This post has the title of the one job I most need to do and have been successfully avoiding for the past five days. I got back from my holidays last week and have managed to avoid to fully unpack my suitcase ever since. The most important stuff is out of it... the laundry (which is still awaiting a spin in the washing machine), the licorice (more than half way through that now) and the biscuits (devoured by myself and the colleagues at work). There are just some random things that have a home to go back to... oh and there is my bag of toiletries that still needs to be put away. But hey.... it will all get sorted out in the end. It better as I have about 10 people coming over for lasagna at the end of the week!!
On the good news front - my lower back and sacroiliac joint are a lot better. I do not know what muscles the physio leaned on last Friday but it seems to have helped a lot. It was a bit achy during the day and it seems that the longer I sit the worse it gets but overall in day to day life it is soooooo much better. Now on to the business at hand...
### SPOILER ALERT ###
Hogfather - Terry Pratchett
This is only the second TP I have read but I think I may venture into some more of his adventures. He has a great style of writing which is snappy and pacey. His characters takes things literally sometimes and this leads to some very funny dialogue and some double takes in reading.
This one is actually very fitting for the time of the year as it is all about the Hogfather who has a striking resemblance in appearance and actions to Father Christmas. Whilst writing this I actually realise I am getting this wrong. This book is about the absence of the Hogfather. It seems that some hilariously deranged group of entities has given an assignment to some vague groups of assassins to kill the Hogfather. The assassins have sent their best man for the job to go and complete the mission: Mr Teatime - his tombstone is likely to include the words "total nut job" and "demented lemming". Mr T has gathered a group of tough guys to implement his plan which involves getting to the tooth fairy.. who turns out to have set up a lovely and profitable franchise for collecting teeth. At the start of the story we also meet Susan who is Death's granddaughter and who is destined for greater things than she imagines, much to her chagrin. Susan is a very plucky governess who felt she needed a change from being rich and posh and has decided that children are where her talents lie. She is good with kids and very good at keeping the bad monsters under the bed at bay. I would not want to get on the wrong side of this girl while she is holding a poker... nor would any self respecting ghoul.
The story is really several story lines woven into one. It all starts with the request for the Hogfather to be terminated. He ends up not exactly getting killed but more.... forgotten. This motivates Death to take up to cause for mankind and start pretending to be the Hogfather because belief must not die. It seems that there is a certain amount of belief in the universe and as the belief in one (The Hogfather) diminishes it allows for all sorts of other Gods and fairies to turn up and vie for the Hogfather's crown. Throughout the book we have all sorts of weird fairies and gods turning up (the Oh God of Hangovers is great!!). The University plays a part in all this as well. There is the bathroom under development and a very clever Dean (despite all appearances). Our reluctant heroine in this book is Susan who ends up trying to save the world and mankind's belief in the Hogfather so the sun will come up tomorrow. It really is a wonderful mixture of stories and at times it is hard to try and figure out who are the important characters and which the not so important ones. You almost have to focus on things this way as there are so many in the book that it hurts your head trying to keep track of them all. Fortunately the stories all interweave in the end and it comes together in a heady mix of human happiness.
Death is one of the funniest characters in this book. I love him. I love how he tries to be human, how he takes thing literally, how he does no seem to get the joke and yet... he does save the world.
Susan is great too. She is a independent woman who is making her own way in the world. She is trying to break away from her past but finds that this is not always possible.. nor, perhaps, should you want to. She may not show it but I feel she loves being Death's Granddaughter. She feels some of the power that that brings with it and she understands that it is part of who she is.. for better or for worse.
There is a lot going on in the book that you have to try and keep track of and perhaps not all the characters are as well developed as they could be but is is a good read and the end is suitably festive.
Title: Hogfather
Author: Terry Pratchett
445 pages
Corgi Books
ISBN nr 0-552-14542-4
Books to be read: 101.. .as indicated in previous post.
Only 13 more days until the year is done and I am managing to stay away from the cheap books.
Monday, 17 December 2012
Thursday, 6 December 2012
Final purchases
The other week my last purchase arrived. Umberto Eco... it is going down as my first second hand purchase from Amazon and as it has now arrived in my house it is going to have to be added to the list of books to be read. That list is actually in balance as I finished one as well.
Bought one: 102
Read one: 101
I vaguely remember the days when I worried about getting over 60.... that seems like a distant dream now. Will I ever get below 90?
I have told myself that Eco is the last book I will buy this year but as it is only early December that might be a bit of an ambitious task to set myself. I will have to wait and see how I go. Bookshops are dangerously omnipresent, relapses are not unknown to me and the evenings are long and dark.
Work and my sacroiliac joint have kept me busy and in pain respectively so I have not had much chance to update this blog over the last week or so. But.... physio is going well and work is...well, work and still busy but I should have some more time soon to let you know what I thought about The Hogfather... I will say this for it, I really love Death in this one!
Bought one: 102
Read one: 101
I vaguely remember the days when I worried about getting over 60.... that seems like a distant dream now. Will I ever get below 90?
I have told myself that Eco is the last book I will buy this year but as it is only early December that might be a bit of an ambitious task to set myself. I will have to wait and see how I go. Bookshops are dangerously omnipresent, relapses are not unknown to me and the evenings are long and dark.
Work and my sacroiliac joint have kept me busy and in pain respectively so I have not had much chance to update this blog over the last week or so. But.... physio is going well and work is...well, work and still busy but I should have some more time soon to let you know what I thought about The Hogfather... I will say this for it, I really love Death in this one!
Sunday, 25 November 2012
All out
Today I have a very valid excuse for not finishing a book and doing a review. I have spent a good few hours today building my wonderful, brand-spanking, 5 shelved, dirt cheap new bookshelves. It took a bit of doing and my hip muscles are paying for it now but... it looks absolutely fabulous. the original smaller bookshelves are now in the spare room with some of my read books on there. I still have about 5 boxes of books to house but I have only so much room in this place. I would love to have an entire wall of bookshelves but I think the sofa might stage a silent protest if I decide to do that and I need to keep that sofa on side for now.
I must say that I find it both comforting and ever so slightly daunting to have all my books to be read out in the open and no longer hidden behind one another or stacked two high on top of one another. I now have one complete shelf dedicated to Ghost Stories/Legend/Myths and the rest is mixed up on the various shelves. I thought briefly about alphabetising or categorising the books in some way or other but I figured that in the grand scheme of things it was really not that important how they were ordered and I did have better things to do. Although I did put a few of the Stephen King ones together... and cluster some of the Dean Koontz ones... but apart from that...all random!
Two new arrivals to report this week so the total is now up to 101 to be read. I am still awaiting the arrival of another one. Also my previous book donor at work said he might have another clear out so I might be getting some more strays to house.
I am off to get on with my book, have another coffee and rest my weary limbs.
Off to the gym tomorrow to see what exercise I can/should do... change in life routine approaching!
I must say that I find it both comforting and ever so slightly daunting to have all my books to be read out in the open and no longer hidden behind one another or stacked two high on top of one another. I now have one complete shelf dedicated to Ghost Stories/Legend/Myths and the rest is mixed up on the various shelves. I thought briefly about alphabetising or categorising the books in some way or other but I figured that in the grand scheme of things it was really not that important how they were ordered and I did have better things to do. Although I did put a few of the Stephen King ones together... and cluster some of the Dean Koontz ones... but apart from that...all random!
Two new arrivals to report this week so the total is now up to 101 to be read. I am still awaiting the arrival of another one. Also my previous book donor at work said he might have another clear out so I might be getting some more strays to house.
I am off to get on with my book, have another coffee and rest my weary limbs.
Off to the gym tomorrow to see what exercise I can/should do... change in life routine approaching!
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Reviews mania over
Another day brings me to the final book to review.
After this, it is back to the reading for me.... thank heavens for that.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
The Small Hand - Susan Hill
This one was a bit of a mixed bag for me.
It is a ghost story by a modern writer so as love them that got me interested in this one. It was a really quick read as it only took me about a day to read it. The disappointment for me is that it is only 204 pages and it actually could have done with a good culling of about one hundred of them. The underlying story is good but it is let down by all the excess padding in the story.
If the story had just focused on the story of Adam Snow and his strange encounter at the deserted house then we would have been okay. Unfortunately Adam has to go book hunting for his clients and go off to a monastery, visit his brother.. oh no wait.. his brother actually tie into the story so we can leave those bits in. That should be about 3 pages saved. Adam comes across the house whilst he is driving around finding his way home form visiting one of his wealthy clients. The only reason the client is in there is to be a vehicle to get Adam in the area and then later on the client's wife takes an interest in what happened to Adam and finds out its and pieces about the history of the house for Adam. Guess he was too busy dealing books to do that himself? The only reason Adam goes off to the convent is to show us that the thing is haunting him not the location of the house... and this is important why? the whole thing about Adam buying the Shakespeare folio serves no purpose to me at all. So the thing haunts him away from the house so he finds that he is not safe from it anywhere, so he is more scared... okay there are other ways to get to that point that do not required introducing a whole new aspect to the story line. If you are a good writer you should be able to find a way to get your point across without doing this. It just feels that a lot of the action in the story line is unnecessary and that takes away from the punch of the story.... and that is a shame as the premise is good.
The ending is good and the way it ties in with Adam's brother has been nicely done but apart from that a it of a let down.
I have ordered another one by Susan Hill so it will be interesting to see what that is like.
Title: The Small Hand
Author: Susan Hill
204 pages
Profile Books
ISBN nr 978-1-84668-240-7
An official recount has been carried out on the books status and I can confirm that I now have 99 books still waiting to be read... hurrah I was right at the last count.
After this, it is back to the reading for me.... thank heavens for that.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
The Small Hand - Susan Hill
This one was a bit of a mixed bag for me.
It is a ghost story by a modern writer so as love them that got me interested in this one. It was a really quick read as it only took me about a day to read it. The disappointment for me is that it is only 204 pages and it actually could have done with a good culling of about one hundred of them. The underlying story is good but it is let down by all the excess padding in the story.
If the story had just focused on the story of Adam Snow and his strange encounter at the deserted house then we would have been okay. Unfortunately Adam has to go book hunting for his clients and go off to a monastery, visit his brother.. oh no wait.. his brother actually tie into the story so we can leave those bits in. That should be about 3 pages saved. Adam comes across the house whilst he is driving around finding his way home form visiting one of his wealthy clients. The only reason the client is in there is to be a vehicle to get Adam in the area and then later on the client's wife takes an interest in what happened to Adam and finds out its and pieces about the history of the house for Adam. Guess he was too busy dealing books to do that himself? The only reason Adam goes off to the convent is to show us that the thing is haunting him not the location of the house... and this is important why? the whole thing about Adam buying the Shakespeare folio serves no purpose to me at all. So the thing haunts him away from the house so he finds that he is not safe from it anywhere, so he is more scared... okay there are other ways to get to that point that do not required introducing a whole new aspect to the story line. If you are a good writer you should be able to find a way to get your point across without doing this. It just feels that a lot of the action in the story line is unnecessary and that takes away from the punch of the story.... and that is a shame as the premise is good.
The ending is good and the way it ties in with Adam's brother has been nicely done but apart from that a it of a let down.
I have ordered another one by Susan Hill so it will be interesting to see what that is like.
Title: The Small Hand
Author: Susan Hill
204 pages
Profile Books
ISBN nr 978-1-84668-240-7
An official recount has been carried out on the books status and I can confirm that I now have 99 books still waiting to be read... hurrah I was right at the last count.
Monday, 19 November 2012
The Final Furlong - part 2
As I am on a roll and The Dark Charisma of Hitler on BBC2 can be followed very well by just listening to the commentary, here goes another one.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Captain Scott's Last Expedition - Robert Falcon Scott
As I typed the above spoiler alert I kind of thought that perhaps I do not really need one for this book. I think most people will know how this one ended. This is the strange thing as you start to read it. You read about all the preparations and then the trip to the pole and you know that some of them never made it back.
It is one of the most impressive books I have ever read. It is moving, dramatic, beautiful, emotional and funny. In Scott's writing you get the enthusiasm at the start and the despair at the end. It is heartbreaking to read the final few days of his journal. How they had to cope and at one point knew that there was no way out for them. They knew they were about to die and that there was no escape. At one point they thought that perhaps they would take an overdose to end it sooner rather than later but true to their powerful characters they decided to face their end as they had live their lives... openly, head on and as true British Gentleman.
I do not really know how to review this journal. There is so much in it that is awe inspiring and inspirational. As you read it you feel that you are travelling with Scott, you see it all through his eyes and it becomes personal and very close to you. It is really an epic story of how man struggles to survive in the most trying of circumstances. the fact that in this case some men have failed is not a defeat but still a triumph.
It was very interesting to read the part at the start of the journals that tells you all about how the ship was prepared and what they did to get the huts and depots up and running. All this gives you an idea of how meticulous Scott and his team were. They had planned this thing in detail. They had done the maths on the food and all the supplies required per stage of the trip. I do not think there was one thing that Scott did not worry about himself. It is great to read about how life in the camp takes shape and how they set up their routine. The detail that goes into getting their accommodation up and running is amazing. Then there is the epic effort of the depot laying. So much was riding on this and Scott needed to get it right not just for himself but also for the others that went part of the way to the Pole.
Some of the most fun stuff is to do with the animals they take on the trip. There are ponies and dogs and each have their own purpose to serve. The ponies seemed and odd choice to me but in the end you learn that they are not only valuable for transporting supplies but end up being additional rations as well. But they would need to last and that was by no means an easy feat! The dogs seem a wild bunch of animals but they help the expedition carry supplies to and from their huts and depots.
In the end it is also a tragic story. Scott, Bowers Wilson, Evans and Oates all reach the pole only to find that Amundsen has beaten them to it. They must have been crushed by that although Scott seems to be putting up a good front in this diary pages. Then they face the trek back. As they make their way back they are all falling apart. They are being battered by the weather, lack of food and fuel and fatigue. The final three members of the South Pole party, Scott, Wilson and Bowers die only about 13 miles from the depot. They run out of fuel and food and all of them have an injury of some kind or another. They cold go no further and faced death in the direst of circumstances. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like to watch others around you die knowing that you were possibly going to be next.
.
There is no getting away for the discussion that some of the diary entries have been cleaned up and edited in earlier versions of the journal. In the newer versions of the diary some entries have shown Scott as being a bit petty about some team members performances and their abilities. He is quite critical of some of the expedition members as he feels they lack the character to go on this expedition. Well.... the way I see it is that if you were putting together team to go to the extremes of where mankind can possibly hope to survive, where the difference between life and death is balanced on a a knife edge then perhaps you have the right to be picky? I also think that you could live with the odd critical remark about a team member or a slight or two about a colleagues abilities. He was not going on a teddy bear picnic he was going to the South Pole!
All I can really say is READ IT!!!It is epic and beautiful and emotional... prepare to shed a few tears when it comes to Oates and the last few days of the final 3.
Title: Journals - Captain Scott's Last Expedition
Author: RF Scott
515 pages
Oxford World's Classics
ISBN nr 978-0-19-953680
Only one more review to go but is is time for bed now. Tomorrow's will be short and sweet I promise.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Captain Scott's Last Expedition - Robert Falcon Scott
As I typed the above spoiler alert I kind of thought that perhaps I do not really need one for this book. I think most people will know how this one ended. This is the strange thing as you start to read it. You read about all the preparations and then the trip to the pole and you know that some of them never made it back.
It is one of the most impressive books I have ever read. It is moving, dramatic, beautiful, emotional and funny. In Scott's writing you get the enthusiasm at the start and the despair at the end. It is heartbreaking to read the final few days of his journal. How they had to cope and at one point knew that there was no way out for them. They knew they were about to die and that there was no escape. At one point they thought that perhaps they would take an overdose to end it sooner rather than later but true to their powerful characters they decided to face their end as they had live their lives... openly, head on and as true British Gentleman.
I do not really know how to review this journal. There is so much in it that is awe inspiring and inspirational. As you read it you feel that you are travelling with Scott, you see it all through his eyes and it becomes personal and very close to you. It is really an epic story of how man struggles to survive in the most trying of circumstances. the fact that in this case some men have failed is not a defeat but still a triumph.
It was very interesting to read the part at the start of the journals that tells you all about how the ship was prepared and what they did to get the huts and depots up and running. All this gives you an idea of how meticulous Scott and his team were. They had planned this thing in detail. They had done the maths on the food and all the supplies required per stage of the trip. I do not think there was one thing that Scott did not worry about himself. It is great to read about how life in the camp takes shape and how they set up their routine. The detail that goes into getting their accommodation up and running is amazing. Then there is the epic effort of the depot laying. So much was riding on this and Scott needed to get it right not just for himself but also for the others that went part of the way to the Pole.
Some of the most fun stuff is to do with the animals they take on the trip. There are ponies and dogs and each have their own purpose to serve. The ponies seemed and odd choice to me but in the end you learn that they are not only valuable for transporting supplies but end up being additional rations as well. But they would need to last and that was by no means an easy feat! The dogs seem a wild bunch of animals but they help the expedition carry supplies to and from their huts and depots.
In the end it is also a tragic story. Scott, Bowers Wilson, Evans and Oates all reach the pole only to find that Amundsen has beaten them to it. They must have been crushed by that although Scott seems to be putting up a good front in this diary pages. Then they face the trek back. As they make their way back they are all falling apart. They are being battered by the weather, lack of food and fuel and fatigue. The final three members of the South Pole party, Scott, Wilson and Bowers die only about 13 miles from the depot. They run out of fuel and food and all of them have an injury of some kind or another. They cold go no further and faced death in the direst of circumstances. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like to watch others around you die knowing that you were possibly going to be next.
.
There is no getting away for the discussion that some of the diary entries have been cleaned up and edited in earlier versions of the journal. In the newer versions of the diary some entries have shown Scott as being a bit petty about some team members performances and their abilities. He is quite critical of some of the expedition members as he feels they lack the character to go on this expedition. Well.... the way I see it is that if you were putting together team to go to the extremes of where mankind can possibly hope to survive, where the difference between life and death is balanced on a a knife edge then perhaps you have the right to be picky? I also think that you could live with the odd critical remark about a team member or a slight or two about a colleagues abilities. He was not going on a teddy bear picnic he was going to the South Pole!
All I can really say is READ IT!!!It is epic and beautiful and emotional... prepare to shed a few tears when it comes to Oates and the last few days of the final 3.
Title: Journals - Captain Scott's Last Expedition
Author: RF Scott
515 pages
Oxford World's Classics
ISBN nr 978-0-19-953680
Only one more review to go but is is time for bed now. Tomorrow's will be short and sweet I promise.
The final furlong
After having done a marathon session yesterday I have now been relegated to sitting with my legs stretched out on the sofa instead of in the normal seating position. reason being that my RH gluteus maximus is absolutely killing me when sitting on a regular chair, walking and reaching up. the way I am sitting/lounging now seems to be the only seating position that does not make me flinch every 2 seconds. I will have to get up a few times whilst writing this review as the muscle seems to get tense and achy. I think I may have to take up a subscription to Square One as I seem to be heading there on a regular basis lately. At least my fingers are still functioning well...
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Firestarter - Stephen King
I was aware of a movie made from this novel back in the day but I never sat down and watched it. I did remember the title so when I came across it a few months ago I decided to pick it up to see what it was like.
Well... it is a cracking read.
As I by now have come to expect of King it kicks into action from the start and it does not really let up until the last page and even then it leaves you wanting more. The story starts with a father (Andy) and daughter (Charlie) on the run from some shady guys in New York. You are not surw why but you feel sympathy for them from the start. You learn quite quickly that Andy has got some special abilities and you automatically think they must be after him. But... turns out they are actually after Charlie and what she can do. In the first half of the book you find out bit by bit how Andy got his power, how he met Charlie's mum and how they ended up on the run. It is safe to say that Charlie's powers are far more destructive than her dad's. They also take less out of her. Andy seems to be at the end of his powers whereas Charlie is still coming into her own.
The whole book is a tale of two people on the run from a shady government organisation. They go on the run, they almost get found, they get found, they manage to escape they find a safe haven, they get re-captured, they live in captivity, they escape. Sounds kind of repetitive but with all the characters you meet it is a great ride to be on with Andy and Charlie.
Andy used to be a suburbia kind of guy. He had the wife, the kid, the job and the house with a mortgage. Because of some misunderstanding from some trigger happy government employee his life is turned upside down and he is now forced to live from hand to mouth and drift from one job into another. He is still trying to help people where he can but there is not a lot of stability he can give Charlie.
Charlie is a lovely, innocent little girl who knows she is special and does not really want to use her powers but has to at times. The great thing about her is to see her struggle about using her power. At one point she never wants to use them again but she is placed into a situation where she has to. It both scares her to feel it's power and part of her actually likes the havoc she can wreak. Charlie is a lovely character and deserves to be the focus of the story. She is only a little girl trying to make sense of what she feels and can do. She is the innocent child that deserves protection but is only seen by some as a tool to use. She is well written and you see her grow up a little in the book and I think she will grow up to be a fine young woman.
As far as learning curves go Andy finds out that just as you thought that you might as well give up a little solitary contemplation in the dark goes a long way. Charlie finds out the hard way not to trust the first kind soul that she meets. Sometimes when it looks evil it is actually evil.
Some of the things in the book are the standard good versus evil stuff. Andy and Charlie are good, kind, upstanding people. They tend to meet good upstanding people who help them on their travels.They just want to be left alone to get on with their lives.
They are pursued by the bad guys who belong to a shady organisation called The Shop. They seem to have more eyes and ears across the USA than the CIA or FBI combined. They are always watching and relentless in their pursuit of Andy and Charlie. They have the obligatory clever leader (elderly, shrewd, looks like a kind grandad) and they employ the obligatory strong and mysterious bad guy (madman native American with a wish to see death in people's eyes). Fortunately, for once it ends bad for all the bad guys. Their headquarters is blown to bits and their organisation is exposed with all it's faults.... although they are not completely obliterated. It does not end well for Andy but you kind of expected that. And as for Charlie... well... I think she will do just fine.
As I said earlier, it is a great read it has a great pace and the story and it's characters are engaging and likable. Even the bad ass bad guy has some redeeming features in him. The ending gave me a real chuckle and I will not spoil it for you but if you ever need to know where to go with a big news story check page 509!
Title: Firestarter
Author: Stephen King
510 pages
Futura
ISBN nr 0-7088-2101-4
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Firestarter - Stephen King
I was aware of a movie made from this novel back in the day but I never sat down and watched it. I did remember the title so when I came across it a few months ago I decided to pick it up to see what it was like.
Well... it is a cracking read.
As I by now have come to expect of King it kicks into action from the start and it does not really let up until the last page and even then it leaves you wanting more. The story starts with a father (Andy) and daughter (Charlie) on the run from some shady guys in New York. You are not surw why but you feel sympathy for them from the start. You learn quite quickly that Andy has got some special abilities and you automatically think they must be after him. But... turns out they are actually after Charlie and what she can do. In the first half of the book you find out bit by bit how Andy got his power, how he met Charlie's mum and how they ended up on the run. It is safe to say that Charlie's powers are far more destructive than her dad's. They also take less out of her. Andy seems to be at the end of his powers whereas Charlie is still coming into her own.
The whole book is a tale of two people on the run from a shady government organisation. They go on the run, they almost get found, they get found, they manage to escape they find a safe haven, they get re-captured, they live in captivity, they escape. Sounds kind of repetitive but with all the characters you meet it is a great ride to be on with Andy and Charlie.
Andy used to be a suburbia kind of guy. He had the wife, the kid, the job and the house with a mortgage. Because of some misunderstanding from some trigger happy government employee his life is turned upside down and he is now forced to live from hand to mouth and drift from one job into another. He is still trying to help people where he can but there is not a lot of stability he can give Charlie.
Charlie is a lovely, innocent little girl who knows she is special and does not really want to use her powers but has to at times. The great thing about her is to see her struggle about using her power. At one point she never wants to use them again but she is placed into a situation where she has to. It both scares her to feel it's power and part of her actually likes the havoc she can wreak. Charlie is a lovely character and deserves to be the focus of the story. She is only a little girl trying to make sense of what she feels and can do. She is the innocent child that deserves protection but is only seen by some as a tool to use. She is well written and you see her grow up a little in the book and I think she will grow up to be a fine young woman.
As far as learning curves go Andy finds out that just as you thought that you might as well give up a little solitary contemplation in the dark goes a long way. Charlie finds out the hard way not to trust the first kind soul that she meets. Sometimes when it looks evil it is actually evil.
Some of the things in the book are the standard good versus evil stuff. Andy and Charlie are good, kind, upstanding people. They tend to meet good upstanding people who help them on their travels.They just want to be left alone to get on with their lives.
They are pursued by the bad guys who belong to a shady organisation called The Shop. They seem to have more eyes and ears across the USA than the CIA or FBI combined. They are always watching and relentless in their pursuit of Andy and Charlie. They have the obligatory clever leader (elderly, shrewd, looks like a kind grandad) and they employ the obligatory strong and mysterious bad guy (madman native American with a wish to see death in people's eyes). Fortunately, for once it ends bad for all the bad guys. Their headquarters is blown to bits and their organisation is exposed with all it's faults.... although they are not completely obliterated. It does not end well for Andy but you kind of expected that. And as for Charlie... well... I think she will do just fine.
As I said earlier, it is a great read it has a great pace and the story and it's characters are engaging and likable. Even the bad ass bad guy has some redeeming features in him. The ending gave me a real chuckle and I will not spoil it for you but if you ever need to know where to go with a big news story check page 509!
Title: Firestarter
Author: Stephen King
510 pages
Futura
ISBN nr 0-7088-2101-4
Sunday, 18 November 2012
Careful what you wish for...
Sometimes in reading you get a pleasant surprise when you least expect it, sometimes you get the opposite.
#### SPOILER ALERT ###
Three Gothic Novels - Edited by E.F. Bleiler
One of the reasons I bought this book was because it contained one I had heard of and had always wanted to read: The Castle of Otranto. The other two in it I had never heard of so I took a bit of a gamble buying it and reading it.
The Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole
Maybe I was just too excited by the prospect, maybe I just did not get it but I was a bit confused and disappointed by it. What I got from it was this: we have Manfred the lord of Otranto, he has a castle and a wife, son and daughter. His son is due to be married but dies (killed by some huge, mysterious helmet?) and then Manfred figures why waste a perfectly good bride and decides to marry the girl himself. She, in true damsel style finds this idea appalling and decides to run off to the neighbouring monastery. She meets the mandatory handsome stranger and is rescued from the bad guys. Meanwhile, mum is having kittens about her son and her faith. The daughter is doing a bit of detective work and finds out most of what dad is planning and tries to prevent this as she does not want her mother to be hurt or disgraced. Meanwhile in the monastery things are not what they seems and once the head meets the mysterious handsome stranger it turns out he is his son and potentially the rightful heir to Otranto. Not only that but in the meantime a party of mysterious knights has arrived as well and one of them turns out to be bride to be's father who was missing in action... somewhere... In the end Manfred gives up his title and him and his wife enter the convent... oh and the daughter gets killed but the bride gets a happy ending with the mysterious handsome stranger.
Vathek - William Beckford
If the first one in the volume was not what I expected then this one was even more of the same.
I think this one is trying to say pride comes before a fall and that there are things that us humans should not try to understand and just leave to the gods. However, it might also be about making sure you wrap up warm when you travel, do not get on unsafe swings and that just because you think you are dead you may not be.... I am not sure yet?
Vathek is a caliph with an overbearing mum and a hunger for power and knowledge. He is also indulged a bit too much by aforementioned mum and seeks knowledge he is not ready to understand or comprehend.He is cruel to his subjects he is brutal and ruthless. He is tested by the gods and fails. His entire life and world are destroyed and he is left with nothing. He is cast in to what I think is Hell and they are welcome to him!
The Vampyre - John Polidori
This one was the pleasant surprise in the volume.
It is a little tale of a man who befriends someone who turns out to be his downfall.
It starts out okay. Our hero, Aubrey meets a man Lord Ruthven and decides to go travelling with him. this is despite his misgivings about the man - apparently he is distant and cold and nobody is sure of his character. But Aubrey takes a chance on him being a suitable travel companion but hey... sometimes you just have to right? Things come to a head when the lord takes an interest in a young lady. Our hero has heard in the meantime that there are all sorts of rumours about the Lord's character floating around.. none of it good. he decides to warn the lady involved and then breaks of his arrangements with Lord Ruthven. Aubrey then goes on to Greece and falls in love with a local Greek girl Ianthe. Interestingly there are tales told about a man, a living vampyre and he seems to have an uncanny resemblance to Lord Ruthven. However, Aubrey ignores this. Then Ianthe is killed and Aubrey breaks down. Enter Lord Ruthven who takes care of his former travel companion. The men kiss and make up and travel on together. Then Ruthven's luck seems to turn and he gets killed... only to turn up in England a long time later! Aubrey has by this time sussed it out but is bound by a promise to the Vampyre not to tell who he is. Like a gentleman he keeps his word but it costs him his sister's life.
I liked this one. it is a bit convoluted in places - the circumstances are made to fit the story in a bit of a clumsy and obvious way but it is a good little vampire tale.
Title: Three Gothic Novels
Authors: Various, edited by E.F. Bleiler
283 pages
Dover Publications Inc
No ISBN nr - published in 1966
#### SPOILER ALERT ###
Three Gothic Novels - Edited by E.F. Bleiler
One of the reasons I bought this book was because it contained one I had heard of and had always wanted to read: The Castle of Otranto. The other two in it I had never heard of so I took a bit of a gamble buying it and reading it.
The Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole
Maybe I was just too excited by the prospect, maybe I just did not get it but I was a bit confused and disappointed by it. What I got from it was this: we have Manfred the lord of Otranto, he has a castle and a wife, son and daughter. His son is due to be married but dies (killed by some huge, mysterious helmet?) and then Manfred figures why waste a perfectly good bride and decides to marry the girl himself. She, in true damsel style finds this idea appalling and decides to run off to the neighbouring monastery. She meets the mandatory handsome stranger and is rescued from the bad guys. Meanwhile, mum is having kittens about her son and her faith. The daughter is doing a bit of detective work and finds out most of what dad is planning and tries to prevent this as she does not want her mother to be hurt or disgraced. Meanwhile in the monastery things are not what they seems and once the head meets the mysterious handsome stranger it turns out he is his son and potentially the rightful heir to Otranto. Not only that but in the meantime a party of mysterious knights has arrived as well and one of them turns out to be bride to be's father who was missing in action... somewhere... In the end Manfred gives up his title and him and his wife enter the convent... oh and the daughter gets killed but the bride gets a happy ending with the mysterious handsome stranger.
Vathek - William Beckford
If the first one in the volume was not what I expected then this one was even more of the same.
I think this one is trying to say pride comes before a fall and that there are things that us humans should not try to understand and just leave to the gods. However, it might also be about making sure you wrap up warm when you travel, do not get on unsafe swings and that just because you think you are dead you may not be.... I am not sure yet?
Vathek is a caliph with an overbearing mum and a hunger for power and knowledge. He is also indulged a bit too much by aforementioned mum and seeks knowledge he is not ready to understand or comprehend.He is cruel to his subjects he is brutal and ruthless. He is tested by the gods and fails. His entire life and world are destroyed and he is left with nothing. He is cast in to what I think is Hell and they are welcome to him!
The Vampyre - John Polidori
This one was the pleasant surprise in the volume.
It is a little tale of a man who befriends someone who turns out to be his downfall.
It starts out okay. Our hero, Aubrey meets a man Lord Ruthven and decides to go travelling with him. this is despite his misgivings about the man - apparently he is distant and cold and nobody is sure of his character. But Aubrey takes a chance on him being a suitable travel companion but hey... sometimes you just have to right? Things come to a head when the lord takes an interest in a young lady. Our hero has heard in the meantime that there are all sorts of rumours about the Lord's character floating around.. none of it good. he decides to warn the lady involved and then breaks of his arrangements with Lord Ruthven. Aubrey then goes on to Greece and falls in love with a local Greek girl Ianthe. Interestingly there are tales told about a man, a living vampyre and he seems to have an uncanny resemblance to Lord Ruthven. However, Aubrey ignores this. Then Ianthe is killed and Aubrey breaks down. Enter Lord Ruthven who takes care of his former travel companion. The men kiss and make up and travel on together. Then Ruthven's luck seems to turn and he gets killed... only to turn up in England a long time later! Aubrey has by this time sussed it out but is bound by a promise to the Vampyre not to tell who he is. Like a gentleman he keeps his word but it costs him his sister's life.
I liked this one. it is a bit convoluted in places - the circumstances are made to fit the story in a bit of a clumsy and obvious way but it is a good little vampire tale.
Title: Three Gothic Novels
Authors: Various, edited by E.F. Bleiler
283 pages
Dover Publications Inc
No ISBN nr - published in 1966
Who said literature is boring?
There is a slight unbalance in the Universe that has to be redressed.
I am now up to 5 books that I have read and not reviewed.. oh and I have to report 3 more that I ordered on-line. See... 5 read 3 new ones... no balance. My plan tonight is to go and redress this balance by having a major session of reviewing. I have just had my dinner, I have had a decaf coffee and Home Alone has just about finished so I am officially out of excuses not to go and do this. Then if only I can figure out how many books I have read my work for today will be complete.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
This one was a good read! It is kind of a book lovers book as it paints a world in which books are big business and there are literary detectives making sure that literature stays safe for the general public.
It is interesting because most of what you read about in the book seems absolutely normal. Yet, this world is not the same as ours and it offers possibilities that I personally cannot wait to see happen in ours. To be able to go into a book. Surely that beats space travel any day. Also, having a dodo for a pet. How cool is that!
This book is the first in a series and in it we are introduced to Literary Detective Thursday Next. She has a time travelling father (who travels through history staying one step ahead of the Chrono Guard), a dead brother and a man she would rather not be in love with but is. In this world we find Thursday in there is an organisation called the Special Operations Network who try to keep this world in order and also keep literature safe for the rest of us. In the SO it seems that the higher your grade the more obscure and dangerous your job gets.
It all starts of with someone stealing a manuscript.. not just any manuscript but Martin Chuzzlewit. The strange thing is that no-one seems to be able to figure out how the manuscript was stolen. Whoever did this seems to be able to go around unseen and wreak havoc on literature. There is a suspicion of who has done this vile act and Thursday is drawn into everything because she happens to know he suspect. This guy is no fluffy bunny criminal. He can apparently sense when his name is spoken dodge bullets, go around unseen and can make people do whatever he wants. He can bend their will to his purpose. He has a great name though: Hades. One of the other parties interested in the case is a shady company called Goliath. Fitting name for a mysterious organisation with a finger in many pies although we are not quite sure which finger is in which pie at any one time. They are represented by a fellow of the name of Jack Schitt (I am not kidding you, it made me chuckle). To cut a long story short... Thursday gets a temporary promotion and is asked to assist in finding the missing manuscript. the operation goes horribly wrong and everyone but Thursday ends up dead. In the middle of figuring out what she wants to do with the rest of her life Thursday gets some advice from a familiar face and decides that a job in Swindon is just what she needs. This is where we meet Thursday's mother, Aunt and uncle. He is a real gem and a really clever guy too. Mycroft has been a busy boy inventing all sorts of useful things. One of the things he has done is find a way into a book.
Then tragedy strikes again and another manuscript is taken. This time it is one closer to Thursday's heart... Jane Eyre. Thursday has been inside the book before when she was a little girl. Also Rochester has been out of it to see her so this make her interest in the taking of it personal. To prevent a further crime against literature taking place (and to save her uncle and aunt) Thursday has to find a way into the Republic of Deepest Darkest Wales. Naturally she succeeds and finds the manuscript. However, she then has to get inside it to get at Hades. Naturally she succeeds at this as well and all of Thornfield is mobilised to help keep Jane and the story safe. Naturally all is well that ends well and good triumphs over evil. Although Jane Eyre is never the same again.
The only little let down in the book is the back story of Thursday and Landen. It really does not need it. There is plenty going on without Thursday having some unresolved love affair going on. If it was meant to drag the whole issue of the Crimean War (yes it is still going on ) into the story then there was already her brother who died in it so we have the link to it right there. Thursday does not seem like the kind of girl who would sit in her parlour with a daisy going "he loves me, he loves me not" but apparently Fforde wants her to be a hopeless romantic.
What I liked about this book is that it created a world where books are important. For some lucky souls they are places that you can actually go and visit. The idea that you can change a story by going into the manuscript itself is genius. This whole world that Fforde has created is great and imaginative. Just think that you could turn up in Macbeth warn Duncan not to stay the night at Macbeth's. What if you could go and slap the annoying, sanctimonious Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice. Or if you could simply wander around in the heroic tales of the Greek Myths. How good would that be?!
I loved the fact that the original Jane Eyre in this book had a different ending and that Thursday being there changed it. I also loved the fact that there is a group of people who cared enough to stage a protest. Then there is the whole discussion in the book of who actually wrote Shakespeare's plays. Lots of possible authors are raised and it is a discussion that is going on in our world as well.
This book by far has the most fun character names I have ever encountered in any book. I mean, we have Thursday Next, Paige Turner, Boswell, Jack Schitt, Victor Analogy Acheron Hades.. and his brother Styx... you could not make this stuff up! This is part of the attraction of the book. If you have read a book or two or/and are interested in books there will be some character somewhere that you recognise. Linked to that one of the most annoying things about the books is that you constantly find yourself thinking "what am I missing". Whenever a new character is introduced you wonder if this is another literary figure or person that you should really know. I thought of google-ing all the characters but thought better of it in the end.
Apart from liking the way in which Fforde has designed his little book focussed world I also like his humour, his use of character names, his creativity in inventing machines that can aid his story and I kind of like Thursday. the book has a good pace and it reads really well. It makes you want to discover more about this world that is so similar to ours but not. This is only the first one in the series and once I get through a bit more of my own I might get my friend to lend me the next one in the series.
Title: The Eyre Affair
Author: Jasper Fforde
373 pages
Hodder
ISBN nr 0-340-73356-X
Books to be reviewed: 4
Books to be read: who knows, right, here we go again.. (why is this never easy)... at the last count I was down to 101 books to be read. This included the Stephen King one and my two bargains. Therefore... having finished another two in the meantime I am now on 99 again...this seems right... right???
Books bought (but not yet arrived in the house so not added to the total just yet - my blog my rules!!): 3
I am now up to 5 books that I have read and not reviewed.. oh and I have to report 3 more that I ordered on-line. See... 5 read 3 new ones... no balance. My plan tonight is to go and redress this balance by having a major session of reviewing. I have just had my dinner, I have had a decaf coffee and Home Alone has just about finished so I am officially out of excuses not to go and do this. Then if only I can figure out how many books I have read my work for today will be complete.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
This one was a good read! It is kind of a book lovers book as it paints a world in which books are big business and there are literary detectives making sure that literature stays safe for the general public.
It is interesting because most of what you read about in the book seems absolutely normal. Yet, this world is not the same as ours and it offers possibilities that I personally cannot wait to see happen in ours. To be able to go into a book. Surely that beats space travel any day. Also, having a dodo for a pet. How cool is that!
This book is the first in a series and in it we are introduced to Literary Detective Thursday Next. She has a time travelling father (who travels through history staying one step ahead of the Chrono Guard), a dead brother and a man she would rather not be in love with but is. In this world we find Thursday in there is an organisation called the Special Operations Network who try to keep this world in order and also keep literature safe for the rest of us. In the SO it seems that the higher your grade the more obscure and dangerous your job gets.
It all starts of with someone stealing a manuscript.. not just any manuscript but Martin Chuzzlewit. The strange thing is that no-one seems to be able to figure out how the manuscript was stolen. Whoever did this seems to be able to go around unseen and wreak havoc on literature. There is a suspicion of who has done this vile act and Thursday is drawn into everything because she happens to know he suspect. This guy is no fluffy bunny criminal. He can apparently sense when his name is spoken dodge bullets, go around unseen and can make people do whatever he wants. He can bend their will to his purpose. He has a great name though: Hades. One of the other parties interested in the case is a shady company called Goliath. Fitting name for a mysterious organisation with a finger in many pies although we are not quite sure which finger is in which pie at any one time. They are represented by a fellow of the name of Jack Schitt (I am not kidding you, it made me chuckle). To cut a long story short... Thursday gets a temporary promotion and is asked to assist in finding the missing manuscript. the operation goes horribly wrong and everyone but Thursday ends up dead. In the middle of figuring out what she wants to do with the rest of her life Thursday gets some advice from a familiar face and decides that a job in Swindon is just what she needs. This is where we meet Thursday's mother, Aunt and uncle. He is a real gem and a really clever guy too. Mycroft has been a busy boy inventing all sorts of useful things. One of the things he has done is find a way into a book.
Then tragedy strikes again and another manuscript is taken. This time it is one closer to Thursday's heart... Jane Eyre. Thursday has been inside the book before when she was a little girl. Also Rochester has been out of it to see her so this make her interest in the taking of it personal. To prevent a further crime against literature taking place (and to save her uncle and aunt) Thursday has to find a way into the Republic of Deepest Darkest Wales. Naturally she succeeds and finds the manuscript. However, she then has to get inside it to get at Hades. Naturally she succeeds at this as well and all of Thornfield is mobilised to help keep Jane and the story safe. Naturally all is well that ends well and good triumphs over evil. Although Jane Eyre is never the same again.
The only little let down in the book is the back story of Thursday and Landen. It really does not need it. There is plenty going on without Thursday having some unresolved love affair going on. If it was meant to drag the whole issue of the Crimean War (yes it is still going on ) into the story then there was already her brother who died in it so we have the link to it right there. Thursday does not seem like the kind of girl who would sit in her parlour with a daisy going "he loves me, he loves me not" but apparently Fforde wants her to be a hopeless romantic.
What I liked about this book is that it created a world where books are important. For some lucky souls they are places that you can actually go and visit. The idea that you can change a story by going into the manuscript itself is genius. This whole world that Fforde has created is great and imaginative. Just think that you could turn up in Macbeth warn Duncan not to stay the night at Macbeth's. What if you could go and slap the annoying, sanctimonious Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice. Or if you could simply wander around in the heroic tales of the Greek Myths. How good would that be?!
I loved the fact that the original Jane Eyre in this book had a different ending and that Thursday being there changed it. I also loved the fact that there is a group of people who cared enough to stage a protest. Then there is the whole discussion in the book of who actually wrote Shakespeare's plays. Lots of possible authors are raised and it is a discussion that is going on in our world as well.
This book by far has the most fun character names I have ever encountered in any book. I mean, we have Thursday Next, Paige Turner, Boswell, Jack Schitt, Victor Analogy Acheron Hades.. and his brother Styx... you could not make this stuff up! This is part of the attraction of the book. If you have read a book or two or/and are interested in books there will be some character somewhere that you recognise. Linked to that one of the most annoying things about the books is that you constantly find yourself thinking "what am I missing". Whenever a new character is introduced you wonder if this is another literary figure or person that you should really know. I thought of google-ing all the characters but thought better of it in the end.
Apart from liking the way in which Fforde has designed his little book focussed world I also like his humour, his use of character names, his creativity in inventing machines that can aid his story and I kind of like Thursday. the book has a good pace and it reads really well. It makes you want to discover more about this world that is so similar to ours but not. This is only the first one in the series and once I get through a bit more of my own I might get my friend to lend me the next one in the series.
Title: The Eyre Affair
Author: Jasper Fforde
373 pages
Hodder
ISBN nr 0-340-73356-X
Books to be reviewed: 4
Books to be read: who knows, right, here we go again.. (why is this never easy)... at the last count I was down to 101 books to be read. This included the Stephen King one and my two bargains. Therefore... having finished another two in the meantime I am now on 99 again...this seems right... right???
Books bought (but not yet arrived in the house so not added to the total just yet - my blog my rules!!): 3
Sunday, 4 November 2012
Bargainous
I got myself a real bargain this weekend. I managed to buy myself two books for £3.-.... amazing right!
And they were not even small paperback books oh no, these were the proper kind. Good old-fashioned hardbacks, published somewhere in the 1930's.
And we are not talking only 400 pages a piece either... no sir... just over 1000 in each one!!
I spotted them and thought that they would be at least £5 or £10 each... imagine my surprise when I spotted the little paper sign saying £1.50 each. I even asked the lady if they were both £1.50 because I could not believe my luck. Now they are home with me... for some reason I have not put my initials and the year in them.. seems kind of wrong to do that in these gorgeous specimens of bookdom.
One thing that did make me laugh is that when I posted a photo of them on twitter a company that deal in DIGITAL pdf files of classic books followed me. I am sorry to say people, whoever you are: you are wasting your time on following me!! As long as I can buy the real thing there is no way in hell I am getting a pdf version of any book, classic or otherwise!
I am aiming to be the last person in Britain to own a kindle and remain to be convinced of the joys of reading a digital book. I want and need the real thing!
Back still a bit fragile as I assumed that I could sit on the chairs of my dining room table for half an hour or so to google some hotels in Cambridge. Guess not eh.... seems there is one muscle that tenses up whenever I sit on that chair for more than 10 minutes. So I have now banished myself to the sofa again to type his. When will I learn?!
I have in the meantime finished a Stephen King one and started on RF Scott's Journals so progress of sorts has been made.
Book tally has me confused.... Let me see if I can un-confuse myself.
Previous total to be read: 101
So.. since then I read the Gothic Novels so that makes an even 100. Then I finished Stephen King one so that leaves 99... and then I went and messed it all up and bought 2 so I am back up to 101.
Still left to review: 3
And they were not even small paperback books oh no, these were the proper kind. Good old-fashioned hardbacks, published somewhere in the 1930's.
And we are not talking only 400 pages a piece either... no sir... just over 1000 in each one!!
I spotted them and thought that they would be at least £5 or £10 each... imagine my surprise when I spotted the little paper sign saying £1.50 each. I even asked the lady if they were both £1.50 because I could not believe my luck. Now they are home with me... for some reason I have not put my initials and the year in them.. seems kind of wrong to do that in these gorgeous specimens of bookdom.
One thing that did make me laugh is that when I posted a photo of them on twitter a company that deal in DIGITAL pdf files of classic books followed me. I am sorry to say people, whoever you are: you are wasting your time on following me!! As long as I can buy the real thing there is no way in hell I am getting a pdf version of any book, classic or otherwise!
I am aiming to be the last person in Britain to own a kindle and remain to be convinced of the joys of reading a digital book. I want and need the real thing!
Back still a bit fragile as I assumed that I could sit on the chairs of my dining room table for half an hour or so to google some hotels in Cambridge. Guess not eh.... seems there is one muscle that tenses up whenever I sit on that chair for more than 10 minutes. So I have now banished myself to the sofa again to type his. When will I learn?!
I have in the meantime finished a Stephen King one and started on RF Scott's Journals so progress of sorts has been made.
Book tally has me confused.... Let me see if I can un-confuse myself.
Previous total to be read: 101
So.. since then I read the Gothic Novels so that makes an even 100. Then I finished Stephen King one so that leaves 99... and then I went and messed it all up and bought 2 so I am back up to 101.
Still left to review: 3
Thursday, 1 November 2012
It is a long road that leads away from Square One
After having achieved some real progress with my back I went back to square one and a half last weekend.... hence my lack of posting. I seems that sitting in a chair without a decent back support is not the best thing in the world for my back. So, lesson learnt I am now camped out on the sofa.
I finished another book earlier in the week and still have on to review from a few weeks ago. I am also now working my way through another one so I am going to have to pull my socks up and get reviewing. I have provisionally planned to do the reviews over the weekend as the weather is not looking to good and I will need something to distract me from doing to do something sensible like hoovering the house or cleaning the bathroom. So.. get ready for Jasper Fforde and some Gothic weirdness.
I finished another book earlier in the week and still have on to review from a few weeks ago. I am also now working my way through another one so I am going to have to pull my socks up and get reviewing. I have provisionally planned to do the reviews over the weekend as the weather is not looking to good and I will need something to distract me from doing to do something sensible like hoovering the house or cleaning the bathroom. So.. get ready for Jasper Fforde and some Gothic weirdness.
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
The Numbers are in
And they are.....
Books left to review: 1
Books to be read: 101
What am I doing about it? I am reading a collection of Gothic novels at the moment. One of the novels in it is The Castle of Otranto.. always been intrigued by the title and now I have read it.
Then I will just keep reading until I have no more breath in me.
Books left to review: 1
Books to be read: 101
What am I doing about it? I am reading a collection of Gothic novels at the moment. One of the novels in it is The Castle of Otranto.. always been intrigued by the title and now I have read it.
Then I will just keep reading until I have no more breath in me.
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Little catch up.. sort of
Well... life is moving ever onwards towards the end of the year and my bookshelves become ever fuller I realise that I still have some work to do here with the reviews. Not only do I have some additional words to put to digital paper. There is also another book I have now finished. Not only that.. there are also 3 more strays that have found a good home with me. So.. as the back is holding out well, without further ado...
### SPOILER ALERT ###
Port Mortuary - Patricia Cornwell
After having finished and mulling it over in my head for a couple of weeks I am still not sure if I like it.
I think it is because the story feels distant from me as a reader. I think this is because it is distant from Scarpetta as well. You are told the story through her eyes and discover the bodies and twists at the same time as she does. As she is being kept away from the main action in the book, so are you as the reader. You feel that everyone else around Scarpetta know more about what is going on and has gone on... but no-one is spilling the beans and it leaves you out in the cold as a reader. If that is what Cornwell was going for then great.. It worked! If it was her idea to have you more involved with the character then for me it has not worked that well. I still enjoyed meeting all the now so familiar characters and seeing what they were up to but everyone seemed to be either hiding something, not doing what you thought they were initially, or keeping Scarpetta (and you) out of the loop of the main action.
It also seems that some of the crimes described in this book are a bit more gruesome than before. There is a little boy that gets killed by someone in a very personal and violent way. One of Scarpetta's old friends ends up dead in the middle of a house of horrors seemingly involved in all sorts of dodgy deals stemming from some really bad decisions that Scarpetta thinks she is part responsible for. Benton seems further away from Scarpetta. At the start he does not know exactly what is going on but once he gets his FBI mojo going again he seems to be more interested in what messages are coming in on his phone than in what is happening to his wife. What I am sometimes finding a bit tedious is the struggle between Benton and Scarpetta about what they are and are not able to tell one another. I am never quite sure if it is just a nice little ploy to get some friction between a husband and wife or if Cornwell is trying to make a particular point about trust and professionalism.
The one thing that I did find a bit disappointing is that the book seems to take a lot of time not revealing very much of anything, keeping you outside of the story and then in the last few chapters you get hit with the flood of who has done what and why and.. surprise surprise one of the bad guys (or should I say galls) ends up at Scarpetta's house and tries to kill her. Naturally this does not happen.. as if it ever was! Scarpetta is not only very clever I think she has also been watching CSI Miami and taking some tips from Horatio Caine on how to stay alive in the most unlikely of scenarios.
Apart from being darker it also feels a much more personal book than the previous ones. It seems to focus more on Scarpetta and how she feels about the events, her isolation of the people she has relied on for years. It is almost like were getting ready for a change in this one and that in the next book we are going to be at the other end of the tipping point and something new is going to start or that some old patterns have been broken. I guess I have to wait to read the next one. Which I will do just to see if I am right if anything... and because even after all the darkness I do really love the way Cornwell writes Scarpetta. For all the cliches that she sometimes uses Scarpetta is a character that I have followed for years now and I want to see her through the darkness.
The Girl at the Lion D'Or - Sebastian Faulks
When I read Charlotte Gray ages ago I found out that Faulks had done a number of books about the wars. I have since gotten Birdsong and this one as well. I have heard that Birdsong is a bit of a heavy one. emotionally so decided leave that one for the moment. I bought this one when I went to Liverpool in 2011 and started to read it as I did not take any books with me to read. I only got a few chapters in and left it as soon as I got back home as I had another one which I needed to finish. It is not that I disliked what I was reading or found it hard to get into the writing style but I could kid of tell that this one was going to be a bit more challenging and more serious than some of the other books I read. I think I was not in the mood for that at the time and I never went back to this one until a while ago. I wish I had stuck with it then and finished it as it is a really great book!
The story starts very quietly and simply with a young girl Anne arriving at a small hotel to work as a waitress. you do not know a lot about her but very soon find out that she is running away from something. Partly her past, partly who she was, partly from the hurt caused her by others. You get a few glimpses of what she is trying to get away from but the whole story is not revealed until we get well into the book.
As with any young, pretty girl she manages to attract the attentions from a few of the local men. She ends up becoming involved with one man in particular, Charles Hartman and you kind of know that the affair is doomed from the start. This guy has a wife whom he stayed with even when he found out she could not have any children so he has a strong sense of duty. Apart from that he is by his own admission always looking for the next woman give him a thrill and to fill his senses to the fullest. Yet he know that he will never find her and that no-one will ever be enough. At least he has the realisation that this is what he is doing and knows what the effect of his actions will be on Anne.
The affair starts fairly innocently but as soon as Hartman sets her up in a flat you know this is going to be serious and you also realise that there is no way this going to end well. Anne is the kind of girl who will want more who needs more, needs to feel loved, safe and protected even though she may seem really brave and strong. Hartman is not going to be able to give her what she wants and he manages to delude himself for a while that he is only helping her because he wants to help her out.. not because he loves her. he even seems reluctant to sleep with her because he feels that this would cross a line that he may not be ready to cross. It would indicate a trust, love and belonging that he knows he cannot provide in the long run.
I will not spoil too much of it by giving you all the detail but suffice it to say it does not end well for both of them. Hartman dutifully goes back to his dutiful wife and Anne packs her bags and starts again. Strangely enough at the end you feel that for neither of them this will be the last time they are going to end up in a dead end relationship. Both seem to ache when it all ends but where Anne picks up the pieces and starts again Charles is trying to remain standing for a while at least. He seems to feel very strongly that he has betrayed her trust by "making" her tell him her story. He feels sorry for her that her life has gone the way it has and he knows he will add to it by breaking up with her. But... he does not want to live with her as the thrill of her has worn off. Anne is just one more girl that could not give him what he wanted for long.
The thing I love about Faulks is that his characters are real, human. They have their good sides and their flaws . they FEEL emotions and are shaped by them in the course of the book. They evolve and grow and you get to watch the reasons why. The pace of the book is slow but it is right for what we are told. Anne is not one to trust easily, she needs time to tell her story and Faulks gives it to her.
Highly recommend this one!
One more review left to do (Jasper Fforde one) but I need to go and do my exercises now and then back to work tomorrow.. if only I could make a living out of doing this!
I have totally lost count on the books count so will have to get them all out of their nooks and crannies tomorrow and have a recount.. again.. think I am up to 102 but not sure
### SPOILER ALERT ###
Port Mortuary - Patricia Cornwell
After having finished and mulling it over in my head for a couple of weeks I am still not sure if I like it.
I think it is because the story feels distant from me as a reader. I think this is because it is distant from Scarpetta as well. You are told the story through her eyes and discover the bodies and twists at the same time as she does. As she is being kept away from the main action in the book, so are you as the reader. You feel that everyone else around Scarpetta know more about what is going on and has gone on... but no-one is spilling the beans and it leaves you out in the cold as a reader. If that is what Cornwell was going for then great.. It worked! If it was her idea to have you more involved with the character then for me it has not worked that well. I still enjoyed meeting all the now so familiar characters and seeing what they were up to but everyone seemed to be either hiding something, not doing what you thought they were initially, or keeping Scarpetta (and you) out of the loop of the main action.
It also seems that some of the crimes described in this book are a bit more gruesome than before. There is a little boy that gets killed by someone in a very personal and violent way. One of Scarpetta's old friends ends up dead in the middle of a house of horrors seemingly involved in all sorts of dodgy deals stemming from some really bad decisions that Scarpetta thinks she is part responsible for. Benton seems further away from Scarpetta. At the start he does not know exactly what is going on but once he gets his FBI mojo going again he seems to be more interested in what messages are coming in on his phone than in what is happening to his wife. What I am sometimes finding a bit tedious is the struggle between Benton and Scarpetta about what they are and are not able to tell one another. I am never quite sure if it is just a nice little ploy to get some friction between a husband and wife or if Cornwell is trying to make a particular point about trust and professionalism.
The one thing that I did find a bit disappointing is that the book seems to take a lot of time not revealing very much of anything, keeping you outside of the story and then in the last few chapters you get hit with the flood of who has done what and why and.. surprise surprise one of the bad guys (or should I say galls) ends up at Scarpetta's house and tries to kill her. Naturally this does not happen.. as if it ever was! Scarpetta is not only very clever I think she has also been watching CSI Miami and taking some tips from Horatio Caine on how to stay alive in the most unlikely of scenarios.
Apart from being darker it also feels a much more personal book than the previous ones. It seems to focus more on Scarpetta and how she feels about the events, her isolation of the people she has relied on for years. It is almost like were getting ready for a change in this one and that in the next book we are going to be at the other end of the tipping point and something new is going to start or that some old patterns have been broken. I guess I have to wait to read the next one. Which I will do just to see if I am right if anything... and because even after all the darkness I do really love the way Cornwell writes Scarpetta. For all the cliches that she sometimes uses Scarpetta is a character that I have followed for years now and I want to see her through the darkness.
The Girl at the Lion D'Or - Sebastian Faulks
When I read Charlotte Gray ages ago I found out that Faulks had done a number of books about the wars. I have since gotten Birdsong and this one as well. I have heard that Birdsong is a bit of a heavy one. emotionally so decided leave that one for the moment. I bought this one when I went to Liverpool in 2011 and started to read it as I did not take any books with me to read. I only got a few chapters in and left it as soon as I got back home as I had another one which I needed to finish. It is not that I disliked what I was reading or found it hard to get into the writing style but I could kid of tell that this one was going to be a bit more challenging and more serious than some of the other books I read. I think I was not in the mood for that at the time and I never went back to this one until a while ago. I wish I had stuck with it then and finished it as it is a really great book!
The story starts very quietly and simply with a young girl Anne arriving at a small hotel to work as a waitress. you do not know a lot about her but very soon find out that she is running away from something. Partly her past, partly who she was, partly from the hurt caused her by others. You get a few glimpses of what she is trying to get away from but the whole story is not revealed until we get well into the book.
As with any young, pretty girl she manages to attract the attentions from a few of the local men. She ends up becoming involved with one man in particular, Charles Hartman and you kind of know that the affair is doomed from the start. This guy has a wife whom he stayed with even when he found out she could not have any children so he has a strong sense of duty. Apart from that he is by his own admission always looking for the next woman give him a thrill and to fill his senses to the fullest. Yet he know that he will never find her and that no-one will ever be enough. At least he has the realisation that this is what he is doing and knows what the effect of his actions will be on Anne.
The affair starts fairly innocently but as soon as Hartman sets her up in a flat you know this is going to be serious and you also realise that there is no way this going to end well. Anne is the kind of girl who will want more who needs more, needs to feel loved, safe and protected even though she may seem really brave and strong. Hartman is not going to be able to give her what she wants and he manages to delude himself for a while that he is only helping her because he wants to help her out.. not because he loves her. he even seems reluctant to sleep with her because he feels that this would cross a line that he may not be ready to cross. It would indicate a trust, love and belonging that he knows he cannot provide in the long run.
I will not spoil too much of it by giving you all the detail but suffice it to say it does not end well for both of them. Hartman dutifully goes back to his dutiful wife and Anne packs her bags and starts again. Strangely enough at the end you feel that for neither of them this will be the last time they are going to end up in a dead end relationship. Both seem to ache when it all ends but where Anne picks up the pieces and starts again Charles is trying to remain standing for a while at least. He seems to feel very strongly that he has betrayed her trust by "making" her tell him her story. He feels sorry for her that her life has gone the way it has and he knows he will add to it by breaking up with her. But... he does not want to live with her as the thrill of her has worn off. Anne is just one more girl that could not give him what he wanted for long.
The thing I love about Faulks is that his characters are real, human. They have their good sides and their flaws . they FEEL emotions and are shaped by them in the course of the book. They evolve and grow and you get to watch the reasons why. The pace of the book is slow but it is right for what we are told. Anne is not one to trust easily, she needs time to tell her story and Faulks gives it to her.
Highly recommend this one!
One more review left to do (Jasper Fforde one) but I need to go and do my exercises now and then back to work tomorrow.. if only I could make a living out of doing this!
I have totally lost count on the books count so will have to get them all out of their nooks and crannies tomorrow and have a recount.. again.. think I am up to 102 but not sure
Thursday, 11 October 2012
The Magic Number
Bit busy this weekend but felt I had to share a very important event with you all.
I have reached the grand total of 99 books still left to read. Many thanks to my colleague Eddie for getting me the 9 books required to reach this grand total. His previous donation to my book collection already upped the total to 90 and now I am just one away from 100.
My plan to deal with this mini-crisis is to buy some bookshelves that will actually be able to house my books. Some of my friends seem to think I am in denial of the extent of the "problem" caused by my book buying behaviour. Me... I am beginning to really really like being in denial!
I have reached the grand total of 99 books still left to read. Many thanks to my colleague Eddie for getting me the 9 books required to reach this grand total. His previous donation to my book collection already upped the total to 90 and now I am just one away from 100.
My plan to deal with this mini-crisis is to buy some bookshelves that will actually be able to house my books. Some of my friends seem to think I am in denial of the extent of the "problem" caused by my book buying behaviour. Me... I am beginning to really really like being in denial!
Sunday, 7 October 2012
Post Chiropractic fun
I am writing this post in a bit of a hurry. Reason being that I cannot really sit down for too long without my back hurting a lot. It locked up again over the past week and I had to go and see the chiropractor again. He sorted it out again and told me that I had weak muscles - stomach and back and gave me some exercises to do. I am trying to do as much of them as I can but I have to say it is not a pleasant experience to do them. I can now really tell that my muscles get tired easily. I would have thought with me cycling every day I would have better muscle tone than that but apparently not. Progress looks to be slow but as long as I can get up at least once a day with out my hips, back and leg muscles hurting I should be okay. So far.... no luck.
I still have a review to do for Port Mortuary and have today finished another book. All things being equal I should have a chance later on in the week to do at least one of them.
I can give you the short review of both:
Port Mortuary - Patricia Cornwell: not your regular Scarpetta novel, nothing really happens until the end (which seems the norm). There is a good twist and some gruesome stuff happens but overall everything that goes on in the books seems quite distant from Scarpetta. Also she seems to be worried a lot of the time. Rightly, so it turns out but it gets a bit old halfway through the book. Still not really sure if I liked it a lot.
The Girl at the Lion D'Or - Sebastian Faulks: - bloody brilliant. Good characters, a touching story and an abrupt ending that is not unwelcome. Set in the period between the two World Wars. A story of love and losing it, longing, emptiness and overcoming your past against all odds.
Hope to give you some more details later in the week.
Books finished: 2
Books to be read: 82
Books given to me by very nice colleague at work:8
New number of books to be read: 90
I still have a review to do for Port Mortuary and have today finished another book. All things being equal I should have a chance later on in the week to do at least one of them.
I can give you the short review of both:
Port Mortuary - Patricia Cornwell: not your regular Scarpetta novel, nothing really happens until the end (which seems the norm). There is a good twist and some gruesome stuff happens but overall everything that goes on in the books seems quite distant from Scarpetta. Also she seems to be worried a lot of the time. Rightly, so it turns out but it gets a bit old halfway through the book. Still not really sure if I liked it a lot.
The Girl at the Lion D'Or - Sebastian Faulks: - bloody brilliant. Good characters, a touching story and an abrupt ending that is not unwelcome. Set in the period between the two World Wars. A story of love and losing it, longing, emptiness and overcoming your past against all odds.
Hope to give you some more details later in the week.
Books finished: 2
Books to be read: 82
Books given to me by very nice colleague at work:8
New number of books to be read: 90
Monday, 1 October 2012
Back to normal... sort of
To say that the last weeks has been a bit eventful is an understatement.
On Tuesday 25th I got downstairs to where my bike usually lives and found it was gone! Some idiot decided to take my bicycle and some other guy's as well. For me the bike is my main mode of transport (apart form the legs) so it is a real pain having to depend on others to give you lifts and lose the little bit of independence that it afforded me. It is also the cost of having to fork out for another bike that really annoys me. I only had the new one since January and now I have to get another one. I reported it but they gave me zero hope of ever seeing the bike again. I am also still waiting or the call back from the neighbourhood support team to discuss the theft with me. Guess they are busy drinking tea... or catching the bad guys?
Then on Tuesday afternoon my back decided to lock up as well. It go so bad I had to go and see my chiropractor to get it sorted out on Friday. It was lovely to get my back put right and then the massage at the end of it... perfect!
The next event was that on Saturday my sister, her husband and the kids arrived! That was the highlight of the week and made up for a lot of all the bad stuff that had gone on!! I got to spend time with them on Saturday and Sunday and they just came round this evening with an apple pie. We had a final little catch up and the kids loved my DSi so all was good. It was really great seeing them and now it is only a few months till December and I get to see them all again.
Naturally, with all this going on I did not get round to much reading over the past week But... back to normal from tomorrow and I hope to get some time this week to catch up on my reading.
I also got some more books from someone at work today so will have to add them to the total.
Books received as a gift: 3
Books to be read: .... well, that depends... I finished one since the last post but still have to do the review of it. I could be cheeky and say right now that I am ambivalent about it and leave it at that but that's just not cricket is it? So, I will do the review this week and then update the total.
On Tuesday 25th I got downstairs to where my bike usually lives and found it was gone! Some idiot decided to take my bicycle and some other guy's as well. For me the bike is my main mode of transport (apart form the legs) so it is a real pain having to depend on others to give you lifts and lose the little bit of independence that it afforded me. It is also the cost of having to fork out for another bike that really annoys me. I only had the new one since January and now I have to get another one. I reported it but they gave me zero hope of ever seeing the bike again. I am also still waiting or the call back from the neighbourhood support team to discuss the theft with me. Guess they are busy drinking tea... or catching the bad guys?
Then on Tuesday afternoon my back decided to lock up as well. It go so bad I had to go and see my chiropractor to get it sorted out on Friday. It was lovely to get my back put right and then the massage at the end of it... perfect!
The next event was that on Saturday my sister, her husband and the kids arrived! That was the highlight of the week and made up for a lot of all the bad stuff that had gone on!! I got to spend time with them on Saturday and Sunday and they just came round this evening with an apple pie. We had a final little catch up and the kids loved my DSi so all was good. It was really great seeing them and now it is only a few months till December and I get to see them all again.
Naturally, with all this going on I did not get round to much reading over the past week But... back to normal from tomorrow and I hope to get some time this week to catch up on my reading.
I also got some more books from someone at work today so will have to add them to the total.
Books received as a gift: 3
Books to be read: .... well, that depends... I finished one since the last post but still have to do the review of it. I could be cheeky and say right now that I am ambivalent about it and leave it at that but that's just not cricket is it? So, I will do the review this week and then update the total.
Sunday, 23 September 2012
Too fast
Another weekend sees the completion of another book. I am reading them so fast that I am almost in danger of falling behind in the reviews. There is the Agatha Christie one that I am about to discuss (completed last weekend) and now I can add another one to the completed list (Cornwell back on good form). I seem to still be on a reading roll! I have to say that today it has been kind of good reading weather - rainy, grey, noting enticing me to go out except for some essential groceries. Also it seems that my brain is ready for reading.. it needs the stories and wants to follow a narrative through to the end. Moving onto something a bit more meaty next... Sebastian Faulks.
Other major news this weekend is that I bagged myself a bargain in the Next Sale (a half price jacket) and that I have turned the heating on. I tried to put it off as long as I cold but when you are sitting still reading and your hands get cold holding the book then it is time.
### SPOILER ALERT ###
The Mirror cracked from Side to Side - Agatha Christie
Christie always amazes me with the simplicity of her stories. I mean that in the best possible way.
They are always so neat and tidy, they flow and fit together nicely. You spend the whole time thinking if what you are reading on this page or that is the one clue that you will end up having missed. You wonder about the characters and if what any of them are doing is going to turn out to be important or not. Her books are always like a little wrapped up parcel that is shaped like a square but you know is going to turn out to be a circle. I love her for it!
The world that this one is set in is a small village, although there seems to be some new kind of Development of houses that indicates the blossoming of the small village into commuter-ville. People are going about their business. Miss Marple is being patronised by her house guest, Miss Knight (who likes to talk in the royal we form... very annoying) and takes great pleasure in sending her on wild goose chase errands to the village. Miss Marple often gets sarcastic and a bit crabby with her and for good reason. Apparently someone thinks Miss Marple is getting old and needs looking after but from the way she acts you kind of doubt that from the start. She comes across as independent, astute, clever and inquisitive. People seem to be going about their normal business, shopping and tending their gardens and it is kind of like all is well with the world. Then suddenly someone dies. It kind of does not make sense for this person to die but they do.
The murder happens at a party for the local people. The Party is hosted by the new local celebrity (a film start in the autumn of her career trying to recapture her former fame) and all the local toffs are there. There are some unexpected guests as well but knowing Christie I picked up on them from the start and rules them out as potential murderers.... feeling all gloaty and good about myself. I should know better she always does this to me... it never ends well for me.
Miss Marple hears about the death at the party and it turns out she actually knew the woman that died. she met her a few days before when Miss Marple went walkabout in the new Development to see how the other side live.. very much like the rest of us mortals as she finds out for herself.
The great thing about this one is that Miss Marple does not even go to the crime scene until the very end of the book and then it is just to confirm what she already knows. She gets her clues from listening to the people that have been to the party. She also gets some information from her nephew who is a big shot Scotland Yard copper and has been asked to assist the local on the case. At times is feels that Christie is being lazy by having Miss Marple remain at home at talking to others the whole time while she works out what happened. It would be much more exciting to read about Miss Marple going about the village and running around chasing clues and running after criminals in the thick of the night but I kind of get the feeling that either Christie or Marple are done with that kind of stuff and are perfectly capable of putting a bit less effort in to get the same result. In this book Miss Marple's great strength seems to be in listening to other people and picking up on the importance of what they tell her in between all the irrelevant parts of their tales of adventure and woe. It is mainly from this that she manages to work out what actually happens. The story works kind of nicely in that you get a glimpse of something that could be important and then get steered away from it. Then we have the added confusion of who was actually the intended victim here... was it our local celeb as we all fear or was the right woman killed? Surely no-one in their right mind would want to kill a local busybody of a woman, someone who means well but does not have a clue on how her actions impact the people around her. As per usual there are a number of people put in the frame for the murder. All of them are dealt with and dismissed as they were either not in the right place at the right time or end up dead. I have to say that there is a surprising dead count even after the main murder and you are not sure why all these people end up dead until the end. Some of the deaths are quite clever whilst others are a bit more brutal. The woman who dies at the party turns out to be poisoned, one of the suspects ends up poisoned by her own inhaler and another ends up "simply" shot.
When in the end the motive comes out it is actually attached to a sad tale. You feel sorry for the woman and can sympathise with her and why the did what she did. But.. by then it is too late. I do not really want to give away too much but the reveal is unexpected to say the least.
The story moves at a good pace and the fact that there are several people bringing clues is a good little plot ploy to keep you interested as a reader. It is a clever little story and there are plenty of red herrings to distract your mind from the main players.
Title: The Mirror Cracked from Side to Side
Author: Agatha Christie
256 pages
Collins, The Crime Club
no ISBN nr
Books to be read: 84... and one more review to come!
Other major news this weekend is that I bagged myself a bargain in the Next Sale (a half price jacket) and that I have turned the heating on. I tried to put it off as long as I cold but when you are sitting still reading and your hands get cold holding the book then it is time.
### SPOILER ALERT ###
The Mirror cracked from Side to Side - Agatha Christie
Christie always amazes me with the simplicity of her stories. I mean that in the best possible way.
They are always so neat and tidy, they flow and fit together nicely. You spend the whole time thinking if what you are reading on this page or that is the one clue that you will end up having missed. You wonder about the characters and if what any of them are doing is going to turn out to be important or not. Her books are always like a little wrapped up parcel that is shaped like a square but you know is going to turn out to be a circle. I love her for it!
The world that this one is set in is a small village, although there seems to be some new kind of Development of houses that indicates the blossoming of the small village into commuter-ville. People are going about their business. Miss Marple is being patronised by her house guest, Miss Knight (who likes to talk in the royal we form... very annoying) and takes great pleasure in sending her on wild goose chase errands to the village. Miss Marple often gets sarcastic and a bit crabby with her and for good reason. Apparently someone thinks Miss Marple is getting old and needs looking after but from the way she acts you kind of doubt that from the start. She comes across as independent, astute, clever and inquisitive. People seem to be going about their normal business, shopping and tending their gardens and it is kind of like all is well with the world. Then suddenly someone dies. It kind of does not make sense for this person to die but they do.
The murder happens at a party for the local people. The Party is hosted by the new local celebrity (a film start in the autumn of her career trying to recapture her former fame) and all the local toffs are there. There are some unexpected guests as well but knowing Christie I picked up on them from the start and rules them out as potential murderers.... feeling all gloaty and good about myself. I should know better she always does this to me... it never ends well for me.
Miss Marple hears about the death at the party and it turns out she actually knew the woman that died. she met her a few days before when Miss Marple went walkabout in the new Development to see how the other side live.. very much like the rest of us mortals as she finds out for herself.
The great thing about this one is that Miss Marple does not even go to the crime scene until the very end of the book and then it is just to confirm what she already knows. She gets her clues from listening to the people that have been to the party. She also gets some information from her nephew who is a big shot Scotland Yard copper and has been asked to assist the local on the case. At times is feels that Christie is being lazy by having Miss Marple remain at home at talking to others the whole time while she works out what happened. It would be much more exciting to read about Miss Marple going about the village and running around chasing clues and running after criminals in the thick of the night but I kind of get the feeling that either Christie or Marple are done with that kind of stuff and are perfectly capable of putting a bit less effort in to get the same result. In this book Miss Marple's great strength seems to be in listening to other people and picking up on the importance of what they tell her in between all the irrelevant parts of their tales of adventure and woe. It is mainly from this that she manages to work out what actually happens. The story works kind of nicely in that you get a glimpse of something that could be important and then get steered away from it. Then we have the added confusion of who was actually the intended victim here... was it our local celeb as we all fear or was the right woman killed? Surely no-one in their right mind would want to kill a local busybody of a woman, someone who means well but does not have a clue on how her actions impact the people around her. As per usual there are a number of people put in the frame for the murder. All of them are dealt with and dismissed as they were either not in the right place at the right time or end up dead. I have to say that there is a surprising dead count even after the main murder and you are not sure why all these people end up dead until the end. Some of the deaths are quite clever whilst others are a bit more brutal. The woman who dies at the party turns out to be poisoned, one of the suspects ends up poisoned by her own inhaler and another ends up "simply" shot.
When in the end the motive comes out it is actually attached to a sad tale. You feel sorry for the woman and can sympathise with her and why the did what she did. But.. by then it is too late. I do not really want to give away too much but the reveal is unexpected to say the least.
The story moves at a good pace and the fact that there are several people bringing clues is a good little plot ploy to keep you interested as a reader. It is a clever little story and there are plenty of red herrings to distract your mind from the main players.
Title: The Mirror Cracked from Side to Side
Author: Agatha Christie
256 pages
Collins, The Crime Club
no ISBN nr
Books to be read: 84... and one more review to come!
Sunday, 16 September 2012
In splendid Isolation
Another weekend, another book to review!!
I have actually finished two again (from reading during the week and this weekend) so I seem to have gotten back into the groove with the reading. It is doing wonders for the book counts well... it would do if I had not had a slight relapse in the book buying department but more on that later.
### SPOILER ALERT ###
Dark Matter, A Ghost Story - Michelle Paver
Let me start by saying that the fact that this one (as well as the previous DK one) also takes place in the Arctic is a complete coincidence. The second thing I have to say about this book is that it is amazing!
I am not quite sure how to characterise this one best to do it justice. You could say it is a ghost story but hat would ignore the fact that it deals with other themes as well: friendship, love, loneliness, envy, class, madness, nature, darkness and light, hardship and tenacity.
It is written in the form of a diary, almost presenting it as a factual story of polar exploration but it is not. It starts with a letter written by someone being asked about a polar expedition he was part of. He is obviously not happy about being petitioned to and seems annoyed at the suggestion that something "unnatural" happened during the expedition. The man seems a bit high and mighty and pompous, bordering on arrogant. This is all the introduction you get and then it is straight into the story. Interestingly enough the initial letter dates from 1947 and the expedition takes place in 1937... leading up to one war and just after another.
You are reading the diary of one of the expedition members, Jack. Because it is a diary you very quickly get drawn into the story. You are going through all of it with him very directly and closely. For us as a reader Jack is the main focus of the story. I quickly nicknamed him chip-on-his-shoulder-guy because he is. He seems very defensive of the way he got his education and how he was not able to get the job he felt he deserved. He tells us how he met the other expedition members and you very quickly see who he likes and who he does not. Jack's main reason for joining the expedition seems to be that he does not want to be like a corpse he sees dragged out of the Thames.... he wants a life that has meant something, he wants to achieve something more or otherwise... what is the point. He has worked hard to educate himself and has tried to get a job as a scientist, however, he has failed to do so. The other expedition members seem to be the silver spoon types. Well educated, well off, well on the way to a fabulous adventure I say. The expedition is mainly a weather data gathering exercise and will involve taking readings at several set points every day when at their base station. The expedition almost seems doomed from the start as not one but two members have to drop out (family emergency, broken leg). In the end three of them and a team of dogs set off for their destination: Gruhuken. The three members of the expedition that end up going are Jack, Gus and Algie.
Algie is the one who has written the letter at the start of the book stating that Gruhuken crippled one of his friends and killed another. What you now already begin to wonder is, what is going to happen to our Jack. Sure, he has written this diary but that does not necessarily mean that he is the one that survives and if he is the crippled one then why? This sort of already prepares you that something is going to happen to them while they are out there but it does not give you any major clues about what is in store for them except that some people may say it was an unnatural thing but yet very real.
What else do you need to know about Jack? Well... he does not like dogs (to start with) and he does not like Algie. He does like the idea of going to this isolated place, to be there where no man has been before, to do something that means something, he marvels at everything he sees and seems particularly fond of Gus. He is the only one keeping a diary... or at least he thinks so and he is very envious of the friendship that Gus and Algie have.
The first hint that this story is not going to end well, apart from the letter at the start, is provided by the captain that is supposed to take them to their base in Gruhuken. He seems to know that something happened there but does not want to elaborate. At one point he flat out refuses to take them there. Even though the captain relents he refuses to let his men stay on the island during the night and cannot wait to get out of there (should have been a clue for our boys really). He tells Jack to beware but does not want to tell him why.. he seems very scared and concerned that they have chose this place as their spot for a base camp. The boys, in the meantime are busy tearing down the old structures there putting their own mark on the place. It seems the place was used by seal hunters as well as miners in the past and remnants of both trades are everywhere. Things seem to be going okay.. although Algie behaves strange sometimes and Jack has a few experiences that leave him a bit shaken. But, being the intrepid explorer that he is, he shrugs it off and manages to convince himself that it is just an echo of the past and that it cannot hurt him. Whether or not he actually, deep down really believes this to be true is another matter. It seems to me it is more the kind of thing he tells himself to re-assure himself that he will be okay and that he is not going mad and what he is doing is worthwile.
Things get a bit more critical when Gus gets ill and has to be taken back to the mainland... he needs someone to come with him and Algie gets to be the one to go with him. This leaves our Jack as the one to carry on with the work carried out on the expedition. He is the saviour of the expedition. Left on his own Jack tries everything to keep himself and the expedition going. He sets up these routines where he does certain things at certain times. He has a blast eating all the stuff that he wants to and he even gets closer to the dogs (one in particular) but with Gus and Algie gone the sun light fading it is not long before he is left in the darkness of the polar days and nights. You read Jack's diary and know that he is getting a bit more unhinged every day, he seems that little bit more irrational about what happens around him, that little bit more panicked when something out of the ordinary happens, when the snow storms hit he is even more isolated that he already was. Jack sees this ghost several times but he does not understand what it is this thing wants from him. He can feel its malevolence but does not know exactly where it comes from and how.. if at all he can ease its pain. He worries about the others coming back, he hopes they will be able to get to him in time. He gets temporary relief when a local trapper comes to see him but this man only stays for a week or so. He does find out from this man what haunts Gruhuken and partly why... but it is not really what he want to hear. It is a dark tale of human cruelty and he is no better off for knowing it.
By this time also he has found the notebook that Gus was keeping. Now he finds out that both Gus and Algie have had experiences and have shared them between one another but not with Jack. Jack was surely too sensible, too reasonable, too much of a hard man to have experienced what they had so best not to bother him with it. You feel Jack's pain at discovering this.. he thought he could trust Gus but now the one that matters most to him has betrayed him.
The more the story goes on, the more it becomes about isolation. Physical isolation, mental isolation. Jack is starved from regular human contact, he hungers for his friends to come back. all he has is the radio, the dog , his food. His routines go out the window and he becomes more and more irrational and scared. He keeps thinking that if only he can hang on until they come.. then all will be well. Jack ends up staying in his bed, with the dog close to him. He is a sad excuse for a human being, half deranged or delirious... unaware of how to save himself or what the sensible thing to do would be. Then the Thing makes its final assault on him and it looks like he will die on his own driven mad by what haunts Gruhuken. But no... there are his friends!! They have come for him at last. He is saved... well, yes... but there is a price to pay. It seems that Gruhuken must have blood and Gus' is that it gets. The way this part is written is confusing, vague, blurry like the way it would have been for them in the boat coming to save Jack. It is almost like a dream and for a while you think that perhaps Jack has really lost it and it is all a dream and not real.
Jack survives, minus one part leg, Algie also lives. Jack has lost more than just his friend in Gruhuken, he is scarred by the experience, physically and mentally.
It is a nice touch that Jack has this ceremony now where he goes out to the sea where he now lives in Jamaica. He can just about bear to touch the sea there. It makes him feel closer to Gus whose life was lost in it so far away but he also feels that the thing from Gruhuken is there too and that is why he can never go back.
This book is about so much and it is certainly not just a simple ghost story.
It is about human nature, about what it can endure. It is about the tricks the mind plays on you when under stress.
It is about isolation. There is the isolation of the location and the isolation of Jack. He loses his innocent enthusiasm for the place. It turns against him and makes him suffer for coming there. At the start he says he wanted the place to be untouched and pure. He wanted to go to a place where he would be the first to have been there. He wants to make Gruhuken his but Gruhuken fights back.
Dark and light are another theme that features. When they arrive there is still light during the day. They do not always have lights on and are happy, at one point Jack even tries to keep the light out. Then the place goes dark.. literally because for the diminishing light of the sun, then Jack's friends leave, and the dogs run off and then the last rays of sun disappear. The place also had a dark feel because the bad things that happened there. What was done to the ghost was not nice and fluffy but a demonstration of human nature at its most cruel.
Jack's world becomes smaller and smaller the more the story goes on. He starts out by walking about a lot and sticking to his routines. As the light fades he loses the structure in his life. He sticks closer and closer to the hut and eventually his bed. Unfortunately for Jack the thing that is out to hurt him lies in wait close by and is getting stronger.
As a reader you are close to Jack because it is his diary you are reading. It is written in the I-form and these are his words, his thoughts, his emotions. It really is a great way to draw the reader in. There is a lot of tension in the writing, you feel Jack's emotions strongly, his despair and loneliness are on every page and you feel that in the next entry you read he might either finally escape or lose it completely.
It is indeed, as the FT says "A tale of terror and beauty and wonder".
Title: Dark Matter, A Ghost Story
Author: Michelle Paver
252 pages
Orion
ISBN nr 978-1-4091-2118-3
Books to be read: 80
Books bought: 5
So, about my minor relapse...... I bought five books. I have to be honest and say that it was kind of a conscious relapse. I wanted something fun to do and then decided that a book buying trip would fit the bill. So I went out to Leighton Buzzard for a tour of the local charity shops. It could have been worse... I actually but I left one behind that I was not sure of getting ... might go back and get it in a few weeks.
Books to be read: 85..... well actually 84 as I have finished another one... But more on that in the next post.
I have actually finished two again (from reading during the week and this weekend) so I seem to have gotten back into the groove with the reading. It is doing wonders for the book counts well... it would do if I had not had a slight relapse in the book buying department but more on that later.
### SPOILER ALERT ###
Dark Matter, A Ghost Story - Michelle Paver
Let me start by saying that the fact that this one (as well as the previous DK one) also takes place in the Arctic is a complete coincidence. The second thing I have to say about this book is that it is amazing!
I am not quite sure how to characterise this one best to do it justice. You could say it is a ghost story but hat would ignore the fact that it deals with other themes as well: friendship, love, loneliness, envy, class, madness, nature, darkness and light, hardship and tenacity.
It is written in the form of a diary, almost presenting it as a factual story of polar exploration but it is not. It starts with a letter written by someone being asked about a polar expedition he was part of. He is obviously not happy about being petitioned to and seems annoyed at the suggestion that something "unnatural" happened during the expedition. The man seems a bit high and mighty and pompous, bordering on arrogant. This is all the introduction you get and then it is straight into the story. Interestingly enough the initial letter dates from 1947 and the expedition takes place in 1937... leading up to one war and just after another.
You are reading the diary of one of the expedition members, Jack. Because it is a diary you very quickly get drawn into the story. You are going through all of it with him very directly and closely. For us as a reader Jack is the main focus of the story. I quickly nicknamed him chip-on-his-shoulder-guy because he is. He seems very defensive of the way he got his education and how he was not able to get the job he felt he deserved. He tells us how he met the other expedition members and you very quickly see who he likes and who he does not. Jack's main reason for joining the expedition seems to be that he does not want to be like a corpse he sees dragged out of the Thames.... he wants a life that has meant something, he wants to achieve something more or otherwise... what is the point. He has worked hard to educate himself and has tried to get a job as a scientist, however, he has failed to do so. The other expedition members seem to be the silver spoon types. Well educated, well off, well on the way to a fabulous adventure I say. The expedition is mainly a weather data gathering exercise and will involve taking readings at several set points every day when at their base station. The expedition almost seems doomed from the start as not one but two members have to drop out (family emergency, broken leg). In the end three of them and a team of dogs set off for their destination: Gruhuken. The three members of the expedition that end up going are Jack, Gus and Algie.
Algie is the one who has written the letter at the start of the book stating that Gruhuken crippled one of his friends and killed another. What you now already begin to wonder is, what is going to happen to our Jack. Sure, he has written this diary but that does not necessarily mean that he is the one that survives and if he is the crippled one then why? This sort of already prepares you that something is going to happen to them while they are out there but it does not give you any major clues about what is in store for them except that some people may say it was an unnatural thing but yet very real.
What else do you need to know about Jack? Well... he does not like dogs (to start with) and he does not like Algie. He does like the idea of going to this isolated place, to be there where no man has been before, to do something that means something, he marvels at everything he sees and seems particularly fond of Gus. He is the only one keeping a diary... or at least he thinks so and he is very envious of the friendship that Gus and Algie have.
The first hint that this story is not going to end well, apart from the letter at the start, is provided by the captain that is supposed to take them to their base in Gruhuken. He seems to know that something happened there but does not want to elaborate. At one point he flat out refuses to take them there. Even though the captain relents he refuses to let his men stay on the island during the night and cannot wait to get out of there (should have been a clue for our boys really). He tells Jack to beware but does not want to tell him why.. he seems very scared and concerned that they have chose this place as their spot for a base camp. The boys, in the meantime are busy tearing down the old structures there putting their own mark on the place. It seems the place was used by seal hunters as well as miners in the past and remnants of both trades are everywhere. Things seem to be going okay.. although Algie behaves strange sometimes and Jack has a few experiences that leave him a bit shaken. But, being the intrepid explorer that he is, he shrugs it off and manages to convince himself that it is just an echo of the past and that it cannot hurt him. Whether or not he actually, deep down really believes this to be true is another matter. It seems to me it is more the kind of thing he tells himself to re-assure himself that he will be okay and that he is not going mad and what he is doing is worthwile.
Things get a bit more critical when Gus gets ill and has to be taken back to the mainland... he needs someone to come with him and Algie gets to be the one to go with him. This leaves our Jack as the one to carry on with the work carried out on the expedition. He is the saviour of the expedition. Left on his own Jack tries everything to keep himself and the expedition going. He sets up these routines where he does certain things at certain times. He has a blast eating all the stuff that he wants to and he even gets closer to the dogs (one in particular) but with Gus and Algie gone the sun light fading it is not long before he is left in the darkness of the polar days and nights. You read Jack's diary and know that he is getting a bit more unhinged every day, he seems that little bit more irrational about what happens around him, that little bit more panicked when something out of the ordinary happens, when the snow storms hit he is even more isolated that he already was. Jack sees this ghost several times but he does not understand what it is this thing wants from him. He can feel its malevolence but does not know exactly where it comes from and how.. if at all he can ease its pain. He worries about the others coming back, he hopes they will be able to get to him in time. He gets temporary relief when a local trapper comes to see him but this man only stays for a week or so. He does find out from this man what haunts Gruhuken and partly why... but it is not really what he want to hear. It is a dark tale of human cruelty and he is no better off for knowing it.
By this time also he has found the notebook that Gus was keeping. Now he finds out that both Gus and Algie have had experiences and have shared them between one another but not with Jack. Jack was surely too sensible, too reasonable, too much of a hard man to have experienced what they had so best not to bother him with it. You feel Jack's pain at discovering this.. he thought he could trust Gus but now the one that matters most to him has betrayed him.
The more the story goes on, the more it becomes about isolation. Physical isolation, mental isolation. Jack is starved from regular human contact, he hungers for his friends to come back. all he has is the radio, the dog , his food. His routines go out the window and he becomes more and more irrational and scared. He keeps thinking that if only he can hang on until they come.. then all will be well. Jack ends up staying in his bed, with the dog close to him. He is a sad excuse for a human being, half deranged or delirious... unaware of how to save himself or what the sensible thing to do would be. Then the Thing makes its final assault on him and it looks like he will die on his own driven mad by what haunts Gruhuken. But no... there are his friends!! They have come for him at last. He is saved... well, yes... but there is a price to pay. It seems that Gruhuken must have blood and Gus' is that it gets. The way this part is written is confusing, vague, blurry like the way it would have been for them in the boat coming to save Jack. It is almost like a dream and for a while you think that perhaps Jack has really lost it and it is all a dream and not real.
Jack survives, minus one part leg, Algie also lives. Jack has lost more than just his friend in Gruhuken, he is scarred by the experience, physically and mentally.
It is a nice touch that Jack has this ceremony now where he goes out to the sea where he now lives in Jamaica. He can just about bear to touch the sea there. It makes him feel closer to Gus whose life was lost in it so far away but he also feels that the thing from Gruhuken is there too and that is why he can never go back.
This book is about so much and it is certainly not just a simple ghost story.
It is about human nature, about what it can endure. It is about the tricks the mind plays on you when under stress.
It is about isolation. There is the isolation of the location and the isolation of Jack. He loses his innocent enthusiasm for the place. It turns against him and makes him suffer for coming there. At the start he says he wanted the place to be untouched and pure. He wanted to go to a place where he would be the first to have been there. He wants to make Gruhuken his but Gruhuken fights back.
Dark and light are another theme that features. When they arrive there is still light during the day. They do not always have lights on and are happy, at one point Jack even tries to keep the light out. Then the place goes dark.. literally because for the diminishing light of the sun, then Jack's friends leave, and the dogs run off and then the last rays of sun disappear. The place also had a dark feel because the bad things that happened there. What was done to the ghost was not nice and fluffy but a demonstration of human nature at its most cruel.
Jack's world becomes smaller and smaller the more the story goes on. He starts out by walking about a lot and sticking to his routines. As the light fades he loses the structure in his life. He sticks closer and closer to the hut and eventually his bed. Unfortunately for Jack the thing that is out to hurt him lies in wait close by and is getting stronger.
As a reader you are close to Jack because it is his diary you are reading. It is written in the I-form and these are his words, his thoughts, his emotions. It really is a great way to draw the reader in. There is a lot of tension in the writing, you feel Jack's emotions strongly, his despair and loneliness are on every page and you feel that in the next entry you read he might either finally escape or lose it completely.
It is indeed, as the FT says "A tale of terror and beauty and wonder".
Title: Dark Matter, A Ghost Story
Author: Michelle Paver
252 pages
Orion
ISBN nr 978-1-4091-2118-3
Books to be read: 80
Books bought: 5
So, about my minor relapse...... I bought five books. I have to be honest and say that it was kind of a conscious relapse. I wanted something fun to do and then decided that a book buying trip would fit the bill. So I went out to Leighton Buzzard for a tour of the local charity shops. It could have been worse... I actually but I left one behind that I was not sure of getting ... might go back and get it in a few weeks.
Books to be read: 85..... well actually 84 as I have finished another one... But more on that in the next post.
Monday, 10 September 2012
How to get along with your fellow man in a frosty environment
As I said yesterday this will be the second of my posts on a finished book in as many days. I know I can read quickly but the pace at which I went through this one surprised even me. I started it on Saturday and finished it on Sunday afternoon. Even more scarily I am almost halfway through the next one again already! I did notice that there a kind of link between the one I am reading now and the one I am about to review. You will have to wait for that link until I finish the present one.
### SPOILER ALERT ###
Icebound - Dean Koontz
(This is a revised version published in 1995 of the previously released Prison of Ice, written under the pseudonym of David Axton)
It is one of a handful of stories that he has republished in a revised edition and boy am I glad he did! It is a belter! It was a real page turner. I tend to find DK easy to read anyway but this one was almost over before I knew it.
It is a different kind of book from what he usually writes. The themes are different, it feels different.... lighter. According to the man himself with this one he has tried to write an "adventure suspense" novel. From the start you kind of get that you are not going to have to worry too much about deep characterisation and deeply moral themes of faith, hope and sacrifice or the everlasting struggle between the good and evil in man. This one just wants to keep you in suspense of what is going to happen next and who will make it to the end of the book. In a way I found it kind of refreshing not to have some of the well known DK themes and style in the story. DK can be a bit of a moralising writer at times. In most of his novels he attempts to make a point of addressing issues he thinks relevant. At time he even tries to beat you about the head a bit too much with them. This one was refreshingly different.
So how do yo go about creating a nice "adventure suspense" themed environment. Well.... let's face it, you cannot get much more tense and contained situation then a team of scientists stuck on an iceberg in the arctic that is about to be blown to bits with them on it unless a miracle happens. There is the isolation of the Arctic due to the cold, then there is the isolation of the various team members as they are off in various places doing their jobs. Even when they get back together as a group they all have their own issues they are trying to deal with. Brian thinks he is not worthy, George has seen the brutality of war close up, Rita is afraid of ice and snow, Pete is a scientist who looks like a footballer, Claude is close to being over the hill and being put out to pasture, Franz is still obsessed by the woman he lost (Rita), Roger is a weightlifter trying to please mummy and Brian is a late bloomer who hopes he will have the chance to hold on to the life he has.
At the start of the story we learn that there is an idea to blast a piece off the mainland ice to see if they can drift it south to serve as drinking water for those areas that need it. Nice idea on paper, not so easy to execute. Especially not if you find that there is a killer in your midst as well. This is what the main players, the Carpenters (no relation to the singing group), face. The way it is set up is kind of good as in you do not find out that someone is out to get one of the expedition members until you get about halfway through the book. All this time you have been worrying with them about how they are going to get off the iceberg but now you also have to try and figure out who is out to get one of the team. The whole issue of getting the iceberg to drift South becomes a secondary problem and survival becomes the first and foremost priority for the team members.
Do not worry that there is no justice in this arctic world of ice. As per usual it is not the most obvious red herring that turns out to be the killer and yes he does get his comeuppance. The Carpenters who are easily the most likable characters in the book stay together and survive the murder plot. Each member of the team kind of overcomes his or her issues that was holding them back. They are, naturally, saved from their predicament and the way it happens is kind of brilliant. It involves a cunning plan, a Russian submarine and a very determined captain and that is all I am saying about that.
It was a great read and I hope that DK will do some more of these although he himself says that he feels he does not have another one in him... go on.... I'll cook you dinner!?
Title: Icebound
Author: Dean Koontz
373 pages
Headline Feature
ISBN nr 0-7472-4740-4
Books to be read: 81
Books bought: 0
### SPOILER ALERT ###
Icebound - Dean Koontz
(This is a revised version published in 1995 of the previously released Prison of Ice, written under the pseudonym of David Axton)
It is one of a handful of stories that he has republished in a revised edition and boy am I glad he did! It is a belter! It was a real page turner. I tend to find DK easy to read anyway but this one was almost over before I knew it.
It is a different kind of book from what he usually writes. The themes are different, it feels different.... lighter. According to the man himself with this one he has tried to write an "adventure suspense" novel. From the start you kind of get that you are not going to have to worry too much about deep characterisation and deeply moral themes of faith, hope and sacrifice or the everlasting struggle between the good and evil in man. This one just wants to keep you in suspense of what is going to happen next and who will make it to the end of the book. In a way I found it kind of refreshing not to have some of the well known DK themes and style in the story. DK can be a bit of a moralising writer at times. In most of his novels he attempts to make a point of addressing issues he thinks relevant. At time he even tries to beat you about the head a bit too much with them. This one was refreshingly different.
So how do yo go about creating a nice "adventure suspense" themed environment. Well.... let's face it, you cannot get much more tense and contained situation then a team of scientists stuck on an iceberg in the arctic that is about to be blown to bits with them on it unless a miracle happens. There is the isolation of the Arctic due to the cold, then there is the isolation of the various team members as they are off in various places doing their jobs. Even when they get back together as a group they all have their own issues they are trying to deal with. Brian thinks he is not worthy, George has seen the brutality of war close up, Rita is afraid of ice and snow, Pete is a scientist who looks like a footballer, Claude is close to being over the hill and being put out to pasture, Franz is still obsessed by the woman he lost (Rita), Roger is a weightlifter trying to please mummy and Brian is a late bloomer who hopes he will have the chance to hold on to the life he has.
At the start of the story we learn that there is an idea to blast a piece off the mainland ice to see if they can drift it south to serve as drinking water for those areas that need it. Nice idea on paper, not so easy to execute. Especially not if you find that there is a killer in your midst as well. This is what the main players, the Carpenters (no relation to the singing group), face. The way it is set up is kind of good as in you do not find out that someone is out to get one of the expedition members until you get about halfway through the book. All this time you have been worrying with them about how they are going to get off the iceberg but now you also have to try and figure out who is out to get one of the team. The whole issue of getting the iceberg to drift South becomes a secondary problem and survival becomes the first and foremost priority for the team members.
Do not worry that there is no justice in this arctic world of ice. As per usual it is not the most obvious red herring that turns out to be the killer and yes he does get his comeuppance. The Carpenters who are easily the most likable characters in the book stay together and survive the murder plot. Each member of the team kind of overcomes his or her issues that was holding them back. They are, naturally, saved from their predicament and the way it happens is kind of brilliant. It involves a cunning plan, a Russian submarine and a very determined captain and that is all I am saying about that.
It was a great read and I hope that DK will do some more of these although he himself says that he feels he does not have another one in him... go on.... I'll cook you dinner!?
Title: Icebound
Author: Dean Koontz
373 pages
Headline Feature
ISBN nr 0-7472-4740-4
Books to be read: 81
Books bought: 0
Sunday, 9 September 2012
Confusion and 2-for-1
First of all I have to address the book count.
I have no idea how it happened but somewhere along the line something seems to have gone awry with the count. According to my tally on the Blog I should have a starting total of 84 unread books waiting patiently for me. However, today I did a head count (several times) and counted 81 on the shelves, this is minus the two I have now finished. Even I can work out that that meant that I had only 83 to begin with. No idea where the little straggler has gone? I have been through my boxes of books to check if there was one that ended up in the wrong pile and the wrong box with the move or something, but no. So.... either I have ghosts or my counting is off.
However much I would like to have a haunted flat I think the most logical conclusion is that I miscounted.
Therefore..... Books to be read: 83
The good news is that this means I am one book less addicted to book buying than I thought I was and I have one less book to read. I am sure I can address both and see them through to a satisfactory conclusion.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
The Mammoth Book of Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories - Richard Dalby (Ed.)
This one took me a long time to finish. Anthologies usually seem to take longer to read anyway I always find. Not sure why as they are all short stories and there should be no real difference in reading 10 short stories of 10 pages to reading one book of 100 pages. And yet.... there seems to be. I have to say that the pages in the Ghost story book are bigger that those of the average pocket I read so perhaps there is something in that? Anyway.... this one is done and dusted. As usual with these anthologies most tales selected are good, some are really good and there was one surprising lowlight for me.
Schalken the Painter - JS Sheridan Le Fanu (highlight)
Partly a good one because it is set in Holland and it characterises the Dutch as "honest and blunt". Also good because the story is dark and involves a blushing bride trying to get away from a relentless husband who is hell bent to claim her for his own.
Fitz-James O'Brien - The Lost Room (highlight)
This one shows that you need to make sure that you remember where you leave things, never trust a servant that is too smiley and that things are not always what they seem. A man leaves his oh so familiar quarters only to have them visited by some unwelcome guests.
Charles Dickens - No. 1 Branch Line: The Signalman (highlight)
Really good one!
Right amount of tension in the story. It runs over only a few days but from the start you know things are not going to end well for one of the main characters. There is a tunnel and a misty, foggy world below on the railway lines. Perfect territory for a ghost story where echoes from the past seem to predict the future.
Henry James - The Romance of Certain Old Clothes (highlight)
A nice one about the love and hate that can exist between two sisters when there is a man involved. Even after death one is able to reach out to the others and not in a good way. Would probably be described by a man as "a lot of fuss over some frocks".
Mary E. Braddon - John Granger (highlight)
Finally a man who is loyal to the woman he loves. There are star crossed lovers, a pot of money, false identities and intercontinental travel. A nice little tale of a deserving man trying to do the best for the woman he loves even though she marries someone else and being thwarted by the lowly, weaselly looking cousin.
Theo Gift - Dog or Demon (highlight)
This tale illustrates really well that you should never mistreat an animal. This one has a bite that catches people out beyond the grave as a poor woman and her little newborn find out.
One of the best starts to a ghost story I ever read: "At last she is dead!".
Richard Marsh - A Set of Chessmen (highlight)
When you buy a chess set make sure that you do not say even one bad word about the previous owner. Two men try to play each other at their own game but there is something stopping them.
Bram Stoker - The Judge's House (highlight)
Part of the "will-they-never-learn" type.
A guy goes looking for trouble and surely finds it. Extra scary as there are rats involved..... I hate rats. Even more now than I ever did. Oh... and one very mean hanging judge.
Ambrose Bierce - The Moonlit Road (highlight)
There are 3 people in this one. Each tells his\her perspective of what happened, as far as they know it. In the end you end up with the complete picture. A nice way of telling the entire ghost story. Short and sweet.
Sabine Baring-Gould - H.P. (lowlight)
I am not sure what this one actually wants to be. It certainly is not a ghost story.
It seems to be more of a moralistic tale against modern man and society in general.
Man is trapped in a cave and has a conversation with the "spirit" of some Iron Age man who is seemingly jealous of the world that the modern man lives in. One of those that made me go "Whatever!?" and is more social commentary than ghostly tale.
Bernard Capes - A Ghost-Child (lowlight)
I had to start this one twice as it seemed to be about a girl first and then mentioned a boy. It did not get much better after that. Some vague story about lost love and a little kid that has the soul of her lost lover. Tries to pull the heart strings and fails.
Henry James - The Jolly Corner (lowlight)
A surprising lowlight for me. I have read some of his stories and liked them but this one just seem to witter on. Half of it was descriptions, no essential descriptions of hallways, rooms, feelings and actions. So much so that it made me skim read part of the story because nothing was happening. Also one of the most disappointing ends ever to a story.
Alexander Harvey - the Forbidden Floor (lowlight)
This one claimed to be "pleasantly erotic". If it was then I must have missed it.
Did not care much for the story either. A writer is to write a biography and for some reason seems to need to stay in the house as well. There is the lady of the house who seems to not say much and a son who keeps to his rooms at the other floor (you guessed it the "forbidden one") most times. Then we have the sullen housekeeper and we have our set complete. Some female ghost turns up and tempts our boy up the stairs. We then find that the son was tempted/haunted by the same ghost... Two sentences later all is well and our writer and lady of the house are married as is the son, to a woman who used to come to dinner.. or something - the end. Not a great story, not a great ending... no trace of eroticism for me.
These are not all the tales but they are the ones that came back to me most vividly when thumbing through the book again for this review. The other tales in this anthology are good as well but this selection is purely based on something in the story that tugged at my brain or made me smile.. or wince.. or put another light on.
Title: The Mammoth Book of Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories
Author: Richard Dalby (Ed.)
573 pages
Robinson
ISBN nr 1-85487-338-5
Books to be read: 82
Now.... there is another one I have finished but I will have to leave the review for that one for tomorrow. I can reveal that it is a Dean Koontz one. Not one of his standard works and perhaps the better for it.
I have no idea how it happened but somewhere along the line something seems to have gone awry with the count. According to my tally on the Blog I should have a starting total of 84 unread books waiting patiently for me. However, today I did a head count (several times) and counted 81 on the shelves, this is minus the two I have now finished. Even I can work out that that meant that I had only 83 to begin with. No idea where the little straggler has gone? I have been through my boxes of books to check if there was one that ended up in the wrong pile and the wrong box with the move or something, but no. So.... either I have ghosts or my counting is off.
However much I would like to have a haunted flat I think the most logical conclusion is that I miscounted.
Therefore..... Books to be read: 83
The good news is that this means I am one book less addicted to book buying than I thought I was and I have one less book to read. I am sure I can address both and see them through to a satisfactory conclusion.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
The Mammoth Book of Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories - Richard Dalby (Ed.)
This one took me a long time to finish. Anthologies usually seem to take longer to read anyway I always find. Not sure why as they are all short stories and there should be no real difference in reading 10 short stories of 10 pages to reading one book of 100 pages. And yet.... there seems to be. I have to say that the pages in the Ghost story book are bigger that those of the average pocket I read so perhaps there is something in that? Anyway.... this one is done and dusted. As usual with these anthologies most tales selected are good, some are really good and there was one surprising lowlight for me.
Schalken the Painter - JS Sheridan Le Fanu (highlight)
Partly a good one because it is set in Holland and it characterises the Dutch as "honest and blunt". Also good because the story is dark and involves a blushing bride trying to get away from a relentless husband who is hell bent to claim her for his own.
Fitz-James O'Brien - The Lost Room (highlight)
This one shows that you need to make sure that you remember where you leave things, never trust a servant that is too smiley and that things are not always what they seem. A man leaves his oh so familiar quarters only to have them visited by some unwelcome guests.
Charles Dickens - No. 1 Branch Line: The Signalman (highlight)
Really good one!
Right amount of tension in the story. It runs over only a few days but from the start you know things are not going to end well for one of the main characters. There is a tunnel and a misty, foggy world below on the railway lines. Perfect territory for a ghost story where echoes from the past seem to predict the future.
Henry James - The Romance of Certain Old Clothes (highlight)
A nice one about the love and hate that can exist between two sisters when there is a man involved. Even after death one is able to reach out to the others and not in a good way. Would probably be described by a man as "a lot of fuss over some frocks".
Mary E. Braddon - John Granger (highlight)
Finally a man who is loyal to the woman he loves. There are star crossed lovers, a pot of money, false identities and intercontinental travel. A nice little tale of a deserving man trying to do the best for the woman he loves even though she marries someone else and being thwarted by the lowly, weaselly looking cousin.
Theo Gift - Dog or Demon (highlight)
This tale illustrates really well that you should never mistreat an animal. This one has a bite that catches people out beyond the grave as a poor woman and her little newborn find out.
One of the best starts to a ghost story I ever read: "At last she is dead!".
Richard Marsh - A Set of Chessmen (highlight)
When you buy a chess set make sure that you do not say even one bad word about the previous owner. Two men try to play each other at their own game but there is something stopping them.
Bram Stoker - The Judge's House (highlight)
Part of the "will-they-never-learn" type.
A guy goes looking for trouble and surely finds it. Extra scary as there are rats involved..... I hate rats. Even more now than I ever did. Oh... and one very mean hanging judge.
Ambrose Bierce - The Moonlit Road (highlight)
There are 3 people in this one. Each tells his\her perspective of what happened, as far as they know it. In the end you end up with the complete picture. A nice way of telling the entire ghost story. Short and sweet.
Sabine Baring-Gould - H.P. (lowlight)
I am not sure what this one actually wants to be. It certainly is not a ghost story.
It seems to be more of a moralistic tale against modern man and society in general.
Man is trapped in a cave and has a conversation with the "spirit" of some Iron Age man who is seemingly jealous of the world that the modern man lives in. One of those that made me go "Whatever!?" and is more social commentary than ghostly tale.
Bernard Capes - A Ghost-Child (lowlight)
I had to start this one twice as it seemed to be about a girl first and then mentioned a boy. It did not get much better after that. Some vague story about lost love and a little kid that has the soul of her lost lover. Tries to pull the heart strings and fails.
Henry James - The Jolly Corner (lowlight)
A surprising lowlight for me. I have read some of his stories and liked them but this one just seem to witter on. Half of it was descriptions, no essential descriptions of hallways, rooms, feelings and actions. So much so that it made me skim read part of the story because nothing was happening. Also one of the most disappointing ends ever to a story.
Alexander Harvey - the Forbidden Floor (lowlight)
This one claimed to be "pleasantly erotic". If it was then I must have missed it.
Did not care much for the story either. A writer is to write a biography and for some reason seems to need to stay in the house as well. There is the lady of the house who seems to not say much and a son who keeps to his rooms at the other floor (you guessed it the "forbidden one") most times. Then we have the sullen housekeeper and we have our set complete. Some female ghost turns up and tempts our boy up the stairs. We then find that the son was tempted/haunted by the same ghost... Two sentences later all is well and our writer and lady of the house are married as is the son, to a woman who used to come to dinner.. or something - the end. Not a great story, not a great ending... no trace of eroticism for me.
These are not all the tales but they are the ones that came back to me most vividly when thumbing through the book again for this review. The other tales in this anthology are good as well but this selection is purely based on something in the story that tugged at my brain or made me smile.. or wince.. or put another light on.
Title: The Mammoth Book of Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories
Author: Richard Dalby (Ed.)
573 pages
Robinson
ISBN nr 1-85487-338-5
Books to be read: 82
Now.... there is another one I have finished but I will have to leave the review for that one for tomorrow. I can reveal that it is a Dean Koontz one. Not one of his standard works and perhaps the better for it.
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