Moxyland by Lauren Beukes
Set in a fictional, futuristic Cape Town in South Africa Moxyland is a book that I’m somewhat conflicted about. I read Beukes’ Zoo City back in 2012 and really enjoyed it....
11 January 2014
The man in the picture by Susan Hill
Part of my RIP VIII reading. Oliver is visiting his old Oxford tutor when Theo begins to tell him a story. It is a cold January night, perfect for huddling round...
19 September 2013
Italian shoes by Henning Mankell
Translated from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson Fredrik Welin, our first person narrator, lives alone on an island he inherited from his grandparents. His only regular visitor is the postman, Jansson,...
12 September 2013
Drood by Dan Simmons
by Dan Simmons
On the 9th of June, 1865, ten passengers were killed when a train crashed at Staplehurst. Among the passengers who survived the disaster was the novelist Charles Dickens. Meeting his friend, Wilkie Collins, soon afterwards Dickens describes a strange individual he came across at the site of the crash. This man, Drood, is to drag both Dickens and Collins into the depths of Victorian London’s criminal and poverty stricken underbelly. Will he also lead to murder and insanity?
17 November 2010
Unseen academicals by Terry Pratchett
9780385609340 In the back streets of Ankh-Morpork football is king. And those “Faces” in the shove, or crowd, are just as important as the players. After all, no one really ever...
16 July 2010
Fun home : a family tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Like many father, mine could occasionally be prevailed on for a spot of ‘airplane’.
This is the memoir of Alison Bechdel, her recollections of growing up in an emotionally-distant family, the role of literature in her, and her father’s, life, her identifying as a lesbian at college and coming out, by letter, to her parents. It is the story of growing up in a house that can seem more like a museum than a home. Of living in a funeral home. Of trying to connect with her father. All told in graphic form.
26 June 2010
River secrets by Shannon Hale
Book 3 of The Books of Bayern Read as part of the Once Upon a time IV challenge Official author site At the end of Enna Burning was had come to...
22 June 2010
Ilium by Dan Simmons
ISBN: 9780380817924 DDC: The first in the Ilium/Olympusduology. Author site ; Ilium sectionof the Ilium/Olympus wiki Ilium opens with Thomas Hockenberry, a twenty-first century professor, observing the Trojan War on behalf...
11 June 2010
Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
This is the second Book of Bayern so it does help if you have read the first book, The Goose Girl but it is not entirely necessary as the story itself is quite separate. Hale expands on the world she created in the first book, using a secondary character. In The Goose Girl Enna was one of Ani’s “forest friends”, important as friend and helper. In this book Enna is the main character. After the events of the first film she returned home to the forest, her mother died, and she moved back home with her brother. As this book begins he has found a mysterious vellum parchment in the forest and begins to change, becoming hot-headed and rash. At first he begins to argue against the king, saying the forest folk have been too harshly treated and deserve better, but as soon as word comes of a possible war he swings in behind Bayern and becomes a loyal subject, desiring to go to war on his country’s behalf. And then there is the fact that he can control fire.
10 June 2010
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
Author: Brunonia Barry
When I first started reading this book I’ll admit to being a little bit confused. It was group read, for HistoricalFavorites, where was the history aspect. I kept waiting for flashbacks to old Salem and witch hunts. But instead I got the story of Towner Whitney and her family, and how the past is always around, especially when you try to ignore it.
Many of the Whitney family have the gift of reading lace, they can tell a lot about a person and their future, but ever since her sister committed suicide Towner has tried to escape that life. She herself suffered so much from the trauma of that experience that she felt she needed electro-shock therapy in order to overcome her anxieties. But that treatment ripped away many of her memories; now, back in Salem after her aunt’s disappearance Towner is forced to reconnect with people; friends and enemies from her past.
4 May 2010
The underneath by Kathi Appelt
Author: Kathi Apelt
This is the story of an abandoned cat, an old hound dog who becomes her friend and her kittens, and the family they become. But it is also a tale of old Grandmother Moccasin, a shape-chaning lemia, who is trapped in jar and by her own anger and resentment at her betrayal, as she sees it, by those she loved. And through its blending of myth and floklore it is the perfect fit for my Once Upon a Time reading list. It is also a children’s book, so it shouldn’t take you to long to get through. Although that does not mean that this doesn’t have darkness.
19 April 2010
Marley & me by John Grogan
I’ve had this book on my shelves for years now. It was on sale for half-price when I bought it; that’s the only reason I own it in hardback. I much prefer paperbacks, more practical. Since I bought the book it has been made into a film and become even more famous. To be honest the film looked god-awful, so I didn’t bother to watch it. But I always knew I’d eventually read the book, and when better than on a lazy Sunday when I should have been cleaning the apartment?
I’m sure everyone knows the story. A newly married couple decide to get a dog, and so buy a labrador puppy, who grows up into the world’s worst dog. Only of course he isn’t the world’s worst, he simply has some bad habits. Very bad habits that include his destruction of numerous items. But at heart Marley is a sweet good-natured dog whose labrador-ish optimism teachers his owners all about life and, eventually, loss.
28 March 2010
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