Booklog #16 - plus a special request

I'll be honest with you, I haven't the heart to write much this week.  The earthquake/tsunami in Japan has really upset me - I love Japan (even though I haven't been there yet) and to see it being ripped apart and all those people killed or losing their homes just breaks my heart.  I just feel so powerless to help.  And even worse - because it's a wealthy and technologically advanced country (unlike Haiti for example) I worry that people will assume it can take care of itself, when in fact the combination of all the factors (quake, floods, nuclear issues) have made it a bigger disaster than I think even the Japanese could have been prepared for.  I want to ask whether you will consider donating to the organisations helping with recovery? 

In the UK: British Red Cross
In the USA: American Red Cross (or you can text REDCROSS to 90999 and it will donate $10)

There are also Save the Children and Shelterbox

I'm sure other countries also have charities that are helping, so if you're from elsewhere please do Google it and see what you can do to help.  Even if you can't help financially, please just help spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, anywhere you can. 

Just to keep up to date with the books...

This week I've finished:

* Where Angels Fear to Tread ~ E.M. Forster
Similar to A Room With A View, in that it concerns social niceties of an era gone by and doing what is perceived as The Done Thing, but I have to say that I didn't enjoy it much.  None of the characters have any redeeming features, they're all pretty selfish and self-absorbed and as such it was virtually impossible to identify with them.  The basic plot is that the daughter-in-law of a family goes on tour to Italy after the death of her husband (their son/brother) and while out there falls for and marries an Italian.  The very notion is abhorrent to the prim English family and they disown her, till they discover that she has died in childbirth, after which it becomes their mission to 'save' the baby from being brought up Italian.  While I don't think Forster is agreeing with them - rather he's showing them up - it's still pretty hard to read in this century without thinking "how xenophobic is this?".  It just didn't sit right with me.  2/5 (for the wonderful descriptive language)

* Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom ~ Cory Doctorow
I couldn't resist a Disney-related read, however small the link, but didn't quite know what to make of this.  It's sci-fi based - set about 100 years in the future, in a time where death no longer exists because people can upload their consciousness as a backup, so that if their body dies they can be downloaded into a new clone and carry on living.  This is a really clever idea, and it is well developed, but the hero, Jules, is more of an anti-hero (the 'down and out' of the title) and I don't really enjoy reading about those - they're all "woe is me".  He lives in Disney World and is trying both to solve his murder (he's just been rebooted in a new body) and also defend the Haunted Mansion from a rival team of ride engineers, who want to change it from a physical experience of the senses to a purely mental one where the experience is sent straight to your brain.  I loved the references to Disney World attractions, lands etc, and Jules' passion for keeping the Mansion close to what the original Imagineers created, but I just didn't like him or the other characters at all.  It did make me think though, and has inspired me to maybe write my own Disney-based story, even if just for my own enjoyment.  3/5

This week I've started:

Nothing new this week.

I'm still reading:

* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard
* The Best of Times ~ Penny Vincenzi
* Styx and Stones ~ Carola Dunn

Once again, please consider donating - anything, no matter how small, will help a beautiful country that really needs it right now.  Thank you. 

Booklog #14

And so another weekend has zipped by already...

This week I've finished:

* Murder on the Flying Scotsman ~ Carola Dunn
Well, let me just tell you that it's a good job my two book club buddies and I aren't actual detectives...we were hopelessly wrong with our theories as to who the murderer was in this!  It's very much Agatha Christie-esque, but seems somewhat less substantial - as though the characters are less fleshed out and more like comical caricatures.  It doesn't really matter though as it's an easy read and the fun part is trying to pick out the clues from the red herrings.  There are lots more in this 'Daisy Dalrymple' series and we've already picked our next one...  4/5

* Manifesting Change ~ Mike Dooley
If you've ever read the best-selling blockbuster The Secret then you'll be familiar with the ideas behind this book.   Essentially, Mike Dooley's belief is that 'Thoughts Become Things', so think positive thoughts and your life will be blessed with positive things.  Obviously that sounds ridiculously simplistic when I sum it up like that - but he does go into much more detail, explaining the reasons why he believes this, why bad things still happen in the world and how to apply it all to your own life.  I did feel that it was a bit 'hippy-trippy' in parts - such as where he's explaining how time doesn't actually exist in a linear way and so we can make anything happen because it doesn't happen in a certain point in time (???) and suchlike - but for the most part it's pretty easy to follow and quite thought-provoking indeed.  Certain sections really resonated with me and I will definitely be putting his suggestions into practice to bring about the changes I want in my life.  For more info see his website: Tut's Adventurers Club  4.5/5 (half a mark off for the bits I didn't understand!)

* A Room With A View ~ E.M. Forster
In the spirit of continuing to try classics that I've never found time to read in the past (especially if I can download them for free now!) I dabbled in a little E.M. Forster.  I'll be honest - perhaps revealing a new level of ignorance - and admit that I knew nothing about Forster or this book before starting it.  I couldn't have told you a single thing about it.  So I was pleasantly surprised to find that I rather enjoyed it!  It's about one Miss Lucy Honeychurch, a young lady who, while holidaying in Florence with her chaperone, not only witnesses a murder but also has her heart awakened by a fellow tourist.  We then follow Lucy back home to England and through the troubles she faces when that same man moves into the village just as she accepts a marriage proposal from a local gentleman.  It's a fairly simple story but beautifully told - both Italy and England really come to life on the page, and the interplay between the characters as they dance around their feelings is subtle yet complex.  There is a good amount of philosophising about choices and life and the ending is both expected and yet still surprising in one way (I won't ruin it by telling you why).  4/5

This week I've started:

Nothing new this week, I've been caught up in Pillars of the Earth when I wasn't reading the 'finished' books above! 

I'm still reading:

* Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett (74%)
* Picture Perfect ~ Jodi Picoult
* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard
* The Diviner's Tale ~ Bradford Morrow

Have a great week!  :o)
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Booklog #14

Before I begin, I must offer the humblest of apologies for missing last Sunday's post.  It feels like an eternity ago already, but to look on the positive side, I now have lots to talk about today so every cloud has a silver lining! 

Since the last Booklog I've finished:

* White Fang ~ Jack London
This is one of those stories that I've always had a vague awareness of, but never known anything about, other than it's about a wolf - so when I saw it for free within the 'Aldiko' book reader app on my Android I thought I'd give it a try.  To be honest I was a little sceptical - how good can a story told from an animal's point of view really be?  Especially when White Fang doesn't actually have a 'voice' of his own (not even an internal one), it's all told as description of what he perceives through his sense and instincts. 

I felt that the start was a little slow for my liking - it concerns his mother, who lives with a pack of wolves despite being half domesticated dog and takes you from a time where she and the pack are facing starvation through to where she gives birth to White Fang and his siblings.  From this point it gets a lot more interesting as White Fang is a real character!  He's more fearless and feisty than the other cubs, and this gets him into quite a few scrapes from the off.  Even from such a young age his life is rather eventful, so I can't really say much more without giving away spoilers, however I will say that there is a significant amount of violence throughout.  If you're very sensitive to the thought of animals being harmed or harming each other then you might want to steer clear, as Jack London doesn't hold back with his description.  Despite this, it's a very well-told story with a lot of twists and turns, White Fang himself is very cleverly characterised and overall I really enjoyed it.  4/5

* Cleanskin ~ Val McDermid
One of the 'Quick Reads' shortish stories on Kindle.  Though I enjoy crime fiction, I've never tried any Val McDermid so I thought this might be a good place to start.  As you might expect from such a star of this genre, it's an intriguing tale of murder and mystery (and gore - there's been a lot of violence in my reading this last couple of weeks!), told, as usual, from the perspective of a detective with flaws and unresolved issues of his own.  The daughter of a well-known-but-never-able-to-pin-anything-on-him crime lord is murdered and soon after other members of the criminal fraternity start showing up in gruesome crime scenes.  But 'Mr Big' has disappeared - is he dead or is he out there getting revenge?  Our detective has to try and find out...  For such a short piece the characters are really well developed and there are a couple of huge and unexpected plot twists that really surprised me (I'm still shocked now, a week later!).  If you like crime dramas, you'll almost certainly enjoy this.  4/5

* The Middle Passage ~ Julia Golding
A nice bit of historical fiction now!  This is another short piece - a sort of after-story to a series which was set in the Caribbean.  Set in 1792, it follows a feisty young woman named Cat Royal as she journeys home to Britain, accompanied by one Billy Shepherd (who you might say is a bit of a rogue).  On the way they stop off at the Azores islands and get involved in a solving a mystery. 

I just checked the Amazon write-up to remind myself what year it was set in and was surprised to see that it is 'perfect for girls of 9 and above'...oh!  I  hadn't realised it was a children's story!  Which is testament to Julia Golding's writing I suppose - they do say that when writing for children you should never patronise or 'write down' to them and she certainly doesn't do that.  I thought it was just solid, descriptive, pacy writing.  The characters are brought to life very well - I would definitely like to read about their other adventures - and the mystery plot is built up steadily and resolved neatly.  All in all, an enjoyable novella-length read.  4/5

* The Crying Tree ~ Naseem Rakha
Last but not least for this week is the story of a teenage boy's murder and the after-effects it has on his family.  It explores some deep subjects - capital punishment, forgiveness, family bonds and hidden secrets - and though some of it makes for uncomfortable reading, it is all very compelling reading.  The crux of the plot is essentially 'will the murderer's execution go ahead or not', but the detail and all the emotion relates to how each member of the family - mother Irene, father Nate and daughter Bliss - deals with their grief.  They are very different characters and we journey with them over the twenty years that follow that fateful day, seeing them change and learn things they never knew about one another, as well as about the son that was lost.  Pulls on the heart-strings, but not in a twee way and really gets you thinking about subjects that aren't often discussed.  4.5/5

Since the last Booklog I've started:

* The Diviner's Tale ~ Bradford Morrow
* A Room With A View ~ E.M. Forster
* Manifesting Change ~ Mike Dooley

I'm still reading:

* Picture Perfect ~ Jodi Picoult
* Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett (60%)
* Murder on the Flying Scotsman ~ Carola Dunn (it's our final book club meeting about this one this week!)
* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard

This puts me at 14/100 for the 100 Books In A Year Challenge. 

Phew!  Time for a lie down I think..! 
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