gaskella

I'm Moving!

2010-01-29T15:21:00.004Z

Gaskella is relocating to Wordpress - Click here.

Dear everyone, I'm moving. Thank you to all my readers and followers. I hope you'll move with me and subscribe at the new address / update /add me to your bookmarks and blogrolls. My new blog address is http://gaskella.wordpress.com/

I've imported all my posts and comments - so nothing is lost although formatting is a little wonky. Everything else will be a little rough and ready too until I have enough time to format sidebars, improve the design a bit, and get all the links etc working. I decided that Wordpress's multipage option and nicer templates offered the opportunity to develop my blog further.

Cheers - and see you over there!

Annabel
x

Down and borassic in 1930s London

2010-01-29T10:00:00.001Z

At the Chime of a City Clock by D J Taylor

This novel is a cleverly portrayed slice of 30s noir. It's set in the seedy backstreets of London in 1931.

James Ross is an aspiring writer, but there's no chance of making a living at it. His landlady is always after the rent money - but he's permanently borassic. (Boracic Lint = Skint). So he gets a job as a door-to-door salesman flogging carpet cleaner - his commission gets him 2/6 - a whole half a crown per sale - could be a nice little earner. Then he meets Susie, a real looker, and falls head over heels for her - it seems she likes him too. She works as a secretary for the odd Mr Rasmussen who, James is sure, is up to no good. Meanwhile a chipper lad called Leo is also trying to make ends meet, but is not above helping out in shady deals.

James is desperately trying to save up enough money to take Susie away for a dirty weekend, when an opportunity arrives to take the place of a friend at a houseparty to which Rasmussen is going - and he's taking his secretary...

This novel was really successful at recreating 1930s London, when guys wore hats and everyone met at Lyons tea shops where they drank cups of 'ackermaracker'. The language was full of slang including swear-words - 'Berkshire' (Hunt) took me a while to cotton on to. In fact I got out the ever-reliable Eric Partridge Concise Dictionary of Slang to check a few - it appears that ackermaracker comes from an elaborated prison blackslang word for tea!

It was less successful in terms of plot. The front cover proclaims it as a thriller - I'd call it 'thriller-ish'. There are scams going on, but they're almost incidental to James trying to make a few bob all the time. At first we alternate between James and Leo which is slightly confusing, but gradually James moreorless takes over the plot.

I enjoyed the read for the evocation on London life, but wished there had been more plot. (Book supplied by the Amazon Vine programme, 7/10)

Gaskella's Midweek Miscellany #1

2010-01-27T12:00:00.001Z

I won't deny that I get loads of ideas and inspiration for posts and blog improvements from other blogs - don't we all? A huge thank you to everyone who's inspired me in this way. Something a lot of bloggers do, and I haven't so far, is a regular round-up post.

Doing a quick survey, Simon at Savidgereads does his Bookish Bits on a Saturday, whereas Jackie at Farmlanebooks does an end of the month summary, and Teresa at Shelflove gives us weekly Notes from a Reading Life as part of her Sunday Salon posts.

While I like the idea of the Sunday Salon it is closed to new sign-ups having reached the number of contributors that the software can cope with. Looking for an USP, I thought I'd make my round-up 'Gaskella's Midweek Miscellany'. It won't happen every week, but it will appear on Wednesdays. So here goes ...

*****

Simon T's Ten Random Books Meme, is spreading. It was such fun to do, and my version is here, and here are more fascinating results for your delectation ...

Margaret at Books Please
Kirsty at Other Stories
Lizzy at Lizzy's Literary Life

*****

Last Thursday I took part in a Blog Blitz organised by Kelly at YAnnebe to highlight great YA novels that not many people have read. Kelly used the power of the Librarything tagging system to analyse the numbers of LT users that owned each YA tagged book. Over 25,000 LT users own Twilight for instance, but there are thousands of books owned by 500 people or less. Then invited LT users with public catalogues who are bloggers to highlight some of their favourite rarely owned YA titles, and even gave us personalised lists to work from. This must have been a massive project and nearly 50 bloggers took part by posting - and I've added to many to my wishlists from others' posts! To sum it all up, Kelly is publishing some final data from all the books highlighted. Go Kelly!!!

*****

Lastly this week - Incoming. New arrivals at Gaskell Towers include:

The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar - it's steampunk. A masked terrorist is putting bombs into books - oh no!
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. First published in 1947 in Germany, this book chronicles the horror and terror of German life during WWII. It's also a chunkster with over 500 pages.
The Mayor's Tongue by Nathaniel Rich. Scott Pack said this reminded him of Paul Auster . Well anything Austerish will attract my attention.
Intuition by Allegra Goodman, a novel of Bad Science. This medical thrillerish novel was bound to appeal to the scientist bit of my brain.
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin - I finally gave in on and bought this one - in hardback too even though the paperback is out this month.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - after all the posts and comments around on this book - I succumbed.
And finally, with many thanks to the lovely Dovegreyreader, a boxed set of Oxford Bronte essentials arrived. I won this set in one of her Twelve Days of Christmas giveaways. Jane Eyre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Wuthering Heights in nice new Oxford World Classics editions will now grace my shelves.

But darling the virus won't affect us, will it?

2010-01-25T16:45:00.013Z

The Death of Grass by John Christopher

The 1950s saw an explosion of science fiction and cultural dystopias. In 1951 there was John Wyndham's ground-breaking novel Day of the Triffids, followed by Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 in 1953. Then there was Quatermass on the television. William Golding's classic Lord of the Flies was also published in 1954.

Then in 1956 The Death of Grass was published. John Christopher was an established author, but this was his breakthrough novel. Readers may recall The Tripods BBC TV series which was made in the mid-70s from a trilogy of books he later wrote for older children. But back to The Death of Grass. It's not really a science fiction novel, despite the catalyst for all that's to come being a rather realistic virus that kills grass (compared with the monstrous triffids). It is dystopian though, and survival is the key.

In the beginning we meet two brothers, John and David Custance. David grows up to inherit the family farm in a remote Westmorland valley, John becomes an engineer in London and has a family of his own. John and Ann, and their best friends the Buckleys, Roger and Olivia live a nice life in suburbia with their kids. They fervently believe the virus which is rampaging in Asia will burn itself out or be cured before it reaches them, but governments are planning for the future...

At the beginning of September, the United States House of Representatives passed an amendment to a Presidential bill of food aid, calling for a Plimsoll line for food stocks for home use. A certain minimum tonnage of all foods was to be kept in reserve, to be used inside the United States only.
Ann could not keep her indignation at this to herself.
"Millions facing famine," she said, "and those fat old men refuse them food."
They were all having tea on the Buckley's lawn. The children had retired, with a supply of cakes, into the shrubbery, from which which shrieks and giggles issued at intervals.

And they continue to bicker about the famine in the East...

Roger stared back. "We once agreed about my being a throwback - remember? If I irritate the people around me, don't forget they may irritate me occasionally. Woolly-mindedness does. I believe in self-preservation, and I'm not prepared to wait until the knife is at my throat before I start fighting. I don't see the sense in giving the children's last crust to a starving beggar."
"Last crust..." Ann looked at the table, covered with the remains of a lavish tea. "Is that what you call this?" ...
... Olivia said: "I really think it's best not to talk about it. It isn't as though there's anything we can do about it - we ourselves, anyway. We must just hope things don't turn out so badly."

All so nice and cosy, but there are intimations that the men are willing to be heroes if needed, and of course they are to get their chance. Things get much much worse, and they get just a few hours notice to get out of London before it's sealed. The two families plan to go north to Westmorland, but stop off first at a gun-shop where they meet the owner Pirrie, who's a good shot. 'Persuaded' to take him with them, the rest of the book tells of their journey north. But the army are already manning road-blocks out of London, and it's amazing how quickly the men transform from well-meaning middle-class blokes into ruthless killers.

They are to encounter many more troubles as they make their way north. Pirrie, (who reminded me of Donald Pleasance in nasty mode), makes himself very useful to the group's leader John, who finds himself having to make tougher and tougher decisions as they travel and to harden his heart. Ann his wife, remains the group's conscience.

This immediate transformation of the country into a miriad of small fiefdoms and garrisons, with its accompanying moral disintegration may have happened rather fast, but kept things moving towards the conclusion. John and Roger were ex-Army, so had the discipline to do what they had to do, the women were 1950s housewives, but at least Ann had a mind of her own, despite some rather dated, arch and cheesy dialogue.

This new Penguin classics reissue with the super cover also has a great foreword by Robert MacFarlane, the landscape writer, which puts it into context and surveys the (eco-)dystopian sub-genre. For another excellent review, you can visit John Self's blog at Asylum.

I was totally won over by this book. It's our Book Group choice for next month, I'll report back on what they thought of it later. I feel I may have to revisit the Triffids though. (9/10)

A tale of two families at war with themselves

2010-01-25T14:07:00.011Z

Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan

There is a much used quote of Leo Tolstoy's from Anna Karenina: -"All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." This is particularly true to the two chronicled in this novel.

Firstly we meet Meridia. Her mother Ravenna had nearly died giving birth to her, and her father Gabriel never forgave her for being a girl. Her father and mother have barely spoken to each other since, and the atmosphere in the house is arctic. Her father holes up in his study and her mother rules the kitchen. Her parents' displeasure at each other is personified by coloured mists that encircle the house.

Then one day Meridia meets Daniel and they fall in love. Time to be introduced to his parents - Elias the jeweller, and his wife Eva. Eva is an elemental force and when she's wound up, the bees buzz all around. When she and Meridia meet, it's obvious that it will be a case of the irresistible force meeting the immoveable mountain. Eva tries to micro-manage every aspect of Daniel and Meridia's lives together. Meridia is strong however, and is able to hold her own against her conniving and manipulative Mother-in-law.

The novel is set in an old-fashioned town which feels hot and Mediterranean - there are no cars or telephones - but there is a cinema, and life revolves around the marketplace where much bartering goes on. The three women rule this novel. Of the menfolk, Daniel and Elias appear rather timid and doormatish, letting Eva get away with far too much. Gabriel has pushed his emotions so far down, he could be an Easter Island statue - only Ravenna can stand up to him and it's driving her mad. They all have secrets, and it's Meridia's job as matriarch of the next generation to work out what is behind both families' strangeness. But will that knowledge help sustain or corrupt her own new family?

While, at over 400 pages in hardback, the book was too long and I got fed up with most of the characters some of the time, I did have to keep reading to see if Meridia would get to the bottom of her parent's cold war; to see if she could outwit the scheming Eva; amd most of all to see if her relationship with Daniel would survive. It has been billed as a fairy-tale, but the magic of the bees and mists is essentially incidental to the family drama within. An engrossing debut. (Book supplied by the Amazon Vine programme, 7/10)

...and the Winner is

2010-01-22T14:25:00.004Z

Names went on slips of paper in a bowl, mixed then shaken until one fell out and the winner of a signed copy of "The Girl With Glass Feet" by Ali Shaw ...

... is...

(don't you just hate the way they do that on the TV)

... Savidgereads

Well done Simon - another triumph for your BBB (book-buying-ban).

Thank you to everyone who entered and told me their favourite fairy tales. I'm going to try to read some of them soon, and look out the Angela Carter and Margo Lanagan ones too.

Five of the best YA books you haven't read ...

2010-01-21T14:12:00.015Z

Today I'm taking part in a blog blitz organised by Kelly at YAnnabe. Kelly has been researching librarything to find YA books that LT users have rated really highly, but that not many people own, then asking people who own them to champion them.

I was only too happy to oblige, as I feel that the very best YA books deserve to have an adult readership also. Often the differences between a YA and an adult novel are very small - the main characters are usually younger YAs themselves, and obviously bad language and sex are toned down, but everything else that makes a great novel is still there - plot, setting, characterisation, and beautiful writing ...

The Death Defying Pepper Roux by Geraldine McCaughrean who is one of the UK's mostly highly regarded children's authors, having written many books for all ages, including the official Peter Pan sequel Peter Pan in Scarlet.

This, her latest novel is for young adults, and it's superb. Imagine your aunt had prophesied that you would die at the age of fourteen, and worse still that everyone believed her. That's what happened to Pepper Roux and he wasn't going to let it stop him having a life.

Read my full review here.

The Kiss of Death by Marcus Sedgwick is set in Venice, which immediately gets my vote, and also features proper old-school vampires from Eastern European tradition. Read my review of it here.

Readers of this blog will also know my fondness for his fictional biography of Arthur Ransome's years in Russia Blood Red Snow White.

He's coming to a school's event in Abingdon next month, and I'll be helping! - Looking forward to that hugely.

Pastworld by Ian Beck is another recent read that deserves to be huge! Read my review here. Imagine that London has been turned into a Victorian theme park and you'll get the idea.

The book has an absolutely fantastic website here - there is a filmed trailer for the book too - I think it gives a little too much away, but the whole site is great.

Numbers by Rachel Ward is the debut novel by a new British writer that I read last year. It's about a girl who sees numbers above everybody's head - they represent the day they will die.

Read my review here. I hope she writes more.

The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner. Sally is an author and illustrator who has been working her way up the age range. The Red Necklace is her second YA novel, and it's set during the French Revolution. Full of adventure, wonderful characters, and her magical touch it is a fabulous novel. Read my review here.

I must read its sequel The Silver Blade too. I saw Sally speak at an event last year and she was fascinating to listen too - she's severely dyslexic and had huge problems at school as a teenager, but never let that stop her!

With the exception of the last novel, less than 65 LT members own any of the other titles mentioned above. I loved reading all of them, and recommend them all to you if you fancy reading YA. If you stop by YAnnebe's blog you can link to all other bloggers taking part today - I'm sure you'll find a YA book to tickle your fancy!

Simon's Meme - What Your Books Say About You

2010-01-20T07:00:00.001Z

Simon T at Stuck in a book developed this meme. Simon S at Savidgereads has since done it, and both have made fascinating reading. It's a development of the ten random things about yourself type of meme. So I thought I'd have a go too. Here's how to do it...

1.) Go to your bookshelves...
2.) Close your eyes. If you're feeling really committed, blindfold yourself.
3.) Select ten books at random. Use more than one bookcase, if you have them, or piles by the bed, or... basically, wherever you keep books.
4.) Use these books to tell us about yourself - where and when you got them, who got them for you, what the book says about you, etc. etc.....
5.) Have fun! Be imaginative. Doesn't matter if you've read them or not - be creative. It might not seem easy to start off with, and the links might be a little tenuous, but I think this is a fun way to do this sort of meme.
6.) Feel free to cheat a bit, if you need to...

That last point was to prove very useful. As my books are just everywhere, I thought that to get the best sample, that I'd use a random number generator to pick the books from my Librarything catalogue. If I couldn't think of anything to say about the books - I moved to the next down the page. Well - it is meant to be fun (see rule 5)!

1. Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov.

I got this particular Corgi paperback from the Girl Guides jumble sale, where my Dad & I always managed to control the book stall, from which we did rather well over the years. So you can see that even at the age of about 12 I was addicted.

This was my first proper science fiction read too, and was to spark off a passion that lasted through university. I was also able to enjoy the SF classics that we read at school - Day of the Triffids and Brave New World amongst them. I still enjoy an occasional SF novel today, and I adore SF movies. I also make no secret of have been a huge Trekker, although I never went quite so far as to buy a uniform - it was close for a while though!

2. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.

I'm going to have to re-read this one, having read it shortly after it was published. I remember it left me slightly cold, but that was before I started writing notes on my reading so I can't remember why. I haven't read many novels by Canadian authors apart from Atwood and lots of Robertson Davies some years ago. I have a couple of Mordecai Richler's books on the TBR pile, but am very open to recommendations for others.

I'd love to visit Canada one day too - I have some distant relatives, that I'm pretty sure that I've never met, who live in the wonderfully named town of Copper Cliff, Ontario. One day I may make contact! ...

3. The Wind in the Willows, play by Alan Bennett

Bennett really is a national treasure - and never more so than at the National Theatre where his plays have had their debuts in the past few decades. I saw The Wind in the Willows twice on successive Christmases, 1990-1. The casts were different, Griff Rhys Jones & Patrick Barlow were the Toads, supported by great casts of British character actors. Bennett's gentle and hilarious adaptation made great use of the Olivier Theatre's moveable stage - rising up to create Badger's sett and Ratty's waterside hole.

Also of note, the music to this production is by Jeremy Sams - who was a great musical star at my brother's school, Whitgift in South Croydon. Sams has gone on to compose for film and TV, winning a BAFTA, and directed Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the West End amongst other accomplishments. I remember all of us girls admiring him from afar at the school concerts!

4. Pompeii by Robert Harris.

We holidayed on the Sorrento peninsula back in 2007. It was one of my favourite vacations. Naturally, one of the must-see sites nearby was Pompeii. We had been advised that the way to get the best out of it was to hire a private official guide there - they would be able to unlock houses that joe public don't get into. The only problem was a guide was €70 and no-one else wanted to share when we got there. Pompeii itself was huge, crowded and hot, and bloody hard work clambering over the lumpy roads and pavements.

Later in the trip, we went to Herculaneum which was small and perfectly formed with no crowds or closed houses. Guess which I preferred?

5. WLT: A Radio Romance by Garrison Keillor

I had a very small moment of radio fame last year - when I got to do a book review on Radio Oxford one afternoon in their monthly book club feature. I did it by telephone - and although the DJ Jo Thoenes put me at my ease, I kept on interrupting as I couldn't see her and her regular bookseller guest. I'm sure I ummed and aahed more than I would have liked too.

I never did listen again though, but I'd love to have another go if they'd have me ...

6. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

The inhabitants of Barbary Lane in Maupin's tales of Bohemian folk in San Francisco in the late 1970s have such a good time! As a tourist in San Francisco in the mid 1980s though, although a lovely, friendly city, you wouldn't recognise it from its hippy heyday in the late 1960s. We went to the famous Haight/Ashbury intersection but didn't get any vibes. The City Lights Bookshop where the Beats hung out was nice though.

7. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Last autumn in October I launched my Season of the Living Dead. I only read vampire books for a month, and loved it all - the good, the bad and in the case of Let the right one in downright scary. At the moment I'm minded to do it again this year, but to widen the scope slightly to include all types of undead, so I can add ghosts, zombies and all manner of supernatural beings. I shall certainly include some of Paul Magr's splendidly humorous Brenda and Effie series.

8. The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales by Maria Tatar

I have a deep love of fairy tales. When I was little, I read all the colours in the rainbow and beyond in the collections of Andrew Lang, the twelve of which were published between 1889 and 1910. I still have my original Puffin Book of Princesses which had lovely illustrations of the Twelve Dancing Princesses and others which I carefully coloured in.

However, I can't get my daughter to share in my love of fairy tales, myths and legends - she's reading and enjoying Harry Potter, but I think she's missing out on a rich banquet of super storytelling.

In Maria Tatar's illustrated volume of some of the greatest fairy tales, each one is accompanied by a scene-setting introduction with historical notes, variants, and many interesting insights which any lover of fairy tales would find fascinating.

9. School Dinners by Becky Thorn

I couldn't believe it when the random number generator picked this book - I actually double-checked for Becky is my sister-in-law. This is her first book which can help you reproduce all your favourites from school dinners back in the 1970s in family sized portions, (minus the Spam fritters). There are main course recipes for pies and non-pies, and loads of great puddings - Butterscotch Tart - I can feel a Homer drool coming on. The text evokes the experiences we all had wonderfully and the whole book has a nice retro 1970s feel to it with the design. An ideal present!

10. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

...and finally. I haven't read this one, but it does appear to go on, and on for ever like this shaggy dog story of a jest supplied by my daughter...

Once upon a time, there were three little pigs who went to a restaurant. When the waiter came to take their order, the biggest pig chose, "Roast beef, mash and gravy" the middle pig said, "Fish and Chips" and the smallest pig said, "Two pints of water please."
"And what would you like for dessert?" asked the waiter.
The biggest pig requested, "Apple crumble and custard." The middle pig said, "Crème Brulèe." The Smallest pig said, "Four pints of water please."
"And what would you like to drink with that?" asked the waiter.
The biggest and middle pigs both wanted tea. The smallest pig asked for, "eight pints of water please."
The waiter was totally confused and said to the smallest pig, "Your brothers are all having a normal meal. Why are you just drinking water?"
The Smallest pig replied, "Well, I'm the little piggy who goes wee, wee, wee, all the way home!"

*****FINIS!!!*****

An Evening with Ali Shaw & Book Giveaway

2010-01-18T21:35:00.012Z

It was off to Mostly Books last night to see one of the best new young authors around. Ali Shaw's debut novel is the magical and wonderful The Girl With Glass Feet which I reviewed here.

I have a signed copy of the new paperback to giveaway. See the end of the post for details...
But back to Ali whose own website and blog can be found here. He hails from Hardy country - Dorchester in Dorset. He studied English at Lancaster, and then like Dick Whittington, set off for London, where he perked coffee, worked in a bookshop and then for a publisher, writing in the small and early hours. Having submitted the manuscript to an agent and hearing nothing, he went off to work at the Bodleian in Oxford having an interesting time in the special documents department. Then he got the call ... and The Girl With Glass Feet became a reality.

Ali read a chapter from the book to us, and then chatted at length with questions from the audience about his inspirations and influences, and in particular - the use of magical elements in the story.

He loves fairy tales, particularly the sad, dark ones of Hans Christian Andersen, which always show that there is a price to be paid for benefitting from magic. He also wanted the magic in his book to be a natural extension of the character's lives, giving the example of Kafka's Metamorphosis in which a bureaucrat wakes up transformed into an insect and essentially carries on with his life! His advice was to be careful with magic - to work out your rules for incorporating it, to consider up and down sides, and to keep it natural.

Finding it hard to pitch his book at first so that it wasn't pigeonholed as genre fantasy, (which it is not!), he latched upon The Time Traveller's Wife as a comparison which successfully opened the doors. Ali proved to be an entertaining and articulate speaker who had interesting and mature things to say about his craft - and he's only in his twenties! Novel two is in the works - I for one can't wait.

Now for the Giveaway ... For your chance to win a signed copy of the paperback of 'The Girl With Glass Feet' -please leave a comment telling me your favourite fairy tale - are you a traditionalist - Grimms, Andersen or Perrault perhaps? Or do you prefer a more modern style - maybe one of the 'magic realists'? ... Comments by Friday lunchtime please, I will send worldwide.

P.S. Hello to Vikki who went to uni with Ali. We've crossed paths on the internet before, and it turns out that we both live in Abingdon. It's a small world sometimes - and it's always lovely to meet virtual friends in real life.

Starting the Canongate Myths series ...

2010-01-18T14:54:00.015Z

A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong

One of my reading resolutions for 2010 is to read the entire Canongate Myths series - re-tellings of age old stories by great authors. While I'm not intending to read them in strict publication order necessarily, (I managed to snaffle a copy of the latest addition Orphans of Eldorado by Milton Hatoum from the publisher - thank you Canongate), it is sensible to make Karen Armstrong's scholarly appraisal of the role of myth in history the first.

But, what is a myth? Chambers dictionary defines it as:

"myth / mith or (archaic) mīth/ n an ancient traditional story of gods or heroes, esp one offering an explanation of some fact or phenomenon; a story with a veiled meaning; mythical matter; a figment; a commonly-held belief that is untrue, or without foundation. [Gr mythos talk, story myth]"

This doesn't get us much further, as there is scope within that definition for rather almost contradictory ideas - from tales of the divine exploits of ancient Gods told for a moral purpose, to the tabloid-fuelled rubbish we're pushed to believe today.

However, for Armstrong myth is spiritual; it is all about belief and the evolution of human society. She takes us from the Paleolithic belief in the sky gods, through the development of more anthropomorphic gods, to the great classical era when cities were built and the ancient Greeks started philosophising. The balance between myth and what the Greeks call logos - the logical, pragmatic thinking was beginning to change.

"Plato disliked tragedy, because it was too emotional; he believed that it fed the irrational part of the soul, and that humans could only reach their full potential through logos. He compared myths to old wives tales."

Then she carries on beyond this time when mythical thinking began to pivot towards logic, to the crises in belief systems that occurred later as science began to come of age around the time of the Renaissance.

"Scientific logos and myth were becoming incompatible. Hitherto science had been conducted within a comprehensive mythology that explained its significance. The French mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-62), a deeply religious man, was filled with horror when he contemplated the 'eternal silence' of the infinite universe opened up by modern science."

She ends by bringing us up to date by looking at T.S.Eliot's poem The Waste Land which looks at "the spiritual disintegration of Western civilisation", through the symbology of Picasso's Guernica, to the Homeric tribute of Joyce's Ulysses.

In conclusion, myth is proabably more important than ever. Going back to the dictionary definition above, wherein myths give meaning, it seems to me that we need myth to help explain the spiritual side of life, the universe and everything really!

I really enjoyed this short overview of the world of myth, particularly as it introduced me to many Middle Eastern and Asian mythologies that I am less than familiar with. Appetite whetted, I can't wait to get going on the stories themselves now. (8/10)

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

2010-01-16T21:16:00.011Z

Now - considering that I last read The Hobbit, aged around twelve, many, many years ago - before starting to re-read the book, ask me what I remember of it apart from Bilbo and Gandalf? I would answer, "Gollum and the ring, and Smaug the dragon, but particularly Gollum."

I was surprised to find that Gollum was almost incidental. But what I had completely forgotten about were the dwarves. Not seven, but a whole baker's dozen of the grumpy things!

The Hobbit charts Bilbo Baggins' big adventure to vanquish the dragon Smaug. Gandalf hand-picks the little hobbit, who dreams of adventure (his Tookish ancestry) but is to timid to act, to join the team of dwarves to seek out and smite Smaug.

"This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained - well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end."

Along the way they get into many scrapes, meeting different folk and creatures in each chapter as they make their way through the different regions of Middle Earth. Emotionally, Bilbo is on a journey too as he grows up and becomes the lynchpin in the band of adventurers, (especially as Gandalf has the tendency to disappear leaving them to sort out their own problems).

As a taster of what is to come in the LOTR proper, this children's tale was a delightful prequel. I'm looking forward to the next three month's books in the LOTR readalong immensely. (7/10)

The First Detective Novel

2010-01-16T09:00:00.004Z

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

This was my bookgroup's Christmas read - we like to pick something classic for festive reading. This was a popular choice, as several of us, me included, have read Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, the real-life Victorian murder case which inspired Collins.

I started reading well before Christmas, but somehow didn't gel with the book at first, getting rather bogged down in the first fifty or so pages. I found the story of the jewel's extrication from India in the prologue a little turgid, and then the start of the first segment a bit slow... So I put it down and resumed reading on New Year's Day. This time it matched my mood and I was able to get into it again easily, and this time I really enjoyed it.

I'm not going to expound on the plot, but this novel of a crime in a country house has a bit of everything. Someone present that night must be the culprit - and we get to meet them all. What is truly original is that the story is told through the testimonies of key characters at the various stages of the plot. Setting the scene and getting a major chunk is Gabriel Betteredge - the Verinder family's trusted retainer, and he introduces us to all the characters including the virginal Rachel; the prodigal Franklin Blake who brings the Moonstone to the house; the scullery maid with a murky past, Rosanna Spearman; and Franklin's rival for Rachel's affections - Godfrey Ablewhite amongst others. Betteredge also introduces us to the useless local bobby, and the brilliantly clever detective Sgt Cuff who soon appears to be getting to the bottom of things once on the case. But even Cuff's investigations don't go to plan ...

By the way, I read the new Oxford World Classics edition, which has explanatory notes, a chronology, bibliography and an introduction by John Sutherland - which helpfully you are told to read after the novel. (Shouldn't they have made it an afterword then?).

Those of our book group who finished it also throughly enjoyed it - although I don't know how Alex managed to cope with reading it on his iphone! I've been left rather keen to read more of these sensation novels. Great stuff. (8/10)

gaskella on normblog

2010-01-15T16:55:00.005Z

Today, I've been appearing over at normblog.

Normblog is the blog of distinguished academician Norman Geras who is Professor Emeritus of Government at the University of Manchester, he's husband to Adèle and father to Sophie Hannah.

While Norm's main concerns are politics and his many short posts every day make fascinating reading, every Friday Norm profiles a blogger - and I was really flattered to be asked. If you scour the list of previous profiles you'll find I'm in good company with other litbloggers, Dovegreyreader and Simon at Stuck in a Book to mention but two. Thank you Norm. Own trumpet blowing now officially over.

The LOTR Readalong

2010-01-13T16:42:00.010Z

I've joined a readalong! I don't usually do challenges or readalongs, as I have enough personal literary challenges in my reading resolutions without joining in any others. Also, like Simon at Savidgereads, I'm a big fan of what he calls "whimsical reading" and not over-tying myself into pre-planned reading.

However, one of my reading resolutions for 2010 was to try and re-read some books this year. Reappraising, and hopefully, still enjoying books read years ago is a very worthwhile activity that I'm keen to make time for. So when Teresa at Shelflove announced the Lord of the Rings readalong I couldn't resist. You can find out more about it here.

The plan is to read one book per month, including The Hobbit which is the starting point. It's probably about twenty years since I last read LOTR. Before then I think I read it three times, loving it anew with each visit, and I haven't read the Hobbit since I was about twelve. I am so looking forward to reacquainting myself with all my favourite characters on the page - especially Aragorn of course, with whom I was passionately in love as a teenager.

Back then too, I had the most amazing poster on my wall - the artist was Jimmy Cauty, who was half of the archarchic and influential duo the KLF - who famously set fire to £1,000,000 back in 1994. Cauty painted this aged just 17, and it perfectly matched my vision too. I still have the poster, maybe it's time to get it out of storage and hang it back on my bedroom wall, slightly dogearred that it is ...

Running away from country ways and city life - a family's dilemma

2010-01-12T13:22:00.008Z

The Good Parents by Joan London

This accomplished novel starts off as the story of eighteen year old Maya de Jong, a girl from Western Australia who escapes the country to get a job in Melbourne. She works for Maynard Flynn, a slightly shady businessman, and it's not long before they embark on an affair. His wife is dying of cancer, and Maya can give him the attention he needs, indeed she becomes rather infatuated with him, (we of course know he's taking advantage of her good nature).

Jacob and Toni, her parents, come to Melbourne to stay with her for a holiday as arranged, but find her gone. Her flatmate can't help; the office is empty and Maynard and Maya have disappeared. They begin to search for Maya, and this forces them to comtemplate their lives - their own experiences of growing up and flying the nest...

Toni, while young, was married to a shady yet enigmatic businessman herself - playing the role of Cy Fisher's arm candy. When hippyish Jacob appears, she takes her chance to escape Cy's control, and runs away with him - so romantic, yet more so a practical choice for the father of her children.

Back in the present, Jacob's sister Kitty is dispatched to look after Maya's younger brother Magnus, and bonds with their neighbour Carlos who has family problems of his own. Jacob and Toni though, are finding the searching and waiting in Melbourne hard, especially after Jacob manages to injure his leg. Toni has to get out, while Jacob, always the slacker, is content to stay in the flat and get to know the aloof Cecile - a Malayan who was adopted as a child by an Australian couple.

This is a very thoughtful novel, observing the relationships of all involved through the magnifying glass of lives lived. I found it rather wistful, yet I could sense Toni and Jacob's frustrations with life, with their wayward daughter who is causing them such heartache. Whereas Magnus who is happy to be a homebody, and his Aunt Kitty provided an engaging and happy counterpoint. Although we never really find out what Maya did while away, things do get resolved, but many questions go unanswered - as there is still much living to be done after the novel ends.

London's previous novel - Gilgamesh, her first, about a woman's search for the father of her child, was much lauded, and I will definitely be looking out for that after reading The Good Parents. (8/10)

Complicated emotions are explored in this big novel

2010-01-09T10:36:00.011Z

The Blasphemer by Nigel Farndale

This was the last novel I finished reading in 2009, and it was solid yet gripping, a satisfying read that explores big and complicated emotions - yet I've struggled in my thoughts about how to do it justice in a review.

Where to start? Examining the cover gives a clue to the two strands of the story. We start in a prologue at Ypres, 1917 as the troops are preparing to go over the top on the first day of Passchendaele. A young private is searching for the major, only finding an apparently shell-shocked officer conducting an imaginary orchestra from a sheet of music in front of him.

Then we're taken back to the present day and meet Daniel, the great-grandson of the young soldier. Daniel is a biologist, a Darwinian atheist (in the mould of a young Dawkins), a successful university lecturer and TV presenter. He's working on his grand gesture - taking his girlfriend, the mother of his child, on a surprise trip to the Galapagos islands to tie the knot. But before they can get there, their plane crashes in the ocean. Daniel is faced with a life and death decision - whether to save Nancy and possibly perish himself, or to save himself. He swims for help, helped by turtle and a vision of a figure who leads his to safety. Luckily Nancy survives, but she can't help feeling that Daniel betrayed her, and he is full of guilt. Their relationship falters, and Daniel becomes increasingly desperate to find redemption.

This is when the two stories start to entwine ever more deeply, as Daniel begins to investigate the story of what happened to his great-grandfather, spurred on by letters that his own father has kept all these years. As a counterpoint to Daniel's story, we meet Wetherby, who is jealous of Daniel's media profile, and is seeking to influence the Dean over the appointment of the new professor, he makes insinuations about Daniel who pre-crash was a shoe-in for the job.

I'm not saying any more about what happens, but it builds into a real exploration of emotions - guilt, courage, cowardice, jealousy, love, but most of all faith and belief. Once I got past the slightly slow start, it became a compulsive read, the WWI sections were particularly evocative, recalling John Singer Sargent's painting 'Gassed'.

I can thoroughly recommend this big and ambitious novel with a vivid cast of strong characters, which is published this month. (9/10, book supplied by Amazon Vine)

Here are my snowy pictures ...

2010-01-07T18:07:00.007Z

It was glorious sunshine in Abingdon today. We're lucky to live on the doorstep of a lovely park and I took the camera with me today when my daughter and I went for a wander. Many of yesterday's snowmen had been cannibalised to make launch ramps for sledging. With all the local schools being closed for the second day, everyone was having fun in the sunshine. Here Albert (we also have a statue of Victoria at a different park in Abingdon) is benevolently watching the snowball fun.

It was a different story yesterday without the sunshine. Here's Abingdon School, (complete with igloo on the field).

Moviewatch - Moon

2010-01-04T18:05:00.004Z

I saw Moon the other night on DVD and was absolutely blown away by this brilliant and clever little movie.

Sam Rockwell plays an astronaut, also called Sam, who is reaching the end of his three year contract manning a mining station on the moon. He lives all alone there with just the robot GERTY for company, and occasional messages from his wife and daughter back home. When one of the drilling machines develops a fault, he goes out in one of the rovers to fix it, but crashes. He wakes up back in the station's sick bay, and GERTY is asking him to do some tests to check that he's alright. Sam is suspicious and tries to get up and find out what happened... That's all you're getting of the plot, to tell you any more would spoil things completely, but it's a real thriller!

It's the film debut of the former Zowie Bowie, who now goes by the name of Duncan Jones; he also wrote the story. The look and feel of the film crosses 2001: a space odyssey with hints of Dark Star, and even light touches from Red Dwarf and the Alien movies - due homage is paid in style. The suspense is upped by the wonderful ambient soundtrack by Clint Mansell which never gets in the way, just this little menacing two note motif that builds the tension nicely. Also, thanks to the wonderful voice talent that plays the voice of GERTY, you're never quite sure whose side the robot is on, (no I'm not letting on who). Most of all, Rockwell proves his versatility as an actor - it would be wonderful if he got an Oscar nomination.

America has never looked better...

2010-01-04T16:57:00.007Z

The USA Book: A Journey Through America by Carla Zimmerman

Last year a copy of the compact version of Lonely Planet's The Travel Book came into my hands and it was a fascinating but brief tour around the world. (See my write-up here.)

That small sized book was a lavish 900 page brick, so when offered the full size version of one of their latest titles - The USA Book, I couldn't resist. This coffee table paving slab is a photographic delight - leave it out and it'll get flicked through by all who pass. They've brought out companion volumes for Asia, Europe and Cities too.

It aims to capture the essence of each of the states of the union in just four pages. Three out of the four comprise beautiful photos, and not necessarily the images you'd expect - this is a Lonely Planet publication after all. Images of tourist icons are few and far between, or are not taken from the usual angles; instead the diversity of the American peoples and their lives are celebrated in glorious technicolour.

The photos are backed up by keynotes for each state - a few stats and key facts, the main events and sights, culinary highlights, and a nice section on representations in books, film etc. There are shorter entries on US territories, some general sections on sports, culture etc and nice set of features on classic drives through the USA too. The photos are very much the main thing with the accompanying text providing tasters for further research.

A gazeteer would have been useful, but other than that my only quibble is that each and every state is so beautifully presented that it would be impossible to even start to choose where to go based on this book - I'm glad to be an armchair traveller at the moment!

(8/10, Book supplied by the Amazon Vine programme.)

And the Winner is ...

2010-01-03T15:46:00.002Z

Names went on slips of paper, and my daughter picked one from the hat. The winner of my extra copy of the wonderful Blood Red, Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick is ...

Stacie.

Thank you to all who entered. Congratulations Stacie - (I've sent you an email asking for your address.)

This is not a Whodunnit, but a Whydunnit!

2010-01-03T10:09:00.003Z

Rupture by Simon Lelic

This is not a normal whodunnit crime novel, it's a 'whydunnit'. We know from the start that a mild-mannered school teacher shot and killed three pupils and a teacher before turning his gun on himself.

It's D.I. Lucia May's case and although it appears to be an open and shut case, she doesn't believe it's as simple as that. What triggered his outburst? She has to know. As she talks to more of those involved the full story behind what made Samuel Szajkowski open fire gradually reveals itself. Needless to say, May is under pressure from her boss to close the case; he gives her another day.

She has other problems too being the only female detective at the station. One of the other detectives who is very old school is bullying her, the others in the office either support him or do nothing. Her boss never appears to notice that anything is wrong. She's also recently split up with her boyfriend too, so she has a lot on her plate.

I can't tell you more without ruining the suspense, for despite knowing the outcome, the journey is eventful. The novel is structured so that interleaved with Lucia's investigation are the statements from witnesses, pupils, staff and parents. These are presented as dictated monologues, and you gradually hear all the facets of the story through them.

Although many stereotypes are present they are generally handled well - the ineffectual deskbound DCI and the sexist men's world of station banter are recognisable from countless TV dramas for instance. However, the school characters are drawn more strongly, from the class bully to the psychopath PE teacher and the rather unlikeable headmaster; particularly as they are also seen through the eyes of those making witness statements. Lucia is a likeable lead who can usually stand up for herself, but has a vulnerable side too which makes for an enjoyable debut novel. (8/10, Book supplied by Amazon Vine.)

Reading resolutions for 2010

2010-01-02T08:41:00.010Z

In a small attempt to focus my reading for the year, I'm going to make some Reading Resolutions again. Last year I was partially successful and it made for some fun when it came to check the stats, so here we go again! ...

I resolve to:

1. As always, try and reduce the TBR mountains - goes without saying really. That also means acquiring less books - but I'm not going to impose any out and out purchasing restrictions. Instead I shall try to think more about all the good reads waiting that I already have.

2. Read the Canongate Myths series - This was one from last year that I failed to achieve at all, but if I make an effort to read one volume a month, it'll be fun, and I love re-tellings of this kind.

3. Again try to read more books published before I was born. (Between you and me that means pre-1960). I'm thinking of finally getting to grips with Wodehouse for starters, and more Thomas Hardy.

4. Re-read a few books that I really enjoyed the first time around. Last year I revisited just one book fully and it was an excellent experience, so I should definitely do it again more often.

In my neverending hope of keeping the resolutions achieveable and simple, I think that's enough! Have you made any reading resolutions for 2010?

P.S. Don't forget my New Year Giveaway - see the post below...

HAPPY NEW YEAR & GIVEAWAY!!!

2010-01-01T09:21:00.008Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Pinch, punch, first of the month, and all that - very best wishes for 2010 from me to you.

To celebrate the new decade - a giveaway of one of my books of the last decade. Names in comments please by noon on Sunday - I will send anywhere in the world.

What could you win? An as new first edition hardback copy of the wonderful Blood Red, Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick, that I rescued from a local charity shop. Apart from slight scuffing to the dustjacket edges, it is in as new condition, and only cost me £1.

For the uninitiated, Marcus Sedgwick's wonderful novel tells the story of author Arthur Ransome's time in Russia. Sedgwick is one of those teen authors whose books are crossover adult reads too, and I can't recommend this one highly enough - it has revolution and politics, spies and intrigue, romance and family drama, all steeped in Russian fairy tales. To read more, see my original review here.

Review of My Reading Year.

2009-12-29T09:10:00.014Z

Just a few notes on my best reads of the year from all the books I've read, regardless of when published. I've read 111 books, just 3 short of last year, but slightly more pages at just over 32,000, and near enough 50/50 male to female authors. I had two themed reading periods, tackling books for older children and young adults over the Easter holidays, and then my Season of the Living Dead in October.

Best re-read of the year - The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. Let's face it, this was my only re-read of the year, but it is one of my desert island books. Click here to read my review and thoughts about my literary hero.

I intend to re-read more books that I haven't read for years in 2010, joining in with the LOTR re-read over at Shelflove, and revisiting one of my other desert island books The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx having asked for and got a luxury hardback edition for Christmas.

Best undead - I read half a dozen vampire novels in my 'Season of the Living Dead' back in October, plus several books featuring zombies, ghosts and assorted other living dead monsters during the year. The Swedish vampire novel Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist was possibly the highlight of these - both gruesome and tender. It should be noted that I was pleasantly surprised by the whole Twilight phenomenon and Sookie Stackhouse too!

Best contemporary novel - The Juggler by Sebastian Beaumont. Beaumont's first novel was one of my favourites from last year, and his second is even better. His books really mess with your mind, the Juggler is a psychological drama about a man's mid-life crisis. Read my review from back in March here.

Best young adult novel - See the last two items in my books of the noughties post below. Both are wonderful novels that adults will love too.

Best memoir - A Taste of My Life by Raymond Blanc. Although he had help writing it, this memoir is the authentic voice of the wonderful self-trained chef - and he was as nice in person as he appears on the box (whatever you think about this year's series of 'The Restaurant') - signing for four hours at my local bookshop.

Best author I discovered this year that I should have read years ago - Elizabeth Taylor. I read In a Summer Season earlier this year and was amazed by this dissection of middle-class mores written in the early 1960s. I have plans to read much more by her. Click here for my review from last June.

Best debut novel - The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw. Astounding modern fairy tale and even better, he's coming to Mostly Books in January to talk about it. This also wins the prize for the most beautiful book too with its lovely cover and silvered page edges. Click here for my review.

It's been a great year's reading, and I'm looking forward to 2010 immensely. What has been great is that many of the titles I've read this year have come from recommendations made by other bloggers. My list of other blogs that I visit regularly has expanded hugely too, and it's been truely lovely making more new blog friends. A huge thank you to everyone who has ever visited my blog, and thank you especially to those who've left comments - they are such confidence builders and make you feel part of a real community.

THANK YOU & BEST WISHES FOR 2010

My Books of the Noughties

2009-12-26T15:31:00.023Z

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends, and got everything you wished for. I’m still mid-way through the round of family visits, so here’s a post I prepared earlier.

Yes it is a list - I'm going to inflict my Books of the Decade on you – all five star books, published in the noughties, that I’ve particularly enjoyed reading during the last few years. So here they are in chronological order ...

2000: Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman.
I’m starting off with the possibly the best bookish book about books ever written. What bibliomane could resist this book! A delightful collection of essays about books and life with books. Topics are wide-ranging - from the marrying of libraries to compulsive proof-reading, and from plagiarism to the joys of reading aloud. Totally fabulous.

2000: Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem.
Lionel is a young orphan with Tourettes. Yet his boss Frank sees something in him worth cultivating unlike many others in Brooklyn who don't take him seriously. When Frank is murdered, Lionel vows to find out whodunnit. This is Lionel's story of how he found Frank, (or Frank found him) and his work to solve the crime - all seen through the body of someone with Tourettes, constantly ticcing and having other compulsive behaviours When Frank is killed, Lionel loses his surrogate father and as he progresses in his quest to solve the murder he has to finish his growing up fast. This is an immensely readable and extremely enjoyable New York novel with a loveable and quirky main character.

2002: War Crimes for the Home by Liz Jensen.
The things normal people got up to in the war. Good girl Gloria falls for a GI and learns to be bad with disastrous consequences. Told in flashback, Gloria is now an old lady and installed in an old nursing home due to, her son Hank, thinks dementia or even mad cow disease. Gloria however is not senile at all, just supressing all the bad stuff and is preparing to die and join her friend Doris. Hank, who has grown up without a father is desperate to find out where he comes from. Jensen serves this sad story up with large helpings of really black humour, some sick jokes, and loads of sex! Gloria, once relieved of her virginity was a bit of a one-woman shagging machine. It won't be a surprise to you to find out she gets pregnant and abandoned by her man, but I won't say any more.

This is an intelligent novel that shows, to use the words of the Rolling Stones, "You can't always get what you want, you get what you need." With the young men all away fighting, rationing, bombs and death all around, wartime brought different values to the fore as you might die tomorrow. Contrasting against that with the contemporary strand of the story is a bit of a dig about how we treat our elderly folk. You're taken with Gloria all the way through all the ups and downs of life's rollercoaster - quirky, funny, sad - a fantastic read. Liz Jensen has written several other books on my TBR pile - must read more soon. (More of my write-up back here.)

2003: The Scheme for Full Employment by Magnus Mills
A superb satire on crackpot government schemes, trade unions and workplace practices. The Scheme is a self-perpetuating plan to keep people in work - people drive vans and make deliveries - however they only collect and deliver parts for the vans they drive, thus keeping a huge number of drivers, warehousemen, engineers, supervisors etc etc in work. The workers are mostly proud to belong to The Scheme, but gradually complacency starts to set in, and niggles between colleagues lead to factions in the workplace and before you know it there's a strike! Could this spell the end of The Scheme?

Mills' short novel is peopled with characters we'll all recognise ... from the jobsworths to the shikers, from the whatever gets me through the day bods to the advantage-takers - all of human life is there in this microcosm of best intentions gone awry. Gentle, yet biting, and with tongue stuck firmly in cheek - I loved this book and have more to read on the TBR pile.

2005: The People’s Act of Love by James Meek
The mixture of love story, prison break, religious cult, and war story combine potently to make something that appears 100% Russian (not that I'd know what that is, but that's the feeling I got). Atmospheric, exciting, mad and very, very cold.

2006: Winter’s bone by Daniel Woodrell
When Jessup goes missing after putting up the Dolly family house for his bail bond, his daughter Ree has to find him or be made homeless. What's more, her ma is crazy and she's having to bring up her younger brothers on her own. This is life on the edge and making a living is hard. Just about everyone is related, but these mountain folks still don't trust each other, as Ree discovers when she goes looking for her pa on the other side of the valley.

In a mere 193 pages, you get an icy clear picture of this hard life in the brutal winter of the Ozark mountains. Although there's little cheer, Ree has a true pioneer spirit and you root for her from page one. I'll now have to track down all his previous books - highly recommended.

2006: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
This is the book of the decade in most of the lists I’ve seen, and I find I can’t disagree. My full post is here.

Nuclear winter is setting in. The American landscape is grey - almost everything is burnt or buried in ash. There is no wildlife, it's either died or been eaten, human bodies are everywhere - dessicated and mummified by ash, others rotten, some obviously cannibalised. We follow the progress of a father and son - not named, just trying to follow the road south. They're exhausted, starving and ill, their whole world contained within a shopping trolley. His overwhelming love for and instinct to protect his son is the only thing keeping the father alive. The son remains full of hope that when they get to the coast, everything will be alright - the father does his best to keep that belief alive.

The book is written in short bursts, each giving a glimpse of what living in this awful new world is like. We don't find out much at all about what happened - it's nearly all about the 'now' for father and son - what point is there dwelling on a past that can never be recovered.

2007: The Dig by John Preston
A lovely gentle novel about gentlemen archaeologists and country life and the story of the Sutton Hoo discovery just before WWII. In a sleepy town in Suffolk, Mrs Pretty, a widow, finally decides to have some tumuli on her land excavated. She gets in a local self-taught archaeologist, Basil Brown, who painstakingly digs away and reveals the sandy remains of a wooden ship - only the nails remain. But in step the men from the British Museum to take over the dig ... but all rivalries eventually get put aside when they discover gold!

We all know the results from the amazing gold on display to this day in the British Museum, but the human story behind those involved in the dig is less well known, and for all the lack of big drama is compelling none the less. What made this novel for me is that I went to visit the site maybe 15 yrs ago, and was treated to a fantastic talk by a volunteer and the dig itself was still live - the ship may have been discovered, but in the neighbouring field, they were trying to find out more about the way of life of the Anglo-Saxons who lived there. For a fuller review click here

2007: Blood Red, Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick
Marcus Sedgwick's wonderful novel tell the time of Arthur Ransome's time in Russia. Sedgwick is one of those teen authors whose books are crossover adult reads too, and I can't recommend this one highly enough - it has revolution and politics, spies and intrigue, romance and family drama, all steeped in Russian fairy tales.

Sedgwick's novelisation is no dry biography. He starts by using the Ransomes collection of Russian fairy tales to tell the problems of the people, embodied by a great Russian bear spurred into action against the Tsar by two friends arguing in the forest - they are Lenin and Trotsky - superb scene-setting. Into this the character of Ransome, who had run away from an unhappy marriage to Russia in 1913, wanders in and instantly falls in love with a woman stirring a pot on a stove in an office – Evgenia. She was Trotsky's personal secretary; they married eventually. Combined with all the derring do of the amateur spy, the author delivers a totally fabulous novel. Click here

2007: by Philip Reeve
I love novels based on Arthurian myths and legends and this one, which won the 2008 Carnegie medal, is a great read. Reeve's book for teens presents a totally different take on the stories that is highly original. The land it portrays is one of warring tribes; Arthur could be the one to pull the tribes of the west together to face the Saxons, and Myrddin (Merlin) is doing his best to make it so. However, Myrddin's chief weapon is not Earth magic - it's spin! Yes, you heard me right, 'twas ever thus. Myrddin comes from the bardic tradition and is a master story-teller, embellishing and embroidering Arthur's exploits to the masses to put his man forward as the natural leader. He's also good at creating illusions and using any opportunity to promote his master.

The story is mainly told almost entirely from a young girl’s point of view, Gwynna, who becomes Merlin’s assistant (dressed as a boy for safety). It takes us from the episode of the Lady of the Lake through to the deaths of Merlin and Arthur. All is seen from the slightly removed perspective which reveals the politics and spin underneath and the legacy it creates. (Full review here)

*****

I warn you - next post will be my books of the year 2009. In my noughties books, there were a couple of obvious choices, some more quirky, and others which I loved, but know the authors have written better books - I just haven't read them all yet.

What were your books of the decade?
Do we agree at all?
What should I have read?

I'd love to hear from you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-24T15:37:00.005Z

I'm signing off for a few days, so it just remains for me to wish all of you a

M E R R Y

C H R I S T M A S !!!

Back soon with my books of the year and Reading Resolutions for 2010...

Cheers!

Lots of love

Annabel

The Truman Show meets Dickensian melodrama

2009-12-21T10:12:00.011Z

Welcome to Pastworld. Imagine that London has been reinvented as a theme park; that Dickensian London has been recreated in every detail. Rich tourists undergo immersion training, get costumed and are then brought in by airship to become 'gawkers' in this new, old world. Caleb, son of Lucius Brown, one of the park's original imagineers, is due to arrive for his first visit with his father.

Pastworld is peopled by the 'residents', most of whom officially live and work there as Victorians, giving the punters an authentic experience. But there are also some unofficials - pickpockets, fences and entertainers, plus 'The Fantom', who has taken on the unofficial role of Jack the Ripper and is working with a band of 'ragged men' to strike terror throughout the city. The park's owners are very, very worried indeed, and they send in a detective to hunt him down.

The last piece of the puzzle is seventeen year old Eve who lives with her father Jack; she has no memories of anything before the age of fifteen. In Truman Show style, she doesn't know she is living in a theme park. However she is never allowed to go out on her own and is beginning to wonder why. Jack returns from an excursion out and starts to explain a little to her:

'I have to tell you something, Eve' he said, in an unsteady voice. 'You may often have wondered why I look after you so carefully. The truth is that someone is after us. They have been for a long while now. I have deliberately kept this from you, Eve, just for your own protection. I have always been so very, very careful for you. But anyhow this bad, bad person has got a sniff of you, and as soon as it can be arranged we will have to move somewhere else. Somewhere far from here.'
He stood and paced up and down in a twitching panic. I could make no sense of it at all. Here was my mystery.
'How would such a dangerous person know anything about us?' I said.
'He knows,' Jack said nodding. 'As I said, he's got a sniff of you.'
Something alerted me in those repeated words: 'A sniff of you'. That surely meant it is not 'us' at all but just me alone, myself - someone is especially after me. It was suddenly clear to me.
I am a deep secret.
I am a hidden person.
I am to be kept safe for ever. I was a fairy-tale princess, like Rapunzel, locked away from the world in her high tower.

This is the first novel for young adults from children's author Ian Beck, which has plenty for grown-ups to admire too. I thoroughly enjoyed its cultural touchstones, murderous action and twisty plot. I particularly liked the interleaving of the futuristic and Victorian milieux which resulted in much more than a straight-forward melodrama. Without spoiling anything, there is plenty of room for a sequel (please?).

If you've read The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by G W Dahlquist and enjoy teen fiction, you'd certainly like this book. (9/10)

My Secret Santa arrived - yippee!

2009-12-20T10:03:00.005Z

My Secret Santa gift from the Book Blogger Holiday Swap arrived and I couldn't wait to rip the paper off and see what was inside... Complete joy! two wonderful, and completely different books from my wishlist and super hand-crocheted bookmarks to go with them.

The books were Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor, a wonderful author I only discovered this year, and First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde from his supremely inventive Thursday Next litcom detective series. They both go onto the reading pile for after Christmas. As for the bookmarks - I have never learned to crochet, and they are so neatly done and lovely bright Christmassy colours.

A huge thank you goes to Meghan at Medieval Bookworm for her brilliant choices and great crochet skills. Thank you again and very best wishes for a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

My Reading Resolutions for 2009 - how did I do #4 (the final one!)

2009-12-16T15:06:00.006Z

By now you might have cottoned on, by the series of bookish but not books-read posts, that I'm suffering a severe case of end-of-term-can't-read-itis and have thus resorted to fillers; (all this pondering the stats is helping me formulate my books of the year though). Aside from that, I am reading The Moonstone but mostly the same pages over and over before falling asleep. I may have to resort to something fun and trashy again to get me through it... However, this is the last post about my 2009 Reading Resolutions in which I resolved to 'read more non-fiction'.

This year about 15% of my reading was non-fiction (around 10% in 2008). I've read a wider range of subjects too. One of those that has stuck with me was the first book I read this year The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell which looked for those key moments that made a good idea a great one. I always enjoy biographies and memoirs, and this year have read enjoyable ones by Raymond Blanc, Susan Hill and the quirky Stewart Copeland. So a vintage non-fiction year for me.

RESOLUTION #4 - PASSED!!!

My Reading Resolutions for 2009 - How did I do #3

2009-12-15T16:25:00.006Z

My third reading resolution for 2009 was to 'read more world and translated fiction'. Last year I read a dozen which were all Nordic or French except for Blindness by Saramago. This year I did a bit better...

Eighteen in translation, plus a sprinkling from parts other than the UK or USA. I spread my reading around the EU a lot more too including novels written in German, Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish. Missing this year are novels from Canada, Japan and Eastern Europe - maybe more Margaret Atwood, Murakami and Stefan Zweig for next year to redress the balance.

RESOLUTION #3 - PASSED!!!

My Reading Resolutions for 2009 - How did I do #2

2009-12-15T07:35:00.009Z

On Sunday I told you about the results of my first Reading Resolution that I made for 2009 - here's the second. I said 'I will read the Canongate Myths series of books'. Here they are sitting together on the shelf; at the start of the year I already owned the first eight, since added the ninth, and the latest additions are on order as we speak (Hurricane Party by Klas Ostergren, and Baba Yaga laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic). But did I get round to reading any of them? ...

The answer is in the visible shrinkwrap still on the signed boxed set of the first three that my other half gave me two or three Christmases ago. Sadly no.

But why? I love re-tellings of myths and legends and fairy tales ... often, nothing excites me more reading wise. The real problem is that they were essentially hidden in the TBR mountain by then, and as you'll see from my previous post, I read so many brand new books in 2009 , I didn't have time for much else.

Once I got invited to join Amazon Vine which gets you free new books to review, plus Librarything Early Reviewers one and occasional publisher freebies, there's little time to delve into the TBR mountains. So you can see I'm continuing totry to talk myself into seriously reducing the number of books I acquire... more of that in my Reading Resolutions for 2010 I think.

RESOLUTION #2 - FAILED!

My Reading Resolutions for 2009 - how did I do #1

2009-12-13T21:29:00.010Z

Back in the New Year of 2009, I made a set of 'Reading Resolutions'. One of them was 'I shall read more books published before I was born.' So including all books read up to the beginning of December, how did I do?

Not very well actually! I managed to read a huge 90 books from the noughties with 37 of them being published this year. Those published before I was born comprise just the five at the top of the doughnut - a mere 4.5%, and of those only two were from the TBR mountain - Oh Dear! However the five were gooduns ...

Old Peter's Russian Tales by Arthur Ransome (1916)
The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler (1939)
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker (1940)
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (1951)
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (1952)

In mitigation, I am now reading Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone (1868). The real question is though - did I read more pre-1960 books in 2009 than in 2008? Well, no - actually I read five less! Hence your suggestions for reading more classic fiction in 2010 would be very welcome.

RESOLUTION #1 - FAILED!

Q&A with science writer Marcus Chown

2009-12-08T21:20:00.018Z

It's my great pleasure today to introduce you to Marcus Chown, author of We Need To Talk About Kelvin who is on a blog tour to promote the book (which I reviewed a couple of posts down the page). Apart from writing great popular science books, Marcus is cosmology consultant of magazine New Scientist, having formerly been a radio astronomer at Caltech in Pasadena. Marcus's own website is here where you can see the whole blog tour and find out more about his books.

As to my questions, I trained as a scientist originally and now work in a school as a lab technician, so I was particularly interested in asking about his views on teaching and popularising science at all levels ...

Annabel: Everyone likes a bit of Sci-Fi, witness the popularity (still) of Star Trek, but how can you transform that into an enjoyment of proper science and convince readers (and the wider public) that ideas and theories from the cutting edge of science are not fiction and are worthy of serious consideration?

Marcus: Oddly enough it was science fiction that kept me interested in science when the teaching of science at school was dull and boring! Most of my fellow pupils were turned off. I think it was because the science I read about in science fiction, particularly the novels of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov was fun and exciting and mind-expanding, and the stuff I learnt at school wasn’t.

So, I think the answer is clear: Teach all the mind-blowing stuff at school! (I address how you do this in another of your questions below).

My evidence is my book, Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You. Now who would have though that a book with a title like that would sell like hotcakes? But it has. Far faster than any of my other books. And the feedback I’ve been getting from readers – many of whom have no science background at all – is: Why the hell didn’t they teach this kind of stuff at school? If they had, I would have stayed interested. Why didn’t I discover that matter is so empty that, if you squeezed all the space out of atoms, you could fit the human race in the volume of a sugar cube? Why didn’t I learn that, according to Einstein, you grow old more slowly on the ground floor of a building than on the top floor? Why didn’t I learn that atoms – the building blocks of you and me – can be in two places at once, influence each other instantaneously even when on opposite sides of the Universe, and do things for absolutely no reason at all? We live in a Universe that is far stranger than science fiction, far more weird than anything we could possibly have invented. If kids realised this, I believe they would be interested in science.

Annabel: How do you strike a balance between making scientific theories accessible and 'dumbing down' the often complex physics and maths that underpin theories? There wasn't a single equation in WNTTAK, although many were effectively expressed in word descriptions in the text - is that your secret?

Marcus: I don’t think about striking a balance between making things accessible and ‘dumbing down’, and for a simple reason: I write for me! I’m constantly trying to understand things better, get things straight in my own mind. And explaining things in words and images is how I understand things (that’s why I have no equations). By good fortune, the way I explain things to myself happens to be pretty much the same thing as explaining stuff to you or my wife or someone waiting for a number 22 bus. So, when you read my books, often it’s me wrestling to get to grips with some concept!

I was incredibly lucky to be taught by the American physicist, Richard Feynman. I’m obviously in no way comparable to him, but I do remember his criterion of whether he really understood something was whether he could explain it to someone, anyone. That’s the way I feel.

Annabel: Do you have any opinion of science education in schools? Science these days is seen as a 'difficult' subject, and many are discouraged from taking it further after GCSE as there are easier options to get grades. This is leading to understaffed and under-resourced science departments and ultimately a lack of future scientists ...

Marcus: Recently, I’ve had some correspondence with science teachers who have said they have used Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You with their teenage pupils and have said it’s just the kind of thing they should be teaching. It kind of confirms something I think about science teaching. School science – at least when I was at school – was taught chronologically. So first you do Newton and gas laws and lots of pretty dull stuff. By the time you get anywhere near the present day and all the fun, amazing stuff like quantum theory and relativity, it’s all over and it’s time to leave school. So what I think should be done is that a lot of the fun stuff should be taught first - don’t worry that it’s mind-blowing; younger kids have no fear – then, later, when the children are hooked, fill in all the background.

It’s exactly the same as getting kids hooked on reading by giving them Harry Potter. Later, you can give them the classics. When I was at school, it was the opposite way around. I had to read Nicholas Nickelby when I was nine. And it put me off Dickens for 20 years! And that’s what I think we’re doing at school with science. We’re not telling kids about this incredibly amazing world we find ourselves in, where, for instance, a single atom can be in tow places at once – the equivalent of you being in London and New York at the same time. We’re not telling kids that the Universe is stranger than anything we could possible have invented, stranger than any sf movie they have ever seen. If we did, we might grab their interest.

But, of course, I understand, that with so few good science teachers, you need to get more kids interested enough to do science and be science teachers, to get more kids interested… It’s a chicken-and-egg problem.

Annabel: Do you think more effort needs to be made to popularise complex scientific ideas? How much does physics, maths and cosmology suffer from spin, both media and political?

Marcus: Yes, I do think that more needs to be done to popularise science, for the simple reason that we live in a world where we need to be informed on scientific and technological matters such as the anthropogenic greenhouse effect, nuclear power, genetic modification, and so on. But, you’re right, there are obstacles in the way of popularising. Many of the gatekeepers in the media have arts backgrounds and are ignorant or nervous of science. It is very hard for science journalists to get stories past their editors on, for instance, radio and TV. That’s why we normally only get only alarmist stories such as “the LHC’s going to destroy the world” or the briefest, over-simplified, trite soundbites such as “the LHC is going to recreate the Big Bang”. And, in addition to over-simplification and sensationalism, there is the problem of a non-science-literate media giving a platform to people with an agenda such as those saying “My drug will cure cancer/Parkinson’s/ME/or whatever.”

Annabel: And lastly, just in case no-one has asked you this yet - How did you come up with the title of WNTTAK - it's inspired? (Ironically my other half has never heard of the 'other' book - but did say 'I'll read that after you'...)

Marcus: Good titles are very hard to find, and I drive my wife up the wall, wasting whole holidays, trying to get them! Poetry is good, and songs lyrics… The Universe Next Door came from line of an e. e. cummings’ poem: “Listen, there's a hell of a good universe next door: let's go!” The Never-Ending Days of Being Dead was a line from Jim Crace’s brilliant novel, Being Dead. Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You was from Adrian Mitchell’s “Mashed potatoes cannot hurt you, darling”. I fought like mad but I wasn’t able to get my publisher to let me have the “darling” on the end. I still hope I’ll get it on a future edition!

We Need to Talk About Kelvin just came to me when I was coming down the stairs of our house. I’d read Lionel Shriver’s bestselling novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin, which is about a boy who kills his schoolmates and most of his family with a crossbow (!), so it must have been in my mind. The title immediately struck me as a good one. If you know the allusion, great. If you don’t, maybe you’ll think – Who’s Kelvin? Why do we need to talk about him? – which might just intrigue you enough to pick up the book in a bookshop (In fact, the reaction of your partner suggests this may be true!).

Actually, I went to a talk Lionel Shriver did at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. But I was too shy to go up to her and ask whether she would write a Foreword to my book!

Thought-provoking questions! I hope my answers live up to them. Thanks for hosting me on your blog site!

Annabel: Marcus, thank you very much for your considered and insightful answers, and for actually being the first author to be a guest on my blog. Good luck with the book and the rest of the blog tour.

To visit the next leg of Marcus's Blogtour, click here.

An truly original modern fairy tale

2009-12-07T14:57:00.011Z

The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw is that rare thing - a thoroughly grown-up modern fairy tale that works. It's also a beautifully designed book with an evocative cover and silver page edging.

It is set in a remote cluster of islands around an archipelago called St Hauda's land which feels as if it's somewhere like the Faroes, or Newfoundland - definitely northern and slightly Nordic. A land where "strange winged creatures flit around icy bogland; albino animals hide themselves in the snow-glazed woods; jellyfish glow in the ocean's depths."

Midas is a local, estranged from his mother and still reeling from the death of his father. He's in not in a hurry to start anything new, instead he diverts his emotions into his photography. Ida, meanwhile, visited St Hauda's Land six months ago on holiday, but since then something strange is happening to her - her feet are starting to turn to glass. She's returned to see if she can find a cure, for the glass which started at her toes is creeping further, she is already hobbling on her crystallising feet.

Midas bumps into Ida out on the hills and they strike up a rather awkward friendship. For both of them, it is really love at first sight, but neither realises this yet. Ida has to take the initiative:

"The simplest thing you could do to help ...Like I said before ... I am frightened. I can't feel my toes, for God's sake. I don't know where I end and my socks and boots begin. You could, if it's not too much trouble, just hang around."
He stood up. He supposed in a movie this would be the moment where he put his arm around her waist and said something manly. At the very least he'd place a firm hand on her shoulder. But his arms were dead.
'Okay,' he said, 'that shouldn't be a problem.'

Sometimes you just want to knock their heads together! Midas has buried his emotions so deeply, and they're both too quick to take umbrage with each other - love is hard work for this pair. You just have to hope that they work it out - their romance, and what's happening to Ida. There are no easy answers for them in their journey.

I won't spoil the story, but you'll need a hanky before the end of this wonderful other-worldly tale. I loved it. (10/10)

Marking Quantum Physics Accessible

2009-12-06T13:08:00.013Z

On Wednesday, I am delighted that Marcus Chown, author of We Need to Talk About Kelvin: What Everyday Things Tell Us About the Universe" will be visiting my blog to do a Q&A as part of his blogtour to promote the book. Marcus is a best-selling science author and cosmology consultant for New Scientist magazine.

Today, I shall talk about the book, which I'm going to call WNTTAK from now on, in which he seeks to explain some very complex quantum physics by looking at its effects in objects around us. Gosh, it all came flooding back to me! I did several terms of this at university with all the equations, and although it was interesting, it was difficult to how it applied to my subject (materials science), let alone normal life.

This is where WNTTAK is onto a winner - there are no equations. Let me repeat that - there are no equations! Instead, Chown uses illustrations of quantum physics at work in the real world to explain "why the reflection of your face in a window tells you that the universe is orchestrated by chance" and how static buzz picked up by your TV set emanates from the beginning of the universe amongst other stories. Interspersed with this are tales of the key scientists involved which help to lighten and put some personality into what could otherwise be a rather dry subject. It is split into three sections: What the everyday world is telling you about atoms, stars and then the universe, starting small and ending up very big indeed.

I found it an insightful overview of a difficult subject, written in a clear and accessible way that will satisfy science enthusiasts. I would also heartily recommend it to sixth-form physics and chemistry students.

Do come back on Wednesday and see Marcus's answers to the questions I posed to him about WNTTAK, and the state of science in education and the media ...

QI Book of the Dead

2009-12-05T10:21:00.001Z

Not enough time to read ...

2009-12-02T13:59:00.006Z

I'm very aware that I haven't posted since last Thursday which is a long time for me. But there has been so much going on - we're in December and suddenly Christmas rears its head and I'm behind with everything because November was even busier for me. So I shall fill the gap by telling you about some of my incoming books to read. From the top:

- Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym. I've yet to read any of hers, and got this one through ReaditSwapit. I'm sure I'll love it.

- Nation by Terry Pratchett. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a Discworld fan, but many say this is different and I shall try it.

- The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. This is our book group read for Christmas - amazingly I didn't have it on the shelves. I plumped for the Oxford Classics edition as I like the picture on the front. I enjoyed The Suspicions of Mr Whicher last year, whose star case influenced Collins, so am really looking forward to reading it.

- An Education by Lynn Barber. The clips and trailers I've seen for the film have been wonderful, but I prefer to read the books first if I can, so DVD to follow for this one.

- Evermore by Alyson Noel. No vampires, but another dark teen novel that's getting a lot of notice. One of my Amazon Vine picks.

- Rupture by Simon Lelic. A crime novel in which a young police detective gets obsessed by trying to find out why a teacher walked into a school and shot three pupils. Sounds disturbing! Another Amazon Vine pick.

- Selective Memory by veteran columnist Katherine Whitehorn. Found this in a charity shop and I think it'll read wonderfully as an older counterpoint to the Barber above.

- The Battle of the Sun by Jeanette Winterson. I enjoyed her novel Tanglewreck, written for older children earlier this year, and this is a sort of standalone sequel, in that it shares some characters. Hope it's as quirky as the other one.

- The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw. This is a beautiful book with a gorgeous cover and silvered page edges. A modern fairy tale about a girl who is turning to glass. Can't wait - Everyone I know who's already read it loved it.

- and finally, Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link. Kimbofo reviewed this book of magical short stories here and I couldn't resist - it sounds wonderful.

I hope that I'll get around to reading at least some of these books this month, and having time to write about them... and there are also those posts we all do featuring our books of the year to start thinking about... and seeing how I did against my New Year's Reading Resolutions to check out too... so even if I don't have time to write up books read, I've got plenty to talk about. See you soon!

My Literary Hero

2009-11-26T14:22:00.018Z

Paul Auster

I finished reading his latest book Invisible a week or so ago. It is a great novel and displays many of his favourite tricks and his characteristic verve in the writing. I also re-read his first novel The New York Trilogy - a linked set of metafiction detective novellas, which I found as dazzling now as when I first read it about twenty years ago. I've been musing about what to say about these books for a while, but I am finding it very difficult indeed to describe their brilliance adequately and to give synopses without spoilers, so I am going to be deliberately vague about plot and concentrate on other aspects.

Invisible is one of his multi-layered best - I loved it. The key character is a young man, Adam, who has a defining moment in his life as a student which has huge consequences, and he looks back on what happened that spring in his memoirs. Written in four parts, we start off in the first person with Adam himself telling his story, then move onto a more impersonal second person narrative. The story is then taken over in the third person by a friend from Adam's student days, and in the final part Adam is not physically present, but the consequences of what happened back then still resonate.

One of Auster's favourite devices is to embed a book within a book and using an author as a central character as he does here. There is always a strong psychological element to his books and in this novel, truth and memory are intertwined in the memoir together with some shocking events and tender moments - but which are real and which imagined? (Book supplied courtesy of Faber, 10/10).

Now to The New York Trilogy. Originally published separately in the mid-1980s, the three novellas that make up Auster's first fiction: City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room, take the traditional gumshoe detective from the golden age of noir and make that rôle into something new. New York itself also has a starring part - all Edward Hopper-ish, dark shadows yet with bright lights, a place full of strangers and lonely people.

In the first installment, a detective writer gets a phone call asking for a detective - in the spur of the moment, he decides to take the job, and all too soon becomes obsessed by it.

‘It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not…’

In Ghosts, a detective is hired to carry out surveillance on another man, and all the characters are named after colours (did Tarantino get the idea for Res Dogs from this I wonder?). In the third, a writer disappears, and his wife contacts one of his friends who always wanted to be a writer but ended up a critic, and asks him to help publish her husband's works.

There are many similarities across the three novellas. Questions of identity, the writer's life - writer's block and overcoming it and getting published, the dangers of obsession, are all given a psychological twist so that you can never work out quite where it's going - there's a strong element of 'who watches the watchers', and Auster even puts himself into the first novella. I had the added bonus of having treated myself to the new Folio Society edition with wonderfully evocative illustrations by Tom Burns which enhanced my re-read immensely (10/10).

I read a collection of Auster's 'true stories' published in The Red Notebook alongside the NYT in which a red notebook is a recurring motif. These little essays are a mixture of stories about writing and Auster himself, and also things that have happened to his friends. In particular they are full of mostly happy coincidences and lucky events - coincidence is another of Auster's fascinations - although those coincidences in his books are often twisted by the choice of path taken and its consequences. However, getting to the point, one of the tales told how Auster got a phonecall at home from someone asking for a detective - he says he wondered what would have happened should he have said yes - and bingo - there was the inspiration for City of Light.

I have enjoyed everything of Auster's that I've read so far - I still have a few to go, but Invisible or The New York Trilogy would be great places to start. I also found that upon re-reading the NYT I got whole new levels of understanding and enjoyment out of it, and it is one of my desert island books.

Three middle-class brothers - three family mid-life crises

2009-11-25T14:26:00.008Z

The Bradshaw Variations by Rachel Cusk

A year in the life of the Bradshaws - three brothers, ageing parents and their families. Firstly, there's middle brother Thomas who has taken a year's sabbatical to learn the piano, his wife Tonie who has been promoted and back at work full-time, and daughter Alexa. Older brother Howard is successful and impulsive, wife Claudia likes to be busy which keeps her in excuses for not going into her studio cum shed to paint. Then there's Leo, the youngest who's rather insecure, and his heavy-drinking wife Susie. Behind them are their parents who constantly bicker.

This is a stylised novel in which to quote Tolstoy, "each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." It is predominantly told from Thomas' point of view, house-husband and musician-manqué, and the author uses many musical metaphors to describe his part. Tonie, his wife however is so aloof, she's almost not there, until crisis comes. The episode near the end involving Howard's family and their unloved dog Skittle was hilariously awful and in its drama, does much to leaven the intensity of this chronicle of middle-class family life which can be very close to the bone.

I felt the book was trying too hard to be clever, and ended up rather suffering in its detachment - funnily I remember feeling similarly about The Travelling Horn Player by Barbara Trapido when I read that a few years ago, (it also has a musical theme running through it), although it had a more interesting cast of characters.

(Book supplied by Librarything Early Reviewers programme, 6.5/10)

Medical Myths debunked

2009-11-23T18:28:00.006Z

Don't Swallow Your Gum: and Other Medical Myths Debunked by Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel Vreeman

This short book looks into about seventy-five medical myths and old wives tales, examines the evidence, and debunks them.

Many will have read Ben Goldacre's Bad Science - (If you haven't read it, do! My review is here) in which the author did some serious scientific debunking. I would guess that Bad Science is preaching mostly to the converted, non-believers wouldn't necessarily choose to read a book like that. However this book, although also in the debunking business, is light and funny but also full of useful information with wide appeal.

It's split into six sections - Myths about: your body, illnesses and injuries, sex and pregnancy, babies and children, what we eat and lastly myths that spark controversy and debate. It starts off with a funny - The Myth that men with big feet have bigger penises, but soon you're learning that you don't need to poo every day; if you're thirsty you're probably not dehydrated, you're just thirsty under normal circumstances; that it's never safe to eat food that's been dropped on the floor even if it was for just a couple of seconds, and many, many more. Most of the chapters are only a couple of pages, so it was an ideal book to dip into over a few lunchtimes (it would also make a good toilet book for those that use them!). An entertaining popular science read. (6.5/10)

An Evening with Susan Hill

2009-11-20T22:23:00.010Z

There was great anticipation in the air in Abingdon tonight for another Mostly Books event featuring popular author Susan Hill. The small hall was packed to hear her talk about her latest book - Howard's End is on the Landing which I previously reviewed here.

She proved to be a real character, and started her talk with a plea for us not to give up on books in favour of e-readers. She stressed that she's no Luddite, and recognises that there are good uses for the devices, but begged us all to keep everyone involved in the production of books in a job and to buy real books. She then read a couple of sections from HEIOTL, one very funny about her encounters with Roald Dahl, and the other more poignant about meeting Iris Murdoch when Alzheimers was taking its toll.

She then went on to tell us with great wit about how she wonders about whether certain books like being next to each other on the shelf, how she wonders if they all talk to each other once everyone has gone to bed. She encouraged us to rediscover our bookshelves, to handle our books, and that way find the book that wants to be read. Books have characters; she said "If you pick up a book like 'A Passage to India', you don't have to read it to feel India in the room." Her daughter Jessica Ruston was also there and talked for a few minutes about sharing a house with a popular author, a Shakespeare scholar and thousands of books. Jessica's first novel Luxury is just out and looks very different to those of her Mum's!

One of the questions that had to be asked related to 'The Final Forty' - the list at the end of HEIOTL of the forty books she can't live without. Due to an error, one book had been listed twice - so we had to know what the fortieth book should have been - Crime & Punishment was the answer. At the end she signed books for everyone, but wasn't terribly talkative - maybe that lovely old house full of books was calling her home.

P.S. It was also lovely to see fellow bloggers in the audience - Simon from Stuck in a Book and also, especially, Margaret from BooksPlease again as she will be moving up north very soon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

2009-11-18T13:57:00.012Z

My Dad, Ray, was born eighty years ago today in 1929, the year of the Wall Street Crash, and on the day of the Grand Banks Earthquake off Newfoundland. He shares his birthday with Alex Issigonis (1906) - designer of the Mini, astronaut Alan Shepard (1923), Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood (1939), Brit actor David Hemmings (1941) and pop-singer turned gardener Kim Wilde (1960) to name but a few.

Although born in Portsmouth, he's a long-term Crystal Palace supporter and a big tennis fan; he's still a season ticket holder and is inordinately proud of the fact that he still plays tennis weekly - his foursome has a combined age of nearly 300 years!

The pic above left shows the bouncing baby, then on the right that's me with him in about 1962. Below left is from the early 1970s in the gardens at Fontainebleau, and below right from a few years ago - but he's hardly changed from then. I don't have that many pictures of him as he has normally been behind the camera - but I have enough!

HAPPY

80th

BIRTHDAY

DAD!

A magical read for older children

2009-11-17T13:55:00.007Z

When Scott offered giveaway copies of Shadowmagic by John Lenahan I was quick to comment as I thought this older children's fantasy could be really fun; and that my daughter might enjoy it as it. I was really thrilled when a signed copy arrived - Thank you.

Lenahan is an American magician living in England. He got thrown out of the Magic Circle for revealing a trick, and has provided the voice of the toaster on Red Dwarf, which are rather cool achievements! He's also funny - see the clips on Scott's link above.

This fast-paced novel combines classic plot elements of the magical quest and fish out of water. Teenager Conor finds himself transported from his normal life into a magical world where he is a Prince and nearly everyone wants to kill him. This land is peopled by all the types of faery folk you can imagine, each with its own territory. Magic is controlled by gold - and he who owns all the gold will control all the magic - such is the plan of Conor's evil uncle who would destroy the Land. So we add the race against time and speed through the land to find the way to stop him.

Based upon Celtic and Irish myths of Tir Na Nog, the Land of Youth, for an adult read, there was nowhere near enough background as we sped our way through the magical land. Conor and his companions meet a wide range of faery folk and again it is difficult to get a feel for their characteristics, as character is sacrificed for the speed of the plot, and our hero seems rather good at getting out of all the situations easily. I'd have liked to know a bit more about the roots of the magic with gold, and it's opposite Shadowmagic. Conor's jokey contemporary humour which always falls flat in the magical world is meant to keep us and him grounded with an attachment back to the real world, but rather irritated me.

However it wasn't written for adults! I imagine that ten+ year old boys will get a lot out of this fast-moving tale; in particular they'll identify with Conor, and thus have great fun with it - and I know one who should love it.

Round-up - Fireworks & Blog Stats

2009-11-15T11:55:00.009Z

It was the fireworks evening at my daughter's school last night. Yes, I know it's not the usual timing, but by having our display a week later we are able to get one of the best firework companies in the country to do our little event. Kimbolton Fireworks are the biz - they're doing the New Year fireworks at Edinburgh this year. That said, our private event was just about sold out, but we were really worried about the weather. Despite gales and rain on Friday into Saturday, we put our faith in the Met Office and it had all gone by teatime, and we were left with a clear but cool evening - perfect! The display itself was great - including some amazing ones call screaming banshees which make a really screechy noise as they whizz overhead.

As I was the event organiser, I haven't been reading much this week, I've mostly been fretting about the weather! But I was looking at my blog stats the other day, and it was amusing to see what people were searching for when they arrived here...

"scottish accent oafay" - this obviously landed the querier on my Lit quiz report where I apologised for my awful pronounciation of the first line of Trainspotting.
"Strict boarding schools, Peter and the headmistress" - Not sure which page this would actually have landed them on as I put it into Google and my blog didn't come up on the first few pages ...
Even stranger still is "Jeanette Winterson + Hylda Baker"! but I have mentioned them both in posts - reviewing the former's Tanglewreck earlier in the year, and mentioning the latter here; Those hits combined made me top of the chart on Google.

But funniest of all - the searcher of this phrase "what is maschiostic?" which is a typo (obviously!), ended up in a post of mine entitled I'm a convert! I think they would have been really disappointed - as it was a post about my finally reading a Thomas Hardy book, in this case Tess.

Also at the moment I'm trying to decide what to get my secret santee in the Book Bloggers Holiday Swap... a difficult decision, but a fun one. Hopefully, back to some proper book posts next week. Cheerio for now.

Two short novels - Two complex stories

2009-11-11T13:55:00.010Z

This week I passed the 100 books read this year landmark, and numbers 99 and 101 were both cracking short novels...

The Beacon by Susan Hill is a claustrophobic and suspenseful family drama which leaves you wondering what you believed in the tale. It tells of four siblings, Colin, May, Frank and Berenice who were born and bred at 'The Beacon', the house on the hill. Colin and Berenice marry but stay locally; May tries being a student in the city but is drawn back to her home and stays to look after their ageing parents; but Frank - well he escapes. Life continues, father John dies and their mother Bertha grows more and more dependent on May. Then something happens which shocks the three siblings to their core - leaving them reeling in horror that Frank has written a memoir about his family and everyone else believes it to be the truth. (All this you can find out from the blurb.)

The writing is economical, and the structure of the story, starting at Bertha's death with frequent flashbacks, is such that you know something happened, but it builds up over half the book's length before you find out for sure what it was. Many other events then fall into place - but not all, for Hill is an author renowned for her playfulness with her readers. There is a degree of ambiguity that leaves you asking more questions than are answered, there are no easy happy endings for this family.

This second dose of Susan Hill coming after this one has left me looking forward to seeing her even more at an author event in Abingdon next week.

Now we turn to Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill by Dimitri Verhulst, trans David Colmer.

Madame Verona lives at the top of a hill on the outskirts of an isolated village. A musician, she has lived alone since the death of her composer husband, with just stray dogs for company. While she has a stock of wood to burn she feels no need to rejoin the small but dwindling community in the village while she waits for the luthier to make her a cello - it will take twenty years for the wood to season. The men of the village rather wish she'd chosen a different course, for there are few women in these parts. Eventually the cello is finished, she plays it for her dead husband, and then, when the last log is gone, she comes down the hill knowing she'll never climb back up.

This little novel is a real gem. Written by a Belgian and superbly translated, in between the melancholy tale of Madame Verona's life are rich and humorous episodes of village life. A village where prowess in Table Football is taken really seriously, and where a cow can be elected Mayor. It is a story crying out to be made into an arty film - a great little love story with a superb backdrop - I loved it. (Book supplied by the Amazon Vine programme; 9/10)

How can you cheat death when you're only 14 ...

2009-11-08T16:37:00.011Z

The Death Defying Pepper Roux by Geraldine McCaughrean

One of my friend Julia's recommendations, this is yet another wonderful crossover book by children's author Geraldine McCaughrean. Surely it must be her turn as Children's Laureate soon ...

Imagine your aunt had prophesied that you would die at the age of fourteen, and worse still that everyone believed her. That's what happened to Pepper Roux, which led to him having a very strange childhood - growing up with his religious nut of an Aunt, his absentee drunken sailor of a Dad, and a mother, who knowing he'd be dead soon, didn't bother much with him. So, when Pepper reaches fourteen, he resolves that if he is to die it will not be a wasted death, and he runs away to sea.

This is the first adventure of many amongst the low-lifes of Marseilles and the Camargue for the youngster on the run. Unfortunately death seems to follow him around, and each time he believes it should have been him. A helpful lad, he tries to do good turns along the way, but they often backfire on him too. All this means that the gendarmes are on his trail.

McCaughrean has conjured up a wonderful French setting with a magnificent cast of sailors, horse-thieves, and gangsters who all try to take advantage of the young man. Pepper however is growing up fast and living life to the full - each day still believing that it could be his last. Along the way he learns about truth, lies and their consequences which, although primarily written for young adults, makes this book a really satisfying adult read. No explanation of the occasional French words is given - that would slow up the narrative which maintains a speedy pace throughout. Pepper's adventures make delightfully witty and page-turning read, but you will think about the story for ages afterwards.

(Book supplied by the Amazon Vine programme; 9/10)

...and the Winner is ...

2009-11-08T12:51:00.005Z

Thank you to everyone who entered my Paul Auster giveaway. I will be searching out everyone's nominations for their literary heroes - there were several names I don't know at all - and if they're good enough to be someone's hero, they deserve to be investigated - Thank you.

My daughter has just picked a name from the hat for me, and the winner is: ANNA. If you could email me with your address I'll get the book out to you asap.

Anna suggested the poet Cornish Charles Causley as her lit hero. A quick search for a quote gave me this from his first collection published in 1951 which is rather apt for today...

Song of the Dying Gunner A.A.1.

Farewell, Aggie Weston, the Barracks, at Guz,
Hang my tiddley suit on the door
I'm sewn up neat in a canvas sheet
And I shan't be home no more.

Photo from flowersop.com

BOOK GIVEAWAY!!!

2009-11-05T18:04:00.005Z

Who is your literary hero (or heroine) giveaway?

It's not often I'm in the position to host a giveaway, but thanks to the nice people at Faber, I have somehow ended up with two copies of Invisible by Paul Auster.

Auster is probably my biggest literary hero, and I am really looking forward to reading his new book. I love the layers in his novels - the books within books, the writer as a recurring character, his love of coincidence and circular plot elements, plus a wonderful feel for NYC.

I will send world-wide. To enter this giveaway for an ARC of Invisible just leave a comment by noon on Sunday Nov 8th telling me who your literary hero or heroine is...

I look forward to hearing from you.

Mostly Bookbrains - My first literary quiznight!

2009-11-04T19:56:00.018Z

It was the Mostly Bookbrains litquiznight last night. As questionmaster, if I say so myself, it went really well. We had a packed house and everyone seemed to have fun. Mark from Mostly Books was a brilliant help as scorer, Ali from the shop made a wonderful trophy - see it here. As any proceeds from the quiz were being donated to charity, we were grateful to The Manor Prep School who let us use the big hall for free, and hopefully we raised a fair amount of money for Helen & Douglas House hospice for children in Oxford (over £200).

It's always fun to go over the answer sheets after the quiz and see some of the fun wrong answers; I'd like to share a few with you ...

In our picture round of book covers, very few got Nigella Lawson's How to Eat - the most popular wrong answer was Perfume by Patrick Suskind strangely!
Despite me not even trying a Scottish accent, (it would have been awful), almost everyone got Trainspotting in the First Lines round - "The sweat wis lashing oafay Sick Boy; he wis trembling."
In our round where teams had to name the books that various characters appeared in, we gave them Rob's five girlfriends from High Fidelity by Nick Hornby - one enterprising team put down 'The Telephone Directory' as their answer.
Likewise, when asked 'Where is Howards End?' according to the title of Susan Hill's new book, someone put 'in Surrey', not 'on the landing'. (Actually the real house it was based on is just outside Stevenage in Hertfordshire near where I used to live ten years ago.)
When asked what was the title of Delia Smith's first cookery book, published in 1971 which she revised in 2008, only one team got that one - from the others we got virtually all of Delia's catalogue except How to Cheat at Cooking.

It was lovely to meet Simon from Stuck in a book too, it's great to put a face to a name. Fittingly perhaps, a team from one of the Book Groups who meet at Mostly Books won the inaugural MBookbrains quiz - I say inaugural, because I think we might do it all again next year.

A technological Cinderella story for the next generation of Microserfs

2009-11-02T13:54:00.011Z

Makers by Cory Doctorow

If you loved Microserfs by Douglas Coupland which chronicled life in Silicon Valley in the 90s, you'll probably enjoy this which takes the nerds into the near future. Rather than spoofing Microsoft, it takes Disney as the corporate behemoth that needs taking down a peg.

Perry and Lester are two talented engineers who specialise in making things by recycling toys and gadgets into other electronic gadgets which they sell to collectors. Key to this is the 3D printer - which when filled with 'goop' will create any part needed. They subsist in happy chaos in Florida living and working in an old Wal-mart store, living in harmony with a collection of drop-outs and homeless folk who've built a nearby shantytown.

Then they get discovered. One of the corporate behemoths, Kodacell (a Kodak-Duracell merger) is looking for a new way of doing business now the markets don't want their traditional products any more. They think a small is beautiful approach using hundreds of small subsidiaries all networking and using each other is the answer, and want to use Perry and Lester as their flagship. A business manager is sent in, and Suzanne Church - a journalist is implanted to document everything that happens and make sure that the world knows about it. Inadvertently, all this will hasten the demise of the traditional economy!

It goes wild, they're a hit, but what they hadn't bargained for is that Perry and Lester are liberal types - big business isn't really their thing and they'd rather carry on tinkering and helping the homeless. They also have a love of retro-electronics and create a 'ride' that celebrates it and also evolves. This becomes the surprise highlight of a holiday in Florida for many. Enter Disney, and as Perry and Lester's technology gets hijacked, things start to go seriously wrong...

This was a dense and chunky novel - far too long at 416 pages in the hardback format - but generally entertaining to read. Although the characterisation is far from perfect and the writing was a bit clunky, you couldn't help but like Perry and Lester, loveable underdogs who get out of their depth; Suzanne as the hack with a heart of gold was somewhat sad - sacrificing any life of her own for the story. You could also feel some sympathy for the good guys of the business world who tried to help the small fry, but the baddies were portrayed as real pantomime villains in this technological Cinderella story, very shallow indeed. There was one sub-plot I didn't like - regarding a Russian technological miracle to cure obesity - the 'Fatkins' programme. While having a serious point to make, it got in the way of the main story. I wasn't entirely sure where Doctorow was going with the shantytown either, or am I missing the obvious in that the poor will always be with us?

Overall - this is a novel of big ideas - and I could imagine some of them happening! (8/10)

(Book supplied by the Amazon Vine programme).

P.S. I learned a new word last week courtesy of James May's Toy Stories (new series on BBC2). That word is 'sprue' . In injection moulding, the sprue is the framework through which the material goes into a mould and is cut off afterwards. The super cover of this book shows a great example!

The Page 56 Meme

2009-10-30T20:45:00.006Z

This nice and easy meme came by way of Victorian Geek via Ibooknet blog.

Grab the nearest book.
Open it to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
Don’t dig for your favourite book, the coolest book, or the most intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

Here goes: "Until late in the century, he would visit German houses in Baltimore and Pennsylvania on Christmas Eve, carrying a bundle of switches for naughty children and treats for the good ones."

Who is this strange visitor? He's 'Belsnickel' - a Dutch mythical being similar to Krampus in Austria and Germany - one of Santa's helpers. A dour character who was popular with parents who wanted to keep their children in line.

Big apologies for posting about Christmas when it's still October! This lore comes from a little book I just acquired called The Christmas Companion - a merry little book of festive fun and trivia - a sort of Christmas themed Schott's Miscellany. I got this to help me write some seasonal questions for the end of term staff dinner - we like a bit of a quiz, and silly me - I volunteered to do it this year.

An influential book from an influential writer ...

2009-10-28T19:01:00.011Z

Howards End is on the landing by Susan Hill

That pesky Susan Hill! She's managed to set the book-blogging world alight with her latest - a memoir about reading the books in her house and the stories they are associated with. HEIOTL, as I shall abbreviate it to, has become a blogging hot topic - but in the nicest possible way...

At the heart of HEIOTL is Hill's decision not to add to her house full of books for a year (except for books she is to review); to explore her collection and find new books to read in it, to re-discover lost gems and re-read favourites, and then to compile a list of the forty books she couldn't live without.

Each shelf examined brings reminiscences. There are stories about encounters with great writers and celebrated personages, who all seemed to be very supportive of the young novelist, and indeed many of them became friends. I loved all this name-dropping, and particularly enjoyed the chapter about Benjamin Britten whose 'Sea Interludes' provided an epiphany for Hill (I love them too - they were marvellous to play many years ago in Croydon Youth Philharmonic Orchestra); the story about Alan Clark was good also.

There are many discussions of writers and their books. Hill is refreshingly honest about what she doesn't enjoy reading as well as her literary loves - she's no Austenite, but reveres much of Thomas Hardy, she can't be doing with Terry Pratchett and Sci-Fi in general but did concede to liking John Wyndham but puts him in the horror pile. I was delighted that she loves Ian Fleming, John Le Carré and Michael Connelly too.

Although I haven't read him, her chapter about W.G.Sebald does make me want to read The Rings of Saturn. She writes "But so many places on a Sebald journey are eerie, deserted, out of date, and lie under a pall of dismal weather. In The Rings of Saturn he walks through East Anglia and manages to make places I know well, and have found sparkling and lively, suicidally depressing." I lived and worked for nearly two years in and around Great Yarmouth - a South Londoner fresh out of uni and mostly have never felt so lonely as then.

Then at the last pages we get to the final forty, the snapshot in time of the forty books she couldn't do without - well on that day at least, for she says she would probably pick a different 40 tomorrow. The natural extension of this is to start compiling one's own forty - but that's another project and post!

Every year I say I must read more books from my TBR mountains. Do I think I could do as Hill did and not buy any new books for a whole year? It would be nice, but I don't think I can. Simon at Stuck in a Book has set himself a post-HEIOTL challenge to buy no more than 24 books in 2010. My biggest problem post-HEIOTL is the number of books I've added to my wishlist, and may have to buy/acquire, after reading it - an index would have been slightly helpful here!

I love reading books about books, and this one (with its lovely cover) didn't disappoint. Susan Hill is doing an event in Abingdon next month, and I'm really looking forward to hearing her talk about it. I also hope to fit in reading another of her novels too - The Beacon has been on my shelves unread for ages too.

This book sure has got us all thinking! If you want to read more reviews, see Dgr, Paperback reader, Savidge Reads, and Other Stories to name but a few. Oh, and by the way, if you love books about books, do read Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman - it's utterly brilliant.

My Season of the Living Dead is over!

2009-10-27T09:41:00.007Z

My month of vampire reading is over - Ended! Finito! I've read six novels back to back, mostly extremely enjoyable until I came to the last. Dracula - the Un-dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt ...

Co-written by Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew and a vampire expert, this official sequel tries to shoehorn in every single bit of vampire lore in existence into its length, moving the action on to 1912, twenty-five years after the original novel ends. Someone is after the survivors of the original band of heroes who 'killed' Dracula and is picking them off one by one. It appears to be another evil historical figure - Elizabeth Bathory, (another real person who is reputed to have bathed in girls' blood), or could it be Jack the Ripper(!), or has Dracula risen again from the undead. It's up to Jonathan Harker's wife Mina, and son Quincey to stop them or be killed themselves.

The novel was never sillier than when they put Bram Stoker himself into the plot as a struggling writer trying to put on a play of his novel - for a book supposing to put right the injustices done to the Stoker family when they were denied royalties for Dracula in the USA, I couldn't understand this move. Mercifully, it was a quick read - fans of Dan Brown should love it!

*****

I finally watched the film of Twilight yesterday. I loved it! I liked the Twin Peaksy feel and the lighting. I felt that Bella came across as having a bit more self-determination than in the book, and of course it pared away some of the frustrating talk that clogged up the novel. I also like how they handled the vamp's shimmering in the sunlight. Of course, the two lead characters were lovely to look at which always helps - Kristen Stewart reminded me of Harry Potter's Emma Watson with dark hair and a bit less earnestness - they have very similar facial expressions. The result is, of course, that I may have to read a seventh vamp novel very soon - New Moon, but first I need a break - I've a book group choice and some ARCs to waiting to be read!

A chilling and contemporary twist on the vampire novel

2009-10-26T11:12:00.009Z

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

All the other vampire books I've read in my 'Season of the Living Dead' have been rather cosy or had a good sense of humour. But then they've been mostly aimed at teens and young adults.

Then I came to a Nordic vampire novel Let the Right One In, and found something truly dark and horrific that needed a strong stomach and nerves of steel. It is a real contemporary chiller, full of violence and gore, totally relentless - yet at its heart is a the redemptive relationship between a twelve year old boy and a 200 year old vampire frozen into the body of a young girl.

The book is set in and around an anonymous housing estate, built at the edge of a forest in the suburbs. We are introduced to Oskar, twelve years old, fat and geeky, who is the chief victim of the class bullies, and we immediately feel for him. But then we meet Håkan, a quiet newcomer to the town; but he's also a seedy forty-five year old in a raincoat and has 'serial killer' written all over him - he's carrying a cylinder of anaesthetic, and he's prospecting for a victim - it doesn't take long, and then it's horrorshow time! Meanwhile Oskar meets Eli, a strange young girl who only appears in the evenings in the playground. They gradually strike up a friendship and once they realise that their bedrooms share a wall, they start to send morse code messages to each other; Eli's the first girl who's ever noticed Oskar. The rest of the supporting cast comprises a group of old men, drifters and alcoholics who meet at the pub - one of them thinks he saw something on the night of the first murder but they're all too scared. Eventually all of these character threads come together.

I won't expound any more on the plot as it would spoil the suspense; suffice it to say there are some particularly disturbing scenes in its 500+ pages. The relationship between Oskar and Eli is fascinating; Eli is of course a vampire. When Oskar finds someone to love it is touching, it is also the beginning of his growing up, being able to stand up for himself.

Oskar held the piece of paper with the Morse code in one hand and tapped letters into the wall with the other...
G.O.I.N.G. O.U.T.
The answer came after a few seconds.
I. M. C.O.M.I.N.G.
They met outside the entrance to her building. In one day she had ... changed. About a month ago a Jewish woman had come to his school, talked to them about the holocaust and shown them slides. Eli was looking a little bit like the people in those pictures.
The sharp light from the fixture above the door cast dark shadows on her face, as if the bones were threatening to protrude through the skin, as if the skin had become thinner. And ...'
What have you done with your hair?'He had thought it was the light that made it look like that, but when he came closer he saw that a few thick white strands ran through her hair. Like an old person. Eli ran a hand over her head. Smiled at him.
'It'll go away. What should we do?'

This novel was entirely different to any other vampire story I've read. It was thoroughly modern with no hints of Gothic melodrama at all. It was too long, but thoroughly gripping if you have the stomach for it. Moreover it takes our current fascination with all literary things Nordic, particularly crime novels, to another different level. Read it if you dare! (9/10)

P.S. Just got the original Swedish movie to watch. Apparently it's marvellous.

Paving the way for the teen vampire sensation

2009-10-20T16:23:00.007+01:00

Vampire Diaries by L.H.Smith

Anyone reading this book would be forgiven for thinking that it was rather derivative of a certain other one - Twilight that is. It even has an apple on the black cover ... Amazingly, it was published over ten years before Stephanie Meyer had even started hers. Understandingly, the publishers have jumped on the bandwagon with a new edition. I didn't discover it until I had already read Twilight though, so my thoughts about Smith's book can't help but but be influenced by the other.

The Vampire Diaries was originally written as a trilogy in 1991, and extended to 4 parts a year later. This edition contains parts 1 & 2. Smith is now adding another new trilogy to the series, and inbetween also created the 'Night World' series of novels featuring many different supernatural races.

Smith's heroine is beautiful and popular, and when a new boy Stefan comes to school, she just has to have him. Sure enough he's a vampire with an evil older brother Damon. Back in the Renaissance they both loved the same woman, who became vampire and then when they forced her to choose between them, she took both, but Stefan still thinks she really loved him before she died. Elena reminds him of her - so they're made for each other. Then nasty things start to happen in this little town - there's a big black crow always around, then people get scared in the old ruined church, and an old guy is killed under bridge over the river. Then at the school's Halloween Haunted House party, someone dies - all fingers point to Stefan, but we know that Damon lives and he wants what his brother wants ...

Arguably, more happens than in Twilight, however I found the Vampire Diaries rather ordinary and humourless, somewhat full of stereotypes and also lacking the former's subtlety. Also, for a book with the word 'Diaries' in the title, the few diary pages included were strangely uninvolving to me. I would describe the book(s) as competent, and fans of her Night World series will surely enjoy these vampires. (6/10)

Sookie & Vampire Bill - what a couple!

2009-10-18T21:08:00.011+01:00

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

The high-school vampire novels I read last week were but mere hors d'oevres in preparation for this - the main course.

The Sookie Stackhouse novels have been given the HBO treatment by Alan 'Six Feel Under' Ball, and are currently on our screens as True Blood, but before I watch the TV series (I've recorded initial episodes) I wanted to read the first book...

Pretty Sookie Stackhouse waits tables at Merlottes, a bar in Bon Temps, deep in the heart of Louisiana. The locals think she's slightly crazy - but they don't know that Sookie is a telepath and can hear everyone's thoughts - to stop herself going mad she has to concentrate to keep her guard up. She lives quietly with her Gran, boyfriends being difficult with her knowing everything they are thinking!

Since the invention of synthetic blood, vampires have come out into the mainstream but one has never been to Merlottes, until Bill. Unfortunately he sits next to the wrong people who are after his blood - it's worth $200 a phial, and they lure him out to the woods beyond the carpark where they tether him with silver and start to drain him - until Sookie intervenes. She saves Bill, and it's fair to say it's love at first sight for both of them - particularly as Sookie can't hear Bill's thoughts. Bill now owns the old house across the way from Sookie's Gran. He's one of the few who wants to intregrate into a community - to live quietly, and only drinking synthetic blood. He was made a vampire during the civil war and is tired of living on the edge.

The only problem is that as soon as Bill appears, murders start happening. They're all good-time girls who have a bit of a reputation as 'fang-bangers'. Suspicion is automatically on all the vampires in the region, but Sookie's brother Jason also knew the murdered girls. Sookie decides to use her powers to help solve the crimes. The wider vampire network is a dangerous place and there is a serial killer somewhere out there in this close-knit community that must be caught.

A kooky heroine and vampires combined with a top-notch crime novel set in America's Deep South is a winning combination - I absolutely loved it! Sookie is sparky and resourceful, yet has been waiting for someone to love; Bill wants to be normal and to be taken at face value - he is a good and chivalrous vampire and Sookie awakens his protective instincts. This book is immense fun, it's sexy and intense with thrills aplenty. Volume two, Living Dead in Dallas is already in my reading pile. (10/10)

Brothers under the skin???

2009-10-17T13:20:00.011+01:00

I will get back to writing about books very soon, but an off-duty photo I saw yesterday of Twilight hunk Robert Pattinson in my daughter's kids' newspaper 'First News' gave me a jolt - for the delightfully chiselled Robert is looking rather like the handsome younger brother of the comedy demi-god that was John Belushi! I couldn't find the exact photo - but it's all in the eye-brows ... What do you think?

Now I can see why teenage girls love vampires ...

2009-10-11T08:58:00.021+01:00

Although I have more of the same stacked up, (vampire novels aimed at teenagers that is), I think I've worked out why teenage girls love reading them... They have all the features of many traditional favourites:- set in schools pupilled with bullies, geeks, jocks, all the usual stereotypes are there; there's good/bad, sympathetic/not teachers; an overwhelming hatred of maths; but most importantly the heroine is new to the school - an outsider who is different and sticks out a mile. Mix thoroughly and then spice liberally with vampires to bring a whole new level of fantasy to the staple genre. However given all that, these first two books have totally different approaches ...

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.

Although not the first, Twilight is the book that has ignited the current vamp fever.

Isabella is a beautiful yet clumsy girl who has left her Mum, and her new husband, in Phoenix to live with her Dad in the small, rainy, northwestern town of Forks. Enrolling at the local high school she soon makes friends, but then attracts the attention of the mysterious and impossibly good-looking Cullen family. It is love at first sight for Isabella and Edward - but the course of true love never runs smooth, as the Cullens are vampires. As Edward and Bella start to explore whether it is possible for them to have a relationship, some other vampires come on the scene, and Bella is put in danger.

It could have been really brilliant, but to be honest I didn't warm to Bella - she's a bit of a whiner and homebody, and so drippy once she falls for Edward. He on the other hand is the business, provided you can forget the slightly creepy fact that he's a hundred year-old vampire in the body of a seventeen year-old Adonis. Crucially though, it's so slow in getting to the action as they talk and talk and talk; and the central romance is totally frustrating for an adult read, (younger teens may baulk at the length). The overall feel to me was like one of those über-slick good-looking American TV series like Beverley Hills 90210 (or whatever the number was) with less sex and more talk. Reading Meyer's website it appears that Bella is the daughter she's never had, and that there is a certain amount of wish fulfillment going on too. It was compulsive though, and I shall definitely read the rest of the series to find out what finally happens!

*****

Now to a rather different type of high school vampire novel ...

Marked by P.C. & Kristin Cast

Written by a mother and daughter team, this is the first in a series called the 'House of Night'. In the Casts' world, teenagers are 'marked' to become vampires. It has a cracking opening line - "Just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse I saw the dead guy standing next to my locker." Zoey is picked to become a vampyre (yes, with a 'y'), the tracker marks her forehead and from that moment on her life changes.

She has to abandon everything and go to the 'House of Night' - the vampyre finishing school where they will take over her schooling and help her go through the change into becoming a vampyre. She's happy to leave her mother and her horrible new husband, but has to say goodbye to her Cherokee grandmother who lives out of town. While out looking for her Gran who is out in the hills, Zoey falls and has a vision from the vampyre goddess Nyx who asks her to be her eyes and ears at the House of Night. Once at school, she finds that she's the centre of attention, for the mark on her forehead has changed - it's different to all the other fledglings' ones, and not only is the headmistress Zoey's mentor, but the head girl Aphrodite is soon on her case!

What ensues is more of a typical boarding school novel with secret clubs, cliques and escapades, and all the stereotypes above are present too. Many have commented that there's a touch of Hogwarts about it with the pupils learning to be vampyres, but these teenaged vampyres' blood is full of raging hormones so it's definitely not suitable for younger teens. It was more fun and definitely has a better sense of humour than Twilight, but I don't feel the compulsive need to read more of the series, (well - maybe!).

*****

Having read these two, I can understand why teenage girls are adoring them. The presence of the vampires adds a fantasy element to the high-school novel that heightens the romance to a new level, providing the escapist fun that teenagers crave - but I wouldn't recommend even the sex-free Twilight for any younger readers.

Now I'm reading the first Sookie Stackhouse novel - Dead Until Dark, which is the sexy older cousin to those above. I keep on discovering more vamp fare to add to my reading list though - The Vampire Diaries by L J Smith, which was published in 1991 and thought to be a key influence on those who came after; and Nordic vamp novel Let the right one in by John Ajvide Lindqvist. "Bring it on!" I say.

Bad Haikus for National Poetry Day

2009-10-08T16:18:00.006+01:00

It's National Poetry Day and to celebrate here are two topical Gaskella original haiku(s?) plugging my current reading trail... Sorry but they're the best I can do in the short time available. Please feel free to slag them off and show me how to write a haiku properly - I can just about get the 5-7-5 and a seasonal reference, but finesse comes a lot harder!

Nights are drawing in,
Season of the Living Dead
on Gaskella’s blog.

Autumnal sunshine
Lifts the spirits when reading
Books about vampires.

These books are obviously beginning to get to me!

The Police are but a small episode in this busy life ...

2009-10-07T18:05:00.016+01:00

Strange things happen by Stewart Copeland

The emphasis is on fun in this memoir - for Copeland is a hyperactive sort, a workaholic but easily bored, loving a challenge, never playing anything quite the same way twice, liking to be boss, and he's also much more than a mere drummer.

Jumping about in time with flashes back and forward, the book opens with pages about his childhood in Beirut, where he played with Harry Philby - yes, son of that Philby, and where his Dad was big in the CIA, through moving to boarding school in England, learning the drums and then in 1975 joining his first professional band Curved Air where he must have broken many a boy's heart by marrying the elfinly beautiful lead singer Sonja Kristina. Then - The Police - the band that made him world famous. Copeland deals with their initial years in just ten pages. It's clear that our mission, should we choose to accept it, is really to read about what Stewart did next ...

The next big chunk of the book takes us up to 2007, and there's a lot to tell. Playing polo against Prince Charles, making a film in Africa, playing with many other bands, and developing a love for the pizzica music of Salento in Southern Italy, meeting his second wife Fiona, and having a ball being a judge on the BBC celebrity duet show 'It takes two' ... all great fun. Then, there's the main day job as a composer. Copeland studied composition at college, and post Police, he composed an opera - not a rock one, a proper, grand one - with a plot based on the crusades; it was staged in Cleveland to a largely enthusiastic response. Following this is a long career, in between all these adventures, as a film and TV composer, having composed scores for many movies and lots of TV work, notably starting with Coppola's Rumblefish.

Then it all comes round again. Copeland's hobby project of editing all the film he took during the Police years into a movie is entered for the Sundance festival. For the first time in ages, the three musicians are reunited at the festival when Sting turns up for the premiere. This event sows the seeds for the Police reunion tour which takes up the final 100 pages.

Stewart & Sting's stormy relationship is the stuff of legend. Now they're both older and wiser, you might expect them to have mellowed. It starts off well, but these guys have had years of being top dogs now, and before long they're circling around each other, spoiling for a fight. They cope though, letting the music do it's work and manage eighteen months on tour.

This book is mainly about his career and working families, rather than the loving one at home. We find out very little about his parents, siblings, and even less about his seven (yes!) kids, although there's a nice photo of them all at the end. Copeland however, is an aimiable yet sparky host, always capable of seeing the funny side of things; his straight talking and writing style always lets us know what he thinks. What also come through strongly are what he sees as the shamanistic properties of music to inspire and inhabit a body - any music has the possibility to do this, and refreshingly he embraces this philosophy throughout.

Copeland is anything but a normal rock star - and this is an excellent read for any music fan, I really enjoyed it. Finally, a big thank you to Scott who arranged to get me a signed and dedicated copy of this book - much appreciated.

What happens when the woman of your dreams becomes a reality?

2009-10-04T10:19:00.011+01:00

I've been saving a few reviews to post until I'm ready to start talking about vampires in my Season of the Living Dead. So today it's time to introduce you to:

Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker

Norman and his friend Henry are on holiday in Ireland. They duck into a church to shelter from the rain and the sexton gives them a grand tour after they pretend to know of the old vicar. On the spur of the moment, Norman invents a close friend of the vicar’s family, an 83 year old lady whom they know too, called Miss Connie Hargreaves – this makes the dour sexton’s day. Norman & Henry then continue to have fun with their imaginary friend, composing and sending off a letter to the hotel where she’s staying inviting her to visit Norman at home in Cornford. Imagine the surprise then, when a few days later, Norman receives a telegram saying that she will be with them soon. Mild panic ensues – she can’t be real – they made her up! However nothing would keep them from the station platform at the allotted time – just in case.

Miss Hargreaves proceeds to enliven things in the sleepy Buckinghamshire cathedral town of Cornford. Norman is junior organist and she soon gets him into trouble by making him pull out all of the stops, but then she gets in with the Dean. She has a habit of getting Norman into tricky situations and to get out of them he has to invent more back story for her. Everything he says about her takes on a life of its own and things are beginning to get a bit much for him especially as she treats him as her dearest friend and won’t leave him alone. All these shenanigans make his mother exasperated, his girlfriend furious, and alienates his best friend Henry too; meanwhile Norman’s father Cornelius, a bookseller and dreamer seems to understand but is too detached to react.

This is where the novel, which had been light and full of farce, starts to get rather dark as Norman begins to plan how to get rid of this tiresome woman; but it’s not straight-forward as he has developed an attachment to her. Norman is a capable and loyal young man who is totally thrown out of his comfort zone, (think of a young Peter Davison), and panics. He has a big problem to resolve and at first can’t work out how to make her go – or rather let her go. When he finally works it out, he becomes strong, but the memories of Connie echo on...

Published originally in 1939, this novel was transformed into a successful play after the war starring Margaret Rutherford - inspired casting. Having read this in the introduction, it was hard to imagine any other image of Miss Hargreaves – prounounced Hargrayves, not Hargreeves by the way, explained in a cheeky author’s note. Connie may be the star of the book, but she has a strong supporting cast in Norman, Henry, and assorted clerics; but my favourite was Cornelius, a classic absent-minded professorial type.

‘Father,’ I said, ‘I want to have a serious talk with you. I’m very worried.’
‘Sit down, boy. Have a cigarette. Woman?’
I nodded. ...
‘Women,’ said my father, ‘have never really been my cup of tea. They do not understand major issues, and their passion for realism is something I’ve never felt agreeable to. Nevertheless, the race, as a race, would crumble without them.’

But then Cornelius goes off on a tangent into his own little world as Norman tries to explain his predicament to him.

‘It’s this Miss Hargreaves,’ I said.
‘A fine woman from the sound of her. Plays the oboe, doesn’t she? Now the oboe’s a funny instrument one way and another-'
‘You remember that time you warned me never to make things up? Well-'
‘Old Bach understood the oboe better than any man before or after. You might say old Bach made the oboe.’

This novel was delightful from start to finish, full of high farce, real comedy moments and surprising pathos, and the dark edge later provides real tension. A tremendously satisfying read. Like all those lovely reissues from Persephone Books I can’t wait to read more of these rediscovered gems from The Bloomsbury Group too.

Black! Black! Black!

2009-10-01T14:31:00.007+01:00

Dear friends,

Today is October the 1st, and I'm about to slip off into the darkness - I may be some time... No seriously, it's time to begin reading for my

I'm going to delve into the black-covered world of the teenage vampire novel, and I'm going to start with the biggie Twilight. Then I'll make my way via Marked by P.C. & Kristin Cast (recommended by pal Julia) through to Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris - the first Sookie Stackhouse novel. Then if I have time, there's the official Dracula sequel by Dacre Stoker, a descendant of Bram!

If all that's not enough for me, there's plenty more where they came from. My daughter commented the other day in the bookshop that you could tell which were books for teenage girls because of the black covers - she's not nine until next week, but certainly knows her books!

I feel that I will have to come up for air at some time though, and a book with an intriguing cover (see right), Makers by Cory Doctorow arrived the other day. It's a futuristic novel about the end of the economy, and sounds really fun in a dystopian sort of way!

P.S. Many thanks to Claire at Paperback Reader for helping me with that monicker - a prize will wing its way to you if you let me know where to send it.

Mostly Bookbrains

2009-09-29T10:23:00.007+01:00

Dear Booklovers,

On Tuesday November 3rd, on behalf of Mostly Books I'm hosting a Literary Quiz entitled 'Mostly Bookbrains' at the Manor Preparatory School in Abingdon. Guess who's Quizmaster and writing the questions? Yes, it's me.

We will cover the whole world of books - from bestsellers to prizewinners, cover art to author photos, children's books to all sorts of non-fiction, all are included.

You are invited to submit teams of up to eight people, or just book your place(s) and we'll make up teams on the night. The entry fee is just £2 per person if paid in advance (£3 on the night) and there will be a cash bar with wine, beer and soft drinks. All profits will be donated to Helen & Douglas House, the wonderful hospice for children and young people in Oxford. Tickets from Mostly Books above.

We'll also have a Bookswap Table. Bring a book you've enjoyed and are happy to pass on, and swap for another at half time. (I nicked this idea from Scott at Me & My Big Mouth who runs the Firestation Book Swap monthly events in Windsor.)

Now I must go an compile some more questions!

Short Takes

2009-09-27T13:14:00.012+01:00

Catching up on some shorter reviews ...

To paraphrase the Cranberries album title, Everybody else is reading it, so why can't I? - I've finally read some Roberto Bolano. He is definitely the flavour of the moment; his posthumously published epic 2666 is generating acres of discussion and review. However I wanted to read something shorter before deciding whether to commit myself to 900+ pages of the other. Published before he died, Amulet is a short and slightly surreal novel set in Mexico during a period of political unrest. Auxilio, a Uruguayan woman, who hangs out with the poets of Mexico City is trapped in a bathroom at the university when the army invades to put down a student revolt in 1968. She's there for 12 days, and lies on the floor starving, remembering and fantasising about the future and her life with the poets.

Knowing nothing of Mexican poetry or politics it was hard to know what, if anything, was real in the background to the novel. I was hoping to be dazzled by the writing, but found the confusing nature of the plot darting between Auxilio's memories and reveries difficult. The opening lines promise much - a horror story of murder, detection and horror, but immediately this is taken away as the teller says it won't seem like that if told by her. Interspersed among the ramblings, which become increasingly surreal prophecies, are some more conventional scenes of life with the literati, and their experiences with both the underbelly of Mexican society and the regimes in charge in Latin America; these episodes briefly brought the novel to life and I could see why he is so admired.

As for reading more Bolano, I may well try The Savage Detectives, but find the prospect of 2666 about 600 pages too much for me at the moment! (Book supplied by the Amazon Vine programme).

*****

I read Old Peter's Russian Tales by Arthur Ransome as a companion piece to the wonderful Blood Red, Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick, reviewed here.

Ransome collected a wide selection of typical Russian fairy tales, but rather than present them as separate entities, the tales are told by a grandfather to his grandchildren. The first segment, The hut in the forest introduces Old Peter, little Maroosia and Vanya. The children are a keen audience and as they settle by the stove, they demand to hear a new tale and we're off straightaway into a land of a rich merchant and his three daughters, followed by many others: the witch Baba Yaga with her hut on chicken legs, Sadko the dulcimer player who plays by the river (made into an opera by Rimsky Korsakov), and ones like the intriguingly titled The Stolen Turnips, the Magic Tablecloth, the Sneezing Goat and the Wooden Whistle. They are delightful, quirky tales and are highly moral. Those who are bad always get their come-uppance, and happy endings are not guaranteed.

*****

It was seeing Jackie's review of this book at Farm Lane Books, that reminded me that I read it a few months ago, but didn't get around to writing about it.

The Boy Who Kicked Pigs is by Tom Baker - yes, the fourth Dr Who. Incidentally, I can really recommend his autobiography Who on Earth is Tom Baker?, and having read that was intrigued to read this truly bizarre and gothic novella. It tells the story of an evil thirteen year old who kicks pigs - it starts off with his sister's piggy bank, but progresses to anything porcine including a bacon butty which is his downfall. He pledges revenge and

Although written as a children's story in style - a bit Lemony Snicketish, it most definitely is not - but fans of Tim Burton would love it. It is also full of arcane adult references from the 1960s - from Will Fyffe (eccentric news reporter) to Hylda Baker (Lancashire actress). Clocking in at just 124 pages, of which half are evocative line drawings, it doesn't take long. I found that imagining Baker himself narrating made for an entertaining reading!

An evening with Alan Titchmarsh

2009-09-25T21:39:00.008+01:00

The people of Abingdon had a treat tonight. Another national treasure came to visit in the body of Alan Titchmarsh, gardener supreme, broadcaster, chat-show host and great favourite of ladies of a certain age. I don't count myself as one of them yet, but he is responsible for encouraging me into gardening during his stint at the helm of the BBC's Gardener's World, so I was more than happy to go along and help Mostly Books on the book stall.

He took to the stage in a lilac jumper, and proceeded to charm the audience with stories from his TV career. These included encounters with Charlie Dimmock and her unfettered protruberences on Ground Force - the garden makeover show that made him a real TV star, (Charlie is a Rubenesque and braless specialist in water features), and Willy the mad Irishman who did a lot of the behind the scenes prep for the hard landscaping. He also told us about several encounters with the Queen: firstly at the Sandringham Women's Institute where she is the Patron; then when he went to the palace to collect his MBE, and the Queen told him 'You've made a lot of ladies very happy.' Alan declared he'd like that quote on his gravestone. He read a couple of passages from his new volume of memoirs, Knave of Spades before answering questions from the audience.

Mark from Mostly Books asked how a Yorkshire lad that left school at the age of 15 and went to work in the Ilkley Parks department developed a love of reading, books, and became a writer? Alan put it down to his English teacher's comments on a précis he had to write of A Midsummer Night's Dream in which he used the word 'reciprocated' talking about Helena and Demetrius - and how that taught him the power of words.

He was delightful company, charming and very funny. He was also chatty at the signing table with his adoring fans, and there were lots of them there. I would have cropped the photo, but I wanted to show you some of the presents they brought him - knitted clown dolls and a special Christmas cracker. I do wish he'd give up the chat shows and go back to gardening on the telly though ...

Guilty Secrets #3

2009-09-24T21:53:00.007+01:00

When I started my blog just over a year ago, I wrote a couple of posts about things I haven't read but should have. I've had so much to say since, I haven't had much time to reflect further on the gaps in my reading.

Then this afternoon on Radio 4, they were talking about the Wodehouse appreciation society, and I realised I have never read a P.G.Wodehouse book! Moreover, I don't even posess one in the TBR mountain range; whereas I own and love the complete Fry & Laurie Jeeves & Wooster on DVD. How can this be? How can I have missed reading one of the greatest funny writers ever?

Something to be rectified as soon as I've done my vampire bit for Halloween I think. Should I start with the first Jeeves & Wooster, or one of the Blandings, or indeed any other - What do you think?

A nail's tale.

2009-09-23T15:17:00.004+01:00

This is not a post about books - It's a musing about fingernails!

I tend to keep my nails really short - it's a habit - I used to be a fiddle player. My nails have never been strong either, flaking at the slightest exposure to harsh treatment; but apart from painting on nail strengthener when I remember and filing the odd rough edge, they get no special care.

Just occasionally, a fingernail will grow and not get broken and I'll see how long I can get it - just for fun. Well today, I gave up on my right little fingernail. It's lasted for several weeks and also naturally shaped itself and looks lovely - my daughter wishes her nails would grow that long. But now it's in the way! I can't type properly with it and I'm conscious of it all the time as it pokes into your palm when you close your hand, and importantly is there when you're holding a book. There is something about a nicely shaped nail that makes your fingers look longer but this one is a distraction. It has to go...

Done! Trimmed back to a neat 1mm - it instantly feels better.

Two women, two cultures, two lives

2009-09-20T19:43:00.005+01:00

Antigona and Me by Kate Clanchy

This is a true story. Antigona is Kosovan, a single mother with two daughters and a young son; they are refugees in London. They had a terrible journey to get there escaping from war and Antigona's wife-beater of a husband. Kate Clanchy has a happy home and a young baby, but needs time to restart her career as a poet and journalist. A chance meeting of the two leads to Kate offering Antigona a job firstly as a cleaner, then later nanny, recognising Antigona's strength of character. Antigona has a fantastic work ethic and soon fills every day with cleaning jobs, and waitressing in the evenings.

The two women click and become friends. Gradually Kate teases out Antigona's story: about the culture of living in the Albanian mountains and their strict code of law, the Kanun, which is honour-led; about their hard lives; about how she's desperate to find out what happened to her family; about how her brothers also in London don't accept her divorce. Kate is fascinated, horrified, humbled, and also really wants to help as much as she can. Antigona embraces Western culture, yet the Kanun runs deep, and when her daughters are on the cusp of becoming young women, she can't let them go; Kate finds these attitudes very difficult.

Clanchy agonises over everything; she may be a liberal feminist, but overall tries very hard to understand and remain balanced. This was a engaging memoir which has moments of humour for all the awful events within. Clancy's poetic style is very readable, precise and perfectly punctuated. The whole was a fascinating snapshot into another very different culture that is yet part of Europe. (8/10, Book supplied by the Amazon Vine programme).

P.S. For a take on some of Clanchy's poetry, read Marie Philips post here.

A true story of the Russian Revolution

2009-09-18T09:35:00.009+01:00

Blood Red Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick

There has been renewed interest in the beloved children's author Arthur Ransome lately due to the publication of a new biography: The Last Englishman by Roland Chambers. What many people don't know is that years before he wrote the children's classics, including Swallows and Amazons, for which he is so fondly remembered, he lived and worked in Russia at the time of the revolution; this is chronicled in the above biog.

Published in 2007, Marcus Sedgwick's wonderful novel also tackles Ransome's time in Russia. Sedgwick is one of those teen authors whose books are crossover adult reads too, and I can't recommend this one highly enough - it has revolution and politics, spies and intrigue, romance and family drama, all steeped in Russian fairy tales.

Stuck in a marriage where he didn't love his wife, Ransome ran away to Russia in 1913, although he regretted having to leave his daughter behind. There he taught himself the language and became a journalist on the Daily News at the start of the Great War. He also covered the 1917 revolutions, and was close to Lenin and Trotsky. There he met the real love of his life, Evgenia, who was Trotsky's personal secretary; they married eventually. He was somewhat sympathetic to the Bolshelvik cause, although remained loyal to his homeland, and this led to MI6 using him through their agent Bruce Lockhart (whose Memoirs of a British Agent was a bestseller in the 1930s); MI5 also kept tabs on him for years. Ransome's occasional journeys to and from the UK were full of adventure and peril, especially the time the Estonians used him to deliver a secret armistice proposal to Litvinov in Moscow in 1919, where his good reputation with both sides was his life-saver.

It was at the start of his self-imposed exile that he wrote his book Old Peter's Russian Tales: these are full of magical talismans, poor peasant folk on quests, cunning animals, greedy men and wicked stepmothers, and Baba Yaga of course. These moral tales are often dark and many don't have happy endings, but really get into the Russian psyche.

Sedgwick's novelisation is no dry biography. He starts by using the fairy tales to tell the problems of the people, embodied by a great Russian bear spurred into action against the Tsar by two friends arguing in the forest - they are Lenin and Trotsky. This is superb scene-setting, and Ransome wanders into it and instantly falls in love with a woman stirring a pot on a stove in an office ...

'This is what you want,' she said, almost in a whisper.
She nodded at the pot, and Arthur found himself drawn towards her. He looked inside.
'Potatoes,' she murmured, as if it were the most beautiful word in the world. Her eyes lit up and Arthur realised how very hungry he was. He stood no more than a weak moment's decision away from her, and looked into her eyes.
This is what you want.
And that was how the young writer found love, just when he had stopped looking for it.

How can you not be reeled in by the utter romance in those words. Combined with all the derring do of the amateur spy, the author delivers a totally fabulous novel. Swallows and Amazons was his favourite childhood book, and when the National Archives released the files on Ransome, it was a story demanding to be told. Some of the fascinating telegrams from the archives are reproduced in the Appendix.

This book is likely to send me off on a Russian reading trail when I have time, as I realised (again) my lack of knowledge of things historical and the October Revolution in particular. I highly recommend it. (10/10)

My Blog is 1 today!

2009-09-17T07:52:00.004+01:00

Dear everyone,

It is a year ago today that I dipped my toes into the blogosphere with a very tentative post titled Is there anybody out there?, (the Pink Floyd inspired title was in deference to Rick Wright who had died earlier that day).

I'll be getting back to bookish stuff in a day or two, but I would like to thank everyone who has ever visited 'Gaskella' - especially my followers and regular visitors. Comments are the lifeblood of the blog world, and I'd like to thank all those who comment in particular. It's been lovely getting to know you, and I've met many kindred spirits, found many reading recommendations and just enjoyed myself thoroughly.

I raise my glass of virtual vino to all of you.

Cheers!

Love

Annabel

xxx

Housekeeping ...

2009-09-14T15:28:00.012+01:00

... no, not the book by Marilynne Robinson, just a rounding up of bookish things, as later in the week, it's my first blogbirthday!

I've been trying to be good and actually get rid of some books recently (inspired by Scott's efforts over at Me and my big mouth). I've not ditched as many as he has, but I am keeping quietly at it. I took a bag of trashy thrillers to the charity shop - there is a place for them as occasional guilty pleasures, but too many have crept in. I've also found a few books that I have two copies of, so the duplicates have gone too. I instituted some rules for keeping books back in Feb (see here), and I've been following them well, but too many probably get kept still.

New additions to the Gaskell Towers Library keep on coming though. Many are discoveries through some of my favourite blogs - here's a few of them... From the top:

Tales of Belkin by Alexander Pushkin - I won this one in John's giveaway over on Asylum, many thanks John;
Dark Visions by L J Smith, another ya vampire novel (see below), that arrived as a freebie;
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, the latest vampire sensation, the first Sookie Stackhouse novel - now on TV as 'True Blood' - This is Twilight with sex. Could be fun!
Cry of the Sloth by Sam Savage. I loved Firmin, and the review of this novel over at Bookmunch made me rush to get it;
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker - a Bloomsbury group re-issue. What happens when a person you've invented as an excuse turns up in real life. Sounds like lovely farcical fun;
Amulet by Robert Bolano, to review from Amazon Vine. Well - everyone else seems to be reading him - time to make up my mind too!
Rice's Architectural Primer by Matthew Rice. This is a lovely little hardback I found this week - full of lovely line and wash drawings explaining all those lovely architectural details that can be so confusing - so I need never confuse my oriels and mullions again. It really is lovely too;
Lastly, The secret lives of buildings by Edward Hollis. Longlisted for the 2009 Guardian First Book Award, this tome looks at 13 iconic buildings - from the Parthenon to the Vegas Strip.

Given that I seem to have acquired yet nore undead novels, (Twilight is also in the TBR mountain somewhere), I'm going to have an Undead October, a Witchy Walpurgisnacht, or a Helluva Halloween, and read them all during half-term in a few week's time. A prize for anyone who can come up with a better tag especially if it can involve vampires!

And finally, a huge thank you to Jenny and Teresa at Shelf Love who nominated this blog as one of their 'Shelf Love Bookish Dozen' celebrating Book Blogger Appreciation Week. Their blog is one of my must reads, and I feel very much on a reading wavelength with both of them - please do visit it.

Power Games in Puritan New England

2009-09-12T13:57:00.011+01:00

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

To be honest, I wanted to get this book out of the way. I didn't warm to the cover at all, particularly as when you see it in a stack it stares at you; it gave me the willies one morning when I woke up to see it looking at me!
The subject-matter of The Heretic's Daughter is also rather unsettling. The background is the hard Puritan life in New England at the time of the Salem witch trials. The author is a tenth generation descendant of the Carrier family whose life is told within, so it is based on a true story.

The narrative is told entirely through the eyes of nine year old Sarah who has to go and live with her aunt and uncle when smallpox comes to their community. The rest of her family stay with her grandmother in Andover near Salem, but unwittingly they took the pox with them there - not a good start to life in a new town. In these opening chapters, much is made of the difference in character between her aloof parents and warmer relatives. When Sarah returns to her parents, a feud soon develops between the families over the inheritance of her grandmother's estate. Sarah, being just a child finds it hard to understand the adults' enmity.

In the second part of the novel, the Salem witch trials are wreaking havoc amongst these communities. Sadly, Sarah's herbalist mother's reputation for plain-speaking, together with foment whipped up by the family feud leads to her being denounced as a witch. Refusing to admit to this, Martha is jailed in Salem, along with those whose names we may be familiar with from Arthur Miller's play The Crucible. Then, they come for Sarah and her brothers. The story tells of the terrible conditions in the cells at Salem, of Martha's moral strength in the face of certain death, and her bonds with Sarah.

The first half of this novel was rather overlong, although we certainly do get a feel for their hard lives of toil and living under fear of attack from the natives. There was little hint of the poisonous paranoia that would later infect the community like an epidemic though. All the while, the preachers postured and played at politics with their flocks, until the actions of a group of silly girls set it all off and we know what happened.

Telling the story through the eyes of a child does give a different perspective; Sarah has to grow up fast and learn to do whatever she must to survive. A sub-plot about the early career of Sarah's father before he emigrated, goes nowhere and detracts slightly from the focus on the witch-trials. Compared with The Crucible, (and that is impossible to ignore), I felt it was emotionally much less involving, but this book was nevertheless a very readable debut. (7/10, Book supplied by the Amazon Vine programme.)

P.S. I read Witch Child by Celia Rees earlier this year, reviewed here - a teen/crossover novel covering much of the same territory - superb!

Richard III - Dastardly murderer or totally misunderstood?

2009-09-09T14:10:00.019+01:00

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

Most people if asked, including me, would think of Richard III as the hunchback who murdered the princes in the tower. Our information generally comes from Sir Thomas More's hatchet-job of him by way of Shakespeare and Laurence Olivier or Anthony Sher with a crutch capering around the stage. Josephine Tey does her best to rehabilitate him in her novel published back in 1951. Such is The Daughter of Time's influence, that although it is fiction, it has almost become an established text.

Tey combines history with the modern detective novel in a clever plot device in which her bored policeman is laid up in hospital and decides to investigate a crime from the past. Colin Dexter was later to use this for Inspector Morse in The Wench is Dead.

Inspector Grant is an expert on reading faces; when his actress friend Marta brings him some portraits to look at, he is intrigued by the one of Richard III and decides to investigate the deeply troubled soul he sees. Looking at the portrait in question (in the National Portrait Gallery, London), he does look worried doesn't he? Fiddling with his ring is a giveaway surely?

With the help of a young American acquaintance of Marta's, Brent Carradine, Grant sets out to find out about the last Plantagenet and Yorkist king. They soon discover that the main texts, particularly that of the 'sainted Thomas More' were written much later during the reign of Henry VII from the Lancastrian line who defeated Richard at Bosworth Field. They start looking for contemporary accounts, and soon discover that Richard had no motive to dispose of the princes, that his reign was actually fairly enlightened. They conclude that he shouldn't have been as maligned as he was. By this time Grant is recovered enough to go home, and Brent has an idea for a book. Finis!

I must admit that my knowledge of the Wars of the Roses comes almost entirely from Shakespeare, so that although this is a very gentle novel, it is almost shocking to discover that Richard might be innocent of his nephews' murders! Tey presents a sympathetic portrait that is at odds with many other viewpoints, notably Alison Weir in her 1995 book, (which I've not read). Another more balanced book, Audrey Williamson's The Mystery of the Princes suggests that there is no evidence against Richard, or Henry for that matter.

Whatever you think about Richard, this was a very enjoyable novel indeed; I'd recommend it to teenagers who like history too. Grant was a likeable and solid detective and I would enjoy reading him on his feet in one of his other outings. Also, now I've read a novel by Josephine Tey and read a little about her background, I can read Nicola Upson's two novels which feature Tey as a slightly Marplesque detective - I'm looking forward to them!

Rogue apostrophes and all that grammar and punctuation stuff...

2009-09-07T08:32:00.007+01:00

There have been some great pictures of signs with rogue apostrophes and appalling grammar in the papers lately. With the new school year just starting, the government has produced a document as part of the National Literacy Strategy to tell teachers When to use a full stop. Apparently, up to a third of trainee teachers needed two or more goes to pass the test which assesses spelling, grammar, punctuation and comprehension.

I've also had my Mum bending my ear about poor grammar in a book she's reading - "The author keeps saying 'bored of'," she said. "Surely they should know it is always 'bored with'. I maintain that sometimes 'bored of' sounds better, but did look it up in Fowler's Modern English Usage: She's right, (it can also be 'bored by', as any fule kno). That one's not a major crime of grammar in my book.

Although I do try not to be a pedant about it, I do particularly hate it when people get your and you're wrong though, and those rogue apostrophes are irritating, (but can be funny). I admit that my grammar and punctuation are far from perfect too.

We were talking about this round the dinner table last night. I grabbed some little books on grammar, writing and punctuation that came free with the Sunday Times newspaper many years ago. While looking for quizzes in them, my other half found this super poem - everything is wonderfully clear and simple when you look at it like this ...

A Victorian Schoolmistress’s Rules of Punctuation

Sentences begin with a Capital letter,
So as to make your writing better.
Use a full stop to mark the end.
It closes every sentence penned.
The comma is for short pauses and breaks,
And also for lists the writer makes.
Dashes – like these – are for thoughts by the way,
They give extra information (so do brackets, we may say).
These two dots are colons: they pause to compare.
They also do this: list, explain and prepare.
The semicolon makes a break; followed by a clause.
It does the job of words that link; it’s also a short pause.
An apostrophe shows the owner of anyone’s things,
And it’s also useful for shortenings.
I’m so glad! He’s so mad! We’re having such a lark!
To show strong feelings use an exclamation mark!
A question mark follows What? When? Where? Why? and How?
Do you? Can I? Shall We? Give us your answer now!
“Quotation marks” enclose what is said,
Which is why they’re sometimes called “speech marks” instead.

Now Titchmarsh is coming to Abingdon!

2009-09-05T12:04:00.006+01:00

We're getting all the big names in Abingdon now. Next to visit is the gardening everyman megastar Alan Titchmarsh.

The event promoted by Mostly Books is on Friday September 25th. The venue is being finalised, but tickets are on sale at £6 from the bookshop (01235 525880).

Alan has a book to promote (naturally!). I was pleased to see it's the next volume of his memoirs (rather than his fiction). Knave of Spades recounts how he got into TV, as news magazine programme Nationwide's gardening presenter - the rest as they say is history.

I got into gardening while he did his stint as the main presenter on BBC's Gardener's World and learned a lot from his unfussy style, which was made smooth by having cut his TV teeth on other programmes including the lunchtime magazine come chat-show Pebble Mill at One.

He may be relentlessly cheerful, and he admits he has a complete lack of a dark side, but I'm sure we will be in for a lovely evening in his company. I volunteered to help again (anything for a free ticket!), so I might see some of you there - do let me know if you're coming...

Monkey Business in Hollywood

2009-09-04T19:51:00.008+01:00

Me Cheeta

This year’s oddball choice on the Booker longlist is a satire on Hollywood as seen through the eyes of Tarzan’s long-lived chimp companion. When it was published last autumn as an autobiography, the book had Cheeta listed as its writer, but it didn’t take long for the real author to be uncovered; James Lever, a book editor, has his name on the paperback.

Cheeta, now aged 76, looks back on his life. In the first section, he tells us how he and many other animals were ‘rescued’ from the jungle and ‘rehabilitated’ by humans, how he was selected to go to Hollywood where he became ‘part of the family’ belonging to L.B.Mayer. There, Cheeta met the love of his life, Tarzan in the sublime form of Johnny Weissmuller, and Johnny too got a pal who would always be there for him. Cheeta didn’t get always get on with Jane however – Maureen O’Sullivan found ‘the ape-talk a trifle wearying’. Johnny’s reply, ‘Jane angry. Jane need smack on rear end.'

Ere long Cheeta is mixing with all the stars and indulging in all the vices - smoking, drinking, sniffing cocaine from starlets’ cleavages and indulging in high jinks with Douglas Fairbanks and David ‘Niv’ Niven. There were those he didn’t get on with too, particularly Charlie Chaplin who had to upstage everyone, (he got his own back in spectacular fashion with members of Charlie’s garden menagerie). Johnny always stuck up for Cheeta though. Esther Williams was another, but we don’t know the details as that chapter was ‘removed on legal advice’! Eventually the films got worse, Cheeta’s role was diminished and the Tarzan brand faded. In the last section of the book, Cheeta has retired to a sanctuary where he paints and dreams.

Very clever and often scabrously funny, this spoof plays long and hard with the facts of Hollywood’s golden age – after all, its targets are dead. Young Cheeta’s innocent belief that the humans had his best interests at heart was neatly handled, as was the older Cheeta’s world-weary cynicism about the system that had made him, but spat him back out when he was no longer useful, his comeback having flopped.

Luckily, I grew up watching all the black and white movies on Saturday afternoons when my Dad and brother went off to the footie, so I was familiar with all Cheeta’s co-stars. Reading it without this grounding may prove tedious though, for at 320 pages, it is too long by about a quarter. It shouldn’t make it onto the Booker shortlist, but it has been a great choice to stimulate discussion and successfully raise the media profile of the prize. I found it to be in parts, hilarious and truly fascinating, also a little repetitive, but above all it was a really interesting exercise in satire and good fun.

Much has been written about Me Cheeta elsewhere:
- other interesting reviews on Just Williams Luck, Kevin from Canada, Shelf Love;
- the article that outed James Lever from the Sunday Times back in October last year here;
- and finally, more about the original Cheeta(s) - yes there were more than one here.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - were they really desperate?

2009-09-01T09:03:00.024+01:00

In the same way that I adored watching Rome and am enjoying The Tudors, I also loved Desperate Romantics which recently finished screening on the BBC. All of them are generally utter tosh historically, but great entertainment to watch - and of course everyone looks marvellous; (Rome also wins prizes for being the most creatively potty-mouthed programme on TV!).

So how accurately were the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) portrayed on screen?

Luckily I have a few books on hand on the subject. I've long been a fan of many of the later pictures of Rossetti, Byrne-Jones et al, but apart from Millais' Ophelia I didn't know much about the earlier PRB works, so with my Tate catalogue of PRB works by my side, I read Lizzi e Siddal: The tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite supermodel by Lucinda Hawksley and the relevant chapters of John Ruskin from the OUP's Very Interesting People series.

Art historian Hawksley, (who is a direct descendant of Charles Dickens), tells of the central romance between Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Lizzie Siddal. It was an American artist, Walter Deverell, that discovered the 'stunner' when he accompanied his mother to the hatshop where Lizzie worked. With his mother's help, he secured her services as a model for his own pictures before Holman Hunt and Millais were to immortalise her in theirs.

On meeting her later, Dante was immediately obsessed by Lizzie and she with him; it was a claustrophobic relationship - he was commitment-phobic and both were insanely jealous and attention-seeking. Lizzie was depressive, anorexic and was frequently ill - particularly when Rossetti wasn't paying attention to her - she always got better when he ran to her bedside, but did become a laudanum addict early on. They did finally marry, but laudanum was to be her final downfall after post-natal depression after the stillbirth of their child. She comes across as manipulative and demanding, but remember she was desperate to be married to the love of her life - as ruin for her and her family would be the result if their unmarried relationship became fully public. Rossetti, while undoubtedly talented, was totally self-interested and never worked at his best when Lizzie was around. When she died, he did bury the only copy of a book of poems he'd written for her with the casket, and amazingly it was later dug up! - I thought this was just for the telly, but it happened, although he did get an official exhumation order for it - selfish as ever.

The other really interesting character in the TV series was the art critic John Ruskin - a rich and hugely influential person in the Victorian art world. It is doubtful whether Rossetti would have got anywhere without his patronage, and the PRB without him having supported John Everett Millais first. Ruskin recognised that the PRB were trying to do something different in their back to nature ideals. However it was the scandal over Ruskin's unconsummated marriage and subsequent annulment that Desperate Romantics concentrated on - and that was all true!

Hawksley's biography concentrates on the events of Lizzie's life and made for an entertaining read with a good selection of illustrations. First published in 2004, highlights include some of Dante and Lizzie's poetry which is touching and sad. In contrast, the VIP book on Ruskin, although short, is very dry and factual, and completely without illustration. The TV series itself is based on a recently published book by Franny Moyle called Desperate Romantics: The Private Lives of the Pre-Raphaelites which I think I may have to read too!

I can't comment on the veracity or otherwise of the TV portrayals of Millais, Holman-Hunt and other characters, but I did wonder a bit why they combined the other PRB members Frederic Stephens - the former artist turned journalist and writer, the aforementioned Deverell and Rossetti's brother William into Fred Walters in the series - cost savings and streamlining of the main story one presumes. Actor Aidan Turner was a great young Rossetti look-alike. His self-portrait (left) shows him aged 19 in 1847, but shortly after Lizzie's death in 1862, he'd become balding, bearded and slightly stout!

Stieg Larsson Giveaway Winners

2009-09-01T08:52:00.004+01:00

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway for the second in Stieg Larsson's millennium trilogy.

My daughter picked a winner from the hat, and the book + some tatts will go to MARK.

There are enough of the temporary tattoos to spread around a bit, so they'll go to JULIET, BETH & WELP.

E-mail me your snail mail address to gaskella at hotmail dot com and they'll be posted to you. Many thanks for entering and reading my blog too to all of you.

An eloquently written misery memoir, long but loaded with nuggets of the author's wit and bite

2009-08-29T13:39:00.012+01:00

Closing Time: A Memoir by Joe Queenan

I have enjoyed all the Joe Queenan books I've read, particularly The Unkindest Cut: How a Hatchet-Man Critic Made His Own $7,000 Movie and Put It All on His Credit Card. Queenan is a journalist and author, having written for the New York Times and The Guardian amongst others, where his acerbic wit and eloquent ranting holds no hostages. I'm not a fan of misery memoirs, but given previous exposure to the Queenan wit, I was happy to make an exception to read this one...

Queenan and his sisters grew up in Philadelphia with a violent alcoholic father and an uninterested depressive mother. Irish-Americans, they grew up in poverty having to live in the ghetto of a housing project for years. Queenan is clearly bitter about his drunkard father who couldn't hold down a regular job and subjected them to regular beatings. Queenan soon started to become creative about staying out of the house to avoid his Pa - after-school jobs with father surrogates clothier Len and pharmacist Glenn gave more than just a few dollars in his pocket.

"In the two years I worked at the apothecary, my father's downward trajectory continued, as if he was unaware that the bottom he was seeking had already been hit."

"My personal diversionary strategy throughout these years was diabolically cunning: I made sure that when my father was on the premises, I was not."

Thinking he had a calling, he also managed to escape for a whole year to the seminary, but that was a mistake. Ironically, his father was well-read and young Joe also enjoyed literature; he soon realised that the best way out of poverty was to work hard at school and get to college, and luckily for us it worked. When Glenn took him to New York for a daytrip, it was love at first sight, and Joe had a stratagem for ultimately getting out of Philadelphia.

Queenan's trademark wit and bite can be found in this memoir, and there are passages of dazzling description that will keep you reading; but the book is rather long, and the highlights are sprinkled through like little nuggets of gold. He always speaks with candour and is never sentimental, however it is diluted by the sad but repetitive nature of his circumstances. Philadelphia too comes over as a dull city. It's obvious by the end of the book that Queenan, who is nearing 60, is coming to terms with his childhood and wanted to get it off his chest. It will lead those who already know his work to understand where his style comes from, others may find this memoir too long despite the lovely writing. (Book supplied by the Amazon Vine programme).

Gaskella goes walkabout on Bookmunch

2009-08-27T16:52:00.005+01:00

I was delighted when Peter at Bookmunch invited me to review a book for them.

So you can now see my review of Fists by Pietro Grossi here. I really enjoyed it.

My Life According to Books I Have Read

2009-08-27T07:51:00.006+01:00

I got this fun meme from Kay at The Infinite Shelf.

Using only books you have read this year (2009), cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title. It's a lot harder than you think!

* Describe Yourself: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
* How do you feel: Cloud Busting
* Describe where you currently live: Loser's Town
* If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Far North
* Your favorite form of transportation: The Invention of Hugo Cabret
* Your best friend is: The Juggler
* You and your friends are: Remarkable Creatures
* What’s the weather like: Turbulence
* Favorite time of day: Friday Nights
* If your life was a: Tanglewreck
* What is life to you: A Life's Music
* Your fear: The knife of never letting go
* What is the best advice you have to give: Trust me I'm a junior doctor
* Thought for the Day: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
* How I would like to die: Wishful Drinking
* My soul’s present condition: Something Beginning With

It was fun yet actually quite difficult to do. One thing I'd like to stress though - remember that these are just book titles, and are no reflection on my real life!

Stieg Larsson Book Giveaway!

2009-08-26T10:36:00.004+01:00

For my first proper book giveaway on this blog, those nice people at Knopf in the USA gave me a copy of Stieg Larsson's second novel in the Millennium Trilogy The Girl Who Played With Fire.

I read the part of the trilogy last year and really enjoyed it. I got the UK edition of the second a couple of months ago, but haven't read it yet - my Mum has though and she thought it was excellent, see her comment here.

The giveaway is the US hardback with those nice rough-cut page edges that they do; a first edition, but third pre-publication printing!

What is nice though, is that they've also supplied me with a handful of rather fab temporary tattoos for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The winner will get a few, and so will two others.

Just leave a comment by the end of August 31st. I will send world-wide. The draw will be on September 1st.

A book with mischievious intent, that doesn't entirely live up to its promise

2009-08-25T09:45:00.009+01:00

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith

If you look at all the reviews, you'll see that this monster mash-up of the beloved novel has totally split opinions of those who have read it. I'll tell you mine after a bit of explanation.

Zombies have been plaguing the English countryside for years. It's no longer safe to venture out alone; you need to be either armed to the teeth, or have safety in numbers. The Bennets are well equipped to deal with the undead, for Mr Bennet and his daughters have been trained in the deadly arts in China and are warriors all with swords and feet alike, having their own dojo at home to keep their skills honed.

The Zombies and martial arts are all shoe-horned into Austen's original novel, most of which is left in tact - it's usually pretty obvious which are the additions and adaptations, although not having read the original for many years, I kept it by me so I could compare and contrast if needed. I am an expert in the BBC's wonderful P&P series from 1995 though, which enriched this reading immensely - imagining Colin Firth as Darcy slashing and burning the undead...

Sorry, where was I?

The novel starts off really well, it had me chortling loud enough to have to read the first few lines out to my other half:-

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. Never was this truth more plain than during the recent attacks at Netherfield Park, in which a household of eighteen was slaughtered and consumed by a horde of the living dead.
"My dear Mr Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is occupied again?"
Mr Bennet replied that he had not and went about his morning business of dagger sharpening and nusket polishing - for attacks by the unmentionables had grown alarmingly frequent in recent weeks.

Even from just this small quote you can see already that it mixes the new and old and rewrites other sentences to fit. Some of the adaptations are witty, and there is the added frisson of a little double-entendre introduced between Lizzie and Darcy. There's nothing like a little smut to remind you that this mash-up is intended to entertain - some of the other write-ups I've read seem to have expected a more serious shock-horror treatment, but the comedy approach was fine by me.

The big problem is, that with one notably sad exception, the zombies are a mere nuisance, seemingly there to prevent travel and explain the high turnover in servants - there are missed opportunities for more zombie mayhem in more elevated circles. It's mostly a class thing - the rich can afford warrior training and/or servants to do the zombie killing for them, unlike the working class who get devoured with relentless monotony. There is one real highlight though, appended at the end of the novel which, if you decide to read it, you too must save for the end - in which the author's comedic credentials are exploited to the full. A neat finish, but I can't tell you more.

So what did I make of it all?
It was a great concept, (with a fantastic cover). It was fun, but not sustained all the way through. Did I enjoy it enough to read the new title from Quirk Books - Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters co-written by Ben H Winters this time - well maybe! (6 .5 out of 10)

Rude Awakenings!

2009-08-24T11:30:00.009+01:00

Maybe it's my current reading (Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith), but I've been having vivid dreams. The latest of which consisted of a science experiment at school involving woodlice which transmogrified into giant maggots (remember the Pertwee vintage Dr Who with maggots - but not quite so big and scary) which then hatched into psychedelic butterflies. Luckily that one ended up fairly happily - but I can't explain it at all.

Then this morning I woke up, looked across at the bedroom reading pile and saw someone looking straight at me!

E E K !

Then I realised it was the spine of a new arrival on my bookpile. The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent about the Salem Witch Trials seen through the eyes of a ten year old girl whose mother is accused.

I'm going to have to move it!

She sells sea shells by the sea shore

2009-08-21T18:55:00.014+01:00

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

This is the story of two women in the early 1800s - fossil hunters who played an important part in the beginnings of the evolutionary debate.

Elizabeth Philpott and her younger sisters have to move after their brother marries; not being able to afford to live in Brighton, they choose Lyme Regis where the youngest sister Margaret can shine in society there - as, in the novels of Jane Austen, marriage is a high priority for them. Already living in Lyme, young Mary Anning earns a living collecting fossils and selling these curiosities, or 'curies' as they are known, to visitors to the town; she has a real feel for the fossils. But when her father dies leaving them in debt, the pressure is on the family to make ends meet.

Elizabeth meets Mary out on the beach, and the two strike up a friendship despite being of different classes and ages, and they collect fossils together. Elizabeth is an educated woman with an interest in natural sciences, and is following new developments in what will become palaeontology, and is really beginning to question to creation myth - surely God can't have put fossils in the rocks as a test of faith as the local vicar believes - the fossils must be creatures that have become extinct. Over the next few years, interest in fossils increases hugely. After Mary discovers the skeleton of a 'crocodile' (actually an ichthyosaurus) more collectors come to Lyme and one in particular, Colonel Birch, takes a big interest in Mary - and she to him leading to a falling out between Mary and Elizabeth who thinks he's taking her for a ride...

Once again, Chevalier brings history to life - most of the characters within existed. This well-researched novel, coming as it does during the 150th anniversary of Darwin's The Origin of Species, is a treat from start to finish. I enjoyed all the explanations of the fossils - as Mary and Elizabeth self-educate on the subject, we benefit from that too. Told mostly in alternating voices between Mary and Elizabeth, it is a gentle tale, but not without its moments of drama. Although it considers all the Austenish concerns of friendship, marriage, manners and social mobility, the main thrust is that of women trying to be accepted in the man's world. Some of the Regency men may have been dinosaurs, but there were enough enlightened ones to recognise the womens' contributions and ultimately this story celebrates their success.

I think it's my favourite of her novels so far. There’s something fascinating about fossils – they’re great in museums, but even better when you find them yourself. I’ve had a go out on the beach at Charmouth near Lyme, resulting in a little treasure box of ammonite and belemnite fragments. By the way, the tongue-twister "She sells sea shells by the sea shore" is said to be about Mary Anning, and you can see her big ichthyosaur find at the Natural History Museum in London (see below); Elizabeth Philpott’s fossil collection is kept in the University Museum at Oxford.

(Book supplied by the Amazon Vine programme, Ichthyosaur photo Niki Odolphie via Wikipedia).

What my cricket-mad brother is reading and listening to ...

2009-08-20T18:29:00.011+01:00

After my Mum obliged my request to make some remarks on the blog about her recent reading, I asked my brother if he was interested in doing the same some time. Within an hour or two he had supplied me with the paragraphs below - not keen at all! As you will see, three out of four items are cricket related which reflects his current No 1 passion. The Oval will be Mike's home for these five days for he's a member of Surrey cricket club, and never misses a home test match. I do wonder which'll will win on Saturday afternoon though - I believe Crystal Palace are playing at home. Here's his report ...

Listening

The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle (download) - Includes certain notorious B Sides and a wonderful version of You Need Hands – ideal for easing the stresses of work - especially when played REALLY loud and singing along.

Duckworth Lewis Method - A quirky reflection on all things cricket by the Irish duo of Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) and Thomas Walsh (Pugwash) brought out just in time for the Ashes. Stand Out moment - A whole song about Shane Warne’s first ball in England against Mike (Fatty) Gatting. The line "If it had been a cheese roll it would never have got past me" follows the chorus of "Jiggery pokery, trickery chokery, how did he open me up? Robbery! Muggery! Aussie skull-duggery! Out for a buggering duck." ..and that sums it up!

Reading

You Are the Umpire: An Illustrated Guide to the Laws of Cricket. Following in the footsteps of the classic You Are the Ref, it makes a wonderful toilet companion of challenges on the laws of cricket and light information about some of the world's cricketing greats. A meaty and useful volume.

Ashes to Ashes [35 Years of Humiliation (and about 20 minutes of ecstasy) watching England v Australia] by Marcus Berkmann. Berkmann has previously written a couple of light-hearted books about amateur Cricket. This book is a must for 40-something fans as it covers their lifetime from Boycott, Edrich and Luckhurst through Packer, Brearley and Botham, and the 3Gs (Gower, Gooch and Gatting) to Vaughan, Pietersen and Flintoff. The book gives an account of every Ashes test during the period, interspersed by comments of Berkmann's friends. Not too heavy and a good companion to the series.

Thanks Mike.
Fingers crossed for England!

Good Clean Spy Fun - with a spot of murder, and a good dose of drugs ...

2009-08-19T15:11:00.007+01:00

The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler

When I saw that Penguin were reissuing five of Ambler’s novel in their Modern Classics series, the choice of which to read first was easy – I picked The Mask of Dimitrios. Apart from having been published during the same year as Chandler’s The Big Sleep, this novel is famous for being the one that Ian Fleming nodded to, having Bond read it on a plane to Istanbul in From Russia With Love.

“Bond unfastened his seat-belt and lit a cigarette. He reached for the slim, expensive-looking attaché case on the floor beside him and took out The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler and put the case, which was very heavy in spite of its size, on the seat beside him.”

The Mask of Dimitrios is a classic spy story. A mild-mannered crime novelist, Charles Latimer, is travelling in Europe and makes the acquaintance of Colonel Haki – an inspector in the Turkish secret police. Haki has read Latimer’s novels and has an idea for a plot for him, however Latimer finds real life to be much more fascinating. Out of professional interest, he goes with the Colonel to the morgue to see the body of a notorious criminal, who had ended up stabbed to death. Dimitrios was wanted all over Europe in connection with murders, assassination attempts and more, but had been too clever to be caught. Latimer’s interest is piqued and he feels that to do some real detection work into Dimitrios would be helpful to his novels. Haki tells him what he knows, and off goes Latimer, not knowing that he will become obsessed in his quest or that he is, as you might expect for an amateur detective, sailing into dangerous waters.

His journey takes him across Europe, making contacts and filling in the jigsaw puzzle piece by piece. In Sofia, he meets the translator Marukakis, who takes him to a club where the Madame knew Dimitrios:

“She possessed that odd blousy quality that is independent of good clothes and well-dressed hair and skilful maquillage. Her figure was full but good and she held herself well: her dress was probably expensive, her thick, dark hair looked as if it had spent the past two hours in the hands of a hairdresser. Yet she remained, unmistakably and irrevocably, a slattern.”

But others are also interested in Dimitrios. On one occasion after having been confronted by an intruder with a Luger, Latimer rues that he didn’t use force against the man; “That,” he reflected, “was the worst of the academic mind. It always overlooked the possibilities of violence until violence was no longer useful.” This sums up Latimer neatly – in the best tradition of the gentleman amateur sleuth.

I enjoyed this novel very much. It has much in common with those who followed – although Fleming, Robert Ludlum, and John Le Carré each take the espionage novel in differing directions. I liked the multiple locations around Europe; travelling between them is made easy by train. There is some tension generated by the political undercurrents and the general situation in the eastern Mediterranean countries – although not much is made of them here – WWII is yet to happen. The cast of shady supporting characters introduces much complexity, but sometimes, the long episodes when Dimitrios’ back-story is recounted slow the pace. Latimer however proves an amiable companion in this novel that is not quite a full-blooded thriller. As a lover of spy novels, I’ll be back to Ambler.

What my Mum is reading

2009-08-17T19:36:00.009+01:00

Being between books to review at the moment, I asked my 70-something Mum what she’s reading. She probably reads more books than I do, and every time I see her she borrows a bagful or two. She always returns them with sticky notes on telling me what she thought. She reads widely, and dare I say it, has similar tastes to me, although I can't see her reading P&P&Z - see post below!

So over to Mum:

The Senators Wife by Sue Miller. I enjoyed this and found it quite absorbing. Reminiscent of the Kennedys, Clinton and other womanising US Senators etc.

The Minds Eye and The Return by Hakun Nesser. Swedish detective sagas and quite impressive. Van Veeteren is funnier, more outrageous and even grumpier than Wallander whom I like very much. The court scene in The Minds Eye is particularly good.

The Martin Beck novels by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. I have now read the first two and they are growing on me . The first one, Roseanna, seemed rather dry and factual in the beginning but improved. The second, The Man Who Went up in Smoke, set partly in Budapest, was a good read. Of course they are set in the sixties. Much earlier than the other Swedish detective novels I have read.

So far my favourite of all the Nordic detective books are the Stieg Larsson ones. Sadly he died so there are no more after the final one in the trilogy which is coming soon.

Thanks Mum!

My new cult faves have arrived - WooHoo!

2009-08-14T17:53:00.006+01:00

I'm now the proud owner of two new cult faves - which to read first?

The Booker longlisted Me Cheeta, the 'autobiography' of the Hollywood star chimp. Our book group has chosen this for our October book, but I can't wait that long to read it.

Or should I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an inventive adaptation of the Jane Austen classic by Seth Grahame-Smith which opens thus - "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."

I will have to alternate them between other books, but which first? Aargh!

By the way, are there any other new cult books in the making that I should be reading too?

Griff does Abingdon!

2009-08-13T21:48:00.012+01:00

I've just got back from a very entertaining evening in Abingdon in the company of Griff Rhys Jones, along with half the town it seemed. It was a sell out event and the Guildhall was absolutely full.

Brits need no introduction to Griff - he's been on our telly screens for about three decades now - initially as a comedian, notably in Not the Nine O'Clock News. More recently he's made a series of factual programmes championing heritage buildings, discovering all about mountains, and various boating trips with friends - he's a skilled yachtsman. He's a national treasure in the making, and Mark (owner of Mostly Books who promoted this event) described him as settling into the Michael Palin role very nicely.

He was here of course to promote his latest book (and TV series) all about Rivers. He took to the stage holding us all enthralled for over an hour - talking without notes about rivers and the making of the series and about how his dog Cadbury, a chocolate labrador, has a tendency to upstage him - (don't all TV dogs?). Always witty, yet serious when he needed to be, it was a great talk and he handled all the questions with equal aplomb.

Griff has got into trouble making this series with one particular group in England - anglers. He made a comment that just 3% of navigable rivers in England have open access for canoeists, swimmers and other craft. Huge swathes of river are in private hands, or have access controlled by the government as they are supplying drinking water to cities; rivers got left out of the 'Right to Roam' legislation that gave greater countryside access to ramblers. Given that rivers have played such a major part in the making of Britain, powering the industrial revolution and providing corridors of transport, as well as food and water when not polluted, it seems a shame that we can't use them more.

It says something about the draw of Griff, that given just three weeks notice to organise and sell tickets during the height of the holiday season, it sold out and there was a long reserve list. He was friendly, funny and full of love for his subject. Now I wonder what will he tackle next? ...

P.S. It was also lovely to meet Margaret from BooksPlease too who was in the audience.