THE WEB WEAVER

2012-01-29T14:51:00.000Z

TITLE: The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: THE WEB WEAVER

AUTHOR: SAM SICILIANO

Pages: 394

Date: 29/01/2012

Grade: 4

Details: Part of The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Series

Received from BookGeeks

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Sherlock Holmes is being visited by his cousin, Dr. Henry Vernier, when Mr. Donald Wheelwright arrives to ask for his help.

During a ball which Wheelwright attended with his wife, a gypsy woman made an appearance and cursed all those attending the event while singling his wife out for specific threats. Recently Wheelwright’s wife, Violet, has found a further, written, threat in their library. Worried about his wife’s safety, Wheelwright wants Holmes to investigate the gypsy and her threat and put an end to the whole affair.

Soon after starting the investigation it becomes clear that others who were present at the ball have felt the results of the curse. A Lord has committed suicide, others have fallen into ruin and an acquaintance of the Wheelwrights discovers that a very valuable necklace has been stolen from his safe.

Assisted by his cousin Henry, Holmes starts his investigation into all these related mysteries and soon suspects that he may be up against the most devious opponent of his career. Professor Moriarty may have been a figment of Dr. Watson’s imagination, but the mind Holmes is trying to out-think now might just be a real-life Moriarty; a criminal mastermind without scruples and an intelligence to match his own who is weaving a web destined to trap all in its reach.

Meanwhile, Henry’s wife Michelle gets drawn into the investigation because she is both Violet Wheelwrights physician and friend.

As the threats against and attacks upon Violet increase, Holmes clearly finds himself drawn to this beautiful, intelligent but troubled woman. The identity of the gypsy woman and of the person(s) delivering the threats and attacks remains obscure though, as does the identity of the mastermind behind the whole affair.

This was a very interesting take on the original Sherlock Holmes stories. For starters, there’s no sign of a Dr. Watson in this story, in fact the man only gets mentioned in relation to his lose allegiance to the truth when writing the original stories.

Instead, this book is narrated by both Dr. Henry Vernier and his wife Michelle, which gives a the reader a dual view of what is happening and maybe a better chance to come to their own conclusions as far as the mystery is concerned.

Except for Watson all the usual features of the Sherlock Holmes stories are present in this book. There are Holmes’ famous disguises, his dealings with those in the lower regions of society, his arrogance and single-mindedness and his reluctance to share his thoughts until he is ready to reveal all to both his fellow characters and the reader.

Through Michelle Doudet-Vernier, who spends a lot of her time treating those less fortunate, the reader gets an insight to all that is wrong with society in the late 19^th century, while the setting of the mystery in an upper-class environment makes for a great contrast.

The idea of Holmes in love and unable to deal with his feelings and their consequences, brings a nice twist to the story. Should this story have a sequel it would be great to see how that particular story-line might develop.

I did find both Vernier and his wife a bit too innocent, and oblivious to be completely credible, but I guess they were described that way to make the contrast with Holmes’ genius more obvious.

I do have to say that the solution to this mystery did not come as a great surprise to me, and I don’t think it will to most other readers. However, that didn’t take away from the pleasure reading this story gave me, and there is a certain satisfaction in coming to the right conclusions while reading any mystery.

Overall this was an enjoyable excursion into the world of Sherlock Holmes. It stayed close enough to the original to be completely recognisable while introducing enough new ingredients to make this a fresh reading experience.

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

2012-01-25T22:54:00.000Z

TITLE: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

AUTHOR: JOHN GREEN

Pages: 313

Date: 25/01/2012

Grade: 5+

Details: Young Adult

Borrowed from Tara

Hazel is 16 and dying. She may be a medical miracle and her tumours may have shrunk, but her lungs are severely damaged, she needs a constant oxygen supply and knows that her days are numbered.

When she meets the gorgeous Augustus Waters at the Cancer Kid Support Group something changes in her life though. She rises out of her lethargy and embraces life and love with fresh determination.

A trip to Holland to meet an adored author brings the two teenagers closer together even if the meeting with their idol is a deep disappointment. The trip also reveals that Augustus’ cancer has returned, and suddenly the cards in their relationship are turned around.

Who knew that such a heart-breaking story could be this uplifting?

John Green doesn’t spare his reader in this book. From the very first page this is an emotional roller-coaster ride and it never lets up.

Hazel and Augustus are the sort of characters I wished I could meet and get to know. Green’s writing brings them to life to the point where I felt the need to hug and comfort them.

It is not all doom and gloom though. These are two clever and insightful teenagers whose banter is as likely to make you laugh as it is to bring a tear to your eye.

This is a story about teenagers with cancer in which the disease takes a backseat to the spirit of the kids. Not because the book produces miracle cures for them but because they are bigger then their illness. The illness may limit their lives in many ways, but they determine how they live with it.

On a side note, I loved the descriptions of Amsterdam. It is clear that John Green spent time there and really saw and understood the place and the people who live there. I love that Hazel and Augustus gave in to their feelings in my home town, it seemed an appropriate setting.

This is a brutally honest and incredibly beautiful book. A book that gave me characters that will stay in my heart and mind for a long time. A book that I should have read at a slower pace because I know I there is a lot in there that deserved more thought and attention. This is a book I will have to read again to get everything it has to offer out of it.

Finally, this is a book in which almost every second sentence is quotable. I have decided to limit myself to the following though:

“Sometimes you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. And then there are books (…), which you can’t tell people about, books so special and rare that yours that advertising your affection feels like betrayal.”

“Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”

“You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.”

“The pleasure of remembering had been taken from me, because there was no longer anyone to remember with.”

“The real heroes aren’t the people doing things; the real heroes are the people NOTICING things, paying attention.”

VANISHED

2012-01-25T09:45:00.001Z

TITLE: VANISHED

AUTHOR: LIZA MARKLUND

Pages: 500

Date: 24/01/2012

Grade: 4.5

Details: An Annika Bengtzon Mystery

Proof copy received from Transworld Books through BookGeeks

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In a deserted port in Stockholm, a woman is fleeing for her life from a gunman determined to kill her. When she dives in the freezing water in order to escape, survival is far from certain. The next morning a security guard finds two dead men in the port, and a murder investigation starts.

Journalist Annika Bengtzon, meanwhile, is approached by a woman who says she has founded an organisation specialising in making people completely disappear by erasing their pasts and creating new futures.

Initially Annika is fascinated by what the woman has to tell her, and impressed by the foundation’s work, but on closer inspection things don’t completely add up. In fact, the more Annika studies the claims, the less likely they become. But before Annika is sure that the woman and her foundation are frauds she has advised a young woman to go there for help. A young woman who is very ill and in desperate danger.

Struggling with personal problems, Annika nevertheless continues investigating the Paradise foundation as well as the young woman. And as more people are killed it becomes clear that Annika is on the verge of uncovering a big criminal operation. And putting her own life in danger in the process.

Wow! There is an awful lot going on in this book. Apart from the crimes, there is Annika’s very problematic personal life, the internal politics in the newspaper where she works, social issues in the society at large and the lives of other characters in the story.

For a long time I found myself wondering how all these, apparently separate story-lines could possibly be connected. I shouldn’t have worried though, since Marklund proved herself a master at gradually and organically tying most of the different threads neatly together. And I suspect that the one or two threads that didn’t get finalised in this book will probably be continued in the sequels.

Liza Marklund is a journalist herself and that is clear from the writing. While reading this book I constantly felt that she knew what she was writing about, not only when it came to the newspaper business and politics but also with regard to organised crime, social issues and violence. All these subjects feature in this book and the opinions of the author are clear, yet I never felt that I was being preached to or that they interfered with the pace of the story.

In fact, the story unfolds at a steady and unrelenting pace, forcing the readers onwards, always guessing at what exactly is going on and very eager to find out.

The book doesn’t end with every single question answered or every evil erased, which, in my opinion, makes the book more realistic and better. The real world isn't a place where good always triumphs over evil, where people always make the right decisions or where answers are always clear-cut, and neither is Liza Marklund's. This means that this book gives the reader more than an escapist reading experience, soon to be forgotten. This story and its characters will stay with me for a while and make me look at certain issues from a slightly different perspective, which ultimately is what I hope for every time I pick up a book.

Now that I have discovered Liza Marklund and her books I look forward to reading the rest of this series.

ANGEL KISS

2012-01-22T15:51:00.000Z

TITLE: ANGEL KISS

AUTHOR: LAURA JANE CASSIDY

Pages: 232

Date: 22/01/2012

Grade: 4+

Details: Young Adult / Irish

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Jacki King is a normal 15 year old girl. She loves her guitar, performing and writing songs. She is really upset with her mother for taking her away from all her friends and activities in Dublin to the small rural village of Avarna.

However, it doesn’t take Jacki long to start making new friends and even fall in love with the gorgeous but unavailable Nick. In fact, she would say her new life is quite promising, if it weren’t for the nightmares and headaches she’s been having ever since the move. And things get worse when she starts seeing strange visions, hearing voices and acting out of control.

Although Jacki is a realist and has always believed that the dead are dead and gone, she slowly comes to the realisation that not only is there at least one deceased person definitely not gone, that person also wants her to solve a mystery.

But investigating a decades old murder brings with it dangers of a more worldly nature.

I really enjoyed this debut by Laura Jane Cassidy.

In Jacki King the author has created a believable and likeable character. The issues Jacki deals with in her daily life ring completely true for someone her age and her conversion from sceptic to believer, if somewhat quick, also makes sense.

The mystery around the old murder is interesting and although I did have the solution figured out before Jacki, it was not too obvious.

While this is a shortish and fast-paced story, the author takes the time to describe her characters and the surroundings they live in with enough detail to make them come off the page and create real pictures.

Although this book is a complete story in itself, it could also be the first part in a series. I wouldn’t mind at all if there were future books about Jacki and the mysteries she solves and would most definitely read them. Not just because of the mysteries, but also to find out more about Jacki, her friends and her musical future.

THE MAGICIAN KING

2012-01-21T09:07:00.000Z

TITLE: THE MAGICIAN KING

AUTHOR: LEV GROSSMAN

Pages: 400

Date: 20/01/2011

Grade: 4.5

Details: no. 2 The Magicians

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Quentin Goldwater and his friends Eliot, Janet and Julia are living in the magical land of Fillory where they are kings and queens. Their lives are filled with luxury and comfort, but for Quentin that isn’t enough after a while. And when a footman is killed it gives Quentin the opportunity to go on a journey, a quest Julia decides to join him on.

What should have been a simple cure to boredom and fun adventure soon turns sour when Quentin and Julia suddenly and unexpectedly find themselves in Massachusetts with no clear idea how to get back to Fillory.

Now Julia’s past and underground training in witchcraft suddenly become important. Making use of contacts from her dark past, Julia leads the way to Venice where, after an encounter with a dragon, she, Quentin and two other friends eventually find their way back to Fillory. Their return is not a comfortable one though. They now know that there are forces at work that would put an end to all magic, which would not only ruin everything the youngsters know to be their lives, but would also destroy Fillory. It turns out the quest Quentin was looking for has only just begun and is now very serious. Quentin and his crew have to find a way of saving magic and undo the damage Julia and her underground magical friends have done in their ignorance and pride.

This, for me, was a much better story than the first one. Not only was there a lot more to the story, the main characters got a lot more substance too. It is now possible to see Quentin as a fully rounded character who is actually learning from his experiences and far less self-obsessed.

Julia’s background story, which is told in chapters alternating with the story of the quest, is fascinating and brings a whole new level to the narrative.

I do still feel that a bit too much of the book is dedicated to introspection and description and I would have preferred more of an emphasis on action, however, this is nowhere near as indulgent as it was in The Magicians.

I read somewhere that Grossman is working on a third book in this series, and I look forward to reading it. I feel that Quentin still has a lot to learn and the story hasn’t yet come to a proper conclusion. And I can’t help hoping that a certain character from the first book will make a return appearance, unlikely as that may seem. After all, this is a magical universe, and a miracle should be possible. For now I can only hope and wait.

BURY YOUR DEAD

2012-01-19T12:02:00.000Z

TITLE: BURY YOUR DEAD

AUTHOR: LOUISE PENNY

Pages: 371

Date: 18/01/2012

Grade: 5+

Details: no. 6 Chief Inspector Armand Gamache

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This is a book of three stories.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is on leave in Quebec City where he gets drawn into a murder in the library where he is conducting historical research. It soon becomes clear that in order to solve the present day mystery he has to look at the mysteries surrounding the founding of Quebec and Canada. In a place where the tension between the English and French populations has lead to violence in the past, the present still holds some of that tension.

Jean-Guy Beauvoir, also on leave, finds himself in Three Pines, taking another look at the murder of the Hermit and the possibility that the wrong man may have been convicted and sentenced for that crime.

And finally there is the story behind that reason that both Gamache and Beauvoir are on leave trying to recover from both physical and psychological wounds that run very deep.

Working separate cases in different locations both Gamache and Beauvoir have to try and concentrate on the present while the recent past is constantly intruding. And while Gamache has to find a way of living with the decisions he made and the responsibility he feels for what happened as a result of them, Beauvoir has to investigate in a place he doesn’t like, using methods he doesn’t approve of or believe in.

This was a fascinating story and about so much more then the mysteries the characters investigate. Those mysteries, while fascinating, well plotted and credibly resolved take a back-seat to the personal challenges Gamanche and Beauvoir have to face.

This is a story about going on living despite being surrounded by death, about finding the will to go on when curling up in a ball and retreating from the world seems a much better and easier solution.

The story is as level-headed and sedate as is its main character. Yet there is a constant underlying urgency to get to the answer, an urgency that keeps the reader turning the pages while the thoroughness of the investigation makes the reader slow down to make sure he catches every word and nuance. And, to top it all off, the beauty of the language and images in this book makes the reader want to linger, close their eyes for a minute to picture it clearly before rushing back to read the rest of the story.

Louise Penny writes excelent books. They’re good mysteries, they’re well written novels and they’re subtle page-turners. Her characters feel like friends after six books, people I know, like and would love to meet.

Penny’s novels are always a pleasure and a treat to read.

THE SISTERS BROTHERS

2012-01-16T19:22:00.000Z

TITLE: THE SISTERS BROTHERS

AUTHOR: PATRICK DEWITT

Pages: 328

Date: 16/01/2012

Grade: 4.5

Library

Charlie and Eli Sisters are hired killers working for a powerful man only identified as The Commodore in 1850’s America.

They are sent on a mission from Oregon to California to kill Hermann Kermit Warm for reasons that are unclear to the narrator Eli. While travelling towards their destination and latest victim the two brothers meet a host of characters who all operate on the darker side of society, in a world where the law of the strongest and quickest rules.

While Charlie seems made for this life filled with cheap brandy and killing, Eli has serious doubts about the missions they are send on. The killing doesn’t come naturally to him and the longer they are travelling the more certain he becomes that what he really wants is a quiet and honest life.

And once the brothers arrive in California and locate their prey, things don’t quite work out as planned and it appears that their luck may at last have taken a turn for the worst.

For a book about hired killers, set in the Wild West during the cold rush, the tone in this book was quite light-hearted. So light-hearted in fact that at times I had to remind myself that the Sisters brothers were killers. At times though, Eli has thoughts about his life, the way it has been up to now and what he would like it to be in the future that are deep and almost philosophical.

This was a very easy book to read. The writing flows nicely and action smoothly turns into introspection and back again.

I can’t say I laughed out loud while reading this book, but there were several times when the events in the story brought a smile to my face.

The setting is fascinating, with huge parts of America being lawless and ruled by whoever happened to be the strongest or most ruthless person in the neighbourhood.

I also liked the relationship between the two brothers. Although they are very close, the differences between them are obvious and at times a permanent split between Eli and Charlie is only narrowly avoided.

I had no idea what to expect from this book when I started it, although I was aware of the fact that most of those who read the book loved it. I’m still not sure how I would qualify this book other than to say it was a pleasure to read such an original work of fiction.

MR. BRIGG'S HAT

2012-01-15T13:30:00.000Z

TITLE: MR. BRIGGS’ HAT

A Sensational Account of Britain’s First Railway Murder

AUTHOR: KATE COQUHOUN

Pages: 339

Date: 15/01/2012

Grade: 4.5

Details: Non-Fiction

Review copy received from Waterstones

On 9 July 1864 two bank clerks enter a first class train compartment only to discover that it is covered in blood, with no sign of an injured person or body although they do find a walking stick, an empty leather bag and a hat.

Shortly afterwards Thomas Briggs, a senior bank clerk, is found, fatally injured a short way back along the railway line. When Briggs dies without regaining consciousness shortly, a murder investigation commences.

The investigation is headed by Richard Tanner of the still relatively new Scotland Yard Detective Division of the Metropolitan Police.

Faced with a murder without witnesses and few clues, Tanner is conducting a very difficult investigation that only appears to break when a tip seems to point at a good suspect. Soon Tanner finds himself chasing Franz Muller, the young German tailor who appears to be at the centre of the horrific attack, across the Atlantic in an effort to bring him to justice in a case that will be decided by the ownership of two hats.

This was a fascinating read. The murder and its setting, a closed off train compartment, are truly mysterious. The only evidence available being very circumstantial leads to the answers suggested being highly ambiguous. It is hard to read this book without being both horrified at and fascinated by the standards of crime investigation at the time and the way the justice system worked in those days.

But it is not just the crime that makes this book so interesting. The author paints a great picture of England at the height of the industrial revolution, the ambivalent feelings this rapid progress awakened in people and the ins and outs of daily life in London.

I enjoyed comparing investigative methods, court proceedings and journalistic standards of the time with those we are used to today and can only be glad of the progress we have made in the 150 years since this case hit the headlines.

I feel that this well written and thoroughly researched book would be a great read for anyone with an interest in true crime, history, and/or social studies.

THE END OF THE WASP SEASON

2012-01-13T16:56:00.000Z

TITLE: THE END OF THE WASP SEASON

AUTHOR: DENISE MINA

Pages: 404

Date: 13/01/2012

Grade: 4

Details: no. 2 Kate Morrow

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In a wealthy suburb of Glasgow a young woman is brutally murdered by two intruders into her house.

DS Kate Morrow, five months pregnant with twins and a past she chooses to deny, investigates the murder while her station faces internal unrest.

In Kent, millionaire banker Lars Anderson hangs himself from a tree in front of his house, leaving his fragile family to deal with his dubious and hateful legacy.

When the two deaths are connected, the depth of Anderson’s selfishness and the harm it has caused are fully exposed and the fall-out appears enormous.

For Morrow bringing this case to a successful conclusion means she can resolve some issues with her own past and family.

This book is not really a mystery, at least not for the reader. The perpetrators of the vicious murder are identified right at the start of the book. While Ds. Kate Morrow and her colleagues are trying to find out who committed the murder and why, the big question for the reader is if it is going to happen again, and how the police investigation is ever going to get to the solution.

But even with the investigation as conducted by Morrow being described in detail, I don’t think that was the real subject of this book. For me this book was more about relationships and the various forms they take. The relationships we cherish, those we want to deny, and those we’re stuck with whether we like it or not.

I do feel that the picture the author paints of people is rather coloured by prejudice. It would appear that the rich and powerful are all bad, selfish and out to better themselves, regardless of who they might destroy in the process, while the less well off, although by no means described as angels, all have redeeming features and softness shining through the rough exterior.

I haven’t read any other books by Denise Mina, so I have no way of knowing if this contrast is one that features in all her work or unique to this book. I liked her writing in this book enough to pick up something else by her in the future, if only to find an answer to that question, though.

This is a very well written story. It is hard not to be fascinated by the selfishness of some of the characters, not to feel sorry for those who were at their mercy and not to cheer for those who make it despite the odds apparently being stacked against them.

There are one or two characters though I still can’t make up my mind about; I’m still not sure if Thomas especially was just plain bad, mad, a bit of both or just too neglected and too much of a teenager to use good judgment. And while I like it when a book stays with me after I finish the last page, I’m not sure how much I enjoy this level of confusion about a character’s motivation.

All in all this was a book that intrigued me, but not only for the right reasons.

SOLACE

2012-01-09T23:09:00.001Z

TITLE: SOLACE

AUTHOR: BELINDA MCKEON

Pages: 341

Date: 09/01/2012

Grade: 4+

Details: Read for Book Club

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Mark Casey is a doctoral student in Dublin, struggling to find any enthusiasm for the thesis he is supposed to be writing while also trying to balance his father’s demands for help on the Longford farm with his own needs. While the gap between Mark and his father appears to be getting wider, his mother tries to keep a fragile peace between the two men.

Joanne Lynch is a trainee solicitor and the daughter of a man Mark’s father has considered an enemy ever since he was wronged by him twenty years ago.

When Joanne and Mark meet at a party the attraction is instant and before long they are in the middle of a love affair. With their relationship still in its early stages, Joanne finds herself pregnant and before they’ve had a real chance to get to know each other, Mark and Joanne find themselves the parents of a baby girl.

Just when the new family are starting to find their feet and some balance in their lives, disaster strikes. In the subsequent months both Mark and his father have to reassess their lives and priorities in an effort to keep on living and moving forward.

This was a quiet and unsentimental story, although the emotions and feelings of the main characters are firmly at the centre of it. While the content of the story has all the makings of an emotional roller-coaster, the subdued tone in which the story is told means that those emotions are only implied. The reader has to dig deep to actually feel the love, pain and despair which the characters have to be going through in the context of the story. At the same time though, the story does leave the reader with a lot to think about and images that linger even after the book has been closed.

This book deals with the contrasts between life in the city and in the country-side, between the traditional expectations of the older generation versus the hopes and dreams of the younger. The story succeeds very well in describing live and relations in small Irish towns, where everybody knows everything about everybody and nothing ever stays hidden. It also gives a realistic picture of the devastation a big loss has on a person’s life and how such a loss can lead to confusion about what is a priority or even what is normal behaviour.

I had a few, minor, issues with the story. For starters, I could at no point while reading sympathise with Mark. From the start of the book I wanted to tell him to grow up, make up his mind, make a decision and stick to it. For a 30 year old man he had very little idea of what he really wanted and never seemed to be able to make a real decision. I also wasn’t entirely sure about the ending of the book. It seemed to me that nothing had been resolved when I closed the book and that the issues that had been introduced at the start of the story where still unresolved.

Having said all of that, I was intrigued by the story, its characters and their lives. The characters were almost too realistically human in that they just muddled on and didn’t really face up to the issues in their lives. And the book was very well written. The language is beautiful and the words flow in such a way that I had a hard time putting the book down.

This is an ambitious and well written novel and a very promising debut by an author I know I will be following from now on.

THE PADRE PUZZLE

2012-01-06T14:39:00.000Z

TITLE: THE PADRE PUZZLE

AUTHOR: DAVID HARRY

Date: 06/01/2012

Grade: 4.5

Details: E-book received from author

No. 1 Padre Island Mysteries

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Before I say anything else about this book I want to mention that if it were possible I would have rated this book 4.5 stars. It may not be perfect, but it is a very good read.

Jimmy Redstone is a Texas Ranger currently on leave after having been shot in the shoulder during an operation which would have seen him charged with murder if it had not been for that injury.

Now, in a last ditch effort to get re-instated to the job that is his life, he's on South Padre Island trying to rehab his shoulder through an intensive work-out programme.

On South Padre Island, located on the Gulf of Mexico near the border between the USA and Mexico, Redstone meets up with Markus Cruses, the son of a former partner of his, who is the local Coast Guard Chief.

Redstone goes out with Markus on patrol after a call out, only to discover that the emergency they thought they were responding to doesn't exist. When they return to the Coast Guard base they discover that a body has been found on the beach and the police have started an investigation.

Unable to resist his curiosity, Redstone starts asking questions about the murdered man himself. Before long he is asked by his superior in the Rangers to conduct an unofficial and under-cover investigation into the murder since the victim on the beach was a Texas Ranger, working under-cover in a drug-running gang.

From there on things move quickly. A second man dies and Redstone soon finds himself officially included in the investigations, partnered with Angella Martinez, a beautiful rookie police-woman. The investigations appear to include every law-enforcement agency known to men and Redstone can't help thinking that he is not getting all the available information.

When Markus ends up in hospital, people start threatening Redstone, demanding he hand over something he doesn't have and Trich, Markus' fiancée turns out to be the daughter of an important Mexican drug-runner, things get murky and confusing.

But never in his wildest imaginations could Redstone have foreseen the magnitude of the threat South Padre Island, he and the USA as a whole face.

I was asked by David Harry to read and review this book for him. I'm usually a bit wary about requests like that because I haven't quite figured out what I will do if it turns out I don't like the book. But, fortunately, this was not the occasion where I had to answer that question.

This is a very well told story. Jimmy Redstone is a wonderful and very realistic main character, and the tale is told at a brisk pace while it also takes the time to give the reader a good picture of the characters and landscapes involved.

I downloaded a copy of this book to my ancient e-reader and for some reason something went wrong with the formatting. This resulted in the book showing up on the reader in sentences that were only one word long, spread over nearly 4900 pages. As soon as I noticed this I knew that the story had better be good and captivating if I were to read it to the end. The fact that I not only made it to the end, despite the desperate reading format, but also gave the book this 4.5 star rating proves beyond any doubt that this is a great mystery.

I look forward to reading the sequel in the future.

My reading: Reflecting on 2011 and looking forward to 2012

2012-01-03T19:58:00.000Z

At the start of 2011 I set myself the goal of reading at least 100 books over the course of the year. Now that the year is behind me again, I’m glad to be able to say that I managed to read 125 books in all.

2011 was the year during which I started receiving books to be reviewed by me. Although I had been blogging about every book I read for years by that stage, writing reviews that were intended to be read by others was a whole new, but very gratifying, experience. Receiving books to review also meant that I got to read several books that might otherwise have slipped by me, in genres that I had not been pursuing in the past few years.

It was nice to discover that I do still enjoy the occasional Fantasy and Science Fiction titles. What was even nicer that a few authors have since started to offer their books to me for reviews, which I interpret as meaning that I must be doing something right.

In numbers, the past year looks as follows:

Ø Books read: 125

Ø Books owned by me: 62

Ø Books from the library: 63

Ø Young Adult/Juvenile Fiction: 15

Ø Non-Fiction: 6

Ø Graphic Novels: 1

Ø Short Story Collections: 2

Ø Books I graded 5 or higher: 18

And the following were my favourite reads of 2011, in alphabetical order:

Ø Down These Green Streets, Irish Crime Writing in the 21^st Century, edited by Declan Burke (NF)

Ø The Drop by Michael Connelly

Ø A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Ø Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

Ø Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante

Ø Sister by Rosamund Lupton

Ø The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Ø A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (YA)

Ø State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Ø The Watchers by Jon Steele

Ø Before I go to Sleep by S.J. Watson

All though all these books were marked 5 or higher, not all books marked as such are mentioned here. These are the books that proved to be most memorable for me.

I participated in one reading challenge last year; The Ireland Reading Challenge hosted by Carrie Kitzmiller on her Books and Movies Blog. I far exceeded the goal I had set myself of reading 6 books that were related to Ireland, but since that’s where I live, that is hardly surprising.

I will be taking part in the Ireland Reading Challenge for 2012 as well. This year the challenge has been spiced up a bit. I’ve now committed myself to reading more then 10 books that are either set in Ireland, written by an Irish author or have some other link to Ireland, as well as to read books in as many of 11 different genres as I can. I’m excited about this because there are one or two genres there, like poetry, that I don’t normally read.

Other than that I haven’t set myself any reading goals for next year yet, but that could easily change over the next few weeks. I do hope to continue reviewing books and also intend to read a few more books in my mother-tongue, Dutch. Last year I read exactly two books by Dutch authors, and that just isn’t good enough.

DODELIJKE HOBBIE

2012-01-03T16:16:00.000Z

TITLE: DODELIJKE HOBBIE (Deadly Hobby)
AUTHOR: M.P.O. BOOKS
Date: 02/01/2012
Grade: 4+
Details: no. 6 District Heuvelrug

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Read in Dutch, the original language
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Andre Lourier is looking forward to a quiet Christmas. He has been asked to house-sit for his favourite cousin and her husband, who is not fond of Lourier at all.
Although he has been given strict instructions, Lourier forgets to set the house alarm on the first night and disaster strikes. The house is broken into and the priceless collection of porcelain houses, collected by his cousin's husband, is stolen.
Initially Lourier hopes that the police will solve the case and return the collection before its owners return. But when a triple murder is committed in a nearby town the police have to allocate all their resources there and the theft is firmly placed on the back-burner.
Desperate not to have his negligence exposed, Lourier starts investigating the theft himself and appears to be on the right track.
Unfortunately he has no idea how much danger he has been in, a danger that is still lurking, waiting for a second chance...

This is the sixth book in the "District Heuvelrug" series. I haven't read any of the previous books, but that didn't interfere with my enjoyment of this novella at all.
This was a well plotted mystery. While the reader knows that the theft and the tripple murder almost certainly have to be connected, there is no way they are going to figure out how or why until the moment the author decides to reveal the solution. And even when everything has been made clear, the danger for our main character has not yet been averted.
I received a free e-book copy of this book and was happily surprised when I read it. I really enjoyed reading this story and will probably try to get my hands on other books in this series when I'm next visiting The Netherlands.

NORWEGIAN WOOD

2012-01-03T15:04:00.000Z

TITLE: NORWEGIAN WOOD

AUTHOR: HARUKI MURAKAWI

Pages:386

Date: 30/12/2011

Grade: 4.5

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	When Toru Watanabe hears the song Norwegian Wood he is transported 20 years back in time. Memories come flooding back and he remembers all the tragedies of his late teens and early twenties. When Watanabe was 17 his best friends were Kizuki and his girlfriend Noaka. When Kizuki, for reasons that are unclear to his friends, commmits suicide Watanabe has to come to terms with death and loss for the first time. Shortly afterwards Watanabe starts studying in Tokyo where he for a short while reconnects with Noaka. He gets close to her but Noaka soon finds herself struggling with mental problems and moving away to a institution where she hopes to get better. Alone in Tokyo, Watanabe finds himself caught up in the excitement of the late 1960's, early 1970's. Free love, student unrest and uneasy friendships keep him yearning for his past and Noaka, who doesn't appear to be getting any better. When he meets the exciting and inconventional Midori, she forces him to make a choice between the memories of the past and the possibilies of the future. But before he can make such a choice, Watanabe has to come to terms with all the loss he has encountered in his life and give himself permission to go on. This was a fascinating read, but not a light one. It deals with death on several levels; the death of friends, the death of parents, and suicide. It is in many ways a coming of age story, with Watanabe having to learn to deal with the losses he suffers without giving in to the despair and feelings of guilt he feels. Almost to balance all the deaths the book also deals liberally with sex. The setting of the story puts us firmly in the age of free love and not only is there lots of that in the story, it also gets described in detail through the very frank characters in the story. At some level I can't help feeling that I probably missed some level of this story due to cultural differences and my ignorance of all things Japanese. However, on another level this was just a beautiful story about a boy growing up reluctantly while having to deal with devastating loss after devasting loss and as such it was a compelling read. I'm delighted to have discovered Murakami's books and look forward to reading something else by him in the near future

When Toru Watanabe hears the song Norwegian Wood he is transported 20 years back in time. Memories come flooding back and he remembers all the tragedies of his late teens and early twenties.
When Watanabe was 17 his best friends were Kizuki and his girlfriend Noaka. When Kizuki, for reasons that are unclear to his friends, commmits suicide Watanabe has to come to terms with death and loss for the first time.
Shortly afterwards Watanabe starts studying in Tokyo where he for a short while reconnects with Noaka. He gets close to her but Noaka soon finds herself struggling with mental problems and moving away to a institution where she hopes to get better.
Alone in Tokyo, Watanabe finds himself caught up in the excitement of the late 1960's, early 1970's. Free love, student unrest and uneasy friendships keep him yearning for his past and Noaka, who doesn't appear to be getting any better.
When he meets the exciting and inconventional Midori, she forces him to make a choice between the memories of the past and the possibilies of the future. But before he can make such a choice, Watanabe has to come to terms with all the loss he has encountered in his life and give himself permission to go on.

This was a fascinating read, but not a light one. It deals with death on several levels; the death of friends, the death of parents, and suicide. It is in many ways a coming of age story, with Watanabe having to learn to deal with the losses he suffers without giving in to the despair and feelings of guilt he feels.
Almost to balance all the deaths the book also deals liberally with sex. The setting of the story puts us firmly in the age of free love and not only is there lots of that in the story, it also gets described in detail through the very frank characters in the story.
At some level I can't help feeling that I probably missed some level of this story due to cultural differences and my ignorance of all things Japanese. However, on another level this was just a beautiful story about a boy growing up reluctantly while having to deal with devastating loss after devasting loss and as such it was a compelling read.
I'm delighted to have discovered Murakami's books and look forward to reading something else by him in the near future

THE NIGHT CIRCUS

2011-12-26T21:48:00.000Z

TITLE: THE NIGHT CIRCUS

AUTHOR: ERIN MORGENSTERN

Pages: 387

Date: 26/12/2011

Grade: 5++

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This appears to be the year for me to be reading books I don’t quite know how to summarize. The story in this book is amazing, fantastical and engrossing, yet very hard to describe.

The Night Circus; it is an amazing place. It appears overnight without any warning and disappears just as suddenly.

It is a place of magical wonders, where the impossible is visible and beauty surrounds you. What the visitors of the Night Circus don’t know is that it is also the place where a magical contest takes place.

Two youngsters, Celia and Marco, have, without being aware of it or having any say in the matter, been entered in this deadly contest by their shadowy masters. In Celia’s case it’s her father who volunteered her, while Marco was selected from an orphanage just for this purpose.

While they know they are in a contest and that the Circus is their battle ground, they initially don’t know who their opponent is or how they might win or end their battle.

What the two instigators haven’t counted on though, is that Celia and Marco fall deeply in love. And although they are told that the contest can only be won when one of them gives up, they are determined to not give up on themselves, each other or the Circus.

This is one wonderful story. It succeeds in making the magical appear normal, it makes us believe that the Night Circus will indeed one day show up in a field not too far away, to share it’s magic with the rest of us.

The book is filled with wonderful characters. It is so easy to sympathise with Celia, thrown into a battle not of her own choosing without an obvious escape route and to will her on as she tries to find ways to make the Circus a safe place while not losing in the contest.

Marco may be a little bit harder to identify with at first, but between the lines you just know that his heart is in the right place, even if that doesn’t always lead to the right actions. Together they are a wonderful sight though.

My favourite characters were probably Poppet and Widget, very much children of the Circus and pivotal to its survival.

The way this story is told makes the reader feel that it is all real. The wondrous is normal and the normal is exceptional. However, the author makes sure to indicate how having to live in a world where things are different is not easy for all those involved, which makes the story more realistic again.

This is a story I know I will be thinking about for quite a while. It is also a story I hope to be revisiting in my dreams. This is a book I will be reading again and again, and most of all, this is one of my favourite books of this year.

On a side-note; those who have read the book will understand why the title above is red rather than my usual blue.

CITY OF LIES

2011-12-23T17:04:00.000Z

TITLE: CITY OF LIES

AUTHOR: ALAFAIR BURKE

Pages: 433

Date: 23/12/2011

Grade: 5

Details: no. 3 Ellie Hatcher

Published as "212" in the USA

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Detective Ellie Hatcher and her partner J.J. Rogan are told to put the investigation into the murder of one of the bodyguards of a celebrity entrepreneur more or less on the backburner after Ellie finds herself getting on the wrong side of both the entrepreneur and a judge. Although Ellie resents this action by her superior officer, her mind is soon on other matters as they are called to the scene of the murder of a young student. An attack during which the girl’s house-mate was seriously injured.

It turns out that the student had been the victim of cyber-stalking prior to her murder and our investigators seem to have a choice of possible scenarios to investigate.

When soon afterwards a young estate agent is murdered and a link is discovered between her and the student, the investigation hits yet another direction. And when the injured woman disappears from hospital and vanishes, the race is on to discover the reason behind the murders in order to prevent further bloodshed. When the estate agent is also linked to the celebrity entrepreneur it seems that all cases are connected, if only Ellie could figure out how exactly.

This was one fabulous thriller.

Ellie is an interesting and likeable character who really came to live for me on the pages of this book. The mysteries in this book were well plotted and anything but obvious while the solution was credible and completely consistent with the clues given in the story.

Often a mystery author tries to set you on the wrong track with hints that are so obvious that the reader knows they have to be false. In this book there were several occasions when I did draw the wrong conclusions, but they were down to my own line of reasoning, and not to clear attempts by the author to throw me off scent.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Alafair Burke put those red-herrings in on purpose. I just appreciate the fact she wasn’t obvious about it.

I do wonder if I would have figured the solution out sooner if I had been familiar with the real-life cases Burke based this story on. Since I don’t live in the US and have only minor knowledge of the news there, that is a question I can’t answer though.

What I do know is that I want to read more about Ellie Hatcher and the cases she solves and that I’m delighted that there is a fourth instalment in this series on the way next year.

THE MAGICIANS

2011-12-19T22:52:00.000Z

TITLE: THE MAGICIANS

AUTHOR: LEV GROSSMAN

Pages: 488

Date: 19/12/2011

Grade: 4-

Details: Magician no. 1

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Quentin Coldwater is an unhappy but highly intelligent teenager about to sit an interview for a college place when he finds his interviewer dead. When he leaves the office, he has been handed an envelope with his name on it which leads him to a place he never knew existed, where the seasons are out of sync with his normal world and where he finds himself sitting an entrance exam for Brakebills College, a school for magicians.

For Quentin, who has been attracted to the mythical and fantastical all his life, this seems to be a dream come true. And his life only gets better while he learns magic, makes friends and finds a girlfriend.

Things are never this easy though, and Quentin and his friends soon discover that while being able to perform magic may be great fun and a powerful experience most of the time, this new world is much like the one they left behind. There are dangers, responsibilities, people who would use you, and powers that corrupt. And once the idyll ends the young magicians find themselves facing dangers they couldn’t have imagined in an adventure not all of them will get out of in one piece.

Occasionally I finish a book not knowing exactly what I think or how I feel about it, and this is one of those books.

The story has all the elements to make for a fascinating tale and yet it failed to grip me. The book contains some descriptions which make it clear that this is a book aimed at adults, yet the story-line felt more young-adultish to me.

Quentin is a hard character to like. He is very self-obsessed, quick to feel sorry for himself and reluctant to take responsibility for himself and his actions. And although that could be explained by the fact that he is a teenager for most of the book, he doesn’t appear to grow out of these tendencies.

I also felt that the story was told in a very detached fashion. I never really felt drawn into the story or connecting with any of the characters. Although the story was intriguing enough to keep me turning the pages I never felt any emotional attachment to any of the characters and didn’t really care a whole lot about their fates.

On the other hand, I do find myself curious about what could possibly come next in this story. So despite my ambivalent feelings towards this book I think it is very likely that I’ll read the sequel in the not too distant future.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE CHRISTMAS PUDDING

2011-12-16T11:09:00.000Z

TITLE: THE ADVENTURE OF THE CHRISTMAS PUDDING

AUTHOR: AGATHA CHRISTIE

Pages: 224

Date: 16/12/2011

Grade: 4

Details: Short Stories

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I wanted to read at least one seasonal book during this Christmas time, and this seemed a nice choice. Christie’s books seem appropriate for this season due to their tone and settings alone, regardless of the time of year they take place in.

As it turned out, in this collection of stories only the first is set during Christmas celebrations, but that didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book at all.

In “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding” Hercule Poirot is invited to join a traditional countryside Christmas in order to find a missing ruby.

A body found in a chest, an irresistible woman and a murder that could only have been committed by one of two men (or could it?) give Poirot a fascinating investigation in “The Mystery of the Spanish Chest”.

“The Under Dog” has Poirot investigation when a widow suspects that her nephew is not the one who killed her husband, despite all the evidence saying he is.

In “Four and Twenty Blackbirds” it is a solitary man’s eating habits which explain his apparently accidental death for Poirot.

An eccentric millionaire tells Poirot of a recurring dream in which he kills himself only to be found shot a few days later. It appears the man has acted out his dream, but our detective proves otherwise.

“Greenshaw’s Folly” is the only story featuring Miss Marple in this book and has her untangling a confusion of identities and family relations.

I always enjoy Agatha Christie’s mysteries. Yes, she does cheat a bit at times in that she doesn’t give the reader all the information which is available to the detectives in her stories. But she makes up for that with the wonderful characters she has created for us. Her descriptions of people and places are wonderful, sharp and not always nice, which makes them all the more enjoyable for the reader.

Now that my library has quite a few Agatha Christie books on its shelves, I can see myself bringing one home with me regularly for moments of nostalgic and relaxing reading pleasure.

THE THIRTEEN HALLOWS

2011-12-14T22:22:00.000Z

TITLE: THE THIRTEEN HALLOWS

AUTHOR: MICHAEL SCOTT & COLETTE FREEDMAN

Pages: 349

Date: 13/12/2011

Grade: 4+

Details: First in series

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Sarah Miller is an unremarkable young woman, working a job she doesn’t like and continuously held back by her domineering mother.

When she sees an elderly woman being attacked by two junkies she does the unthinkable and intervenes. For reasons she doesn’t quite understand herself Sarah accompanies the woman, Judith Walker to her home and when they find the place ransacked, Sarah offers Judith a bed for the night in her own house. An offer which has devastating consequences for both Sarah and Judith.

With her dying breath, Judith asks Sarah to deliver a bag containing a broken sword and papers to her cousin, Owen.

For Sarah the nightmare has only begun though. People are desperate to get their hands on the sword, and will do anything to get it, and soon Sarah finds herself having to kill just to stay alive.

Because what Sarah has been asked to look after is one of the Thirteen Hallows, ancient artifacts which protect the human world from demons who would destroy it.

For centuries the Hallows have been kept and protected by keepers whose duty it was to always keep them separate from each other. Now somebody is determined to reunite the Hallows and unleash devastation on the earth, and he’s getting close. He has killed nearly all the keepers, has collected nearly all the Hallows and will stop at nothing to complete his deadly collection.

Sarah and Owen find themselves in charge of a power they don’t understand and can’t quite believe in and facing an enemy far stronger and more ruthless than they are.

As they slowly learn more about the Hallows, about their heritage and their destinies it becomes clear that their lives will never again be what they used to be or what they expected.

This is a thrilling story. With short chapters, lots of action and even more cliff-hangers, this is a true page turner.

The book is rather full of, at times rather descriptive, violence. However, since we are dealing with demons and those who would consort with them, it makes sense for the story to be dark.

I was fascinated by the story of the Hallows, their history and the characters playing a role in that past and liked the way it was revealed slowly, both to the reader and to the main characters in the book.

I would have liked to learn a bit more about Sarah and Owen. They were described in so little detail that they stayed a bit vague for me and I still can’t quite picture them.

However, this is the first book in a series, and it had a lot of other background information to share, so I hope that our two heroes will be further developed in subsequent books.

I would add one warning to this review though.

A lot of people may be familiar with or even a fan of Michael Scott because of his “Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel” series, which is aimed at teenagers. This is on the other hand is very much a book for adults. If you are, like me, one of those adults who couldn’t wait for the teenager in your life to finish their copy of "The Alchemyst" and its sequels so that you could read it yourself, this is definitely a book for you.

Finally I would like to remark on the physical beauty of this book. The cover is gorgeous and tactile while the pages of the book are printed in a beautiful and story-fitting font.

ALL THESE LITTLE WORLDS

2011-12-09T15:30:00.000Z

TITLE: ALL THESE LITTLE WORLDS

AUTHOR: VARIOUS

Pages: 167

Date: 09/12/2011

Grade: 4

Details: no. 2 Fiction Desk Anthology

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A copy of this book was send to me by the Fiction Desk at the request of Charles Lambert, whose story is one of 9 featured in this anthology.

I don’t read a lot of short fiction and am a bit at a loss as to how to review this book.

The stories in this book are by nine different authors and although three of them are set in a school environment, the content and style of these writings are all very different and individual.

In “Jaggers & Crown” James Benmore tells the story of Kevin Crown who, when seeing his somewhat premature obituary in a newspaper reflects, on his past as part of a comedy duo.

Jennifer Moore’s “Swimming with the Fishes” tells of a family buying a rather unusual addition to their aquarium and is a story in which the fantastical appears to make perfect sense.

“Pretty Vacant” by Charles Lambert is by far the longest story in this collection. It tells of a fifteen year old girl who is send from Italy to a summer school in England against her wishes where she embarks on a rather dark and potentially disastrous scheme with a local boy.

Mischa Hiller’s “Room 307” shows us how a man being seduced by a beautiful woman while away from home for work is not quite what it seems.

The second story set in a school is “Dress Code” by Halimah Marcus. Here a young male teacher in an all girl school falls foul of the newly introduced casual Friday.

“The Romantic” by Colin Corrigan is set in Connemara in Ireland and sees a one-armed poet determined to live only in the present suddenly confronted by painful memories after a drinking session with a younger woman.

In “After All the Fun We Had” by Ryan Shoemaker the attempts made by a high school to make going to and staying in class more fun get completely out of hand.

“Glenda” by Andrew Jury describes the somewhat strange relationship between a man and his mother in law after he has been left by his wife.

“Get on the Green” by Jason Atkinson is the last story in this book and describes a day in school as experienced by a four year old girl while she gets to grips with issues such as being good, the importance of college and race.

I really can’t say anymore about these stories without spoiling them for anybody else who will read them, so I won’t.

I will say that none of these stories disappointed and that reading them has left me with a few names of authors I will have to take a closer look at. I will also say that if I had to pick favourites from these nine, they would be “Swimming with the Fishes” and “Pretty Vacant”.

Finally I would like to thank Charles Lambert and the Fiction Desk for giving me the opportunity to read this collection. I enjoyed the experience.

IRELAND READING CHALLENGE 2012

2011-12-09T09:09:00.000Z

Well, there you have it.
Only last week I decided that although I had enjoyed participating in the Ireland Reading Challenge 2011, I would not participate again. I live in Ireland, and although I still feel that I have lots of catching up to do when it comes to Irish authors and books, I did manage to read more Irish-related books than I thought I would and found myself exceeding the amount of books I was challenged to read by a huge margin.
But then I saw a link to the 2012 Challenge, decided to have a look and suddenly found myself interested in participating again since there now is far more to the challenge.

The Challenge levels are now as follows:

Shamrock level: 4 books
Luck o’ the Irish level: 6 books
Kiss the Blarney Stone level: 8 books
Ceilidh level: 10+ books

And a twist has been added:

" Now for the twist: you can earn extra entries in the giveaway by diversifying your reading. You will earn one extra entry for reading from these genres – one entry per genre represented in your challenge list:"

Contemporary fiction
Historical fiction
Science fiction or fantasy
Young Adult fiction
Romance
Horror
Children’s fiction
Non-fiction – history
Non-fiction – memoir or biography
Non-fiction – essays
Poetry

Needless to say, I'll be aiming to read more than 10 books - lets have that Ceilidh - but I also want to read at least one book in each of the categories named. And that is where it becomes a real challenge for me. I haven't read poetry since I left secondary school and know little or nothing about Irish poets or what I might like. All the more reason to try at least one work of poetry next year then.

I won't be counting the various genres as extra entries though. I would be deeply disappointed if I didn't read at least 20 Irish books next year without counting any book twice. I just want to make sure I learn more about Irish authors and their works.

I can't wait to see how I'll get on with the challenge this year and will of course be keeping a record of my Irish (as well as all other) readings here.

LEFT NEGLECTED

2011-12-05T18:56:00.000Z

TITLE: LEFT NEGLECTED

AUTHOR: LISA GENOVA

Pages: 400

Date: 05/12/2011

Grade: 5+

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Be warned: This review contains one possible (minor) spoiler near the end.

Sarah Nickerson is in her thirties and leading a very busy life. Between her high-powered, demanding and stressful job, her husband and her three young children she doesn’t have time to stop and think and has to schedule every activity in her own and her children’s lives to the last second. It is the life she and her equally busy husband have always dreamed of though, so most of the time Sarah is proud of and happy with her juggling act.

All activity comes to a complete stop when one morning while driving in to work Sarah glances at her phone for a second too long and ends up crashing her car and severely injuring herself.

When she wakes up she finds herself in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital with half her head shaven but, as far as she can tell, otherwise fine. Except that she is completely unaware of anything on her left. She is diagnosed with Left Neglected, a neurological condition where the patient’s brain forgets that the left exists. Not only can she not see anything on the left of her, she’s also blind to the left-hand side of most things she can see and unable to use either her left hand or left leg.

Rehabilitation is a slow and frustrating process and when the insurance money runs out Sarah is nowhere near recovered.

Back home, being cared for by the mother she’s been estranged from for most of her life, Sarah has to begin the slow process of picking up the pieces of her life, adjusting to her new reality and finding new goals.

This is a wonderful book as well as a horrifying story. No matter how hard I try I can’t begin to understand how a person’s mind could just decide half of it isn’t there, how that person could possible be unaware of missing half of themselves as well as their surroundings or imagine how someone would even begin to come to terms with that fact.

Genova does a great job of explaining this disorder and how it affects a person. She describes how Sarah goes through a whole range of emotions without making her character look either too blasé or over-emotional. This makes the story, the disorder and the character both believable and accessible to the reader.

As I did with ‘Still Alice’, I find myself thinking about the condition and trying to imagine how I would deal with it. I love it when books bring me more then just reading joy.

One objection, on page 201 Heidi points out to Sarah that she’s lucky compared to others in the rehabilitation clinic. And although that is undoubtedly true it’s not something I feel you can ever say to a patient. Any of us can only deal with our own health issues. Comparing them to the issues of others doesn’t make our own easier or better, it just helps to make us feel bad about feeling bad about our own situation.

On the other hand, I love the optimistic but not miraculous ending to the story, signified through the following words: “Because while I still hope for a full recovery, I’ve learned that my life can be fully lived with less.” A sentiment I had to work my own way towards a decade ago.

This is a book that will grip you, keep you turning the pages and stay with you for a long time after you’ve read the final words. In short it comes highly recommended.

DIVERGENT

2011-12-03T18:05:00.000Z

TITLE: DIVERGENT

AUTHOR: VERONICA ROTH

Pages: 487

Date: 02/12/2011

Grade: 4+

Details: No. 1 in series / Young Adult

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It is a new society. After a devastating war people have been divided into five factions which each specialise in one human quality. The factions are Amity for people who abhor violence, Erudite for those who yearn for knowledge, Candor for those who believe the truth should always be told, Abnegation for the selfless and Dauntless for the fearless.

Tris has lived in the selfless community of Abnegation for the first 16 years of her life with her parents and her brother. Now that her brother, Caleb, and she are sixteen they have to choose which faction they want to align themselves with. While most young adults will choose to stay with the faction they were born to, both Tris and Caleb choose differently. Caleb hunger for knowledge makes him move to Erudite while Tris leaves Abnegation for Dauntless.

This one choice will change their lives because factions come before blood. The choice decides your friends, defines your beliefs and determines your loyalties… for ever.

Tris is aware of the consequences of her choice, but still the actual change shocks her. There is still a chance that she won’t make it through the initiation period and find herself among the factionless and the competition is very tough and not always fair. And Tris caries a secret that she must keep hidden, a secret so dangerous it could end up killing her. Because the world of factions is not as ideal as the leaders would like to pretend. There is dissatisfaction among the factions and it won’t be long before Tris and her one ally will have to make tough choices, not just to survive but also to safe those they care about.

This was a fascinating, though at times disturbing book. While I was intrigued by the society described and the choices the youngsters have to make the rather graphic descriptions of violence shocked me at times.

I completely understand why the violence was in the book, and am not suggesting that it was unnecessary in the story, but that didn’t make the reading of it any easier.

On the other hand, I was very impressed by Tris’ thought-processes, her struggles with her decisions and the way she evolved over the course of the story. Put the violence aside for a moment and what you’re reading about are teenage rivalries as we all know them, especially in situations where coming first or not coming last is very important.

The love story was nice and believable and the identity of the male love subject was a nice surprise, although it was hinted at throughout the story.

Yes, I did have to put the book down once or twice because the violence was just too much for me. On the other hand, I couldn’t put it down for long because I had to know how the story would progress and end. And I know that I won’t be able to resist any sequels to this story when they are published.

WRAPPING UP THE IRELAND CHALLENGE

2011-11-30T21:09:00.000Z

When I decided to take part in this challenge I had no idea how many Irish books I usually read over 11 months. I knew it was more than the six books that would take me to the "Kiss the Blarney Stone" level, but not how many more. Well, it turns out I read a total of 28 books that were either by an Irish author, set in Ireland or in any other way related to Ireland.
Of course, I live in Ireland and work in an Irish library. Therefore it wouldn't be fair to compare my list of books with anybody elses. I'm exposed to Irish writing so much more than most other people that any comparison would be unfair.
In fact, I've decided that if this challenge takes place again next year, I won't be participating again. Not because I didn't enjoy the process, I did. Rather because I now know that I read quite a lot of Irish books and really don't need to encourage myself to do so.
I want to thank Books and Movies for hosting this challenge. I would never have given a second thought to my reading of Irish books if it hadn't been for her.
And now of course I've got a new goal for next year. I want to improve on this years effort, so in 2112 I want to read at least 30 Irish books.

STOLEN SOULS

2011-11-30T19:16:00.000Z

TITLE: STOLEN SOULS

AUTHOR: STUART NEVILLE

Pages: 312

Date: 30/11/2011

Grade: 4.5

Details: no. 3 Belfast Thriller

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Galya is a girl from Ukraine, tricked into coming to Ireland with promises of a good job, she found herself slaving on a mushroom farm before she was taken into Belfast to be groomed into becoming a hooker.

When a Lithuanian gangster tries to force himself on her in order to “break her in”, she kills him and shortly afterwards finds herself on the run from his friends who want their revenge. Afraid and in a city where she knows nothing and no-one her only hope is the man with the cross, who gave her his phone number. Little does Galya know that her only hope is to turn into her worst nightmare.

Detective Inspector Jack Lennon was hoping to have a quiet Christmas with his daughter when he’s put in charge of the case of a murdered Lithuanian man. When three other men are also murdered, it seems that Jack may have a war between rival gangs on his hands. However, it isn’t long before Jack finds himself looking for the girl who is rumoured to have murdered the first man, unaware that others are looking for her too and that forces very close to him are determined to stop him from solving his case at all cost.

This is a more conventional thriller than its two predecessors in so far that the political issues connected with Northern Ireland play only a background role at best. In this book we are firmly in the territory of the sex-trade, a serial killer and powerful enemies.

In this book there is never a question as to who he bad guys are. The big thriller is how both the girl and Jack will manage to overcome those out to get them. With the odds firmly stacked against both of them, it appears that it will take a miracle for either or both of them to survive.

I enjoyed this thriller. Galya was a wonderful character, easy to identify and sympathise with. Jack Lennon is a flawed man, but also a man well aware of his flaws and doing his best to overcome them in order to be a good father to the daughter he denied for so long and maybe even find a chance at love.

Stuart Neville appears to have no illusions when it comes to the lengths people are prepared to go to when it comes to protecting their own interests and lifestyles, and although I would like to think that he is wrong in that respect, I can’t help thinking that it is probably true for a lot of people.

As with the previous books by this author, I read it with mixed emotions. The story is great, well plotted and a true page-turner. On the other hand, the selfishness, cruelty and indifference of a lot of characters in the books sound so true to life that it makes them hard to stomach at times. Having said that, I am by this stage well and truly hooked on this series, and am already looking forward to my next outing with Jack Lennon.

ON CANAAN'S SIDE

2011-11-29T07:28:00.000Z

TITLE: ON CANAAN’S SIDE

AUTHOR: SEBASTIAN BARRY

Pages: 256

Date: 28/11/2011

Grade: 4.5

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On the first day after her grandson Billy dies, Lilly Bere, eighty-nine years old, starts writing down the story of her life before she intends to put an end to it.

Over the next seventeen days she writes in her accounts book a story that starts in Ireland before World War I and ends in America during the gulf war.

Before Lilly was twenty years old she had to flee Ireland with the man she loved when the violence let loose in the country is threatening her and Tadg Bere’s lives.

Once in America life is anything but straightforward as the violence from home follows the young pair across the Atlantic.

Lilly soon finds herself alone and trying to make a life for herself. A life that will be filled with love, loss, friendships and betrayals. A life that will somehow forever be touched by the wars men find themselves caught up in.

I could give a lot more detail about this story, but I don’t think I should. One of the pleasures in reading this book is discovering how Lilly finds her way through life. How she ends up where she is, mourning the loss of her grandson.

Lilly tells her story with great detachment. She rarely dwells on emotions and I found myself reading between the lines to get to feelings that lay below the apparently dispassionate narration.

Because of this detachment it took me a while to get really involved in the story. I think I was about a quarter into the book before I found myself caring about Lilly and what was happening to her. But once I did I found it increasingly hard to put the book down. From not really being interested at all I had gone to being completely invested in Lilly’s life and the resilience of this character.

As Barry takes the reader on a journey through almost a century of history and changes in the world, he also shows the reader how little some things change. History repeats itself time and again until, at last, it’s just too much for even the strongest human spirit to endure.

This is a book I needed to reflect upon for a while once I finished it. Its beautiful and understated tone almost hides the poignancy in its words. Almost, but not quite.

“That they wouldn’t allow us to cross into Canaan, but would follow us over the river and kill him on Canaan’s side. The land of refuge itself.”

“We may be immune to typhoid, tetanus, chickenpox, diphtheria, but never memory. There is no inoculation against that.”

“It is possible that no one can tell you anything that you don’t already know. The brain, some part of the brain has picked up the information already, but not the ‘top’ brain, not the bit that thinks it knows things.”

DUBLIN DEAD

2011-11-25T21:48:00.002Z

TITLE: DUBLIN DEAD

AUTHOR: GERARD O’DONOVAN

Pages: 418

Date: 25/11/2011

Grade: 4.5

Details: no. 2 DI Mike Mulcahy & Siobhan Fallon

Reviewed for BookGeeks

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“A drug deal gone bad.

A daughter gone missing.

A hitman on the loose.

And five days to find the answers.”

Journalist Siobhan Fallon is still recovering from the events in The Priest, when she’s send to Cork to cover the funeral of a formally successful estate agent who has committed suicide in England.

What at first appears to be a complete non-story becomes more interesting when she is approached by a woman who is worried about her missing daughter who was supposed to be with the deceased man in England.

At the same time, in Dublin, DI Mike Mulcahy and his team are gathering information about a known gangster and drug dealer on behalf of the Spanish police, who are trying to solve the man’s murder in Spain. The team is also looking into a massive drugs haul on a yacht off the coast of Cork.

Curious, Siobhan travels to Bristol to find out more about the estate agent’s suicide and the missing woman, only to find no trace of the later as well as discrepancies in the travel documents of the man.

At the same time more underworld figures are being killed, both in England and in Ireland.

When Mulcahy and Fallon get together and compare notes, strange coincidences soon turn into a sinister plot.

With a gunman on the loose, determined to kill anybody who knows his secret, the detective and the journalist have only five days to tie all the lose ends together and prevent more deaths.

This is an enjoyable thriller, with an intriguing plot and connections where you wouldn’t expect any.

In books like this you just know that what appear to be unconnected events will in all likelihood turn out to be connected. However, in this book it was completely unclear how that could possibly be the case for quite a while. In fact I found myself wondering once or twice whether the author would succeed in delivering believable connections, and was delighted to find that he did.

I did however find the book a bit slow to start. I think it took me to about half way through the book to pick up on any sense of urgency. Once I did get that sensation though, I couldn’t stop turning the pages, and found myself racing through the second part of the book to find out how it would all link up, who the killer actually was and how it was all going to end.

Parts of the final solution came as a complete surprise to me, which is always good in a thriller, and turned this book into a more satisfying read than I thought it was going to be.

I do have a bit of a problem believing that any policeman would ever co-operate with a journalist in the way described in this book. Since this plot device does work very well, I’m prepared to dispel my disbelieve on that front though.

I feel that this book flowed better than its prequel did and think that O’Donovan is hitting his stride. If there is going to be a third book in this series, and I hope there will be, I will definitely get myself a copy. I’ve got a feeling that these books will only get better and better.

HEAVEN'S SHADOW

2011-11-21T21:59:00.000Z

TITLE: HEAVEN’S SHADOW

AUTHORS: DAVID S. GOYER & MICHAEL CASSUTT

Pages: 567

Date: 21/11/2011

Grade: 4.5

Details: No. 1 Heaven’s Trilogy

ARC received from BookGeeks

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In 2016 an object is spotted in the sky over the South Pole. It is one hundred kilometres across and heading for earth.

In 2019 two manned space crafts are racing towards the Near Earth Object, dubbed Keanu, one from the USA and one from a Brazilian-Russian-Indian coalition. Both crews want to be the first to set foot on this unknown object.

The NASA team is lead by Zack Stewart who has lost his wife three years previously and has left his teenage daughter, Rachel, behind on Earth to follow developments from NASA headquarters.

Zack’s team manages to land first, but the coalition craft is close behind, and shortly after both landings explosions on the “NEO” injure one astronaut and push the object directly into Earth’s orbit.

Close inspection shows that the explosions were no accident. The object was pushed into Earth’s orbit on purpose, but by whom and why.

And this is not the last surprise the two crews have to face. As they start the explore Keanu they come face to face with wonder upon wonder. Some of these are delightful, while others are horrific while all of them are mysterious and inexplicable.

As the two crews find themselves having to work together, tough decisions will have to be made and survival is far from certain.

I am not, and never have been, very good at or very interested in science. And that is probably the reason I haven’t read a lot of Science-Fiction either, although I do enjoy the occasional Fantasy.

I therefore don’t think I’m qualified to judge this book on its scientific content or to compare it with other books in this genre.

I am however a reader and like to think I’m capable of recognising a good story when I read one. And this was a thrilling reading experience from the first to the last page.

Fast-paced, action packed and full of twists and turns, this book had me turning the pages at a frantic pace, desperate to find out what was going on, and how it could possibly end in anything other than disaster.

I liked the way a lot of chapters start with “quotes” from online message boards on which the public reacts to what they are told about what is going on during this mission. And although I have my doubts as to whether strict adherence to rules would be disregarded with an ease as described in this book, it did make the story a lot more interesting. And to be fair, it is impossible to know how anyone would react if the events described in this book actually did happen.

I am not surprised to learn that both authors of this book are script-writers and film-producers. The chapters in this book felt a bit like scenes and the pace of the story did not leave a lot of room for in-depth character development. However, neither of these “issues” spoilt the story for me, or my reading enjoyment.

I find myself slightly surprised to say that I will be keeping an eye out for parts two and three in this trilogy. I may not be a huge fan of Science-Fiction but I certainly want to read them and find out how it is all going to end.

THE DROP

2011-11-20T19:35:00.000Z

TITLE: THE DROP

AUTHOR: MICHAEL CONNELLY

Pages: 388

Date: 19/11/2011

Grade: 5+

Details: No. 17 Harry Bosch

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Harry Bosch is working in the Open-Unsolved Unit, where cases dating back up to 50 years are re-examined whenever new evidence warrants such action.

When a DNA hit comes back giving the name of a possible suspect to an unsolved rape-murder of a young girl more than 20 years ago, it appears to be a slam-dunk at first glance. However, a closer look at the evidence shows that, although Clayton Pell, the person identified, is a convicted rapist and seems to fit the crime quite well, something has to be wrong. At the time of the crime, Pell was only eight years old, which makes it unlikely if not impossible, that he committed the crime.

Bosch and his partner David Chu have only started trying to figure out how the DNA evidence could point to a juvenile when they are handed a second case.

They are to investigate the death of a man who fell from a hotel window. This should be a straight-forward investigation were it not for the fact that Bosch was asked to conduct it by his long-time nemesis Irvin Irving. It was council man Irving’s son who fell to his death and Irving insists that he only trusts Bosch to conduct a fair investigation.

Bosch knows that this second investigation is more about politics than about policing and can’t understand why a man who has spend years trying to undermine him now wants him to investigate his son’s death. But because “everybody counts or nobody counts” he takes on the case and gives it his best.

Facing both a serial killer who may have gone undetected for over 30 years on the one case and a political mine-field where it is unclear who is manipulating who on the other, Harry finds himself questioning his wish to stay in the police force for as long as he possibly can.

This is Michael Connelly at his best. While I enjoy all of his books, I have to admit that Harry Bosch is my favourite character of his. Bosch’s integrity equals his disregard for rules and politics and his “lone wolf” approach to investigations is as understandable as it is infuriating. The mysteries in this book are as well plotted as any in Connelly’s books, with twists and turns that leave the reader guessing and solutions that are both credible and infuriating. Connelly doesn’t give the reader an idealised version of police work. He shows us a harsh reality where the best intentions won’t always lead to the right outcomes through a character who is well aware of the faults in the system but still prepared to give it the best he’s got.

Connelly is steering Harry Bosch towards a retirement date in the not too distant future, and this reader will be shedding a few tears when the moment comes for her favourite detective to hand in his badge.

THE BREATH OF GOD

2011-11-19T10:24:00.000Z

TITLE: THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE BREATH OF GOD

AUTHOR: GUY ADAMS

Pages: 245

Date: 18/11/2011

Grade: 4+

Details: Received from and reviewed for BookGeeks

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The book starts with Hilary De Montfort, leaving his club after a lucky evening gambling, on to be seen a short while later, desperately running away from something only he can see. When his crushed body is discovered in the middle of a London square it is unclear who or what may have killed him.

Shortly afterwards Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are visited by Dr. John Silence who tells them a strange story about a possessed little girl. A story that fails to convince Sherlock Holmes.

Holmes is fascinated by De Montfort’s death though and when soon afterwards another man, who belonged to the same occult society, also dies under very mysterious circumstances, Holmes interest is peaked.

Soon Silence, Watson and Holmes find themselves on a train to Inverness to consult with Aleister Crowley. While on the train Watson finds himself witnessing a very distressing supernatural phenomenon which turns out to be the first of many.

Once in Inverness, Holmes goes of to conduct investigations on his own, while Watson travels with Silence and Thomas Carnacki, supernatural investigator, to Crowley’s house where they are also joined by Julian karswell, a runic expert. Crowley seems to be under nightly attacks from supernatural forces and Watson soon finds himself not only converted into believing in the supernatural, but also joining forces with the other men to fight the horrors they face.

When Holmes joins the men in Crowley’s estate they decide that the real threat lies in London, which may face a supernatural attack on the very start of the twentieth century. Will these 6 men be able to stop the forces of evil, or is there, after all, a logical explanation for everything Watson has been experiencing?

This was a fascinating excursion into the world of Sherlock Holmes. Guy Adams has stayed close enough to Conan Doyle’s original way of telling the stories to make this a very plausible addition. At the same time, he takes things one step further than the creator of Sherlock Holmes used to do. This is one mystery where logic will not explain all, where even Holmes has to admit that there may be things even he can’t quite rationalise, or can he? Watson and the reader are left wondering what exactly did and did not happen, although Holmes does supply an explanation even for that.

I think I might have enjoyed this book more if I had been familiar with the stories in which Silence, Carnacki and Karswell originated. I probably missed out on some references that would have been obvious to people with such familiarity. That lack in background information didn’t lessen my reading enjoyment though. I read this story in a single day and almost in a single sitting in what was a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience.

THE NEXT ALWAYS

2011-11-19T10:10:00.000Z

TITLE: THE NEXT ALWAYS

AUTHOR: NORA ROBERTS

Pages: 324

Date: 15/11/2011

Grade: 5-

Details: no. 1 The Inn at Boonsboro Trilogy

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The Montgomery family of Boonsboro is in the middle of restoring the historic hotel there into a bed & breakfast. The three brothers together with their mother have great plans for the place, modernising the place while keeping and restoring all its historical features.

Beckett Montgomery is the architect in the family and the hotel is the major project in his life. It’s not the only one though. He also has his eye on a woman he has had feelings for since he was a teenager.

Clare Brewster is a young army widow with three young sons, who runs the bookshop across the street from the hotel. With her life filled to over-flowing with home, work and her young family, a new relationship is the last thing on her mind. But her curiosity about the restoration project soon brings her closer to Beckett, and the possibility of a new and unimagined future. But the path to happiness isn’t a smooth one, and Clare and Beckett will have to overcome some obstacles before their future together can be secured.

This is Nora Roberts as I love her. A story filled with interesting and strong characters, romance, danger and even a ghost; what’s not to love?

Considering that Roberts books are in fact highly predictable and closely resembling each other, it seems amazing that I continue to love her books as much as I do. I can only contribute that to the fact that Robert’s romances always feature characters I would love to know in real life. She has a way of drawing the reader in with clever conversation and interesting surroundings.

And this book has an added attraction.

Although all the characters in this book are fictional, the setting is real, as is the Inn which has indeed been restored and opened by Nora Roberts herself and a friend. The love the author has for this place is obvious on the pages of this book, and gives an added depth to this story.

As always, I really want to read the rest of this trilogy as soon as possible, and resent the fact that I’ll have to wait about a year before the next one will be out.

NEW TOWN SOUL

2011-11-17T08:15:00.000Z

TITLE: NEW TOWN SOUL

AUTHOR: DERMOT BOLGER

Pages: 247

Date: 16/11/2011

Grade: 4

Details: young-adult

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When 16 year old Joey starts in a new school, he’s nervous about how he will be welcomed. He left his last school because of bullying, and is afraid that he could be put through that hell again. But when he looks behind him before entering the class-room for the first time, he sees a friendly looking boy behind him, and suddenly he’s not so scared anymore. He also notices a beautiful girl with black hair who smiles at him when she notices him in the doorway but looks away as soon as she spots the boy behind him.

Before long Joey and Shane, the boy who stood behind him that first day, are close friends, and initially Joey is delighted with this friendship. It isn’t long though before Shane’s behaviour starts to worry Joey. And if Shane is such a nice guy, why should black haired Geraldine avoid him at all costs, convinced he is evil? And then there is the old man, Thomas, who seems to know everything about Shane, Joey, Geraldine and their histories and families.

Joey soon realises that something is very wrong, but exactly what is happening is stranger, scarier and more dangerous than he could ever have imagined.

This is a rather creepy but wonderful story. Dealing with friendship, love, death, betrayal and trust, both the characters and the reader are taken on a rollercoaster ride through emotions, believe and disbelieve.

As the story is told in turn by several of the main characters, a dark picture slowly emerges. The truth of what exactly is going on is so strange and sinister that, while the characters in the book can’t quite believe it, the reader will not be able to completely anticipate it although the clues are there from the first page.

I liked that this book was about more than just keeping the reader on the edge of their seat. Although Dermot Bolger succeeded very well in creeping me out, he also managed to portrait the power of human kindness and honesty.

This is a young adult book that treats its readers as adults and doesn’t spell everything out in detail, forcing the reader to use their own imagination which makes the story even scarier than it would otherwise be.

In short, this is a good and fascinating page-turner.

ANY HUMAN FACE

2011-11-14T12:11:00.000Z

TITLE: ANY HUMAN FACE

AUTHOR: CHARLES LAMBERT

Pages: 323

Date: 13/11/2011

Grade: 4+

Detail: Reviewed for BookGeeks

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In 1983 Alex is asked by his mentor and lover Bruno to hold on to a few bags for him for a few days. When Alex returns to Bruno’s place after taking the bags to his own apartment he finds Bruno murdered and mutilated. Scared, Alex decides he has to get rid of the bags, which turn out to contain photo’s, and sells them to a young photographer.

In a plot line that initially appears unrelated, a young girl, who is not named, is kidnapped at an unidentified time for reasons that are unclear to her and the reader.

In 2008, Andrew Caruso owner of a second hand bookshop in Rome finds some bags which used to belong to a lover of his who died, apparently by suicide, years ago. The bags contain mug-shots, photos of crime-scenes and other photographs, clearly from police archives. In honour of his former lover Andrew decides to show the photographs in an exhibition, but shortly before the show is due to open official looking men enter Andrew’s place, confiscate everything they can find and take Andrew away to an unknown destination.

Why are these photographs so sensitive after all these years, who is afraid of having them shown in public, and how will Andrew get himself out of this mess he unwittingly landed himself into?

This is a literary thriller if ever I read one. Yes, the story features murder, unexplained deaths and kidnapping, but they are not the main points of interest for the author. Charles Lambert is far more interested in the inner lives of his characters, their thoughts, feelings and lifestyles.

Set in the gay scene in Rome, this book pictures a rather seedy community where love is often not the main reason for people being together and where most are looking after number one. However, it is also a place where the few real friends you have will do almost anything to help you and where acts of unselfishness stand out a mile.

Anyone reading the blurb on the back of the book would expect to be landed in the middle of the action almost immediately upon opening it, which is not the case. The lead up to the raid on Andrew’s place takes about half the book. However, that lead up is well used by the author to establish the characters and to give the reader some clues as to what may or may not be going on with the photos. This leads to the reader having an advantage over the characters in the book, but only a slight one. And by the time the book ends, this is still the case. Not all questions are conclusively answered by the author. Some interpretations are left up to the reader, which pleased me because it gave the story a realistic feel which is often missing from the thrillers I read.

A fascinating book, if a bit off the beaten track, which had me thinking about the story for some time after I finished reading it.

A GREYHOUND OF A GIRL

2011-11-13T08:11:00.000Z

TITLE: A GREYHOUND OF A GIRL

AUTHOR: RODDY DOYLE

Pages: 169

Date: 12/11/2011

Grade: 5

Details: Juvenile Fiction 12-14

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From the back of the book:

Scarlett, Mary, Tansey, Emer.

Mothers and daughters heading off on a car journey.

One of them dead,

one of them dying,

one of them driving,

one of them just beginning.

They’re going back to the past on a matter of life and death.

Mary is twelve and she hates the hospital. She hates everything about it, except for one thing, her granny.

Mary’s granny Emer is in hospital afraid to close her eyes in case she’ll never open them again while unable to stay awake.

Mary visits her granny everyday together with her mother, Scarlett. The visits aren’t easy, but both mother and daughter love granny deeply, so they keep on going and keep on making the same jokes.

Then one day on her way home from school Mary meets a confusing woman. The woman seems to appear out of nowhere and is young although she makes an old impression. Mary feels she should be afraid of this woman, but she isn’t because somehow the woman, whose name is Tansey, seems familiar.

When the ties between the four women are revealed, they go on a road trip together. For one of them it will be the last trip she ever makes, for one of them it’s the first trip in about eighty years and for two of them it will make the loss they’ll have to face a little bit less hard.

This is a charming book and a heart-warming tale. It is a ghost story without the scares, a coming of age story without the drama and a tale about love and loss without forced sentimentality.

At times funny and at times sad this story is inspired from start to finish.

Mary is a feisty, charming and completely life-like character who I couldn’t help but love, both in her cheeky and in her not-cheeky moments. But then she descends from a line of strong and loving women.

This is a book that will be enjoyed by young teenagers as much as by adults, although they may have different reasons for loving the story.

Roddy Doyle has once again succeeded in writing a simple yet evocative tale, a story that will stay with the reader for a long time.

DOWN THESE GREEN STREETS, Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century

2011-11-12T14:00:00.000Z

TITLE: DOWN THESE GREEN STREETS

Irish Crime Writing in the 21^st Century

EDITED BY: DECLAN BURKE

Pages: 368

Date: 11/11/2011

Grade: 5

Details Non-Fiction (mostly)

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Irish crime writing is a recent phenomenon. While there have been great and internationally acknowledged Irish authors for a much longer time, crime was until recently a subject that authors more or less ignored.

Down These Green Streets explores why crime was ignored by Irish authors for such a long time, and why it has recently exploded into our bookshops.

A large number of Irish crime writers and journalists explore the reasons for this change in the fortunes of Irish crime writing. Through essays, interviews, short stories and personal testimonies, the reader learns how Ireland’s troubled past inhibited crime writing, the differences between crime writing in the North and South of the Island, how various authors go about putting their stories together and why they do it that way as well as a history of development of the genre in Ireland.

For someone who enjoys their mysteries, thrillers and crime novels as much as I do, this is a priceless collection of information. I honestly think that as an overview of Irish crime writing, past and present, you won’t find a better or more complete compendium than this book. My only “complaint” would be that this book showed me how many authors I still need to pick up for the first time, how much I have managed to miss out on.

This is probably not a book to be read from cover to cover as I just did. Ideally, this is a book to own and dip in and out of as the mood or curiosity strikes. I fully intend to buy a copy of this book so that I can go back to it when I’m looking for a new Irish crime author to try or for more information about an author I happen to be reading.

On a personal note, I had one very happy surprise while reading Andrew Nugent’s essay in this book. On page 298 he writes:

“Once again, it is a blog-reviewer who expresses the point very accurately. I only have her first name, Meen, and I know that she is Dutch, and lives in Ireland (…).

Meen writes of my murder mysteries:

“These books are not exactly police procedurals, even if the investigators are members of the Gardai. The author is more interested in human relationships than investigative procedures.”

She is kind enough to add, ‘and for me, this really works’ and to say encouragingly, ‘I’m already looking forward to the next one.’”

There I am, in a coffee shop, eating a bit of lunch while reading this book and suddenly I’ve got a big grin on my face, softly saying to myself, “that’s me, that’s my blog. My blog is being quoted in a published book!”

If I’m honest, I have to admit that I’m still grinning about it and still can’t quite believe it. And of course this means that I will have to buy a copy of this book sooner rather than later. But, since I can see myself returning to this book time and again anyway, that won't be a hardship.

And just in case you find yourself wondering; yes, I would still have given this book the same rating if I hadn’t been mentioned in it.

DARKFEVER

2011-11-06T08:29:00.000Z

TITLE: DARKFEVER

AUTHOR: KAREN MARIE MONING

Pages: 347

Date: 05/11/2011

Grade: 4

Details: no. 1 Fever Series

Reviewed for BookGeeks

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MacKayla (Mac) Lane is 22 years old and has a good life in Ashford, Georgia. Living with her parents, she has a job in a bar and studies part-time. She rarely faces more difficult decisions than what to wear today, and what colour her nails should be, with her biggest worry being that her favourite colour will be discontinued. That all changes when she receives word that her sister Alina has been murdered in Dublin, where she had been studying in Trinity College.

Devastated and heartbroken Mac travels to Ireland to find out what exactly happened to her sister, and who killed her since it seems that the local police is not getting anywhere with the investigation.

As soon as Mac arrives in Dublin her live changes. She finds that she is seeing monsters around her; monsters that other people don’t seem to be able to see. And it isn’t long before she discovers that she isn’t what or who she thought she was either.

Mac finds herself in a world where the Fae are mixing with humans, using them before killing them. And Mac is a Sidhe-seer, one of only a few who can see and recognize the Fae for what they are.

A voicemail message Alina left her, sends Mac searching for something called the Sinsar Dubh, although she has no idea what it is or why she is looking for it.

When she meets Jericho Barrons they are at odds with each other from the start. But it soon becomes apparent that if Mac wants to find her answers and to stay alive she will need Barrons. And, it turns out that Mac has certain powers that are very useful for Barrons too.

But with the Fae slowly invading Dublin and taking whole parts of the city literally off the map, Barrons and Mac are in constant danger.

In many ways this is yet another addition to the paranormal fiction that seems to be flooding the market at the moment. We have a heroine who is, on the surface, completely unsuited to the task she has been set, forced to work together with a dangerous and potentially untrustworthy ally who also happens to be attractive. Throw in opponents who are not from this world and can appear both monstrous and gorgeous but are deadly in both guises and you can’t help feeling that you’ve been there before.

However, this is also a very enjoyable read. Mac is a mostly interesting main character and it’s nice to see her growing into something more than the super visual girl she starts of as.

For me personally the fact that the story is set in Dublin added a lot to the attraction because I know the places the story was taking place in.

At times the contrast between Mac’s innocence and Barrons’ selfish cynicism seemed a bit too much like a stereotype to me, but overall I got hooked into the story and found myself compulsively turning the pages, wanting to find out what would happen next.

And books that come with sentences like: “I love books, by the way, way more than movies. Movies tell you what to think. A good book lets you choose a few thoughts for yourself. (…) My imagination has always topped anything a movie could come up with” can’t be all bad.

I’ve got a feeling that I will probably read the sequels to this book, if only to find out where else in Ireland this story will take Mac and the reader.

HALLOWE'EN PARTY

2011-11-02T20:40:00.000Z

TITLE: HALLOWE’EN PARTY

AUTHOR: AGATHA CHRISTIE

Pages: 219

Date: 02/11/2011

Grade: 4

Details: No. 36 Hercule Poirot Mystery

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During the preparations for a Halloween party a young girl, Joyce, proclaims that she once saw a murder done. Nobody believes the girl, even though she insists it’s true, and the preparations for the party are finished without anyone paying anymore attention to the girl’s statement.

Later that evening, after the party has taken place and everybody is going home again, young Joyce is found, drowned in the bucket that was used for apple bobbing.

Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, an author of mysteries and friend of Hercule Poirot, was present when the girl made her bold statement and turns to the Belgian detective for help. She convinced that the girl was murdered because of the statement she made, and she feels guilty because she also thinks that Joyce said what she did to impress her.

Poirot is intrigued and travels to Woodleigh Common to investigate and before long he stumbles upon other unsolved deaths, cases of forgery and disappearances although for a long time they all appear to be unrelated to each other.

By the time it all becomes clear to Poirot another child has died and a third one is in mortal danger.

It has been a very long time since I last read a book by Agatha Christie. When I was a teenager she was my introduction to adult mysteries as well as the first author I read in English and it was nice to get reacquainted with her and Poirot after so many years.

This is of course a typical Christie mystery. A relative small cast of suspects, a village filled with gossip and people with dubious motives and secrets to hide and enough clues to help Poirot solve the case but not quite enough for the reader to do the same.

Having said that, I had part of the mystery solved as soon as a particular character was introduced and other answers seemed self-evident, although that may be the result of years of reading mysteries.

I enjoyed this return to the world of Agatha Christie and her characters and now that the library where I work has a shelf full of her books, I think I’ll be reading more of her mysteries in months to come.

PURE

2011-10-31T18:46:00.000Z

TITLE: PURE

AUTHOR: JULIANNA BAGGOTT

Pages: 431

Date: 31/10/2011

Grade: 4.5

Details: no. 1 in series

ARC read for BookGeeks

To be published February 2012

Own

Ever since the detonations the world has been split in two.

There are those who were singled out for safety before disaster struck. They were taken to the Dome where they still live, safe, secluded and Pure; unblemished by the devastation that destroyed the rest of the world.

Outside live those who weren’t deemed good enough to be saved. They were out in the open when the detonations shook the world and those that didn’t die are now maimed and fused with objects they happened to be holding or were close to at the time of the blasts.

Pressia is one of those who live outside, struggling to stay alive and fearing her sixteenth birthday. Once she’s 16 she will have to leave her grandfather, her only surviving relative, and report for duty. Either she’ll be trained to be a soldier, or if she’s deemed too weak, she’ll be turned into prey, to be hunted down and killed. Although life is bleak and dangerous Pressia hangs on to vague memories and stories about life before the destruction and believes the message that came from the Dome at the time: “We know you are here, our brothers and sisters. We will, one day emerge from the Dome to join you in peace. For now we watch from afar, benevolently.” Others are not so sure that the Dome has any benevolent intentions.

Inside the Dome Partridge has lived a life of privilege. With his father being a very powerful figure in the Dome’s organization, he has had little to worry about, except that his mother is dead and his brother has recently killed himself. And Partridge knows he’s different from the other kids in the Dome. Somehow the programmes that exist to enhance male teenagers in the Dome don’t work on Partridge, and this may be the result of something her mother did before he was moved into the Dome.

When Partridge discovers that his mother may still be alive he decides to escape the Dome, find his mother and maybe also the truth.

Soon Pressia and Partridge meet each other in the dangerous world outside the Dome and both of them will have to face truths that upset everything they ever held true and stare death in the face on more than one occasion, because both of them are central to the future of the world they live in.

This is an imaginative dystopian novel. The Post-apocalyptic world described sounds extremely realistic and is portrait in vivid pictures that are all too easy to imagine.

Both Pressia and Partridge are fully formed characters. They aren’t super-human heroes rather than scared youngsters trying to figure out what is going on around them and how to best deal with it. The same is true for the characters they interact with, all are well-rounded and multi-facetted which makes them real to the reader and fascinating to read about.

The same can be said for the story as a whole. There are multiple layers to the story, only a few of which are actually revealed in this first installment. Other discoveries, still to be made, are only hinted at, and I’m sure there are more that are still completely hidden from the reader.

Julianna Baggott succeeds in drawing the reader into her frightening world and make them care about those who live there, their well-being and future. Some writers have it in them to create a new reality on the pages of a book, and Baggott is one of those. She has created a world and characters I care about and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel to this book in the future, although I’m well aware that I will have a long wait ahead of me.

MEMORIES OF MY MELANCHOLY WHORES

2011-10-28T21:07:00.000+01:00

TITLE: MEMORIES OF MY MELANCHOLY WHORES

AUTHOR: GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ

Pages: 115

Date: 28/10/2011

Grade: 4

Details: Read for discussion with

The Loft Bookshop BookClub

Library

This novel tells the story of an unnamed, old and not very successfulreporter who, on the eve of his 90^th birthday decides that he wantsto spend the night making love to an adolescent and virgin whore.

When he enters the room where the 14 year old girl is waiting for himshe is fast asleep and he doesn’t disturb her. He spends the night looking ather and sleeping beside her, and when he leaves the next morning he is deeplyin love, for the first time in his life.

All his experiences with women in the past have been with women he hadto pay and his encounters with this young girl bring memories of those occasionsback to mind.

Filled with love for the girl, who he names Delgadina, he continues tovisit her regularly, getting ever more attached to and obsessive about her,although the intimacy he thought he wanted never comes to pass and he and thegirl never talk to each other or learn anything about the other’s life. Justsleeping in the same bed is enough because “sex is the consolation you havewhen you can’t have love”.

Feeling the need to share this new emotion he has discovered so late inlife he writes about his love in his weekly columns and suddenly finds hiscareer taking off.

As the first year of his 10^th decade passes the narratorfinds himself subject to emotions he has never felt before and never expected tofeel, culminating in the wish to completely change his life and livingarrangements.

This is a remarkable book. The whole idea of an adult man wanting tospend the night with a teenager is totally abhorrent to me. However, the factthat, although they do spend nights together, they never actually have sex makesthis story readable.

The story of this old man falling in love for the very first time,witnessing him reacting as you would expect the average teenager to do, wascharming, sad and uplifting. The thought that it is never too late toexperience love, either for the first time or again, is wonderful.

This book is both a love story and a swansong and as such works verywell. On the other hand I do find the premise of the very old man and the veryyoung girl quite disturbing. In fact, I had issues with the way women ingeneral were viewed by the narrator in this book. Having said that, it couldeasily been seen as a weakness in the main character since the two women whoplay a bigger part in this story, his mother and the lady providing him withDelgadina, can both be viewed as strong and self-sufficient.

All in all this was an interesting read and beautifully written book thatshould provide lots of material for a very good discussion and gave me quite a few interesting quotes to hold on to.

(on aging) "The truth is that the first changes are so slow they pass almost unnoticed, and you go on seeing yourself as you always were, from the inside, but others observe you from the outside."

"By then I had a mental list of faces I knew and another list of the names that went with each one, but at the moment of greeting I didn't always succeed in matching the faces to the names."

"By now I felt so accustomed to this kind of domestic life that I no longer slept naked but wore the Chinese silk pajamas I had stopped using because I hadn't had anyone to take them off for."

"I began to read her The Little Prince by Saint-Exupery, a French author whom the entire world admires more than the French do."

"(...)and once again I confirmed with horror that one ages more and with more intensity in pictures than in reality."

TURN OF MIND

2011-10-26T21:57:00.000+01:00

TITLE: TURN OF MIND

AUTHOR: ALICE LAPLANTE

Pages: 305

Date: 26/10/2011

Grade: 5

Library

Amanda O’Toole has been killed, and after she died four of her fingerswere surgically removed by someone who obviously knew what they were doing.

The police investigating the killing are convinced that Jennifer Whitehas killed Amanda, who was her neighbour and best friend.

Jennifer White is a retired orthopaedic surgeon who used to specialisein hands. And Jennifer has Alzheimer’s, which makes her a very unreliable suspectand almost impossible to interrogate.

As her Alzheimer’s gets steadily worse, Jennifer moves backwards andforwards through her memories throwing light on her life, her marriage herchildren and her, at times volatile, relationship with Amanda.

Did she kill and/or mutilate Amanda? Even Jennifer isn’t sure about theanswer to that question, and when the solution to the mystery is revealed toher, all we know for sure is that she won’t be able to remember it.

This was a chilling read on several levels.

There is of course Amanda’s death and what was done to her afterwards,which in and off itself would be scary enough. But in many ways, for me, thatwas the least chilling part of the story.

The relationships in the book affected me more. The relationshipsbetween Jennifer and those around her, her deceased husband, her children andher friend Amanda all seemed to have dark aspects. Jealousies, rivalries andpower struggles seemed to be below (and at times in the forefront of) a lot ofher interactions with others.

However, by far the most chilling aspect of this book was the disease,Alzheimer’s.

This has been the second book I read about a person slowly losingherself to Alzheimer’s. And as I did when I read Still Alice by Lisa Genova Ifound myself scared by the disease and by what it does to the person sufferingfrom it and those who have to watch the slow but unrelentless deterioration.

This is a very well written book. I could picture Jennifer, and althoughI didn’t like her very much, I was able to feel and understand her despair andanger.

Alice LaPlante made Jennifer’s shrinking world very real for me whichmeans that this is a story that will stay with me for a long time.

I’m not sure what other people will make of this review. While my ratingshows that I think this is a good book, I can’t help feeling that what I’vewritten about it could well put people of reading it. I hope that isn’t thecase though, since this is an original and fascinating, if at times disturbing,read.

IT'S FINE BY ME

2011-10-23T15:45:00.000+01:00

TITLE: IT’S FINE BY ME

AUTHOR: PER PETTERSON

Pages: 199

Date: 23/10/2011

Grade: 4.5

Details: Translated from Norwegian by Don Bartlett

Copy received from andreviewed for

Bookgeeks

Own

Set in the 1970’s in Norway,this is the story of Audun Sletton.

When the book starts Audun is 13 years old and facing his first day in anew school where insists on keeping his sunglasses on all day and refuses totalk about where he came from and his past.

Five years later Audun is the only one of his siblings still living withhis mother in a working-class district of Oslo. He is in his last year ofschool but not sure if that is the place for him. Audun has one good friend,Arvid and shares with him a love of reading and socialist political ideas.

Slowly Audun shares some memories of his life so far with the reader, ifnot with those around him. We learn about his violent father who disappearedfive years ago but could be anywhere, even on his way back to his family. Wealso find out about Audun’s younger brother and older sister and slowly startto understand Audun’s problems with his life and the world around him.

This is a very good coming-of-age novel. In many ways Audun is a typicalteenager, trying to find his place in the world and to understand the actionsof those around him. But there are issues in Audun’s life that make him a farfrom average teenager. The violence that were a dominant feature in his earlylife, and a devastating loss make him feel more alone in an incomprehensibleworld than the average teenager does.

The reader won’t always be able to understand or approve of his actionsand decisions, but will at all times sympathise with him and will him on,hoping that he will come out at the other side to a brighter future.

At times violent and at other times tender, this is a powerful story,both heartbreaking and uplifting.

I feel this would make a wonderful book for discussion since noteverything is explained in detail and several issues are left open tointerpretation by the reader.

This is a story that will stay with the reader for some time afterfinishing the book, with a main character that will provoke all sorts ofemotions.

THE MAPPING OF LOVE AND DEATH

2011-10-21T20:58:00.001+01:00

TITLE: THE MAPPING OF LOVE AND DEATH

AUTHOR: JACQUELINE WINSPEAR

Pages: 338

Date: 20/10/2011

Grade: 5

Details: no. 7 Maisie Dobbs

Library

Michael Clifton was a young American cartographer with an English fatherwho had just finished surveying and buying a plot of land in Californiawhen he read about World War 1 breaking out in Europe and decided to sail to Britain tooffer his services. Three years later Michael and others on his team werelisted as missing.

In 1932 Maisie Dobbs is hired by Michael’s parents. Their son’s body hasfinally been discovered and with it a bunch of love letters from a Britishnurse as well as other personal papers. They hope Maisie will be able todiscover who the nurse was and find out more about those final years of theirson’s life.

Reading the post mortem report proves to Maisie that Michael wasmurdered rather than a victim of the war and when soon

after talking to Maisie and giving her the letters, the elderly coupleis attacked in their hotel room and left for dead it becomes very clear that theinvestigation is about more than just finding the young but elusive nurse.

Maisie finds herself once again looking at the events of the First WorldWar and her own painful memories of that time. But at the same time her ownlife is going through drastic changes. Her mentor, Maurice is very ill andMaisie has to prepare herself for life without the man who taught hereverything she knows about investigating. She also finds herself takingtentative steps towards loving again. This investigation will be an emotionalrollercoaster for a lot of the characters in this book.

I’m not quite sure what exactly it is about these Maisie Dobbs stories,but I love them. I adore the gentle pace in which the stories are told. I’m inawe of Maisie’s way of approaching the people she deals with and feel inspiredby the philosophies which underlie her investigative methods.

The book also gives a great and realistic view of life in Britainin the 1930’s as well as the horrors of World War One.

These stories flow softly even though they are murder mysteries anddon’t shy away from the horrors of war and death and the pain people will causeeach other. And the mysteries are well plotted with solutions that make sensewithout being obvious.

I can only hope that Mrs. Winspear will continue writing these books fora long time.

“Life is a riddle, my dear.It is filled with clues along the way, with messages we struggle to understand.(…) you should know that all maps are drawn in hindsight. And hindsight, if interpretedwith care, is what brings us wisdom.”

LONG GONE

2011-10-19T08:03:00.002+01:00

TITLE: LONG GONE

AUTHOR: ALAFAIR BURKE

Pages: 349

Date: 18/10/2011

Grade: 4.5

Details: Stand-alone

Library

When, after months of unemployment, Alice Humphrey is offered theopportunity to manage an art gallery in New York it seems like a dream come true, even if shedoes have her doubt about the art she’s expected to display and sell, theartist who can’t be contacted and the anonymous person financing thisopportunity.

Four weeks later, the dream turns into a nightmare when she walks intothe gallery early one morning to find all the artwork gone and the man whohired her dead on the floor. And the nightmare becomes darker when all theevidence the police stumble across appears to point at her being the person whomurdered him.

Certain of her innocence but unclear about who might want to frame heror why, Alicehas little choice but to start investigating the man who hired her, andeverything else involved with the gallery.

She soon discovers that absolutely nothing is as it seemed such a shorttime ago, but nothing could have prepared her for the shocks that are still tocome and the consequences they will have for the way she looks at herself, herfamily and her life.

This was a fascinating thriller.

I’m not usually a fan of stories in which you know from the start thatthe main character is innocent and has to find a way to prove that to the restof the world, but in this book it really worked.

Alice is a realisticand lifelike character almost from the first page, and although I did at sometimes question how sensible her actions were, she never did anythingblatantly stupid or dangerous.

The story in this book has several angles and quite a few importantcharacters besides Alicewhich means that the reader has to pay attention to the story and to who isdoing what. But again, this is a positive because the author seems to assumethat her readers have a certain level of intelligence.

The way the story unfolds makes sense, and yet I didn’t see any of therevelations coming, or when I did have some idea, didn’t see the full extent ofthem.

I really enjoyed this book, and am delighted that I already have anotherof Alafair Burke’s books ordered from the library.

THE SINGING SANDS

2011-10-12T22:30:00.001+01:00

TITLE: THE SINGING SANDS

AUTHOR: JOSEPHINE TEY

Pages: 223

Date: 12/10/2011

Grade: 5-

Details: #6 Alan Grant

Own

When Inspector Alan Grant finds himself battling claustrophobia andpanic attacks as a result of overwork, he takes himself on a fishing holiday toScotland.

At the end of his overnight train-ride he stumbles on the body of ayoung man who has died during the night. Because he is on his holidays hedoesn’t get involved in the recovery of the body or the subsequent inquest.While in the dead man’s compartment he accidentally picks up a newspaper onwhich he discovers the handwritten lines of an unknown poem. Lines that speakof “the stones that walk” and “the singing sands”.

Intrigued Grant decides to try and find out where the poem comes fromand what the mysterious lines mean. Initially though his enquiries only lead tomore questions. Who exactly was the young man on the train and did the papersfound with him actually belong to him? And most importantly, did he die as aresult of an accident, as the inquest concluded, or was this in fact a case ofa very diabolical murder?

This was a wonderful mystery. It starts of very leisurely and had me,for a long time, wondering if there actually was a mystery to be solved in thisbook. However, once it becomes clear that there is more to be discovered thanthe origins of a poem, the story takes off and suddenly the pace picks up.

Josephine Tey in this book has written an intriguing mystery in the mostbeautiful language. Her descriptions of people and places are vivid and clearwhile her view of people and their characteristics are to the point, if notalways kind.

I found myself reading this book with a constant smile on my face,something that doesn’t happen very often and am very glad that there are threemore Alan Grant mysteries that I’ve yet to find and read.

ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL

2011-10-10T13:33:00.000+01:00

TITLE: ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL

AUTHOR: DECLAN BURKE

Pages: 238

Date: 10/10/2011

Grade: 4-

Library

Wow! I know I’ve said it before, but this is most definitely a bookunlike any I’ve read in the past. I’m not even sure if I will be able todescribe the plot in a way that makes sense to those who haven’t read the book,but I will try.

An author, on a retreat to finish a book he is working on finds himselfconfronted by Billy Karlsson, a character from a previous, unfinished novel. Inthat story Billy is a hospital porter who occasionally helps people who wish todie, but finds himself in trouble when his girlfriend finds out. For five yearsnow Billy’s story has been on hold and as a result, so has Billy’s life.

Now Billy is taken things into his own hands. He has meetings with his creator,offers to write parts of the story himself and introduces a massive twist tothe old plot. Just killing sick old people who wish to die isn’t enoughanymore. A bigger statement is needed and therefore Billy plans to blow up thehospital where he works.

As the author and his character start to work together on reviving theold story the question is; can the creator stop his creation from inflictingdeath and destruction, or is he somehow complicit in the planned attack.

This is a truly original story. The lines between the stories told bythe author and those narrated by his character become ever more blurred as thedrama unfolds. Who is leading who? Who is the actual creator and who is the onefollowing along? What is real, and what is fiction? All questions the reader isfaced with, and for a very long time there doesn’t appear to be any clear cutanswers.

All the blurbs about this book describe it as being “laugh-out-loudfunny”, “full of the blackest humour” and “outrageously funny”. I however, didn’tget the humour in this book. I found the story to be original, disturbing,thought-provoking and inventive. I also think the book would make a wonderfulsubject for a book club discussion since there are so many angles to this story.I just don’t think my Dutch sense of humour was up to this Irish form of blackcomedy.

I was thoroughly impressed by the writing style though, the use of wordsand themes in this story and the way in which the author kept me hooked to astory I wasn’t entirely sure I liked.

All in all a very intriguing reading experience.

CRIPPEN

2011-10-08T18:50:00.001+01:00

TITLE: CRIPPEN

AUTHOR: JOHN BOYNE

Pages: 506

Date: 08/10/2011

Grade: 4.5

Details: Received from and reviewed for Transworld Books

This is the fictionalised story of Dr. Hawley Crippen who, in 1910killed his wife, dissected her body and hid the parts under the floor in hiscellar.

The book starts in July 1910 with passengers boarding the SS Montrose beforeshe sets of for her passage from Antwerp to Canada. Two ofthe people boarding are Mr. John Robinson and his seventeen year old son Edmundwho soon arouse suspicions in the cantankerous captain of the Montrose.

Also on board are Antonia Drake, an overbearing snob and her flirtatiousand spoiled daughter Victoria as well as Matthieu Zola who some readers mayrecognise from The Thief of Time, another wonderful book by John Boyne.

The story then alternates between the back-story of Hawley Crippen’slife and his voyage towards Canada. Crippen’s history covers an unhappy childhoodin America, a shortmarriage, his deep wish to become a doctor, his second marriage to Cora Crippenand their life in London.

In London Hawley Crippen meets Ethel Le Neve who he grows very close towhile his marriage to Cora moves from bad to worse. When Cora disappearsfriends of hers alert Scotland Yard who reluctantly investigate. By the timeInspector Dew starts to take Cora Crippen’s disappearance seriously and makeshis horrific discovery in the cellar, Hawley Crippen and Ethel havedisappeared. It is only thanks to the observant captain of the Montrose and therecently installed telegraph machine that Dew manages to catch up with Crippenand bring him back to Englandand his ultimate fate.

This was a fascinating book. Most people will have at least heard aboutDr. Crippen and his actions, although I also think that many, like me, willonly know the faint outlines of the sorry saga.

While I knew, from the start, how this book was going to end, the storystill gripped me and I found myself compulsively turning the pages to find outwhat would happen next.

The fact that most of this story is fiction only makes the book moreinteresting. I like the theory about the murder, thrown up by the author,especially since I had not seen it coming at all. I also enjoyed being reunitedwith Matthieu Zola, a character I really enjoyed reading about in The Thief of Time.

I’m tempted to find myself a non-fiction book about Dr. Crippen now. I’mcurious how much of the story told in this book is fact and which parts, apartfrom the obvious ones, have sprung from John Boyne’s impressive imagination.

This was the fourth and final book I read and reviewed for TransworldBooks and I would like to thank the publisher for giving me the opportunity toread four wonderful books, some of which I might not have picked up if ithadn’t been for this challenge.

A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD

2011-10-05T17:01:00.000+01:00

TITLE: A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD

AUTHOR: ALAN BRADLEY

Pages: 389

Date: 04/10/2011

Grade: 4+

Details: no.3 Flavia de Luce Mystery

Library

When Flavia is having her fortune told by a gypsy woman, she is chilledby the fortune teller’s references to her deceased mother. When she subsequentlycauses the woman’s tent to burn down, Flavia feels compelled to offer her theopportunity to camp her caravan on a secluded part of Flavia’s father’s land.

The next day Flavia finds the gypsy beat to within an inch of her life,and our eleven year old is determined to find out what exactly happened andwhy. A further body, found hanging from a fountain, complicates mattersfurther, and there’s also a missing baby to take into consideration.

It isn’t long before Flavia is up to her young neck into investigations,looking into murder, theft, and obscure religions while also trying to keep theupper hand with her two older sisters who seem determined to make her life amisery.

This is a charming mystery series. Flavia is a fascinating character,precocious and endearing. Wise beyond her years and unashamedly curious shecan’t help herself but get involved with matters that should be way beyond heryears.

I enjoy her way of looking at the world and at her older siblings, althoughI do find some of her thoughts and actions a bit too advanced for her elevenyears.

It is hard to read the books in this series without a smile on my face,and I’m looking forward to reading any future adventures and mysteriesinvolving Flavia.

A MEANS OF ESCAPE

2011-09-30T18:11:00.002+01:00

TITLE: A MEANS OF ESCAPE

AUTHOR: JOANNA PRICE

Pages: 281

Date: 30/09/2011

Grade: 4+

Details: no. 1 Kate Linton

ARC received from Real Readers/Book Dagger

Own

On a cold November morning the body of a young woman is found on theGlastonbury Tor. The girl has been strangled and her body is surrounded bytwelve small holes surrounded by candle wax.

Detective Sergeant Kate Linton is one of the police officers working thecase, together with her superior Detective Inspector Rob Brown.

They soon discover that similar holes with wax were found surroundingtwo women murdered at Avebury’s stone circle and fear they may be dealing witha serial killer.

When, shortly afterwards another young woman goes missing and a starfrom a reality television show also disappears their fears become more urgent.The suspected killer may be holding two more women, while waiting for a chanceto kill them too, and the police haven’t got any clear clues about hisidentity.

The case however is not the only thing occupying Kate Linton’s time andmind. She has quite a few issues in her own life concerning her relationshipwith her parents, her troubled brother and a messed up love life. And there arealso the very mixed feelings she has about her superior, Brown.

With time running out for the missing girls, Kate and her colleaguesappear to be fighting an uphill battle.

I enjoyed this mystery. It was well written, with plausible charactersand an interesting story-line. I found myself compulsively turning the pages inorder to find out what exactly was happening and how it would all be resolved.

However, there were one or two things I was less happy about.

It seems to me that Kate Linton may have one or two issues too many inher life. I understand that it is important to give a main character a goodback story in order to make her come to life, and that this is even moreimportant when the book in question is the first in a planned series. However,since there are more books involving this character to come, I felt that maybethe issues could have been spread out over future stories a bit more. Havingsaid that, I also think it will be interesting to see how those story-linesdevelop in future books.

The way in which the story shifted perspective between quite a fewcharacters in the book, including quite a few minor ones, did throw me off thereading rhythm at times. But, those sections were usually short and it wasn’tlong before I would find myself back to the main story and captivated again.

Overall I would say this was a good first instalment in a plannedseries, and I will definitely pick up future books featuring Kate Linton.

TROUBLE WITH LICHEN

2011-09-29T14:23:00.002+01:00

TITLE: TROUBLE WITH LICHEN

AUTHOR: JOHN WYNDHAM

Pages: 204

Date: 28/09/2011

Grade: 4+

Details: Read for The Loft Bookshop Book Club

First published in1963

Own

When Francis Saxover and Diana Brackley, two scientists, independentlybut simultaneously discover that rare lichen has the properties necessary toextend human life-expectancy quite dramatically, they have very different waysof dealing with the fact.

While Saxover is determined to keep the discovery a secret, fearing thatpublic knowledge of the discovery will lead to chaos, Diana is determined touse the lichen to empower women and enhance their role in a male dominatedsociety.

However, with the lichen being very rare and a synthetic versionunavailable this is a treatment that will only be available to the privilegedfew. When knowledge of the treatment and its effects becomes public knowledgeproblems soon emerge and the situation becomes potentially explosive. WillDiana be able to make her dream of empowering women come true, or will herrevelations result in chaos and violence?

This was an interesting book. The idea of a product that can extendhuman life by several hundred years is fascinating and the author spends agreat deal of time going over the implications such a discovery would have forsociety. At times this leads to the story reading more like a scientific orpolitical manifest rather than a novel.

There are more examples of places where this book read more like a workof non-fiction, with the main character’s responses and thoughts being reportedmore than narrated. The extracts from newspapers andthe long explanations both Saxover and Brackley give for their decisions havethe same result.

There is at least one story-line in the book that is introduced andsubsequently not really resolved, which I found a bit frustrating.

On the other hand, I found it fascinating that a male author would writea book with such a strong emphasis on the rights of women, especially giventhat the book was first published in the 1960’s.

I could have done with the story and characters drawing me in more. Ifelt like a distant observer to what was happening and didn’t connect with anyof the characters. This was a bit disappointing since I like it when a book grabsme to such an extend that I start to feel like I’m part of the story.

Overall I have to say that I enjoyed reading this book, and willprobably find myself thinking about the implications of the ideas in it forsome time to come.

MORE THAN A READING JOURNAL

THE WEB WEAVER

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

VANISHED

ANGEL KISS

THE MAGICIAN KING

BURY YOUR DEAD

THE SISTERS BROTHERS

MR. BRIGG'S HAT

THE END OF THE WASP SEASON

SOLACE

THE PADRE PUZZLE

My reading: Reflecting on 2011 and looking forward to 2012

DODELIJKE HOBBIE

NORWEGIAN WOOD

THE NIGHT CIRCUS

CITY OF LIES

THE MAGICIANS

THE ADVENTURE OF THE CHRISTMAS PUDDING

THE THIRTEEN HALLOWS

ALL THESE LITTLE WORLDS

IRELAND READING CHALLENGE 2012

LEFT NEGLECTED

DIVERGENT

WRAPPING UP THE IRELAND CHALLENGE

STOLEN SOULS

ON CANAAN'S SIDE

DUBLIN DEAD

HEAVEN'S SHADOW

THE DROP

THE BREATH OF GOD

THE NEXT ALWAYS

NEW TOWN SOUL

ANY HUMAN FACE

A GREYHOUND OF A GIRL

DOWN THESE GREEN STREETS, Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century

DARKFEVER

HALLOWE'EN PARTY

PURE

MEMORIES OF MY MELANCHOLY WHORES

TURN OF MIND

IT'S FINE BY ME

THE MAPPING OF LOVE AND DEATH

LONG GONE

THE SINGING SANDS

ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL

CRIPPEN

A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD

A MEANS OF ESCAPE

TROUBLE WITH LICHEN