The Book Whisperer

jottings, musings and recommendations of an incurable bookaholic

Yippppppeeeeeeeeeee!!! I’m going on holiday! June 26, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — The Book Whisperer @ 9:43 am
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In the words of the mighty Cliff Richard:

“We’re all going on a….summer holiday! No more working for a….week or two!”

 Oh yeah baby – a week in the sun here I come!

 

Oh how I have longed for this day to come – a week in a 17th century converted farmhouse with its own pool in the Dordogne in south west France for a whole week. I went to the Dordogne with my parents and brother when I was about 11 and I remember loving it even then (when I wasn’t as fussed about trailing round quaint little villages and shopping in the markets etc). This time I am obviously going with Mr  Whisperer and these are my plans for the week:

  • Read at the airport
  • Read on the plane
  • Drive hire car to property
  • Settle in and unpack
  • Read
  • Swim
  • Read
  • Drink wine and eat yummy food
  • Read
  • Sleep
  • Read
  • Drink morning coffee by pool (while reading)
  • Read
  • Swim
  • Read
  • Eat
  • Read
  • ………….and repeat!

Dordogne, France

Obviously when preparing for ones holiday one must take care to plan carefully about what one needs on such a vacation. Here is how my holiday preparations went:

  • Narrow Mt.TBR down to a manageable 20 books
  • Throw bikini and some sun cream in my suitcase
  • Umm and ahh over which books to take out of “possible pile”
  • Pack toiletry bag and chuck in suitcase
  • Pat myself on back for managing pile down to twelve
  • Chuck in a few vest tops and shorts (and a dress or two for the evening)
  • Panic because I can’t decide which books to leave out
  • Throw passports into bag
  • Throw a little party because my pile has shrunk to eight
  • Sleep on it
  • Re-examine pile and put one of discarded books back in it
  • Check suitcase – yep, all done
  • Spread books out on the floor and ask the cat to pick
  • Grumble under breath at cat who doesn’t cooperate
  • Play eenie-meenie-minie-moe
  • Narrow books down to five
  • Sleep on it
  • Take 2 books out and replace with two previously abandonded ones
  • Throw evil looks in direction of Mr Whisperer who is starting to despair (he doesn’t understand!)
  • Finally choose final five and feel pleased with myself
  • Start to worry that as soon as we get to the airport I will have the old “I should have brought those two as well” conversation with myself

Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

So here is my final selection:

True Things About Me – Deborah Kay Davies (currently reading)

The Lagacy – Katherine Webb

The Summer House – Marcia Willett

The Radleys – Matt Haig

Beside the Sea – Veronique Olmi

(Please see sidebar for pictures as I have packed my camera and can’t be bothered to get it out to take photos of said chosen ones)

YUM YUM!

Back in a week. Happy reading in the meantime and look forward to catching up with you all when I get back :)

 

Book Review: The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf June 25, 2010

Filed under: Authors,Heather Gudenhauf — The Book Whisperer @ 6:41 am

The Blurb:

“When two seven-year-old girls go missing, all are under suspicion. Calli Clark is a dreamer. A sweet, gentle girl, Callie suffers from selective mutism, brought on by a tragedy she experienced as a toddler. Her mother Antonia tries her best to help, but is confined by marriage to a violent husband. Petra Gregory is Calli’s best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli have been heard from since their disappearance was discovered. Now Calli and Petra’s families are bound by the question of what has happened to their children. As support turns to suspicion, it seems the answers lie trapped in the silence of unspoken secrets.”

 

What I thought:

This book will be appearing in Channel 4′s TV Book Club in July (in the UK) so when I recognised this practically brand new copy in a library sale for just 10p I snapped it up. The book is 400 pages but it is one of those books that I knew wouldn’t take me long to get through and I fancied something a bit lighter after my last few reads.

The story is spread over a sixteen hour period when two 7 year old girls both vanish from their houses on the same night, without a trace. Calli suffers from selective mutism and hasn’t spoken since she was 4 years old, despite councelling and psychological help. Her best friend, Petra, understands Calli and acts as her mouthpiece to other friends and adults alike.

The book is written a chapter at a time by a different narrator: as well as the two girls, there is also Antonia and Ben (Calli’s Mum and brother), Martin (Petra’s Dad) and Sherrif Louis (who was an childhood sweetheart of Antonia’s and is still in love with her).  From the first realisation of a disappearance (at 4.30am) until the conclusion the reader is taken on a journey through the adults attempt to bring the girls home safely.

This may sound like the book is a thriller / mystery type and at times I did wonder if that was what it was trying to be: however if that was its intention then I’m not sure it works. There is a crime committed but it’s pretty obvious “whodunnit” in both the girls cases fairly early on and the great revelation at the end falls a bit flat. The book really centres around Calli’s muteness more than anything and her reasons for being that way. I also suspect that this was meant to be some great revelation too but again, it’s not hard to work out why pretty early on.

I don’t mean to sell the book short as, admitidly, it is a real page-turner. The short chapters that are alternately narrated by a different character means that the book has great forward momentum and I do like that in a book; one where you say “just one more chapter” and then again and again until you’ve read the whole thing before you know it. To summarise, I really liked this book and although I didn’t think there was anything particularly clever or original in it sometimes I don’t need that in a book. As far as debuts go, this is a pretty good attempt. I do think that the book could have done with a tad more spit and polish but it’s more than likely that I will pick up her next book when it’s out too – I think this author may be one to watch in the future.

I would recommend for a holiday read or a quick page-turner between more heavyweight tomes.

 

  What did other bloggers think?

….suspenseful and often disturbing mystery…. Book-a-rama

….would make a wonderful book club pick…. Peeking Between the Pages

….not your typical plot driven narrative…. Word Lily

….an enjoyable way to spend a couple of days…. Book Addict’s Book Reviews

….I would describe it as a beautiful music piece…. Tea Time With Marce

Did I miss yours?

 

 

 

 

Curl up with…….The Tudors June 23, 2010

Filed under: Alison Weir,Authors,Historical,Jean Plaidy,Margaret George,Uncategorized — The Book Whisperer @ 10:08 am
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The Tudors

Bizarrely enough when I was younger I wasn’t anywhere near as interested by history as I am now and I hear that quite a lot from adults I know (probably growing up and staritng to get a sense of your own mortality has a lot to do with it!); but the one thing I do remember absolutely loving learning about in school was the Tudors. Henry VIII and his six wives fascinated me: all that greedy guzzling at banquets, heads being chopped off left, right and centre and stuck on London bridges for the publics viewing pleasure, the fashion, the scandals…..I loved it all.

A couple of weekends ago, Mr Whisperer and I went for a day out at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire as I love the huge grounds there and there are gorgoues gardens, cute gift shops and yummy tea and cakes!

 
 
 
 
 

Chatsworth House

We didn’t realise when before we got there was that there was a Tudor Village set up in the grounds with a tent to get a spit-roast pork sandwich and a cider and wander round the various craft stalls manned by people dressed up in the Tudor garb.  

 
 

Not a good time to loose ones head!

Man doing something Tudorish

All hail Queen Boof!

Of course all these meanderings through village and stall, eating freshly roasted meat got me thinking about the books I have read about the Tudors. Here are a selection of my favourites:

 

I’m Henry VIII I am, I am!

Love him or hate him, you have to admit that old Henry is one of the most fascinating characters ever to grace Blighty, or anywhere else in the world, for that matter. The man is a legend! King of England for 38 years back in the early-mid 1500′s, Henry not only had six wives but he found a way to get rid of his first wife (Catherine of Aragon) after 20 or so years becuase he wanted to marry Anne Boleyn instead. Back in the days before being able to divorce, Henry decided that the only way he could get rid of Catherine was to change religion from Catholic to Protestant and bring the whole of England along with him for the ride. Don’t like that idea?: then prepare to loose your head!

After ditching Catherine he finally married Anne Boleyn but soon realised his mistake when he found that she wasn’t the sweet little lapdog he thought she was. How to get rid of Anne? Chop her head off by accusing her of sleeping with her own brother! (Oh, and chop the head of said brother off too, and why not her music teachers too for good measure?). After Anne came Jane Seymour, the love of his life, but the poor (or is that lucky?) girl died in child birth after giving birth to his only son. Then came Anne of Cleves who he divorced for being too ugly (maybe he had never looked in a mirror), Katherine Howard who was too slutty and lost her head for her pains (fancy being in love with someone her own age, and then being forced to marry the King of England and then said King finding out that she had the nerve to be in love with someone else before she met him! Tsk!) and finally Katherine Parr, who it is claimed (I hope this is true for her sake) never had to sleep with the King as he was infirm with a gangrenous leg at the time and only had to mop his brow and show up to events as his Queen.

As well as his numerous wives and extra-curricular bedroom activities (he had at least 2 illegitimate children) King Henry also had a little thing for destroying monestaries up and down the UK to name but one of his hobbies. 

 
 

by Margaret George

 This is one of my favourite books about Henry. At almost 1000 pages (and pretty small print) it’s not a quick read but having said that, I was so engrossed in the story that it did take me only about 10 days to read. The story is told by his “fool” Will Sommers and charts Henry’s life from before birth to after his death. So much research and period detail has gone into this book and I have read that it took Margaret George over 10 years to write. It really is such a great book and if, like me, you haven’t read anything about the Tudors since you were at school this is a great refresher. It assumes no knowledge of those times but isn’t patronising. I never once felt lost or out of my depth; just engrossed in a page-turning book.

Another great book about Henry and his wives (but non-fiction) is Alison Weir’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Even if you’re not a fan of non-fiction, this is really readable and almost reads like fiction: really interesting too.

The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

 

Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon, Henry’s first wife, is probably my favourite of all six wives. Possibly because she was around for the longest, or that she was dgnified to the end, but also because her own background is fascinating too. Catherine (or Catalina) was the daughter of Queen Isabella of Spain and grew up in the time when the Moors were drivin the Jews out of Spain to towards Portugal and town after town was being sacked.

Jean Plaidy has written a great book called Daugthers of Spain which is about Queen Isabella’s 4 daughters (and one son). It is actually third in a trilogy of books about Isabella but they all work as stand alones. This book tells the story of Catalina growing up and who was married off to whom and for what reason (it’s all about the power!). One of Catalina’s sisters, Joanna (Juana) was known as Juana La Loca as she was a little (or a lot) crazy. There is a book called The Last Queen which I really want to read that is all about her life but I haven’t got round to it yet. 

Daughers of Spain - Jean Plaidy

 

Lady Jane Gray 

Perhaps one of the more overlooked Tudors: probably because not only did she only rule England for nine days, there is not as much known about her earlier life as the more prominent royals.

Innocent Traitor (again by Alison Weir) is a work of fiction based upon real facts and is one of my favourite Tudor reads. There is snobbery, coruption, abuse, child neglect and ruthlessness galore inside these 400 pages. Honestly, it’s like watching an episode of Shamless but with posh people. It really is an eye-opener into the goings on of the Tudor court (and peoples attempt to get into it). 

 
 

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir

 

I have so many more books on my bookshelf from the Tudor period that I really want to get to soon.

Do you like books about the Tudors? Which ones do you recommend?

 

 

 

 

Book Review: The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill June 22, 2010

Filed under: Authors,Globe Trotting,Historical,Lawrence Hill — The Book Whisperer @ 8:31 am

The Blurb:

“Abducted from Africa as a child and enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata Diallo thinks only of freedom—and of the knowledge she needs to get home. Sold to an indigo trader who recognizes her intelligence, Aminata is torn from her husband and child and thrown into the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan, Aminata helps pen the Book of Negroes, a list of blacks rewarded for service to the king with safe passage to Nova Scotia. There Aminata finds a life of hardship and stinging prejudice. When the British abolitionists come looking for “adventurers” to create a new colony in Sierra Leone, Aminata assists in moving 1,200 Nova Scotians to Africa and aiding the abolitionist cause by revealing the realities of slavery to the British public. This captivating story of one woman’s remarkable experience spans six decades and three continents and brings to life a crucial chapter in world history.”

 

What I thought:

The Book of Negroes (or Someone Knows My Name as it’s called in the US) is fiction based on fact. The people are made up; the places and events are not. What I thought I knew about the slave trade, it turns out I could have written on a postage stamp. I knew that Africans were kidnapped and taken abroad to work as slaves for wealthy white people several hundred years ago and I thought I knew the hardships and poverty they suffered. Not so.

This book is narrated by Aminata Diallo, an African woman in her late 50′s. Aminata tells the story of her life starting with how she was kinapped from her village in 1757, aged eleven. After watching her parents killed in front of her, she is yoked around the neck, stripped and made to march across jungle, forest and mountain for 3 months. Frightened, humiliated and separated from her loved ones, she also watched people she was tied to die along the way. Once the group had reached the shore they were bundled onto a ship that was to be their home for the next few months. People from all different parts of Africa were stuffed in like sardines in a can, naked, hungry, not understanding one anothers languages.  Once in America, Aminata and her fellow ship-mates were sold at public auctions to slave owners.

 

Slave ship from Africa

Aminata continues her story through that life-changing journey through America and Canada. Hardship and humiliation are at the forefront of this book, but what I loved was that Hill allowed his characters to find love and friendship too; he gave characters real strength of human spirit and showed that even during the most heinus events and times, people are capable of the most selfless acts of kindness.

What I found most shocking in the whole book was that this girl realizes she’s amongst people who have no idea who she is, who have no idea that she has feelings and need for dignity, and they have no understanding of the land she was forced to leave. Most people can’t pronounce her name and the slave owners don’t even care to try, calling African women Mary to keep things simple.

There were many surprising aspects to this book for me and as well as learning huge amounts about things I thought I already knew about the African slave trade but didn’t, but also it shines a spotlight on almost every nation. The people who captured Aminata in the first place and killed her parents were fellow Africans, the Americans in New York (where Aminata is taken to later in the book) claim to be the slaves of the British (without a hint of irony). Books like this are so important to us and to future generations, lest we should forget.

The Book of Negroes is written in a simple and gentle way that, despite its almost matter-of-fact style, packs a real punch. Aminata is a great narrator and, even though she is fictional (which I admit to sometimes forgetting) she has such an important role to play in brining this story to life.

Highly recommended.

  What do other book bloggers say?

…..a very human story, sympathetic, honest, fair to the greys of history, thought-provoking, poignant – Giraffe Days.

….. the book was incredible because it was captivating and interesting – Nose in a Book

…..Lawrence Hill has done something wonderful here - Bookishgal

Have I missed yours?

 

 

Boof’s Challenge Update June 21, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — The Book Whisperer @ 11:32 am
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Bath, book, wine - what else is there?

At the beginning of this year, when I started blogging, I spent a lot of time surfing round any book blog I could find to see what other people wrote about and what was popular etc. One of the beggest things I found was that book bloggers appear to be obsessed with challenges. So after some careful consideration and narrowing the thousands of choices available to just a handfull I finally chose the following: Typically British, Thrillers and Suspense, Global Challenge, Our Mutual Read and Chunksters.

 

To be honest, I’ve been really lazy about keeping up with updating my challenges so I thought it about high time that I rectify that with a little post about where I am YTD:

Typically British

My challenge for this task was to read 8 book by British authors during the cours of 2010. It turns out that I am really patriotic, however, as I have already read 15!

Yay for the Brits!

1) Corrag by Susan Fletcher

2) East Lynne by Ellen Wood

3) Shakespeares’ Truth by Rex Richards

4) The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

5) The Hanging Valley by Peter Robinson

6) Fever of the Bone by Val McDermid

7) In a Dry Season by Peter Robinson

8) The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski

9) Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris

10) Part of the Furniture by Mary Wesley

11) Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski

12) North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

13) The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley

14) The Land of the Living by Nicci French

15) Caedmon’s Song by Peter Robinson

 

Chunksters

For this challenge I had to read 4 books with 450+ pages during the course of 2010. I have read 5 so far:

1) East Lynne by Ellen Wood

2) The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

3) Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris

4) The Help by Kathryn Stockett

5) The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

 

Thrillers and Suspense

 

Whodunnit???

 I planned to read 8 thriller / suspense novels this year but due to my clearly morbid taste I have already read 14 of them! I do love me some good ole whodunnits!

1) The Cradle Will Fall by Mary Higgins Clark

2) The Hanging Valley by Peter Robinson

3) You Belong to Me by Mary Higgins Clark

4) In a Dry Season by Peter Robinson

5) The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

6) Let Me Call You Sweetheart by Mary Higgins Clark

7) Retribution by Jilliane Hoffman

8) Fever of the Bone by Val McDermid

9) Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner

10) The Second Time Around by Mary Higgins Clark

11) The Shadow of Your Smile by Mary Higgins Clark

12) The Land of the Living by Nicci French

13) Caedmon’s Song by Peter Robinson

14) Caught by Harlan Coben

 

Our Mutual Read

 

Them Victorians!

 I just love those Victorians! This challenge is to read 12 books in 2010 from the Victorian era. Six of them must have been written between 1837-1901 and the other six can have been published later but must be set in Victorian times. Considering that this genre is one of my favourites I am not doing too well on this challenge yet. I have read a total of 6 but most of those are from the ne0-vic category. I must pick up some more Collins and Gaskell SOON!

1) East Lynne by Ellen Wood

2) Soulless by Gail Carriger

3) Alice I Have Been by Melanie Brown

4) The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski

5) A Woman’s Life by Guy de Maupassant

6) North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

 

Global

Globe-trotting!

I am a huge culture vulture and have actaully been to nearly 30 different countries around the world (I love exploring new places) so I just had to join in this challenge. The task is to read 2 books from each continent in 2010. So far I have read 7 out of the 14 I need:

AFRICA: The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (Sierra Leone)

ASIA: The Japanese Lover by Rani Mancura (Malaysia)

Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa (Israel)

AUSTRALASIA: None as yet

EUROPE: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (England)

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo (Norway)

NORTH AMERICA: The Help by Kathryn Stockett (USA)

The Shadow of Your Smile by Mary Higgins Clark (USA)

SOUTH AMERICA: None as yet

ANTARCTICA: None as yet

 

For reviews on any of the above books please go to the review tab and you will find most of the books above listed there.

Are you doing any of these challenges? How are you getting on with yours?

 

Book Review: Caught by Harlan Coben June 20, 2010

Filed under: Authors,Crime/Mystery/Thriller,Harlan Coben — The Book Whisperer @ 12:48 pm

The Blurb:

“From the internationally NO.1 bestselling master of suspense comes a fast-paced, emotion-packed novel about guilt, grief, and our capacity to forgive. Seventeen-year-old Haley McWaid is a good girl, the pride of her suburban New Jersey family, captain of the lacrosse team, headed off to college next year with all the hopes and dreams her doting parents can pin on her. Which is why, when her mother wakes one morning to find that Haley never came home the night before, and three months quickly pass without word from the girl, the community assumes the worst. Wendy Tynes is a reporter on a mission, to identify and bring down sexual predators via elaborate and nationally televised sting operations. Working with local police on her news program Caught in the Act, Wendy and her team have publicly shamed dozens of men by the time she encounters her latest target. Dan Mercer is a social worker known as a friend to troubled teens, but his story soon becomes more complicated than Wendy could have imagined. In a novel that challenges as much as it thrills, filled with the astonishing tension and unseen suburban machinations that have become Coben’s trademark, Caught tells the story of a missing girl, the community stunned by her loss, the predator who may have taken her, and the reporter who suddenly realizes she can’t trust her own instincts about this case, or the motives of the people around her.”

 

  What I thought:

I am a big fan of Harlan Coben’s: I love the fast paced, page-turning suspense that you get with his books; they’re great to listen to in the car on a long journey or to curl up with when you want a quick but gripping read.

This is not, in my opinion, one of his best however. The synopsys tells of the disappearance of a teenage girl (who seemingly vanishes off the face of the earth) but in actual fact, she is barely part of the plot. The book centres around Wendy Tynes, a TV journalist who orchestrates a paedophile sting on live TV to catch Dan Mercer, a youth worker who has been brought to their attention for attempting to meet a 13 year old girl he had apparantly met online. The first chapter is actually narrated by Dan Mercer too, but he then disappears for the rest of the book.

Wendy Tynes, after single-handedly bringing down the reputation of Dan Mercer, then decides that he might be innocent afterall and embarks on tracking down his friends to find out the truth. The deeper she digs the more she realises that there is something much bigger going on and that his old college room-mates may have befallen similar fates.

I can’t say too much more without the risk of ruining the book for anyone else, but I have to conclude that this is one of my least favourites of Coben’s. I know you have to suspend your disbelief for most thriller / crime books but this never felt believable to me (especially when you discover who and why).

I can allow Mr Coben one slip as I have loved all his other books but I would have to say “meh…” to this one.

 

 

 

R.I.P. Jose Saramago June 18, 2010

Filed under: Authors,Jose Saramago — The Book Whisperer @ 8:55 pm

1922 – 2010

 

I am saddened to learn that Portugese author, Jose Saramago, has died aged 87. Saramago wrote the utterly brilliant Blindness (in my top 10 of all time) and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1987. As well as having about 4 more of his books on my shelves just waiting to be read, he also has a brand new book, The Elephants Journey, coming out in September which I had already been looking forward to.

Blindness - amazing book!

Here are some articles about his life and death already published today:

Jose Saramago, Nobel Prize winning author, dies

Jose Saramago, RIP

Have you read any Saramago?

 

Interview: Kathryn Stockett ( author of The Help) June 11, 2010

Filed under: Authors,Kathryn Stockett — The Book Whisperer @ 1:58 pm

So excited…

After finishing her book, The Help, only two days ago I have been so excited about interviewing Kathryn Stockett. If you haven’t read the book yet, you have such a treat in store for you and I envy you picking this book up for the first time (it’s one I plan to read again at some point in the future). For anyone who missed it, my review of The Help is here.

 

A bit of a biography

Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in English and Creative Writing, she moved to New York City where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband and daughter. The Help is her first novel.

Taken from The Telegraph newspaper: As a child in America’s Deep South in the 1970s, Kathryn Stockett was not really aware of the racial divides around her. Now she has written a novel about the community in 1960s Mississippi from the point of view of the black servants.

The British cover to Kathryn Stockett’s novel The Help – about the experiences of black maids in Mississippi in the early 1960s – is a period photograph of a little white girl in a pushchair flanked by two black women in starched white uniforms – the ‘help’ of the book’s title.

The photograph, which was found in the National Congress archives, was deemed too controversial to be used on the American cover. The spectre of racism in the South is still raw and political correctness works overtime.

UK cover version

When Stockett was first shown the photograph, which was inscribed Port Gibson, Mississippi, she sent it to a friend of hers, who, in turn, forwarded it to his mother. Back came the reply, ‘Why, that’s just little Jane Crisler Wince on the corner of Church Street – she had two maids – her family owns the local paper…’ Stockett was thrilled with this information. ‘That the whole South is just one small town, and we pass each other in the grocery store every day is a myth I love to perpetuate,’ she says.

The Help took five years to write, got at least 45 rejection letters from agents, and when finally published went straight into the American bestseller lists. It has sold a quarter of a million copies so far in the US, and is still selling briskly.

 

The interview

Boof:  Congratulations on the huge success of your book? Did you ever imagine that it would have this impact?

 Kathryn: Thank you. Oh gosh no, it was such a surprise. My head is still spinning.

Boof:  Is it true that The Help was rejected 45 times before finally being picked up?

Kathryn: No, it was more like 60.

Boof: Wow! And you just kept on trying?

Kathryn: Nobody told me to stop. I just kept on going until somebody said yes.

Boof:  Having grown up in Jackson, Mississippi what sort of response did your book get from family and friends?

Kathryn: Most were thrilled and excited for me. There were a few who were not happy; not because they’re racist but because of the spotlight on Jackson; they just didn’t want more bad press.

Boof:  How long had that novel been in your head?

Kathryn: It took me 5 years to write. I realised that I had never asked myself what Demetrie [Kathryn's childhood maid] was thinking; the premise came out in a rush but then it took me 5 years. 

Boof:  Miss Hilly is one of the best bitches I have ever known in the world of fiction; did you actually know any Hilly’s when growing up?

Kathryn: Thank you for saying that. No. I took little bits and pieces from the worst people I knew and then timed it by ten.   

Boof: I found the book laugh-out-loud in places, particularly where Minny was concerned: was this deliberate from the start or did Minny’s humour develop during the writing process? Did you know you were funny before you started write?

Kathryn: Oh gosh, I’m not funny at all. I don’t like writing too much trauma. I want to be entertained myself as well as the readers; I can’t stand too much trauma. I think the book needed some humour.

Boof: I have read that you are working on another book now: can you give us any sneak previews?

Kathryn: I am writing another book but I’m not very far in yet. It will be located in Mississippi; also about women; and set in the Great Depression. I’d like to make it funny too.

Boof: Who are your literary hero’s?

Kathryn: Eudora Welty: she’s another Mississippi writer [link to Wiki entry here]. Also, Kaye Gibbons; she’s another southern writer [link to Wiki entry here]

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty

Boof: You’re in a time-machine and you can go anywhere in the world and to any time in history: where do you go and why?

Kathryn: Oh, right now that would be the late 20′s / early 30′s: I’d like to use it as reserch for my next book 

Boof:  I can’t wait unitl it comes out. OK, finally the “Quick-fire round”:

Favourite colour:  Blue

Favourite food:  Avocados

Favourite animal:  Horses (we always had horses growing up)

Favourite childhood memory:  Demetrie – sitting on her lap

Favourite book:  Lolita

Favourite film:  I don’t really have one, I never watch movies: it must be 10 years since I went. Sorry.

 

My thoughts

Kathryn was lovely! So softly spoken with the cutest southern drawl. I missed my interview slot this morning because my phone decided to play up and even though she has a full day of interviews and book-signings today she still allowed me to call back this afternoon while she had 10 minutes in a taxi between bookings. Kathryn sounded genuinely surprised and humbled by all the attention her book has got. I, for one, can’t wait to see what she comes up with next (but let’s hope it’s not another 5 years!)

In summary: One of the best books I done read this year ;)

 

 

 

Book Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett June 9, 2010

Filed under: Authors,Comfort Reading,Globe Trotting,Kathryn Stockett,Laugh Out Loud — The Book Whisperer @ 8:00 pm

The Blurb:

“Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Black maids raise white children, but aren’t trusted not to steal the silver. Some lines will never be crossed. Aibileen is a black maid: smart, regal, and raising her seventeenth white child. Yet something shifted inside Aibileen the day her own son died while his bosses looked the other way. Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is by some way the sassiest woman in Mississippi. But even her extraordinary cooking won’t protect Minny from the consequences of her tongue. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter returns home with a degree and a head full of hope, but her mother will not be happy until there’s a ring on her finger. Seeking solace with Constantine, the beloved maid who raised her, Skeeter finds she has gone. But why will no one tell her where? Seemingly as different as can be, Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny’s lives converge over a clandestine project that will not only put them all at risk but also change the town of Jackson for ever. But why? And for what? The Help is a deeply moving, timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we won’t. Itis about how women, whether mothers or daughters, the help or the boss, relate to each other – and that terrible feeling that those who look after your children may understand them, even love them, better than you . . .”

 

  What I thought:

I finished this book this afternoon after trying to drag out the ending as long as possible. I did not want to leave these characters behind; I wanted to continue on their journey with them, make sure they were OK – I miss them already.

I have been hearing about this book and have read lots of positive reviews for the longest time but sometimes I get put off by books that have so much hype around them and end up passing them by. Oh how glad I am that I didn’t do this with The Help. It is worth every glowing review, every recommendation and every superlative ever written about it.

The book is set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962 and is narrated by three women in turn. Aibileen and Minny are black maids and Miss Skeeter is a white college graduate who mourns the disappearance of her old maid and wants to do something more with her life than marry a local boy and have her kids raised by maids.

The story takes us with these women as the embark on a dangerous journey to try and change decades of prejudice and pave the way for a better life for the next generations. Through the words of each of these women we learn how rife racism and intolerance was back in the 1960′s deep south. There are tales of unbelievable cruelty and humiliation but also tales of tenderness and real love. It was so good to hear a story told primarily from the point of view of the black maids too and refreshing to hear both sides in all its rawness; the distrust and even hatred on both sides. The book also successfully managed to avoid being sensational or over-egging the pudding. Despite the subject matter (which is so important) the book never feels too heavy or preachy: it is as light as one of Minny’s famous caramel cakes and aswell as riotously funny and tender.

I implore you to read this book – you will fall in love with Aibileen, roar with laughter at Minny and rootfor Miss Skeeter for 450 pages. And I guarantee that Miss Hilly is one of the best bitches you will come across in any book! She is truly awful but so brilliantly drawn and you will root for her to get her just desserts (pun intended ;) ).

I feel like I have lost friends now I have finished this book. It is a true gem and I highly, highly recommend.

Have you read this book? What did you think?

I will be interviewing the author, Kathryn Stockett, on Friday and posting the interview that day. I am really looking forward to speaking to her and asking her all about the book. Hope you’ll check back then and read what she has to say.

 

Book Review: Day After Night by Anita Diamant June 4, 2010

Filed under: Anita Diamant,Authors,Globe Trotting,Historical,Middle East — The Book Whisperer @ 4:47 pm

 The Blurb:

“Atlit is a holding camp for “illegal” immigrants in Israel in 1945. There, about 270 men and women await their future and try to recover from their past. Diamant, with infinite compassion and understanding, tells the stories of the women gathered in this place. Shayndel is a Polish Zionist who fought the Germans with a band of partisans. Leonie is a Parisian beauty. Tedi is Dutch, a strapping blond who wants only to forget. Zorah survived Auschwitz. Haunted by unspeakable memories and too many losses to bear, these young women, along with a stunning cast of supporting characters who work in or pass through Atlit, begin to find salvation in the bonds of friendship and shared experience, as they confront the challenge of re-creating themselves and discovering a way to live again.”

 

What I thought:

“The nightmares made their rounds ages ago. The tossing and whimpering are over. Even the insomniacs have settled down. The twenty restless bodies rest, and faces aged by hunger, grief, and doubt relax to reveal the beauty and the pity of their youth. Not one of the women in Barrack C is twenty-one, but all of them are orphans.”

This is the opening paragraph to this book and as soon as I read it I knew I was going to become a part of these womens lives for the next 300 pages: I had already lost my heart to them.

I picked this book up for two reasons: 1) I had previously read and loved Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent and 2) having lived in Israel for two years back in the early-mid ’90′s I am fascinated and passionate about reading books set here.

The book is set in a place called Atlit, a camp just outside the town of Haifa for detaining new arrivals after WW2 and before the state of Israel is declared. The people inside Atlit are mainly European Jews who have fled the places that killed their families and friends and tried to kill them, and turned to Palestine for a new life. There are four main characters in Day After Night: Tedi is a Dutch survivor who hid for much of the war and was raped repeatedly by the son of the family who hid her, Leonie is Parisian and survived by becoming a German soldiers prostitute after her family was killed, Zorah only just survived several years in a concentration camp and Shayndel from Poland hid in the forests for years as part of the resistence, killing soldiers where they could and marching people towards Palestine.

 

The camp at Atlit

One of the things I liked about this book was that there was no really unecessary detail about what happened to the four girls in the holocaust. We see glimpses of their past, but more with a view to helping us see them as they are now, without gratuitous or sensational detail. It is important that we, as the reader, understand that these girls had an unspeakably horrific past but the book is not about the holocaust per se, but about what happened to them once they got to “The Promised Land”; how they were again detained behind barbed wire fences, with armed sentires in watch towers, knowing nobody and with uncerain futures. The girls themselves didn’t want to share their past with their fellow detainees:

“She knew they were reluctanat to tell their own stories because all of them began and ended with the same horrible question: why was I spared? Everyone’s mother had been gentle and devout, every sister a beauty, every brother a prodigy. There was no point in comparing one family’s massacre to another’s. Every atrocity was as appalling as the next:  Miriam’s rape, Clara’s murdered husband, Bette’s baby, who was suffocated so the rest of the family would not be discovered.

It was unspeakable, so they spoke of nothing.”

One night, the girls are woken from their beds and partake in an escape from the barracks. They are freed by the Palmach (Isreali elite stike force) and rehomed in a kibbutz. That night all the girls finally sleep deelply and dream – it is like they have finally allowed themselves to dare to dream; to dare to believe that there may be a better life out there waiting for them. I always love Epilogue’s in a book: I have a need to know what happened to the characters I have grown to love, or at least travelled with for several hundred pages so I sighed with satisfaction at the end, of not only having just read a great book but also because I could put those girls to rest.

 Although the characters in the book are made up, the actual story itself isn’t. Atlit still exists (although it is now a museum and education centre) and they really did break out, with the help of the Palmach on 9th October 1945. After walking through forrests and up steep hills all night they finally reached Beit Oren, a kibbutz, where they were homed for the night. When the British turned up the next day, some 4,000 residents from Haifa formed a human sheild around the kibbitz and the soldiers finally left. From there, the several hunderd espcapees were rehomed in various kibbutzim around Palestine.

I’m not Jewish, and my family have never suffered anything so appalling and barbaric as what happened to Jewish families (among others) in WW2, but you don’t have to be Jewish to empathise with something so horrific as this. Nearly everyone I met in Israel had some member of their family who was or knew someone who was one of the first immigrants back in WW2.  One memory will stay with me forever: in 1993 Steven Spielberg released his film, Schindlers List, staring Liam Neeson. I went to see the movie at a cinema in Ra’anana, Israel where I lived and worked, with an English friend. The rest of the audience were locals. At the end of the film,   the black and white turns to colour and some of the very characters that were played on screen and survived the holocaust, place stones on Schindlers grave. I have never experienced anthing like what happened next: soft weeping became breathless sobs; people hugged one another and once the credits had rolled and the lights had come on, the entire aurdience was still in their seets – now in complete silence.

This book was sent to me for review by Simon and Schuster. Thank you!

 

Book Review: Caedmon’s Song by Peter Robinson June 4, 2010

Filed under: Authors,Crime/Mystery/Thriller,Peter Robinson — The Book Whisperer @ 10:49 am

The Blurb:

“‘A long, oily blackness punctuated by quick, vivid dreams . . . They were all just dreams. She couldn’t possibly see these things, could she? Her eyes were closed. And if they really happened, then she would have screamed out from the pain, wouldn’t she?

On a balmy June night, Kirsten, a young university student, strolls home through a silent moonlit park. Suddenly her tranquil mood is shattered as she is viciously attacked.When she awakes in hospital, she has no recollection of that brutal night. 

But then, slowly and painfully, details reveal themselves – dreams of two figures, one white and one black, hovering over her, wisps of a strange and haunting song; the unfamiliar texture of a rough and deadly hand . . . 

In another part of England, Martha Browne arrives in Whitby, posing as an author doing research for a book. But her research is of a particularly macabre variety. Who is she hunting with such deadly determination? And why?”

 

  What I thought:

I loved this – I listened to it on Audio CD on a long work journey this week and drove past several service stations even thought I desperately wanted a coffee, just because I wanted to carry on listening.

The book starts with a brutal attack (no graphic details as the victim can’t actually remember what happened to her). Kirsten is a University student on her way home from a party to celebrate the end of their exams when she is grabbed from behind and subjected to an assault that leaves her for dead. She wakes up in hospital 10 days later with no memory of what happened to her.

Meanwhile, a little across country, Martha has arrived in Whitby on a mission. She is looking for someone and it is up to the reader to guess who and why and how her story may be linked to that of Kirsten’s.

The book switches back and forward, laying out Kirsten’s recovery and Martha’s search side by side. To be fair, the link does become apparant fairly early in the book and I do wonder if that wasn’t actually the authors intention. However, despite the fact that I “guessed” early on, I was still enthralled with watching Kirsten as some of her memory starts to come back to her as she tries to get on with her life, and watching Martha as she continues on her increasingly desperate mission.

Thumbs up for Mr Robinson again!

 

Month in Review: May 2010 June 1, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — The Book Whisperer @ 4:59 am
Tags:

Bluebells in May

The Month of May

Some facts about the month of May:

May’s gemstone: Emerald

May’s flower: Lilly of the Valley

May is named after the Greek godess, Maia. The month is a time of great celebrations in the northern hemisphere as it is a time when flowers emerge and crops begin to sprout.

The Anglo-Saxon (old English) name for May was Tri-Milchi in recognition of the fact that with the lush new grass the cows could be mikled three times per day. It was first called May in about 1430.

I love May as the days become warmer, the evenings longer and it finally starts to feel like summer is on its way. People seem a little more carefree and eveything is so beautiful: bluebells, rhodedendruns, rape seed oil (the bright yellow fields that look so sunny!).

 

Books I have read in May 2010

Little by Lost by Marghanita Laski

Sunlight on Cold Water by Francoise Sagan

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

The Second Time Around by Mary Higgins Clark

The Shadow of Your Smile by Mary Higgins Clark

Land of the Living by Nicci French

The Japanese Lover by Rani Manicka

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (review to follow)

 

Author interview in May 2010

My favourite lady:

Mary Higgins Clark

 

What were your favourite posts?

In May, the most looked at book reviews were:

1) Mornings In Jenin by Susan Abulhawa (for the 3rd month in a row and it is also the most viewed book review of all since this blog started)

 2) Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski

3) North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

 

The most looked at posts (non- book review) were:

1) Guilty As Charged, Mi’ Lord!

2) The Best 11 Book Club Reads….EVER!

3) Curl Up With….Enid Blyton

 

So, on to the month of June. Happy reading everyone! :o )

 

 
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