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.
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
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.
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