Booklog #13

Ooh - number 13, will this be the unluckiest Booklog..? 

This week I've finished:

* The Golden Acorn ~ Catherine Cooper
This is, admittedly, a children's story, and when I say 'children's' I don't mean that Young Adult sort of group that Real Adults can just about get away with enjoying, it is properly for children (perhaps 10-12 year olds?).  But it was a free (I think) Kindle download so in the spirit of trying things, I tried it.  It's actually very well-written...even though it is relatively simplistic, the plot is solid, the characters are charming (mostly, there are one or two less pleasant ones!) and the action is well-paced. 

It's the adventure of a young boy called Jack, who turns out to be The Chosen One to fulfil a prophecy which will save some supernatural beings (water nymphs, faery folk, dragons etc) and the forest they live in from fading away and dying.  Essentially the message is about bravery, standing up for your friends and that kind of thing - Jack has to take a leap of faith more than once and must learn a lot, but by the end he's a better person for it.  One thing that did annoy me was that the ending is very abrupt - I suppose it may well be preparation for a sequel.  For that reason: 3/5

* The Library of Gold ~ Gayle Lynds
Ah, I do enjoy a good historical-artefact-chase-thriller!  And when you mix in a mythical library (a library!  A book about books - what could be better?!) I'm sold.  Luckily, the characters and the writing also lived up to the high quality of the promised storyline and once again I found myself engrossed in a book that I just didn't want to put down.  It's a thrilling chase around the world (including Athens and the Parthenon, which was nice after having just studied it) with assassins, gunfights, spies, double-crossing and clues aplenty.  I won't spoil anything for you, but will just say that if you enjoy Dan Brown you'll enjoy this.  4.5/5 (half a mark deducted as I feel that a perfect book has re-readability, and of course this doesn't because by the end you know the answers to everything)

This week I've started:

* White Fang ~ Jack London

I'm still reading:

* Picture Perfect ~ Jodi Picoult
* Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett
* Murder on the Flying Scotsman ~ Carola Dunn
* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard

This puts me at 10/100 for the 100 Books in a Year Challenge. 

How's your reading going this year? 
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Booklog #12

I've one word for you: HALLELUJAH!!! 

This week I've finished:

* The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt
At last!  After goodness knows how many months of slogging away (and two more chapters than I realised - a most unwelcome discovery) I've finally beaten it!  And do you know what?  I cared as little for the characters by the end as I did at the beginning.  They seem to float around, vaguely interacting with one another, but never becoming fully '3D' as it were and when the First World War comes into play towards the end (I think you can guess what this means for at least some of them) I found myself really disassociated from them - I didn't care what happened to them.  The best word to describe them would be 'flat'. I know characters can't all be likeable - it would be boring if everyone were lovely - but this bunch just seem like a group of half-sketched out ghosts. 

I've pondered for some time why it makes me feel this way and I think it comes down to the style of the writing.  There is a huge amount of background information shoe-horned into the story, to the point where it feels as though Byatt is writing in a 'look how much I know about everything' kind of way.  The story seems a convenient vehicle for her to show off all the research she's done, whether it's relevant or not.  The parts involving the main families are written in what seems like an odd way to me.  It's as if she has done a really quick draft to get down the ideas of what will happen, but then not gone back and edited into something that flows.  For example: 

Philip had no idea where the pony's stall was.  He stood mute.  Fludd cursed him in mediaeval English and strode in through the door through which Dobbin had gone.  The carriage rolled into the yard.  Geraint climbed down and started to see to the horses.  There seemed to be no servants to help him.  (p.104)

There are almost certainly better examples than this but I can't face trawling through the book to find one!  Hopefully you can see what I mean though - it's one isolated sentence after another: bam-bam-bam, and I think this is partly what makes it feel like the characters are all very separate, like they're not existing in the same place.  Dialogue sections are the same - literally "'Blah blah blah' said Philip.  'Blah blah blah' said Olive."  These sections do have the benefit of breaking up the long and winding demonstrations of Byatt's understanding of politics, current affairs of the time and such, but they feel cold and passionless and make the characters unlikeable (to me at least). 

I don't think I've ever had such a strong reaction to a book...I think you can probably gather that I wouldn't recommend it!  Perhaps it's just me (though I know two other people who feel exactly the same way about it) and I've missed the point somehow, but I really think that if Byatt wanted to demonstrate her knowledge then she should have written a non-fiction book, instead of stringing together a plot to loosely drape over the mass of information she wanted to show off.  Can't believe I would ever say this about a book, but: 0/5

* Moab Is My Washpot ~ Stephen Fry
Ahhhhh - Stephen Fry, how I love him!  I could listen to him talk all day, I just adore his way with language.  If the writing in The Children's Book was like wading through mud, this is like flying with the birds!  It chronicles his life up to the age of about twenty - through schools, prison, first love and everything in between.  It's amazingly honest, he really reveals all sorts of personal things you would expect a person would want to keep to themselves and as a result I feel that I know him that bit better now.  I could blather on, but it's easier to just say: if you don't know who he is you probably won't get much from this, but if you like him on TV, you will enjoy this book - read it!  5/5

* The Rome Express ~ Arthur Griffiths
A 'Murder on the Orient Express' type of whodunit (though written much earlier - about 1907), this is quite a short book (I felt I deserved it after The Children's Book!) and very simply written.  It doesn't have the wonderful characterisation and clever plotting of Agatha Christie but is still an enjoyable read.  And I didn't work out whodunit, so that's a mark in its favour!  Find it cheap on Kindle: 3/5

* Inhuman ~ Danielle Q Lee
Another Kindle cheapie, this is a paranormal romance/thriller, refreshingly not another vampire/werewolf but something else altogether (something indefinable in fact!).  The main character, Cassia, is well-defined and - I felt - quite believable.  Her love interest, Keanu (you can't help but visualise Mr Reeves throughout, which is somewhat distracting - perhaps another name would have been better) is a bit of a mystery, though one which is soon explained.  Their adventure is compelling, you want to keep reading to find out what happens to them, though I felt the end was perhaps a little bit rushed and not explained as fully as it could have been (or is it setting up for a sequel?).  Anyhoo: 3/5

This week I've started:

* Picture Perfect ~ Jodi Picoult

* The Golden Acorn ~ Catherine Cooper

* The Library of Gold ~ Gayle Lynds

I'm still reading:

* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard
* Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett
* Murder on the Flying Scotsman ~ Carola Dunn

This puts me at 8/100 for the 100 Books In A Year challenge. 

Have a great week!  
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