vodkafan Posted January 15, 2016 Author Share Posted January 15, 2016 My plan to prioritise finishing books that I have already started is working. Will write a couple of reviews tomorrow. Am bashing back on with Wuthering Heights now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted January 19, 2016 Author Share Posted January 19, 2016 Journey Through A Small Planet 3/5 Emanuel Litvinoff This was a slim book I read in two greedy gulps. It is the autobiographical account of the author's childhood growing up as a jew in the poverty-stricken 1920's and 1930s, in the area of Bethnal Green. Nearly all of the jews were Russian and Polish refugees. I knew nothing about this subject. It was really quite amazing how insular his community was. Right in the middle of London, but it is as if the rest of the population or the streets outside his own does not exist; Every one around him is a jew, and they are all only looking at each other and involved only with each other. He himself calls it a ghetto. It is a series of literary sketches; he talks about his painful first crushes on unattainable Jewish girls, his first jobs, his fights at school and his constant struggle to remain individual. I really like the ending, when he writes his first poem, and realises that this is his way out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted January 19, 2016 Author Share Posted January 19, 2016 Life In Victorian Britain a social history 4/5 Michael Paterson Yet another Victorian history book. Like most I have read, this one picks a particular subject for each chapter and then gives a whistlestop tour around the 7 decades around that topic ..not a great deal that was new to me in it or in much detail, but being fair I have read so many...this is not a bad little book Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 Wuthering Heights 4/5 Emily Bronte Wow what a strange, visceral book this is! When I first started reading it, I didn't get on with it immediately as the author chose to write it in a very strange way. The story of the two central characters, Heathcliff (he has no other name) and Catherine Earnshaw, is told in the first person by a servant, Ellen (Nellie) Dean, to a visitor Mr Lockwood. Nellie's tale is therefore all just reportage of events in the past. However, after a break I picked the book back up again and this plot device then seemed very clever to me, for as the book goes on Nelly is right at the centre of events. Her conversations with Heathcliff and Cathy are related naturally as they happened. Nelly is often forced to be the go between of the main characters, and yet her simple goodness and sense of right and wrong seem to save her from the chaos that destroys everyone else. I consider this book a fantasy, as the characters and their naked emotions are too grotesque to be real; also it is very Gothic. I enjoyed it a lot. I really got into the characters. Heathcliff is an amazing creation. Cathy Earnshaw I didn't much like, but she was very believable, I hated little Linton. I could forgive Heathcliff for most of what he did; but I couldn't forgive him for what he did to Hareton. So I was very glad at the ending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 The AfterGlow Of Creation 2/5 Marcus Chown Not as good as the last book of his I read, which was all science. (Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You) This one was a bit of science at the beginning but a lot about the scientists, their mistakes and rivalries etc etc blah blah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 Reading Of Mice And Men now.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessi Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Great review of The Victorians! I have it on my TBR - may have to try and get to it this year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted January 27, 2016 Author Share Posted January 27, 2016 Great review of The Victorians! I have it on my TBR - may have to try and get to it this year! It was really interesting Jessi- never dull. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted January 30, 2016 Author Share Posted January 30, 2016 Of Mice And Men 4/5 John Steinbeck This was SUCH a neat little story. Everything in there for a reason and no padding. I could see the ending coming from about half way through, but that didn't matter a jot and doesn't take anything away from the beautiful crafting of the whole thing. I understand why this is such a popular book for school curriculums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 I read Of Mice and Men at school, so it's been popular on the curriculum for a long time! We also read The Pearl at the same time as a double bill of books by Steinbeck which I actually remember enjoying it more than OMAM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Pixie Posted February 2, 2016 Share Posted February 2, 2016 Happy Reading in 2016, James. Oooh, you have lots of wonderful Jasper Fforde books to get to; I hope you enjoy them, he`s one of my very favourite authors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted February 3, 2016 Share Posted February 3, 2016 You have some great books on your 'to read' pile - far too many for me to mention. If you only read a few of them you're in for a great year. Happy reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted February 13, 2016 Author Share Posted February 13, 2016 You have some great books on your 'to read' pile - far too many for me to mention. If you only read a few of them you're in for a great year. Happy reading. Thanks Janet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted February 13, 2016 Author Share Posted February 13, 2016 Eye 1/5 Frank Herbert I started in on that huge haul of Frank Herbert books I caught last year. This was a book of short stories. To be honest I found them all very dull and dated and instantly forgettable. Had no hesitation in disposing of that one .That is one less book to clutter up my shelves Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 The Victorians Britain Through The Paintings Of The Age 2/5 Jeremy Paxman It is really just some short essay notes explain the background to some of the more important paintings. The opinions and conclusions of the text didn't tell me anything new. My paperback copy is falling to pieces, but the colour plates are too small to rescue and do anything with, although they are printed on nice shiny paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Glad you're still reading research books, James. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 The Victorians Britain Through The Paintings Of The Age 2/5 Jeremy Paxman It is really just some short essay notes explain the background to some of the more important paintings. The opinions and conclusions of the text didn't tell me anything new. My paperback copy is falling to pieces, but the colour plates are too small to rescue and do anything with, although they are printed on nice shiny paper. Oh, that's a shame. I loved the TV series so much! I've had this on my wish list for aeons (albeit the hardback version) but am looking out for it second hand in charity shops. Maybe a bigger version will be better? I'll leaf through it before I buy it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted February 22, 2016 Author Share Posted February 22, 2016 Oh, that's a shame. I loved the TV series so much! I've had this on my wish list for aeons (albeit the hardback version) but am looking out for it second hand in charity shops. Maybe a bigger version will be better? I'll leaf through it before I buy it! Hi Janet, it would be a very nice book to have in a bigger hardback format. I don't want to give the impression that the text is completely worthless, it is just that I have now read about 30 factual books about the era so it was going over old ground. But if it is the only book you are going to own it does show lots of interesting facts and insights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Thanks. I shall see if I can track a copy down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted March 12, 2016 Author Share Posted March 12, 2016 (edited) The Yard 3/5 (downgraded now 2/5) Alex Grecian Charity shop find. This was a thick book, although not a doorstop. Turned out to be an entertaining enough quick read, although I have some reservations and issues, which I will get to. The year is 1889, Victorian London. The year after the shocking killings by the world's first serial killer, known only as Jack The Ripper. The "yard" is of course Scotland Yard. A new detective called Walter Day has just arrived from Devon, untested and unsure of his own abilities. It seems there is another killer on the loose; this one has killed a policeman and, weirdly, sewn up his lips and eyes before stuffing his body in a steamer trunk. Day is given the job of tracking down the killer. Before long there are more killings, but of different modus operandi. It seems as if the whole of London has gone murder mad. There is plenty going on, and the plot moves along quite briskly. The author is American, and it looks like he did lots of research , because the small period details read just right, but then he ignores facts and deliberately puts a huge mistake in the plot. [sigh]. He also lets a few bits of 20th/21st century vernacular slip into the dialogue, and there is not enough difference between the main characters (for instance Day and Constable Hamersmith seem to be carbon copies of each other) and none were truly believable for me. With all those gripes out of the way though, I must say I enjoyed certain parts immensely, especially the parts between Day and his wife, which were written with a light humourous touch. Edited March 26, 2016 by vodkafan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexi Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 I had similar thoughts to you on it VF. I have the next in the series which hasn't tempted me in the 2 years or so it's been on the TBR for the drawbacks you mentioned, but taken with a large pinch of salt I found it an enjoyable, easy read. Will probably save it til I'm ill and can't focus on anything remotely heavy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted March 13, 2016 Author Share Posted March 13, 2016 Hi Alexi, didn't realise it was a series. After I wrote my review I looked on Goodreads and some of the reviews are very scathing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexi Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 I find Goodreads amazing - no one ever seems to think a book "ok" or "enjoyable", they all seem to find them amazing or rubbish The Yard was somewhere in the middle for me. Although as I say the sequel has been sat unread for an embarrassing length of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willoyd Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 I find Goodreads amazing - no one ever seems to think a book "ok" or "enjoyable", they all seem to find them amazing or rubbishYes, Amazon is even more one-dimensional: look how the 5-star reviews completely dominate the listings. It's a rare book where the 5-star reviews aren't the biggest category. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted March 25, 2016 Author Share Posted March 25, 2016 (edited) The Yard revisited: I just read a factual book about the Victorian police. This makes The Yard even worse in it's inaccuracies. For instance the two unmarried constables Pringle and Hammersmith living together in a rented "flat". (which actually turns out later to have a landlady, so is actually a boarding or lodging house). In reality all unmarried constables lived communally in a Section House. Another fault is that all the detectives are Inspectors- in fact a Division would have only one Inspector, overseeing many Detective Sergeants and Detective Constables. It also seems that the hero, Inspector Day, has been promoted straight to Detective Inspector without being a DC or DS first, which would have taken about ten years in reality. Because of this I have decided to down grade the rating to 2/5. Edited March 26, 2016 by vodkafan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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