The Book Whisperer

jottings, musings and recommendations of an incurable bookaholic

Boof’s Blah Blah Blah’s May 31, 2010

Filed under: Crime/Mystery/Thriller — The Book Whisperer @ 10:38 am
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Harrogate Crime Festival

I love a good crime novel as you know! So imagine my excitement to be asked to attend the Harrogate Crime Festival on the opening night when the announce the winner of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award . Here is the long list (short list to be announced on July1st):

· In the Dark by Mark Billingham
· If It Bleeds by Duncan Campbell
· The Surrogate by Tania Carver
· The Business by Martina Cole
· A Simple Act of Violence by R.J. Ellory
· Until It’s Over by Nicci French
· The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
· Cold in Hand by John Harvey
· Skin by Mo Hayder
· Vows of Silence by Susan Hill
· The Dying Breed by Declan Hughes
· Dead Tomorrow by Peter James
· Target by Simon Kernick
· A Darker Domain by Val McDermid
· Gallows Lane by Brian McGilloway
· Geezer Girls by Dreda Say Mitchell
· Singing to the Dead by Caro Ramsay
· Doors Open by Ian Rankin
· All The Colours of Darkness by Peter Robinson
· Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

Some of my favourite crime authors are in that list so I am so excited that I will get to meet some of them on the night. I am a HUGE fan of Val McDermid and I love Peter Robinson, Nicci French and R J Ellory among others.

This year’s festival chair is the author Stuart MacBride (who I have yet to read but I have just swapped one of his books on readitswapit) and I will get to interview him about how the festival was put together! *does happy jig*

I will be blogging about this event in the run up to and after the festival and tweeting about the winner during the award ceremony too so keep watching for updates.

New blog’s I’ve discovered

I’ve been having a good ole laugh courtesy of some newly discovered blogs this week! You must check these out!

This one is hillarious. Dead White Guys is written by a very funny lady who also slightly scares me! Read her “About Me” page; it’s a treat.

She reads books by, funnily enough, dead white guys (think Dickens et al) and also the odd dead white woman (oh, and a dead brown woman too). This blog is too funny to miss.

The next one also cracks me up. Awful Lirbary Books is written by two, erm,  librarians who post about funny and outdated books, including one called “How to Get a Teenage Boy and What To Do With Him When You Get Him” which includes a step-by-step stalking strategy.  I’m kinda hoping that the book was aimed at teenage girls rather than ladies of a certain age, but the chick on the front worries me somewhat.

And finally, Books I Done Read, writes the funniest reviews (particularly about books she doesn’t like).

 

My book buying addiction

I would like to proudly report that it has now been a whole 10 days since I have bought a single book! No, I’m not an imposter – I really am the real Book Whisperer – but I have managed to keep my disease under control for a whole 13 days and counting. Are you impressed? (OK, so I did receive 6 review copies this week and won  some and swapped one too which has fed some of my addiction – they all look so lovely too!) but seeing as I am now on a roll I am going to see how long I can keep up this book-buying-ban (swaps and review copies not included – come on; a girl’s gotta have some fun!)

Here’s what I received in the post this week:

The Radleys – Matt Haigh

Kraken – China Mieville

White Woman on a Green Bicycle by

The Help – Kathryn Stockett

Ripley Under Water – Patricia Highsmith

The Fan Tan Players – Julian Lee

Our Promised Land – Michael T Darkow

Stone in a Landslide – Maria Barbal

Beside the Sea – Veronique Olmi

Wild Mary: The Life of Mary Wesley – Patricia Marnham

Happy, happy, happy :)

 

Book Review: Land of the Living by Nicci French May 29, 2010

Filed under: Authors,Crime/Mystery/Thriller,Nicci French — The Book Whisperer @ 10:08 am

The Blurb:

“Abbie Devereaux wakes in the dark. She is hooded and bound, with no idea where she is or how she got there. Kept alive by a man she never sees, his only promise is that eventually he will kill her – like the others. But Abbie has spirit and bloody-mindedness on her side. She counts the seconds spent alone and plots her survival. Above all she dreams of returning to normal, careless, everyday life – the land of the living. Grasping at memories, Abbie recalls snatches of her identity, her career, and her disintegrating relationship with her boyfriend. Is there a connection between her real life and the voice in the darkness? And how can she survive in a place where fear becomes madness and the effort to survive seems too much to bear?”

 

  What I thought:

I love a good crime book! I love the page-turning suspense and what-will-happen-next-ness of them. This was definitely a page-turner but with a healthy dose of cries of “oh purlease!” Let me explain:

The book opens with Abbie Devereux trussed up in the dark in her own filth and hooded so that she can never see the face of her captor. The opening chapters has real hold-your-breath moments and Abbie’s fear is palpable. Then she escapes (no spoiler here, the title sort of gives that away too) and she returns to the land of the living. It’s what happens next that had me scratching my head.

Abbie is questioned by the police and and psychologists and after a few weeks (despite rope marks round her wrists and neck and her obvious trauma) they decide that she has dreamt the whole thing. Yes, imagined it! It turns out that Abbie has been in an abusive relationship and the psycholgist thinks that her brain has twisted the events into something else. So they let her go….out into the big wide world….on her own….despite her having lost her memory for about a week before she went missing, despite her telling them that she was going to be killed by a madman who will surely come looking for her. Are you seeing my problem with this?

So, off Abbie goes to try and trace her movements of the last few days leading up to her kidnap…on her own. I don’t really want to spoil the book by saying too much more but basically Abbie sets off on a trail of her missing memory and trying to track down her captor.

The book is good, has plenty of tension and surprises but I just can’t quite get past the incredulity of the police letting her go and then this traumatised kidnap victim racing all over London….on her own….in an effort the find her memory and her captor. Have you ever seen a film where the character walks into a dark cellar or something and you’re yelling at the TV “Don’t go in there! Are you stupid?????” Well, it sort of feels like that at one point (but it does keep you reading which I suppose is the point).

So, to summarise, I really enjoyed this book: I love a bit of suspense and grit and this doesn’t fail on those counts. I still can’t quite get my head around some of the actions taken but then it would have been a much duller book if the police had believed her!

Have you read any Nicci French? This is my second book by her and I will be on the lookout for more.

 

 

Book Review: The Japanese Lover by Rani Manicka May 26, 2010

Filed under: Globe Trotting,Historical,Rani Manicka — The Book Whisperer @ 1:08 pm

The Blurb:

“Parvathi leaves her native Ceylon for Malaya and an arranged marriage to a wealthy businessman. But her father has cheated, supplying a different girl’s photograph, and Kasu Marimuthu, furious, threatens to send her home in disgrace. Gradually husband and wife reach an accommodation, and the naïve young girl learns to assume the air of sophisticated mistress of a luxurious estate. She even adopts his love child and treats Rubini as her own daughter – a generous act which is rewarded by a long-wished-for son.

But it is a life without passion, and Parvathi dreams of loving – and being loved – with complete abandon.

When the Japanese invade Malaya, in WW2, they requisition the estate. Marimuthu dies and Parvathi is forced to accept the protection of the Japanese general who has robbed her of her home. For the first time, she experiences sexual ecstasy. And gradually, her sworn enemy becomes the lover she has always yearned for . . .”

 

What I thought:

I am actually struggling with finding a way to review this book as, even after turning the last page, I’m still not entirely sure what it’s about. It felt, to me, like the book wanted to be a sprawling, epic book about a woman who was married off for money in Malaysia and set over nearly 100 years, but here it really falls short: there wasn’t enough depth there and I still feel, in a way, that I don’t know the characters well enough. I can’t quite decide whether it was mean to be a family saga, a book about finding true love, a book about spiritualism, a book about WW2, I just don’t know. I sort of feel that the story never really found its true identity.

The story starts in Ceylon in 1916, with the birth of Parvathi to a very poor and lazy father and a doting mother. Her father is told by an astrologer on the day of her birth that she will marry into great wealth and when a marriage broker appears 16 years later trying to find a wife for a hugely wealthy Malaysian businessman, Parvathi’s father gives him a picture of a beautiful girl who is not his daughter and her fate is sealed.

Crossing the sea by herself she is thrust straight into the marriage with this man who is more than 2 decades her senior and who is angry and humilitated at being decieved. He decides to send Parvathi straight back but for reasons that are never especially clear, he doesn’t. She remains in the house where she is happy but unloved. Several years into the marriage, her husbands love-child is brought to live with them after her mother (and her husbands lover) dies and then Parvathi herself gets pregnant and gives birth to a child; a son. These two children are the most rude, selfish, brattish, vile kids and both of them deserved a damn good slap in my opinion! GRRRR!!!

When WW2 breaks out and the Japanese descends on Malaysia, Parvathi is taken to be a lover for a Japanese General and there she finds true love.

It sounds simple enough, right? So it shouldn’t have confused me, but it did. I did enjoy The Japanese Lover but I just didn’t fall in love with it. I didn’t find enough forward momentum with it: I enjoyed it for the most part while reading it but had no real compulsion to pick it up again when I wasn’t reading it. I never really felt like there was anything to cling on to in terms of wanting to know what happened – I felt as though the book couldn’t decided wether to be plot driven (which I don’t think it really was) or character driven (again, there were none whom I felt I knew well enough for this).

I have yet to find another review on the internet for this book but I am looking forward to reading some as I am curious to see if this was just my take on it or wether others feel the same way.

Thank you to Waterstones for my review copy of this book.

 

 

Curl Up With……. Enid Blyton May 25, 2010

Filed under: Comfort Reading,Enid Blyton — The Book Whisperer @ 11:21 am
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My first idea for my  next “Curl Up With…” in the series was to do a piece on my favourite childhood books but when I got to work listing my favourites, it appeared that a good 75% were by Enid Blyton. That being the case I decided that this wonderful author deserved her own post.

My favourite childhood author

Enid Blyton was (and still is) one of my favourite ever authors. I credit her with my love of, not just books, but with story-telling, Here is an author whose tales of adventure took me to worlds I wanted to inhabit;  worlds of excitement and wonder and freedom and thrills.

Enid Mary Blyton was born on 11th August 1897 in London and wrote a staggering 800 books which were  translated into 90 languages making her the 5th most translated author ever, just behind Shakespeare (for anyone who is interested the actual top 10 is: Walt Disney Productions, Agatha Christie, Jules Verne, Shakespeare, Enid Blyton, Lenin, Barbara Cartland, Danielle Steel, Hans Christian Andersen, and Stephen King).

Noddy

 

1949 cover

My love affair with Blytons books started with Noddy, the little wooden boy who lives in his own house in Toyland and drives around in a yellow taxi with his friends Big Ears, Bumpy Dog and Mr Wobbly Man. Hot on Noddy’s heals came The Magic Faraway Tree and Wishing Chair series – infact one of my earliest memories is my Dad reading The Magic Faraway Tree to me at bedtime; I can still remember the excitement of knowing that we were going to read another chapter and being desperate to know what happened next. I can still relive that memory of pure joy and excitement at inhabiting this world.

The Magic Faraway Tree

In the first novel in the series, Jo, Bessie, Dick and Fanny (although these days their names have been changed to Joe, Beth, Rick and Frannie!) move to live near a large wood. One day, they go for a walk in the wood and discover an enormous tree whose branches seem to reach into the clouds. This is the Faraway Tree.

When the children climb the Faraway Tree they discover it is inhabited by different magical creatures, including Moon-face, Silky the fairy, The Saucepan Man, Dame Washalot, Mr. Watzisname and the Angry Pixie. They befriend some of these creatures, in particular Moon-face and Silky. At the very top of the tree they discover a ladder which leads them to a magical land. The lands at the top are sometimes extremely unpleasant – for example the Land of Dame Slap, an aggressive schoolteacher – and sometimes fantastically enjoyable – notably, the Land of Birthdays, Land of Goodies and the Land of Take-What-You-Want.

 Oh how I wanted to go!

The Famous Five

Three of the children, Julian, Dick and Anne, are brothers and sister. During their holidays, they are regularly sent to the seaside town of Kirrin to stay with their Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin, whose daughter, Georgina, is a tomboy who insists on being called George. George owns a large mongrel dog, Timmy, who is very much part of the group and a character in his own right. Timmy accompanies the four children on every adventure.

The stories always take place in the children’s school holidays when they return from their respective boarding schools. Every time they meet, they get caught up in an adventure, the location of which varies from book to book. Sometimes the scene is set close to George’s family home at Kirrin Cottage in Cornwall: “Kirrin Island“, a picturesque island owned by George and her family in Kirrin Bay, for example, presents many opportunities for adventure. George’s own home and various other houses the children visit or stay in are hundreds of years old, and often contain secret passages or smugglers‘ tunnels. In some books, the children go camping in the countryside, on a hike or holiday together elsewhere. The settings, however, are almost always rural and enable the children to discover the simple joys of cottages, islands, the English and Welsh countryside and sea shores, as well as the adventures, picnics, lemonade, bicycle trips, home-made food, and lashings of ginger beer.

Blyton always said that George was based on a real girl she had once known: in her later life, she admitted that the girl was herself.

 

The Mallory Towers  and St Clare’s series

My absolute favourite series and I still really, really, really want to go to those schools! (Yes, even now!) I want to have midnight feasts with lashings of ginger beer and to have high tea after a game of lacrosse. I have lost count of how many times I have read both these series and just reminiscing now is making me want to read them all over again right now!

 

There are 6 books in each series and each one is a different school year at the boarding schools of Mallory Towers and St Clare’s respectively. Mallory Towers is set on the cliff tops in Cornwall and its main character is Darrell Rivers.

 

The cover of my book from back in the 70's

The main characters of St Clare’s are twins Isabel and Pat O’Sullivan. The characters in both series are fabulous – there are nice girls, horrible girls, tricks played on teachers, midnight feasts, arguments, runaways, but ultimately fun and adventures. I WANT TO GO THERE!!

 

Controversy

Blyton’s status as a bestselling author is in spite of disapproval of her works from various perspectives, which has led to altered reprints of the books and withdrawals or “bans” from libraries. In the 1990s, Chorion, the owners of Blyton’s works, edited her books to remove passages that were deemed racist or sexist.

The Famous Five come under fire for both, starting with tomboy George often struggling to make herself heard over her older male cousins: In Five on a Hike Together, Julian gives the order  to George: “You may look like a boy and behave like a boy, but you’re a girl all the same. And like it or not, girls have got to be taken care of.” But perhaps more startling is the phrase “black as a nigger with soot” when Five Go Off to Camp. This is one of a number of phrases which ultimately rendered some of her books banned by libraries. These have now, obviously, been omitted from reprints along with name changes (there were rarther a lot of Dicks and Fanny’s in her originals).

Have you read any Enid Blyton?

 Just writing this post had made me want to drag down all my Malory Towers books from the shelf and emmerse myself in a world of sunshine, fun and adventure once again. A huge part of me owes my love of the printed word to this lady and I can still vividly remember the joy I got from eagerly anticipating the next installment of her books at bedtime.

Do you have any fond memories of childhood favourites? Have you read any Enid Blyton and if so what do you think?

 

 

Author Interview: Mary Higgins Clark May 23, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — The Book Whisperer @ 10:21 am

 Imagine, if you will, a child on their birthday with all their little friends, hyped up on E-numbers. Are you seeing it? :

Excited, frenzied, unstoppable!

Now imagine me when I had a return email from Ms Higgins Clark’s PA saying “Mary says yes”.

The images are one and the same!

For anyone who knows me by now, you know what a huge fan of Mary Higgins Clark I am. I only discovered her last year (not quite even a year ago) quite by accident as, to be honest, I had never really considered picking up one of her books before for some reason. The first book I read was No Place Like Home and I was hooked! Since then I have got through fifteen of her books and I have loved every single one of them! And the best part is that I have another 14 to look forward to. They are my ultimate comfort books, as I always know that I’m going to enjoy the book and they never let me down.

I was recently sent her latest brand new book, The Shadow of Your Smile, by Simon & Schuster (after pestering an extremely patient and friendly Sue for several months ;) ) which I have recently reviewed here and at the same time I contacted Mary directly to see if she would be willing to be interviewed for my blog. I honestly never expected to hear from her so I was over the moon when I heard that she had agreed.

So here we go. The answers and short and to the point, but frankly that’s fine by me as a) I still can’t believe that the Queen of Suspense agreed to be interviewed for my blog and b) the shorter her answers, the more time for writing her next book!

Interview with Mary Higgins Clark

Boof:  Your new book Shadow of Your Smile is out soon (which I can’t wait to get my hands on) – can you tell us one interesting fact that you found out while writing this book that you didn’t know before?  

MHC: Steps to canonization as a saint in the Catholic Church

 

Boof: How do you keep coming up with new ideas all the time? What do you use as inspiration? 

MHC: Newspaper articles or as in this one – attending the Beatification ceremony.

 

Boof:I love the fact that the heroines in your books are all around my age (38) and usually have successful careers but live very ordinary lives still; I find them easy to identify with. They also all have a huge resilience and self-sufficiency: where do your characters get this trait from?  

MHC: From women I have known starting with my mother.

 

Boof:  I discovered your books by accident only a year ago. I had seen them in shops before but never picked one up. Once I had read one I was hooked and have devoured as many as possible since. I hardly know anyone else my age who reads them (although I am on a one-woman campaign to rectify this at the moment) as people tell me they see them as books that little old ladies would read. Why do you think this is? 

MHC: I’m rather surprised by that because I am on the readers list for people from 12 years of age and up – three generations in front of me – all generations reading my books.

 

Boof: You are known as “The Queen of Suspense” in the book world. Personally, I call you “My Queen of Comfort Reads” as your books are my perfect read for when I want to curl up with a coffee and a page-turner and I know that they will never let me down. What is the nicest thing that you have ever heard anyone say about how your books affect them? 

MHC: It gets them through an illness or a death in the family and helped them at a bad time.

 

Boof: Which is your favourite book out of every one you have written and why?

MHC: I honestly don’t have one.  It’s like asking me to name my favourite child.  Of course, ‘Where Are the Children’ launched my career and that was the beginning.

 

Boof:  Do you think you will ever stop writing new books? (Please say no!) 

MHC: NO!

 

Boof:  What is your top ingredient for writing a successful suspense novel? 

MHC: To hook the readers on page 1.

 

Boof: Do you have any famous fans? 

MHC:  Barbara Bush, Laura Bush

 

Boof:  And finally the quick-fire round:

Favourite colour:   red

Favourite animal:   dog

Favourite food:      pasta

Favourite song:     The Shadow of Your Smile – pro tem

Favourite author:    myself and Carol Higgins Clark

Favourite book:      Jane Eyre

Favourite holiday destination:  Cape Cod; Spring Lake, NJ

Favourite memory:  The day ‘Where Are the Children’ sold

 

Hurray, MHC’s favourite book is Jane Eyre (just like mine! :) )

 

Have you read any Mary Higgins Clark books? Which are your favourites?

 

 

 

Book Review: The Shadow of Your Smile by Mary Higgins Clark May 21, 2010

Filed under: Authors,Comfort Reading,Crime/Mystery/Thriller,Mary Higgins Clark — The Book Whisperer @ 3:57 pm

The Blurb:

“At age eighty-three and in failing health, Olivia Morrow knows she has little time left. The last of her line, she faces a momentous choice: expose a long-held family secret, or take it with her to her grave. Olivia has in her possession letters from her deceased cousin Catherine, a nun, now being considered for beatification by the Catholic Church. These letters reveal that, at the age of seventeen, Catherine gave birth to a son and gave him up for adoption and they identify the father as Alex Gannon, a world-famous doctor, scientist and inventor of medical patents. Now, two generations later, thirty-one year old paediatrician, Dr. Monica Farrell, Catherine’s granddaughter, stands as the rightful heir to what remains of the Gannon family fortune. But in telling Monica who she really is and getting what is lawfully hers, Olivia would have to betray Catherine’s wishes and reveal the story behind Monica’s ancestry. But as the pressure of Olivia’s impending choice weighs down on her, little does she realize that Alex Gannon’s grand-nephews – who are currently exploiting the Gannon inheritance to fund their profligate lifestyles – will stop at nothing to silence Olivia and prevent Monica from learning the secret, even murder.”

 

What I thought:

What an absolulute treat reading a Mary Higgins Clark book is! I always know I’m in for a good read when I pick up the Queen of Suspenses books.

In this book, her latests (published last month), thirty-two year old Dr Monica Farrell is at the centre of a  plot to keep her from what is rightfully hers. Although she doesn’t know it (as her father was adopted as a baby and never knew his real family) she is heir to The Gannon Corporation, run by a quartet of greedy, cheating men who will stop at nothing to make sure Monica doesn’t find out that the corporation belongs to her, including murder.

Monica, who is a Pediatrician at a Manhattan Hospital, recieves a tip that an elderly lady, Olivia Morrow, may have some information regarding her fathers birth family and agrees to meet her at her appartment. However, when she arrives the next day she is too late; Olivia is already dead. When several others also turn up dead, and Monica herself appears to be the next target, it’s the old race against time to see who will triumph.

 As with all her books, Higgins Clark, manages to entice you to keep turning those pages by way of short chapters and no uneccessary detail. There is, however, one thing that does bother me at the end which I can’t really go into here as it may spoil the book for some people. It is something that is revealed in the letters at the end of the book and if anyone reads this and wants to discuss please do contact me as I would like to see if the same thing bothers you as it did me.

That said, this book still gets full marks from me. I have been ill the last 2 days and MCH’s books are exactly the tonic I need.

Simon and Schuster kindly sent me my copy of this book for review. Thank you!

 

I will be posting my interview with Mary Higgins Clark this weekend so please look out for that!

 

Guilty as charged, mi’ Lord! May 18, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — The Book Whisperer @ 6:04 pm
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Your Honour, I confess!

I have a huge problem! HUGE!!! My crime? I cannot stop buying books! Honestly, I think I have a book-buying disease. I swear only last night as I was fishing around my shelves for my next book I decided that I need to stop this madness once and for all. Why did I decide this? Because I found myself surrounded by a pile of several hundred books and they were all crying my name and pleading “pick me, pick me!”. Oh my poor, poor neglected books: my heart broke for them all lying there staring up at me praying that they would be the chosen one. So there it was: my new hard-core resolution!

 

“Thou shalt not buy any more books until thy hast read at least 10 of said several hundred already owned.”

 

Well, I felt empowered! Yes, I thought adamantly, I will do this! Strong like bear!!!!

So what is my problem I hear you cry? I’ll tell you what: today I was up in Newcastle for some client meetings with a colleague and we found ourselves with 2 hours spare in the middle of the day. Now, I’m not familiar with Newcastle at all, so Alex told me to meet him in the centre of town and we could grab some lunch in the sun (yes, the SUN!) before our next meeting. Great idea, I thought. Anyway, there we were chatting away while walking down the main street and Alex bumps into someone he knows and they start talking. Instead of standing there like a lemon I start to look around and take in my surroundings and guess where we were stood right outside? I swear, Your Honour, that it wasn’t in any way engineered. Honestly, this must have been what the Three Wise Men felt when they looked up and saw that glowing star and just knew they had to follow it. There it was – the huge W, winking down at me like a huge beacon of light, calling me to follow.  Waterstones – my holy grail! In my daze I barely even remember telling Alex that I would meet him at the next meeting and before I knew it I was inside this emporium of treasures. Here I am, my lovelies, here’s mama!

There is something so comforting about being in a bookshop that only other bookaholics will understand – it’s my home from home. Infact, given the choice I would rather live there than in my actual home. So as I wondered and admired and cooed and the temptation grew stronger and stronger I thought to myself  “maybe just one – I deserve it; afterall it is a Tuesday”. So I browse some more cradling my one book like a newborn babe, and then “oh, maybe just one more; afterall I have driven 2½ hours already and will have to drive the same back home again, so it’s only right that I should compensate for my lengthy car journeys with 2 books”. I browse a bit more, still cradling the twins, and finally “no, really I should have 3 – afterall it’s Wednesday tomorrow and everyone knows that Wednesday is the worst day of the week ‘cos you feel like you’ve been at work for ever but really you’ve still got 3 days to the weekend so to cheer myself up from these inevitible midweek blues, I really should buy three!”

And that, mi’ Lord, is how I came to end up with these three beauties:

My babies

 

Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell (‘cos I just read North and South and loved it)

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (‘cos I’ve heard it’s really cheesily over the top and that makes me want to read it!)

by Alexandre Dumas fils (‘cos my French friend Virginie recommended it)

La Dame aux Camelias 

And here are those books again, this time with my other fame-hungry cat The Boof:

My other baby - The Boof

 

 

Book Review: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell May 17, 2010

Filed under: Authors,Elizabeth Gaskell,The Victorians — The Book Whisperer @ 12:51 pm

The Blurb:

“North and South is a novel about rebellion. Moving from the industrial riots of discontented millworkers through to the unsought passions of a middle-class woman, and from religious crises of conscience to the ethics of naval mutiny, it poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Through the story of Margaret Hale, the middle-class southerner who moves to the northern industrial town of Milton, Gaskell skilfully explores issues of class and gender in the conflict between Margaret’s ready sympathy with the workers and her growing attraction to the charismatic mill ownder, John Thornton. This new revised and expanded edition sets the novel in the context of Victorian social and medical debate.”

 

What I thought:

This book has it all: class conflict, politics, religion, women’s rights and passion! It makes you think, it makes you reflect on what was and it makes you ponder how we got from there to where we are now. We smile with them, we cry with them.

North and South (originally called Margaret Hale, after the pricipal character, until Charles Dickens made Gaskell change it) starts with a little rose-covered cottage in the countryside in the south of England where Margaret Hale lives with her Pastor Father, her mother and their servants. Margaret loves the outdoors; she loves to sketch nature and spends a carefree and idyllic youth milling around the land and helping neighbours with various acts of charity. Towards the end of Margaret’s teens, her father announces that he has abandoned the church and because of this the whole family is uprooted to Milton-Northern (apparantly based on Gaskell’s home town of Manchester) to start again.

Milton is an industrial town in the north of England and not only is the landscape the polar opposite of Margatet’s hometown of Helstone, with factories, smoke, noise and polution, but also the townsfolk are quite different from those she is used to. I found this very interesting, and this is why I think Dickens was absolutely right to make Gaskell change the title: there is still a divide even today between the north and the south in England, although not on the same scale as back in the Victorian era, no doubt. I am from the north of England (Yorkshire) and northerners, even today, have a reputation for speaking their mind and being somewhat brash. We are also known for being friendly and open, where as southerners are thought of as being unfriendly (even rude) and looking down their noses at northerners. These are all stereotypes, you understand, but there is no smoke without fire, as they say.

The story centres around the town of Milton and, in my opinion, the actual town is the protagonist, rather than Marageret Hale. Margaret is the voice of the book and it is through her eyes that we see this new world that she inhabits; we see her eyes open to the poverty and suffering of her townsfolk, the difference between those who have and those who have not, but it is Milton who is the largest character.

Margaret quickly befriends a local man, Nicholas Higgins, who is a mill worker and struggling to bring up his two daughters, Betsy and Mary, after his wife’s death. Bessy is gravely ill from “fluff” which Margaret discovers is a result of working in one of the factories and she is appalled by the conditions that this family, and others around the Higgins’ have to live in. She takes it out on John Thornton, a self-made businessman and mill-owner and who is also a pupil of her father (he is studying literature with him) and when the workers start to revolt and strike against the mill-owners she believes that Mr Thornton has done wrong by his workers. Mr Thornton is a proud man, and although he is in love with Margaret, he knows that he will never be good enough for her and he is aware of Margaret’s dislike and contempt for him and his ways but he cannot help falling passionately in love with her. When the riots occur at the factory Margaret shields him with her own body when they start to throw things at him and afterwards he confesses his love for Margaret which horrifies her as she has acted upon charity and would have done the same for anyone.

The move to Milton and change of scenery and circumstances affect the whole family very badly, especially Margaret’s mother, Mrs Hale, whose health is continuously failing her. Margaret, knowing that her mother doesn’t have long left to live, gets in touch with her brother Frederic (whom is a family secret as Frederic is a  former officer of the Navy and is in hiding and wanted for having been the ringleader of a mutiny). His return would cost him his life, but  Margaret takes the risk for her mothers sake and writes him a letter begging him to return as soon as possible. Frederic arrives and spends some time with his beloved family, but has to leave almost immdiately as he is terrified of being discovered. Mr Thornton sees him & his sister saying their goodbyes at the station and takes them for lovers. That is the first time that Margaret realizes she cares about the possible loss of his good opinion of her and fears that she is now falling in love with him just at the time when she believes that he is falling out of love with her.

Another sad and unforseen event takes Margaret back to London to stay with her cousin Edith and her family, but she doesn’t relalise that Mr Thornton is going through a financial crisis that is about to change his world too. Now you need to read it yourself to find out what happens!

I believe this book to be vitally important to understanding how far we have come today in such a short period of time; afterall it was only written 160 years ago. But more than that, for me, it is also a fantastic psychological study of human nature and behaviour and shows us how little that changes over the years: we still have strikes, rebellion, politics change very little, people still love and despair and are proud and passionate – that doesn’t change.

For anyone who loves Victorian novels, social commentary, history in the making and love stories – this is for you!

Has anyone else read this book? What did you think?

 

 

And the winner is….. May 16, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — The Book Whisperer @ 6:27 pm
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Thank you to everyone who entered my competition. I had great fun reading which books everyone would buy (and added a few more to my Mt. TBR in the process :) ). The contest is now closed and I added all the entries to a spreadsheet and then chose the winner by using random.org. The winner will recieve books of their choice from The Book Depository up to the value of £20.00 (or equivalent).

 

 

And the winner is….

Shannon

Well done Shannon! I have converted the amount into Canadian dollars for you and you now have Candian $30.00 to spend on lovely books from The Book Depository.

Shannon is one of my favourite reviewers on Goodreads and also has her own blog (which she has recently revamped and which is looking fab!) here at Giraffe Days which I hope you’ll check out – she is a reading machine!

 

 

Girl Power! May 12, 2010

Filed under: Anne Bronte,Charlotte Bronte — The Book Whisperer @ 8:27 am

I just love this video! My favourite lady and her sisters kicking a$$! Go the Brontes! :) If they ever actually bring these dolls out I am so getting one!

 

Any more Bronte fans out there?

 

Boof’s Blah Blah Blah’s May 11, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — The Book Whisperer @ 10:37 am
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Pussy cat, pussy cat where have you been?

I’ve been to London to see the Queen!

Ok, not exactly the Queen, but a group of UK book bloggers instead (far more exciting!). This meet-up was organised by Simon of Stuck In A Book and 18 of us turned up to chat, eat and swap books.

I managed to get a couple of London book shops in before I met up with the gang – a seconh hand bookshop that had nooks and crannies everywhere where I managed to pick up a couple of Amos Oz’s books (which I have been dying to read as he is an Israeli author and I used to live in Israel). Then I found Foyles which is the largest independent bookshop in London and I was like a kid in a sweet shop! All these thousands of beautiful books just calling my name from the shelves (it would have been rude to leave them all there so I got 3!) I got Mary Wesley’s The Camomile Lawn as I have just read another of hers and adored it, Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (for Nymeth’s 1930′s challenge) and Edward Rutherford’s The Forrest which I can’t wait to read as I love books with nature and animals.

My lovely new books!

Then I headed over to meet ithe others in the Persophone book shop which was so pretty: all these gorgeous books piled high with matching bookmarks for each. Again, how rude would it have been to walk out empty handed (so I got 3 again!) After a quick pit-stop in Starbucks we headed down the road to The Lamb, where Simon had hired us a room and here are the lovely peeps who I met:

Annabel (Gaskella)
Claire (Paperback Reader)
David (Follow the Thread)
Guy (Pursewarden)
Hayley (Desperate Reader)
Jackie (Farm Lane Books)
Katy (5th Estate)
Kim (Reading Matters)
Kirsty (Other Stories)
Lizzy/Marcia (Lizzy’s Literary Life)
Naomi (Bloomsbury Bell)
Polly (Novel Insights)
Rachel (Book Snob)
Sakura (Chasing Bawa)
Simon (Savidge Reads)
Verity (The B Files / Verity’s Virago Venture)

One of the highlights of the evening (as any bookaholic will know) was our book lucky-dip! We all donated a book (wrapped) and then picked another out of the pile.

It was like Christmas!

 

The book I picked up was from Sakura and although it’s not one I have heard of before it looks really good. It’s called The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki. I have heard that there is a group read going on for this book sometime in the summer so I will look out for that.

It was so lovley to meet up with so many like-minded people on Saturday and yes, the conversation was all about books, books and more books (with a hefty does of recommendations that I will, of course, now have to seek out for myself.)

 

A competition for the chance to decide the plot of an authors book!

This is a prize if I ever saw one. My fabulous friend Lori, over at The Next Best Book Blog, has a competition open until 15th May where not only can you win a copy of a book called The Book (which sounds really good – especially if you like dystopian fiction as I do) but also there is an opportunity to have your idea turned into the authors next book with your name up in lights in the book itself when it comes out.

All you have to do is write the outline of a plot (about anything at all) in less than 300 words! I will be entering myself as I really want a copy of that book if nothing else. Hop on over to Lori’s blog to check it out.

 

1930′s mini challenge

I am jumping at the chance of joining in this mini challenge as I have read a few books lately that have been set between the wars and so the 1930s sounded right up my street. The lovely Nymeth of Things Mean A Lot has come up with this challenge and I have already started on my first book – The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley.

I have a few more already lined up and ready to go like some Dorothy L Sayers, more Mary Wesley, Dashiell Hammett, a couple of Persophone’s etc. Any one else fancy joining in?

 

 

 

My beauties!

 

Book Review: Sunlight on Cold Water by Francoise Sagan May 10, 2010

Filed under: Authors,France,Francoise Sagan,French,Globe Trotting — The Book Whisperer @ 11:29 am

Check out that jacket! The hair-do and the cigarette - pure 70's chic!

 The Blurb:

“Gilles Latiner is thirty-five, attractive, with a beuatiful mistress and a job in Paris as a journalist. He seems to have all that life can offer. But suddenly he is overwhelmed by despair. Nothing seems worth while. In panic at his boredom, and hating Eloise, his model girlfriend, he flees for some peace to his sister and her husband in the provinces.

Here he meets Nathalie, the wife of a country lawyer. She falls deelply in love with him, a passion to which he soon responds. But back in Paris her innate goodness contrasts oddly with the frivolity of Gilles’s life. Soon it seems as if their relationship is doomed, as if their happiness is a mere gleam of sunlight on cold water…”

 

What I thought:

 After having read, and loved, Sagan’s more famous Bonjour Tristesse about a year ago; when I saw this book and two others by Sagan for only £2 each in a little second-hand bookshop, I dutifully rescued them from the shelves and brough them home to be loved and nurtured by me!

I loved this book! Really loved it. Francoise Sagan is such a talented writer. She wrote Bonjour Tristesse at the age of 17 when she had failed her exams so “decided to write a novel instead”. For one so young, that particular book is truly amazing (or am I just forgetting – now I’m older – how complex a teenagers emotions really are?).

Sunlight on Cold Water was written at the end of the 1960′s so by this time Sagan had matured and had the time and experience to hone her craft. For such a short book (a novella, really) not a word is wasted and I found myself, over and over again, marvelling at her insight into human beings and their actions and motivations. She really gets under the skin of her characters and has the most incredible empathy for what makes them tick.

Gilles Lantier is a successful journalist in Paris, living a life of frivolity with a model for a girlfriend (and women whenever he pleases). At age 35, he finds himself in a very unfamiliar and very frigtening place. What used to interest him now makes no sense, what used to please him now repells him and for the first time in his life he is struggling to even function, let alone live with any purpose. Gilles, although he doesn’t realise it at first – being so overwhelmed by fear, is suffering from depression of the most crippling kind.

“He had spend the whole morning at his newspaper, where he worked on the foreign desk. The world was full of violent and absurd happenings, to which his colleagues reacted with a smug indignation which he found exasperating. Three months ago, he would have been delighted to join in their protests, but it was out of the question now. He even felt midly irritated that the people in the Middle East, the United States, or anywhere else, kept trying to distract him from his real problem: himself.”

The way Sagan depicted Gilles unravelling was astounding. Speaking as one who has suffered depression previously and knows how crippling and debilatating it can be, she got this spot on.

Gilles finally (on the advice of everyone telling him he needs a break) heads down to Limoges, in the Limousin, to stay with his older sister and her husband. Far from him miraculously becoming well again, as everyone expected, in the fresh country air and slower pace of life, Gilles still struggles to do the simplest of things and sleeps as much as possible.

“The simple, homely pleasures of  country life! What a pity such clichés could only sustain him for a few minutes at a time before life and his obsession caught up with him again like a pack of hounds in full cry that has given the stag a few minutes’ breathing space merely to prolong the hunt.”

A few weeks into his stay in the provinces, Gilles is dragged along (unwillingly) to a dinner party in the village where he meets Nathalie, the young wife of a very well-to-do lawyer. She instantly falls in love with Gilles (quite to his amusement) and finds reasons to pop along to Gilles’ sisters house to see him. They begin an affair (not very successfully at first) but he eventually falls in love with Nathalie too and his life suddently begins to hold some sort of meaning again.

The title of the book, Sunlight on Cold Water, is a perfect metaphor for Gilles and Nathalie’s budding relationship. Gilles starts to live again, to breathe again. I don’t want to spoil the rest of the book, but there is some soul-searching to be done once back in Paris and the ending really does come completely out of the blue!

I know I have only read two Sagan books so far but I am now declaring myself a huge fan! I find her prose so crisp and clear and not a word wasted and she is also an author who knows her characters so well that her books don’t need to be padded out with non-necessities. Brilliant, just brilliant!

 

 

 

Book Review: Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski May 7, 2010

Filed under: Authors,France,Marghanita Laski — The Book Whisperer @ 7:40 am

The Blurb:

“Hilary Wainwright, poet and intellectual, returns after the war to a blasted and impoverished France in order to trace a child lost five years before. The novel asks: is the child really his? And does he want him? These are questions you can take to be as metaphorical as you wish: the novel works perfectly well as straight narrative. It’s extraordinarily gripping: it has the page-turning compulsion of a thriller while at the same time being written with perfect clarity and precision.’Had it not got so nerve-wracking towards the end, I would have read it in one go. But Laski’s understated assurance and grip is almost astonishing. She has got a certain kind of British intellectual down to a tee: part of the book’s nail-biting tension comes from our fear that Hilary won’t do something stupid. The rest of “Little Boy Lost’s” power comes from the depiction of post-wr France herself. This is haunting stuff.”

 

What I thought:

What a fabulous little book, yet again, from Marghanita Laski and reprinted by Persephone. I only read The Victorian Chaise-Longue a month or so ago so when I saw this book in a random independent bookshop in Whitby I snatched it off the shelf eagerly.

The book starts at Christmas in England with Hilary Wainwright enjoying a family day at his Mothers house when there is a knock at the door. A weary French man  introduces himself as Pierre and tells him that the son Hilary had only seen once the day after he was born (to his French wife, Lisa) is missing and he wants to help find him. Hilary knows that Lisa was killed by the Gestapo but he has never known what happened to his son.

Fast forward two year, after the war (WW2), Hilary sets off for Paris to meet Pierre and hear of his progress in the search for his little boy. The Paris that Hilary once knew is not the Paris that he is now confronted with as he steps off the bus into the rubble. Laski depicts the once vibrant and bustling city that has been reduced to decay brilliantly: she managed to convey the fact that there was an entire loss of culture as well as just buildings and streets. It wasn’t the Paris I know and love today and it wasn’t the Paris that Hilary had known and loved before the war.

The story then moves to a town further North in France (only named A____) in the book, where Hilary is following up a lead from Pierre that his son had been taken to an orphanage there. Hilary now has to face the fact that not only is his beloved France changed but so, maybe, are his feelings towards the son he had alway longed for. What if he didn’t know if the child was his or not? How could he be sure? And did he still want the child? Hilary states a few times that he doesn’t want to he hurt again, that he can’t experience that loss again, and maybe he should forget about the boy and go back to England.

As his daily visits to the orphanage (orchestrated by the nuns under a cover story), Hilary must decide what he really wants and if the boy does turn out to be his son, does he want his as a part of his life?

Little Boy Lost is a wonderful book: it skips along at a lively pace that keeps your interest entirely but is gentle enough to allow you to ponder the the potential outcomes and appreciate the clarity of the  narrative the all the while. And, as with The Victorian Chaise-Longue, the very last sentence packs such a wallop!

 

I read this book as part of Persephone Week as hosted by Claire at Paperback Reader and Verity at The B Files. And also………this is very exciting…………I will be visiting the actual Persephone Shop in London tomorrow! Yep, I’m meeting my fellow Brit book bloggers and have arranged to meet in the shop – it will be like Christmas in there; so many goodies for me to get my mits on!

 

 

This Little Piggy Likes Books…… May 6, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — The Book Whisperer @ 5:47 am
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…That little Tiger doesn’t

Picture the scene: There’s me propped up on cushions, cat on my lap, book in hand, happily flipping pages interspersed with the odd chuckle or sigh or tsk. On the next sofa is Mr Whisperer, joystick in hand, silently working out with on which building the enemy may be hiding behind, waiting, waiting, and BAM! fingers and thumbs flicking madly – down they go!

Yep, you are witnessing a fairly normal evening Chez Whisperers: Miss Piggy lying in her own filth – OK, not as disgusting as it sounds but I do regulary have it pointed out to me that I would rather read a book than load the dishwasher after dinner (erm yes – and the problem with that is….?) and Mr Tiger hunting down his prey. Both of us are relaxing after a days work.

But Pigs and Tigers don’t go together do they?

Actually yes. Mr Whisperer (Tiger) and I (Piggy) have been together for eleven years and I put that down, in part, to our extra-marrital activities (that being books and XBox games,  people!). Only occasionally has Mr Whisperer looked over at me and said “would you have prefered to be with someone who reads?”. OK, so when I joke around I say I should have married a millionaire with his own library but in reality, I like that the books and the reading are all mine. The thing is, we share almost everything: Mr Whisperer is my best friend as well as my husband, we go everywhere together and I like it like that. But the reading……that’s mine!

Is yours a Piggy or a Tiger?

The reason I got thinking about this is ‘cos loads of people who I have spoken to lately (who are as obsessed about books as I am) who have partners who don’t read and it struck me as funny. When I say don’t read, I mean picking up a book is their equivalent of me wanting to walk through a pitfull of snakes.

Does your partner read / or is as obsessed as you are about books? Do tell!

 

 

Which books would you like? You decide! May 5, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — The Book Whisperer @ 10:15 am
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Thank you!

I want to start with a Thank you! This is for all of you reading this blog right now – thank you for sharing my book passion /aholism / madness with me since I started this blog. I started this blog back in mid December as a way to log my thoughts about books I love and connect with like-minded people and although it can be hard work, it’s ultimately worth it.

 

I’ve made it to 10,000

When I first started blogging I had no idea where it would take me really. I didn’t even know that there was such a huge book blog community out there already and I am still constantly amazed by some of the fantastic blogs I keep coming across on a weekly basis (some of my favourites are listed in my blogroll if you want to check them out). So, I am delighted that from a standing start of nowhere, in just over 4 months have received over 10,000 hits on my blog. I never expected that in a million years and I am so happy that you have all popped on my my little blog for some book chat – that makes me smile :)

 

So, as a token of my appreciation…

…I have decided to have a little giveaway to celebrate. The prize is £20.00 to spend on the book(s) of your choicen (that’s $30 US or 23 Euros just to give you the idea).  Just think what you could get for that! This competition is open internationally and you don’t have to be a blogger to enter. The prize will either be an Amazon voucher of £20.00 (for UK peeps only) and the rest of the world can choose as many books as you like up to that value from The Book Depository and I will order and send to you.

 

The Rules!

Please read this part carefully as non-compliant entries will not be counted.

1) Please comment below and tell me which books (if you win) you would order and why. (You won’t be held to this – I just  love to know what other people like to read so be sure to tell me all about those lovely, shiny new books you are drooling over!)

2) Please put a valid email address along with your entry so that I can contact you if you win.

3) You do NOT need to do any of those really annoying things to get extra entries. It is one entry per person. If you want to tweet or post a link to this competition and share the love then that’s great (and thank you!) but it’s not necessary (I know – it annoys me as much as you!)

4) The closing date for entries is Sunday 16th May at 6pm GMT.

 

Good luck and get sharing those bookish must-have’s!

 

 

 

April 2010 Round Up May 2, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — The Book Whisperer @ 8:05 pm
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Spring has arrived

At least I thought it had until this weekend! So what has gone on Chez Book Whisperer this April?

My new job started and despite feeling run ragged and having so much to learn and take in and being up and down the UK motorway links or on trains for half the week means that I am in dream-land the minute my head hits the pillow on a night, I am really enjoying it.

Book-wize, I’ve been a head cheerleader in my first read-a-thon, I’ve signed up to Audible.com and been listening to books on my iPod when I’m too tired to hold a book in my hands (genius!), I’ve won a poetry competition and won Robin Maxwell’s new book (signed) and the most gorgeous Italian leather journal which I intend to write more poetry in (the standard of said poetry may be rather quesitonable but at least it turns out that I really quite enjoy it), I’ve won several more books in competitions (more details later), two tickets to a Vintage Books day at Floyles in London which I will combine with my first UK book bloggers meet-up in London next week! Phew!!

 

Top Posts in April

So, what were people reading on The Book Whisperer this month?

The most read book reviews were:

Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris and Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa.

The most read non-review posts were:

In at number 1 was The Best 11 Book Club Books EVER!!  This was followed by I’m Freaking Out! (it turns out that I am not the only person who gets the booky-shakes from time to time).

The most read Author Interview was:

Gail Carriger (author of the Parasol Protectorate series).

 

Books I read in April

Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris

A Woman’s Life by Guy de Maupassant

Moonlight Becomes You by Mary Higgins Clark

Retribution by Jilliane Hoffman

Fever of the Bone by Val McDermid

Part of the Furniture by Mary Wesley

Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner

Out of these books my favourites were Part of the Furniture by Mary Wesley and Retribution by Jilliane Hoffman. Brilliant!

 

What have been your favourite books of April?

 

 

 

 
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