Poppy's Paperbacks 2010

[poppyshake]

I read Wise Children a few years ago, for A Level English Lit. At the time of my review, I gave it just 5

[poppyshake]

Ooh while I remember, I have one more book and then I'm going to attempt A.S. Byatt's 'The Childrens Book' .. pray for me Janet

[Janet]

I hope you get on well with it. I think I will give it another go fairly soon (before I forget what I've read already). Maybe if you like it, it'll spur me on too!

[pickle]

Oned of my other favourite Angela Carters is the Bloody Chamber its a series of short stories a different take on fairy tales and ledgends like blue beard very good, it also has one of the stories which was converted into a very odd but good film 'A company of Wolves' obvioulsy a take on little red riding hood. I have read a few others but these two were my favourites.

[poppyshake]

Oned of my other favourite Angela Carters is the Bloody Chamber its a series of short stories a different take on fairy tales and ledgends like blue beard very good, it also has one of the stories which was converted into a very odd but good film 'A company of Wolves' obvioulsy a take on little red riding hood. I have read a few others but these two were my favourites.

 

Thanks for the recommendations Pickle ... I've heard of 'A Company of Wolves' but I haven't seen it ... I'll put it on my rental list

[poppyshake]

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley

Waterstone's Synopsis: For very-nearly-eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, the discovery of a dead snipe on the doorstep of Buckshaw, the crumbling de Luce country seat, was a marvellous mystery - especially since this particular snipe had a rather rare stamp neatly impaled on its beak. Even more astonishing was the effect of the dead bird on her stamp-collector father, who appeared to be genuinely frightened. Soon Flavia discovers something even more shocking in the cucumber patch and it's clear that the snipe was a bird of very ill omen indeed. As the police descend on Buckshaw, Flavia decides it is up to her to piece together the clues and solve the puzzle. Who was the man she heard her father arguing with? What was the snipe doing in England at all? Who or what is the Ulster Avenger? And, most peculiar of all, who took a slice of Mrs Mullet's unspeakable custard pie that had been cooling by the window...?

Review: I really liked this book. Flavia is a completely endearing character ... she's smart, passionate and precocious .. but for all that, she's not annoying. The murder plot isn't particularly complicated but Flavia's narration throughout made this book a real pleasure to read.
Flavia finds a dying man in the garden of Buckshaw and soon after her father is arrested on suspicion of murder ... with time running out it's up to Flavia to piece together the evidence and figure out who did kill the man in the cucumber patch.
There's a lot of humour .. Flavia and her sisters are particularly funny as is Mrs Mullet the housekeeper. One of the bits that made me smile was when Flavia, disgusted by Mrs Mullet's seed biscuits, said ... 'I hated Mrs Mullet's seed biscuits the way that Paul hated sin. Perhaps even more so. I wanted to clamber up onto the table and, with a sausage on the end of my fork as a sceptre, shout in my best Laurence Olivier voice "Will no one rid us of this turbulent pastry cook?'  I noticed that it says on the back cover 'Flavia De Luce Mystery 1' .. which obviously means more to come and indeed there is the opening chapter of his next book at the end of this one .. which I didn't read as I didn't want to know what it was about until I get around to reading it (especially as it's not out in paperback for a while yet). Highly enjoyable.

9/10

Edited November 29, 2013 by poppyshake

[Peacefield]

A most excellent review, Poppy!! I'm so glad you liked this one . It is staying on my wish list and I hope to read it soon.

[Fi.]

I'll second the excellent review, I have this and am going to bump it up Mount TBR so I get to it sooner rather than later

[poppyshake]

Hope you both enjoy it when you get around to reading it . It's definitely one of my favourites from this year.

[poppyshake]

The Children's Book - A.S. Byatt

Waterstone's Synopsis: Famous author Olive Wellwood writes a special private book, bound in different colours, for each of her children. In their rambling house near Romney Marsh they play in a story-book world - but their lives, and those of their rich cousins and their friends, the son and daughter of a curator at the new Victoria and Albert Museum, are already inscribed with mystery. Each family carries its own secrets. They grow up in the golden summers of Edwardian times, but as the sons rebel against their parents and the girls dream of independent futures, they are unaware that in the darkness ahead they will be betrayed unintentionally by the adults who love them. This is the children's book.

Review: I wanted to love this book, but on the whole I just found it one big struggle  There is a lot about it that I really, really, liked .. I liked reading about the family .. the children, cousins and friends, how they interacted with each other and what became of them as individuals. At first I liked Olive and her stories written for each child but then she seemed to become more and more self absorbed and negligent of the children themselves and I ended up disliking her. Where this book fell down for me, was that there was too much detailed social history included. It's always good to have background information but here there are pages and pages of information about the suffragette movement, anarchists, naturists, the Boer war, Fabianism, Theosophists, the Arts & Craft movement, Art Nouveau and basically all the major social and political events of the late 1800's early 1900's .. all described in detail. I felt bogged down by facts and figures and found myself constantly wanting to get back to the characters to find out what they were doing.

Some of the social history was interesting ... especially that which talked about the writers of the day ... Kenneth Grahame, Oscar Wilde, Rudyard Kipling, J.M. Barrie, William Morris and Rupert Brooke and I was especially taken with the descriptions of the fantastic 'Exposition Universelle' which took place in Paris in 1900 to celebrate the achievements of the past century ... where talking films, moving pavements and escalators were first seen and beautiful works of art were displayed and it was nice that the reader got to experience it through the eyes of the characters .. as opposed to just reading about it.

Overall though, the detail overwhelmed me ... and the whole reading experience felt like hard work. I did feel quite emotional when reading the last few chapters though ... the characters by then were experiencing life during the First World War with sons at the front line, daughter's nursing and mothers and fathers waiting for news etc ... that was incredibly moving.
She writes fantastically well, but there was just too much information to take in .. it needed a good edit (rather like this review! )

 7/10

Just had to share these pictures of two beautiful pieces of Lalique ... the left one was described in full in the book after the characters had seen it at the 'Exposition Universelle' (and of course it is used on the cover) .. stunning.


 

Edited November 29, 2013 by poppyshake

[Janet]

D'oh - I should have checked here first to see if you liked it, rather than asking in the other thread!

 

Just had to share these pictures of two beautiful pieces of Lalique ... the left one was described in full in the book after the characters had seen it at the 'Exposition Universelle' (and of course it is used on the cover) .. stunning.

 

 

I mentioned the Lalique too - I loved the cover - it was what drew me to the book in the first place.

 

I'm torn now. 7/10 is quite a good rating, and I hadn't got to the WW1 bit, but I like that era (as well as the Victorian it starts in) - mmmm.

 

Perhaps I won't get rid of the book just yet!

 

</Dithering>

[poppyshake]

The World War 1 bit was right at the end though Janet ... there's an awful lot to wade through before you get there. I'm glad I've read it but if anyone asked me to read it again I'd run for the hills

 

It probably is worth persevering with though if only to find out what happens to them all ... there are shocking revelations and tragedies a plenty and I found I was more affected by it than I thought I'd be.

 

The cover is indeed beautiful. Like you, that was what attracted me to the book in the first place.

[poppyshake]

Timoleon Vieta Come Home - Dan Rhodes

Waterstone's Synopsis: Meet the mongrel. Timoleon Vieta. A deeply loyal, undemanding and loving companion ...with the most beautiful eyes. He's living an idyllic existence in the Italian countryside with Cockroft, a composer in exile. Until, that is, the mysterious and malevolent Bosnian comes to stay. How will the stranger affect the bond between dog and master? Timoleon Vieta Come Home is a free-wheeling take on the Lassie legend, deeply moving and hysterically funny.

Review: This is a story about Cockcroft, an ageing homosexual composer, and his best friend the mongrel Timoleon Vieta. All is going well for them (although Cockcroft is a bit bitter and resentful about how life has treated him) until 'the Bosnian' comes to stay. The dog doesn't like him and he doesn't like the dog. He persuades Cockcroft to take Timoleon Vieta to Rome and leave him there

The book takes on a new format then, with each chapter comes a new short story about the various people Timoleon Vieta comes into contact with as he tries to find his way home. The stories are more about the people than the dog and his interaction with them is sometimes quite fleeting. I liked these little stories a lot, most of them were about unrequited love or love lost and this of course links nicely back to the abandoned dog. At the end of these chapters is a short piece on how Cockcroft is faring living with 'the Bosnian' without his beloved Timoleon Vieta.

I've only read one of his books before but I think I know enough now to say that Dan Rhodes doesn't do happy endings and although this is a bit of a spoiler it has to be said that animal lovers and doggy lovers in particular beware the ending is shocking, upsetting and gruesome.
There's also a lot of crude and graphic content.

Having said all that, there is a lot of humour too .. I smiled out loud a lot and shed a tear for TV too .. you couldn't not.
I didn't enjoy the book as much as Gold but I did still like it, Cockcroft was a hard central character to love (or even like) but that didn't matter, it's the dog you are rooting for. Looking forward to reading Little Hands Clapping.

7/10

Edited November 29, 2013 by poppyshake

[poppyshake]

I'm reading Neil Gaiman's 'Smoke and Mirrors' (as well as 'Brixton Beach') at the moment ... it's a collection of short stories. The first one was about an elderly lady who finds the holy grail in a charity shop, buys it for 30p, put's in on her mantlepiece and then is plagued by a knight who tries to exchange various treasures for it ... very funny and typically Gaiman. Actually that was the second one, the first one was written at the end of the introduction and had been intended as a wedding present for two of Neil's friends .. he thought better of it and gave them a toaster .. I'm not surprised, it would've scared them to death.

[tunn300]

 

Methinks:

 

This is a story about Cockcroft, an ageing homosexual composer, and his best friend the mongrel Timoleon Vieta. All is going well for them (though Cockcroft is a bit bitter and resentful about how life has treated him) until 'the Bosnian' comes to stay ... the dog doesn't like him and he doesn't like the dog. He persuades Cockcroft to take Timoleon Vieta to Rome and leave him there.

The book takes on a new format then, with each chapter comes a new short story about the various people Timoleon Vieta comes into contact with as he tries to find his way home ... the stories are more about the people than the dog and his interaction with them is sometimes quite fleeting. I liked these little stories a lot, most of them were about unrequited love or love lost and this of course links nicely back to the abandoned dog. At the end of these chapters is a short piece on how Cockcroft is faring living with 'the Bosnian' without his beloved Timoleon Vieta.

I've only read one of his books before but I think I know enough now to say that Dan Rhodes doesn't do happy endings and although this is a bit of a spoiler it has to be said that animal lovers and doggy lovers in particular beware the ending is shocking, upsetting and gruesome.

There is also a lot of crude and graphic content.

Having said all that, there is a lot of humour too .. I smiled out loud a lot and shed a tear for TV too .. you couldn't not.

I didn't enjoy the book as much as 'Gold' but I did still like it, Cockcroft was a hard central character to love (or even like) but that didn't matter, it is the dog you are rooting for. Looking forward to reading 'Little Hands Clapping'.

 

7/10

 

Looks like a pretty good book Poppy. Will keep looking out for it but think I am going to get Little Hands Clapping first as after reading the extract that seems very similar to Gold

[poppyshake]

I look forward to reading your review on it after you have read it Tunn .. it's only just out in hardback so I think I've got a bit of a wait for the paperback. I love the look and the sound of it though.

[poppyshake]

Brixton Beach - Roma Tearne

Waterstone's Synopsis: Opening dramatically with the horrors of the 2005 London bombings, this is the profoundly moving story of a country on the brink of civil war and a child's struggle to come to terms with loss. London. On a bright July morning a series of bombs brings the capital to a halt. Simon Swann, a medic from one of the large teaching hospitals, is searching frantically amongst the chaos and the rubble. All around police sirens and ambulances are screaming but Simon does not hear. He is out of breath because he has been running, and he is distraught. But who is he looking for? To find out we have first to go back thirty years to a small island in the Indian Ocean where a little girl named Alice Fonseka is learning to ride a bicycle on the beach. The island is Sri Lanka, and its community is on the brink of civil war. Alice's life is about to change forever. Soon she will have to leave for England, abandoning her beloved grandfather, and accompanied by her mother Sita, a woman broken by a series of terrible events. In London, Alice grows into womanhood. Trapped in a loveless marriage, she has a son. Slowly she fulfils her grandfather's prophecy and becomes an artist. Eventually she finds true love. But London in the twenty-first century is a mass of migration and suspicion. The war on terror has begun and everyone, even Simon Swann, middle class, rational, medic that he is, will be caught up in this war in the most unexpected and terrible way.

Review: This was a beautifully written book, telling the story of Alice Fonseka growing up in Sri Lanka with a Singhalese mother and a Tamil father. The war between the two sides strengthens and Alice's father Stanley applies for a passport to England ... Alice and her mother Sita will follow in three months leaving behind Alice's devoted Grandma and Grandad, Bee and Kamala.
The descriptions of Sri Lanka are so vivid you can almost taste the salty air and smell the coconut oil. England is drab, cold, grey and damp in comparison.

The book follows Alice (and her family) as she struggles to find her place in this new country, her schooling, her artwork, her marriage and the birth of her son Ravi. We also learn the fate of those left behind in Sri Lanka. The book concludes .. as it started in the prologue... with the retelling of the devastating London bombings of 7.7.2005 .. and we follow Alice as she makes her way to Baker Street to catch a tube on the Bakerloo line.

On the whole I liked it but it did move too slowly at times. It seems to take an awful long time before Alice embarks for England (six long chapters I think) ... and as we already know she's going (from the title and the premise) I was impatient for her to begin. I loved the relationship between Alice and her Grandfather Bee .. very moving and it was easy to connect with Alice as a child .. as an adult it became harder as she seemed to become more emotionally disconnected to the world and .. though I don't think I was meant to .. I found myself struggling to keep that connection with her. You never stop empathising with her though and hoping that she will eventually find hope and love.
Reading the authors biog at the front of the book it's clear that this is part autobiographical .. Roma came to England from Sri Lanka to escape the war (she had the same parentage) at about the same time as Alice and so it's steeped in authenticity and truth.
It is relentlessly depressing though .. hope is given out in very small thimblefuls .. and for that reason I couldn't say I loved reading it but it was thought provoking and very touching.

7/10

Edited November 29, 2013 by poppyshake

[poppyshake]

Company of Liars - Karen Maitland (Unabridged Audiobook) read by David Thorpe

Waterstone's Synopsis: The year is 1348 and the first plague victim has reached English shores. Panic erupts around the country and a small band of travellers comes together to outrun the deadly disease, unaware that something far more deadly is - in fact - travelling with them. The ill-assorted company - a scarred trader in holy relics, a conjurer, two musicians, a healer and a deformed storyteller - are all concealing secrets and lies. And at their heart is the strange, cold child - Narigorm - who reads the runes.

Review: I really enjoyed listening to this it was totally engrossing. A company of travellers .. each with a secret ... meet by chance and join together to try and escape the pestilence which is raging through Britain. I read that the writer has a great interest in all things Medieval and it shows .. it has all the sights, smells (most of them foul), mysticism and sounds of that age.
The company are desperate to get as far away as they can from the sickness but a different kind of evil is travelling with them, something that proves impossible to escape from
There are a wide range of characters both male and female and the reader David Thorpe does an excellent job of bringing them, and the age in which they live, to life. Highly recommended.

9/10

Edited November 29, 2013 by poppyshake

[pickle]

Thanks for the review I have been debating getting this book for ages now but haven't committed yet, it will now be on my list of purchases for the future.

[poppyshake]

I hope you like it Pickle, I'm sure you will .. it is totally absorbing.

[BookJumper]

I pondered buying this when it was first out in pretty dustjacket-less hardback, I read the first few pages in W's and wasn't gripped but it seems I was hasty...!

[poppyshake]

I wonder how much I would've liked it if I had had to read it instead of listen to it .. a great reader can make a big difference to a story (I once read that Juliet Stevenson could read a cornflake packet and make it thrilling). I think I would've still enjoyed it ... the secrets are pretty easy to guess, although not at first, but I think that is the writers intention to let you in on each secret ahead of them being revealed or guessed by the rest of the company.

It's an enormous tome though .. took practically 19 hours of listening but it kept my interest the whole time.

[poppyshake]

 

Smoke and Mirrors - Neil Gaiman

Waterstone's Synopsis: An elderly widow finds the Holy Grail beneath an old fur coat. A stray cat fights and refights a terrible nightly battle to protect his unwary adoptive family from unimaginable evil. A young couple receives a wedding gift that reveals a chilling alternative history of their marriage. These tales and much more await in this extraordinary book, revealing one of our most gifted storytellers at the height of his powers. Includes extra material exclusive to Headline Review's edition

Review: This reminded me a lot of Neil's other short story collection Fragile Things in that I found myself enjoying only about half of the stories (although those I did enjoy I really enjoyed). I'm too much of a wimp to enjoy the really horrific ones and feel uncomfortable with the really graphic ones .. I prefer the more humorous ones with a twist. The one I wrote about earlier was probably my favourite ... 'Chivalry' about an elderly lady who buys the holy grail from a charity shop and then is constantly hassled by a knight who wants it back I also enjoyed 'Shoggoth's Old Peculiar' which blends H.P Lovecraft with Pete and Dud and tells the tale of a young American tourist walking the coastline of Britain getting more and more disillusioned until he stops at 'The Book of Dead Names' pub in Innsmouth. Also great were 'We Can Get Them for You Wholesale' about a man who wants to take a contract out on his girlfriend's secret lover and then finds that he can get a bulk discount and 'Troll Bridge' and 'Snow, Glass, Apples' retellings of Three Billy Goats Gruff and Snow White respectively. The introduction is great and Neil gives a little synopsis of each story. There are a couple of stories that are quite pornographic .. one in particular 'Tastings' that took Neil four years because he got so embarrassed writing it (which was nothing to how I felt reading it ) and others about vampires, circus acts and cannibals
On the whole I felt entertained and uncomfortable in equal measure which was probably his intention.

7/10

Edited November 29, 2013 by poppyshake

[poppyshake]

Arthur & George - Julian Barnes

Amazon's Synopsis: Arthur and George grow up worlds and miles apart in late 19th-century Britain: Arthur in shabby-genteel Edinburgh, and George in the vicarage of a small Staffordshire village. Arthur becomes a doctor, and then a writer; George a solicitor in Birmingham. Arthur is to become one of the most famous men of his age, George remains in hardworking obscurity. But as the new century begins, they are brought together by a sequence of events, which made sensational headlines at the time as The Great Wyrley Outrages. With a mixture of detailed research and vivid imagination, Julian Barnes brings to life not just this long-forgotten case, but the inner lives of these two very different men. The reader sees them both with stunning clarity, and almost inhabits them as they face the vicissitudes of their lives, whether in the dock hearing a verdict of guilty, or trying to live an honourable life while desperately in love with another woman. This is a novel in which the events of a hundred years ago constantly set off contemporary echoes, a novel about low crime and high spirituality, guilt and innocence, identity, nationality and race; about what we think, what we believe, and what we know. Julian Barnes has long been recognised as one of Britain's most remarkable writers. While those already familiar with his work will enjoy its elegance, its wit, its profound wisdom about the human condition, "Arthur & George" will surely find him an entirely new audience.

Review: I loved it  I had no idea when I started reading it that the 'Arthur' of the title was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the book blurb didn't mention it. The first part of the book tells the separate stories of Arthur Doyle and George Edalji ... their childhood, their schooling, their upbringing etc. There are no chapters (though the book is split into three parts Part One: Beginnings, Part Two: Beginning with an Ending and Part Three: Ending with a Beginning) instead you have the heading either 'Arthur' or 'George' and you read about their lives thus far. Arthur, doctor, writer, husband, father, celebrity and adventurer and George, a mixed race child, a vicar's son, meek, serious, a social misfit and a solicitor.

George and his father become victims of a hate mail campaign and subsequently George is accused of committing several animal mutilations in the Staffordshire area (known as 'The Great Wyrley Outrages').
Arthur is at a low ebb in his life when his attention is drawn to a letter that sits on his secretary's desk ... the letter is from George outlining the case and including newspaper cuttings etc, this is one of many that Arthur receives as a consequence of being a great detective novelist, asking for help solving crime but something about George's letter sparks his interest and his compassion. George is touched when at the end of their first meeting he asks Sir Arthur if he thinks him innocent .. Sir Arthur's reply is 'No, I do not think you are innocent. No, I do not believe you are innocent. I know you are innocent'.

We then follow Arthur as he researches and analyses George's case in true Sherlockian style, sifting through all the evidence, proving and disproving, questioning and probing ... he then wrote several articles for 'The Telegraph' and headed them 'No Copyright' so that many other newspapers could print the articles for free outlining and detailing his findings. The case was reviewed by 'The Gladstone Committee' and a report subsequently issued.

This book is a glorious mixture of biography and fiction ... the letters, reports, court proceedings and newspaper articles are for the most part (with the exception of one short note I think) entirely authentic, the dialogue obviously is not. Aside from the criminal case there is a lot about the private lives of both men which is absolutely fascinating. Sir Arthur was interested in Spiritualism and a 'Public Farewell' seance apparently was held at The Albert Hall just after his death with his family (and George) in attendance .. bizarre.

A fantastic read, I loved every page of it.

10/10

Edited November 29, 2013 by poppyshake

[chesilbeach]

Great review, Poppy. I'm glad you liked the so much, as I thoroughly enjoyed it as well and it's always good when someone else has the same feeling about a book.