Currently Reading

A is for Alibi - B is For Burgular by Sue Grafton 

This author is working her way through the alphabet, the next in the series being C is for Corpse so you get the drift.  The central character, Kinsey Millhone is a Private Detective, a straight talking divorcee who lives in a fifteen foot room and drives a beat-up old car; the books detail multi layered adventures, each story following fleshing out the character (I know this because I've already started B is for Burglar...!) - 'A' being the first book the character and the writing is a bit unformed but I can see myself tearing through the whole alphabet over the coming weeks and months - 'A' is enjoyable, a bit on the light side but it has possibilities (which are borne out in the next letter of the alphabet) and this one comes with a surprise ending which I won't spoil for you.   

Scarves and Wraps - 25 Gorgeous Designs by Jill Denton

I've realised that felting is seasonal - I have the most gorgeous pile of felting wools in my work-room (a.k.a. the spare bedroom) but I haven't once had the urge to do anything with them since the sun started shining (though now its raining constanly maybe I will do something...) - I've found that hot weather is not conducive to sweating over a great long piece of wool - and the physical process of felting is just that, physical - its hard work, and no-one wants to be panting over a sheet of wool in the summer, it just does not seem right somehow.
Having said that, its the most perfect time of year for learning, and this book offers lots of inspiration to the felter - I've not been doing it long and so I'll take any help I can get - I look at the work of others and wonder 'how did they do that'.  Each chapter develops work around a different 'natural' theme - lots to go on, maybe a bit light on in-depth techniques though that is easily worked round by looking up anthing you might need on the internet - Jill Denton also has a nice website, which can be found here.

Wideacre by Phillipa Gregory - sometimes when reading something you become mesmerised, but not necessarily in a good way - a bit, I imagine, like coming across a snake and being too scared to move.  Not that this book scared me, but I came away from reading it feeling thoroughly grubby and as though my soul had been slightly damaged.  This sounds amazing as the result of reading a book but the central character somehow does this to you; imagine Scarlett O'Hara on acid, and you've got Beatrice Lacey, the 'heroine' of this piece.  Its not that I don't recommend the book, but it should come with a health warning; murder, incest, you name it, its in here; riveting - certainly, entertaining - possibly, but dark, dark, dark - most definitely.

Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King by Antonia Fraser - this is one you are going to love, it is incredibly evocative and brings to life this most astonishing King of France; not only does it do this to perfection, but it also does the same for the women in his life; mistresses and wives, mothers and daughters - this book explores the relationships between The Sun King and his women, including Louis XIV's mistresses, Louise de La Valliere, Athenais de Montespan, and the puritanical Madame de Maintenon, but also the wider story of his relationships with women in general, including his mother Anne of Austria, his sisters-in-law who were Duchesses d'Orleans in succession, his illegitimate daughters, and Adelaide, the child-wife of his grandson; highly recommended, Antonia Fraser never disapppoints.  

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Miss Chopsticks by Xinran - the story of three sisters born into a poor family in a small northern Chinese village. The book cuts to the heart of the way women are perceived - because of the shame of by their mother's inability to 'lay eggs' (bear sons), the girls are given numbers instead of names. Women are like chopsticks, their father tells them; fragile and expendable. Sons, however, are the roof beams which hold up a house. After the eldest sister drowns herself in a well when she is sent to marry a man she does not love, sister Three leaves to find her fortune in Nanjing, followed by Five and Six, one of whom is presumed (wrongly) to be stupid.
The girls make their way, finding jobs, friends and a life, but each story ends differently, ultimately proving that girls can also be 'roof beams'.  
The book is gentle, enchanting and beautifully written - I always enjoy Xinran's writing, and the translator has done a great job, making sure the reader has a grasp of the subtleties of the original language.  The author wrote the book based on the stories of three women she had met, and because the culture is so different from my own, I love to read literature about China and Japan - highly recommended.

The African Queen by C.S. Forester - I confess I've only ever seen snippets of the film featuring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn - for some reason I've just never fancied it that much.   I saw the boat, The African Queen, used in the film as it is moored in Key Largo, several years ago on a holiday - and I could not imagine how a film could be based around something so tatty and unpropessing.   Having read the book, I can both appreciate the story and the little boat, and that means I will definitely make an effort to watch the film.

The writing is so descriptive, so evocative and so wonderful that it is almost as if the reader is right there, with the story, and the story itself is quite wonderful.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
So many people had told me that this was such a great book and that I had to read it. Certainly, it is ambitous and considering the author was only 25 when he wrote it, its a considerable achievement. Almost a thousand pages long, its subject is medieval life and the trials and tribulations of a group of characters, a monastery and the machinations of royalty, peasants and any one else in between. As you might expect, because of its length, it rambles some and I felt some tight editing would have improved the experience - towards the last third of the book you start to lose your way and the characters start to merge a bit, so you end up racking your brains as to whether this is someone new or someone from seven chapters back - or maybe that's because I'm dim or something. Anyhow.
The author has obviously done a lot of research, but probably not enough for a book of this breadth and ambition. This is not a book for the faint of heart - it features two graphic rapes which I hadn't been prepared for and whilst I wouldn't describe these as gratuitous, perhaps we didn't need quite as much detail. Follett wrote a follow up book which I will read, but again, here is a book which does not stand up to comparison with the CJ Sansom 'Shardlake' books (Dark Fire, Dissolution, Sovereign etc).

Josephine: A Life of the Empress by Carolly Erickson; I confess to having listened to this as an audio book rather than having gone for the hard slog and read it. Not that it was a hard slog, it was readably wonderful though the central character is presented in an unfailingly positive light when in fact she appears to have been a venal spendthrift; it is evident that the author had done a great deal of research. I had not known much at all about Empress Josephine other than she was Napoléon's wife and wore some pretty darn cool tiaras before this book, but I learned a whole lot more here.

Born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie in Martinique (known as Rose), she had quite a life before ever setting eyes on Buonaparte who was six years her junior. Married to an alternately indifferent and cruel aristocratic husband, Alexandre de Beauharnais who, despite being a leading light in the French Revolution was himself guillotined, she survived him in the French prisons awaiting execution herself by being too ill to be guillotined.
Having risen alongside Napoléon to the apex of Society, Josephine ruled with him as Empress; during her life with him she endured many cruelties inflicted by his family; however it was her inability to produce an heir - perhaps due to her tribulations in prison during the Terror, that brought about their divorce in 1810 in order than Napoléon could marry Marie-Louise of Austria by proxy; Napoléon remarked after marrying Marie-Louise that "he had married a womb."
Josephine and Napoléon remained on good terms, he said the only thing to come between them was her debts.
Joséphine died of pneumonia in May 1814; despite his numerous affairs, their divorce and his remarriage, Napoléon's last words on St. Helena were; "France, the Army, the Head of the Army, Joséphine."

Currently Reading...

Currently reading.....

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir - the story of Lady Jane Grey, a tragic, sorry tale...I enjoy Alison Weir's historical fiction for the background detail as much as the central story - the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I are fascinating - although I'd read a littlle about Lady Jane Grey as a footnote in history, this book fleshes out the human being and brings to the foreground the absolute tragedy of a sixteen year old child who was manipulated, bullied and ultimately faced the chopping block for the ambition and advancement of others.

Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs - Tempe Brennan, the same character featured in the TV series 'Bones' is an intriguing, strange character and the stories are usually absorbing.   A plot within a story within another plot, and the layers are riveting - this is a great read, a well written story and interesting characters - recommended.   An aircraft crashes leaving Tempe with a sea of dead passengers, on top of which she discovers more remains, going to great lengths to establish these are nothing to do with the aircrash, and everything to do with a secret society...  I finished this book in one day though no-one got a word out of me and dinner was 'whatever you might be lucky enough to find in the fridge'....!

The Disastrous Mrs. Weldon: The Life, Loves and Lawsuits of a Legendary Victorian by Brian Thompson - this sounded like such a good book - talk about being talked up on the front cover!! I don't know whether Mrs. Weldon was a scandalous Victorian or a legendary one, but the first part of this book bored me stiff. Its possible that the second half consisted of all the exciting stuff, but as I kept falling asleep every time I tried to keep going with this one, I just gave up in the end. Maybe, when I am down to my last book on my e-reader I'll give it another go, until then, life's just too short to read stuff this dry.

Ill Wind by Nevada Barr - another of the 'Anna Pigeon' series - a Park Ranger who solves mysteries - these are unchallenging but entertaining and remind me a lot of the Nancy Drew Mysteries I read as a youngster....Anna is called upon to solve a mystery of a dead ranger and recurrent mysterious illness in Park Visitors...I'd guessed the ending half way through the book; unchallenging but enjoyable. 

Currently Reading....

New York by Edward Rutherfurd - what a fabulous book.  A huge thumping read making the city of New York the central character, starting when Manhattan was a swamp, taking us right through to 9/11 and onwards and linking New York with a series of families and characters that fascinate and interest the reader just as much as the place...generations of the city, generations of families, with layers and layers of engaging history (though the section about the American Revolution did go on a bit..) that cannot fail to interest and entertain; the amount of historical research the author must have undertaken must have been astonishing - the accounts of the Draft Riots, the building of New York's skyscrapers, the great depression, the diversity of the population of the city - Poles, Germans, British, Italian, Irish, and the contributions they all made to the place. 
The only criticism I have is that the book does have a character list which runs into the (seemingly) thousands...fair enough, considering the book spans hundreds of years, but I found this - having said that, this has been researched well and the characters are engaging - I am sure I will read this again in a year or two and enjoy it just as much.  Highly recommended.

Riders by Jilly Cooper...this book has one of 'those' reputations.   Its set largely in the 1970's which was a bit of a historical exercise for me because I was only pea-sized during that decade, and of course it was the horses that attracted me.   I have to say that in terms of 'that' reputation I found it tame - maybe we're just used to more shocking stuff these days.   I did get to the end of the book, and its fine as a beach read though dated...the characters are overblown and larger than life...how many of these people would you actually meet in a lifetime, let alone meet in one book?   Moderately entertaining, with the horses being the stars.  I only wish my rear end looked as good as this woman's on the cover.....

206 Bones by Kathy Reichs....I always have high expectations of Kathy Reichs, mainly I suppose based on the TV series 'Bones' (which to be honest has taken a nosedive recently) but I am often disappointed.   I can't really put my finger on it.  Maybe its in comparison to Patricia Cornwell's 'Scarpetta' who goes the other way and often shocks and revolts all in the one paragraph.   Somehow Tempe Brennan is a bit warm and fuzzy and Reich's characterisation and storylines are often weak.  It does not however stop me from reading her books because they are unchallenging and don't leave nightmare tracks across your brain before bedtime.    OK on the understanding its not going to make it onto your '100 books I most loved' list.

The Courts of Love: The Story of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Jean Plaidy.....
This is the story of the mother of Richard the Lionheart, who was so much more than that.  I'd already read the book by Alison Weir (Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England) - its interesting how much detail one author can fill in over another - I can't say that Jean Plaidy's style is as beautiful as Alison Weir's, or that the story is any better for the historical fiction treatment and the narrative in the first person sounds distinctly un-queen-like; fairly entertaining but not a book I'd probably read again though I'm glad I did for the background atmosphere on the subject.

Currently Reading

Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard....sigh...I had such high hopes for this book, I don't know how I manage to get suckered into this sort of thing time and time again, because the end result is always disappointment.   Here, once again, we have a Da Vinci Code Wannabe.  Here, once again, we have a Da Vinci Code No Where Near As Good As The Real Thing.   When, oh when will I learn not to waste my money.   I can't even bring myself to finish it, and I am kicking myself for the utter waste of time I put in it to get to the half way point, knowing I will go no further with it.   Get my drift?  Not even worth borrowing from your local library.

Enchanted Adornments: Creating Mixed-Media Jewelry with Metal Clay, Wire, Resin, and More by Cynthia Thornton - interesting, challenging, visually beautiful and inspiring with lots of diversions in terms of little side-articles that take you away from 'just' jewellery design and making and into the realms of symbolism of design and other interesting avenues.
A charming and useful book, highly recommended, if you only use it for eye-candy and those days where you sit at your workbench, stumped, (though it offers so much more) this is well worth reading.
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman - I like the film, but I LOVE the book.   Of course often books and film bear little resemblance to each other, and this is somewhat the case here.  Hoffman's writing is full of feminine wisdom and she feels like the sort of person you'd love to have as a friend.  Having said that, the ending is slightly out of whack considering she's been working so hard to have all the female characters as strong and independent (can we feel a bit of arm twisting by the publishers there?) but if you overlook that as more than likely 'office politics' this is a charming, unusual and life affirming book that no-one should miss.   Lovely, lovely, lovely.
Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton - oh my goodness, another wonderful book!!  I stayed up all night with matchsticks propped up under my eyelids to read this, it is fantastic (I constantly promised myself 'just one more chapter, then I'll go to bed....well, I just read and read, right to the very end).   If you want a great story with fab characters, this one is it...I'd never read anything by Michael Crichton before, but as this one was already getting great reviews all over the place, how bad could it really be?, I reasoned.   I am so glad I decided to go for this one, and I will certainly be reading more of Crichton's work - this particular book was apparently found amongst his papers as a complete novel after his death in 2008.   Its full of swashbuckling, derring-do, frankly fairly unbelievable stuff, but still, very very entertaining and very evocative.   Don't miss it.  

Currently Reading....

I am currently reading...
Alligators, Old Mink and New Money by Alison Houtte -oh this is a charming book, it just whips by and suddenly you're at the end wanting more - this is a true story of a New York model/socialite who runs her own vintage clothing shop - the book wanders through her life, the story of the clothes, the people who buy them and the shop itself - the characters are great, the clothing even better...brilliant.

Small Wars Permitting - Dispatches from Foreign Lands by Christina Lamb - this is another fabulous read with the most wonderful writing and story-telling by the author who is a journalist and has reported from some of the most fascinating - and the most dangerous - places on earth - there isn't a moment in this book that falls flat.  

England's Mistress - The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton by Kate Williams - I am reading this book a second time - it is so beautifully written, so well researched and so interesting that I think I would get more out of it every time I took it down from my bookshelf.  Lady Emma Hamilton, who took one look at Lord Nelson and despite being married, fell at his feet, is the subject and what a fascinating one at that - her story is amazing, and the other stories that Kate Williams has woven around her life are equally absorbing - the story ends tragically and its sad to realise that Emma Hamilton ended her days exiled, left out and uncared for after the death of Nelson when he specifically asked the nation to take care of her - his memory was honoured, but she was left out in the cold, and I can only reflect that society treated her dreadfully for the crime of loving someone so deeply she gave up everything for him.

Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell - this grabbed me from the opening line, describing Fashion Week in New York - I stayed at the Bryant Park Hotel in NY with Mum the year before last so I knew exactly where the author was and I loved this book by the author of Sex and the City - the characters are bigger, louder and brasher than those in SATC if you can believe that, and this is one of those books which might not challenge the brain cells, but will certainly keep them amused; I stayed up all night until I read this in one huge e-book gulp...

Currently Reading...

This is what I have been reading recently...

African Queen: The Real Life of the Hottentot Venus by Rachel Holmes - this book promised much but delivered relatively little - a slim volume documenting the life of Saartjie Baartman, a member of the South African of Hottentots who was basically brought to England and then to France to go on display as a living exhibit as a curiosity...her story was a sad one, but the book fails to deliver in terms of her early life and is lightweight with regard to her feelings on the whole episode - she died young in France sadly never returning to her homeland whilst alive and her bones were not repatriated to South Africa until 2002 when she received a number of posthumous honours which were arguably politically motivated.   All her life, she was used and abused, and in death she was also a symbol which could be used.  Interesting and worth reading, but bear in mind, it feels like this piece of work is missing vital parts.

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory - historical fiction account of the life of Catherine of Aragon, wife of the tyrannical Henry VIII - as always with Gregory's work, this is a wonderful piece of work which evokes the times, the smell and the feel of the era, puts the reader into the life of this abused princess and queen, and gives a different perspective to the life of one of Henry VIII's queens, all of whom seem to have eclipsed one another - a great read and highly recommended; a lot less flowery than the cover suggests!

1000 Years for Revenge: International Terrorism and the FBI- The Untold Story by Peter Lance - a fascinating account of the apparent errors which have been made by the security services in detecting and preventing the current terrorist threats - the book deals with the American authors' perspective and deals with the first bombing of the Twin Towers in New York and the missed opportunities in detecting the greater threat that this presented and how that went on to manifest itself - its a bit long-winded but interesting - though, I guess we'd all have to say 'hindsight is a wonderful thing' and my perspective is that even the FBI is probably human....

Adept by Robert Finn - this book really interested me from the synopsis description on the cover - Described as "An impressively ambitious debut that marries the crime novel with the occult thriller...It's a British variant on The Da Vinci Code and The Rule of Four..." - well, I don't know what that reviewer read, but I found my credulity being stretched until it snapped - I stayed with it until I finished the book, but at the end wished I really hadn't bothered....I believe that this is one of a series, this being the first and I am afraid I won't be paying out good money to snap anything else, including my patience...

Goodbye Borders....Why Its Such a Bad Thing

The bookseller's chain Borders has gone into administration and is unlikely to be open many more days - I visited a few days ago and it looked like it had been ram-raided - with about six things left on the shelves.   I read an article in a newspaper claiming  the people of the UK just didn't get the whole thing with Borders - that it was a product of the 'Friends' TV Series era - where people sat around drinking coffee whilst choosing books and that we in the UK just never got the concept.  I can tell you if my relationship with Borders had been repeated up and down the country, they would be thriving. 

It seems, said the newspaper article, that the people in 'Friends' moved away, grew up, and started using Amazon.  But I do find this sad.  Even as an enthusiastic owner of a Sony E-Reader I could never have given up my paper book habit, and I never left the store without purchasing several books (and I mean several each time) - I LOVED the fact that I could go up to Starbucks on the mezzanine floor and that I could lug a pile of books up there too and I could sit and decide what I'd buy.  As I said, I never left without buying something. 

Currently Reading...

This is what I am currently reading...

The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice; this was a happy accident - .  it jumped off the shelf in a book-shop.   I have started this series out of sequence as it is one of a large series, but I plan on reading the others - vampire books are not usually a genre that appeal to me one iota, but this is fun; the central character Lestat (who as you might surmise is a vampire) should be an unappealing and hideous character but as a reader, I found myself liking him very much; the first book in the series is 'Interview with the Vampire' which I plan on sinking my teeth into as soon as possible...
The Horse Dancer by JoJo Moyes - a young girl lives with her Grandfather, who was a  long time ago a member of the elite French 'cadre noir' - a bit like the Spanish School of Riding but in France.   She lives on the wrong side of the tracks in a rough part of London and the one bright part of her life is her horse Boo; with her Grandfather she has been working on haute ecole movements with the horse which will one day, he hopes, give her a way out of the rough environment.   The grandfather has a stroke and the girl ends up in care...believing that she will have the horse taken off her, she chooses to conceal it which causes her terrible problems.  A lot of difficulties ensue for the carers and the child, which culminates with the child riding to France to try to show the Cadre Noir her horse; there is a second story going on about the carers, and a couple of others about the characters in the story so its not 'just' a horse-and-a-girl type book.   Even if you are not into horses, this is one of those wonderful tales that would be excellent for both adults and older children.  The result is unexpected, poignant, but ultimately positive. 

Art Journals & Creative Healing (Restoring the Spirit through Self-Expression) by Sharon Soneff and Mindy Caliguire - even had I been able to buy this as an E-book I wouldn't have done so, because this sort of book has to be read, handled and enjoyed - I toy with journal-keeping on a sort of wistful basis most of the time - its basically creative diary keeping, or a process of working through an event or an emotion or a way of keeping an art-based journal on whatever subject you choose.  Its a great idea, and I have lots of ideas for working on a variety of subjects...I'll occasionally start one and then other creative stuff will come along and push it aside and I feel ashamed of my pathetic efforts to keep up with it.  Journal keeping doesn't really have rules other than  you actually have to write it and keep up with it....and as good as my intentions are, I just cannot seem to do that.   The process though, when I do put effort in is rewarding and I have (in theory, at least, at various stages of being worked on) several which focus on my animals, my work, and so on.  This book's title is self-explanatory...the scope of the work and the subjects is inspiring.   I always feel that my journals should be more beautiful but the process is designed for the writer/author to work through that subject and not for the books to be open to the scrutiny of others.  In this book though, we do get to scrutinise the journal-keeping work of others...the book is full of advice and inspiration, so perhaps this one will make me put some work into the process.

The House on The Strand by Daphne du Maurier - it comes as a surprise to me how accessible and readable du Maurier's work is when I have not picked up one of her books for a while.  Considering her work was written a relatively long time ago, I sometimes fall into the trap of imagining it to be stuffy and stiff.   Not so.  She produced a lot of other work besides her most high profile books, Jamaica Inn and Rebecca, which are fabulous reads.   The House on the Strand is a story of drug-induced time-travel - which sounds a bit weird but is an original and inventive bit of storytelling with great atmosphere.   I loved this one; I plan on re-reading Rebecca and Jamaica Inn as soon as I can find the time. 

Currently reading...

Books I am currently reading...

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell - this is so beautifully written, a story about a young woman who finds out she has an aunt who has been in a mental institution most of her life, just as the institution is about to close.  Despite not wanting to, she becomes drawn into the story of Esme and the resulting story is wonderful, happy, tender and so worth spending the time reading.
Creative Time And Space by Rice Freeman Zachery - Rice's books are always a visual treat, and this new one is no exception....the writing is pretty darn good too!  I have a billion and one things to do for work right now, and all I have managed to do is flick through and bookmark here and there but I am constantly distracted by it...visually it draws the reader in; it truly is a work of art in itself, I managed to read a bit of it whilst the equine dentist was looking at my horse's teeth a few days ago (which is probably a first for this book generally!) - this is a beautiful book that artists of all kind will enjoy and use constantly.Goodbye, Dear Friend - Coming To Terms With The Death of A Pet by Virginia Ironside...I am sad to be once again reading this book; I am struggling with grief following the death of my beautiful pussycat Cleo who was my constant companion.  This book has gently guided me through the loss of other deeply loved feline companions in the past, and I am working through its wisdom again.   I miss my pretty girl every day, and my heart is breaking from the sadness.   This book is a much needed resource; this is one to remember for times like these.    
Becoming Queen by Kate Williams...this author writes wonderfully - her style is faultless, beautiful and readable...I loved her previous book about Emma Hamilton, the mistress of Lord Nelson and this one is every bit as good...the book, whilst about Queen Victoria, begins with a the fascinating and tragic story of the previous heir presumptive, Princess Charlotte which was a rather unusual start to a book about Queen Victoria...but as I had not read anything on Charlotte before, I found this in itself very interesting.  The ensuing work on Victoria is very good too. 

Currently Reading....

Books I am currently reading...

Amelia Earhart; The Mystery Solved - chronicles the life up to and during the ill-fated flight that resulted in the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and her co-pilot.  This is a fascinating subject which could have made a wonderful book but the author went into some minutiae which really made it a bit tedious in the end...sadly the result of the flight is that she went missing and really no-one will know what happened so all the technical detail was for me superflous, though perhaps if you fly planes for a living it might be interesting.  I was more interested in the person and what drove her and I found the book lightweight in this.     Living the Creative Life: Ideas and Inspiration from Working Artists by Rice Freeman-Zachery - I subscribe to Rice's blog (see my blog list) and her books are wildly entertaining, wonderfully and beautifully writtten and presented and offer a wealth of support and inspiration for any artist in any medium...this is one of those books that I read constantly on and off, if only to remind myself I am not the only nut in the world.    Abundance, a Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund; this got off to a shaky start and I put it down and picked it up a few times before settling to it.  Its historical fiction, but actually in the end I picked up some more interesting stuff about Marie Antoinette and enjoyed it. 
Tiaras: Past and Present by Geoffrey Munn; I read this book on and off all the time - with beautiful photography, this is an informative refrence work about the history and culture of tiara wearing - even if you have never worn one (they're perfect for shopping at Tesco), this is a fascinating book that chronicles society, history and the wearing of hair jewellery.