Janet's Log - stardate 2013

[Janet]

Thanks, Kylie.  I had my own mid-week read-a-thon! 

 

I'm currently about half way through a book called Road to Rouen by Ben Hatch.  It's a humorous travel-memoir book and is for my Book Club.  I'm sort of enjoying it, although it's not as good as other books of this genre I've read. 

[Janet]

I don't know what the matter with me is.   I've had lots of free time today and did I read?  Did I heck! I've messed around on the internet and so forth and done no reading at all.   Aaaargh!  

[AbielleRose]

Sometimes the mojo just isn't there.  Maybe tomorrow! 

[julie]

Janet

I'm glad your Mojo is at least showing signs of coming back out . Maybe it's still not turned on full blast .

I have yet to read Night Circus, but it sounds good .

Maybe you just need another really good book to trip your trigger again. It didn't sound as though you were enjoying your travel book a whole lot .

[pontalba]

I don't know what the matter with me is.   I've had lots of free time today and did I read?  Did I heck! I've messed around on the internet and so forth and done no reading at all.   Aaaargh!  

 

I've been off as well lately.  I've started three since my last book, and don't particularly want any of them!  /sheesh/

I mucked about today on here, and on the internet in general, then we went out.  /sigh/

Husband is reading right now.  I should join him.

[Athena]

Sorry to hear things aren't going well with your mojo's (Janet and pontalba). My mojo is a bit low as well the past few days. I hope things get better for you both soon.

[Michelle]

I don't know what the matter with me is.   I've had lots of free time today and did I read?  Did I heck! I've messed around on the internet and so forth and done no reading at all.   Aaaargh!  

I've done this often Janet - and sometimes I even have a book I'm really into!

[pontalba]

Sorry to hear things aren't going well with your mojo's (Janet and pontalba). My mojo is a bit low as well the past few days. I hope things get better for you both soon.

 

Thanks Athena, but honestly, I think part of my problem is I have too much to choose from that's handy.  I'm finding It difficult to focus.   Can't say I'm too worried though.

[Janet]

Sometimes the mojo just isn't there.  Maybe tomorrow! 

Janet

I'm glad your Mojo is at least showing signs of coming back out . Maybe it's still not turned on full blast .

I have yet to read Night Circus, but it sounds good .

Maybe you just need another really good book to trip your trigger again. It didn't sound as though you were enjoying your travel book a whole lot .

I've been off as well lately.  I've started three since my last book, and don't particularly want any of them!  /sheesh/

I mucked about today on here, and on the internet in general, then we went out.  /sigh/

Husband is reading right now.  I should join him.

Sorry to hear things aren't going well with your mojo's (Janet and pontalba). My mojo is a bit low as well the past few days. I hope things get better for you both soon.

I've done this often Janet - and sometimes I even have a book I'm really into!

Thanks, everyone.     I'm reading Jane Austen's Emma - and it's not that I'm not enjoy it - I am.  I read one chapter today... and then fell asleep! I think three 5am starts in a row have got to me.

 

Julie - I finished the travel book - I've yet to write a review, but it was only okay.   It had such promise too! 

[Alexi]

Hope your mojo isn't being naughty and going missing again J! 

 

It's coincidental you're reading Emma because I just popped in to say that I had a dream where the two of us (sat on a pavement which seemed very unlikely!) were discussing how if you read 10 books, the odds are you won't like at least one of them. The example we used (even though in the dream neither of us had read it) was Persuasion by Jane Austen! 

 

No more wine and cheese before bed methinks.

[Janet]

 

If I ever meet you it would be an absolute joy to sit (maybe in Starbucks rather than on a pavement!) and discuss books with you! 

 

I haven't read Persuasion yet, as it happens!  It's on my Kindle though and I intend to read it sometime fairly soon!

 

Mmmm wine and cheese - my idea of heaven!

 

I have managed to read some of Emma today.  Not much, but some, so that's good.  I'm going to have an early night and read some more - and hope I don't fall asleep.

[Alexi]

I would very much like this also! Definitely Starbucks - I don't normally sit about on pavements!

[Janet]

I would very much like this also! Definitely Starbucks - I don't normally sit about on pavements!

Janet likes this! 

 

Talking of dreams, last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again that I was reading my Kindle and as I turned the page, £20 I'd hidden in it fell out!      I never hide money in paper books, so why I dreamt this I don't know! 

[Janet]

I'm behind with my reviews again. 

 

I need to review:

 

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

Road to Rouen - Ben Hatch

Moondial - Helen Cresswell

The Cuckoo's Calling - J K Rowling Robert Galbraith

Emma - Jane Austen.

 

I'm currently on page 150 of The Kraken Wakes - I hope to finish it this week. 

[Devi]

Would you recommend the Cuckoo's Calling to someone who wants to try a JK Rowling/Robert Galbraith? (No interest in harry potter).

Edited October 13, 2013 by Devi

[Janet]

Yes, I enjoyed it (and I'd probably read at least one sequel) but it was a bit long-winded! I liked the two main characters (even though I pictured the protagonist, Strike, as Ray Winstone - yet he's only meant to be 34!).  I'd give it a 3/5.    It's nothing like Harry Potter!

 

ETA in case you don't know who Ray Winstone is. 

[poppyshake]

Talking of dreams, last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again that I was reading my Kindle and as I turned the page, £20 I'd hidden in it fell out!     I never hide money in paper books, so why I dreamt this I don't know! 

 I wonder if I have electronically hidden any of my money? .. could be where it's gone  Perhaps it means something Janet .. a windfall perhaps  

[Janet]

I wish!  That would be awesome!

[Janet]

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The ‘blurb’
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. The black sign, painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, reads:

Opens at Nightfall
Closes at Dawn

As the sun disappears beyond the horizon, all over the tents small lights begin to flicker, as though the entirety of the circus is covered in particularly bright fireflies. When the tents are all aglow, sparkling against the night sky, the sign appears.

Le Cirque des Rêves
The Circus of Dreams.
Now the circus is open.
Now you may enter.

Every so often a novel comes along which captivates from the beginning and draws the reader into another world. The Night Circus is one such book.

It’s the story of two magicians who play a game… a game involving taking two apprentices, making them pit their wits to compete against one another in a contest of magic. Both apprentices know they’re playing a game, but they’re not really sure what that game involves. It’s hard to write more without giving anything away, so instead I’ll lift a bit straight from the book and hope that helps!

“How can I excel at a game when you refuse to tell me the rules?”

The suspended creatures turn their heads in the direction of the ghost in their midst. Gryphons and foxes and wyverns stare at him with glossy black eyes.

“Stop that,” Hector snaps at his daughter. The creatures return to their forward-facing gazes, but one of the wolves growls as it settles back into its frozen state. “You are not taking this as seriously as you should.”

“It’s a circus,” Celia says. “It’s difficult to take it seriously.”

“The circus is only a venue.”

“Then this is not a game or a challenge, it’s an exhibition.”

“It’s more than that.”

“How?” Celia demands, but her father only shakes his head.

“I have told you all the rules you need to know. You push the bounds of what your skills can do using this circus as a showplace. You prove yourself better and stronger. You do everything you can to outshine your opponent.”

“And when do you determine which of us is shinier?”

“I do not determine anything,” Hector says. “Stop asking questions. Do more. And stop collaborating.”

Before she can respond, he vanishes, leaving her standing alone in the sparkling light from the Carousel… ”

Because of the magical element, one has to suspend disbelief. But the writing in this book is so sublime that it easily enchants the reader and whisks them away to the circus, where one is immediately captivated. It’s one of those books that is so full of colours and smells that I really felt transported, almost as though I was there, watching the action take place. And I don’t even like the idea of circuses, so that’s a pretty mean feat! I didn’t want to end.

I did find the jumping about of the time-frame a little confusing, but once I decided not to worry about it, I found that it wasn’t a barrier to enjoying this beautifully written book which I would highly recommend. Definitely my favourite read of 2013 so far.

The paperback edition is 515 pages long and is published by Vintage Books. It was first published in 2012. The ISBN is 9780099554790.

4½/5 (I really liked it)

(Finished 11 September 2013)



 

[Janet]

The Road to Rouen by Ben Hatch

The ‘blurb’
Ben Hatch is on the road again. Commissioned to write a guidebook about France (despite not speaking any French) he sets off with visions of relaxing chateaux and refined dining. Ten thousand miles later his family's been attacked by a donkey, had a run-in with a death-cult and, after a near drowning and a calamitous wedding experience involving a British spy, his own marriage is in jeopardy. A combination of obsessions about mosquitoes, French gravel and vegetable theme parks mean it's a bumpy ride as Ben takes a stand against tyrannical French pool attendants, finds himself running with the bulls in Pamplona and almost starring in a snuff movie after a near fatal decision to climb into a millionaire's Chevrolet Blazer.

Funny and poignant, Road to Rouen asks important questions about life, marriage and whether it's ever acceptable to tape baguette to your children's legs to smuggle lunch into Disneyland Paris.

Another Book Club book, and one I really expected to like… except I didn’t really. It’s billed (in the second sentence of the ‘blurb’, no less!), as a “guidebook about France”, and as I enjoy travel writing, I thought it would be right up my street. However, far from informing about France, it presented as a whinging self-indulgent journey into Ben Hatch’s family life – including intimate details of his and his long-suffering wife’s relationship (if I were her I wouldn’t want some of those things written down for all and sundry to read!) and the brattish behaviour of his two young children. Many of the places the family visited, and much of the accommodation they stayed in were paid for – and yet when he did bother to review the places he was less than complimentary.

I didn’t hate it, and there were some amusing bits, but it lacked any flavour of France and mostly I found it an self-centred memoir and a bit dull and it certainly doesn’t encourage me to read any more by him. Shame really.

The paperback edition is 327 pages long and is published by Headline. It was first published in 2013. The ISBN is 9780755364541.

2½/5 (it was okay)

(Finished 14 September 2013)
 

[Janet]

Moondial by Helen Cresswell

The ‘blurb’
Minty is staying with her maiden aunt and discovers that the moondial in the huge house nearby has the power to take her back in time. On her time travels, she meets two children who are desperately in need of help and she encounters danger and excitement in her bid to rescue them.

I bought this after visiting the National Trust property Belton House in Lincolnshire in August (incidentally also the location of Rosings Park in the 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice). In one of the rooms was a board with information on it to say that the author Helen Cresswell had based her 1982 children’s book, Moondial at Belton, and that the BBC had filmed their adaptation of it at the House in 1989. I resolved to look the book up when I got home and discovered that it is a ‘time slip’ book, which is a storyline I’m fond of!

 

 

(Apologies to those of you who've already seen the above photos in my other thread    )

Anyway, the book was very enjoyable. The ‘blurb’ says it all really – Minty discovers she can travel back in time with the aid of the magical Moondial in the garden. There she meets up with two children – each of whom is from a different era of the house’s history, and she resolves to help them both. It’s a gentle story and I very much enjoyed it. I was familiar with Helen Cresswell as the creator of a character called Lizzie Dripping which was made into a children’s TV series in the 70s, but this was the first book of hers I’ve read. I’ve since discovered she also wrote a book, Stonestruck set at another National Trust property, Powis Castle in Wales which we also visited on holiday, so I’d like to read that at some stage too. Good fun.

The paperback edition is 214 pages long and is published by Puffin. It was first published in 1982. The ISBN is 9780140325232. Sadly it’s out of print at present.

4/5 (I really liked it)

(Finished 15 September 2013)
 

[Athena]

Great reviews ! Shame you didn't like The Road to Rouen much, but I'm glad you liked the other two books, at least. I've put The Night Circus closer in sight so I might read it sometime when I'm in the mood. I just haven't been in the mood yet .

[Janet]

  I hope the mood takes you soon.    It was such a wonderful book. 

[Janet]

 

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith

The ‘blurb’
When a troubled model falls to her death from a snow-covered Mayfair balcony, it is assumed that she has committed suicide. However, her brother has his doubts, and calls in private investigator Cormoran Strike to look into the case. Strike is a war veteran - wounded both physically and psychologically - and his life is in disarray. The case gives him a financial lifeline, but it comes at a personal cost: the more he delves into the young model's complex world, the darker things get - and the closer he gets to terrible danger ...A gripping, elegant mystery steeped in the atmosphere of London - from the hushed streets of Mayfair to the backstreet pubs of the East End to the bustle of Soho - The Cuckoo's Calling is a remarkable book. Introducing Cormoran Strike, this is the acclaimed first crime novel by J.K. Rowling, writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

I haven’t read The Casual Vacancy yet, (I’m waiting to find it cheap in a charity shop or I’ll get it from the library at some stage) but after the story broke about this being Rowling’s nom de plume I Googled it and liked the sound of it, and when a friend said she had a copy I could read I thought I’d check it out. I don’t tend to read detective stories so I enjoyed reading it for a change of genre.

I liked the two main characters… the way they were written and their working relationship (even though I pictured the protagonist, Strike, as Ray Winstone - yet he's only meant to be 34!). Sure, it’s not perfect (for a start,

I think I’m correct in saying that a will must be witnessed by two signatories, not just one)

and I did find it rather long-winded – I think with some careful editing it could have been made into a much tighter story. I guessed who the murderer was a little way into the story, but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment. It’s not great literature by any stretch of the imagination, but overall it was an enjoyable read and I’ll probably read at least one sequel.

The hardback edition is 464 pages long and is published by Sphere. It was first published in 2013. The ISBN is 978 1408703991.

3/5 (I liked it)

(Finished 17 September 2013)

[Athena]

I'm glad to hear you liked it, though it's a shame you didn't love it. Nice review . I don't know if it's my sort of book, but if I come across a paperback edition (once released) cheap I might be curious and buy it.. I haven't read The Casual Vacancy either, only the Harry Potter series (which I'm re-reading). I liked the Harry Potter series but I'm not sure what her other books will be like.