Susan Hated Literature

She'd much prefer to read a good book

general fiction


Dollmaker2

11 May 2013
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The dollmaker by

The world is at war, and the army is stealing away the men, and those that are left are being hauled off to work in the factories in order to assist the war effort. In rural Kentucky Gertie is lucky enough to still have her husband around, he drives the coal truck, but knows that this situation cannot last. He has his date with the army already lined up. But she is preparing as best she can. She has been saving her money and almost has enough to offer on a nearby farm. Without having to pay half what they earn on rent Gertie and her family will be able to plan for the future. But on the eve of her plans coming to fruition all is ruined and she must uproot her family and follow her husband to the city of Detroit.

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9 September 2011
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The pink cage by

Astrid is a bitch. She doesn’t see herself that way, but as I started this novel I really didn’t like her. She is mean, sarcastic, and insulting. Especially to those people she sees as “limpets”, grasping on to people, needing … Continue reading →

31 July 2011
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The borrower by

The Borrower

I’ll admit I picked this book up because I liked the tagline, She borrowed a child. He stole her. Lucy Hull who is a children’s librarian runs away with Ian Drake when she finds him hiding out in the library one morning. She’s always enjoyed him when he visited the library, even if she did worry over his mother and the insistance that Ian only be allowed borrow books with the “breath of God” in them. And definitely not those ones with magic and satanism in them!

And then Lucy finds a note making her believe that Ian is being sent to anti-gay classes. She isn’t really kidnapping him, she is rescuing him.

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16 April 2011
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Swamplandia! by

ISBN: 9780701186029 Our mother performed in starlight. Ava Bigtree lives in Swamplandia! with her family. They wrestle alligators in front of tourists for a living. Until recently Ava’s mother Hillola was the star of the show, her moonlight swim through … Continue reading →

19 January 2011
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How many miles to Babylon? by

ISBN: 9780141046969 ; Quotes Because I am an officer and a gentleman they have given me my notebooks, pen, ink and paper. Growing up Alec has always been isolated. His parents despise one another, he is one of their battlegrounds, … Continue reading →

28 December 2010
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Touching earth lightly by

ISBN: 1864488239 “I’ve got to get our of that house.” Janey looked almost small, walking past these angled girders. Growing up is hard. Even when you have encouraging responsibly parents, like Chloe. When you don’t, when your parents are like … Continue reading →

1 November 2010
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Nicholas Dane by

This is the sort of book I don’t usually read. You know the ones, from the “sad story” section of the bookshop. The misery-books as I call them. But a few years ago I’d heard of Melvin Burgess as an author to look out for. I’ve read his Lady : My life as a Bitch and to be honest I wasn’t all that impressed, but I’ll always give an author a second go. So I tried this one.

In the 1980′s Nick Dane is growing up as an average, if bright kid. He comes from a single parent family, and his mother has a secret. She never got off the drugs, not completely. And in the course of having a “taste” she accidentally overdoses and Nick is left all alone in the world. Soon he finds himself carted off to a “home” for boys, and soon learns that the violence and random beatings are not the worse this place has to offer.

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20 August 2010
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The devil in the flesh by

by Raymond Radiguet translated by Christopher Moncrieff

Although the 1930′s mini challenge has come to an end, when I spotted this book at work I thought it might fit, and wanted to read more books of that time. Of course then I read the details and discovered that it was actually written earlier than that… Oh well :)

The devil in the flesh created quite a bit of a scandal when it was published, semi-autobiographical, the author wrote it from the age of sixteen to eighteen, after his own affair with a married woman. And that, my dears, is the central theme to this book. In fact, it is the end all and the be all of everything in this book. Our 15/16 year old narrator’s affair with a married woman. And I found that incredibly off-putting.

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19 July 2010
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Do butlers burgle banks? by

Charlie Yost, the Chicago gunman, called on Horace Appleby one morning in June as he chatted with Basher Evans before going off to the Wellingford races.

Horace Appleby is a criminal, specialising in “inside jobs”, his modus operandi is to secure the position of butler in a respectably well-off establishment and then arrange the details whereby his companions carry out the actual burglary. But he is not too happy with the American, Mr. Yost, and Yost’s blatant disregard for Appleby’s most important rule, never carry a gun. So he refuses to pay Yost his cut, as you can imagine, Yost is not too happy about this. Not wanting to overly provoke a man who carries a gun Appleby things that maybe a job down the country might be just the thing.

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1 June 2010
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Rupture by

by Simon Lelic

I wasn’t there. I didn’t see it. Me and Banks were down by the ponds, pissing about with this Sainsbury’s trolley we found on the common.

This is the story of a school shooting. A teacher walks into assembly and kills three people. Two students and a teacher. Lucia May is the police officer who is supposed to “wrap up” the investigation and file it under psycho teacher, terrible tragedy, nothing anyone could have done. But instead she finds herself returning again and again to the school, and trying to figure out why it happened. How this mild-mannered history teacher could have had so much violence in him. Continue reading →