Category: Genre

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2009 Chick Lit Orange Prize

The Very Thought of You – Rosie Alison

 

Short listed for Orange Prize 2010, Short listed for Amazon’s Rising Stars award 2009, Long listed for the RNA Romantic novel of the year 2010, Long listed for the Le Prince Maurice Prize for Literary Love Stories 2010

The Very Thought of You is set during WWII and follows eight-year-old Anna as she is evacuated to a large country house in Yorkshire. The house belongs to a childless couple, Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton, who decided to covert their home into a school in the hope that children will bring some happiness back into their lives. Unfortunately the children only seem to exacerbate their problems and their marriage falls apart.

The theme of the book appears to be loving someone that you can’t have. All the characters seem to be in love with someone that they cannot be with; whether that is due to being separated by war or yearning to be with someone already in a relationship.

The Very Thought of You was very readable and I finished it quite quickly, but it left no lasting impression on me. There were too many characters and so each one failed to develop its own identity, all seeming to have the same voice.

The book also lacked atmosphere – I couldn’t picture the places mentioned or feel the emotions each character experienced.

Overall I’d describe it as a light romance book, similar in style to The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson.  I have no idea why it was short listed for the Orange prize.

Opinions seem to be divided on this one:

…it is intelligently written with an eye for detail… The Truth About Lies

It is the narratorial voice that kills it stone-dead for me. Eve’s Alexandria

This is an impressive book, particularly as a debut novel. Pursewarden

Categories
2009 Crime Thriller

Acts of Violence – Ryan David Jahn

I am always on the look out for a good new crime book so when @crimeficreader described Acts of Violence as the best debut of 2009, during a twitter conversation, I decided to read a copy. It’s a Crime! is one of my favourite crime fiction blogs, so if you’re after some more recommendations then head over there!

Acts of Violence is based on the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese; a crime which over 30 people witnessed, but not one acted to save her life. This crime prompted an investigation into the social psychological phenomenon which became known as the bystander effect and this book takes a look at the reasons behind their inaction – why did so many people ignore her cries for help?

The book begins by focusing on Katrina (the fictional character based on Kitty). We follow her journey home and witness the attack:

It –  he – seems to be pulled toward her, like a yo-yo on a string, seems to glide toward her rather than walk. She doesn’t notice the sort of lumbering broken-machine flump-flump-flump a man walking normally has when he shuffles from one place to another. He just floats toward her menacingly.

The book then flipped between various characters living in the surrounding appartments. We hear of their problems (ranging from a woman who thinks she has just run over a baby, to a suicidal Vietnam draftee and a man looking after his dying mother), but I struggled to believe that so many people in such a small area were all facing critical points in their lives at exactly the same moment. The number of violent acts taking place also seemed unrealistic to me.

The large number of characters meant that we could only glimpse into their lives, never having the chance to really get to know them. It was an interesting explanation of the bystander effect, but I would have found it more realistic if the characters had been normal people who were simply too tired or confused to phone the police.

The book was fast paced and gripping throughout, but the numerous story threads meant that the book felt disjointed to me. It was a glimpse into a few hours of their lives, but I was left wanting to know more – how they felt once they’d heard of the crime and whether they really knew what was going on.

I’d recommend this to fans of crime fiction who don’t mind books without a mystery to solve.

The thoughts of other bloggers

…the most outstanding novel I have read this year. It’s a Crime!

…doesn’t leave enough room to truly explore all the issues it raises. Follow The Thread

This is an excellent, thought provoking novel… Hack Writers

Categories
2008 Non Fiction

The Weight of a Mustard Seed – Wendell Steavenson

The Weight of a Mustard Seed attempts to discover why ordinary people were driven to commit evil acts under the orders of Saddam Hussein. The author,  Wendell Steavenson, is a journalist who travelled to Iraq many times between 2002 and 2005 interviewing the friends and family of General Kamel Sachet; a decorated hero of the Iran-Iraq war and a man favoured by Saddam Hussein. She tried to discover what motivated Sachet and his colleagues and how his actions affected his family.  

The book is a fascinating insight into the lives of both ordinary Iraqis and members of the military. All the people were brought to life and I found myself having great sympathy for everyone in the book, despite the horrendous acts many of them committed. Wendell’s ability to make me see things from their perspective was impressive.

‘You chose to be a part of it,’ I told him. ‘You could have resigned, you could have gone to live in the country like your cousin.’
‘One of my American debriefers asked me the same question. He asked me why I continued to fight against the Americans. I told him it had nothing to do with Saddam Hussein. It’s hard for you to understand, but it was a matter of military honour, being part of a country and within that comes your loyalty to your high command.

The Weight of a Mustard Seed was very readable and although there were some descriptions of violence I never felt that it went over the top. The modern history of Iraq was well described, although as the book wasn’t written in chronological order I got a bit confused occasionally.

The book contained many examples of psychological experiments which explained why people behave as they do under the pressure of war. Unfortunately I was already aware of all of these and so these sections were irrelevant for me. If you are interested in finding out about them then some of the experiments are summarised in this post: The Ten Most Revealing Psych Experiments

I highly recommend this book as an introduction to the psychology of war, but if you have read a lot of books on the subject you may find it too basic.

Everyone seemed to enjoy this one:

…one of the most interesting, engaging, horrifying and moving non fiction books that I have ever read. Savidge Reads

…an accessible book for those wanting to read a factual book about Iraq. Novel Insights

This is a powerful, well-written and moving account… Reading Matters

 

Categories
2010 Crime

Blueeyedboy – Joanne Harris

I have been wanting to read a Joanne Harris book for a long time – I own almost all of them! For some inexplicable reason they never seem to make it to the top of the TBR pile. I then spotted that Blueeyedboy was going to be the first bookclub choice on The Wright Stuff (a morning UK magazine show) and so made the effort to read it in time for programme on Friday 14th May.

Blueeyedboy is written in the form of blog entries with each chapter ending in the comments the post received. The posts are written on a site called badboysrock which encourages people with murderous fantasies to engage with one another.

Initially I loved the descriptions of the little boy growing up; the insecurities he felt and the pressure of being the only one of his siblings to still be alive. Unfortunately, about 150 pages in, everything began to fall about. The book began to concentrate on his murderous fantasies and the line between what he’d made up and what had happened became increasingly blurred. I’m sure this was deliberate, but it confused me.

I think the message of the book was that we can’t trust what we read online, that we can all pretend to be whoever we want to be; but as a reader I’d have liked to know which bits were supposed to be true. The further into the book I got the more muddled everything became and the plot just seemed to disappear into increasingly dark areas. This confusion made it almost impossible for me to engage with the characters, most of whom I already disliked.

The comments at the end of each chapter ruined the flow of the book for me and I didn’t find them very realistic. I also found the big reveal at the end to be a disappointment.

It was an interesting premise, but I’m afraid it didn’t work for me.

Opinions seem to be very mixed….

I loved the whole unsettling process! Lovely Treez Reads

….it felt too chaotic… The Book Whisperer

…difficult to really care about what happens to any of the characters in the book Euro Crime

Joanne Harris is clearly a very skilled writer and I have heard wonderful things about her other books, so I plan to try another one soon.

Which Joanne Harris book should I try next?

I think the mixed opinions make this a fantastic book club choice. I am really looking forward to seeing the discussion on The Wright Stuff tomorrow morning.

Updated 14th May

I’ve just watched The Wright Stuff and was very impressed by the discussion of this book. It was quite sad that they didn’t manage to find someone who loved it as that would have added to the debate, but I admired their honesty, their professionalism and their ability to focus on the book. I thought it was a much better discussion than the TV Book Club and look forward to following the rest of the series.

Did you watch the show?

Categories
2010 Book Prizes Chunkster Science Fiction Thriller Uncategorized

Angelology – Danielle Trussoni

Angelology takes place in a world where angels walk among us. Their wings are tied flat beneath their clothing so you have no way of knowing who they are, but these angels have been breeding with humans to create dangerous hybrids called Nephilims. Unlike the immortal angels these nephilims are dying and so are trying to do everything within their power to get hold of the angelogogist’s research in the hope it will reveal a cure for their disease.

Angelology is a fast paced thriller, which I’d describe as a well written hybrid of The Da Vinci Code, The Historian and Twilight – so if you enjoyed these three books then you are bound to love this one.

I loved the atmospheric descriptions:

The angelologists examined the body. It was intact, without decay, the skin as smooth and as white as parchment. The lifeless aquamarine eyes gazed heavenward. Pale curls fell against a high forehead and sculptural shoulders, forming a halo of golden hair. Even the robes-the cloth woven of a white shimmering metallic material that none of them could identify exactly-remained pristine, as if the creature had died in a hospital room in Paris and not a cavern deep below the earth.

This initial scene setting was quite slow, but the pace soon sped up. I enjoyed the beginning, but about 100 pages in I began to lose interest. The plot was convoluted, meandering and never reached any real conclusion. There was a lot of history added to the book, but as most of it was made up this didn’t hold the same appeal as other pieces of historical fiction.

The central character in the book is a young nun called Evangeline, but she never really engaged me. I felt as though I was carried along by the fast flow of the words, rather than any real desire to know what happened.

The book is being made into a film by Sony and I am sure that this will be a  much better medium for the story – especially once the plot has been condensed into a two hour time slot!

The lack of a fully resolved ending means that I’m sure there will be a sequel, but I’m in no rush to read it – I am happy to wait until its inevitable DVD release!

Overall I found it to be a fast paced, inventive book, but I just didn’t care what those fictional angel-hybrids were doing.

This book is getting very mixed reviews, but I am sure it will be a massive hit – especially after its release in paperback.

…an incredible novel that I can’t recommend highly enough. S. Krishna’s Books

….in the end Angelology falls far short of its potential. Muse Books Review

…too many weak points to the overall story for me to end up really invested in the story. Fantasy & SciFi Lovin’ News and Reviews

I loved the world Trussoni has created with its mixture of the esoteric, history and myth and not least for Trussoni’s quality prose. Chasing Bawa

Do you think you’ll enjoy Angelology?

Categories
2009 Books in Translation Chunkster Historical Fiction Other Prizes Recommended books

The Kindly Ones – Jonathan Littell

 

Translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell

Winner of 2006 Prix Goncourt and the grand prix du roman of Académie française, Literary Review’s bad sex in fiction award 2009, 2010 Best Translated Book Award: Fiction Longlist, 2010 long list Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

The Kindly Ones is one of the most controversial books written in recent years. The book is a fictional biography of Max Aue, a senior SS officer, present during the Holocaust.  His job is to compile recommendations for future Nazi policy and so he travels to see the execution of the Jews, the German front line and finally the concentration camps. The fictional characters are weaved together with real people like Göring, Speer and Hitler; producing a well researched, compelling version of WWII.

The Kindly Ones is the most disturbing book I’ve ever read. I have read a few individual scenes in books like A Fine Balance or Fugitive Pieces that almost equal the horror of the milder sections in this book, but the descriptions of the Holocaust were so intense and prolonged that I found this book very hard to read. There were times when I could only read a page or two before having to put the book down and do something else. Sometimes even that wasn’t enough and so I started skim reading sections. I found this didn’t help much as I was still painfully aware of what was happening, so I reverted to the slow, painful pace I had started with.

The whole book is like driving past a car crash – you know you shouldn’t look, but you do anyway  –  unable to resist the temptation to see how bad things really are.  I was gripped throughout, an amazing feat for a book so long. The prose is easy to read, but I did get a bit confused by some of the German military terms (most of which are explained in the back, but as I don’t really understand the British equivalent that didn’t help much!).

I expected the plot to emphasize the fact that the people involved in these terrible events had no choice in the matter – that it was basically ‘do or die’.

The man posted to a concentration camp, like a man assigned to an Einsatzkommando or a police battalion, most of the time doesn’t reason any differently: he knows that his free will has nothing to do with it, and that chance alone makes him a killer rather than a hero, or a dead man.

I was therefore surprised to see many opportunities for Max Aue to avoid ending up on the path he took. Initially I wondered why the book was written in this way, but then I realised how clever and realistic it was. The events leading up to the atrocities are obvious with hindsight, but to the people involved each step was so small that they were unaware of the final consequences. Many questioned the actions and were given what seemed to them to be reasonable justifications. For this book to change the way I view the Holocaust is an incredible achievement.

The Kindly Ones also contained many poignant scenes. I was particularly touched by this passage:

“I started sobbing: the tears froze on my face, I wept for my childhood, for a time when snow was a pleasure that knew no end, when a city was a wonderful space to live in, and when a forest was not yet a convenient place to kill people.”

Overall I’d describe this book as a ‘must read’ for anyone interested in the Holocaust, but the length and graphic descriptions of human suffering mean that most people should approach this book with caution. I will remember this book for the rest of my life and although I sometimes wish I could erase some scenes from my memory, on the whole I think it is helpful to remember that these events happened.

Do you want to read The Kindly Ones?