chesilbeach 2009

[chesilbeach]

I finished reading Going Too Far by Catherine Alliot at lunchtime. I bought this one a pack of three books, which was shrink-wrapped, so I only saw the outside cover. What I didn't realise was the book was first published in 1994, and boy, was it dated! It felt very "old-school" chick-lit, the heroine was incredibly irritating, and it dragged out the comedy of errors for far too long. I still have another book of hers on my TBR list, and I now realise it's another one of her early novels, so I'm dubious about reading it now. I think I'll wait and make up my mind when it gets to the top of the pile.

[chesilbeach]

After a run of a few mediocre (at best) books, I thought I'd better read something I knew I'd like, so decided to re-read Going La La by Alexandra Potter. It's light and fluffy chick-lit, but it doesn't set out to be anything other than what it says on the tin. It's still my favourite of her books, and I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting LA with Frankie, Rita, Dorian and Reilly.

 

It's left me feeling more buoyant about starting a new book, so I'm going to dive right into Good Evening, Mrs. Craven which was a recent acquisition from the Persephone range.

[chesilbeach]

Absolutely loved Good Evening, Mrs. Craven, and I've written a full review here.

 

As tomorrow is the 1st July, I'll be starting The Three Musketeers for the Classics Reading Circle, my first attempt at joining one of these, so really looking forward to it.

[chesilbeach]

I've finished The Three Musketeers this afternoon, and written my review in the Reading Circle thread, but it was a thumbs up from me, and I've added The Count of Monte Cristo to my wishlist as well.

 

I bought a couple of books this morning - my own copy of Dead Until Dark which I shall probably read again before I pick up the second book in the series from the library on Thursday, and The Other Hand by Chris Cleave, which I'd been thinking of for a while, and with a 10/10 from Mac and a buy 1 get 1 half price offer, I couldn't resist.

 

Next up though, I think I'll stick to my current TBR list, and read A Lifetime Burning by Linda Gillard, although will probably wait until tomorrow to start it, and just relax with some more of New Moon - a no-brainer for a Sunday evening!

[Peacefield]

Glad you liked the Three Musketeers, Chesilbeach! The Count of Monte Cristo is my most favorite book of all time so I hope you get to read it soon .

 

Sunday night New Moon reading sounds good to me! I approve .

[chesilbeach]

I'll probably wait a while before getting it, I'm trying to stop buying any more books until I've reduced the TBR list by a lot, but maybe it'll be September/October when I think about adding more books to the already groaning shelves at home!

 

Glad you approve of my Sunday evening choice

[chesilbeach]

I finished A Lifetime Burning by Linda Gillard today, and what a gripping read it was. A difficult subject matter, which I felt was dealt with very honestly, but an absolutely fascinating read.

 

Unusually for me, I loved how the timeframe was constantly changing between the different periods of the characters lives, giving snapshots and glimpses of the events of the plot out of sequence, but always relevant to the part of the story that was being related. Often when a writer uses this structure, I find it confusing or just plain irritating, but here it was very successful.

 

There is also a mixture of third person and first person narrative, and I loved Flora's sections immensely, which were direct and succinct, but always with the undercurrent, and sometimes outright, expression of her never ending torment.

 

I did have to read the prologue twice at the beginning because after the first reading, I realised all the characters had very short, and sometimes similar, names, and I was confused with the relationships, so during the second reading, I made a little family tree to remind me who was who. Having said that, after reading about another hundred or so pages, I was then familiar with them all, and was able to discard it, but it did help initially.

 

I did have a couple of minor gripes with the book layout. Firstly, when Flora was telling her story, a sans serif font was used, but it was too faint, and I found that unless I was reading under a very bright light, it was difficult to make out the text. The other thing was that for some reason, the space between the bottom of the text and the page number varied quite a lot, sometimes it looked like a couple of lines of text were missing and I found it very distracting. I thought it might be because a new section was about to start, but sometimes it was in the middle of a sentence, so there was no apparent reason for it.

 

Going back to the book itself, I thought it was a very absorbing read. As I've mentioned (but don't want to give away what it is) the subject matter is a very difficult one, but at no time did I find it horrific or abhorrent, and I felt it was written candidly and sensitively, and felt nothing but compassion for the characters and their difficult lives.

[Weave]

Great review, A Lifetime Burning sounds a great read, I added to my wishlist today

[chesilbeach]

Great review, A Lifetime Burning sounds a great read, I added to my wishlist today

 

Thanks, Gyre. I hope you like it as much as I did.

[Linda Gillard]

Thanks, Chesilbeach, for your wonderful review of A LIFETIME BURNING.

 

I agree about that illegible font. I was gutted when I saw it.

 

ALB should of course have had a family tree to help the reader navigate, but as you will now be aware, there are various reasons why that wouldn't have been a good idea! I had my own huge A3 version when I was writing the book and it did my head in working it all out.

 

I loved what you had to say about Flora's "voice". I could always hear it, it was so strong. It was as if she buttonholed me and said, "Listen, I have a story to tell..." I just took dictation really, like Alexander in that marvellous book, STUART: A LIFE BACKWARDS.

[chesilbeach]

You're welcome, Linda. It really was a compelling read.

 

I'm just a fusspot when it comes to typefaces (as you'll probably remember from my review of Star Gazing), and it certainly didn't spoil the book, just slightly irritating.

 

The family tree would definitely not be appropriate to put in the book, but making a note of it to start with helped me remember who they all were!

 

As for Flora, I just felt sensation of hurting leapt of the page, whether it was dull throbbing ache or a sharp stabbing pain.

[Michelle]

It's so nice to see someone else loving this book - especially someone who can review much better than I can!

[Inver]

Excellent review Chesilbeach. I agree totally with a lot of what you said. Glad you enjoyed it and as always Linda is very appreciative of any feedback/reviews of her books

[Linda Gillard]

It's so interesting what you say, Chesilbeach, about Flora's pain. That's exactly how I feel about her. A LIFETIME BURNING has actually lost me 2 and half friends. (I more or less made up with the half. ) This was because of the controversial subject matter and particularly the character of Flora. One friend condemned Flora (as a bad mother) and another friend condemned me for writing such a book.

 

That Flora is morally reprehensible is beyond dispute. (I think the only sin she doesn't commit is murder. Not bad going for a clergy wife.) But she suffers so appallingly for what she does, I can't understand how readers could condemn her! A lot of the dreadful things she does are her misguided attempt to do the right thing, or at least the best thing. That's one of the things the book's about: how much harm you can do by trying to do "the right thing".

 

re the music: It was my dream there would be a CD that went with the book, like Vikram Seth's AN EQUAL MUSIC. If you want to listen to the Schubert sonata, get hold of Paul Lewis' CD and then you can see my visual inspiration for EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY'S Calum. ;-) See http://tinyurl.com/lh2t9j

Edited July 8, 2009 by Linda Gillard

[chesilbeach]

Apologies for all the spoiler marks, but I think they're probably necessary to avoid ruining the book for anyone who hasn't read it, but I wanted to respond to the last post by Linda.

 

 

I'm slightly saddened, but possibly not surprised, by the condemnation you've received with regards to Flora and the book. For me, though, Flora's matter of fact narrative allows her to explain how, although she wasn't strong enough to resist the temptation of Rory (who is by far the more reprehensible character for me), there were only very brief, rare moments of joy in her life, and mostly it was lived in a state of loneliness, self-loathing and guilt, which unfortunately destroys her relationships with her family, especially her son. This leads her to try a self imposed exile where she starts to make a new life for herself, and feels safer in her anonymity and isolation from her family (never happy, merely safer) before she's led into the path of temptation by Colin, which eventually sends her life spiralling back down to the depths of alcoholism, homelessness and prostitution.

 

 

 

With most books, you expect your heroes and heroines to go on a journey, and even when they do wrong, to find redemption by the end. There is no redemption for Flora, or in fact for any of the characters. Without exception, I think each behaves selfishly at some point, and even when Theo and Lottie decide to be together, I feel as though they and their family will always know the secret they have to hide from the outside world, and that will colour their relationship and lead to their own guilt and self loathing in the future. That seems a huge price to pay, to be constantly looking over your shoulder, and I can't feel anything but pity for them, to feel that their only choice is to commit to such a way of life.

 

 

 

It's so important for authors to write about taboo subjects, though, so that readers can understand and consider all sorts of moral issues that they may never come into contact with in their lives, and view the situations objectively. I feel that in this book, no-one could say that the characters are happy as a result of their actions, and all suffer for their actions (or lack of).

 

 

On a lighter note, I loved An Equal Music, but I had no idea there was a CD to go with it!

[chesilbeach]

After a very late night yesterday (or should I say early morning!) following my rather lengthy discussions about A Lifetime Burning, I decided to go for a much lighter reading day, and had a quick re-read of Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, as a nice reminder of the characters before I (hopefully) pick up the next three books in the series from the library tomorrow, plus I finished another re-read of Eclipse. Will hopefully be able to start Emotional Geology tomorrow.

[chesilbeach]

Finally, I've managed to get to the library and pick up my copies of Living Dead In Dallas and Dead To The World from the Sookie Stackhouse series (Club Dead still isn't in yet), as well as Grave Sight, all by Charlaine Harris.

 

Couldn't resist Living Dead In Dallas, so I've had a very enjoyable evening reading that! I'm loving this series - it's totally escapist, light-hearted entertainment. I would never have read them if they hadn't been recommended on here, so my thanks to everyone who suggested them.

 

I'm not sure about Grave Sight, but thought I'd give it a go.

[chesilbeach]

Oh, and I forgot to explain why I've put Emotional Geology back on the TBR shelf for the moment ... after reading A Lifetime Burning, I'd been discussing the characters in depth, and I'm still mulling over some of them and can't quite get them out of my head yet. So, to be fair to Emotional Geology, I thought I'd take a short weekend break from any serious reading, and just go for no thinking required books.

[chesilbeach]

I read Grave Sight today, and although it was okay, it's not really my sort of book. I liked that there wasn't anything too graphic in the way of violence, but the reason I thought I'd try it was because I'd liked the Sookie Stackhouse books by the same author. I was hoping this have similar humour and mystery mixed in, but unfortunately, there wasn't much in the way of humour in it. I don't think I'll be reading any more of the Harper Connelly books, but will definitely be going back for some more Sookie!

[chesilbeach]

Even though my reservation for Club Dead is apparently on the way (according to the library website), and even though I usually go to great efforts to make sure I read books in a series in the right order, I couldn't resist reading Dead To The World, the fourth in the Sookie Stackhouse series last night, and it was just sat on the table next to me, begging to be read!

 

These books are just great fun, and I don't think I care that I know the rough gist of what happened in book three, I'll still be happy to read it, and see how it plays out. Just off to reserve the next batch in the series from the library now (but I know when my book buying habit kicks off again in a couple of months, I'll definitely be adding these to my bookshelves, so I can read them again).

 

A year ago, I wouldn't never have dreamt that I would be a fan of vampire books in a million years, but what with the Twilight saga and now Sookie, I can see me picking up Dracula and scouring the forums for other recommendations at this rate, so that I can sample the full range and breadth of vampire stories!

[chesilbeach]

Dead as a Doornail arrived at the library today, so picked it up this afternoon, and finished it early this evening! Just couldn't resist

 

As I'm still waiting for Club Dead (which according to the library website has been "On Its Way" for a couple of weeks), I liked Dead as a Doornail because I learned much more about the werewolves and shape shifters. I did guess the identity of the sniper, but hadn't picked up the surprise at the end. I am loving Eric more and more, though, but I still have a soft spot for Sam.

[Charm]

Oh no! You missed out Club Dead, it is really good. Have you read Dead to the World? There's a lot of Eric in it Glad you enjoyed Dead As A Doornail, like you I read it in one afternoon, yesterday!

[chesilbeach]

I still intend to read Club Dead, but I don't think it really matters that I've read them out of order, even though I usually hate doing that. I have read Dead To The World and it's probably my favourite of the series so far - it might have something to do with Eric

[Charm]

I have read Dead To The World and it's probably my favourite of the series so far - it might have something to do with Eric

 

Might schmight! Of course it does!

Don't worry, we're not the only ones who thinks this is one of their favourites ... although just wait til you meet Quinn

[chesilbeach]

I've just finished Cider With Roadies by Stuart Maconie. This is a memoir of Stuart growing up and the impact music had on his life, before making a career as a music journalist, while all the time giving us a whistle stop journey of the changing faces of British pop music.

 

After I read his second book, Pies and Prejudice, I was convinced I would love his first book, because he has a distinctive style of writing that I love, and as with most people, music had a huge influence me during my teenage years. I was actually slightly worried during the first half of the book, because although I was still treated to the same humour and warmth for the subject, I wasn't enjoying it as much as I'd hoped. But then, suddenly, my first musical memories were reawakened, and I was slap bang in the middle of my childhood favourites, and I suddenly found the book I'd been dreaming of from the beginning. By the end, I was laughing out loud, nodding knowingly and eventually putting the book down with a contented sigh.