tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68951101174602257572024-03-13T03:55:31.023+00:00Seagreen ReaderWhat I am reading, and what I am trying to persuade my 10 year old son to read.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.comBlogger155125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-32078493474082393672015-01-30T21:42:00.000+00:002015-01-30T21:42:49.098+00:00H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald"I must try to be happier, I told myself. For the sake of the hawk I must."<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7d7d7d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"></span><br />
<br />
I love the cover of this book. I noticed it immediately on the display stand in the library. I have also recently read a glowing review of it. So despite my New Year's resolution to bring fewer into the house and read more from the TBR - I checked it out of the library and brought it home.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://images.randomhouseimages.co.uk/9780099575450-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://images.randomhouseimages.co.uk/9780099575450-large.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-top: 0px; max-height: 100%; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="130" /></a>I enjoyed reading it very much. It is a memoir about recovery from loss; Helen Macdonald's father dies suddenly and she is absolutely grief stricken. I loved the tone of it, it is not at all maudlin or self pitying - just honest. Helen is almost unhinged by her loss and she makes the seemingly rash decision to buy and train a goshawk. She has some experience because she's worked in a falconry centre in the past and it's always been a fascination of hers. On the other hand she's not thinking clearly because she's so sad, her job is about to come to an end leaving her without a regular income, and she will have to move house.<br />
<br />
She buys the goshawk, who is called Mabel, and sets about training her. Birds of prey seem to be quite solitary creatures and I wondered if that was the attraction. Grief can be quite isolating, perhaps it was comforting to spend time with another creature who is alone.<br />
<br />
One of the books she read about falconry when she was young was <i>The Goshawk</i> by TE White. <i>H is for Hawk</i> is interspersed with quotes from this book and Helen Macdonald's observations about White. He was a very troubled man, and it was interesting to compare his experiences with Helen's.<br />
<br />
She flies Mabel on farmland near her home. There is some lovely writing about this. Gazing at a hill in the distance:<br />
<br />
<i>I feel I might be up there, because now the hill is home. I know it intimately. Every hedgerow, every track through dry grass where the hares cut across field-boundaries, each discarded piece of rusted machinery, every earth and warren and tree. By the road, half an acre of fenced-off mud, scaled with tyre tracks and water reflecting pieces of sky. Wagtails, pallets, tractors, a broken silo on its side like a fallen rocket stage. Here is the sheep field, there is the clover ley, now mown and turned to earth. Further up the track are tracts of mugwort: dead now from frost, seeds clinging to stems and branches like a billion musty beads on ragged Christmas trees. Piles of bricks and rubble run along the left-hand side of the track, and the earth between them is soft and full of rabbits. Further up the hill the hedges are higher, and by the time I get to the top the track has narrowed into grass. Cow parsley. Knapweed. Wild burdock. The argillaceous shimmer of tinder-fire clay. Drifts of chalk beneath. Yellowhammers chipping hedges. Cumulus rubble. The maritime light of this island, set as it is under a sky mirrored and uplit by sea.</i><br />
<br />
Mabel is good for Helen. She needs taking care of so that gives Helen a reason to be up in the morning. She needs to be exercised so that gets them both out of the house. And because Helen needs advice about Mabel she has to interact with people even when she feels like locking herself away. Gradually things get better for her and the initial intensity of her grief begins to lessen.<br />
<br />
This is a lovely book, I think it is one I will return to.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-64291945130061726132015-01-17T00:30:00.000+00:002015-01-17T00:30:00.692+00:00The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton<a href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?q=http://grantabooks.com/The-Luminaries-10&sa=U&ei=C2S5VJvfKsyqUeyogLAJ&ved=0CBwQ9QEwAw&sig2=2CrMT_3Qvx2gs_AzTYr5wQ&usg=AFQjCNH5lOUY8S_pSzkXZDSSvOnj_skfaA" style="clear: right; color: #1a0dab; cursor: pointer; float: right; font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img height="122" src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ7pw-8KHafo9Qx8EwKHkuBST9WLQgCg2zXp1lUZpWB14cMroZZJ9G1sw" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" width="76" /></a>I think I picked the wrong time of year to read this novel. It's a chunky book with lots of characters and<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"></span> a plot the reader has to concentrate on. I started it in Christmas week when my brain was all over the place and I don't feel that I ever really got to grips with the story.<br />
<br />
I would like to give it another go, at a time when I can concentrate on it more, because I think I would really love it. It's just the kind of story I enjoy. It's set in New Zealand in the 19th century during the gold rush there. I didn't even realise that there had been a gold rush in New Zealand, so basically all the history was new to me.<br />
<br />
Walter Moody is newly arrived from England, with the intention of making his fortune on the goldfields. Exhausted and traumatised after his harrowing voyage he enters the smoking room of his hotel to relax and calm himself. There are other men in the room, all seemingly engrossed in their own pursuits, but Walter comes to realise that they all know each other and he has inadvertently interrupted a secret meeting.<br />
<br />
They confide in him that they have come together to discuss the disappearance of a wealthy prospector and the attempted suicide of one of the town's prostitutes. There is also the puzzling matter of the fortune which has been found in the home of a man they all believed to be a drunk and a loser.<br />
<br />
Each of the twelve men knows part of the story, and the book pulls their tales together. Some stories shed light on events and others cast shadows. It's not until all the stories are told that the solution emerges. I should've read it with a paper and pen beside me so that I could keep everyone straight in my head.<br />
<br />
I know that this book has been very popular, and I'd love to know what others opinions are. Am I right in thinking it's worth another read?seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-26155295261997539112015-01-10T00:30:00.000+00:002015-01-10T10:17:51.311+00:00Capital by John LanchesterThis novel is a snapshot of London around the time of the financial meltdown. The characters are all connected by the fact they live and work in Pepys Road, a Victorian residential street. Pepys Road has seen many social changes over the years, and in 2007 it was a desirable place to live, and you would have to be wealthy to buy there. Wealthy like Roger and Arabella, but Roger, a banker, desperately needs his bonus to be a big one to keep the the lifestyle they aspire to. When it isn't, things start to unravel. Petunia has lived in her house on Pepys Road all her life (apart from when she was evacuated during the War). Her daughter has moved out of London and Petunia's health is failing. Zbigniew is a builder from Poland who often works for residents of Pepys Road as they endlessly remodel their houses. He doesn't intend to remain in London, but to earn enough money to return to Poland and set up a business with his father. There are other characters, all of whose lives bring them into contact with Pepys Road.<br />
Postcards start arriving at every house on the road, postcard which read 'We Want What You've Got'. At first residents assume that it is advertising from an estate agent, but the postcards keep coming and gradually become more sinister.<br />
A snapshot of life in London is the best way to describe this book All the characters have their own stories going in, stories which don't have anything to do with the other characters. Lanchester uses them to examine the issues which many people are concerned about; the integrity of our financial systems, immigration, the fear of terrorism. He does it in a fantastically easy to read way. I enjoyed it and look forward to reading more by him.<br />
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<br />seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-89265389898618358972015-01-01T15:56:00.000+00:002015-01-01T15:56:11.635+00:00Books for 2015Every year I choose six books to re-read, and twelve books from my TBR shelves to read over the coming year. This year the choices are:<br />
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<u>Re-reads</u><br />
Bleak House by Charles Dickens<br />
Wicked by Gregory Maguire<br />
Manly Pursuits by Ann Harries<br />
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold<br />
Air and Fire by Rupert Thomson<br />
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<u>TBR shelf reads</u><br />
The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann<br />
Cinema Lumiere by Hattie Holden Edmonds<br />
The Ninth Daughter by Barbara Hamilton<br />
The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning<br />
White Corridor by Christopher Fowler<br />
Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns<br />
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon<br />
The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle<br />
The American Boy by Andrew Taylor<br />
Settled Blood by Mari Hannah<br />
The Convictions of John Delahunt by Andrew Hughes<br />
The Real Jane Austen by Paula Byrne<br />
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I am determined to be a more conscientious blogger in 2015 - I was horrified to realise that I haven't blogged since March. It's been a busy year! I haven't been very good about reading other people's blogs either, and I've missed it. So I'll make time for both things.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-80124280556589919842014-03-22T15:03:00.000+00:002014-03-22T15:03:22.074+00:00Reading for Spring<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/images/2014/03/onceup8300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="onceup8300" border="0" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-10581" height="320" src="http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/images/2014/03/onceup8300.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(176, 176, 176); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(176, 176, 176); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(176, 176, 176); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(176, 176, 176); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="212" /></a></div>
I am signing up to do the Once Upon a Time challenge hosted by Carl at <a href="http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/" target="_blank">Stainless Steel Droppings</a>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">The themes for the challenge are fantasy, folklore, fairytale and mythology. I've had in mind the books I want to read for some time, and they are as follows;</span></span><br />
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<b><i>Clockwork Angel</i> by Cassandra Clare</b><br />
Described an 'urban fantasy full of vampires, werewolves and shape-shifters' it is set in London in 1878. It's the first book in The Infernal Devices series.<br />
<br />
<b><i>A Madness of Angels</i> by Kate Griffin</b><br />
This is another first book in a series (the Matthew Swift novels) and is again set in London. 'Enter a London where magicians ride the Last Train, implore favours of the Beggar King and interpret the insane wisdom of The Bag Lady'.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Broken Homes</i> by Ben Aaronovitch</b><br />
This is more of a known quantity because it is the fourth in the series and I loved the other three. A police procedural, the hero is PC Peter Grant an apprentice wizard who works for the Metropolitan Police. (London again, I didn't realise how London-centric the list was until I've started typing it out).<br />
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<b><i>Any Other Name</i> by Emma Newman</b><br />
The second in the Split Worlds trilogy. I've actually had this on my shelf for ages, but I was waiting for Once Upon a Time to read it. The blurb says 'It's Downton Abbey with magic, in Bath's secret mirror city'. That sounds impossible to resist.<br />
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<b><i>Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell</i> by Susanna Clarke</b><br />
This is a re-read. I loved it when I previously read it and am hoping it's as good as I remember.<br />
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That's my list, and I'm looking forward to getting started.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-23354430814191426502014-03-15T09:00:00.000+00:002014-03-15T09:00:03.205+00:00Wedlock by Wendy Moore<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.orionbooks.co.uk/assets/OrionPublishingGroup/img/book/587/isbn9780297857587-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://www.orionbooks.co.uk/assets/OrionPublishingGroup/img/book/587/isbn9780297857587-detail.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial;" width="130" /></a></div>
This is the story of Mary Eleanor Bowes, born in 1789, the attractive, educated and pampered only<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"> child of an extremely wealthy County Durham coal magnate. Her father died when she was a child and she almost immediately became a target for fortune hunters. In Georgian Britain rich people did not often marry for love, and this was the case with Mary Eleanor. Her first marriage, to the Earl of Strathmore, wasn't happy, but fairly brief; he died after they had been married for eight years. But it was idyllic compared to what happened next.</span></span><br />
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Andrew Robinson Stoney was an Irish soldier. He was handsome, charming, and extremely manipulative. He had already been married and the gossip was that he had driven his first wife to her grave by his ill-treatment. Unbelievably he tricked Mary Eleanor into marrying him by pretending that he was dying. Once they were wed he made a miraculous recovery. Mary Eleanor's life from then until the end of her marriage was a living hell.<br />
<br />
After her marriage she no longer had any rights over her own money and Stoney kept her almost penniless. He was physically and emotionally abusive. He kept her from seeing her mother and her friends, she was often a prisoner in her own home. She was rarely given enough to eat and became thin and gaunt. She was a clever woman and had a keen interest in botany and science but Stoney prevented her from pursuing those interests.<br />
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This is all shocking enough, but what amazed me the most was that there seemed to be nothing she could do to save herself. Plenty of people knew what was going on but nobody stepped in to help her. Stoney was a master of disinformation and he let it be known that Mary Eleanor was irrational - almost deranged - and people believed him. When help finally did come it wasn't from anyone in her own social class, but her servants who rescued her. Those with the most to lose risked everything, while those with the power stood and watched.<br />
<br />
I thought this was a fascinating and horrifying book. Domestic abuse still happens today of course, and women still stay with abusive men, through fear, or being so beaten down that they can't see a way out. But at least it's a subject that's talked about, and there are laws to protect women, and refuges for them to go to. Mary Eleanor had none of that. Though she attained a measure of peace in her later years, because of Andrew Stoney Robinson the happy life she could've had and the good she could've done in the world through her patronage of scientific endeavours never happened.<br />
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(Incidentally, Mary Eleanor's grandson John and his wife Josephine founded the Bowes Museum, which I wrote about <a href="http://seagreenreader.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/bowes-museum.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-71855470997505152014-03-08T09:00:00.000+00:002014-03-08T09:00:01.815+00:00Running Like a Girl by Alexandra Heminsley<a href="http://images.randomhouseimages.co.uk/9780091944360-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://images.randomhouseimages.co.uk/9780091944360-large.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-top: 0px; max-height: 100%; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="124" /></a>Running is something that I liked as a child. I am one of that strange breed who actually enjoyed cross-<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7d7d7d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">country at school. But running (in fact all sport) stopped when I left school. I can't say that I've particularly missed it. On the other hand I am quite often tired these days and have got significantly heavier over the past few years. Lack of exercise has got a lot to do with that. My son joined our local running club a couple of years ago and that stirred in me some long-forgotten urge to run. But only enough to make a couple of half-hearted attempts and then give up. Then I heard about this book and ordered it from the library. I started it straightaway and finished it in about two days.</span></span><br />
<br />
Alexandra Heminsley is a journalist who hadn't done any sport for years and didn't think of herself as an athletic person at all. But she decided that she wanted to run.<br />
<br />
<i>That was it, I was going to run round the block. I had high hopes: hopes of the arse of an athlete, the waist of a supermodel and the speed of a gazelle. Defeated by gyms, bored by sanctimonious yoga teachers and intimidated by glossy tennis clubs, I decided it was time to end a lifetime spent believing myself to exist on the outside of sport. I would return powerful and proud, the city still reeling at the sight of my grace and speed on the pavements of Kilburn.</i><br />
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Suffice to say it didn't turn out as she planned. But she didn't give up and by sheer tenacity and perseverance turned herself into a runner.<br />
<br />
It's very funny, there's plenty of stuff like the paragraph quoted above. She doesn't mind laughing at herself (she fell down while trying to high-five spectators at her first marathon), and she is honest about her setbacks as well as her successes. It is also quite moving, she writes about how running helped her reconnect with her father with whom she'd had a loving, but quite distant relationship. He had been a keen runner and it gave them a shared interest and something to talk about.<br />
<br />
There's lots of practical advice as well; about kit, injuries, what to take to a race. All in all I think it's an ideal book for women who think they might like to run. I found it very inspiring and am running again. Very slowly, and not in daylight - but it's a start.<br />
<br />
<br />seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-55921847093408982032014-03-01T09:00:00.000+00:002014-03-01T09:00:10.789+00:00The Shambling Guide to New York City by Mur Lafferty<a href="http://www.orbitbooks.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/9780356501901.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="THE SHAMBLING GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY" border="0" class="attachment-book_page_cover wp-post-image" src="http://www.orbitbooks.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/9780356501901.jpg" height="200" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.59375) 2px 2px 10px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.59375) 2px 2px 10px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 10px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="133" /></a>I already had this on my TBR list when I was lucky enough to win a copy on a Goodreads giveaway. Urban fantasy is a relatively new genre for me, but it's fast becoming one of my favourites.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3c3c3c; font-family: Georgia, Palatino, serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 15px;"></span><br />
Zoe Norris is forced to return to her home town of New York after the break-up of a bad relationship. She is a book editor, so when she sees an advert for a job editing a travel guide to the city, she applies. It transpires that this will be a guide for the supernatural and paranormal denizens (known as the coterie) of New York, creatures who up until this point Zoe hadn't known existed. She will be the only human working on a staff which includes vampires, zombies, and a death goddess. Not all her colleagues welcome her presence.<br />
<br />
The balance between humans and the coterie is carefully preserved. Most humans are blithely unaware of the coterie, and the coterie are monitored and controlled by an organisation called Public Works. But now it seems as though someone is deliberately sabotaging this balance, which could have catastrophic consequences.<br />
<br />
This is the first in an intended series of Shambling Guides and as such there was quite a lot of explanation to get through establishing the world in which Zoe finds herself. I thought this was done in a very light and easy way - I didn't feel like I was just having a load of exposition dumped on me. It's a humorous, fun book. Between each chapter is an extract from the guidebook Zoe is editing; for example this on mid-town architecture,<br />
<br />
<i>While the humans will be checking out the Apple Store for expensive computers and gadgets, we encourage any visiting coterie to stop and admire its all glass structure. It is actually crystal, and was built by a race of apini demons native to the southern US.</i><br />
<br />
If you enjoy Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant books I'm sure you will enjoy this. I'm certainly going to look out for more books by Mur Lafferty, and I'm looking forward to the next in this series.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-77194403949565105812014-02-22T12:32:00.000+00:002014-02-23T19:12:08.014+00:00One Night in Winter by Simon Sebag Montefiore<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I have enjoyed Simon Sebag Montefiore's TV series, most recently the one on the history of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7d7d7d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">Byzantium, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7d7d7d; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">but I have never read any of his books. So I was delighted to receive this one from the publisher and curious to find out if I would enjoy it.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://images.randomhouseimages.co.uk/9780099580331-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.randomhouseimages.co.uk/9780099580331-large.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-top: 0px; max-height: 100%; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It opens in the final months of the Second World War with the shooting of two teenage friends in Moscow. However, as one of the investigating policemen says, 'These aren't just any dead children.' Their parents are high up in government, as are the parents of their friends. They belonged to a secret club called The Fatal Romantics Club, seeming innocent and childish, but suddenly under the glare of the investigation it becomes much more. The inquiry into the deaths becomes like a sinkhole opening up in the lives of everyone who knew this boy and girl. It gets bigger and bigger and more and more people are drawn in - friends, siblings, parents, teachers.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I thought that this book was so good at evoking the poisonous atmosphere of Stalinist Russia. It's not something I know much about, I recognised very few of the real life characters in it. Being close to Stalin was no guarantee of safety. He was so unstable and capricious that you could be his favourite one day and arrested the next. No-one could reveal the slightest suggestion of doubt in his leadership. No-one could be trusted, not even your own family. There was always someone prepared to betray, either through ambition, or fear, or because they genuinely believed in communism. I actually found some parts of it quite distressing to read.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the afterword Simon Sebag Montefiore writes, "This is not a novel about power but about private life - above all, love." I much preferred the parts of the story about the politics to the parts about the love affairs. The horror of being caught in the web around Stalin with no way to escape, and no choice but to play the game to survive was so powerfully rendered. I also found the descriptions of how the mothers felt when their children were being arrested very powerful and moving. They were so terrified and so helpless.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I really enjoyed this, it's a proper page-turner and kept me gripped to the end. I will definitely read more by Simon Sebag Montefiore.</span>seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-1627563856240481242014-02-02T12:52:00.000+00:002014-02-02T12:52:24.401+00:00Havisham by Ronald Frame<a href="http://www.faber.co.uk/catalog/havisham/9780571288281#" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: right; color: #0088cc; float: right; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Havisham"><img alt="Havisham" height="320" src="http://www.faber.co.uk/media/cache/e4/22/e422ddea5b27dc79e98d95842afb83d6.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(177, 182, 184); border-bottom-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(177, 182, 184); border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: rgb(177, 182, 184); border-right-style: solid; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(177, 182, 184); border-top-style: solid; border-width: initial; float: left; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="208" /></a>Miss Havisham is one of the most fascinating characters in literature. Devious, manipulative, perhaps<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3a3a3a; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 16px;"></span>mad. A dreadful thing happened to her, but dreadful things do happen to people and for the most part they soldier on. Why was Miss Havisham so completely devastated that she chooses not to engage with the world, but to exist in a twilight state, in a moment frozen in time? This novel attempts to show how she came to be sitting in an ancient wedding dress, next to a mouldering wedding feast, loving no-one and no-one loving her.<br />
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Ronald Frame shows Catherine Havisham as the indulged only child of a successful brewer. Her mother died when Catherine was born and her father is busy with the business. Catherine is left a lot of the time to her own devices.<br />
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<i>My father must have supposed that no other child could have had a happier time of it than I did. He showered me with gifts, which he didn't consider treats but things I had a perfect right to enjoy. But even amplitude and generosity pall. When I was by myself, I had a finite amount of imagination to help me play; when another child was brought along, I became possessive, only because I was afraid of having to reveal my embarrassment at owning so much.</i><br />
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Her father wants her to move up in the world and educates her as such. She is outwardly worldly, but because of her secluded childhood has very little understanding of other people's feelings and motives.<br />
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There are tragic hints of what is to come; as a young woman she acts in tableaus, staged scenes just as her wedding day becomes like a stage set. When she meets Compeyson I was hoping against hope that this time it would turn out differently! But of course it didn't.<br />
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The story is narrated by Miss Havisham at the end of her life. She is quite honest with herself, though perhaps not quite so honest to Pip or Estella. Jaggers the lawyer is the only one with whom she seems to be able to let down her guard. It is a tragic story, she wasn't a bad person but there was nobody in her whole life who she could trust (actually that's not quite true but she didn't recognise the worth of that person). Her pampered life and her lack of imagination didn't allow her to expect that her life would be anything other than gilded and glowing. When it didn't turn out that way she didn't have the resources to deal with it.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-20273295096909968902014-01-25T18:21:00.000+00:002014-01-25T18:21:35.926+00:00The Quincunx by Charles Palliser<a href="http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/covers/all/6/2/9780140177626H.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="jacket image for The Quincunx by Charles Palliser - large version" border="0" height="320" src="http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/covers/all/6/2/9780140177626H.jpg" title="jacket image for The Quincunx by Charles Palliser - large version" width="204" /></a>This was the final one of my chosen rereads for 2013, though it did slip over into 2014. A chunky, labyrinthine Victorian pastiche it is perfect for reading on cold winter nights. It's a book you have to throw yourself into wholeheartedly, if you just read a couple of pages at a time it would be very difficult to follow the story. And it would probably take you the rest of your life to finish it. I thought I didn't remember any of it, but as I got into it I realised that it was coming back to me.<br />
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The story concerns John Huffam who at the beginning of the novel is a young boy living with his mother in an English village. They are not wealthy, but live comfortably. However John is aware that his mother has secrets. She is very protective of him and he is allowed very little freedom. They don't seem to have any friends and strangers to their door are treated with suspicion and even fear.<br />
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The death of a relative John has never even met sets off a train of events which will radically alter John's life. This relative was paying John's mother an allowance and without it seems that they will sink inexorably into poverty. In early Victorian times of course this was a terrifying prospect, as it probably meant the workhouse, or death. During this time John discovers his mother's secret; a document which is in his mother's possession which could prove vital in establishing the heir to a disputed fortune. John could be the heir, but so could other people, some of whom are extremely ruthless.<br />
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John is thrust into a life for which he is ill-prepared. He has to live by his wits and doesn't know who to trust. Sometimes it is pure luck that keeps him alive. It seems that his life is to be a tragedy. But somehow he keeps going, determined to live.<br />
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At almost 1,200 pages it is a book that I find impossible to summarise. But if you've got the time to set aside for it, I would recommend it as an engrossing story.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-4276138488815447652014-01-19T16:08:00.000+00:002014-01-19T16:08:34.960+00:00Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation by Judith Mackrell<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was looking forward to reading this book from the moment I heard about it. I'm really attracted by this<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #4d4d4d; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"> period in history, and I love biographies. My reading about and from the early twentieth century has expanded greatly since joining the Bright Young Things group on Goodreads last year, and I think that group may be where I first heard about this book.</span></span><br />
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The six women Judith Mackrell writes about are: Diana Cooper, Nancy Cunard, Tallulah Bankhead, Zelda Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker and Tamara de Lempicka. I'd heard of all of them but didn't know a great deal about any of them. What they have in common is that they were young women in the 1920s, a time of social upheaval and years in which women were becoming more independent. Of course their lives weren't representative of most women's lives at the time. Most women probably lived lives which weren't very different from the lives of their mothers and grandmothers. But these six, and others like them became famous and young women of the time aspired to be like them. Even if working class women still didn't have many opportunities they could now have aspirations and role models. Tallulah Bankhead in particular had fanatical young women admirers who queued for hours to see her performances.<br />
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With the exception of Josephine Baker, all these women came from wealthy backgrounds, though in the case of Tamara de Limpicka she lost everything when she was forced to flee Russia during the Revolution. I particularly admired Tamara. She had led a pampered life in Russia and the change to a life of relative poverty in Paris must've been a tremendous shock. Her husband (and many others) did not have her ability to create a new life.<br />
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<i>It was a mystery to Tamara how her confident playboy of a husband could become so unattractively mired in depression.......It was one reason why, when Tamara found the resolve to turn her life around she did so entirely on her own terms and without bothering to consult Tadeusz. Once she had decided to become a professional painter she immersed herself completely in the project, certain that from now on her own ambitions would take precedence over his.</i><br />
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One of things that is made very clear in this book is how hard it is to be a trailblazer. All of these women had ambitions which were way ahead of what society was prepared to accept. Alcohol and drugs feature heavily in a number of these stores, a comfort in lives which were often unhappy. The most successful professionally was Josephine Baker, a woman who came from almost unimaginable hardship to become an international superstar whose fame endures long after her death. She never achieved the stable personal life she craved. In comparison Diana Cooper did have a stable home life, but at the cost of giving up a promising career in the theatre.<br />
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I loved this book, just as I loved Judith Mackrell's book about the Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova. These were exceptional women and they lived in fascinating times.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-64003320645044440322013-09-28T17:33:00.000+01:002013-09-28T17:33:47.038+01:00Bowes MuseumLast Sunday we went to <a href="http://www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk/" target="_blank">Bowes Museum</a>, near Barnard Castle in County Durham. It has been one of my favourite places since I went there on a school trip as a child. The building is fabulous - a French chateau dropped into the beautiful countryside of Teesdale. It was established by John and Josephine Bowes as a purpose built museum to house their extensive collection of art and artifacts. It was first opened to the public in 1892.<br />
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The most famous piece, and the emblem of the museum is the Silver Swan, a clockwork automoton dating from 1773. John and Josephine first saw it at the Paris International Exhibition in 1867. Another fan of the swan, who saw it at the same exhibition, was Mark Twain. He wrote in The Innocents Abroad;<br />
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'I watched the Silver Swan, which had a living grace about his movement and a living intelligence in his eyes - watched him swimming about as comfortably and unconcernedly as it he had been born in a morass instead of a jeweller’s shop - watched him seize a silver fish from under the water and hold up his head and go through the customary and elaborate motions of swallowing it...'</blockquote>
We saw that exact same thing last Sunday, almost 150 years after Mark Twain did. The sophisticated 21st century audience still gave a round of applause when the swan swallowed the fish!<br />
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There is lots to see in the museum, but we had gone specifically to see two temporary exhibitions; Henry Poole & Co. Founder of Savile Row: The Art of Bespoke Tailoring and Wool Cloth, and Laura Ashley, Romantic Heroine.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-77r4u9apAuE/UkcCTlnxZoI/AAAAAAAAAWU/CFGEUd0vsOY/s1600/DSCF1329.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-77r4u9apAuE/UkcCTlnxZoI/AAAAAAAAAWU/CFGEUd0vsOY/s200/DSCF1329.jpg" width="200" /></a>Henry Poole & Co. was opened in 1806 and established Savile Row as the centre for bespoke tailoring in London.<br />
Their customers included Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens and Edward VII. They have their customer ledgers from 1846, and some of them were on view, open at the pages of their famous clients. When Edward VII was Prince of Wales he asked Henry Poole & Co. to cut a short, blue evening coat for him. This garment is said to be the original dinner jacket (tuxedo in the US). <br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h0h1VSKL3xg/UkcCn-946UI/AAAAAAAAAWc/oPIistre5LE/s1600/DSCF1327.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h0h1VSKL3xg/UkcCn-946UI/AAAAAAAAAWc/oPIistre5LE/s200/DSCF1327.jpg" width="200" /></a>They hold Royal Warrants still, including the Royal Warrant for the Queen's State Livery. The exhibition showed various styles of suits, and also explained the process of making a bespoke garment. There were fabric sample books available so we could feel the wonderful quality of the material used in these garments.<br />
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The Laura Ashley exhibition showed, in the company's 60th year, almost 100 examples of Laura Ashley dresses from the 60s and 70s.<br />
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There was very little about the company or Laura Ashley herself, the focus was entirely on the frocks. I absolutely loved the way this exhibition was staged. The dresses were packed together in two blocks, and the information about them was at floor level so there was no obstruction to viewing them. It was very simple and effective. What amazed me about the dresses was how much they harked back to earlier centuries. Some of them looked Regency, others looked like something Laura Ingalls would've worn on the prairie. Many of <br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LSIk9-YQ884/UkcDl_OzYpI/AAAAAAAAAWs/0hAEAR96-DQ/s1600/DSCF1332.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LSIk9-YQ884/UkcDl_OzYpI/AAAAAAAAAWs/0hAEAR96-DQ/s200/DSCF1332.jpg" width="200" /></a>them looked quite restrictive with high collars and tight sleeves. I was puzzled as to why, after women's fashion had become so much more free in the 60s, women would choose these styles again. I wouldn't particularly want to wear most of the dresses, but I did like the prints.<br />
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It had been 5 or 6 years since I last visited the Bowes Museum and I certainly won't be leaving it that long again. It's the kind of place where there is always something new to see, and things that have been there all the time that you never noticed before.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-50183960912515013772013-09-21T13:13:00.000+01:002013-09-21T13:13:13.331+01:00The Murder Wall by Mari Hannah<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yzTb3weQflg/Uj2MXJP6EpI/AAAAAAAAAWE/4XX3dO2EqO0/s1600/Murder+Wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yzTb3weQflg/Uj2MXJP6EpI/AAAAAAAAAWE/4XX3dO2EqO0/s200/Murder+Wall.jpg" width="200" /></a>The main character in this book is Kate Daniels, a Detective Chief Inspector with Northumbria Police. <br />
A man is found murdered in an expensive flat in Newcastle, and the case becomes the first one in which Kate is Senior Investigating Officer. She is more than ready for the challenge, but she is also haunted by an unsolved murder earlier in the year. It affected her quite personally and she can't let go of it. It is very important to her to solve this new case, it seems like she has something to prove to herself.<br />
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Things get off to a bad start when she recognises the dead man. She should immediately disclose this fact, but she doesn't. It's a split second decision she makes to protect someone she cares about. It's a decision she regrets but events move quickly and there doesn't seem any way back from it. She sees connections between this murder and the unsolved one - but is she just seeing what she wants to see? Kate Daniels is a very capable police officer but her personal feelings are pulling her off course.<br />
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This is the first book in a series and as such there are a lot of characters to meet and get to know. I didn't feel out of my depth reading it though, I wasn't overloaded with information which I sometimes find happens with police procedurals (the fault of my concentration - not the genre). Kate Daniels is a very appealing character and I liked her. I liked that she is good at her job, and respected by her colleagues. We get to see some of her personal life, and it's going through a bit of messy phase, as most people's lives do at some point. But it's not so messy that the reader is left wondering how on earth she manages to hold down a responsible job.<br />
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Another thing I really liked about it is how Mari Hannah portrays the North East. I think that often it is portrayed as a hard, gritty place, but there is so much more to it. I particularly liked this bit;<br />
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<i>The air was fresh as she ran down her street and out on to the main road, turning left a few minutes later, skirting the edge of Jesmond Dene, a Victorian park covering actres of woodland, presented to the city in the late nineteenth century by local philanthropist, Lord Armstrong. Had it been daylight she would've taken in the beauty of this hidden gem: the network of paths and bridges, the waterfall, the mill, all enclosed within a deep narrow valley. The fabulous scenery drew locals and tourists in droves - five minutes and yet a world away from a thriving party city.</i><br />
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The next in the series is <i>Settled Blood</i> and I look forward to reading it and learning more about Kate Daniels and her colleagues.<br />
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<br />seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-36794483756670566162013-09-14T15:20:00.000+01:002013-09-14T15:20:29.493+01:00When the fair comes to townEvery September a fairground appears right outside our front door. We live close to what was the village green, though a middle sized town grew up around it during the twentieth century. Last weekend bunting appeared on the lamposts and trees, on Wednesday the car park was closed off and the bigger fairground rides started arriving. By the time Billy came out of school on Friday afternoon most of it was in place, including the huge marquee which houses the charity raffles and tombolas, the craft stalls and the flower and produce show.<br />
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Billy looks forward to this weekend all year. I suppose eventually he'll become jaded, but at 9 years old it is magical for him. I think he feels quite proprietorial about it as he watches it grow over a few days. We always enter the handicrafts competition, and this year I've put some carrots that I've grown in my garden into the novice class at the horticultural show.<br />
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At 7.30 this morning, two and half hours before anything actually opened, Billy and I were wandering around the rides.<br />
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<br />seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-88443080054894309562013-09-07T11:13:00.002+01:002013-09-07T11:13:40.496+01:00Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel<a href="http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/images/2013/08/RIP8main200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="RIP8main200" border="0" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9456" height="178" src="http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/images/2013/08/RIP8main200.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(176, 176, 176); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(176, 176, 176); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(176, 176, 176); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(176, 176, 176); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="200" /></a>As I was reading <i>Beyond Black</i> I was thinking 'How can I be enjoying this?' It is such dark subject <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">matter, sometimes relentlessy grim and yet I really, really enjoyed it. Part of it is Hilary Mantel's wonderful writing, of which I was already a fan and also because it's interspersed with little bits of humour which sneak up and lift the mood.</span></span><br />
<br />
The main character is Alison, who works as a medium on the showbiz circuit in south-east England. She is a warm character, very professional and very gifted. Her past is almost unimaginably horrific. Her childhood was spent with her prostitute mother and the string of low-life men who used their house as a meeting place. She was sold and abused and witness to constant violence. It is difficult to imagine a more destructive and chaotic background. Somehow she has come through it, though not without damage. Her spirit guide is Morris, one of the men who hung around her mother. He's a disgusting character, malevolent and cruel and self-pitying. Then the rest of the men troop along in spirit;<br />
<br />
<i>"Morris said, 'Have you seen MacArthur, he's a mate of mine and Keef Capstick, he is a mate of Keef's too. Have you seen MacArthur, he is a mate of mine and he wears a knitted weskit. Have you seen MacArthur, he has only one eye, have you seen him, he has one earlobe ripped off, a sailor ripped it off in a fracas, that's what he tells people. How did he lose his eye? Well that's another story. He blames that on a sailor too, but round here we know he's lying.' And Morris gave a dirty laugh."</i><br />
<br />
Into Alison's life comes Colette. Alison employs her as a live-in assistant and she takes care of the financial side of the business. A disappointed woman, verging on bitter, Colette struggles to fit in the world of mediums and spiritualism. Alison's life is complicated, there are layers and layers to it, whereas Colette seems to be a very literal and surface person. Perhaps Alison feels that having Colette in her life will anchor her. However chaos creeps closer and closer and in the end it is only Alison who can deal with it.<br />
<br />
Surprisingly I didn't find this a spooky book (and I am very easily spooked!) It's full of spirits and ghosts and manifestations but they're dealt with in such a matter of fact way that they seem perfectly normal. The mediums are businesswomen, some are more gifted than others, but they're all looking for new business ideas or new marketing schemes. They're family to each other out on the fringes of society. Colette is on the fringes of society too, mainly due to her somewhat abrasive personality, but she desperately wants to be conventional. Conventional is something Alison and her friends have no experience of, and no desire for.<br />
<br />
I mentioned that I had just finished this book in the comments of another blog and it was suggested that I read Mantel's memoir <i>Giving Up The Ghost</i>, as it is quite illuminating regarding <i>Beyond Black</i>. I've ordered it at the library and can't wait to read it.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-91025463402430213432013-08-31T16:32:00.000+01:002013-08-31T16:32:07.590+01:00R.I.P. Challenge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/images/2013/08/RIP8main200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="RIP8main200" border="0" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9456" height="178" src="http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/images/2013/08/RIP8main200.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(176, 176, 176); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(176, 176, 176); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(176, 176, 176); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(176, 176, 176); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="200" /></a></div>
I am going to try to complete the R.I.P. Challenge which is hosted by Carl at <a href="http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/r-eaders-i-mbibing-p-eril-viii" target="_blank">Stainless Steel Droppings</a>. As the nights draw in, Carl encourages us to add some spooky, or mysterious, or deliciously gothic <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">reading </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">material</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"> to our usual fare. I signed up for it last year, but didn't finish. I've been more organised with my reading this year, so I've high hopes of completing.</span></span><br />
<br />
The four books I have chosen are;<br />
<br />
<b>Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel</b><br />
<i>Alison Hart, a medium by trade, tours the dormitory towns of London's orbital road with her flint-hearted sidekick Colette, passing on messages from dead ancestors. But behind her plump, smiling persona is a desperate woman: the next life holds terrors that she must conceal from her clients, and her own waking hours are plagued by the spirits of men from her past. They infiltrate her house, her body and her soul, and the more she tries to be rid of them, the stronger and nastier they become...</i><br />
<br />
<b>The Murder Wall by Mari Hannah</b><br />
<i>Eleven months after discovering a brutal double murder in a sleepy Northumbrian village, Detective Chief Inspector Kate Daniels is still haunted by her failure to solve the case. Then the brutal killing of a man on Newcastle's Quayside gives Daniels her first case as Senior Investigating Officer and another chance to get it right.</i><br />
<i>When Daniels recognises the corpse but fails to disclose the fact, her personal life suddenly swerves into her professional life. But, much worse, she is now being watched.</i><br />
<i>As Daniels steps closer to finding a killer, a killer is only a breath away from claiming his next victim.</i><br />
<br />
<b>The Radleys by Matt Haig</b><br />
<i>Life with the Radleys: Radio 4, dinner parties with the Bishopthorpe neighbours and self-denial. Loads of self-denial. But all hell is about to break loose. When teenage daughter Clara gets attacked on the way home from a party, she and her brother Rowan finally discover why they can't sleep, can't eat a Thai salad without fear of asphyxiation and can't go outside unless they're smothered in Factor 50.</i><br />
<i>With a visit from their lethally louche uncle Will and an increasingly suspicious police force, life in Bishopthorpe is about to change. Drastically.</i><br />
<br />
<b>A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness</b><br />
<i>When historian Diana Bishop finds an alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library, it's an unwelcome intrusion of magic into her carefully ordered life. Though Diana is a witch of impeccable lineage, the violent death of her parents while she was still a child convinced her that human fear is more potent then any witchcraft.</i><br />
<i>Now Diana has unwittingly exposed herself to a world she's kept at bay for years; one of powerful witches, creative, destructive daemons and long-lived vampires. Sensing the significance of Diana's discovery, the creatures gather in Oxford, among them the enigmatic Matthew Clairmont, a vampire geneticist.</i>seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-18859350272308577192013-06-12T11:51:00.000+01:002013-06-12T11:51:43.455+01:00Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9SWySrKzgmE/UbhRdn7YWzI/AAAAAAAAAUs/dr_2gA-OUR0/s1600/Between+Two+Thorns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9SWySrKzgmE/UbhRdn7YWzI/AAAAAAAAAUs/dr_2gA-OUR0/s200/Between+Two+Thorns.jpg" width="200" /></a>I love the premise for this novel. Beneath the cities of Bath, London and Oxford there are mirror cities<br />
which exist in the Nether. This is the world between our 'real' world, and the land of Fae. It is a 'Fae-touched society'. Its inhabitants are ruled by the Fae, and once they reach adulthood rarely, if ever, enter our world (which they call Mundanus).<br />
The heroine of the book, Cathy, is a member of one of the most prominent families in Aquae Sulis, which is the mirror city of Bath. She is stifled by her life there, the social rules and etiquette are of the Regency era and it is impossible for a woman to have independence. So she has run away into Mundanus and has spent three years at university in Manchester. However she has been discovered.<br />
At the same time strange events are taking place in Aquae Sulis. One of their most important citizens has gone missing. There are a group of people called the Arbiters whose job it is to police between the Nether and Mundanus. An Arbiter named Max has to find this man, the Master of Ceremonies. Max's sidekick is a stone gargoyle come to life, which I think is a most wonderful thing.<br />
This is a perfectly imagined world. It is pretty and also threatening. I was completely caught up in it. This is the first in a trilogy and I believe the second book has just been published. I can't wait to read it.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-89647994863994583332013-06-10T11:26:00.000+01:002013-06-10T11:26:13.344+01:00Life After Life by Kate Atkinson<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LS_e2jpTEXQ/UbWpcUASD-I/AAAAAAAAAUc/tQVlHsvjd4Y/s1600/Time+After+Time.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LS_e2jpTEXQ/UbWpcUASD-I/AAAAAAAAAUc/tQVlHsvjd4Y/s200/Time+After+Time.jpg" width="200" /></a>I had heard wonderful things about this book and couldn't wait to start reading. I absolutely was not <br />
disappointed. I raced through it and couldn't wait to get back to it whenever I had to put it down.<br />
<br />
In February 1910 Ursula Todd is born. There is a terrible snowstorm, the doctor can't get through and Ursula dies. Then the story resets - it's February 1910 again, Ursula is born, this time the doctor does get through and Ursula lives. And so it goes on through the novel. Ursula's life is reset each time she dies and she gets a chance to do things differently.<br />
<br />
She doesn't know that this is happening to her, though when she's a child she does have a sense that there is something different about her. The family's maid, Bridget, says that she has the second sight. Throughout her life (lives) she has premonitions which she can't explain. Some of the things which happen to her are small and personal, other times her life is impacted by great global events. There was one period in Ursula's life which was so bad that I was longing for her to die, which is an unusual feeling to have about the heroine of a book.<br />
<br />
I loved this book. I haven't read much by Kate Atkinson (though I am really enjoying Case Histories on tv) and will be searching out more books by her.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-9823045063204574582013-05-13T15:34:00.000+01:002013-05-13T15:34:14.800+01:00Amanda and the Eleven Million Mile High Dancer by Carol Hill<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q6oVxmHfdLY/UZD5WUntskI/AAAAAAAAAUM/VXNKKdehSAs/s1600/Amanda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q6oVxmHfdLY/UZD5WUntskI/AAAAAAAAAUM/VXNKKdehSAs/s200/Amanda.jpg" width="200" /></a>This is a book which I first read when I was in my late teens and I absolutely loved it. I have read it since, but not for a long time.<br />
<br />
It is the story of Amanda Jaworski, a brilliant physicist who is an astronaut at NASA. Amanda is a free spirit. She pays attention to her instincts, hunches and 'feelings', which unnerves her military superiors. She has a messy private life, being in love with two men, which also unnerves her superiors. At the beginning of the story Amanda is preparing to command the first manned mission to Mars. But strange phenomena are occurring; a red choking mist which appears around the space centre, Amanda is hearing voices which no-one else can hear, and her colleague Hooper has come back from a mission having seen some unknown thing which has sent him mad.<br />
<br />
There is a surreal element to this book which I love. Amanda has a cat, Schrodinger, who spends twenty three hours out of twenty four so soundly asleep that most people think he's dead. When he's awake he draws perfectly accurate pictures of Amanda's feet. At one point Amanda becomes Mary Shelley. Ten thousand Native Americans disappear and then reappear in the basement of the Pentagon.<br />
<br />
Amanda goes on her mission - but she doesn't go to Mars. She goes to rescue Schrodinger who has been kidnapped. She finds herself in a place where robot armies fight for the future of the Earth (it was published in the mid 80s and does have a bit of a Cold War feel about it), and the second half of the book is taken up with Amanda trying to stay alive and get Schrodinger back.<br />
<br />
There is a marvelous cast of supporting characters. My favourite is Eberly, a Texas sheriff. Eberly doesn't know much about science but he knows things aren't right;<br />
<br />
<i>Eberly knew he didn't like it. In fact Eberly was one hundred percent totally dissatisfied with the way things were going. It was getting too hot, the wind was getting peculiar, the Indians were going up and not down, girls were going up in rockets, geniuses were making mothers out of robots, and the very air seemed seeded with something altogether disturbing. He didn't know when exactly it had started happening, but he was beginning to get scared. Eberly never'd been scared before.</i><br />
<br />
There's a lot going on in this book and some of it goes over my head. I much prefer the first half of the book to the second half with the robot wars and I think I've felt the same each time I've read it. The main theme of the book is that technology will only take us so far, and we need love to take us the rest of the way.<br />
<br />
I can see why I loved this book so much as a teenager, and though I don't love it quite so much now, I still think it's a very good read.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-1609524905862500842013-05-08T11:44:00.000+01:002013-05-08T11:44:35.099+01:00Bishop Auckland<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fOWChjN1tC8/UYorUWeUFuI/AAAAAAAAATo/0blxyZ5rURo/s1600/DSCF1004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fOWChjN1tC8/UYorUWeUFuI/AAAAAAAAATo/0blxyZ5rURo/s200/DSCF1004.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PzlEg8aSqkg/UYorkXhlOuI/AAAAAAAAATw/ya6t__WIvt8/s1600/DSCF1003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PzlEg8aSqkg/UYorkXhlOuI/AAAAAAAAATw/ya6t__WIvt8/s200/DSCF1003.jpg" width="200" /></a>We visited Bishop Auckland a couple of weeks ago. The annual Food Festival was on and we had a wonderful time visiting the stalls and tasting all kinds of delicious food. The Festival extended right along the Market Square and up into the grounds of the castle (the castle is the official residence of the Bishop of Durham.<br />
<br />
<br />
As we were leaving I noticed a second hand bookshop, Bondgate Books, just opening it's doors. I went in and discovered these three books to bring home with me.<br />
<br />
<i>The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi</i><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ElY71rpTv8g/UYoryct08LI/AAAAAAAAAT4/kfCeRd9bu3U/s1600/Bondgate+Books.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ElY71rpTv8g/UYoryct08LI/AAAAAAAAAT4/kfCeRd9bu3U/s200/Bondgate+Books.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
I have heard this dramatised on Radio 4, but didn't realise that it was adaped from a novel.<br />
<br />
<i>The Foolish Immortals by Paul Gallico</i><br />
I've been wanting to read something by Paul Gallico for some time. I hadn't heard of this particular book, but thought I'd give it a try.<br />
<br />
<i>My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin</i><br />
A book I'd vaguely heard of, but know little about. Apparently the author wrote it when she was only 16.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-81801251710229673172013-04-19T15:28:00.000+01:002013-04-19T15:28:49.235+01:00Nancy: The Story of Lady Astor by Adrian Fort<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q5s_HE3Kals/UXFTtZF-k7I/AAAAAAAAATU/K4aiR1eis-I/s1600/Nancy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q5s_HE3Kals/UXFTtZF-k7I/AAAAAAAAATU/K4aiR1eis-I/s200/Nancy.jpg" width="200" /></a>This is a fascinating book about a fascinating woman. I knew of Nancy Astor of course, she was the<br />
first woman MP to take her seat in the House of Commons, but I didn't know anything of her life beyond this. I had assumed that she had always been rich, but in fact her childhood had periods where her parents struggled for money. She was born into the Langhorne family of Virginia, who had been wealthy, but the Civil War wrecked their fortunes. Nancy's father, Chillie Langhorne, had to virtually start from scratch. He was eventually very successful, but there were some hard times along the way.<br />
<br />
There were also times of struggle in Nancy's adult life. There was an early, unhappy marriage to a man who turned out to be a drinker. She also suffered from periods of ill health which no doctor seemed to be able to effectively diagnose or treat.<br />
<br />
There were consolations however. In order to recover from the aftermath of her first marriage she came to England where she met and married Waldorf Astor. Waldorf's father gave them Cliveden as a wedding gift. These were good years;<br />
<br />
<i>For this was the Edwardian Age, and the surroundings in which Waldorf and Nancy lived contained the quintessence of that era: opulence; hedonism; sunlit summers; long days and nights of fashion and society. Peace reigned at home and in the Empire, trade was good and life inexpensive, as Britain, at the apex of her military and financial power, benignly ruled a quarter of the world. Underlying all was an almost palpable sense of satisfaction that the state of the country was, if not perfect, then as near to that as God could make it.</i><br />
<br />
Waldorf became MP for Plymouth, but he was forced to give this up when his father (who had been raised to the peerage) died, and Waldorf inherited his title. Nancy put herself forward and was duly elected to the same Plymouth seat.<br />
<br />
She was a very tough character, but some of the opposition she faced as the only woman MP in the House of Commons daunted even her. She was ignored, talked over, physically barred from reaching her place on the benches. The male MPs would loudly discuss subjects designed to embarrass her. She found it distressing, but soldiered on.<br />
<br />
There is a lot more in this book than I can cover here. Nancy Astor was such a complex character and lived in such interesting times. I can thoroughly recommend this book.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-52350665283531144952013-04-15T15:26:00.000+01:002013-04-15T15:26:01.642+01:00Stardust by Neil Gaiman - Part 1<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DbANzlSdTuo/UWwNOfR1IpI/AAAAAAAAATE/kKLdAAx0hWs/s1600/Stardust.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DbANzlSdTuo/UWwNOfR1IpI/AAAAAAAAATE/kKLdAAx0hWs/s200/Stardust.jpg" width="200" /></a>I'm taking part in the Stardust readalong hosted by Carl from <a href="http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/stardust-read-along-part-i#more-8717" target="_blank">Stainless Steel Droppings</a>. Carl has posted<br />
some questions about the first five chapters of the book.<br />
<br />
<b>1. We have spent a little time with Tristan and even less time with the star. What are your initial thoughts/impressions of our two protagonists?</b><br />
<br />
Tristan seems to be a nice boy, a typical teenager. He's naive and he mistakes infatuation for real love, which is a common teenage error. He is ready for adventure and when the opportunity arises he jumps into it wholeheartedly. I like him. The star is harder to describe. She's frosty and bad tempered but we can hardly blame her for that, given that she's been knocked out of the sky and is now chained to a boy who only wants to impress another girl. She's feisty, and I like that.<br />
<br />
<b>2. There are some very interesting potential villains introduced in the first half of the book. Do any of them particularly stand out to you? If so, why or why not?</b><br />
<br />
I like the portrayal of Ditchwater Sal. She's a little villain compared to the Lilim, or the Stormhold brothers, but she's so mean. There isn't really a good thing to say about her.<br />
<br />
<b>3. In Chapter Three, just after the section with the brothers in Stormhold, Neil Gaiman gives us a description of Faerie that includes "each land that has been forced off the map by explorers and the brave going out and proving it wasn't there......" What imaginary lands do you then hope are part of Faerie?</b><br />
<br />
I don't so much hope for imaginary lands as I wish for a layer of magic in our own world. I love stories where the magical exists in the world as we know it, such as Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series, or an alternate history such as Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.<br />
<br />
<b>4. We do not get to spend a great deal of time in the market but while there we are given a number of interesting descriptions of the wares being bartered and sold. Which, if any, of them caught your eye, either as items you would like to possess or ones you would most like to avoid?</b><br />
<br />
I think I'd like a coat of twilight.<br />
<br />
<b>5. If you have read much of Gaiman's work, particularly his short fiction, then you have come across some rather graphic and disturbing portrayals of sex. Gaiman offers up something very different in the way of a sex scene early on in Stardust. What are your feelings of the scene either in general or as a contrast to other Gaiman-penned scenes involving sex?</b><br />
<br />
This is only the second Neil Gaiman book I have read so I can't really compare. When reading Stardust I was thinking it would be a good book to read to my 9 year old son - until I reached that scene. Then I thought it probably wasn't.<br />
<br />
<b>6. I suspect Neil Gaiman is influenced by a number of fairy and folk tales in Stardust. Are there any elements of the story that made a particular impression and/or reminded you of other fairy stories you have read or are familiar with?</b><br />
<br />
Stormhold made me think of Gormenghast. It's so long since I read Gormenghast trilogy that I'm afraid I can't come up with any specific reasons why it made me think of it.<br />
<br />
<b>7. And finally, which of the many side characters introduced have caught your eye and why? Or what else about the story thus far is of interest to you?</b><br />
<br />
The little hairy man who helps Tristan is my favourite. He seems to be an entirely good and kind character.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-81930778005361598542013-04-13T17:32:00.000+01:002013-04-13T17:32:50.846+01:00Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VRt5rmYoQ6I/UWmHg_VAS7I/AAAAAAAAAS0/TYMJARFyxP8/s1600/Saving+Fish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VRt5rmYoQ6I/UWmHg_VAS7I/AAAAAAAAAS0/TYMJARFyxP8/s200/Saving+Fish.jpg" width="200" /></a>This is a book which has been on my TBR shelf for a very long time. I read and enjoyed The Joy Luck Club many years ago, so I don't really know why it's taken me so long to get to this one.<br />
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Bibi Chen is a San Francisco socialite who dies in mysterious circumstances. Her spirit lingers on however, hovering around her friends, not only able to listen in on conversations but also sometimes to hear their innermost thoughts. This makes her a very useful, if judgmental, narrator.<br />
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Bibi had been going to act as a tour guide for a group of her friends on a trip to Burma. The friends decide to go anyway (not least because there is no insurance to cover cancelling the trip), with one of them saying, "May Bibi join us in spirit". Which of course she does.<br />
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Without Bibi's strict itinerary the trip begins to fall apart. The tourists' preconceived ideas hit up against the reality. They are not happy with their hotel;<br />
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<i>The Glorious View Villa was, in fact, the best hotel in the whole of the Naxi Autonomous Region, but for a group used to staying at a chain no worse that the Four Seasons, "best" should have been thought of as a restricted comparative term, not a fixed standard of excellence.</i><br />
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The trip is one cultural misunderstanding after another, a situation not helped by inept tour guides. The political unrest in Burma simmers underneath events, but the tourists are largely unaware of it. It culminates in their being kidnapped by a group of ethnic Karen people who think they recognise one of the tourists as the 'Younger White Brother' come to rescue them from the persecution they suffer from the government.<br />
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I thought this was a really good story. It taught me more about Burma (this is the name Tan chooses to use, rather than Myanmar) which is a country I know very little about. It is a difficult book to classify, some of it is lighthearted and even comic, while other parts dealing with persecution and the political situation are quite dark. I like Bibi as a narrator - becoming exasperated at what her friends are doing, but being powerless to intervene.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895110117460225757.post-4048472097073809712013-03-02T17:10:00.000+00:002013-03-02T17:10:27.419+00:00The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This novel is set in the early part of the twentieth century and is the story of Stevens, butler to Lord Darlington. It takes the form of his reminisces as he takes a driving holiday in the south west of England. This seems to be the first holiday he has had in years, if at all, and the freedom from responsibility he has for a few days allows his mind to wander.<br />
Darlington Hall is the scene of much political intrigue in the years leading up to the Second World War. Lord Darlington is at the centre of pro-German sentiment in political circles. This pro-German sentiment becomes pro-Nazi sentiment. Stevens is aware of this but sees his role as so clearly defined that he is unable to form any opinion about what is happening. His role is to serve Lord Darlington and to his mind this means absolute obedience. This way of thinking seems to have stunted Steven's capacity for independant thought at all, and his devotion to his employer leaves no space for other relationships. His friendship with the housekeeper, Miss Kenton, is a long episode of misunderstandings and repressed feelings.<br />
I thought this was a lovely book. The characters are full of depth and we see both their merits and their faults. Lord Darlington could very easily be portrayed as a monster, but we see him as a naive and misguided man who is hidebound by class prejudices and manipulated by people much cleverer than him. Stevens is a character who I wanted to shake out of his complacency, but at the same time I felt tremendous sympathy for him. His domineering father was very influential in his life and probably that's where the seeds of his unquestioning loyalty lay.<br />
It is a lovely, thoughtful book and I really enjoyed reading it. I think I will return to it in the future because I think it is so layered that new aspects of it would emerge with a re-read.seagreen readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17110080707348277166noreply@blogger.com1