In life, everything counts ...

Addition by Toni Jordan

This is another very unconventional love story, (see also Something Beginning With a few posts down).

Grace has a form of OCD that makes her count everything and ritualise her life in numbers. This makes doing anything out of the ordinary worrying, and Grace is no longer able to work as a teacher. She lives on her own in a small flat and a set routine for her daily life and limited contact with the rest of her family. The only real escape from this is in her fantasies of her hero - the maverick Szerbian scientist Nikola Tesla - also a counter, and the genius who invented radio and AC electricity.

Then one day at the supermarket Grace fills her basket with all the usual items, but when she gets near the checkout she finds she is one banana short! A nice looking man close by has some, so she contrives to take one from his basket - he won't notice will he? Fortunately for her, he does and his name is Seamus. He is intrigued by this woman, asks her out and thus begins the central romance of the story.

Over the book's chapters, one for each letter in Grace's full name, the author teases out Grace and Seamus's relationship, as Seamus does to Grace's family history, to try and find out the triggers for her counting. Grace is besotted and surrenders herself to Seamus totally - but it's not all plain sailing of course as Grace is forced to relive episodes in her life that she has blotted out. Grace and Seamus are both likeable characters, she's witty and surprisingly earthy, he's a great teddy bear of a man with a twinkle in his eye. They take you with them on all the ups and downs of their fledgling relationship.

What does intrude slightly into the story is Grace's obsession with Tesla. Interspersed with the romance, we learn about Tesla's life, his grand projects, his great ideas, and his own obsesssions. Tesla is very much everyone's favourite mad scientist these days - he recently got more of a starring role in Samantha Hunt's orange nominated novel, a major cameo in The Prestige by Christopher Priest, (both of which I really enjoyed), as well as popping up in An Abundance of Katherines by John Green - a YA novel which I've yet to read. All these books featuring him just make me want to go and read their source material - notably biographies of the man by Margaret Cheney and Mark J Seifer.

All that said, I really enjoyed this novel. The author, an Australian, writes directly with great wit and handles the aspects of mental health within robustly yet with understanding She is also capable of bringing a tear to my eye, and I was sorry when it ended.

We'll weather the weather, whatever the weather ?...

Turbulence by Giles Foden

Do you remember the old poem ?

Whether the weather be mild or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.

This definitely wasn't the case in the planning for the D-Day landings, for the lives of thousand upon thousands depended on the meteorologists getting their forecasting right. Turbulence is a fictional story based upon their experiences. Some of those within, such as James Stagg who led the team of British and American weather forecasters, are real, but others such as Henry Meadows, the novel's main character, are not.

Meadows is a young mathematician working for the meteorological office. The MO is having problems in forecasting the weather sufficiently in advance to make planning for the Normandy landings. Meadows is assigned to a station in Scotland with a secret mission to talk to a former weather forecaster Ryman, who as a Quaker is now devoting his skills to peace studies. Ryman had developed a new system of forecasting to take account of turbulence patterns, but had not told anyone - Meadows is to winkle it out of him. But a tragic accident kills Ryman before he makes enough progress in befriending him.

Meadows is reassigned to be Stagg's assistant. The stress the meteorologists were under to get the weather forecast right for D-Day was immense - the right combination of moon, tides, and skies was proving impossible to predict. When some anomalies in readings are consistently reported from one of the weather ships in the atlantic Meadows is convinced that Ryman had something and persuades Stagg to let him carry on Ryman's work... The rest, as they say, is history.

Starting this novel, which begins with the older Meadows now involved in a project to ship water from the Antarctic to the Gulf, I didn't know whether to expect a dry story full of technical detail, a boy's own adventure, or intrigue and WWII office politics. Inevitably perhaps it combined all these aspects, but not quite in balance to make it wholely successful. Meadows is undoubtedly very bright but is not good socially; he's a bit impulsive and self-centred and not very likeable. There is some science in this generally well-researched novel, but not enough about how they did the weather forecasting and turbulence itself. I did enjoy the Scottish section and the developing relationship between Meadows and Ryman. This part rather reminded me of Robert Edric's excellent book Gathering the Water - about an Victorian engineer sent to prepare the way for the flooding of a valley - that got the balance completely right. Foden's novel was an interesting and enjoyable read for the most part, but is not a masterpiece. (Proof copy supplied by the publisher).

Moviewatch - Clint growls - a lot!

Gran Torino starring the one and only Clint Eastwood

Newly out on DVD, we watched this on Saturday. I've always loved Clint and his films, from those where he was young and so handsome to his later ones where he is grizzled but still steely underneath. He's been in the business for over five decades now, but for a man who's 79 he can still cut the mustard as he has proved in Gran Torino.

Clint plays Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski, a retired longterm worker in the Ford factory. The film title refers to his beloved car, a Ford 1972 Gran Torino Sport (see right). By the way, Starsky's 'striped tomato' from the TV series Starsky & Hutch was a 1974 model, and looked distinctly different with a much larger grill.

Since his wife died, Walt lives alone with his dog in a neighbourhood which has gradually been taken over by poor Asian families and is rife with gangs. The film opens at the funeral and Walt is getting visibly irritated by both the young priest's eulogy, and his own family. He's not close to his two sons and his grandchildren. A Hmong family has moved in next door, and their extended family and friends irritate Walt.

Among the Hmong family are teenagers Sue and Thao. Thao is under pressure from his cousin to join a gang - and they want him to steal Walt's car as an initiation, but Walt interrupts the robbery. The gang return to give Thao another chance, and Walt sees them off his lawn with rifle to his shoulder. This act and subsequent other unplanned good deeds on Walt's part, begin to thaw relations with his neighbours and he takes Thao under this wing. But you know it can't last.

This is a film that has a serious message about families, tolerance, social injustice, gangs, and most importantly for Walt -the after-effects of war. It also has some absolutely cracking one-liners - and Clint gets all of them together with a steely glare and deep rumbling growl which he uses often to show his irritation and disapproval. His timing with the growl is immaculate and makes you guffaw every time. He also gets to do a Dirty Harry type speech several times which has you cheering.

It's fabulous to see this curmudgeonly old man confronting his own personal demons and prejudices and overcoming them. This measured film has comedy, pathos, and plenty of sadness, yet was really uplifting. Clint delivers a truly brilliant performance both in front and behind the camera and really got the best out of his teenagers. Where was Oscar? This film should have been nominated for best actor and best director at least!

A young woman's A to Z

Something Beginning With by Sarah Salway

At first glance you might write this book off as chicklit with a gimmick - for it is written in an A to Z format with entries under key words and phrases. The longest entries are no more than a couple of pages, and they're all cross-referenced with an index at the back too. This may seem to imply that the novel could be read in any order by jumping back and forward following the references, however you would miss the layers of nuance and subtlety building up - and a real sense of anticipation that things are going to happen.

Twentysomething Verity works as a secretary in a magazine publishing company and she really enjoys her job. Her parents are dead, and she modestly lives alone in a flat, although as an heiress she could afford better. She's known her best friend Sally since school, and she worries about her. Sally has become the mistress of a married millionaire - surely it can't work. Then as Sally's relationship deteriorates, Verity too falls for a married man.

These relationships are the meat of this novel, but in between them are Verity's musings on life, the universe and everything. She is delightfully naive and quietly eccentric. Within the first few alphabetical vignettes you warm to her completely. The following is typical:

"Phantom E-mails
The first time I e-mailed myself, it was just a joke. To see what would happen. Dear Verity, I wrote, You are my life. Every time I wake up, I wish you were next to me. Nothing is worth us being apart.
And then one click of a button and it was gone. I forgot all about it, but the next time I checked my e-mails, I felt a rush of joy when I found there was one waiting for me in my in-box."

This engaging novel can be read in one session. It was Salway's debut and is totally delightful, it is both frothy and darkly witty, and occasionally sad. It also has many good things to say about friendship, relationships and standing up for oneself. Pure chicklit it most definitely is not - and this is a very good thing.

Another brilliant dystopia in this coming of age novel

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

This novel for early teens+ was short-listed for the 2009 Carnegie Medal, and won the vote of the boys shadowing the award at the school where I work. I have to say it was a fantastic read for adults too, being multi-layered and thought-provoking - putting a new spin on the coming of age novel by setting it in a dystopian new world.

Todd Hewitt is just one month away from his thirteenth birthday and he's the last boy in Prentisstown - a town of just men. His world is different to ours though, when the settlers arrived, everyone was infected with a virus which causes everyone to be able to hear the thoughts of every creature in close range - even your pets. The conversations between Todd and his dog, that he didn't want but comes to depend upon, are particularly touching.

"Need a poo, Todd."
"Shut up Manchee."
"Poo. Poo, Todd."
"I said shut it."

Then one day, Todd hears someone or something that exudes silence - that's not meant to happen. Being able to hear what others are thinking, he soon finds out that this silence means his town is living a lie, and that to escape what's coming to him he will have to run - and the posse will be after him. All this in the first fifty pages, leaving four hundred plus for Todd to grow up very quickly indeed. He is forced to ask some very difficult questions, and finds it very hard to get any answers at all.

I can't tell you too much more about the story without giving anything away. However, there are a series of fantastic cliff-hangers, with some more philosophical breathers in between. The novel however finishes on a real climax which will lead directly into the sequel The Ask and the Answer (now out in hardback). I enjoyed this book immensely. I loved the combination of themes, setting a coming of age story into a dystopian, slightly Sci Fi setting, and then turning it into a road novel with a John Ford style Western at its heart, (I'm thinking The Searchers (1956) here. It was fantastic and I am really looking forward to reading the follow-up.

Quality debunking of poor scientific thinking

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

This is an important book with two main themes. The first is what really goes on behind medical trials - the placebo effect; how many trials are poorly designed; how their data is reported and manipulated; and then how the media takes it, twists it and sensationalises it. The second is his personal crusade against quackery in all its alternative therapy forms.
Goldacre is a proper doctor working in the NHS, and the book has grown out of his weekly column for the Guardian, also called Bad Science. Everything he's written for them and loads more is on his website Bad Science.net.

The author is absolutely scathing about homeopathy, Gillian McKeith and all the so-called nutritionists, however he saves the best 'til last and tackles MRSA and MMR. Apart from all the flawed research, bad testing and manipulation of results, he is also highly contemptuous of all the bad reporting by non-scientists who whipped up the media frenzy which resulted in a huge rise in measles cases, and thousands upon thousands of non-vaccinated children. My daughter was MMR age when this was at its peak, and I remember telling other mums at toddlers that the right thing to do was to get the vaccinations.

The book was thought-provoking and an educational read for me. It's one major failing was although it has notes/references at the back, it has no index, which would make it so much easier to refer back to. As a former devotee of homeopathic belladonna eyedrops for my hayfever, it's still difficult to believe that the easing of symptoms I experienced were the placebo effect in action - however logic tells me it must be so. It was shocking to read about all the incompetence going on in the medical world, and if I'm honest Goldacre comes across as a little bit smug and pleased with himself about the great public service he's doing - but someone does need to do it -so please do carry on Dr Ben!

The UK ABC of Amazon

I'm picking up on an item I saw in Gwen Dawson's blog Literary License, where she refers to the predictive searching now on Amazon. Another US blogger came up with a list made by typing in the letters of the alphabet and seeing which books came up first. I thought I'd do the same for Amazon UK, and see if there were any big differences and/or surprises ...

A is for audio books

B is for breaking dawn

C is for children's books

D is for dan brown

E is for ebooks
F is for Freya North
G is for gardening

H is for harry potter

I is for ipod

J is for james patterson

K is for karin slaughter
L is for lee child
M is for martina cole
N is for nora roberts

O is for oxford reading tree
P is for peter james
Q is for quintin jardine
R is for roald dahl

S is for stephanie meyer

T is for twilight
U is for usborne childrens books
V is for vampire
W is for wilbur smith
X is for x-men
Y is for yoga
Z is for zafon

There are many that appear on both lists - multiple Stephanie Meyer mentions, Dan Brown, Harry Potter, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, vampires, x-men, and yoga. The rest of the UK list is mostly comprised of crime and thrillers and general searches including the great British passion for 'gardening'. There's no room in the UK abc for non-fiction like Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers or the novel Pride and prejudice and zombies here, (although I do fancy reading the latter). The most pleasant surprise was to see the Oxford Reading Tree and Roald Dahl featuring, (the ORT is a popular literacy scheme for children). The rest was oh so predictable - I'm sure that all those thrillers will appear on the bestseller charts in all the papers.

Reflecting upon all this, it was actually rather a silly exercise, wasn't it!

Feeding my inner geek

I'm still on my space kick, and this is one book I'd really like to have - Apollo 11 - Owner's Workshop Manual. I've not actually seen it, but being a Haynes Manual, I would expect some detailed technical drawings, articles about the evolution of the design of the Lunar Module, and the Saturn V rocket that got them there, plus items on some of the procedures etc, etc, etc. It's on my wishlist.

*****

Back in the early 1980s when I rode a motorbike, I had a Honda CB250RS. This was the sporty cousin to the Superdream, with it's four stroke, four valve engine and twin exhausts. Here it is zipped back and forwards from Norfolk where I worked at the time to Harlow, where the boyfriend du jour was - it served me well.

On the occasions when I didn't have him around to help service it, the Haynes manual was invaluable to me being a non-mechanical. (Just in case there is anyone reading who knows this bike, you can just see that it has a round car headlamp, and not the flash rectangular one it came with. This was the result of dropping it after skidding on a huge freshly laid oil patch on the A11 at Thetford.)

Unfortunately no photos exist of me with my mean machine - I'd have loved to show off my red leather jacket and serious biker boots to you, so you'll just have imagine it!

Boldly Going ...

There are lots of great programmes on the TV at the moment celebrating the 40th anniversary of landing on the moon. I was nine when it happened, and remember watching the landing on the telly and being entranced by the whole shebang. I will still watch anything about space and I have many books on the subject, so I am loving it. The astronauts were so brave, it's amazing they got there - and back. The whole golden age of space travel is hugely romantic, so I've trawled through my library to share some classic titles with you...

It took Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier, and then all the pioneering test pilots of the Mercury programme to get the space race going. Tom Wolfe's wonderful book The Right Stuff tells the story of the men involved wonderfully, it was a marvellous film too.

Then by the time we were ready for a moon landing, Gene Kranz was in charge, in his marvellous waistcoat, running his team in with real leadership under extreme pressure. The title of his 2000 memoir Failure is not an option is not actually something he ever said, but reflects his view about running Mission Control. Of course in the film Apollo 13, played by the brilliant Ed Harris, he does say, "We've never lost an American in space, we're sure as hell not gonna lose one on my watch! Failure is not an option."



A couple of other space books of interest that I have include :

- A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin which tells the story of the Apollo programme.

- Moon Dust: In Search of the Men who Fell to Earth by Andrew Smith which tells the stories of the nine surviving men who have walked on the moon and how it affected them.

I'd also like to mention a wonderful film - For All Mankind. Released in 1992, this film is a montage of real footage from NASA, much of it previously unseen, from the various Apollo missions to make a record of a space flight. It really is the 'right stuff' and together with an ethereal soundtrack by Brian Eno, is an inspiring record of the era. Unfortunately it's only available on region 1 DVD.

... and finally, if all these heroes are getting to much for you, and you'd like to read something fictional from the other camp, that is from the Russian point of view, Jed Mercurio's novel Ascent tells the story of a Russian pilot who goes to the moon. Written in a thoughtful, ever so slightly detached style, this short novel is a joy, and for me had a real Russian feel (although I have no experience to back that up!). Mercurio is not afraid to use technical jargon without explanation, but that makes it more real, and totally without unnecessary padding.

Grim but gripping ...

Once Upon a Time in England by Helen Walsh

This book was totally gripping from the outset - the life experienced by the working class family within is truly grim; an unremitingly bleak existence, reinforced by a series of poor decisions and having to live with the consequences. Each time they pick themselves up, something else seems to happen to knock them down again. The novel covers big themes, mixed-race marriage, rape, drugs, drink, homosexuality, bigotry, it all happens to the Fitzgeralds, yet it is portrayed very realistically and you can't help but feel for them.

Set in Warrington of the 1970s and 80s, it's love at first sight for Robbie Fitzgerald, a red-headed club singer of Irish descent, and Susheela, a Malaysian trainee nurse, newly emigrated to make a life for herself in the land of plenty. They meet in the ER...

"Susheela had fallen in love with that man, and that nose. Each dent and bump told out their history. She'd been there, on duty, the night they wheeled him in, barely conscious, his nose splayed across his left cheekbone pumping blood into the stung slits of his eyes. ... And she'd been there in the room later when his cast had peeled back to reveal his new face. She'd watched him confront the mirror and sensed his disappointment. ... He seemed to shrink away from the dangerous edge his nose now lent his battle-scarred face, at odds with the tender and reticent soul underneath."

Robbie and Susheela marry and have a son Vincent, Vinnie; five years later Susheela is pregnant again. But on the night he gets his big break and gets spotted by an agent at the Club, he's late home, and the event happens that will colour their lives for ever. Susheela gets raped by a gang of racist thugs who break into their home.

All this has happened before page 40, leaving the rest of the novel to chart tell the family's story through the next decades. Robbie leaves Sheila, as she becomes known, with the kids, sensitive Vinnie and live-wire Ellie. With a mostly absent father and a mother who doesn't really understand the teen-scene, Vinnie and Ellie soon get into drugs and clubbing, and Vinnie is starting to explore the fringes of the gay scene. You can feel it will end in inevitable tragedy.

This is strong stuff and the author spares no punches, she tells it like it is. Although the novel is set in a particularly poor industrial area of England, you feel that similar stories have happened up and down the country to unfortunate families. Walsh was born in Warrington and got into ecstasy and clubbing before running away to Barcelona at sixteen, so you know she is writing from experience. I read an interesting interview and article about her here. This gritty novel, her second, was absolutely gripping from the start, and I would certainly read more by this exciting young author. (Book supplied by Librarything Early Reviewers programme).

A three-hanky novel...

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

I came to this novel knowing nothing at all about the plot other than it was a family drama; but I had read several recommendations of the book from respected sources. They all said that it was a novel best encountered fresh, that knowing would spoil the enjoyment of reading it.

I concur wholeheartedly. This is a fantastic book about love, loss and decisions which made me well up with tears repeatedly. Written for teens (there are adult themes), it charts the story of Mia, a young cellist, her musical family and rocker boyfriend - you'll fall in love with all of them. Set in Oregon, their story is picked out in flashback over the course of a couple of days.

That's all I can say about the story without spoiling it. It's short enough to be read in one session. It will appeal to fans of Jodie Picoult's family dilemma dramas, but it's way better. A brilliant three-hanky novel.

If you need more urging (without spoilers) to read this book click here or here.

Moviewatch: An American city girl in the English countryside is not good for one's stiff upper lip!

Easy Virtue

This adaptation of a Noel Coward play was great fun. It was full of great performances from an all-star cast, and some brilliant set pieces - involving a chihuahua, the can can, and a fabulous tango from Colin Firth, but I digress ...

The roaring twenties are in full flow when John Whittaker has a whirlwind romance and brings his new American bride home to meet the family in their crumbling ancestral pile. Immediately a battle of wits ensues between his monster of a mother (the wonderfully clipped Kristin Scott Thomas) and Larita, a go-getter from Detroit (Jessica Biel). Colin Firth is the drop-out father still suffering from the stress of the Great War. Nearly everyone is either jealous or in awe of Larita who as a city girl, feels totally trapped in the countryside, but she plays them at their own game. Needless to say, there are skeletons in plenty of cupboards including her own to unearth! I also enjoyed a wry turn from Kris Marshall as the butler.

I totally missed this film when on at the cinema last year, but the DVD was a joy. The soundtrack was an odd thing though - packed mainly with the cream of Coward, but there were some twenties versions of modern songs cropping up which make you do a complete double take. It was enchanting, but with just enough seriousness to give you a rest between the comedy. I loved it.

A vivid dissection of middle-class life

In a Summmer Season by Elizabeth Taylor

Many have told me that I should read the books of Elizabeth Taylor - an author I'd not heard of until the publication of Nicola Beauman's recent biography The Other Elizabeth Taylor by the wonderful Persephone Books. I picked up this particular one for its striking cover photo, and was told by pal Helen, that it was about a woman who marries a much younger man - a toy boy! - well that sold it to me instantly.

Published in 1961, it follows one summer in the lives of a family living in the Thames Valley, with 'The View' of Windsor castle visible in the far distance. This is already prime commuter belt - every day the men go off to work on the train to their jobs in the city - well, everyone except Dermot that is. He is the young Irish thirty-something husband of forty-something well-off widow Kate. They live in some comfort with Kate's sixteen year old daughter Louisa and twenty-two year old son Tom, her Aunt Ethel, and looked after by cook Mrs Meacock. As the novel opens, Kate is on a duty visit to her new mother-in-law, Edwina, up in London for the day. Edwina is always trying to find a job for her youngest, who has never been able to settle at anything or anyone until he fell in love with Kate.

In the first half of the movel we find out what makes them all tick - and frankly, it's all about sex. Kate with her younger husband, Tom with his girlfriends, and Louisa's growing awareness and crush on the young curate in the village. Aunt Ethel watches all these mostly repressed emotions and assesses it in her letters to her friend Gertrude - "When the sex goes Kate will think him no bargain".

Then the Thorntons return from abroad. The Thorntons, Charles and Dorothea, were Kate and her first husband Alan's best friends, and Tom had a thing for Minty, their daughter. Charles' wife died and Kate is keen to make them feel at home again now they're back in England. There are bound to be problems - as three's a crowd - Charles and Kate are the same age, whereas Dermot is closer to the children in age and sometimes, outlook.

"They were walking in circles around each other, Kate thought - both Dermot and Charles. When she had introduced them, Dermot had shaken hands with an air of boyish respect, almost adding 'Sir' to his greeting, and Charles seemed to try and avoid looking at him or showing more than ordinary interest. Although he had not met him before, even as far away as Bahrain he had heard stories, and Kate, writing to tell him of her marriage, had done so in a defensive strain, as if an explanation were due and she could think of no very good one."

The story is mainly told from Kate's point of view, but we hear not only her voice, but her thoughts also - and the two are often opposite. In that terribly repressed middle-class way, everyone says one thing and means another. The author takes a scalpel to these relationships and dissects them with sensitivity and wit, bringing things to a climax with great skill. I can safely say this novel made an instant fan of me, and I wonder why I never discovered her before. (9/10)

A page-turning and fun Victorian melodrama

The Equivoque Principle by Darren Craske

Firstly, a word of explanation - Equivocation is the magician's art making an outcome seem intended when in reality there are several - but all of which are prepared for. The punter doesn't know this of course, and so is fooled every time when a card is forced on him, or his mind 'read'. Having checked this out, it was clear that we would be in for a twisty, turny ride in this novel.

It's 1853, a serial killer is on the loose in London, and the murders happen to coincide with the arrival of a travelling circus run by conjuror Cornelius Quaint. Unfortunately Prometheus, the troupe's mute strongman, picks the wrong pub to drink in and ends up in jail as the only suspect. Cornelius together with his valet Butter, and clairvoyant Madame Destine must find a way to free him. But from the moment they start investigating, it is clear that there are convoluted plots afoot involving events from Quaint's past and that the killings are no coincidence.

Quaint is a striking hero - a magician in his fifties, a gentleman who has seen the world, yet is seemingly content for now to run the circus. He speaks in a way that reminds me of the late, great James Mason - slightly clipped and formal, always emphatic. He is ever the showman and also fiercely protective of his circus troupe. Prometheus, the strongman is also well-drawn, but I found it harder to engage with Madame Destine who also plays a large part. It would also have been nice to see how the mysterious Eskimo valet Butter ended up working for Quaint. Now as this is a Victorian melodrama, we have a motley collection of bad-guys - ranging from the pantomime villain Bishop to the psychopathic murderer himself and the stooge of a police commissioner too. Their actions keep the plot moving along at a rip-roaring speed, and all the twists and turns keep you guessing right the way through, applying the techniques of the title.

This debut novel is the first of a trilogy involving Quaint and although it has some rough edges, it was huge fun to read. The cover proudly proclaims as good as Boris Akunin or your money back - I've only read the first Fandorin novel, but fans of that will certainly enjoy the Equivoque Principle. Thanks to Scott at the Friday Project for sending me the book - and roll on volume two.

A book quote for the weekend

I'm currently halfway through a massive chunkster of a non-fiction book. I am enjoying it though, but it'll take me a few days to finish. So today, instead of a book review, I offer you an interesting quote I found on http://www.brainyquote.com/ from someone I've never heard of called Erma Bombeck, (an American journalist who died in 1996).

"Getting out of the hospital is a lot like resigning from a book club.

You're not out of it until the computer says you're out of it."

The book group I belong to has an ever expanding list of members, past, present and occasional visitors. Once you've been, you have to change your email to get rid of us! But no-one appears to get cross with continuing to get our missives even when they've moved or got other things to do on book group night as, like all bibliomanes, they're nosy and still like to know what we're reading, I hope...

When in Rome ...

For those of us voting in the MEP elections in the South East yesterday, weren't you just a little bit tempted to waste your vote in voting for 'The Roman Party. Ave!'? I was, then reason overcame me and I voted more conventionally instead.

I was intrigued however to look up The Roman Party. Ave! There's virtually nothing on them, no web site or anything. But one source I did eventually uncover had interviewed its leader a couple of years ago. The party is a one man band - a French bus driver, no less, called Jean-Louis Pascual, who has lived in Reading for over 12 years. He wants to gain enough power in England so he can return to France and make his challenge for recognition there. Apparently the name of his party refers to the old proverb "When in Rome, do as Romans do", and how he tries to fit in in his adopted home. Bon chance, Jean-Louis!

An great adventure read for 11+

The Secret Ministry of Frost by Nick Lake

This novel for older children of about eleven upwards was our book group choice for May/June. As a group, we haven't read a novel aimed primarily at a younger audience since the penultimate Harry Potter, (as opposed to adult books that are great for younger readers too). One of our number knows the author of this debut novel, so we were more than happy to help his royalties by shifting a few copies and expressing our opinions.

This is a tale of an albino girl called 'Light', who is half Inuit, half Irish. She lives in a large Manor in Ireland with just the family retainer, called 'Butler'. Her Inuit mother died some years ago and her father has mysteriously disappeared on one of his expeditions to the Arctic, presumed dead. After the funeral, she begins to wonder what it was her father loved about the Arctic and Inuit traditions. Then things start to happen, creatures from the North appear and a shark-headed man 'Tupilak' also arrives to take care of them. Light is convinced that her father is alive, and has been kidnapped by Frost, the king of the cold. She has to go North and sort things out, and a terrifying adventure awaits her in the kingdom of ice...

We all agreed that this novel was great fun, and once things took off, it was surprisingly bloodthirsty! The author has successfully combined Inuit folklore with the more English version (though probably of Viking origin) of Jack Frost and set it all firmly in the present. The main characters are great - Tupilak, the shark-man with the legs of a polar bear is a fierce avenging monster; Butler with his moving tattoos is strong and enigmatic; and Light is an intriguing heroine, but not much is made of her being albino - it's just the way she is, and all will be explained later of course.

The title comes from the poem 'Frost at Midnight' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge which opens - "The frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind.", and reading that poem with hindsight, it has obviously been a strong inspiration for the novel, as has The Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. The cover is great too - sprinkled with white prismatic shards of ice which don't show up here; inside the chapters are headed with great little illustrations like Tupilak on the cover making for a well designed book that will be attractive to its main targets. I hope there's more to come from this new author. (8/10)

A beautiful and quirky journey

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen

This book is a thing of beauty. It stands out being an oversized hardback and invites you to pick it up and look inside ... whereupon you'll see all the intricate illustrations, sidebars and marginalia. Then reading the blurb, you'll find out that it is the story of a 12 year old genius, Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet, how he gets to be invited to go to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC and his journey to get there. Totally captivating already without reading a word.

TS, as he likes to be known, lives on a remote ranch in Montana. His father is a taciturn cowboy, his mother is a talented scientist totally obsessed with studying rare beetles, his sister is a typical teenage girl. His brother, Layton we soon find out died a few months previously. His is not a typical household, and TS is not a typical boy. He loves nothing more than to understand the world by mapping it - drawing illustrations, diagrams, and making lists. His mentor Dr Yorn submitted some of his work to the Smithsonian, not telling them he was only 12. So when they call inviting him to come and accept a prestigious award, TS sees his chance to escape Montana and make a pilgrimage to the home of learning, so he runs away and jumps a train hobo-style. Having grabbed one of his mother's notebooks, he starts to read it on the train, and is surprised to discover it's not one of her beetle books, but the draft of a biography of one of his ancestors on his father's side, who went on to become the first woman professor of geology. Eventually after many adventures, he arrives in DC. To his surprise, (but not ours), the museum sees that it can capitalise on their prize-winner being only 12, and the media circus starts leaving TS homesick and missing his family, and where for the first time, we see him as just a boy.

I really took to TS. He's a loveable geek and an independent spirit. He struggles to understand his parents, especially since the death of his brother though. Throughout his journey, we share his confusion, his grief and need for space. In the boredom of the long train ride, through reading his mother's manuscript, he begins to understand his heritage and to find his place in the scheme of things. The middle section on the train did slightly drag (intentionally I would wager), but the imagery (and TS's maps) of the locomotive gradually thackety-thacking its way through the American mid-west are fantastic.

"I willed the landscape to stop, for the miniature men to stop cranking the scenery across my vision with that little landscape machine of theirs. Alas, the landscape continued flowing past with what seemed like an increasingly sadistic determination."

This is a totally charming book. I loved everything about it - especially all the diagrams and footnotes. Also wonderful is the masterful way the author has teased out the story of the Spivet family - by the end of the novel we care about them all deeply. TS's realisation, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, that there's 'No place like home' and his subsquent rescue may have the merest hint of schmaltz but is actually a truly satisfying ending to an amazing tale. (10/10)

Moviewatch - Coraline (3D)

I read neil Gaiman's wonderful children's novel Coraline last month and blogged about it here, knowing the movie was out this month. Given a choice I always prefer to read the book and then see the movie. So yesterday my daughter and I went to see the film...

It was also our first movie in 3D. At Easter we went to see Monsters v Aliens. The cinema had it in both 2D and 3D; Juliet was wary of the glasses, so we opted for the 2D (which was cheaper too). Fortunately for us, Coraline was only on show in 3D this time, and despite the slightly uncomfortable glasses it was worth the difference.

The new system uses polarized light to produce steroscopic images - ie what each eye would see. The two images are projected in alternate frames with a higher than normal frame rate, and the polarized glasses then ensure that each eye sees its intended picture only - but its fast enough that it seems continuous and the brain combines them to get the full picture. If you don't have the glasses, a scene with a large and detailed depth of field will seem blurred. But enough of the science - on to the film!

Just as in the book, Coraline is a very practical and independent young girl, not much phases her. So when she discovers the passage into an altenate world where her other mother and father can't do enough for her, compared with her too busy parents in the real one, she enjoys herself. But when her other mother says she can stay but only if she lets her replace her eyes with black buttons, (here the needle and thread come straight at you in 3D), she's only scared for a moment, and talks her way out of it and solves the other problems then put in her path steadily. That's the only problem really - it is a dark story, but in the film she's not scared enough. Maybe this was a deliberate ploy to protect the sensibilities of young children, but it did dampen down the action, and the evil other mother seems rather easily defeated in the end.

Visually - it is totally stunning. Stop motion has never looked so good, made with hundreds of precision models as opposed to Wallace and Gromit's homely 'Claymation' style. The 3D effects have been used brilliantly throughout. The old ladies (voiced by French and Saunders) were grotesquely funny - and made us laugh with their half-naked vaudeville act.

One recommendation - if you see the film - do visit the website http://coraline.com/ afterwards - it's rather fab with loads of things to do including see what you look like with buttons for eyes - you have been warned!

Incoming

There are so many good books arriving at the moment, here's a few I'm particularly looking forward to reading...

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters - the eagerly awaited ghost story that we're all looking forward to reading. It's a classic country house tale set shortly after the end of WWII.


Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig - the sixth novel from one of my favourite novelists and a masterful book reviewer. It is set in London and follows the intersecting lives of five totally different people. Dovegreyreader recently interviewed Amanda, and the result was a fascinating insight into her inspiration for this novel which makes it an absolute must read soon for me. It was lovely to hear that Craig is back on her feet after a long illness too.



In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor. Many have recommended this author to me, and I couldn't resist - especially as Virago are reissuing many of her novels with stunning covers - isn't that photo wonderful? I hope that I'll love her books as much as everyone else does, and when I've read a few, I'll turn to Nicola Beauman's biography of her.

At the House of the Magician by Mary Hooper. This is a novel for older children/young adults set in Elizabethan times. It features a young maid who works in the house of Doctor Dee, court magician and alchemist, and she uncovers a plot to assassinate the queen. Hooper has written a handful of historical novels for this age group which all get brilliant write-ups - I hope she is another great discovery.


Snoop by Samuel Gosling. As someone whose first action whenever I go into anyone's house is to look for the bookshelf (discretely of course!), I think I'll really enjoy this book of pop psychology on what your stuff says about you..

And last but not least If I Stay by Gayle Forman. This, a children's book was another recommendation by Dovegreyreader who loved it and gushed about it but couldn't really write about it without giving the plot away. So I rushed out to order it as it sounds brilliant. Thanks dgr.