Booklog #24

I'm sure you're bored of reading apologies from me on here (assuming that anyone is still reading, of course) but again I must say sorry that it's been almost a full month since my last transmission.  I've been been busy either revising for my OU exam, or being ill, or both (not fun!).  But the exam has now been and gone - results due August 5th (eep!) - and the lurgy that's been draining me of both energy and brainpower has mostly cleared up now, so here I am to furnish you with the details of my latest reads.  Reading is about the only thing I've been able to manage in any spare time lately...

Since last booklog I've finished:

* Rattle His Bones ~ Carola Dunn
Would you believe it?  I actually got the murderer!!  I have to say though that it was more a case of guessing from a list of dodgy suspects than actual deduction...  4/5

* The Hemlock Cup ~ Bettany Hughes
A huge biography of Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher.  If you're not familiar with Bettany Hughes, she's a historian who has done a number of TV documentaries about various ancient world subjects.  Her writing is the same as her presenter style, so it feels as if she's talking to you, which is nice!  I won't go into huge detail, but if you're interested in learning about Socrates' life and death (by hemlock poison, hence the name) in relation to the social situation in Greece in the 5th century BC, this is your book!  4/5

* Unseen Academicals ~ Terry Pratchett
I'm a big Terry Pratchett fan so I knew I would enjoy this to a certain degree, but I do find that how much I enjoy them varies depending on the main 'topic' (he usually takes something familiar, such as Christmas, the post office or discovering Australia, and 'Discworldises' it).  This is about football so I wasn't overwhelmed with anticipation, but it was actually better than I expected.  If you're not familiar with Pratchett's style but want to try him, I would suggest starting at the very beginning of the series as it sets up so many of the characters that recur throughout the Discworld series.  Not that you need to read them in order, you really can pick up any of them and jump right in, but I personally would find it more enjoyable knowing the backstory where possible.  4/5

* Beyond the Bougainvillea ~ Dolores Durando
I chose this Kindle freebie as a bit of light relief and despite all the hardships that the heroine goes through (and there are a lot!) it was just that.   I don't usually go for romance/real-life (not 'real-life' as in true story, 'real-life' as opposed to fantasy or another more specific genre...what you might call 'everyday life' I suppose) but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed following Marge's journey from abused teenager in rural North Dakota to...well, I won't say how she ends up, let's just say...happier middle aged woman.  The ending was a little predictable, but I think the feeling of knowing what was coming added to the 'comfortable' feeling that I got reading this.  And as I was after a bit of gentle comfort reading, I was very happy with that. 4/5


* Mistress of the Art of Death ~ Ariana Franklin

Set in the 12th century, a female doctor specialising in autopsy (an absolute outrage in most parts of the world at that time...a woman?  Practising medicine?  Touching dead bodies?  Shocking!!) is sent from her home in Italy to England, along with a Jewish man renowned for his ability to solve mysteries.  Four children have been brutally murdered in the town of Cambridge and it is the task of these two to work out why and by who, as the murderer's actions have cast suspicions on the Jewish residents and this has caused civil unrest which has meant the King isn't receiving all the taxes he's owed (it's the King who requested that they come and investigate - still with me?). 

Of course as with any good murder mystery, the closer they get to the truth, the more dangerous it is for them and there are a good few surprises along the way.   I thought I'd worked out who the killer was, but as usual, was totally wrong.  It's very immersive - I really felt that I was in the 1100s with them (and of course as a history nerd I loved that) and though I wanted to find out who the killer was, I also didn't want it to end, which I think is a sign of some very good writing on Ms Franklin's part.   5/5

* The Girl in the Cellar ~ Patricia Wentworth
This was a cheap paperback I picked up in a discount book shop ages ago, I'd never heard of the 'Miss Silver' series, even though the back cover touts her as being another Miss Marple.  It has a peculiar writing style - it feels a bit like 'stream of consciousness' writing where every single thought that passes through the character's head is written down, including repetitions, stumblings and suchlike.  I found this a bit off-putting if I'm truly honest, but I suppose it could be a way of expressing the heroine's confusion (she has amnesia for much of the book).  As a mystery story, it's no Agatha Christie (certainly no Miss Marple!) but it's okay.  If you see it cheap, have a look!  3/5

* The Spartacus War ~ Barry Strauss
Just as it says really - an account of the war that took place to bring down the revolution ignited by the slave/gladiator Spartacus back in ancient Rome and as immortalised on film.  Nice conversational style, so is a pretty accessible read for anyone.  If you're interested in history then give it a try... 4/5

This puts me at 49/100 in the 100 Books in a Year Challenge - on track so far!  

Since last booklog I've started:

* The Body in the Transept ~ Jeanne M Dams (this is our new book club read, thought we'd have a break from Carola Dunn's 'Daisy Dalrymple' series)

* The Iliad ~ Homer (I figured that having studied little bits of it, I should probably read the whole thing for completion's sake...it'll be slow and over a long time though so get used to seeing it here!)

I'm still reading:

* Crime and Punishment ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky (over halfway through now)

Goodbye and happy reading! 
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Booklog #23

So a fortnight has passed - apologies for that, but last weekend we were down visiting my little brother and his fiancee in their new house.  I say 'little' - he's 24 and about six feet tall - but he'll always be little to me!  We didn't get home till Sunday night and after a weekend of Eurovision, FA Cup watching, walking through wheat fields and dancing to the Xbox Dance Central game (awesome!!) I was just too tired to post. 

Since last booklog I've finished:

* My Life On A Plate ~ India Knight
My sister-in-law gave me this as she was going to donate it to a charity shop (don't worry, they haven't missed out as I will still do this!) - it's chick lit, or possibly more accurately 'mummy lit', if that term exists?  As such, I have to say that being child-free I found it almost impossible to relate to and therefore didn't really enjoy it much.  The heroine, Clara, is 33 (though I had to keep reminding myself of that as she didn't seem it, she seemed much older somehow), married to a man who works in fashion, with two small children.  She does an occasional bit of writing for a magazine but is otherwise a housewife and the main gist of the book is that she's bored with her life. 

Don't get me wrong - I don't doubt that this is a very real issue for some women, but there was just something about the way Clara whines on about it to her friends and dithers about until the end of the book where things change (though not really because of her actions, rather the actions of others) that really irritated me.  She just seems a bit wishy-washy, especially compared to her friends who are very well written as peripheral characters.  There are also plot factors that never seem to be resolved, for example (SPOILER!), various hints are dropped throughout that seem to indicate that she might be pregnant - I expected that the realisation of this might be a turning point near the end and hoped that it might force her into taking action in some way, but it never happens.  Just isn't mentioned.  I hate to say it, because now I've started my own chick lit story I can appreciate how hard it is to write one, but the book overall just feels a little half-hearted.  Because I liked the comedy friends and because the writing style itself is sparky and quick, which I enjoy (it was just the subject matter that didn't appeal to me), I give it:  2/5


* Dead Men's Money ~ J.S. Fletcher
Another mystery written back in days of old (J.S. Fletcher lived 1863-1935), although this one is more similar to Treasure Island than anything Agatha Christie - it starts with a mysterious stranger taking up lodgings in the home of the narrator and leads to murders, intrigue and a lot more action than I expected!  It becomes fairly apparent who is responsible for the murders and is then more a case of whether our hero and his contemporaries will catch that person.  The ending seemed quite abrupt, but otherwise the story is well-paced throughout.  The only thing that annoyed me was the constant use of the word 'yon', which I've never really seen in any other book, as in 'what happened to yon man from yon house?', 'I saw him go over yon hill' etc.  I suppose it was a natural part of Fletcher's dialect but it does seem to crop up where 'the' or 'that' could easily have been used instead.  Other than that, very enjoyable!  4/5


Since last booklog I've started:

* Unseen Academicals ~ Terry Pratchett
* The Hemlock Cup ~ Bettany Hughes

Both from the library - for some reason I've brought home a load of massive books with no hope of being able to finish them all within three weeks (stupid girl!).  Thank goodness I can renew them online...


I'm still reading:

* Crime and Punishment ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky
* Rattle His Bones ~ Carola Dunn

Things are a little closer to normality here now - the big issue that has been plaguing us (which will remain unexplained to you I'm afraid - sorry about that but there are reasons) is nearer resolution so I should hopefully have more time to a) write on Wednesdays and b) blog on both Wednesdays and Sundays. 

For now, adieu! 
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Booklog #22

I wouldn't be surprised if you were wondering who this is, it's been so long since I last posted..!  I have no excuse - thanks to all those bank holidays I only had to take a couple of days of leave to get two full weeks off work (the day job), so that's what I did.  After about three days I totally lost track of what day it was or even whether it was a weekend/week or a working day/public holiday and so all routine went out of the window.  I'm back at work now (booo) so am hoping to get back into the swing of posting here. 

As a result of that I have a ton of updates for you - much reading has been done! 

Since last Booklog I've finished:

* Take the Monkeys and Run ~ Karen Cantwell
Fun!  A comedic tale of a suburban American housewife who gets mixed up in the dealings of some very stereotyped Mafia gangster types in her neighbourhood.  It's a fast-paced story with more than a couple of unexpected twists (they were unexpected to me anyway) and a lot of humour.  Try it!  5/5

* In Praise of Savagery ~ Warwick Cairns

Hmm...I'm not sure whether I liked it or not!  It's about two journeys through Africa, one in the 1930s and then the same route again in present times (by different people).  The two stories interweave, comparing the journeys and the different problems they experienced.  I'll be completely honest - I'm not really that drawn to anything African-based (while I'll read pretty much anything Japan or China-related), for no particular reason it just doesn't do much for me, however the chapters in this are really short and snappy so you keep thinking "oh I'll just read one more, and one more, and...".  There's also a sprinkling of philosophical thought, which usually puts me off but in this case integrated quite well and did actually make me think (as opposed to making me skip past it..!).  I'd say that if you can get it for free or cheap (as I did) then give it a try...otherwise I probably wouldn't bother unless you're really interested in Africa during more colonial times.  2/5 

* Winter's Passage ~ Julie Kagawa

This is a novella which is set midway through a series, though I hadn't realised that when I downloaded it (another cheap Kindle bargain).  I could have done with reading the first one beforehand really as there are constant references to things that happened in it which clearly set up the relationship between the human/faery girl and the faery prince which is the focus here, as well as the reasons for the journey they're on throughout this tale.  Still, it was very good - well-written with good characterisation and a nice mix of real world locations with the world of faery.  I'll probably seek out the others in the series now...perhaps at the library now I've rediscovered it! 4/5

* Peter Pan ~ JM Barrie

I've never actually read Peter Pan...having seen the Disney film I never really felt the need to read the book (much like Alice in Wonderland).  However I was intrigued by the recently-written sequel Peter Pan in Scarlet and wanted to read that so thought I'd best zip through this first (especially as it was a free classic).  As with many stories, the original book is darker than the Disney film - there's more violence and death and it seems a lot more melancholic.  I felt so sorry for Wendy, John and Michael's parents, we return to them a couple of times after the children fly away with Peter and they were so sad - something you never consider during the film.  Perhaps it's because I'm reading it as an adult, but I spent most of the time feeling annoyed with the children for just upping and leaving!  Still love Tinker Bell though...you can't go wrong with a feisty fairy ;o)  3/5 

* Colosseum: Rome's Arena of Death ~ Peter Connolly

I got this from the library (prepare to hear that a lot over the coming months!) to help with my final Classical World course assignment - it's hardback with a lot of beautiful pictures of Rome, but also incredibly interesting (if you like that kind of thing) and very absorbing.  5/5 

* The Hunt Ball Mystery ~ William Magnay

As the name suggests, a mystery (in the form of a dead body in a locked room) that arises at a ball in a country house.  The usual Agatha Christie style hi-jinks ensue, with a gentleman questing to solve the mystery and protect the honour of the lady he loves.  Nothing earth-shatteringly original, but pleasant enough. 4/5

This puts me at 40/100 in the 100 Books in a Year Challenge! 

Since last Booklog I've started:

* My Life On A Plate ~ India Knight

I'm still reading:

* Crime & Punishment ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky (almost half way through - really enjoying it!)
* Rattle His Bones ~ Carola Dunn (book club was suspended temporarily while each of us was off work - we meet again tomorrow)

While I was off hubby and I visited the little library in our town and I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised.  The last time I used a public library (as opposed to the in-house one when I was at uni) I was about 16/17 and with the librarians' best intentions it was a bit dingy, the books weren't always in great condition and it felt a bit oppressive.  But this one couldn't be more different - though it's smaller (I live in a different town to the one I did as a teenager) it's spacious and light, all the books have plastic jackets on to keep them clean and nice, there's free wifi and it just seems a lot friendlier. 

The only thing that sucks is that it's shut on Wednesdays...yes, the one day of the week I'm off.  Typical!  I'll just have to go when they're open later into the evenings and on Saturday mornings.  You can renew loans and order/reserve things online (drastic improvement on how it used to be!) and even request books that are held anywhere else in Wales and they'll get it in for you.  I'm uber-impressed and will hopefully save a load of money now as I won't have to buy as many books (yeah, we'll see how that goes!).  If you don't already use it - try out your local library! 
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Booklog #21

I must begin with an apology - once again I wasn't able to post last Wednesday, but unfortunately I can't really tell you why.  I'll just say that all my spare time at the moment is going towards dealing with something going on here and little writing is likely to be done on Wednesdays for an undetermined period of time.  I'll still (hopefully) post my booklogs every Sunday, but don't be surprised (and please don't abandon me!) if I'm not able to get anything up on Wednesdays.  Fingers crossed that normal service will be resumed asap! 

This week I finished:

* The Game ~ Heather Killough-Walden
Continuing my journey through unexplored Kindle fantasy cheapie books, I sampled this mixture of dystopian sci-fi/Norse mythology (yes, you read that right) and was pleasantly surprised.  I'll admit that I didn't exactly love it at the start - our heroine, Victoria Red, is a team leader in something ominously known only as the Game.  The Game has been played for thousands of years and can never end or something unspeakably terrible will happen, and once Players are in it they do not age but also can never leave to go back to the outside world.  I thought it was going to be really techie and violent, without much emotional substance, but I was wrong.  Victoria despises her opposing team leader, Victor Black, but he has a proposition for her that leads them and their team members to places they've never been (or have they..?) as well as life-or-death encounters with Norse gods and the Game Lord himself.  The characters are very distinct (often a failing I've found in sci-fi is that I can't remember who is who because they're so similar) and the way relationships develop and change throughout is handled really well.  There's a little bit of Mills & Boon style sauciness as well, which I wasn't expecting!  For the fact that it takes a good basic idea and builds a convincing world around it, I give it 4/5

* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard
Yes - at last!  It's over!  I finally pushed through and got to the end...  I really did want to like this - I've seen Mary Beard present TV documentaries about Pompeii and such and she made the subject so accessible, so I assumed this book would be the same.  It is easy to follow, but it's so terribly dry...I was just utterly bored throughout.  I had expected (perhaps unreasonably) that it would focus on the Parthenon in terms of its creation and original function within Athens, but the majority of the book is actually about what happened to it since then - how it was used as various different things by different groups occupying the area (Romans, Turks etc), how it was wrecked and pillaged by people right up until quite recent times and whether the artefacts removed should be given back to Greece.  I bought it to use within an Open University essay (for which the first chapter served wonderfully), but as a general read for interest it doesn't do very well.  I'd have preferred one chapter at the end to brief me about all the post-ancient-Athens events, but as I say it occupied most of the book and I found it a real slog to get through.  Perhaps my expectations were wrong, but I can't change how I feel about it now, so: 2/5

* How to Give Up Shopping (Or At Least Cut Down) ~ Neradine Tisaj
Before I start I must point out that I'm not a compulsive shopper (unless you're looking at Kindle downloads), but I was interested to find out how to tweak my habits to become a bit more thrifty.  This is quite a short book (just over 1000 Kindle 'locations') but I don't think that matters, as it's written in such a chatty and personable style that it feels more like a one-way conversation with a friend.  Tisaj writes from personal experience (and shares some extremely personal information at the end) which is good as it makes you feel a bit less silly about some of the same things that you might have done yourself (e.g. buying the same item twice because you forgot you already had it - I've done this with books!).  Her advice is fairly obvious, but sometimes it needs somebody else to say it to you before you really 'get' it.  Because it is rather short and I'd have liked to read more, I give it: 4/5

This week I started:

* Rattle His Bones ~ Carola Dunn (the new book club read) 

I'm still reading:

* Crime and Punishment ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky
* Take the Monkeys and Run ~ Karen Cantwell

Till next week then, happy reading! 
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Booklog #20

Wow - the twentieth booklog!  It really doesn't feel like twenty weeks (more if you count the ones I missed over Christmas) since I started doing this...time certainly is flying by...

This week I finished:

* Styx and Stones ~ Carola Dunn
Once more, my two book club buddies and I have proved to be rubbish detectives - we failed to identify the murderer...again!  I really thought I had it this time as well!  As with Murder on the Flying Scotsman this is a traditional 'cosy' whodunit - an enclosed setting (this time a small village), a shortlist of possible suspects, an official police officer assisted by an unexpected amateur sleuth and so on. 

Our sleuth here is Miss Daisy Dalrymple, a young lady engaged to a Detective Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard (handy for getting her involved in investigating lots of crimes!).  This is a time when high class ladies simply Did Not Work...one generally married and became a mother while living off one's husband's income...however Daisy does work, she writes articles for magazines.  This is frequently commented upon with disdain by other ladies in the books, which I feel could get a bit wearing if it carries on through the whole series.  Otherwise though, they are very enjoyable - kind of 'Agatha Christie-lite', they don't have the depth of Christie but are the same style (and just as difficult to solve!).  4/5

This week I started:

* Take the Monkeys and Run ~ Karen Cantwell (strange title, I know!) 

I'm still reading:

* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard
* Crime and Punishment ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky
* The Game ~ Heather Killough-Walden

If you're a Kindle owner in the UK, you might be interested to know that a new 'crop' of free books were listed this week - if you click on 'Top 100 Free' you'll see some of them in the top rankings.  Buying one causes it to suggest a load of others to you, so you can find them all pretty easily.  I've got about 11 or 12 already...there were no reviews yet so they might be rubbish, but as they cost me nothing I don't care! 
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