Chrissy Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 There's a distinct possibility that I may have just downloaded this to my Kindle. *walks away whistling innocently* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted September 18, 2011 Author Share Posted September 18, 2011 Well then I hope you both enjoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted September 26, 2011 Author Share Posted September 26, 2011 The Distant Hours- Kate Morton Synopsis (from Amazon) Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long lost letter arrives with the return address of Milderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother’s emotional distance masks an old secret. Evacuated from London as a thirteen year old girl, Edie’s mother is chosen by the mysterious Juniper Blythe, and taken to live at Millderhurst Castle with the Blythe family. Fifty years later, Edie too is drawn to Milderhurst and the eccentric Sisters Blythe. Old ladies now, the three still live together, the twins nursing Juniper, whose abandonment by her fiancé in 1941 plunged her into madness. Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst Castle, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in the distant hours has been waiting a long time for someone to find it . . . Review Well I must say this kept me on the edge of my seat right to the very end. At one point when I thought we would never find out all the secrets I was actually shouting at the book "But what happened?!" It may have been better if one of the secrets wasn't revealed If one wasn't I would have chosen Juniper's secret about the blood on her clothes simply because what I thought it would be it wasn't and it was the one that had me shouting at the book. It would have added a bit of a puzzle for the reader to try to work out if not all the secrets were revealed, but seeing as I was getting frustrated when I just thought a secret wouldn't be revealed maybe it is a good thing there was nothing left to wonder about. I found the way Kate Morton wove the different secrets into the story was really clever. A number of times I was convinced I had worked out a secret only to find that everything I thought had been evidence really wasn't. It was clever the way Morton walked the reader down one path only to suddenly veer off in another direction, which I at least never expected. I found the characters quite engaging. Only real problem was that there seemed to be to many similarities between Saffy, young Meredith and Edie. I could understand with Edie and Meredith, I imagine that some of Meredith would have rubbed off on Edie, even though Meredith had changed by then. I can't say I really liked Percy, although there was something about her strength and her loyalty that I admired, and I certainly found her an interesting character to read. In some ways Percy was the hardest character to figure out. Immediately she seemed quite straight forward but as more secrets were revealed the reader is made to challenge their perceptions. . She seemed very controlling, but her intentions, at least, were good. I found Juniper's character very interesting too, although I found her more likeable than Percy. I'm still not entirely sure I have her figured out. Only real problem I had with The Distant Hours is that it took a while to get going. Despite the fact that I had been really looking forward to reading it I had started planning a disappointed review by the end of the first chapter. I'm glad everything changed. 4.5/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted October 2, 2011 Author Share Posted October 2, 2011 American Wife- Curtis Sittenfeld Synopsis (from Amazon) In the year 2000, in the closest election in American history, Alice Blackwell’s husband becomes president of the United States. Their time in the White House proves to be heady, tumultuous, and controversial. But it is Alice’s own story – that of a kind, bookish, only child born in the 1940s Midwest who comes to inhabit a life of dizzying wealth and power – that is itself remarkable. Alice candidly describes her small-town upbringing, and the tragedy that shaped her identity; she recalls her early adulthood as a librarian, and her surprising courtship with the man who swept her off her feet; she tells of the crisis that almost ended their marriage; and she confides the privileges and difficulties of being first lady, a role that is uniquely cloistered and public, secretive and exposed. Review. I read a fair few positive reviews of this book around about a year ago and added it to my wishlist. It’s not the sort of book I would have bought, although I may have been a little interested if I picked it up in-store, but the reviews convinced me somewhat. (I can’t remember where I read the reviews now, but if it was on your blog, thank you). In the end I got it off Bookmooch (which is a great site by the way, I get lots of books that way). When I logged the book on Goodreads I had a quick flick through the reviews and a few readers were saying that knowing that Alice was loosely based on Laura Bush made them view the book differently and less like fiction. Luckily I know next to nothing about Laura Bush so it didn’t really affect my reading of it. The only way it did affect my reading was that I wondered if some things were true. I wouldn’t recommenned researching Laura Bush before reading American Wife, however, if you know little about her as I do. In some ways I don’t think it was a good idea for Sittenfeld to pronounce the similarity between Laura Bush and Alice, at least at the beggining of the novel. I think if you already knew a lot about Laura Bush you would probably work it out, and knowing before reading the book could impact your reading of it. I considered not mentioning it here but as it is stated at the start of the book I don’t think it really matters where the knowledge comes from. I did really enjoy this book. I got more engrossed in it than I expected too, and it sort of had more plot that I expected. I suppose I thought that a lot of it would be about being a President’s Wife, or at least a political wife, but for the most part Alice could have been almost any person from a middle-class background who married into money. It is more a book about class, about marriage, and just about life in general than it is about being a President’s Wife. That still does not make it sound so intriguing but I did find it a rather more emotional book than I had expected. I don’t think I can really say more without giving away important plot points. I do wonder if Laura Bush knows the contents of this book? I can imagine some things she may not be happy about. 4.5/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Good review of American Wife - when I read it, I knew it was loosely based on Laura Bush, but have to admit that I got so caught up in it, I forgot that part way through, and it was only near the end that I remembered and realised the characters were based on real people. I've read all of Sittenfeld's books, and think she's a very talented writer with all of her books having a slightly asymmetric quality about them, in that I think I know what they'll be about, but they just veer off the expected line and become something with more depth and interest than I could have imagined at the start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 The Piano Tuner- Janice Y.K. Lee Synopsis (from Amazon) In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese, with terrible consequences for both of them, and for members of their fragile community who will betray each other in the darkest days of the war. Ten years later, Claire Pendleton lands in Hong Kong and is hired by the wealthy Chen family as their daughter’s piano teacher. A provincial English newlywed, Claire is seduced by the colony’s heady social life. She soon begins an affair!only to discover that her lover’s enigmatic demeanour hides a devastating past. As the threads of this compelling and engrossing novel intertwine and converge, a landscape of impossible choices emerges — between love and safety, courage and survival, the present and above all, the past. Review I did quite like this book but I was only ever interested in one side of the story at a time. Initially I quite liked Claire’s story and seeing how she approached the culture in Hong-Kong as a British woman. From the way some of the other British living in Hong-Kong were described I thought that bit could have gone quite wrong, with Claire just being a bit of a socialite and not seeing the ‘real’ Hong-Kong. In some ways I did feel like there was a very British feel to the novel, it was almost as if the bits of Hong-Kong culture were added in order to remind the reader that The Piano Teacher wasn’t actually set in the U.K. However in other cases it was interesting to read about how Hong-Kong nationals had actually joined their own culture with the British culture. In the early points I didn’t like Trudy and Will’s story at all. I wasn’t interested in the life of a socialite at all, and to be honest I really didn’t like Trudy, mainly she annoyed me. As the story progressed I started preferring this story to Claire’s however. I am a frequent reader of stories set in war time, and as war approached I found the book much more interesting, especially as I had known next to nothing about Hong-Kong during the second world war. I still didn’t like Trudy though. To be honest I think I just would have preferred this book if it was a book about Hong-Kong during war time, and I think there was enough material to make that possible. 3/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 Darke- Angie Sage Synopsis (from Amazon) Septimus is on the threshold of his fourteenth birthday, which falls on the shortest day of the year. While everyone celebrates and the Castle is lit with the traditional candles, Septimus has greater concerns on his mind. He has finally reached the period in his Apprenticeship known as Darke Week. During this crucial time, he hopes to undertake the very dangerous mission of restoring Alther from Banishment, following the attempted invasion of the Castle of Syren. But while this preoccupies him, other Darke things are afoot in the Castle. Review Oh I think this has got to be my favourite Septimus Heap book so far. I think they have been gradually getting less childish. While I would still classify Darke as a children’s book it is much more sinister than the last 5. With the horrible ‘Things’ and the two faced ring and it’s power it brings to mind Tolkien’s Dark Riders and The One Ring. I still feel somewhat sorry for Merrin, somehow despite everything he has done he still seems like a victim to me. Maybe because of the way he was introduced to the Darke, maybe just because in many ways he is still a child. Somehow that makes what he does seem not so bad. Increasingly the barriers between Magyk and Darke Magyk are being blurred. The bad guys are not so bad (certainly not in the way Dom Daniel was) and maybe the good guys are not so good either. It all adds up to a book which is distinctly more adult than the others in the series. I wouldn’t go as far as to say children shouldn’t read it. Nothing is too graphic except in where your own imagination may work on something. 4/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted November 21, 2011 Author Share Posted November 21, 2011 Alison Wonderland- Helen Smith I was sent a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. Synopsis (from Amazon) After her husband leaves her for another woman, twentysomething Londoner Alison Temple impulsively applies for a job at the very P.I. firm she hired to trap her philandering ex. She hopes it will be the change of scene she so desperately needs to move on with her shattered life. At the all-female Fitzgerald’s Bureau of Investigation, she spends her days tracking lost objects and her nights shadowing unfaithful husbands. But no matter what the case, none of her clients can compare to the fascinating characters in her personal life. There’s her boss, the estimable and tidy Mrs. Fitzgerald; Taron, Alison’s eccentric best friend, who claims her mother is a witch; Jeff, her love-struck, poetry-writing neighbor; and—last but not least—her psychic postman. Her relationships with them all become entangled when she joins Taron for a road trip to the seaside and stumbles into a misadventure of epic proportions! Clever, quirky, and infused with just a hint of magic, this humorous literary novel introduces a memorable heroine struggling with the everyday complexities of modern life. Review. The first thing that springs to mind with this book is how different it it, but at the same time how mundane it can be. I still can’t really decide if I liked it or not. I think I just didn’t ‘get’ it. It wasn’t that it wasn’t entertaining, it’s just, well, nothing that much really happened. I can’t go as far as to say there was no storyline but somehow the storyline (or more storylines really) didn’t really seem to matter, it just seemed to be a way to join strange occurances together. 3/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted November 21, 2011 Author Share Posted November 21, 2011 The President’s Last Love- Andrey Kurkov Synopsis (from Amazon) Moscow, 2013. Bunin, the Ukrainian President, has joined other heads of state in an open air swimming pool to drink vodka and celebrate with Putin. During his rise to power Bunin has juggled with formidable and eccentric political and personal challenges. His troubles with his family and his women combine with his difficulties with corrupt businessmen and demanding international allies, but it is his recent heart transplant that worries him most. Since the operation he has started to develop freckles, and his heart donor’s mysterious widow seems to have moved in with him… Spanning forty years, The President’s Last Love is a hilarious satire on love, lies and life before and after the Iron Curtain. Review Andrey Kurkov is one of those writers I keep forgetting about and then re-discovering. I first encountered him work with Death And The Penguin several years ago but since reading that and its sequel (Penguin Lost) I forgot about him until I read about him in The Complete Polysylabbic Spree, which led me to reading A Matter of Death and Life. After reading that I vowed not to forget him, but it wasn’t until I saw some of his books on display in Waterstones that I remembered my vow. I immediately bought this book and added a few more to my wishlist. I really do not know why I keep forgetting Kurkov, I always enjoy his books. They tend to be easy to read but there is a certain strangeness to them that makes you feel like you have something to puzzle out. I would say I prefer the Penguin books over this one, just because of the character of the penguin himself, and the main character’s relationship with him (which is probably reflected in the fact that I remember the penguin’s name, but not that of his owner). I did find I had a little confusion when switching between chapters (each of which were focused on one of 3 periods in the president’s (Bunin’s) life) and working out where I was in relation to other chapters, especially as each individual story got more complex. I also had a little trouble distinguishing the women in his life from one another, especially when they overlapped into each others time frames. You could probably make three novellas from this book as it was like three stories in one but I kind of liked reading them alongside each other and it was clever how sometimes something from one time frame would explain something in another. However I did want some of the stories to carry on as I was interested to see how Bunin got to where he was in the last timeline. Certainly a good read, and fairly easy, but if you have never encountered Kurkov before I would recommend Death and the Penguin as a better starting point. 4.5/5 On an aside I love the old style cover art for these books, all my over Kurkov books are the old style but now they seem to have all changed to the new style. Ah well what will be will be, cover art doesn’t make the book after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted November 22, 2011 Author Share Posted November 22, 2011 Crazy- Benjamin Lebert Synopsis (from Amazon) Benjamin Lebert introduces himself on the first day at his new school: “Hi, I’m Benjamin Lebert, I’m 16 and a cripple. Just so you know…” He is paralysed down his left side, but nevertheless lives his life to the full as a rebellious schoolboy, smoking, drinking, running away, meeting girls and having sex – and all the while pondering the meaning of life. Review When I reviewed The Perks of Being a Wallflower (which I loved) Zee of Zee’s Wordly Obsessions recommended Crazy to me, suggesting that it may be something similar. Well I’m sorry Zee but I really didn’t really find Crazy comparable to The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I’m not saying it was bad, I just couldn’t find myself relating to it in the way that I related to The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The one thing I found a could relate to was Benjamin’s annoyance at his body not doing what he wanted but it was only briefly mentioned. I can say I preferred it to Catcher in the Rye though, I never really liked Holden but I didn’t mind Benjamin. In some ways I thought Lebert was trying to make Crazy more like Catcher in the Rye as he often included passages where the boys would philosophise. Mainly though this philosophising seemed pointless, and even annoyed me a little. There was nothing profound about it, but I did kind of like how the boys thought they were being profound, it seems realistic for how teenagers would view their own thoughts- as being really original and earth breaking. One thing I didn’t understand is that the book is categorised as a novel (it even says a novel on the back cover), but the main protagonist has the same name as the writer, which suggests it’s actually and autobiography. Does anyone know what it actually is? A quick and easy read, it took me less than 2 days to read. 3/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted November 27, 2011 Author Share Posted November 27, 2011 The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts- Louis de Bernieres Synopsis (from Amazon) When the spoilt and haughty Dona Constanza tries to divert a river to fill her swimming pool, she starts a running battle with the locals. The skirmishes are so severe that the Government dispatches a squadron of soldiers led by the fat, brutal and stupid Figueras to deal with them. Despite visiting plagues of laughing fits and giant cats upon the troops, the villagers know that to escape the cruel and unusual tortures planned for them, they must run. Thus they plan to head for the mountains and start a new and convivial civilisation. Note: I do not feel that this synopsis adequately describes the book. However I am at a loss of how I can describe it any better while still allowing some of the...plot to be hinted at so I am using this for lack of anything better. Review Oh why had a never heard of this book before? I can't even remember seeing it in bookstores (despite the fact that it is the first in a series and still in print). For so long I have been looking for a Louis de Bernieres novel which meets up to my experience of Captain Corelli's Mandolin which is one of my favourite books. I had seen Senor Vivo & The Coca Lord a number of times and considered buying it but was never convinced (it is probably a good thing seeing as it is further along in the same series). Well I can certainly say I want to read it now! I suppose you can guess that I really enjoyed this book. I think it sis one of the most unique books I have ever read. It's full of all kinds of strange happenings. Those who watch my twitter feed may have noticed me commenting that I had never read a book where a woman gave birth to a cat before, and that gives you just an idea of some of the strange things that happen in this book! It did take me a little time to get into, but once I was into it you couldn't get me away from it, and I generally find that I end up loving books more when they have been hard work. There was a point where the main strangeness was that I couldn't work out how it would all come together. It seemed for a long time that there were just lots of individual storylines which weren't connected, or at least barely connected, and I kept getting the characters mixed up. However after a while I began to work things out a bit more, and even became disappointed when a chapter end because I knew it would be a while before I found out what would happen to that character, and the stories began to join together a bit more. I can't say there was a character I didn't enjoy reading about by the end but I did especially like reading about the President. I also enjoyed how different sides of the same story were shown so that even though there were some horrible acts they never really seemed to be done by horrible men because you not only saw their consequences but also how they came about. I cannot wait to read the rest of the series 5/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissy Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 I love Louis de Bernieres' Latin American Trilogy, they are such original and tantalising reads. I am so glad you enjoyed this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted December 24, 2011 Author Share Posted December 24, 2011 I love Louis de Bernieres' Latin American Trilogy, they are such original and tantalising reads. I am so glad you enjoyed this one. Thanks Chrissy. I'm looking forward to reading the next one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted December 24, 2011 Author Share Posted December 24, 2011 The Hare with the Amber Eyes- Edmund de Waal Synopsis (from Amazon) The history of a family through 264 objects – set against a turbulent century – from an acclaimed writer and potter Note: This is the short description from Amazon. The long description gives away just a little to much, so I decided to leave it more mysterious. Review This book, which was the winner of the Costa Biography Award last year, got a lot of buzz towards the end of last year and during this year (although I don’t believe I’ve seen any bloggers reviewing it, if you have please link me so I can look). It made it a pretty easy choice as my book recommended by a professional reviewer for the Take a Chance Challenge but it’s taken me all year to actually get around to reading it. One thing I can say that really stood out in this book was the descriptions, especially the descriptions of places and objects. I could really imagine what the netsuke looked and felt like, and I came out of the book wanting to visit Vienna. The last time a book has made me want to visit a place was when I read The Historian back before I started this blog. I did have a bit of an odd relationship with this book though. When I was actually reading it I found I was quite interested, but when I had put it down I was never really that bothered about picking it up again. At one point I was even on the brink of giving up on it, but with a little persuasion from my Mum, and he knowledge that I did find it interesting part of the time, kept me going. I am glad I did. While I didn’t find the first part of the story that interesting I really raced though the last hundred or so pages because I was generally enjoying that section. I think just the period of time it was set in was interesting (during the second world war) or maybe it was just because I knew that period of history so I could put events into a more clear setting. I did like however the thread going through the book setting a sort of atmosphere for what was to come. I suppose that is history, but certainly it was a good idea to make that path clear. One thing I would have really liked in this book though is more pictures of the Netsuke, however there is an illustrated edition which may work better. 3/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 Andrey Kurkov is one of those writers I keep forgetting about and then re-discovering. I know exactly what you mean, the same thing always happens to me. I'm glad you reminded me of him now, I must add his name to my wishlist, on a top spot! I really do not know why I keep forgetting Kurkov, I always enjoy his books. They tend to be easy to read but there is a certain strangeness to them that makes you feel like you have something to puzzle out. Again, I have to agree. Easy to read but they are so unique and strange and I can never even tell how. They just are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted January 1, 2012 Author Share Posted January 1, 2012 Grimm’s Fairy Stories- Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Synopsis (from Amazon]) The Brothers Grimm rediscovered a host of fairy tales. Together with their well-known tales of “Rapunzel”, “The Goose Girl”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Hansel and Gretel” there are darker tales which deserve to be better known. This is a collection of their tales. Review This was the first book I read on my lovely new Kindle. Oh the excitement! I suppose though my method of reading them was not the best. I read them all one after the other and that did make them all seem to blend together a little, and made the similar ones so much more obviously similar. There was a certain strangeness about it. A lot of the stories of course I knew, but I was surprised by some of the differences, and that there were so many I didn’t know. I especially enjoyed The Six Swans and although there were aspects I recognised it was not a story I really knew which made me wonder why it is not more well known. The stories were simple and easy to read, perfect bedtime reading 4/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted January 1, 2012 Author Share Posted January 1, 2012 The Girl Who Played with Fire- Stieg Larsson Synopsis (from Amazon) Lisbeth Salander is a wanted woman. Two Millennium journalists about to expose the truth about sex trafficking in Sweden are murdered, and Salander’s prints are on the weapon. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behaviour makes her an official danger to society – but no-one can find her. Mikael Blomkvist, editor-in-chief of Millennium, does not believe the police. Using all his magazine staff and resources to prove Salander’s innocence, Blomkvist also uncovers her terrible past, spent in criminally corrupt institutions. Yet Salander is more avenging angel than helpless victim. She may be an expert at staying out of sight – but she has ways of tracking down her most elusive enemies. Review. It’s taken me over a year to finally get around to reading this book. I wasn’t especially impressed by the first one in the series but interested enough to want to read the second, I just wasn’t in any hurry to do so. Consequentally I have forgotten a lot of what happened in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and they made some of the reference in this book a bit difficult- but did not stop me understanding the story as a whole. I think maybe I would have enjoyed this one more if I had read them close together but I still enjoyed it a fair bit. For my memory this one is better than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I was more interested to see what would happen next. I’m still unsure though if it was actually better or if I just has less expectations of it which made it easier to enjoy, I wasn’t waiting for it to impress me the whole time. 3.5/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted January 1, 2012 Author Share Posted January 1, 2012 You can read my review of the year for 2011 over on my blog. I won't post it all here as it's very long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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