people behave towards both strangers and their family and cause her to reflect on the rights and wrongs of social behaviour and the necessity of being open minded towards the attitudes of others. In short, it’s the journey of a young mind which is awakening to the world as a whole as opposed to a thing outside of one’s own small realm.

The Voyage Out is a psychological work as opposed to a classic novel. There’s less focus on the plot and more on description and thoughts of the characters. Woolf also uses the work to criticize the conventional lifestyle of the time and praise the choice of free thinking. The characters are often tedious and absurd, which Woolf uses to make her point. Offsetting the tedium is Woolf’s excellent writing style which flows along nicely, even through the tedium.

As a teenager or possibly into my early 20s, I would have adored this book. After all, it is about discovery of life and self and new ideas. Not having read it until I was well out of the age where much of life outside my own world was new, it served as a reminder of that time of my life rather than to expand my views. Much of it seemed a repeat of my own experiences and thus the work lost a lot of its shine for me. I found it quite difficult to concentrate on it, although I will admit that it may just not have been the time for me to read this novel. Perhaps I’ll pick it up again at a later date and see if I can’t get more out of it than I did this time. It is possible that I was just in the wrong mood for reading it, which is why I’m not going to rate the book. I’ll just say that if you’re not feeling like a good dose of introspection, you might want to leave it be until you are.

Catherine and Other Writings by Jane Austen

2010-06-14T21:51:00.000-07:00

Catherine and Other Writings is a collection of Jane Austen’s juvenilia. All of the works are short stories, and some even have the feel of a literary ditty so to speak, but reading them is like watching Jane Austen grow up. You can see how she plays with ideas and character constellations as she seeks to entertain her family while creating her own outlet for her social criticisms. You she how she grows as a writer and person as her writing, and her person, become more mature, her education becomes more well-rounded and she begins to form thoughts and opinions of her own. She grows from being a girl who likes to write, to the full-fledged novelist who is still loved nearly 200 years later.

Many of the pieces were written to entertain her family who she is uses, even if unconsciously, her family as a testing ground for her future audience. If they like what she writes, others will too, so she can feel free to try out many different themes, pairings and wit without publically embarrassing herself. This tells her that she feels secure enough in her home environment to take such risks, which in turn leads us to realize how difficult things must have been for her after her father died and their life became less secure in general. She was no longer in a position which allowed her to test and try, but in one where she became increasingly more interested in selling her works as a means of support. Would she have written as much or as well had she not been placed in those circumstances? I tend to think she might not have considering how time itself has changed. In today’s society, a young woman without means would simply, even be expected, go to work even if that meant flipping hamburgers, or alternatively rely on social welfare. Jane did not have either option in her day, especially as the only social welfare available would have had to come from family, meaning her brothers, who were for the most part still trying to establish a living for themselves and hadn’t enough to support Jane as well. Young women of her class also had few options to earn money, none of which were pleasant. Thus, the easiest and most agreeable way for Jane to earn a living was for her to make her hobby into a career. The added pressure must have contributed to her focus and prolificacy.

Even if you don’t find the stories themselves terribly interesting, this collection is worth a read for anyone who is truly interested in Jane Austen. It provides valuable insights into her character and development which greatly influence her future life. I’m not going to rate this one as a read because that would be virtually impossible since the stories themselves are much less important than what they tell us about the author. I will, however, give Jane a 5 out of 5 for being a woman dedicated to voicing her criticisms and values in a time when women were considered inconsequential in any metier outside of the domesticity of home. Although she never actively recommend the emancipation or equality of women, simply becoming a successful and well loved writer who voiced her opinions through her works in the early 19th century ultimately helped to open up options for women at a future date. Sometimes the softly, softly approach can be just as valuable as a more aggressive stance.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

2010-06-13T21:53:00.000-07:00

Meg and her brother Charles are outsiders. Their parents are brilliant and their twin brothers normal, but Meg is a chronic underachiever and Charles, who is really a genius and empathetic to boot, is considered backwards because he didn’t develop speech until well after he should have. They just don’t seem to fit into their surroundings. Topping off their troubles is the mysterious disappearance of their father, whom the town assumes has run off with a younger woman, when in reality, he works for a top secret, scientific branch of the government and disappeared on duty. Then Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which and Mrs. Whatsit appear on the scene just after Meg meets Calvin, a popular boy from school who is a couple of grades ahead of her. Their little group seems to be the necessary constellation and the time has come for them to go and rescue their father from a far off world the children know nothing about. Their guides are the three women. They give the children a quick lesson in wrinkling time as a method of space travel and they are off in search of their father.

When you read a book at the age of 10 and pretty much remember the whole thing 30 years later, you know that book has got to be good. A Wrinkle in Time very much belongs in this category.

I recently picked up a new set of the series, my old set probably having been given away by my parents after I left the house, because I wanted to see if I could remember them and if they were still as good as they were when I was a child. Your perspective changes as you grow up and I thought maybe I’d find them silly, but I didn’t. Yes, they do seem a bit more one dimensional and the characters flatter than they did at the age of ten, but then L’engle wasn’t writing them for adults. As a kid I loved Meg and Calvin and Charles and felt I could relate to them. I can still see how this was, even though I now have a different perspective and can see their faults more clearly. I was also a bit shocked to realize that there’s quite a religious/Christian element to the books. That didn’t register with me back then, even though I did recognize the good vs. evil element. That might be because my younger self had more belief in Religion and took the references for granted. It might also be because I read the stories for the plot and didn’t spend to much time analysing them (maybe no time would be more exact). Even today, I feel that L’Engle put more weight on good vs. evil as opposed to making the books into a religious advertisement, so to speak. I thought that was well done.

Still, all these years later, it was a good read and I loved reading it again. It's not really old enough to be a classic, but I think it should be in a little classic category all by itself anyway, so I'm counting it towards the challenge. How you could give A Wrinkle in Time less than 5 out of 5 is beyond me.

The Red Dahlia by Lynda La Plante

2010-06-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

DI Anna Travis, under James Langton, is investigating the rather grisly murder of a woman who was found severed in two. Both Langton and Travis are desperate to prove themselves and work flat out to solve the case as soon as possible. The killer, it seems, is desperate for attention and begins to send the police anonymous letters I through the media when the attention the story receives flags. It doesn’t take long before they realize that they are dealing with a copy cat killer. The whole case is following the scenario and time line of The Black Dahlia murder in the 1940s. Since The Black Dahlia killer was never caught and it’s clean that The Red Dahlia is just as, or even more sadistic than the original, the pressure to stop the killer before more fall victim to him reaches a fevered state, especially when the trail goes cold.

Thanks again to Audible for this one. It’s another of those that comes from their sales, although it would have been worth the original price. La Plante finds just the right balance between following a brutal, gruesome killer and character interaction. The one offsets the other quite well as she dwells on neither portion for too long. More time spent focusing on the appalling details would have put some readers off, as would too much focus on the feelings and private lives of the characters.

La Plante lets the reader see into the minds and lives of her characters, generating a sympathy with them otherwise not possible and giving them a three dimensional feel. They aren’t just coppers, but humans with their own lives, problems and motives. Fortunately, La Plante does keep the murder investigation and the characters lives separate, unlike, for instance, Cornwell’s Scarpetta who invariably ends up becoming the victim with the criminal taking her efforts to bring him to justice personally. There is a clear definition of work and private life in La Plant’s book which keeps it from becoming predictable.

I can’t say much more without giving the plot away, but it’s a good read for anyone who likes crime/mystery novels. Yes, there are a few gory details about the murders, but these aren’t dwelt upon. I give this one 4.5 out of 5. I’ll definitely be reading more of La Plante’s work.

The Minutes of the Lazarus Club by Tony Pollard

2010-06-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

As I like a good mystery/thriller, am quite fond of 19th century literature and believe very much that fun books should be on the menu just as often as more serious literature, when I ran across The Minutes of the Lazarus Club in another blog (sorry, don’t remember whose), I felt it was a must read for me.

Surgeon and lecturer George Phillips suddenly finds his life becoming very interesting indeed when he is asked to join The Lazarus Club: a club for the most eminent men in their fields. Each contributes to the club by holding talks about subjects in his own expertise, thus widening their scope of interest and knowledge. George is bemused, but honoured, to be asked to join and endeavours not to disappoint with his first lecture on the workings of the heart. He is well received and thus taken into the fold with enthusiasm. When Brunel, the engineer who asked him to join in the first place, asks George to pick up a package for him, George suddenly finds himself running for his life in an effort to keep that package safe. He is chased around London, his rooms are searched and someone illusive is following him. Adding to his troubles, he is suspected of murdering young girls, mutilating their bodies and disposing of them in the Thames.

Despite the rather clichéd and action heavy plot (in my humble opinion, this book would make a great film), Pollard’s characters are strong and likable. There are enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing and one or two resolutions which I didn’t see coming at all. One thing that did irritate me a bit was the “name dropping” Pollard engaged in. Adding characters like Darwin and Florence Nightengale into the mix seemed a bit hokey and unnecessary. I personally felt he would have done better to create his own characters instead of trying to integrate historical figures into a fictional novel, although the introduction of Darwin did throw up a few interesting points on the introduction of evolution. However, I think that’s a personal view and won’t necessarily negatively affect other reader’s opinions of the book.

I also want to mention that not being very mechanically inclined; I often had a difficult time picturing what was happening. I haven’t got a clue about ships, steam engines and the workings of valves. However, I was able to happily skim through the more technical bits without feeling like I was missing something terribly important; meaning that intimate knowledge of mechanical workings is not a prerequisite for reading the book, although you might get more out of it if you were more mechanically inclined than I am.

All in all it was a good weekend read; enjoyable and not overly taxing. It gets a 3.5 out of 5 rating from me.

The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

2010-06-08T21:42:00.000-07:00

Micheal Henchard wanders into a country fair with his wife and baby daughter and sits down in the furmenty tent to have supper. The tent’s landlord laces his furmenty with rum, Henchard gets drunk and sells his wife to a sailor by the name of Newson. When he wakes up in the morning, he realizes what he’s done, is dreadfully sorry and sets off to find them. Unable to do so, he swears off alcohol for the next 21 years and feeling that she might be better off with someone else anyway, settles down to make a life for himself alone in Casterbridge. Nearly 21 years later, having stuck to his vow of abstinence, he finds himself an upright citizen and Mayor of Casterbridge. Although the township knows there is something is his past he is deeply ashamed of, he’s very close with his information and lets them assume his wife has died. Unfortunately for him, his past catches up with him when his former wife and daughter return to find him after Newson’s death.

Sometimes I think Hardy could make the happiest of scenes sombre without even thinking about it. This book is no exception. The whole novel feels as if there’s a sheet of grey dullness pulled over it and no one who lives anywhere near his characters are ever happy, even when the laugh. His sobriety is why his novels are often better as televised dramas rather than read. OK, maybe not better, but at least easier to swallow.

His main character Henchard is a real rogue. Despite his feeling true remorse over his past deeds, he never learns from any of his failings. Instead, he chooses to find another person or even to blame his misfortune on. In this sense, he is a true forerunner of today’s society – always make someone else responsible. We see from the beginning that he blames the alcohol for his rash actions, but while he may never have done the same when he was sober, if you accept that alcohol only serves to lower our level of inhibition, than the sale of his wife is still a sign of evil that lurks in the bottom of the man’s soul. Later in the novel, he blames friends, family and business colleagues for the turn of his fortunes instead of owning up to his own mistakes. Had he taken the blame himself and thus given himself the opportunity to learn from his mistakes, he might have been able to stem the course of the tide and save himself.

That he has not learned from his first mistake is evident in just about every action he later takes. Instead of standing up to what he has done, he lies to cover it up, which leads to lie after lie after lie, and also sets up a pattern for all of his other dealings. Instead of learning to tell the truth and standing up for his failings, he continues to try and hide them, which just worsens his position. What’s truly sad about the story is that he does have quite deep feelings of sorrow and guilt for his wrong doings, but he allows his pride to overwhelm his remorse every time and thus continues on in the same self-destructive vein.

Perhaps his most fatal flaw is the deep jealousy he feels, which can be ignited by the silliest things. As soon as any man shows himself more adept at anything than himself, Henchard becomes terribly jealous. He then takes actions he later regrets and instead of later apologizing for his behaviour, he allows his pride to get the better of him and thus runs his friends and family off.

These flaws are the dominant theme of the novel and pretty much bury every other subject that might have arisen. It’s almost like a Bildungsroman in reverse since instead of developing his character, Henchard allows his own failings to swallow him up and isolate him from the rest of the world. It makes for very sombre reading and I was glad when it finally finished. Having said that, I still feel that it’s a good book, it’s just not a very uplifting one.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5, good but don’t read it when you’re depressed.

The Flower Arranger at All Saints by Lis Howell

2010-06-07T21:41:00.001-07:00

Surprisingly enough, considering how much I personally dislike most organized Religion, I really like clerical mysteries. This might be because their depiction of Christian communities is more realistic than the image most such communities would like to have themselves portrayed. They take out the holier than thou element and put it aside by letting us see into the minds of all the parishioners and show both their hidden evils and their hidden kindnesses (because let’s face it, there are few who are purely evil and have no kindness in them). It might also be because they are usually fairly cosy mysteries. Then again, it might be because they bring back an element that used to be so important to the community. As much as I dislike organized Religion as a whole, I can see the importance the church has had for society both in a social and a religious sense and do believe that it’s a shame that it’s disappearing. Now, before earn myself a bunch of hate mail from either or both camps, I think I’ll move along to the book.

Phyllis is found dead in All Saints. It’s assumed she’s had a heart attack while arranging the flowers for the next service, but Susie Spencer notices her injuries couldn’t have been an accident. With no other evidence to go on, she takes the matter no further, but it niggles at her and her new friend Robert. Then, when someone else dies, they know it can no longer be ignored and the both set out whodunit.

I know this is a pretty poor synopsis, but it’s difficult to say anything about the book without giving some of the plot away. As with her second book, The Chorister at the Abbey, much of the book centres on the characters, their connections with each other and how they think and function. As I said in my review of The Chorister:

Although this is literally a mystery and is rightly sold as such, Howell does an ingenious job at integrating the lives of her characters into the novel. There are times when it feels more like an inspection into the lives of those surrounding the murder rather then a mystery which in no way detracts from the book. The forays into each character’s life are engaging and interesting, especially as Howell is so good at allowing to reader to identify with the characters and their choices.

I don’t want to imply that the books are the same, because they aren’t. Indeed, The Flower Arranger has a much more malevolent feel to it. The characters are more self-centred and much less Christian in their behaviour. What I like about these books is that Howell gives you access to their thoughts, and although you’d think it would be easier to divine whodunit, it actually muddies the waters. Instead of not having any information, you have so much that it’s easy to loose site of what’s important to the murders, which adds interesting elements to the book. Most crime/mystery is based on too little information, so having too much gives the book freshness.

4 out of 5 for this one. I hope to see more of Howell.

Die with Me by Elena Forbes

2010-06-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

Elena Forbes is a relatively new writer (in comparison to my old favourites like PD James, Elizabeth George, Minette Walters and co) in the Crime/Mystery genre. She made her debut in 2007 with Die with Me. On the surface, it’s an ordinary crime novel with the obligatory DI and team working on a case. What makes her team a bit different is that she’s modernized it by creating a good looking young detective who pays attention to his dress, doesn’t drink excessively and is able to work with a team. He also hasn’t got the emotional baggage most of the detectives seem to have, which is not to say he doesn’t have his problems. One of his biggest seems to be that who he is and how he appears to others is not necessarily one and the same. He doesn’t always seem to realize that people don’t see through the exterior, which is quite refreshing. The subject of this first novel is also quite modern as it deals with the plight of depressed people and the role of modern technology in their demise.

When a young girl is thrown off the roof of a church, DI Tartaglia finds that he has more than just a simple suicide on his hands. The presence of GHB makes it fairly clear that they’re dealing with foul play. What’s odd about it is that there is absolutely no sign of sexual activity. As the team continues to investigate, they find other cases that may, or may not be linked to their most recent one. Tartaglia is convinced they are linked but even he knows he doesn’t have enough evidence to convince his superiors his hunch is right. Few witnesses come forward and even fewer have anything helpful to report so the team is forced to dig while they wait for more bodies, and more evidence, to pile up.

The characters are well drawn up and believable and the plot full of nice twisty bits that catch you off guard, or at least keep you guessing. All in all, it’s quite a good book, especially for a series starter. I’m looking forward to reading more of Forbes’ work and hope that she’ll continue with her character development. She’s made a strong start with this one anyway. 4.25 out of 5.

Harm Done by Ruth Rendell

2010-06-03T21:46:00.000-07:00

A paedophile convicted of raping and murdering a small boy is released from jail and moves back to his old home on an otherwise quiet estate prompting protests. A 16 year old girl inexplicably goes missing from her home after an evening out with her friends, but returns 3 days later with a bizarre tale that she was kept hostage by a middle aged woman and a younger man and forced to do housework. As Lizzie is a bit intellectually challenged and obviously afraid of something, no one takes her tale very seriously until another girl of roughly the same age goes missing. Even more sinister is the disappearance of a 3 year old girl from a wealthy home in the same town. Suddenly the reappearance of the paedophile takes on a whole new meaning as far as the town is concerned. Inspector Wexford sets out to find the girl and save a paedophile from a lynch mob.

Harm Done is a very diffuse novel which tackles several difficult themes: paedophilia, kidnap, vigilantism and domestic violence. The plot is complex but the story is well written and it isn’t difficult to keep the different lines of inquiry separate when necessary. Personally I thought this one took on a bit much myself although I understand why she wrote it as she did. It does have it’s advantages, the primary one being of confusing the focus of the real crime so the solution isn’t obvious from the beginning, which is what would have happened in real life. It also shows how much one piece of news or one person can effect many different people at once. Still, I personally would have preferred her to concentrate on fewer issues at once. Doing so might have made the novel a bit more powerful, especially as it would have obviated the need for the epilogue. Written as is, however, it’s a good mystery and a good, quick read. It’s not one of Rendell’s best, but neither is it one of her worst.

3.5 out of 5

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

2010-06-02T21:53:00.000-07:00

Stephanie’s uncle Gordon is dead. His family gather around for the will, joined by a strange man in a flash suit with his face wrapped up in a scarf and sunglasses on indoors. Knowing Gordon as they do, they assume this is one of his odd friends, which he is, very odd. Stephanie, who has always been Gordon’s favourite in the family, inherits his house, including contents. Little does she know, she’s inherited a whole lot more than that, she inherited his odd friends and strange ideas as well.

Gordon plunges his niece into a world filled with magic, demons, sorcerers and talking detective skeletons included. She takes to it like a duck to water and promptly finds herself on a roller coaster ride with real, live skeleton detective Skulduggary Pleasant as they try to beat their evil adversaries to one of the most destructive weapons ever made. Along the way, she finds out more about herself than she ever thought she could, even the sarcastic, talking skeleton is impressed. Explosions, murder, car chases, general mayhem ensue and ensure that the reader never gets bored.

I’m not really even sure how I found this book. It may have been from a blog or from an Amazon recommendation. However I found it, I enjoy a good children’s story now and again so I thought, what the heck, and bought it. It didn’t disappoint. Granted, if you’re an adult, this book isn’t going to challenge you (except if it’s to think like a kid for a change), but if you’re a kid, it will in more ways than one. Aside from being a great, original story, it’s got a good range of vocabulary and some interesting ideas in it. Skulduggery’s humour is also some of the driest I’ve ever come across, which is perhaps why I liked it so much. All the characters are strong, but I appreciate that there’s a good, strong female at the head of things. Not that I’m knocking books like Harry Potter where the protagonist is male, but it’s always good for girls to get their turn as well.

Rated as the children’s book it is (9 and above according to the Amazon categorization): 5 out of 5.

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

2010-06-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Audible’s sales, I’ve found a new author. I’d never heard of Elizabeth von Arnim before, but the book was on sale, it looked like my sort of thing, so I bought it et voilà! I have a new author to read.

The Enchanted April tells the tale of four women as they vacation together in Italy in a secluded castle. The idea is formed by Mrs. Arbuthnot and Mrs. Wilkins who see an advertisement for castle in Italy which is to be let for the month of April. Mrs. Wilkins decides on the spur of the moment, that she would love to go, but cannot afford it herself. The scheme is hatched and the two women decide that they will do something for themselves for a change, rent the castle and go on vacation together. To further defray the costs, they advertise for a further two women to join them and thus Mrs. Fisher and Lady Dester join them on the holiday.

Each of these women is quite different from one another and as soon as they arrive they seem to get on one another’s nerves. As the days pass, they learn more about each other and more about themselves than they really expected to and the holiday turns into much more than any of them expected.

As mentioned, I got this one from Audible, so I listened to it. The narrator was pleasant and good (which is not always the same thing) and the story flowed well. It wasn’t really what I was expecting it to be, i.e. I misjudged the plot having made assumptions after having read the blub, so the plot development came as a bit of a surprise, although not an unpleasant one. It is a bit cheesy, but it’s an upbeat and happy story written in the 1920’s when women’s expectations were different, so I can forgive the cheesiness.

4 out of 5 for being a pleasant story and a good read.

Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook by Terry Pratchett and Stephan Briggs

2010-05-31T21:45:00.000-07:00

Everyone who is familiar with Terry Pratchett’s Disc World Series knows Nanny Ogg and her penchant for things, well, for things a little on the naughty side. Her Strawberry Wobbler is famous for it’s inappropriateness for those more formal occasions, unless you want to send half the guests into fits of laughter they must cover up by pretending they’re choking on that last bit of bread and the other half home in a huff muttering comments such as “Well! I never!” and “I can’t believe…”. You will have insured that that particular half never invites you to their soirees again, so if you are trying to get out of them, you have the perfect answer.

Anyway, after her The Joye of Snackes, which was banned just about everywhere, she came out with her own cookbook, which put a real strain on the editors. Without some fairly heavy use of a black marker pen, this book would have gone the same way as The Joye of Snackes. As finally printed, it’s suitable for most adult audiences and the recipes are really rather good, although you might want to try out the suggested arrangement on the plate in a trial run to avoid any possible embarrassment.

I was expecting a little more humour, but then, I’m neither a particularly adept or interested cook so I may have missed something. The most entertaining bits are Nanny Ogg’s own particular take on etiquette and manners. More interesting than helpful really.

If you’re looking for a good read, remember, this is really more a recipe book than a book for reading, but if you’re interested in cookery, go for it!

No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

2010-05-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

Precious Ramotswe is alone in the world after her father dies, but she declares her intention to use her inheritance wisely and start her own business, a detective agency. She’ll be the first woman detective in Botswana, but since she has a knack for judging people and observing how they work, she’s confident she can make a go of it. So, she sets up her business, hires a secretary and waits for business. At first, it’s slow-going, but as word spread, her business improves and she begins to build up a client base and gain notoriety. Fraud or witchcraft, nothing is too much for Precious.

I’d heard of this book many times, but had never gotten around to reading it, so when it showed up in a sale, I couldn’t resist. I know a lot of people like the series, but I was disappointed in it. Yes, it was a decent read, but not very challenging and nothing about it really seemed to grab me. Yes, Precious is a likeable character but her cases just lack something. They may just be too simple for my taste. That may change with the development of the series and if that is so, I’d love to know, so if anyone has continued with the books, let me know. For me, this one gets a 2.5 out of 5, readable, but not overly riveting.

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

2010-05-28T04:00:00.000-07:00

After having seen the film and hearing that the book was quite good, I decided to read The Name of the Rose for the Classics Challenge 2010 as my “Classic to be” book. Since it isn’t actually that old (the original Italian version was published in 1980), it’s not actually a classic, but I’m certain this is one of those books that will stay with us for a very long time.

The book’s plot focuses on the arrival of William of Baskerville and his acolyte Adso at the monastery in Italy. Shortly before their arrival, a young monk is found dead which disturbs the inner peace of the monastery and William is asked to investigate. Unfortunately, he has trouble doing so as he is not allowed as much access to the buildings, in particular the library, as he needs in order to fully investigate the incident. It is almost as if the whole of the monastery is a fighting him while urging him on at the same time. They want a solution, but not necessarily the solution. Most of all, they want it quickly as there are several delegations due to arrive to discuss the complex religious/political situation in Europe. They fear that any questionable death will reflect poorly on them and lead the Inquisitor Bernardo de Gui to investigate upon his arrival. Unfortunately, the William is unable to find a solution before the next murder takes place and soon the monastery becomes a dangerous place to be at all, especially after the arrival of de Gui.

Even though this book is often sold as a whodunit, especially after the airing of the film in 1986 with Sean Connery, the focus of the book is less on the mystery and more on the political and religious turmoil of the time. There are many lengthy explanations and discussions about religious sects, their doctrines, who are persecuting whom, why and how this all relates to the politics of the times. There seems to have been many different opinions as to what Jesus would have done in regards to poverty and laughter. Instead of trusting to their own common sense or turning to prayer to find an answer, the monks ore looking for hard evidence as a basis for their teachings within the behaviour of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately the Bible isn’t particularly specific about either subject and this leads to much discussion, some of it quite angry.

Not being personally interested in such matters and finding some of the arguments overly pedantic and not particularly helpful or practical, I sometimes found it difficult to continue reading. I spent a lot of time thinking “build a bridge and get over it before you burn the damn thing to the ground having never used it”. It was often as if they were standing in their own way. Eco does make this point in the novel, that the monastery is hoarding books for the sake of hoarding rather than for the sake of passing on religious knowledge. The monks were too caught up in the pedantry of learning to be useful to anyone but themselves. I also had difficulty with the abundance of Latin or other languages without translation. If often seems as if I had to skip quite a bit simply because I never learned the ancient languages.

Having said this, the book is very clever indeed. Just about everything Eco does contains more than the meaning of the words on the page and I think it would be a better book if taught/discussed rather than just read for pleasure. Like me, if you’re not versed or particularly interested in religious history and doctrine of the time, it can be difficult to follow and I know I would have benefitted from reading this in a class rather than just on my own. So, I give this one a 3 out of 5 for fun reading, but a 5 out of 5 for cleverly combining mystery and learning.

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

2010-05-27T03:53:00.001-07:00

Lucy Honeychurch is visiting Italy with her old fashioned, Victorian cousin Charlotte Bartlett as a chaperone. Lucy is all friendliness and wonder while her cousin is repressed and terribly disapproving of breaking with old traditions. They arrive at the Pensione Bertolini to find that their rooms do not have the promised view. This becomes a topic of conversation amongst the English visitors, two of whom, Mr. Emerson and his son George, offer to exchange their rooms, which do have a view, with the rooms of the women so that Lucy and Miss Bartlett can have their rooms with a view. Miss Bartlett refuses the offer at once on the grounds that an acceptance would put them under obligation to two unknown gentlemen, which would be improper. However, Mr. Beebe persuades them that the offer was only meant as a kindness and that they should really accept it. Miss Bartlett acquiesces and they exchange rooms. Much of the rest of their trip then revolves around the possible, or possibly imagined, debt they owe for having exchanged rooms with the Emersons, especially as the two men show themselves to be devoid of conventional manners.

The second part of the novel continues at a later date back in England when all the characters happen to find themselves living near one another, which forces another breakout of minute speculation and analysis of everyone’s behaviour and how it might, or might not, affect others. Much of the novel focuses on the shift from Victorian conservatism to the new liberated age and rebellion against conventional repression. The old guard, such as Miss Bartlett and Mr. Beebe represent the last of the Victorians while Lucy and George belong to the new age where strict form no longer applies. Forster is really criticizing the extreme repression of the Victorian age and advocating that society leaves it behind to focus on a new and more liberated lifestyle which fosters happiness for oneself in lieu of a perpetual sense of duty to others.

In a sense, this falls into the category of Bildungsroman because Lucy begins as a naïve girl trusting in her elders for guidance but develops into a mature young woman who can think for herself. It’s about her journey into the world of adults who are no longer subject to the same repression the previous generations were subjected to. Making this journey becomes her salvation because without it, she would have almost certainly lived a miserable life, but having made it has at least a chance at happiness.

Personally, I like the idea of the book better than the book itself. Forster had the same effect on me with Howard’s End; the idea was brilliant, the execution somehow lacking in vibrancy. He somehow seems to have gotten stuck between the flowing style of Virginia Woolf and Daphne du Maurier and the more conventional writing styles of the earlier ages and being neither here nor there, it just lacks something that makes the stories come alive. Part of the problem might lay with the lack of explanation into why certain things should be considered offensive, such as trading rooms or speaking to fellow travellers one doesn’t know prior to the trip. This would have been clear to those living at the time, but as the old ways have been almost entirely forgotten outside of literature or history studies, so for me it was sometimes quite hard to follow why such a big deal was being made of such little things. I will say that his work makes for brilliant films though. It’s much easier to follow and imagine all of the characters and their foibles when being portrayed by talented actors.

I’m going to rate this one a 3 out of 5. Good, but not overwhelmingly so.

The Wine of Angels by Phil Rickman

2010-05-26T03:55:00.000-07:00

Merrily Watkins is a single mother of a very teenaged daughter whose life suddenly took a twist when she decided to become a vicar. Her daughter accepts her decision, but doesn’t understand it and gives little thought to the whole realm of religion herself. She does, however, support her mother and together they move to the village of Ledwardine so Merrily can become its first new vicar in 30 years. Unfortunately for her, her arrival coincides with a playwright’s desire to write and perform a play based on a 17th century clergyman who was accused of witchcraft and being a homosexual. The question of whether or not to put on the play quickly divides the village into two and the villagers turn to Merrily for a decision. She quickly finds making this decision is more dangerous than it sounds since it not only takes up the theme of homosexuality, but threatens to air century’s worth of dirty laundry in public. As the village is an old one, many of its residents have family who participated in the hanging of the Reverend Williams and they would rather the past be left to lie. To add to her troubles, Lucy Devonish, the local paganite and general believer in spirits, be they of trees or men, takes Merrily’s daughter under her wing and introduces her to people and ideas Merrily would prefer her not to know about.

The Wine of Angles is an interesting combination of Mystery, Religious Mystery, Paganism and Demonology. Although I was expecting it to be mostly mystery, it was well written and Rickman kept it from going off the rails either one way or the other. There was a good balance of all of the elements with an excellent use of suspense and mystery. His characters are realistic and likeable (or not as the case may be) with a lot of variation and subtlety. There were 6 kinds of potential for this book to go wrong, but it kept its balance without faltering. Rickman surprisingly never tries to convince the reader that there are such things as ghosts a spirits, but leaves everything open to interpretation. Devonish is either in tune with nature or is a batty old woman, depending on your opinion. He refrains from introducing the outlandish and keeps the creepier side to a level that just suggests the supernatural rather than forcing it on you.

I liked this book so well that I promptly bought the next in the series. If you’re looking for something new, something just a little odd, but not fantastic to the point of disbelief, take a look at his books. This one really fits the bill. I’m rating it 4 out of 5.

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

2010-05-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

This is one of those books that I tried to read several times, but failed. In this case, it was mostly due to one of the major points of the book, but more on that later. However, after having seen the fabulous (imho) BBC production of Bleak House with Gillian Anderson et al (the full cast is amazing), I decided I had to read the book. That was over a year ago and it was so good, I’ve just read it for the second time.

Back to the reason I had difficulties reading this: One of the main points Dickens was making when writing this was that the justice system at the time was slow to function, costly and not necessarily just. To illustrate this, he goes on and on (and on…and then on some more) about how the various members of the Chancery and legal system pass the buck from one to the other, each taking their fee, until finally nothing was done and there is no money left totake. His makes his point quite well with the unfortunate side effect that it can be very difficult to wade through this and get to the actual story which is brilliant.

Esther Summerson is an orphaned girl who grows up with her evil godmother, but despite her upbringing, has a good heart. Once her godmother dies and she finishes school, she is brought together with Ada and Richard, two wards in the famous Jarndyce and Jarndyce case. Together they travel on to live with John Jarndyce, a kindly older gentleman, who has offered them all a home with him at Bleak House. Esther becomes his housekeeper and friend to Ada while Richard is encouraged in two things by John Jarndyce: one to find an occupation he can carry out for the rest of his life, the second is to at all costs avoid getting sucked into the Jarndyce case. He knows from personal experience that it ruins men.

Meanwhile, there is a mystery afoot. Lady Honoria Dedlock, wife to sir Leichester Dedlock Baronet, has come across legal letters presented to her husband by the family lawyer, Mr. Tulkinghorn. She recognizes the handwriting and asks Mr. Tulkinghorn if he knows who wrote them. This simple inquiry makes Mr. Tulkinghorn suspicious and he sets off to find out why Lady Dedlock is interested in who wrote the letters, ostensibly because he feels himself dedicated to preserving the Dedlock honour, but mostly because he likes the feeling of power it gives him.

This race to find the man who wrote the letters and why he is so important is tangled up with many different lines that run through the novel. There is the question of Esther’s parentage, who her godmother was and why she was so convinced that it would have been better had Esther not been born. Mr. Guppy comes into play when he sets out to find the answer before Mr. Tulkinghorn in an attempt to impress both Esther and Lady Dedlock. Since all those involved are also involved in Jarndyce and Jarndyce does that mean there is a connection between the two? In essence, within all of the social critique and simple stories, there is an element of mystery that keeps the reader hooked.

In addition to the Jarndyce/Dedlock/Summerson story line, there are many, many sub-plots. So many that it’s actually quite difficult to separate them, especially as most of them are bound together at one level or another. Dickens introduces so many extraordinary characters like Harold Skimpole (I will never forgive Nathaniel Parker for playing him so well that I find it hard to like him any more), Mrs. Flite, Krook Guppy and Smallweed (same to Phil Davis – it’s your own fault I associate you with villans now Phil!). It’s amazing how much of life Dickens managed to capture in all these characters. I often find myself thinking of them when I meet people who share characteristics or in situations where you can just picture then taking part.

There’s only one thing I don’t like about the book but I won’t mention it here since it would spoil it for those who haven’t read the book. I will say that it pertains to Lady Dedlock and that is arguably the more appropriate than my preference would have been (if you’ve read the book/seen the movie, you’ll understand what I mean). If you haven’t read the book, what are you waiting for?!? If you can’t get through the book, treat yourself to the 2005 BBC mini-series. You won’t regret it.

The is definitely and well deservedly a 5 out of 5 book.

Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie

2010-05-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

This is one of my most favouritest Agatha Christie novels. I adore Poirot (although not more than Miss Marple) and I’m quite fond of Ariadne Oliver with all her foibles, so this makes for a comfy, cosy mystery with characters I love.

A bossy, bully of a woman approaches Mrs. Oliver at a luncheon and has the audacity to request Mrs. Oliver to ask her goddaughter who killed whom in her parent’s double suicide some 10 years before. Mrs. Burton-Cox feels she has a right to know since her son will be marrying Mrs. Oliver’s goddaughter. Despite being incensed about such an intrusion, Mrs. Oliver’s curiosity is aroused and she presents the question to Hercule Poirot. Together they set off on a hunt for elephants who can remember back to days past. Their search leads them into a labyrinth of sisters, dead children, travel abroad and absent children. It takes Poirot’s little grey cells to unravel the stories that elephants tell.

This one is clever. Very clever. The clues are all there, but it’s a matter of sorting out which are relevant, what order they come in and what really happened instead of what was perceived to have happened. It’s a case of “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?” (Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of the Four). Elementary, or not if you’re not Christie or Doyle. I give this one 5 out of 5.

Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie

2010-05-19T04:06:00.000-07:00

Hilary Craven is a woman whose life has fallen apart. Her husband left her, her small daughter has died and she has no reason to live any more. No longer attaching any importance to her life, she decides to commit suicide in a Moroccan hotel, only for her latest endeavour to fall apart on her when she is found out and prevented by a spy who happens to put two and two together. He makes Hilary an interesting offer. If she is going to die, why not do so in the service of her country? It seems that scientists all over the world are going missing and it is presumed they are either defecting to or being kidnapped by the Russians. The need Hilary to go undercover to see if she can ferret out just what is going on. Her interest in life renewed, Hilary embarks on a dark and dangerous journey into the heart of evil.

Although the style of this book is unmistakeably Christie, it’s not one of her typical books. It’s not actually a mystery as such, but a thriller with the element of a mystery. There’s no Marple of Poirot to lead the reader through the twists and turns and as such is disappointing and nice at the same time. Disappointing because Marple and Poirot are really her most beloved characters and those who enjoy Christie are usually big fans of both and like to see them again and again. Nice because it keeps Christie’s work fresh and new instead of relying on the same old formula time and time again. Even the venue is changed in this one from England to Africa, so no lush countryside or humungous country homes, but the mystery and intrigue of a country with strange customs and vast expanses of land with few inhabitants. The story itself is fairly simple and I’m afraid rather full of holes, relying heavily on luck and coincidences. Having said that, it’s Christie and not really meant to be taken quite so seriously, so it’s easy to forgive its failings. What is particularly interesting to me reading it so many years on is not the plot itself, but how it reflects the political situation of the day. The Cold War was raging and the West feared the East as much as the East did the West and everyone lived in mistrust of each other. A disappearing scientist wasn’t simply a disappearing scientist but a political crisis. One fewer scientist in the West was a double loss because it was a gain for the enemy. There’s a curious mix of fear, idealism, obsession weaving it’s way through the characters giving today’s reader an idea of what the situation must have felt like back then. Christie exploits the romance of the age in this work, with a twist of her own which keeps it from becoming a cliché.

Even though I’ve never been a flaming feminist (probably mostly because the way has been cleared by other women who came before me), one thing I quite liked about this novel was that she made the heroine weak on the one hand, but strong on the other, just like we all are at times. It’s more realistic than just creating a strong, fearless woman who sets an obviously unattainable standard for other women. It sets a good example for how a woman can become strong given the chance. That might seem trite in today’s society, but looking at the period when it was written, I think it was an important message for women in general.

All in all, I give this one a 4 out of 5 rating for a Christie novel.

Gallows View by Peter Robinson

2010-05-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

Gallows View is the first in Peter Robinson’s Alan Banks series. I’ve always been rather partial to his book, so when this one showed up in a sale, I snapped it up.

Perhaps I should mention here that I am not only a lifetime member of The Library Thing, but own Bookpedia so that I can catalogue the books I own and so avoid purchasing books twice. Yep. I do. So can someone tell me why I don’t check them before I buy? If you can figure that out, let me know please because buying the same books twice gets expensive, especially when it costs less to keep them than to ship them back.

Soooo, I was reading along when the plot suddenly started to sound very familiar. At first I just thought it was a plot repeat, which happens when you read as much as I do. Unfortunately, as I read further, I realized it wasn’t just similar, it was the same plot. Back to my library I went and sure enough, I own this one.

After having read it twice, I can say that it was a good book. It would have been better the second time around if the plot hadn’t been so memorable, but that’s not Robinsons fault. After all, he can only write the same book once. I assume so anyway. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. Perhaps if he has multiple personalities that one might work. One personality could conceivably write it without the second personality knowing what the first did.

Ok, back to the book. It’s a good cozy crime novel which I can recommend to anyone who likes that particular genre. As a first book, his characters aren’t quite as settled as they could be, but that’s something that takes time in any case. Having read further books, I know that he does develop his characters and that his books get better as time goes on. I’ll give him a 4 out of 5 for this one. It deserves it for keeping my attention the second time around as well.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

2010-04-30T04:13:00.000-07:00

Catching Fire is the second book in the Hunger Games Trilogy. It’s a YA book, but I know several adults who have read and liked The Hunger Games, so it really seems to be teenager and up.

There are 12 districts and one Capital in post-apocalyptic, but feudalistic, Panem. The Capital functions as something of a feudalistic overload which “protects” the districts and in return, the Districts provide for the Capital. The catch is that the Capital is really just using the Districts to provide food and fuel for their hedonistic lifestyle while the people of the Districts suffer starvation and deprivation. Needless to say, the Districts tend to be unhappy with this arrangement, while those in the Capital give no thought to those in the Districts at all. In order to prevent uprisings, the Districts are all fenced in with electrical fences and life is strictly controlled. 75 years earlier, one District, number 13, decided to revolt and was subsequently raised by the Capital as punishment and as a lesson to all of the other Districts. As a reminder of what would happen should they choose to revolt again, the Capital instigated The Hunger Games for which each of the Districts must provide one male and one female teenager each year. Those chosen are sent to the Capital and entered in The Hunger Games during which they fight to the death. The Capital’s residents all find this hugely entertaining while the Districts are all forced to watch their children die until only one, the victor, is left.

Katniss Everdeen is a survivor of the 74th Hunger Games, only there was a twist; her District partner Peeta, also survived because Katniss manipulated the Games to ensure he was not killed. This tactic is taken as a form of revolt by the Capital, especially as it does indeed turn out to instigate revolts within the Districts. Panem’s president, President Snow, sees Katniss as a personification and personal motivator for the uprising, thus he begins to target her believing that if he can crush her, he can restore total power to the Capital. Her only chance to save herself, her friends and her family is to prove to him that she is truly, deeply in love with Peeta and that this was her only motivation for saving his life.

I liked this book. I must have since it only took me two days to finish it. It’s a good yarn and an entertaining, undemanding read. I will say that the heroine, Katniss, occasionally annoyed me to distraction. What I saw as a healthy dose of humility crossed with naïveté in the first book rapidly turned to simple blindness and stupidity in this one. Her character didn’t seem to develop at all, even though a whole year passes in the book. It made me want to slap her and tell her to wake up and smell the double espresso for heaven’s sake. It’s just not that possible to miss so much of what’s going on around you unless you’re either self-centred or possess the IQ of a kumquat. The romance was unconvincing and sugary sweet and there is also a bit of plot repetition which bothered some people, but I thought Collins got away with that rather well.

Although the actual premise of the Hunger Games is better, it reminds me a bit of the Twilight series (good teenage vampires? Honestly, how daft does that sound?) which was a riveting read, even though you knew it was really just asinine the whole time you were reading it. Still, it gets a 4 out of 5 for keeping my attention so well despite the heroin

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

2010-04-29T04:17:00.001-07:00

This is a collection of 12 short adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The narrator is the iconic Dr. Watson who plays assistant to Holmes during his investigations. According to the doctor, he made notes of the cases at the time and only wrote them up after enough time has passed to prevent anything revealed in the telling of the tales from harming innocent people.

What I think is most interesting about these mysteries is contemplating them from the viewpoint of someone reading them at the end of the 19th century. As a modern reader, it’s very easy to think that much of it is just a matter of forensics, which it really is nowadays. However, for those living back then, it must have all seemed quite fantastic and ingenious. Don’t get me wrong, there are elements, which are still quite brilliant today. Some of his deductions and reasoning is nothing short of genius. However, quite a lot of the magic is dispelled when viewed from a modern standpoint.

The question is, do we really want to dispel the magic? I think the answer to this is fairly universally No. Why dispel the enchantment when there’s so much more to be had from suspending disbelief and thoughts of modern day forensics which destroy the romanticism of the age when it’s much more fun to pretend you’re watching the story unfold with no knowledge whatsoever? That’s the point and the relevance of Sherlock Holmes today, in my opinion. He’s there as a mark of progress and genius of the past. After all, was Einstein any less of a genius because much of his work has progressed passed his own developments? Each successive generation always builds on the past generation and without that past, there would be no future. Ergo, Homes and his tales will always be relevant, even if we do find his methods a bit antiquated.

The only criticism I have is that Doyle does paint Watson as an idiot. “Elementary, dear Watson” isn’t just a saying, it is a fact. He misses quite a lot of elementary elements and simply winds up looking like a fool much of the time. I know Doyle did this on purpose to form a contrast with Holmes and make his deductions seem all the more wondrous, but he very nearly overdid it and wound up with an absurd and incredible sidekick.

I enjoyed reading (or listening to) the stories and they get a 5 out of 5 from me.

Challenges:
Classics Challenge 2010
Marple, Poirot, Holmes Challenge
Typically British

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

2010-04-28T04:00:00.000-07:00

John Harmon is a young man who was sent away in anger to school abroad. He remains estranged from his father and only returns to England upon his father’s death. According to the will, he will only receive his inheritance if he marries Miss Bella Wilfer as his father stipulated. Unfortunately for him, he goes missing on the journey home and is found drown later in the Thames. A mysterious man, Julius Handford, claiming to be a friend of John Harmon, arrives to help indentify the body and then promptly disappears.

Since John is dead, the money then goes to Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, old employees. They are a kind, friendly, jovial, but naïve couple who accept the inheritance and share it freely with others in need. Shortly afterwards, John Rokesmith contrives to meet Mr. Boffin and secure a position as his personal secretary and assistant. Mr. Boffin accepts the offer and Mr. Rokesmith is hired. At the same time, Mr. Boffin asks Miss Wilfer to come and live with them as compensation for the loss of her fiancée and therefore of all her prospects. However, as time goes on, the money goes to Mr. Boffin’s head, and he begins to turn into a miser.

There’s also a subplot revolving around the daughter of the waterman who brings John Harmon home. Lizie Hexam realizes that her brother is worthy of a much better life than he is destined for should he remain with his father, so she arranges to send him off to school before his father can stop her. She later becomes entangled in a love triangle with her brother’s headmaster and Eugene Wrayburn, a friend of the lawyer who in charge of the Boffin inheritance.

That’s the basic set up of the novel, but it is, in reality, quite a bit more complicated. There are a myriad of people who come and go in different settings, giving the reader a good idea of what life in the different social spheres is like. The upper class is incensed at the rise of such uneducated, unrefined people like Mr. and Mrs. Boffin and spurns them, while several of the lower class plot and scheme to somehow loosen Mr. Boffin’s hold on his money. As a woman, Lizzie Hexam finds herself fighting for her freedom as the two men wrangle over her affections. Most of the plots deal with money and how it affects the lives of the people in the different social stratospheres. There are also, as in all of Dickens’ works, glimpses of social ailments and injustices which need attention. Without ever directly saying as much, he demonstrates why and how society needs to be changed for the better and also how kindness can be its own reward.

Again, it’s a very verbose novel (which of Dickens’ isn’t?), but it’s really one of his best. The plot is complicated, but it’s ingeniously crafted so that all of the elements somehow fit together to create the whole story. The only criticism I have is that some of the characters’ actions can seem a bit forced. Dickens’ does work with larger than life characters, but it occasionally doesn’t seem to work. Some are too good and some go bad without real impetus. However, for the most part, they are good, solid characters, so with a little willing suspension of disbelief, you can easily ignore the failings.

All in all, it’s a great book and well deserved of a 5 out of 5.

Challenges:
Classics Challenge 2010
Typically British

The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy

2010-04-27T04:04:00.000-07:00

Ivan Ilych lived a good life. He lived the kind of life most people think they would have loved to have. The question is, was it really as good as it looked or was it like a pretty cake that tasted like cardboard? Ivan grew up climbing the social ladder almost before he could climb out of his crib. His education, social life and family life all centred on moving up and earning more, to cover that debt one ran up from spending just a little more than one earned. He considers himself quite happy, excepting a little marital discomfort and occasional problems with his children. However, he manages to focus his attention on the positive things in his life, like promotion, pay raises and social status and with that life little discomforts fade into the background. Then one day, Ivan hits his side while redecorating his newly purchased house, which goes with his promotion, and subsequently falls ill several weeks later. Although it is unclear exactly what is wrong with him, everyone knows that Ivan is dying.

Unable to do anything for many weeks on end, but lay on his couch dying a slow and painful death, Ivan has lots of time to reflect on his life and whether it was really all it was cracked up to be. He begins to regret his lack of a happy family life and to see his family members in a new light, and in turn, sees that his social climbing was really quite different and less rewarding than he had told himself it was. He spent much of his life fooling himself and now feels he must atone for this in death.

Fortunately, this is more of a short story than a full blown novel. Had it been longer, it might have become quite depressing and very tedious. It’s a good length for the subject matter and I found it to be surprisingly good and slightly less depressing than I had assumed it would be. It feels almost like a voyeuristic novel in as much as you are privy to Ivan’s thoughts as well as his actions. It’s like watching someone think while he lives his life, which allows the reader to see that what Ivan sees doesn’t necessarily reflect reality.

I’m not sure how accurately I can review this book. I have a feeling that in order to figure out what Tolstoy wanted to say, you need to know more about him and his works. So, in a bid to get a little more information, I looked the book up in Wikipedia and found this:

“In his lectures on Russian Literature Russian-born novelist and critic Vladimir Nabokov argues that, for Tolstoy, a sinful life (such as Ivan's) is moral death. Therefore death, the return of the soul to God is, for Tolstoy, moral life. To quote Nabokov: "The Tolstoyan formula is: Ivan lived a bad life and since the bad life is nothing but the death of the soul, then Ivan lived a living death; and since beyond death is God's living light, then Ivan died into a new life- Life with a capital” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Ivan_Ilyich)

With the knowledge, or lack thereof, I have of Tolstoy, I think Nobokov’s take seems pretty accurate, at least as an interpretive reflection of the work. Ivan was saved through his slow and painful death as he had time to reflect and regret his life. It was as if he went through Purgatory prior to death and came out triumphant. It does leave me wondering, however, what Tolstoy’s take on Ivan’s life would have been had he bypassed Purgatory by slow death by dying a quick and painless death. What would that mean for Tolstoy? Would Ivan’s life have been just worthless? That would, in an extended sense, mean that society as a whole is fairly worthless and that basically we are all just spinning out wheels unless we strive for a higher goal of living a morally meaningful life. Thus, the story can be seen not only as a criticism of one man’s life, but of a whole society of Ivan Ilychs as well.

One final thought, even though The Death of Ivan Ilych was written well over a hundred years ago, it could have been written last week without losing any relevance at all. Society as a whole still functions pretty much the same and many still live their lives climbing the social ladder. I wonder if Tolstoy would be shocked to see what has become of us, or rather how static people have remained despite the changes over the last century.

Challenges: Classics Challenge 2010

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

2010-04-26T03:52:00.001-07:00

This is the third book in the Inheritance Cycle. It was supposed to be the last of a trilogy, but, to the joy of fans everywhere, Paolini wasn’t able to finish the story in just three books. It’s basically the continuation of Eragon the Dragon Rider’s story as he, together with the Varden, the Elves and the Dwarves, tries to end Galbatorix’s reign over Algaësia. War is breaking out all over the country and the armies fight the ground battles. Eragon is torn between joining in these battles, fulfilling the oaths he has made on both a personal and political level and continuing his training with the elves as he promised he would. He must try and learn to balance what he can or otherwise decide which is the least of all evils and concentrate on that particular goal for the time being. It is, in effect, a story about his personal development as he learns to become a man and make a man’s decisions, as hard as they may be.

Brisingr capitalizes on the motion Eldest has already created and is already in full swing before you start the book. So unlike in Eldest, there was no drag to it and it took off right away. It pretty much keeps up the pace for the entire length of the book, although there are some more contemplative moments when Eragon begins to realize that he cannot please all of the people all of the time and that he will have to make unpopular decisions. All of the characters make huge learning leaps during this novel. It’s as if many of them grow up and really begin to learn what it is to fight a war. I did think that Nasuada made a few poor decisions, but overall, she has begun to grasp her leadership and accept that although she makes mistakes, she’s headed in the right direction generally. Roran is possibly the only character not to really make any personal advancement. He still just keeps his head down and rushes forward while hoping his skills and intuition will keep him alive. There are other story lines I will reserve judgement on since it’s not quite clear where Paolini intends to take them.

All in all I found this one slightly less riveting than the last half of Eldest, although I couldn’t tell you why. I may have just OD’d on the Cycle and had enough of that genre for the time being. Regardless, it was still a good yarn and a good vacation read. 4 out of 5.

Eldest by Christopher Paolini

2010-04-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

Eldest is the second in The Inheritance Cycle (Eragon, Eldest and Brisingr) by Christopher Paolini. I suppose I should have started with Eragon, but I’d seen the movie and considered that if I was going to spend that amount of money on a book (English books cost a fortune in the stores here, which is why Amazon practically owns my soul), I wanted it to be something totally new. If I hadn’t actually been in the store, I would have ordered Eragon. As it was, I was there, they didn’t have much selection, but leaving a bookstore without a book is pretty much an anathema. If I am broke, I just don’t go in. I often just try and avoid them altogether as they really are bad for the pocket book.

Soooo, Eldest. Eldest is the continuation of Eragon’s story after the destruction of Durza and the rescue of Arya. This volume also takes up the story of the village Eragon left behind, Carvahall, and his cousin Roran, who returns to pick up the pieces of life after Eragon leaves. This might not have been so traumatic had Galbatorix, the Sauron of the series so to speak, not sent his Ra’zac to capture Roran to use as leverage against Eragon. Roran must fight the Ra’zac and lead the villagers to safety.

I won’t go into the plot any further for two reasons: primarily because I don’t want to give anything away and secondarily because it’s so complicated that it would take ages to go into properly, and then you might as well read the book. I will say that the story is very complex and involved, often with several intertwined story lines running at once. Every action causes a different reaction in each of the tales, all of which are striving to reach the same goal, that of toppling Galbatorix from power, preferably in a very permanent manner. Perhaps the complexity is why it took me so long to get into this book. It didn’t grab me like I thought it would and I spent at least a month on the first half alone. By this point I was glad I hadn’t purchased Eragon and wasn’t planning on finishing the series at all. However, the second half of the book is a whole different ball of wax. The multiple story line format weighs the story as a whole down, meaning it takes a long time for it to get moving. It’s a bit like a long, heavy cargo train; once the story drags all of the parts into motion and it gains a little momentum, it pretty much rolls its way over everything. I found myself fascinated by the second half, couldn’t put it down and in consequence it took me no time at all to finish it. It was so good, that I even made the effort to go out and buy Brisingr (in one of our twice as expensive as Amazon stores) so I could continue reading during my vacation (now you know why I wasn’t blogging) so Eldest turned out to be a very good book indeed. Good enough that I will eventually buy Eragon and read it, even if I no longer really need to.

There is a lot of criticism that it leans heavily on The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, and yes, there are a lot of parallels which would be obvious to anyone familiar with those works. This doesn’t particularly bother me much though since the setting is good and the characters are strong and individual enough to keep them from being boring. Eragon, for instance, is neither a whiney Luke Skywalker (son of the Master Whinger) nor a quiet and pacifistic Frodo. He knows and accepts both his limitations and that he must learn before he can control power enough to be trusted with it. So yes, the parallels are obvious, but not detrimental in my opinion. Besides, if we were to condemn every story which contains some of the same elements as previous books, we’d have very little new material to read since even the newest ideas build on what came before.

This one gets 4 out of 5 because of the slow start.

The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman

2010-04-22T03:52:00.000-07:00

Cale has never known anything but the life of penury and punishment within the Sanctuary. His tormentors are the Redeemers, something akin to fanatical monks, who run the Sanctuary like a religious prison where the slightest infraction of the rules results in public torture and death. Their imagination knows no bounds when it comes to inventing new ways of humiliation and pain, thus the Sanctuary more closely resembles a sadistic haven rather than a monastery. Most of the training the boys receive is of a military nature riddled with religious doctrine so that when they come of age, they can join the war. Escape is nearly impossible because the Sanctuary is situated in the middle of the Scablands where there is nowhere to hide from the Redeemers bloodhounds. Those who try are made an example of by methods such as roasting them alive to purify their souls before they die.

Cale is a canny boy who knows how to get by in the Sanctuary, and besides, why would he run away when he has nowhere and no one to run to? His situation changes abruptly one evening when he is sent to the Lord of Discipline with what is surely a order for his punishment. All Cale can think about on his way there is what they will do to him and if it will result in his death. All such thoughts flee his mind, however, the moment he enters the room to discover the Lord of Discipline carrying out dissections on two live girls. In a fit of vengeance, Cale kills the Redeemer and must either run or be killed himself. Knowing that his chances are slim to none, Cale flees in the hope he can outrun those who will surely kill him. What he doesn’t know, is how desperately the Redeemers want him back and why.

I bought this book on a whim and having read it, I’m of two minds as to whether I’m glad I did. On the one hand, it was riveting and I had difficulty putting it down. The story grabs you from the beginning, especially as it is easy to relate to and sympathize with the boys in the Sanctuary. You feel their despair and hope as the story continues. The integration of Religion into a semi-fantasy, semi-post apocalyptic world (this is not defined in any definite manner) is well done and serves to create more interest in Cale’s world as a whole.

On the other hand, there are a lot of poor elements in this book, such as sub-plots and foreshadowing that appear once, but are never returned to, cheesy, plastic romance which is thankfully kept to a minimum, and an ending that leaves you flat, especially as it leaves so much open. It cries out that it’s the first book in a series, but there is no mention that there will be one, so you don’t really know if the ending is just lame or if you must just wait for the next instalment. In the meantime I’ve googled and it is apparently going to be a trilogy, but it would have been nice if they had mentioned that at the end of this book instead of just leaving you hanging. Finally, I have to mention that the last third or so of the book necessarily revolves around military tactics and leaves the character development behind. Since I have no interest in military strategy, my attention flagged here, but I kept at it in the hope that the ending would be worth slogging through the battle plans. Perhaps this is why I felt so disappointed at the abrupt and rather odd ending.

It’s difficult to give this one a rating since it was fascinating on the one hand and horrible on the other (kind of like the Twilight books). I’d give it a 4 out of 5 for grabbing my attention in the beginning, but a 2 for being so poorly executed as a whole. So, either take your pick of the two, or average it out to be a 3 out of 5, as you will. Very decisive, yes?

the Meme-y Meme

2010-04-20T03:59:00.000-07:00

I borrowed this meme from Dog Ear Diary who borrowed it from C.B. James. Let me preface this by saying I haven’t yet read the Farm Lane Books comparison between UK and USA blogs so I missed the whole American blog blowup. I’d never actually thought about it much either. This is probably because I never really associate blogs with where the people are, but who they are and whether I find what they write interesting or not. My blog is relatively simplistic and uncluttered. What this says about me I don’t know. I just know I don’t necessarily care for blogs with lots of blinking and flashing of buttons and ads, so I don’t add them to mine. I also don’t parade my private life on the web much, which some people may not like, but I just don’t consider it interesting, or public, enough to waffle on about to anyone who happens to pass by. I know people who have gotten in trouble by doing that, so I avoid it if I can. That’s part of the reason I don’t often do memes, because many of them can become rather personal. It may be boring, but it keeps me out of trouble.
Now, on to the meme…

Do you participate in memes?
Rarely, for the reasons mentioned above. I like really good memes, but I don’t just do them to have something to do. I don’t have enough time for that. This particular one is on a subject I think we should all think more about.

Do you participate in Book Tours? What about ARCS?
I’ve never done a book tour or received and ARC. I probably never will since many seem to be limited to residents of the US, which I am not. I wouldn’t mind reading a few ARCs and blogging about them though. It might help widen my world when it comes to genres I prefer to read.

Do you encourage followers? Do you follow?
Not really. I work on the principle that if I want to read someone’s blog, I bookmark them and then go to their blog when I have time. I read many more blogs than I comment on, although I do comment as often as I have time to, so that might not even be considered following. Respectively, I assume that since my blog is public and anyone who wants to read it can, they will return and read more if they so desire. Not that it hurts to know you have readers.

What do you think of giveaways and other contests?
Contests and giveaways are great for those who can participate and I have nothing against them. Again, since I’m not in the US, many contests aren’t open to me anyway. I don’t hold them myself because our post office requires a huge fee and 6 pints of blood before they will send a letter. The rates go up for packages, usually requiring a small limb or two. I don’t have that many appendages.

Do you read and/or conduct author interviews?
I occasionally read them, but I’ve never interviewed an author. I don’t think I’d be particularly good at it either.

Do you enjoy challenges?
Yes, but only if I’m really interested in the subject/author. I love the Classics Challenge, for example, because I’ve made it a personal goal to read as many as I can just to improve my general education. A lot of the ones I’m taking part in right now will take care of themselves and so aren’t really a challenge to me. E.g. the Classics Challenge will cover the Typically British challenge and the Marple, Poirot, Holmes challenge. The Christie Challenge will motivate me to read more of the Christie books, which I didn’t actually plan on, so it’s more of challenge to me, as is the 100+ Challenge (read 100+ books in a year). I want to read at least 100, if not 150, although the later probably won’t happen. So yes, I do enjoy them as long as they don’t try and get me to spend time on things I would rather not. It is, after all, my fun time I’m spending here!

Do you like giving/getting awards?
Yes, I do (to both). I think they are a great way of saying, Hey! I really like your blog.

What is your opinion of cat videos?
If they’re funny, then great, otherwise I’m not forced to watch them, so I hit the stop button. I’m not sure why this question is limited to cat videos since there are thousands of types of videos that fit into the “Why would anyone but the people involved want to watch this?” category. Just because I find my dog and her new friend from next door adorable, doesn’t mean the rest of the world wants to watch them. I’d personally never post a video, or even a picture, unless there was just that something special about it that I thought might amuse other people. I have posted pictures of my animals, but not many and not often. Just occasionally to add some variety.

I think with any blog it’s all about balance. I can ignore memes, challenges, videos, interviews, well, basically anything I want when reading a blog. It’s only when a blog becomes top-heavy with “filler material” or too busy that I stop reading it. There are some blogs I read, where it became difficult to sort the real, “yes I did actually read this book and here are my opinions on it”, posts from the daily memes etc. and I quit reading them. I also, as mentioned above, find the incessant blinking and changing of multiple icons, ads, gadgets etc. annoying. When I click on a blog, and my eyes are drawn to the sides rather than to the middle where the meat should be, I usually just click off again because I don’t have the time to search for what I really want to read.

Ignore at will - Just to add some variety and because I personally thought it was funny, I’m adding a picture of my dog and her new neighbour (16 week old Landseer). Just so you know, no dogs were given any beer or other alcoholic beverages before, during or after the making of this picture…nor were they made acquainted with any tavern songs inappropriate for minors. Also note the lack of cats in the picture. Although generally present when the dogs are outside, they all wandered off shaking their heads while the shoot was taking place. Disdain was rife.

When the fit had passed...

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

2010-04-19T03:57:00.001-07:00

After having watched, and loved, the BBC series with Judy Dench, I really wanted to read this book. Confident that it would at least be a good read, I bought the audio book and put it on my Classics Challenge List. It was indeed a pleasant read, although a bit different from the series. I have since learned, however, that the series was based on three novella, Cranford, My Lady Ludlow and Mrs. Harrison’s confessions, so there’s another two for me to add to my list.

Mary Smith, a friend of the family, frequently goes to stay with the Jenkyns’ sisters and on those occasions, writes her observations about the town of Cranford and its inhabitants in her journal. She describes Cranford as a town ruled by women which never changes as to its habits and ways. The ladies of the town like to keep change to a minimum, and while their lives aren’t exciting, they live a pleasant life and entertain themselves with the antics of their neighbours. In this way, they seem to be a lot more content with life than many others. Having said that, it’s worth mentioning that these women belong to the upper-middle class and although they aren’t wealthy enough to disregard money, they don’t have to worry about their existence and thus have little impetus to change. They can afford to live slow, pleasant lives. That’s not to say that they don’t have troubles, because they do, but even then, the ladies fight back in a very unexpected and touching manner.

At first it bothered me that there was no real central theme or story line to the novel, the writing style is pleasant and it flows. The town also provides enough in the way of mishaps and secrets revealed to hold the interest. Additionally, the characters are well structured and realistic both in personal attributes and actions. It makes for quite a good mix and a nice read. These are people you’d want to meet in real life; people who make the world a better place to live in, despite their pre-occupation with status. Gaskell portrays their emotions well, without ever actually telling us how they feel, by intimating their feeling through small motions and reactions, like the turn of a head, the aversion of a gaze, the change tactful change of topics of conversation. Their actions do speak louder than their words.

Although the book is totally different to the series I love, it’s still very good. 5 out of 5 for a pleasant read.

Challenges:
Classics Challenge 2010
Typically British Challenge

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

2010-04-15T04:05:00.000-07:00

This is the first of my Classics Challenge 2010 books. I had tried to read it before, but didn’t care for the style of writing and gave it up, despite having heard how good it was. This time I went for the audio addition, as they are usually easier for me to get through when I have problems actually reading a book. Sometimes the narrator can bring a book to life where my own imagination failed. Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of those times. The narrator, Gabriel Woolf, interpreted the book in the same way I did and the narration remained languid, wordy and soporific. I can’t fault the narrator for this, however, as it is really the way the book was written and trying to invigorate it would be forcing something on the book that isn’t there in the first place. This book just sounds much more exciting than it really is.

Walter Hartright, a poor drawing master, secures a place at Limmeridge House teaching the young Laura Fairlie how to draw. Upon his arrival at Limmerage, Hartright meets a young woman dressed in white who is fleeing from a sanatorium where she says she is being kept unjustly because of what she knows. Hartright helps her escape and then immediately becomes interested in this woman and her connections with Limmerage. With the help of Marion Halcombe, Laura Fairlie’s half-sister, he endeavours to find out more about this mysterious woman. Unfortunately, Hartright falls in love with Laura, and she with him, before he has much of a chance to find out more. Their relationship is, however, doomed before it even began. Hartright is penniless and Laura has been promised to Sir Percival Clyde from a young age. Clyde was her father’s favourite as a husband for her daughter and she feels bound to marry him. However, from the very beginning, the worst is feared about Clyde. Although he seems to be perfectly honest and upright in his dealings, one has the suspicion that his intentions towards Laura aren’t truly honourable and that he is really only marrying her for her money. Indeed, the woman in white writes a letter to Laura saying as much and intimating that she should look into her husband’s affairs well before coming to a final decision regarding her marriage. Unfortunately, the only person in a real position to help and defend her is Mr. Hartright who has, in the meantime, left England for South America in a bid to forget Laura. Her half-sister Marion, who is like a sister to Laura, does her best but as a woman without means is unable to exert much influence and must resort to subtle tactics in order to protect Laura.

As the novel progresses, it turns into something of a chess match between Miss Halcombe and Clyde’s closest friend, Count Fosco. Marion knows Fosco is the brains behind the whole operation and she tries to counter him at every step. For every action, there is a reaction. Fosco himself seems to enjoy the game they are playing and decries Halcombe as a treacherous, but very worthy, opponent. His admiration of her earns him no favour with her though and she continues to attack and counter attack him as vigorously as ever.

Like I said before, this book sounds much more exciting than it really is. Collins’ verbosity undoes everything his plot and characters manage to achieve. It takes him much too long to get to where he’s going and most of the time my attention flagged before he finally got there. I’m afraid I won’t be rushing out to buy any more of Collins’ books. This one rates 3 out of 5.

Challenges:
Classics Challenge 2010
Typically British Challenge

The Chorister at the Abbey by Lis Howell

2010-04-13T12:34:00.001-07:00

Another English whodunit but this time a real cracker of a book. I don’t mean to imply that it’s face paced, just well written with good, strong, likeable characters and a plot that’s not at all transparent. It was a good read from start to finish.

Suzy Spencer is a single mother living with a man who “saved” her in a previous adventure. As they and her two children struggle to make their lives work together, a well known member of the community is found murdered in the local music college. Morris
Little was a grouchy snoop who liked preaching hellfire and brimstone to anyone and everyone as long as he thought they were listening. Still, his death makes no sense at the time since being grouchy isn’t usually grounds for murder. The police are quite happy to lay the blame at the door of two local thugs who just happen to fit the bill. However, as Suzy and her circle of friends and neighbours start to think about it all, little details that make the scenario as assumed no longer quite to likely. They start to look into the whole business a bit deeper, especially when “accidents” start to happen and the situation starts to become dangerous.

Although this is literally a mystery and is rightly sold as such, Howell does an ingenious job at integrating the lives of her characters into the novel. There are times when it feels more like an inspection into the lives of those surrounding the murder rather then a mystery which in no way detracts from the book. The forays into each character’s life are engaging and interesting, especially as Howell is so good at allowing to reader to identify with the characters and their choices. In a way it reminds me of Kate Atkinson’s “Behind the Scenes at the Museum” http://blacksheepbooks.blogspot.com/search/label/Kate%20Atkinson, although it’s not just focused on one family. Howell wanders through their lives, hinting at circumstances and events each character would like to have hidden away from the world, even though they may, or may not, have something to do with Morris Little’s murder. They are all afraid of revealing something of themselves to others because they are embarrassed or ashamed, allowing Howell to grab the reader on both the level of the mystery as well as on a human level. This also adds to the suspense of the mystery by opening up many different avenues for the reader to search for clues in.

This is a thoroughly good read for anyone who likes a good English whodunit with a touch of human soul searching in it. 5 out of 5.

Challenge: Typically British

The Wintergarden Mystery by Carola Dunn

2010-04-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid I've been a bit lax in posting lately. Mostly that's because my brain seems to have assumed that taking a vacation from work also means taking a vacation from just about everything else too. The last ten days have been bliss. I did nothing I didn't feel like doing at the time. I swore to myself I wouldn't pressure myself into doing anything at all, regardless of necessity and I succeeded. Perhaps a little too well. I didn't even know I was capable of sleeping so much. 9-10 hours a day became the norm when I usually can't sleep much more than 6.5 without having trouble sleeping later. It must have something to do with sleeping when you're tired and not when you have to. Anyway, I also got a lot of reading done, including finishing Eldest, which I've been working on for a while. So, now I've got a lot to review. I'm going to start with The Wintergarden Mystery by Carola Dunn, which I actually finished before my vacation , but didn't get around to blogging about.

The Wintergarden Mystery by Carola Dunn

Daisy Dalrymple is a 1920’s aristocratic woman with a twist; she wants to work for her living instead of just being an societal ornament. She turns to journalism in her bid to make her own way in the world and finagles an invitation to a fellow aristocrat’s large country home as a way of finding enough information to put together an article on the house. Unfortunately, the family matriarch is not too thrilled with having to entertain a working woman, let alone an aristocratic working woman and protests her presence vehemently. Daisy is already walking a proverbial tightrope when she stumbles across a body buried in the winter garden. Daisy then becomes bent on finding out whodunit, despite the protestations of police inspector, who is also a friend of hers.

I like mysteries and I adore Agatha Christie, so I figured I could hardly go wrong with this one, especially as I got it during Audible’s $4.95 sale. If you’re looking for a cosy mystery and a simple, quick read, this is a good one. It’s hardly taxing as both the plot and the characters are fairly predictable and it’s a little heavy on the cheery-o pip-pips and that sort of rot (just enough to make the eyes roll but not to irritate). It’s definitely not up to Christie standards, yet it’s light and enjoyable and just the thing is you’re looking to relax with a bit of fluff. 3 out of 5 for this one. Recommended if you’re looking for something that won’t tax you too much.

The Alchemist’s Pursuit by Dave Duncan

2010-04-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

I’d seen this book around a few times and thought it looked interesting but never wanted to risk spending money on it. So, when it popped up in the latest Audible $4.95 sale, I decided the price was worth the risk and bought it. Well, let’s just say I’m glad I waited until it was on sale. It really just wasn’t my thing.

Alfeo Zeno, a poor nobleman, is Master Nostradamus’ apprentice. For a price, Nostradamus solves mysteries and helps prove innocence of guilt but because he has slowly become infirm, Alfeo must do most of Nostradamus’ running around for him while the master himself does the thinking. Venice’s “courtesans” are being killed off by a serial killer and Nostradamus is hired to find that killer before anyone else dies. Alfeo, whose lover is a courtesan, is desperate to protect the girls, especially his own, from further harm and pitches himself into the hunt with fervour. The trail brings them back to an old murder in a noble house; one the lords of Venice don’t want dug up. The more they find out, the more dangerous the whole situation becomes for everyone.

The idea for the book sounds pretty good, but it doesn’t live up to the hype in my opinion. The plot was fine, but I didn’t care for the execution of it. Alfeo lacks personality and his forays into the world of romance are cheesy at best. Some of his romanticisms were so bad I actually groaned out loud. It was like reading the thoughts of a love-struck teenager who’d read too many bad romance novels. Nostradamus had a little more spark, but he didn’t feature in it as much as I would have liked. The other characters were OK, but seemed either stereotypical or wooden. Of course, this brings me to mention that it was an audio book and the reader isn’t going to become one of my favourites. His voice is pleasant enough, but he lacked any notion of the Italian language and truly slaughtered a lot of the words, he seemed to be stuck in intense mode, even when the dialogue was light-hearted and didn’t adapt to the characters very well. This all sounds a lot more scathing than it’s meant to be. After all, I did actually finish the book, which is more than I can say for several I’ve tried recently, and it’s not as if I didn’t enjoy it at all because it was OK. It may also be right up someone else’s ally, and it may be that I just didn’t catch the best of the series, so if you think it may be your kind of thing, then by all means give them a try. I think I’ll be passing though.

This one gets a 2 out of 5 from me. Disappointing especially as it had the potential to be quite a good read.

Candle Man by Glenn Dakin

2010-03-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

It seems I’m reverting more and more to YA and children’s books for me entertainment, despite my age. I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but in the end, I don’t really care. As long as they are enjoyable on one level or another, I’m not bothered about the genre.

Candle Man is a story about Theo who grows up in an old mansion which could have been terribly fun, but wasn’t. Theo had a skin problem which required him to live a quiet life with a boring diet and to always wear gloves on his hands. Up until the story begins, Theo has only ever met three people, Clarissa the deaf maid, Mr. Nicely the butler and Dr. Saint, his guardian and head of The Good Works Society. They all do their best to keep Theo unexcited and bored, limit his knowledge of the world and keep him away from anyone else. As a treat for his birthday, the allow Theo a short trip out of the house to the local cemetery, where there is little to no chance they will run into other people, which is what Theo would like the most. When he’s not allowed to go anywhere near other people, Theo is disappointed. His luck turns, however, when he discovers a birthday gift to him placed in the cemetery which he manages to secret away before Mr. Nicely discovers it. This gift changes Theo’s life and helps him discover who his is and what he was born to be.

The writing was a little young for me, but other than that, I quite enjoyed the story. I think kids from 8 to 12 would love this book; I know I would have. The characters are engaging and identifiable, even to younger children, the villains scary, but not overly so and the plot is a good one. All in all, a great read to get children interested in books. I may or may not read the following books, as the opportunity presents itself. Like I said, the writing is just a little young for me, but I would certainly recommend it for children of 8 up, providing they aren’t terribly sensitive. Caveat: I personally think it’s a good idea for parents to decide for themselves which books are suitable for their children rather than rely on what someone else says about age suitability. Some 8 year olds are ready for much more and some would probably have nightmares after reading this. My age recommendation is based on what I think I could have handled at that age, and I think I would have been up to this one.

So, rating it as a children’s book to be read by children, a very subjective 4 out of 5.

Just Read

2010-03-26T05:22:00.000-07:00

• 140. Bone of Contention - AB
• The Babes in the Woods - AB
• A Christmas Carol - AB (4x)
• Another Round of Christmas Stories by the Fire
• Hide and Seek - AB
• The Christmas Stories - AB
• The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - AB
• The Hermet of Eyton Forest - AB
• The Dogs of Riga - AB
• 130. Cobweb - AB
• Silas Marner - AB
• The Complaints - AB
• The Bell
• A Christmas Carol - AB
• Howard's End - AB
• Faerie Wars - AB
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hormet's Nest - AB
• A Tale of Two Cities - AB
• A Personal Devil - AB
• 120. The Cruelest Month - AB
• One Thousand and One Arabian Nights
• The Pilgrim of Hate - AB
• Syren - AB
• Watership Down
• Smiley's People - AB
• The Pillars of the Earth - AB
• The White Dragon
• Pride and Prejudice - AB
• Jamaica Inn - AB
• 110. Ptolemy's Gate - AB
• Inkspell
• The Golem's Eye - AB
• Dune - AB
• The Sword in the Stone - AB
• The Man Who Smiled - AB
• Behind the Scenes at the Museum - AB
• The Amulet of Samarkand - AB
• William's Happy Days - AB
• Martin Chuzzlewit - AB
• 100. King Solomon's Mines - AB
• Septimus Heap - The Magical Papers
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• Rebecca - AB
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• The Girl Who Played with Fire - AB
• Fahrenheit 451 - AB
• Catch-22 - AB
• The Stranger House - AB
• Dear Fatty
• 90. To The Lighthouse - AB
• Dead Man's Footsteps - AB
• American Gods
• A Cure for All Diseases - AB
• The Vampyre
• The Pickwick Papers - AB
• Breaking Dawn - AB
• Eclipse
• New Moon
• Twilight - AB
• 80. Eats, Shoots and Leaves
• The Spook's Apprentice
• Exit Music - AB
• Agnes Grey - AB
• Hard Times - AB
• Fortune and Fate - AB
• Reader and Raelynx - AB
• Dark Moon Defender - AB
• The Masterharper of Pern
• Fool - AB
• 70. David Copperfield - AB
• Dragondrums
• Dragonsinger
• Dragonsong
• The Secret Garden
• Mystic and Rider - AB
• Saturday - AB
• Island Realm - AB
• Great Expectations - AB
• Shades of Murder
• 60. Good Morning, Midnight - AB
• Neverwhere
• A Dangerous Fortune - AB
• The Grave Maurice
• Ivanhoe - AB
• Quest - AB
• The High Lord
• Over Sea, Under Stone - AB
• Physik - AB
• The Novice
• 50. The Magician's Guild
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - AB
• Flyte - AB
• The Ice House
• Magyk - AB
• Death's Jest-Book - AB
• Middlemarch - AB
• Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
• The Moving Toyshop - AB
• I Claudius - AB
• 40. White Corridor - AB
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles - AB
• Spider's Web - AB
• Agents of Light and Darkness - AB
• Death of Dalziel - AB
• Doors Open - AB
• The Swords of Lankhmar - AB
• Not Dead Enough - AB
• The Children of Hurin - AB
• The Reader - AB
• 30. Ten Second Staircase - AB
• Undead and Unwed - AB
• One Step Behind
• Coraline - AB
• Titus Groan - AB
• The Water Room - AB
• The Shell Seekers - AB
• Making Money
• Quest - AB
• Physik - AB
• 20. Wizard's First Rule - AB
• The House of the Seven Gables - AB
• Flyte - AB
• Magyk - AB
• Prince Caspian
• The Private Patient - AB
• Barnaby Rudge - AB
• The Last Battle
• The Victoria Vanishes - AB
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard
• 10. Free Range Knitter
• The Edgar Allan Poe Collection - AB
• The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton - AB
• The Story of Bagman's Uncle - AB
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - AB
• A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Stories
• Little Dorrit - AB
• The Silver Chair
• Faceless Killers - AB
• The Count of Monte Cristo - AB

JUST READ 2008
• A Christmas Carol
• Persuasion - AB
• 100. Oliver Twist - AB
• Bleeding Hearts - AB
• The Woodlanders - AB
• Witch Hunt - AB
• Peeps - AB
• The Time Machine
• The House of Mirth - AB
• Witches Abroad
• The Book Thief - AB
• The Screwtape Letters - AB
• 90. Nicholas Nickleby - AB
• Maskerade
• The Graveyard Book - AB
• The Gift of the Magi - AB
• Rikki Tikki Tavi - AB
• Rapunzel - AB
• Wyrd Sisters
• Book of the Dead - AB
• The Host - AB
• Blood Hunt - AB
• 80. Breaking Dawn - AB
• The Invisible Man
• Eclipse
• New Moon
• Twilight
• Breaking Dawn - AB
• Anna Karenina - AB
• Deception - AB
• Wings - AB
• In Cold Blood
• 70. Anne's House of Dreams
• St. Peter's Fair - AB
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
• Anne of the Island
• Lost - AB
• Anne of Avonlea
• Deadly Waters - AB
• The Lovely Bones
• The Horse and His Boy
• Anne of Green Gables
• 60. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• The Magician's Nehphew
• Catcher in the Rye
• The Misfotunes of Virtue and Other Early Tales
• Persuasion - AB
• Good Omens
• Robinson Crusoe
• Pandora's Daughter
• Whack A Mole
• 50. Interworld - AB
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Emma - AB
• Brideshead Revisited - AB Abridged
• My Man Jeeves - AB
• The Time Traveler's Wife - AB
• Nothern Lights / The Golden Compass
• Inside Job - AB
• Eclipse - AB
• New Moon - AB
• Twilight - AB
• Moll Flanders
• Far From the Madding Crowd - AB
• Things I Learned About Knitting
• Miss Marple's Final Cases - AB
• Naming of the Dead - AB
• Governess - The Lives and Times of the Real Jane Eyres
• An Unsuitable Job for a Woman - AB
• Tess of the D'Uerbervilles - AB
• Shirley
• Blind Faith - AB
• The Thirteen Problems - AB
• Persuasion - AB
• Bleak House
• Careless in Red - AB
• The Reavers - AB
• Villette
• The Professor
• Jane Eyre
• Atonement
• The Secret Garden
• A Little Princess
• The Fifth Elephant
• Black Coffee - AB
• Soul Music
• Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
• Peter Pan
• Pyramids
• The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter
• Water Like a Stone
• Little Lord Fauntleroy
• Cat Among the Pigeons
• The Valley of Fear
• Evil Under the Sun
• Mansfield Park
• Pride and Predjudice
• Emma
• Arctic Lace
• The Old Wine Shades (2008)
• Sense and Sensibility
• Pride and Predjudice
• A Little Princess
• The Fifth Elephant

Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh

2010-03-26T05:12:00.000-07:00

Ngaio Marsh is New Zealand’s own Agatha Christie and I’ve been wanting to read one of her books for a long time but hadn’t had the opportunity. I finally got a hold of one in the last Audible sale and dug straight in. It took me a while, but I finally cottoned on that these are the books to the series The Alleyn Mysteries which I loved.

In Death at the Bar, three gentlemen meet up for their annual vacation in a small Devonshire town. The local pub has both a public and a private tap. These gentlemen meet in the private tap and are joined by a few others in the evenings for a game of darts and a drink. Amongst them is a relative stranger to the area, but who is an excellent darts player, dares Watchman, a famous London Barrister, to a game of darts where Watchman must hold his hand up to the board while this man, Legg, throws the darts between his fingers, with a storm raging outside all the while. Unfortunately, one of the darts his Watchman then the lights go out and suddenly Watchman is dead. Inspector Alleyn is then called in from London to ferret out the killer.

I wouldn’t have said this is one of the better mysteries, although I think it might make an excellent play. In novel form, it drags a bit because most of the action and deduction takes place in the pub where the murder occurred giving it a bit of a stifling feeling. Although Marsh introduced enough characters to keep you guessing whodunit, the scene and motives were still a little too obvious. On the plus side, it’s a good, comfortable murder mystery of the kind I like and I’ll probably read it again sometime, even if it isn’t up to Christie standard. 3 out of 5 for this particular book, but I’ll be giving the author another try to see if it was just this one that didn’t overwhelm me.

Challenge Crazy

2010-03-25T11:24:00.001-07:00

As you can see from my side bar, I've gone a bit challenge crazy lately. I've joined the:
Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Carnival hosted by Kerrie
The Typically British Reading Challenge 2010 hosted by Book Chick City
The Marple Poirot Holmes Challenge hosted by At Pemberly.

See the side bar for the buttons etc. They're cuter than links. I'm also taking part in the 100+ Challange and the Classics challenge 2010, but I have already blogged about those, so if you'd like to check those out, click on the icons in the side bar and they'll take you to the challenge (provided I didn't mess up the code...).

Of course, they are kind of all cheating a bit since they pretty much criss cross. Plus, about 80% of the books I read are from Brits, so that one's sewn up any which way you look at it. Cheater, Cheater! Hey, I never cheated in school, so I have to make up for it now when it doesn't really count, right?

I'd like to go into this a bit more, but I'm tired and need a shower, so I'll save that for another day. I did want to get this in though, so I can consider myself officially participating.

The Wire in the Blood by Val McDermid

2010-03-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

When Home Office profiler Tony Hill puts together a new National Profiling Task Force, he knows the new members are going to need training, so as an exercise, he sets them the task of scrutinizing the disappearance of a group of girls to search for links between them. All of the girls are presumed runaways and no one really expects to find anything, but one member does come up with a connection, one which would set Britain on its head if it were found to be true. No one takes this link seriously, until the officer doesn’t show up for work one morning. Suddenly, the impossible looks like it might be all too true.

I was introduced to Val McDermid because I like mysteries, but I personally think her works qualify more as thrillers than mystery since they are more about finding and substantiating the path from A to B than following the trail from A to see where it leads them. You know where she’s taking the story, you just don’t know how she’ll get there. I also have to admit that she reaches the verge of my comfort zone. I’m a bit of a chicken and prefer a nice, comfortable murder to one where you have to enter the brain of a killer. I don’t care for reading or listening about torture and pain and frankly prefer murders which are quick and as painless as possible so we can get on to the whodunit part. I once listened to a book where there was at least an hour of torture and pain and I just can’t see the point of going into it until it almost becomes boring and you lose interest because the plot’s not going anywhere in the meantime. Fortunately for me, McDermid does keep the blood, gore and torture scenes to a very minimum and the plot was good with good characters. Rating this one for what it is, I’ll give it a 4 out of 5. Great for its genre, but not brilliant enough to really entice newbies into that genre.

A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie

2010-03-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

Agatha Christie takes murder and Miss Marple, to the West Indies. I suppose there are only so many murders one little village can absorb without becoming wholly eerie, so Christie solves this problem by removing Miss Marple, as a form of respite after a long illness, to the Caribbean and plonking her down in a setting both unfamiliar and uninteresting to her. She becomes rather bored with the irritating and superficial guests at the hotel, who provide her with little food for thought and no great conversation. Even the weather is irritatingly uninteresting as the climate is so constant. Miss Marple is an old English lady who prefers her old English countryside to the more exotic, yet unvarying, climate of the West Indies. It seems she hardly knows how she will get through the next weeks until her return to her own beloved island.

Then Major Palgrave dies quite unexpectedly. At first it seems above board, but not having anything else to occupy her mind, Miss Marple begins to consider the situation and ultimately realizes that Major Palgrave must have been murdered, the only question is, why? The only visible solution is because he claimed to have a photograph of a murderer. Miss Marple gently eases the local doctor around to her way of thinking and suddenly the whole island seems to be full of danger instead of rest and relaxation.

I’m biased. I love Agatha Christie and I love Miss Marple, especially as played by Joan Hickson, so I’m loath to give this anything other than a 5 out of 5 for being a good, comfortable English murder, for all its being set in another country altogether, in the Christie tradition.

Archangel by Robert Harris

2010-03-19T05:05:00.000-07:00

Archangel is a thriller/mystery novel about an historian, Kelso, who specialized in Stalinist history and was invited to a conference in Moscow. Kelso’s interest in academia has waned over the years and the conference seems rather unappealing to him, so when Papu Rapava shows up to tell him of a notebook which once belonged to Stalin, Kelso has no problem in ditching the conference to indulge himself in chase of the illusive black oil-skinned diary. Even though it’s modern day Russia, the chase quickly becomes very dangerous as Stalin is still worshipped by many in Russia; his greatest followers willing to risk much to protect his heritage. It’s as though Glasnost was only a surface element and the KGB were slumbering below the surface ready to re-take Russia at a moment’s notice. Kelso must evade these elements in a chase that takes him halfway across Russia with him running the risk of being stuck in Northern Russia until the Spring thaw, if he doesn’t lose his life first that is. Hampered by lack of a visa, colleagues who think he’s gone insane, a dysfunctional father/daughter relationship and a really, really annoying American reporter, Kelso is never sure if and when he’ll ever get out of Russia alive.

The book gets off to a slow start with flashbacks to the Stalin era and the events of the days leading up to and just after Stalin’s death, which explain the possibility of the existence of such a diary. The story picks up a bit when Kelso becomes the main focus, but never really reaches a very fast past tempo. It focuses more on Russia and the issues confronting it today in regards to the past. One memorable passage tells of how Stalin’s memorabilia is sold freely on the streets to the still interested masses and compares with modern day Germany where every trace of Hitler has been wiped out of daily public life. The Russian’s still worship Stalin, while the Germans abhor Hilter. It’s rather a disturbing thought because it means that Russian society may not be quite as free and away from the past as we would like to think. The further Kelso goes into the country, the more apparent it becomes. At least in Moscow the focus of life seemed to be the future and how to cope with Russia as it is today and not on how to return to the past.

The novel is a cross between spy novel, historical fiction, thriller and social commentary. I can’t say I enjoyed it hugely because it is quite dark and the Russian mentality is difficult for me to fathom. I took a couple of Russian literature courses at Uni and the logic never really clicked, so I’m not surprised that I had problems with this one. The ending though, the ending makes up for a lot. That was something I understood, so for me, Harris saved the book with that. Still, I’m giving it a 3 out of 5, but keep in mind that rating is a matter of taste rather than a reflection on the writing

Listening vs. Reading

2010-03-17T04:59:00.000-07:00

I don’t think I mention this all too often (or maybe I have and have forgotten), but many, aka most, of the books I “read” I actually listen to. I don’t get much reading time and even when I do have the time, I usually wind up falling asleep. Ergo, it took almost no time for me to fall in love with audio books since they mean I can “read” while I clean, walk the dog, drive to work, file papers, bill, etc., etc. I even have loudspeakers now so I can listen while I shower or bathe.

There’ve been a lot of discussions about this since some people don’t consider audio books reading, or only reading to a certain extent or they do consider it reading and think people who don’t consider it reading are snobs. Everyone seems to have a different view. Personally I think that it doesn’t much matter if you’ve read or listened to the words, if you’ve comprehended what’s being said, you’ve “read” the book. If I go back and actually read a book I’ve already listened to, I’m repeating the story. I already know what happens, what’s said, what the characters think and feel, so for me it’s a re-read, even if I “only” listened the first time.

Having said that, I think the experience is different for every person. Some people don’t do well with audio input, others don’t do well with visual input. There are people with learning difficulties who can’t assimilate the written word and use simulated speech software in order to read and write and I personally consider that to be as valuable as any input from anyone else. As long as you understand the text, you’re “reading”. So, just because someone hasn’t physically read a book, doesn’t mean they haven’t read it, in my humble opinion.

The point of all this? Well, Audible had another sale. I swear Amazon practically owns my soul by now. OK, they don’t really own my soul, that’s not something I would sell, but you know what I mean. Anyway, 100 plus books for $5. This is a seriously clever tactic because what’s $5 for 10-20 hours of entertainment? You can’t even find paperbacks for that nowadays (not here anyway). So, I bought 9 of them. I won’t be eating much for the rest of the month, but I need to diet anyway.

What I bought:

The Alchemist's Pursuit - Dave Duncan - I like a little fantasy/sci fi now and again.
The French Lieutenant's Woman - John Fowles - Always heard of it but have never read it. This one will be added to my classics challenge list, just on the strength of it being one of those ones you hear about.
Death at the Bar - Ngaio Marsh - I’ve heard much about Marsh, but have never read/listened to any of his books, mostly because Audible isn’t authorized to sell them in my geographical region (I’m hoping this improves now that they’ve been bought out by Amazon).
The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim - This one just sounded good and the narrator is excellent.
The Winter Garden Mystery - Carola Dunn - Same as above, and it was rated well too.
The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton - Ditto
Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe - I tried to read this one but never got very far. I think it might be a lot better in audio format since what I had trouble with was the written dialect. I’m hoping to get through it this time anyway. Combined with the Classics Challenge incentive, maybe I will.
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - I like the narrator and when isn’t this one just pleasant to read?
The Chorister at the Abbey - Lis Howell - This one sounded like it might be a good fluff mystery and I liked the narrator.

Like I said, the price was good and if I don’t like them all, well, I’ve spent much more on books I ended up not caring for. At least this way, I’m not losing my shirt on them. Has anyone read/listened to any of them and if so, what did you think?

Ruler of the Realm by Herbie Brennan

2010-03-16T04:52:00.000-07:00

Ruler of the Realm is book three in the Faerie Wars series and follows the tale of Pyrgus, his sister Holly Blue and Henry, a boy from the analogy world, i.e. our world. Holly Blue suddenly finds herself Ruler of the Faerie Realm after her brother Pyrgus abdicates out of personal and political reasons. The arrangement suits both of them, although Holly is still quite young and must now find her way in the world of politics and political intrigue. She’s not allowed much respite between her coronation and her first political crises. The Realm’s enemies, The Faeries of the Night, have suddenly and unexpectedly offered her a peace treaty and she doesn’t know whether or not she can trust it to be a true offer or if it’s simply a ruse. Being a self-reliant person, she reasons that it’s better for the Realm if she personally sets off in search of the answer. This sets off a chain of reactions that does indeed lead the realm into danger.

In the meantime, in the analogue world, Henry is slowly beginning to believe that he’s slowly going insane, that the Faerie Realm doesn’t exist at all, but is simply his mind’s way of escaping the chaos in his real life. His parents are divorced, his father has a new girlfriend, his mother has a new girlfriend, who is coming to live with them, both parents are playing the kids off one another and his sister is simply annoying. Why then would he not want to live in a new and exciting world with faeries and magic rather than in his own life? This idea solidifies after he is seemingly abducted by aliens and returned to earth days later. He must be going crazy, mustn’t he?

It’s a bit difficult for me to judge this one. I like the characters and the story is complicated and cleverly woven which holds your interest. What surprised me was that after weaving such a complex tale, Brennan suddenly, truly abruptly, ends the story. It almost felt like the climax was just completely cut out. And I actually went back to see if I’d not been paying attention. It was very odd and quite unsatisfying, almost like dropping your ice cream half way through. You’ve had too much to want another cone, but not quite enough all the same. Having said that, I can see that there’s room for more in this series and I would read them if there were.

My second beef wasn’t actually with the story and has no reflection on the book itself. I listened to this one in audio book format. The first two were narrated by Gerard Doyle, who is an excellent narrator. For whatever reason, they switched to a different narrator, James Daniel Wilson, for the third book. Now it would be unfair to hint that Wilson isn’t a good narrator, because he is and I would gladly listen to other books he narrated. However, it bugged me to no end that he changed some of the pronunciations for this third novel. It took me a while to figure out that the new character wasn’t actually a new character, but one of the main characters Pyrgus. His pronunciation was completely different and that threw me. In my opinion, everyone would have been better served had he stuck to the same pronunciations in this volume as in the others. It took me personally half the book to get used to it and I find it difficult to rate this book because of the change. I don’t know whether I’m rating fairly or not. However, since I have to rate it somehow, I’ll give it a 3 out of 5, but keep in mind that it might be better with the same narrator or read on paper.

A Study In Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

2010-03-15T05:21:00.000-07:00

Long ago when I was a wee little tyke, I read A Study in Scarlet. It was my fist introduction into Victorian England and Im afraid it didnt make a good impression. I found it dark, dirty and rather repugnant in general. In the meantime, Ive learned to love Victorian literature, but I think I have to admit that my first impression of Victorian England was probably more accurate than the romantic view of it I have today. Fascination goes a long way when overlooking the negative points in the past.

Rereading A Study in Scarlet was interesting from that point of view. I still found it quite a dark book with its description of lodgings that are less than elegant and people who are less than savoury. However, my imagination is now more prepared to clean up the picture Doyle draws and make the setting more palatable. Concentrating less on the setting allowed me to concentrate more on the story this time around and I have to say, it wasnt very pretty. Holmes bit of detection work was a fascinating as ever, but the perpetrators tale of how motive evolved felt evil, all the more so because, from what Ive read and heard from others, much of that particular setting was true. On the one hand, I cant really say much without giving the plot away and on the other, I dont want to get involved in any religious/historical discussions or to offend anyone with my opinion.

So, that all being about as clear as mud, I liked the book, although it wasnt a particularly pleasant read. I find Doyle often dwelled on the less pleasant side of humanity and used it to underline Holmes brilliance as a detective, while making his own social statements without actually preaching. I give it 4 out of 5 for being a cleverly woven story.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

2010-03-11T13:10:00.000-08:00

I ran into this book courtesy of Audible/Amazon who recommend books based on earlier purchases, in this case, The Hunger Games. Like The Hunger Games, it’s a young adult dystopian novel which takes place in a presumed state of affairs sometime in the future, only The Maze Runner is much more enigmatic and speculative, at least in this first book of the trilogy.

Thomas finds himself in a box travelling upwards with no memory of how he got there or where he came from. Although he can remember general things about life, he cannot remember specifics, like who his parents or friends were. He arrives at a glade where 50 or so other boys are waiting for him. What they introduce him to is a world that makes no sense where the boys are just trying to survive from one day to the next. They are stuck in The Glade, surrounded by walls hundreds of feet high whose only exits lead to a maze, which the boys hope will one day provide them with a way out. In the meantime, they focus on surviving not only the day to day challenges of growing their own food, but also the deadly enemies found in the Maze, who seem to have no other purpose than to hunt and kill them. Thomas struggles to make sense of this new life and find his place in it, confounded by the reluctance of the other boys to provide him with any information at all. His questions either go unanswered or are received with inexplicable hostility, for those boys who have been there the longest, no longer have the patience to answer questions that they already know will lead nowhere. Thomas barely has a chance to make a start when a girl, the only girl ever seen in the Glade, arrives with a message for them all.

Although occasionally frustrated by the lack of information, the bizarre hostility and unfriendliness of many of the boys and the failure of Thomas to do the logical because he is afraid to face his fears, I really liked this book. It was a good read that kept me guessing at the outcome. I think if you had given me this book when I was a teen, it would have ranked up there with A Wrinkle in Time. I can see where a young adult would be fascinated. Having more experience and years behind me made it a bit easier to guess where the story was headed, but it was pretty good all the s

The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis

2010-03-06T03:58:00.000-08:00

Marcus Didius Falco is ancient Rome’s equivalent of a cynical gumshoe just looking for another job to keep his landlord’s thugs off his back. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to look far the day Sosia Camillina runs into him on the steps of the Forum. Falco instantly recognizes that she is in need of help and grasps opportunity, and Sosia, with both hands. Sosia, the daughter of an influential senator, is being chased by ruffians who kidnapped her. Knowing that Rome is corrupt and that it’s all about who you know and what they owe you, Falco returns Sosia to her home, only to become embroiled in a complex web of treachery and deceit that chnges direction as if it were spinning on a dime. Falco follows the trail from Rome to Brittanica and back again, risking life and limb, all the while earning the pittance of a regular gumshoe.

At first I thought this was going to be a terrible Sam Spade kind of book, including all the horrible clichés. Fortunately, Davis doses the cliché with a hefty spoonful of humour. She gives Falco a domineering mother who cleans his flat, tells him off and chases unsuitable girls out of his flat. I quite liked that the women were all fairly strong people who didn’t take any crap from the men just because they’re supposedly the lords and masters of all they survey. Falco’s constantly being beaten up by someone for various reasons, not all having to do with his current case, but he takes it all in his stride as if it were completely normal and understandable. Davis also reveals some rather quirky and sometimes unsavoury facts about life in ancient Rome.

All in all, a good, entertaining read. 4 out of 5.

Classics Challenge 2010 Reading List

2010-03-04T08:47:00.000-08:00

I’ve needed to get my reading list out for the Classics Challenge 2010 for a while now. I’ve been saving up my classics for this, especially since I’m going for the Classics Feast. Some of them I’m dreading, some I’m looking forward to. I’m sure I’ll pick up a few more on the way too. Plus, I still need to decide on a Future Classic. Ooo! I see The Name of the Rose is on the list. I think I might just read that. I liked the movie and books are usually better, plus I love mysteries, so there you go! Almost feels like cheating.

I’m looking forward to reading:
Tristram Shandy – Laurence Sterne
Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell
The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens
A Room With a View – E.M. Forster
The Voyage Out – Virginia Woolf
The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco

Neutral/have no idea how they will be:
The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy
The Idiot – Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Death of Ivan Ilyich – Leo Tolstoy

Am dreading:
The Old Curiosity Shop – Charles Dickens (this one is an audio book which is inexplicably narrated by an American. It just doesn’t seem right somehow.)
Dombey and Son – Charles Dickens (Another audiobook. I didn’t realize this one was narrated by my all time least favourite narrator Fredrick Davidson. The man recorded under several names and I didn’t realize it was him until it was too late. I’ll be listening to this one on fast mode to compensate for the over-exaggerated drawl the drives me up a pole.)
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky (I tried to watch the movie once and it was really dreadful, in the sense of the story being fairly horrifying. I’ll be saving a cheerful book as a treat for finishing this.)

Repeat:
Bleak House – Charles Dickens

Finally, I’d also like to nominate Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimen as a new classic. It’s such a good book. I’ll be reading this one too, regardless of counting or not counting. I might even use it as my treat after Crime and Punishment.

The Classics Challenge runs from April 1st to Sept. 30th, so you still have plenty of time to sign up and participate!

Bone of Contention by Roberta Gellis

2010-03-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

Magdalene la Bátarde, mistress of the Old Priory whorehouse, is summed to Oxford to help William of Ypres as he tries to manoeuvre his way through the politics of King Stephen’s court. Magdalene’s slightly dubious position allowed her to do many things for him that other women, and even some men, could never have done. It is fortunate for William that he had the foresight to make this arrangement as his man quickly becomes implicated in a murder which could have far more repercussions than usual as it comes during the King’s Council where suspicion and intrigue are ripe. William asks Magdalene to find the killer and clear his man before any more damage can be done to his reputation. With the help of Sir Bellamy, Magdalene sets about her task, but gets more than she bargained for.

I think I’ve said before that the Magdalene la Bátarde mysteries aren’t ever going to be classed as great literature, but they are good, quick comfort reads for those days when you just want t a good mystery. These are particularly good for those who like historical novels as they are set in the 12th century. This is an era I’ve become rapidly familiar with in the last year or so as I’ve read several books which take place during Stephen’s reign and even though they’ve all been fiction, it’s still given me a new appreciation for history, especially how our lives have changed throughout the ages.

This book in particular provides insight into the world of women in the middle ages. Most women during this period were pretty much powerless to control their own destinies. Magdaglene, however, because of her profession, has already been outcast from good society and therefore is not longer subject to the same constraints as other women. She not only understands and accepts her position, she’s intelligent and level-headed enough to know how to use it to her advantage. She plays by the rules, but manoeuvres within them to use them to her own advantage rather than just accepting the position men would like to put her into. Some of Gellis’ other women characters also refuse to let themselves be defeated before they even begin so even though it’s not any great Oeuvre, it’s refreshing after characters such as Dorcas Slythe (A Crowning Mercy by Bernard Cornwell) who are pretty much wet dishcloths in terms of spirit. It’s nice to see women sticking up for themselves instead of just letting themselves be used. I’m not actually any great feminist in the sense of “we must wage war on men and their laws” feminist, but I do believe with getting on with life as opposed to just allowing it to buffet you around as it sees fit. Action, any action, is better than inertia. That’s why I like Magdalene so much. She gets on with it and uses what she has to get where she needs to go. Maybe not in the straight line that would be nice, but at least she gets there.

So, as a good wet Sunday read, I give this one a 4 out of 5.