Poppy's Paperbacks 2010

[Brida]

^^ Yup it's short, and it's a fast read, so no worries

And lol about the book leaping out thing, that happens to me too, esp now that I've joined the forum

 

Kafka has unfortunately been neglected for a few days due to Tucker's book, and studying xD But I've already read half, and so far I can recomend it

[poppyshake]

Well that's good to know. I checked it on the library catalogue list before I went and they had it as 'on shelf' but when I got there some fiend had taken it out

[poppyshake]

Temeraire - Naomi Novik

Waterstone's Synopsis: Naomi Novik's stunning series of novels follow the global adventures of Captain William Laurence and his fighting dragon Temeraire as they are thrown together to fight for Britain during the turbulent time of the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Will Laurence has been at sea since he was just twelve years old; finding a warmer berth in Nelson's navy than any he enjoyed as the youngest, least important son of Lord Allendale. Rising on merit to captain his own vessel, Laurence has earned himself a beautiful fiancee, society's esteem and a golden future. But the war is not going well. It seems Britain can only wait as Napoleon plans to overrun her shores. After a skirmish with a French ship, Laurence finds himself in charge of a rare cargo: a dragon egg bound for the Emperor himself. Dragons are much prized: properly trained, they can mount a fearsome attack from the skies. One of Laurence's men must take the beast in hand and join the aviators' cause, thus relinquishing all hope of a normal life. But when the newly-hatched dragon ignores the young midshipman Laurence chose as its keeper and decides to imprint itself on the horrified captain instead, Laurence's world falls apart. Gone is his golden future: gone his social standing, and soon his beautiful fiancee, as he is consigned to be the constant companion and trainer of the fighting dragon Temeraire!

Review: A really enjoyable book to read, the characters were engaging .. especially the dragon 'Temeraire' and I loved his relationship with Laurence (he is almost always called Laurence in the book although it is his surname). Usually dragons in fiction are either fierce or impossibly cute, this was a rather pleasing mixture of the two (erring on the right side in both cases.)

I loved the notion too that during the Napoleonic wars, dragons were in the Air Corps with crew, very much like the fighter planes in WWII. There are some sensational aerial battles, really edge of the seat stuff and I'm not in the least surprised that Peter Jackson has bought the film rights. If executed well the films should be fantastic and he's probably the man to do it.

There are a couple of glitches, Laurence's relationships with his family and his, soon to become ex, fiancee aren't really fleshed out. Perhaps we'll learn more about them in the sequels (I think there are three so far). A couple of the plotlines, like the one involving the french deserter Choiseul, were fairly predictable. But that didn't really get in the way of what was, on the whole, a highly enjoyable read.

It was really reminiscent of those old swashbuckling adventure stories ... but with the added bonus of dragons!

There were a couple of situations or words that were fairly 'adult' .. which just prevents it from being suitable for 9 year olds and above .. nothing at all graphic, just words mainly, but that's a bit of a shame because I think they would enjoy it immensely.

I will read the first sequel at least. I hope it continues in the same vein.

8/10

Edited November 29, 2013 by poppyshake

[Nollaig]

That sounds quite unusual, I shall have to check it out! Great review

[poppyshake]

Thanks Noll, I hope you enjoy it .. it's got dragons!! .. what's not to love!

[BookJumper]

Had the Temeraire books highly recommended to me by my Mum and sister, it sounds like they were right as usual I'll get onto them as soon as I can 'cos I'd like to get through them before the film comes out.

[Nollaig]

Is there ANYTHING not being made into a film these days? Any time I come across a book on here I've never even heard of before, there's a rush to get it read before the film comes out and I'm here thinking, 'where was I when this book was getting so popular it warranted a movie adaptation??'

[BookJumper]

Is there ANYTHING not being made into a film these days?

Short answer: no - but I reckon that if anyone can make a decent film about Napoleon mit dragons, it's probably Peter Jackson.

[Nollaig]

Hehehe this is true!

[poppyshake]

Apparently in the USA the 'Temeraire' book is called 'His Majesty's Dragon'.

[poppyshake]

Bought both new and from charity shops ...

 

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

The Rapture - Liz Jensen

Carter Beats the Devil - Glen David Gold

Gypsy Boy - Mikey Walsh

We Have Always Lived in The Castle - Shirley Jackson

Everything Is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer

Brooklyn - Colm Toibin

The Resurrectionist - James Bradley

The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy

The Sea - John Banville

Sunset Song - Lewis Grassic Gibbon

The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells (re-read)

The Diary of A Nobody - George & Weedon Grossmith

The Room of Lost Things - Stella Duffy

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[chesilbeach]

Great haul! I loved The Diary of a Nobody, so hope you enjoy it too

[poppyshake]

Thanks Chesil

I'm looking forward to it .. it's got a great reputation.

[Kylie]

Wow! Have I ever told you that I think you have exceptionally good taste in books?

 

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells (re-read)

The Diary of A Nobody - George & Weedon Grossmith

 

I've read and loved all of these. And I have the following on my TBR pile as well.

 

Carter Beats the Devil - Glen David Gold

Everything Is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer

The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy

The Sea - John Banville

 

I'd also really like to read that Shirley Jackson novel.

[poppyshake]

Thanks Kylie

 

The only real problem I've got is time .. I can't find enough of it to luxuriate in reading as much as I would like. The other problem is library books .. I keep getting piles of books from the library and then am forced to read them before my own books because of their time constraints.

 

It's driving me nuts because I've bought a couple of books (like the Shirley Jackson one) that I'd love to get stuck into but there are seven books to get back to the library by May 5th. When I take them back, I'm bound to see others .. I think I'll just get OH to drop them off for me.

[Cookie]

That's a really good haul Poppy!

 

When I have a new book in a series to get, I often sent OH to get it for me otherwise I will spend ages in the shop and end up spending too much!

[Kylie]

I know what you mean about so many books to read. I finally removed my number of TBR books from my sig because it was so depressing. I have so many books that I'm desperate to read but I know I won't get to many of them for ages.

[poppyshake]

 

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

 

Waterstones Synopsis: 'Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies ...' A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagans California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified dinery server on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation the narrators of CLOUD ATLAS hear each others echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small. In his extraordinary third novel, David Mitchell erases the boundaries of language, genre and time to offer a meditation on humanitys dangerous will to power, and where it may lead us.

 

Review: Disappointingly I didn't enjoy it. It felt like six short stories that were only wispily linked, some of the stories I liked and some I didn't which meant that I would have preferred more of one and much less of the other.

 

The first story we encounter is 'The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing'. Adam is a rather naive American notary writing his journal on board the Prophetess in 1850 as it makes it's way across the Pacific. It's enjoyable enough in it's way but not rivetting and the story stops abruptly .. literally in mid sentence.

 

The next story is 'Letters from Zedelghem' and this one I enjoyed. It's about an impoverished composer called Robert Frobisher who travels to Belgium, sometime between the two world wars, in order to throw himself at the mercy of a reclusive English composer in order to work as his amenuensis. Robert is a wastrel, immoral and self absorbed but his letters to his friend Sixsmith are at times hilarious ... 'Dover an utter fright staffed by Bolsheviks, versified cliffs as Romantic as my ar*e and a similar hue'

 

We then come to ''Half Lives - The First Luisa Rey Mystery' which is a story set in California in the 1970's. Luisa is a journalist investigating corruption at a nuclear power plant. I wasn't that taken with this story, it was ok but it seemed more like a script for one of those made-for-TV movies destined to be shown on a Tuesday afternoon.

 

Next is 'The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish' about a 'vanity publisher' fleeing from the gangster brothers of his client. Timothy calls upon his brother for help, and heads for what he thinks is a kind of safe house/hotel hoping to lie low until the furore dies down. His ghastly ordeal continues when he finds he is confined in a nursing home from which there is no escape. This was another of the stories that I enjoyed, the tale is wittily told and Timothy is very funny 'I was sent to my room without breakfast. I plotted vengeance, litigation and torture. I inspected my cell. Door, locked from outside, no keyhole. Window that only opened six inches. Heavy duty sheets made of egg carton fibres with plastic undersheet. Armchair, washable seat-cover. Moppable carpet. 'Easywipe' wallpaper.'En Suite' bathroom: soap, shampoo, flannel, ratty towel, no window. Picture of cottage captioned: A House is Made by hands, but a Home is Made by Hearts. prospects for break-out: p*ss poor'

 

Then we arrive at 'An Orison of Somni', a dystopian story set in Korea about a genetically engineered server at Papa Songs diner who is being interviewed, by the archivist, before her execution. This I found a mixture of both interesting and uninteresting but for this first part of her story anyway I was intrigued. A terrifying description of what life is like for a futuristic cloned server in a McDonalds/Burger King type outlet .. bred to work for 20 hours a day, incapable of independant thought, working tirelessly to earn their twelve stars which will enable them to retire to 'Xultation' in Hawaii (though this we find out later is far from the case) ... 'Hour four thirty is yellow-up. Stimulin enters the airflow to rouse us from our cots. We file into hygiener; then we steam-clean. Back in our dooroom we dress in fresh uniform; then gather round the Hub with our Seers and his Aides. Papa Song appears on His Plinth for Matins, and we recite the Six Catechisms together. Our logoman then delivers His Sermon. At a minute before hour five we go to our positions around the Hub'.

 

The central story (and the longest as it was the only one not split into two) was 'Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After', a tale set in post-apocalyptic Hawaii and told by tribesman Zachry in heavy dialect. This tale together with 'An Orison of Somni' reminded me a bit of reading Will Self's 'The Book of Dave' the reading of which I would never willingly want to be reminded of. I stopped and stuttered so much over the two .. especially 'Sloosha's Crossin' that it disrupted the flow of the book entirely .. 'Mis'ry'n'barrassment are hungersome for blame, an' what I blamed for losin' Roses was the dammit Prescient. That mornin' on Moon's Nest I got up an' hollered my goats an' droved 'em to Thumb pasture without even sayin' goodbye to Meronym. She'd got 'nuff Smart to leave me be, mem'ry she'd got a son o'her own back on Prescience I'

 

We then go into rewind .. and continue with the first five tales in reverse. Finding out what happened to each of our narrators/protagonists after the point in which we left them until we finally read what was written in the rest of Adam Ewings journal. This only works if you enjoyed all of the stories, if you didn't you approach them again with a kind of dread or ennui .. thankfully the one I enjoyed least was the central one so it wasn't too bad.

 

I can see it's ambitious, clever and well written .. I can see that lots of people will love it ... but overall I didn't enjoy reading it as much as I was hoping. It gave me knots in my head .. and my reading mojo, which was healthy and eager for challenges, is going to have to be coaxed out of a darkened room .. from whence it retired with a 'Cloud Atlas' induced migraine.

 

6/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[poppyshake]

 

Fever Crumb - Philip Reeve

 

Waterstones Synopsis: "Fever Crumb" is a stunning, stand-alone prequel to Philip Reeve's brilliant science fantasy quartet. It is set many generations before the events of Mortal Engines, in whose dazzling world huge, predatory cities chase and devour each other. Now, London is a riot-torn, ruinous town, clinging to a devastated landscape and hiding an explosive secret. Is Fever, adopted daughter of Dr Crumb, the strange key that will unlock its dangerous mysteries?

 

Review: I hadn't read any of the 'Mortal Engine' books so I had no idea what to expect from this prequel. It's a story set in futuristic London, a story about Fever, an orphan, abandoned at birth and brought up by scientist Dr Crumb. She is the youngest member and only female of the Order of Engineers.

 

Fever has had a practical, unemotional upbringing and is very realistic and serious. She has a shaven head, hair is 'just a vestige of our animal past and provides a home for lice and other parasites'. She drinks boiled water, 'it is deeply irrational that dried leaves should be transported halfway around the world aboard ships and land barges simply to flavour water. Besides tea is a stimulant, which leads to nervousness and irrationality' and she cannot see the purpose of jokes.

 

London had once been ruled by The Scriven, who were brilliant, cruel and not entirely human .. they liked to call themselves 'Homo superior'. However, like most mutant strains, they hadn't thrived for long. Largely unsuccessful in breeding and held in contempt by native Londoners they were sought out and slaughtered in an event known as the 'Skinners Riots'.

 

One day Fever is sent on a placement to archaeologist Kit Solent's house, he has specifically requested that she help him study some artefacts. But her odd coloured eyes and shaven head evoke suspicion in some of the native Londoners, and it isn't long before the Skinners get wind of this odd looking traveller and set about trying to track her down.

 

She expects to be taken by Kit to some ancient site, but instead he takes her to a secret passage that runs underneath his house. The passage leads to a chamber in which there is a door, with no handles or hinges .. just a 'lectronic keypad'. It requires a code to break it and for some strange reason, Kit expects Fever to know that code and even stranger than that is that Fever thinks she does remember that code.

 

She starts to find her stay at Kit Solents house unsettling, she begins to have thoughts and feelings that she's never experienced before. She wonders about her past, who were her real parents?. She begins to remember things, memories of other yesterdays which could not possibly have been hers for she has always lived at Godshawk's Head with Dr Crumb.

 

And all the while a huge army makes it's way South, tribes of people from the North who have been set wandering by the plagues and firestorms. Travelling in gigantic wagons and traction castles, huge cities moving ever onwards towards the 'Moatway' gates and London.

 

I thought the writing was fantastic, if Dickens had ever written a futuristic novel for children then it would be very much like this one .. with the Skinners, the Scriven and the Patchskins .. The Mott and Hoople Pub, Pickled Eel Circus, Cripplegate, Stragglemarket and St Kylie. Clearly Philip Reeve is a David Bowie fan as there is graffiti saying 'This ain't genocide, this is rock'n'roll' and there is also a pub called 'Scary Monsters and Super Creeps' (also Fever has mismatched eyes as Bowie has). Central to it all is Fever, and though she is a weird little unemotional thing, you can't help but be interested in her and anxious about her welfare.

 

Apparently, though this is a prequel, it's best if you read it last. I haven't done that but I'm still interested to read the others because they sound even more fantastic.

 

8/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[Kylie]

Great review of Cloud Atlas, Poppy! I pretty much agree with everything you said, although I didn't enjoy the Timothy Cavendish story as much as you.

[poppyshake]

Thanks Kylie, I keep seeing David Mitchell's new book being advertised and thinking shall I dip my toe back into the water again, it looks really interesting but then my brain says no .. not yet anyway.

[poppyshake]

 

A History of the World in 10� Chapters - Julian Barnes

 

Book Blurb: Connecting themes of voyage and discovery, A History of the World in 10� Chapters has become one of Barnes's most studied and talked about novels. The mixture of fictional and historical narratives provides Barnes the opportunity to question our ideas of history, our interpretation of facts, and our search for answers to explain our interaction and placement within the grand scope of history.

 

Review: This is really a collection of short stories, loosely connected by themes such as Noah and his Ark, boats and water in general and woodworm! Most of them are fictionalised accounts of true stories.

 

Most of the stories were really enjoyable. The first one is a humorous retelling of Noah and his journey on the Ark .. from the viewpoint of a stowaway woodworm. The woodworm is not a big fan of Noah or his 'role model' God, and that's putting it mildly.

 

There is a fascinating account of the 'Shipwreck of the Medusa' (1816) which is split into two parts. The first part details how after the ship struck a reef some of the crew built a raft and this was towed by one of the ship's launches. Fearing that they would be overwhelmed by the desperate crew of the raft the launch crew cut the ropes and left the raft adrift in the ocean. What followed is a tale of despair, dissent, fighting, starvation, cannibalism and execution until the few survivors left were eventually rescued. Tucked in between the two parts is a folded book plate which when pulled out reveals a beautiful painting depicting the crew of the raft hailing a tiny boat on the horizon. This painting is by Gericault and is called 'The Raft of the Medusa'. The second part is an account of how catastrophe can be turned into art and Julian attempts to provide answers as to why Gericault chose to paint the raft and it's crew in the way that he did for 'the incident never took place as depicted'.

 

There are stories of a cruise ship beset by terrorists, a bizarre medieval tale about some woodworm which are on trial at a French court (they are accused of infesting the Bishop's throne legs causing the chair to topple and the Bishop to fall into imbecility) which was quite a challenging read and a tale of an astronaut who believed that during his moonwalk, God spoke to him and urged him to find the Ark on Mount Ararat .. he subsequently comes home and sets about raising funds for the trip.

 

On the whole I liked it a lot. Perhaps the title is misleading, this isn't really a history of the world, just a few fictionalised random accounts of historical events and some musings from Julian about love, life and death. It was rewarding and thought provoking though, the sort of book that makes you head straight to 'Google' during and after reading it.

 

8/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake

[BookJumper]

I love the sound of The History of the World - thanks for clarifying the title Poppy, as funnily enough it probably would have made me leave the book on the shelf !

[poppyshake]

Hi Giulia Welcome Home!!

Yes, it wasn't what I was expecting at all. I was surprised, but in a good way.

[poppyshake]

 

Elephant Keeper - Christopher Nicholson

 

Waterstones Synopsis: 'I asked the sailor what an Elephant looked like; he replied that it was like nothing on earth.' In the middle of the 18th century, a ship docks at Bristol with an extraordinary cargo: two young elephants. Bought by a wealthy landowner, they are taken to his estate in the English countryside. A stable boy, Tom Page, is given the task of caring for them. 'The Elephant Keeper' is Tom's account of his life with the elephants. As the years pass, and as they journey across England, his relationship with the female elephant deepens in a startling manner. Along the way they meet incredulity, distrust and tragedy, and it is only their understanding of each other that keeps them together. Christopher Nicholson's charming and captivating novel explores notions of sexuality and violence, freedom and captivity, and the nature of story-telling -- but most of all it is the study of a profound and remarkable love between an elephant and a human being.

 

Review: I love Elephants, they're probably my favourite wild animal and so I found this book both really enjoyable and incredibly sad in places. Tom Page is a stable boy at Harrington Hall in Somersetshire. When his master buys a couple of Elephants fresh off the boat (or not very fresh actually, they had suffered terribly during the journey) Tom is given the job of looking after them. To most of the other workers the Elephants are creatures to be feared or a curiosity. This is the 18th century and hardly anyone in England has ever even seen a picture of an Elephant, but Tom falls in love with them and with time and patience creates a special bond. He calls them (secretly) Jenny and Timothy and his life begins to revolve entirely around them to the detriment of his relations with his family and his sweetheart Lizzy.

 

Timothy's behaviour gives cause for concern, he is 'on heat' and during this time becomes aggressive and unmanageable, even Tom struggles to pacify him. This along with the financial strain caused by the upkeep of the Elephants and several unfortunate incidents and accidents involving them, leads to Tom's master deciding to sell them both. Unfortunately they are parted, Timothy is sent in a packing crate to Lincolnshire and a few weeks later Jenny is sold to Lord Bidborough in Sussex. Tom is given the choice to either stay at Harrington Hall or accompany Jenny to Sussex. Much to his mother's and Lizzy's dismay, Tom decides to go with Jenny to Sussex. Lizzy's words burn in his ear 'Tom, you cannot tie yourself for ever to an Elephant. You cannot spend the rest of your life caring for an Elephant - You cannot, it is unnatural. She is only an Elephant' .. but Tom is adamant, however much he feels for his family and Lizzy, it is as nothing compared to the love and responsibility he feels towards Jenny.

 

It is Lord Bidborough who asks Tom to write a History of the Elephant (and this we read in the introduction), and after writing a few stilted phrases such as 'the Elephant is, without dispute, the largest creature in the world' and 'Its ears are broad while it's skin is generally grey' Tom decides it would be better if he wrote the history in journal form starting with the day he first met them and bringing it right up to date and adding to it each day (which is in effect what we read for the first half of the book).

 

It's a pretty idyllic life for Tom and Jenny in Sussex but nothing good lasts forever and eventually a series of misfortunes lead to Jenny being sold on again, and again and again. It's at this point that you realise how much Tom's own life has been put on hold and how his devotion to Jenny has cost him a chance of a happy family life himself, or even a stable and settled life (no pun intended). Before he leaves Sussex he enquires after Timothy and he eventually intercepts a letter detailing what happened to the bull Elephant after he left Somersetshire

I admit to crying when I read this letter .. poor Timothy suffers terribly and dies horrifically

 

 

The book gets sadder and sadder, Tom and Jenny end up in London in a badly kept and badly run menagerie, and I found the accounts of the sad, malnourished animals doing tricks or being forced to entertain the meagre crowds almost unbearable. You just keep hoping that something will happen to release them from their misery .. it's torturous reading. Tom is old by now and he worries about what will become of him if he loses Jenny and worries even more about what will become of Jenny if she loses him.

 

It's an easy, undemanding read, though very sad in places. It is a bit patchy, there are times when it rambles on too long and others where you would like a bit more detail. But the lovely way in which it describes the relationship between Tom and Jenny/Timothy makes it a great read, especially if you love Elephant's.

 

8/10

Edited July 28, 2010 by poppyshake