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Sunday, December 7, 2008

Gathering Storm by Rosie Dub

Artist Storm Cizekova was told her mother died in childbirth so she grew up with her grandmother and great-grandparents in England. Amongst the snow and a family of secrets, half-answered questions and gypsy lore, Storm always felt the death was her fault, but when her last surviving relative, her grandmother, dies suddenly, Storm finds a photo of herself and her mother. She must have been about two years old. When she reads her mother’s diary she decides to travel back to Australia to retrace the journey she and her mother had taken twenty five years previously, trying to piece together some answers about her past so she can move into her future. Will that future still include her partner Max? Storm’s journey through Australia’s stark outback is moving, confronting and challenging. What she discovers is heartbreaking and inspiring. I had to give up listening to the CDs and read the book when I found myself sitting in the car in the garage in the dark. This is a great read!
Helen

I married a pirate by Samantha David

I married a pirate is not your run-of-the-mill type of book. Imagine this, you are a woman in your 30’s with 2 kids - twins in fact, you have no money, nowhere to live and your best friends are practically in the same kind of boat as you. It is then that you start talking on the internet chat rooms and meet a man… a pirate to be more precise. He is witty, fun and makes you feel good without him being chummy.
“The Pirate” (of which you always refer to him) lives on the Caribbean and offers you a free holiday to visit him and his pirate ship. You always worry about the money but he assures you that he is rich (very rich in fact) and will cater for all your needs (and the flights too of course).
The thought of beautiful beaches, sun and great food seems like a great idea and quite frankly, irresistible…until you realise that he takes your passport away, keeps you as his prisoner and deems you as his “treasure” as opposed to his (eventual and persuaded) wife. It is this kind of humour, romance and great descriptions that keeps the reader intrigued. I applaud the work of Samantha David!
Sara

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Summer affair by Elin Hilderbrand

Claire Danner Crispin is a renowned Glassblower, who lives on the Island of Nantucket with her husband and four young children. Claire hasn’t worked in over a year, since the premature birth of her youngest son, but Lock Dixon, a wealthy and influential man, asks her to help organise a charity gala and to create a museum worthy piece of glass to donate to the cause. Out of a sense of guilt Claire obliges. Another reason Claire was asked to co-chair the summer gala is her link to rock star Max West. Max and Claire were High School sweethearts and it is hoped Claire will be able to influence Max to play at the gala. Over the course of a year working on her piece and organising the gala, Claire and Lock Dixon spend a lot of time working closely together, an attraction grows and they embark on an affair, and what will happen when her old love Max West comes back to Nantucket? I enjoyed this book and would recommend it as a holiday read, or something light before going to bed.
Cathy.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Busy woman seeks wife by Annie Sanders

This particular book is not normally the type of novel I like to read, but the title grabbed my attention and I was intrigued to find out what it was all about. I was quite surprised. I am able to somewhat sympathise a little with the main character of the book. I know what it’s like to be a busy woman in this day and age and never seem to find the time to get things done, especially when it comes to household chores.
The story follows the life of Alex, a marketing executive for a global sportswear company who never seems to find time to manage her sky rocketing career with the day-to-day necessities of life, such as cleaning her house, grocery shopping, cooking, and looking after her aging and retired actress of a mother. This is where her best friend Saffron comes up with the idea of seeking out a wife to help her out. They place an advertisement in the local paper to find the perfect person for the position. But, not everything goes according to plan. This opened up the opportunity for quite a few hilarious situations that kept you absorbed in to the end.
You’ll enjoy this light hearted novel that is a great satisfying read. It is insightful, moving, uplifting, and funny all in one book.
Amy

Addition by Toni Jordan

Grace Lisa Vandenburg is a powerful, 35 year old woman, but in her own world. Unfortunately what she sees as the norm, others do not. Through leading her life via the counting of numbers, her change in lifestyle has evolved into a déjà vu-like regime.
At one stage, Grace was a well respected teacher of mathematics. That is, until she continuously kept on “totting up the number of children, rather than teaching [them].” Unfortunately, this led her to unemployment and a day-to-day boring scheme of counting and dividing her muffins into respectful pieces to the amount of poppy seeds on her food.
This book addresses so many more themes then just the authority of judging people into categories such as “normal people” and it is this that intrigues the reader into reading more…and more…and more of the book. In saying this, I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone, not just young or old etc, but to someone who just wants a good read. To make this piece of narrative more appealing, it was advertised in the “50 Books You Can’t Put Down” and Sigrid Thorton herself said this book was ‘A stylish, witty and moving love story.’
Sara

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Great working horse stories by Angela Goode

For all horse lovers and lovers of Australian history this CD is for you. It will make you laugh, cry, ponder and reflect. The 150 true short stories and poems range from colonial days to the Olympic opening ceremony.
Stories from another era, like these, are so important. We have to remember that soon there will be no-one who remembers. The horse was once “king”, a subject for conversation everywhere that men gathered. Everybody had a story to tell. They were very much a part of peoples lives.
These CD’s are so easy to listen to and incredibly informative. They let you into the lives of the people who rode, ploughed, hauled and drove this nation to its feet.
Tracie

Firefight by Chris Ryan

Just suppose you’re out shopping one day with your wife and daughter looking for Christmas presents. You tell you them to go on ahead so you can sneak back and buy your daughter the present she desperately wants for Christmas. In the space of 2 minutes your life is changed forever. Your wife and daughter have been killed by a bomb that has ripped through the department store. Fast forward 2 years, and Will Jackson is no longer in the SAS. He is living in a grungy Council Flat near the cemetery where his family is buried. The pain of losing his family has turned him into a hard drinking recluse.
One day he is out walking when he is “kidnapped” and taken to London, where he is made an offer he can’t refuse. The powers that be want him back on the job. There has been intelligence that in the next 3 weeks a terrorist bomb will rip through the heart of London. MI5 believe that Will might be the only person who can help them track down the terrorist and also help them find out who the mole is in the intelligence world who is feeding information to the enemy. Wanting to turn his back on this world forever, he refuses to have any part of the operation. MI5 then plays their trump card – the terrorist they are after is the one responsible for killing Will’s wife and child. From that moment on Will becomes a man on a very dangerous mission that he is hell bent on seeing through to the end, damn the consequences.
This novel gives the reader a no-hold barred behind the scenes look at terrorism, the intelligence community and the ways wars are fought and not always won. Throughout the story you also get a background history lesson into how the war on terror got started, which not only helps you understand the story better, but also helps you understand the current world political situation.
Frighteningly real in parts and very explicit in the description of how information is obtained and whether or not the end justifies the means. I think this is Chris Ryan’s best book to date. He is writing about the world he used to inhabit and he does so with such graphic detail that you wonder if this is just fiction or something he really experienced when he was in the SAS. I read this book in one afternoon because it pulled me in so hard I just couldn’t put it down.
Chris

Thursday, September 18, 2008

4 ingredients by Kim McCosker and Rachael Birmingham

"Over 340 quick, easy and delicious recipes using 4 or less ingredients"
This is absolutely correct!.
I can't believe at last there is a cookbook for the "cook" that REALLY DOES have simple and delicious recipes that can be made from ingredients that usually are already in the "basic" kitchen pantry.
At last! A cookbook for the person that loves to eat but does not wish to use 20 ingredients, need a dictionary to look up cooking terms, have a professional state-of -the-art kitchen, 10 different pots, pans and other utensils, a research librarian to find out where the ingredients can be located, and has NO TIME TO COOK. You also don't need to spend a fortune.
This is a brilliant find.
Bring on "4 Ingredients 2" PLEASE.
Tracie

Monday, September 15, 2008

LIfe isn't all ha ha hee hee by Meera Syal

For those of you unfamiliar with Meera Syal - she is an award winning author, scriptwriter, comedian and actress. Among the roles she is most well known for is the SBS comedy show – “Goodness Gracious Me” and also for playing the Grandma on the ABC TV Show – The Kumars at No. 42.
Being born and raised in Britain in an Indian family, she is quite well placed to show how
two cultures can sometimes intersect or sometimes collide. “Life isn’t all Ha Ha Hee Hee”, takes place in modern day Britain and centers on a trio of girls – Chila, Sunni and Tania, all friends from childhood, who are now in their 30s, living life, getting married, having careers and raising children, not always in the way they would have liked. Many of their personal problems, which is the central theme of the book, stem from the identity crisis they all experience, in trying to work out if they are Indian women living in London, British women living in London, Modern women, Traditional Women or a combination of all four.
Because the narration of the book is told through the eyes of the three women, you get a better understanding of each of the characters. As much as this book is fiction, you get the feeling that what you’re reading about comes from the heart, and that Meera Syal is putting some of her own cross cultural life experiences into the story.
Sometimes humorous, sometimes sad, sometimes very enlightening, it’s well worth a read if you want to see into someone else’s world.
Chris

Swallow the air by Tara June Winch

I was first introduced to Tara June Winch through an article about the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelists Award, printed in Spectrum, June 2-3, 2007. Tara was one of those winners.
Tara has been awarded the 2003 Queensland Young Writers Award runner up and encouragement award, the 2004 David Unaipon Award, the 2006 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous writing, the 2007 Dobbie Award for a woman’s first book and the 2007 UTS Award for New Writing in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.
I followed up my interest by reading one of her stories published in ‘The Best Australian Stories 2005’, - Cloud Bursting.
The title alone was full of imagery, the story even more so and the quality of writing, for me, was an absolute joy.
‘Cloud Bursting’ was taken from the ‘novel’ ‘Swallow the Air’.
Although not a recently published book, (2006), ‘Swallow the Air’, introduces a vibrant talent into Australian literature, one, I feel strongly deserving of the awards and recognition bestowed upon her.
I was interested to read indigenous literature for the first time, to grasp her perspective on life and her interpretation of language.
Read as a novel or a collection of short stories, ‘Swallow the Air’, has the advantage of interpretation on both levels. Tara’s talent shows through in her vivid use of language and her first hand knowledge of the Aboriginal experience brought to life through settings eg Redfern and the interaction of characters in a white landscape.
From the opening sentences ‘I remember the day I found out my mother was head sick. She wore worry on her wrists as she tied the remaining piece of elastic to the base of the old ice-cream container.’ to the closing ‘An excavator starts its smothering engine over the torrent of each barrel. Over the sun. Over the blue. And I wonder, if we stand here, if we stay, if they stop digging up Aunty’s backyard, stop digging up mother’s memory, stop digging up our people, maybe then, we’ll all stop crying.’, May’s story of loss and longing is told with honesty and passion.
May Gibson, the protagonist of ‘Swallow the Air’, is 15 when her mother commits suicide and she and her brother Billy are taken in by their Aunty. They struggle to make sense of their loss, Billy’s anger at life and injustice, fuelled by alcohol and drugs flares, and he leaves May, to search in her own way for her unsure identity. May wanders the lonely path of mental solitude. Alone, she meets people who try to drag her down or draw her in but May’s strength lies in her longing to find her father, to find her people, to belong somewhere, where her life will matter. Her journey takes her from Australia’s east coast to Waterloo and Redfern’s Block, Lake Cowal and the Lachlan River in central NSW, and a mission in Eubalong.
Her physical journey is overshadowed by the people she meets and it is these people, who teach her what it is to belong, the robust, endearing and caring character of Aunty – strong, yet vulnerable, the good-natured Block resident Joyce who tells May ‘You gotta go, May, you got sumthin to find, fire in the belly that ya gotta know’, and the amiable, helpful Pete, the truckie, heading for Darwin, who gives May a lift and has compassion for her situation.
May Gibson is an endearing character, not easily forgotten. Her vulnerable portrayal as a misfit 15 year old, develops confidence and pride in her roots as she ‘thinks’ her way through the novel and Tara’s engaging use of language, describes vividly what she thinks and feels and what makes up place. I look forward to reading more of Tara’s work as she continues to explore and develop her poetic prose.
Alison.

Brida by Paul Coehlo

As a non-spiritualist person, I must say I did enjoy this book in a non-relative way. This story starts off in August, with a setting of a 1983 Ireland, the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.
The story unfolds around a young lady named Brida. Her quest is to find her soul mate “...knowing that [he] would come one day...”through the understanding of the tradition of the moon, and the tradition of the sun.
Her journey leads to two important people, The Magus and Wicca. The Magus is a mysterious person who lives in the forest by himself while Wicca is a woman of such extensive knowledge and mystery. Collectivity, these two important characters give great guidance to a naive Brida.
From the author of ‘The Alchemist”, Coelho makes a wonderful description of how a what-could-be real person experiences throughout her spiritual path. However, there are so many more twists and turns to this novel which wants me to tell you but I must prevent myself from doing so. I highly recommend “Brida” to anyone and in hoping that you do, I anticipate that you enjoy it as much as I have!!
Sara

Monday, September 8, 2008

Something borrowed by Emily Giffin

I think this is a book that people will either love or hate. When I first read the description of this book, I was put off; I could never like the story of a girl that steals her best friend's fiancé. But Giffin does a fantastic job at seeing the “other side of the story”.
Rachel and Darcy have been friends since primary school, but their friendship is based on Darcy always being better than Rachel. On the night of Rachel’s 30th birthday, too much alcohol leads to Rachel sleeping with Darcy’s fiancé Dex, a guy that Rachel went to law school with. Rachel wakes up horrified, determined to put it behind her, unfortunately throughout the course of the novel discovers her feelings for Dex are real.
I definitely recommend this book, its chick lit with depth! The characters are flawed, real people who you can relate to. Like them or hate them the characters make you feel real feelings.
Bec

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Crime seen by Jenny Pausacker.

As a fan of both children’s/young adult and crime fiction, and the parent of a son very interested in policing and forensic science, I found Jenny Pausacker’s novel both plausible and well-paced. I was initially intrigued by the title ‘Crime Seen’ and the possibilities of the interpretation of this title. Did the story revolve around the Forensics Unit or had Harris ‘seen’ a crime committed or been involved in one? This thought drew my interest, one I needed to explore.
The novel centres on Harris Johnston, a 15 year old undertaking a week of work experience at the city’s Forensics Unit. Harris has been interested in forensic pathology for a long time, (much to his mother’s disapproval) and is excited and keen at the prospect of meeting, joining and helping ‘real people’ in this challenging profession. ‘Crime Seen’ deals with Harris’s day by day activities in all the different departments , from the Coroner’s Court and lecture lab, to the quiet, reserved staff in the Pathology Lab and (what one would not expect), the bubbly, chatty female staff, of the Grief Counselling Unit. Gia Agnelli, Harris’s supervisor, sums them up well ‘You don’t say much, do you, Harris?’ she observed. You’ll fit in well here. They’re mostly the silent type, except for my mob in the Grief Counselling Unit, of course.’
Harris slots in straight away, feels accepted by the friendly girls, and is given tasks and responsibility. He feels instantly mature and brags to his mate Seb, who is undertaking his work experience at the Water and Sewerage Services, keeping him informed throughout the novel by text messages. Their friendship is shown through their communication and meetings and the added interesting SMS ‘speak’ of teenagers which was fun to decipher.
The plot involves Harris’s direct and indirect involvement in the disappearance and death of Tansy, a girl he met when he was 5, the daughter of the chief pathologist, Jim Dimitropoulos, who is married to Harris’s uncle Melvin’s ex-wife Rina. Jim becomes a mentor, Harris becomes involved on both a ‘professional’ and personal level as he gets caught up in the mystery surrounding both Tansy’s death and the young, pretty reporter Lara, who seems intent on a story no matter what the cost. But Harris is astute, he won’t be sucked in by Lara’s manipulating and we see the adult side of Harris shine through.
His mind shifts focus suddenly and haphazardly as any 15 year olds would. What does Harris see? What does he think? What does he deduce from his interaction with the staff, personalities he meets and the facts at his disposal?
Harris leads us into the world of Forensic Science seen through his eyes and thoughts. He grabs eagerly at the possibility of solving a murder with the exuberance of his 15 years, but realises he is getting ahead of himself. He wants to ‘help the dead’ and clues to help and hinder are found throughout the novel.
I enjoyed the novel very much; it had for me much more than a peek into forensics and crime solving. It draws a clear, realistic picture of Harris’s other life – home, his relationship with his younger brother, his uncle and his complex relationship with his ex-wife and importantly for character developing, his relationship with his mother. Her reluctance to allow Harris to continue on at the Forensics Unit has roots in hurt from the past and through disclosure, their relationship is strengthened, her attitude is changed and Harris realises what he really wants from life.
Alison.

Destroyed by Jane Sterne

“Jackie was not the sort of game any child would have wanted to play.” These are the words of Jayne Sterne. Now a woman, Jayne had suffered many frightful events including aggravated sexual assault, endured and witnessed violence, peer pressure, and bullying as both a child and as a young adult.
At about the age of nine, Jayne and her family had moved locations to live with a man, Graham. Little to one’s acknowledgement, he was the devil in disguise. Late one night, Graham sneaked into Jayne’s room and sexually assaulted her. It was only a few weeks after this non-repetitive incident that Jayne’s family had moved, yet once again, to another house. It was here where the full extent of Graham’s abuse had taken place.
Unfortunately, this is not the only thing that Jayne had encountered. She battled against abuse from her first partner, John, who beat her so badly that she“...fell on the floor choking on [her] own blood.” While her older brother, Stuart, was coming to grips with his past anger issues, thus becoming intolerable to his future wives; leading to a shock ending!
“Destroyed” is an incredible recount of an amazing girl’s journey throughout her early to mid life. And although I would like to suggest this book to anybody who enjoys a good read, I understand that it is not everybody’s ‘cup of tea’. Furthermore, I must make note that there are so many more themes, twists and turns and although I have discussed bits and pieces, this does not give justice to the style of writing Jayne Sterne has conceded. In saying this, as a conclusion, you must read the book to feel the full extent of awe that I had experienced once in completion of reading the novel. Furthermore, the way in which this novel has been written leaves one with such images that it comes to grips with you, and makes you realise exactly what type of lives some people are leading.
Sara

Death of a gentle lady by M. C. Beaton

For those of you familiar with the Hamish Macbeth TV series, you’ll find that the names of the characters are changed and indeed some of the characters are totally different to some in the books but nonetheless the books are still well worth reading.
This is the current book in the “Hamish Macbeth” mystery series. In the sleepy village of Lochdubh, lives Mrs Gentle, who, according to all the townsfolk but one, is supposed to be gentle by name and gentle by nature. Local PC Hamish Macbeth, who feels he is a very good judge of character knows that beneath that gentle exterior is a very wicked, malicious woman. The locals all think Hamish is just too cranky and crotchety, maybe he needs a good holiday or the love of a good woman to get him back in a better mood. Lo and behold, Hamish turns out to be right and that supposedly very gentle woman gets murdered in a very less than gentle way. Throw in a few more murders, an unexpected marriage, lots of village gossip, quite a few red herrings, an amateur production of Macbeth, people trying to do away with Hamish and a big assortment of quirky characters and pets and you get a very amusing laugh out loud murder mystery.
By Chris

Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger

This book is written by the author of “The Devil wears Prada”. It is the story of three best friends who live in New York and are about to turn thirty.
Emmy has always been in a long term relationship but suddenly finds herself single, Leigh has the perfect boyfriend, job and apartment, and Adriana is a gorgeous man-eating party girl.
Over drinks one night the girls decide to make a pact to change their lives for the better. Emmy resolves to have a wild fling on every continent, Adriana vows she’ll get a five carat Harry Winston engagement ring and settle down, and Leigh knows that she wants to change - but isn’t quite sure how. Could her confused feelings have anything to do with Jesse Chapman, the new author she is editing?
This book is perfect reading for any fans of Sex and the City.
Cathy.

The forgotten garden by Kate Morton. Allen & Unwin 2008

On the eve of the first world war, a little girl is found abandoned on a ship to Australia. A mysterious woman called the Authoress had promised to look after her but has disappeared. A kindly family adopt “Nell” and it is not until her twenty-first birthday that she learns the circumstances of her arrival in Australia. Decades later Nell embarks upon a search for the truth which leads her to Cornwell. On her death Nell’s granddaughter continues the search which will finally uncover the truth about the family and solve the mystery of the little girl lost.
Spanning several generations the author Kate Morton skillfully interweaves the different periods in which the novel is set.
The forgotten garden is an historical saga with mystery, passion and tragedy.
SC

Maximum ride series by James Patterson

Maximum Ride is a series of 4 science fiction books beginning with ‘The Angel Experiment’, ‘Schools Out Forever’, ‘Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports’, and ‘The Final Warning’. It follows the journey of 6 extraordinary children, aged 6 to 14 years, who have the unique gift of flying. The children were put through some horrible experiment that integrated avian DNA into their genes giving them wings, and other interesting abilities. Maximum Ride is the leader of the ‘flock’ and must help the others to avoid being captured by the scientists at all costs. The scientists also altered the genes of other children with wolf DNA to develop creatures called “Erasers”. The scientists use the Erasers to track down the flock to test their survival abilities. They encounter many dangerous situations and adventures throughout the series including traveling to new countries, sleeping in subway tunnels, scavenging for food, finding their parents, encountering ‘normal’ people and some pretty awesome fighting scenarios against the Erasers and other adversaries. Their ability to choose whom to trust and make the right decisions is tested to find out whether they have the ability and determination to save the world.
There is also an underlying moral that really gets you thinking about the impact the humans are having on the world today, and when to realise that we’ve reached a point of no return.
I found this series of books very compelling, extremely addictive and very hard to put down. The only disappointment was that there were no other books to continue the story. They were very well written and easy to follow. I would highly recommend these books to the young adult reader or anyone who enjoys an action packed adventure story.
Amy

Thursday, July 3, 2008

In my skin: a memoir by Kate Holden

The first words in the prologue are "What do I remember of being a prostitute?". The last ones are "The smile that I give when I talk about it now is, I can feel, nostalgic, provocative. A brightness comes into my eyes. And, I'm told, a hard look."
In my skin explores all the "in-between" of the life of Kate Holden, born in the 1970's, in a "nice" suburb of Melbourne. It is the story of a young girls fall into drugs and prostitution, her family's torment, and her eventual recovery.
A very frank, honest and sometimes shocking real life account of how peer pressure and the desire to "fit in" nearly destroyed a life. Kate came from a normal, loving home, had a good job and a bright future, but her boyfriend's drug use eventually bought on the "I'll just try it once" line. After getting fired from her job for theft to support her new found "habit, she turns to prostitution. Eventually she survives, turns her life around and wrote this amazing story.
This book takes you to a place many of us really don't want to visit. It is certainly not a "light-hearted" leisure read, but it DOES leave you, hopefully, with a new perspective on your own life and the life and glamour?? of an inner-city brothel.
Even though, at times, I found this poignant "adventure" a bit slow and "colourful", it is still a fantastic first-hand insight into a world most know little about.
Tracie

The memory keeper's daugter by Kim Edwards

This is one of the best books that I have read. It kept me interested right from the start and I found the storyline very realistic.
The story begins in 1964, and on one fateful night Dr David Henry makes a split-second decision that will impact upon the rest of his life.
Dr Henry’s wife goes into labor and he delivers his own twins, however he becomes distraught when he realises that one of his children is born with Down syndrome.
The decision to tell his wife that the child was stillborn and ask his nurse to take the baby away to an institution will have consequences that will change numerous lives forever.
This book makes you think about many different things, especially about the consequences of your actions and how secrets can have a devastating impact on the ones you love.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed ‘My Sisters Keeper’ by Jodi Picoult.
Kim.

The senator's wife by Sue Miller

This book focuses on US Senator’s wife Delia Naughton and her various relationships. The relationship with her husband Senator Tom Naughton, her three children, Nancy, Evan and Brad, and most importantly with her new young neighbours Meri and Nathan.
Meri and Delia are complete opposites and strike up an unlikely friendship. Delia is a private, elegant and poised older lady, while Meri is a tomboy, a modern new wife and expectant first time mother.
This is a love story but it focuses on the issues of infidelity and betrayed trust. It is a book about consequences and what keeps people together, through good times and bad.
I liked this book as I felt it dealt with real life situations and showed that things may not always be as perfect as they first appear.
Cathy.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Street Kid by Judy Westwater

Street Kid is a moving and heartfelt recount of a girls’ struggle throughout her childhood. From suffering sexual assault and eating off the street to even being abducted by her own father and taken to Africa. This inspirational book has allowed readers to fulfill their dreams, just as Judy did by becoming “…one of the Australian Air Aces.” Furthermore, this recount makes us come to the realisation of some of the various crimes which go unheard …until now.
Sara

Our horses in Egypt by Rosalind Belben

Not long after World War 1 has ended, Griselda Romney, the widow of a British Naval Commander, gets the news that her beloved horse Philomena may still be alive. The horse had been requisitioned along with thousands of others and sent to the Middle East to serve as cavalry horses. After the war ended, the horses were left behind.
Griselda leaves her young son in the care of relatives and sets off with her daughter and nanny in tow to Egypt to find her horse and bring it back to England.
The novel is well researched and is so accurate it almost feels as though you are reading a biography or non-fiction, and in some ways you are. The chapters alternate between the present and Griselda’s search for her horse, and then into the past when you see the horrors of war through the eyes of Philomena and the men she serves. The story is written in such a way that it makes history come alive, and makes it more personal. The only criticism I would have is that the story sometimes overstepped the mark by becoming a little too bogged down in facts and detail but it was a great read nevertheless.
Chris

Thursday, June 5, 2008

I am a self-confessed lover of technology, loving it as an externalisation and extension of the brilliance that is the human mind. I came across Neal Stephenson's name in an information science related discussion list. The book was Snowcrash, referring to the way computer screens would white out as they crashed. My beloved library didn't have Snowcrash but it did have the tome-like and hard to pronounce Cryptonomicon.
Cryptonomicon is an Indiana Jones epic for technology and cryptography junkies. Two threads, one set during WWII highlighting codes and their breaking, looted Nazi and Japanese gold, and one set in present day around the development of an uncrackable data haven free from government or commercial interference (A Swiss banking system for data if you will). The two central characters in the present are the grandchildren of two significant characters in the WWII time. And of course, the stories and lives converge to a suitable and satisfying climax.
Like all my favourite authors, Stephenson blurs fact and fiction, and historical characters are deliberately painted larger than life. Blending Alan Turing (one of the fathers of modern computing) with a genius US Navy code breaker and Douglas Macarthur, General of the US Army, hated by US Marines, but fearless in the face of combat with a Marine hero responsible for a "black ops" group whose role was to ensure the Germans and Japanese did not suspect their transmission codes had been cracked. And that is just one of the threads.
As much a vision into an intelligent, lucid and creative American mind, Cryptonomicon is an expose of the world of codes, their makers and breakers, the consequences of broken and unbroken codes during times of war and the possibility that in today's World Wide Web world security of data will be of greater value than gold.
I did need to renew the book two times (isn't online renewal great) to cover the 900+ pages. And my eyes did glaze at some of the explanation of some of the codes and statistical methods for code hiding and breaking.
But the writing style was crisp and wry, the storyline intriguing. Language and concepts make the book more suitable for open minded adults, rather than children or people locked in patriotic or unexamined views of reality.
Andy Carnahan
The Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine McMahon. Weidenfeld & Nicolson , 2007

The Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine McMahon is an engrossing historical novel which juxtaposes London’s comfortable middle class world of the 1850s and the horror and suffering of the Russian battlefields of the Crimean War.

Mariella Lingwood is an accomplished young middle class woman who wants nothing more than to marry her fiancé Henry, who is a respected London surgeon and public health expert, and to spend her married life in pursuits acceptable to her social circle.
Mariella’s conventional and comfortable world is turned upside down when in the winter of 1854 Henry leaves for the bloody battlefields of Balaclava and Sebastopol to tend the injured, sick and dying of the Crimean war.
Henry is followed soon after by Mariella’s headstrong and unconventional cousin, Rosa who, unlike Mariella, wants more from life than Victorian convention allows women. Rosa travels to the Crimea determined, despite the appalling conditions, to nurse and save as many sick and injured as possible.

As she waits patiently at home, the war for Mariella is contained within the pages of her scrapbook, in her London sewing circle, and in the letters she receives from Henry. This all changes when the news that Henry is gravely ill with typhoid fever reaches her.
Accompanied by her maid, she hurries to Henry’s sickbed in Italy and there she discovers Henry is no longer the man she thought she knew and that Rosa has gone missing.
Mariella is driven to find Rosa so sets off to the carnage which were the battlefields of the Crimean war to search for her. Rosa’s possible whereabouts are surrounded by mystery and hearsay and in her quest Mariella ends up discovering more than she ever thought she would.
This novel is compelling and recommended reading for those who love romance and historical fiction with an edge. The description of battle and disease is not for the squeamish but for anyone interested in the world and society of England in the 1850’s it conveys that world in telling detail.
Roxanne

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Killer heat

Killer Heat is the tenth book in Linda Fairstein's series about New York Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cooper.
Success can never be guaranteed in every case Alexandra Cooper prosecutes, but for once the odds are with her for putting away a serial rapist for a crime he committed over twenty years previously.Outside the courtroom, though, another predator is at large. His first victim was a call-girl, a cat-o-nine-tails discovered near her body, and it seems as though Detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace need to look amongst her clients for the killer, but the discovery of other corpses, the modus operandi remarkably similar to the first, turns the investigation into a hunt for a random and viciously sadistic murderer. A part of his signature is that in the humid heat of summer he leaves his victims' remains in some of the least populated parts of New York - a derelict office building, an abandoned fort on an island below Manhattan. Alex fears it may be another twenty years before they can identify this monster, each day bringing the dread of news of another killing, then she, Chapman and Mercer get lucky and are able to give a name to their target. But that's not the same as putting him safely behind bars: to do that they are going to have to get close to him, much too close for Alex's own safety ...
It seems the central characters , Alex Cooper, Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace need little or no sleep as they search for this killer. However, the story is believable, enthralling and as usual includes a history lesson about New York.
Helen

The conjuror's bird

The back of this book says:
The Conjuror's bird is a dazzling debut novel, spanning three centuries of secrets and surprises.

It seems a long time ago that Fitz and Gabby were together, with his work on extinct species about to make him world-famous. Now, it's his career that is almost extinct. Suddenly, though, the beautiful Gabby reappears in his life. She wants his help in tracing the history of The Mysterious Bird of Ulieta, a creature once owned by the great 18th Century naturalist Joseph Banks. It soon becomes clear that Fitz is getting involved in something more complicated - and dangerous - than the search for a stuffed bird. To solve the puzzle, he must uncover the identity of the amazing woman Banks loved - a woman who has disappeared from history as effectively as the specimen he is hunting.

This is the intriguing debut fiction writing by Englishman Martin Davies. He details history without being boring and describes their environments beautifully. His characters are absolutely human, weak and strong.

If you liked Kate Grenville's The secret river, read this.
Helen










The draining lake

The book I’m reading now is a murder/thriller called “The Draining Lake” which is part 4 of a series of books by Arnaldur Indridason, which are all set in Iceland. The novels certainly don’t fit the norm of your average whodunit and to me, this is their great appeal.
“The Draining Lake” happens in Iceland just after an earthquake. One of the country’s main lakes has dramatically lowered and a skeleton is discovered, which had been weighed down by an old radio bearing Russian Script – herein lays the start of the investigation which goes back and forth between present day and Cold War East Germany.
The central character in all of Indridason’s novels is a police inspector called Erlendur Sveinsson, who is always addressed by his first name, because as I discovered, everyone in Iceland is addressed by their first name, which is one the many quirky things I learned as I read the books. I was also introduced to a culture which throws open a whole new view into how people live their daily lives in a climate and a world so different from my own.
The novels are not just about solving a murder, they are way more. They move from the present day to the past and back again many times and you learn what lead people to that fateful day of the crime - your past, is going to affect your present, especially when you least expect it. They also have a main character who is not a super cop detective who can solve everything, but a real person who brings his life to the job and the job to his life. If you like your novels with character and depth then Arnaldur Indridason is an experience not to be missed.

Chris

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