Books, Books, Books!
If anyone has any reads they recommend please let me know as I am always on the lookout for new stories and can't have enough books piled up on my desk waiting to be opened! After typing up these reviews I can't help but notice I've not read anything lighthearted for a while I think I am a sucker for the dark & mysterious or sad & emotional!
I keep meaning to set up some sort of book club aswell perhaps that will emerge in 2011...
The Road (Cormac McCarthy)
I read this in two days, I could not put it down. It has no chapters, so normally where you mentally decide to stop at the end of a chapter you can’t and so you just keep reading until your eyes hurt.
It is clear at the beginning that some sort of apocalyptic event has occurred and that the land is desolate but the cause is never discussed. As I read it I assumed it was worldwide although the only country mentioned is America. I felt constantly nervous and apprehensive reading this book as if something was going to jump out at me every time I turned the page and sometimes it did!
I think there is a moral warning in there about how we take even the smallest things for granted. There is no timescale but you can recognise that the man and boy have been surviving for several years. Upon discovering a single can of coke, the boy does not even know what it is, suggesting he had been just a baby when the mysterious disaster occurred.
The descriptive wording makes you feel the father’s determination and courage but also the constant fear. They are aiming for a particular place, travelling along the road but they are not even sure there is anything where they are headed.
I watched the film a bit concerned it might ruin the beauty of the book but eager all the same. I was pleasantly surprised, Viggo Mortensen does the father justice; however the film did not capture the haunting atmosphere as well as the book. A nightmare beautifully written.
Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman)
After perusing a list of previous books read at the Brixton book club for ideas on something new to read I came across this book. I was unaware that the author had written many famous stories some of which have been made into films, most recently ‘Coraline’. As soon as I started reading the blurb I knew it was my kind of book, full of fantasy and crazy characters & creatures.
Reading it I felt like I was tumbling down a very different kind of rabbit hole, into a darker London. Not as we know it but a more sinister city lurking beneath us as we walk about completely unaware. Nasty in places, but also magical and obscure it is the place where monsters hide under the train tracks waiting for someone to stand too close to the edge. It is all centred around Richard who one day finds himself in this ‘other’ London.
I really liked the obscurity and that the author seemed to have no bounds on his imagination, like he just poured loads of stuff out of his head and included it all even though some of it is bizarre. I also loved that it was based in London as there are places to relate to.
Something alternative to read, I definitely recommend!
The Book Thief (Markas Zusak)
This is a beautiful book and very memorable. When someone asks me if I have read a good book lately this pops straight into my head even though I read it over a year ago. It is something I will re-read in a few years time.
It’s a very sad cleverly written story, based in Nazi Germany and is narrated by Death himself. A tragic story with glimmers of heart warming moments combined with the horror and shock of the times it describes. The central character is Liesel, a little girl who steals books and who is just trying to grow up in this troubled country.
Being Deaths ‘diary’ as it is sometimes described, it sounds like it would be strange but it is written in such a way that it holds your attention. It is about how Death see’s the world and him having no choice in the lives he has to take.
It has wit and quirkiness too but it is ultimately a tearjerker. I cannot recommend this book enough; it is unlike anything else I have read.
Notes on a Scandel (Zoe Heller)
I bought this book at a church book fair. I had already seen the film and thought it might make an interesting read.
When a new teacher joins the school where Barbara works she takes her under her wing and enlists her as a close friend convinced that it is fate. As it slowly unravels you being to see Barbara’s obsessive behaviour and controlling nature as she manipulates Sheba. Weaved into the story is Sheba’s affair with a 15 year old pupil and how Barbara uses this to reel Sheba in closer. The story is written from Barbara’s take on things like a diary.
I like the way things start to unravel and whirl out of control almost as if Barbara had planned everything that was going to happen. It is a sad story about loneliness and obsession and there is a sense that history is going to repeat itself.
I think it is worth a read, the film was also a good adaptation, Judy Dench makes an outstanding somewhat creepy Barbara. Although a different ending both worked quite well and could lead you to similar conclusions of character.
Her Fearful Symmetry (Audrey Niffeneger)
I had long awaited this book and had high expectations being the second book by Niffeneger, the author of one of my favourite books the Time Travellers Wife. It did not live up to my expectations but is none the less worthy of a read and has an original story.
Centred around twins Julia and Valentina, I found I was more drawn to other characters rather than the girls. Martin for example, the guy in the flat upstairs who has obsessive compulsive disorder and had not stepped outside for several years.
The ghost story it becomes later on had a low believability factor for me. The Time Travellers wife’s story was not realistic as it was based on time travel, but for some reason it was still believable and made you question whether it were possible, whereas with her fearful symmetry it almost seemed a bit daft.
The fact that the girls were mirror twins, both symmetrical inside and out (ones organs were on the opposite side of their body) was a really interesting idea but it could have been explored more and had more relevance on the story itself.
There were some good twists and I still found it enjoyable to read but it was disappointing for my high expectations.
The Angel’s Game (Carols Ruiz Zafon)
You now Corelli isn’t human and you can tell that David knows this deep down but is scared to admit it to himself because he doesn’t know what else he can be. The way Corelli is described with his wolfish grin and extraordinarily fast movements is written in such an eerie way that I could picture him and it played on my mind when I put down the book.
I hadn’t read the blurb so I didn’t know what it was about. I read it because I had read his previous book Shadow in the wind and loved it. I wasn’t disappointed; it was unexpectedly dark and haunting. I found myself reading it at night before I went to sleep and thinking I should stop but it was so good I kept reading on regardless.
Books about the mysteries of books themselves seem to have a certain charm and this one was equally as original and intriguing as others I have read. The mysterious tale is based back in Barcelona once more and the cemetery of forgotten books returns. I loved the fact that I could picture some of the locations in the book having been to Barcelona twice it made it all the more eerie. I would love to go again and come across a cemetery of forgotten books! I wonder if a place like that really exists...
The Girl who Played with Fire (Stieg Larson)
The first book ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ was very slow to start with and took me a while to get into. But once it got going it was excellent. So being a trilogy I had to read the next book. The Girl who played with fire was fantastic from beginning to end.
I think it was already better than the first because straight away the main characters were already established and familiar. The story just kept twisting and adding new elements to the mysterious investigation. It kept me guessing although I had an inkling as to whether Salander was guilty or not. At times I could not imagine how she was going to get herself out of the situations she was in.
The ending brought the main storyline to a head but still ended on a cliff hanger making me immediately frustrated and wanting to delve straight into the next book. Some great new characters were introduced and a twisted plot, but also an insight into Salander’s life and childhood which has been a mystery up until this point.
A strong heroine of a different sort, the woman who hates men-who hate women. You would not want to mess with her! Cannot wait to finish the next instalment which I have started reading and then to watch Salander kicking arse on screen.
