elkiedee's 3rd thread, so little time, so many reviews to write

Here's my first thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/106175

Here's my second thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/112926

166. 07.07 Charlaine Harris, Dead to the World (3.8)

167. 10.07 Jim Kelly, Death Toll (4.2)

168. 12.07 Esi Edugyan, Half Blood Blues - Bookbag review (4.3)

169. 12.07 Winifred Holtby, Anderby Wold (4.3)

170. 13.07 Siri Hustvedt, The Summer Without Men (4.0)

171. 14.07 Isabel Ashdown, Hurry Up and Wait (4.1)

172. 14.07 Johan Theorin, The Quarry (4.2)

173. 15.07 Marghanita Laski, The Village (4.2)

174. 16.07 Rowan Coleman, Lessons in Laughing Out Loud

175. 17.07 Lawrence Block (ed), Manhattan Noir 2

176. 19.07 Alison Bruce, Cambridge Blue

177. 19.07 Jan Wong, Chinese Whispers

178. 20.07 Marghanita Laski, The Victorian Chaise-Longue

179. 21.07 Elizabeth Speller, The Return of Captain John Emmett

180. 24.07 K J A Wishnia, 23 Shades of Black

181. 26.07 Veronica Stallwood, Oxford Proof

182. 30.07 Cathi Unsworth, The Singer

183. 30.07 Mary Coughlan, Bloody Mary: My Story

184. 31.07 Camilla Lackberg, The Ice Princess

185. 31.07 Olga Grushin, The Concert Ticket

186. 03.08 Peter Lovesey, The Vault

187. 05.08 Alison Pick, Far to Go

188. 05.08 Paul Scheffer, Immigrant Nations

189. 06.08 Jane Lovering, Please Don’t Stop the Music

190. 07.08 Jake Wallis Simons, The English German Girl

191. 08.08 Catherine O’Flynn, What Was Lost

192. 09.08 Laura Schwartz, A Serious Endeavour

193. 10.08 Roger Moorhouse, Berlin at War

194. 10.08 Patricia Wastvedt, The German Boy

195. 11.08 Margaret James, The Silver Locket

196. 11.08 Barbara Pym, Jane and Prudence

197. 14.08 Evelyn Juers, House of Exile

198. 15.08 Margaret James, The Golden Chain

199. 15.08 Vere Hodgson, Few Eggs and No Oranges

200. 16.08 Bo Tao Michaelis (ed), Copenhagen Noir

201. 17.08 Mary Hooper, At the Sign of the Sugared Plum

202. 18.08 Priya Basil, The Obscure Logic of the Heart

203. 19.08 Mary Hooper, Petals in the Ashes

204. 19.08 Martin Davies, The Year After

205. 21.09 Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger’s Child

206. 21.09 Mary Hooper, Fallen Grace

207. 21.08 Amanda Coe , What They Do in the Dark

208. 23.08 Christine Dwyer Hickey, Last Train from Liguria

209. 25.08 Mark Ellis, Princes Gate

210. 25.08 Fay Weldon, Chalcot Crescent

211. 26.08 Mary Hooper, The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose

212. 27.08 Carola Dunn, Death at Wentwater Court

213. 27.08 Emma Christopher, A Merciless Place

214. 28.08 Alexander Maksik, You Deserve Nothing

215. 28.08 Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending

216. 29.08 Lucy Jago, Montacute House

217. 30.08 Stella Duffy, Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore

218. 31.08 Yvette Edwards, A Cupboard Full of Coats

219. 01.09 Janine di Giovanni, Ghosts by Daylight

220. 03.09 Elizabeth Speller, The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton

221. 03.09 Anna Gavalda, Breaking Away

222. 04.09 Sue Moorcroft, Want to Know a Secret?

223. 05.09 D J Connell, Sherry Cracker Gets Normal

224. 07.09 S J Rozan, Out for Blood

225. 07.09 Judith Kerr, A Small Person Far Away

226. 09.09 Eleanor Brown, The Weird Sisters

227. 09.09 Caitlin Moran, How to be a Woman

228. 10.09 Juliet Archer, The Importance of Being Emma

229. 11.09 Anna Funder, All That I Am

230. 11.09 Lynn Peril, Swimming in the Steno Pool

231. 13.09 Mary Hooper, Velvet

232. 13.09 Sonia Faleiro, Beautiful Thing

233. 16.09 Elle Newmark, The Sandalwood Tree

234. 16.09 Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White

235. 17.09 Sue Moorcroft, All That Mullarkey

236. 19.09 Margaret Mazzantini, Twice Born

237. 19.09 Deborah Crombie, Where Memories Lie

238. 20.09 Louise Douglas, The Secrets Between Us

239. 21.09 Barbara Pym, Excellent Women

240. 21.09 Tazeen Ahmad, The Checkout Girl

Wow, that's a lot of reading Luci. Congratulations on completing your third 75 books for the year.

That is a fantastic amount of reading, well done!

I enjoyed your Doris Lessing review in this month's New Books magazine. Good luck with catching up with any other necessary reviews!

oops, that made no sense at all (I posted something I meant to put in an email to someone else on here!)

Dee, I didn't know that you got New Books Magazine. Or do you see it in the library?

Found your new thread. You seem to have more than one sequence of numbering going on in your list of books which confused me - but whatever the numbers mean, that's an awful lot of books!

I've copied the lists from a Word document recording books read, and the numbers which come from that are the day of the month when I read it. I'm tidying those bits up, but I've read 237 books and will finish at least one more tonight.

Luci, I gave up on your old thread, but here I am again absolutely floored by the amount of reading you've done this year. What an inspiration!

Hi Luci. I signed up for three copies of New Books magazine after you mentioned them on your thread so thanks for that. They sent me a copy of Margaret's Forster's Daphne du Maurier biog to review but I will be surprised if they use my review. I found it very difficult to keep to the 150 words they asked for and it ended up not having much substance!

Catching up; I got behind while I was on vacation.

However, while I was on vacation, I stayed at the Panama Hotel in Seattle, which is mentioned at the beginning of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which you just read! (Or just posted about reading, anyway)

166. 07.07 Charlaine Harris, Dead to the World

167. 10.07 Jim Kelly, Death Toll

168. 12.07 Esi Edugyan, Half Blood Blues 4.4

Reviewed for the Bookbag - I submitted my review the day the longlist came out!

Sid and his friend Chip are revisiting their youth, more than 50 years ago. They were jazz musicians, living and working in Berlin and Paris, until they had to escape Nazi occupied Paris in 1940 to return to Baltimore. Now it is 1992, and all the others they worked with are long since dead. They have just been involved in a documentary about their experiences, and are about to return to Germany (soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall) for a jazz festival in memory of the great Hiero Falk. Hieronymus Falk was a young black German musician with an exceptional musical talent, the star of their band, the Hot-Time Swingers. He was picked up by 'the Boots' as Sid refers to the Germans, in Paris in 1940, and disappeared into a concentration camp, then they heard he was released but died in 1948.

Just before the trip, Chip comes round to see Sid with some startling, shocking news. Hiero is alive and has written asking them to visit him in northern Poland.

I was particularly impressed by the powerful portrayal of the band's last days in Paris, and by the characterisation - the characters are often not very likeable, but I thought it was well done.

My full review is here:

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Half-Blood_Blues_by_Esi_Edug...

241. 21.09 Mari Strachan, Blow on a Dead Man's Embers

242. 21.09 Margaret Bonham, The Casino (4.0)

243. 22.09 Pauline Black, Black by Design (4.2)

244. 23.09 Mons Kallentoft, Midwinter Sacrifice (4.3)

245. 24.09 ed Tim McLoughlin, Brooklyn Noir 3 (4.3)

246. 24.09 Sydney Taylor, All-of-a-Kind Family (4.7)

247. 26.09 Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge

248. 26.09 Siddartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies

249. 26.09 Sue Moorcroft, Starting Over

250. 27.09 Stella Gibbons, Starlight

251. 27.09 Roald Dahl, Matilda

252. 27.09 Anne Digby, First Term at Trebizon

253. 28.09 Fiona Kidman, Paddy's Puzzle

254. 28.09 Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

255. 28.09 Anne Digby, Second Term at Trebizon

169. 12.07 Winifred Holtby, Anderby Wold 4.3

I was a bit nervous about rereading this - I didn't expect it to be as good as South Riding - but I really enjoyed this, Holtby's first novel. Mary and her husband run a farm, and although she's only 28 the pressures of her responsibilities make her act about 50. She reads a book by a socialist agitator, and her farm workers are starting to organise for better pay and conditions - then she meets the author of the book who's been urging the workers on, and though their views are a long way apart they get on surprisingly well. I thought the social comedy was very funny although there's a serious, and sad, part of the story too.

170. 13.07 Siri Hustvedt, The Summer Without Men 4.0

NCT reading group book choice

171. 14.07 Isabel Ashdown, Hurry Up and Wait 4.1

Hallo Luci - woo for a new thread (I may just be able to keep up with this one)!!

#19 Looking forward to your comments on the Winifred Holtby, having finally read South Riding this year, I'm undecided whether to read anything else she's written...

#18 What did you think of the new Mari Strachan? It's not badly priced for the kindle atm and I am wondering whether to succumb to temptation.

#22 I bought a lot of other Winifred Holtby books on the strength of South Riding and haven't managed to read a single one yet (*hangs head in shame*).

I have to write a review of Blow on a Dead Man's Embers at some point, but I need to prioritise Bookbag/Curious Book Fans/Transworld/ER and other books sent to me for review, as the next Vine night is 4 weeks away now (the requirement is to have reviewed 75% of what has been sent, which normally means at least 3 out of 4 books - we were given an extra last month because of a glitch - I've just asked for two books which sound promsing off the latest list!

Anyway, I really liked it - Non is a young woman in 1920s Wales trying to come to terms with the impact of WWI on her husband and family - she goes to London to uncover the mysteries of what happened during the war. I think it's worth buying and I'm sure I would Kindle it if I hadn't had another chance at a review copy (someone else nabbed the CBF copy first) and the current Kindle price is similar to a mass market paperback on Amazon. There is a review at www.curiousbookfans.co.uk if you need more help.

Wow, so you really do have to read....for me its just a compulsion but I'd love to say to my partner, sorry, I have to finish my book now, you'll have to cook dinner!

172. 14.07 Johan Theorin, The Quarry (4.2)

173. 15.07 Marghanita Laski, The Village (4.2)

174. 16.07 Rowan Coleman, Lessons in Laughing Out Loud

175. 17.07 Lawrence Block (ed), Manhattan Noir 2

I thought that I would try to post what I'm reading at the moment

Just finished

Sydney Taylor, All of a Kind Family - TIOLI Jewish characters, about an early 20th century Jewish family on New York City's lower East Side, lovely. This was new to me but I had the sequel as a child and plan to reread that now.

current reading

Siddartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies - heard of here first, then discovered it was an Amazon Vine book so took the chance to get it this month
Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge - TIOLI character's full name in title
Stella Gibbons, Starlight - published in 1967, set in 60s London - TIOLI 9 letter title

Roald Dahl, Matilda - TIOLI author with September birthday
Fiona Kidman, Paddy's Puzzle - TIOLI NZ setting
Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers - TIOLI summer reading challenge, matched read - had already downloaded for Kindle
Sue Moorcroft, Starting Over - TIOLI primary colours another Choc Lit download with a blue cover

I loved All-of-a Kind Family when I was little! I read all of the sequels.

176. 19.07 Alison Bruce, Cambridge Blue

177. 19.07 Jan Wong, Chinese Whispers: Searching for Forgiveness in Beijing

178. 20.07 Marghanita Laski, The Victorian Chaise-Longue

179. 21.07 Elizabeth Speller, The Return of Captain John Emmett

180. 24.07 K J A Wishnia, 23 Shades of Black

#30: I keep seeing the new edition of Starlight on my library's new books display, it looks interesting.

181. 26.07 Veronica Stallwood, Oxford Proof

182. 30.07 Cathi Unsworth, The Singer 4.4

183. 30.07 Mary Coughlan, Bloody Mary: My Story

184. 31.07 Camilla Lackberg, The Ice Princess

185. 31.07 Olga Grushin, The Concert Ticket

What did you think of the Mary Couglan book, Luci? I have that on my shelf.

It was an okay read - I love her music, and it was interesting to find out the stories behind the records and how they were produced. There was one album I always found disappointing and wasn't quite sure why - I have more idea now.

I'm planning to read The Concert Ticket in October finally so am looking forward to seeing your thoughts on that one.

44: Sounds interesting. I used to listen to Mary Coughlan a lot in the nineties and also remember being disappointed by one album. Looks like I'll have to read the book!

186. 03.08 Peter Lovesey, The Vault

187. 05.08 Alison Pick, Far to Go

188. 05.08 Paul Scheffer, Immigrant Nations 2.3

Review book for Amazon Vine

Paul Scheffer, a Dutch academic, sets out to address the "problems" caused by immigration from developing countries to Western Europe and the US. Immigrant Nations was first published in the Netherlands in 2007 but has been translated into English this year.

This book is a development of earlier pontifications on tensions between Dutch born people and Muslim immigrants, starting in 2000, and continuing after the political rise and assassination of populist and racist Dutch politician Pym Fortuyn.

In size and appearance, Immigrant Nations looks like an academic textbook, and it comes complete with over 50 pages of endnotes, bibliography and name and subject indexes (in a 400 page book). I would argue though that it is less academically trustworthy than it looks, and that this is a polemic whose author sets out to back up his arguments by quoting other sources, rather than carrying out balanced research.

As this is a Dutch book, much of his account of immigration to Europe looks at the Netherlands, though he also includes quite a lot on Britain and France. His emphasis is on the failure of immigrants from developing countries, and especially Muslims, to integrate. I do not feel confident to argue with him on the European countries described, but there are lots of examples of the problems with his approach in relation to Britain, which makes me suspicious of the rest of the book.

This is hardly a balanced account of the integration of immigrants (and especially those from Muslim developing countries) in Britain. Significantly, why does he only focus on cities like Bradford where communities are very divided? Why not look at more diverse communities in Leeds or London? Also, what about immigration from Eastern Europe, other English speaking countries like Australia and New Zealand (where my own grandparents were born within Irish immigrant families by the way), or at those of other religions, for example, Christians? I would question the academic rigour of anyone who quotes the well-known Islamophobe (as well as holder of a wide range of other prejudices) and Daily Mail columnist and broadcaster Melanie Phillips without mentioning that lots of people in Britain do not share her views.

One final comment on this book which is not about the content - the English translation is into oddly colloquial English, using a lot of contractions, and it reads oddly in a non-fiction book of this kind, for example "the man who'd welcomed me", "there's a need", "it's easy to see". I think "who had", "there is" and "it is" would be more appropriate.

On the positive side, I found this book very thought provoking and interesting to read, but I am very concerned by what I feel is an attempt to make racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia sound academically respectable (and I say that as a white atheist of both Catholic and protestant descent).

I was hoping for a book which offers a real analysis of the issues raised by immigration, and also, as the writer claims to favour integration of immigrant communities, suggests how our societies could offer immigrants and people still living in the country they were born in a better future. This is not it! A book I did enjoy and appreciate more on the subject of racial and national identities among other things, written by a journalist rather than an academic, is Gary Younge's Who Are We - And Should It Matter in the 21st Century?

189. 06.08 Jane Lovering, Please Don’t Stop the Music

190. 07.08 Jake Wallis Simons, The English German Girl

191. 08.08 Catherine O’Flynn, What Was Lost

192. 09.08 Laura Schwartz, A Serious Endeavour: Gender, Education and Community at St Hugh's, 1886-2011 4.4

Reviewed for the Bookbag

'A Serious Endeavour' is an account of the role of one Oxford college in the history of higher education for women. When it was first founded in 1886 there were very different views on what such education should be, even among its supporters. The university would not even grant female students degrees until 1920, and students were allowed to choose their own course of study and whether they would take formal exams or not before this.

Laura Schwartz draws together the threads of wide ranging research in a fascinating and readable story of St Hughes. Her sources include recent historical research and biography, but also 19th century writings on education, committee papers and student publications throughout the history of the college.

......
One of the best parts of this book is Schwartz’s examination of how the opportunities for young women to study and learn are supported by other women’s domestic labour, in the chapter, Who cleans a room of one’s own?

....

read the full review here

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=A_Serious_Endeavour:_Gender,...

193. 10.08 Roger Moorhouse, Berlin at War: Life and Death in Hitler's Capital, 1900-45 4.3

Reviewed for the Bookbag

Berlin at War is an account of the day to day lives of the ordinary people of Berlin, the then capital of Nazi Germany, during the Second World War. Berlin was heavily bombed throughout much of the war, and suffered greatly as the symbolic target of Allied forces at the end.

A lot of books about London in the Blitz have been published, as have lots of military books about the war and books on the causes and impact of Nazism. However, Roger Moorhouse contends that there are few such books about German social history in wartime, so he has set out to write this book, drawing extensively on primary sources such as wartime private diaries and published observations. He also interviewed many Germans who had lived through the experience.

In the prologue and first chapter, Moorhouse highlights the sharp contrast between the enthusiastic celebration of Hitler’s birthday in April 1939 and the announcement that Germany was at war (with Britain and France) just over 4 months later, on 1 September 1939. Many Berliners felt little enthusiasm for the war – they had lived through the first one – and at first, supporters hoped that he would be able to continue annexing other countries without declaring war. Also, Berlin was never a stronghold of Nazi support. This debunking of a stereotype sets the tone for the book, as Moorhouse tries hard to analyse the reality without falling back on preconceptions.
.................

I am more disappointed that this book doesn’t discuss women in the war much, for example how the outbreak of war changed Nazi policies towards women, their participation in the workforce.

................

On the whole, Berlin at War is fascinating and informative, manages to seem scholarly yet accessible, and is well worth reading for anyone with an interest in reading and writing about World War II.

See full review here:

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Berlin_at_War:_Life_and_Deat...

194. 10.08 Patricia Wastvedt, The German Boy

195. 11.08 Margaret James, The Silver Locket

256. 29.09 Alice Hoffman, Blue Diary (4.2)

257. 29.09 Sydney Taylor, More All-of-a-Kind Family (4.4)

258. 30.09 Anne Digby, Summer Term at Trebizon (3.3)

259. 01.10 Clare Chambers, In a Good Light (4.7)

260. 03.10 Frances Brody, Dying in the Wool (3.9)

261. 04.10 Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation (4.4)

262. 06.10 Camilla Lackberg, The Preacher (3.8)

263. 06.10 Jo Baker, The Picture Book (4.2)

264. 08.10 Anne Digby, Boy Trouble at Trebizon (3.3)

265. 09.10 Imogen Parker, The Time of Our Lives (4.3)

266. 09.10 Sally Gardner, The Double Shadow (4.1)

267. 11.10 Elizabeth Edmondson, Voyage of Innocence (4.1)

268. 13.10 Charlotte Moore, Hancox (4.7)

269. 14.10 Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, The Fallen Kings (3.9)

270. 14.10 Jacqueline Winspear, Maisie Dobbs (3.9)

#48 What did you think of Far to Go?

Current reading:

Frances Brody, Dying in the Wool - 1st Kate Shackleton mystery, set in Yorkshire in the 1920s. She reviewed a book I was reading on Goodreads, I think, and we exchanged a few posts. Kate lives in the area of Leeds where I grew up, Headingley. This would have fitted in as set in the county where I was born and brought up last month, I may put it under my own challenge but it also fits into the pseudonym challenge as Brody is a pseudonymn for Frances McNeil. I suspect there haven't been 150 conversations about it.

Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation - a girl and her mother move to Brooklyn from Hong Kong - this has had some poor reviews but I'm quite impressed so far. TIOLI author names are same length, and I've had it out of the library forever!

Jo Baker, The Picture Book - an Amazon Vine review book - a family story through various wars - TIOLI less than 150 convs

Imogen Parker, The Time of Our Lives - family saga set in the 1950s - TIOLI author names are same length, and I've had it out of the library forever!

Sally Gardner, The Double Shadow - an Amazon Vine review book, YA, alternate history I think - TIOLI less than 150 convs

Vasilly Grossman, Life and Fate - I've fallen for the Radio 4 hype - but I've been fascinated by the bits I've heard

The BBC dramatisation is available in podcast form for at least the next few days, do go and have a look, and also let me know if you're interested in some sort of shared discussion - it would fit into the 1910-1950 TIOLI but I'm not listing it now because I'm allowing for more time to read it.

A serious endeavour sounds fascinating, but I'll be giving Immigrant Nations a miss.

I've heard some bits of the dramatisation of Life and Fate, but not enough to get hooked. I don't think I'll try to read it at present because I'm concentrating on books already in the pile...

Hi. I liked your review of Immigrant Nations - it reminded me that I want to read Gary Younge's book!

I'd be interested in a group read of Life and Fate but not just now. I downloaded all the episodes to my itunes library before they disappear from the BBC site, and hope to listen to them gradually over the next few weeks.

196. 11.08 Barbara Pym, Jane and Prudence

197. 14.08 Evelyn Juers, House of Exile 4.3

TIOLI 3 word title with "of" in the middle! Amazon Vine review book

House of Exile is a work of creative non-fiction. It is a biography of a group of European intellectuals and those close to them, and of the devastating psychological impact for them of the rise of Nazism, the outbreak of war and enforced exile. Although non fiction, it is written in the style of a novel, and Juers frequently focuses on the thoughts and feelings of her characters. It should be said she is not totally imagining these - as most of the people portrayed here were writers, there are extensive records such as diaries and letters for her to draw on.

The story centres on Heinrich Mann and his lover, later his second wife, Nelly Kroeger, and on his more famous younger brother Thomas Mann. The many other writers whose lives are discussed in the pages include Bertolt Brecht and Virginia Woolf.

For me, Nelly's story is particularly memorable, and it was clearly a central concern of the author. She was 27 years younger than her husband and had spent a lot of her life in Berlin working as a barmaid, and has gone down in history as something of a bimbo. Perhaps it is significant that this portrait of her came from the letters of her brother in law Thomas Mann, who looked down on her.

In fact, she was the daughter of a fisherman, from a much more working class background than Heinrich, and had had the basic education available to a woman of her class. I really enjoyed learning about what this bookworm of nearly 100 years ago liked to read - she had quite a few books and would read in cafes before work, jotting down notes as she read. Intriguingly, her favourite books included Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary and Hedda Gabler, all by men about women. Juers describes the first meeting of Heinrich Mann and his future wife - she was reading in a café. This scene and many others in the book could come from a novel, but although Juers avoids interrupting her narrative with the footnotes/endnotes of a conventional biography, most of these story scenes draw on real correspondence and diaries.

Nelly also wrote down her own life story, but unfortunately for us after he read it Heinrich destroyed it and then used a lot of her work as a basis for a novel of his own. Juers is kinder to him about this than I felt reading about it.

The quality of the writing and the stories of how the subjects grew up and of the events in their lives make it all the sadder that most of them never really adjusted to new lives in exile, and many committed suicide in the 1930s and during the war.

This volume lacks some of the features that many biographies now come with. There are no photographs or pictures (most biographies now have at least one section of photographic plates). The author's Note on Sources runs to 11 pages detailing books and archives consulted but the book doesn't contain footnotes/endnotes or an index.

House of Exile is a challenging but memorable read and a fascinating approach to biography, and highly recommended.

198. 15.08 Margaret James, The Golden Chain

199. 15.08 Vere Hodgson, Few Eggs and No Oranges

The diary of a woman who lived through the Blitz in London, edited for publication in the 1970s and reprinted by Persephone. Some interesting stuff but I did find this a bit long and Vere got on my nerves at times, though I liked her better in the end.

200. 16.08 Bo Tao Michaelis (ed), Copenhagen Noir

One of my favourite of the Akashic Noir short story anthologies, though very different from most of the other Scandinavian crime fiction I've read. I hadn't realised that as a port, Copenhagen is quite an easy place to travel to Norway and Sweden from.

201. 17.08 Mary Hooper, At the Sign of the Sugared Plum

202. 18.08 Priya Basil, The Obscure Logic of the Heart 4.2

Transworld Challenge book - Transworld occasionally offer to send books out for review by readers in Europe (ie this is open to those of you on the Continent too, though this one is nearly over)

Two students meet and fall in love, but their very different backgrounds present a huge challenge to their relationship.

Lina is a British Muslim, the daughter of middle class Indian parents, brought up in Birmingham. She cares passionately about making a better society and about human rights, and she is religious. Anil is from a very wealthy privileged Kenyan Asian family, and has been brought up nominally Sikh but belief is not very fundamental to him. While studying in London, Anil and his friends have enjoyed a hedonistic lifestyle.

This is a long book at just over 500 pages, but I found it a really quick read, as I wanted to know what would happen to Lina and Anil. I found all the characters, even the ones I disliked, quite convincing, and I was carried along by the story. Looking back, I can see a lot of faults in the novel but it was a terrifically engaging good read.

The story is framed by a present day story set some years later. At the beginning, Anil is waiting to meet Lina after not seeing her for some years. So when we see their relationship, we already know it is threatened. Why have they not seen each other for so long, and what will come of them meeting up again?

I found Lina a more sympathetic character than Anil and his obnoxious friend Merc, with her principles, her concern for her family and her wish to help people. She sometimes does seem a bit naïve and I don’t really share her belief in the United Nations as a way of doing good, but I like her passion for human rights and her desire to actively work to challenge the dodgy antics of the arms trade in Africa and beyond.

Anil’s very privileged upbringing has made him rather arrogant. He takes it for granted that people will fall in with his ideas and he doesn’t understand Lina’s anxieties about hurting her family. It is hard to see at times what makes him such a romantic hero for her, but obviously he has a certain charm.

Of the other characters, the sarcastic, unfriendly Merc, who hopes that Anil and Lina will realise it can never work out and split up, offered a figure to enjoy hating in the story. I quite liked Lina’s friend Hans who is researching the illegal arms trade in Africa. The most interesting characters though are the parents, especially Lina’s father Shareef.

One of the ways Basil keeps her story exciting over such a long novel is to move it around the world as Lina takes up internships in Kenya and New York City. Even though I am really quite cynical, I was caught up with Lina’s excitement at possibly for helping refugee communities. However, there is not much in this story about how ordinary Kenyans live, as Anil and his friend come from such a wealthy background, and he is able to travel by plane quite impulsively as few British people could do.

Lina and Anil’s story is padded out with scenes told from the viewpoints of other characters, particularly those of her parents.

Through the novel, there are a number of letters written in the 1960s about another relationship across cultures. Who wrote them, who were they intended for and how do they relate to the main story? What does this additional storyline add to the main plot? I am not totally sure of the answers to some of these questions, and think that Basil could have written a more tightly focused novel.

However, I did really enjoy reading it and hope to read Priya Basil’s first novel soon.

The Obscure Logic of the Heart by Priya Basil
Published by Transworld/Black Swan, July 2011
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy of this book as part of the Transworld Reading Challenge.

203. 19.08 Mary Hooper, Petals in the Ashes

204. 19.08 Martin Davies, The Year After 4.2

Tom Allen has been invited to spend Christmas 1919 with the Stansbury family, at Hannesford Court in Devon. It has been more than 5 years, and the war has changed Tom, but he has survived, unlike Harry Stansbury – how will it have affected the rest of the family? One of Harry’s friends has concerns which he shares with Tom about what happened to Tom about past secrets, and perhaps horrible crimes.

The Year After is a very well written, evocative historical novel about a big house, a family and their friends. Through Tom, and other characters such as the beautiful young woman, Margot Stansbury, and Anne Gregory, Davies explores some of the uncertainties and confusions facing the English upper and middle classes just after the war.

I enjoyed reading this novel, a mixture of historical mystery, big house story and a bit of romance – it was a great read by a new to me author, whose other novels I hope to read soon.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through the Waterstones Cardholder scheme.

205. 21.09 Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger’s Child

206. 21.09 Mary Hooper, Fallen Grace

Children's picture book review at the Bookbag

Catherine & Laurence Anholt, We Love Bears

Two young children wake up one morning to find their teddy bear has come to life and is waiting to take them on an outing to a Teddy Bear Town. The simple text makes for a short and sweet bedtime read, always useful in our house. There are just a couple of lines of rhyming verse on each page, with a nice rhythm for easy reading aloud, and I think it could be enjoyed by quite young toddlers. However, I liked the amusing pictures, with lots of detail to look and discuss with slightly older siblings.

We never learn the children's names but the pictures suggest a little boy and his baby sister. Interestingly, the baby can walk but is wearing a babygro. Teddy Bear is bigger than the children who have gone out in his care but is dressed as a toddler in comfy dungarees.

Full review here:

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=We_Love_Bears_by_Catherine_A...

207. 21.08 Amanda Coe , What They Do in the Dark

Review just submitted to Curious Book Fans, will put up when that gets posted

208. 23.08 Christine Dwyer Hickey, Last Train from Liguria

209. 25.08 Mark Ellis, Princes Gate

210. 25.08 Fay Weldon, Chalcot Crescent

211. 26.08 Mary Hooper, The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose

212. 27.08 Carola Dunn, Death at Wentwater Court

213. 27.08 Emma Christopher, A Merciless Place

Amazon Vine review book

A Merciless Place is the story of a disastrous episode in the history of British penal policy and the Empire.

Deportation was offered as an alternative to the gallows in Britain. This doesn't mean that all convicts were murderers, as many petty thieves, rioters and others deemed undesirable for a number of reasons could be sentenced to death or deportation. Until the late 18th century, most convicts were shipped off to America. After independence though, the new republic made it very clear that they were no longer prepared to be a dumping ground for convicts.

West Africa was chosen as a new destination. Convicts were to be used to guard slave cargos being transported back to ships, and set up new trading posts.

A Merciless Place focuses on the criminals and crew on board the HMS Mackerel, who landed in West Africa in 1781. Few of them had long left to live - many died from illness, some were killed by others there. Crime and brutality in Africa was not the preserve of convicted criminals, and nor were those on the ship who weren't convicts entirely happy to be there.

Deportation to Africa was soon found to be so disastrous that this policy was abandoned, although then convicts were sent off to help build Australia instead.

There are a few photographic plates, but showing drawings and paintings of some of the figures in the book and the places mentioned. Detailed endnotes expand on some of the points made in the text, and there is an index. At the front, two maps show late 18th century convict destinations and the West African coast.

This history is thoroughly researched yet accessibly presented and written, achieving a good balance between scholarship and readability. I found it really interesting to read, both for the history of crime and punishment in London and the grim story of what happened in Africa.

214. 28.08 Alexander Maksik, You Deserve Nothing

Amazon Vine review book

This novel is set in an International School in Paris in 2002/2003, and is told through the eyes of two students and one of their teachers. Will is in his early 30s, bored by teaching and keen to try harder to make a difference to his students. Gilad really looks up to him, at least until he learns of Will's affair with Marie, one of his other students.

I had mixed feelings about this novel. I was interested in the school setting, albeit a very privileged one, and by the Paris setting, though it's within an International School, an institution of its own which can be very separated from the actual location.

Maksik writes very convincingly about his characters' feelings of alienation from their setting, but for me, the voices were not distinct enough, and the literary references were perhaps a bit overdone.

Still, there was enough that appealed to me here that I would read another book by this author.

215. 28.08 Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending

Man Booker Prize winner - not sure that I've ever read the winner or so many of the shortlist/longlist before the announcement before (I read this at the longlist stage)

216. 29.08 Lucy Jago, Montacute House

YA historical novel about witchcraft and attitudes to it, bargain during Kindle summer sale.

217. 30.08 Stella Duffy, Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore 4.5

Sent to me by Virago Bookclub/First Look scheme

Theodora had to earn a living on the stage since she was five, after her father was killed by his own bear. In her teens she also becomes a prostitute. Yet she ended up as Empress. Not surprisingly, she remains one of the more controversial and colourful figures of the Roman Empire.

In Theodora: Empress, Actress, Whore, Stella Duffy takes some of what is known about Theodora of 6th century Constantinople and turns it into a lively, rollicking historical novel. Theodora is an intelligent young woman who learns and takes on several different roles successfully. This is Duffy’s 12th novel but her first foray into historical fiction.

The story is told as a third person narrative, but it is often so vivid I think I must have been reading Theodora herself telling me it in the first person. Duffy also uses a lot of dialogue, often shown in quotation marks but without using “she said” or “he said” – this technique of writing bits like scenes from a play seems very appropriate for a story about a performer and actress and gives the story more immediacy. At the same time, using the third person, Duffy can report her heroine’s feelings and emotions in a way which would seem unrealistic in the first person. The dialogue includes quite a lot of swear words – they are not there to shock, but seem appropriate to the way in which the writer imagines her characters speaking and to the discussions they are having.

I was shocked by some scenes, particularly at the beginning where 11 year old Theodora is being brutally trained for theatre work – her teacher sounds like a thug and a bully yet she loves him (not in a sexual way) and continues to remember him with affection.

The author's forthright opinions on women's rights, sexuality and everything else are apparent here. I really enjoyed this, although others may object to the imagining of this real historical woman as a feminist icon. Various scenes show how the system is set up to oppress women and how Theodora resists this.

Despite the novel’s provocative title, Theodora's days as a performer and sex worker are mostly over at the start of the story in this book, and it is not another prostitute’s memoir turned into a novel and given a historical setting for flavour. There are quite a few sex scenes - sometimes the sex is recreational or romantic, sometimes it is for other purposes.

Between her life as a child actress and prostitute (or courtesan) and becoming Empress, Theodora travelled to Africa as the mistress of a man who had been sent there as governor. After this relationship ends messily, she had a series of adventures including religious conversion and a friendship/relationship with another woman before returning to Constantinople. I particularly enjoyed the part of the story involving a woman called Macedonia. The religious part of the story is interesting and important, as it was part of what happened next, but I am not sure I fully understood it. There is more to come before the end of the novel as there is the extraordinary story of how a woman from a lowly social class and of a questionable background became Empress.

I found the story of Stella Duffy’s Theodora compelling and entertaining and I would love to spend more time with her if there is a sequel.

Glad to see you enjoyed Theodora and I've also added A Merciless Place to my wishlist as that sounds really interesting. I don't think I'd realised convicts had been sent to Africa as well as American and Australia.

What did you think of the Mary Hooper books? I read The Sign of the Sugared Plum but found it rather flat and I can't decide whether to try another one of her books.

And I've just noticed you are well into your fourth time for reading 75 books this year - congratulations!

I got quite caught up in all the Mary Hooper books, 4 of them were quite cheap either in paperback or Kindle at the time, they've gone up since. I thought At the Sign of the Sugared Plum was the weakest, perhaps Fallen Grace was the best.

#86 Perhaps I'll try Fallen Grace then - I've just noticed I have it tagged as a bookbag recommendation anyway.

218. 31.08 Yvette Edwards, A Cupboard Full of Coats

Orange Prize longlist, and debut novel by a black London writer.

219. 01.09 Janine di Giovanni, Ghosts by Daylight

220. 03.09 Elizabeth Speller, The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton

221. 03.09 Anna Gavalda, Breaking Away (original title L'Echappee Belle, US title French Leave) 4.5

222. 04.09 Sue Moorcroft, Want to Know a Secret?

223. 05.09 D J Connell, Sherry Cracker Gets Normal

224. 07.09 S J Rozan, Out for Blood (US title On the Line) 3.6

Amazon Vine review book -#10 in Lydia Chin/Bill Smith book

Out for Blood (originally published in the US under the title On the Line) is the 10th novel in a series featuring New York City private investigators Bill Smith and Lydia Chin. It opens with Bill receiving an alarming phone call - Lydia has been kidnapped and he has 12 hours to find her or she will die.

I look forward to new books in this series but was disappointed in Out for Blood. First, Lydia is one of my favourite characters and, given her situation, she is absent in this one. I miss the dialogue and teamwork between Bill and Lydia, who have worked together for a long time.

Also, I like reading about fictional PIs who are hired by other people to take on real cases. The books about personal cases are often weaker, and I'm not that keen on against the clock thrillers.
I do like some of the recurring characters from the series who are enlisted by Bill to help him rescue Lydia - Linus the young computer prodigy and Lydia's police detective friend Mary. They are not enough though to make up for Lydia's absence.

If you've not read S J Rozan before, don't start here. Trail of Blood (US title: The Shanghai Moon is one of my favourite books in the series, but I enjoyed it more because I have read all the others. For series order obsessives, China Trade and Concourse are the first two books in the series.

225. 07.09 Judith Kerr, A Small Person Far Away

I'm really keen to read The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton after recently reading and greatly enjoying The Return of Captain John Emmett. How does it compare?

I've heard lots of good things about the Elizabeth Speller books. Sorry the Rozan was a bit of a disappointment. I found the second and third books on bookmooch after enjoying China Trade last year so I have a bit of catching up to do with that series.

Thanks for your review of Theodora - I'm so much looking forward to reading that one!

It's probably a bit late for people even here, and I'm sorry for those of you outside Britain, but the Guardian newspaper gave away an amazing collection of short stories today, previously unpublished stories by 10 writers including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Margaret Atwood, Mohsin Hamid, Helen Simpson, Hisham Matar, Polly Samson, Rose Tremain, William Trevor .... I had to enter it manually and then found that 3 people had already done it (and 2 had a much better pic than the ebay one I found). I'll look out for charity shop copies or others that I can find (it's quite a small book so wouldn't cost much to post)

Oh, saw this post too late in the day!

I've posted on my thread that Stella Duffy among others is going to be Writer in Residence next year for a month at Gladstone's Library, I discovered from a e-newsletter they've just sent out. It doesn't say which month, but I'm quite tempted if possible to visit while she's there - I'm sure there would be fascinating meal-time conversations with her around. I've even suggested we might try a residential LT meet up there during that period...

I got the Guardian's little book, too - what a great giveaway!

100: Genny, I saw your suggestion earlier, it sounds like a great idea, but I'd have to think about it.

An event which I used to go to regularly and haven't for a few years, which I think you and Heather might enjoy is the St Hilda's Crime conference, at St Hilda's college in Oxford, usually mid-August. Accommodation is in student rooms at the college, and a lot of the papers are by current crime writers talking about other crime writers, including Golden Age authors and newer ones. The content is of a very high standard, and you may find yourself having dinner with a famous writer, one year I got to eavesdrop on Val McDermid, a St Hilda's old girl and regular at the conference, remiscing about her college days with the organiser of the event.

That sounds interesting.

#102 Definitely. Thanks Luci. I've been eyeing the weekend courses for 2012 at the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education. It's more 19th century stuff than modern authors but I have my eye on the Dickens Bicentennial day as well as the Edith Wharton one.

226. 09.09 Eleanor Brown, The Weird Sisters

227. 09.09 Caitlin Moran, How to be a Woman

228. 10.09 Juliet Archer, The Importance of Being Emma

A present day retelling of Emma as chicklit, published by Choc Lit.

229. 11.09 Anna Funder, All That I Am 4.7

To be reviewed for Curious Book Fans - a story of anti Nazi refugees in exile

At long last - it's only taken me 4.5 months!

“When Hitler came to power, I was in the bath”.

In Sydney, Australia in the 1990s, Dora Becker receives a package, containing the writings of a long dead friend. Those writings and the memories of Dora, a German woman now in her nineties, form the narrative structure of this thought provoking novel. I have read a lot of novels and non fiction about this period recently, but All That I Am is more than just another tale about more victims and survivors of Nazism.

Please see the rest of my review at:

http://www.curiousbookfans.co.uk/2012/fiction-books/9036/all-that-i-am-anna-fund...

230. 11.09 Lynn Peril, Swimming in the Steno Pool

The subtitle of this book suggests a survival guide to secretarial work. However, this is definitely not a handbook, but an examination of the portrayal of the job and those who do it in the media and in handbooks over the last 100 years. It is an American book and all the references are to handbooks, media, popular fiction and advertising from the US, but as a secretary in Britain, I still found it relevant, interesting and very entertaining.

Lynne Peril is the author of several non fiction books about women's issues including the colour pink and education, but continues to support herself as a secretary, apparently with rather more sympathetic and understanding bosses than many of those who appear in the pages of her book.

......

I confess this book is about one of my pet subjects - I have a collection of real secretarial handbooks too, for interest rather than their practical value. I thought it was fascinating, informative and funny at the same time, and would recommend it highly.

My full review is here:

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Swimming_in_the_Steno_Pool:_...

By the way, half the fun of this book is in the black and white illustrations and this is one I'd recommend in hard copy rather than ebook (unless you have an Ipad!)

231. 13.09 Mary Hooper, Velvet

Historical YA novel, girl in 19th century London falls in with a medium

232. 13.09 Sonia Faleiro, Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay's Dance Bars

reviewed for www.thebookbag.co.uk - see full review here:

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Beautiful_Thing:_Inside_the_...

Despite the book's subtitle, Beautiful Thing is largely the story of one dancer, Leela, through the eyes of Faleiro who met and befriended her in 2005, shortly before the government shut down and outlawed the dance bars. It is non-fiction but is constructed like a novel, with a variety of interesting characters and a plot, as Leela must deal with a number of changes in her life. Faleiro has changed the names of nearly all the people who appear in the book to protect their identities and their many confidences in her.

Leela was the best paid dancer at the bar where she worked, and at first sight might have seemed to be a glamorous, successful young woman having a lot of fun. However, the story as told by Faleiro is a much darker, sadder one. At 19, Leela had been working as a bar dancer for 6 years already, after running away from home, where her father had sold her to the local police as a sexual plaything. Her story is all too typical, according to Faleiro.

.....................

Faleiro has a gift for empathy and engagement with her subjects which makes her writing really compelling. This book is also beautifully written, moving and thought provoking. I shut the book wanting to know what has become of Leela, her hopes and dreams.

233. 16.09 Elle Newmark, The Sandalwood Tree

(Reviewed for the Transworld Challenge)

I'm part of the Transworld Book Group!

Soon after WWII, an American family moves to India. Jewish-American Martin has returned to his studies in Indian history after fighting in Europe, and has won a Fullbright Scholarship to continue his research there. Britain is preparing to grant Indian independence, including partitioning the country into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, and the family are staying in a village near Simla, near the proposed borders. Martin will be documenting the end of British rule.

Martin's wife Evie and their 5 year old son Billy come too, and Evie tells us her story in a first person narrative. She is keen to participate in a new adventure, and anxious to hold on to her marriage to a man troubled by his recent experiences. She finds a cache of letters between two women, written in the 1850s, and gets caught up in the story of two very close friends, Adela and Felicity - the letters leave Evie with some huge questions and she sets out to find out the answers. The story of Adela and her friend Felicity is told partly through the letters but also in a third person narrative. I found both the 20th and 19th century stories interesting. I really like historical fiction and having several stories (and time periods) revealed in one novel is a bonus. The Sandalwood Tree is nearly 500 pages, but it is a quick and engaging read.

India in the novel is portrayed through the perceptions of two Western women, 20th century American Evie and 19th century English Adela. Evie describes in some detail the appearance of the rented bungalow that is to be the new family home and the surrounding village, and people including servants, their Indian landlord and some English colonials. Elle Newmark also describes the food that Evie and Martin eat, having decided to try to eat Indian food rather than the English nursery food the British colonials have.

I found the 20th century story more memorable than the 19th century one, but the 19th century story is a moving and emotional tale of rule-breaking romances including lesbian relationships. However, Evie's first person narrative has more immediacy and is more dominant in the novel.

I liked Evie's character a lot, open minded, always looking for a way to relate to the variety of people she meets, and anxious about having servants and about offending them. I do have some reservations - I don't believe a white American couple, even one in a mixed marriage (Evie is from a Catholic background, would have been quite so liberal and anti-racist in their outlook and I think maybe the author modelled Evie and her attitudes a little too much on herself. The best historical fiction involves engaging with the mindset of the time - even unconventional and rebellious characters will still be influenced by their society.

Although she doesn't quite get under the skin of her characters, this is a terrific easy read and I really enjoyed it.

An extra bonus in the edition of the novel I read is an interview with the author in which she discusses the historical fiction genre, the factual background of her story and the history of Partition, religious divisions in India, Indian food, travel and living in different places, and the Jewish uncle who fought in Europe in WWII. I love to know about writers' thoughts and influences for their writing. This is also valuable because sadly Elle Newmark died earlier this year - she was struggling with the disease that killed her while writing this novel, her second.

Thank you to Transworld for sending me The Sandalwood Tree to review as part of their Challenge.

234. 16.09 Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White

235. 17.09 Sue Moorcroft, All That Mullarkey

236. 19.09 Margaret Mazzantini, Twice Born

237. 19.09 Deborah Crombie, Where Memories Lie

238. 20.09 Louise Douglas, The Secrets Between Us

239. 21.09 Barbara Pym, Excellent Women

240. 21.09 Tazeen Ahmad, The Checkout Girl

#109 I remember seeing that book somewhere before - glad you enjoyed it.

#112 The Sandalwood Tree also sounds interesting

This isn't a poem, it's song lyrics - various versions of them being sung on Youtube, my favourite is June Tabor's version. Rereading the Wilfred Owen poem on Suzanne's thread made me think of this. Eric Bogle was born in Scotland but is Australian by choice, and other antiwar songs by him include And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda and My Youngest Son Came Home Today.

1. Well, how'd you do, Private William McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?
I'll rest here awhile in the warm summer sun,
I've been walking all day, Lord, and I'm nearly done.
And I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916--
Well, I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean,
Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly,
Did they sound the fife lowly,
Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down?
Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest?"

2. Did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
And, though you died back in 1916,
To that loyal heart are you always 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
Forever enshrined behind some glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

3. The sun's shining down on these green fields of France;
The warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance.
The trenches have vanished long under the plow;
No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard it's still No Man's Land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man.
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

4. And I can't help but wonder, now Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you 'The Cause?'
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.

Haven't seen/heard that song for ages, Luci. I've sung it and The band played Walzing Matilda (or sung along with them when others have sung them) a few times, but never learned either of them properly, and have been missing the sort of occasion when they are appropriate to be sung.

Luci, have you seen the new kindle daily deals? Today's is State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.

Thanks. I've seen and downloaded State of Wonder because it's a book I've been wanting to read so I got a notification from a Kindle price drop site I use. Though Ann Patchett is one of those authors I own lots of books by but have only read one - the Magician's Assistant, which I loved, years ago. Did you buy it? Someone also posted it on the RISI forum Kindle bargain thread this morning. How do I find out what the "daily deal" is?

#124 Yep I got it too. I read Bel Canto recently and really enjoyed it so I've been meaning to try her other books.

The kindle blog mentions the daily deal and apparently it's also announced daily on twitter and facebook.

I've just bookmarked the link (www.amazon.co.uk/KindleDailyDeal) and go and check in the mornings.

It changes at midnight - today's is Punishment aka What is Mine by Anne Holt, a Norwegian crime fiction author whose books I want to read. It's a first in series too, I have number 6 from the summer sale.

And A Visit From the Goon Squad today - I can tell this daily deal thing is going to be bad for my TBR list even if it doesn't physically add to the TBR piles... I decided I could pass up the Anne Holt but I did download the Goon Squad.

Hi Elkiedee,

Hope eveything's okay as you haven't posted for a while or do you have a new thread somewhere that I've missed?

I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your review of Shadowstory. I've read a couple of Jennifer Johnston's earlier novels and was impressed by her writing but remember the plots as being quite slight. It doesn't sound like that's the case at all with this one.

I've posted in various places but I haven't kept up to date with my own thread! And our new computer crashed again on Tuesday night. Yesterday was a bit of a mad day as we were on strike, Mike had to do lots of work organising pickets etc and I had the kids and took them to march in central London.

Thanks for your comments on the Shadowstory review - I don't really think of Johnston as a plot writer but I like novels which aren't much about plot.

Ah there you are, Luci! Good for you and Mike for getting so involved with the strike.

I'm quite usually keen on novels that aren't big on plot too!

Wow, nearly 3 weeks since I posted on my own thread, though I have been hanging out on other people's! I'm not even going to try to update this tonight, and we're going up to Ilkley to see my mum in a few hours time, returning 29 December, by which time everyone will be setting up there own threads. This year I've finished 357 books, I won't read as much when we're away. Next year I'm going to record more carefully how many reviews I do, to catch up with the backlog and I'm going to try to be a bit faster reviewing books after receipt - that needs to mean putting writing/thinking before reading a bit!

Hope you have a lovely Christmas in Ilkley, Luci.

Merry Christmas, Luci! (357 books! Wow! Congratulations!)

Hope you have a lovely Christmas up in Ilkley Luci. Congratulations on reading 357 books :-)

mistletoe smooches!

Wishing you all the very best Luci!

Merry Christmas, Luci! I hope that we can meet again in 2012.

Thanks all for dropping by, and I hope you all have as much fun as Danny and Conor are having. Their beloved Auntie Sian arrived on Friday, with her boyfriend and his sister in tow, so lots of people to play with. Astonishingly, they went to sleep quite easily tonight, though whether they'll stay that way is another matter.

I'm reading Silesian Station among other things - excellent so far.

Just had my first ouch I paid a lot more for that Kindle Deal of the Day, Death Comes to Pemberley is only £1.69 - but it had to happen. And I've just bought a load of stuff in the 12 Days of Christmas Kindle Sale, with more offers promised over the next few days.

It's 1 am here, hope you generally have fun today or tomorrow (or beyond - I know there's an NYC meet up on 26 December).

Hello Luci, just missed you, it's now 1.21 am and I should be going to bed.

Glad to hear that Danny and Conor are having such a good time, and I hope they stay asleep and don't come and wake you too early in the morning. Have a great day tomorrow! Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas Luci!

Happy New Year all! We're going out to friends for some of the evening though we'll probably be saying happy new year on the bus or in the street, and I may be back online to wish some of you in North America Happy New Year before midnight where you are.

Luci - Happy new year to you - fellow Yorkie! Great reading year, hope to keep up with you better in 2012 (your thread I mean not your rate of reading - over 350 books Suz has few rivals but you are definitely one of them in the speed reading Olympics)

Happy New Year! We got a lift back after midnight so didn't have to worry about the bus. I only read a few pages on New Year's Eve in end so my total is 359 books for 2011.

Happy New Year Luci! I look forward to seeing what you'll be reading in 2012...

Happy New Year! Here's to the next 359!

241. 21.09 Mari Strachan, Blow on a Dead Man's Embers

Amazon Vine review - apparently 0 out of 2 people found it helpful - getting a bit demoralised by the votes on my Vine reviews!

I really liked Mari Strachan's debut, The Earth Hums in B Flat so was keen to read her new novel, and I wasn't disappointed. Like the first, this is set in small town Wales, but in other ways it is quite different. The main character is a young woman, not a child. Non Davies is in her 20s but carries heavy responsibilities looking after a house and a stepfamily. Her husband is traumatised by his experiences as a soldier in World War I, and Non sets out to find out what really happened to him.

Many novels set in this period, historical and contemporary are about quite upper or middle class people, and I thought it was interesting to read about a more working class family. Strachan's creative imagination is evident in creating a very convincing portrait of the thoughts and feelings of a woman in this period.

Highly recommended.

242. 21.09 Margaret Bonham, The Casino (4.0)

243. 22.09 Pauline Black, Black by Design (4.2)

244. 23.09 Mons Kallentoft, Midwinter Sacrifice (4.3)

Midwinter Sacrifice is the first in another Swedish crime series to be translated, and very welcome it is too. Malin Fors is a talented, ambitious police detective. On a cold winter morning she and some of her colleagues are called to the scene of a grisly murder, with a corpse left hanging from a tree.

I liked this a lot. It is a bit long and rather waffly in places, but I liked Kallentoft's portrayal of painstaking and persistent investigators, and the way that we meet many of her colleagues and learn something about the way they think and approach their work, and their lives. I thought the police and the characterisations were more interesting than the murder investigations.

A negative point I've seen very well made in the review above mine on Az (I've given them a pos vote and comment for it) is that the dead body makes interjections in italics every now and then in the story. It's a bit odd, to say the least!

Despite the front cover blurb mentioning Stieg Larsson, Kallentoft has more in common with other writers of Swedish police detective fiction, like Henning Mankell and Camilla Lackberg.

One of the latest batch of Richard & Judy choices, quite a lot of my Vine review books have been chosen for either this or the TV Bookclub. (4 of each I think, and most of the others were Vine offerings too).

245. 24.09 ed Tim McLoughlin, Brooklyn Noir 3 (4.3)

Hi Luci. I had Blow on a Dead Man's Embers on my wish list but took it off again. I can't remember why, possibly pruning. I think it deserves to go back on again!

I am now off to leave deservedly positive feedback for you on Amazon! I don't understand Amazon sometimes, what is anything less than helpful about that review? Unlike the one I just read for The Sealed Letter which gave it one star after just reading the preview!

Edited to add : I have returned from Amazon and you are not alone. There were many decent reviews for Dead Man's Embers including one by our lovely Fleur Fisher with only negative feedback! Until I went along and clicked on them, of course! Depressing! It seems to be the Vine reviewers with the negative feedback. Jealousy from Internet trolls?

#146 So glad you liked that one - it's been on my wishlist since it was released and I am just waiting to feel that I have sufficient excuse to splash out!

Re the thumbs, because of the way Amazon rank reviews I suspect that some unscrupulous reviewers regularly thumb down everyone else's reviews (or just the Vine reviewers). Amazon seems to rank a review with 4 thumbs up and no thumbs down above a review with say, 8 thumbs up and 2 thumbs down, which I think is stupid. And because amazon only shows one or two of the more popular reviews on the book page, someone posting a new review who thumbs down everyone else's may temporarily jump to the top and then be the first to be thumbed by normal readers.

I felt quite gutted that my review of Tomalin's new Charles Dickens bio got thumbed down quite quickly but I have realised that I don't like pressure to review things so I'm not sure I really want to get on the Vine program anyway.

Thanks Dee and Heather, and yes, I agree with you. There is a proportionality so reviews with a lot of positive votes and one or two negs do come higher up, but it's a bit weird - and reviews with no votes at all come above those with 3/4 or 5/6 positive votes.

I'm also happy to spend a few minutes reading and thumbing up a few reviews over on the amazon site when you come across a situation like this again. The only ones I usually give a thumb down to are those 'reviewers' complaining about a nondelivery or quality of packaging.

Happy new year Luci - I am off to Amazon to find your review of the Mari Strachan book and thumb it!

246. 24.09 Sydney Taylor, All-of-a-Kind Family (4.7)

247. 26.09 Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge

248. 26.09 Siddartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies 4.9

I heard of this book here, I think from Darryl ages ago.

Amazon Vine review book - my review isn't a very detailed one, I'd like to go back and write more but given how much I have outstanding to write and the new temptations likely to show up this year, I probably won't.

What I wrote:

"A biography of cancer" is the subtitle of this fascinating book, but in fact it is a biography of the fight against it, the history of research into treatment and ways of curing the disease.

It is non fiction but the author starts with a true story, of Carla, a 30 year old working mother with acute leukaemia - of her struggles to get a diagnosis, the news and his first meeting with her. This is a story full of dramatic tension and emotion, as Mukherjee outlines her treatment and her chances of survival (a little under 30 per cent).

He then moves on to writing about some of the big research projects and the scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century, of the War on Cancer pursued by American campaigners and politicians. There are lots of intriguing characters in this story - patients, scientists and the author himself.

The book is packed with research and there are extensive endnotes and a long bibliography. Yet Mukherjee also has the ability to present his scholarship in a way that is as compelling as any best selling novel.

This isn't a manual for how to deal with cancer, but I would highly recommend it to anyone affected by the illness, whether as a patient, a practitioner or someone whose loved one (partner, parent, child, relative, friend) has cancer.

(Not in my review: my mum was diagnosed with cancer in February 2010, and had surgery soon afterwards, then again a year later. Her most recent CAT scan came back clear, much to all our relief as it was on 23 December, with the whole of a hectic and complicated Christmas ahead of her and us).

249. 26.09 Sue Moorcroft, Starting Over

250. 27.09 Stella Gibbons, Starlight

251. 27.09 Roald Dahl, Matilda

252. 27.09 Anne Digby, First Term at Trebizon

253. 28.09 Fiona Kidman, Paddy's Puzzle

254. 28.09 Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

255. 28.09 Anne Digby, Second Term at Trebizon

#158 That one's on my wishlist after all the positive reviews it's received.

So glad to hear the good news about your mum's clear scan :-)

#165 I saw they'd rereleased the Anne Digby books for kindle but so far I've managed to hold off from splashing out. I have good memories of those books though.

The Trebizon books are good reading when you want some fluff, though not such a good idea to read back to back, and though £2.86 seems cheap, they're very short. They had reduced the price to £2.56 each when I last looked, but I sort of wish they'd do a couple of omnibus volumes. Ideally with page numbers.

Glad to see I'm not the only one trying to finish off my 2011 thread still!

And that's such good news about your mum's clear scan!