Category: 2000 – 2007

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2000 - 2007 Recommended books Richard and Judy Book Club

A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini

Books Before Blogging Review

It has been almost a year since I read this moving story about the lives of two women in Afghanistan. I was completely gripped from beginning to end. The two women, Mariam and Laila, were great characters – I was totally drawn into their world. The emotions in this book were very powerful, and as a result this became the most harrowing book I have ever read. I found it much more distressing to read than The Kite Runner, and some of the scenes will stay with me forever.

Highly recommended, but keep a box of tissues handy!

Categories
2000 - 2007 Booker Prize

Darkmans – Nicola Barker

I was really looking forward to reading this book, as the cover makes it sound really interesting.

…..Elen, an enigmatic chiropodist, whose unstable husband, Dory, believes that their only son, Fleet, has been fathered by the deranged ghost of an evil, 500-year old court-jester…….a magical yet somehow instantly familiar world in which language crackles like static….. 

Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. The writing style was very annoying. I felt like I was being treated like an idiot, as obvious things were explained in brackets on a regular basis.

The character build up was OK at first, but failed to develop fully. They just didn’t come across as very believable. The dialogue between the characters wasn’t very natural, and their continual misunderstandings, resulting in large gaps and then:

WHAT?

EH?

really grated on me.

The plot was very sporadic, and had no forward momentum, so I found my thougths wandering off. This happened more frequently as the book went on, and so I finally gave up 250 pages in. This is the first Booker short listed book that I have failed to complete. I agonised over whether, or not, to finish it, so checked as many other reviews as possible. I discovered that people decide they either love or hate this book very quickly. Those that dislike the book, are left even more frustrated by the ending, so as I have nearly 500 pages left to read to reach this point I think I’ll leave it there.

I would, however, still love to read a book about a 500-year old court-jester fathering a child from Kent! If you’ve seen one – let me know!!

Categories
2000 - 2007 Booker Prize Orange Prize Recommended books

Fingersmith – Sarah Waters


This book was one of the oldest, unread residents of my book shelves. Although I wanted to read it, I kept putting it off as I had already seen the excellent BBC adaptation of it, and I don’t normally like reading books when I know the plot. So when the Orange Prize readers Yahoo group announced it was Sarah Waters month , I decided that this was the incentive I needed to finally take it off the shelf.

I’m really glad I did, as it is one of the best books I have ever read. It didn’t matter that I knew what was going to happen, as the writing was so vivid, that it took the story to a whole new level.

The pace was perfect, despite being 550 pages long, my interest was held throughout. I enjoyed reading this book so much that I was torn between the desire to read it, and not wanting it to come to an end.

It completely immerses you in Victorian England. I loved the way the story was told by the two orphan girls. Seeing everything from two different  perspectives was very clever, and added to the suspense.  The intricate details of the plot, and  all the twists and turns make this a very well constructed novel. It’s hard to describe the plot without giving some of it away, so I won’t try to. I just urge you to read it.

Highly recommended.

Winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Dagger for Historical Crime Fiction. Short listed for both the Orange and the Booker Prize.

Categories
2000 - 2007 Uncategorized

For One More Day – Mitch Albom

For One More Day is the story of a man who gets the chance to spend one more day with his mother, who died 8 years earlier.

I was really undecided about how to rate this book. On the one hand it was a quick, easy read. I finished it in more or less one sitting, so it must have been a page turner.

On the other hand I knew exactly what was going to happen from the beginning, and the book felt more like one long lecture on appreciating your mother, than a novel. It was just too sentimental, with no depth or real plot.

Everyone else seems to love this book, so I won’t tell you not to give it a go. It’s short enough for you to give it a try and make up your own mind. I won’t be rushing out to read any of his other books though.

Categories
2000 - 2007 Thriller

The Halo Effect by M.J. Rose

I first heard about M. J. Rose a few weeks ago, when I spotted reviews for her new release The Memorist. It was getting very good reviews, so I decided to try one of her books. ‘The Halo Effect’ also seemed to have good reviews, so I decided to fulfill my desire for a thriller by reading it.

It was a very basic thriller. Characters were two dimensional, and followed typical thiller stereotypes. The plot didn’t seem very realistic, and everything was very formulaic. The murder suspects were described one after the other, so there wasn’t much opportunity to guess who was committing the crimes, as each seemed equally likely to have done it.

It was a light read, so was good for me to read when I couldn’t concentrate fully. It was OK, but but nothing special.

Categories
2000 - 2007 Mystery

A Conspiracy of Violence – Susanna Gregory

It has been a while since I’ve had to use my brain to try and work out a murder mystery, so I picked up this book as I hoped it would fulfil my detective ambitions, with a bit of period detail added to make things more atmospheric.

 

In the beginning I struggled with the number of characters. Most of the characters are based on fact, so if you had a greater knowledge of this period in history then this probably wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately, I only know the basics, so all the Lords and Government officers quickly got too confusing for me.  

 

There were a few interesting scenes, but I got bored by the political discussions and nearly gave up 70 pages in. I wish I had! I soldiered on for another 100 pages, but it didn’t get any better. In the end I got distracted by another book, so decided not to finish it. It’s probably a great book, if you’re into the politics of Restoration England, but I’m just after a good story.

 

Disappointing.