One of many

I am having a slight relapse on the book buying front.

Yesterday I got another 4. This brings the total to a whopping 124.... at least it is an even number and I will not have to buy one with the excuse of evening out the numbers.

My relapse seems to be spreading to other areas as well. I bought two new albums on Saturday as well.Both are by an Irish singer songwriter called Foy Vance. One album is a bit more raw and blues-like where the other one is a bit more... well, gentle and floaty. I like both!

Now, I do remember that I have a few book reviews to do so lets get cracking... who knows when the back will give out again.

#### SPOILER ALERT ####

The Secret of Crickley Hall - James Herbert

This was a good one! 

A good bit ghost story. Lots of angry spirits floating around in a house, one family trying to come to terms with a loss, a bit of bad weather, some locals mistrusting of new folk, a psychic and a complete nutter. Actually make that two complete nutters. One alive, one dead..

The one thing that did put me off a little bit with this one at the start is that Herbert at one point seems to want to make this into a story that is told from many different people's perspectives; one chapter is told by one person, then he next by another and so the story builds up. He has a slight attempt at giving each chapter a different voice for each character but seems to drop the attempt at some point and stick to one, coherent narrative voice. Fortunately, in the end the story telling burden is not shared by too many people so it is okay.

There are some clever little twists and turns in the story and it made me want to keep reading as there is quite a bit going on. There are some different parts that mix to make up the book. There is the story of a family trying to come to terms with the loss of their son. At the start you do not know yet that he is dead but you kind of expect that to be the case irrespective of however much mum may not want it to be true. She seems to cling to some faint hope that after a year her boy Cam will still be found alive. I think that even at the start of the book, we as the reader know better than to hope. It is quite nice how Herbert shows you how each member of the family deals with the loss. Mum turns into herself and feels mainly guilt. Dad is trying to do the keeping a brave face thing. As for the kids, Loren tries to be a big girl about it and Ally is trying very hard to remember Cam at all. For the family the trip to the house is in part a means to relax and get away from the environment where the loss of their boy occurred. They have to try and move on and there is some hope that a trip away may help them all to heal. They really should have done their research! One of the parts of the story that got me is when Gabe gets the call that a body  has been found and it may be Cam. That part is very well written and it is heartbreaking to think of what it would feel like to have to identify the body of our child... devastating.

The family decide that close to the  one year anniversary of Cam's disappearance they need a break and dad's job has conveniently steered them towards a house with a bit of a history itself. This is where we start to get some details of the story of the children, orphan war evacuees. It is a gruesome and harsh story and if I was them I would haunt that house too! The guardians of the children were fine upstanding pillars of the community and, unfortunately for the kids also completely insane, cruel and impossible to escape from. Part of the story is found out from the villagers, art of it from some book that dad finds and the rest is filled in by one of the kids that actually survived the final ordeal, Maurice. This man has taken a big page out of the evil guardians book and has reasoned that as long as he can find another victim for the house to take the house and it's ghost will release it's hold on him. Sounds like a good enough plan.. but, how to find a child that is receptive to ghostly-ness and is tuned into spirits. Well, you turn yourself in to a psychic investigator.... of course you do. I cannot help but feel that it is a very nice coincidence for Mr Herbert that the family come to stay and that both mum and Loren seem receptive to the spirits that live in the house... as is Cally actually. Gabe seems to be the only "rational" one and an "unbeliever".

The other stories that we involved in are that of the Lili (the psychic) and of Maurice (the good pupil). We get to find out why Lili is not really a practising psychic any more and why Maurice became the lovable wacko we all know. There is one character who does not even speak and oozes evil without lifting a finger. This is the child carer extraordinaire, Magda. She never met a disciplinarian she did not like and her greatest crime is hiding behind her brother and not speaking up for those who needed a voice. I have met snakes with more of a backbone than she has. Oh... and let us not forget the handy man. He has been caretaker of the house and knows its history. He used to be quite fond of the teacher for the orphan kids. He never did find out what happened to her and hopes to see her again some time (he does...). You feel that he is somewhat torn between telling the family to get out while they can and hoping that all will be okay this time around.

There is a nice parallels in the story of the little Jewish boy and Cam. the boy is found in the well and turns out he did not get washed out to see. When Cam's body is found he turns up not to have strayed too far from the location of his original disappearance either.

At the end of the book there is closure for all the inhabitants of the house apart from one. Things end how they should.... in dramatic fashion. Gabe racing back in the dark to Crickley Hall through the worst storm of the century, Eve being stuck in the house with two live innocent kids and nine ghost ones, Maurice having finally snapped, Lily having sussed him out and having the visions of what went on in the fateful night all the kids died and the dog comes back! It does all end well and it leaves you with a good feeling for both the real and imagined visitors of the house.

Title: The Secret of Crickley Hall

Author: James Herbert

633 pages

Pan Books

ISNB nr 978-0-33041168-4

Books to be read: 123

Happy Holidays

I am now coming to the end of a blissful period of 9 whole days of no work. 

It has proved a good time to get some serious reading done. I managed to get through 4 books, several rich tea biscuits, at least 5 cups of coffee a day, about 2 bags of crisps, 4 trips to the gym and a visit to the physio. All in all, a fairly productive holiday.

Tomorrow sees me going back to the grind and wishing that I could just spend all my time reading and writing about it.... one can live in hope!

Stephen King was one of the books I finished so the ones who did Maths for A level might have figured out that this means that there is still 3 books for me left to talk about. Depending on how well the back holds up I plan to get at least one done now and then will have to pick up the rest as I go along.

As it was a holiday I also had to go on a little book trip. This saw me busing off to Stony Stratford and trotting into the Willen Hospice Book shop. I trotted out again 30 minutes later with 4 books in my bag and a clear conscience.

#### SPOILER ALERT ####

In Pale Battalions - Robert Goddard

I liked this one but I am not sure I liked it for the reasons that Goddard would have wanted me to. I get the feeling that he wants me to care for Leonora who tells her life story to her daughter and is in a way the main character of the book. However, I kind of care more about Franklin and what happens to him. Franklin's story is more engaging and involves more of the characters who end up shaping Leonora's past and future so perhaps that is why I care more about him. But he also just seems a nicer and more fleshed out character than Leonora.

Goddard has created a story within a story within a story - Leonora is telling her life story to her daughter and woven into this we have the story Leonora was told about her father by one of her father's friends, a Mr Franklin. Oh, and there are other smaller parts that are told by other family members and friends of the family that help complete the picture. All this adding in of different narrators and focus sometimes makes for a bit of a messy and unfocused story and I wonder if there would not have been a different way to tell the story better.. without moving the focus so often. I guess in a way it drives the plot forward but especially at the end it did make me go... "okay, then what part of the story are you going to fill in for us now?".

At the start of the book we meet Leonora and her daughter Penelope who have taken a trip to a war memorial and this is where Leonora decides to finally open up to her daughter about her past. Neither character gets a lot of time spent on them and I did not really care that much or them. They have a slightly distant relationship and it is made clear from the start that this is because Leonora chose to keep her past away from her children as not not have them influenced by it as she was. Leonora starts to tell us about a mother (also called Leonora) who died when she was only a few days old and a father who died in the war. He died in April 191 and she was born in March 1917.. even I can do that maths! So she was illegitimate and her family, especially her step mum never let her forget it. We follow the original Leonora through her young life spent at the mercy of her stepmother and into her marriage with a dashing young soldier who takes her away from all the bad stuff. Then we meet Mr Franklin or Mr Willis (had I only paid attention to that name more it would have put me onto the truth just about 100 pages sooner) who tells original Leonora what he knows about her father.. who may not be her father. Franklin's story is the one that really got me. Through him we get to know Leonora's father, the kind of man he was and what he stood for. We also get to know the family better and not all of it is pretty. Some of it is pretty atrocious. Franklin ends up at the old family estate by invitation as he is recovering from a war wound. While he is there he meets Leonora's mother and is also witness to a murder.. even gets fingered for it at some point. Through this murder we get drawn into the true story of Leonora's father and it is a good one! There is murder and intrigue, dad is not really dead and things are definitely not what they seem. 

The story that Franklin tells us is the bulk of Leonora's history and it is a great tale. I have to say that this story was the part of the book that drew me in and made me want to read on. I did not care too much about the Leonora we met at the start and not even that much about what happened to the original Leonora in  her past (she had a tough life and was hated by her stepmother.. so was Cinderella) but I wanted to know what happened to Franklin and to Leonora's father. This is the story of two men who met in battle (WW I) and formed a friendship that was based on respect and loyalty. So much so that they were both willing to sacrifice themselves for the other. I did find it a bit annoying that I had to wait for a few more outsiders and insiders to tell their bit of the story before the real truth was finally revealed but... all good things etc. 

What I will say about the final reveal is that is that Mr Willis has left Leonora with more than just a nice painting. We do find out who really is Leonora's father and it is sad that she does not realise until it is too late that he was there the whole time. Also sad that circumstances made a father have to keep away from the only daughter he ever had.

Title: In Pale Battalions

Author: Robert Goddard

393 pages

Corgi Books

ISBN nr 978-0-552-13281-7

Books to be read: 116... (well I do have another two to do so really only 114 left to read but as I am easily confused I am going to tick them off one by one but still add on the new ones bought)

Books bought: 4

Books to be read: 120

Needles and pins

Another week sees another physio acupuncture session and a much better recovery!
Back feels a lot better, I have more movement a lot less pain. This latter improvement especially has made this week 100% better than last week. Things are looking up even more this week as I have all of next week off!! I had some holiday I had to before April so I decided to have a whole week off instead of spreading them over a longer period and having them in twos and threes. 
I already have a list as long as my arm of things that I would like to do but it is highly likely that I will end up doing only a few of the items on the list and will just relax, chill and read my books.

As for the book total. It has increased by 2. Thanks to my friend who thinks I have a problem with collecting books.... hmm, interesting development. 
All this brings the total of books to be read to: 118.

However, I have been reading quite a bit in the past week and as the weather was a bit pants this weekend I managed to get through 2 books since my last post! I have even started another one but as that is about 600 pages it may take me a little while to finish that one.


#### SPOILER ALERT ####

11.22.63 - Stephen King
What can I say about this one? Well... I loved it and it is very different from what I am used to from SK.
It has a supernatural element in the fact that it is about time travel but that element is almost side-lined overall and it seems to be a story that is more about people, relationships and how they affect the world around them. It is also one of those ones that is hard to put down. Almost from the start you want to know what happens next with the main characters. I guess that that is in part due to the fact that we would all like to know what would happen if the past really could be changed. The book has got a good pace and it flows well and it has plenty of excitement. I find that in this one King is really good at setting up and defining his characters. It is kind of like he knows we are going to be spending some time with them so he has made them recognisable, likeable and fleshed out. The main ones especially have a past that affects them still and brings some excitement and movement to the story. the bad guys are kind of your average bad guy.... although some are a bit more twisted than others. 
Then there is the "curve ball" in the story. The story takes off in one direction and then something happens that changes it around and it hooks you in even further. So.. before you know it you find yourself staying up till 22.00 to finish the book and maligning him for it in the morning... or was that just me?
At the start of the book we meet Jake Epping a teacher at the local school. A man who does not cry easily and at the start you wonder why that is important. He has an okay job and an alcoholic ex-wife. The mrs finally took herself off to AA, fell into the arms of a new husband and now seems to blame Jake fore it all. Jake was left to his own devices and you get the feeling that that is fine by him. Jake seems to be set in his ways and does not expect much of life but to be allowed to teach his kids and live his life in peace. The one thing that has made him cry recently is a story that one of his mature students writes about his horrible childhood. Then for some reason his life gets turned upside down by Al. Al is the owner of the local diner that Jake loves to visit. All is not well with Al. Al seems to have gotten really ill really suddenly and asks Jake to help him. The story that Al has to tell is amazing and hard to believe. Once Al starts his tale you get swept away as Jake is. Bring on the weird time ravel stuff, a bit of murderous intent, and an amazing story about changing the past, cause and effect and more importantly... people. There is love, loss, pain and suffering, murder, redemption and understanding.
Al's secret is that he has found a time portal in the back of his diner (as you do). He has been going back and forth between the past and the present for some time. The portal brings him to September 9, 1958.... at 11.58. It seems to Al that no matter how often he uses it it seems that every time he goes back the past has reset itself and it is like he was never there. Another strange thing about the time portal is that every time you go into the past, no matter how much time you spend in the past it will always bring you back 2 minutes after you left the present. Al has been going back and forth for some time now... and he has a plan! He believes that he needs to save the world from itself and that the one pivotal event that he needs to prevent from happening is the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. Al is a man who believes in being prepared and has lots of notes about the events surrounding the assassination so Jake can relax up to a point but there are still plenty of challenges ahead for him.
Jake... or should we say George, decides to take the plunge and is a somewhat reluctant visitor of the past at first. He takes an almost scientific approach to the whole time travel experience. For Jake seeing is believing. He sets out to test Al's theory of the past and how changes we make in the past affect the future. As Jake finds out for himself there are some things that do not seem to want to be changed and it takes some doing to put things right... and even then... In the end Jake buys into Al's plans for the past and agrees to do his bit for history. This is where the true journey starts for Jake. He takes himself back to 1958 and has to fill the 5 years to the Kennedy assassination. I am not going to go into everything that Jake does, fixes and experiences but I have to mention Sadie. 
Sadie is the kind of woman we all know. Slightly uncomfortable with herself, a bit clumsy, seems to be pre-occupied by something that happened to her at some time. Jake meets her whilst he is biding his time in a small town and she becomes the most important thing in his life. She is one that almost makes him stay in the past. It is interesting to see Jake grow throughout the story. He seems at odds with the past at the start but he becomes so comfortable with it that he even thinks of staying there at one point. In all this Sadie is his saviour, his link to the past, his hope for the future and the one person who he is able to tell some of what he is up to. Sadie has a past and this past haunts her and hunts her down as well (as you kind of expect it to). In all this it is a nice contradiction that with all his knowledge of the future Jake is still powerless to prevent harm from coming to the one he loves most.
You get to spend a lot of time with Jake and he is a very well thought out character. He is balanced, level headed and kind. He seems to want to belong and he does for a while. Yet, he also has a dark side to him. A side that makes him able to kill, lie and do what is needed to safeguard the future... or so he thinks. The other characters that you meet are well written as well. Al is the kind of guy you would like to run you local diner. Sadie is a lively although slightly accident prone lady. Miz Mimi is hilariously brazen and full a fight and life. Deke and Ellie and the sound pillars of the community that you expect to live in the sleepy town of Jodie.

With this book you actually get a few stories for the price of one.
There is the whole time travel aspect of the story. The most important lesson here seems to be that what you think is going to happen does not always happen. Life has a way of doing what it wants and you can try to give it direction as much as you like but there are so many things that influence the way life and society develops that it is near impossible to predict how your actions will affect the future.
Then there is the part that deals with Jake preventing the assassination of Kennedy. This brings in Lee Harvey Oswald and his family. It tells the story of the man who killed Kennedy from a different and very interesting angle... perhaps a more human angle than we are used from in the history books.
There is the story of Jake who changes from a teacher without a cause to a teacher with a cause and a family, and a home, and a sense of belonging. 
And last but not least we have the love story of Jake and Sadie... which is both moving and tragic. It is filled with love and loss and. most importantly trust.
In the last chapters you do get some kind of explanation of how the whole time travel things works. However, to be honest by that time I did not really care too much about the mechanics of time travel strands of time and cause and effect. I was much more interested in what Jake was going to do in the end. Stay in the past or choose the present. In the end that is the strength of the book and the story. You want to know what happens to the main character and want him to be happy, whatever choice he makes... and he is.

Title: 11.22.63
Author: Stephen King
740 pages
Hodder
ISBN nr 978-1-444-72733-3

Books to be read: 117

Revisiting the past

After the week from Hell I am now almost back to my normal self again.

Why the week from Hell?? Well, my back muscles deciding to play me another trick. They collectively decided that they were going to go on strike and no amount of painkillers was going to move them. At one point I am sure I heard them chant "we shall, we shall, we shall not be moved". Anyway.... my physio decided that acupuncture might help. during it I was fine. 2 Hours later I felt like I had been hit by a truck and run over... twice. I am now slowly starting up the exercise again and the muscles seem to be holding up. I can even sit down long enough comfortably to read a few pages. This is a good thing as the present book I am reading is about 700 pages. I am just over halfway through it now and it is proving rather good. It is not your typical Stephen King book but pleasantly different.

Good news... no new books bought!