Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
ISBN: 9780385613231 Liga’s father fiddled with the fire, fiddled and fiddled. Then he stood up, very suddenly. I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while. It’s been stirring up...
24 August 2009
Peculia by Richard Sala
ISBN: 1560974958 ; Delicious Links JP mentioned this comic over on his blog way back in Nov of last year and it did sound like fun. So when I spotted it...
2 February 2009
Ilario: the lion’s eye by Mary Gentle
ISBN: 9780575080416 ; Delicious links We are so often a disappointment to the parents who abandon us. This is a return to the world of Mary Gentle’s alternate world of mercenary...
8 January 2009
The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
She could not remember a time when she had not known the story; she had grown up knowing it.
Aerin is the only child of the king of Damar, yet she has never really been accepted there. The story of her mother, witchwoman who enspelled her father, has left her untrusted. Especially by the sol, the aristocracy. But slowly she finds a role and a place for herself. And in the end she is the one who becomes:”(this is not really a spoiler. Cause it is a YA fantasy novel. How do you really expect it to end?)”: both inspiration and legend.
2 November 2008
Venetia by Georgette Heyer
ISBN: 9780099465652 ;Elsewhere on the web “A fox got in among the hens last night, and ravished our best layer,” remarked Miss Lanyon. “A great-grandmother, too! You’d think he would be...
12 October 2008
Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison
A serious house on serious earth Illustrator: Dave McKean See also: Librarything ; Other reviews ; Read for RIP III From the journals of Amadeus Arkham: In the years following my...
11 September 2008
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Things started to fall apart at home when my brother, Jaja, did not go to communion and Papa flung his heavy missal across the room and broke the figurines on the étagére.
Kambili, the teenage narrator of the book, is a 15 year old girl. In many ways she lives a priveliged life in Nigeria. Her father owns factories; he is a “big man” in the community. A fact that is brought home to her when she visits her less well off aunt and cousins. But wealth doesn’t equal happiness. Kamibili and her brother Jaja live under the strict rules of their father and his fiercely religious beliefs.
14 August 2008
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
It seems increasingly likely that I really will undertake the expedition that has been occupying my imagination now for some days.
The Remains of the Day is about Stevens, a butler in a “grand old English house”. He spent his life trying to be a “great” butler in the service of Lord Darlington. With the death of Darlington he remains in Darlington Hall working for the new owner a rich American, Mr Farraday. It is at Mr. Farraday’s suggestion that Stevens, our narrator, first begins thinking about taking a short trip out into the English countryside, and to see Miss Kenton. Now Mrs. Benn she recently sent him a letter, hinting, Stevens thinks, at her unhappy marriage and her wish to return to service in Darlington Hall. On his journey Stevens reflects over his life and the changes he has seen.
24 June 2008
Gone Baby Gone dir. by Ben Affleck
This film’s release here and in Britain was delayed for a considerable time due to the supposed similarities between the plot and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. I can see what it happened, but in reality there aren’t that many similarities. The film is about Patrick Kenzie and his “associate” Angie Gennaro who have been hired to track down a missing child, Amanda McCready. Almost at once they find out that the media story isn’t quite the truth.
10 June 2008
Memory and Dream by Charles de Lint
ISBN: 0330339591 Once Upon a Time Challenge ; More reviews Katherine Mulley had been dead for five years and two months, the morning Isabelle received the letter from her. I’ve read...
29 May 2008
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Dina Dalal seldom indulged in looking back at her life with regret or bitterness, or questioning why things had turned out the way the way they had, cheating her of the bright future everyone had predicted for her when she was in school, when her name was still Dina Shroff.
I’m not really sure where to begin with this review. This is a big book, both in the amount of pages and in the amount of ground it covers. Set in an un-named city in India during the State of Emergency after India’s founding it deals with four main characters whose lives intersect in the house of Dina Dalal who hires two tailors and rents out a room to a young student in an attempt to keep her independence.
16 May 2008
Achilles by Elizabeth Cook
Two rivers. Flowing in contrary directions.
Two layers of water, each moving steadily, separate and self-possessed.
When I was thinking of books to read for the myth section of Carl’s challenge I did consider the Iliad, and the Odyssey too, so when I was wandering around the library and stumbled across this book it seemed perfect. And I’m so glad I picked it up; it makes for a really good read.
8 May 2008
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