The Lifeboat- Charlotte Rogan

This book was read as part of the wishlist challenge

Synopsis (from amazon)

I was to stand trial for my life. I was twenty-two years old. I had been married for ten weeks and a widow for six.

It is 1914 and Europe is on the brink of war. When a magnificent ocean liner suffers a mysterious explosion en route to New York City, Henry Winter manages to secure a place in a lifeboat for his new wife Grace. But the survivors quickly realize the boat is over capacity and could sink at any moment. For any to live, some must die.

Over the course of three perilous weeks, the passengers on the lifeboat plot, scheme, gossip and console one another while sitting inches apart. Their deepest beliefs are tested to the limit as they begin to discover what they will do in order to survive.

Review

There was a lot of talk going on around The Lifeboat. It was one of the Waterstone’s 11 last year, and there were a hell of a lot of reviews around. It was on my wishlist for a long time, but once I actually got it it took me three months to actually get around to reading it. Partly because of my requested reviews backlog. I had actually been excited about reading it.

I had expected to like the part of the story focused in the lifeboat itself to be the most interesting (it was split between a tale of what happened on the lifeboat, and Grace’s impending trial), but actually I found that rather slow moving, and you didn’t get the moral debate I had expected. In fact the idea of people being sent from the lifeboat, or jumping was barely discussed at all. It was more a story of what extreme situations can bring out in people.

There was also a vague mystery aspect which was interesting, except we never really got any answers. It was almost as if Rogan had started another storyline but forgotten or been unable to finish it.

The sea scenes were rather well done, and you could imagine very easily what it might be like to be on a little lifeboat in the middle of the ocean.

4/5

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Other reviews:

Sam Still Reading

Every Book has a Soul

Leeswammes’ Blog

Farm Lane Books

As the Crowe Flies (and Reads)

Bookjourney

Lost and Found- Tom Winter

Synopsis (from amazon)

It started with a letter …

Carol is married to a man she doesn’t love and mother to a daughter she doesn’t understand. Crippled with guilt, she can’t shake the feeling that she has wasted her life. So she puts pen to paper and writes a Letter to the Universe.

Albert is a widowed postman, approaching retirement age, and living with his cat, Gloria, for company. Slowly being pushed out at his place of work, he is forced down to the section of the post office where they sort undeliverable mail. When a series of letters turns up with a smiley face drawn in place of an address, he cannot help reading them.

Review

Lost and Found is a rather quaint story. I don’t exactly have much to say about it. It’s not exciting, and although not exactly predictable nothing happens which you wouldn’t really expect, it could quite easily be true.

That is not to say that it isn’t enjoyable to read. It had quite a conversational style which I enjoyed, and the characters were believable and likeable, especially Albert.

I didn’t really like the ultimate decision which Carol made, but I did understand it, and maybe if she had made the other decision it would have made for a less enjoyable story.

3.5/5

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Other reviews:

Leeswammes’ Blog

The Little Reader Library

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Night Waking- Sarah Moss

Synopsis (from amazon)

Historian Anna Bennett has a book to write. She also has an insomniac toddler, a precocious, death-obsessed seven-year-old, and a frequently absent ecologist husband who has brought them all to Colsay, a desolate island in the Hebrides, so he can count the puffins. Ferociously sleep-deprived, torn between mothering and her desire for the pleasures of work and solitude, Anna becomes haunted by the discovery of a baby’s skeleton in the garden of their house. Her narrative is punctuated by letters home, written 200 years before, by May, a young, middle-class midwife desperately trying to introduce modern medicine to the suspicious, insular islanders. The lives of these two characters intersect unexpectedly in this deeply moving but also at times blackly funny story about maternal ambivalence, the way we try to control children, and about women’s vexed and passionate relationship with work. Moss’s second novel displays an exciting expansion of her range – showing her to be both an excellent comic writer and a novelist of great emotional depth.

Review

I found this book rather emotionally tough at times. I really liked Anna but because we could see in her head I often found the things she thought, and sometimes even the things she did made me feel uneasy, especially when it came to her children.

In fact it was quite well done because you could understand Anna’s thoughts and approach to things, even though you might not agree, and they were easy things to judge her for.

A lot of the book was about Anna as a mother. At times I did actually find her to be a good mother, but at others she completely lost the plot. Maybe that made it authentic, I really don’t know, I maybe hope not. I suppose all parents get frustrated with their kids sometimes, but Anna didn’t always deal with it well.

There was something about the kids. I think Raph maybe wasn’t meant to be ‘normal’, certainly he seemed ‘too clever’, but I did really like him. Moth was presented at the ‘normal’ kid but I work with two year olds, and he seems rather infantile.

The letters I found rather frustrating. They seemed to break the story, but the way they eventually linked in to the rest of the story made them worth reading.

It’s far from the easiest read, but I did end up abandoning my paperback in favour of finishing Night Waking, and I think that says a lot about how it captured me.

4/5

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Still Alice- Lisa Genova

This book was read as part of the wishlist challenge.

Synopsis (from amazon)

When Alice finds herself in the rapidly downward spiral of Alzheimer’s Disease she is just fifty years old. A university professor, wife, and mother of three, she still has so much more to do – books to write, places to see, grandchildren to meet. But when she can’t remember how to make her famous Christmas pudding, when she gets lost in her own back yard, when she fails to recognise her actress daughter after a superb performance, she comes up with a desperate plan. But can she see it through? Should she see it through? Losing her yesterdays, living for each day, her short-term memory is hanging on by a couple of frayed threads. But she is still Alice.

Review

I read a review of Still Alice on another blog quite some time ago (long enough ago that I can’t remember whose blog it was, sorry!) which made me put it on my wishlist. By the time I actually bought it I couldn’t really even remember what it was about.

In terms of books about Alzheimer’s I found it rather emotive and there were moments I just felt so, not despairing exactly, but almost pityful for Alice. At times it was just gut-wrenching.

I liked Alice a lot, even as she forgot more and more, and I think that’s part of what made it so emotive. However I did not like John. He didn’t seem supportive at all, and I found him rather selfish.

There were a couple of little things which annoyed me. First Alice was a psychology professor but still didn’t recognise her symptoms as being Alzheimer’s, however I was able to forgive this. Even if you know something it’s easy to pretend it isn’t happening, or to attribute it to something else. The second thing was that one of her daughters had noticed something but said nothing. I can see it being awkward to talk to her Mum about it, but I would have thought that she might at least have brought her thoughts up with someone else in the family.

4/5

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Other Reviews:

Sheila @ Book Journey

Kat @ No Page Left Behind

Lainy @ So Many Books So Little Time

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The Snow Child- Eowyn Ivey

Synopsis (from amazon)

Alaska, the 1920s. Jack and Mabel have staked everything on a fresh start in a remote homestead, but the wilderness is a stark place, and Mabel is haunted by the baby she lost many years before. When a little girl appears mysteriously on their land, each is filled with wonder, but also foreboding: is she what she seems, and can they find room in their hearts for her?

Review

There was a lot of buzz about this book when it first came out. It was one of the Waterstone’s 11, and everybody seemed to be reading it. It was on my wishlist for a long time but I didn’t buy it until it was on offer as part of the 12 Days of Kindle.

I had a bit of an up and down relationship with this book. It started very slowly and early on I did consider giving up (I need to work out a rule for when I can give up on a kindle book).  I was interested in Mabel particularly which is part of what made me continue. Having no children was so hard on her that she was prepared to move to a rather inhospitable part of the world just to escape the pain.

In a way I sympathised with Mabel but sometimes I just wanted to tell her to stop being so stupid. Her thoughts and decisions were so emotion based that she didn’t seem to even realise where they might lead her, and when they were just absurd.

Once the child entered the story I started to enjoy it however. I think part of it as knowing how much Mabel wanted it, and despite my annoyance with Mabel I did want her to be happy.

The imagery of Alaska was rather good too. I liked the contrasts between the harshness and the beauty of the environment.

The end for me was rather abrupt. I think it could have ended better earlier or needed to be extended a little more for a more satisfying conclusion.

As for the parallels with the fairy story. It was nice in a way but it was also part of what made me annoyed at Mabel.

3/5

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Other Reviews:

The Little Reader Library

Book Journey

Curiosity Killed the Bookworm

Between the Pages

Heavenali

Roxploration

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Life After Life- Kate Atkinson

Disclaimer: I was given an advance copy of Life After Life free of charge by the publisher (via netgalley) in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis (from amazon)

What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right?

During a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her first breath.

During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale.

What if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to?

Review.

I really did not want this book to end, it was, just, wow, there’s no words! I’m sad that it ended when it did. I have that sort of melancholy feeling you get from finishing a book that’s really special. I can’t remember the last time I felt that, maybe as far back as The Elegance of the Hedgehog (and that was back in 2010)? In some way it’s greater because the story didn’t have to end there. The nature of the story means it never really had to end, although I suppose if it didn’t end Atkinson would still be writing it and I wouldn’t have got to read it at all!

How can I describe this book? It’s a sort of epic Groundhog Day. It’s strange how everything seems sort of inevitable, even though Ursula has lived it before, has knowledge from that former life, even though you know she should fix it you’re scared that the same thing will just happen again, and again, and again. You’re shouting at her. You know what’s going to happen and there’s a sadness, and a dread, somehow you don’t think she’ll fix it.

I think that shows something of Atkinson’s writing talent, and ability to get you into a story, that your emotions trump your logic, every, single, time.

I loved Ursula, when everything changed, however she decided to live that life, she was still, undeniably Ursula, and that’s probably a hard thing to achieve. I enjoyed the whole family dynamic too, and that was something which barely changed.

A lot of the story focused around the second world war, which is a period of time I like to read fiction about. It was interesting though because Ursula’s different lives meant you could see the war from different angles, and with a sort of hindsight which was built into the novel, rather than from the reader living in a different time.

I’ve never read any Atkinson before, she’s known for crime stories, which aren’t generally my thing, but I may read more of her now.

5/5

Life After Life is released on 14th March, you can pre-order it now:

Kindle (£8.50)

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Other Reviews:

Sam Still Reading

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A Long Way Down- Nick Hornby

Synopsis (from Amazon)

‘Can I explain why I wanted to jump off the top of a tower block?’ 

For disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp the answer’s pretty simple: he has, in his own words, ‘pissed his life away’. And on New Year’s Eve he’s going to end it all . . . but not, as it happens, alone. Because first single-mum Maureen, then eighteen-year-old Jess and lastly American rock-god JJ turn up and crash Martin’s private party. They’ve stolen his idea – but brought their own reasons.

Yet it’s hard to jump when you’ve got an audience queuing impatiently behind you. A few heated words and some slices if cold pizza later and these four strangers are suddenly allies. But is their unlikely friendship a good enough reason to carry on living?

Review.

Previous novels which I’ve read by Nick Hornby have both been books where I’vd seen the films previously (you can see my reviews of Nick Hornby’s other works by using his tag) I’m not entirely sure what effect this has had on my reading of them, I enjoyed both so I certainly wouldn’t say it had a negative impact but it did give me some expectations.

I’ve been meaning to read some other of his novels for some time but was unsure where to go. A Long Way Down probably wouldn’t have been my first choice except that it was in the 12 days of kindle deals after Christmas so it seemed sensible.

Why wouldn’t I have gone with A Long Way Down? Well, my experience with funny suicide novels is not the best. I didn’t get on well with A Spot of Bother, and I wasn’t that enamoured with The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim either, but I did enjoy A Matter of Death and Life. I did know though that it’s Nick Hornby’s forte to manage to write light novels about serious subjects.

Well as far as funny suicide novels go it was pretty good. It did make me laugh, sometimes to the point that I felt a little bad about laughing, it was absurd but maybe believable. However I did feel it skimped a bit on the emotion. I never felt particularly attached to the characters, or especially emphatic- although my empathy did grow a little as I got to know them better.

There was only one character that I really felt had a halfway decent reason to want to commit suicide, but strangely she was also the one who I wanted to succeed the least.

3/5

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The Eye of Loni’s Storm

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Irv’s Odyssey: Seeking the Way Home- Irving H. Podolsky

Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge from the author in return for an honest review.

Irv’s Odyssey: Seeking the Way Home is the third of the Irv’s Odyssey trilogy. Read my reviews of the previous books using the Irving H. Podolsky tag.

Synopsis (from amazon)

Food service and Irving Podolsky are NOT friends. Still, Irv rises to the level of waiter in the Fairmont Hotel. What about his budding film career, making the world a better place and finding a nice Jewish chick? Well, instead, Irv meets an exotic older girl from Germany. Could she be the one, Irv’s forever, but not-Jewish-at-all soul mate? Ben suggests she is. Ben is a drawling spirit voice channeled through a Puerto Rican pothead. And Ben knows all about Irv’s recent nocturnal fly-outs: those uncontrollable out-of-body trips that bring him to the Other Side where he encounters creepy crawlers in attack mode and goes back and forth in time and into his own future. These bizarre events are not dreams or fantasies. They are real. For as Irv finds out, magic and miracles do exist. And so does true love, if he can just convince his parents that it’s okay to marry a shiksa.

Review

This book was somewhat different from the first two and initially I wasn’t really sure about that. It started off with a much stronger spiritual element than the previous two (which had a spiritual element, but where it wasn’t the main bulk of the story). At this point I doubted somewhat if I would enjoy this book. Then Irv met Marianne and it suddenly switched over, rather than Irv’s spiritual life being the focus it became his, not personal life, exactly but his life in reality I suppose. When it was mainly spiritual there was still and element of day-to-day life, and when the focus was on his personal life there was still an element of spirituality but there was never really an equal balance.

Marianne didn’t like elements of Irv’s spiritual life and he agreed to give those elements up. When reading I found this a little contradictory to the plot of a spiritual journey. It was almost as if he had been trying to discover himself then just given up on the whole idea. However after thinking about it I think that actually his giving up elements of his spirituality was a part of finding it. His spirituality had been part of what had led him to where he was, and once he got there he needed to think about how to balance his spiritual and personal lives.

One thing about this book was that Marianne’s habit of not finishing her sentences really grated on me, especially when I wasn’t yet used to it. I did like her as a character but I really thought at one point that I might have to give up just because of it.

I do think this is probably my favourite of the series, but it was the hardest to read.

3/5

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The Woman Who Died a Lot- Jasper Fforde

The Woman Who Died a Lot was read as part of the Wishlist Challenge.

This is the seventh book in the Thursday Next series. You can read my reviews of the previous 5 Thursday Next books by using the Thursday Next or Jasper Fforde tags.

Synopsis (from Amazon)

The BookWorld’s leading enforcement officer Thursday Next is four months into an enforced semi-retirement following an assassination attempt. She returns home to Swindon for what you’d expect to be a time of recuperation. If only life were that simple.

Thursday is faced with an array of family problems – son Friday’s lack of focus since his career in the Chronoguard was relegated to a might-have-been, daughter Tuesday’s difficulty perfecting the Anti-Smote shield needed to thwart an angry Deity’s promise to wipe Swindon off the face of the earth, and Jenny, who doesn’t exist.
And that’s not all. With Goliath attempting to replace Thursday at every opportunity with synthetic Thursdays, the prediction that Friday’s Destiny-Aware colleagues will die in mysterious circumstances, and a looming meteorite that could destroy all human life on earth, Thursday’s retirement is going to be anything but easy.

 Review

As with the previous book The Woman Who Died a Lot read much more like a series book than the previous books did. That is that it is harder to understand if you didn’t read the previous books.

I found that this book was a little more predictable than the others. I quite often guessed what was going to happen before it did, which hasn’t generally been true of the Thursday Next books. However enough was confusing and there were enough twists that I didn’t guess everything, so it was still exciting and intriguing enough for me to want to keep reading it.

I did kind of miss the bookworld element which wasn’t in this book, and the literary references were a bit less frequent.

Eagerly awaiting the next one now.

4/5

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Other Reviews:

Alison @ Piling on the Books.

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A Possible Life- Sebastian Faulks.

Disclaimer: This book was given to me free of charge by the publishers in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis (from amazon)

Terrified, a young prisoner in the Second World War closes his eyes and pictures himself going out to bat on a sunlit cricket ground in Hampshire.

Across the courtyard in a Victorian workhouse, a father too ashamed to acknowledge his son.

A skinny girl steps out of a Chevy with a guitar; her voice sends shivers through the skull.

Soldiers and lovers, parents and children, scientists and musicians risk their bodies and hearts in search of connection – some key to understanding what makes us the people we become.

Provocative and profound, Sebastian Faulks’s dazzling novel journeys across continents and time to explore the chaos created by love, separation and missed opportunities. From the pain and drama of these highly particular lives emerges a mysterious consolation: the chance to feel your heart beat in someone else’s life.

Review

Despite being rather disappointed with the last book I read from Sebastian Faulks I would still happily describe myself as a fan. Birdsong is one of my favourite books, although Engleby shows a greater writing skill. So when I was contacted about reviewing A Possible Life I was very eager. A small part of me worried that it would be in a similar vein to A Week in December, but you can’t expect to love every book by an author so I tried to approach A Possible Life without any reference to Faulks’ back-catalogue.

There was something strange about this novel in that it wasn’t really one. It was actually a collection of short stories. It was advertised as being a novel made up of stories with a link. Well there maybe was a link, if you insisted on finding it, but only because of something which featured in the last story, it wasn’t a link you would see if you weren’t looking for it, and I’m not really happy with calling it a list.

In some ways I think A Possible Life might be a good place to start with Faulks. It’s almost like a showcase. Different styles of writing, different themes. I think everyone is bound to enjoy one of the stories, however it might be a fight to get to the story you like.

For me the best stories were the first and the last.

The first had certain echoes of Birdsong, not just because it was a story of war but also because it had a certain level of insight to that experience. My problem with this story however was that it felt like it was stripped down. All the stories ran over a period of decades, which was good in a way because it showed the progress of a character, but also meant you didn’t feel you were getting enough detail.

The last story was the story of a gifted music artist. It’s the story which has stuck with me the most. Faulks’ descriptions of Anya’s music make me want to hear her sing- but seeing as she isn’t real I can’t do that! There was also an almost beautiful fragility to Anya which made me really care about her- or maybe that’s just what the narrator felt for her. Even if it is the second then it shows that Faulks’ first person narrative is realistic and evocative. I could have read a whole book about Anya, and it may have been able to make into a whole book, but only if it was either told by Anya herself, or without using the first person narrative, either of which I feel would have taken something away from the story.

Thinking about it all of the stories did have an element I liked, but (except for the possible exception of the last story) those moments seemed to be over all too quickly and were surrounded by moments which I didn’t care so much about.

I’m not really sure how I want to rate this book. The stand out parts are close to 5 stars, but other bits only really deserve 3. So (for now at least) I’m going to skip the rating on this one.

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All She Ever Wanted- Rosalind Noonan

Disclaimer: I was sent this book by the publishers, via netgalley, free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis (from amazon)

For years, Chelsea Maynard has longed to be a mother. She’s imagined caring for a new baby in the lovely house she shares with her husband, Leo, fondly planning every detail. But after a difficult birth, those dreams of blissful bonding evaporate. Chelsea battles sleep deprivation and feelings of isolation. Little Annabelle cries constantly, and Chelsea has dark visions fuelled by exhaustion and self-doubt. Her sister, Emma, insists she gets help for postpartum depression, but Chelsea’s doctor dismisses her worries as self-indulgent. Doubting her ability to parent – even doubting her own sanity – Chelsea is close to collapse. Then an unthinkable crisis hits.

Review

This book reminded me strangely of Beneath The Shadows it shouldn’t have really. There’s a similarity in plot, in that in both stories focus around a person going missing, and both include a baby. However that is where the similarity ends. There were some similarities in writing style, but not enough to really explain why I kept thinking of Beneath the Shadows whilst reading All She Ever Wanted.

I expected a little more soul searching and a little less blaming anyone but herself. From the synopsis given on netgalley I had imagined Chelsea being frantic that she may have done something to her baby, but whilst that element did come into it she seemed more to want to find someone else to blame than to try and find something inside herself. This made it a bit more of a mystery novel than I had expected.

Having said that it was more than your stereotypical mystery. There were the usual twists and turns, and maybe just a few to many suspects, and I wasn’t able to guess what had happened. However there was a deeper emotional aspect than you would get from most mysteries.

The postnatal depression sections were done well too. You could really see how Charlotte felt. Most people know a little about postnatal depression but this really got through what it’s like in reality.

4/5

All She Ever Wanted is out on Kindle now and is released as a paperback in February, but you can pre-order it now

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The Virgin Suicides- Jeffrey Eugenides

This book was read as part of The Rory List

Synopsis (from amazon)

The shocking thing about the girls was how nearly normal they seemed when their mother let them out for the one and only date of their lives. Twenty years on, their enigmatic personalities are embalmed in the memories of the boys who worshipped them and who now recall their shared adolescence: the brassiere draped over a crucifix belonging to the promiscuous Lux; the sisters’ breathtaking appearance on the night of the dance; and the sultry, sleepy street across which they watched a family disintegrate and fragile lives disappear.

Review

After loving Middlesex, the first book I read by Eugenides, I added The Virgin Suicides to my wishlist. It wasn’t something that had really appealed to me before, it sounded a bit depressing to be honest. I had heard that it was good but it took another book by him to make me actually want to read it.

It wasn’t really that disturbing however. In fact the actual suicides took up only a tiny fraction of the books. They still weren’t exactly the most pleasant thing to read about but they were more upsetting from their consequences than for themselves.

It’s not really a story about the girl’s suicides as such. It’s an important factor, but really it’s about a community. Everyone seems to be obsessed with the sisters, even before the suicides start. There’s a sort of shared experience there, with everyone wanting to know as much about the girls as they can, and sharing all the knowledge they have.

There is a certain element of how the suicides effect the family, and the wider community, but the incidents are never really looked into in that great a detail. There is some wondering about why the suicides happened, but once a theory is suggested everyone just seems to go with it, even though it never really fully explains why what happened happened.

I did enjoy The Virgin Suicides. It still had the same beauty of writing, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as Middlesex. Maybe because I didn’t really feel I got to know the characters that well. I felt I got to know them in the same way as you might get to know someone who you see everyday, and might speak to, but isn’t your friend. Maybe that was Eugenides intention seeing as that was how the boys knew the girls really.

4/5

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Other Reviews:

Alone. Together. Fact. Fiction

So Many Books, So Little Time

Reading is the Ultimate Aphrodisiac

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P.S Out of interest has anyone watched the film? Is it any good?

Reservation Road- John Burnham Schwartz

Disclaimer: This book was given to me free of charge by the publishers is exchange for an honest review

Synopsis (from amazon)

At the close of a beautiful summer day near the quiet Connecticut town where they live, the Learner family – Ethan and Grace, their children, Josh and Emma – stop at a gas station on their way home from a concert. Josh Learner, lost in a ten-year-old’s private world, is standing at the edge of the road when a car comes racing around the bend. He is hit and instantly killed. The car speeds away. From this moment forward, Reservation Road becomes a harrowing countdown to the confrontation between two very different men. The hit-and-run driver is a small-town lawyer named Dwight Arno, a man in desperate need of a second chance. Dwight is also the father of a ten-year-old boy, who was asleep in the car the night Josh Learner was killed. In a gripping narrative woven from the voices of Ethan, Dwight, and Grace, Reservation Road tells the story of two ordinary families facing an extraordinary crisis–a book that reads like a thriller but opens up a world rich with psychological nuance and emotional wisdom. Reservation Road explores the terrain of grief even as it astonishes with unexpected redemption: powerful and wrenching and impossible to put down.

Review.

Reservation Road was less of a thriller than I had really expected from the synopsis. There was a certain element of one man trying to find his son’s killer, and another man trying to hide, but that was only a very minor element of the story when it came down to it. In fact the synopsis made me want to read the book less than I would have if it was presented in the way I read it.

This was a story of loss, and of love. Initially the loss of Josh and how it effects his family- particularly his parents. You can really imagine how his parents may feel, and although you see different perspectives from the family they don’t really hold together, which increases the sense that the family are falling apart, individually and as a unit. Sometimes I found myself almost wanting to shout at them to get their acts together because being able to see inside all their thoughts made you know that they could help each other if they tried. Indeed that they had the capacity to help one-another.

On the other side you see Dwight. A man terrified of loosing his own son who he as just started establishing a new relationship with after some time in prison and a split from his son’s mother. Dwight is so scared that something will go wrong, and he searches for love from his son. I think that is part of the reason that he drove on after hitting Josh- he fears he will loose his son all over again. It was quite clever how Burham Schwartz made you feel sympathetic for Dwight rather than angry at him for hiding. I think I preferred the story of Josh’s family, but Dwight’s story was compelling enough to want to read.

Corsair have also sent me the sequel to Reservation Road (Northwest Corner) to review. I am unsure of how wise a sequel is as Reservation Road feels like a stand-alone novel, however I am interested to see.

4/5

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Irv’s Odyssey: To the Light and Beyond- Irving H Podolsky

Disclaimer: I was given this book free of charge by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Irv’s still employed at the mental hospital, a place where all the people who don’t “fit in” get jobs behind locked doors. It’s a crazy circus and Irv’s life is far from settling down. A free-loading porn stud and con man moves into our lad’s apartment, and the jerk won’t leave! It gets worse. Irv discovers the place where humanity hides it’s most shameful secret. And it’s not in the Buckhead Steak ‘n Brew where Irv becomes a salad boy/dishwasher. And it’s not at the Cloisters Restaurant where Irv get pushed into bussing tables while tripping on acid. And it’s not in Europe where he meets three people who change his life in ways he only read about in Sc-Fi novels and mystical books. Actually that “shameful secret” is no secret at all, yet only Irv wants to know it. Will our friend ever find his way back to Normal? Not yet.

Review.

Irv’s Odyssey: To the Light and Beyond is the second book in the Irv’s Odyssey trilogy. You can read my review of the first book here.

I did prefer the first Irv’s Odyssey book to this one. I can’t really put my finger on why. I think maybe a little less happened, but I also didn’t like Irv so much in this book. He seemed a little self-centred in this one, especially towards the end. He makes a big thing of having morals, and debates things with himself but doesn’t really seem to listen to his own debates!v He was more decisive in this book however, it’s almost as if he has gone in the opposite direction, rather than debating with little action he is focusing on the action.

The author did explain that the visual hallucinations/disturbances would be more understandable in this book when I had trouble with them in the last book. He was right. They were still a little confusing but they made more sense- and I can see that they were set up to have a significance in the final book.

3/5

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The Complication of Sisters- Katherine Mariaca-Sullivan

Disclaimer: I was given this book free of charge by the author in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis (from amazon)

An argument with her older sister led author/artist Katherine Mariaca-Sullivan to examine what it means to be a sister. What she discovered is that, even as young sisters grow into women, some of the rivalries and frustrations that marked their early years do not necessarily grow up. With humor and wit, Katherine reveals some of the sisterly baggage that she has been carrying for decades, as well as her conclusion that no matter how complicated the relationship between sisters, there is really no stronger bond. This book, expressed in stories and illustrations, is perfect for any woman who is a sister. It is sure to spark memories, recover early bonds, and to heal old hurts.

Review.

This is an extremely short book (less than 100 pages) and I finished it in the space of one 15 minute bus journey.

It wasn’t really what I expected either, it was more a series of musings than of short stories. Sometimes the musings spoke of a specific event, but each one was no longer than a page. Each ‘story’ had a picture to go along with it which was a nice addition.

I certainly felt I gained a sense of Mariaca-Sullivan’s relationship with her sister, but the majority of the time I didn’t feel that it described my relationships with my sisters.

I can see this making a nice gift book for your sister (if it speaks to you), and it would be nice to share and talk about together.

3/5

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The Thief- Fuminori Nakamura

Image from Amazon

Disclaimer: This book was given to me free of charge by the publishers (Corsair) is exchange for an honest review

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Nishimura is a seasoned pickpocket. Anonymous in his tailored suit, he weaves through the crowded Tokyo streets, stealing wallets from strangers so smoothly sometimes even he doesn’t remember the snatch. To him, people are just nameless faces from whom he chooses his victims; he has no family, no friends, no connections . . . But he does have a past, which finally catches up with him when his old partner-in-crime reappears and offers him a job he can’t refuse. It should have been easy: break into an apartment, tie up an old rich man, steal the contents of his safe, no-one gets hurt. But the day after the job, Nishimura learns that the old man was a prominent politician – and that he has been brutally murdered. Suddenly, Nishimura finds himself caught in a tangle so tight that even he might not be able to escape.

Review

I had a number of reasons for accepting this book. I love Haruki Murakami and was interested to see some more Japanese fiction, as The Thief has won awards I thought it may well have potential. The synopsis too interested me, it made me expect a bit of a political thriller- and maybe a little bit of a supernatural twist based on him not remembering some of his snatches. I must admit a part of me did just want it for the cover. It really drew my attention, and I love the was the f had ‘stolen’ the dot from the i- but hey you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, right?

Well was it what I expected? There was a certain similarity in tone between this and Murakami’s work- partially because they were both in first person but also there was a similarity in voice. It probably most reminded me of Norweigen Wood in this sense- Nishimura’s voice throughout reminded me a lot of Toru’s voice at the begginning of Norweigen Wood as he is looking back.

In fact Nishimura does seem to live in the past quite a lot. He is often reflecting back, sometimes in a way which doesn’t make much sense to the reader, however that does give him a very genuine voice.

There wasn’t the surrealist element which I had hoped for- but I hadn’t really expected it- and although it may have been interesting to explore it could have also just complicated the story.

It wasn’t political in anyway that I had expected either. Actually the fact that Nishimura had been involved in the death of a politician caused him trouble but wasn’t really explored. I would have liked to know what was behind that activity.

Having said that we saw much more of Nishimura’s character outside of his life as a thief than I had really expected, and I liked that. I couldn’t imagine that I would care for him much as a character. However I felt that I really got into his head and got to know him. It meant I really did care about what happened to him.

I see quite a few reviews on amazon and goodreads criticize the ending for being too open. I liked the openness however, I like to have a choice of what might happen next- and I do think that there are enough clues given that mean you can make an educated guess.

3.5/5

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Irv’s Odyssey: Lost in a Looking Glass- Irv H. Podolsky

Disclaimer: I was sent this book free of charge by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis (from amazon)

Irving Podolsky is a nice Jewish boy looking for a nice Jewish girl and a job out of college which would, Irv hopes, make the world a better place. But when our hero’s food supply dwindles down to a slab of Velveeta and a jar of pickles, our lad  takes his only job offer: directing pornographic movies. This leads to a night shift gig in a mental hospital, only to have that be replaced by the lowest rung in food service, which drives Irv so bonkers his mind ejects out of his body to the Other Side. Irv’s Odyssey is a humorous quest for love, truth and the meaning of life while lost in alternate life styles, a psychedelic drug culture and the free-love of the seventies. Lost in a Looking Glass starts the journey.

Review

I’ve been putting off this review a little, mainly because I’m confused as how to categorise it. Irv H. Podolsky isn’t actually a real person, but he is the alter-ego of a person who is involved in the film industry- whose name is a secret. So is it an autobiography? A novel with autobiographic content? Or just the imagining of a creative mind? I wasn’t even sure how to approach it as a reader, but I’m going to review it as a novel.

I liked the tone of this book a lot. Irv’s voice was very believable and conversational. Actually his tone reminded me a lot of Lucy in the Sky, or maybe the setting has biased me?

As far as a drug culture and psychedelic elements were concerned, honestly I didn’t notice them a great deal. Irv did seem to be smoking weed a lot, or sometimes complaining that he couldn’t but it was more in the story than part of it, like a smoker would light a cigarette, it had n real significance.

There was also only one scene I would really call psychedelic, and that didn’t really fit in with the story either. There were also times where Irv talked about seeing lines and feeling spaced out, but they just made me want to tell him he needed migraine treatment- they sounded so similar to my migraine experiences!

It didn’t really matter to me whether there was a psychedelic/drug element to the story however, so finding little of it didn’t disappoint me.

When I decided to read this book I did think I would find the porn section most interesting. Not because I wanted to read something erotic (I wouldn’t imagine behind the scenes in porn is actually that erotic) but because I was interested to see how someone outside his comfort zone would cope with it. I think that was covered well, and the (possible) social and technical sides of porn were interesting to read about. Poor Irv though, it really wasn’t the place for him.

So that’s how he ended up working mental hospital- something he never intended to do. In the end this was actually the bit I found most interesting. It was rather sad in a way to read about these ‘kids’. Especially as a lot of those who cared for them didn’t really seem to want to be there. I think it was my psychological background which made this part of the novel most interesting for me- although it contained little real psychology.

I can certainly identify with this book. I can think of few of my university friends who are now in graduate jobs which they trained for, and most of those who are needed further training. Whilst I love my job it’s certainly not what my aim was when I went to uni- I’m still working up to that masters!

Overall I did enjoy the book, and I would be interested to read at least the next book in the series To the Light and Beyond

One little warning I would give is that this book does contain a lot of sex, it’s not very graphic but those who don’t like sex in books may not enjoy that element.

3.5/5
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Monsoon Season- Katie O’Rourke

Disclaimer: This book was given to me free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Monsoon Season tells the story of Riley Thomas, whose first foray into adulthood hasn’t worked out quite how she had planned. A year after her college graduation, she’s back at home with her parents in Massachusetts, escaping a dysfunctional relationship and other secret mistakes from her year in Arizona.

We see what Riley has learned about love from the people closest to her, how she has grown into the person she is, and how she attempts to change. When she’s forced to accept help, Riley realizes that being independent doesn’t have to mean being alone. Monsoon Season explores how well we know the people we claim to love and how much every person we choose to let into our lives shapes who we become

Review

I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. I did expect to enjoy it, but I also expected it to have a little less real substance.

It was an easy read. The chapters were split up between different characters which gave you different sides of the story. The voices seemed pretty authentic to me, and I found I really felt like I was having a conversation most of the time. The only real problem was that I found I liked all the characters, sometimes against my better judgement, except where they didn’t get their own voice. Maybe this just shows how well written the voices were but it does also suggest a lack of variety.

Sometimes I did find Riley to be a bit of an idiot. She made some rather shaking decisions. But I liked her and wanted everything to work out ok. I just wished she would take someone’s advice once in a while.

I didn’t like the synopsis given by the publisher, which is why I have used one from goodreads. It suggested the story had less depth than it really does and is certainly less compelling than the one from goodreads. I can see it appealing to a wider audience, but it is a bit spoilerish.

4/5

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Bright Young Things- Scarlett Thomas

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Bright Young Things wanted for Big Project.’ They’re in the prime of their lives but our bright young things are all burnt out. Six sparky twenty-somethings just out of university and working dead-end jobs, they are all bored to tears with their lives and looking for a way out. When a mysterious job is advertised in the newspaper, they all apply. What they least expect is to find themselves prisoners on a deserted island. There’s food in the fridge and they have a bedroom each, but there’s no telephone, no television, and no way to escape.

Review

I was a little sceptical about reading Bright Young Things after recent disappointments from Scarlett Thomas. However it was (and still is actually) only 20p for the kindle so I thought why not.

Maybe because I didn’t have the expectations I usually have when it comes to Scarlett Thomas I actually enjoyed it quite a lot.

I wouldn’t call the Bright Young Things bright exactly. They were clever in terms of learning or bookish knowledge if you want, but they were a little nieve about the situation in general. I know it’s not exactly a ‘normal’ situation but they just seemed to treat it like a holiday. Surely if you woke up on a random island, with no idea how you had got there, or why you would try and find out, wouldn’t you? Or try and get away? They only really make the most basic of attempts at either of those things.

I worked out certain twists in the tale quicker than they did too, but I suppose fear could have an effect on that.

It was an enjoyable book however, although it took a while to really get going. The beginning was interesting, and towards the end it ot exciting but in the middle I did get a little bored.

4/5

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Lone Wolf- Jodi Picoult

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Luke Warren would sleep in the dirt if it meant he could be under the stars.

He lives by the laws of nature, and would surely want to die that way.

But Luke is in a coma, and his family must make an unbearable decision.

As tensions and secrets rise to the surface, the tragic accident which brought them back together against the odds could well tear Luke’s family apart forever.

They know Luke would not want to live like this.
But how can they choose to let him die?

Review

I have a strange compulsion when it comes to Jodi Picoult books that means I have to read them as soon as I get my hands on them, so despite the fact I already had bookmarks in Expose, The Good Angel of Death, and Kavalier and Clay, oh and have only read Part 1 of 1Q84, I still had to start Lone Wolf when I bought it a couple of weeks ago.

Picoult is easy to read though so it doesn’t give that much of an interruption to your reading. In fact it’s part of what I like about her writing, it’s easy to read, and the plot really draws you in, but it still has some substance.

As with all of Picoult’s books the chapters are broken up between different characters. I didn’t really enjoy the Luke chapters so much, maybe because they weren’t a part of the main plot, but I did think they were important. How can you really have an opinion on whether a person would want their life support turned off or not if you only know that person third hand? It was interesting in it’s own way, and I did feel a got to know Luke well enough to think I would know what he wanted. However there was always a part of me waiting for his chapters to end.

I cared more for his kids really, and I couldn’t really decide who I wanted to be able to make the decision, although I did know what I wanted the decision to be. From that I should have been able to pick one of the kids to win but I cared about them both too much to want either of them to loose. It’s not something Picoult has ever really done before and I liked that perspective.

However I did feel in some way that elements of the story were added just to bulk the story out. Sometimes I didn’t really feel they added that much to the main plot, but that the main plot in itself may not have been enough to make a whole story.

I did enjoy Lone Wolf a lot, but it’d not my favourite Picoult.

4/5

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Going Out- Scarlett Thomas

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Luke is twenty-five and allergic to the sun. He is stuck in his bedroom, where the world comes to him through TV, the internet and Julie’s visits. Julie, meanwhile, is brilliant, kind and could be changing the world. Unfortunately she is too terrified of aeroplane crashes, road accidents and potentially life-threatening bacteria to leave her home town. When someone contacts Luke and claims that he can cure him, Luke and Julie have to deal with their fears and face the world outside. With four friends, wellies and a homemade space suit, they set off in a VW Camper van along Britain’s B-roads. It is a journey that might just change their lives.

Review

I very much enjoyed The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas, and her next novel, Pop Co, is one of my favourites. However I was disappointed by Our Tragic Universe. When I saw Going Out in the shops I was excited but I didn’t immediately feel the need to buy it as I had with Our Tragic Universe, not because it didn’t sound interesting, but because I didn’t want another let down.

I can’t exactly say Going Out was a let down, but I think that was more due to the fact that I didn’t go into it expecting something as fantastic as Pop Co. However it certainly didn’t reach p to the levels of Pop Co. or even The End of Mr Y.

It did interest me, but it really took a long time to get going. Most of the time it was just a story of a girl who worked in a pizza place and was scared of everything. I didn’t even feel a particular affinity with her character. The most I can say for it was that there was a certain coming of age novel feel to it.

Once the journey got started I did begin to get interested, mainly because I wanted to see if things would work, or how. Even that though was not that fantastic. It was a little anti-climatic.

I will still read Scarlett Thomas’ latest offering, Bright Young Things, but I have a feeling she has passed her peak.

3/5

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Genus- Jonathan Trigell

Synopsis (from Amazon)

In the Britain of a few tomorrows time, physical perfection is commonplace and self improvement has become an extinct expression: all the qualities men and women could aspire to can be purchased prior to birth.

GENUS is a time of genetic selection and enrichment – life chances come on a sliding scale according to wealth. For some there is no money or choice, and an underclass has evolved; London’s King’s Cross, or The Kross as it is now known, has become a ghetto for the Unimproved. In The Kross, the natural, the dated, the cheap and the dull, live a brittle and unenviable existence. But unrest is growing; tension is mounting and a murderer is abroad in these dark quarters…

Review

I’ve heard a lot of good things about Boy A (which was Trigell’s first novel) so when Genus was sent to for review I thought why not? I’ve not actually read Boy A so I don’t know if it’s worth of the praise it has received but knowing about it probably did heighten my expectations a little when it came to reading Genus.

At first I really can’t say I was much of a fan. The chapters kept jumping from character to character- sometimes with a heading to say which character’s point of view you were seeing, but not always, which made things a little confusing. Plus at first there seemed to be few links between the characters which felt like I was reading lots of little stories based in the same world, this just added to the confusion. However as the story progressed the stories seemed to intertwine which reduced the confusion- in fact by the time all was revealed the only confusion I felt was the confusion I imagine the reader was meant to feel. That is the confusion about the murderer.

Tone wise Genus reminded me quite a lot of Super Sad True Love Story, which wasn’t really a bonus because I had been rather disappointed by that one, so it didn’t really build good associations. There were certain parallels in the novels too. Both set in a dystopian future which have a certain basis in reality that suggests that everything might come true.

Genus definitely has more meat to it though. The future presented is more scary. The idea of being a lower class just because you hadn’t been a designed child. The vicious circle of it all, the Unimproved couldn’t get the good jobs, so they couldn’t pay for their children to be Improved so if they had children they were condemning them to the same fate. The laws that were meant to protect the Unimproved just made it easier to know who was Unimproved and therefore discriminate against them.

We see this future through different eyes. Some Improved, some not. There’s a suggestion that even life for the Improved is not fantastic, but that nobody would want to be Unimproved, if if they were lucky when it came to natural gene selection. Mainly we follow Holman, an Unimproved of the most obvious type. A midget with legs which do not work as they should, and who is old for his age. In ways he is lucky, he has a natural talent for art which may one day get him out of The Kross, born to an Unimproved, but rich and beautiful mother who is happy to support him. But Holman seems entangled in the murders, is he next to go, or could he even be the murderer?

By the end I just wanted to find everything out, but to be honest most of the time I found I just wanted the story to be over already, it was only in about the last 30% of the book that I started actually getting interested, and the last 10% was pretty riveting. If you’re in for the long haul you may enjoy Genus, but I didn’t find the last section really made up for the rest.

3/5

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The Time Keeper- Mitch Alborn

Disclaimer: This book was provided to me free of charge via netgally in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis (from Amazon)

In this stunning new novel, the inventor of the world’s first clock is punished for trying to measure time. He is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the voices of all who come after him seeking more years for themselves. At last, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people the true meaning of time.

He returns to our world – now dominated by the obsession with time he so innocently began – and commences a journey with two unlikely partners: one a teenage girl who is about to give up on life, the other a wealthy old businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both. And stop the world to do so.

Gripping, simply told and filled with deep human truth, this unforgettable story will inspire readers everywhere to reconsider their own notions of time, how they spend it and how precious it truly is.

Review

The Time Keeper has everything you would expect from Mitch Alborn, a bit of sadness, a bit of thoughtfulness, a feel good ending and the ability to move.

At first I wasn’t that keen. It wasn’t bad. I just felt that more could have been made of how ‘Father Time’ invented time. In fact I barely even saw it as him inventing time.

One the more modern side of the story got going however my interest increased. I had a bit of a love hate relationship with the teenage girl. She was naive, and a bit of a drama queen, but I understood her. She seemed like a real teenager (and not the ‘popular’ type girls you so often get in books and films.

I didn’t like the old man at all though. He was so self-centred, even when it came to the ones he supposedly loved.

I think maybe it was good to have a hate element to those two characters however, it made the feel good element better.

What was best however was when Father Time came to our modern world. It was interesting to see the world through his eyes, and it was when the book really got going.

If you’re a fan of Alborn you should enjoy this one, and you may be interested if you are a fan of historical fiction too. If you’re not sure at first it is worth the perseverance.

3.5/5

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Charlotte Street- Danny Wallace

Image from amazon

Synopsis (from amazon)

It all starts with a girl… (because yes, there’s always a girl…)

Jason Priestley (not that one) has just seen her. They shared an incredible, brief, fleeting moment of deep possibility, somewhere halfway down Charlotte Street.

And then, just like that, she was gone – accidentally leaving him holding her old-fashioned, disposable camera, chock full of undeveloped photos…

And now Jason – ex-teacher, ex-boyfriend, part-time writer and reluctant hero – faces a dilemma. Should he try and track The Girl down? What if she’s The One? But that would mean using the only clues he has, which lie untouched in this tatty disposable…

It’s funny how things can develop…

Review.

A while ago I read a review of Charlotte Street on Ellie’s blog; Curiosity Killed the Bookworm. Ellie loved Charlotte Street and I just had to add it to my wishlist. Well the other week I managed to get myself stuck in Waterstone’s. I had intended just to browse. I told myself I could buy two books from the buy one get one half-price selection, but only if one was from The Rory List. I didn’t see any books from the Rory list in that selection so I decided to leave. Unfortunately when I reached the door I saw that the rain was coming down like a Monsoon. I mean, I couldn’t go out in that could I? So I was stuck in Waterstone’s, and my will-power was wearing down…I had no choice. So I came out with Charlotte Street and Scarlett Thomas’ Going Out. Both books on my wishlist, neither on The Rory List.

Anyway this is meant to be a review, right? Not the story of how I got forced to buy books!

Charlotte Street was one of those books that made me both sad and satisfied to have finished. It’s been a long time since I last got this feeling from finishing a book. I wanted it to carry on, even though I knew it had definitely reached a conclusion.

I liked the characters, especially Dev. I quite often thought they were idiots but that just made them more realistic. Jason was certainly the flawed hero- if you can call someone whose behaviour borders on stalker-ish a hero! He did sometimes doubt whether he should be behaving the way he was, but there was always a friend to put him on the ‘right’ path, and I loved that.

In some ways you could actually call Charlotte Street a coming of age story. Maybe it was later in life than the typical coming of age story but Jason (and actually the other major characters too) certainly learnt something from the beginning of the book to the end and entered a new stage of life.

Wallace’s writing style reminded me a lot of Nick Hornby’s books, especially High Fidelity. Flawed hero- check, love interest- check, geeky friend- check, shop- check. It wasn’t a copy my any means but there were a lot of parallels. Amusing but in a real-life way rather than an artificial humour.

I had meant to read something by Danny Wallace for a long time, in fact since reading Are You Dave Gorman? when I was at school, and finding out Danny Wallace had written solo books, but somehow it hasn’t happened until now. This is probably the worst book to start on seeing as it’s Wallace’s first fiction book, but it has made me more eager to read something else by him.

5/5

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The Child Who- Simon Lelic

Image from Amazon

Synopsis (from amazon)

A quiet English town is left reeling when twelve-year-old Daniel Blake is discovered to have brutally murdered his schoolmate Felicity Forbes. For provincial solicitor Leo Curtice, the case promises to be the most high profile – and morally challenging – of his career. But as he begins his defence Leo is unprepared for the impact the public fury surrounding Felicity’s death will have on his family – and his teenage daughter Ellie, above all. While Leo struggles to get Daniel to open up, hoping to unearth the reasons for the boy’s terrible crime, the build-up of pressure on Leo’s family intensifies. As the case nears its climax, events will take their darkest turn. For Leo, nothing will ever be the same again .

>Review

This book was not what I expected. Maybe partly because I hadn’t re-read the synopsis before I started reading the actual book (although that is only usually something I do if I can’t decide what to read.

It wasn’t that the book was bad, it’s just it really didn’t reach it’s full potential. I expected much more about Daniel, and his reasoning behind the murder, and that was the part I was really interested in. Actually the whole Daniel thin felt like it had been skimmed over and the focus was much more on Leo and the effect the case had on him and his family.

It’s not even that I didn’t find the Leo side of things interesting I did, especially after the main event happened, but it pretty much made the fact that a child was involved in the case pointless.

There was a certain crime/mystery element but I would it rather predictable, so really that’s didn’t keep me hooked.

It was an easy read however, and interesting enough to keep me reading.

3/5

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Ninepins- Rosy Thornton

Image from Amazon

Disclaimer: I was given this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Deep in the Cambridgeshire fens, Laura is living alone with her 12-year old daughter Beth, in the old tollhouse known as Ninepins. She’s in the habit of renting out the pumphouse, once a fen drainage station, to students, but this year she’s been persuaded to take in 17-year-old Willow, a care-leaver with a dubious past, on the recommendation of her social worker, Vince. Is Willow dangerous or just vulnerable? It’s possible she was once guilty of arson; her mother’s hippy life is gradually revealed as something more sinister; and Beth is in trouble at school and out of it. Laura’s carefully ordered world seems to be getting out of control. With the tension of a thriller, NINEPINS explores the idea of family, and the volatile and changing relationships between mothers and daughters, in a landscape that is beautiful but – as they all discover – perilous.

Review

Note on review: where links are gathered around an author’s name these lead to reviews of the author’s books.

I’ve had this book waiting for review for a while, when I got it I intended to make it my next read in paperback, but I was really struggling with The Good Angel of Death (which is weird because I normally love Kurkov) and ended up reading it for more than a month without getting very far. Eventually I decided I was in a bit of a slump (I started having trouble with the book I was reading on kindle too), I read Olivia Joules, and then Big Fish before returning to The Good Angel of Death but still couldn’t really get anywhere with it. So I decided to read Ninepins, partly because I felt a little guilty for leaving it so long (usually review novels go straight to the top of my pile) and partly because I remembered it as something that sounded easy to read.

Well in a way my memories were off. I was imagining something vaguely chick-litty, although maybe more sophisticated. I was wrong. Ninepins wasn’t hard to read, but it was far from chick-lit like too. Actually it kind of reminded me of Kate Morton. There was the same kind of atmosphere built using the surroundings (a little gothic at times in fact, which I always like in a novel). There was also the family issue centre and hints of a big secret, although actually the secret, while never revealed fully was quite easy to guess at.

I thought that the way Thornton was able to make you feel about the characters, especially Beth and Laura, was clever. Beth was a pretty stereotypical teenager, not exactly a rebel but certainly testing some boundaries and trying to gain a bit much independence. Laura (whose voice the novel was told in) was understandable frustrated by this but despite the fact that you should be siding with Laura I found actually I had a lot of sympathy for Beth and found that Laura was a bit stifling. In fact at points I even found she was a little stifling to Willow despite the fact she was only meant to be Willow’s landlady. That didn’t mean that I didn’t see her viewpoint, or feel sympathy for her but sometimes I just wanted her to relax and let go, or let someone else take responsibility for once.

I did really enjoy it however. I think it’s one fans of Linda Gillard would enjoy, and (maybe to a slightly lesser extent, as it’s less of a mystery and more of a family novel) Kate Morton’s fans may well appreciate it too.

4.5/5

Other Reviews:

There are no other reviews of Ninepins on my blog list. If you have reviewed it feel free to leave me a link in comments and I will add it here.

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27 (Twenty- Seven): Six Friends, One Year- R.J. Heald

Disclaimer: I was given this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Your 27th year is a turning point.
Kurt Cobain. Amy Winehouse. Janis Joplin.
They died at 27.

Six friends reunite in London. From the outside their lives are enviable; from the new father, to the rich entrepreneur to the carefree traveller. But underneath their facades they are starting to unravel. Dave is made redundant, Renee’s marriage is crumbling and Katie is forced to return home to her parents after six years abroad. In a world fuelled by social media and ravaged by recession, the friends must face up to the choices they must make to lead the lives they truly want to live.

Review.

There was something very One Day about 27. A sort of everyday so far has come to this inevitability. Kind of the same predictability too, but because there were lots of different stories I didn’t mind that so much. Or maybe just because I had expected less from 27- One Day was so popular I expected to really like it. I did think I would like 27 but I wasn’t eager for it in the same way.

I knew 27 would be an easy read, and I wasn’t really expecting something…substantial…, it’s part of the reason I picked it in fact because I’ve been having a bit of trouble getting into books recently and I wanted something that would be easy.

Actually I enjoyed it more than I had anticipated. I think actually I am just about at the right stage in my life to read it, I identified quite well with some of the characters, and I think a lot of people my age would. It’s true that there are a lot of weddings and babies on my facebook feed now. You can’t helping thinking that everyone else is getting on with their lives while you’re living with your parents in a job you could have got without going to uni. Of course I have lots of friends in the same position but facebook doesn’t really show that does it?

I suppose that’s what I liked about 27 really. It was a kind of comparison of facebook life and real life, I man you don’t put your bad moments on facebook really, not in the same way anyway. Sam’s story I found particularly good at showing this.

4/5

Other Reviews:

There are no other reviews of 27 on my blog list. Let me know if you have written one and I will add it here.

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The Summer of the Dancing Bear- Bianca Lakoseljac

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Disclaimer: This book was provided for me free of charge via netgally in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Bianca Lakoseljac’s debut novel, The Summer of the Dancing Bear is a mesmerising melange of love story and mystery, as young protagonist Kata explores the unfamiliar world of the gypsy tribe that has befriended her and embarks on a quest to discover the fate of a neighbour’s missing child. Memory and magic play their roles until the shocking denouement that reveals Kata’s own family secrets and forever alters her perceptions of life as she once knew it. Engaging and original, the novel fuses history, myth, and tradition in a whimsical literary voice that reminds us that the complex and innocent humanity in us is too often haunted by human tragedy.

Review

This is Lakosljac’s first novel, released only this week, and I think she’s really going to be one to watch. I really thought that I could see into Kata’s mind and emotions. At times she had almost prophetic dreams and these were written really well to show Kata’s sense of urgency, fear, and confusion. Kata rarely knew exactly what her dreams meant except that they were important and the reader learns alongside her what the dreams may indicate. Sometimes is is confusing what is a dream and what is reality and this causes great confusion for the reader which seems to be reflected in Kata’s emotional state.

The further and further you read into the book the more dreams and reality seem to merge until you are convinced reality is just a dream…and Kata’s insistence that a dream is reality further confounds this. By the climax you are not sure what just happened, which makes the whole situation just the more scary.

The reader has to work hard towards the end to try and see what really happened, and, like Kata, they still come away with unanswered questions. In a way I didn’t like this because I wanted my questions to be answered however it did add an aspect of reality which sustained the reader’s connection with Kata. Plus you can imagine just anything you want could have happened next- whether in dream or reality!

4/5

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The Testament of Jessie Lamb- Jane Rogers

Image from Amazon

 Synopsis (from Amazon)

Women are dying in their millions. Some blame scientists, some see the hand of God. As she watches her world collapsing, Jessie Lamb decides she wants to make her life count. Would you let your daughter die if it would save the human race? The Testament of Jessie Lamb is the story of one daughter’s heroism and one father’s love.

Review

The Testament of Jessie Lamb is the story of Jessie Lamb (believe it or not). Jessie lives in a world where humans are dying out. Every human is infected with a deadly virus which is activated when a woman become pregnant. This means that no new babies can be born and Jessie’s generation will be the last humans if a solution isn’t found. Jessie wants to save the world, and she will go to any lengths to do it.

This book is listed as a contemporary novel but it actually reads much more like Young Adult fiction. That’s not to say it was bad, in fact I enjoyed it quite a lot, but for an adult novel it wasn’t especially sophisticated. I liked Jessie quite a lot. She had a real sense of morality, not just where it came to the virus but also with other issues which we can see in the real world today- for example the greenhouse effect, or feminism. I liked how she had her principles and she would stick to them no matter what. It was sad to see what happened to her but also somehow right.

I wonder about the biblical references in this book. There are the Noah’s who are a bit like evangelical Christians (or should I say the stereotypical evangelical Christians) but then there is a certain biblical parallel to Jessie herself. (highlight for spoiler)She sacrifices herself for the world in the same way Jesus did, and her surname is lamb like lamb of God.

4/5

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Big Fish- Daniel Wallace

Image from Amazon

Synopsis (from Amazon)

William Bloom’s father, Edward, is dying. In his prime he was an extraordinary man: animals loved him, people loved him, women loved him; he was an inspired salesman – a visionary, in fact; and he knew more jokes than any man alive.

Or at least, that’s what he’s told his son. But Edward wasn’t really around that much and now, watching his father die, William grows increasingly desperate to know him before it’s all too late. In a wonderful sleight of hand, William re-creates his elusive father’s life in a series of legends and myths inspired by the few facts he knows. Through these tales, William begins to understand Edward Bloom’s great feats – and his great failings – managing to reckon with the father he’s about to lose. And find a way to say goodbye.

Review

When I picked up Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination my boyfriend picked up Big Fish but he didn’t like it so he passed it on to me. I can kind of se where he is coming from, he thought it was just to fanciful *(says the guy who mainly reads fantasy books!). I suppose the way it was presented was like a biography but really most of the stories couldn’t be true (except for maybe the naked woman and the snake, cause, you know, naked women are always at risk from snakes…). Actually though I quite enjoyed the stories, although I found it easier to see them as short stories in their own right rather than as a longer narative. I enjoyed it well enough although it wasn’t really some great story. It was pretty humourous but it didn’t really seem to have that much of a point really.

I prefered the film.

3/5

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Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination- Helen Fielding

Image from Amazon

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Enter Olivia Joules: fearless, dazzling, independent beauty-journalist turned master-spy – a new heroine for the twenty-first century. In Miami for a face-cream launch, she spots Pierre Ferramo across a room. Dangerously charismatic and undeniably gorgeous, with impeccable taste, unimaginable wealth and exotic international homes, he seems almost too good to be true. But what if Ferramo is actually a major terrorist bent on destruction, hiding behind a smokescreen of fine wines, yachts and actresses slash models? Or is it all just a product of Olivia’s overactive imagination?

Review

Last week I was having real reading trouble. Nothing on my TBR pile (either in paper books or e-books) inspired me, I was tired and run-down with a cold, I had next to no concentration, and what energy and concentration I did have I was using for work. I tried to read my current paperback, I tried a few things on my kindle, nothing was working. I needed something light and easy, and, well, I don’t usually go for light and easy, so there wasn’t anything of that type around.

However on Wednesday I went to a coffee shop which just so happened to have a bookcrossing shelf. I thought why not have a look? I might find something to fix my slump. Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination is what I came back with.

I read Bridget Jones’ Diary when I was about 17 (I think) when it was at the height of it’s popularity (wow that’s like 8 years ago…I’m still 21 dammit!), and at the time I didn’t really get the hype around it. It was ok but nothing special when it came to chick-lit (and I read a fair bit of it at the time). I didn’t really like Bridget, I found her to be a bit of an idiot to be honest. Maybe I would have got it more if I was a 30-something singleton…maybe not…I don’t know.

Anyway I expected Olivia Joules to be a similar fit. Easy to read but a bit of fluff. I had never looked into reading it because I didn’t like Bridget Jones, so why read something I thought would be similar? I was wrong though. Well maybe sometimes Olivia is an idiot, she jumps to conclusions, but when she is it tends to be funny rather than annoying. There was a little bit of love fluff but mainly it was a bit of a mystery/crime/action story, and that made it much more enjoyable. The funny made it not like other action type books, and because of Olivia’s overactive imagination I was always second guessing myself, not sure what was going to be true and what would be imaginary. It was a little far-fetched but I think that worked well with her having an overactive imagination.

It still had the readability of Bridget Jones but plot wise I much preferred it. It was the perfect thing to get me out of my reading slump.

3.5/5

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Lucy in the Sky- John Vorhaus

Disclaimer: This book was given to me free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis (from Amazon)

A coming-of-age tale set in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1969, Lucy in the Sky lightly touches on such weighty issues as the meaning of life, the purpose of art and the existence of God. For those interested in answers to The Big Questions or just keen to revisit a simpler time, Lucy in the Sky promises a fun and compelling trip – and that’s trip in every sense of the word.

Gene Steen is an earnest, intelligent, truth-seeking teen stuck in the cultural wasteland of his suburban home. He wants to be a hippie in the worst way, but hippies are scarce on the ground in the forlorn Midwest of Gene’s 15th year. Then, propitiously on the Summer Solstice, his life is turned upside down by the arrival of his lively, lovely, long-lost cousin Lucy. She’s hip beyond Gene’s wildest dreams and immediately takes him under her wing. Lucy teaches Gene that being a hippie isn’t about love beads and peace signs, but about the choices you make and the stands you take. Yet for all her airy insights into religion, philosophy and “the isness of it all,” Lucy harbors dark secrets – secrets that will soon put her on the run, with Gene by her side.

Lucy in the Sky resonates of such classics as Summer of ’42 and Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and invites the reader into a richly detailed vision of the ‘60s, as realized by Vorhaus’s sure-handed prose and authentic sense of place and time. With frank talk about sex and drugs, Vorhaus pulls no punches about the realities of the era, yet delivers an uplifting message about personal power and the path to enlightenment. A rewarding read for young seekers and old geezers alike.

Review

I think I took to long to get around to writing this review. I seem to have forgotten most of the things I wanted to say…or maybe I never had much to say to begin with….?

Anyway Lucy in the Sky wasn’t really what I expected. I mean it was a coming of age novel I suppose you would say (although a lot of the coming of age seemed to include sex and drugs….although for teenagers those are pretty much a reality…whether they get them or not!). There was the element of Gene starting to think a bit more about things, I’m not really sure how much was thinking for himself however and how much was just agreeing with what Lucy said…maybe it was a bit of both.

There was quite a bit of action in the second part which did make the story a little more readable, and it only took me another day or so to finish after I arrived at that section of the novel- I just felt I wanted to find out what happened next much more. It wasn’t necessarily better, it was just more plot driven which made it easier to read.

Tomorrow we will have a guest post from John Vorhaus here on Lucybird’s Book Blog.

3.5/5

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One Breath Away- Heather Gudenkauf

Image from Amazon

Disclaimer: I was given this book free of charge via netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Note: This book is not yet released in the UK. It is due to be released on 6th July 2012

Synopsis (from Amazon)

He has a gun.Who? Tell me, where are you? Who has a gun?I love you, Mum.An ordinary school day in March, snowflakes falling, classroom freezing, kids squealing with delight, locker-doors slamming.Then the shooting started. No-one dared take one breath…

He s holding a gun to your child s head.

One wrong answer and he says he ll shoot.

This morning you waved goodbye to your child.

What would you have said if you d known it might be the last time?

Review

I’ve often heard Heather Gudenkauf being compared to Jodi Picoult, who is a bit of favourite for me. I’ve only read one book by Gudenkauf before, The Weight of Silence, which I partially read because I had read a good review, and partly read because it looked at a topic Picoult hadn’t explored- so I didn’t have to worry about comparing it to another novel. Picoult has written a book about a school shooting, Nineteen Minutes,  so I was a little concerned that I would end up comparing One Breath Away to Nineteen Minutes. Fortunately the parallels pretty much ended with the main topic so I was able to more or less read One Breath away as a book in its own right.

A big storyline was about trying to work out who the shooter was without seeing them. There was a certain element of mystery in this for the reader, however as the reader was able to see the shooter some of the theories were obviously untrue. In some ways I think it may have been better if the shooter was referred to in a more neutral way (e.g. by simply calling them the shooter which wouldn’t reveal anything about their gender, age, or race), this would have made it more of a mystery for the reader. Still it held enough mystery and suspense to make me want to keep reading to find out the answer- who was the gunman and why was he attacking the school. I did guess who it was before the end but I think maybe Gudenkauf writes so the reader will guess a little before the characters make a discovery because there is some victory in being able to guess ‘who dunnit’. Personally I prefer to be a bit shocked and surprised but I can see how some people may prefer being able to correctly guess.

I did really enjoy the shooting storyline, especially how the reader could see different points of view of the shooting. It would have been nice to see the gunman’s view to an extent, however it wasn’t essential and it would have taken some mystery out of the story.

I did have one problem with the book though, there were just to many different storylines. There was of course the main storyline of the shooting, but all the characters seemed to have some other issue which was effecting their lives. I can see why Gudenkauf did it generally- it provided more possible suspects- but it was just to much.

3.5/5

You cannot yet purchase One Breath Away but you can pre-order it from Amazon:

Paperback (£3.92)

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The Whipping Club- Deborah Henry

Image from Amazon

Disclaimer: This book was provided for me free of charge via netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis (from Amazon)

The Whipping Club explores the sacrificial secrets we keep to protect our loved ones and the impact that uncovered secrets have on marriage, family and society. Both a wrenching family drama and a harrowing suspense story, it chronicles an interfaith couple’s attempt in 1960′s Ireland to save their son from corrupt institutions.

Review

Despite it taking a while to get going I ended up enjoying this book quite a bit. However there were a few situational aspects which tried to bar my path. First off there was the title, come on The Whipping Club? Sounds like some sort of erotic novel, if I hadn’t been able to see the cover that title would have put me off right away. (In fact if you type The Whipping Club into Amazon you come up with this and 2 erotic novels). Then there’s the fact it was automatically approved on Netgalley…and not because I’m on the publisher’s authorised list. Just that suggests they are having trouble getting people to review it. Last, and this can be the real killer, I got a spam comment advertising it, completely unrelated to the content of the post, and without it even being a hey would you like to read this? spam comment. If it hadn’t been for the fact that I had almost finished the book at that point it would have annoyed me enough to make me give up on it, but not without some rant about sales tactics. (Which does seem to be what this review is turning in to, I’m sorry).

Anyway onto he book. Well lets see. It did take quite a while to really get going.Actually no, that’s not quite true. The first chapter was one of those chapters that really shows promise for a book, and in a way that meant it took a while to get going simply because the following chapters didn’t really meet up to those promises. To be completely honest I don’t even think the first chapter fitted into the rest of the book, it set some background but I think it actually may have been better to gradually reveal that background information. It might not have meant that the book started off with such a punch but I think overall it would have kept the reader more riveted as they found out the family’s secrets.

After the one secret had been revealed the book really took off, but I think it actually would have been more interesting up to that point as secrets were gradually revealed to the reader. I prefered the book after the secret was revealed, the extra storyline was more interesting and held my attention better than the storyline had before. I still can’t say I liked the characters though, if anything I disliked the mother. That father was okay but seemed completely different in the first chapter, and any area which was looking back than he did in the ‘present’. It wasn’t different in a good way either, if anything worse.

I don’t know I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it exactly it’s just so many elements were a bit meh. And the good elements? Well they were a bit like reading one of those Please, Daddy No! type books…

3/5

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Skios- Michael Frayn

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Disclaimer: This book was given to me free of charge in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis (from Amazon)
On the sunlit Greek island of Skios, the Fred Toppler Foundation’s annual lecture is to be given by Dr Norman Wilfred, the world-famous authority on the scientific organisation of science. He turns out to be surprisingly young and charming — not at all the intimidating figure they had been expecting. The Foundation’s guests are soon eating out of his hand. So, even sooner, is Nikki, the attractive and efficient organiser. Meanwhile, in a remote villa at the other end of the island, Nikki’s old school-friend Georgie waits for the notorious chancer she has rashly agreed to go on holiday with, and who has only too characteristically failed to turn up. Trapped in the villa with her, by an unfortunate chain of misadventure, is a balding old gent called Dr Norman Wilfred, who has lost his whereabouts, his luggage, his temper and increasingly all normal sense of reality — everything he possesses apart from the flyblown text of a well-travelled lecture on the scientific organisation of science…

Review

Michael Frayn is probably best known for his novel Spies although he has written lots of different novels, plays, articles and non-fiction books too. Spies is one of those books I have known about and been interested in for a long time but somehow never gotten around to actually reading. Part of the reason I accepted the request to read Skios  was because I thought it being a review book would make me read it rather than just putting it on my to be read pile, and if I liked it I might actually get around to reading  Spies.

I suppose Frayn’s reputation made me expect quite a lot from this book, maybe to much. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it exactly but I didn’t think it was some amazing piece of work either. For quite a while I found it just a bit absurd. There were just to many confusions and to many coincidences. Once I just accepted that it was going to be a bit absurd however I did start to enjoy it quite a lot more. I still found that characters and the situation a little stupid but I was more able to see the humour in it all, and it certainly made me start to laugh. In fact I think that’s why it was so absurd, not so much to make a story but to make a bit of entertainment, you just hjad to laugh at how absurd it was or you would be despairing! By the end it actually got so absurd I even got the sense that Frayn was just taking the Micky out of himself- or maybe even out of novels in general- I mean it’s all made up really isn’t it? Or maybe I just wanted there to be something behind the absurdity!

Certainly I would say it’s enjoyable if you’re not going to take it to seriously, if you want to read a serious novel though go for something else because you really won’t like this one!

3/5

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Beneath The Shadows- Sara Foster

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Disclaimer: This book was given to me via netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis (from netgalley)

When Grace’s husband, Adam, inherits an isolated North Yorkshire cottage, they leave the bustle of London behind to try a new life. A week later, Adam vanishes without a trace, leaving their baby daughter, Millie, in her stroller on the doorstep. The following year, Grace returns to the tiny village on the untamed heath.  Everyone—the police, her parents, even her best friend and younger sister—is convinced that Adam left her. But Grace, unable to let go of her memories of their love and life together, cannot accept this explanation.  She is desperate for answers, but the slumbering, deeply superstitious hamlet is unwilling to give up its secrets. As Grace hunts through forgotten corners of the cottage searching for clues, and digs deeper into the lives of the locals, strange dreams begin to haunt her. Are the villagers hiding something, or is she becoming increasingly paranoid? Only as snowfall threatens to cut her and Millie off from the rest of the world does Grace make a terrible discovery. She has been looking in the wrong place for answers all along, and she and her daughter will be in terrible danger if she cannot get them away in time.

Review

I had intended to review this book before it was released but after a weekend in London I only managed to finish it on the train yesterday. Still it was released today so I don’t think I am to far behind if I manage to finish this review today!

The main reason I decided to read Beneath The Shadows was because it was described as ‘gothic’. I have a bit of a thing about gothic literature, it started with reading Jane Eyre and looking its gothic elements when I was studying for my a-levels, it’s even what I write on the rare occasions I manage to write anything other than the first few lines of a story!

I really liked it as well. I loved the way Foster used the surroundings not only to reflect what was going on but also to reflect Grace’s state of mind. I also liked how sometimes Foster used what you expected to be foreshadowing as a sort of trick when really nothing that suspicious was going to happen, it got me every time!

The only really problem I had was that I started to guess at the truth early on. I never guess the whole story behind everything that had happened but guessing a bit took some of the climax out of the book.

4.5/5

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Kerb Crawling- Glenn Bryant

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Disclaimer: This book was sent to me free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis (from Amazon)

IT IS 1998 and the British electorate and New Labour are still on honeymoon. People think welfare spending is actually a good thing and three million of us still read The News of the World on Sundays. But when the government faces ruin and an avalanche of lawsuits, demanding real access across Britain, even its special ally, Washington, abandons Downing Street and pursues a cheap conclusion to the crisis.
Meanwhile, Jas, 32 and still single, cannot imagine the maelstrom she is unwittingly about to ignite. She is trying to get on with life. Quietly. She might succeed, but her best friend Sophie walks away from a car crash which breaks Jas’ back. Sophie goes insane with guilt and relentlessly pursues married men in perverse penitence.
Jas befriends barrister Jon in a pub and is persuaded to sue her hairdressers for barring clients in wheelchairs. Jas, unaware of the problem until the last moment, leaves the salon in tears after a confrontation with the owner. Ambitious Jon soon attracts a sinister stalker and is reduced to a wreck. He fears for his life, unlike Jas, who should before two strangers leave her and her lawsuit dead in the water.
Kerb Crawling is a dark comedy of (bad) manners and builds to a breathless conclusion. It hides a vital question. If fate frowns upon you one day, how would you like to be labelled?

Review

I suppose you can say the key thing about the novel is that the main character (or heroine if you want) is disabled. It is good to see a book which focuses on a disabled person but isn’t a sob story. I can’t really think of another book which does focus on a physically disabled person, which probably means I haven’t read one good enough to stick in my mind rather than that they don’t exist. I’m pretty certain the majority of what is around is really about how hard it is to be disabled. in Kerb Crawling however you could almost forget that Jas was disabled. Generally speaking it was more a story about the friends of Jas, and her. Sure there was the disability element, and I suppose that was the hook but I don’t think that was really the important thing. I think what needed to be said to do with her disability was said, and it was the aspect that got the story going as it were but it ceased to really be important.

The whole conspiracy aspect I did find a little far fetched if I am honest. However it added an element of action which kept the story going, and I suppose it underlined how something which can seem like a small issue can actually have a wide reach. In a way it parallels the lack of access for disabled people. It may not seem like much if one place doesn’t have disabled access, or if one person takes a disabled parking space that they don’t need but if everybody thought like that it would make life a lot harder for the disabled. Even just one person thinking it can make that true of a few disabled people. So maybe that wasn’t such an unnesscersary elemet after all. I think all the drugs were though, can’t say I liked that.

3.5/5

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Just understood when getting those links another reason why it’s called Kerb Crawling. Have a look see if you can work it out.

Barefoot Girls- Tara McTiernan

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Disclaimer: This book was sent to me free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis (from Amazon)

When her hometown newspaper reviews Hannah O’Brien’s newly released novel, the nature of her book is called into question when the reviewer suggests it is a memoir depicting her neglectful alcoholic mother – Keeley O’Brien Cohen, the most beloved of the Barefoot Girls – a little too accurately for fiction, citing rumors rather than sources.

Deeply hurt and betrayed, Keeley cuts Hannah out of her life. Desperate, Hannah does everything she can to apologize and explain, but her pleas fall on deaf ears. Meanwhile, the rest of Hannah’s life starts to unravel, pushing her to risk her engagement to Daniel, the one man who had been able to scale the high walls around her heart. At the eleventh hour, the Barefoot Girls are able to convince Keeley to send Hannah the keys to the Barefooter house, the home and heart of their friendship. Barred from their clubhouse since she was twelve, Hannah grabs the chance to visit the little shack filled with memories and perched at the tip of Captain’s Island in the Great South Bay on Long Island, New York.

As Hannah battles to come to terms with her equally blessed and troubled childhood and understand her mother and her sister-close friends, she’s confronted with the power of forgiveness and the dangers of holding on to the past.

Review

At first I was a little unsure about whether or not to accept this book is I’m completely honest. The author described Barefoot Girls as woman’s literature which pretty much sent off chick-lit sirens in my head. It’s not that I don’t like chick-lit exactly, but it does tend to be rather formulaic and predictable which does give a bit of a trashy air. I do read chick-lit but only very occasionally, usually when I want something easy to read, something I don’t want to have to concentrate on. The synopsis of Barefoot Girls didn’t really sound like your stereotypical chick-lit however, but it still seemed like it would share chick-lit’s easy readability. That’s why I accepted it. It’s also why I read it when I did, after 1Q84 I wanted something easy to read.

Having read it now though I think maybe that calling it chick-lit does it a bit of a disservice. It certainly has elements of your stereotypical chick-lit. There’s a love interest and a related problem (although it’s one that really related to a more serious side of the novel, which makes it more than a stereotypical love story), it’s easy to read- the language isn’t too complex- it’s generally speaking plot driven, it’s focused around women, all pretty much things you would expect from chick-lit. However there’s a more emotional element which can sometimes be found in the better chick-lit, chick-lit with brains I like to call it. There’s a mystery element of the type you find in more general contemporary fiction and which keeps you guessing. There’s a certain crime element too which adds an extra plot line.

Overall I did like it. Certainly I like Hannah, one of the main characters, and Zoeey. I think possibly I was meant to like Keeley more, but I just couldn’t connect to her, and Amy kind of grated on me. Seeing as it was essentially a book about friendship however I did like their friendship and how it was depicted, although there was a certain element of wondering how they remained friends, especially as some of the scenes where you saw one of the characters on their own didn’t seem to fit with the way they were when they were together. Maybe that just showing the things friendship bring out in a person though?

I like the mystery element as well, and how that mystery effected the characters- especially Hannah. I must admit however I guessed the twist long before it was revealed- although I kept wondering how it came about.

The only thing I didn’t really like was the Rose storyline. It seemed a bit pointless and rather than feeling dramatic it really just made me feel sorry for Rose. I didn’t really think it was needed- it felt almost as if McTiernan added it just for a bit of action.

3.5/5

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Kindle (£3.89)

1Q84 (Book 1)- Haruki Murakami

Image from Amazon

This book was read as part of the Murakami Reading Challenge 2012

Synopsis (from Amazon)

The year is 1984. Aomame sits in a taxi on the expressway in Tokyo.

Her work is not the kind which can be discussed in public but she is in a hurry to carry out an assignment and, with the traffic at a stand-still, the driver proposes a solution. She agrees, but as a result of her actions starts to feel increasingly detached from the real world. She has been on a top-secret mission, and her next job will lead her to encounter the apparently superhuman founder of a religious cult.

Meanwhile, Tengo is leading a nondescript life but wishes to become a writer. He inadvertently becomes involved in a strange affair surrounding a literary prize to which a mysterious seventeen-year-old girl has submitted her remarkable first novel. It seems to be based on her own experiences and moves readers in unusual ways. Can her story really be true?

Both Aomame and Tengo notice that the world has grown strange; both realise that they are indispensable to each other. While their stories influence one another, at times by accident and at times intentionally, the two come closer and closer to intertwining.

Review

I read this book as part of the longer book which holds books 1 and 2. I had always intended to write a review at the end of book one then continue on to book to immediately, however just book 1 has taken me the whole of the year so far (alongside my kindle books, and with a break for Catching Fire) so I really feel I need a break. It’s not that I haven’t liked 1Q84 so far exactly, but I have struggled some what. The story seems to be going quite slowly, although it’s become more interesting in the last 100 pages or so.

The book is split into chapters from Aomame and chapters from Tengo, one from Aomame, one from Tengo, then switching back. At first I found Aomame’s story the most interesting, although I loved Tengo as a character, I can certainly see why he is so popular! Gradually though I became just as interested in each storyline. In fact Murakami seemed to have a tendency to finish the chapter just as it was starting to interest me- which was a little annoying because it made me just want to skip to their next chapter. It was interesting as well how he built in areas of the two storylines which fitted together but only really mentioned them briefly. It made me want to read more to find out exactly how the two stories linked together, and just work out the general puzzles of Murakami’s normal oddities. Having said that the oddities were few and far between in comparison to other Murakami books. Not really sure how I feel about this though as the oddities did seem to be building as the links became more frequent.

Overall. Well, book 1 was a bit like an introduction. I didn’t feel like much happened despite it being almost 400 pages long- however things were introduced which I think will be important later on, and it very much opened up avenues for the other 2 books. I’m still going to have a break in case I find book 2 hard going but I am certainly not going to give up

3/4

Reviews of 1Q84 from other challenge participants:

Sam Still Reading

Tony’s Reading List

The Akamai Reader

Buy it:

Hardback- Books 1 & 2 (£12.00)

Kindle: Books 1 & 2 (£9.59)

Paperback: Books 1-3 (£13.00)

Paperback: Books 1 & 2: pre-order (£8.09)

Life in Pieces- Christopher Profeta

Image from Amazon

Disclaimer: I was given this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis (from Amazon)

An unemployed stay at home dad who opens the paper one morning to find he is running for congress, a young man struggling to hold onto a life that is slipping away while meeting the love of his life, and a crazy old man who couldn’t care less about any of this all cross paths in Christopher Profeta’s debut novel “Life in Pieces.” These lives come gracefully together to show that we are never to old to come of age.

Review

I don’t really know where to start with this review. I have things that I want to say but I’m not sure where to start. Part of my problem is that I don’t really like the synopsis, but I am awful at writing my own overviews or synopsis’ (synopsi?) so I’m kind of plumping with it. Plus if I did write a synopsis it would kind of reveal a secret which I don’t really understand why is a secret. In fact I’m not even sure if it is a secret or a presumption I have made, based on the ending that might be more exact…but I think I’m right. (Talk about cryptic, right?)

I really enjoyed the style of writing. It felt more like you were having a conversation with the characters of the book rather than reading about them. I could almost imagine what might be going through their heads at certain moments. I must admit the old man’s story held my attention the least but I still found it rather moving, I guess it’s just that it had the least storyline. Of course that’s not always a bad thing, but alongside the other two stories I felt a little like I was waiting for something to happen. The story of the student interested me early on but the story of the politician became my favourite. I did like how the student story balanced quite well between the other two however, it made me think more than the politician story (although there were elements of that story which did make me think, they were kind of peripheral), but wasn’t moving in the same way that the old man’s story was.

I was trying to guess all the way through how the three stories related to each other, if at all, but I think I got it in the end.

The only negative thing I can really say is that I noticed a few mistakes, sometimes just typos but at other times in word choice (e.g. know instead of now) which wouldn’t have been picked up by a spell check. These were few and far between but did seem to increase in volume towards the end of the novel, almost as if a proofread had gotten lazy towards the end. I am a bit more forgiving of this seeing as Life in Pieces is self-published*, but I’m still not exactly happy about it.

4/5

*Seeing as self-published novels are financed by the author it’s unlikely they can afford all the professionals of a mass market publisher. That means I can forgive a few mistakes, possibly even expect them.

Buy it:

Kindle (£1.94)

The Lover’s Dictionary- David Levithan

Image from Amazon

Synopsis (from Amazon)

How does one talk about love?

We are all beginners when it comes to love, from those tentative first dates to learning how to live with, or without, someone. But how does one describe love? How does one chart its delights and pleasures, its depths and desolations? Do we even have the right words to describe something that can be both utterly mundane and completely transcendent, pulling us out of our everyday lives and making us feel a part of something greater than ourselves? David Levithan’s The Lover’s Dictionary starts where we all once started – with the alphabet.

Constructing the story of a relationship as a dictionary, Levithan explores the intimacies and workings of love through his nameless narrator, to paint a moving portrait of love through everyday words. Cleverly using the confines of language to provide an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being part of a couple, Levithan gives us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.

Review

I read this book alongside two others both of which I am somewhat struggling with, not enough to give up but enough to need a break. The Lover’s Dictionary seemed perfect for those purposes. It’s an easy read and easy to break up into little chunks so you can just read a page or two as something easy. Despite the fact I was using it as a rest-stop book it’s taken me less than 3 days to read, and I think it would only take a couple of hours if read alone.

Would I call it a novel? Well I don’t know really, although there is certainly a story in there it isn’t a novel in the conventional sense, and you need to fill in a lot of gaps yourself. I liked the way it added emotion to words in a way just reading a word doesn’t do. There’s a certain suggestion that the words one reads are not ‘just words’ but have a whole other layer of meaning if you are so inclinded to look for them. As a reader it held a certain beauty in the way it approached words but also in the way it would sometimes speak of books and reading. There seemed to be two loves there in a way, the love of a lover, but the love of books was there too.

It felt personal and I liked that.

4.5/5

I wouldn’t recommend the Kindle edition specifically though. The editing was bad, quite often the word being defined was on the previous page to the definition, and that doesn’t really work. When I bought it on Kindle it was on offer (99p I think) so I don’t really mind, but I would have if I payed full price.

Buy it:

Kindle (£5.99)

Paperback (£4.79)

Hardback (£8.44)

Other Reviews:

The Perpetual Page-Turner

A Thousand Books With Quotes

Have I missed your review? Link me up!

Harvesting the Heart- Jodi Picoult

Image from Amazon

Synopsis

Paige has only a few vivid memories of her mother, who abandoned her when she was five. Now, having left home and her father for dreams of art school and marriage to an ambitious young doctor, Paige finds herself with a child of her own. Emotionally and physically exhausted, overwhelmed by the demands of her family, Paige cannot forget her mother’s absence or the shameful memories from her own past. Her next step would have been unthinkable before her doubts about her maternal ability crept into her mind. Is it possible Paige’s baby would be better off without her?

Review

As far as Jodi Picoult novels go this one was emotionally pretty easy going. It’s not that it’s nice to think of mothers leaving their children but it’s a bit more ever day than most of the issues that Picoult usually writes about.

That’s not to say I didn’t like it, or it didn’t draw me in. I can’t say I felt a particular connection to the characters for the majority of the book. I couldn’t really get my head around Paige and although I didn’t dislike her I didn’t really like her either, but at least that gives her a chance to change my mind! I did feel a little sorry for her in the way she was feeling and for not really having an outlet for those feelings but she seemed kind of stubborn and unwilling to find help, right up to the point where she cracked. By that point I didn’t really feel sympathetic so much anymore because of the way she was dealing with her feelings.

At first I really didn’t like Nicholas, he didn’t seem right for Paige at all and I found him more than a little self-centred. However by the end of the book he managed to change my mind.

This is another of Picoult’s earlier works which has been re-released (something I find frustrating). You can tell it’s one of her earlier books but I still thought it was more engaging than Songs of the Humpback Whale or Picture Perfect (which were also re-releases).

4/5

Buy it:

Kindle (£4.99)

Paperback (£4.49)

Hardback (£10.70)

Untying the Knot- Linda Gillard

Image from Amazon

Synopsis (from Amazon)

A wife is meant to stand by her man. Especially an army wife. But Fay didn’t. She walked away – from Magnus, her traumatised war hero husband and from the home he was restoring: Tullibardine Tower, a ruined 16th-century tower house on a Perthshire hillside.

Now their daughter, Emily is getting married. But she’s marrying someone she shouldn’t.

And so is Magnus…

Review

I seem to be making a lot of Linda Gillard related postings recently don’t I? There’s no particular reason. I like Gillard’s work, and 3 of her books are only available on Kindle so once I got my Kindle they were pretty much top of my list of stuff to buy (it helps that they are cheap too!).  This is one of those 3 (The others I have already reviewed; House of Silence, and, A Lifetime Burning).

I must admit as far as Linda Gillard books go I found this one a little to predictable. I guessed early on at the main twist in the tale, although there were also certain bits I didn’t guess at.  I generally liked the characters. At least I liked Fay well enough, but I liked her (ex)mother-in-law the most and would actually have liked to see more of her. I didn’t really like Magnus that much but in a way that was part of his charm, and by the end I was gunning for him.

It’s an easy read so good for a relax but if you asked me to recommend a Linda Gillard book it wouldn’t be this one.

3/5

Buy it:

Kindle (£0.86)

Sing You Home- Jodi Picoult

Image from Amazon

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Zoe Baxter has spent ten years trying to get pregnant, and just when she’s about to get her heart’s desire, tragedy destroys her world. In the aftermath of loss and divorce, she throws herself into her career as a music therapist. Working with Vanessa, she finds their relationship moving from business, to friendship, and then – to Zoe’s surprise – blossoming into love. When Zoe allows herself to start thinking of children again, she remembers that there are still frozen embryos that she and her husband never used.

But Max, having sought peace at the bottom of a bottle, has found redemption in an evangelical church, and Zoe needs his permission to take his unborn child . . .

SING YOU HOME is accompanied by a soundtrack of original songs created for the novel by Jodi Picoult and Ellen Wilber.

Review.

I have been struggling with my current paper book (1Q84…although apparently a rest was all I needed) so I thought it would be a good idea to try an old favourite, as it were. Sing You Home has just come out in paperback, and I had been waiting for it anyway so when I spotted it half-price at WhSmiths I had to snap it up.

I’ve found Jodi Picoult’s writing a little up-and-down lately. Handle with Care is a relatively recent one and it’s my favourite, and I enjoyed House Rules but I was less than impressed by Second Glance and wasn’t that keen on Picture Perfect. Add to that the publishers recent tendency to re-release obviously old novels and you can see why I was a little anxious when it came to reading this one.

Luckily is seems that Picoult is on form with this one. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it as much as some of her other work but it was certainly up to her usual standard. I found it very clever how Picoult managed to make the reader almost want both sides of the party to ‘win’. I really liked Zoe and Vanessa but I liked Max too. I guess I could say I saw both sides of the story and although I ultimately came down on Zoe and Vanessa’s side I didn’t want Max to loose out and I really could see where he was coming from. Considering Picoult has a gay son (this is mentioned in the notes for the book) it seemed almost professional that she was able to present Max’s side.

There was one little niggle I had though and that was to do with how Max’s legal team handled his case. Now I am no legal expert, but even I could see that there was a better way to fight his corner.

4.5/5

Buy it:

Paperback (£3.86)

Hardback (£11.66)

Kindle (£4.99)

House of Silence- Linda Gillard

Image from Amazon

Synopsis (from Amazon)

“My friends describe me as frighteningly sensible, not at all the sort of woman who would fall for an actor. And his home. And his family.”

Orphaned by drink, drugs and rock n’ roll, Gwen Rowland is invited to spend Christmas at her boyfriend Alfie’s family home, Creake Hall – a ramshackle Tudor manor in Norfolk. She’s excited about the prospect of a proper holiday with a proper family, but soon after she arrives, Gwen senses something isn’t quite right. Alfie acts strangely toward his family and is reluctant to talk about the past. His mother, a celebrated children’s author, keeps to her room, living in a twilight world, unable to distinguish between past and present, fact and fiction. And then there’s the enigma of an old family photograph…

When Gwen discovers fragments of forgotten family letters sewn into an old patchwork quilt, she starts to piece together the jigsaw of the past and realises there’s more to the family history than she’s been told. It seems there are things people don’t want her to know.

And one of those people is Alfie…

Review

When I found out that Linda Gillard’s new book was only coming out in digital format I was disappointed. I didn’t have a Kindle and I wanted to read it (and honestly reading on my ipod really ruins the reading experience). So when I got my Kindle it was one of the first books I bought. Having really liked Emotional Geology and Star Gazing, and loving A Lifetime Burning, I had pretty high hopes for this one.

Were my hopes met? Well I enjoyed it certainly, and although it took a little getting in to I didn’t want it to stop by the end. The old manor house and family intrigue put me in mind of Kate Morton’s The Distant Hours, and for some reason parts of plots began to blend in my head after I had read this one. It’s strange because apart from an old house and family secrets there is very little similarity. You don’t expect the same sort of secrets (even if at certain points it seems to be going that way you are shocked by it and expect even at the time for it not to be as it seems). There is the love element which The Distant Hours doesn’t have.

The one love interest in the book is pretty classic Gillard. Not the strong handsome type of chick-lit but sensitive, and flawed with a past that makes him more that just ‘the love interest’. The other, at least initially, seems much more your standard ‘hero’ type, handsome, charming, witty, but somewhat fake. I liked them both though [highlight for spoiler]In fact for once I didn’t like the woman so much. Well maybe that’s not true, I did like Gwen. Maybe really I mean I wouldn’t have made the choice she did. I preferred Alfie most of the way through, and by the end it was quite a close call.

I wouldn’t say it is Gillard’s best work of what I have read but still certainly worth the read.

4/5

Buy it:

For Kindle

The Truth About Us- Dalene Flannigan

Image from Amazon

This book was given to me free of charge in exchange for a honest review.

Synopsis (from Amazon)

What happens when the past catches up to the present and the truth surfaces? Three women, roommates back in college, find their lives forever altered when one of them feels compelled to confess the secret sin of their past.

And whose truth is it?

‘The Truth About Us’ weaves the past and the present in a page-turner that explores the shifting quality of truth, and the cost of secrets.

Review

Well I can honesty say that this is probably the best self-published novel I’ve read to date. (Not that I’ve read many, but I think I’ve read enough to be sure of that much). I often find that when stories are up to scratch with self-published novels there are problems with editing, which is understandable as the author won’t have a whole team of editors and proofreaders behind them. I found few problems with editing with this book though, there were only a couple of times I thought something should be changed (and I’m really bad for spotting things like that).
Readability wise it was a quick and easy read but more substantial than easy reads tend to be. I really felt for the characters, especially Erica, and even understood Jude up to a point. I’m not sure I can exactly side with Grace but it certainly is somewhat of a moral dilemma, especially when taken with the twist at the end.
I must admit that I found Jude the most interesting character, she just seemed so naive in a way that was kind of difficult to understand.

4/5

The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts- Louis de Bernieres

Image from Amazon

Synopsis (from Amazon)

When the spoilt and haughty Dona Constanza tries to divert a river to fill her swimming pool, she starts a running battle with the locals. The skirmishes are so severe that the Government dispatches a squadron of soldiers led by the fat, brutal and stupid Figueras to deal with them.

Despite visiting plagues of laughing fits and giant cats upon the troops, the villagers know that to escape the cruel and unusual tortures planned for them, they must run. Thus they plan to head for the mountains and start a new and convivial civilisation.

Note: I do not feel that this synopsis adequately describes the book. However I am at a loss of how I can describe it any better while still allowing some of the…plot to be hinted at so I am using this for lack of anything better.

Review

Oh why had a never heard of this book before? I can’t even remember seeing it in bookstores (despite the fact that it is the first in a series and still in print). For so long I have been looking for a Louis de Bernieres novel which meets up to my experience of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin which is one of my favourite books. I had seen Senor Vivo & The Coca Lord a number of times and considered buying it but was never convinced (it is probably a good thing seeing as it is further along in the same series). Well I can certainly say I want to read it now!

I suppose you can guess that I really enjoyed this book. I think it sis one of the most unique books I have ever read. It’s full of all kinds of strange happenings. Those who watch my twitter feed may have noticed me commenting that I had never read a book where a woman gave birth to a cat before, and that gives you just an idea of some of the strange things that happen in this book!

It did take me a little time to get into, but once I was into it you couldn’t get me away from it, and I generally find that I end up loving books more when they have been hard work. There was a point where the main strangeness was that I couldn’t work out how it would all come together. It seemed for a long time that there were just lots of individual storylines which weren’t connected, or at least barely connected, and I kept getting the characters mixed up. However after a while I began to work things out a bit more, and even became disappointed when a chapter end because I knew it would be a while before I found out what would happen to that character, and the stories began to join together a bit more.

I can’t say there was a character I didn’t enjoy reading about by the end but I did especially like reading about the President. I also enjoyed how different sides of the same story were shown so that even though there were some horrible acts they never really seemed to be done by horrible men because you not only saw their consequences but also how they came about.

I cannot wait to read the rest of the series

5/5

 

If anyone knows where I read the review of this book which prompted me to read it can you let me know so I can credit them please?

The President’s Last Love- Andrey Kurkov

From Amazon

Synopsis (from Amazon)

Moscow, 2013. Bunin, the Ukrainian President, has joined other heads of state in an open air swimming pool to drink vodka and celebrate with Putin. During his rise to power Bunin has juggled with formidable and eccentric political and personal challenges. His troubles with his family and his women combine with his difficulties with corrupt businessmen and demanding international allies, but it is his recent heart transplant that worries him most. Since the operation he has started to develop freckles, and his heart donor’s mysterious widow seems to have moved in with him…

Spanning forty years, The President’s Last Love is a hilarious satire on love, lies and life before and after the Iron Curtain.

Review

Andrey Kurkov is one of those writers I keep forgetting about and then re-discovering. I first encountered him work with Death And The Penguin
several years ago but since reading that and its sequel (Penguin Lost) I forgot about him until I read about him in The Complete Polysylabbic Spree, which led me to reading A Matter of Death and Life. After reading that I vowed not to forget him, but it wasn’t until I saw some of his books on display in Waterstones that I remembered my vow. I immediately bought this book and added a few more to my wishlist.
I really do not know why I keep forgetting Kurkov, I always enjoy his books. They tend to be easy to read but there is a certain strangeness to them that makes you feel like you have something to puzzle out.

I would say I prefer the Penguin books over this one, just because of the character of the penguin himself, and the main character’s relationship with him (which is probably reflected in the fact that I remember the penguin’s name, but not that of his owner). I did find I had a little confusion when switching between chapters (each of which were focused on one of 3 periods in the president’s (Bunin’s) life) and working out where I was in relation to other chapters, especially as each individual story got more complex. I also had a little trouble distinguishing the women in his life from one another, especially when they overlapped into each others time frames.
You could probably make three novellas from this book as it was like three stories in one but I kind of liked reading them alongside each other and it was clever how sometimes something from one time frame would explain something in another. However I did want some of the stories to carry on as I was interested to see how Bunin got to where he was in the last timeline.

Certainly a good read, and fairly easy, but if you have never encountered Kurkov before I would recommend Death and the Penguin as a better starting point.

4.5/5

On an aside I love the old style cover art for these books, all my over Kurkov books are the old style but now they seem to have all changed to the new style. Ah well what will be will be, cover art doesn’t make the book after all.

Alison Wonderland- Helen Smith

I was sent a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Synopsis (from Amazon)

After her husband leaves her for another woman, twentysomething Londoner Alison Temple impulsively applies for a job at the very P.I. firm she hired to trap her philandering ex. She hopes it will be the change of scene she so desperately needs to move on with her shattered life. At the all-female Fitzgerald’s Bureau of Investigation, she spends her days tracking lost objects and her nights shadowing unfaithful husbands. But no matter what the case, none of her clients can compare to the fascinating characters in her personal life. There’s her boss, the estimable and tidy Mrs. Fitzgerald; Taron, Alison’s eccentric best friend, who claims her mother is a witch; Jeff, her love-struck, poetry-writing neighbor; and—last but not least—her psychic postman. Her relationships with them all become entangled when she joins Taron for a road trip to the seaside and stumbles into a misadventure of epic proportions! Clever, quirky, and infused with just a hint of magic, this humorous literary novel introduces a memorable heroine struggling with the everyday complexities of modern life.

Review.

The first thing that springs to mind with this book is how different it it, but at the same time how mundane it can be. I still can’t really decide if I liked it or not. I think I just didn’t ‘get’ it. It wasn’t that it wasn’t entertaining, it’s just, well, nothing that much really happened. I can’t go as far as to say there was no storyline but somehow the storyline (or more storylines really) didn’t really seem to matter, it just seemed to be a way to join strange occurances together.

3/5

American Wife- Curtis Sittenfeld

Image from The Book Depository

Synopsis (from Amazon)

In the year 2000, in the closest election in American history, Alice Blackwell’s husband becomes president of the United States. Their time in the White House proves to be heady, tumultuous, and controversial. But it is Alice’s own story – that of a kind, bookish, only child born in the 1940s Midwest who comes to inhabit a life of dizzying wealth and power – that is itself remarkable. Alice candidly describes her small-town upbringing, and the tragedy that shaped her identity; she recalls her early adulthood as a librarian, and her surprising courtship with the man who swept her off her feet; she tells of the crisis that almost ended their marriage; and she confides the privileges and difficulties of being first lady, a role that is uniquely cloistered and public, secretive and exposed.

Review.

I read a fair few positive reviews of this book around about a year ago and added it to my wishlist. It’s not the sort of book I would have bought, although I may have been a little interested if I picked it up in-store, but the reviews convinced me somewhat. (I can’t remember where I read the reviews now, but if it was on your blog, thank you). In the end I got it off Bookmooch (which is a great site by the way, I get lots of books that way).

When I logged the book on Goodreads I had a quick flick through the reviews and a few readers were saying that knowing that Alice was loosely based on Laura Bush made them view the book differently and less like fiction. Luckily I know next to nothing about Laura Bush so it didn’t really affect my reading of it. The only way it did affect my reading was that I wondered if some things were true. I wouldn’t recommenned researching Laura Bush before reading American Wife, however, if you know little about her as I do. In some ways I don’t think it was a good idea for Sittenfeld to pronounce the similarity between Laura Bush and Alice, at least at the beggining of the novel. I think if you already knew a lot about Laura Bush you would probably work it out, and knowing before reading the book could impact your reading of it. I considered not mentioning it here but as it is stated at the start of the book I don’t think it really matters where the knowledge comes from.

I did really enjoy this book. I got more engrossed in it than I expected too, and it sort of had more plot that I expected. I suppose I thought that a lot of it would be about being a President’s Wife, or at least a political wife, but for the most part Alice could have been almost any person from a middle-class background who married into money. It is more a book about class, about marriage, and just about life in general than it is about being a President’s Wife. That still does not make it sound so intriguing but I did find it a rather more emotional book than I had expected. Oh and there was more sex than I was expecting! I tried not to picture George Bush *shudder*. I don’t think I can really say more without giving away important plot points.

I do wonder if Laura Bush knows the contents of this book? I can imagine some things she may not be happy about.

4.5/5

Laura Bush on Wikipedia