The Head of God by Keith Laidler

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was published before The Da Vinci Code but would be of interest to fans of the genre. It covers the Knights Templar, the Cathars, alternative histories of Jesus and Moses and lots more. I loved it.


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North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I've not read anything by this author before, but I will now as I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Unlike some of the classics, I found it an easy read, I didn't have a problem with the language (like I did with George Eliot's 'Mill on the Floss). I look foreward to reading more by Elizabeth Gaskell.


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Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don't think I've ever read a novel that has moved me to tears in the first two or three pages. This is a beautifully written book about characters that feel like real people (and in one case, this is almost true) experiencing real emotions. I find that the book stays with me after I've finished reading it, always a good sign.



This is a first novel by Danny Scheinmann and what a powerful debut it is. Highly recommended.


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The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I didn't like this book much. I kept reading it because I'm interested in early science and in the 1700s generally. It is part one of a trilogy but I wont be reading any of the others.


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Temple by Matthew Reilly

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is my favourte Reilly book so far. It's a big fat blockbuster of a book but I ploughed through it in a couple of days. It's very edge-of-your-seat stuff, written in a cinematic style so it feels more like watching a fast paced action movie than reading a book.



The story has two timelines, one set in the time of the Spanish conquest of the Incas and the other in Peru of 1999. The unlikely hero is William Race, a mild mannered, likable linguisitcs expert who, during this story, finds himself on a mission to save the world.


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Atlantis by David Gibbins

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
The writer spends a lot of time talking about underwater technology and weapons, and I meant a lot of time. If you're interested in hardware all named usung longs lists of abreviations and numbers then you'll love this book. If you want to read about Atlantis, be prepared to wait, and wait. Unfortunately, even when it got to the 'juicy bit' I was still bored. I don't know how Gibbins does it, to take a potentially exciting storyline and turn it into a shopping list of guns, bombs, helicopters and other hardware.



Dull stuff.


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The Alchemist's Secret by Scott Mariani

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
From the back of the book:

A former elite member of the SAs, Ben Hope is tortured by a tragedy from his past and now devotes his time to rescuing kidnapped children.



But when Ben is recruited to locate an ancient manuscript which could save the life of a dying child, he embarks on the deadliest quest of his life.



The document is alleged to contain the formula for the elixir of life, discovered by the brilliant alchemist Fulcanelli decades before. But it soon becomes apparent that others are hunting this most precious of treasures - for far more evil ends....



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I thoroughly enjoyed this book by Mariani. Okay, in places it's a little far fetched, but it's gripping from beginning to end and the characterisation is good.


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Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
From the back of the book:



Kidnappers storm an international gathering hosted by a poor Latin American country to promote foreign trade. Unfortunately their intended target, the President, has stayed home to watch his favourite Soap. The takeover settles into a siege, bringing together an unlikely assortment of hostages including a beautiful American opera diva, a Japanese CEO who is her biggest fan, and his unassuming translator, Gen. Two couples, complete opposites, fall in love, and a horrific imprisonment is transformed into unexpected heaven on earth.



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When I read the synopsis on the back of the book I didn't think it was really my kind of thing. But once I started to read, I was hooked. The writing is extraordinary, I'm not equipped with language (like the author!) to say why, but trust me, this is a beautifully written book. The relationships that develop between the hostages and the terrorists are the focus of the book, this is what keeps you gripped and hopeful that everything will end happily. Thank you so much Fredam for giving me the chance to read this powerful and emotionally charged book.








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The Six Sacred Stones by Mathew Reilly

The Six Sacred Stones by Matthew Reilly

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is the sequel to 'Seven Ancient Wonders'. I hadn't read the first book and found all the references to it slightly annoying.



This is book is trash, wonderful no-brain-needed trash. It's full of ancient places, myths and legends, even a completely made up cannabalistic tribe. It has exciting stunts, like jumping from one plane to another midflight, exciting but not possible, but who cares. It ends on a cliff hanger, guess I'll have to read the million other books in this genre while I wait for the next book.


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The Mozart Conspiracy by Scott Mariani

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
In between reading about Quantum Mechanics, I like to rest my brain on fun fodder like this. If it doesn't have a secret sect/brotherhood and other rip off Devinci Code plot lines, then I'm not interested lol.

To be fair to the author, the book was very gripping.


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What the Bleep Do We Know!?: Discovering the Endless Possibilities for Altering Your Everyday Reality by William Arntz

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Like the film, you either love or hate pseudoscience (the mix of mysticism, philosophy, and quantum physics). Personally I can't get enough of it.


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The Triskellion by Will Peterson

From the back of the book:

Rachel and Adam are sent from their New York home to stay with their Grandmother following their parents' bitter divorce. But the quiet English village where their mother was born is a sinister and unsettling place, is their a genuninely dark hert beating beneath the thatched roofs of the picturesue village of Triskellion?

Against a brooding background of very real danger, the two young outsiders follow an incredible trail on an archealogical adventure with a startling paranormal twist. In a community that has existed in the same place for centuries, many terrible secrets lie hidden, and the villagers of Triskellion have a great deal to protect.

This is my sort of thing. It's got Green Men, twins that read each others minds, archaeology, dark secrets and a paranormal element, who could ask for more?

I was left a bit baffled by the ending but saw in the end notes that part two is out in March 2009, am looking forward to it.

King Solomon's Carpet by Barbara Vine

From the back of the book:

Jarvis Stringer lives in a crumbling schoolhouse overlooking a tube line, compliling his obsessive secret history of London's Underground. His presence and his strange house draw a band of misfits into his orbit; young Alice, who has run away from her husband and baby: Tom, the busker who rescues her: trunt Jasper who gets his kicks on the tubel and mysterious Axel, whose dark secret later casts a shadow over all their lives.

Dispossessed and outcast, those who come to inhabit Jarvis's schoolouse are gradually brought closer to violent and unforseen wys by Lodon's forbidding and dangerous Underground.....

Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell is one of my favourite authors, she has written some terrific novels. Sadly, for me, this wasn't one of them. There were too many characters, I found I couldn't get fully focussed on one before the story jumped to another one. I didn't empathise with any of them except perhaps for the elderly, bewildered Cecililia whose daughter Tina lives in the schoolhouse and sleeps around.

I did like the facts and history given about the underground, I like trains (though steam is more my thing) and it was this that probably kept me reading. Also, the schoolhouse is set in Westend Lane, a road I travelled most days of my life in London. The Railway Tavern is even mentioned, a pub I ran as a rock venue in the early 1990s. It's always enjoyable reading books set in areas we know well, another factor that kept me reading. Overall though, this has to be my least favourite Vine book, I'm disappointed to come across something of hers I actually don't like that much.

The Magic of Provence by Yvone Lenard

It was lovely to experience Yvone Lenard's adventures in the Provence of the 1980s-1990s. Some of her tales made me laugh out loud, I just had to read them out to my husband. Others were more poignant, more sad, just like life really. I found myself liking Yvone and her husband Wayne, her narrative style is so warm and lively, I just want to be invited round for dinner now!

Darkhenge by Catherine Fisher

This was a unique reading experience as it is set in the village where I live and its surrounding areas. On the first page Rob, the book's protagonist, is on Windmill Hill with his friend Dan. I couldn't help but turn my head to look at Windmill Hill out the window, a surreal experience!

I picked this book up from the teenage section at the library as I liked the title. I don't think (from looking at reviews on the internet) that it is especially aimed at teenagers, it just happens that the story evolves around a teenager. Catherine Fisher has obviously spent a great deal of time here in Avebury and its surrounds, she is familiar with its people, the bustle of tourists, the illegal camping sites where the Pagans stay, she is totally able to recreate the village in her book.

The story has all the elements I love, mystery, myth and magic, and archeology to boot. In it you'll find Taliesin, the Goddess Ceridiwen of course, the Darkhenge, which leads to the Unworld, where Rob must fight the forest to bring his sister Chloe to the family waiting for her.

A concise review here.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

A brief synopsis

A lost child...

On the eve of the first world war, a little girl is found abandoned on a ship to Australia. A mysterious woman called the Authoress had promised to look after her - but the Authoress has disappeared without a trace.

A terrible secret...

On the night of her twenty-first birthday, Nell O'Connor learns a secret that will change her life forever. Decades later, she embarks upon a search for the truth that leads her to the windswept Cornish coast and the strange and beautiful Blackhurst Manor, once owned by the aristocratic Mountrachet family.

A mysterious inheritance...

On Nell's death, her grand-daughter, Cassandra, comes into an unexpected inheritance. Cliff Cottage and its forgotten garden are notorious amongst the Cornish locals for the secrets they hold - secrets about the doomed Mountrachet family and their ward Eliza Makepeace, a writer of dark Victorian fairytales. It is here that Cassandra will finally uncover the truth about the family, and solve the century-old mystery of a little girl lost.
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This is another hefty tome from the bestelling author of 'The House at Riverton'. The tale meanders back and forth from the early 1900s to 1975 and 2005. I don't usually mind stories that jump around in time, but even for me, this one was a little disjointed. By far the most interesting (to me) part of the book was set in the 1900s and I felt that with a bit of tweaking, one could do away with the most modern characters completely!

It is a tale full of secrets, and it is the unravelling of them that concerns modern day Cassandra, a character I never fully believed in and couldn't bring myself to care about. Fortunately, Eliza and Rose, who live in the 1900s make up for the wishy washy Cassandra, and it their entwined lives that make this book worth reading.

Lady's Maid by Margaret Forster

I've never read such an in depth study of what it was to be a lady's maid in the 1800s. Lily Wilson was a real person and really was employed as Elizabeth Barrett Brownings maid but one can hardly believe she was as 'real' as Forster's creation. Her thoughts, feelings and emotions are minutely examined. Her relationship with with Barrett Browning is the main focus of the book and it is this that creates the tension, the rollercoaster of emotions we experience through Lily.

There were times I loathed the Elizabeth Barrett Browning of this book, I felt she was warm towards Lily when she was useful to her, but if Lily was in trouble she became cold and unfeeling. I found myself caring deeply for Lily and behind her all the way.

An utterly absorbing and emotionally stirring read!

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Simply sublime, I can't fault this book. I am drawn to the time before the second world war when the upper middle classes still lived in their big country houses and had cocktails before dinner. I love the eccentricity, the (unintentional?) comedy of this particular set of people. I think I feel a sort of sympathy for them as their way of life was on the brink of extinction and I wonder if they were aware of it at the time.

I haven't actually seen the television version of the book but would now like to rent it. I intend to read more of Evelyn Waugh too now, this was my first and what a pleasure it was.

Death by Lightning by Gail Anderson-Dargatz

From the back of the book..
'The remote Turtle Valley in British Columbia is home to fifteen-year-old Beth Weeks and a community of eccentric but familiar characters. There, amidst a stunning landscape of purple swallows and green skies, strange unsettling events occur; children go missing, a girl is mauled by a crazy bear and Beth too is being pursued....The Cure for Death by Lightning is a rich and thrilling novel, as filled with strange deeds and dark fears as with beauty and magic'.
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I love the 'magical realism' genre and although this book wasn't fully a magical realist novel, there were parts of the story that were magical and out of the ordinary.

It was also very brutal. I hadn't expected it and am surprised no mention is made of it in the synopsis. If you are sensitive when it comes to the pain and suffering of animals, beware, there is plenty of it in this book. Fortunately it's balanced with the entrancing story of Beth's first romance, the wonderful recipes, the beauty of the pre- second world war countryside.

Despite the aforementioned occurrences of (often needless) animal suffering, I loved so much about this book, it's was a beautiful, heartbreaking story of a way of life that no longer exists.

What the Bleep do I know?

I have just finished reading 'From Science to God: A Physicist's Journey into the Mystery of Consciousness by Peter Russell. It's only a slim book so it didn't take long. For most of the book he explains in a very clear and easily understood way about the basic tenets of physics (because of him many things have become clear to me that previously went over my head). He writes a little about his own personal journey and how got where he is today. Towards the end of the book he talks about various belief and religious systems, this stuff I knew inside out but read it nonetheless.

The book confirmed that I do have a deep interest in the increasing connections between Quantum Physics and Mysticisim/consciousness, an interest which was started by the film 'What the Bleep do we Know'? I'm now reading the book that was written after the film. My next book will be:

Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists" by Ken Wilber

I have also signed up to a website that sends out Inspirational/Spiritual type DVDs on a monthly basis (to keep). I'm really looking forward to the first batch.

The Memory keeper's Daughter

"The Memory Keepers Daughter" is a brilliantly crafted family drama that explores every mothers silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Downs syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this beautifully told story that unfolds over a quarter of a century in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by David Henrys fateful decision that long-ago winter night. A rich and deeply moving page-turner, "The Memory Keepers Daughter" captures the way life takes unexpected turns and how the mysterious ties that hold a family together help us survive the heartache that occurs when long-buried secrets burst into the open. It is an astonishing tale of redemptive love.



I wanted to read as loads of Bookcrossing.com members have read it so I thought I'd see why it's been so popular.

I thought the premise of the story was great, it got me emotionally involved very early on in the book and I just had to see how things turned out. It was interesting thinking about how I would've reacted to David's predicament if I was viewing his situation from 1964 rather than 2008.

I thought the book went on rather too long and found myself speed reading towards the end, but on the whole this was a thought provoking read.

The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert

This is a hefty tome at 600 plus pages and towards the end I felt it had gone on a tad too long.

I've read a few of Herbert's books and thought some of them very poor (The Survivor was one of the worst ghost stories I've ever read) but this one is in an altogether different class. The characters are interesting, well filled out and likable. You care about them. Presuming, like me, you are a believer in the supernatural, then you will enjoy and believe in the ghostly and spooky events that go on through out the book. The tension and trepidation makes the book a page turner, you want to know what happens next.

If only the author could resist turning the ending into a theatrical, over the top spook fest which stretches even the belief of a hardened lover of all things paranormal like myself. For me, the ending was the weakest part of the book. If he had restrained his imagination, given us something eerily and subtly terrifying, I might even have given the book ten out of ten.

The Savage Garden by Mark Mills

Synopsis

A haunting tale of murder, love and innocence lost set in post-war Tuscany . Behind a villa in the heart of Tuscany lies a Renaissance garden of enchanting beauty. Its grottoes, pagan statues and classical inscriptions seem to have a secret life of their own - and a secret message, too, for those with eyes to read it.

Young scholar Adam Strickland is just such a person. Arriving in 1958, he finds the Docci family, their house and the unique garden as seductive as each other. But post-War Italy is still a strange, even dangerous place, and the Doccis have some dark skeletons hidden away which Adam finds himself compelled to investigate. Before this mysterious and beautiful summer ends, Adam will uncover two stories of love, revenge and murder, separated by 400 years... but is another tragedy about to be added to the villa's cursed past?

A promising book set in Italy, but having read it I can say that very little of that promise was fulfilled. It seemed to take so long to get going, more than a hundred pages in nothing much had happened. I feel I should take some of the responsibility, I should have been intrigued by the mysterious Renaissance garden that Adam spends a lot of time on. He decoded the many secrets hidden in the garden's layout and statuary. This is the sort of thing I usually enjoy, but it just didn't fire my imagination, I feel this is more a lack in me than the author.

The last third of the book was completely different, the intrigue and mystery, the revealing of the Doccis dark family secret finally held my attention, though disappointingly, I felt the ending was weak, though I can't say why without revealing plot lines.

Books Read & Aquired in May 2008

Books Read in May = 10
41 The Shakespeare Secret by J.L Carroll
42 Ladies of the Grand Tour by Brian Dolan
43 Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
44 Marrying the Mistress by Joanna Trollope
45 The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
46 Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier
47 Coven of One by Kate Bousfield
48 A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follett
49 The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
50 The Savage Garden by Mark Mills

Amount of Books that Came into My House in May = 25
48 Marrying the Mistress by Joanna Trollope
49 Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope
50 Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
51 Sepulchre by Kate Mosse
52 The Pilots Wife by Anita Shreve
53 Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
54. The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert
55 A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follett
56 When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
57 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
58 Dark Enchantment by Roland Vernon
59 The Rossett Letters by Christi Phillips
60 Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier
61 Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom
62 Heirs of Ravenscar by Barbara Taylor Bradford
63 The Diplomats Wife by Pam Jenoff
64 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini
65 Shakespeare by Another Name by Mark Anderson
66 The Last Empress by Anchee Min
67 Searching for Tilly by Susan Sallis
68 Past Secrets by Kathy Kelly
69 The Visible World by Mark Slouka
70 One More Day by Mitch Albom
71 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
72 The Sixth Wife by Suzannah Dunn

Librarians' must-read list

The list in full

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Bible
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
1984 by George Orwell
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Read it
All Quite on the Western Front by E M Remarque
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman read it
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding read it
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Tess of the D'urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte read it
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger read it
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold read it
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho read it
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver read it
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

Synopsis Alessandra is not quite fifteen when her prosperous merchant father brings a young painter back with him from Holland to adorn the walls of the new family chapel. She is fascinated by his talents and envious of his abilities and opportunities to paint to the glory of God. Soon her love of art and her lively independence are luring her into closer involvement with all sorts of taboo areas of life. On excursions into the streets of night-time Florence she observes a terrible evil stalking the city and witnesses the rise of the fiery young priest, Savanarola, who has set out to rid the city of vice, richness, even art itself. Alessandra must make crucial decisions about the shape of her adult life, as Florence itself must choose between the old ways of the luxury-loving Medicis and the asceticism of Savanorola. And through it all, there is the painter, whose love will change everything

I'm an Italianophile and particularly like stories set in Venice and Florence. I like history and I like art, so, as this book contains all those elements, I should have loved it, right? However, there was a jarring tone in an interesting, often informative book. It was Alessandra I had a problem with, I never felt her 'voice' authentic, I can't quite put my finger on it, but I just didn't believe in her or the way she thought/spoke. Sadly, I ended up not liking her very much either.

I had planned to read all of Sarah Dunant's books and I wont let my issue with this one put me off.

A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follett

Amazon synopsis
In a brutal world, charismatic rebel miner Mack McAsh - a slave by birth - is a man with the courage to stand up for what is right, and the strength to stick by his beliefs. Independent, rebellious Lizzie Hallim, meanwhile, is engaged to Jay Jamisson, the ruthless landlord's son and heir to an exploitative business empire. Born into separate worlds, Mack and Lizzie are thrown together when Mack becomes an enemy of the state and is forced to flee his homeland. Lizzie aids his escape, and it is not long before passions rage in the old world as well as the new ...Set in an era of turbulent social changes, "A Place Called Freedom" is a magnificent novel from the undisputed master of suspense and drama, Ken Follett.

I loved Pillars of the Earth and love books set in the 18th Century so I thought I'd probably enjoy this one, and I did. It's a very easy read, with lots of exciting bits, the main 'good' characters are really likeable and you can't help but root for them. The 'bad' characters are despicable, loathsome characters you hope are thwarted.

A rollicking good read! lol

Coven of One by Kate Bousfield

This is an enchanting book set in an alternative Britain where witches are commonplace and respected, especially in the North of England. We are never told the date, but I'm guessing it could be the 18th or early 19th century.

The story focus's on Dorcas, a hedgewitch who has just completed years of training at Masterbridge, a witches' college (I love the idea!). To her dismay, she is being sent to a village (in what sounds very much like Cornwall) down south. She does not welcome the news because the south embraces the religion of the one God, and no longer looks kindly on witches.

The story is taken up with Dorcas' struggle to integrate herself in her new surroundings, her dealing with the hostile locals and her struggle with a force of evil that only a Truewitch like herself can deal with.

I found the book highly entertaining, I liked the humour and the often amusing characterisation, and I especially liked the descriptions of the salves and potions Dorcas made up from natural ingredients for the various aches and pains of the villagers.

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

I've been past Jamaica Inn a few times so was intrigued by the title of the book. I'm also working my way through all of du Maurier's work. The story is set in the beginning of the 19th Century in Cornwall and involves smuggling and 'wrecker's, dastardly characters that lure ships onto the rocks with false lights (I recently watched a documentary that said there's no proof that this ever happened, it's just a myth). The main protagonist is Mary who, through the death of her mother ends up living at Jamaica Inn with her downtrodden aunt and her evil uncle.

It's all a little predictable, I worked out all the so called 'twists' in advance but for all that it was a fairly good read, though not one of du Maurier's best.

Charles Dickens - The Old Curiosity Shop

A good story with great characters. Quilp, the malicious and evil minded dwarf is a masterpiece. I don't think I've been so disturbed by a 'baddie' for a long time (except for Silas in the first series of Heroes perhaps). Nell on the other hand is nauseatingly long suffering and sweet. She's often described as an 'angel' but I just found her an annoying goodie two shoes.

I did struggle with the prose sometimes, Dickens isn't as concise as say Wilkie Collins (are they contemporaries? must find out) but that didn't put me off. On the whole, a right good read.

Books Stats for April 2008

Books read in April
32 The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - PC
33 A Wreath of Roses by Elizabeth Taylor - AVL
34 There are no Tigers in Africa by Norman Silver - AVL
35 The Land of Laughs by Jonathon Carroll - PC
36 Saturday by Ian McEwan (gingergeoff will have this next, shout if you want it after him)
37 The Du Mauriers by Daphne Du Maurier (possible ring)
38 City of the Beasts by Isabelle Allende - AVL
39 The House at Riverton by Kate Morton (AVL to anyone at the May Cherry Tree Meet)
40 The Crystal Skulls by Manda Scott - PC

Books that found their way to my house (the sneaky things) this month.
42. Saturday by Iain McEwan
43. City of Beasts by Isabel Allende
44. The Crystal Skulls by Manda Scott
45. Virginia Woolfe by Nigel Nicolson
46. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
47.Portrait in Sepia by Isabelle Allende

I don't seem to be able to read more than ten books a month. One I've read ten, I seem to reach 'overload' point and can't squeeze another book in. As long as I keep reading the minimum ten though, I'm happy.

Saturday by Ian McEwan

Synopsis.
Saturday, February 15m 2003. Henry Perowne is a contented man - a successful neurosurgeon, the devoted husband of Rosalind and proud father of two grown-up children. Unusually, he wakes before dawn, drawn to the window and filled with a growing unease. As he looks out at the night sky he is troubled by the state of the world - the impending war against Iraq, a gathering pessimism since 9/11, and a fear that his city and his happy family life are under threat.

Later, as Perowne makes his way through London streets filled with hundreds of thousands of anti-war protestors, a minor car accident brings him into confrontation with Baxter, a fidgety, aggressive young man, on the edge of violence. To Perowne's professional eye, there appears to be something profoundly wrong with him. But it is not until Baxter makes a sudden appearance as the Perowne family gathers for a reunion that Henry's earlier fears seem about to be realised.

I'm glad I didn't read the blurb on the back of the book before reading it as it gives away so much of what happens in the book, I hate that!

I've read 'Atonement' and 'On Chesil Beach' by Ian McEwan and liked them both. Sadly, I can't say the same of this book. Perhaps it's because I grew to dislike Henry the more I read about him. He doesn't like reading much, and worst, dislikes my favourite genre, magical realism! I don't have to have anything in common with the characters in the books I'm reading but it helps if I like them. There are pages and pages inserted in the book dedicated to the outpourings of praise heaped on it. It makes one feel quite the philistine!

I was interested to read about the brain surgery Henry performs on his patients and felt in my bones that the accounts would include the brain surgery I have had and eventually, there it was, the very operation he performs on Rosalind is the one I had. It was a very strange feeling to read the somewhat gory details knowing that it has all happened to me.

I feel even more of a philistine when I say that I found the whole book dull, even the exciting bits were dull! Even without having read the blurb on the back of the book I knew that the confrontation with Baxter in the street wouldn't end there, the outcome was predictable and added to the dullness. No, not may favourite McEwan, but I'll keep reading his books because I enjoyed the other two so much.

The Land of Laughs by Jonathon Carroll

Synopsis
For schoolteacher Thomas Abbey there was no writer to equal Marshall France, a legendary author of children's books who hid himself away in the small town of Galen and died of a heart attack at the age of forty-four. Tom and his girlfriend Saxony, wanting to write France's biography, arrive in Galen, where they discover the writer's fiercely protective daughter Anna is waiting for them. Before long, they realise that this idyllic little town and its inhabitants - both human and animal - are not quite what they seem: France's magic has spread beyond the printed page ...

Magical Realism is one of my favourite genres. Basically it's where something magical and other wordly happens in a very ordinary setting, as opposed to Fantasy which is usually about some made up planet in a galaxy far far away where dragons still roam and Lord someone or other is trying to defeat the evil wizard whatchamacallit.

The Land of Laughs in written so smoothly, so flowingly, that ones eyes just glide along the page and eat up chapter after chapter. For most of the book you have no idea in the direction the story it's going in (I never read the synopsis on the backs of books, I like to be surprised) but once Thomas hears a bulldog talking in his sleep (yes, really talking) you know that things in the town of Galen are not what they seem.

Fortunately for me Carroll has written lots of books because I got so much enjoyment from this one want to read all his others.

No Tigers in Africa by Norman Silver

This is the story of 15 year old Selywin who has recently moved to Bristol from Apartheid South Africa. He has a hard time adjusting to the climate, culture, to school and to making friends.

Apart from having to deal with the disintegration of his family, he has a dark secret he's holding on to. The pressure build and eventually things come to a head.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

I enjoyed The Woman in White by the same author so much, I thought I'd read this one too. It isn't quite as riveting and suspenseful as The Woman in White but is an engaging and absorbing all the same. The plot is very complex but centres around a diamond stolen from a sacred Hindu statue, in the days when the British still ruled India, by an English army officer. It is passed down through inheritance to Miss Rachel Verinder who only has it for one night before it is stolen from her room. It is the discovery of how and whom stole the diamond that makes up the plot of this book (all 500 plus pages of it).

In the foreword it says that T.S Eliot described the book as 'the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels'. I don't agree it is the best, like I said before The Woman in White is a better book in my view, but if it is the first detective book written,then as a first attempt at a new genre Collins excels himself.

What I particularly like about the way Wilkie Collins writes is the fact it is so easily accessible to the modern reader. I've read other books written in the 1800s that are written in a language style so idiomatic, so archaic, so far removed from today's modern language to be virtually indecipherable to me. The fact that these books are so easy to read means I shall certainly read more by this author.

Skating to Antartica by Jenny Diski

Jenny Diski craves complete whiteness and where, logically, could she go but Antarctica?? She books herself a cruise on a former scientific ship and meets (but mostly avoids) her fellow, largely American, passengers. She writes about the penguins (which stink!), Elephant seals, icebergs and her fellow ship-mates in an amusing and engaging way.

This is far from being a straightforward travelogue. The Antarctica trip is just part of the book, the rest is taken up with thoughts on her hysterical and unkind mother (whom she hasn't been in contact with since the 60s), her unstable childhood and and her life in general. She seems to be exorcising ghosts through her writing which does make compelling, though sometimes quite painful, reading.

The Whirpool by Jane Urquhart

A poetical and lyrical story set in 1880s Canada.

I don't think everyone will like Urquhart's style of writing, it's very descriptive, of light, sound, nature in general, I've seen it described as 'lyrical' and 'poetical'. Personally, I like the way she writes. She has the ability, when describing nature, to make you long to be among woods or some other place among the flora and fauna. The novel is set in Niagara Falls in the 1880s and features four main characters. There's McDougal, the military historian, obsessed with a battle that had taken place in Niagara seventy years earlier. Then there's Fleda, his unconventional wife who's living in a tent with her husband by the river until their house is built. Patrick spies on Fleda with field glasses. And Maud Grady, the Undertaker's widow who collects the possessions of those who commit suicide in the river, and her strange little boy.

I liked the book very much, the people interested me and so did the setting, Niagara Falls. It's gentle, meandering through the lives of these four very different people.