Virtual and Interactive Book Journal

Thoughts on Crime Fiction (and some free books for bookcrossers)

2009-04-26T14:10:27Z

This week's Sunday Salon post is about realising I don't really like modern crime fiction and giving some books away as a result... :)

X-posted to some book communities.

New book reviews!

2008-08-26T19:03:24Z

I have been writing reviews over the last six months but they're all now posted over at http://daemonwolfbooks.blogspot.com/. These reviews though are my first reviews in a month or so and more will follow tomorrow. :) If you didn't see my photo posts of bookcrossing in action around Castle Howard and St James's Hospital then scroll down the page for them...

::hugs::

Alex

Some new reviews

2008-02-29T12:11:51Z

More reviews and fresh posts over at http://daemonwolfbooks.blogspot.com/. :)

daemonwolfbooks @ 2008-01-27T13:52:00

2008-01-27T13:56:28Z

There are some new reviews over at http://daemonwolfbooks.blogspot.com/.

I am slowly but surely moving all my back catalogue of reviews from here to there, once this is done I will set up an LJ feed which you can display on your friends list. Shouldn't take too long. :)

3/10 - Exhibitionism by Toby Litt (03/01/08)

2008-01-17T09:43:47Z

Read Adventures in Capitalism Instead

Category: Fiction/Short Stories
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New Ed edition (30 Jan 2003)
ISBN-10: 0141006536
ISBN-13: 978-0141006536

Inspired/Suggested by: I previously enjoyed another set of stories by Litt.

Synopsis: From the writer who brought you "Adventures In Capitalism" and starring the Boots Please-Use-a-Basket Girl, Mr Kipling, Michel Foucault and a Fluffy Pink Bunny Rabbit comes a brand new production, "Exhibitionism", starring Polly Morphous, Lee Perverse, the New Puritans and the Audioguide to the Museum of Inside-Your-Head. With more twists 'n' turns, more sex 'n' violence, more glitz 'n' glamour than ever before, Toby Litt is back ...and this time it's personal.

This unfortunately failed to deliver, the humour is stagnant and not as clever as the author was aiming for. The first story set the tone for me by generating a 'so what' response. Brilliant premise (what would happen if you met your dream girl and she turned out to be everything you hoped for? What would you dream of then?) but such a poor punchline that it really didn't deliver. 3/10. (For a reminder of the scale used please see my profile.)

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

A catch from Leeds Bradford Airport

2007-08-05T15:42:59Z

Catch-22

Yay, another catch and another new bookcrosser!

A catch from Scarborough trip!

2007-08-05T15:41:10Z

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Released it on the way up to the castle and it's been caught, generated a new bookcrosser and travelled onwards... :)

6/10 - A Passage To India by E.M. Forster

2007-08-05T14:06:19Z

Bleak and Biased

Category: Fiction/Classics
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; Film & TV Tie-in Ed edition (13 Dec 1984)
ISBN-10: 014006527X
ISBN-13: 978-0140065275

Inspired/Suggested by: A classic it was time to read.

Synopsis: What really happened in the Marabar caves? This is the mystery at the heart of E.M. Forster's 1924 novel, A Passage to India, the puzzle that sets in motion events highlighting an even larger question: can an Englishman and an Indian be friends?
Written while England was still firmly in control of India, Forster's novel follows the fortunes of three English newcomers to India--Miss Adela Quested, Mrs Moore and Cyril Fielding--and the Indian, Dr Aziz, with whom they cross destinies. The idea of true friendship between the races was a radical one in Forster's time, and he makes it abundantly clear that it was not one that either side welcomed.

Despite their countrymen's disapproval, Miss Quested, Mrs Moore and Mr Fielding are all eager to meet Indians, and in Dr Aziz they find a perfect companion: educated, westernized, and open- minded. Slowly, the friendships ripen, especially between Aziz and Fielding. Having created the possibility of esteem based on trust and mutual affection, Forster then subjects it to the crucible of racial hatred: during a visit to the famed Marabar caves, Miss Quested accuses Dr Aziz of sexually assaulting her, but then later recants during the frenzied trial that follows. Under such circumstances, affection proves to be a very fragile commodity indeed.

Arguably Forster's greatest novel, A Passage to India paints a troubling portrait of colonialism at its worst, and is remarkable for the complexity of its characters. Here the personal becomes the political, and in the breach between Aziz and his English "friends", Forster foreshadows the eventual end of the Raj.

The cat fighting, bitchiness and narrow minded societies (both Indian and English) are brilliant displayed to the reader in such a way to draw you in page after page. Unfortunately I found the same problem that I had with A Room With A View - Forster goes way off tangent into strange, whimsical strands at the end and it ruins it for me. What was a good, interesting, juicy story of conflicting societies and the awakening of Indian independence suddenly lurches into considerations of hallucinations and ghosts. Odd. Read the first two thirds and leave the last section (Temple) well alone. 6/10. (For a reminder of the scale used please see my profile.)

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

7/10 - The Blog Digest 2007 by Justin McKeating

2007-08-05T13:48:16Z

Facets Of Life

Category: Fact/Biography/Culture and Society
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: The Friday Project Limited (1 Dec 2006)
ISBN-10: 1905548168
ISBN-13: 978-1905548163

Inspired/Suggested by: Amazon wishlist fulfillment.

Synopsis: From Bristol to Baghdad, from sex workers to ambulance drivers, it seems like everybody, everywhere is keeping a 'blog'. At least that's what the media would have you believe. But with millions of blogs in the UK alone (and many millions more worldwide), it would take you more than a lifetime to read them all in search of the best of the bunch. Which is where this book comes in. The Blog Digest is the ultimate anthology of blog writing from the last twelve months. From searing topical commentary to hilarious musings on modern life - no matter whether you're a seasoned blogger yourself or just want to know what the fuss is about, there's something here for everyone.

Looking at different topics and showcasing the fringe as well as the core blogs this threw up some addresses I'd not actually visited before and did make me smile in places. The only criticism I have is that there is so much Gulf War II material, understandable certainly but it dates badly and I'd have preferred more of the space given over to more general zeitgeisty musing on religion/climate/politics than specifics. 7/10. (For a reminder of the scale used please see my profile.)

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going. Earmarked for a specific recipient.

0/10 (DNF) - The God Of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

2007-08-05T13:36:49Z

Modern Classic?

Category: Fiction/
Publisher: Flamingo; New Ed edition (5 May 1998)
ISBN-10: 0006550681
ISBN-13: 978-0006550686

Inspired/Suggested by: Third attempt.

Synopsis: Set against a background of political turbulence in Kerala, this novel tells the story of twins Esthappen and Rahel. Amongst the vats of banana jam and heaps of peppercorns in their grandmother's factory they try to craft a childhood for themselves amidst what constitutes their family.

Hard work, wooly, pretentious, long, long similes that ramble off into the blue yonder. Seemingly embodying everything I dislike about Booker Prize nominees I fall into the Haters camp on this one. Did Not Finish = 0/10. (For a reminder of the scale used please see my profile.)

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

6/10 - Trollope by Victoria Glendinning

2007-08-05T13:27:17Z

No image available.

Torture by Social Convention

Category: Fact/Biography
Paperback: 544 pages
Publisher: Hutchinson (Sep 1992)
ISBN-10: 0091738962
ISBN-13: 978-0091738969

Inspired/Suggested by: Read as part of the TBR Relay Challenge.

Synopsis: Anthony Trollope is, with Dickens, the most enduringly popular Victorian novelist. All of his 47 novels have been printed - two of which have been made into TV series, "The Pallisers" and "The Barchester Chronicles". Born in 1815, Trollope initially made his living working for the Post Office - introducing the pillar box into Britain. He was also an enthusiastic rider to hounds, a Liberal parliamentary candidate, a magazine editor, a traveller, the devoted friend of Thackeray and George Eliot and the author of over 60 books and a vast amount of journalism. This book explores Trollope's private life - his unhappy childhood, his relationships with his wife and a beautiful American, Kate Fielding - while creating a picture of the times in which he lived.

The Introduction is very wry and I love the author's admission that she developed a hostility for Trollope's brother Tom while researching but she's tried to temper that in the text. However an interesting beginning seems to get bogged down in details in places and while I was interested I found myself skimreading sections (particularly Trollope's teen years - no one's teen years are that interesting). 6/10 because it lost me in places. (For a reminder of the scale used please see my profile.)

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

0/10 (DNF) - The Glimpses Of The Moon by Edith Wharton

2007-08-05T13:06:13Z

Marrying Mercenaries

Category: Fiction
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st Scribner Paperback Fiction Ed edition (28 Oct 1996)
ISBN-10: 0684826194
ISBN-13: 978-0684826196

Inspired/Suggested by: Picked up at the BCUK Unconvention 2007.

Synopsis: 'She wondered if, when human souls try to get too near each other, they do not inevitably become mere blurs to each other's vision.' Susy Branch learned early that to thrive without money in a society driven by wealth one must dissemble, flatter and sometimes even drop one's moral guard in order to share a little of one's host's luxury and leisure. Nick Lansing has also learned and wearied of the same lesson. Despite the foolishness of their romance - for each should be seeking a partner of means - they decide to marry. By combining their skills they should be able to enjoy a year's invitations and happiness before they need face reality. But love makes its own exacting demands and its costs can also be high ...

A predictable enough tale of two people who decide to get married to sponge off their friends as a newly wed couple but who then clash and realise that they can't just remain as they were once the doors are closed. I didn't finish this as it just didn't catch my attention enough to persuade me not to turn to one of the other couple of hundred books calling to me. 0/10. (For a reminder of the scale used please see my profile.)

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

0/10 (DNF) - The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley

2007-08-05T12:56:32Z

Saga Style

Category: Fiction/Historical/Saga
Paperback: 608 pages
Publisher: Anchor Books; Reprint edition (13 Sep 2005)
ISBN-10: 1400095468
ISBN-13: 978-1400095469

Inspired/Suggested by: A charity shop buy.

Synopsis: In fourteenth-century Greenland, a small Norse settlement struggles for survival through increasingly harsh winters, famine, witchcraft, and a tragic feud between the family of Asgeir Gunnarsson and one of his neighbours.

I couldn't finish this book as the style was so well done. An odd criticism I know, but I am not a fan of the original sagas and this is so well moulded to that style I couldnt get on with it. The slow revealing of the world described and the characters' concerns are well paced though and I did get to 60 or so pages before deciding I couldn't get beyond the style issue. 0/10. (For a reminder of the scale used please see my profile.)

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

9/10 - No Love Is This by Tracey Sinclair Recommended

2007-07-30T08:54:52Z

Brittle and Brilliant

Category: Ficton/Short Stories
Paperback: 156 pages
Publisher: Kennedy And Boyd (28 Feb 2006)
ISBN-10: 1904999301
ISBN-13: 978-1904999300

Inspired/Suggested by: noting_nothing

Synopsis: A runaway gets more than she bargained for. A walk in the woods takes a sinister turn. A mistress finds that being a wife isn't all that it promised to be. Writing with incisive wit and dry humour, Tracey Sinclair probes the dark heart of everyday life in a collection of stories that strips bare the lies we tell one another and ourselves. Sometimes shocking, sometimes uplifting, always recognisable, these are tales that will stay with you long after you have read them. Tracey Sinclair is a Newcastle-born writer. Having lived in Glasgow for several years, she is currently based in London. She has written non-fiction for a number of publications and websites and her short stories have been published in magazines as diverse as Pulp Net, Printer's Devil and Woman's Weekly. She has also had work included in two anthologies (Northern Arc and The Blue Room) and performed on local radio. Her first novel, Doll, was published in 2005.

Short stories have stiff competition to make themselves memorable (Carver, Bates, Saki, Nabokov) but this set are very, very memorable. Dark, down to earth, bleak but with an underlying humour that makes them very re-readable. I'll be buying my own copy and I'm delighted to find another UK author to delight in. 9/10. (For a reminder of the scale used please see my profile.)

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

9/10 - How To Be Free by Tom Hodgkinson Recommended

2007-07-30T08:34:00Z

Lessons of Loki

Category: Fact/Philosophy
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd (5 Oct 2006)
ISBN-10: 0241143217
ISBN-13: 978-0241143216

Inspired/Suggested by: A quirky impulse buy.

Synopsis: Have you ever wondered why you bother to go to work? Why so much of consumer culture is crap? Whether there might be a better, freer, happier way to live our lives? If so, this book is for you. Following up his cult bestseller "How To Be Idle", Tom Hodgkinson takes us on an inspirational journey towards true freedom and happiness. Read "How To Be Free" and learn how to throw off the shackles of anxiety, bureaucracy, debt, governments, housework, moaning, pain, poverty, ugliness, war and waste, and much else besides.

The kind of book you just don't want to put down since it makes you happy just reading it. It's not necessarily original or going to start a revolution but that isn't really the point. Nor are you supposed to do everything he suggests - if everyone took Hodgkinson's lessons seriously we'd all be playing ukeleles which would be silly. Fun, but silly. It's about making a life that celebrates what you believe in and doing away with the noise, chaos and dross of being sold things and ideas you don't want to buy into. And maybe causing a little bit of mischief and amusement along the way. No bad thing. I'll be re-reading this again soon. 9/10. (For a reminder of the scale used please see my profile.)

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

9/10 - Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin Recommended

2007-07-30T08:22:17Z

Much Truth Is Spoken In Jest

Category: Fact/Biography
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New Ed edition (30 Nov 2000)
ISBN-10: 0140296905
ISBN-13: 978-0140296907

Inspired/Suggested by: Picked up at the BCUK Unconvention 2007.

Synopsis: The novels of Jane Austen depict a world of civility, reassuring stability and continuity, which generations of readers have supposed was the world she herself inhabited. Claire Tomalin's biography paints a surprisingly different picture of the Austen family and their Hampshire neighbours, and of Jane's progress through a difficult childhood, an unhappy love affair, her experiences as a poor relation and her decision to reject a marriage that would solve all her problems - except that of continuing as a writer. Both the woman and the novels are radically reassessed in this biography.

Sensitively written with a wry sense of humour, this book re-examines all the evidence of Jane Austen's life and seeks to find the truth behind the family tradition. Austen is revealed to be very un-prim, constantly concerned with money (shades of Sense and Sensibility) and heavily patriotic (in a way that her lack of historic references in her books belies). The episode of her engagement and her cancelling of it is well covered here to show her in a different light as is her doomed love affair which I'd never heard of before reading this. What is most startling though is the lack of consideration her family seem to have shown her again and again moving her from pillar to post and using her as a drudge despite the fact they apparently held her in affection.

I loved this book and the author's teasing out of harsh truths from platitudes and her consideration of the family as a whole as well as the individual personalities. Most convincing was Tomalin's discussion of whether Austen's brother (who was a failure as a writer) unconsciously or consciously denied her publicity and fame in her life and in the aftermath of her death. Certainly the destruction of nearly all of her letters by various family members was a tragedy that leaves so many gaps in Austen's life it takes great dexterity to piece the remaining evidence together, dexterity which Tomalin is fortunately blessed with. 9/10. (For a reminder of the scale used please see my profile.)

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

8/10 - Utopian Dreams by Tobias Jones Recommended

2007-07-30T08:03:25Z

Defining Communities

Category: Fact/Biography/Philosophy
Publisher: Faber and Faber (11 Jan 2007)
ISBN-10: 057122380X
ISBN-13: 978-0571223800

Inspired/Suggested by: A wishlist purchase.

Synopsis: This is a travel book, an account of the year Tobias Jones spent living in communes and amongst unusual dreamers. It is his attempt to retreat from the 'real world' - which is making him emptier and angrier by the day - and seek out the alternatives to modern manners and morality. Instead of cynicism, loneliness and depression is it possible to be idealistic, find belonging and companionship? Are there really groups that transcend the opposites of individualism and community, where you can be truly yourself but also part of something else? With his wife and baby daughter in tow, Jones visits unusual orphanages, retirement villages, detox co-operatives and old-fashioned farmyards, and spends time with spiritualists, time travellers, reformed drug addicts and Quakers. He encounters wildly different communities, some more harmonious than others, which lead him to ask the deeply unfashionable question: do groups that place faith at their centre work better than those that don't?

Clever, humble, well researched. Jones documents his stay in various communities over the space of a year. Though their motivations differ he finds common trends and shared goals that make him question his own place in society and just what he intends to achieve with his life. I found myself jotting down quotes or interesting ideas every other page and seriously fascinated with all the very different reasons for and expectations people had of what living with others would do for them. I think the community that caught my imagination most was the Quaker community of elderly folks set up by the Rowntrees. I found the idea of elderly people coming together to feel safe, involved and cared for was perhaps the most pragmatic discussed in the book and it sounded realistic and down to earth.

Jones has an ability to give a flavour of the communities, their participants and daily routines with flair and this makes the book one of my favourites of the year so far, however since he travelled for most of the time with his wife and child I would have liked to hear more of his wife's thoughts about the places they visited. For this reason a 10/10 is moved to a 8/10. (For a reminder of the scale used please see my profile.)

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

6/10 - Tell No One by Harlan Coben

2007-07-30T07:42:20Z

What If Everyone You Know Is Wrong?

Category: Fiction/Mystery/Thriller
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Orion; New Ed edition (31 Dec 2001)
ISBN-10: 0752844504
ISBN-13: 978-0752844503

Inspired/Suggested by: I love Coben's series of Bolitar books and was intrigued by a stand alone book.

Synopsis: Every year Elizabeth and David Beck return to Lake Charmaine, a place that has been a part of their lives since they were children. But on their thirteenth visit, Elizabeth is kidnapped and murdered, while David is left for dead.

For the next eight years, Dr David Beck relives the horror of what happened every day of his life. Although Elizabeth has been buried, and her killer waits on death row, for David it still feels as if more than one life ended on that night.

Then an image of Elizabeth appears on his computer screen, brutally ripping open the old wounds. Is it just a practical joke? Or evidence that somehow Elizabeth is still alive? Suddenly Beck is running away from his safe, ordinary life, and all the people he trusts. He's chasing a ghost whose messages hold out a desperate hope - and warn him to tell no one. But soon Dr Beck himself is being hunted down ...

An intriguing start and a well written first third which made me do that smug-mystery-reader-I-can-spot-a-wrong-'un-and he's-a-bad-egg thing but still kept me turning pages. Its a hard balance to write a book that allows the reader to feel like they know something the characters don't without becoming exasperated. Unfortunately the first third then leads into a farce and a very unbelievable/unsatisfying ending. I found myself disappointed that the book had fizzled out. However for the premise and the humour of some of the jokes, it's a 6/10. (For a reminder of the scale used please see my profile.)

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

3/10 - Divided Kingdom by Rupert Thomson

2007-07-30T07:31:51Z

Which Humour Are You?

Category: Fiction/Dystopia
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; New Ed edition (3 April 2006)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0747578923
ISBN-13: 978-0747578925

Inspired/Suggested by: Picked up at the BCUK Unconvention 2007.

Synopsis: It is winter, somewhere in the United Kingdom, and an eight-year-old boy is removed from his home and family in the middle of the night. He learns that he is the victim of an extraordinary experiment. In an attempt to reform society, the government has divided the population into four groups, each representing a different personality type. The land, too, has been divided into quarters. Borders have been established, reinforced by concrete walls, armed guards and rolls of razor wire. Plunged headlong into this brave new world, the boy tries to make the best of things, unaware that ahead of him lies a truly explosive moment, a revelation that will challenge everything he believes in and will, in the end, put his very life in jeopardy.

When I originally saw this come out I was tempted to buy it since I loved Soft and The Book Of Revelation by the same author despite them being so very diffrent in content and tone. I am glad I didn't though as this is an interesting idea badly executed. There are a lot of things never explained or unaccountably taken as given (why the world has been divided up, why there was no resistance to any of it and why the main character seems to be emotionally empty before any of the dystopian events actually happen). Characters seem very cardboard (the boy's new adoptive father for example) and some are introduced and removed for no real reason. I found this book interesting in that it is again a completely different style from the two books which I had previously read by this author but beyond that it left me as cold as the main character. 3/10. (For a reminder of the scale used please see my profile.)

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

8/10 - Carter Beats The Devil

2007-07-30T07:11:28Z

A Hell Of An Entrance

Category: Fiction
Paperback: 576 pages
Publisher: Sceptre; New Ed edition (16 May 2002)
ISBN-10: 0340794992
ISBN-13: 978-0340794999

Inspired/Suggested by: Three non-blokelit reading Leeds bookcrosser lasses...

Synopsis: Charles Carter, dubbed Carter the Great by Houdini himself, was born into privilege but became a magician out of need: only when dazzling an audience can he defeat his fear of loneliness. But in 1920s America the stakes are growing higher, as technology and the cinema challenge the allure of magic and Carter's stunts become increasingly audacious. Until the night President Harding takes part in Carter's act only to die two hours later, and Carter finds himself pursued not only by the Secret Service but by a host of others desperate to discover the terrible secret they believe Harding confided in him. Seamlessly blending reality and fiction, Gold lays before us a glittering and romantic panorama of our modern world at a point of irrevocable change.

I'd originally been put off reading this by the similarity of the artwork on the cover to that on Aberystwyth Mon Amour which I loathed. Sat in the Leeds BC meet though when this book landed on the table I idly asked the question whether the two books were similar in content. Three very feisty 'this book totally rocks' reviews later I found myself taking it home. I read it while travelling over to Belgium and couldn't put it down, I almost missed the call for my flight as a result. It does indeed totally rock and although it is a bit Boys Own in places this is forgivable in what is such a talented first book. I loved the characters - Carter is provided with several foils which give his wit something to sharpen itself on beautifully - and the plot is well paced with several twists and turns. The action sequences are balanced by mysteries and dramatic dialogues that make you smile. Highly recommended, I'll buy whatever he writes next. 8/10.

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

1/10 - Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

2007-07-25T11:50:27Z

I Prefer Fan Fiction

Category: Fiction
Hardcover: 607 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury; Children's edition (21 Jul 2007)
ISBN-10: 0747591059
ISBN-13: 978-0747591054

Inspired/Suggested by: Oh, I don't know, worldwide hysteria...? :)

Synopsis: Harry has been burdened with a dark, dangerous and seemingly impossible task: that of locating and destroying Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes. Never has Harry felt so alone, or faced a future so full of shadows. But Harry must somehow find within himself the strength to complete the task he has been given. He must leave the warmth, safety and companionship of The Burrow and follow without fear or hesitation the inexorable path laid out for him.

In this final, seventh installment of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling unveils in spectactular fashion the answers to the many questions that have been so eagerly awaited. The spellbinding, richly woven narrative, which plunges, twists and turns at a breathtaking pace, confirms the author as a mistress of storytelling, whose books will be read, reread and read again.

I bought this Saturday morning and finished it on Saturday afternoon but haven't had time to write a review till now.

We all knew that the last book would disappoint the fans in some way, since everybody has their own ideas of what this set of characters are and should be. But after finishing this seventh HP book I felt that the fan fiction writers would have made a better job of it. It's weak in it's writing and lacking in any kind of depth or impact in several key places. The beginning sequence quickly dribbles away to a tedious, heavily padded and very repetitive camping plot strand that goes on for much, much too long. Characters are under used and poorly handled - if I am supposed to be wowed by Snape's true character being revealed at the end of the book then he needs to be in the book more, maybe not in big scenes but at least a presence so that the revelation actually feels like one. Also, to make him a hero but then say he did it all because of a teenage crush just doesn't work for me. I liked the bank robbery but it felt like an entirely stand alone piece to me and jarred with what followed. Deaths off camera for Remus and Tonks have no emotional impact and seem to happen just because Rowling doesn't know what else to do with them and wants to complete the circle of a kid orphaned by magic wars. Dumbledore and Voldemort doing large dialogues to explain overly complex, hey-I'm-so-clever-with-these-damn-horcruxes reasonings and I-wasn't-so-bad-I-had-my-reasons-and-isn't-the-afterworld-cosy? speeches were sickening. Oh and Harry as Aslan was too obvious.

One curiosity I saw on the Wikipedia page for the book is that the US edition is 150 pages longer than the UK one. How big do they need the text to be???

More than anything else I found the ending frustrating and disappointing: all the nice white, hetero kids grow up and get married and have perfect kids of their own. Pass me a bucket. I don't like an author who kills off non-conformers, werewolves and house elves, leaves the holy trinity intact and doesn't bother to tell you what happened to any of the other non-canon characters in her shmaltzy 19 years later bit.

And, despite the fact there'll be no one in the known universe paying it right now, putting a cover price of £17.99 on this book is criminal. I love books, like most fish love water. Can't remember the last time I spent that much on a book though. Regular children quite simply do not have £17.99 lying around to buy just one book. Educating them in the jedi mind trick of cover prices that no one ever pays due to continual price wars is dark magic indeed.

I hold by my opinion that the fan ficcers would have done a better and more satisfying job, it probably would have had more adult content and themes but hey, you're supposed to be able to grow with the characters... ;)

1/10 from me.

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

Non book related but might be of interest....

2007-06-03T11:13:53Z

I have a cooking journal and through the cooking communities I belong to I heard of sendmeataste which is an excellent idea, join the community, find someone you want to swap with and then send them a taste of the things you eat or the area you live in is famous for...

It combines post, food and curiosity - how neat is that?

:)

8/10 - The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones

2007-05-26T15:27:32Z

Concise And Yet Rich

Category: Fiction/Mystery
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Picador (11 May 2001)
ISBN-10: 0330485032
ISBN-13: 978-0330485036

Inspired/Suggested by: I've had this for years but am on a bit of Japanese kick right now.

Synopsis:This novel takes its readers into the mindset of the chief suspect for a murder, Lucy Fly - a young vulnerable English girl working in Tokyo as a translater. As Lucy is interrogated by the police she reveals her past to the reader, and it is a past which is dangerously ambiguous and compromising.

A gem of a book. It begins with an earthquake which starts the day that Lucy is arrested for murder, though she is at pains to tell us that it is not a sign, merely what happened. The language is spare and elegant, the characters wonderfully 'real'. Lucy slowly shows through the flashbacks how her life in Japan has developed and how she has adapted to new cultural rules and experiences. Along the way the reader comes to understand the motivations and threads of the lives of Lucy, Lily (the murdered girl) and Teiji (Lucy's lover). I found myself thinking about the descriptions of Tokyo streets and scenes long after I finished this short book. Recommended. 8/10.

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going, though for the moment it is part of my personal collection.

5/10 - A Fish Caught In Time by Samantha Weinberg

2007-05-26T15:15:12Z

A Living Fossil

Category: Fact/Biography/Marine Biology/History
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Fourth Estate; New Ed edition (April 2000)
ISBN-10: 1857029070
ISBN-13: 978-1857029079

Inspired/Suggested by: A quirky impulse buy.

Synopsis: In 1938 Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a young South African museum curator, caught sight of a fish among a fisherman's trawl in the Indian Ocean. It was thought to have been extinct for 70,000,000 years and believed by scientists to be the evolutionary missing link - the first creature to crawl out of the sea 400,000,000 years ago. The museum board members dismissed it as a common lungfish, but when Marjorie contacted Professor J.L.B. Smith, he immediately identified it as the evolutionary Holy Grail - the greatest zoological discovery of the 20th century. But Smith needed a live or frozen specimen to verify the discovery, and thus began a search to which he devoted his life.

This would have scored higher but it completely lost direction halfway through... the problem is that once the second and third specimens of coelacanths were found the story moved on from Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer and JLB Smith who were interested in the finding and proving of the coelacanth's existence. Once they'd done that they were not really involved in the investigations of how the thing survived and adapted to a modern environment. So the story drifts and loses it's drive as there is no main focus for the author to work with. A shame. 6/10.

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.

7/10 - Kings and Desperate Men by Louis Kronenberg

2007-05-26T15:06:22Z

A Political History of The Hanoverian Age

Category: Fact/18th Century History
Paperback: 298 pages
Publisher: Vintage (28 Jun 1973)
ISBN-10: 039470083X
ISBN-13: 978-0394700830

Inspired/Suggested by: Have had this for years, not sure where I got it.

Synopsis: A history of various characters and episodes from the age of the Hanoverian kings.

A dry sense of humour weaves throughout this work though it takes a few chapters to pick up it's thread. It is a fairly heavy work but the sections on The Arts, The Artists and The Country are page-turners with well sketched scenes of honesty, looking at the reasons why there were no great salons in England Kronenberg is very harsh on dull witted English drunks of the time... 7/10.

The link to bookcrossing where you can track where the book has been and is going.