Things I've Read that Aren't Who, Recently

Possibly this whole idea of 'Things That I’ve Read That Aren’t Doctor Who' will become its own series?!  Which should also read - '...And Aren't Romances', since they are so calming and easy to read I gobble those whole in my anxious moments.  Which are still numbered frequently.

This is just a few of the things I’ve been reading the last 5ish months or so.  They are the things I wrote more than 1 line about for whatever reason.  Sometimes I just write – ‘excellent!’ or ‘What?!’ or some other unhelpful reminder of what I thought.    But anyway – here are those I cared enough to blither about:

1.    Moriarty, by Anthony Horowitz
(I’m not sure why I bought his – possibly because I had been so wowed by Penny Dreadful recently, and wanted to feel that late Victorian time period again.  Possibly because I’ve never really read Conan Doyle; always meant to but never got there, so that this Horowitz re-imagining felt more accessible, and possibly a good place to stimulate my interest in the books from.  As it happens I remembered as I went along reading this, that I had read some Conan Doyle before; not much but some, and I remembered why I stopped and why I hadn’t read more!  There’s something very sweet about all the over exposition, the constant explaining and stopping to rethink and explain again… I’m not one who minds being told things if the narratorial voice is good and engaging…but I found the strange pacing on top of all the thinking out loud a bit tiresome.

Saying that I did sort of enjoy the book.  I felt it dragged quite a bit in the middle after a quick beginning and a speedy end, but that’s the nature of that narratorial beast being copied.  Some of the subsidiary characters were memorable: Perry of course, dressing up in his bright blue jacket to go slitting the throats of unsuspecting grown ups; and of course Moriarty himself, quite the major twister there at the end.  As effective as the sudden hijacking of the narrative in The Woman In White – which I’ve always thought is the height of doing that kind of thing.  Yep, the twist got me and I didn’t see it coming.  I kept wondering why the book was called Moriarty and when he was going to appear, but did not expect what happened!  So that was satisfying.  ACTUAL BOOK.)

2.   Those Girls, by Chevy Stevens
(This was so arrestingly readable I did not fall asleep on the bus on the way to work and almost missed my stop entirely at Kingston.  It was a very vivid thriller, and I really sympathised with all the characters.  A very good immediate read. I actually can’t say a word more without spoilering it, so you have to go off and try it if you want a good female centred thriller. ACTUAL BOOK.)

3.   Ink Exchange, by Melissa Marr

(This is the second in a series.  It has the usual immersive quality of a well written YA fantasy – and the vision of faeries is rarely done better than by this sort of author [see Holly Black, for example, for another excellent one].  This was a beautifully creative world and I enjoyed seeing Niall and Irial both be so close to Leslie, but the end having neither of them win her – both letting her go for different kinds of twisted love.  This was a very inventive and beautifully imaged read – the swirling dog tattoos on Gabriel’s arms, the vines and feathers stretching between Irial and Leslie; the way she lost time when under his power.  All very believable; and with a lot to say about addiction without one word of preaching or judgement. Enjoyed a lot. ACTUAL BOOK.)

4.   You Are Here, by Thich Nhat Hanh

(Possibly THE BOOK of all books.  So much in here that is actively helping me. “Dear One, I am here for you.”  Compassionate listening: understanding that nasty said things and actions come out of pain.

“My friend, if you have some cows, you have to identify them.  You think they are essential to your happiness, but if you practice looking deeply, you will understand that it is these very cows that have brought about your unhappiness.  The secret of happiness is being able to let go of your cows.  You should call your cows by their true names.”    Did he mean this to be both so true AND SO FUNNY????

“Dear one, I am here for you. 
Dear one, I know that you are here, alive, and that makes me very happy. 
Dear one, I know that you are suffering.  That’s why I am here for you. 
Dear one, I know that you are suffering a lot.  I know this, and I am here for you, just as the trees are here for you and the flowers are here for you. 
Dear one, I am suffering, I need your help.  I need you to explain why you did this thing to me.”
Impermanence, interbeing.  10/10.
ACTUAL BOOK.)

5.   No-Nonsense Guide to Green Politics, by Derek Wall

(Excellent book.  Filled with ideas that people think are radical for some reason I don’t really understand.  Just because things have been done a certain way for 200 years or so, doesn’t mean they must always be that way??  The way of doing just about everything, described in this book makes a thousand times more sensible and kindly common sense than anything else I have read.  It also isn’t stupid – what with all the malarkey [hate that word, but it’s true in this case] about compromise vs. purity in left politics with the election ‘contest’ going on in Labour at the moment, it’s just so relevant.  Yes, compromises would have to be made.  Obviously.  But SOME good would be done.  Will read more and be inspired further.  ACTUAL BOOK.)

6.   Tell It To The Skies, by Erica James

(I had this book a long time ago but it never called to me to be read and so I gave it away.  Erica James used to be one of my regular reads, but I noticed a shallowness to those books of hers I had rest last [can’t remember which they were].  But I re-bought this one from a charity shop a short while ago, whilst thinking how great Erica James used to be.  And this one called straightaway.  I think I ate it in 3 days flat.  It was brilliant.  It was one of those books that masquerades as sort of chick lit but really isn't, and is very serious indeed.

I was a bit worried that there would be lots of middle class annoyingness at the beginning, when I found the heroine having peskily sprained her ankle in Venice; but then…the whole flashback part of the novel started, in late 60s-early 70s Yorkshire.  The heroine was definitely NOT middle class and I experienced her every travail with a worried face.  I also worried this was going to become one of those abused childhood books that I find hard to read; but it wasn’t.  It was a very hard childhood book, but simply littered with some amazing characters that jump right off the page.  It was one of the most immersive books I’ve read in a very long time.  The ice cream salesman; Uncle Leonard [evil man], Donna, Chiara, Fabio, the sadist grandfather [I felt his presence, it was oddly physical to read him]; the sick grandmother, the sister perverted into religion – all of which is dealt with baldly.  Especially the religion angle.  Criticised though the mouths of the characters purely.  And reasonably. 

Noah was a lovely creation, as was Uncle Brad, with his stick legs and velvet trousers, grooving on the kitchen table.  The whole book was immensely vivid. And while it told a very everyday story – even the murder didn’t seem overly given the context, I felt that it was a true story, from somewhere real.  It felt as real as any other universe I might step into.  Lullingly vivid, and truthful.  It was a place I looked forward to visiting between working days.

Books like this are why Erica James can be great.  I believed it all, I lived it all with Lydia.  ACTUAL BOOK.)

7.   Always Watching, by Chevy Stevens

( Not as good as Those Girls, but a pageturner which I nonetheless finished in 2 days; and which I specifically selected to cheer me up and addictively keep me occupied during an anxious patch.  Despite this book’s darkness, it tended toward hope and did the magic deed.  I do always enjoy a book about a cult, and the one was no exception.  Aaron, Joseph, poor Willow dead in a barrel, Heather committing suicide by stuffing rags down her throat after drinking cleaner [God it’s hard to successfully kill yourself], Lisa, Keven, Robbie and the heroine, Nadine – all great characters.  Though there was a slight melodramatic turn near the end, it was a good read.  I especially liked Nadine as the psychiatrist, always explaining biologically and psychologically the mechanism of the emotional reactions and cult behaviour.  I liked her cool and calm in the face of odd behaviour.  To explain it does help master it.  Gives hope.  ON KINDLE.)

8.   The Paradise Room, by Belinda Jones
(I remember reading 3 of her books ages ago and liking them, so I picked up this one in a charity shop.  It’s a very odd mix of highly educated posh and chick lit situationing.  Yet it was slightly difficult to see which class the protagonist came from what with attending Oxford, being an art historian, having jailbird parents and a boyfriend called Hugh who was a jeweller.  [I found him horribly annoying.]  It was a good read in terms of descriptions of place – Tahiti is very BLUE; she described it most vividly, as well as a thorough lesson on Gauguin and his involvement with the islands, plus more about black pearls than I ever previously knew [they aren’t black, for a start].  I do like when books teach me things.  This was a good book, though it felt slightly…unlikely?!  The tapdancing showman of Tezz and Amber’s final pairing is beautiful and unseeable in real life – unless you really believe.  I caught myself thinking how wonderful it was that they had such a great connection, much lust but not all lust – but I wondered what would happen… on election day?  They had no idea of each other’s political views or any such actual real life thing.  It’s one thing that chick lit always strives to leave out entirely: politics, and to a slightly lesser degree, religion.  And that’s annoying, because it’s relevant.  The book has left me completely puzzled as to what tone I want to read next.  I’m a bit…still with the fish under the coffee table section of the book, and the singing and dancing in the rain, which was this vision of inner yearning.  I’ll definitely read more of Belinda Jones again because her voice and vision are oddly unsettling, as well as visually uplifting.  I do feel like I’ve actually travelled. ACTUAL BOOK.)

9.   The Silk Merchant’s Daughter, by Dinah Jeffries

(This was not quite as epically amazing as The Tea Planter’s Wife, or as emotionally lovely as The Separation.  Nonetheless, though this story felt smaller scale – it taught me an amazing amount about the period – it was still very educational and affecting.  Nicole was a strong character.  Her simple observations about war and how almost anyone can become cruel as a result are chastening.  Mark was an interesting and enigmatic character, whose background was not really examined.  Sylvie was…very depressed?  In a way, the issue of Sylvie [and also, to an extent, their father], was dealt with very quietly – almost more realistically.  There was no ultra drama involved.  I have not known much about Hanoi and Vietnam before the famous American incursion, so this period directly before was fascinating to learn about.  The violence and bad behaviour on all sides was not gloried or over luridly described.  It was what it was.  The periods where Nicole travelled starving through the country and also her time in prison, were vivid and sad, but not enough to make you wretch with the hellishness.  Which was good – JG Ballard has forever ruined me with descriptions of smells and the hell humans can make for each other.  This was easier to ingest because it was more calmly done.  Possibly most things are entirely better if calmly done.  O-Lan – also a great character, and Tran.  Yes, I definitely learned about this period J  ACTUAL BOOK.  .)

10.                The House We Grew Up in, by Lisa Jewell

(Wow. How one person’s trauma gave an entire family trauma, till they were all separate and all bouncing away from each other, all so messed up in different ways.  And with the death of that person, they come back together.  Not sure if I entirely believed the end, but the rest – how the decay happened. Masterful.  So many great characters.  I am slightly afeared that I am the Lorelei character – “Ooooooo, it’s the most amazing shade of green!!” – that is her, and that is me.  The emotional immaturity thing.  The fact my room is getting smaller and smaller due the boxes of books???!!!  I need another clear out, rather urgently.  Also….I really understood the description of wanting to keep all the memories of things, as if they were forgotten they were dead and useless and it’s as if they never were – so physical reminders became paramount.  Every moment was preserved as the present.  And I am stubbornly rather childlike.  As was dad…another hoarder of stuff.  Including his weird habit of going through things I had thrown away and bringing them back for his room…oh dear, I only just remembered that. Errrrr…

So there was mad thin Lorelei of ‘save the foils’.  Control freak and sanest – Megan.  Bethan who became so blank she nearly disappeared – that was most interesting, her attempts to be a person.  Not sure how she finally made it – that was glossed.  Surely not just motherhood? 

Bit of a glorification of family in this book.  So coming from a rather dysfunctional one, I found that annoying.  Too many babies, too much joy in being together.  Hmmm.  There was Rory, drawn most interestingly: he was very very disconnected and judgemental, almost dangerous in his disowning of women except as function.  Colin, passive, intuitive, suddenly tattoo covered.  Kayleigh – catalyst, very good character.  Rhys: was he ever not mad too?  What was wrong with him?  It seemed like he wanted his mother and sister – only them?  Was he on the way to becoming a predator, but stopped himself after his mother ‘rejected’ him?  He was scary and odd.  None of the children were normal.  It was a tour de force in how wrong things can go.

And its timings were beautifully beautifully done – the backwards and forwards, the progression of the characters problems, the letters, giving a mirror to Lorelei…Scarily, scarily real. 

One of her BEST books. Absolutely 20/10.  ACTUAL BOOK.)

11. The Seven Sisters, by Lucinda Riley 

(One of the weirdest reading experiences I’ve had.  I was not enjoying reading it, I was hating the cold fish, overly formal way of writing.  It was distant and matter of fact which I sort of like; but completely non emotive despite describing emotive situations.  I hate to be made to over-feel, but this was the exact opposite: I was reading about interesting and personally earth-shaking events, and yet finding them hugely…uninvolving.

And yet…every time I put the book down – and I read 2 others entirely, when this was put down – I kept wanting to know what was going to happen next: so I did care.  WEIRD.  I’m not sure when or if I’ll be reading the second one in this series.  I have it.  But…I felt this was overly long and overly distant.  Even if its country – Brazil – and subject matter – love in the time of the Belle Epoch and the raising of the statue of the Cristo Redentor, were fascinating, the style was not.  I don’t remember Lucinda Riley writing so mechanically before?  But anyway.  A good book in a want to know what’s going to happen way; and a bad book in a don’t like the style way.  Confusing.  ACTUAL BOOK.)

12.                This House Is Haunted, by Guy Lyon Playfair

(The book of the infamously contested Enfield Haunting case.  Scared the bejesus out of me in that it was written extremely calmly, and showed just how interminable and boring the events could get.  As well as unsensical and confusing.  There was so much philosophical discussion that I was really surprised, and captured.  Seeing as I definitely have the notion this phenomena is possible, whatever the explanation, and that I do think it can be catching, like fear or depression – I felt quite relieved to finish it – though it was remarkably stimulating in terms of the way it made its case and presented what the author says he saw and felt, heard etc.  Not clearcut, and all the better for it; one of the best ‘true haunting’ books I’ve read.  ON KINDLE.)

Review: 'The Tea Planters Wife', by Dinah Jeffries

HUGE SPOILERS!

My blurb for this book: Life getting you down?  Stressed out?  Step into this world, you'll forget your own...

I was a bit wary of this one, as it had a beautiful cover and looked to be one of those epic family stories of far flung and long gone times that can be brilliant and can be crap.  I was worried it would suffer the flaws the genre can do sometimes, of overly posh characters that I feel nothing for; a lingering on terrible deep pain…for instance: this genre always has a SECRET at its core.  9 times out of 10 this unimaginable [ha!] secret is always a love affair between unsuitable people and/or a missing, given away or dead child. In this case, a given away child.  Sometimes these books can be outrageously morbid and intense. 

This one wasn’t.  It started a little stilted and I was worried for the writing style.  But it changed and settled and flowed beautifully.  The main character was neither stupid, nor naïve, nor horrifically melancholic nor self-sabotaging: she was just a young woman in increasingly difficult circumstances trying to do her best.  I read a Lucinda Riley a while back, with a given away child – and it caused me great pain and I felt that part of the plot was dealt with with such intense and dwelt on agony – poor child without its mother, and the suffering of the mother [no matter how successful and kindly the child grew up to be, as if that was some sort of sop, at the end], I felt that somehow enough emphasis had not been placed on the situation – even though the whole book revolved around it.  I was left saddened and upset and despite the book being very good, felt it had fallen into melodrama more than once, and that this particular truly painful situation had been explored…wrongly somehow.  [There was a transgender issue in the book that was handled far better, for example.]  These vast sweeping generational epics need careful handling, or they can veer into something quite dark, sometimes.

This book was perfect for how the given away child angle was dealt with.  We felt for the heroine, felt with her – and she was in terrible pain often [e.g. the scene where she tries to find the village in the rain and realises she can't and must turn back, so sits hugging herself as if it were her child...how much this scene could have been overwritten; how much it was not, and done perfectly]: but somehow it was contained enough to bear reading about and I understood her every action.  You felt it more for feeling it less – isn’t that interesting?  So though she had to give poor Liyoni away and later the child died, and it was terrifically sad, with the last line of the book showing the heroine still not forgiving herself for the years of self-enforced separation – despite that…it was all understood, all made sense and none was too much.  It was wise and gentle, and vivid.

The subsidiary characters: Verity, the troubled and child-like sister; Hugh, Gwen’s other child; Savi Ravsinghe, handsome painter suspected of crimes he did not commit; Christina, the provocative and beautiful American; McGregor, the buttoned up overseer; Fran, the wild cousin and best friend of Gwen – all marvellously painted.  The era of turn of the century to 1940’s Ceylon as was, was marvellous.  You felt the immersion in the privileged culture of the ex-pats, and of Gwen’s determination to understand the tea pickers and their families; the political backdrop and increasing needs for independence are a steady hum in the background.  The constant barrage of sensory descriptions and smells in particular: wonderful. 

Also, at bottom this is a book about racism, and feeling other races are subhuman - and the damage this inflicts not only on those oppressed, but on the oppressors, caught in their own twisted 'moral' system.  It's an incredibly evocative portrait of a time when mixed marriages were not encouraged anymore, and a 'dark' baby was a shame.  It shows the pain and stupidity of judging humans as lesser for such delineations.  The heroine is a kind and gentle person, brought up to be kind to all, and at several times in the book she outwardly clashed with the mores of the time and fights back against them, as she can't understand why we just aren't kind to one another; but she suffers almost more than any of the other characters when the 'morals' of the time with regard to race catch her badly.  And she ends up suspecting a kind and civilised man of a terrible crime, when its genetics that are the culprit.  Its a good exploration of time dependent morals, racism and consequences...  Bound up in a whole painting of a period.  Intense, beautiful and hopeful, at the end.

 I will definitely read the author’s only other book.  And hope she comes out with another soon.  This is wonderful escapism where you learn history too, at its best.  

Books I have read this year THAT ARE NOT SCI-FI !!! The Other Ones...

 Sorry for the Amazon pic here - I don't have the book anymore and couldn't find another pic of it anywhere - the link 'look inside' bit won't work, go to Amazon if you want to buy it...

Just occurred to me, while I was pottering about and pondering this week’s blog post, that I have 4 on the go (which is a bit unprecedented for me, so many at once), but none are done…so I wondered what else I was working on, as I was convinced there was something else, and despite my usually very sensible filing methods, I couldn’t find it.  Turned out this was because I was simply assuming I would remember to make a doc of it at some point, and was waiting till late in the year to do it, because it was part of a doc I work on all year – all the books I read (so I don’t end up reading things twice; or when an old senile lady with my 50 cats and purple hats, I don’t forget I used to read at all).  This post would be scouring that doc for all the books I read that are NOT DOCTOR WHO.  I put that in big caps, as the readathon is so immense, you’d be forgiven for thinking that’s mostly all I read.  I have read more Dr Who this year than anything else (which makes it my most sci-fi fantasy year EVER), but I have had the odd moment to read other things…in fact, I do it often, to sort of cleanse my palette before going back for more of the enjoyable readathon.  I love series’s best of all books, feeling secure and comfy with variations on ‘more of the same’…then suddenly I’ll feel discontented and want something totally different.  I am a faddy thing.  Hence I have many many books yet unread, all sitting around like a patient Library of Joy.  So lets see what I managed to read this year that did not include the good Doctor…obviously, this is just a selection, cos I have read quite a bit of crap (oh the joy of fluff reading too!) and I won’t put ALL those here, as you all have your own taste in fluff and don’t need my help!  But I’ll leave some of the romances and girl epics here.

1. To Walk a Pagan Path, by Alaric Albertsson
   (This started off very promisingly, with some good solid suggestions of daily practices to incorporate, and some good information on Saxon practices in particular.  Until…I suddenly started to get the opinion that unless I kept bees, made mead, did loads of bread baking and other pagan crafts I couldn’t really be pagan at all…I don’t have time for many of these things.  It was odd – one minute the book was suggesting 15 minutes of meditation a week was a very small therefore ridiculously easy commitment to keep; the next something in incredible depth, an hour a day. I know it only went into all the depth for those that have time and want to connect more, but I started feeling tired and half-hearted and half arsed by all I could be doing and won’t be.  For this reason, the first 3^rd of the book gets 5 stars and I’d keep it.  But I’d sell the rest, and since that’s 2/3rds, I’ll be making notes on the first bit and selling the rest.  The info is useful, but I seriously doubt I’ll ever have time to act on it, so away it goes for someone with no children who lives on an organic smallholding or similar…ACTUAL BOOK.)
2. 32 Candles, by Ernessa T. Carter
   (Damn good book.  Found by chance through browsing.  A very sad black Southern teen searches for her Molly Ringwald ending (a la the Brat Pack film 16 Candles, in case you’re missing the reference), grows up and eventually in the very last paragraph, gets it.  But what a hell of a lot between those 2 points.  In both action and tone, it’s a book of 2 halves.  I loved both halves and I loved all the characters.  Davie, the heroine is brilliant – even her various revenges are explicable and excellent – her character does bad things for the right reasons, and good things for the wrong ones.  The dialogue is excellent too – Nicky her first longtime boyfriend and the Club manager is a great creation.  The whole thing is 20/10.  Best random find in 100 years – I wish this author had written or will go on to write a hell of a lot more.  This is YA book that is just as easily read by me,age 43, and not one iota does it feel like a teen book – it’s age defiant. ON KINDLE.)
3. The Touch, by Julie Myerson
   (Thinking I may have to stop reading Julie Myerson’s books for all she’s brilliant and an exceptionally good writer.  Too too real, too too sad.  This one ended up with my favourite character getting beaten to death in a park the way Bill Sykes beat Nancy to death in Oliver, with a silver topped cane.  And only now I’ve finished the book do I feel the horror of Frank as a character – horrible strapping overtly physical aggression.  And the Jesus Saves madness.  Actually sickening as a character.  And all the others, so small and sad.  I thinks she’s really a quite depressed person, Julie Myerson – book after book she writes these sad characters.  Yet I see her on Newsnight Review and she seems fine…weird.  Also much sideways reference to the small incidents in life people see as psychic e.g. knowing you have to leave a place before an accident etc – these incidents aren’t analyzed, just mentioned and passed along, forming the backdrop for a book concerned with the before and after of a supposed ‘miracle’…that is also never made clear one way or the other.  A very interesting and VERY disturbing book indeed.  [Months after I finished it, I was still reliving the murder of a character I had come to love at the end; such a well realised scene, and so pointless, the killing.]  Hmmm.  ACTUAL BOOK.)
4. Nothing Bad Ever Happens in Tiffanys, by Marian Keyes
   (This was a Penguin 70s book, a small collection of some of her essays unpublished elsewhere.  She has a marvellous conversational tone, and reading her cheered me up on an otherwise turgid day.  I do love the way she talks.  And after I had just been traumatised by Julie Myerson, this was a good antidote – not frivolous, not stupid ‘girly’ light: simply a remembrance and a soft humoured appreciation of the good things, the funny things, the quirks of people.  Sometimes I seem to feel that I must swim in very serious waters all the time – and there’s certainly enough of it about, I could drown…but why do I think that? The earth and its people are not all bad or in trouble; sometimes its fine to just do the reading equivalent of drink a coffee, and watch people, without imagining the worst all the time. Marian Keyes’s essays have this observational warm and dry tone perfectly.  ACTUAL BOOK.)
5.  If You Prefer A Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One, EP, by Stewart Lee!
   (I can never write a good review of Stewart Lee.  I can never really explain why his making me laugh at what is and isn’t funny and why that is so brilliant.  A bit like people hate it when I don’t laugh at their jokes and then I explain why I didn’t get it and how I think it could have been funnier, for me.  It falls flat for them.  And yet, when Stewart Lee does it, it feels both angry and affectionate and I love it.  Also, he is a very good writer.  His tone is about more than humour, it’s about how to be a person with generous but discerning values in a commercial, biased and twisty world.  It’s very principled work.  And it made me laugh out loud many times while reading. ACTUAL BOOK.)
6. The Wine of Angels, by Phil Rickman
   (The first in his Merrily Watkins series.  A female vicar stranded in the middle of a folk horror made by Hammer or Amicus circa 1975!  It had a lot of the elements I like in a story: the country, the supernatural, the magic, the paganism, and the strong but flawed female and male characters.  I think the apple bit was overdone – I felt like a ripe red apple was exploding out of the book at me!  But I’ll read the next one – if only to see how Lol’s possible romance with the alarmingly Time Traveller-like Merrily goes.  Very readable.  ON KINDLE.)
7. Midwinter of the Spirit, by Phil Rickman (Merrilly Watkins series)
   (Well.  This started very well indeed, and became quite creepy, involving and scary in places [the stuff with the fey girl Moon, and the haunting of Merrilly via the magically charged suit – shiver].  Then I began to suspect that all of these books are going to be, not an examination of Christianity in tension with paganism, but veiled Christian apologetics, where paganism is always going to end up the baddie.  Which rather pisses me off, specially as the books are well written.  Athena White, the elderly expert on witchcraft and Western Ritual Magic is an excellent new addition.  The ending rather annoyed me – the wielding of a huge cross attempting to do an exorcism in a cathedral in front of hundreds of people…for some reason, I require a degree of reality with my supernatural horror/ detection.  The way Merrily is always on the verge of losing her job yet doesn’t is skated over; the way Lol suddenly out of nowhere grew a pair in this book was also not examined.  So all that was VERY annoying.  But I read the book in 3 days and would read the next; indeed, cos I had an omnibus edition, I have started reading the next, already…ON KINDLE.)
8. The Key to It All, by Joanna Rees
   (This was a book club book, read in an effort to stop reading scifi all the time in my obsessive fashion.  I would not have picked this book up by myself, I would have judged its cover and let it be.  It had a very interesting if flawed premise: that people received a key, that seemed to be something of a legend.  Some people had never heard of it; but some people had – it unlocked wealth and riches, you show it and people just give you stuff.  Restaurants and such.  How could a lowly doorman know about an elite key?  And if the lowly doorman knows, why didn’t everyone?  And why wasn’t it a scandal?  It had a nice semi complicated plot, a train robbery, some varied characters, somebody trying to do a good thing but because it was shrouded in secrecy, it became sinister for some of them and brought out their worst side.  Was a lesson in being honest in your dealings with people.  I felt the ending was rushed and flawed. Nice to see Mack the train robber get away – but also silly.  And Kamiko had some odd scenes and some sordid references; it was a strange direction to take possibly the most interesting character.  People’s idea of wealth and luxury baffled me – it seemed to be all about yachts and drugs and clothes – celeb culture, nothing more…no one started a charity or even did ONE good thing with the money…It was enjoyable and pacey and I read it in a couple of days, but was left with a feeling that it could have explored a whole lot more about moral choices and our society’s received values than it did.  Disappointed at the end.  ACTUAL BOOK.)
9.  A Crown of Lights, by Phil Rickman (Merrilly Watkins series)
   (The weakest so far in the Merrily Watkins series.  I didn’t really care about poor dead Menna and the lawyer WJ Weal; I didn’t really care about Judith Prosser and her fetish for victimised people.  Which was sad, as this was the main premise of the story, the big lead in.  I found the introduction of a pagan couple interesting till they had one of them losing faith and slowly becoming Christian again over the course of the book and the other a romantic but oddly weak man.  The fundamentalist preacher, Ellis – even he was no one in particular, just a nutter.  There were a lot of odd characters.  Merrilly’s daughter Jane and her boyfriend Eirion seemed to be round the edges purely for getting in trouble value; and Lol, my favourite character, was absent on a course, the whole book.  It was very readable, but lacked any real involvement for me, or any real climax.  Skilfully written, but disappointing.  ACTUAL BOOK.)
10. The Midnight Rose, by Lucinda Riley
    (This was an epic doorstop of a book, quite a wrencher.  Anahita was a beautiful creation: her calm voice was marvellous narration.  And I liked the info about Ayurveda.  Towards the end I began to be very irritated with Maud Astley – as I generally get irritated with SuperVillains.  One woman causing So Much Trouble – why didn’t someone just kill her, for gods sake??  The thing that upset me towards the end of this brilliant book, was the fate of Moh, the lovely child.  I really felt for him, taken from his mother, and his father killed in front of him; and then Anahita left all her life not knowing what had happened to her son?  What I didn’t get was that with all the Maharani’s influence etc – why didn’t *someone* believe Anahita that her son was still alive, and search for him?  This could have been done, surely?  I found all that very upsetting.  As was the sudden turn to Hammer horror and 70s psychological drama, with the secret of Lord Astbury – that was well done, but needless melodrama nonetheless.  This was an exceptional book – marred, for me, by the handling of those 2 issues.  I object to being heartwrenched to that degree, especially on the subject of children.  I was thinking I would read all her other books, but I might have a quick check to see if there’s massive child trauma in any of the others before I do – I don’t like child cruelty in horror, or anywhere.  I’m well aware it happens, I’m well aware there are awful things that go on – I don’t need to think about it in my escapist time; it does no good. ACTUAL BOOK.)
11. Cocktails for Three, by Madeleine Wickham (aka Sophie Kinsella)
    (Madeleine Wickham is Sophie Kinsella’s earlier incarnation, slightly more serious than the glib and addictive Shopaholic series et al for which she later justly became known.  She’s just as good a writer in these. This was so well done for a chick lit – the structure was flawless – after I finished it I wanted to tear the book up, highlight it, mark it in sections of Act 1, Act 2 and Act 3.  Notice all the bits of character development; how the characters were perfectly different and bounced off each other so well…it was the work of a real professional.  And not schmaltzy, nor treacly – particularly the character that had just had a baby and wasn’t coping so well, I really empathized with her overtired paranoia and need for self time.  The ending was a trifle too neat and lovely considering the degree of mental anguish the 3 characters had put each other through, albeit due to misunderstanding – but maybe it’s only me who does not forgive and forget so easily?  Not sure.  But a very neat, tidy, well written palette cleanser, which I read after the rather overheated – but equally fun and readable Midnight Flower.  ACTUAL BOOK.)
12. Are you Him? By Paul Darrow (autobiography)
    (Avon in Blakes 7 – in case I should EVER forget.  It took me over a year to read this.  I kept stopping for a million other things.  It started off really well, his early life reminiscences and his rather louche style sat well.  Then it seemed to get a bit repetitive and bitty.  By the time I picked it up near the end, all I was getting was lots of small chapters that seemed to really go nowhere; an alarming amount of affectionate sexism, and the feeling that he had a word count to complete.  What started off well petered out a bit.  Shame, as I was really enjoying it and the insight to Paul Darrow’s character.  A good actor indeed, as he comes off more interesting and varied in his parts than he does in his writing of himself.  He clearly has a huge love for film and theatre – maybe I’ll try one of his novels?  ACTUAL BOOK.)
13. Shadow Woman, by Linda Howard
    (A very good novel.  A study in paranoia masquerading as a romantic thriller.  Really it could have been about someone with a mental illness; as it was, it was about someone having undergone a brain wipe starting to remember their previous life as a black ops operative and realising their memory is triggering an assassination attempt on themselves.  Cue the handsome black ops ex lover come to save her.  It sounds absolutely stupid, but was calmly and rivetingly written.  It fizzled out a bit at the end – which was how we know it really was a romance, because they usually do this, but this is a romance writer about to break genre entirely I think.  She’ll ditch romance and become a thriller writer, I suspect.  I’ve read this author before, a while ago, but nothing I’ve enjoyed as much as this.  ON KINDLE.)
14. Tempting Fate, by Jane Green
    (In which, bad things happen and are related so convincingly, and there is a happy ending which is sort of wish fulfilment, as I don’t see that happening in real life; and yet, very enjoyable.  All very readable and wonderful – except this: “You’re supposed to feel that way.  That’s what parenthood is.  It’s utterly selfless.  You put your own thoughts and feelings and desires aside, without even being aware of doing it, and you put your children first.” [p.315] RIGHHHHT!!!  So I’m Officially A Shit Mother, as declared by the Paragon of Perfection Jane Green.  Hmmm.  I mean, of course that’s how it should work, but unless you are 100% secure, have no fear of lost time or lost opportunities, then…you are not going to be able to put yourself ALL to one side, for however long.  Bullshit.  I call bullshit.  I might be a rare one in standing up to say I find motherhood often unsatisfying cos I have many things I want and need to do for myself, I am not Just A Care Unit…but – I suspect a lot of people feel like me and keep quiet about it, for fear of judgement.  Apart from that unalloyed statement of an Ideal rather than the Messy Reality most of us live in, I liked this book a lot.  ACTUAL BOOK.)
15. Man of My Dreams, Short Story Anthology by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Maggie Shayne, Suzanne Forster and Virginia Kantra
    (This was restful.  I really needed some Sherrilyn Kenyon, I was in the mood for her tone – and she delivered exactly, I really enjoyed her story.  Anyone who has read her will know the tone I mean: perky, grumpy, sassy characters, exceptional banter, very vivid as usual.  The Maggie Shayne story didn’t quite do it for me though it was good; I think I was still in the Kenyon zone.  The Suzanne Forster story spent too much time dwelling on an attaché case and lost me quite early on.  The Virgina Kantra story was sweet, a bit strange and very readable.  Made me feel I might try some of her other books – so new author discovered.  That makes the purpose of this anthology fulfilled in life: short bites of people you like already plus discovery.  ACTUAL BOOK.)
16. No Mercy, by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Dark Hunter World 19)
    (The Dev and Samia story.  It was ok, as ever I love the wit, but there’s something about this series that is starting to feel a bit rushed and over imagined – not as in depth with the characters as previously.  There is such a vast universe peopling her books, and other characters seem to pop up constantly, getting their storylines prepared for subsequent books, its distracting – as are the fact that lots of the characters are starting to sound and look like each other [guys, you can’t ALL wear black leather or black jeans all the time].  I’m still enjoying the series, but it doesn’t have the fire it used to. ACTUAL BOOK.)
17. The Séance, by Heather Graham
    (This one I read in bed on and off for about 4 months.  Sometimes it held me and sometimes it didn’t.  It suffered from 2 problems these sorts of American romance thrillers suffer from – on the one hand, a love of overly gross forensic detail – vaginal trauma to the victims, fine in a regular thriller, but somehow all the wrong tone anywhere near a romance unless it’s played differently to this; and second, a strange clinical stopping short of the worst excesses a serial killer like this should have had – a flawed characterisation of the, in this case, 2 villains.  They just felt cardboard cut-out, I didn’t understand them or their motivation at all.  I am aware these 2 problems conflict and I’m not sure how I’d sort them, other than changing the whole tone of the way I would have written this story if I had to, were it me.  But I don’t think I would have written this exact story because the whole idea of Beau coming back as a ghost to help solve the murders he was framed for was a bit hokey.  As was the excessive emphasis on family and groupings – another factor of American romances, and one that makes them very establishment.  ACTUAL BOOK.)
18.  Retribution, by Sherilyn Kenyon (Dark Hunter World 20)
    (This started off slow, became quite epic and good and then all the incessant Buffalo and Coyote and Butterfly stuff started to really irritate me and I skimmed to the end.  Interesting – written differently, this for me, could have been one of her best, but it came off, just…too long and intense in the wrong places.  I wonder why the ending of so many of these American romances, even something as OUT THERE as Sherrilyn Kenyon can be, is having a baby?  Like that’s the be all and end all of your relationship.  It used to be Getting Married; now it’s Having a Baby, or two.  I’m not sure if this is societal conditioning, the idea that happiness and perfection have been reached when this happens – as we even had a bonus scene of Acheron’s baby getting born, all very dramatic and was relevant to his plotline ongoing; but…I find the emphasis on these massive family groupings and having children…sort of…sexist?  Retrograde?  The women are so kickarse, yet they all end up breeders…do they have nannies?  As you can’t be kickarse without having a fake TV/book baby in real life – a child takes up 100% more or less, of your available life…no more kickarse for you, females…do you see what I mean??  It’s odd.  They must have home help.    ACTUAL BOOK.)
19.   South of the Border, West of the Sun, by Haruki Murakami
    (While this was brilliantly written as usual, spare and gorgeous – as well as absolutely littered with little bits of trueness about life and love…I liked this the least of any of his books I have read.  At bottom, it was a book about a man prepared to throw away everything for an attempt to find something he lost a long time ago.  Perhaps because I understand that, I wanted to yell at him to stop and appreciate what he has now.  I’ve blown my own life apart in the past doing exactly this; and so far I’ve been lucky, it worked out.  But the oddness of Shimamoto, her complete lack of history, and her distant self enclosedness; these things make me think it wouldn’t have worked and he would have ended up more lost than ever and kicking himself. He ends up patching things up with his astonishingly non histrioinic wife, and I was left thinking, as usual, that his books are a dream of interactions, rather than actual interactions.  Fluid snapshots of unreal moments narrated by a sleepwalker.  I found his selfishness understandable and also almost moronic - which is very strong coming from me; I am often self-interest personified.  ACTUAL BOOK.)
20.  Oxford Menace, by Veronica Stallwood
    (Latest in the ever readable Kate Ivory series.  The thing I liked best about this was…no, the 2 things: Kate’s usual distance and objectivity combined with a healthy self interest, plus the end – I think Ms Stallwood ended really nicely.  It was left with Kate almost in the same situation in which she began the book.  A sort of stalemate with her boyfriend where they might get married, move to a bigger house, have children…and she is unsure of all, especially the latter.  Kate Ivory takes things as they come, while never turning off her calculations: I mightily respect this plastic realism she has.  I wish the series didn’t stop soon; it’s my favourite crime series!  The actual detection and character based part of the novel concerned vivisection and animal rights; Kate Ivory was a bit on the opposing side to me about the issue, but then she would be, it’s the kind of person she is – and a triumph of character creaton that I can SO disagree with a heroine and yet still adore her! ACTUAL BOOK.)

 

Now, should anyone be under the false impression that I only read Boy Book sci fi, let that collection of small amounts of litfic, and large amounts of pulpy chicklit prove you wrong.  And if you wonder where all the history books are - man, they are LONG, they are still on the pile of books I’m reading.  Never rush a history book, or you’ll miss something important that could change your understanding of everything, you know…