It feels like Spring is finally here to stay (fingers crossed!) - blue sky, sunshine, daffodils emerging from the ground. Will I celebrate by spending all my time outdoors? Not likely...there's too many books to be read!
This week I've finished:
* Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett
After what seems like months (oh, because it is months), I have finally finished Pillars! Amazon has it down as containing 1100 pages, but I was reading it on Kindle so only had 'locations' to go off (there are 22118 - which sounds even worse!). It certainly fills them well though - pretty much everything that could happen in 12th century England did happen in this book. Murder, rape, revolution, war, peace, religion, treachery, marriage, love, babies, fires, harvest failures, terrible accidents, great successes. You're with them all the way. And it's wonderfully written...it just flows so well, the characters are realistic (I came to hate William Hamleigh as much as the heroine Aliena did!), the landscapes, towns and cities are described so vividly with sound, sight and smell that you feel like you're there. I'm almost reluctant to watch the TV adaptation in case it ruins my memory of it! If you like historical novels then you really must read this. 5/5
* Picture Perfect ~ Jodi Picoult
I'm in two minds about this book. Firstly I admire Jodi Picoult as I know what great praise My Sister's Keeper always gets - she's obviously a very great talent within her genre. This book is pretty long (480 pages) and I wasn't sure what to expect as I've not read any of her others, I thought (mistakenly) that it was chick lit - not the light frothy kind (which I do enjoy), perhaps a slightly more grown-up kind. However it became apparent that this was not the case. WARNING - SPOILERS ALERT!
The main character, Cassie, is found with amnesia, totally unaware of who she is. Taken in by the police officer who found her, she is soon 'claimed' by her husband, who turns out to be A-list Hollywood megastar Alex Rivers, who whisks her back to a red carpet lifestyle that she slowly begins to remember. "Great" you might think...unfortunately though, as her memories start to come back to her, she remembers that Alex abuses her, frequently punching and kicking her in wild rages. He has all sorts of issues from childhood, as does she, and these are used as the reason behind this abuse. And this is where my problem lies.
I'm sure that Jodi Picoult did her research before writing about such a sensitive subject, and I'm sure that this kind of thing happens a lot, but I found it impossible to identify with as I've never been through it, nor known anybody who has (or has admitted it anyway). As such, I simply cannot get past the constant thought of "just leave him". Even as I type that I know it's not that straightforward, that abused women often feel trapped and unable to leave, feel that they're to blame and that they almost deserve what they're getting, but I just can't get my head round it. Cassie frustrates me all the way through by being such a doormat, sticking with Alex despite what he does to her - leaving town to have his baby in secret, then going back to him, only for - guess what? - him to start beating her again. I just found it incredibly frustrating, as she was a successful professional woman before meeting him, then turns into a sort of non-entity. Though Alex is flawed (and his terrible childhood is thrown at you again and again to make sure you don't forget why Cassie feels she has to look after him), he's not likeable even when he's being nice - he's too controlling, too overbearing. I felt like I was walking on eggshells just as much as Cassie was, and that doesn't make for an enjoyable read, feeling tense all the way through. I'm sure the book must have done good things for awareness of domestic abuse, but that wasn't what I was looking for - I just wanted an entertaining read. On the plus side, her writing style is very smooth and descriptive - it is hard to put down, because every chapter leads so well into the next...even if that next chapter is just as tense as the last. At least I'm more aware now that Picoult writes about Serious Issues so I can steer clear in future: 2/5
* The Diviner's Tale ~ Bradford Morrow
As if Picture Perfect wasn't heavy enough, this too was quite draining to read. It's the story of a diviner, or dowser, called Cassandra (another Cassie!) who finds herself experiencing visions of slightly sinister young girls. Secrets which were buried in her childhood start to re-emerge and she must decide whether to acknowledge them, and also whether to try and push away her more 'mystical' side for the well-being of her family, or embrace it and risk their safety as she tries to help 'someone' who is in danger. It's hard to describe without giving a lot away! I did enjoy it, but I think I would have enjoyed it more had I not been reading other complex/involved books at the same time. There's a lesson there - I need to keep more balance in my reading! 3/5
* The Time Machine ~ H.G. Wells
Continuing my unofficial foray into the world of (free) classics, I tried out some H.G. Wells. I've seen the 2002 film with Guy Pearce, Jeremy Irons etc but to be honest this bears only a basic resemblance to that. The book does have action scenes, but not on the same scale as the film. The 'above-ground' creatures the time traveller meets are very different - in the film they were basically regular humans (including Samantha Mumba of early 2000's UK pop fame), but in the book they are tiny and ethereal and infuriatingly childlike. It seems a very odd change to me. Short as the book is, I did enjoy it - the writing is very descriptive but still quite tight, and it really conveys an image of the strange world the time traveller lands in. There is an incident towards the end that occurs amid some frenetic action which is beautifully written, really touching and sad, even though so much is going on around it. The ending itself was quite a surprise (though I won't say why)! 4/5
* I, Robot ~ Cory Doctorow
This was a strange little read - I assumed it would be something to do with the Will Smith film, and it sort of was in that robots were used in various human roles such as police officers and there were laws as to what they could and couldn't do. But the human characters were completely new to me. Then I discovered (shamefully - I feel know that I probably should have known already) that the original I, Robot was written by Isaac Asimov, so I guess it is that version that the film was based on. Either way, Cory Doctorow's is a short story about a human cop, his daughter and estranged wife and their troubled interaction with the technological world they inhabit. It gets a little creepy, as the state can track them literally anywhere, always aware of what they're doing, who they're with and so on. The ending is extremely ambiguous and feels very much like a set-up for a sequel, which did frustrate me a little as the characters went through a big change and it would have been nice to see the outcome develop fully. As I'm not really into techie sci-fi: 2/5
This week I've started:
* Styx and Stones ~ Carola Dunn (the new book club book)
* The Best of Times ~ Penny Vincenzi
I'm still reading:
* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard (I really must push on and finish this)
Wow, quite a clear out this week! It's nice to finally come to the close of longer books like Pillars - not because I can cross them off the list (as it were), chalk up another number and forget all about them, but because the journey I've been on with the characters has been really up and down and quite exhausting. I need to read something shorter so I feel like I'm having a rest!
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