Lucy's books '09/'10

[pipread]

That's a shame. I would thoroughly recommend skipping those tedious bits (I didi) The section entitled Notre Dame near the beginning was the worst bit, as I said in my comments on the reading circle thread. Very tedious and I'm not surprised you gave up.

 

It would be great if you did pick it up again, or even just stop by the reading circle with your comments so far. It's lonely in there!

 

Good luck with it Pipread. I think it's worth the effort.

 

thank you, I think I may well take your advice and skip the boring bits! I really want to enjoy reading it.

[Lucybird]

yeah I may too, if I pick it up again

[Lucybird]

Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann

 

Synopsis (from Amazon)

 

Two tales of love Two stories of loss

One great emotional journey…

1992: Leo Deakin wakes up in hospital somewhere in South America. His girlfriend Eleni is dead and Leo doesn’t know where he is or how she died. He blames himself for the tragedy and is sucked into a spiral of despair. But Leo is about to discover something that will change his life for ever.

 

1917: Moritz Daniecki has survived fighting in the Great War. But at what cost? Abandoned in the Siberian wilderness, he is determined to return to his beloved Lotte, the memory of whose single kiss has sustained him throughout the war. What lies before him is a terrifying journey over the Russian Steppes. If he ever makes it, will she still be waiting?

 

Review

 

This book had been on my wishlist for ages before I actually bought it, as I had been unsure as to whether I would enjoy it or not. Now I wish I'd bought it earlier. It was beautiful, and sad,

but hopeful too

. It is the story of lost love and the search for love. Two tales, one of a soilder of the first world war, and the other of a boy from more recent times whose girlfriend had died. Books don't usually make me cry but this one deffinatly brought a few tears to my eyes. At first In prefered the recent story was the one I was more interested in but gradually I became just as interested in the second story. The soilder in the second story was a soilder for Austria-Hungry fighting on the Russian front, generally stories of war are based around the British army and around Flanders, or at least that side of the fight so it was good to see a different army and different battlefields.

The characters seemed very real to me, as in nothing was black and white, while I still had favourite characters there were no characters I could say were all good or all bad.

While I didn't trust Roberto, I felt he was manipulating Leo, in the end he was part of what helped Leo get over his loss, and he had some interesting ideas. Strangely my favourite character was probably Eleni, maybe because we see her through Leo's rosetinted glasses, I liked Leo too, and maybe liking him is worth more because we saw more of his character

 

 

4.5/5 (I'm taking off half a point because the second story took a while to interest me)

 

I've offered this up as a bookring here

Edited May 10, 2009 by Lucybird

[Lucybird]

Next up I'm going to read Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult, because I just can't resist!

[Lucybird]

I wanted to say some things about this book, or more I suppose how I relate to this book before I got caught up in the law side of the storyline

 

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult

 

Synopsis (from amazon)

 

Everything breaks. Some things just hurt more than others.

 

Charlotte O'Keefe's beautiful, much-longed-for, adored daughter Willow is born with osteogenesis imperfecta - a very severe form of brittle bone disease. If she slips on a crisp packet she could break both her legs, and spend six months in a half body cast. After years of caring for Willow, her family faces financial disaster. Then Charlotte is offered a lifeline. She could sue her obstetrician for wrongful birth - for not having diagnosed Willow's condition early enough in the pregnancy to be able to abort the child. The payout could secure Willow's future. But to get it would mean Charlotte suing her best friend. And standing up in court to declare that she would have prefered that Willow had never been born...

 

Initial thoughts

 

Before I even started this book I knew it could be one which I could connect with, and I'm glad I wasn't wrong. When I was 7 I was diagnosed with osteoporosis, a disorder which is similar to osteogenisis imperfecta, in fact at points it had been proposed that this is what I have, although tests have said osteoporosis. My osteoporosis is nowhere near as bad as Willow's but all the same I recognise some of the issues she has as my own problems, especially when I was younger. I can't even remember my first break, or my second, one I got falling down a couple of stairs I was crawling up, the other falling off my parents bed

somewhere about this time my parents were asked about child abuse, in a less blatent way than Willow's parents, and it wasn't until after that they found out the question they had been asked was one asked to parents who are suspected of child abuse

. When I was just finishing my first year of primary school is the first break I can remember, I broke my femur falling off my scooter, I was in traction for the whole Summer holiday. I broke my leg again falling over on my crutches, then my ankle when my foot slipped off the foot rest on my pushchair while I was still recovering. After that I had no breaks until just before I joined here, in more normal circumstances this time, I was hit by a car. I had the same bisphosphonate treatment as Willow in my teens, which was rather successful. All the same I do fear things, I fear falling a little, I've never been skating, or learnt to ride a bike, I'm scared of heights, I hate ladders and am not always comfortable with stairs unless I already know them. I am better than I once was, I know that just falling is unlikely to harm me, although my recent break is somewhat of a set back. I have never pitied myself, it's just the way I am, but this book has made me think about myself, and my illness (I say for want of a better word)

[Lucybird]

Handle with Care

 

For synopsis see above post

 

Review

oh my

I never expected it to end this way. I don't understand why. Why did Willow have to die, and in such a way? Was it so nobody really lost the court case? Seems extreme measures. I would like to think that at least it meant that Pippa and Charlotte, and Emma and Amelia became friends again.

 

For me I think this may be my new favourite Picoult book, not because it has the best plot, or is the most well written- both those are good but maybe not her best- but because it touched me personally. It didn't make me cry but it did bring me close a few times (and generally books don't even do that). Sometimes because of Willow herself, sometimes because I could see myself in her, and sometimes because it brought my own memories forward.

I adored Willow, she's so brave, and somewhat unfazed, she doesn't feel sorry for herself. Some of that people say I have but I don't know if I could if I was as bad as Willow is. I really liked Amelia too

in ways I felt more sorry for her than Willow because Willow's pain was mainly physical, Amelia's was psychological and in a way that is harder to get over

.

I liked how we always saw Willow through other people's eyes. Except for the one chapter where Willow spoke.

I liked how Willow didn't see the money as realy being hers so much as something that had brought her family back together. She didn't so much care about what the money gave to her as that it made her family happy. This part made me close to tears at first because everything that had happened it didn't really matter to Willow, she just wanted her family to be happy.

 

I also liked the recipes throughout the book, they made for something different.

Other people may not like this book as much, I am not sure, but I still think everyone will enjoy it.

 

5/5

[lexiepiper]

Sounds like it's a good one, I'll definitely be looking out for this one now, thanks Lucy!

[Inver]

This author is consitently good.....have a good few of her books on my shelf, but finding the time to read them is another matter.

[Lucybird]

yes, I tend to read them as soon as I get them myself, I have books on my TBR pile that have been there since before Christmas but Jodi Picoult always jumps to the top.

 

Have added 6 to my TBR pile today:

1) The Well of Lost Plots- Jasper Fforde

2) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society- Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows

3) This is Your Brain on Music- Daniel Levitin

4) The Lucifer Effect- Phillip Zimbardo

5) Norwegian Wood- Haruki Murakami

6) Proust and the Squid- Maryanne Wolf

[Lucybird]

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler

 

Synopsis (from Amazon)

 

Six people � five women and a man � meet once a month in California�s Central Valley to discuss Jane Austen�s novels. They are ordinary people, neither happy nor unhappy, but each of them is wounded in different ways, they are all mixed up about their lives and relationships. Over the six months they meet, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable � under the guiding eye of Jane Austen a couple of them even fall in love�

 

Review

 

Don't really have much to say about this book. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either, just pretty much middle of the road. Maybe I would have got more out of it if I was an Austen reader but I'm not! I didn't feel a particular attachment to any of the characters, I quite liked Greig and I found Prudie a bit cold but I didn't really care that much about any of them. It was an enjoyable enough read but I've read plenty better

 

3/5

[chesilbeach]

Maybe I would have got more out of it if I was an Austen reader but I'm not!

 

Well I'm an Austen reader, and I thought it was a boring, mediocre book, so it didn't help me! One of the few books I couldn't be bothered to finish, as it was just too dull.

[Lucybird]

maybe not then...I do wonder why they thought it was good enough to turn into a film

[Lucybird]

Oh forgot to say am reading Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs now in preparation for next months reading circle

[Lucybird]

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

 

Synopsis

This is the story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of grandeur) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa Claus and a certifiable lunatic into the bargain. Suddenly at the age of 12, Augusten found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian house in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients and a paedophile living in the garden shed completed the tableau. Here, there were no rules or school. The Christmas tree stayed up until Summer and valium was chomped down like sweets. When things got a bit slow, there was always the ancient electroshock therapy machine under the stairs.

 

(the synopsis is from amazon and really doesn't give the best description of the book but I wouldn't know what to say myself so I will leave it as it is)

 

Review

 

I don't really know what to say about this book, it was crazy, unbelievable in many parts, what made it even more crazy was that it's a real story! I did enjoy it though and found it intreguing. I did think it came to a bit of an abrupt end though.

 

4/5

 

Am not reading Emotional Geology by Linda Gillard

[Lucybird]

I wasn't in the right mood for reading Emotional Geology so I went for the next book in the Thursday Next series instead.

 

The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

 

Synopsis (from Amazon)

 

Leaving Swindon behind her to hide out in the Well of Lost Plots (the place where all fiction is created), Thursday Next, Literary Detective and soon-to-be one parent family, ponders her next move from within an unpublished book of dubious merit entitled 'Caversham Heights'. Landen, her husband, is still eradicated, Aornis Hades is meddling with Thursday�s memory, and Miss Havisham - when not sewing up plot-holes in 'Mill on the Floss' - is trying to break the land-speed record on the A409. But something is rotten in the state of Jurisfiction. Perkins is �accidentally� eaten by the minotaur, and Snell succumbs to the Mispeling Vyrus. As a shadow looms over popular fiction, Thursday must keep her wits about her and discover not only what is going on, but also who she can trust to tell about it ...

 

With grammasites, holesmiths, trainee characters, pagerunners, baby dodos and an adopted home scheduled for demolition, 'The Well of Lost Plots' is at once an addictively exciting adventure and an insight into how books are made, who makes them - and why there is no singular for 'scampi'.

 

Review

 

Again a book which fails to disappoint. Funny and exciting. I found this one a little slower to start than the previous two but once it got going the action was at least as good. As always some great funny bits, I particually liked the was was conversation, which was both humourous and a little confusing. I don't think I really have anything to say much that I haven't said before. I did find this book, sadder in a way

because the loss was more psychological than in the past books, and for the reader it was hard to see Thursday forgetting about those she loved. I even almost cried when she forgot she as pregnant because that was her one remaining link to Landan and evidence that he had existed

 

 

4/5

 

 

Have gone back to Emotional Geology now

[Lucybird]

Emotional Geology by Linda Gillard

 

Synopsis (from Amazon)

 

Rose Leonard is on the run from her life. Taking refuge in a remote island community, she cocoons herself in work, silence and solitude in a house by the sea. But she is haunted by her past, by memories and desires she'd hoped were long dead. Rose must decide whether she has in fact chosen a new life or just a different kind of death. Life and love are offered by new friends, her lonely daughter, and most of all Calum, a fragile younger man who has his own demons to exorcise. But does Rose, with her tenuous hold on life and sanity, have the courage to say yes to life and put her past behind her?

 

Review

 

I finished this last week (or was it early this week? I can't remember) so my thoughts may be a little hazy but I will try my best!

It took me a while to get into, I wasn't too comfortable with the writing style because I thought it didn't flow very well, it seems sort of like bullet points. Thinking about it that probably made it realistic, and more like we were hearing Rose think than her talking to us. I guess it's probably a good stylistic decision but it did make it harder to get into the book. After a while the style ceased to matter really, as I got more into the story I noticed it less and less. I really liked Rose, and loved Callum and I was sad to see them go by the end.

I also really liked the descriptions of the island. It made me want to be in a rugged landscape or by the sea (or both!). I tend to prefer that to the more polished country-side that is nearest to Birmingham.

Not the best book I have read this year but certainly worth reading

 

3.5/5

 

I'm now reading (and have almost finished) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

[Lucybird]

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

 

Synopsis (from Amazon)

 

 

It's 1946 and author Juliet Ashton can't think what to write next. Out of the blue, she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams of Guernsey - by chance, he's acquired a book that once belonged to her - and, spurred on by their mutual love of reading, they begin a correspondence. When Dawsey reveals that he is a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, her curiosity is piqued and it's not long before she begins to hear from other members. As letters fly back and forth with stories of life in Guernsey under the German Occupation, Juliet soon realizes that the society is every bit as extraordinary as its name.

 

Review

 

Hmm what to say. This book wasn't what I expected, I expected it to be more about the war but that was only part of the plot. I did enjoy it but I expected to enjoy it more. I don't really have anything of great interest to say about it... I don't really like it when books are written in letters as this one was, but when it comes to that style this was a good one. I became more attached than I usually do to the characters, although even at the end I was a bit confused as to who was who.

I could really imagine how Juliet's friends felt about her love life though, and that was one of my favourite elements

 

 

3/5

[Lucybird]

Not sure what to read next, possibly Proust and the Squid

[lexiepiper]

I really like the hardback cover of Proust and the Squid, I've noticed it in Waterstones, what's the story about?

[Lucybird]

I's non-fiction. It's about how we read, and how reading developed.

[lexiepiper]

Ohh that sounds curious, let me know how you enjoy it

[Lucybird]

I will. Am only about 10 pages in at the moment so a bit early to tell

[Lucybird]

Proust and The Squid by Mary Ann Wolf

 

 

Synopsis (from Shelfari)

 

 

 

"Human beings were never born to read," writes Tufts University cognitive neuroscientist and child development expert Maryanne Wolf. Reading is a human invention that reflects how the brain rearranges itself to learn something new. In this ambitious, provocative book, Wolf chronicles the remarkable journey of the reading brain not only over the past five thousand years, since writing began, but also over the course of a single child's life, showing in the process why children with dyslexia have reading difficulties and singular gifts.

Lively, erudite, and rich with examples, Proust and the Squid asserts that the brain that examined the tiny clay tablets of the Sumerians was a very different brain from the one that is immersed in today's technology-driven literacy. The potential transformations in this changed reading brain, Wolf argues, have profound implications for every child and for the intellectual development of our species.

 

 

 

Review

 

 

I don't tend to write non-fiction reviews so I apologise if it's awful!

As a psychology graduate I did find that there was a fair bit in this book that I already knew (more than I thought I would). However there was still enough new information to keep me interested. Especially when it came to talking about the evolution of written language and the disadvantages of reading.

 

It was a pretty easy read for a science book, and generally I think people without a background in psychology would cope with it (as is intended), although I felt some of the more neurological sections were not explained enough.

I did really enjoy it, but I'm read for some fiction now!

 

 

4/5

 

 

Am now reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter

[Lucybird]

The Chocolate Run by Dorothy Koomson

 

Synopsis (from Amazon)

 

Amber Salpone thinks in chocolate - talk to her for three minutes and she'll tell you what kind of chocolate you'd be. In fact, most days, if she was asked to choose between chocolate and relationships, there'd be no contest. At least chocolate has never let her down. Unlike her family. Growing up in the Salpone household has taught Amber to avoid conflict - and love - at all costs. So, when she does the unthinkable and has a one-night stand with womaniser Greg Walterson, her uncomplicated, chocolate-flavoured life goes into meltdown. Especially when Greg announces she's the love of his life - and Amber finds it hard enough to decide if she wants plain or Fruit & Nut ...Meanwhile, her best friend, Jen, seems to be launching a bid to become Bitch Of The Year and Amber's family are making unreasonable demands. Amber has two choices: to deal with her past and the people around her, or to go on a chocolate run and keep on running ...

 

Review

I picked this one up because I fancied something easy and a bit trashy. In that sense well it was chick-lit so it didn't exactly disappoint. Having said that it was a bit different in ways than usual chick-lit, it wasn't about a woman seeking commitment, rather running away from it which is something I like. In other ways though it was quite formulaic

you know the kind of thing boy and girl are friends who don't realise they should be together, they get together, there is some sort of argument and they split up, they realise they can't live without one another and get back together

. Having said that for a while I did think that it might not be so predictable

and thought they wouldn't get back together, I was glad when they did

.

I liked Amber, but I didn't really like the other characters, I didn't like Greg,

and up to a point even hoped they wouldn't stay together

. But it didn't spoil the book for me.

 

3/5

[Lucybird]

The Memory Keeper's Daughterl by Kim Edwards

 

Synopsis (from Shelfari)

 

Kim Edwards’s stunning family drama evokes the spirit of Sue Miller and Alice Sebold, articulating every mother’s silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? In 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins, he immediately recognizes that one of them has Down Syndrome and makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and to keep her birth a secret. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is an astonishing tale of redemptive love.

 

Review

 

hmm where to start? I did like this book but maybe not as much as I was expecting after I've heard many good things about it. It took me a while to get into although it did get my emotions going fairly quickly. I didn't feel particully attached to any of the characters for a long time, and even by the end I was only really bothered about Phobe.

 

At first I was only really interested in the Phobe storyline and found myself wanting those times to come around while I was reading the sections with her biological family. Part of this I think was because while I sympathised with Phobe I hated David. I could kind of see why he did what he did, I was mad that he did it. Most of all I was mad that he didn't even give his wife (Norah) a chance to be involved in what would happen to Phobe. (only small spoiler)

And that was before he told Norah that Phobe was dead, I know he was scared, I know he thought he was doing what was for the best, but I hate that he made the presumption that only he could know what should be good. I hate the position he put Caroline in, making her lie to Norah, taking advantage of her love for him.

I can understand but I can't sympathise.

 

The story also wasn't what I expected. The blurb was kind of misleading. I more expected it to be about bringing up a child who wasn't your own and who had Down's Syndrome. Or at least about discovering a child you didn't know existed and how that effected you. In reality it was barely about Down's Syndrome at all but about secrets and what they do to those involved in them. I would have actually liked it more if it was more about Down's Syndrome I think, though even when I thought it was about that I was unsure.

 

3.5/5

 

Next I will be reading Star Gazing by Linda Gillard

Edited December 27, 2009 by Lucybird