Ooshie
-
Posts
1,350 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Books
Posts posted by Ooshie
-
-
Covers changing are a real bugbear of mine - I have some long series, a couple of which have ended up with 7 or 8 different cover designs over the years!
-
I keep thinking of getting Howard's End is on the Landing too, I enjoy Susan Hill's style of writing and would love to read about her books - but like frankie I am very afraid that I might have to go on a huge buying spree afterwards!
-
Ooh!!! The Third Miss Symons sounds like just my sort of thing, i'm going to add it to my wishlist. I've read quite a few good books published by Virago & have started looking out for them in the charity shops. Thanks for the review Janet
I really like the sound of it too, thanks for such a good review Janet. Like kidsmum, I have read quite a few Virago books and have enjoyed them all - I just wish I had more charity shops to look in around here!
-
1. Did you like the book? What was it that you enjoyed? If you didn't like the book, what were your reasons for disliking it?
Yes, I enjoyed the book a lot. I liked that the story is simply told without too many embellishments and felt that allowed me to feel the atmosphere more.
2. The narrative is quite sparse and the characters few, did you find it easy to engage in the story?
Yes, as mentioned above I actually felt that helped.
3. What were your expectations when you started this book and were you proved right or wrong?
This was the second time I had read the book and I had worried slightly that I might not feel the tension in the same way this time around, but I needn't have worried, I enjoyed it just as much.
4. If you have seen the stage production, TV version or film of The Woman in Black, how did it compare to the book?
I haven't seen either. I had wanted to see the film, but now I know that it is so different I won't make any special effort.5. Was this the first book you've read in this genre/ by this author, has it encouraged you to read more?
I have read a few Susan Hill books; The Small Hand, which is another ghost type story, and five of the Simon Serrailler series, a detective series I enjoy very much.
6. One of the themes of the novel is fear. Did you find the novel creepy – were you scared?
Yes. I actually had to stop reading it for a while half way through as something a bit creepy happened to me (a lamp I hadn't switched on was lit, and when I unplugged it it didn't go off!) and the thought of reading the novel afterwards was just too much for me
7. Were there any parts/ideas you struggled with?
No, I enjoyed it all
8. Overall, was reading the book an enjoyable experience?
Yes, very much so I thought.
9. If you've read any 'classic' ghost stories, how do you think this compares to them?
I have, and I did think it compared well.
10. How successfully do you think Hill has captured the feel of the 19th century?
To me, very well indeed.
11. Do you think the book works well as a full-length novel, or in your opinion would it have been better as a short story?
There was nothing I thought was extraneous to the story that could have been cut out, so I think it worked well as a novel.
When Arthur first saw the woman in black at the cemetery, he also saw a row of children standing at a fence. Were these children the ghosts of the ones who died everytime Jennet had been seen?
At first I had just thought they were local children being a bit ghoulish and watching the funeral, but like bobblybear that comment made me think they were the ghosts of the children who had died after Jennet's appearances.
-
Assassin, wife, lover, boatman, husband.
-
-
I Don't Like Mondays - The Boomtown Rats
-
-
Ooh, looks like you've been doing very well for yourself so far this year! <3
Thanks Abbie
x -
That's exactly what I do! I do occasionally have a clear out of books I am sure I will never read (usually ones given to me by my Mum that just aren't what I like), but otherwise they all just sit there, comfy and happy and waiting for me to get to them...one day
Well done you getting rid of 5 shelves worth! If I have enjoyed a book then I do hold on to it because i don't have a very good memory and after a wee while I don't remember what happened in a story and can enjoy it all over again
-
Your writing and reading your friend's novels sounds more than interesting enough to have tempted you away from Mount TBR! (I still refuse to have an official TBR, it would scare me so much I would never get any more reading done at all...) I haven't got quite as much reading done this year as I do sometimes Jan/Feb but hey, there's time yet!
Two books a week sounds a really good goal x -
Well, 3/5 isn't too bad for The Remains of the Day!
I had seen the film first, and It took me a couple of readings to really pick some of the subtleties of the book, but it's one of my favourites now. I can't remember, frankie, have you read any more Kazuo Ishiguro? I know he is an author that quite often people either take to or just don't. -
Hey, Abbie, great to see you - I hope you have a great reading year!
-
Les Liaisons Dangereuse by Choderlos de Laclos
Synopsis - from Amazon
Published in 1782, just years before the French Revolution, Les Liaisons
Dangereuses is a disturbing and ultimately damning portrayal of a
decadent society. At its centre are two aristocrats, former lovers, who
embark on a sophisticated game of seduction and manipulation to bring
amusement to their jaded existences. While the Marquise de Merteuil
challenges the Vicomte de Valmont to seduce an innocent convent girl,
the Vicomte is also occupied with the conquest of a virtuous married
woman. But as their intrigues become more duplicitous and they find
their human pawns responding in ways they could not have predicted, the
consequences prove to be more serious, and deadly, than Merteuil and
Valmont could have guessed.For some reason I had expected this book to be much longer than it actually was. It took me a wee while to remember which character was which (these names again! I really need to improve my memory) but after I did I got into the rhythm of the book and enjoyed it quite a lot. It has made me want to watch the film with Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer again, I must look out for it.
-
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Synopsis - from Amazon
Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral Mrs
Alice Drablow, the house's sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House, unaware
of the tragic secrets which lie hidden behind the shuttered windows. The
house stands at the end of a causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but
it is not until he glimpses a wasted young woman, dressed all in black,
at the funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a
feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in
black - and her terrible purpose.This was a re-read for the Reading Circle and I was a bit worried that, although I had enjoyed it so much before, it wouldn't have the same impact on me second time around. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though - even though I had to stop reading it for a few days due to a somewhat spooky happening in a house I was living on my own in which made me too cowardly to carry on with it! (I found a lamp on in a room that I hadn't switched on, and when I unplugged it - it stayed on!) A short book, but full of atmosphere, and I fully expect to re-read it yet again in years to come.
-
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
Synopsis - from Amazon
Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. Across 1000 miles of Oregon desert
his assassins, the notorious Eli and Charlies Sisters, ride - fighting,
shooting, and drinking their way to Sacramento. But their prey isn't an
easy mark, the road is long and bloody, and somewhere along the path Eli
begins to question what he does for a living - and whom he does it for.
The Sisters Brothers pays homage to the classic Western, transforming
it into an unforgettable ribald tour de force. Filled with a remarkable
cast of losers, cheaters, and ne'er-do-wells from all stripes of
life-and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent,
lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that
beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West and
two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.I am a fan of Westerns, both in book form and on-screen, and had been looking forward to reading this one for a while. I was a wee bit disappointed, though. I did like Eli as a character, and there were some particular sentences that I really enjoyed, but overall it just didn't grab me in the way I had hoped it would. I have quite a lot going on just now, though, and am a wee bit distracted, so maybe at another time it would have made more of an impression on me. I wouldn't rule out re-reading it at another date, but I won't be rushing to any time soon.
-
I read Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games in the past few weeks; I was disappointed with Consider Phlebas (although I will reread it at some point) but The Player of Games is excellent on every level.
-
I loved The Secret Scripture too, I think it was one of my favourite reads of last year (or the year before? time moves so fast now!)
-
Ah well, I'm all for different names, I actually find them more memorable. Jim (or Jimmm) and Bob mean nothing to me
You find them more memorable? Wow, I admire the way your brain works, Steve!
-
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Synopsis - from Amazon
'I write this sitting in the kitchen sink' is the first line of this timeless,
witty and enchanting novel about growing up. Cassandra Mortmain lives with her
bohemian and impoverished family in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere.
Her journal records her life with her beautiful, bored sister, Rose, her
fadingly glamorous stepmother, Topaz, her little brother Thomas and her
eccentric novelist father who suffers from a financially crippling writer's
block. However, all their lives are turned upside down when the American heirs
to the castle arrive and Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the first
time.I seem to have been reading this book forever and am glad I finally finished it. I don't know why I have had such trouble getting through it, I would say I enjoyed it, but for some reason I could never read more than a few pages at a time before having to go and read something else instead. I probably enjoyed the parts which concentrated on the family and where they lived most, once it moved on to
who could get which American to marry them
I definitely lost interest a bit.
-
Bob and Jim? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Some of the names he gives the ships in his stories are hilarious
Glad you enjoyed it, Ooshie I do like the names of the ships, they always give me a smile
But do lots of the other names have to be just so different that there is no hope of me ever remembering them? How about Jimmm - slightly different but gives me a chance! Loved the book, so glad I decided to go on with it.
-
Oh no Ooshie - I wasn't questioning its nomination - sorry it sounded that way
I've seen it mentioned as a "Victorian Gothic" as well - but wasn't sure how it fit, after reading the novel.
In the link chesil shared above, Susan Hill clarifies that it is not gothic - and she aimed to "to write a ghost story in the classic 19th-century tradition".
I guess that is what made people put it the "Victorian" genre.
Please don't think I was questing its nomination - especially when I voted to read it
That's ok bree, I was just being oversensitive suddenly panicking that I had led folk down the wrong path!
*hug*I want to reread the book before posting my thoughts, but should get the chance to read it in the next couple of days.
-
Also, could someone explain how it is a Victorian Gothic novel please?I felt it was set in a much more recent time, and I don't know what Gothic really is!I think I nominated the book, bree; I had thought it had a Victorian feel when I read it, and it was on the Librarything suggestions link on the nominations page, so I didn't go back to the book and look any more closely for clues. Sorry
-
I'm glad you liked it! I agree about the names, I felt the same way.
Thanks, Athena. I'm glad it's not just me who was confused by the names!
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
in Previous Reading Circle Books
Posted
It was even worse because I was staying on my own in my parents house while they were away for a couple of weeks!