Chesilbeach 2010

[Cookie]

I've added to my wish list the Carbon Diaries

 

 

Me too!

[chesilbeach]

Your reviews are always so excellent, Chesil! Would you be interested in ghost-writing mine?! I pay in coffee .

Thanks. The coffee is tempting ... but I struggle enough writing my own reviews without someone elses

 

I've added to my wish list the Carbon Diaries and Three Men in a Boat (and the Armstrong of course!), and I loved your review of Bel-Ami! I agree with you completely about what you said in the spoiler, and am interested to see how they portray the story on film.

Me too!

 

Hmm, perhaps I should be getting commission for all the extra copies of The Carbon Diaries being sold!

 

I have just in a moment of madness ordered the Third Chloe Saunders book, have you read Kelley Armstrong's YA series, I do enjoy them and they are Otherworld too.

 

I have read all the Darkest Powers trilogy, pickle. Thought they were great - in fact, the only Armstrong books I probably won't read are her Nadia Stafford ones, as they seem to be straight forward crime novels, and they don't interest me at all. Hope you enjoy The Reckoning though

[chesilbeach]

Title: Vampire Academy

Author: Richelle Mead

Publisher: Puffin

Rating: 3/5

 

Synopsis (from amazon.co.uk):

St Vladimir's Academy isn't just any boarding school - hidden away, it's a place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They've been on the run, but now they're being dragged back to St Vladimir's where the girls must survive a world of forbidden romances, a ruthless social scene and terrifying night time rituals. But most of all, staying alive.

 

Review:

Another series of YA vampire books, this time centred around a school of vampires and their part human guardians. As is the case with most of these type of books, I enjoyed it as a mildly diverting sunny afternoon read, but it was nothing particularly special.

 

There were, however, a couple of things I found particularly irritating. The first was the names given to the various races, families and even characters at times, which I found incredibly difficult to pronounce, even in my head. Whilst I understand that authors want to make their work original, and particularly in the fantasy arena, it is fun to come up with new words and names, I felt the ones in this book were just a series of letters thrown together at times. The best "made-up" names are often derived from other languages (e.g. latin, greek or norse are common amongst this genre), but the ones this author used were either too much of a mixture of languages, or just plain thrown together letters. Usually when I come across a name I find difficult to pronounce in a book, I substitute it for another word, or read it slightly differently to the spelling as it's only in my head anyway, but for this book, there were just a few too many names that made this jar every time I read them.

 

The other irritation was that I often felt there were too many less than subtle hints at what should be clues to some of the events or revelations that happen over the course of the story. I like that authors leave clues and subtle pointers as to what might have happened that will be revealed or foreshadowing events that occur later in the story, but in this book, I often felt there should have been a big pop-up sign hanging over a paragraph saying "Oi! Over here, look here, this is a BIG clue!"

 

Despite these grumbles (which are actually quite minor really), the book was entertaining enough and I'll probably read the rest of the series, but I wouldn't rush out to buy more, or necessarily encourage anyone to read them, unless you're already a fan of the genre and desperate to read more.

[catwoman]

Would you say this is as good or better than The House of the Night series.

 

Great review.

[chesilbeach]

Difficult to judge on one book I think. I liked the House of Night series at the start, but as the series went on, I thought they were too formulaic, but the book six was much better and let me more intrigued to carry on with the series. I think on balance I'd say the enjoyed the first book of the House of Night series more than this one, but I'm still prepared to give the rest of the these another go.

[catwoman]

I think I will invest on the series. It does sound like I might like them.

[Kylie]

Hmm, perhaps I should be getting commission for all the extra copies of The Carbon Diaries being sold!

 

Yes, you should! I've already ordered both books and hope to receive them next week.

[chesilbeach]

Title: Jinx

Author: Meg Cabot

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books

Rating: 3/5

 

Synopsis (from blurb on book cover):

It wasn't just the power failure the night Jean Honeychurch was born that earned her the nickname Jinx: misfortune seems to follow her wherever she goes. Which is why she's been shipped off to New York to stay with relatives - including her sophisticated cousin Tory - until the trouble she's caused back in her small hometown dies down. Tory couldn't care less about Jinx - until Jinx's chronic bad luck starts wreaking havoc in Tory's perfect world. Only then does Jinx learn that beneath Tory's big-city glamour lies a world of hatred and revenge. And now Jean's jinx could be the only thing that can save her life.

 

Review:

I've been having a bit of a catch up with the Meg Cabot books I haven't read, and this one was a bargain find in the Borders closing down sale a few months ago. One of her few stand alone books, Jinx is a YA book about a fish-out-of-water teenager who moves to New York to live with her wealthy relatives and attend a private school. It emerges that not only has she moved across country to escape a stalker, but she's got some other unfinished business to come to terms with.

 

It's a nice enough teenage romcom, but I didn't feel it was quite as satisfying as I usually find Meg Cabot's books. I actually felt it would work better as the basis for a film rather than a book.

 

Another thing that occurred to me is that Cabot often writes series of books, and that this one could quite easily have been turned into a series, but she's never announced she's writing another one, and I wonder if she wasn't quite as happy with it herself and decided not to return to the characters after all.

 

Despite all of that, I liked reading it, and as usual, it was an entertaining book for a lazy day.

[chesilbeach]

Title: Guilty Pleasures

Author: Laurell K. Hamilton

Publisher: Headline Book Publishing

Rating: 3/5

 

Synopsis (from blurb on waterstones.com):

The fantastically addicitive first Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, novel 'I don't date vampires. I kill them.' My name is Anita Blake. Vampires call me the Executioner. What I call them isn't repeatable. Ever since the Supreme Court granted the undead equal rights, most people think vampires are just ordinary folks with fangs. I know better. I've seen their victims. I carry the scars...But now a serial killer is murdering vampires -- and the most powerful bloodsucker in town wants me to find the killer.

 

Review:

I was a bit dubious about this series, as I'd seen some differing opinions on various threads on the forum, but decided I would borrow it from the library and make my own mind up. Fortunately, I was not disappointed. I thought the character of Anita Blake was interesting enough to keep me reading, and I liked the tone of the book as well. I like Anita's attitude and sense of humour, although I'm a bit worried about the level of violence and while it wasn't enough to put me off so far, it will be something I'll keep an eye out for in future books.

 

While I don't think it's as good as the Kelley Armstrong books, it was a good start to a new supernatural series fro me, and I'm going to keep going with them to see how they progress.

[chesilbeach]

Title: Shiver

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Publisher: Scholastic

Rating: 4/5

 

Synopsis (from blurb on waterstones.com):

Grace is fascinated by the wolves in the woods behind her house; one yellow-eyed wolf in particular. Every winter, she watches him but every summer, he disappears. Sam leads two lives. In winter, he stays in the frozen woods, with the protection of the pack. In summer, he has a few precious months to be human ...until the cold makes him shift back again. When Grace and Sam finally meet, they realize they can't bear to be apart. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human - or risk losing himself, and Grace, for ever.

 

Review:

A return to YA fantasy with a werewolf book this time. I've been drawn to this book for a long time, as the cover has been jumping out at me from the display tables in Waterstone's for quite a while now, but finally decided to get it as part of a 3 for 2 offer.

 

I'm so glad I did. I absolutely loved it. Each of the chapters is written from the point of view of one of the two principle characters, so you see the story from each of their perspectives. The connection and the developing relationship between them felt very real and believable, and the sense of growing desperation builds as the story progresses.

 

I thought the descriptions were very good, and I had a very strong picture in my head of the landscape, the buildings and even the trucks and cars.

 

The only complaint I have is that the ending felt a little bit rushed, and I'm not sure I was 100% convinced by it, but I enjoyed the rest of the story so much that it didn't spoil the book for me at all. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, it's one of the few books from this genre I'll be keeping to read again.

[chesilbeach]

Title: Rebecca

Author: Daphne du Maurier

Publisher: Virago

Rating: 4/5

 

Synopsis (from blurb on waterstones.com):

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again ...Working as a lady's companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life begins to look very bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts, but whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding Mrs Danvers.

 

Review:

I've never read any du Maurier before and had never thought it would be my cup of tea, but after seeing quite a few people talk about this book, I thought I would try it. I have to be honest and say I wasn't even sure what it was about, just an assumption based on a few things I had heard about it.

 

Initially, it took me a while to get used to, as it's quite dense prose in a style that was contemporary to the period when it was written, but after a few chapters I got used to it and was not only finding it easier to read, but I was completely gripped. The story is riveting and I was sure I could see what was happening and where it was going, but there was a revelation at the end of chapter 19 that left me reeling and the story suddenly took off in a whole new direction I was not expecting.

 

A compellig read. I will definitely be looking to read more du Maurier in the future.

[chesilbeach]

Title: The Red Queen

Author: Margaret Drabble

Publisher: Penguin

Rating: 1/5

 

Synopsis (from blurb on waterstones.com):

200 years after being plucked from obscurity to marry the Crown Prince of Korea, the Red Queen's ghost decides to set the record straight about her extraordinary existence - and Dr Babs Halliwell, with her own complicated past, is the perfect envoy. Why does the Red Queen pick Babs to keep her story alive, and what else does she want from her?

 

Review:

This was one of my reading group books for this month, and something I probably wouldn't have picked up on my own, but I thought the blurb sounding promising and was looking forward to reading it.

 

Unfortunately, it was one of the most disappointing books I've read in ages. The story is split into two parts, the first part being the memoirs of a Korean princess in the eighteenth century, and the second part following an academic who reads the memoirs and the impact they have on her life.

 

Firstly, I didn't like the style - apart from the two halves to the book, there are no chapters, and the first part was a first person narrative, while the second part was third person/reportage, but I never felt engaged with either of the characters whose tale was being told. I also felt that the memoirs were actually quite sketchy and vague, fitting the whole of her life story into 150 pages. I've read a couple of other books based on Chinese women in this era, which were detailed and explored the society of the time, but this one was particularly lacking in detail and atmosphere.

 

I have to admit, I only read 50 pages of the second part of the book before I gave up. I didn't care about any of the characters or where the story was going, and decided that I have far too many other books demanding my attention to both reading another 150 pages of a story I just wasn't interested in.

[chesilbeach]

Title: The Laughing Corpse

Author: Laurell K. Hamilton

Publisher: Headline Book Publishing

Rating: 3/5

 

Synopsis (from blurb on waterstones.com):

'The older the zombie, the bigger the death needed to raise it.' After a few centuries, the only death 'big enough' is a human sacrifice. I know because I'm an animator. My name is Anita Blake. Working for Animators, Inc. is just a job -- like selling insurance. But all the money in the world wasn't enough for me to take on the particular job Harold Gaynor was offering. Somebody else did, though -- a rogue animator. Now he's not just raising the dead...he's raising Hell. And it's up to me to stop it.

 

Review:

The second book of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, and this time it's much more about Anita's job as an animator. Again, I was slightly worried by the level of violence and gory descriptions, but I liked the way the RPIT police team and Anita handled it with humour.

 

I'm a bit of a scaredy cat and I did find this one a bit creepy, particularly the sections with Dominga, but on the whole it was a good, fun read, and for the moment, I'll keep going with the series.

[chesilbeach]

Title: Burned

Author: P. C. and Kristin Cast

Publisher: ATOM

Rating: 3/5

 

Synopsis (from blurb on waterstones.com):

Y'all need to get yourselves together. Here's a newsflash from the only High Priestess you have left at this dang school: Zoey isn't dead. And believe me, I know dead. I've been there, done that and got the fricken tee-shirt. Zoey Redbird is the youngest High Priestess in House of Night history and is the only person ? vamp or fledgling ? that can stop the evil Neferet from raising all kinds of immortal trouble. And she might just have a chance if she wasn't so busy being dead. Well, dead is too strong a word. Stevie Rae knows she can bring her BFF back from her unscheduled va-cay in the Otherworld. But it's going to take a lot more than hoping to bring Zoey back. Stevie Rae will have to give up a few secrets of her own ...

 

Review:

The latest in the House of Night series, Burned is told from various points of views, including Aphrodite, Stevie Rae, Rephaim and Stark, and I think the change to the perspectives is a welcome change to the series.

 

I think the series is definitely getting better again, after a good start, it started to go downhill when it became formulaic, but the last couple of books have really moved the story along and captivated my interest again.

 

I've never really been bothered by the awkward attempts at teenage vernacular in the previous books, but what I found irritating this time was the attempts to write in the accent of the characters. I know where the characters are from, so I don't need the constant apostrophised words of Stevie Rae or the attempts at Scottish dialects of some of our new characters to know how they speak.

 

Just one final thing ... loving Aphordite more with each installment! She's by far the funniest and most interesting of them all for me. Can't wait for Awakened but 2011 seems too far away

[Charm]

So pleased you're enjoying the Anita Blake books chesilbeach I have to say I'm really liking them myself too, kinda surprising really as I hate zombies! I mean they are the only things that give me serious nightmares, and I live in the country! Not good after dark Be interesting to see how the series progresses

[chesilbeach]

Man, I'm so far behind with reviews Will try and knuckle down tomorrow and catch up with a few.

[Charm]

Looking forward to reading your reviews on the Anita Blake books chesil, I hope you're still enjoying the series!

[chesilbeach]

Title: The Gathering

Author: Anne Enright

Publisher: Jonathan Cape

Rating: 2/5

 

Synopsis (from waterstones.com):

The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn't the drink that killed him - although that certainly helped - it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother's house, in the winter of 1968. His sister, Veronica was there then, as she is now: keeping the dead man company, just for another little while. The "Gathering" is a family epic, condensed and clarified through the remarkable lens of Anne Enright's unblinking eye. It is also a sexual history: tracing the line of hurt and redemption through three generations - starting with the grandmother, Ada Merriman - showing how memories warp and family secrets fester.

 

Review:

This book is essentially about how the unreliable narrator, Veronica Hegarty, tries to make sense of and come to terms with, the death of her beloved brother. Through her own imagined history of her grandmothers life and how she came to meet and marry her grandfather, and the gradual revealing of an incident she witnesses when just a young child, Veronica takes us through the history of her family.

 

I didn't enjoy this book much at all. Although she's meant to be unreliable as a narrator, Veronica's almost infatuated imagining of Ada's relationships made the story pointless for me. Her fantastical recounting of her grandmothers sexual encounters told as if relating actual events felt like a waste of time, and when the revelation of the incident is eventually told, it had long ago been guessed by this reader.

 

None of the characters were properly fleshed out for me, and I think that was the main failing. If I could have believed more in the various members of the Hegarty family, I could maybe have invested more in Veronica's story and tried to understand her story, but as it was, they were all just names on paper.

 

There were some good points though, and I did chuckle a couple of times during the final few chapters when the gathering of the title actually takes place, and the members of the family come home for their brothers funeral. There are some nicely observed moments of the various brothers and sisters, but it was so close to the end of the book, that it was too late to make sense of them as individual characters.

 

One of my other reading group members felt completely the opposite to me, and thought that it was a beautiful, honest description of a large family. She comes from a large family herself, and could identify with the various bonds and connections within the family hierarchy, so maybe I didn't have the same sympathy with the characters coming from an only child family, but part of me says that it is the authors responsibility to make me believe and empathise with the situation, and not to feel alienated from it.

 

I wouldn't be looking to read any further books by this author, but having said that, if I was given another of her books to read for a book group, I would probably give her another chance.

[poppyshake]

Ah that's a shame chesil, it's disappointing when a book doesn't live up to it's reputation (won the Booker and was Orange longlisted). I've got it on my shelves somewhere, but I think it was a charity shop buy so no real harm done. I'll probably give it a go because I do love reading books set in Dublin, but your review, plus it's terrible Amazon rating, has shoved it down to the bottom of my list .. and that's ok, I've got too many books clamouring for attention .. some of them are going to have to take a back seat.

 

Hope you have better luck with your current book, two unenjoyable books in a row is torture.

[chesilbeach]

Don't worry, poppy, I'm a bit behind with my reviews, and I've read 10 books since this one, and I've enjoyed them all in varying levels! I actually don't mind reading underwhelming books, as it just reinforces my love of the good books when I find them

[chesilbeach]

Title: Eleven Minutes Late

Author: Matthew Engel

Publisher: Pan Books

Rating: 2/5

 

Synopsis (from waterstones.com):

Britain gave railways to the world, yet its own network is the dearest (definitely) and the worst (probably) in Western Europe. Trains are deeply embedded in the national psyche and folklore - yet it is considered uncool to care about them. For Matthew Engel, the railway system is the ultimate expression of Britishness. It represents all the nation's ingenuity, incompetence, nostalgia, corruption, humour, capacity for suffering and even sexual repression. To uncover its mysteries, Engel has travelled the system from Penzance to Thurso, exploring its history and talking to people from politicians to platform staff. Along the way Engel ('half-John Betjeman, half-Victor Meldrew') finds the most charmingly bizarre train in Britain, the most beautiful branch line, the rudest railwayman, and - after a quest lasting decades - an Individual Pot of Strawberry Jam. "Eleven Minutes Late" is both a polemic and a paean, and it is also very funny.

 

Review:

I had really high hopes for this book - a mixture of train travel, quirky characters and the nostalgia of the railways as a British institution. A promising start gave me everything I was looking for, but unfortunately, it didn't last.

 

After a few chapters, the narrative took a must stronger turn towards this history of the railways and diverted away from the people and places of the journey. I stuck with it, but it gradually got drier and drier, and I actually ended up putting it down for three months.

 

I eventually decided I wanted to finish it, and starting it again, the history continued for quite a while, but the last couple of chapters looking more at the state of the railway today along with the conclusion of the authors journey, made me glad I made the decision to continue.

 

I liked the authors writing style, it was just the depth of railway history that I found hard to take, as the blurb did not reflect the content making me feel a bit cheated. I would have been much happier to have read a book that concentrated mainly on the story of the journey with a bit of history thrown in, but I got the reverse felt which was rather dry and lacking in character.

[poppyshake]

Don't worry, poppy, I'm a bit behind with my reviews, and I've read 10 books since this one, and I've enjoyed them all in varying levels! I actually don't mind reading underwhelming books, as it just reinforces my love of the good books when I find them

 

That is so true

[chesilbeach]

Title: Flush

Author: Carl Hiaasen

Publisher: Corgi Childrens

Rating: 3/5

 

Synopsis (from waterstones.com):

Noah's dad, Paine, is a kind but slightly irresponsible fisherman who is passionate about saving the local Florida aquatic life. When Paine discovers that a local businessman is running a scam from his casino boat, he takes the law into his own hands, sinks the boat and ends up in jail. This scam involves releasing the effluent from the boat's toilets directly into the water, to avoid the cost of disposing of it safely. Noah and his sister Abbey, take up the fight for justice on their Dad's behalf and enlist the help of Shelly.

 

Review:

This was an impulse buy from a charity shop when I was out for the day and needed another book to read, and although I'd read it before, it didn't take away any of the enjoyment. Hiaasen writes exciting adventure stories for 10-14 year olds (I would guess) with a strong moral message about his environmental concerns.

 

As with all his books I've read, it's set in the Florida Keys, and although the main story is the damage being done to the environment by man, I think it gives children the message that a small group of people can make a difference when they stand up for what is right.

 

Great fun, exciting and fast paced, with lots of humour, it was a very enjoyable re-read for me.

[chesilbeach]

Title: Frostbite

Author: Richelle Mead

Publisher: Puffin Books

Rating: 3/5

 

Synopsis (from waterstones.com):

It's winter break at St Vladimir's, and a massive Strigoi vampire attack has put the school on high alert. This year's trip away from the academy to the wintery peaks of Idaho has suddenly become mandatory. But Rose's troubles seem to follow her wherever she goes - dealing with the pain of knowing that her relationship with her tutor Dimitri can never be, things get even more complicated when one of her closest friends admits his feelings for her. The glittering winter landscape may create the illusion of safety but Rose - and her heart - are in more danger than she ever could have imagined...

 

Review:

The second installment of this YA vampire series continues in much the same vein as the first one. I still find the unpronouncable names irritating, but the less than subtle pointing out clues to what's going on seemed less obvious this time around.

 

I like the development of the characters, and I love that Rose is such a strong individual, determined to make herself the best dhampir she can, and even with her own doubts and failings, she still holds her own.

 

A nice change of scene as well, taking the students out of the school setting to the ski resort allowed for a look into the wider society of the vampires in this world, and broadened the story of Lissa and Rose, and where they might end up in the future.

 

Enjoyable story, and I'll keep going with the series, although I'm only borrowing from the library, not buying them as I don't think they'd stand up to multiple readings.

[Raven]

Are you planning to read any of Mead's succubus books?