Poppy's Paperbacks 2010

[poppyshake]

We would be devastated if you stopped reviewing our types of books! I vote we go back to our regular schedule of programming so we can continue to enjoy your reviews. I promise no kitties will be harmed (right Mac? Right?)

 

Could I tempt you into watching the show one day? It really is a remarkable show with very clever and witty writing. The characters are quirky and it's always fun to try to spot what different characters are reading.

 

I really need to check it out, it sounds just my sort of thing .. must put it on my Lovefilm rental list. I'm not sure whether we get it normally in the UK. I haven't got Sky or anything (we are absolute dinosaurs,) just the normal channels plus some freeview channels. But this creaky old house I've moved into has a creaky old aerial and I'm lucky to get BBC1 and 2 tbh. It's on the 'must do' list .. new aerial .. but the 'must do' list is pages long. Still I can't cope with the thought of having fuzzy TV reception at Christmas time .. what am I supposed to do instead .. read books!! .. come to think of it that would be a much better idea. But I can't even think of Christmas without 'The Grinch' or 'the Snowman' or at least one 'Christmas Carol/Scrooge' .. I need to sort it.

[Chrissy]

The Gilmore Girls has just started it's cycle again on E4, daily mid morning 'ish. It's definitely in it's first season.

 

 

[poppyshake]

 

Ruby's Spoon - Anna Lawrence Pietroni

 

Book Blurb: This is the tale of three women - one witch, one mermaid and one missing - and how Ruby was caught up in between. When Isa Fly appears in the doorway of Captin Len's Fried Fish Shop, thirteen-year-old Ruby is entranced. Isa comes from the coast where the air is fresh; unlike Ruby's home in Cradle Cross, its factory furnaces pumping and filthy slits of canal water sending up a stink. Isa is on the hunt for a missing person, and Ruby is eager to help, convinced she will be repaid with an adventure at sea. But some of the townsfolk are instantly suspicious of the outsider with her shock of white hair and glinting mirrored skirts. They have their own lost relatives to mourn, and don't take kindly to Isa's ability to leave their Ruby spellbound. Undaunted, Ruby introduces Isa to Truda Blick, the bluestocking graduate who has just inherited the town's button factory, where carcasses are rendered down and bones turned into buttons. Blickses is on the verge of collapse, and Truda has her work cut out. Ruby is desperate to help Truda and Isa but her alliance with the women is pushing the town to the brink of riot. All the trouble began, it seems, when Isa Fly arrived in Cradle Cross...Only Ruby knows enough to save them all. But first she must save herself.

 

Review: This is another one that I loved and another great debut. Thirteen year old Ruby Abel Tailor is a great character, full of spirit and spark. The writing is beautifully imaginative, there's a lot of criticism that the story needs a good edit (I nearly didn't read it because the reviews are fairly bad but the cover sang out to me at the library,) but I soaked it all up and wanted more .. I do love adult fairy tales. Rather like The Girl with Glass Feet this could be a book for older children, there's just one or two phrases/rhymes that push it over into unsuitable. Ruby and some of the townsfolk of Cradle Cross speak in a strong Black Country dialect which can take some getting used to but after a chapter or so I was ok (although I have to say I pitched it more in the West Country which is geographically incorrect but seemed right in my head.)

 

The book is full of interesting characters, Ruby of course is central to it all, she's a sparky little thing but also a thinker and a worrier. She lives a bit of a stifled life with her Nan Annie who loves her but is afraid of losing her and so attempts to hem her in. For one thing Nan Annie forbids Ruby to go anywhere near water, understandably so as family members have drowned, but it's a tall order in Cradle Cross because the town is surrounded by the cut, a dark, dank, smelly body of water full of rusting iron, bones and cack (Ruby's words.) Ruby is also close to Captin and works in his fried fish shop. Captin is a sort of surrogate father or grandfather rather as Ruby's own dad, Jamie Abel, is still alive. He hasn't lived at home for many moons since he fell out with Nan Annie. He lives, works and sleeps at the Dead Arm, a dock where he mends boats and where Ruby brings his dinner every day. Ruby also helps hand out the tea's at the Ruth and Naomi Thursday club, a club formed just after the war, for women who had lost loved one's .. 'tending and mending their grief where the years had worn it thin.' .. it's not a very exciting life for a thirteen year old. Maybe that's why Ruby is so taken with Isa Fly, a mysterious woman with salt white hair, one blind eye and an emerald skirt glinting with mirrors. Isa appears at Captin's fish shop one night searching for a lost relative. She has a way of storytelling which captures Ruby immediately, Ruby is determined to help and in return she hopes that Isa will take her back with her when she returns to Severnsea. For although Ruby has an instilled fear of water she has a longing and a hankering to sail on salty seas and she can smell sea breezes on Isa. In their search the two of them forge an unlikely friendship with Truda Cole Blick, another outsider, who has recently inherited the towns button factory.

 

To say that the townswomen are suspicious of Isa is an understatement, they believe she is the very Devil incarnate set to bring ruin to Cradle Cross and the local children sing rhymes about her 'Isa Fly has got one eye - Her father pawned the other. And then he cut her heart away, And fed it to her brother.' They believe she has bewitched their dear Ruby, not to mention Captin and Truda. Especially hostile is Belle Severn or to give her her nickname 'The Blackbird'. Belle works the dredger in the cut and seems to be particularly concerned about Isa's presence in Cradle Cross, she makes threats to Ruby, telling her she will drown her if she doesn't tell her what Isa has come there for. The women are not very keen on Truda either who, in order to try and save the factory from closure, has made some pretty unpopular changes. Ruby, acting as errand girl for Truda, finds herself for the first time, criticised and unwelcome amongst the women who have always held her dear. Nobody in Cradle Cross has ever heard of Isa's missing relative and even Isa herself doesn't seem all that intent on continuing the search. Life starts to change for Ruby, everything she has always held dear and true begins to unravel. Things in Cradle Cross become desperate, precious items are stolen and others desecrated, all eyes are turned towards Isa Fly and the Ruth & Naomi's adopt their own methods to try and rid the town of her ... but Ruby is determined to stick by her however dangerous it gets.

 

An atmospheric other-worldly tale of water and the sea, of witches, mermaids, secrets, grudges, rumours and resentments and of one young girls longing for a different kind of life. It's an unusual book, it's not going to be to everyone's taste (the dialect for one thing.) Slightly similar to The Undrowned Child and I Coriander but more challenging and more original. I love the cover it's really appealing and there's a lovely little hand drawn map of Cradle Cross inside which is so useful when you're just finding your way around. I think I fell under it's spell, I must read it again soon.

 

10/10

[nursenblack]

I'm putting Ruby's Spoon on my wishlist! I love debut novels.

[Mac]

What a great review. Cheers!

 

Just to clear one last thing up - I have never, nor will I ever, harm kittens, puppies, goats, marmots, or any other animal on the face of this planet. Just so you know. I was only joking before.

 

Rubbish, wasn't it?

[poppyshake]

I'm putting Ruby's Spoon on my wishlist! I love debut novels.

 

I really hope you enjoy it how are you with English dialects? .. hope it won't mar your enjoyment. It's not difficult, there are one or two words Ruby uses in particular, which are confusing at first .. like 'yoom' for 'you are' ... 'yo' for 'you' .... 'day' for 'didn't' ..'cor' for 'can't' and most confusingly ... 'doe' for 'don't' (I kept reading it as 'do' to start with which made complete nonsense of the sentence) but these are repeated so often that you get used to them.

 

What a great review. Cheers!

 

Just to clear one last thing up - I have never, nor will I ever, harm kittens, puppies, goats, marmots, or any other animal on the face of this planet. Just so you know. I was only joking before.

 

Rubbish, wasn't it?

 

Thanks Mac and don't worry, we know you wouldn't hurt a fly .. though technically of course that's an insect .. and they might be exempt from your declaration

I cannot, in all honesty, say I have never harmed a fly .. and amongst the spider population I'm probably regarded as a serial killer .. though, they're not insects are they I do my best to get them out of doors in one piece but there have been ... casualties!

[willoyd]

Just caught up with your review of Howards End is on the Landing. Can only agree; I loved it too. In fact, so far it's my non-fiction book of the year. Definitely one to return to and dip in. Some of her comments about the way she treats books made me shudder, but I do recognise that this is probably more down to some sort of obsessive behaviour on my part, than something wrong with her! Have you read Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris? It's another (very slim) book about books and reading, equally erudite, that exudes a similar passion, as well as making me feel a lot less odd in my foibles than I previously thought!

Edited December 1, 2010 by willoyd

[poppyshake]

Just caught up with your review of Howards End is on the Landing. Can only agree; I loved it too. In fact, so far it's my non-fiction book of the year. Definitely one to return to and dip in. Some of her comments about the way she treats books made me shudder, but I do recognise that this is probably more down to some sort of obsessive behaviour on my part, than something wrong with her! Have you read Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris? It's another (very slim) book about books and reading, equally erudite, that exudes a similar passion, as well as making me feel a lot less odd in my foibles than I previously thought!

 

No I haven't read that one .. thanks for the recommendation .. must put it on my list I must admit to having some rather careless habits regarding book treatment so I was comforted by Susan's comments but I could never arrange my books so haphazardly as she does .. that is something that I'm far too obsessive about. I arranged some books yesterday with the hope that I'd be more liberal but no, I was still trying to categorize and colour code them.

Edited December 2, 2010 by poppyshake

[poppyshake]

I've just popped over to Goodreads and seen that 'Ex Libris' was already on my list ... as well as her 'At Large and at Small', so I must have read about them somewhere .. possibly when looking at Susan's book. That explains why I'm constantly buying books that I already own .. I have no memory.

[willoyd]

but I could never arrange my books so haphazardly as she does .. that is something that I'm far too obsessive about. I arranged some books yesterday with the hope that I'd be more liberal but no, I was still trying to categorize and colour code them.

Same here: our collection is organised fastidiously by subject (fiction being the first one), and then ordered depending on the subject: e.g. fiction alphabetically by author, history by chronology or by continent/country if not one time period, biography chronologically, travel by continent then country, and so on and so on. It's become a bit of a joke in our household, me and my 'sorting', but I've tried to be more relaxed, and find I simply can't.

[poppyshake]

 

Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Unabridged Audiobook) read by Adjoa Andoh

 

Waterstones Synopsis: Winner of the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007, this is a heartbreaking, exquisitely written literary masterpiece. This highly anticipated novel from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is set in Nigeria during the 1960s, at the time of a vicious civil war in which a million people died and thousands were massacred in cold blood. The three main characters in the novel are swept up in the violence during these turbulent years. One is a young boy from a poor village who is employed at a university lecturer's house. The other is a young middle-class woman, Olanna, who has to confront the reality of the massacre of her relatives. And the third is a white man, a writer who lives in Nigeria for no clear reason, and who falls in love with Olanna's twin sister, a remote and enigmatic character. As these people's lives intersect, they have to question their own responses to the unfolding political events. This extraordinary novel is about Africa in a wider sense: about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race; and about the ways in which love can complicate all of these things.

 

Review: This is the second of Chimamanda's books that I've listened to, the first being 'Purple Hibiscus', and I much preferred this one. Having said that, it's not an easy listen or read. It details the horrors of the Nigerian-Biafran civil war as seen through the eyes of three people ... Ugwu - a lecturers houseboy, Olanna - the lecturer's partner and Richard - the English journalist who is living with Olanna's twin sister Kainene. The writing has such an authenticity to it, frighteningly so as the book progresses .. it's crisp and unflinching in a way that lets you know that the writer knows her subject thoroughly. Like with most books it starts by introducing us to it's main characters, so we join Ugwu as he spends his first day as houseboy to Odenigbo (and sleeps with cooked chicken in his pockets, having been rather overwhelmed by the well stocked fridge) and we read Olanna's account of her first meeting with Odenigbo. Olanna's twin sister is as unlike her as can be, Olanna is beautiful and has a willingness to please whereas Kainene, perhaps as a result of possessing neither of these traits, or at least not possessing them in as much abundance as Olanna, is more wordly and cynical. Kainene is not one of our narrators, but we get to know her well by the narration of her sister and her boyfriend Richard, this is also the case with Olanna's boyfriend, the lecturer, Odenigbo. At this point of time there are just the murmurings and simmerings of war, although the book does jump backwards and forwards, it doesn't stick to a traditional timeline as such .. parts one and three deal with our characters pre-war and parts two and four with the war and aftermath. But Adichie doesn't just deal with war in itself but the consequences of war, the starvation, corruption and disease, the uncertainty and terror and the feeling of helplessness and anger that comes with the loss of human rights. It's not just facts and figures written down, it's also about how you cope with seeing loved one's suffer or die of malnutrition. It's how you react to seeing people dismembered .. how do you stay sane? How do you keep carrying on when you have seen friends and relations slaughtered, witnessed rape and faced the daily struggle to find food?. It's about the fear of conscription and the battle to keep living for just another day .. how can you get word to your family or find out if they are safe? As the full intensity of the war impacts upon the lives of those that we've come to know, the book really heats up. It's seering, harrowing, uncomfortable stuff and very emotional. The first part of the book was fairly slow going, and I did find it a struggle to stay engaged, but in a way that made the second part all the more affecting.

The narration of the audiobook was fantastic and I think that helped a lot. I think I might have struggled more with the dialogue and the slow going first half.

9/10

Edited December 5, 2010 by poppyshake

[poppyshake]

 

Old Filth - Jane Gardam

 

Waterstones Synopsis: FILTH, in his heyday, was an international lawyer with a practice in the Far East. Now, only the oldest QCs and Silks can remember that his nickname stood for Failed In London Try Hong Kong. Long ago, Old Filth was a Raj orphan - one of the many young children sent 'Home' from the East to be fostered and educated in England. Jane Gardam's new novel tells his story, from his birth in what was then Malaya to the extremities of his old age. Brilliantly constructed - going backwards and forwards in time, yet constantly working towards the secret at its core - OLD FILTH is funny and heart-breaking, witty and peopled with characters who astonish, dismay and delight the reader. Jane Gardam is as sensitive to the 'jungle' within children as she is to the eccentricities of the old. A touch of magic combines with compassion, humour and delicacy to make OLD FILTH a genuine masterpiece.

 

Review: An enjoyable read. Sir Edward Feathers or 'Old Filth' (failed in London try Hong Kong) is a retired barrister and a Raj orphan, despite the nickname Filth is scrupulously clean and has all the elegance of the 1920's, he always wears yellow silk socks from Harrods and a Victorian silk handkerchief in his breast pocket. He has a great reputation amongst his colleagues and is remembered fondly and still much discussed, even by the younger members at the Bar. As we join the story Filth is eighty and living back in the UK in Dorset. His wife Betty is now dead and Filth is at a bit of a loss without her, she seemed to be able to run things so efficiently .. she was good with the servants for instance, Filth hasn't a clue what the name of his cleaning lady is, he calls her Mrs-er. Both he and Betty had been born in the Far East but had been shipped back to Britain during childhood. Later, after trying unsuccessfully at the London Bar, Filth had fled to Hong Kong where his success was described as phenomenal. But it wasn't really a place Filth felt he could retire in, not any more, English was spoken less and less there, most of their friends had returned to England and the end of the Empire was drawing near. Betty and Filth decided to settle in Dorset and it had worked, Betty made it work, for she was the sort of woman who was determined not to fail at anything.

 

Life after Betty was always going to be difficult, but things take a turn for the worse when Filth's old enemy, another ex Hong Kong lawyer and in fact the only person that Filth has ever detested (and the feeling was mutual) Terry Veneering, has moved into the cottage next door (which seems, at first, to be an extraordinary coincidence.) Filth is horrified and determines not to have anything to do with him, which he successfully manages for two years. But then, one disastrous Christmas Day, when waiting for a taxi to take him to lunch, Filth manages to lock himself out of the cottage. The snow is fairly heavy, the taxi never arrives and Filth is forced to seek refuge with his next door neighbour. He finds Veneering however, very much altered.

 

The story jumps about quite a lot, alternating frequently between present and past. We read how Filth's mother died shortly after giving birth to him and how his father always remained a distant preoccupied figure seemingly disinterested in the young Edward. This seems to be one of the main themes of the book, how Filth is always to be left and forgotten (in a sense this seems worse than being reviled - to feel you've made no impact at all.) In order for him to learn English and to keep him free from illness he is sent back to Britain to lodge in Wales with Ma Dibbs with two of his cousins. We know something unspeakable happened there, something Filth cannot bring himself to reveal to anybody although it is often darkly hinted at. Of course, we don't get to read what it is until much later. Eventually the children are liberated and Edward is taken away to boarding school where he meets the boy who is to become his best friend, Pat Ingoldby. Pat's family welcome Edward .. or Teddy as they call him .. and he experiences what it's like to be part of a large loving family at last, or so it seems, but nothing lasts for long. At one point he is sent to his two maiden Aunt's to lodge, but they are so wrapped up in their own lives that they hardly even notice he's there. His life is a series of lonely journeys.

 

Filth is troubled by the secrets and mysteries of his past and his mind seems to be wandering too .. it's 'too full of litter'. He chats away to Betty still and listens carefully to her advice from beyond the grave. He embarks on a journey to visit his two cousins (not Betty's advice .. she would be horrified), taking with him some keepsakes of Betty's but it only seems to make matters worse. Eventually, believing himself to be dying, he confesses all to a priest and this is where we learn what actually happened in Wales. The one thing that becomes obvious is how difficult it is for children who have been uprooted and deprived of familial love to go on to have loving relationships themselves. Although his life with Betty was ordered and companionable, it's clear that Filth was unable to provide her with the emotional love she needed and, unbeknown to him, Betty sought this love elsewhere (Jane has written a follow up book 'The Man with the Hat' which is Betty's story.) Finally, having gone full circle, Old Filth embarks on one last journey, back to the only place he has ever thought of as home.

 

Despite the serious themes this is a book that's full of humour and great characters. Gardam says she owes a great debt to Rudyard Kipling's autobiography for the insight and inspiration for the story.

 

8/10

[frankie]

I finally have some time to spend on the forum and catch up with all the threads and I had to come and actually read your review on Howard's End is on the Landing, Kylie having mentioned that you've read it and really enjoyed it. I was already keen on buying the book before but now I'm even all the more keen, you make it sound so enjoyable! Thank you for the review poppyshake

[poppyshake]

I finally have some time to spend on the forum and catch up with all the threads and I had to come and actually read your review on Howard's End is on the Landing, Kylie having mentioned that you've read it and really enjoyed it. I was already keen on buying the book before but now I'm even all the more keen, you make it sound so enjoyable! Thank you for the review poppyshake

You're welcome Frankie hope you get as much enjoyment from reading it as I did.

 

[poppyshake]

Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde

Waterstones Synopsis: Thursday Next, Head of JurisFiction and ex-SpecOps agent, returns to her native Swindon accompanied by a child of two, a pair of dodos and Hamlet, who is on a fact-finding mission in the real world. Thursday has been despatched to capture escaped Fictioneer Yorrick Kaine but even so, now seems as good a time as any to retrieve her husband Landen from his state of eradication at the hands of the Chronoguard. It's not going to be easy. Thursday's former colleagues at the department of Literary Detectives want her to investigate a spate of cloned Shakespeares, the Goliath Corporation are planning to switch to a new Faith based corporate management system and the Neanderthals feel she might be the Chosen One who will lead them to genetic self-determination. With help from Hamlet, her uncle and time-travelling father, Thursday faces the toughest adventure of her career. Where is the missing President-for-life George Formby? Why is it imperative for the Swindon Mallets to win the World Croquet League final? And why is it so difficult to find reliable childcare?

Review: It's that time again when I have to try and do justice to Jasper Fforde's writing .. always a difficult, nigh impossible task. The last time I was with Thursday she was pregnant, without husband Landen who had been eradicated, and dwelling in the Well of Lost Plots as head of Jurisfiction with a minotaur on the loose. The minotaur is still rampaging through fiction and because Thursday, and the other Jurisfiction agents, are keen to keep him alive, he has been darted with a dose of Slapstick with the hope that he will give away his whereabouts with outbreaks in fiction of custard-pie-in-the-face routines and walking-into-lamppost gags but so far no luck (though they cite the ludicrous four wheeled chaise sequence in The Pickwick Papers as being possible proof that he's passed through.) They have an inkling that he is currently residing in the Western genre (apparently he finds cattle drives relaxing) and decide to stake him out at the top of page seventy three of a book called Death at Double-X Ranch, but unfortunately things don't go to plan when Jurisfiction agent Emperor Zhark disastrously intervenes. Thursday is at the end of her tether and feels she needs a rest from Jurisfiction.

So she heads back to Swindon, this time with her two year old son Friday in tow (another reason for returning to the Outland is that Friday can only speak in Lorem Ipsum - the dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry - something he picked up in the Well) as well as her pet Dodo Pickwick and his totally unruly offspring Alan. She is accompanied there by Hamlet who himself has requested leave to the Outland to see if the rumours about Outlanders perceiving him to be a bit of a ditherer are true (he is one .. he can't even order a simple cup of coffee .. 'To Espresso or Latte that is the question. Whether tis tastier on the palate to choose white mocha over plain, or to take a cup to go. Or a mug to stay, or extra cream, or have nothing, and opposing the endless choice, end one's heartache' ... mind you I do sympathise with him there.) Hamlet is having a particular hard time of it, not known for his sunny nature he is particularly downcast now after losing his 'Most Troubled Romantic Lead' crown to Heathcliff ... again. Thursday heads off to her Mum's house which is already quite crowded with Lady Emma Hamilton in the spare room and Otto Bismarck in the attic but this is nothing new she once had Alexander the Great staying there (shocking table manners apparently.)

Problems come thick and fast for Thursday and within no time at all she learns that the local croquet team .. the Swindon Mallets .. must win the Superhoop or the world will be destroyed, the evil Goliath Corporation have decided to become a religion and Thursdays old adversary the fictional (but totally undeterred by that) Yorrick Kaine has become chancellor and is scheming to become an elected dictator. On top of this Thursday is told by her ChronoGuard Dad (in one of his time freezing appearances) that there will be three unsuccessful attempts on her life. Not so bad when you know that they will fail but pretty dire when you find out that the would be assassin is your best friends wife (known, thanks to a mess up at the printers, as the 'Windowmaker') Add to that some babysitting problems (Thursday can only get Melanie Bradshaw to sit, which is fine because she's a lovely lady but then, she is also a gorilla.), some romantic entanglements (namely Emma Hamiltons increasing fondness for both Hamlet and the living room drinks cabinet) a terrible haircut due to Thursdays stand in job for Joan of Arc and the discovery of her own officially sanctioned stalker and you begin to see what she's up against.

She finds herself back at SpecOps where her job now entails, thanks to Yorrick Kaine's anti Danish sentiment, the hunting and burning of Danish books (though of course no-one at LiteraTec agrees with this, they have plans to smuggle them into Wales) It's even more important now for Hamlet to keep a low profile and when news comes through, via Mrs Tiggywinkle, that there are problems back in the Bookworld with an unauthorised merger between Hamlet and The Merry Wives of Windsor, it's clear he can't go home yet either. Good news comes in the form of thirteenth century Saint Zvlkx who has proclaimed in his Book of Revealments that the Swindon Mallets will win the Superhoop though quite how is a mystery as most of the team have been bribed, nobbled or pilfered. Unfortunately he has also proclaimed that the president-for-life (the eternally cheery 'turned out nice again' George Formby) will die two days after the Superhoop final which as it stands now would leave the way clear for Kaine. There is a chance that Landen can be un-eradicated after Thursday visits the Goliath Corporation who are now, thanks to their new religious zeal, seeking forgiveness for past wrongs. She's at first inclined to think that it's just another of their schemes but then Landen begins to flicker back to life (literally, he is sometimes there and sometimes not, leading to some very embarrassing not to say heartbreaking encounters for poor Thursday.)

One of the reasons that I liked this one a little more than it's predecessors was the twist towards the end involving Granny Next, firstly I had no idea it was coming (but you wouldn't have needed Saint Zvlkx's Book of Revealments to tell you that .. I think it's becoming clear that unless it's writ in six foot high letters I haven't a hope of foreseeing any plot twists) and secondly it made me feel very emotional which I hadn't before .. unless you count choking over your tea and toast as emotion. It's not all gloom and doom though, the puns come thick and fast and the pace of the books is, as always, hectic and exhilarating. I've only covered a zillionth of it as usual, there's so much more (cloned Shakespeare's, the M4 motorway service station for the semi-dead, a chimera loose in Swindon's Brunel Centre, the hilarious and recently resurrected St Zvlkx, and the croquet match from hell.) Reading these books is such a pleasure, you do have to work that little bit harder than normal but it's well worth it. I can't recommend them highly enough but, a word of warning, don't try and read them out of sequence.

10/10

Edited November 6, 2013 by poppyshake

[poppyshake]

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

Waterstones Synopsis: Ebenezer Scrooge is unimpressed by Christmas. He has no time for festivities or goodwill toward his fellow men and is only interested in money. Then, on the night of Christmas Eve, his life is changed by a series of ghostly visitations that show him some bitter truths about his choices. "A Christmas Carol" is Dickens' most influential book and a funny, clever and hugely enjoyable story.

Review: Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Scrooge, I annually dose myself up with a good dollop of Dickens starting with the book and meandering through several film versions. I love them all but especially the Albert Finney musical (particularly a pleasure because my Dad worked on it .. albeit as a humble scene painter), Alistair Simms version (again, probably because Dad thinks it is the definitive Scrooge) and the Muppet Christmas Carol (who would have thought that would work so well?) I also saw the new 3D Jim Carey version at the cinema last December and loved it. I've always thought that to do justice to the book, the ghost scenes are going to have to be CGI, and though I think there's still room for improvement (and am always hoping that either Tim Burton or Peter Jackson will have a go sooner or later) I thought they managed to get the atmosphere of the books over really well. I was disappointed to see that the film is only showing this year in 2D and then only on specific days .. bah humbug!

I have several different book versions and this year I thought I'd read the beautiful edition illustrated by P.J. Lynch, it's gorgeous and it just adds that extra something to the tale. There's probably nobody out there that doesn't know the story of old skinflint Scrooge .. 'a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner' .. who is visited one night by his former partner Jacob Marley in ghostly form and then by three ghosts, all sent to show him the error of his ways. The part that I love the most is probably the Cratchit family Christmas which seems, despite all their poverty and worry, idyllic. They are just truly happy at being together for the day and I love the description of their dinner with it's hissing gravy, gushing sage and onion and steaming pudding. In fact I'd love to re-create the dinner by having a goose instead of a turkey but I'm too worried there won't be enough leftovers and I'm far too fond of a turkey, ripe tomato and black pepper sandwich to give it up. Not to mention the worrying tales, I've heard from friends, with regards to the amount of fat that comes out of it, apparently you end up being thoroughly basted yourself. The story is beautifully written, Dickens was said to have single handedly reinvented Christmas with this tale and Thackeray called it 'a national benefit' ... it's him at his absolute best.

And despite constantly failing to do this (with resentments creeping in regarding the expense, queues, wrapping duties, long car drives on icy roads and the inevitable ensuing indigestion) I hope I can keep striving to 'keep Christmas well' in the true spirit of the story. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year .. God bless us, every one!

Edited November 6, 2013 by poppyshake

[Kylie]

A lovely review of a lovely book. Seeing as you have multiple editions, can you recommend a particularly lovely illustrated edition? Your Lynch looks like being a good one, but is there another that you prefer even over that? I'm on the lookout every year but I haven't found one that blows me away yet.

[Weave]

Great review poppyshake, I have never read 'A Christmas Carol' but I am planning to now

[poppyshake]

 

A lovely review of a lovely book. Seeing as you have multiple editions, can you recommend a particularly lovely illustrated edition? Your Lynch looks like being a good one, but is there another that you prefer even over that? I'm on the lookout every year but I haven't found one that blows me away yet.

Thanks Kylie I haven't got many illustrated versions apart from this one and the one's with the original illustrations in by John Leech so this one is my favourite so far. He also does beautiful illustrated versions of 'the Snow Queen' and 'Oscar Wilde's Stories for Children' as well as lots of others. He has a website where you can see images of his illustrations .. I don't know if I'm allowed to post a link to it but anyway it's easy enough to find.

Others that I've got my eye on are the Quentin Blake illustrated version and the Robert Ingpen one but I haven't seen them in the shops yet and you do need to have a good flick through to be sure.

Great review poppyshake, I have never read 'A Christmas Carol' but I am planning to now

Thanks Paula I'm glad you're going to give it a go, you won't regret it. It's the perfect Christmas story. Edited November 6, 2013 by poppyshake

[Kylie]

I love Quentin Blake. I guess I'll just have to get multiple editions rather than try to settle on one.

[pickle]

I love Quentin Blake too I am a massive fan of all his illustrations, I don't own that many illustrated books apart from fairytale books I should get more though.

[Kylie]

I recently replaced two of my Roald Dahl books with versions illustrated by Quentin Blake. There's something wrong with the world when someone other than Blake is illustrating Dahl. Honestly, I think enjoyed those two books less because they were illustrated by someone else.

[poppyshake]

 

The Blue Flower - Penelope Fitzgerald

 

Waterstones Synopsis: Penelope Fitzgerald's final masterpiece. Set in Germany at the very end of the eighteenth century, The Blue Flower is the story of the brilliant Fritz von Hardenberg, a graduate of the Universities of Jena, Leipzig and Wittenberg, learned in Dialectics and Mathematics, who later became the great romantic poet and philosopher Novalis. The passionate and idealistic Fritz needs his father's permission to announce his engagement to his 'heart's heart', his 'true Philosophy', twelve-year-old Sophie von Kuhn. It is a betrothal which amuses, astounds and disturbs his family and friends. How can it be so? One of the most admired of all Penelope Fitzgerald's books, The Blue Flower was chosen as Book of the Year more than any other in 1995. Her final book, it confirmed her reputation as one of the finest novelists of the century.

 

Review: This is a book that came highly recommended by Susan Hill (in her words 'it's a novel of genius') in her book Howards End is on the Landing, I'd never heard of it before. When I next went to the library, there it was winking at me from the shelf and so, of course, I grabbed it gratefully.

 

It's a fictionalised account of the life of Friedrich von Hardenburg born in 1772, otherwise known as the German author, poet and philosopher Novalis, and known in this narrative as Fritz. In particular the book focuses on the relationship between Fritz and his true love Sophie von Kuhn. It's a pretty tall task for the reader to quite grasp the intensity of his love given that Sophie is only twelve when Fritz meets and proposes marriage to her. And indeed she doesn't seem to be particularly beautiful or intelligent (which is what Fritz's brother tries to tell him .. until he falls in love with her himself after five minutes in her company,) she's a bit silly and fanciful like most twelve year olds but then, love is often irrational and inappropriate.

 

Fritz himself is a very accomplished student and aspires to be a poet but is ultimately destined, as the eldest son, to follow in his fathers footsteps as the Salt Mine Directorate. His father sends him to study business with Coelestin Just and here he furthers his acquaintance with Karoline Just who is niece and housekeeper to her Uncle Coelestin. Karoline is pretty, kind, intelligent and (rather like Agnes Wickfield in David Copperfield) far more suitable as a match for Fritz but he see's her only as a dear friend, his heart is not moved by her.

 

It's Coelestin that first introduces Fritz to the Rockenthiel family and ultimately Sophie, and within a quarter or an hour of being in her company, Fritz's heart is irrecoverably lost. Before long he has proposed to her and sets out to find out as much as he can about her. He asks Sophie about her favourite food, how her studies are going, whether she likes music and in an effort to philosophise with her talks about transmigration and asks if she would like to be born again 'yes' says Sophie 'if I could have fair hair.' Fritz can only spend a limited time with Sophie but obtains permission to write, but when he receives a letter back from her she says that, although she loves to receive his letters, she herself can write no more. When Fritz enquires of her stepfather why this is so, he answers 'My dear Hardenburg, she must write no more because she scarcely knows how. Send for her schoolmaster and enquire of him!' however Sophie does continue to write him little epistles and he has to content himself with the flimsy information they contain and his occasional visits to the Rockenthiels.

 

However he is smitten, she is his 'wisdom' his 'true philosophy,' 'spirit guide' and 'heart's heart', and he sets about convincing his father to agree to the match. Again, it has to be said that his father is less than happy about it but he reluctantly consents. Sophie is now fourteen and ailing, she has tuberculosis. Still she makes the journey to Weissenfels to meet with Fritz and his family at their formal engagement party. She has to be carried in, she is pale but still eager and as high pitched as ever, she cannot dance or walk about and so Fritz brings each of his friends and relations forward to meet and congratulate her. But Sophie's health is deteriorating, she has to undergo several painful operations without anaesthetic and sinks further and further every day. Poor Fritz who, for the most part, is unable to be with his love, and doesn't know how to help her when he is, frets and his father is so affected by his visit to the ailing Sophie that he sobbingly declares that he will give her the ancestral home. It's at this point of the story that the reader is able to see more into Sophie's heart and mind and although she never really becomes any different, you do begin to love her yourself .. perhaps because of her desperate plight.

 

Written very much as a novel would have been written in the eighteenth century and very witty and warm despite it's tragic outcome. The book is full of interesting characters, both Fritz's and Sophie's family are all so well depicted especially Sophie's incredibly kind and caring older sister Friederike (or 'the Mandelsloh' as she's called,) who is also her close companion and nurse, and Fritz's lovely sister Sidonie and brother Erasmus.

 

 

It's very affecting, to read the afterword and to see that none of the characters actually lived very long. After Sophie's death, Fritz eventually married Julie von Charpentier and said in a letter to a friend 'an interesting life appears to await me .. still, I would rather be dead'. Fritz died in 1801 aged 29.

 

Susan Hill is still fretting about the fact that this did not win a major prize when it was published, she says 'I was a judge for a major prize the year The Blue Flower was entered and I have never tried so hard to convince others of anything as I did that this one was a rare, a great, novel whose like we might none of us see again.'

 

10/10

Edited December 17, 2010 by poppyshake

[poppyshake]

I recently replaced two of my Roald Dahl books with versions illustrated by Quentin Blake. There's something wrong with the world when someone other than Blake is illustrating Dahl. Honestly, I think enjoyed those two books less because they were illustrated by someone else.

 

Yes, Dahl and Blake ... they go together like Holmes and Watson He's illustrating David Walliams's books now, my niece loves them although I haven't had a chance to pinch them off of her and see for myself yet.

[frankie]

Oh heck, is Something Rotten the second Thursday Next novel? If so, I'm too scared to read your review, I've only read the first one. Oh boy, I really feel like I should just re-read Jane Eyre again, and then re-read The Eyre Affair and go straight into all the other Thursday Nexts. How is it possible that you should read one of these TN novels just now that Kylie made my buy all the TN books we found in OZ and while I'd love to read them but have still to read 5 short reads this year?! You're killing me, poppyshake

Edited December 17, 2010 by frankie