Saturday, September 29, 2007

Fireworks

Elizabeth H Winthrop
2006
ISBN 0 340 92130 7

Hollis Clayton is facing a long, bleak summer. His wife has gone - gone away to think, to see if their marriage is worth saving, his relationship with Jack Daniels is fast becoming the most immediate in his life, and he seems to have picked up a stray dog somewhere along the way.

The story is interspersed with random recollections, including the death of his son and how he and his wife retreated from each other, in between the haphazard relationship with his girlfriend, his attempts at getting past his writers block, and spying on the neighbour's kids.

Funny and sad at the same time, Hollis is wrapped up entirely in his own world and his perception of it, a lot of which struck me as honest - everyone is the same. I found the writing easy to fall into, and each memory was both touching and more or less relevant to the story in general.

The ending served to reinforce the idea that, rather than a story, this is a nonstory, a section of a man's life, and I found myself hoping that things ended positively.

Date Finished 27/09/07
Year Total 31

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The House of Sight & Shadow

Nicholas Griffin
2000
0-316-85444-1

Joseph Bendix arrives in London hoping to secure an apprenticeship with the reclusive Doctor Calcraft on the way to his own future and fortune.

Bendix and Calcraft experiment with the illegal remains of hanged prisoners, seeking a cure for an extraordinary malady belonging to an even more reclusive patient.

I got halfway through this book before deciding that I really didn't like Bendix or his arrogant observations about the people around him. The other characters are little better, and the more the story progressed the more it became a challenge to finish. From the saccharine, pure and perfect Amelia to the shifty, scheming Sixes, there were no characters that inspired any sympathy.

The ending was a mixture of ironic justice and too-tide epilogue, but I was more relieved to have finished it to take much notice.

Date Finished 24/09/07
Year Total 30

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Blind Submission

Debra Ginsberg
2006
ISBN 978174175-150-5

This story opens with first-day-on-the-job jitters from Angel, starting a new career at a literary agency - reading the submitted manuscripts and deciding whether or not they are any good. Right from the beginning, there is a sense of almost hysterical urgency - the pace at the office is exhausting, even for the reader, and Angel throws herself into it to the detriment of the rest of her life, including writer/boyfriend Malcolm.

Between a crazy boss and an apparent stalker/submitter who is penning her life, Angel would start to wonder if she is going crazy herself - if she had time between phonecalls, memos and reading assignments.

The frenetic energy of the office hits you straight away, and the weird behaviour of Lucy and 'Kelly' do nothing to make Angel or the reader feel at home. Lucy is an engima, but by no means a quiet one - she is intimidating and scary, and Angel herself is stretched so thin that it's hard to tell if her uncharitable thoughts are a result of exhaustion or if she is actually quite nasty.

That aside, the mystery at the centre of the story - who is writing the manuscript that is following Angel's life - keeps you interested and reading. The ending arrives just as quickly as the rest of the book, and it confused me for several pages, but the tidying up at the end of the book makes up for it.

Enjoyable, but exhausting reading.

Date Finished: 14/09/07
Year Total: 29

Monday, September 10, 2007

Making History

Stephen Fry
1996
0099464810

I picked this book up because I am a huge fan of Blackadder, and Stephen Fry was one of the main character in the final series. He's a brilliant actor and comedian, and it turns out his humour translates just as well when he writes.

We start with Michael Young, who, together with a reclusive physics professor, hatch a plan to divert history - to make sure Hitler was never born, never mind what else he got up to.

The plan is executed - and Michael find himself in a strange country, with a strange history and a strange culture surrounding him. Armed with the dubious trust of a fellow student, he learns that Hitler may not have been the worst possibility, and that the path history has taken instead is all his fault.

There is a humour and passion in this book, and, combined with a sense of urgency that builds, manages to hide the real point of the story until the closing pages. I re-read the final dozen pages, just to savour the moment - this is a story with the best kind of ending. Unexpected, and it totally melts your heart.

This was a hugely entertaining read, and I'm definitely adding Fry as an author to collect.

Date Finished: 10/09/07
Year Total:28

Temeraire: Throne of Jade

Naomi Novik
2006
000 721913 X

A sequel to the astonishing 'Temeraire', this was a welcome surprise find at the library.

The formal language and the stiff-necked etiquette is easy to get used to, and the relationship between man and dragon is explored as Temeraire is drawn towards the land of his heritage.

Laurence is put in the unenviable position of being caught between the worlds of aviator, naval officer and ambassador, and as the story winds its way towards China it gets more and more riveting.

This is a great book. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and look forward to more.

Date Finished: 04/09/07
Year Total: 27

Billie's Kiss

Elizabeth Knox

Book Finished: 01/09/07
Year Total: 26