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Poppy's Paperbacks 2011


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Poppy's Paperbacks 2009

Poppy's Paperbacks 2010

 

Books I love ... purple

Books that I like a lot ... green

Books that I like ... blue

The rest ... black

 

December 2011 (6 read)

Follow Me Home - Patrick Bishop (library loan) 8/10

The News Where You Are - Catherine O'Flynn (library loan) 9/10

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (re-read .. my bookshelf) 10/10

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami (library loan) 7/10

Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal - Jeanette Winterson (xmas present) 10/10

Practical Magic - Alice Hoffman (my bookshelf) 9/10

 

November 2011 (5 read)

A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan (library loan) 9/10

When God Was a Rabbit - Sarah Winman (loan from my niece) 9/10

The Windvale Sprites - Mackenzie Crook (my bookshelf) 7/10

Pigeon English - Stephen Kelman (library loan) 10/10

My Dear I Wanted To Tell You - Louisa Young (my bookshelf) 9/10

 

October 2011 (7 read)

The Tigers Wife - Tea Obreht (library loan) 8/10

The Ambassadors - Henry James (my bookshelf) 6/10

Boxer Beetle - Ned Beauman (library loan) 8/10

The Monsters of Templeton - Lauren Groff (library loan) 9/10

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie (my bookshelf) 9/10

The Novel in the Viola - Natasha Solomons (library loan) 8/10

Jamrach's Menagerie - Carol Birch (library loan) 9/10

 

September 2011 (4 read)

Far to Go - Alison Pick (charity shop buy) 9/10

Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi (charity shop buy) 9/10

First Among Sequels - Jasper Fforde (charity shop buy) 9/10

The Perks of being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky (library loan) 10/10

 

(1 listened to)

The Ninth Life of Louis Drax - Liz Jensen 7/10

 

August 2010 (10 read)

A Pale View of Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro (charity shop buy) 9/10

Love Letters of Great Men - Edited by Ursula Doyle (my bookshelf) 7/10

Pastoralia - George Saunders (charity shop buy) 8/10

Goodbye to all That - Robert Graves (my bookshelf) 8/10

Digging to America - Anne Tyler (my bookshelf) 8/10

Red Dust Road - Jackie Kay (library loan) 7/10

The Girl Who Chased the Moon - Sarah Addison Allen (library loan) 7/10

Grace Williams Says it Loud - Emma Henderson (library loan) 10/10

Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf (my bookshelf) 8/10

My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time - Liz Jensen (my bookshelf) 8/10

 

July 2010 (7 read)

A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway (my bookshelf) 8/10

Skippy Dies - Paul Murray (my bookshelf) 9/10

Virginia Woolf - Quentin Bell (my bookshelf) 9/10

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf (my bookshelf) 10/10

Once in a House on Fire - Andrea Ashworth (my bookshelf) 9/10

Henrietta's War - Joyce Dennys (my bookshelf) 8/10

Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome (my bookshelf) 7/10

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June 2011 (12 read)
Our Spoons Came from Woolworths - Barbara Comyns (my bookshelf) 8/10
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (library loan) 9/10
The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham (my bookshelf) 9/10
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas - Gertrude Stein (my bookshelf) 8/10
John the Revelator - Peter Murphy (my bookshelf) 8/10
The Brontës Went to Woolworths - Rachel Ferguson (my bookshelf) 9/10

A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (my bookshelf) 9/10 (short story)
Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner (my bookshelf) 8/10
The Journals of Sylvia Plath - edited by Ted Hughes and Frances McCullough (a Frankie bookswap :biggrin:)10/10
Flush - Virginia Woolf (my bookshelf) 10/10

O Beloved Kids : Rudyard Kiplings Letters to his Children (my bookshelf) 9/10
The Hand that First Held Mine - Maggie O'Farrell (my bookshelf) 8/10


(1 listened to)

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde and other short stories - Robert Louis Stevenson unabridged audio read by Michael Kitchen (library loan) 9/10

May 2011 (12 read)
Stuart : A Life Backwards - Alexander Masters (my bookshelf) 10/10
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer (library loan) 10/10
Miss Hargreaves - Frank Baker (my bookshelf) 8/10
Gabriel's Gift - Hanif Kureishi (my bookshelf) 7/10
The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford (re-read from my bookshelf) 10/10
Love in a Cold Climate - Nancy Mitford (re-read from my bookshelf) 9/10

Veronika Decides to Die - Paulo Coelho (charity shop buy) 7/10
Dear Mr Bigelow : A Transatlantic Friendship - Frances Woodsford (my bookshelf) 9/10
The Bell - Iris Murdoch (my bookshelf .. thanks to Frankie :friends0:) 9/10
Mad World: Evelyn Waugh & the Secrets of Brideshead (my bookshelf) Paula Byrne 8/10

Mr Vertigo - Paul Auster (my bookshelf) 9/10
The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison (library loan) 8/10


(2 listened to)
Phineas Finn - Anthony Trollope unabridged audio read by Timothy West (ipod d/l) 7/10

Money - Martin Amis unabridged audio read by Steven Pacey (library loan) 8/10

April 2011 (6 read)
Moby Dick - Herman Melville (my bookshelf) 9/10 review

The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald (my bookshelf) 7/10
A House for Mr Biswas - V.S. Naipaul (my bookshelf) 8/10 review
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky (my bookshelf) 10/10
Burnt Shadows - Kamila Shamsie (loaned by neighbour) 7/10

The Good Fairies of New York - Martin Millar (my bookshelf) 7/10

March 2011 (5 read)
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - Roddy Doyle (library loan) 7/10
The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis (bought for the 'Reading Circle') 7/10

Mrs Woolf and the Servants - Alison Light (my bookshelf) 8/10

Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe (my bookshelf) 9/10
The Girl from the Fiction Department - Hilary Spurling (library loan) 8/10


(3 listened to)
Can You Forgive Her - Anthony Trollope unabridged audio narrated by Timothy West (library loan) 8/10

Speaking for Themselves - The Private Letters of Winston & Clementine Churchill narrated by Michael Jayston & Eleanor Bron Part 2 (ipod d/l) 8/10
The Pattern in the Carpet - Margaret Drabble read by Diana Bishop (library loan) 6/10

February 2011 (9 read)
The Bluebird Cafe - Rebecca Smith (library loan) 7/10 review
Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord - Louis de Bernières (loaned from niece) 9/10 review
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes (bought for the 'Reading Circle') 9/10
In Tearing Haste : Letters Between Deborah Devonshire & Patrick Leigh Fermor (my bookshelf) 8/10 review
Memento Mori - Muriel Spark (my bookshelf) 9/10 review
Love Letters: Leonard Woolf and Trekkie Ritchie Parsons (library loan) 9/10
News from Nowhere - William Morris (library loan) 7/10 review
Beloved - Toni Morrison (library loan) 10/10
Leonard Woolf A Life - Victoria Glendinning (library loan) 8/10

(4 listened to)
Speaking for Themselves - The Private Letters of Winston & Clementine Churchill narrated by Michael Jayston & Eleanor Bron Part 1 (ipod d/l) 9/10 review
I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett abridged audio narrated by Tony Robinson (my bookshelf) 9/10
The Severed Head - Iris Murdoch unabridged audio narrated by Derek Jacobi (library loan)8/10
The Master - Colm Toibin narrated by William Hope unabridged audio (library loan) 9/10


January 2011 (15 read)
The Small Hand - Susan Hill (my bookshelf) 8/10
The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly (my bookshelf) 9/10
Tales of Terror from the Tunnels Mouth - Chris Priestley (my bookshelf) 9/10
The Dead of Winter - Chris Priestley (my bookshelf) 7/10 review
Let's Kill Uncle - Rohan O' Grady (my bookshelf) 8/10

King of the Castle - Susan Hill (my bookshelf) 9/10 review
Ex Libris - Anne Fadiman (my bookshelf) 8/10
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson (my bookshelf) 8/10 review

The Iris Trilogy - John Bayley (my bookshelf) 10/10 review
Mr Chartwell - Rebecca Hunt (my bookshelf) 9/10 review
Bad Blood - Lorna Sage (my bookshelf) 8/10 review

Along the Enchanted Way - William Blacker (my bookshelf) 9/10 review
The Chapel at the Edge of the World - Kirsten McKenzie (my bookshelf) 7/10 review
The Complete Polysyllabic Spree - Nick Hornby (my bookshelf) 10/10 review
The Diary of a Nobody - George & Weedon Grossmith (my bookshelf) 9/10 review

Edited by poppyshake
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TBR's on my Bookshelf

 

Ali, Monica - Brick Lane

Amis, Kingsley - The Old Devils (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Anderson, James - The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy

Angelou, Maya - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Atkinson, Kate - Started Early Took My Dog

Atwood, Margaret - Surfacing (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Atwood, Margaret - The Blind Assassin

Auster, Paul - Mr Vertigo

Baker, Frank - Miss Hargreaves (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Barbery, Muriel - The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Barker, Pat - The Ghost Road

Barnes, Julian - The Pedant in the Kitchen (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Benson, E.F. - Mrs Ames (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Blacker, William - Along the Enchanted Way

Byatt, A.S. - Possession

Bullington, Jesse - The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Byrne, Paula - Mad World : Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Carey, Peter - Oscar and Lucinda (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Carter, Angela - The Passion of New Eve

Coe, Jonathan - The Rotter's Club

Comyns, Barbara - Our Spoons Came from Woolworths (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Connolly, John - Nocturnes

Craig, Amanda - Hearts and Minds

Cunningham, Michael - The Hours (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Dahl, Roald - Boy : Tales of Childhood (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

de Bernières, Louis - Captain Corelli's Mandolin

de Bernières - The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Gazman (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Defoe, Daniel - A Journal of the Plague Year

Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe

Dennys, Joyce - Henrietta Sees It Through (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Dennys, Joyce - Henrietta's War

Devonshire, Deborah - In Tearing Haste

de Waal, Edmund - The Hare with Amber Eyes

Dickens, Monica - One Pair of Feet (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Drabble, Margaret - The Red Queen

Dostoevsky, Fyodor - Crime and Punishment

Eco, Umberto - The Name of the Rose

Englander, Nathan - The Ministry of Special Cases

Eugenides, Jeffery (Editor) - My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead:

Fallada, Hans - Alone in Berlin

Faulks, Sebastian - Faulks on Fiction

Ferguson, Rachel - The Brontës Went to Woolworths (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Fforde, Jasper - One of Our Thursdays is Missing

Fforde, Jasper - The Fourth Bear (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Fitzgerald, F. Scott - Tender is the Night (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Fitzgerald, Penelope - So I Have Thought of You

Fitzgerald, Penelope - The Bookshop

French, Dawn - A Tiny Bit Marvellous

French, Vivian - The Robe of Skulls

Freud, Esther - The Sea House

Funke, Cornelia - Reckless

Gallico, Paul - Mrs Harris Goes to Paris (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Gold, Glen David - Carter Beats the Devil

Grassic Gibbon, Lewis - Sunset Song

Graves, Robert - Goodbye to All That (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Greene, Graham - Brighton Rock (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Grossmith, George & Weedon - The Diary of a Nobody

Hay, Sheridan - The Secret of Lost Things (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Hemingway, Ernest - A Moveable Feast(Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Hoare, Philip - Leviathan

Høeg, Peter - Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow

Hoffman, Alice - Practical Magic (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Holroyd, Michael - A Strange Eventful History : The Dramatic Lifes of Helen Terry, Henry Irving and their Remarkable Families (birthday present)

Hornby, Nick - Juliet Naked

Hornby, Nick - The Complete Polysyllabic Spree

Hunt, Rebecca - Mr Chartwell

Isherwood, Christopher - Goodbye to Berlin

Ishiguro, Kazuo - A Pale View of Hills

Jacobson, Howard - The Finkler Question

Jenkins, Elizabeth - The Tortoise and the Hare

Jensen, Liz - My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Jones, Sadie - The Outcast

Keneally, Thomas - Schindlers Ark (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Keyes, Daniel - Flowers for Algernon

Kureishi, Hanif - Gabriels Gift (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Lawrence, D.H. - Women in Love (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Le Carre, John - The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Lewis, C.S. - The Screwtape Letters

Light, Alison - Mrs Woolf and the Servants

Márquez, Gabriel Garcia - Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Márquez, Gabriel Garcia - Leaf Storm

Márquez, Gabriel Garcia - Living to tell the Tale

Márquez, Gabriel Garcia - No-one Writes to the Colonel

Márquez, Gabriel Garcia - Of love and other Demons

Márquez, Gabriel Garcia - Strange Pilgrims

Márquez, Gabriel Garcia - The Autumn of the Patriarch

Márquez, Gabriel Garcia - The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor

Masters, Alexander - Stuart : A Life Backwards

Maugham, Somerset - Ashenden

Maugham, Somerset - Cakes and Ale

Maugham, Somerset - Catalina

Maugham, Somerset - Christmas Holiday

Maugham, Somerset - Don Fernando

Maugham, Somerset - Liza of Lambeth

Maugham, Somerset - The Magician

Maugham, Somerset - The Narrow Corner

Maugham, Somerset - The Painted Veil

Maugham, Somerset - Up at the Villa

May, Sarah - The Rise and Fall of the Queen of Surburbia

McCourt, Frank - Angela's Ashes (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

McCourt, Frank - Tis

McGregor, Jon - If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things

McKenzie, Kirsten - The Chapel at the Edge of the World

McPherson, Catriona - Winter Ground

Melville, Herman - Moby Dick

Mieville, China - Un Lun Dun

Millar, Martin - The Good Fairies of New York

Mistry, Rohinton - A Fine Balance

Moers, Walter - The 13 12Lives of Captain Bluebear

Morton, Kate - The House at Riverton

Mosley, Diana - The Pursuit of Laughter (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Murdoch, Iris - An Unofficial Rose (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Murdoch, Iris - A Writer at War : the Letters and Diaries of Iris Murdoch 1939-1945 (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Murdoch, Iris - The Bell

Murdoch, Iris - The Black Prince

Murdoch, Iris - The Flight from the Enchanter (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Murphy, Peter - John the Revelator

Murray, Paul - Skippy Dies

Naipaul, V.S. - A House for Mr Biswas (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

O'Farrell, Maggie - The Hand that First Held Mine

O'Hanlon, Redmond - Trawler

O'Neill, Joseph - Netherland

Orwell, George - Keep the Aspidistra Flying (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Pasternak, Boris - Letters to Georgian Friends (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Proulx, Annie - Birdcloud

Preston, Caroline - Gatsby's Girl

Ransome, Arthur - Swallows and Amazons

Ransome, Arthur - Winter Holiday

Rhodes, Dan - The Little White Car (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Rugg, Julie & Murphy, Lynda - A Book Addicts Treasury

Sage, Lorna - Bad Blood

Schlink, Bernhard - The Reader

Skeslien Charles, Janet - Moonlight in Odessa

Smith, Ali - Girl Meets Boy

Smith, Ali - The Accidental

Spark, Muriel - Far Cry From Kensington (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Spark, Muriel - Memento Mori

Spark, Muriel - Robinson (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Spark, Muriel - The Comforters (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Spark, Muriel - The Pride of Miss Jean Brodie

Starling, Belinda - The Journal of Dora Damage (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Stein, Gertrude - The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Stevenson, D.E. - Mrs Tim of the Regiment (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Stoker, Bram - Dracula

Summerscale, Kate - The Queen of Whale Cay

Tartt, Donna - The Little Friend

Townsend, Sue - Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction

Tyler, Anne - Digging to America

Udall, Brady - The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint

Updike, John - Rabbit Run (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Waters, Sarah - Fingersmith

Waters, Sarah - The Night Watch

Winterson, Jeanette - Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Wood, Ronnie - Ronnie

Woodsford, Frances - Dear Mr Bigelow : A Transatlantic Friendship (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Woolf, Virginia - Mrs Dalloway (Bought in Hay-on-Wye)

Woolf, Virginia - Selected Diaries

Woolf, Virginia - To the Lighthouse

Wyndham, John - The Day of the Triffids

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TBR Wishlist

 

Addison Allen, Sarah - Garden Spells

Alderman, Naomi - The Lessons

Ashworth, Andrea - Once in a House on Fire

Beach, Sylvia - Shakespeare & Co

Beach, Sylvia - The Letters of Sylvia Beach

Bowker, Gordon - George Orwell

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth - Lady Audley's Secret

Brand, Russell - Articles of Faith

Brand, Russell - Booky Wook 2

Budnitz, Judy - If I Told You Once

Bulgakov, Mikhail - The Heart of a Dog

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth - Lady Audley's Secret

Corrigan, Maureen - Leave Me Alone I'm Reading

Davey, Janet - English Correspondence

Day, Elizabeth - Scissors, Paper, Stone

Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities

Dostoevsky, Fyodor - The Idiot

Fadiman, Anne - At Large and At Small: Confessions of a Literary Hedonist

Fforde, Jasper - First Among Sequels

Fforde, Jasper - The Fourth Bear

Forster, Margaret - Elizabeth Barrett Browning : A Biography

Fry, Stephen - The Fry Chronicles

Garnett, Angelica - Deceived with Kindness : A Bloomsbury Childhood

Gekoski, Rick - Outside of a Dog : A Bibliomemoir

Gillard, Linda - Emotional Geology

Goethe, Johann - The Sorrows of Young Werther

Gordon, Lyndall - Lives Like Loaded Guns : Emily Dickinson and her Family's Feuds

Grant, Linda - The Clothes on Their Backs

Harris, Jane - Gillespie and I

Hayman, Ronald - The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath

Heat-Moon, William Least - A Journey into America

Hemingway, Ernest - For Whom the Bell Tolls

Hemingway, Ernest - The Sun Also Rises

Hill, Suzette A. - A Load of old Bones

Holland, Merlin - Irish Peacock & Scarlet Marquess : The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde

Hoover Bartlett, Allison - The Man Who Loved Books Too Much

Irving, John - The Cider House Rules

Jones, Shane - Light Boxes

Juster, Norton - The Phantom Tollbooth

Kaufman Andrew - All My Friends are Superheroes

Kelman, Stephen - Pigeon English

Kilkerr, Justine - Advice for Strays

Lanagan, Margo - Black Juice

Lanagan, Margo - Red Spikes

Law, Phyllida - Notes to my Mother-in-Law

Lee, Hermione - Virginia Woolf

Manguel, Alberto - The Library at Night

Mirrlees, Hope - Lud-in-the-Mist

Moore, Lucy - Anything Goes

Moran, Caitlin - How to be a Woman

Morrison, Toni - Beloved

Murakami, Haruki - A Wild Sheep Chase

Murdoch, Iris - Under the Net

Naipaul, V.S. - Letters between a Father and Son

Nicholson, Virginia - Among the Bohemians

Ochsner, Gina - The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight

Orwell, George - Homage to Catalonia

Peake, Mervyn - Mr Pye

Plath, Sylvia - Letters Home

Plath, Sylvia - The Bell Jar

Riggs, Ransom - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Rudge, Penny - Foolish Lessons in Life and Love

Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein

Spark, Muriel - The Ballad of Peckham Rye

Stone, Irving - Lust for Life

Strout, Elizabeth - Amy and Isabelle

Trombley, Stephen - All That Summer She Was Mad

Wall, Carolyn - Sweeping up Glass

Wiesel, Elie - Night

Winman, Sarah - When God was a Rabbit

Winton, Tim - Cloudstreet

Woolf, Virginia - A Room of One's Own

Woolf, Virginia - Orlando

Woolf, Virginia - The Voyage Out

Woolf, Virginia - The Waves

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*note to self* I must, must, must read more books from my own bookshelves in 2011

 

bookoflostthings.jpg

 

The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly

 

Waterstones Synopsis: 'Once upon a time, there was a boy who lost his mother ...' As twelve-year-old David takes refuge from his grief in the myths and fairytales so beloved of his dead mother, he finds the real world and the fantasy world begin to blend. That is when bad things start to happen. That is when the Crooked Man comes. And David is violently propelled into a land populated by heroes, wolves and monsters, his quest to find the legendary Book of Lost Things.

 

Review: This is the sort of book I really enjoy, one where you can let your imagination take flight. The story is set during WWII and centralises around David, a young boy who is struggling to come to terms with his mother's death and his father's re-marriage to Rose. He has a new little brother too - Georgie - to whom he feels jealous and resentful. His feelings are all muddled, he feels rejected and ignored and nearly everything he loved has become lost to him. Just when he might have been able to have his father all to himself along have come Rose and Georgie. David begins to have attacks .. black-outs which leave him hearing strange sounds and amongst these is the voice of his mother calling .. his books have begun to whisper too. David and his father have moved out of London to escape the bombing and into Rose's house so all familiarity has gone, his new bedroom is a little attic room filled with strange books which also murmur and grumble as they rub shoulders with David's own books... the fairy tales in these richly illustrated books intrigue David ... they seem more sinister than the tales he is used to and he is visited in his dreams by the Crooked Man who says 'we are waiting - welcome your majesty - all hail the new King.'

 

Following an argument with Rose, a particularly hurt and resentful David follows the sound of his mothers calls outside to the garden where he sees a German bomber hurtling towards him as it falls stricken from the sky. In order to escape a collision David dives, Alice style, through a gap in the garden wall to emerge in a land where the fairy tales in the books he's been reading have come to life. And the Crooked Man (an even more malevolent version of Rumpelstiltskin who can travel between worlds), is waiting for him there.

 

This is a typical boy to man journey but told in a unique way. It's easy to see the parallels between David's real life troubles and this perilous quest to rescue his mother (or keep her memory alive in another sense.) There are problems and riddles to be solved and a lot of lessons to learn and growing up to be done. Along his journey David encounters some well known fairytale figures, but they're slightly skewed and sinister versions of the tales we love .. we're more in the realm of Angela Carter and Grimm here than Disney. There are wolves, loups (half human/half wolves .. Little Red Riding Hood enjoyed the company of wolves much more than we were led to believe apparently), harpies, trolls, the animal mutilating huntress and witches who have a fondness for the flesh of children but there's also the odd comical tale .. like the one featuring Snow White who is as un-Disneyesque as can be .. in fact she's an obese harridan who is plaguing the life out of the dwarves .. and also characters that want to help David like the Woodsman and the Knight. And all the while as David makes his way towards the Fortress of Thorns where he feels sure his mother is, the Crooked Man is following, keeping David in view, in some cases keeping him from harm, for he has a darker much more treacherous purpose for him.

 

I am at my happiest engrossed in adult fairy stories, and this was another nice chunk of escapism, it's easy to read but that's because it's so engaging. It's not for children .. unless they are quite robust as there's a fair amount of violence and gore, although I suppose it does still read very much like a childrens book, just a very dark one. It doesn't quite go as far in originality and twisted story telling as Neil Gaiman but it's very much in that vein.

 

9/10

Edited by poppyshake
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talesofterrortunnel.jpg

 

Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth - Chris Priestley

 

Waterstones Synopsis: A boy is put on a train by his stepmother to make his first journey on his own. But soon that journey turns out to be more of a challenge than anyone could have imagined as the train stalls at the mouth of a tunnel and a mysterious woman in white helps the boy while away the hours by telling him stories - stories with a difference

 

Review: I absolutely love this series of books. They are just creepy and spine tingly enough to make me feel enjoyably scared and not so terrifying that I can't sleep at night or start looking for faces in mirrors or hands creeping out from under beds (because of course, they are meant for children .. having said that one or two always freak me out more than is comfortable.) I love the way in which there are lots of little stories within the story and how they all build to the final revelation. In this case, the central character is Robert and he is travelling to school by train. There are a number of people that get into his carriage .. he doesn't know their names but going on their appearance he nicknames them .. the Major, the Farmer, the Bishop, the Surgeon and the Woman in White. Apart from Robert and the Woman in White, all the occupants of the carriage soon fall fast asleep and when the train comes to a sudden stop, the Woman in White begins to tell Robert some tales in order to help pass the time. These stories all have a supernatural, creepy element and unsurprisingly they make Robert feel very uneasy .. and this is coupled with the fact that his stepmother awoke from a catnap just before Robert boarded the train and said she'd had a premonition about the journey and thought he should catch a later train instead.

 

The stories vary in creepiness, you can sometimes work out what's going to happen as you go along and it's fun guessing (as it helps relieve the tension). Alan and I read these to each other, a chapter each, and he managed to work out the outcomes of most of the stories before we got to the ending being far more clued up than me, though sometimes his guesses were wide of the mark. My favourites among the tales were 'Gerald' .. a story of puppets (which let's face it are always creepy .. along with clowns) and 'A New Governess' .. which is a favourite subject for terror. As Robert get's more and more freaked out, he starts to question more and more what is actually happening during this train journey .. why isn't the train moving and why won't the other passengers wake up.

 

I love David Roberts's drawings, they help make the books special .. I'm not keen on the new covers which have different artwork and no inside illustrations. I guess they are supposed to be the 'adult' covers .. I'm sticking with the children's one's, they're quirky, creepy and absolutely perfect.

 

I'm hoping Chris will do more tales of terror. I just love them.

 

9/10

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Great review Poppy, I've not read anything by John Connolly yet but I'm tempted to add this to my wishlist :)

 

Thanks Kidsmum :) I hadn't read anything of John's before, though I have since bought another book by him. I would highly recommend it .. but I know you're trying to avoid adding too many books to your wishlist. Perhaps it might be one for the future, when you've read all the one's on your shelves.

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The Small Hand - Susan Hill

 

Waterstones Synopsis: This is the chilling tale of a man in the grip of a small, invisible hand...A ghost story by the author of "The Woman in Black" and "The Man in the Picture", to be read by the fire on a cold winter's night. Returning home from a visit to a client late one summer's evening, antiquarian bookseller Adam Snow takes a wrong turning and stumbles across the derelict old White House. Compelled by curiosity, he approaches the door, and, standing before the entrance feels the unmistakeable sensation of a small hand creeping into his own, 'as if a child had taken hold of it'. Intrigued by the encounter, he determines to learn more, and discovers that the owner's grandson had drowned tragically many years before. At first unperturbed by the odd experience, Snow begins to be plagued by haunting dreams, panic attacks, and more frequent visits from the small hand which become increasingly threatening and sinister.

 

Review: Well as the synopsis suggests, I did read it on a cold winter's night .. and it was occasionally by the fire too. It was another of the books that hubby and I read together (annoyingly because again he worked out one of the main plot revelations which probably would have passed me by and it denied me my final shiver .. really I should put a gagging order on him laugh.gif ) Susan has such a way with ghost stories, she knows just when to increase the tension and when to let it thrum quietly in the background.

 

So, Adam Snow finds himself stumbling across an old derelict house whilst looking for directions. Like all good storybook characters (for instance those that insist on exploring forbidden west wings etc) he is impelled not only to approach the garden gate but to give it a good nudge in order to gain entry (and good on him really because it would have been a terribly short not to say uninteresting book if he'd just driven on until he reached a petrol station and asked for directions .. however that would be my advice if anyone finds themselves in a similar situation :biggrin: ) But still, curious people always make the best literary characters .. especially in the horror/thriller genre. The garden is completely overgrown and nature is busy reclaiming it, it's a bit of a mystery because it looks as if it might have been quite grand once and Adam comes across what seems to be the remains of an old ticket booth as if it were once open to the public. It's whilst he is standing there in the dusk, surveying this mystery, that he feels a small hand creep into his. It's definitely the hand of a small child but whose and why?

 

Afterwards Adam doesn't really think overly much about it (which is because he's a storybook character, anyone else would be looking in the yellow pages for an exorcist pronto), however he soon begins to experience some rather frightening anxiety attacks and it's not long before he feels the small hand once more in his. At first he's comforted by it, see's it almost as a friend, look's for it even, but soon it's beginning to behave in a much more sinister fashion.

 

It's probably not for hardcore horror fans - there won't be anything here to truly terrify and there's no vampires or gore, it's far more like the old fashioned ghost stories which is just how I like it. I liked the way that Susan rather cleverly made Adam a dealer in antiquarian books which meant that in between the chills and the frights she could chat away about stuff like Shakepeare's First Folio (write about what you know and love .. it always sounds convincing.)

 

The attempts at jokes here are because I'm writing this at night, with the wind whistling outside .. I'm just trying to convince myself that I'm not frightened by the tale which is rubbish because I am .. my flesh definitely does creep when I think about it.

I must just add that the cover is beautiful, if you have to buy hardbacks (and I seldom do) then let them be small and beautiful like this one.

 

8/10

Edited by poppyshake
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Ex Libris : Confessions of a Common Reader - Anne Fadiman

 

Waterstones Synopsis: Anne Fadiman is the sort of person who learned about sex from her father's copy of "Fanny Hill", and who once found herself poring over a 1974 Toyota Corolla manual because it was the only thing in her apartment that she had not read at least twice. "Ex Libris" wittily recounts a lifelong obsession with books. Writing with humour and erudition she moves easily from anecdotes about Coleridge and Orwell to tales of her own pathologically literary family.

 

Review: Another book that's perfect for bibliophile's. Anne has written eighteen essays about her love of words and books. It's only a short volume .. I read it in an afternoon, but it sings of the love she has for collecting, organizing and of course reading books. Little gems like 'The Odd Shelf' which Anne believes we all have in our houses somewhere. The shelf that contain's books/publications that bear no resemblance or connection to any of the other books in our libraries (Apparently George Orwell had a bound set of ladies magazines which he liked to read in the bath and Phillip Larkin had a rather large collection of spanking related pornography :giggle: ) Anne has an extensive collection of books on polar exploration as she has a yearning for what C.S. Lewis called 'Northernness'. I didn't think I had an 'Odd Shelf' but now I think about it I have got a collection of books about walking .. you know the sort of thing pub walks/tea shop walks/river walks/coastal walks ... which I use far more in my imagination that I do in actuality. I feel like once I've sat and studied the maps in the books for half an hour then really I've had enough exercise for one day. Another essay is entitled 'Never Do That to a Book' where Anne explores the theory that there is more than one way to love a book. I have had to admit to certain book abuses in the past but sensitive readers may well need to look away when reading this piece. Anne says that her family are lovers of words in books but are not particularly attached to the paper, cardboard, cloth, glue, thread and ink that contain them ... her father, for instance, whilst reading on a flight, used to tear off each page of his paperback after he'd read it and throw it in the bin in order to reduce the weight. The family literally love their books to pieces.

 

There's lots here to enjoy .. including a piece on private proofreading (you know, where you can't help but spot the spelling/grammar mistakes on menu's, manuals, catalogues and so on.) I must admit to doing this even though I know my own spelling .. and particularly punctuation .. is far from perfect. However I'm not nearly as bad as Anne's mother who filled large envelopes with clippings of all the mistakes printed in her local newspaper and mailed them to the editor when they got to a suitable size.

 

I didn't get quite as much pleasure from reading it as I did Susan Hill's 'Howards End is on the Landing' .. it wasn't quite as comfy cosy and there was less discussion about actual books but it was still a delight and I'm definitely going to look into her other writings.

 

8/10

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Let's Kill Uncle - Rohan O' Grady

 

Waterstones Synopsis: When recently-orphaned Barnaby Gaunt is sent to stay with his uncle on a beautiful remote island off the coast of Canada, he is all set to have the perfect summer holiday. Except for one small problem: his uncle is trying to kill him. Heir to a ten-million-dollar fortune, Barnaby tries to tell everyone and anyone that his uncle is after his inheritance, but no one will believe him. That is, until he tells the only other child on the island, Christie, who concludes that there is only one way to stop his demonic uncle: Barnaby will just have to kill him first. With the unexpected help of One-Ear, the aged cougar who has tormented the island for years, Christie and Barnaby hatch a fool-proof plan. Playful, dark and witty, Let's Kill Uncle is a surprising tale of two ordinary children who conspire to execute an extraordinary murder - and get away with it.

 

Review: It was the title that made me pick it up and it turned out to be as wicked, funny and delightful as I hoped it would be. It's one of the Bloomsbury Group Novels ... lost classics from the twentieth century (similar to the books that Persephone publish) and it tells the tale of young orphaned Barnaby. We first meet him on board ship just as it is about to dock at the remote Canadian island where he is being sent to live with his uncle. Also on board is Christie, who is making her way to the island for a holiday and the pair of them are at loggerheads. They have been leading the ship's crew a merry dance during the journey, getting up to all sorts of mischief and generally behaving disgracefully.

 

Barnaby's uncle has been detained in Europe and so for the first few weeks he resides with Mr and Mrs Brooks. Christie is staying with the goat-lady at her 'cheerfully untidy' farm. The goat-lady is very kind and well meaning but Christie is homesick for her mother and cannot settle. She doesn't like the food (though everyone else would .. for breakfast there is golden fried potatoes, pink ham and scarlet tomatoes ... freshly baked bread and and butter with raspberry jam .. clotted cream and fresh blackberries .. really, we're in the land of Enid here) .. Christie only want's her old favourites - cornflakes and tea. Barnaby is having food issues too, Mrs Brooks has fixed him her (late lamented) son's favourite meal of a coddled egg, a bowl of bread and milk sprinkled with brown sugar, weak tea and a minutely cut up apple ... Barnaby can't face eating such nursery food but he soon sniffs out the superior fare being served at the goat lady's and, not to be outdone, Christie suddenly finds the food more to her liking.

 

After a bit of a hostile start, Barnaby and Christie become reluctant playmates and begin exploring the island. The place has a very unfortunate history, some people think it's cursed. Thirty three men left the island to fight in the first and second world wars and only one came back alive ... the islands policeman Sergeant Coulter, a fact which has made him feel undeservedly guilty. The island hasn't any young people therefore and so the islanders have a bit of a tough time of it adapting to these two boisterous, not to say wilful, youngsters. Sergeant Coulter has his work cut out keeping them in check but they soon grow to love the stern but kindly policeman and he comes to care for them.

 

There is a depression hanging over Barnaby whenever his uncle is mentioned and he soon confides in Christie that his uncle is mad, that he killed his Teddy Bear (he cremated him) and would soon kill him too (for Barnaby is due a fortune when he comes of age.) At first she's inclined not to believe him, but when uncle arrives on the island, his behaviour towards Christie soon convinces her that Barnaby is in fact telling the truth .. and so there can be only one solution .. they must kill uncle first.

 

Uncle is indeed insidious and there's more behind his plotting and scheming than just the mere acquisition of Barnaby's fortune. The adults on the island all take him at face value, they think he's the kind, eccentric old codger that he's pretending to be and so, despite confiding his fears to Sergeant Coulter, Barnaby decides that he and Christie will have to come up with a foolproof way to get rid of him .. but uncle is clever and keeping one step ahead is impossible.

 

This is a lovely mix of dark and light, for the most part it's really warm and humorous but there are dark, dark moments in it and plenty of suspense. I absolutely loved the children's relationship with the policeman and also their infatuation with the island's man-eating cougar 'One Ear'. Completely oblivious to his man eating tendencies and despite his deep aversion, the children easily seek 'One Ear' out and generally manhandle him (in a way usually only seen in cartoons) for they've never had a pet and they think he fits the bill. The cougar doesn't dare attack them as he knows it will mean certain death for him if he does and so he is forced to accept their carresses, whilst all the time thinking murderous thoughts.

 

Great fun.

 

8/10

Edited by poppyshake
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I think I might start keeping a list of all the books you 'force' me to buy, Poppyshake, and then I'll send you the bill at the end of the year. :P

 

Ex Libris and Let's Kill Uncle have been duly noted and added to my wish list. I'm quite excited to read Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth now. I might start it this weekend. :)

Edited by Kylie
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Ex Libris and Let's Kill Uncle have been duly noted and added to my wish list. I'm quite excited to read Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth now. I might start it this weekend. :)

 

Ditto to what Kylie said, Poppy :D. Excellent reviews! I added Small Hand to my wishlist after I heard about it from Weave, so I'm looking foward to one day reading that one too.

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Some excellent books there!

 

I have Ex Libris, Small Hand and a 'Tales of Terror' (can't remember the title) on my Amazon Wish List, so I've skipped over your thoughts so as not to spoil anything - and Let's Kill Uncle sounds excellent too!

 

Sounds like 2011 has got off to a cracking start for you. :)

 

ETA: I've only seen Small Hand in hardback - I don't like hardbacks otherwise I'd have bought it just for the cover - it was so strokeable! :blush:

Edited by Janet
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ETA: I've only seen Small Hand in hardback - I don't like hardbacks otherwise I'd have bought it just for the cover - it was so strokeable! :blush:

 

I don't generally like hardbacks either, but the gorgeous cover for The Small Hand is very nearly worth it! Still, I guess I can wait for the paperback, which I assume will have the same cover.

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It's one of the Bloomsbury Group Novels ... lost classics from the twentieth century (similar to the books that Persephone publish)

 

I just went to add Let's Kill Uncle to my wish list and spied the other nine books from the Bloomsbury Group. I read the blurbs and they all sound great, not forgetting the pretty covers. Needless to say, I've now added 10 books to my wish list!

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I just went to add Let's Kill Uncle to my wish list and spied the other nine books from the Bloomsbury Group. I read the blurbs and they all sound great, not forgetting the pretty covers. Needless to say, I've now added 10 books to my wish list!

Ooh, can you provide a link please? ETA I've found it - and added them to my Wish List too! The one I mentioned below is on it! :)

 

I didn't realise Let's Kill Uncle was an old book - I think I have a Bloomsbury book already on my Wish List (A Kid for Two Farthings) but I'm not 100% sure. :)

 

ETA: It was made into a film in 1966!

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Thanks Kidsmum :) I hadn't read anything of John's before, though I have since bought another book by him. I would highly recommend it .. but I know you're trying to avoid adding too many books to your wishlist. Perhaps it might be one for the future, when you've read all the one's on your shelves.

 

 

If only I was able to show that much restraint :lol:

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I think I might start keeping a list of all the books you 'force' me to buy, Poppyshake, and then I'll send you the bill at the end of the year. :tongue:

 

Ex Libris and Let's Kill Uncle have been duly noted and added to my wish list. I'm quite excited to read Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth now. I might start it this weekend.

 

Ha laugh.gif .. and I'll do the same and you'll owe me money by the end of the year. For a start, ever since I saw your bookshelves I've been hankering after my own set of Wodehouse books .. and that's going to be pricey (you'd better start saving now.)

I hope you enjoy Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth Kylie .. I was going to say that's it's a lovely creepy winter read but of course it's summer with you isn't it .. I'm sure it'll be just as good in the heat.

I've added the Bloomsbury books to my wishlist as well .. oh dear .. it's never ending.

 

Ditto to what Kylie said, Poppy :biggrin:. Excellent reviews! I added Small Hand to my wishlist after I heard about it from Weave, so I'm looking foward to one day reading that one too.

 

Thanks Peacefield :smile: Hope you enjoy 'The Small Hand' .. I'm getting into Susan Hill lately and I can't wait to see the adaptation of 'The Woman in Black' with Daniel Radcliffe .. I'm intrigued to see how he does.

 

Some excellent books there!

 

I have Ex Libris, Small Hand and a 'Tales of Terror' (can't remember the title) on my Amazon Wish List, so I've skipped over your thoughts so as not to spoil anything - and Let's Kill Uncle sounds excellent too!

 

Sounds like 2011 has got off to a cracking start for you.

 

ETA: I've only seen Small Hand in hardback - I don't like hardbacks otherwise I'd have bought it just for the cover - it was so strokeable!

 

Thanks Janet :smile: I've been enjoying my reading so far this year ... all those lovely Christmas books to get stuck into. I don't like hardbacks either but sometimes make an exception as I did with 'The Small Hand' .. the cover was so lovely and I'll bet they'll change it when the paperback comes out. I bought the hardback copy of 'Howards End is on the Landing' too because although the cover stayed the same in paperback it didn't look quite so good. I can't get as comfy with a hardback though you can't curl up with it.

 

 

I loved the review of Lets Kill Uncle and am going out to search for it this weekend

 

Ah .. thanks Pickle :smile: .. I really hope you like it, I'm sure you will it's a lovely book.

 

If only I was able to show that much restraint

 

Tell me about it, I have no restraint when it comes to bookbuying (well very little anyway .. I did browse Waterstones yesterday and came away with nothing so that's a start.) That's why I've put two lists on here .. one of books I'd like to read and one of book's that I should read because I've got them sitting on the shelf (and they were all on my wishlist once.) I hope it's going to shame me into reading more from my shelves and stop me from willfully adding to my wishlist (it won't but I can try :smile: )

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I'm the King of the Castle - Susan Hill

Waterstones Synopsis: Susan Hill's "I'm King of the Castle" was first published in 1970. Telling the story of two boys forced to live together by their widowed parents, it is a chilling portrayal of childhood cruelty and persecution, of parental blindness and of our own ambivalence to what are supposed to be the happiest days of our lives.

Review: I read this whilst I was quite ill with flu and I think it added to the general feeling of dread that came over me when reading it. It's quite a simple premise really, two boys - Edmund Hooper and Charles Kingshaw - are thrown together when Kingshaw's mother takes up the position of housekeeper at Warings, the large house where Edmund and his father live. Edmund and Mr Hooper have a cold and distant relationship, they are strangers really. They've only just inherited Warings and Mr Hooper tries to get Edmund to take an interest in the old ancestral home but Edmund feels nothing particularly for the house or his father.

Mr Hooper announces one day that Edmund will have a companion, Mrs Helena Kingshaw is going to take up the post of housekeeper and she will be bringing her son Charles with her. Charles is almost eleven so the boys are of a similar age. Mr Hooper hopes that Edmond will welcome them but little does he know his son. Edmond's first thoughts are 'it is my house .. it is private .. I got here first ... nobody should come here'. Charles is also feeling nervous, he hadn't wanted to come, it's just another house to which they don't belong, another house that belongs to strangers. As he approaches the doorway a lump of plasticine is hurled down at him from an upstairs window, Charles picks it up and finds a scrap of paper inside with 'I didn't want you to come here' written inside.

It's a bad beginning and a portent of things to come. Edmund soon sees that Charles feels inferior and insecure and he takes every opportunity to drive those insecurities home. He tells Charles (untruly) that the bedroom and the bed he is to sleep in are where his grandfather lately died. Charles does his best at first to appear brave and assertive but his efforts come to nothing. Like all bullies Edmund senses his weak spots and exploits them. He jeers at him about his lack of money and poor schooling, he cross questions him about his father (who is dead) and mocks his mothers motives in coming to Warings. Any time that Charles does find something to amuse himself Edmund finds a way to ruin it, he watches Charles's every move, taunting and ridiculing him. Sometimes he appears to offer him the hand of friendship but it's only for the sadistic pleasure of snatching it away again. He's a constant presence lurking in the shadows .. even if Charles can't see him he can feel him watching him. He locks him in creepy rooms and accuses him of being a thief if he so much as picks up anything to play with.

Eventually Charles becomes so unhappy that he decides to run away, he plan's it quite meticulously and gets quite a way before he realises that Edmund is following him. They get lost in Hang Wood and Edmund soon reveals his own weaknesses, he is terrified of thunderstorms and is practically prostrate with fear during one. Charles sees now that the power has shifted but he doesn't wield it, preferring to be sensible and keep them out of danger. He doesn't want to be rescued or found though, he feels that if they can just stay there in the wood then everything will be ok. He can cope with Hooper in the wood. Just before they are found Edmund had fallen into the water and he wastes no time in telling their parents that Charles pushed him in deliberately. When they return back to Warings things continue exactly as before. Charles's only thoughts of comfort are that time will pass, eventually he will grow older and be free of them all.

The parents, even when made aware, are ridiculously unbothered. The two boys are the same age, they're bound to have their little fights but ultimately they will become great friends. Fuelled by Edmunds increasing accusations they are inclined to think that it's Charles, if anyone, who's behaving badly which upsets and embarrasses his mother no end. Their main concern is for themselves, Mr Hooper is lonely and is enjoying the company of Helena and Helena is happy to have found security at last. They've taken the step of enrolling Charles in Edmund's school so after the holidays they can return to (boarding) school together. Edmund tells Charles with glee that the persecution will continue at school only this time he'll be helped by his friends.

There are no ghosts in this story but it was a far more chilling read than any of the ghost stories of Susan's that I've read .. I approached each new chapter with dread. It won't make you smile once, there is no light and shade .. there's only varying degrees of shade (most of them black.) Hope comes in very small drops and they soon evaporate. It's very harrowing and claustrophobic and to be avoided at all costs if you're at all depressed or low. Having said that I found it utterly compelling, the pages almost seemed to turn by themselves. I was just so anxious for Kingshaw to find a way out of his misery. I can't say much more without ruining the ending, but it stayed with me for ages after. I was bullied as a child at junior school and though it never reached anything like this magnitude I can still remember how it felt. You think it will never end.

I must just say a word about the cover, it's beautiful. It's more navy than it looks in the picture and is designed by Zandra Rhodes.

9/10

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Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson

Waterstones Synopsis:
Major Ernest Pettigrew (Ret'd) is not interested in the frivolity of the modern world. Since his wife Nancy's death, he has tried to avoid the constant bother of nosy village women, his grasping, ambitious son, and the ever spreading suburbanization of the English countryside, preferring to lead a quiet life upholding the values that people have lived by for generations -respectability, duty, and a properly brewed cup of tea (very much not served in a polystyrene cup with teabag left in). But when his brother's death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Ali, the widowed village shopkeeper of Pakistani descent, the Major is drawn out of his regimented world and forced to confront the realities of life in the twenty-first century. Drawn together by a shared love of Literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs Ali soon find their friendship on the cusp of blossoming into something more. But although the Major was actually born in Lahore, and Mrs. Ali was born in Cambridge, village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as a permanent foreigner. The Major has always taken special pride in the village, but how will the chaotic recent events affect his relationship with the place he calls home? Written with sharp perception and a delightfully dry sense of humour, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand is a heart warming love story with a cast of unforgettable characters that questions how much one should sacrifice personal happiness for the obligations of family and tradition.

Review: Alan bought this home from the supermarket for me when I was still laid up (and feeling a bit fed up) with the flu. The blurb on the back says it's 'a very jolly joy' and 'a book to make you laugh' so he thought it would make a nice change from all the ghost stories and downright depressing tales that I'd been reading lately (the theory probably being that the sooner I cheered up and got back on my feet the sooner I'd be back to making his tea and generally looking after him.)
It's a book that I'd had half an eye on anyway and although I didn't think the paperback cover was quite as beautiful as the hardback .. it's still extremely pretty.

It's quite a simple story about widowed Major Pettigrew. He's feeling a bit down after the death of his brother Bertie and unexpectedly finds friendship, and a shared love of books, with the village shopkeeper, the recently widowed, Mrs Ali. They bond over readings of Kipling and cups of tea. The village as a whole is apt to disapprove as Mrs Ali (Jasmina) is of Indian descent (even though she's never been further than the Isle of Wight!) and their own respective families are not exactly joyous about it, especially Jasmina's who would rather she stayed behind the counter where they can keep an eye on her. Major Pettigrew's only son Roger is a bit too wrapped up in his own life to be too concerned. He's completely obsessed with money and social climbing (think truffle dusted food, goatskin loungers and black fibre optic christmas tree's) and rides rough shod over his fathers feelings without being the least aware of it (for one thing he thinks the Major should get rid of his books and free up some space for an enormous TV!) His rudeness and arrogance are in fact a source of amusement to the reader because it provides the Major with plenty of chances to exercise his dry sense of humour and anyway you get the feeling that underneath there's probably a decent person struggling to emerge, he just needs to grow up a bit.

Problems familiar to rural village life raise their head, there are threats of new housing estates, animal welfare protesters, gossiping locals and an awful golf club dinner dance - the theme of which is 'An Evening at the Mughal Court' - which manages unintentionally to embarrass the Major and insult Jasmina in one fell swoop. There is also the problem of the pair of Churchill rifles, which were left, one apiece, to the Major and his brother on their father's death. Now that Bertie has gone, it was their fathers intention (and very much the Major's wish) that the rifles be reunited but Bertie's family and Roger have their own agenda concerning them, which involves selling them to the highest bidder. And, of course, there's the friendship between the Major and Jasmina which develops with each passing day.

The Major's quite 'old school', he's someone who sets a lot of store by good manners and politeness but ultimately he has to decide what's important in life, should he cling to the old traditions, bow down to familial responsibilites and continue with this life of interminable golf lunches, shooting parties, afternoon tea and village ladies with their 'blunt tweedy concerns' or should he strike out and do something bold for a change, relax a bit and take a chance. After all, you're never too old for love are you?

This is a fairly gentle story, nothing particularly explosive happens, though there is a lot of hustle and bustle. The key to making a simple story work like this is to make sure your main characters are likeable and they are. It worked anyway, it was a nice comfy cosy read, the sort of story you might see dramatised on the BBC on a Sunday evening or over Christmas. It might be considered a bit twee for some but I don't mind a bit of occasional tweeness. I felt cheered by it and it definitely helped improve my mood .. I can't say that I jumped up and immediately made a batch of scones or anything but I did feel a lot less mopey :blush2:

 8/10

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Are you a member of LibraryThing, Poppyshake? Because I found out today that Mrs Ames, Let's Kill Uncle, and Henrietta Sees it Through are all listed in their Early Reviewers. If you're a member, you can request review copies of the books. :)

 

I'm enjoying your reviews, as always! I saw that edition of I'm the King of the Castle recently, and I really like it too, although I'm not that fond of the font.

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Are you a member of LibraryThing, Poppyshake? Because I found out today that Mrs Ames, Let's Kill Uncle, and Henrietta Sees it Through are all listed in their Early Reviewers. If you're a member, you can request review copies of the books. :)

 

I'm enjoying your reviews, as always! I saw that edition of I'm the King of the Castle recently, and I really like it too, although I'm not that fond of the font.

 

I am a member I think but it's a while since I've been there. I'll have to go and have a rootle around .. thanks for the tip Kylie :)

 

Ooh I love a bit of tweeness! I will have to read Major Pettigrew.

 

Ah I'm sure you'll love it then ladyM .. hope you do anyway :)

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