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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Booklog #19

Hello all - so sorry I didn't get chance to post on Wednesday, I was wrapped up in research for Hitched and the day just ran away with me.  I've decided to focus on twenty key cities initially (the ones that the main UK airlines have direct flights to) to make it more manageable, so last Wednesday was Atlanta, Georgia, and surrounding area.  I've learnt so much about it already! 

This week I've finished:

* Angel ~ L.A. Weatherly
Well I'll tell you something - having the Kindle has certainly expanded my knowledge of the Young Adult paranormal genre.  It seems like every other cheap book is vampire/werewolf/angel/undead-related!  As you can tell from the title, this is of the angel oeuvre, but it's not what you think...these angels aren't the nice floaty healing kind, they're the 'feeding off human auras and draining them' kind.  It's down to high school psychic outcast Willow and Angel Killer (yes, that's his job) Alex to try and stop them bringing the Second Wave of angels into this world, as that would spell the end of humanity. 

I didn't have terribly high expectations, but actually enjoyed Angel quite a lot.  Willow is vulnerable but not pathetic (I'm looking at you Bella Swan), and as the book goes on she develops considerably (in a way you'd never expect!).  Alex is only 18 but has been an Angel Killer since he was 11 so is mature beyond his years, and although brooding about events in his past, he doesn't come across as pining (hello Edward Cullen).  After a shaky start their relationship blossoms quite naturally and you really believe that they were made to be together.  The action ebbs and flows as they're chased across the country, giving you chance to catch your breath in the quieter spells, until the big finale.  I have to say that I felt a little let down by this part - it seemed rushed, but as there are a couple of sequels I guess the ending here couldn't be too apocalyptic or there'd be nothing left for the other books! 

Well-written characters (both human and angel), good pacing and an interesting overall concept - 4/5

This week I've started:

* Crime and Punishment ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky (oh yes, starting on an epic!)
* The Game ~ Heather Killough-Walden

I'm still reading:

* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard (it's slow going)
* Styx and Stones ~ Carola Dunn (almost finished - having our last book club meeting tomorrow before we read the finale)

Have a great week - I promise I'll post this Wednesday... *slaps own wrist* 
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Booklog #18

The clocks have turned and it's now officially Summer here, though it does feel more like Spring.  Why do we only have official start dates for Summer and Winter?  Why do Spring and Autumn have to miss out?  Something to do with farmers and crops I presume...  Anyway, we've had some wonderfully sunny blue-sky days - our book club meeting last week was a walking one because we felt that we just couldn't pass up the opportunity for fresh air! 

This week I've finished:

* The Best of Times ~ Penny Vincenzi
At last!  I've finished this epic tale of lives interwoven by one specific incident on one particular day.  I have to say that although it did feel like it flagged on occasion, the way Penny Vincenzi weaves all the separate stories together so that the characters meet, part and meet again and affect each others lives is pretty masterful.  The majority of the book follows the after-effects of a major crash on the M4 motorway - people meet at the scene and part thinking they will never see one another again, only for events to lead to them coming together over and over in various scenarios.  Relationships develop, other relationships fall apart, secrets are made and revealed.  I had expected that by spreading the book across so many different characters it would be difficult to keep up with who was who (indeed there's actually a list of them all at the start, like with a play) but they are so well-written that they really do come to life and are all very distinct.  I hadn't read any of Vincenzi's other books (though I will now!) so I don't know if they typically have happy endings, but I don't think I'd be giving too much away to say that everything ends nicely for everyone, despite all the trauma and tribulations they've been through.  4/5

* The Lair of the White Worm ~ Bram Stoker
Continuing my journey through the world of free classics, this creepy tale was more shocking than I'd expected it to be.  The white worm ('wyrm' being an ancient word for serpent/snake) does not feature in the way I would have guessed - perhaps controlled by some sort of supernatural magic - rather it's a person, at least some of the time!  Even though this is Bram Stoker...who wrote Dracula...and I knew it would be scary, this fact really disturbed me.  I suppose because it gives the evil thing a human face and that makes its evil all the more frightening.  The end is rather gory, but satisfying nonetheless.  3/5

* The Money Magpie ~ Jasmine Birtles
This isn't fiction but I'm counting it towards my 100 Books in a Year anyway (it is a book after all, even though a lot of it is lists and tables!).  The subtitle is 'I can help you ditch your debts, make money and save £1000s'...well, we could all do with a bit of that couldn't we?  I'm not on the breadline or anything but I would like to clear off some debt and save more effectively.  There's also an accompanying 'Money Magpie' website full of articles, links, tips and forums to talk about the issues raised.  I must say that Jasmine Birtles has a very nice writing style, it does feel like a friend - albeit one who knows financial advising inside out -  has sat down with you to talk you through your problems and what you need to do to get them sorted.  She explains complex subjects such as investing in stocks in a very understandable way, which is a breath of fresh air (though I'm not quite at that stage yet!).  Whatever relationship you have with your money, this is definitely worth a look - my only criticism is that some of the websites she recommends don't seem to exist any more, as I think this was published a couple of years ago.  For that reason: 4/5

This week I've started:

* Angel ~ L.A. Weatherly

I'm still reading:

* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard
* Styx and Stones ~ Carola Dunn

Well, back to work tomorrow so best turn in for the night.  Happy reading! 
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Booklog # 17

Currently quietly 'LOL'ing to myself, as I'm off work tomorrow so completely forgot today was Sunday and I had a booklog to write...doh. 

This week I've finished:

* The Case of the Lamp That Went Out ~ Auguste Groner
Not the catchiest title in the world, but I'll forgive it as it is quite old (from somewhere around the early 1900s) and possibly translated (the author was Austrian) and perhaps that was the trend.  It's a nice little sleuth story featuring 'detective extraordinaire' Joe Muller - who has the makings of being one of those classic detectives, in my opinion, but sadly doesn't seem as well known as others.  It's Christie-esque, with Muller using his great powers of reason to piece together various clues (more successfully than I did, I must add!) and bring the perpetrator to justice.  I've just checked on Amazon and there is actually a Kindle download that's five books in one (one of which is this one unfortunately) for just 71p...so if you'll excuse me one moment...okay, that's that downloaded.  This single book was free to download, if you wanted to try it out first.  Let me entice you with the first line, which struck me as pure beauty:

"The radiance of a clear September morning lay over Vienna.  The air was so pure that the sky shone in brightest azure even where the city's buildings clustered thickest.  On the outskirts of the town the rays of the awakening sun danced in crystalline ether and struck answering gleams from the dew on grass and shrub in the myriad gardens of the suburban streets."

How beautiful is that?!  4/5

* The Invisible Man ~ H.G. Wells
Having delved into the world of Wells with The Time Machine and been pleasantly surprised, I decided to continue on to another of his classics.  I wish I could say I enjoyed this as much, but there was just something uncomfortable about it.  Without wishing to spoil it for you, it's pretty violent - much more so than I'd expected - and the invisible man himself is a very nasty piece of work.  I'm not sure what I'd expected to happen plot-wise but it certainly wasn't the events that took place (hard to describe without giving anything away!).  Unfortunately it just didn't grab me...fortunately, it was a freebie on the Aldiko ereader so didn't cost me anything to find that out!  1/5

* Emily Goes to Exeter ~ M.C. Beaton
After the unpleasantness that was The Invisible Man, I fancied something light and my book club buddy recommended I try this, which is the first of the 'Travelling Matchmaker' series.  M.C. Beaton wrote the Hamish Macbeth series, which was televised (in the UK at least) and also the Agatha Raisin murder mystery series, the first of which is in my 'To Be Read' Kindle category, so has a pretty good pedigree behind her. 

Set in the early 1800s, housekeeper Hannah Pym is left a large sum of money when her employer dies and decides to use it for travel.  Nowhere exotic (by today's standards) - she simply wants to take the stagecoach that she has watched drive past the house every day for years and have 'adventures'.  Well, she certainly gets one as her journey to Exeter is halted by a huge snowstorm blocking the road.  The passengers take shelter in an inn and have to learn to get along with one another and take care of themselves, as the innkeeper's wife is ill and unable to cook and clean for them.  For some, who are rather high-born, this is an considerable outrage, while for others it's an adventure and a chance to bond.  Cue Miss Pym trying to set up various couples whilst also trying to prevent one or two attempts at murder.  It sounds a little far-fetched perhaps, but it did work very well and was an enjoyable read (though the Emily of the title is immensely annoying!).  I'll definitely try the rest of the series.  4/5

This week I've started:

* The Money Magpie ~ Jasmine Birtles

I'm still reading:

* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard (I will finish this off soon...I promise!)
* Styx and Stones ~ Carola Dunn (book club)
* The Best of Times ~ Penny Vincenzi (almost finished)

One thing I forgot to mention last week - probably because I was so upset about Japan (keep donating/sending positive thoughts by the way!) - was that I'd finally watched the TV shows I'd recorded on World Book Night.  One was called 'The Books We Really Read', where comedian Sue Perkins (a self-confessed literary snob) investigated why the genres of crime, thriller and romance sell so well.  It was really interesting, once I got over the feeling that she was criticising everything I enjoy reading and would love to have written, and her conclusion was rather insightful.  Essentially, she said that the split between literary fiction and popular fiction is (generally) that popular fiction has strong narrative and good pace - it's a page-turner - while literary fiction has beautiful language and is as precisely crafted as a poem but quite often has no plot whatsoever.  It's exactly what I've always felt but could never put my finger on!  Those books that you feel you should have read "because it's a postmodern classic, a reinterpretation of the blah blah blah" are basically just people showing off their writing skills, without considering what people might enjoy reading or what the experience will be like for the reader.  Quite a revelation - consider me 100% in the 'popular fiction' camp! 
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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 #15

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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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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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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Booklog #11

Eyes down, look in...here's this week's book report. 

This week I've finished:

* Wish ~ Alexandra Bullen
This is a light and sweet chick (or perhaps teen?) lit story about a shy 15 year old girl grieving for her recently dead twin sister, while also coping with being moved all the way across the USA and all the problems that brings (new school, making friends, boys etc).  An encounter with a seamstress who is more than she seems sets Olivia's life on a new path in a magical way. 

It's a nice book - somewhat predictable (you'll see the ending coming from quite a long way off), but there's nothing wrong with that sometimes.  After finishing the darkness that was In Search of Adam it was a lovely shiny twinkly piece of light!  I read it in a couple of days as it's written in a breezy flowing style that keeps you hanging on for 'just one more chapter'.  4/5

This week I've started:

* Moab is my Washpot ~ Stephen Fry
Fry's first autobiography, chronicling his early childhood up to his early twenties. 

I'm still reading:

* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard
* Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett
* The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt (I've bullied myself into perservering with it each night and have got all the way up to a mighty /53 chapters)
* Murder on the Flying Scotsman ~ Carola Dunn (book club)

This puts me at 5/100 for the 100 Books in a Year challenge.  

Adios for now! 
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Booklog #10

Wow - the tenth booklog post already, where does the time go?! 

This week I've finished:

* The Remains of the Day ~ Kazuo Ishiguro
I just realised that I forgot to mention that I'd started this...I'm going to blame Christmas and say that I was all out of sync with what was started/finished/in progress (how long after the event is it acceptable to continue blaming the Christmas break for things?!).  Anyway, this is one of those contemporary classics that I've always meant to read but never quite got round to.  In 1956, the butler of a large stately home takes a driving holiday to visit an old colleague and reminisces along the way about various things that occurred during his long career.  It seems quite philosophical - 'what is dignity?' being a question he mulls over often. 

I find that with classics you're generally expected to a) fully understand all their levels and nuances and b) enjoy them without question.  It seems sacrilege to say that you don't enjoy Dickens or Shakespeare or whoever.  But I'm going to be honest and say that I probably didn't fully appreciate all the levels of this story.  Don't get me wrong, it was an enjoyable read - I loved the use of language, the setting and the characters - but the philosophy kind of passed me by.  I probably should have been reflecting seriously on the Nazi sympathiser aspect but instead was merrily enjoying the descriptions of the house and the countryside.  Maybe I need to read it again with a serious head on...  4/5

* In Search of Adam ~ Caroline Smailes
A (fictional) account of how, following her mother's suicide, seven year old Jude is raped by a neighbour and the subsequent spiral of self-harm and abuse that her life goes down, as well as her quest to find out the truth about a terrible secret within her family.  It's desperately sad and very uncomfortable to read, but it's also very well-written with complex characters and a great depiction of the setting.  Smailes writes phonetically to convey Jude's father's Sunderland accent and while this is effective if you read it out loud, I did find that it really slows you down, which I didn't appreciate as I like my reading to flow (these parts felt like wading through treacle).  It's difficult to know how to score this, but I feel that my score should be based on how much I enjoyed the book, rather than its quality, and so I can only really give it 2/5

This puts me at 4/100 so far for the 2011 Reading Challenge. 

This week I've started:

* Wish ~ Alexandra Bullen
* The Parthenon ~ Mary Beard (non-fiction, I used some of it for my OU essay but it's an interesting read so I'll finish the whole thing)

I'm still reading:
* Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett
* The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt (chapter 33/53 - there are about 200 pages left, I want to be finished with it before the end of February as it seems to have been going on forever!)
* Murder on the Flying Scotsman ~ Carola Dunn (book club)

Till next time, happy reading! 
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