Wuthering Heights

Oh I am a bit bereft after reading Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, and not probably because of why you think. Sadly for me this was another overhyped classic that just didn’t really hit the spot for me. This year I decided that I would read a lot more of the classics that I have not yet had the pleasure of reading and along with ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ this just didn’t live up to the hype. I bought this a few years ago after having been to Howarth and seeing the ‘original’ Wuthering Heights and walking the moors of Heathcliff and Cathy’s tale, so I had the bug. I then got home and read something else, well lots of other things until now.

I fully expected this to be right up my alley. I was expecting a gothic epic tale of love that cannot be and the trials of the moors and the heart. What I got was a flighty vile leading lady in the shape of spoilt Cathy and a horrid mean man in the shape of Heathcliff. From the off I was completely perplexed, how would I care about these two vile characters and their tragic love story? In two words… I didn’t. The book completely fell flat with me, I didn’t like the characters I didn’t care what happened to them, that was that.

I am so saddened by the fact I didn’t like it I cannot tell you, I am praying when I read Jane Eyre (which now won’t be for a while even though I know it’s a different sister who wrote it, she has been tarnished by this one) in the future that I won’t be as disappointed.

It’s actually hard to say anything more, again I have probably just performed book reviewer suicide not liking this and will have no one reading my blog ever again but I can only write the truth. If this was someone’s first book I wouldn’t write a review but my blog is not going to stop Wuthering Heights flying of the shelves is it!?

No a very big disappointment for Mr Savidge with this book as I was hoping to be swept away and sadly I couldn’t wait for the whole thing to end.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

I have BookRabbit again to thank for my latest read, the last one I chose as the BookRabbit Book Group read. Alan Bradley’s ‘The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie’ one is an advance book (out in January 2009) I was sent to review for the site and Orion the books publisher. I unlike the other readers really, really enjoyed this book; in fact I thought it was brilliant. They all seemed to think it was more of a ‘young adult’ book – I am wondering what that says about me?

Flavia de Luce is your typical precocious ‘almost eleven year old’ all apart from the fact that she has found a dead snipe on the doorstep of her fathers crumbling country house’s front doorstep. This isn’t just any dead bird it seems to have been placed there as if in some form of a message to who ever finds it, it also has an incredibly rare stamp impaled on its beak. Flavia decides this is some magical mystery that she should investigate and does indeed to her finding something slightly more gruesome in the cucumber patch.

With her father at the centre of a murder investigation and her two spiteful sisters being only bothered with their own reflections and lives what is a precocious almost eleven year old meant to do than prove her fathers innocence and find the murderer. We are then taken along with Flavia as she goes about, on her bicycle named Gladys, interrogating people in the local village and following the clues and a few red herrings.

I loved the character of Flavia she completely stole the show for me, from her love of Gladys, to her scary knowledge of all things chemical and poisonous. Her sisters were brilliantly vile and her father wonderfully secretive. The prose of the novel is light and has a twist of black humour though sometimes the discussion of chemicals and also the explanations of stamps can be a bit much. I loved some of the strange villagers and their quirky silly names. Yes I guessed the ending and saw the villain of the piece coming a mile of but it didn’t stop me reading to the very end, why would I have when I was having so much fun.

If you’re expecting a thriller then you are getting the wrong book, if you’re looking for something that’s a mixture of murder, mystery, madness and mayhem then this is the perfect book for you.

The Night Watch

It has been my turn to choose ‘The BookRabbit Book Groups’ read this month, and I chose Sarah Waters ‘The Night Watch’ because it has been on my TBR for well over a year. IN case any of you are wondering what BookRabbit is then go to http://www.bookrabbit.com/ and join, it’s a wonderful and very sociable book lover’s site and forum, it seriously is brilliant, join, join.

So I had chosen ‘The Night Watch’ and have not long put it down and I really enjoyed it. I didn’t love it, but I definitely enjoyed it. By the looks of it sadly not that many of the other BookRabbit readers feel quite the same way. My only other dabble with Sarah Waters has not been ‘Tipping the Velvet’ or ‘Fingersmith’ those joys are still to come. No, my first Sarah Waters was ‘Affinity’ her lesser known novel which is a dark creepy gothic novel which I really loved and I think is more deserving of Man Booker and Orange nominations. So that and the fact that ‘The Night Watch’ has been so hyped might lead to why I would give it 4 out of 5 and not full marks.

Sarah has deviated from her usual Victorian romps to the wartime of the 1940’s. This diversion is an effortless one as I was totally in the moment of the novel and never once felt that what I was reading wasn’t real. Things like the rarity of coffee, the explosions of bombs, to the cost of silk pyjamas, Sarah had clearly researched the background to the novel down to the smallest details. Now to add to the change of time of her novel, she also decided to write it backwards.

The funny thing is when someone tells you that a book has been written backwards it instantly makes you think that a book is going to be really hard to read and this isn’t, it’s delightful to read. It also makes you think that the author has done something incredibly clever, which they have, but then again books told in flashbacks are quite common and also the fact that the start of the book was actually the end meant that obviously you knew the ending from the off and somehow that didn’t work for me. There is something delicious about digging through characters pasts and she still managed a few twists and surprises which is no mean feat it just left me feeling like I didn’t need to get involved so much.

All that aside, I did enjoy the adventures of Kay, Helen, Viv and Duncan although I never really liked any of them. Each one had a very interesting history and you didn’t always know what was coming which was great. The characters were believable and the story of sexuality in that time was really interesting to read about. There was one issue I had which was with Duncan (Waters first gay male character) and his back story which was utterly harrowing but was almost written in an overly calm way when I can’t imagine that you would feel calm about such things. Hard to explain when you are trying desperately hard not to give the ending away.

Despite the fact I have just criticized the book a bit I did enjoy it, in a market that’s so full of books about the war this is something different and Waters should be highly commended for this work, I’ll be really interested to see what she does next, and will be happily reading the two Victorian romps in the meantime.

No Internet For A While

Hello all,

I wont have the internet for a while so will only be uploading reviews when I have finished a book and not really doing book thoughts and the like, which you will probably prefer hahahahaha.

Soon as am all moved and everything is sorted service will be resumed!

Simon

P.S Has everyone noticed how well I am doing on the book ban? Havent bought one in ages!

The Catcher in the Rye

I never had to do J. D. Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ when I was at school and it’s always been a book that I have wanted to read and yet have never sort out when I have been in the bookshop. However this all changed when I saw a copy of this in Oxfam, they go like gold dust in charity shops I have been reliably told, for a whopping 99p. I am glad I didn’t pay any more for it frankly.

There is always a danger when you have heard how amazing a classic is that it simply wont live up to the hype, ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ is certainly one such book. I am sure that writing this will be seen as some kind of literary sacrilege, I am happy to put up with that as I don’t think me panning it will stop it selling anymore copies now will it?

Holden Caulfield is the protagonist and this is indeed his coming of age tale, this confused me from the start as I simply couldn’t work out how old he was, sometimes I thought he was about ten other times I thought he was about seventeen I found it completely confusing. I didn’t like him, he started of saying how he was a liar and from that point on I couldn’t work out whether what he was telling you was the truth or not, and I sadly ended up not caring. All the secondary characters were stereotypes and I felt the book offered nothing new we haven’t read or seen a hundred times of more, this being the classic I suppose it was one of the originals to do this, but hey ho.

No I really didn’t like ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ in fact I wish I had read it at school as you always hate the books you read at school and study to death, plus I would have got a boring dull book out of the way early on in my reading life. I have kept it on my shelves though, just to show people I have actually read it. I hope the classics I have planned to read soon don’t turn out as bad as this.

Note: My mother an English teacher has just said on the phone ‘oh god why did you read that rubbish, it’s terrible’. My Gran who is extremely well read and proud of it said something equally similar though slightly ruder.

The Secret Tunnel

Be forwarded I have gone and picked up a racy novel again, so if your faint of heart don’t read on. Ha!

After an Agatha break it is onto the latest James Lear novel. As I am doing a feature on him this has arrived as a delightfully early advance copy from Cleis Press and the man behind James Lear (no pun intended) Rupert Smith so I thank them both most kindly. Now if you have read my previous blog you will know that James Lear writes erotic fiction mixed with a good slice of crime, well at least for the Mitch Mitchell books, and this is the second. You will also know that bar Anais Nin I have always pooh-poohed erotica as being trash, James Lear proved me wrong and he has succeeded in doing so again.

The Secret Tunnel is set roughly a year or so down the line from The Back Passage. Mitch Mitchell has moved to Edinburgh and is going on the Flying Scotsman to visit his best friend and married ‘on off’ lover Boy Morgan in London. Mitch doesn’t enjoy travelling alone finding that he gets bored, however on this journey he won’t - and not just from the attractive staff and passengers. Of course not long into the journey someone gets murdered and Mitch sees it as his chance to play at detective again, what he believes is his true vocation.

Naturally with a James Lear novel there is heaps of sex, again following his ‘an orgasm a chapter minimal’ rule of thumb. Again this is part of the story not just an add-on for thrills though some of it is indeed thrilling. The sex takes you along with the plot and becomes and integral part of the whole novel. We also get to meet a whole new host of characters like dizzy starlet Daisy Athenasy and stowaway and Mitch’s new sidekick Bertrand from Belgium.

If your thinking all the action takes place on the Flying Scotsman then you would be wrong as we are taken into the decadence of 30’s/40’s London where the motley crew of investigators get taken on even more thrills and spills through royal connections and the theatre lovelies. The whole novel ends far too quickly in a very climatic twist. I once again really enjoyed this James Lear novel and would recommend it to fans of crime as well as fans of all things fruity.

A Guest Reader

We have a guest staying with us at the moment and her name is Phoebe, she is very cute...


And it appears she has a big love of books too! As you can see! Though maybe Richard Russo isn't her favourite????!!!!!

4.50 From Paddington

After my previous read I was reminded how much I love a good Agatha Christie. I am not the biggest fan of Poirot however I absolutely love a good Miss Marple, so I went to the TBR pile and the 4.50 From Paddington beamed out at me – how could I resist? I don’t think I need to tell people what the premise of a Miss Marple novel is but I should anyway, just in case. Miss Marple is a lovely retired lady living in the delightful small village of St Mary Mead, she unfathomably ends up embroiled in murders, and decides she should go out and solve the cases in a slightly nosey busybody kind of way. I think she’s great.

The tale starts as Mrs McGillicuddy takes the 4.50 from Paddington to visit her friend Miss Marple. ON her journey and being slightly nosey herself she is looking at another trains carriages when she sees a woman being throttled by a man. She naturally reports this and no one believes her, no one of course except Miss Marple. After no body is found and nothing is reported in the papers Miss Marple hires her friend Lucy Eyelesbarrow (some of the names are corking) to become a cleaner in a house near where the murder seems to have happened and where a body might just have been hidden. Lucy then has to report back to Miss Marple on regular occasions as she figures it all out coming to the correct conclusion of course.

Agatha Christie sometimes gets unfairly criticized for her prose. No it isn’t flowery and never ending, she is blunt and gets to the chase whilst chucking in a few good red herrings which is what all good crime fiction should do. Also she looks at society and the human mind which has become incredibly fashionable again in crime fiction as it merges into popular literature. I had forgotten though how well she can weave a plot, after putting down the book having finished it you cannot help but marvel at how she came up with the idea in the first place, sent on so many wrong turns and then got you to a thrilling conclusion.

Sadly like with ‘At Bertram’s Hotel’ Miss Marple isn’t in the book as much as I would have liked. I simply love the character of Miss Marple and though Lucy seemed a younger Miss Marple in her own way it was slightly like an understudy and with the secondary characters sometimes Agatha makes them slightly one dimensional but that’s me being really, really picky. You actually cannot fault Agatha’s work, she was ahead of her time I believe and now she is still one of the best selling authors every year, despite people saying she’s no longer fashionable.

The Back Passage

Now for those of you who might have a nervous disposition shouldn’t read on as this blog is about quite a racy novel. Yes I have delved in to the world of erotica in my latest read, something that I have to say I don’t do very often. Erotica on the whole can be pretty appalling for a start there is invariably absolutely no plot what so ever, and if there is one its pretty lame, unless of course you are Anais Nin who one of my friends Polly loves. I know the author (real name Rupert Smith) and was also doing a feature on him for work so I hesitantly dipped my toe into the world of erotica and the world of Mitch Mitchell… and loved it.

The scene is set in the countryside on a weekend away for Mitch Mitchell to celebrate his friend Boy’s betrothal. Once he arrives a murder takes place and Mitch starts to detect that things may not be as they seem and that everyone in the country house has a secret or seven hidden away.

Now it being erotica there is a high amount of sex in it, in fact the author states he isn’t happy unless he has ‘at least one orgasm in every chapter’ for the characters, and maybe for the readers himself. It is graphic and raunchy but it never seems unnecessary or crude it helps the plot move forward be it a policeman who has information or a butler who has access to all the rooms in the house… Mitch will do what is necessary, and fun for him, to find out whodunit.

The book also has humour by the bucket load so while you are gripped with the mystery of the murder, and getting involved in the never ending sex life of Mitch, you also find yourself laughing and just getting through the book before you know it. Not only is there humour and a plot but fabulous characters. Mitch is a loveable American wannabe detective who deep down is looking for love but is happy with anything he finds along the way. You also have a host of other characters like queeny Leonard Eagle, hard done by Meeks and the sadistic cop Kennington. As the author says its ‘Agatha Christie with c**k’. Sorry if that’s offended anyone, but you did read on!
If you like a good old fashioned murder mystery or you just like a juicy racy number then this is a great novel. You laugh, you get hooked, and you try and work it all out whilst having a very jolly read. Some people would say that erotica is not a form of literature; I would suggest to all of them that they read a James Lear.

Ghost Hunters

Now I am sure people would think that I should be reading a book like this closer to Halloween, however I am actually going ghost hunting at Peterborough Museum tomorrow. Therefore I thought that brushing up on my ghost hunting knowledge (which is limited) I thought it was time to read this book. Ghost Hunters is written by Most Haunted’s Yvette Fielding and Ciaran O’Keeffe so you know that the information you are soaking up is coming from a good source, they have now done well over 100 ghost hunts themselves. Plus I admit it I am a huge fan of the show.

The book itself is set in two parts, the first looks at the theories behind ghosts. This looks at famous ghost stories and discusses the many theories behind them; such as are they faked are they real and why. Chapters look both at the types of ghosts that have been reported from poltergeists to your friendly helpful ghost who means no harm, other chapters look at evidence (photos etc) and the tools used to capture proof of ghosts meaning you know an EMF Reader from a Scrying Mirror.

The second part of the book is documentation of several new ghost hunts that Yvette and Ciaran go on that haven’t been on most haunted looking at witness statements and the methods they used to try and find out what was going on in these haunted locations leaving you to take the evidence they find and make of it what you will.

The style is very basic making it easy for anyone who is fresh to ghost hunting able to dip in and out and not feel alienated by long scientific words. I also liked the ‘chatty’ style that they both used so you actually felt you were alongside them on the journey of ghost hunting. Also at no point are you pressurised to believe or not to believe as Ciaran as a doctor of Parapsychology doesn’t believe and Yvette does.

All in all I really enjoyed this and found it incredibly insightful and have picked up some great tips for tomorrow. If you aren’t a believer of the paranormal or just think Most Haunted is a pile of rubbish this isn’t for you. If you are open minded or you believe in ghosts and love Most Haunted (like I do) then this is the perfect book for you.

Skeletons at the Feast

This is my second review for Simon & Schuster and after the excellent novel by Meg Abbott I was sent I wasn’t sure that a book on World War II would thrill me, in fact in truth part of me thought ‘oh no not another book about the war’ sometimes there just seems to be too many. I should learn though as The Book Their and The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas are absolutely brilliant examples of great World War II books, but then the war is just another character in those novels.

In Chris Bohjalian’s ‘Skeletons at the Feast’ the war is a huge panoramic backdrop to the novel. This isn’t just a book where the war is going on but we don’t see much of it bar the odd bomb, here we have the full scale of the horrific events that World War II caused and through the characters we also see it from many different sides.

The main plot runs following 18 year old German Anna Emmerich as she, and her Scottish lover and prisoner of war Callum, take her mother and brother across Germany to get behind the American or British lines and to safety. Their tale is a harrowing one being separated from Anna’s elder brother and father as well as their home and belongings from the start. We also follow the story of Uri a Jew who has managed to escape a train to the concentration camps and is stealing the costumes and identity of dead German soldiers as he goes. There is also the tale of Cecile who isn’t as lucky and is stuck inside a concentration camp, from all these characters you get to see all the sides of the war.

However there is some liberal use of (what I call Philippa Gregory Complex) hindsight in this novel with parts of the story, such as Anna’s mother Mutti who starts the book as a complete Hitler lover becoming worried her country ‘will be forever remembered for all it did wrong in history’. Though I can understand why an author would want to use the power of hindsight in this case it felt a little forced. Having gotten that small little issue out of the way I have to say I really enjoyed the book, I wouldn’t have picked it up in the book shop but I certainly don’t regret reading it. Might be a good one for book groups?