Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman

I love the premise for this novel. Beneath the cities of Bath, London and Oxford there are mirror cities
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).
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.
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.
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.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

I had heard wonderful things about this book and couldn't wait to start reading. I absolutely was not
disappointed. I raced through it and couldn't wait to get back to it whenever I had to put it down.

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.

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.

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.

Amanda and the Eleven Million Mile High Dancer by Carol Hill

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.

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.

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.

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.

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;

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.

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.

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.

Bishop Auckland

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.


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.

The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi

I have heard this dramatised on Radio 4, but didn't realise that it was adaped from a novel.

The Foolish Immortals by Paul Gallico
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.

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
A book I'd vaguely heard of, but know little about. Apparently the author wrote it when she was only 16.

Nancy: The Story of Lady Astor by Adrian Fort

This is a fascinating book about a fascinating woman. I knew of Nancy Astor of course, she was the
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.

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.

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;

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.

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.

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.

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.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman - Part 1

I'm taking part in the Stardust readalong hosted by Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings. Carl has posted
some questions about the first five chapters of the book.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?

I think I'd like a coat of twilight.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?

The little hairy man who helps Tristan is my favourite. He seems to be an entirely good and kind character.

Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan

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.

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.

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.

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;

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.

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.

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.