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Janet's Log - stardate 2013


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046-2013-Oct-04-Emma_zps759b8acb.jpg

Emma by Jane Austen

The ‘blurb’
Quick-witted, beautiful, headstrong and rich, Emma Woodhouse is inordinately fond of match-making select inhabitants of the village of Highbury, yet aloof and oblivious as to the question of whom she herself might marry. This paradox multiplies the intrigues and sparkling ironies of Jane Austen's masterpiece, her comedy of a sentimental education through which Emma discovers a capacity for love and marriage.

Emma Woodhouse, “handsome, clever, and rich” lives with her father in Highbury, Surrey. She’s popular and headstrong and, after taking the credit for the marriage of her former governess and local widower Mr Weston, she decides to continue with her matchmaking schemes under the watchful eye of her neighbour, George Knightley, the brother of her sister’s husband who despairs of her meddling ways.

I understand from people I’ve spoken to (both online and in real life) that Emma is not a very popular protagonist in some quarters – yet I loved her! Okay, she has faults - she’s bossy and rather manipulative - but her heart is in the right place and she’s very determined. She might go about it the wrong way but she has most people’s interests at heart and is able to admit when she’s wrong and to apologise – I thought she was great! :D I loved her father too – his pessimism was the complete and perfect antithesis of Emma’s optimism!


I heard someone (I don’t recall who) being interviewed about this book on the radio last Saturday who said that Emma is different [to Austen’s other novels] because it wasn’t all about the protagonist being desperate to get married. However, this novel is still themed heavily on the subject of marriage albeit that Emma is trying to arrange suitable marriages for her peers rather than herself. I don’t see the theme of Austen’s books being about wanting to be married an issue anyway – I’m pretty certain it was most young women’s ambition when Austen was writing.


Emma is a novel of social etiquette and self-discovery and I enjoyed it as much as I did Pride and Prejudice (and more than Northanger Abbey, although I liked that too) and I’m looking forward to continuing my Austen journey. :)

The paperback edition is 514 pages long and I read the free Kindle version. It was first published in 1815. The AIN is B0083Z3O8Y.

5/5 (I loved it)

(Finished 4 October 2013)

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I understand that Jane Austen set out, with Emma, to write about a heroine that only she would probably like.

 

I don't think she succeeded because, like you, I also loved her, for just the same reasons you do.  So glad to read that someone else thinks the same!

Emma is definitely one of my favourite Austen books too. 

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Yes, I definitely like to mix up my reading. There is so much variety out there. That’s why I’m not very keen on ‘series’ type books. I’ve read some, of course, although I’m still to read #3 of the Steig Larsson books and I haven’t read the latest Ben Aaronovitch book! :blush:

 

No worries, it's understandable! I have a similar sort of problems sometimes... I don't usually read many books from a serious one after the other (usually because I haven't acquired the next book :rolleyes:), so I have a break, and that break might turn into years and then I can't remember what happened in the previous book, so I feel like re-reading it, but I don't have time to re-read all the books in all them series :D

 

They were both very enjoyable. :) I was attracted to the cover of The President’s Hat – but definitely not to the Nicholas Blake one! :giggle2:

 

Oh yes, the Nicholas Blake was quite... average :giggle2:

 

I read Heidi quite a few years ago – I don’t actually remember that much about it. I certainly don’t remember it being particularly religious so I guess either it didn't strike me as too bad or I've blanked it out!

 

I'm betting it's the case of the latter... :giggle: Good for you!

 

I even looked in the Sci-fi section at the Book Barn yesterday. :o I was specifically looking for Wyndhams though. No books set on Jupiter for me! :giggle:

 

:o I hope we won't lose you to sci-fi completely, in the years to come :empathy:

 

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I understand that Jane Austen set out, with Emma, to write about a heroine that only she would probably like.

 

I don't think she succeeded because, like you, I also loved her, for just the same reasons you do. So glad to read that someone else thinks the same!

Emma is definitely one of my favourite Austen books too.

I have bought a version on DVD to try. An actress called Romola Garai plays Emma. It has mixed reviews on Amazon, but more favourable ones than not. I’ll be interested to see how it compares to the book. I know it’s unlikely to be as good, but hopefully it’ll be okay. :)

 

No worries, it's understandable! I have a similar sort of problems sometimes... I don't usually read many books from a serious one after the other (usually because I haven't acquired the next book :rolleyes:), so I have a break, and that break might turn into years and then I can't remember what happened in the previous book, so I feel like re-reading it, but I don't have time to re-read all the books in all them series :D

:lol: Forgetting what has happened in earlier books is definitely something that happens to me too. I find the older I get, the less I retain about the books I read – especially if I don’t discuss them (either here or online). :blush:

:o I hope we won't lose you to sci-fi completely, in the years to come :empathy:

:rolol: Definitely not!

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I'm another that likes to vary my reading, but it seems once I start with a long series, I must see it out to the end - Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels are becoming a very annoying example of this!

 

It's why I'm resisting starting the Ben Aaronovitch books or the Hunger Games (have both on my TBR though!). 

 

I am also yet to read #3 in the Millennium series, but that's mainly because it's on my ipad which I don't like carting around for the commute, so I will probably read it on holiday in the New Year. 

 

Glad you enjoyed Emma J, I am determined I will read Austen in 2014 - not sure which one to start with though. 

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I haven't read any Stephanie Plum books.  The longest series I've read is the Wycliffe books, but they all pretty much stand alone (I expect it's better to read them in order to get a feel for the progression of the characters, but I read them years ago (before the internet was so big) when it was really hard to get hold of them, so I had to read them as I came across them.  I read the first on holiday in Cornwall (the writer was Cornish, and so is Wycliffe!) - I think if I picked one up now I wouldn't carry on with them as my tastes have changed so much.  They look prettyful on my bookcase though!  :D

 

I read Pride and Prejudice first, a few years ago.  I hadn't seen the (excellent) Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle adaptation (or any other) before I read it.  I found it a bit of a struggle to start with, but once I got into it I loved it.  :)  

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048-2013-Oct-16-RomeoandJuliet_zpsa3ad0d

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

The ‘blurb’
A young man and woman meet by chance and fall instantly in love. But their families are bitter enemies, and in order to be together the two lovers must be prepared to risk everything. Set in a city torn apart by feuds and gang warfare, Romeo and Juliet is a dazzling combination of passion and hatred, bawdy comedy and high tragedy.

This tragedy of two star-crossed lovers must be one of the most famous love stories ever written!

Romeo and Juliet are the children of two feuding Veronese families – the Montagues and the Capulets - who meet by chance and fall in love, spelling disaster for both families. I have never read this play before, or seen any adaptation of it. Despite this, I knew how the story panned out, and if there was any doubt, the Prologue sums up the entire play in the opening sonnet!

It contains some of the most quoted lines from literature including “O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? “ (wherefore meaning ‘why’ and not ‘where’ – she’s asking him why he has to be a Montague, and therefore an enemy of her family); “ Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow.” and “ What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet.”, and who could possibly resist such gorgeous writing? I could go on with the quotes, but that would make what is probably a pretty dull review even duller! Suffice to say I loved it!

I have the Baz Luhrmann version on DVD which I can now look at - it's been on my 'to watch' pile for years and years but I much prefer to watch a film after reading the book which is why I’ve been putting it off.

I very much enjoyed this play, if enjoyed is the right word, (although having seen Hot Fuzz so many times, I was disappointed not to get a rendition of The Cardigans' Lovefool at the end! :giggle2: ). I really like the ‘Cambridge School’ versions as they contain the original language, but with lots of helpful tips and translations of some of the more archaic words. I’ve read (I think) six of his plays now and am looking forward to reading some more… and hopefully seeing Romeo and Juliet on the stage one day.

This edition is 220 pages long and is published by Cambridge University Press. Romeo and Juliet was first published in the 1500s. The ISBN is 978 1107615403.

5/5 (I loved it)

(Finished 16 October 2013)

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Excellent!! I have an omnibus with many of Shakespeare's works. I've only read Macbeth so far (for secondary school), but plan to read the omnibus sometime, I presume it includes Romeo & Juliet since it's so famous. I know some of the quotes from it and have seen a film of it back at secondary school, but I haven't actually ever read the book. I didn't know wherefore meant why, learned something new :).

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Lots of people think the same.  :)

 

I remember learning years ago when I was about 14 that wherefore meant why and not where, when our school put on a production of The Merchant of Venice and I was a stage hand - I assumed it meant where too as in today's language that would seem to be more logical.  :)

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049-2013-Oct-23-TheCry_zpsc7e07e2a.jpg

 

The Cry by Helen Fitzgerald

The ‘blurb’
He's gone. And telling the truth won't bring him back...

When a baby goes missing on a lonely roadside in Australia, it sets off a police investigation that will become a media sensation and dinner-table talk across the world.

Lies, rumours and guilt snowball, causing the parents, Joanna and Alistair, to slowly turn against each other.

Finally Joanna starts thinking the unthinkable: could the truth be even more terrible than she suspected? And what will it take to make things right?


The Cry is the ninth novel by Australian author, Helen FitzGerald. She’s a new author to me – one who was recommended last year by a friend, so when this recently popped up as the 99p daily Kindle offer I snapped it up.

Joanna and her partner Alistair are making the long plane journey to Australia with their infant son. On the flight the baby is very fractious and Joanna struggles to cope with him. As the passengers begin to lose patience Joanna reaches breaking point and Alastiir does little to help. On landing in Australia things take a dramatic turn and baby Noah disappears and when the public become involved in the search for Noah the rumours start and Joanna finds herself the focus of huge media and police attention as she struggles to piece together what actually happened, but all is not as it seems…

The Cry is a story of the family secrets, betrayal and how people cope under the intense pressure of media and public scrutiny when something terrible happens. I’m not really sure how I’d categorise this book – I’m not sure it’s fast-paced enough to be classed as a thriller but is a quick and enjoyable read and I have already downloaded another of Ms FitzGerald’s books, The Donor, which I hope will be equally enjoyable.

The paperback edition is 320 pages long and is published by Faber & Faber. It was first published in 2013. The ISBN is 978 0571287703. I read it on my Kindle.

5/5 (I loved it)

(Finished 23 October 2013)





 

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I thought that 'The Cry' looked enticing, so toddled off to amazon just now, only to discover I had bought it for 99p some weeks ago! :doh:    It's great to have forgotten a purchase the to be reminded like that. :D  

 

Your review has made me push the book up the virtual tower of books on my kindle.

Edited by Chrissy
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050-2013-Oct-30-TheLastRunaway_zpsba5d64
 

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

The ‘blurb’
Honor Bright is a sheltered Quaker who has rarely ventured out of 1850s Dorset when she impulsively emigrates to America. Opposed to the slavery that defines and divides the country, she finds her principles tested to the limit when a runaway slave appears at the farm of her new family. In this tough, unsentimental place, where whisky bottles sit alongside quilts, Honor befriends two spirited women who will teach her how to turn her ideas into actions.

This was chosen for Book Club and is the second Chevalier book I’ve read.

Honor Bright, a Quaker from Bridport in Dorset, makes the long journey to America by sea, accompanying her sister Grace, who is to be married to Adam, a Dorsetshire man who emigrated to Ohio some time before. However, tragedy strikes and Honor finds herself alone in a strange country. Initially she boards with a milliner called Belle, a feisty non-Quaker who takes Honor under her wing. After leaving Belle’s she is taken in by her sister’s fiancé. Honor finds life really difficult here until she moves to live with another family. As she struggles to fit in and to feel at home, she becomes involved with runaway slaves. But her actions will drive her new family apart and may have even more serious repercussions for them – what will Honor do? Will she follow her conscience or turn her back on the runaways for the sake of her new family?

This was a really quick read and was not as in depth as I’d hoped. It was interesting and I liked reading about how people survived over the long harsh winters where they had to put away enough food or risk starvation (it put me in mind of the children’s book The Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder) and about the Quaker lifestyle, but there wasn’t really enough substance to the slavery part – I would have liked to have learned a bit more about what life was like for the runaways. Overall it was enjoyable enough but I much preferred Burning Bright by the same author which I read a few years ago.

The paperback edition is 386 pages long and is published by Harper. It was first published in 2013. The ISBN is 9780007350353.

3/5 (I liked it)

(Finished 30 October 2013)





 

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The Cry looks like a good read. I don't remember seeing it on a Kindle Daily Deal, but I must have seen it somewhere - I added it to my Wishlist only to be told that it's already on there. :doh:

 

I have so many books on my wishlist, it would be good to have a notification pop up that a Wishlist book is on a Daily Deal, etc.

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I have so many books on my wishlist, it would be good to have a notification pop up that a Wishlist book is on a Daily Deal, etc.

That would be a brilliant idea!  I get email notifications about the Daily Deal which are good for an reminder!  :)

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Hi J.

 

I also snapped up The Cry on the daily deal, but it's buried somewhere in mount TBR....! Good to see you thought so highly of it though!

 

I am so far behind with reviews I might abandon them and start afresh when I finish my next read...

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It's horrible getting behind on reviews, isn't it?!  Sometimes I forget what's happened (even if I've liked the book).  My memory is not what it was...!

 

I am so far behind on reviews I feel terrible......for a couple of minutes a day anyway

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  • 2 weeks later...

Have you caught up yet, James?   :)

051-2013-Nov-07-MidnightCactus_zps4fbb68

Midnight Cactus by Bella Pollen

The ‘blurb’
On the run from her claustrophobic marriage in London, Alice Coleman moves her two small children to the Arizona desert with the intention of renovating an abandoned mining town on the Mexican Border - and there finds an escape and solitude she hadn’t thought possible.

But in the dusty, alien atmosphere, where it seems that everyone – from Benjamín, the town’s Mexican caretaker to the laconic cowboy, Duval – has something to hide, Alice is uncertain whom to trust.

As winter moves to scorching summer, what seemed idyllic turns deadly as Alice is drawn deeper into an obsessive quest for revenge, until finally she must decide how far she is willing to go to cling on to her freedom and what exactly she will have to sacrifice.


Alice drags her two unwilling children to Arizona to a property she bought with her husband intending to develop it into a commercial venture. As the family struggle to settle into the harsh environment and a new way of life, they are befriended by two men – Duval and the Mexican-born Benjamín who help them to cope with their new life. But all is not as it seems in Alice’s town and she unwittingly gets drawn into danger – will she live to regret leaving the security of the UK and her dull marriage?

This was given to me by a friend who nearly chose it for book club, but bottled out at the last minute (I’ve no idea why) and changed her choice to the The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier. As she’d bought everyone a copy before changing her mind (they were £1 in Asda!) I decided to read it anyway.

It turned out to be a really good read. There are many similarities between this and the Chevalier book, actually. Both are about a woman leaving behind their old lives to start afresh in America – one in the nineteenth century and one in the twentieth. Both meet a man who is ‘rough round the edges’ – both involve helping people flee – the Chevalier being runaway slaves and this people who are trying to cross the border from South America… it’s a pity really that we didn’t read both in order to do a comparison as a group! This, of course, is a much gritter tale due to its setting and I much preferred it to The Last Runaway as it had more substance.

The paperback edition is 437 pages long and is published by Pan. It was first published in 2006. The ISBN is 9780330412698.

4/5 (I really liked it)

(Finished 7 November 2013)





 

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:lol: Forgetting what has happened in earlier books is definitely something that happens to me too. I find the older I get, the less I retain about the books I read – especially if I don’t discuss them (either here or online). :blush:

 

It's just awful how easily one forgets... :no: It's particularly embarrassing when you're recommending a favorite read to someone and then they asked what happens in the book and you can't remember everything... :blush::giggle2:

 

:rolol: Definitely not!

 

I will whack every Scotty in the head who tries to beam up our Jänet! :theboss:

 

049-2013-Oct-23-TheCry_zpsc7e07e2a.jpg

 

The Cry by Helen Fitzgerald

 

 

Great review! Although a very difficult subject matter... It immediately makes me think of the baby that was apparently snatched by a dingo, in Australia... Although of course this has nothing to do with dingos. Oh how very uncomfortable, very creepy.

 

I think I will add this to my wishlist, thanks! :) 

 

I thought that 'The Cry' looked enticing, so toddled off to amazon just now, only to discover I had bought it for 99p some weeks ago! :doh:    It's great to have forgotten a purchase the to be reminded like that. :D  .

 

:D Ooops!

 

Hehe - I've done that with Kindle books too, Chrissy! :giggle:  I hope you enjoy it when you get round to it.  :)

 

Hm, I was wondering: when you are wanting to purchase a particular book for Kindle, will they show that you have already purchased a copy of that book?

 

Have you caught up yet, James?   :)

 

051-2013-Nov-07-MidnightCactus_zps4fbb68

 

Midnight Cactus by Bella Pollen

 

 

I like the sound of this, it's going on my wishlist! :)

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